#toph beifong

[wilcze-kudly]

Hi, I see what you're saying. However, and mind you, I am no therapist, I believe Toph's parents went further than neglect. The problem of Toph's parents wasn't just a 'lack of support' it was years of intentional isolation and repression. Isolating a child from their peers, to the point where the people of Gaoling had no idea Toph even EXISTED, can have absolutely catastrophic effects on a child's mental and even physical wellbeing.

Arguing about Lao and Poppy's harm of Toph is all very well and good, because I agree that they certainly didn't mean to cause her such long lasting damage. But arguing that they never knew that they caused her harm is a stretch.

Toph had expressely told her parents that she was lonely and uncomfortable under multiple circumstances and yet they persisted, not giving her any explanation or rethinking their actions. They systematically continued to isolate and control their daughter despite her expressed discomfort and sadness. Toph tells us that she once ran away from home when she was 9. I find it hard to believe that Poppy and Lao would be oblivious to that event, and yet they didn't seem to question how their behaviour might have motivated a 9 year old blind girl to run away from the only home she'd ever known.

Poppy and Lao didn't just cause Toph's trauma through inaction, but directly contributed to it by restricting her and forcing her into situations that caused her discomfort and sadness and that negatively affected her overall wellbeing.

This is without even getting into Lao dehumanising and lashing out at Toph when she rebelled.

Mind you, I'm not saying that Lao and Poppy are the worst ever parents or that they deserve to be hated. But I think acknowledging that abuse doesn't always come in extremely noticeable outbursts and can come from people who mean well is important, especially for kids who might hesitate to admit they've been hurt.

People will go on about how "Katara's story is a tragedy" because she... ended up marrying the guy she loves, having children and grandchildren which she was always excited about and literally becoming a master waterbender and rising to the top of her field as a healer.

Yes, Katara's story has tragic aspects to it. And there are certainly flaws in how she is written in tlok (Though I will argue that there are actually more issues with how Toph and Zuko are just plopped in there for no reason in later seasons). And her storylines aren't perfect, for example her resolving her trauma around the murder of her mother being more used to prop up Zuko than her own internal turmoil. (Most of TSR is from Zuko's perspective and I hate that actually)

"Katara's story is a tragedy" Why do you have such a hard on for this woman's misery? Let her be happy, man.

You know what gaang girlie's life is an actual onscreen tragedy?

Toph's!

People will fucking downplay Toph's childhood abuse because she wasn't physically hurt, but her childhood was a never ending carousel of abelism, misogyny, neglect and isolation. The way Toph describes her parent's treatment of her as "pressure and pain" is heartbreaking.

Toph's only escape was Earth Rumble and earthbending, but despite her skills, she remained the perfect little lady her parents always wanted her to be. She's never known a different life, and she was only able to be her real self in secret.

And when Toph finally opens up to her parents, when she finally lays her real self bare in front of the people who are supposed to love and care for her?

She is met with what may be, in my opinion, the cruellest rejection in the show.

Despite this, even when Toph runs away, she still cares for her parents' approval. Hell, she's even lured into a trap due to her getting a forged letter from her mom and getting excited because it looked like her mom was finally accepting her.

It's also important to note how determined to be self sufficient and to prove herself Toph is. We can especially see this right after she joins the Gaang, where she refuses to participate in splitting with the rest of the group, insisting on "pulling her own weight". This isn't Toph being a brat, or spoilt, this is her wanting to prove that she can handle herself because people have handled and understimated her her entire life.

Eventually, Toph starts to learn to trust the members of the Gaang and this is a step in the right direction. She's literally making friends for the first time in her life I'm so proud of her.

However, I was genuinely upset when Toph's life changing field trip with Zuko didn't work out. When Toph was trying to connect with Zuko and he blew her off (I'm not blaming him tho they had shit to do), I couldn't help but remember the rejection Toph suffered from Lao.

Post canon, Toph continues to try and prove herself, starting a metalbending school and training new metalbenders.

She also reconciles with her father. Not before Lao disowns he rmultiple times and calls her a rude, ungrateful thing. And while he eventually comes to understand Toph and cherish her, that type of trauma sticks with you.

So it's no wonder really that Toph, someone who went her entire childhood seemingly without even speaking to someone her age, would have trouble forming connections. She has children with two different men, neither of which seem to stick around.

Toph tries to do right by her daughters and gives them the freedom she never got. Sadly, the pendulum swung too far to the other side, since it seems that she started to neglect her daughters, which led to them developing a sleugh of issues of their own.

Toph becomes the cheif of police, which kind of makes sense. Republic City was only slowly emerging as an actual metropolis. Toph took on a role as a protector, and probably as a way to prove herself. But as Republic City grew, Toph probably realised that she became something she hated. A cog in the machine, and started to despise her job.

Searching for a semblance of the freedom and happiness her travels afforded her in her childhood, Toph leaves the city and takes up the life of a hermit in a swamp. She managed to fix her relationship with Suyin to some extent, but still seems reluctant or simply unable to connect with her daughter or grandchildren. Since she apparently hasn't seen Opal, a grown 20 year old woman since she was a little girl.

On the surface old Toph doesn't seem terribly dissimilar to young Toph, still tough and spunky. But she is more jaded, depressed and pessimistic. She comes out to save Suyin from immediate harm and manages to somewhat reconcile with Lin, but then she fucks right back off to the swamp where she seems to literally hide until Wu and Korra straight up force her to come with them.

Toph's story began with her alone and it seems to end with her alone as well. It's a story of a girl who grew up isolated and handled by others, and was woefully unprepared for the real world, which only jaded her further. She lives with the guilt of fucking up her daughters' lives and a belief in the pointlessness of life.

Toph started off longing to experience the world and ended up willingly isolating herself from it.

If that isn't a tragedy, I'm not sure what is.

Mind you, this is not the trauma olympics. I'm not saying that Toph has suffered more than Katara or that Katara's trauma is not as valid as Toph's. Katara and Toph's experiences are completely different, Katara being a victim of genocide and war, Toph being a victim of child abuse. I'm just saying that, objectively, Katara had a happier 'ending' than Toph.

[comradekarin]

Zuko encouraged katara to murder Yon Rah. Aang didn't want Katara to do something that she would regret. Just because Toph is anti authority doesn't mean she would support katara killing someone.

zuko didn’t encourage katara to do anything of the sort. he didn’t tell her what to do. he actively went to talk to her loved one to inquire about her anger about him because he knew there was something deeper at play (which, ironically, zuko is the first character to do so with katara without being promoted to). aang didn’t want katara to do something that she would regret…. nowhere did katara claim that she would murder that man. and imposing forgiveness on to her, comparing kya’s murder to appa being stolen (which, also ironic considering how he freaked the fuck out on her and toph and was never required by the narrative to say sorry to either of them), and being patronizing is not having someone’s best interest at heart. katara didn’t just lose her mother—she lost part of her self, of her childhood. katara has been haunted by the image of her mother dying for years, and finally she has the chance to confront the man who did it and only zuko stood by her! even her own brother compared her to a madman that tried to murder innocents in his pursuit of “justice”. you would have forgot sokka was katara’s brother the way he was acting like aang’s cheerleader that episode. but ofc it was just big bad katara that needed to say sorry for what she said, right? its just stupid that this was one of the most important moments of katara’s character arc and no one stood by her except for zuko.

aside from the fact that toph (and actually ALL of the gaang) have a body count… toph would have stood by katara because that’s her friend first of all. nevermind how most of their earlier issues with each other wasn’t just personality clashes but the fact that katara babied tf out of aang. but we have an episode where katara is being dogged on by aang and arguably sokka and you make toph a no show? SUKI a no show? and yon rha isn’t just some random dude, he’s a murderer and the cause of katara’s worst nightmare. but the fact that aang thought she was going to do something bad/was going to forgive before she even went and he turned out to be wrong (katara didn’t kill because she has her own moral compass and it’s a kids show duh and she even tells him she’d never forgive that man) tells me everything I need to know.

insinuating anything else tells me you’ve fallen for the misogynistic narrative that katara needed aang or zuko to tell her how to feel or act about one of the most important moments of her life. she needed someone to be there for her, and it gets this fandom so upset when you truthfully say it was only zuko who was.

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Oh, this is good

avatar Zuko AU wherein is he learns he's the Avatar only after being banished wholesale to the Earth Kingdom and immediately goes. well. fuck. and proceeds to go on the most unconventional journey to master the four elements known to man.

first stop? well, he might as well check out the Air Temples. They're a good place to hide, since he's pretty sure all three surviving nations would like him dead. he ends up in the Southern Air Temple, and winds up laying the bodies there to rest... after he spends several days searching the temple for anything pertaining to how airbenders are actually laid to rest.

he does not expect to be greeted by a ghost once he does. The spirit of Monk Gyatso becomes his airbending teacher, until one day he simply stops appearing. Zuko assumes he's finally moved on, and decides it's time for him to move on. He wanders the Earth Kingdom for awhile, while trying to keep a low profile, and winds up at the Foggy Bottom Swamp.

...where there are apparently waterbenders who don't want to kill him. Sure, he'll take it. Huu is... eccentric, and he's not really sure he agrees with his uh. viewpoint on pants (or lack thereof) but he is a good teacher. after awhile, Huu tells him he should travel on to the Si Wong Desert so Zuko is just like. sure why the fuck not. and goes to the desert.

he gets taken in by one of the sandbending tribes there, and learns earthbending from them. he's pretty sure he prefers living in the desert over the swamp. the sandbenders he's staying with are nice enough, even if some of their younger members seem... well, assholes. said assholes sell him out one day, so he has to leave the desert.

well. now what?

(all the while, he's leaving behind the most eccentric string of rumors about the Avatar known to man.)

[toph-bi-fong]

My daughter 💚⛰️

Edit: I did not draw this! This is from the second edition of the official ATLA artbook. These drawings were made by Lauren Montgomery

[sanrielle]

Fortnite, are you sure about this? Did you think it through?

[cookie-kat777]

Atla nation, come get y'all's juice

[tadpole-art]

I think they would've been friends

[queen-morgana91]

Imo, atla has a bittersweet ending

Aang is sitting alone and wearing the air nomads clothes, his culture clothes, a necklace similar to GYATSO's necklace. I can't even imagine the emptiness and sadness he was feeling here

There are no airbenders in the crowd

All nation gathered..... except the air nomads.

No one else in the crowd wearing orange or yellow.

Aang won the war, but his people are still gone.

Yes, he has the Gaang, he has Katara, he has Momo and Appa. But he's still the last airbender.

This is so heartbreaking.

[m-r-moth]

redrew their interaction from the post below. i love them all so much

[bellwethers]

Tough.

[demaparbat-hp]

The Gaang (plus Uncle Iroh)

[julsera]

FLAMING FIRE FLAKES CHALLENGE.

I rewatched the show, it's still so so good ♡

[prying-pandora666]

Reblog if you also think Toph shouldn’t have been a cop.

I want to see how “unpopular” this opinion really is outside cop-worshipping Reddit.

[everye]

atla fandom here's my observation about alter egos

(full pictures under the cut)

my babies..........................

+

[aangarchy]

Aang: i can't just go around killing people i don't like!

Toph, who locked two men in a metal box to starve a few months ago: