Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender
Original Drawing Date: December 30 2022.
Here we have Team Avatar's at 99% of power, really, I just find it hard to believe now how they managed to survive before without Toph, she was the one who did all the heavy lifting on the team! Even Sokka tells her how happy he was that she joined the team and invented metalbending.
Toph is another interesting character, she voluntarily abandons her life full of luxury's and money in order to become a fugitive with Team Avatar. Her parents where so overprotective of her and thought se was defenceless and fragile because she was blind, and that is so far from the truth. Toph noted that a closed life was a life with no adversity, and without adversity there was no growth and no emotion, she felt so dull and empty in her life, and it was nice to see just how much fun she had when she joined Team Avatar.
Definitely Toph's biggest problem was that she had a hard time accepting help from others, in her own desperations to prove herself that she is independent, because her parents underestimated her whole life; she tended to confuse vulnerability with weakness, it was until she met Iroh that she learnt that the people who want to help us in life they do it not because they underestimate us, but because it's an act of love and care, Toph's development is not focused on become physically stronger and capable, it is focused en how to be vulnerable to others in order to obtain a stronger emotional endurance and creating beautiful friendships. It's even fun to see how she wanted to have her own adventure with Zuko and she starts telling him her problems, we learn over there how she learns to open herself to others, and speaking of Zuko, she provides great emotional support to him when they were watching the play and Zuko felt bad for all the mistakes he made and for how he betrayed his uncle, but Toph was there to give him reassurance, and that was beautiful!
Even though she looks tough on the outside, in reality Toph is just as vulnerable as everyone is, one of my favourite moments is when Katara tells her just how beautiful she is, making Toph to blush and smile a little.
