Legend of Korra
- Thread starter Raemon777
- Start date
Yeesssss....
figmentPez
Staff member
The next time someone asks me "Why don't they make good cartoon shows anymore?", I'm going to feel all the more like smacking them upside the head.
figmentPez
Staff member
I've seen a couple threads on it in other forums. Every time it makes me want to *facepalm*
I have a feeling James Cameron's to blame.
DO WANT.
The thing above it said www.thelastairbender.com, so I don't know if that'd actually be the title of the show.
North_Ranger
Staff member
Please be awesome, please be awesome, please be awesome...
Aw hellz yes.
Really? Cause from what I've heard, there is only one airbender; Aang and Katara's kid, and the entire show will be about Korra trying to get to the last airbender to learn, as she'll already have mastered water, fire and earth at the start of the show.
Green_Lantern
Staff member
I got the impression that the air benders are always few, and destroying them wasn't that much of a big deal.
I guess FIREbending helps with killing too xP
I always wondered about non bending air nomads. What were they like? Did they all live in the temples too?
It's never explicitly said why some people can bend and others can't except that it's not biological, so it's highly unlikely the Air Nomads just abandoned the ones who couldn't bend. Besides, they still need people to farm and craft... they ones who couldn't bend were probably just taught trades instead of spending time training.
It's actually been stated "explicitly" that bending is "some combination of genetics, spiritual development, and other random factors that basically amount to authorial fudge factor"
Air Nomads were the most spiritual of the four nations, so they had the highest proportion of benders to non-benders. I remember the lowest proportion was the Earth Kingdom. Can't recall offhand if Water Tribe or Fire Nation had higher bending-density.
Added at: 20:56
Interview that goes into it:
http://www.avatarspiritmedia.net/interviews.php?id=19
Air Nomads were the most spiritual of the four nations, so they had the highest proportion of benders to non-benders. I remember the lowest proportion was the Earth Kingdom. Can't recall offhand if Water Tribe or Fire Nation had higher bending-density.
Added at: 20:56
Interview that goes into it:
http://www.avatarspiritmedia.net/interviews.php?id=19
See, I was thinking back to those twin kids at the Fortune Teller's town. One could bend and one couldn't, so it was clear that genetics wasn't the primary thing that determined it. There's also Sokka and Katara, who both come from the same family but one can and other can't. Hell, Katara's mom, dad, and grandmother couldn't bend ether, so Katara is the only one in her family that can do it.
From the interview it sounds like everyone could possibly do it, but most people don't develop it enough to become usable, ether because they didn't have the opportunity and upbringing or because they simply didn't know they could.
Something can be genetic and still not automatically turn up for every descendant. Katara and Sokka had a bending mother and a non-bending father, so it's not too suprising that only one of the kids can bend. The interview mostly confirms that it's mysterious and they can do whatever serves the plot. But if I were to apply fake science to this...
I don't think genetics are actually involved (this is a world where it is possible to kill the moon. I assume inheritance happens in approximately the same "observable" way it does in our world, but that the answer is closer to "it's magic" than "there are little material objects in your body that determine your characteristics.")
Actually, cool thought just occurred to me: I'm not sure if everyone in the world is supposed to reincarnate or just the avatar. But let's assume for a moment that everyone reincarnates somehow. So you may inherit traits from three people instead of two: your mother, your father, and the person you're being reincarnated from. So you get a Punett Cubes instead of Squares. Your mother and father could contribute to your overall bending potential, but the TYPE of bending you could do might be determined by your spiritual ancestor, which explains why everyone can only bend one element, even if they had a Water Tribe mother and an Air Nomad father. People tend to be reincarnated into their own tribe, which is why Water Benders normally give birth to other Water Benders, etc.
The inheritable traits determine your potential, but your actual bending skill depends on your spiritual training.
In real life, for example, I have a naturally ability to *quickly improve* at art, but I do NOT have the ability to quickly improve at Basketball. I improve somewhat medium-ly at Tennis. So for every hour I spend practicing art, I improve 1 arbitrary unit. I improve .5 AU at Tennis, and .05 at Bastketball. They're like coefficients. Judging from the show, Aang improved very quickly when he put his mind to it (so, say, Bending coefficient of 10) and Katara only had a coefficient of 3, but Katara put in much more work than Aang did so she was better than him for a while.
I'm also betting, for narrative reasons, that Aang and Katara had one Airbender, one waterbender, and one non-bender.
Neither of Katara's parents could bend. Her mother took the fall for her.
I'm kind of partial to the notion that Aang and Katara had like 7 or 8 kids, only stopping when one of them showed airbending affinity. Tenzin is the youngest. Other kids might even show earth or firebending prowess, after all, Aang was born with affinity for ALL of them.
I doubt it works that way considering Avatar Roku's descendents are only firebenders.
He had a fire nation wife, and probably only a couple kids. He wasn't trying to rebuild a civilization.
I know my theory is kinda outlandish but it's a fun thought.
Unless they could fire bend some surface to air smart missiles someone with the ability to fly could easily just go high enough so you can't even see them... the laser guy was the only one who might be able to take out high flyers, and his talents was rare and didn't seem easy to aim...
And you'd expect nomads to actually be nomadic to at least some degree, even if they have 2 temples to meet up in... having all of them be at the temples when they where attacked is a bit too convenient.
I imagine if you were to ask the Fire Nation during the run of TLA they would agree that it was decidedly inconvenient.