Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ does right by Toph — except for one huge omission

Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender brings blind earthbending master Toph Beifong (Miya Cech) to live action for the first time ever. And while I had serious doubts, the series actually manages to do justice to the fan-favorite character, originally voiced by Michaela Jill Murphy (also known as Jessie Flower).

While Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender unfortunately flattened characters like Aang (Gordon Cormier) and Katara (Kiawentiio) in its first season, it allows Toph’s wise-cracking personality to shine through right from the jump. She slings jokes as often as she slings boulders at her opponents, with Cech deftly capturing both Toph’s brash confidence and unique physicality.

Avatar: The Last Airbender pays homage to several of Toph’s most iconic moments from the animated series, recreating her seismic sense, her distinct earthbending moves, and even her many, many blind jokes. At times, it even builds on the character in fun ways, like staging a montage full of her nicknames for Aang (Twinkle Toes reigns supreme, obviously), or pitting her in a haiku battle with Sokka (Ian Ousley) that dives into why she puts up such a tough exterior.

However, there’s one major aspect of Toph’s live-action debut that falls seriously short, and that’s the show’s treatment of Earth Rumble VI.

Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s live-action Earth Rumble VI fails Toph.

In both versions of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the earthbending smackdown known as Earth Rumble VI is Toph’s emphatic introduction to Aang, Katara, and Sokka. Over the course of several rounds, they watch the formidable fighter known as the Boulder take down equally formidable opponents like the Big Bad Hippo, the Gopher, and Fire Nation Man. (Who should, as Sokka puts it, go back to the Fire Nation.)

By the end of it, the Boulder seems almost unbeatable — that is, until Toph manages to send him packing with just two moves. It’s a clean way to prove just how powerful she is, but the animated series doesn’t stop there. In order to stop Aang from being kidnapped and ransomed to the Fire Nation, Toph unleashes against the entire crew of Earth Rumble VI fighters, Boulder included.

It is, quite frankly, one of the most badass moments of the show, not just because it’s Toph showing off why she’s the world’s greatest earthbender, but because it’s her way of revealing her true power to her parents, who always doubted her and considered her frail due to her blindness.

Unfortunately, the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender cuts this final fight completely. In fact, it gets rid of every Earth Rumble VI fighter who isn’t the Boulder. The omission, likely due to budget constraints and the fact that this episode was already a mash-up of several others, stings. It downgrades Toph’s introduction from a full-on welcome bash to the TV equivalent of a cordial handshake.

On top of all that, losing the rest of the Earth Rumble VI fighters means that Avatar: The Last Airbender misses out on a showcase of the versatility of earthbending. The Earth Rumble VI fighters burrow through earth, shake entire platforms, and incorporate wrestling moves into their repertoire, creating one of the most memorable fights of the show. Live-action Toph’s head-to-head match with the Boulder is fun, but it lacks the same style and scale of her fights in the animated show. (See also: the series cutting Toph and the rest of Team Avatar’s absolute rout of the Earth King’s guards from the original.)

Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s trimming of Earth Rumble VI is symptomatic of the show’s larger problem: It will never be able to match the fluidity, rhythm, and magnitude of the animated show’s bending fight scenes, so it doesn’t attempt to execute them.

Of course, fans of the original will notice what’s missing anyway, which will in turn make them long for the show they already know. In the end, that longing ties back to the question that’s been plaguing Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender since it was announced: Why remake something that was already so untouchable in the first place?

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.