Tenzin is the youngest child of the three children from Katara and Avatar Aang. He is also an Air bending master that lives on the Air Temple. He has two other siblings, Bumi and Kya. At this time, he is head of the makeshift Air Nation. A group of devout and stoic people that have dedicated their lives to preserving the legacy of the Air Nation. These people are known as the Air Acolytes. Tenzin has a wife named Pema and their four children: Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, and Rohan.
After harmonic convergence, when Air benders began to pop up all over the Earth kingdom, Tenzin and the Acolytes relocated to the Northern air temple to better accommodate the new changes that Harmonic convergence created.
Tenzin is serious, often referred to as too a serious man. He is also calm and a key figure in the Republic City. A city that was made for the unity of all bending nations.
Tenzin represented the Air Nation on the United Republic Council in Republic City before its dissolution. He was responsible for educating Avatar Korra in the ways of airbending and spirituality. Being the last airbending master and the son of the previous Avatar, he was the logical choice to guide Korra in the ways of becoming an Avatar even if he didn’t know much himself.
Tenzin’s History
Tenzin being the only Airbender that had been born in over a hundred years and was drilled extensively in the ways of air bending. He was taught the customs, traditions, and many guidelines of the Air Nomads. He eventually grew and earned the traditional air bending tattoos that symbolize being a realized bender. As kids, Tenzin would often be the object of bullying from his older brother and sister.
After the identity of the new Avatar (Avatar Korra) was revealed, Tenzin pulled resources and joined forces with the Southern Chief Sokka, Fire Lord Zuko, and Korra’s father, Tonraq. They did this to prevent a kidnapping threat that was posed by Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, and P’Li. These people wanted to capture the Avatar in infancy and hone her to their will.
The alliance was able to defeat and apprehend the criminals and imprison them. They put these people in four separate and specially-designed prisons that would neutralize their combative abilities. Because of this threat, Tenzin and Tonraq decided to move Korra to the Southern Water Tribe compound, where she could safely train. They did this while keeping the information of what had happened away from her, supposedly for her own protection.
Teenage Years for Tenzin (Avatar
In his teenage years, Tenzin was friends with Lin Beifong, the daughter of Toph Beifong. Toph is known as the greatest Earth bender in the world and was able to create an alternative form of bending called Metal bending. She did this by harnessing the earth particles that are present in refined metal and bend them to her will. Lin was trained in the ways of Metal bending and took after her mother. She succeeded Toph as the chief of Republic city police.
Tenzin and she, at some point, were a couple. However, their romantic relationship did not last because Tenzin wanted children, and Lin did not.
As their relationship was slowly falling apart, Pema approached the Airbender and confessed her feelings for him. This caused Tenzin to break up with Lin and start a new relationship with Pema instead.
Tenzin and Pema eventually married, and by the time Korra had come to Republic City to learn airbending, their family consisted of three children: two daughters, Jinora and Ikki, a son named Meelo, and a fourth child on the way. He succeeded an Air Acolyte in being the representative of the Air Nation on the United Republic Council.
Helping The New Avatar
After Korra had completed training on all the other three elements, Tenzin began her airbending training. When it was time to begin, Tenzin became aware that it would be hard for her as it was her direct opposite. Mastery of the element Air required patience, calm, and cool-headedness as opposed to her hot-headed nature.
He told her that she needed to be patient, which was definitely the last thing she needed to hear. They both soon got frustrated as they would often clash for different reasons. One of these reasons was Korra’s inability to air bend and about how the teenage girl should spend her free time. Which apparently to Tenzin was more quiet and calmer ways such as meditation and other spiritually enlightening activities.
On one of her many disappearances, Korra witnessed something horrific. It was a man named Amon, taking away a man’s bending. After Korra returned from an Equalist rally and stated how Amon had succeeded in taking away someone’s bending ability, Tenzin stated that the revolution was more dangerous than ever.
Tenzin On The Council
As a council member, Tenzin tried his best to avoid anti-non bender measures to be taken, though he was unable to prevent Tarrlok from forming his task force to attack Amon head-on. Tarrlok later turned to be Amon’s brother. After Korra publicly challenged Amon to a duel, Tenzin tried to dissuade her, to no avail, and afterward offered her comfort when she cried in fear of Amon.
After this encounter, Tenzin and the rest of the United Republic Council were threatened by Amon to shut down the Pro-bending Arena or face “severe consequences.”
Despite Tenzin’s disapproval, the rest of the Council voted to keep the arena open, which proved to be a horrible decision as Amon and his Equalists blew up part of the arena in their attack. The Equalists are a group of people who believe that bending should be eradicated because it brings inequality. Their fight is to bring equality to all the nations by cleansing them of its taint, Bending.
With Lin and Korra’s help, Tenzin discovered that Hiroshi Sato had ties to the Equalists, though the ensuing confrontation nearly led to their capture.
When Korra was kidnapped, Tenzin set out to find her, together with Lin, Asami, Mako, and Bolin. After they discovered an Equalist hideout and rescued several captured Republic City Police officers, Tenzin realized that Tarrlok was the one who was holding Korra captive. They eventually found the Avatar as she was being carried through the city by Naga.
A host of events occurred during Tenzin’s time as the Avatar’s spiritual guide tutor.
Tenzin is a master Airbender, and even though he never succeeded in the aspect of spiritual development like his father, he is still one of the best air benders in the Avatar Universe.
Rebuilding The Air Nation
One of Tenzin’s biggest roles on the show was helping to rebuild the air nation. He was the son of Aang that could Air Bend and he ended up having kids that could as well. This made his family the last airbenders in the world.
The world naturally tried to find balance again and it started giving people the ability to airbend out of no where. He took it on as his duty to go out and try to rebuild the air nation. It was one of the most noble tasks he could take on because it allowed the world to see true balance once again.