Legend Of Korra: Will It Bend!

[Knaight]

No, Roku had trouble with water, while Avatar Kurruk, the waterbending avatar before Korra, was male.

This isn't particularly relevant. What was said boils down to this:

• Korra has trouble with air. The male avatar prior to Korra was Aang, an airbender.
• Aang has trouble with earth. The female avatar prior to Aang was Kyoshi, an earthbender.
• Thus, there is a pattern in that avatars have trouble with the element of the prior bender of the opposite sex.

The question is whether the last female avatar prior to Roku bent water, not whether the last waterbender prior to Roku was female.

That said, I'd consider this hypothesis a reach, given that we have nowhere near enough data to conclude it.

[Flickerdart]

I wonder what energybending originally did, before there was any elemental bending to remove? Maybe we'll find out if:

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Korra gets her bending taken away, leaving only the spiritual aspect of the avatar, so she needs to learn how to be more spiritual and how to fight without bending to defeat Amon.

I don't think it's very likely, but it would certainly be interesting.

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For Korra it would be a better bet to grind punching, rather than kick up her spirit powers.

[Xondoure]

The female avatar before Roku was Kiyoshi.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Yes, and the element he had trouble with was Water, as he admitted when he talked about his training in the four elements. Thus, the theory that an avatar has trouble with the element of the previous avatar of the opposite sex is neatly disproved.

GW

[Infernally Clay]

Amon isn't bluffing. At least, I'm certain that him actually having that ability would be a much wiser approach to take. Korra needs spiritual growth, something she lacks. Amon is the perfect vehicle to get Korra mastering the spiritual aspect of the four elements, since he can take away the three she already knows and force her to search for teachers in the world and relearn them.

[Infernally Clay]

Amon isn't bluffing. At least, I'm certain that him actually having that ability would be a much wiser approach to take. Korra needs spiritual growth, something she lacks. Amon is the perfect vehicle to get Korra mastering the spiritual aspect of the four elements, since he can take away the three she already knows and force her to search for teachers in the world and relearn them.

[Kurgan]

Not sure if this has been mentioned as a possibility regarding Amon ...

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Crazy conspiracy theory time. It was established that Zolt knew something big was going down. (Otherwise he wouldn't have been hiring extra muscle). The "something big" was probably the Revelation. Would it be possible that Zolt is in cahoots with Amon, and the "energybending" was just an act to stir up support for Amon? They do have common interests (antagonistic to the police and not much liking the new Avatar).

The big hole with that theory is Bolin. He obviously didn't know what was going on. However, we do know that the Revelation was actually interrupted by Korra, so we don't know for 100% certain what Amon had planned. It's possible that a flashy rescue by the Avatar was exactly what he was hoping for - "See! They're scared!" - "Bad Avatar, stop inciting riots!" - with the image of a bender begging for his powers (and Amon benevolently granting him his wish if he takes a message back to the authorities) as a backup plan.

Speculation:

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While I do not see Zolt willing to go through with such a spectacle with Amon before the Revelation, I can see him and his fellow gang members working with him after it.

Think about it, a gang of ruffians who made a fortune by using their bending powers to abuse others. Now they don't have bending, they need someone to cling to. After all, what happens to them after losing their bending? It isn't really shown in the episode, but they cannot muscle their way back to the top, unless they hire other benders I suppose. Plus, they probably have a lot of enemies, so if they can hook up with Amon, even if they don't wield the influence they used to have, at least they aren't being thrown to the mob.

This could also provide some low level henchmen for the villains, since as bending fighters, they might not be super great at fighting without bending.

[druid91]

!!Wild theory alert!!

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You know, I've been thinking. That maybe just maybe Amon was telling the truth. He did receive energy-bending from the spirit-world because the avatar wasn't keeping balance. Because if you think about it. We have Aang. He vanished for 100 years, leaving the balance a mess. Sure he tried to help and solve the problems he created, and so the spirits cut him some slack. Then he dies and the new avatar is little more than an energetic thug (Come on, she's nice, but her first instinct is to pound people with bending.), who completely ignores the spiritual section of being avatar. She's one element away from completing her training and at least 3 years past Aangs training completion date (if you count it from Aangs perspective) and has no spiritual experience at all. It seems to me that the spirits, being intelligent beings in their own right, might start to look for other options to keep the balance between the two worlds, at which point they start up negotiations with Amon. And that may be a major plot point will be Korra trying to convince the spirits that she can and will do her job as avatar thus cutting Amon off from spiritual back-up.

It seems to me that maybe, just maybe, the spirits are a feeling little bit jilted.

[JCarter426]

by the way, since an Earth Avatar will be next, who do think they will be like?

My proposal: Fraternal triplets, all earthbenders, each with one additional bending ability from the Avatar (air, water, or fire).

And then Avatar Tesla.

As for Korra, I'm on the energybending side for now, although I suspect it's not that simple. I'm betting Book 2 will be Energy, and Amon is just the first round. Perhaps he comes from a lost continent of energybenders or some such.

And on a related matter, I just finished a speed run through the entirety of the first series. After watching the first two episodes of Korra I realized how much I'd forgotten. It was quite fun.

[Ninjadeadbeard]

Just thought this. It's madness, Epileptic Tree Madness, but:

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Amon is Aang. Somehow he was resurrected and is now not the Avatar nor a Bender (due to the Avatar spirit going to the next person in the cycle). He still has Energybending, it was mentioned that only Aang ever managed to Energybend after his fight with Ozai (though Tenzen could be wrong), can commune with spirits (unconfirmed), and hides his face because otherwise people would recognize him. He's gone evil with the loss of his bending and/or he's reached the point where he realizes how inherently unfair bending is and how corrupt some of it's practitioners are.

Personally, I'd be p***ed if this was true for obvious reasons. Just throwing it out there for dismemberment.

[VariaVespasa]

Yes, and the element he had trouble with was Water, as he admitted when he talked about his training in the four elements. Thus, the theory that an avatar has trouble with the element of the previous avatar of the opposite sex is neatly disproved.

GW

Not merely a double-post, its a seven-post! Congratulations Sir! :P

[Silverraptor]

!!Wild theory alert!!

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You know, I've been thinking. That maybe just maybe Amon was telling the truth. He did receive energy-bending from the spirit-world because the avatar wasn't keeping balance. Because if you think about it. We have Aang. He vanished for 100 years, leaving the balance a mess. Sure he tried to help and solve the problems he created, and so the spirits cut him some slack. Then he dies and the new avatar is little more than an energetic thug (Come on, she's nice, but her first instinct is to pound people with bending.), who completely ignores the spiritual section of being avatar. She's one element away from completing her training and at least 3 years past Aangs training completion date (if you count it from Aangs perspective) and has no spiritual experience at all. It seems to me that the spirits, being intelligent beings in their own right, might start to look for other options to keep the balance between the two worlds, at which point they start up negotiations with Amon. And that may be a major plot point will be Korra trying to convince the spirits that she can and will do her job as avatar thus cutting Amon off from spiritual back-up.

It seems to me that maybe, just maybe, the spirits are a feeling little bit jilted.

...this does seem possible...

Wanted an excuse to use this gif.

[BRC]

What I want to know is what happened to Azula. She's charismatic (She was able to get the Dai Li away from Long Feng), powerful, and dangerous. A bendingless Ozai may be out of the global politics game. End-of-Season Azula was far too insane to rally anybody, but if she calmed down and got out of whatever prison Zuko stuck her in she could rally the Fire Nation troops, pull off a coup against her brother, and restart the war. She already has a nation full of soldiers and a culture that's had a hundred years to convince itself that global conquest was a good thing, Sozen started with less (Although he didn't have an Avatar to deal with, but the goal here is prevention. Aang's presence wouldn't stop Azula from trying to pull off a coup).
Do you think Aang gave her the 'ol Energybending treatment as well? Did she just spend the rest of her life locked away with her madness?
The difficulty of holding a Firebender of her caliber would be there, but they just put Iroh in what looked like your standard Three-walls and Metal Bars cell, which sounds pretty Firebender proof to me. All you have to do is keep your guards out of the room when she starts throwing fire through the bars. (It was not Iroh Proof, but what is).


Hrmm, I wonder how they imprison Earthbenders, now that Metalbending is a thing. I suppose you could have a wooden jail, or send them up north where the Waterbenders have carved a jail out of ice.

[Randomguy]

!!Wild theory alert!!

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You know, I've been thinking. That maybe just maybe Amon was telling the truth. He did receive energy-bending from the spirit-world because the avatar wasn't keeping balance. Because if you think about it. We have Aang. He vanished for 100 years, leaving the balance a mess. Sure he tried to help and solve the problems he created, and so the spirits cut him some slack. Then he dies and the new avatar is little more than an energetic thug (Come on, she's nice, but her first instinct is to pound people with bending.), who completely ignores the spiritual section of being avatar. She's one element away from completing her training and at least 3 years past Aangs training completion date (if you count it from Aangs perspective) and has no spiritual experience at all. It seems to me that the spirits, being intelligent beings in their own right, might start to look for other options to keep the balance between the two worlds, at which point they start up negotiations with Amon. And that may be a major plot point will be Korra trying to convince the spirits that she can and will do her job as avatar thus cutting Amon off from spiritual back-up.

It seems to me that maybe, just maybe, the spirits are a feeling little bit jilted.

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This doesn't make much sense. Most avatars take 16 years until they even find out about that they are the avatar, and Roku took around 30 until he became a fully realised avatar. If the spirits didn't mind 112 years of disorder, why would they care about a measly 17 years?

I think that if there's a conflict in the spirit world, it's between particular spirits, and not the spirit world as a whole, and time probably isn't the issue. Maybe it's one of the non-bending spirits, since not all spirits grant bending like the moon and ocean spirits do, and it's jealous that some spirits are worshipped and it isn't. Maybe it's the spirit of the sun, that hates the fact that firebenders are still abusing their power. It could even be the spirit of trees that wants to wipe out airbending so that trees don't get epileptic seizures anymore. We just don't have enough information yet; the only lead led to Koh, and that was already disproven.

[Psyren]

I'm caught up!

I like the theory about the spirits possibly siding with Amon due to Korra's rather irritating secularness - not to mention that of the entire world, which has already turned to building metropolises instead of shrines.

But as far as "travelling the world to learn from spiritual teachers..." She has the main human teacher she'd need (Tenzin) - only the actual spirits could teach her more. (And he could stand a lesson or two himself, bureaucrat-monk that he is.)

[Flickerdart]

Hrmm, I wonder how they imprison Earthbenders, now that Metalbending is a thing. I suppose you could have a wooden jail, or send them up north where the Waterbenders have carved a jail out of ice.

As far as we know, nobody's been able to replicate Bumi's facebending technique yet, so that's still on the table.

[druid91]

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This doesn't make much sense. Most avatars take 16 years until they even find out about that they are the avatar, and Roku took around 30 until he became a fully realised avatar. If the spirits didn't mind 112 years of disorder, why would they care about a measly 17 years?

I think that if there's a conflict in the spirit world, it's between particular spirits, and not the spirit world as a whole, and time probably isn't the issue. Maybe it's one of the non-bending spirits, since not all spirits grant bending like the moon and ocean spirits do, and it's jealous that some spirits are worshipped and it isn't. Maybe it's the spirit of the sun, that hates the fact that firebenders are still abusing their power. It could even be the spirit of trees that wants to wipe out airbending so that trees don't get epileptic seizures anymore. We just don't have enough information yet; the only lead led to Koh, and that was already disproven.

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Yes but they also spent longer on each element didn't they? Learning the spiritual/philosophical side, as well as the martial art.

And evidence suggested they didn't like it. I doubt the amount of random spirit-world help Aang got was normal for the Avatar.


Anyway. The point is even if it is early, Korra is almost out of training and her only spiritual adviser is to be an airbender.

That might annoy at least the other patron element spirits.

[BRC]

I kind of doubt that Korra is going to leave Republic City anytime soon. As much as I would love to see Ba-Sing-Se again I don't think that we're going to have anything as simple as Korra traveling the world to learn spirituality.

Instead I think we'll have Korra learning that being the Avatar means much more than just punching people in the face. It means you have to be a leader and an inspiration as much as a warrior. Aang was very spiritual, but he wasn't effective because he went around lecturing people about spirituality. His spirituality was mostly reflected in his personal behavior (vegetarian, unwilling to kill even his worst enemy in order to prevent Genocide), but it served as a moral guide for him that made him very effective.
So far, Korra just wants to punch things. In the Face. She stepped in to stop the Triad from threatening the Shopkeeper, but even then she had a grin on her face as if to say "Oh boy! Bad Guys! Those are the ones I get to punch!" rather than genuine concern for the Shopkeeper, or outrage at the Triad.

They're not going to turn Korra into Aang anytime soon, but they might be able to teach her when punching faces is a good idea.

[Dr. Roboto]

As far as we know, nobody's been able to replicate Bumi's facebending technique yet, so that's still on the table.

Perhaps allowing no movement for years and years wouldn't be the best way to rehabilitate criminals. That'd really just create Earthbending psychopaths.

Metalbending still seems to be a bit of a speciality (If I'm not mistaken, we've only seen the police do it) so it might not be that much of an issue yet. I mean, the firebenders on the Boiling Rock could've potentially just have jetpacked themselves away, a la Azula, but none were badass enough. Alternatively, now we have the Chi-benders, so they might just continually hit the prisoners in the forehead every few minutes.

[AtlanteanTroll]

Alternatively, now we have the Chi-benders, so they might just continually hit the prisoners in the forehead every few minutes.

No we don't. We have Amon. He's just one guy.

[thubby]

or maybe they just stick them on an island somewhere and shoot them with ballistae if they try to escape.
benders are strong, not supermen. put them in tactically compromised positions against heavy weapons and they go down like anyone else.

[Mutant Sheep]

No we don't. We have Amon. He's just one guy.

Well, he's talking about then being all King Bumi-chained up. Smacking their face-Chakra would stop them from facebending, and thus stop escaping. He isn't saying that the chi blockers can just steal power forever, he's saying that someone who can block chakras can just walk up and down smacking prisoners in the face to make sure they can't earthbend with their noses. But really, needing much facilities sounds a bit unneeded. Just KILL the guy if you're so scared of his super bendingness you fear he can kill you with his nose.

[Kobold-Bard]

I really hope Aang took Azula's Bending too. Leaving her with Bending is just asking for trouble.

[dehro]

or maybe they just stick them on an island somewhere and shoot them with ballistae if they try to escape.
benders are strong, not supermen. put them in tactically compromised positions against heavy weapons and they go down like anyone else.

thing is, the heavy weaponry is made of bending too. if I'm an earthbender and you stick me on an island, I just burrow down, start digging a tunnel, and then walk underground towards the nearest coast. you'll never even know I left the island.

Korra isn't late on her training by anyone's standards other than Aang's, and he had to do a rushed job and was STILL 100 years late, according to the world's calendar.

for Amon to be credible as a threat without energybending, I do believe that he's found a way to increase the duration of the chi-blocking to at least months, otherwise his planned revolution would drown at the first resurgence of bending in any of his victims. for all we know, he's taught the techniques to an elite of his mooks and they have simply refrained using them until the big reveal of last episode. no, I don't think that's what will happen..but the simple fact is we don't have enough data to be sure of anything at this stage

[Xondoure]

I think we have more than enough to assume he's an energy bender. He's the main villain for crying out loud, of course he's going to have some nasty tricks up his sleeves. Plus I've often found that no one lies quite as much as fans assume they do in media, and when they do it serves a major narrative purpose which we have so far seen no evidence of.

[WitchSlayer]

Is it bad that I'm kind of with Amon and the Equalists?

I mean equality between bender and non-bender would be nice. It also might be because there is no non-bender in Korra's Krew yet, but from what I saw of the previews it didn't look like there was going to be.

[Seraph]

dunno if anyone's posted it yet re: amon.

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there is a fair amount of evidence to believe that, instead of energy bending, Amon is "merely" a master of chi manipulation who is deliberately invoking the appearance of Energy bending as a psychological weapon.

[dehro]

I think we have more than enough to assume he's an energy bender. He's the main villain for crying out loud, of course he's going to have some nasty tricks up his sleeves. Plus I've often found that no one lies quite as much as fans assume they do in media, and when they do it serves a major narrative purpose which we have so far seen no evidence of.

yeah... no
energybending is flashy and green. Amon has no flash..and we've seen him do his thing. so far, you're the one who is making assumptions

dunno if anyone's posted it yet re: amon.

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there is a fair amount of evidence to believe that, instead of energy bending, Amon is "merely" a master of chi manipulation who is deliberately invoking the appearance of Energy bending as a psychological weapon.

I really don't mean to be rude..but it would help if people would read at least the last 2 pages of the thread prior to repeating something that has been the center of debate of said 2 pages (and more)... so far I do think you're the 4th or 5th who has come up with this thought and posted it without realizing that everybody else was already debating this possibility.

Is it bad that I'm kind of with Amon and the Equalists?

I mean equality between bender and non-bender would be nice. It also might be because there is no non-bender in Korra's Krew yet, but from what I saw of the previews it didn't look like there was going to be.

mmh so far we've only got the word of the protesters to tell us that there is inequality. we don't know that this is true. for all we've seen in the previous series, it's the benders who do most of the hard work (admittedly, because it's easier for everybody that way). maybe there has been a shift of balance, in this respect, in Republic City..but I doubt it.
thugs and criminals may give bending a bad name, but police benders should even things out. one could say they're ineffective, but that's it..not that they're benders and therefore in cahoots with the criminals in a social status based fight.
I do understand though why a non bender trying to rise to power would use those arguments.
To me the protest reeks of being one of those revolutionary movements where most of the activists don't really want a slice of the cake to go to everybody but are rather just upset that they personally aren't getting any (cake)
there are always a few zealots who believe in the cause, but most of the people involved usually are so because they have an empty stomach..not a hightened sense of social inequality. give them a little something for their support, and they'll lay back patting their satisfied belly. The people at the top usually know how to play the tunes that stirr the empty stomach and give it a moral ground to stand on.

[golentan]

Is it bad that I'm kind of with Amon and the Equalists?

I mean equality between bender and non-bender would be nice. It also might be because there is no non-bender in Korra's Krew yet, but from what I saw of the previews it didn't look like there was going to be.

No, they have a solid point. The trouble is that the problem isn't benders per se, it's the way people react to having power. Getting rid of benders would cause much of society in the avatarverse to collapse. Benders are key to their technology, standard of living, environmental protection, and quite frankly to keeping humanity from being treated as a midnight munchy by some of the giant carnivorous monsters we've seen roaming around.

Unfortunately, bending also lends itself well to combat. Ridiculously so, which has stagnated military technology in universe (because why put the research into effective guns when you can shoot people with mind-bullets/flamethrowers/cryothrowers?), and the criminal element gains a massive incentive to use it (military grade weapon that by its nature can't be regulated? No brainer there). Since the military has it, and the criminals want it enough to get it, the police force needs some on staff. So now we have key components of society, of which some will be opressive (see the Dai Li or the Triple Threat Triads or the Fire Nation military) with colossal personal power. And a society where power seems to have been both hereditary and correlated with bending/control over benders historically. It's no wonder people associate the one with the other, even if it's not strictly the problem. And non-benders have little recourse to defend themselves from aggression: the height of non-bending weaponry appears to be the sword/bow/simple petards.

[pffh]

Crazy theory time

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Amon is Sokkas and Zukis son. Ya see after his parents were killed he would have been raised by the rest of the Kyoshi Warriors and from them I would learn and master chi blocking (I don't think that he has energy bending mostly since he doesn't touch the same chakras as Aang did) and developed in secret a long term version of it.

Looking over his fathers random sketches and plans he finds the design for the shock sticks and possibly some other items (possibly the motorcycles since they looked quite high tech compared to the rest of the vehicles) and finally his parents never got the same respect for saving the world as the benders of the group being the only non-benders.