#aiwei is like a really cool beetle to me

[wilcze-kudly]

Headcanons about Aiwei's relationship with the Beifong babies bcs I'm lowkey obsessed with that finely aged twink.

Aiwei is sort of an enigma, since all we know is that he was a member of the Red Lotus and he was infiltrating Zaofu. We are never really told how long he's been in Zaofu, but Suyin seems to consider him family, so probably a few years. I personally believe he became Suyin's right hand man around the time she was pregnant with the twins. I headcanon that that pregnancy was very hard on Suyin's body and that's also the reason the twins were her last biological kids.

And Aiwei, working under the Red Lotus' commands, took advantage of Suyin's fragile state and helped her a lot in managing the city while she was incapacitated and also offering her a lot of mental support, becoming her friend. I think Suyin, being the traumatised and affection starved person she is, would very quickly come to consider him family.

One of my sillier headcanons is that Wei was named after Aiwei, due to Suyin's gratitude for how much Aiwei helped her during her pregnancy. And since they already had a Juniour in the family, they just named Wei an abbreviation.

I can see Aiwei's first "oh shit I'm getting attached to this family" moment when he's holding baby Wei.

After Zaheer and co get arrested, Aiwei is a bit lost. He has nowhere to go, and his leaders cant really communicate with him much.

So he stays in Zaofu, where he has a good position and good connections. At first it's just a strategic choice at remaining in a position where he can still spread the teachings of the Red Lotus.

But he also spends a lot of time with Suyin and her family. I mean, he seems to be the only person (outside of staff and guests) living in the same district as the Beifong mansion is situated. And it almost looks like this house was built purely for him?

I think he becomes a sort of pseudo uncle to the Beifong babies, and probably was very important, since I headcanon that Suyin was very protective of them and perhaps even had them homeschooled.

I can actually even see Aiwei being one of the kids' educators in this homeschooling. He appears to be a learnt man and I could theorise that he has some knowledge of medicine. He was able to notice Lin's mental condition affecting her body. Also, he raised no suspicion to being able to diagnose that Korra was immobilised with shirshu venom and also no one was surprised that he just had the antidote on hand. Like yeah, he probably knew the Red Lotus would use the venom, but the fact that no one was surprised that he just seemed so prepared for diagnosing and curing the venom of this rare and dangerous animal leads me to believe that he may be some kind of medical practitioner, or at least well oriented in the field.

Due to this, I can also see him as the person who would tend to the baby Beifongs when they got injured or sick as children, leading for him to get even closer ingrained with the family. I think especially when Kuvira arrived and started getting in arguments and potential altercations with the baby Beifongs, they would often find solace with him

I think Aiwei might try to help Kuvira deal with her anger, but I don't believe she'd ever really trust him as much as the other kids did.

Particularly since Kuvira is such a controlling individual, even in her youth, while Aiwei is a big proponent of personal freedom.

Like she'd definetly hear him yapping about individuality and act like an angsty teen at the school mandated trip to the therapist's office.

But I always imagined that Aiwei and Huan were actually super close. Huan seems to echo a lot of Aiwei's individualism based ideals which could be due to him admiring Aiwei so much.

I also think Huan got his eyebrow piercing for his 17th birthday when Aiwei helped him get it without Su knowing. Su is still a little salty lol.

I like to imagine that Aiwei was the one to first take note of Huan's artistic talents and encourage them over Huan trying to continue Toph and Su's legacy of more combat based bending. I can also see him helping Suyin accept the fact that maybe Huan won't want to follow in her footsteps.

I headcanon that the different art and pottery pieces on the shelf in Aiwei's house are Huan's first works, before he developed his very characteristic style.

I headcanon that Huan always had an extremely sensitive seismic sense which developed when he was cery young and that it led him to get overstimulated easily. And Aiwei, who leans into his seismic sense, helped him manage and compartmentalise the overwhelming amount of sensations.

I think Huan was most hurt by Aiwei's betrayal, after Suyin. He looked up to Aiwei, and trusted him idolised him. And I think that Aiwei never being able to give them an answer due to his spirit being trapped just ate Huan up. I think it lead to Huan becoming much more distrustful and even more closed off than usual. This was extradited by what happened with Baatar and Kuvira, perhaps leaving Huan barely speaking to people who aren't Opal or the twins, unless strictly necessary, as we never hear him speak after the Beifong family gets captured by Kuvira.

Speaking of Aiwei's kinda death, I don't buy that the only reason Zaheer eliminated Aiwei is because he was a 'loose end'. Like my brother in Raava you and your polycule got imprisoned for like 14 years or smth that was the ultimate fumble.

I think it's because Zaheer sensed that Aiwei had gotten close to the Beifongs and his loyalty to the Red Lotus might be compromised. Especially that the Red Lotus are also planning to attack the Northern Air Temple, directly endangering Opal, whom Aiwei is basically an uncle to. I mean, he was at her goodbye dinner.

I also like to think Aiwei, being a spiritual person, helped Opal a lot in her first days of airbending and taught her to meditate to centre herself.

I also believe that in the Fog of Lost Souls, he is tormented by memories of his happy years with the Beifongs and by the fact that he betrayed them, endangered them, threw away his relationship with them for a borderline cult.