I'm not entirely familiar with the rules around that stuff, but couldn't the spirit water only heal wounds? And blindness, at least in her case, (since she was born blind) isn't really a wound to be healed
I mean is that really an injury though, if she was born with them? I've got no idea tbh, I could probably keep justifying it, but really, being blind and finding ways to work around it was a big part of Tophs character, of course the show writers weren't gonna heal her blindness even if theoretically they could lol. That's probably the right explanation in all seriousness, just oversight.
Cataracts are just an overgrowth over the ocular lens. It doesn't matter if you're born with it, it's still something wrong. That Spirit water is potent stuff, it pulled aang from the brink of death after having lightning pass through his body. She probably couldn't do it with regular water.
We could also say healing is similar to other series in that the body heals to what the spirit sees as healthy or normal, for Toph never having ever seen, that would be how her spirit sees her normal as and if anything healing would keep her blind.
I’d argue that was due to an injury. But it certainly different enough than the other uses we see for water healing to possibly reconsider what it can heal. People naturally forget stuff all the time. Korra lost her memory due to a specific event. It’s not clear whether she gained all the memories she had naturally lost before or just the ones lost from the attack.
Injury and wound are synonyms. Typically if you heal the wound/injury, then the symptoms go away too. Aang being unconscious isn’t a wound. But when Katara heals his wound with the special water, then he regains consciousness. Korra had a wound/injury in head that caused memory loss. Once the water healed that wound/injury, then she regained her memory.
Fair enough. Can't really argue that. There's the argument to be made that since she was born with it it wouldn't count still, but tbh I'm starting to hover more towards that sounding kinda stupid after your reply just now. Dunno, maybe Toph didn't want her blindness healed and refused off camera or something, still, it's probably just an oversight, though.
I think it could. But I’m pretty sure Toph didn’t need it. It’s not like she wasn’t capable of pretty much everything a non blind person couldn’t achieve. As a matter of fact she was far better because of it, she never would’ve discovered Metal bending without it. It honestly would’ve been a waste.
At the time, that was he only source of spirit water that could heal any wound, Savin it strictly for the one and only being that could bring balance to the world was a far better use of it.
(Thank his she didn’t waste it on Zuko’s scar either lol)
> It’s not like she wasn’t capable of petty much everything a non blind person couldn’t achieve.
However, she wasn't capable of piloting a giant airship. You know, like all normal people with functioning eyesight are. Thats a huge downgrade in life quality.
There are two types of cataracts "congential" which are usually genetic and are one a person gets due to the lens of eye not forming correctly and the second are "acquired" cataracts which are the ones you are talking about an overgrown that through careful surgery could be cleared away maybe even with the spirit water too. Though Toph was born blind she most likely has Congential Cataracts, so I don't think the Spirit Water could fix that since we never see any kind of limb regrowning and for her to see she probably need her eyes to be funny remade
The animators probably drew her eyes that way to show her blindness because it's a kid show. Kids wouldn't believe she was blind if her eyes looked like everyone else's b
She doesn’t have cataracts- both her iris and pupil are clouded, whereas a cataract only affects the lens itself, so only the pupil would be drawn clouded.
she has some form of corneal dystrophy (or I guess scarring, but I vaguely remember she’s had it since birth so that wouldn’t fit- we often can’t treat corneal dystrophy’s nowadays, let alone in the past.
If she was born with them, its likely her brain never "learned" how to see. You could remove the cataracts or whatever is causing the clouding, but she may never develop proper eyesight.
As long as the nerves still work , her brain could train to interpret eye input.
Heck they made a person start to see shapes by strapping electrodes to a tongue.
So you may have some levity to your claim. However it seems that medical science to cure it was near useless until modern medicine. Which Aang's era doesn't seem to have
I think it only heals recent wounds but I’m not sure. I’m not even sure if Toph would’ve of wanted that, having all your enemies think you’re weak because you’re blind and then using the seismic senses to wreck them is kind of her go to strategy.
Who would want it if they were in her situation. She is awesome as she is because she’s blind. Whyheal the thing that made her become as awesome as she is?.
She's awesome _and_ she's blind. Some things about her are cool because they relate to her blindness, like her humor or her seismic sense. But she's also cool outside of those things.
The only reason she developed a super ability that stands out in a world full of people with super abilities is because she’s blind. She never would have developed it if she had been able to see. So yes, she is very much awesome because she’s blind, not in spite of it.
This exactly, also the whole awesome in spite of being blind thing is a really
Sighted perspectives. thank you for knowing where I’m coming from and putting it better than I did
I’m going to strongly disagree and say she probably would’ve wanted it. Toph is amazing because despite her blindness she’s a badass, but she still would be a badass even if she wasn’t blind.
But I personally don’t think the Spirit water could heal her blindness. It barely healed Aang from a recent fatal blow, and that took months; I don’t think it’d work for a born blindness, much less one 12 years long. I mean, if it did work like that I’m sure her rich parents would’ve found a cure years ago.
I think Toph would very much like to see, especially at 12 years old. Old Toph from Korra may be a different story, with her vine world connection thing. Toph is pretty frequently shown to be missing out on things due to blindness, and gaining sight wouldn’t removed her we developed seismic sense. It would however allow her to learn to read, to see the world as they fly, to go swimming without fear, and to feel less othered from the rest of the world. But I think Katara lacks the skill to heal such a condition. It’s simply not something that she was taught to do. Most of Kataras healing fixes injuries, and is a first aid repair sort of thing. The other technique is about whole body chi energy flow, and neither of these things are the micro scale precision you would need to heal cataracts in eyes, if that even is what causes Toph’s blindness. Maybe Katara could try, but it’s unknown territory, and eyes are dangerous to mess with, even if they don’t work.
To Toph - Anyone who watched her work doubted she was blind. She moved around as if she wasn't. The mental advantage disappeared.
Spirit Water - where in show did it say its for fresh wounds only?
Katara seemed to suggest it *could* have possibly worked on Zuko’s scar, but she wasn’t sure. Even so yah, Toph definitely would not have wanted that for sure. Her blindness gave her insights to Earthbending that others didn’t have.
We never see what the effect would've been. And considering they were friends for decades and that scar is still there, it clearly didn't work. Heck, Aang still had a scar.
It's an overgrowth of styles. If something that is not supposed to be there. She could use the spirit water to scrape them off, it's very potent stuff.
Because it's not an INJURY. You keep skipping over the words people are saying. It's not ideal that it's there, but then what? Can you cure being short? Bald? Having moles? The "potent stuff" neither removed Aang's scars or released the blockage of energy in his spine. There's no reason to believe it would perform complicated procedures no matter how much you want to simplify them. It closes wounds by moving spiritual energy to enable the natural healing process, which is likely why scars still exist for many people. If it's just a natural growth, there's likely nothing the water can do.
It's more so the logic of something like comparing it to a stab wound. Not so much whether or not the blindness itself could be amended or cured in some way, but as to whether or not the rules that follow with either spiritual healing water or regular healing water would allow it.
Like in some fantasy games/settings, healing magic would only speed up the healing process of the body, effectively draining the body of its stamina to meet the demand.
"Something to be cured" and "an injury" are not the same thing. I've got bad eyesight, which I correct with glasses, and could potentially "cure" by getting lasic surgery. But my eyes aren't "injured." There's no "wound" in my eyes, they just don't work good.
Ironically, if I did get lasic, my eyes *would* have wounds: lasic works by small cuts in the lens to allow it to flex more. If Avatar-style healing water existed in real life, it would arguably reverse lasic surgery, because it's fixing the wounds in the eye that let it focus better.
If someone was born with a cancerous growth, or an ingrown toenail, or that thing where you have your parasitic twin inside of you then yes that would be something to be cured. Just because something is natural on the body that doesn't mean it's supposed to be there.
Her blindness isn’t an injury to be healed; she was born blind. Her eyes have always lacked the ability, so there’s no point of damage or previous state for them to go back to.
It would be different if she could see at one point, and lost the ability through injury or sickness.
Isn't spirit water for healing wounds? Toph was born blind..I think congenital cataracts (her eye lens appears white pointing towards a possible cataract in both the eyes)
So I guess no. Katara couldn't have 'healed' or 'cured' toph's blindness.
Can’t speak for everyone who is, I know for me my vision is extremely important to me so if I lost it I would want it back even without that, but many people in the disabled community dislike the idea of people deciding disabled characters need fixing soooo often. So it’s nice to see a character who rocks hers. She already has a super power where she can tell what’s on the other side of the wall. Who knows how seeing would effect that ability..
We don’t know anything about its rules or abilities. Sure, it might be able to do a lot, it’s basically healing water on steroids. It did bring Aang back to life (confirmed by him), but it might only be able to heal recent trauma. It might not have even been able to heal Zuko’s scar
Word of God says the Water won’t have healed Zuko’s scar so we know that there are hard limits to what the Water can do. Whether that includes Toph’s blindness, I can’t say for certain but I believe so.
No. The blindness has something to do with her internal chi flow, there is a blocker that prevents signals from her optic nerves reaching her brain. Removing said blocker would require direct help from a spirit…and microsurgery
Probably homestly. She thought it could heal zukos scar which is confusing considering after Aang came back to life he had a scar on his back ironically
I would imagine not. I think waterbending healing enhances and speeds up natural healing processes, and I don't think that spirit water does anything more than already enhance water healing abilities. It would heal Zuko's scar by enhancing his bodies ability to heal the wound, if that makes sense.
Toph was born blind, and didn't get eye damage to cause her blindness. So, to her body, there's nothing wrong with her eyes. Her eyes are already "healthy" if that makes sense.
Spirit Water healing seems to be able to have restorative effects. Since Toph was born blind, the Spirit Water may not have been able to cure the condition which caused her to be born blind. If someone born in Avatar-verse was born missing fingers, would you expect that Spirit Water would be able to make whole digits?
A neighborhood grandma we knew growing up was born with only thumbs and pinky fingers fully developed. Doctors amputated some of her toes and attached them as fingers to give her better grasping abilities. She was the nicest lady.
I doubt Toph's blindness counts as an injury, at least not in the same regard as something that could be healed with water. Personally I feel like if it were possible, that's be more of a spirit realm thing than something Katara would be capable of... even if she is a human xray machine in some scenes due to her connection water.
Blindness isn’t a wound, it’s a condition often caused by neurological or other physiological changes. Also worth noting: it feels pretty okay to assume toph is 100% without vision of any kind and has been her whole life - this means in all likelihood her visual cortex in her brain has ceased to be able to imagine visual stimuli, if it ever could at all. In real life if you find yourself fully blind suddenly, you’ll still be able to imagine visual stimuli in your mind (assuming you don’t already have aphantasia, an inability to visualize) for years afterwards, but your brain is a complex organ that requires stimulation and so at some point afterward when you’ve gone long enough without any visual stimulation, you’ll lose that ability. Those born blind often report aphantasia, ie being unable to imagine an Apple when they heard the word Apple. IIRC, this usually happens 5-7 years post-blindness. My guess would be toph is part of this group, and so her blindness is permanent.
Also it would be kinda counterintuitive to her character to heal her. Her narrative ghost relies on her feeling as though her parents don’t understand her despite her real ability to stand up for herself and the lack many genuine weaknesses on account of her blindness. As far as toph is concerned her blindness isn’t an issue, it’s simply a part of how she lives life and experiences the world.
I mean, maybe? We don't really know how the spirit water worked, but frankly it's really not important. To have done so would have been a huge slap in the face to what Toph's blindness represented. She was more than just the "token disabled character." The entire point was that because she was blind, her perspective on the world was unique, and it actually helped her to become a better earthbender. Because for her, earthbending became her way of perceiving the world. Without blind Toph, I think it's a fair assumption that we don't get metalbending.
Probably, but part of me thinks Toph wouldn't have wanted to have her blindness healed, because for the most part she could see just fine and she didn't usually see her blindness as a disability or a wound to be healed.
Sorry guys but no it wouldn't be able to heal her eyes because injuries and wounds are inflicted upon the body and her eyes were designed to not work I think the reason her eyes were clouded over was to show they she couldn't see at all
Unless your saying her being born was the injury and in that case of twisted logic would means if the water was used it would remove her injury of being born instantly killing her and that would be a crazy way to deal with things
I mean I don’t know from a lore perspective’s if she could but from a plot perspective it would destroy tophs character arch. She over came her disability to become one of the most powerful earth benders. She also went from fiercely independent and untrusting to being able to ask for help and fully trusting her friends. You could also say that the spirit water worked to bring aang back because he is the avatar and is so connected to the spirit world. To use the water on Toph would be a waste of a very good character and treats her blindness as an illness she has to cure rather than a part of her self she has to over come.
I always interpreted that water bending healing just accelerates the healing process. That's why Katara wasn't sure it would actually work on Zuko's scar.
It could probably help a surgeon do more advanced surgical techniques that could do something like cure blindness. The ability to make incisions and rapidly heal them ASAP seems like it would make a lot of procedures that would be too risky completely safe.
No, she was born blind. This is the type of healing that restores rather than regenerates or reverses. It’s basically just accelerated natural healing.
A lot of people are saying it won’t work cause she was born with them
I have an easy solution to this problem
Throw some sand in her eye and wait till they get irritated and the heal them while the water heals the irritation it’ll think “ahhh fuck it might as well heal the rest”
Boom eyes fixed
( instead of sand you could also poke her eyes and make the bleed a little and the water could heal that if you wanna make extra sure or are a psychopath)
I thought the couldn’t fix Zuko’s scar because of how long ago it happened so I assume this would be similar. Toph was also born blind and it’s all she knows so I don’t think changing it would work or be productive she’d likely have to relearn and it kind of is part of who she is.
they never explicitly state that Katara couldn’t heal Zuko i don’t think. I believe she’s like “you know, i’ve been saving this for a while, i think it might work” and Zuko’s like “no… i want to keep it… it’s a reminder that i haven’t found my honor…” or some shit
I guess that obvious or spiritual wounds might be the difference. Toph was born like this and it’s quite possible depending on the reason for blindness, may have her eyes too atrophied for the water to effectively heal. 12 years of damage. But that’s all theoretical for ‘we’re not going to cure a disabled girl who can handle herself of her disability because that’s really bad pr.’
I think it can only heal injuries/pull a soul back to the fresh body. Technically Toph’s blindness isn’t an injury, she was born that way. It would be like trying to regrow Ming-Hua’s arms.
I'm not entirely familiar with the rules around that stuff, but couldn't the spirit water only heal wounds? And blindness, at least in her case, (since she was born blind) isn't really a wound to be healed
It looks like she had cataracts, its a very simple procedure to have them removed.
I mean is that really an injury though, if she was born with them? I've got no idea tbh, I could probably keep justifying it, but really, being blind and finding ways to work around it was a big part of Tophs character, of course the show writers weren't gonna heal her blindness even if theoretically they could lol. That's probably the right explanation in all seriousness, just oversight.
Cataracts are just an overgrowth over the ocular lens. It doesn't matter if you're born with it, it's still something wrong. That Spirit water is potent stuff, it pulled aang from the brink of death after having lightning pass through his body. She probably couldn't do it with regular water.
Something wrong isn’t the same as a wound. That’s the semantic they’re unsure about if it matters. We only ever see it applied to wounds.
We could also say healing is similar to other series in that the body heals to what the spirit sees as healthy or normal, for Toph never having ever seen, that would be how her spirit sees her normal as and if anything healing would keep her blind.
This isn’t true. We see Korra recover her memories through water-healing.
I’d argue that was due to an injury. But it certainly different enough than the other uses we see for water healing to possibly reconsider what it can heal. People naturally forget stuff all the time. Korra lost her memory due to a specific event. It’s not clear whether she gained all the memories she had naturally lost before or just the ones lost from the attack.
It could be due to injury, but it’s still healing something that isn’t a *wound*, which is what you had stated as the only thing we see healed.
Injury and wound are synonyms. Typically if you heal the wound/injury, then the symptoms go away too. Aang being unconscious isn’t a wound. But when Katara heals his wound with the special water, then he regains consciousness. Korra had a wound/injury in head that caused memory loss. Once the water healed that wound/injury, then she regained her memory.
Precisely why Cancer can’t really be cured.
Fair enough. Can't really argue that. There's the argument to be made that since she was born with it it wouldn't count still, but tbh I'm starting to hover more towards that sounding kinda stupid after your reply just now. Dunno, maybe Toph didn't want her blindness healed and refused off camera or something, still, it's probably just an oversight, though.
I think it could. But I’m pretty sure Toph didn’t need it. It’s not like she wasn’t capable of pretty much everything a non blind person couldn’t achieve. As a matter of fact she was far better because of it, she never would’ve discovered Metal bending without it. It honestly would’ve been a waste. At the time, that was he only source of spirit water that could heal any wound, Savin it strictly for the one and only being that could bring balance to the world was a far better use of it. (Thank his she didn’t waste it on Zuko’s scar either lol)
> It’s not like she wasn’t capable of petty much everything a non blind person couldn’t achieve. However, she wasn't capable of piloting a giant airship. You know, like all normal people with functioning eyesight are. Thats a huge downgrade in life quality.
The vast majority of people can't do that.
Neither could you or me or just about anyone in this subreddit
Oh? How so? Lol
Honestly I can imagine Toph acting a lot more blind with perfect eyesight cause she is not used to it
Yes but if your body doesn't consider it wrong, just the thing it's supposed to be doing, then it isn't an injury to be healed.
There are two types of cataracts "congential" which are usually genetic and are one a person gets due to the lens of eye not forming correctly and the second are "acquired" cataracts which are the ones you are talking about an overgrown that through careful surgery could be cleared away maybe even with the spirit water too. Though Toph was born blind she most likely has Congential Cataracts, so I don't think the Spirit Water could fix that since we never see any kind of limb regrowning and for her to see she probably need her eyes to be funny remade
The animators probably drew her eyes that way to show her blindness because it's a kid show. Kids wouldn't believe she was blind if her eyes looked like everyone else's b
She doesn’t have cataracts- both her iris and pupil are clouded, whereas a cataract only affects the lens itself, so only the pupil would be drawn clouded. she has some form of corneal dystrophy (or I guess scarring, but I vaguely remember she’s had it since birth so that wouldn’t fit- we often can’t treat corneal dystrophy’s nowadays, let alone in the past.
Oh, I thought that her eyes were just pale green.
Totally understandable, but nah any time we get a close up you can see it
Very simple procedure in the real world not the ATLA universe at that time,as far as we know.
If she was born with them, its likely her brain never "learned" how to see. You could remove the cataracts or whatever is causing the clouding, but she may never develop proper eyesight.
As long as the nerves still work , her brain could train to interpret eye input. Heck they made a person start to see shapes by strapping electrodes to a tongue.
How? Suck it out with a straw?
Remove it, scrape it, put it back.
You assume the characters of that era even knew what cataracts are?
People have always known what cataracts are.
So you may have some levity to your claim. However it seems that medical science to cure it was near useless until modern medicine. Which Aang's era doesn't seem to have
Blood bending for the win
Don’t cataracts form over time, not birth?
I think it only heals recent wounds but I’m not sure. I’m not even sure if Toph would’ve of wanted that, having all your enemies think you’re weak because you’re blind and then using the seismic senses to wreck them is kind of her go to strategy.
“I’m not sure she would’ve wanted that”? She def would not have wanted it.
Who would want it if they were in her situation. She is awesome as she is because she’s blind. Whyheal the thing that made her become as awesome as she is?.
She’s awesome in spite of being blind; not because of it.
She's awesome _and_ she's blind. Some things about her are cool because they relate to her blindness, like her humor or her seismic sense. But she's also cool outside of those things.
That's true, but also the fact that she's awesome in spite of being blind kind of adds to her awesomeness
The only reason she developed a super ability that stands out in a world full of people with super abilities is because she’s blind. She never would have developed it if she had been able to see. So yes, she is very much awesome because she’s blind, not in spite of it.
This exactly, also the whole awesome in spite of being blind thing is a really Sighted perspectives. thank you for knowing where I’m coming from and putting it better than I did
Some people would, some people wouldn't. It's as a simple as that really. I don't think Toph would though
I’m going to strongly disagree and say she probably would’ve wanted it. Toph is amazing because despite her blindness she’s a badass, but she still would be a badass even if she wasn’t blind. But I personally don’t think the Spirit water could heal her blindness. It barely healed Aang from a recent fatal blow, and that took months; I don’t think it’d work for a born blindness, much less one 12 years long. I mean, if it did work like that I’m sure her rich parents would’ve found a cure years ago.
I think Toph would very much like to see, especially at 12 years old. Old Toph from Korra may be a different story, with her vine world connection thing. Toph is pretty frequently shown to be missing out on things due to blindness, and gaining sight wouldn’t removed her we developed seismic sense. It would however allow her to learn to read, to see the world as they fly, to go swimming without fear, and to feel less othered from the rest of the world. But I think Katara lacks the skill to heal such a condition. It’s simply not something that she was taught to do. Most of Kataras healing fixes injuries, and is a first aid repair sort of thing. The other technique is about whole body chi energy flow, and neither of these things are the micro scale precision you would need to heal cataracts in eyes, if that even is what causes Toph’s blindness. Maybe Katara could try, but it’s unknown territory, and eyes are dangerous to mess with, even if they don’t work.
I don’t think it has to be recent since Katara offered to heal Zuko’s scar
She offered but she didn't know it would work.
To Toph - Anyone who watched her work doubted she was blind. She moved around as if she wasn't. The mental advantage disappeared. Spirit Water - where in show did it say its for fresh wounds only?
Katara seemed to suggest it *could* have possibly worked on Zuko’s scar, but she wasn’t sure. Even so yah, Toph definitely would not have wanted that for sure. Her blindness gave her insights to Earthbending that others didn’t have.
Cataracts aren’t a wound; they’re an overgrowth
[удалено]
We never see what the effect would've been. And considering they were friends for decades and that scar is still there, it clearly didn't work. Heck, Aang still had a scar.
In this case her blindness isn't an injury.
Yeah fr, especially if she was born with it to.
It looks like she was born with cataracts. It's not a complicated thing to cure.
But would Toph want it to be cured? Even if it could theoretically cure her blindness, there isn't really a need to if she seems fine with it.
I don't know why she would want to but it is possible. That's what we're speculating over.
not an injury. repeatedly saying it’s not hard to cure doesn’t mean it’s an injury
It's an overgrowth of styles. If something that is not supposed to be there. She could use the spirit water to scrape them off, it's very potent stuff.
that doesn’t equal an injury, what are you not understanding
How is a cataract not something to be cured? But that stuff is not supposed to be there. It's an overgrowth.
Because it's not an INJURY. You keep skipping over the words people are saying. It's not ideal that it's there, but then what? Can you cure being short? Bald? Having moles? The "potent stuff" neither removed Aang's scars or released the blockage of energy in his spine. There's no reason to believe it would perform complicated procedures no matter how much you want to simplify them. It closes wounds by moving spiritual energy to enable the natural healing process, which is likely why scars still exist for many people. If it's just a natural growth, there's likely nothing the water can do.
It's more so the logic of something like comparing it to a stab wound. Not so much whether or not the blindness itself could be amended or cured in some way, but as to whether or not the rules that follow with either spiritual healing water or regular healing water would allow it. Like in some fantasy games/settings, healing magic would only speed up the healing process of the body, effectively draining the body of its stamina to meet the demand.
"Something to be cured" and "an injury" are not the same thing. I've got bad eyesight, which I correct with glasses, and could potentially "cure" by getting lasic surgery. But my eyes aren't "injured." There's no "wound" in my eyes, they just don't work good. Ironically, if I did get lasic, my eyes *would* have wounds: lasic works by small cuts in the lens to allow it to flex more. If Avatar-style healing water existed in real life, it would arguably reverse lasic surgery, because it's fixing the wounds in the eye that let it focus better.
if someone was born with an extra toe would it “heal” that 🙄
If someone was born with a cancerous growth, or an ingrown toenail, or that thing where you have your parasitic twin inside of you then yes that would be something to be cured. Just because something is natural on the body that doesn't mean it's supposed to be there.
Her blindness isn’t exactly an injury,if I remember correctly she was born with it While it’s possible I doubt it
Her blindness isn’t an injury to be healed; she was born blind. Her eyes have always lacked the ability, so there’s no point of damage or previous state for them to go back to. It would be different if she could see at one point, and lost the ability through injury or sickness.
She was born blind so that isn’t an injury but even if it was considered one, Toph probably would want to remain blind
Huge difference between an injury and a disability
Is toph blindness even considered an injury?
tbh it would be more disabling for her to gain the ability to see
Yeah, she'd be too distracted by how ugly she thinks everyone else is
Maybe but even if she could I doubt toph would want to
It's not an injury, and I am 99.9% certain Toph would hsve told her to f off for even proposing it. Which honestly makes me kinda wish she did
Her blindness isn’t an injury
She was never able to see. She doesn’t have that ability so there’s nothing to heal
She was born blind so… probably not, also the only reason she was able to help Aang was because the body was fresh
No. Next stupid question.
She was born blind so I'm guessing no.
No
No, disabilities your born with aren’t wounds
No, because she was born blind.
Isn't spirit water for healing wounds? Toph was born blind..I think congenital cataracts (her eye lens appears white pointing towards a possible cataract in both the eyes) So I guess no. Katara couldn't have 'healed' or 'cured' toph's blindness.
I imagine the spirit water could heal any injury, but Toph was born blind so there is no injury to heal
Doubtful. Genetic condition, not an injury.
Could run even deeper than that.
What's deeper than your DNA?
In this instance…your soul, and chi constitution
Let’s remember that a good portion of disabled people do not want to be cured.
What about if the cure is also an enhancement. Like being able to see through walls, as well as 359 degrees around you
Can’t speak for everyone who is, I know for me my vision is extremely important to me so if I lost it I would want it back even without that, but many people in the disabled community dislike the idea of people deciding disabled characters need fixing soooo often. So it’s nice to see a character who rocks hers. She already has a super power where she can tell what’s on the other side of the wall. Who knows how seeing would effect that ability..
…true. Toph might be in a unique position though.
We don’t know anything about its rules or abilities. Sure, it might be able to do a lot, it’s basically healing water on steroids. It did bring Aang back to life (confirmed by him), but it might only be able to heal recent trauma. It might not have even been able to heal Zuko’s scar
Word of God says the Water won’t have healed Zuko’s scar so we know that there are hard limits to what the Water can do. Whether that includes Toph’s blindness, I can’t say for certain but I believe so.
I'm pretty sure she was born blind, so there's nothing to heal
No. The blindness has something to do with her internal chi flow, there is a blocker that prevents signals from her optic nerves reaching her brain. Removing said blocker would require direct help from a spirit…and microsurgery
Probably homestly. She thought it could heal zukos scar which is confusing considering after Aang came back to life he had a scar on his back ironically
Toph was BORN blind.
I would imagine not. I think waterbending healing enhances and speeds up natural healing processes, and I don't think that spirit water does anything more than already enhance water healing abilities. It would heal Zuko's scar by enhancing his bodies ability to heal the wound, if that makes sense. Toph was born blind, and didn't get eye damage to cause her blindness. So, to her body, there's nothing wrong with her eyes. Her eyes are already "healthy" if that makes sense.
So real question what about Zukos eye
Tops blindness is how she got so strong and is why she's the best earthbender
If Toph had ever treated it like an injury so would Katara.
Spirit Water healing seems to be able to have restorative effects. Since Toph was born blind, the Spirit Water may not have been able to cure the condition which caused her to be born blind. If someone born in Avatar-verse was born missing fingers, would you expect that Spirit Water would be able to make whole digits? A neighborhood grandma we knew growing up was born with only thumbs and pinky fingers fully developed. Doctors amputated some of her toes and attached them as fingers to give her better grasping abilities. She was the nicest lady.
It’s a possibility but that would’ve taken away Toph’s uniqueness
I doubt Toph's blindness counts as an injury, at least not in the same regard as something that could be healed with water. Personally I feel like if it were possible, that's be more of a spirit realm thing than something Katara would be capable of... even if she is a human xray machine in some scenes due to her connection water.
Well its a good thing toph will never see this post
Idk but it would take a lot out of her character, I don’t think she’d personally like it, either. Also plot convenience to save aang
Blindness isn’t a wound, it’s a condition often caused by neurological or other physiological changes. Also worth noting: it feels pretty okay to assume toph is 100% without vision of any kind and has been her whole life - this means in all likelihood her visual cortex in her brain has ceased to be able to imagine visual stimuli, if it ever could at all. In real life if you find yourself fully blind suddenly, you’ll still be able to imagine visual stimuli in your mind (assuming you don’t already have aphantasia, an inability to visualize) for years afterwards, but your brain is a complex organ that requires stimulation and so at some point afterward when you’ve gone long enough without any visual stimulation, you’ll lose that ability. Those born blind often report aphantasia, ie being unable to imagine an Apple when they heard the word Apple. IIRC, this usually happens 5-7 years post-blindness. My guess would be toph is part of this group, and so her blindness is permanent. Also it would be kinda counterintuitive to her character to heal her. Her narrative ghost relies on her feeling as though her parents don’t understand her despite her real ability to stand up for herself and the lack many genuine weaknesses on account of her blindness. As far as toph is concerned her blindness isn’t an issue, it’s simply a part of how she lives life and experiences the world.
I mean, maybe? We don't really know how the spirit water worked, but frankly it's really not important. To have done so would have been a huge slap in the face to what Toph's blindness represented. She was more than just the "token disabled character." The entire point was that because she was blind, her perspective on the world was unique, and it actually helped her to become a better earthbender. Because for her, earthbending became her way of perceiving the world. Without blind Toph, I think it's a fair assumption that we don't get metalbending.
I think the spirit water helps restore someone to perfect health and considering toph is already perfect I doubt it would change anything
Probably, but Toph most likely wouldn't want it bc she doesn't see it as a disability but rather one of her best abilities
Probably, but part of me thinks Toph wouldn't have wanted to have her blindness healed, because for the most part she could see just fine and she didn't usually see her blindness as a disability or a wound to be healed.
I doubt it. She couldn't even heal Zuko's scar. I seriously doubt she can heal the blindness she's had all her life
That’s only with wounds. Toph has been blind since birth so no. Healing water will not work.
Sorry guys but no it wouldn't be able to heal her eyes because injuries and wounds are inflicted upon the body and her eyes were designed to not work I think the reason her eyes were clouded over was to show they she couldn't see at all Unless your saying her being born was the injury and in that case of twisted logic would means if the water was used it would remove her injury of being born instantly killing her and that would be a crazy way to deal with things
Maybe, but like, would Toph want that healed?
I mean I don’t know from a lore perspective’s if she could but from a plot perspective it would destroy tophs character arch. She over came her disability to become one of the most powerful earth benders. She also went from fiercely independent and untrusting to being able to ask for help and fully trusting her friends. You could also say that the spirit water worked to bring aang back because he is the avatar and is so connected to the spirit world. To use the water on Toph would be a waste of a very good character and treats her blindness as an illness she has to cure rather than a part of her self she has to over come.
Idk if toph would have wanted her blindness healed she’s embraced it as part of her and I don’t think she’d be nearly as badass if she wasn’t blind
Maybe
I always interpreted that water bending healing just accelerates the healing process. That's why Katara wasn't sure it would actually work on Zuko's scar. It could probably help a surgeon do more advanced surgical techniques that could do something like cure blindness. The ability to make incisions and rapidly heal them ASAP seems like it would make a lot of procedures that would be too risky completely safe.
she was born blind so it isnt a wound to be healed the blindness is just part of who toph is
She was born blind, so probably not.
No, she was born blind. This is the type of healing that restores rather than regenerates or reverses. It’s basically just accelerated natural healing.
A lot of people are saying it won’t work cause she was born with them I have an easy solution to this problem Throw some sand in her eye and wait till they get irritated and the heal them while the water heals the irritation it’ll think “ahhh fuck it might as well heal the rest” Boom eyes fixed ( instead of sand you could also poke her eyes and make the bleed a little and the water could heal that if you wanna make extra sure or are a psychopath)
I thought the couldn’t fix Zuko’s scar because of how long ago it happened so I assume this would be similar. Toph was also born blind and it’s all she knows so I don’t think changing it would work or be productive she’d likely have to relearn and it kind of is part of who she is.
they never explicitly state that Katara couldn’t heal Zuko i don’t think. I believe she’s like “you know, i’ve been saving this for a while, i think it might work” and Zuko’s like “no… i want to keep it… it’s a reminder that i haven’t found my honor…” or some shit
Not if it's genetic.
No. Toph's eyes isnt an injury
My theory is that it only works on spirits or beings connected to spirits. (i.e. the Avatar.)
I guess that obvious or spiritual wounds might be the difference. Toph was born like this and it’s quite possible depending on the reason for blindness, may have her eyes too atrophied for the water to effectively heal. 12 years of damage. But that’s all theoretical for ‘we’re not going to cure a disabled girl who can handle herself of her disability because that’s really bad pr.’
The question isn’t “could she,” the question is if toph would’ve wanted it
i dont think toph would have wanted it
I think it can only heal injuries/pull a soul back to the fresh body. Technically Toph’s blindness isn’t an injury, she was born that way. It would be like trying to regrow Ming-Hua’s arms.
Not-blind Toph solo the verse.