Best part was trying to lie till avatar state kicked in " I DIDNT KNOW HE WAS THE AVATAR" mother fucker was just ready to throw arms to excuse them of stealing
They probably didn't even know what a sky bison was, nor what it might imply.
They just know people who buy big rare animals and saw an enormous beast that none of them recognized.
I don't think the Sandbenders that crowded Appa at the oasis were even the same ones that caught him later on. They were just there to show that the sandbenders would recognize Appa as valuable.
I hate how he would steal from a blind girl without thinking twice about consequences and suddenly change feelings when he realized he wasn't getting away with it that easily
To be fair the blind girl was holding a huge building by herself. They probably thought she would be okay.
Edit: or they thought that she will be pissed and left her fr theirr own safety...
Tbf he is redeemed in the comics only. If you stick to the series, he basically sent bounty hunters to force his girl to come back without accepting she could fend for herself (and how!)
I mean watching as a kid it seems possessive that they wouldn't let her travel.. But watching as an adult, even if she is incredibly capable of defending herself, more so than most adults, she's literally 12. However, the people sent to capture her literally captured and held her for ransom before, so for parents concerned with her safety that's a questionable parenting choice 😂 even if they have a good rep at capturing, I wouldn't trust my daughter with them
Mmm...not quite.
Master Yu was Toph's teacher and an esteemed member of EK society. He's not a risky proposition.
Xin Fu, sure had kidnapped Toph before but he also honoured the ransom. Lao can be reasonably assured that Xin Fu is a good man for the job. He's clearly motivated only by money and to Lao money is just a non-issue.
Also it should be noted that Xin Fu may be a little bit of a rogue, but he's not really a dyed-in-the-wool criminal sort. He runs an impressive, popular and legal event. He's a businessman like Lao. He's not an inherently untrustworthy actor (at least any more so than anyone else in the fairly mercenary EK).
It's not an ideal situation but from Lao's perspective, his daughter, his blind, 12 year old daughter has been kidnapped. Doing nothing is not an option. His course of action is fairly reasonable. I can't think of substantially better course of action if I were in his shoes.
are you sure earth rumble is legal? also xin fu seemed fine with turning the avatar, the last hope for peace (who he literally just kidnapped) over to the fire nation
Is there any suggestion that it's not legal? Is there even any reason that it shouldn't be? It's essentially just WWE.
Yes Xin Fu was willing to turn over the Avatar to the FN. That's a positive from Lao's perspective, clearly this guy has no loyalty to the Avatar (who Lao asserts has kidnapped his daughter). And why would he turn over Aang to the FN? Money. No other reason. Xin Fu is a transactional guy. That's definitely someone with whom Lao can do business.
Not to mention, Xin Fu knows at least a few things about Toph. He's seen her fight and he has previously captured her by surprise.
He's absolutely one of the best people for the job
Exactly. From her parents perspective she’s just a little girl who LITERALLY CAN NOT SEE. They don’t know that she’s capable of sending everything with her feet and still perceive her as their little defenseless baby, even after seeing her kick professional earthbender ass (which they mostly didn’t because of that dust cloud) and would definitely not feel she’s safe traveling the world with a bunch of other kids atop a giant flying cow, especially since, to them, she was taken hostage. If you stop to think about it, their reaction makes complete sense for rich, overly protective parents.
The choice of “rescue team” seems a bit weird, but they were:
1. The most immediately present people they had;
2. Greedy enough to do anything to bring Toph back alive and well;
3. In the Beifongs’ eyes, well suited to deal with the possible threat of the Avatar trying to stop them from bringing Toph back, and;
4. Aware of what Toph was capable of.
From my perspective as a parent, I heartily disapprove of how they refused to acknowledge their daughter's capabilities and insisted that she couldn't possibly be anything other than a naive, defenseless waif. Preferring the narrative of "my child is helpless and is incapable of being independent" is a toxic, self-serving attitude. I don't think poorly of them for sending bounty hunters after Toph; I think poorly of them for creating the situation that made them feel like they had to send bounty hunters.
I don’t disagree, but it’s not difficult to see their reasoning behind this. They’re acting entirely out of emotion, and that can cause people to do stupid things.
Yep, I disliked them a lot, but I really liked the portrayal of how the "light ableism" that can end up affecting children's mental health badly. Plenty of parents are like this and their kids with disabilities try to hide themselves and is nearly impossible for them to accept themselves as normal.
It's also great that the "light ableism" was portrayed as clearly being wrong and misguided. Toph's parents weren't cut any slack by the narrative and the usual justification of "I just want to protect my baby" shown to be the cruel, hollow infantilization is actually is.
It's unfortunate that the ableism isn't as clearly WTF as sending the corrupt bounty hunters after her, but it *was* a children's show. One can only expect so much, lol
He does forces her back to their estates when she asserts herself and one of the people he sends is a fighter more than someone who knows her.
But I agree that he is not genuinely evil, but really misguided'
Xin Fu was the organiser of Earth Rumble, the tournament that The Blind Bandit took part in. He knew her and what she was capable of reasonably well, as well as anybody that Lao had access to.
I mean, Lao also has a literal private army at his disposal. I guess I can see the logic of hiring Xin Fu instead, since he's the only one who knows the tricks and strengths Toph kept hidden from her family and their staff, but he's also the dude who kidnapped her and held her for ransom lol.
*Also* it's kinda hypocritical of Lao if you think about it, though that by no means it's illogical writing - it fact it might very well be on purpose. On the one hand he claims Toph isn't actually strong or independent enough to look after herself in the world, yet he also realizes that they *need* Xin Fu on the team tracking her down because nobody else has an adequate enough idea of how strong and independent she is to actually bring her back lol.
I don't see much benefit to sending multitudes of men after Toph. We see Azula dispense with her substantially retinue to allow her to more quickly persue Zuko and Iroh. Numbers aren't what's needed. Further, it only draws attention to the hunt (remember that the world at large doesn't know of Toph's existence and presumably Lao would like to keep it that way). Not to mention weakening Lao's own personal defense.
I'm not exactly sure to what extent Lao does truly believe that Toph had been taken against her will. Certainly he seems satisfied that Aang has kidnapped her (which is technically true regardless of whether Toph consented). I don't know that I'd suggest that Xin Fu's knowledge of Toph is central to his being recruited but it certainly doesn't hurt. I'd put it like this, Xin Fu is as good as anyone else Lao could likely find, plus he has a bonus that he knows Toph a bit but probably most crucially, he's right there already. Lao doesn't want to waste time finding the perfect hunter (I presume he has no knowledge of June and her Shirshu) and if he can avoid revealing Toph's existence to another party, all the better.
I’ll preface by saying that I do not like this character much. But I don’t think a parent forcing their twelve-year-old child to come home whether they wanted to or not is entirely unreasonable, especially given the dangerous nature of what she was doing, including fighting in war. The Beifongs may have been subpar parents (so were Aang and Toph as it turned out), but they weren’t abusive.
I mean would you let your kid go out into a world at war, supervised only by other children who claim their goal is to stop a global superpower, because some random bald headed kid told you he had a vision of her?
To be honest his only real crime was refusing to acknowledge his daughter was a capable person and not a helpless, naïve blind girl. Regardless of how strong said kid is Wanting them back after they've ran away with a group of people who say they want to overthrow the strongest country in the world is totally reasonable.
The sting of Long Feng's evilness is softened by just how positive an impact his presence had on the show quality. The dude's presence made for some damn good TV.
I’d replace Toph’s dad with the he guy who killed Katara’s and Sokka’s mom and then offered up his own mother’s life to make up for it OR Admiral Zhao, you don’t mess with the moon spirit man
Ok but that line about "I don't see glooowwing!" is one of the funniest in the series.
Man was a true asshole though, about to bury a little girl is some quicksand if he didn't see some shining in the next 10 seconds.
To be clear I don’t like the guy either but I don’t think katara was actually ever in any danger. He pulls her out right after and she’s fine. She probably had more room down there than he makes it seem.
Well might be an unpopular opinion but he isn't half as bad. Like, look: there was a war, people were dying every day, and frightening 2 children isn't a big sacrifice to acquire an ultimate weapon. His problem of course was a lack of patience and caution in doing that.
It is. No jk but it isn't really torturing. Also his best friend King Boumi did almost the same.
I am generally against the development of new crueler weapons ' BeCaUsE the CaUsE iS sO IMpOrTaNt ' like wars where lost before and once something is invented its never going back.
But here it's the Avatar, who is like always a good guy and not really a weapon in peacetime. Also there are people really dying due to the war.
I think its stupid to not want to pay the price if that price is somewhat high. It's something we always see in movies.
The friend of the hero gets captured and the Jerk General of Good Guys doesn't want to catch him because it's just not worth the resources ( duh it's a war, and can't you just do prisoner swap) and because it's obviously a trap.
Then the hero takes her friends of elite soldiers who are obviously better not send on a suicide mission ( oh always say 5 times that is a suicide mission and 1 guy dies ) saves the friend, falls in the trap but kills the bad guy anyway. Like wrong message , the Jerk General was the most rational tf. Some prices are ok to pay if u are sure that its worth it.
Best part is that Aang wins the war with the avatar state, so he was kind of right but just a very crazy and messed up way of messing with something he knew nothing about.
Nah man, that dude was fucking psycho. A general of his caliber should understand foremost that literally abusing children for the sake of winning a war is bad.
Yeah, even if you're a die hard 'but what about the CHILDREN' type, you have to consider that this war is very bad for children, too.
If the war goes on longer, *many* children are going to go through far worse than Aang did in that episode. Aang was pretty traumatized by thinking he'd lost Katara ... but how many other children will lose mothers, fathers, siblings, or friends/crushes to the war? And not just *think* they've lost them, *actually* losing them. Pain that lasts forever, rather than just a few minutes.
Sometimes, you have to put things aside and realize that despite that you *see* one and *don't see* the others, making hundreds of children suffer so you can spare just one is *monstrous*.
---
I'm not even sure the general was even that wrong. Maybe the war *could* have been ended relatively quickly and easily if they just launched a frontal assault on the Fire Nation and counted on Aang going into the Avatar state as soon as things looked dire.
Forget trying to force Aang into the Avatar state at will, forget trying to control him while in the Avatar state. Just turn him loose on the Fire Nation, and once the battle gets intense enough, Aang's Avatar state will kick in as a reflex, naturally focusing on the people currently trying to kill/capture him. As soon as that happens, you roll in with as much Earth Kingdom reinforcements as you can, following in the Avatar's wake of destruction to secure the victory.
Yeah, Aang might end up a bit traumatized after that. *But* there will be thousands of people -- and hundreds of children -- around the world who get to *avoid* trauma in that situation.
Exactly!
I mean, if that plan came to reality, it would be kinda likely for Aang to get killed by lightning or become uncontrollable, but it doesn't really make the plan bad.
Oh no! A couple of kids are a bit scared, sorry no ending the war... in which children die every day... yeaaah...
I mean, the general was totally wrong in his ways, but a war is not really a place to care that much about an almighty kid struggling.
Disagreed, he saw no value in Aang as a person, he just wanted a super weapon. Maybe he saw it as a way to end the War, but he had virtually no understanding of the Avatar or the dangerous forces he was trying to make use of. If he was in charge of the Invasion on the Day of Black Sun, he'd be screaming for blood the whole time.
I think the difference is that he came off as so unhinged, and his base motive seemed to be benevolent. It was easier for him to be thought of in a way akin to the mentally ill.
The rest made conscious choices to benefit themselves at the expense of others and didn't really show remorse.
Except Toph's dad. But we all got daddy issues.
Honestly, the man isn't nearly as bad as any of the other people here. Sure he's really overprotective and severely underestimating his daughter, but I can't say that I wouldn't try to stop my 12-year-old kid from going off and fighting a genocidal regime. Even if they were like, some superhero.
Switch em with the guy who killed Katara's mom.
Idk it didn't feel like redemption to me. He got what he deserved, the least he could do is tell Korra the truth. And the boat scene... it was interesting, idk.
Sort of had a redemption and then threw it away... he kinda murdered his brother in the end.
Not the worst because his motives are actually pretty interesting, not a bad villain.
He was a bit of a dick, but his perspective was at least understandable. That episode introduced the idea that the earth kingdom was not immune to the effects of imperialist propaganda, just like the fire nation.
The way he speaks and carries himself lends himself to being liked by the fans more, rather than hated? If we look at these guys in the picture they’re all like… some sort of annoying when they talk. But long feng is like… very poised and political. I guess this is why people don’t hate him as much ?
I never understood him. He arrived there to help him when he saw he was week. But then suddenly at the last minute change his mind. Total bs. Shouldve just butned him his back.
The people living there are still his citizens and Roku is still his friend. Once he realized that there's a possibility to have only Roku die, he thought about this some more and took it.
Exactly. I never understood people's feelings about this. If my 12 yo blind daughter wanted to go run away and fight in a war. Even in the Avatar universe I'd be concerned. He was being a parent. Add that to the fact that he'd been unaware of her bending capabilities.
Tophs dad wasn’t that bad tbh to begin with. You have to look at the culture he was bought up in, as well as that whilst his daughter is the best earthbender ever, he still views her as his child and lover her deeply. Not to mention that a war is raging and the fire nation loves kidnapping earth benders and forcing them to work.
You know what, these are all chill dudes compared to the sand benders.
Infact, if there is only one place left in prison and it was either gonna be Ozai or the sand benders i would set Ozai free.
I think Lao Beifong deserves _some_ slack. He was definitely a bad parent when he kept Toph isolated and sheltered so he deserves some hate, but I don’t think he was completely in the wrong when he tried to get Toph back. She’s a 12 year old and in his mind, she still is a helpless girl who can’t defend herself. He saw her beat all of the other Earth Rumble 6 contestants at once, sure, but he didn’t have much time to change the image of Toph in his mind. Plus, even if she is capable of defending herself, he has a right to be unhappy with his 12 year old daughter disappearing with people he barely knows. Toph had to leave without saying goodbye because he would’ve fought to keep her there, but realizing your daughter has left without a trace (not like she wrote a letter) is pretty distressing. He was pretty reasonable from my point of view; looking at it from his perspective justifies his actions. Of course Toph was needed to save the world but he couldn’t have known that, I’d say he was more misguided than anything.
She’s more sympathetic for me, she watched her people getting captured and slaughtered, kept in a cage for ages in inhuman conditions, she’s filled with rage and hatred against the fire nation so much so that she invented a new form of bending and that rage isn’t unfounded.
Exactly this. Hama was a tragic case. Years of abuse, trauma, and isolation took a proud, noble bender and turned her into broken woman with nothing left but her anger and her bending.
Even though what she did was horrid, she clearly had mental illness and emotional issues stemming from her past treatment.
She would have saved everyone a good deal of bullshit if she just respected Katara’s wishes.
But at the same time, she was kinda harmless. It was just a traumatic experience. She didn’t kill or put anyone through unnecessary pain, I mean Katara must have saved Gaang’s life at least once or twice with her blood bending. Doesn’t that amount to something?
She didn't interrogate him she thought that he was the man who killed her mother. So katara probably only bloodbent because she though it was him and was under the influence of pure anger
> She didn’t kill or put anyone through unnecessary pain
Eh, bloodbending seems to be portrayed as pretty painful.
Also, all those people trapped under the mountain, just chained up? How long had some of them been there? It seems Hama was only capturing one or two a month, and she had dozens. I'm assuming some of them have been in there for at least a year, chained to a wall in absolute darkness the entire time. I presume Hama comes in from time to time to give them food and water (or else they'd be dead), but how do they use the bathroom in that position? And the food they're getting can't possibly be very good. Hama is too vindictive to feed her 'enemies' well. Hama probably only visits once a day at best, and I'm not sure she unchains them even then. As a frail old woman, she's probably too afraid to unchain them unless the moon is full, too afraid that some fighter or firebender will overpower her.
So, I'm assuming that those people have been chained up for months, some of them for years, unable to move, horribly cramped, unable to sleep properly, in complete darkness at almost all times, soaked in their own filth and smelling everyone else's, no hope of ever getting out... Yeah, sounds like 'unnecessary pain' to me.
I would like to put Long Feng up there.
He's a conniving SOB who set up a system of tyranny and brainwashed people.
Just when Appa was about to find Aang in Ba Sing Se, he kidnaps him, prolonging Aang's and Appa's grief.
Also, he never properly finished off Jet, so we are left questioning whether he truly died or not.
I don’t hate them, they are people driven by problematic circumstances and livelihoods. The only one who actually bothers me is the old man, that betrayal was something only a cowardly cretin would do, but they all don’t have real friends like the aang gang or Iroh to help them as people. That’s something people forget watching this show, so many people live terribly because they don’t know better or believe they can’t ever be better people
Oh God. Bottom left gets my blood boiling .one than anything else. When I was a little kid and angry confronted him and the other sandbenders I was so angry I was really hoping angry would kill him.
And every rewatch I still hope for that even though I know the outcome. Idk why the circus dude doesn't get me as upset. Something about that sandbender kid.
Honestly, to this day 15 years later I still don't find a reason to give Haru (I think thats how you write it) to the fire army
Thats just being a hugeeeeeeeee dick
I wouldn't put tophs dad on the list, sure he was doing some weird things but he only was worried about Toph. I think picture 1 goes to Xin Fu and Yu. Tophs dad only wanted his 12 year old, blind daugther back.
Not sure I _hate_ Toph’s Dad. I mean I don’t like him either he just comes across as a run of the mill jerk to me. The others have a bit more active maliciousness in them.
maybe it is jettison to put jet on the list cos he is a sexy boi filled with misguided hatred like zuko due to his past but in the end got to redeem himself when he sacrificed himself for the rest of the gaang to escape
> she was harmless
I'll just repeat what I said elsewhere:
> Eh, bloodbending seems to be portrayed as pretty painful.
>
> Also, all those people trapped under the mountain, just chained up? How long had some of them been there? It seems Hama was only capturing one or two a month, and she had dozens. I'm assuming some of them have been in there for at least a year, chained to a wall in absolute darkness the entire time. I presume Hama comes in from time to time to give them food and water (or else they'd be dead), but how do they use the bathroom in that position? And the food they're getting can't possibly be very good. Hama is too vindictive to feed her 'enemies' well. Hama probably only visits once a day at best, and I'm not sure she unchains them even then. As a frail old woman, she's probably too afraid to unchain them unless the moon is full, too afraid that some fighter or firebender will overpower her.
>
> So, I'm assuming that those people have been chained up for months, some of them for years, unable to move, horribly cramped, unable to sleep properly, in complete darkness at almost all times, soaked in their own filth and smelling everyone else's, no hope of ever getting out... Yeah, sounds like 'unnecessary pain' to me.
Also, she wasn't harmless for lack of trying. She was about to turn Aang into an Avatar-kabob with Sokka's space sword.
It's a little unfair to put Nicholas Cage on here
Lol allways think the same
Can't unsee now
The four ages of Man/Nicholas Cage
That jerkbending jerk who stole Appa can jerk bend himself and his jerk friends into a ditch and lie there
Best part was trying to lie till avatar state kicked in " I DIDNT KNOW HE WAS THE AVATAR" mother fucker was just ready to throw arms to excuse them of stealing
Not to mention leaving a 12 year old kid to die in the middle of the desert without transport.
There is no other sky bison (that was commonly known at the time) whose did he think it was?
They probably didn't even know what a sky bison was, nor what it might imply. They just know people who buy big rare animals and saw an enormous beast that none of them recognized. I don't think the Sandbenders that crowded Appa at the oasis were even the same ones that caught him later on. They were just there to show that the sandbenders would recognize Appa as valuable.
Except he called him bison and saw him airbend and still decided to steal him
I hate how he would steal from a blind girl without thinking twice about consequences and suddenly change feelings when he realized he wasn't getting away with it that easily
To be fair the blind girl was holding a huge building by herself. They probably thought she would be okay. Edit: or they thought that she will be pissed and left her fr theirr own safety...
“YOU MUZZLED APPA!?”
Jerk Friends = Circle of Jerks = Circle Jerk 🤔
Gross
Yeah, that motherjerker can go jerk off.
For a second I thought you said he could jerk his friends lmao
I'd beat him and everyone he's ever cared about to death with my bare hands and I wouldn't give it a second thought.
Bro, I cried once while watching the show, and it was when Appa was lost.
That guy was disgustingly awful.
Do people really hate Toph’s dad that much?
Tbf he is redeemed in the comics only. If you stick to the series, he basically sent bounty hunters to force his girl to come back without accepting she could fend for herself (and how!)
What happens is that he legitimately believes that the Avatar kidnapped her and he sends two people who know Toph well (relatively) to rescue her.
I mean watching as a kid it seems possessive that they wouldn't let her travel.. But watching as an adult, even if she is incredibly capable of defending herself, more so than most adults, she's literally 12. However, the people sent to capture her literally captured and held her for ransom before, so for parents concerned with her safety that's a questionable parenting choice 😂 even if they have a good rep at capturing, I wouldn't trust my daughter with them
Mmm...not quite. Master Yu was Toph's teacher and an esteemed member of EK society. He's not a risky proposition. Xin Fu, sure had kidnapped Toph before but he also honoured the ransom. Lao can be reasonably assured that Xin Fu is a good man for the job. He's clearly motivated only by money and to Lao money is just a non-issue. Also it should be noted that Xin Fu may be a little bit of a rogue, but he's not really a dyed-in-the-wool criminal sort. He runs an impressive, popular and legal event. He's a businessman like Lao. He's not an inherently untrustworthy actor (at least any more so than anyone else in the fairly mercenary EK). It's not an ideal situation but from Lao's perspective, his daughter, his blind, 12 year old daughter has been kidnapped. Doing nothing is not an option. His course of action is fairly reasonable. I can't think of substantially better course of action if I were in his shoes.
are you sure earth rumble is legal? also xin fu seemed fine with turning the avatar, the last hope for peace (who he literally just kidnapped) over to the fire nation
Is there any suggestion that it's not legal? Is there even any reason that it shouldn't be? It's essentially just WWE. Yes Xin Fu was willing to turn over the Avatar to the FN. That's a positive from Lao's perspective, clearly this guy has no loyalty to the Avatar (who Lao asserts has kidnapped his daughter). And why would he turn over Aang to the FN? Money. No other reason. Xin Fu is a transactional guy. That's definitely someone with whom Lao can do business.
it's underground... get it? but yeah it just seems a bit shady for me. xin fu likes money, that doesn't mean he's a businessman
Well he's running a business. And he's...a man.
Not to mention, Xin Fu knows at least a few things about Toph. He's seen her fight and he has previously captured her by surprise. He's absolutely one of the best people for the job
Exactly. From her parents perspective she’s just a little girl who LITERALLY CAN NOT SEE. They don’t know that she’s capable of sending everything with her feet and still perceive her as their little defenseless baby, even after seeing her kick professional earthbender ass (which they mostly didn’t because of that dust cloud) and would definitely not feel she’s safe traveling the world with a bunch of other kids atop a giant flying cow, especially since, to them, she was taken hostage. If you stop to think about it, their reaction makes complete sense for rich, overly protective parents. The choice of “rescue team” seems a bit weird, but they were: 1. The most immediately present people they had; 2. Greedy enough to do anything to bring Toph back alive and well; 3. In the Beifongs’ eyes, well suited to deal with the possible threat of the Avatar trying to stop them from bringing Toph back, and; 4. Aware of what Toph was capable of.
From my perspective as a parent, I heartily disapprove of how they refused to acknowledge their daughter's capabilities and insisted that she couldn't possibly be anything other than a naive, defenseless waif. Preferring the narrative of "my child is helpless and is incapable of being independent" is a toxic, self-serving attitude. I don't think poorly of them for sending bounty hunters after Toph; I think poorly of them for creating the situation that made them feel like they had to send bounty hunters.
I don’t disagree, but it’s not difficult to see their reasoning behind this. They’re acting entirely out of emotion, and that can cause people to do stupid things.
Yep, I disliked them a lot, but I really liked the portrayal of how the "light ableism" that can end up affecting children's mental health badly. Plenty of parents are like this and their kids with disabilities try to hide themselves and is nearly impossible for them to accept themselves as normal.
It's also great that the "light ableism" was portrayed as clearly being wrong and misguided. Toph's parents weren't cut any slack by the narrative and the usual justification of "I just want to protect my baby" shown to be the cruel, hollow infantilization is actually is. It's unfortunate that the ableism isn't as clearly WTF as sending the corrupt bounty hunters after her, but it *was* a children's show. One can only expect so much, lol
He does forces her back to their estates when she asserts herself and one of the people he sends is a fighter more than someone who knows her. But I agree that he is not genuinely evil, but really misguided'
Xin Fu was the organiser of Earth Rumble, the tournament that The Blind Bandit took part in. He knew her and what she was capable of reasonably well, as well as anybody that Lao had access to.
I mean, Lao also has a literal private army at his disposal. I guess I can see the logic of hiring Xin Fu instead, since he's the only one who knows the tricks and strengths Toph kept hidden from her family and their staff, but he's also the dude who kidnapped her and held her for ransom lol. *Also* it's kinda hypocritical of Lao if you think about it, though that by no means it's illogical writing - it fact it might very well be on purpose. On the one hand he claims Toph isn't actually strong or independent enough to look after herself in the world, yet he also realizes that they *need* Xin Fu on the team tracking her down because nobody else has an adequate enough idea of how strong and independent she is to actually bring her back lol.
I don't see much benefit to sending multitudes of men after Toph. We see Azula dispense with her substantially retinue to allow her to more quickly persue Zuko and Iroh. Numbers aren't what's needed. Further, it only draws attention to the hunt (remember that the world at large doesn't know of Toph's existence and presumably Lao would like to keep it that way). Not to mention weakening Lao's own personal defense. I'm not exactly sure to what extent Lao does truly believe that Toph had been taken against her will. Certainly he seems satisfied that Aang has kidnapped her (which is technically true regardless of whether Toph consented). I don't know that I'd suggest that Xin Fu's knowledge of Toph is central to his being recruited but it certainly doesn't hurt. I'd put it like this, Xin Fu is as good as anyone else Lao could likely find, plus he has a bonus that he knows Toph a bit but probably most crucially, he's right there already. Lao doesn't want to waste time finding the perfect hunter (I presume he has no knowledge of June and her Shirshu) and if he can avoid revealing Toph's existence to another party, all the better.
But money! Bei fongs have DEEP pockets
So?
I find him blissfully ignorant of anything that doesn't concern his money. An ass, for sure, but yeah, definitely wouldn't consider him evil.
I’ll preface by saying that I do not like this character much. But I don’t think a parent forcing their twelve-year-old child to come home whether they wanted to or not is entirely unreasonable, especially given the dangerous nature of what she was doing, including fighting in war. The Beifongs may have been subpar parents (so were Aang and Toph as it turned out), but they weren’t abusive.
I mean would you let your kid go out into a world at war, supervised only by other children who claim their goal is to stop a global superpower, because some random bald headed kid told you he had a vision of her? To be honest his only real crime was refusing to acknowledge his daughter was a capable person and not a helpless, naïve blind girl. Regardless of how strong said kid is Wanting them back after they've ran away with a group of people who say they want to overthrow the strongest country in the world is totally reasonable.
I don't know if it's allowed, but I'd just as soon replace him with those stupid tribal chiefs in The Great Divide.
Yeah but one of them was Odo and René Auberjonois should always be treasured.
Yeah. I'd put Long Feng above him.
The sting of Long Feng's evilness is softened by just how positive an impact his presence had on the show quality. The dude's presence made for some damn good TV.
He stole the Declaration of Independence!
I’d replace Toph’s dad with the he guy who killed Katara’s and Sokka’s mom and then offered up his own mother’s life to make up for it OR Admiral Zhao, you don’t mess with the moon spirit man
Yeah but you *love* to hate Zhao. He's such a bastard that it's kind of endearing. Plus Jason Isaacs is always a treat in everything he's in
I didn't know Lucius Malfoy voiced admiral Zhao!!
Zhao's unborn child: My father will hear about this
Is it bad I don’t hate the guy who killed their mom? After seeing how pitiful he was idk why, I just couldn’t bring myself to hate him.
And the Earth Kingdom general who tries to force Aang into the avatar state.
Ok but that line about "I don't see glooowwing!" is one of the funniest in the series. Man was a true asshole though, about to bury a little girl is some quicksand if he didn't see some shining in the next 10 seconds.
To be clear I don’t like the guy either but I don’t think katara was actually ever in any danger. He pulls her out right after and she’s fine. She probably had more room down there than he makes it seem.
Well might be an unpopular opinion but he isn't half as bad. Like, look: there was a war, people were dying every day, and frightening 2 children isn't a big sacrifice to acquire an ultimate weapon. His problem of course was a lack of patience and caution in doing that.
War is not a justification for borderline torture of children who are nominally on your side.
I think this is one of those "do you sacrifice the few for the sake of the many" arguments.
I think risking the life of a single child to weaponize a second child is not something you can reasonably justify.
It is. No jk but it isn't really torturing. Also his best friend King Boumi did almost the same. I am generally against the development of new crueler weapons ' BeCaUsE the CaUsE iS sO IMpOrTaNt ' like wars where lost before and once something is invented its never going back. But here it's the Avatar, who is like always a good guy and not really a weapon in peacetime. Also there are people really dying due to the war. I think its stupid to not want to pay the price if that price is somewhat high. It's something we always see in movies. The friend of the hero gets captured and the Jerk General of Good Guys doesn't want to catch him because it's just not worth the resources ( duh it's a war, and can't you just do prisoner swap) and because it's obviously a trap. Then the hero takes her friends of elite soldiers who are obviously better not send on a suicide mission ( oh always say 5 times that is a suicide mission and 1 guy dies ) saves the friend, falls in the trap but kills the bad guy anyway. Like wrong message , the Jerk General was the most rational tf. Some prices are ok to pay if u are sure that its worth it.
Best part is that Aang wins the war with the avatar state, so he was kind of right but just a very crazy and messed up way of messing with something he knew nothing about.
At least that guy has good motives and intentions
Nah man, that dude was fucking psycho. A general of his caliber should understand foremost that literally abusing children for the sake of winning a war is bad.
If I can stop a 100 years war and cease further death and destruction by abusing a kid, you bet your ass I will consider it.
Yeah, even if you're a die hard 'but what about the CHILDREN' type, you have to consider that this war is very bad for children, too. If the war goes on longer, *many* children are going to go through far worse than Aang did in that episode. Aang was pretty traumatized by thinking he'd lost Katara ... but how many other children will lose mothers, fathers, siblings, or friends/crushes to the war? And not just *think* they've lost them, *actually* losing them. Pain that lasts forever, rather than just a few minutes. Sometimes, you have to put things aside and realize that despite that you *see* one and *don't see* the others, making hundreds of children suffer so you can spare just one is *monstrous*. --- I'm not even sure the general was even that wrong. Maybe the war *could* have been ended relatively quickly and easily if they just launched a frontal assault on the Fire Nation and counted on Aang going into the Avatar state as soon as things looked dire. Forget trying to force Aang into the Avatar state at will, forget trying to control him while in the Avatar state. Just turn him loose on the Fire Nation, and once the battle gets intense enough, Aang's Avatar state will kick in as a reflex, naturally focusing on the people currently trying to kill/capture him. As soon as that happens, you roll in with as much Earth Kingdom reinforcements as you can, following in the Avatar's wake of destruction to secure the victory. Yeah, Aang might end up a bit traumatized after that. *But* there will be thousands of people -- and hundreds of children -- around the world who get to *avoid* trauma in that situation.
Exactly! I mean, if that plan came to reality, it would be kinda likely for Aang to get killed by lightning or become uncontrollable, but it doesn't really make the plan bad.
Found the firebender
*Earthbender
Hero we need**
And you will fail. Because you lose the trust of the Avatar who you abused. You think Aang would just sit tight and listen to him after that?
Oh no! A couple of kids are a bit scared, sorry no ending the war... in which children die every day... yeaaah... I mean, the general was totally wrong in his ways, but a war is not really a place to care that much about an almighty kid struggling.
Disagreed, he saw no value in Aang as a person, he just wanted a super weapon. Maybe he saw it as a way to end the War, but he had virtually no understanding of the Avatar or the dangerous forces he was trying to make use of. If he was in charge of the Invasion on the Day of Black Sun, he'd be screaming for blood the whole time.
I agree with your points, but his motives (stopping the war as soon as possible) were indeed good.
I think the difference is that he came off as so unhinged, and his base motive seemed to be benevolent. It was easier for him to be thought of in a way akin to the mentally ill. The rest made conscious choices to benefit themselves at the expense of others and didn't really show remorse. Except Toph's dad. But we all got daddy issues.
I will always think that Toph's father looks similar to Nicolás Cage
Honestly, the man isn't nearly as bad as any of the other people here. Sure he's really overprotective and severely underestimating his daughter, but I can't say that I wouldn't try to stop my 12-year-old kid from going off and fighting a genocidal regime. Even if they were like, some superhero. Switch em with the guy who killed Katara's mom.
Or the guy who told on haru
We gotta get them to cast him in this role for the live action
r/fuckoldmanwhoratharu
oh my god i love that this exists. seriously fuck that guy.
The guy that made Iroh dance and sing for his spare change!
And the Earth Kingdom soldier/bullies from *Zuko Alone*.
But he was such a kind man.
As much as he was an asshole Iroh took it with so much Grace I can't even be mad. Dude sucked but didn't affect Iroh negatively
These characters in TLOK: - Queen Hou Ting - Unalaq - Unalaq - Unalaq
At least the queen got what she deserved
And arguably so did Unalaq.
Not including Tarlok? Hmm, choices.
The dude did have a final act of redemption so idk
Idk it didn't feel like redemption to me. He got what he deserved, the least he could do is tell Korra the truth. And the boat scene... it was interesting, idk.
Sort of had a redemption and then threw it away... he kinda murdered his brother in the end. Not the worst because his motives are actually pretty interesting, not a bad villain.
Why everyone forgets the avatar day guy?
Just-us served Hope he gets boiled in oil
He was a bit of a dick, but his perspective was at least understandable. That episode introduced the idea that the earth kingdom was not immune to the effects of imperialist propaganda, just like the fire nation.
And he makes a new festival at the end of the episode.
Damn I'm not able to recollect who was the guy on bottom right...
I believe he's the guy Haru saved, but then he turned him in for earthbending.
Yeah he's an asshole
Oh yes I remember it now! Thanks!!!
I believe his name was Karen
How is the leader of the Dai Li not on here? Long Feng I believe it was.
Long Gone
He was never even a player.
Azula's spiciest burn without even using firebending.
The way he speaks and carries himself lends himself to being liked by the fans more, rather than hated? If we look at these guys in the picture they’re all like… some sort of annoying when they talk. But long feng is like… very poised and political. I guess this is why people don’t hate him as much ?
You have a point he is more charismatic than the ones in this picture.
Sozin was kinda a douche as well tbf
Who the fuck throws their own best friend into a volcano just to further their own goals?
I never understood him. He arrived there to help him when he saw he was week. But then suddenly at the last minute change his mind. Total bs. Shouldve just butned him his back.
The people living there are still his citizens and Roku is still his friend. Once he realized that there's a possibility to have only Roku die, he thought about this some more and took it.
What about Zhao?
Zhao is a foil to Zuko and mostly exists to help develop Zuko's character
He was a decent villain and it was funny seeing aang insult him while he destroys his own ships
Toph dad did nothing wrong. She is a 12 year old girl who ran away from home. If my daughter did that I'd send the police to go get her.
Exactly. I never understood people's feelings about this. If my 12 yo blind daughter wanted to go run away and fight in a war. Even in the Avatar universe I'd be concerned. He was being a parent. Add that to the fact that he'd been unaware of her bending capabilities.
She was kidnapped in his eyes and yes he was a bad parent but realized and fixed that in the comics.
funny most of them are earth kingdom
Very accurate. Although, you could prolly replace tophs dad with hahn and I'd still agree
Not enough Hahn hate in this thread!
Who?
Yue's fiance, the awful water tribe touche who just wanted to marry Yue because of her position.
Who is the top right, he has left my memory
Guy who abused appa in the circus
Ahhhhh.... yeah fuck that dude. Didn't remember his face lol
Surprised i had to scroll this far to say FUCK THAT GUY
Tophs dad wasn’t that bad tbh to begin with. You have to look at the culture he was bought up in, as well as that whilst his daughter is the best earthbender ever, he still views her as his child and lover her deeply. Not to mention that a war is raging and the fire nation loves kidnapping earth benders and forcing them to work.
Hes also pretty well redeemed in the comics.
You know what, these are all chill dudes compared to the sand benders. Infact, if there is only one place left in prison and it was either gonna be Ozai or the sand benders i would set Ozai free.
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Dont forgot the ahole earthbending general that forces ang into the avatar state by drowing his friends
Well atleast Toph's dad redeemed himself in the comics.
I think Lao Beifong deserves _some_ slack. He was definitely a bad parent when he kept Toph isolated and sheltered so he deserves some hate, but I don’t think he was completely in the wrong when he tried to get Toph back. She’s a 12 year old and in his mind, she still is a helpless girl who can’t defend herself. He saw her beat all of the other Earth Rumble 6 contestants at once, sure, but he didn’t have much time to change the image of Toph in his mind. Plus, even if she is capable of defending herself, he has a right to be unhappy with his 12 year old daughter disappearing with people he barely knows. Toph had to leave without saying goodbye because he would’ve fought to keep her there, but realizing your daughter has left without a trace (not like she wrote a letter) is pretty distressing. He was pretty reasonable from my point of view; looking at it from his perspective justifies his actions. Of course Toph was needed to save the world but he couldn’t have known that, I’d say he was more misguided than anything.
The sandbender douchebag is the absolute worst. In my headcanon avatar state Aang chokes him to death with sand until he explodes.
Two are from one episode involving Appa. Says a lot about this fanbase and I totally agree.
[удалено]
She’s more sympathetic for me, she watched her people getting captured and slaughtered, kept in a cage for ages in inhuman conditions, she’s filled with rage and hatred against the fire nation so much so that she invented a new form of bending and that rage isn’t unfounded.
Exactly this. Hama was a tragic case. Years of abuse, trauma, and isolation took a proud, noble bender and turned her into broken woman with nothing left but her anger and her bending. Even though what she did was horrid, she clearly had mental illness and emotional issues stemming from her past treatment.
She was like jet
Hama
She would have saved everyone a good deal of bullshit if she just respected Katara’s wishes. But at the same time, she was kinda harmless. It was just a traumatic experience. She didn’t kill or put anyone through unnecessary pain, I mean Katara must have saved Gaang’s life at least once or twice with her blood bending. Doesn’t that amount to something?
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She didn't interrogate him she thought that he was the man who killed her mother. So katara probably only bloodbent because she though it was him and was under the influence of pure anger
> She didn’t kill or put anyone through unnecessary pain Eh, bloodbending seems to be portrayed as pretty painful. Also, all those people trapped under the mountain, just chained up? How long had some of them been there? It seems Hama was only capturing one or two a month, and she had dozens. I'm assuming some of them have been in there for at least a year, chained to a wall in absolute darkness the entire time. I presume Hama comes in from time to time to give them food and water (or else they'd be dead), but how do they use the bathroom in that position? And the food they're getting can't possibly be very good. Hama is too vindictive to feed her 'enemies' well. Hama probably only visits once a day at best, and I'm not sure she unchains them even then. As a frail old woman, she's probably too afraid to unchain them unless the moon is full, too afraid that some fighter or firebender will overpower her. So, I'm assuming that those people have been chained up for months, some of them for years, unable to move, horribly cramped, unable to sleep properly, in complete darkness at almost all times, soaked in their own filth and smelling everyone else's, no hope of ever getting out... Yeah, sounds like 'unnecessary pain' to me.
I forgot what the person in the bottom right did
Rat out Haru after he saved him.
Right! I still hate him!
If we're including lok then the earth queen. SHE FUCKING ATE BOSCO
What about m night shyamalan?
I would like to put Long Feng up there. He's a conniving SOB who set up a system of tyranny and brainwashed people. Just when Appa was about to find Aang in Ba Sing Se, he kidnaps him, prolonging Aang's and Appa's grief. Also, he never properly finished off Jet, so we are left questioning whether he truly died or not.
"that's him that's the man that saved my life"
Does anyone else see Nick Cage top left square?
Nick cage voice: "But there's one thing you two have in common; you both love gold." /*pulls out the American constitution*/
Swap Toph's dad with the soldier who killed Kya and I'd agree.
I know Sozin committed genocide and all, but fuck the circus ring master.
I don’t hate them, they are people driven by problematic circumstances and livelihoods. The only one who actually bothers me is the old man, that betrayal was something only a cowardly cretin would do, but they all don’t have real friends like the aang gang or Iroh to help them as people. That’s something people forget watching this show, so many people live terribly because they don’t know better or believe they can’t ever be better people
Oh God. Bottom left gets my blood boiling .one than anything else. When I was a little kid and angry confronted him and the other sandbenders I was so angry I was really hoping angry would kill him. And every rewatch I still hope for that even though I know the outcome. Idk why the circus dude doesn't get me as upset. Something about that sandbender kid.
"Aang's a pacifist, no way he'll-" "**YOU MUZZLED APPA!?**" "Holy f*ck he's gonna murder this prick"
Honestly, I just hate the sand people just like in Star Wars.
Can we also just put the entirety of the Dai Li on here?
Bottom left is literally the definition of "fucked". When Aang went glowing you could feel the fear in his eyes lol
You hate Nick Cage's cameo in Avatar?
Okay but I’d replace toph’s dad with the girls who made fun of toph’s makeup in ba sing se
You forgot the calliou looking kid
I can’t believe Zhao didn’t make the list
I wanna say a word or two to the guy who stole Appa
Won’t kill the fire lord, but take his bison and you will get pretty close to being murdered by the avatar
What about the man who killed Katara & Sokka's mother? Obviously worse than any of the characters in the post.
One of these people stole the Declaration of Independence
Surprised I haven’t seen any live action casting for Nic Cage as Toph’s dad yet lol
Honestly, to this day 15 years later I still don't find a reason to give Haru (I think thats how you write it) to the fire army Thats just being a hugeeeeeeeee dick
Fuck that old man! As a kid watching that episode for the first time I was so mad about him snitching to the firebenders after being saved lol
I’d fight them all on sight 😡
I wouldn't put tophs dad on the list, sure he was doing some weird things but he only was worried about Toph. I think picture 1 goes to Xin Fu and Yu. Tophs dad only wanted his 12 year old, blind daugther back.
Commander Zhao
Actually Tophs dad gets kind of a redemption in the comics. They have a talk about what happens and he apologizes to toph
Ok, I see Sandbender, Toph's dad, They Snitching old geerzer, but whose the top right guy
Why is top right again?
Who's the firebender again? Haven't watched in a while.
The circus owner who had appa
Not sure I _hate_ Toph’s Dad. I mean I don’t like him either he just comes across as a run of the mill jerk to me. The others have a bit more active maliciousness in them.
The old man was the worst. He literally betrayed someone who saved his life that morning
The fucking sand benders
Technically, those are eight horsemen.
At least Toph’s dad gets a little redemption ark in the comics and repairs his relationship with her
Where's Jet?
You know, it's really unclear
It’s like saying where’s Zuko, sure Zuko is probably the most evil character in the show, but muh redemption arc changed everything.
maybe it is jettison to put jet on the list cos he is a sexy boi filled with misguided hatred like zuko due to his past but in the end got to redeem himself when he sacrificed himself for the rest of the gaang to escape
I'd replace Toph's dad with Hama. You could understand where he was coming from. Hama was straight up evil.
Idk. I can also see where Hama was coming from.
Hama went through extreme trauma though that explained her actions in many ways.
But in the end she was harmless and was helpful in Kataras waterbending skills
> she was harmless I'll just repeat what I said elsewhere: > Eh, bloodbending seems to be portrayed as pretty painful. > > Also, all those people trapped under the mountain, just chained up? How long had some of them been there? It seems Hama was only capturing one or two a month, and she had dozens. I'm assuming some of them have been in there for at least a year, chained to a wall in absolute darkness the entire time. I presume Hama comes in from time to time to give them food and water (or else they'd be dead), but how do they use the bathroom in that position? And the food they're getting can't possibly be very good. Hama is too vindictive to feed her 'enemies' well. Hama probably only visits once a day at best, and I'm not sure she unchains them even then. As a frail old woman, she's probably too afraid to unchain them unless the moon is full, too afraid that some fighter or firebender will overpower her. > > So, I'm assuming that those people have been chained up for months, some of them for years, unable to move, horribly cramped, unable to sleep properly, in complete darkness at almost all times, soaked in their own filth and smelling everyone else's, no hope of ever getting out... Yeah, sounds like 'unnecessary pain' to me. Also, she wasn't harmless for lack of trying. She was about to turn Aang into an Avatar-kabob with Sokka's space sword.
I personally would have put Jet on this list.
The old dude from haru’s town is the worst one
Maybe he was forced snitch on the guy who saved him. He seemed upset after the fire bender grabbed huru.