Could the fate of the Fire Lord, the future of the Avatar
and the very existence of Republic City
all depend on one failed field trip?
Today, we're exploring the alternate timelines
that answer this question.
What if Toph actually got
her life-changing field trip with Zuko?
Everyone else went on a life-changing field trip
with Zuko.
Now it's my turn.
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That's so great!
Now, what would happen if Toph got the field trip she wanted?
Well, the short answer is, it depends.
When exactly would Toph and Zuko go on this field trip?
What would they do, and how would it affect
the rest of their lives and the rest of the world?
Let's say Zuko actually listened to Toph on Ember Island,
because, let's be real,
he didn't even try to channel Iroh
and give her some wise life lesson.
It's like a silver sandwich.
What?!
If he wasn't too preoccupied with finding Aang,
he might have learned that he and Toph have a lot in common.
They both had privileged upbringings,
Toph is from the richest family in Gaoling
and Zuko, who is literal royalty.
They both had overbearing parents
with unreasonable expectations for their children.
They both created secret identities
to slip past the rules of their circumstances
and go after what they really wanted.
And they both had to leave home to escape what others
wanted for them and truly find themselves.
So it's not that difficult to imagine them bonding
over their tough childhoods,
getting angry at Fire Lord Ozai,
realizing that Sozin's Comet is on the horizon,
and then deciding to take an impromptu field trip...
to see the Fire Lord.
They could borrow Appa,
and once they reached the main island of the Fire Nation,
Toph could use earthbending to tunnel them under the city,
past the guards and into the palace.
Not a problem.
Toph and Zuko would find the Fire Lord
getting ready for his big moment,
crowning himself the "Phoenix King".
Toph would use metalbending to box up Ozai
just like when Xin Fu kidnapped her
and tried to bring her back to her parents.
Zuko is already an expert
in breaking into and out of places
that nobody should be able to break into and out of.
The Boiling Rock, the Pohuai Stronghold,
Lake Laogai...
So, just imagine,
the Blind Bandit and the Blue Spirit
teaming up to dad-nap the Fire Lord,
and hand-deliver him to Aang,
who would turn up, eventually.
And in the meantime,
Toph and Sokka would just verbally destroy Ozai.
I'm talking a total roast.
I guess we should call you the Loser Lord!
I am the Phoenix King!
[groaning]
Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to offend you,
Phoenix King of Getting His Butt Whooped!
Hilarious as that would be, it also wouldn't leave Zuko
to reconcile with Iroh until well after the end of the war.
Also, after dealing
with the worst father in history,
Toph would probably decide that she has no interest
in reconciling with her own family.
And on top of all of that,
nobody would be around to stop Azula
from claiming the throne after Ozai goes missing.
So we would end up in a timeline
where Zuko never challenges Azula for the throne,
and where Toph never coped
with her central defining conflict
between reconciling with her family
and being herself.
So does this timeline leave both Zuko and Toph
with incomplete, unsatisfying character arcs?
Yep.
Does it also break the whole dramatic structure of the finale
and get rid of this fantastic moment
when Aang finally faces his duty as the Avatar head on?
You bet.
But, would it also be
the most wildly entertaining field trip in the whole series?
Um, yeah?
In Zuko's defense,
there wasn't a ton of time for a life-changing field trip
while Team Avatar was scouring the island searching for Aang.
But what if Toph and Zuko took their field trip
on the day of Sozin's Comet?
What if instead of asking Katara to help put Azula in her place,
Zuko asked Toph?
In this situation, Katara would join Suki and Sokka
in taking down the airship fleet.
Katara was able to break into the Southern Raider ship
with just waterbending,
so she'd probably be able
to break into the control room on the airship,
just without Toph's metalbending monster move.
There's one other moment
when Toph's bending saves the mission,
when she metalbends the rudder of the airship
to take out the rest of the fleet.
Katara and Sokka would have to sneak into another airship
and take over yet another control room.
It would take them much longer
than just metalbending the rudder,
but something tells me that Katara, Sokka and Suki
would figure out a way to stop the whole fleet.
[whispering] Water Tribe!
Now what would happen if Zuko and Toph confronted Azula
instead of Zuko and Katara?
The beginning of the Agni Kai would play out
pretty much exactly as we saw in the show.
But everything would change
when Azula attacks Toph.
Because she is so attuned
to the tiniest movements of her opponent,
it's possible that Toph
could feel the shift in Azula's aim instantaneously.
She could potentially block Azula's lightning strike,
step in and strike with decisive force.
Now, Azula and Zuko were pretty evenly matched,
but Azula versus Zuko and Toph?
I don't think she would stand a chance.
Of course, all this depends
on Toph being able to anticipate Azula's moves.
And that's not a guarantee.
There's some compelling evidence that Toph can't read Azula
as well as she can read other people.
Stick to the truth,
I'll be able to tell if you're lying.
I am a 400-foot-tall purple platypus bear
with pink horns and silver wings.
Okay, you're good, I admit it.
So if Toph can't sense Azula's intentions,
Zuko would sacrifice himself for Toph,
leaving Toph to take down Azula alone.
All right, let's break this down.
Toph versus Azula on the day of Sozin's Comet.
We know that Toph is a master of neutral jing,
waiting and listening.
But Azula is so unpredictable and her firebending
is at its most powerful at this moment.
So Azula, especially in this condition,
would be a serious challenge for Toph.
Honestly, we're not sure who would take this one.
Drop us a comment and tell us who you think would win.
Even if Toph did take down Azula, though,
she doesn't have Katara's healing abilities.
If Zuko leapt in front of Azula's lightning for Toph,
his life would be in grave danger
and Toph would have no way to help.
Worst field trip ever.
Both facing down Azula and kidnapping Ozai
would lead to some awesome battles,
but would they actually qualify
as a life-changing field trip with Zuko?
Because maybe the real Zuko field trip
is the character development that happens along the way.
By the end of Avatar the Last Airbender,
Toph still hasn't made her peace with her family.
She sent a message to her parents in The Runaway,
but nobody really knows what happened to Hawky
or the letter he carried.
[Sokka] Hey, where'd Hawky go?
In the search, Zuko finally finds his mother,
after leaving home, finding his destiny
and becoming the person he'd meant to be.
When he reconnects with Ursa,
Zuko could finally reconcile his past with his path in life.
So if Toph wanted to reconnect with her family too,
it would make a lot of sense for Zuko to join her.
In The Rift, which takes place
right after the search,
Aang brings Toph, Sokka, Katara, and the air acolytes
on a field trip of his own
to celebrate Yangchen's Festival.
Toph isn't feeling very festive, to say the least.
So since she wasn't particularly interested
in a 100-year-old Air Nomad tradition,
let's say Toph went
on a field trip with Zuko instead.
Together, they would go back to Toph's hometown, Gaoling.
When they got there, though,
they would only find Toph's mother, Poppy.
That's because after Yu and Xin Fu
came back to Gaoling without Toph,
her parents split up,
and Lao, her father, left Gaoling.
When Zuko and Toph found Poppy,
they would probably stay with her,
so that Toph could prove to her mother
what the rest of the world already knew:
that she's the greatest earthbender of all time.
If Toph was able to reconcile with her mother,
it's possible she might grow up
to be a different kind of mother to her own two daughters.
In The Legend of Korra,
we find out that Toph was a really hands-off parent.
She was probably just trying to give her two daughters
the freedom that she never had as a kid.
But as a result,
Suyin acted out and got involved with the Terra Triad
while Lin threw herself into police work
and clung to rules and order.
[laughs] Wow, you almost look like a real cop!
You're supposed to be in school.
Oh, no, are you gonna tell Mom?
It's not like she's going to care.
But if Toph had a chance to find
a more balanced relationship with Poppy,
she might have been closer to Lin and Suyin.
Instead of never speaking to each other,
the two sisters might have grown up
to have a closer relationship,
both to their mother and to each other.
But this trip to Gaoling would have consequences
that reach way beyond the Beifong family dynamics.
While Toph is busy making peace with her mother
at her old home,
she and Zuko would be missing out
on Team Avatar's adventures
at the Earthen Fire Refinery in Cranefish Town.
In this timeline,
Toph wouldn't get involved at the refinery,
she wouldn't reconcile with her father,
and we wouldn't get to see her soft side.
Aang would probably still try to protect the townspeople
from General Old Iron,
but without Toph there to defend the refinery
and everything that her father worked to build,
Aang would completely destroy
the industrialized Cranefish Town
just to appease General Old Iron.
Appeasing angry spirits
by restoring balance between humans and nature.
Seems like just another day
in the life of the Avatar, right?
Except, Cranefish Town would go on
to become Republic City.
While the town developed,
the Earthen Fire Refinery would use machines
to make benders less important in industrial processes.
This would inspire high tensions
between benders and non-benders in the city,
tensions which would go on to fuel
Amon's equalist movement.
Plus, if Toph didn't reconcile with her father in The Rift,
she would never ask to go back to Cranefish Town in Imbalance.
If Team Avatar never returned to Cranefish Town,
Aang might never discover this small island in the bay
and he might never decide to stay there long term.
And so this small island near Cranefish Town
would never develop into Air Temple Island.
And Sokka might never give Cranefish Town its new name,
Republic City.
So if Toph and Zuko took a little field trip to Gaoling,
so that Toph could reconcile with her parents,
then decades later Republic City would be completely different.
There might not be an equalist movement
to threaten Avatar Korra.
Lin Beifong might never be police chief,
she might be spending quality time
with her mother and sister in Zaofu instead.
Tenzin might live at one of the four ancient air temples
instead of on Air Temple Island near Republic City.
And actually, if Toph didn't stop Aang
from destroying the Earthen Fire Refinery,
then Republic City might not even exist at all.
So in this timeline, where Toph and Zuko
go on a field trip so that Toph can build
a new relationship with her parents,
then decades later Avatar Korra would inherit a world
that looks completely different from the one that we know.
But what if Toph and Zuko didn't go on a huge field trip
on the day of Sozin's Comet
because their field trip already happened?
But it was a little less adventurous
than meeting dragons or infiltrating a prison.
And Zuko wasn't the one helping Toph,
it was actually the other way around.
Toph helped Zuko see
that he could still make his uncle proud
the night Team Avatar saw The Boy in the Iceberg.
As a character,
Zuko is constantly questioning his past and his path.
It's my greatest regret,
and I may never get to redeem myself.
Toph, on the other hand,
is self assured from the very beginning.
[Toph] I'm not looking for anyone's approval.
I know who I am.
So it makes total sense that Toph would be the one
to help Zuko deal with his guilt over his past choices
and his doubts about his future.
All your uncle wanted was for you
to find your own path and see the light.
Now you're here with us.
He'd be proud.
Ow! What was that for?
That's how I show affection.
Actually, come to think of it,
Toph is kind of an expert
in these transformative conversations.
She taught Aang how to embrace his steadfast side
and stand up for himself.
She let Sokka talk through his grief
over losing his mother.
She helped Iroh understand that he needed Zuko
just as much as Zuko needed him.
And she helped Korra help herself
after her traumatic battle with Zaheer.
And while they might not count as field trips,
these moments with Toph are definitely life-changing.
Looking at these alternate timelines,
three things are clear.
One, Zuko and Toph actually have a lot
they can learn from each other.
Two, the world of Avatar after the 100-year-war
would look very different
if Toph actually got a real field trip with Zuko.
And three,
we're still a little bitter about the whole thing.
What Toph and Zuko field trip do you want to see?
Let us know in the comments.
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and check out more alternate timelines
on the Avatar YouTube channel!