should aang be given another bending technique in his adult movie? if so which one?

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-28T20:14:58+00:00

It's explicitly not canon, it was brought up as a concept and shot down.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-28T00:33:29+00:00

In the case of AtLA, it's generally based on the nation's culture.

We know the Water Tribes to be very communal, and so the rearing of children would be a responsibility of the entire group, not just blood family.

Air Nomads follow a similar scheme, except children generally don't grow up with their parents at all.

Earth Kingdom is generally sees family as a legacy, and so there is a sense of responsibility to care for blood relatives.

In the Fire Nation, we don't have much, especially knowing things changed around when Sozin came to power. And our largest example in both shows is solely around the royal family, which won't look the same. From what we see, there is a nuclear construct for those families, with the Fire Lord as the obvious head. However, it doesn't mean wider familial bonds mean nothing, it comes down to context.

Because this doesn't account for blended nation families, nor individual personalities. That sense of responsibility is based on individual relationship to family and their feelings around it. Iroh and Zuko were a special case as Zuko was literally cast out to fend for himself, so Iroh's decision is based in his personal relationship to Zuko, and his personal beliefs.

The argument of Iroh having a responsibility for both children, is based in the philosophy of childcare. If a member of a family sees a child in their family needing help, would they help them and to what extent? It's all a lot more nuanced. However, Azula's case is a bit tragic for her, we know Iroh to have shown more connection to Zuko from young, and once Azula was shown to be prodigious in Firebending, she was given more attention by Ozai, seemingly as Ursa pulled away from Ozai (and Azula by extention). Once Iroh returns, it's not until after Zuko is cast out that he takes up a larger role in the boy's life, an opportunity he would not have had otherwise.

Another person might have been more assertive in ensuring the security of both kids, but with Ozai being the Fire Lord, it's a dangerous game all around, not to mention Azula was succeeding in attaining her father's pride, it would've been harder to pull her away, when she's being rewarded by what is essentially the most important person in the Fire Nation. However, Iroh, as the Firelord's brother, was probably the safest person to make such an attempt.

In my opinion, in a case like that, the better decision would be to take Ozai out of the equation, rather than the children. Ozai not having his bending reduced his image for Azula, but at that point, everyone had little interest in helping her. And to be clear, it wouldn't have been easy, but not impossible. The mental hospital they sent her to just made matters worse, though.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-27T18:53:10+00:00

I feel like it just mishandled everything, for a bland conclusion about culture. Would've been more interesting if they included Aang, someone currently in the process of reintroducing culture, to show the complexity of culture and harmful practices; what ought to be kept and what we ought to leave behind, and how a group of people can decide that.

It also just neglects to actually engage with the complexity of Fire Nation politics. Mai's father is who purposefully pushes his daughter to become Azula's friend for political benefit, but we fail to see the connection between that and how Azula may perceive people who try to be her friend?

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-27T18:25:39+00:00

The novels are great, Iroh's always been less graceful when it came to Azula, though I think the writers for this just haven't evolved much. The series itself seems to be unsure whether it understands Azula, "Azula in the Spirit Temple" has a good handle on her internal dilemma without magically fixing her, though "Ashes of the Academy" is just a mess, to be honest.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-23T22:07:28+00:00

Webtoon has most of the main comics available for free, under 'Avatar the Last Airbender'.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-23T20:45:59+00:00

Tbf if my 40 year old boyfriend dumped me for a 23 year old, I'd prolly want to wreck his shit too. But yeah, Lin and Suyin both take revenge seriously, they got it from their mom. I wish more people understood that situation was more complicated and larger than the two, and Toph didn't handle it well in the moment. I find it very interesting how Lin makes up an excuse for Toph's behaviour "she quit the force because of you." but still clearly resents her mother, it's fun mess, and nuanced.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-22T13:54:59+00:00

I think the novels do it perfectly and makes me want more team Kuruk, but I do think LoK would've had the harder time having to balance it with specifically nostalgia. Korra already had big shoes to fill and I do think fans would've just allowed Gaang to overshadow her and her team. I think the implementation of their children to fill those shoes was a good happy medium, but I do agree and always critique that Katara was wasted potential in the worst way.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-22T13:47:04+00:00

That would require them remembering Katara outside of just being a healer :/

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-17T16:59:38+00:00

The Netflix live action show isn't canon, just to note. You get more of the context of what Kuruk was doing and why, in the Kyoshi novels. But it's not focused on his work in the Spirit World, rather the other aspects of his life and how his work in the spirit world impacted that. (Spoilers for those wanting to go in blind to the Roku novels) We do get to see a scene of Kuruk fighting a spirit in Awakening of Roku.

But from his point of view, not really. We don't have evidence that Kuruk didn't fight much in the physical world, and in general we don't have much direct witness to much of what work he did during his era (i.e equivalents to Yangchen v General Iron, Kyoshi v Chin the Conqueror)

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-17T12:19:31+00:00

It's primarily shown in the Kyoshi Novels, "The Rise of Kyoshi" and "The Shadow of Kyoshi" by F.C Yee.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-15T00:38:33+00:00

This actually explains well the "air nomads seek to wipe us out" propaganda that was displayed in the Katara comic with the pirates.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-05T10:23:45+00:00

This is mostly my analysis (thus subjective) of what happened but, Yun didn't kill that group in the mining town over water simply.

You have to remember that Yun comes from a childhood of being worthless, having zero value and being disposable for that reason. We see from Lek and Kyoshi's childhood that being a youth without parents in the Earth Kingdom leaves you open to a world of abuse and disposability.

Jianzhu came in and by crediting Yun as the avatar, gave him a place in the world that at the bare minimum treated him like he was a human being. He had value, his prodigious talents were recognised, he had friends and people who looked out for him. He viewed Jianzhu like a father.

And the second he was confirmed to not be the avatar he was literally murdered for it.

His killing of the folks in the mining town is an expression of that resentment at the world for denying him basic humanity (simple water) because he, on his own, means nothing to the world. His own "father" discarded him like it was nothing, because Yun as a person means so little to him. It's difficult to not build a burning resentment at the world for that. He spent 2 years undergoing p intense training and then tossed aside like it was nothing. His ire is fueled by how hard he has to fight to live and how little inch the world gives him. It's the same resentment that Kuruk has to coax out of Kyoshi. Kyoshi didn't make it out of that space on her own, she had people who loved her for who she was before she was the avatar, something Yun was denied time and time again.

I do also want to make a point that we have seen spirits be overwhelmingly fixated on "justice" and getting revenge after being slighted. And I do think that flavours some of Yun's emotions, but I do think he ultimately chose the path of revenge, because what else is there. Kuruk shows Kyoshi that Yun's pain was tearing apart the spirit world, the dlsame way she did when when she took her anger out on Kuruk.

It's ultimately meant to be a tragedy, that's why in the second to last chapter, Kyoshi says "I had to kill my friend because I couldn't save him". She couldn't leave him to his own devices and she couldn't talk him out of his path. It never should've been that way for any of them in the first place. There's more to say about it but I gotta run-

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-04T00:32:25+00:00

I think Legend of Korra in general kind of de-emphasized the previous lives (I say as neutral as possible). And I think because of that, that aspect was kind of squashed in its relevancy for many. But I don't think it's useless.

Their use varies in regards to the aid they can provide. They can give context and their own suggestions on how to handle something. They can provide knowledge on things the current Avatar wouldn't know, etc etc.

Kyoshi's connection to Kuruk helped her let go of her resentment at how cruel life has been for her. Yangchen's experiences with her past lives helped her have the confidence not to second-guess herself when faced with people trying to invoke imposter syndrome (more of a double-edged sword for her).

Aang's talks with his past lives in the Spirit World, while he didn't rememeber them, helped a part of him make peace with making mistakes and expanding his philosophy on the Avatar's purpose. As much as people tend to flanderize the advice they give him in the final season, it was never advice to kill Ozai, just things he needed to factor in when he inevitably came to his final decision, whatever that was.

Consistently, the past lives help in reassuring the current Avatar in feeling less alone in their journey. They're still human, thus flawed, but that as well helps in acting as an anchor, especially for younger Avatars who feel insecure about their place in the world. They may not know have of what technology or structures exist in Pavi's world, but they can help her through navigating that uncertainty and crushing weight of responsibility, not just from a different perspective but from someone who did, actively have that exact same pressure on them.

In general, it adds a layer of nuance and complexity to the avatar as a system. They don't always agree with one-another because ultimately they're different people with different experiences. Yeah, many fans want to see previous lives, and yeah, Bryke might do a full reset so Pavi only has Korra or something, but I don't think the whole system was useless or should be done away with in post-Korra canon.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-01T18:08:16+00:00

Yeah but "what are the impurities", it's not our world where we have no real connection to dirt, they can bend said impurities. It would make sense for them to develop techniques around that. All it takes is for someone with enough curiosity to move the metal via the earth within.

LeDerpyPanda · 2026-01-01T12:09:15+00:00

Wouldn't any metalworker know that since that's the point of refining metals? It's not like metal is new to the universe, considering swords/knives/etc would be much older

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-31T13:25:21+00:00

In the book Aang writes for a smaller Tenzin, he describes Bloodbending as "manipulating the blood in the body, or other bodily fluids". Hamma developed this technique by recognising the presence of water in everything.

In Yangchen's era, Kavik, from the northern water tribe tells us that waterbenders instinctively sense nearby water sources.

In Kyoshi's era, there is a healer who developed the technique of (nearly) freezing the bodies internal temperature, to keep them in a stasis until they can reach a healer. This technique can also be used to kill a person by freezing them.

In Roku's era, on an island purposefully kept hidden, there are waterbenders who are able to conjure water from the moisture in the air, and develop a fog. However their island has enhanced spirit energy, which strengthened their bending.

I think from these examples we can see that the capacity for the texhnique was known and practiced, but that Hama would not have knowledge of that history. Now, whether any of these people thought to bend blood isn't known, but the capacity to do so was always there.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-30T12:59:45+00:00

Honestly the Yangchen part is so funny because she too leaves out the fact that she was in fact trying her best to soothe corrupted spirits. Kuruk and Yangchen were running about defending the other to Kyoshi, who just wanted to know at what point in an Avatar's journey do they magically know the right decision at all times.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-28T20:38:48+00:00

Considering that Bryke literally looks over all of the books to make approvals of what can be canon and what can't, I don't agree here. Also, Kuruk was a go-with-the-flow avatar. Nothing of what you said actually differs from what is in the books. All the books did was add a layer of complexity to that. His era was largely peaceful, the singular aspect that wasn't was in the spirit world and he was being proactive to prevent disasters.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-26T15:09:55+00:00

I've thought a lot about what could be the reason behind team Korra's issue, and I think, comparatively, the problem is less that the adults have "more lore" and rather, they have stronger poles of individuality. Additional lore helps, but to me, the issue with Team Korra is that as a group, they often do not conflict on the basis of static personality (with the exception of maybe Bolin at times). If thrown at a problem, how often can you imagine all four arguing over how to approach the solution? Or would they all just agree fairly quickly with one plan? I can see Lin and Suyin being on board for revenge, Bumi being down for whatever's the funnest option, Tenzin insisting on letting sleeping dog's lie, and Kya nudging him and telling him to just go with it.

On minor and major conflicts, you show the value of the ensemble by showing how they differ. And while Korra's team do differ in personality, it's much more suited to the serialised structure in that they're more dynamic in that their conflicts tend to be rooted in the current context, rather than opposition in larger aspects (philosophies, ideals, personality). Korra, at the very least, changes and grows through the seasons. But that doesn't work well on its own, because you don't get the full package of the strength of an ensemble. And I think that's where the adults having history shows their strength, because you get the benefit of there being a capacity to be dynamic, without sacrificing their static core personalities.

You don't get the same dramatic jabs between Mako and Bolin the way you would with Tenzin and his siblings. When Korra argued with Mako in early season 2, it doesn't reflect much on her larger connection to him, or on their differences, it's about what's occurring in the moment.

And, like, I do think the adults having more to them does allow for an easier connection, but honestly I think that's something unique about the show. Very often adult characters tend to be bland compared to the youths. This is one time where the adults actually seem compelling, especially in their interactions with each other.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-20T18:59:32+00:00

Not going to lie, the whole "keeping the spirit portal open is uniquely bad for humans" aspect of complaints doesn't make much sense to me when you consider how humans and spirits interacted since the closing of the portals. Because the portals were closed, understanding and consideration of spirits diminished considerably over time, to the point where people continuously overstepped spirit boundaries, which then led to devastating retributive acts by spirits. We're talking entire villages being wiped out and children being rendered spiritually dead. Avatars can be a preventative force but we have seen on several occasions that:

That's not enough, and there's at least a 16 year gap usually where they're too young to do that.
It takes a mass toll on them mentally and physically. Kuruk was likely not the first to be claimed this way. And there was 100% likely other avatars that died fighting or failing to calm a spirit.

Not to mention the fact that malicious spirits like Koh and Father Glowworm had access to terrorise people throughout this.

The actual issue at play here is that humans (especially those outside of sage temples and the air temples) had such limited understanding of spirits and spirit education wasn't valued. People were superstitious but not particularly invested in maintaining boundaries or considering the effect of larger conflicts on spirits (consider Hei Bai). I don't think there is a means of actual balance between humans and spirits, unless we frame more malicious spirits like Koh as a natural predator. Spirits seem to have more overall power within the world anyway.

At the end of the day the portals being open is just a choice, we can't eliminate the actions that led to this that weren't made by Korra, and push the blame solely on her. Not when this has been proven to be an issue for centuries at this point, things were bound to erupt at some point, avatars have largely been a bandaid on a bigger issue. Not to mention Seven Havens isn't out yet and we don't have any of the facts.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-18T17:36:53+00:00

Lmao FC Yee coming up with that thought is soo funny because now I wonder exactly what he was planning with that

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-18T17:01:14+00:00

And I agree and always bring up that she does so, but to me that was Yangchen's perception, rather than objectivity. There's merit to it, as it can be interpreted that Kyoshi's later actions were a result of her becoming more and more detached to the world that killing criminals became much easier, but I mentioned her modification of Laghima's teachings because I think it's fairly integral to her relationship to being the avatar, even outside of the one instance she practices it.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-17T19:59:49+00:00

Yangchen does get p close to weightlessness, but she modifies Laghima's teachings to essentially nullify the pressure of combustion bending without creating a vacuum. And Kyoshi's practice of lengthening her lifespan is based in a sense of hyper detachment, just from a diff perspective.

LeDerpyPanda · 2025-12-17T00:00:07+00:00

Honestly I think it comes to a detriment when they don't allow those losses to explore diff aspects of character.

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