Surprised, terrified, and powerless.
That is what you feel when encountering a bloodbender.
But, where did this horrifying act of puppetry come from?
Let's go all the way back
to before bloodbending was even discovered.
Roughly, 35 years into the Hundred Year War,
the Fire Nation arrived at the Southern Water Tribe.
They led raid after raid on the small tribe,
imprisoning any and all waterbenders.
The final prisoner of war was a woman named Hama.
I was led away in chains.
The last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe.
The guards were always careful to keep any water away from us.
They piped in dry air and had us suspended
away from the ground before giving us any water.
They would bind our hands and feet so we couldn't bend.
Any sign of trouble was met with cruel retribution.
And yet each month I felt the full moon
enriching me with its energy.
There had to be something I could do to escape.
Hama, desperate for freedom,
realized that the guards had not eliminated
all water sources from their prison
because where there's life, there's water.
The rats that scurried across the floor of my cage
were nothing more than skins filled with liquid.
And I passed years developing the skill
that would lead to my escape,
bloodbending.
Controlling the water in another body,
enforcing your own will over theirs.
Once I had mastered the rats,
I was ready for the men.
[gasping]
[grunting]
[gasping]
And during the next full moon,
I walked free for the first time in decades,
My cell unlocked by the very guards assigned to keep me in.
So, this is only speculation.
But it's believed that her escape
and the reports of this legendary new power,
is what drew more raids to the Southern Water Tribe
roughly, 60 years after they began.
Tell me, who is it?
Who's the waterbender?
There are no waterbenders here.
The Fire Nation took them all away a long time ago.
You're lying.
My source says
there's one waterbender left in the Southern Water Tribe.
What they were really looking for was a bloodbender.
And unfortunately, a mother of two, Kya,
sacrificed herself to save her lone, waterbending, daughter.
It's me.
Take me as your prisoner.
I'm afraid I'm not taking prisoners today.
But it was a futile effort.
On the other side of a vast ocean,
Hama was hiding under the Fire Nation's nose.
Hello, children.
[screaming]
Hama spent the next several years moonlighting
as an innkeeper just outside of the Fire Nation village.
And every month during a full moon,
she would secretly take her revenge out
on any Fire Nation citizen
unlucky enough to cross her sights.
Thanks for letting us stay here tonight.
You have a lovely inn.
Aren't you sweet?
You know, you should be careful.
People have been disappearing
in those woods you were camping in.
What do you mean disappearing?
When the moon turns full,
people walk in
and they don't come out.
Who wants more tea?
Ordinary people couldn't fathom
that It was just a waterbender wielding such power.
I'm not that old!
Not ready to get snapped up by some moon monster yet, at least.
We wanted to ask you about that.
Did you get a good look at the spirit that took you?
Didn't see no spirit.
Just felt something come over me, like I was possessed.
Forced me to start walking toward the mountain.
I tried to fight it, but I couldn't control my own limbs.
It just about had me into a cave up there.
And I looked up at the moon
for what I thought would be my last glimpse of light.
But then, the sun started to rise.
and I got control of myself again!
I just hightailed it away from that mountain
as quick as I could.
The people who Hama did bloodbend,
were actually held captive, just like she once was.
But Hama's legacy came to an end.
In the final summer of the Hundred Year War,
Avatar Aang and allies were befriended
by the elderly predator.
She even went so far as to begin tutoring Katara,
the only other living waterbender
in Southern Water Tribe.
When you're a waterbender in a strange land,
you do what you must to survive.
Tonight I'll teach you the ultimate
technique of waterbending.
It can only be done during the full moon,
when your bending is at its peak.
Hama shared one of her secrets
for the very first time with Katara.
Meanwhile, Toph helped discover Hama's other secret.
Why would a spirit wanna take people to a mountain?
Oh, no!
I did hear people screaming under the mountain!
The missing villagers must still be there!
We're saved.
I didn't know that spirits made prisons like this.
Who brought you here?
It was no spirit.
It was a witch.
A witch? What do you mean?
She seems like a normal old woman.
But she controls people like some dark puppet master.
Hama!]
Simultaneously, Katara was hesitant to learn bloodbending.
I don't know if I want that kind of power.
The choice is not yours.
The power exists.
And it's your duty to use the gifts
you've been given to win this war.
Katara resisted until Hama crossed the line,
bloodbending Aang and Sokka.
Don't hurt your friends, Katara.
And don't let them hurt each other.
[screaming]
No!
[grunting]
[groaning]
Hama was taken away prisoner, once again.
But this time, some of you would argue it was pretty justified.
Congratulations, Katara.
You're a bloodbender.
So, one month later, the full moon rose again
and so did a bloodbender, thirsty for revenge.
What's...
[grunting]
happening to me?
Katara was on the hunt for the man who slayed her mother.
You look her in the eye and you tell me
you don't remember what you did.
it's not him.
Katara eventually found her mother's killer and spared him.
That was the last time she ever bloodbent, as far as we know.
Decades later, the newly established
United Republic of Nations
outlawed blood bending, altogether.
But the dark art would continue to haunt society
via one game changing criminal.
Yakone, has maintained his grip on the underworld
by using an ability that has been illegal for decades,
bloodbending.
The defense argued this was impossible.
Not only because bloodbending was such a rare skill,
but because it had been reportedly,
performed without a full moon.
The defense would have won had the court not been full
of people who had witnessed the impossible time and time again.
In my years, I have encountered people born with rare
and unique bending abilities.
I once bested a man with my trusty boomerang
who was able to firebend with his mind.
We find Yakone guilty of all charges
and sentence him to life in prison.
[gasping]
[grunting]
Yakone revealed his power to the public,
bending his way to a temporary freedom.
And he would have gotten away with it, too,
if it weren't for Avatar Aang in the Avatar state.
[grunting]
[groaning]
I'm taking away your bending... for good.
[screaming]
[groaning]
[sighing]
Yakone's own bloodbending may have been over.
His lineage of crime and power?
Not quite. Yakone eventually escaped prison
with the help of his former gang.
They changed his appearance.
He found a wife and even had two sons, Tarrlok and Noatak.
Their family continued down a wholesome path
until his boys discovered they were waterbenders too.
At first we were excited by our new abilities.
But our training brought out a different side of my father.
Tarrlok!
You better shape up or you'll be out here
in the cold all night until you get it right.
- I'm trying but-- - Try harder!
You two will become bloodbenders of the highest order.
When the time is right,
you will claim Republic City and you will destroy the Avatar!
You must avenge me.
That is your purpose in life.
The good days were behind us.
Every full moon, he took his sons on a hunting trip,
where he secretly trained the young boys in bloodbending.
[growling]
Stop! You're hurting it!
Toughen up, Tarrlok!
You'll need a thicker skin for this.
A few years later, their education
evolved into bloodbending without a full moon.
Tarrlok didn't have the stomach to manipulate helpless animals,
but Noatak reveled in his new power.
[whining]
He was a prodigy,
mastering my father's psychic bloodbending technique
by the time he was 14.
Yukone reached a new low
when he made his children bloodbend each other.
Bloodbend your brother, Tarrlok!
That'd feel awful.
I don't want to do that to anyone!
I never want to bloodbend again.
You're a disgrace.
A weakling.
I'll teach you a lesson, you insubordinate!
[grunting]
Stay away from him.
This is when Yukone's delicate hold over his children snapped.
The puppets had become the puppeteers.
I made you what you are!
You're mine!
We're your sons!
Not your tools of revenge!
Let's go.
We can run away from him, forever.
Run away? But what about mom? We can't just leave her.
He was right about you.
You are a weakling.
[grunting]
Noatok, don't leave, please!
Noatok!
My father and I searched for days,
but we never found a sign of Noatok.
We thought he perished in that storm.
My father stopped training me.
With Noahtok gone, his hopes for revenge withered
and he passed away a few years later.
Our final bloodbending chapter opens up several years later.
Noatok had actually lived
and re-emerged in society with a new identity,
Amon, a non-bending radical.
Since the beginning of time, the spirits have acted
as guardians of our world and they have spoken to me.
They say the Avatar has failed humanity.
That is why the spirits have chosen me to usher
in a new era of balance.
They have granted me a power
that will make equality a reality.
The power to take a person's bending away, permanently.
That's impossible.
Of course, we know that this was done for bloodbending.
What did you do to me?
Your firebending is gone, forever.
But it was enough of an illusion to stir
massive civil unrest in Republic City.
The era of bending is over.
A new era of equality has begun.
Amon amassed a giant army of people
who believed the benders were the enemy of equality.
Amon even used a fake firebending scar
that actually made him seem like a victim,
when he was really just another predator.
Before long,
Amon became the target of a ruthless politician, Tarrlok.
Sound familiar?
Amon is not going to stop.
We should point out how Tarrlok had no clue
Amon was actually his brother.
But both men had their father's desperation and power.
Both men concealed their past to the public.
And both men were willing to do
whatever it took to reach their goal.
You need to be stopped!
You're just as bad as Amon!
Avatar Korra, who found herself
at odds with both brothers in the fight for justice,
was the first to learn of Tarrlok's powers.
And she learned the hard way.
How are you doing this?
There are a lot of things you don't know about me.
[grunting]
Tarrlok saw no choice but to cage Korra.
Just like Hama was long ago,
Tarrlok was desperate to maintain
his politically driven power.
Though one witness saw through his lies.
I already explained, equalists attacked us and took her.
But there were no chi blockers here last night.
You planted the evidence, didn't you?
That is a ridiculous accusation.
It's true! He took her!
Why did you wait until now to fess up?
I was terrified to tell because...
because Tarrlok is a bloodbender!
He bloodbent Avatar Korra!
[gasping]
Don't make this worse for yourself.
Tell us where you have Korra!
[groaning]
Tarrlok bloodbent his way to a temporary freedom.
And who says history doesn't repeat itself?
Though, without the avatar state coming after him, the only force
strong enough to stop him with his own brother, Amon,
who was also in pursuit of Avatar Korra.
It is time for you to be equalized.
You fool.
You've never faced bending like mine.
[grunting]
Huh?
[grunting]
What?
What are you?
I am the solution.
[grunting]
[screaming]
[grunting]
What an awkward family reunion.
Regardless, Korra escaped
and the bloodbending secrets were revealed.
I'm Amon's brother.
But the war against Amon was not yet over.
[gasping]
Not when Amon use his unique bending
blocking skill on the avatar herself.
[grunting]
Korra lost the ability to bend water, earth, and fire,
the three out of the four elements
that had come so easy to her in the past.
Airbending was still a mystery to her
until Amon's wrath threatened her close friend, Mako.
[gasping]
No!
[grunting]
Impossible.
I... I can airbend?
I can airbend!
[grunting]
[groaning]
No... you... don't!
[grunting]
[gasping]
Did you see what happened? Who was that?
Can you see him?
[gasping]
Could that be...
[screaming]
Evil Avatar!
Stop it.
[grunting]
[gasping]
Amon's facade was washed away, literally.
- He's waterbending. - What? He is a bender.
The scar is fake.
The Avatar was telling the truth.
Amon lost everything.
And while in retreat,
he felt that the only place he could turn to was family.
The two of us together again. There's nothing we can do.
Yes, Noatak.
Noatak.
I had almost forgotten the sound of my own name.
Even his younger brother, Tarrlok,
knew that their powers were too much for the world to bear.
It will be just like the good old days.
A dark conclusion to a dark subject.
What do you think about bloodbending?
How could it have been used for good?
Comment below.
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It's like my brain has a mind of its own!
Stop it, arms!
Stop it!