Worffan101 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:07 pm
SWTOR's Zakuulan royal family are straight up a bad pastiche of the Fire Nation royals (evil dad, nice mom who can't save her kids, angry son, sociopath prodigy daughter). The comic relief character having real depth is a big thing since ATLA (even freaking Lower Decks tried to do this and Lower Decks is solidly "meh" except for episode 9). She-Ra's Princess Frosta has a lot of Toph elements (upper-crust background, younger than the rest of the cast, snarky asshole most of the time).
The character archetypes and the focus on complex characters and narratives have been lasting impacts of ATLA and I haven't seen those from TLOK, sadly.
The deviously, dysfunctional family dynamic of the distinguished and dominant fire nation dynasty is not dearth and different creators have derived many diverse stories and doubtlessly this will not dispel in the near future.
As for Toph she's a Bratty Half-Pint and there have literally been THOUSANDS of this character archetype used in stories. There have actually been so many TV Tropes needed to make SEVERAL pages on their site just to cover some of them.
And comic relief characters having depth was a LOT more common even before Avatar came around. Just to name a few, Beast Boy, Kurt Wagner, Londo, Vir, Garibaldi, Xander, Willow, Jamie McCrimmon, Bobby Drake, Deadpool (Yes, Really), Loki (in original Mythology believe it or not), Jessie from Toy Story, Mercutio from Romeo and Juliet, Genie from Aladdin, Dick Grayson, Naruto (like, most of the cast), Duo Maxwell from Gundam and God knows how many Pratchett and Gaiman stories.
Those are just the ones off the top of my head as there are SEVERAL more to choose from and some of those characters are over 80 years old.
Again, the only character I would say is directly responsible for influencing a certain character type is Zuko as the arc is VERY specific. Character on the side of the villains, is shown to be a good yet flawed person, is offered the chance at redemption but rejects it as a result of their personal demons. However, after said Redemption Rejection they begin to feel guilty and regret their actions yet remain with the villains until something happens that results in them making a true Heel-Face Turn and for morally good reasons as a result of their character development. BUT they are usually not immediately expected by the heroes because of their past sins and further development on both the heroes and the former villain is needed to before they can be fully expected.
This is a very VERY specific set of points to hit and is not something we saw a lot BEFORE Avatar but is used rather regularly in other series like She-Ra, Tangled, Raya and seems to be setting up for Sahsa in Amphibia.
As for your last point that we haven't seen many characters archetypes that were inspired by TLOK again, like TLA there is one, Korra herself.
Korra is someone who starts out as a very optimistic character but is faced with a series of traumatic events that cripple her both emotionally and physically. Because of this she finds that she must find a way to move on with her life and learn to live with the trauma which does help to make her whole again. We saw this utilized in Steven Universe Future, Adventure Time's later seasons, She-Ra and are seeing signs of it being set up in Amphibia.
Much like Zuko it's not really Korra's character type that is being duplicated but rather her arc that other series have been using as inspiration. Sasha, Namaari, Cassandra and Catra are not Zuko but their arcs are all obviously inspired by Zuko much in the same way Anne, Raya, Rapunzel and Adora aren't Korra yet their arcs all clearly took inspiration from her arc.
And no, Aang's arc is not the same as Korra's. Aang is about confronting the guilt he feels about failing the world but the possible trauma he may have gotten as a result of what he went through is never addressed. To look at the show itself, in The Awakening Aang learns that he was nearly killed, has been in a coma for 3 weeks and the world thinks he's dead which, from his POV, is terrible news because he thinks he's failed again.
This is all addressed and resolved in one Episode, after which Aang goes back to acting like himself and shows No sign that what happened to him as a result of Crossroad of Destiny and The Awakening has affected him. Even him loosing Appa had more of an affect on him then nearly dying and reliving his worst fear and THAT is only in effect for 2 episodes before he starts acting like himself again. Yes, Really.
After losing Appa Aang first becomes harsher and cold in The Desert and The Serpents Pass and after the couple have their baby he's back to normal and in the 3 episodes leading up to Lake Laogai (not counting Appa's Lost Days as he only appears in two scenes (one of which is a reused clip from The Desert)) he acts like his normal Aang self. He even takes a break out of his search for Appa to help make a Zoo.
Korra being crippled and suffering PTSD is a major plot point THROUGHOUT her Forth season and while it's SORTA resolved in Chapter 9 it's more a case that she is ready to live with what happened to her and the three years she spent living with that Trauma has clearly changed her. That, IMO, is what made her Relationship Upgrade with Asami so much more powerful then Aang and Katara's RU. The relationship between Aang and Katara, for me, still feels rushed and unearned.
The Romance in Avatar was never the best and it's no surprise it was the one thing most series that were inspired by it never really utilized and that goes double for Korra's first 2 seasons. But starting from Season 3 with TLOK more series started to take notes from Korra as the slow-burn romance between two characters of the same sex with the couple taking the time to get to know each other and spend real time has slowly started to become the norm in Western Animation.
Aang and Katara get together because the destiny says so and Aang acting crazy jealous to the point that he's angry at Katara because someone who played as Katara ended up with someone playing Zuko... And then Aang forcefully kissed Katara when she said she was confused and didn't know what to make of her feelings for Aang... This, along with neither of them having much romantic chemistry with each other, is the main reason why I've never been a big Kataang shipper which was not helped by the show NEVER Resolving this issue.
Korra and Asami got to know each other, resolved most if not all of their major issues before the first episode of season 3 was even over AND had some great romantic chemistry before they even got together. It helps that Korra actively works to understand and that Asami respects Korra's boundaries and, as of this writing, does not push past said boundaries until Korra is ready.
The dynamic they created is so iconic and has been recreated by other series moving forward that it was poked fun at in this fan comic.
https://phoennixxsblog.tumblr.com/post/ ... od-credits
