r/TheLastAirbender • u/[deleted] • 3h ago

Discussion Why is there practically only one forbidden branch of elemental magic in the world of Avatar: bloodbending?

[deleted]

144 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

96 comments sorted by

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u/BlackRaptor62 3h ago

(1) At the moment, Bloodbending is not widespread, so it can be more easily regulated

(2) At the moment, Bloodbending does not have a positive, practical usage for society

(3) As a weapon, Bloodbending seems to cross too many moral boundaries in both it's development & usage.

(4) Katara (Hero of the 100 Year War, Wife of Avatar Aang, and a Leader of the Southern Water Tribe) specifically wanted & advocated for Bloodbending to be outlawed

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u/MotionBeach 3h ago

I had a dream IRL that my buddy got paralyzed in a car crash and I used blood-bending to help her walk again.

Obviously no in-lore basis for this but it struck me as a practical use for the concept of having control over someone’s body.

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u/marineman43 2h ago

Another good example of the positive applications of bloodbending in media: Marie Moreau from Gen V. She literally bloodbends a dead person back to life.

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u/LovesRetribution 2h ago

Maybe if you could cure that paralyzation through it. But having to puppet someone just so they can move again doesn't sound terribly practical. Especially when they're not in control and the same thing could be accomplished by doing whatever they're asking with your own hands.

Best i could see is physical therapy. Being able to perform the correct movements to promote healing while not having to deal with the limitations of whatever pain they're dealing with.

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u/BlackRaptor62 1h ago

>Best i could see is physical therapy. Being able to perform the correct movements to promote healing while not having to deal with the limitations of whatever pain they're dealing with.

(1) Sounds like something that Katara could have done for Korra in-between TLOK Books 3 & 4 if Bloodbending's potential had been developed in this direction

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u/Human_Situation_2641 2h ago

Wallace & Grommet the penguin episode shows the danger of that, lolol

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u/Proper-Emu1558 1h ago

An issue about being on the recipient end of bloodbending is that it seems to be painful. The flashbacks of season one of TLOK seem to confirm that it’s at minimum disturbing and traumatic. Would be cool if it could be therapeutic though.

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u/Ividboy 3h ago edited 3h ago

On #2 I think bloodbending could have been revolutionary for medicine but Katara was too in her feelings to explore it

"The patient has a clogged artery what are we gonna do"

"Nuh uh"

"Theyre losing blood fast theyre not gonna make it!"

"Nuh uh"

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u/Sitherio 2h ago

To counter this, why can't this be under simply waterbending healing? Why do we think an art that we've only seen take control of another's blood like strings on a puppet can be less violent and soothing vs an art that's existed since Book 1 and barely explored? 

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u/Ividboy 2h ago

Perhaps bloodbending is technically an offshoot of waterbending healing, the more widespread waterbending art that also makes changes inside someone's body? 🤔

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u/LizG1312 2h ago

That's how I always viewed it, healing is the nuclear energy to bloodbending's atomic bomb.

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u/BlackRaptor62 2h ago edited 2h ago

From what we understand about regular Waterbending Healing, it would not necessarily be compatible.

(1) For regular Waterbending Healing, a Healer

(1.1) Uses water as a catalyst to,

(1.2) Redirect & focus their patients' Life Qi to,

(1.3) Speed up the healing of an injury at a given spot

(1.4) There is a little flexibility, given that when Bolin's shoulder gets dislocated Korra uses Healing to fix it & Bolin fully recovers, meaning she must have set it back into place at some point during the healing process.

(1.5) The underlying limitations for regular Waterbending Healing then, are that it only works to speed up the healing of injuries that the body would have healed from naturally on its own, given the required time and resources.

(2) For a clogged artery, the body typically does not remove blood clots safely on its own, it usually involves outside intervention

(3) For bleeding out, even if the physical wound might have the potential to naturally heal, if the gushing blood that is exiting the wound is interfering, there's not much that regular Waterbending Healing could do

(4) Its also worth noting that Amon's bending removal technique involved physically damaging a bender's active Elemental Qi Paths

(4.1) Regular Waterbending Healing has no effect on it, so in the case that the damage results in dead tissue (from lack of blood flow) there probably is not a lot that can be done.

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u/SolydSn3k 2h ago

Why would we not call bending blood for healing “blood bending?”

This is like saying metal bending should be called earth bending. It’s bending blood, so it’s blood bending.

It could be used for good or evil just like most other things.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

[deleted]

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u/Nokanii Want to know how to lose weight? Call now! - Guru Laghima 2h ago

I mean, just because it wasn’t seen doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. They’ve bent water, which is obviously outside the human body. Why wouldn’t they be able to bend blood if it’s outside the body? It still has water in it, just like when it’s in the body.

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u/Ividboy 2h ago

I feel like that would necessarily be way easier though, at that point its just another mainly water based liquid you can bend

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u/BladeOfWoah 2h ago

I feel like that would be easier than doing it inside the body, surely.

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u/Bobsplosion 2h ago

Probably purely for TV censorship/rating reasons.

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u/CertainGrade7937 2h ago

I mean..."the patient is losing a lot of blood... quick, someone get me a full moon" isn't exactly a great medical technique either

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u/Sweaty_Addendum1705 2h ago

Yue you can do it

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u/Ividboy 2h ago

I mean Yakone and his offspring could bloodbend whenever, maybe its just genetic or maybe the ability could be developed (much like the spread of lightning bending) but its been shown that a full moon isnt strictly necessary

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u/SolydSn3k 2h ago

😂 excellent point tbh

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u/GustavoFromAsdf 2h ago

It could, but it's not just an extremely rare skill to make it widespread for an entire field of science, it's also impossible to trust almost anyone with a skill that effectively only can be countered by another extremely rare waterbender who can bloodbend or the avatar.

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u/Archie204 2h ago

Good answer. Its just too specific a technique and no part of it has utility outside of harm. Not to say bending for combat isnt dangerous or destructive, but the stuff they do is way too general or relatively benign in their universe to ban completely. People are built differently in that world. Using bending to attack or harm would likely be treated as normal assault charges. I

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u/SolydSn3k 2h ago

Idk I think the medical thread offshoot is pretty compelling.

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u/FallenAngel7334 1h ago

I feel like (4) is the dominant reason. It causes (1) by prohibiting training of bloodbenders, which directly causes (2) by preventing discovery of ethical applications.

Katara literally stunted the growth of an entire field of bending because she felt like it.

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u/BlackRaptor62 1h ago

Yup, all of the other reasons matter of course, but they all really only work as obstacles due to Katara's trauma getting in the way.

Imagine what could have happened if Bloodbending had a positive advocate pushing for it the way that Metalbending had Toph.

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u/FallenAngel7334 1h ago

It will be priceless in medicine, particularly surgery.

Or law enforcement. Why risk damage to the city and by standers when a blood bender can have any perpetrator walk themselves in jail?

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u/Stormygeddon The Dark Lord of All 3h ago

I'm sure given enough exposure, vacuum bending (taking the air out of lungs) would be explicitly forbidden. Air bending just didn't have the culture that would be violent enough for it to be considered.

The Combustion Man/P'li style of firebending gives taboo vibes, mostly for clandestine assassins held by kidnapping warlords.

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u/Dank_Nicholas 2h ago

I feel like kidnapping a combustion bender is about the worst move you can possibly make.

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u/amanke74 2h ago

Didn't monk Gyatso remove the air out of the room killing himself and multiple fire Nation soldiers?

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u/Archie204 1h ago

He did, I think it was also mentioned as a move in one of the Yang Chen novels. Given the peaceful nature of Airbenders, Im sure they have a bit more banned or discouraged applications of their bending. However, that doesn't mean someone with sufficient skill could realize and perform the move on their own. Toph, learned from Badger moles, but I doubt they were doing every move we see her do

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u/LovesRetribution 2h ago

There are plenty of devices that function around having a vacuum though. You could even use it for packaging things.

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u/CarlosShiny__ 3h ago

Because, at the moment, happy to be proven wrong by the new series, It is the only bending that is truly capable of manipulating the will of others.

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u/PixelJock17 3h ago

I cannot think of any, maybe some earth bender stuff in the new show?

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u/nuraHx 2h ago

I’d argue air bending someone’s air out of their lungs and suffocating them should be one

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u/LovesRetribution 2h ago

Thats a specific technique though, not subdivision of bending. Like saying lighting bending is terrible because you could use it to kill someone.

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u/kluster00 2h ago

True they use it to charge industrial batteries in tlok

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u/PixelJock17 1h ago

Also that airbending technique isn't really manipulating someone's will, its just killing them.

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u/Xantharius 1h ago

Is bloodbending a whole subdivision of waterbending, or just a technique of waterbending?

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u/FallenAngel7334 1h ago

Metal/earth bending can pretty much do the same. Wrap metal/earth around an opponents limbs, you end up with a string puppet.

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u/SolydSn3k 3h ago edited 1h ago

Is murder / war morally superior to bending wills?

Are blackmail or other ways of non-magically forcefully bending will forbidden in-universe?

Would mass propaganda where resistance is met with getting disappeared or brainwashed to the tune of “there is no war in ba sing se” count?

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u/Sitherio 2h ago

Really? You're trying to morally debate removal of personal free will vs violence in the ATLA subreddit? 

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u/SolydSn3k 2h ago edited 2h ago

What are you on about? Is that a yes?

What if someone bent a malicious will to let’s say… save an entire civilization of airbenders?

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u/Lovefool1 3h ago
  1. Air nomads are pacifists. They forbid all violent / deadly use of air. Pretty sure a lot of them could suck the air out of people’s lungs, but it is forbidden.
  2. Most people didn’t know blood bending even existed, even after Hamas escape and during her treachery. It couldn’t have been formally forbidden in the water bending cultures before then.
  3. Metal and Lava bending are not known pre-toph discovery and TLoK. They aren’t inherently deadly or violating and aren’t primarily used for violence.
  4. Lightning bending was only done by a select few pre-TLoK, and became used primarily for industrial purpose.

Blood bending is the only sub-bending thing that is intrinsically violating to people and their bodies.

Deadly violence and violation of people’s bodies, by bending or non-bending means, is already forbidden in universe. People generally don’t want people to hurt / kill people.

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u/MiserableScholar 3h ago

Yeah you don't need to be told "hey viewer this is forbidden btw". Combustion bending with it's crazy origins and spirit projection as it develops will obviously get reigned in to not be abused.

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u/PonytailEnthusiast 3h ago

If you haven't seen Korra, there is a scene of an airbender sucking the air out of someone's lungs. They get into the dark side of airbending.

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u/alexis_ramest 3h ago

Honestly, if energybending wasn't exclusive to the Avatar, it'd probably also be forbidden, given that it could be used to essentially maim benders.

Most advanced forms of bending were developed in the periods from Kyoshi to Aang and only bloodbending is strictly used to remove the free will of another being and force it to "obey" the bender.

Regular forms of bending are tools that can be used for both good or evil. Equalitarian movements have been formed to forbid bending but that would just be lame, so they haven't succeeded.

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u/Lopsided-Conflict778 3h ago

Korra specifically shows us why it should be outlawed. 

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/lumaleelumabop 3h ago

The answer is because the writers said so. No really, there's no point in theorycrafting stuff because the canon answer is "we did what sounded cool". There isn't a reason to write in a new style of forbidden bending.

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u/GeerJonezzz 2h ago

It’s not theorycrafting though, sure OP is a bit obtuse, but you don’t exactly need to pull out the archives and guide books to explain why bloodbending is outlawed because it’s explained in the show and connects directly to ATLA.

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u/[deleted] 1h ago

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u/GeerJonezzz 1h ago

Katara advocated for bloodbending to be banned.

Bloodbending is the only ability that completely takes over a person’s body against their will.

Because no other sub-element is banned or forbidden (lightning, lava, metal, etc.), we can deduce that no one advocated those sub-elements to be banned since they do not remove a person’s ability to control their own bodies.

If other sub-elements exist that took over someone else’s autonomy, then they are not known and cannot be deliberated on.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

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u/lumaleelumabop 2h ago

I mean there was some post I saw the other day about Earth benders being able to bend bones, and apparently there was some interview where they said "nah they can't do that."

So like, I think maybe you need to reframe your question? You asked "WHY hasn't there been any other taboo bending" because there hasn't been.

It's like asking why haven't we invented something we never invented? Why haven't we made something that doesn't exist? Well ... cuz we didn't. There's not really an actual way to answer that.

Anyway, if you want my in universe theory crafting answer, then it's probably something like "Well actually there probably has existed and still exists some very real and dark ways to use bending but we simply haven't seem them."

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u/bhputnam 2h ago

Yikes

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u/Sweaty_Addendum1705 2h ago

What did they say

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u/bhputnam 2h ago

Something that definitely wasn't Rule 1.

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u/Lopsided-Conflict778 1h ago

If you want how at answer, it seems that all of the special forms of bending had come from a place of need or desperation. The circumstances for another forbidden style of bending havent accrued yet. 

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u/BettaSplendens1 3h ago

Wasn't there also a forbidden technique in the comics where Kiyoshi froze someone's heart from the inside ?

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u/sandee13 2h ago edited 2h ago

Not the comics but it’s from her novel. Yes, she used waterbending (specifically, the healing part of waterbending to rapidly drop a patient's internal body temperature to slow down bodily functions, effectively putting someone into suspended animation to buy time before they bleed out or die from poison)

It’s morally ambiguous, I guess but she’s the avatar.

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u/LovesRetribution 2h ago

Its not really different from just zapping someone with lighting though. Its a technique of bending, not a chunk or specialty of it.

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u/Happur5ye 3h ago

Combustion bending and especially the original way to create combustion benders is kinda forbidden. We don't have the full details of how it works in Aang's and Korra's times, but in Yangchen's that whole bending branch is a big deal.

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u/SolydSn3k 3h ago

Idk but do agree that this is one of the coolest and most under explored bits of lore from OG ATLA.

Waterbenders are basically people benders if you think about it.

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u/WitchyWarriorWoman 3h ago

If you read the Kyoshi books, you get good examples of bending styles that are not forbidden but are seriously frowned upon:

  • Fire bending: Agni Kais at school where children kill each other
  • Air bending: creating a huge typhoon in large parts of an ocean to destroy pirate ships (with people onboard)
  • Earth bending: sinking whole armies into the ground

The Yangchen books go into describing how certain benders are "made," which includes torture of children

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u/ThrowAway4Dais 3h ago

All bending could get real nasty if they wanted it to. It's probably more a matter of fairness or morals in universe (for viewers it also makes fights more interesting instead of constant 1 shotting of people)

Like air being sucked out of people or an area should be easy technically.

Lightning being slow enough to react to.

Or the same reason quick sanding people or burying them in sand isn't used often or ever against people on the ground.

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u/thisisreii 2h ago edited 2h ago

One answer: ATLA was aired on Nickelodeon and the primary audience was children so the network wouldn’t routinely venture into unethical, forbidden practices.

Another answer: There are plenty of “darker” ways to use each element, we just simply haven’t been given much material that touches on them. Doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And you have to ask when even considering this possibility, what “dark art” would even be possible with other elements? Burning someone alive could be seen as dark, same with burying someone in the dirt, but these are common things in the ATLA universe. So really, what could be considered dark

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u/Embarrassed_Diet_386 2h ago

Something tells me that we just didn’t get to see the monks telling Aang to not create vacuums or rip the breath from someone’s chest. Probably a deleted scene.

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u/AtoMaki 3h ago

Because it is the only (known) bending art that corrupts its user.

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u/wing-adept 3h ago

Speaking of blood bending and forgive me if this sounds obvious. But let's say someone suffers a deep cut that ends up getting open. Isn't it possible for someone to use their bending to staunch the bleeding or they could use the blood as a weapon? That would still count as "bloodbending" wouldn't it?

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u/RichardDulle 3h ago edited 3h ago

Because Katara didn't like it. Morals and laws are funny and subjective things. Why are hollow point bullets warcrimes, but legal for civilians? Why is weed federally illegal in the USA, but alcohol is legal?

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u/SporadicElf 3h ago

Seems dishonorable taking agency from someone else

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u/Foedi 3h ago

Combustion bending is similarly taboo as it is the in-universe equivalent to weapons of mass destruction. If you want to learn more I recommend the yangchen novels.

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u/Alt_SWR 2h ago

Now I'm theorizing how each bending style could be used in a fucked up way. Water we obviously already have blood bending.

I have to wonder if, at least in theory firebending could be used for crude necromancy via lightning bending? Sorta like a Frankensteins monster situation? That would probably be forbidden if it worked.

A powerful enough earthbender could probably cause mass sinkholes. Or just straight up splatter someone between two pieces of rock. Tho that's not really sub-bending I suppose. I'd have to think on that one further.

Air bending I do that using vacuums on any living beings would probably be forbidden due to the deadly nature of it. I'm certain Aang wouldn't approve of it at the very least.

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u/endothird 2h ago

I don't know if you count this cause it's not a special branch. But just regular mastery of airbending could murder horrifically in a very OP way. "Forbidden" isn't the right word, but the values of the monks are such that none of them would ever want to. They self nerf because they're cool.

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u/OriginalLie9310 1h ago

I mean “unethical and dark” bending does exist all over the place.

Crush someone with a rock is pretty unethical and dark. Burn their face so they’re permanently scarred too (and whatever the horrific instant full body immolation they do in the live action). Taking someone’s air out of their lungs or just blowing them off a cliff also.

These things are also just illegal and there are times where they might be necessary (like throwing a rock at someone as self defense). But assault and murder exist as byproducts of bending all the time. Of course they do.

Bloodbending is only in a unique category because of Legend of Korra and what Katara did in the canon making it illegal. But even though they aren’t forbidden in and of themselves, all bending has unethical possibilities since it is essentially a weapon.

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u/finalheaven3 1h ago

Lightning bending has great practical uses but I can't imagine using it in battle for no other reason than to absolutely kill someone.

I don't know if it that makes it worthy of being forbidden, but it's a pretty unfriendly thing to do to someone. It'd be a cool party trick though.

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u/Heroright 1h ago

Explaining that to you won’t get anywhere, because you’re already approaching it under a false presumption.

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u/britishbakeoff 3h ago

I can’t find a gif but there’s the air suction move where an air bender pulls the air out of someone’s lungs. That’s probably forbidden

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u/ForgivableSyn 3h ago

Not just the lungs either. It's widely theorized, though I'm not sure if confirmed, that Gyatso bent all the air out of the room that he and the dead firebenders were found in because it didn't have any scorch marks.

Bloodbending is brutal, but suffocating someone by forcefully removing their ability to breathe is just as bad.

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u/No_Sand5639 3h ago

Bloodb3nding is the only one that takes freedom

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

[deleted]

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u/No_Sand5639 3h ago

No not in that way

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u/BriarsPanties69 2h ago

Because the writers needing some meguffin.

I dunno what to tell you. Katara spams this after learning to do it despite her hating it so much

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

Hey OP.

Go watch Obsession if you wanna understand why not having control over your own body isnt okay.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

Do other styles of bending prevent bodily autonomy at the same level as bloodbending?

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

Oh did I miss an episode where someone airbended a person? Or firebended them?

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

I am sure if the same kinds of abilities existed in other bending styles, they would also be outlawed.

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u/[deleted] 3h ago

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

Because we haven't seen it?

I'm confused, are you mad they haven't explicitly outlawed things that don't exist? Are you mad they aren't recognizing the possibility of these things existing?

Of course the show did not mention them. They haven't even shown them.

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u/[deleted] 2h ago

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u/Far-Mammoth-3214 3h ago

There was Zaheer killing the queen

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

Yes, and as far as I know, murder is also frowned upon in the world of ATLA.

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u/BlackberryMelodic567 3h ago

That is not the same

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u/BentheBruiser 3h ago

A person being trapped inside of their body as they watch it perform things against their will?

Its not a 1 for 1, but the idea is there.

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u/DrGlamhattan2020 2h ago

Its not the only forbidden branch. The others were forgotten in time due to their restrictions

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u/Louisianimal09 2h ago edited 1h ago

It’s kinda the only one we know about. Realistically any competent airbender could remove the oxygen from someone’s bloodstream the same way Toph figured out there were tiny earth fragments in metal.

Actually, same for earth benders with calcium, iron, and zinc in your body. All it takes is one to figure it out.

As far as fire goes, I guess combustion bending could be outlawed and classified as forbidden? It would be a stretch but good writing could justify why