The arrows are the mark of airbending masters. They're bestowed upon a monk once they have passed 36 levels of airbending, plus creating their own technique. The arrows themselves are homages to the sky bison, the animal that first inspired the monks how to airbend. They follow the major chi pathways in the body, again emphasizing how spiritual the Air Nomads were.

Aang had those arrows in the flashbacks during the Storm because he had already achieved the rank of master (creating the air scooter got him the rank of youngest airbending master, this might be due in part of him being the Avatar). Master as a rank doesn't mean that there isn't any more that can be learned, though, so Aang continued to train under Monk Gyatso. You even get to see Monk Gyatso when he was a child, before becoming a master, in Avatar and the Fire Lord. When he's training with Avatar Roku he has no arrows.

Any airbender, male or female, will have the arrows tattooed on them once they've passed the tests. No airbending child would be born with them.

When it comes to why there weren't any women airbenders in the Southern Air Temple, the reason is because they separated them. The Southern and Northern Temples are all male while the Eastern and Western are all female. There are times when students of the Southern and Northern were allowed to travel to the Eastern Temple, looks to be for the purpose of choosing a sky bison companion (as the dream/flashback during Appa's Lost Days shows Aang choosing Appa during a trip to the Eastern Air Temple).

I think i remembered something about the split of gender in the Air Temples. It always was a bit off to me as to why they did that, but i do love the way the Air nomads lived. It was so peaceful and spiritual *darn you Sozin!* I think i did also know about the arrows representing those arrows on the Sky Bison. I don't know why i didn't remeber but thanks for refreshing my memory Ai LIn.

I didn't know though that Airbenders have 36 levels to achieve to receive an arrow, that is both new and fascinating information. I also find it amusing how Aang's little scooter allowed him to reach the level of a Master Bender =D And i now understand why the older monks had arrows.

Also i always had a feeling that the arrow was tattooed on. I don't know if they mentioned that in the show though, maybe they did, or maybe everyone just expected it.

Oo i do have another question. If Aang were to have a child that is an Airbender and that child reached the level of a Master Bender, would he tattoo his child? I think he would wouldn't he?

I also didn't know about the 36 levels. Shocking, but I suppose not surprising. But I did see the children didn't have arrows in some of those flashbacks.

As to your question there in the last paragraph — remember that bending is more about spirituality than inheritance. I've lost track of how many times in the last month I've referenced the creators of the show as saying that bending isn't a genetic thing, it's a spiritual thing. There is no guarantee that even if Aang had a child, it would be a bender of any variety at all.

Oh yes i completely agree. It took me a while to get use to the fact that bending was not genetic but spiritual. I also didn't mean to ask the question as if he would automatically have a child that was an Airbender. I was asking if, he did then would he follow his traditions and tattoo the child once it reached a master level.

Also i know that 36 level shocked me as well. Ai Lin where did you get that information? Was it on the show or listed somewhere? Maybe in a book? =D

Wow this is all so interesting. I had no idea that there were 36 levels that were required to have the arrows tattooed onto your body. It's amazing how you knew that Ai Lin. Thats so cool. Haha and leave it to Aang to reach Master Rank with an air scooter lol. It's a great airbending move. I wish i could do that. And i also agree with all of you. It seems more driven by spirituality rather than genetics.

While bending is spiritual I think it's safe to say that chances are, Aang might have a child that is an airbender. I think in the cases of people like Katara is was a spiritual thing but in a family that has strong ties to an element it will produce another child of that same element. I don't think anyone has ever mentioned that the Fire Lord has had a child that's been an earthbender or the other way around. So while I think there's a lot to do with spiritual connections, I don't rule out the possibility of genetics also playing a nice part in what element the children have when they are born.

Well, Aang only reached the 35th level and was given his arrows because he came up with the scooter. Also, getting the arrows is a choice. I'm sure refusal of the arrows was rare or non-existant but they were optional.

As for spiritual vs. genetic, I think they both play a part. I believe that spirituality dictates wether you can bend or not and genetics decides what element you are suited to. And I believe it's up to the bender how they choose to bend their element, that you are not limited to the techniques designated for your element.

Ok, I understand the levels and everything, but what are the purpose of the arrows? Are they supposed to show a form of "enlightenment" or something?(Seeming that their monks, and thats a common goal monks have)

About the spiritual and Genetics thing, I also think they both play apart, but in a different way. I think genetics tell what element affinity you are accustomed to, while the spirituality plays the role of your "limits" in that bending.

I read about the levels of airbending at different websites, most recently at the Avatar Wiki. It is perhaps in one of the books that was released, but I haven't read them so I can't say for certain.

The arrow signify the level of master, highlighting the chi pathways, and a tribute to the sky bison that first taught airbending. Wouldn't that be purpose enough to have them?

Bryke did place a high importance on spirituality as a factor for bending, though did not rule out that genetics play a part, right? Really, the only group that were entirely benders were the Air Nomads, due to their emphasis on spirituality. So they had genetics (being born of Air Nomads) and spirituality. I believe the Earth Kingdom have the least amount of benders, though the largest overall population.

I imagine that if Aang had a child (presumably with Katara), that child would have a chance of being an airbender, waterbender or non-bender. It would be more likely that his child would be a bender because of both his and Katara's spiritual emphasis, though. If that child was an airbender and trained under him, I suspect Aang would tattoo the child once they passed their tests.

But then, if that were the case, then that must mean that they are trying to achieve enlightenment since the arrows are to "mark the chi pathways". But then that raises another question....Why does Aang's arrows glow when he goes into the Avatar state? As a matter of fact, never mind because that will bring this topic into another discussion. =/

But yeah, based on genetic science, if Aang and Katara was to have a child, he would most likely be a bender. What kind of bender he/she'll be is a 50/50 chance since they are both benders. I doubt he/she'll have two affinities though.

If it were possible for benders besides the Avatar to have more than one bending affinity, the significance of the powers of the Avatar would be greatly diminished. As a side note, bending is not entirely genetic. If one remembers from the episode "The Fortuneteller", there were two identical twins, but only one of them was an Earthbender.

I read somewhere that the reason his tattoos glow is because they lay over the main chi pathways so they are different from a normal tattoo

Kay, so this might be going a bit off topic [but since the question about the arrows was pretty much answered already >.>] but I just wanted to point out a few things regarding the Air Nomads.



First is the word "Nomad." I'm not going to find the exact definition but I believe nomadic people travel and live generally through hunting and foraging. The monks who live almost their entire lives at the Air Temples don't count as Nomads >.>.

Second is that I find it highly unlikely that EVERYONE of the Air Nation are air benders. Also, there is no mention of non-benders at the Air Temples.

Thirdly, due to the fact of the gender separation, I doubt that the Air Nomads have a lot of opportunities to have children. In fact, they don't specify and it varies even amongst real live monks, but are they ALLOWED to have children?

In my mind it was like this. The "Air Nomads" are made up of two different types of people. There are the actual Nomads, and than the Air Benders. The nomads people who travel the world living completely non-bender lives. They don't have permanent settlements and travel most of the time. When they have a child who has airbender capabilities however, they send them to one of the four air temples for training, This would also explain why they don't mention Aang's parents, and that's also how most real-life Shaoling temples increase their numbers anyways.

That's how it works in my mind anyways >.>

~~~

On another note. If the Air Nomads were completely wiped out. What happens when the Avatar is supposed to be reborn into the "Air Nation". I mean, unless Aang has a LOT of kids [XD] the Air Nation is still permanently gone. So would the cycle end? Or would the Avatar just appear in the next closest relative to the Air Nomads?

I was going on what I read directly from the creators in an interview here. Whenever there is something clarified by the creators, I tend to go by it. It's their universe and all.

Particularly here's the section that I was referring to:


It's a bit confusing with them using the term Air Nomads and then the monks living in the temples. It could be possible that once reaching the rank of master, a lot of monks decided to leave the temples and travel the world (being the nomads in the term Air Nomad). They were fairly detached from material possessions and were about freedom, so travel could be a very natural thing to do.

The same interview does make it sound like there's no chance for airbending to just spontaneously pop up. Any children Aang had would have a good shot at being an airbender, but it'd be hard for him to have enough to bring the Airbenders back from extinction. They don't really say what that does to the Avatar cycle, though.

Last thing, Ryou, please remember to keep your posts at least 300 characters.

Well, with the tattoos glowing and all, I believe those areas of Aang would glow regardless of the tattoo being there or not, since they are the chi pathways. The arrows probably just emphasize it. I think it would probably glow white instead of blue though, since it would be going through peach/clear skin rather than blue skin.

If you think about it, that might not be true. When Avatars Roku and Kyoshi entered the Avatar state, only their eyes glowed. Following the logic you presented, the chi pathways on their bodies would also glow when they entered the Avatar State. Although, it might be a manifestation of Airbender spirituality, as the arrows are more spiritual in nature (in addition to showing the Master rank), so that might be why they glow.

EDIT: One could also assume that all the previous Airbender Avatars would have glowing arrows while in the Avatar State, as they would receive the tattoos after mastering Airbending if they hadn't already. Just a thought.