Specialized bending techniques

Specialized bending techniques are sub-skills that exist within each of the four bending arts, of which only skilled benders can take advantage. Each sub-skill requires a different level of mastery over the root element from which it is derived, as its practice often deviates from conventional bending. In some cases, the execution of a technique also requires an understanding of fundamental principles from other bending arts.
The creation of a specialized bending technique can sometimes be traced to a specific time period or even an individual bender. This is often the case when the technique has emerged relatively recently and is still contained to a select group of skilled benders. In other cases, the technique may have emerged in the distant past and has become more or less synonymous with conventional bending, even if its practice is still not widespread due to, for example, the high skill level required.
== Waterbending ==
=== Bloodbending ===
Bloodbending is a specialized sub-skill and a rare variant of waterbending.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book One: Air, page 118. This technique is referred to as the highest level of waterbending,Avatar: The Last Airbender—The Art of the Animated Series, page 147. recognized as the darkest and deadliest of all specialized techniques. It was discovered by Hama, who, during her imprisonment at a facility designed to detain waterbenders, realized that all living organisms contain water. The practice of bloodbending essentially allows a user to manipulate the water inside another body, allowing control over a victim's individual movements.
Given its extreme nature, only a handful of waterbenders have demonstrated the ability to bloodbend. Due to the complex and sophisticated nature of the technique, it can typically be performed only during a full moon, when a waterbender's power is at its absolute peak. Following the formation of Republic City, the efforts of Katara saw bloodbending declared illegal due to its dangerous nature.
Yakone, Tarrlok, and Amon were the only known waterbenders capable of bloodbending without the aid of the full moon; however, they are also the only ones known to have extensively and rigorously trained in the art. Yakone and Amon were also the only waterbenders known to be capable of psychic bloodbending, which allows a bloodbender to telepathically control their victim with limited movement. As an extremely powerful and gifted waterbender, Amon was able to use bloodbending to take bending away by severing active chi paths.
=== Healing ===
Healing is a special ability possessed by some waterbenders that enables them to heal those who have been wounded, including themselves. This is accomplished by drawing upon the life-giving properties of water, which are used to heal numerous types of physical wounds and illnesses. Healing can also alleviate certain types of stress caused by mental strain. Though the technique is effective in many contexts, it is limited in scope. For example, healing is ineffective in treating birth defects, such as Toph Beifong's blindness or the complications associated with Princess Yue's birth. In most instances, healing is also ineffectual when treating scars or fatal injuries; Katara was unable to heal the internal injuries sustained by Jet in his duel with Long Feng.
Healing can also be used to detect areas in the body where chi flow is blocked, as displayed by Katara when she sensed the energy locked within Aang's chakra during a healing session. That said, healing cannot undo a blockage to a bender's chi. Moreover, it cannot restore bending after it has been severed through bloodbending, even if the healer is proficient in the technique's practice.
The healing abilities of a waterbender can also be affected by the water they use. Water from the Spirit Oasis has special properties that can heal wounds otherwise unaffected by regular water, such as the fatal wounds Aang sustained at the hands of Azula during their battle.
==== Spiritbending ====
Spiritbending is a variation of the healing technique which allows the user to instill a balance or an imbalance within spirits. It was utilized by Unalaq, who successfully taught it to Korra. To perform the technique, a waterbender encircles the spirit with a thin stream of water, which begins to glow when the technique is taking effect. When used to change a spirit's negative energy into positive energy, the water, followed by the spirit, will begin to glow a golden light, at which point the spirit dissipates or assumes a pacified form. When the technique is used to change positive energy into negative energy, the water and spirit emanate a purple light. When used against humans, this variation has the potential to destroy their souls.
However, this technique has not been proven to be effective against spirit vines: when Korra attempted to use in it on the vines that had infested Republic City, it dispersed them only momentarily before they surged back, even stronger than before.
== Earthbending ==
=== Lavabending ===
Lavabending is a rare technique that involves the manipulation of molten rock. The first known user of lavabending was Szeto, who used it to cause the simultaneous eruption of four small volcanoes.
Centuries later, Kyoshi utilized the technique to split her peninsula from the Earth Kingdom mainland. Roku used lavabending on three different occasions: in 55 BG, he caused a volcano to erupt at the Fire Temple on Crescent Island;Escape from the Spirit World: Avatar Roku Online Comic Book. in 12 BG, he employed this technique while working with Sozin to save his home island; and in 99 AG, he used lavabending to destroy the Fire Temple during the winter solstice.
Skilled earthbenders such as Ghazan are also capable of performing the technique. Using lavabending, Ghazan was able to form shuriken-like lava projectiles that are capable of burning through several mediums, create trails of molten rock to attack his opponents, and otherwise manipulate lava with great dexterity. Bolin discovered his aptitude for the skill while he, Mako, Asami, and Tenzin were escaping from the Northern Air Temple.
=== Metalbending ===
Metalbending is a special set of techniques within earthbending which allows an earthbender to indirectly bend processed metals by manipulating the trace amounts of regular earth in them, much as they would bend regular earth. The ability was discovered and later perfected by Toph Beifong.
Through the use of seismic sense, Toph was able to perceive, target, and eventually utilize the trace amounts of earth present in refined metal in order to bend the metal itself. As the technique involves the manipulation of impurities within metal, pure metals such as platinum cannot be bent.
After the Hundred Year War, Toph opened the Beifong Metalbending Academy to share her knowledge of the technique with the rest of the world; her efforts eventually led to the establishment of Republic City's Metalbending Police Force. Later, Toph's youngest daughter, Suyin Beifong, founded Zaofu, a city made entirely of metal, and the majority of its inhabitants practice metalbending.
=== Seismic sense ===
Seismic sense is the unique ability to perceive an environment by feeling acute vibrations through the ground. Similar to sonar and echolocation, seismic sense enables the practitioner to detect earthen objects and objects in contact with earth when out of sight. The technique provides a specific map of the user's surroundings, detailed enough so a blind person, such as Toph Beifong, can navigate effortlessly. It can also be used to detect when someone is lying by feeling their heart and breathing rates through the earth.
Badgermoles, the original earthbenders, use seismic sense as an innate substitute for eyesight, and this technique was adopted by Toph after she observed the badgermoles that lived in the mountains surrounding Gaoling. In combination with metalbending, this technique can also be applied to metallic surfaces.
== Firebending ==
=== Combustionbending ===
Combustionbending is a form of telekinetic firebending.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book Three: Change, page 58. It consists of the ability to channel chi through the forehead, often marked by an intricate third-eye tattoo, superheating the surrounding air and producing a beam of explosive energy capable of immense damage, both in short and long range. Unlike conventional firebending, which produces a flame from the body, the technique instead creates a powerful beam that explodes upon contact with a solid surface. Combustionbending can instantaneously evaporate large bodies of water, shatter massive rock formations, and counter fire attacks, as demonstrated by Combustion Man when he stopped Zuko's fire shield during a brief altercation at the Western Air Temple. P'Li has also demonstrated that it is possible to curve the beams.
Despite its great power, the weaknesses of combustionbending are equally apparent. It requires a clear and uninterrupted chi flow and a properly calibrated focus in order to be effective, as the ability will catastrophically malfunction if the chi flow is even slightly disrupted; a glancing blow like from a pebble will cause the charged attack to detonate the air around the user, whilst a heavier hit – such as when Sokka hit Combustion Man's third-eye tattoo with his boomerang – will cause a massive point-blank explosion. The third-eye tattoo may also be a partial weakness, as those familiar with the technique can identify a combustionbender by its presence and actively target the tattoo as a weakpoint. The process of combustionbending also cannot be canceled out like a conventional fire attack once charged up, and it also relies on an unobstructed path to destroy its target, detonating early if an unexpected obstacle gets in the way, both of which can pose a danger to the user as combustionbenders are not immune to their own technique. This was demonstrated when P'Li's combustion beam was contained within a makeshift box made from Suyin Beifong's armor, causing the explosion to occur just centimeters away from her head or when Combustion Man was unable to control his ability and blew his right arm and leg off.
Though individual firebenders are sometimes born with a natural affinity for combustionbending, it is not an inherited skill. Instead, combustionbenders are effectively made through special training programs involving, among other things, the extended submersion of the trainees in water. However, this training is brutal and only few firebenders are able to master the skill. The first project which resulted in the discovery of combustionbending, "Unanimity", was only able to produce three combustionbenders, and one of them suggested that all other trainees had died. If someone who has not mastered the skill attempts to use it, the result is usually fatal; when Raitei, a young boy who had been put through the combustionbender training regimen, tried to use it against Avatar Yangchen, it caused a huge explosion of pressurized air that killed both Raitei and the Avatar's sky bison.
There have been six known practitioners of this technique: Combustion Man, P'Li, Yingsu, Xiaoyun, Thapa, and Raitei.
=== Lightning generation ===
Lightning generation is a sub-skill of firebending that allows a firebender to produce and guide a bolt of electricity from their fingertips. Physically, generating lightning involves a circular motion with the arms. Mentally, it involves a complete absence of emotion as well as peace of mind, thus allowing an individual to separate the energies of yin and yang, also interpreted as positive and negative electrical potential, respectively. When the forces collide, the bender guides rather than controls the lightning's direction. This process is taxing on a bender's chi reserves, due to its complexity.
Lightning attacks usually take much longer time to initiate than standard fire attacks. That said, certain firebenders, including Ozai, Lightning Bolt Zolt, and Mako, are able to generate lightning at extremely high speeds. The electric arc produced by this technique can be maintained for several seconds, during which time the lightning can be swept about to produce widespread damage. The charge, and thus the damage, of a lightning strike can be regulated, as Mako was capable of firing a blast strong enough to incapacitate Amon, but otherwise leave him unharmed.
Prior to the end of the Hundred Year War, few firebenders were known to be capable of generating lightning. For centuries, the skill was so rare that few even knew that it was possible at all. After the Fire Nation government secretly studied the powerful lightningbender and rebel Xu Ping An in the early 3rd century BG, however, the method of lightning generation gradually became better understood and was taught to a growing number of individuals. It remained an incredibly rare skill, usually reserved for the inner circles of Fire Nation royalty and high-ranking military officers.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book One: Air, page 70. By 100 AG, only Azula, Ozai, and Iroh demonstrated the ability. However, the use of the technique had become more common by 170 AG, particularly in Republic City, where it is used to generate power for the industrial sector, though it was still not widespread.The Legend of Korra—The Art of the Animated Series, Book One: Air, page 70.
=== Lightning redirection ===
Lightning redirection is a sub-skill of firebending that allows a firebender to absorb lightning into their body as energy and release it in a more desirable direction. The technique was developed by Iroh after he studied master waterbenders redirecting force rather than opposing it head-on. The person redirecting it must create a pathway from their fingertip, up the arm to the stomach, and up and out the other arm. It is essential that the lightning passes through the stomach, because if the lightning passes through the heart, the effects could be fatal. Lightning can be successfully redirected regardless of whether the source is natural or generated.
Prior to the end of the Hundred Year War, only three individuals were known to be capable of redirecting lightning: Iroh, Zuko, and Aang. However, knowledge of the skill had become more widespread throughout Republic City by 170 AG. Mako used lightning redirection while battling a mecha tank during the battle for Republic City, using the technique to redirect an electric charge released by an electric grapple the tank had fired.
== Airbending ==
=== Flight ===
Flight, also called weightlessness, is a complex and extremely rare skill that has only ever been demonstrated by two known airbenders, Guru Laghima and Zaheer. It is referred to as the highest level of airbending,DiMartino, Michael Dante; Konietzko, Bryan & Dos Santos, Joaquim (December 2, 2014). "Enter the Void" commentary. Book Three: Change Blu-ray. and was such a unique ability, that it was believed to only exist in legends. It is achievable through a complete denouncement of all earthly desires, which results in true freedom. Zaheer was only able to fly after witnessing P'Li, his girlfriend, die. The principle behind flight is to become one with the wind, mimicking its freedom from limitations and inhibitions, in both the physical and mental sense. Once an airbender has embraced these principles, they can fly and hover. However, the bender is still at the mercy of the surrounding environment, as observed by Zaheer being ensnared in a tornado created by Jinora and other airbenders while he tried to escape with Korra.
=== Spiritual projection ===
Spiritual projection is a complex technique that requires a heightened sense of spirituality, allowing one's spirit to move through the physical realm in an intangible form unbound by a corporeal body. In order to create a projection successfully, a user must be in a silent environment free from distractions, as the use of the technique requires immense focus. Spiritual projections allow users to explore their immediate surroundings, bypassing physical barriers and different mediums to search through walls as well as underwater. In addition, the technique can also be used to locate specific individuals with whom the user has a strong connection by focusing on the bond between them. Jinora and Mangal showed proficiency in this technique.Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game. Core Book, Version 1.0, 2022, p. 41.
Spiritual projections are most powerful during times of increased spiritual energy in the atmosphere, such as during Harmonic Convergence. When used during these occasions, spiritual projections can be maintained for longer periods of time and manifest more clearly, resulting in more distinct apparitions.
== References ==
== See also ==
* Airbending
* Bending arts
* Earthbending
* Firebending
* Waterbending
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