There is much talk about Toph’s inventing metalbending, and she is clearly an absolute genius, but you know what I love about her even more?
Toph’s response to not being able to control sand absolutely perfectly (as in hold up a sinking tower with one hand and fight off a gang of sandbenders with the other) is to work on her sandbending until she’s fully in control of every speck of dirt.
She is so wonderfully stubborn - she pursues bending not as a tool to defeat someone or gain power, but just to prove that she can do it. She’s the basic researcher of earthbending - just keeps pushing the limits of what can be done with no mind to the practical application.
Assuming that Earth Kingdom sand replica is exact, and she didn’t explore the inner Earth Kingdom very much aside from what we saw on the show, her bending goes above and beyond because HOLY SHIT
