Avatar: The Last Airbender

I feel we're getting into midichlorian territory here.

I think the Korra game did have some conjoined twins as two element benders.

My inference comes from the fact that Aang, Last of His Kind and self-proclaimed “simple monk,” sees no conflict between his desire to preserve Air Nomad culture and his desire to court, marry, and raise a family with Katara. Of all the drama in that ship, this isn’t part of it. So his people couldn’t all be gender-segregated temple dwellers who only travel between temples (what for, if the men and women each have two?), conceiving their children in, I dunno, stylized airbending sex rituals.

Rather, it makes more sense for only those few called to that life to live in the temples full-time, and the rest to live up to their name as Air Nomads, traveling all over and bridging the other nations, the one people welcome everywhere. I imagine most do spend some time residing at the temples when they feel the need, for a haven or a respite or just a roof over their heads. And they gather for ceremonies and important occasions. But that’s temporary, for most.

Maybe this isn't spelled out in text anywhere, but it matches the evidence presented best as far as I can see. The only sticking point is the kids; why wouldn’t airbending parents raise their kids themselves? Aang does, but then he doesn’t have any elders to hand them off to. If he’d ever mentioned his parents, I could buy that he was at the Southern Temple mostly for training, as a boarding school, and that airbender kids travel with their parents some of the time and spend more time at temple than the adults do. Alternatively, he could have been orphaned young and raised as a temple ward. But we never hear anything about his either having or lacking parents.

Edited by HeraldAlberich on Apr 19th 2024 at 2:51:49 PM

Series lore from way back when is that Aang himself was given to the monks to raise after his parents found he was the Avatar. And those left in the temple are mostly the elderly and young children given to them to raise.

Yangchen's novel also shows that even if they are raised in the temples, they are usually well aware of who their family members are.

It could also easily make sense as a boarding school thing, or the cultural expectation that it's probably safer to let kids be raised by monks and go on supervised field trips than the type of trips older air nomads might be forced to make to gather food or graze their bison.

I need to read the books. (Or more likely listen to the audiobooks, given my reading time.)

So Aang maybe knew his parents, and perhaps traveled with them to Omashu and such, but was closer to Gyatso overall. Otherwise this bears out my thoughts.

Interracial relations would still not result in people who can bend multiple elements.

Remember the problem is that humans cannot handle enough energy to bend multiple elements. They need something like a powerful Spirit to store it for them.

Even then it is dangerous for the human. The only reason the Avatar works is thanks to the Harmonic Convergence making the fusion permanent.

Edited by M84 on Apr 19th 2024 at 9:40:24 PM

Aang did marry Katara, but keep in mind that Katara comes from a culture where marriage is the norm, so that might be the reason they got married. And like you said, Aang can't have his kids raised by the elders. I think the issue of why Air Nomad parents would give up their kids is pretty simple: that's just what they do. Their culture considers it a normal, healthy way to raise children. nuclear family units aren't necessarily the default.

As far as Aang knowing his parents, I can only square his behavior in the show with having known them not at all or very little. He's constantly haunted by Gyatso's death, but never references his parents at all. This actually makes a lot of sense if you assume Air Nomad culture deemphasizes relationships between biological parents and their children. In that case, why would Aang mourn people he barely knew more than the man who actually raised him?

I think Gyatso’s death had more of an impact because Aang actually saw his corpse. That made his death in particular feel more “real”.

Edited by M84 on Apr 22nd 2024 at 3:57:31 AM

Kyoshi also had a personal interest in being better at fire than anything else

Just noticed something interesting. I remember there was a discussion here a while ago about the franchise seemingly being given the official overall name "Avatar Legends" and whether we should adopt it here as well. I just saw that Avatar Wiki appears to have done so, and are now using it as the name for the franchise: https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Avatar_Legends

The fan wiki is not an authoritative source obviously, but I wondered about whether we should do the same.

Unrelatedly, the movie is delayed to Jan. 2026: https://variety.com/2024/film/news/aang-the-last-airbender-release-date-delays-2026-1235974936/

Edited by TheMountainKing on Apr 21st 2024 at 3:27:56 PM

I brought this up a while back in the thread, but I'm again thinking about how waterbenders differ from other benders in one respect. They lack an associated animal that was the "original" bender.

• Airbenders have the sky bison.

• Firebenders have the dragons.

• Earthbenders have the badgermoles.

But the waterbenders? The "original" bender that inspired them was the moon.

Edited by M84 on Apr 21st 2024 at 11:52:57 PM

Well technically you can count the moon spirit's previous physical koi form if you stretch it.

I like to think there are creatures that can waterbend, just like we have animals for the other three elements — it's just that they live in the deep sea, so obviously humans never got to learn from them.

Edited by Dracoblade on Apr 21st 2024 at 10:30:51 AM

I'd like to imagine it's water serpents to further the fire and water parallels.

Previous? The moon still a koi, as far as I know.

I think this is down to the facts that the moon was the first of the "original benders" we learned about. It was probably meant to be a lot more abstract than the later literal "we observed this animal and imitated how it moves" that's established in season two.

Another interesting this about the water tribe in season one (I just rewatched it) is how they seem to worship Tui and La like gods, invoking them by name in ceremonies, bowing to them, and even seeming to have a creation myth centered on them. No one else ever acts like that towards the spirits, and when we go back for the Water Tribes in Korra, they don't ever mention the moon and ocean specifically. Even Unalaq only talks about returning to the spirits as a whole, not these two who are particularly important in ATLA.

Edited by TheMountainKing on Apr 21st 2024 at 1:35:06 PM

They're also probably the most important spirits in existence that we know of, above even Raava and Vaatu. I imagine there's also a Sun spirit probably.

Ohh tacked on previous because I got mixed up on the Yue thing.

Interestingly, the civilization that lived on the South Pole before the Water Tribe lived there seemed to venerate otter penguins. Though this doesn't seem to be related to bending per se.

And as far as we've seen, otter penguins don't water bend. They're just capable swimmers as befitting a species that is a hybrid of otter and penguin.

I guess if you really want to stretch it, early water benders might have gotten the idea of surfing waves by watching the otter penguins do it.

Edited by M84 on Apr 22nd 2024 at 2:45:14 AM

There could also be an earth and air spirit. Rewatching those episodes, I now totally why some fans assumed that the Fire Nation must have a sun spirit that they worship. I actually like the idea that every culture has a specific spirit(s) that they worship like gods way more interesting than what the series goes with later, where everyone just talks about the spirits in general terms.

Where do we learn about the pre-water tribe South Pole? That sounds pretty cool.

Edited by TheMountainKing on Apr 22nd 2024 at 1:57:00 PM

Isn’t firebending stronger when the sun is out? That seems to imply a sun spirit and a connection similar to Waterbenders with the moon and ocean.

Maybe the Sun Warriors's eternal flame is the Sun spirit? Though it's more about the dragons in series.

The idea of celestial bodies being spirits is basically dropped after season one, I don't think there's actually anything in canon indicating the the Fire Nation worships a sun spirit. I just think it’s interesting that the season one finale treats the spirits much more like pagan gods than the rest of the franchise does.

GPT did mention the idea of ruins in the Southern Water Tribe, I guess that's where it got it from, I was already wondering.

The temple appeared in the short-lived Avatar: Generations mobile game.

The modern Fire Nation by the time of the ATLA didn't really worship anything. It's a major point that the Fire Nation lost touch with its spiritual roots when it went into full conquest mode. Even their firebending doesn't work properly, relying too much on anger.

Edited by M84 on Apr 22nd 2024 at 10:00:33 PM