Toph doesn’t like ba sing se because it reminds her of her home life. Very controlling from the top down, (her parents instead of the king) very strict with a lot of rules and therefore less free in her eyes
Weather or not you see what her family did to her as emotional abuse, or implied emotional abuse. It was certainly some form of neglect and mistreatment. And brauder earth kingdom allowed it. To me that’s something i relate to with Toph. Growing up with a disability and seeing all of the ways the autonomy of the disabled is constrained. It is so hard in society for the disabled to get justice is they have been mistreated by caregivers. Too often caregivers need only say some for of I ment well. Avatar shows kids that meaning well is not enough. We are on Toph’s side when she runs away. I like that. Sorry i got off topic and made a different point. I agree with what you said.
@@MrGBH they never say what her range, like the distance of the radius she can “see”. But her radius seems fairly big. If she wants a specific aria she “dial in”as it were. As for identifying specific people she seemed to know where Aang is at the party full of people. I don’t know. If she looks for her friends she could probably find them in a group if they were inside her radious of sight. She can probably only specifically locate someone she knows well. Like if you told her to scan the crowd for a king she has never meat she will be just as lost as a sighted person looking.
Plus I thought a while ago watching other reactor, that maybe Toph know that if someone that could be realtive close to his family, acknowledge her last name and that she's in Ba Sing Se, it would be a lead to her parents for track her due the time they will be in the City
6:20 The Dai Li where actually originally founded by Avatar Kyoshi, so they've been around for a while. How long they've been corrupt for, I don't know, but it wasn't when Kyoshi created the organization.
The Earth King mistaking Sokka as the Avatar is a detail I really appreciate. Because the Earth King was raised to believe there was no war, he thinks the Avatar cycle would have moved on to the Water Tribe by now.
I never thought of that! In fact, he doesn't seem surprised to see an airbender with traditional air nomad garb and tattoos either. He was born long after the Fire Nation wiped them out, but he was raised to believe that there was never any war and that the air nomads were alive and well.
That scene got me into the series. When it was first airing I wrote it off as too childish after like the first episode. Then one day I was flipping through channels and saw that fight out of context, and I was like wait how did these little kids get so bad ass in season 2? Been hooked on it ever since.
I have a headcanon that Iroh knows exactly what Zuko went through here because he himself went through it after his son died and he ended his siege on Ba Sing Se.
The Dai Li have been around for a loooooong time. They were actually set up as actual culture protectors (as they still claim to be) by Avatar Kyoshi but have since been corrupted to this.
accidently posted season 1 ep 18 instead of season 2 ep 18, but correct episode is posted now! More episodes are out on patreon now! www.patreon.com/OneInAMelon
The writing in this show is insanely good. Every character feels important and has their own goals and purpose, and no wasted sidestories. The Drill episode seemed like a filler episode that didnt impact the story much(but it was awesome regardless) but it came back 5 episodes later and was essential to the story here.
Avatar Extras The Earth King The palace grounds are located in the center of Ba Sing Se. The palace is the military and spiritual center of the entire Earth Kingdom. 2:21 Surface-to-air rocks are also called "SARS". Fun fact: The Earth King's throne is designed after the badger-mole (the original practitioner of earthbending). 5:47 Earthbending-handcuffs don't work on earthbenders. Like real ancient Chinese emperors, Kuei (the current earth king) has lived a sheltered life. He is the fifty-first Earth King and he's the first one to ever see the Outer Wall. Originally, the writers thought of making the Earth King either a really young boy, or a really fat man. In the end, they decided to go with just a normal looking guy. 13:03 you actually met Sokka and Katara’s father in Appa’s Lost Days Bonus: 16:55 The last time we saw the Kyoshi Warriors, they were battling Azula and her sidekicks. Now we know who won. Now for the bigger question…what happened to Suki?
The absolute style and swagger of walking calmly to your destination while absolutely wrecking your enemies makes the battle with the dai li while approaching the palace one of my favorites in the series.
Now that I think about it, the King would have been born in an already corrupt city that was planning to raise him without the knowledge of the outside world. When Iroh invaded though, that’s a questionable issue.
Dreams are hard. The part that is most obvious is the red and blue dragons speaking in to each of Zuko’s ears representing the choices he has to make. Edit: When the blue dragon says “Sleep” they are talking about submitting to the path lay out before him by Fire lord Sozin, Azulon and Ozi. Take on the mantal of emperor or the colonialist authoritarian empire. Continue to conquest and domination of others. (End edit) Personally my favorite image is of Zuko literally being consumed by the throne. Its so poignant, about how the cycle of authoritarianism curupts nice people into losing who they are. Even Iroh was not immune to the expansionist, colonialism of the firenation. That is why his son died. Zuko has a lot to think about and his dreams reflect that.
Idk, at the end, "the blue dragon" (same voice as Azula, who uses blue flames) tells him to "sleep...just like mother!" and it seems to attack Zuko. Then, Ursa, his mother is shown in peril before he wakes up. Thus far in the show we are never directly told what happened to Ursa, probably on purpose, to keep it shrouded in mystery, but the implication is, it wasn't good. The term "sleep" seems to represent danger, perhaps even death, when used for Ursa, so perhaps it has a similar meaning when the blue dragon tells Zuko to "sleep." I guess it is portrayed as a tempting, attractive offer somehow, so it has a dual meaning. As you say, you could interpret it as taking the "easy road," blindly following the path set before you by others, like Ozai. To sleep is to close your eyes and flee from reality into dreams as a form of escape. Its also interesting that "the red dragon" (same voice as Iroh) urges him to get out of "here" right now, by which he could mean the dream itself, in other words, wake up, and see the truth.
@@marvelsandals4228 personally i like that the blue dragon represents the current path layed out by Ozi and Fire lords past. Zuko associates this with Azula and that is why the blue dragon has her voice. Usa death/ disappearance mystery was caused by Ozi’d need for power and domination. Both symbolized in Sozin’s thorne. Sozin does not sit on the throne of fire lords past. He was forced to remake the throne room which i find highly symbolic.
There are a lot of theories about the age of Earth King Kue. Personally i like the idea of him being 16-18. Young and trying his bend to be a responsible adult king but still heavily dependent on advisors and easy to manipulate.
@@cattiefogelsong6399 Be reasonable, there is no possible way that anybody could suspect that creating more government to control the corrupt government would lead to even more corrupt government. Clearly the solution is to make another agency to spy on all the others, you could call this new agency the CIA or the Praetorian Guard, either one works I think. No chance that this one will backfire and cause more problems and corruption!
Can’t believe you couldn’t point out what bothered Toph so much about Ba Sing Sei😂. You actually answered it with your previous statement about Zuko in the last episode. She(Toph) was also brought up under very strict rules, armed guards, restrictions on activities (especially earthbending) and the richest family in the world(Royalty)..😂😂🫡 Don’t think the odd and over the top rules in Ba Sing Sei would be anymore pleasing.
Poor Tooh she doesn’t know what her parent’s hand writing looks like or any authentication markings the Beifong family used to prevent forgeries. I asume they have them. So sadly Toph falls into the trap. It’s surprising brilliant, playing on an emotional weakness.
By authenticating marks I don’t just mean a personal wax seal. This is confirmed to be a think in avatar. High ranking aristocrats in the earth kingdom have a personal wax seal kept on their person at all tomes. Confirmed by the Kyoshi books. There could be other things like ink stamps, signatures, paper type and wight. Toph may even know that notes sent by her father have these marks to prevent forgery but be able to recognize a fake. And Master Yu would know all of this too…
@@kelaarin she did run off (or was kidnapped) with a buch of people who can read. They may have never tought her brail or the universe equivalent. So they expected the messenger to read it allowed to her. Or someone else would read to Toph. The beifong name is big enough that people will just do stuff for them. Remember the fair boat lady just bent over and complied with Toph’s request. The story from Toph’s perspective is that her mother was determined to reach out and mend fences. The messenger was captured by the di lee. The note was confiscated. The di lee either said we will deliver it and you can go on your way or something worse. Toph still wanted some love from her parents. We don’t hear the exact note but could have played her emotions perfectly where she wanted it to be true and missed the red flags. Just a theory. All in fun.
Hi Melon This episode is fantastic the earth kingdom entrance go's so hard And the Zuko dream is so good oh I don't know if you notice the Dragon moment but if you listen to the voices of the 2 Dragon the Blue Dragon represent Azula and the other Dragon represent Iroh cool piece of information there Favorite funny moment in this episode is from Sokka look like Long Feng is long gone
