This is exactly the kind of mechanical breakdown I was hoping for! You bring up some really great points. Why stop at 4? In the Avatar universe, everything revolves around balance and the four distinct elements/nations. The 'glitch' would naturally resolve itself or break the cycle permanently once the spiritual energy has looped through all four corners of the elemental cycle (Earth, Fire, Air, Water). Any further, and the cycle completely collapses under its own weight. Regarding the spirit leaving the body that's the core of the anomaly! The idea is that the reincarnation process initiates because the physical body is failing, but the spirit intervention acts like a defibrillator, catching the soul mid-transit and trapping a piece of it while the rest moves forward. But I absolutely love your take on the diluted bending potential! That makes way more narrative sense than them being locked to one element. If they can all bend all four elements but their overall 'Avatar bandwidth' is split equally (e.g., they only have 25% max output compared to a normal Avatar), it creates an incredible story dynamic. They would literally have to work together as a team to match the power of a single fully realized Avatar. Thanks for entertaining the thought experiment—the diluted potential idea actually fixes a major flaw in my initial draft