It is a good question. Afterall, the waterbender is only controlling a few pounds of water; the factors of bending water they cannot see, and controlling other substances as well as the body itself are more than negligible when regarding waterbenders of the highest order.
So to answer this question, we should go back to the basics of waterbending, and bending as a whole. All bending is based on ancient Kung fu martial arts. Bending is both hereditary, and a spiritual gift, and the innately gifted ones can use their chi energy to manipulate the elements. While there is no single definition of chi energy in life or martial arts, a reasonable, common one would be the vital force that runs through every cell and molecule of a living entity.
In these martial arts, decision making, physical movement, the very functioning of the brain, are not simply biological, but also internal, and tied to chi. The elements themselves are not being controlled by the bender only superficially; a waterbender learns to control the energy inside the water, an earthbender learns to control the energy of the earth, an airbender learns to control the energy behind the wind, and a firebender converts their own enery to fire.
Due to this internal connection, the benders also draw power from their elements; higher temperatures and heat sources empower firebenders, fault line earthquakes empower earthbenders, and so on. Of course, there is a physical aspect involved in bending. The bender will, at all points, be manipulating water, earth, fire, or wind.
Waterbending possibly encompasses this concept better than all forms of bending; Tai chi, the martial art it is based on, has chi right on its name! As does the Chi Na style, which is the art bloodbending is based on.
A quick overview of the connection between the two as written in The Lost Scrolls series:. As with Tai Chi, the Waterbender's intent is to control opponents, not harm them. Both disciplines were influenced by ancient healing practices in which healers redirected energy paths in the body to cure ailments. Their strict belief in controlling rather than destroying, healing rather than harming, and using their power for defense, not attack, are at the heart of the humane and noble characteristics of all Waterbenders.
Both Waterbending and Tai Chi are less about strength, than about body alignment, breath and visualization. In both these arts, softness and breathing prove more powerful than hard aggression. Waterbending is unique within the four arts, in that it is the only one which at times involves direct control of chi.
For instance, healing, another sub-skill of waterbending, involves using water to open chi paths on a body and assist the healing process. This is also the concept Amon's technique, with which he permanently severs the connection between a bender and their bending ability, is based on; in fact, he does the opposite of what a healer does, he closes the chi paths within a body, using bloodbending, and combines it with his skill in chi blocking to achieve an everlasting effect that only energy bending can reverse.
She can tell your mood by looking at your aura or feeling your chi. In addition to being a great acrobat, she is also a great fighter- along with her flexibility, balance, and acrobatic maneuvers, Ty Lee has a rare fighting talent: Chi-blocking. Amon's technique also requires him to place his hand on the victim's forehead to execute; this is a nod to the chakra of light.
As we learned from Guru Pathik, this chakra deals with insight, and is blocked by illusion. Amon separates the bender from a part of themselves and their soul: their bending.
Some food for thought before we move on, but conclusively, and to answer the question that opened this section, the full moon is required because it will grant the waterbender enough power to overcome almost every other human's life force. We should keep all the above in mind if we are to fully understand the next section.
The most controversial aspect of all debates involving bloodbending is this. With the established information in the above two sections, we can conclude the following relevant aspects that could contribute to someone resisting the effects of the technique:.
With the two points above, we'll take a look at each time another bender has broken the grip of a bloodbender. The first demonstration of bloodbending we had was in that scene; after Hama explains how she invented the technique and Katara turns against her, she bloodbends her. After seconds of controlling her body like a puppet, Katara manages to break free.
My bending is more powerful than yours Hama , your technique is useless on me. Let us first focus on the underlined part; what would Katara mean by that? She was not a bloodbender yet, so she could not have possibly broken out using the skill. This is referring to the life force, the chi energy, involved in bending. As a waterbender, Katara also gained an energy amplification by the full moon, and her life force was more balanced in her words, stronger than Hama's.
Focusing that energy, she managed to break out of her grip. One interesting question in this scene is, why was Aang -- also a waterbender, confirmed to draw the same power as any waterbender does from the moon -- not able to break out of Hama's grip? He is the Avatar, he is a monk, and he is as spiritually trained as one could get. Afterall, Iroh of the White Lotus believed Katara to be the most gifted bender her age. Another thing to consider regarding Aang in particular, is that his chi and chakras fell out of balance after Princess Azula struck him with lightning, essentially killing him during the Avatar State in the process, for mere moments.
That is, until the end of the War. This instance, marking the second time someone has managed to resist the technique, is much more straightforward. Tarrlok tried to, and managed to bloodbend his brother, but in the words of DiMartino "Amon's bloodbending was stronger".
Noatak was bloodbending himself at that point, and he managed to pull through Tarrlok's grip. Finally, the final showdown between Korra and Amon has two instances worth breaking down.
The first one involves, surprisingly enough, Mako. I could go on and on, but I can also let Mike DiMartino speak for the scene himself;. It all begins with a breath, you know, even before there's a stance shift, that life force energy I guess, chi translates in some context to breath; that life force energy is breath, you know, that's what keeps us going and the vitality in our bodies are from that, so he just basically broke his grip enough, cause Amon was distracted, to just get one big inhale in, and that was enough.
There's two things worth noting here: for one, it reaffirms everything I've mentioned regarding chi in the above sections so far, and second, it is a demonstration of the need for focus a bloodbender must have for a perfect grip. The latter can be seen with Korra's case in the same battle; Amon was taken off guard by Korra's ability to airbend. She hadn't achieved airbending until that point, her chi path to that element was not open, so Amon's technique could not have affected her ability on that single elemental art.
After that, while he did manage to get a grip of her, he was still dealing with two opponents simultaneously, having already taken a lot of damage prior.
For example, some earthbenders are also metalbenders or lavabenders, while some firebenders are also able to bend lightning. Waterbenders also have a subset of skills, among which is possibly the most fascinating bending concept: bloodbending. Bloodbenders are able to control the bodies of other people by manipulating the water in their blood. Most waterbenders are unable to use this skill, and it can be extremely dangerous to face, so why is Amon immune to bloodbending?
This is just one of many interesting questions about the nature of bloodbending. Amon is exceptionally talented at bloodbending and is by far the most powerful bloodbender seen in The Legend of Korra or Avatar: The Last Airbender. This means that, when he faces off with other bloodbenders, like his brother Tarrlok, he is actually too powerful for them to control since his skills outweigh their own.
Katara is considered the most skilled and revered healer in the world by the beginning of The Legend of Korra. She is also a bloodbender, as seen in The Last Airbender , though this is a skill she refuses to use.
As with most kinds of bending, most bloodbenders need to perform certain body movements in order to bend the blood. In season 2, episode 13, "The Drill," she takes out a whole squadron of earthbenders from Ba Sing Se by herself. She also chi blocks Katara in season 2, episode 3, "Return to Omashu" and Azula in season 3, episode 15, "The Boiling Rock, Part 2," proving just how good of a fighter she is and how effective chi blocking is against even the most powerful benders.
His fighters are called chi blockers, and there are even training facilities around Republic City dedicated to teaching chi blocking. Chi blockers also use evolving technology to their advantage. The electric gloves and batons Hiroshi Sato invents for Amon allow anyone to have the power of a chi blocker at their fingertips.
Even though chi blocking's effects aren't permanent like energybending or bloodbending, it is still incredibly useful against benders, especially those who do not know how to defend against it. Emotional trauma is less of a way to remove someone's bending and more of a way to severely weaken it. Bending always comes back to chi and the flow of energy within oneself.
When that energy is disrupted by something such as emotional trauma, it affects a bender's power to the point of it almost completely disappearing. The clearest example of this is Prince Zuko's experience with firebending throughout season 3 of The Last Airbender. After he joins Team Avatar, he finds himself unable to firebend with the same ferocity he used to have.
In fact, his powers are all but gone. Season 3, episode 13, "The Firebending Masters" is as much Zuko's journey to regain his bending as it is Aang's journey to learn firebending. The reason Zuko temporarily lost his firebending was because for the past years of his life, his sole focus and drive had been finding the Avatar and regaining his honor. He was motivated by rage, so his firebending was full of rage as well. After joining with Aang and finding his purpose, he lost that rage and, subsequently, the potency of his firebending.
Zuko relearns firebending from the dragons, but this time realizing that fire is life and energy, not simply destruction. Despite his emotional journey briefly weakening his powers, Zuko's firebending returns stronger than ever.
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