u/OriginalLie9310

I know Tenzin and Raiko approached Su requesting that she lead the charge to reunify the Earth Kingdom and lead the forces charged with that mission for the interim to stabilize the nation and then put Prince Wu on the throne.

When Su declined their request what should have been their course of action, since clearly Kuvira was not the right choice?

It was a very difficult situation and hard to resolve for sure.

Maybe Su should have led a delegation of leaders from each of the states to ba sing se along with support from the united forces, fire nation and water tribe militaries and the new airbenders for defense support. Maybe as the beginnings of democracy and confederation.

Essentially title. I just watched the Brian’s play episode where Brian writes a play and gets some acclaim for it in Quahog but then Stewie writes a play and it’s a work of art and Brian is down on himself because Stewie is so effortlessly talented.

I felt like it was a better attempt at what “Brian and Stewie” the bank vault episode was. The conflict between the 2 of them actually seemed relevant to their characters and it was an actual family guy episode so it wasn’t so jarring in style or structure. The conflict is genuine and makes sense since Brian is a super low self esteem writer. The resolution is an honestly sweet and heartfelt moment where Brian finds his true voice and Stewie sacrifices his play for Brian’s wellbeing without getting too down (it’s family guy after all)

Brian and Stewie always felt a little bit contrived and out of place for me. There’s barely any jokes, and it just kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. Brian’s issue with not being “doglike” enough is just kind of made up and his fight with Stewie just feels forced. The whole thing seems like it thinks it’s much deeper than it really is and it doesn’t really fit as a family guy episode.

Yes this is haha family guy and I’m taking an episode seriously, but that’s also what the bank vault episode feels like. It feels like it’s trying too hard to be a serious episode and say something but ends up not really saying anything. Because family guy isn’t really about that.

Toph is frequently discussed as one of the strongest benders in the entire world. A prodigy, and strongest earthbender of her era and potentially all time (not counting Avatars). At 12 she was stalemating Bumi who is the other strongest earthbender alive during her lifetime (in the comics).

Despite this, the plot always seems to take her away from the big main battle against the major enemies.

Shes one of the strongest benders, but being so strong and having unique abilities lends her more to be supporting/fighting the environment more than fighting a single bender. Especially after discovering metalbending.

I just wish we got more from her as a bending duelist in circumstances with high stakes.

Let’s go in order:

in the chase she does one move on Azula but it’s a team cornering of her. She doesn’t fight Toph directly.

In the Library, she is stuck holding the library, and weakened by the sand of the desert so we don’t get to see her fight Wan Shi Tong or the sand benders.

In the Serpents pass she does great environmental protection work. Which is one of her biggest strong suits. But the bending crown jewel of the episode is Aang and Katara vs the sea serpent, which is a great sequence.

In the drill she remains on the outside trying to slow it down from beneath. She doesn’t fight Azula, Mai, or Ty Lee. She is instrumental in getting the gang onto the drill by making a dust storm cover them and then going underground.

In Lake Laogai she is the most effective fighting the Dai Li, but doesn’t get to fight Long Feng directly. I personally would consider the Dai li top tier earthbenders, but they’re still unnamed goons.

In the earth king her and Aang have a massive display of skill and power in earthbending fighting the earth king’s palace guards, but she doesnt fight a notable bender in this fight. Just a mass amount of guards who are almost certainly masters, but not top tier. The display of raw power by Toph in this fight is massively impressive still. Her and Aang blocking the guards attacks when they first land and then her turning all the stairs into a ramp and then her and Aang essentially making an elevator up the massive steps. It’s honestly one of my favorite action sequences.

She defeats the people that were hunting her when she discovers metalbending. But xinfu and the other guy aren’t that big or important. Toph had defeated them before and they only captured her by getting the jump on her.

In the book 2 finale, she and Sokka split up from Aang and it leads to them almost having a decent fight against Mai and Ty Lee (I know they’re not benders, but are 2 of the most elite fighters we see on the show), but Azula interrupts them by threatening the earth king and they surrender. Toph breaks them out of the metal prison, but Sokka and Toph don’t make it to rejoin Aang and Katara in the catacombs for the real fight against Zuko, Azula, and the Dai Li. In my opinion the 2 of them (and Toph freeing Iroh from his crystals earlier than he escaped on his own) would likely have turned the tide of that battle and the Gaang would have been victorious.

In the first half of book 3 there aren’t any real good fights in general. Combustion man shows up but we never really get a win on him and just escape to live another day. In the end Sokka got the final win over him.

In the eclipse, Toph isn’t actually shown doing much during the ground assault. Then Aang, Sokka and Toph confront Azula guarded by the Dai Li. Again Toph is able to defeat the Dai Li and restrain Azula, preventing her from killing Sokka. But Azula is without her bending here and the team doesn’t defeat her. Azula also was difficult to pin down, but Toph couldn’t really just try to kill her there, because they needed info from her.

In the back half of book 3 Toph really takes a back seat and then during the finale she is fighting the airships instead of elite benders.

In terms of what we actually see, after Earth Rumble 6 we don’t really see Toph go toe to toe with any other benders very much at all.

This is, in my opinion, is just because she’s so strong, the writers didn’t want her to go up against anyone one on one. And also she is more effective fighting more than just a single bender. She fights environments. She fights an airship fleet with hundreds of empowered firebenders. She holds back the drill and plugs up the slurry. She breaks the gang out of jail. But she never goes toe to toe with any established, named benders besides combustion man (if you can count that as named) where it comes out more as a draw and run away. She never fights any of our named main antagonists.

Shes frankly more of a force of nature than a bending duelist.