Toph Beifong

Toph Bei Fong (北方 拓芙) is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender, voiced by Jessie Flower.

History and family
Toph is the only child of the wealthy Bei Fong family, who reside in the Earth Kingdom town of Gaoling and whose symbol is a winged boar. Because she is blind, Toph's parents, viewing her blindness as a disability, assume that she is vulnerable to exploitation by the world, and therefore keep her concealed. Despite her handicap, Toph developed special skills by keeping company with the blind 'Badgermoles' that inhabited nearby caves. By imitating their movements, Toph became a master of the psychokinetic martial art known as 'Earthbending'; but kept her ability secret from her family and teacher. Later, Toph fought frequently in Earth Rumble, an earthbending Lei tai tournament arranged to resemble Professional wrestling, under the alias "Blind Bandit". By the time Aang and his friends discover Toph at the tournament, she had become champion, holding a 42-0 win-loss record prior to her encounter with Aang.

In order to escape her parents' control, Toph fled secretly with Aang and his friends and volunteered herself as Aang's Earthbending instructor. Toph's defiance of authority and co-operation annoyed Katara; but the two later became close friends. It is implied in some episodes ("The Serpent's Pass" and "Sokka's Master") that Toph has a crush on Sokka; but this is never confirmed or explored further.

The Bei Fong family appears well-known and influential in the Earth Kingdom, in that Toph's display of her family's seal was sufficient to gain passage on a ferry ("The Serpent's Pass"), though doing so in the city of Ba Sing Se ("City of Walls and Secrets") did not allow herself and her companions into a party.

In later episodes, Toph becomes less snide of character, but retains her cocky attitude. Her bending abilities improve when she learns to bend metal by detecting and manipulating the impurities therein.

Toph joins Sokka and Suki in the finale to prevent the Fire Nation's decisive attack on the Earth Kingdom's capital. The three succeed in stopping the Fire Nation's airship brigade, giving Aang the opportunity to defeat Phoenix King Ozai. Toph's last appearance is in complimenting Sokka's poorly-drawn image of the group, thus emphasizing that she cannot see it and causing a moment of laughter.

In The Legend of Korra, it is revealed that after the Great War, Toph taught Metalbending to certain Earthbenders. Eventually, Toph gave birth to a daughter named Lin Bei Fong, and taught Metalbending to the police force of Republic City, of whom Lin became Chief.

Personality
Unlike the nurturing Katara, flighty Aang, or gruff, comical Sokka, Toph is fiercely independent, direct, frank, and belligerent. By her acute hearing and sense of touch, Toph has the ability to perceive people's lies by their heart rate; and as a result, when Zuko attempted to join the Avatar's group, she is the only one to trust him. Although a good judge of character and often logical, she is quick to anger, especially when she thinks herself insulted.

Although resentful of her parents and of authority overall, Toph welcomes the opportunity to see her mother again; and subsequently confides her reliance on Katara, who had treated her with greater respect than that to which she was accustomed. Later, Toph dictates a conciliatory letter to her parents.

As a rule, Toph is vocal of her opinions regardless of their subjects' status or age. Thanks to her time as a competitor and champion of the earthbending tournaments, she is practiced in taunting and insulting her opponents and on occasion her friends, particularly Sokka.

Inside this hardened exterior, Toph hides trace insecurities in regards to her blindness, as hinted in the episode "The Tales of Ba Sing Se". Being restricted by her parents on account of her disability, Toph resents condescension and often mistakes a friendly gesture for an act of pity for her blindness, until otherwise advised by Iroh. In episode "Sozin's Comet: Part I", she claimed that everyone else in party had gone on a 'life-changing field trip' with Zuko and wished to do so herself.

On several occasions Toph has been seen picking her nose, spitting, and belching loudly. She is also usually covered in dirt, supplying that which she names "a healthy coating of earth". Despite her uncouth habits, Toph is well-educated in the manners and bearings of high society, but merely prefers to ignore them.

Name
Toph is the only character of the series to express a surname, "Bei Fong". In "The Serpent's Pass," Toph's passport reads 土國頭等護照北方拓芙 (tǔ guó tóu děng hù zhào běi fāng tuò fú) which translates as 'Earth Kingdom First Class Passport: Bei Fong Toph'. Here, her name means 'supported lotus', which matches her parents' view of their daughter as a flower in need of protection. In "Tales of Ba Sing Se", her name is written as 托 夫 (Tuō Fū), which means "entrusted man". In "The Earth King", her name is reverted to 拓芙. Her last name Bei Fong (北 方) is close to the Mandarin pronunciation of the word "North" (běi fāng). The word 托 (Tuō) also means 'to support in one's palm' and is the word used for child care and is usually a prefix to another Fù (付) that means "pay".

Earthbending
While the Earthbending style used by most Earthbenders is rooted in the Hung Gar style of Kung Fu, Toph's style is based on Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Being blind, Toph has the ability to "feel" even the most minute vibrations in the earth, be it the presence of trees and buildings or the march of ants several meters away. Through this heightened seismic sense, she can visualize where people are, their relative distance to her, and their physical build. This sense provides her with a distinct advantage when facing other Earthbenders in combat, who require contact with the ground in any fight. As another result of her blindness, Toph has acquired an acute sense of hearing, enabling her to recognize people by their voices, discern a person's physical appearance by sound, and overhear distant conversations. Toph also has the ability to sense falsehood by feeling the individual's heartbeat, although this can be outdone by the highly-trained. Because she depends on vibrations in the earth, Toph is vulnerable to attacks initiated in mid-air or opponents who require less contact with the ground. Terrain that impairs Toph's ability to sense vibrations also hinders her abilities; she has some difficulty with sand, which constantly lacks solidity, preventing her from accurately "feeling" her surroundings. Because Toph relies on sensation in her feet to perform Earthbending, she becomes truly "blind" if the soles of her feet are damaged, as shown when Zuko accidentally burned her feet. As further illustrations of her affinity with the earth, Toph does not know how to swim and expresses an aversion to flying and to travelling underwater.

Throughout the first series, Toph is the only Earthbender known for the ability to bend metal. When Toph is imprisoned in iron, the sadhu Guru Pathik explains to Aang in a parallel scene that metal is refined Earth; whereupon Toph locates the iron's impurities and manipulates them to "bend" the metal portion. Later, Sokka gives Toph a small piece of meteorite, which she can easily mold into myriad shapes. Later, she becomes proficient in Sandbending, even making a detailed sand sculpture of Ba Sing Se. In the Legend of Korra series, her daughter, Lin Bei Fong is the current leader of Republic City metalbender police, as Toph was the master of metalbending.