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If you've clicked on this article, chances are you want to know more about elemental bending, the abilities driving the plot of the Avatar television series. More specifically, you probably want to know about bending as it's depicted in Magic: The Gathering's set, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Either way, in this article, I'll explain the four primary bending techniques and how they correspond with both real-world martial arts and the card game's portrayal of those techniques.

Bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender

To begin, let's discuss the ideas behind bending as it's shown in the television series. I'll go over how each technique is typically used (as some outliers do exist). Then, I'll discuss the way the show applies any outlier bending techniques.

Waterbending

First, let's talk about waterbending. In Avatar: The Last Airbender, water is a mutable, decidedly versatile element to utilize. We see many different forms of waterbending in the show. Katara, the main practitioner and one of the show's protagonists, is seen utilizing it most avidly. She can freeze water into ice to encage foes or force locks open, and she can melt ice to free captives.

Most commonly seen, Katara commands water to act as a whip or shield for offense or defense.

The technique of waterbending is a very passive one. Katara, for example, moves with the same fluidity as the element she manipulates. In this respect, Katara is, in essence, one with the water.

Earthbending

Next, earthbending is the manipulation of the very ground below one's feet. It's also the manipulation of rock, stone, sand, mud, and brick. To this end, I want to bring up Toph. Toph is a blind character (and, frankly, excellent disabled representation in the context of the show outside of the magical realism of it all!). However, she can use earthbending skills to sense a lot of things that the main characters cannot. This includes intent and even pulse.

However, the main usage of earthbending is, like waterbending, encasement, trapping, and also many forms of offense.

For Toph, all tremorsense aside, earthbending is a technique that demands its practitioner be as stubborn as the rocks they're moving. To embrace that is to embrace the technique.

Firebending

Firebending in Avatar is an aggressive, generally quick-footed style that places much emphasis on the outer extremities of the body. A firebender will make the most of fire as an extension of their arms and legs.

Shielding oneself is one way to make use of the technique, but the style is primarily used in offense in the context of the show.

Zuko, the show's longstanding antagonist for a majority of the series, is a remarkable study of a typical firebending style. He utilizes fire, again, as an extension of his body, able to reach his adversaries from afar, either with flame shots or with lengthened fire weapons.

Airbending

Finally, we come to airbending. We see this style the least within the show, because outside of flashbacks, Aang is the only surviving practitioner of the technique. Airbending sees its users in constant motion, able to manipulate the air they generate in order to force movement in obstacles or targets.

Airbenders are typically nonviolent combatants (if Aang, the sole example, is truly exemplary of the style). This form generally focuses on movement over offense.

Bending Outliers

Many outliers to the four elements of bending exist in Avatar: The Last Airbender. For example, Toph, an earthbender, can not only utilize tremorsense to aid her amid her disability, but she can also bend metal with her bending powers. This takes a different approach from the usual styles of earthbending, and therefore it is an outlier to that style.

Additionally, Azula, Zuko's sister and another major antagonist, can bend lightning. This style incorporates forms found outside of typical firebending practices.

Bloodbending is yet another outlying bending style. Waterbenders are at their strongest under the light of the full moon, as the moon dictates the pull of the tides. At this time, waterbenders can manipulate many kinds of liquid, the most notable being blood. Doing so, a bloodbender can manipulate the blood in a body, forcing people to do things they wouldn't otherwise wish to do. Truly, bloodbending is a horrifying act in this setting. People in the setting often look upon the practice with terror and/or scorn.

Beyond the four main bending techniques, Aang is also an energybender, meaning he can manipulate the full flow of energy to great effect. Aang is the first person in the canon to utilize energybending, and it is as large an outlier as one might expect.

Application in Real-World Martial Arts

The bending techniques of Avatar: The Last Airbender draw inspiration from various kinds of real-world martial arts. For more information on how the animated combat choreography incorporates these techniques, you can read up on this here.

I won't be discussing the many outliers in this section. However, in addition to the aforementioned article, I have laid out the basics of the primary bending analogues below:

• Waterbending takes its forms and motions from tai chi, a passive martial art. The form values motion and control over aggression, which makes it a perfect analogue for the show's typical waterbending style.
• Earthbending derives its movements and forms from Hung Gar, a martial art that focuses heavily on planting one's body and rooting their stance in place.
• Firebending takes its inspiration from Northern Shaolin martial arts, which utilizes aggressive stances and emphasizes the use of one's limbs in combat. It is directly and diametrically opposed to the way Tai Chi operates, which helps dichotomize it with waterbending in the show.
• Airbending is based on Baguazhang, a Chinese martial art that focuses on encircling opponents and the act of coiling and uncoiling around opposition. Circular footwork is key for this style, and this can be seen extensively in Aang's movements in the show's combat scenes.

Bending in Magic: The Gathering

The martial arts that the bending styles are derived from in Avatar: The Last Airbender are a far cry from the way bending is portrayed in the Magic set. The set shows bending more as a traditional magical source than a martial one. This is mostly because in Avatar, bending is inherently not magical, but needs to be shown as such in this card game's context.

We've gone over the flavor of bending in a very thorough way here; now, let's look at how these bending mechanics work in the upcoming set through explanations from a press release sent out recently by Wizards of the Coast:

Waterbending

Some spells and abilities have you waterbend as part of their costs. The activated ability of Katara, Water Tribe's HopeKatara, Water Tribe's Hope requires that you waterbend . You must pay , and for each generic mana in that cost, you may tap an untapped artifact or creature you control rather than pay that mana.

Earthbending

Earthbending is a keyword action. Much like how Earthbenders turn the terrain into weapons, you can do the same with the help of spells and abilities that instruct you to earthbend. Toph, the First MetalbenderToph, the First Metalbender lets you earthbend 2, which turns a target land you control into a 0/0 land creature with haste, then puts two +1/+1 counters on that land. And don't worry; when that land dies or is exiled, it returns as a tapped noncreature land.

Firebending

Firebending is a keyword ability that turns your aggression into a source of power. That's very flavorful for Firebenders! When a creature with firebending N attacks, you add N mana. That mana doesn't go away until the end of combat, letting you use it on any instant-speed activated abilities or spells.

Airbending

Airbend is a keyword action that helps you control the board without getting violent. When you airbend a permanent, you exile it. As long as it remains exiled, its owner may cast it for rather than its mana cost. While Appa, Steadfast GuardianAppa, Steadfast Guardian only airbends your permanents, you'll have to wait and see if there are any cards that airbend your opponent's permanents.

Are the Magic Mechanics 1-for-1 With ATLA?

In a word, no. These mechanics, while perfectly fine for what they can represent, don't represent the entire gamut of what bending is capable of in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Put simply, the ability to bend an element has so much versatility in the broad context of martial application that distilling it down to a singular mechanic does not suffice to explain it all.

However, this doesn't mean the abilities as keywords are bad. They just cannot possibly translate 1:1 with the ideas behind the show's driving forces, nor the martial arts that inspired them. Nevertheless, these are interesting mechanics for a game, especially one without as much of a panoptic focus on martial warfare than its source material in this case.

And now, I'd like to hear from you, dear readers. How do you feel about Avatar: The Last Airbender, elemental bending, or how it translated over to Magic? Are you excited for the set, even with Marvel's Spider-Man in front of it in the release queue? Sound off below!

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