Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
This year's #FreeComicBookDay video from Collectors Cornerâ is out! Check ya gurl out around the 4:30 mark! Randy & Dave have some great words at the end there too :)
If there is anything I believe with absoluteness, it is that whatever you are doing should done to the absolute best of your ability. This is especially true of works that are creative in nature and are meant to be consumed and judged by people. I hold this truth to all creative works, especially literary works. Whether they be graphic novels (comics) or books sans images, grand epic novels or flash fiction, anyone taking the time to write a story needs to do three things, in my opinion: (1) give me a character or characters that I can care about. (2) Put them in a situation or conflict that they have great personal stakes in (firstly, the conflict and their stakes should make sense; furthermore, if it's something that would look small outside looking in, make me realize why it is important to them; if it's abnormal or something I can't sympathize with, then you must succeed in making me empathetic.). (3) Bring about a proper conclusion to that conflict that closes up any loose ends (if it's meant to be a one-off such as this or Yangâs Shells story from last year) with a proper and organic moral, if a moral needs to be learned by the reader. I know that this review I am about to put forth is for a Free Comic Book Day comic, but I believe that any story deserves to be told properly, as much for the sake of the audience as for the author. If the tale you're going to tell is something you don't have enough conviction to pen and make meaningful, you probably shouldnât tell it.
That is the feeling I was left with when I read this story on May 2nd. I legitimately wish that Gene Yang had simply written about someone else, rather than centering this story, which if I may be honest feels like he just scrawled it down on a napkin in one go, on one of my absolute favorite characters from the A:TLA series.
The previous sentence should make it clear, but for anyone who knows me from the Avatarspirit.net forums (The_Xov), knows from my...eh, very...very uncomfortably angry post...that I so, so did not like this . This is for two primary reasons. Firstly, nobody in the comic is likeable. At all. By the very end of it, I wanted to smack both Toph and Ty Lee in the face, they ended up being so uncaring and stupid, respectively. Secondly, in terms of the latter character, this feels like she was yanked back all the way to early Season 3 as far as her motivations and beliefs were concerned. This very comic even shares that her line of thinking had matured from self-centeredness to either self-sacrifice or just a caring for others more than her own personal individuality needs and desires. And yet this gets completely stomped on throughout the second and third acts. And there's a third reason why I don't like this comic: there's no excuse for why it couldn't have been done better.
I should point out now that overall, I have not been much of a fan of his work during his run as A:TLA's exclusive comic writer, though I have had some favorites. For instance, even despite the flaws in the writing in Rebound, I loved it, if only because I enjoyed how decidedly not clichĂŠ it was in the direction for Mai post-breakup. Shells was a fun little romp, showing the chemistry and respect between Sokka and Suki, and even showed that Sukiâs expanding the Kyoshi Warriors, either bringing more recruits to the island, or setting up sects in the Fire Nation territories. And I really liked The Search. Well, most of it⌠Some of it⌠The royal siblings⌠Azula especially, and even Ty Lee a bit for what little press she got (seriously, why couldnât she go with them?! xD) I cannot begin to say that Gene Yang is an inherently terrible writer, because when certain conditions are right, he can clearly write a great story! But this just wasnât the case for this years FCBD offering.
A quick summary of how I plan to do this, I'm going really in-depth. I will provide a plot summary, in my snarky paraphrasing, after-which I will break the comic down into everything I did and didn't like about it in three separate categories: Dialogue, Characterization, and Art. Since the characterization (and the dialogue that partly acts as the winds pushing the sails of said characterization) of the main characters is my main concern, those will be my main focuses for this review; I will discuss the art as well, but nearly as at-length as everything else, as Iâve few serious gripes in that department. What's more, for each three categories, I will be breaking it down page-by-page and even panel-by-panel in one or two sections (not covering every panel, just the ones I am concerned with). In other words, this will be long. If you're interested in a more condensed version, I'll provide a TL;DR summary at the end of this post.
With all that out of the way, let us begin.
The Plot
The plot of this story is very short, which is to be expected of a comic that only spans a total of eight pages. Simply put, Ty Lee is sitting, mopey-style, to the side in what almost appears to be a part of the Palace Gardens while the remainder of her Kyoshi Warrior sisters are going through their daily drills. Ty Lee is bummed out because she isn't meshing well with the Kyoshi Warriors, and she can't put her finger on what the issue is because she is apparently incapable of introspection. Toph decides to warp into the picture because of boredom and plot, and upon Ty Lee sharing how bummed out she is, Toph grabs her and whisks her away to the circus (because apparently, Suki doesn't care enough about her warriors being snatched up like that to voice any kind of objection). Upon reaching the circus, it takes almost an entire page of panels for Ty Lee to recognize that this is in fact her old circus, when it took the average Avatar fanboy all of two seconds skimming over the panels of the page to reach the same realization. Her old ringmaster, of course, doesn't recognize her, causing many a reader's brow to perk like "whaaaaa?" only for us to stare with Ty Lee in wide-eyed disbelief at the fact that Gene Yang decided to actually take the claim that Ty Lee's sisters are all the same very, very literally!
And any chance of this story actually focusing on the two people who are on the cover of this thing goes up in smoke as Ty Lee, rather than turning tail and running away from what made her abandon family and home in the first place, inexplicably embraces her sisters in a giddy family reunion hug. After taking the time to introduce each of her sisters to Toph, who will not factor into the story in any major way from now on, she finally lets the realization settle in that, and I quote, "You all joined the circus?" And join they all apparently did! After Ty Lee ran off, their parents were worried enough to send out the entire clone horde after the poor girl (because they couldnât afford a bounty hunter to do the same; theyâre one of the poorer families in the Fire Nation aristocracy). What's more, they not only managed to figure out that Ty Lee had run away to the circus and catch up with said circus right after Azula snatched her away, but they all found that they had so much fun at the circus that they decided to stay. All. Of. Them. And that's not all! They're all acrobats! Every one of them apparently either stole the skill that Ty Lee had put so much time and sweat and love into cultivating to help forger her own identity, or acrobatics is the only thing Ty Lee excelled at and with nothing else she could lay claim to, ran away to find a place where her talent would be appreciated and unique. Oh, but it gets better. They also have freaking surpassed her as the most popular attraction at the circus, making said circus far more popular now - in a post-war society with Earth Kingdom peoples travelling to the Fire Nation and the circus actually performing within the Fire Nation mainland - than Ty Lee ever managed to make it - while people were fighting and dying around her in the country that her country was trying to conquer. Imagine that.
Long short, Ty Lee is understandably frustrated at this and wants to leave, but Toph, ever sensitive to emotions that come from other people, drags Ty Lee back to the Big Top so she can watch three platypus-bears ride on unicycles. As she sits, moping with a huge halo inexplicably radiating from them, Ty Lee comes to the realization that she can't be part of the Kyoshi Warriors anymore because her sisters somehow reminded her that the Kyoshi Warriors tend to use wear matching uniforms (there's also some nonsense about the KW also doing the same things, but she says nothing about what those same things are), and decides that she can't live with a group where uniforms are a mandate. But before she can go and tell Suki off about why they should have had a Casual Friday rule instated in the Kyoshi Warriors, two no-name extortionists with absolutely no sense of subtlety fail to set fire to the tent, which theyâre only doing in the first place because they suck at extortion (what theyâre trying to extort the ringmaster over we will never know). Toph takes down the firebender with no challenge, Ty Lee forgets that she has Kyushu Jutsu (that technique she's kinda famous for, and a technique which Suki used in the previous FCBD comic) and tries a poorly-drawn flying kick at the dudeâs chest (bouncing back onto the ground for comedic effect) and witnesses THE POWER OF TEAMWORK as her sisters warp out of nowhere to take the guy down. Then Ty Lee goes back to Suki, shares her lesson about teamwork, which had nothing to do with her issues of being in a matched set, and the comic ends with Ty Lee hugging Suki and a random clone Kyoshi Warrior (I will deal with that in the art section; it's a pretty big gripe of mine).
The Characters
For this section, Iâll be covering the dialogue, mainly any issues I have with it and how it ties into the characterization of our protagonists, and then I will go more in-depth with my opinion of their characterizations in the next sub-section. The dialogue will be done panel-by-panel (dealing with particular enjoyments or issues, not actually going by every panel in the comic), while the characterization will show their progression (or regression, or lack of either) by each page. The art will be a mix of panel-by-panel and just page analysis. The dialogue section will be the longer of the sections, I warn you now. If you donât want to slog through all of this text, Iâll provide a TL;DR statement/paragraph at the end of each section.
Dialogue
Iâve decided to start here because the dialogue will comprise the biggest contributions to the charactersâ characterization. Whatâs more, I figure itâll make for an easy segue into talking about the characterization specifically next-section. Word of warning, this is my longest section and will read a bit like how one would probably deeply critique a comic. Intermingled within this are minor nitpicks and major issues. If you're curious to read all of my praises and irks (there are a few praises btw), feel free to read it in its entirety. Otherwise, the important issues will have the page/panel numbers in bold.
Page 1, Panel 1: "*Sigh.*" ... Okay, I'm still new to comics, but I'm almost certain that the medium would follow the conventions of role-playing games and forum texts where any text meant to represent a sound effect should be absent of punctuation. As such, that period should be removed.
Page 1, Panel 3: "Toph? What're you doing in the capital city?"
Okay, this feels like a mix of nitpicking and serious critique, but this does not sound like a natural sounding sentence. Do people usually say, "What are you doing *in the city that we're both currently standing in and you obviously would know where this is*? Shouldn't it just read as, "What are you doing here?" This dialogue seems like itâs meant to inform people who are either new to the franchise or new to Gene Yang's comic universe that they are in the capital city of the Fire Nation. Only problem though, is because of the nature of the sentence, it actually feels like it's incomplete in the information it's trying to shoehorn. As such, it really may as well read "What're you doing in the Fire Nation capital city?" Or, just write the sentence like most people would say it: "What're you doing here?"
Page 1, Panel 4: "To be honest, I've been feeling kind of down. I've been with the Kyoshi Warriors for a while now, and they're so, so amazing! But lately, nothing's felt right. My aura's been off."
Drastic use of over-emphasis on words. In comics, such emphasis is supposed to represent an actual change in inflection of the character's speech, such as drawing out the word more or putting more force into its pronunciation. Outside of saying how the Kyoshi Warriors are "so, so amazing," I can't justify the remaining instances of emphasis in this malformed speech bubble.
Page 1, Panel 5:
Toph: "Well, you're in luck! I know just the thing to punch that aura of yours back into place!"
Ty Lee: "An aura isn't really something you punch."
This is a great instance of Ty Lee and Toph playing off of one another with their banter. It's relatively short, specifically Ty Lee's response to Toph's statement, but the swiftness of the exchange helps make it funny. Well, that, and the fact that Toph apparently has mistaken oneâs aura for oneâs spleen. xD
Unfortunately, this is the only instance the girls will really interact with one-another in any meaningful way...
Page 2, Panel 1: "Oh my gosh! A circus! Toph, this is so, so great!"
Oh dear God, this is going to be a trend...
Page 2, Panel 2: "The world just seemed so broken after the war, you know? I wanted to help fix it, so I became a Kyoshi Warrior!"
Aside from the odd emphasis on becoming a Kyoshi Warrior, I have no actual qualms about this dialogue on its own. Rather, this will set up a major issue I have with Ty Lee's characterization later on in the comic.
Page 3, Panel 4, Ty Lum: "Oh Ty Lee! We missed you so, so much!
Does Gene Yang only know how to give characters one or two unique dialogue quirks in some feeble attempt at on-the-surface uniqueness? First the "Sweetie" and "Oogies" thing with Aang/Katara and Sokka, then "Lillylivers" with Toph, now "So So [insert thing here]" with Ty Lee and her sisters?
Page 3, Panel 4: "We're the reason the circus got so big!"
Okay...so big, how? As far as we know from the visuals at current, the circus is no bigger than it's ever been. We've seen the big top, a second tent of what might be equal size, and a cart. Perhaps she's implying they've never had more people in the circus before, but I have to believe it's because the circus is finally in the Fire Nation mainland rather than travelling through the colonies and Earth Kingdom rural towns, along with the fact that Earth Kingdom people are starting to visit the Fire Nation for personal entertainment purposes. I doubt they're so big just because of the acrobats, but rather that in tandem to their moving back home in the past year-and-a-half.
Page 4, Panel 1: "Don't take this the wrong way guys, but acrobatics was kind of my thing. Each of us had a thing. You played the flute. You played the harp. You did origami. You swam. You danced. And you....well, you just insulted people. "
The ease at which she cites off their particular childhood talents (before they decided to do like a The Ables absorber and all take Ty Lee's talent 'cause it was "fun"), I can't help wondering how she can so easily remember who's who of her identical sisters. I imagine they don't always have the same outfit color coordination... Seriously, how does she know?!
Also, I seriously think that comics should have to be typed out in HTML or some other coding language in order to apply formatting because this is positively ridiculous. Something has to be done to stem this over-use of emphasisesâŚ
Page 5, Panel 3: "Being in the Kyoshi Warriors is just like being at home. A whole bunch of us looking the same, doing the same things... I have to tell Suki I'm âquitting!â
This is something dealt with in the characterization section, but this highlights just how positively stupid Ty Lee's emotional issue is â not sounds, is! I can understand, to an empathetic extent, how frustrating it must have been to live with siblings that do in fact look and do the same as she does. The page previous even showed that her sisters would dabble in Ty Lee's own talent of acrobatics, to the point where they didn't even keep track of who had the talent first. However, being a sibling to a bunch of identical talent leeches is something entirely different from being in the Kyoshi Warriors! Their similarities in look are strictly for when they are in uniform. The girls do occasionally not wear their uniforms - it's strictly for when doing drills or on duty - and there are times when they're serving people and still not in uniform - such was the case when Suki and her warriors were in service transporting people into Ba Sing Se during Season 2.
What further weakens this bit of dialogue is the fact that we get no comparison about how the members of the Kyoshi Warriors all "do the same things." I understand the comparison between both parties as far as general cosmetics are concerned, but what are the tasks that the warriors perform that are "all the same?" Training? Drills? Sleeping? It can't be the fact that they know Kyushu Jutsu because she offered to teach them that in exchange for admittance into their group, as she pointed out at the end of the final episode! Without any comparison, this statement holds no weight and thus no real meaning. As far as I care, she's blowing things way out of proportion.
Page 5, Panel 5: "Watch how fast these tents catch fire-- "oops!"
Because of course our protagonists just happen to walk out when the non-threats not only are about to set fire to the tent but also feel the need to jabber on about it. What's more, the big guy sounds annoyingly stupid and thus cliche.
Page 6, Panel 2: "Oh, I am... 'Cause my business is kicking your tail!"
Iâd like to point out that in the previous panel, the firebender guy says that Toph and Ty should mind their own business while he burns down that tent. This is the second consecutive FCBD comic by Gene Yang in which an antagonist says those words nearly the exact same way.
Anyway...Okay, so I definitely would expect Toph to say this line, but...this is Ty Lee's old circus. Couldn't she have said something to the guy that wants to burn down her old circus?
Page 6, Panel 5: "Wuzzat s'pose to hurt? You really think you can take me on alone?"
I really am glad this guy only got three panels worth of dialogue...
Page 7, Panel 3: "I guess it's a good thing you guys became acrobats! Thank you."
Yes, because you have never been able to take on people either bigger or stronger than you before. You absolutely needed all six of your sisters to take down that big bully when you normally could have done the same thing with a small trailing parry of your knuckles up his back. Totally.
Lesson learned: saving your sister from a giant behemoth and plot-mandated stupidity fixes all family disputes!
Page 8, Panel 1: "Ty Lee! I'm so glad You're here! Toph said you were leaving us!"
I'm shocked Suki didn't say she was "so, so glad..." And, againâŚyou didnât bother trying to hash out this issue of Ty Leeâs starvation of individuality for the few hours she wears makeup on your own even after learning Ty Leeâs belief that she didnât belong in the group anymore?
Page 8, Panel 2: "Hanging out with my sisters made me realize there advantages to being part of a matched set. Lots of the world's problems are too big to tackle alone."
And the Stupidity Express has pulled up to Moral Station. First of all, the lesson Ty Lee learned is not demonstrative of an advantage to being part of a matched set, it's demonstrative of an advantage to being part of a team. Being part of a set of talent-leeching clones has nothing to do with teamwork - working as a team does (and while I loathe the implications of the save, the panel showing that save and the roles the sisters each took in downing the brute is fairly good). Secondly, I would think this is a lesson that has been demonstrated to her numerous times. Here are two instances where she should have observed - if not consciously learned - that exact same lesson â some of which she took an active part in: (1) When Aang and his team defeated the giant city-penetrating drill that Azula & Co. were trying to use to break into Ba Sing Se; (2) When Ty Lee, Mai, Azula, and the Dai Li overthrew the city of Ba Sing Se; (3) When Mai and Ty Lee switched between Sokka and Katara during their skirmish by the river in The Chase. The fact that she was part of a team, working with Mai and Azula, should have taught her the importance of teamwork.
What's more, I don't see how this is even a lesson she needed to learn. From what she'd said in page 2, she joined the Kyoshi Warriors because the world was broken. That should imply that she'd already come to realize that if she wanted to make a difference in the world, she would have to be part of a team to do so. Why is she learning this lesson again when she'd already had it committed to her conscious prior?
And finally...
Page 8, Panel 4: "And with you guys, I don't always have to match! I can take off my make-up whenever I want!"
And in other news, birds chirp, dogs in Michael Bay movies have sex on top of tables, and people tend to roll their eyes when the absolutely painfully obvious has be stated by an idiot.
What? I said she's one of my favorite characters. I didn't say i wouldn't acknowledge her stupidity when sheâs written to be stupid.
The Characterization
The characterization of these characters is something I'll be somewhat brief with. The only characters of importance in this story are Ty Lee and Toph. I am well aware that the center of the conflict of this short comic is the issue between Ty Lee and her sisters, but I can't include them because these characters get next-to-no characterization, except that Ty Woo is a name-calling wench. Instead of going panel-by-panel for this part, I'll simply go page-by-page, and since there are only eight pages total, I'll again be somewhat brief.
Page 1: I know that I said I'd be focusing on Ty Lee and Toph exclusively in this section, but it's worth noting that Ty Lee is just sitting on these rocks, moping, and Suki doesn't seem to give one flying hog-monkey about it. We don't see her trying to console her or trying to figure out what is wrong. She's just going on ahead with her drills. I have to ask this to anyone who has been in the military - is there such a thing as any sort of drill sergeant or otherwise military superior that you directly answer to letting you just mope around because you're supposedly depressed? I mean, who's to say the other Kyoshi Warriors aren't depressed for some reason? I'd think they would have a far more justified reason to be in the dumps, such as being assigned to help guard Zuko for what seems to have been a year now.
And yet Iâm not only annoyed at Suki over this. Ty Lee herself is bugging me here. I understand being in a funk, but she took the time to put on the armor and makeup â I imagine that to be a somewhat arduous process. Why on earth is she just sitting on the rocks if she didnât want to do drills? Why even bother suiting up if sheâs just going to sit around and do nothing? Why not fake being sick or just refuse to come out from the room?
At current, Toph is actually fine. As far as adventure and fun is concerned, sheâs pretty spontaneous, and I could easily see her dragging Ty Lee off like this on a whim.
Page 2: Toph is still in character and likable in this page from what I can tell. She doesnât appreciate Ty Lee hugging all over her neck as she flails around with glee, yet is curious to know why she didnât go back to the circus when the war endedâŚwait, youâd think she would have felt Ty Lee with the other Kyoshi Warriors at Zukoâs coronation; wouldnât she be curious then?
Ignoring the fact that Ty Lee, for reasons I canât fathom, doesnât manage to recognize her old circus within ten seconds of walking onto the grounds (I mean seriously, is it that common for circuses to have trained platypus bears? And how many circus brands are there even in the Fire Nation? Considering their standards on fun and the general lack of FN citizens in attendance later on, I canât fathom there being manyâŚ), I find little fault with her behavior here. Sheâs understandably excited to be in the place that brought her such joy in her childhood, not to mention where her individuality was able to flourish the most. However, things go south in the next page whenâŚ
Page 3: Enter the Ty Leegion! Seriously, call me mean, even cruel, but why the hell is Ty Lee hugging any of these clones, let alone all of them? I mean, out of all the characteristics weâve been shown Ty Lee to possess â her enthusiasm (every episode sheâs in), her empathy (The Boiling Rock Pt 2), optimism (nearly every episode sheâs in), her want for peace between her friends (The Beach â until her personal buttons were pressed by Mai â and The Boiling Rock Pt 2), lover of cutesy frilly things and comfortable beds (The Beach), her impromptu role as matchmaker (Zuko Alone, Return to Omashu, and The Beach) a girl starving to be noticed (The Beach, every time she hits on Sokka), to be unique (The Beach), oh and a glorified badass (every episode sheâs in), Iâm pretty sure none of that translates to her being a family girl. Sheâs shown no interest or concern towards her sisters or even parents. As far as we know and Iâm concerned, she could go the rest of her life without seeing them and I donât think sheâd blink away a single tear at the idea. So again I ask, why is she hugging them? Why is she at all excited to see the sisters that drove her away from her home in the first place? In fact, why isnât her very first question to these clones, âWHAT THE FLAME ARE YOU DOING IN MY CIRCUS?!â
Also, her sisters were sent to retrieve the girl, learned about how she used to be the resident acrobat at the circus, and decided itâd be fun to do the exact same thing. So apparently, Ty Lee is the odd-girl out as far as looking-and-doing-the-same-thing tolerance is concerned. Unlike Ty Lee, it would appear her sisters rather enjoy being clones, even going so far as to adopt Ty Leeâs hairstyle. How does that on its own not cause Ty Lee to turn-heel and storm out of the tent?
Page 4: And now Toph is an unlikable douche. Yes, we also feature Ty Lee ranting about how each of her sisters were supposed to have their own individual thing as a means of deterring her parents comparing the lot of themâŚwait, what? - and the group bursts into a huge furball of an argument about how Ty Lee was the one to steal acrobatics from any one of them (funnily enough, this is the one time Ty Woo doesnât say anything. xD), but I can guarantee you that that is completely inconsequential. The biggest issue with this page is the person with the least page real-estate so far. Toph only has two lines of dialogue in this entire page, in the last panel, but it speaks so much volume to how much she doesnât even care about Ty Leeâs concerns! I mean, yes, this whole conflict is pretty stupid, but at the very least it would have been nice to see Toph at least pretend or even bait-and-switch Ty Lee into thinking she gave a ratâs tail! Instead, she just snarkilly claims Ty Lee to be her favorite, and then eggs her to stay so that she could see the platypus bears. There is no hint at them being friends in this, so why on earth are they teamed up in this comic?
Page 5: And we fall further down the rabbit hole of annoyance. Weâve officially hit the lowest point of characterization for both of our leads. Ty Lee quite literally believes that the reason she has an issue with the Kyoshi Warriors is because they wear uniforms, and that, of all things, is what she connects with her bad history with her sisters. And yes, she makes a glancing mention of how the Kyoshi Warriors supposedly do the same things as well, but we never know what those same things are because she doesnât expound on that at all, nor does the art give any clue to this, outside of their constant training, so I will not even try to delve on that.
Now Iâm not going to act as if cosmetics and appearances have never been an issue or area of importance for Ty Lee â they have. Sheâs made plenty of quips at Mai for how depressing she looks and constantly compliments Azula on her razor-sharp appearance. The first concern that arose in her mind as tensions rose between her friends at the campfire was that the stress would cause their skin to break out with acne. She even compared her opinions over the Kyoshi Warriors prettiness to her groupâs during the skirmish in Appaâs Lost Days. So again, I understand that cosmetics and appearances are important to her. But where as I normally roll my eyes to the point of blindness at most characters who have this mindset over the importance of looks, I donât react that way to Ty Lee. Why? Because itâs not her only concern! Itâs not the only thing that characterizes her! I donât need to repeat what else defines her character. All I need to say is that aside from her brief bout of euphoria upon arriving back at the circus and then realizing it was her own circus, she has shown nothing of what makes Ty Lee who she is. What I am looking at in this comic is not Ty Lee. This is nothing more than a stupid clone wearing her clothes. The real Ty Lee is probably tied up somewhere in the Fire Nation Palace, seething with rage that for once, she canât get out of the contortionism pose sheâs been bound into while a long-lost seventh clone-twin-sister absconds with her life.
And then thereâs Toph. Iâve already touched on this in my comments on the previous page so I wonât be nearly as long with this. Simply put, Toph is absolutely unlikable. She barely is paying any attention to what Ty Lee is talking about and is instead yelling at the platypus bears to eat their handler. I donât think I need to say much else. Toph quite literally does not care. Whatâs more, sheâs done next to nothing throughout this entire comic. Sheâs brought Ty Lee to the circus, mockingly called her âher favoriteâ of the clones, and is jeering at giant mammals. Thatâs it. She really has no reason to be here. Itâs been said before by the likes of swan2swan and heartyhawk(?), and I will repeat their words (more or less): Toph could have been replaced by literally any character in the show â save perhaps for Azula â or she couldâve been simply removed and Ty Lee carry the issue on her own â like she kinda has been â and there would be no difference in the progression of the plot. I canât say this enough, but Toph has no reason to be here except that she wanted to go to the circus, which she couldâve done on her own! Even the next page doesnât actually need her to be present!
Page 6: So, we get our obligatory fight scene for this little issue. Itâs short and rather inconsequential. Iâll explain that last part more when we get to the last page. Simply put, Toph is to Gene Yang what Batman is to Frank Miller. She can do no wrong and she cannot be stopped. All it takes is one stomp and a trail of creeping dirt to knock the firebender down. I could care less about that, though, because my mind is actively melting as I see something that should frankly be impossible.
Ty Lee. Canât stop. One guy. One guy that is built like a tank, clearly moves like a tank because he makes no attempts to evade her rapid approach on him, and is probably too stupid to even try. And yet she canât stop him. Why? Because Gene Yang had to shoehorn his stupid little moral down the throats of people too stupid to engage in critical thinking she apparently forgot how to use her Kyushu Jutsu. Of all the things in the world that Gene Yang could take away from Ty Lee for the sake of this story, why on earth did it have to be her signature martial art? I would try to fathom how Yang could have made Ty Lee lose while keeping that skill which she had taught the Kyoshi Warriors back when she was being held in prison, but quite honestly, nothing would be plausible because of the previous situations sheâs been in where she came out on top. She took down the Terra Team single-handedly (yeah, Mai initiated the strike, but Ty Lee carried the duo lol), Katara â the youngest waterbending master of her generation â single-handedly, the Dragon Lady Azula Herself, Single-Handedly. The only person on Team Avatar she has never been able to take down is Aang, and thatâs only because she couldnât get within striking distance of him; let that happen, and the boy is good as jelly! There is absolutely no reason why she couldnât stop this giant galloot! But again, Gene Yang doesnât know how to shoehorn a plot without at least hiding the horn, so instead of parrying her fists up his back or into his legs (or even dislocating a kneecap â I mean seriously, have you ever had your kneecap slip while youâre standing? I have. IT HURTS!), she simply does a jump-kick, which I have not observed to be a move featured in either the Kyushu Jutsu nor Tessenjutsu movesets or disciplines. She bounces off like the cartoon sheâs being portrayed as, takes forever to get off the ground, stares at this guy with fear and the stupid continues.
Page 7: All six of Ty Leeâs sisters tackle that giant-ish behemoth-ish brute-ish- wait- brute to the ground. Iâll admit it, the panel looks cool with them managing this, and I suppose I should applaud their swift thinking, but the coolness of that feat is marred by the fact that there is no way Ty Lee could not have done that on her own! And whatâs worse, this is what serves as the turning-point in Ty Leeâs line of thinking! This is what teaches Ty Lee that she can be part of a âmatched setâ and still work as a part of a team! What a load of-
âŚ
âWoo-saaaaaaaahhhhhhâŚâ
âWoo-saaaaaaaahhhhhhâŚâ
Okay, Iâm good⌠LetâsâŚjust finish this stupid thing. Still have to deal with the artâŚ
Page 8: And so we end this story with Ty Lee returning to the Kyoshi Warriors with a lesson in tow. And by âin tow,â I mean tethered to her hip and covered with grass stains from being dragged from the circus to her dressing room and back to the garden where her ânew sistersâ apparently had never left. Seriously, this event either took the span of a few scant hours or almost twenty-four hours exactly, because Suki and the troop are indeed exactly where theyâd started off in the storyâs beginningâŚsorry, tangent.
So, that moral. What is it, you may ask? Well, itâs that teamwork sometimes has to be employed when taking on some of the worldâs problems. Oh, and that she can remove her makeup whenever she pleases.
Honestly, there isnât much to say on this moral except that it doesnât fit with what we were being presented with as Ty Leeâs problem. Throughout the entirety of the middle and end of the comic, Ty Leeâs motivation for joining the Kyoshi Warriors was about helping the world, yet sheâs shoved that fact far down the rabbit hole that is her desire for attention and individuality that this is simply a tacked-on lazy attempt to make Ty Lee not look as bad as sheâs been portrayed throughout the comic.
TL;DR: Suki has next to no control over her warriors, nor does she appear to try and exercise such control. Ty Lee is a narcissistic moron that canât retain lessons she shouldâve learned at the age of 10 and thinks that having the same face is far more important than bettering herself or associating with a group that is meant to help the world (or in the case of the Gene Yang comics, guard one of her childhood friends that just happens to be the Fire Lord). And Toph? Toph is pretty much as big a jerk as she was in The Rift.
The Art
The art is really so-and-so with this comic. In some instances, such as when conveying Ty Lee in her melancholy mood, the artist draws characters well. Considering theyâre modeled exactly after Ty Lee in all but outfits, I can safely say that she draws Ty Leeâs sisters well enough. However, there are some weaknesses, like several times when she draws Toph, and a certain part of a fighting sceneâŚ
Page 1, Panels 1, 2, 3: This might sound a bit odd, but the melancholy demeanor of Ty Lee as she sits on this rock in the middle of what I will continue to believe is either one of the Fire Nation Palaceâs gardens or plazas is really well-drawn. Even her reaction to getting punched by Toph is pretty good â proper-looking proportions to with the head, a nice expression of âOw â the crap?!â I think what sells these drawings of Ty Lee is the Kyoshi Warrior uniform. Ms. McNeil really draws those uniforms and the face-paint well and manages to portray its badass look, even when the expressions are decidedly less-than-so (except for the third-panel; little can be done to make Ty Leeâs giddiness look badass unless when that giddiness is taking place while she mows through hordes of dudes xD)
Also, for panel 3, it figures one of the few drawings of Toph I really like is when sheâs picking her teeth. I dunno, she just looks likeâŚToph here.
Unfortunately, I canât go this stretch without any criticisms. The primary one I have: the remainder of Sukiâs troop. Simply put, theyâre clones.
Those Kyoshi Warriors in the top and third panels (and during the final page where they appear again), are all the same design as the stock placeholder designs used during the Kyoshi Island episode.
Think Iâm exaggerating? Compare the above with the following:
Truth be told, of all the blunders in the art division, I find this to be the most disappointing, mainly because with the way the story went and the issue Gene Yang decided for Ty Lee to have, I canât help feeling like he directly asked McNeil to draw these girls according to the season 1 designs to drill into our heads that Ty Lee seriously sees these warriors the same way she views her sisters â as a literal clone matched set. And it definitely canât be said that the Kyoshi Warriors havenât been drawn as non-placeholder individuals in previous comics, as this panel from The Promise will demonstrate:
Now it could be argued that perhaps these are meant to be a new group of warriors that Suki is training, perhaps the new batch of warriors sheâd recruited in last yearâs FCBD A:TLA comic. Yet if this is the case, it doesnât make the situation with Ty Lee look any better. If that is indeed the case, I would actually expect Ty Lee to be far more involved in assisting this training â while sheâs not likely to be a senior officer under Suki by any means after only a year and a half, I would expect Suki to trust Ty Lee to help out with this sort of thing, being that she is likely beyond the rank of a private by now. That she would contemplate leaving the Kyoshi Warriors at this point of training recruits (if thatâs what these folks are) would just be horribleâŚ
I truly canât shake the feeling at this point that the only reason these clones exist in this comic is to make a visual connection between Ty Leeâs sisters and the warriors she now associates with, which as far as I am concerned, is simply lazy, if not insulting.
Page 2, Panel 1:
This is a minor gripe, but it looks so odd for Ty Leeâs waving arms to be just as solid looking as the arms that are grasping Tophâs neck, here. Those really should be more transparent, or maybe slightly distorted to give them more of a sense of motion, and the arms that are wrapping around Tophâs neck should definitely be solid, given thatâs what Toph is complaining about Ty Lee doing in the panel.
Page 2, Panel 2: I wonât lie. Ty Lee looks positively squeezable here. Only problem with this panel is Tophâs face. Sheâs actively talking, yet her mouth and cheeks make it look like theyâre stuffed with cotton-candy or something.
Page 3, Panel 1: Oy. I donât know if itâs the hair, or the way her jaw is drawn in this panel, but Toph is resembling her Ember Island Players counterpart far more than herself here. Lol
Page 3, Panel 2: Okay, this panel isnât that bad, but a minor gripe I canât help but acknowledge is the fact that Ty Leeâs sisterâs eyes. A few of them, such as Ty Woo and Ty Lat, have their eyes either with the whites around the pupils or theyâre closed. Yet the remainder of them, whose face is turned to allow you to see the eyes, have just black dots. Again, itâs not terrible, but the inconsistency is distracting and helps make this comic look like a rushed jobâŚ
Page 3, panel 4: Ty Leeâs lips. They just look..odd. I dunno, maybe itâs the way theyâre inked, but they look far more pronounced than most of the remainder of the comic. Otherwise, I do totally buy the look of ââŚOh my Agni, my sisters are all bunking at my old circusâŚâ
Page 3, panel 5: Of all the sisters, why is it that Ty Woo reminds me of Jinora so much?! xD
Page 4, panel 1:
Now I will admit it, for quite a while, I did think that there was no personality between the Ty Sisters. And frankly, I still think that to be true. Ty Woo has constantly shown herself to be contrarian and a jerk, but thatâs it. However, after several read-throughs, Iâve finally noticed that Ty Lum is stroking her braid, which denotes nervousness in addition to her being-offendedâŚwhich she shares with her non-Ty-Woo sister-ren.
Page 4, panel 2: Those fingers. They way they're just jutting up like that in front of her face... I can't describe why, but they bug me. They bug me sooooooo muuuuuuuuuuch...
Page 4, panel 4: Okay, so Ty Lee actually looks fine here as she storms out of the tent, shouting her frustration and obviously wishing sheâd never come to the circus with her sisters there. And yetâŚ
Page 4, panel 5: The HECK is with that mouth?! Iâm sorry, most of her face is otherwise fine, but that mouth! Thatâs a mouth I would expect from a cartoon comedy like Tuff Puppy, where Dudely is obnoxiously yelling in Kittyâs ear because he has no concept of volume control, not from someone who is freaking pissed off and wants to leave! Seriously, if Ty Lee were yelling at Toph and they were having a back-and-forth, then okay, maybe that would work as an expression, particularly if the moment was meant to be taken as funny. But this isnât supposed to be funny. That over-the-top look to her screaming lips is just totally unnecessary and doesnât fit.
Page 5: So apparently Ty Lee wiped off her lipstick after storming out of the tent and then getting talked back into it by Toph. Odd. Also, I know Toph is sorta-yelling, but does it really warrant a white-out halo around her just âcause?
Finally, on the first and third panels, we see rather unique looking people in the crowd. None of these audience member designs, whether afar or more up-close, looks like theyâre any sort of stock or template design thatâs been duplicated like a crowd-shot in G4âs My Little Pony. The reason I am bringing this up is if the comic were under a sort of restrictive budget, then why not clone people in the audience like the Kyoshi Warriors had been in the first and last pages of this comic? This is what makes me seriously believe that the reason for the KY clone designs was to act as a visual reinforcement for what Ty Lee is saying here, that the Kyoshi Warriors apparently look-like and do things like a bunch of clone drones.
I will say one thing that I kinda like, but am yet iffy with about this page, and I know Iâve brought this up a couple times earlier, but I really wanna expound on it a bit now. Between this and the first shot of Ty Lee spazzing out at the fact that sheâs at a circus back in page 2, it would appear that there is quite the Earth Kingdom presence at this circus. I donât have a problem with that on its own, of course, but this implies that there is a lot of tourism/trading traffic nowadays between the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. I guess Iâm just wondering if people of the Earth Kingdom would really be this comfortable dealing with the Fire Nation commercially, let alone actually going there for vacation and checking out their circuses⌠I mean, wouldnât tensions still be rather high between the two countries, especially considering the debacle at Yu DaoâŚ?
Page 6, Panel 2: As annoyed as I am that Ty Lee isnât the one talking about âIâm gonna kick your butts for trying to burn down my circus,â I will give credit to that expression. That is an expression that says, âI flaming dare you to drop that fireball, you piece of colonial trash! >:| â
Page 6, Panels 5 and 6: âŚ
âŚ
UghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhâŚ.
...Okay, looking at the fifth panel...yet again...I do have one more thing to ponder on here. Okay, two things. First, how does one mess up fingers that badly? Secondly...Why the heck is Ty's face bugging me so much here?
Page 7, Panel 1: Okay, I know I said before that the Ty sisters came out of nowhere, but itâs pretty clear that they jumped from inside the tent to tackle the dude. Of course, this begs the question, how did they know exactly how and where to jump on him from inside the tent? In fact, how did they even know Ty Lee was in trouble from inside the tent? And when they were supposed to be in the middle of their circus act, no less?!
Anywho, this may sound silly, but one almost-big reason I hate this story is because it really saps the honest coolness of this panel. I mean, four of the sisters are pouncing onto this guyâs front while the remaining two kick in the back of his knees in order to topple him. I canât deny that that is a cool visual of a group of girls working together to down a behemoth brute like this. Yet this scene is messed up by the fact that in order to make this visual even possible, Ty Leeâs intelligence had to take a massive nerfâŚ
Page 7, Panel 2: Dammit, I swear Ty Woo has some of the best expressions in this comic. lol I want a story centering around this particular sister â I must know what led her to a life of permanent bitchy snarkiness! lol
Page 7, Panel 3: Ya know, Woo, if you donât wanna hugâŚyou could simply not hug. Youâre clearly not enjoying it, so why subject yourself to the torment? lol
Page 8: And we round it all out with Ty Lee back in her Kyoshi Warrior garb. She and Suki say some words of silliness, and she hugs Suki and a clone as the metaphorical screen fades to black.
TL;DR, AKA THE CONCLUSION
So, Iâm sure that those who read the intro and even the plot summary could easily gleam that I did not like this at all. Simply put, this is a comic that leaves a bad taste in my mouth towards two characters I rather liked from the original series. Ty Lee ends up looking frustratingly flighty, inobservant of obvious facts, and positively selfish, caring more about her comfort as an individual more than the fact that sheâd originally had a mission to help the world rebuild under the banner of the Kyoshi Warriors. Whatâs more, Ty Leeâs dilemma really is just stupid. Wanting to leave just because sheâs wearing a uniform â you would think she would feel the same level of discomfort in school or during the infiltration mission in Ba Sing Se when she was wearing the Kyoshi Warriors uniforms then⌠Whatâs more, I cannot begin to believe that being in the Kyoshi Warriors is anything like living in a household of talent-leeching clones. Seriously, I cannot stress enough that I canât take her problems nearly as serious as I would a whiney-emo-teenager-from-todayâs problems â and their problems usually consist of âMy mom wonât let me to go to XYZâs concert or tattoo my vagina or get me an $700 Apple iPad so I can play on Farmville and get a bunch of guys to think Iâm 19 when Iâm actually 13 â SCREW YOU MOM!â
Toph comes out of this just as bad, in my opinion. She resembles far more of her early Season 2 self than by the time she was willing to open up to others in Season 3 and was embracing some of her more mellow emotions (yes, with Toph, I call clutching a guyâs arm in obvious romantic bliss to be âmellowâ). She shows absolutely no concern for Ty Lee whatsoever. She makes quips and jokes at the girlâs expense while sheâs still upset, and doesnât even try to help her when Ty Lee fails to flying-kick a giant fool. And as soon as Ty Leeâs sisters show up, she just disappears, never to be seen for the rest of the comicâŚwhich yes, was only one more page, but my point still stands! Toph is unhelpful and ultimately unnecessary for this story. Replace her with anyone in Aangâs group, or even have Ty Lee carry the comic on her own, and no part of the plot wouldâve been effected, except possibly whether Ty Lee would stay to see the show or not.
And as far as the moral, itâs totally irrelevant to Ty Leeâs dumb woes, and the plot has to dive into a stupid pit just to dig up any justification for its existence. A pity they did not find any.
There are a few funny bits of dialogue, I will admit. For instance, Tophâs insistence that Ty Lee go with her to âpunch her aura back into shape,â and Ty Leeâs reaction is cute, and I actually liked the way Toph egged on the platypus bears to maul their handler, even if that scene did feature the worst part of the comic where Toph is concerned. And the art, even with its inconsistencies and weird mouth/lip art is still sorta charming â certainly inoffensive. However, these small things cannot deter the fact that this is a very bad comic.
Originally, I gave the comic an âFâ, but I will be kind enough to raise the grade up to a âD-â. All in all, again, this comic is a waste. A waste of potential, a waste of what shouldâve been a fun pairing in Ty Lee and Toph, and a waste of both Gene Yangâs and my own time. If it werenât for the fact that the Plants and Zombies and Bandette comics were fun reads, Iâd âave considered this to be a complete waste of a slot in my two-free-comic limit that day.
AFTERWORD
Anywho, thatâs it. Fun fact: this ridiculously overly-long review has spanned over 9.5K words. That is the span of a medium-length chapter for many fiction/fanfiction stories these days! lol
I am impressed with anyone who actually read through the entire thing, and appreciate your patience while doing so. But even if you just skipped down to the TL;DR conclusion, I still appreciate that you even gave this a look, especially with how long itâs been since the comic actually came out (just shy of four weeks, I think). If I do in fact review more comics in the future, I will not be making the reviews this long â probably barely 1/4th the length. This has taken me a freaking week to type up between all the things Iâm doing in the real world, and I donât wanna subject myself â or you â to this again.
Finally, for anyone who actually wants to read even more crap, you can read the original post from the Avatarspirit.net forums that earned me quite the 2-week ban! Why? because it provides one of many an example for how not to provide critique for something!
Anyway, time to sign off. To all my followers and curious eyes, I again thank you for taking the time to read this in-depth review/rant. And as always,
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
â Live Streamingâ Interactive Chatâ Private Showsâ HD Qualityâ Free Actions
Free to watch ⢠No registration required ⢠HD streaming
FCBD 2015 last weekend was successful. Work was scary busy but made it through & ended the night hanging out with some of the most bad ass people in the comic industry.
