Hey youtubers it's Charlie and this week for my Korra bonus video I wanted to do a breakdown
of all the specialized sub bending techniques. Book 3 is all about explaining the sub style
of Airbending via Jinora, so I'll explain that too. They haven't been super explicit
when they mentioned it on the show, but Jinora had a few lines that summed it up.
Hello any new peoples, if you're just finding me for the first time I do Korra videos every
week. Be sure to subscribe to get everything. I'm even doing a special Comic Con giveaway
that i'll explain at the end of this video.
So up to Book 3 we've seen a substyle for all the major bending forms. I remember when
Book 2 was getting ready to be released last year they talked about creating the new substyle
to Air. But when Book 2 came and went with no explanation everyone was a little WTF confused.
Especially when Jinora deus ex machina saved Raava and Korra in the finale.
Technically that was the substyle, the way they showed it in Book 3 looked a little different,
but it's projecting your spirit. Jinora's words when she was explaining it to Kai were
"It's a high level airbender move, with some spiritual stuff thrown in."
That actually made me laugh a little because during the Korra Book 2 dvd commentaries.
Mike and Bryan talked about Jinora's Raava rescue. They explained that they didn't know
what she was doing. They just wanted to see her resuscitate the little piece of Raava
that was inside UnaVaatu.
But for all intents and purposes, think of the Air substyle as Spirit Bending. Not to
be confused with Energy Bending, which could be considered a sub-style of all forms of
bending even though it's classified as a separate form.
Jinora having the deepest connection to the spirit world aside from Korra would of course
be the one to Demo a new style. I love how the series just brushed over the fact that
she discovered it without any help. Since we don't see a lot of Jinora scenes I'm guessing
she did sit down and work it out at some point, Mike and Bryan just decided not to show us
the montage of her figuring it out.
The other interesting thing to note is that it is a passive ability. It's not used as
an attack ability like the other sub forms. Here's a breakdown of all the rest.
Next on the cool list right is Combustion. There's actually three sub forms of fire bending
including lightning generation and lightning redirection but Sparky Sparky Boom Girl is
killing it right now, so let's start with that.
Combustion is really the channeling of your chi through a focused point. Denoted by the
Third Eye Tattoo all Combustion benders have like Sparky Sparky Boom Man in last airbender
and now P'Li on Korra. It's more of a focused heat blast than a searing
burn you'd get from regular firebending. It's true that Azula and other prodigy firebenders
can bend blue flame which is way hotter. But in terms of blast damage, Combustion is much
more effective.
It's not like a machine gun though, because you have to focus your chi it takes time to
generate the attack. If you lose focus, like when someone throws a boomerang at your face,
the blowback can kill you. Like the kickback from a giant gun squishing your brains.
As of right now on the show, Combustion Man and the new Red Lotus firebender are the only
ones known to possess the ability. But it's not a genetic thing, it's all about spiritual
alignment.
Lightning Generation and Redirection are much more common sub styles. Creating lightning
requires you to separate the positive and negative energies in your body, like yin and
yang in a physical sense.
When you're able to control the interaction of postive and negative energy, the bender
guides it outward towards the finger tips and the resulting charge leaves their body
in the form of electricity. They call it lightning because it's discharged.
The charge of the blasts can be regulated, like using a dimmer switch on a light bulb.
Iroh claims he created Lightning redirection as an answer to waterbending. Redirecting
the charge using your body as a conduit.
One of the coolest things I saw when I first started watching Korra was learning that Firebenders
were using Lightning bending to generate electricity at power stations in Republic City. It totally
makes sense that as bending becomes more sophisticated it starts being used as a commodity.
Bloodbending and Healing are the to Water Substyles
During Last Airbender Hama claims she's the first one to figure out Bloodbending. Just
realizing that people are mostly made of water, but I always wonder if she and Iroh for instance
are just the first people to be recorded talking about special bending techniques. So when
someone says I'm the first ever in the history of the world, just take it with a grain of
The reason why Yakkone, Amon and Tarrlok were able to do it without the use of the full
moon was because one, they were just powerful benders to begin with and two, they had extensive
training.
When bloodbending it looks like you're making a person move against their will, but really
what your doing is manipulating the liquid in their bodies. Every organic process in
your body requires water molecules. H20. They coat membranes that float around in all parts
of your body, most notably around your bones and your muscles. So by moving those, it makes
it look like your making their muscles move.
The reason it's so hard to do is because you're focusing on those small molecules that coat
the muscles.
On the flipside Healing is a slightly less powerful but way more practical sub form.
It involves using the life giving properties of water in an energy based context. So you
can treat certain types of wounds and because it's energy based you can detect problems
with a person's chi.
Unalaq was also able to use this to quote unquote Heal Dark Spirits. I know they didn't
explain that in book 2 very much. But he's using a slight variation on Katara's healing
ability to calm spirits which he then taught to Korra.
Part of the reason I think Korra wasn't able to heal the spirit vines in Republic City
is because there wasn't anything wrong with them. If they had been Dark Spirit vines I
think it would have worked. But they weren't attacking the buildings or going crazy in
an unnatural way.
Metalbending is also one of my favorite substyles. In addition Toph and Lin Beifong's Seismic
ability and Lava Bending are described as Earth sub styles.
Metalbending is a little bit like Bloodbending the earth. What you're doing is bending the
trace unprocessed parts of earth elements in processed metals. So the more impure or
unprocessed a metal is, the easier it is to bend.
You're bending the little bits that are unprocessed, like a Bloodbender bends the little bits of
water covering your muscles.
The reason Toph says she can't bend platinum is because it's a pure metal, there are no
bits of regular earth left, it would be like a bloodbender trying to bend sand in the desert.
Even though technically at night there is moisture in the desert air.
The Seismic ability is something Toph learned from the badgermoles as a way to navigate.
Since she was blind she had to learn to get around on her own. It does require you to
feel vibrations on naked skin, so that's why she always walks around without shoes.
I wonder how many times she had to wash her feet everyday.
Lava Bending is something we've seen Gazan do, this is a small contradiction of the way
it's explained in Last Airbender. During that series it was explained that only a fully
realized avatar could lava bend because it involved the concurrent use of firebending
and earth bending.
But since we saw Gazan do it on Korra I'm guessing that a normal bender can heat the
rock just using friction from the air. Gazan just gets it spinning so fast that the air
friction heats it to melting point and he fashions it into a superheated blade.
This is pretty small scale though, Avatar Roku was able to erupt a volcano and Avatar
Kyoshi used it to separate Kyoshi Island from the mainland.
Energy Bending predates all other forms and currently there's no sub style associated
with it. That doesn't mean someone won't develop one eventually. It's when someone bends the
life energy inside a person.
Right now we know Energy Bending can be used to take away or restore a person's bending
and impart knowledge instantly. It's been suggested that when the Lion Turtles were
giving Bending to people in Avatar Wan's time, they were doing so using energy bending.
So I guess if Korra ever developed the ability, she could bestow bending on a non-bender.
But it's still the biggest question mark of all the bending styles.
So Big Korra book 3 update: They've released the titles of all the rest of the episodes.
Here's the rest of the season in order. Episode 6 and 7 tonight are called Old Wounds and
Original Airbenders respectively. Episodes 8 and 9 are called The Terror Within and The
Stakeout. Episodes 10 and 11 are called Long Live the Queen and The Ultimatum and the two
part finale, episodes 12 and 13 are called Enter the Void and Venom of The Red Lotus.
I'll wait to speculate on what those titles imply till my episode review tonight. Be sure
to subscribe to get that. I'll post it around 10PM Pacific Time.
Here's the deal with my Comic Con giveaway next week. I'm still doing my regular weekly
Korra giveaway, but in addition, next week I'm also giving away a Pabu plush doll, Naga
doll or Appa, winner gets to choose which.
All you have to do to participate is be a subscriber and leave a comment on this video.
I'll leave the giveaway open till the week after comic con so all you guys have a chance
to see this.
I will be at comic con and I will record the panel. That's happening next Friday. So I
should be able to upload the panel by that night. I'll also be posting my episode reviews
because they're airing episodes 8 and 9 that night too.
Right now click here for my Episode 7 and 8 review and click here for my episode 5 and
6 video.
Thanks for watching, see you guys tonight. High Fives!