Summary
- Avatar: The Last Airbender introduced an interesting power system known as bending involving air, fire, water, and earth manipulation.
- The Lion Turtles were the original benders who granted humans the ability to bend their respective elements through energybending.
- The dragons taught humans the ancient firebending technique, while badgermoles taught earthbending, and sky bison taught airbending. Waterbenders drew strength from the moon.
Avatar: The Last Airbender premiered on Nickelodeon in 2005, and it is considered one of the best cartoons of all time. It may have been marketed towards younger audiences, but Avatar: The Last Airbender tackled dark and serious subject matter, which made it appealing to all ages. The show introduced an interesting power system known as bending. Four of these bending arts involve physical elements, while the fifth deals with energy. The elements are air, fire, water, and earth, and they can all be manipulated through separate martial arts styles. Many humans in Avatar: The Last Airbender are born with the ability to bend, but the original benders had to learn how to bend their respective elements. Some humans learned to bend after being given the power, while others had unlikely teachers.
Of all the bending arts, airbending is the most dynamic, and although it can be used to cause harm, it is primarily used for defense. Waterbending is very fluid, and waterbenders can control water in all of its forms. Earthbending is incredibly diverse, and it is all about substance. As a result, Earthbenders can move something as small as a pebble, or something as big as a mountain. Firebending is the most aggressive of the bending arts, which makes it very effective in battle. Whatever the style, bending is one of the most interesting power systems in animation.
The Lion Turtles Gave Humanity The Ability To Bend
The Lion Turtles are the oldest and largest animals in the Avatar universe, and without them, humanity would have never learned how to bend the elements. In Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Korra saw what the world was like during the era of Raava. At the time, there were many Lion Turtles living within the Spirit Wilds, and they protected mankind by allowing humans to build cities on their backs. Each Lion Turtle had an affinity for one of the four elements, and they would grant certain humans the ability to control that element through energybending. They did this so humans could protect themselves whenever they ventured into the Spirit Wilds. They would then give this power back to the Lion Turtle when they returned home.
When the era of the Avatar began, the Lion Turtles decided that the Avatar would serve as humanity's new protector. They refrained from giving humans the power to bend the elements, and began roaming the world. Unfortunately, the Lion Turtles were then hunted to near extinction until only one remained. As a result, knowledge of energybending was almost completely lost. Luckily, Avatar Aang, found the last Lion Turtle in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It passed the ancient art down to Aang, and he passed it on to Korra.
Energybending predates the four main bending arts and the creation of the Avatar. It involves bending the energy within one's body, and it can be used to bend the energy within others, but it can only be used by someone who possesses an unbendable will. Aang used energybending to take away Fire Lord Ozai's frirebending, and he took away Yakone's waterbending decades later. Energybending can also be used to restore someone's bending. Aang used it to restore Korra's bending – and she later restored the bending of all of Amon's non-Triad victims.
The First Firebenders & Earthbenders
Firebending is unique because it is the only bending art which allows the user to produce the element themselves. It also offers a very aggressive fighting style with minimal defensive capabilities. Firebenders get their power from the sun, but it did not teach them how to bend. When the Lion Turtles stopped giving the original human firebenders the ability to bend, they turned to another ancient animal. The dragons are the world's original firebenders, which explains why their scales are highly resistant to both fire and explosions. Avatar Wan was the first known human to learn the ancient firebending technique known as the Dancing Dragon by copying the movements of a white dragon. Ran and Shaw are two of the last remaining dragons, and they passed this technique down to Zuko and Aang. It was thanks to them that the young benders were able to fully understand and master firebending.
During the Hundred Year War, many firebenders believed that their bending was fueled by anger and hatred. When Iroh met Ran and Shaw, he learned the true nature of firebending. The dragons taught him that fire is an overpowering force that is tempered by a person's unwavering will to accomplish their own goals and desires. During the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, this way of thinking was almost lost because the dragons had been hunted to near extinction by Fire Nation nobles who wanted the "Dragon" title.
Earthbending is arguably the most diverse bending art. The most common style is very rigid, but there are numerous styles that are more tough and fluid. The badgermoles are large, blind subterranean mammals that live in the Earth Kingdom, and they are the original earthbenders who taught the art to humans after the Lion Turtles left. According to legend, Oma and Shu were the first humans to learn from the badgermoles. They belonged to warring villages, so they used their newfound abilities to create a tunnel system which allowed them to meet in secret. The best example of the badgermoles' teaching methods is Toph Beifong – the blind girl who became Avatar Aang's earthbending master. When Toph was young, she ran away from home and ran into some badgermoles in a cave. Since they all shared blindness, the badgermoles helped her to develop her earthbending skills. During this lesson, Toph copied their movements and realized that earthbending was an extension of the badgermole's senses and how they interacted with the world.
The First Airbenders & Waterbenders
The Air Nomads were a peaceful group, and they used airbending in their everyday lives. Air represents freedom, and the Air Nomads found freedom by detaching themselves from the world's problems. This allowed the Air Nomads to focus on spiritual enlightenment, and as a result, every child born into the Air Nomads was a bender. The sky bison lived with the Air Nomads in the air temples, and they are the ones who taught the art of airbending to the first human airbenders. The sky bison large mammals with manatee-like bodies and six legs. They have an arrow-shaped stripe on their forehead, and their flat tails help them to glide through the air. By studying the sky bison's movements, the first Air Nomads realized that flexibility was the key to airbending. They also took note of the fact that the bison would always find and follow the path with the least resistance. The Air Nomads had a deep connection with the sky bison, which is why every airbending master received tattoos which included a blue stripe on their forehead.
Water is the element of change, and it is the most fluid and graceful of the bending arts. Waterbenders typically deal with the flow of energy, and in doing so, they are able to seamlessly transition from defense to offense by turning their opponent's forces against them. The original waterbenders did not learn how to bend from an animal, instead they used the moon. That being said, the Moon Spirit did take the form of a white koi fish. The first waterbenders observed how the moon pushed and pulled the tides, which explains why every waterbender in Avatar: The Last Airbender gets their strength from the moon. When the Moon Spirit was briefly killed, the moon disappeared, and the waterbenders of the Northern Water Tribe were unable to bend.
Avatar: The Last Airbender introduced the world to the bending arts, but it also introduced a world filled with spirits and unique animals. If it were not for the moon, dragons, badgermoles, sky bison, and Lion Turtles, there is a good chance that humanity would have never learned to bend any of the elements. The Avatar would have likely never existed either. Since learning how to bend, humanity has developed new abilities like metalbending, combustionbending, lavabending, and bloodbending. Some Airbenders were even able to achieve weightlessness and spiritual projection. These are all impressive feats, but all of these newfound abilities are derived from the main bending arts. This means that every specialized bending technique owes its existence to the original benders as well.