Fandom Stuffs

ATLA 2

I have prepared for you *drumroll noises*

The origins of bending techniques! *gestures dramatically* *trips*

Anyway...there are a couple of techniques in Avatar: the Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra that are pretty well known, and I've figured out where some of them came from, and who invented them.

1: The dancing dragon firebending form

Anyone who watches LOK season 2 very carefully will notice that the strange "dance" avatar Wan performs alongside a white dragon is the very same Zuko and Aang discovered in the Fire temple. Not really a mind-blowing observation, but I still went crazy fangirling when I saw it the first time.

2: Jet-stepping, or using firebending to propel oneself through the air

In The Rise Of Kyoshi, Kyoshi's parent's daofei gang has a special technique called dust-stepping, where they gather small bits of dirt and rock to make a platform that can only support one of their feet for a couple of seconds. This is useful if you don't want to leave a trail. However, it requires intense concentration and precision. It's also very dangerous. When Rangi and Kyoshi first saw Lek, Kirima, and Wong use this technique (in Kirima's case, mist-stepping, the waterbending form), Rangi made a variation with her firebending that she called "jet-stepping". This used small jets of flame that shot out of her feet as propulsion to fly through the air. I believe that the "flying" technique that firebenders use (Azula propelling herself to the cliff face, Iroh II launching himself up at a plane) is a variation of this.

3. Bloodbending

I know what you're thinking. "We know who the first bloodbender was." I think bloodbending was a modified version of a healing technique used by very skilled waterbenders, primarily a healer from the Northern Water Tribe named Atuat.

After Yun attacked the Royal Palace, he left a lot of people injured, mainly guards. Atuat, a skilled healer who helped rid Hei-Ran's body of a poison used to kill a quarter of the earth kingdom sages, decided that some people could be saved and some were worth too much effort, or already dead. When she found people that had a good chance of survival, she made motions around their body and Kyoshi felt the air temperature drop. Atuat explained that she was lowering their body temperature, slowing down the body's processes, including death. She put emphasis on the fact that if done with too much force, it could freeze a person's lungs or stop their heart. Kyoshi used this technique on Yun and purposefully put in too much power, killing him and ending the chaos and fear he had placed on the world. (A little background info: Yun was thought to be the avatar before Kyoshi was discovered. Kyoshi was a servant in the avatar's estate, and she was Rangi and Yun's best friend. At one point she and Yun did love each other, too. Everybody believed him dead before he came back and sought revenge on all who wronged him, or told him he was the avatar, including Rangi's mother. To those who think Kyoshi is a killer; she's not. She cried as she froze his lungs, because she would have rather done anything else.)

Anyway, I think at some point during prison Hama remembered the healing technique and thought "what if I control the water in a person's body instead of freezing it slightly?" and developed bloodbending.

Anyway, that's it for today.