Character Analysis: Toph Beifong
Toph is one of the most popular characters from ATLA, understandably. She’s super cool, powerful, and funny, not to mention excellent disabled/Blind representation. There are so many reasons to like her, and she is one of my top favorite characters too. Although, through all the admiration, it seems like her character gets watered down to just “haha she’s badass and likes to break the rules and is rough-and-tumble, etc”. But I believe there’s a lot more to Toph than just her wild side, and she deserves to be recognized for her whole self.
Firstly, I don’t know why this gets ignored so much, but Toph actually has incredible social skills. People forget this because she is known for being rude and blunt, but here’s the thing: she does that on purpose. She’s not like Zuko who attempts to be friendly but is too awkward to pull it off, or Aang who always has good intentions but can sometimes be oblivious to other people’s feelings. Toph is rude on purpose. She KNOWS what is socially acceptable, and rejects that intentionally. In “City of Walls and Secrets”, recall how she’s adamant that Aang and Sokka can’t attend the Earth Kingdom gala as guests because she knows they won’t be able to act properly. “I learned proper society behavior and chose to leave it” she says.
Similarly, Toph also understands people very well. It’s not just about her lie detecting ability (which Azula proves isn’t even 100% foolproof). People forget that this girl spent 12 years schmoozing wealthy Earth Nation nobles while convincing her parents that she was demure and helpless. Toph gets how people work, and therefore knows for sure who she can and can’t trust. Even when she butts heads with Katara, Toph knows what she’s all about. During her talk with Sokka in “The Runaway”, Toph admits that she understands where Katara is coming from by saying “[Katara]’s compassionate and kind, and actually cares about me, you know, the real me”.
Not only does this comment prove that Toph understands Katara’s intentions (even if she still gets annoyed by how she acts) but people often miss the “the real me” part of this. Toph’s “fuck the rules” personality… isn’t really her. It’s a front. People forget that Toph is supposed to be Twelve Years Old (and that Aang is too, but that’s for another post). She’s like that person who was super sheltered and overprotected in high school so they go absolutely ape shit when they get to college and aren’t supervised anymore. That’s pretty much what the entirety of “The Runaway” is about, but it’s prevalent earlier on in the series as well.
And back to how she knows for sure who she can and can’t trust, I love that after Zuko accidentally burns Toph’ feet in “The Western Air Temple”, she’s not even mad at him. She panics in the moment, understandably, but she doesn’t come out of it thinking “never mind I was wrong to try and talk to him” bc she knows that what he did wasn’t intentional. Toph may be stubborn, but she still thinks logically, and she was the only one who felt that letting Zuko help them was the right decision, even after he (unintentionally) took away her ability to see.
Another forgotten aspect of Toph is that she kinda likes acting/roleplaying. Toph is no Ember Island Player, but she plays into people’s stereotypes and expectations of her very easily, and sometimes with glee. She took her role as “Melon Lord” a little too seriously, and she seemingly enjoys dressing up for various reasons/occasions. Because she shows distaste towards grooming/certain hygiene practices, people think this means Toph hates dressing nicely, but she never complains about having to wear dresses or do her hair. In “Tales of Ba Sing Se” Toph explains that the reason she doesn’t care how she looks is because, well, she can’t even tell what she looks like. Not necessarily because she rejects style and expression.
I mainly wanted to focus on aspects of Toph that are rarely discussed, so I’m not going to talk about her bending abilities/metalbending, because it’s been evaluated in length by ATLA fans and I won’t really have anything new to add there. I’ve also seen a lot of posts about Toph’s stubbornness and refusal to be helped, all of them very well written and some even written by people with disabilities, which is a perspective I personally cannot provide. So in an attempt to not be repetitive, I’m going to end my post here. Make sure to love Toph for ALL that she is! Thanks for reading,
