>>212321061I just rewatched AtlA and felt exactly the opposite way. It’s amazing how AtlA is clearly made for children, but manages to tackle deeper, darker themes with so much more maturity. LoK on the other hand is made for an older demographic, but just falls flat. The characters feel like shallow imitations of the original characters. The meticulous world building of the original is replaced with DUDE, THE 20s! The pacing is insanely bad. Much of AtlA is episodic, sure, but none of the episodes feel like a waste of time. Everything serves some purpose and is genuinely entertaining. Half of the first season of LoK is pro-bending, and nobody gave a single fuck.
The villains are probably the best thing about LoK, but they’re all style and very little substance. Amon had a cool mask and Steve Blum’s voice. Zaheer and his posse had interesting powers. But every time they got close to being interesting, the show made them go full retard so the situation could be resolved quietly.
Ozai on his own is a pretty boring villain, except he’s not on his own. The real villain of AtlA is a few generations of tyrants, imperialism, and racial supremacy. Long before you see Ozai for more than a moment, you see the effect he’s had on his children, the effect he’s had on the world. And even Ozai is just one more link in the chain, raised to be a monster himself. Zuko’s redemption arc is so crucial and so well done with all that as a backdrop.
It’s a fantastic show for all ages, and LoK is such garbage by comparison.