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*)
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.
Can you believe 14 year old azula delivered the best line of any villain ever “don’t flatter yourself. You were never even a player” iconic
Actually the best line of any villain ever was, “Maybe you should worry less about the tides, who’ve already made up their mind about killing you, and worry more about me, who’s still mulling it over.” Also spoken by Azula, age 14.
People need to stop reblogging this without the rest of the comic :^)
Part 1: Aang has a negative reaction to people who mistakenly hurt his feelings but had good intentions.
Part 2: Aang calms down and acknowledges that those people’s intentions were good and instead of being upset offers to educate and inform those people and SHARES his culture.
Good message there.
fucking THANK YOU. intentions make up 100% of the line between true admiration and cultural appropriation.
There are no canonically white people in A:TLA. The Earth Kingdom is coded as Chinese, the Fire Nation as Japanese, The Air Nomads as Tibetan, and Water Tribes as Inuit and Sireniki people.
what i do is not up to you 