There’s one key difference between the new Netflix live-action movie Moon Spirit Avatar: The Last Airbender series and the original animated series.
In First Book: Water animated series (first season) starting with episode 7 of the live-action show, Team Avatar enters the Northern Water Tribe, where they prepare to face the Fire Nation in an attempt to save the life of the moon. self.
They also meet Princess Yue, someone who is integral to their mission and saving the world itself.
Netflix changed the spirit of the moon in Avatar: The Last Airbender
Climax of the Battle of the Northern Water Tribe on Netflix Avatar: The Last AirbenderKen Leung’s commander Zhao does the unthinkable: he kills the spirit of the Moon, which resides in the form of a mortal fish for one day.
This act leads to the destruction of the moon and with it the waterbender’s bending ability.
Fortunately for them, Princess Yue is willing to make it right. While Yue makes her sacrifice, the adaptation makes one big change to the sequence and the Moon Spirit.
Since Princess Yue contains part of the Moon Spirit, she sacrifices her life by immersing herself in a pool of water and surrendering to the spirit world. The water around him begins to glow, and the audience sees the former Yue transform into a bright white fish in the water.
Viewers of the animated series probably expected more, but that was all the live-action series had to offer.
In the original show, the series had another whole episode.
Once Yue has decided to make the sacrifice, transforming into a Moon spirit, he displays his spirit form – a super-charcoal shaped version of himself with melting white robes.
However, that’s not all. He and Sokka also share one last kiss before he disappears for good.
This then gives the broken couple a small moment of closure that the live-action Sokka will have to do without.
Why did Avatar change the spirit of the moon?
It’s certainly an odd choice to cut that series. It seems completely unnecessary – unless the production wanted to save money by not having to design another costume or VFX element.
After all, the Ocean Spirit looked pretty amazing (and expensive).
The idea could also have been to de-emphasize the romance between Sokka and Princess Yue so that the series could better fit his love story with Suki. Perhaps this means that the character could be utilized more in future seasons.
On the flip side, while the show may have cut some of Princess Yue’s story as Moon Spirit, it also gave her some original stuff. This includes her time as a white fox in the spirit world, helping to guide Sokka.
Ultimately, these changes to Moon Spirit have very little bearing on the future story, and she never appears (at least in the animated series).
Avatar: The Last Airbender now streaming on Netflix.
