| “ | I killed Chin the Conqueror. A horrible tyrant, Chin was expanding his army to all corners of the continent. When they came to the neck of the peninsula where we lived, he demanded our immediate surrender. I warned him that I would not sit passively while he took our home. But he did not back down. On that day, we split from the mainland. | „ |
| ~ Kyoshi explaining how she killed Chin. |
Chin the Conqueror, also known as Chin the Great, is a minor antagonist in Avatar: The Last Airbender, serving as the overarching antagonist of the Season 2 episode "Avatar Day".
He was a ruthless warlord from the northwestern Earth Kingdom. During the life of Avatar Kyoshi, he launched a largely successful campaign against the Earth King before being indirectly killed by Kyoshi, as she came to the defense of her homeland. However, Chin's death in the hands of Avatar Kyoshi would cause problems for another Avatar, Aang, hundreds of years later.
Biography[]
Chin was remembered as a capable and tyrannical leader, who successfully took advantage of widespread dissatisfaction with the reign of the 46th Earth King in order to launch a military campaign on the Earth Kingdom in 270 BSC. He launched the campaign from a small island in the northwestern part of the kingdom, unifying the Earth Kingdom under his control. Amassing a large and formidable army, he successfully managed to gain control of the entire continent, with the exceptions of Ba Sing Se and a small peninsula in the southwest, which Avatar Kyoshi called home. When Chin demanded that the inhabitants submit to his rule, Kyoshi defied the conquerer's order. Chin then assumed an offensive position at the mouth of the peninsula, and his stubborn nature did not allow him to accept his failure. Kyoshi acted to defend her people by entering the Avatar State, and splitting her village from the mainland, creating Kyoshi Island.
As the land mass moved off, the ground on which Chin stood became an unstable cliff over the ocean. Chin died when this ledge gave way beneath him, causing his body to plummet into the fall. Although it appeared so, he was not murdered by Kyoshi; his obstinance was the ultimate cause of his demise as he had sufficient time to move to a solid footing before his fatal fall at the ocean below. Kyoshi however argued that she was still directly responsible for his death and stated that she wouldn't have hesitated to killed Chin regardless if he had survived the fall.
Chin Village, located at the point where Kyoshi Island split from the mainland, was named in his honor. The locals, especially their mayor, Tong, still referred to Chin as a great hero and claimed the Avatar was an evil murderer, and a statue of him had been erected there.
Centuries later Avatar Aang was sentenced for the alleged murder of Chin, during the trial Kyoshi took over Aang's body to explain the truth about how Chin was a tyrant, but also declared herself to be guilty of murdering Chin.
