ATLA Book Two: Earth
Chapter Six: The Blind Bandit
In Which Sokka goes
shopping for a nice bag, the Hippo eats a rock, and Aang is a terrible dinner
guest.
In my post on “The Storm”, we talked about how that episode
was easily the best of the show so far, and how it represented a vast step
forward in the show’s quality. “The Blind Bandit” is, for my money, the first
episode to top “The Storm”, and represents a similar leap forward. While “The
Storm” showed that The Last Airbender, which at that point was already very
good, was capable of being great, “The Blind Bandit” marks the point where the
show starts being consistently great. Seriously, the run of four episodes
starting here was what convinced me this project was something I had to try and
do. From now on, most episodes are at or around this level of quality. This
leap forward in quality can, of course, be attributed in no small part to the
addition of Toph to the main cast. It can be tricky for successful shows (and
make no mistake, Avatar was a successful show at this point) to introduce a new
member to their ensemble: there’s always a risk of ruining the winning dynamic of
the current cast. But Toph works because she doesn’t feel shoehorned in, but
instead actively adds to the group’s dynamic: she fills a hole that the
audience doesn’t realise existed until she arrives.
But discussion of what Toph adds to the Gaang’s dynamic can
wait for another post. For now, it’s worth talking about the way the show
introduces her, and as with “The Storm”, the best way to discuss the episode
seems to be breaking down its story in detail, key scene by key scene.
We begin with Aang continuing to search for his Earthbending
teacher. It is worth noting here that “The Blind Bandit” plays a crucial
structural role in Aang’s hero’s journey, being the episode where he finds his
second peer to teach him, with Toph replacing Bumi just as Katara replaced Paku.
In his search to learn Earthbending, he takes a free Earthbending lesson, only
for that lesson to be unsuccessful. It demonstrates the difficulty Aang
experiences with the element, as we get a first witness of his fear at facing
Earthbending head on. We also see how hard it is for Aang to find a good enough
teacher: Yu seems to have a reasonable understanding of Earthbending, but he is
ultimately a character driven by greed, more concerned with bribing pupils to
pay extra than with actually teaching his element. So the Gaang decide to go to
the Earth rumble, finding the arena through Katara’s fantastic “Oh, a girl has
her ways” moment, which is a delightful subversion of the “Girl gets what she
wants through her feminine wiles” trope. But the early fights further
demonstrates the issue in Aang’s search: that even the best, most powerful
Earthbenders aren’t masters of the element, and don’t seek to understand it by
waiting and listening as Bumi said they would have to, instead relying on raw
power and brute force.
But then we see a more refined, complex form of Earthbending
in Toph’s fight with the boulder. The scene serves as the introduction to her
character, and demonstrates why she is the ideal candidate to become Aang’s
Earthbending teacher. The shots of the Boulder moving in slow motion as Toph
figures out his every move indicate that she is in a different league to the
other Earth Rumble fighters: she is thinking and operating at a different speed
when she fights. The sequence is also a successful introduction because, for
all I talked about what she brings to the group dynamic, she really works from
the get go because she’s a great character. We see just how much fun she can
be, with her incredibly cool and unusual fighting style allowing for some
breath-taking animation in the form of the seismic sense shots, and her
delightful one liners show that she she can entertain as a character as well as
a fighter. The sequence focuses on the superficial thrill of her as an
immediately appealing, entertaining, and likeable character, quickly
establishing her as a character the audience want to see more of.
Aang immediately recognises her as the ideal teacher for
him, so he takes up the challenge of fighting her so that he can speak to her.
But this plan goes wrong, as we see the limitations of Toph’s abilities through
her struggles to sense Aang’s movement: Toph is not impossibly capable, and is
still realistically restricted by her blindness. As a result, Aang’s attempt to
approach her fails, as he accidentally beats her and takes her title while attempting
to avoid conflict and strike up a conversation. In doing so, Aang inadvertently
takes the one good thing she had carved out for herself through her own agency
and talents, so naturally Toph wants nothing to do with him, or his request
that that she teach him how she bends.
So the Gaang search for Toph, and learn some fascinating
details about Toph through a delightful return to Katara’s intimidation of the
two asshole Earthbending students. We discover, through a throwaway comment
from one of the students, that the Beifongs are keeping Toph a secret from the
world. No one knows she exists: The Blind Bandit is the only identity she can
have around anyone outside of the Beifong estate. And when the Gaang sneak into
the garden of the estate, they find that Toph is still angry at Aang for
beating her, as she feels cheated out of the one thing that allowed her to truly
express herself, so she chases them off by acting out her parents’ image of her
as a fragile and helpless victim.
The scene where the Gaang have dinner with the Beifongs is
another example of the Avatar franchise’s gift for dinner scenes. It’s a lovely
scene where each character has a different agenda and understanding of the
situation, and the conflicts between these agendas are made clear by the
subtext of the conversation. Toph’s parents see their daughter as fragile and
helpless, and want to protect her. Aang knows she isn’t helpless, but doesn’t
understand her family situation, so fails to encourage her to become his
teacher. And Toph knows how her parents would react if they found out about her
earthbending title, so she wants to keep them in the dark. The scene displays
the tension between Toph’s identity as a Beifong and her identity as The Blind
Bandit: we see her performing the role of the Beifong’s privileged but fragile
daughter, which is very much a role, not who she is at all.
Yet for all she is playing a role that isn’t really her true
self around her parents, it is worth pointing out that The Blind Bandit is just
as much of a role that Toph plays, even if it’s one she’s happier playing. Her
true self lies somewhere between the two identities, and the task of the
episode is to find a place where she can openly be both people. We see her true
self for the first time in the garden scene, where she talks with Aang about
her disability, and how she sees with Earthbending:
“Even though I was born blind, I've never had a problem
seeing. I see with earthbending. It's kind of like seeing with my feet. I feel
the vibrations in the Earth, and I can see where everything is. You, that tree
… even those ants.”
There’s a quiet beauty to the scene with simple yet
beautiful animation taking us through the way Toph’s perception of the world as
she describes each object that she sees. Each shot slowly pans out to take in
the whole garden, before zooming in on the ants, emphasizing the way her
earthbending “sight” is both far reaching and takes in the tiniest of details
through the juxtaposition of images. It
is a moment that truly emphasizes the importance of the representation
Toph provides. There is a popular Tumblr post that tells the story of a little
girl who used Toph’s story as a source of strength for herself and her father
as she was turning blind, and it really is proof that characters like her
appearing in media, particularly for children, matters: her place in Avatar
actively makes our world a better place. This is in no small part because her
blindness is sensitively handled in this episode and throughout the series. It
is acknowledged, and the real difficulties it causes for her are shown, but she
is still capable of being powerful, uniquely so due to the way she utilises her
disability, and most importantly, it is not everything about her character, not
the sole thing that defines her. She is Blind. She is funny. She is tomboy who
rejects the role of rich girl, but is still remarkably good at playing the
part. Most of all, she is the greatest earthbender in the world.
Then, after a brief sequence of kidnap and ransom that
necessitates Aang’s rescue, we get the next key scene in Toph’s fight with the
Earthbenders. It is the most spectacular set piece in an episode filled with
spectacular sequences, and is a moment satisfyingly rooted in the character
threads of the episode. Toph prompted into helping save Aang when her father
belittles her one time too many, in the arena where she has repeatedly proven
her worth, and unleashes a fearsome display of bending that takes out all the
contest’s most powerful opponents single-handedly, leaving even her master
astonished at her prowess.
The fight is a sequence filled with fantastic animation
details and fighting styles, really showing off the range of things that can be
done with Earthbending. Toph’s approach to the fight is ingenious: she knows
her opponents won’t be able to deal with losing their vision, whereas her
fighting style is made to compensate for her lack of sight, so she kicks up a
dust cloud, instantly giving herself an advantage, even though she is
outnumbered six to one. There are multiple ingenious moments of Earthbending,
such as the rotating disc she uses to take out three of the Earthbenders at
once, and the shield she uses to protect herself and then attack and throw Xin
Fu off balance, so that she can once again use her seismic sensing to take him
out. It is a very methodical, tactical, fighting style that is distinct from
and far outstrips the other Earthbenders, and more than meets Bumi’s “wait and
listen” requirements. But arguably the best, and definitely most telling,
moment is the lovely touch of her little grin when taking out the Hippo and Xin
Fu: she loves fighting, and she loves the chance she gets to show the other
Earthbenders just how much better than them she is. And so, in the only scene
where she fights in her Beifong clothes, she reveals her true self to her
parents.
But seeing his daughter’s true self is too much for Toph’s father,
who rationalises what he has just seen to a ridiculous extent to try and
justify further over protecting and infantilising her. It is a heartbreaking
moment for Toph, who has just bared her soul to him by showing him who she is
and what her abilities mean to her. It is this moment where it becomes clear
that Toph’s story, at least for now, is about breaking free of the restriction
her parents placed on her.
Katara and Aang’s exchange of “Don't worry, we'll find you a
teacher. There are plenty of amazing earthbenders out there.”/ “Not like her”
reflects not just Aang’s feelings at losing Toph, but also those of the
audience. Toph’s over protective parents will be the key to her unlocking her
metalbending in the long run, but for the short term of this episode, their
actions are used to show how empty the series would be without Toph, and how we
genuinely want her to be a part of the show. The episode has been structured to
showcase Toph as a character, and so before recruiting her as a regular, it
takes an important moment to dwell on the empty space that would be left if she
didn’t join the show.
So it is particularly joyous when we see she has gone
against her father’s wishes, and run away to join the Gaang. And she’s obviously
lying when she says she’s talked him round: Sokka and Katara’s shared glance
before Sokka promptly suggests they leave quickly suggest the Gaang know she’s
lying too. It’s interesting that Toph’s lie is left at that: not a cause of
conflict within the group, but Toph’s own choice for her story that the others
quietly accept. Her addition to the Gaang is better for the show, and better
for Toph: her father tells Yu and Xin Fu to take Toph home, but the shot of her
smiling that closes out the episode shows that she has found a better place to
be. The Gaang live with no fixed location to tie them down, an environment in
which Toph doesn’t need to disguise herself as The Blind Bandit: she can be the
greatest earthbender ever, and still be known as Toph Beifong.
End of Part Twenty
Four.
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