Touph Beifang – Toph Beifong from Avatar: The Last Airbender
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Touph_Beifang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toph_Beifong
Touph Beifang is a Dyeable Gear Vendor in Catmandu who operates the business G.O.A.T Wares. Her business (G.O.A.T. Greatest of All Time) MAY be a reference to the fact that her namesake is recognized as prodigy Earthbender and the first known MetalBender.
Avatar: The Last Airbender, also known as Avatar: The Legend of Aang in some regions, is an American animated fantasy action television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko and produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio.
Avatar is set in a largely Asian-inspired world in which some people can telekinetically manipulate one of the four elements—water, earth, fire or air—through practices known as “bending”, inspired by Chinese martial arts. The only individual who can bend all four elements, the “Avatar”, is responsible for maintaining harmony among the world’s four nations, and serves as the link between the physical world and the spirit world. The series follows the journey of twelve-year-old Aang, the current Avatar and last survivor of his nation, the Air Nomads, along with his friends Katara, Sokka, and Toph, as they strive to end the Fire Nation’s war against the other nations and defeat Fire Lord Ozai before he conquers the world. The series also follows Zuko—the exiled prince of the Fire Nation, seeking to restore his lost honor by capturing Aang, accompanied by his uncle Iroh—and later, his sister Azula. Avatar is presented in a style that combines anime with American cartoons and relies on the imagery of primarily Chinese culture, with various other influences from different East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, North Asian, and Native American cultures.
Toph Beifong is a fictional character in Nickelodeon’s animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, voiced by Michaela Jill Murphy in the original series and Kate Higgins as an adult and Philece Sampler as an elder in the sequel series. She will be portrayed by Miya Cech in Season 2 of the live-action television series adaptation.
Toph is recognized as a prodigy of earthbending, which is the ability to telekinetically manipulate, reshape and control stone, sand, dirt, and, later, metal. Because she was born blind, and her parents believed that her condition limited her capacity to learn and use the skill safely, they had a tutor teach her only basic earthbending. She later learned more advanced earthbending secretly from the badgermoles (fictional blind creatures that naturally earthbend). She eventually becomes the first person to develop the ability to “bend” metal as well. Toph has been blind since birth, but from her observations of badgermoles, she had learned to locate objects and their movements by sensing their vibrations in the earth around her.
Toph was introduced in the second season of Avatar. She travels with the protagonist Aang as his earthbending teacher, shown to have an abrasive, conceited and sometimes stubborn personality which leads to clashes with her peers. Toph proves herself a steadfast ally to Avatar Aang and eventually Avatar Korra.
The current list of all the (known) Novus references are located here.
Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.
Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages
Touph Beifang image is from Wizard101, and is copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment.
All Avatar: The Last Airbender images are copyright Nickelodeon.
Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.
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