flamablebread: LoK: Minimalist Posters.
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, I was thinking of this while I was driving to work. At some point in the original A:TLA series Toph says she learned earthbending from the badgermoles and that other benders learned their bending from the original source. Does the series ever explain how it became genetic? Or were probably already born with an inclination towards bending?
adventuresofatwentysomething
DA7E SAYS: I have no idea how it became genetic, but it appears to have some sort of genetic trait. We haven’t seen a bending art be born to a family that has never had that bending art in it’s past before.
The avatar wiki states that “Airbenders continually sought for spiritual enlightenment, and, as a result, all children born into the Air Nomads were benders.” This makes me think it’s possible for the Air Acolytes to eventually give birth to air benders. But can an isolated group of non benders from different nations learn bending over generations? Is bending a specific gene that applies to specific continents?
dizzykins
DA7E SAYS: Mentioned above, bending was initially taught to humans (Water uses Moon, Air uses Bison, Fire dragons, Earth moles) and at some point became at least partially genetic. I think in the Mako/Bolin case, we’re looking at a family that was one of the original Earth Kingdom/Fire Kingdom mixed famalies from the post-Aang era.
do you think Amon could be Bolin and Mako’s brother? he stated his father was killed by a fire bender, and the brothers’ parents were killed by a firebender, what do you think?
Anonymous
DA7E SAYS: I dont think Mako and Bolin grew up on a farm and the boy’s parents were attacked and killed by a Firebender while it sounds like Amon’s story (if it’s true) had some sort of social/classist thing going on. I think it’s unlikely, but we haven’t seen a single thing in the series that could prove you wrong.
So looking at the Avatar Wiki for Chakras (google!) It seems the “each episode is a way to get through a chakra” is becoming more of a likely theory. The Earth chakra is first, and deals with survival but is blocked by fear. Korra had to overcome her fear in the fourth episode. The Water chakra is next, and deals with pleasure but is blocked by guilt.
Korra wanted to be with the person she liked, but she never wanted to hurt anyone – by the end of the episode she had overcome her guilt by realizing emotions take a while to sort out. The next chakra is the Fire chakra, which deals with willpower and is blocked by shame. What could Korra be facing that has to do with Willpower and Shame?
thebadmamajama
DA7E SAYS: I’m not sure about willpower, but if I’ve learned anything from Batman, you can’t let the Joker run around Gotham City while you’e out gallivanting with Selina Kyle. In other words – Korra just took about a week off from Tarrlock’s Task Force. Not that the Task Force is super-great for Korra personally, but she’s been letting the Equalists re-gain their footing and now they’re going to come back with a vengeance. Willpower wise – maybe Korra is going to need to let someone’s bending get sacrificed to protect a greater number of people? That’s just me guessing.