#and Aang who has lost people but is ideologically a pacifist and wants to bring peace

[nothing-more-than-hot-leaf-juice]

If toph was the bad guy. . . Let's just say the GAang wouldn't've made it past season one

If Toph was the bad guy, her and her army of Badger Moles would have defeated everyone within five episodes and the only reason it would take that long is because she’d need at least 3 episodes to get motivated enough to fight.

#Toph is the true chaotic neutral #and I love her for it #that’s a really interesting aspect of her character though that’s not really talked about #one of her defining personality traits is that she can be really selfish #that’s not always a bad thing #but a lot of her actions are rooted in her own self interest #(she is above a lot of things a former rich kid do not forget) #she didn’t really care about the war until much later in the series #and she took some time to come around to want to help Aang #and not because he was the avatar and the fate of the world was at stake #but because she liked the gaang as people and was scared to let down her walls #but what’s great about her character is that while she’s on the side against the fire nation #her motivations aren’t the same as the other characters #she wasn’t directly affected by the war until she had friends who were going up against the fire nation #and those different motivations based on differences in background give so much more depth to the atla universe #you have people like Toph and Mai and Ty Lee who oppose the fire nation because of the people they directly want to protect #and then characters like Katara and Sokka who have lost people #and Aang who has lost people but is ideologically a pacifist and wants to bring peace #and Zuko who faced a direct struggle facing his own country’s ideals after being exposed to how the other side lives #the differences in background and motivation of these characters give the universe so much more complexity #it’s not just ‘the right thing to do’ #characters come from different places and ultimately work towards the same goal even if it’s for different reasons #so Toph being selfish and putting her own wants in front of the needs of the greater good early in season 2 makes her SO MUCH more #interesting as a character #and brings a new perspective on the fact that there are these elitist earth kingdom aristocrats who aren’t really affected by the war the #way others are