[TV] Avatar: Legend of Korra

[Blueobelisk]

well remember, every time they use energy bending they also use the avatar state. that would give you the energy of every past avatar at once.

pretty unbendable i'd say

Aang wasn't in the avatar state when he took Ozais bending away.

[ranku]

Aang wasn't in the avatar state when he took Ozais bending away.

it's implied that the final part of the "light show" where he completely destroyed ozai that he went avatar state at that moment. also he always used it at later points as did korra.

[Xuvial]

And I'm sure you have proof of that, right? Made up guesses are made up guesses.

But this is really diving head-first into the whole "I am right until proven wrong" game. In which case Korra is actually an alien from outer space and her parents found her in a spaceship as a baby and took her in as their child, the avatar spirit actually died with Aang and a new spirit is currently pretending to be the avatar spirit. All of this is true until someone can generate solid evidence that it is wrong, ha! Also Pabu is actually a sky bison in disguise. See, it doesn't end pretty >_>

There is no known previous avatar who could blood-bend on any given day. Avatar state is the culmination of previous avatars' bending knowledge, Aang learned energybending and therefore Korra could use it as well, and that's exactly what she used to give the people back their bending. Simple as that. The only known person who could use bloodbending to take away other people's bending was Amon, and the avatar has nothing to do with Amon's bloodline, neither did the avatar learn "super bloodbending" off Amon at any point, there is really zero relation between the avatar and bloodbending. There's my proof :P

[Brightamethyst]

Avatar state is the culmination of previous avatars' bending knowledge, Aang learned energybending and therefore Korra could use it as well, and that's exactly what she used to give the people back their bending. Simple as that.

That's not all the avatar state does though. It also provides a power boost. Lets the avatar access 'great cosmic energies' and stuff. I bet someone in the avatar state could blood bend whenever they wanted. Aang probably just never tried.

The only known person who could use bloodbending to take away other people's bending was Amon, and the avatar has nothing to do with Amon's bloodline, neither did the avatar learn "super bloodbending" off Amon at any point, there is really zero relation between the avatar and bloodbending.

We don't know that some avatar in the past didn't know how to do that. Only that Aang, Roku, etc didn't. Who knows what all the countless previous avatars knew? Besides. Just because you can't do something doesn't mean you can't undo it.

[Blueobelisk]

Ya but wasn't it Aang who brought back Korras bending? Since you admit Aang doesn't know bloodbending then it's more than likely Aang used energy bending. And it's really likely that is what Korra has been using.

[Brightamethyst]

Ya but wasn't it Aang who brought back Korras bending? Since you admit Aang doesn't know bloodbending then it's more than likely Aang used energy bending. And it's really likely that is what Korra has been using.

I put that down to avatar state magic (aka. unexplained, nonsensical plot device.)

[Zonas]

That's not all the avatar state does though. It also provides a power boost. Lets the avatar access 'great cosmic energies' and stuff. I bet someone in the avatar state could blood bend whenever they wanted. Aang probably just never tried.


We don't know that some avatar in the past didn't know how to do that. Only that Aang, Roku, etc didn't. Who knows what all the countless previous avatars knew? Besides. Just because you can't do something doesn't mean you can't undo it.

It's specifically stated that the Avatar state only gives the current Avatar the power of all of the previous Avatars. By that logic, the Avatar state for the first few Avatars ever was porbably not as powerful as it is now.

And no other Avatar would have been a blood bender. They would have seen it as an abomination of bending and never use it, much like how Katara thought. Hama was the one who developed it, much like how Toph developed metalbending. And even if an Avatar had learned how to take someone's bending away, Aang would have found that out when he was looking for guidance on killing Ozai, as all of the Avatars saw there was no other option while the lion-turtle showed him how.

But even then, Aang being able to teach Korra energybending is a lot of BS to just accept easily. By that logic, Aang should have been able to learn earth/water/firebending from the previous Avatars as well.

[Duronos]

I'm getting confused as to when season 2 is coming out. I hear summer then I hear early spring then I even hear March 23rd... I wouldn't take any source for granted though through various tweets it seems early spring is our best bet.

[Brightamethyst]

It's specifically stated that the Avatar state only gives the current Avatar the power of all of the previous Avatars.

That always bothered me because it directly contradicts what we see in the show, which is huge boosts in sheer power. Extra knowledge might give you more techniques and stuff but wouldn't account for your power level suddenly being over 9000.

And no other Avatar would have been a blood bender. They would have seen it as an abomination of bending and never use it, much like how Katara thought.

So what? Yeah, Katara thought it was an abomination and but she still knew how to do it.

I don't know about you, but I know how to do lots of things I don't like or want to do.

Hama was the one who developed it, much like how Toph developed metalbending.

We don't know that they invented those techniques. Only that no one else in the current world knew about them. Who's to say that blood/metal bending wasn't discovered in the past and then fell out of practice.

And even if an Avatar had learned how to take someone's bending away, Aang would have found that out when he was looking for guidance on killing Ozai, as all of the Avatars saw there was no other option while the lion-turtle showed him how.

I'll give you that, though it's possible that someone did know and Aang just didn't poll every single past avatar.

It was never an issue until Korra came out so it's not surprising that not everything about everything was explained in TLA.

By that logic, Aang should have been able to learn earth/water/firebending from the previous Avatars as well.

He probably could have used the avatar state to learn bending, but it wouldn't have lasted once he left the avatar state.



A little unrelated here, but while it's not surprising (plot wise anyway) that you can mystically remove a person's bending, it's interesting that you can give it back. That poses an interesting question about the nature of bending in general. Could energy bending give bending to a non-bender? Could it change a person's element, or even give them a second/third/fourth one?

[Zonas]

That always bothered me because it directly contradicts what we see in the show, which is huge boosts in sheer power. Extra knowledge might give you more techniques and stuff but wouldn't account for your power level suddenly being over 9000.



A little unrelated here, but while it's not surprising (plot wise anyway) that you can mystically remove a person's bending, it's interesting that you can give it back. That poses an interesting question about the nature of bending in general. Could energy bending give bending to a non-bender? Could it change a person's element, or even give them a second/third/fourth one?

I think the idea behind the concept/the show is that since Aang was so young and inexperienced, the Avatar state was just a moderate boost in power. He could only handle so much before his body quit on him, which is why whenever Aang goes into the Avatar state later on, it steadily becomes more controled and more powerful. Like when it showed previous Avatars useing it, they looked to be in full control, or when Aang used it in the LoK flashback. You might gain near-unlimited power, but you can only use so much of it at one time depending on how much of a master you were.


For energybending giving bending back, I think it was only because they lost their bending because of Amon's bloodbending. It seems more likly that his bloodbending would block the chakra points, like how hitting pressure points did but it was more permenant. Energybending just reopened those points, not giving it back to them, but allowing them to use what they already had.

Really, I never liked the whole, Aang taking away bending with energybending. It was shoved into the ending of AtLA way too quickly as a way to avoid the fact that Aang needed to kill Ozai (couldn't show something like that in a kid's show). I mean, they based the first parts of the finale on Aang having inner struggle about killing someone, then BAM lion-turtle, problem solved.

What the show has already shown is that humans weren't naturally gifted with the ability to bend, they learned it from other sources. The moon, moles, dragons, and sky bison were the natural benders. Over thousands of years however, certain people probably became more adept at bending than others, those related to the first humans who learned bending. It could mean that modern non-benders could learn to bend, but it would be more difficult for them to master it. So in concept, Ozai probably could have re-learned firebending had he been given the chance, unlikly though as he was already rather old and there were only two dragons left who both HATED him.

[Brightamethyst]

What the show has already shown is that humans weren't naturally gifted with the ability to bend, they learned it from other sources. The moon, moles, dragons, and sky bison were the natural benders. Over thousands of years however, certain people probably became more adept at bending than others, those related to the first humans who learned bending. It could mean that modern non-benders could learn to bend, but it would be more difficult for them to master it.

That again contradicts what we see in the show as bending seems to be something you're either born with or not. Most likely the original human benders had the power all along and just didn't know it or how to use it until they learned from the moon/bison/dragons/badgermoles.

[Blueobelisk]

That always bothered me because it directly contradicts what we see in the show, which is huge boosts in sheer power. Extra knowledge might give you more techniques and stuff but wouldn't account for your power level suddenly being over 9000.

The past avatars were just THAT powerful. I mean. Look at the avatar in the introduction (not episode, but each episode's opening). That one avatar firebent 3 VOLCANOS! Then that other avatar earthbended those HUGEEEEE ass statutes like nothing. Then that other mofo airbent some wind and the whole fucking forest thought there was a tornado coming by. Avatar state gets those people's power to use too.

---------- Post added 2013-03-12 at 05:48 PM ----------

And even if an Avatar had learned how to take someone's bending away, Aang would have found that out when he was looking for guidance on killing Ozai, as all of the Avatars saw there was no other option while the lion-turtle showed him how.

I'm gonna help out Bright's argument. Bloodbending =/= removing bending. Even if some past avatar figured out "hey. Let's wait till the full moon and waterbend some blood" (Which never would have fucking happened, it was only learned by that old lady because she was alone in a fire nation cell with NO water and she could only use waterbending, any other avatar would be like "no water? I'll just burn or airslice"), the avatar wouldn't have even dreamed of using it to remove bending. Amon did it because he's fucking beast God tier status.

And lol no way metalbending was invented before because metal is a new thing. They didn't smelt ores or whatever back in the day for past avatars for there to be an abundance of metal.

[Zonas]

That again contradicts what we see in the show as bending seems to be something you're either born with or not. Most likely the original human benders had the power all along and just didn't know it or how to use it until they learned from the moon/bison/dragons/badgermoles.

Well like I said, it could just be that modern benders do it more naturally, without having to work hard to learn basic stuff. For non-benders, they just don't know they can learn because they don't start doing it at a young age, but with training, they could manage basic bendings abilities after several years.

I think a good comparison could be like shouting in Skyrim. Normal people can learn to shout, but it takes years and years of training to do simple stuff, while the dragonborn is naturally born to be good at it. Where the dragonborn is the modern day benders and the normal people are the non-benders.

It's really just wild speculation based on the legends about the "original" benders. Hell, for all we know, humans didn't actually learn bending from anywhere and the nations just made up those stories to be told around campfires.

[Blueobelisk]

10% of bending is recognizing how to control your chi (although no one knows this, they just do it naturally). 90% of bending is learning techniques and how to move your body to perform moves.

Once the original human benders recognized they could do shit it was probably easy.

[Brightamethyst]

If it's as simple as chi and chakras and training then why are people limited to a single element?

[Ridesdel]

Affinities. So far EVERY bender that we see has something major in common with their element, for Earth it's mostly stubbornness, Air is calm and aloof, while being able to bring brunt force when needed. Fire is passion. Water is going with the flow.

[Blueobelisk]

You're born into what bending abilities you can perform. Unless you were one of the first people to unlock a type of bending lol. Everyone else have the skills in their genes, somehow. It's called evolution!

[Zonas]

Affinities. So far EVERY bender that we see has something major in common with their element, for Earth it's mostly stubbornness, Air is calm and aloof, while being able to bring brunt force when needed. Fire is passion. Water is going with the flow.

That has to do more with culture and not their bending.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I kind of wanted to see like a small one/two episode sub-plot that had to do with a family that consisted of fire/earth benders. Like a firenation soldier falls in love with an earthnation gal while he's burning down her home and all that jazz. It was the main problem with AtLA in regards to the fire nation people. Nearly every adult that was given more than two seconds in a scene was a dick (with the exception of a few white lotus guys). I know they were the cause of a brutal war and everything, but it's not like every German was an ass during the holocaust.

And I still think the idea of everyone being able to learn to bend, just some having it easier than others, is plausible. Look at the air nomads, every one of them was an airbender at the time. Or even the story of the two first earthbenders, Oma and Shu. While yes, you could still argue that even back then, the first benders were genetically able to bend when they started to learn, but that's a bit of a coincidence that both of the two lovers were able to bend naturally.

It also kind of brings on the idea of when the first Avatar was brought on. If the legends of the first benders are to be taken into account, then the Avatar must have been made after the first benders learned of the abilities. Otherwise, they could have just learned from the Avatar. Maybe the spirits thought that humans learning as a kind of threat unless properly guided, so they created the Avatar to help them.

[Arlee]

but we've never heard of things like Fire Benders being born in the Earth Kingdom (to pure Earth Kingdom people) and it would be silly to say that no Earth Kingdom citizens were passionate. I don't think that's it

That has to do with Lineage. If say a Firebender married a waterbender there would be a chance the kids would be a mix of firebenders, waterbenders, and nonbenders. The reason Firebenders don't randomly pop-up in the middle of the Earth kingdom is because in Aang's time all the different benders were separate and didn't mix with each other.

For example Katara and Aang had three children. Kya was a waterbender, Tenzin is an Airbender, and Bumi isn't a bender at all. You need to have the abilty passed down from somewhere in your family or else you won't have it.

[Blueobelisk]

Lol at not understanding inter-bending parents thing. Did you ever wonder how Mako and Bolin were brothers but had different bending elements?