“Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four nations lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked...” are the words that opened every single episode of the animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series. For those of us who grew up with the show, Katara’s opening monologue is engrained in our memories.
However, like many of the changes made in ATLA, there’s a good reason behind the opening credits being different, and showrunner Albert Kim explained the choice to CinemaBlend.
However, like many of the changes made in ATLA, there’s a good reason behind the opening credits being different, and showrunner Albert Kim explained the choice to CinemaBlend.
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00:00We always knew that you couldn't do that monologue in the first episode because of the way we've structured our episode.
00:07You know, we started 100 years ago. Right. So you couldn't have Katara saying those words.
00:11So I always knew I wanted to get it in somehow, which is why it ends up as a grand grand speech for again.
00:19And it's a bit of a Easter egg for fans and for new viewers. It's a way to understand what happens with the world. Right.
00:25And then we also added this other prologue kind of in the first episode.
00:32Again, there's a little bit of a handholding technique for new viewers who may not be as familiar with the world of Avatar.
00:39And we borrowed kind of elements from the opening titles from the original.
00:43After that, in the subsequent episodes, to be honest, it's kind of a.
00:50Netflix specific situation.
00:52Their platform is one that they know better than I do.
00:58And they felt like the way their episodes flow from one to the other in the, you know, binging model, that it worked best with the title card so that we get right into the story.
01:10That's not to say that it won't come back in subsequent seasons.
01:16But for the first season, it felt like that felt like the way to go.