Avatar:Mr. Wen
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- This article is about Suyin Wen's father. For other similar uses, see Wen (disambiguation).
"He already does what he wants with his life, wasting whatever he makes drinking and gambling, but this time he's gone too far. He didn't only ruin his life, he ruined all of ours!"
Mister Wen was the patriarch of the Wen family by 100 AG, though he was largely estranged from his relatives due to his alcoholism and gambling addiction. He eventually gambled away his family's business, the Wen Bakery, forcing his daughter Suyin into a debt servitude to save their finances. This further ruptured his relationship with the rest of the clan.
History
Early life and escalating addictions
Born into the Wen family in Ba Sing Se, he was a troubled child and grew up to be an even more troubled adult. A constant disappointment to his mother, he took to heavy drinking and gambling. He eventually married and had two daughters, Suyin "Susu" and Ming. Yet his worsening addictions resulted in him taking little part in either the family's bakery or the raising of his children, leaving this to his mother and his wife. Mr. Wen spent most his his time at gambling houses, often completely drunk.[1]
When a young refugee named Jin became an assistant worker at the bakery from 97 AG, Mr. Wen expressed his distaste at her presence, dismissing her as "another mouth he has to feed" despite him contributing next to nothing to the family's finances. As a result of his gambling, he accumulated a substantial debt.[1]
Rupture with his family
One day in spring 100 AG, Mr. Wen came to believe that he had the chance to win a great fortune at Lao Yiu's gambling den, the largest and most notorious gambling house of Ba Sing Se. Justifying his next actions by claiming that he would make his family rich, he put the entire Wen Bakery as collateral. Instead he lost, and Lao Yiu sent Officer Xiang to collect the debt. Refusing to comply or negotiate, Mr. Wen unsuccessfully tried to strangle Xiang, whereupon he was thrown into prison.[1][3]
Knowing that they would be completely ruined without the bakery, the rest of the Wen family requested a mediation by Sumi "the Judge", a local community leader. Mr. Wen's mother as well as Suyin managed to represent their cause quite well, achieving a compromise solution. Suyin agreed to pay off most of the debt by entering a servitude assignment in the Upper Ring.[2][3] As another part of the agreement mediated by the "Judge", Mr. Wen was also forced to work an evening job as security at Lao Yiu's gambling den to help pay off the remainder of the debt. After being released from prison, he accepted this work. Yet he also spent the rest of his free time at the gambling den instead of even trying to use his free time helping his understaffed relatives at the Wen Bakery. Jin concluded that Mr. Wen remained "as useless as possible" to his family.[2]
From this point onward, Mr. Wen was completely estranged from his family.[1][3] He appeared to no longer to live with them over the next months, even as Ba Sing Se experienced a series of violent crises.[4][5]
Relatives
| Grandmother Wen |
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| Mr. Wen |
| Mrs. Wen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Suyin Wen |
| Ming Wen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||