My main opinion on the new Avatar is that the entire thing seemed rushed in a way that gives me labor concerns. The script obviously needed more passes, the actors visibly needed more time with their lines, the costumes were beautiful but looked rushed production wise---

--the digital effects were made with some game design engine (there are scenes that look like Witcher 3 gameplay). There are a lot of people complaining, but I haven't seen a single complaint that didn't seem like its source was actually unethical time crunch.

"Grandma just said the title sequence, there is too much explaining and not enough showing Its like a script someone quickly wrote that was designed to outline narrative beats, that someone else was supposed to refine but management was like "This is fine. We're using this."

"Their costumes look like cosplay!" Their costumes look like someone had innovative and loving sketch design, but was given no time to add necessary aging/customization detail, and a restricted selection of fabrics.

This is also....a rushed cheap choice that makes me think no one was officially hired to handle this specific element of props making, and no budget towards consultation :

Even the cosmetics and hair gave me pause. The guy playing sokka is in self tanner, probably a green tinted foam, to try to get him to kind of match his co-star. And ang's tattoo, gorgeously applied and designed, has some bleed that makes me wonder what they used for it.

It very much is giving me the vibe that the cosmetic budget was shoestring and they're innovating instead of using film/tv standard product. Almost no one in the cast is wearing a wig, which is a smart choice bc its better to have no wigs than only being able to afford bad ones.

I wish I could give whoever did hair and makeup a hug because I KNOW they were in the trenches and they pulled this whole production off so well with what they had access to. They really put in WORK.

I'm only a few episodes in but the only full wigs I've seen so far are Yue's, Ozai's and Iroh's and I'm not going to say a single word against them because of what I assume was going on in the backend. I will say that Iroh's looks the best though.

Everything about this entire production looked like their choices were mostly fine: But EVERYONE needed another six months of breathing room to get everything ready, and an arts budget overseen by someone with familiarity with industry standards, and NO ONE was granted it.

I can't even say "oh, they overweighted the CGI budget to do X, or they overweighted the costume budget to do Y." Its all of them. All of the components show signs that someone was like "fuck...fuck... I think this might work. I hope this works."

@KaylaAncrum oh this reminds me