Toph Beifong is among the most accomplished characters in Avatar: The Last Airbender, perhaps in the entire history of her world. Although she comes from great wealth and prestige, her blindness allows her to commune directly with the essence of the earth and frees her from the constrictions that many others are unfortunately bound to.

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Toph is brash, bold, and exceptionally witty, not to mention incredibly intelligent—in fact, one can argue that the Hundred Year War would have had a very different account had she not been conscripted into Team Avatar. Toph is filled with compassion, insight, and a hefty dose of self-effacing humor, making her one of the best ATLA characters, if not the best.

10 Toph Is A Living Polygraph

Toph in ATLA

Toph's Earthbending stems from the Badgermoles, who teach her how to manipulate the earth through the sense of touch. This allows her to extend her skills into the realm of lie-detecting, as she can easily identify if someone's lying by perceiving their heart rate.

This technique is unfortunately not foolproof, however, given that Azula manages to evade Toph's polygraphic powers by maintaining her composure with deadly precision. Still, lie detection probably comes in handy when Toph becomes the Chief of Police in The Legend of Korra.

9 She Doesn't Hesitate To Use Her Family's Influence

Toph in ATLA

Toph despises the rigid and overly protective rules placed on her, which is why she eventually abandons them on behalf of Team Avatar. While her genuine nature is starkly different from her posh upbringing, Toph has no qualms when it comes to using the Beifong name to get out of sticky situations.

In one case, she secures seemingly unavailable ferry tickets by flashing her family documents. Toph doesn't mind being reminded that she's a Beifong, despite all the childhood trauma associated with the name, proving that she can rise above her ego when her friends need help.

8 Toph Makes Team Avatar Realize They Need Zuko

toph fire nation outfit

Zuko's betrayal in the Crystal Catacombs under Ba Sing Se is the last straw for Team Avatar, particularly Katara, who truly believes that he has changed. In the Western Air Temple, Toph is the first person to mention that Aang needs someone to teach him Firebending, and she even suggests that Zuko is the only applicable candidate, much to the others' chagrin.

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In fact, Toph doesn't change her mind after Zuko accidentally singes her soles, showing that she understands the gravity of the situation better than Aang, Katara, and Sokka.

7 She Saves Team Avatar On Multiple Occasions

Toph holding up the library while appa gets dragged away

Toph has saved every member of Team Avatar at some point, sometimes saving the whole group all by herself. She effortlessly disarms and incapacitates the Dai Li, an overpowered platoon of elite Earthbenders that few could hope to fight on even ground.

When Wan Shi Tong's Library is engulfed by the Si Wong desert, Toph somehow prevents the sinking long enough for Team Avatar to escape. During the final battle, Toph defeats several Fire Nation soldiers and bends an airship's rudder in order to destroy the rest of the fleet.

6 Toph's Sassy Brand Of Humor Verges On Incorrigible

Avatar Toph

Toph uses humor as a form of expression more than anyone else in Team Avatar. Her brand of comedy takes the form of biting sarcasm; most of her jokes revolve around her blindness.

Toph is packed to the brim with humorous observations like "I've seen enough of Ba Sing Se, and I can't even see!" but she enjoys teasing Team Avatar about their occasional lapses regarding her vision for no reason than to hear their reactions. The only problem is that Toph doesn't know when to hold back.

5 She Doesn't Let Blindness Stop Her From Achieving Greatness

Avatar The Last Airbender Toph Blind Bandit

Toph's blindness has been with her since birth, so she really doesn't know (or care) much about vision as an essential sense. Instead, she uses her feet to measure vibrations bouncing off each other, building a seismic image of her surroundings that is often more accurate than an actual visual.

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Toph takes it upon herself to master Earthbending, accomplishing the feat at a surprisingly young age. She has been proving her mettle as the Blind Bandit long before Team Avatar waltzes into Gaoling.

4 Toph Redefines The Art Of Earthbending

Toph Beifong from avatar

Toph regularly refers to herself as "the greatest Earthbender in the world," a proclamation that isn't as arrogant as it sounds. She is capable of defeating opponents much older and more experienced than herself, almost always without breaking a sweat.

Toph's elemental style is irreproducible because she learns it from the very founders of Earthbending, making her version as close to the original as a human could possibly get. Aside from knocking people around with rocks, Toph learns how to control Sandbending within the span of a few months, illustrating her immense talent.

3 She Marches To The Beat Of Her Own Drum

toph bed head

Toph's sense of independence is a source of conflict between her and Team Avatar, mainly Katara, who doesn't appreciate the new addition's lack of consistency. Toph and Katara gradually become lifelong friends, but only because the former sheds her freewheeling ways and accepts her new responsibility.

With that said, Toph's self-reliance makes her who she is—a young woman who knows how to use her innate gifts for the betterment of society. Toph retains her independent spark well into her eighties, at least in comparison with old Zuko and Katara.

2 Toph Can Perceive Everything On The Planet

toph crouches in the foggy swamp

Toph spends her waning years in the comfort of the Foggy Swamp, where she lives in seclusion like a hermit. Korra is particularly confused by this decision, and brings this up when she meets the legendary Earthbender.

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Toph heartily exclaims that the reason for her relocation to the swamp is that it's the only place in the world from where she can observe the entire world (through the Spirit Vines). Toph never fails to surprise and charm her fans.

1 She Invents And Later Teaches Metalbending

Toph Metalbending Academy

Elemental bending subsets are not very common in the ATLA universe, although a few are quite impressive to behold, like Lightningbending, Lavabending, and Spiritbending.

As such, it is a matter of great pride and honor for someone to invent a completely new form of bending, that too while under intense stress, as Toph does when she's abducted. She breaks out of her metal prison by using Metalbending for the first time ever, etching her name in the annals of history in the process.

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