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Tenzin and Raiko don’t get anywhere near the flak Su does for the whole Kuvira escalation, and honestly, the double standard is blatant. The fact that Su does not want to embrace militaristic, authoritarian power is framed as her “running away from responsibility,” says a lot, especially when the men in power who stood by or did less are let off the hook. It’s hard not to see the sexism in that.

Thinking about how Kuvira outright threatened Zaofu while Su was talking to her on behalf of the world leaders and yet Zaofu still had no foreign backup when the Earth Empire came for them.

Suyin : And don't pretend the people put you where you are. I know what happens to cities who don't want to hand over control to you. Kuvira: Then you know what's coming for Zaofu.

Like would this threat not come up whenever Suyin went back to Tenzin and Raiko. Did Su not tell them? Did she tell them and they were just lile "eh you'll be aight".

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So, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how framing and emotionally charged language shape fandom discourse, especially when it comes to judging characters and moralizing their actions. It’s not just about what happens in a story, but about how people retell what happens. And the way they retell it often says more about their emotional response than it does about the actual event or character in question.

Here’s the thing: framing is power. It’s the quiet force that turns “she made a mistake” into “she’s irredeemable.” It’s what turns “a complex arc” into “author apologism” (or the ever-popular “coddling”). The same event can be interpreted in drastically different ways depending on how we choose to describe it, and when you start looking for that pattern, it’s everywhere. It's also a good way to rally the ignorant and impressionable on your side on an issue.

And that brings me to talk about Suyin as an example of this.

The actual canon event? She got involved in criminal behavior as a rebellious teen, resisted her sister's authority, and ended up accidentally hurting her sister in the process. It’s messy, yes. It’s wrong, yes. But people rarely leave it at that.

Instead, the framing often becomes:

“Suyin was involved in organized crime and physically assaulted her innocent sister!”

You can see the shift, right? It’s no longer about a flawed human, a troubled and misguided teenager who made a mistake. It's been linguistically inflated into a calculated, malicious act. The kind of phrasing that primes the reader to feel moral outrage -- not of empathy, curiosity, or critique. And once we moralize like this, any further analysis starts from a place of condemnation rather than understanding.

This kind of rhetoric is powerful because it feels objective. But it’s not. It’s rooted in emotional reasoning that’s then mistaken for canon truth. People feel a certain way about a character, then reconstruct the facts to justify that feeling, often without even realizing they’re doing it. “I felt she was manipulative → therefore, she is manipulative → every action now gets interpreted through that lens.”

It doesn’t help that fandom spaces often reward this with moral high ground points. If you can frame your dislike of a character as a form of activism or protection of victims, your position becomes immune to critique. Any pushback can then be dismissed as “defending bad behavior,” regardless of whether the intent was to understand rather than absolve.

What makes this even more insidious is how these patterns echo political tactics, particularly those seen on the right. Hyperbole, absolutism, emotional priming, character distortion -- these are common tools used to discredit and silence opposition. It’s wild seeing the exact same mechanisms play out in fandom discourse, especially when weaponized against characters who challenge traditional (often conservative) expectations.

Because let’s be real: there’s a reason Suyin specifically gets this kind of treatment. She’s a woman in power. Being sweet or traditionally nurturing isn't the crux of her character. She’s assertive. She’s flawed. She’s dark-skinned. She doesn’t exist for male validation. And for many people, whether they admit it or not, that grates against internalized ideals about what “good” women, especially good mothers, are supposed to be. So the backlash becomes moral in nature. It’s not just “I don’t like her choices,” it’s “she’s dangerous. She’s abusive. She’s irredeemable.” This is the kind of language that creates distance. It removes nuance. It makes it easier to justify hatred, dismissal, or erasure.

And I’m not saying people can’t dislike Suyin. Critique is good. But when that critique comes wrapped in a cloak of moral superiority and emotionally manipulative language, it stops being about discussion. It becomes about control. About asserting one’s interpretation as the only valid one, and silencing any attempts to see the character in a more layered light.

This matters. Because when we stop interrogating how we talk about stories and characters, we unconsciously reproduce the very biases we claim to be resisting.

If your takeaway is “I don’t like Suyin,” that’s fine. But be honest with yourself about why -- and be mindful of the rhetorical moves you’re making when you try to convince others to see her (or any character) the same way.

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Recognizing that Ezio is a narrative and characterization trainwreck, but loving and admiring him to death anyway, is the truest love you can have for a character.

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Unattractive Men: "Women should give me a chance, lower their standards, and stop rejecting me just because I'm not physically attractive."

Unattractive Women: "If you don't find me attractive, that's okay. But leave me alone. Don't loudly proclaim that you don't find me attractive when I never did anything that requires you to find me attractive. Don't expect me to alter my appearance in order to be more attractive to you. Don't expect me to be even a little hurt by you not finding me attractive. Don't get offended if I don't find you attractive either. Don't assume that others can't find me attractive. Don't recruit others to not find me attractive. Don't expect me to take it as a favor when someone shows interest in me. Don't pretend to find me attractive as a joke. Don't act like I have less of a right to exist in public just because you don't find me attractive. Don't discriminate against me in professional settings just because you don't find me attractive.

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i think the reason a lot of men are screaming, puking, and crying about this is bc it forces them to acknowledge that the reason they can’t get women to like them is not actually bc of their physique but bc of their shitty personality

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Remember when Trump supporters said that Trump is nothing like Hitler because Trump is simply enforcing the law and deporting people who were here illegally?

Now, just days later, he's deporting people without caring who's here legally, and his supporters are bragging that due process doesn't matter. He's sending them to concentration camps where they're tortured instead of deporting them to be free in their home countries, and his supporters are cheering him on.

Any time they say "he's nothing like Hitler", it's only days until they'll start saying "he's exactly like Hitler and we worship him for it".

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"College is a place of liberal indoctrination."

And what possible motive would liberals have to put their indoctrination behind one of the biggest paywalls to have ever existed?

College is often the first time that someone regularly interacts with a diverse crowd. College is often the first time that someone is encouraged to think for themselves instead of blindly trusting their parents.

They're not being indoctrinated to be liberal. They were previously indoctrinated to be conservative and are now being freed from that.

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They Were Wrong

“Slave owners and white racists were afraid that the world they had always known was slipping away from them. Fear was a great motivator—fear of change, fear of losing power, fear being that they were wrong. The roots of white anxiety over threats to enslavement and to legalize white supremacy ran deep.”

John Meacham, And There was Light. Random House, 2022, page 55.

Reading this passage last night stunned me for a moment. A flurry of thoughts rushed all at once, promptly crystallizing into one central truth; racial dynamics in America have not changed. Not. One. Bit.

Meacham’s book, a biography of Lincoln, focuses on the shaping events that made Lincoln arguably America’s greatest President. However, those same formative circumstances left the Southern slave power angry, and lethally dangerous. This metastasizing rancor ultimately exploded into civil war, and to Lincoln’s 1865 murder.

The Missouri Compromise triggered the first alarm below the Mason-Dixon Line. That slavery could be limited through any federal legislative act left slavers touchy and suspicious. Sensitive to criticism, Southern owners  (as Mr. Meacham pointed out), viewed any outside opposition as a dishonorable insult.

Congressmen and Senators frequently squared off years before soldiers manned battle lines. A Massachusetts Senator suffered a severe beating on the Senate floor for a previous anti-slave address. So volatile became the rhetoric that the House chamber adopted a “gag rule” prohibiting any mention of slavery in deliberations.

As Northern abolitionists grew more emboldened, Southerners grew more militant. War was only a matter of time. Any abolitionists tracts, or books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin were quickly tossed in the trash bin by local Southern postal officials. The conflict extended to houses of worship as church leaders turned the Bible inside out to justify chattel slavery. Today Southern Methodist and Southern Baptists are two such longstanding examples of the war before the war.

After the guns silenced, into the Reconstruction era the newly freed found protection only through dagger edged Yankee bayonets. Outraged and unrepentant Southern whites resisted social change through violence and terror. Gangs like the Ku Klux Klan, the Knights of the White Camelia, and the White League galloped through the night spreading fear and intimidation to any freedman who dared to claim the blessings of liberty. 

However, as with much that is political the Northern public grew weary of conflict and occupation. By 1876 Union forces were pulled out of the former Confederacy. White power was restored, and the South closed in upon itself.

Contrasting the 21st Century to the 19th provides strikingly similar dynamics. In 2008 Barack Obama became 44th President of the United States, and white power interests again lost their minds.

Though at first it appeared that America had turned a positive corner in race relations, Senator Mitch McConnell quickly reacted decreeing the GOP would not work with the new president, followed up by sunsetting a clause in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That provision, signed by Lyndon Johnson protected black voters from discrimination at the polls. McConnell’s handy work placed the onus on the voter to prove they were illegally denied. (Like the old poll tax and literacy tests days.)

Apparently these white supremacist again see their alpha-position slipping away, and they too, are suspicious and lethally dangerous. The hate group names have changed, but not the mission. Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, neo-Nazi’s, MAGA, and Christian Nationalists gallop now through the pathways of Congress and the dark web, surfacing to attack the rest of us, as was done on January 6th.

This crowd has championed an avowed racist for president, and still today hold him as a white messiah. The signs are all there, fear of a changing America, fear of being wrong, and fearful of losing control.

Those who witnessed the dissolution of the Union believed their blood-soaked sacrifice had settled the issue of race in America. But that generation couldn’t foresee that this generation not only doesn’t know, they don’t care to know.

But then is now. Now is then. Eras are intricately and forever intertwined. This nation has remembered nothing and again defaulted to the same old norms of hate and boastful ignorance.

And though those same feelings run deep, as deep as those of earlier generations, they are still wrong.

The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know. Harry Truman

Chumbley is the author of the two-part memoir, River of January, and River of January: Figure Eight. She has penned two stage plays, "Clay," exploring the life of Henry Clay, "Wolf By the Ears," a study of racism in America, and “Peer Review,” where 47 is confronted by four past presidents.

Source: They Were Wrong

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On a side note, since it's brought up, I don't think Su cares much about finding her Dad, especially not now, at least. The "void" left by her absent father has largely been fulfilled through her own family and Zaofu.

She'll be all for tagging along and helping Lin find Kanto in The Search 2: Beifong Boogaloo, though.

A fellow Lin and Toph side-eyer. An individual of taste.

Lin........I understand holding a grudge. I know people that went to their grave hating someone, on top of their family continuing to hold on to the grudge. But bro. You're a working 22 year old woman, beefing with someone who's in high school. Probably had a maths test that same week. Please be serious.

Her smoke should have more been with Toph for how she handled the situation and not her sister. I know siblings don't have to get along. Hell, they don't have to like each other. But Lin just came off as........bitter. Her arc in Zafou was just.........ugh. There's a difference between righteous anger and just being vindictive. Her anger came from her belief that Su was spoilt and got everything she wanted, while she (the dutiful daughter in her mind) got nothing. But instead of channelling that rage at someone who warranted it, she blew up on Su. Like sis. Just tell her that you don't fuck with her for x,y,z reasons and get it over with. Communication skills clearly weren't taught in the Beifong household (you see this with Toph too).

(Also, I did not like how she dealt with Korra when she first came to Republic City at all. Now that I think about it, the scene where she attempted to arrest Su and the one where she snatched up Korra and Naga are nearly the same. The only difference is that Su resisted and Korra didn't. What are the odds that she's the aggressor in both cases?).

Toph..........*hides under a table for protection*. Is it a bad take to say that I kinda foresaw her being a selfish parent if she ever became one from her ATLA days? No mom is perfect, obviously. But she truly continued the cycle of generational trauma from her parents. And that is the damage we see in both Lin and Su. And both of them broke the cycle in their own right, but not completely. Neither of them hold her accountable for the mess she caused (and to be honest, I don't think it would have changed things if they had).

I also find it hard to believe that neither sister went looking for their fathers on their own. Especially Lin, who had that as a random side arc (her being upset about not knowing who her dad was). You're Beifongs. Y'all have the money and the resources to dig up people if you wish. Plus their grandparents are still alive (at least when they were teens) and seemingly on talking terms with Toph if she sent Su there. Surely they knew something. Names at least. That arc just got shoehorned in there for no reason.

Lmao thank you anon. I do love Lin and Toph as characters, but I specifically love them as the flawed and falliable characters they are presented as.

Despite sometimes goofing on her, I don't hate Lin, and I think she has some very good moments to shine as a character. She just kinda gets a bit static and repetitive over the books. I adored the Zaofu arc, because it actually did something interesting with her character.

Lin being a bitter and overly aggressive character is a decent core flaw, and it's nice to see when it's chipped away at. It's one of the reasons people adore her so much. I just find it so odd that people find some weird nobility in her behaviour, despite it being self destructive and leading to her lashing out towards others.

Like the Zaofu arc for Lin was extremely on the nose with having Lin so stressed she was getting so physically ill that she even concerned one of the antagonists.

Aiwei : Lin, you do not have to work while you are here. You need to relax. Lin: I'm fine! [Groans uncomfortably again.] Aiwei: It doesn't take a truth seer to know that you are under a dangerous amount of stress. If you don't deal with your suppressed feelings, there will be severe consequences to your health ... and your job.

She was given, through the two episodes (and presumably pre canon when Su reached out to her) multiple opportunities to deal with her and Su's past in a healthy way. But Lin is very much a character who isolates herself in a bubble of what she finds comfortable, even if it is not sustainable.

And we obviously see that negatively affect her, and that it's obviously good for her once she starts actively talking with Opal and Su. Up until she has some sort of relapse in the Terror Within when she becomes convinced that Su is part of an international terrorist organisation and staged an attack on her own city. Still not sure what that was about.

Like the messaging of the episode is clear "closing off from those who care about you and stewing in bitterness will only hurt you and others". And then a shocking amount of the fandom was like "no actually we loved the stewing in bitterness that's the good option".

Like it still surprises me how many people think it was somehow think that Lin's behaviour in Zaofu was very justified and everyone was being so very unreasonably mean to her in it.

And like the flashbacks kinda give you a kneejerk reaction of siding with Lin because they're all from her perspective, offer us no insight into the tension between the sisters from Suyin's perspective. We also enter these flashbacks with the preconceived expectation that these flashbacks will show us why Lin hates Su so viscerally, so the magnitude of these events is already enhanced. Though honestly if you distance yourself emotionally from the flashbacks and remember that Lin is like 6 years older than Su it kinda becomes comical, in a way.

Like I don't blame Lin for doing her job and trying to arrest Su. I do blame her for escalating the situation as far as she did, especially as both the cop, and the adult in the situation. I Especially find it upsetting because Su didn't even initially seem to be a flight risk. Like she stood there and tried to explain herself, and part of me wonders how this would've gone if Lin hadn't pulled out the rather threatening "I'm not going to let you get away with this". Which like, I too would rather not go with the cop who seems to have a clear agenda against me and is also punching cars.

I always find it so interesting how whenever Su and Lin get into an altercation, it is always Lin that escalates it to the physical level

The fun thing about Lin as a character is kinda that whenever she does something questionable, I can initially see where she's coming from. Like her trying to arrest Su and doing her job is totally fine. Her being mad at Tenzin for breaking up with her is also justified. Her not liking Korra initially is not a sin. Her being upset with Su is not to be unexpected.

It's just how she goes about this is what gets me. Like she often goes overboard with both verbal and physical violence, which, not a good look, especially for a cop who often uses her job as a moral highground. Also the prior mentioned self and outwardly destructive habit of holding grudges and isolating herself.

I will say that, in Lin's defence when it comes to Korra's arrest, I think it was Saikhan who initiated the arrest, and I'm not sure how imvolved Lin was in the situation. She was definetly going unnecessarily hard on Korra after she was arrested. Like idk what it is about 16 year old brown girls but they are to Lin Beifong what a red flag is to a bull. Also Korra absolutely rssisted arrest though. She kicked an officer of the law in the face and it was epic.

Though there is also something to be said about Lin projecting her issues with Su onto Korra, as we see her hallucinate young Su in place of Korra, and there are some similarities between them, at least from Lin's perspective. Though we're also told that Lin's hate for Korra in B1 may have been due to Korra being associated with Tenzin. Which it would be fucking hysterical and not terribly out of character for Lin to just project anyone who has ever slighted her onto Korra.

You're also very right about Lin's anger at Su being misplaced. But also, from Lin's perspective, it makes much more sense and is much easier to blame the sister you already kinda hate than the mom whose affection you're trying to win. Like Lin dedicated her life to trying to win Toph's favour by imitating her.

Lin: When I was younger, all I wanted to do was please my mother. I became a police chief because I thought it would make her happy ... but it didn't. You need to make your decisions based on what you want. Don't make the same mistakes as I did.

If Lin admitted to herself that maybe Toph didn't care about being Chief that much, and probably might not care for Lin following in her footsteps, it would be a little bit life shattering. So it's much easier to think that the 16 year old single handedly ruined Toph's career.

Lin: When we were in Mom's office that day, you could've taken responsibility for what you did. But instead, you stayed quiet and let Mom throw her whole career away. Suyin: Mom didn't throw her career away. She retired the next year. She was a hero. Lin: You think she wanted to retire? She was so guilt-ridden about what she did to protect you that she didn't feel worthy of her badge.

Mind you, when we meet Toph in B4, we see none of this guilt, and we get the implication that she didn't really enjoy her time as a cop. Like this feels like mild idolising of Toph from Lin's pov.

It kinda feels like, to me, the reason Lin was so hostile towards Toph in B4. By making up with Su in B3, she'd demystified Su as the villain She'd built up in her head for almost 30 years. Therefore, she could no longer pin Toph's shortcomings onto Su.

And I kinda adore how flawed Toph is in tlok. I don't mind her being a shitty parent, it kinda felt a little bit inevitable. I do find it deliciously tragic that Toph tried to give her kids the freedom she never got but ended up essentially pendulum swinging into causing almost as much damage as her own parents.

When it comes to Lin and Suyin's dads I'm... conflicted. On one hand, I can absolutely get behind arcs of them finding their dads. On the other, the last thing we need is "The Search 2: Beifong Boogaloo" . I kinda respect the mystery around the dads. It's a ballsy move from the writers if anything. I have my own headcanons and I kinda love that everyone I've met has their own fanon lore around Toph's babydaddies.

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I swear, the few of us decent Gen Z men are fighting this battle like the 300 against the Persians. 😩