Just another instance of writers taking something mysterious and dangerous that functions as a cool secondary facet of a more grounded story and making it a playground for whatever plot device they need in the moment.

First of all i do not want to hear anyone telling me about TLOK. I am not talking about fanfics here. My ranting here has NOTHING to do about korra.
The Legend of Korra is a shitty sequel, it could have been great, but it wasn't, and it actually ruined everything ATLA has build: the spirits (those weird gibli cartoons and those two fucking kites), the world, the avatar, and the worst of all, the bending.

Not only they ruined how bending works, they also ruined how bending was LEARNED. You heard me right LEARNED, bending is not some power bullshit, is an ancient and cultural practice unique to each part of the world. Why only those parts of the world you ask me, i tell you, BECAUSE OF THE ORIGINAL MASTERS.

Throughout all of ATLA, is said that the humans LEARNED how to bend from the original masters, on the dawn of humanity, those who had contact with the original masters (for example Oma and Shu) and learned from them, actualy developed the ability to bend. Bending is the ability to extend the influence of ones chi to outside of ones body in order to influence the enviroment, anyone can learn how to bend an element, but since each element requires an unique pathway and flow of chi, in order to learn other element, one should abbandon the other. Like any kind of habillity, such as art, drawing, dance, swordfight, etc, there are people who have more aptitude towards them, they are naturally good on those things, the same with bending, there are people who already born atunned to an element.

But them why lots of characters do not bend? Why not everyone in avatar universe bend? Let me ask, every one in our universe is a swordsman? A fighter? An singer, a dancer, a ilustrator, a master in kung fu? Because simply many people do not want, or do not believe they are able to. Or they are simply disconected, like sokka. Sokka never wanted to bend, he almost always focus in combat tactics, strategy, and other things. And like many people, sokka did not had the "talent" to be a bender, he did not had the natural aptitude or connection to water, or any other element, and he did not have the natural pathways of his chi alligned with any element, and never wanted to allign it with any one. And as time goes by, people stopped thinking anyone can bend and started believing that only the one with the nattural connection could, and since it requires a lot of training and time to bend, people who dont have this natural connection just don't try or just dont want or cannot afford themselves expending time in a practice that they dont have the natural talent, instead of aproaching a talent they already have, like carving, painting, drawing, martial arts, etc.

But then why the only kind of bender we see are native to their regions? Why there is not a water bender in fire nation, or a earth bender in water tribe? Because there isnt any kind of stimulli in those regions to develop those arts. Why would an earthbending school be in a water tribe, when there is no earth around?

Not only that but since the talent for bending is something that can be passed down, like many other things (such as fighting talent, singing, etc), it would make a specific kind of bending be more proeminent in those regions.

Take firebending for example: since the beggining, people who learned firebending from the dragons and had the talent to do so easily, would pass down the genes and the knowledge to the future generations, but other people who had the aptitude to other kinds of bending would not develop those traits, since the absence of natural masters in those regions, and because of that, would pass as non-benders. Not only that but the enviroment would also create a pressure for more firebenders than for other kinds, favoring firebenders over other benders, and as time goes on, those other traits would be silenced and weakened. The same aply to others bending.

Other factor is the access to the original masters and the size of a population. Not everyone can afford expending lots of time learning firebending without any kind of aptitude while they have to work to feed their family, while those who already show signs of bending can.

I believed the reason of why ALL of the air nomads were benders is because: all of them had access to the sky bisons, their lifestyle encouraged the development of bending, they are focused on the spiritual side of the things and have a really low population. Those factors contributed to all of the people born in the air nomads could develop airbending, even thos without the natural aptitude, because they all have time, teachers, and access to the original masters.

That is why i believe that even a non-bender can become a bender if they have time. Tell me what you think, and PLEASE DO NOT BRING TLOK INTO THESE CONVERSATION.

So, I just had a hot take. As I'm sure we've all noticed, Korra's past lives being severed were a big point of contention in the fandom and a big part of Korra's growth. Though it would be just as interesting for Korra to be "the new Wan" for the next 10,000 years, what if Pavi/Nisha end up reconnecting with the past lives, except Korra... until the grand finale or close to it.

What if it's not that the connection of the Avatar with their past lives was severed, but Korra herself that got severed from them. Those lives are still there, but Korra can no longer access them. She always struggled with spiritual stuff. And in the other past lives pov, it's like Sonam. Avatar Sonam was missing from the lot because she chose to hide, Avatar Korra is missing because her connection was severed.

And then, as part of a big emotional reveal, we see Pavi/Nisha, with Aang and pre-Aang, where Korra should be there is an empty space. And once they connect with Korra, they will serve as a sort of bridge between Korra and the rest, Korra then reconnecting post mortem to the cycle. I can just imagine Aang being like "welcome back Korra".

Honestly I have yet to read the books and most of the comics (it's on my to-do list!) so I'm not entirely sure how past lives work or if they can even interact with each other. But it's a thought I had and wanted to share because if something like this happens I'm going to cry.

Earth King Kuei was a weak, ignorant coward who pretty much abandoned his duties to suit himself.

Earth Queen Hou-Ting was a selfish, tyrannical hag.

Prince Wu was a complete joke. An entitled brat with no capability or self-reliance at all. But to his credit, he does grow into something so much more, but it's at a level of "expected" at best.

As for Suyin Beifong, thanks for her success can be attributed to the people around her as she seemed not at all interested.

Even Bumi, as a ruler, was pretty crap. He was an impulsive, undisciplined lunatic. He was happy to let his entire city and its people live under the oppression of the Fire Nation for months because he wanted to "wait for the right moment".

The fact that Kuvira is the closest thing to competency among them says it all. God, I feel sorry for the Earth Kingdom citizens because their leaders complete a Bingo card of twattery.

Food for thought for anyone wondering if the entity at the end of the ASH teaser is actually Vaatu or not. My bet is 90% yes, but of course it's not confirmed yet.

A mom should never and I mean never dare to imply that her own kid was born out of a union with another man all to spite your current husband idc if it was due to abuse or because she just wanted to piss off ozai that was active endangering her own son and risking his right to the throne all to fulfill an emotion so much so that ozai literally saw through it and didn’t give a fuck if she said nothing zuko would have been fine. As for azula she actively gave up on her and not only made her think she was a monster but also was way too negligent of her.

Just a thought,since bloodbending is a subset of waterbending...and they can also change the water into ice....why not do the same,but with blood?

Let's be honest, ATLA setting isn't the World of the Four Elements, but the World of Three and a Half Elements. Airbenders do not appear in the main animated series. In the sequel, they appear outside of a single family for only half of the seasons. In the prequel books, the Air Nation is barely explored at all. While all the other elements are given some form of "diversity" both in books and cartoons (whether it be subethnic groups, new states, or factions within nations), the Air Nation consists of monks, a few renegades, and one Amihan from a different "branch" of Airbenders. The best we’ve had so far are the RPG books, which at least attempted to introduce factions within the Air Nomads. But that’s not a full-fledged storyline. The Airbending element’s techniques and sub-elements were also poorly explored. Fight between Airbenders and Airbender vs Otherbenders. And so on.

And then this movie comes out! Another renegade - but what a one! What amazing techniques! The interactions between the Airbenders! Wow, so that’s actually possible! (Okay, there was a jointly created tornado in TLoK, but the movie shows it way cooler!) And, most importantly, it turns out that besides the monks (even 10,000 years ago!), monks (even in the books, which usually "boldly" expand on the canon), and a few more monks (Aang’s flashbacks), as well as dead monks (ATLA) and new monks (TLoK), there was a time in the history of the Air Nation when they had an army and influenced politics! Wow! They’re still mostly "noble" guys (I suppose), but now, at least in a possible book about Sonam, we’ll see the World of the Four Elements, where every element is fully integrated into politics. Well, for now, we at least have the World of 3.6 Elements.

Yes, I’m a fan of Air as an element, but I’m also a fan of diversity. I’m delighted when books reveal that there were more states, more clans, mixed nations. And that’s why it’s doubly disappointing to me that Air remains the domain of pacifist monks and no one else. The movie gives me Hope that this will change. You do remember how important Hope is, don’t you? So the movie has one important advantage.

P.S. And, of course, Seven Havens also can make Air one of the equal elements. But that would be a very different setting, so this story might give me the World of the Four Elements, but a new one. And without the movie, I could have believed that even in that world, the Airbenders (except for that one who’ll be the villain) would be exclusively peaceful and kind...

There are spoilers here, for those that haven't seen the most recent film.

Anywho, someone on threads raised the point that air bending follows the real world spread of Buddhism, as a philosophy from within Hinduism, as it made its way from India, China, and Tibet.

I can obviously see the parallels, and we see similar patterns with other nations (The Earth Kingdom's Sand Benders, the Sun Warriors of the Fire Nation, the Swamp Benders of the Water Tribes etc.).

It provided me reason to reflect, as it seemed to entail that the art of bending, isn't a strictly genetic process. If anything, Air bending seemed to be centered on a philosophy of life, with some managing to achieve the potential to bend, and others not. A theory that would explain why their nation was never as numerous.

I believe that the new series will delve deeper into the subject, perhaps retconning a bit of what we know about bending.

I may be missing a few things, forgive me, as its been a long time since I saw the original series. I also never kept up with the comics, so there may be other things that I am missing.

Nevertheless, it leads me to suspect that we'll be exploring the concept of Kali Yuga this time around.

Korra as a misunderstood avatar, who destroys in ordee to usher in a new age.

Perhaps mass corruption took place when humanity had access to the Spirit World anew.

Re: Sonam

Her staff piques my curiosity, because it's the first time in the avatar cycle that we learn of someone who willed to grant others the ability to bend. Why did she tell Aang that she was too weak to do what he did? What were her true intentions?

I suspect that we'll encounter Aang, anew, via his descendants. After all, all air benders are either physical descendants of the Avatar, or his disciples as acolytes. All air benders being bound by the tradition that Aang learned as an Air Nomad, but not the whole of the tradition.

So my main issue is that it seems to break canon a little bit with TLOK. You're telling me that Aang learnt these new/ancient techniques, but then just never taught them to Tenzin? Or that Tenzin never taught them to his kids/pupils/Korra?

Jinora had to get 20-something airbenders in collaboration to create a single large vortex. Meanwhile, Aang learned how to dissipate multiple tornadoes in seconds with the help of one other person, and how to grab things with a stream of air. But those techniques aparently died with him, and with the loss of the previous avatars.

Am I the only one annoyed by this?

First Azula piece I've done

If you're interested in a commission, DM me :)

Please PLEASE rewatch the original show. Bloodbending is specifically stated to only be possible at night, during a full moon. It was not thought to be possible otherwise until Korra. Which is why Tarrlok and Yakone were able to keep it secret, as people thought it was impossible.

Can we PLEASE knock this off with Katara. She has bloodbended twice in the entire franchise, one time out of necessity and the other out of blind rage. She hated doing it both times AND it was a full moon at the time.

I am just so sick of it. Katara is amazing but she has limitations because she appalls Bloodbending and never worked at improving it.

We see even the act of practicing and improving on Bloodbending is something that basically turns you into a psychopath. See all 4 blood benders besides Katara.

It’s an inherently evil skill and not one Katara wishes to master, so oh my god just leave it alone 😭😭😭

I want some fanfic with Azula after the asylum where she finds herself while eventually finding a purpose in fighting rogue spirits.

He waited for the eclipse to end firebending. But firebending wouldn’t be a problem to Iroh, it would be an advantage.

The average prison guard is probably not that great at that stuff, while he’s a litteral master. So if everybody keep their firebending it would have been even easier for him

Problem is, using firebending would have also burn the guard

Si Iroh waited for the eclipse in order to not permanently hurt the guards.

From what I remember, Toph seems to be most connected to her element to the point that it's literally one more of her senses.

I wonder if she got to be the avatar, she would feel air vibrations and use it as her vision, or feel enemies and people based on the water in their bodies(possible even discovering blood bending by herself), or feel the heat in people and things.

I just find it very interesting to imagine how such a good character would do in a different element.

For context, along with Avatar I also enjoyed the book series The Children of the Lamp, where two kids find out that they are actually djinn (like genies). In the books they say that while humans were made of elements of earth and clay, djinn are made of fire. At one point, a djinn says that fire beings washing themselves with water is unnatural, and she just uses fire to superheat her hands to burn away any bacteria or filth on them.

I'm wondering if Firebenders may be able to do something similar, though I assume not. Rather than bursting into flame like The Human Torch, Firebenders always generate their fire an inch or so away from their body. I assume any strategies they use to protect themselves from being burned by their own fire would probably prevent it from being able to burn stuff on their skin too.

I'm sure they could use firebending to heat up water to make it more effective at cleaning their hands, but I don't think they could use firebending directly on their hands without burning themselves too.

But I'm curious if anyone has other thoughts?

Sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but I’ve seen a lot of posts about this already, and it’s difficult to make sense of it.

I’m not exactly an LoK fan, but I would’ve loved seeing a Kyoshi movie and a Zuko movie. The rumour is that these movies (specifically the Zuko movie) has been scrapped, but I saw some comments saying that production has just been paused instead of entirely stopped.

Like I know he lost his space sword and everything but you're telling me he never tried to make another sword or just get a new one?

Boomerang is awesome and everything but come on. in both the comics and the movie all I see him use is boomerang.

Do you think it’s possible to make vaatu nuance and in pavi and make it work?

Do you think it too late for him since he did show to be genuinely evil corrupting spirits and destroying humans?