Bending properties

[Simplicitee]

This is a thread purely for people who like science and math, as it will be talking about the properties of bending. The physical, and scientific properties of bending. Now I will start with my theory on Chi, the energy used when bending.

Chi defined by avatar wiki:
- The metaphysical energy that flows throughout the human body

Basically metaphysical is relating to metaphysics, and metaphysics is a branch of philosophy which attempts to explain a lot of boring things like the origin of the universe and the existence of creatures and their place in time and space (wait, boring?).

Well why is chi metaphysical energy you ask? Because nobody knows why chi exists, or where it came from originally. Sounds pretty metaphysical to me (gee I should stop using these big words).

If you ignore the metaphysical part of the definition, Chi is just a type of energy that humans can control. It powers bending, and allows for humans to bend. Now to the fun stuff (I'll try to simplify things).

Why benders can only have one element:
A human can only contain so much chi, as demonstrated by Raava and Wan when merging, Wan was almost destroyed by the chi that was going through him.

Why benders can only have one subelement:
Just like the element, this is just the extra amount of chi in their body that allows them to bend more than just their element. But why only one? Because the limit of chi that a human can hold isn't enough to be able to bend more than one subelement. Now you're probably wondering how a bender's subelement is chosen. Well let me explain with more science:

I'm sure we've all been told in school how evolution works, alterations in a species gene pool results in different outcomes and yadah yadah, well why wouldn't chi sort of evolve in the same way? Ever wonder why we never saw Wan lightning bending? or some random earthbender shown during wan's time? It's because chi wasn't evolved enough to be spread out across all these different subelements.

This is just my theory on chi dealing with elements and subelements, if anyone who actually read this has their own, feel free to post it, and I will give feedback on it. If you would like, you can give feedback on my theory. Or if you have a theory about a different bending property, post it here and I and other people will discuss it. To quote one of my favorite youtubers (If not noticed throughout the post), It's just a theory, a GAME THEORY! Actually this is a bending theory, but who really cares when this is a forum for a plugin for minecraft, a game )

 

[StrangeOne101]

Never even thought of the sciencey (if that's a thing) side of bending before. Really interesting theory!

This makes me wonder if the avatar can use than more than one sub-element. Since it's because of Raava that the avatar can control all four elements, does this mean they can control more than one sub-element, too? Or maybe it's the human side of the avatar that controls the sub-elements. It's interesting, because you never actually see the avatar control more than one of them. Avatar Korra could metalbend, Aang could spiritually project (this might just be because he was the avatar, I don't know. This might be my fault here XD ) and Avatar Kyoshi could lavabend. But that's it.

Still, very interesting theory/read. Thanks for posting this!

 

[Simplicitee]

Never even thought of the sciencey (if that's a thing) side of bending before. Really interesting theory!

This makes me wonder if the avatar can use than more than one sub-element. Since it's because of Raava that the avatar can control all four elements, does this mean they can control more than one sub-element, too? Or maybe it's the human side of the avatar that controls the sub-elements. It's interesting, because you never actually see the avatar control more than one of them. Avatar Korra could metalbend, Aang could spiritually project (this might just be because he was the avatar, I don't know. This might be my fault here XD ) and Avatar Kyoshi could lavabend. But that's it.

Still, very interesting theory/read. Thanks for posting this!

Since you brought up the question, I will give my theory to it.

Since we haven't really seen much of avatar related stuff concerning subelements, this is going to be a very on a string based theory.

Avatars and multiple subelements:
My theory is that the avatar with raava has enough chi to control all four (or five, depending on if you consider energybending as an element) elements and a single subelement. Evidence?
Avatar Kyoshi: We saw her lavabend, along with another random fire nation avatar. Didn't see any other subelements used. Coincidence? I think not.
Avatar Aang: he was able to use lightning redirection, but no other subelements going with what pk considers a subelement.
Avatar Korra: While she was able to icebend, I don't consider that a subelement. What she could do was metalbend, but no other subelement was shown. In 4 books. If they were gonna show her using or learning others, you wonder why they didn't? Because they stick to the rule, only one subelement. This subelement seems to have no rhyme or reason in which one the avatar gets, as airborn aang had lightning redirection, and korra as waterborn had metal bending. This is just the way I see it

 

[Taiko the Waterbender]

But hey!, that's just a theory. A GAME theory. Thanks for watching!

But MatPat, Katara was able to bend both blood and plant, and heal. Do waterbender miss this rule? Or is it because she was a "prodigy"?

 

[Simplicitee]

But hey!, that's just a theory. A GAME theory. Thanks for watching!

But MatPat, Katara was able to bend both blood and plant, and heal. Do waterbender miss this rule? Or is it because she was a "prodigy"?

I'm not MatPat, he's got quite a few one ups on me (considering he's cracked open about every game I know and more). Now about your question:

I don't believe her being a prodigy had anything to do with it. I just think that water is an exception to the chi rule. Here's my reasoning:

Water is going to be the same in every subelement, it's all going to be water. Plantbending is bending the water inside the plant, Bloodbending is bending the water inside a body, Icebending is bending the water in ice, and Healing is bending water of a holy type aspect. It's all water, whereas for fire, combustion is an explody beam, and lightning is not fire. And earthbending, lava isn't really earth anymore if it is called lava, it's an entirely new substance. Same for refined metals. In those elements, some chemical change is taking place, but with water, there is still the water aspect. The reason she could is because the water itself wasn't changing at all, it was whether it was contained or not. That's my theory at least.

 

[StrangeOne101]

I'm not MatPat, he's got quite a few one ups on me (considering he's cracked open about every game I know and more). Now about your question:

I don't believe her being a prodigy had anything to do with it. I just think that water is an exception to the chi rule. Here's my reasoning:

Water is going to be the same in every subelement, it's all going to be water. Plantbending is bending the water inside the plant, Bloodbending is bending the water inside a body, Icebending is bending the water in ice, and Healing is bending water of a holy type aspect. It's all water, whereas for fire, combustion is an explody beam, and lightning is not fire. And earthbending, lava isn't really earth anymore if it is called lava, it's an entirely new substance. Same for refined metals. In those elements, some chemical change is taking place, but with water, there is still the water aspect. The reason she could is because the water itself wasn't changing at all, it was whether it was contained or not. That's my theory at least.

This ^ XD

I agree completely though. Ice, plant and bloodbending aren't really sub-elements in the show. No need to explain because there's no way I can top that ^ XD

Healing is definitely a sub-element in my opinion though. The way I look at it, healing allows the bender to actually use water to manipulate or simulate the chi inside of others, which somehow speeds up the healing process of the body, giving the bender the ability to heal people. I'm not good at explaining things like Simp is XD But that's my view on it anyways.

 

[Simplicitee]

This ^ XD

I agree completely though. Ice, plant and bloodbending aren't really sub-elements in the show. No need to explain because there's no way I can top that ^ XD

Healing is definitely a sub-element in my opinion though. The way I look at it, healing allows the bender to actually use water to manipulate or simulate the chi inside of others, which somehow speeds up the healing process of the body, giving the bender the ability to heal people. I'm not good at explaining things like Simp is XD But that's my view on it anyways.

You're right, Healing might be the only true water subelement, as it is actually a different form of water. By form I mean it's the only one where the water would have some chemical difference to that of normal water.

 

[HydroMan]

Why benders can only have one subelement:
)

Why Katara has two(/three) subelements: [why??]

 

[Simplicitee]

Why Katara has two(/three) subelements: [why??]

VVVVVVVVVV

I'm not MatPat, he's got quite a few one ups on me (considering he's cracked open about every game I know and more). Now about your question:

I don't believe her being a prodigy had anything to do with it. I just think that water is an exception to the chi rule. Here's my reasoning:

Water is going to be the same in every subelement, it's all going to be water. Plantbending is bending the water inside the plant, Bloodbending is bending the water inside a body, Icebending is bending the water in ice, and Healing is bending water of a holy type aspect. It's all water, whereas for fire, combustion is an explody beam, and lightning is not fire. And earthbending, lava isn't really earth anymore if it is called lava, it's an entirely new substance. Same for refined metals. In those elements, some chemical change is taking place, but with water, there is still the water aspect. The reason she could is because the water itself wasn't changing at all, it was whether it was contained or not. That's my theory at least.

You're right, Healing might be the only true water subelement, as it is actually a different form of water. By form I mean it's the only one where the water would have some chemical difference to that of normal water.

 

[Finn_Bueno_]

But then how do you explain Toph? She was able to metalbend, sandbend, and she was also lavabending in LOK.

 

[Simplicitee]

But then how do you explain Toph? She was able to metalbend, sandbend, and she was also lavabending in LOK.

Toph can't lavabend. And sand is actually a very difficult topic as it is the only subelement that isn't a normal state of matter. It is thought to be a fifth state of matter known as granular. Granular is when something can make droplets, but is solid. The reason why this doesn't apply to my theory of subelements is because sand isn't a chemical change in earth, it's a physical one.

 

[Finn_Bueno_]

The substance under the soup looks like a liquid, not like coals or anything.

 

[Simplicitee]

The substance under the soup looks like a liquid, not like coals or anything.

I stand by saying that she can't lavabend, I don't find one scene where there is a pot with a unidentified substance under it as enough evidence to prove she can lavabend.

 

[Simplicitee]

The substance under the soup looks like a liquid, not like coals or anything.

Also if you compare that substance to known lavabending in the show, you can see a big difference. Lava in the show had a yellow lava outline, whereas that has yellow more towards the center. And lava in the show was shown to be relatively smooth and liquid looking. That looks somewhat bumpy to me. That's just how I see it though

 

[HydroMan]

So blood is still considered water, while lava is not considered earth?

 

[HydroMan]

The substance under the soup looks like a liquid, not like coals or anything.

Ghazan was there before her. He waz hungryy and wanted to cook his food so he did lavabending to heat up some food he gathered from the swamp. But toph was looking for a place to stay in and found a cave that Ghazan was in. After Toph took a step further, Ghazan warned her that she can't go in. While he didn't know that it was TOPH, GREATEST EARTHBENDER IN THE WORD, she has challenged him. As you probably have you guess, Toph has whooped and kicked his ass from the Cave, meaning that she invaded and claimed the cave to her house. Ghazan was left shocked seeing that she beaten his ass even with his lavabending was no match against Toph maigtiest earthbending strength. So because of that, he quickly flee away as far as he could, leaving a pit of lava below the pot/cauldron as Toph uses that substance as an advantage over the needs of survival (when she is cold she could warm-uo herself, when she is hungry she cooked some food on it). That would be my theory .

 

[Simplicitee]

So blood is still considered water, while lava is not considered earth?

Bloodbending isn't actually being blood, its bending water inside a body.

 

[Simplicitee]

Ghazan was there before her. He waz hungryy and wanted to cook his food so he did lavabending to heat up some food he gathered from the swamp. But toph was looking for a place to stay in and found a cave that Ghazan was in. After Toph took a step further, Ghazan warned her that she can't go in. While he didn't know that it was TOPH, GREATEST EARTHBENDER IN THE WORD, she has challenged him. As you probably have you guess, Toph has whooped and kicked his ass from the Cave, meaning that she invaded and claimed the cave to her house. Ghazan was left shocked seeing that she beaten his ass even with his lavabending was no match against Toph maigtiest earthbending strength. So because of that, he quickly flee away as far as he could, leaving a pit of lava below the pot/cauldron as Toph uses that substance as an advantage over the needs of survival (when she is cold she could warm-uo herself, when she is hungry she cooked some food on it). That would be my theory .

This makes little sense as lava on it's own without a lavabender would cool relatively quickly.

 

[Vidcom]

This is an interesting idea. Can it explain how energybending relates to this, and the Avatar?

 

[Simplicitee]

This is an interesting idea. Can it explain how energybending relates to this, and the Avatar?

When I get home XD stupid dinner