Bending 101

Time for a movie update once again! This time it's all about the lamest movie of all time, 'The Last Airbender' or more commonly known as, 'Avatar TLA'. The animation itself was a prestigious one and dare I say one of Nickelodeon's Best production ever! The silver screen version directed by M. Night Shyamalan seriously ranks lowest of all time! Seriously, all the move databases that I found say the same thing unanimously, "IT SUCKS BIG TIME!" Well, maybe not in that exact phrase but you get the general idea dont'cha? To make it simple, how on earth can you get the main character's name wrong? That alone is enough to enrage many people.

Anyway, to restore some needed honor back to the franchise, this post will educate people about the real Avatar, The Last Airbender. I'm gonna explain about the world of bending in the storyline, whereby garners most interest among fans and all. I'll simplify loads of stuffs here, especially for the sake of first timers to the series. So please don't expect too much of or down the the point details here. After all, the producers (3 of them, Micheal Dante, Bryan Konietzko and Aaron Eahasz) went to great lengths of research and learning of different cultures and martial arts just to produce a perfect show for the viewers. =)

The 4 nations

Here's the actual and proper opening taken from wiki. Somehow the theater version changed it dramatically, and that's still an understatement...

"Water. Earth. Fire. Air. Long ago, the four Nations lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered the new Avatar, an Airbender named Aang. And although his Airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone. But I believe Aang can save the world."

So, let's talk about bending shall we? The art of bending is the ability to manipulate the respective element based on your movements and the bender's will. It's not magic like what most people think, and you can't definitely bend the elements with just your mind too, but wouldn't that be great! Each bending style are normally associated with an actual martial arts, which in turn depicts the nature of the bending element and also reflects the culture that inherits it. However, due to the movie, almost all of the bending moves are done with excessive kicking and punching, since the cast only knew taekwando and karate..

Water bending - The art of water bending, inherited by the Water Tribe of the North and South pole. This form of bending is associated with the Push and Pull techniques of Tai Chi. It's strength comes from the power of the moon, whereby the bender gets gradually stronger as the moon changes phases every night towards the full moon. Water bending is smooth, elegant and clear, as it's nature of a flowing river or moving sea. Able to control any form of water, and turn them into ice, mist or even as it is, a bender's form is limitless as water takes no form and can be used in variety of ways. A variation of this bending would be the swamp tribe which uses water bending in more offensive and direct movements. Regardless of the origins, some water benders are able to heal others by redirecting the flow of chi in a person's body. But don't let the gentle water put you off, as on full moons, some benders can even use blood bending, whereby they can control the blood in your body and bend it to their will.

Earth Bending - This art would be mainly found in the Earth Kingdom, where the people's strengths and beliefs are as solid as a rock. Some people of the desert also uses a sand bending, which is a variation of this. To master earth bending, strong solid movements are needed, as such as the martial art of Hung Gar, created by the famous Wong Fei Hong is associated to it. Hung Gar would be mainly notable due to it's horse stance which is practiced for endurance. Hence, this style mainly focus on defense, and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike back. Besides the hard style of Hung Gar, there's also the soft style of Chu Gar or the praying mantis style, which uses softer but quicker stances. A high level bender is able to manipulate crystals from the depth of the earth, and rarely metal-bending, whereby the tiny earth pieces in metal are manipulated to control the metal itself.

Fire Bending - Mainly used by the antagonist race, the Fire Nation. Being warped by it's original teachings, it is fueled by anger and hatred, thus strong emotions will control the strength of the created flames. Like fire and flames, the Fire Nation are people with heavy machineries, powered by coal and flames. The people itself are aggressive and in the series, mainly tyrannical, due to the 100 years of world conquest campaign that it has been leading. The art of Northern Shaolin Kung Fu is seen by most firebenders. The art shows great aggressiveness and ferocious speed, like a small fire quickly burning down a thick terrain of forestry. As such, most firebenders train in self control to avoid destroying both themselves and the nature around them. High level benders are able to increase the intensity of their red flames into blue flames which are much stronger and hotter. (Relate back to high school science of you don;t know why >.<). Some benders are even able to manipulate and redirect chi in the air into blue or even white burst of lightnings. A feat that only 3 person in the series are able to do.

Air Bending - The style mastered by the Current Avatar, the main protagonist, Aang. From small breeze, to streams of air and even big tornadoes, an air bender can do all of that. Inherited by the Air Nomads who were free spirited and never tied down, it represents freedom or an unbounded soul. Too bad that they were totally exterminated by the Fire Nation, fearing that the avatar is going to be reborn into the Air Nation. As an air bender, Aang uses the art of Ba Gua, which incorporates circular movements to avoid being hit or capture and follow up with direct hits and strikes. Think of it like a free moving breeze which can suddenly turn into a violent gust of wind.

Well, that was a simplify version of JUST the bending arts. Like I said, the producers spent many months in research and production of the three series spanned animation. I guess, this alone should suffice in peaking people's interest of the actual series right? A job done well mediocritically I suppose, but still enough to quell my anger on the recently released film. But honestly, to properly enjoy it, do watch the animation or perhaps go spend sometime reading on Wiki instead?

And on yeah, don't give me crap like I don;t watch cartoons, so I'm not gonna watch it, when on the other hand You read and watch series like Naruto, Bleach, One Piece or even Pokemon! Well, birds of a feather flock together right? So spare me the ever endless drama or ego and just watch the original series kay? Problem solved =)

Gonna continue my project for now...

Supposed to be busy guy, signing off. Ciaoz~

P/S : most information were referenced from Wikia, [ http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki ]