esachica-skrammita

esachica-skrammitaからの質問:

Other awesome things to think about: earth benders controlling magnets; fire benders controlling volcanos. (You already covered the cool things that air/water benders could do)

One of the Avatars that isn’t named in the series did that, actually.  I’m not sure if only an avatar could do it, though - lava is essentially rock, so that would be an earthbender’s forte, but I think an earthbender would be smart/scared enough to know that they can’t even get near it without controlling the fire that it creates.

It would be safer for a firebender, though.

…now my thoughts are getting ridiculous.

Could an earthbender who’s learned metalbending control the iron in their bloodstreams to effectively bloodbend themselves?  The only use I can think of for this would be breaking free of someone else who’s bloodbending you.

Obviously this would never happen in the show, but it’s SO INTERESTING.

匿名

匿名からの質問:

Word of God says that Airbending doesn't have any offensive moves--so Gyatso defeated them with purely defensive and evasive moves.

Just because it doesn’t yet doesn’t mean it can’t.  Also, here are a few snippets of very offensive moves from the Avatar wikia:

  • Air punch/kick: Another more offensive move than is typical of airbending discipline, air punches or air kicks are small, compressed formations of air that can be fired off the fists or feet of an airbender. This is similar to many firebending abilities and the air blast, yet in the sense that it involves the firing of compressed or solidified air at an enemy in a non-continuous fashion i.e. the bender does not create a single great stream of air. This move is seen when Aang produces several air punches in rapid succession toward a practice-Fire Lord dummy. AvatarKorra was able to use two pairs of air punches in rapid succession and an air kick to knock Amon off his feet.
  • Air swipe: The air swipe is a dual defensive and offensive technique in which an airbender conjures a crescent-shaped construct of solidified air capable of deflecting colossal projectiles, such as the catapulted flaming rocks often used by the Fire Navy ships, and sending them off-course. In some instances, such as when Aang and his group are traveling on the Serpent’s Pass together, these projectiles can be redirected back at the attacker.[11] Aang has also been shown firing smaller versions of the air swipe as a weapon, shown for example as he chased Azula during the Day of Black Sun.
  • Air bomb: A technique which creates a powerful, outward-moving air current in all directions around the bender. Usually performed after landing on the ground from above, this airbending form has great concussive force, and the capacity to completely blow away anything within its radius.
  • Air wake: By running in a circle and instantly building massive momentum, a master airbender can shoot a blast of highly compressed air shaped like the user’s body at a target. This move seems to have extremely high concussive force. It was first used by Aang in the Crystal Catacombs.
  • Air blades: A more offensive move than its typical of airbending principle, this involves a focus; slicing air current that can cut through stone or timber with relative ease. This is frequently conjured with a staff rather than the body, using the narrow profile of the object to create a more focused and precise air movement. This move could prove fatal if used on an individual.

Airbending as an instructed art may not explicitly teach any offensive moves, but its users have certainly created some.

esachica-skrammita

esachica-skrammitaからの質問:

Normally I'd say that they're all equally dangerous, but upon thinking about it, I would think that airbending is the least dangerous of all of them. What makes you say it's the most dangerous?

Specifically, I started thinking about this when we saw the shot of Monk Gyatso’s skeleton - it was absolutely surrounded by dead Fire Nation warriors.  How could he have killed them all?

A brief list of how a highly-skilled Airbender could absolutely fuck you up:

  • Remove the oxygen from your body/the area
  • Increase or decrease the speed of air molecules to drastically raise or lower the temperature
  • Supersaturate the immediate area with oxygen (particularly potent against firebenders - this would cause any fire they created to burn out of control and quite literally explode in their face.  This is what I think Gyatso did.)
  • Increase the air pressure in the area to crush opponents.
  • Create eddies of airflow to slam opponent’s bodies into things
  • Increase the density of the air in an opponent’s body
  • If the opponent has a large enough wound, oxygen could be sent into the bloodstream, causing an embolism and probably a stroke
  • On a large enough scale, a group of airbenders could possibly create and mix high- and low-pressure fronts to create huge storms
  • Discs of super-compressed air to cut through human bodies, at least partially

Add to all of this the assumption that people in-universe can’t actually see the air being bent and therefore can’t see what to defend from, and you’ve got an incredibly lethal force.  The fact that it’s practiced by pacifists, and the mentality behind the are are what make it much less dangerous.

This deserves its own expanded post:

sigur-roskolnikov:

Avatar universe headcanon:

I’ve always thought that the Blue Spirit mask and Amon’s mask were made by the same person.  Like, the Blue Spirit mask was the first real mask the person made on their own, and they were all “AWESOME, I’M GONNA MAKE IT ALL DEMONIC AND TOOTHY AND STUFF,” but then they studied the art more and made Amon’s mask much, much later and much, much more refined.

But the maskmaker looks back at what the masks were used for (as he’d seen the Blue Spirit’s wanted posters, and lived in Republic City, so he knew all about Amon), and they stopped selling masks after Amon’s because they felt partially guilty for helping him create his identity.  To ease that pain, the maskmaker re-carved the Blue Spirit mask out of stone…but only half of it.  The mask remains unfinished.

I think it would be a really interesting crossover to compare the bending nations/mentalities to the ten Guilds of Ravnica.

I could definitely see Airbenders fitting into Izzet, Boros, Selesnya and Golgari.

Waterbenders could be Simic, Azorious, Selesnya and maybe Dimir.

Earthbenders could be Boros, Gruul, Orzhov and maybe Golgari.

Firebenders could be Boros, Gruul, Izzet or Rakdos.

There’s a little bit of Selesnya and Simic in everyone, just by the nature of what bending is.  I really want to think more about this.

This deserves its own expanded post:

Avatar universe headcanon:

I’ve always thought that the Blue Spirit mask and Amon’s mask were made by the same person.  Like, the Blue Spirit mask was the first real mask the person made on their own, and they were all “AWESOME, I’M GONNA MAKE IT ALL DEMONIC AND TOOTHY AND STUFF,” but then they studied the art more and made Amon’s mask much, much later and much, much more refined.

But the maskmaker looks back at what the masks were used for (as he’d seen the Blue Spirit’s wanted posters, and lived in Republic City, so he knew all about Amon), and they stopped selling masks after Amon’s because they felt partially guilty for helping him create his identity.  To ease that pain, the maskmaker re-carved the Blue Spirit mask out of stone…but only half of it.  The mask remains unfinished.

Dear Bryke,

korrasponding:

Why is The Legend of Korra such a short series compared to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Why is The Legend of Korra scheduled for only 26 episodes, while Avatar: The Last Airbender had 61 episodes?

Why does it matter?  If 26 episodes is enough to tell the story, then it should be 26 episodes.  Anything more would make the series needlessly drawn-out and long-winded.  It would be bad writing, of which the series really doesn’t need any more.

The Last Airbender was so long for a number of reasons.  Foremost among them was that it was a world-spanning story.  The characters had to travel all over a sprawlingly large map, and they had to do it (for the most part) with very slow transportation.  This takes time, and that time was filled up with lots so fun little side-adventures (The Swamp and The Library are perfect examples of this).  All of Korra’s story, so far, has taken place in Republic City.  There is no travel, there are no side-quests, etc.  It’s a much purer story.

In addition to that, the series started with Aang only knowing Airbending, and still needing to learn and master Water, Earth and Firebending.  Korra already knows those three.  The focus of TLA was on Aang learning his bending - it was how the seasons were divided, and it was the mechanism by which many characters were revealed and allies/enemies were found.  That isn’t so in (this season of) Korra.  Her learning Airbending is a minute facet of the storyso far.  Simply put, there are bigger things for Korra to worry about than Airbending at the moment.

And finally, Korra wasn’t even originally going to be this long.  I’d say be happy that you got two seasons instead of a mini-series and leave it at that.

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