The world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra features the classic four Greek elements in a pan-Asian setting: fire, water, earth, and wind. Benders are people who can wield an element and control it at will, and the water benders in particular hail from the north and south poles of the Avatar world. There, water benders have all the ice and water they could ever need to bend, and they have innovated all sorts of creative ways to bend water.
The water benders are a creative people, too, and benders of the Water Tribe have explored all the natural and philosophical depths of this element. What can water bending do?
Water and the Moon
True to real life, the world’s oceans and water in the Avatar world are controlled with the moon, and in fact, the earliest water benders (according to The Last Airbender) drew inspiration from the moon’s tides of push and pull.
This makes water bending unique in that its original bender was not a living thing. And, of course, the Water Spirit is embedded in the moon to control all water bending. In season 1 of The Last Airbender, princess Yui selflessly assumed this role after the demise of the previous Water Spirit.
It’s the Element of Winter
Each element in the Avatar world corresponds to a season, and water bending’s season is winter. After all, it’s always cold in the north and south poles, with ice and snow present all year round.
And in that world, water benders are born more often in winter than any other season. If a baby is born during winter, he or she may very well become a master water bender one day!
It’s Highly Adaptable
Each element’s bending and fighting style is based on the element’s natural properties, and water is the most flexible element of all. It can be the dew drops on a leaf, a flowing creek, a crashing waterfall, or water dribbling from between rocks.
So, water bending technique is based on switching rapidly between offense and defense, and water bending feautures constant motions that flow into one another, literally and otherwise. A water bender always has another move to make, for any situation.
It’s Universal Among Living Things
Some animals in the Avatar world are based on certain elements. Dragons breathe fire, sky bison bend air, and badger-moles bend the earth. But they are all alive, and all living animals and plants have water in them, such as blood and the water in cells.
The elderly water bender Hama taught this to Katara, showing her how a field of flowers can yield enough water to fight with. And, of course, Hama’s introduction leads to water bending’s most terrifying ability.
Some Water Benders Can Bend Blood
Most elements have one or two sub-skills, and a rare few water benders can bend the blood in living things. Hama pioneered this gruesome skill to escape her Fire Nation captors, and ever since, she could use the full moon’s power to bend a person or animal’s very blood to control them physically.
She nearly dispatched Team Avatar this way under the full moon’s light until Katara awakened her own blood bending to subdue Hama where she stood. Frightened by this skill, Katara later officially had it outlawed (to Yakon’s chagrin).
Ice Allows for Physical Barriers and Bridges
Fire and air bending do not create solid objects, but earth bending certainly can, and earth benders can create barriers, bridges, steps, and even small buildings. If there is enough water or ice around, water benders can do much the same.
This is useful for groups, since a water bender can create a bridge for others to traverse with ease, or make a barrier to keep danger away. Fire bending is scary and powerful, but it can’t do that.
Many Schools of Water Bending
There is, in fact, more than one school of thought where water bending is concerned. The Water Tribe is split into the north and south, and the north favors defensive technique while the southern style is more aggressive. Why might that be?
The northern tribe has endured for 100 years against the Fire Nation’s fleets thanks to its walls and primitiv warships, and the northerners clearly don’t feel the need to overextend themselves. But the smaller water tribe has had to survive with fierce counter-attacks to drive off Fire Nation raid ships time and again, so they fight fire with fire, so to speak.
Make a Building With It
As mentioned earlier, the northern water tribe is a big place, with a full-scale city crafted mainly from ice. And how did it get like that?
The industrial use of water bending. Benders can do more than fight; they can build things, and water benders can easily create, modify, and repair buildings and structures like bridges with their skills. And don’t forget the impressive water lock that allows ships to move from one body of water to another. Benders make that possible, too, in place of machines.
Water Bending Can Enhance or Replace Limbs
In a way, all benders use the elements as an extension of themselves, and water benders can make that literal. A water bender can freeze water over their hands or arms to form hooks or tentacles to fight or maneuver, and they can also make ice skates on their feet.
The villainous anarchist Ming Hua, one of Zaheer’s cronies, is an amputee who has long since replaced her old arms with water tentacles. She’s a walking, water bending octopus, and she can make hooks to climb all over the place. She can even drive a car with those limbs.
Water Can Heal
Water is intuitively seen as healing, as it water relieves thirst and can bathe the body. Many water benders can use their energies to heal a person, once that person’s wound (or entire body) is exposed to healing waters. Katara is a capable healer, and even the brash Korra can heal, too, like when she mended Bolin’s wounded shoulder.
And in the northern water tribe, girls were forbidden to fight as a rule, but they could attend a water bending healing school. Katara personally proved that Water Tribe girls are pefectly capable fighters as well, though.
