Hou-Ting

"earth"

- What's the Earth Queen like?" "I've never met her, but I've heard she can be quite ... demanding.

Hou-Ting was the daughter of Earth King Kuei and the Queen of the Earth Kingdom, making her the 53rd earth monarch. A reactionary and authoritarian potentate, she was more concerned with her possessions than with the welfare of her people. In an effort to increase her power, Hou-Ting ordered the capture and training of airbenders as conscripts for her army, leading to a violent conflict with Team Avatar. She was assassinated in 171 AG by Zaheer during the insurrection of the Red Lotus.

Early life
Hou-Ting was born to Earth King Kuei following the Hundred Year War and eventually succeeded him as earth monarch. However, she was critical of her father's decision to cede Earth Kingdom land to form the United Republic of Nations.

During her reign, the Dai Li reemerged as a powerful political force within the kingdom. Hou-Ting, unlike her father, took a more active role ruling the Earth Kingdom. Many of her rulings proved unpopular. Active uprisings sprouted across the Earth Kingdom making administrative tasks such as tax collection difficult.

Airbender conspiracy
Following the emerging of new airbenders after the Harmonic Convergence of 171 AG, Hou-Ting ordered the Dai Li to capture them so she could conscript them into an army of her own.



Upon the arrival of Avatar Korra, the queen was shouting orders at her servants to properly construct the royal garden in her desired image. After Korra requested her help to find the new airbenders, Hou-Ting revealed that barbarians had been stealing collected taxes and stated she would only even consider helping the Avatar if the latter could deliver her money to her. After Korra completed the task, she asked the monarch about the airbenders, but Hou-Ting denied their existence and insisted that Korra and her party leave the city. However, the Avatar did not believe her and criticized her for extorting her own subjects. Annoyed by Korra's remarks, Hou-Ting ordered her to leave her presence, which the Avatar did, but not before warning the queen that she was not leaving the city until she found the airbenders.

The next day, Hou-Ting approached Korra and her friends and had Gun deliver claims of airbenders in the Yang Province before she reminded them that it was exactly the news they sought. Just as Hou-Ting began to wonder if they would be leaving, she began sneezing in mid-sentence and demanded that Gun tell her if animal was in her presence, as it would be "[his] head" should one be in the vicinity. Afterward, she told the team that Gun would provide them any assistance in packing for an evening departure, but was told by Asami that the airship needed repairs, which would be completed by tomorrow. The queen walked away from this, continuing to sneeze.



That night, Hou-Ting caught Korra, Tenzin, and Bumi attempting to leave the city with her airbending regiment, which had been kept in custody beneath her temple. She declared that because the airbenders were the kingdom's citizens and thus under her control, taking them would be considered an act of war, and also threatened the Avatar with "the force of [her] entire kingdom". Upon Korra's refusal to turn over the airbenders, Hou-Ting ordered the Dai Li to attack, but the agents' efforts proved to be unsuccessful as Team Avatar escaped with her army. As they flew away, Hou-Ting again ordered the airships brought to her, but was left sneezing as Oogi's fur fell from the sky. After this, Hou-Ting branded Team Avatar as outlaws, issuing wanted posters for them and putting a price on their heads.

Dealing with the Red Lotus and death
Sometime later, Hou-Ting had received word that the Avatar had been captured and she impatiently demanded Gun to know when Korra's arrival was scheduled. After being informed that it would take a couple of hours, she was displeased to find out that there were four people who wanted an audience with her in order to personally deliver a captured Mako and Bolin. Although she did not want to deal with bounty hunters, she ordered Gun to let the group in regardless, after being informed that they had information regarding the whereabouts of "her" airbenders. Unaware of the true identity of the people she was dealing with, Hou-Ting struck a deal with Zaheer: information about the airbenders in return for Korra, as the Avatar's imprisonment in the Earth Kingdom would lead to a world war.



After later being told by a Dai Li agent that the airship bringing Korra had crashed in the Si Wong Desert, Hou-Ting grew angry and promptly ordered the deployment of another airship to collect the Avatar. She grew even more indignant when the Red Lotus barged into her throne room unannounced and revealed that they had eavesdropped on her conversation. Stating that the Avatar was still in her custody and that the act of spying on her would land them in prison, Hou-Ting gave them the option to trade their freedom for the information in regards to the airbenders. When Zaheer refused, she ordered her Dai Li agents to take them down, though her bodyguards were swiftly taken care of themselves. Being left alone, she faced Zaheer herself, boldly saying that he would not dare to attack a queen. However, Hou-Ting grew fearful when the Red Lotus leader announced that he did not believe in queens and subsequently used his airbending to remove all of the air from her lungs, suffocating her.

Personality


Hou-Ting was a temperamental, demanding, and somewhat sour person. Unlike her father, she holds a low opinion of the Avatar due to Aang's part in taking the old Fire Nation colonies on Earth Kingdom soil and turning them into the United Republic of Nations. She was deceptive and manipulative, promising to help Korra find airbenders in her city, only to later lie to the Avatar by claiming the reports were false. She was extremely possessive of anything she sees as hers, from the tax money she extorts from her citizens, to the captive airbenders, seeing them not as people, but as property of the Earth Kingdom. Hou-Ting was also very volatile, having been seen displaying extreme outbursts of rage at the slightest provocation, from simple things like topiary placement to the escape of the kidnapped airbenders beneath her temple.

In spite of this, Hou-Ting could listen to those who humbled themselves before her and supplied her with sufficient logic. This allowed her to be persuaded into handing the Avatar over to the Red Lotus under the idea of avoiding a war with the other nations.

However, first and foremost was her belief in her own self-preservation above all else that even at times bordered on near self-worship. As queen, she was untouchable in her mind and never even considered that someone would try to take her life.

Relatives

 * Earth King Kuei (father)
 * 51st Earth King (grandfather)
 * 46th Earth King (great-great-great-great-great-grandfather)

Trivia

 * Unlike her father, Hou-Ting did not tolerate any animals in her presence as she was allergic to their fur. She nevertheless was known to have a fondness for rare meats, and it is rumored that she ate her father's pet bear, Bosco.
 * Hou-Ting had a dislike of bounty hunters.
 * Hou-Ting wears ornate finger jewelery to support and protect long fingernails. These fingernail protectors were popular among Manchurian courtiers during China's Qing Dynasty and were worn by the Dowager Empress Cixi.
 * Hou-Ting is the first known character to be killed by an airbender who was not the Avatar.
 * Hou-Ting is the fifth person to die on screen in The Legend of Korra.
 * The circumstances of her death mirror that of Amon, as the Equalist leader was killed by a former bender, while Hou-Ting was killed by a former nonbender who gained bending abilities.
 * Both she and Unalaq were leaders of a nation and enemies of the Avatar at the time of their deaths. However, the purposes behind their respective deaths mirror each other; Unalaq's death was in self-defense and meant to bring peace and balance to the world, whereas Hou-Ting was murdered in order to start an era of chaos and imbalance.