Lin Beifong’s mother, Toph, refused for years to tell Lin who her father was. She finally tells Lin his name is Kanto, but who exactly is he?

Lin Beifong spends most of The Legend of Korra coming to terms with a strained relationship with her mother, Toph Beifong - struggling with her childhood frustrations over Toph's parenting style, and her refusal to tell Lin the identity of her father. In The Legend of Korra season 4, Lin is shocked when Toph casually reveals that his name is Kanto. Although Toph's daughters, Lin and her sister Suyin, have different fathers, Toph's lifelong refusal to disclose Kanto's identity complicated their relationship, and Lin grappled with the weight of that mystery for most of her life.

The question of the identity of Lin Beifong's father looms over the first three seasons of The Legend of Korra. Toph raised her daughters with hands-off parenting and very little supervision, the opposite of her strict upbringing in the prestigious Beifong family. Suyin and Lin reacted differently to not knowing the identity of their fathers; Suyin builds herself a family and a legacy to replace the one she lacked, and Lin strove to compensate for the distance from her mother by following in Toph's footsteps, becoming the police chief of Republic City.

The Legend of Korra, season 4, episode 10, "Operation Beifong," Toph reveals that Lin's father was named Kanto in a conversation with Lin, Bolin, and Opal. Toph refuses to go into further detail about the identity of Lin's father, adding only that he was a "nice man" but their relationship ultimately didn't work out. After Toph reveals his name, she asks Lin why her breathing has suddenly changed. Lin snaps back that growing up without a father and never discussing him has weighed heavily on her, and although she had thought about reaching out to her mother many times over the years, seeing Toph again reminded her of why she hadn't.

Lin's primary conflict throughout The Legend of Korra is based around her relationship with Toph. Following their difficult childhoods and uncertainty about their fathers, both of Toph's daughters rejected their mother. Suyin went wild without supervision and was arrested, but managed to turn her life around and devote herself to building a family with her husband and children. Lin was relentless in trying to impress Toph, one of the world's greatest earthbenders, and while doing so became the police chief of Republic City.

Although Lin learns the name of her father, Kanto - something that her sister never gets, although many fans theorize that Suyin's unidentified father is Sokka - knowing his identity doesn't resolve Lin's conflicted feelings about her father, or mend her relationship with Toph. Toph's refusals to identify him turns him into an enigma that haunts Lin her whole life. When it's revealed that Kanto was simply a man, Lin can't understand why Toph kept him a secret. Both sisters and Toph eventually reconciled, after she was able to acknowledge that she wasn't the best mother, but was nonetheless proud of the women that they had become.

Unfortunately, The Legend of Korra reveals no other information about Kanto - and the expanded material haven't focused much on that part of her life. Although Toph finally told her the identity of her father, Lin still had to work through her relationship with her mother on her own, and come to terms with a lifetime of unanswered questions. Lin Beifong might have learned her father's identity, but The Legend of Korra police chief had to reconcile the conflict within herself to truly accept her difficult childhood, and reunite with Toph.

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