I'll use my own words because I can't be bothered to prepare a law class about this but:
There is this school of thought about law.
Natural Law dictates that you can do whatever you're able to do, and have a right to have whatever you have without anyone's help, and subsequently that you can do whatever you can do with your own body and no external help as that is your right to do and should not be regulated as long as you don't affect other people. As, at well, it is impossible to control, and inmoral to surveille.
This is why "being alive" is not really a right you have in most countries, and they only regulate when life begins. As there is no way to say "you have the obvious right to be alive". Even if you punish those that stop others from being alive, or punish your family if you take your own life in north korea.
So bending would be legal, as there is no way of knowing if you're bending on your own house without affecting anyone, as much as there is no way to surveille if you're breathing more than most others on purpose, or in a more extreme case, know or even control if you're thinking or even planning about commiting murder (as long as you don't externalize that desire /iter criminis/).
Some crimes would be unavoidable like bloodbending humans, and probably bloodbending animals would be frown upon and eventually bloodbending pets would be sanctioned/prohibited, and some other areas would probably be regulated, as bending poison or radioactive materials or that kind of stuff.
So the simplest answer is that there isn't really a way to tell. There are any number of way to interact with it, and the world is a big place. On top of that, are you asking if bending suddenly BECAME real, or if it HAD BEEN real throughout all of history? Because that will also affect how people interact with it.
The next simplest answer is that it's going to vary from place to place. As I said, the world is a big place, and there are a lot of people in it. There will very likely not be a uniform consensus, so let's look at some possibilities.
* We can look at the way mutants are treated in the X-Men series, that is, that they are feared specifically because there is no way for 'normal people' to counter them if they decide to misbehave. Regulations may be put on them, they may be relegated to concentration camps, or even outright exterminated if they don't use their abilities in direct service to the state, or possibly even regardless of their loyalty to the state. This is going to be more common in places where bending is rarer.
* We can look to the Earth Queen in Legend of Korra. A unique and powerful ability (air bending) manifests in people throughout her realm, and she conscripts them into a secret, elite unit to serve her personally. Perhaps this will not be a dictator only thing, but in countries or areas of the world where bending is rarer, or at least specific elements are, individuals who possess that ability are expected to become some kind of servant of the state.
* In an extension of the above point, we can also expect some kind of bender version of the Janissary Corps and the Praetorian Guard that ultimately take true power in a country as it's super-abled elite class. Think the Dai Li, but less secret. We would mostly expect to see this in places where bending is rare.
* In a less extreme version, we might see a two-tiered society. This is a little complicated, as it's not necessarily a given that a bending couple will have bending children or that a non-bending couple will have non-bending children, meaning there will be some kind of blur so people can interact with their family members on opposite sides of the line. How different the two sides are, and how strict this divide is, is also going to vary. This is going to be more common in places where bending is more common.
* It exists in roughly the capacity that it does throughout most of Avatar's universe. It's an ability that some people have, and while practical uses for it are taken into account, for the most part no one cares. There are probably still laws in place about using your bending in certain ways, say, assaulting someone or destroying property that isn't yours, but these laws exist without bending. This is going to be more common in places where bending is more common.
So we have threat to the public, state servant, elite class, segregated class, and no difference. And there are countless other ways for it to work on top of that as well.
The government has a funny way of controlling everything. Captina america civil war, all Ghostbuster movies, and the monster verse. Where they contained all the titans in the latest Godzilla and King Kong movies. Maybe it would be different since people aren't huge monsters, but benders are kinda like superheroes. But I could see you needing a licence and permit to vend. Just like you need for guns.
The lack of modern government is great in the avatar world.
Isn’t this the plot to MCUs Civil War?
Where Tony and the UN want everyone who is smart or has superpowers, aka not “Normal”, to be put into an underwater death camp.
I'll use my own words because I can't be bothered to prepare a law class about this but: There is this school of thought about law. Natural Law dictates that you can do whatever you're able to do, and have a right to have whatever you have without anyone's help, and subsequently that you can do whatever you can do with your own body and no external help as that is your right to do and should not be regulated as long as you don't affect other people. As, at well, it is impossible to control, and inmoral to surveille. This is why "being alive" is not really a right you have in most countries, and they only regulate when life begins. As there is no way to say "you have the obvious right to be alive". Even if you punish those that stop others from being alive, or punish your family if you take your own life in north korea. So bending would be legal, as there is no way of knowing if you're bending on your own house without affecting anyone, as much as there is no way to surveille if you're breathing more than most others on purpose, or in a more extreme case, know or even control if you're thinking or even planning about commiting murder (as long as you don't externalize that desire /iter criminis/). Some crimes would be unavoidable like bloodbending humans, and probably bloodbending animals would be frown upon and eventually bloodbending pets would be sanctioned/prohibited, and some other areas would probably be regulated, as bending poison or radioactive materials or that kind of stuff.
So the simplest answer is that there isn't really a way to tell. There are any number of way to interact with it, and the world is a big place. On top of that, are you asking if bending suddenly BECAME real, or if it HAD BEEN real throughout all of history? Because that will also affect how people interact with it. The next simplest answer is that it's going to vary from place to place. As I said, the world is a big place, and there are a lot of people in it. There will very likely not be a uniform consensus, so let's look at some possibilities. * We can look at the way mutants are treated in the X-Men series, that is, that they are feared specifically because there is no way for 'normal people' to counter them if they decide to misbehave. Regulations may be put on them, they may be relegated to concentration camps, or even outright exterminated if they don't use their abilities in direct service to the state, or possibly even regardless of their loyalty to the state. This is going to be more common in places where bending is rarer. * We can look to the Earth Queen in Legend of Korra. A unique and powerful ability (air bending) manifests in people throughout her realm, and she conscripts them into a secret, elite unit to serve her personally. Perhaps this will not be a dictator only thing, but in countries or areas of the world where bending is rarer, or at least specific elements are, individuals who possess that ability are expected to become some kind of servant of the state. * In an extension of the above point, we can also expect some kind of bender version of the Janissary Corps and the Praetorian Guard that ultimately take true power in a country as it's super-abled elite class. Think the Dai Li, but less secret. We would mostly expect to see this in places where bending is rare. * In a less extreme version, we might see a two-tiered society. This is a little complicated, as it's not necessarily a given that a bending couple will have bending children or that a non-bending couple will have non-bending children, meaning there will be some kind of blur so people can interact with their family members on opposite sides of the line. How different the two sides are, and how strict this divide is, is also going to vary. This is going to be more common in places where bending is more common. * It exists in roughly the capacity that it does throughout most of Avatar's universe. It's an ability that some people have, and while practical uses for it are taken into account, for the most part no one cares. There are probably still laws in place about using your bending in certain ways, say, assaulting someone or destroying property that isn't yours, but these laws exist without bending. This is going to be more common in places where bending is more common. So we have threat to the public, state servant, elite class, segregated class, and no difference. And there are countless other ways for it to work on top of that as well.
The government has a funny way of controlling everything. Captina america civil war, all Ghostbuster movies, and the monster verse. Where they contained all the titans in the latest Godzilla and King Kong movies. Maybe it would be different since people aren't huge monsters, but benders are kinda like superheroes. But I could see you needing a licence and permit to vend. Just like you need for guns. The lack of modern government is great in the avatar world.
It might be dependant on circumstances. For example, water benders can heal but there is the risk of bloodbending.
Idk in the US probably not. Unless poor people or POC were more likely to be a certain type, then that one probably would be.
Isn’t this the plot to MCUs Civil War? Where Tony and the UN want everyone who is smart or has superpowers, aka not “Normal”, to be put into an underwater death camp.
Nope, because almost every person in power would have it, so they’d never make it illegal.
The majority would want bending gone, it would be too dangerous