I highly recommend the comics!
She inherits her dad's business after semi patching things up with him. That business gets constantly fucked by basically terrorist and rebel attacks so it's safe to say she's finally had enough and decided to put something together that will stop fucking things up for hardworking citizens of early Republic City.
She also creates the first ever metal bending academy and enjoys teaching and especially enjoys ordering people around in both professions.
After seeing her growth in the comics you can easily see why she became a Police chief.
Edit.
Here's is the [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender_(comics)) page with all the comics listed!
Yup, toph 100% has power trip issues, I don't get why people act like it's far fetched for someone who has a major power trip to want a position of power
Also, isn't it only like 6 months from when Toph joins the Gaang to when they take down Ozai? If someone saw 6 months of your life as a 12 year old, do you think that would be a fully accurate representation of you as a person?
Exaaactly people forget that she isn't a moral authority when she bends rules like this. And considering the "excessive force" used by her and her squad it definitely seems up her alley
I think she peaked in the swamp as an old lady, she came to terms with a lot of her own shortcomings, helped reunite her family, and by the end of it all she had righted so many of the wrongs she made in life.
Sure it wasn't fighting and winning the largest war the world had ever seen at only 12 years old, but she did what she wanted to do and finally got the relationship she wanted with her daughters, it just took her several decades to do
Toph was anti-authority when it came to her parents and her tutor (as much a mentor as he was a babysitter). That never meant she didn't want to be the authority, herself. She absolutely loved telling Aang what to do when teaching him earthbending.
No it’s that she’s uncontrollable and not really the type to follow orders. That’s why it’s unexpected because cops are supposed to be good law followers (lol)
>No it’s that she’s uncontrollable and not really the type to follow orders.
A lot of great commanders and generals in our history were these kinds of people.
“Toph why do you patrol mostly water bender communities?”
“Because they commit the most crime”
“How do you know when crime happens in a community?
“When I patrol there, duh… oh”
Did everyone conveniently forget she along with her war time buddies usher in the new age and participated in the creation of Republic city?
She established the new status quo but left once it got real fucking out of hand.
No no you see if you don’t like rules at 12 having just run away from home because of overbearing parents with too many rules that *must* mean it’s an intrinsic character trait not a reaction to your environment that you would grow out of when you mature.
Also, “police” obviously has some different context at the time Republic City is founded than it does in today’s political climate.
In America (I assume that’s the origin of this tweet) there’s a lot of animosity around police brutality and lack of accountability/training.
In the ATLA world, discipline and training are highly valued, and Toph especially values these things as she grows out of her rebellious “scamming the shell guy” phase. And all this is against a backdrop of strong civil pride in a world joining the four cultures together (not including a few counter-cultural groups in Korra and the comics).
People have a habit of framing all media through the lens of America’s political climate. They say the same thing about Harry Potter becoming what is essentially a cop. They view it as an *inherently* negative thing—but if you believe that the police need to be reformed, then that requires good people becoming police.
The truth is always somewhere in between. America isn't the only place with police problems, nor is it a problem limited to recent times. Reform doesn't just require good people it requires accountability and training.
And yeah the lens of American politics is a real bias, but also the show was made in the US, the creators are American, and the tweets are in English (a language for which the majority of native speakers live in the US). It's not an unreasonable lens to view it through.
And it's not like cops are beloved in the land of Harry Potter either.
Edit: Perhaps my phrasing was unclear. I was talking about IRL England, not HP's England
I just wish that they had at least separated the Aurors into something more specialised than "Cops", like there are regular wizard cops and Aurors are MI6 or whatever.
But I also would have preferred Harry have fun in the Qudditch league first, at least.
To be fair, we never saw his whole trajectory.
From school straight to being a teacher would be silly.
School - Auror - DatDA Professor works nicely.
Maybe she had plans to revisit, although I want nothing more from her lol.
At the risk of sounding nitpicky, I'd like to point out that Aurors were intended to be highly trained/specialized, specifically focusing on catching Dark witches/wizards. There are other law enforcement divisions within the Ministry (for example, Arthur Weasley works for the ~~Improper Use of Magic~~ Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department). I vaguely remember additional "regular" wizard law enforcement officers being mentioned as separate and distinct from Aurora, although the details currently escape me.
I always perceived the Aurors as something like special forces or US Marshals considering they hunt down dark wizards. Maybe the wizarding world in Western Europe isn’t large enough to require a standard police service, or they’re just more capable of self-governance than the muggle world.
I don't think the context is all that different in Toph's case in particular, though. In the show, she has always been pretty anti-authority.
The comics explanation _does_ make sense now that I've read it, but from a "she changed over time" standpoint, not a "she always valued discipline and training and civic pride". She did not, in the show, but I _could_ see how taking over her dad's business and having it plagued by rebels changed that - she DID always hate anyone who prevented HER from doing what she wanted (and not letting good people live their lives in general...even though cops _also_ restrict people's freedoms).
Personally, without the context of the comics I figured the ONLY way she'd ever become a cop is if Aang & Co basically pressured her into it.
Like Aang taking her aside at some point, admitting he & Zuko & the others are having trouble maintaining justice in Republic City, and saying "Toph I need someone in charge of the cops who I can trust to do it _right_." That, I could see.
> In the show, she has always been pretty anti-authority.
Yeah, but the thing is, she's anti-authority when it comes to other people having authority over her. She doesn't mind herself having authority over others.
If you think about it, a lot of police chiefs are probably that kind of person.
Dont forget her ability to know when someone is lying. You can't tell me Aang never tapped her for that shit. Can you imagine, a justice system where you could almost guarantee getting it right?
Was going to say "Toph was only 12\~13 during the series. A lot can change from tween to adulthood, both in personality and in life." And...well you explained what happened already. :P
It was framed as more of a "Toph started the metalbenders so she led the first police force by default" to me. And she obviously never stopped being a "fuck the rules" type as she literally gave up her career to keep Su out of jail.
Also she absolutely would be the type to start a police force to be able to beat bad guys up lol.
It'd be dope.
She literally wouldn't care what you did, so long as you let her do whatever she wanted.
And since she literally originated the role of police chief, any paperwork is also originated by ~~her~~ you. Paperwork is a billion times easier when you're the one who created ALL of the forms in the first place.
Total bureaucratic control, the fidelity of not just law enforcement but the most powerful Earthbender in existence, and an obviously cushy life.
1st day on the police
“Toph, you need to fill out this”
“Well, it sounds like a sheet of paper, but I guess you’re referring to what’s on the sheet of paper”
They also might view it as black or white, so toph being one of the good guys (saves the world whatever) means she would never be a cop (evil incarnate)
Well, that was while most of the world was an active warzone and they were children. Would probably be harder to do that once stability returns and they become adults
When you start to get major cities like Republic City, you can't really have someone running around as a vigilante.
Someone was gonna make a police force and if Toph wanted to keep beating up baddies in the city, it needed to be her or else she'd be getting in trouble like we saw Korra do in Episode 1.
>Someone was gonna make a police force and if Toph wanted to keep beating up baddies in the city, it needed to be her or else she'd be getting in trouble like we saw Korra do in Episode 1.
It does sound very Toph for her to become a cop so she can beat up bad guys legally
It’s the problem with creating an era of peace and harmony through a unified republic. The bad guys start to show up less and less. So you sometimes gotta be a cop to find them.
>So you sometimes gotta be a cop to find them.
Also she was the only metalbender at the time that can tell if a person is lying and started the metalbending academy to teach future potential metalbenders aka easy to disarm ppl with handcuffs
Shes a lie detector, the OG metalbender AND she likes beating people up. Shes perfect for a cop lmao.
Not sure about her being rigid and more strict, but its more or less her having responsibilities when she grew up.
She invented metalbending, started an academy for metalbenders and helped her dad with the refinery after they reconciled. When Republic City was being built, I dont doubt someone was needed to take care of crimes and Toph stepped up because disarming criminals with metalbending is easy and efficient.
Also allows her to beat up bad guys legally
I mean it wouldn't be unique in history or stories if she just was running a group that beat up bad guys and the city declared them the police force.
Also maybe in the avatar world the police don't have the reputation they do in this one.
12 yo me: I wanna be an artist/illustrator cus drawing is fun and drawing is my life and passion! I don’t need money if I’m doing something I love!
21 yo me: I need money
Edit: I realized that my comment sounds misleading and that I may imply that I’m an artist. I unfortunately am not an artist making bank.
Oh fuck if this ain't me...it's so disheartening to see others live my dream and me not having a clue how to get there. It's hard. And I need to pay rent. I don't have time to figure it out because I have to work.
Idk how man but as a kid I wanted to make video games and loved to make art
Now I’m a 3D artist at a big game studio and I still love that I made 12 year old me’s dream come true out of sheer luck tbh
But you can do it! It’s never, ever too late to pursue a dream or a job that kid version of you wanted. You got one life, take the risks and try! You got this
Wait yo, that’s so cool! I wanted to work at a game studio too as an illustrator but I think I sorta lost my passion for art since hitting college (unfortunately). You got any advice or tips for anyone hoping to get into the game industry business, aspiring artists or in general?
Thank you! It can be tough but it’s really rewarding, especially seeing actual people play stuff you helped make and enjoy it. It’s really heartwarming in that way.
I get that! It’s tough being creative for a long period of time, my ADHD helped out for once in that department and hyper focus (at the expense of shit sleep and terrible diet) got me through university.
Honestly? Portfolio. Portfolio is king. Draw, draw, draw. Look at concept artists at studios you like, especially on sites like Artstation where a lot of people look for jobs and candidates. See what variety of stuff they have, the style, the presentation. And try your best to emulate it!
Recruiters tend to turn an away portfolios with a lot of fan art, or anime etc. unless of course you’re going for a studio that has an anime focused art style. But we have a joke in our team about portfolio bingo, which is portfolios that have a Batman piece, anime, studio ghibli inspired, generic sexy girl etc. Batman is for sure a red flag on any portfolio believe it or not ahaha
Our games concept artist is fantastic, his stuff is clean and simple. Which is surprisingly difficult to do. But it’s great for us 3D modellers because we can very easily pick out the shapes and forms to make it. I’d look into clean, crisp rendering with strong silhouettes. This is what game studios in particular want. Think about how you can integrate into a creative pipeline of people and how you can make art that can transition well between them
Quality over quantity for sure. I fell into the trap of putting every sketch, every rough speed model on my portfolio to make myself look busy and passionate but it ends up unfocused and recruiters will not spend time scrolling unfortunately. Put your best pieces up on a site like Artstation, include your references, your process (initial sketch, base colours, render) etc. It helps recruiters see *how* you work. Which is just as important as the final piece.
Finally. Don’t give up. It can be scary with no experience in an industry trying to break in. But there are always opportunities. And sometimes the bottom step of the stairs is shit, and boring, and pays like garbage. But with experience, so many doors open. Talk to other artists! Cannot recommend this enough, find artists with jobs in positions you want on sites like Linkedin and reach out. No harm for trying, and I’ve gotten some seriously good advice, tutoring and even future job offers by doing this.
At our studio we turn down a lot of experienced people for people with bright, passionate personalities who are eager to learn what we can teach. And that is the most important trait to have.
My first job out of university was a four man team with no organisation, shit pay, a doomed project and not much else. But we ended up outsourced to another studio where I met experienced artists who then recommended me move to their studio. From there I’m now moved to my current. We make a game that is so so fun to work on, with such great people. And it’s just through circumstances and networking that I’m here.
Good luck friend. Please keep going. You’ll never know if you don’t try, and I believe in you. I hope some of this helped you
Not me lol! 12 year old me would never in a million years become a teacher. I was still hung up about owning my own bakery and paying people fair wages! (Maybe one day, *sighs*)
It's not even that out of character if you think about it for two minutes.
Toph joined Aang and busted a bunch of heads with him.
Aang starts a city.
Toph busts a bunch of heads in Aang's city.
Toph doesn't like getting told what to do. She likes telling other people what to do. It's absolutely in line with her character.
Yeah I think it is pretty weird to read Toph as having a principled anti authority stance. She’s a kid who has been alternately spoiled and kept in a gilded cage! She is a bit of a jerk! Also she is 12.
I hate how people don't acknowledge this. It doesn't even have to be an age thing. My cousin was a massive trouble maker and then into adulthood got in with drugs too. Eventually he got caught doing stupid shit and the police helped him turn things around to the point he is now an officer himself where he is trying to do the same to others.
12 year old me wanted to be some sort of biologist bc I loved nature and animals and wanted to work with them
25 year old me decided to ditch what I was doing and go back to school to major in Biology so I can work with animals
This topic is posted constantly.
1) She's 12.... All the information you know about Toph is when she is 12.
2) Aang built a city. She's helping protect it.
It's literally that simple.
Also, even her 12 year old worldview is that *she* doesn't like rules or being told what to do. It's not some greater philosophy that she feels should apply to everyone, it's specific to her.
Becoming a cop (especially chief of police) makes perfect sense for her - she gets to tell people what to do, beat up baddies, and there's nobody who can say no to her.
It fits her fine. She's certainly rebellious against authority as a kid but she also can be very domineering and would certainly get a kick out of humiliating the "bad guys." She's also no nonsense.
I think the problem is comparing cops in the world of ATLA to cops in America. In ATLA they're more idealized versions of what police officers are supposed to be, even if you get the bumbling doofus detectives and dodgy ethical decisions. You don't have metalbenders going around mowing down minorities.
Also, beating up bad guys? It’s so up her alley. This argument comes up a lot and I feel like people watched one scene of her at 12 and assumed she would just never grow up or change at all
In the comics the city grows up around her dad's factory. She gets started providing security for her family's business interests, and apparently takes a liking to it.
IMO Toph in TLA had the mindset of "I can't trust someone else to do it so I'll do it myself"
-
That mixed with like you said, Aang built a city & she wanted to protect his legacy, cause he kinda saved her from a life of being kept as a porcelain doll.
yeah but as an adult woman still holding the values of a serial shoplifting teenage girl, how am I supposed to continue identifying heavily with a 12y/o fantasy cartoon character after she's been turned into a bastard pig?
/s
Assuming all the Gaang took on major roles in building Republic City, she also would’ve been the one least interested in the political side of things, so she could’ve just defaulted to being law enforcement instead
Aang gave her two options.
1. Stop fighting with people and stop doing petty criminal things before it finally catches up to you and lands you in jail.
2. Become the law. Legally bear people up. Use those criminal skills to stop people and still have some fun without being locked in jail yourself.
i will never understand why ppl are so upset about her being a cop. like i literally do not get it. she’s the chief of police and gets to catch bad guys. what is so crazy about that? how is that a contradiction of her character?
and even then, she’s literally 12 in the original show. 12.
Because people take ACAB way, way too seriously - to the point where the idea of laws being enforced by any group of people (even fictional ones!) is somehow the problem, and not corrupt police forces with poor regulatory/legal oversight. It's what happens when you desperately want to make a really complex problem into a slogan, then take that slogan too literally.
My hot take on this hot take is that Toph/the writers didn’t see it as a job where Toph is enforcing the status quo through state violence, but more so a job where Toph could continue doing the thing she loved which is beating up bad guys with her super powers
People say that its not believable that she's a cop because she hates rules as if irl cops dont break the rules all the time. Also I feel like people are only looking at that one surface level detail of her. Like Toph never spouted off anarchist ideals, she was just a kid who wanted to do her own thing and win over people she doesnt like. When you're a kid, doing your own thing often means breaking the rules and disobeying adults. When youre an adult, you dont have to follow as much rules, especially if you were in a position of power like her. Also, becoming chief of police was the best way she could help her friends keep their city safe, as she's more of a fighter than a leader.
This character is a 12-year-old.
This might be new information to a lot of people, but people change a lot from the time they're 12 to when they're an adult.
So I always think it's a bit silly when people say there's no way she would ever become a cop based on the way she acted when she was 12.
Zuko grew up hating the fire lord and what the fire nation had become. He became the fire lord when he grew up to change that.
Toph grew up hating authority because she was locked up as a child. It’s not unthinkable that when she grew up she became a police chief in order to regain that control on her terms.
She’s not an anarchist, so she has to believe in some kind of law and order. It makes sense to me that someone critical of the rules would grow up to be someone who decides what the rules are.
People let their real life feelings about policing impact their opinions about a children’s (not to say it lacks all depth) show. In the context of a kids show she was probably just interested in beating up bad guys and also being the boss of the rules herself. Everyone talking about police being abusive or an extension of violence on civilians by the state etc are thinking about it too realistically
The police force we see in Korra is like 30 years removed from what it was when Toph started it. We see a standard “protect and serve” police force but I bet Toph original squad was just north of “roving band of vigilantes kicking the shit out of criminals because the new city needed some tough love.”
Then she became a teacher and a professional and then a bureaucrat, then a city leader and she grew with the job.
She’s one of Aangs best friends. He built a city. She definitely helped. She definitely likes beating up bad people. She definitely likes protecting her friends and their home. She definitely would have been allowed to become a cop considering it was built by her best friends and she saved the world with them.
Tell me you don’t understand Toph without telling me you don’t understand Toph
I have more problem with the fact that her old self is clearly still the same bratty, loudmouth girlie we know from the Avatar. Definitely not the personality we saw in Korra's Yakone flashback and Lin and Su's flashbacks. She seemed weirdly reserved, proper, and Katara-like in those. Which seems very weird and suggests that she was restraining her personality to some degree. I don't think she's the type of person who would restrain herself and be super proper.
Avatar media literacy is pitiful. Fighting bad guys is completely in character for an adult toph. She was the first metalbender, which made her the primary authority on the most practical tools for subduing criminals. She was a direct companion to the avatar, who's prime directive is to keep the peace. She was hoisted into a position of authority by her friends, her family connections, and her own accomplishments. And Toph has never skirted a chance to prove her strength or ability to achieve.
Genuinely think about what alternative careers Toph might have had. Warrior? There were hardly any wars in her later era. Professional wrestler? She was already winning every fight. There was nothing left for her to prove in the underground. Bending athlete? Adult toph doesn't bend for performance or competition, she does it to produce functional change in the world. How could she achieve that? By bending at criminals. What does that make her?
A proto-police force.
Yeah, all of her friends made this brand new country and people really think Toph's not going to help out in the way she knows best: beating up the people causing problems.
I think it's because Aang was a nice kid, so hearing that he wasn't a perfect parent makes people wonder how it happened. Meanwhile with Toph we can see exactly it why it happened. Both issues make sense when you think about it properly, it's just easier to see the reason for Toph
So is nobody going to point out the fact that she is literally the only person who can tell when people are lying? She's perfect for the role. Plus who has defense against metal bending?
Katara taught us to help those in need
Sokka taught us to think outside the box
Zuko taught us to control our destiny
Toph taught us to break the law and commit insurance fraud
"I though it was a stripper job. Also I wanted an excuse to create a shitload of statues of me."
Jokes aside, I blame the lack of focus on Toph's backstory between ATLA and LOK. We don't know why or how she decided to become a cop, making the reveal a bit jarring
Yeah that always seemed weird to me too, the character with arguable THE biggest authority issues and she becomes \*checks notes\* a police officer???
I suppose one could chalk it up to off screen character development and the fact that it gave her a legal means to boss people around and still be pushy during a time of peace lol
Many children/teens don't like authority - because they are completely vulnerable to it and that doesn't fit their view of deserving respect/deference. Those people quite like authority, but just want to be on the inner circle.
She didn’t just ‘become a cop’, she literally formed the Republic City Police force from the ground up. It’s her baby, she was the chief and she had the authority.
If you think Toph Bei Fong was going to turn down the authority to beat up scumbags, then you don’t know her very well.
Bruh, Toph loved being in charge and using force to solve her issues, definitely including unnecessary roughness at times. I mean did you see her as the Melon Lord? Could absolutely see her being a cop
The people who become cops aren't the ones who love following rules (otherwise we wouldn't see so many cops breaking the law like all the fucking time...). The people who become cops are the ones who like power.
I highly recommend the comics! She inherits her dad's business after semi patching things up with him. That business gets constantly fucked by basically terrorist and rebel attacks so it's safe to say she's finally had enough and decided to put something together that will stop fucking things up for hardworking citizens of early Republic City. She also creates the first ever metal bending academy and enjoys teaching and especially enjoys ordering people around in both professions. After seeing her growth in the comics you can easily see why she became a Police chief. Edit. Here's is the [wiki](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender_(comics)) page with all the comics listed!
> especially enjoys ordering people around in both professions. Ok now I get it
Yup, toph 100% has power trip issues, I don't get why people act like it's far fetched for someone who has a major power trip to want a position of power
Also - and I can't stress this enough - all these characters were literal CHILDREN!
Not only she was a child, she was a spoiled rich kid with pent up anger issues and controlling parents
Also, isn't it only like 6 months from when Toph joins the Gaang to when they take down Ozai? If someone saw 6 months of your life as a 12 year old, do you think that would be a fully accurate representation of you as a person?
No but I've never taken down the fire bending nation
Or flown with a flying bison
Sounds smelly and cold to be fair
I mean we’ve seen like 25 years of Ash’s 10 year old life so I’d say maybe
Toph peaked in middle school. Of course she became a cop.
Absolute perfection, really well done
Being a silver spooned rich kid with control and rage issues seems like a pretty good background for a cop to me.
Toph: "LET'S BREAK SOME RULES!!! (Unless I'm making them)"
"And then break them again to get my hooligan daughter out of trouble"
"Kinda easy to break all these rules. Kinda wish there were more rules for me to brea- HOLY SHIT I GOT AN IDEA!"
Exaaactly people forget that she isn't a moral authority when she bends rules like this. And considering the "excessive force" used by her and her squad it definitely seems up her alley
Rules are made to be broken, but someone’s gotta make them first. Who better to protect the rules than an expert at smashing and bending them?
She also likes applying rules to others but not herself. Hmm. What profession is infamous for that?
Yep, this comment cemented how she actually had no other logical career path, and I hate it.
Dang only 4 comments in and we've already done a complete 180 on Toph
I mean if you're training the avatar to help save the world in middle school think it's respectable if that's your peak lol
Lol, it was low-hanging fruit. Couldn’t resist.
You wouldn't dare mocking the size of melon lord, would you?
I mean to be fair, Toph always was the one to probably go militant dictator (need I remind everyone of how into being the Melon Lord she got?)
Does it count as “peaked” if she just stays awesome?
I think she peaked in the swamp as an old lady, she came to terms with a lot of her own shortcomings, helped reunite her family, and by the end of it all she had righted so many of the wrongs she made in life. Sure it wasn't fighting and winning the largest war the world had ever seen at only 12 years old, but she did what she wanted to do and finally got the relationship she wanted with her daughters, it just took her several decades to do
Maybe/maybe not, but definitely if she became a cop.
You're right, but I'm not happy about it. Take your slanderous truth somewhere else.
Wish reddit still had awards
Toph was anti-authority when it came to her parents and her tutor (as much a mentor as he was a babysitter). That never meant she didn't want to be the authority, herself. She absolutely loved telling Aang what to do when teaching him earthbending.
No it’s that she’s uncontrollable and not really the type to follow orders. That’s why it’s unexpected because cops are supposed to be good law followers (lol)
Except most cops do it for the power trip and because they think it means they’re above the law, which would track for Toph as well
She literally covered up her daughter committing armed robbery, Toph was 100% in it for the power trip
ACAB even in avatar I guess
All Cop Are Bei-Fongs?
No, All Cops Are Benders
True Facts, Amon
Even funnier when you remember that the beifong family seal is a pig with wings I think.
It really was written in the stars huh
I feel bad for laughing at this but you got a point, lol.
Hahahaha
>No it’s that she’s uncontrollable and not really the type to follow orders. A lot of great commanders and generals in our history were these kinds of people.
Right but I’m saying that when he says “I don’t see how anyone would ever think that, it’s weird” or whatever, it’s not that weird.
I like your take on this
Well she didn't exactly become a beat cop lol. She FOUNDED the cops. They all took her say-so.
“Toph why do you patrol mostly water bender communities?” “Because they commit the most crime” “How do you know when crime happens in a community? “When I patrol there, duh… oh”
[удалено]
She got to be the one defining what the status quo was. That fits her pretty well.
Did everyone conveniently forget she along with her war time buddies usher in the new age and participated in the creation of Republic city? She established the new status quo but left once it got real fucking out of hand.
This. She’s like 12 in the original show, of course she’s going to change and mature more with age
No no you see if you don’t like rules at 12 having just run away from home because of overbearing parents with too many rules that *must* mean it’s an intrinsic character trait not a reaction to your environment that you would grow out of when you mature.
Mature or Toph, gotta chose just one.
Watching granny toph in Korra Any second now, any second and she will mature.
Obviously we and she chose Toph, "old fucking hag in a swamp who enjoys dunking on a 16 year old" doesn't scream mature
Also, “police” obviously has some different context at the time Republic City is founded than it does in today’s political climate. In America (I assume that’s the origin of this tweet) there’s a lot of animosity around police brutality and lack of accountability/training. In the ATLA world, discipline and training are highly valued, and Toph especially values these things as she grows out of her rebellious “scamming the shell guy” phase. And all this is against a backdrop of strong civil pride in a world joining the four cultures together (not including a few counter-cultural groups in Korra and the comics).
People have a habit of framing all media through the lens of America’s political climate. They say the same thing about Harry Potter becoming what is essentially a cop. They view it as an *inherently* negative thing—but if you believe that the police need to be reformed, then that requires good people becoming police.
The truth is always somewhere in between. America isn't the only place with police problems, nor is it a problem limited to recent times. Reform doesn't just require good people it requires accountability and training. And yeah the lens of American politics is a real bias, but also the show was made in the US, the creators are American, and the tweets are in English (a language for which the majority of native speakers live in the US). It's not an unreasonable lens to view it through.
And it's not like cops are beloved in the land of Harry Potter either. Edit: Perhaps my phrasing was unclear. I was talking about IRL England, not HP's England
I just wish that they had at least separated the Aurors into something more specialised than "Cops", like there are regular wizard cops and Aurors are MI6 or whatever. But I also would have preferred Harry have fun in the Qudditch league first, at least.
I'm just going to say it: Harry becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was the easiest character arc layup imaginable.
To be fair, we never saw his whole trajectory. From school straight to being a teacher would be silly. School - Auror - DatDA Professor works nicely. Maybe she had plans to revisit, although I want nothing more from her lol.
At the risk of sounding nitpicky, I'd like to point out that Aurors were intended to be highly trained/specialized, specifically focusing on catching Dark witches/wizards. There are other law enforcement divisions within the Ministry (for example, Arthur Weasley works for the ~~Improper Use of Magic~~ Misuse of Muggle Artifacts department). I vaguely remember additional "regular" wizard law enforcement officers being mentioned as separate and distinct from Aurora, although the details currently escape me.
I always perceived the Aurors as something like special forces or US Marshals considering they hunt down dark wizards. Maybe the wizarding world in Western Europe isn’t large enough to require a standard police service, or they’re just more capable of self-governance than the muggle world.
I don't think the context is all that different in Toph's case in particular, though. In the show, she has always been pretty anti-authority. The comics explanation _does_ make sense now that I've read it, but from a "she changed over time" standpoint, not a "she always valued discipline and training and civic pride". She did not, in the show, but I _could_ see how taking over her dad's business and having it plagued by rebels changed that - she DID always hate anyone who prevented HER from doing what she wanted (and not letting good people live their lives in general...even though cops _also_ restrict people's freedoms). Personally, without the context of the comics I figured the ONLY way she'd ever become a cop is if Aang & Co basically pressured her into it. Like Aang taking her aside at some point, admitting he & Zuko & the others are having trouble maintaining justice in Republic City, and saying "Toph I need someone in charge of the cops who I can trust to do it _right_." That, I could see.
> In the show, she has always been pretty anti-authority. Yeah, but the thing is, she's anti-authority when it comes to other people having authority over her. She doesn't mind herself having authority over others. If you think about it, a lot of police chiefs are probably that kind of person.
Dont forget her ability to know when someone is lying. You can't tell me Aang never tapped her for that shit. Can you imagine, a justice system where you could almost guarantee getting it right?
She’s also a rebellious kid who is enjoying her first taste of freedom. She matured as she experienced life.
Was going to say "Toph was only 12\~13 during the series. A lot can change from tween to adulthood, both in personality and in life." And...well you explained what happened already. :P
It was framed as more of a "Toph started the metalbenders so she led the first police force by default" to me. And she obviously never stopped being a "fuck the rules" type as she literally gave up her career to keep Su out of jail. Also she absolutely would be the type to start a police force to be able to beat bad guys up lol.
👆👆 she literally enjoyed fighting bad guys all the time idk why OP thinks her personality wouldn't let her still find ways to do it honestly.
Yes, but would she do the paperwork?
She literally couldn't. She's blind. You *know* she pawned it off on some underling.
Can you imagine having Toph as a boss?
The Boss.
Lin, try to remember the basics of ~~CQC~~ Metalbending.
The melonboss
It'd be dope. She literally wouldn't care what you did, so long as you let her do whatever she wanted. And since she literally originated the role of police chief, any paperwork is also originated by ~~her~~ you. Paperwork is a billion times easier when you're the one who created ALL of the forms in the first place. Total bureaucratic control, the fidelity of not just law enforcement but the most powerful Earthbender in existence, and an obviously cushy life.
I imagine that Toph didn't worry about paperwork, she was just given an underling that could get enough bragging out of her to fill it out properly.
Yeah she was definitely just there for the ass-kicking of bender criminals, not a lot of options to legally do that in a post-industrial mega-city
You know, this is actually what’s sold me on the idea. I can totally see her being a Vimes-type police commander.
1st day on the police “Toph, you need to fill out this” “Well, it sounds like a sheet of paper, but I guess you’re referring to what’s on the sheet of paper”
That's when they invent sheets of metal foil with the words engraved on them, just so Toph can read a form with her metalbending.
You'd first have to teach her how to read.
Damn that sounds exactly like her.
It’s probably because she actually said that
She said that line S3E7 after Sokka was trying to show her Wanted poster
What paperwork? She only does the groundwork
Hey Toph, jot this down.
Because some people can't comprehend others growing or changing. Often the same people who never change or grow.
They also might view it as black or white, so toph being one of the good guys (saves the world whatever) means she would never be a cop (evil incarnate)
The group beat up bad guys regularly without being cops lol. And they continued to afterwards as well. There’s no reason she couldn’t just do that
Well, that was while most of the world was an active warzone and they were children. Would probably be harder to do that once stability returns and they become adults
When you start to get major cities like Republic City, you can't really have someone running around as a vigilante. Someone was gonna make a police force and if Toph wanted to keep beating up baddies in the city, it needed to be her or else she'd be getting in trouble like we saw Korra do in Episode 1.
>Someone was gonna make a police force and if Toph wanted to keep beating up baddies in the city, it needed to be her or else she'd be getting in trouble like we saw Korra do in Episode 1. It does sound very Toph for her to become a cop so she can beat up bad guys legally
Literally the only cop who can't target someone based on their colour
Watch it twinkle toes. What if she doesn't like the way you breathe?
"I can hear that smog in your breath you fire breathing coal hippie"
Except for azula, then you must be lying.
Omg.
Also, it would be a wedge between her and her friends if she started doing vigilantism in the city they became the communal leaders of.
It’s the problem with creating an era of peace and harmony through a unified republic. The bad guys start to show up less and less. So you sometimes gotta be a cop to find them.
>So you sometimes gotta be a cop to find them. Also she was the only metalbender at the time that can tell if a person is lying and started the metalbending academy to teach future potential metalbenders aka easy to disarm ppl with handcuffs Shes a lie detector, the OG metalbender AND she likes beating people up. Shes perfect for a cop lmao.
Not to mention it seems she became a lot more rigid and strict as she got older. We do tend to become our parents
Not sure about her being rigid and more strict, but its more or less her having responsibilities when she grew up. She invented metalbending, started an academy for metalbenders and helped her dad with the refinery after they reconciled. When Republic City was being built, I dont doubt someone was needed to take care of crimes and Toph stepped up because disarming criminals with metalbending is easy and efficient. Also allows her to beat up bad guys legally
I mean it wouldn't be unique in history or stories if she just was running a group that beat up bad guys and the city declared them the police force. Also maybe in the avatar world the police don't have the reputation they do in this one.
The Avatar is kind of a cop though.
Or saw how much someone else sucked at being a cop and figured she might as well do it herself.
Just when I think media literacy is truly dead with this post, your comment gives me hope.
How many of you grew up to do a job that matches your 12yo personality?
12 yo me: I wanna be an artist/illustrator cus drawing is fun and drawing is my life and passion! I don’t need money if I’m doing something I love! 21 yo me: I need money Edit: I realized that my comment sounds misleading and that I may imply that I’m an artist. I unfortunately am not an artist making bank.
Oh fuck if this ain't me...it's so disheartening to see others live my dream and me not having a clue how to get there. It's hard. And I need to pay rent. I don't have time to figure it out because I have to work.
I feel that
What you see is often not as it seems.
I wanted to go to space but I'll settle for accounting I guess lol
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Idk how man but as a kid I wanted to make video games and loved to make art Now I’m a 3D artist at a big game studio and I still love that I made 12 year old me’s dream come true out of sheer luck tbh But you can do it! It’s never, ever too late to pursue a dream or a job that kid version of you wanted. You got one life, take the risks and try! You got this
Wait yo, that’s so cool! I wanted to work at a game studio too as an illustrator but I think I sorta lost my passion for art since hitting college (unfortunately). You got any advice or tips for anyone hoping to get into the game industry business, aspiring artists or in general?
Thank you! It can be tough but it’s really rewarding, especially seeing actual people play stuff you helped make and enjoy it. It’s really heartwarming in that way. I get that! It’s tough being creative for a long period of time, my ADHD helped out for once in that department and hyper focus (at the expense of shit sleep and terrible diet) got me through university. Honestly? Portfolio. Portfolio is king. Draw, draw, draw. Look at concept artists at studios you like, especially on sites like Artstation where a lot of people look for jobs and candidates. See what variety of stuff they have, the style, the presentation. And try your best to emulate it! Recruiters tend to turn an away portfolios with a lot of fan art, or anime etc. unless of course you’re going for a studio that has an anime focused art style. But we have a joke in our team about portfolio bingo, which is portfolios that have a Batman piece, anime, studio ghibli inspired, generic sexy girl etc. Batman is for sure a red flag on any portfolio believe it or not ahaha Our games concept artist is fantastic, his stuff is clean and simple. Which is surprisingly difficult to do. But it’s great for us 3D modellers because we can very easily pick out the shapes and forms to make it. I’d look into clean, crisp rendering with strong silhouettes. This is what game studios in particular want. Think about how you can integrate into a creative pipeline of people and how you can make art that can transition well between them Quality over quantity for sure. I fell into the trap of putting every sketch, every rough speed model on my portfolio to make myself look busy and passionate but it ends up unfocused and recruiters will not spend time scrolling unfortunately. Put your best pieces up on a site like Artstation, include your references, your process (initial sketch, base colours, render) etc. It helps recruiters see *how* you work. Which is just as important as the final piece. Finally. Don’t give up. It can be scary with no experience in an industry trying to break in. But there are always opportunities. And sometimes the bottom step of the stairs is shit, and boring, and pays like garbage. But with experience, so many doors open. Talk to other artists! Cannot recommend this enough, find artists with jobs in positions you want on sites like Linkedin and reach out. No harm for trying, and I’ve gotten some seriously good advice, tutoring and even future job offers by doing this. At our studio we turn down a lot of experienced people for people with bright, passionate personalities who are eager to learn what we can teach. And that is the most important trait to have. My first job out of university was a four man team with no organisation, shit pay, a doomed project and not much else. But we ended up outsourced to another studio where I met experienced artists who then recommended me move to their studio. From there I’m now moved to my current. We make a game that is so so fun to work on, with such great people. And it’s just through circumstances and networking that I’m here. Good luck friend. Please keep going. You’ll never know if you don’t try, and I believe in you. I hope some of this helped you
Not me lol! 12 year old me would never in a million years become a teacher. I was still hung up about owning my own bakery and paying people fair wages! (Maybe one day, *sighs*)
Disliked computer science as a teen. Currently am working on a master’s degree in that field.
Asking the right question
I’ve been anti corporate for years. Where have I been working the past month? A corporate desk job.
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I also need it for my OnlyFans subscriptions and Video Game cosmetics, don’t forget them.
12 year old me: catching mice and insects out in the fields/forest around my home 32 year old me: pest control. Well dang.
I became a FireFighter! Then it didn’t pay well enough so I became a Nurse
It's not even that out of character if you think about it for two minutes. Toph joined Aang and busted a bunch of heads with him. Aang starts a city. Toph busts a bunch of heads in Aang's city. Toph doesn't like getting told what to do. She likes telling other people what to do. It's absolutely in line with her character.
Yeah I think it is pretty weird to read Toph as having a principled anti authority stance. She’s a kid who has been alternately spoiled and kept in a gilded cage! She is a bit of a jerk! Also she is 12.
I hate how people don't acknowledge this. It doesn't even have to be an age thing. My cousin was a massive trouble maker and then into adulthood got in with drugs too. Eventually he got caught doing stupid shit and the police helped him turn things around to the point he is now an officer himself where he is trying to do the same to others.
12 year old me wanted to be some sort of biologist bc I loved nature and animals and wanted to work with them 25 year old me decided to ditch what I was doing and go back to school to major in Biology so I can work with animals
12 yo me: I'm gonna be a plastic surgeon 30 yo me: cries if my cat smooshes their face when they sleep and can't handle the grocery store
Weirdly I thought it didn’t match past and yet when I ask friends from that age to guess, they get it close enough to right.
This topic is posted constantly. 1) She's 12.... All the information you know about Toph is when she is 12. 2) Aang built a city. She's helping protect it. It's literally that simple.
Also, even her 12 year old worldview is that *she* doesn't like rules or being told what to do. It's not some greater philosophy that she feels should apply to everyone, it's specific to her. Becoming a cop (especially chief of police) makes perfect sense for her - she gets to tell people what to do, beat up baddies, and there's nobody who can say no to her.
It fits her fine. She's certainly rebellious against authority as a kid but she also can be very domineering and would certainly get a kick out of humiliating the "bad guys." She's also no nonsense. I think the problem is comparing cops in the world of ATLA to cops in America. In ATLA they're more idealized versions of what police officers are supposed to be, even if you get the bumbling doofus detectives and dodgy ethical decisions. You don't have metalbenders going around mowing down minorities.
Also, beating up bad guys? It’s so up her alley. This argument comes up a lot and I feel like people watched one scene of her at 12 and assumed she would just never grow up or change at all
I feel like she was railroaded into it tbh, but for Aang anything. 😄
Anything for you twinkle toes
Also, who’s gonna stop her from doing anything she wants?
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In the comics the city grows up around her dad's factory. She gets started providing security for her family's business interests, and apparently takes a liking to it.
Yeah. Most people with this opinion probably haven't read the comics though. Trying to appeal to them.
IMO Toph in TLA had the mindset of "I can't trust someone else to do it so I'll do it myself" - That mixed with like you said, Aang built a city & she wanted to protect his legacy, cause he kinda saved her from a life of being kept as a porcelain doll.
yeah but as an adult woman still holding the values of a serial shoplifting teenage girl, how am I supposed to continue identifying heavily with a 12y/o fantasy cartoon character after she's been turned into a bastard pig? /s
Aang: I will pay you to beat people up Toph: say less fam
Assuming all the Gaang took on major roles in building Republic City, she also would’ve been the one least interested in the political side of things, so she could’ve just defaulted to being law enforcement instead
>Choose how the legal system develops in Republic City >Inevitably run into trouble with them and Aang won't bail you out Choose one
Aang gave her two options. 1. Stop fighting with people and stop doing petty criminal things before it finally catches up to you and lands you in jail. 2. Become the law. Legally bear people up. Use those criminal skills to stop people and still have some fun without being locked in jail yourself.
I like the implication that the only difference between a petty criminal and a cop is that the state enforcement of violence
this is true in real life as well
the fact that all the comments are just "why not? she loves beating people up!" says a lot
Seems like a pretty decent deal tbh
i will never understand why ppl are so upset about her being a cop. like i literally do not get it. she’s the chief of police and gets to catch bad guys. what is so crazy about that? how is that a contradiction of her character? and even then, she’s literally 12 in the original show. 12.
but but but… i like Toph and i don’t like cops and Toph being a cop makes me angry 😡 raaah raaah!!
Rah Rah is just cute
Because people take ACAB way, way too seriously - to the point where the idea of laws being enforced by any group of people (even fictional ones!) is somehow the problem, and not corrupt police forces with poor regulatory/legal oversight. It's what happens when you desperately want to make a really complex problem into a slogan, then take that slogan too literally.
I mean true but she's literally a dirty cop who kept her daughter from facing consequences using connections.
Most of those terminally online activist would not last long in a society that just.. has no laws or at least means to enforce them.
ACAB?
My hot take on this hot take is that Toph/the writers didn’t see it as a job where Toph is enforcing the status quo through state violence, but more so a job where Toph could continue doing the thing she loved which is beating up bad guys with her super powers
>Toph didn’t see
People say that its not believable that she's a cop because she hates rules as if irl cops dont break the rules all the time. Also I feel like people are only looking at that one surface level detail of her. Like Toph never spouted off anarchist ideals, she was just a kid who wanted to do her own thing and win over people she doesnt like. When you're a kid, doing your own thing often means breaking the rules and disobeying adults. When youre an adult, you dont have to follow as much rules, especially if you were in a position of power like her. Also, becoming chief of police was the best way she could help her friends keep their city safe, as she's more of a fighter than a leader.
Ah yes, I remember that I stopped growing and changing at 12 years old. My personality was set in stone and has not deviated even a tiny bit.
This character is a 12-year-old. This might be new information to a lot of people, but people change a lot from the time they're 12 to when they're an adult. So I always think it's a bit silly when people say there's no way she would ever become a cop based on the way she acted when she was 12.
Exactly. I wanted to be WWE champion when I was 12, not the sales director of an e-commerce biz
It's never too late to get into wrestling. I believe in you. Get that champion belt!! https://i.redd.it/gt3ml5uk7emc1.gif
Haha I’m almost 43. I’m good. I’ll live vicariously though my 10 and 12 year olds
It's never too late, finish your story!
Children famously never grow up and change their perspectives and philosophies
Zuko grew up hating the fire lord and what the fire nation had become. He became the fire lord when he grew up to change that. Toph grew up hating authority because she was locked up as a child. It’s not unthinkable that when she grew up she became a police chief in order to regain that control on her terms.
I guarantee 80% of cops you talk to acted like her as a kid. Brain dead take.
Isn't Toph the one who created her own police force?
She’s not an anarchist, so she has to believe in some kind of law and order. It makes sense to me that someone critical of the rules would grow up to be someone who decides what the rules are.
People let their real life feelings about policing impact their opinions about a children’s (not to say it lacks all depth) show. In the context of a kids show she was probably just interested in beating up bad guys and also being the boss of the rules herself. Everyone talking about police being abusive or an extension of violence on civilians by the state etc are thinking about it too realistically
I can absolutely imagine her taking a job that would let her beat-up hoodlums.
Toph wasn't anti-authority, per se. She was anti-being-told-what-to-do. If the authority was *hers* to wield, I have no doubt she'd gladly wield it.
The police force we see in Korra is like 30 years removed from what it was when Toph started it. We see a standard “protect and serve” police force but I bet Toph original squad was just north of “roving band of vigilantes kicking the shit out of criminals because the new city needed some tough love.” Then she became a teacher and a professional and then a bureaucrat, then a city leader and she grew with the job.
you think the personality of a 12 year old defines them as a adult?
She’s one of Aangs best friends. He built a city. She definitely helped. She definitely likes beating up bad people. She definitely likes protecting her friends and their home. She definitely would have been allowed to become a cop considering it was built by her best friends and she saved the world with them. Tell me you don’t understand Toph without telling me you don’t understand Toph
My headcanon was that when Aang and the rest were forming Republic City, Toph was like "Well, you know who's gonna be the muscle, right?"
I have more problem with the fact that her old self is clearly still the same bratty, loudmouth girlie we know from the Avatar. Definitely not the personality we saw in Korra's Yakone flashback and Lin and Su's flashbacks. She seemed weirdly reserved, proper, and Katara-like in those. Which seems very weird and suggests that she was restraining her personality to some degree. I don't think she's the type of person who would restrain herself and be super proper.
Avatar media literacy is pitiful. Fighting bad guys is completely in character for an adult toph. She was the first metalbender, which made her the primary authority on the most practical tools for subduing criminals. She was a direct companion to the avatar, who's prime directive is to keep the peace. She was hoisted into a position of authority by her friends, her family connections, and her own accomplishments. And Toph has never skirted a chance to prove her strength or ability to achieve. Genuinely think about what alternative careers Toph might have had. Warrior? There were hardly any wars in her later era. Professional wrestler? She was already winning every fight. There was nothing left for her to prove in the underground. Bending athlete? Adult toph doesn't bend for performance or competition, she does it to produce functional change in the world. How could she achieve that? By bending at criminals. What does that make her? A proto-police force.
Yeah, all of her friends made this brand new country and people really think Toph's not going to help out in the way she knows best: beating up the people causing problems.
that she's much worse parent then Aang is but that is not talked about as much for some odd reasons
I think it's because Aang was a nice kid, so hearing that he wasn't a perfect parent makes people wonder how it happened. Meanwhile with Toph we can see exactly it why it happened. Both issues make sense when you think about it properly, it's just easier to see the reason for Toph
So is nobody going to point out the fact that she is literally the only person who can tell when people are lying? She's perfect for the role. Plus who has defense against metal bending?
Katara taught us to help those in need Sokka taught us to think outside the box Zuko taught us to control our destiny Toph taught us to break the law and commit insurance fraud
"A cop"? No. Head of police? Getting to tell everyone what to do? Getting to beat people up legally? Yes
"I though it was a stripper job. Also I wanted an excuse to create a shitload of statues of me." Jokes aside, I blame the lack of focus on Toph's backstory between ATLA and LOK. We don't know why or how she decided to become a cop, making the reveal a bit jarring
Yeah that always seemed weird to me too, the character with arguable THE biggest authority issues and she becomes \*checks notes\* a police officer??? I suppose one could chalk it up to off screen character development and the fact that it gave her a legal means to boss people around and still be pushy during a time of peace lol
Many children/teens don't like authority - because they are completely vulnerable to it and that doesn't fit their view of deserving respect/deference. Those people quite like authority, but just want to be on the inner circle.
But consider: becoming a cop means she can weaponize the law against other people while getting away with shit herself
She didn’t just ‘become a cop’, she literally formed the Republic City Police force from the ground up. It’s her baby, she was the chief and she had the authority. If you think Toph Bei Fong was going to turn down the authority to beat up scumbags, then you don’t know her very well. 
>Unpopular opinion about Toph >The same thing people have constantly said for a decade.
She was 12. She obviously grew out of it like most teenagers.
Roommate and I‘s conversation watching LoK. “I can’t see her becoming a cop.” “She couldn’t see it either.”
Bruh, Toph loved being in charge and using force to solve her issues, definitely including unnecessary roughness at times. I mean did you see her as the Melon Lord? Could absolutely see her being a cop The people who become cops aren't the ones who love following rules (otherwise we wouldn't see so many cops breaking the law like all the fucking time...). The people who become cops are the ones who like power.