Second Chances at Live Action Adaptations and Live Action Medium

 

So with the release of Netflix's ATLA live-action as well as Disney plus' Percy Jackson live-action adaptation, it certainly is adding to questions if they can be properly adapted with all the nuances that are present in the original source material or whether in the case of ATLA, a live-action adaptation is even necessary. Not to mention, that the nuances they believe are the darker, edgier, and gorier rather than any prominent themes and messages. Both of these had offered second chances of adaptations and while they differ in the delivery of entertainment and fun, they are just lacking. They have a chance to redo or be better come the second season but I worry. 

The new ATLA live adaptation is another case of a live-action that thought itself superior for being live-action and outright embarrassed that its source material was animated. 

Both the ATLA and Percy Jackson adaptations have an unfortunate habit of treating the audience as if they're stupid. Sure they have a budget to allow some semblance of the world imagined but that is all it stops. 

Whereas Percy Jackson fans became disillusioned with their Uncle Rick and now see him best having some level of creative control and freedom but best leaving him not to attend to everything, ATLA fans are just disappointed once again and just said to watch the show at this point because the live-action adaptations showcased different ways to mess up but sometimes still messing up on the same lines. 

Netflix is starting a new Narnia series this time. Narnia had never been able to be properly adapted in its totality. Yeah, Greta Gerwig is the head but this is Narnia, notoriously hard to adapt. While LWW is by far the easiest to adapt with maybe Magician’s Nephew coming close, the very fact that these guys need new internal conflict says it all. Except for Susan which has loads of possibilities as an adult story to regain her faith, Narnia is largely about faith and has a fun angle to worldbuilding even if the worldbuilding isn’t as strong. There’s a reason why Tolkien was often frustrated with his best friend. 

It can be done but there must be careful handling. Narnia had never been adapted in its entirety. 

Look at OPLA. The show was able to showcase the world, story, and characters to bring in new fans. It’s a show that knows its source material to toe the line of realism but still a dreamlike swashbuckling adventure. OPLA has its own problems but it knows what it is as well as its own heart while keeping its own thing that can stand on its own feet. 

The newer adaptations lack that conviction. It’s not coming from a place of fans being deep in the sauce and giving deep cuts. They probably have extenuating circumstances that became the flaws.

To list: 

NATLA - creators leaving, missing the point of character flaws versus writing flaws, missing the point of characters and their relationships, one dimensional and static dull flat characters, Aang not learning waterbending, people who probably have a surface level understanding or lack of understanding, thinking they are progressing when this product is more sexist than the original ever was if the original ever was this sexist in the first place. The purity culture problem is so self-inflicted that it's refusing to allow nuance and development in a meaningful way. 

Percy Jackson - lack of tension, one-dimensional characters and lack of development of relationships, exposition over showing, hype creating their own monster, inability to go all out because focus on exposition 

While Percy Jackson has the potential to get better, NATLA just doesn't. Their problems are far more in their lack of understanding of writing in general whereas Percy Jackson's problems stem from lack of tension. 

I wouldn't recommend watching the NATLA for newcomers if the NATLA managed to achieve the same level of newbie boom as OPLA did. 

I remember non-fans' fascination with OPLA's worldbuilding and falling in love with the characters portrayed in all their eccentricities and insanity. Even someone I noticed on Tumblr who never would've looked at One Piece before or ever heard of it got into it hard. 

While the NATLA and Percy Jackson shows garnered mixed reviews, I never heard once of newcomers falling in love with these characters. 

As I said before, OPLA has their characters changed or at the least toned down but it doesn't take away from the fact they aren't one-to-one with their original counterparts, probably they are aware they are living in the 'real' world rather than cartoon physics world. 

NATLA doesn't seem to realize this by taking away character flaws that are a proponent of their growth and mischaracterizing characters. Katara will remain the most mischaracterized character in any live-action adaptations at this point. 

While we can't expect them to be one-to-one to best fit the medium, NATLA seems to forget entirely that people love the characters in all their depth and nuance. To not allow any of that and promote bad messages that the show never did, NATLA isn't as progressive as they think they are. 

They think they can update with the times but there are ways to update with the times that aren't regressive or belief in one's superiority due to medium change or toning it down or understanding why fans love this or that. 

Fuck, even with the differences in culture, FF7R blew everyone's minds when Square Enix went all in with the Honeybee Inn Crossdressing section while acknowledging the changing times with Andrea's speech, giving us not only the original dress but three choices in total! 

The OPLA team toned down Sanji's...treatment of women to suave ladies' men rather than an outright pervert. 

You can change with the times but know when to acknowledge and know when not to be lord of your so-called superiority over another medium or another from a different time period or better yet be respectful. 

I don't like that the Coco Villagers never knew of Nami's plan when they did in the original when done in the live action. Zoro's idiocy is just visibly missable, but I wish he was a more outwardly jovial gadfly. 

It's amazing that two IPs have a second chance to be better and just squandered it. NATLA isn't as bad as MNight's movie at all as at least it kept the overall look but failed to consider the characters and the reasoning of their development at all. Percy Jackson's problem stemmed a lot from Disney and Rick's problems. 

Percy Jackson is just boring and not that entertaining while NATLA is at least entertaining even when their character stuff is so bad. 

There aren't any character bonding or moments. Think live-action Nami. 

We are given a scene of Nami letting down her guard as she laughs at Usopp and Luffy's argument. It's a sweet but succinct moment of what Nami is as a character at this point in time. 

We see the Strawhats bonding despite the plot going on. Fuck, we see Luffy and Coby bonding under the stars no less! 

We are given so few moments in the Percy Jackson series and NATLA. When they are given amidst the exposition dumps, it's a breath of fresh air. We spent little time with the characters getting their moments and development with others around them it's amazing we'll get to see fan favorites like Nico and Toph at this rate with their nominally important moments with other characters and as characters. I mean the team behind this adaptation can't mess up that, can they? 

The problems of Percy Jackson and NATLA were so obvious that I haven't seen a peek of something like people imagining bonding comedy as I have seen with OPLA. 

OPLA's first season was to see if it's possible to make an adaptation with One Piece. Now the second season is the make-it-or-break-it season as it's the Alabasta arc with so many characters people are anticipating. 

Percy Jackson and NATLA's second season isn't that. They aren't in the make-it-or-break-it season. They are to improve on the problems of their first season and fulfill what the show can be if it doesn't have the problems. 

At least people are happy Percy Jackson is getting a second season and reasonably excited this time around, hoping the criticism is at least taken into consideration and they do better. 

In NATLA's case, I have not seen a hint of excitement. Just mixed reviews. I don't think I ever saw a newbie boom of new fans going to the source material just to see where it left off. Instead, it's fans encouraging people to just watch the original when two live-action adaptations failed. Sure, there are people who hope that it could do better the next time around and hope it can achieve the potential it was supposed to have. 

One Piece fans on the other hand broke out the champagne and welcomed new fans with gusto though not without its own problems. Regardless, the show made LA-onlies, a term I never thought I would utter and anime-onlies are in the place of manga readers, trying not to spoil and encourage them to read or watch at their own pace. 

The live-action medium calls for different things but nuance still means development and stakes. In the eyes of the makers of Percy Jackson and NATLA, it's all about making things 'mature' without actually being mature as their source material. 

OPLA in its own treatment was a story of a three-act structure managing the arcs of East Blue. The other live actions focused so much on the plot that it failed to consider other parts that OPLA understood. 

I haven't mentioned the YYH live-action adaptation at all. YYH live-action is still somehow better but has its own charm. While still having its own problems, compared to NATLA and Percy Jackson, it's a godsend even if again one of the best arcs is reduced to a scene. 

YYH live-action has a similar failing to the Percy Jackson and NATLA, just the best hits of the arcs but at least we can get the characters we love in YYH adaptation. Less so in the Percy Jackson and NATLA. 

It's hard to pin down why these second chances were squandered when they knew that fans wanted a better product. Rick doesn't help matters by bashing the movie. Yeah, he has the right about feeling ignored during the production of the movie but sheesh at this point the past is the past especially when the movie while bad or even mediocre is still using the filmmaking whereas the show he helped make reads less like a visual medium. 

It seems that it’s less difficult to adapt but rather far too many factors involved that let basic storytelling fall to the wayside in the face of getting as much plot as possible in an 8 episode time. 

Unlike anime which is used to these time constraints to tell a story, streaming services refused to see reason for breather episodes and even basic character meaningful development with relationships. 

Why are live-action adaptations failing this except for some (OPLA; TLOU)? 

The basic thing of adapting doesn’t mean that things should fall by the wayside. These adaptations failed hard to get things right or sufficiently to justify their own existence and bring in new fans. 

They haven’t done a great job adapting and bringing in new fans. If anything, in NATLA’s case, it is fans running back to the original as remakes basically seem like we can’t move forward.

Yeah, some remakes can do their things. FF7R has the whole saving certain people and alternate timelines. Whether it weakens the story or not is up for debate. 

At least that game remake justifies its own existence. I know P3R is the only remake the Atlus team will be doing but at least that is trying something different. It helps it's the only remake they ever want to do. 

I don't think I heard Square Enix ever wanting to make remakes of other famous entries. If anything, spreading the FF7R into a trilogy is probably as far as they want to do in terms of remakes. 

You can make an adaptation different while not losing the heart and soul of what made the series famous in the first place. 

OPLA got that just as Oda knows when to delegate when things he doesn’t know are out of his expertise. Rick does not know when to delegate or at worse Disney not letting the budget show.  

Why is it the original telly shows can do the basic storytelling even if purity culture and other issues are straining it? 

These adaptations are focused so much on not being bad that they fail to be good, just mediocre pieces that have a lot of potential. 

NATLA is getting a second and third season after all whereas OPLA is only getting a second season. Again, while OPLA's second season is the make-it-or-break-it season, NATLA is gonna improve the many problems to actually redeem themselves. ATLA already has a conclusive story so that's a reason why Netflix was able to greenlit two more seasons. 

Netflix is going all in with One Piece with the streaming, new anime series animated by Studio Wit, and the OPLA's make-it-or-break-it second season. However, since the original One Piece animanga is ending in a couple of years, we don't have the conclusive ending that NATLA has in its favor. 

But whereas NATLA failed to use any deep cuts in a meaningful way or any deep cuts at all (the chicken insult when the original series never had a regular chicken in its world ever), OPLA does and tightens their story in the medium and restrictions that they got. 

As for any new people who want to get into ATLA, best to get to the original animated series instead of the live actions that do not offer anything of worth outside of some entertainment. 

Percy Jackson's series is just dull and boring. The second season better take the criticism and make themselves better from it. Rick basically disillusioned his own fanbase who don't see him as the best head in the writing team and basically broke his word with them. 

I hardly have any advice when what was said and criticized about these series already. 

For what it is, with so many things holding back these adaptations, the live-action medium may be a path for new fans or open possibilities to people who never heard of the source material. If done well, then they can achieve that and more. 

If not, well...there's always the original source material that has more time to achieve the story and characters they intend to, flaws and all.