This article is about the character. For other similar uses, see Toph Beifong (disambiguation).

"I love fighting. I love being an earthbender, and I'm really, really good at it."

— Toph to her mother and father.[1]

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.[11]

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.[4] 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.[1] 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.[12] 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[13] before settling down in the Foggy Swamp.[14]

Contents show]

History

Early life

Toph was born in 87 or 88 AG as the only child of the wealthy Beifong family from Gaoling. Born blind, she was sheltered by her parents, who believed her blindness made her fragile and incapable of looking after herself. They went to extreme measures to protect her, including hiding her existence from the rest of the world, which resulted in very few people knowing that the Beifong family even had a daughter. Her parents expected their daughter to be well-mannered and proper due to their noble status in Earth Kingdom society, something with which Toph secretly disagreed, causing her to resent her parents' treatment.[1]

At the age of six, Toph ran away from home and hid in a cave inhabited by badgermoles. Badgermoles were the first earthbenders and according to Toph, she felt that she and the creatures understood each other as they were both blind. She learned earthbending by imitating their movements.[11] In this way, she learned to "see" through the use of her earthbending, detecting people and other objects through their vibrations, which she sensed through the ground via her bare feet.[1] Her blindness and patience helped her to develop a keen sense of hearing.

Lao Beifong later hired the earthbender teacher, Master Yu, to instruct her. Acting upon the orders of Toph's father, he did not teach her anything other than beginner's moves, unaware that she had already achieved mastery in the art. She became such a formidable bender that she secretly entered underground earthbending tournaments as the Blind Bandit, and was successful to the point where she became the champion of Earth Rumble more than once. After meeting Aang, Toph soon ran away in order to teach him earthbending, but also to escape her parents, who never granted her any real freedom.[1]

Spring 100 AG

Summer 100 AG

101 AG

Helping The Boulder

Soon after the Hundred Year War concluded, Toph visited her former wrestling rival, The Boulder, at his home. To her great surprise, the seemingly tough wrestler had a secret pet crococat, named The Pebble. Happy to see Toph again, The Boulder requested her help in handling the small but fierce animal that had become extremely ill-tempered and gluttonous for no apparent reason, loudly meowing around the clock. She agreed to assist The Boulder, but all their attempts to still the Pebble's hunger failed miserably. Both became desperate until noticing that the crococat had disappeared and stopped meowing. Using her seismic sense, Toph located the animal and happily revealed that The Pebble had given birth to a litter of young. Overjoyed that his beloved pet was alright, The Boulder earnestly thanked Toph, but also requested that she kept The Pebble a secret. His devotion to the small animal did not fit his persona as a tough wrestler, and he feared for his reputation. To his relief, Toph agreed to tell no one.

Sometime later, Toph reentered the Earth Rumble tournaments, once again facing The Boulder in the ring. Before their fight started, he publicly revealed The Pebble and her kittens, as he had realized that they were more important than his stage image. Confident that he could not lose with his pets' support, he challenged Toph for her title of reigning champion. Though initially surprised and somewhat confounded by her opponent's sudden shift of priorities, Toph quickly shrugged off the events and easily defeated The Boulder.[15]

Troubles as metalbending instructor

Toph also began to travel the world to teach metalbending to other earthbenders, founding an academy for the art near the former Fire Nation colonial city of Yu Dao. Her first known students were Penga, The Dark One, and Ho Tun, whom she chose due to the fact that her meteorite bracelet would shiver in the presence of these "super emotional people".

Toph met Team Avatar while they were on their way to Yu Dao when they were visiting the colony to learn of its situation.[16] On their way toward Ba Sing Se to inform Earth King Kuei about Zuko's decision, Toph decided it was time to go back to her academy, and she left the team, accompanied by Sokka. He inquired her about her initiative to start the school, to which she answered that she had felt a "calling" to teach what she had discovered. However, Sokka did not believe this and realized the real reason was that she liked to tell people what to do. When they arrived at the academy, Toph caught her students leaving, but they excused themselves saying they had been kicked out. The earthbender proceeded to the academy and saw Kunyo and his firebending students, and ordered him to leave the place; the firebender refused, stating it was his school before the Harmony Restoration Movement. When they were about to fight for the academy's possession, Sokka interrupted them and proposed a "match to the sit" between their students in three days, which both instructors accepted.

Toph told Sokka how she had chosen her three students, but was unsure whether they could metalbend, so Sokka offered to help by being a "motivational bender". However, after two unsuccessful attempts to get the pupils to bend, Toph gave up and confessed to her friend her feeling of failure as she was trying to make her students something they were not; she stated her intention to surrender on the day of the battle. That day, at their opponent's arrival, she began sitting down but was interrupted by her "lily livers", who demonstrated they could metalbend and attacked the firebending team with metal coins, easily defeating them and making Kunyo sit down. Toph, happy at her students' victory, renewed her trust in them and continued with their training.[17]

Yu Dao crisis

Later, Toph was waiting with Sokka for Aang and Katara to pick him up. However, instead of greeting the pair, Suki arrived in a Fire Nation war balloon and explained that Kunyo had complained about a "dirt girl" and a "snow savage" taking over his school near Yu Dao. She continued to say that they were both needed to help her stop Zuko's army from going to war against the Earth King. Complying to the request, Toph left her students, telling them once again to practice their forms in her absence.

During the battle for Yu Dao, she earthbent an underground slide that led directly under Zuko's army. Emerging underneath the Fire Nation tanks, Sokka told Toph to metalbend the screws, effectively dismantling all of the invading tanks. When Suki and Toph found themselves outnumbered against several firebending soldiers, Toph's metalbending students arrived to save them.[18]

After the conclusion of the battle, the fame of Toph's school rose, and she had to decline an invitation from Zuko to come to the Fire Nation Royal Palace, as she had too much work to do at her school.[19]

102 AG

Yangchen's Festival

When the peace talks in Yu Dao came to an end around a year later, Toph and the rest of Team Avatar returned there to witness the introduction of the city's new coalition government. Afterward, she attended a banquet in celebration of the election with her friends, during which Katara inquired about the state of her metalbending academy; she answered without excitement that her school was doing well, to the point that she had more students than she could properly house. When Sokka suggested charging tuition in order to be able to finance the school's expansion, Toph promptly refused, stating that her school was doing something innovative and important, something from which she did not want to profit by developing it into a business. When Aang finally joined them at dinner, she seemed unenthused to learn that he would be taking her and the others on a field trip the following day.

Nevertheless, she accompanied Aang, Sokka, Katara, and three Air Acolytes, Xing Ying, Yee-Li, and Jingbo toward a cliff overlooking the ocean where they would commence the celebration of Yangchen's Festival by bowing to a stone statue. Aang failed to enlighten the group to the reasons behind the festival, brushing off the inquiries to the identity of the woman depicted by the statue to which they would be bowing by stating that that was just how things were done, reminding Toph of her childhood during which her father had used exactly the same reasoning to justify every rule and action he imposed on her. For this reason, she subsequently refused when Aang asked everyone to bow, stating that she bowed to no one, and ended up denouncing the festival entirely as unimportant when he tried to convince her to participate regardless of a lack of detailed reasoning.

Toph's attitude toward the festival's celebrations did not improve during the next part of the ceremony, given that they were to walk toward a sacred meadow where they would eat a ceremonial, vegetarian meal. Along the way, the Air Acolytes and Aang created traditional Air Nomad music to accompany the group's walk, visibly irritating Toph to the point that she used her metalbending to destroy Yee-Li's cymbals. She tested Aang's nerves further by loudly announcing that she thought she had done away with the need for "fuddy-duddy rituals" when she left her father's house; it did not evolve to a conflict, however, as the group arrived at a town with a large refinery built on the meadow. Contrary to the others, Toph and Sokka were delighted to find the settlement and they promptly parted from their friends in order to find a decent meal of meat. They later reunited with the rest of the group on the grounds of the Earthen Fire Refinery, where the factory's interim boss, the engineer Satoru, became starstruck by Toph. She accepted his offer of a guided tour of the refinery, with her friends tagging along as her entourage. After being shown the factory's bender and mechanical production lines, Toph commended Satoru on his factory and in turn earned his praise when she managed to fix the motor of a forklift in mere moments through the use of metalbending. When he offered to sponsor a new school building for her and her metalbending students in exchange for their coming by the refinery on a regular basis to help out with the machines, she enthusiastically agreed to his offer by stating that she would love to be in a partnership with him, though immediately corrected herself by saying that she meant the refinery.

Their conversation was cut short by Aang, however, who told Satoru that the refinery should never have been built on sacred grounds and accused it of being the culprit of the river's pollution. When Satoru refuted the accusation, Toph used her seismic sense lie-detecting abilities to corroborate the engineer's story and took his side in the argument, once again preferring the future over the objections of the past. She was subsequently pulled aside by Aang, who told her he was under the impression that the only reason why she believed Satoru was due to a crush she had on him; Toph countered by rhetorically asking him whether this impressionability was similar to having a skewed perception due to a nostalgic affinity to cultural rituals. Pointing to the refinery, she continued by saying that it employed the same ethic as the one they desired in Yu Dao: a place where people worked and lived in harmony, regardless of where they came from. She ended her reasoning by asking him if he really wanted to sacrifice what she and Satoru deemed to be the future for a "stupid, backwards holiday". Aang took the insult personally and their talk rapidly evolved in a heated argument. The verbal fight was cut short, however, when the ground suddenly began to shake, causing Katara and Sokka to run up to them to ask them to remain calm; when Aang deftly deflected the accusation, Toph took offense at his implication of her being a novice earthbender who could not control her bending. While she complained about this, however, a second, even more powerful quake occurred, causing Satoru to ask them all to leave, increasing Toph's annoyance. Before they could heed the engineer's request, they heard a factory worker cry out for help, as the quakes had left him trapped under a haywire machine. Toph and Aang instantly set out to free the man and managed to rescue him due to teamwork. With the crisis averted, Toph easily accepted Aang's apology and apologized as well, though she asked him if he was not trying too hard to hold onto his past. He conceded that perhaps he was, but retorted by asking if she was not trying too hard to escape hers, to which Toph replied that some people simply had to run away in order to live. The conversation was cut short by the arrival of the two owners of the refinery, bringing Toph face-to-face with her father, Lao Beifong, for the first time in two years.[20]

Facing her past

Toph was shocked to hear her father say that she was a confused young lady, rather than his daughter and she grew angry upon hearing him command the Rough Rhinos to escort her and her friends off the refinery's premises. She refused to leave until she had spoken to her father, leading to a violent confrontation with the Rough Rhinos. She used an earth pillar to catapult one of the members into the air after he had nearly sliced her with his chain blades. Her action, however, earned her a reprimanding speech from Aang, much to her annoyance. She told him to stop talking to her like she was one of his Air Acolyte children and left to continue fighting her way. She encountered Ogodei, who had successfully captured all the Acolytes, and used her metalbending to chain him down with his own weapon. When she learned that the Acolytes did not fully defend themselves because they were following the precepts of Air Nomad philosophy, she got mad and told them to care more about the present than the past, lest they would have no present to care about anymore.

Toph left to go find her father, breaking down a factory wall to gain access to the refinery's grounds. She was pointed in the direction of her father's office by Satoru, who quickly joined her to guide her to him himself. When he offered his help, however, Toph coldly asked if he was sure he wanted to do that, mocking his earlier respectful action toward Loban to have been groveling. Entering her father's office, Toph was once again told by him that he was not his daughter, as he had raised a poised, demure, obedient young woman. Toph acknowledged that she had put her family through a lot, but she tried to get her father to realize who she really was and revealed that she had just been acting to be a quiet little girl in order to please them. She was hurt when her father did not react to any of her accomplishments, concluding that talking to him had been a mistake and that she would never bother him again.

When Sokka barged in and told Lao to follow him down toward the iron mine, Toph accompanied them. Upon learning that Loban excavated an unstable iron ore deposit site, she chastised him for it, telling him that he needed to start caring more about people's lives as opposed to just money. When Satoru came to his uncle's defense, Toph told him to trust her that she was right, as she could feel the earth and ore shifting around them, making the mine a dangerous place to work in. As the mine subsequently collapsed after Kahchi accidentally broke one of the support beams, Toph used her metalbending to keep all the trapped people from getting crushed by the debris.[21]

While continuing to support the weight of the ore as best as she could, Toph was given the water in Katara's water skin by Satoru. After finishing the drink, she asked Satoru to stay and talk to her, assuring him it would not be a distraction. She learned that the scientist had run away from home and, after hearing his story, said he was not a "sniveling flunky" as he claimed for not confronting his uncle. Lao interrupted to talk to Toph himself about what had happened in the time between her disappearance and the present. Knowing it may have been their final moments, he tried to make amends, saying he had always thought about her, bringing tears to the young earthbender's eyes. She soon responded by saying that if he really knew her, there would be no doubt as to whether they would survive because she was the greatest earthbender of all time. After her students freed them, she made an out of breath remark that their work was not bad, but soon passed out, falling into the arms of her father.[22]

Protecting the refinery

After waking up and seeing Lao and a refinery worker in panic, Toph asked what was happening. She rejected his advice to lay down and stay safe, demanding to know the situation. She grew shocked when her father told her that Aang intended to destroy the Earthen Fire Refinery for no apparent reason. After being told it would not only ruin him but eradicate a symbol of international peace, Toph vowed to stop him, calling on her students to join her. The group blocked Aang's initial strike, telling him they were there to stop him. She refused to stand by and let him destroy what the people had built. The foursome was attacked by air rings, though Toph was able to dodge the one targeted for her with an earthen wall, which she used to launch several attacks at the Avatar. She soon changed the attack method to metalbending, asking Aang if he realized how ridiculous the situation was. They were soon cut off when her students called their attention to the spirit General Old Iron approaching the town.

As Aang tried to fight off Old Iron, Toph again called on her students, this time to help the Avatar. They realized that they needed to peel off the spirit's iron armor to give Aang any chance, which was like the exercise of "Forest Bowing to the East Wind". The four quickly removed the armor, prompting the earthbender to tell Aang to give Old Iron an Avatar State-induced blow to the chest. When Old Iron realized the metalbenders were responsible for the removal of his armor and targeted them, Toph told her students to run while she would hold him off. After Aang defeated Old Iron and the spirit vanished below the sea, Toph went to him at the shore, remarking that it could not have been easy for him to battle the spirit. She thanked him for saving her and her students and the two embraced as the sun emerged from behind the clouds.

Afterward, Toph heard her father giving his workers a motivational speech, remarking that while it was not as good as the ones she gave at her school, it was not bad. Three months later, she oversaw Satoru's work in the redone refinery, punching his arm while wondering why he was yet to invent anything and remarking that her father raised her better than waltzing in on someone whenever she felt like it.[22]

Helping Ty Lee

Sometime later, Toph visited the Fire Nation Capital to discuss political matters with Zuko and Aang. After the meeting, she came by the training Kyoshi Warriors. Noticing Ty Lee sitting nearby, Toph greeted her with a punch on the arm, briefly cheering up the young chi blocker. Asking if she should not be training, Toph learned that Ty Lee needed a break as nothing felt right to her anymore. Believing to know what was needed to "punch [her] aura back in place", Toph dragged her friend off to the Fire Nation circus. There, Ty Lee immediately became excited, prompting Toph to question why she never went back to being a circus acrobat. While Ty Lee was explaining, her old circus master pushed her into a nearby tent, and following her, Toph quickly became startled upon seeing "a whole bunch of [Ty Lees]". Ty Lee introduced her to her twin sisters, with whom she had long lost contact. After the family reunion evolved into an argument, causing a frustrated Ty Lee to storm out of the tent, Toph tried to cheer up the chi blocker by saying that she was her favorite out of all the Ty sisters. She also convinced a still annoyed Ty Lee to stay at the circus and attend a performance to show support for the platypus bears.

During the performance, Toph attempted to encourage the platypus bears to rebel against their trainer while listening to Ty Lee's realization about the reasons for her depression. As they headed out after the show, right before the Ty sisters' performance, Toph heard two people plotting to burn the tent down. Confronting the men about their plans, Toph was met with scorn, causing her to mock them before burying the firebender in a wave of dirt with her earthbending. At her urging, Ty Lee attacked the other offender, though she could not overpower the large man. Before Toph could help the chi blocker, however, her twin sisters overwhelmed the man, much to Ty Lee's joy. After returning to the capital, Toph told Suki of Ty Lee's intention to leave the Kyoshi Warriors, though Ty Lee had changed her mind.[23]

Southern Reconstruction Project

Admit mistakes when they occur and seek to restore honor. This page requires editing to meet Avatar Wiki's quality standards.

After Maliq and Malina partnered with Earthen Fire Industries, Toph was sent as a representative of the company to help with the Southern Reconstruction Project at the South Pole. She arrived outside Maliq and Malina's family wearing shoes and a heavy coat, telling her new partners that she was looking forward to working with them, and warmly greeted Sokka and Katara.

Toph attended a festival that evening. When Sokka excitedly pointed out a high-striker booth, Toph resolved to try to beat it. Toph and Sokka were later found by Aang and Katara, having won many stuffed animals from the festival's competitions.

As Malina began her speech on the Southern Reconstruction Project, Toph continued to play booth games. When Malina introduced Toph and her partnership with Earthen Fire Industries, the earthbender began to sense an object rising toward them through the ice beneath her feet; the shoes she was wearing muffled her seismic sense and kept her from sensing it any sooner. Just as Malina asked her to say a few words to the audience, Toph screamed at them to flee for safety. Seconds later, Gilak's drill burst from the snow along with the Southern nationalist soldiers. Gilak and Thod stood atop the steel machine, the former addressing the crowd on how Malina and Maliq planned to give plan of the oil to the Northern Water Tribe.

After Gilak ordered his troops to attack Maliq and Malina, Team Avatar rushed to the siblings' aid, with Toph and Sokka fighting the Southern nationalists. She rushed to the stage where Noa, Kam, and Soonjei were standing. Seeing the earthbender among them fashioning earth gauntlets, Toph used a much larger version to knock them unconscious.

Toph and Aang waited outside Kanna's hut while Katara tended to Hakoda's stab wound that he received from Gilak in the fighting. When Katara and Sokka left the hut, Toph reassured the waterbender that she would have never partnered with Maliq and Malina had she known of their intentions to give control of the oil to the North.[24]

The next morning, Toph and her metalbending students began doing construction work on Maliq and Malina's factory as protesters gathered at the fence surrounding the site. Her students began to raise complaints about the task, as construction work in the South Pole would be difficult without waterbenders to help, but Toph noted that Katara was not interested in helping with the factory, and she could not work with any Northerners due to the political situation, and that Malina, though an exception, still had to keep a low profile.

Toph joined the rest of Team Avatar for Hakoda's conference on the Southern Reconstruction Project after Zuko and Earth King Kuei arrived in the Southern Water Tribe. The meeting was ambushed by Gilak, who had escaped prison, accompanied by Southern nationalist soldiers. When she was confronted by one Southern soldier, she bent her meteor bracelet and showed it to him, boasting about her space rock as she bent it into a hand shape and slapped the soldier across the face. Although the attempted kidnapping of Hakoda was thwarted by Team Avatar, the Earth King had been taken by the Southern nationalists.

Team Avatar received a message from Gilak, offering terms to exchange Hakoda for Kuei. Sokka, after reading it, added the exchange was to take place at the Bridge of No Return, a place where the village used to deal with their criminals. Katara explained further that if anyone in the village ever did anything unforgivable, they would be forced to walk across the bridge, and never return. Sokka added that the terrain there was the most dangerous in all of the South Pole and how nothing could stay alive there long. Sokka elaborated on the plan Gilak proposed: While Team Avatar and Gilak's army would remain on either side of the bridge, Thod and his two disciples would cross over to chi block all Team Avatar's benders, and as soon as Hakoda would start to walk across, Gilak would send over Earth King Kuei. Zuko, remarking he knew how villains thought from his past experience, was sure that Gilak would cheat and cut the rope bridge, so Sokka came up with a plan in case that would happen.

When they got to The Bridge of No Return, nobody was present yet. Katara lamented the lackluster and tumultuous trip back home, but Sokka wondered what the Southern Water Tribe was even like before the war, concluding the idealistic vision Katara had of it never existed. Gilak arrived on the other side with the Earth King. As planned, Thod and his disciples came over and chi blocked Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Sokka. Right after that, Hakoda started walking over to the other side of the bridge and, at the same time, Gilak sent over the Earth King. As soon as they got to the middle of the bridge, Gilak took out his sword and was about to cut the bridge, but Malina stopped him from behind, followed closely by The Dark One, Penga, and Ho Tun. The group took out Gilak's guards while Aang, Katara, Toph, Zuko, and Sokka suddenly jumped up and took out Thod and his disciples. Thod asked Sokka how he did it, Sokka replied delightedly, showing and telling Thod the chain mail armor he and Team Beifong had designed. Aang managed to save both Hakoda and Malina, but Gilak fell to his death in the ravine.

After the ordeal, Kanna, Pakku, Hakoda, Malina, Kuei, and Bosco gathered around Kanna and Pakku's igloo. Aang, Katara, Toph, and Zuko were in the kitchen cooking, and later joined everyone for a meal from their respective cultures, Toph having cooked braised turtle-duck from the Earth Kingdom.[25]

Trouble in Cranefish Town

Admit mistakes when they occur and seek to restore honor. This page requires editing to meet Avatar Wiki's quality standards.

As Team Avatar was flying to Yu Dao on Appa, Toph convinced Aang to stop by Earthen Fire Industries so she could talk to her father. She warned the rest of the group that Cranefish Town - the settlement that had sprung up around Earthen Fire Industries - had changed a lot since they last visited, claiming it had grown bigger than a town.

Lao welcomed the group, and Toph went to greet him, though her father merely thanked her for bringing Aang to Cranefish Town in its hour of need. Confused, Toph told her father that she thought he wanted to see her for business-related reasons, and Lao stated that though he was happy to see his daughter, the town needed the Avatar's wisdom and guidance. Toph's father explained to Aang that as a result of Cranefish Town's expansion, there were dozens of factories besides the Earthen Fire Refinery there, as well as new challenges to deal with. Aang asked about these challenges, and Lao informed him that since Cranefish Town had no official government, he and other business owners had formed a committee known as the "Business Council" to manage the city's growth.

Upon seeing a brawl break out between a gang of earthbenders and a gang of firebenders, Toph forcibly separated the two sides and started to attack the gang members. An earthbender was knocked into one of the new buildings during the fight, damaging it and forcing Toph to use her bending to keep it from collapsing. She called on Aang to help her, and Aang flew in on his glider and carried her away, allowing the building to fall down. Toph clarified that she wanted help holding up the building, but Aang replied that the building was already destroyed and that whoever built it had done a poor job.

When Lao once again asked Aang to attend the Business Council, he reiterated his agreement, though he insisted on first helping the people who lost their homes in the building's collapse. He and Toph offered to repair the building, but their help was rejected, a woman telling them that she and the others did not want to have their home repaired by benders after it was destroyed by benders, which Aang reluctantly accepted. Toph declined to attend the meeting, wanting to see if Satoru had come up with any new inventions since her last visit.

Toph and Katara arrived at the now larger Earthen Fire Industries factory, where they were greeted by Satoru, who agreed to show them around. As they headed inside, Katara noticed a pair of people dressed like Lao's bodyguards, whom Satoru explained were guards hired to deal with break-ins at the factory. Katara asked what happened to the old guards, Satoru claimed that the explanation was complicated, to which Toph pressed him for a more detailed explanation. He explained that. as a result of the upgrades, machines and nonbenders were able to do all the work in the factory, and some bender employees were subsequently let go in order to save money. The remaining bender employees resigned in protest, believing that they were being replaced by machines, though Satoru assured Katara and Toph that this was not his intention; he merely wanted to improve his machines and the factory's productivity. He went on to say that benders across the city had lost their jobs as other factories installed machines like his, and that some benders refused to work for factories owned by nonbenders as a result, the earthbender guards who used to work at Earthen Fire Industries being an example. Toph considered the bender dislike of the machines to be "crazy", stating that she loved them despite being a bender, though she told Satoru not to invent any machines that could metalbend.

That night, Toph was woken from her sleep by a clanking sound coming from the Earthen Fire Industries factory, and she went to investigate, discovering one of the machines to have been deliberately jammed. The machine exploded seconds later, alerting Satoru and the rest of Team Avatar. Toph survived the explosion with her metalbending and sensed two people running away, guessing that they were responsible for the sabotage. She and Aang pursued them, but were attacked by one of them, who turned out to be a firebender gang member. Toph was left to deal with the current attacker, as Aang used his glider to pursue the other saboteur.[26] When morning came, Aang returned to Earthen Fire Industries, informing Toph, Katara, and Sokka that the saboteur, out of gratitude to Aang for saving him, revealed that he had been hired by a pair of teenage girls, one of whom was a skilled earthbender.

After getting dressed, Team Avatar talked to the owners of the attacked factories, learning that they all produced different goods, ruling out the attacks being attempts to eliminate competitors. They also learned that the attacked factories were all owned by nonbenders, while the damage looked like it was caused by benders. Sokka and Aang then talked about how the invention of machines has made things more equal between benders and nonbenders, with the result that some benders might feel threatened and become desperate enough to attack factories.

Hoping to bridge the divide between benders and nonbenders, Aang decided to try and convince the bender-owned businesses to help their nonbender counterparts, starting with Councilwoman Liling. Team Avatar met with her, and Aang managed to convince the councilwoman to support more nonbender owned businesses. When Liling introduced Ru and Yaling to the group, Toph had a reaction to the sounds of their footsteps. She acted unimpressed with Yaling's earhtbending demonstration, revealing her own metalbending, which caused the other girl to become awestruck. After talking about metalbending, Toph asked Yaling if she had been up the cliffs near Tienhai's statue, to which Yaling replied that she had not.

As Team Avatar walked down the city streets, Toph claimed that Liling was involved in the sabotage of last night. She revealed that she heard Ru and Yaling's footsteps after the explosion at the Earthen Fire Refinery, and that Yaling's claim about not being up the cliffs was a lie, guessing that she was the earthbender who nearly killed the saboteur. Aang recalled the saboteur's claim about being hired by a pair of teenage girls, and Toph stated that Ru and Yaling were almost certainly the teenage girls in question. Sokka asked how they could prove Liling and her daughters were the ones sabotaging the factories, to which Toph replied that she planned to question Yaling about it while pretending to teach her metalbending.

When the group returned to the Earthen Fire Refinery, Sokka found himself reunited with Suki. Not wanting to hang around the couple, Toph headed into the refinery and started repairing the damage with her bending. As she worked, Satoru came up to her and admitted to feeling responsible for the current situation in Cranefish Town, since he created the machines that many benders felt had replaced them. Toph replied that there would not have been enough jobs in the town for all skilled benders even if he had not made the machines, claiming that people were just looking for someone to blame. Satoru asked if she was telling him not to feel guilty about what he had done, and she agreed.

The next morning, Toph met with Yaling at the beach to teach her metalbending. Yaling had no success at first, but Toph told her to be patient as she had only been learning for one day. She added that she once tried to teach Aang, who failed to learn because, as an Air Nomad, he did not have the necessary fortitude or feel for metal, while an earthbender, on the other hand, will have what it takes. The two girls then talked about yesterday's meeting and Liling's efforts to help the nonbender owned businesses, Toph claiming that she would not mind if the machines were not repaired immediately, and downplaying her friendship with Aang to gain Yaling's trust. Yaling told her that many people in Cranefish Town felt that things had gone wrong since the end of the Hundred Year War, with particular regard to the relationship between benders and nonbenders. She asked Toph if she wanted to attend the meeting Liling was holding that night, saying that it was for concerned citizens who wanted to restore things to the natural order. Toph agreed, and Yaling told her the password.

Toph returned to Team Avatar with her information on the meeting, proposing that they go and subdue those attending. Katara advised otherwise, saying that they did not know why the factories were attacked or the extent of Liling's involvement, and that they could not arrest her without evidence. Toph replied that they could find out what they needed while attacking the meeting, but Sokka suggested that instead of using violence, Team Avatar could go undercover to infiltrate the meeting and gather information, Toph going as Yaling's guest and the others disguising themselves. Though feeling that this approach would be less enjoyable, Toph agreed, as she wanted to catch the people who attacked her father's factory.

That night, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki followed Toph as she accompanied Yaling to the location of the meeting. The two girls headed through a door watched by a guard, the others following by giving the password: imbalance. They found themselves inside one of the town's old mines and made their way to a large cavern where many benders were gathered, including members of the town council.

Team Avatar listened to Liling's speech. The crowd reacted in anger at Lao's proposal to ban public bending, and the councilwoman went on to claim how the abilities of benders made them greater, more valuable, and more suited to lead than nonbenders. Having heard enough, Aang quietly suggested that Team Avatar leave before they all saw Toph walking up onto the platform with Yaling. Ru was shocked to see Toph there, but Yaling replied that Toph supported their cause. The metalbender, however, chose this moment to reveal her true allegiances, and attempted to detain Liling, prompting Yaling to attack Toph, declaring her a traitor and accusing her of choosing the nonbenders over her fellow benders. Toph replied that the nonbenders in question were her friends and family, and she would always choose to side with them.

As Aang, Katara, and Sokka leaped into action, Toph continued to fight Yaling, who called her a poor teacher for not teaching her any metalbending. Toph replied that she had taught an entire school of earthbenders how to metalbend, and that Yaling failed to learn because she was a terrible bender. She succeeded in knocking her back with an earth pillar, but Yaling got back to her feet and claimed that she was a better bender than Toph. The other girl told her to prove it, and the two of them charged at each other with earth gauntlets. Both were sent flying away from each other in the clash, with Yaling coming to land besides Ru, before they were both confronted by Sokka and Suki.

With Team Avatar having overpowered all of Liling's supporters, the councilwoman attacked them with a burst of powerful earthbending, before bending a tunnel in the cavern and telling her daughters and supporters to escape while she held the team off. As the others escaped, Liling started collapsing the cavern with her earthbending, but Toph managed to prevent it with her own bending, and Liling was subdued by both Aang and Suki and then taken under arrest.

Liling was imprisoned within a metal cage of Toph's design in the Earthen Fire Refinery. Toph assumed that they could simply capture Ru and Yaling and bring an end to the crisis, but Sokka replied that the situation was more complicated than that, since the rally demonstrated that Liling had support from numerous benders within Cranefish Town, including criminals and council members. Aang said that they needed to deal with Liling and talked about contacting the Earth Kingdom authorities, but Toph proposed another solution: Aang should do what he did to Fire Lord Ozai and take away Liling's bending in order to make an example of her and discourage her supporters from causing further trouble. Aang and the rest of the group were left shocked at this prospect.[27] When Toph questioned why, they all went quiet, but she insisted on her idea, claiming that Liling could not lead a bender supremacist movement if she was not a bender. Katara raised that the decision could not be taken lightly, while Aang remained silent. When Toph asked what his take on this was, the Avatar said he needed to think about it.

After a frantic Satoru approached them with the news that the Business Council building was on fire, Aang, Katara, and Toph jumped into action, and Satoru explained that Lao and the rest of the council were still inside. Aang and Katara used waterbending to douse the fire while Toph broke down the door of the building, guiding her dad and the others out. That night, an exhausted Aang, Katara, Toph, and Satoru returned to the factory.

After Liling was freed by her daughters, Toph was present for Team Avatar's confrontation with the bender supremacists. When Liling's followers approached, the walls suddenly began to move, being controlled by Toph. She bent one of the walls away, revealing Suki and a group of chi blockers that joined the battle. A group of benders was trapped by Toph, who enclosed them in between metal walls. Liling commanded Yaling to go after Toph, and she managed to knock the blind bender down by attacking her in the air. The two girls earthbent at each other, and Toph ran up the side of a wall, luring Yaling to the roof. Yaling sarcastically asked why she was not trying to say they could peacefully resolve things as she attempted to hit her with a long earth pillar. Toph said that that's more of Aang's thing as she made a metal glove for herself, deflecting Yaling's pillar. Eventually, their fighting bust a hole in the roof and both fell through. Yaling fell into the rubble, while Toph slid down on a metal cable. A group of benders charged at her, and she nonchalantly trapped them in some metal walls. Yaling proceeded to knock Toph off her feet but, as Toph hit the ground, Yaling loomed over her with a large rock and called her a disappointment for being stupid enough to side with the nonbenders. Toph said she had never been stupid enough to think she was better than him just because he was a nonbender. Yaling was confused and was suddenly hit on the back of the head by Sokka's boomerang. He went to check on Toph, who thanked him for saving her and gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder.

Three days later, Toph was present when Team Avatar walked through the city. Aang said that Liling's problem was not her bending, but her bigotry. Feeling a special connection to Cranefish Town, Toph resolved to stay there and help it grow and prosper into a city later known as Republic City.[28][29]

Work as Chief of Police

After the formation of Republic City, Toph was placed at the head of its law enforcement and became the city's first Chief of Police.[12] Her metalbending knowledge allowed her to found an elite team, the Metalbending Police Force, to aid her in her duties.

Sometime before 120 AG, Toph met Kanto, with whom she had a daughter, Lin. The relationship did not work out, however, and six years later, she had another daughter, Suyin, with another man though she ended up raising them as a single parent. Both daughters inherited her earthbending abilities and became masters in their own right. Seeking to give them a different childhood than the one she had, Toph gave her daughters the freedom to find their own path. Lin would later follow in her footsteps as the Chief of Police, while Suyin became a rebel, much like her mother when she was young. Toph told her daughters she considered them a blessing; though Lin thought she was lying.[13] In 124 AG, Toph commissioned a friend to illustrate her first encounter with Aang during Earth Rumble VI to include in a book the latter was assembling for his son, Tenzin.[30]

In 128 AG, at age forty, Toph was on her way to arrest a man named Yakone for being a practitioner of the illegal art of bloodbending and using it to terrorize Republic City. Although mildly annoyed that Avatar Aang asked to accompany her, she let him join her, although she could not resist calling him by her childhood nickname for him, "Twinkle Toes", much to his annoyance.

Having apprehended Yakone at Kwong's Cuisine, she brought him to be tried before the United Republic Council. However, right after he was found guilty of his crimes, Yakone used his bloodbending abilities to incapacitate Sokka. Coming to the aid of her friend, Toph was immobilized by the illegal bending art as well and was forced to use her keys to free Yakone of his handcuffs before being harshly tossed aside and incapacitated.[31]

In 142 AG, after Lin caught Suyin trying to flee from an arrest for theft, the sisters were brought into Toph's office. Knowing the scandal that would erupt from the Chief of Police having a daughter in prison, as well as wanting to protect her, Toph destroyed Suyin's police report and sent her to live with her parents. She retired from the police force a year later. At the same time, Suyin would later travel the world, eventually building a metal city, Zaofu. Toph and Suyin later reconciled, though Lin refused to participate.[9] Toph would visit Suyin in Zaofu from time to time, regaling her granddaughter, Opal, with stories about Lin, until she left to travel around the world in search of enlightenment. According to Aiwei, she has not been seen since.[13]

174 AG

Meeting Avatar Korra

By 174 AG, Toph resided in the Foggy Swamp, where she one day found Korra passed out in a pool of mud. She took the unconscious Avatar back to her home and laid her to rest in her bed while she made a meal. When Korra awoke and requested to know what had happened, Toph answered that she was hoping Korra would be able to tell her that. She revealed that she had known about Korra's presence due to being connected with her surroundings. Upon being asked if she was the person Korra was supposed to find, Toph merely stated that if Korra was led to her by her Avatar senses, she probably needed to listen to them. When Korra grew surprised over being recognized as the Avatar, Toph revealed that she had been good friends with her in a previous life and greeted the young woman as "Twinkle Toes".[14]

The following day, Korra asked Toph to help her get back into Avatar fighting shape, as she was currently in no condition to help the world, which she believed to need her. Upon hearing Korra say that, Toph briskly told the young woman to get over herself as the world did not need her at all, clarifying that while she was Chief of Police of Republic City, she had worked relentlessly to stop crime, though eventually realized that while the names changed, the street remained the same. Despite this and wanting to soak her feet in mud for a few weeks, Toph still decided to train Korra, stating that she simply could not stand the Avatar to be "so pathetic and getting [her] butt kicked all the time". As Korra surged forward to embrace her, she created an earth wall against which Korra crashed and fell down, stating that if the young woman wanted to hug something, she could go find a tree as they were there to work.

Toph faced Korra in a sparring match, during which she easily sidestepped three of Korra's airbending attacks and a water strike, before knocking the Avatar down with a mud pillar. As Korra was gathering her bearings, Toph asked her to reflect on what she did wrong and pointed out that the young woman should not think during battle. Turning her back to Korra, she ordered her to go again. She easily avoided Korra's elemental barrage and defeated her with one mud pillar once again. Walking up to Korra lying in a shallow water pool, the earthbender berated her for her "pathetic" performance, declaring her to be by far the worst Avatar she had worked with. As Korra defended herself by pointing out that it merely looked like Toph was enjoying to have someone around to beat up, the elderly woman agreed with her, since the local swampbenders could not take a punch in her opinion. She took offense to Korra's insinuation that she was disconnected from the world by having retreated into the swamp, declaring that she was more connected than Korra had ever been as she could tap into the swamp's vines to see all that went on in distant cities, like Zaofu and Republic City. As Korra attempted to test that statement by attacking her from behind, Toph knocked her down with a mud stream, stating Korra to be the blind one compared to her.

Walking through the swamp, Toph giddily talked about how much fun she had had tormenting the Avatar again, although she wished the girl had put up more of a fight. As Korra dejectedly noted that Toph had tossed her around like a ragdoll the entire time, the elderly woman laughed heartily at it, urging the Avatar to imagine how it would have been if she would still have been in her prime, saying she would have destroyed Korra. As Korra lamented about her inability to recover her old form, Toph told her there were still traces of mercury in her body. Realizing Korra had been oblivious to those remnants, she berated the young woman for "truly" being the worst Avatar ever. When the Avatar revealed to have been under the impression that Suyin had extracted all the poison, Toph stated that she believed neither of her daughters had picked up metalbending well. As Korra excitedly latched onto her, asking if Toph would be able to remove what Suyin could not, the elderly earthbender pushed her away, peeved about the fact that Korra even needed to ask about her abilities.

Returning to Toph's home, Toph ordered Korra to relax in order for her to complete a successful extraction. The moment she started, however, Korra shot up and grunted in pain, prompting Toph to berate her for not being relaxed. She ordered the young woman to stop fighting her and tried again, though with the same result. Annoyed about Korra's subconscious resistance, Toph gave up and stated that Korra would have to bend the metal out herself, since she was adamant about keeping it in her body for the time being. When a perplexed Korra asked her why she would want to keep poison in her body, Toph believed Korra to use it as an excuse to forsake her duties as the Avatar out of fear of getting injured again. Toph walked away as she did not want to deal with Korra's issues. Upon being asked by Korra what she was supposed to do, the elderly earthbender deferred Korra to the spirit that brought her to the swamp in the first place. Toph added that if Korra's wish was to find a place where she could disappear, she had come to the right swamp.[32]

In the following two days, Toph resumed her old habits of passing her time by relaxing. When Korra asked about their plans for the third day, Toph hinted that she wanted to continue doing nothing. This was not entertaining enough for the restless Avatar, who asked the elderly woman to retell the story of how she taught Aang to earthbend. Toph dismissed the question as there was no story there, considering she merely "threw some rocks at the Avatar, he got all whiny, and Sokka fell in a hole". As an excited Korra asked to hear the story about how Team Avatar had taken down the Fire Lord, Toph grew annoyed and relayed the story in a few sentences, saying that "it was hot. [She] was on a blimp. And [she thought] a giant turtle showed up." Upon being berated for being a terrible storyteller, she defended herself by declaring Korra to be a terrible listener. Although Toph tried to resume relaxing, she grew irritated by Korra restlessly tapping her foot on the floor. Raising the earth underneath the Avatar's feet to stop the tapping, she ordered the young woman to leave and collect some mushrooms for dinner, giving her directions as to where to go.

As Korra failed to return, Toph set out to search for her and found her sitting on a root while staring into the water. Upon learning that Korra had been plagued by visions, Toph casually answered that she had figured something like that would occur. She was unfazed by Korra calling her a "twisted, old lady" for having wanted Korra to have those visions and explained that the swamp could sense her to be out of balance. If Korra was willing to listen, the swamp would teach her what she needed to learn. Asking why the Avatar believed she kept seeing her old enemies, she offered the advice to learn from them. Toph walked Korra through her visions, stating that Amon wanted equality for all, Unalaq brought the spirits back, and Zaheer believed in freedom. She reasoned that their problem had been that they were out of balance and took their ideologies too far. Although Korra acknowledged the reason in Toph's words, the young woman still did not understand why she was haunted by their visions and thus Toph explained that she needed to face her fears and stop fighting her old enemies if she ever wished to be able to deal with future enemies. Since Korra revealed that she did not know how to do that, Toph noted with irritation that Avatars needed "a lot of hand-holding", before ordering Korra to get up and follow her to the banyan-grove tree.

Arriving at the heart of the swamp, Toph explained that the roots of the banyan-grove tree connected the entire swamp and added that Korra's problem was that she had been disconnected for too long from those who loved her and from herself. As Korra tapped into the connection of the swamp and excitedly revealed that she had seen Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo, Toph commented dryly that she hoped the three were there to take Korra home. Upon being introduced to the young airbenders, Toph revealed to them that their grandfather had been a "real pain in [her] butt". When Meelo recognized her due to her age, crankiness, and blindness, Toph commented that she liked the young boy.

The five of them returned to Toph's dwelling in the swamp, where Toph reminded Korra that she was not going to bend out the mercury, as it was something the Avatar needed to do herself. She instructed Korra to close her eyes and clear her mind in order to focus her energy and find the metal. As Korra panted in pain, Toph reassured her that the vision she was seeing was of a fight in the past and that she needed to release the fear connected to it. When Korra succeeded to bend all the residual mercury out of her system, Toph enclosed it into a rock and complimented the Avatar on her achievement. She allowed Korra to embrace her, deeming that the young woman had earned that right, though only reciprocated with a mild pat on the back. When Tenzin's children and Korra said their goodbyes and left the swamp on Pepper, Toph was glad to have some peace and quiet again.[33]

Saving her family

By keeping an eye on Zaofu via the vines of the Foggy Swamp, Toph saw that Suyin and her family had been captured by Kuvira. She traveled to the metal city, though by the time she arrived, her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren had already been moved to a prison camp. She later found Lin, Opal, and Bolin surveying the area around the city in order to determine where Suyin and the rest of the Beifong family were held captive. Approaching them, she told her daughter they should not bother trying to get closer to the city since the prisoners had been transported elsewhere. When Lin greeted her as "chief", she acknowledged her daughter in the same fashion, before being warmly hugged by Opal. Disentangling herself from the embrace, Toph fondly noted that Opal only reached to her waist the last time they had been together. Her demeanor switched to annoyance, however, when Bolin started to hysterically squeal and hop up and down over being in her presence, and she abrasively asked him if he needed to use the bathroom. Ignoring Bolin's antics, she informed the threesome of her discovery that Suyin and her family had been moved to a prison camp. When Bolin pinpointed its location to be that of a nearby factory and reeducation facility, Toph asked her granddaughter how she had ended up dating the kind of "dipstick" that worked for Kuvira. Now knowing where to go, Toph was introduced to Juicy, though she immediately noted that the "leaky, nasty thing" smelled worse than Appa.

En route to the factory, Toph told Bolin that it had been a "little while now, couple years" since she had seen Lin. As her daughter specified that it had been twenty years, she casually waved the comment off, noting that time flew for someone her age, and changed the subject to her wonder that Lin had come to save Suyin. She was pleased to learn that her daughters had moved past their grievances with each other, though Toph still failed to take note of Lin's grudge toward her.

Arriving at the factory, they all sneaked in and Toph used her metalbending to tear a hole in the hangar's wall, before seamlessly sealing it again. She used her seismic sense to deduce Suyin and her family were being kept in a cavern underneath the factory; although it felt empty, she could sense the mecha suits guarding the place. When Kuvira entered the hangar, they all hid and overheard her conversation with Baatar Jr. and Zhu Li. When the latter told Kuvira that she was doing everything she could to fix the problems with the spirit energy cannon, Toph noted that she was lying, much to Bolin's delight.

Retreating back to the hills surrounding the facility, Toph noted with irritation that she had not come to fight with Kuvira or destroy a cannon, as Opal and Bolin, respectively, suggested to do and emphasized that she was solely there to save her family, adding that it would already take everything that they had to survive the endeavor. The foursome decided to postpone their rescue mission until the next day after Bolin reasoned that the most ideal moment to strike would be during the testing of the cannon, since Kuvira's desire to have all the troops and workers present would leave the factory mostly deserted.

During dinner, Toph told Bolin that she used to have a metalbending academy where even a "blockhead" like him could have learned metalbending, ignoring Lin's sarcastic jab about her being a "real sensitive instructor". She was surprised to hear that Bolin had learned the rare skill of lavabending, complimenting him on the possibility of being talented after all, much to his excitement. When Lin scoffed at the conversation, sarcastically noting that Toph was "real encouraging", Toph bit back that she was blind, not deaf. Upon being asked who Lin's father was, she casually answered that he was a nice man named Kanto with whom it did not work out. Sensing her daughter's "enraged breathing", Toph ordered her to say whatever it was she wanted to say so they could "get it over with". Infuriated even more by that comment, Lin snapped at Toph that growing up without a father and never even discussing him weighed heavily on her, though her mother waved it off by stating that those were all things of the past. Being blamed for not knowing or caring why Lin was furious with her, Toph solemnly accepted her daughter's decision of not wanting anything more to do with her after they had saved Suyin if that was what would make her happy.

The following day, after Opal alerted them that the demonstration was about to start, Toph, Lin, and Bolin burrowed themselves a tunnel toward the underground cavern where the Beifong family was being held captive. Warning everyone that the guards were on the other side of the door at the opposite side of the chasm, she noted that they had to be quiet, lest they would be discovered. With Bolin's help, she catapulted Lin atop the wooden cell, so she could swing back all the prisoners on her cable and Bolin could catch them. Everything went well until the acrophobic Baatar inadvertently alerted the guards to their presence. Despite this setback, they managed to free the entire family and Toph warmly hugged her youngest daughter, before they all made their way back to the surface and reunited with Opal. When Bolin declared he would save Zhu Li at the abandoned town that was to be blown up by the cannon, Toph stated that he did not know for sure that she was on their side as she could have been lying before to cover up a mistake she had made as opposed to deliberately sabotaging the machine as Bolin believed. After he and Opal left anyway, Toph declared to be through with fighting and refused to join Lin, Suyin, Wei, and Wing in their attempt to stop Kuvira. She stayed behind with Baatar and Huan, though when the former tried to make small talk, addressing her as "mother", she quickly shut him down by reminding him that he should never address her as such. Despite her initial refusal, Toph ultimately interfered in the battle when the foursome found themselves outnumbered and surrounded and saved them by shifting the earth underneath all their opponents, bringing them down. As Opal, Bolin, and Zhu Li returned on Juicy, Toph shouted at Kuvira that she gave metalbenders a bad name, before escaping to safety on the bison.

Landing in a bamboo forest, Toph was thanked by her daughters for having come to their rescue. When Lin apologized for all she had said the previous night, Toph acknowledged that she had not been the best mother, though she was nonetheless proud of the women her daughters had become. She noted that if they could find it in their hearts to not hate her, that would be enough for her. She and Lin shared an embrace, though found their moment ruined by Bolin, who hugged them both, while emphasizing the importance of family using his own as an example. Irritated, Toph entangled herself from the embrace and sarcastically wished her family an enjoyable ride back to Republic City with the "gumflapper". Upon being asked by Opal if she was not joining them, Toph light-heartedly explained that her fighting days were over, due to her old age and while walking away, she joyfully added that it was their time now.[34]

Entering politics

Some time after Toph learned of Kuvira's defeat, she was approached by Korra and King Wu. They explained to Toph that Kuvira's subordinate Guan had refused to stand down and was planning as running for governor in the first democratic elections in the State of Gaoling. Wu and Korra asked Toph to run for governor, but she refused to enter the world of politics. However, Wu and Korra convinced her to agree by sharing Wu's vision of Queen Hou-Ting mocking him. Convinced that she had to change and step outside her comfort zone, Toph reluctantly agreed to stand against Guan.

Toph returned to her hometown of Gaoling where she officially signed documentation confirming her as a gubernatorial candidate. However, she, Korra and Wu soon recognized that the town's citizens had been brainwashed by Guan and Doctor Sheng. Toph was present when Korra confronted a temporarily released Kuvira outside Gaoling and confirmed that she was telling the truth about her capture by Guan and Mako, Bolin, and Asami's brainwashing. Toph was reunited once more with Suyin and Opal, who had arrived as backup. However, Guan's forces quickly advanced and were able to kidnap Wu. Toph bent a wall of earth to protect the group from Guan's army but retreated with Korra, Kuvira, and a brainwashed Asami onto Suyin's airship. As the ship took off, Toph comforted her granddaughter, who had been knocked unconscious during the fight.[10]

As the group arrived in Zaofu, Toph joined her family, Korra, and Kuvira for a meal. When Suyin began to tell Wei and Wing that the Metal Clan could not intervene in Gaoling without throwing the democratic movement into turmoil, Toph despaired at the current weak state of the movement, with Guan having likely brainwashed both the voters and the Earth King.

When Kuvira and Opal argued about Guan's plan to brainwash Wu, Suyin reiterated that they needed to let the vote go forward and see it play out. Toph told her daughter not to get her hopes up, noting that she essentially forfeited the election as soon as they left Gaoling, believing Guan's victory to be almost certain. However, Baatar Jr. entered, noting that if he could restore Asami's mind, then he could use the knowledge to free the brainwashed citizens, Kuvira and Suyin adding that Guan would lose all support once they realized what he did to them. Toph let out a sarcastic cheer when her daughter emphasized the possibility of her victory.

After Asami's brainwashing was undone, Toph and Suyin listened to a radio report about Guan's unexpected victory after Wu moved up the election date. Toph nonchalantly disregarded her loss, though Suyin told her that the situation was not funny given that Guan had outright stolen the election and used the Earth King to help him do it. When Korra called President Moon about the situation, Toph sarcastically remarked that it sounded like Zhu Li was taking the news well when the president exclaimed in shock and surprise about the brainwashing.

Toph joined Korra, Asami, Suyin, and Opal in flying to Gaoling on Juicy's back after Kuvira stole a Metal Clan plane and fled Zaofu. When Suyin spotted Kuvira at the reeducation camp, Toph asked her daughter and granddaughter if they were ready to attack, before she bent slabs of earth at two mecha suits, proclaiming that it was what happened when someone messed with three generations of Beifongs. At the end of the battle, Kuvira forced Guan into surrender, and the entire Earth Empire army stood down.

Toph was present outside Gaoling City Hall when Wu gave his speech, proclaiming that the Earth Kingdom would need more time to move to democracy, with each state setting its own timetable according to its citizens' wishes. At the end of his speech, Toph approached the king, asking if she was off the hook. Wu confirmed that she was for now, but hoped she would consider running for governor when Gaoling held its election. Toph told him not to get his hopes up, declaring she had had enough of political shenanigans and that she preferred the swamp, as predators there were at least honest about wanting to eat someone.[35]

Legacy

Toph was hailed as a hero in Republic City following her retirement and a metal statue of her in her police uniform was placed in a niche above the main entrance of the police headquarters. Several statues of Toph were also built in Zaofu in honor of her discovery of metalbending.[9]

Personality

Upon joining Team Avatar, Toph brought a completely new personality to the group. Unlike the nurturing Katara, flighty Aang, or gruff but goofy Sokka, Toph was fiercely independent, sarcastic, direct, stubborn, and confrontational.[36] She appeared to have the same carefree and adventurous personality as Aang and was very tomboyish in the way she acted[36] and dressed,[37] in contrast to the delicate doll her parents saw her as. Toph loved battling and took great pride in her earthbending skills. She appeared eager to prove that she was as strong as anyone who could see and once claimed that she was "the greatest earthbender in the world".[38] This attitude was most prominently shown when she was teaching Aang earthbending, as she taught him to face his enemies and problems head-on.

Toph's eagerness to prove that she could be independent led to some initial difficulties with Aang and his friends. Toph insisted that she could "carry her own weight" and often mistook a simple friendly gesture as an act of pity for her blindness. Her encounter with Iroh, however, taught her that Aang, Katara, and Sokka cared for her because they were friends, not because her blindness made them feel obligated to do so.[36]

Toph was often brutally honest when criticizing others, especially her friends. She was vocal about her opinions on others regardless of status (the Avatar, Aang) or age (Iroh).[36] Her occasional attitude or aloofness is likely related to her being the only child of one of the richest families in the Earth Kingdom. Due to her time as a competitor and champion of earthbending tournaments, she was an expert in verbally taunting and insulting her opponents and, on occasion, her friends, particularly Sokka. She revealed to Katara that, being unable to see what she looks like, she did not feel the need to fuss over her appearance.[37] However, despite her many quirks, Toph showed that she was a quick learner,[39] and her courage and loyalty to her new friends seemed very stable.

Toph and Katara seemed to be polar opposites; while Katara was kind, welcoming and supportive, Toph was rough, unyielding and steadfast. These differences in personality extended to the way both girls taught Aang; however, Toph eventually showed a bit of compromise in order to help Aang through his initial difficulty with earthbending.[40] Despite occasional clashes or spats,[41] Toph and Katara generally got along.

One of Toph's most profound traits involved personal hygiene. She was accustomed to lying on the ground and walking everywhere barefoot leaving her soles soiled, a habit common among the earthbenders. Also, she had been seen belching loudly, picking her nose or toes,[42] spitting, and was usually covered in dirt or, as she called it, "a healthy coating of earth".[37]

Toph was well-educated in the manners and bearings of high society but deliberately chose to ignore them. However, she made an exception when the group needed to go to an exclusive party to see the Earth King in order to give news of the solar eclipse. To this end, she and Katara dressed and acted formally to evade suspicion.[43]

Toph did not let her blindness hurt her self-confidence. She had high self-esteem in regard to many of her abilities and was more than determined to show that she would not let her blindness deter her from living freely and fighting like everyone else. However, sometimes this acted as a ruse to hide personal insecurities. After getting a makeover with Katara in Ba Sing Se, some residents of the city mocked Toph for it (who retaliated with a prank). She told Katara that "one of the good things about being blind [was] that [she did] not have to waste [her] time worrying about appearances" and was not looking for anyone's approval. Katara voiced that it was something she admired in Toph but could tell that she had been hurt by the insult and added that though it did not matter, she was in fact pretty, which visibly cheered up the blind girl.[37]

An ongoing joke concerning Toph's blindness was her lack of ability to discern anything that had been written or drawn. In Ba Sing Se, Toph became angry when Sokka suggested that she needed help distributing fliers. She angrily slapped up a poster herself, only to inadvertently place it backward and say, "It's upside-down, isn't it?" Also, she sarcastically complimented Sokka on his drawings of Appa despite the obvious fact that she could not see them.[44] Later, in the Fire Nation, after being presented with the same wanted poster twice, Toph vocally expressed her annoyance with the constant oversight.[41] Toph was comfortable enough, however, with the group's absent-mindedness on the subject of her blindness to even joke about it herself at times. For example, while searching for Wan Shi Tong's Library, Toph, while flying on Appa, claimed that she saw it, before remarking, "That's what it'll sound like when one of you spots it", and waving a hand in front of her eyes with a nonchalant smile.[45]

While hijacking an airship, Toph mistook Sokka's comment about taking the wheel, thinking he was referring to her. By the smile on her face, it was pretty clear that she was gleeful about getting another chance to correct him. However, it turned out that Sokka was talking to Suki, and Toph managed to subsequently cover up her original intention pretty well.[46] At the reunion in the Jasmine Dragon after the passing of Sozin's Comet, she made a joke about Sokka's drawing, saying that she thought everyone looked perfect.[47]

Because of the restrictions placed upon her by her parents and the fact that their servants waited upon her hand-and-foot lest she hurt herself, Toph often seemed to want to take on the responsibilities and obtain the freedoms of adulthood. This caused problems for herself and her friends, most notably during their visit to Fire Fountain City, as she did not always take into account how this might endanger her or aggravate others. No matter how she acted, though, others realized that she was still a vulnerable child underneath everything else she pretended to be.[41]

When she went on to teach her unique talent of metalbending, she realized how her dogged pursuit of her own dreams of becoming the world's first metalbending teacher disrespected who her students were. She found parallels between how she was treating them as people by restricting them simply so they could meet her vision of them with how her parents had treated her back when she still lived with them. She subsequently decided to give up her metalbending academy so that she would not use it as an outlet for the pain she felt from her relationship with her parents onto her students. Luckily for her, her students happened to have overheard her conversation with Sokka about this subject, and responded to it by overcoming the limits the rest of the world saw as defining them in an attempt to live up to the vision Toph had had for them, and were finally able to metalbend.[17]

Due to her troubled past with her parents, Toph also exhibited a modernist attitude, believing that change is the key to progress.[20]

As a mother, Toph found herself to be a direct opposite of her parents, letting her daughters be free to find their own way, though Suyin claimed that Toph was not pleased with the paths either of her daughters had chosen. She later admitted to her children that, while she knew she had not been the best parent, she was proud of the women they had become.[34]

In old age, Toph retained her abrasive, no-nonsense personality, being harshly critical of Korra's abilities and enjoying defeating her in combat. However, she had adopted a more cynical mindset about the impact actions make on their surroundings; she had realized that no matter how hard she tried, crime and injustice would never give up.[32]

Despite her tough exterior, Toph is not above warming up during intimate moments, as evidenced when she joined in group hugs with Team Avatar and held hands with Aang at the prospect of friendships lasting more than one lifetime.[48] Although she had become more cynical in old age, she would allow herself to show affection when she deemed the other person worthy, as evidenced when she let Korra hug her after earning her respect[33] and did not berate or try to stop Opal's embrace when they met again after several years of separation.[34] She even allowed Wu to hug her after she gathered the King was just an affectionate person.[10]

Abilities

Earthbending

Toph's proclamation of being the most powerful earthbender in the world is supported by her talented displays of earthbending from a young age.[38] Although blind, Toph's training in earthbending under the original earthbenders, the badgermoles, allowed her to use their unique ability of seismic sense: she used earthbending to "feel" even the most minute vibrations in the earth, including the march of ants several meters away and the presence of trees and buildings.[1] Through this heightened seismic sense, Toph could visualize where people were, their relative distance to her, and their physical build, but was unable to visualize faces.[37] This sense provided her with a distinct advantage when facing other earthbenders in combat because she could predict attacks as they began and quickly react.[1] Her knowledge of the art also allowed her to teach it to others like Aang, and later her daughters, Lin and Suyin. Her speed and agility were also greatly beneficial in combat.

Her earthbending style was unique and thus unpredictable, as her training was unconventional and more deeply rooted in the nature of earthbending rather than just pure fighting. This style greatly differentiated from the rigid training and fighting style that earthbenders like the Dai Li implemented. Toph's style tended to be proven to be superior to the Dai Li, as she was able to take on a number of them and defend her friends at the same time.[44] This is likely because while the Dai Li just manipulated the earth, Toph had established a tremendously deep connection to it at the very outset of her self-tutelage in earthbending (although both styles have an over-dependence on something i.e. the Dai Li and their earth gloves and Toph and her feet).

However, because Toph was dependent on vibrations in the earth, she was vulnerable to air-based attacks, as shown in her fight with Aang in Earth Rumble VI. Later, Toph was completely surprised by Sokka dropping a large belt on her head.[1] Her success rate in intercepting projectiles was also tied to her sensing of vibrations, being able to feel an opponent's movement, and proceeding accordingly. By her own admission, she could not aim properly at opponents while they were airborne.[49]

Terrain that impaired Toph's ability to sense vibrations also hindered her abilities, as shown when Toph had some difficulty with sand, describing the vibrations in the earth as "fuzzy". She was able to compress sand into solid rock to gain some temporary footing, but she was still unable to accurately aim attacks under those conditions.[49] However, she seemed to have ultimately gained some mastery of sandbending, as she mentioned working on it during Team Avatar's beach party and was able to create a miniature version of the upper ring of Ba Sing Se in rich detail. Apparently, her ability to sense vibrations had improved, which may be how she was able to produce the very fine details of the city and did not show the same helplessness she had shown when previously walking on sand when the gang stepped onto the beach.[39] By 174 AG, Toph attained a state of enlightenment similar to Huu, being able to use the connections of the swamp she lived in with her senses to survey the world and observe everyone.[33]

Toph also expressed an aversion for flying[2] and submarine travel,[50] as she could not sense her surroundings without her feet on solid ground. Also, as a result of her closeness or affinity with earth, Toph could rest or sleep comfortably on solid rock without any sleeping bag or blanket and could walk on any kind of terrain in bare feet, a standard trait for earthbenders. Toph relied on direct contact between her feet and the ground for "sight"[51] as well as for her earthbending. Toph was very reluctant to allow anyone else to touch her feet,[37] probably because insensitive handling there would make her deaf to other vibrations and thereby render her helpless (and because they were far more sensitive than other people's feet).

Despite her substantial prowess on land, Toph did not perform well in water and on ice. She seemed incapable of seeing where she was going on ice, was not able to swim,[3] and became nauseous when she needed to travel by submarine in the invasion of the Fire Nation.[50]

In Ba Sing Se, Toph demonstrated an ability to sense even slight vibrations, informing a man they met that she could feel him shaking.[43] Toph was also able to sense when a person was lying by the vibrations of his/her heartbeat and breathing patterns.[44] However, Toph's ability to detect lies was not absolute, as Azula demonstrated when she was easily able to lie without even the slightest physical reaction.[52] However, very few people have the ability to lie while manipulating their breathing and pulse in this way.

Toph's earthbending style was based on Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis, which is a style that is apparently unique to her; the style of earthbending used by other earthbenders is rooted in the Hung Gar style of Kung Fu. She was the only bender known to use a style based on a different root martial art than the standard for their bending art. This may be because she was self-taught rather than trained in the traditional earthbending form. Toph came to develop her unique style by observing the movements of the also blind earthbending badgermoles that could be found in the caves around her hometown.[11] By 174 AG, Toph's fighting style evolved to incorporate more fluid and evasive maneuvers, bending mud more akin to waterbending.[33]

Sandbending

Because sand is loose and ultimately always changing with the winds of the desert, Toph found it hard to navigate through and control. To compensate somewhat, she could condense the sand together to give her a better footing. However, when she tried to attack one of the sandbenders with a small wave of sand during their ambush of her and Appa, she missed, her lack of precision on the sand aggravated by her hurry to save both Appa and the others.

After the events in the Si Wong Desert had shown her inability to see effectively while walking on sand,[49] Toph practiced her sandbending, eventually achieving a mastery over it that allowed her to create an extremely detailed sand version of Ba Sing Se during her time relaxing at Ember Island.[39]

Metalbending

Main article: Metalbending

Toph discovered the ability to bend metal in the spring of 100 AG. Metal is derived from ore, which is found in the earth. Guru Pathik explained to Aang that "metal is just a part of earth that has been purified and refined". Because of Toph's ability to feel the vibrations in earth, she was able to locate the impurities (the small fragments of earth) still found in most metals and manipulate them to "bend" the metal portion. By acquiring these metalbending abilities, Toph had shown herself to be one of the most powerful and ingenious earthbenders in the world, being the only known earthbender to ever bend metal during the Hundred Year War, a feat that even the Avatar was unable to perform since the origin of earthbending.[38]

When Sokka finished his training as a swordmaster, he gave Toph a small piece of meteorite, which, being composed of earth and metal, she could easily mold into a myriad of shapes,[42] subsequently transforming it into an arm bracelet which she would wear.

She originally used an underdeveloped form of metalbending and usually needed to have direct contact with the element to manipulate it at all, let alone skillfully. However, she continued to practice her metalbending and started to display a dexterous control over metal.

In Wulong Forest, when she was breaking into a Fire Nation airship, it was shown that her metalbending had improved greatly, as she created metal armor and manipulated the metallic structure of the room with far more ease than before, moving metal more fluidly. She was also able to crawl along the metal ceiling while completely covered in metal. Additionally, Toph could metalbend outside of her metal armor, even though she was already bending the armor in the first place.[46]

A year later, Toph could bend metal that she was not in contact with, like when she demonstrated her ability to bend metal to Kunyo, who was trying to take over the metalbending school, by bending a metal weapon around his head. She later stated that as long as someone could see the metal, she could bend it, which she demonstrated when metalbending screws and bolts to unscrew the wheels of Fire Nation tanks.

Toph later taught this self-invented technique to many earthbenders, including her daughters. After the Hundred Year War, Toph further refined metalbending to the point of being able to start and lead a capable law enforcement group of metalbending police officers. Following Toph's retirement, Lin Beifong became the new Chief of Police, demonstrating her prodigious metalbending and leadership abilities. Despite all of her accomplishments in the development of metalbending, Toph never succeeded in bending pure metals such as platinum.[53] She was, however, able to sense even trace amounts of metal, unlike her daughters.[32] Her proficiency in metalbending was such that she could tear a hole in a metal wall and restore it to its previous state without a trace of it ever having been bent.[34]

Other skills

Despite her lack of actual sight, her remaining senses, primarily her sense of touch and hearing, were especially acute, allowing her to use her seismic sense to remarkable levels. With the latter sense, she once claimed herself that she "never [forgot] a voice". This was shown when the gang traveled through the Si Wong Desert, where they were confronted by a group of sandbenders and she almost immediately recognized one as one of the sandbenders that kidnapped Appa the day before.[49] Later in the summer, while the gang was on a captured Fire Nation ship, Hakoda and Bato seemingly deceived the captain of another ship, but the captain realized the ship as a captured one. Toph overheard the captain whispering to his troops to sink the ship and attacked.[54] While visiting a creepy village in the Fire Nation, Toph heard people screaming all the way from atop a mountain and everyone later deduced that that was where several prisoners were being held.[55]

Toph also showed a decent amount of artistic talent, as she was able to create a realistic replica of the city of Ba Sing Se with sandbending while Team Avatar stayed at Ember Island, contrasting with Sokka's poor sculpting abilities when he created a sand sculpture of Suki. Later in a training exercise involving all of the members of the team, she was able to create earthbending mannequins while acting as the "Melon Lord"[39] (who was, in reality, an inanimate mannequin made to resemble the Fire Lord, supported by a small earth column and clothed in Fire Nation robes).

As befits one who has mastered the use of neutral jing by waiting and listening to the earth, Toph had a great sense of hearing, able to clearly hear the most subtle of whispering from considerable distances and could recognize people by the sound of their voices. In the Si Wong Desert, Toph recognized the sandbender who stole Appa, remarking as she did so that she never forgets a voice.[49] She likewise has very fine memory, able to accurately remember and distinguish the physical form of people as she quickly determined one of the Kyoshi Warriors was actually Ty Lee in disguise.[56]

She also seemed to enjoy acting and showed a decent amount of talent at it, getting more into character as the "Melon Lord" than was necessary for Team Avatar's training purposes,[39] rebuffing Katara for acting out of character when Aang distracted her from their act of being noblewomen (as was made necessary for entry into the Earth King's party[43]), and reveling in the "stage name" given to her as "The Runaway".[41] This appreciation for "getting into character" as an actor was likely behind her greater ability to enjoy the The Boy in the Iceberg play relative to the rest of Team Avatar.[57]

She also displayed a remarkable amount of agility for one who preferred to have her feet planted on the ground at all times. In Team Avatar's first battle with Combustion Man, she rolled, pushed herself off of the ground with one hand and flipped over in the air to regain her balance after his first shot. She positioned herself in an earthbending stance in order to fight back against her attacker as quickly as possible.[58] Toph apparently also had a good enough sense of balance and strong enough neck muscles to carry a basket full of groceries on her head.[55]

Relationships

Relatives

Appearances

Trivia

Toph's name is usually written as 北方拓芙 . [2] [3] Her given name means "expanding lotus", while her surname means "northern". On one other occasion, her given name was written as 托夫 , [37] 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" [57] and "toff", a British slang word meaning "upper-class".

. Her given name means "expanding lotus", while her surname means "northern". On one other occasion, her given name was written as , 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. [59]

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. [41]

A recurring joke was that other characters tended to forget Toph was blind, only for her to sarcastically remind them that she was. [44] [45]

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. [60]

Toph can extend her seismic sense to sand, albeit with reduced accuracy, [49] metal, and even the meteorite that Sokka fashioned his "space sword" from, which she used as a bracelet and described as "space earth"; [42] it does not, however, transfer to non-earthen solids such as ice. [3]

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. [44] Azula and Old Sweepy were the only known characters that were able to foil this. [52]

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. [11] She was also seen using this ability before entering Old Ba Sing Se. [56] 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. [61]

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. [38]

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. [62]

, 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. [63] 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 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.

. 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." [39]

Although Toph's hair appeared to be short, it was shown to be very long and bushy when she let it down. [37]

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. [1] However, she did send them a letter [41] and unexpectedly reunited with her father at a refinery. [20]

However, she did send them a letter and unexpectedly reunited with her father at a refinery. Toph was the least spiritual of the benders in Team Avatar, and the only bender who matched Sokka (before Yue's death, at least) in his disregard for the subject.

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." [47]

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 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.

She 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.

. 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. [1]

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 is one of two known characters in the Avatar franchise to have had children with two different men, the other being Ursa.

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.

Original design

Toph was initially designed as a jock-type, bad-mouthing, muscular, sixteen-year-old boy[64] who would act as a foil to Sokka's nerdiness,[65] as revealed by the co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko during an interview with Toon Zone.[66] This idea made its way into the unaired pilot episode's opening sequence and as the shadowed earthbender (which was confirmed by the creators to be Toph's "prototype") in the opening sequence. Later on, when the time came closer to the character's debut, the creators pitched about the humor behind a little girl being able to take on all the strong, buff earthbenders, an idea introduced by head writer Aaron Ehasz that was initially rejected by co-creator Konietzko. From this idea which blossomed as a joke and after long discussions, Toph was given her gender and turned into the character that was introduced in the show, ironically becoming one of Bryan's favorite characters. A joke about the prototype later appeared as the actor playing Toph in The Boy in the Iceberg play bore a closer resemblance to the initial design.[57] The original design also greatly influenced the character Bolin in The Legend of Korra.[62]







Preceded by

Sud Avatar's earthbending master

100 AG Succeeded by

Unknown teacher