Bending

[Danno]

just thought i'd open up a thread to discuss bending.

general, your feelings on bending (vs 'magic' or traditonal martial arts)

 

styles

do you have a favorite?

is there a particular move or discipline you really like? (particularly if you don't care that much about the style as a whole)

benders

this might be more of a favorite character question, but to you relate to any one given character who's a bender?

do you relate more or less to the general (national) outlook of any the four than to the element or style of bending they use?

 

anything else you want to say/discuss about bending?

 

while i think a number of techniques show their roots in Kung Fu and simmilar disciplines, and by extension seem like they'd be nearly as effective simply used on an oponent then to move an element around to do the same thing, i really love that the show took this unique idea/representation to heart.  traditional representations of magic call for a lot of suspension of disbelief because they seem to inflict pain or sap the practitioner's strength solely by channeling the magical/elemental energies.  there's a much more grounded, physical connection to the elements this way, and it seems as realistic a way for such mysticism to evolve as pure meditation or science.

 

i've never actually studied Tai Chi, but it appeals to me more than Kung Fu, and for this reason i like the form and flow of water bending, and how it seems the most balanced offensively and defensively, but as far as the elements go, i don't really have a favorite.  i asked the next question though, because i really like the idea of bending the air around me to run at super-speed/up walls, moving the water/chi through a person's body to heal them, and especially lightning bending.  the asthmatic in me is also a little jealous of the lung capacity seen in most of the styles.

 

i can't be as passive as the monks seemed to be, and i try not to be escapist/reclusive, so i most relate to Iroh's philosophy, i think.  he's absorbed other styles and views, and even reevaluated his own motives and his nation's teachings and tries to do what is right. 

[Luna Brown]

I have to say that water bending would be most useful to me. Woo! Katara!

[Danno]

why's that?

[Blake]

As wonderful as I found Toph's no-nonsense attitude and how it translated to her earthbending, I don't think I could be that head-on with anything.

The ebb and flow of waterbending makes more sense to me, and the movements of Tai Chi are also the most beautiful. I like that there is water in almost everything, even in small amounts like sweat or tears. I also found it interesting that while water can be used to interact with the chi or energy in a person's body to heal it, directly interacting with that through bloodbending was always seen as evil and painful. Would blood bending have to be evil? What if you could use it to break up a clot or restart someone's heart? Or stop the bleeding from a wound?

[Danno]

this is something i've found interesting since blood bending was introduced...the show and major characters gloss over the fact that most bending, particularly from powerful amateurs would be extremely dangerous, even probably fatal in a war, but taking away another's ability to move, and therefore self-actualize is seen as evil...at least by everyone we hear.

[Michelle Currie]

Everyone wants to be a waterbender! Including me... Just always loved the idea of controlling it! plus most of the world is covered in water... We can control the world! Muahahaha!

[Danno]

for talking about waterbending your channeling a lot of Melonlord there Michelle :D

[Michelle Currie]

[Danno]

heheheheheheheheheheh-hack-cough-cough ...heheh

[Gabe Lynch]

The form and detail that went into bending was the reason I started the show. I was taken in by the opening credits, there is a pattern with the bending as they're listed. Actually there are several patterns. They go in the sequence. Water, earth, fire, air. Water has a hard time with fire and visa versa, the same goes for air and earth. the first two involve having an obvious physical thing to bend. the last two can seemingly be used anywhere. the both simply require air to be around the bender. since air is hard to keep away this makes holding these two without bending hard. there was another pattern but I forgot what it was. I don't know if the patterns were supposed to be there or what, but those patterns drew me in. that and the forms shown in the credits made me want to watch it.

 As far as bending goes. I am an airbender. I like that form the most, and I have always like the idea of being able to control the air, and flying has always appealed to me. but I think if I didn't get air on all but one online quiz. (I won't tell you how many I honestly don't remember) I would be a firebender. 

[Lena Sidenburg]

The patterns (and the Avatar cycle) go according to the seasons: Water = Winter, Earth = Spring, Fire = Summer, and Air = Autumn.  More benders of any given type are born during that bending type's season, and those types of benders are stronger during that season, e.g. more firebenders are born during the summer than during the other seasons, and all firebenders are stronger in the summertime.

[Danno]

i'd forgotten about that.  so... strictly speaking i'm most likely to be an air bender and i guess by extension least likely to be an earth bender...at least from that standpoint.