Even if you don't care "who hooks up with who," or aren't into it, the show did make it pretty obvious that Toph has a crush on Sokka, which is pretty realistic anyway.
It's part of a larger whole, Sokka's character development. The main point of "Secret of the Fire Nation" was Sokka's character development, and part of it is that more and more ladies are falling for him . . . hence the references to Yue, Suki, Ty Lee, AND Toph's crushes on him.
They're getting crushes on him because
1. As he grows, he's becoming more attractive (note Suki's "sleeveless" comment, and that Ty Lee pretty much soley has a crush on him based on his looks).
2. He's got machismo . . . and now, with his character development, he's got machismo plus actual competence to back it up.
3. It's apparent that beneath all that machismo, he genuinely cares.
Edited on 09/16/2006 11:16am