Team Avatar (The Last Airbender, 2010)

Team Avatar "You're lying!" - Aang Gender: Male (Aang and Sokka) Female (Katara) Type: Team Avatar in Name Only Age: 12 (Aang) 14 (Katara) 15 (Sokka) Species: Human Portrayed by: Noah Ringer (Aang) Nicola Peltz (Katara) Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) Status: Alive Media of origin: The Last Airbender

Aang, Katara, and Sokka (collectively known as Team Avatar) are the main protagonists of the critically panned 2010 action-adventure fantasy film The Last Airbender, based off the Nickelodeon television program by the same name (with the "Avatar" name included). They are potrayed by Noah Ringer (Aang), Nicola Peltz (Katara), and Jackson Rathbone (Sokka).

This article will only focused on live action versions of themselves in the infamous 2010 film.

Why They're Not Our Beloved Team

Overall

1. They managed to lose nearly everything that made them so likable from the show, and their new characterizations made them appear bland and annoying.
2. Noah Ringer (Aang), Nicola Peltz (Katara), and Jackson Rathbone (Sokka) all did very poor jobs portraying them as their performances sound emotionless and phoned in.
3. Aang and Sokka's names are mispronounced as they are pronounced "Ong" rather than "Ah-ng" and "Sohka" rather than "Sah-ka", which would become a meme.
4. Aang and Katara talk way too much on exposition even if it's about a prophecy or something that they remember.
5. Many of their lines are very painful and wooden as if they're just being whiny, such as Aang's "You're lying!", Katara's "Don't be afraid!", and Sokka's "Okay, everybody can help us now!".
6. Like characters such as the live-action version of Goku from 2009's Dragon Ball Evolution (another live action "adaptation" of the Dragon Ball manga/anime series), they suffer from terrible fight choreography when they were like “fight-dancing”. Their moves are so boring like when Aang and Katara are trying to “dance” to bend water.

Aang

1. Just to get the cat out of the room, this movie version of Aang from the show was horribly re-imagined as a whiny scared child, unlike his TV counterpart.
2. He went from a fun-loving, caring, optimistic, and sometimes serious boy to an angsty, whiny brat who never cracks a joke or smile.
   • His only "inner conflict" was his inability to use waterbending, which he finally did to create a really big wall of water to scare the Fire Nation away. Not defeating them and dealing a crushing blow to the might of the Fire Nation, just scaring them away.
   • He also has a new conflict where he couldn't bend water without hurting people, so he would never. It is implied that he cannot overcome his grief over the loss of the Air Nomads, which is why he became less optimistic after his visit to the Southern Air Temple. This is a massive contrast to the cartoon, where one of Aang's defining traits was his ability to stay happy despite these horrible circumstances. While his cartoon counterpart did have an issue of using a form of bending without hurting people, that counterpart’s concerns only dealt with firebending and had more justification as he accidentally hurt Katara while practising it. Here, Aang’s fear of water bending is more nonsensical as he was seen fine using it the moment he learned it in the cartoon.
3. Unlike the show, He only ran away from the Air Temple just because when he is chosen as an Avatar, he would never have a family, despite Roku and the others having a family and said that it will be a “sacrifice the Avatar always has to make” which is a bafflingly cheap change (not helping that the fact that every Avatar do have a family in the series).
4. He does not display desire to enjoy life and fullest, and never grew to be responsible towards the Northern Water Tribe.
5. Noah Ringer was heavily miscast as him for two reasonsː
   • In the original show, Aang is implied to be Asian, more specifically to be Tibetan due to his Air temple heritage being a group of monks and Buddhists.
   • Noah himself also had no acting experience at all when he was portraying the character, showing how horrible Aang was said portrayed in this film.
     • To make matters worse, if you watch the "behind the scenes" clips, you will notice Ringer's personality is much like Aang's. Even if this is the case, it's still wasted potential.
6. He is taken way too seriously to the point he would never be a humorous and funny like Sokka.
   • You may argue that Aang did have a serious side to him, but not to the extent like this.
7. Unlike his original counterpart, he doesn't immediately ask Katara to go penguin-sledding with him after waking up, and he doesn't even tell her or Sokka his name until they're at the Southern Air Temple.
8. Aang also doesn't fuse the Ocean Spirit in Avatar State to wipe out the entire Fire Nation armada in the show; instead, he summons a giant tsunami to cause them to flee.
9. He barely even fights with Zuko for the first time whatsoever in the film; he only just had to hide in a tent and do nothing.

Katara

1. Her waterbending abilities were toned down to the point that it makes her nearly useless as a character.
2. What makes Nicola Peltz's casting even more mind-boggling is that, like with Sokka, the other Water Tribe characters are played by inuit actors while she and Jackson Rathbone are white.
   • Heck, the real reason she got the role in the first place was simply to please her billionaire father, Nelson Peltz.
3. Without her signature trait of naturally bringing out the best in people, her encouragement to get the earthbenders to fight back against the Fire Nation just came off as annoying.

Sokka

1. With his signature comedic and responsibility-oriented traits being replaced by simple angst, he often just comes off as a straight-up brat.
2. It's implied this version of Sokka used to hit Katara, seeing how she cowers when she accidentally gets him wet.
3. What makes Jackson Rathbone's casting even more mind-boggling is that, like with Katara, the other Water Tribe characters are played by inuit actors while he and Nicola Peltz are white.
4. He is just some serious teenage soldier (with a bloodthirsty obsession of killing) who is not humorous and he even has a personality of a twig.

Redeeming Qualities That Resemble Team Avatar

1. There are moments when they are at their best. For example:
   • At least Aang tries to encourage the Earthbenders in the movie to fight back the Firebenders when they were imprisoned (instead of Katara in the show).
   • Aang helps Zuko as the Blue Spirit when they are attacked by General Zhao's army.
   • Katara at least tries to get the earthbender village to stand up for themselves.
   • Katara admittedly does look cute and beautiful.
2. This version of Aang could have been a great concept of a more mature version of Aang, even though he did take the Avatar job seriously during season 3, yet it was horribly executed.
3. Aang's hooded trench coat and detailed airbending tattoos (despite being black instead of blue is a fitting concept than his original counterpart.
4. Sokka at least still has his signature boomerang.
5. They are all much better characters in the original 2005 show, and they manage to redeem themselves in the Nicktoons MLB video game in 2011.
   • As a matter of fact, their next live-action incarnations in the 2024 live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender are much better as they actually have their original personalities.
     • Gordon Cormier (Aang), Kiawentiio (Katara), and Ian Ousley (Sokka), also do much better jobs portraying them.
   • "Oong!" can be seen as funny.

Trivia

• This was Noah Ringer's first acting debut until his last role starring in 2011's Cowboys & Aliens.

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