Sokka is a beloved character in Avatar: The Last Airbender. He's also known for a bit of comic sexism, at least in the very early part of the series. Ultimately, he grows quite a bit over the course of the story, but the reboot's creators nevertheless plan to change the emphasis on some of the parts of his arc they feel haven't aged quite as well.
Talking about how the live-action series will differ from the original in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sokka actor Ian Ousley and Katara actress Kiawentiio talked about how the character's initial attitudes toward women — for example, expecting his sister Katara handle the domestic chores — might not play as well outside of animation.
"I feel like we also took out the element of how sexist [Sokka] was. I feel like there were a lot of moments in the original show that were iffy," Kiawentiio said.
"Yeah, totally,” Ousley agreed. “There are things that were redirected just because it might play a little differently [in live action]."
In the original show, Sokka starts to grow out of his initial attitudes after encountering powerful women like the Kyoshi Warriors. Overall, Avatar: The Last Airbender is lauded for its character growth, and Sokka's development is typically called out as a strong example of it. For the live-action show's part, it seems as if the story will focus more on Sokka's trauma around his parents, which is a similarly important thread in the original series.
"He’s dealing with what it means to not have his father and try to maybe lead when you're not fully capable," Ousley said.
'We had to guard against that kind of stuff'
One way or another, the live-action adaptation's creators seem to have their own ideas about how to approach the story. Speaking with IGN in a separate interview, showrunner Albert Kim echoed some of the points made by Ousley and Kiawentiio.
"There are certain roles I think that Katara did in the cartoon that we didn't necessarily also do here," Kim said. "I mean, I don't want to really get into a lot of that, but some gender issues that didn't quite translate from the cartoon."
With Sokka being quite abrasive in the early part of the show, Kim said that Netflix wanted to guard against him being perceived as outright unlikable.
"Yeah. So we had to guard against that kind of stuff," Kim explained. "And so, those are things that aren't really changing a character as so much as updating them a little bit. And in terms of plot points, yeah, there was a lot of things that we, in the writer's room, we put down, 'These are the mileposts that we're going to hit'...We knew where the big story would begin and end.
"We were mimicking the first season of the animated series, so we knew we were going to get to the Northern Water Tribe by the end of the season. So that helped us map out the route. And then, like I said earlier, once you start unraveling some of the threads and re-reeding together, it showed us a path, the way forward."
We'll know soon enough how the live-action take on Avatar pans out, especially with the original creators not being involved. You can also expect our full interview with the live-action Avatar's showrunners soon. It's set to release February 22.
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Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
source https://www.ign.com/articles/netflixs-avatar-remake-retooling-iffy-elements-like-sokkas-sexism