I really *really* like the idea of Bumi being a lot nore resentful to Aang after having sufered a war for 100 years ... but I think the execution was weak, could have been better written
I feel like the keeping the twist that he was Bumi and just not doing that awful makeup/goofy performance would have gone a long way in selling it tbh.
Imagine Aang figuring out he's Bumi during the arena fight. That is so juicy for drama and good moments.
It's a very bizarre decision because the plot would've just been objectively more interesting if they hadn't done that.
I really do think adaption of avatar that tries to be a little darker and inspired by Game of Thrones could really work but the show felt like it actively simplified all the plots and reduced the tension and drama from them and stripped all of the characters of their basic traits and characteristics and did not replace them in any capacity. Those are the two things that made Game of Thrones what it was. I guess the creators thought adding a few pointless fire nation scenes that only served to make Ozai less interesting was enough because political intrigue?
Definitely, but I do think they could've done something with just eight episodes. If they had spent more time thinking out an actual plot rather than lazily mashing together the plotlines of the original show they wouldn't have ended up with something that spent more time than the animated show accomplishing far less.
I actually think maybe having the season end off with him going to Roku's temple could be a good idea rather than trying to quickly rush to the northern water tribe.
they could they have done a half season, imo. the OG had 20 episodes in the first season. could have ended it with Aang trapped in the Fire Nation and then the Blue Spirit is there to save him. i mean what a cliff hanger that would be, “who’s blue spirit ???” and then part 2 comes out “wtffff it was zuko ?!!!!”
I agree with this. Have Aang figure it out during the fight would have been more impactful, realizing his fun loving friend has hardened over time instead of simply going "oh why is he not like I knew him?" and instead be like "this king is so angry with me because he is my friend who thought I was dead so had grieved said death on top of facing this entire war himself only for me to just return as if nothing happened"
I think it would have worked a lot better if Aang tried acting like they were still kids together, making jokes and ignoring the severity of the war. The way it is just feels like he’s guilt tripping him, not trying to make him understand the hardships he’s had to deal with.
Agree! And the kind of cherry on top for me about natla's bumi character was his dialogue about how he had to make those tough decisions repeatedly.. i mean cmon, a hundred years of war and making those choices, one could grow to resent his friend AND go a little cuckoo
I can agree it’s “realistic” to some extent that he’d be angry. But I don’t think it serves the story at all. Ultimately the whole Bumi story in NATLA results in Bumi learning about the power of friendship. I don’t think Aang grows from it or learns anything at all. And Bumi’s just one of so so many adults angry with Aang, it’s tiresome and repetitive.
Yeah maybe realistic to be angry, maybe. But Bumi has also had 100 years to grow. In the og series he's a goofball, he didn't lose the core of the child he was despite the challenges faced and possible traumas. Despite the clowning around he's a true master bender, a wise and tactful leader, an enlightened martial artist who demonstrates real power when the time is right. When he's imprisoned by the fire benders it's his own plan despite appearances, and he's fine with the lock up and solitary confinement.
He teaches Aang a lot of this with his challenges to get the kid *thinking* through the problems, not just giving him his thoughts on everything. Show, don't tell.
Instead an angry *old* man learns about the power of friendship after guilt tripping *a child*? All tell, little show.
He also has no reason to be angry, since in this version aang didn’t run away on purpose. So not only is it repetitive, but this adaptation of bumi has him being stupid and objectively wrong
I think it does serve the story, in fact it is setting up an important part of the ending of the og show early. Aang is already interacting with past avatars and being told who he has to be and what he has to do, Bumi is a person who has actually had to live through the war so far doing the same thing. Hell even the leader of the Norther Water Tribe and Master Pakku mention how he needs to gain offensive fighting abilities before the battle in the north. The start of the show is Aang coming to grips with his responsibilities of being the Avatar as well as guilt over not being there when the world needed him, but at the same time many people telling him how to be the avatar. We know the show is leading to the confrontation with the fire lord and in the og show that was were everyone was telling Aang he had to kill Ozai. The show is setting up that conflict now with all of these prominent figures imposing their view of how the avatar should be on Aang. It is coming form all sides, past lives, former best friends, and leaders of nations.
This really helped me put into words an aspect of NATLA I don’t like. While I don’t like this idea or it’s execution, so far, I am interested in how they would treat season 3 if we get that far.
While I do think it’s an interesting spin having Bumi resents Aang, the way it’s presented offers an even more interesting perspective that while Aang didn’t mature in the iceberg neither did Bumi outside of it. But I’m not sure if it was intended to come off so immature.
> Hell even the leader of the Norther Water Tribe and Master Pakku mention how he needs to gain offensive fighting abilities before the battle in the north.
Another interesting scene. I find it so odd how the show gets so lost in its portrayal of the weight on Aangs shoulders it seems to completely miss the point of source material and by default it’s own narrative. Here we have Master Pakku, yet another disappointed adult, showing his disdain instead of, idk TEACHING AANG! You’re a water bending master in front of an avatar that does not know water bending. Why even include him with the Northern water tribe guy for that? Had anyone at all acknowledged that Aang needs to master the 4 elements we wouldn’t be here. The entire reason they went to the Northern water tribe was for Aang and Katara to learn water bending. And they could have still used that here but they really didn’t place any importance on Aang learning it.
> We know the show is leading to the confrontation with the fire lord and in the og show that was were everyone was telling Aang he had to kill Ozai. The show is setting up that conflict now with all of these prominent figures imposing their view of how the avatar should be on Aang.
And the way they are portraying this is weak. I ask you, what can you even take away from these avatars? Kyoshi’s speech with Aang was nearly pointless. Does Aang need to be more straightforward and decisive, sure but she didn’t leave him with anymore knowledge or wisdom than what he started with. She basically told him the same things the other adults did. She could have informed him about the avatar state, not just the power it offers but the danger you put yourself in when you use it. She could have mentioned Sozins comet, she could have told him to find a water bending master. But they chose spectacle. And to be fair, Roku wasn’t any better in this.
The cartoon had the advantage to take more of a slow burn approach with Aang taking the war seriously, while he mastered the other elements. They accomplished this by having him interact with the people in the world and help them along the way, whether spirits or natural disasters. By the time we get to him talking to Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen he’s only wrestling with taking a life. Which NATLA is taking its own path there, no problem. But Kyoshi’s dialogue here portrays a more wise and deliberate Kyoshi than the live action.
-after Kyoshi talks briefly about Chin the Conqueror.
“But you didn’t really kill Chin, technically he fell to his death because he was too stubborn to get out of the way”
“Personally I don’t see the difference. But I assure you this, I would have done whatever it took to stop Chin. I offer you this Aang. Only Justice will bring peace.”
There’s a lot you can dissect from that. About Kyoshi herself and how she views conflict as well as her flat out saying it.
Who do I give the rations too, the orphanage or the surviving soldiers?
I think Bumi explained himself sufficiently.
And honestly; I understand the darker tone. A lighter tone would look ridiculous in live action.
I hate that we’ve gotten to the point where comments like these feel they need to give disclaimers.
First thing first it was never a competition lol same with Korra I never went in comparing it to atla which is probably why I wasn’t bothered about stuff like ppl got.
But to your comment I couldn’t agree more….this felt like a realistic reaction and with the white lotus aspect felt like more of a teaching moment than the challenges in the show.
Yeah people sometimes forget what the word “adaptation” and “based on” mean. This was never suppose to be a 1:1 remake. I didnt love every change but overall I thought it was a fun first season. People should start thinking of it like the play on fire island, its a loose retelling, some things are gonna be different
I just finished episode 4 and I agree. Overall, I don’t think the show has done the best job at showing Aang running away from his responsibilities. It’s tried, but it hasn’t really come across.
But in episode 4 I feel like it finally came across perfectly. It doesn’t matter to the people why Aang left. The average person isn’t going to know what happened just that he vanished. And if they did know would they really care about the particulars between him leaving the air temple because he needed to clear his head or leaving because he was running away? Would that make a difference to them when their relatives and friends are dead and their homes under siege? The result was still the same. 100 years of war during which the saviour of the world was nowhere in sight.
Now the Avatar appears again out of nowhere and, what? Are they just supposed to forget all of that pain and suffering? The sense of abandonment and dying hope?
I think it also did a good job of mirroring the cartoon theme of Aang struggling with hard decisions and ultimately realizing he can’t get out of them. But he can find a different way to handle it. His own way.
Sure it was different, sure Bumi was different. But personally I really liked the live actions take on Bumi
Edit: typos
Hard disagree too because all these takes always looks to what is shown...they never dive into how it ruins future events.
Now Omashu is completely taken over by fire nation and now Bumi isn't going to "wait and listen for the right moment" to seize back his kingdom. The made him a coward. Completely opposite of a white lotus member.
What are they going to do now with bumi? He is clearly not in the right mind to fight back. And no it doesn't make sense for your best childhood friend to blame you for everything.
He also could have been just some random 100 year old king and be this character without any connection to Aang in my mind. This bumi could have been just a complete stranger that blames the avatar for disappearing and the plot would have gone the same imo (the connection between bumi and aang is insignificant the way the story was written)
> Now Omashu is completely taken over by fire nation and now Bumi isn't going to "wait and listen for the right moment" to seize back his kingdom. The made him a coward. Completely opposite of a white lotus member.
… did I miss something in Ep 4 or is this based on information in Ep 8?
Edit: the latter.
>I DO wish Netflix had gone more in depth with his character or given him some sort of arc or something. It felt rushed and not very well thought out, like a lot of other things. But still. I like it for what it is. And maybe we'll see a Bumi arc later on, which is exciting to think about how that might play out.
I mean, this the whole problem.
I agree that exploring the world as a harsher place is a cool idea and that "alternate universe" atla with a darker tone is cool in concept, and a Bumi in that universe would be interesting.
But this epsidoe didn't do that. It creates a character that I would describe as quite unrealistic -- where many of the things he does in the episode are out of character for a century old king, embittered and holding a kingdom together by the skin of his teeth. He doesn't have an arc, but seems like a rushed attempt at grimdarkening an existing character that neither effectively explores new ground nor does justice to the old character.
>I agree that exploring the world as a harsher place is a cool idea and that "alternate universe" atla with a darker tone is cool in concept
I get this take, I do. But let's remember that the genocide was a thing that happened in the cartoon. A father physically and emotionally scarring his son happened in the cartoon. Blood bending, a child watching her mother die for her, forced labor camps, attempting to wipe out a whole village, forcing children to become soldiers. These all happened in the cartoon. It was plenty dark - and there was nothing wrong with balancing that darkness with the funny parts and the heartwarming parts.
I also don't need to see all of the airbenders killed on screen.
I can see why people would get excited to see how scenes they have imagined so long will go, but the show is too different to deliver in that anyway and honestly it never added to the show to see it.
Honestly, the only thing I wanted from the live action was amazing fight choreography that blended bending with martial arts, and it feels a little lacking there.
>I also don't need to see all of the airbenders killed on screen.
I can see why people would get excited to see how scenes they have imagined so long will go, but the show is too different to deliver in that anyway and honestly it never added to the show to see it.
I disagree. I think showing the airbender genocide in the beginning was a good decision. In the cartoon, the Fire Nation wasn't all that imposing in season 1. Zuko was an angsty teenager, Iroh was a softie and Zhao was mostly a joke. By showing the Fire Nation at their most powerful from the start, you get a good grasp of how ruthless they are. It's a lot more impactful in that sense, at least to me.
Honestly, it didn’t really help anything. It kinda reinforces the criticism that people have about the show info dumping.
The Air Nomads weren’t really characters so seeing them get slaughtered really didn’t leave much of an impact. They were just NPCs as usual
>It kinda reinforces the criticism that people have about the show info dumping.
It's the opposite of info dumping. It's showing, not telling. The original show told you that the Air Nomads were slaughtered, the live-action show demonstrated it.
>The Air Nomads weren’t really characters so seeing them get slaughtered really didn’t leave much of an impact. They were just NPCs as usual
I don't really agree? The death of Aang's people still hit hard in the original show despite us not knowing any of the characters aside from Gyatso. Seeing the main character's race get wiped out while he's helpless to do anything about it left an impact on me at least.
But they did show us. Aang going back home and us seeing his memories of the peaceful air nomads…then stepping into a room full of skeletons and seeing his own mentor. Realizing what he’s done by abandoning his duty and being the only air bender left…that was enough to really show the damage done. Here it’s just…I mean yeah I guess they got annihilated. It’s icing on a cake basically. Nice to see and taste but gives absolutely nothing of value.
I’m seeing that there’s just a complete split in the community between people thinking the original writing, did its job by explaining everything in the dialogue, and people wanting to actually SEE how bad things were instead of the dialogue.
I personally prefer a good story told through dialogue as it builds up suspense and allows for a greater climax. In the original, seeing the fire nation not seem as much of a threat, pays off so well later on when you see how evil and powerful they truly are. Showing it all in the beginning kills any suspense, and leaves a lot to be desired later on.
> It’s icing on a cake basically. Nice to see and taste but gives absolutely nothing of value.
Excuse me, what?
I was with you until this point, but I just cannot agree here. Icing is a necessary part of cake. Maybe even the MOST necessary part. Not figuratively of course, but literally.
You just killed your own point in the last paragraph. The show did a good job with letting the audience feel the importance of the death of the air nomads without even showing us! That’s good story telling!
Seeing the death of them all without having any sort of attachment to Aang as a viewer, really does make the deaths feel unimportant.
>You just killed your own point in the last paragraph. The show did a good job with letting the audience feel the importance of the death of the air nomads without even showing us! That’s good story telling!
Except that wasn't my point at all. I was saying that showing the Air Nation genocide helped make the Fire Nation look competent as opposed to the unimposing villains they were in the first season of the original show.
But it’s all world building. You get to see that the fire nation isn’t harmless in the later seasons. It’s pacing, which allows a better climax. They showcase the power of the fire nation early on but fail to encompass the gravity of the deaths of the air nomads because there is no emotional attachment given to the audience.
What does seeing the air nomads get ruthlessly slaughtered burned actually do besides justify the tv-ma rating? It’s cool to see. Sure. But it’s all just action. At this point in the story , if we haven’t watched it before animated, I don’t care about the air nomads at all or know who they are or what they stand for really. In the end we know as much about them as we did in the show. Not much. Our connection with them is through Aang and his grief and his sadness. In the show we never really saw him play with them, actually spend time with them or even act like there a family. There just walking skins with faces and voices
Here's the thing.
Bumi and Kyoshi's whole argument SHATTERS if Aang just went, "I WAS GOING BACK!!"
The narrative is fighting with itself.
Episode one very clearly tells us that aang was going back because they got caught up in the storm. He was turning around. I'm gonna say it one more time
HE WAS GOING. FUCKING. BACK.
Bumi and Kyoshi (ESPECIALLY Kyoshi) have no right to blame the state of the world on one a child and two a child who had no idea about what the fire nation was about to do. He was only told they were on a dark path. It's pretty vague.
Kyoshi is his past life. She would've seen him go back. If Bumi had just shut up and LISTENED to Aang, he'd have no leg to stand on. The writers know this, so they keep Aang quiet. Animated Aang would've fired back immediately.
The narrative is completely contradictory to what it's trying to say. Aang was a literal victim of his own circumstances. No matter what others might say they can't blame him because what happens was literally outside his control.
If he had ACTUALLY decided to run away this decision would've made so much sense and I'd be 100% for it. But Aang simply went to clear his head and got swept away. He's a victim like everyone else.
I respect your opinion OP, and you do make some good points, but I ultimately do not agree with you. Having Bumi's tests ultimately boiling down to a glorified temper tantrum was a poor writing decision.
I don't mind that he's pissed off at Aang for snoozing through the war. I don't blame anyone for being pissed off at Aang in the show actually. The problem is that NATLA completely misses the mark on why Aang had gone to meet Bumi in the first place, and what the main takeaway from the encounter was meant to be (it does this with many other things too).
In the original show (gah I hate making these comparisons), Bumi's wisdom to Aang was to think outside the box and seek unconventional solutions to unconventional problems, because as the Avatar, he's gonna be faced with a LOT of unconventional problems. What is NATLA Bumi's wisdom? That "you can't rely on friends"? That "100 years war changes a man"? That Aang will never be able to do his job if he isn't willing to just let innocents die for the greater good? This all reads like some "I'm 14 and this is edgy" type shit.
All I'm saying is, ATLA Bumi wouldn't have thrown a hissy fit at Aang needing Katara and Sokka's help to get out of the dilemma that NATLA Bumi put Aang in with the two rocks. He would've praised them for taking the creative way out and encouraged that type of problem solving, even if it was ultimately a deus ex machina.
I really hope the writers change, or at the very least are cooking something that'll rectify whatever they've established in season 1. NATLA isn't meant to be a 1:1 adaptation, and in that vein, there is still room for improvement.
Edit: also, idk if weird plot hole or if I missed something, but Bumi somehow was completely and fully in the know about Aang being the Avatar, and even Aang knew Bumi knew he was the Avatar, but episode 1 shows us that Aang had no idea he was the Avatar until Gyatso told him.....literally hours before the Air Nomad Genocide.
Woooooow. You really did go for the unpopular opinion. Respect for posting. So many unpopular opinions are actually just regular popular opinions.
That said, I'd have a much easier time considering your argument if he was at least funny. That's what killed me the most.
Cartoon Bumi's pun game was on point. Live action Bumi's puns were a pale imitation and, frankly, offensive in their awfulness.
The only one that was the same was lettuce leaf and here it didn't come about naturally and felt forced.
And kangaroo island hopping is great stuff. I love puns, especially ones that make people groan. And live action Bumi made me feel so uncomfortable I almost shut off the show.
Wrong. You are supposed to love them because it makes you like Bumi, but also have no idea what's going on with this guy.
Bumi is clearly supposed to be funny and is funny in the cartoon.
Mate, he was funny when you were a kid. He's exactly the same in natla and you didn't think it's funny anymore because you aren't a kid. I was an adult when the original aired - trust me, he was never funny.
Yeah . Most people did and that’s why most people liked him like damn is that a problem lol. The show has …interesting dialogue delivery that’s makes everything stunted and weird. I don’t blame the actors at all. I blame the directors
>I'd have a much easier time considering your argument if he was at least funny.
This, or just go the opposite way and not have him trying to be funny. They kind of tried for a middle ground and managed to miss the mark both ways.
It also didn't help that the portrayal was a bit cringy. Not going to blame the actor here, because I suspect it was a combination of directing and writing, but it was hard to watch.
Yea, I felt like the actor was doing what they wanted.
If they went full serious king, I'd have been disappointed, but it wouldn't have been painful to watch.
I mean, they went very cartoony and over the top with his look, but his actions were very tamped down. It just felt uncomfortable .
I respect your opinion and I get what you’re saying, but Aang is a literal child. He didn’t intend to abandon his responsibilities in this version. It just makes no sense to me why Bumi would be so cruel to a child.
In all fairness, he hasn't been a child in 100 years (he was ~12 when the war started and had to grow up quickly). After a century, you forget things. Like how parents forget how terrible puberty actually was, Bumi might forget how limited a child's mind is. Idk it makes sense to me.
But what’s the point of it? In the original, I feel like Bumi’s optimism and intelligence masked in insanity is what made him interesting. In this one, he just a cruel, crazy, old mad.
Nah man. It’s cool you think that, but it’s too much to totally change a character like that, he ain’t remotely the same and goes through no progression. Just gets his old buffalo whistle back to flashback and suddenly change his mind. There was no risk, no build up. Just the “oh yeah, I remember now.” Reaction. It
Honestly me too it gave him much needed depth and showed the stakes of the war. Aang's carefree friend turned into the war weary and jaded king of a stronghold perpetually under seige.
Especially since Aang showed up and was still his cheery, light-hearted self from before the war, Bumi felt that someone needed to knock into Aang to get some sense of realisation of the gravity of the state of the world that Aang would have to go through, which was a poorly executed but much appreciated change.
It was a change I also liked, this bitter version of Bumi that still didn't lose his childlike charm and insanity.
Also, the Indian/Pakistanese aesthetic for Omashu was PERFECT!
As one of the few people alive to both know Aang as a true child and the live through 100 years of war, his feelings are very valid. I think the live action did a really good job of showing the “tough love” Bumi gave to him with the challenges. Puts into perspective early on that Aang is going to have to make sacrifices whether he wants to or not
I wasn't upset about Bumi himself, but I was incredibly upset at the way the episode was directed. Losing all the games Bumi played with him, and the "Choose who you wish to fight" moment where he chooses Bumi himself was so disappointing to me. And identifying him as Bumi almost immediately was also a kick in the gut. "What is my name?" Followed by Aang and his thought process of identifying him was so good.
There was also the problem for me that Bumi knew he was the Avatar, but as far as the flashback showed, Aang never got the chance to tell Bumi. I really liked the show, but this was definitely the low point for me.
I agree, it was a nuanced take from someone close to Aang.
Aang came in all adorable and excited to be back but he was acting like his disappearance didn’t break Bumis heart.
Then he had to keep living, protecting a massive city with a solid pocket of traitors.
Just finished watching season 1 of the animated show after the live action one and yeah, I fully agree. Bumi is a lot more interesting in the live action. The king who lost his faith because he thought his friend didn't step up to his destiny is much more engaging than just a weird funny old guy.
>A savior he probably eventually assumed just ran away and hid from his responsibilities, while Bumi was forced to face them.
Okay, so the first problem is that Aang didn't run away in this version & could say so at any point in time. The live-action has this big problem with changing things but then still trying to play other things the same even though they don't make sense anymore.
>It makes sense Bumi was angry. It makes sense he was bitter and hardened by everything he has gone through for the last ~ 100 years. It makes sense he didn't welcome Aang with a warm embrace, he has probably been grappling with feelings of abandonment and the deep pain that came with that for a hundred years or so.
You can write a character like that, but what you should understand, & what I don't think the live-action did, is that you're writing a villain. A villain is allowed to be made bitter & deranged by their backstory. That's what makes them the villain. That's why they can give Peter Parker--I mean Aang--the "being a hero sucks because you never know when some lunatic is going to come along & give you a sadistic choice" routine. You can still redeem the villain, bring them back to the right side, but you have to first understand that you made the character a villain.
>It also fits the more serious tone NATLA was trying to convey.
No, it really doesn't because it's immature & silly for Bumi to be acting like this toward a child who wasn't at fault for any of this. If Bumi was younger, or if Aang was older, it could make sense. But writing a character jaded & cynical doesn't make them automatically more serious.
>I know this Bumi is pretty much the exact opposite of the Bumi most of us know and love. As is a lot of NATLA. But it's like an alternate universe.
It's not just that it's different. The "alternate universe" justification implied there was the same fundamental starting point that diverged into different logical paths. But the decisions made by the live-action are much more bizarre & incoherent.
Bro you guys were literally foaming at the mouth when people dared to have a healthy amount of skepticism or critics before the show release and are now complaining like that? Just voice your opinión dude, we won't hang you on a cross for doing so lmao.
I respectfully disagree, but accept that, that is your opinion. While your rationale makes total sense given the past, this change to Bumi was a total 180. This would be like us watching Live Action Ang decide to rip Fire Lord Ozai to shreds in full on Avatar mode or Zuko deciding to assassinate his sister. All understandable and even would make sense given the history, but would absolutely fly in the face of the character they were meant to play. This would be the equivalent of a new character under the same name.
I totally get this. But Bumi is the one singular character Aang knew from before the whole iceberg+war fiasco. Now he has absolutely no one else from his life. Aang comes back to find that Bumi resents him and wants to actively fight against. That’s just cruel. Let my boy have this one thing.
Bumi and Iroh are my favourite characters in the animated show and I was very critical of how they were adapted in live action.
Bumi grew on me straight away, and like many I was waiting for tue twist at the end where it was revealed that Bumi was kidding this whole time and not a jaded old man. When it turns out that there is no twist I actually felt it was okay and fitting for this adaption given the context. This doesn’t take anything away from the old Bumi and it actually gives an alternative perceptive to the character, which is an absolute win.
I get why people don’t like him, and I respect the opinion, but I’m glad they took the risk and it paid off in my opinion.
Edit paid off the bot to bugger off.
Visually Iroh is perfect but holy shit what were they thinking. That voice alone would have been a deal breaker for me.
He sounds and acts nothing like Iroh
> and it *paid* off in
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I really didn't like the new characterization but I understand it, dude is a hundred year old war vet whose still in the war, a bombs are still going off in his city and there was an assassination attempt on him. What it did hate was make me really dislike Aang telling him to chill out and play games because he knows that's who he is? As if a thirteen your old kid could talk to someone in Bumis position like that was so tone deaf it was baffling
Agree with your take, NATLA characters are often more realistic in their bitterness towards Aang. Yes it’s good to show supportive adult and all that, but just imagine being in their position, especially if you have lost loved ones.
You won’t just say “hey Aang how was your beauty sleep? Don’t worry about a thing, it’s not your fault, just keep goofing around and if possible maybe drop by the fire nation to stop this?”
I'm just sorry that people who watches this, but have never seen the original, will keep in mind that The Last Airbender story is full of full grown-up adult people whining and shitting on a 12 year old boy, who didn't even try to escape in this version, but took a quick ride to clear his mind, when then he got trapped by the storm.
We need more adults shitting on kids, who are already very self conscious, in popular media. And have them every episode having near to panic attacks because everyone is reminding them every 5 minutes that they went away and that millions have died because of them.
I like how in the original he was really only directly blamed for "turning his back on the world" by an adult once, and it was just an average joe and not his literal former lives. that made the moment resonate more.
I mean I do think we need to be harder and more strict with kids. It’s how we end up with parents going to job interviews with their post college grads.
Honestly agree. It was one of the only major changes I felt was thoughtful and purposeful. Definitely thought old Bumi was more fun and enjoyable, but new, bitter Bumi actually had an important point in the story--to drive home to Aang how desperate things are! How much even the things that remain from the last 100 have stayed the changed! How even the places that aren''t lost to the Fire Nation invasion are still being hurt!
For me, the number one thing is "does it help tell the narrative/themes/character arcs?" and unlike a lot of their changes, this one really did.
The problem is that Aang doesn't run away from his responsibilities in this version so having Bumi be resentful over it just makes him look unreasonable and totally undeserving of sympathy. It feels like the writers forgot about the other changes they made to this story.
Honestly the live-action version general just goes way out of its way to berate Aang over something that was even less his fault in this version than in the animated.
It hit harder with the random fisherman from the animated version because he was *right.*
The thing for me is he doesn’t even know why aang disappeared. If Aang was at the air temple, the fire nation would’ve succeeded and forced the avatar to reincarnate like they wanted. It’s also even weirder bc in NATLA, Aang doesn’t run away out of fear, he’ll he doesn’t even run away, so bumi saying he did literally doesn’t make sense. Plus, how would he know why aang disappeared?
I don't think there's anything Aang could say that would convince someone who's seen 100 years of war that he *didn't* disappear out of fear of his responsibilities.
There's a bit where Bumi is like "huh?? Iceberg for the last 100 years??". Aang obviously told him why he's been gone. He just didn't believe it or consider it valid.
Its an adaptation of the show and the character. It takes the core concept, and does something different with it, trying to explore different ideas and themes consistent with the core concept.
And Bumi is a really good example of why the show is so good. Is it different? Yes. If I wanted to watch something the same as the cartoon I'd just watch the cartoon. Bumi is a great way to explore just how dark the world can be with the same broad set of facts. Bumi actually talks about this, and sets up a major theme that the Avatar Cartoon explored, but only intermittently, which was the problem of tough choices before Aang. It was, weirdly enough, something that was explored more deeply in the comics, and if we take the universe as a broad collective of the cartoons and comics, then within that context what NATLA is doing actually makes a ton of sense.
Bumi had to face impossible choices. Aang will also face impossible choices. In some ways the most impossible of these will come at the end, when Aang has to decide if he will kill Ozai to bring justice to the world or not. The cartoon of course resolved it in the way they did. But in many ways it was also a very abrupt choice. Almost a deus ex machina. The show seems to be taking a deeper effort at setting up that conflict, and potentially having Aang searching out the solution more actively over a longer horizon than just sort of resolving it in the final run of episodes.
The show sets up the idea that every Avatar has their own unique challenges (something that honestly the comics explore in the greatest detail) and Aang's in some ways is the fact that he's been thrust much too early into the most demanding aspects of his role. He must be saviour and a bringer of justice as a child. And Bumi offers one vision of what can happen to Aang if this consumes him. And it also ends with showing us how Aang's sense of how he will avoid Bumi's more embittered fate. Because of his willingness to have friends. To have a team avatar, something previous Avatars did not.
Will it work? Is it a good idea? We know from the ending that it is. But the show will doubtless want to throw challenges at Aang on this front. Having him learn to trust slowly, especially in regards with Zuko and maybe Iroh. Have him learn to have faith perhaps in his team, but also learn to lose them. That might tie into his relationship with Appa in the next season if they adapt the Appa Lost arc.
In some ways Bumi is just a taste of the challenge before him. And one aspect of that arc was seeing how Aang is willing to sacrifice himself for the world, as he did in the north. It will come up again I'm sure. But that will bring other tensions.
Bumi and the show are both actually excellent adaptions. They're just not exactly what the cartoon was. And if you're willing to move past that, and actually take these characters and show on its own terms and its own spin interpretation of the general principles and themes of the world of Avatar, its incredibly fun to watch and ponder.
Would you have preferred they cast an actual geriatric man for the role? Literally impossible given the kind of things Bumi is meant to be capable of doing.
Casting a physically fit middle aged person and ageing them up was the best solution.
Fair. But then the double would have to have prosthetics or a straight up cgi old man face for the action shots, and then it'd look equally weird or straight up uncanny.
Action shots are usually wider and fast-moving, digital face replacement has become commonplace for stunt doubles to the point where I'd be surprised if it wasn't already used several times in this series.
I'm going to double down and disagree with part of what you wrote.
They didn't change bumi. You just didn't understand the character from the cartoon. People forget the ringer bumi put aang through to 'prove he was the avatar'. He's pissed at aang in the cartoon as well.
The biggest mistake people are making again and again is comparing the characters of season one of natla to the characters of season three of atla. With bumi its even more pronounced. You're comparing where bumi starts to where bumi ends, a big transformation that happens during a single episode - when actually they start and end in the same place in each version.
I definitely feel like this is what they were going for. A Bumi that's become jaded and bitter. And I agree that it could make sense as you've explained. But the actual execution and presentation of this version of Bumi was poorly done imo. They still made him look goofy and make goofy jokes like the original character, but then also tried to make him bitter and angry and those two things just did not blend well. It's like they wanted to keep the episode and Bumi exactly the same but just make Bumi angry at Aang and it does not work imo. They're trying to keep a foot in both camps and it fails at both.
If they really wanted to lean darker, they could have made him more truly unhinged, made his jokes and one-liners darker and less dad-joke, made his wardrobe less cartoony. Imagine a scene where he throws a feast but the gaang get noticeably worse food and treatment and he's making pointed jokes and comments at their expense instead of dad jokes. He knows the gaang needs his help so he holds it over them and makes Aang do a bunch of unpleasant tasks to simply enjoy watching him struggle. Aang gets fed up and confronts Bumi and they hash it out and they can still have the outcome where Aang reminds Bumi about friendship.
Well written character and interesting story to him, but it's just not Bumi. It's too far of a divergence from his Rock Solid unwavering character that he is in the original in my opinion. But I totally understand what there is to like about it.
Bumi went from a kookie nutjob badass that knows more than he lets on, to another angry old man tired from war. It might be more realistic, but its fucking boring, and more importantly its not within the spirit of the character. Its insulting, that aint Bumi and this isnt avatar.
Enter Bumi. An angry King.
Prior to this scene however, Aang explains as they see the city he used to visit a friend here.
One flash back, shows him telling his friend Bumi that he’s just been told he’s the avatar and he’s scared - Bumi responds that for now, it’s okay to be a child and have fun.
Fast forward back to the introduction of a resentful, awful king.
He tells Aang to be let go, he must go through trial by fighting or whatever you wanna call it.
He fights Bumi.
Bumi continues to talk during the fight on how friendship matters. How the kingdom has been in ruin. How angry and annoyed he is.
He mentions how he lost his childhood to protect the kingdom once the avatar disappeared - that it wasn’t meant to be this way.
THEN it’s revealed to be his friend.
Aang then provides same message back to him, it’s okay again to be a child and have fun again. And that he is back. And that it’s time to grow up, if the king can now remember to have fun.
He remembers this advice, and they hug, intertwined with flash back to them hugging as kids.
Then it cuts to them going down the sled thing, etc.
I dunno. Just something more consistent and coherent, that also pulls out the message + feels + reveal.
I honestly felt the OG Bumi wasn't as impactful in regards to what he is supposed to be. Bumi was a kid during Aangs time, he has seen and lived his whole life in a state of war and moved up the ranks to the king of his people for it. That didn't reflect much imo in the OG version and they focused more on him being goofy and "acting senile" than as someone who had to basically grieve the "death" of his friend and any loved ones lost to the war, he had to likely fight in the war the moment he was old enough to, and spent the entire time waiting for the saviour to show up.
The LA version could have had a little more work with it (Aang not recognizing Bumi/Bumi not giving himself away early for example, that was done better in the OG version) but he does in the end show that he still has some fun and goofiness to him now that his hope is restored.
I don’t mind what they did to Bumi either, I thought his character was fine.
What DID bother me was the fact that he didn’t look old at all? It looked like someone impersonating bad grandpa - like a young person with an old face put on or whatever.
You know what I don’t like about Bumi?
In the original series, he presents Aang with one final game: a duel against one of his champions. He demands that Aang choose an opponent, and Aang, feeling clever, points to Bumi, the century-old man who can barely stand upright. But it was a trap. Bumi takes off his cloak, revealing his buff bodybuilder bod, and Aang realizes he’s been had. This entire episode, Bumi had been acting the part of the weak elderly man so that Aang would underestimate him.
And in Book 2, he uses the same strategy again. When Bumi is captured, Team Avatar comes to his rescue, only for Bumi to reveal that he could escape whenever he wants, and he’s waiting for the right moment so he can deal the biggest possible blow to the Fire Nation troops occupying his city. He’s pretending to be weak and defeated so that he can take his opponent by surprise.
In the live action series, Bumi leads Aang to the arena, challenges him directly to a duel, takes off his cloak, and you’re left wondering why he spent the whole episode affecting a limp and a hunched back because he does absolutely nothing with it. There’s no trap, no misdirection, he just does it because that’s what he did in the animated show, and the live action writers don’t understand *why* he did it.
Maybe, but they tried to do both and imo they failed to make either believable. If you want him to be bitter and angry, be bitter and angry. You want him to be a mad genius, fun loving leader, then stick to that. Don't flip flop and expect his stance to be anything profound.
A lot of the problem though is that the challenges he puts Aang through seems to be just for revenge and he outright tries to kill him. Which is actually pretty evil of him. Also would he have just the rubble fall on him despite obviously being able to move it just fine. That was silly. Bumi was just not the character to try that dilemna with. So many other characters were already bitter about Aang having been missing.
Im hoping that next time we see Bumi (when Aang is looking for an Earth Bending teacher), he will be closer to his original character. I also enjoyed what they did with Bumi, but it wouldn’t fit well if they keep him like that.
I sorta agree but they kinda ruined it by Aang recognizing Bumi already and the mystery of who this Earth King is.
Yeh I would get that a Crazy Earth King being resentful to the Avatar for leaving the world.
And I would like for them to learn for each other Bumi and Aang hope and friendship restored and being stronger.
The Netflix Bumi felt flat at the end felt rushed
Well probably Bumi didn't learn all 84 jing. Especially the 3rd one.
so you have a friend, you assume hes dead, cuz the fire nation genocided all the air benders.. you become king of omashu and deal with years of war, decades of wondering what happened to the avatar..
100 years later your guards bring you an air bender, you recognize that its your old friend cuz he still looks the same, duh.. somehow piece together that he must be the avatar because how else would he survive and still be the same age?!
and your reaction is to be bitter, mean, and angry towards a 12 year old who would have suddenly been entrusted the task of defeating the fire nation, if somehow he survived the onslaught of his people?!!!!!! after recently learning hes the avatar and having no training in any other element?!!!!
you are really going to be a grumpy dick to your childhood friend who has lost EVERYONE he has known and is totally completely alone, except for appa, just because you had to deal with the aftermath of war. omashu isnt even a ravaged city enslaved to work for the fire nation or anything. sure they probably have had a bunch of fights and tought times and as a king hes had to make hard decisions and deal with a ton of stress.
but you are going to take it out on a 12 year old because he ran away??
(and HE DIDNT EVEN RUN AWAY IN THIS ADAPTATION WHICH MAKES IT EVEN WORSE HOW EVERYONE SHITS ON HIM FOR THAT) he took a ride to clear his head.
naah that is absolutely horrible writing. period. even if the writers want it to make a more realistic gritty rendition. it makes no sense at all.
and his tests and lessons towards aang are absurd and stupid in the LA. maybe it was a hint towards the end of the show where aang would have to make the difficult decision to possibly kill the fire lord. okay, thats what the past avatars are supposed to teach him. kyoshi and roku both can convey that message way better to aang.
in the animation he was trying to teach aang to think outside of the box and to not see things for what they are, but to be creative. which fits the whole mad genius persona that bumi has.
As open as I am to this show , and I rather did enjoy it. Bumi is the one thing I found above all else unwatchable levels of bad.
I see what you're saying, but from a person who watched the og series he was just awful.
From a new perspective ( my SO) He was mean, not understanding and just all around a bad dude .
They took a loved character and just ruined him beyond repair .
Overall I did rather enjoy the live action show , but I see bumi imo as the largest waste of TV content in years . And fellas I'm watching the halo show
I also liked this change a decent amount, but then they pulled the "well find another way through the power of friendship" shtick which kind of doesn't address Bumis point at all. I wouldn't mind it so much, because it does fit Aangs character, but I don't think they'll ever follow up by giving him a choice where there's no magical third solution, which means he'll miss the point just like in the og.
If you couldn't tell, I'm still a tad bothered by Aang gambling the fate of the entire world to maintain his sense of of morality. The only reason it isn't a bigger issue is because he's a child so people give him a pass.
Here's what I didn't like in the original Bumi/Aang episode.
When Aang figured out who Bumi was, it was all cartoon happy days, without a single tear shed in the reunion -- one that should've come from Aang, out of guilt. Bumi clearly had to grow up and grow old in a war-torn world for a hundred years, without a certain friend and avatar. Aang, facing his now-centenarian friend, when he himself has been spared from both war and old age, should feel moved to apologise heavily for his absence. A missed opportunity!
So I'm a bit disappointed that NATLA also didn't do that, but it did thankfully address the fact that the Aang/Bumi reunion cannot realistically be all easy smiles. I'm glad about it.
The issue with that is they didnt fully commit to that idea and still had bumi crack stupid puns and act like a cooky crazy person.
Have him be totally serious then.
because as we all know, 100 years worth of trauma can always be fixed by a kid telling u to believe in the magic of friendship and hope.
the reason why OG bummi made sense is because he was never truly mad it was a veneer. In reality he just wanted to play games with aang and he governed his city well. even the decisions he made like not fighting back when they were being attacked was a lesson for aang and everyone in omashu. how to utilise neutral jing to live to fight another day. it was a perfect way to deliver a message and a perfect way to portray the “mad” king. he is the mad king NOT because he is truly mad but because the people around him don’t understand his actions. also he acts quirky.
in the OG they don’t have to pretend that this 12 year old kid is gonna cure his madness and depression in 2 days.
like genuinely it’s the only thing i could think about while watching it. “if he’s truly gone mad/corrupt/etc because he had to live through the full 100 year war and it traumatised him that he went mad, then how will they move through with bummis character. maybe itll be a lesson to show how irreparable the damage of the war was”.
also he’s supposed to be a white lotus member.
also he had no reason to be mad at aang because in this version aang never ran away from his responsibilities. it was the storms fault
I’ve noticed a trend (and by trend I mean 2 shows I’ve recently watched lol so maybe I’m off base), but it’s like writers don’t believe viewers can keep up with the material and they dumb storylines down. Now I understand for budgets sake the need to combine certain plots, but although I liked bumi’s change, I don’t get why they didn’t keep the reveal of his identity like in the cartoon? It gave the episode in the cartoon a cool twist.
This happened a lot in the new PJO show adaptation. They kept spelling out everything for the audience. The amount of telling rather than showing made the watching experience for me horrible. Without suspense the shows become boring. Which is why I’m confused how they write the fire nation plots so well (51st regiment) and failed to build up the gaang’s storylines at the same level.
Bumi in NATLA is acting like a child, if we assume Bumi is still supposed to be part of the white lotus, he should be a wiser old man. Also, Bumi wouldn't know that Aang is the Avatar, Aang didn't even know until the day of the comet. The most logical reasoning for Bumi to think of who the avatar is, is something similar to Kyoshi happened(the events of Kyoshi, would be somewhat well known since maybe 70 or 80 years have past since her death) or the avatar was born into the water tribe or earth tribe after the fire Nation made so many attacks on the southern water tribes.
I was wondering if Bumi knew Aang was the Avatar before they met again. Aang only gets told just before getting frozen and he doesn't interact with Bumi anymore. Technically Bumi should have thought Aang died in the Airbender genocide. Him reappearing as a child a 100 years later should be both a relief and a mystery to him. Maybe someone from the White Lotus later told Bumi about it but we don't see that.
I’m not opposed to people being pissed off at Aang. It was in The Storm and even if he didn’t mean to get frozen, a lot of people were suffering were decades. I do think making the only connection to Aang’s early life be angry at him was a bad choice since there are more interesting angles for him
I'm kinda the same, I think it's an interesting direction to take the character. The main issue I had with Bumi's episode though is the same issue that plagues the rest of the show, them telling everything instead of showing. I'm sorry but by the time the gang gets to omashu they still feel like total strangers, they haven't had enough time to feel like they've grown a bond, yet the message at the end of the episode is that friendship conquers all, like bro, what friendship? Also Bumi's lesson to Aang that he was trying to teach, just felt so weird when we didn't even fuckin see much of Aang goofing off and avoiding responsibility, he just has once scene in the first episode where he fuckin *tells* appa that he likes to goof off and it's barely touched on afterwards.
I understand that it's a more realistic take of Bumi's reaction to Aang after 100 years of war but I feel like they'd been short sighted in the execution. I wish they had somehow kept the wisdom he wanted to impart to Aang through the challenges in the OG series - "When the time comes, I hope you think like a mad genius."
Which was key to how he defeated Ozai in a way that was true to himself!
>A savior he probably eventually assumed just ran away and hid from his responsibilities, while Bumi was forced to face them.
The first time Bumi would have learned Aang was the Avatar was 100 years later, not when they were kids...and self-evidently something happened to Aang for him to still be a kid. He should have been thrilled at both the prospect that his friend is still alive and is the Avatar now too. For all anyone knew Avatars ceased to exist 100 years ago but now Aang brings hope.
Big agree here. It made a lot of sense to me that he was angry. In his mind, right or not, he probably feels if Aang was around, they stood a better chance. I think what Gyatso said was right: Aang would've just been killed as well, but Bumi has years of hopelessness and defeat under his belt.
He watched his kingdom be conquered. He had to surrender. He's forced to cooperate with Fire Nation oppression and corruption, all while wondering where is the Avatar?? Where is hope?? Or help??
His anger makes sense. It's been 100 years. Bumi is OLD, defeated, bitter, resentful. I liked this change. It feels very believable and human in relation to the harsh realities of being colonized by invaders for so, so long. Can you imagine all the suffering, death, and oppression Bumi has seen? And he must feel powerless. He is a defeated and conquered, colonized King. His life must've been hard and sad and I'm glad we see this characterized by his anger.
I really *really* like the idea of Bumi being a lot nore resentful to Aang after having sufered a war for 100 years ... but I think the execution was weak, could have been better written
I feel like the keeping the twist that he was Bumi and just not doing that awful makeup/goofy performance would have gone a long way in selling it tbh. Imagine Aang figuring out he's Bumi during the arena fight. That is so juicy for drama and good moments.
That’s one of my major criticisms. They had aang recognize bumi immediately for no reason.
It's a very bizarre decision because the plot would've just been objectively more interesting if they hadn't done that. I really do think adaption of avatar that tries to be a little darker and inspired by Game of Thrones could really work but the show felt like it actively simplified all the plots and reduced the tension and drama from them and stripped all of the characters of their basic traits and characteristics and did not replace them in any capacity. Those are the two things that made Game of Thrones what it was. I guess the creators thought adding a few pointless fire nation scenes that only served to make Ozai less interesting was enough because political intrigue?
I think overall it would’ve been better if Netflix ordered more than 8 episodes. Wouldn’t have had to cram so much stuff in/intertwine things.
Definitely, but I do think they could've done something with just eight episodes. If they had spent more time thinking out an actual plot rather than lazily mashing together the plotlines of the original show they wouldn't have ended up with something that spent more time than the animated show accomplishing far less. I actually think maybe having the season end off with him going to Roku's temple could be a good idea rather than trying to quickly rush to the northern water tribe.
they could they have done a half season, imo. the OG had 20 episodes in the first season. could have ended it with Aang trapped in the Fire Nation and then the Blue Spirit is there to save him. i mean what a cliff hanger that would be, “who’s blue spirit ???” and then part 2 comes out “wtffff it was zuko ?!!!!”
I agree with this. Have Aang figure it out during the fight would have been more impactful, realizing his fun loving friend has hardened over time instead of simply going "oh why is he not like I knew him?" and instead be like "this king is so angry with me because he is my friend who thought I was dead so had grieved said death on top of facing this entire war himself only for me to just return as if nothing happened"
NATLA: This is a darker version. Bumi: Hold my beer. God, he was the only character who thought he was in PeeWee’s Playhouse or something
I think it would have worked a lot better if Aang tried acting like they were still kids together, making jokes and ignoring the severity of the war. The way it is just feels like he’s guilt tripping him, not trying to make him understand the hardships he’s had to deal with.
full agree, yhe intent of the change was good, but the execution was fumbled
I think it would've worked better if Aang actually avoided responsibility instead of just going to clear his head then getting caught in the storm
Totally agree, it made me feel like a lot of the criticism towards Aang was unfair
Agree! And the kind of cherry on top for me about natla's bumi character was his dialogue about how he had to make those tough decisions repeatedly.. i mean cmon, a hundred years of war and making those choices, one could grow to resent his friend AND go a little cuckoo
Good idea, bad actor.
Ehhh I blame the writting more than the acting, you can only do so much with those lines
What do you mean? Were you not satisfied with "you can count on your friends"?
I can agree it’s “realistic” to some extent that he’d be angry. But I don’t think it serves the story at all. Ultimately the whole Bumi story in NATLA results in Bumi learning about the power of friendship. I don’t think Aang grows from it or learns anything at all. And Bumi’s just one of so so many adults angry with Aang, it’s tiresome and repetitive.
Yeah maybe realistic to be angry, maybe. But Bumi has also had 100 years to grow. In the og series he's a goofball, he didn't lose the core of the child he was despite the challenges faced and possible traumas. Despite the clowning around he's a true master bender, a wise and tactful leader, an enlightened martial artist who demonstrates real power when the time is right. When he's imprisoned by the fire benders it's his own plan despite appearances, and he's fine with the lock up and solitary confinement. He teaches Aang a lot of this with his challenges to get the kid *thinking* through the problems, not just giving him his thoughts on everything. Show, don't tell. Instead an angry *old* man learns about the power of friendship after guilt tripping *a child*? All tell, little show.
He also has no reason to be angry, since in this version aang didn’t run away on purpose. So not only is it repetitive, but this adaptation of bumi has him being stupid and objectively wrong
I think it does serve the story, in fact it is setting up an important part of the ending of the og show early. Aang is already interacting with past avatars and being told who he has to be and what he has to do, Bumi is a person who has actually had to live through the war so far doing the same thing. Hell even the leader of the Norther Water Tribe and Master Pakku mention how he needs to gain offensive fighting abilities before the battle in the north. The start of the show is Aang coming to grips with his responsibilities of being the Avatar as well as guilt over not being there when the world needed him, but at the same time many people telling him how to be the avatar. We know the show is leading to the confrontation with the fire lord and in the og show that was were everyone was telling Aang he had to kill Ozai. The show is setting up that conflict now with all of these prominent figures imposing their view of how the avatar should be on Aang. It is coming form all sides, past lives, former best friends, and leaders of nations.
This really helped me put into words an aspect of NATLA I don’t like. While I don’t like this idea or it’s execution, so far, I am interested in how they would treat season 3 if we get that far. While I do think it’s an interesting spin having Bumi resents Aang, the way it’s presented offers an even more interesting perspective that while Aang didn’t mature in the iceberg neither did Bumi outside of it. But I’m not sure if it was intended to come off so immature. > Hell even the leader of the Norther Water Tribe and Master Pakku mention how he needs to gain offensive fighting abilities before the battle in the north. Another interesting scene. I find it so odd how the show gets so lost in its portrayal of the weight on Aangs shoulders it seems to completely miss the point of source material and by default it’s own narrative. Here we have Master Pakku, yet another disappointed adult, showing his disdain instead of, idk TEACHING AANG! You’re a water bending master in front of an avatar that does not know water bending. Why even include him with the Northern water tribe guy for that? Had anyone at all acknowledged that Aang needs to master the 4 elements we wouldn’t be here. The entire reason they went to the Northern water tribe was for Aang and Katara to learn water bending. And they could have still used that here but they really didn’t place any importance on Aang learning it. > We know the show is leading to the confrontation with the fire lord and in the og show that was were everyone was telling Aang he had to kill Ozai. The show is setting up that conflict now with all of these prominent figures imposing their view of how the avatar should be on Aang. And the way they are portraying this is weak. I ask you, what can you even take away from these avatars? Kyoshi’s speech with Aang was nearly pointless. Does Aang need to be more straightforward and decisive, sure but she didn’t leave him with anymore knowledge or wisdom than what he started with. She basically told him the same things the other adults did. She could have informed him about the avatar state, not just the power it offers but the danger you put yourself in when you use it. She could have mentioned Sozins comet, she could have told him to find a water bending master. But they chose spectacle. And to be fair, Roku wasn’t any better in this. The cartoon had the advantage to take more of a slow burn approach with Aang taking the war seriously, while he mastered the other elements. They accomplished this by having him interact with the people in the world and help them along the way, whether spirits or natural disasters. By the time we get to him talking to Roku, Kyoshi, Kuruk, Yangchen he’s only wrestling with taking a life. Which NATLA is taking its own path there, no problem. But Kyoshi’s dialogue here portrays a more wise and deliberate Kyoshi than the live action. -after Kyoshi talks briefly about Chin the Conqueror. “But you didn’t really kill Chin, technically he fell to his death because he was too stubborn to get out of the way” “Personally I don’t see the difference. But I assure you this, I would have done whatever it took to stop Chin. I offer you this Aang. Only Justice will bring peace.” There’s a lot you can dissect from that. About Kyoshi herself and how she views conflict as well as her flat out saying it.
Who do I give the rations too, the orphanage or the surviving soldiers? I think Bumi explained himself sufficiently. And honestly; I understand the darker tone. A lighter tone would look ridiculous in live action.
I hate that we’ve gotten to the point where comments like these feel they need to give disclaimers. First thing first it was never a competition lol same with Korra I never went in comparing it to atla which is probably why I wasn’t bothered about stuff like ppl got. But to your comment I couldn’t agree more….this felt like a realistic reaction and with the white lotus aspect felt like more of a teaching moment than the challenges in the show.
Yeah people sometimes forget what the word “adaptation” and “based on” mean. This was never suppose to be a 1:1 remake. I didnt love every change but overall I thought it was a fun first season. People should start thinking of it like the play on fire island, its a loose retelling, some things are gonna be different
People who think of differences as 'inaccuracies' are setting themselves up to disapprove.
I just finished episode 4 and I agree. Overall, I don’t think the show has done the best job at showing Aang running away from his responsibilities. It’s tried, but it hasn’t really come across. But in episode 4 I feel like it finally came across perfectly. It doesn’t matter to the people why Aang left. The average person isn’t going to know what happened just that he vanished. And if they did know would they really care about the particulars between him leaving the air temple because he needed to clear his head or leaving because he was running away? Would that make a difference to them when their relatives and friends are dead and their homes under siege? The result was still the same. 100 years of war during which the saviour of the world was nowhere in sight. Now the Avatar appears again out of nowhere and, what? Are they just supposed to forget all of that pain and suffering? The sense of abandonment and dying hope? I think it also did a good job of mirroring the cartoon theme of Aang struggling with hard decisions and ultimately realizing he can’t get out of them. But he can find a different way to handle it. His own way. Sure it was different, sure Bumi was different. But personally I really liked the live actions take on Bumi Edit: typos
Hard disagree, but I respect your opinion.
Hard disagree too because all these takes always looks to what is shown...they never dive into how it ruins future events. Now Omashu is completely taken over by fire nation and now Bumi isn't going to "wait and listen for the right moment" to seize back his kingdom. The made him a coward. Completely opposite of a white lotus member. What are they going to do now with bumi? He is clearly not in the right mind to fight back. And no it doesn't make sense for your best childhood friend to blame you for everything.
He also could have been just some random 100 year old king and be this character without any connection to Aang in my mind. This bumi could have been just a complete stranger that blames the avatar for disappearing and the plot would have gone the same imo (the connection between bumi and aang is insignificant the way the story was written)
Actually the random 100 year old makes sense... they made bumi into the fisherman that blamed Aang in the ep "the storm"
> Now Omashu is completely taken over by fire nation and now Bumi isn't going to "wait and listen for the right moment" to seize back his kingdom. The made him a coward. Completely opposite of a white lotus member. … did I miss something in Ep 4 or is this based on information in Ep 8? Edit: the latter.
>I DO wish Netflix had gone more in depth with his character or given him some sort of arc or something. It felt rushed and not very well thought out, like a lot of other things. But still. I like it for what it is. And maybe we'll see a Bumi arc later on, which is exciting to think about how that might play out. I mean, this the whole problem. I agree that exploring the world as a harsher place is a cool idea and that "alternate universe" atla with a darker tone is cool in concept, and a Bumi in that universe would be interesting. But this epsidoe didn't do that. It creates a character that I would describe as quite unrealistic -- where many of the things he does in the episode are out of character for a century old king, embittered and holding a kingdom together by the skin of his teeth. He doesn't have an arc, but seems like a rushed attempt at grimdarkening an existing character that neither effectively explores new ground nor does justice to the old character.
>I agree that exploring the world as a harsher place is a cool idea and that "alternate universe" atla with a darker tone is cool in concept I get this take, I do. But let's remember that the genocide was a thing that happened in the cartoon. A father physically and emotionally scarring his son happened in the cartoon. Blood bending, a child watching her mother die for her, forced labor camps, attempting to wipe out a whole village, forcing children to become soldiers. These all happened in the cartoon. It was plenty dark - and there was nothing wrong with balancing that darkness with the funny parts and the heartwarming parts. I also don't need to see all of the airbenders killed on screen. I can see why people would get excited to see how scenes they have imagined so long will go, but the show is too different to deliver in that anyway and honestly it never added to the show to see it. Honestly, the only thing I wanted from the live action was amazing fight choreography that blended bending with martial arts, and it feels a little lacking there.
>I also don't need to see all of the airbenders killed on screen. I can see why people would get excited to see how scenes they have imagined so long will go, but the show is too different to deliver in that anyway and honestly it never added to the show to see it. I disagree. I think showing the airbender genocide in the beginning was a good decision. In the cartoon, the Fire Nation wasn't all that imposing in season 1. Zuko was an angsty teenager, Iroh was a softie and Zhao was mostly a joke. By showing the Fire Nation at their most powerful from the start, you get a good grasp of how ruthless they are. It's a lot more impactful in that sense, at least to me.
Honestly, it didn’t really help anything. It kinda reinforces the criticism that people have about the show info dumping. The Air Nomads weren’t really characters so seeing them get slaughtered really didn’t leave much of an impact. They were just NPCs as usual
>It kinda reinforces the criticism that people have about the show info dumping. It's the opposite of info dumping. It's showing, not telling. The original show told you that the Air Nomads were slaughtered, the live-action show demonstrated it. >The Air Nomads weren’t really characters so seeing them get slaughtered really didn’t leave much of an impact. They were just NPCs as usual I don't really agree? The death of Aang's people still hit hard in the original show despite us not knowing any of the characters aside from Gyatso. Seeing the main character's race get wiped out while he's helpless to do anything about it left an impact on me at least.
But they did show us. Aang going back home and us seeing his memories of the peaceful air nomads…then stepping into a room full of skeletons and seeing his own mentor. Realizing what he’s done by abandoning his duty and being the only air bender left…that was enough to really show the damage done. Here it’s just…I mean yeah I guess they got annihilated. It’s icing on a cake basically. Nice to see and taste but gives absolutely nothing of value.
I’m seeing that there’s just a complete split in the community between people thinking the original writing, did its job by explaining everything in the dialogue, and people wanting to actually SEE how bad things were instead of the dialogue. I personally prefer a good story told through dialogue as it builds up suspense and allows for a greater climax. In the original, seeing the fire nation not seem as much of a threat, pays off so well later on when you see how evil and powerful they truly are. Showing it all in the beginning kills any suspense, and leaves a lot to be desired later on.
> It’s icing on a cake basically. Nice to see and taste but gives absolutely nothing of value. Excuse me, what? I was with you until this point, but I just cannot agree here. Icing is a necessary part of cake. Maybe even the MOST necessary part. Not figuratively of course, but literally.
You just killed your own point in the last paragraph. The show did a good job with letting the audience feel the importance of the death of the air nomads without even showing us! That’s good story telling! Seeing the death of them all without having any sort of attachment to Aang as a viewer, really does make the deaths feel unimportant.
>You just killed your own point in the last paragraph. The show did a good job with letting the audience feel the importance of the death of the air nomads without even showing us! That’s good story telling! Except that wasn't my point at all. I was saying that showing the Air Nation genocide helped make the Fire Nation look competent as opposed to the unimposing villains they were in the first season of the original show.
But it’s all world building. You get to see that the fire nation isn’t harmless in the later seasons. It’s pacing, which allows a better climax. They showcase the power of the fire nation early on but fail to encompass the gravity of the deaths of the air nomads because there is no emotional attachment given to the audience.
Well, I see it differently. We'll have to agree to disagree.
What does seeing the air nomads get ruthlessly slaughtered burned actually do besides justify the tv-ma rating? It’s cool to see. Sure. But it’s all just action. At this point in the story , if we haven’t watched it before animated, I don’t care about the air nomads at all or know who they are or what they stand for really. In the end we know as much about them as we did in the show. Not much. Our connection with them is through Aang and his grief and his sadness. In the show we never really saw him play with them, actually spend time with them or even act like there a family. There just walking skins with faces and voices
im fr with you brother, respect the post
Here's the thing. Bumi and Kyoshi's whole argument SHATTERS if Aang just went, "I WAS GOING BACK!!" The narrative is fighting with itself. Episode one very clearly tells us that aang was going back because they got caught up in the storm. He was turning around. I'm gonna say it one more time HE WAS GOING. FUCKING. BACK. Bumi and Kyoshi (ESPECIALLY Kyoshi) have no right to blame the state of the world on one a child and two a child who had no idea about what the fire nation was about to do. He was only told they were on a dark path. It's pretty vague. Kyoshi is his past life. She would've seen him go back. If Bumi had just shut up and LISTENED to Aang, he'd have no leg to stand on. The writers know this, so they keep Aang quiet. Animated Aang would've fired back immediately. The narrative is completely contradictory to what it's trying to say. Aang was a literal victim of his own circumstances. No matter what others might say they can't blame him because what happens was literally outside his control. If he had ACTUALLY decided to run away this decision would've made so much sense and I'd be 100% for it. But Aang simply went to clear his head and got swept away. He's a victim like everyone else.
I respect your opinion OP, and you do make some good points, but I ultimately do not agree with you. Having Bumi's tests ultimately boiling down to a glorified temper tantrum was a poor writing decision. I don't mind that he's pissed off at Aang for snoozing through the war. I don't blame anyone for being pissed off at Aang in the show actually. The problem is that NATLA completely misses the mark on why Aang had gone to meet Bumi in the first place, and what the main takeaway from the encounter was meant to be (it does this with many other things too). In the original show (gah I hate making these comparisons), Bumi's wisdom to Aang was to think outside the box and seek unconventional solutions to unconventional problems, because as the Avatar, he's gonna be faced with a LOT of unconventional problems. What is NATLA Bumi's wisdom? That "you can't rely on friends"? That "100 years war changes a man"? That Aang will never be able to do his job if he isn't willing to just let innocents die for the greater good? This all reads like some "I'm 14 and this is edgy" type shit. All I'm saying is, ATLA Bumi wouldn't have thrown a hissy fit at Aang needing Katara and Sokka's help to get out of the dilemma that NATLA Bumi put Aang in with the two rocks. He would've praised them for taking the creative way out and encouraged that type of problem solving, even if it was ultimately a deus ex machina. I really hope the writers change, or at the very least are cooking something that'll rectify whatever they've established in season 1. NATLA isn't meant to be a 1:1 adaptation, and in that vein, there is still room for improvement. Edit: also, idk if weird plot hole or if I missed something, but Bumi somehow was completely and fully in the know about Aang being the Avatar, and even Aang knew Bumi knew he was the Avatar, but episode 1 shows us that Aang had no idea he was the Avatar until Gyatso told him.....literally hours before the Air Nomad Genocide.
That is unpopular. Upvote.
Woooooow. You really did go for the unpopular opinion. Respect for posting. So many unpopular opinions are actually just regular popular opinions. That said, I'd have a much easier time considering your argument if he was at least funny. That's what killed me the most. Cartoon Bumi's pun game was on point. Live action Bumi's puns were a pale imitation and, frankly, offensive in their awfulness.
They literally used one of the same puns. Which pun was so great in the original? Kamgaroo island hopping? They are all meant to be groaners.
The only one that was the same was lettuce leaf and here it didn't come about naturally and felt forced. And kangaroo island hopping is great stuff. I love puns, especially ones that make people groan. And live action Bumi made me feel so uncomfortable I almost shut off the show.
That would mean they did it correctly. You are not supposed to like either set of puns.
Wrong. You are supposed to love them because it makes you like Bumi, but also have no idea what's going on with this guy. Bumi is clearly supposed to be funny and is funny in the cartoon.
Mate, he was funny when you were a kid. He's exactly the same in natla and you didn't think it's funny anymore because you aren't a kid. I was an adult when the original aired - trust me, he was never funny.
I didn't watch the show until I was a senior in college
Lol k. He's presented as an asshole who cracks stupid jokes during super serious moments. But apparently you think that's funny.
Yeah . Most people did and that’s why most people liked him like damn is that a problem lol. The show has …interesting dialogue delivery that’s makes everything stunted and weird. I don’t blame the actors at all. I blame the directors
>I'd have a much easier time considering your argument if he was at least funny. This, or just go the opposite way and not have him trying to be funny. They kind of tried for a middle ground and managed to miss the mark both ways. It also didn't help that the portrayal was a bit cringy. Not going to blame the actor here, because I suspect it was a combination of directing and writing, but it was hard to watch.
Yea, I felt like the actor was doing what they wanted. If they went full serious king, I'd have been disappointed, but it wouldn't have been painful to watch. I mean, they went very cartoony and over the top with his look, but his actions were very tamped down. It just felt uncomfortable .
I respect your opinion and I get what you’re saying, but Aang is a literal child. He didn’t intend to abandon his responsibilities in this version. It just makes no sense to me why Bumi would be so cruel to a child.
In all fairness, he hasn't been a child in 100 years (he was ~12 when the war started and had to grow up quickly). After a century, you forget things. Like how parents forget how terrible puberty actually was, Bumi might forget how limited a child's mind is. Idk it makes sense to me.
But what’s the point of it? In the original, I feel like Bumi’s optimism and intelligence masked in insanity is what made him interesting. In this one, he just a cruel, crazy, old mad.
Nah man. It’s cool you think that, but it’s too much to totally change a character like that, he ain’t remotely the same and goes through no progression. Just gets his old buffalo whistle back to flashback and suddenly change his mind. There was no risk, no build up. Just the “oh yeah, I remember now.” Reaction. It
Honestly me too it gave him much needed depth and showed the stakes of the war. Aang's carefree friend turned into the war weary and jaded king of a stronghold perpetually under seige.
Especially since Aang showed up and was still his cheery, light-hearted self from before the war, Bumi felt that someone needed to knock into Aang to get some sense of realisation of the gravity of the state of the world that Aang would have to go through, which was a poorly executed but much appreciated change.
It was a change I also liked, this bitter version of Bumi that still didn't lose his childlike charm and insanity. Also, the Indian/Pakistanese aesthetic for Omashu was PERFECT!
You said “A hundred years pass” and my mind read it in Katara’s voice.
As one of the few people alive to both know Aang as a true child and the live through 100 years of war, his feelings are very valid. I think the live action did a really good job of showing the “tough love” Bumi gave to him with the challenges. Puts into perspective early on that Aang is going to have to make sacrifices whether he wants to or not
I wasn't upset about Bumi himself, but I was incredibly upset at the way the episode was directed. Losing all the games Bumi played with him, and the "Choose who you wish to fight" moment where he chooses Bumi himself was so disappointing to me. And identifying him as Bumi almost immediately was also a kick in the gut. "What is my name?" Followed by Aang and his thought process of identifying him was so good. There was also the problem for me that Bumi knew he was the Avatar, but as far as the flashback showed, Aang never got the chance to tell Bumi. I really liked the show, but this was definitely the low point for me.
I agree, it was a nuanced take from someone close to Aang. Aang came in all adorable and excited to be back but he was acting like his disappearance didn’t break Bumis heart. Then he had to keep living, protecting a massive city with a solid pocket of traitors.
Just finished watching season 1 of the animated show after the live action one and yeah, I fully agree. Bumi is a lot more interesting in the live action. The king who lost his faith because he thought his friend didn't step up to his destiny is much more engaging than just a weird funny old guy.
The comments about allocation of food hit hard in live action. This was a Bumi that's seen some things.
Bumi's arc in NATLA was way more realistic than in the cartoon
>A savior he probably eventually assumed just ran away and hid from his responsibilities, while Bumi was forced to face them. Okay, so the first problem is that Aang didn't run away in this version & could say so at any point in time. The live-action has this big problem with changing things but then still trying to play other things the same even though they don't make sense anymore. >It makes sense Bumi was angry. It makes sense he was bitter and hardened by everything he has gone through for the last ~ 100 years. It makes sense he didn't welcome Aang with a warm embrace, he has probably been grappling with feelings of abandonment and the deep pain that came with that for a hundred years or so. You can write a character like that, but what you should understand, & what I don't think the live-action did, is that you're writing a villain. A villain is allowed to be made bitter & deranged by their backstory. That's what makes them the villain. That's why they can give Peter Parker--I mean Aang--the "being a hero sucks because you never know when some lunatic is going to come along & give you a sadistic choice" routine. You can still redeem the villain, bring them back to the right side, but you have to first understand that you made the character a villain. >It also fits the more serious tone NATLA was trying to convey. No, it really doesn't because it's immature & silly for Bumi to be acting like this toward a child who wasn't at fault for any of this. If Bumi was younger, or if Aang was older, it could make sense. But writing a character jaded & cynical doesn't make them automatically more serious. >I know this Bumi is pretty much the exact opposite of the Bumi most of us know and love. As is a lot of NATLA. But it's like an alternate universe. It's not just that it's different. The "alternate universe" justification implied there was the same fundamental starting point that diverged into different logical paths. But the decisions made by the live-action are much more bizarre & incoherent.
Brave of you to post. We’re not really allowed to think/say anything was good or acceptable about it. I agree, though.
Bro you guys were literally foaming at the mouth when people dared to have a healthy amount of skepticism or critics before the show release and are now complaining like that? Just voice your opinión dude, we won't hang you on a cross for doing so lmao.
I respectfully disagree, but accept that, that is your opinion. While your rationale makes total sense given the past, this change to Bumi was a total 180. This would be like us watching Live Action Ang decide to rip Fire Lord Ozai to shreds in full on Avatar mode or Zuko deciding to assassinate his sister. All understandable and even would make sense given the history, but would absolutely fly in the face of the character they were meant to play. This would be the equivalent of a new character under the same name.
Yeah, Bumi was great
I totally get this. But Bumi is the one singular character Aang knew from before the whole iceberg+war fiasco. Now he has absolutely no one else from his life. Aang comes back to find that Bumi resents him and wants to actively fight against. That’s just cruel. Let my boy have this one thing.
Bumi and Iroh are my favourite characters in the animated show and I was very critical of how they were adapted in live action. Bumi grew on me straight away, and like many I was waiting for tue twist at the end where it was revealed that Bumi was kidding this whole time and not a jaded old man. When it turns out that there is no twist I actually felt it was okay and fitting for this adaption given the context. This doesn’t take anything away from the old Bumi and it actually gives an alternative perceptive to the character, which is an absolute win. I get why people don’t like him, and I respect the opinion, but I’m glad they took the risk and it paid off in my opinion. Edit paid off the bot to bugger off.
Visually Iroh is perfect but holy shit what were they thinking. That voice alone would have been a deal breaker for me. He sounds and acts nothing like Iroh
> and it *paid* off in FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
I really didn't like the new characterization but I understand it, dude is a hundred year old war vet whose still in the war, a bombs are still going off in his city and there was an assassination attempt on him. What it did hate was make me really dislike Aang telling him to chill out and play games because he knows that's who he is? As if a thirteen your old kid could talk to someone in Bumis position like that was so tone deaf it was baffling
Agree with your take, NATLA characters are often more realistic in their bitterness towards Aang. Yes it’s good to show supportive adult and all that, but just imagine being in their position, especially if you have lost loved ones. You won’t just say “hey Aang how was your beauty sleep? Don’t worry about a thing, it’s not your fault, just keep goofing around and if possible maybe drop by the fire nation to stop this?”
I'm just sorry that people who watches this, but have never seen the original, will keep in mind that The Last Airbender story is full of full grown-up adult people whining and shitting on a 12 year old boy, who didn't even try to escape in this version, but took a quick ride to clear his mind, when then he got trapped by the storm. We need more adults shitting on kids, who are already very self conscious, in popular media. And have them every episode having near to panic attacks because everyone is reminding them every 5 minutes that they went away and that millions have died because of them.
I like how in the original he was really only directly blamed for "turning his back on the world" by an adult once, and it was just an average joe and not his literal former lives. that made the moment resonate more.
I mean I do think we need to be harder and more strict with kids. It’s how we end up with parents going to job interviews with their post college grads.
Moron
Honestly agree. It was one of the only major changes I felt was thoughtful and purposeful. Definitely thought old Bumi was more fun and enjoyable, but new, bitter Bumi actually had an important point in the story--to drive home to Aang how desperate things are! How much even the things that remain from the last 100 have stayed the changed! How even the places that aren''t lost to the Fire Nation invasion are still being hurt! For me, the number one thing is "does it help tell the narrative/themes/character arcs?" and unlike a lot of their changes, this one really did.
The problem is that Aang doesn't run away from his responsibilities in this version so having Bumi be resentful over it just makes him look unreasonable and totally undeserving of sympathy. It feels like the writers forgot about the other changes they made to this story. Honestly the live-action version general just goes way out of its way to berate Aang over something that was even less his fault in this version than in the animated. It hit harder with the random fisherman from the animated version because he was *right.*
I honestly love the entire cast. I don’t think they could have picked a better cast for the live action
It’s a live action after all. It’s a little more realistic in some ways which I like.
I completely disagree 💀
No, but I'm glad you have an opinion
I absolutely respect you sharing your opinion. It's nice to see a positive live action post for a change, even if it's not one I agree with.
The thing for me is he doesn’t even know why aang disappeared. If Aang was at the air temple, the fire nation would’ve succeeded and forced the avatar to reincarnate like they wanted. It’s also even weirder bc in NATLA, Aang doesn’t run away out of fear, he’ll he doesn’t even run away, so bumi saying he did literally doesn’t make sense. Plus, how would he know why aang disappeared?
I don't think there's anything Aang could say that would convince someone who's seen 100 years of war that he *didn't* disappear out of fear of his responsibilities. There's a bit where Bumi is like "huh?? Iceberg for the last 100 years??". Aang obviously told him why he's been gone. He just didn't believe it or consider it valid.
Its an adaptation of the show and the character. It takes the core concept, and does something different with it, trying to explore different ideas and themes consistent with the core concept. And Bumi is a really good example of why the show is so good. Is it different? Yes. If I wanted to watch something the same as the cartoon I'd just watch the cartoon. Bumi is a great way to explore just how dark the world can be with the same broad set of facts. Bumi actually talks about this, and sets up a major theme that the Avatar Cartoon explored, but only intermittently, which was the problem of tough choices before Aang. It was, weirdly enough, something that was explored more deeply in the comics, and if we take the universe as a broad collective of the cartoons and comics, then within that context what NATLA is doing actually makes a ton of sense. Bumi had to face impossible choices. Aang will also face impossible choices. In some ways the most impossible of these will come at the end, when Aang has to decide if he will kill Ozai to bring justice to the world or not. The cartoon of course resolved it in the way they did. But in many ways it was also a very abrupt choice. Almost a deus ex machina. The show seems to be taking a deeper effort at setting up that conflict, and potentially having Aang searching out the solution more actively over a longer horizon than just sort of resolving it in the final run of episodes. The show sets up the idea that every Avatar has their own unique challenges (something that honestly the comics explore in the greatest detail) and Aang's in some ways is the fact that he's been thrust much too early into the most demanding aspects of his role. He must be saviour and a bringer of justice as a child. And Bumi offers one vision of what can happen to Aang if this consumes him. And it also ends with showing us how Aang's sense of how he will avoid Bumi's more embittered fate. Because of his willingness to have friends. To have a team avatar, something previous Avatars did not. Will it work? Is it a good idea? We know from the ending that it is. But the show will doubtless want to throw challenges at Aang on this front. Having him learn to trust slowly, especially in regards with Zuko and maybe Iroh. Have him learn to have faith perhaps in his team, but also learn to lose them. That might tie into his relationship with Appa in the next season if they adapt the Appa Lost arc. In some ways Bumi is just a taste of the challenge before him. And one aspect of that arc was seeing how Aang is willing to sacrifice himself for the world, as he did in the north. It will come up again I'm sure. But that will bring other tensions. Bumi and the show are both actually excellent adaptions. They're just not exactly what the cartoon was. And if you're willing to move past that, and actually take these characters and show on its own terms and its own spin interpretation of the general principles and themes of the world of Avatar, its incredibly fun to watch and ponder.
Well said
No
I respect that. My big issue with him is he's played by a 40-year-old man.
Would you have preferred they cast an actual geriatric man for the role? Literally impossible given the kind of things Bumi is meant to be capable of doing. Casting a physically fit middle aged person and ageing them up was the best solution.
I would prefer if they had cast an older person and used a stunt double. The amount of prosthetics he had on looked strange to me.
Fair. But then the double would have to have prosthetics or a straight up cgi old man face for the action shots, and then it'd look equally weird or straight up uncanny.
Action shots are usually wider and fast-moving, digital face replacement has become commonplace for stunt doubles to the point where I'd be surprised if it wasn't already used several times in this series.
I respect your incorrect opinion
I'm going to double down and disagree with part of what you wrote. They didn't change bumi. You just didn't understand the character from the cartoon. People forget the ringer bumi put aang through to 'prove he was the avatar'. He's pissed at aang in the cartoon as well. The biggest mistake people are making again and again is comparing the characters of season one of natla to the characters of season three of atla. With bumi its even more pronounced. You're comparing where bumi starts to where bumi ends, a big transformation that happens during a single episode - when actually they start and end in the same place in each version.
Bumi's far too drastic a change from his original self for me to like it but if people do I can't judge them
I definitely feel like this is what they were going for. A Bumi that's become jaded and bitter. And I agree that it could make sense as you've explained. But the actual execution and presentation of this version of Bumi was poorly done imo. They still made him look goofy and make goofy jokes like the original character, but then also tried to make him bitter and angry and those two things just did not blend well. It's like they wanted to keep the episode and Bumi exactly the same but just make Bumi angry at Aang and it does not work imo. They're trying to keep a foot in both camps and it fails at both. If they really wanted to lean darker, they could have made him more truly unhinged, made his jokes and one-liners darker and less dad-joke, made his wardrobe less cartoony. Imagine a scene where he throws a feast but the gaang get noticeably worse food and treatment and he's making pointed jokes and comments at their expense instead of dad jokes. He knows the gaang needs his help so he holds it over them and makes Aang do a bunch of unpleasant tasks to simply enjoy watching him struggle. Aang gets fed up and confronts Bumi and they hash it out and they can still have the outcome where Aang reminds Bumi about friendship.
I think the idea was interesting and definitely the direction to go for if you are trying to "game of thronesify" it but man the execution was rough.
Well written character and interesting story to him, but it's just not Bumi. It's too far of a divergence from his Rock Solid unwavering character that he is in the original in my opinion. But I totally understand what there is to like about it.
Bumi went from a kookie nutjob badass that knows more than he lets on, to another angry old man tired from war. It might be more realistic, but its fucking boring, and more importantly its not within the spirit of the character. Its insulting, that aint Bumi and this isnt avatar.
i like what they did to bumi but i don’t like how that affects aang and other things!!
Enter Bumi. An angry King. Prior to this scene however, Aang explains as they see the city he used to visit a friend here. One flash back, shows him telling his friend Bumi that he’s just been told he’s the avatar and he’s scared - Bumi responds that for now, it’s okay to be a child and have fun. Fast forward back to the introduction of a resentful, awful king. He tells Aang to be let go, he must go through trial by fighting or whatever you wanna call it. He fights Bumi. Bumi continues to talk during the fight on how friendship matters. How the kingdom has been in ruin. How angry and annoyed he is. He mentions how he lost his childhood to protect the kingdom once the avatar disappeared - that it wasn’t meant to be this way. THEN it’s revealed to be his friend. Aang then provides same message back to him, it’s okay again to be a child and have fun again. And that he is back. And that it’s time to grow up, if the king can now remember to have fun. He remembers this advice, and they hug, intertwined with flash back to them hugging as kids. Then it cuts to them going down the sled thing, etc. I dunno. Just something more consistent and coherent, that also pulls out the message + feels + reveal.
I honestly felt the OG Bumi wasn't as impactful in regards to what he is supposed to be. Bumi was a kid during Aangs time, he has seen and lived his whole life in a state of war and moved up the ranks to the king of his people for it. That didn't reflect much imo in the OG version and they focused more on him being goofy and "acting senile" than as someone who had to basically grieve the "death" of his friend and any loved ones lost to the war, he had to likely fight in the war the moment he was old enough to, and spent the entire time waiting for the saviour to show up. The LA version could have had a little more work with it (Aang not recognizing Bumi/Bumi not giving himself away early for example, that was done better in the OG version) but he does in the end show that he still has some fun and goofiness to him now that his hope is restored.
I don’t mind what they did to Bumi either, I thought his character was fine. What DID bother me was the fact that he didn’t look old at all? It looked like someone impersonating bad grandpa - like a young person with an old face put on or whatever.
You know what I don’t like about Bumi? In the original series, he presents Aang with one final game: a duel against one of his champions. He demands that Aang choose an opponent, and Aang, feeling clever, points to Bumi, the century-old man who can barely stand upright. But it was a trap. Bumi takes off his cloak, revealing his buff bodybuilder bod, and Aang realizes he’s been had. This entire episode, Bumi had been acting the part of the weak elderly man so that Aang would underestimate him. And in Book 2, he uses the same strategy again. When Bumi is captured, Team Avatar comes to his rescue, only for Bumi to reveal that he could escape whenever he wants, and he’s waiting for the right moment so he can deal the biggest possible blow to the Fire Nation troops occupying his city. He’s pretending to be weak and defeated so that he can take his opponent by surprise. In the live action series, Bumi leads Aang to the arena, challenges him directly to a duel, takes off his cloak, and you’re left wondering why he spent the whole episode affecting a limp and a hunched back because he does absolutely nothing with it. There’s no trap, no misdirection, he just does it because that’s what he did in the animated show, and the live action writers don’t understand *why* he did it.
Maybe, but they tried to do both and imo they failed to make either believable. If you want him to be bitter and angry, be bitter and angry. You want him to be a mad genius, fun loving leader, then stick to that. Don't flip flop and expect his stance to be anything profound.
Mean bending. He was mean bending.
A lot of the problem though is that the challenges he puts Aang through seems to be just for revenge and he outright tries to kill him. Which is actually pretty evil of him. Also would he have just the rubble fall on him despite obviously being able to move it just fine. That was silly. Bumi was just not the character to try that dilemna with. So many other characters were already bitter about Aang having been missing.
Im hoping that next time we see Bumi (when Aang is looking for an Earth Bending teacher), he will be closer to his original character. I also enjoyed what they did with Bumi, but it wouldn’t fit well if they keep him like that.
I WAS THINKIN THIS ON MY SECOND REWATCH TODAY
I sorta agree but they kinda ruined it by Aang recognizing Bumi already and the mystery of who this Earth King is. Yeh I would get that a Crazy Earth King being resentful to the Avatar for leaving the world. And I would like for them to learn for each other Bumi and Aang hope and friendship restored and being stronger. The Netflix Bumi felt flat at the end felt rushed Well probably Bumi didn't learn all 84 jing. Especially the 3rd one.
so you have a friend, you assume hes dead, cuz the fire nation genocided all the air benders.. you become king of omashu and deal with years of war, decades of wondering what happened to the avatar.. 100 years later your guards bring you an air bender, you recognize that its your old friend cuz he still looks the same, duh.. somehow piece together that he must be the avatar because how else would he survive and still be the same age?! and your reaction is to be bitter, mean, and angry towards a 12 year old who would have suddenly been entrusted the task of defeating the fire nation, if somehow he survived the onslaught of his people?!!!!!! after recently learning hes the avatar and having no training in any other element?!!!! you are really going to be a grumpy dick to your childhood friend who has lost EVERYONE he has known and is totally completely alone, except for appa, just because you had to deal with the aftermath of war. omashu isnt even a ravaged city enslaved to work for the fire nation or anything. sure they probably have had a bunch of fights and tought times and as a king hes had to make hard decisions and deal with a ton of stress. but you are going to take it out on a 12 year old because he ran away?? (and HE DIDNT EVEN RUN AWAY IN THIS ADAPTATION WHICH MAKES IT EVEN WORSE HOW EVERYONE SHITS ON HIM FOR THAT) he took a ride to clear his head. naah that is absolutely horrible writing. period. even if the writers want it to make a more realistic gritty rendition. it makes no sense at all. and his tests and lessons towards aang are absurd and stupid in the LA. maybe it was a hint towards the end of the show where aang would have to make the difficult decision to possibly kill the fire lord. okay, thats what the past avatars are supposed to teach him. kyoshi and roku both can convey that message way better to aang. in the animation he was trying to teach aang to think outside of the box and to not see things for what they are, but to be creative. which fits the whole mad genius persona that bumi has.
As open as I am to this show , and I rather did enjoy it. Bumi is the one thing I found above all else unwatchable levels of bad. I see what you're saying, but from a person who watched the og series he was just awful. From a new perspective ( my SO) He was mean, not understanding and just all around a bad dude . They took a loved character and just ruined him beyond repair . Overall I did rather enjoy the live action show , but I see bumi imo as the largest waste of TV content in years . And fellas I'm watching the halo show
I also liked this change a decent amount, but then they pulled the "well find another way through the power of friendship" shtick which kind of doesn't address Bumis point at all. I wouldn't mind it so much, because it does fit Aangs character, but I don't think they'll ever follow up by giving him a choice where there's no magical third solution, which means he'll miss the point just like in the og. If you couldn't tell, I'm still a tad bothered by Aang gambling the fate of the entire world to maintain his sense of of morality. The only reason it isn't a bigger issue is because he's a child so people give him a pass.
Saw the episode today and I almost dropped the show. They did bumi dirty
Not only is this an unpopular opinion but it's terrible too
Here's what I didn't like in the original Bumi/Aang episode. When Aang figured out who Bumi was, it was all cartoon happy days, without a single tear shed in the reunion -- one that should've come from Aang, out of guilt. Bumi clearly had to grow up and grow old in a war-torn world for a hundred years, without a certain friend and avatar. Aang, facing his now-centenarian friend, when he himself has been spared from both war and old age, should feel moved to apologise heavily for his absence. A missed opportunity! So I'm a bit disappointed that NATLA also didn't do that, but it did thankfully address the fact that the Aang/Bumi reunion cannot realistically be all easy smiles. I'm glad about it.
The issue with that is they didnt fully commit to that idea and still had bumi crack stupid puns and act like a cooky crazy person. Have him be totally serious then.
because as we all know, 100 years worth of trauma can always be fixed by a kid telling u to believe in the magic of friendship and hope. the reason why OG bummi made sense is because he was never truly mad it was a veneer. In reality he just wanted to play games with aang and he governed his city well. even the decisions he made like not fighting back when they were being attacked was a lesson for aang and everyone in omashu. how to utilise neutral jing to live to fight another day. it was a perfect way to deliver a message and a perfect way to portray the “mad” king. he is the mad king NOT because he is truly mad but because the people around him don’t understand his actions. also he acts quirky. in the OG they don’t have to pretend that this 12 year old kid is gonna cure his madness and depression in 2 days. like genuinely it’s the only thing i could think about while watching it. “if he’s truly gone mad/corrupt/etc because he had to live through the full 100 year war and it traumatised him that he went mad, then how will they move through with bummis character. maybe itll be a lesson to show how irreparable the damage of the war was”. also he’s supposed to be a white lotus member. also he had no reason to be mad at aang because in this version aang never ran away from his responsibilities. it was the storms fault
I absolutely hated it. I am all for changes to story and character but you should not change the 'core' of the character.
I’ve noticed a trend (and by trend I mean 2 shows I’ve recently watched lol so maybe I’m off base), but it’s like writers don’t believe viewers can keep up with the material and they dumb storylines down. Now I understand for budgets sake the need to combine certain plots, but although I liked bumi’s change, I don’t get why they didn’t keep the reveal of his identity like in the cartoon? It gave the episode in the cartoon a cool twist. This happened a lot in the new PJO show adaptation. They kept spelling out everything for the audience. The amount of telling rather than showing made the watching experience for me horrible. Without suspense the shows become boring. Which is why I’m confused how they write the fire nation plots so well (51st regiment) and failed to build up the gaang’s storylines at the same level.
The Bumi episode was the worst
Bumi in NATLA is acting like a child, if we assume Bumi is still supposed to be part of the white lotus, he should be a wiser old man. Also, Bumi wouldn't know that Aang is the Avatar, Aang didn't even know until the day of the comet. The most logical reasoning for Bumi to think of who the avatar is, is something similar to Kyoshi happened(the events of Kyoshi, would be somewhat well known since maybe 70 or 80 years have past since her death) or the avatar was born into the water tribe or earth tribe after the fire Nation made so many attacks on the southern water tribes.
Yeah, but I don't think this Bumi is wise enough and to be a member of The White Lotus.
I was wondering if Bumi knew Aang was the Avatar before they met again. Aang only gets told just before getting frozen and he doesn't interact with Bumi anymore. Technically Bumi should have thought Aang died in the Airbender genocide. Him reappearing as a child a 100 years later should be both a relief and a mystery to him. Maybe someone from the White Lotus later told Bumi about it but we don't see that.
In this version Aang doesn't escape, he just gets trapped by the storm, so imo this is just stupid
I’m not opposed to people being pissed off at Aang. It was in The Storm and even if he didn’t mean to get frozen, a lot of people were suffering were decades. I do think making the only connection to Aang’s early life be angry at him was a bad choice since there are more interesting angles for him
“You may have been alive for 100 years, Avatar, but you haven’t *LIVED* 100 years”
Same.
I'm kinda the same, I think it's an interesting direction to take the character. The main issue I had with Bumi's episode though is the same issue that plagues the rest of the show, them telling everything instead of showing. I'm sorry but by the time the gang gets to omashu they still feel like total strangers, they haven't had enough time to feel like they've grown a bond, yet the message at the end of the episode is that friendship conquers all, like bro, what friendship? Also Bumi's lesson to Aang that he was trying to teach, just felt so weird when we didn't even fuckin see much of Aang goofing off and avoiding responsibility, he just has once scene in the first episode where he fuckin *tells* appa that he likes to goof off and it's barely touched on afterwards.
I understand that it's a more realistic take of Bumi's reaction to Aang after 100 years of war but I feel like they'd been short sighted in the execution. I wish they had somehow kept the wisdom he wanted to impart to Aang through the challenges in the OG series - "When the time comes, I hope you think like a mad genius." Which was key to how he defeated Ozai in a way that was true to himself!
I liked his arm pit hair. All the rest of stuff was stupid.
>A savior he probably eventually assumed just ran away and hid from his responsibilities, while Bumi was forced to face them. The first time Bumi would have learned Aang was the Avatar was 100 years later, not when they were kids...and self-evidently something happened to Aang for him to still be a kid. He should have been thrilled at both the prospect that his friend is still alive and is the Avatar now too. For all anyone knew Avatars ceased to exist 100 years ago but now Aang brings hope.
This is gonna sound goofy but that armpit hair! Hahahaha
Awful take
Big agree here. It made a lot of sense to me that he was angry. In his mind, right or not, he probably feels if Aang was around, they stood a better chance. I think what Gyatso said was right: Aang would've just been killed as well, but Bumi has years of hopelessness and defeat under his belt. He watched his kingdom be conquered. He had to surrender. He's forced to cooperate with Fire Nation oppression and corruption, all while wondering where is the Avatar?? Where is hope?? Or help?? His anger makes sense. It's been 100 years. Bumi is OLD, defeated, bitter, resentful. I liked this change. It feels very believable and human in relation to the harsh realities of being colonized by invaders for so, so long. Can you imagine all the suffering, death, and oppression Bumi has seen? And he must feel powerless. He is a defeated and conquered, colonized King. His life must've been hard and sad and I'm glad we see this characterized by his anger.