If J.K. Rowling wrote Avatar: The Last Airbender

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Everyone loves AtLA, and I was curious about how obvious the problematic nature of our favourite books would be when compared to the consistently best series I've ever seen.

 

 

Firebending would be reviled and the Avatar wouldn’t reincarnate into the Fire Nation. However, it would be very unclear as to what counts as firebending, Toph would on occasion bend lava, and Aang would firebend and quip about it. This would never be addressed.

Furthermore, bending itself would go entirely unexplained, and as the series continued there would be several inconsistencies: some to clumsily further the plot, others just demonstrating that it hadn’t been thought through. Both types would create major plot holes.

Needless to say, Energybending would be self-contradictory, and screw with everything already shown.

The Air Nomads would be presented by the authorial voice as the best culture. The Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes would function as cheerleaders for them. No matter how many people talk about achieving balance (Aang would not be one of these, he would instead CAPSLOCK about how the Fire Nation killed his people and hate them all indiscriminately. Until the end, where he would feel a small amount of pity for some of them. Needless to say, he would not have been friends with Kuzon), the overall implication would be that “balance” means “Air Nomads on top, Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes supporting them, Fire Nation kicked out off to the side somewhere and watched carefully for potential Phoenix Kings.” (No one would be scared of potential Badgermole Kings, Moon Kings, or Sky Bison Kings).

Aang would have no trouble with the prospect of killing Ozai. No one would. Instead, his angst would revolve around Roku’s utter inability to simply explain anything, and would go on for far too long.

Aang would be reluctant to learn any other bending styles.

Aang would constantly enter the Avatar State to win his fights, and never learn (or even want) to control it. Nonetheless, he would be constantly praised as a great fighter and bender. His victory over Ozai would be achieved by passively giving in to the Avatar State, rather than through any merit of his own.

Anyone who criticised Aang for running away and freezing himself for a century (I’m thinking mainly of the fisherman in The Storm and can’t remember if there were others) would suffer explicit condemnation from the authorial voice and would prove themselves to be at best unpleasant and cruel, at worst evil.

Iroh would be cowardly and generally not as good as the other old masters. He’s fat, you see. And a Firebender.

Zuko... oh, Zuko. He would be pretty much as he is, except the Gaang would never trust or befriend him, he’d be hopelessly in love with Katara who would never forgive him for insulting her while being beaten up by Aang as she watched on amused, energybending would come with some nonsensical technicality that would, through needlessly convoluted means, cause Zuko’s death (and Ozai’s - no mercy from this twelve-year-old), and in post-series interviews JKR would insult and belittle him on a regular basis.

Roku would have been an Air Nomad and when Aang enters the Avatar State in his fight with Ozai, Roku would appear and claim that it was all planned out, and spend half the scene going on about how much better than him Aang is. Since Aang’s ego would have received regular polishing from Katara and Roku by now, this would just make him even more insufferable.

Katara would be almost as awesome as she is in the actual show, but would cook and do the boys’ laundry without complaint. She would, however, carry the Gaang through pretty much all of their non-climactic fights, and would be the only one actually interested in learning any new skills. She would have been the only member of the Gaang to become besotted with Jet, and would not have turned away from taking revenge on her mother’s murderer.

Sokka would be utterly ineffectual and marginalised due to not being a bender. Suki wouldn’t even have any lines, and would be lucky to get away with a name.

Hakoda and Bato would be bloodbended out of the story. We will never know whether or not they consented.

Toph... would still be awesome.

Azula would be killed by someone totally unsuited to combat based on previous appearances (only trouble is, I’m not sure anyone in AtLA fits this description. The cabbage merchant?) and receive no authorial sympathy or deep examination of character and motives.

Ozai would be replaced by Ember Island Player!Ozai.

There would be no women in the Fire Nation military. The lack of any women in the Order of the White Lotus would not be especially disappointing.

No one besides the Gaang would do anything in particular to fight the Fire Nation. Not until Sozin’s Comet, anyway.

Comments

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Where did the House/element comparisons come from in the first place?

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

They've been around for yonks. Rowling finally confirmed that yeah, that's what she had in mind. Whether that's true, or whether she decided to pull an "I meant it like that" after the fact is inconclusive.