Rewriting the Avatar Aang movie

I'm glad to see new animated material in the Avatar franchise, but it also has writing holes that can easily be patched.

Premise

Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang, is a 2005 animated series by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Nickelodeon Animation Studio. It's set in a fantasy world where a large amount of people have a magical ability to control matter according to one of the four elements: Bending. Benders are segregated to their countries, with the Fire Nation recently creating an industrial empire and starting a conquest for world domination. The Air Nomads have been completely exterminated, but one boy has escaped and got accidentally frozen in the arctic ocean. He's also the Avatar, someone who is able to learn all four types of Bending alongside extra spiritual abilities. Unfrozen 100 years later at the Southern Water Tribe, Aang has to find mentors in Bending and stop the Fire Lord's ambitions.

In the finale, Aang and friends succeed in ending the Fire Nation's war, with a deuteragonist Prince Zuko ascending the throne and starting the era of peace. The sequel series, The Legend of Korra released in 2012, is set 70 years later and follows Aang's Avatar predecessor in a modern city that struggles with inequality between the mixed population of Benders and non-Benders.

Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, is a 2026 film set 10 years after the first series. It follows Aang and his friends searching for a hidden artifact of the Air Nomads, with a group of non-Bender bandits called the Denied also trying to obtain it. Aang discovers that there is a second Airbender buried in ice alive just like he was, Tagah, who has first-hand knowledge of a civilization of Air Nomads even more ancient than the one Aang was raised in.

Positives

I like this movie on the surface, with many viewers agreeing that fans of one of the most popular shows of all time will easily enjoy another adventure. It is certainly good-looking, with the eye-candy and action scenes being one of the most praised aspects.

• The movie has a phenomenal art direction. It has a lot of scenery details and painted locations that one can only appreciate on a big screen.
• It's nice to see the gang back, older and stronger.
• The entire cast being jacked in muscles was welcomed by some fans.
• Aang has an arc about choosing between restoring his nation or preserving them as legacy, which is heavy and easy to sympathize with.
• There's also an arc that power doesn't make righteous.
• Tagah's motives are understandable and have evidence in the franchise that he's not even aware of.
• The prehistoric lore is interesting as the franchise hasn't really explored that time period.

Issues

Despite favorable reviews, fans and critics have found the story lacking. Many call it alike a non-serial anime movie, a bonus adventure that has disposable new characters and has no real bearing on the overarching lore. Even among the fans, many have called the story direction questionable and unoriginal.

Many of the issues are attributed to Paramount being difficult with the film's production and distribution, and the film's relatively short runtime that prefers action scenes over the exposition.

• The film being released on Paramount's subscription service instead of theaters hurt its presentation and sales.
• The Denied is composed of 4 non-Benders who claim to be formally oppressed by the Fire Nation. This argument is neither explored nor supported. The leader of the Denied is a former Fire Nation military, who were the main proponents of the cited oppression, making her a hypocrite. The Denied in general mainly seek the artifact that grants airbending and become Tagah's willing lackeys, throwing their entire point about inequality out the window.
• The Denied try to kill Aang and steal the relic with the map, instead of waiting for him to leave and taking the relic, for no reason other than the narrative needing to clue Aang in to the relic's importance. While they manage to steal the relic, they got nearly killed in a debris they've caused and Aang had to show mercy for them.
• The Team Avatar exists mainly for the nostalgia factor. Katara acts as the voice of reason, but Zuko, Sokka, and Toph contribute nothing to the story despite having own share of experiences that could counter Tagah's. Katara has a history with the cycle of revenge as well, but is mainly characterized as Aang's wife. The film is mainly about Aang's journey and he ditches his friends twice to explore on his own, so other characters could have easily been written out.
• Despite Suki being an official member of Team Avatar, she has no appearance aside of a cameo during the credits. The Kyoshi Warriors as of whole don't appear, with the animators admitting that they were intended to be leading the evacuation during the attack on the Republic City but were cut out to save time and will be addressed in the novelization.
• The twist villain was apparent from a mile away due his violent philosophy and the casting announcement exposing him long before the movie aired.
• Team Avatar has four of the most powerful Benders in the world, but all get unceremoniously killed by Tagah shooting them in the heart with zero effort.
• Katara gets revived by her corpse coincidentally falling into a pond filled with spiritual waters. This is so contrived it's comical.
• The scene with Gorillavark mainly exists for comedic relief and has mixed reception.
• Sonam's Staff, on top of granting airbending, fills Tagah with spiritual energy that turns him into a jinn-like monster that can easily overpower Aang's Avatar State. In turn, Aang steals the Staff and nearly becomes a monster himself in order to beat him, and only lets go of the power when Tagah is defeated. This heavily undermines the value of the Avatar State.
• Destroying the Staff stripping away all the powers it granted contradicts its own backstory and was likely done to minimize the consequences before Korra.

The rewrite

As many have mentioned, many of the things fans find problem with is caused by the short runtime, but also by the writers trying to create an excuse for flashy fight, which was never the original series's appeal. Many have mentioned that the film feels like there was an idea of two separate stories that were mixed together in an inadequate way and only one of them should have been followed.

To me, it's not that difficult to fix. With just a little more scenes and rearrangements, two stories can be used to create a more morally coherent narrative. Here's what I'd propose:

• The film lacks exploration of the post-war period, like the Fire Nation's and Earth Kingdom's demilitarization and the Water Tribe's modernization. Not everyone accepting the Fire Nation's surrender could easily be tied with the Denied's motives. The Denied are commonly viewed by fans as precursors to the Equalist movement in Korra's time, but there's no connection between them. Perhaps Benders who were freed from the Fire Nation's terror started to become oppressors themselves in the transitional period, like Liling and Yakone, or the demilitarization has left many out of job. Since there's no evidence of the Denied being oppressed by Benders, their motives can be shifted to being anarchists who reject the society "build on lies" as Tagah has mentioned. The coexistence of four Bender nations is something they'd naturally have an issue with, and they are shown to not be above terrorism.
• Aang's guilt of letting the Air Nomads die is brought up a few times, but this doesn't lead anywhere and wasn't his fault to begin with. The original series has already addressed it so this shouldn't have been raised again.
• The Denied have no business attacking Aang in the temple. A more logical time to introduce them would be during the Republic City's foundation ceremony due to its themes.
• Zuko should be shown dealing with being the Fire Lord, like terrorism by the Denied that was only mentioned as a passing line or atoning for his family's sins.
• Sokka being a non-Bender with significant contributions to the war could make a counterargument to the Denied.
• Avatar Xian was liked, but he adds nothing to the story and Sonam isolating herself creates holes in the Avatar lore.
• The lost city of Jharana so happens to be formally located where the Republic City is, but it's summoned in the sky for a classic Moon Drop plot. More logically, when the Republic City is constructed, the Jharana could be found underneath that would give Aang the clue about Sonam.
• Instead of making Tagah a genocidal maniac, his wish to restore the Air Nomad civilization could be made more genuine, with his extremism being more about taking offense to the modern values of the Republic City and not the other nations.
• With Tagah representing the old values and the Denied representing new values, this can be made to create a throughline for Aang and others searching for purpose in the post-war world.
• Aang should have used the Water Spirit as transport instead of a teleporter, as originally expected and it making more sense. This would also cut out the controversial Spirit World shortcut.
• Get Kyoshi Warriors involved.
• If Katara was pregnant as she should be at this time, this could give Aang a weakness and a dilemma of choice.
• The attack on the Republic City should have had lasting consequences.

Aang has a recollection of his childhood memories with Gyatso, but everyone suddenly vanishes, leaving him alone in the dark for prolonged period of time. Then, he has a nightmare bringing up all of his near-death experiences in the original series. If he died, not only the Fire Nation would have conquered the world, but there would be no more airbending.

Avatar Aang, now in his 20's, is living a semi-hermit life, trying to stay close to his roots yet keeping contact with his friends. He tries to rebuild the Air Temples that the Fire Nation has destroyed, feeling that his obligation now is to preserve his culture. He feels down due to being the last airbender and being unsure what he needs to do as the Avatar.

During the restoration, Aang discovers relics written in an unknown script, and asks Avatar Yangchen, an Air Nomad before him, about it. She reveals that Air Nomads originate from the civilization of Jharana, which was during Avatar Sonam's time, but it's too ancient for her to know enough about either of Jharana or Sonam. The Avatar communications get more difficult over time, so she only knows about them due to records that were passed down. Thanking for her help, Aang leaves to the Republic City, as he promised to attend its opening ceremony.

Meanwhile, Fire Lord Zuko has been dealing with political affairs. He tries to redeem the Fire Nation through demilitarization, but that leaves a lot of former soldiers spiteful, and the victims of the Fire Nation often commit acts of terrorism in revenge. While Mai broke up with him, she continues to help suppressing the uprisings. Zuko is informed that some of the rebels have organized into a large group called the Denied, who claim that non-Benders always become the collateral damage in wars between Benders and it'd be fair if the latter are stripped of their powers like Ozai was. Zuko can't do anything about it for now as he also needs to attend the ceremony at the Republic City.

Toph has been traveling the world looking for worthy opponents, but there's no match for the strongest earthbender in the world. This causes her to fall into depression since her talents are no longer needed in an era of peace. At one point, one of the challengers for the title asks to become her pupil, which she promises to think about. She too leaves for the ceremony.

In the Republic City, formally the Cranefish Town, Sokka enjoys telling stories about his heroic deeds, but they've gotten old and he doesn't have as much respect as he had originally. He has better luck with engineering, and helps with the City's construction. He also has to support his sister Katara, who acts the City's temporary mayor. Sokka being a non-Bender helps reducing the city's concerns of unequal living, but there are still a lot of social problems left unaddressed after Liling's anti-industrial uprising. Waterbenders aren't entirely comfortable living with firebenders, and also don't like contributing to factories due to conservative traditions. Katara is excited to have the gang together, especially because she's pregnant, but Aang doesn't know that yet.

Katara, Aang, Zuko, Toph, and Sokka hold the opening ceremony of the Republic City, announcing the foundation of a new nation where all Benders can coexist. They are accompanied by the Kyoshi Warriors and other prominent figures. Zuko makes an additional speech regarding the crimes of the Fire Nation and wanting the world to be in harmony. As soon as the flags of the four nations are raised, they get shot down by mysterious assailants. The international bandits call themselves the Denied, and accuse the City being mainly built by Benders for Benders, and the Avatar as no longer needed. Katara is furious, and Zuko sensing that tries to debate with the Denied on her behalf. While the heroes are distracted, the Denied try to snipe the Avatar with newly invented firearms, as they can't attack him and his companions head-on. This fails as Toph catches the bullets. The actions of the Denied receive mixed responses by the public. The Denied rig the explosives and use panic to escape in the crowd, and the heroes don't want to escalate due not wanting to get innocent injured and disagreements about how to respond.

The heroes discuss if they are getting past their prime and should let the City Council with large non-Bender representation to handle things. Katara wants to bring her issues up, but Sokka happens to take Aang away to show something that needs his opinion. Underneath the Republic City there appears to be ruins, and the construction team is unsure about the excavation. Aang realizes this is the city Jharana, but there's little left. Everyone joins in to investigate, though they don't understand the writing. The Republic City is already built on an Earth Kingdom territory, but there being an Air civilization below it could create historical challenges and may require relocating entirely if this is made public. Among the ruins they find what's clearly a map even if they can't read the notes. Aang is interested in learning more about the Air Nomads' legacy, but is surprised that his friends are not as enthusiastic as he is. Katara says that the world still wants the Avatar, but he lashes out that after defeating the Fire Nation can't he do what he wants for once. Due to the bickering, Aang leaves to investigate the map alone. Zuko wants to return home to look up precedent in his family's archives.

With the map's guidance, Aang discovers a cave system hidden in Mount Baihu. He finds a door that appears to have been locked by Avatar Sonam, which only Aang can unlock using four elements. Inside, he finds a person frozen in ice. Carefully melting the ice, the person is revived and introduces himself as Tagah, and Air Nomad and Sonam's right-hand man. Tagah was fatally injured defending Jharana and Sonam froze him in ice to heal, but something happened to her before she could release him. His accent is a bit difficult, but Aang is overjoyed to meet another airbender. Tagah is confused by Aang's reaction, who has to explain his story. Tagah is shocked and enraged that the airbenders are gone, but understands that Aang has prevented the situation from going even worse. Aang brings Tagah back on Appa.

In the Republic City, Aang gives Tagah a tour, who immediately gets in trouble by picking a fight with earthbenders. As he explains, in his time, the newly formed Earth Kingdom was as tyrannical as the Fire Nation is known to became. The Air Nomads were exiled from the temple city of Jharana and were living in the mountains ever since. Avatar Sonam led the rebellion alongside Tagah, but he doesn't know how the conflict ended. Aang is surprised that an Air Avatar was militaristic, but Avatar Yangchen also was strict and it wouldn't surprise him that life 5000 years ago was difficult. Then, a few factories in the Republic City explode with some casualties, and the citizens feel unsafe. The Denied kept planting bombs in the City, which trigger on time and allow the culprits to avoid capture. Tagah tells Aang that the Republic City is conceptually flawed and coexistence will never work, not between the Benders nor with non-Benders, and someone like the Avatar should assert authority.

Tagah is met with Katara, Sokka and Toph. He doesn't want to talk to the latter due to her being an earthbender, but she offers to cheer him up with a spar match. Tagah is impressed by her skill, but proves himself stronger by using techniques Aang never had. Aang is surprised, to him Air Nomads are gentle as a breeze, but Tagah explains that in his time the Nomads were scary as an unleashed hurricane. Tagah is led to the catacombs, who grieves regarding what Jharana became. Composing himself, he finds and translates a writing about Avatar Sonam's resting place, who had a Staff that let her connect with the Spirit World, but it's not an area that can be reached on a Bison. Aang brings up that the spirituality of the world in the present time is low and this artifact could help him find his belonging as an Avatar. Katara questions if Tagah can be trusted, but is overruled.

Everyone travels to visit Zuko. Tagah mocks him for trying to fix the atrocities of his father, but Katara stands in Zuko's defense. Katara gives the story of how her few family were killed by Fire Nation's soldiers and she nearly went on the path of revenge, but Aang has helped her in need. Zuko doesn't feel he deserves an apology, but claims that his family will be atoning for their shame for as long as necessary. Tagah claims to be understanding how the Avatar has succeeded in his mission. Zuko gives the heroes one of his airships and is unsure if she should stay, but Mai tells that he should go on another adventure to clear his head.

Tagah teaches Aang more airbending that will help them along the way and spend time sharing experiences. The heroes get close to Avatar Sonam's last location, but the area is blocked off by tornadoes. Tagah and Aang try to clear clear the tornadoes, but the airship is nearly ripped apart and is barely held together with Toph's metalbending and Sokka's piloting. They crashland on an island composed of remnants of the spirit turtles.

Aang can sense that the place is very close to the spirit world. They find a locked gate similar to the one that hid Tagah, but more sophisticated as if it requires two Avatars. Aang gets the idea of asking Sonam directly since her remains should be in proximity, but Tagah gets uncomfortable by the idea. Sokka notes that they have Benders of all four elements plus Aang, so they can unlock the locks simultaneously. This works and they find the Staff of Sonam on a pedestal.

Tagah insists that the Staff now belongs to Aang, but he insists that he'll meditate and ask for Sonam's opinion. While Aang is unconscious, Tagah asks the heroes if they are still serious about the Republic City. From his point of view, the history of many wars proved that coexistence is unlikely, and the City is built on top of a suppressed legacy. The heroes are unsure how to respond, they claim that the City is a symbol of equality and moving away to restore Jharana could undermine their efforts. Tagah reveals that he deduced Katara is pregnant due to her behavior, and asks if she has plans for repopulating the airbenders, which she admits to not have given thought. Tagah then reveals his true colors by taking Katara hostage and demanding the Staff. The heroes have no choice but to comply. The Staff empowers Tagah's airbending and he shoots Zuko, Toph and Sokka with air bullets. He considers shooting Aang, but is concerned about threatening the Avatar who can retaliate on instinct and hesitates attacking a fellow Air Nomad, so he flees. The Staff allows him to fly through the hurricanes with Katara in arms.

Meanwhile, Sonam tells Aang everything. During the war between Air Nomads and the Earth Kingdom, Sonam became close to Tagah. However, her idea of resistance wasn't as violent as was claimed. She tried to send diplomats to the Earth Kingdom, but they returned dead. This enraged Tagah severely and he wanted revenge. Sonam has created a Staff that could make airbenders be able to stand up for themselves, but she intended it to be used as a defense, not as a weapon. Sonam decided to face the Earth King alone, and rejected Tagah's assistance. Later she found out that he has been killing earthbending civilians. Sonam couldn't find it in herself to kill Tagah, so she lured him to Mount Baihu and trapped him in ice, hoping he'll wake up in a more peaceful era and let go of his hatred. She then managed to stop the Earth Kingdom's aggressive expansion, but the Kingdom's bureaucracy refused to return the land they've stole. Unable to let go of her peaceful ideals, she at least manage to negotiate the end of the war, promoted the isolationist culture to Air Nomads, and left on a spiritual journey till her old age. She sympathizes with Aang's feeling that he abandoned his people, praises his defeat of the Fire Nation, and compliments the idea of the Republic City. She says she doesn't want revenge to be the legacy of Air Nomads and asks Aang to redeem Tagah.

Waking up, Aang finds his friends dead. Realizing what Tagah did, Aang starts lashing out, but then remembers Sonam's words. He recalls that Katara's healing ability is amplified with spiritual water. Looking around, he collects water from a well and tries to revive Zuko, Toph and Sokka just like she did some time ago. It works before it's too late. Aang apologizes for not noticing the sings. Since they're stuck with the airship nonfunctional, they don't know what to do. Aang realizes that this is a spiritual island, so he hollers the Water Spirit, which the heroes use to effectively turn the airship into a boat and pass through the tornadoes.

When the heroes reach the Republic City, Tagah has already started to chare a massive storm. The Kyoshi Warriors rescue Katara and start leading the evacuation. Asking what's his problem, Tagah replies that he'll unearth the Jharana and restore the Air Nomad civilization to the state it should have been. Aang asks everyone to let him handle it. Aang debates that the past is in the past and they should preserve the Air Nomads culturally. Tagah dismisses him and asks if he's going to use his Avatar powers to seal him like Sonam did. Aang says that Sonam wanted Tagah to see the light and he'll deal with this is an issue between two airbenders. Aang and Tagah have a duel.

At the same time, the Denied seize the opportunity and launch a full invasion on the Republic City. They use Tagah's rampage as propaganda against Benders and non-Benders need to arm up with the guns they've brought, partially reversing the flow of the evacuation. Suki and Sokka, Zuko, Toph and Katara go to suppress the Denied captains, but try to avoid hurting the protesters. Zuko makes a speech how sense of supremacy makes one blind to their ignorance. Toph makes a speech that power means nothing when you're alone. Katara makes a speech that revenge only makes you as bad as the one you hate. Suki and Sokka make a speech that one doesn't need Bending to achieve greatness. The captains get arrested and the terrorists surrender.

Aang gets Tagah to a standstill and makes him let go of his hatred. Then, the leader of the Denied and a former Yuyan Archer, Jie, snipes Tagah. Jie mockingly tells Aang that he should thank her for the assistance, but she didn't think the Avatar could be taken down easily if she targeted him. Instead, she present the last surprise, two hijacked Fire Nation airships filled to the top with explosives, which could level the city. Aang easily incapacitates Jie. Aang thinks he can handle one ship with the Avatar State, but can't target large targets coming from the opposite direction. Injured Tagah offers help, but Aang asks him to rest. Tagah doesn't listen and flies to one of the airships. Aang yields and uses the Avatar State to redirect one of the airships upwards, while Tagah does the same with the other from the inside. Then, both ships detonate with a huge explosion.

In the aftermath, all the Denied got arrested, but this didn't help the tensions. The heroes reunite and Katara finally reveals her pregnancy. In the debris, Aang finds a piece of the Staff of Sonam and makes a promise that he'll restore the Air Nomads, in his own way. The City's government is left to the political party that has a lot of non-Benders. Zuko makes some similar reforms in the Fire Nation. The Kyoshi Warriors lead the reconstruction efforts to appeal to non-Benders, which is only partially effective. Toph decides to pass on her skills and starts a school of metalbending, effectively forming the future police force. Sokka decides to put his engineering skills to help the Water Tribe to adapt to the modern world. Katara leaves the mayor duty and lives with Aang on the island at the City's border.

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