Headscratchers / The Legend Of Korra Former Cast

Headscratchers pertaining to characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender from The Legend of Korra. Return to the index for more.

Toph's husband/lover?

• Toph's daughter also has the last name Beifong? Unless there was some cultural precedent in-story involving women using their birth surnames when married, Toph would either have to be a single parent or she and the father just must have not found marriage appealing and never bothered before moving in together. Any mention of this?
  • There has been no mention whatsoever of who Chief Beifong's father is, much less what his relationship with Toph was. In fact, Bryan went so far as to pretend he couldn't hear the fans at SDCC screaming at him about it. It's possible that calling her by the name Beifong was just a way to identify her as Toph's offspring without giving us the father's name. Alternatively, he might not have had a last name at all. Think about it: who else in the original show had one? Not even Zuko and Azula were given full names. Last names might have been a fairly recent culture addition.
  • Maybe the distribution of last names is not about who's the man, but whose family is more powerful/rich. The Beifongs are extremely wealthy and influential, so the person who marries her marries into her family rather than her marrying into his.
  • Bear in mind that the Beifong family is EXTREMELY wealthy and prestigious. Factor in that Toph is an only child, and you can kinda see why they would want her husband to marry into their family, and not the other way around.
  • Maybe she married her paternal cousin?
  • While the Earth Kingdom is heavily Chinese influenced, the creators have taken bits and pieces of other East Asian cultures to create the various cultures in Avatar. And in Real Life there is cultural precedent in Japan for men to take their wife's name if she's of a higher social class so it could exist in the Earth Kingdom... at least theoretically.
  • Considering that is also prominent in Chinese culture (for a guy to take up the family name of his wife if said wife came from a very prominent family, it's highly probable this is what happened) just another sign that the createrd did do their research.
  • Alternatively Toph could have simply decided she was keeping her original family name or her daughter could have taken her mother's name.
  • Viewers Are Morons
  • I think this quote fits the situation best:
    The Doctor: Amelia, from now on I shall be leaving the kissing duties to the brand new Mr Pond.
    Rory: No, I'm not Mr Pond. that's not how it works.
    The Doctor: Yes. it is.
    Rory: ...yeah it is.
  • Most people in the Avatar world don't have surnames. Only aristocratic Earth Kingdom families like Toph's, and the Sato family that will be in Korra, do. So if Toph's husband didn't have a surname, then of course Chief Beifong inherited her mother's surname.
  • Originally Chinese surnames were matrilineal. But even if they drew from later patrilineal Chinese culture, if Toph married into another surnamed family, it would not be unheard of for her husband to take her name if it had greater status, particularly if he was not a firstborn son, and had no burden to carry on his family name.
  • Plus, it's Toph. who's gonna tell her she has to change her last name?
  • I would SO love to see someone try.
  • There's also the possibility that it's as the OP mentioned, and Toph was a single parent. It wouldn't be out of character for Toph to never get married and scratch her itch with a boyfriend every now and then, including when she decided she wanted a daughter and heir. (Obviously, they can't say this on a kids' show, but it could have been left open for this reason.) For those who subscribe to the "Toph was gay" theory: Toph having a female partner wouldn't preclude boinking a guy to have a baby. (Personally, I imagine Toph as bisexual and not having a permanent partner in her life.)
  • Perhaps she is a widow? Maybe he died of an illness, or maybe he died protecting Toph or something.
  • The real headscratcher is why this section even exists, considering Toph is one of the few people to have a last name meaning Lin having the same last name indicates absolutely nothing at all!
  • Seconded. She would get Toph's name by default.
  • Lin may have simply chosen to take up her mother's legacy whether or not it is her birth name, maybe as a tribute in the event Toph died doing her duty (we don't know her ultimate fate). Or perhaps it's simply the name the general public knows her by because of Toph's fame. Again, the fact that the Bei Fongs are a powerful and well-known name helps.
  • Or it's possible that Toph adopted a kid. Given how much of a ringer Lin is for Toph's mom, this might be unlikely but not impossible.
  • The Duke is Lin's father. I'm just throwing that out.
  • I'm going to disagree with all of you. And point out that obviously Toph willed Lin into existence from the Earth with the sheer power of her bending.
  • For what it's worth, Colin Heck jokingly claims that "Lin’s dad is Azula. It’s really complicated."
  • In The Metal Clan, Su Jin reveals that neither she nor Lin ever knew their fathers.
  • "Operation Beifong" sheds a little light on this: Toph had a relationship with some guy named Kanto (she doesn't specify if they actually married or not), and they had Lin together, but it didn't work out and they ended up separating, early enough that Lin has no memory of him. True to her character, she doesn't elaborate any further than that. Still no info on Suyin's father, other than that he wasn't Kanto.
  • In light of the above two points, the most likely explanation for why Toph's children were called Beifong was that Toph either quickly divorced the fathers of her children or never married them.

Why does Katara still have her necklace?

• Considering she has an adult daughter - named after her mother no less - wouldn't it have made sense for her to pass it on, as it was bequeathed down to her?
  • It's entirely possible that her daughter received her own from the man who married her, since you know, those necklaces are 'betrothal' necklaces. Since Aang technically wasn't Water Tribe, he might not have made one for Katara when they got married and so she kept hers, knowing that her daughter would one day receive one of her own.
  • That, and betrothal necklaces are explicitly a Northern tradition. Don't forget that Katara had no idea what her necklace symbolised until Yugoda mistook her for being engaged in the North Pole. She didn't even know her grandmother came from the North Pole to begin with. To Katara, the necklace is a memento of her mother and nothing more.
  • Keep in mind that the only boy Katara's age in her village was her brother since all her other suitors had left to join the fighting. Katara likely was never informed of the meaning behind her mother's necklace since she didn't come of age until after her romantic prospects had left. Her father had seen fit to give his mother's necklace to his wife after all.
  • Also, older Katara is shown wearing a second necklace that hangs down more. It could very well have been from Aang.
  • Plus actually, Word of God says it's a tradition in both tribes
  • Is it Word of God? I couldn't find a source. In that case, the only reason Katara wouldn't have known about NWT betrothal necklaces when the necklaces were a SWT tradition as well is if the SWT necklaces were very different (hanging down further, different carvings, etc.) Which would explain Katara's new necklace. Senna is not seen wearing any sort of necklace anyway, so maybe SWT women don't get them. Besides, Katara would have kept the necklace from the first series in memory of her mother and grandmother.
  • Either way, the main reason Kya II doesn't have it is because she appears to be single (and either a lesbian or a lesbian-leaning bisexual, according to the comics/Word of God). So she doesn't have much of a reason to have a betrothal necklace, and who knows if there's a specific tradition for same-sex couples in either Water Tribe.

Where's Katara?

• When Yakone was being put on trial, only Aang, Toph, and Sokka were there, and so I would guess they were the only ones in the Republic City. Zuko I guess would be too busy being all Fire Lord-ish to be in the city too often (seeing as it is a different nation), but Katara's not anywhere. And Suki would be likely to be there, too, seeing as the Kyoshi Warriors seem to have become bodyguards to important people already by the time of the Promise, so how come we see nothing of her either?
  • Busy taking care of the kids, obviously. Not sure how old Tenzin is, but this incident is set more than 40 years ago.
  • Tenzin would have been about eight during Yakone's trial. Bumi and Kya were probably a little older.
  • Given the nature of the trial and what Yakone was accused of, i don't really blame her. For all we know, she's directly responsible for the knowledge of Bloodbending being let out of the bag, given she was one of two people who even knew it existed (That we know of) and the other one was likely killed shortly after her debut episode, or at the very least wouldn't be alive at the time of Yakone's trial.
  • Still, you'd think she'd want to accompany Aang just in case he proved incapable of countering Yakone's bloodbending, which he wasn't unless he went into the Avatar State. Katara, meanwhile, simply countered Hama's bloodbending with her own.
  • Keep in mind, though, Katara can only bloodbend during a full moon. So even if she was present at the trial, she wouldn't have been able to counter Yakone's bloodbending any better than Aang could. In fact, since Katara has no Avatar State to help her out, she would have been just as helpless as Sokka, Toph and everyone else there.
  • One of two persons? The Gaang knew about bloodbending, that's three more people. Zuko found out about it, and so did the guy who get bended. And then there's the fact that Hama calls it bloodbending in front of a larger group of people ("Congratulations, Katara, you're a bloodbender.") The tale probably spread Urban Legend style, and some dumb waterbender kids tried it out, and lo and behold, it worked, probably with bad consequences. The story spread further, and it was declared an absolute taboo.

Was Aang ok with the statue?

• That is, is a huge construction. Obviously must have required many public funds. Did not occur to him to say "No, please, that is way too."? Aang does not seem the type of person who spends public money on a huge statue of himself instead of a new hospital. The same applies to the temple. Aang had four temples perfectly good, and instead decided to build a new one.
  • It was donated by the Fire Nation, so it's their money being spent, not the city's money. As for the expense itself, there are statues everywhere, of nearly everyone. Aang just got the big one. Plus there's a museum under it. Put in a tip jar for reimbursement. His construction of a new Air Temple is a matter of practicality. "Republic City is in trouble? I'll be there in three days." He's one of its leaders. He needs to stay close. Besides, the other temples are horribly dilapidated from a century of misuse, occupied by other groups in one case, and difficult to access for non-Airbenders, which at the time was everyone else.
  • The new air temple is also a focus for re-establishing Air Nomad culture and traditions, which would hopefully eventually lead to the birth of new Air Benders in the future.
  • Also, given the fact that the training gates are stated to be 2000 years old, it's possible that the Air Temple there already existed, but was a minor one, and therefore wasn't mentioned in the original series.
  • Or they just moved them.
  • It's called Avatar Aang Memorial Island. Do we know it was built before his death?
  • Still find it hard to imagine the city council or the Fire Lord Zuko saying:
    "Ok, projects in which we invest our money:
    1) Children's Hospital.
    2) Public Library.
    3) Monolithic statue in the shape of my father / best friend.
    Yes, number 3 is definitely the best option."
  • Yes, making statues always means not funding something desperately needed and no one would EVER agree to it. That's why statues don't exist in real life.
  • Those things aren't mutually exclusive. Besides, ever heard of the Statue of Liberty?
  • Right. It seems extravagant to use public money on monuments these days because public money is tight, but such wasn't always the case. The United States and France found Mount Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty, respectively, worthy of spending money on when they had the funds. It's fairly clear that Republic City went through an especially prosperous era near the end of Aang's life when they could afford to erect most of the fancy statues and public spaces, before falling into trouble with the rise of poverty and the bending triads. And I'm sure Aang did ensure that easy access to such things as libraries and hospitals was included in the city planning from the beginning.
  • Also remember this is a world where there are thousands (if not millions) of people capable of moving large amounts of dirt/rock on their own, so maybe it was less of "we will spend a third of our budget to build a Huge monument" and more of "Hey we want to build a statue for Aang, you guys bring a dozen of earth-benders to hire for a few minutes/hours please", even if it was made of Metal, I could easily see Toph giving the metalbenders instructions of it "OKAY WEAKLINGS IF YOU WANT TO BE PART OF MY POLICE FORCE YOU MUST BE ABLE TO BEND METAL, SO MAKE A HUGE STATUE OF TWINKLE TOES OR GO BACK WITH YOUR MOMMIES!!!"
  • Things like those statues are sometimes referred to as "public works". In the past in the US, during the great depression, the government commissioned public works whose construction helped provide jobs for the unemployed. They were usually things like highways, railroads, and dams, but large-ass statues could also work. So even if it sounds extravagant, it might just be worth it in the big picture.
  • I know that you said "usually" but it should be stressed that the US government dumped a lot of money into the arts—painting murals, writing and performing in plays, etc. I don't recall learning about any statues of that size, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were one or two floating around.
  • According to the Blu-ray commentary, Toph built that statue single-handedly by herself.
  • Which raises the question, how long did it take her and how many tries. The thing is detailed, including the arrow tattoos, and she is blind.
  • We're talking about the same girl who created a replica of Ba Sing Se out of sand in two seconds. Aang's statue is bigger, but Toph has shown the kind of attention to detail necessary to carve something like that.
  • God is clearly lying, mistaken or leaving out details. Toph might have had the raw power necessary to make something that huge, it's hard to believe but possible. What isn't possible is that she could 'see' his tattoos, beard and likely his clothing with her echolocation. As good as it is she's clearly fairly limited in the details she gets. For example she clearly can't see the wanted posters which should be about as visible to her as tattoos and given that she clearly couldn't see Aang's Airball in 'The Blind Bandit' and just spam the area with rocks suggests she couldn't even sense that. At the very least she needed help from someone who could see to get the details right.
  • Word of God also states that the statue was donated by the Fire Nation. Like the Statue of Liberty, it probably arrived in pieces, and Toph just assembled them.
  • It's also not that hard to, you know, just describe the tattoo. An arrow is not that complicated.
  • No reason why all of the above couldn't be correct. The Fire Nation donated the raw materials, Toph fashioned it into Aang's general shape, and her metalbending police underlings did the detailwork.
  • She was able to detect the metal found in blue tattoo ink.

Spirit Iroh

• As wonderful as it was seeing Iroh again, something about his appearance in the Spirit World just bugs me: Iroh might be happily living out his afterlife serving tea to spirits, but there's no mention of Lu Ten at all. Wasn't he ever reunited with his son?
  • The Spirit World is not an afterlife. By the time Iroh ascended to the Spirit World, Lu Ten probably would have already been reincarnated into his his next life unless souls can hold off reincarnation for a time. Iroh wasn't reincarnated because he ascended to the Spirit World, which probably only souls with a strong connection to the Spirit World can do.

Aang's status as of "Darkness Falls"

• After Unalaq and Vaatu destroyed Raava and severed the past connection of the Avatar lives, is Aang now Deader than Dead or does his spirit still exist but he's no longer able to communicate with Korra? Cause permanently destroying the main character of the previous series seems incredibly brutal.
  • I see two possibilities for that. If reincarnation is the standard afterlife on the Avatarverse, then Korra's soul is Aang's soul. There is no "destroying Aang's soul" without Korra's soul being killed in the process. In this case, Raava's influence just kept the memories and personalities of past Avatars "alive" so they could communicate with the next incarnations. Now, if reincarnation is something exclusive to the Avatar, and every individual one still has its own "soul", then what probably happened is just Aang's spirit moving on to the same fate of every dead soul, be it an afterlife we never heard about, or just plain nothingness.
  • Considering that subjecting Aang (and every previous Avatar) to being completely gone would be a huge dick move, I personally like to think that it's just Korra's connection to them that was severed. The scene was pretty ambiguous, and I guess in practical terms it wouldn't make much of a difference, though.
  • How I understand it is this: We're looking at two entirely separate "Avatar Cycles". Avatar Cycle #1 began with Wan, and ended when Unalaq/Vaatu ripped Raava out of Korra and pummeled her into oblivion, obliterating the record of every Avatar from Wan to Aang - rather like taking a hard drive out of a computer and then smashing the hard drive into pieces with a hammer. Avatar Cycle #2 began when Korra and the restored Raava fused together again just as Harmonic Convergence ended, rather like if we took the computer from the previous example and reinserted a new hard drive of the exact same model and specs as the destroyed hard drive. This puts Korra in the same position Wan was 10,000 years earlier as the First Avatar of a new Avatar Cycle - thus, the past lives are gone forever.

How did Toph read reports?

• When Toph became police chief she would need to spend a lot of time reading reports from the officers in the field and finances for the budget but she's blind and never showed any reason that she now knows how to read anything so how does she keep everything together?
  • There are many different ways that this may have been resolved.
  • By that time, all reports had to be written in Braille.
  • They have a special kind of ink that has dirt or any other source of earth in it.
    • There are many kinds of ink in Real Life that are made with various types of metal or coal. Pencil is also an option, as graphite can be found in a mineral form in nature.
  • Toph had all reports read out loud to her. If anyone one lied or left out any details, she would then used her own Living Lie Detector abilities to get the truth out of them.
  • She had an assistant that went through the reports for her while she goes out on the streets to kick ass.

"First Metalbending Avatar"

• According to Suyin, Korra is the first Avatar to learn metalbending. Is it me or is the idea that Aang didn't learn metalbending something hard to believe? I get that he had trouble the most with earthbending but I always thought that he would have been the first in line to learn metalbending from Toph when the war ended.
  • It was probably pretty low on his priorities list all things considered. He only learned the other elements because they were required of him to reach his potential as an Avatar and to stop the fire lord. After that, his job would've been to be more of a political and spiritual leader. The entire world was just recovering from a war that lasted over 100 years, and the one they looked up to first for guidance would've been Aang for relieving them of such a burden. On top of that, assuming Bumi is around his late-50s/early-60s, that means that Aang and Katara would've married and started their family a mere decade or so after winning the war.
  • Plus, his resistance with Earthbending probably had something to do with it. Earthbending by itself is taking a stubborn element, and bending it to your will. However, with Metalbending, you literally have to sense tiny tiny pieces of earth in the metal, and bend those to your will in addition to keeping up that sense. All things considered, for Aang, that would have been an even harder process than learning to Earthbend in the first place... and who'd be willing to go through that process again, much less have it be harder, especially if he didn't have to?
  • You assume Aang is even capable of metal bending. Yes, he's the Avatar but that just gives him a lot of power and the ability to bend all the elements, it doesn't mean he has all the related sub-skills as well. Like any bender the Avatar likely has natural affinities and blocks for different kinds of bending. We never see Korra lava bending even though one of her best friends can and it's basically an 'I just won this fight' move.

"Aang and achieving Flight"

• During this run; specifically the 3rd season, we are finally and formally given Airbending's specialty/advanced/secret techniques: astral projection (which technically in a way, was demonstrated in the original series by Aang himself, who like his granddaughter was exceptionally in tune spiritually) and unassisted flight. The requirements for flight as it were, is the one thing that according to Avatar Yangchen is all but impossible for an Airbender who is also the Avatar; complete and total detachment from the world- to enter the void and become the wind itself. In a sense, this is total enlightenment, to see the world and the universe it inhabits from a vantage point that cannot be understood if you are part of it, which naturally is the point of being the Avatar (to be of the world, so as to want to protect it of course). It's a small detail, but if one were to re-watch the climax of Crossroads of Destiny at the end of Book 2 for ATLA; the keen eyed will notice that this is the first and effectively, only time Aang enters the Avatar State and floats without an Air Sphere forming around him. Naturally, this is after he seems to have successfully accepted Guru Pathik's lesson on the final chakra and let go of everything when the situation got dire. Then of course, he gets shot by Azula and everything goes to hell, but after that; even in the final battle with his full connection to the Avatar State restored, he only flies thanks to an Air Sphere again. So for that instant, that very brief instant, did Aang let go of everything - including Katara - and fly? If so, does that mean an Airbender can lose that ability simply by gaining an attachment once again?
  • I'd say yes. He had finally let go, but seemed to allow himself to get reattached. With Zaheer it'd be harder for him since P'Li is dead, but with Katara and his friends still alive, it was easy for Aang to allow himself to reattach.
  • Notice how, after the climactic battle of "Enter The Void," Zaheer's floating above the ground... until Ming-Hua mentions P'Li, and he drops back to the ground. That state of detachment that allows flight might not have to be a constant, permanent thing; if not, Aang could have let go in that moment, and all he needed to reattach was the choice to do so.
  • Correct. I'd imagine flight, as awesome as it is, would suck if there was no way to stop flying. So by dropping all attachments, you fly and by reattaching yourself, you come down to the ground. It's actually pretty simple in that regard. The challenge to flight would actually being able to release all earthly attachments; and why it remained a myth is that even for Airbenders, there are things in life you like and love; such as a marital spouse, favorite food, life, etc. To release all earthly attachments would be to forsake all of that for a power. Zaheer lost everything and Aang was in a state of "damned if you do, damned if you don't." so they entered the void and became wind.

Katara and Toph too old to fight?

• I would have found Toph's explanation about their absence incredibly far-fetched but not impossible, if not for one thing... Zuko's a few years older than they are and was perfectly capable of fighting and willing to fight in Season 3! Asking us to forget things like how the 100+-year-old Bumi was still a force to be reckoned with and the White Lotus' team of Old Masters in the original series was a pretty tall order, but this is a different series; if it establishes that people of a certain age can't fight, fine... but if Zuko isn't too old to fight in this world, why would Toph and Katara be?
  • Age does not affect everyone the same way. There are 100-year-olds who run marathons, and 70-year-olds who can't walk to the bathroom without help. Zuko and Bumi are exceptions, not the rule. "A geriatric can fight" does not translate into, "All geriatrics can fight."
  • Also, "capable" and "willing" are two different things. It's shown pretty clearly that Toph is perfectly capable of fighting if she really wants to...it's just that she doesn't. After all she's old and it's hard on her body. Same is probably true of Katara.
  • It would have been nice to have a throwaway line to the aging different bit, like "Guess that old fart Bumi actually managed to beat me at something." Or "Maybe I shoulda tried that onion-banana juice".
  • What would be the point of that? The show gives its explanation very clearly already. It's not going to beat its audience over the head with it, just like it doesn't beat its audience over the head with most other things.
    • I doubt Toph would admit that Bumi was better than her even if it did turn out to be true. (More to the point, I don't think there ever was a sense of competition between them in-universe, so her saying that would only make sense to the viewers.)
  • Toph specifically said that her back was killing her after her underground stealth attack, something she could've easily pulled off without a problem as a child. In her case, it's not just 'I don't want to fight anymore', it's also 'my body literally can't handle it anymore'.
  • As far as Katara, she's referred to almost exclusively in LoK as the world's best healer. Whether or not she's physically capable is up for debate, but all evidence points to her becoming more pacifistic since ATLA, and after the life she's lived who can blame her.
  • Katara had three children, and Toph had two. Childbirth can also be very, very hard on a body.
  • Also, there's the simple fact of life that men are, in general, more hardwired for physical prowess than women are. That, and Zuko's entire character boils down to "Never give up on anything no matter how hard it is."
  • Zuko gets put down pretty quickly by Ghazan without lava bending enter the equation, so it isn't as if he put up much of a fight. Perhaps they all have different reasons as to why they don't fight: Zuko is eager to enter the fray but is hindered by age, Toph remains powerful but wants to leave things to the newer generation, and Katara is perhaps a combination of the two.

Tenzin's name

• Why did Aang decide to name his son Tenzin? I've only just learned from an unrelated source that Tenzin Gyatso is the Dalai Lama's name, but even with that in mind, does it hold the same significance in-universe? Was "Tenzin" Monk Gyatso's first name, as well? His other two children have obvious connections to people who were important to he and Katara, so why not just name Tenzin "Gyatso" instead?
  • Maybe he liked the name Tenzin? Maybe Katara liked the name? Maybe it was the name of a friend of theirs? Who knows? You don't have to name your children after your friends and loved one, none of the others did.
  • Except it's clearly what Aang and Katara had intended to do. They named Kya after Katara's mother and Bumi after Aang's childhood friend, and Tenzin is supposed to connect to Monk Gyatso out-of-universe.
  • If Gyatso was the last name, then of course Aang wouldn't name him that. Kya and Bumi are first names. And again, just because you name some of your children after friends and loved ones doesn't mean you have to do that to all of them.

So NOT proud of you!

• During season 3, someone in the Beifong family reveals that part of the reason Lin became a police officer was to make her mother proud, but that Toph never approved of this because she didn't want Lin to be following in her footsteps. But why would Toph feel that way? Being a cop is a pretty big deal, and there was never any indication that she didn't want to take the position since she invented it. Why would she be disappointed in Lin for aspiring to be like her?
  • 1) Toph wanted her kids to discover themselves not mimic her 2) both Suyin and Toph herself mention she's proud of Lin, it's just her distant attitude when they were growing up gave both the girls the impression Toph was disappointed in them. Toph is bad at communicating her emotions.

What happened to Suki?

• The intro for the first episode includes an image of her with the rest of Team Avatar, but to my recollection, she's never mentioned in the show itself...What happened to her? Did she stay together with Sokka? Why isn't she ever mentioned?
  • Frankly, I'd imagine she's not mentioned for reasons Azula isn't mentioned: They're going to wait until they figure out what happens to the character or what they will make of the character in the original series comics before they try tying them into Korra.
    • But Korra is over at this point. And haven't the Avatar comics been out for a while now? If they had the intention of following up on Suki, why wouldn't they have done it before the series ended?
  • Well, there's no reason to assume that they'd part with each other, since they seemed pretty close at the end of the original show, and as far as I know there's nothing else that explicitly contradicts the idea. I'd guess that Suki stayed with Sokka. Although, in that case, I do find it a tad odd that it's not mentioned whether or not Sokka had kids.
  • Does Sokka have to have kids?