Toph Beifong

Toph Beifong is a female animated character who features in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Biography

Toph Beifong (Chinese: 北方拓芙; pinyin: Běifāng Tuòfú) was a female human who was the daughter of Lao Beifong and Poppy Beifong where she was born in 87-88 AG in the Earth Kingdom. Born blind, she came to be sheltered by her parents who believed her lack of sight made her fragile and unable to look after herself. As a result, they took extreme measures to protect her which even included hiding her existence from the rest of the world. As a result, very few people were even aware of the fact that the Beifong family had a daughter. Their status as nobles led to them expecting their daughter to behave in a well-mannered and proper manner as fitting their status within Earth Kingdom society.

Lao Beifong later hired the earthbender teacher named 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. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

For sometime, she came to secretly participate in the earthbending pro-wrestling matches at Earth Rumble with her becoming known as the Blind Bandit. Due to her talent, she was easily able to defeat her opponents and remained a champion over the course of multiple tournaments. This continued to Earth Rumble VI where she managed to easily defeat the Boulder who was a rising star in the fights. Xin Fu then offered a financial reward to anyone that could defeat his champion with a young bald-headed boy offering to fight her. This boy was actually Aang who as the Avatar who used airbending to defeat the Blind Bandit. Annoyed, Toph departed Earth Rumble despite Aang's attempts at enlisting her to be his earthbending teacher. She returned home where she continued the false life of being pampered and protected by her parents on account of her blindness. Whilst at the Beifong estate, Aang and his friends Katara along with Sokka arrived where they had uncovered her true identity. Once again, Aang requested that she be his earthbending teacher but Toph refused and called the guards thus forcing the Avatar and his friends to depart in secret. Later on, the Beifong residence was formally visited by the Avatar with Aang using this as an opportunity for Toph to meet him during a formal dinner arranged by her father. (Episode: The Blind Bandit) After joining Team Avatar, Toph quarreled with Katara over her participation in the team, which, along with the additional stress of being chased by Azula and her team, led to Toph leaving the group. However, after talking to Iroh, Toph changed her mind and rejoined her friends in Tu Zin. (Episode: The Chase) After the encounter, Toph began her earthbending lessons with Aang. Although Aang initially struggled with Toph's training methods, he learned to adopt an earthbender-like approach to battle situations and started to bend the element. (Episode: Bitter Work)

As Aang continued his bending training with Toph and Katara, the group ventured into the middle of the Si Wong Desert with Professor Zei in hope of learning information to use against the Fire Nation. Although they managed to find Wan Shi Tong's library, Toph chose to stay outside, as she could not read. When the structure began to sink, Toph chose to hold up the library even as Si Wong tribesmen arrived on the scene and kidnapped Appa. (Episode: The Library) After making their way out of the desert, Team Avatar's new goal was to inform the Earth King about an eclipse in the Fire Nation that Sokka had discovered in the library. (Episode: The Desert) The team chose to make their way to Ba Sing Se via the dangerous Serpent's Pass, which the group successfully managed to do in spite of numerous setbacks. (Episode: The Serpent's Pass) Although they arrived at the walls of the capital, Toph and the team first helped to thwart an invasion plan by destroying the Fire Nation drill. (Episode: The Drill) The group found it difficult to meet with King Kuei once settling in the city, but Toph helped the rest of the team sneak into a party at the palace, where they were discovered and dismissed by Long Feng. (Episode: City of Walls and Secrets)

Team Avatar managed to subdue the Dai Li and convinced the Earth King to regain power and imprison Long Feng, beginning their plans to invade the Fire Nation with the help of the Council of Five. With things looking better for the team, Toph received a letter claiming that her mother was in the city and that she finally understood her daughter, but when going to meet her, Toph was kidnapped by Xin Fu and Master Yu, who began to take her back to Gaoling in a metal cage pulled by an ostrich horse-drawn cart. (Episode: The Earth King)

Overview

Personality and attributes

During the Earth Rumble match, she came to be referred to as the Blind Bandit. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

She was shown as being fiercely independent, sarcastic, direct, stubborn, and confrontational.

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. (Episode: The Chase)

She had said that she liked fighting and enjoyed earthbending with her being good at it. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

Toph came to resent her parents for their extreme treatment of her.

This led to her running away from home and lying to her friends by saying that she had permission from her parents. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

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. (Episode: Bitter Work)

Powers and abilities

Being born blind, Toph was unable to see the way other people were able to do so. Despite that, she was still able to visualise the world around her through her other senses including her prodigious talent by being an earthbender. Her powers allowed her to hear the slightest sounds in her environment and even feel them through her feet. This allowed her to sense the movements of her opponent and counter them. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

Beifong was an Earthbender allowing her the power to manipulate the earth itself to achieve a wide variety of feats. She claimed to be the most powerful Earthbender in the kingdom with this being supported by her talent.

Her family were the Beifong who were a wealthy Earth Kingdom family with some believing that they were the richest in the world. (Episode: The Blind Bandit)

Notes

• Toph Beifong was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko with her being voiced by actor Jessie Flower where she featured in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
• In The Legend of Korra, she was voiced by actors Kate Higgins and Philece Sampler.

Appearances

• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
• The Legend of Korra:

External Links

• Avatar: The Last Airbender Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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