The Legend of Korra

I've always wondered if there could be an Airbending School for the new Airbenders who didn't join Tenzin's new Air Nomad culture.

Just to teach them how to use their Airbending skills properly but not requiring them to become Air Nomad monks.

Like there are quite a few Firebenders, Waterbenders and Earthbenders who don't really identify with the Fire, Water and Earth nation cultures.

They are not the Air Nomads. They're the Air Nation. It's different.

As of Season 4, don't some they travel the world trying to help people? Or am I totally misremembering where the Airbenders are at that season?

That's exactly what they're doing. The Air Nation made it their mission statement to be an active force of good in the world. This is a sharp contrast with the isolationist tradition of the Air Nomads.

The Air Nation seems to have realized that they cannot remain aloof and apart from the world. They are a part of it, and so they might as well try to make it better.

Edited by M84 on Jan 6th 2023 at 2:07:52 AM

considering how often genocide occurs in their world I don't blame them

I'm still not really seeing how isolationist the Air Nomads were. Aang was pretty cosmopolitan even as a 12 year old. Again it might've been just a Aang thing, but it doesn't really point at Nomads staying in one place.

The Nomads didn't stay in one place.

They're nomads.

The isolationist tradition actually started to fade by the time of Roku's era. The Air Nomads were starting to realize that they couldn't hide from the world's problems anymore.

This is why Aang was fairly cosmopolitan. By the time he came around, the Air Nomads were interacting more with the rest of the world.

Edited by M84 on Jan 6th 2023 at 2:15:07 AM

They were isolationist nomads.

Not entirely. In the Kyoshi novels, Air Nomads are a rarity to most people, but they are still known as benevolent philanthropists, and the biggest problem most Air Nomads have in the other nations is that people keep begging them for blessings (because they're seen as good luck). In the Yangchen novel, the Air Nomads are the only ones allowed to ignore the draconian trade laws so they can continue with their charity, and even discounting Yangchen herself they're the ones working hardest to dismantle this capitalist dystopia that the other world leaders have set up.

And, as noted, Aang was extremely worldly and had friends everywhere. Before he froze himself in that ice, he was pretty well intermingled with the Earth, Water, and Fire nations of his time.

A people that are into free cultural exchange and are constantly intermingling with all other nations cannot be isolationist. They were nomadic, but it's clear from Aang's accounts that they did not shun other cultures and keep strictly to themselves.

Hell, Aang's dearest friend in the whole world from way back when was an Earth Kingdom troublemaker.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jan 5th 2023 at 6:48:46 AM

I assume the four temples that were hard to get to were for quiet contemplation most of all, and for raising children.

After all, it's mostly children and elders we see at said air temples, so presumably more worldly nomads who were adults spent most of their time travelling the world, which would have been easy for them to do.

As mentioned above, Aang traveled a lot and was very worldly, so I don’t think that was it.

Honestly, the Air Nomads always came off contradictory to me: They’re nomads but they’re also a “nation” with specific territories, they’re worldly and well traveled but also focused on enlightenment and detaching themselves from the physical world. They’re about equality but they segregate their temples by sex, etc..

Edited by CheapMarzipan on Jan 5th 2023 at 9:44:07 AM

The Air Nomads were isolationist for most of their history. It was around the time of Roku when they started moving away from that.

Its only shortly before Aang was frozen that they began to return to the temples in great numbers because the looming threat of war over the horizon. The Air Nomads historically where nomadic, they held territory but they where not seats of power for their civilization but safe havens to return to in times of need for their people.

Edited by lycropath on Jan 5th 2023 at 10:51:56 AM

So if they had just kept doing what they'd been doing, Sozin's attack wouldn't have worked. Ah, the old "going out of our way to prevent tragedies we've had premonitions and visions about only ends up bringing about those tragedies" hat.

I believe the idea was that the Air Nomads kept themselves apart from the world's governance. They would visit and make friends with individual people, but refused to involve themselves in matters of state.

Edited by Dracoblade on Jan 11th 2023 at 3:10:34 AM

Rewatching Korra again, and in retrospect it's a little funny how Vaatu is in the second season.

Like, everything about him practically screams Final Boss energy. But instead he's like...Big Bad #2. And not even the sole Big Bad of his season. And he's also...kind of out place in general when you look at who comes before and after.

Like, imagine a show where the first season has the protagonists deal with a political crisis. Then the second season comes and it starts out being about another political issue, but then the dark lord Sauron shows up and the heroes must stop him from triggering the apocalypse. And then the next 2 seasons are about dealing with other political crises. That's essentially Vaatu.

I feel the need to clarify I'm not complaining or anything of the like. Just an observation I found funny.

Edited by Snoketrope on May 29th 2023 at 1:00:23 AM

There was a poll on the Avatar Youtube channel that asked who were the most dangerous villains, and Azula topped #1 while Vaatu was on the very bottom. The embodiment of all evil, and he got beaten by a teenager.

He might have done better there if he had actually, I dunno, killed a lot of people or something.

They tried to depict Vaatu as a threat in and of himself when he fought Korra, but it felt wrong because the Wan flashback, his own Dark Avatar plan and the end of the Korra fight show that he is impotent against a fully realized Avatar. He needed Unalaq to be a threat again.

Of course he's no match for a fully realized Avatar. An Avatar at the height of their power is the fusion of his equal counterpart Raava and a skilled human Bender.

That said, the true threat he represents isn't a direct fight but what he left behind in the world in the brief time he was free. Wan may have been able to beat Vaatu and seal him back within minutes, but he spent the rest of his life trying and failing to restore balance.

Edited by M84 on Jan 29th 2023 at 10:02:25 PM

He couldn't have been able to do even that in Korra's time if it wasn't for Unalaq though. That's why my personal "rewrite" of season 2 would include the idea that Unalaq initially intended to release Vaatu so that Korra could use the spirit purification technique on him, thus removing the need to have the portals closed : Unalaq would have considered the reopening of the portals to be a necessary step toward balance and Vaatu an inconvenience to be swiftly brushed aside by Korra.

The peril that Vaatu represents is vague and hyperbolic. It's hard to really get your head around. He's going to create a world of darkness. It's an apocalypse scenario, but... Kinda abstract?

Azula's going to shoot you with lightning until you fall over and die. That's easier to get your head around.

For me Unalaq should belive korra was unworthy of having the avatar powers and equalist being seen as "proof" given how far they got, so reading about vaatu decide that someone else must do(himself being just a coincidence, honest) and reaaaaally understimated what a spirit can do.

In the past Vaatu's goals were a fairly clear Kill All Humans bid. Its the present where the plan is a bit murky. As Vaatu and Unalaq's goal seem to zig-zag between 'rule the world' and 'destroy the world'.

On another subject. Has anyone read the Ruins of the empire comics?