My Favourite Characters - Toph

Toph Beifong is a character from Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of my favourite TV Shows, she is twelve years old and has been blind since birth, however, she is also one of the greatest Earthbenders on the planet. How does this work? When she was little she learnt how to feel the vibrations in the ground, allowing her to sense anything nearby and of course, control the Earth around her, making her an incredibly skilled figher. It's funny, when it comes to making disabled characters in shows, the most common one seems to be blindness, and Toph is easily the best example of a disability turned ability done right. Take Daredevil for example, he may be blind but all of his senses are so incredibly strong that there's almost no point in making him blind. Toph however, is still legitimately blind, if something's not touching the ground or if she's not on a solid surface (i.e. Sand, Water, Ice) then she can't see at all. She's trading in her disability for a new ability, that's how it should be handled, that's what makes her a great character in this way for disabled children to look up to because she still has to face struggles like any disabled person would. Then there are her skills as an Earth bender, she's one of the best. Earth bending is all about patience and power, being the immovable object and waiting until just the right moment to strike, that is Toph's fighting style in a nutshell. She was powerful, smart and patient, no Earthbender could stop her. Hell, she became so powerful she invented an entirely new form of bending, metal bending. Focusing on the processed earth found in metal and manipulating it in a way similar to Earth bending, no Earthbender had ever done it before, that's how powerful and focused she is, it's not just about pure strength, it's about the focusing the strength you have.

Thankfully she stays awesome as an old woman in Legend of Korra, now choosing to be a Hermit and live in the woods, Toph is just a grouchy old lady who is more powerful than ever, which I loved because all the other original characters changed dramatically in Korra, but not Toph, Toph stayed the same, because she's just that stubborn she would never let anything change her. Toph can be blunt and very rude, but it's all part of her charm, she doesn't sugar coat anything and she rarely lies, she may hurt your feeling but you have to admire her honesty. Unlike a lot of shows where the addition of new characters can sometimes feel like it's just there to make the show feel fresh or to appeal to a new demographic, Toph was a natural and fitting edition to the show and honestly the show now feels incomplete in the episodes where she doesn't appear. She only made the show better and is one of my all time favourite characters.

-Danny