Toph Beifong is one of the most popular characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender. She is the youngest on Team Avatar and is blind, but that doesn't stop her from being one of the best fighters in the entire show. She worked through her own issues and turned them into her strengths.
Due to Toph's impact on the series, lots of fans recognize and know her quite well. With a special appearance in The Legend of Korra, Toph left a great legacy too. There is more to her than meets the eye, though, so here are some facts about the fan-favorite character you might not know.
Update April 3, 2020 by Louis Kemner: Being one of the core members of Team Avatar and a prodigious earthbender, we realized that there is even more to Toph's character than our list described, so we now present five additional facts that best describe who Toph Beifong really is. After all, Toph is as deep and multilayered a character as Aang and Zuko are, and a well-rounded character like this is worth exploring in depth. Let's get to know her a little better.
15 SHE WAS A METALBENDING INSTRUCTOR
It was an impressive moment when Toph learned to metalbend near the end of Avatar: The Last Airbender's second season. After the Hundred Years War and the defeat of Fire Lord Ozai, Toph decided to share her skills with other earthbenders. She opened a metalbending school, where she taught earthbenders how to manipulate.
She stated that she felt a calling to share this new ability with the rest of the world, but others pointed out that she probably did it so she could boss people around. Nonetheless, Toph's metalbenders became some of the best earthbenders around, which is impressive to say the least.
14 SHE HAD A CRUSH ON SOKKA
Toph was never paired up with someone in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but she was often seen having a playful relationship with Sokka. When moving through certain towns, Toph can be seen clinging to Sokka's arm.
When Sokka led the team on certain missions, he was also usually the one to help her when she struggled. There was even an episode where she blushed while talking about "not missing him." All signs point to Toph having a crush on Sokka, but it's likely that nothing ever came out of it. Toph mostly did her own thing after the war, and Sokka did his thing.
13 SHE WASN'T A GREAT PARENT
Toph left her own stamp on the world after the Hundred Years War. She had two daughters, Lin and Su. Lin became the chief of police in Republic City while Su created the metal city of Zaofu. It was clear that the two sisters never quite got along, and that was partially due to how Toph parented them.
Frustrated over how she was never allowed to do what she wanted, Toph compensated by giving her daughters too much freedom. This encouraged Su to heed her mother's advice and be a free spirit, while Lin compensated by going to the police force.
12 SHE STARTED THE POLICE FORCE
It was the unison of Aang and Fire Lord Zuko that eventually led to the construction of Republic City, a place where people from all nations could come together and be united as well. However, bad people will always try to ruin good ideas, and Republic City was no exception.
There was a lot of crime, which put the city in need of authority. This is where Toph came in. She decided to take her students and turn them into the Republic City Police Force. With metalbending skills at their disposal, the police force had a lot of tools that other benders didn't know how to counter.
11 SHE WAS A HUMAN LIE DETECTOR
Toph may have been blind, but she was much more perceptive than most people. She used earthbending to feel vibrations, allowing her to make sense of her surroundings and then some. It also allowed her to detect lies by sensing people's heart rates and breathing patterns.
She used this skill a few times in Avatar: The Last Airbender, which helped the team out greatly. By the time we see her again in The Legend of Korra, Toph can sense lies just by standing still, whereas she used to touch the ground near a person to get a better sense.
10 SHE COULD 'SEE' THE ENTIRE WORLD
Throughout The Legend of Korra, many people wondered where Toph had been all that time. It turns out that she had been in a swamp by herself, living her best life. She lived near a massive tree that had roots all around the world. This allowed Toph to essentially sense what was going on at any corner of the world at any point in time.
She used this to watch over her children from a distance, as well as keep to date on what was happening in the world. By the time she was elderly, Toph had essentially mastered her own self-taught abilities.
9 SHE GOT AN APOLOGY FROM HER FATHER
Toph may have been a powerful bender, but her parents never understood that. They believed her to be a helpless little girl who shouldn't go out into the world, which motivated her to leave against her parents' wishes. They tried to forcefully bring her back, but that didn't work out well for them.
She never went back home, but ran into her father again after the Hundred Years War. At first, her father totally disowned her, never reacting to anything she accomplished. When their lives were in danger, though, her father did give her an apology. However, their relationship was never repaired.
8 SHE'S THE ONLY CHARACTER WITH A LAST NAME
The name Toph Beifong seems to be second nature to fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender. However, she is the only character in the show to have a last name. Aang, Katara, and even Zuko don't have last names. Toph was given one as a way of establishing her family as rich, wealthy, and renowned across the Earth Kingdom.
She was even able to use that fact to get Team Avatar ferry passes to try and avoid the Serpent's Pass. Other characters were given last names in The Legend of Korra, though, such as Asami Sato, who had one for a similar effect.
7 SHE HAS NEVER BEEN IN A STABLE RELATIONSHIP
Toph had a lot of trouble forming relationships, partially due to being sheltered from the world by her uptight parents. She butted heads with various members of Team Avatar, but eventually learned how to effectively contribute to the group.
Things got a bit different for her after the Hundred Years War, though. It seemed that there were some people she was romantically interested in, but nothing ever came out of it. Obviously, she was with a man named Kanto, who became the father of Lin, but their relationship didn't work out either. Toph just wasn't relationship material.
6 SHE'S THE BEST EARTHBENDER, PERIOD
The first time we see Toph, she is taking on a horde of skilled earthbenders by herself. It was clear that she was powerful, but the series would prove that she is the greatest earthbender who ever lived. Having invented metalbending, Toph pushed the limits of what earthbenders could do.
By the time we see her again in The Legend of Korra, Toph can essentially fight without moving a muscle, being just as great a fighter as she was in the past. With her name known around the world, there's no denying that she truly was the greatest earthbender who ever lived.
5 SHE'S NOT STUCK IN THE PAST
In the Dark Horse comics, we learn even more about the heroes and villains alike, and the Avatar world continues to deepen. In The Rift, Aang is dismayed that an old Air Nation holiday ground is being remade into an industrial zone, but Toph feels differently.
In Toph's eyes, the future always trumps the past, and she shows little signs of nostalgia or sentimentality about what came before. Maybe this is a result of her growing up in a stuffy and presumably conservative family; she can't stand stagnation.
4 SHE HAS PRIVATE INSECURITIES
Toph and Katara went on a girls' day out in Ba Sing Se, and they visited all kinds of places, such as a spa resort and a beauty parlor. Toph had more fun that day than she expected, and she felt comfortable enough to share some secrets.
Despite her tough attitude, Toph was still wrestling with insecurities; not because of her blindness, but her place in the world and her relationship with her family. It's good to see that Toph has her vulnerable side and is willing to confront it, which is what helped make Tales of Ba Sing Se such a great episode.
3 SHE WAS GOING TO BE A BIG GUY
Here is The Boulder, who fits many people's image of a typical earthbender: big, tough, stubborn, confident (like the earth itself). At first, the creators of Avatar: The Last Airbender wanted the earthbender in Aang's party to be something like The Boulder.
But they decided that such a character was too on-the-nose, so they opted for a petite girl who looked nothing like the ferocious earthbender that she is. Often, good stories come from characters who look or act nothing like their true nature. A good character's qualities won't all be obvious from a glance.
2 SHE LIKES ANIMALS BETTER THAN PEOPLE
Before the lion-turtle retcon, it was explained that each element was devised by an animal or entity in nature: badger-moles, dragons, sky bison, and the moon. The badger-moles invented earthbending, and Toph learned it directly from them.
In fact, Toph greatly prefers their company over hanging out with other people, since badger-moles are quiet and honest, unlike people. Worse yet, people make rules and walls, like in Ba Sing Se, but animals are free and live on instinct.
1 SHE'S CUNNING
What's with that face? You can tell that Toph is up to no good. In season 3, we see the full extent of Toph's cunning and deceitful nature when she uses subtle earthbending to cheat in all kinds of street gambling games.
With this, she earns a lot of money, and Aang and Sokka have a lot of fun helping her. She even worked with Katara to get "captured," allow Katara to collect the reward, then break out of jail and run away. Too bad the town's guards were one step ahead of them!