Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s creators secretly admitted years ago that Toph Beifong is the world’s best Earthbender. Early in Avatar‘s development, co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko knew they would eventually need an Earthbending teacher for Aang, which they originally envisioned as a buff teenage boy, not a blind young girl. But, over time, things changed and DiMartino and Konietzko, along with the other writers, producers, and animators, found their ideal Toph – and she was certainly formidable.
Toph made her first in-person appearance in Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, episode 6, “The Blind Bandit”, in which she was competing in an Earthbending competition and winning by a long shot. She was able to do this since she mastered the art by learning from badgermoles – the original Earthbenders – not sticking to the basic moves her family wanted. And Toph’s blindness never once hindered her abilities, for she learned other techniques, which she later imparted onto Aang, that enabled her to ‘see’ everything. However, despite the fact that she was a powerful Earthbender, the question remained: was she the most powerful in the world?
Up until Toph’s debut, Avatar fans thought Bumi was the most powerful Earthbender. Though he was powerful, which wasn’t surprising given he was a member of the White Lotus, Bumi wasn’t the best Earthbender – not because of his limitations but because of Toph’s superiority. And it turns out making Toph the world’s best Earthbender was the plan all along. In a brief note in Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Art of the Animated Series book, DiMartino and Konietzko admitted Toph was purposefully written to be the best Earthbender in the world. It was never a competition.
Furthermore, in developing Toph’s Earthbending style, DiMartino and Konietzko wanted something unique, a form of Earthbending that only she could do so it would be obvious that she was the best. This led them to adapting the Southern Praying Mantis style into the show, which they learned from Sifu Manuel Rodriguez. And much to their delight, that martial arts style was also believed to have been invented by a blind woman, thus bringing the whole story full circle.
Beyond Toph being written as the best Earthbender, she proved it time and time again throughout Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. After all, Toph discovered an entirely new subform of Earthbending that transformed the world: Metalbending. It’s rare that someone can come up with something on the fly like that, especially while being kidnapped. But if that wasn’t enough, Toph continually demonstrated her skills as an Earthbender while fighting the Fire Nation and other villains, and then later as the Chief of Police in Republic City.
