Baatar Jr.


 * This article is about Suyin Beifong and Baatar's son who joined the military of the Earth Empire. For his father, see Baatar.

"earth"

- Zaofu stopped being my home long ago. I'm ready to take it by force.

Baatar Jr. is Suyin Beifong and Baatar's eldest son, nephew of Lin Beifong, first grandson of Toph Beifong, and the fiancé of Kuvira. As Zaofu's engineer, he was responsible for enacting his father's designs. However, after Earth Queen Hou-Ting's murder and the Earth Kingdom's subsequent decline in stability, he left Zaofu together with Kuvira to reunite the nation, much to the disapproval of his mother.

Engineer at Zaofu
While Suyin hosted a dinner for Avatar Korra and her friends, Baatar Jr. and his father passed by the dining hall, where the latter informed the matriarch that they would have to eat in his office as they had a major breakthrough regarding the remodeling of a tram station. After the two left, Suyin proudly remarked that Baatar Jr. was an engineer who was responsible for handling all of his father's projects.

He later attended Opal's farewell dinner and subsequently accompanied the rest of the dining group to the rooftop, where they watched Opal depart for the Northern Air Temple.

Traveling the Earth Kingdom
After the Insurrection of the Red Lotus, Baatar Jr. made plans with Kuvira behind Suyin's back to leave Zaofu and stabilize the situation in Ba Sing Se and the rest of the Earth Kingdom. Although his mother made it clear that if they were to leave, they would never be welcomed back in Zaofu, Baatar Jr. left anyway, as he took it as an opportunity to rise from underneath his parents' shadow. His departure led to a falling out with his mother, who saw it as a betrayal and who deemed Kuvira's quest an unjustified seizure of power. At some point, he entered in a romantic relationship with Kuvira, which progressed to the point that he proposed to her, which she accepted.

Annexation of the State of Yi
By 174 AG, he traveled the Earth Kingdom by train. When Bolin reported to him that two more states had agreed to join their alliance, he happily took the reports from him and relayed the message to Kuvira, stating that they had reached ninety percent of their goal. He was about to celebrate their achievement with Varrick, Zhu Li, and Bolin by drinking some tea, though when Kuvira stated that she refused to celebrate until the Earth Kingdom was reunited completely, he digressed and put his cup back down. However, the contents ended up being spilled on his clothing when their train suddenly halted due to an earthen obstruction on the tracks caused by bandits.



After Kuvira cleared their path, they continued on to the state of Yi, where Baatar Jr. found his sister Opal. He greeted her in a friendly matter, though when he asked how their mother was doing, Opal snapped at him, dismissing his question since she believed he did not care anyway. After the governor of Yi ordered Kuvira and her army to leave the state, Baatar Jr. retreated with everyone else to the border of the state, where they would wait a day for the governor to reconsider. When he did, they all returned and Baatar Jr. witnessed his fiancée claim the state in the name of a united Earth Kingdom.



Baatar Jr. arrived at Republic City together with Kuvira and the rest of the army a day before Prince Wu's coronation as the new Earth King. Upon checking in to the Republic City Four Elements, Baatar Jr. curtly greeted his mother. Upon being greeted as "Baatar Jr." in return, he haughtily corrected her by saying he went by just "Baatar". He started to gloat about his and Kuvira's accomplishments, believing that his mother felt regret about passing up on the opportunity to be a part of the movement. Displeased that his mother denounced their accomplishments as something good, he merrily announced that Kuvira would be an official member of the Beifong family through a marriage with him, urging his mother to get over her grudge with his fiancée. When Suyin did not react and merely said she was glad Kuvira was stepping down after Wu's coronation, Baatar Jr. briskly wondered if she preferred to be ruled by Wu, referring to him as a "royal idiot".

The following day, Baatar Jr. attended Wu's coronation and applauded and cheered when Kuvira publicly denounced Wu's authority and claimed power for herself, renaming the Earth Kingdom the "Earth Empire". When his mother later came to speak with Kuvira, Baatar Jr. retreated with Bolin to the adjacent room to give the ladies some privacy.

Conquering Zaofu


En route to Zaofu, Baatar Jr. smoothened out his uniform before joining Kuvira to look out of the window to the passing landscape, contently noting that by the same time the following day, his mother would have signed the treaty that surrendered Zaofu to their control and the Earth Empire would entirely be united. He was cautioned by his fiancée, however, to not get ahead of himself, as securing the metal city would not be as easy as he made it seem. Upon hearing Kuvira refer to the city as his hometown, Baatar Jr. darkly denounced it as his home and declared to be ready to take it by force. However, he was once more reeled in by Kuvira, who stressed the importance of handling the situation with diplomacy, considering the eyes of the world were upon them, a task for which she wanted to use Bolin even though Baatar Jr. had his doubts in regards to the reliability of the earthbender.

When a shock rattled their train, Baatar Jr. and Kuvira swiftly made their way down to the last cart where Varrick was conducting his experiments on spirit vines. As the inventor shut down his project, wary of the destructive possibilities of the spirit energy, Baatar Jr. wondered why the engineer suddenly cared about the consequences. After Kuvira threatened to kill Varrick if he did not resume his testing, Baatar Jr. left with her back to their own cart, where they summoned Bolin to have a meeting with them. Baatar Jr. sat relaxed on the couch while his fiancée explained Bolin's task to him.



Arriving at Zaofu, Baatar Jr. led Kuvira and Bolin to the room where the rest of the Beifong family was awaiting them. With a grand gesture, he swung open the double doors, though the two parties merely greeted each other with tension. When his parents tried to reason with him, stating that he belonged in the metal city, Baatar Jr. angrily asked them why, as he perceived his time there to have been spent in the shadow of his father. He stood by as Kuvira gave his family a twenty-four hour ultimatum to surrender the city, before returning with his fiancée to their camp.

In Kuvira's personal tent, Baatar Jr. told Bolin that sending off dissenters to a reeducation camp was merely one of the hard truths of the army, a necessity for a united Earth Empire. Baatar Jr. later escorted Avatar Korra to see Kuvira, before making his way toward Varrick's quarters, asking the guards in front of the door if they had seen Bolin. Learning that the lavabender had been by though was sent away, Baatar Jr. grew suspicious and ordered the guards to open the door. Finding the cart to be deserted with the ceiling hatch open, the engineer deduced that Bolin and Varrick had deserted, prompting him to give chase.



Each piloting a mecha tank, Baatar Jr. and two corporals tracked the three deserters, who had each taken a mecha tank as well, down in the nearby forest. Catching them by surprise, Baatar Jr. struck Bolin's mecha tank with an electricity bolt, before charging straight for Varrick. His assault was thwarted by Zhu Li, however, which enabled Bolin to recover and tackle him to the ground. In the ensuing struggle, Baatar Jr. managed to get the upper hand and delivered a strong blow to the center of Bolin's tank, knocking it on its back. Building up momentum by jumping in the air, he charged another electricity bolt and completely destroyed Bolin's tank with it. The earthbender managed to escape, causing Baatar Jr. to continue his assault with his flamethrower. He was forced to run, however, when Bolin broke his attack by launching a large boulder at him and toppled a tree in his direction. Baatar Jr. managed to avoid damage and found Varrick scrambling through the forest. Capturing the inventor, Baatar Jr. threatened to kill him in order to force Bolin and Zhu Li to surrender.The fugitives apprehended, Baatar Jr. escorted the threesome to face Kuvira, where he stood by as Kuvira sent Bolin off to a dissenters' camp, locked Varrick away under military supervision to continue his spirit vine experiments, and pardoned Zhu Li as she pledged her loyalty to the army commander.



Later, Baatar Jr. oversaw Varrick's work as he was forced to resume the research. While no longer trusting Varrick, Baatar Jr. agreed to make Bolin Varrick's new assistant. Ultimately, however, Varrick played Baatar Jr. by turning the spirit weapon into an activated time bomb, complete with a remote detonator to force the explosion. Baatar Jr. soon agreed to Varrick's demand of leaving the train cart, to which Bolin disconnected it from the rest of the train. As Baatar Jr. watched the train cart leave them before finally exploding seemingly with Bolin and Varrick, Baatar Jr. was left shocked at how crazy Varrick truly was. Later, Zaofu was finally captured after Korra and the airbenders failed to stop Kuvira. Despite most of the city pledging their loyalty to Kuvira, Baatar Jr. was furious to see his father and brother Huan refuse to bow, to which Baatar Jr. angrily had the guards take them away. Later, Baatar Jr. reported Varrick and Bolin's apparent death along with destroying the spirit research. However, Baatar Jr. was convinced he could recreate it with Zhu Li's help, to which Kuvira agreed.

Personality


As an engineer in Zaofu, Baatar Jr. worked closely with his father. Over time, however, he grew tired of living in his parents' shadows and which led him to join Kuvira on her campaign to restore order in the war-torn Earth Kingdom, leaving Zaofu against his mother's wishes. Since then, he progressively distanced himself from any part of his former life, from denouncing Zaofu as his home to dropping the "Junior" from his name; he turned his back to all his parents had tried to teach him.

As Kuvira's second-in-command, he became ruthless, finding the goal to justify the morally questionable tactics Kuvira's army employed, to the point where he had no qualms threatening the lives of defenseless individuals, as evidenced by his threats against Varrick in order to force Bolin and Zhu Li to surrender or his willingness to employ a weapon of mass destruction.

Trivia

 * Baatar Jr. is the first known person to be named directly after a parent.
 * He is also the first known antagonist of The Legend of Korra to be biologically related to a member of the original Team Avatar.