Avatar Recap: Book 3, Chapter 7
The latest installment of Avatar: The Last Airbender starts off with the often-used gimmick of having something shocking start off the show that we're right in the middle of, and then cuts to a "X days earlier" scene. It's a little clichéd for Avatar's style, but I really can't think of many sci-fi or fantasy shows that haven't used it at one time or another. So anyway, Toph is suddenly captured by the local authorities and we see that Katara is the one who turned in the little blind Earthbender. Oh dip! What could have brought this on? Why, Katara? Why? Toph doesn't smell that bad, does she?
Oh so many spoilers await you, gentle reader.
After we get that obligatory "X days earlier" caption, we see that Aang and his running crew are doing what they usually do. Hanging out right outside the outskirts of another Fire Nation village. And this time, Aang's doing some blindfolded bending training. I always love watching the bending on this show. Time and time again, I am highly impressed with the level of detail in the animation for the martial arts and bending moves in this show. I just sit back in awe of it. So pretty.
Anyway, the friction that's always been between Toph and Katara comes to a head and they nearly knock each other's blocks off, doing some sweet bending while they're at it. It's been coming for a while, I suppose. Plus, we get some great comic relief from good ol' Sokka with the worst sneak attack in the history of attacking in general. Aang and Sokka stop the girls from getting into an all-out brawl. Aang, Toph, and Sokka decide to head into the town to diffuse the situation. And as a personal enjoyment side-note for me here, there's another great little bit of animation where Toph uses her Earthbending to quickly clean all the mud off her clothes. It's a simple little thing, but again, it's that attention to detail that makes this show so good.
The crew runs into a con-man running a shell game and Toph decided to con the con and make some money at the same time. Of course, being the little blind girl, no one suspects a thing and she uses her bending abilities to make sure she wins. When they use their new spoils to buy lots of supplies, Katara is immediately suspicious of where the money came from. Toph has no qualms explaining how they ripped off a con man and doesn't feel bad at all. We are then treated to a fun little montage of how Toph uses her abilities to get all sorts of money by running lots of cons around the town. Naturally, Katara gets even more upset.
To help make things better between Toph and his sister, Sokka takes Toph aside to explain why Katara is so protective and motherly. We get a bit more character depth for Sokka, to explain why he's able to be so carefree and silly most of the time. He's got Katara there to help reel him in when he gets out of control. And he knows it's a good thing. Katara is in earshot of the conversation and learns more about Toph as well, and how she really does miss her parents after running away.
To help reconcile, Katara proposes a new con where she turns in Toph (whose face is now plastered around the town on wanted posters) to collect the reward while Toph uses her metalbending to bust out of jail. And thus we have returned to our opening scene. The only problem is, the locals seem to be expecting just such a plan and toss Toph in a room that's made totally of thick, very solid wood. When Katara goes to collect the reward, she is confronted by Sparky Sparky Boom Man who can make concentrated Firebending explosions from his tattooed third eye. Katara gets locked up with Toph, but then proceeds to make a badass escape by making herself sweat from running in place and then uses the sweat to waterwhip the wooden cage to splinters.
Knowing that their capture is just a trap for Aang, Katara pulls an even more badass move and KACHUNK, completely encases Combustion Man's head in a giant block of ice. Seriously, what the hell? That was fucking awesome. Not to be outdone, Toph pulls a little badassery of her own, chucking a big rock at the dude who of course proceeds to blow it the hell up. But Toph gets a little pebble of debris through and smacks him right in the tattooed third eye, completely messing up his power (at least temporarily) and causing him to blow himself up a bit.
The crew escapes and now we wait for the next episode.
What say you?!