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edenfallingStill watching Avatar! Here are some thoughts on season 2 episode 6:
The Blind Bandit:
1. Setting: an Earth Kingdom town in surrounded by green fields broken by occasional spiny outcroppings of stone. Mountains rise in the distance, implying we are in a broad river valley. Then we switch to a street view as Sokka dithers over buying a green bag.
2. Anyone who has to advertise for students by means of free coupons and shady, scruffy guys in the marketplace is probably not a very good teacher, you know?
3. Aang is wearing Earth Kingdom clothes and an Earth Kingdom hat! I am all astonishment. (Really, I am -- he never changes his outfit. Actually, on that note, I kind of wonder what all three kids wear when they're doing laundry. The underwear we saw in "The Cave of Two Lovers," I guess?)
4. Yep, Yu is not the master they're looking for. Also, what a cheapskate skunk -- the first lesson is getting hit by a rock. Everything else you have to pay for. What kind of teaching is that??? (Hmm. Aang flies back directly into a green clay jug filled with sand. Is that the earthbending equivalent of a landing mat?)
5. Earth Rumble 6, eh? Any time you overhear random characters talking about something, it is important to the plot. (Well, okay, that's only definitely true for real-time media, like movies, tv, or radio, where they have limited time to work with. In books, you can be a little more discursive to add a touch of verisimilitude, but even there, I'd say about 90% of overheard conversations turn out to be relevant somehow or other.)
6. Sokka and the green bag -- is this going to be a running joke? Also, Momo jumps down and curls up inside it for a nap. Socute!
7. OMG! Katara, I love you! She goes running off as if she's going to flirt the Earth Rumble location out of the jerks, and she talks to Aang as if she flirted it out of them ("Oh, a girl has her ways," with a sidelong smile)... and then we see what she really did was freeze them to the alley walls and intimidate them into spilling their guts. *sparkles helplessly* Seriously, is it possible to love this show more than I already do? Because I think I might physically explode from glee in that case.
8. Hmm. You know, based on the glowing green crystals in the inside-of-a-mountain tournament arena, and the glow-in-the-dark blue crystals from "The Cave of Two Lovers," I think the green lights in General Fong's audience room were not actually flames in green glass sconces. They were more weird glowing crystals. Now what I want to know is whether such crystals occur naturally, or if they are created via specialized earthbending. Seriously, if they are manufactured, and such manufacture is tricky, it could be very lucrative!
9. On a lighter note, I like the physical layout of the arena: it's basically a huge amphitheater with tiers of stone seats, and a rectangular stone platform in the middle. There's a bank of green crystals over the fighting platform, and there also seem to be ribs of jagged crystals (a somewhat whiter shade of green) extending along the ceiling and down the tops of the walls. And, of course, there is the presenter's platform, which strikes me as vaguely reminiscent of the architecture in Bumi's palace in Omashu. Then again, this is Earth Kingdom ostentation, so it's not surprising the aesthetics are similar.
10. *stares* This is totally professional wrestling. You cannot tell me otherwise. Seriously, down to the bad dialogue, the hokey stage names, the 'hero' fighters vs. the 'villain' fighters (I think the terminology is 'face' and 'heel,' respectively?) and the showboat moves. Totally professional wrestling. I just want to know if it's rigged like wrestling as well. (Pro wrestling is a weird combination of real fighting and scripted entertainment. The blows are mostly real; the chain of events, however, is anything but spontaneous.)
11. Oh, Sokka. *headdesk* I should have known you'd be a rabid sports fan. Please, stop setting off my sympathetic embarrassment squick. (Please also stop making Aang and Katara pretend they don't know you.)
12. Hey, they have a badger-mole Zamboni. Cool.
13. Totally pro wrestling -- did you see the guys wearing facemasks inspired by Mexican wrestlers? I like how the extensive series of fights are compressed into brief moments of animation intercut with roughly colored pencil sketches of climactic moves. This show does a lot of interesting things on an artistic level.
14. I think the fights are rigged, at least to some degree. Xin Fu planned all along for the Boulder to face Toph in the final round. The phrasing of his announcement -- "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!" -- is telling.
15. *blinks* Hey, Toph! Hi there, Toph! Man, she is tiny. I wonder if, seeing as she was born blind, she was also born with some other physical abnormalities that stunted her growth. Because looking at her, I highly doubt she'll ever top five feet, and I'm not even sure she'll get that tall. (ETA: Actually, based on later comparison of Toph's height to the rest of the Gaang, maybe those ladies framing her in this scene are just very tall, like models often are, or Toph's shortness is being exaggerated for dramatic effect.)
16. Katara has figured out that the fighters are playing characters. You know, Sokka may claim to be the great detective of their tribe, and he definitely has more skill at science and engineering, but Katara is equally smart when she wants to be. (She did, after all, almost pull off stealing the waterbending scroll undetected, and had the presence of mind not to hide it in her own pockets. And she figured out the clues about Kyoshi and Chin just as fast as Sokka did.)
17. The Boulder talks about himself in third person. For some reason -- maybe his tone of voice? -- this makes me want to punch him in the face.
18. "Whenever you're ready, 'The Pebble.'" *sporfle* Oh, Toph, I think I love you already.
19. Aang's expression of shocked disbelief (you know he's thinking, "This is my earthbending teacher? You have got to be kidding me!") is priceless.
20. Randomly returning to the glowing crystal issue: based on the lighting effects during the tournament -- bright light, darkness, spotlights, etc. -- I think they must be artificial, or at least subject to control via earthbending. But I think Song's village used fire for illumination (can somebody who has "The Cave of Two Lovers" to hand check that for me?), so I stand by my thought that the crystals are expensive and thus lucrative to produce (or to mine, whichever). (ETA: And the Bei Fongs use lanterns... though with the shades and the obviously steady light of animation, I can't tell whether the light source is fire or stone.)
21. Meanwhile, back at the fight... I like the sweat running down the Boulder's face; I think, in addition to being a little tired from previous fights, he is perfectly aware of how dangerous Toph is. Also, I find the animation of her Daredevil super-hearing (vibrational awareness?) pretty neat, though obviously they slowed it down for viewer comprehension.
22. All the other fighters have been making huge, obvious moves. Toph, while still working with, you know, rocks, has a much more delicate, precise touch. She's not wasting her energy on useless flash -- she just gets the job done. That's kind of funny for a pro wrestler, but in a way, a lack of ostentation is its own form of flash. It's like saying, "I am so much better than you that I don't even have to bother." (And, of course, she does kind of mock the Boulder in her choice of takedown move.)
23. Mmm. Yeah, the fights are rigged, at least in the sense that Xin Fu knows Toph isn't going to lose. That's why he makes the offer of the sack of gold coins; he knows he won't have to pay out. So when Aang blows Toph out of the ring... *wince* This is going to cause trouble, isn't it?
24. I like that Toph, while powerful and skilled, isn't a superwoman; if you're not touching the ground, she can't 'see' you, and can only track you by voice (which is much less precise). I also really like her method of storming off: if an earthbender wants to vanish into a solid rock wall and keep you from following her, there is really nothing you can do to stop her.
25. Aww, poor Aang, all depressed. And cut to commercial break.
26. We open with another establishing shot of the town, and then cut to the Gaang walking down the street. Aang is back in his Air Nomad outfit, and his yellow hat. Sokka, meanwhile, is still way too into the Earth Rumble thing, and has appropriated the champion's belt. (I sense trouble approaching on that front.) And hey, the green bag running gag reappears; it matches Sokka's new belt. *sporfle*
27. Go Katara! Intimidate those jerks some more! *admires her* Aang, good job for thinking laterally and asking about the flying pig. (Sokka, please stop making me want to pretend I don't know you.)
28. Hee, told you the system was rigged -- if the Boulder and Xin Fu can talk so casually about 'taking a dive' and splitting the money between Toph and Aang, then clearly the Earth Rumble is not built on fair fights.
29. That is one heck of an estate the Bei Fongs have there. Let's see: stream to the right and either a tributary stream or water diverted around in a moat to the left; main house and what looks like five auxiliary buildings at the back of a long, rectangular lot (probably kitchens, guesthouses, maybe an office, and so on); large formal garden including a pond with footbridge, a tiny shrine or love shack up on a rocky hill, and a gazebo sort of thing in a grassy lawn; wide stone or white earth walkways all around the inside of the high stone wall, to match the cleared ground at the wall's outer foot; and a very impressive gatehouse with a mosaic of the family crest. Yep, they're rich.
30. Sokka has no moral high ground to talk about masculinity when his belt matches his bag. Oh, Katara, you tell him. *sporfle* And hey, that's two episodes in a row where Sokka has been kind of, I dunno, swishy. Are they going somewhere with that?
31. Toph does a pretty good job playing damsel in distress when she wants to, though I can't imagine it sits well with her.
32. Ooh, Aang has obviously thought of a cunning plan. This could go well (he is a bit of a trickster, after all), or it could go very badly. *bites nails*
33. What the devil is Toph's mother wearing in her hair? *flinches away from it* On a more serious note, I love the aesthetics of this room -- it's very clean and soothing, with the golden brown walls and green carpet, the bonsai trees and the frondy green plants in their pleasingly rounded pots, the calligraphy and scrollwork carvings on the walls, the green tasseled lanterns, the round doorways with their little side-screens, the elegant wooden ceiling, and the funny little raised dais Toph's parents are sitting on. (Interestingly, Toph and Master Yu are both in more Western-style chairs.)
34. Aang, that is actually not a half-bad plan. (Sokka, seriously, stop making me pretend I don't know you. That is not how you eat at a formal meal in a stranger's house.)
35. Aang and Toph's little pissing contest is weirdly adorable. And I love the awkwardness in Lady Bei Fong's voice as she suggests they move to another room after Aang sneezes.
36. Ooh, the guest bedroom is another very pretty room. I love the low, wide four-poster canopied couch-style beds, the three red cushions around the low tea table, and the wooden window shutter that opens in and up so Aang can reach out and scratch Appa's face. (I am strangely enamored of all the architecture and interior design in this episode. Weird.)
37. Aww, Toph calls a truce and explains her 'seeing' and family life to Aang. And then... ambush! The wrestlers attack with portable metal coffin-cages (right, because earthbending doesn't work on forged metal... at least not yet) and Xin Fu wants his money back. Cut to commercial break.
38. Ack! Xin Fu found a wanted poster and plans to sell Aang to the Fire Nation. *bites nails*
39. But no fear, Katara persuades Toph to help save Aang by fighting all the Earth Rumble wrestlers at once. Go Toph! (I really like how her first move is to create a huge cloud of dust; that doesn't hinder her at all, but is a big problem for people relying on vision.) Also, I like that Xin Fu is probably better than most of the fighters; I expect he came up through the same system and was smart enough to see the real money was in running the game, not participating in it.
40. Way to learn exactly the wrong lesson, Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong! *thwaps them* (Or should that be Lord and Lady Bei Fong? Speaking of, are there any agreed upon titles or forms of respectful formal address in this world for non-aristocracy? Most people seem to have only one name, making this something of a non-issue, but since we don't know Toph's parents' given names, it seems odd to just call them Bei Fong (male) and, well, Bei Fong (female). *sigh*)
41. I like how Toph's expressions are often shown only via her mouth and chin and general posture. It's a nice reflection of how her eyes aren't important to her, and probably wouldn't react the way sighted people's eyes do; after all, she's never been able to see and mimic the right motions, which are, after all, extremely subtle.
42. "My dad changed his mind. He said I was free to travel the world," Toph tells the Gaang. "Well, we'd better get out of here -- before your dad changes his mind again," Sokka responds, with a smile in his voice. "Good idea," says Toph.
She is totally running away, and everyone knows it. And the show endorses this! I know they went out of their way to show that Toph is capable, that she's fated to be part of the quest, and that her parents are smothering her... but seriously, how did they get away with this stuff on children's television?
43. And the running gag with the belt pays off again! Bonk on the head, because Toph can't read Sokka's motions while he's sitting on Appa's back.
44. Ahahaha yes, damn straight Xin Fu and Master Yu have money as a common interest. I have a feeling this plot thread is going to come back and bite the Gaang in the ass later on.
-----
Overall, a very good episode, and a great introduction of a new main character. She has an immediately obvious role to play, she's cool, she has an interesting personality, and she's not perfect. What's even better is that her weaknesses and strengths are logical extensions of each other.
Yeah, I see why people love Toph. She is pure concentrated awesome. :-)
(This episode also has an optional audio commentary on the DVD, which I listened to after watching it. So that's where the backstory about Toph and the badger-moles comes from! Also, it's interesting that they had originally intended Toph to be male. I think that would have been unfortunate. Yeah, there are the Dangerous Ladies -- Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee -- and there's Katara, of course, but that would have left the Gaang very unbalanced. As it is, up 'til now Katara has sometimes been playing 'generic token and/or kickass girl' rather than specifically Katara, which may be why I tend to prefer Sokka to her, despite her frequent moments of awesome and his frequent moments of lameness.)
Next up, "Zuko Alone." *anticipates*
The Blind Bandit:
1. Setting: an Earth Kingdom town in surrounded by green fields broken by occasional spiny outcroppings of stone. Mountains rise in the distance, implying we are in a broad river valley. Then we switch to a street view as Sokka dithers over buying a green bag.
2. Anyone who has to advertise for students by means of free coupons and shady, scruffy guys in the marketplace is probably not a very good teacher, you know?
3. Aang is wearing Earth Kingdom clothes and an Earth Kingdom hat! I am all astonishment. (Really, I am -- he never changes his outfit. Actually, on that note, I kind of wonder what all three kids wear when they're doing laundry. The underwear we saw in "The Cave of Two Lovers," I guess?)
4. Yep, Yu is not the master they're looking for. Also, what a cheapskate skunk -- the first lesson is getting hit by a rock. Everything else you have to pay for. What kind of teaching is that??? (Hmm. Aang flies back directly into a green clay jug filled with sand. Is that the earthbending equivalent of a landing mat?)
5. Earth Rumble 6, eh? Any time you overhear random characters talking about something, it is important to the plot. (Well, okay, that's only definitely true for real-time media, like movies, tv, or radio, where they have limited time to work with. In books, you can be a little more discursive to add a touch of verisimilitude, but even there, I'd say about 90% of overheard conversations turn out to be relevant somehow or other.)
6. Sokka and the green bag -- is this going to be a running joke? Also, Momo jumps down and curls up inside it for a nap. Socute!
7. OMG! Katara, I love you! She goes running off as if she's going to flirt the Earth Rumble location out of the jerks, and she talks to Aang as if she flirted it out of them ("Oh, a girl has her ways," with a sidelong smile)... and then we see what she really did was freeze them to the alley walls and intimidate them into spilling their guts. *sparkles helplessly* Seriously, is it possible to love this show more than I already do? Because I think I might physically explode from glee in that case.
8. Hmm. You know, based on the glowing green crystals in the inside-of-a-mountain tournament arena, and the glow-in-the-dark blue crystals from "The Cave of Two Lovers," I think the green lights in General Fong's audience room were not actually flames in green glass sconces. They were more weird glowing crystals. Now what I want to know is whether such crystals occur naturally, or if they are created via specialized earthbending. Seriously, if they are manufactured, and such manufacture is tricky, it could be very lucrative!
9. On a lighter note, I like the physical layout of the arena: it's basically a huge amphitheater with tiers of stone seats, and a rectangular stone platform in the middle. There's a bank of green crystals over the fighting platform, and there also seem to be ribs of jagged crystals (a somewhat whiter shade of green) extending along the ceiling and down the tops of the walls. And, of course, there is the presenter's platform, which strikes me as vaguely reminiscent of the architecture in Bumi's palace in Omashu. Then again, this is Earth Kingdom ostentation, so it's not surprising the aesthetics are similar.
10. *stares* This is totally professional wrestling. You cannot tell me otherwise. Seriously, down to the bad dialogue, the hokey stage names, the 'hero' fighters vs. the 'villain' fighters (I think the terminology is 'face' and 'heel,' respectively?) and the showboat moves. Totally professional wrestling. I just want to know if it's rigged like wrestling as well. (Pro wrestling is a weird combination of real fighting and scripted entertainment. The blows are mostly real; the chain of events, however, is anything but spontaneous.)
11. Oh, Sokka. *headdesk* I should have known you'd be a rabid sports fan. Please, stop setting off my sympathetic embarrassment squick. (Please also stop making Aang and Katara pretend they don't know you.)
12. Hey, they have a badger-mole Zamboni. Cool.
13. Totally pro wrestling -- did you see the guys wearing facemasks inspired by Mexican wrestlers? I like how the extensive series of fights are compressed into brief moments of animation intercut with roughly colored pencil sketches of climactic moves. This show does a lot of interesting things on an artistic level.
14. I think the fights are rigged, at least to some degree. Xin Fu planned all along for the Boulder to face Toph in the final round. The phrasing of his announcement -- "And now, the moment you've all been waiting for!" -- is telling.
15. *blinks* Hey, Toph! Hi there, Toph! Man, she is tiny. I wonder if, seeing as she was born blind, she was also born with some other physical abnormalities that stunted her growth. Because looking at her, I highly doubt she'll ever top five feet, and I'm not even sure she'll get that tall. (ETA: Actually, based on later comparison of Toph's height to the rest of the Gaang, maybe those ladies framing her in this scene are just very tall, like models often are, or Toph's shortness is being exaggerated for dramatic effect.)
16. Katara has figured out that the fighters are playing characters. You know, Sokka may claim to be the great detective of their tribe, and he definitely has more skill at science and engineering, but Katara is equally smart when she wants to be. (She did, after all, almost pull off stealing the waterbending scroll undetected, and had the presence of mind not to hide it in her own pockets. And she figured out the clues about Kyoshi and Chin just as fast as Sokka did.)
17. The Boulder talks about himself in third person. For some reason -- maybe his tone of voice? -- this makes me want to punch him in the face.
18. "Whenever you're ready, 'The Pebble.'" *sporfle* Oh, Toph, I think I love you already.
19. Aang's expression of shocked disbelief (you know he's thinking, "This is my earthbending teacher? You have got to be kidding me!") is priceless.
20. Randomly returning to the glowing crystal issue: based on the lighting effects during the tournament -- bright light, darkness, spotlights, etc. -- I think they must be artificial, or at least subject to control via earthbending. But I think Song's village used fire for illumination (can somebody who has "The Cave of Two Lovers" to hand check that for me?), so I stand by my thought that the crystals are expensive and thus lucrative to produce (or to mine, whichever). (ETA: And the Bei Fongs use lanterns... though with the shades and the obviously steady light of animation, I can't tell whether the light source is fire or stone.)
21. Meanwhile, back at the fight... I like the sweat running down the Boulder's face; I think, in addition to being a little tired from previous fights, he is perfectly aware of how dangerous Toph is. Also, I find the animation of her Daredevil super-hearing (vibrational awareness?) pretty neat, though obviously they slowed it down for viewer comprehension.
22. All the other fighters have been making huge, obvious moves. Toph, while still working with, you know, rocks, has a much more delicate, precise touch. She's not wasting her energy on useless flash -- she just gets the job done. That's kind of funny for a pro wrestler, but in a way, a lack of ostentation is its own form of flash. It's like saying, "I am so much better than you that I don't even have to bother." (And, of course, she does kind of mock the Boulder in her choice of takedown move.)
23. Mmm. Yeah, the fights are rigged, at least in the sense that Xin Fu knows Toph isn't going to lose. That's why he makes the offer of the sack of gold coins; he knows he won't have to pay out. So when Aang blows Toph out of the ring... *wince* This is going to cause trouble, isn't it?
24. I like that Toph, while powerful and skilled, isn't a superwoman; if you're not touching the ground, she can't 'see' you, and can only track you by voice (which is much less precise). I also really like her method of storming off: if an earthbender wants to vanish into a solid rock wall and keep you from following her, there is really nothing you can do to stop her.
25. Aww, poor Aang, all depressed. And cut to commercial break.
26. We open with another establishing shot of the town, and then cut to the Gaang walking down the street. Aang is back in his Air Nomad outfit, and his yellow hat. Sokka, meanwhile, is still way too into the Earth Rumble thing, and has appropriated the champion's belt. (I sense trouble approaching on that front.) And hey, the green bag running gag reappears; it matches Sokka's new belt. *sporfle*
27. Go Katara! Intimidate those jerks some more! *admires her* Aang, good job for thinking laterally and asking about the flying pig. (Sokka, please stop making me want to pretend I don't know you.)
28. Hee, told you the system was rigged -- if the Boulder and Xin Fu can talk so casually about 'taking a dive' and splitting the money between Toph and Aang, then clearly the Earth Rumble is not built on fair fights.
29. That is one heck of an estate the Bei Fongs have there. Let's see: stream to the right and either a tributary stream or water diverted around in a moat to the left; main house and what looks like five auxiliary buildings at the back of a long, rectangular lot (probably kitchens, guesthouses, maybe an office, and so on); large formal garden including a pond with footbridge, a tiny shrine or love shack up on a rocky hill, and a gazebo sort of thing in a grassy lawn; wide stone or white earth walkways all around the inside of the high stone wall, to match the cleared ground at the wall's outer foot; and a very impressive gatehouse with a mosaic of the family crest. Yep, they're rich.
30. Sokka has no moral high ground to talk about masculinity when his belt matches his bag. Oh, Katara, you tell him. *sporfle* And hey, that's two episodes in a row where Sokka has been kind of, I dunno, swishy. Are they going somewhere with that?
31. Toph does a pretty good job playing damsel in distress when she wants to, though I can't imagine it sits well with her.
32. Ooh, Aang has obviously thought of a cunning plan. This could go well (he is a bit of a trickster, after all), or it could go very badly. *bites nails*
33. What the devil is Toph's mother wearing in her hair? *flinches away from it* On a more serious note, I love the aesthetics of this room -- it's very clean and soothing, with the golden brown walls and green carpet, the bonsai trees and the frondy green plants in their pleasingly rounded pots, the calligraphy and scrollwork carvings on the walls, the green tasseled lanterns, the round doorways with their little side-screens, the elegant wooden ceiling, and the funny little raised dais Toph's parents are sitting on. (Interestingly, Toph and Master Yu are both in more Western-style chairs.)
34. Aang, that is actually not a half-bad plan. (Sokka, seriously, stop making me pretend I don't know you. That is not how you eat at a formal meal in a stranger's house.)
35. Aang and Toph's little pissing contest is weirdly adorable. And I love the awkwardness in Lady Bei Fong's voice as she suggests they move to another room after Aang sneezes.
36. Ooh, the guest bedroom is another very pretty room. I love the low, wide four-poster canopied couch-style beds, the three red cushions around the low tea table, and the wooden window shutter that opens in and up so Aang can reach out and scratch Appa's face. (I am strangely enamored of all the architecture and interior design in this episode. Weird.)
37. Aww, Toph calls a truce and explains her 'seeing' and family life to Aang. And then... ambush! The wrestlers attack with portable metal coffin-cages (right, because earthbending doesn't work on forged metal... at least not yet) and Xin Fu wants his money back. Cut to commercial break.
38. Ack! Xin Fu found a wanted poster and plans to sell Aang to the Fire Nation. *bites nails*
39. But no fear, Katara persuades Toph to help save Aang by fighting all the Earth Rumble wrestlers at once. Go Toph! (I really like how her first move is to create a huge cloud of dust; that doesn't hinder her at all, but is a big problem for people relying on vision.) Also, I like that Xin Fu is probably better than most of the fighters; I expect he came up through the same system and was smart enough to see the real money was in running the game, not participating in it.
40. Way to learn exactly the wrong lesson, Mr. and Mrs. Bei Fong! *thwaps them* (Or should that be Lord and Lady Bei Fong? Speaking of, are there any agreed upon titles or forms of respectful formal address in this world for non-aristocracy? Most people seem to have only one name, making this something of a non-issue, but since we don't know Toph's parents' given names, it seems odd to just call them Bei Fong (male) and, well, Bei Fong (female). *sigh*)
41. I like how Toph's expressions are often shown only via her mouth and chin and general posture. It's a nice reflection of how her eyes aren't important to her, and probably wouldn't react the way sighted people's eyes do; after all, she's never been able to see and mimic the right motions, which are, after all, extremely subtle.
42. "My dad changed his mind. He said I was free to travel the world," Toph tells the Gaang. "Well, we'd better get out of here -- before your dad changes his mind again," Sokka responds, with a smile in his voice. "Good idea," says Toph.
She is totally running away, and everyone knows it. And the show endorses this! I know they went out of their way to show that Toph is capable, that she's fated to be part of the quest, and that her parents are smothering her... but seriously, how did they get away with this stuff on children's television?
43. And the running gag with the belt pays off again! Bonk on the head, because Toph can't read Sokka's motions while he's sitting on Appa's back.
44. Ahahaha yes, damn straight Xin Fu and Master Yu have money as a common interest. I have a feeling this plot thread is going to come back and bite the Gaang in the ass later on.
-----
Overall, a very good episode, and a great introduction of a new main character. She has an immediately obvious role to play, she's cool, she has an interesting personality, and she's not perfect. What's even better is that her weaknesses and strengths are logical extensions of each other.
Yeah, I see why people love Toph. She is pure concentrated awesome. :-)
(This episode also has an optional audio commentary on the DVD, which I listened to after watching it. So that's where the backstory about Toph and the badger-moles comes from! Also, it's interesting that they had originally intended Toph to be male. I think that would have been unfortunate. Yeah, there are the Dangerous Ladies -- Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee -- and there's Katara, of course, but that would have left the Gaang very unbalanced. As it is, up 'til now Katara has sometimes been playing 'generic token and/or kickass girl' rather than specifically Katara, which may be why I tend to prefer Sokka to her, despite her frequent moments of awesome and his frequent moments of lameness.)
Next up, "Zuko Alone." *anticipates*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 10:31 am (UTC)'Cause The Rock talks about himself in the third person. ; ) [Forgive me if you already knew that, but I didn't see a direct reference to it in your recap.]
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 12:19 pm (UTC)Also, yes... Earth Rumble is so totally Pro Wrestling.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 05:25 pm (UTC)Oh, Zuko Alone! I love how in this show you can go from a pro-wrestling parody to a serious Western homage.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 06:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 06:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 07:08 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 07:10 pm (UTC)Good to know!
I am mostly anticipating the flashbacks I have been promised (as you may have noticed, I love backstory with the mad passion of a thousand fiery suns *grin*), but hey, by all means, bring on the Western homages! (Is there tumbleweed? I will die laughing if there is tumbleweed.)
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 07:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 07:16 pm (UTC)Fire Nation Man. ^____^
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 07:56 pm (UTC)And now I must rewatch The Earth King so I'm ready for the next Embers chapter.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 10:09 pm (UTC)Also, I am amused by Kyoshi both having the biggest feet of any Avatar and being the oldest Avatar. You would think either would be enough distinction on its own. *wry*
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-05 11:22 pm (UTC)I guess they wanted to show she was a pretty amazing woman, even if she did create the Dai Li...