We have received what appears to be authentic pages of an early draft of The Last Airbender script, dated March 2, 2009, from an anonymous source. These pages detail Aang’s visit(s) to the Spirit World, and a few interesting plot differences from the animated series. As we are unable to confirm nor deny the authenticity of these pages, please read on with a bucket of salt close by.
Update: Producer Frank Marshall has tweeted that the “script does not seem real” to him. It’s interesting to note he didn’t flat out deny the summary’s authenticity, as he did the promotional image last month.
Update 2: The legendary Gene Simmons of KISS recently update his website claiming to have been offered a voice over role in The Last Airbender. And what’s the role? None other than the Dragon Spirit heavily featured in these alleged script pages. It seems the legitimacy of that portion of the script has been settled.
SPOILER ALERT
The first scene picks up with Katara speaking to an unknown person(s). She claims “he” (Aang?) needed to do something, and that if they wait he will return. Her location is not revealed in our pages, as the scene is continued from the previous page. The scene cuts from her worried expression to the Northern Air Temple Prayer Room.
It’s night, and the Prayer Room has been turned into a prison chamber. Aang is suspended by chains from the ceiling, and as he falls unconscious the scene cuts to a mist filled forest in the Spirit World. Aang makes his way through the mist until he comes to a cave, from which a dragon (possibly Koh the Face Stealer, Roku’s dragon Fang, or Roku himself?) begins to speak to him. He explains to Aang that there are some in the Fire Nation that believe the Spirit World’s influence over man should come to an end. He claims the Fire Nation has acquired knowledge from the Great Library, which they intend to misuse.
While Aang promises to stop them, the Dragon explains that he doesn’t have much time to master the other three elements. The Dragon says that the comet that began the war will return in three years, giving the firebenders control over their Chi, and thus the ability to create fire themselves. The scene ends with the Dragon telling Aang that Katara will be very important to him, and warning him to be mindful of his feelings and actions.
The second scene picks up later in the film with Katara at the Northern Water Tribe informing unknown person(s) that Prince Zuko is in the city, and that he’s captured Aang again. It then cuts to Zuko dumping Aang’s body inside a storage room in the Northern Water Tribe Stronghold. Zuko is resigned to wait for the cover of nightfall to make his escape with his prisoner. As he considers the unconscious Aang, it cuts to Aang in the Spirit World forest again as he makes a run for the cave.
Aang confronts the Dragon again, asking how to defeat the Fire Nation. The Dragon tells him that the Fire Nation has forgotten that all elements are equal, and that he must show them the power of water. Aang asks if he must hurt the Fire Nation soldiers, to which the Dragon replies that he may have to. Aang then asks about the struggle between himself and Katara that the Dragon mentioned before. Before departing, the Dragon explains that Aang must choose between being with Katara, and being the Avatar.
Tags: aang, avatar, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dev Patel, dragon spirit, gene simmons, Jackson Rathbone, Katara, kiss, m. night, Nicola Peltz, Noah Ringer, shyamalan, Zuko
Last Airbender Film | Avatar: The Legend of Korra News, and Media Fan Blog 
August 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm |
when they say “giving the firebenders control over their Chi, and thus the ability to create fire themselves” they mean thet the fire benders must use other sorce of fire and we woun`t see any cool fire shoting from thier hands? =[
August 25, 2009 at 1:23 am |
Yea, that was what I was thinking?
Is like… bending not possible or something?
March 30, 2010 at 5:20 pm |
Yeah we do. In the Spirit Oasis when Zhao sets the Koi Pond on fire and kills the moon spirit, Iroh blasts fire from his hands.
August 18, 2009 at 1:12 pm |
This is very interesting. If it is indeed real, there’s only one difference that bothers me a whole lot, the fact that the comet is coming in 3 years, not within a year. Only because Aang really learns the elements in conjuncture with their season…
But other than that yeah, I mean it is really different, but the important points are still there, and we heard before that M. Night was going to focus more on the fire nation’s hatred of the old ways and that they disrespect the power of the spirit world and the other elements. I’m very curious to see if this turns out to be legit. Thanks for posting!
August 19, 2009 at 4:50 am |
This is something that I hoped they’d do. Think about it this way: This is a film, meaning the actors will age very noticeably, like in the Harry Potter movies and by the end of the third movie it will be ridiculously obvious that it hasn’t been a year. Second, Aang learning all the elements so quickly seemed a bit silly (yes, I know he hadn’t mastered Earth or Firebending in the show, but still) and finally, the changes that occurred in regards to character development just didn’t seem like they would happen to a normal person in the time period of the show. Honestly, did the show feel like it was just a year long???
August 21, 2009 at 4:51 am
I agree with you, for the most part.
The show didn’t seem like it only occurred over one year, but you have to consider what all Aang, Sokka, and Katara went through in that year, and the fact that, for the most part, Aang matured DRAMATICALLY in that year. I mean, being avatar must be nerve-racking. However, the actors aging is a great point.
March 30, 2010 at 5:22 pm |
The director M. Night, says that because it’s going to take 6 years to make all three and possibly a fourth movie, thats why they are going to make the Comit come in 3 years.
August 18, 2009 at 1:15 pm |
“The Dragon says that the comet that began the war will return in three years, giving the firebenders control over their Chi, and thus the ability to create fire themselves.”
So the Firebenders can’t create fire already? And it’ll span over three years and not one summer?
“The Dragon tells him that the Fire Nation has forgotten that all elements are equal, and that he must show them the power of water.”
I sure hope that’s only for this first film.
But this is from an early draft. Emphasis on “draft”. It may not be this way, a draft is just a sort of demo. They could’ve changed a lot of things and made it different but better.
August 21, 2009 at 4:53 am |
I think by “creating fire” they mean that they can have the power to draw it out of anything. Fire needs oxygen, which was how they did it in the first place, but I think he means that they can create raw, pure power in the purest sense, if that makes sense. Besides, mentors speak in riddle, so it may have been mis-construed, slightly, not that I’m blaming nextairbender for that, of course.
August 28, 2009 at 7:20 pm
No, the script is pretty explicit in that the fire benders can’t bend fire without a source for the fire.
They can’t create fire the way they do in the show, but they can control fire once it has been created.
There is ONE fire bender that knows the secret to create fire, though…
August 18, 2009 at 2:45 pm |
lets hope this isnt real….
August 18, 2009 at 2:46 pm |
or just what it says “an EARLY DRAFT”….
August 18, 2009 at 2:46 pm |
Ok… I’m not sure if I like it or not, or if I want this to be real or not. Some of the changes I’m ok with, but others (especially about the comet) are too far from the source. I know that movies are rarely ‘the same story’ as the source and I know that The Last Airbender will be its own story… but still, there were some things I’m not so happy about.
Still, if this is authentic and that’s the way the story goes, I’m sure I’ll enjoy the movie either way.
August 18, 2009 at 3:21 pm |
WHAT?!? This is horrible! I really hope this is not real. The cast, the costumes, the set were one thing, but this is ridiculous. RRRAAAAGGGGEEEE!
August 18, 2009 at 3:36 pm |
Whoa. Awesome! Would it be possible to see the script itself?
August 18, 2009 at 3:49 pm |
Sounds authentic and likely enough. I imagine the change from the comet coming in three years from the end of the summer is most likely to accommodate the aging of the lead actors, especially Ringer as he’s so young. What is said in the third paragraph is interesting about how the comet will give the Firebenders the power to create fire on their own, meaning that normally they can manipulate fire, but not create it, a interesting and slightly more logical change. It looks like the relationship between Aang and Katara is going to be much more integral to the plot, which I think is a good thing considering that I was very unhappy with the level of devotion their relationship received in the final episodes of season 3. All together, I like the changes in the plot that I see for the most part. Some are simply necessary in the transaction from v to film, and some are actually improvements, and knowing Shyamalan, it’ll have a lot more surprises and twists. Thank you for posting
August 18, 2009 at 4:46 pm |
That sounds… awful. It doesn’t sound like Avatar at all. It’s like Shyamalan is changing everything about the show. Why did he want to make the show into a film if the culture, calligraphy, characters, and plot were apparently not good enough for him? I wasn’t planning on seeing this movie, and after reading this the rest of my family who were formerly excited about it have decided not to as well. Too much has changed, and it’s starting to look like Shyamalan’s tacking the word “Avatar” onto it as a way to make more money rather than to honor the source material. It’s too bad, because the source material was so good.
August 19, 2009 at 4:57 am |
You’re an idiot. You want the film to be a live action cosplay of the show, recreated scene-by-scene. Have you never had a book you loved turned into a movie??? Things get changed to accomodate screen time. The three years is something I hoped for because the actors will noticeably age so much that it’ll be obvious it wasn’t one year AND three years is actually right for the kind of character development that happens in the show. It just seemed so stupid that all the events in the show could take place over such a short amount of time. As for the culture and calligraphy and characters: What have they changed about the characters??? Oh my God, the symbols for the four nations look different, it’s such a catastrophe!!! Get over it. In reality, the calligraphy used in that promo look a lot more like ancient Chinese than the show. The white washing is annoying, but the world was never explicitly Asian because it’s a fantasy world. And the reason Avatar isn’t in the title is because another movie is being made called Avatar and it is to avoid confusion. Use your brain, please.
August 19, 2009 at 6:37 am
Never explicitly asian Adam? Name one aspect of the show that isn’t explicitly asian (minus the Water Tribe of course). The architecture, races, writing, martial arts, philosophies, chi, and cities are almost all obviously based on eastern philosophies.
August 22, 2009 at 7:06 pm
afasdfad, I felt that many times the Earth Kingdom was based partly on the United States because of the few “western” settings, primarily in the episodes “The Chase” and “Zuko Alone”. “The Blind Bandit” was obviously inspired by American professional wrestling. I consider the Fire Nation to be very similar in milateristic nationalism to Nazi and World War One Germany, especially considering that tanks were a German secret weapon introduced in the First World War. Winged Dragons breathing fire is a strictly European aspect of the mythology and the original Fire Benders were obviously based on Aztec civilization. Avatar is a vision of a large, unified world based on several different cultures. One of the major themes of Avatar is peace and harmony among the world’s people and they are helping that theme by showing a highly racially diverse world. In truth, it would have been racist NOT to allow Noah Ringer to play Aang because he is white. As far as I know, he’s a great actor, a brilliant martial artiest, and a fan of the show and he shouldn’t be allowed to play the roll he’s fit for just because of the color of his skin? The cast should be chosen based on the actors ability to portray the character not simply their resemblance.
August 30, 2009 at 7:42 am
You never heard of Sumo wrestling? Of course Avatar was Asian. That was the whole point of the show, to have a fantasy world that wasn’t based around European culture.
December 7, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I believe he was referring to the AUTHENTIC Chinese calligraphy that the show used throughout for all the writing. Something the movie will change into gibberish scribbles.
As for Avatar not being Asian:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0938283/board/thread/142289933
August 18, 2009 at 5:46 pm |
very cool 🙂
August 18, 2009 at 6:02 pm |
W…T…F
August 18, 2009 at 6:34 pm |
What? It said that ‘firebenders will then be able to create fire?’ But they can already do that! I hope they aren’t making they like Pyro from X-men.
August 28, 2009 at 7:23 pm |
Hope all you want, it’s not going to help.
August 18, 2009 at 7:43 pm |
Is this for real? Like where did you get it? I’m so curious and excited about the movie!
August 18, 2009 at 7:49 pm |
wow. very different from the seris. if this is real, and they chose to go this direction, then this is my first major dissapointment with the move. i’ve tried to keep an open mind until now, but this is starting to be the dragon ball movie all over again. i really hope this is not true.
August 18, 2009 at 10:18 pm |
WOW I JUST READ THIS WHOLE ARTICLE AND I AM EXCITED!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!
HEHE WOW THIS IS QUITE FASCINATING AND MAGICAL!! 🙂
August 18, 2009 at 11:04 pm |
interesting… i was hoping they’d stick to the exact story from the animated series but i guess that wasn’t possible for a live action movie. but i still think the movie(s) will be great 🙂
“The Dragon says that the comet that began the war will return in three years, ….”
its three months in the series right?
August 19, 2009 at 2:10 pm |
three years
August 19, 2009 at 2:11 pm
i mean 3 seasons, so about 9 months
August 19, 2009 at 12:28 am |
so i went on avatar wiki and saw this: ” Firebenders draw their powers from the sun and other solar objects. A solar eclipse has the potential to completely negate a Firebender’s power, revealing a direct connection between the sun and Firebending. Additionally, after defeating Katara at the rise of the sun, during The Siege of the North, Zuko stated that “you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun”, further emphasizing and demonstrating the sun’s importance to Firebending.”
i guess tats wat it meant by they will be able to create fire by themselves. they dont need a solar force.
August 19, 2009 at 12:40 am |
For those who are either mad or disappointed at this scene (assuming that it’s real) honestly what did you expect?
Did you expect it to be so close to the series that you could barely tell the difference between them? They would make the comet 3 years away because the movies are being made in 6 years (I actually assumed that would be one plot chance when I found out about the filming length). The firebenders abilities could have a reason for being different, most likely to make them seem more in tune with the others or to make it seem more plausible with how they operate (I really don’t know I’m just guessing)…etc.
If this is real then it makes sense that such changes are made. If you think such changes shouldn’t be made then your expectations are too high.
August 19, 2009 at 4:59 am |
Thanks. Someone who’s not completely retarded and expecting this to be a giant cosplay or something.
August 19, 2009 at 6:40 am |
If that is true, then fire is clearly the weakest of the 4 elements, and the generals of this war are absolute morons if they could not separate them in some form from their native element. Its not like its rocket science to extinguish flames. It is very easy to cut someone off from fire, but not the other 3 elements.
August 21, 2009 at 5:07 am
Fire is, in sense, the weakest, but it’s also the most destructive, when initiated, properly. There are 3 reasons to why the Fire Nation struck such fear into the hearts of all other nations; 1: Fear. They wiped out the Air Nomads, why not us? 2: Strategy. The Fire Nation is big on strategy. Zuko’s banishment was a perfect ploy to get the Avatar out in the open for a while, was it not? 3: Numbers. The Fire Nation is HUGE, and they’re all in one place, to our knowledge, where as the other 2 nations were in different places, and it seemed like communication would be difficult if you’re under fire. That doesn’t mean they didn’t try, but for the longest time, they failed miserably. It took a band of unknown rebels to take them down, and that device alone is a strong one for a big-budget movie like this.
November 19, 2009 at 4:15 am
what are you talking about? zuko’s banishment was not a ploy to get the avatar out of hiding. the avatar had disappeared for a hundred years before he came back. besides, zuko was banished because he refused to fight his father in an ag ni kai.it even took three years after his banishment for the avatar to return.
August 19, 2009 at 2:01 am |
It makes sense to change it from a year to 3 years because of the time it will take to shoot the film. If they kept it 3 months then everyone would complain that the actors look too old. Either way some people will complain so its best to just ignore this point.
The story about Zhao and the Fire Nation trying to control the spirits is basically the same.
The emphasis on “the fire nation has forgotten all benders are equal” theme is somewhat new and them not being able to generate fire themselves is definitely new, but I see what Shyamalan is trying to do. Waterbenders cant make water, earthbenders cant make earth, airbenders cant make air, so firebenders cant make fire either. It makes perfect sense that firebenders can only control existing fire.
Aang having to choose between being Avatar and Katara is not a new theme to the series but it wasn’t addressed until “The Guru” in season two, so they’re just pushing up this part of the plot.
Only thing that really worries me is that it might not be Koh.
August 19, 2009 at 5:02 am |
Koh is a part that can be omitted, in my opinion. I feel like they wanted to go back and make him a bigger part later on, but just never got around to it. He only does the job of revealing the Ocean and Moon spirits to Aang and anyone else can do that or, because he has a connection to the Spirits, he might be able to see it for himself. Koh is not a major part of the story at all.
August 19, 2009 at 6:45 am |
Koh can be omitted. Changing one of the very foundations of the show (firebending) this drastically is a stupid, stupid mistake. And it doesn’t make perfect sense since Fire isn’t completely neccessary for survival while the other 4 elements are, to where it is pretty easy to separate a firebender from their native element, and makes all Earth Kingdom generals for the past 100 years look like morons since if you gain control of their fire, then you automatically win the battle. Battle plans would hardly be that simple when facing the other 3 nations.
August 23, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Well, Perhaps it’s NOT stupid. After all, put a water bender in the desert, they can do nothing. Put an earth bender on a ship, they too can do nothing. Same principal here. BUT perhaps they could adjust it, after all, they could make it so that just as waterbenders can use the vapor in the air, firebenders can take the heat from the air and try to gather it enough to make flames. Then, once they create a flame, they could expand it and make it grow. So in reality fire is most DEFINITELY not weak in this movie.
Also, they NEED to make changes to the storyline, or else it’ll be the same thing all over again. If we WANTED to see the storyline exactly as it is, we’d just go watch the series for god’s sake xD
November 19, 2009 at 4:19 am
i was thinking of it as once they got their fire from a source they would just have to sustain their flame and not letting it die out. this way they wouldn’t have to keep using a source of fire. this also points out why sozin’s comet is so significant in the war.
August 19, 2009 at 4:00 am |
Sadly, this movie is shaping to be an “In name only” adaptation, a pretty bad one at that.
Generally, the idea of an adaptation is to change the medium of the original work to a different one with a few changes to appeal to a new audience, while keeping the core and recognizable features of the source material to avoid losing the original fan-base.
Since the Show was Emmy-worthy to begin with , I simply can’t fathom why M. Night believes that such changes where necessary, much less how is it supposed to improve the movie. This movie is heading into a “no-man’s-land” of fandom. A significant portion of the original fan base will be upset upon the changes, and will not support it. I also believe that the changes will actually hinder the story, causing it to be harder to new fans to identify with the franchise. The movie will end neither here nor there in terms of support. Also, the new fans that the new movie picks up will find themselves at odds with the original fans, or worse, the original series, causing a case of “Broken base”.
All in all, I do not have high hopes for this movie. It’s simply shaping to be another “Meh” Hollywood movie at best.
August 19, 2009 at 4:22 am |
The movie is comming out so please continue the series, more fans ,more fame ,more episodes, just makes sense
August 21, 2009 at 5:10 am |
But the more you drag something on, the worse it gets, as the case usually goes. People said the same thing to Dragonball Z, and look what we got.
August 19, 2009 at 4:25 am |
Oh, and on the “Firebenders need source” thing:
Fire is not a permanent element so to speak. It’s produced, and then it’s consumed. A Firebender had the advantage of not needing a source of element per se, but the dissadvantage that she/he needs to produce more every time she/he bends. For example: If a Waterbender bends water, it need a source of element, but once he/she has access to it, he/she simply has to control it. A Firebender needs to expend his own energy to produce the element she/he’ll use, and most of that energy won’t be reusable, forcing him to spend more energy again. By making firebenders need a source, it gives them a huge hindrance: Fire is not found naturally (mostly). If fire is snuffed out, that’s it, this put’s them at a dissadvantage since they can’t reuse their element. The not needing a source is what gave the fire nation an edge (Balanced out in the form that, in overall, they can’t fight as long as other benders.) over the other countries, basically striking fast and hard, so that endurance does not come into play.
In a nutshell: Fire is a process, not a physical material like the other three. Fire is hardly found naturally, while the other three are available in abundance.
To balance this ^ Firebenders shouldn’t need a source for their element.
August 19, 2009 at 6:51 am |
Couldn’t have said it better myself. It is known that Firebenders tire much easier in battle than the other 3 benders do, and fire is no where near as abundant as the other 3 elements are. When you attack their home ground, they are surrounded by their element. Its not as if the Fire Nation is hell itself to where they are completely surrounded by their element.
August 21, 2009 at 7:31 am
And since fire dissipates quickly, as you’ll see when they firebend in the show, the firebenders move quickly for their fighting style.
August 19, 2009 at 5:03 am |
To all of you people with ridiculous expectations: This actually makes me very happy. If this is the direction they are going, it is exactly how I would have done it, save for the firebending part.
Think about it this way: This is a film, meaning the actors will age very noticeably, like in the Harry Potter movies and by the end of the third movie it will be ridiculously obvious that it hasn’t been a year. Second, Aang learning all the elements so quickly seemed a bit silly (yes, I know he hadn’t mastered Earth or Firebending in the show, but still) and finally, the changes that occurred in regards to character development just didn’t seem like they would happen to a normal person in the time period of the show. Honestly, did the show feel like it was just a year long???
August 19, 2009 at 11:49 am |
Thank you,
the changes were made to make it more realistic. what made other live action movies stupid is that they didn’t do that.
just look forward to it, if you’re a true avatar fan you’ll like it regardless.
and those saying they aren’t going to go see the movie because they don’t like certain things, no one cares. don’t.
the movies are going to happen the same way whether you go to see it or not, so don’t think it’s going to make a difference. the movie will get plenty of viewers with or without you. have fun but your bluffs won’t do you any good
August 26, 2009 at 11:00 am |
Basic rule of thumb, sweety: stray too far from the source and you alienate your built-in fanbase. Changes will happen but change too much and you lose everything that was unique and special about the original thing to begin with. Standing up for such macekre so violently just makes you look like a blockbuster junkie, in for the thrill, not the substance.
August 28, 2009 at 12:56 am |
If that’s how you would have done it, then I would advise against pursuing a career in directing. Or scriptwriting. Or anything that has to do with producing works of fiction.
November 19, 2009 at 4:22 am |
what? aang matsered every element…
August 19, 2009 at 5:11 am |
This is either a really really early draft or fake, don’t get your hopes up.
August 19, 2009 at 6:32 am |
Brenan, changing Firebending is horrible. What are the Firebenders supposed to do, get their lighter out everytime they want to fight, or always have flaming barrels around them. That isn’t even close to being logical.
And Katara and Aang’s relationship shouldn’t be in your face. It should be subtle, especially in the first film (other 2 not so much). And you just weren’t paying attention if you don’t think they didn’t put enough time into developing Katara’s and Aang’s relationship. They did it perfectly.
And there better not be anymore more surprises and twists that there are in the series. The overall plot better not change drastically, and hopefully to god they misworded it, but making firebenders not be able to produce flames is pretty much not taking anything in the source material seriously.
December 23, 2009 at 11:08 pm |
i mean i’d totally go with having flaming barrels if that would mean i could fire bend (: but serioulsy that sounds stupid for the movie
August 19, 2009 at 6:33 am |
I don’t care about the script leakages, photo leakages, and etchetera. All I want is just to see the movie! hehehe. Can’t waiiittt! =D
August 22, 2009 at 2:31 am |
well put!
August 19, 2009 at 7:15 am |
overall it’s very acceptable…
but WTF is with firebenders need a source so they can bend?
i would accept if the characters are white or roku is a dragon, but firebenders can’t produce their own fire????
what if azula needs to shoot lightning? where the heck should she get that??!!
August 19, 2009 at 9:46 am |
in my opinion the costumes and sets are really nice…now this and the cast=gross
August 19, 2009 at 2:17 pm |
Could we see a scan of the original script?
Maybe through the process of writing the draft, and summarizing it for this website, some points were changed, like in the telephone game, or the person who wrote this was just lazy to double check it, making the firebenders need source, etc…
August 19, 2009 at 8:33 pm |
I think that this is the script from the original auditions…
August 20, 2009 at 12:55 am |
Man! Aww, I loved it 😀 I hope it’s legit, though. The only thing that bothered me was apparently firebenders can’t make fire of their own. That’s kinda suckish but besides that, everything else is looking pretty interesting. I mean, if Aang’s supposed to be twelve in this movie maybe we’ll even get to see fifteen year old Aang plus all of the other characters by the third one 😀
August 20, 2009 at 1:22 am |
People this is either fake or from a really early draft so don’t freak out.
August 20, 2009 at 5:22 am |
wtf they cant create fire??? this is horrible i hope this isnt real i dont care wut ppl say! and how will this effect lightning bending??? m. night better not ruin this! its my favorite cartoon.
August 21, 2009 at 3:21 am |
interesting……..*plotting*
August 21, 2009 at 9:24 am |
I dont think I really like this too much. Yes i understand the need to make certain changes to accommodate the time it takes to make the movie, so the three years is not bad. However, the fact that all of these circumstances seem completely contrived and nowhere similar to what takes place in the actual series just seems wrong. I am a fan of avatar because I LOVE how things happen. If its too different, then I’m worried that the formula won’t work as well as it did and I won’t like it. Of course I’ll see it with an open mind, but I really hope they don’t make too many more drastic changes.
also, I am a fan of Koh being in the movie. I know he is not really neccassary, but I bet he’d sure look bad ass CGI’d onto the big screen. crreeeepy. I’ll miss him.
August 22, 2009 at 2:35 am |
yeah you’re right, it would be pretty awesome to see Koh on there.
hopefully they decided to put him in there. its too early to say for sure right now, so we’ll just have to wait and see!
December 23, 2009 at 11:06 pm
i hope so (:
August 22, 2009 at 5:09 pm |
“Aang then asks about the struggle between himself and Katara that the Dragon mentioned before. Before departing, the Dragon explains that Aang must choose between being with Katara, and being the Avatar.”
Oh god. He must choose between Katara and being the Avatar? So, what, if he chooses Katara does that mean he looses all his avatar-y powers? Will he die so a new Avatar is born or something? I don’t know what they mean by that comment, but it sounds like a really overdone, really stupid plot point.
Seriously, how many movies have already used something like that before?
Way. Too. Many.
In my opinion, the movie shouldn’t make Aang and Katara’s relationship any more important or in-our-faces than the TV show did.
August 22, 2009 at 5:13 pm |
omg i kno exactly what u mean. them adding that in is retarded and lame and itl ruin the movie definaetly.
Aang should be the avatar no matter what nd stupid katara shouldnt get in the way of that.
dats sooo lame im gunna cry
August 23, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Well I appreciate that you agree with me, but I wasn’t actually saying that the movie is ruined… just that its pretty jank that it’ll focus on romance a lot more than the TV show did.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I really am not a fan of romance centered movies and plot points, and although Avatar does have a touch of it, it isn’t overpowering and, if anything, enhances the series by adding more depth. I just feel like the movie should be the same way.
Well, anyway, so far all this is “what if, what if, what if” and we don’t know anything for sure, so it’s nothing to get upset and cry about.
August 22, 2009 at 11:42 pm |
i know right!
August 23, 2009 at 3:46 am |
Guys, calm down. Has Paramount taken this down yet? No, so, is a final script for the movie? I’m predicting not. Frank Marshall not only said that it seemed fake to him but also the company hasn’t freaked out and taken it down. So, let’s all just hope that it isn’t real and if it is I’m sure there will be a decent explaination for every single change that everyone will be able to accept easier than they are now.
August 24, 2009 at 6:17 pm |
Why is it that Aang has to show the fire Nation the importance of water and not earth or air. And how come he can’t be the Avatar and get the girl. The special effects better be kickin’!
August 25, 2009 at 4:06 pm |
My guess is that “create their own fire” basically means places where the air is too moist, or there is very little oxygen to ignite. I.e they won’t be stopped simply by water, for example.
It ties in perfectly to how Sozin’s comet was so important to them taking out the Airbenders. The air up there is normally incredibly thin, and thus not easy to make fire, let alone fight with little oxygen. The comet allowed them to ignore the “fuel” and use it to breath, giving them a much more powerful army to fight the Air Nomads.
Conversely, they could be making it like the other 3. Earthbenders can’t create earth, Waterbenders can’t create water (well, aside from sweat but sweat isn’t produced from thin air) and Airbenders don’t create air (it’s just all around us at any given time, and we never see if Aang can bend in a vacuum.)
Rita:
“Why is it that Aang has to show the fire Nation the importance of water and not earth or air. And how come he can’t be the Avatar and get the girl. The special effects better be kickin’!”
Well it’s based off the first book, so that’s likely why he mentioned Water. And the third movie may very well have him urging him to show the Fire Nation the “power of the Avatar” (since they already KNOW the power of fire).
August 26, 2009 at 4:10 am |
This looks horrible. Every article I read about this movie makes me more and more disappointed. Thanks M.Night (and you, casting director from hell). You ruined my series.
August 27, 2009 at 1:47 am |
Gene Simmons was approached for the voice acting of the dragon, it seems the extract is legit, or at least not far off.
August 28, 2009 at 3:04 pm |
Wait. Did they cut out Teo and his dad? Why is he being suspended by chains in a room instead of sitting on the floor in a meditative state to reach the Spirit World? What are they planning for the end of the 3rd movie if his spirit guide is, rather than Avatar Roku, a dragon?
Is the dragon supposed to be a representation of Avatar Roku, rather than Roku’s pet who guides Aang to Roku? Why does it seem they are they replacing the Guru and the chakra journey with a line from a talking dragon?
I am confused, I am slightly angry, and I am not going to see this film.
August 29, 2009 at 12:07 am |
DrAvatar and the others, the firebenders transform their energy into fire, a dragon produces fire, and the firebender learn firebending from the dragons, so they learn to produce fire and latter as a consequence learn to control existing fire, whatever, I want to belive isn´t the final result
August 31, 2009 at 1:56 am |
Maybe the fire nation could have flints attached to their hands and could slap
December 23, 2009 at 11:01 pm |
um no offense it sounds like a good clever idea to make out of a problem like that, but honestly the whole thing is stupid. its like every time they firebend they have to do that? um no thanks
August 31, 2009 at 2:00 am |
Fire nation could maybe have flints attached to their gloves/hands that when slapped together produce fire. Just a thought
September 5, 2009 at 3:24 am |
You’re not a Fullmetal Alchemist fan, are you?
August 31, 2009 at 8:10 am |
The changes actually are not bad at all.
First. The three years is a very necessary change as the actors will age during the timespan the movie is made. In the cartoon, the time frame is less than a year, even though the series took three years to complete. You can “freeze” time in a cartoon. In real life, the actors will age and there really isn’t much that can be done about that. Except change the length of the story.
Second. The firebending. In the movie, the firebenders (if this script is legit) cannot bend fire by themselves. Since this is a live action movie, which demands a higher level of realism, I can go with that. In the cartoon, the firebenders can create their own flame. Notice that they are the only group of the four that can do this. Everyone else needs to be close to a source of their element. I guess that Shyamalan just wants to even things up. Now, just because the firebenders can’t create fire out of thin air doesn’t mean they are helpless. It is quite possible that in the movie, the firebenders will have all sorts of clever devices (or even simple ones, like torches) to create flame. I’m pretty sure that’s what we are going to see.
Third. The dragon. I’m going to assume that it’s Roku’s dragon. Nothing to get really excited about. I doubt Koh will be in the movie, although it would be cool if he was. Done right, Koh could be a very eerie and ominous presence in the movie.
Lastly, the whole Aang, Katara thing. Frankly, I don’t care. There was a lot of crying over the expanded roles of Arwen in LOTR and the added romance between her and Aragorn, and honestly, that didn’t hurt the movies in the slightest. The Katara-Aang subplot was present throughout the whole series, even if it was subtle. And I’m pretty sure that Aang did have to make a choice between being the Avatar and having Katara… that was a big part of the last few episodes of season two. I just think that there are too many people being way too sensitive about the so-called changes being made by a script that may not even be legit. I don’t care if these pessimists don’t want to see the movie. I’ll see it. Enough said.
September 5, 2009 at 3:21 am |
The only thing that really gets me is the fact that Aang will have to choose. Why? Why should he have to choose between being the Avatar and being in love? Roku never had to. And if he did, then Zuko would have never been born. Or is being single strictly a Air Bender thing?
I’m still looking forward to it, no matter what. I just wish they wouldn’t confuse it so much. What’s next, No Roku? No Kyoshi? How is it gonna work in this new world, compared to the one that we all know and love?
September 10, 2009 at 4:18 am |
Hmm, interesting.
September 13, 2009 at 7:22 pm |
Well, this script actually cheers me up. Although I am an anti-caster, and the Dragon Spirit is screwed up as hell, and that Firebending is WTF, most of the script shown here seems pretty reasonable. It could definitely be a hell of a lot worse.
September 29, 2009 at 9:11 pm |
I think they mean that in the movie fire benders can’t draw fire from thier hands or kicks, they may need to light a spark with two rocks or something then fire bend from that. Like how the earth and water nations and technically air can’t draw thiere power from out of no where!!! but on the day of sozins comet, they can draw there fire from out of no where!
September 29, 2009 at 9:21 pm |
My dad told me that gene simmons playing a dragon suits his rusty voice. I don’t know the only thing can resemble to gene, is giraffe (lol). I hope the dragon looks good but probably because the company animating this movie also did harry potter the half blood prince and even though I’ve only seen the harry p. commercials(looks like a wierd movie), it has good graphics lol… soooooooooo ecxited!!!
October 13, 2009 at 4:56 am |
3 yrs – yea (good for actors aging/developing love story and maturity/ show should’ve covered a longer time period)
Fire Benders can’t auto-ignite? – Nay (I’m unclear on what the dragon spirit means, but think they should not stray from the shows magic of bending abilities)
Tone – yea (the type of questions Aang is asking sound like him, worried about Katara and hurting others, the response sounds like something he might’ve gotten)
Direction and Pacing – Yea (I like the idea of Zuko sneaking around and flashes to Aang in the Avatar state)
Introduction to Katara/Aang Romance – Yea? (I like the older tone, and like this element of the plot line, but I am confused with all this pick one or the other stuff, it wasn’t quite so black and white in the show)
All and all not bad. Being a TV and not a book I think I feel the director can take a little more liberty. We know the world created in the show and they can make changes with in the confines of that world. It’s okay if it is not a play by play of show (in fact I’d be rather annoyed if they included stupid moral lesson episodes like The Great Divide)
I am more worried about them creating the world we’ve come to imagine. Which means good props, costumes, sets, and CGI.
I have also been wondering if it will include a lot of the humor (which could be distracting if it seems to slapstickish) or of it will be straight forward Lord of the Rings Serious. I am alos wondering how the young actors will pull it off. Last thing I want to see is some terrible actor distracting everyone like Kristen Stewarts nervous blinking in Twilight!
October 14, 2009 at 5:02 am |
I got pretty tired of reading all the comments where people are freaking out.
Are you guys kidding? This is really exciting–no, it’s not the same as the series but like someone said before: if you want the same story, go buy the series on DVD.
At first, I was disappointed, too, that M. Night Shyamalan didn’t seem to be sticking to the story that we’ve all grown to love but I got over it. The set pieces I’ve seen so far are gorgeous and seem to be based on roman architecture which is definitely a departure from the original series but it’s not like the set designers or the producers/writers/directors/whomever are doing a bad job. They’re just doing what theatre people do: INNOVATE. You can’t be an artist by only copying someone else’s work. You have to make it your own or it’s just some lame form of plagiarism. They are most definitely making The Last Airbender their own while keeping with the spirit of the entire series. If anything, it’s going to be more realistic.
Understand that the Fire Nation is a culture that’s been built on hundreds and hundreds of years of innovation and ingenuity. They have tanks
when the best the earth kingdom has is trains run by earthbenders. It would make complete sense that the Fire Nation would have developed a way to provide ‘benders with a source that’s both effective and portable. It’s not that hard. They’ve got spark rocks already, all it takes is making them portable and possibly one handed and you’ve got a weakness /as well as a strength/ no different than any other element. Taking the ability to create fire away from firebenders doesn’t weaken them at all. Is Katara weak because she can’t “create” water? Is Toph weak because she can’t “create” earth? Is Aang weak because he can’t “create” air? I’m pretty sure that’s a no. And how awesome and /fitting/ would it be if Iroh’s the firebender who knows the secret? Seems pretty cool to me.
Also: does anyone here read comic books? How many different storylines are there to the same characters in that world yet the characters and the integrity of the story still survives. He’s not ruining the story or the characters we’ve come to love. If anything, it strengthens them. It challenges us to think /more/ about their personalities, the impact of one person to the world, the relevance that this story has to our own time.
November 8, 2009 at 1:59 pm |
BUT.. there is still an uneven playing field. You implied katara, aang and toph arent weak even if they cant create their elements. This is because they do not need to – its already present. They are only weak in its absence (eg katara in desert, toph in wooden jail). However a firebender is weak in its absence, since fire isn’t naturally abundant. Fire MUST be created to be present, then firebenders MUST be able to create it. Bringing a lantern or spark rocks everywhere a firebender goes as you also implied just degrades the coolness of firebenders (they are my favourite). It’s like a disability.
Lightning is also an issue. One cannot simply contain lightning in a box to carry around as well. Although a battle on the mountaintops during a storm to harness lightning would be cool (in my mind), the ability of the firebenders to create lightning in daylight and indoors and at their will helped define them as controlling, power hungry and nature-defiant (or above the forces of nature). It empowered them to be seen as real villains. The whole demeanor and characterization of firebenders would be turned upside down if they were limited to ‘manipulating a source of fire’.
On another note, great… the only job that was really fit for an indian acctor (the Guru) is now completely omitted because the dragon stole his line.. yes, i’m still angry at the race thing, and i’ve added m night shyamlan to my list of annoying indians along with taxi drivers, drivers in general, customers, freeloaders, corner-cutters and gangster wannabes. its fueling an unhealthy loathe.. sorry
December 15, 2009 at 5:22 am
There are a few different ways to look at this:
Even from your perspective, Firebenders aren’t made weak from not being able to generate fire without a spark present. If they can be deprived of their ‘bending abilities just as every other nation (even the Air Nomads can’t bend air when underwater. Unless they’re the Avatar and in the Avatar State, which Aang was when he created the iceberg pinata. Even completely submerged, Zuko was able to generate heat enough to melt the ice above him), then one could look at their domination of the other nations as being even more depraved and senseless. If they have the same weaknesses as the other nations, then their claim that Fire should rule is moot. Air Nomads could not generate air. Katara can’t generate water, and Toph can’t produce earth with her breath or energy the way Firebenders in the show can.
You said, “Fire MUST be created to be present, then firebenders MUST be able to create it,” and again, I don’t believe that your conclusion is the only one available. There is another conclusion that can be drawn from your first statement: “If fire must be created to be present, then there must be a way available to create the spark necessary to bend.”
Now, take a step back. If you think about it, Firebenders in the show only take their energy from the sun, an ever present source of flame (as evidenced by the eclipse). In essence, the movie is simply moving their source of flame a few million miles closer. When the eclipse happened, Firebenders were cut off from the source of all Firebending. They still had a source, they still must draw from a source. The principal is still the same.
As for lightning bending, I’ve never been convinced that it’s technically “fire” bending, so I’m not ‘bent’ out of shape about it (BA dum CHI!). Lighting is the separation of positive and negative ions coming back together, completing an electrical circuit. Fire, on the other hand, is an expression of matter changing form; from one collection of molecules to another. True, lightening can ignite fuel sources, but it needs none so…do with that what you will.
As for blue fire: once the Firebender has a source they can manipulate it as they will. I personally believe that Azula’s blue fire was a manifestation of the instability of her mind but even still, blue fire is simply a hotter flame. If Firebenders can encourage a flame without the appearance of additional fuel sources, they can certainly cause the flame to burn hotter.
And don’t even get me started on how a COMET (a frozen rock flying through space) makes FIREBENDERS stronger 😛
January 25, 2010 at 5:22 am |
damn grace lol. passionate, as am i. i’m not gonna say you proved me wrong but yes there are discrepancies in the reasoning for the being of the avatar world (just wanna say one more thing though – i kinda see fire as an ‘event’ that takes place after an action, as opposed to the other 3 elements that are ‘already there with no effort’)… about blue fire, yeah suppose thats right.. and as for the comet, well theres no accounting for the realism of a cartoon (bit hypocritical here, i know :))
November 22, 2009 at 2:41 pm |
The only thing I have trouble with is the fact that the fire benders cant make there own fire. This will affect the lightning, the blue fire and the whole way the tv show depicted fire bending.
April 16, 2010 at 5:47 pm |
firebending masters like iroh and zhao can create there own fire and we all know that azula is a firebending master
December 23, 2009 at 10:48 pm |
wellllllll….I hope it isn’t the real thing and its just some random fan fiction thingamajig. It seems fine until the part where they can’t create their own fire. That would never happen! Fire bending is like so awesome and stufffff, i mean seriously…but i totally understand about the 3 years thing. when i was watching the show i thought it was one summer for like the first season and a half, and its like, wow all that happend fast..but ya the younger actors are gonna look different and stuff
December 23, 2009 at 10:52 pm |
and the source of firebending is the sun, btdubs, obviously cause in The Deserter aang had to squat and breath and feel the sun, lol love avatarrrr (:
February 6, 2010 at 1:13 pm |
sx
February 6, 2010 at 1:16 pm |
seeing the 30 second super bowl trailer there is a fire nation soldier bending fire but not creating it himself instead he pulls the flames out of a burning bin or something. so i think that maybe they can manipulate fire but not create it until the comet returns.
March 30, 2010 at 5:18 pm |
I think it’s kind of cool what they are doing with this movie. I mean, not seeing the Fire benders shoot fire from their hands? Yeah that should be in the movie. OH I saw that on youtube. Uncle Iroh is in the Spirit Oasis and shoots fire from his hands. That is when Zhao set the Koi Pond on fire. So they do shoot fore from their hands!!!
April 11, 2010 at 4:21 am |
all firebenders can create fire, they just have to create a source so they can constantly have something to bend from 🙂
July 12, 2010 at 4:28 pm |
apparently, the DRAGON SPIRIT isn’t Roku or Koh. Possibly more of a spiritual guide for all avatars. It kind of relates to a dragon’s intelligence and power. (I thought of it as showing that there’s more great spirits and creatures in the Spirit World than Roku and creatures you’d already see) oh well.
August 13, 2010 at 6:56 am |
in the film , Katara must be zuko’s girlfriend, because surely they will be a perfect match