Albert Kim explains why some elements of the original didn’t come together for the live-action adaptation.

Warning: This article contains major spoilers from Netflix’sAvatar: The Last Airbender.

Now that the show is finally out in the world after years of development, he welcomes it.

“It’s also very nice to have so many people so invested and passionate about the story.

I’d much rather have that than be ignored,” Kim tells EW.

“So being able to be in the forefront of something like that is pretty exciting.

I just want to wait for them to do it after seeing the show.

And then I’mreallyexcited to see what they talk about and what they like and don’t like.”

“How can you tell the story without the Ocean Spirit creature?”

But he notes it was both a practical and financial challenge.

I wish I could, but it was going to be that or the Koi-zilla finale.

So I had to make my choice there," he says.

Roku’s Shrine was another example.

They appear in the likeness of Flopsie, who was Bumi’s pet goat gorilla in the animated show.

“We never tried to make Flopsie,” Kim says.

“Flopsie is not really a character.

He’s a pet, so it wasn’t a huge sacrifice to not have Flopsie.”

Bumi’s arc marks one of the bigger story remixes in the live-action version.

That information is revealed up front.

But what was more interesting to me were what was going on with the characters.

Bumi is a character who was deeply wounded.

He’s hurt by the fact that his friend Aang wasn’t there in his time of need.

So it became a big Aang and Zuko story," Kim continues.

So it’s a little bit of maybe putting the puzzle pieces together and seeing where they all fall.

Once you do that, certain things just logically fall into place."

“A lot of that stuff about those Avatars came from the Kyoshi novels,” he says.

“One of the Kyoshi novels talks a lot about Avatar Kuruk, same with the character of Kyoshi.

One of the things you see is in episode 2 when he first talks to Kyoshi.

‘No, he’s also got the Avatar State.’

‘Well, what does that mean?’

So in episode 2, we see the power of the Avatar,” he says.

It also blended easily into the Princess Yue (Amber Midthunder) arc later on.

“So that was great to play with.”

Then he finds it in this family that he’s built with his crew.

The message of the whole series really is about the family we make for ourselves."

That distinction falls to a rather small sequence involving water and an arrow.

Avatar: The Last Airbenderis now streaming on Netflix.