The Legend of Korra

It's also true because Tenzin himself cannot enter the spiritual world. But, Tenzin was also trained by Aang; can't forget about that.

You can have the best teacher in the world, but in the end the limitations of the student are what restricts how far he can advance. Tenzin has experience and knowledge, but that doesn't mean he has true talent. Zahir and Tenzin's daughter both proved that there are certain limitations in Tenzin's power, as both combined knowledge+talent to get really strong results.

You guys are crazy. Tenzin was raping Zaheer's face and was more than holding his own against 3 of the Red Lotus until P'Li started sniping from the airship. Tenzin is a badass.

Well remember that the other elements have benefitted from a couple centuries of refinement in technique while Air has remained stagnant. The sub-specializations becoming more common as well as things like the pro-bending league have advanced Water, Fire and Earth in ways that Air hasn't had. Remember when Korra first arrived in Republic City and was surprised by what the pro-benders could do that she could not because they were focused on speed and precision rather than the classical forms the White Lotus had taught her.

I'm kinda curious if the pro-bending league will have to consider adding in Air bending...maybe not right away but within 50 years I could see airbending being common enough to warrant it.

I want to see what they come up with for the combination/non-standard air bending. Earth (or is it fire) have lava/metal. Water has blood. Maybe just have them learn to take the air from people's lungs.

Earth has lava/metal, fire has lightning, water has blood and healing, air has flying.

My guess would be weather/ temperature bending.

They can all temperature bend to a point. Aang froze metal chains to break them with air, all water benders can create steam and ice, Azula had the blue flames and (some) earth benders can turn rock into lava.

Well, when you think about it, temperature is just a factor of relative energy level of the molecules in matter. Telekinetic abilities already exploit that, so it makes sense some can tweak it more to change temps.

I guess weather bending might be a good choice then, since we really haven't seen anyone do that on a macro scale.

It's flight, though. Is that not good enough for you?!

haus_sl said:

Flight is just air bending around the glider/staff thing. That even requires a prop and isn't a different type of bending.

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Zahir had true flight with no glider and staff, it cut down on a lot of its limitations.

so
Earth : Metal & Lava
Water : Blood and Healing
Fire : Lightning and Explosion
Air: Flight and Spirit projection

All he is doing is what Air Bison already do: fly around ;p Granted, that is pretty OP, but I dunno if if "flight bending" would count. Blood/plant/healing, lava/metal, and lightning/combustion are all pretty extreme extensions of the base "class". The key idea behind them all is you take the base element and tinker with shit that contains the base element, but aren't pure.

Maybe sound bending? You use your powers to mimic voices (by controlling the airflow to replicate a sound) or create massive sonic booms/sonic disruptions? That would be a pretty good hero class for air bending and have good applications in fighting.

haus_sl said:

Flight is just air bending around the glider/staff thing. That even requires a prop and isn't a different type of bending.

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You really shouldn't be in this thread if you haven't seen the finale.

Given how massively unaerodynamic Air Bison are the true flight aspect of airbending should not have been the revelation that it was. My biggest issue with the season was how Zaheer turned from non-bender into Grandmaster Airbender in the space of a few weeks at most. He even mastered entering the astral plane, although did not seem to have the spirit projection power of Jinora.

Qhue_sl said:

Given how massively unaerodynamic Air Bison are the true flight aspect of airbending should not have been the revelation that it was. My biggest issue with the season was how Zaheer turned from non-bender into Grandmaster Airbender in the space of a few weeks at most. He even mastered entering the astral plane, although did not seem to have the spirit projection power of Jinora.

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That's already been covered a bunch of times in this thread:

He was a master martial artist using airbending forms long before he went to prison (and he continued his practice in prison). This was because of the Red Lotus' plan to capture Korra. He was to be her airbending teacher (see episode 9).

He was deeply spiritual already. Spending his life studying the ancient air nomad teachings and communing with the spirit world.

Airbenders aren't the only ones who can interact with the spirit world (Iroh, for one).

He wasn't a "master level" airbender at all, he was just a badass. When he faced a true master he got his ass handed to him (Tenzin).

The flying thing was a combination of his spiritual training, airbending and study of the ancient ways.

It's really not that big of a stretch when you consider everything that was covered throughout the season.

But still, the plot relies on the fact that some people have received airbending, which is an unprecedented event AFAIK. Completely randomly.

I like sound bending, maybe it's time for a new pop star in the world of Avatar ?

That was explained, too. The spirit portals being opened for the first time in 10,000 years is forcing the world to balance itself back out, and bending is a part of that.

Zaphid_sl said:

But still, the plot relies on the fact that some people have received airbending, which is an unprecedented event AFAIK. Completely randomly.

I like sound bending, maybe it's time for a new pop star in the world of Avatar ?

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Did you watch the show? All these things are explained very plausibly. The story has some issues in terms of stuff ignored or left unexplained, bu this isn't among them.