#otp thats how i show affection
toph didn’t need a life-changing field trip with zuko because the point of the field trips was for the members of the gaang to challenge their preconceptions of zuko.
toph’s life-changing field trip was withiroh.
so when toph finally encountered zuko, it was with iroh’s loving view of zuko as someone who is misguided but good at heart already firmly entrenched in her mind. and therefore she begins their relationship already thinking of zuko as someone who is not so different from toph herself, who struggles to ask for help and tries to do everything on his own, who has made mistakes in the past but is genuine in his desire to help, who is loved and highly regarded by iroh and therefore valuable and worth getting to know.
so it’s not just that toph, unlike the rest of the gaang, does not have any previous unpleasant encounters with zuko to overcome - she is already predisposed to believe in zuko’s change of heart simply because of iroh’s belief in his goodness.
and it’s because of her life-changing field trip with iroh that toph returns to the group to teach aang earthbending - but it also paves the way for zuko to become part of team avatar.
