Toph Beifong

Toph Beifong (Chinese: 北方拓芙; pinyin: Běifāng Tuòfú) is a fictional character in Nickelodeon's animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, and is part of the Avatar: The Last Airbender world. She is voiced by Michaela Jill Murphy in the original series and Kate Higgins as an adult and Philece Sampler as an elder in the sequel series. She will be portrayed by Miya Cech in Season 2 of the live-action television series adaptation.

Toph is recognized as a prodigy of earthbending, which is the ability to telekinetically manipulate, reshape, and control stone, sand, dirt, and, later, metal. Because she was born blind, and her parents believed that her condition limited her capacity to learn and use the skill safely, they had a tutor teach her only basic earthbending. She later learned more advanced earthbending secretly from the badgermoles (fictional blind creatures that naturally earthbend). She eventually becomes the first person to develop the ability to "bend" metal as well.

Toph was introduced in the second season of Avatar. She travels with the protagonist Aang as his earthbending teacher, shown to have an abrasive, conceited, pragmatic, and sometimes stubborn personality which leads to clashes with her peers. Toph proves herself a steadfast ally to Avatar Aang and eventually Avatar Korra. As a breakout character, the character has received universal acclaim, quickly becoming a fan favorite.

Toph was initially conceived as a sixteen-year-old boy who was athletic and muscular, designed to be a foil to Sokka. Her prototype design is featured in the show's intro as the earthbender. As the series progressed and the time came closer to introduce an earthbender who would join the main characters, head writer Aaron Ehasz suggested that they create contrast by designing a little girl who is able to defeat strong, adult earthbenders; some of the staff found this humorous, but it was initially rejected by Avatar co-creator Bryan Konietzko. Following several long discussions, Konietzko stopped fighting the idea and warmed up to it, after which Toph was made female and introduced into the series, becoming one of Konietzko's favorite characters. The character's original design was recycled into the appearances of minor characters The Boulder and Sud. Her original design greatly influenced the appearance of Bolin in The Legend of Korra. Her Earth Rumble outfit, the clothing she wears for the majority of Avatar: The Last Airbender, was inspired by European fashion styles. Her fancy dress was modeled after the traditional clothing of the Chinese Tang dynasty.

Toph uses a unique fighting style of earthbending, based on the Southern Praying Mantis style.

Toph was favored by the creators to return in The Legend of Korra after the appearances of both Katara and Zuko, DiMartino writing that it "never quite made sense" for there to be a trip to the swamp, where she was located, during the third season. In the following season, she was meant to serve as a foil to Korra with her "gruff mentoring style" contrasting the reserved Korra. Her design became a subject of difficulty for the staff, who wanted her to return to the size of her twelve-year-old self from the original series despite flashbacks in the earlier part of The Legend of Korra showing her as having grown in height. Konietzko was content with the staff's wishes but wanted her shortened height to come from her having become hunched since then. Artists had issues carrying out this design, resulting in multiple takes.

Toph is fiercely independent, direct, belligerent, and practiced in taunting and insulting her opponents and on occasion her friends, particularly Sokka. On several occasions Toph appears picking her nose, spitting, and belching loudly. As she explained to Aang and his companions, she does this intentionally as a rebellion against the principles of refined culture that her aristocratic parents attempted to make her conform to. If the situation absolutely requires it, she actually knows how to behave in upper-class Earth Kingdom culture much better than Aang's companions do. She is usually covered in dirt, or as she calls it, "a healthy coating of earth".

In her advanced age, despite retaining much of her strength as an earthbender, Toph refuses to take part in prolonged conflicts, admitting that she is too old and lacks the energy for such endeavors.