08
Jul
Understanding the universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender.
My wife and I have been watching episodes of the TV series each night. It’s really well done, but there are lots of questions after each episode. Here are a few, broken down by element:
All elements
- Does bending take human energy or magic energy? For example, does creating fire burn “calories”? If so, do fire benders need to consume extra food? Is it possible to be “too hungry to bend?” If it takes “magic energy” to bend, then what is the source of this energy? Is it finite or infinite?
- Is there a limit to the amount of bending one can do in one session? Do you get “tired” if you bend a lot? Do you get “sore” from a lot of bending or training?
Fire
- Why do the fire nation ships bellow smoke? Couldn’t they just have some benders down there creating flames for their boilers? (Presuming the ships are steam powered)
- Can fire benders extinguish fire, or just create it?
- If fire benders can extinguish fire (remove energy) can they cool any object?
Water
- Exactly what constitutes “Water”? Clearly both sea water and fresh water count. Additionally, frozen water counts. What about other liquids, or other frozen forms? Alcohol or alcoholic beverages? Glass? Other crystallized substances?
- Can water benders bend blood? (If so, this would be a very dangerous and powerful skill.)
- What about water vapor? (i.e. natural humidity that’s in the air). Can a water bender pull liquid water “from thin air” by acting like a dehumidifier?
- What about water contained within living cells? Can a water bender extract all or some water from a living plant or animal? Instant food/meat dehydration is one use case, and another is obviously a very deadly weapon.
- Can water benders bend wet or waterlogged substances like Jello, Mud, a wet towel or wet rope, etc.?
- We’ve seen water benders turn water into ice (removal of energy) and ice to water, and this implies that they can heat and cool water to any degree (i.e. produce boiling water, hot steam, etc.). Is this true?
Earth
- Similar to water: What constitutes “earth”? Rock? Dirt? Metal ore? Refined metals? Naturally occurring noble gasses?
- Is mercury (the element) earth? What about other substances that occur naturally in the earth, like oil, natural gas, uranium, etc.?
- Is lava earth? Can earth benders turn rock into lava?
Air
- Similarly, what constitutes “air”? Is it any gas? Nitrogen gas? Oxgen? What about Helium, Hydrogen, Xenon, or other rare gasses?
- Can an air bender create a vacuum? For example, can you suffocate your enemies by encasing them in a vacuum bubble?
- Why does Aang need his glider? With air control, he should be able to fly without it, and seems to do this every once in a while. What’s the point of the glider?
- Can an air bender heat (and cool) air? If so, then how is this different than the fire bending ability?
I think that the answers to most of these questions are situational. In other words, what would work best for the plot, dramatic purposes, or look coolest on screen is usually going to be the answer. ;>
Yeah, but that’s not a very interesting answer.
Thus far, the universe has been really consistent and seemingly well-designed and well thought-out. I’d hope that the writers/creators at least thought “well, we won’t go there” (to questions like the one about water benders + blood) or, maybe they’ve invented some rules about when bending works, and when it doesn’t, but again, I’d hope for the answers to be consistent with the universe of our story.
I just finished watching the series and have been raving about its awesomeness to anyone who will listen. My biggest concern was why Appa had human-ish teeth. Does that mean he’s an omnivore?
i’ll try to answer a few of the questions from what i remember.
FIRE:
Only the more advanced firebenders can generate fire from nothing or rather their chi. all other firebenders must use a source so even if they had lower level firebenders heating the boilers there would still be smoke discharge. the only other option would be to allocate all your advanced firebenders to boiler duty which is like having the Rangers and Seals peeling potatoes. lol.
as far as extinguishing fire i don’t believe i’ve seen any of them do it however when firebenders fight each other they have the ability to block or redirect fire energies. so i’m going to go with no on this one but who knows what the writers may have written if they had more time with the avatar universe.
WATER:
As far as i’ve seen this constitutes sea water, fresh water, vapor, fog, clouds, ice, blood…and…that’s all i got at the moment.
yes, waterbenders bend blood. katara learns how to do it in one of the episodes but she is repulsed by the idea.
humidifier bending? lol. sure.
pulling water from living cells? well, katara and aang pull vapors they can’t see from underneath the ground in an early episode entitled “jet” when they meet the freedom fighters. i think microbending would be an acute form of this so i would say yes but really i have no idea.
wet objectbending? i seem to remember something like this happening but i’m not sure…maybe i’ll get back to you….maybe.
heat and cool water? as far as i can tell…yes.
EARTH:
this constitutes rock, dirt, metal in more powerful benders…not sure about the rest but again anything is possible.
as far as turning rock to lava idk. but when the volcana exploded and threatened an earth kingdom village aang used air bending to solidify it.
AIR:
not sure what exactly this constitutes exactly but considering there are a multitude of gases in our atmosphere and aang seems to be able to bend pretty much at will i’d go ahead and say all of the above.
not sure about the vacuum question but that’s an interesting concept.
the glider i think may be more about tradition and culture than anything else. i mean, there are, in every bending element, people who cannot bend. maybe this was just something of a past time for the air nomads. also, i see that’s its used more as a staff for the most part rather than a flying mechanism. this gives the monks a weapon as well as a means of escape. just speculating though.
i’m not positive whether they can heat or cool the air but as stated before they can use it as a cooling element.
hope this clears up some confusion.
water benders can bend blood,
specifically only 2 people can.
katara, and someone els, the someone els taught katara how.