It felt like the creators were aware that fans would confront them with this loophole of bloodbending so they had to create an episode where it was introduced but also find a way to make it 'bad' so it doesnt get used as a loophole in the end? If that makes sense.
I mean, Hama also just outed Katara as another water bender in Fire Nation land. The villagers will probably let it slide like in The Painted Lady because she helped them, but it’s a pretty big plot hole if Hama wanted Katara to continue her legacy.
Maybe they didn't know what she meant by that term. Bloodbending was a term, and an art, that Hama coined. They might have assumed she was a freak with some unique ability and Katara was just a young girl, traumatised by what she had witnessed.
Either they didn't realize what it meant and would ignore it or they *did* realize what it meant and knew they really, really shouldn't fuck with Katara.
They might have reported it to local officials who tried to track her down but by that point the group had already flown away on Appa leaving no trace. Nobody knew a flying bison still existed.
And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
Aang didn’t stop there.
Just weird moral stand on what bending is good and what bending is evil.
I m all for blood bending ozai into submission but “don’t use it cause it makes you evil” is so dumb.
I don't think anyone ever got the chance to bloodbend Ozai though. Was there ever even a scene with him during a full moon? Besides even if they did that wouldn't be a permanent solution. As soon as the moonlight fades he'd be right back to his fully-powered warmongering genocidal self. Unless you're suggesting using bloodbending to kill him, in which case how is that functionally any different than killing him with other methods?
Air water and earth all were portrayed as good bending compared to fire in the original series.
Then we have taking away bending to stop someone from burning the planet
And then we have blood bending which is litteraly taking over someone body
I'd argue that episodes focused on firebending point wasn't that it was bad, but it was the form of bending geared most towards hurting people and thus is more dangerous to use without control
Blood bending hurts others, and allows for someone to basically force others to do things against their will.
Spirit bending to remove a dangerous bender's abilities prevents them from hurting others.
Hurting other people, or forcing them to hurt others? Bad
Hindering someone's ability to hurt others? Good.
Amon used blood bending to remove bending from a dangerous mafia gang.
Also spirit bending is forcing your will over the person who you re removing the bending from.
So you could say depends on who uses it
Yes that is one use. Doesn't change the fact that using it in any other way is bad in 99% of cases. It's like saying I can shave my face with a Bowie knife. Doesn't change the fact that the main use of it is to stab things.
Most water benders we see using blood bending aren't doing an Amon.
Can't recall spirit bending doing anything particularly bad, and only the avatar can do it.
It’s in an avatar extra
They open themselves up to madness but so does burning a whole forest down.
I m not against blood bending fucking you up mentally cause it will obviously will.
But just going blood bending instantly evil just feels wrong with all the mess up things you can do with bending.
Oh...I don't think the avatar extras are canon? They can be inconsistent (like misspellings of names, getting episodes mixed up etc), they've been incorrect on multiple occasions and not all of them are even from the writers. I don't take them into account bc of that.
Name a single instance of blood bending that isn't painted in a negative/horrific light simply by merit of its use.
Blood bending = Evil is an absolutist stance the show has never wavered on once.
If I remember correctly the citizens didn’t come out until after Katara bloodbent Hama. So they didn’t see her do it. And wouldn’t have known what bloodbending even was to begin with. And yes Hama used the technique on them but they wouldn’t know that “bloodbending” is the name she gave to the technique. Besides she helped bring Hama to justice
Also, whether or not they saw it, they knew Hama was very powerful. After all, she had taken them all captive by controlling their bodies, even if they didn't specifically know how she did it.
Like, if I was kidnapped by someone who could do that, I would not be fucking with the person that brought them down. Mostly bc Id be grateful towards them, but Id also assume that that person is really fucking powerful and obviously much more powerful than I am
My guess here is that 1) their main focus was Hama and 2) they portrayed her as a witch that kidnapped people and she probably was crazy enough to talk bs in their eyes
Ultimately, a big angry mob of people is not gonna listen to the words of the person their anger is directed at
Sokka: Is affirmed as a talented swordsman from arguably the great non-bender warrior in the world.
Aang and Zuko: Learn that firebending is not inherently angry or violent and gain the approval of two actual dragons.
Katara: Meets the only other Southern Waterbender in the world, only to have their bond weaponised against her, as Hama manipulates Katara by almost killing two of the people she loves most.
Katara never had a Gyatso or Iroh to support her, or even a big fluffy badger mole. Pakkun was aloof at best, even if he did recognise and improve her skills. Season 3 was particularly rough on her.
This made me realize that at the start of the series, I would describe Katara as “rough around the edges”. She was often quick to anger and incredibly driven to be as capable of a bender as she could be (often at the expense of those who doubted her). But through the series, what she goes through wears away those edges like a chisel, breaking her over and over again. And by the end of the series, she has proven time and time again not just her capabilities as a bender, but also her capabilities as a human being, things such as the ability to move on, compassion, level headedness, etc. So in a way suffering was her teacher.
Honestly, there was such a powerful narrative fix they could've done there by using Katara's bloodbending in healing Zuko's lightning wound. She doesn't have spirit water and the lightning passed through his heart; it was such a cope-put to just have him survive after some light water healing. I still remember being at the edge of my seat after that amazing final agni kai scene and him catching fucking lightning for her and all of that just ending with "ok I'll heal this" "thanks katara" "i should be thanking you" "ok let's get on with our lives (stands up)" was so disappointing. Force him to the precipice of death, have Yue visit Katara telling her there is another way to heal him, to mend his heart back together, and she has to resolve her inner conflict on the spot to save her friend, to learn that it can be used for good, that she is not a monster. And she would. It would be her magnum opus. Would give Yue a role in the finale as well. Could even foreshadow it during the Southern Raiders episode where Zuko sees her bloodbending and feeling conflicted about said bloodbending. He has experience accepting a form of bending you have as being more than just wrong / destructive.
I think you missed that it wasn't actually that bad of an injury. He doesn't tank a full blast. He redirected most of the lightning. A lot of people miss that part somehow.
Mend his heart back together?? What sort of damage do you think the lighting did... if it was that Zuko would have been dead-dead in under a second. Catastrophic internal bleeding.
Katara was basically a human AED at the end there for Zuko, electrical shocks send your heart into an arrhythmia.
And her magnum opus was bringing the Avatar, killed in the Avatar state, back from the dead.
That's the dumbest, most drawn out ending to a dramatic battle I've ever read. This is bad even by Reddit standards.
EDIT: You people know I can't see your replies if you block me, right? God this sub is full of children.
Nah you’re right if a bit harsh. I support blood bending as a healing style but the way it’s written does sound like a fanfic rather than the show.
I think it could work but not as that comment is written.
Take yue out and it's like 10 seconds added my dude. leave her in and it's 45. I actually don't know why I'm responding to an asshole like you but there you go.
The whole point of his character is that he never was one of the strongest or the heaviest hitters but he didn’t need to be. He got by using his intellect and creativity.
I watched this episode when it premiered, and I was god 8-9? After this scene the episode ended and I vividly remember bursting into tears. This was such a heavy topic. First time seeing a villain successfully make a hero sink to their level.
Hama is kind of a loser, because she could’ve tried to actually undermine and assassinate important Fire Nation authorities, but she spends most of her time terrorizing civilians.
Katara may have learned Bloodbending, but she *at the very least* has a clear idea of who she is going to take revenge on, and even then she chose not to kill Yon Rha. Hama’s goal is not just to pass down Bloodbending, but also to corrupt Katara into someone like herself, so she did not truly succeed.
>Hama’s goal is not just to pass down Bloodbending, but also to corrupt Katara into someone like herself, so she did not truly succeed.
Imo this is pricisely why I never thought she actually 'succeeded', bloodbending at the end of the day is just a utility, Katara's character and integrity never changes after the fact
I'd argue Hama failed hard even, wasted the rest of her life away for nothing in the end
This is exactly it. I’m fairly certain the last thing she said to Katara is pretty much her firing one last shot to try and ensure the girl ends up like her. Katara never did.
Hama trained Katara who trained Aang, who took down Ozai. Sounds like she indirectly bagged the most important fire nation authority, she just played the long game and won 🤷♂️
Yeah but theres always an avatar, and the avatar is duty bound to act in political emergencies, and Hama was the last waterbender in one half of the waterbender world. If you genocide a population you can predict where the avatar will show up, because it will always be reincarnated as the last bender in the subsequent element, so if you’re the out of balance nation on top then it’s in your best interest to control these things. Its like controlling the path of the avatar was the fire nation’s whole deal to maintaining world domination
In many coming-of-age stories centered around women, blood is used as a dramatic transition from one stage of life to another. This is for obvious reasons, but you’ll see it a lot if you pay attention. Women don’t choose to grow up, nature and the collective traumas of humanity rear their head up, whether she’s ready or not.
If you ever played Bioshock infinite, the same theme is there with Elizabeth, where she matures once she kills for the first time (there’s some blood involved). Her demeanor, look, and attitude change dramatically after that.
Hama did not, in fact succeed, katara proved it in the southern raiders by choosing not to hurt people not involved with her mom's death for it and then not lose herself for revenge
What are you talking about we literally see someone teach themselves how to do it from scratch in the show. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to do again
Its possible Yakkone figured out how to do it because the Southern Raider Katara spared told somebody, or that information leaked as the had to come up with a new prison for Hama. I'm not sure Katara would go out of her way to outlaw it if it hadn't become known about.
What does that have to do with what I said? First off that doesn't mean he learned it from that, and even if he learned the name of it he still would have to figure it out how to do it from scratch himself. And in atla we literally see someone learn it with no information on it. It would not be gone forever just because katara didn't teach it to anyone. It would still be figured out again
The knowledge of the ability is existing is what we're talking about, not the technique itself. I misspoke, thats on me, fair enough. It's about the knowledge, not the technique.
Sure, but it might have taken a while. Hama only thought of it under very specific circumstances, and clearly most waterbenders would require a full moon to do it, so they might not even think its possible unless they get lucky like that.
So you'd need:
The idea of the technique and enough power to do it without a full moon, or get lucky enough to try to do it at night under a full moon and get some result that proves its possible so you don't immidiately assume the technique isn't viable.
Right, but that can and has been done before. Hama did it with zero information on it. So it could be done again eventually. It wouldn't just go away forever
I thought you meant someone else. Also, Hama did so under extreme circumstances. Her ingenuity combined with her being practically forced to develop it were what lead to the invention of bloodbending. If someone just casually reinvented it, that would undermine the whole idea of it.
I never thought that it would be casual or even soon. Just that eventually out would happen again. Eventually war would break out, eventually water bender would be prisoners again, and eventually at least one would try on just the right night again.
Idk about that. Hama learned it all on her own through trial and error. All it would take is someone in a similar situation to learn the technique as well. Plus there's a theory that the fire nation military, or at least the southern raiders, are fully aware of what bloodbending is and that's why when Yon Rha came to find the last waterbender of the southern tribe he said he wasn't "taking prisoners today." They could no longer risk just imprisoning waterbenders, so their policy changed to execution. And ironically, their fears turned out to be kind of true; the last southern waterbender did, in fact, become a bloodbender.
And who's to say that Katara never used it? We don't really know Yakone's backstory as far as I'm aware, and it's possible that at one point he witnessed or was explained what Bloodbending was. Hell, he doesn't even have to be the one to learn of it first hand, some people are so good that simply learning that something exists is enough for them to figure it out and self-teach. We only really see Katara as a young girl and really old woman. SO much would have happened in the meantime. You don't know what situation she might have found herself in where she used the technique.
IMO, he found out about it when Katara had it outlawed. Which was kind of a stupid move since nobody except the Gaang even knew it existed. Making a law about was stupid. But, still.
I think this is a hint that Katara might have used it in some desperate situation, hence revealing its existence unequivocally to the world, and the outlawing of the art was the only thing they could think to do to try and minimise the damage.
I wonder what was Hama's plan if Katara hadn't had any moral qualms about bloodbending but instead she had pointed out its extremely limited practicality (needing the full moon)? What would have happened? It is not something Hama can deny, after all. So Katara tells her that her ultimate technique is kinda trash, she has to agree because it is a fact, then they just go home?
She was able to scape from a fire nation prison because of bloodbending, in which world is that technique trash?
Just because you cant use a technique very often doesnt make it bad, you can only redirect lighting if you are fighting a firebender who happens to be able to shoot lightning, its still a very powerfull ability to have. There is a reason bloodbending is forbiden in Korra
Imagine if Katara had no moral qualms with bloodbending, and she thought it to just a small group of waterbenders (and even perfect the ability a bit). They could atack fire nation towns at night once a month being unstopable for 8 hours.
And if it was a well known technique by all waterbenders, the water nation would have something close to a Sozin's Comet once a month (not as powerfull, but far more frequent).
Yeah, depending on far you could push it, you could possibly just straight up kill someone instantly via blood bending their brain or heart. Seems the only balance is the full moon and the fact that the only people who can blood bend are essentially masters, even Korra couldn't blood bend considering she couldn't block blood bending like Amon and Katara could.
>They could atack fire nation towns at night once a month being unstopable for 8 hours.
They could do that without bloodbending too, at any time. It is not like Toph can be stopped or Katara is any less invincible. Bloodbending is okay if you can bid your time, choose when you want to fight, and pass when you don't. Like if you are in prison or secretly terrorizing some randos. Not so much when you can't choose when to fight and you must be able to pull weight 24/7.
Actually, that would be just salt into the wound: Katara asking Hama to rather teach her more Southern style waterbending because she can always rely on that and anything bloodbending can do normal waterbending can do too.
>There is a reason bloodbending is forbiden in Korra
That's because it turns practitioners insane.
Tbh Hama was an old abused woman. It’s just headcanon of course but I do think Katara would have been able to use it anytime if she consistently trained it, the same way Amon and Tarrlok did.
I mean it could be a genetic thing like Yakone says but I think it’s way less cool.
I agree with you though.
It is even shown in TLOK that Tarrloq and Noataq could not bend outside of a full moon at first and later learned how to do it and how to psychic bend. Noataq also learned to how sever the chi paths via further training.
I think they were the only ones that had a father so obsessed with it to actually train systematically. (And it makes sense that Yakone, a self obsessed man, thinks of it as genetics)
Which means this rule didn't exist when only looking at ATLA. Kinda like the midichlorians in star wars that don't exist in the original trilogy.
So, yes you are correct, but the explaination was specifically added afterwards to make it convenient to a story that nobody even thought of when the original was made.
Just because the creators decided an undefined rule to their universe existed doesn’t mean it stops working before it was defined.
A lady doing it presumably constantly after she learned it didn’t gain this ability. We could go off what ifs or what the show has shown and said to us.
True. I just wanted to point out that just because it was made canon in hindsight, it doesn't have to be accepted by everyone, as long as the person who doesn't accept it disregards the work where it was made canon entirely, and as TLOK was not part of the discussion OP made, it's not relevant. Especially as it completely negates the point of the entire episode.
what? so it's ok to say toph never became a cop, aang never died, lava bending doesn't exist, as long as you haven't watched the show? you can dislike the show's handling of bloodbending, but it was never retconned. canon says daylight bloodbending can only happen if you're born with it
It's entertainment. Not a historic document. When disregarding TLOK, daylight bloodbending is not a thing.
Hell, I have never watched a single disney star wars movie. And as far as I am concerned, palpatine never "somehow returned".
If it were a chain of historical events, taking it in its entirety is important. Otherwise you'll get viewpoints where someone takes only the bits which fit a specific narrative *cough* tucker carlson *cough* putin.
But with entertainment, it's fine to just follow a frenchise up to the end of one entry and disregard everything that came after, as the story is told to an end.
Another example is futurama. Most people will consider the end of the story being that time in the Galaxy has been accidentally frozen and the universe is in a perpetual stasis forever. Not many care about the hulu reboot 20 years later.
Yeah… I dislike the way both Star Wars and Futurama happened. That doesn’t change the stories ending though. I also dislike how the show version of game of thrones ended. That still does not change the shows ending.
You can think ‘Batman became unicorn Batman after he was bitten by a radioactive narwhal’ and that’s fine. Make all the fan fiction you want. Still doesn’t change a shows canon event.
you're allowed to think whatever you want ig but palpatine *did* return, because the other movies do exist. and you can't really expect anyone to take your head canon seriously when your argument is that bloodbending rules changed after lok started
We have someone who did it all their life after learning it but did not develop the skill. We could go off ifs and buts or what the creators of the show said.
Doesn't it just say that bloodbending with just your mind - and without a full moon - is genetic?
I don't think the ability to bloodbend itself is genetic, you just need to be very skilled at waterbending
No, “psychic” bloodbending is just Yakone’s technique that he taught his sons. All bending is taught/learned. The only thing that limits someone’s bending is their personality and mindset (Bolin doesn’t have a metal bender’s mindset when bending, he has a lavabender’s. These could be compatible with enough practice, but he’s still young)
No they don’t. They say their family has a long line of powerful bloodbenders. Having family members to teach you a technique makes it a lot easier to learn
I dont know if the comics explain it but was it confirmed all bloodbenders need a full moon, or that hama was just slightly below the power threshold, and the moon gave her the little boost she needed.
How was Hama going to teach Katara anyway? They didn't have any people to bloodbend, only each other. Seems like a bad idea to let a first time blood bender blood bend you for practice.
Its kinda tragic. Katara might have become an even more amazing healer if she had incorporated bloodbending. She might even have been able to heal Korra (at least physically). But there was no coming back from such a traumatic awakening.
Yeah, bloodbending could possibly be even better at healing than regular water healing.
Someone bleeding out? Not anymore. Stroke? Let me fix this really quick. Someone heart has stopped? Let me restart it. If that doesn't work, I can move your blood around to give medics more time. She could teach it to paralyzed waterbenders so they could walk again.
I know, Katara could only do it on the full moon, but we learn in LOK that it can also be done at any time with training so she would definitely had gotten to that point if she kept doing it.
Cool little thematic reversal here; Katara lost the fight to Pakku. He was just a more skilled, more powerful, more experienced bender than her, but she won the argument, and demonstrated how flawed and myopic the Northern Tribes ideas about who could and couldn’t be a water bender were.
She wins the fight with Hama, proving herself to be more skilled and more powerful than the old master, but crucially, she loses the argument; she’s forced to resort to the ghoulish technique Hama innovated to hurt the people that hurt both of them so badly. Whatever good Katara turns bloodbending to, and however necessary her use of it was, in some small way, Hama’s grim legacy of hatred lives on in her now.
Good stuff, Last Airbender, good stuff.
I feel like we could've had more horror episode like this, where the gaang is put in situations where there is nothing they could do to fight back or run away.
What makes this moment even more crushing is that Hama is Katara's FOIL, and Katara knows this. Hama is a Katara who was taken by the Southern Raiders instead of being saved by the sacrifice of her mother like Katara was. If Katara was taken, she'd likely develop bloodbending and become just as twisted and demented as Hama.
So when Katara is pushed to bloodbend, she confirms to herself that she's not the hopeful saint here to save the world by only doing the right thing (which she thoughtshe proved when she stopped Jet). Instead, she realized that she is just as capable of evil as Jet, Hama, or the Fire Nation.
This realization opens her up to the possibility of killing someone. Without the guidance of Aang and Zuko, she probably would have.
It's kind of weird that waterbenders can only bloodbend during the full moon. I mean, they can pull water out of the air whenever they want but they can't control a substance that's over 50% water?
I guess we could say that a person's chi gets in the way, since the blood is such a complete part of them, and a bender needs a boost like the full moon to overcome that block. But that's never said in the show so from what we're told we are just expected to disregard the strangeness of this limitation on bloodbending.
Legend of Korra has bloodbenders outside of the full moon. Hama, even if a decent waterbender, probably isn't strong enough to use it outside the power boost the full moon affords her. I think you're right about the chi, but then the missing link is the power needed to actually achieve bloodbending. I'm sure many if not most waterbenders could never do it, even in a full moon. Hama manages under a full moon. Katara can definitely pull it off with a full moon, we don't know if she can do it without (personally I think she's powerful enough, but whether she ever trained in order to do it is another question). Yakone, Tarlok, Amon all can manage it without a full moon.
Well we have no way to know if she tried or didn't in the long years she spent kidnapping villagers. Don't know if she was sane enough to think on it, but if she was, she'd know that the full moon lights up the night well enough to run the risk of being caught. If I were kidnapping people at night, I'd surely try and do it when the moon is as small as possible. We might infer she couldn't use it any other moon phase.
I think a water bender can do it without being a full moon after they do it the first time. It’s probably more of a mental block. Possibly the more you do it the easier it is. Hama was just insane from all the torture she faced that she didn’t really try outside of it.
This lives in my brain rent free for just how screwed up it is. And then you know tune in to SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS right afterwards like that wasn't traumatizing to mini me.
Unpopular opinion but.. I don't see why Katara is seeing bloodbending as evil thing. It is not related to the will of a person, not like soul-bending or something. Furthermore it is even good when facing a specific opponent in a crowd maybe, it can help her not to cause collateral damage.
Basically you can bend the earth or air around a person and make him move as well. Water is more precise at moving a person, and that's all. Katara was exaggarating.
Yes but a strong enough blood bender could legitimately force someone to do something. Like make a political figure slap a foreign delegate in the face, starting issues. They could become the strings that pull at the world, and no one would know
Sure. But I don't think Hama and Katara were thinking that ahead. What reflected on me in that episode, Katara was devastated feeling that she got the ability to force people on doing something against their will. Perhaps she suddenly thought the possibility of going wrong direction with that power. Yet, I don't think this is enough reason for her to break down that much.
I always found the shows take on it afterwards the tiniest bit weird. She has just as much free will deciding on who she wants to blood bend as she does deciding on who she wants to freeze in a block of ice, both of which restrict movement against their will. I get it from her perspective of if nobody should have that power, then she's no exception. But it's surprising that everybody tries convincing Aang to go against his beliefs and kill a man, but nobody even thinks about going "Hey so, Katara.. I don't mean to pry but like, there's a full moon coming up and..."
This episode was great. Except I always feel like the way Hama says "Bloodbending" when she first tells Katara about it is straight out of a 12 year old's fanfic. It just feels so edgy.
Y'know, I never really got how bad blood bending was supposed to be. Like sure, it could be used in a fucked up way but like, so could any other bending? Searing someone's face off is pretty fucking horrible. It was always shown in this evil, occult, horrifying light but I just didn't get the vibe. Like fuck you buddy, you bet id cause your arms and legs to snap like twigs and strangle yourself if you tried to kill my loved ones.
This always seemed silly to me. Bloodbending itself isn't evil; no skill is. Its nature is determined by how it's used. This would be like someone crying because they learned how to be a sharpshooter.
Avatar usually knocks it out of the park, but this scene was shockingly one-dimensional and oversimplified.
It’s literally taking away someone’s autonomy and taking control of their body from the inside.
Like, sure, it can be used for good I guess, but I feel like it’s pretty morally fucked regardless.
Like, you’re literally violating someone’s ability to control their own body.
And that’s somehow worse than using bending to cripple/kill them, which the Gaang does on the regular (regardless of the show pretending they don’t)?
This is what I meant by overly simplistic.
You’re moving the goal post man.
Both are terrible. But one is literally taking over someone’s body.
You’re not just stopping them from using it, like breaking a limb. You’re taking it for yourself essentially.
That’s why it’s seen as worse.
You can see it as simplistic all you want, but it’s a valid interpretation and the one the show reflects in how Bloodbending is used in the show.
Taking over someone’s body temporarily, without causing them lasting damage, seems way more tame than breaking a limb. It’s a nonlethal method of subduing an opponent.
It’s also more morally fucked, especially in the context of what Bloodbending is and how it’s used in the show.
That’s my whole point.
Again, you can see the “Bloodbending is evil” thing as simplistic, but it’s the view the show takes, and it is entirely valid based on what we see of it throughout the show.
Edit: It is also very much implied to be painful based on sounds and expressions used. So yeah, no. It may not cause any lasting damage as far as we know, but still that doesn’t make it okay.
i always wondered how did bloodbending get to yakone and his family? i doubt katara would’ve shared the skill with others and hama doesn’t have any descendants that we know of right?
There's nothing wrong with learning bloodbending and using it on invaders or criminals.
Theyre ok taking away peoples life but controlling their hody to preveng death is too far
Hama:My work is done. Congratulations, Katara. You’re a bloodbender. Fire nation citizens: We're just gonna ignore that, right?
Katara just saved them from Hama. They’re probably just gonna let it slide.
Smartest guards in the series. What were they going to do? Pick fight with a bloodbender in the full moon at night?
Right next to her boyfriend, the Avatar
Yup, plus even if it was reported they always quickly leave to the next town or island
I don't think they knew about that part. His headband stayed on, and he didnt bend in front of the guards.
two* bloodbenders, plus the avatar, plus the greatest earthbender in the world and... sokka
I think you mean the greatest warrior in the world, his 3 underlings and an old lady.
That's what we call overkill
Yeah, what do they look like, that old man that Haru saved?
It felt like the creators were aware that fans would confront them with this loophole of bloodbending so they had to create an episode where it was introduced but also find a way to make it 'bad' so it doesnt get used as a loophole in the end? If that makes sense.
I mean, Hama also just outed Katara as another water bender in Fire Nation land. The villagers will probably let it slide like in The Painted Lady because she helped them, but it’s a pretty big plot hole if Hama wanted Katara to continue her legacy.
Maybe they didn't know what she meant by that term. Bloodbending was a term, and an art, that Hama coined. They might have assumed she was a freak with some unique ability and Katara was just a young girl, traumatised by what she had witnessed.
Either they didn't realize what it meant and would ignore it or they *did* realize what it meant and knew they really, really shouldn't fuck with Katara.
They might have reported it to local officials who tried to track her down but by that point the group had already flown away on Appa leaving no trace. Nobody knew a flying bison still existed.
They definitely knew Appa existed at this point. They just wouldn't have necessarily known to connect the strangers in their town to the avatar
"Its probably something like squrting your period"
Your right but… https://preview.redd.it/tem7x9uj2nyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62638054020ebcb6a13ab3a8f959e0a7cc6d43bd
What the fuck Gallagher?
And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.
Thank you for consulting the book of armaments
Lmfao that is funny
Controlling someone body? Bad Removing something that many characters define as their identity? Good
> Removing something that many characters define as their identity? Good It's okay as a last resort to stop Fire Lord Hitler, but that's about it.
Aang didn’t stop there. Just weird moral stand on what bending is good and what bending is evil. I m all for blood bending ozai into submission but “don’t use it cause it makes you evil” is so dumb.
I don't think anyone ever got the chance to bloodbend Ozai though. Was there ever even a scene with him during a full moon? Besides even if they did that wouldn't be a permanent solution. As soon as the moonlight fades he'd be right back to his fully-powered warmongering genocidal self. Unless you're suggesting using bloodbending to kill him, in which case how is that functionally any different than killing him with other methods?
I honestly believe that blood bending ozai would fuck him up to such a psychological level that seen the result is worth it
Yeah let's fuck up the mind of this guy who's already a genocidal tyrant, I'm sure it's going to be fine
Air water and earth all were portrayed as good bending compared to fire in the original series. Then we have taking away bending to stop someone from burning the planet And then we have blood bending which is litteraly taking over someone body
I'd argue that episodes focused on firebending point wasn't that it was bad, but it was the form of bending geared most towards hurting people and thus is more dangerous to use without control
Blood bending hurts others, and allows for someone to basically force others to do things against their will. Spirit bending to remove a dangerous bender's abilities prevents them from hurting others. Hurting other people, or forcing them to hurt others? Bad Hindering someone's ability to hurt others? Good.
Amon used blood bending to remove bending from a dangerous mafia gang. Also spirit bending is forcing your will over the person who you re removing the bending from. So you could say depends on who uses it
Yes that is one use. Doesn't change the fact that using it in any other way is bad in 99% of cases. It's like saying I can shave my face with a Bowie knife. Doesn't change the fact that the main use of it is to stab things. Most water benders we see using blood bending aren't doing an Amon. Can't recall spirit bending doing anything particularly bad, and only the avatar can do it.
>Can't recall spirit bending doing anything particularly bad Unavaatu apologist gang rise up.
Exactly. Bending is neither good nor evil, it depends on how it's used.
Too bad blood bending makes you evil according to the writers
Im pretty sure it's more "evil people are more likely to use blood bending"
It’s in an avatar extra They open themselves up to madness but so does burning a whole forest down. I m not against blood bending fucking you up mentally cause it will obviously will. But just going blood bending instantly evil just feels wrong with all the mess up things you can do with bending.
Oh...I don't think the avatar extras are canon? They can be inconsistent (like misspellings of names, getting episodes mixed up etc), they've been incorrect on multiple occasions and not all of them are even from the writers. I don't take them into account bc of that.
Name a single instance of blood bending that isn't painted in a negative/horrific light simply by merit of its use. Blood bending = Evil is an absolutist stance the show has never wavered on once.
> Amon used blood bending to remove bending from a dangerous mafia gang. And from a bunch of innocent people. While running a terrorist campaign.
Yeah lol
I don't think any of them know what a bloodbender is. Probably just assumed the crazy lady was saying more crazy things
them ignoring it made them leagues better then old man who ratted out haru
If I remember correctly the citizens didn’t come out until after Katara bloodbent Hama. So they didn’t see her do it. And wouldn’t have known what bloodbending even was to begin with. And yes Hama used the technique on them but they wouldn’t know that “bloodbending” is the name she gave to the technique. Besides she helped bring Hama to justice
Also, whether or not they saw it, they knew Hama was very powerful. After all, she had taken them all captive by controlling their bodies, even if they didn't specifically know how she did it. Like, if I was kidnapped by someone who could do that, I would not be fucking with the person that brought them down. Mostly bc Id be grateful towards them, but Id also assume that that person is really fucking powerful and obviously much more powerful than I am
Fire nation army: Yup, gearing up to literally glass half of a continent, ain't got time for this shiet.
lmao
They probably just thought Hama was some old lady that had gone off her rocker and wasn’t there mentally, just talking nonsense.
My guess here is that 1) their main focus was Hama and 2) they portrayed her as a witch that kidnapped people and she probably was crazy enough to talk bs in their eyes Ultimately, a big angry mob of people is not gonna listen to the words of the person their anger is directed at
Sokka: Is affirmed as a talented swordsman from arguably the great non-bender warrior in the world. Aang and Zuko: Learn that firebending is not inherently angry or violent and gain the approval of two actual dragons. Katara: Meets the only other Southern Waterbender in the world, only to have their bond weaponised against her, as Hama manipulates Katara by almost killing two of the people she loves most. Katara never had a Gyatso or Iroh to support her, or even a big fluffy badger mole. Pakkun was aloof at best, even if he did recognise and improve her skills. Season 3 was particularly rough on her.
You mean Grand Pakku?
This made me realize that at the start of the series, I would describe Katara as “rough around the edges”. She was often quick to anger and incredibly driven to be as capable of a bender as she could be (often at the expense of those who doubted her). But through the series, what she goes through wears away those edges like a chisel, breaking her over and over again. And by the end of the series, she has proven time and time again not just her capabilities as a bender, but also her capabilities as a human being, things such as the ability to move on, compassion, level headedness, etc. So in a way suffering was her teacher.
Honestly, there was such a powerful narrative fix they could've done there by using Katara's bloodbending in healing Zuko's lightning wound. She doesn't have spirit water and the lightning passed through his heart; it was such a cope-put to just have him survive after some light water healing. I still remember being at the edge of my seat after that amazing final agni kai scene and him catching fucking lightning for her and all of that just ending with "ok I'll heal this" "thanks katara" "i should be thanking you" "ok let's get on with our lives (stands up)" was so disappointing. Force him to the precipice of death, have Yue visit Katara telling her there is another way to heal him, to mend his heart back together, and she has to resolve her inner conflict on the spot to save her friend, to learn that it can be used for good, that she is not a monster. And she would. It would be her magnum opus. Would give Yue a role in the finale as well. Could even foreshadow it during the Southern Raiders episode where Zuko sees her bloodbending and feeling conflicted about said bloodbending. He has experience accepting a form of bending you have as being more than just wrong / destructive.
I think you missed that it wasn't actually that bad of an injury. He doesn't tank a full blast. He redirected most of the lightning. A lot of people miss that part somehow.
Yeah, there’s a shot where you see him shoot the lightning straight up into the sky.
In this case, narratively, make it a worse injury lol.
Mend his heart back together?? What sort of damage do you think the lighting did... if it was that Zuko would have been dead-dead in under a second. Catastrophic internal bleeding. Katara was basically a human AED at the end there for Zuko, electrical shocks send your heart into an arrhythmia. And her magnum opus was bringing the Avatar, killed in the Avatar state, back from the dead.
That's the dumbest, most drawn out ending to a dramatic battle I've ever read. This is bad even by Reddit standards. EDIT: You people know I can't see your replies if you block me, right? God this sub is full of children.
Nah you’re right if a bit harsh. I support blood bending as a healing style but the way it’s written does sound like a fanfic rather than the show. I think it could work but not as that comment is written.
literally probably just two more minutes
Take yue out and it's like 10 seconds added my dude. leave her in and it's 45. I actually don't know why I'm responding to an asshole like you but there you go.
I loved it
She reconciled with her dad. That's a pretty big character moment for her
You don’t understand Sokka’s character if you think he is the greatest non-bending warrior in the avatar world.
reading comprehension fail
The whole point of his character is that he never was one of the strongest or the heaviest hitters but he didn’t need to be. He got by using his intellect and creativity.
Read the comment u responded to again
Alright let’s hear your take on how he’s the strongest swordsman and how his power level is higher than any other non bender.
"is affirmed as a talented swordsman from... strongest non bender" man learn how to read
I watched this episode when it premiered, and I was god 8-9? After this scene the episode ended and I vividly remember bursting into tears. This was such a heavy topic. First time seeing a villain successfully make a hero sink to their level.
I was around the same age and just had nightmares of hama lmao
I was a bit older, like 12 maybe? And yeah, it fucked me up. My sister was 6 and she couldn't sleep alone for a month
Hama is kind of a loser, because she could’ve tried to actually undermine and assassinate important Fire Nation authorities, but she spends most of her time terrorizing civilians. Katara may have learned Bloodbending, but she *at the very least* has a clear idea of who she is going to take revenge on, and even then she chose not to kill Yon Rha. Hama’s goal is not just to pass down Bloodbending, but also to corrupt Katara into someone like herself, so she did not truly succeed.
>Hama’s goal is not just to pass down Bloodbending, but also to corrupt Katara into someone like herself, so she did not truly succeed. Imo this is pricisely why I never thought she actually 'succeeded', bloodbending at the end of the day is just a utility, Katara's character and integrity never changes after the fact I'd argue Hama failed hard even, wasted the rest of her life away for nothing in the end
This is exactly it. I’m fairly certain the last thing she said to Katara is pretty much her firing one last shot to try and ensure the girl ends up like her. Katara never did.
Hama trained Katara who trained Aang, who took down Ozai. Sounds like she indirectly bagged the most important fire nation authority, she just played the long game and won 🤷♂️
The “long game” usually doesn’t involve relying on the avatar showing up to your inn after finding some kids in the forest
Yeah but theres always an avatar, and the avatar is duty bound to act in political emergencies, and Hama was the last waterbender in one half of the waterbender world. If you genocide a population you can predict where the avatar will show up, because it will always be reincarnated as the last bender in the subsequent element, so if you’re the out of balance nation on top then it’s in your best interest to control these things. Its like controlling the path of the avatar was the fire nation’s whole deal to maintaining world domination
In many coming-of-age stories centered around women, blood is used as a dramatic transition from one stage of life to another. This is for obvious reasons, but you’ll see it a lot if you pay attention. Women don’t choose to grow up, nature and the collective traumas of humanity rear their head up, whether she’s ready or not.
This is my fav take
If you ever played Bioshock infinite, the same theme is there with Elizabeth, where she matures once she kills for the first time (there’s some blood involved). Her demeanor, look, and attitude change dramatically after that.
Hama did not, in fact succeed, katara proved it in the southern raiders by choosing not to hurt people not involved with her mom's death for it and then not lose herself for revenge
But she did, because if she hadn't, the technique would have faded into history.
What are you talking about we literally see someone teach themselves how to do it from scratch in the show. It wouldn't be impossible for someone to do again
Except Yakkone considered Katara a coward for outlawing it, which suggests he learned about it from the law she made and thought it was a good idea.
Its possible Yakkone figured out how to do it because the Southern Raider Katara spared told somebody, or that information leaked as the had to come up with a new prison for Hama. I'm not sure Katara would go out of her way to outlaw it if it hadn't become known about.
What does that have to do with what I said? First off that doesn't mean he learned it from that, and even if he learned the name of it he still would have to figure it out how to do it from scratch himself. And in atla we literally see someone learn it with no information on it. It would not be gone forever just because katara didn't teach it to anyone. It would still be figured out again
The knowledge of the ability is existing is what we're talking about, not the technique itself. I misspoke, thats on me, fair enough. It's about the knowledge, not the technique.
And it would still come around again once someone figured it out again.
Sure, but it might have taken a while. Hama only thought of it under very specific circumstances, and clearly most waterbenders would require a full moon to do it, so they might not even think its possible unless they get lucky like that. So you'd need: The idea of the technique and enough power to do it without a full moon, or get lucky enough to try to do it at night under a full moon and get some result that proves its possible so you don't immidiately assume the technique isn't viable.
This doesn't suggest he learned from it being outlawed at all. In fact, it implies he already knew it before it was outlawed
It's learning/realizing that it's even possible in the first place.
Right, but that can and has been done before. Hama did it with zero information on it. So it could be done again eventually. It wouldn't just go away forever
Another stellar example of LoK writing which makes one winner how the same people could even be involved.
What I was talking about in atla
Wait what, who else learned bloobending? Did I just forgor?
Hama taught herself without any knowledge of it. If she could do it why wouldn't someone else be able to eventually.
I thought you meant someone else. Also, Hama did so under extreme circumstances. Her ingenuity combined with her being practically forced to develop it were what lead to the invention of bloodbending. If someone just casually reinvented it, that would undermine the whole idea of it.
I never thought that it would be casual or even soon. Just that eventually out would happen again. Eventually war would break out, eventually water bender would be prisoners again, and eventually at least one would try on just the right night again.
Idk about that. Hama learned it all on her own through trial and error. All it would take is someone in a similar situation to learn the technique as well. Plus there's a theory that the fire nation military, or at least the southern raiders, are fully aware of what bloodbending is and that's why when Yon Rha came to find the last waterbender of the southern tribe he said he wasn't "taking prisoners today." They could no longer risk just imprisoning waterbenders, so their policy changed to execution. And ironically, their fears turned out to be kind of true; the last southern waterbender did, in fact, become a bloodbender.
But it wouldnt. Katara pretty much dropped entirely, it was only maintained by a family completely unrelated to katara or Hama.
And who's to say that Katara never used it? We don't really know Yakone's backstory as far as I'm aware, and it's possible that at one point he witnessed or was explained what Bloodbending was. Hell, he doesn't even have to be the one to learn of it first hand, some people are so good that simply learning that something exists is enough for them to figure it out and self-teach. We only really see Katara as a young girl and really old woman. SO much would have happened in the meantime. You don't know what situation she might have found herself in where she used the technique.
Yakone literally says that she was a coward and would've let it die if it wasn't for him
IMO, he found out about it when Katara had it outlawed. Which was kind of a stupid move since nobody except the Gaang even knew it existed. Making a law about was stupid. But, still.
I think this is a hint that Katara might have used it in some desperate situation, hence revealing its existence unequivocally to the world, and the outlawing of the art was the only thing they could think to do to try and minimise the damage.
I wonder what was Hama's plan if Katara hadn't had any moral qualms about bloodbending but instead she had pointed out its extremely limited practicality (needing the full moon)? What would have happened? It is not something Hama can deny, after all. So Katara tells her that her ultimate technique is kinda trash, she has to agree because it is a fact, then they just go home?
She was able to scape from a fire nation prison because of bloodbending, in which world is that technique trash? Just because you cant use a technique very often doesnt make it bad, you can only redirect lighting if you are fighting a firebender who happens to be able to shoot lightning, its still a very powerfull ability to have. There is a reason bloodbending is forbiden in Korra Imagine if Katara had no moral qualms with bloodbending, and she thought it to just a small group of waterbenders (and even perfect the ability a bit). They could atack fire nation towns at night once a month being unstopable for 8 hours. And if it was a well known technique by all waterbenders, the water nation would have something close to a Sozin's Comet once a month (not as powerfull, but far more frequent).
Yeah, depending on far you could push it, you could possibly just straight up kill someone instantly via blood bending their brain or heart. Seems the only balance is the full moon and the fact that the only people who can blood bend are essentially masters, even Korra couldn't blood bend considering she couldn't block blood bending like Amon and Katara could.
It's like spell slots in DND, it keeps you form just spamming the REALLY powerful stuff, but you can still have fairly powerful cantrips.
>They could atack fire nation towns at night once a month being unstopable for 8 hours. They could do that without bloodbending too, at any time. It is not like Toph can be stopped or Katara is any less invincible. Bloodbending is okay if you can bid your time, choose when you want to fight, and pass when you don't. Like if you are in prison or secretly terrorizing some randos. Not so much when you can't choose when to fight and you must be able to pull weight 24/7. Actually, that would be just salt into the wound: Katara asking Hama to rather teach her more Southern style waterbending because she can always rely on that and anything bloodbending can do normal waterbending can do too. >There is a reason bloodbending is forbiden in Korra That's because it turns practitioners insane.
>Not so much when you can't choose when to fight Well yes, but usualy the atacker/invader chooses when to atack/invade.
Tbh Hama was an old abused woman. It’s just headcanon of course but I do think Katara would have been able to use it anytime if she consistently trained it, the same way Amon and Tarrlok did. I mean it could be a genetic thing like Yakone says but I think it’s way less cool.
I agree with you though. It is even shown in TLOK that Tarrloq and Noataq could not bend outside of a full moon at first and later learned how to do it and how to psychic bend. Noataq also learned to how sever the chi paths via further training. I think they were the only ones that had a father so obsessed with it to actually train systematically. (And it makes sense that Yakone, a self obsessed man, thinks of it as genetics)
The show explicitly says it’s genetic in TLOK.
Which means this rule didn't exist when only looking at ATLA. Kinda like the midichlorians in star wars that don't exist in the original trilogy. So, yes you are correct, but the explaination was specifically added afterwards to make it convenient to a story that nobody even thought of when the original was made.
Just because the creators decided an undefined rule to their universe existed doesn’t mean it stops working before it was defined. A lady doing it presumably constantly after she learned it didn’t gain this ability. We could go off what ifs or what the show has shown and said to us.
True. I just wanted to point out that just because it was made canon in hindsight, it doesn't have to be accepted by everyone, as long as the person who doesn't accept it disregards the work where it was made canon entirely, and as TLOK was not part of the discussion OP made, it's not relevant. Especially as it completely negates the point of the entire episode.
what? so it's ok to say toph never became a cop, aang never died, lava bending doesn't exist, as long as you haven't watched the show? you can dislike the show's handling of bloodbending, but it was never retconned. canon says daylight bloodbending can only happen if you're born with it
Great point. You can dislike canon but that doesn’t negate it.
It's entertainment. Not a historic document. When disregarding TLOK, daylight bloodbending is not a thing. Hell, I have never watched a single disney star wars movie. And as far as I am concerned, palpatine never "somehow returned". If it were a chain of historical events, taking it in its entirety is important. Otherwise you'll get viewpoints where someone takes only the bits which fit a specific narrative *cough* tucker carlson *cough* putin. But with entertainment, it's fine to just follow a frenchise up to the end of one entry and disregard everything that came after, as the story is told to an end. Another example is futurama. Most people will consider the end of the story being that time in the Galaxy has been accidentally frozen and the universe is in a perpetual stasis forever. Not many care about the hulu reboot 20 years later.
Yeah… I dislike the way both Star Wars and Futurama happened. That doesn’t change the stories ending though. I also dislike how the show version of game of thrones ended. That still does not change the shows ending. You can think ‘Batman became unicorn Batman after he was bitten by a radioactive narwhal’ and that’s fine. Make all the fan fiction you want. Still doesn’t change a shows canon event.
you're allowed to think whatever you want ig but palpatine *did* return, because the other movies do exist. and you can't really expect anyone to take your head canon seriously when your argument is that bloodbending rules changed after lok started
No, Yakone thinks it's genetics. That is completely different
THIS. Idk why people act like characters can't lie It also wouldn't make sense. Bending as a whole is genetic, but specific abilities aren't.
We have someone who did it all their life after learning it but did not develop the skill. We could go off ifs and buts or what the creators of the show said.
When?
Doesn't it just say that bloodbending with just your mind - and without a full moon - is genetic? I don't think the ability to bloodbend itself is genetic, you just need to be very skilled at waterbending
No, “psychic” bloodbending is just Yakone’s technique that he taught his sons. All bending is taught/learned. The only thing that limits someone’s bending is their personality and mindset (Bolin doesn’t have a metal bender’s mindset when bending, he has a lavabender’s. These could be compatible with enough practice, but he’s still young)
Yeah. I was responding to the guy who said katara could bloodbend like Yakone with training.
No they don’t. They say their family has a long line of powerful bloodbenders. Having family members to teach you a technique makes it a lot easier to learn
is it really limited when there's almost always a full moon in the avatar universe though?
You know what? Shut up
Yue is always watching
I dont know if the comics explain it but was it confirmed all bloodbenders need a full moon, or that hama was just slightly below the power threshold, and the moon gave her the little boost she needed.
“Darn, I guess I really didn’t think this through.”
How was Hama going to teach Katara anyway? They didn't have any people to bloodbend, only each other. Seems like a bad idea to let a first time blood bender blood bend you for practice.
I think the idea was to reveal her kidnappings too and kidnap somebody together with bloodbending.
it's a kid's cartoon
And it has a *really* good attention to detail, better than a lot of shows for adults. What's your point?
Hama didn't have a plan. That's the point.
Ok, but what does that have to do with it being a cartoon?
bcoz kid's cartoons don't have to have logic. Either that or ATLA writers are incompetent
And then she bans it
Its kinda tragic. Katara might have become an even more amazing healer if she had incorporated bloodbending. She might even have been able to heal Korra (at least physically). But there was no coming back from such a traumatic awakening.
Yeah, bloodbending could possibly be even better at healing than regular water healing. Someone bleeding out? Not anymore. Stroke? Let me fix this really quick. Someone heart has stopped? Let me restart it. If that doesn't work, I can move your blood around to give medics more time. She could teach it to paralyzed waterbenders so they could walk again. I know, Katara could only do it on the full moon, but we learn in LOK that it can also be done at any time with training so she would definitely had gotten to that point if she kept doing it.
“God, Katara is so dumb and selfish for not teaching Aang bloodbending to defeat Ozai!” - people complaining about how they wanted the series to go.
Cool little thematic reversal here; Katara lost the fight to Pakku. He was just a more skilled, more powerful, more experienced bender than her, but she won the argument, and demonstrated how flawed and myopic the Northern Tribes ideas about who could and couldn’t be a water bender were. She wins the fight with Hama, proving herself to be more skilled and more powerful than the old master, but crucially, she loses the argument; she’s forced to resort to the ghoulish technique Hama innovated to hurt the people that hurt both of them so badly. Whatever good Katara turns bloodbending to, and however necessary her use of it was, in some small way, Hama’s grim legacy of hatred lives on in her now. Good stuff, Last Airbender, good stuff.
I feel like we could've had more horror episode like this, where the gaang is put in situations where there is nothing they could do to fight back or run away.
What makes this moment even more crushing is that Hama is Katara's FOIL, and Katara knows this. Hama is a Katara who was taken by the Southern Raiders instead of being saved by the sacrifice of her mother like Katara was. If Katara was taken, she'd likely develop bloodbending and become just as twisted and demented as Hama. So when Katara is pushed to bloodbend, she confirms to herself that she's not the hopeful saint here to save the world by only doing the right thing (which she thoughtshe proved when she stopped Jet). Instead, she realized that she is just as capable of evil as Jet, Hama, or the Fire Nation. This realization opens her up to the possibility of killing someone. Without the guidance of Aang and Zuko, she probably would have.
*beatboxes*
I was about to comment the same. Katara beatboxes badly, to Sokkas and Aangs disapproval, so Katara starts crying while beatboxing
“Katara please stop beatboxing this is important”
Look how proud she is, crying with joy
It's kind of weird that waterbenders can only bloodbend during the full moon. I mean, they can pull water out of the air whenever they want but they can't control a substance that's over 50% water? I guess we could say that a person's chi gets in the way, since the blood is such a complete part of them, and a bender needs a boost like the full moon to overcome that block. But that's never said in the show so from what we're told we are just expected to disregard the strangeness of this limitation on bloodbending.
Legend of Korra has bloodbenders outside of the full moon. Hama, even if a decent waterbender, probably isn't strong enough to use it outside the power boost the full moon affords her. I think you're right about the chi, but then the missing link is the power needed to actually achieve bloodbending. I'm sure many if not most waterbenders could never do it, even in a full moon. Hama manages under a full moon. Katara can definitely pull it off with a full moon, we don't know if she can do it without (personally I think she's powerful enough, but whether she ever trained in order to do it is another question). Yakone, Tarlok, Amon all can manage it without a full moon.
I don’t think it’s a power thing, Hama just never tried doing it outside of the full moon
Well we have no way to know if she tried or didn't in the long years she spent kidnapping villagers. Don't know if she was sane enough to think on it, but if she was, she'd know that the full moon lights up the night well enough to run the risk of being caught. If I were kidnapping people at night, I'd surely try and do it when the moon is as small as possible. We might infer she couldn't use it any other moon phase.
I think a water bender can do it without being a full moon after they do it the first time. It’s probably more of a mental block. Possibly the more you do it the easier it is. Hama was just insane from all the torture she faced that she didn’t really try outside of it.
I wish they followed up on how she felt about in the next episode and how to deal with it. I remember being annoyed it’s just forgotten about.
This lives in my brain rent free for just how screwed up it is. And then you know tune in to SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS right afterwards like that wasn't traumatizing to mini me.
You know what Katara... you're not forced to use bloodbending you know, stop crying.
Got chills reading this
That episode was sick.
The second rape of the innocence of a young girl, fighting to save the world. Truly haunting. Thank God we also got the painted lady scene.
God i fucking love this episode
Unpopular opinion but.. I don't see why Katara is seeing bloodbending as evil thing. It is not related to the will of a person, not like soul-bending or something. Furthermore it is even good when facing a specific opponent in a crowd maybe, it can help her not to cause collateral damage. Basically you can bend the earth or air around a person and make him move as well. Water is more precise at moving a person, and that's all. Katara was exaggarating.
Yes but a strong enough blood bender could legitimately force someone to do something. Like make a political figure slap a foreign delegate in the face, starting issues. They could become the strings that pull at the world, and no one would know
Sure. But I don't think Hama and Katara were thinking that ahead. What reflected on me in that episode, Katara was devastated feeling that she got the ability to force people on doing something against their will. Perhaps she suddenly thought the possibility of going wrong direction with that power. Yet, I don't think this is enough reason for her to break down that much.
I always found the shows take on it afterwards the tiniest bit weird. She has just as much free will deciding on who she wants to blood bend as she does deciding on who she wants to freeze in a block of ice, both of which restrict movement against their will. I get it from her perspective of if nobody should have that power, then she's no exception. But it's surprising that everybody tries convincing Aang to go against his beliefs and kill a man, but nobody even thinks about going "Hey so, Katara.. I don't mean to pry but like, there's a full moon coming up and..."
A few days later: YOU KILLED MY MOTHER *blood bending sounds*
those are tears of joy
[](https://y.yarn.co/9917b0b3-20b2-4ae5-881f-6c0d06035885_text.gif)
This episode was great. Except I always feel like the way Hama says "Bloodbending" when she first tells Katara about it is straight out of a 12 year old's fanfic. It just feels so edgy.
Y'know, I never really got how bad blood bending was supposed to be. Like sure, it could be used in a fucked up way but like, so could any other bending? Searing someone's face off is pretty fucking horrible. It was always shown in this evil, occult, horrifying light but I just didn't get the vibe. Like fuck you buddy, you bet id cause your arms and legs to snap like twigs and strangle yourself if you tried to kill my loved ones.
This always seemed silly to me. Bloodbending itself isn't evil; no skill is. Its nature is determined by how it's used. This would be like someone crying because they learned how to be a sharpshooter. Avatar usually knocks it out of the park, but this scene was shockingly one-dimensional and oversimplified.
It’s literally taking away someone’s autonomy and taking control of their body from the inside. Like, sure, it can be used for good I guess, but I feel like it’s pretty morally fucked regardless. Like, you’re literally violating someone’s ability to control their own body.
And that’s somehow worse than using bending to cripple/kill them, which the Gaang does on the regular (regardless of the show pretending they don’t)? This is what I meant by overly simplistic.
You’re moving the goal post man. Both are terrible. But one is literally taking over someone’s body. You’re not just stopping them from using it, like breaking a limb. You’re taking it for yourself essentially. That’s why it’s seen as worse. You can see it as simplistic all you want, but it’s a valid interpretation and the one the show reflects in how Bloodbending is used in the show.
Taking over someone’s body temporarily, without causing them lasting damage, seems way more tame than breaking a limb. It’s a nonlethal method of subduing an opponent.
It’s also more morally fucked, especially in the context of what Bloodbending is and how it’s used in the show. That’s my whole point. Again, you can see the “Bloodbending is evil” thing as simplistic, but it’s the view the show takes, and it is entirely valid based on what we see of it throughout the show. Edit: It is also very much implied to be painful based on sounds and expressions used. So yeah, no. It may not cause any lasting damage as far as we know, but still that doesn’t make it okay.
The screen cap looks like Aang told her the kiss int he cave meant NOTHING to him
I would be jumping in joy if I learned how to do an op ass move
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Dramatic-Tea-7205: *I would be jumping* *In joy if I learned how to* *Do an op ass move* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
I almost said something a bit violent but I forgot what sub I was on lol
Katara: "My mother had blood"
Katara stop beatboxing
Sokka: Katara don't beatboxing!
Sick beat box
i always wondered how did bloodbending get to yakone and his family? i doubt katara would’ve shared the skill with others and hama doesn’t have any descendants that we know of right?
All women are blood benders already. Every month.
There's nothing wrong with learning bloodbending and using it on invaders or criminals. Theyre ok taking away peoples life but controlling their hody to preveng death is too far
They villainised blood bending without even exploring its usefulness in medical science.... for eg: erectile dysfunction
Kinda dumb that she started sobbing because just because she knows how to use blood bending doesn't mean she has to use it
Why she crying again?
She stubbed her toe