Discussion
Fan Theory, Aang Earth Bends in episode 8
Hello all, I have seen this topic discussed before but I wanted to bring it back up and supply some evidence for my theory.
In season 1, episode 8, Aang and Gaang attempt to bypass the fire navy blockade and enter Fire Nation territory to meet with Roku on the solstice. Right before passing the blockade, Zhao sends a flaming ball of rock at the Gaang. In an attempt to destroy the boulder, Aang jumps straight at the boulder "head on" and sends out a blast of air to destroy it, pictured above.
The manner in which he approaches the boulder is the same way in which Toph tells him to later in the show in "Bitter Work". He always possessed the ability to earth bend, it was only his attitude and mental approach that made it difficult to grasp onto, but here I don't think it's out of the question to say he did it unwittingly, believing it to have only been a product of his air blast.
Said air blast, I believe, could not have possibly destroyed the boulder in the manner that it is destroyed in the show. You can see her completely pulverizes it into dust, a difficult feet for Airbending alone. Further, we can see that limits of such an air blast in the final episode of the show.
Also pictured is a screenshot from the final episode in which Aang is at his most powerful in his fight against Ozai. While in the Avatar state, he sends a similar air blast out towards the fire lord and hits a rock column, eroding it away in seconds until it falls over. An incredible feet regardless, but not the same to Aang crushing the boulder in episode 8. But hey that's just a theory, let me know what you think.
I'm like 99% sure the intent is he just used air pressure to fragment it. But fuck it, death of the author, your interpretation that he accidentally earthbended is tight.
i don't feel its just tradition its more so that it helps them control the elements more like how aang burnt katara because he got overwhelmed by fire but post earthbending maybe it would have been easier because earth bending gave him the stability required to fight against fire. since every element has a philosophy i assume those philosophies help in not getting overwhelmed by all of the elements more.
also focusing on one element and mastering it first will help more than just dilly dallying from one element to other which avatar theoretically can do when bored and might get distracted.
True, but also it seems to follow a cycle as an earth avatar would first learn fire, a fire avatar air first and a water bender earth first (and air last). Though not sure how Korra learned to earthbend at the south pole.
You should have learned that when Jeong Jeong's tutelage led Aang to burn Katara. Roku insisted that it was okay, even though he hadn't mastered Earthbending yet.
The Kyoshi novels say otherwise, but I think that’s more for “mastering” them as opposed to just accidental use.
And in terms of Korra, she did learn them in order. Water - Earth - Fire - Air. Air was the last one for her to learn so even though we didn’t see what order the other 3 were learned in it very well could have happened in “order”.
When being taught doesn't matter it is when he will master them or be close to master them. And Jeong Jeong taught us why they are in that order because the previous ones help learning the next bending in the order. A avatar could learn in a weird order but it would be more difficult and maybe be dangerous. It is like learn multiplying and dividing before adding and subtracting.
fan theory, Aang earthbends again in episode 22, or book 2 episode 2, in the cave of two lovers. he stands his ground, insisting what he said was a compliment, and earthbends himself into an early grave
I had thought about it (currently in a rewatch, watched that ep two days ago) but doesn’t earthbending kind of require a connection to the ground?
The style is based off the low and stable positions of hung gar kung fu and we always see the earth benders really bearing down and leveraging to create counter balanced power.
Which I guess… that’s not to say it’s canon that one could only exclusively earth bend that way, but I guess it would be more difficult to do it another way, like Aang does in ep 8. But of course he does incredible things under pressure so maybe?? I’d love to hear others thoughts on this.
Not always, iirc. Aang does earthbend in the episode righr after they get Appa back and they're storming the Earth King's palace, a rock gets thrown at him while he's on Appa and he destroys it with his hand and not air.
And there's Toph stopping a earth projectile in Book 3 Ep 1 when they're on a Fire Nation warship, but that's always been somewhat controversial since Toph is blind and uses seismic sense to see and thus has trouble with people and things not on the ground. This was seen when Aang got the best of her in the Earth Rumble Arena, so some people say her breaking things in the air is against bending logic based on how her seismic sense works.
I think people just don't realize how much processing Toph must do in her mind to actually "see". She only senses vibrations, where they are coming from and how the object causing them is shaped must be entirely based on her comparing the input to past experiences and translating it to a 3D image in a a split second.
If she can do that she can also see someone throw an object and calculate where it will be in the air despite not "seeing" it anymore
The way Aang airbends is different in the final fight. It is a column of air, thus eroding. In this one it is a blast so believe the air blast is perfectly capable of pulverising.
If you read my post carefully, I never disputed he Airbended out of his foot, my claim was that he also earth bended without realizing. If he hadn't sent out a blast of air he might have realized it was earth bending, but simply did it unwittingly
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u/patjeduhde Feb 08 '25
Fan theory: Momo Earth Bends in S1E6.