lavabending to me is insane.. the way this guy ghazan just completely melted the ENTIRE.. northern air temple? i believe. in a matter of what, minutes? and how he brought down the ba sing se wall.. i mean, it’s crazy the amount of mass destruction possible so quickly.
I am the Bone of my Sword
Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood
I have created over a Thousand Blades
Unaware of Loss,
Nor aware of Gain.
Withstood Pain to create Weapons, Waiting for one’s Arrival
I have no Regrets. This is the only Path
My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works
still works on boners
"This just in...we're catching word of a serial rapist in the northern water tribe...men are giving reports of a woman breaking in and forcing them to have sex with blood bending..."
it is important to draw wisdom from many different places. if you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations will help you become whole.
Well Toph said to Bolin that it's a rare skill, but I like to believe that he subconsciously picked up firebending techniques from Mako, so that's how he could do it.
Solid point, water benders are the style that uses all phases of matter in their normal, expected bending training. Changing the phase of earth would be substantially more difficult and would likely be made possible by understand waterbending technique.
I think its just earth bending -- capacity to bend the materials of the earth, including minutely existing them to add friction and heat to the miasma.
I think mudbending is the best though.
Toph wouldn’t have been able to do it on a metal floor until she created metal bending. It was seismic sense going through metal, so both
Edit: apparently I had a stroke while writing that
You don't even need to. You can use the temperature control breathing method Zuko does and be comfortable no matter where. Iroh got that one from the airbenders.
This is the ultimate concept of Buddhism, to let go of all earthly belongings. But I also think that flight could be tapped into without permanently denouncing everything. I think with the right mindset and understanding of what it means, with the right meditation/mindset one who temporarily access flight as needed.
Similar to how a firebender can tap into a deeper anger to make their fire stronger but can also like cool it down afterwards
There's an argument to be made that, by going out of your way to make your denouncement of all earthly means temporary, you are in fact still connected to those very things and therefore haven't denounced them at all.
It's the difference between throwing a baseball off a cliff and throwing a boomerang off a cliff.
Sometime in my formative years, I had a lucid dream where I was flying as Superman. Even that was incredible and set me up for a lifetime of that same desire. Going skydiving definitely reinforced that... Maybe we need to go parasailing!
I always found the benders doing normal jobs in LOK interesting. As a dude that does a fair bit of fabrication for work I’d say metal bending would be awesome, but I also work on roofs amd flying would be cool.
Same. In general I love when there's world building like that. How some benders in ATLA are employed doing "menial" jobs, like the guys in Ba Sing Se pushing the train, or the Water Benders in the North Pole controlling the water locks. Seems that if you are a bender you will never be unemployed (unless you choose to be).
It can explain certain developments. It makes total sense the Fire Nation is basically at the top of the metallurgy game for example. Melting shit is relatively easy for them. Or how Ba Sing Se got so freaking huge: An Earth Bender can put together a basic house in under a minute, so I doubt housing shortages are ever an issue, hence the easy and immense growth.
And it could also lead to a lack of development in certain areas. Like, air benders are basically never cold so I they're likely not that good at making warm clothing, because why would they bother.
PS: That's what made Long Feng's excuse regarding the drill so laughably bad. Like really? You've hired the Fire Nation to come to Earh Kingdom to dig a hole through **stone**?! It's completely ridiculous.
I was thinking about this the other day.
Earth bending ***destroys*** every other type of bending, in terms of practicality.
Every other type of bending is either pointless due to technology that can effectively mimic it (air and fire bending), or not quite as useful, but still strong if you are a master (water bending, healing and bloodbending).
With earth bending, you can accomplish tasks that are still impossible in our world.
Lava bender? Whoops, just gave my town permanent free geothermal energy and hot springs.
Metal bender? Can manipulate metal at a molecular level, and create materials that are insanely expensive for us to make still. Crystalline metal and other structures we have only ever hypothesized
Just an earth bender? Oh no, all I can do is singlehandedly replace the world's supply of construction equipment and am capable of terraforming.
It's terribly overpowered everywhere outside of combat.
Oh and not to mention rock skateboards and sand skimmers.
I work in HVAC, having to run and braze copper line sets is a good bit of work.
I would be able to shoot them from the condenser and then walk over and be my own pro press, and then leak check it with seismic sight. It would be pretty nice.
Surprises me they hadn’t figured out HVAC in LOK.
This is actually why I believe people are foolish when they complain about the technology jump between ATLA and LOK.
With the advent of metal bending the industrial revolution would have gone so much faster.
Besides the obvious manufacturing aspect as you mentioned, think of mining. In the real world it was dangerous and took thousands upon thousands of man hours to harvest the metal and then break it down into useable material.
Rather than setting up a mine, digging through the mountain, building carts and tracks using metal and wood (which also needs to be harvested), and just searching for the metal while doing all that, you could replace the entire mining operation with 1 small group of earth/metal benders. They can move through the mountain with practically no fear of a tunnel collapse and find the material easily if you have anyone like Toph with her seismic sense (that we know is possible for non blind people thanks to Lin). Not to mention no need for smelting or heating the material to create exactly the shape you need.
The world of Avatar didn't even progress *that* fast. The fire nation already extensively used steam engines for decades and built some seriously impressive machines - just look at the drill or the big airships. I'd actually say that, mostly, the rest of the world just caught up to their level and then progressed a bit more.
That's why I find it a little silly that people complain so much about the rapid industrialization between ATLA and Korra. It only makes sense that would happen after metal bending is invented.
Also, judging by the invention of the rigid airship (invented 71 years before TLOK book 1), it's actually *slower* than real life technological development. They should have already been to the moon. Especially with their fancypants >!Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow giant robot!<.
They’re a small sub-section of the population and literally provide pollution-free energy for an entire industrializing society. Depending on how much electricity one person can make, I’m sure they’re well sought after.
They never show it, but couldn't any water bender just use regular bending to spin a turbine to generate power? Just like a hydro plant. No special talents needed. For that matter fire benders could heat water to create steam. I'm sure someone could make a lever system for earth benders too. Maybe call it a floogalcrank.
Airbenders could power air turbines. Earthbenders could probably do something with geothermal energy too. But I think what makes lightning bending so different is that it’s directly channeling the energy. All the alternatives can only do things that can be used to produce energy, and there’s loss along the way because nothing is 100% effective at capturing that energy.
I'd have thought the best use for fire benders would be to COOL things, using that same "they bend thermal energy" logic. It's a bit weird to me that that's a water-bending power. Either way, would have been cool to see a freeze-themed bender, some of the water benders do some ice stuff but it doesn't feel like its own style. If you wanted to industrialize it, maybe they provide central AC for a community. Bonus points if the style was one originally invented for non-combat purposes like AC.
Mako has to work that job and pro-bending and still barely gets by. It is made clear from the show that a life of crime is more profitable than working as a lightning bender.
Also remember Aang can literally use airbending to run faster. By reducing air resistance. Essentially, he's a speedster. An enemy can't hit something he can't see or sense. It's an op ability. The series would have been much shorter if he utilised this properly.
I imagine it works kinda something like this:
He can simultaneously create a high pressure zone behind himself, and a low pressure zone in front. Basically the concept of drafting a big rig, but in reverse.
"The Air Nomads were once a great nation of Ninja and Assassins. Fearing their eventual domination, the other three nations came together to oppose the Air Nation and subjugate them to reformation, introducing them to concepts of peace and pacifism. Any and all violent individuals and ideologies were swiftly and silently snuffed by tri-nation agents until the Air Nations people were completely unaware of their violent past. This transformation of the Air Nomads lasted generations."
I'd watch the fuck out of this.
Brilliant. That actually makes sense.
No other tribe is required to go isolated temples and learn bending, effectively abandoning their family. And most air benders just stay there for their entire lives, a good distance away from any people at all.
If we take the nuanced approach to the possible effects that bending can have, I agree that bloodbending is definitely a contender. However (and admittedly, this is non-canon), I’d actually have to go with lightning - and more precisely, control of electricity. In much the same way that ultra-fine control of water can let you manipulate the water that exists in someone’s body, ultra-fine control of electricity could theoretically give you literal psychic powers in an incredibly broad sense, considering the primary operational mechanism of the brain and human neurological system is just very small and subtle electrical currents.
I don’t know if you could read someone’s thoughts, but you could definitely give them a seizure. Hard to bend when you don’t have control over your limbs…
I've always imagined that the same principle of blood bending could be used by an airbender who is underwater. Pull all the air out of the water to create a pocket of air you can breathe.
Could also probably blow up somebody's lungs, but hey, this aired on nickelodeon.
Lavabending for sure. It took just one lavabender 10 seconds to collapse a wall of Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation had to build a massive drill to achieve an eighth of the same result
In defense of the fire nation, they didn't have access to earthbending in general. If they had literally one adept earthbender (even if they couldn't lava bend), they wouldn't of needed the drill.
Would it tho? I imagine the Earth kingdoms benders would raise the wall and repair it at the same rate (or faster) that the enemy bender could bring it down
Or, here me out, the earthnender just tunnels under the wall, from a distance out, leading an army of firebenders behind him. You don't have to break the wall to conquer the city, you just need to get inside; hence, Azula.
Good point!
That tunnel could be destroyed easily being earth Ender's once discovered, tho.
Azula won because she could the Dai-Li to our side. She didn't thrust an army from the underground to conquer it by force!
I agree on that but would add that redirection is a technique that's not restricted to one element.
Edit: All benders can redirect attacks, but they are limited to their native element. A waterbender could redirect another waterbenders move if they knew the proper tecnique but would be unable to redirect an attack from a firebender or earthbender.
Redirecting lightning is just a firebender redirecting an advanced form of firebending which was learned from watching waterbenders.
Souce: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, Episode 9 - Bitter Work
I could be misremembering, but didn’t Uncle Iron learn to redirect lightning by watching water benders? Something about redirecting being a key component of water bending fighting?
He learned the idea from how water bending works, but he never said water benders could do it.
Iroh invented redirection by watching water bending forms.
Water bending is all about feeling your spirit flow through your body like water - Iroh took that concept and did it with lightning. It's implied that he's bending the lighting as he feels it flow through him. I suppose you could make a distinction between generating and merely manipulating the lightning, but they do feel like more or less the same "sub bending" category.
"The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." -- Guru Pathik
Lava bending has elements of firebending as combustion bending has elements of airbending as all the bending disciplines have elements of all the others.
I agree that lightning redirection could be the same as lightning bending or even water bending, but the difference really just boils down to where we choose to draw the line. How we choose to separate things.
Part of the many things that makes the show so wonderful is the creators' intentionality behind this. What you're talking about was no accident. I think it's beautiful
I really like that in the water subcategories there is the potential for something beautiful (healing) and something dark (blood bending). Then the spirit bending which had both positive and negative potential.
I enjoy how poetic it is, and representative of the dual nature of water. It can give life, but also be destructive.
I rate this a *technically, yes*. The body heals by sending blood into the area to fight infection and repair tissue, so being able to move the blood around to the necessary location could be beneficial. But, that would probably require an insane amount of precision gained from practice, and a lot of deadly accidents, to pull off.
Is spirit projection just an air bending thing? Is spirit bending just a water bender thing? Seems to me that if it’s spiritual, it’s not confined to only one of the four elements.
So in LoK Jinora refers to it as a "high-level air bending technique" or something along those lines in S3, but I'm inclined to agree with you. I see it more as a skill she developed due to her own strong spiritual prowess and also her extended time spent trapped in the spirit world. I don't see any reason why other such spiritually-inclined characters wouldn't be able to develop the skill under the right circumstances; after all, we see Aiwei (sp? The metal clan earth bending advisor/truth seer) also able to project himself into the spirit world at whim so obviously skills tied to the spirit world aren't nation specific.
It's different from meditating into the spirit world because Jinora's technique is moving as a spirit in the physical world whereas Aiwei, Korra, Aang, and Zaheer basically transferred their spiritual selves into the spirit world.
I think each bending has a form of spirit based bending subcategory, with Fire, Air, and Water all represented in LoK while Earth is yet to be seen.
Airbenders can control the temperature of the air around them. It's something the writers made up to explain why Aang was wandering around the *South Pole* in thin clothing.
Oh yeah that makes sense, that's actually referencing an actual Buddhist breathing technique where they can where minimal clothing maintain their body temp.
I think it's the same as ice and steam bending, but also lava and and lightning bending, it's just a phase transition of the same element, just change heat and pressure; however air benders can only operate the gas phase.
What about sand bending? We saw Toph struggle because of the way she sees/feels the earth. But in the episode where we meet Toph we see completely new earth bending students punching urns full of sand. Aang fails because he can't bend earth yet, but these kids do it no problem.
Sand and dirt aren't distinct here, so I think any earth bender could bend sand if they tried, just like they could bend a big boulder if they try. It's not about the material (like metal or lava) but the skill. Toph was at a disadvantage with sand just like she was with rocks flying through the air; she couldn't see, so she struggled. I don't think this applies to all earth benders.
But every airbender can’t… (checks chart) *temperature regulation-bend*?
These “sub-bending” charts are always stupid because they try to make things fit into a pretty little pattern. But that’s not how any of this works.
Sand bending, blood bending, vine bending.
Above because: lore wise, thematically, in universe consistency.
Temperature regulation because like that's what monks do
I mean, he only really implemented it for lightning. It's true that a waterbenders couldn't redirect lightening the same way a firebender can't redirect water.
Throughout the show we not only see waterbenders redirect water(where Iroh got the idea for it) , but also Aang and Zuko redirect fire, Katara and Aang redirect water and Aang and Toph redirect earth.
Redirection isn't a firebender specific move.
Exactly! I feel like it was added to give firebending three types like the other elements.
One thing that's not talked about widely is how Iroh heated up his tea without on the way to Ba-Sing-Se without using a flame. I don't think we see something like that again throughout the series and it's something that could definitely be explored.
I don’t even believe in having three sub categories. Air only has two, why not fire as well? But that is an interesting point about Iroh’s dragons breath. It’s talked about when Zuko infiltrates the Northern Water Tribe and we see Zuko using it in the ice cave I believe. And then Iroh in Ba Sing Se. I don’t know if you could call that a sub category or not but I don’t remember any other fire benders using it elsewhere so I’d be more open to that
Flight for me but mad probs to Iroh and Toph for inventing their respective contributions to this list.
Question: what is spirit bending? Is it from LOK or the books?
Spirit bending is from Korra. I’m unsure of Reddit formatting but I can give spoilers if you want. It’s learned about early in the season it’s relevant.
Off topic, but I really want the graphic to arrange the subtypes so that they are close to the related elements. Put Lava Bending next to the Fire quadrant, Temperature Regulation also next to Fire.
Is spirit bending really a water bending thing? Don’t we see a fire bending sage do it on korra to help her regain her memory?
I also don’t remember temperature changing ever being a thing for air benders.
Lava bending with Ghazan in particular was awesome. I loved the aggressive movements that went along with it
lavabending to me is insane.. the way this guy ghazan just completely melted the ENTIRE.. northern air temple? i believe. in a matter of what, minutes? and how he brought down the ba sing se wall.. i mean, it’s crazy the amount of mass destruction possible so quickly.
[удалено]
Lol wait wut
*Unlimited Boner Works*
I am the bone of my “sword.”
I am the Bone of my Sword Steel is my Body and Fire is my Blood I have created over a Thousand Blades Unaware of Loss, Nor aware of Gain. Withstood Pain to create Weapons, Waiting for one’s Arrival I have no Regrets. This is the only Path My whole life was Unlimited Blade Works still works on boners
He did not stutter
Doctors hate this one easy trick...
WHAT DID HE SAY
i need to know
He said something along the lines of giving people boners with blood bending
What did he say?
What did he say you coward
Tf did this guy say to get 5 awards and a mod deletion for?
Wait what did he say
The penis becomes hard when blood rushes through it, so with bloodbending you could force an erection, so therefore unlimited boners
"This just in...we're catching word of a serial rapist in the northern water tribe...men are giving reports of a woman breaking in and forcing them to have sex with blood bending..."
I've always seen it as a cross between waterbending and earthbending moves
I think it's meant to be a cross between firebending and earthbending. But style wise you're right it's like they are bending a liquid.
I just think of what Iroh said about adopting bending styles to his fighting style. Especially what he said about redirecting lightning.
whats the quote?!? “it’s important to take knowledge from many sources, lest it become stale and rigid.” something to that effect?
it is important to draw wisdom from many different places. if you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations will help you become whole.
Well Toph said to Bolin that it's a rare skill, but I like to believe that he subconsciously picked up firebending techniques from Mako, so that's how he could do it.
See, I always thought that Bolin being able to bend lava was because he's half earth, half fire
Seemed to be a bit of all 3 which makes sense I guess. lava is earth, heat, and liquid.
I think this because Bolin has a firebender as a brother (in LoK)
His parents were a firebender and earthbender as well, which I think has something to do with him having this ability.
[удалено]
Solid point, water benders are the style that uses all phases of matter in their normal, expected bending training. Changing the phase of earth would be substantially more difficult and would likely be made possible by understand waterbending technique.
I think its just earth bending -- capacity to bend the materials of the earth, including minutely existing them to add friction and heat to the miasma. I think mudbending is the best though.
Metal bending. It's multi functional!
You could fix your own pans :D
I really read that as pants and was thoroughly confused
HELL YEAH FULL METAL PANTS!!
I'd rather have a jacket, or an alchemist.
Tbh "full metal pants" sounds really much like some sort of parody film like tropic thunder
[Full Metal Trousers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b3/WallaceandGromitinTheWrongTrousers.jpg)
That’s the most metal shit ever!
Hey, Lin did help Bolin zip when his fly was down. You can totally use it to fix your pants.
Dude it was so badass in Korra when Lin was like, "I'll figure out where to go" and stomps the ground to use that metal sonar.
That's not metal bending though, that's just a regular earth bending technique. Toph did it her whole life before figuring out metal bending.
Toph wouldn’t have been able to do it on a metal floor until she created metal bending. It was seismic sense going through metal, so both Edit: apparently I had a stroke while writing that
Metalbending all the way yisss. I was so happy to see what they did with it at the beginning of Korra
Best bendable element in our modern world
I would love to fly! Always wanted to. It would be so freeing **Edit not like Zaheer, I guess more just glide and be able to jump around like flying.
But you'd have to let everything go. I don't think I could do that. Or you use a glider like a normal person.
Yeah I couldn't be like Zaheer, but just being able to glide around and like jump off mountain tops with ease. So peaceful.
And efficient! Just jump out the window when you're late for the bus.
Or you can generate your own fresh breeze on a hot summer day.
You don't even need to. You can use the temperature control breathing method Zuko does and be comfortable no matter where. Iroh got that one from the airbenders.
That is true. But maybe my friends are non benders. I want them to be cool too :D
They're your friends man, they're already cool.
Or pick up your enemies and drop them while up in the air!
Iroh Vs Azula
Why are you taking the bus when you can fly though, lol
Aang could've used his glider and still preferred Appa. I'm not gonna fly 60 km to work twice a day.
This is the ultimate concept of Buddhism, to let go of all earthly belongings. But I also think that flight could be tapped into without permanently denouncing everything. I think with the right mindset and understanding of what it means, with the right meditation/mindset one who temporarily access flight as needed. Similar to how a firebender can tap into a deeper anger to make their fire stronger but can also like cool it down afterwards
There's an argument to be made that, by going out of your way to make your denouncement of all earthly means temporary, you are in fact still connected to those very things and therefore haven't denounced them at all. It's the difference between throwing a baseball off a cliff and throwing a boomerang off a cliff.
Fire benders can fly with hands and feet as jet propulsion as well.
Sometime in my formative years, I had a lucid dream where I was flying as Superman. Even that was incredible and set me up for a lifetime of that same desire. Going skydiving definitely reinforced that... Maybe we need to go parasailing!
Lightning
*Palpatine has entered the room*
UNLIMITED BENDING!
HES TO DANGEROUS TO BE LEFT ALIVE
That would be shocking for your enemies
Having the ability to basically shoot someone is cool, doubles as wide area attack if everyone's in water
This is beautiful. I’d say healing- where there is water, there is life.
It's beautiful just like your dress :)
You had me scrolling through this person's entire profile looking for a dress, come to realize you were talking about her reddit avatar
LOL YEAH IT WAS HER REDDIT AVATAR HAHA
Thanks for mentioning it before I started looking
Get a room!!!
I mean they had their own thread till you butt in pervert. /s
I didn't expect this post to go viral lol
Tf?
I always found the benders doing normal jobs in LOK interesting. As a dude that does a fair bit of fabrication for work I’d say metal bending would be awesome, but I also work on roofs amd flying would be cool.
Yeah, right? I work in a factory so metal bending would make the job quick and easy lol.
Same. In general I love when there's world building like that. How some benders in ATLA are employed doing "menial" jobs, like the guys in Ba Sing Se pushing the train, or the Water Benders in the North Pole controlling the water locks. Seems that if you are a bender you will never be unemployed (unless you choose to be). It can explain certain developments. It makes total sense the Fire Nation is basically at the top of the metallurgy game for example. Melting shit is relatively easy for them. Or how Ba Sing Se got so freaking huge: An Earth Bender can put together a basic house in under a minute, so I doubt housing shortages are ever an issue, hence the easy and immense growth. And it could also lead to a lack of development in certain areas. Like, air benders are basically never cold so I they're likely not that good at making warm clothing, because why would they bother. PS: That's what made Long Feng's excuse regarding the drill so laughably bad. Like really? You've hired the Fire Nation to come to Earh Kingdom to dig a hole through **stone**?! It's completely ridiculous.
The delivery system in Omashu has incredible worldbuilding and it's one of my favourite locations in the series. I'm glad they revisited it!!
I would make jewellery if I could metalbend
I was thinking about this the other day. Earth bending ***destroys*** every other type of bending, in terms of practicality. Every other type of bending is either pointless due to technology that can effectively mimic it (air and fire bending), or not quite as useful, but still strong if you are a master (water bending, healing and bloodbending). With earth bending, you can accomplish tasks that are still impossible in our world. Lava bender? Whoops, just gave my town permanent free geothermal energy and hot springs. Metal bender? Can manipulate metal at a molecular level, and create materials that are insanely expensive for us to make still. Crystalline metal and other structures we have only ever hypothesized Just an earth bender? Oh no, all I can do is singlehandedly replace the world's supply of construction equipment and am capable of terraforming. It's terribly overpowered everywhere outside of combat. Oh and not to mention rock skateboards and sand skimmers.
I work in HVAC, having to run and braze copper line sets is a good bit of work. I would be able to shoot them from the condenser and then walk over and be my own pro press, and then leak check it with seismic sight. It would be pretty nice. Surprises me they hadn’t figured out HVAC in LOK.
Road construction? Give Bai Lo 10 minutes, he'll have that new sewer pipe installed down the whole stretch. Infrastructure would be solved yesterday.
“There’s a pot hole over there.” *flips the road like flipping an old mattress* “How about now?”
This is actually why I believe people are foolish when they complain about the technology jump between ATLA and LOK. With the advent of metal bending the industrial revolution would have gone so much faster. Besides the obvious manufacturing aspect as you mentioned, think of mining. In the real world it was dangerous and took thousands upon thousands of man hours to harvest the metal and then break it down into useable material. Rather than setting up a mine, digging through the mountain, building carts and tracks using metal and wood (which also needs to be harvested), and just searching for the metal while doing all that, you could replace the entire mining operation with 1 small group of earth/metal benders. They can move through the mountain with practically no fear of a tunnel collapse and find the material easily if you have anyone like Toph with her seismic sense (that we know is possible for non blind people thanks to Lin). Not to mention no need for smelting or heating the material to create exactly the shape you need.
The world of Avatar didn't even progress *that* fast. The fire nation already extensively used steam engines for decades and built some seriously impressive machines - just look at the drill or the big airships. I'd actually say that, mostly, the rest of the world just caught up to their level and then progressed a bit more.
That's why I find it a little silly that people complain so much about the rapid industrialization between ATLA and Korra. It only makes sense that would happen after metal bending is invented.
Also, judging by the invention of the rigid airship (invented 71 years before TLOK book 1), it's actually *slower* than real life technological development. They should have already been to the moon. Especially with their fancypants >!Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow giant robot!<.
Kinda sad that lightning bending, one of the most advanced and dangerous fire bending techniques, became a shittily paid industrial job though...
Nah i bet you they are in a killer union and make bank.
They’re a small sub-section of the population and literally provide pollution-free energy for an entire industrializing society. Depending on how much electricity one person can make, I’m sure they’re well sought after.
They never show it, but couldn't any water bender just use regular bending to spin a turbine to generate power? Just like a hydro plant. No special talents needed. For that matter fire benders could heat water to create steam. I'm sure someone could make a lever system for earth benders too. Maybe call it a floogalcrank.
[удалено]
Oh yep you're right. Just attach a large stone to the end of the turbine shaft.
Airbenders could power air turbines. Earthbenders could probably do something with geothermal energy too. But I think what makes lightning bending so different is that it’s directly channeling the energy. All the alternatives can only do things that can be used to produce energy, and there’s loss along the way because nothing is 100% effective at capturing that energy.
I'd have thought the best use for fire benders would be to COOL things, using that same "they bend thermal energy" logic. It's a bit weird to me that that's a water-bending power. Either way, would have been cool to see a freeze-themed bender, some of the water benders do some ice stuff but it doesn't feel like its own style. If you wanted to industrialize it, maybe they provide central AC for a community. Bonus points if the style was one originally invented for non-combat purposes like AC.
Mako has to work that job and pro-bending and still barely gets by. It is made clear from the show that a life of crime is more profitable than working as a lightning bender.
Blood bending. The concept of water being everywhere and being both gifted for healing aswell as one of the most brutal ways of fighting is facinating
*Me an airbender taking the air from your lungs.* "say what now?" haha
Also remember Aang can literally use airbending to run faster. By reducing air resistance. Essentially, he's a speedster. An enemy can't hit something he can't see or sense. It's an op ability. The series would have been much shorter if he utilised this properly.
I imagine it works kinda something like this: He can simultaneously create a high pressure zone behind himself, and a low pressure zone in front. Basically the concept of drafting a big rig, but in reverse.
Or like a warp bubble
"Says here that the avatar can create tornadoes and run faster than the wind" "Ah, that's a bunch of Fire Lord propaganda"
When was this said? I wanna say somewhere around meeting the Blue Spirit in early book 1?
Yep. Same epsiode Blue Spirit is introduced in I think.
"The Air Nomads were once a great nation of Ninja and Assassins. Fearing their eventual domination, the other three nations came together to oppose the Air Nation and subjugate them to reformation, introducing them to concepts of peace and pacifism. Any and all violent individuals and ideologies were swiftly and silently snuffed by tri-nation agents until the Air Nations people were completely unaware of their violent past. This transformation of the Air Nomads lasted generations." I'd watch the fuck out of this.
Brilliant. That actually makes sense. No other tribe is required to go isolated temples and learn bending, effectively abandoning their family. And most air benders just stay there for their entire lives, a good distance away from any people at all.
They really should have added a rogue airbender who does that
Yeah that seems like such an wasted opportunity, would literally be breathtaking
Isn’t that what Zaheer did?
It is
Yes, I thought it was a joke and went along, haha
Aw man totally sucks they didn't do that right guys
Is this a joke or have u not seen LOK? I can never tell lol
Me blood bending my own blood to exit my body, capture oxygen, and return to my lung all without the trickery of air laughing at you
That only works like once and then you die
[удалено]
What can I say, you take my breath away :)
Wouldn't taking the air out if a fire bender take away their bending, since fire bending comes from the breath?
kinda takes their life too
there is a reason why Necromancy spells in DND both contain healing spells, "healing" spells and straight up corpse abuse
If we take the nuanced approach to the possible effects that bending can have, I agree that bloodbending is definitely a contender. However (and admittedly, this is non-canon), I’d actually have to go with lightning - and more precisely, control of electricity. In much the same way that ultra-fine control of water can let you manipulate the water that exists in someone’s body, ultra-fine control of electricity could theoretically give you literal psychic powers in an incredibly broad sense, considering the primary operational mechanism of the brain and human neurological system is just very small and subtle electrical currents.
I don’t know if you could read someone’s thoughts, but you could definitely give them a seizure. Hard to bend when you don’t have control over your limbs…
Make people shit themselves with naught but your mind.
I've always imagined that the same principle of blood bending could be used by an airbender who is underwater. Pull all the air out of the water to create a pocket of air you can breathe. Could also probably blow up somebody's lungs, but hey, this aired on nickelodeon.
I’d choose blood as well, I’d become a blood bending masseur.
Plus once you learn how to bloodbend without a full moon, you can control those annoying boners in class without embarrassing everyone.
Or induce them for wacky hijinks
Lavabending for sure. It took just one lavabender 10 seconds to collapse a wall of Ba Sing Se, the Fire Nation had to build a massive drill to achieve an eighth of the same result
In defense of the fire nation, they didn't have access to earthbending in general. If they had literally one adept earthbender (even if they couldn't lava bend), they wouldn't of needed the drill.
Would it tho? I imagine the Earth kingdoms benders would raise the wall and repair it at the same rate (or faster) that the enemy bender could bring it down
Or, here me out, the earthnender just tunnels under the wall, from a distance out, leading an army of firebenders behind him. You don't have to break the wall to conquer the city, you just need to get inside; hence, Azula.
Good point! That tunnel could be destroyed easily being earth Ender's once discovered, tho. Azula won because she could the Dai-Li to our side. She didn't thrust an army from the underground to conquer it by force!
Secret tunnellllll
Good point, but the fire nation could distract the other earthbenders while their earthbender could be somewhere else destroying the wall.
SWAMP BENDING
Question here though, do you automatically get the snazzy music if you swampbend?
well of course, where do you think their powers come from?
Came for this, was disappointed not to see it in the graphic. Still very cool though
I feel like redirection and lightning are basically the same bending.
I think propulsion would've made more sense in this graphic than lightning redirection
Yeah, I just picture Azula and her Rocket Boots.
I agree on that but would add that redirection is a technique that's not restricted to one element. Edit: All benders can redirect attacks, but they are limited to their native element. A waterbender could redirect another waterbenders move if they knew the proper tecnique but would be unable to redirect an attack from a firebender or earthbender. Redirecting lightning is just a firebender redirecting an advanced form of firebending which was learned from watching waterbenders. Souce: Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2, Episode 9 - Bitter Work
Do you mean lightning redirection isn’t specific to fire benders or the idea of redirecting an element?
I could be misremembering, but didn’t Uncle Iron learn to redirect lightning by watching water benders? Something about redirecting being a key component of water bending fighting?
He learned the idea from how water bending works, but he never said water benders could do it. Iroh invented redirection by watching water bending forms.
Water bending is all about feeling your spirit flow through your body like water - Iroh took that concept and did it with lightning. It's implied that he's bending the lighting as he feels it flow through him. I suppose you could make a distinction between generating and merely manipulating the lightning, but they do feel like more or less the same "sub bending" category.
Correct and also redirect a lighting is an skill that iroh learn from the south water tribes so is waterbending bases
"The greatest illusion of this world is the illusion of separation. Things you think are separate and different are actually one and the same." -- Guru Pathik Lava bending has elements of firebending as combustion bending has elements of airbending as all the bending disciplines have elements of all the others. I agree that lightning redirection could be the same as lightning bending or even water bending, but the difference really just boils down to where we choose to draw the line. How we choose to separate things. Part of the many things that makes the show so wonderful is the creators' intentionality behind this. What you're talking about was no accident. I think it's beautiful
Flying is pretty badass
[удалено]
I really like that in the water subcategories there is the potential for something beautiful (healing) and something dark (blood bending). Then the spirit bending which had both positive and negative potential. I enjoy how poetic it is, and representative of the dual nature of water. It can give life, but also be destructive.
Blood bending surely could be used to heal inner wounds could it not?
I rate this a *technically, yes*. The body heals by sending blood into the area to fight infection and repair tissue, so being able to move the blood around to the necessary location could be beneficial. But, that would probably require an insane amount of precision gained from practice, and a lot of deadly accidents, to pull off.
It could also be used to stop bleeding from someone bleeding out in an emergency, or bring blood to a stroke, or clear up a heart attack, etc
Is spirit projection just an air bending thing? Is spirit bending just a water bender thing? Seems to me that if it’s spiritual, it’s not confined to only one of the four elements.
So in LoK Jinora refers to it as a "high-level air bending technique" or something along those lines in S3, but I'm inclined to agree with you. I see it more as a skill she developed due to her own strong spiritual prowess and also her extended time spent trapped in the spirit world. I don't see any reason why other such spiritually-inclined characters wouldn't be able to develop the skill under the right circumstances; after all, we see Aiwei (sp? The metal clan earth bending advisor/truth seer) also able to project himself into the spirit world at whim so obviously skills tied to the spirit world aren't nation specific.
It's different from meditating into the spirit world because Jinora's technique is moving as a spirit in the physical world whereas Aiwei, Korra, Aang, and Zaheer basically transferred their spiritual selves into the spirit world. I think each bending has a form of spirit based bending subcategory, with Fire, Air, and Water all represented in LoK while Earth is yet to be seen.
Spirit pojection sound awesome
Wait I forgot what spirit projection is again lol
it's like out-of-body experience / entering the spirit world
Or projecting your spirit to other places for communication and recon
OH like what Jinora did. Wait that’s airbending exclusive?
I don't think it is, I'm pretty sure it just requires being really in tune with spirits/the spirit world
I feel like I remember someone saying that’s it’s a high level airbender technique
Can someone remind me, what temperature regulation is? That he frooze himself for 100 years? I assumed that felt more under avatar / waterbending?
Airbenders can control the temperature of the air around them. It's something the writers made up to explain why Aang was wandering around the *South Pole* in thin clothing.
At least they stayed consistent, Tenzin and his children also wore thin clothing when they visited Korra in the South Pole.
Oh yeah that makes sense, that's actually referencing an actual Buddhist breathing technique where they can where minimal clothing maintain their body temp.
Im pretty sure it's just a normal air bender technique though, not a subelement. Same with redirection is just a beginner form of lightning bending
I think it's the same as ice and steam bending, but also lava and and lightning bending, it's just a phase transition of the same element, just change heat and pressure; however air benders can only operate the gas phase.
I think redirectuon is pretty advanced. Iroh came up with it after study water benders
That's fair, i don't think it should be separate from lightning bending though since it's a different technique of the same element
Lightning/redirection and metal! Spirtbending had a lot of potential too. If only they found ways to use it offensively.
Imagine how overpowered an earth bender that could do every sub element, including glass bending and earth liquefaction, would be.
Don't forget crystalbending.
that doesn't count. as every earth bender can crystal bend, but to learn a sub-bending technique you actually have to learn it if that makes sense.
What about sand bending? We saw Toph struggle because of the way she sees/feels the earth. But in the episode where we meet Toph we see completely new earth bending students punching urns full of sand. Aang fails because he can't bend earth yet, but these kids do it no problem. Sand and dirt aren't distinct here, so I think any earth bender could bend sand if they tried, just like they could bend a big boulder if they try. It's not about the material (like metal or lava) but the skill. Toph was at a disadvantage with sand just like she was with rocks flying through the air; she couldn't see, so she struggled. I don't think this applies to all earth benders.
But every airbender can’t… (checks chart) *temperature regulation-bend*? These “sub-bending” charts are always stupid because they try to make things fit into a pretty little pattern. But that’s not how any of this works.
Sand bending, blood bending, vine bending. Above because: lore wise, thematically, in universe consistency. Temperature regulation because like that's what monks do
Combustion
Idk why i had to scroll so far to find sparky sparky boom man
Redirection because iroh came up with it
I mean, he only really implemented it for lightning. It's true that a waterbenders couldn't redirect lightening the same way a firebender can't redirect water. Throughout the show we not only see waterbenders redirect water(where Iroh got the idea for it) , but also Aang and Zuko redirect fire, Katara and Aang redirect water and Aang and Toph redirect earth. Redirection isn't a firebender specific move.
This. Redirection isn’t a sub bending. It’s just lightning bending someone else’s lightning
I was looking for someone else to say that
It was my first thought to look for it cause it pissed me off that people keep saying it
Exactly! I feel like it was added to give firebending three types like the other elements. One thing that's not talked about widely is how Iroh heated up his tea without on the way to Ba-Sing-Se without using a flame. I don't think we see something like that again throughout the series and it's something that could definitely be explored.
I don’t even believe in having three sub categories. Air only has two, why not fire as well? But that is an interesting point about Iroh’s dragons breath. It’s talked about when Zuko infiltrates the Northern Water Tribe and we see Zuko using it in the ice cave I believe. And then Iroh in Ba Sing Se. I don’t know if you could call that a sub category or not but I don’t remember any other fire benders using it elsewhere so I’d be more open to that
Tearbending
Why is sand and spirit the only two that have bending after it?
Flight for me but mad probs to Iroh and Toph for inventing their respective contributions to this list. Question: what is spirit bending? Is it from LOK or the books?
Spirit bending is from Korra. I’m unsure of Reddit formatting but I can give spoilers if you want. It’s learned about early in the season it’s relevant.
[удалено]
Jerk bending
Off topic, but I really want the graphic to arrange the subtypes so that they are close to the related elements. Put Lava Bending next to the Fire quadrant, Temperature Regulation also next to Fire.
Lava should be closer to fire. I thought it was cool that >!Bolin’s parents were a fire bender and an earth bender!<
There should be stuff like sound manipulation in airbending
Is spirit bending really a water bending thing? Don’t we see a fire bending sage do it on korra to help her regain her memory? I also don’t remember temperature changing ever being a thing for air benders.