hey lovergirl

(I think Yue’s his perfect match and will post about that later, but what’s rough is she turned into the moon.)

Used to be: Toph liked him and I felt bad for her.

Now: One of Sokka’s primary character arcs is growing out of his misogyny. When he travels the world, he sees with his own eyes that his gender roles actually aren’t the natural order of things, and his sister isn't "weird" for not conforming to gender stereotypes.

(A metaphor for how education opens people’s minds and helps them discover their gifts and talents and how they are needed in the world, in his case, engineering.)

Suki was the first girl to open up his mind. However, Sokka never had formal training. He wasn't exactly a soldier. Not to say she wasn't an incredible warrior, but defeating Sokka wasn't exactly an incredible challenge. I think that that episode humbled him in two ways: he realized (1) he didn't know how to fight, and (2) girls can fight, sometimes better than him.

Then comes along Toph.

Sokka's in his element, watching "guys chucking rocks at each other." Katara's uninterested, even though she's a fighter. It's a "guy" thing, guys fighting, guys dominating, it's "guy time."

Then comes along Toph.

She takes out The Boulder without breaking a sweat.

She single-handedly takes out every single earthbender all at once.

She's everything Sokka wanted to be and more.

Then he gets to know her.

When she's forced to be sheltered and act helpless, she fights to make her own way and control her own life.

She values efficiency over feelings (to a fault, but nonetheless, it's contrary to what Sokka would expect from a girl).

Sokka's an engineer, he likes challenges. And Toph is a challenge. She's challenges his schema of gender roles. And she likes challenges, too, and annihilates every single challenge that comes her way: Earth Rumble Six, escaping her cage of a home, figuring out how Azula was tracking them, picking up and leaving when Aang blames her and yells at her, holding up THE ENTIRE LIBRARY when Wan Shi Tong was sinking it, getting them ferry tickets, lie detecting, the Dai Li, metalbending.

(Also, she bickers with Katara, which Sokka very much enjoys).

And the pièce de résistance: she's sarcastic.

Sarcasm is Sokka's love language.

He doesn't make moves on her, and it's something worth speculating about. Maybe he thinks she's too young. Maybe he's so impressed by her that he doesn't know where to begin with her. Maybe he didn't want any kind of romantic dynamic in Team Avatar (understandable when it was just the four of them). Maybe he was scared it'd encourage Aang to flirt with Katara. Maybe he tried, and Toph was abrasive, not understanding what he was doing or not sure how to respond, and so he stopped trying.

And we all know Toph loves Sokka.

She's fierce. She's strong. She's fearless. She's bold. But she's still a very, very sheltered young girl.

Earth Rumble Six knew The Blind Bandit, but no one knew Toph.

Maybe he's the first teenage boy she ever met. His voice is deeper, but not as deep as The Boulder's or her dad's. He's young, but still older and more mature than her.

Every character has a yin-yang balance. Aang is a peacemaker but defends Appa with aggression. Katara wants peace, but will defend her values (and mother) with aggression. Sokka is manly, but loves shopping (and his bag matches his belt).

And Toph is the greatest earthbender in the world, but she’s also a young blind girl. She’s strong and independent, but she likes having someone take care of her when she's out of her element. Literally.

She's completely in love with her role as a damsel in distress.

Iroh opened her up to helping others, seeing their needs and responding to them, and letting herself be helped in return. Needing help doesn’t mean you’re helpless, it means you’re human.

When she was sinking, she had no choice but to cry and beg for help. That was the one situation where she was completely helpless. Her resentment against her parents didn't matter anymore. Even if her parents were there, she would've accepted their help. What branch do we refuse when we are sinking?

There's nothing wrong with needing rescued (we all do at some point), or feeling loved when you are rescued.

Maybe she was jealous of Suki, who brought out a romantic side of Sokka that Toph had never seen before (and liked).

I honestly think Suki told Sokka about the interaction because look at his face here:

Look closely:

Yes, it could be a number of other things, but it definitely does look like the face of a guy who's talking to a girl who he knows likes him.

Also . . .

No words necessary.

Except maybe remember how air and earth are opposite elements? Toph was face to face with the original source of her opposite element. Flying in the air was the exact opposite of her element, so Sokka “grounded” her.

Also, back to Sokka--let's be real, he falls in love with every girl he meets--even his enemies.

No matter how much he hates the Fire Nation, he can't resist a pretty girl.

And we know Toph is pretty inside and out.

I wish the fillers leading up to the invasion in Book 3 focused more on Toph and Sokka (but it didn't because it would have taken away from Azula telling him about Suki in prison-- and that shows Sokka's yin-yang character: he's strategic and logical, but his love for Suki made him impulsive and his emotions took over).

Still, I think his feelings for Toph would be stronger, since he spent more time with her and knew her better. (“You Belong With Me” is their ship song 💕❤️)

She had his respect, but she was also very vulnerable at times, and when she was, he was happy to protect her.

Look at him rushing to shield her.

Look at his face as he’s protecting her.

He wants to protect women, which is a good thing. When he’s immature, he confuses it with the notion that women are weak. In reality, it’s not that women are weak, it’s that men should use their strength to protect others.

With Toph, she’s the strongest, but she can be the weakest in some situations. And that’s when Sokka shines. He loves showing his strength when the greatest earthbender in the world needs help from him.

And she loves when she can be the greatest earthbender in the world, *and* a blind girl who needs help.

Seen as: I would like a commission of my son/pet... Scam Type: Commission

Also: See this update on how scammers are changing the scam.

Accounts running this scam: Way too many for me to list.. :(

(old) Proof of iloveartworks being a scammer can be seen/found here and here. The other accounts listed above all follow the same script and additional proof and can usually be found in the tags: #scam, #scams, or #scam alert.

IMPORTANT: Update as of 1/31/25 - They are now threatening law enforcement if you do not send them payment via the fake paypal email. This is a scare tactic. Please see that section once you get to it. Thank you.

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Being open to commissions isn't uncommon if you're an artist.

You may often find yourself receiving messages from strangers looking to commission you for a picture of their OC or even their favorite ship.

But if you receive a message like this, you should be careful you don't fall into a scammers trap.

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How it starts:

it starts by receiving a message from another user requesting a commission. Again, typical common practice if you're an artist.

What they ask for at the start, is usually the first red flag.

IMPORTANT 1/15/25: These scammers are now sending Asks and commenting on peoples posts asking 'are you open to commission? Send me a DM.' So please be aware of this as well!

Here are some images of how this scam conversation starts:

Images provided by: (1)@neogandw, (2)@foggywiz4rd, (3-4)@maikaartwork

🚩Red flag's (part 1)🚩

I want you to draw my son/daughter.

I want you to draw my son/daughter's pet.

It's a blank blog with no posts/reblogs

It's a blog that's only a few days/week old.

While this request seems simple enough, this scam gets worse.

Here are some recent examples of the dog they will request:

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An offer too good to refuse:

Now you may be thinking, 'surely this can't be bad or malicious, right?' They just want you to draw a picture of their child or their child's pet! And that's definitely what the scammer wants you to think. Which is what brings us to the next set of red flags:

Left image from @neogandw, right image from @maikaartwork

🚩Red flag's (part 2)🚩

'I will pay you $200-$500+' (an amount way way beyond your normal asking price.)

'I just want the best you can do.' (They don't know how to answer questions related to details such as pose, background, style, objects you want included, etc.)

'It's for their birthday/holiday' - ' I want it done as soon as possible.' (They will push that you do this with a sense of urgency so you don't ask questions.)

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The Catch:

Now, if you haven't reported and blocked them by now, and you agree to take this persons commission, this is where the catch to this scam comes into play.

If you tell the scammer to send you an invoice, they will refuse.

If you tell them to use your preferred method, they will refuse.

Those methods just 'wont/don't work', you see.

What they really want, is your PayPal email and your name.

From here they will say that they sent you payment, and that you should check your email. Or that 'they got an email and something went wrong' and that you should check your email.

And here is where the scam comes to ahead.

They will send you a fake email meant to look like it came from PayPal that looks like the ones shown below:

Second image provided by @badlibbing

Second set of images provided by @petxka, thank you!

This third image comes from @elrealelchunk on 1/31/25 and is very important. Scammers are now threatening law enforcement if you do not send them money.

Again as noted in the top of the post, this is 100% a scare tactic.

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What this email means / How this scam works:

In the case of screenshot one (provided by @neogandw) the 'MONALISA' is the person who was trying to commission them.

The payment hasn't 'went through', and the e-mail (from 'fake PayPal') is saying that they, the artist, needs to send $200 to 'MONALISA' to 'expand the limit' of their account to get the $500 that is owed to them.

Read the e-mail and think about what you're being asked to do:

'You are to send (name) money to expand your account.' You are to send someone money, to get money.

If your account is limited, why would you need to send another PayPal user money to 'unlock' your account or 'expand it', and not just contact PayPal itself to try and resolve that issue...?

This is not how PayPal works, in any sense.

This is just a way for them to scam you.

There are also a handful of red flags in this email alone.

🚩Red flag's (part 3)🚩

The sender address is not from an official paypal.com address, but instead a gmail.com address. This means that this came from a person, not a company.

The formatting. Let's be frank, no official email from PayPal will ever look like this.

The spelling/grammar issues are everywhere.

Weird url's at the bottom of the email. (I removed them for safety reasons)

Additionally: You may also find or see links in this emails instructing you to 'go here' to unlock your account. These are phishing (wikipedia) links that they will use to steal your PayPal login information. Never click links in emails asking you to 'fix an issue' with your account unless you can verify who the sender is.

If you send these people your money, you will get blocked and never see them again. That's just how this scam goes...

If you'd like another variation of this scam which talks about money wiring, you can check out @maikaartwork's version by clicking here!

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Final thoughts:

If you fall for a scam like this, thankfully there still might be hope.

Contact PayPal and explain what happened in detail. Show them every shred of evidence that you have showing that you were scammed including the name of who scammed you, and the email that sent you the scam, and who you wound up sending the money to.

If you use the messaging system that uses the AI chat bot, ask it repeatedly to 'speak to a real person' until you get sent to a live agent. (this is stupidly frustrating but sadly it's what you have to do.)

And remember, take screenshots and report these users to the websites they are running these scams on. If they DM you on tumblr? Report the DM. If they do it on insta, bsky, twitter or even discord?

Make sure you report them there too.

ALSO: Beware of recovery scammers. This is anyone coming into your DM's telling you they can 'help you get your money back' after you made a post talking about how you got scammed. These scammers are just looking for a quick buck.

Here's a post about ethical hackers (aka recovery scammers)