Toph Beifong

Toph Beifong, also known as Dung, Melon Lord, Powerful Earthbender Lady, The Blind Bandit and The Runaway, is one of the main characters from the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
== Charactah Account ==
Toph Beifong is an earthbending master, one of the most powerful of her time, and the discoverer of metalbending. Blind since birth, Toph was constantly treated condescendingly because of her visual impairment, particularly by her overprotective parents, Lao and Poppy Beifong. Upon discovering badgermoles, earthbending animals who are also blind, she learned how to use earthbending as an extension of her senses. This gave her the ability to "see" every vibration that passes through the ground.
Having developed her own unique style of earthbending, Toph acquired a toughened personality and became famous for winning underground earthbending tournaments under the alias "The Blind Bandit", doing so behind her parents' backs. Although initially uninterested in directly aiding the war effort, she eventually chose to leave behind her old life, and travel with Avatar Aang and his friends as his earthbending teacher, when her parents finally became unbearable for her. Toph's total mastery over earthbending, unique personality, and thoughtful pragmatism made her a valuable addition to the team.
After Republic City's formation, Toph became the city's first Chief of Police, forming the Metalbending Police Force to help maintain order. She had two daughters with two different men: Lin, who succeeded her as Chief of Police, and Suyin, who created the metal city of Zaofu. Toph eventually set out to roam the world in search of enlightenment before settling down in the Foggy Swamp.
== Appearance ==
=== Cartoons ===
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Two: Earth
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Book Three: Fire
* The Legend of Korra - Book One: Air
* The Legend of Korra - Book Three: Change
* The Legend of Korra - Book Four: Balance
=== Comics ===
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Imbalance
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Imbalance Omnibus
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Karata and the Pirate's Silver
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - North and South
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Team Avatar Tales
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Lost Adventures
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise Omnibus
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift Omnibus
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Toph Beifong's Metalbending Academy
* Earth Kingdom Chronicles
* Nickelodeon Magazine
* The Legend of Korra: Patterns in Time
* The Legend of Korra: Ruins of the Empire
=== Video Games ===
* Avatar: Generations
* Avatar: Legends of the Arena
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Into the Inferno
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for Balance
* Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Burning Earth
* Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl
* Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix
* Nickelodeon Kart Racers 3: Slime Speedway
* Nicktoons MLB
* The Legend of Korra
== Trivia ==
* Toph's name means "expanding lotus", while her surname means "northern". On one other occasion, her given name was written which is the phonetic transcription based on the official guide for foreign names. Toph can also be seen as a sort of pun on the words "tough" and "toff", a British slang word meaning "upper-class".
* Toph was the only blind person shown in either series.
** Toph was the first known person to be born with a disability, the second being Ming-Hua.
* In The Promise trilogy, Toph represents the vice of rage, over which she is able to prevail due to her time at her metalbending academy.
* Due to her blindness, Toph had no reading or writing skills. That being said, she apparently had some math skills, as seen when she was counting money.
* A recurring joke was that other characters tended to forget Toph was blind, only for her to sarcastically remind them that she was.
* Though Toph could "see" where everyone was by using vibrations from the ground, she tended to not face them while talking, instead staring off into space or in a different direction.
* Coincidentally, Toph's earthbending style is rumored to have been created by a blind woman.
* Toph can extend her seismic sense to sand, albeit with reduced accuracy, metal, and even the meteorite that Sokka fashioned his "space sword" from, which she used as a bracelet and described as "space earth"; it does not, however, transfer to non-earthen solids such as ice.
* Toph could tell if people were lying as there are physical reactions in the body that she could sense through vibrations. Azula and Old Sweepy were the only known characters that were able to foil this.
* Toph apparently used her hands as sense organs to supplement the vibrations she was able to feel through her feet, as she was often seen doing this to further investigate vibrations she had already felt by other means. This was probably a product of her learning earthbending by crawling on all fours like badgermoles. She was also seen using this ability before entering Old Ba Sing Se. Furthermore, when Zuko accidentally burned her feet, she crawled on her hands and knees when trying to get away from his camp, probably in an effort to retain some sort of sense of her surroundings.
* After making her escape and inventing metalbending, Toph made the claim that she was the greatest earthbender in the world.
* Toph discovered metalbending and was the only person shown to utilize it, until she taught others how to metalbend at her school. In The Legend of Korra, it is taught to the Republic City's police, appropriately named the Metalbending Police Force.
* Despite Toph's hatred for rules, she likes being in a position to enforce them, having founded and led Republic City's police force.
* Toph was the third known person shown to be taught earthbending by the badgermoles, the first two being Oma and Shu. Toph was also one of the few known to be taught by the animal from which a bending art originated, others include Iroh, Aang, Zuko, and Wan.
* Toph had a crush on Sokka since at least the time when they traveled across the Serpent's Pass, which she tended to express by aiming more insults his way than toward anyone else. However, partially because Toph did not like admitting this even to herself, nothing ever came of this.
* Toph was the only person in Team Avatar that did not have a romantic relationship by the end of the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, she at least had some sorts of romantic relationship, in 119 AG and 126 AG, as she had two daughters, Lin and Suyin, with two different men.
* Toph was the only member of the original four members of Team Avatar not to go on an adventure with Zuko after he joined the team, later wanting to go with him when splitting up to search for Aang. As she plainly put it, "Everyone else went on a life-changing field trip with Zuko, now it's my turn." However, it did not go how she planned, as he was more focused on finding Aang. Toph later stated, "This is the worst field trip ever".
* Although Toph's hair appeared to be short, it was shown to be very long and bushy when she let it down.
* Toph was the only member of Team Avatar with a known last name.
* Toph was the only member of Team Avatar whose life was not uprooted or dramatically changed by the Hundred Year War or the Fire Nation.
* Toph has not been with her parents since she ran away from home. However, she did send them a letter and unexpectedly reunited with her father at a refinery.
* Toph was the only member of Team Avatar to be of the same biological age as Aang, as both were biologically twelve years old (though Aang is chronologically older than her by one hundred years).
* Toph had the last line in the original series, saying, "Well, I think you all look perfect".
* According to the DVD commentary for "The Blind Bandit", Toph's Earth Rumble outfit, which she wore throughout most of the series, was influenced by Chinese and European fashion styles.
* Toph is the only known individual capable of using both variations of seismic sense, as she was able to use the skill to feel vibrations as well as detect lies.
* Toph initially appeared as a vision by Aang in "The Swamp". She had no lines, but giggled and laughed as Aang tried to pursue her.
* Toph is a playable character in Legends of the Arena. She is unlocked through the use of a secret code ("metal bending"). Aside from her appearance and name, she is played just like any other character.
* Toph is the youngest known earthbending master in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
* Despite exclusively using Praying Mantis-style earthbending, it is possible Toph knows some very basic Hung Gar earthbending, at least in form only, since Master Yu gave her beginner-level instruction up until her meeting with Team Avatar.
* Ironically, Toph displayed great mastery over the Light Chakra when she overcame the illusion of the division between natural earths and refined metals by her insight that the forging process would always leave small natural impurities, despite having never dealt with light in her life.
* Toph is the first character, followed by Zuko and Asami Sato, to join a Team Avatar with a father who is antagonistic toward them and their allies.
** The three characters have also all had trouble earning their father's love. The major difference with Toph, however, is that unlike Ozai and Hiroshi, the actions of Toph's father were geared more toward paranoia and overprotection rather than directly inflicting pain on her out of some sense of morality.
* Toph and Katara are the only known people to have trained two different Avatars, namely Aang and Korra.
* Toph is known to hit people on the shoulder as a sign of affection.
* Toph's mentorship of Korra through her physical and mental rehabilitation in the swamp shares many similarities to Yoda teaching Luke Skywalker on the swamp planet Dagobah in the Star Wars movies. Both Toph and Yoda resided in simplistic dwellings built in the hollows of large trees; both Luke and Korra underestimated their elderly masters based on their supposed physical limitations; and both teachers dealt with their learners' defeatist attitudes with unconventional and seemingly harsh methods. While aware of such similarities, they were not intentional homages on the part of the writers, however.
* Regarding Toph's relationship with Kanto, Bryan Konietzko felt that Toph's storyline was not incomplete simply because the audience was not aware of the details of said relationship, as for Toph, the short-lived relationship was not as significant to her compared to the one she had and wanted with her daughters, which Konietzko felt was the more compelling character arc.
* Toph is one of two known characters in the Avatar franchise to have had children with two different men, the other being Ursa.
* Toph is the only character to appear in the graphic novel series for both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
== Gallery ==
File:Toph Beifong Render 01.png
File:Toph Beifong Render 02.png
File:Toph Beifong Render 03.png
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File:Toph Beifong Render 05.png
== External Links ==
* Toph Beifong at Avatar Wiki
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Avatar: The Last Airbender