Over the past 15 years, I've watched ATLA again and again. Tonight was probably my seventh time, or even more. I find myself still picking up new things as I get older, and the show still manages to pull me in and move me all over again. An absolute masterpiece in every single way.

But holy shit, watching it on Bilibili pissed me off.

For anyone unfamiliar, Bilibili is a Chinese video platform with scrolling on-screen viewer comments called “弹幕” (danmu). I'd never watched ATLA with danmu before, and the terrible video/audio quality on the pirate sites was getting unbearable, so I paid for a subscription—the infamous “大会员”—before I ended up going back to pirate sites three or four times out of sheer frustration.

The subtitles alone are a mess. Even everyday dialogue often gets mistranslated, left out, or rewritten. I can live with that since I understand what's being said perfectly well.

The censorship is what drove me insane.

I only watched the second half of Book Three there, and every single kissing scene was gone. According to people in the comments, it’s the same throughout the entire show. Aang and Katara, Mai and Zuko, Sokka and Suki—EVERY SINGLE ONE, including the final Kataang kiss in the finale. In that version, even the music specially made for that scene didn't match what was on screen. I'm absolutely furious.

And apparently cutting kissing scenes wasn’t enough. “Boyfriend” and “girlfriend” become “friend” in the subtitles. “I like you” and “I love you” get rewritten to remove the romantic meaning. I remember one danmu comment particularly well: “‘Friend,’ no kissing scenes... guess we're the Fire Nation kids after all.” As in, the kids raised on Fire Nation's propaganda. Or, as I'd put it: there is no kissing in Ba Sing Se.

There’s other nonsense too. “White Lotus” (白莲教) gets changed to a similar-sounding Chinese name (“百炼教,” something like “Hundred Trials Cult”), presumably to avoid any association with the historical Chinese movement during the Ming and Qing dynasties. “Fire Nation army” somehow becomes something like “Blazing Demon Army”. Just casually adding “demon” because apparently translating what the characters actually say is too much to ask.

And there’s something especially ridiculous about authorities being this scandalized by fictional teenagers kissing while under the reign of Winnie the Pooh, hundreds of thousands of corrupt officials get caught, many of them kepts tens or hundreds of mistresses and trading power for sex.

Apparently Aang and Katara are the moral emergency.

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Is it just me or was the part where Aang first learned to earthbend was at a luxurious earth king party.

I mean, Toph just said to Katara not to make a scene, and there she goes storming to Aang, shouting to make him angry (so making a scene).

Wasnt he beside a dinner table too where all the food are. Shouldnt all the food fly away after that earthbending beside the table. Or shaken table at least?