In the latest example of Western entertainment being held hostage by those with the worst concept of media literacy in human history, Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender star Kiawentiio has revealed that the writers of the live-action series adaptation made a conscious effort to excise the “sexist” elements of Sokka’s character.
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The Katara actress provided this eye-rolling insight into this change while speaking to Entertainment Weekly’s Nick Romano alongside her fellow cast mates in promotion of the series’ upcoming February 22nd premiere.
At one point during the press appearance, Sokka’s live-action actor, Ian Ousley, informed the outlet that des one of his main goals in bringing the boomerang wielding wise-cracker to life was to make sure he kept his performance true to the character’s original animated depiction.
“I wanted to make sure that Sokka is funny,” he recalled.
From there, Ousley then opined that as “there’s more weight with realism in every way,” some moments from the original show had a different impact when played out between real-actors.
Jumping off of her co-star’s point, Kiawentiio – for those curious, the actress is of native Mohawk descent and was named after the word for ‘nice morning‘ in the tribe’s native Kanienʼkéha language – asserted in turn, “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.”
“Yeah, totally,” agreed Ousley. “There are things that were redirected just because it might play a little differently [in live action].”
Notably, it seems this change to Sokka’s character was clearly informed by modern Hollywood’s fear of ‘offending’ the female demographic, as any fan who watched the original series – or at least those of which that engaged with the material all the way through and in good faith – will know that his character’s sexism was an important part of his overall character arc.
Yes, at various times Sokka revealed that he held a genuinely sexist worldview towards some topics.
For example, in the series’ fourth episode, The Warriors of Kyoshi, the hero confidently informs his sister, “Girls are better at fixing pants than guys, and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that. It’s just the natural order of things.”
Further, when meeting the eponymous Kyoshi Warriors themselves, Sokka is quick to dismiss their skills as an elite combat force simply due to the fact that their ranks are comprised solely of girls.
However, what the Netflix screen writers seem to have forgotten is that not only is Sokka a literal teenager, but he was also raised in an purely patriarchal society – the only female leader in the history of the Water Tribe was The Legend of Korra‘s Eska, and even then she shared her authority evenly with her brother Desna.
And that’s the entire point of this specific Sokka character arc.
While clearly sexist due to the environment he was raised in, Sokka eventually comes to not only recognize the individual strengths and contributions women can provide in any given setting including combat, but outright champion and rely on them throughout his adventures, thus conveying the message that even the worst of habits and mentalities can be unlearned – or if we want to go even deeper, that one is not beholden to the circumstances of their birth.
But alas – though unsurprisingly – it seems even that message is either too nuanced or too empathetic for modern Hollywood.
As noted above, Netflix’s live-action take on Avatar: The Last Airbender flies onto the streaming service on February 22nd.