Skip to main content

the legend of korra - Why is knowledge of energy bending rare?


In the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's revealed that there's another form of bending called energybending. This was the form of bending used by people before the Avatar existed, and before the specialized element bending was created.



Since then, the knowledge of energybending has been almost completely lost. Aang only learned of it through the ancient lion turtle. How was energybending lost to humanity? Somehow, only the Avatar has the capability to energybend in the modern day. Wouldn't the capability to energybend fall from parent to child like other bending forms? Why isn't there a 5th nation of energybenders in modern day?



Answer



It appears the power of energy-bending was intentionally forgotten. Since the elemental-bending abilities appear to be region specific, perhaps the same event that caused energy-bending to be forgotten, caused each region's particular ability among the people of that region.


There must have been a catalyst event that caused humans to abandon energy-bending nearly simultaneously because the Four Nations share both a history and a timeline, indicating they all developed their specialized bending (and subset abilities) at nearly the same time.



Energy-bending is the ability to bend life energy. It predates the four main bending arts, as well as the arrival of the Avatar and the formation of the Four Nations.


"In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements but the energy within ourselves. To bend another's energy, your own spirit must be unbendable or you will be corrupted and destroyed." — The lion turtle teaching Aang about the nature of energybending in "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang". — The Avatar Wiki - Energy-bending



No one besides the lion turtle even remembered Energy-bending until he taught it to Aang. None of the incarnations of the Avatar remembered it either, since Aang was unable to discern a solution during the time before his final battle with the Firelord Ozai.


For such a formidable capability to be lost, it had to be dangerous or difficult. It was most likely both. If we assume that elemental bending was easier for humans to learn, then it make sense that the flamboyant and very effective forms of elemental bending would supplant the more dangerous and spiritually rigorous energy-bending.




Energy-bending is an extremely powerful and potentially dangerous technique. If the bender's spirit is even slightly weak, or bendable, then they will be infected by the spirit of the one they are bending. As a result, the bender can be corrupted and even killed. — The Avatar Wiki - Energy-bending



Energy bending only seems to have two uses:



  • Knowledge transfer

  • Removal of the ability to bend an element


It makes sense there would be other abilities within energy-bending but whatever caused the ability to be intentionally lost, had to be something that was perpetuated by every nation. Perhaps the Order of the White Lotus knows more than they are sharing.




The Order of the White Lotus is an ancient and formerly secret society that transcends the boundaries of the four nations, seeking philosophy, beauty, and truth. They are devoted to the sharing of ancient knowledge across national and political divides. The Order's main purpose is to find each new Avatar, see to his or her training, and provide protection. --The Avatar Wiki, The Order of the White Lotus



Emphasis is mine, implying perhaps the OWL knows why there is an Avatar at all, since they are one of the only organizations that predates the Four Nations and is tasked to find and protect the budding Avatar until their abilities mature.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...