The first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender is fantastic, but feels like it's missing something. That something turned out to be a blind, Earthbending, 12-year-old force of nature named Toph Beifong. The young girl breathes new life into the series when she permanently joins Team Avatar as Aang's Earthbending teacher. As tough as the ground she controls, Toph adds a whole new dynamic to the Gaang.
Aang was always going to need an Earthbending teacher, and Earthbenders up to that point had been predominantly portrayed as big, burly men. Airbender interestingly subverts expectations by making Aang's teacher a delicate-looking (at first) young girl. Even the way the kids find Toph adds to the show's charm. In search of a teacher to help the Avatar save the world, they don't seek military support. Instead, they go to an Earth Kingdom wrestling match -- because that's where a kid would think to look.
Toph has a very strong personality and is not to be trifled with. Aang, Sokka and Katara had settled into such a familiar rhythm that Toph's arrival throws a much-needed wrench into things. Characters who spend every moment of their lives together are less relatable if they get along all the time. During their squabbling, Katara snidely remarks on how beautiful the stars are and that it's too bad Toph can't see them. Only in the context of bickering siblings could a character say something like that to a blind girl and not immediately become unlikable.
Portraying characters with disabilities is a tricky thing to do, depicting the reality of their disability without making it their entire identity. Avatar: The Last Airbender does well portraying Toph as the most powerful Earthbender in the series. She is so gifted that she invents Metalbending, which was previously believed to be impossible. Importantly, the Gaang doesn't treat her differently -- they only help her in situations that are life or death, and sensing vibrations with her feet is not an option.
Most crucially, Toph loves herself. She doesn't care that she's blind because she doesn't need to see, and has no need to care about superficial things like appearances. Formerly known as "Blind Bandit," she will use her blindness to her advantage. Whether it be to feign weakness when it's strategic or simply insult Sokka over his Appa drawings, it's just another tool to her.
Toph also brings some levity to the series when things start getting too serious. Aang, Katara, and Sokka have let the weight of saving the world age them a bit and are actually pretty mature for how young they are. Then there's Toph, who will blow a hole in the wall of a house that doesn't belong to them because why not. Though she is not purely comic relief, as she understands Aang needs to toughen up to save the world and that Katara is an enabler of Aang's softer side.
Avatar: The Last Airbender almost feels like two different shows before and after Toph joins Team Avatar. Confident, powerful and hilarious, she is the backbone of the show. A young, blind girl who's been sheltered by her overprotective parents, Toph's goal wasn't so much to save the world but to simply be herself. Though, helping to save the world along the way doesn't hurt.
