How Toph Grew Up

this is the story of a girl her name is Toff which sounds like tough and that's just what she is but don't let her fool you tof's rock solid facade protects a vulnerable interior her professed self-confidence and self-reliance blies her need for guidance assurance and friendship the core of avatar The Last Airbender story is formed by the growth of its main characters all of whom have to mature in some way or another but Toff perhaps is the one who has to grow up the most while a is undoubtedly the most child like in his exuberant

funloving and carefree nature the burden of responsibility he carries even if he stuffs it into the back of his mind at times is something completely alien to Toof whose life when we first meet her has been lived in Two Worlds in one she's cared for and doted on kept safe from every possible danger or discomfort even soup that is slightly too warm in the other she is the self-made Champion earthbending dualist relying on no one at all but simply conquering through her own skill if we place personal autonomy on a spectrum Toof exists on both

extreme ends depending on whether she is at home with her parents or stepping into the arena of Earth Rumble 6 this is hardly surprising children desire Independence well before they even know what the word means and when they are denied it for so long and so forcefully they will seize it wholeheartedly and without restraint should the opportunity to do so present itself in the process what gets lost is balance being completely sheltered and pampered is unhealthy but so too is unmitigated lack of oversight or responsibility that of course is the lesson that Toof has to

learn during the chase as she and qara repeatedly Clash over the newest member of Team Avatar's refusal to help out the rest of the group at this point in her story Toff could not comprehend the mere existence of Acts of unconditional love even simple ones such as lending a hand when unloading Opa every gift or act of love from her parents had come with a price with her requirement that she stay there de obedient little girl who accepted her hidden life and since she had never learned to receive such gifts she couldn't very well comprehend

the value in giving them every act in her life was transactional her parents kept her fed and clothed in exchange for her obeying them publicly anyway and in her earthbending career every Victory Was Won through her own self-taught skill yes I know that she was first taught by badgal but that's beside the point for Toof there simply was no such thing as love given purely for the sake of another the first time she encounters someone who acts in such a manner is to no one's surprise when she has tea with iro who pours her cup

of hot leaf juice despite her protest because he wanted to and for no other reason it was such a small Act of Love merely a kind gesture from one stranger to another and yet it has a profound impact on Toof this man who didn't know the first thing about her did something for her out of sheer and unadulterated kindness as always we look to iro for guidance Freedom does not exist so that we can do whatever we want forever without anyone telling us to stop indulging ourselves in all of our hedonistic desires Freedom exists for

the sake of love true freedom is not immunity from responsibility but rather the ability to fulfill our responsibilities Toof supposedly chose to run away with the gang in order to teach a earthbending but this episode quickly revealed her stronger motivation extrication from the oppressive rule of her parents when her nerves got fed up with qara badgering her and a losing his temper win Toof blamed Opa shedding for their sleepless night tof was quick to leave her promise to train the Avatar forgotten in her pursuit of total autonomy what's particularly beautiful about the lesson that iro

teaches Toof here is that he provides for her a model of how she should have acted far too many kids shows try to have kids learn lessons directly by having the character's bad behavior come with consequences that can only be remedied if they change their ways that's not necessarily A Bad Thing mind you but it's quite simplistic and not nearly as effective if you ask me after all bad behavior is quite often consequence-free it is far better for children to see good men and women providing examples of how they should act as I said earlier

this is precisely what Toff had lacked and what she now sees in iro what inspires her to return to the group and the promise she had made a promise that turns out to be perhaps more challenging than she had anticipated I am of course referring to the next episode bitter work in which to finds out that teaching Earth bending to an airbender requires a significant shift in mindset but not just Fang as much as he needs to learn to stand his ground and to stop looking for different angles or jky tricks that will solve his

problem Toth needs to think like an Airbender in order to properly teach one that is she is the one who has to find another way another angle to ensure Ang takes her lessons to Heart Toth could have just kept rolling Boulders at him over and over again yelling about him being a jelly boned wimp repeatedly every time he dodged out of the way but she doesn't heck she even takes Kara's advice and gives Ang some positive reinforcement sure it's just a nod but coming from Toof that means quite a lot I point out this Mutual

exchange of lessons because it highlights a simple yet meaningful fact about the gang's dynamic they all learn from each other their relationships all have give and take with various members discovering their worth and the worth of their friends at different and unexpected times seeing as they are all kids of course none of them is the iro of the group constantly dispensing wisdom without receiving Insight in return no member is a no- at all despite Sak's best efforts none of them is right all the time and none of them is a complete master of his or

her given bending style an unfortunate realization for Toof when they go out into the desert to visit the library and she stays behind with Opa and then loses him to sand Benders who take advantage of her inexperience with this unfamiliar form of Earth and her need to you know stop her friends from being buried alive in the Zink King Library this is tof at her lowest point she had been brought into team Avatar to teach Ang earthbending and yet she found herself inadequate at the very art in which she was supposed to be an expert

it's hardly her fault that she didn't know how to sand Bend properly having not grown up in a desert but that doesn't stop her shame which largely manifests itself in her defensiveness when a gets mad about her failure to stop opa's kidnappers because a only ever gets mad on oa's behalf you know the line that coming next right pride is not the opposite of shame but it's Source Toff took great pride in being a supremely talented earthbender it was who she was it was the identity she had forged for herself when her parents wouldn't allow

her outside the walls of their estate she never wanted to feel as helpless as her parents assumed she was but now she does and she even has to rely on Katara of all people for guidance and ask her for her rations of water though that's mostly because Saka is just ly tripping the cactus juice it helps that Katara had come to tof's defense when Ang accused her of wanting Opa gone again Ang tends to lose his monk mentality when Opa is in danger and Toof depending on qara is a wonderful way for the show to

demonstrate that the two have a growing bond that their conflict from a few episodes ago has been smoothed over and yet they are of course still two drastically different people as shown in the beginning of the tale of tof andara in which we find out that you can earthbend a spa engent through a wall and still be welcome as a customer Jokes Aside the real reason I bring up this episode is because of the conversation between the two heroins after Toof is verbally tormented by a trio of pretentious snobs tof tells qara and herself I

don't care what I look like I know who I am which clearly isn't 100% true since she just dropped her tormentors through a bridge into a stream over a few insults regarding her looks which wasn't exactly the most mature reaction to their jbes no doubt Toof hadn't cared about her appearance or at least thought she didn't care and and then when it was insulted found out that it did actually matter to her and that unpleasant Discovery caused her to lash out as I said at the beginning of the video tof is tough she wants to

be tough she doesn't want anyone or anything to break through her thick outer shell but once that metaphorical crack was opened by the words of the three nobodies it gave qara an opening to use that vulnerability to do what she does best heal qara affirms Toof by telling her that she's actually really pretty and the impact those words have on to psyche is as clear as day the opinions of those who are dear to us should matter should affect us being vulnerable to Those whom we love is not a weakness that is life it is

freedom if we close ourselves off entirely we are merely slaves to our own sense of self-preservation which of course isn't really preserving our self but rather our pride pride is what says I don't need anyone I am sufficient humility lets us admit that others matter it frees us and lets us Embrace love as we ought to one of the things that Avatar does best is demonstrate the necessity and power of theia that is the bonds of Brotherly or friendship love our modern world isn't the best at recognizing how badly we all need true genuine platonic

friendships but the ones displayed in Avatar provide a powerful example of what such bonds should look like the group is bound together due to a common interest and goal one that is freely chosen the love between the members of Team Avatar is largely not organic or biological aside from Saka and qara none of them are related none of them needed to accompany the avatar on his journey but they chose to do so they chose each other not because they had something to gain but because it was the right thing to do because they had something

to give and then because they had come to care about the people they now call friends seeing Toff change from this isolated young girl whose only method of self-expression was beating up Earth Ben twice her size to someone who is genuinely moved by a simple compliment from her friend is truly heartwarming it's one of the Myriad of reasons this show has aged beautifully however do not let me give you the idea that just because Toth and qara have shared an exchange of kind words that everything is hunky dory between them now and forever I also

hope that I have not given the impression that Toff is now a fully mature individual who has completely outgrown her flaws that wouldn't make for particularly satisfying character Arc and AV does perhaps nothing better than show us that the journeys which its characters take are not smooth rides they are not continuous uninterrupted climbs up the mountain of virtue as our heroes get better and better with every passing chapter a fact demonstrated by the conflict between Toof and Qatar in The Runaway in which Toth puts her specialized skills to use in a series of scams that

provide the gang with food money and most importantly a messenger hawk for Saka unlike a season earlier Toff is now an integral member of the group one who is more than willing to play her part and help out the issue lies not with her selfishness but rather with her risky decision-making and when qara points that out the old tof reemerges a bit you're not my mom and you're not their mom is her decisive Proclamation when qara tries to Tamp down on their Reckless scamming this line is indicative of tof's idea of what a mother is

someone who is controlling and that's pretty much it her own parents maintained an iron grip on our activities and whereabouts or so they thought in order to protect their own reputation and save their family from embarrassment T has never experienced a mother or mother-like figure who cared about her for her own sake while Katara isn't the greatest expressing her concerns she is after all just a teenager there's no doubt that her main worry regarding the scams is that her brother and friends will get caught and come to harm and Toth acknowledges this in one of

my favorite scenes of the whole show Saka sits her down and explains how qara had to take on the role of a mother from a young age and how despite her annoying him at times he relies on his sister's motherliness tof in response tells Saka that she knows qara genuinely cares for her that's more than my own mom is how her confession ends those few words contain both an admission that katara's maternal instincts are appreciated by tof and that she does in fact care about her own parents a fact she vigorously denied earlier in the

episode a denial which careful Watchers would immediately know to be false as we saw Toof eagerly respond affirmatively to a letter supposedly from her father in bossing say as her to meet a fake letter as it turned out that led to her capture and eventual discovery of metal bending but that's not really important right now what matters is that in the latter half of the runaway we see Toof once again allow a crack in her Rock Solid facade we witness her admit that she does want and need loving care and guidance whether or not they

admit it or even know it children do desire proper direction and Leadership from their parents key word being proper that is rightfully ordered Mr and Mrs bong's parental methods were were obviously and seriously misguided and it was no wonder that Toof cast them off but the parent child relationship is an Irreplaceable one one that if destroyed leaves an unfillable hole for all Zuko's love for iro his uncle could not fully take the place of oai unlike Zuko however tof has a father who is misguided and selfish not tyrannical and genocidal so a path to the

healing of her relationship with her parents could actually be envisioned and asking qara to write them a letter for her and taking the first step to seek to rebuild the relationship she had torn down Toof demonstrates wisdom Beyond her years a pattern that repeats itself when Zuko shows up in the Western Air Temple and asks to join the group Toff is the only one who can sense his sincerity and also the only one who hasn't gone toe-to-toe with him repeatedly and even after he burns her feet she remains willing to admit him into the gang

sure her earthbending lie detector is a bit of a cheat code but it's far too easy for us to let our emotions overcome our sense of logic if someone burned my eyes even if it was an accident I don't think I'd be as charitable to them as Toof is to Zuko here but of course that turns out to be the right decision as Zuko then proceeds to teach a fire bending and embark on life-changing field trips with Saka and then qara which I mentioned because it leads to this moment in San's Comet when the gang

splits up to search for Momo and Ang and Toof insists that it's her turn to share such an adventure with Zuko Toff is honestly quite mature by this point her character development for the show more or less complete and yet she still has a desire for growth and healing her attempt doesn't lead anywhere though which just goes to show that you can't force a life-changing field trip it has to happen organically nonetheless tof's immediate and emphatic choice of partner tells us something else something more crucial she now relies on others she has come to realize

that she cannot be truly independent free from anyone's influence if she is to be who she is meant to be incredibly powerful Bender though she might be Toff is reliant on the guidance and direction of others she knows her skills and abilities and now wants to put them into the service of others of the whole world she simply needs someone to guide her which of course we see in the Airship Battle Asaka comes up with the plan adapts it on the Fly and Toof carries out her role to Perfection Toff is far more than just

a kick-ass earthbender this video has focused on everything that makes her more than that and yet she still is a consummate Earth and metalbending badass these scenes are Exquisite because we witness the characters fulfill their Potentials in combat Saka is a leader and tactician Toof is a Frontline brawler and Suki is a creative and adaptable Warrior team Avatar truly is a team that each have an indispensable and critical role to play in that final battle and for those who weighed into the fry alongside their friends that means supporting encouraging and directing them when Saka momentarily

loses Focus as he is separated from Suki in understandable reaction Toof has to snap him back to reality and make him realize that they've got to get going now and this leads to some of my favorite shots in the whole show depicting the Pinnacle of Saka character Arc and just how much Toof has grown and matured Saka shielding Toof with his own body as debris rains down around them and then Toof dangling in midair hundreds of feet off of the ground with only her grip on Saka hand preventing her from experiencing a long long drop

a fall that perhaps most earthbenders could survive I would think that someone like Boomie would be able to orient himself properly as he fell and make the Earth cushion his fall but could tough she would have no idea when she was going to hit the ground perhaps she would have some trick up her sleeve but this is hardly a scenario for which she is prepared regardless she certainly does not want to fall but as she dangles there helpless the only words she utters are I I captain what a change from the girl who repeatedly and

proudly proclaimed that she could pull her own weight and take care of herself by herself this incredibly tough skilled and ingenious earthbender now places total trust in her friend tof grows in many ways throughout the course of her story she realizes that she no longer wants to be alone that relying on those who love her is not an impingement on her autonomy and that only by opening herself up to her friends and loved ones can she be truly free