Avatar: The Last Airbender is updating Sokka, presumably because they don’t understand Sokka

When Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino departed the live-action reboot for undisclosed creative differences (the show became something they hadn’t “envisioned or intended to make”), fans were nervous as to what changes would have driven them away. Well, here’s one possibility: Sokka is going to be less sexist than he was in the original series. Star Kiawentiio (who plays Sokka’s sister, Katara) shared this with Entertainment Weekly, observing that “there were a lot of moments in the original show that were iffy.”

Kiawentiio is right: the original show did have sexist moments. But it wasn’t the show itself that was “iffy,” it was Sokka specifically, and that was a deliberate choice made by the writers as a part of Sokka’s arc. Sokka’s character is arrogant and overbearing in a way that covers up deep insecurities stemming from the loss of his parents: his mother dies before the series begins, and his father and all the other men in his tribe leave him behind to fight in the war. Sokka’s inclination towards sexism is depicted as wrong from the very first episode, in which his sister calls him “sexist, immature, [and] nutbrained.” Throughout the series, Sokka’s more retrograde views are challenged (as when he meets the Kyoshi warriors), and because of that, he’s able to grow and change, which is what makes his arc satisfying.

Commenting on the removal of Sokka’s sexism, his live-action actor Ian Ousely told EW, “There are things that were redirected just because it might play a little differently [in live-action].” A reboot can and should make changes when adapting original source material (if only to justify its existence), but it’s unclear why the sexism arc, in particular, would “play differently” in live action. Increasingly, it seems live-action reboots are dropping elements from the stories not because it’s the best narrative choice, but out of a cowardly fear of causing offense.

Look at Disney’s last live-action reboot, The Little Mermaid, which rewrote Ursula’s iconic villain song “Poor Unfortunate Souls” to remove sexist lyrics (“The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber/They think a girl who gossips is a bore,” among others). Ursula’s problematic verse was a deliberate narrative choice. She’s manipulating a naive Ariel into giving up her voice, so of course she’s going to say that men don’t like hearing women’s voices. The verse was removed because it “might make young girls somehow feel that they shouldn’t speak out of turn,” according to songwriter Alan Menken, but within the context of the film the message was obviously wrong and bad—it’s part of what makes Ursula a villain in the first place. As with the misogyny in A:TLA, this change doesn’t improve the source material but rather sandpapers down interesting edges that make the material real, interesting, and thought-provoking.

The sexism depicted in the Avatar world is a reflection of the sexism in our real world. The issue gave the show’s dynamic female characters, particularly Toph, an obstacle to overcome, and it gave the show’s young viewers positive reinforcement that sexism is wrong. With Sokka, seeing a character we know and love confront his own internal biases and evolve from them not only works on a storytelling level (characters should be flawed and we should watch them grow!) but also within the context of the morality tale that is The Last Airbender. Getting rid of this one small aspect of Sokka’s character might not have the biggest impact on how the reboot plays out overall, but it does indicate a disappointing misunderstanding of the character and the story, which is a loss for Avatar fans.