"Come on, show a little more backbone. It's time the benders of this city displayed some strength and unity against these Equalists."
— Lin to the United Republic Council in "And the Winner Is...".
Chief Lin Beifong, the daughter of Toph Beifong, is the head of Republic City's Metalbending Police Force.[2] Even though her mother taught AvatarKorra's previous incarnation how to earthbend, Lin has no special affection for the new Avatar. Korra's reckless ways left one of Republic City's streets in ruin, making Lin view her as the biggest threat the city had faced in recent times.[3] However, this changed when Amon and his Equalists made their public appearance and openly challenged the benders of the world.[4]
Born to Toph Beifong two decades after the War, Lin Beifong inherited the earthbending prowess of her mother, eventually mastering the art and its subskill, metalbending. As an adult, she became the Chief of Police of Republic City, where she stands at the head of the Metalbending Police Force.
Since her mother was friends with Avatar Aang, Lin and Tenzin knew each other since childhood. According to Tenzin, she got along "famously" with his father. Earlier in her life, she dated Tenzin, but the two eventually drifted apart. The relationship was broken completely after Pema confessed her love for the airbender. According to Tenzin, Lin then unsuccessfully tried to throw Pema in jail.[4]
When Korra arrived in Republic City, she was subsequently arrested and brought before Chief Lin Beifong. Tenzin eventually came to exempt the young Avatar of the charges; however, Lin made it clear that she wanted Korra out of the city. The next day, she attended a press conference during which Korra announced herself as the Avatar to Republic City. At that time, the new Avatar was also asked if she would be working with Chief Beifong, a question to which she didn't reply.[2]
Lin later encountered Korra again at a party hosted by CouncilmanTarrlok, where she remained unimpressed with the Avatar, stating that Korra had done absolutely nothing to deserve the city's praise.[5]
When the United Republic Council was planning to shut down the Pro-bendingArena after Amon's threat, Lin entered the City Hall and agreed with Korra, demanding that the council show backbone. In exchange for keeping the arena open, the chief agreed to provide heavy security for the event. This agreement convinced the council to leave the arena open. Tenzin encountered Lin later and tried to provide her protection, but she demanded that she not be babysat, insisting she could take care of herself. She then ignored Korra's thanks for agreeing with her in the council meeting and walked away.
Lin worked on establishing detailed security for the event, and finally agreed to bury an old hatchet and work together with Tenzin. The two exchanged some conversation during the match as the Wolfbats won a controversial victory, mostly after Korra won her tie-breaker match with Tahno. Lin remarked that she couldn't believe that level-headed Aang was reincarnated into Korra, whom she described to be "tough as nails". Tenzin then commented that Korra reminded him of Lin at that age, and that he believed they would get along if she would give her a chance.
Lin metalbending the cables from the spools on her back.
Unfortunately, the Equalists came prepared, and Lin's security proved to be almost useless. After the match, the Equalists attacked the two with electrified gloves, rendering them unconscious. When they came to, Amon was attempting to escape and Korra was chasing after him. Seeing the Avatar fall after her waterbending lift came up short, Lin jumped into action and used her cables to save Korra. She then lifted her up to the roof of the arena, allowing Korra to fight the Equalists.
Once she joined the Avatar on the roof, Lin was electrified again by the Lieutenant, but managed to stay up and contend with the Equalists. Just as the chief attached her cables to the Equalists' airship, however, Korra began to fall through the Bending Arena's glass ceiling, prompting Lin to let go of the airship and use the cables to once again save Korra. Korra thanked her, and then the police chief expressed her regret for allowing Amon to play her for a fool.[4]
Lin is a tough and uncompromising police chief, Tenzin himself describing her as "challenging". She makes it clear when she's irritated or dislikes someone, being abrasive, especially towards Tenzin. She apprehends anyone who breaks the law, regardless of their intent, as she was quick to condemn the actions of Korra when the Avatar destroyed public and private property in an attempt to thwart the actions of the Triple Threat Triad. She believes that the only way to maintain peace and stability in Republic City is through the use of military might, and works hard to enforce the city's laws,[6] and feels that Korra may potentially compromise all of this.[1] For this reason, she tends to hold a low opinion of the new Avatar, given the way she introduced herself to the city.
Lin has many traits that are completely different than those of her mother. While her mother was freewheeling and much more laid back where rules were concerned, Lin has a no-nonsense attitude and takes the rules that were set in Republic City very seriously. However, Lin has inherited her mother's habit of not giving special treatment to others based on titles, as seen through her treatment of Korra.
While Lin has not shown any traditional earthbending abilities, she has clearly mastered metalbending; easily using the metal wires to deftly move around the arena and take down several chi blockers with ease.
Also, despite being fifty Lin is very agile, quickly recovering from a chi blocker attack glove and in the same move, somersaulting upright and taking down two chi blockers. Like her mother was, Lin is also considerably strong, able to launch Korra to the roof of the pro-bending arena with one arm's metal wire while using the other to swing in the air.
She was first announced on July 23, 2011 at San Diego Comic-Con, and is the second named child of a member of Team Avatar, the first being Tenzin.
Chief Beifong's appearance bears a greater resemblance to her grandmother Poppy Beifong than to her mother, at least as seen in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series.
Lin Beifong has two scars on the right side of her face.
Lin was responsible for the development of the usage of metal cables as part of the Metalbending Police Force's uniform.[1]
Lin Beifong's character design, but not her personality, was partially inspired by Han Young Ja, the general manager at Studio Mir, and longtime friend and colleague of Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino.[7]
When Korra was frustrated with airbending, she tried directing an airbending attack at a newspaper hanging on a line with an image of Lin on the front page. When she failed to blast it away, she set fire to it instead.[8]
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Please don't let the Duke be the father. Or any of her male students for that matter. The only man that would be good enough for Toph's kids is just as bad*ss as she and Lin is. I would rather have a well-devoloped minor-character OC to be her father.
At least then I'll know Toph is being taken seriously.
i think when you click the metalbender police it gets unlocked so when you click on them for more info just go to vehicles or something and it should be there.
Funny how there's latent sexism even in the most praising comments of strong female characters like Lin (by which I mean the causal reference to male genitals).
mayybe lin and tenzin were married before for like 20 years before pema? maybe she can't have children and they grew apart because she wanted to focus more on her career?
It's a nickelodeon series dude, of course they will not allow that (But they allow to show a terrorist attack in a saturday morning cartoon, maybe something is changing?)
I'm thinking that Lin's relationship with Tenzin is a shoutout to the Toph/Aang fans out there. EarthxAir...only...unlike Makorra (it WILL happen!!!!!!!!!), they don't stay together...unless Pema dies in childbirth and Lin and Tenzin hook up again. But I seriously doubt that.
Here is something to note - Lin and Toph have the same surname, implying that Toph never married. So does that make Lin an illegitimate child? Or maybe Toph chose to keep her surname after her marriage?
Or perhaps the idea that it was a morganatic marraige; that is, that her husband was not of the same social status and thus it was more beneficial to pass on her last name.
It is not uncommon in Japanese culture for a man to take his wife's last name when the wife is the only offspring to carry on her family name (Toph was an only child). The other theory is that Lin was the result of a one-night stand and she never saw the father again.
For those without the patience to read the whole thing or even click on it, it says "I'm an old guy, blah blah blah, would you really want to find out interesting info from a show via an interview or blog? blah blah blah, lin's father is azula. It's complicated." I may have missed a few parts here and there but thats the gist of it.
I didn't get "they haven't decided yet" out of that. What I saw were two things: one, they joked about Azula being the father (probably because the end of her story-arc is also a mystery), and two, Colin Heck doesn't get the spoiler-hunter mindset, saying that he prefers that this type of thing be answered through the development of the story and not out-of-context like many people are demanding. To me, that sounds more like the answer to the "Lin's father/Toph's husband" question (Azula quite obviously being just a somewhat annoyed joke on Heck's part) will be intergrated into the story line and will be answered as the plot develops over time (though that might not necessarily mean "within The Legend of Korra"), which pretty much indicates that they have decided on his identity and probably awhile back, too.
We will get our answer about Lin's father soon. I think Bryan was joking about Lin's father being Azula just like they messed us with katara about to tell us about Ursa's fate in legend of korra ep 1 only to be distracted thanks to annoying ikki.
I dont know if anyone has noticed but toph had used her bending to be a metal bender, Lin just used the gloves she was wearing. Correct me if i am wrong, but wouldnt the anserwer HAVE to be that Toph was a better bender?
They're called the metal bending cops for a reason. She uses her metal bending to control the metal ropes in her gloves, not just using some mechanical device.
My opinon would be thhat Toph is probably a better overall earthbender, good with earth, sand, and metal, but Lin is a better metalbender, in that she has specifically focused on that aspect of earthbending and is great at that, but probably at the expense of her skills with regular earth
Both are great in their respective styles, the mom with the sismic sense and the daughter with her acrobatic skills (I wonder if certain Fire Nation Kyoshi Warrior teach her some tricks)
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