Suyin Beifong

"earth"

- I was ... more of a rebel. Mom wasn't too happy with how either of us turned out. When I was sixteen, I left home to explore the world. I sailed the seas on a pirate ship, joined a traveling circus for a while, and lived in a sandbender commune in a desert. It took me a while, but I finally realized what I was looking for was a family. So I bought this plot of land, found a brilliant architect who later became my husband, and created a place I could truly call home.

Suyin Beifong, or Su for short, is a dancer and the leader of Zaofu. As the daughter of Toph Beifong, Suyin is a powerful metalbender with many talents and skills. Although a troubled past strained her relationship with her older half-sister, Lin, Suyin is happily married to an architect named Baatar, with whom she has five children, and considers family of utmost importance.

Early life


Born six years after her half-sister, Lin, Suyin also inherited the earthbending prowess of her mother, Toph Beifong, and eventually mastered the art and its sub-skills. Having endured constant restriction during her own childhood, Toph gave Suyin and Lin much more freedom. However, Toph's carefree approach to raising the two led Lin and Suyin to act out more in hopes of getting her attention. Lin became a police officer while Suyin became a delinquent. At some point during 140 AG, Suyin became associated with members of the Terra Triad, to Lin's disapproval. Eventually, she was roped into aiding a robbery by driving the getaway car, only to be stopped by Lin. As Lin caught her with a metal cable, losing her cool, Suyin cut the line by metalbending her wrist guard, which snapped back at Lin and scarred her face. Afterwards, the two sisters were brought before a distraught Toph, who expressed her anger at them both. Not wanting Suyin to go to jail, Toph destroyed the police report and sent Suyin to live with her grandparents.

In 142 AG, at the age of sixteen, Suyin went to travel the world. Her adventures included sailing on a pirate ship, joining a traveling circus, and living in a sandbender commune. Eventually, she decided to settle down and start a family, and bought a large plot of land where, with the help of her future husband Baatar's architectural skills, she created the city of Zaofu. Suyin went on to have four sons and a daughter, as well as create a successful dance group. At some point, Toph began visiting Suyin and reconciled with her daughter, though they were both disappointed that Lin refused their invitation to do the same.

171 AG
After Harmonic Convergence, Suyin gave shelter to Varrick, who was on the run from Republic City, and her daughter, Opal, gained airbending abilities. Learning that other airbenders were emerging, Suyin sent a request to Avatar Korra to help train her daughter. Upon their arrival in the city, Team Avatar found Suyin rehearsing with her dance troupe for a performance to be held the following month, although the latter quickly ended practice when she noticed the team's presence. Aiwei quickly informed her that the Avatar had lied about how many people were in her group. To Suyin's surprise and delight, Korra confessed that Lin had also come to Zaofu. When asked by the Avatar how she knew Lin, Suyin revealed that the two were sisters, which Lin later clarified as half-sisters.

Suyin and the group ventured to the police airship, from which Lin had not yet disembarked. She hoped for a simple hello out of her half-sister after being able to see her for the first time in thirty years, but Lin bitterly asserted that she had nothing to say to her. Suyin claimed that she had been trying to mend relations, to which Lin responded by accusing Suyin of tearing the family apart, prompting Suyin to counter that Lin had kept it that way.

Desiring not to argue about the past, Suyin decided to bring Korra's group to her estate to meet her family, beginning with her twin sons Wei and Wing, who were in the process of playing a game they themselves had invented called power disc. When Wei scored on Wing, Suyin congratulated the former before saying she was proud of both of them. She next led them to her son Huan, who made art through metalbending, and asked him to meet the Avatar's group and his aunt. Finally, Suyin introduced them to an excited Opal, though when Lin grew impatient to leave with the airbender, Suyin described her half-sister as "the woman apparently trying to abduct [her]". Afterward, she explained that the rest of the group was set up for their stay, while insisting that Korra train Opal. A nervous Korra believed that Opal should get training at the Northern Air Temple, but Suyin remained insistent, believing that it could be done right at home. The Avatar ultimately relented, and tried to explain Lin's impatience by saying that four criminals were after the group. Suyin assured them that there was plenty of security around before telling them to prepare for dinner, saying that her chef would prepare an appetizing meal.

Just as they started dinner, Suyin's husband, Baatar, alerted her that he and their eldest son would have to skip on eating with them due to a major breakthrough in the remodeling of a tram station. Suyin let her husband head off, not desiring to stand in the way of success. She subsequently expressed what a blessing it was to have five children, to which Lin remarked that their mother said the same thing but never really meant it. Suyin later asked Korra about the search for new airbenders, to which the Avatar answered by explaining that she had recently freed a group of them from the Earth Queen's possession. The metalbender promptly chastised the queen, calling her a woman who believed she could whatever she wanted, and referring to the monarch's rule as outdated. She asked Korra what she thought about the monarchy, and after hearing that Korra had not thought much about it, Suyin advised her to gain an understanding of it, due to the evolving world, which she believed was reason enough for the queen to step aside. Lin responded by making a facetious comment about Suyin's apparent expertise in global affairs, to which Suyin challenged her sister to say what she wanted to say to her face. They were promptly interrupted by the arrival of Varrick and Zhu Li. Suyin explained to the group that Varrick was heading up the technology division. When Lin lashed out at her sister for harboring a criminal, Suyin defended the industrialist by saying that he did not deserve to be imprisoned for the rest of his life and reasoned that her own chef was once a pirate, declaring that people could change. Lin coldly stated that her half-sister had not changed at all and stormed out of the room.

After dinner, Suyin found Korra observing a model of Zaofu in her office, and explained why she built the city. Korra thanked her host for giving them a place to stay and apologized for Lin's behavior. When asked by Korra what had happened, the matriarch explained hers and Lin's difficult childhood and the many occupations she held before settling down. Though the Avatar commented that she had created the perfect life, Suyin remarked that it would have been as such if Lin had been a part of it, but she gave up any hope of reconciliation long ago. Korra attempted to mend the sisters' rift by asking Opal attempt to connect with her aunt but she was rudely sent away.

The following day, Suyin was displeased with Lin's outburst towards Opal. As Wei and Wing join them for a quick bite before their power disk match, they ask Korra if she could join, to which she confesses that she doesn't know how to metalbend. Surprised to hear that, Suyin offered to teach Korra herself, to which Korra eagerly accepted. As Korra quickly began adjusting to this new skill, Bolin approached Suyin and shyly asked Suyin to train him as well, which she happily agreed. Moments later, Lin approached Suyin, finally making her feelings heard. As Lin accused her sister of ruining their mother's career and still being a child, Suyin retorted by saying Lin's cold-nature is the reason she is still so alone, and why Tenzin ended their relationship. No longer able to keep calm, Lin attacked Suyin, quickly escalating into a full-on battle. Mid-way, Opal interfered, not wanting her family to fight. As Lin began to calm down, she collapsed from exhaustion. After Lin awoke hours later, refreshed and seemingly relieved of her anger, she began to reconcile with Suyin.

Personality
A direct opposite of Lin's uptight and blunt personality, Suyin is a more carefree and upbeat individual. She enjoys many hobbies as a means to express herself. She is also very open with her opinion, showing personal distaste for political control to revolve around royalty. She also has a deep love for family, even for her estranged half-sister. She is very much a humanist in her beliefs, seeing the potential in other people and encouraging them to pursue their passions and talents to the ultimate extent of their capabilities. She does a good job of this, especially in regards to encouraging her very diverse children and their respective interests; from her eldest son's engineering projects with her architect husband, to Huan's sculpting career, Wei and Wing's athletics, and her daughter Opal's airbending. In addition, Suyin believes in giving others a second chance at redemption, as she does with Varrick even though he is a wanted fugitive.

Realizing that her mother allowing her and Lin too much freedom when they were younger was the cause of many of her youthful troubles, she is more controlling and protective of her own children, similar to her own grandparents. She does however realise this when she allows Opal to leave home to train.

Abilities
Like her mother and half-sister, Suyin is a proficient earthbender, mastering the traditional style and is sub-skill of metalbending. In battle, she able immediately shifting between either style of utilize both in perfect unison. She was also skilled enough to take on Lin toe-to-toe and pressure her (although Lin was weakened beforehand). Her proficiency in metalbending even was able to construct an entire city out of metal. As a dancer, she is rather graceful, maintaining both her balance and posture while swinging down a metal cable in synchronization with her troupe. Using this skill in battle, she can seamlessly twist and maneuver through a barrage of earth projectiles with no wasted movement.

Trivia

 * Lin and Suyin are the second known half-siblings in the franchise, after Zuko and Azula and their younger half-sister Kiyi.
 * Neither Suyin nor Lin know the identities of their respective fathers.
 * Suyin is the first metalbending teacher of the Avatar.