Biyu
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- This article is about Jin's mother. For the Boiling Rock prisoner, see Biyu.
"I think this is why Gong-gong is adamant that I cannot pursue anything related to earthbending. To him, calligraphy is safe. It will keep me behind the walls of the city. Not out there. When I could be burned up just like Mama."
Biyu was an earthbender builder and soldier from the area around Daying in the Earth Kingdom. She was the daughter of a calligrapher, the wife of Daying's village magistrate, and the mother of Jin.[4] She later joined up to an Earth Kingdom battalion to protect Daying from bandits. When the Fire Nation attacked the village during the Hundred Year War, Biyu was killed in a stealth attack.[1]
History
Biyu was the daughter of a skilled calligrapher who worked as a record-keeper for the governor in the area around Daying. He tried to pass on his interest in calligraphy to Biyu, but she had no interest in it.[5] Against his wishes, Biyu used her earthbending to learn a physical job, and became a builder, helping to forge irrigation routes from the river to local farms.[1]
Biyu started to fall for a young scholar from Omashu who was training to be the village magistrate of Daying. They had their first kiss at a beautiful fountain in Daying, with Biyu being the one to make the first move.[1] In that moment, Biyu immediately knew that the scholar was "the one".[6] After falling in love, the couple got married and had an earthbender daughter named Jin.[3] They properly moved into Daying when Biyu's husband was promoted to magistrate, meaning she left her family behind in her original village.[7] After her daughter's birth, Biyu joined a battalion, wanting to protect Daying from bandits.[1]
Biyu and her husband gave Jin a happy childhood. The family was not rich, but had enough money for Biyu to have a small jewelry collection for the governor's visits. Biyu promised Jin that she would pass down her pins and circlets to her when she was old enough.[8] Biyu and her husband would also take Jin to see circus performers in the village every Autumn Festival. Jin would sit on her mother's lap during the performances, eating candied fruit on a stick and enjoying the show.[6] Biyu and her husband were also keen to share the story of how they fell in love. They told Jin about their first kiss whenever they walked by the village fountain, and would always lean in to recreate the moment, much to Jin's embarrassment.[1]
Biyu's father did not want Jin to learn earthbending, but she insisted on teaching her daughter at least the basics so that she learn how to control herself. Biyu also made sure that Jin knew enough about her bending to defend herself.[9] They practiced out in the woods, with Biyu making sure to teach Jin about the philosophy of neutral jing that formed the basis of earthbending.[10]
In around 97 AG,[2][11] the Fire Nation attacked Daying. The invading army took out the village's earthbenders in stealth missions, burning them alive and leaving their charred corpses for the rest of the village to discover later. Biyu was among the fallen found the following day. The deaths of her and the other earthbenders left Daying grieving and defenseless when the rest of the army came in, leading to an easy surrender.[1]
Legacy
After the village fell to the Fire Nation, Jin and her grandfather fled as refugees and made their way to Ba Sing Se.[12] They never found Biyu's husband, and presumed he was dead.[1][13]
Jin believed that Biyu's death made her grandfather even more adamant that she could not pursue anything relating to earthbending. He made sure Jin stayed away from earthbending schools,[1] and her bending skills became weaker without practice.[14]
In the Middle Ring, Jin grew especially fond of Firelight Fountain, which was just like the fountain in Daying where Biyu and her husband had her first kiss.[1] She thought about their love story when she had her first kiss with Zuko, and later, when she kissed Xuan for the first time.[6][3]
When Biyu's father was old and ill, he sometimes believed that Jin was Biyu.[4]
Just before the Liberation of Ba Sing Se, Jin lit a candle for her parents and put a pastry in a small boat for her parents as an offering.[15]
Abilities
Jin remembered her mother having a particular style of earthbending. The earth would groan and grumble for Biyu, defying the pull of gravity and succumbing to her inner strength. It was unlike the more precise forms of bending that Jin witnessed later in Ba Sing Se.[14]
Relatives
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| Biyu |
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| Jin |
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Trivia
- According to Nick.com's Avatar Index, Jin's parents had their first kiss at Firelight Fountain itself as teenagers.[16] This was retconned in City of Echoes, which established that they had their first kiss at a fountain in Daying that was just like Firelight Fountain.[1]
- The novel also retcons Jin's parents being refugees who moved to Ba Sing Se, and the implication that they were alive during the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender.[17]