Toph learned earthbending from the badger-moles themselves and went on to train the Avatar to be the world’s first metalbender.
Blind, opinionated, and one of the youngest and most powerful earthbenders in Avatar: The Last Airbender, Toph is a character who’s hard not to love and impossible to forget. She’s a character who shows just how creative the Avatar writers were and has a take on the world that couldn’t be replicated in any other character.
Early Life
Toph was the only child of the wealthy Beifong family. Blind from birth, she was sheltered by her overprotective parents who thought that her disability made her helpless and weak. Though their intention was to protect her, they went to extremes making sure that she was protected from everything, and even went as far as to hide her existence from most people.
Feeling suffocated, Toph ran away from home at five and hid in a cave inhabited by badger-moles. Thought to be the first earthbenders, Toph felt like she had an understanding of and connection to the creatures. She learned earthbending from them and to “see” by using the earth to feel vibrations.
Not knowing of her secret skill, Toph’s parents eventually hired Master Yu to teach her basic earthbending. He didn’t realize she had long since mastered the art. And Toph pretended to struggle with beginner moves while secretly sneaking out to compete in underground earthbending tournaments under the pseudonym The Blind Bandit.
Joining the Aang Gaang
This is where Aang and the team first met Toph. And after very little convincing she ran away from home for the last time to join and train the Avatar. At first, Aang struggled with her style of bending, but she eventually managed to make him understand the style.
During their adventures, Toph was captured by her former teacher and ringmaster, Master Yu and Xin Fu. They put her in a metal cage to bring her back to her family, believing that earthbenders couldn’t bend metal. And for a while, Toph couldn’t. But once she noticed the metal vibrated the same as earth, she changed her approach and stance slightly. After hard work and concentration, she was able to become the first known metal bender and escape capture.
Not always responsible with her powers, Toph quickly went on to use her newly mastered metalbending to run a scam. But as the final showdown with the Fire Nation approached, Toph remained a key member of the team. And after a hard-earned victory, Toph went on to found a metalbending academy and took on students of her own and was instrumental in founding the founding of Republic City.
After the formation of Republic City, Toph joined and was quickly put in charge of the city’s law enforcement. She helped keep order, started a family, and eventually left the city to travel the world “for enlightenment.”
Toph Meets Avatar Korra
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Since the days of the Aang gang Toph was reunited with her family, which eventually grew. She had two daughters, Lin and Suyin. Su was a bit of a rebel, while Lin sought to follow in her mother’s footsteps. Toph, of course, was very hard to please, and when Suyin got into trouble and Lin insisted on arresting her, Toph stepped down as the city’s chief of police. This drama caused friction between Lin and Su for several years – and there was plenty of healing to be done between Toph and her daughters.
Toph wasn’t seen for years and years until the Foggy Swamp kind of led Avatar Korra right to Toph. The sassy earthbender sent Korra back out into the swamp to have visions and helped her decode them. Through this encounter, Toph would be reunited with her family and begin to repair the long and difficult relationship they had.
Lin and Su are half-sisters. Apparently, Toph refused to tell them who their fathers were, but she did let slip that Lin’s father was a nice man called Kanto with whom things didn’t work out. Still no word on Suyin’s father’s identity, so all you Tokka fans still have some hope to cling to!
Do you have a favorite Toph quote or moment? What kind of bending would you like to have? Do you think you’d be able to master metalbending? Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
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