One of the reasons why I love Toph so much, apart from her sarcasm and personality, is because she doesn’t let her blindness get in her way. She cracks jokes at it all the time instead of being offended. She uses her earthbending to “see” the world around her by feeling people’s vibrations in the earth. She’s strong, and I think her disability was handled the best on this show. Most other TV programs would just play off a person with a disability as not being that central to the plot of the story, or giving them attributes that would make them weak. In my opinion, the writers of ATLA did a phenomenal job in protraying Toph as a strong character, let alone a strong female. They could have just thrown in a character like her and been all “Oh, she’s blind, has awesome abilities, but lets her blindness get to her and thinks the world owes her a favor,” when in reality, she’s perfectly content with her “disability” and finds her own ways to cope with the world around her. As a blind person myself, I feel like Toph is the most accurate portrayal as someone with a disability, let alone blindness, just because she’s so confident in who she is, and it’s really admirable. She’s not “just another disabled character.”
flawless atla/lok ladies by Kelly Li
“People see me and think I’m weak. They want to take care of me. But I can take care of myself- by myself.”
Endless List of Favorite Characters — Toph Beifong, Avatar: The Last Airbender
My daughter is blind! She is blind, and tiny, and helpless, and fragile! She cannot help you!
That is the worst pickup line I have ever heard.
…but the answer is yes. It does.
