Another reason why the nomads in hiding werent exactly caught could be because they ended up marrying someone from another nation, abandoning their spirituality for safety, and actually having a child who can bend...but the element they married into. We see that often in LoK.
And also that the survivors were NOT airbending masters, so even if they wished, which they probably didn't because being actively hunted would be best if their kids never learned it at all instead of risk learning and hiding it, they couldn't properly instruct other airbenders. And the reason that's obvious they weren't masters is because the masters had a pretty big blue target tattooed all over their bodies and were among the first hunted down.
My head canon for why there were so many airbender descendants in the Fire Nation colonies is because some Fire Nation citizens may have hid friends or family members who were airbenders in their homes. Basically it would be not so dissimilar to how some Germans kept Jews safe from the Nazis during WWII. Overtime, these surviving Air Nomads could have been given new identities by the White Lotus Society or other sympathetic organizations. Thus allowing them to pass off as Fire Nation citizens, and even marry people from the colonies and start families.
I don't think it would make much sense given the inspiration of the Fire Nation was imperial Japan from the Meiji Restoration to the Second World War. There were many noble Germans who went and helped hide Jews, but that was not the case in East Asia when Japan was committing genocide on Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Koreans and the rest of Asia. Japan was a collectivist society, hierarchical and conforming to the whims of the Imperial family, Hirohito's family and military clique. To hide a Chinese family or a Korean family from the IJA would be antithesis to the empire and its values to dominate the region and impose Japanese culture and way of life. You don't hear any prominent examples of Japanese doing this (Chiune Sugihara doesn't count since he like most Japanese still held prejudicial views on other Asians at the time, but he would willingly help thousands of Jews on a different continent and in the case of Sugihara, he went against the grain, against the collective and was ostracized by the Japanese government, losing his job, and living an impoverished life up until his death). Going against the Emperor, is going against the people, and doing so is a loss of 'face' no matter how noble the aim was, it's the ultimate shame in Northeast Asian cultures. The Japanese at the time were not noble or humane as they are now and would willingly ignore the plight of 'others' if it meant being part of the majority, part of the in-group. Since ATLA borrows so much from real-world history and cultures, Fire Nation citizens would not willingly hide Air Nomads. If anything, they would probably willingly obey and report any Nomads they'd come across because they believed in the Fire Lord's propaganda that Air Nomads sought the destruction of their way of life and the Avatar would destroy the great progress of Sozin and Azulon, if he ever came about, not only that but maybe even stoke extreme fears that the Avatar would destroy the Fire Nation as a whole to restore balance to the destruction of the Air Nomads. The Air Nomads like surviving Tibetans during the Chinese Civil War, would probably grow a distrust of outsiders that led to the decimation of their people. They would have probably retreated into the mountains, living a pastoral, hermitic and nomadic lifestyle like their forefathers, constantly on the move, braving the elements, and rejecting the greater society in order to live in peace. They would generally avoid any Fire Nation settler due to their role and potential loyalties to the Fire Lord that caused their genocide. Those who fell for Zhao's traps were probably either 1) naive or 2) desperate. The first wave of Air Nomad survivors were probably just naive and holding onto the hope that there were other survivors like them. The later trickle of survivors falling for Zhao's traps were desperate, maybe in surviving, trying to find food, company, shelter and exhausted all options/resources and willingly did the cost-benefit analysis of reaching out to the rumors and false hopes of other survivors but ultimately paid the price.
@@daeseongkim93as a fellow Korean, I appreciate the insight into Japanese culture and history, yet I think you completely miss the point. This is a fictional world, though heavily based on real life history and culture. There absolutely were people in the past and even in the show, who passed as an "enemy citizen" in order to survive. Think about Hama, who definitely doesn't want anyone in her village to find out that she's a waterbender and she still made a successful living for herself for years before being caught. There may or may not have been fire nation citizens, who hid airbenders from the genocide but that's besides the point. I haven't read the comics on the previous avatars, so I don't really know anything about the perception the world had about the air nation.
During the early stages of the 100 year war, I'm sure there were some who opposed Sozin's plans for world domination; we don't hear about it enough because Sozin and his successors up until Zuko probably made every attempt to cover up such acts if they were found out. While I can assume they hid under the noses of the general populace, it wouldn't surprise me that some probably hid among the Fire Sages; they were meant to be loyal to the Avatar anyway before they all decided to serve the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation entirely.
It would honestly make sense when you think about Ty Lee for an example. She's a fire nation citizen, but she doesn't have stereotypical fire nation traits like the Gold/amber eyes, sharp features, and(mostly) black hair. She looked more Air nomad with the silver/grey eyes, rounder face, and softer features with brown hair. It's possible she has Air nomad somewhere in her gene pool too
Seeing as bending is tied to community spirituality. the fact that airbenders didn't have families, it's pretty easy to see a scenario where airbenders that survived lost faith, or kept their bending secret, who would subsequently have their kids not inherit airbending. The fact that disproportionate amount of airbenders popped up in the earth kingdom, its easy to put things together. the guys who got their bending after harmonic convergence would've likely been the descendants who found a way to survive by giving up on the Air Nomad spiritual identity. That seems a lot more lore friendly than some secret last air temple hidden in a cave somewhere
it makes you think what causes bending to appear at all. we know it doesn't follow our science so why would it follow genetics. if airbending gets imbued in those with high spirituality. maybe earth bending comes from strength. being part of a strong family and imbued with natural power gives one the ability to earth bend. waterbending has to do with change and fire bending energy and emotion. the reason why a bender is always shown to have a bender parent might just be because the genetic traits that made them suitable for bending indirectly influenced it
@@group555_ Katara and Sokka's parents were both nonbenders in the show, yet Katara is a water bender. SO there's at least one instance of two non bender parents.
@@group555_, It seems doubtful to me that the manifestation of elemental bending abilities is not influenced by genetics. Just as an example: the series mentions that all air nomads were air benders before the genocide, which is very easily explained by genetics. They lived in closed, isolated and specific communities cut off from the world, the conditions of the terrain making the ability to air bending necessary simply for survival. All this combined leads to the fact that air nomads, firstly, choose a mate within their community, and secondly, most non-benders do not survive. Because of this, the genetic marker for the ability to bend air is firmly established in the population. Let alone the fact that most likely the air nomads were the smallest of all peoples. And this is exactly what explains their further disappearance, since most of the population was destroyed; the few survivors were forced to hide in the kingdom of the earth, where they were ultimately simply assimilated by the local population, and their genetics were greatly eroded. Rather, at the time of the end of the war, their descendants lived in the world capable of bending air simply due to the lack of a system of knowledge or simply knowledge of their strength; they never studied it and did not consciously demonstrate it. And the harmonious rapprochement became a trigger for dormant abilities, just as the spirit of Raava became a trigger for Van’s abilities to study and acquire more than one element.
makes sense since avatar kyoshi 's mother is an air nomad and her father is an earth kingdom. Her mother slowly losing her spiritual connection making her airbending weak which is why she needed fans to help her airbending and which is why kyoshi uses fans is because of her late mother
Well aang uses a staff so I wouldn't say Kyoshi uses the fan because she suck at air bending like her mom. She also is a woman . In some real world cultures , women can often be seen carrying a fan so why not carry an item that women already use but it doubles as a weapon?
I love this theory. To add to your uncertainty on Aang and Zaheer, Zaheer said Tenzin was the first airbending master he ever met, so he likely never met Aang.
I love the fact that Aang's all like "No, I can't kill! I have to live up to what Monk Gyatso taught me!" But when you see Monk Gyatso's body, what's he surrounded by? A pile of fire bender bodies, and not just regular fire benders, but comet enhanced fire bending soldiers. What does Aang think happened? Does he think they just all had simultaneous heart attacks after killing Gyatso? Nah, in his final moments Gyatso said "Screw Nirvana, I'm going to Valhalla."
Aang claims he never hurt/killed a Fly...but we see that's NOT true. An if you look at some of his Attacks on Fire Nation Soldiers, they SHOULD have KILLED them. Maybe not directly, but certainly taken enough fall damage. To say nothing of being plunged into Freezing Water in Heavy Armor in the Avatar State! You could make a case that Aang was ignoring of what Monk Gyatso did...but SHOULD have understood that he killed people. He SHOULD have remembered the Fly he killed
I always thought along the theory that gyatso didn’t fight back. The theory states that there’s no burn/fire damage on gyatso which led to believe that he basically removed all the air in the area essentially creating a vacuum that prevented fire benders from bending. Essentially he suffocated himself and the fire benders. The theory states that aang noticed this and that’s what shook him into the avatar state.
In the Avatar Legends roleplaying game, a group known as the "Guiding Wind" was mentioned. By Avatar Roku's time, the Air Nomads were becoming more and more involved with worldly matters and the affairs of the other nations. In response, a breakaway sect of Air Nomads known as the guiding wind was formed. Their goal was to reconnect with their spiritual roots and ensure their culture wasn't affected by other nations. Because they had broken away from the temples, it's likely this sect survived the genocide.
I think you forgot one point, just like Bumi is the son of a mix marriage, so could those air bender survivors have intermarried with non-airbending spouses, causing their airbending DNA to be dilated and thus the ability not passed down to their children but nevertheless some parts of that airbending blood was passed down. That's why Bumi didn't exhibit airbending at first.
I agree with this. It makes sense that having Airbender heritage might make someone an Airbender. I think that Harmonic convergence 'activated' the genes in people like Bumi. How or why, I do not know. But it's the one that makes sense to me.
So the reason why the airbenders spend time or live in the temples because it's said that if you don't then you might not get your airbending. So generatioms of airbenders spent their lives without ever knowing what they're life could've been like. People would've been being born from the survivors throughout aangs entire time in the ice throughout his life. He robbed generations of their airbending
Ty Lee was a descendent of an air bender, probably her grandmother or grandfather went into hiding in the fire nation and fell in love with someone from the fire nation. Ty Lee just wasn't a bender. That's my head cannon though
My theory is that you need a good amount of air nomad blood to be an air nomad. Thats why zaheer couldnt airbend until harmonic convergence. And as for bumi, maybe he takes more from kataras side of the family. Thats why he couldnt airbend. He acts more like sokka than anybody, showing proof he has more of kataras genes. Tenzin took more from aangs side of the family, so that could explain him airbending at such a young age.
Thought I have is that Zaheer could have lacked the Airbending parents but had the spirituality. That or Harmonic Convergence could have reinstated the balance of the world. By awakening those with Air Nomad ancestry or the right connections. Something of a shock to a, as of yet, untapped side of themselves.
That's not a thought or theory that's literally what happened and was clearly explained in the show, harmonic convergence rebalanced the world and brought back air benders by making the spiritual people of the world air benders, which is why the original air benders could bend air in the first place
Well the huge thing about about the harmonic convergence and the air benders is ALLL ABOUT BALANCE. Basically the world was out of balance so when the event happened in order to bring balance, WE NEEDED AIRBENDERS. Although there is much logic to ur theory and I love it!
Heres the thing. To a certain extent airbending could mask as different types of bending pretty easily. Well water and earth by controlling the air around them. Look how Katara made the underwater air bubble. It would be easy to do this with small pebbles as well. The surviving airbender might have used this tactic to blend in with the other nations. They new they had to hide and this would have been a good way to do it. They could have taught any children they had to "water bend" or "earth bend" in that manner. And for an added thought every nation had non benders. The non bending air benders would have still carried the gene even tho its recessive in them.
Well. I do have a theory, on how Zaheer knew so much about air-bending and he DID NOT TO DO IT WHILE BEING IMPROSONED. As the story progress, we are told that Zaheer and his crew tried to kidnap when she was little. But instead they get captured and thrown in prison. But here the thing, Zaheer already had mastered theoretical knowledge of air-bending by that time. Zaheer in spiril world told Korra, that how their plan was to kidnap Korra and groom her into the Avatar they wanted, with core members of Red Lotus being her elements master i.e.: 1)Fire: P'Li 2)Water: Ming-Hua, 3)Earth: Ghazan and 4) Air:............yes, Zaheer. It is very clear in the show how skilled red lotus is in their bending, snd Zaheer still was most dreadful amongst them even without bending. Therefore to teach Korra in air-bending without being an air-bender, Zaheer would have definitely made sure that he knows all there is to know about Air-bending, and then thanks to harmonic convergence he gets the gift and therefore becomes the most manically perfect villain of AVATAR HISTORY .
Suki being in a circus is her family's way of holding on to their air nomad culture, Circus people travel and she or her sister's practice acrobatics, so in other words air benders are nomads, people that travel and they have high agility. Like Zaheer, all she needed was to regain that spiritual connection of their ancestors
I strongly believe that. Hiding from the Fire Nation, their children may not have been told about their heritage so they didn't accidentally blab and get themselves wiped out. Thus losing their heritage, and their spirituality... thus their descendants lost touch with their Airbending. I also like the theory that because of her personality and fighting style, that Ty Lee may actually be a descendent of an Air Nomad. Not saying it's true, but I do like the idea.
I like the theory that the Airbender in Korra were decedents from surviving Airbenders. First of all, it’s kinda confirm when Bumi, a direct decedent of a Airbender, got air bending, and it’s been confirm that mix-race couples could make bending and non-bending children that look different from the parents. Like that one girl from the comics. I forgot her name but in her own words, “I might be a earthbenders. But from my father’s blood I am fire nation.”
@@johnkrappweis7367though honestly to me the two look more typical of the side of their lineage that that their element comes from, even if mako's fire nation looks are notably influenced by his earth kingdom genetics
I think it's really as simple as Zaheer having hyperfocused on the Air Nomad teachings that support his own worldview, which wasn't sufficient enough for bending until Harmonic Convergence.
I've seen a theory (which I 100% believe) that Ty Lee is a descendent of an air nomad who hid and had a family in the fire nation. This is based on the fact that here physical appearance much more closely matches air benders than fire nation citizens (grey eyes and a round face) and that her fighting style heavily relies on an extremely agile, almost floaty move set.
Basically you could be an air nomad with no bending but have the airbender gene to pass on to your children. Or you could’ve been an airbender but you just had to grow out your hair and never bend in front of anyone again. There’s no way they were gonna catch every single air nomad
My go to theory has always been a non cannon one; It's genetic. Like tall genes, where you can have multiple of the same gene that will make you taller, or the lack of the gene will make you shorter. You can get enough bending genes that once you cross a threshold of needed genes you become a bender. What type of bender you become is determined by how many of what gene you have. That's why we see more hybrid benders as the world becomes a more global place- more people with mixed bending heritage. If you have roughly the same number of bending genes from two different bending styles, you get a mixed variant, like Bolin. He is primarily an Earth Bender, but it's easier for him to Lava bend because it utilizes all of him, rather than just the stronger bending type. if you don't have enough bending genes at all, you could just be a non bender carrier- this would allow your children to maybe become benders, but not you. My theory continues- harmonic convergence just lowered the threshold for how many bending genes you need to cross that threshold into bender from non bender. So suddenly, Zahir who didn't quite have enough to become an Air bender became one. And he became a powerful one because of his spiritual connection. Similarly we see dormant Air nomad genes popping up all over the place now that the threshold is lowered.
I still remember the genetic chart from my bio class. Some genes are dominant, some are recessive, some are mixed. So you can carry the genetics for, say, red hair, without actually having red hair. Having a kid with a partner with the right genetic mix can express that gene. So perhaps due to lifestyle, airbending could be a recessive gene but if you don't survive the lifestyle without having bending, you're left with people who only have recessive genes, so it becomes impossible for nonbending genes to appear.
I always figured if they had any kids, and the spirituality of the Benders, many would have been broken, and like, have lost touch, willingly or otherwise, with their bending
I've always been of the opinion that sand bending tribes would be the perfect place for any surviving airbenders to hide. Not only do they live in deserts which would have a lot of places to hide or escape, but they also cover up from head to toe so any air nomad tattoos would be hidden, and I think it would be possible to use airbending in order to pretend to be a sandbender, since air can pick up sand.
There probably were other Airbenders around after the war of the air temple. But they probably weren't many. I'd guess less than 10. Then, so the rest went into hiding and either were found by the fire nation later and like what happened to katara's mom, you know... or they just lived their lives in hiding, in secret, pretending they were a non bender person and never air bending again, until the end. Remember aang is 112 years old in avatar the last airbender. There probably were airbenders still around 65 years before that but when aang got out of the iceberg there wasn't any more. My theory is that the few airbenders that were left probably had kids with non benders or other benders. And their kids either had no air powers or any powers at all, like bumi. OR if they did, they had earth, fire, or water powers. This would explain why there weren't any airbenders. And it's possible there were air benders from air benders that escaped the air temple and later had kids, like say an airbender and a non bender had an air bender. But probably that kid never air bended because his dad or mom ended up like katara and sokka's mom, and so he didn't know how to and there was no one left in the world to teach him. So by that point, when the airbender guy who didn't know how to air bend, and his mom told him not to, was like 95 years old, and aang had just found sokka and katara from his iceberg. So yeah, it's possible there once were air benders earlier but they were very few. My other theory for the harmonic convergence in the legend of Korra is that the new airbenders were descendants of old ones. So, A few air temple air benders escape from the fire nation-- they have kids of their own who are non benders, like bumi-- and those kids have non bender kids, so on and so forth--until finally Korra's timeline where the descendants of the remaining air benders get their powers.
I also think the airbenders in Korra were descendants of the survivors, but my headcannon is that one of the surviving air nomads made a deal with a spirit to block the air bending of surviving children in order to hide them from being hunted.
This video was done so well, editing and background, knowledge and flow, tone and inflection. For how young you sound this was done insanely professionally
The line "... Korra opening both spirit portals, combining the spirit and mortal worlds together..." got me thinking: how did spirits (e.g. Heibai) make themselves present in the physical world before she opened the portals? Are spirits who manifest in the moral world more humanish than other spirits (like how people who can travel in the other direction are more spiritual)?
Your channel logo watermark that appears bottom right in full screen mode appeared to my eye as a greasy smudge on my screen that wouldn't wipe off. It took me like 30 full seconds to realize 😂. Great content, of course. Keep'em coming.
zahir couldn’t go into the spirit world before harmonic convergence because the 2 worlds were still separated and the avatar was the only one that could enter the spirit world.
Did you forget that he can meditate into the spirit world? Harmonic convergence or not, open or closed portals, meditation still works (like, Iroh transcended to the spirit world some 40 years after the war)
Spiritual material is typically supplied to prisoners in real life and the vastly unexpected event of him Airbending was super important for setting up the plot for that season so that part makes sense.
you are a fantastic content creator, after watching your video i was very surprised to see how little subs you have, you should def post more bc i loved this video and you make your content very easy to understand
After Order 66, many Jedi willingly cut themselves off from The Force to keep their identity safe and avoid any chance of the inquisitors finding them. Perhaps it was a similar thing that the refugee airbenders did. Willingly cut their own spirits off from all spiritual energies, which over time would make them lose their bending. And by not teaching their children the ways of airbending and having cut themselves off, perhaps that could have an impact on their children as well.
I think combustion benders are descendants from airbenders and firebender parents. It makes sense that the fire nation would take slaves of older air nomads too old to be the avatar. Combustion bending relies on igniting compressed hydrogen and using intense oxygen all stuff airbendrs would be pros at
Combustion benders have a canon origin from the books now. they were firebenders put under water where they would be forced to learn how to firebend underwater
Combustion bending is simply a secret fire bending technique. Is has nothing to do with air bending. It’s condensing fire bending by bringing the energy from your breath, to your forehead and release it.
like the commenter above said, there is a canon background for Combustionbenders--But i love the idea that under certain circumstances or training, an Airbender could produce similar combustions.
@@jimdaflynn oh cool! I was unaware of the new cannon info on the combustion benders! I based my thoughts on how bolin a earth & lava bender had a fire nation & earth nation parent as a premise of maybe the air bender /fire bender co ancestors was a easier explanation of the combustion bender. I’ll have to read the books though. The story sounds interesting
@@danniobrien1831 ya I didn’t know about the cannon history in books but bolin in Kora had a fire nation parent & earth nation parent which was why mako could fire bend while he earth bends then eventually lava bends like so maybe there’s some chi crossover on the ancestry of combustion benders to that enhanced the ability of the more dominant type of bending Fire nation is based on imperial Japan according to the writers & military nations generally try to weaponize equipment people & science of other nations throughout history like the fire nation using the machinists who were earth kingdom to build weapons so I could see them weaponizing younger kid air benders or the children that are the result of air nomad slaves & fire nation soldiers could inherit the air benders abilities in a unique way. But the the book story sounds cool I’ll have to read it to
I feel you did a really good job putting this together. I have a thought on why things dont add up, as you put it, in Kora. For The Last Airbender - they built a very strong backstory for the basis of the world. Yes it evolved as the story came out, and they did a very good job with it at that. It was more grounded then Kora was. For Kora - this part of the story felt a bit rushed, and doesnt feel like they built it as good as the original. Things where not as grounded and based on training for instance, rather "It was flashy at the end of The Last Airbender, so we need to keep up with that!!" is how the legend of Kora felt to me... For instance, take a look at the average benders in TLA - the good benders have devoted their lives to training, rather then just being naturally gifted every time someone new shows up. Add to this that each Named char in TLA had their own "Level of Strength" There was more variance here, most where just average and where fighters at best, whereas some where considered "Masters" and where VERY few. True you could use Souzens war as an excuse "it caused the death of any great bender of the time!!" - however you see many benders still alive with lots of knowledge and power anywhere, except for the Airbending nations. Plenty of Earth benders with lots of strength, plenty of strong Northern Waterbenders (yes the southern tribe was pretty much wiped out sure) But when you take a look at any bender worth their metal, their history was always full of Training of some kind. Even Toph, who was basically just "Gifted" the power to bend earth lol had trained a lot/been exposed to earth bending from a very young age. Then you look at the Strongest/Rarest benders in this era, it feels more natural to me, they all have a specific reason in their own backstories as to why they are so strong/unique. Next take a look at TLK A once very rare, and touted very difficult to master without hurting yourself, type of ability "Lightning Bending" was pretty commonplace in Kora. This was always one of my biggest problems with Kora, the "Unique/Takes a special type of person" kind of abilities where handed out like candy to random people in Koras time, as the "Story" needed it to be. And this is not a "one off" thing either, look all over Kora's timeline and you see many instances of benders being way too strong for the type of life they lived, and lack of training anywhere in the civilized era... Idk about the comics and stuff... never got into those - but as far as the TV adaption goes, non fighting/non training backstories for people = can bend as good as the warriors of TLA era?? TLK has lots of good points, i want to make that clear, it does have lots of good story and history built into it. But it has too much "Its this way cause the story needs it to be" kind of stuff. Like Metal bending, if it took hundreds of years for Toph to figure out how to metal bend, then she is able to train others to do so, but its a selective process. Then in Koras time, tons of people can metal bend... it feels wrong imo - Lightning bending set Fire benders apart from others "Only those with very clear minds can do this" - would make sense if for Metal bending "Only those with unmovable minds can do this!!" Just like flying air bending "Only those with no attachments are able to do this" or waters "Only rare people born with a natural caring heart can Heal bend" - Not in Koras time tho... IMO - Legend of Kora, while attempted to have a strong history and lore to the world, took too many shortcuts and had too many "Its for the story" moments, and thats why there are lots of conflicts, as is with the big bad being beyond a Master level Air bender when he simply "Awakens" to his new power...
I think you are forgetting... This is a medieval - proto-industrial revolution time period. Lifespans are around 40-60 years old AT MOST. Uncle Iroh is around mid 50s iirc. Monk Gyatso was in his early to late 70s most likely, this was during a time of peace in one of the most peaceful and spiritual places in the avatar world, an air temple. Most Air Benders would of blended it, and most if not all younger Air Benders would of been dead when the temples were attacked. So the only ones to carry on tradition would of been the ones forced to give up airbending and blend in. Or, they would of lived away from people and not create a family. --- By the time of Aang, most Air Benders would of been dead by old age. Any Children would of been dead. Only grandchildren or great grandchildren left. Ones who knew nothing of their parents air bending.
Hey I love ur theories so much !! 💨 But I have one question around 6:00 u start talking about how bending works ... That the bender must be spiritual as well as their bending if that's the case than why didn't bumi get air bending abilities as well as kia and tenzin did ? Since there dad was an Airbending Master .
That's such a good question! Thank you for asking! This is really where these thoughts enter the realm of "theorizing"... There's going to be holes since the creators really haven't given us a definite answer to all of this (thus, why I also suggest taking every theory with a grain of salt). From what I understand, while the ability to Bend DOES depend of the factors of genetics and spirituality, it's never a given that someone will inherit Bending just because they have parents with strong abilities. Likewise, it's possible that a child with Bending abilities can be born to parents without--we see this is the case with Katara. In the case of Bumi, he had two parents who were each very strong in their capabilities; yet, he just didn't seem to inherit those abilities--possibly due to genetics (we do see that Katara's side of the family has a a number of non-benders in Sokka, Hakoda, etc.). Now, in the case of Kya, she's one of the few examples of children born to two different types of Benders. In this case, it seems to be, really, left up to chance when it comes to what Bending ability the child inherits. We see this being the case for Avatar Kyoshi, with her mother being an Airbender, yet Kyoshi herself inheriting her father's Earthbending (as her natural element of course). So, in both cases of Kya and Bumi it seems to be chance and genetics that play a role in why they received the abilities they did. I hope that answers your question!!!
I think the most plausible is that they are decedents. Kyoshi was half and more than likely there would have been others. If you read the story of Yangchen the Air Nomads had towns near their temples. The benders would have to have kids, and If anything those that couldnt bend would not have come to the temple. It also talks about Kyoshi’s mom who almost completely lost her ability to bend due to her illegal activities. This probably is due to it being in conflict with her nature. The decedents probably didn’t have a strong connection to neither the spirits nor the wind. Zaheer on the other hand probably didn’t feel pure with his intentions. Years of meditation can unburden the mind and the extra spirit force could have triggered his abilities.
Id give the remaining air benders 20 years as souzen still searched for the avatar till his dying days, also since the fn didn't attack the water tribe till 40 ag it safe to assume that there aren't any more air benders so they attacked the next element of the cycle
Interesting vid. Some sound logic in there. One detail I would question: I don't think word would spread of the airbender traps unless someone escaped a trap or suspected a trap and had a whistleblower stay behind then knew how to disseminate the info among the scattered survivors. Not entirely impossible and frankly I like the idea that all the new air benders are descended from survivors that assimilated.
I think a big part of the reason Zahir onlt got airbending abilitjes after the harmonic convergence is likely becausr we've sren throughout the story that spirituality is a very important part of bending, but so is the technical mastery. Katara is able to do incredible things with her water bending almost immediately after learning the moves to do them because she has the spirituality, but there's still a specific way you need to focus that to get the results you want. I think that Zahir probably had a good understanding and likely was quite spiritual, but that wasn't enough to make up for the lack of tactic knowledge. I think, if we think of being spiritual as generating a type of spirit energy in the body and say bending is them using and directing that energy, then it implies that limited spiritual energy would need good akills and focus to use it properly, but Zahir already has a lot of spiritual energy, and so by receiving so much more, he dowsnt need to know the proper noves to do some pretty powerful stuff because he can just push out more energy and it'll end up doing what he wants. I think everyone got a just above enough to do snall things without much propwr channeling, mostly seen with bumi, and i think that's also why Zahir became so powerful because he had so much spirit eneegy to use that once he could direct it, he was nesrly unstoppable. another reason i feel like this reasoning makes so much sense is that it would also explain how bending is partially genetic. It seems like there is the genetics of what type if spirital energy your body could produce or maybe where your body can connect and release that spiritual energy. That would mean that childred of bender would have the ability to channel their spiritual energy into a certain type of bending, but it doesn't have to be used, or maybe it can skip generations. Thats also why chilsren of two different benders can bend different elemnta but can never bend multiple.
Zaheer was master of fighting before Harmonical Convergetion. That`s why he was so strong and dangerouse. Zaheer just adaptated his old skills of fighting to the airbending, which made him bigger threat that he was before.
the resurgence of the airbenders was due to the opening of the spirit portals in season 2 which dispersed a large amount of spiritual energy into the physical world. the ones who received airbending were ones who are already spiritually adpet (Zaheer) or had lineage with airbenders (Bumi). my head canon is that ty lee's descendants would have unlocked this as well
I believe that some individuals may have chosen to suppress their bending abilities as a means of self-protection, potentially making themselves targets. This decision could have been passed down through generations (Besides the spiritual balance having been broken), resulting in their descendants unknowingly losing touch with their bending heritage. The recent opening of the spirit portal may have triggered a resurgence of these latent abilities in those who possessed the potential to become airbenders, explaining why not all descendants were affected. With that said, yes, I agree with your thinking just needed to phrase it with my own words.
This video explains why most audiences think the story over exaggerates that claims Aang to be the last Airbender. Perhaps he is the last KNOWN active Airbender but definitely NOT the last Air Nomad. Air bending is unique in that spiritual devotion and discipline are required to attain AND maintain such ability. The war Sozin waged is not just to kill the next Avatar, it is mostly to discourage Air bending culture from ever existing again. Air Nomad survivors would have given up on such a faith and culture that could not even guarantee their survival. The Avatars' disappearance would assert that they have been ABANDONED. Air Nomads turning rogue and intermingled with other nations explains during Korras time why their descendants attain Airbending. The Convergence mostly develops Airbender not other elements.
I think it's like a combination of genetics and spirit. The more airbender genes you have, the less spirituality you need. In Bumi's case he has quite some airbender genes already, but didn't get that spirituality until harmonic convergence. Meanwhile Zaheer already was very spiritually suited, but because he has less airbender genes, the amount of spiritual energy he needed to actually bend, was simply higher.
I have no doubt that there were airbender who survived but I am willing to bet that in Aangs era from getting out of the iceberg all the way up until death he is the only airbender other than his son tenzen, I have no doubt others survived but the ones that did either died later or were found by the fire nation
I mean, Zander certainly had been seeking out airbending teachings. Perhaps his knowledge was passed on through a family line and instead of something he yet truly resonated with, it was something he didn’t truly take to heart until later when he actually starts to float. Though alternately and more loosely, the lack of airbenders could have been more of a generational spiritual wound that only harmonic convergence ended up being able to heal. Even Aang could be considered wounded spiritually from this, maybe explaining why one of his children didn’t develop airbending until later.
personally i believe the reason zaheer wasn't born a bender (and bumi, and by extension most if not all of the other airbender descendants) is because there's lots of evidence for bending to be a genetic trait. (recessive or dominant, i forget cuz middle school biology was like a decade ago) but it would make sense to be that in this fantasy world with spirit magic and dragons that a genetic trait can be both parts physical and spiritual, as bending is shown to be in other areas; being a martial art, a spirituality, a manipulation of chi energy, etc. with a notable example of blood bending being used to block bending ability, and chi manipulation being able to restore it.
My personal speculation is that H.C. airbenders were of two sorts: autumn-baby nonbenders who were spiritually suited to it, and actual latent airbenders as per the video. Zaheer is in the former category, as is Opal; Bumi and possibly Kai are in the latter category.
was a part of the TLAB campaign that took place in the gap of Aang leaving and getting frozen in ice and him being rescued from the ice. My character was an air nomad that was overall average when it came to air nomads. The only thing odd about me was that no sky bison wanted to choose me. I was a part of air nomads that were dispatched to find Aang so when the fire nation attacked; I was nowhere near any of the temples. Unfortunately the rest of my party was either captured or killed. Since I hadn't earned my tattoos yet; I was able to steal a change of cloths and remain undetected in the Earth kingdom where I eventually met up with the rest of the players.
Well yes with a Lack of spiritual connection is definitely a big thing in a war torn world but also I see the air nomad parents maybe 1 hiding there air nomads after all best secrets are ones u never share and 2 hiding and stifling there children's powers as well because if a random report comes in about kids air bending all the sudden comes in will have the fire nation running over.
So for Zaheer not having developed air bending until after harmonic convergence, despite his spiritually, perhaps it also has to do with how distant in his bloodline the air nomad blood was? His ancestor would have been from 170 years ago, like all the others. Him having so little air bender blood could have prevented him from tapping into his latent abilities until harmonic convergence awakened it.
This makes sense but I would like to believe that some air nomads didn't just hide in the Earth Kingdom; sure the majority of them that survived the genocide probably were in different parts of the Water Tribe and Fire Nation areas that were hidden so well that they never got caught. Since LoK was shortened, it wouldn't surprise me that there might have been air benders popping up all over the world, not just the Earth Kingdom areas; had we'd gotten more time to see the rest of the world during Korra's time I'm sure we could have seen some Fire Nation airbenders popping up too. And while some may speculate that it would have been impossible for anyone of them to have made safe havens in the Fire Nation it should be noted that during Sozin's early stages of his war on the world there may have been some descent among the Fire Nation that did not support it; not enough to oppose him but enough to make sure that innocent air benders, especially ones who could not have been the Avatar, didn't get killed and they would have to acclimate to Fire Nation culture along with their descendants. Air Benders that hid in Water Tribe areas might have either hidden in the North Pole the most and maybe some parts of the South before it got sieged; I wouldn't be surprised if some of them hid in the Swamp areas where the swampbenders are since I'm pretty sure they are spiritually attuned the most.
My theory, all the new airbenders that got their bending from harmonic convergence, have some sort of airbending ancestor. Its also important to note that none of those that got Airbending had any other bending ability before convergence
I mean, it's kinda hard to buy that a nation that didn't have air ships would be able to fully exterminate bunch of people who ride on flying creatures. Especially since the Earth Kingdom at the time was not under attack or occupation and could take a bunch of refugees
I think harmonic convergence did two things. One, it activated the dormant abiltiy in descendants of of benders, but also instigated new lineages of benders such as some of the new air benders, thus replenishing or restoring a natural balance of bending in the world. This could explain Zaheer. I beleive had he been alive before the Air nation fell, he would have been an Air Acolyte. Despite being extremely knowledgeable, he would have unable to air bend. Yet thanks to the harmonic convergence, and his spiritual understanding (while twisted), transformed him into a new powerful and potential new lineage of future air benders. Again, the idea being that some ppl were tranformed into benders as part of the process of balance being restored, while others who already had that potential within them had it unlocked and activated. 😅
QUERY: Perhaps what it did was NOT Spiritual Related, but instead ENERGY Related? Like it effectively jump started people's energy. It FORCED it's way through their pathways and unlocked their dormant energies. That perhaps they just needed enough charge to figure out how to unlocked their own power?
I liked this theory. If in Avatar DNA works like it does in the real world, the DNA could have been muddied down so much that they had very little connection to the airbenders anymore. That mixed with the lack of airbender spirituality is what caused them to lose that part of them.
This is basically cannon, and I love it! There has been discussions on eye color and how air nomads may have passed down these physical traits, even if air bending was lost or suppressed to the point of non manifest. Think Ty-lee. Fire nation citizen, but has gray eyes instead of more normalized brown or gold. Also into auras and maneuverability. There are also the recon Bison tenders in Kora, so perhaps if you didn’t present as an air bender, but were born to at least one air bender parent you were shipped off to learn bison husbandry? Our angry evil air bender could have grown up as one of these shepherds, grown bitter bc he and his community were outcasts, forgotten and he studied all he could about air benders, but could never enter the spirit realm (perhaps bc he had a gf?) or air bend bc the ability and level of connection was basically a recessive trait by a few generations. The red lotus takes advantage of his dissatisfaction, he gets further into the order. Is arrested. Then HarmonicCon happens and he is suddenly the super air bender. Ready to take his outcast anger out on the world. Another tangent: was the sudden tornado encountered when the gang was going over the swamp ever explained? Like did the swamp benders fig out a way to affect air currents by bending water in vines , on that scale to draw in food?
What if there was some overarching airbending bond that had been broken once there were no more airbenders? Once Airbenders stopped practicing the art and actively crushed any signs of their descendants having it out of a sense of survival, the spiritual connection was thrown out of balance. Whatever gene causes bending to be passed down became a recessive or even dormant gene instead, and by opening the gates to the spirit world, it allowed a resurgence and healing of the air connection. This isn't the case for everyone of course, because Bumi likely was always an airbender and simply just wasn't able to tap into it until then due to not initially showing signs and therefore not being given the training. Kind of like how Korra took ages to learn how to airbend only to manage it at a time of an ego death. This handles why Zahir didn't unlock his airbending on his own as well, because it wasn't about the individual person being spiritual, it was about a resurgence of spiritual energy that allows for the switching on of the gene.
I would also assume the air benders were the last to separate from the air lion turtle city, and would have many leaving that were bestowed the power due to their culturally global spiritual reverence. More inheritances, more latent powers, more ability for recessive traits to be primed for spiritual activation. Even with the eradication.
9:58 in pali ,the prakrit language ( the ancient Indian language ) is used more often . So ,Guru Lakshmi becomes guru lahima , Goddess Lakshmir is goddess of spirituality, wealth,health , happiness and fortune..
Another reason why the nomads in hiding werent exactly caught could be because they ended up marrying someone from another nation, abandoning their spirituality for safety, and actually having a child who can bend...but the element they married into. We see that often in LoK.
And also that the survivors were NOT airbending masters, so even if they wished, which they probably didn't because being actively hunted would be best if their kids never learned it at all instead of risk learning and hiding it, they couldn't properly instruct other airbenders. And the reason that's obvious they weren't masters is because the masters had a pretty big blue target tattooed all over their bodies and were among the first hunted down.
Well, it was either their religion or or their life. And last time I checked, nobody wants to be dead
I'm guessing they probably had an Air bending child. I think they just couldn't activate them since Airbending needed spirituality
They probably let their hair grow out too in an attempt to blend in with everyone else.
@@DragonGoddess18Let me introduce you to this interesting time in history called WW2
My head canon for why there were so many airbender descendants in the Fire Nation colonies is because some Fire Nation citizens may have hid friends or family members who were airbenders in their homes. Basically it would be not so dissimilar to how some Germans kept Jews safe from the Nazis during WWII. Overtime, these surviving Air Nomads could have been given new identities by the White Lotus Society or other sympathetic organizations. Thus allowing them to pass off as Fire Nation citizens, and even marry people from the colonies and start families.
I don't think it would make much sense given the inspiration of the Fire Nation was imperial Japan from the Meiji Restoration to the Second World War. There were many noble Germans who went and helped hide Jews, but that was not the case in East Asia when Japan was committing genocide on Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Koreans and the rest of Asia. Japan was a collectivist society, hierarchical and conforming to the whims of the Imperial family, Hirohito's family and military clique. To hide a Chinese family or a Korean family from the IJA would be antithesis to the empire and its values to dominate the region and impose Japanese culture and way of life. You don't hear any prominent examples of Japanese doing this (Chiune Sugihara doesn't count since he like most Japanese still held prejudicial views on other Asians at the time, but he would willingly help thousands of Jews on a different continent and in the case of Sugihara, he went against the grain, against the collective and was ostracized by the Japanese government, losing his job, and living an impoverished life up until his death). Going against the Emperor, is going against the people, and doing so is a loss of 'face' no matter how noble the aim was, it's the ultimate shame in Northeast Asian cultures. The Japanese at the time were not noble or humane as they are now and would willingly ignore the plight of 'others' if it meant being part of the majority, part of the in-group. Since ATLA borrows so much from real-world history and cultures, Fire Nation citizens would not willingly hide Air Nomads. If anything, they would probably willingly obey and report any Nomads they'd come across because they believed in the Fire Lord's propaganda that Air Nomads sought the destruction of their way of life and the Avatar would destroy the great progress of Sozin and Azulon, if he ever came about, not only that but maybe even stoke extreme fears that the Avatar would destroy the Fire Nation as a whole to restore balance to the destruction of the Air Nomads.
The Air Nomads like surviving Tibetans during the Chinese Civil War, would probably grow a distrust of outsiders that led to the decimation of their people. They would have probably retreated into the mountains, living a pastoral, hermitic and nomadic lifestyle like their forefathers, constantly on the move, braving the elements, and rejecting the greater society in order to live in peace. They would generally avoid any Fire Nation settler due to their role and potential loyalties to the Fire Lord that caused their genocide. Those who fell for Zhao's traps were probably either 1) naive or 2) desperate. The first wave of Air Nomad survivors were probably just naive and holding onto the hope that there were other survivors like them. The later trickle of survivors falling for Zhao's traps were desperate, maybe in surviving, trying to find food, company, shelter and exhausted all options/resources and willingly did the cost-benefit analysis of reaching out to the rumors and false hopes of other survivors but ultimately paid the price.
@@daeseongkim93as a fellow Korean, I appreciate the insight into Japanese culture and history, yet I think you completely miss the point. This is a fictional world, though heavily based on real life history and culture. There absolutely were people in the past and even in the show, who passed as an "enemy citizen" in order to survive. Think about Hama, who definitely doesn't want anyone in her village to find out that she's a waterbender and she still made a successful living for herself for years before being caught. There may or may not have been fire nation citizens, who hid airbenders from the genocide but that's besides the point. I haven't read the comics on the previous avatars, so I don't really know anything about the perception the world had about the air nation.
During the early stages of the 100 year war, I'm sure there were some who opposed Sozin's plans for world domination; we don't hear about it enough because Sozin and his successors up until Zuko probably made every attempt to cover up such acts if they were found out. While I can assume they hid under the noses of the general populace, it wouldn't surprise me that some probably hid among the Fire Sages; they were meant to be loyal to the Avatar anyway before they all decided to serve the Fire Lord and the Fire Nation entirely.
@@shadowwriter4538 omg I totally forgot Jong Jong
It would honestly make sense when you think about Ty Lee for an example. She's a fire nation citizen, but she doesn't have stereotypical fire nation traits like the Gold/amber eyes, sharp features, and(mostly) black hair. She looked more Air nomad with the silver/grey eyes, rounder face, and softer features with brown hair. It's possible she has Air nomad somewhere in her gene pool too
Seeing as bending is tied to community spirituality. the fact that airbenders didn't have families, it's pretty easy to see a scenario where airbenders that survived lost faith, or kept their bending secret, who would subsequently have their kids not inherit airbending. The fact that disproportionate amount of airbenders popped up in the earth kingdom, its easy to put things together. the guys who got their bending after harmonic convergence would've likely been the descendants who found a way to survive by giving up on the Air Nomad spiritual identity. That seems a lot more lore friendly than some secret last air temple hidden in a cave somewhere
I was thinking the same thing, harmonic convergence give air bending powers to descendants of air nomads
it makes you think what causes bending to appear at all. we know it doesn't follow our science so why would it follow genetics. if airbending gets imbued in those with high spirituality. maybe earth bending comes from strength. being part of a strong family and imbued with natural power gives one the ability to earth bend.
waterbending has to do with change and fire bending energy and emotion. the reason why a bender is always shown to have a bender parent might just be because the genetic traits that made them suitable for bending indirectly influenced it
@@group555_ Katara and Sokka's parents were both nonbenders in the show, yet Katara is a water bender. SO there's at least one instance of two non bender parents.
@@group555_, It seems doubtful to me that the manifestation of elemental bending abilities is not influenced by genetics. Just as an example: the series mentions that all air nomads were air benders before the genocide, which is very easily explained by genetics. They lived in closed, isolated and specific communities cut off from the world, the conditions of the terrain making the ability to air bending necessary simply for survival. All this combined leads to the fact that air nomads, firstly, choose a mate within their community, and secondly, most non-benders do not survive. Because of this, the genetic marker for the ability to bend air is firmly established in the population. Let alone the fact that most likely the air nomads were the smallest of all peoples.
And this is exactly what explains their further disappearance, since most of the population was destroyed; the few survivors were forced to hide in the kingdom of the earth, where they were ultimately simply assimilated by the local population, and their genetics were greatly eroded. Rather, at the time of the end of the war, their descendants lived in the world capable of bending air simply due to the lack of a system of knowledge or simply knowledge of their strength; they never studied it and did not consciously demonstrate it. And the harmonious rapprochement became a trigger for dormant abilities, just as the spirit of Raava became a trigger for Van’s abilities to study and acquire more than one element.
makes sense since avatar kyoshi 's mother is an air nomad and her father is an earth kingdom. Her mother slowly losing her spiritual connection making her airbending weak which is why she needed fans to help her airbending and which is why kyoshi uses fans is because of her late mother
Well aang uses a staff so I wouldn't say Kyoshi uses the fan because she suck at air bending like her mom. She also is a woman . In some real world cultures , women can often be seen carrying a fan so why not carry an item that women already use but it doubles as a weapon?
I love this theory. To add to your uncertainty on Aang and Zaheer, Zaheer said Tenzin was the first airbending master he ever met, so he likely never met Aang.
Good point! I'm glad you caught that detail! Very good to know.
I love the fact that Aang's all like "No, I can't kill! I have to live up to what Monk Gyatso taught me!" But when you see Monk Gyatso's body, what's he surrounded by? A pile of fire bender bodies, and not just regular fire benders, but comet enhanced fire bending soldiers. What does Aang think happened? Does he think they just all had simultaneous heart attacks after killing Gyatso? Nah, in his final moments Gyatso said "Screw Nirvana, I'm going to Valhalla."
the avatar only masters fire-, water-, earth- and air-bending, not intelligence.
Aang claims he never hurt/killed a Fly...but we see that's NOT true. An if you look at some of his Attacks on Fire Nation Soldiers, they SHOULD have KILLED them. Maybe not directly, but certainly taken enough fall damage. To say nothing of being plunged into Freezing Water in Heavy Armor in the Avatar State! You could make a case that Aang was ignoring of what Monk Gyatso did...but SHOULD have understood that he killed people. He SHOULD have remembered the Fly he killed
🤣
That is a banger quote, I need to borrow that some time xD
I always thought along the theory that gyatso didn’t fight back. The theory states that there’s no burn/fire damage on gyatso which led to believe that he basically removed all the air in the area essentially creating a vacuum that prevented fire benders from bending. Essentially he suffocated himself and the fire benders. The theory states that aang noticed this and that’s what shook him into the avatar state.
In the Avatar Legends roleplaying game, a group known as the "Guiding Wind" was mentioned. By Avatar Roku's time, the Air Nomads were becoming more and more involved with worldly matters and the affairs of the other nations. In response, a breakaway sect of Air Nomads known as the guiding wind was formed. Their goal was to reconnect with their spiritual roots and ensure their culture wasn't affected by other nations. Because they had broken away from the temples, it's likely this sect survived the genocide.
That's very neat. I've never heard of that piece of Avatar lore! Thank you for sharing! Sounds like a new research project for me. :)
I think you forgot one point, just like Bumi is the son of a mix marriage, so could those air bender survivors have intermarried with non-airbending spouses, causing their airbending DNA to be dilated and thus the ability not passed down to their children but nevertheless some parts of that airbending blood was passed down. That's why Bumi didn't exhibit airbending at first.
Didnt bumi get it from the harmonic convergence
Bumi's Parents were both benders....
I agree with this. It makes sense that having Airbender heritage might make someone an Airbender. I think that Harmonic convergence 'activated' the genes in people like Bumi. How or why, I do not know. But it's the one that makes sense to me.
Bending isn't genetic
So the reason why the airbenders spend time or live in the temples because it's said that if you don't then you might not get your airbending. So generatioms of airbenders spent their lives without ever knowing what they're life could've been like. People would've been being born from the survivors throughout aangs entire time in the ice throughout his life. He robbed generations of their airbending
Appa was also an Airbender . Aang was the last HUMAN airbender
Ty Lee was a descendent of an air bender, probably her grandmother or grandfather went into hiding in the fire nation and fell in love with someone from the fire nation. Ty Lee just wasn't a bender. That's my head cannon though
Another theory could be that the airbenders sealed their powers away themselves and harmonic convergence broke that seal.
My theory is that you need a good amount of air nomad blood to be an air nomad. Thats why zaheer couldnt airbend until harmonic convergence. And as for bumi, maybe he takes more from kataras side of the family. Thats why he couldnt airbend. He acts more like sokka than anybody, showing proof he has more of kataras genes. Tenzin took more from aangs side of the family, so that could explain him airbending at such a young age.
Thought I have is that Zaheer could have lacked the Airbending parents but had the spirituality. That or Harmonic Convergence could have reinstated the balance of the world. By awakening those with Air Nomad ancestry or the right connections. Something of a shock to a, as of yet, untapped side of themselves.
That's not a thought or theory that's literally what happened and was clearly explained in the show, harmonic convergence rebalanced the world and brought back air benders by making the spiritual people of the world air benders, which is why the original air benders could bend air in the first place
Well the huge thing about about the harmonic convergence and the air benders is ALLL ABOUT BALANCE. Basically the world was out of balance so when the event happened in order to bring balance, WE NEEDED AIRBENDERS. Although there is much logic to ur theory and I love it!
Heres the thing. To a certain extent airbending could mask as different types of bending pretty easily. Well water and earth by controlling the air around them. Look how Katara made the underwater air bubble. It would be easy to do this with small pebbles as well.
The surviving airbender might have used this tactic to blend in with the other nations. They new they had to hide and this would have been a good way to do it. They could have taught any children they had to "water bend" or "earth bend" in that manner.
And for an added thought every nation had non benders. The non bending air benders would have still carried the gene even tho its recessive in them.
that's true, as the gang faked earth bending before, airbender could do so too.
That is a super great point! I love that thought! It absolutely makes sense.
Well. I do have a theory, on how Zaheer knew so much about air-bending and he DID NOT TO DO IT WHILE BEING IMPROSONED. As the story progress, we are told that Zaheer and his crew tried to kidnap when she was little. But instead they get captured and thrown in prison. But here the thing, Zaheer already had mastered theoretical knowledge of air-bending by that time. Zaheer in spiril world told Korra, that how their plan was to kidnap Korra and groom her into the Avatar they wanted, with core members of Red Lotus being her elements master i.e.: 1)Fire: P'Li 2)Water: Ming-Hua, 3)Earth: Ghazan and 4) Air:............yes, Zaheer. It is very clear in the show how skilled red lotus is in their bending, snd Zaheer still was most dreadful amongst them even without bending. Therefore to teach Korra in air-bending without being an air-bender, Zaheer would have definitely made sure that he knows all there is to know about Air-bending, and then thanks to harmonic convergence he gets the gift and therefore becomes the most manically perfect villain of AVATAR HISTORY .
Spitting 🔥🔥🔥
Suki being in a circus is her family's way of holding on to their air nomad culture, Circus people travel and she or her sister's practice acrobatics, so in other words air benders are nomads, people that travel and they have high agility. Like Zaheer, all she needed was to regain that spiritual connection of their ancestors
Either I missed something or Suki was a Kyoshi warrior and had nothing to do with circus her entire life
Ty Lee was in a circus
I strongly believe that. Hiding from the Fire Nation, their children may not have been told about their heritage so they didn't accidentally blab and get themselves wiped out. Thus losing their heritage, and their spirituality... thus their descendants lost touch with their Airbending. I also like the theory that because of her personality and fighting style, that Ty Lee may actually be a descendent of an Air Nomad. Not saying it's true, but I do like the idea.
I like the theory that the Airbender in Korra were decedents from surviving Airbenders. First of all, it’s kinda confirm when Bumi, a direct decedent of a Airbender, got air bending, and it’s been confirm that mix-race couples could make bending and non-bending children that look different from the parents. Like that one girl from the comics. I forgot her name but in her own words, “I might be a earthbenders. But from my father’s blood I am fire nation.”
Didnt bumi get it from the harmonic convergence
Kind of like Mako and Bolin from TLOK. They had mixed fire and earth nation parents so that’s why the two brothers had different bending abilities.
@@johnkrappweis7367 but may be why Bolin can lavabend, since it is fire and earth together!
@@johnkrappweis7367though honestly to me the two look more typical of the side of their lineage that that their element comes from, even if mako's fire nation looks are notably influenced by his earth kingdom genetics
I think it's really as simple as Zaheer having hyperfocused on the Air Nomad teachings that support his own worldview, which wasn't sufficient enough for bending until Harmonic Convergence.
I've seen a theory (which I 100% believe) that Ty Lee is a descendent of an air nomad who hid and had a family in the fire nation. This is based on the fact that here physical appearance much more closely matches air benders than fire nation citizens (grey eyes and a round face) and that her fighting style heavily relies on an extremely agile, almost floaty move set.
This is a really good crash course on the topic. You did yor research into the lore and the presentation was engaging. Nicely done 💯
Basically you could be an air nomad with no bending but have the airbender gene to pass on to your children. Or you could’ve been an airbender but you just had to grow out your hair and never bend in front of anyone again. There’s no way they were gonna catch every single air nomad
"Toph says you have pretty good wisdom - and great tea!"
"The key to both is proper asian. What's on your mind?"
I read your comment right as it was said in the video 😂
My go to theory has always been a non cannon one; It's genetic.
Like tall genes, where you can have multiple of the same gene that will make you taller, or the lack of the gene will make you shorter. You can get enough bending genes that once you cross a threshold of needed genes you become a bender. What type of bender you become is determined by how many of what gene you have. That's why we see more hybrid benders as the world becomes a more global place- more people with mixed bending heritage. If you have roughly the same number of bending genes from two different bending styles, you get a mixed variant, like Bolin. He is primarily an Earth Bender, but it's easier for him to Lava bend because it utilizes all of him, rather than just the stronger bending type.
if you don't have enough bending genes at all, you could just be a non bender carrier- this would allow your children to maybe become benders, but not you.
My theory continues- harmonic convergence just lowered the threshold for how many bending genes you need to cross that threshold into bender from non bender.
So suddenly, Zahir who didn't quite have enough to become an Air bender became one. And he became a powerful one because of his spiritual connection. Similarly we see dormant Air nomad genes popping up all over the place now that the threshold is lowered.
I still remember the genetic chart from my bio class. Some genes are dominant, some are recessive, some are mixed. So you can carry the genetics for, say, red hair, without actually having red hair. Having a kid with a partner with the right genetic mix can express that gene. So perhaps due to lifestyle, airbending could be a recessive gene but if you don't survive the lifestyle without having bending, you're left with people who only have recessive genes, so it becomes impossible for nonbending genes to appear.
Avatar writers:
"Write that down!
I SAID WRITE IT!"
I always figured if they had any kids, and the spirituality of the Benders, many would have been broken, and like, have lost touch, willingly or otherwise, with their bending
I've always been of the opinion that sand bending tribes would be the perfect place for any surviving airbenders to hide. Not only do they live in deserts which would have a lot of places to hide or escape, but they also cover up from head to toe so any air nomad tattoos would be hidden, and I think it would be possible to use airbending in order to pretend to be a sandbender, since air can pick up sand.
There probably were other Airbenders around after the war of the air temple.
But they probably weren't many. I'd guess less than 10.
Then, so the rest went into hiding and either were found by the fire nation later and like what happened to katara's mom, you know... or they just lived their lives in hiding, in secret, pretending they were a non bender person and never air bending again, until the end.
Remember aang is 112 years old in avatar the last airbender.
There probably were airbenders still around 65 years before that but when aang got out of the iceberg there wasn't any more.
My theory is that the few airbenders that were left probably had kids with non benders or other benders. And their kids either had no air powers or any powers at all, like bumi. OR if they did, they had earth, fire, or water powers.
This would explain why there weren't any airbenders.
And it's possible there were air benders from air benders that escaped the air temple and later had kids, like say an airbender and a non bender had an air bender.
But probably that kid never air bended because his dad or mom ended up like katara and sokka's mom, and so he didn't know how to and there was no one left in the world to teach him.
So by that point, when the airbender guy who didn't know how to air bend, and his mom told him not to, was like 95 years old, and aang had just found sokka and katara from his iceberg.
So yeah, it's possible there once were air benders earlier but they were very few.
My other theory for the harmonic convergence in the legend of Korra is that the new airbenders were descendants of old ones.
So,
A few air temple air benders escape from the fire nation-- they have kids of their own who are non benders, like bumi-- and those kids have non bender kids, so on and so forth--until finally Korra's timeline where the descendants of the remaining air benders get their powers.
I also think the airbenders in Korra were descendants of the survivors, but my headcannon is that one of the surviving air nomads made a deal with a spirit to block the air bending of surviving children in order to hide them from being hunted.
This video was done so well, editing and background, knowledge and flow, tone and inflection. For how young you sound this was done insanely professionally
dude solid video, you actually killed it.
You sound so young but you’re a really good at narrating, so professional
The line "... Korra opening both spirit portals, combining the spirit and mortal worlds together..." got me thinking: how did spirits (e.g. Heibai) make themselves present in the physical world before she opened the portals? Are spirits who manifest in the moral world more humanish than other spirits (like how people who can travel in the other direction are more spiritual)?
I've found your videos recently, and I've really enjoyed how well written they are. Please make more!
Thanks for this great content, this really shows that there's more to the genocide and air benders that we do not know of
Great great video!! Really loved your conclusions!
Your channel logo watermark that appears bottom right in full screen mode appeared to my eye as a greasy smudge on my screen that wouldn't wipe off. It took me like 30 full seconds to realize 😂. Great content, of course. Keep'em coming.
Your video essays are really good! I'm surprised you haven't blown up yet. Consider me a fan :)
Also, please make more content :)
This was REALLY well thought of and explained!! This is now head-canon for me lol
This was good man, loved it
I enjoyed this a lot! Thanks!
zahir couldn’t go into the spirit world before harmonic convergence because the 2 worlds were still separated and the avatar was the only one that could enter the spirit world.
Nor true, Iroh had a journey into the spirit world, Korra's uncle did journeys into it too.
Did you forget that he can meditate into the spirit world? Harmonic convergence or not, open or closed portals, meditation still works (like, Iroh transcended to the spirit world some 40 years after the war)
This was so thorough. I'm a day one ATLAB fan and learned a lot. Thank you!
That is so great! Avatar is one of those franchises that has so many fascinating concepts to discover. I wish you well on your ATLA journey. :)
Spiritual material is typically supplied to prisoners in real life and the vastly unexpected event of him Airbending was super important for setting up the plot for that season so that part makes sense.
This reminds me of the Jedi purge. Those who did survive, went into hiding and died off.
please do more writing help and video essays! loved it.
you are a fantastic content creator, after watching your video i was very surprised to see how little subs you have, you should def post more bc i loved this video and you make your content very easy to understand
I appreciate that! I'm glad you found the video easy to follow. I've been brainstorming video ideas, so there will definitely be more content. :)
@@SaigeJ_TAoS You Know Aerith From FFVII Is A Lifestream Bender
After Order 66, many Jedi willingly cut themselves off from The Force to keep their identity safe and avoid any chance of the inquisitors finding them. Perhaps it was a similar thing that the refugee airbenders did. Willingly cut their own spirits off from all spiritual energies, which over time would make them lose their bending. And by not teaching their children the ways of airbending and having cut themselves off, perhaps that could have an impact on their children as well.
Sick video bro keep it up
I think combustion benders are descendants from airbenders and firebender parents. It makes sense that the fire nation would take slaves of older air nomads too old to be the avatar. Combustion bending relies on igniting compressed hydrogen and using intense oxygen all stuff airbendrs would be pros at
Combustion benders have a canon origin from the books now. they were firebenders put under water where they would be forced to learn how to firebend underwater
Combustion bending is simply a secret fire bending technique. Is has nothing to do with air bending. It’s condensing fire bending by bringing the energy from your breath, to your forehead and release it.
like the commenter above said, there is a canon background for Combustionbenders--But i love the idea that under certain circumstances or training, an Airbender could produce similar combustions.
@@jimdaflynn oh cool! I was unaware of the new cannon info on the combustion benders! I based my thoughts on how bolin a earth & lava bender had a fire nation & earth nation parent as a premise of maybe the air bender /fire bender co ancestors was a easier explanation of the combustion bender.
I’ll have to read the books though. The story sounds interesting
@@danniobrien1831 ya I didn’t know about the cannon history in books but bolin in Kora had a fire nation parent & earth nation parent which was why mako could fire bend while he earth bends then eventually lava bends like so maybe there’s some chi crossover on the ancestry of combustion benders to that enhanced the ability of the more dominant type of bending
Fire nation is based on imperial Japan according to the writers & military nations generally try to weaponize equipment people & science of other nations throughout history like the fire nation using the machinists who were earth kingdom to build weapons so I could see them weaponizing younger kid air benders or the children that are the result of air nomad slaves & fire nation soldiers could inherit the air benders abilities in a unique way. But the the book story sounds cool I’ll have to read it to
great video, you really are underrated
I feel you did a really good job putting this together.
I have a thought on why things dont add up, as you put it, in Kora.
For The Last Airbender - they built a very strong backstory for the basis of the world. Yes it evolved as the story came out, and they did a very good job with it at that. It was more grounded then Kora was.
For Kora - this part of the story felt a bit rushed, and doesnt feel like they built it as good as the original. Things where not as grounded and based on training for instance, rather "It was flashy at the end of The Last Airbender, so we need to keep up with that!!" is how the legend of Kora felt to me...
For instance, take a look at the average benders in TLA - the good benders have devoted their lives to training, rather then just being naturally gifted every time someone new shows up. Add to this that each Named char in TLA had their own "Level of Strength"
There was more variance here, most where just average and where fighters at best, whereas some where considered "Masters" and where VERY few. True you could use Souzens war as an excuse "it caused the death of any great bender of the time!!" - however you see many benders still alive with lots of knowledge and power anywhere, except for the Airbending nations.
Plenty of Earth benders with lots of strength, plenty of strong Northern Waterbenders (yes the southern tribe was pretty much wiped out sure)
But when you take a look at any bender worth their metal, their history was always full of Training of some kind. Even Toph, who was basically just "Gifted" the power to bend earth lol had trained a lot/been exposed to earth bending from a very young age.
Then you look at the Strongest/Rarest benders in this era, it feels more natural to me, they all have a specific reason in their own backstories as to why they are so strong/unique.
Next take a look at TLK
A once very rare, and touted very difficult to master without hurting yourself, type of ability "Lightning Bending" was pretty commonplace in Kora. This was always one of my biggest problems with Kora, the "Unique/Takes a special type of person" kind of abilities where handed out like candy to random people in Koras time, as the "Story" needed it to be.
And this is not a "one off" thing either, look all over Kora's timeline and you see many instances of benders being way too strong for the type of life they lived, and lack of training anywhere in the civilized era...
Idk about the comics and stuff... never got into those - but as far as the TV adaption goes, non fighting/non training backstories for people = can bend as good as the warriors of TLA era??
TLK has lots of good points, i want to make that clear, it does have lots of good story and history built into it. But it has too much "Its this way cause the story needs it to be" kind of stuff.
Like Metal bending, if it took hundreds of years for Toph to figure out how to metal bend, then she is able to train others to do so, but its a selective process. Then in Koras time, tons of people can metal bend... it feels wrong imo - Lightning bending set Fire benders apart from others "Only those with very clear minds can do this" - would make sense if for Metal bending "Only those with unmovable minds can do this!!" Just like flying air bending "Only those with no attachments are able to do this" or waters "Only rare people born with a natural caring heart can Heal bend" - Not in Koras time tho...
IMO - Legend of Kora, while attempted to have a strong history and lore to the world, took too many shortcuts and had too many "Its for the story" moments, and thats why there are lots of conflicts, as is with the big bad being beyond a Master level Air bender when he simply "Awakens" to his new power...
I think you are forgetting... This is a medieval - proto-industrial revolution time period. Lifespans are around 40-60 years old AT MOST. Uncle Iroh is around mid 50s iirc. Monk Gyatso was in his early to late 70s most likely, this was during a time of peace in one of the most peaceful and spiritual places in the avatar world, an air temple.
Most Air Benders would of blended it, and most if not all younger Air Benders would of been dead when the temples were attacked. So the only ones to carry on tradition would of been the ones forced to give up airbending and blend in.
Or, they would of lived away from people and not create a family.
---
By the time of Aang, most Air Benders would of been dead by old age. Any Children would of been dead. Only grandchildren or great grandchildren left. Ones who knew nothing of their parents air bending.
Hey I love ur theories so much !! 💨 But I have one question around 6:00 u start talking about how bending works ... That the bender must be spiritual as well as their bending if that's the case than why didn't bumi get air bending abilities as well as kia and tenzin did ? Since there dad was an Airbending Master .
That's such a good question! Thank you for asking! This is really where these thoughts enter the realm of "theorizing"... There's going to be holes since the creators really haven't given us a definite answer to all of this (thus, why I also suggest taking every theory with a grain of salt). From what I understand, while the ability to Bend DOES depend of the factors of genetics and spirituality, it's never a given that someone will inherit Bending just because they have parents with strong abilities. Likewise, it's possible that a child with Bending abilities can be born to parents without--we see this is the case with Katara. In the case of Bumi, he had two parents who were each very strong in their capabilities; yet, he just didn't seem to inherit those abilities--possibly due to genetics (we do see that Katara's side of the family has a a number of non-benders in Sokka, Hakoda, etc.). Now, in the case of Kya, she's one of the few examples of children born to two different types of Benders. In this case, it seems to be, really, left up to chance when it comes to what Bending ability the child inherits. We see this being the case for Avatar Kyoshi, with her mother being an Airbender, yet Kyoshi herself inheriting her father's Earthbending (as her natural element of course). So, in both cases of Kya and Bumi it seems to be chance and genetics that play a role in why they received the abilities they did. I hope that answers your question!!!
I’m surprised you didn’t bring up the Ty Lee theory as it correlates really well with yours
This kid does a great job.
Wow I really love this video and the thought put in to it 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍💯
A show about a group of nomads during that period escaping the fire nation would be cool
I think the most plausible is that they are decedents. Kyoshi was half and more than likely there would have been others. If you read the story of Yangchen the Air Nomads had towns near their temples. The benders would have to have kids, and If anything those that couldnt bend would not have come to the temple. It also talks about Kyoshi’s mom who almost completely lost her ability to bend due to her illegal activities. This probably is due to it being in conflict with her nature. The decedents probably didn’t have a strong connection to neither the spirits nor the wind. Zaheer on the other hand probably didn’t feel pure with his intentions. Years of meditation can unburden the mind and the extra spirit force could have triggered his abilities.
Id give the remaining air benders 20 years as souzen still searched for the avatar till his dying days, also since the fn didn't attack the water tribe till 40 ag it safe to assume that there aren't any more air benders so they attacked the next element of the cycle
Fantastic theory and well connected.
The fact that Harmonic Convergence is what makes non-benders benders
Interesting vid. Some sound logic in there.
One detail I would question: I don't think word would spread of the airbender traps unless someone escaped a trap or suspected a trap and had a whistleblower stay behind then knew how to disseminate the info among the scattered survivors. Not entirely impossible and frankly I like the idea that all the new air benders are descended from survivors that assimilated.
Dude make more vids your analysis nd editing is excellent
loved this 100% want more
I think a big part of the reason Zahir onlt got airbending abilitjes after the harmonic convergence is likely becausr we've sren throughout the story that spirituality is a very important part of bending, but so is the technical mastery. Katara is able to do incredible things with her water bending almost immediately after learning the moves to do them because she has the spirituality, but there's still a specific way you need to focus that to get the results you want. I think that Zahir probably had a good understanding and likely was quite spiritual, but that wasn't enough to make up for the lack of tactic knowledge. I think, if we think of being spiritual as generating a type of spirit energy in the body and say bending is them using and directing that energy, then it implies that limited spiritual energy would need good akills and focus to use it properly, but Zahir already has a lot of spiritual energy, and so by receiving so much more, he dowsnt need to know the proper noves to do some pretty powerful stuff because he can just push out more energy and it'll end up doing what he wants. I think everyone got a just above enough to do snall things without much propwr channeling, mostly seen with bumi, and i think that's also why Zahir became so powerful because he had so much spirit eneegy to use that once he could direct it, he was nesrly unstoppable.
another reason i feel like this reasoning makes so much sense is that it would also explain how bending is partially genetic. It seems like there is the genetics of what type if spirital energy your body could produce or maybe where your body can connect and release that spiritual energy. That would mean that childred of bender would have the ability to channel their spiritual energy into a certain type of bending, but it doesn't have to be used, or maybe it can skip generations. Thats also why chilsren of two different benders can bend different elemnta but can never bend multiple.
For me it totally makes sense now. I always wondered, why these "random" airbenders apeared, but it's clear now.
Zaheer was master of fighting before Harmonical Convergetion. That`s why he was so strong and dangerouse. Zaheer just adaptated his old skills of fighting to the airbending, which made him bigger threat that he was before.
the resurgence of the airbenders was due to the opening of the spirit portals in season 2 which dispersed a large amount of spiritual energy into the physical world. the ones who received airbending were ones who are already spiritually adpet (Zaheer) or had lineage with airbenders (Bumi). my head canon is that ty lee's descendants would have unlocked this as well
I believe that some individuals may have chosen to suppress their bending abilities as a means of self-protection, potentially making themselves targets. This decision could have been passed down through generations (Besides the spiritual balance having been broken), resulting in their descendants unknowingly losing touch with their bending heritage. The recent opening of the spirit portal may have triggered a resurgence of these latent abilities in those who possessed the potential to become airbenders, explaining why not all descendants were affected. With that said, yes, I agree with your thinking just needed to phrase it with my own words.
This video explains why most audiences think the story over exaggerates that claims Aang to be the last Airbender. Perhaps he is the last KNOWN active Airbender but definitely NOT the last Air Nomad.
Air bending is unique in that spiritual devotion and discipline are required to attain AND maintain such ability.
The war Sozin waged is not just to kill the next Avatar, it is mostly to discourage Air bending culture from ever existing again.
Air Nomad survivors would have given up on such a faith and culture that could not even guarantee their survival. The Avatars' disappearance would assert that they have been ABANDONED.
Air Nomads turning rogue and intermingled with other nations explains during Korras time why their descendants attain Airbending.
The Convergence mostly develops Airbender not other elements.
I think it's like a combination of genetics and spirit. The more airbender genes you have, the less spirituality you need. In Bumi's case he has quite some airbender genes already, but didn't get that spirituality until harmonic convergence. Meanwhile Zaheer already was very spiritually suited, but because he has less airbender genes, the amount of spiritual energy he needed to actually bend, was simply higher.
I have no doubt that there were airbender who survived but I am willing to bet that in Aangs era from getting out of the iceberg all the way up until death he is the only airbender other than his son tenzen, I have no doubt others survived but the ones that did either died later or were found by the fire nation
in every battle in history there are always people that retreat to live on another day.
I mean, Zander certainly had been seeking out airbending teachings. Perhaps his knowledge was passed on through a family line and instead of something he yet truly resonated with, it was something he didn’t truly take to heart until later when he actually starts to float.
Though alternately and more loosely, the lack of airbenders could have been more of a generational spiritual wound that only harmonic convergence ended up being able to heal. Even Aang could be considered wounded spiritually from this, maybe explaining why one of his children didn’t develop airbending until later.
personally i believe the reason zaheer wasn't born a bender (and bumi, and by extension most if not all of the other airbender descendants) is because there's lots of evidence for bending to be a genetic trait. (recessive or dominant, i forget cuz middle school biology was like a decade ago) but it would make sense to be that in this fantasy world with spirit magic and dragons that a genetic trait can be both parts physical and spiritual, as bending is shown to be in other areas; being a martial art, a spirituality, a manipulation of chi energy, etc. with a notable example of blood bending being used to block bending ability, and chi manipulation being able to restore it.
My personal speculation is that H.C. airbenders were of two sorts: autumn-baby nonbenders who were spiritually suited to it, and actual latent airbenders as per the video. Zaheer is in the former category, as is Opal; Bumi and possibly Kai are in the latter category.
I never seen kora but I loved avatar!, I love theories too so this was very fun to listen too!
was a part of the TLAB campaign that took place in the gap of Aang leaving and getting frozen in ice and him being rescued from the ice.
My character was an air nomad that was overall average when it came to air nomads. The only thing odd about me was that no sky bison wanted to choose me. I was a part of air nomads that were dispatched to find Aang so when the fire nation attacked; I was nowhere near any of the temples.
Unfortunately the rest of my party was either captured or killed. Since I hadn't earned my tattoos yet; I was able to steal a change of cloths and remain undetected in the Earth kingdom where I eventually met up with the rest of the players.
Well yes with a Lack of spiritual connection is definitely a big thing in a war torn world but also I see the air nomad parents maybe 1 hiding there air nomads after all best secrets are ones u never share and 2 hiding and stifling there children's powers as well because if a random report comes in about kids air bending all the sudden comes in will have the fire nation running over.
Air bending is so spiritual if parents didn’t train them they would never know. After generations pass the skill would be lost but not the trait
So for Zaheer not having developed air bending until after harmonic convergence, despite his spiritually, perhaps it also has to do with how distant in his bloodline the air nomad blood was? His ancestor would have been from 170 years ago, like all the others. Him having so little air bender blood could have prevented him from tapping into his latent abilities until harmonic convergence awakened it.
This makes sense but I would like to believe that some air nomads didn't just hide in the Earth Kingdom; sure the majority of them that survived the genocide probably were in different parts of the Water Tribe and Fire Nation areas that were hidden so well that they never got caught. Since LoK was shortened, it wouldn't surprise me that there might have been air benders popping up all over the world, not just the Earth Kingdom areas; had we'd gotten more time to see the rest of the world during Korra's time I'm sure we could have seen some Fire Nation airbenders popping up too. And while some may speculate that it would have been impossible for anyone of them to have made safe havens in the Fire Nation it should be noted that during Sozin's early stages of his war on the world there may have been some descent among the Fire Nation that did not support it; not enough to oppose him but enough to make sure that innocent air benders, especially ones who could not have been the Avatar, didn't get killed and they would have to acclimate to Fire Nation culture along with their descendants. Air Benders that hid in Water Tribe areas might have either hidden in the North Pole the most and maybe some parts of the South before it got sieged; I wouldn't be surprised if some of them hid in the Swamp areas where the swampbenders are since I'm pretty sure they are spiritually attuned the most.
My theory, all the new airbenders that got their bending from harmonic convergence, have some sort of airbending ancestor. Its also important to note that none of those that got Airbending had any other bending ability before convergence
I mean, it's kinda hard to buy that a nation that didn't have air ships would be able to fully exterminate bunch of people who ride on flying creatures.
Especially since the Earth Kingdom at the time was not under attack or occupation and could take a bunch of refugees
A'Ang was sticking out his Gyatso for the RizzLord
I think harmonic conversions was more of a way to balance the word by making all of the air bending blood benders balance the world
I think harmonic convergence did two things. One, it activated the dormant abiltiy in descendants of of benders, but also instigated new lineages of benders such as some of the new air benders, thus replenishing or restoring a natural balance of bending in the world. This could explain Zaheer. I beleive had he been alive before the Air nation fell, he would have been an Air Acolyte. Despite being extremely knowledgeable, he would have unable to air bend. Yet thanks to the harmonic convergence, and his spiritual understanding (while twisted), transformed him into a new powerful and potential new lineage of future air benders. Again, the idea being that some ppl were tranformed into benders as part of the process of balance being restored, while others who already had that potential within them had it unlocked and activated. 😅
QUERY: Perhaps what it did was NOT Spiritual Related, but instead ENERGY Related? Like it effectively jump started people's energy. It FORCED it's way through their pathways and unlocked their dormant energies. That perhaps they just needed enough charge to figure out how to unlocked their own power?
We are forgetting that one kid who had air acolyte training and then became an air bender.
By the time he was found in the ice berg, he was the last airbender
I liked this theory. If in Avatar DNA works like it does in the real world, the DNA could have been muddied down so much that they had very little connection to the airbenders anymore. That mixed with the lack of airbender spirituality is what caused them to lose that part of them.
This is basically cannon, and I love it! There has been discussions on eye color and how air nomads may have passed down these physical traits, even if air bending was lost or suppressed to the point of non manifest. Think Ty-lee. Fire nation citizen, but has gray eyes instead of more normalized brown or gold. Also into auras and maneuverability.
There are also the recon Bison tenders in Kora, so perhaps if you didn’t present as an air bender, but were born to at least one air bender parent you were shipped off to learn bison husbandry? Our angry evil air bender could have grown up as one of these shepherds, grown bitter bc he and his community were outcasts, forgotten and he studied all he could about air benders, but could never enter the spirit realm (perhaps bc he had a gf?) or air bend bc the ability and level of connection was basically a recessive trait by a few generations. The red lotus takes advantage of his dissatisfaction, he gets further into the order. Is arrested. Then HarmonicCon happens and he is suddenly the super air bender. Ready to take his outcast anger out on the world.
Another tangent: was the sudden tornado encountered when the gang was going over the swamp ever explained? Like did the swamp benders fig out a way to affect air currents by bending water in vines , on that scale to draw in food?
he is the last air bender during his awakened time with katara and sokka
super cool
What if there was some overarching airbending bond that had been broken once there were no more airbenders? Once Airbenders stopped practicing the art and actively crushed any signs of their descendants having it out of a sense of survival, the spiritual connection was thrown out of balance. Whatever gene causes bending to be passed down became a recessive or even dormant gene instead, and by opening the gates to the spirit world, it allowed a resurgence and healing of the air connection.
This isn't the case for everyone of course, because Bumi likely was always an airbender and simply just wasn't able to tap into it until then due to not initially showing signs and therefore not being given the training. Kind of like how Korra took ages to learn how to airbend only to manage it at a time of an ego death. This handles why Zahir didn't unlock his airbending on his own as well, because it wasn't about the individual person being spiritual, it was about a resurgence of spiritual energy that allows for the switching on of the gene.
I would also assume the air benders were the last to separate from the air lion turtle city, and would have many leaving that were bestowed the power due to their culturally global spiritual reverence. More inheritances, more latent powers, more ability for recessive traits to be primed for spiritual activation. Even with the eradication.
I always had this exact theory because of how korra couldn't bend air for so long despite being the avatar
9:58 in pali ,the prakrit language ( the ancient Indian language ) is used more often .
So ,Guru Lakshmi becomes guru lahima , Goddess Lakshmir is goddess of spirituality, wealth,health , happiness and fortune..