Avatar The Last Airbender: The Deserter
Apr. 7th, 2012 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenNo, I'm not skipping episodes, I'm just not commenting on every episode. That would make this a chore, which I don't want.
So here's an episode where Aang's lack of self-control caused problems more than once. Which is interesting considering that Sakka is usually the one who - no, that's not true, really. Sakka is usually the one who says things are a bad idea, and sometimes he's right and sometimes he's wrong. This time he was right, mostly.
Hooray for Aang remembering what the Master Firebender said about his "former student", and tricked Zhao into destroying all his boats!
"I've won."
"But you didn't strike a single blow!"
"Look at your boats. Have fun walking back!"
Katara has cool healing powers! Yay! I like that new aspect of waterbending.
I think my favourite bit in this episode is the conversation that the Master Firebender has with Katara on the riverbank, about the nature of fire and water. That firebending is a standing on a knife-edge between humanity and destruction, and that eventually it tears one apart. I think that explains a bit more why the Fire Nation is so eager to go to war; because firebending is inherently destructive. A very good point that fire... has a will of its own, which is why discipline is so very important in firebending. What Aang didn't understand when he was given that leaf is that it's actually far more impressive to stop fire than it is to start it.
I think a true Master of firebending would be able to put fires out, something which I doubt that your average firebender even thinks about.
It isn't true that firebending is the only bending which can be destructive, but while the other elements can be very destructive (floods, storms, avalanches) it's more that firebending is solely destructive. Perhaps not solely, but it takes a lot of creativity and discipline to be non-destructive with firebending. I expect one could use it for smelting and smithing and other creative endeavours which require heat, but in order to use it for them, one must have absolute control over the fire... and as I said above, I doubt very much that your average firebender thinks in those terms, especially with 100 years of war behind them. The Fire Nation is a fire that is raging out of control.
I have a theory about why the Fire Nation destroyed all the airbenders early on in the war. Not just because the next avatar was going to be an airbender, but because airbenders are very difficult to control or imprison, because they can't be deprived of their element. Earthbenders can be deprived of earth (as we saw earlier in the series) and I expect waterbenders could similarly be deprived of water, but airbenders can't be deprived of air (well, not without depriving them of life, which makes the question of imprisonment moot).
I don't think firebenders can be deprived of fire either; at least, they seem to be able to make fire out of nothing. But most of the time they just use it for blasting things, which gets back to my earlier points about discipline and destruction. I think the firebender at the fair may have been the only firebender I've seen do anything creative with his flames. Has there been anyone else?
I think one reason Aang was so impatient with learning firebending is that he's used to bending coming to him very easily; witness how quickly he was able to master the small amount of waterbending that Katara was able to teach him.
There seem to be a lot more firebenders than other kind of benders; is that because the firebenders have basically killed or imprisoned all the other sorts, or is there a different frequency of bending in the different nations as well?
So here's an episode where Aang's lack of self-control caused problems more than once. Which is interesting considering that Sakka is usually the one who - no, that's not true, really. Sakka is usually the one who says things are a bad idea, and sometimes he's right and sometimes he's wrong. This time he was right, mostly.
Hooray for Aang remembering what the Master Firebender said about his "former student", and tricked Zhao into destroying all his boats!
"I've won."
"But you didn't strike a single blow!"
"Look at your boats. Have fun walking back!"
Katara has cool healing powers! Yay! I like that new aspect of waterbending.
I think my favourite bit in this episode is the conversation that the Master Firebender has with Katara on the riverbank, about the nature of fire and water. That firebending is a standing on a knife-edge between humanity and destruction, and that eventually it tears one apart. I think that explains a bit more why the Fire Nation is so eager to go to war; because firebending is inherently destructive. A very good point that fire... has a will of its own, which is why discipline is so very important in firebending. What Aang didn't understand when he was given that leaf is that it's actually far more impressive to stop fire than it is to start it.
I think a true Master of firebending would be able to put fires out, something which I doubt that your average firebender even thinks about.
It isn't true that firebending is the only bending which can be destructive, but while the other elements can be very destructive (floods, storms, avalanches) it's more that firebending is solely destructive. Perhaps not solely, but it takes a lot of creativity and discipline to be non-destructive with firebending. I expect one could use it for smelting and smithing and other creative endeavours which require heat, but in order to use it for them, one must have absolute control over the fire... and as I said above, I doubt very much that your average firebender thinks in those terms, especially with 100 years of war behind them. The Fire Nation is a fire that is raging out of control.
I have a theory about why the Fire Nation destroyed all the airbenders early on in the war. Not just because the next avatar was going to be an airbender, but because airbenders are very difficult to control or imprison, because they can't be deprived of their element. Earthbenders can be deprived of earth (as we saw earlier in the series) and I expect waterbenders could similarly be deprived of water, but airbenders can't be deprived of air (well, not without depriving them of life, which makes the question of imprisonment moot).
I don't think firebenders can be deprived of fire either; at least, they seem to be able to make fire out of nothing. But most of the time they just use it for blasting things, which gets back to my earlier points about discipline and destruction. I think the firebender at the fair may have been the only firebender I've seen do anything creative with his flames. Has there been anyone else?
I think one reason Aang was so impatient with learning firebending is that he's used to bending coming to him very easily; witness how quickly he was able to master the small amount of waterbending that Katara was able to teach him.
There seem to be a lot more firebenders than other kind of benders; is that because the firebenders have basically killed or imprisoned all the other sorts, or is there a different frequency of bending in the different nations as well?
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-07 11:55 pm (UTC)I can't remember where it happens in the series but the lack of benders in the southern water tribe is explained at one point.