Avatar, Adaptations, Airbenders, & Imitations.

Avatar the Last Airbender premiered in 2005 on Nickleodeon. It was very popular out of the gate. It got a lot of love. The series finale is considered one of the highest rated single episodes of tv of all time. It’s popularity and praise continued growing, so much so that by the time the show ended in 2008 they were already in production on a major motion picture version of it from M Night Shyamalan. At that point, Night had a good streak of movies. Sixth Sense, Signs, Lady in the Water, The Village, Unbreakable. The dude was on his way to being one of the most acclaimed directors of all time. This adaptation was going to be his big foray into pop culture and family films.   

What Makes a Successful Adaptation? 

Not just on Avatar but in a story, or in life in general. I posed this question to Geek Church in Kentucky, and in Virginia. Some of the answers I got were; “Saying the main character’s name correctly,” “Accuracy,” and “Maintaining the same feeling and message of the source material,” were some of the answers people gave for what made an adaptation successful. We also noted that accuracy being important to the cast makes a difference too. Henry Cavill demanded that they stick with the books when he was making “The Witcher” and when they weren't sticking with the books, he said bye. 

I then asked them what they felt like the best adaptations they’ve ever seen were. Some of the answers were surprising. People said the original Mortal Kombat movie. Someone said the Hunger Games, and my only beef with Hunger Games is that you don't get Katniss's internal dialogue and I feel like that's the best parts of the books, but still. People do genuinely love adaptations, but they have to be done well. 

When it came to the Last Airbender live action movie, we started it immediately after finishing the series. Like within 10 minutes. We finished one of the highest rated episodes of tv of all time and then proceeded to start one of the worst rated films of all time. Aang had barely made it out of the ice before my kids were yelling for me to turn it off. We fast forwarded through it to just see the visuals and never looked back.  If you’re a fan of the live action Airbender movie, I’m not here to ruin your day. I’m just commenting on the broad reception of the film. People didn't like the tone of it. They didn't like the accuracy of it. A lot of stuff was toned down. It was visually unappealing to the point people rejected it as an adaptation. 

What Makes an Unsuccessful Adaptation?

We asked folks attending Geek Church this question. One of the biggest answers was “Diverging from the source material.” Someone answered, “Betraying the integrity of the characters.” Which lead to me rabbit trailing about Wonder Woman 84, because personally, I believe some of Wonder Woman’s actions with “Surrogate Steve” inexcusably betray the character of who Wonder Woman is.  

 Sometimes it's not even just about adapting, sometimes you try to continue stories that have concluded and put yourself in risky territory.  

Based on responses at the Geek Church services reactions were mixed when it came to the series “The Legend of Korra.” 

 If you're unfamiliar the Last Airbender movie came out in 2010. 2 years after that movie, we were graced with a sequel series to Avatar called the Legend of Korra which follows the Avatar that takes place after Aang. Somebody said in the services that nobody is mid ground on Korra.  You either love it or hate it. Personally, though I'm mid ground on it. I feel like it doesn't stick the landing, but I also feel like there's redeemable stuff through most of it.  

You get more Iroh. You get grandpa Zuko. You get some back story on the characters which I think is good. One of the things though that made Korra a struggling series is that it went with the same idea and concept and then put it in a new time frame and a new environment. People didn't necessarily want that. They wanted more of what they originally had. 

If you're a believer we're more so on the Legend of Korra of things than on the Avatar of things. We're not living in the same time period or the same settings of what we take inspiration and truth from in scripture. We're living in something that follows up and so it's going to be hard to take everything we see in scripture as it was and live it out the same way. Should we do our best to faithfully do that? Absolutely, but it's not always going to look the same and so we must really put ourselves in check. We must examine how we're living to see how that applies. 

When the Netflix series was announced one of the big sales points of it was that the original creators of Avatar were going to be executive producers and controlling over it. Within a short time though, I got concerned when they announced that they were leaving. 

Original creators Konietzko and DiMartino released this statement, that they “Couldn’t control the creative direction of the series.” This prompted them to leave. DiMartino would go on to say “When Bryan and I signed on to the project in 2018, we were hired as executive producers and showrunners. In a joint announcement for the series, Netflix said that it was committed to honoring our vision for the retelling and to supporting us on creating the series. And we expressed how excited we were for the opportunity to be at the helm. Unfortunately, things did not go as we had hoped.” 

When the original creators left, it became a daunting task to keep going for the Netflix show runners. People were genuinely on edge that they were heading into another Shyamalan situation.  

The series finally dropped, and personally I enjoyed it. I had minor things that I didn't love, but I feel like to put everything in eight episodes of TV for the first season, they didn't do too bad. 

I feel like the casting for Iroh was perfect, but I feel like Iroh was written less inspiring and more burdened than we were used to. He was less the jovial source of light, and more rooted in his loss and sadness. Which again, wasn’t bad, just I missed the warm Iroh. The other thing is that Aang doesn't water bend in the first season. Katara kept trying to get him to, but it never happened, past that I thought they nailed it.  

Netflix showrunners were rightfully concerned about the potential criticism they would face because this is such a loved property. It succeeded enough that when season 1 aired, within a few week's time they were already renewed for season 2 and 3.

When you imitate or adapt something well known, you draw more criticism and skepticism 

Anytime you label yourself as a Christian, anytime you label yourself as a believer, you are inviting the entire world to look at you and say “All right. How much like Jesus are you?” That's a hard thing to live up to. That's a hard standard. It’s a little bit easier when you just say, “I believe in God.”  God is a broad enough name or term that most people are less in arms about it. Or they relate “God” to their idea or perspective of God. The minute you put Jesus' name in it; you automatically draw more attention and fire.  

You can make a broad series about kids who can move the elements, and people will be open minded. The minute you put Avatar’s name on it, you open yourself up to a world of potential criticism.  

When you compare the animated series, the live action movie, and Korra, there’s a lot of lenses to look through.  

Jumping into scripture with this; if you are a believer, if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Christ, then you have an example of what we're called to live out.  

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.” - 1 Peter 2:21 

Christ took the time to suffer through this life, human existence, and all that we go through to leave us an example. 

Anyone making an avatar Adaptation has lots of stuff to work with. You've got the animated series, comics, novels, the live action series, upcoming animated movies, video games, and more! If you're a believer, you also have stuff to follow after. But if you don’t use the scripture, preaching, or 2,000 years worth of Biblical teaching and writings, you’ll end up with bad adaptations. Lots of people say they want to live Godly lives, without actually reading what one truly looks like in scripture. They’ll say they want a relationship with Jesus, but not actually see what the Bible teaches about one. They just give their “version” of good, or Godly, but without basing it on the source material. You can become a bad adaptation. Many people feel like Shyamalan didn’t actually watch all of Avatar before making his live action film, and I see a lot of people claiming they are living like Jesus who could seem like they’ve never actually read how Jesus lived.  

One of my favorite things that happened in the last few years was Hayden Christensen returning to play Anakin/Vader in the Ahsoka series and in the Obi Wan Kenobi series. Before he played on the Ahsoka series, he binged all of Clone Wars and all of Rebels. He knew that Matt Lanter had played the role of Anakin for years and had put more into the foundation of the character than Christiansen had personally in his 3 feature films. Because he was going to be bringing an adaptation of just not his film portrayal, but also of Lanter’s vocal portrayal, he wanted to make sure his performance was the best adaptation possible. 

 If you're going to follow after God, if you're going to follow after Christ, you need to actually check the groundwork of what's been laid out before you and see what scripture teaches you just beyond your opinions. If you attended church weekly, you're looking at potentially 52 hours a year of biblical instruction. That's not a lot in comparison to the other things you input into your life. 

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” - Ephesians 5:1-2 

Paul says listen, I follow Jesus, and if you are doing this, you need to as well. One of the hardest parts for the world is to look at people labeled as Christians that don't live as Christians, or like Christ. You start looking like the Shyamalan adaptation of Jesus. There’s a lot of people out there that look like poor imitations of poor adaptations.  

“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” - 1 John 2:6 

We're not just called to be associated, we're not just called to be connected, we're not supposed to be clumped into arbitrary religious teams or denominational camps. 

We are called to be adaptations and imitations of Christ that actually draw people to Jesus. You can either be what draws people to what you love, or you can be the reason they don't come closer. You don’t want to be a cause for hesitation or a stumbling block for those trying to come near.  

“Only let us live up to what we have already attained. Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do." - Philippians 3:16-17. 

Paul says not only do you need to follow Christ, you also need to keep your eyes on those who are following Christ. You need to look for people actually moving in the right direction. People whose example you can trust. 

We have to move from just following an example, to actually being an example 

I met a whole new group of people that were introduced to One Piece because of the Netflix live action series, and people that have only seen the Netflix Avatar. Because of these adaptations there are people diving deeper into these worlds and stories. There are people who will consider following God or examining Jesus because of your adaptation of faith. Your example of trusting Jesus might be the one they use as an on ramp. 

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the traditions just as I passed them on to you.” 1 Corinthians 11:1-2.

That's one of the most terrifying verses in scripture to me to be able to look at somebody say, “hey man, follow me and you'll be following Jesus.” Even if you can set an example, that doesn't mean the people that follow you are actually going to follow it in a productive way. Shyamalan didn't follow the example of the people that came before him. I feel like the Netflix adaptation did do a better job though. 

Are you actually following the people that have set good examples for you? Are you setting examples worth following? Are you actually following the people that have set good examples for you? Are you setting examples worth following?  “I am writing this not to shame you but to warn you as my dear children. Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.” - 1 Corinthians 4:14-17 

You've got lots of people you can look at, but how many people can you truly follow? Are you living a life that if people truly follow you they're going to see what true imitations and adaptations look like? Can people follow you and see what a genuine relationship with God looks like? Just because you're labeling yourself as a believer, just because you post believers-ish things doesn't make that you're following.

That’s why Paul sent Timothy to make sure people had a genuine influence to follow. When Netflix chose the showrunner for the live action One Piece, they chose one of the biggest One Piece fans in the world because they knew he could be trusted with the project.   

Find examples that you find trustworthy and then in the same token find in yourself what examples you're going to set for others. Find people who aren't where you are yet that you can intentionally give examples to.  

There are going to be more chapters to the Avatar story in the future. Animated movies, animated series, live action series, video games and more. The adaptations and imitations will continue. You are going to have day and weeks and years of your life. New relationships, new opportunities, new interactions. You get the chance to be the best adaptation and imitation of Christ you can be. On the days and moments when things go poorly, don’t be distraught. You’ll get more opportunities.  Here’s to being the best version of our stories.