Which is the best kind of bending? (Avatar - The Last Airbender theory)

Hello, dear humans and fellow aliens!

Today, I am going to discuss the series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” (sorry if you thought it was the movie “Avatar” with those blue creatures) to know which is the most practical kind of bending.

To clarify, I won’t consider the regional sub-bendings, like sandbending or bloodbending, or those that not all benders can do, like lightening, “sensing the earth” or metalbending. I will only talk about bare bending, because all of the benders can do it.

So, let’s start!

4. Earthbending

 Before you think I am jumping into conclusions, let me say a thing.

We never really see any average earthbenders.

Toph has her powers of “sensing the earth” that she acquired from learning with the original earthbenders and she can also metalbend. Her daughters are amazing metalbenders, those men Toph fought have special combat training and Bolin is a lavabender.

So, to see how an average earthbenders would be, I will try to create something between Aang, even though that is the opposite of his personality, and Bolin in the first season, since he obviously knows what he’s doing.

Let’s start by saying what makes earthbending uniquely hard.

First of all, earth is something very heavy and as Toph says, you need a secure stance to bend it.

It’s the element of substance. Apart from that, you can only bend earth that is compact, since it doesn’t work so well in sand (unless you’re a sandbender), and raw, since not all earthbenders can bend metal, which is purified rock. And no one can bend the purest metals.

Earthbending takes a lot of strength and you have to be on earth so it can work better.

Therefore, if you’re travelling on a boat or flying on a Byson, you are screwed.

But earthbending is not entirely made of bad things! For example, if you shield yourself with a wall of rocks, it will be almost impenetrable, since water takes a lot of time to cut it and rock doesn’t burn.

Earth is a great element that is perfect for defence and what makes it so unique is that it is solid material in its natural form, unlike water, which is liquid, air, which is a gas, or fire, which… What is fire? I mean… it’s not a gas nor a liquid… Never mind, we’ll save that for later.

3. Waterbending

Just like what happens with earth, we don’t really see any average waterbender in the series. As you remember, all waterbenders from the southern Water Tribe were eliminated, leaving only two other tribes: The North Pole and the Swamp.

The powers of the waterbenders are strongest during the night because the original waterbender is the moon. And unless Jao decides to kidnap that fish again, if the waterbenders un-learn the basic pure form of Waterbending, they can always learn it again because the moon is always there. Yue is a nice person, isn’t she?

Back to what I was talking about.

Certain things, like bloodbending, can only be done during the full moon, so we’ll leave that one out.

Water is all around us, in the air that we breathe, which makes it easier to find. It’s also a liquid in its natural form, which makes lighter and easier to bend. As we saw in the “Puppetmaster”, you can take water out of thin air or even from inside a living thing’s body (that episode was way darker than expected). You can even use your sweat, tears, saliva or any other body fluid (ew, gross!) as long it is outside your body, otherwise, you’ll have to bend it in the full moon. You can also bend any other liquid, like Katara’s “perfumebending” in that convent.

Apart from controlling liquid water, there is also ice and water vapor. You can make water turn so hot to the point in which it would have the same effects on a person as firebending or you could literally freeze them to death.

Water is also an element that requires calm, which makes it harder. I mean, at least to me, it’s not like I would be in a combat to death with a waterbender and be like «OK, let me chill so I can bend better». One does not simply do that.

One of the greatest things about waterbenders is that they are spread across the globe. There is one tribe on each pole and another one in the Swamp, near the equator. Each one has developed a special kind of sub-bending: you have plantbending in the Swamp, healing in the North and bloodbending in the South.

2. Firebending

Firebending is my personal favourite.

It’s also the easiest to observe in its regular form, since we see lots of average firebenders, like Jao and Zuko, before he meets the Sun Warriors. Their power is created from anger, which is the Fire Nation’s style of choice. Firebenders are impulsive and don’t have much control over their power.

Their abilities reside in bending fire, which is kind of like a living thing, which can be extremely dangerous, since air, water and earth stay in their places but fire keeps moving and burning. That’s because it “feeds” on what it touches.

Fire can vary in many degrees of heat, going from red to blue, even though not everyone can do that. Their power makes them very dangerous, which makes them powerful enemies. And, since their bending is stronger during the day, when most people are fully awake, they have increased bending almost all of the time.

They can bend in all sorts of temperatures, more or less, as long as there’s air.

Another thing about them is that they don’t make their element move, they literally shoot it out of their bodies, which makes them harder to confine: you might tie their hands, but they still have their mouths.

They don’t need the presence of their element, since they create it themselves.

But don’t think I’m saying this because they’re my favourites, there are also bad things about firebenders.

For example, since their bending is powered by anger, it’s not as effective as the other elements. They can easily loose self-control unless they are very good at what they do. Their element is also very destructive and is much more probable to lead them to accidentally harm themselves and others than the rest. This makes them violent and impulsive.

Throughout the series, Iroh even says to Zuko that he should use his mind and not his body, which again shows firebenders are impulsive, violent people.

1. Airbending

It may be because the only Airbender we see in the series is the Avatar, but, in my opinion, airbending can be very practical.

I mean, as long as you’re breathing, you have your element to bend. You can also bend all sorts of gases, even toxic ones.

I see here many potential ways to murder people, like making them inhale toxic gases or literally taking the air out of their lungs, but let’s not go that way, this is a kid’s show.

Imagine how hard it would be to restrain an airbender! Like firebenders, they use their arms, legs and mouths to bend.

And, what makes them even harder to restrain is this: imagine you wanted to arrest any kind of bender while keeping him/her alive.

You could lock an earthbenders in a cage of wood or extremely purified metal and tie up their hands and legs.

You could tie up a waterbender and then lock him in an extremely dry place far away from the water.

You could put a firebenders in a cooler, like in the Boiling Rock.

But what would you do to an airbender? Throw them into the vacuum of space where they can’t breathe? Remember you want to keep them alive. No matter what temperature the air is, as long as it is a gas, it can be bent. Apart from that, even if you could eliminate their airbending completely, they still have a natural disposition to contact the spirits or people while in their ghostly, non-material form, like Jenora (did I spell that right?). They could simply go ask someone to free them, easy peasy!

Since their element weights practically nothing, it would be super easy to bend. And, since you don’t need the “secure stances”, doing so would be a lot better.

I really see no downsides in being an airbender, apart from being a nation without an organized army that could easily be crushed (sorry).

The conclusion of this theory basically is: if you’re a non-bender, don’t, under any circumstances, make benders mad at you.

Fear all benders.