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Avatar: The Last Airbender—best show in the universe

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    TamTam Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Azula's ultra-powerful firebending bothers me a little. It was all good and fine that she was a firebending prodigy that had so much control over her bending that her fire actually burned many times hotter and brighter than anyone else's. But when she used it to make handrockets and started to fly in that one episode, that seemed like a bit much.

    Tam on
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    good point. My point is lost, but technically it looks like I'm not wrong. He's moving the heat, not slowing/stopping it. But the effect's the same, so I was wrong there.

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    DHSDHS Chase lizards.. ...bark at donkeys..Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Yeah, technically he's not raping Conservation of Energy as badly as the Waterbenders, either.

    DHS on
    "Grip 'em up, grip 'em, grip 'em good, said the Gryphon... to the pig."
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    waterbenders can freely control liquid and solid of water, but I haven't seen them make steam. i'll wait for the inevitable link to prove me wrong

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    DHS wrote: »
    Yeah, technically he's not raping Conservation of Energy as badly as the Waterbenders, either.

    Well, since the whole thing about Waterbending is that it's "mimicking the way the moon's gravity pushes and pulls the water" then it sort of makes sense. If you make the water so heavy that the molecules condense on top of themselves into a crystalline formation, then it *sort* of makes sense. Though I'm not sure how much gravitational force that would take, as I'm not a chemistry doctorate.

    EDIT: Pikapuff, I know that Katara and Aang can both fiddle with clouds. Not exactly the same. Didn't Pakku bend the steam on his soup or something once, though? Or maybe he was just bending the water and the steam went funny as a result.

    Terrendos on
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    QinguQingu Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Tam wrote: »
    Azula's ultra-powerful firebending bothers me a little. It was all good and fine that she was a firebending prodigy that had so much control over her bending that her fire actually burned many times hotter and brighter than anyone else's. But when she used it to make handrockets and started to fly in that one episode, that seemed like a bit much.
    Is actually foreshadowing.
    Other firebenders use this technique during the comet.

    Qingu on
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    DHSDHS Chase lizards.. ...bark at donkeys..Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    waterbenders can freely control liquid and solid of water, but I haven't seen them make steam. i'll wait for the inevitable link to prove me wrong


    Specifically, season 3 episodes The Awakening and The Painted Lady.

    Wikia and an already robust capacity for recall make me deadly force of correction.

    DHS on
    "Grip 'em up, grip 'em, grip 'em good, said the Gryphon... to the pig."
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    TamTam Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Qingu wrote: »
    Tam wrote: »
    Azula's ultra-powerful firebending bothers me a little. It was all good and fine that she was a firebending prodigy that had so much control over her bending that her fire actually burned many times hotter and brighter than anyone else's. But when she used it to make handrockets and started to fly in that one episode, that seemed like a bit much.
    Is actually foreshadowing.
    Other firebenders use this technique during the comet.

    Did they ever show power-enhancing natural phenomena for airbenders or earthbenders?

    You know what, I really want to see a sadistic, evil airbender

    air blades and collapsing lungs

    can you imagine- popping the alveoli in the lungs as torture

    Tam on
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    JragghenJragghen Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Tam wrote: »
    Qingu wrote: »
    Tam wrote: »
    Azula's ultra-powerful firebending bothers me a little. It was all good and fine that she was a firebending prodigy that had so much control over her bending that her fire actually burned many times hotter and brighter than anyone else's. But when she used it to make handrockets and started to fly in that one episode, that seemed like a bit much.
    Is actually foreshadowing.
    Other firebenders use this technique during the comet.

    Did they ever show power-enhancing natural phenomena for airbenders or earthbenders?

    You know what, I really want to see a sadistic, evil airbender

    air blades and collapsing lungs

    can you imagine- popping the alveoli in the lungs as torture

    Never showed it for air, but Aang's mentor took out a whole crapload of comet-enhanced Fire Nation folks, so I would assume it'd be something along the lines of creating vacuums, etc. The only truly superpowered Earthbending we saw was Toph's metalbending.

    Edit: Oh, enhancing. Nevermind. Nope.

    Jragghen on
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    yeah earths OP enough anyways

    then again they're all pretty powerful

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    joshua1joshua1 Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    how could you NOT like the hand rockets?

    joshua1 on
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    DHSDHS Chase lizards.. ...bark at donkeys..Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Tam wrote: »
    Qingu wrote: »
    Tam wrote: »
    Azula's ultra-powerful firebending bothers me a little. It was all good and fine that she was a firebending prodigy that had so much control over her bending that her fire actually burned many times hotter and brighter than anyone else's. But when she used it to make handrockets and started to fly in that one episode, that seemed like a bit much.
    Is actually foreshadowing.
    Other firebenders use this technique during the comet.

    Did they ever show power-enhancing natural phenomena for airbenders or earthbenders?

    You know what, I really want to see a sadistic, evil airbender

    air blades and collapsing lungs

    can you imagine- popping the alveoli in the lungs as torture

    Nah, the Air and Earthbenders were never shown to derive their powers from anything but knowledge of the bending-originator animals, Sky Bison and Badgermoles.

    Waterbenders learned from the Moon.
    And the first human Firebenders were Sun-worshippers.

    DHS on
    "Grip 'em up, grip 'em, grip 'em good, said the Gryphon... to the pig."
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    dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    um i'd be more scared of amped up toph ripping the inorganic matter out of my body

    dlinfiniti on
    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
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    DHSDHS Chase lizards.. ...bark at donkeys..Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    As far scary physiology-rapening bending, Waterbending is the most broken, it's been shown that full-moon enhanced benders can move water in the body, dragging the meat with it, there should be no reason that they can't phase-change it either.

    This is why an Avatar should never learn Bloodbending, because Bloodbending + Avatar State = going all Dr. Manhattan or just straight up zombie army. And if one Avatar knew it, the Avatar spirit knows it forever.

    DHS on
    "Grip 'em up, grip 'em, grip 'em good, said the Gryphon... to the pig."
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    TamTam Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I wonder if the
    elemental rape orgy specially used for Ozai
    was Aang's own idea or if another avatar had used it previously

    Tam on
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Tam wrote: »
    I wonder if the
    elemental rape orgy specially used for Ozai
    was Aang's own idea or if another avatar had used it previously
    i like to think he didn't use avatar state to achieve that skill, weather or not someone else used it before.

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    TamTam Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    Tam wrote: »
    I wonder if the
    elemental rape orgy specially used for Ozai
    was Aang's own idea or if another avatar had used it previously
    i like to think he didn't use avatar state to achieve that skill, weather or not someone else used it before.

    why?

    Tam on
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    The Muffin ManThe Muffin Man Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    So is this just going to completely ruin EVERY Avatar thread, or are we 11 pages away from everyone acting like fucking adults?

    Yes, because fucking adults don't dare ask questions about anything, they just accept everything given to them at face-value.
    You want to bitch and moan that asian americans are/are not represented in cinema/have magic powers/can fly/whatever the fuck, fine. Make a fucking thread for it and let people interested in the show and potential movie have fun discussing the ACTUAL SHOW and ACTUAL MOVIE. Not speculation on shit that's passed and cannot be changed. Yes, it's good to be heard when you feel slighted, but this is not a case where anything will change on the subject at hand.

    It can be changed IN THE FUTURE, yes, but this is a lost battle. Make a new topic if it's important to you. Then YOU get to discuss the state of asian-american actors in Hollywood, and WE get to discuss a cartoon about a kid who can control the elements with kung fu and its' movie.

    So... discussing possible racist casting in the Avatar movie in the Avatar thread makes people juvenile for some reason. Good to know.
    Yep. Especially the children who are given a completely reasonable idea but still act like petulant brats until the cows come home.
    This is why an Avatar should never learn Bloodbending, because Bloodbending + Avatar State = going all Dr. Manhattan or just straight up zombie army. And if one Avatar knew it, the Avatar spirit knows it forever.
    I don't know if it's that easy. I mean, Aang has been a Fire, water, earth, and Airbender in past lives, but we only see him ever use water in the second episode in the Avatar state. But do they keep the tricks? I mean, we can assume that Kurruk could create and control ice, but we see Aang do it maybe once or twice and never in battle.

    The Muffin Man on
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I suspect that Aang (and all Avatars) can't learn the "advanced" bending stuff. Otherwise Toph would have taught him metalbending, Katara might have taught him healing, and we probably would have seen Roku use lightning at some point.

    Terrendos on
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    dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    well i imagine the avatars can be pretty darn powerful with their own elemental affinities i mean that female avatar
    did split continents. That kind of scale isn't something anyone, even toph has ever approached in earthbending

    dlinfiniti on
    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    dlinfiniti wrote: »
    well i imagine the avatars can be pretty darn powerful with their own elemental affinities i mean that female avatar
    did split continents. That kind of scale isn't something anyone, even toph has ever approached in earthbending
    She broke her little peninsula off from the mainland to make Kyoshi Island. Toph has done worse. Heck, Roku did that when he was fighting the volcano in "Avatar and the Firelord" and he didn't even have to enter the Avatar State to do it.

    Terrendos on
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    The Muffin ManThe Muffin Man Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Terrendos wrote: »
    I suspect that Aang (and all Avatars) can't learn the "advanced" bending stuff. Otherwise Toph would have taught him metalbending, Katara might have taught him healing, and we probably would have seen Roku use lightning at some point.
    I'd hazard a guess that they know their native bending, doesn't make sense that a Waterbending Avatar can't create ice.

    As for Kyoshi: She used airbending to blow the island out to see, so THAT'S where the real Avatar-level stuff comes in.

    The Muffin Man on
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    King RiptorKing Riptor Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Tam wrote: »
    I wonder if the
    elemental rape orgy specially used for Ozai
    was Aang's own idea or if another avatar had used it previously

    It was his.
    The whole point was even when everyone thought otherwise Aang found a way to defeat the big bad and not betray his convictions.

    King Riptor on
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I think he was referring to
    The atom shape, with an air nucleus and fire, water, and earth electron orbits. I could be wrong though.

    Terrendos on
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    psycojesterpsycojester Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Terrendos wrote: »
    I suspect that Aang (and all Avatars) can't learn the "advanced" bending stuff. Otherwise Toph would have taught him metalbending, Katara might have taught him healing, and we probably would have seen Roku use lightning at some point.

    Maybe that was just an issue of Aang only having a year to learn all the elements while Roku and the other Avatars spent like a decade focused on each one.

    psycojester on
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    QinguQingu Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Terrendos wrote: »
    I suspect that Aang (and all Avatars) can't learn the "advanced" bending stuff. Otherwise Toph would have taught him metalbending, Katara might have taught him healing, and we probably would have seen Roku use lightning at some point.
    Metalbending and lightning are slow. Lightning is "insta-kill," but so would any normal Avatar-state elemental attack, and it would be much faster.

    Qingu on
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    cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    So... discussing possible racist casting in the Avatar movie in the Avatar thread makes people juvenile for some reason. Good to know.
    Yep. Especially the children who are given a completely reasonable idea but still act like petulant brats until the cows come home.

    Translation: I'm going to call people who disagree with me names.

    Seriously, what? No one's acted like a brat in this thread. Chill out.

    cloudeagle on
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    The Muffin ManThe Muffin Man Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    cloudeagle wrote: »
    So... discussing possible racist casting in the Avatar movie in the Avatar thread makes people juvenile for some reason. Good to know.
    Yep. Especially the children who are given a completely reasonable idea but still act like petulant brats until the cows come home.

    Translation: I'm going to call people who disagree with me names.

    Seriously, what? No one's acted like a brat in this thread. Chill out.
    Not lately, thankfully. BOTH SIDES have though (See? I'm not just crapping on the one I disagree with!)

    I'm just saying the "racist casting" ship has sailed for this movie, so it'd be more effective to get other people aware of FUTURE racism in casting then to focus on a lost cause.

    Also I was tired and cranky when I wrote that post so I withdraw the name-calling and apologize.

    The Muffin Man on
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    cloudeaglecloudeagle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Ah, I understand what you're getting at now. And I've had days like that too. S'cool.

    cloudeagle on
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    SparserLogicSparserLogic Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Here's my issue with Earthbending:

    Its been shown several times that an Earthbender can sink someone into the ground. Isn't that pretty much an IWIN button against any fire, water, or air bender that isn't also an earthbender?

    I mean, it doesn't matter how much fire you can create if you're suddenly entombed 20 feet under the ground, surrounded by solid rock.

    SparserLogic on
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    TerrendosTerrendos Decorative Monocle Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Here's my issue with Earthbending:

    Its been shown several times that an Earthbender can sink someone into the ground. Isn't that pretty much an IWIN button against any fire, water, or air bender that isn't also an earthbender?

    I mean, it doesn't matter how much fire you can create if you're suddenly entombed 20 feet under the ground, surrounded by solid rock.

    I would presume that it's pretty easy to dodge. The only time it's ever been done is when someone was caught off guard.

    Terrendos on
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    ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I like to think that certain various "specialty" powers are themselves reminiscent of the "edges" of the elements, where the barriers break down.

    Metalbending, for example, would be fire and earth; sandbending earth and air; steambending water and fire (or water and fire and air); lightning fire and air. (Notice how Azula defends a lot like Aang...) I suggest this because we already know that redirecting lightning is essentially fire and water.

    Now, the techniques are still strongly their primarily element--lightning is still mostly fire; we've only ever seen people who are primarily firebenders using it, though Aang, as an airbender Avatar, has redirected it. But the techniques involved seem to start blurring at that point.

    Shadowen on
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    Mr_RoseMr_Rose 83 Blue Ridge Protects the Holy Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    So, what you're saying is that they were telegraphing some sort of meta-bending from about halfway through the first season and yet somehow everyone missed it until the lion-turtle turned up and spelled it out? :P

    Mr_Rose on
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    nexuscrawlernexuscrawler Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Yeah a trained Avatar's raw power even in non avatar state was amazing

    in the finale
    It wasn't that Aang was too weak to beat Ozai without going avatar state it's that he was too timid to kill someone. They show several times he has the chance to redirect Ozai's attacks to kill him but doesn't. Also how quickly he subdued the firelord post avatar state without even batting an eye,

    nexuscrawler on
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    ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Mr_Rose wrote: »
    So, what you're saying is that they were telegraphing some sort of meta-bending from about halfway through the first season and yet somehow everyone missed it until the lion-turtle turned up and spelled it out? :P

    Not precisely, although the very existence of the Avatar and what to me are "blurred bending" techniques indicates there's more to it than four very separate elements.

    Probably it just indicates writers with an imagination, but you never can tell whether the presence of the quasi-elemental techniques was supposed to foreshadow a higher power, as it were.

    I also don't think that people bent energy before Aang. That was the purview of the lion-turtles, and due to their size or whatever, people never thought to ask them like they eventually did with badger-moles, dragons, the moon and ocean, or the sky bison. So elemental bending is not a "lesser" or "corrupted" form of energy-bending; it's something else entirely--but it's something the Avatar, at least, can do. And I think maybe only the Avatar can, aside from the lion-turtles--after all, the Avatars can bend the four elements not because they're better, but because they're the reincarnations of the living bridge between the spirit world and the mortal world, and is supposed to represent balance. So there may be other forms of bending out there that no one's ever even heard of but that the Avatar can learn from the right beings.

    I'm probably horribly wrong and if the creators were at SDCC and I asked them, they'd laugh me out of the event, but...

    Shadowen on
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    KtnmooKtnmoo Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I know we've been talking a lot about the race issue in the movie casting, but has anyone thought about how well the characters would be portrayed by the current selected actors?

    From the teaser trailer (and I know we are to not put much stock in a teaser, but I can't help but still worry), the mood that I get from the movie is that it is a serious action and drama-y oriented flick, which stands in contrast to the show, which itself is actually quite light-hearted and humorous. I also have a hard time picturing the actor playing Aang doing some of Aang's funny antics. I really hope that the producers focused on finding quality actors first, then realized afterwards that the racial representation was off.

    Ktnmoo on
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    ok i'll give my dumb thought on what you're saying.

    they aren't blending elements. It's using your element, but using other techniques to implement it.

    the lightning redirect is 100% firebending, but using the methods of water bending to execute a different manuver. still fire.

    metal bending is just more of the same, but needing the understanding that metal is also earth. the meteor bending is more like earth bending with water techniques, as she can shape it in her hand however she wants. it's just that when she stops bending it, it instantly goes solid and stops moving.

    sand bending's just [strike]airbending picking up dust[/strike] earthbending swirling sand around to make mini tornadoes. swampbending is just waterbending what you can't see (the water in the plants).

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Ktnmoo wrote: »
    I know we've been talking a lot about the race issue in the movie casting, but has anyone thought about how well the characters would be portrayed by the current selected actors?
    not about the trailer, but here's a note on the pictures. someone mentioned that they're probably pictrures for the costumes, not the characters. and as such "costume pictures" whatever it's called, usually have the actor standng with a straight expressionless face.

    PikaPuff on
    jCyyTSo.png
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    ShadowenShadowen Snores in the morning LoserdomRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    PikaPuff wrote: »
    sand bending's just airbending picking up dust.

    ...I think you're demonstrably wrong on that point, anyway.

    Shadowen on
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    dlinfinitidlinfiniti Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    so i wonder i they're going to make the swamp benders real rednecks seeing how everyone is going white anyway :P

    dlinfiniti on
    AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
This discussion has been closed.