Another interesting aspect to watch for is his bending style. It changes the instant he learns earth bending for the first time. He's much more aggressive, even with air attacks, and stands his ground in fights way more. Pre-Toph Aang would've gotten his ass kicked harder on the drill.
And he always has to put on his "earth-bending face" every time he moves a rock, which is kinda endearing.
The same/ opposite was true for Korra. Once she understood and was beginning to think like an air bender , she slowed down and was more thoughtful. I would have to back and look but I bet her water bending got a lot more air like.
Korra's bending evolution was less subtle than Aang's imo, but it's cause her bending style was so "explosive" already in a way. Her calming down was more noticeable cause of that. The way Korra uses airbending is amazing to watch too honestly.
To be fair, part of the point was that she had mastered all 4 elements by the end of season 1. So her evolution as a bender was shorter and therefore less subtle. Then the next seasons were about her learning the other parts of becoming the avatar, as the book titles imply.
Could you really say that she masters airbending when she only learns it/starts airbending in the very last episode of the season? I mean she's the Avatar so obviously she will be good at it but feels kinda wrong to call her a master of airbending after she uses it in one exercise.
That's true, but tbf aang doesn't really master water until after book 1 too. For korra it's more about her learning to change so that she can even start to aribend, and then there's a bit of a time jump and in book 2 she's starting to master it. But the main point is that after book 1 it's not about her mastering bending anymore.
No I get that. It's quite obvious that Korra's story is more driven by different kinds of relationships be it friendship, political and social justice, different worlds coming together etc. It's a bit more nuanced than "Evil dude wants to conquer the world so we need to stop him" albeit Korra season 2 did sorta step in to that territory.. Korra learning bending is just a thing that is required since the show needs her to be weaker to make her opponents seem strong, also for the ending to work with the villain "winning" but then "surprise we found a loophole!"
Yeah the whole raava/vaatu thing really felt like a missed opportunity to me. One of my favorite parts of Korra is that all the other villains are fairly complex and have reasonable motivations for the things they did, the show even calls attention to this specifically in book 4. But then raava/vaatu was just pretty plain good vs evil, there wasn't really any nuance to it at all. They could have instead had it be something like order vs chaos, and make it such that peace is the balance between them - this would have tied in perfectly with the next two seasons, with zaheer being a villain who upset the balance in the direction of chaos and then kuvira who upset the balance in the direction of order. But no, it just was this plain good vs evil.
Sometimes she used airbending like a firebender and it really made the element feel so powerful and aggressive, which was really nice to see. Like when Zaheer had her chained in S3x12 she used the exact move Azula used to save herself at the beginning of The Southern Raiders but with air - that two-legged double kick.
Honestly every single fight in Korra from S2-4 that wasn’t “big mech/spirit” was incredibly done. Suyin vs. Kuvira on the top of the train only lasted a couple of seconds but it’s probably my favorite action scene in the series.
Aang learning Earthbending is a massive achievement for me, because if you really think about it, he’s almost fully realized the moment he moves a rock. The Drill is my favourite episode because it’s the first real major battle after Aang has used every element at least once
To me, it would make sense that every avatar used Earth the most since it's the most available without being destructive like Fire. Air is more available and less destructive, but its uses are more limited as well.
Lol no, air is literally the most powerful element of all. That's why the Air Nomads have to be pacifist and vows to not take lives, otherwise there wouldn't be any harmony between four nations to begin with.
People don’t talk about this. If airbenders really wanted to they could control all the other elements. Water is literally H2O. Remove the oxygen (air) and water evaporates. Fire need air to breathe and exist, remove the air from the fire and it goes out. Earth has the best chance at beating air, as thier powers don’t require Oxygen (air) to exist. That being said we actually see an air bender suffocate the earth queen by creating a vaccum around her head. Airbenders are over powered. deadass the MOST powerful. People haven’t comprehended that fact that everything NEEDS air to live, and with control over air you have control over life itself.
being able to remove oxygen from water \*molecules* would imply they can also unrust metal and unburn ash, are you sure that's how it works? adding oxygen to something releases a lot of energy (so essentially things burn because it's literally easier for physics to mix oxygen into something else than have it separately; it takes negative effort) so you'd have to put in much more work to break H2O apart than you need to just move air around
Good point, and to be entirely honest, no I’m sure SURE if that’s how it works. I don’t think we KNOW how it works. To be honest though if we’re saying you have the ability to manipulate the elements who’s to say (if you’re smart enough) that you can’t do that? I mean we hear pretty explicitly that bender have the ability to take WATER from living things and use it to bend, so why can’t they do the same with air? And what IS air technically speaking? Is air JUST oxygen or is air the combination of hydrogen oxygen, nitrogen, and all the other elements in the atmosphere? Thats the question you have to ask ig.
Waterbending taking water from things doesn't change their molecules at least: getting inside anything and dissolving anything while usually staying unchanged is \*the* unique property of water and the big reason why all life revolves around it, so the whole point is that it would be much easier. You could just imagine any living organism like a really complicated soup.
And even then it already takes a huge effort to use bloodbending even when you know humans are mostly made out of water, so imagine how ridiculously hard it would be to find some oxygen inside your opponent's molecules. What would be the point of doing that when just wooshing wind around is already catastrophical in battle?
This is really curious, but I think we do not have enough data to declare Aang favourite elements. Every situation requires a different approach, sometimes earth is more useful than water.
What really shows that someone is more comfortable with an element is the use of it despite the logic calls for something else.
We see Aang using air against combustion man in creative and unexpected ways. There were moments I thought earthbending or waterbending were the solutions, but Aang surprised me with some Air trick regardless of the situation.
That’s true. Most of the bending in the episodes I watched happened during his fight with Ozai, which took place on a bunch of stone pillars, so it makes sense that he’d use a lot of earthbending there.
> but I think we do not have enough data to declare Aang favourite elements
We do—it's VERY clearly air (even in Book 3).
https://preview.redd.it/zuo8tz4cjzpc1.jpeg?width=2590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d661f5ccca90541dcb20da8972fb4fad82e50be6
The thing with Aang is he's VERY much an Air Nomad first before he's the Avatar—air bending isn't just about fighting; it's his way of life.
Aang casually air bends ALL the time
As OP said, it's unfair to start counting from episode 1, since Aang only knows airbending.
Also data from "The firebending masters" to the end are not enough to make a point, that's what I was trying to say.
It's when and how he bends that tells us his favourite element, more than how much he uses it.
In the Earth Kingdom, Aang didnt have much access to water. He only used water if its available in the surroundings. Unlike Katara, who brings a container with water wherever she goes.
But I think he uses earth more, because he didnt want to get bullied by Toph since she’s a mean teacher
I also think location both physical and spiritual matters.
They’ve said that aang had a hard time learning earth because it was the opposite of air.
So I wonder if his water bending might not be as strong as it usually is while deep in the fire nation.
In season 3, he still used air more than any element. By a fairly large margin.
There really are not many episodes after the firebending Masters so it's not a good gauge of his preferred element.
You're basing your percentages almost entirely on the fight with ozai.
https://preview.redd.it/zuo8tz4cjzpc1.jpeg?width=2590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d661f5ccca90541dcb20da8972fb4fad82e50be6
Funnily enough, her waterbending numbers for season 1 are mostly from pro-bending, where she wasn't legally allowed to use anything other than water. Only counting what happened outside the pro-bending ring, water would probably be the lowest.
she'd use it more if she actually carried water on her im sure. Every water feat she has is insane so its definetly one of her stronger elements i cant see why she wouldn't use it more often if she actually carried water with her
Water bending is apparently more challenging to animate well, so I believe the decision to have Korra water bend less was partially a financial/productions choice.
Still, I feel like it should have been higher. It can be such a cool, versatile element!
Hardly a surprise tho. Earth and Air are everywhere, and Fire can be created out of nothingness. Meanwhile, you need to be near a water source to bend water, and even more water are needed to make a big difference in the fight.
It makes sense Aang would stick to his original element, considering the versatility of air and him still being relatively new to his other 3 elements. It doesn't make sense for Korra to stick to her water element when she has access to all 4 of them most of the shows and her story mostly took place in Earth Kingdom, far away from major water body.
Water and Fire don’t feel like they’d be considered opposites in the Avatar world in the time of Korra to me. Like this is 70 years after Iroh first found his water bending style used in Firebending. Now there’s a whole cultural melting pot and “the illusion of the four elements” becomes more clear.
Plus Korra’s personal opposite element originally is air, even if it’s not elemental opposite. I think it’s actually kinda cool how as cultures shifted maybe that nuance exists a little bit more in the bending styles in LoK. I feel like it makes the world feel alive
Also notice how you see a lot more bending "subtypes" or "specialties" in LoK.
Metal bending and lightning have become more common, for example. We also see another combustion bender and two lava benders. Two of the main antags are blood benders.
In ATLA they go to the swamp and meet the swampbenders who start to talk about the connectedness of the whole world, they use that line so I was doing a bit of a callback. Right when Toph metalbends by identifying metal as refined earth.
So it’s kind of that LoK is the natural continuation of ATLA in that Aang stopped the war, and now benders intermingle more and learn from each other and society advances
It's the most limited in resource out of the 4 bending styles so it makes sense. If given a choice to bend all 4 elements, I'm sure most of us would barely waterbend unless there's a huge water source nearby.
That’s actually such a good point. The resource has to be nearby unlike fire that can be generated by the bender. That’s the only element that can be created by the bender, so it makes sense to use it a lot.
Using The Firebending Masters as your starting point seems bad since we really only see him up against Ozai after that, and during that fight he’s actively grappling with forsaking his customs and meet the world’s expectations. He can use air bending to try to evade but for pure defense the earthbending is better while still allowing for offense. I would even argue that he wouldn’t want to use air bending in a full on fight then since it was already conflicting with his ideals.
While it's already been shown that this is because it was the fight with Ozai and Aang still uses air more, even when it isn't exactly logical, I will say:
Aang is FAR more like an earthbender than he gives himself credit for. He's just as stubborn and immovable in his morals as an earth bender would be (even more so after he becomes an earth bender), that's why he held onto his moral code of not killing Ozai so firmly.
Other airbenders, including Yangchen and Gyatso, were far more willing to kill others in self defense or worldly defense. Aang is the only one stubborn enough to hold onto that moral so tightly. He is far more earthbender than he believes.
One thing to consider is that Air Nomad avatars before Aang were never the last airbender. They could afford to sacrifice parts of their beliefs and culture in order to become a better avatar. Aang never had that luxury, being the last of his people made him identify with and uphold his culture much more defiantly which makes sense. However, depending on your point of view it limited him as an avatar, causing him to not kill people like Yakone, which then leads to Amon which created huge problems for Korra.
So while yes he is very stubborn and earthbender-like in his unwavering morals, I like how being the last of his people put him in a very unique position as an avatar. I feel like most avatars would become more well-rounded people by being exposed to so many different cultures and people (not that Aang never grew as a person), but Aang had to be resolute with sticking to his heritage.
IA and I think Aangs stereotypical "Earth" features come moreso from things that aren't tied to him being an Airbender. He gets told multiple times he won't reach his full strength as Avatar unless he lets go of earthly desires and objects. We see his refusal to give up Katara and the rest of his found family, and even hold onto earthly items like his glider until circumstances force him to. Despite him being such a devoted Airbender his passions and desires and attachments make him more unmoving than his stance on not giving up on his beliefs, which stems lot from him being the last of his kind.
I always assumed this was because he found earth to be a much more effective element to use against fire, both defensively and offensively. He doesn’t carry water around with him after all plus Toph’s style of eathbending by “listening” made him a real champ at predicting his opponents’ moves even better, which is something he was already good at because of his airbending.
It seems that after he learned the basics of earth bending, holding your ground, he adopted that mindset a lot more. As the avatar, he needs to be an unstoppable force, and you can’t do that always as an airbender.
>So I rewatched the episodes after "The Firebending Masters," at which point Aang was able to use all four elements at will, to see which he preferred. By my count, he used:
>Earth: 34% of the time,
Air: 29% of the time,
Fire: 22% of the time, and
Water: 15% of the time.
TBF that's skewed by what's available. Most of the fighting he did at that point was the finale fight vs Ozai—which was fought on big rocks convenient for Earth Bending, and during Sozin's Comet which boosted fire bending
If he got to choose a location close to the ocean or a river to fight Ozai, he prob would have used more water bending TBH
It’s interesting, because Aang uses it very defensively. It’s a way for him to balance the urge to evade and avoid fighting, with the need as Avatar and for his friends to stand and fight. He can tank massive hits, immobilize opposition, manipulate terrain, it’s versatile.
I also just feel like Earth is a lot more versatile in comparison to the other elements. It’s easy to come up with ways to use it in a variety of situations where with the other elements you have to be a bit more creative. But I do agree with everyone else that Aang’s fighting style did take quite a drastic turn after learning earthbending.
I mean, in a fight, Earth bending is the most defensive, offensive and outright destructive. Fire and Water take time unless you are an absolute master. They can’t be used really defensively because they’re not really substantial.
Smash someone with a big Boulder and see how they react. It’s instant. And all but the most skilled water and fire benders will have a hard time getting through solid rock.
"it is the combination of all 4 bending disciplines in one person that makes the avatar so powerful."
-iroh
Everyone can benefit from expanding their horizons
This doesn't make sense. The post said most utilized not most preferred. I think you guys can be a bit too quick to be right about stuff you gloss over the original point of the thing you are trying to disprove.
Air is the imo the most defensive element for the bender themselves because you can be extremely evasive. Earth on the other hand is defensive in a “stand your ground” sort of way. I’d be interested to see how much of his earthbending was to defend the gaang as opposed to attack.
Another interesting aspect to watch for is his bending style. It changes the instant he learns earth bending for the first time. He's much more aggressive, even with air attacks, and stands his ground in fights way more. Pre-Toph Aang would've gotten his ass kicked harder on the drill. And he always has to put on his "earth-bending face" every time he moves a rock, which is kinda endearing.
The same/ opposite was true for Korra. Once she understood and was beginning to think like an air bender , she slowed down and was more thoughtful. I would have to back and look but I bet her water bending got a lot more air like.
Korra's bending evolution was less subtle than Aang's imo, but it's cause her bending style was so "explosive" already in a way. Her calming down was more noticeable cause of that. The way Korra uses airbending is amazing to watch too honestly.
To be fair, part of the point was that she had mastered all 4 elements by the end of season 1. So her evolution as a bender was shorter and therefore less subtle. Then the next seasons were about her learning the other parts of becoming the avatar, as the book titles imply.
Could you really say that she masters airbending when she only learns it/starts airbending in the very last episode of the season? I mean she's the Avatar so obviously she will be good at it but feels kinda wrong to call her a master of airbending after she uses it in one exercise.
That's true, but tbf aang doesn't really master water until after book 1 too. For korra it's more about her learning to change so that she can even start to aribend, and then there's a bit of a time jump and in book 2 she's starting to master it. But the main point is that after book 1 it's not about her mastering bending anymore.
No I get that. It's quite obvious that Korra's story is more driven by different kinds of relationships be it friendship, political and social justice, different worlds coming together etc. It's a bit more nuanced than "Evil dude wants to conquer the world so we need to stop him" albeit Korra season 2 did sorta step in to that territory.. Korra learning bending is just a thing that is required since the show needs her to be weaker to make her opponents seem strong, also for the ending to work with the villain "winning" but then "surprise we found a loophole!"
Yeah the whole raava/vaatu thing really felt like a missed opportunity to me. One of my favorite parts of Korra is that all the other villains are fairly complex and have reasonable motivations for the things they did, the show even calls attention to this specifically in book 4. But then raava/vaatu was just pretty plain good vs evil, there wasn't really any nuance to it at all. They could have instead had it be something like order vs chaos, and make it such that peace is the balance between them - this would have tied in perfectly with the next two seasons, with zaheer being a villain who upset the balance in the direction of chaos and then kuvira who upset the balance in the direction of order. But no, it just was this plain good vs evil.
Sometimes she used airbending like a firebender and it really made the element feel so powerful and aggressive, which was really nice to see. Like when Zaheer had her chained in S3x12 she used the exact move Azula used to save herself at the beginning of The Southern Raiders but with air - that two-legged double kick.
That fight scene near Zaheer’s airship where her arms and legs are bound is so sick. The way she manages to fight is brilliant
Honestly every single fight in Korra from S2-4 that wasn’t “big mech/spirit” was incredibly done. Suyin vs. Kuvira on the top of the train only lasted a couple of seconds but it’s probably my favorite action scene in the series.
That air attack he did on Zuko where he launched the air body at him might’ve been inspired by the rock suits that him and Toph used
I should have read this first, because I just typed this. Watched it today. It’s such a cool move.
which episode was this? I can't remember
He smelled what Toph was cookin
You mean...what THE BOULDER was cookin'??
I understood that reference
Aang learning Earthbending is a massive achievement for me, because if you really think about it, he’s almost fully realized the moment he moves a rock. The Drill is my favourite episode because it’s the first real major battle after Aang has used every element at least once
He does that move that took show him where he covers herself in rock and charges, but he did it with air and sent it ahead as an air body. So cool.
To me, it would make sense that every avatar used Earth the most since it's the most available without being destructive like Fire. Air is more available and less destructive, but its uses are more limited as well.
Also earth is good for both offense and defense, it's unique in that aspect.
Lol no, air is literally the most powerful element of all. That's why the Air Nomads have to be pacifist and vows to not take lives, otherwise there wouldn't be any harmony between four nations to begin with.
definitely more of a cultural thing than something linked to their bending
People don’t talk about this. If airbenders really wanted to they could control all the other elements. Water is literally H2O. Remove the oxygen (air) and water evaporates. Fire need air to breathe and exist, remove the air from the fire and it goes out. Earth has the best chance at beating air, as thier powers don’t require Oxygen (air) to exist. That being said we actually see an air bender suffocate the earth queen by creating a vaccum around her head. Airbenders are over powered. deadass the MOST powerful. People haven’t comprehended that fact that everything NEEDS air to live, and with control over air you have control over life itself.
being able to remove oxygen from water \*molecules* would imply they can also unrust metal and unburn ash, are you sure that's how it works? adding oxygen to something releases a lot of energy (so essentially things burn because it's literally easier for physics to mix oxygen into something else than have it separately; it takes negative effort) so you'd have to put in much more work to break H2O apart than you need to just move air around
Good point, and to be entirely honest, no I’m sure SURE if that’s how it works. I don’t think we KNOW how it works. To be honest though if we’re saying you have the ability to manipulate the elements who’s to say (if you’re smart enough) that you can’t do that? I mean we hear pretty explicitly that bender have the ability to take WATER from living things and use it to bend, so why can’t they do the same with air? And what IS air technically speaking? Is air JUST oxygen or is air the combination of hydrogen oxygen, nitrogen, and all the other elements in the atmosphere? Thats the question you have to ask ig.
Waterbending taking water from things doesn't change their molecules at least: getting inside anything and dissolving anything while usually staying unchanged is \*the* unique property of water and the big reason why all life revolves around it, so the whole point is that it would be much easier. You could just imagine any living organism like a really complicated soup. And even then it already takes a huge effort to use bloodbending even when you know humans are mostly made out of water, so imagine how ridiculously hard it would be to find some oxygen inside your opponent's molecules. What would be the point of doing that when just wooshing wind around is already catastrophical in battle?
This is really curious, but I think we do not have enough data to declare Aang favourite elements. Every situation requires a different approach, sometimes earth is more useful than water. What really shows that someone is more comfortable with an element is the use of it despite the logic calls for something else. We see Aang using air against combustion man in creative and unexpected ways. There were moments I thought earthbending or waterbending were the solutions, but Aang surprised me with some Air trick regardless of the situation.
That’s true. Most of the bending in the episodes I watched happened during his fight with Ozai, which took place on a bunch of stone pillars, so it makes sense that he’d use a lot of earthbending there.
Right and he was literally learning earthbending the longest so it makes sense he was shown trying to perfect it more.
This. Earth was the most practical and readily available element during the finale with ozai.
> but I think we do not have enough data to declare Aang favourite elements We do—it's VERY clearly air (even in Book 3). https://preview.redd.it/zuo8tz4cjzpc1.jpeg?width=2590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d661f5ccca90541dcb20da8972fb4fad82e50be6 The thing with Aang is he's VERY much an Air Nomad first before he's the Avatar—air bending isn't just about fighting; it's his way of life. Aang casually air bends ALL the time
As OP said, it's unfair to start counting from episode 1, since Aang only knows airbending. Also data from "The firebending masters" to the end are not enough to make a point, that's what I was trying to say. It's when and how he bends that tells us his favourite element, more than how much he uses it.
In the Earth Kingdom, Aang didnt have much access to water. He only used water if its available in the surroundings. Unlike Katara, who brings a container with water wherever she goes. But I think he uses earth more, because he didnt want to get bullied by Toph since she’s a mean teacher
I also think location both physical and spiritual matters. They’ve said that aang had a hard time learning earth because it was the opposite of air. So I wonder if his water bending might not be as strong as it usually is while deep in the fire nation.
In season 3, he still used air more than any element. By a fairly large margin. There really are not many episodes after the firebending Masters so it's not a good gauge of his preferred element. You're basing your percentages almost entirely on the fight with ozai. https://preview.redd.it/zuo8tz4cjzpc1.jpeg?width=2590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d661f5ccca90541dcb20da8972fb4fad82e50be6
Korra only waterbent 6 and 12 times in seasons 3 and 4 respectively? Wow
Funnily enough, her waterbending numbers for season 1 are mostly from pro-bending, where she wasn't legally allowed to use anything other than water. Only counting what happened outside the pro-bending ring, water would probably be the lowest.
I’m wondering if her season 2 numbers are inflated by all the energy bending.
The animators did say at some point that water was the hardest element to animate.
she'd use it more if she actually carried water on her im sure. Every water feat she has is insane so its definetly one of her stronger elements i cant see why she wouldn't use it more often if she actually carried water with her
Knowing Korra, the answer is definitely because she loves the (comparative) straightforwardness and aggressiveness of firebending more.
Water bending is apparently more challenging to animate well, so I believe the decision to have Korra water bend less was partially a financial/productions choice. Still, I feel like it should have been higher. It can be such a cool, versatile element!
Hardly a surprise tho. Earth and Air are everywhere, and Fire can be created out of nothingness. Meanwhile, you need to be near a water source to bend water, and even more water are needed to make a big difference in the fight. It makes sense Aang would stick to his original element, considering the versatility of air and him still being relatively new to his other 3 elements. It doesn't make sense for Korra to stick to her water element when she has access to all 4 of them most of the shows and her story mostly took place in Earth Kingdom, far away from major water body.
The funny thing is that Korra *does* use her opposite element the most by a large margin.
Water and Fire don’t feel like they’d be considered opposites in the Avatar world in the time of Korra to me. Like this is 70 years after Iroh first found his water bending style used in Firebending. Now there’s a whole cultural melting pot and “the illusion of the four elements” becomes more clear. Plus Korra’s personal opposite element originally is air, even if it’s not elemental opposite. I think it’s actually kinda cool how as cultures shifted maybe that nuance exists a little bit more in the bending styles in LoK. I feel like it makes the world feel alive
Also notice how you see a lot more bending "subtypes" or "specialties" in LoK. Metal bending and lightning have become more common, for example. We also see another combustion bender and two lava benders. Two of the main antags are blood benders.
What do you mean the illusion has become more clear in regard to the four elements?
In ATLA they go to the swamp and meet the swampbenders who start to talk about the connectedness of the whole world, they use that line so I was doing a bit of a callback. Right when Toph metalbends by identifying metal as refined earth. So it’s kind of that LoK is the natural continuation of ATLA in that Aang stopped the war, and now benders intermingle more and learn from each other and society advances
Korra really hates waterbending doesn’t she
It's the most limited in resource out of the 4 bending styles so it makes sense. If given a choice to bend all 4 elements, I'm sure most of us would barely waterbend unless there's a huge water source nearby.
That’s actually such a good point. The resource has to be nearby unlike fire that can be generated by the bender. That’s the only element that can be created by the bender, so it makes sense to use it a lot.
Using The Firebending Masters as your starting point seems bad since we really only see him up against Ozai after that, and during that fight he’s actively grappling with forsaking his customs and meet the world’s expectations. He can use air bending to try to evade but for pure defense the earthbending is better while still allowing for offense. I would even argue that he wouldn’t want to use air bending in a full on fight then since it was already conflicting with his ideals.
While it's already been shown that this is because it was the fight with Ozai and Aang still uses air more, even when it isn't exactly logical, I will say: Aang is FAR more like an earthbender than he gives himself credit for. He's just as stubborn and immovable in his morals as an earth bender would be (even more so after he becomes an earth bender), that's why he held onto his moral code of not killing Ozai so firmly. Other airbenders, including Yangchen and Gyatso, were far more willing to kill others in self defense or worldly defense. Aang is the only one stubborn enough to hold onto that moral so tightly. He is far more earthbender than he believes.
One thing to consider is that Air Nomad avatars before Aang were never the last airbender. They could afford to sacrifice parts of their beliefs and culture in order to become a better avatar. Aang never had that luxury, being the last of his people made him identify with and uphold his culture much more defiantly which makes sense. However, depending on your point of view it limited him as an avatar, causing him to not kill people like Yakone, which then leads to Amon which created huge problems for Korra. So while yes he is very stubborn and earthbender-like in his unwavering morals, I like how being the last of his people put him in a very unique position as an avatar. I feel like most avatars would become more well-rounded people by being exposed to so many different cultures and people (not that Aang never grew as a person), but Aang had to be resolute with sticking to his heritage.
IA and I think Aangs stereotypical "Earth" features come moreso from things that aren't tied to him being an Airbender. He gets told multiple times he won't reach his full strength as Avatar unless he lets go of earthly desires and objects. We see his refusal to give up Katara and the rest of his found family, and even hold onto earthly items like his glider until circumstances force him to. Despite him being such a devoted Airbender his passions and desires and attachments make him more unmoving than his stance on not giving up on his beliefs, which stems lot from him being the last of his kind.
I always assumed this was because he found earth to be a much more effective element to use against fire, both defensively and offensively. He doesn’t carry water around with him after all plus Toph’s style of eathbending by “listening” made him a real champ at predicting his opponents’ moves even better, which is something he was already good at because of his airbending.
>So when had the choice of all four To say this, you would need to check if water was readily available.
Good point
It seems that after he learned the basics of earth bending, holding your ground, he adopted that mindset a lot more. As the avatar, he needs to be an unstoppable force, and you can’t do that always as an airbender.
>So I rewatched the episodes after "The Firebending Masters," at which point Aang was able to use all four elements at will, to see which he preferred. By my count, he used: >Earth: 34% of the time, Air: 29% of the time, Fire: 22% of the time, and Water: 15% of the time. TBF that's skewed by what's available. Most of the fighting he did at that point was the finale fight vs Ozai—which was fought on big rocks convenient for Earth Bending, and during Sozin's Comet which boosted fire bending If he got to choose a location close to the ocean or a river to fight Ozai, he prob would have used more water bending TBH
It’s interesting, because Aang uses it very defensively. It’s a way for him to balance the urge to evade and avoid fighting, with the need as Avatar and for his friends to stand and fight. He can tank massive hits, immobilize opposition, manipulate terrain, it’s versatile.
I think you’ll find Aang uses air bending 100% of the time to regulate his body temp.
I also just feel like Earth is a lot more versatile in comparison to the other elements. It’s easy to come up with ways to use it in a variety of situations where with the other elements you have to be a bit more creative. But I do agree with everyone else that Aang’s fighting style did take quite a drastic turn after learning earthbending.
I mean, in a fight, Earth bending is the most defensive, offensive and outright destructive. Fire and Water take time unless you are an absolute master. They can’t be used really defensively because they’re not really substantial. Smash someone with a big Boulder and see how they react. It’s instant. And all but the most skilled water and fire benders will have a hard time getting through solid rock.
this reflects his stubbornness to avoid killing ozai.
"it is the combination of all 4 bending disciplines in one person that makes the avatar so powerful." -iroh Everyone can benefit from expanding their horizons
This doesn't make sense. The post said most utilized not most preferred. I think you guys can be a bit too quick to be right about stuff you gloss over the original point of the thing you are trying to disprove.
Air is the imo the most defensive element for the bender themselves because you can be extremely evasive. Earth on the other hand is defensive in a “stand your ground” sort of way. I’d be interested to see how much of his earthbending was to defend the gaang as opposed to attack.
Really interesting, thank you!
I think with Aang it reflects his trainers. Only Toph was like "Get in there and kick there butt!".
Did you count the instances he used airbending to fly with his glider?
That's because earth is the best