NEW VIDEO: Is Energybending Bad Writing? | Avatar: The Last Airbender
Added 2025-10-23 14:07:05 +0000 UTC
Comments
Furthermore, all the elemental bending styles are still energy bending, just specialized. Water bending is said in the lore to he the push and pull, it is the tide, it is affected by the moon: it is gravity magic. Earth bending is you pressuring the earth and causing it to move, you have to overpower the inertia of it, there are no "eh" earth-benders, you have to "urgh": it is the pure force of geology in action. Fire bending is the injection of some energy of your own into the world and the ignition of it to direct flame at your will, it is tied to your breath: it is oxidation and chemistry. Air bending is forming breezes and currents and jets, you have to move: it is just the formation of atmospheric pressure differentials. All energies applied to the elements, uniquely. The addition of the Fifth Element of Soul, Heart, whatever is easy to accept as an original, old, lost art or magic. It is the most mysterious, certainly, but not inconceivable as a power. Maybe I just had already watched enough material with that element before I got to the Avatar climax... and Door Number Three is a classic literary move, too.
Carl Mason
2025-10-24 12:44:29 +0000 UTCIt always made sense to me, there had to be a FIRST bender and there is no way something like that just happened. So the idea that at some point some great beast bent the energies of the world so that elemental bending was possible and then that humans were capable of it just fit as world building lore and all. And while it does show up right when it is needed, and not before, it does so well. It also provides the mechanism ahead of time by which Aang can stop Ozai for good without breaking his personal principles. It also prevents the typical DEM situation of the ridiculous ass-pull moment, where the hero has to explain this new, never-before-encountered ability that saved the day, "oh, i suddenly realized that..." Maybe it was a last minute change to the script that had to be written in late in production, but it isn't anything I would consider Deus Ex Machina. Admittedly, you are right, it was weakly written in, but not DEM, I would say. Also, he had mastered the Avatar State, then got it locked away by the lightning strike. In phase 3 of the climax it BREAKS OUT, and he isn't in control at first, because it broke out, then he gathers himself and takes back control, and then he enters phase 4.
Carl Mason
2025-10-24 11:46:49 +0000 UTCI watched this on Nebula and really enjoyed it! I don't have an opinion either way, really, but I always love deep dives into subjects I hadn't thought much about :)
cacodaemonia
2025-10-23 15:22:27 +0000 UTCSo my thought is that all things Are energy. So it made sense to me.
Ghene't Lee-Yong
2025-10-23 14:19:30 +0000 UTCEm it's both
Miy Eterp
2025-10-23 14:14:25 +0000 UTC
