LogFAQs > #943756050

#6: The Blind Bandit (2.06):

Toph.

I could finish the write-up with just that word and the position would be justified.

I can't understate how much this little blind 12 year old did wonders for the show. The main cast was already cool, but she drove the coolness to high drive. Toph is strong, she is talented, she is the best earthbender in the planet and knows it, might even be the best bender overall. She doesn't waste time, she knows how to look at the big picture, and she also comes with a set of flaws that just happen to match the original three kids' strenghts, which rounds the party up. Before Toph, they were a party of strong benders, but after Toph, they are now an elite batallion, so the threats that come after them had to get stronger after this episode. And they do, with things like Azula, Combustion Man, Dai Li and family issues.

The episode that introduces Toph is blast itself. Aang tries to enroll a random earthbending academy, but it kind of sucks. It's amazing how the FN's conquering campaign managed to put all 4 types of bending in a state of suckiness. So the kids go for plan B, which is to look for a teacher in the fighting rings. They go in there and start wathching as The Boulder kicks everyone's asses. Sokka is a fan for life, but Aang is not impressed, with Bumi's words about what an earth teacher really needs lingering in his mind. In the end, the Blind Bandit appears, being announced as the champion. The kids are just wondering how that little girl became champion and she proves it... by taking the Boulder down with two moves. Aang realizes this is the one, thanks to Bumi's instructions and the convenient visions he had in the swamp two episodes ago. He then jumps in to challenge Toph, and beats her by cheating with airbending, but what he really wanted was to talk to her.

They go after the girl, after Katara kicks some asses for information. Then we get a funny dinner scene, with Aang trying to prove she is an earthbending master to her parents who apparently are not aware of it. It doesn't work, so Aang chases after her in the garden and finally proves it. But then they are captured by the owner of the fighting ring, who is less than pleased with Aang's cheating and thinks Toph is in it.

What happens next is one of the coolest fighting sequences of the show. Toph must fight to get herself and Aang released, and boy, does she just kick major ass. She beats all of the fighters one after another, then the Boulder, then the fighting ring owner, all effortlessly. During Season 1, you might think earthbending was unimpressive compared to the other elements, but it turns out it was all being saved for Toph.

She finally agrees to join Team Avatar and become Aang's teacher, though the specifics of what that means would have to be dealt with in 2.08 and 2.09. And we get a scene of her parents apparently not being impressed by her daughter's baddassery, and hiring the fighting ring owner and the earth teacher to catch her again, a plot hook that would later allow Toph to develop metalbending.

This episode is just a high quotient of baddassery while introducing the best non-Iroh character in the show. ATLA would not be the same without it. All hail Toph Beifong.