Lava Bending is fricking stupid. How the frick is this a special quirk exclusive to Earth Benders? They arent even summoning Lava from the ground they magically conjuring it like its a form of Fire Bending
Also, Lava and Magma are barely classified as molten earth they literally directly make everything around them catch on fire.
Always thought it was strange. Lava is molten rock like how ice is frozen water. Water benders don't have ice or steam benders as subsets. Lava bending should be a normal thing to earth benders.
Blood Bending makes sense since theoretically speaking anything liquid can be bent if you're a water bender but then this gets into all sorts of logistical arguments because Mud is soil mixed with water so are you using the water inside the soil to water bend or is this technically earth bending
What if you melt metal down to a liquid solution is that technically earth bending or is that technically fire bending because the metal is hot?
>then this gets into all sorts of logistical arguments because Mud is soil mixed with water so are you using the water inside the soil to water bend or is this technically earth bending
Don't we see Toph and Katara having a mudfight during S3?
>Water benders don't have ice or steam benders as subsets
yes they do? steam IDK but katara has literally turned her waterbends into ice
What he meant is that ice isn't some kind of special ability for water benders. They just do it.
The same should be the case for lava bending. Theoretically, it should be the earth bender oscillating the rock particles to the point they heat up and melt. Ice bending is just as complex as this, as the water bender would need to slow the water molecules to simulate the effect of freezing(Which, theoretically, shouldn't bent ice be capable of being room temp?). Both of these are actually much, much more difficult than metal bending.
>What he meant is that ice isn't some kind of special ability for water benders. They just do it.
We never see a swampbender bend ice. It's second nature for northern and southern watertribe benders because they grew up surrounded by ice.
>Theoretically, it should be the earth bender oscillating the rock particles to the point they heat up and melt. Ice bending is just as complex as this
Water conducts changes in temperature and state far more readily than earth, though; water exists as both ice and fog naturally, in a normal, livable atmosphere. The temperature/pressure required to heat earth into lava is astronomical by comparison.
Ice by it's chemical definition is frozen. If you bent it then it stops being frozen.
>Water benders don't have ice or steam benders as subsets.
Because they never cordoned ice off as a separate style, it's all just water to them. Most people take this graph that Iroh drew and add a bunch more lines to split every element up into substyles of bending, because they weren't paying attention to Iroh's lesson. That's how your view on bending becomes rigid and stale. Waterbenders have the advantage of growing up around ice, their substyle is an inherent part of the complete package, and that's why it's so easy for them.
The real ultimates aren't substyles, they're unlocking your complete package when you stop having such a narrow view of what bending could be.
This is why waterbenders get all their substyles, and earthbenders don't. They made Iroh's graph worse for themselves.
Lavabending was cool when it was something only the Avatar could do, because when you give that kind of power to some random dude, you make basically any fight scene absurd in the fact that he doesn't just instakill everyone. Sparky Sparky Boom Man was this same idea done a lot better because just how overwhelming he was ended up being the point of all of his fight scenes. Lavabending has the potential to be even stronger, but it's not limited in any way except the fact that the writers can't immolate people since this is still a kid's show, meaning it's ultimately kind of a pointless power. When an Avatar used it though, that was some grand scale shit, like Roku destroying his temple or Kyoshi creating her island, that had purpose beyond just being spicy earth in a fight.
A mental death beam seems cool in theory until your fricking head explodes because a metal bender realized the flaw in your quirk and redirects your beam right back at you destroying your head like a grape
Maybe shot glasses could also do the trick
Ghazan literally did destroy the whole underground structure with his lavabending though, to the point that everyone else had to flee. The other times he lavabended also tended to influence the shape of the fight. I wouldn't say they undersold the power of his lavabending by any means.
You have to look at it from more of a magical point of view. The moon can waterbend not because of gravity, but because it has water chi. the earth has, inside of it, magma chi. You just have to figure out how to bring it out. ... and/or you move the molecules so quickly by earthbending them over each other that the friction melts them
If you wanna be technical Chi is psuedo retconned in Korra since all bending originates from Island Turtles using Deus Ex Machina magic bullshit they just randomly have and are also the reason why Harmonic Convergence ends up happening because there were never any benders biologically capable of bending the elements. The elements themselves were just loaned out from the island turtles since the turtles felt pity on the humans being racially profiled by the spirits who seemed their existence "a mistake"
Also if you're someone who was inherited bending either thru an island turtle or thru harmonic Convergence that isn't a genetic trait either that is just splicing the ethereal process and making a copy of it to your offspring
Just get a fricking gun. I hate fantasy because magic is such a stupid concept, especially for combat. Just shoot the monsters and their evil overlord. Goddamn.
>They arent even summoning Lava from the ground they magically conjuring it like its a form of Fire Bending
I want to believe this is bait, but I fear you're actually moronic, so let me explain the obvious: they're melting the ground itself, turning it into molten rock, more commonly known as lava.
ITT: morons that cannot comprehend that lava is cool and therefore lava bending
Lavabending is nonsensical prostituteshit. Getting anywhere near lava will kill you pretty much instantly. Frick off with your "rule of cool" moronation.
People are constantly shrugging off what would or could easily have been mortal injury in the show. It's not realistic, and lava bending is not any more implausible than other forms of magic in the setting.
You're an obsessive moron insisting on arguing a completely pointless topic on a Bayeux tapestry board when you could have been discussing the joys of incest.
>*incoherent moron babble*
Not even reading it. A human CANNOT get anywhere near lava without dropping immediately. Frick off with your pathetic attempts at justifying bad writing and have a nice day.
I hate lavabending because it is a completely meaningless and emblematic of the larger problem of how Korra treats bending. The original series had it as a point that all the bending styles also represented certain concepts and for one to master their style they also had to master the philosophy behind it. For instance Lightningbending was about being in utter control with no inner turmoil, metalbending was about realizing how all things were connected, Bloodbending was about being willing to cross a moral line and painfully control another. Lavabending meanwhile is completely hollow, there is no philosophy to it, lava doesn't represent anything, and there is no revelation one needs to have. Bolin discovers he can do it basically by complete accident and Toph outright refers to it as a "rare ability". It dumbs bending down from a martial art that required practice and understanding to nothing more than a bland superpower.
I think lavabenders could be "hot tempered", which would fit both ghazan and bolin. It's not the only style that we don't get an explanation for though, combustion bending never got explained either.
Lava bending is undercooked because it was just a gimmick for a secondary antagonist and their pseudo philosophical writing was focused on the new air bender antagonist.
That and lava doesn't really have any clear and easy symbology associations beyond "liquid fire and destruction that lead to new life and land" so the writers couldn't come up with anything else in time.
>Bloodbending was about being willing to cross a moral line and painfully control another.
It's implied that any waterbender can easily bloodbend during a full moon. It does't require "mastering" any "philosophy", and being willing to cross some arbitrary moral line doesn't fit with your analogy.
>It dumbs bending down from a martial art that required practice and understanding
Are you trying to imply that there aren't people who are naturally more adept at certain kinds of martial arts? Sometimes, someone can just do something innately with little practice. It doesn't make it easy, or mean it's a superpower.
OG series did't explain combustion man's superpower at all, but you're okay with that? Frick off with your selective headcanon bullshit.
Water Ultimate = Bloodbending
Fire Ultimate = Lightning
Earth Ultimate(s) = Metal AND Lavabending (Metalbending is OP as frick but now every common Earthbender can do it in Korra for some reason?)
Air Ultimate = ???
>Air Ultimate = ???
You get to fly without gear. That's it really.
Not comparable. It seems like anyone can learn bloodbending, lightning generation, and metalbending. Lavabending is specifically stated to be an inborn ability, while airbending's flight has only ever been achieved by two people and is entirely philosophical in nature.
As it stands, airbending has no subskill.
>Lavabending is specifically stated to be an inborn ability
And not even a century before that they thought melalbending was impossible. Maybe we shouldn't take their word on the genetics of bending as gospel, when they've been proven wrong before.
And not even a century before lightning generation was an extraordinarily difficult ability to learn, and only the royal family had access to the necessary training.
In Korra it's a fricking wage job.
It would make sense for combustion bending to be a fusion of air and firebending ergo replicating it as an airbender would be your air ultimate.
I forgot about combustionbending. That's another inborn ability... that apparently you can't use without a forehead tattoo? How do people discover that they have this power?
I think the tattoo is a focus. You can make short ranged blasts without it but the tattoo gives you range.
This is how I assumed it worked too. It's how Sparky Sparky Boom Man lost his arm and leg; he blew them off discovering his power.
combustion man always clenches his abs right before he fires so its not a skill you can learn from just watching someone else do the movements, its manipulating chi from its source internally.
the tattoo always made me think its was some kind of secret order, like the sun benders.
Combustion bending was elaborated on in the Yangchen OGNs
Only firebenders can do it and you're basically tortured while learning it because they put you under a bunch of water/the ocean where you can't firebend normally because the water would extinguish it
Are we b***hing about lavabending being an earthbending skill when lightning generation is a fire skill? What fricking sense does THAT make?
Because fire is plasma, dumbass.
So a firebender has theoretical command over plasma? Because plasma is a lot more than just electricity. In fact I think you underestimate how much shit falls under the plasma umbrella.
Yes. It's like you don't understand that firebending is completely fricking busted and the Fire Nation was able to use it to conquer 90% of the planet.
Like, five people total have been shown throwing lightning. Certainly not the entire Fire Nation military. Your average firebending soldier kinda sucks. The Fire Nation conquered so much because of aggressiveness and superior technology. The art itself is certainly not better than earthbending, the superior bending art.
According to the wiki, combustionbending can be taught via a SEALS-like training regimen. This wasn't in the show though so I'm not sure where that info comes from.
Bending was harder, then you have dumb people like Bolin lavabending, how the hell did he learn? Toph was a big leap of logic but it can be explained by the fact that she has a greater attachment to her bending than anyone else. About bending specific things bending is just energy bending but you learn a specific subset. Because of the retcons and to keep WB consistent they never explain why people can't bend more than one element. Avatar bending makes your typical shonen power system well written and thought out in comparison
>they literally directly make everything around them catch on fire.
See now, if lavabending was a subset of firebending it would make more sense because a firebender could use his power to regulate the heat. But how the frick is an earthbender going to keep himself from bursting into flame?
What is the actual benefit to combustion bending? Because any firebender can make explosions. Honestly it seems like a whole lot of effort for very little return.
>*renders all your fancy magic dancing less than useless*
>metalben-
>375 m/s
Literally too fast for human reaction time. Magic is shite.
>Sees you reach for gun
>Bloodbends you into an aneurysm or to simple twist your arm
>Puts up a wall of stone
>Lightning blasts your chest/head/hand
>Airbends in different directions to frick up the bullet's potential vectors before you can aim and fire
>sees
Pfffffft!
>bombs the whole area around your precious snipers with a fireball
Nothing personal, kid.
>believing that firearms are magic death wands
>t. idiot that isn't at all familiar with them