Reflection and Analysis

AtLA: Under the Bus (8/17/20)

Why is it okay to throw Bryke under the bus? (Or, why pointing out the fact Bryke are the reasons for the writing problems in the comics and LoK isn't throwing them under the bus.)

I'm going to talk in this article the fact people like to play up the whole, "but Bryke were the creators, so we owe them at least that acknowledgement" card.

The problem is the reason Bryke are credited as the series creators comes down to the fact they pitched the idea. That's it. Everybody ignores the fact Aaron Ehasz wasn't just a head writer, but a co-executive producer. To quote Kimberlee Leonard's article on what a co-executive producer is. "Co-Producer: Equal Power – if a production has two producers of equal power, they share responsibilities – each is a co-producer of the project. Often a writer will also get a co-producer credit if he has attached any talent, including stars and directors, to the project."

The fact there is evidence of Ehasz having to fix Bryke's work for it to – you now, work means yeah, we can throw them under the bus as not being nearly the creative force they want people to believe and sadly some people still think they are. I mean, if the pilot is anything to go by AtLA would have gone the way of LoK. Azula is female because of Ehasz. Toph is female because of Ehasz, nor did we end up with a creepy triangle between male Toph to further validate Katara as a trophy for Aang.

There's no getting around the fact the places Bryke have had full creative control have ended up resulting in major messes – I'm talking about the comics and LoK. Even the movie they had far, far more say in the matter than they claim, but the person they like to blame – well, someone did a ghost rewrite of his script not once. We've also learned he wasn't responsible for the casting at all, but for appearances sake acted like he did. Chances are the ghost writers for the script were Bryke and the person who picked the actress to play Katara out of a favor was again Bryke.

AtLA on the other hand is the one piece of the universe they didn't have full creative control over because they weren't the only executive producer, but a co-producer who did have quite a lot of creative power, but from what we can now tell – given the disasters of the sequel material in terms of writing – that was for good reason.

Seriously, people talk about holding Ehasz up on a pedestal when almost every single one are holding Bryke up on a pedestal and keep focusing the credit of why the series was good back on them when there is plenty of evidence none of this is so. Seriously, pitching ideas doesn't make the ideas good – it's the execustion of them, but when one tries writing a novel with an idealized version of himself who is of similar age to Aang and the other has a comic in the works which keeps getting postponed, something is wrong.

In fact, those who keep bringing up the mantra of "throwing someone under the bus" don't get what those words actually mean. To quote "Where Does the Expression 'Throw Someone Under the Bus' Come From?" it means "an act of sacrifice or betrayal, equating that betrayal to the unpleasantness of being run over."

We have not betrayed them by pointing out all of the problems in the series since AtLA are their fault because this is a FACT. If anybody's thrown anybody under the bus, it's Bryke for getting upset because fans DARE criticisize their beautiful work which is absolutely flawless to the point of verbally attacking them and shaming them in ways they shouldn't, but they also do this to everyone else when problems arise. They blame all of the problems with the sequel material on EVERYONE ELSE but themselves.

In fact, I'd also argue they've thrown us fans under the bus by making us believe they were in fact the reason behind the success of the series when they are not. They let their egos get the better of them, like majorly and that has repercussions they are now seeing, including the fact they are leaving the Netflix Live adaption. And before you say, oh – it's because Netflix was making changes they didn't agree with...

The show is Nickelodeons/Viacoms, not Brykes, but it's known that Bryke have done things in the past to undermine what the studio wanted for their series Bryke simply pitched them the idea, but as many have pointed out it was a joint effort on the parts of many, yet fans of Bryke hold them up on such a pedestal their unwilling to realize AtLA really isn't Bryke's universe, but the universe of multiple creative minds. This is because Bryke controlled the narrative for so long.

Me thinks the reason for departing is because the copyright holder has had enough of their wishes regarding their copyright such as Katara maintaining her agency being undermined, but Netflix has recently had a few projects which have come under fire for not protecting the interests of the copyright holder. The other times have been with people who aren't noted as creators of a series, but this is a case where the creators – they're called that because they pitched the idea, with a pilot which ended up with quite a few changes made, are not acting in the copyright holders interests.

LET ME REPEAT – THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS INTERESTS TRUMP THE INTERESTS OF BRYKE BUT SHOULD HAVE FROM THE BEGINNING AS THEY WERE CREATING WORK FOR HIRE!!!

If they wanted to keep creative control over their work they should have gone and made their own studio like someone else did – but no, the didn't – in fact, when they did try branching out with their novel writing and comic they've epically failed. The novel's not popular and the comic still doesn't exist. They were trying to get in on the live action for Netflix because that is – was I should say – last chance. Their track record means they shouldn't be involved in the project.

Does this mean it will be good?

No.

However, I dread this version a whole lot less than I dread whatever version they wanted to cook up.