10 Lessons The Live Action Avatar Series Could Learn From The 2010 Film

It's the film's original sin that often gets brought up, but it's always worth remembering. Although the world of Avatar is pure fantasy, it's influenced heavily by very specific cultures. Katara and Sokka's Southern Water Tribe seems to reflect Inuit tribes, the same way Aang and the Air Nomads do Buddhist monks. The Fire Nation are reminiscent of Imperial Japan, for obvious reasons.

Just as Tolkien drew influence from Anglo-Saxon, Welsh and Norse mythology, the world of Avatar plays on Asiatic cultures. To see white actors in the lead roles is, well... it's distracting, for a start.

It also happens to be pretty racist, and a wasted opportunity to give Asian actors leading roles in a big Hollywood film. It's true that the Fire Nation all seem to be Indian (for some reason), but the optics aren't great when the baddies are the only non-whites.

On another note, Dev Patel should have played Sokka. Just watch him in Skins as the hapless and awkward teenager, Anwar. He would have killed it. Well, maybe not with the writing how it was.