Water Bending
Waterbending is a mystical martial art; a moiety of the Water Tribe, Waterbenders, as the practitioners are known, possess the hydrokinetic ability to control water, steam and ice. The people of the Water Tribe first learned Waterbending by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides of the ocean. They then learned how to do it themselves. According to the episode "The Waterbending Scroll," the word 'waterbending' is written in Chinese as 截水神功, which is best translated as "The Divine Ability to Halt Water".
Waterbending is based on the style of Tai Chi, which is a martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water. Waterbending's strength is its defensive capabilities. Unlike some other bending disciplines, Waterbending's defensive maneuvers focus on control through turning an opponent's own strength against him, rather than directly harming the opponent. There are three known styles of Waterbending that have been shown in the series to date: Northern, Southern, and Foggy Swamp style. Others may be revealed as the series progresses.
According to Iroh, water is the element of change. Waterbending provides a versatility of experience. The extent of the Waterbenders' power ranges from creating small, lashing whips and waves to massive tsunamis and walls of water. Waterbenders also possess thermokinetic abilities regarding their element, meaning that they can freeze, melt, evaporate or condense the water they manipulate at will. Changing the phase of water allows for multiple techniques in the course of a battle, from encasing an opponent in ice to hiding behind a wall of mist. Waterbenders are also able to manipulate water pressure, allowing for techniques such as grabbing things and cutting through objects. One high-level move suitable for a powerful Waterbender involves engendering and riding within a whirlpool-like pillar of water, nicknamed the "Water Snake", in accordance to the waterspout's constantly shifting and coiling movements.
Waterbending is the opposing bending art to Firebending. Like all the bending arts, Waterbending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory. So far, the only times a weapon has been used with Waterbending is when Avatar Kyoshi uses her fans to create a wave in "Avatar Day," and in "The Earth King," when Aang used his staff to freeze water. It has been stated that, given their almost "Samurai-like" cutting techniques, a katana or a cane sword would be the best weapon suited for a Waterbender.
A member of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, Huu, has illustrated that Waterbenders can manipulate the vines and roots of plants by bending the ample amount of water within them. Going further, a skilled Waterbender is able to extract the water from plants for more effective utilization, albeit leaving behind withered, dead remains of the former plant life.
The highest skill levels of Waterbending include the most powerful technique among all four Bending Arts, Bloodbending. The technique is only possible under the power of the full moon, when a Waterbender's power is at his or her peak. At close range, an expert Waterbender literally uses an opponent's body against him or her by harnessing the ample amount of water within the human body to control his or her opponent like a puppet. Hama, an arrested member of the Southern Water Tribe was the one to discover and dub this "bloodbending" technique through experimenting with rats during her years of confinement. She was the only known possessor of this ability until she forcibly passed it on to Katara.
Each of the four bending disciplines contain a special sub-skill unique only to certain members of each element. Waterbenders in particular possess the ability to heal wounds and relieve sickness by redirecting chi paths throughout the body, using water as a catalyst. Physically, this draws on the restorative properties of water to organisms such as human beings that are primarily composed of it. Though powerful, Waterbending healing cannot heal every ailment---for example, Jet's internal wound or the complications associated with Princess Yue's birth. In the Northern Water Tribe, due to the traditionally patriarchal culture of the tribe, healing is the only aspect of Waterbending taught to female Waterbenders, with classes assigned for young girls held in huts towards the development of the ability.
Earth Bending
Earthbending is a mystical martial art; a moiety of the Earth Kingdom, Earthbenders, as the practitioners are known, are heirs to the terrakinetic ability to control earth. Humans first learned earthbending by observing and imitating the geokinetic powers of badgermoles that inhabit the mountains in what is now Earth Kingdom territory. According to legend, known widely as "The Legend of the Two Lovers," two star-crossed lovers named Oma and Shu, who came from separate villages that were at war against one another, learned the art to meet within the mountain that divided them. To make sure that no one could ever find them, they used their new abilities, which they learned from the badgermoles, to create a labyrinth of tunnels inside the mountain where they knew only they could find their way to one another. One day, after many meetings in the series of passageways, the man did not come to see his lover, as he had died, a casualty of the villages' quarrel. His lover showcased a devastating assault of her powers and ultimately proclaimed the feud over. The villages then collaborated to construct a city, Omashu, in their honor. The pathways they made by earthbending became known as "The Cave of Two Lovers."'Earthbending' is written as 運土術 which in literal terms actually means 'move earth art' in Chinese.
Earthbending is generally based on the Hung Gar style of Kung Fu, which features heavily rooted stances and strong kicks and punches that evoke the mass and power of earth. The martial art is based on the movements of animals, including the tiger, which represents Hard Power; utilized when initiating hard blows, and the crane, which embodies Soft Power; used to guide more graceful attacks and to land gently back on the Earth. There are exceptions to this facet, as the blind Earthbender, Toph, uses a style based on Southern Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Unlike other bending disciplines, earthbending maintains a balance between offensive and defensive capabilities.
Earthbenders use a balance of strength and defense to overwhelm opponents. Common attacks involve levitating nearby earth and stone, and propelling them at foes by way of a punching or kicking motion. A levitated slab of rock can also double as a shield when positioned in front of a bender. Striking the ground with feet, fists, or hammers creates localized earthquakes or fissures to throw opponents off-balance. Earthbending Masters can turn the ground to quicksand to immobilize an enemy, or catapult into the air and soften the earth and ensure a safe landing. Some can tunnel through the earth to out-maneuver their foes. They are typically barefoot, presumably to increase their connection with the earth. Earthbenders have been shown to use hammers and fans to augment their bending, and it has been stated that the Chinese great sword Dadao (heavy war sword, or literally "big knife") would also be best suited for a strong Earthbender. Aang has also demonstrated earthbending by in conjunction with his Glider Staff. Some Earthbenders, can go as far as to engender makeshift armor out of Earth. An Avatar can move hill size statues at will and even fracture landmasses, as demonstrated by Avatar Kyoshi during the creation of Kyoshi Island.
The principle of Jing is the essence of battle strategy, with a total of 85 possible actions. Positive Jing occurs when one chooses to fight while negative Jing is when one chooses to evade. The Earthbending discipline stresses Neutral Jing, which involves listening, waiting, and attacking at the right moment. Earthbending is not limited to rock or soil alone. An Earthbender additionally can manipulate other earth-based substances including coal, sand, and crystals. Bending earthly substances originating from outer space, such as meteorites, is also within the scope of an Earthbenders' ability. Earthbenders also possess limited magnetic capabilities, allowing them to grasp vertical surfaces and cling unsupported to earthen structures. Furthermore, Earthbenders with an especially strong awareness for earth, such as Toph, can also bend metal, as it still contains minute amounts of some unrefined earth. Her "sight" enables her to locate and target the small earth fragments that would go undetected by even the best Earthbenders.
Earthbending is the opposing bending art to Airbending. When first learning to Earthbend, the pupil must first learn confrontational tactics and familiarity with the brute strength necessary to work with earth. This contrasts with the emphasis of Airbenders on mobility and evasion. Like all of the bending arts, Earthbending is balanced so as not to be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory.
Sandbenders are Earthbenders who have adapted to live in the Si Wong Desert. They utilize earthbending in a specialized style, which emphasizes the manipulation of sand. They can move quickly in the desert on specialized wooden catamaran sailers that are propelled by bending miniature, localized sandstorms behind their sails. Because sand is sediment which travels in flows, their style resembles air- and waterbending more than earthbending. It is displayed that most, if not all, Earthbenders are capable of easily bending sand, though the Sandbenders of the Desert are especially proficient with it due to their particular habitat.
Metalbending is first hinted at by Aang when he sarcastically states "What I'd give to be a Metalbender," as he labors to make an indentation in the giant Fire Nation drill with Waterbending. The inability to bend metal is first demonstrated in Imprisoned when Earthbender prisoners, taken captive by the Fire Nation, are brought to a completely metal rig in the middle of the ocean. The Earthbenders' helplessness due to their situation is repeatedly stressed. Metalbending is a skill that, as of the end of Book 2: Earth, only Toph possesses. Most Earthbenders are unable to affect processed metals. Usually, the trace amount of earth still present in metal is so minute that it goes undetected even to the best Earthbenders. However, due to her ability to "see" earth, Toph is able to locate the small fragments of earth in metal, target them, and utilize them to "bend" the metal portion.
After being separated from the others by a letter presumably sent by her mother, Toph is captured in a metal cage by Xin Fu and her former teacher, Master Yu. During the next episode, "The Guru," she tries desperately to break the cage until one of her captors boasts that, even if she was the best Earthbender alive, it is impossible to bend metal. It is at that exact moment that Guru Pathik is explaining to Aang about the light chakra and how it is blocked by illusion. He goes on to explain that it is an illusion that the four nations are different, or that air is any different from earth, and also how even metal ultimately is simply just earth that has been purified and refined. Toph realizes this herself and starts meditating on her cage trying to feel the vibrations of the trace amounts of earth in the metal. She then utilizes these traces of earth to escape and trap her captors within the cage.
In theory, if a metal object were smithed in such a way that it contained few enough impurities, Toph would not be able to bend it. For instance, in the episode "The Day of Black Sun Part 2: The Eclipse," Toph can be seen testing the metal door guarding the entrance to the Firelord's underground bunker. Toph knocks on the metal and listens to the resultant sound, testing its composition based on the vibrations it makes. She then states that the door is "Not a problem," and proceeds to bend it apart. Such dialog implies that purer metals lacking significant earth content cannot be bended.
Firebending
Firebending is a term for a mystical martial art; a moiety of the Fire Nation, Firebenders, as its practitioners are known, are heirs to the pyrokinetic ability to create and control fire. An exclusive few also possess the ability to generate and manipulate lightning. Based on the Chinese text of Jeong Jeong's wanted poster, the word "Firebending" is written as 制火朮, roughly translated as "The Method of Controlling Fire." Although it has not been revealed as to what originally led the first Firebenders to learn the power to manipulate fire, the rogue Firebending Master Jeong Jeong stated that the sun is the greatest source of fire in the world, hinting that Firebenders learned Firebending from the sun, as the Waterbenders, the opposing Bending art, learned from the moon. A solar eclipse has the potential to completely negate a Firebender's power, revealing a direct connection between the sun and a Firebenders power. Additionally, while battling with Katara during The Siege of the North, Zuko stated that "you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun," further emphasizing the sun's importance to Firebending.
Firebending moves are based mainly on the style of Northern Shaolin kung fu, but with a few techniques from Northern Seven Star Praying Mantis. These martial arts feature quick, successive, ferocious attacks that evoke the uncompromising danger of fire, best suited for a practitioner with high quality agility, flexibility, speed and endurance. Unlike other bending disciplines, firebending has few defensive moves aside from blocking and dodging, although master Firebenders are shown to be able to create walls of fire to absorb incoming attacks.
Firebending is the most aggressive of the four bending arts. Firebenders use concentrated barrages of fire to overwhelm opponents before striking a fatal blow. Swift, whirling kicks and punches generate diverse shapes for offensive attacks. Jabs and punches produce miniature fireballs and bursts of flame, while spinning kicks create blazing rings and arcs. When multiple Firebenders attack in tandem, their combined energy enables them to produce missiles of flame that can travel long distances. Various other moves include shooting jets of fire from the fingertips, creating daggers of flame, fiery lashes, and creating whirling discs and pinwheels of flame. Avatar-level Firebenders are capable of erupting volcanoes at will and manipulating lava. Firebenders are also enabled to manipulate heat and thermal energy. Firebenders use their internal body heat as a source of their bending to create fire. This facet is in sharp contrast to the other bending arts, which manipulate already present representations of their element but they are capable of manipulating existing flames in The Beach.
Firebenders can control the intensity of their bending, reflected in the color of the flames. Master Firebenders are skilled enough to create highly-efficient flames that look blue or light blue, with red and orange flames representing lesser forms of Firebending. So far, only Azula has demonstrated blue and light blue firebending (not to be confused with lightning). After contact with flammable items, blue fire reverts to a less intense state and changes to a red and orange color as it begins to cool down and burn normally. Blue fire also seems to possess more physical force and produce a concussive effect not seen with normal fire, able to pulverize and break solid rock and throw people off their feet. Firebending is the opposing bending art to Waterbending. Like all of the bending arts, Firebending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory. Firebenders sometimes incorporate weapons into Firebending, as shown by Zuko's utilization of Firebending in conjunction with his broad swords. It is unknown what, if any, other weapons can be used with firebending.
Blue firebending is a powerful and advanced technique. As of yet, it has been expressed solely by the prodigious Princess Azula. Blue fire naturally appears to be much hotter than the normal red and orange flames the bending art normally produces, and carries with it a concussive force. With blue fire, a Firebender is able to pulverize solid rock with compact fireballs and can cleanly slice or pierce through various other solid objects with fiery wisps.
Resembling a dragon breathing out flames, the breath of fire is a technique that involves the user firebending out of his or her mouth. The breath of fire has been exhibited by multiple individuals, including Fire Lord Ozai, Iroh, Prince Zuko, and Aang while in the Avatar State within a dream. It was the employment of this firebending style in the midst of battle that earned war veteran Iroh his nickname, "The Dragon of the West," and it is alluded that it was from his uncle where Zuko learned how to use his own breath of fire. With its wide, encompassing range of fire, the technique allows for staving off multiple opponents and is also shown to be able to instantaneously warm the body even under extremely cold temperatures. According to director audio commentary, the "breath of fire" is inspired by an actual Kundalini yoga move called Agni-Prasana, where the oxygen is pulled in and pumped out very rhythmically like pumping bellows. The process is powered by abdominal contractions and used to cleanse and energize the body.
A unique ability to use firebending to super-heat the air around oneself and produce situated explosions, as demonstrated by the Combustion Man. The assassin goes about this by focusing the energy stored within his abdomen and then releasing it from his tattooed third eye. Extremely effective as it is destructive, the long-ranged technique is shown to be able to completely disintegrate hill-sized boulders and instantaneously evaporate large amounts of water with ease. However, the technique has the potential to be just as hazardous to the user as it can be to their surroundings, as the Combustion Man blew off his own right arm and leg due to his initial lack of control over the newly discovered ability in his youth.
Each of the four bending disciplines contain a special sub-skill unique only to certain members of each element. Also known as "the cold-blooded fire", certain powerful Firebenders are able to generate and manipulate lightning. Mentally, it involves a complete absence of emotion and peace of mind, and physically it requires separating the energies of yin and yang, which in turn is almost identical to forcible separation of positive and negative electric charges necessary for the formation of real-life lightning. When the forces collide, the bender only guides, rather than controls, the lightning's direction. Because of this complexity, a lightning attack takes much longer to initiate than standard fire attacks. Re-directing lightning was first demonstrated by Iroh in "The Storm," and eventually creating lightning was first demonstrated by Azula in "The Avatar State."
Generating lightning involves a circular motion with the arms and only a select few possess the ability to invoke its power. So far the only Firebenders in the series who have demonstrated the ability to actively generate lightning are Azula, Ozai and Iroh. Most notably, Iroh, with a technique developed after observing the energy re-directing techniques of waterbending, is able to redirect the course of lightning strikes by absorbing the bolt through one arm, guiding it through his stomach, and out his other arm. Zuko has expressed a desire to learn these abilities, but his emotional turmoil is preventing him from successfully creating lightning. He has, however, expressed the ability to redirect lightning, as displayed when his father fired a bolt towards him at the conclusion of the Day of Black Sun. But Ozai is very special as in he performed a complex lightning technique that released two lightning bolts at once, very quickly, signalling that not only is he accomplished firebending master, that there are other lightning attacks.
Air Bending
Airbending is a mystical martial art; as members of the Air Nomads race, Airbenders, as the practitioners are called, are heirs to the aerokinetic ability to control currents of air. Human Airbenders first learned their bending art from the Flying Bison, ancient, sacred creatures native to the Air Nomad culture. The Bison typically use their massive beaver-like tails to create gusts of wind, and as the name suggests, are able to fly without any visible means of propulsion, utilizing their wide tails to steer through air currents. In addition, it is said that the Airbenders also emulated the natural, arrow-shaped markings of the Flying Bison for their tattoos. These light blue, full body tattoos symbolize a person's mastery of the airbending discipline. On the scroll written by Sozin in "The Avatar and the Firelord," the word airbender is written as 風脅功師 (fēng xié gōng shī) which translates as 'wind coercing master.'
Airbending is based on the Ba Gua style of martial arts with a small hint of Hsing Yi, also known as "mind heart boxing." These martial arts feature swift, evasive maneuvers that evoke the intangibility and explosive power of wind, drawing energy from the center of the abdomen. Ba Gua, which utilizes circle walking, is known for its constantly circular movement, which makes it difficult for opponents to attack directly. Maneuvers employ the entire body with smooth coiling and uncoiling movements, utilizing dynamic footwork, open-hand techniques, and throws. Ba Gua, with its soft, flowing movements and method of turning an opponent's energy against him, bears some resemblance to T'ai Chi, but tends to be more spontaneous and dynamic overall. Unlike other bending disciplines, airbending lacks fatal finishing moves, being an almost entirely defensive art.
By using circular, evasive movements, Airbenders build up massive inertia; this buildup of energy is released with massive power. It also allows for wind-based counterattacks that knock opponents off-balance, mimicking the wind itself which transforms, coalesces, or disperses when coming close to being subdued. Attacks vary from simple gusts of wind to miniature tornadoes and cyclones. A common defensive tactic is to circle enemies, suddenly changing direction when attacked and deflecting as needed by throwing up gusts of air as a shield. Airbenders enhance their movement in battle, and can run swiftly by decreasing wind resistance, jump high and far by conjuring gusts of wind, slow falls by creating cushions of air, and even sprint across or up vertical surfaces by generating a wind current behind themselves. Master Airbenders can create vortices to entrap and disorient opponents, as well as massively destructive whirlwinds. Avatar-Level Airbenders can create massive tornadoes and hurricanes at will. Unlike other nations, who only rarely use weapons with their bending, Airbenders commonly use their signature staffs to focus their powers in battle. Metal fans can also be used in combination with airbending.
Airbending is the most passive of the four arts, as many of its techniques center around evading and eluding the opponent and is the opposing bending art to Earthbending. While the Airbenders avoid or deflect oncoming attacks, Earthbenders absorb them, or overwhelm them with superior force. Like all of the bending arts, Airbending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory.
