The world turned toward morning

“Toph, you rule!

(okay so I just looked over this and WHOOPS, GOT META EVERYWHERE. going away for real this time to spare you any more.)

Okay, so I got to this scene a couple hours ago in my rewatch, and I always forget how AMAZING IT IS. It is probably in my top 10 ATLA scenes overall. Maybe even top 5. Hell, maybe even top 3. MAYBE IT’S JUST MY FAVE, WHO KNOWS.

I love the way they sometimes try and represent how Toph ‘sees’ the world, the way it becomes lines and so on, the way everything glows to indicate her awareness, even the way there isn’t any colour because obviously you can’t earthbend that, etc. etc. And this scene is just SO WELL ANIMATED. And such an amazing payoff to Toph’s whole character.

I don’t tend to see a lot about Toph’s actual development as a character in fandom? I see a lot of love for who she is, which is only right because, TOPH. But I guess because her development isn’t really the focus it doesn’t get this huge level of attention, which I think is a shame because even if it’s not as pronounced, I think it’s awesome!

Because Toph’s entire character is basically centred around her earthbending. It’s there to represent her independence, her skill, her passion, her family (and almost everyone else) not trusting in her, everything. And we’re introduced to her when she’s already confident in it and good at it (really rare for a female character in that she doesn’t have any self-discovery to go through). And this scene is basically the culmination of that. Not Toph discovering that she’s awesome, but defining herself by being awesome. Before this a lot of Toph was about being underestimated, is the impression I’m getting as I watch some of her earlier episodes. After this, it feels like it’s more about her being amazing.

I don’t know. I just thought that was a really interesting thing I noticed in retrospect! This is a pivotal moment for her character beyond just being really badass. She stops being about subverting others’ expectations, and starts being about setting her own. And that’s part of what I love about Toph in series three. It’s kinda subtle compared to a lot of characters’ development, but when they start to move her away from her origin/intro in the Earth Kingdom, and let the character stand on her own, she gets even BETTER.

(Source: asamies)