A barely coherent ramble on the Beifongs being a family of people with an incredibly high ability to feel things

Toph

I think a lot of people really misinterpret Toph. They see her for her role as powerhouse. However, one of her key abilities is actually her ability to sense her surroundings with earthbending.

But that's not all. Toph is able to sense people's heartrates and tell when they are lying or not.

In fact, Toph is a surprisingly empathetic person. Despite her abrasive and harsh personality, she's surprisingly good at reading people and seems to have very high emotional intelligence. She's extremely good at identifying people's strengths and their weak points. Multiple times, she's able to successfully get under people's skin very efficiently.

Girl is using her empathy to bully people good for her.

Sure, she often uses a tough love approach, however I would argue that it's a self defence mechanism. Toph doesn't like being vulnerable, probably due to the fact that she was treated as weak and helpless when she was growing up. People with higher empathy or sensitivity tend to be percieved as weaker or more delicate, which is something Toph desperately wants to avoid. Toph also carried her parents' emotions and expectations of her for a very long time and it could stand to reason that she doesn't wnat to do that with anyone else.

I think I may make a longer post on Toph and her trauma surrounding her parents and how that affects her relationships and behaviours lol.

Lin

So... Lin is very similar to her mother in many ways. She also puts up a prickly wall of "tough love" to deal with her high sensitivity. However, she seems to absorb and internalise things that hurt her much more than Toph does.

Lin's emotional maturity is heavily stunted, most likely due to her difficulty with bonding with people. She never really allowed herself to grow past a certain point. She didn't grow into her empathy, therefore she feels things, but doesn't exactly know how to handle them. Repressing these feelings is a band aid solution, and we do see how dangerous them overflowing is.

However, on rare occasions we do see Lin allow herself to empathise with others. We see this particularly with Opal and Mako. However, with most people, Lin's guard is always up.

Lin is the textbook example of someone very sensitive who pushes people away out of the fear of getting hurt.

Suyin

I can see some people arguing that Suyin has pretty low empathy. Looking at her treatment of Lin, Kuvira and Baatar Jr. I think it's true that in her younger years, Suyin struggled with her feelings. I'd argue it is due to very high empathy actually. In the flashbacks, Su seems to mirror Lin's emotions back at her, perhaps unable to distinguish them from her own.

However, unlike Lin, Su grows as a person in her time away from Republic City. When we see her as an adult, she is very in tune with her emotions and also able to deal with other people's outbursts without internalising their feelings.

She has a very gentle way of speaking to people and is able to quickly pinpoint what they need to hear, as she does with a young Kuvira and with Bolin. She can make other's feel comfortable and safe. Perhaps due to her own turbulent upbringing.

However, Suyin is also heacily driven by her emotions. Her impulsivity can cloud her judgement, such as when she flew into a fit of rage at the idea of a guard betraying her city, or when she risked not only her own life, but that of her sons, and tried to impulsively save Zaofu feom Kuvira. She also still holds a shocking degree of sympathy for Kuvira, despite her initial anger at her ans her children's visible discomfort with Kuvira's presence.

Suyin feels things very strongly, and, despite getting better at managing her feelings, they still often overtake her.

Baatar Jr

It's interesting when a character who is characterised as a more "intellectual" type is driven primarily by their emotions. Despite being a man of science, Baatar Jr has a habit of disregarding logic completely.

He prioritises his relationship with Kuvira, he has a weird lil rivalry with Varrick, he's incredibly bitter when it comes to his relationship with his family. Baatar Jr is such an underrated character.

Huan

I think most artists are inherently sensitive people. And we very much like to express the things we feel.

Huan seems to use his art to process certain experiences, for example Harmonic Convergence. He's quite sensitive when it comes to his creations. He also values other people's art too and perfers "raw emotional power" over quality.

Opal

I think a lot of people pick up on Opal's empathy on the first watch, especially when you see her interact with Lin. Opal is also very quick to notice that Su still has a soft spot for Kuvira. She also sets boundaries with Bolin very quickly and efficiently and I would credit this to Suyin's parenting.

But Opal is very much like her mother in the sense of having her judgement clouded by her emotions. Especially when it comes to the Kuvira situation. Her strong emotions often act to her detriment, as she almost gets baited into attacking Kuvira and her unchecked anger at Bolin arguably made him retract further into Kuvira's army. This is hardly a new thing for Opal, as we see her lashing out even as a child.

Wei and Wing

Splitting what little screentime the twins have between them yields scarce, but interesting characterisation. Wing seems to be more outwardly emotional, throwing a tantrum when he loses a game and cheering when excited about sparring Korra. While Wei, much like Lin and Toph before him, seems to put up a bit of a prickly wall, for example when he's antagonising Bolin.

The twins are very closely tied to their mother and it wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to say that they internalise her emotions. Like when Wei yells at Kuvira during the negotiations.

The twins are also very open about their upset at Opal leaving. It's honestly sweet to se that Suyin raised her children to be able to express their emotions rather healthily.

Uh. Anyway. This post was mainly meant to toss a pattern I've noticed out into the open. I might make some more posts elaborating on particular aspects of it (i also wanna make one on kuvira and how she's quite the opposite of the Beifongs). So uh. If you have any suggestions of topics i should start with,just shoot lol.

ATLA and LOK did an excellent job with the goths and emos actually

TLOK as text posts

Bryke really missed the ball with not giving us a spin off series called Keeping Up With The Beifongs. That some top tier television I would watch religiously.

I know I've said this before, but I cannot get over the way we were robbed of a deeper exploration of the complex dynamics within the Metal Clan. Like give me Baatar Jr. with some slow simmering resentment for the twins for being the metalbending golden boys Suyin always wanted. Give me Opal jealous that Kuvira was regarded as formidable—a successor, a protege—and Kuvira jealous that Opal was regarded as precious—a loved one, a daughter. Give me Huan retreating into his art as a means of escaping the family legacy of excellence in combat. Give me the ever changing alliances between the siblings (plus Kuvira), and the profound love they all hold for one another despite all the messiness between them.

Beifong family headcanons bc why not:

- Su taught Baatar how to dance. He realized how much she liked to dance and all he could do was a waltz, so one day he asked her what her fav dances were and to teach him so they could dance together. It took a while, but eventually he got there, Su loved every second of it

- Huan, despite being artistically inclined, cannot draw. He tried really hard but it always looks like it was drawn by a middle schooler. He’s also really into music.

- Opal always wished she had a sister and after Kurvira arrived she thought she finally got one, only to realize that she was the exact opposite of Opal and would rather hang out with her brothers. So, whenever she wanted to have a tea party she roped Wei and Wing into it, claiming that since she was their big sister they had to do what she said. (little did she know that they actually enjoyed it)

- Most people can’t differentiate between the twins and they’ve used it to their advantage several times. Suyin only knows about four times that they’ve done this.

- Also I feel like Su is the type of person to sing in the shower and also having a relatively good voice, like she’s not bad but karaoke is the only time she’d get away with it.

- Whereas Lin has an amazing singing voice, but rarely uses it.

i just want lin to be close to her niblings. like opal coming over for dinner weekly (sometimes with the krew), the twins teaching her to play power disk, discussing art techniques and history with huan, finding an understanding with bataar. forming an unspoken pact with bataar sr to keep the peace in the family and look after the kids when she can. maybe they all show up on her doorstep one night when they just rly need to get away from suyin and zoufu. i want lin to be happy with her family the end

Toph: I love my grandchildren equally: Opal… and, uh… the rest…

Suyin: 🤨

Toph: I’m pretty sure one of them has an “h” in their name

FicTitle Little Pain

If "Little Pain" isn't a 5+1 fic about siblings, I should turn my writer's card in at the window and exit quietly.

Kya & Bumi complain about Tenzin, who overhears from the hallway.

Lin has to choose between finishing her report and picking Su up from school.

Mako comes back from a job with the Triple Threats. Bolin asks him why his wrist is wrapped, but Mako lies.

Teenaged Huan tries to help the twins with their metalbending, but it does not go well.

Eska and Desna plan for him to travel alone to the Fire Nation for negotiations when they realize they've never been separated so long before.

+1 On his 15th birthday, Rohan runs away from his own party when no one will tell him why Aunt Lin did not come. Jinora, Ikki, and Meelo find him and tell him everything the adults won't.

Random headcanon time again:

Huan was the first of the Beifong children to visit Kuvira in prison. He brought a pai sho board with him. They didn’t actually talk, just played quietly the entirely time. Which Kuvira was actually very thankful for. After being insulted and shouted at by both the prison guards and other prisoners all day, an hour or so of comfortable and quiet companionship was fantastic. It’s not until the third or fourth visit that Huan finally asks her why she did it, and Kuvira tells him everything.

After that they would chat idly during their visits, while still playing pai sho together.

Anyway, something, something almost all the Beifongs we see in atla and tlok seeming to be very sensitive and highly emotional (all dealing with it with varying degrees of success) . Something something seismic sense.

Remind me to make a post breaking down this aspect of Toph, Lin, Su and Su's kids. Fucked up lil family of superfeelers.

Do you ever think about the evolution of the Beifong family?

When we first meet them, they are introduced as a rich family, universally known for their wealth and nothing else.

And then, in LoK, we see a family of skilled benders, architects, artists, founders and defenders of a technologically advanced city, all of whom are freaking awesome.

And of course this change wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Toph.

The Kuvira childhood vibes just hit me with a cute headcanon that expands nicely what I already developed here.

So I've always believed that little Kuvira was a prodigy who just needed positive reinforcements and the right environment for her to thrive. She was a quick learner, and once something genuinely caught her attention, she would fully devote herself to it. That's how she became part of the Zaofu troupe, as their youngest member, no less. Her interest initially came from her efforts to emulate Suyin because she realized she felt very happy when Suyin paid her attention and lavished her with praise. So, being the troupe one of the matriarch's favorite pet projects, Kuvira decided she wanted to find out what was all about. She had also heard Huan talk in length about it at the dinner table with enthusiasm. Her curiosity piqued, she asked for an audition, and like the little infuriating gremlin that she could be, she ended up stealing the spotlight from the lead dancer with her raw talent. That didn't endear her with the troupe, instigated by the lead dancer who didn't take well that a kid could outstage them. Suyin, fearing the ostracizing would reverse the progress with Kuvira who was finally leaving her taciturn and moody attitude behind, was ready to take her out of the troupe when she realized that the girl was completely unaware of the silly drama. During breaks, while the other dancers got together to gossip, Kuvira would join Huan, who, along with the stage hands, were in charge of the metal props the troupe used as part of their performance. Kuvira would sit down, and while she shared her snacks with him, she would watch Huan work as she listened to the explanations to his work, because despite his age, he took his art very seriously. Half of the time, she wouldn’t understand what he meant, but it didn't matter because she enjoyed listening to him and he liked that someone in the family aside from his mom took interest in his work, and they would end up coming up with even more grander and weirder ideas together. After a prank that Su suspected had been orchestrated by the stage hands and her kids, the diva dancer quit the troupe, and after that, the practices became drama free. The kids continued to hang out together until Kuvira joined the Zaofu Guard, and so they ended up drifting apart. But unbeknownst to Huan, Kuvira always kept in her pocket a small metal badgermole that Huan had sculpted for her during the troupe practices as a good luck charm, as reminder of the good times they shared together.

Huan beifong headcannon

A/n: more huan content is here

⚠️: fem reader, kids and marriage are said

You stated to date with out you brothers knowing

They hated the fact you were old enough to date amd fall in love

The wanted to be young and there little sister forever

So the moment they saw you kiss huan they freaked

Bolin passed out

mako almost burned his scarf off in shock

So that is how the found out and yall are not allow to show PDA in front of them at all of you want to keep you brothers alive

If yall marry and have kids they will be ok with it but still they are protective

Have a good day and night 🌙

Pixie out 🧚‍♀️