History Headscratchers / TheLegendOfKorraFormerCast

** I don't agree that "Toph would either have to be a single parent or she and the father just must have not found marriage appealing" are the only options. Toph could have been homosexual, and she and her partner could have adopted a baby or used some way of conceiving available to lesbians. If this sounds far-fetched, consider that Toph fits the profile of a young ButchLesbian quite well. Though of course, this being an American kids' show, sadly there's no way they could use this kind of a plot element even if they wanted to.
** Your theory sounds far-fetched because... it pretty much is. She had a heavily-implied, nearly canon interest in Sokka. Very unlikely that she could have been a lesbian. She is also more along the lines of TomboyPrincess, RebelliousPrincess, or even CuteBruiser than ButchLesbian. Adoption and alternative methods of pregnancy are fairly recent practices in our world, so it is doubtful that such means could have existed in the world of Avatar. The country of the show's creation has zero relation to its content; such ideas just wouldn't make SENSE in context.
** Many young homosexuals have interest in the other gender before settling on an homosexual identity; this is because the world has taught them that girls should like boys, and vice versa. (Just a few decades ago it was not uncommon for homosexuals to go into a heterosexual marriage because of social pressure.) And even though Toph has elements of TomboyPrincess and CuteBruiser, those qualities are not inherently heterosexual, nor do they exclude anyone from becoming a ButchLesbian. Many of the (pre)teen girls who will later grow up to become butches have some feminine qualities alongside masculine ones (just like Toph), because society encourages femininity in all girls, and because at that an early age they haven't yet formed a "full" butch identity. Also, adoption is hardly a "fairly recent practice", it's been around at least since the beginning of written history. It's perfectly possible that Lin was, for example, an orphan whom Toph adopted, giving her the Beifong family name in the process.
** Except that in the series they have referenced the fact that Lin's an amazing metal-bender because of her mother. Therefore, they must be blood-related, ie: mother and daughter.
** Saying that Lin is so good at metalbending "because of her mother" doesn't have to mean that she inherited the ability genetically. Yeah, it could mean "it got passed down through her mother's blood," but it could also just mean that she had 24/7 access to a master metalbender from a very young age--something that not even Toph's students would have had. It's not too far-fetched that, even if she was adopted, just spending so much time around Toph and being able to learn from her directly would have pushed her to such a level of mastery.
** Also, the only evidence for Toph's canon interest in Sokka is the scene where she accidentally kisses Suki, thinking she's Sokka. Maybe it wasn't an accident after all, and Toph merely used the supposed confusion caused by her blindness as an excuse to kiss Suki.
** A. That's WMG and contradicts how embarrassed she is over it, and B. not the only evidence. Sokka's Master has Toph blushing about Sokka when he comes back.
** Regardless, it's perfectly possible she had a crush on Sokka, but later on realized she was gay, which, as mentioned above, is common occurence in the lives of young homosexuals.
** It's a good idea, but honestly, let's be realistic, I'm all for introducing gay characters into the mainstream media, but it's a kid's show on Nickelodeon, do you honestly expect them to turn around and say, "Hey guys, guess what..."?
** JK Rowling once basically said, "Hey, uh, Dumbledore's gay." So I don't see why this couldn't happen with Toph. Not that I particularly care whether she's gay or not.
** No, that's not to be expected, but there's always subtext... Queer-oriented audiences are adept at reading subtext, because not long ago, when homosexuality was illegal, subtext was pretty much the only way to have queer themes in mainstream fiction. All we need is, say, for someone to casually mention that Toph was "a lifelong bachelorette", or that she lived with "a special friend" (no gender specified). This wouldn't enrage the censors, but queer viewers would get the implication.
** You forget her attempt to insinuate herself on a mission with Zuko and complaining that others get to spend time with him. Also, realize that it's actually a persistant issue in disability circles that women with disabilities are either presumed sexless or lesbian by default, often because practical considerations of mobility and the need to loudly and frequently assert oneself to care assistants precludes "performing femininity," so instead we develop "masculine" behaviors. (Skirts can mean tripping. High heels are more trouble than they're worth, etc) In particular, some 19th century blind women were pathologized into only being allowed {{Romantic Two Girl Friendship}}s, which were then used as evidence of emotional stuntedness. In modern contexts, even bisexual and femme lesbian disabled bloggers write of the struggle against immediately being labelled "butch," because they don't code as feminine. Heterosexual ones don't even get to code as "[[http://offbeatbride.com/2011/06/blind-women-get-married-too bridal]]." From a disability perspective, Toph's genderqueer presentation also ''allowing for'' something other than butch lesbianism is a feat in itself, even given that in other contexts heterosexuality is deeply overrepresented in media. Does anyone remember the growth of ATLA fan theories that she'd [[BuryYourDisabled die]], or [[{{Asexuality}} never]] have a [[MaidenAunt boyfriend]]?
** You seem to forget that Toph wanting to team with Zuko had nothing to do with emotions. Remember what she said: "Everybody else has gone on life-changing missions with you! It's my turn!" She wanted to go with Zuko because everyone else came back with epic tales to tell. Not because she was crushing on Zuko (or anyone else).
** While you make good points, you seem to be mixing up real-life experiences of disabled people with the experiences of a fictional disabled character as if the two were totally interchangeable. Based on the evidence we have, the only masculine quality of Toph that undeniably results from her blindness is her not wearing shoes. Also, I don't think feminine, heterosexual blind women are ''so'' rare in fiction that Toph being represented as anything else than a butch lesbian is a "feat in itself". It's also worth noting that many blind characters in fantasy and other non-realistic fiction have an "extra sense" that helps them observe their surroundings (Toph has this, Comicbook/{{Daredevil}} has this, Psylocke of Franchise/MarvelUniverse had it before she was given artificial eyes, etc), so their representations are different from representations of real-life blind people to begin with.
** Adoption being a thing in republic city or not aside- is there any reason to think that Lin is actually adopted? She holds an extreme resemblance to Toph, is a talented metalbender (admittedly, there are metalbenders in the police force, but it makes sense to me that her talent was inherited from her mother), why would anyone think she was adopted?

** Also remember this is a world where there are thousands (if not millions) of people capable of moving large ammounts of dirt/rock on their own, so maybe it was less of "we will spend a third of our budget to build a Huge monument" and more of "Hey we want to build a statue for Aang, you you guys bring a dozen of earth-benders hire for a few minutes/hours please", even if it was made of Metal, I could easily see Toph giving the metalbenders instructions of it "OKAY WEAKLINGS, IF YOU WANT TO BE PART OF MY POLICE FORCE YOU MUST BE ABLE BEND METAL, SO MAKE A HUGE STATUE OF TWINKLE TOES OR GO BACK WITH YOUR MOMMIES!!!"

** Which begs the question, how long did it take her and how many tries. The thing is detailed, including the arrow tattoos, and she is blind.

** "Operation Beifong" sheds a little light on this: Toph had a relationship with some guy named Kanto (she doesn't specify if they actually married or not), and they had Lin together, but it didn't work out and they ended up separating, early enough that Lin has no memory of him. True to her character, she doesn't elaborate any further than that. Still no info on Suyin's father.

** Perhaps she is a widower? Maybe he died of an illness, or maybe he died protecting Toph or something.

** As far as Katara, she's referred to almost exclusively in LoK as the world's best ''healer.'' Whether or not she's physically capable is up for debate, but all evidence points to her becoming more pacifistic since ATLA, and after the life she's lived who can blame her.

** Correct. I'd imagine flight, as awesome as it is, would suck if there was no way to stop flying. So by dropping all attachments, you fly and by reattaching yourself, you come down to the ground. It's actually pretty simple in that regard. The challenge to flight would actually being able to release all earthly attachments. "The Rift" spelled it out but it's been said before that all the past lives can do (just like YangChen herself) is advise based off of past experiences. YangChen herself may not have ever achieved flight because she wouldn't let her duties as the avatar allow it; but it's certainly not un-heard of to try. Perhaps it boils down to that: she simply didn't try to release earthly desires.

** Also, there's the simple fact of life that men are, in general, more hardwired for physical prowess than women are.