Post by mrbananas on Feb 8, 2007 18:28:15 GMT -6
As Guru Pathik said, the division of the four nations and the four elements is an illusion. All the Elements and the bending technique behind them are all interrelated and connected.
But first what determines ones ability to bend. Is it the bending technique or the person that matters? Except for the avatar and other special exceptions, a Water bender can never bend Fire, even if the water bender was taught the bending techniques of fire bending they will never be able to bend the fire. On the opposite pole, Iroh has proven that the actual fire bending technique is not required to bend within ones element. He proved this by developing a way to redirect lighting using not the fire bending techniques but Water bending Techniques and philosophy. Thus proving that the philosophies of one element can be used to expand the abilities of a different element. This also proves that a fire bender doesn’t have use the fire bending technique to still be able to bend, (note, you still need it to bend fire the normal or basic way,)
For the sake of making things easy I am going to separate the distinction between the bending philosophies from the actual bending of the element.
Earth bending Philosophy = EP
Water bending Philosophy = WP
Air bending Philosophy = AP
Fire bending Philosophy = FP
Now each of the philosophies is structured based upon the characteristics of the normal state of the element for instance:
Earth = Solids Strong, massive, rigid,
Water = Liquids Flowing, graceful, flexible
Air = Gases Evasive, Constantly moving, Passive, Intangible.
Notice how I left out fire. Fire is extremely different from the other elements as was stressed by the Jeong Jeong. Fire is not plasma or heat (since heat is not an object) Fire is a chemical reaction, Combustion to be exact. Chemical reactions are sometimes chaotic, continuous, and destructive. “Firebenders can also control the size of their flame. Firebenders use their internal body heat as a source of their bending to create fire. This facet of Firebending is in sharp contrast to the other bending arts, which manipulate already present representations of their element.”
The fire bending philosophy has two focus points. 1)Using a source from within, i.e. Creating the fire verus rocks already lying on the ground. 2) controlling something chaotic which is capable of destruction without the aid of a bender. A rock is not going to move on its own but fire always burns everything in its path.
Adopting the philosophy of other elements
For Earth benders:
-AP- Sand bending. Sand benders copy the movement wind by using sand particles in place of air molecles. As has been seen, Sand benders can make there own gust of wind using sand instead of air. Like air, sand is made up of thousands of individual moving parts verus one solid rock, Sand is also not very firm ground and actual will move over and around your feet like air evasively moving out of the path of your body.
-WP- this one is tricky and I would like to say lava, Lava is molten rock i.e. rock in a liquid state. Since WP deals with liquids its only natural to apply it. However, this wouldn’t mean that an earth bender would be able to sustain a lava’s heat and keep it from cooling.
-Alternate WP- Mud bending, although mud also contains water. Which is why I sort of favor Tar, tar doesn’t contain water but is still a naturally occuring earthy liquid, Either way, an earth benders normal philosophy of holding your ground and absording attacks wouldn’t work well with mud or tar which is not something tuff enough to withstand a blow. Mud or tar would take WP like movements and attacks.
-FP- ? FP is hard to always translate, but I would maybe through out Radiation. Think about it, Some earth objects are naturally radioactive. Radiation is not a chemical reaction but it is chaotic and capable of causing harm on its own, thus the FP practice of control would come into play.
For Water Benders
-EP- Icebending beyound. We already see water benders using ice, however we never actual see them move the ice. They will freeze water turning it into ice, but once it is ice they sort of stop directing it. A water bender would direct water toward an opponent before freezing it inorder to project ice at a person. Ice is a solid and can be as hard as rock, thus it makes sense that EP would apply to moving the Ice as Ice. Imagine seeing a water bender stomping to frozen ground to make an ice block rise up and then fling toward and enemy, just like a rock. Because ice doesn’t flow, it can’t effectively be moved with normal WP.
-AP- Steam/Mist bending. Watervapor is a gas so it would make sense for AP to allow a water bender move it in its gases state. Water benders have created mist before, but you don’t see them every make a wind gust of mist. Steam has power to move things, image a water bender using steam to jump up high or push foes back.
-FP- ? unknown
For Air Benders
-FP- Sound bending. Think about it. FP stresses controling chaotic things with are capable of destruction on their own as well as generating the source. Once a sound wave is created it travels in all directions uncontrolabley and continues to travel on its own. Also when you think of how FP draws strengh from the breath and breathing and how sound comes from talking sound bending starts to sound [pun] reasonable. Sound is basically viberations which can be traveling through air, solids, or liquids. Sound can also be an effect attack. A loud scream tends to disorante, frighten, or distract. Very loud sound can actually hurt the ears. Sound waves even have the potenial to shatter rocks. The trick with sound bending would be controling and channeling the sound toward one direction so that your not hurting yourself or your friends.
-WP- ? cloud bending? Blood bending, Considering that WP involves healing and moving the bodies water I was maybe think along the lines of moving the oxygen within the blood so as to maybe supercharge the muslces. Since the oxygen is confided in the blood stream it sort of has to “flow” through the blood veins.
-EP-
?
For Fire Benders Fire is extermly tricky
-WP- Lighting bending/ chi bending. Iroh kind of already gave us this one.
-AP- ? Smoke bending maybe. Sort of post chemical reaction, but smoke can still be hot.
-EP- ? Ash bending. Again a solid post chemical reaction product, Although in truth Ash would be closer to Sand which is based more on AP and not EP.
-Other EP- Fine I will say it, Lava, are you happy now.
I would be happy to hear your thoughts or even suggests for the blank spots.
But first what determines ones ability to bend. Is it the bending technique or the person that matters? Except for the avatar and other special exceptions, a Water bender can never bend Fire, even if the water bender was taught the bending techniques of fire bending they will never be able to bend the fire. On the opposite pole, Iroh has proven that the actual fire bending technique is not required to bend within ones element. He proved this by developing a way to redirect lighting using not the fire bending techniques but Water bending Techniques and philosophy. Thus proving that the philosophies of one element can be used to expand the abilities of a different element. This also proves that a fire bender doesn’t have use the fire bending technique to still be able to bend, (note, you still need it to bend fire the normal or basic way,)
For the sake of making things easy I am going to separate the distinction between the bending philosophies from the actual bending of the element.
Earth bending Philosophy = EP
Water bending Philosophy = WP
Air bending Philosophy = AP
Fire bending Philosophy = FP
Now each of the philosophies is structured based upon the characteristics of the normal state of the element for instance:
Earth = Solids Strong, massive, rigid,
Water = Liquids Flowing, graceful, flexible
Air = Gases Evasive, Constantly moving, Passive, Intangible.
Notice how I left out fire. Fire is extremely different from the other elements as was stressed by the Jeong Jeong. Fire is not plasma or heat (since heat is not an object) Fire is a chemical reaction, Combustion to be exact. Chemical reactions are sometimes chaotic, continuous, and destructive. “Firebenders can also control the size of their flame. Firebenders use their internal body heat as a source of their bending to create fire. This facet of Firebending is in sharp contrast to the other bending arts, which manipulate already present representations of their element.”
The fire bending philosophy has two focus points. 1)Using a source from within, i.e. Creating the fire verus rocks already lying on the ground. 2) controlling something chaotic which is capable of destruction without the aid of a bender. A rock is not going to move on its own but fire always burns everything in its path.
Adopting the philosophy of other elements
For Earth benders:
-AP- Sand bending. Sand benders copy the movement wind by using sand particles in place of air molecles. As has been seen, Sand benders can make there own gust of wind using sand instead of air. Like air, sand is made up of thousands of individual moving parts verus one solid rock, Sand is also not very firm ground and actual will move over and around your feet like air evasively moving out of the path of your body.
-WP- this one is tricky and I would like to say lava, Lava is molten rock i.e. rock in a liquid state. Since WP deals with liquids its only natural to apply it. However, this wouldn’t mean that an earth bender would be able to sustain a lava’s heat and keep it from cooling.
-Alternate WP- Mud bending, although mud also contains water. Which is why I sort of favor Tar, tar doesn’t contain water but is still a naturally occuring earthy liquid, Either way, an earth benders normal philosophy of holding your ground and absording attacks wouldn’t work well with mud or tar which is not something tuff enough to withstand a blow. Mud or tar would take WP like movements and attacks.
-FP- ? FP is hard to always translate, but I would maybe through out Radiation. Think about it, Some earth objects are naturally radioactive. Radiation is not a chemical reaction but it is chaotic and capable of causing harm on its own, thus the FP practice of control would come into play.
For Water Benders
-EP- Icebending beyound. We already see water benders using ice, however we never actual see them move the ice. They will freeze water turning it into ice, but once it is ice they sort of stop directing it. A water bender would direct water toward an opponent before freezing it inorder to project ice at a person. Ice is a solid and can be as hard as rock, thus it makes sense that EP would apply to moving the Ice as Ice. Imagine seeing a water bender stomping to frozen ground to make an ice block rise up and then fling toward and enemy, just like a rock. Because ice doesn’t flow, it can’t effectively be moved with normal WP.
-AP- Steam/Mist bending. Watervapor is a gas so it would make sense for AP to allow a water bender move it in its gases state. Water benders have created mist before, but you don’t see them every make a wind gust of mist. Steam has power to move things, image a water bender using steam to jump up high or push foes back.
-FP- ? unknown
For Air Benders
-FP- Sound bending. Think about it. FP stresses controling chaotic things with are capable of destruction on their own as well as generating the source. Once a sound wave is created it travels in all directions uncontrolabley and continues to travel on its own. Also when you think of how FP draws strengh from the breath and breathing and how sound comes from talking sound bending starts to sound [pun] reasonable. Sound is basically viberations which can be traveling through air, solids, or liquids. Sound can also be an effect attack. A loud scream tends to disorante, frighten, or distract. Very loud sound can actually hurt the ears. Sound waves even have the potenial to shatter rocks. The trick with sound bending would be controling and channeling the sound toward one direction so that your not hurting yourself or your friends.
-WP- ? cloud bending? Blood bending, Considering that WP involves healing and moving the bodies water I was maybe think along the lines of moving the oxygen within the blood so as to maybe supercharge the muslces. Since the oxygen is confided in the blood stream it sort of has to “flow” through the blood veins.
-EP-
?For Fire Benders Fire is extermly tricky
-WP- Lighting bending/ chi bending. Iroh kind of already gave us this one.
-AP- ? Smoke bending maybe. Sort of post chemical reaction, but smoke can still be hot.
-EP- ? Ash bending. Again a solid post chemical reaction product, Although in truth Ash would be closer to Sand which is based more on AP and not EP.
-Other EP- Fine I will say it, Lava, are you happy now.
I would be happy to hear your thoughts or even suggests for the blank spots.