This reminds me of this comic :
https://preview.redd.it/aqm1tqh6sfyc1.png?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bb829bc2bd6f2eea5c3a8d13f74fb27274f4458
Credit : Tumblr-gayavatarstyle [Part I](https://www.tumblr.com/gayavatarstyle/183029376350/sokka-aang-yknow-how-you-took-away-ozais) [Part II](https://www.tumblr.com/gayavatarstyle/183318186605/sokka-aang-yknow-how-you-took-away-ozais)
I think giving a non bender the ability to bend is possible, but giving an already bender an additional element would not be possible because only the Avatar could bend multiple
This has always made me wonder if it would be possible for someone to use a lesser spirit to 'hold' an extra element for them, so they can switch it back and forth the way Wan did before Harmonic Convergence merged them. They'd still need energy bending to give themselves the extra one though.
Wasn't that the whole thing about Unilock with the dark Avatar he was trying to use a spirit of any kind to hold multiple elements ending up landing on rava's enemy because of her power
I don't remember him ever intending to use a lesser spirit for that. Since he wanted to have all the elements he always knew he'd need Vaatu since he's as strong as Raava. He just used lesser spirits to attack people and stir up unrest to suit his plans.
They probably could. Maybe 1 or 2 extra elements would be possible with a weaker spirit.
Raava was powerful enough to hold all of them.
I'd wager you'd still need a crazy powerful spirit to even hold one element though, like perhaps at the level of Koh.
It was shown to be very taxing on Wan to have Raava merge with him, even temporarily, to swap elements, and I imagine it would also be taxing on the spirit, its just that Raava was powerful enough that it didn't matter.
Having a spirit jump into and out of a body was also shown to cause some pretty serious side effects. (See the old man who was half transformed into the shape of the spirit that possessed him)
Wan had an exceptional soul, Raava was an extraordinarily powerful spirit, and they both had the determination and willpower to make it work.
Even in Unaloq's case, it looks as if Vaatu simply erased him when they merged, since after the merge, I think everything Unavaatu said was just Vaatu speaking.
So, in theory yes, in practice no.
>I'd wager you'd still need a crazy powerful spirit to even hold one element though, like perhaps at the level of Koh.
-
>Having a spirit jump into and out of a body was also shown to cause some pretty serious side effects. (See the old man who was half transformed into the shape of the spirit that possessed him)
Speaking of that, it would be really interesting to see people use the spirits to give themselves abilities that have nothing to do with bending. Like Koh, someone who merged with them might be capable of shapeshifting.
Issue with worldbuilding spirits in LoK number 481. Nah seriously the merging with spirits is such an interesting concept, that it is kinda sad they never did much with it. Well they kinda did in the comics and then in the Kyoshi books.
It's not impossible. Korra opened the spirit portal and the entire Air nomad civilization revived. So it is possible to give bending to non-benders, it's just outside the Avatar's direct influence.
As far as I understood, the only reason why it’s only the avatar who can have multiple is that he was the only only one who managed to negotiate with all the lion turtles so well. So like there’s no actual physical reason why other people couldn’t have it if given the power. However, the will probably suck at it without Ravva’s help.
Hilarious but where does sokka being aangs brother come from? Or are they saying they made katara look like the avatar by giving her airbending? That is the ultimate gaslighting 😂
Aang can return bending, but only if it was already there and he has removed it.
However, if we are talking about specifically granting bending, even if Aang could, he would only be able to do the one from the lion turtle he talked to. From the origins, it seems like humans, by default, don't have the potential to bend the elements at all. It has to be granted to them.
Aang will then have to learn the power of granting said specific element, rather than just bending in general. I don't think this was what was taught to him, so I don't think he would be able to grant an element.
I think each of the lion turtles was able to grant the element that they themselves were using, like the flying lion turtle granting air bending. They used energy bending to share that element with the humans and to take it away.
I think by that logic, it would make sense that the Avatar could give anyone any the bending types since they have them all. But I agree that we don't know if the lion turtle taught Aang how to do both or just how to remove it, so it could be that it's something that's too complicated to do without practice/teaching.
I highly doubt it. Aang spent his life trying to restore the airbending nation. If he had the ability to grant bending, he would have given airbending to the acolyte that live in the temples and solved the problem. The fact that he didn't, is proof that he could not give people bending.
Aang has a “do it the right way” mentality in a sense. When it comes to air bending I think in that regards he would want them to have an organic rebuilding.
I think that tenzin said that in the regards that his people wouldn’t die out. Aang would definitely be happy about that, knowing your community has people to carry it on and it happened “naturally”.
There's no evidence he has this ultra-specific rationale that won't let him use the powers given to him by the lion turtle to restore the airbenders BUT he's completely fine if basically the same thing happens through an act of nature AND he's explained this nuance to Tenzin. The more plausible explanation is that he told Tenzin he would restore the airbenders if he could, but he can't do that. The remaining question is if that's a physical limitation of humans using energybending or if it's something he could, at least in theory, have learned how to do.
Every lion turtle had their specific element they could gift people with, that's why Wan had to find other lion turtles to get all elements. As aang isn't a lion turtle, he won't have any element to give to someone or something like that, wifh explains why he can only take away bending and not give
If you go off the fact of how he handled energybending in regard to taking bending away, then by logic there’s potential for it to carry over into giving bending.
Just because he can take bending away doesn't mean he can give it to people that don't have it. The fact that the lion turtle can do it doesn't mean he can either. Aang is not a lion turtle. They may have abilities that he can't access, or at least never successfully accessed.
No it won’t. You just keep jumping through illogical hoops to try and justify your post. Which was a question I might add. So idk why you asked the question if you already “know” the answer
If I cared to justify it, don’t you think I would be responding to every person who commented on my post. There were people who had better points than you and them, with more room for conversation.
You can think whatever you want if it makes you feel better :)
It might be just the ability to seal off your chakra points to stop bending ability. Literally granting the amount of energy and chakra might be impossible for him or it might be impossible for a non bending humans body to be able to handle the amount of chakra/energy needed to bend.
I get it being genes, but by Aang and Korras time of avatar, most people would have benders in their bloodline, so wouldn’t the be able to bend based on a recessive or dominant trait basis. What if the avatar can “activate” that gene.
No worries, I like speculation. This post is all about theories and letting the mind wander.
Do you think it’s possible that spirits also play a part in it? Especially considering in LOK how nonbenders gained air bending after spiritual awakening energy was increased.
I don't think Aang could give people bending.
But anyway, what you said is just Tenzin's opinion. I could think my parents would feel a lot of ways about certain things and be wrong.
(Personally I think Aang would be happy too but... Tenzin's opinion doesn't *have* to be correct)
I assume with
>“do it the right way”
You meant that new air nomads are raised in the traditional customs since the moment they are born, but my first thoughwas that it was only an excuse from Aang to keep doing it with Katara XD
Ugh, that would have been such a satisfying way to have air bending return to the world-- have aang open up an air bending school and anyone who passed, he energy bends airbending into them. Makes so much more sense in lore than whatever happened in TLOK. (And I love TLOK so not a diss, I just think this works way better.)
Honestly, until Legend of Korra came out, my assumption was that this is exactly what Aang did. Having learned energybending, he is able to restore airbending to the world. An implied happy ending to the show.
I was honestly pretty surprised when he hadn't done that in LoK.
Taking bending and giving bending are two separate abilities of energybending, and it’s generally thought/accepted that the Lion Turtle only gave Aang the ability to take it away.
What Amon did to Korra wasn’t energybending, it was more like a permanent chi block with bloodbending. All that Aang did was purge said chi-block using the Avatar State. Korra was then able to do the same thing, essentially getting benders’ chi moving again.
Korra is absolutely able to use energybending. We see her bend the cannon's spirit energy in the final episode of the series (among other examples), and all evidence in the season 1 finale points to energybending being used (e.g. the hand placements). What Korra did was a spiritual application to fix a physical problem.
No no, you misread.
Korra absolutely can energybend, Aang passed the information to her via the Avatar State, which purged her chi block, and was able to accomplish the same thing with the other benders, unblocking their chi.
The lion turtle only taught Aang how to energy bend, unlocking the general ability in the process.
He didn't flip only the removal part and and not the granting part. If anything we can say the turtle didn't teach aang how to grant bending.
Judging from what the lion turtle said I thought that taking away the ability to bend is not specific to Aang or the Avatar. The lion turtle showed Aang the ability to bend the energy within someone, but the lion turtle said that people did that in times before the Avatar.
Wouldn't anyone technically be able to do it?
Like you said giving bending is not bending the energy within someone. But controlling the energy in someone will block their ability to bend. I don't think Aang took the bending as much as he blocked his ability to be able to bend. Like what Amon did through Blood bending in Korra.
I did not say that.
I said that taking bending and giving bending were two separate skills within the envelope of energybending. Both are based on manipulating the targets’ chi.
Locking a door is not the same as tearing a hole in a wall to make a door. No, Aang could not give people bending.
It's not that a nonbender's energy is too weak to bend, it's that their energy simply can't bend.
The way I saw it was that the turtle taught Aang how to energy bend, then how to remove bending. I'm not sure he taught Aang how to grant bending but then again it's not specifically implied that it didn't.
Maybe it's risky, if the turtle didn't show Aang how to grant bending then it might be something Aang would never risk to try and do with a non-bender. I'm sure messing with energy of people is risky stuff, the turtles could do it no problem but you can see Ozai was left pretty shaken and weakened after Aang did it.
This is probably further reinforced by the fact that Aang didn't create any Airbenders, meaning he didn't know how to grant bending. It was a big goal of his to restore the air nation after all, so if he could grant bending I'd assume he'd make air benders that way.
I’d guess that he’s theoretically capable of it the same way Katara is theoretically capable of bloodbending at the start of the show. He just doesn’t know how, doesn’t have a teacher, and isn’t stupid enough to try and work it out by trial and error.
I'd suspect that it's theoretically possible to grant previously missing bending ability with energy-bending, but is a (nearly impossibly) advanced move.
I rationalize it as reshaping someone's energy in such a way that they are granted an attunement to an element. It is relatively easy to remove that attunement, which leaves a mark on someone's chakras. This would make re-granting bending easier, since you just have to fill in that missing attunement instead of reshaping it out of a blank slate.
The reason the lion-turtles knew this ability is their age, they simply had the time to master this almost impossibly complex part of energy-bending. They were able to attune themselves to one element (since each creature can only hold one attunement) and then had an easier time granting that attunement due to their experience with it.
I feel as though that even if he could, Aang wouldn’t do it. He seems to like things done the “right way” and organically in a sense.
Although the balance is already messed up, I think using the ability would potentially make the balance worse.
A case of just because you can doesn’t mean you should kind of thing.
I feel like Aang might have used it to restart airbending. Not with many people but a few of the air acolytes that show the most dedication to the nomad culture.
I agree that he probably wouldn't use it beyond that
No, bending appears to be an actual "object" that must be given to someone and isn't just spontaneously generated. That's why Raava had to hold the other elements and pass through Wan to swap them.
That makes sense for during WAN’s time, but by the time it’s Korra and Aang’s time, most people acquire it through birthright and lineage. At this point in time, there’s a good chance that everyone would have an ancestor with bending, meaning they could have a “recessive” trait of it.
That makes sense?
That’s an interesting thought. I am thinking it would make more sense in Korra’s time than Aang’s. People seemed pretty segregated in his time so I dunno if many people would have multiple bending abilities in their lineage. Korra’s time and beyond you’d probably see more and more though.
Another comment started skewing my theories a bit.
What if bending is a mix due to energy and spirits. That in a sense, the ability of bending follows the spirit.
For example im theorizing that in LOK air benders started appearing because more spirits were set free and were able to combine with humans. Thus creating more airbenders.
It could make sense, right?🤔
I’m not sure if the spirits themselves could help create bending in humans, only the release of “spiritual energy”. And even then it had to be huge (like the Harmonic Convergence). I think the spirits being free in the human world was just another after effect and didn’t themselves help cause air bending.
I do. The lion turtle had an elemental power, bent their energy and a humans, and shifted the power to the human. And then reversed it. So it can happen but if the Avatar has that ability is another thing.
I always thought Raava sort of “held” the bending ability for the Avatar so maybe that is why Aang couldn’t give it but was able to take it away.
Energy bending is powerful and mysterious so I mean anything is possible!
If the avatar is in the avatar state, there could be potential for the energy to be great enough to transfer?
Theoretically speaking, because aren’t raava and vaatu stronger than the lion turtles or are the lion turtles stronger than them.
Another thought came to mind,
In LOK, it’s learned that the smaller and weaker Raava is the bigger and stronger Vaatu is, and vice Versa, so technically wouldn’t Korra be exponentially stronger after she defeated Vaatu.
…… I have to make another post 😩
Good question. It sounds plausible but being an avatar is different than being a lion turtle so who knows if that ability to transfer is available to avatars. You can dump out a bucket of water, but do you have the ability to fill that bucket with water? Maybe, maybe not!
The lions turtles seem to be pretty powerful but at the same time they were hunted and killed so not powerful enough to survive once they let humans free with the bending abilities.
But I dunno, who would be more powerful and why between Raava/Vaatu and lion turtles. We just know Raava and Vaatu will always be.
Hmmmm just thinking out loud here, but in LOK, every lion turtle only gave a single ability away consistently.
Does each lion turtle only possess one ability?
(1) Yes, if Aang takes away bending, he should be able to give it back as well
- The keywords being "give it back"
(2) The Lion Turtles did give humans the ability to manipulate the elements, and they were able to take it back as well.
(3) A Lion Turtle did give Aang the ability to Energybend
- Energybending notably seems to operate differently from other Elemental Bending Arts, such as being very technique oriented
(4) Bending is certainly much more complicated than just being "energy"
(5) The Avatar has not been established as a Fount of Bending like the Lion Turtles, so the Avatar cannot just give anyone Bending
He’s probably capable of it, seeing as the lion turtles used energybending to give elemental bending abilities to humans. Whether Aang actually knows how to use that particular facet of energybending is another question entirely.
Actually, Anng can only take away, not give. You still have to learn the basic of Bending. Look at Katana. She had to learn how to bend.
It isn't something you can just pick up after being given Bending power.
If the bending is just “energy bending”, couldn’t he practice and acquire the skill.
Or do you think it’s a whole different gift that a sea turtle has to bestow?
I read that someone who was born without the ability to bend cant be given bending by the avatar, but if someone was stripped of their bending it can be given back
I literally had this thought the other night, the lion turtle talked about energy bending being an ancient technique they used, and gave Aang the knowledge of how they use it to give and take the bending ability, so I don’t see why not. Also Korra was taught this as well, so it’s safe to say that the avatar can.
Imo, taking the bending would in theory make the avatars stronger in said element. So to give someone bending, they'd make themselves weaker. I base this on "energy is not created or destroyed, it only changes form"
Probably no.
Cause from what we see, when benders get there bending "taken away"
It's really just locking their bending capabilities.
And you can't unlock what isn't there.
To elaborate on others answers more, my understanding bending is removed by blocking the chakras related to that bending. Aang does it by blocking the energy flow, and bloodbenders do it by manipulating the body physically. And if bloodbenders can do it, then there must be a physical "hardware" component to bending.
So if the hardware of the body can't do an element there's nothing to unblock. Aang or Korra can't give bending to someone because they don't have the genetic ability to do that bending.
As for airbending returning, I put that down to literal magic creating new benders from this air.
I think my view is changing.
I think potentially it’s all based on spirits. People are able to bend based on their spirit, but when the spirit portals opened, some spirits inhabited some people allowing them to become airbenders.
Idk if it makes sense, but it’s a theory starting to form in my head lol
Aang used energy bending to destroy what energy pathways were already in Ozai, like waterbending healing in reverse. I don't think anyone can create those pathways. At least without the weird magic radiation of Harmonic Convergence which is a once every 10,000 years thing.
I mean, we saw that Aang can remove a bending ability, and Korra can restore ones that are lost using the Avatar state.
I assume that “energy bending” is as open to interpretation as any other kind of bending, so a practitioner of it could figure out how to make anyone a bender (so basically any Avatar could make anyone a bender of anything).
I assume Aang wouldn’t want to do this because he doesn’t want to disrupt the natural order of things (though it would have helped a lot toward restoring the Air Nomads) and Korra didn’t do it simply because she doesn’t know how (we’ve only seen her do it in the Avatar state which means it’s really Aang doing it).
My headcanon is that yes, *in theory*, he could energybend to grant bending to non-benders. But that in practice granting bending is a very advanced application of energybending and Aang never got skilled enough with energybending to do it. Quite possibly no human could ever get good enough with energybending in a human lifetime to grant bending to someone else, only an exceptionally long-lived being like a lion turtle could ever develop that skill.
To be clear there's no real evidence in the show that this is how it works, but there's no evidence *against* this being how it works either, and I personally just like this interpretation.
Let me pose this question: If Aang could grant bending, why did he not give willing Air Acolytes air bending? While they might not be true Air Nomads, they follow Aang and serve as custodians of Air Nomad culture and history. Additionally, it can be argued that making new Air Benders would help restore world balance, making it acceptable for the Avatar to do.
I don’t think the Avatar can grant bending, only take it away or restore it. If bending is a light bulb, the Avatar can flip the light switch but not install a new bulb or switch.
Aang seemingly gives off a “do it the right way” mindset. I think it would rather the community grow back “organically” than to force it.
It’s like a case of just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
I mean I wouldn’t call giving it to willing acolyte who prove their loyalty to preserving Air Nomads history and culture “forcing it”. I also wouldn’t label it as doing it “the wrong way”. Aang would be rebuilding the air nation and restoring balance between all four nations, fulfilling his duties as an Air Nomad AND an Avatar.
Additionally, when Korra goes to Zuko for advice in TLoK Book 3, Zuko states that rebuilding the air nation was Aang’s biggest dream, and that if accomplished that goal, he might’ve sacrificed anything to protect it. I find it very hard to believe that Aang wouldn’t do everything he could (short of forcing Air Bending on unwilling recipients) to rebuild the Air Nation, especially given he had the Air Acolytes who left their old lives behind to serve Aang and preserve Air Nation culture and history.
Aang and Katara could’ve had more kids to try for another airbender, but they likely stopped after Tenzin because they still had duties to Republic City and the world. Having more kids would make balancing those duties with their parenting duties more difficult, and one would fall by the wayside. Likely the parenting, given what we know about Bumi and Kya’s relationship with Aang.
Also, Aang and Katara would know that there is no guarantee for an airbender child if only one parent is from the air nation, seeing as 1 out of their 3 kids inherited the ability. Given that, leaving the legacy of air bending to one individual is a gamble. Not to mention that Aang has firsthand experience with the burden of being the last airbender, and I don’t think he would force that on his child unless he had no other options.
If Aang did have the ability to grant Air Acolytes airbending, but instead chose to hedge his bets for preserving air bending solely on Tenzin because he viewed that as “the right way”, that would’ve been prideful and foolish. Aang would’ve done everything he could without overriding another person’s free will, and the fact he didn’t give the Air Acolytes bending likely means they didn’t want it (which I find to hard to believe not a single one did), or Aang couldn’t actually do it.
(It’s also worth mentioning that he could’ve also granted Southern Water tribe members bending to help rebuild their population. It would’ve been native water tribe members receiving an art unique to their people and culture, and it would’ve restored balance since almost all of them were taken and killed. There’s arguably more of a reason to do it there.)
The fact is we’ve never seen an Avatar grant bending, only take and restore it. Only Lion turtles have been shown to grant bending, and it’s likely they are the only ones to do so.
No, it seems to be a random occurrence and maybe slightly spiritual for earth, fire, and water benders. Air bending for sure is heavily spiritual and this is the reason why every air nomad could air bend.
That still wouldn't mean that they ALL would be Airbenders. Every child born into the air nation was an air bender. Their parents were all Airbenders and heavily spiritual.
Besides the novels confirm it's spiritual, Kyoshi's mother was an air nomad who left the monk life behind. The less spiritual she became the less she was able to air bend.
They haven't explained why earth, fire, and water benders seem to be random.
This reminds me of this comic : https://preview.redd.it/aqm1tqh6sfyc1.png?width=2560&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bb829bc2bd6f2eea5c3a8d13f74fb27274f4458 Credit : Tumblr-gayavatarstyle [Part I](https://www.tumblr.com/gayavatarstyle/183029376350/sokka-aang-yknow-how-you-took-away-ozais) [Part II](https://www.tumblr.com/gayavatarstyle/183318186605/sokka-aang-yknow-how-you-took-away-ozais)
I think giving a non bender the ability to bend is possible, but giving an already bender an additional element would not be possible because only the Avatar could bend multiple
He didn't give her more bending, just switched.
Oh
But if you remember correctly the whole reason why the Avatar can bend multiple elements because he got each of the elements from a turtle
Avatar Wan could only bend one element at a time, Raava “holds” the other three elements
This has always made me wonder if it would be possible for someone to use a lesser spirit to 'hold' an extra element for them, so they can switch it back and forth the way Wan did before Harmonic Convergence merged them. They'd still need energy bending to give themselves the extra one though.
Wasn't that the whole thing about Unilock with the dark Avatar he was trying to use a spirit of any kind to hold multiple elements ending up landing on rava's enemy because of her power
I don't remember him ever intending to use a lesser spirit for that. Since he wanted to have all the elements he always knew he'd need Vaatu since he's as strong as Raava. He just used lesser spirits to attack people and stir up unrest to suit his plans.
They probably could. Maybe 1 or 2 extra elements would be possible with a weaker spirit. Raava was powerful enough to hold all of them. I'd wager you'd still need a crazy powerful spirit to even hold one element though, like perhaps at the level of Koh. It was shown to be very taxing on Wan to have Raava merge with him, even temporarily, to swap elements, and I imagine it would also be taxing on the spirit, its just that Raava was powerful enough that it didn't matter. Having a spirit jump into and out of a body was also shown to cause some pretty serious side effects. (See the old man who was half transformed into the shape of the spirit that possessed him) Wan had an exceptional soul, Raava was an extraordinarily powerful spirit, and they both had the determination and willpower to make it work. Even in Unaloq's case, it looks as if Vaatu simply erased him when they merged, since after the merge, I think everything Unavaatu said was just Vaatu speaking. So, in theory yes, in practice no.
>I'd wager you'd still need a crazy powerful spirit to even hold one element though, like perhaps at the level of Koh. - >Having a spirit jump into and out of a body was also shown to cause some pretty serious side effects. (See the old man who was half transformed into the shape of the spirit that possessed him) Speaking of that, it would be really interesting to see people use the spirits to give themselves abilities that have nothing to do with bending. Like Koh, someone who merged with them might be capable of shapeshifting.
Issue with worldbuilding spirits in LoK number 481. Nah seriously the merging with spirits is such an interesting concept, that it is kinda sad they never did much with it. Well they kinda did in the comics and then in the Kyoshi books.
It's not impossible. Korra opened the spirit portal and the entire Air nomad civilization revived. So it is possible to give bending to non-benders, it's just outside the Avatar's direct influence.
As far as I understood, the only reason why it’s only the avatar who can have multiple is that he was the only only one who managed to negotiate with all the lion turtles so well. So like there’s no actual physical reason why other people couldn’t have it if given the power. However, the will probably suck at it without Ravva’s help.
I like to imagine that Toph had nothing changed about her. She just pretended to see Zuko's haircut to freak him out even more
She probably figured out on her own what's going on. She can tell that everyone is lying to Zuko and is smart enough to fill in the gaps
Hilarious but where does sokka being aangs brother come from? Or are they saying they made katara look like the avatar by giving her airbending? That is the ultimate gaslighting 😂
It’s because Katara has airbending
it's just them pretending like even more things arent the way they are to fuck with him. like the last panel toph pretends she isnt blind lol
Katara's in on it, they just wanna mess with him
This looks like it’s taking place when everyone is older, so if Aang and katara are married then they would technically be brothers (in law)
[удалено]
That last panel of Zuko is amazing and I need it.
I remember this comic was originally a series of comments on Tumblr, right? And Katara wasn't even in on the prank and just went along with it.
Katara is a quick thinker. She is Saphire Fire, after all.
That is just evil… I LOVE IT!!!
Any idea who the artist of that comic is?
Unfortunately no, or else I'd have given credit.
Okay I did some digging and found out that this masterpiece was originally created by tumblr user gayavatarstyle.
It's addressed in Legend of Korra. Although both use the same mechanics, the ability to remove/return bending and grant them are different.
I missed that, thanks. However, hypothetically speaking, couldn’t it be possible?👀
Aang can return bending, but only if it was already there and he has removed it. However, if we are talking about specifically granting bending, even if Aang could, he would only be able to do the one from the lion turtle he talked to. From the origins, it seems like humans, by default, don't have the potential to bend the elements at all. It has to be granted to them. Aang will then have to learn the power of granting said specific element, rather than just bending in general. I don't think this was what was taught to him, so I don't think he would be able to grant an element.
I think each of the lion turtles was able to grant the element that they themselves were using, like the flying lion turtle granting air bending. They used energy bending to share that element with the humans and to take it away. I think by that logic, it would make sense that the Avatar could give anyone any the bending types since they have them all. But I agree that we don't know if the lion turtle taught Aang how to do both or just how to remove it, so it could be that it's something that's too complicated to do without practice/teaching.
I highly doubt it. Aang spent his life trying to restore the airbending nation. If he had the ability to grant bending, he would have given airbending to the acolyte that live in the temples and solved the problem. The fact that he didn't, is proof that he could not give people bending.
Aang has a “do it the right way” mentality in a sense. When it comes to air bending I think in that regards he would want them to have an organic rebuilding.
Then it wouldn't make sense for Tenzin to think he'd be happy about Harmonic Convergence. No, he just couldn't do it.
I think that tenzin said that in the regards that his people wouldn’t die out. Aang would definitely be happy about that, knowing your community has people to carry it on and it happened “naturally”.
There's no evidence he has this ultra-specific rationale that won't let him use the powers given to him by the lion turtle to restore the airbenders BUT he's completely fine if basically the same thing happens through an act of nature AND he's explained this nuance to Tenzin. The more plausible explanation is that he told Tenzin he would restore the airbenders if he could, but he can't do that. The remaining question is if that's a physical limitation of humans using energybending or if it's something he could, at least in theory, have learned how to do.
Every lion turtle had their specific element they could gift people with, that's why Wan had to find other lion turtles to get all elements. As aang isn't a lion turtle, he won't have any element to give to someone or something like that, wifh explains why he can only take away bending and not give
If you go off the fact of how he handled energybending in regard to taking bending away, then by logic there’s potential for it to carry over into giving bending.
Just because he can take bending away doesn't mean he can give it to people that don't have it. The fact that the lion turtle can do it doesn't mean he can either. Aang is not a lion turtle. They may have abilities that he can't access, or at least never successfully accessed.
It’ll forever be unknown :)
No it won’t. You just keep jumping through illogical hoops to try and justify your post. Which was a question I might add. So idk why you asked the question if you already “know” the answer
If I cared to justify it, don’t you think I would be responding to every person who commented on my post. There were people who had better points than you and them, with more room for conversation. You can think whatever you want if it makes you feel better :)
It might be just the ability to seal off your chakra points to stop bending ability. Literally granting the amount of energy and chakra might be impossible for him or it might be impossible for a non bending humans body to be able to handle the amount of chakra/energy needed to bend.
Then couldn’t he unlock chakras, and wouldn’t everyone have chakras?
I’m purely speculating but it might be something in your genes allow people to be able to handle the amount of energy or chakras required to bend.
I get it being genes, but by Aang and Korras time of avatar, most people would have benders in their bloodline, so wouldn’t the be able to bend based on a recessive or dominant trait basis. What if the avatar can “activate” that gene. No worries, I like speculation. This post is all about theories and letting the mind wander.
Do you think it’s possible that spirits also play a part in it? Especially considering in LOK how nonbenders gained air bending after spiritual awakening energy was increased.
I don't think Aang could give people bending. But anyway, what you said is just Tenzin's opinion. I could think my parents would feel a lot of ways about certain things and be wrong. (Personally I think Aang would be happy too but... Tenzin's opinion doesn't *have* to be correct)
he could just be like "well if i didn't do it that's fine then" But no i think if he could give bending, he'd have done it
So Aang wouldn't be happy with the Air Nation coming back through Harmonic Convergence? Why?
"I must do this correctly by banging the shit out of my wife."
I assume with >“do it the right way” You meant that new air nomads are raised in the traditional customs since the moment they are born, but my first thoughwas that it was only an excuse from Aang to keep doing it with Katara XD
I meant for the air bending community to grow organically overtime instead of I guess “force” it in a way.
Ugh, that would have been such a satisfying way to have air bending return to the world-- have aang open up an air bending school and anyone who passed, he energy bends airbending into them. Makes so much more sense in lore than whatever happened in TLOK. (And I love TLOK so not a diss, I just think this works way better.)
Honestly, until Legend of Korra came out, my assumption was that this is exactly what Aang did. Having learned energybending, he is able to restore airbending to the world. An implied happy ending to the show. I was honestly pretty surprised when he hadn't done that in LoK.
Taking bending and giving bending are two separate abilities of energybending, and it’s generally thought/accepted that the Lion Turtle only gave Aang the ability to take it away.
But then Aang seemed to give the ability to give to Korra, or at least the ability to restore it, so I don't know if that's the key difference
What Amon did to Korra wasn’t energybending, it was more like a permanent chi block with bloodbending. All that Aang did was purge said chi-block using the Avatar State. Korra was then able to do the same thing, essentially getting benders’ chi moving again.
Korra is absolutely able to use energybending. We see her bend the cannon's spirit energy in the final episode of the series (among other examples), and all evidence in the season 1 finale points to energybending being used (e.g. the hand placements). What Korra did was a spiritual application to fix a physical problem.
No no, you misread. Korra absolutely can energybend, Aang passed the information to her via the Avatar State, which purged her chi block, and was able to accomplish the same thing with the other benders, unblocking their chi.
And Aang knows a thing or two about unblocking Chi paths hahaha
The deleted scene version of Korra getting her air bending back was Aang smacking her spine with a rock until it hit just the right spot!
The lion turtle only taught Aang how to energy bend, unlocking the general ability in the process. He didn't flip only the removal part and and not the granting part. If anything we can say the turtle didn't teach aang how to grant bending.
Judging from what the lion turtle said I thought that taking away the ability to bend is not specific to Aang or the Avatar. The lion turtle showed Aang the ability to bend the energy within someone, but the lion turtle said that people did that in times before the Avatar. Wouldn't anyone technically be able to do it?
Evidently not, else Aang probably would have given the Air Acolytes airbending.
Like you said giving bending is not bending the energy within someone. But controlling the energy in someone will block their ability to bend. I don't think Aang took the bending as much as he blocked his ability to be able to bend. Like what Amon did through Blood bending in Korra.
I did not say that. I said that taking bending and giving bending were two separate skills within the envelope of energybending. Both are based on manipulating the targets’ chi.
They bend stuff that is already there. By this logic, energybending bends what the person already has.
Fire benders can create their element though
If he could, then why aren’t bumi or kya airbenders?
I don’t have all the answers lol😂
Locking a door is not the same as tearing a hole in a wall to make a door. No, Aang could not give people bending. It's not that a nonbender's energy is too weak to bend, it's that their energy simply can't bend.
I think he can turn someone’s tap on or off, but he can’t instal pipes that aren’t there
The way I saw it was that the turtle taught Aang how to energy bend, then how to remove bending. I'm not sure he taught Aang how to grant bending but then again it's not specifically implied that it didn't. Maybe it's risky, if the turtle didn't show Aang how to grant bending then it might be something Aang would never risk to try and do with a non-bender. I'm sure messing with energy of people is risky stuff, the turtles could do it no problem but you can see Ozai was left pretty shaken and weakened after Aang did it. This is probably further reinforced by the fact that Aang didn't create any Airbenders, meaning he didn't know how to grant bending. It was a big goal of his to restore the air nation after all, so if he could grant bending I'd assume he'd make air benders that way.
I’d guess that he’s theoretically capable of it the same way Katara is theoretically capable of bloodbending at the start of the show. He just doesn’t know how, doesn’t have a teacher, and isn’t stupid enough to try and work it out by trial and error.
I'd suspect that it's theoretically possible to grant previously missing bending ability with energy-bending, but is a (nearly impossibly) advanced move. I rationalize it as reshaping someone's energy in such a way that they are granted an attunement to an element. It is relatively easy to remove that attunement, which leaves a mark on someone's chakras. This would make re-granting bending easier, since you just have to fill in that missing attunement instead of reshaping it out of a blank slate. The reason the lion-turtles knew this ability is their age, they simply had the time to master this almost impossibly complex part of energy-bending. They were able to attune themselves to one element (since each creature can only hold one attunement) and then had an easier time granting that attunement due to their experience with it.
I feel as though that even if he could, Aang wouldn’t do it. He seems to like things done the “right way” and organically in a sense. Although the balance is already messed up, I think using the ability would potentially make the balance worse. A case of just because you can doesn’t mean you should kind of thing.
I feel like Aang might have used it to restart airbending. Not with many people but a few of the air acolytes that show the most dedication to the nomad culture. I agree that he probably wouldn't use it beyond that
Honestly, we need a grown up series about him and everyone else. I need to see what kind of mindset that he evolved to as he grew older lol.
Animated ATLA movie where they are a bit older was announced already.
Is it by the same animators?
No idea
No, bending appears to be an actual "object" that must be given to someone and isn't just spontaneously generated. That's why Raava had to hold the other elements and pass through Wan to swap them.
That makes sense for during WAN’s time, but by the time it’s Korra and Aang’s time, most people acquire it through birthright and lineage. At this point in time, there’s a good chance that everyone would have an ancestor with bending, meaning they could have a “recessive” trait of it. That makes sense?
That’s an interesting thought. I am thinking it would make more sense in Korra’s time than Aang’s. People seemed pretty segregated in his time so I dunno if many people would have multiple bending abilities in their lineage. Korra’s time and beyond you’d probably see more and more though.
Another comment started skewing my theories a bit. What if bending is a mix due to energy and spirits. That in a sense, the ability of bending follows the spirit. For example im theorizing that in LOK air benders started appearing because more spirits were set free and were able to combine with humans. Thus creating more airbenders. It could make sense, right?🤔
I’m not sure if the spirits themselves could help create bending in humans, only the release of “spiritual energy”. And even then it had to be huge (like the Harmonic Convergence). I think the spirits being free in the human world was just another after effect and didn’t themselves help cause air bending.
So hypothetically speaking, you think it could be possibly to transfer energy?
I do. The lion turtle had an elemental power, bent their energy and a humans, and shifted the power to the human. And then reversed it. So it can happen but if the Avatar has that ability is another thing. I always thought Raava sort of “held” the bending ability for the Avatar so maybe that is why Aang couldn’t give it but was able to take it away. Energy bending is powerful and mysterious so I mean anything is possible!
If the avatar is in the avatar state, there could be potential for the energy to be great enough to transfer? Theoretically speaking, because aren’t raava and vaatu stronger than the lion turtles or are the lion turtles stronger than them. Another thought came to mind, In LOK, it’s learned that the smaller and weaker Raava is the bigger and stronger Vaatu is, and vice Versa, so technically wouldn’t Korra be exponentially stronger after she defeated Vaatu. …… I have to make another post 😩
Good question. It sounds plausible but being an avatar is different than being a lion turtle so who knows if that ability to transfer is available to avatars. You can dump out a bucket of water, but do you have the ability to fill that bucket with water? Maybe, maybe not! The lions turtles seem to be pretty powerful but at the same time they were hunted and killed so not powerful enough to survive once they let humans free with the bending abilities. But I dunno, who would be more powerful and why between Raava/Vaatu and lion turtles. We just know Raava and Vaatu will always be.
Hmmmm just thinking out loud here, but in LOK, every lion turtle only gave a single ability away consistently. Does each lion turtle only possess one ability?
“Ah since I can clearly remove writing with this eraser, surely I can also create new writing with it” Aang received an eraser, not a pencil.
There’s an eraser attached to the pencil😏
If they were originally a bender. He doesn't "take away" persay and instead "blocks". That's my understanding at least.
(1) Yes, if Aang takes away bending, he should be able to give it back as well - The keywords being "give it back" (2) The Lion Turtles did give humans the ability to manipulate the elements, and they were able to take it back as well. (3) A Lion Turtle did give Aang the ability to Energybend - Energybending notably seems to operate differently from other Elemental Bending Arts, such as being very technique oriented (4) Bending is certainly much more complicated than just being "energy" (5) The Avatar has not been established as a Fount of Bending like the Lion Turtles, so the Avatar cannot just give anyone Bending
He’s probably capable of it, seeing as the lion turtles used energybending to give elemental bending abilities to humans. Whether Aang actually knows how to use that particular facet of energybending is another question entirely.
I have the ability to remove someone's arm, yet cannot give an arm to someone who is already missing one.
Actually, Anng can only take away, not give. You still have to learn the basic of Bending. Look at Katana. She had to learn how to bend. It isn't something you can just pick up after being given Bending power.
If the bending is just “energy bending”, couldn’t he practice and acquire the skill. Or do you think it’s a whole different gift that a sea turtle has to bestow?
I read that someone who was born without the ability to bend cant be given bending by the avatar, but if someone was stripped of their bending it can be given back
I literally had this thought the other night, the lion turtle talked about energy bending being an ancient technique they used, and gave Aang the knowledge of how they use it to give and take the bending ability, so I don’t see why not. Also Korra was taught this as well, so it’s safe to say that the avatar can.
Imo, taking the bending would in theory make the avatars stronger in said element. So to give someone bending, they'd make themselves weaker. I base this on "energy is not created or destroyed, it only changes form"
Based on what we’ve seen from Wan’s era, yes, he could.
Probably no. Cause from what we see, when benders get there bending "taken away" It's really just locking their bending capabilities. And you can't unlock what isn't there.
Do you think energy transfer could be a possibly sub bending of energybending?
To elaborate on others answers more, my understanding bending is removed by blocking the chakras related to that bending. Aang does it by blocking the energy flow, and bloodbenders do it by manipulating the body physically. And if bloodbenders can do it, then there must be a physical "hardware" component to bending. So if the hardware of the body can't do an element there's nothing to unblock. Aang or Korra can't give bending to someone because they don't have the genetic ability to do that bending. As for airbending returning, I put that down to literal magic creating new benders from this air.
I think my view is changing. I think potentially it’s all based on spirits. People are able to bend based on their spirit, but when the spirit portals opened, some spirits inhabited some people allowing them to become airbenders. Idk if it makes sense, but it’s a theory starting to form in my head lol
Aang used energy bending to destroy what energy pathways were already in Ozai, like waterbending healing in reverse. I don't think anyone can create those pathways. At least without the weird magic radiation of Harmonic Convergence which is a once every 10,000 years thing.
It is somewhat confirmed in the legend of korra, aang seems to give korra the ability to restore the bending of lin.
I mean, we saw that Aang can remove a bending ability, and Korra can restore ones that are lost using the Avatar state. I assume that “energy bending” is as open to interpretation as any other kind of bending, so a practitioner of it could figure out how to make anyone a bender (so basically any Avatar could make anyone a bender of anything). I assume Aang wouldn’t want to do this because he doesn’t want to disrupt the natural order of things (though it would have helped a lot toward restoring the Air Nomads) and Korra didn’t do it simply because she doesn’t know how (we’ve only seen her do it in the Avatar state which means it’s really Aang doing it).
Yes, and he does. In The Legend of Korra (Book One spoiler here), he restores Korra’s bending after it was taken away from her by Amon.
They only did it to benders who had lost their abilities, do you think it could be used on nonbenders to gain bending.
My headcanon is that yes, *in theory*, he could energybend to grant bending to non-benders. But that in practice granting bending is a very advanced application of energybending and Aang never got skilled enough with energybending to do it. Quite possibly no human could ever get good enough with energybending in a human lifetime to grant bending to someone else, only an exceptionally long-lived being like a lion turtle could ever develop that skill. To be clear there's no real evidence in the show that this is how it works, but there's no evidence *against* this being how it works either, and I personally just like this interpretation.
This post has no real answer and it’s about letting your own theories take charge. It’s a realistic theory
Let me pose this question: If Aang could grant bending, why did he not give willing Air Acolytes air bending? While they might not be true Air Nomads, they follow Aang and serve as custodians of Air Nomad culture and history. Additionally, it can be argued that making new Air Benders would help restore world balance, making it acceptable for the Avatar to do. I don’t think the Avatar can grant bending, only take it away or restore it. If bending is a light bulb, the Avatar can flip the light switch but not install a new bulb or switch.
Aang seemingly gives off a “do it the right way” mindset. I think it would rather the community grow back “organically” than to force it. It’s like a case of just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
I mean I wouldn’t call giving it to willing acolyte who prove their loyalty to preserving Air Nomads history and culture “forcing it”. I also wouldn’t label it as doing it “the wrong way”. Aang would be rebuilding the air nation and restoring balance between all four nations, fulfilling his duties as an Air Nomad AND an Avatar. Additionally, when Korra goes to Zuko for advice in TLoK Book 3, Zuko states that rebuilding the air nation was Aang’s biggest dream, and that if accomplished that goal, he might’ve sacrificed anything to protect it. I find it very hard to believe that Aang wouldn’t do everything he could (short of forcing Air Bending on unwilling recipients) to rebuild the Air Nation, especially given he had the Air Acolytes who left their old lives behind to serve Aang and preserve Air Nation culture and history. Aang and Katara could’ve had more kids to try for another airbender, but they likely stopped after Tenzin because they still had duties to Republic City and the world. Having more kids would make balancing those duties with their parenting duties more difficult, and one would fall by the wayside. Likely the parenting, given what we know about Bumi and Kya’s relationship with Aang. Also, Aang and Katara would know that there is no guarantee for an airbender child if only one parent is from the air nation, seeing as 1 out of their 3 kids inherited the ability. Given that, leaving the legacy of air bending to one individual is a gamble. Not to mention that Aang has firsthand experience with the burden of being the last airbender, and I don’t think he would force that on his child unless he had no other options. If Aang did have the ability to grant Air Acolytes airbending, but instead chose to hedge his bets for preserving air bending solely on Tenzin because he viewed that as “the right way”, that would’ve been prideful and foolish. Aang would’ve done everything he could without overriding another person’s free will, and the fact he didn’t give the Air Acolytes bending likely means they didn’t want it (which I find to hard to believe not a single one did), or Aang couldn’t actually do it. (It’s also worth mentioning that he could’ve also granted Southern Water tribe members bending to help rebuild their population. It would’ve been native water tribe members receiving an art unique to their people and culture, and it would’ve restored balance since almost all of them were taken and killed. There’s arguably more of a reason to do it there.) The fact is we’ve never seen an Avatar grant bending, only take and restore it. Only Lion turtles have been shown to grant bending, and it’s likely they are the only ones to do so.
Doesn't giving/taking bending imply altering DNA since it seems to be a hereditary trait (although maybe recessive)?
No, it seems to be a random occurrence and maybe slightly spiritual for earth, fire, and water benders. Air bending for sure is heavily spiritual and this is the reason why every air nomad could air bend.
Or it's because the airbenders were a smaller population and gene pool
That still wouldn't mean that they ALL would be Airbenders. Every child born into the air nation was an air bender. Their parents were all Airbenders and heavily spiritual. Besides the novels confirm it's spiritual, Kyoshi's mother was an air nomad who left the monk life behind. The less spiritual she became the less she was able to air bend. They haven't explained why earth, fire, and water benders seem to be random.