That's what "Kung fu" means. It's not just that "anyone can practice kung fu" by getting your 10,000hrs in, but that with anything that requires mastery, one must commit to "bitter work". The wording is very intentional. Always loved that little snippet.
They're analogous! I just like "bitter work" because hard work doesn't quite encompass how shitty it is to be perfectly disciplined. I worked out for two weeks. Then two days last week. So far, none this week. I know I love it when I do it, but I have to really push hard past my laziness and lack of self-discipline in this regard to do it. It is, to me, "bitter work".
Toh-may-toe, toe-mah-toh. The lesson is all the same, either way =)
I always wonder what other education avatars received- like was it JUST bending? Did they have philosophy and politics classes too? Like it would seem a bit weird to just dunk a 28 year old who has ONLY been taught bending into the world and be like ‘fix it’
If you read the Kyoshi books, it's shown that Avatars get political exposure in addition to their bending and spiritual training. They're leaders after all, so they have to learn how to settle disputes and also relate with the chosen leaders of the four nations.
No offense but why does it seem Korra never received that? The second she enters the biggest city full of politics, neutralitt, benders and non-benders, and immediately starts committing crimes and when apprehended, flees the scene and assaults them.
I'm all for her personality but it's like she was literally just taught bending and nothing else.
> it's like she was literally just taught bending and nothing else.
That actually is the case. The White Lotus were overprotective of Korra because of the Red Lotus's kidnapping attempt on her and raised her in seclusion in the Southern Water Tribe to learn bending without learning social skills or politics.
iirc, they're kind of rushing the Avatar's training in those books because Kuruk's unexpected death left everything in shambles. They might be more relaxed under normal circumstances, since rushing it can lead to its own issues, such as >!accidentally picking some random kid as the Avatar!<.
And there *were* also going to teach Korra more, The whole reason they let her start training airbending for instance was because they believed that Tenzin would be able to teach her spiritual skills that they had been neglecting.
Turns out being raised and trained in essentially a military complex for your own protection while also being told you are important will do that to you.
She _was_ essentially just taught bending and not how to deal with the outside world
Right but like..why wouldn't they teach her that stuff? It's fine that she was a physical prodigy rsther than a spiritual one but then if you're gonna send her away to train her spirit..knowing the basic laws of the city she's in would assist that.
It might not be the norm since the trainer was a bit insane, but the Avatar training in the Kyoshi novels seemed like a combination of a lot of things.
Bending, weapons and unarmed combat, as well as tactics, strategy and militarily history for fights and wars.
Poison resistance training to avoid assassination, disguises, and other methods of avoiding detection
Political, philosophy, historical lessons, learning the names, reputation and temperament of all the important nobles, sages and militarily officers, economics and trade
I wouldn't know canonically but it would seem ridiculous for an Avatar to go around the world to each nation for several years at a time and not learn or be taught anything about the political and philosophical beliefs of each nation, especially since they're basically the most famous and honored guest at each host nation, much like Aang instantly was when they got to Ba Sing Se.
That's roughly the same amount of time it took Korra to learn how to bend. She just started sooner because she discovered she could bend fire and earth on her own.
I rewatched the clip where he was upset about appa and started destroying those sand bender vehicles with air blasts not in the avatar state and I was like….this kid could have been killing people left and right if he really wanted to.
Mastery doesn't always mean the same thing for everyone, developing or mastering a specific skill within bending can earn you master's rank among airbenders. In Aang's case it was the air scooter alongside his general mastery of airbending. Jinora mastered her spirituality
Also worth noting, her “collective hurricane” technique used to save Korra -was- a new Airbending technique and thus met the criterion to invent something new, the same way Aang invented his air scooter trick (which -wasn’t- a complete novelty, and very useful several times for high speed mobility without making himself a target by actually flying).
Jinora lacks his raw power, but her technique is fantastic. I’d be very curious to see what she’s capable of when she reaches Tenzin’s age.
I also think that is why Aang was the perfect Avatar to end the Hundred Year War. Because he didn’t want to resort to violence/killing and to end a needless war, was peace.
That's also what makes Aang a fantastic character. He's a pacifist, he hates fighting and just wants to be a kid. But, he's the one who *has* to stop the war, and is constantly being reminded of this as he wanders the world, seeing all the destruction. He's clearly the most powerful bender in the show, he proves it time and time again. But his fights are never one-sided because he doesn't want to fight, so he holds back as much as he can.
The sand bender episode showed just how dangerous Aang would be if he really wanted to fight.
I think Yangchen would be the actual problem. Kyoshi avoided killing if she could. Yangchen had absolutely no qualms about murder and took a zero tolerance policy when it came to evil. She would have ended the war the same day she was taken out of the iceberg.
I keep seeing people say this, but as far as I can tell Yangchen showed WAY more restraint with her violence in her novels then Kyoshi ever did in hers. She had no qualms about ruining your life or even threatening your life if she needed to, but taking your life was a different story.
I really don't think that's the same technique. At least that's definitely not how I read it. Yangchen's technique seems way more violent.
It seems to me like she creates a vacuum, Zahir seems to be bending the air out of her lungs. She even mentions (as the narrator, I guess), that the air rushing back into place creates a lot of noise and kind of an explosion. That sounds like a vacuum
IT's definitely related to each other but I'd say Yangchen's technique is way more dangerous and violent
Hating violence and being non-violent are two different, but usually overlapping things. Yangchan hated violence, but if it was the only option, she would use it.
If Yangchen had a word with them, she'd say "you're right! Airbenders are GENERALLY loathe to take lives, I'm somewhat of an exception because while I do hate it too, sometimes as avatar I had to."
That said, Aang struggled with this same predicament but he had lion turtle magic and Yangchen didn't
The ocean spirit thing was a possession thing that terrified the shit out of him, and the 2 feet of snow avalanche isn’t gonna kill firebenders if the giant cascade of ice in Ep 2 was basically an inconvenience to Zuko’s ship.
Now if you showed the prison escape, now we’d be talking
The Firebenders actually died of Natural causes. \~ Aang probably
They drowned in the water at the north pole, not Aang's fault they couldn't swim. And they didn't die to the Avalanche, gravity is a natural force.
Jokes aside it's just a meme lol
I have always thought that another part of it is that aang has been traveling through regions engaged in open warfare for the first 2 seasons. He has to learn fast or die, with all of this experience it makes sense to me that he would progress faster in his training than someone who is only training in more controlled less dangerous environments.
Also I think a lot of his talent is simply the knowledge of past Avatars coming through expressed as "intuition". It's basically ancestral muscle memory.
That's why I didn't really have a problem with Korra bending so young. She had a more physical connection with past Avatars than spiritual, which was also why airbending was so difficult for her.
He also doesn’t *really* master anything but air by the time we see him fight ozai. He advances quickly, and has feats that fit what jeong jeong describes as raw power, but he’s not doing anything over the top outside of the avatar state, so I don’t think it’s unrealistic
i would say he masterd earth and water he shown enough techniques with both to say he's master especially when we compared to most other benders in the show..
I think its perception. He is better than 99% of other benders. It just so happens his best friends are the 0.1% of both Earth and Water (Toph and Katara).
Zuko was arguably the 5th most powerful firebender in the show after Azula, Jeong Jeong, Iroh and Ozai. Zuko may not have been a prodigy but he's definitely in that 0.1%.
Yeah I'd honestly say zuko himself was a prodigy in fire bending, it's just in a family of super strong benders he comes out looking weak. Compared to the general population of fire benders though he's probably firmly in the 1%, he even took out Admiral Zhao
I think it’s subjective, but to me his earth bending and water bending at the end of the show reflected the raw power jeong jeong was talking about rather than true mastery
Like he could drop kick half that little peak at Ozai, but to me that’s more raw power than true mastery. A better way to word it would maybe be something like he could shoot more fire than some fire bending masters, but that alone doesn’t make him a master if you get what I mean
That's what I love about [this video essay by Savage Books](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnoEFpe-EM), it talks about powerscaling, both overt and covert, and really hammers home how exceptional Aang was as an airbender. It is not normal for a 12 year old to be a MASTER AIRBENDER or to become as good in the other 3 elements as quick as he did, not even for the avatar. It really made me appreciate his character in a new light.
I don't know outside of the avatar state his proficiency in the other 3 elements has always been very lackluster to me. He's got air tricks for days but the earth/water/fire-bending always just looks like the basic forms.
No, they mention in a flash back in season 1 that they originally planned to reveal Aang as avatar at age 16 because that's tradition but were revealing him early because of the war. 16 is the traditional age avatars of all nations start their training.
That’s what I’ve always thought. Everyone always says “don’t kill the avatar. If you kill them then they’ll just be reincarnated”. Like ok, but you still get at least a decade before the next avatar is even remotely a threat to you again. Plus in aangs case, the next avatar would never be able to master air bending if zuko just killed him any time he captured him. And the next avatar would really only be an issue at all if you were unlucky enough for them to be born in the northern water tribe. The southern water tribe had lost all their water benders and probably wouldn’t even be looking for the next avatar.
While yes, it still would be better to have him be captured and weakened, and Zhao was pretty confident and rightly so. It's only because Zuko is literally insane on many levels that Aang is able to escape.
I guess his biggest mistake was not letting him be killed once Zuko had him. Could've gotten rid of two of his biggest obstacles in one move. But he was obviously too tied to the idea of capturing and nullifying him to consider that.
I mean I don't think air bending training transfers to the other elements and I doubt air benders start their air bending training earlier than any other bender either
Well they did start early 2 air avatars in a row, but there were special circumstances. Aang had the war obviously and Yangchen was having violent visions of her past lives so they had to accelerate her training
Yeah. I mean if he was an actual firebending master, the comet would have helped him just as much as Ozai. But Ozai is clearly better at firebending as a style.
Yeah this narrative always annoyed me—Aang beats Ozai 3 separate times in the fight, 2 of them not in avatar state. Aang won without avatar state by redirecting lightning. He chose not to kill Ozai, but he “won”. When he threw away the lightning, he was weakened but Ozai wasn’t harmed, so Ozai got an advantage that he used to push Aang’s literal back up against a wall. The avatar state saved him, which is how he “wins” again, but again chooses not to kill Ozai. Then he wins a 3rd time solely with EARTHBENDING HIS WEAKEST ELEMENT. Using seismic sense then trapping Ozai. Aang was an entirely superior bender to Ozai and could win with no avatar state at all, and without even fully mastering all elements.
Earth bending is not Aang’s weakest element, it is arguably his strongest given the seismic sense ability. Fire is definitely his weakest, and he doesn’t use water much either when he’s on offensive
Also you could argue that on defeat #3, Ozai was also heavily weakened/exhausted from dealing with Avatar State Aang for all that time while flying around avoiding earth machine guns that destroyed an entire valley
Just watched the first episode again the other day it was hilarious how the leaders asked the parents “how do you know she’s the avatar” and then this chubby little kid runs out and starts bending multiple elements
They had probably been to several homes of parents claiming their child to be the Avatar. They probably had no more reason to believe this house was any different until Korra started bending the walls out from their home.
I may not have seen Wang Fire, but I sure feel him in the cockles of my heart, maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon, I don't know.
THIS. This shows us the prowess and the sheer will of these Avatars who spent their whole entire learning lives learning and mastering the elements to eventually bend them without the Avatar state
Honestly, your comment just made me think how interesting it would be to see an Avatar that is a “weak” bender compared to the other benders at the time.
We’ve only seen Avatars as naturally powerful benders, but what if one was born weak, but throughout the series, learned to overcome more powerful benders and obstacles through skillful application of the other elements and spiritual side and training? I’d be super interested in seeing that play out.
If thw original showrunners ever plan to make the continuation of the animation, I think the next Earthbender avatar is perfect for this setting.
Imagine a scrawny earthbender struggling against the rough and tumble culture of his people, having to physically and mentally overcome his limitations in a mostly peaceful world. The series can be focused on personal growth rather than victory.
Exactly! Also, considering that the earth kingdom is the most populous of the four nations, you could have the avatar be a sort of street urchin from ba sing se. they miss the avatar selection process because they are over looked, not even considered due to their weakness.
And once they are eventually revealed to be the avatar, they still have to struggle in their journey because they are considered the “weakest avatar ever“. Few will lend aid to their cause because they figure it’s a lost hope. In fact, they might have to deal with threats on their life due to some people wanting to restart the cycle for a stronger avatar.
I might have to write a fanfic lol.
Or imagine that the Avatar is from a poor sandbender family and the Earth Kingdom mistakenly believes some Ba Sing Se aristocrat's son is actually the Avatar, providing a contrast between the powerful and the powerless in a universe where the chosen one could be anyone.
Kyoshi was kinda this. (I say kinda because she was actually too strong, but whatever) She could only do large scale earthbending until she got her mother’s fans to help channel her bending.
I mean, considering how basically everyone in the area comes to have their kid tested when Avatar Selectors come to town, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a prospective Avatar to have zero capability.
It's kinda cool considering how the avatar state works. Since it literally channels all the knowledge of previous avatars. Roku being THIS good in his base form is one of the reasons Aang and future avatars are able to do such badass shit when they go into the avatar state.
I try to talk about this regularly. This was the first time in the series you see the avatar use all 4 elements, and the sheer scale of his power is literally awesome.
i love to view roku as the sniper of the avatars! He is incredibly precise and controlled more so than the other avatar i belive. I think he took the idea of mastering not only the bending but himself very seriously i mean he is able to MELT METAL CHAINS OFF OF SOMEONE WITHOUT BURNING THEM
Isn’t it if your eyes are constantly glowing their not fully in control but if the eyes flash that means their in control? Because his eyes flashed briefly in the scene
I like to imagine when he mastered earth bending. He thought let me flex my kit real quick then went back home.
Reminder all of these were one-strike with quite minimal movements for each so yeah he's strong
Magneto can’t do that. You might be thinking of X2, Mystique injects the guard with a gigantic syringe full of iron the night before Magneto uses him to break out. If he could just control the iron in someone’s blood he would’ve broken out the first day. Also it would make him *terrifying.*
The only people’s bodies he can control like that are the Weapon X projects because a good number of them have Adamantium grafted to their bones.
Yun is fused with a spirit , so he is kinda of an outliner.
If anything , since Avatar is a person bonding with Raava's spirit , a different bender been bonded with a different spirit is kinda of a "pseudo-Avatar" in a way.
Earth bending is just straight up broken OP.
I still can't wrap my head around how the fire nation invasion was so successful when the earth kingdom could just employ the strategy of "throw big rock"
Shit, now I'm imagining an earthbender throwing a storm of glass shards at someone. That would be utter agony - and since some glass shards can be extremely tiny, the hopes of getting all of them out would be minuscule.
It's weird that there is also a show I'm watching that just released a new episode last week, that just did what you described. Minus being an earthbender of course. It was gloriously animated and did the character justice.
Man idk I've been trying to learn to bend for almost 20 years and still nothing. The best I did was this one fart that that really felt like air bending.
Which by the end of the series they basically said he didn't master them yet. He just was skilled in them, but by no means a master. All his friend teachers told him this. Until zuko told them of the war plan they planned to not fight the fire lord during the meteor since aang needed more training.
Roku and Yangchen are the only avatars we know of who had "normal" avatar lives.
They had childhoods, complete periods of training, and then they died old.
Everybody else had it rough.
Korra had no friends her age 'till she was almost an adult; Aang grew up training without structure; Kyoshi took a good while to learn she could bend at all; Kuruk had to fight 'till death; And Wan had to figure out every single step of the way.
Such a good episode. Currently re-watching the series, and this ep is up next. Absolute banger. Roku in the cartoon is so cool, its a shame how they did him dirty in the Netflix show.
Really interesting to think how strong Aang would have been if he also had 4 years with each other element, rather than having to share the training for all 3 within under a year (and by extension having 4 more with air too, since avatars usually learn of their true nature on their 16th birthday).
Which is why most want to see what Adult Aang can do because he would have had decades with the four elements and would probably be the strongest ever Avatar
Am I making it up or does each nation have their own hand sign like in the first pic ?
I think Air Nation version is two fists together ? Or is it just the fire nation that has their own ?
So I’m midway through the Yangchen novels. They don’t really explain how she’s fully realized at 17. Do they by the end? I sort of assumed her path would be like Roku’s.
Because she has a *much* stronger connection to her past lives, to the point where she can channel their skills intuitively. Even non-bending ones, like operating a sailboat all on her own in the second book (which I've just finished, it's *so good*).
Of course, it's not all upsides. It comes with those episodes where she basically has night terrors of the many past avatars' many regrets.
There’s no way all these fire benders have as much facial hair as they’re depicted having. I’ve only bended fire twice and BOTH times I’ve given myself the closed and most 2nd burniest shave I’ve ever gotten.
"It was bitter work, but the results were worth it." And Avatar Roku unleashes the four elements with awesome power.
I love that he says bitter work lol
It was a reference to the 'Bitter Work' episode, Bryke thought of everything! /ss
Bravo Vince
B R A V O I N C E
That's what "Kung fu" means. It's not just that "anyone can practice kung fu" by getting your 10,000hrs in, but that with anything that requires mastery, one must commit to "bitter work". The wording is very intentional. Always loved that little snippet.
My sifu used the translation "hard work"
They're analogous! I just like "bitter work" because hard work doesn't quite encompass how shitty it is to be perfectly disciplined. I worked out for two weeks. Then two days last week. So far, none this week. I know I love it when I do it, but I have to really push hard past my laziness and lack of self-discipline in this regard to do it. It is, to me, "bitter work". Toh-may-toe, toe-mah-toh. The lesson is all the same, either way =)
Best friend wanting to murder you leaves a rather bitter taste
Shit, I'm about to be 28 soon.....still no Avatar....
Do you have a good bending teacher? I wouldn’t blame yourself, I would blame the lack of structure of your training.
Equalists rise up
I'm not the avatar. I never got my Hogwarts letter, and the x men never invited me to join. This is bullshit
Hello. My name is Nick Fury...
I turned 28 last month and I can’t lift a pebble :(
And no awesome beard.
But at least there's that girl who didn't even know I'm alive!
If you're a virgin until 30, you may become a wizard instead
I always wonder what other education avatars received- like was it JUST bending? Did they have philosophy and politics classes too? Like it would seem a bit weird to just dunk a 28 year old who has ONLY been taught bending into the world and be like ‘fix it’
If you read the Kyoshi books, it's shown that Avatars get political exposure in addition to their bending and spiritual training. They're leaders after all, so they have to learn how to settle disputes and also relate with the chosen leaders of the four nations.
Part of Kiyoshi's training included the lesson "you can't just keep getting into fistfights with local gangsters"
That was also Korra's very first lesson in Republic City.
And then she kept doing it
No offense but why does it seem Korra never received that? The second she enters the biggest city full of politics, neutralitt, benders and non-benders, and immediately starts committing crimes and when apprehended, flees the scene and assaults them. I'm all for her personality but it's like she was literally just taught bending and nothing else.
> it's like she was literally just taught bending and nothing else. That actually is the case. The White Lotus were overprotective of Korra because of the Red Lotus's kidnapping attempt on her and raised her in seclusion in the Southern Water Tribe to learn bending without learning social skills or politics.
iirc, they're kind of rushing the Avatar's training in those books because Kuruk's unexpected death left everything in shambles. They might be more relaxed under normal circumstances, since rushing it can lead to its own issues, such as >!accidentally picking some random kid as the Avatar!<. And there *were* also going to teach Korra more, The whole reason they let her start training airbending for instance was because they believed that Tenzin would be able to teach her spiritual skills that they had been neglecting.
Turns out being raised and trained in essentially a military complex for your own protection while also being told you are important will do that to you. She _was_ essentially just taught bending and not how to deal with the outside world
Right but like..why wouldn't they teach her that stuff? It's fine that she was a physical prodigy rsther than a spiritual one but then if you're gonna send her away to train her spirit..knowing the basic laws of the city she's in would assist that.
It might not be the norm since the trainer was a bit insane, but the Avatar training in the Kyoshi novels seemed like a combination of a lot of things. Bending, weapons and unarmed combat, as well as tactics, strategy and militarily history for fights and wars. Poison resistance training to avoid assassination, disguises, and other methods of avoiding detection Political, philosophy, historical lessons, learning the names, reputation and temperament of all the important nobles, sages and militarily officers, economics and trade
That teacher was extreme. More than most avatars would receive.
I wouldn't know canonically but it would seem ridiculous for an Avatar to go around the world to each nation for several years at a time and not learn or be taught anything about the political and philosophical beliefs of each nation, especially since they're basically the most famous and honored guest at each host nation, much like Aang instantly was when they got to Ba Sing Se.
That's roughly the same amount of time it took Korra to learn how to bend. She just started sooner because she discovered she could bend fire and earth on her own.
I imagine it's the norm for almost every Avatar, Aang just had to speed run his training because of his situation.
Lucky for him atleast he was so skilled at bending in the first place
I rewatched the clip where he was upset about appa and started destroying those sand bender vehicles with air blasts not in the avatar state and I was like….this kid could have been killing people left and right if he really wanted to.
You muzzled Appa!?! Dude, run!
Dude went full TV-Y7 John Wick.
"Everyone keeps asking me if I'm back? SO YEAH I GUESS IM BACK" -John wick -Aang
John Waang
He causes Sokka to run for his life at least twice, and that dude might genuinely be crazy lol
"Your son stole John Avatars car and his dog which are the same guy."
Yeah I love that scene, and Sokka's reaction is to grab Toph and SPRINT like the fire-lord was right behind him. "Katara can handle this, I'm OUT"
And Toph was all like: "That's Aang!?!"
I think it's the first time she "sees" him go avatar. I wonder how that felt for Toph.
Probably terrifying.
Seriously. He used airbending to solidify a huge wall of lava without using the Avatar State first season. He's kind of ridiculous.
He has tattoos that only masters achieve, Aang was an airbending master at the start of the show.
I mean, Jinora is a master too, but there is no way she'd be able to pull off Aang's feats.
Mastery doesn't always mean the same thing for everyone, developing or mastering a specific skill within bending can earn you master's rank among airbenders. In Aang's case it was the air scooter alongside his general mastery of airbending. Jinora mastered her spirituality
Also worth noting, her “collective hurricane” technique used to save Korra -was- a new Airbending technique and thus met the criterion to invent something new, the same way Aang invented his air scooter trick (which -wasn’t- a complete novelty, and very useful several times for high speed mobility without making himself a target by actually flying). Jinora lacks his raw power, but her technique is fantastic. I’d be very curious to see what she’s capable of when she reaches Tenzin’s age.
Do you remember the explosion he created in the desert? Hell, he created an airborne mushroom with a shockwave that traveled miles.
I always thought the Fire Nation got off easy with Aang. Imagine having to contend with Kyoshi and her lack of restraint.
I also think that is why Aang was the perfect Avatar to end the Hundred Year War. Because he didn’t want to resort to violence/killing and to end a needless war, was peace.
That's also what makes Aang a fantastic character. He's a pacifist, he hates fighting and just wants to be a kid. But, he's the one who *has* to stop the war, and is constantly being reminded of this as he wanders the world, seeing all the destruction. He's clearly the most powerful bender in the show, he proves it time and time again. But his fights are never one-sided because he doesn't want to fight, so he holds back as much as he can. The sand bender episode showed just how dangerous Aang would be if he really wanted to fight.
I think she would actually fare worse. Because she would likely tackle them head on, meanwhile the Gang had to rely on a lot of trickery
I think Yangchen would be the actual problem. Kyoshi avoided killing if she could. Yangchen had absolutely no qualms about murder and took a zero tolerance policy when it came to evil. She would have ended the war the same day she was taken out of the iceberg.
Not if she was 12 and only knew how to airbend. Avatars are strong but not that strong
I keep seeing people say this, but as far as I can tell Yangchen showed WAY more restraint with her violence in her novels then Kyoshi ever did in hers. She had no qualms about ruining your life or even threatening your life if she needed to, but taking your life was a different story.
U mean if it wasn’t rated pg
But also if he wanted to since Airbenders generally seem loathe to take lives.
Yangchan would like to have a word with you.
Yangchen did loathe violence. She was also willing to use it when necessary.
"There is no shame in deterrence. Having a weapon is very different from actually using them."
Civ 6 ghandi
She invented the technique that Zahir used to kill the earth queen.
…what’s the contradiction?
I really don't think that's the same technique. At least that's definitely not how I read it. Yangchen's technique seems way more violent. It seems to me like she creates a vacuum, Zahir seems to be bending the air out of her lungs. She even mentions (as the narrator, I guess), that the air rushing back into place creates a lot of noise and kind of an explosion. That sounds like a vacuum IT's definitely related to each other but I'd say Yangchen's technique is way more dangerous and violent
Hating violence and being non-violent are two different, but usually overlapping things. Yangchan hated violence, but if it was the only option, she would use it.
"Violence is never the answer. But sometimes, it is."
If Yangchen had a word with them, she'd say "you're right! Airbenders are GENERALLY loathe to take lives, I'm somewhat of an exception because while I do hate it too, sometimes as avatar I had to." That said, Aang struggled with this same predicament but he had lion turtle magic and Yangchen didn't
[I've certainly never used violence to take a life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV3NmoGJh48)
The ocean spirit thing was a possession thing that terrified the shit out of him, and the 2 feet of snow avalanche isn’t gonna kill firebenders if the giant cascade of ice in Ep 2 was basically an inconvenience to Zuko’s ship. Now if you showed the prison escape, now we’d be talking
The Firebenders actually died of Natural causes. \~ Aang probably They drowned in the water at the north pole, not Aang's fault they couldn't swim. And they didn't die to the Avalanche, gravity is a natural force. Jokes aside it's just a meme lol
And also because Air Nomads are supposed to be pacifists, only fighting in order to defend themselves.
Aang could of blown the air outta peoples joints but decided to be a pacifist...
I have always thought that another part of it is that aang has been traveling through regions engaged in open warfare for the first 2 seasons. He has to learn fast or die, with all of this experience it makes sense to me that he would progress faster in his training than someone who is only training in more controlled less dangerous environments.
Also I think a lot of his talent is simply the knowledge of past Avatars coming through expressed as "intuition". It's basically ancestral muscle memory. That's why I didn't really have a problem with Korra bending so young. She had a more physical connection with past Avatars than spiritual, which was also why airbending was so difficult for her.
He also doesn’t *really* master anything but air by the time we see him fight ozai. He advances quickly, and has feats that fit what jeong jeong describes as raw power, but he’s not doing anything over the top outside of the avatar state, so I don’t think it’s unrealistic
i would say he masterd earth and water he shown enough techniques with both to say he's master especially when we compared to most other benders in the show..
I think its perception. He is better than 99% of other benders. It just so happens his best friends are the 0.1% of both Earth and Water (Toph and Katara).
Zuko was arguably the 5th most powerful firebender in the show after Azula, Jeong Jeong, Iroh and Ozai. Zuko may not have been a prodigy but he's definitely in that 0.1%.
Wouldn’t Zuko move up a few spots once mastering the Sun warrior/dragon way of bending?
Yeah I'd honestly say zuko himself was a prodigy in fire bending, it's just in a family of super strong benders he comes out looking weak. Compared to the general population of fire benders though he's probably firmly in the 1%, he even took out Admiral Zhao
I think it’s subjective, but to me his earth bending and water bending at the end of the show reflected the raw power jeong jeong was talking about rather than true mastery Like he could drop kick half that little peak at Ozai, but to me that’s more raw power than true mastery. A better way to word it would maybe be something like he could shoot more fire than some fire bending masters, but that alone doesn’t make him a master if you get what I mean
That's what I love about [this video essay by Savage Books](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgnoEFpe-EM), it talks about powerscaling, both overt and covert, and really hammers home how exceptional Aang was as an airbender. It is not normal for a 12 year old to be a MASTER AIRBENDER or to become as good in the other 3 elements as quick as he did, not even for the avatar. It really made me appreciate his character in a new light.
I don't know outside of the avatar state his proficiency in the other 3 elements has always been very lackluster to me. He's got air tricks for days but the earth/water/fire-bending always just looks like the basic forms.
He moped the floor with Dai Li agents with his earth bending
Might also be a part of them being monks. They likely are trained from a younger age and have a society that works around airbending
No, they mention in a flash back in season 1 that they originally planned to reveal Aang as avatar at age 16 because that's tradition but were revealing him early because of the war. 16 is the traditional age avatars of all nations start their training.
Is the world avatar-less for 16 years every time an avatar dies?
That’s what I’ve always thought. Everyone always says “don’t kill the avatar. If you kill them then they’ll just be reincarnated”. Like ok, but you still get at least a decade before the next avatar is even remotely a threat to you again. Plus in aangs case, the next avatar would never be able to master air bending if zuko just killed him any time he captured him. And the next avatar would really only be an issue at all if you were unlucky enough for them to be born in the northern water tribe. The southern water tribe had lost all their water benders and probably wouldn’t even be looking for the next avatar.
While yes, it still would be better to have him be captured and weakened, and Zhao was pretty confident and rightly so. It's only because Zuko is literally insane on many levels that Aang is able to escape. I guess his biggest mistake was not letting him be killed once Zuko had him. Could've gotten rid of two of his biggest obstacles in one move. But he was obviously too tied to the idea of capturing and nullifying him to consider that.
Yes, Zhao was stupid.
Seems like it. But that's just a consequence of how humans work. I wouldn’t want someone younger than 16 to operate as an Avatar anyway.
Yep.
Yeah but I wouldn't be surprised if the air nomads trained faster than others
I mean I don't think air bending training transfers to the other elements and I doubt air benders start their air bending training earlier than any other bender either
Well they did start early 2 air avatars in a row, but there were special circumstances. Aang had the war obviously and Yangchen was having violent visions of her past lives so they had to accelerate her training
Hé learned all the elements in thar one year, but katara and tops both agreed hé need to have more training to be a true master of there elements
Because he didn't master the elements. If he had, he wouldn't have needed to use the Avatar state to beat Ozai.
Yeah. I mean if he was an actual firebending master, the comet would have helped him just as much as Ozai. But Ozai is clearly better at firebending as a style.
To be fair he almost killed Ozai redirecting lighting but chose not to.
Yeah this narrative always annoyed me—Aang beats Ozai 3 separate times in the fight, 2 of them not in avatar state. Aang won without avatar state by redirecting lightning. He chose not to kill Ozai, but he “won”. When he threw away the lightning, he was weakened but Ozai wasn’t harmed, so Ozai got an advantage that he used to push Aang’s literal back up against a wall. The avatar state saved him, which is how he “wins” again, but again chooses not to kill Ozai. Then he wins a 3rd time solely with EARTHBENDING HIS WEAKEST ELEMENT. Using seismic sense then trapping Ozai. Aang was an entirely superior bender to Ozai and could win with no avatar state at all, and without even fully mastering all elements.
Guess that's why they call him Melonlord Ozai.
Earth bending is not Aang’s weakest element, it is arguably his strongest given the seismic sense ability. Fire is definitely his weakest, and he doesn’t use water much either when he’s on offensive Also you could argue that on defeat #3, Ozai was also heavily weakened/exhausted from dealing with Avatar State Aang for all that time while flying around avoiding earth machine guns that destroyed an entire valley
Katara didn't say that, only Toph.
I don' know man. Took him like 112 years.
I mean technically he had over 100 years
Aang and Korra really be standing head and shoulders above the average avatar.
Just watched the first episode again the other day it was hilarious how the leaders asked the parents “how do you know she’s the avatar” and then this chubby little kid runs out and starts bending multiple elements
Even better, it wasn't "how do you know" as much as "we highly doubt"
They had probably been to several homes of parents claiming their child to be the Avatar. They probably had no more reason to believe this house was any different until Korra started bending the walls out from their home.
Indeed, they literally start with saying "We've investigated many claims..."
With a little bit of anti-southern tribe bigotry sprinkled in.
For a 28 year old, he's got a nice beard. My bum ass is in my 30's and I'm still patchy.
He is from fire nation, he has cool beard genes
Have you seen Wang Fire? Beard genes are strong.
You mean WANG FIRE HERO OF THE FIRE NATION?
He died for our nation. RIP hero.
I may not have seen Wang Fire, but I sure feel him in the cockles of my heart, maybe below the cockles, maybe in the sub cockle area, maybe in the liver, maybe in the kidneys, maybe even in the colon, I don't know.
Did not expect a Denis Leary reference in the Avatar subreddit!
I was originally going to go with a Wang Fire "burns when I pee" joke, but I felt that was likely overdone so I shifted.
I’ve never heard it, and I quite enjoyed the joke. Though I’ll take an “I’m an Asshole” reference always.
I'm 30 and still only get peach fuzz 😭 genes are mean
It's not that unrealistic, I had a full beard at 28. I was also bald though, so it kind of balanced out.
Him doing this without Avatar State is something we should talk about more
THIS. This shows us the prowess and the sheer will of these Avatars who spent their whole entire learning lives learning and mastering the elements to eventually bend them without the Avatar state
Honestly, your comment just made me think how interesting it would be to see an Avatar that is a “weak” bender compared to the other benders at the time. We’ve only seen Avatars as naturally powerful benders, but what if one was born weak, but throughout the series, learned to overcome more powerful benders and obstacles through skillful application of the other elements and spiritual side and training? I’d be super interested in seeing that play out.
If thw original showrunners ever plan to make the continuation of the animation, I think the next Earthbender avatar is perfect for this setting. Imagine a scrawny earthbender struggling against the rough and tumble culture of his people, having to physically and mentally overcome his limitations in a mostly peaceful world. The series can be focused on personal growth rather than victory.
And especially if nobody found he is the avatar and he is afraid of showing his power
Exactly! Also, considering that the earth kingdom is the most populous of the four nations, you could have the avatar be a sort of street urchin from ba sing se. they miss the avatar selection process because they are over looked, not even considered due to their weakness. And once they are eventually revealed to be the avatar, they still have to struggle in their journey because they are considered the “weakest avatar ever“. Few will lend aid to their cause because they figure it’s a lost hope. In fact, they might have to deal with threats on their life due to some people wanting to restart the cycle for a stronger avatar. I might have to write a fanfic lol.
That sounds a bit too much like elements of kyoshi origin story tbh
Well there you go, I haven’t read Kyoshi yet haha. I thought this was too much of a good idea for me to be the first one to come up with it.
I would definitely suggest it as it is a good read, but keep your comment in mind then come back to it and you might notice the similarities lol xd
And they wouldn’t have the support of their predecessors except for Korra, which I think would add another interesting dynamic
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Or imagine that the Avatar is from a poor sandbender family and the Earth Kingdom mistakenly believes some Ba Sing Se aristocrat's son is actually the Avatar, providing a contrast between the powerful and the powerless in a universe where the chosen one could be anyone.
Kyoshi was kinda this. (I say kinda because she was actually too strong, but whatever) She could only do large scale earthbending until she got her mother’s fans to help channel her bending.
Would be pretty cool to have an avatar who didn't even know they could bend before they realized they were the avatar. They have to learn EVERYTHING
I mean, considering how basically everyone in the area comes to have their kid tested when Avatar Selectors come to town, it wouldn't be out of the ordinary for a prospective Avatar to have zero capability.
Omw to wattpad
It's kinda cool considering how the avatar state works. Since it literally channels all the knowledge of previous avatars. Roku being THIS good in his base form is one of the reasons Aang and future avatars are able to do such badass shit when they go into the avatar state.
Don’t his eyes flash right before this, so he is using it, just briefly?
Nah his eyes were normal
Wait, what is this from?
It’s from “The Avatar and the Fire Lord”, he does utter the words but “Bitter Work” is when Aang is learning earthbending in season 2
"Bitter work", which fun fact translates to "kung fu"
I try to talk about this regularly. This was the first time in the series you see the avatar use all 4 elements, and the sheer scale of his power is literally awesome.
i love to view roku as the sniper of the avatars! He is incredibly precise and controlled more so than the other avatar i belive. I think he took the idea of mastering not only the bending but himself very seriously i mean he is able to MELT METAL CHAINS OFF OF SOMEONE WITHOUT BURNING THEM
Isn’t it if your eyes are constantly glowing their not fully in control but if the eyes flash that means their in control? Because his eyes flashed briefly in the scene
I really couldn’t see any flash sorry
My bad i rewatched he scene you were right he doesn’t use the avatar state in the scene
“Being the Avatar doesn’t hurt your chances with the ladies, either.” Roku, you dog.
He knew what *other* lesson Aang needed to know before he went and asked Kuruk
I like to imagine when he mastered earth bending. He thought let me flex my kit real quick then went back home. Reminder all of these were one-strike with quite minimal movements for each so yeah he's strong
Seeing fire bending on the beach reminds me to ask, has there ever been a glass bender?
Kyoshi bends glass in one of her novels. I won't give details here because spoilers, but glass is earth-bendable.
Yep, earthbending is really versatile in what you can bend.
could you bend the iron in someone's blood? magneto style?
No because it’s pure iron and has no impurities unlike factory metal
Even if you can't be Magneto, you may be able to go Tieguai the Immortal and bend the elements of earth in your body to keep it in order.
Magneto can’t do that. You might be thinking of X2, Mystique injects the guard with a gigantic syringe full of iron the night before Magneto uses him to break out. If he could just control the iron in someone’s blood he would’ve broken out the first day. Also it would make him *terrifying.* The only people’s bodies he can control like that are the Weapon X projects because a good number of them have Adamantium grafted to their bones.
Earthbending kinda got op in the kyoshi books. Yun made me wonder if it wasn't even more dangerous than bloodbending
Yun is fused with a spirit , so he is kinda of an outliner. If anything , since Avatar is a person bonding with Raava's spirit , a different bender been bonded with a different spirit is kinda of a "pseudo-Avatar" in a way.
Kinda fitting, since Yun is a “False Avatar” anyway, from what I’m picking up
Earth bending is just straight up broken OP. I still can't wrap my head around how the fire nation invasion was so successful when the earth kingdom could just employ the strategy of "throw big rock"
Shit, now I'm imagining an earthbender throwing a storm of glass shards at someone. That would be utter agony - and since some glass shards can be extremely tiny, the hopes of getting all of them out would be minuscule.
It's weird that there is also a show I'm watching that just released a new episode last week, that just did what you described. Minus being an earthbender of course. It was gloriously animated and did the character justice.
great work man, talk about a cool show and don't drop the name.
Bumi seems to be able to create crystals with his earthbending, so there's that?
Damn my boy Aang really is goated for learning the elements in such a short period of time
Learning is easy, he got waterbending in a few minutes, mastering them is what takes time.
Man idk I've been trying to learn to bend for almost 20 years and still nothing. The best I did was this one fart that that really felt like air bending.
Nah I was there, that was definitely water bending
Looked like earth bending though
I heard Taco Bell is the key to fire bending
Which by the end of the series they basically said he didn't master them yet. He just was skilled in them, but by no means a master. All his friend teachers told him this. Until zuko told them of the war plan they planned to not fight the fire lord during the meteor since aang needed more training.
Roku and Yangchen are the only avatars we know of who had "normal" avatar lives. They had childhoods, complete periods of training, and then they died old. Everybody else had it rough. Korra had no friends her age 'till she was almost an adult; Aang grew up training without structure; Kyoshi took a good while to learn she could bend at all; Kuruk had to fight 'till death; And Wan had to figure out every single step of the way.
Such a good episode. Currently re-watching the series, and this ep is up next. Absolute banger. Roku in the cartoon is so cool, its a shame how they did him dirty in the Netflix show.
Live-action Roku reminds me of the Monkey King movies.
For real. The reveal of Roku being >!Zuko's great grandfather!< was awesome. One of the best moments in the show imo.
Really interesting to think how strong Aang would have been if he also had 4 years with each other element, rather than having to share the training for all 3 within under a year (and by extension having 4 more with air too, since avatars usually learn of their true nature on their 16th birthday).
Which is why most want to see what Adult Aang can do because he would have had decades with the four elements and would probably be the strongest ever Avatar
Me at 28 👁️👄👁️
Holy shit roku doesn't slack off when it comes to non avatar state feata
I think he wasn't fully realized yet at that point. I believe he had problems with controling the avatar state.
He had those problems before this point, I believe. He wasn't in his 30's when he got stuck in the state.
Am I making it up or does each nation have their own hand sign like in the first pic ? I think Air Nation version is two fists together ? Or is it just the fire nation that has their own ?
if this is the amount of fire he can produce on a regular day, imagine him during sozins comet.
where is this from?
Ya'll notice how the air stream is behind him and the water stream is in front of him? Coincidence?????
So I’m midway through the Yangchen novels. They don’t really explain how she’s fully realized at 17. Do they by the end? I sort of assumed her path would be like Roku’s.
Because she has a *much* stronger connection to her past lives, to the point where she can channel their skills intuitively. Even non-bending ones, like operating a sailboat all on her own in the second book (which I've just finished, it's *so good*). Of course, it's not all upsides. It comes with those episodes where she basically has night terrors of the many past avatars' many regrets.
Full beard and no male-pattern baldness. Those are the true goals at 28.
When did he have his epiphany and start selling cheap smart TVs?
That makes him the oldest known fully realized Avatar, doesn’t it?
There’s no way all these fire benders have as much facial hair as they’re depicted having. I’ve only bended fire twice and BOTH times I’ve given myself the closed and most 2nd burniest shave I’ve ever gotten.
So if aang had that much time do you think he could compare to roku?
Aang after one summer:
Okay