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Fictional Women Around the World: Toph Beifong · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Steffan
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  Speaker 1: Never Told You production of iHeart Radio. And welcome to
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: another sub subsub subsub segment Fictional women around the World.
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  Speaker 1: And this was a listener suggestion from Taylor. Thank you. Taylor.
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  Speaker 1: Taylor is our unofficial Olympic correspondent who's written in before.
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  Speaker 1: So hopefully we'll be hearing from Taylor soon about something.
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  Speaker 1: How do we meet her official? Oh, that's true. We
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  Speaker 1: need to discuss this, We need to what is the initiation?
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  Speaker 1: So today we are talking about Tough from Avatar, The
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  Speaker 1: Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Disclaimer, I have not
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  Speaker 1: seen these shows. I have seen episodes, but I haven't
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  Speaker 1: seen the whole thing so well. As always, I always
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  Speaker 1: kind of fill out of my depth when I do
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  Speaker 1: one about someone I don't know personally. Nothing about this, yeah, oh,
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  Speaker 1: my goodness is very popular. But let me know if
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  Speaker 1: I get anything wrong. But we're gonna I think we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna give a good background because this character is beloved Samantha.
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  Speaker 1: So Tough Beifong is a fictional character from the animated
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  Speaker 1: shows The Last Airbender and the Legend of Korra. She
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  Speaker 1: was first introduced in the two thousand and six episode
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  Speaker 1: of The Last Airbender, The Blind Bandit, and at the
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  Speaker 1: time she was a twelve year old girl. But yes,
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  Speaker 1: if you have no idea what we're talking about. Avatar
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  Speaker 1: The Last Airbender is an animated series set in a fictional,
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  Speaker 1: largely Asian inspired world. It ran from two thousand and
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  Speaker 1: five to two thousand and eight and was followed by
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  Speaker 1: the Legend of Cora, which ran from twenty twelve to
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  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. In this universe, some people have the ability
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  Speaker 1: to tell aetically control the four elements fire, earth, water,
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  Speaker 1: and air, and this is called bending. The Avatar is
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  Speaker 1: the only being who can bend all four elements. The
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  Speaker 1: story largely follows Aang, the last survivor of his kind, Avatar,
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  Speaker 1: and his friends, including Tough. It has won So So
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  Speaker 1: So So So many awards and is viewed by many
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  Speaker 1: as one of the best animated shows of all time.
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  Speaker 1: It touches on things like genocide, war, politics, imperialism, sexism, discrimination,
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  Speaker 1: and choice. Those are just a few. There was a
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  Speaker 1: live action movie and Night Shyamalan did, but it was
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  Speaker 1: generally panned and accused of whitewashing. I would say rightfully so.
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  Speaker 1: There is also a live action series as of this
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  Speaker 1: year on Netflix which I haven't seen. It has gotten
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  Speaker 1: mixed reviews, but I believe they are doing a season
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  Speaker 1: two and they're casting Tough now. There are games and comics,
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of media surrounding this, but all right back
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  Speaker 1: to our character. Tough was born blind and because of
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  Speaker 1: that has had limitations placed on her by others since
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  Speaker 1: she was very young. She is an earth bender, which
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  Speaker 1: basically means she can telekinetically manipulate and control sand, dirt
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  Speaker 1: stone and eventually metle. However, because of her blindness her
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  Speaker 1: extremely overprotective parents, they limited her to basic earth bending
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  Speaker 1: like they wouldn't really let her explore it. But Tough
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  Speaker 1: gets around this after she meets some badger moles through
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  Speaker 1: blind animals who naturally earthbend, and through their teaching, she
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  Speaker 1: learns to quote see through vibrations. Through her training, she
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  Speaker 1: earned herself the alias the Blind Bandit. She won a
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  Speaker 1: lot of underground earth bending tournaments. Frequently she ran away
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  Speaker 1: from her her parents, trying to escape them and learn
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  Speaker 1: more about her abilities. She eventually decided to travel with
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  Speaker 1: a and the others, including an earth bending teacher again.
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  Speaker 1: She's twelve years old. Tough argued with some of the
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  Speaker 1: other team members in the beginning, even temporarily leaving the
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  Speaker 1: team before returning to teach Aang about earth bending. Tough
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  Speaker 1: skills proved essential to the team, and she brought them
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  Speaker 1: closer together. After Tough receives a letter from her mother
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  Speaker 1: claiming that she is in the city, she understands Tough now,
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  Speaker 1: Tough goes to see her, but on her way is
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  Speaker 1: captured and put into cage. Her frustration and determination to
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  Speaker 1: escape led to her becoming the first metal bender in
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  Speaker 1: earth bending history. Basically, she was able to see that
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  Speaker 1: earth in the medals through seismic actions like banging her
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  Speaker 1: hands against it. She freed herself and rendezvous with Aang
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  Speaker 1: and others soon after. She used her new found abilities
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  Speaker 1: to free herself and her companions. Tough's metal bending ability
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  Speaker 1: proved in value when they were low on funds. She
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  Speaker 1: used it to cheat in gambling, which did end in prison,
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  Speaker 1: but she escaped. Later. She used her truth seeing ability
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  Speaker 1: to know that their believed enemy, Prince Zuko, was being
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  Speaker 1: truthful when he had a change of heart and he
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  Speaker 1: was willing to teach Aang fire bending after they are attacked,
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  Speaker 1: the team settled on Imber Island, were Tough enjoyed a
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  Speaker 1: portrayal of her in a play depicting their journeys. Aang
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  Speaker 1: disappears after that, and the remaining crew travels to the
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  Speaker 1: Earth Kingdom. They're able to save that kingdom, and ag returns.
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  Speaker 1: Tough goes on to found a metal bending school, first
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  Speaker 1: with three students. The school gets caught up in a
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  Speaker 1: conflict and Tough almost gives it up, but her students
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  Speaker 1: are able to meddle bend for the first time and
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  Speaker 1: they fight and they went. Tough reunites with Team Avatar
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  Speaker 1: for a festival, where she runs into her father, who
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  Speaker 1: does not speak up to say she is his daughter
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  Speaker 1: and has her escorted off the premises of the refinery
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  Speaker 1: that he co owns. Later, she confronted him and he
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  Speaker 1: all but disowns her. He does not recognize any of
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  Speaker 1: her accomplishments. When the mind starts to collapse, Tough uses
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  Speaker 1: her ability to stop it and save the workers, her father,
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  Speaker 1: her friend, and herself, but she collapses from the exhaustion
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  Speaker 1: of that soon after help arrives. She convinces Aang not
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  Speaker 1: to destroy the factory, so basically, he is like, this
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  Speaker 1: is bad for the earth. Tough was like, well, not necessarily,
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  Speaker 1: and she convinced him not to destroy it. Her school
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  Speaker 1: grows and her first students are now able to teach.
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  Speaker 1: Despite the success, Tough is bored. Her interest in teaching
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  Speaker 1: is reinvigorated, though, when she agreed to teach a lava
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  Speaker 1: bender named Son. Over time, she acted as a diplomat,
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  Speaker 1: a warrior, a spy, participated in a political skirmish with
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  Speaker 1: benders Premises, who are basically people that believe venders are
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  Speaker 1: better than everybody else. Was Republic City's first chief of police,
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  Speaker 1: had two daughters that both went on to become earth
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  Speaker 1: bending masters. Helped guide her friend Cora, and ran for governor.
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  Speaker 1: She failed, but then was asked run again and refused
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  Speaker 1: because she was like politics are bearable, and I'm like, okay,
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  Speaker 1: I see you. She was seen as a hero and
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  Speaker 1: a competent teacher. I believe there's a statue of her
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  Speaker 1: in Republic City. This character is independent, stubborn, brash, sarcastic,
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  Speaker 1: and very blunts. Due to her upbringing, she was eager
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  Speaker 1: to prove herself and excelled at earth bending. She wasn't
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  Speaker 1: worried about her appearance, and she was usually covered in
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  Speaker 1: a quote healthy coating of dirt. She was generally barefoot,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes purposely uncouth to rebel against her aristocratic upbringing, like
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  Speaker 1: she would burp and spit and all those things. She
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  Speaker 1: was very comfortable with her blindness, sometimes joking about it
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  Speaker 1: or calling it out when people would hand her pieces
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  Speaker 1: of writing or posters. As she grew older, she did
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  Speaker 1: become more cynical, and her relationship with her daughters grew strained,
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  Speaker 1: but she still kept in touch with those that she
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  Speaker 1: cared about. And here's just a quote to illustrate this character.
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  Speaker 1: So one of the characters says, it's so dark down here,
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  Speaker 1: I can't see a thing, and she says, very sarcastically,
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  Speaker 1: oh no, what a nightmare. Her skill and earth bending
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  Speaker 1: was also unique because she'd been taught more about the
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  Speaker 1: nature of it outside of rigid teachings of a lot
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  Speaker 1: of others, so she kind of learned it outside of structures.
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  Speaker 1: I guess her style was derived from Southern praying amantis,
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  Speaker 1: which is a type of kung fu. She was weak
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  Speaker 1: to air attacks and didn't like traveling by air subs
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  Speaker 1: that she couldn't feel the earth beneath her feet. She
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  Speaker 1: went on to learn sand bending too, and of course yes,
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  Speaker 1: metal bending. So there are a lot of reasons this
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  Speaker 1: show is interesting, but the show creators consulted with professional
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  Speaker 1: martial artist for the show's fighting styles. A big one
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  Speaker 1: for Tough is called neutral jing. Essentially, this involves listening, reacting,
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  Speaker 1: balancing attacks and defense, and predicting an opponent's next move.
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  Speaker 1: Some behind the scenes stuff. This character was originally designed
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  Speaker 1: as a sixteen year old male jock type. It was
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  Speaker 1: very muscular in foul mouthed. I believe in the original
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  Speaker 1: pilot he's in it, but they redid the pilot so
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  Speaker 1: it's not the one we saw, but he was in
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  Speaker 1: like the one. They were showing networks and stuff. As
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  Speaker 1: the show got closer to airing, the idea was pitched
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  Speaker 1: that they should change it to a young girl, in
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  Speaker 1: part for humor, because they thought it would be kind of funny.
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  Speaker 1: They have this like girl who's spitting and all this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know. Some have said it was refreshing and
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  Speaker 1: feminist have a character have two children with two different
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  Speaker 1: men and never be questioned about it, although some lamented
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  Speaker 1: that her relationship with her daughters tarnished her legacy. However,
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  Speaker 1: others argue that that is from the POV of her daughters,
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  Speaker 1: so you're not kind of getting her whole side of
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  Speaker 1: that story. But I did think that was interesting. I
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  Speaker 1: wasn't expecting that when I was reading this from my
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  Speaker 1: experience with the show, I didn't know that there was
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  Speaker 1: all this other like comics and all this other stuff
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  Speaker 1: that explores what happens when they get older. And I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know she had two daughters, two different dudes, And
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  Speaker 1: was like, that was it? Nobody cared? I like it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, this is a really fascinating character. I
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of fun researching her, and she's a
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  Speaker 1: fan favorite. People love her. The creators were saying, you know,
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  Speaker 1: they kind of fought. Some of them weren't on board
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  Speaker 1: with changing her to a young girl, and now they're like,
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  Speaker 1: this is my favorite character. I'm so glad that we
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  Speaker 1: did this. And I ain't. The original jock dude that
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  Speaker 1: was going to be her is in an episode, so
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  Speaker 1: if you love Easter Eggs, they did include him. So yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: but I yeah, thank you so much Taylor for the suggestion. Again,
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  Speaker 1: if I got anything wrong, please let me know. If
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  Speaker 1: you have any thoughts about this, please let us know.
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  Speaker 1: You can email us at Stephania mom Stuff at iHeartMedia
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  Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at mom
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Stuff podcast, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff One
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: Never Told You. We have a YouTube page, we have
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a tea public store, and we have a book you
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: can get wherever you get your books. Thanks as always
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to a super producer Christina or executive producer Maya and
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Stuff I Never Told You is a production by Heart Radio.
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  Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, you can check
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