A young traveller and his two companions had reached a great city. Stopped by guards, all three were taken to the city’s palace. The old king was a madman, but could see that the traveler was a true warrior.
“Throw them a feast!”, he ordered, and it was done.
While the traveller ate, the king looked down upon him, and concluded that he was indeed a hero above all others. To test him, however, the king would have to put him through three trials. When the traveller refused this, the king grew cross and took his companions captive until he complied.
First, the boy had to fetch a golden key from beneath a waterfall. The boy succeeded, but when he requested that the king to set his friends free, he refused.
The second task was to find the king’s hare. The boy, thinking this easy enough, found a small hare without any interference. Suddenly, a beast came into view, and charged at the boy, startling the hare and sending it off into a panicked sprint. They boy chased the hare until in escaped into a hole in the wall, and was left cornered by the charging beast. It was only then that the boy realized– the beast was a large hare itself! The giant hare’s manner instantly changed to that of a mild pet’s, and the boy returned it to the king.
“I am ready for the next challenge,” he announced.
For the third task, the king pointed to his right side, where stood a wicked looking man with an iron claw and a scythe, and then to his left, where stood a large warrior with an axe.
“Your final test is a duel,” explained the king. “You may choose your opponent.”
The boy looked from the metal armed man to the the giant, and made his decision.
“I choose you!” he declared, pointing to the feeble old king.
The king’s eyes widened, then fell into a grin.
“Wrong choice.”
The king threw off his robes, and he was fuckin ripped son,,
so anyway that’s the plot of the 5th episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender
The thing that gets me about Azula is the whole purpose of her leaving the fire nation in the first place was to retrieve Zuko and Iroh, which she did, but she also decided to just conquer all of Ba Sing Se while she was already out.
“Well… I’m already IN Ba Sing Se, I might as well conquer it.”
Azula may be evil, but if my girl ain’t efficient as hell
what is the point of a total solar eclipse if you don’t tell your father that him challenging you to a duel at age 13 was cruel and unjust and that imperialism causes harm to the entire world and that you’re betraying him to help train the person who’s going to end his reign
“Dad, I know it’s probably hard for you to see me this way, but the obedient, little helpless blind girl that you think I am just isn’t me. I love fighting. I love being an Earthbender. And I’m really, really good at it.”
best earthbender in the world: toph uses earthbending to counter powerful magic used by a spirit from another dimension
I firmly believe this is the GREATEST and most extensive display of Earthbending we have ever witnessed.
Depending how you see this scene, Toph is either resisting the interdimensional pull of a vortex Wan Shi Tong opened to transport this MASSIVE building or she is SINGLE-HANDEDLY holding the entire thing up from one of its SMALLEST TURRETS
Can you even fathom?
Literally no greater amount of Earth has ever been manipulated so solidly by an Earthbender on screen. Toph is holding the ENTIRE EDIFICE SECURELY IN PLACE WHILE ONLY TOUCHING THE TINIEST TIP OF IT. WHAT A POWERHOUSE!!!!
and that was with her not knowing how to properly ground herself in sand
um so also…I just realized how long she holds this thing in place????
not only is it long enough for Katara to escape Wan Shi Tong and play hide and seek with him
but also Sokka has enough time to run all the way back to the planetarium and chECK EVERY SINGLE DATE IN THE SEVERAL MONTHS BETWEEN THEN AND SOZIN’S COMET!?!?!?!?!
That’s like at least 60 or so days…and they give this little cutscene montage to show you how long it takes…
Toph is just up there effectively supporting the weight of a goddamn city???? from a tiny pillar of solid rock that she created in a sea of sand…FOR LIKE 20 MAYBE 30 MIN????
what OP bullshit is this…please recognize the Original Beifong like damn
largest amount of any element bent at once, no powerups necessary, and she holds that shit for half an hour?
And then the sandbenders come to kidnap Appa, which because sand, she can only sorta kinda ‘see’. So she can’t even give a good account of what happened after the fact, which has got to be fucking awful for a crap ton of reasons. This girl can hear people lying because of the increase in their heartbeat (because it vibrates their body enough that she can fucking hear it through the ground, I think) But because of the sand everything goes fuzzy and she can’t ‘see’ for shit.
And she’s like, what 12-13-ish at the time. Like seriously, it’s freaking ridiculous.
Literally the only comparable feat I can possibly think of is that time that Kyoshi moved that whole Island, separating it from the mainland. And…. she was the fucking Avatar (I don’t actually remember if she had to go into the avatar state to do that but I think she did)
Like look, Bumi bending shit with his face is pretty awesome. But Toph holding this entire fucking building up…. geeze.
Also…. when she’s older, in LoK, she lives in that swamp where she can basically ‘see’ like everything! The earth bending awesome that let’s her map out her environment, that let’s her hear people’s heart’s speed up when they lie, that let’s her find little particles of earth in metal…. expanded to the point where she can ‘see’ what’s going on like half a fucking continent away.
I love her so much.
(also I think the likely scenario is that the building is getting dragged through an
interdimensional
vortex, given that in LoK the library ends up in the spirit world so *shrug*)
zuko in the last couple episodes of season 2 is basically like when u wake up one day and you’re like “you know what!!!!!! i’m getting my life under control!!!!! i’m doing my laundry! i’m hydrating!!!!!! depression who????” and then like 3 hours later ur back to being a piece of shit
HEALING IS NOT LINEAR GAYMILES
I KNOW YOU’RE PROBABLY MOSTLY DEFENDING THE HONOR OF A BELOVED FICTIONAL CHARACTER BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY VERY AFFIRMING THANK YOU
Stage-Toph: “I see everything that you see, except I don’t ‘see’ like you do. I release a sonic wave from my mouth.” *elongated scream* “There! I got a pretty good look at you.”
but the LOOK on Toph’s FACE it is the best thing E V E R R R
One of the reasons Avatar is one of the few epic fantasies I’ve actually liked is that nobody is above indignity.
This is a thing a lot of genres do, but epic fantasies seem to be impressively devoid of any sense of humor, and often cave to the temptation to make the villains or heroes so badass that nothing embarrassing or stupid ever happens to them.
In Avatar (the last airbender, anyway, haven’t seen Korra), everyone has stupid shit happen to them. Even Fire Lord Ozai has his moments– “No, Fire Lord Ozai, YOU aren’t wearing pants!” Azula gets covered in mud. Zuko has… well, getting conked in the head by a boomerang is only the beginning of the stupid undignified shit he experiences. (Though he still doesn’t compare to Sokka, the emperor unto perpetuity of Shameland.)
And I love that. Because in life, sometimes you get covered in mud. Sometimes you get conked in the head when you’re trying to be brooding and dramatic. STUPID SHIT HAPPENS TO YOU. And in real life, you still manage to be badass, or terrible, even in your moments of human frailty.
I wish I saw that more often.
Yes! This, so much. That’s definitively something I’ve noticed too, and I love it!
Actually, in a way, I think it’s kind of addressed in the show itself:
Zuko was publicly humiliated, punished and banished for speaking out of turn at a meeting. This was considered a personal offense to the Fire Lord: they were so strict and enamored with their “dignity” that the slightest misstep by a child could turn into some sort of great insult. And if you’re insulted the proper response is to defend your honor in Agni Kai, a duel to the death (with a child if need be).
In contrast, among the Air Nomads, it was okay to throw mud pies at the head monks and laugh your ass off. It was even encouraged: creativity, fun and humility were seen as the most essential qualities. No one was above pranks – neither being pranked nor even doing the pranks. And it didn’t mean they didn’t know respect – we know Aang had enormous respect for his elders and their teachings. It’s actually a much truer form of respect than what you could find in the Fire Nation, where fear kept you silent.
So, I think there is a lesson here, that maybe we should learn not to hold our dignity in such high regard, that it’s good to know how to laugh at yourself? And when ATLA has fun with its serious characters, it’s also a way to illustrate this idea – the show is all the richer by not taking itself too seriously.
what i do is not up to you 