I always saw it as airbending is so deeply spiritual that its not enough to be genetically able to do it. So even if the monks escaped and started families the kids wouldn't be able to airbend as they haven't grown up in that deeply spiritual environment that the temples provided. The same way that 100% of the nomads when they lived at the temples could airbend. I think that's what happens in kora the people who had air noman ancestry from the genocide survivors got awakened by harmonic convergence.
Kyoshi's comic I think explains this, Kyoshi mother was an airbender who started to lose her bending after turning away from the air bending lifestyle and used fans to compensate. It is possible that airbender that escaped started to forget or reject their ways and lost there bending
But it seems odd that an entire people as versatile as the air nomads would all be wiped out and on top of that if some did survive not continue to have air bender children. I mean we see in the comics that the avatar world isn’t fully spiritually detached, so the likelihood of assimilated air nomads tp other nations would still carry some form of their culture and still have air bending kids. I mean it just doesn’t make sense that a nomadic culture such as the air nomads wouldn’t have air benders by the time of ang.
@@ronranger29 well they had 100 years to be hunted or stifled and im sure most of the air nomads went down during the comet. probably had to stop bending to survive and im sure earth benders snitched on them when fire nation started colonizing
Odd that no other bending types have this issue. Maybe the fact she turned from the tradition just makes it harder to bend, as it's built on principle, not that she was gonna lose the ability to bend forever over time.
@@thalmoragent9344 its interesting to see in action. kinda like when Zuko lost his rage he couldn't firebend well until he learned the secret of the original firebenders. i think there is some kinda internal fuel for each bending style and that the guru who helped Aang was onto something explaining the different chakras for the different bending styles
Right. Anyone else who could/ feared they could after the genocide would have not used air bending, so they couldn't be detected, therefore not being benders.
There is this comic explaining how the Fire nation captured the airbenders that managed to get away. They set up various caves and other forms of shelters with Traditional Air nomad items. When Airbenders were near those caves they would hear traditional airbender music comic out of them. and when they enter the caves they get ambushed and killed on the spot by Fire nation soldiers. Zhao once used this technique on Aang in a comic. They payed some old dude to Lure Aang into the cave by telling him stories of other airbender survivors.
That wouldn't work for so many reasons. It's just writers try to badly explain a plot hole. You do realize that all they have to do is to use their flying bisons to go to free parts of earth kingdom right?
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Bro flying bisons would also get tired. What would they do then? What's stopping the fire nation from tracking them down when they bisons are so tired they can't fly? Even then if they go to the earth kingdom, that isn't really stopping the fire nation from tracking them down there and killing them.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Air nomads don't chill at one place. They are travellers. They don't have homes. They just go wherever the wind takes them. Settling at one place leaves to Love and care about your place and belongings, love and care about belongings leads to love for materialism, love for materialism takes away spirituality and spiritual freedom, no spiritual freedom or spirituality means no airbending. No airbending means no defense. No defense = die. Thats why they didnt have children. Women just dropped their children off to the nearest air bending temple to them that is equal to their gender
@@radiance9545 we know how enduring bisons are and they can travel far. And hunting the fast moving air nomads. Hundreds of miles inside enemy territory isn't feasible
7:10 Well, in Legend of Korra, a lot of new Air benders did show up in the earth nation, so that does make sense, since they're likely the descendants of surviving air nomads who's air bending was awakened by harmonic convergence. Likely what happened is Aang was the last AIR BENDER, not last air nomad descendant, the ability to air bend having been lost, as those who did have the ability wouldn't use it for fear of being targeted, and loseing the spiritual connection they had before.
We know that at least in the first season Aang still held hope that some Air Nomads may have survived the genocide, but by the time the Gaang went to the Northern Air Temple, it was pretty much established that indeed, Aang was the last of his kind. So realistically, even characters within the show have their doubts about this whole genocide thing, but even they are proven wrong on this. In the comics, it is also explored how supposedly, some nomads would in fact survive the Sozin's Comet's bloodbath, but due to their lifestyle (like hiding on top of the mountains and pacifistic nature which doesn't allow them to fight back all that much) would make it easier for Fire Nation to track them down and kill them until no one was left. Sozin did mention how he didn't entirely succeed with his task of killing all the Airbender, though he did specify that only the Avatar supposedly got away, but that might not be the case. However, in Kyoshi Novels, we learn that airbending is so tight to spirituality, that any serious shift or supposedly lost connection with the spiritual side can render an Airbender completely powerless or weakened. This happened to Kyoshi's mom, who became a criminal and thus her airbending skills decreased and she needed fans to wield her powers. This aligns with LoK how Korra still remained airbending and discovered it after her change in spirituality (or just plot convenience I guess) and after Harmonic Convergence, airbending returned, which I believe was due to the descendants of Air Nomads' survivors. Due to the Fire Nation wanting to completely destroy any remains of Air Nomads, those who did survive might have lost connection with their element and didn't pass the bending to their offspring and since Air Nomads would be hiding, they wouldn't stand out with their culture, thus completely erasing it so any descendants of genocide survivors would no longer be considered Air Nomads themselves, and thus Aang would still be the Last Airbender. Oh and sidenote: Fire Nation didn't use balloons 100 years ago, since those weren't invented yet. They used Dragons (which probably can outfly Air Bisons) before they were completely slaughtered later on.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl This is the only complaint? Well, what do you know, firebenders can eject themselves and fly in the air thanks to their powers just like Air Nomads can also effortlessly jump, run and glide over mountain tops. One nitpick which can be answered doesn't make my entire statement nonsense, especially when even the media of the show itself give you those answers.
@@kubat4925 no you said that living in mountains is a disadvantage. When it is a advantage. And all the air benders have to do is to take their bisons and run to free parts of earth kingdom or north pole
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl It's disadvantageous because it's predictable. Fire Nation knew exactly where would Air Nomads try to hide and probably got into those locations first and once again got them by the surprise. The location is good, but without the element of surprise, anything can be rendered useless.
@@kubat4925 I don't think you are familiar with guerilla warfare. That is like saying the taliban are easy to fight because they are so predictable always hiding in mountains
This makes sense if you take their structure into account. The airbending masters and kids stay in the temples and non master adults (hence weak benders) travel the world. So they were both detached of the outside world making it realistic to be caught off guard on HOW aggressive Sozin's conquest was. And after wiping the masters it wouldn't be difficult for whatever airbending gene to go fully recessive from the offspring of the few survivors
My issue with this is that you have to somehow reconcile that the Fire Nation is just SO GOOD at capturing Air Nomads that they can dust an entire population down to 1 boy, but at the same time are SO BAD that they can't capture and transport a single boy. I don't buy that Aang was the only skilled Air Nomad that could escape capture. Especially considering that the Fire Nation never seemed privy or educated on how Air Nomads combat tactics and techniques. They're always, consistently caught off guard by Aang. But yeah, these same people also captured and wiped out an entire civilization of people similar. For reference, it hasn't even been a 100 years since the Holocaust. A century isn't really that long of a time, all things considered. For the Fire Nation to neatly round up ALL of the Air Nomads and execute them, but be so bad at catching 1 boy, is a herculean task of suspension of disbelief.
@@machine1685 it’s been 100 years since the holocaust so the people in the army now are NOT the same people then…. it’s a completely different set of fire nation….. new leaders, new soldiers, new technology……. their lives are completely different than the old firebenders…… their training is completely different……. and do you know what isn’t in their training? airbenders. Because until aang, they were believed to be extinct………. he completely catches them off guard time n time again because they had no idea he existed. They have no idea what an airbender is capable of. They don’t know his moves, his specialties or anythign for that matter
Actually, Aang may not be the "Last" of the Airbenders. There's a theory that's been floating around the community for years now that Ty Lee could have been descended from a group or family of Airbenders that married into and were thus protected by a Fire Nation family. And Ty Lee was the end result. But due to several different factors, including the less spiritual nature of the Fire Nation, clearly the bending abilities had diluted in the past 100 years. Hence why Ty Lee can't Airbend. And, it's not the craziest idea. I've heard very similar stories from some Jewish friends of mine whose family survived the holocaust.
Ty Lee could have been an airbender the whole time. The Legend of Korra introduces the concept of "subtle" bending. Korra has a moment where she begins dodging attacks with the fluidity of an airbender despite not visibly bending air. Amon, a main villain, is revealed to have been using bloodbending the entire time to slightly throw off benders aim and balance so it appears he's besting them without any bending at all. Ty Lee might be subtly enhancing her acrobatics with weak airbending that flies under the radar; she might not even know she can airbend because its so natural to her.
@@caleidozkopie8344 there's a video on TH-cam that explains it better than I can. But some of the evidence is the fact that Ty Lee shares a lot of physical characteristics with Airbenders. Brown hair like aang and the Air Nomads (in contrast to most people in the Fire Nation having black hair) Grey eyes like Aang and the Air Nomads Her superhuman agility, dexterity, and acrobatics, as well as her intimate knowledge of chi Her bubbly and kind nature in contrast to everyone around her. And her semi spiritual philosophy on auras. Again, I'd suggest checking out the videos on the subject, but that’s basically it
what if Ty Lee is a descendant of angg's parents we know he had parents but dont know there names or anything about them what if they had more kids then aang and one of those kids end up being Ty Lee ancestor, but do to the fire nation who know they was the family of the last avatar the fire nation people who dont support the war keep them safe with there nomadic life they bound to have a lot of friends in all nations look at aang he only 12 and have friends all around the world and someone about 26-40 year old probably have a lot more in the fire nation. fire nation might have also know of the family connections and thats why keep an eye out for the avatar by keeping the family close in there grasp thats also most likely why a circus performer was allowed to be around the royal family
You seem to have forgotten a rather important fact. According to Aang, it was assumed that only air nomads could access the air temples, so of course they would have been caught off guard. Also, I seem to notice that despite being called nomads they seemed rather sedentary living in the air temples, aside from Aang travelling around the world
I think they would have known of the existence of dragrons, Aang is a kid so maybe HE didn't. But you cant tell me that NONE of those wise men knew that dragons existed
@@Thegravedigger0 and whoever said they weren't. But it doesn't matter, if they knew Roku had one, they know that they can be ridden and that the temples would not be safe in the event of an attack
@@Thegravedigger0 youre missing the point, they knew roku had one so they know that they can be trained. They should have expected sozin to train more and have an army of soldiers riding dragons
The thing is : Airbenders are deeply spiritual, in both terms. So some would think that the spirits are letting them be destroyed so they did something wrong. So a good chunk of airbender’s accepted there fate. And airbending isn’t just genetics. It’s also spiritual. Meaning, it’s very likely the spirituality in the survivors families faded. Meaning so did there culture, theres a whole theory that those who are descended from these airbenders gained air bending after harmonic convergence in the legend of korra.
what DOES make sense is them being slowly killed or died out over the 100 year war, and maybe there were remnants that faded leading up to Aang's re-emergence to the world
Also fire nation would of been focused hard on killing all air venders because they’d never found the avatar, if aang had been found and killed, the air benders probably wouldn’t of been so severely targeted after the initial attack
@@danielkonky3094 oh yeah lemme just make and raise a baby while on the run 24/7 (unfortunately I'm sure all babies were killed just like Anakin in the republic lol)
Well we see in the actual show that during Sozen's comet (and even sometimes before it) fire benders can fly using their flames as propellant, so it's not necessarily guaranteed that the air benders would have been able to flee, we also see in season 1 that the naval blockade was enough to deter Apa from flying through airspace, and that wasn't even during the comet.
The air nomads were weary sure but theres a difference between being wearing and knowing that a genocide is on its way to you. Also remember it was 100 years that ang was asleep, all the air nomads of his time would have died off by then. Sure some could have escaped but they would just die out over a long enough time with so much of their probably already small population and not to mention being hunted and persecuted by the fire nation all along the way.
This brings up a lot of great questions, and it makes me imagine an alternate ending to the final episode of avatar where Aang says to Katara that he believes that some of his people are still out there, even if they don’t know that they’re Airbenders yet. That would transition amazingly into Korra, where there could be a very small community of Airbenders that Aang was able to successfully find and train, that way we wouldn’t have to have the god awful harmonic convergence that just created airbenders out of nowhere and produced the absolute worst few episodes.
There is a theory that the people getting the ability bend Air in season 3 of the Legend of Korra are descendants of the Air Nomads who managed to escape and began to hide in the Earth Kingdom, and through all these years of untraining their (and their children) ability to bend Air began to decline Also by a strange coincidence, the only people who are given the ability to bend Air are in the Earth Kingdom with 0 cases of Air bending in the Fire Nation or in the poles
I believed that the majority of the escaped Air Nomads settled in various parts of the Earth Kingdom and slowly died out due to reproducing with non-airbenders as well as not openly expressing and teaching their culture. This would also explain why the majority of the new airbenders that appear in Legend of Korra reside in the Earth Kingdom. But now that I think about it, 100 years is way too short for an entire culture to die out. I am not sure about the average life expectancy of the people of Avatar, but the minimum is surely 50 years. So their would be at most three generations existing after 100 years-the escaped Air Nomads would be Grandparents. A lot of the structures and lifestyles of the world can change significantly in 100 years, but it takes a very long time for people to change (for better or worse).
Well, it makes some sense. Ty Lee most likely is a descendent of the air nomads but due to her family not practicing the air nomads ways there air bending is gone.
I always figured that there were some non-bending descendants of air nomad genocide survivors existent in the Avatar-verse, but they just didn't(or couldn't) airbend for any number of reasons having to deal with genetics, upbringing, or lack of spiritual connection/companionship with Sky-Bison. I think Guru Pathik may have been one of these people too, or a direct(non-bending)child of one or two air nomad parents, as he claims to have had a deep spiritual and personal connection to the Nomads. I also have a theory that in LOK, the new Airbenders in season 3 are made up of these descendants of the Nomads. My evidence for this theory is that we know for sure that Bumi is the descendant of an Airbender, and the chances of him getting it if airbending was distributed at random would be incredibly small, as well as the fact that the new Airbenders are found in the Earth Kingdom and Republic City, the likely hiding places of Air Nomad refugees, as opposed to the Fire Nation, for fairly obvious reasons. This would also explain Zaheer's connection to Air Nomad Culture, as well as make the rebuilding of the Air Nation in Korra feel a lot more earned.
I think there may have been a few airbenders that survived, but were either ratted out or completely abandoned their customs and moved on and their children forgot or never knew they were related to airbenders and the culture died with the last airbenders, except for Aang. This could also explain how non benders in the earth kingdom in LOK were even able to suddenly get airbending after the universal balance thing. And the airbenders getting caught off guard when they should’ve seen something coming could be explained by the fact they expected the fire nation to do something bad but not literal genocide. They probably thought they would end up colonizing/taking over the earth kingdom and eventually water tribes and air nomads, not putting all their power into wiping them out, because what could they gain from dead people that they could use?
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl And all the fire nation has to do is pay informers to be on the lookout for people with big obvious tatoos, air bisons or who use air bending. Any of those could be enemy number one and we know the fire nation spent a ton of resources hunting the avatar. Assasins aren't that rare in universe and a band of them could take out a small group of pacifistic air nomads fairly easily. The fire kingdom was still hunting the avatar a century later and thought he was in hiding somewhere growing ever stronger in preparation for his vengeance upon them for wiping out his nation. I would flip every rock, trace down every lead, get rid of anyone who has even a remote chance of being the avatar. From the fire nations perspective they are facing an existential threat.
5:48 Worth noting that they actually wouldn't have even had war balloons at the time, as they were only invented 100 years after the invasion. That actually does beg the question of how they even invaded the air temples in the first place (can't imagine Sozin's comet gives every fire bender the ability to fly and it's doubtful they had the machines we see them use later either), but as another comment mentions that would explain why the air benders were so caught off guard in the first place
There was those tank machines shown in the Northern air temple episode that could climb mountains. But maybe even those weren’t invented at the time of Sozin’s comet.
I actually had a fanfic idea where there was a set of orphan twins that tried to seal food from Iroh’s camp while he was besieging basingsay. One of the twins demonstrated impressive fire bending at an early age and the other is extremely fast and agile, (doesn’t actually airbend though as he had been taught by his parents to hide it early on) and Iroh decides to take them in. By the time of the story they are still with Iroh on Zuko’s ship. That way it creates a trio group for Zuko. Anyway the air bender brother learns sword fighting as a way to defend himself without using his element. Sorta is Zukos sword sparring partner, and ninja buddy.
I think it would have been neat if the kids too young to have been the Avatar were raised in the Fire Nation. They could have been so integrated by modern day that Aang would have had to fight his own people. They could have been the Fire Nation Air Force, using those Sky Bison Sozin kept in his menagerie.
Considering the theory that Ty Lee might have Airbender blood, it makes more sense. Living Airbenders could have blended into other nations to survive, so even though Ty Lee doesn't have Airbending abilities she does have gray eyes as well as a kid at the fire nation school Aang went to for a short time. Ty Lee and that kid could have been the result of Airbenders blending into other nations and passing on some of their traits.
I also think the surviving air nomads blended into the earth nation. Sand benders make mini sand tornados to sail in the desert, it could be earth bending in an air bending style that the nomads taught to their children or air benders disguising as earth benders. Or it could be from them studying other bending styles like Iroh did.
I think it would have been interesting if there had developed a splinter group of Air Nomads, that didn’t just slowly abandon their nomadic roots, but also their pacifism. Then slowly develop into a more militaristic warrior tribe. One that could have become a problem after the war through holding onto territories, they “liberated” from the Fire Nation.
5:49 ''i think the Bison should be able to outfly war balloons'' The Fire Nation didn't have war balloon. They were only available after the episode Battle for the Northern Air Temple. They also didn't have the Tundra Tanks (climbing tanks). There were developed in the late Stages of the War. Likely by the same guy who made the Ballons. Which makes you wonder how did the fire nation, even get up the mountain. Maybe the one Dragon they had Ubered them all up?
My guess was that the Air Tribe assumed the Fire Nation would invade and occupy them while sniffing out the avatar, and they would peacefully resist/allow the occupation while trying to protect Aang. Only once full control over the temples had been established did the purge actually begin, catching them off guard and drastically reducing any chance they had to flee in sizable numbers.
I think he’s forgetting that the Air Nomads didn’t have a formal military, so even if they knew how to defend themselves with Air Bending its highly unlikely that they could deal with that many Fire Benders under someone trained in the arts of war. There’s a big difference between someone who knows how to use a gun versus someone who can command an army
the thing is that they did know they were coming and they fought pretty well since there were many corpses near Monk Gyatso and in one of the mangas the fire nation had traps using ancient artifact as bait set for the nomads that escaped the genocide.
All those corpses were killed by gyatso himself, their strongest bender. In a contained room that he likely just sucked all the air out of so the enemy couldnt firebend and suffocated them all.
There is a popular theory that some Airbender did survive, however, to avoid being spotted by the fire nation they assimilated into the culture and suppressed their airbending. So much so that it ended up lying dormant in their descendants, but when harmonic convergence occurred, the massive release of spiritual energy reactivated those henes, and that's where we get the Airbender of korras generation. Side note, a bison could outrun a war balloon, but we clearly see they hadn't been invented until ATLA, could the air bison outrun dragons though, they were still around and it was known that the fire nation would keep them as companions
That is a good point. I do think that, especially given how nomadic they were, a good portion would escape the temple genocide. And it could've been a really interesting storyline seeing Aang interact with Air Nomads who might've lost their values and culture do to the necessity of hiding in the war. But on the other hand, the Fire Nation would be sustaining their extermination campaign for the rest of that 100 years. Most genocides in history that were successful did so in less time unfortunately. And the few that survived would have to go deep into hiding and assimilation into the Earth Kingdom. And we see with Aang's children that only 1 in 3 of them were born airbenders, so if they did go into hiding, and if they did have kids with Earth kingdom people, the majority wouldn't be airbenders and if that compounds over generations that would mean a very small percentage of an already very small population, that on its own could amount to 0. Plus remember, any survivors would be the grandchildren and great grandchildren of people who went deep into hiding. Its very possible that to hide better, those original survivors never taught their children how to bend, and in fact told them to hide it. That, combined with the fact that airbending power is tied to spirituality, the power and knowledge of these descendants might've diminished enough that they never even knew they were airbenders. Or if they did, they certainly wouldn't come out of hiding until they knew the war was fully over, since the Fire Nation was very much close to winning by the time of the show. Maybe Harmonic Convergence in Legend of Korra is what reawakened these powers in the decedents.
What if the remaining Air nomads lost their ability to airbend due to trauma caused by going through and witnessing Sozins attack (don't want to use the "m" or "g" word cos youtube..), and harmonic convergence just reactivated their descendents airbending ability or something.
Seems like the Airbender gene was somehow made dormant for generations after the genocide. Maybe someday we'll see an explanation for that. My guess would be that air benders were forced into hiding because of how ruthlessly they were being eradicated. Many years and generations of not using their abilities to remain hidden may have affected their ability to bend the element at all. But obviously when the spirit portals were opened those many dormant airbender genes from descendants of air benders reactivated
In a comic it was explained they used traps to capture and kill any Air Nomads caught by them, presumably they took the time to spy on the Airbender. We can prob then infer that the ones who survived could have been the ones from Korra's generation. You know, lay low as to not die? It's possible other Airbenders escaped as some temples don't even have dead bodies, and as I said were killed by traps or hunters. Why is it the case that many Airbenders from Harmonic Convergence are in Ba Sing Se? And only a few are outside? That's just my explanation on it anyways
The way I've always seen it, Aang is the last known airbender. The other air nomads have probably lost their airbending ability after a couple of generations because the survivers had to suppress their ways in order to blend in and avoid detection by their enemies. It's possible that Ty Lee is a descendant of an air nomad and is completely unaware of it because her family managed to hide out in the fire nation. It's why Ty Lee and the only one of her sisters we've seen both have gray eyes whereas the rest of the fire nation have gold colored or yellow eyes.
I like the idea of Airbenders actually having survived and having created offsprings. I like the headcanon that all those who get airbending in LoK after the harmonic convergence actually could airbendended all the time but didnt because they didnt knew they were and had that block like Zuko had a firebending block after joining the gang.
Even the remaining air Benders had to hide and change their identity. The fire nation was wildly looking for the avatar whom they knew to be an air nomad. So even if some people survived, they most likely either got hunted or changed identities. They eventually died off in the 100 years aang was gone. They never procreated for the reasons you mentioned: they are monks. Regarding the air nomads not foreseeing their demise, just as Aang said, they thought that fire benders wouldn’t be able to reach the top of the mountains, but they had machinery that allowed them to. That’s why they weren’t ever ready to defend their home or run away. They thought their home was the safest.
Exactly, that whole video I was thinking “you clearly know a lot about atla but do u know anything about atla” like when he says something about people taking kids and jumping on a bison, like did u not see the fire power they had in the last episode of the season, anyone flying was basically a sitting duck. I don’t really get why he can’t buy that all of them were killed off
Where’s the rule saying that Air Nomads aren’t allowed to have kids? Would everyone follow the no kid rule even if it existed? No, like look at our main characters and you can see that they had kids.
@@thegifting267 monks abstain from sex. There are specific people in the communities to reproduce. That is why nomads in the show don’t have parents or aren’t guarded by them
@@RodrigoSilva-cy4no Real life ones do, but there’s nothing in the show that supports Air Nomad do as well. The only thing we know is that Air Nomads are not raised by their parents. Anyways what about Aang? Aang sticks to Air Nomad ways quite a bit so why did he have kids if it wasn’t allowed? Him having kids and the so-called no kid rule never was brought up. If there was a no kid rule it should’ve been mentioned, but it wasn’t at all.
Instead of having "airbenders magically reappear through the harmonic convergence" in Korra, there should have been a part of TLA, maybe in the comics that were intended to show what the 4th season could have been, where some earth kingdom families start having grandparents revealing something that their parents had them hide from everyone, artifacts from their original airbender culture. Kinda like the "Air acolytes" plot point, but with some of them actually being descendants from airbenders, wich would make Aang question his initial reaction to them. Aang would see this happen more and more in the public while visiting earth kingdom cities, and would be confronted with the task of: a: turning down a growing but not genuine interest in airnomad culture from people who are not really taking it seriously b: accepting those who can't be airbenders but who really are into airnomad culture, including descendants of airbenders who, after many attempts at training, will remain unable to airbend. c: trying to convince descendants from airnomads to actually give a shot at airbending (Like the Korra recruiting "montage" we got that pointed out the Earth Queen as being evil for forcefully recruiting airbenders for her army but showing them do almost the same thing without correctly exploring the ethical nuances) d: face the fact that some of those airnomad descendants just don't want to renew with airnomad culture because they are perfectly assimilated into earth kingdom culture. e: have the responsibility to now train new airnomads into not only their culture, but also their bending, having no time to really perfectly transmit everything, therefore having to accept compromise and change (Wich would not only tie in with the Yangchen festival arc in the comics, but also hints at him not having enough time for all of his kids in the future.)
I’ve thought this for a long time, in fact I truly believe that ‘the last Airbender’ was a going to be an all out misdirect and we would discover surviving air nomads had there been a book 4! It’s really too bad it was never made because I also think we would’ve seen Iroh’s backstory and spiritual journey which would have tied in nicely, AND seen some extra Airbender ding skills!
I think Aang probably might've found out some of the other air benders could've based on you're thought process. With several big cities not concurred until the show takes place like Ba Sing Say. They could've gotten kids safe and hidden among water or earth bending territories. The monks could've changed their views long enough to no long look or act like monks.
I like to think that some airbenders found that one turtle lion that flies through the air, then they pulled a Harriet Tubman and saved a few more to bring back to the promised land
Honestly I feel the same way about Katara being the last Southern Water Tribe bender. I get that in the comics there are younger kids who are shown to water bend that Katara teaches so the Fire Nation only (almost) ended Southern Water bending for a interim period but still there should be other people in the South who can bend. Obviously they would be few in number and scattered but Katara shouldn't be the last known one, just among some of a dwindled population.
I like the fanficy idea of an airbender kid maybe around or slightly older than Aang that escaped but because they never became a master they didn’t have an arrow and it wouldn’t take a lot of hiding for their hair to grow back enough to enter normal society somewhere and just refuse to ever airbend again. Even if they met someone and had a family it would be safer if they never told them who they were.
It actually is a mystery how the firebenders actually made it up to some of the temples that even Aang was surprised to see them there because Aang believed the only way to get to the temples was by flying at least on a Bison as the mountains were really difficult to climb. Also the Fire Nation didn't really have airships until soccer helped the engineer create them. It's not confirmed to my knowledge but I also think Kora hinted at what really happened to the Airbenders as I think they probably hid their airbending and didn't teach future Generations how to airbend to keep them safe from Fire Nation attacks but most likely they integrated into the Earth Kingdom as we see that's where most of the new Airbenders in Kora come from. Even Aang's originally non-bender son Bomi had his airbending unlocked during the harmonic convergence in Kora which may hint that there are descendants of Airbenders to this day who just didn't know how to airbend because they never learned because their parents were too afraid to carry on their tradition. Edit to add Perhaps The Hidden heard of wild Sky bison in Kora are actually long descendants of air bison hidden by the air Nomads because they couldn't stay with them anymore for both there and the Bisons own safety. But since most of these plots were on Kora your point that in ATLA alone it doesn't make sense is a good point.
If I remember correctly that was a comic about the air nomad being tricked by the fire Nation with Air nomad artifacts so technically the fire Nation knew there were some survivors and decided you know just in case if there any left we still need to kill them and also it be over 100 year so that why
I actually hoped throughout the entire show that aang would find another air bender. Was hoping so hard lmao. I definitely agree there should have been a couple.
Damn I never took time to think about it like that. Even if they lost their territories and temples they had allies all over, including Ba sing se whose wall never fell. Unless they were strictly against mixing with other groups they would have the air bending Gen all over the earth kingdom. Clearly Aang's interest in Katara shows they had nothing against mixing with others
Aang's relationship with Katara doesn't say anything. Gyatso was much more lax with Aang than many of the other elders. While it might have not been a specific tenet of nomad culture, it is possible many of the elders personally disliked the idea of mixing with the other nations. Either just because or because those other nations didn't adhere to their teachings and they found it distasteful. Point being that even if they were refugees, there was likely a huge barrier to mixing that Aang wouldn't have experienced with Katara both for his age and the circumstances in which he met her.
I agree with what you said and I would add a few more points that supports what you’re saying. 1. So every Nomad that survived just so happened to stumble upon traps that are in random locations? 2. Every Nomad that survived just so happened to not have any children? 3. Having a weak connection to spirituality doesn’t mean people can’t bend, like almost every bad guy doesn’t have any sort of connection. Hell some random good guys basically don’t have a connection and they can still bend. By the way some people who are very spiritual can’t even bend so spirituality doesn’t 100% determine if you can or not. 4. They are Nomads. Basically there could be dozens of them inside friendly nations when the war started. 5. The Fire Nation didn’t have any War Balloons when the war started. What does this mean? It’s quite likely that Nomads at the Temples could’ve escaped on Bison. Now yes some Firebenders have the ability to fly, but the only people who are capable of doing that are the most skilled in the world. Did the Fire Nation just so happen to have hundreds of Ozais 100 years ago? Even if the Fire Nation did have that many very high skilled people at once there’s no way those very few skilled people could possibly take out everyone at the temples. How come? The locations of the temples would easily make it possible for people to fly away. In brief normal soldiers and normal Firebenders would have to climb the mountains, which are supposed to be unreachable/quite tough to get to the top without a flying Bison. Really it doesn’t make sense how the Fire Nation snuck up on the Nomads, like how do you not notice an army marching through your land or at the bottom of the mountain. Was there no one flying around when the Fire Nation was coming close to the mountains? Was there no one collecting food that could’ve possibly seen the Fire Nation coming close to the mountain? Man we know that some Nomads already did escape and survived the attack, but somehow all of them stumbled upon traps. 6. Genes being more dominant. OK so Air Nomads should always produce Airbenders according to the lore and are the only group that always produce Benders. What does this mean? How can other nations genes be dominant in the Avatar universe when Air Nomads always produce Benders? Yes perhaps after multiple generations their descendants bending would be weak and might not only produce Airbenders, but the time period within Avatar was only 3/4 generations. Really people from each of those generations could still be alive and would still have kids. In short the likelihood of the Nomad’s descendants not at least producing one Airbender or a few dozen is low. 7. Realistically there would still be people that can do weak Airbending. Now yes some of them might not immediately say that they are Airbenders after the war, but even then the likelihood of every person not seeking out Aang or coming out and saying they can bend is extremely low. It should also be mentioned that the show doesn’t say any Airbenders exist whatsoever except for Aang.
I've often wondered about this myself, but one thing your video made me think of that I'd never considered before is why the Air Nomad genocide doesn't seem to really matter to the rest of the world. Like, throughout the show, how many times is it even mentioned?
Not to mention most Airbenders were nomads who usually weren’t at air temples. To me, it makes sense that Airbenders would simply go into hiding, but what makes no sense to me is that none of the Air Nomads who survived and had kids simply didn’t inherit Airbending.
I have much the same thought except that I think there probably are a few small pockets of airbenders around but they are such a small secretive group that they don't appear in avatar. Keep in mind 100 years is only 3 or four generations. I am a little surprised and disappointed that during the time of Legend of Korra, instead of just having random people get airbending (which doesn't feel like it fits quite right) that you don't start getting great grandchildren of surviving air nomads coming out of the woodwork. Also why isn't there only the type of bending associated with a nation in that whole nation? War creates bastard kids from the invaders, and beside there is a total possibility for people to move from one nation to another? For example: Why aren't there already before the shows mostly earthbenders in the earth nation but a sprinkling of other types of benders mixed in too?
Maybe the Fire Nation waited to invade for some Air Nomad holiday when many of them would be in the temples. Then simply hunted down the very few who didn't return to get massacred. That combined with disease, natural events and the Fire Nation persecution could absolutely wipe out whatever few remained, especially if the survivors were stubborn and carried on their customs and didn't procreate with many others. I mean, Aang as the VERY last Air Nomad refuses to give up his culture. Maybe many of those Air Benders were the same, making them easier to hunt down and find and less likely to merge with other societies and start new families.
In the Netflix show, it was pointed out that the Air Nomads all went back to their temples as a sort of mass celebration for the coming of the great comet (Sozin's Comet). This allowed Sozin to attack them when the temples would have been at peak capacity, thus killing most if not all of the airbenders. Sozin also fed false information to the Earth Kingdom, making the world believe that he was going to invade the Earth Kingdom and not the air temples. This I imagine gave the Air Nomads a false sense of security as they didn't realize they were the real target for Sozin's attack when the comet arrived.
The power granted by the comet was secret lost information. There's no reason to assume the nomads simply knew about it, especially when it took a legendary vanishing library for even one guy to know about the lunar eclipse. Roku died from exposure to toxic gas. Sozin could have literally brought his body back and there would be no reason to suspect the fire bender. And this is just kind of how fiction works.
There is such a simpler question as to why there are no airbenders. One is that the handouts of bending is not 100% genetic. The first benders of each nation *learned* bending from some elemental creature. Meaning they had the ability before they learned the skill. Presumably this means that a lot of "non benders" in each culture have bending of another culture but just not the training. But even beyond that, no culture is 100% siloed. There is always going to be a certain amount of cross-pollination even between the most hated of people groups. And someone is going to be a niese or nephew of some long forgotten relative from another culture. Even if that person was not a bender themselves, they would likely have the gene to pass down. And this brings up yet another big question. Why is the avatar the only one gifted with the ability to control multiple elements? If a water and earth bender bang it out what would be stopping them from having the ability to bend both? Even if to a lesser extent? Which isn't how genetics work by the way, it's typically a have it or not sort of thing. So then perhaps it isn't a genetic thing, but a reincarnation thing. Does that then imply there are a fixed number of benders for the fixed number of souls granted with that power by the turtles? And what would keep a soul then locked to a particular nation? Just as the avatar pops up willy-nilly across cultures surely other spirits would have even less control over where they show up in the world? ... And that is to say nothing of the issue of reincarnation among a population boom. I mean, did we magically have 10 billion souls we were cycling through over longer ages this whole time? Or are some people genuine souls and others just sad little shells of biology? This line of reasoning becomes super problematic very quickly. Still, avatar is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I was stoked to show it to my kids during the pandemic! I backed the ttrpg last year and was stoked to hear they are finally printing it. Going to supprised my kids with running a campaign with them when it gets here... Which should be around or slightly after Christmas. Looking forward to bringing some of these questions to the game and see how my kids grapple with them! Should be a good time!
My head cannon is that many Airbenders went into hiding and abandon their air bending just like the Jedi Purge where Jedi have to abandon their Lightsabers and the Force.
I thought it was established in the legend of Korra that he wasn't the last one, because people of course ran and hid, and didn't teach their children how to do it anymore. Tensin takes in random air benders they find and teaches them. There's also a fan theory that Tylea (sp?) is descendant of an air bender line, even though she's not a bender of anything.
yeah that could have happened. for a moment I thought that sparky sparky boom man was a enslaved ari assassin that through firebending practice mixed with air control made explosions. it's not that so now ....now I'm just thinking only angs fam knew anything and some how.. believed no one can touch them...like how ang said the only way to reach them is a flying bison. so... yeah that could kill them all.
I personally think that dragons had a huge role to play in the invasion of the air temples. Their heightened fire abilities and ability to fly would make them incredible assets to insuring that once the fire nation had invaded, so air nomads could leave. That said, I think this is likely what drove a wedge between them and the fire nation. Following the extermination of the air nomads, I think the dragons probably decided they would no longer be part of the fire nation’s plans. This leads to Sozin’s campaign to valorize anyone strong enough to go out and hunt the dragons, leading to their eventual near extinction talked about in the show
Here’s what I think went down. (Sorry, it’s kinda long) Sozin’s Comet is on the horizon. The Air Nomads are in fact aware that this could spell all out war for them as the avatar being born into their culture puts a big target on them. In knowing this, with the avatar missing, many of the air nomads currently at the temples congregate to one or two, the Southern, and possibly the Western or Northern. They evacuate the vulnerable to escape to a safe place, preferably somewhere like Ba Sing Se or Omashu. This would include children, some women, and some of the elderly who are unable to fight. The rest would be given the option to stay and fight, or flee. Many, being that they’re pacifists, decide to flee. But most stay, along with Monk Gyatso and probably the others of the counsel, and defend their spiritual home. Some decide to go back to the other temples, but most stay at the two temples and are ultimately killed off. This is because we only ever see fire nation armor and any bodies at the Southern temple, and the Northern is lived in so any bodies would’ve been cleared out. It could also be the Western, given how difficult getting to the temple is, and the suspension over the canyon means that many of the killed nomads could’ve fallen off the temple. But regardless, the comet comes and the air nation falls. Sozin is surprised. The air nomads weren’t as caught off guard as he had predicted, and they had yet to find the avatar. But the war has only just begun. Sozin declares victory over the air benders and puts a bounty on any remaining nomads while starting his search for the avatar. The remaining air benders are devastated. Some of the nomads who were traveling at the time of Sozin’s Comet, wouldn’t have known what went down and are much more transparent about their heritage, and would be quickly sought out and killed. Out of the refugees, Some decide to fight and are killed off, some are caught while traveling, some are offered a place to stay, only to be turned over to the fire nation for the bounty or for safety. The number of air nomads is dwindling. However, a select few retreat to the earth kingdom capital and a few remote towns and find a place to settle down. But they can’t return to their previous way of life and must blend in with the earth kingdom. They stop bending entirely, and abandon their traditions and culture to adapt. The younger ones grow up and start families with earth kingdom citizens. Though they tell their children a little of their heritage, they forbid them to act different, to keep them safe. And the children have no problems doing so as they are raised in the earth kingdom. Many of them have lost the ability to bend air. And soon those children grow up and start families. And they forgetfully leave out anything about being a descendant of the air nomads. And then those children grow up, unaware, and completely unable to bend air. And soon, roughly 50-60 years into the war, the air nomad’s whereabouts are all but erased from history. As far as anyone knows or is concerned, they were all killed. Then by the time Aang wakes up, all the original benders and their children are dead. A very small amount of the oldest descendants are aware of their heritage, but stay silent, wanting nothing to do with the war and fearing for their lives and their family’s lives should they speak up. And that is my theory on what happened.
Couple of things, I like the theory, but it was the Northern air temple that had people living in it after the attack, the inventor guy remember, and the western air temple was the one suspended over the canyon
While bending is part instinct, it also part training. Let be honest, if you found out your people were wiped out for air bending - the best way to survive after wards would be to A) not air bend yourself, and B) make sure your kids learn not to air bend and C) never mention being an airbender. Likely any who did would be hunted down and killed - as a prime example: Katara is the ONLY water bender in her tribe after their numbers were decimated since the firenation just came and straight up killed any waterbender, as well as came back when they heard there was another waterbender.
I think there's one thing you overlooked, the Air Nomads would have seen him as the savoury and may have dropped alot of there war prevention and defenses, too try and find him, they new he was the next Avitar, and yhe longer it went on the more efforts they would have too put into finding him. Its very likely that he had a .uch bigger part in the genaside of his race more than he relises.
I know it’s hard to believe, and yeah there should have been at least a few survivors. But let’s not forget that Sozins comet gave an entire army the power to wipe out entire landscapes single-handedly.
I've always had this problem too but hey the world is a big place airbenders who did escape probably his in earth kingdom nations and never used their powers and as a result never taught their kids which is where harmonic convergence always came into play for me that the people in the earth kingdom who recieved bending were descents of people who escape the genocide
There is a fan theory that some air nomads survived and went into hiding throughout the world. Ty Lee is theorized to be decended from the air nomads. The people survived but the culture had to be abandoned and the ability to bend air was lost.
I have so much problems with his takes 1. Knowledge of an invasion do not mean Air no nomads have a knowledge to counter an invasion 2. Underestimate how evil The fire Nation is 3. He thinks the Fire Nation just attacks The Air Nomads territory and be done No the Fire Nation hunting down the nomads make fake Air Nomad hut as a traps There are more points
Something I picked up from irons 4 nations talk to zuko is the hidden issues with each of the nations. 1.the fire nation is described as powerful and the people strong willed. But this will can be corrupted and there power used to bring suffering 2. Water tribe and described as having a strong sense of community and respect for traditions but this means they are stuck in there sexist ways when the gang arrive at the norther water tribe end of book 1 3. The earth nation are resilient and enduring but this has the consequences of stubbornness and lack of empathy shown by The avatars first earth bending master trying to trigger the avatar state by pushing him emotionally to far 4. This is the big one the air nomads detached themselves from Wordly concerns and find peace in freedom this however lead to them being caught off guard by the fire nation. Although the masters may have heard rumours it’s in the air nomads culture to ignore the rest of the world to focus on freedom it’s why the fire nation are able to effectively take out almost all off them swiftly. Makes you think about the amazing world these writers created almost everything works when you peace together the events of the story
One thing I would have added was that Sozen's comet lined up with an Airbender holiday. That would create a reason that most air Nomads would have returned home only to be slaughtered.
My problem with aang being the last air bender is, even if the fire nation killed all the air benders, how did they kill the turtle duck Island thing, the in the past gave them the ability to bend the element and can take them away. We know that they can still be alive as seen in the last season.
They pretty much removed themselves from interfering in human culture. The only time even one of them does anything is season 3 with Aang. I think it's like some people believe in some religions. The deities start the world, and then they let things progress. They only get involved if something goes completely into the crapper.
What I don't get, is how there aren't Air Nomads who aren't benders, and how there aren't Airbenders who aren't Air Nomads. I know the official explanation for the first point, is that they're such a spiritual people, that they all have bending, but how can we *KNOW* somebody is going to be a spiritual/enlightened person from birth? And what about those who don't want to be monks/nuns and just want to be free and live their own lives? What about those who left and settled in other nations and had families there? What if they had children and some of those children were born with Airbending and grew up in, Ba Sing Se, for example? Even if someone was born to monks/spiritual people, it doesn't mean they want to be that way, or that that lifestyle will suit them. And I don't believe in a person being forced to follow a certain path based on factors beyond their own control such as where they're born, or who their parents are. There has to be some Airbenders who don't believe in forcing their children into a certain lifestyle or indoctrinating them into a certain belief system from the time they're too young to question it. So there's definitely people born of Air Nomads who are not spiritual, and there's definitely people who would be born as Airbenders without being part of the Air Nomad culture or growing up in the temples.
6:56 actually no... flying is a technique very few air benders mastered (I think there are 2 characters we know of) and you couldn't use gliders either, you would be recognized immediately so you would have to walk. Consider these guys lived on mountain temples away from civilization, they would've to walk, we have no idea how far, to civilization while being hunted down by a military force and blend in with a culture you don't know anything about and not draw ANY suspicion. Oh yeah, and your traditional tattoos? Good luck surviving with those
Another fan theory is that since airbending has a very spiritual and an uplifted free spirit requirement in order to bend, since the survivors gave up both their airbending meditations and monk heritage and integrated themselves into a foreign nation to escape the fire nation, they were neither physically nor spiritually free and thus lost the ability to airbend. And they didn't pass on the knowledge to their children to protect them from the fire nation. Thus when harmonic convergence happened, all the airbenders who emerged are descendants of the survivor airbenders whose abilities were reawakened. As Aang said, if you can't get enough spirituality, just go to a more spiritual place. Harmonic Convergence the entire world more spiritual by linking the physical and spiritual realm.
The surviving air benders hid in they earth kingdom, But due to the lack of being able to freely air bend they lost the ability to bend air completely. Just an idea and a possible solution to Korra's story during book 3.
This was addressed in the comics, taking place between S1E16 and S1E17, where they had these huts up in the mountains with pilfered air nomad goods, then had some at a market nearby to lure lone nomads up there, then get ambushed by fire nation soldiers. It's really sad, but good world building.
Some did escape, they hid their bending by becoming less spiritually inclined, and their descendances didn't have much of any spiritual influence and air bending basically became a recessive gene, and that's how air benders came back in Korra. When a huge spiritual event happens it forced people to deal with spiritual stuff basically awakening air bending in them.
There some fair points, but I'm going to respectfully disagree. Sure, the air nomads more than likely saw the writing on the wall, hence why they were rushing to tell Aang he was the avatar, even if they were fighting with one another over what to do with him (mostly Gyatso vs everyone else). And it's not like they didn't fight the good fight, there were too many skeletons around Gyatso's and there is a suspicious lack of corpses outside the building, though I'm guessing others took them away (both Fire Nation soldiers and Air Nomads to do what their culture do to their deceased) while the more powerful monks stalled. Sozin was ruthless when it came to achieving his goal of "sharing the Fire Nation's prosperity" with the rest of the world, and lived for another 20 years and would stop at nothing to wipe out the Air Nomads. Yes, there were airbenders who weren't at the Temples, many went into hiding, and still hunted them down until extinction. Some did manage to assimilate, as some, including myself, believe that Ty Lee is a descendant of an airbender who went into hiding with a relatively high-ranking Fire Nation Noble who didn't actually agree with Sozin's rule, though they would've to lay really low in order to live, which means no bending, nor telling anyone about their status. Even if some managed to reproduce, it's possible they died before being able to pass on their bending knowledge and the kids' remaining families just never mentioned it out of fear of the Fire Nation.
I agree with the points on how people could air bend, but that doesn’t totally align with if they would (while there was such persecution against air benders). It’s like the episode where Katara imitates and earth bender to infiltrate the prison, but with death being the end result instead of (more likely) imprisonment Another point of if people could air bend is whether or not people could learn to bend as the original benders (those learning from animals, not given power by spirits) did or Zuko did in the case of lightning
If I remember correctly, the fire nation only knew about the comet because of the information from the library. And this was the reason it was sunk into the desert. Big Owl dude was pissed that info was used to start a war. And remember, it was 100 years after the attack. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the ones that survived, when learning of the traps being set for them, would hide their abilities and tell their children to aswell. Eventually leading to the next generations not even knowing they were Airbenders or knowing never to show their abilities for fear of their lives.
I wonder if some survived as members of the White Lotus? That group doesn't too much screen time, other a few key players we meet throughout the series. Their identities would have to be secret, at least until Ozai is defeated. Maybe some even gave up their cultures, as you suggested, to blend in. Coming from the other direction, maybe they died defending their Sky Bison, capable of flying, but very trackable. Appa is also the last of them, and they're tied to Airbending, so definitely deeply linked to their culture.
One thing I thought would have probably saved the air benders is if some of them went to the Northern Water Tribe who have very spiritual traditions which the air nomads would have an easier time adapting. That way the spiritual connection can keep the Air Bending alive during the 100 year war but have their smaller numbers diminish that way there can be a few airbenders not enough to fill up the temples but to give Aang hope the Air Nation to be revived. Also add an Airbending kid to team Avatar to learn and eventually revive them by the time Korra is around.
There was a scrapped episode from season 1 that ended up as a comic. Where Aang hears about an air nomad hideout, but turns out be admiral Zhao who taunts him about how his people fell for traps so easily.
I think because the Airbender normally live in the cloud that they do not have the same logic that a person on earth would have because the airbenders seem to not have the same experience and they have very little trouble so I think if they were more down to Earth and the experience the things that a person people experience they would know what to do instead because the have the Avatar that put all their hopes on him because they don't have the same mentality that normal person would
I feel like even if some of the air nomads were to escape, and survive with the fire nation hunting them, if they reproduced, air benders wouldn't be able to "come back" because the reason that air nomads were able to even airbend was because of the lifestyle they had. To me, the story of the nomads makes sense, definitely makes you think, enjoyed the video. You definitely earned a new sub from me
They explained in in Korah. A great wound was dealt to the force and caused unbalance then harmonic convergence happened and everyone that was supposed to be an air bender suddenly was one. Like people at age 50 just suddenly had air bending powers
I’ve heard a theory that Tai Li (I can’t spell) was a descendant of an air bender. Due to facial structure, but also her care free nomadic lifestyle is very similar to that of the Air Nomads. And she loves acrobatics and knows about chi on a level close to air benders
Bro they did such a good job making it seem natural that even as you’re explaining it I’m thingking ok why shouldn’t he be the last one then it hit me 4 whole air temples full and not 1 SINGLE survivor other than aang? That doesn’t make sense the air benders must not have been fit to live in the world if they got wiped out so thoroughly
This makes me think of a fanfiction I read in it all the nations had their spirit and they believed it like Agni for fire and tui and la for water so on but the air nomads didn’t believe in their spirit and it messed with him I forget how but with this in mind and how they come back in korra it could be the universe was tryna reset the air Benders for breaking the balance somehow
Yeah, realistically some would have went into hiding and probably never air bend again. over 3- 4 generations plus they would also would only survive if they have not had the tattoos yet that would give them away that they were airbenders. Not to mention some kids could have escaped, its impossible to 100% genocide on any population, but they also had bison for life so they would also would only survive if they did not have a big animal that also doesn't give them away since they are for life. Not to mention Earth benders probably would have sheltered a few of them, it would have been cool if they hinted that 3-4 generations that some were hiding but could not fully master air bending but could be renowned sportsman or something due to breath work and lung capacity. Since I bet they would take advantage of those air-bend natural abilities without using it as a martial arts.
There's a trope in modern storytelling regarding acceptance.... Especially with wise noble characters who are aware of the coming danger..... We see Yoda given prophetic visions and warning of Order 66 and doesn't make contingencies or alter course, and like the other pacifist Airbenders allow destiny to unfold, seeing any attempt to alter the "will of the force" to go against their core principles.
Guru Pathik clearly comes from a place that isn't one of the four nations. Since he knew Gyatso, it stands to reason that the airbenders were perhaps the only people in contact with Pathik's home region. Maybe because it is far enough across a sea that its only reachable by flying. Maybe the survivors fled there.
I think it’s plausible that they were all wiped out, just not on the day of Sozin’s comet. Some likely escaped or weren’t there. But over the course of the next 100 years the fire nation likely set traps for the air benders, hunted them down, and paid a lot of money to people who would hunt them down. We’ve seen the fire nation use bounty hunters before, so they could get into areas like Ba sing se, or omashu, heck the fire nation could’ve hired bounty hunters from those cities. I think it would’ve been cool for there to be airbenders in the North Pole though, I think it’d make sense for them to live there.
I've said to myself, during these invasions, at least a thousand Airbenders escaped and found refuge in the other nations. Some inevitably being caught but others for a means to suppress their abilities to the point that they generally forgot how to airbend and THEN that leads into Korra's story arc for Book 3. Also, Azulon (not Sozin) & the Fire Nation had to be held in check for the better part of 50-60 years by some organization or group cos there is no way a civilization that advanced & powerful takes a century to finally have a full-scale war. This is why we need a series following these exact events within the timeline during Aang's frozen stasis.
Honestly, in my head canon, the Airbenders that came about during Korra were all descendent from Air Nomads than survived the initial assault and they were unable to airbend prior to convergence because the Air Nomad way of life was lost and we are their ancestors that could airbend have died. So, they lack the spiritual connection needed to airbend. So, when convergence happened and new spiritual energy began flowing back into the world, he awoken the hidden connection these characters had to prior Air Nomads. If there was an airbender alive after Aang was dethawed, we would be talking a child or grandchild of an air nomad. However, as for knowing what is going on, they did allow Aang (who the heads knew as the Avatar) go into the Fire Nation as a kid. So, they may have no known to what extent or they didn't want the Fire Nation to know what child was the Avatar.
Another small issue I find in the logic of the show is just how far the fire nation got with their ambitions, the first attacks on the world/Earth kingdom were made when Roku was still alive and we know about his incompetence for not killing Sozin n not shutting down those plans entirely but you’d think the rest of the world or at least the Earth Kingdom and their territories would buckle up something serious because Roku would’ve had to die at some point, meaning sozin or his heirs would be free to continue their plans,wasn’t like the fire nations aggression was a surprise, other than the attacks on the air nomads and even still
Most of the other nations by the time we see them are scared of the fire nation. This would make them not want to harbor people who could make it so the fire nation attacks their area next. Also, any master airbender would be be super easy to spot, I mean, they have tattoos on their forehead and hands, both super easy things to see. As for Ba Sing Se, we can assume that some airbenders were here during the comet. However, my fan theory is that the Earth King or Queen told them they would offer them sanctuary and actually turned them over to the fire nation in a deal with Sozin. He wouldn't attack Ba Sing Se is there were no airbenders there. This could have been a lure for airbenders seeking safety. We also can assume that Ba Sing Se attacks didn't start until after Sozin had pasted, as Iroh did lead one of the best attacks on the city. Also, as most things in the avatar universe are related to reach other, it would tie in really well to when The Earth Queen in Legend of Korra was mistreating airbenders. Assuming all of the airbending masters were either killed, as they were super easy to spot, or in amazing hiding, they probably didn't have children, knowing that their kids would also have to hide any abilities if they had them and could also be killed. Lets say they did have kids, we know all air nomads are airbenders due to their deep spiritual connection. When they are losing hope and being murdered, would they still keep that deep connection? So would their child even be born with bending? We know just an airbender losing touch with spiritually heavily weakens their airbendering. (Kyoshi's mother having to use fans because her airbending was so weakened) Also, most seem to become masters between 13-17 years old, so they would be young and trying to survive on their own. Plus, they aren't masters yet. The comics had a scene showing how these people were lured and captured. They are young and never had to survive on their own, let alone with a target on their back. The card games actually go over a young airbender who fought the fire nation, she survived for a few years, she couldn't forever. While there could be other airbenders by the time Aang is born, that is my theories.
A theory I saw is that the nomads integrated into a bunch of different societies and hid their bending. After a 100 years if there was anyone who could still airbend, they didn't know about it, or where told that airbending us dangerous and never to use it. That's where the airbenders cane from during harmonic convergence, they were people who had air nomads for ancestors but after so many years of not bending, the ability was supressed completely. The harmonic convergence simply unlocked those abilities in people who already had the potential for it.
There is also the angle of an alternate generation of airbenders as a result of any possibly fled air bison. Kind of like Toph's gaining of earth bending being very unlike other earth benders that were shown at that point in the show since hers was a gift from an animal known to gift the ability to earth bend. And the mentality of non-traditional bending can be seen in characters such as the swamp water benders, or the blood bender, or the act of metal bending being very different from standard earth bending, and the fact that Korra shows what air benders can do when not attached to that monk background- it doesn't suddenly go away because of a lack of spirituality. Other parties have also brought up that the fire nations' method of targeting air benders included luring them into secluded spaces, but if even one survived an encounter like that then it would raise the question as to why or how they would fall for it again and not just avoid anything that was connected to that culture. People bringing up Ti Lee potentially being a descendant to air benders would also make sense based on her paralyzing ability and how it could very much be her method of using air bending that she is unaware of having, especially since the attack itself has movements that could be considered a combination of earth bending and water bending choreography. {as for why it's as close to that as it is I could not tell you because last I remember she's from the fire nation and would likely not have taken notes from either nations.}
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I always saw it as airbending is so deeply spiritual that its not enough to be genetically able to do it. So even if the monks escaped and started families the kids wouldn't be able to airbend as they haven't grown up in that deeply spiritual environment that the temples provided. The same way that 100% of the nomads when they lived at the temples could airbend. I think that's what happens in kora the people who had air noman ancestry from the genocide survivors got awakened by harmonic convergence.
Supported by the fact that the only known non-bender with air Nomad ancestry (Bumi) got air bending during harmonic convergence
Wait hold up. This actually feels onto something woah.
Kyoshi’s mom was an airbender but her airbending weakened after she gave up her spiritual lifestyle so this explanation makes a lot of sense
That’s one way to make the legend of Kora a little less trash. Still trash though.
@@SadEyes1412 bruh LoK is good. It's not as good as ATLA but it's still a really good show.
Kyoshi's comic I think explains this, Kyoshi mother was an airbender who started to lose her bending after turning away from the air bending lifestyle and used fans to compensate. It is possible that airbender that escaped started to forget or reject their ways and lost there bending
But it seems odd that an entire people as versatile as the air nomads would all be wiped out and on top of that if some did survive not continue to have air bender children. I mean we see in the comics that the avatar world isn’t fully spiritually detached, so the likelihood of assimilated air nomads tp other nations would still carry some form of their culture and still have air bending kids. I mean it just doesn’t make sense that a nomadic culture such as the air nomads wouldn’t have air benders by the time of ang.
@@ronranger29 well they had 100 years to be hunted or stifled and im sure most of the air nomads went down during the comet. probably had to stop bending to survive and im sure earth benders snitched on them when fire nation started colonizing
Odd that no other bending types have this issue.
Maybe the fact she turned from the tradition just makes it harder to bend, as it's built on principle, not that she was gonna lose the ability to bend forever over time.
@@thalmoragent9344 its interesting to see in action. kinda like when Zuko lost his rage he couldn't firebend well until he learned the secret of the original firebenders. i think there is some kinda internal fuel for each bending style and that the guru who helped Aang was onto something explaining the different chakras for the different bending styles
@@thalmoragent9344 keep in mind that because of their spirituality, air nomads are the only nation where everyone is born a bender
I think they call him “the last airbender” because he is the only one KNOWN to the world based on the story and i think thats why they call him that
Nah bruh you're damage controlling. There was no other air bender in the original show
@@YoMamaBih exactly what im saying
Zuko said that the fire sages said that aang was the last air bender some where in the first quarter of book one (atla)
Right. Anyone else who could/ feared they could after the genocide would have not used air bending, so they couldn't be detected, therefore not being benders.
I still believe the theory that harmonic convergence gave air bending to air nomad descendants
There is this comic explaining how the Fire nation captured the airbenders that managed to get away. They set up various caves and other forms of shelters with Traditional Air nomad items. When Airbenders were near those caves they would hear traditional airbender music comic out of them. and when they enter the caves they get ambushed and killed on the spot by Fire nation soldiers. Zhao once used this technique on Aang in a comic. They payed some old dude to Lure Aang into the cave by telling him stories of other airbender survivors.
That wouldn't work for so many reasons. It's just writers try to badly explain a plot hole. You do realize that all they have to do is to use their flying bisons to go to free parts of earth kingdom right?
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Bro flying bisons would also get tired. What would they do then? What's stopping the fire nation from tracking them down when they bisons are so tired they can't fly? Even then if they go to the earth kingdom, that isn't really stopping the fire nation from tracking them down there and killing them.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl Air nomads don't chill at one place. They are travellers. They don't have homes. They just go wherever the wind takes them.
Settling at one place leaves to Love and care about your place and belongings, love and care about belongings leads to love for materialism, love for materialism takes away spirituality and spiritual freedom, no spiritual freedom or spirituality means no airbending. No airbending means no defense. No defense = die. Thats why they didnt have children. Women just dropped their children off to the nearest air bending temple to them that is equal to their gender
@@radiance9545 we know how enduring bisons are and they can travel far. And hunting the fast moving air nomads. Hundreds of miles inside enemy territory isn't feasible
@@risingdarkness you do realize that they would have the entirety of free earth kingdom to travel right?
7:10 Well, in Legend of Korra, a lot of new Air benders did show up in the earth nation, so that does make sense, since they're likely the descendants of surviving air nomads who's air bending was awakened by harmonic convergence. Likely what happened is Aang was the last AIR BENDER, not last air nomad descendant, the ability to air bend having been lost, as those who did have the ability wouldn't use it for fear of being targeted, and loseing the spiritual connection they had before.
A lot of philosophical acolites turned up, but the only benders were tenzen and his kids. The rest were just scholars of the culture.
@@CaedenV keep watching
Yes and a lot turned up but few were willing to give up their lifestyles for the air nomadic way of life so plenty of air benders do survive.
@@Xaforn and that’s fine. It’s pretty realistic honestly.
@@CaedenV it happens later on in season 2-3 just keep watching the show
We know that at least in the first season Aang still held hope that some Air Nomads may have survived the genocide, but by the time the Gaang went to the Northern Air Temple, it was pretty much established that indeed, Aang was the last of his kind. So realistically, even characters within the show have their doubts about this whole genocide thing, but even they are proven wrong on this.
In the comics, it is also explored how supposedly, some nomads would in fact survive the Sozin's Comet's bloodbath, but due to their lifestyle (like hiding on top of the mountains and pacifistic nature which doesn't allow them to fight back all that much) would make it easier for Fire Nation to track them down and kill them until no one was left. Sozin did mention how he didn't entirely succeed with his task of killing all the Airbender, though he did specify that only the Avatar supposedly got away, but that might not be the case.
However, in Kyoshi Novels, we learn that airbending is so tight to spirituality, that any serious shift or supposedly lost connection with the spiritual side can render an Airbender completely powerless or weakened. This happened to Kyoshi's mom, who became a criminal and thus her airbending skills decreased and she needed fans to wield her powers. This aligns with LoK how Korra still remained airbending and discovered it after her change in spirituality (or just plot convenience I guess) and after Harmonic Convergence, airbending returned, which I believe was due to the descendants of Air Nomads' survivors.
Due to the Fire Nation wanting to completely destroy any remains of Air Nomads, those who did survive might have lost connection with their element and didn't pass the bending to their offspring and since Air Nomads would be hiding, they wouldn't stand out with their culture, thus completely erasing it so any descendants of genocide survivors would no longer be considered Air Nomads themselves, and thus Aang would still be the Last Airbender.
Oh and sidenote: Fire Nation didn't use balloons 100 years ago, since those weren't invented yet. They used Dragons (which probably can outfly Air Bisons) before they were completely slaughtered later on.
You aren't making sense. Not only do places like mountains are incredibly hard to find and access. They are incredibly defensible
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl This is the only complaint? Well, what do you know, firebenders can eject themselves and fly in the air thanks to their powers just like Air Nomads can also effortlessly jump, run and glide over mountain tops. One nitpick which can be answered doesn't make my entire statement nonsense, especially when even the media of the show itself give you those answers.
@@kubat4925 no you said that living in mountains is a disadvantage. When it is a advantage. And all the air benders have to do is to take their bisons and run to free parts of earth kingdom or north pole
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl It's disadvantageous because it's predictable. Fire Nation knew exactly where would Air Nomads try to hide and probably got into those locations first and once again got them by the surprise. The location is good, but without the element of surprise, anything can be rendered useless.
@@kubat4925 I don't think you are familiar with guerilla warfare. That is like saying the taliban are easy to fight because they are so predictable always hiding in mountains
This makes sense if you take their structure into account. The airbending masters and kids stay in the temples and non master adults (hence weak benders) travel the world.
So they were both detached of the outside world making it realistic to be caught off guard on HOW aggressive Sozin's conquest was. And after wiping the masters it wouldn't be difficult for whatever airbending gene to go fully recessive from the offspring of the few survivors
My issue with this is that you have to somehow reconcile that the Fire Nation is just SO GOOD at capturing Air Nomads that they can dust an entire population down to 1 boy, but at the same time are SO BAD that they can't capture and transport a single boy. I don't buy that Aang was the only skilled Air Nomad that could escape capture. Especially considering that the Fire Nation never seemed privy or educated on how Air Nomads combat tactics and techniques. They're always, consistently caught off guard by Aang. But yeah, these same people also captured and wiped out an entire civilization of people similar.
For reference, it hasn't even been a 100 years since the Holocaust. A century isn't really that long of a time, all things considered. For the Fire Nation to neatly round up ALL of the Air Nomads and execute them, but be so bad at catching 1 boy, is a herculean task of suspension of disbelief.
@@machine1685 it’s been 100 years since the holocaust so the people in the army now are NOT the same people then…. it’s a completely different set of fire nation….. new leaders, new soldiers, new technology……. their lives are completely different than the old firebenders…… their training is completely different……. and do you know what isn’t in their training? airbenders. Because until aang, they were believed to be extinct………. he completely catches them off guard time n time again because they had no idea he existed. They have no idea what an airbender is capable of. They don’t know his moves, his specialties or anythign for that matter
Actually, Aang may not be the "Last" of the Airbenders. There's a theory that's been floating around the community for years now that Ty Lee could have been descended from a group or family of Airbenders that married into and were thus protected by a Fire Nation family. And Ty Lee was the end result.
But due to several different factors, including the less spiritual nature of the Fire Nation, clearly the bending abilities had diluted in the past 100 years. Hence why Ty Lee can't Airbend.
And, it's not the craziest idea. I've heard very similar stories from some Jewish friends of mine whose family survived the holocaust.
Ty Lee could have been an airbender the whole time. The Legend of Korra introduces the concept of "subtle" bending. Korra has a moment where she begins dodging attacks with the fluidity of an airbender despite not visibly bending air. Amon, a main villain, is revealed to have been using bloodbending the entire time to slightly throw off benders aim and balance so it appears he's besting them without any bending at all. Ty Lee might be subtly enhancing her acrobatics with weak airbending that flies under the radar; she might not even know she can airbend because its so natural to her.
@@zolfff Hmmm, perhaps
What supports this theory though?
@@caleidozkopie8344 there's a video on TH-cam that explains it better than I can. But some of the evidence is the fact that Ty Lee shares a lot of physical characteristics with Airbenders.
Brown hair like aang and the Air Nomads (in contrast to most people in the Fire Nation having black hair)
Grey eyes like Aang and the Air Nomads
Her superhuman agility, dexterity, and acrobatics, as well as her intimate knowledge of chi
Her bubbly and kind nature in contrast to everyone around her.
And her semi spiritual philosophy on auras.
Again, I'd suggest checking out the videos on the subject, but that’s basically it
what if Ty Lee is a descendant of angg's parents we know he had parents but dont know there names or anything about them what if they had more kids then aang and one of those kids end up being Ty Lee ancestor, but do to the fire nation who know they was the family of the last avatar the fire nation people who dont support the war keep them safe with there nomadic life they bound to have a lot of friends in all nations look at aang he only 12 and have friends all around the world and someone about 26-40 year old probably have a lot more in the fire nation.
fire nation might have also know of the family connections and thats why keep an eye out for the avatar by keeping the family close in there grasp thats also most likely why a circus performer was allowed to be around the royal family
You seem to have forgotten a rather important fact. According to Aang, it was assumed that only air nomads could access the air temples, so of course they would have been caught off guard. Also, I seem to notice that despite being called nomads they seemed rather sedentary living in the air temples, aside from Aang travelling around the world
I think they would have known of the existence of dragrons, Aang is a kid so maybe HE didn't. But you cant tell me that NONE of those wise men knew that dragons existed
@@trey6485 whoever said that dragons had been widely domesticated in order to be ridden?
@@Thegravedigger0 and whoever said they weren't. But it doesn't matter, if they knew Roku had one, they know that they can be ridden and that the temples would not be safe in the event of an attack
@@trey6485 I think they knew roku was a special case, given that he was the avatar and all, excluding sozin
@@Thegravedigger0 youre missing the point, they knew roku had one so they know that they can be trained. They should have expected sozin to train more and have an army of soldiers riding dragons
The thing is : Airbenders are deeply spiritual, in both terms. So some would think that the spirits are letting them be destroyed so they did something wrong. So a good chunk of airbender’s accepted there fate. And airbending isn’t just genetics. It’s also spiritual. Meaning, it’s very likely the spirituality in the survivors families faded. Meaning so did there culture, theres a whole theory that those who are descended from these airbenders gained air bending after harmonic convergence in the legend of korra.
That’s what I was thinking
Then Korra would make even less sense
what DOES make sense is them being slowly killed or died out over the 100 year war, and maybe there were remnants that faded leading up to Aang's re-emergence to the world
Also fire nation would of been focused hard on killing all air venders because they’d never found the avatar, if aang had been found and killed, the air benders probably wouldn’t of been so severely targeted after the initial attack
they can make kids
@@danielkonky3094 oh yeah lemme just make and raise a baby while on the run 24/7 (unfortunately I'm sure all babies were killed just like Anakin in the republic lol)
@@danielkonky3094 Untrained airbenders bend accidentally, even as children or babies. They would've just been killed, too.
Well we see in the actual show that during Sozen's comet (and even sometimes before it) fire benders can fly using their flames as propellant, so it's not necessarily guaranteed that the air benders would have been able to flee, we also see in season 1 that the naval blockade was enough to deter Apa from flying through airspace, and that wasn't even during the comet.
The air nomads were weary sure but theres a difference between being wearing and knowing that a genocide is on its way to you.
Also remember it was 100 years that ang was asleep, all the air nomads of his time would have died off by then. Sure some could have escaped but they would just die out over a long enough time with so much of their probably already small population and not to mention being hunted and persecuted by the fire nation all along the way.
This brings up a lot of great questions, and it makes me imagine an alternate ending to the final episode of avatar where Aang says to Katara that he believes that some of his people are still out there, even if they don’t know that they’re Airbenders yet. That would transition amazingly into Korra, where there could be a very small community of Airbenders that Aang was able to successfully find and train, that way we wouldn’t have to have the god awful harmonic convergence that just created airbenders out of nowhere and produced the absolute worst few episodes.
There is a theory that the people getting the ability bend Air in season 3 of the Legend of Korra are descendants of the Air Nomads who managed to escape and began to hide in the Earth Kingdom, and through all these years of untraining their (and their children) ability to bend Air began to decline
Also by a strange coincidence, the only people who are given the ability to bend Air are in the Earth Kingdom with 0 cases of Air bending in the Fire Nation or in the poles
I believed that the majority of the escaped Air Nomads settled in various parts of the Earth Kingdom and slowly died out due to reproducing with non-airbenders as well as not openly expressing and teaching their culture. This would also explain why the majority of the new airbenders that appear in Legend of Korra reside in the Earth Kingdom.
But now that I think about it, 100 years is way too short for an entire culture to die out. I am not sure about the average life expectancy of the people of Avatar, but the minimum is surely 50 years. So their would be at most three generations existing after 100 years-the escaped Air Nomads would be Grandparents. A lot of the structures and lifestyles of the world can change significantly in 100 years, but it takes a very long time for people to change (for better or worse).
Well, it makes some sense. Ty Lee most likely is a descendent of the air nomads but due to her family not practicing the air nomads ways there air bending is gone.
I always figured that there were some non-bending descendants of air nomad genocide survivors existent in the Avatar-verse, but they just didn't(or couldn't) airbend for any number of reasons having to deal with genetics, upbringing, or lack of spiritual connection/companionship with Sky-Bison. I think Guru Pathik may have been one of these people too, or a direct(non-bending)child of one or two air nomad parents, as he claims to have had a deep spiritual and personal connection to the Nomads. I also have a theory that in LOK, the new Airbenders in season 3 are made up of these descendants of the Nomads. My evidence for this theory is that we know for sure that Bumi is the descendant of an Airbender, and the chances of him getting it if airbending was distributed at random would be incredibly small, as well as the fact that the new Airbenders are found in the Earth Kingdom and Republic City, the likely hiding places of Air Nomad refugees, as opposed to the Fire Nation, for fairly obvious reasons. This would also explain Zaheer's connection to Air Nomad Culture, as well as make the rebuilding of the Air Nation in Korra feel a lot more earned.
I think there may have been a few airbenders that survived, but were either ratted out or completely abandoned their customs and moved on and their children forgot or never knew they were related to airbenders and the culture died with the last airbenders, except for Aang. This could also explain how non benders in the earth kingdom in LOK were even able to suddenly get airbending after the universal balance thing. And the airbenders getting caught off guard when they should’ve seen something coming could be explained by the fact they expected the fire nation to do something bad but not literal genocide. They probably thought they would end up colonizing/taking over the earth kingdom and eventually water tribes and air nomads, not putting all their power into wiping them out, because what could they gain from dead people that they could use?
All the air benders have to do is to use their flying bisons to go to the parts of the earth kingdom that haven't been conquered
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl and would’ve gotten nuked out of the sky
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl I think it’s kinda hard to not spot A GIANT SKY BISON flying in the air, they would most likely get caught
@@MODNAR67 It doesn't matter in free parts of earth kingdom.
@@MohamedRamadan-qi4hl And all the fire nation has to do is pay informers to be on the lookout for people with big obvious tatoos, air bisons or who use air bending. Any of those could be enemy number one and we know the fire nation spent a ton of resources hunting the avatar.
Assasins aren't that rare in universe and a band of them could take out a small group of pacifistic air nomads fairly easily. The fire kingdom was still hunting the avatar a century later and thought he was in hiding somewhere growing ever stronger in preparation for his vengeance upon them for wiping out his nation. I would flip every rock, trace down every lead, get rid of anyone who has even a remote chance of being the avatar. From the fire nations perspective they are facing an existential threat.
5:48 Worth noting that they actually wouldn't have even had war balloons at the time, as they were only invented 100 years after the invasion. That actually does beg the question of how they even invaded the air temples in the first place (can't imagine Sozin's comet gives every fire bender the ability to fly and it's doubtful they had the machines we see them use later either), but as another comment mentions that would explain why the air benders were so caught off guard in the first place
There was those tank machines shown in the Northern air temple episode that could climb mountains.
But maybe even those weren’t invented at the time of Sozin’s comet.
I actually had a fanfic idea where there was a set of orphan twins that tried to seal food from Iroh’s camp while he was besieging basingsay. One of the twins demonstrated impressive fire bending at an early age and the other is extremely fast and agile, (doesn’t actually airbend though as he had been taught by his parents to hide it early on) and Iroh decides to take them in. By the time of the story they are still with Iroh on Zuko’s ship. That way it creates a trio group for Zuko. Anyway the air bender brother learns sword fighting as a way to defend himself without using his element. Sorta is Zukos sword sparring partner, and ninja buddy.
I think it would have been neat if the kids too young to have been the Avatar were raised in the Fire Nation.
They could have been so integrated by modern day that Aang would have had to fight his own people.
They could have been the Fire Nation Air Force, using those Sky Bison Sozin kept in his menagerie.
Considering the theory that Ty Lee might have Airbender blood, it makes more sense. Living Airbenders could have blended into other nations to survive, so even though Ty Lee doesn't have Airbending abilities she does have gray eyes as well as a kid at the fire nation school Aang went to for a short time. Ty Lee and that kid could have been the result of Airbenders blending into other nations and passing on some of their traits.
I also think the surviving air nomads blended into the earth nation. Sand benders make mini sand tornados to sail in the desert, it could be earth bending in an air bending style that the nomads taught to their children or air benders disguising as earth benders. Or it could be from them studying other bending styles like Iroh did.
I think it would have been interesting if there had developed a splinter group of Air Nomads, that didn’t just slowly abandon their nomadic roots, but also their pacifism. Then slowly develop into a more militaristic warrior tribe. One that could have become a problem after the war through holding onto territories, they “liberated” from the Fire Nation.
5:49 ''i think the Bison should be able to outfly war balloons''
The Fire Nation didn't have war balloon. They were only available after the episode Battle for the Northern Air Temple.
They also didn't have the Tundra Tanks (climbing tanks). There were developed in the late Stages of the War. Likely by the same guy who made the Ballons.
Which makes you wonder how did the fire nation, even get up the mountain. Maybe the one Dragon they had Ubered them all up?
My guess was that the Air Tribe assumed the Fire Nation would invade and occupy them while sniffing out the avatar, and they would peacefully resist/allow the occupation while trying to protect Aang. Only once full control over the temples had been established did the purge actually begin, catching them off guard and drastically reducing any chance they had to flee in sizable numbers.
You missed one thing:
a sky bison can't outfly lightning. Attempting to fly away would've been a really bad idea; especially during Sozin's comet
I think he’s forgetting that the Air Nomads didn’t have a formal military, so even if they knew how to defend themselves with Air Bending its highly unlikely that they could deal with that many Fire Benders under someone trained in the arts of war. There’s a big difference between someone who knows how to use a gun versus someone who can command an army
Yes considering the best way to fight off a large heavy army is to use guerrilla tactics and the air nomads wouldn’t do such things.
the thing is that they did know they were coming and they fought pretty well since there were many corpses near Monk Gyatso and in one of the mangas the fire nation had traps using ancient artifact as bait set for the nomads that escaped the genocide.
All those corpses were killed by gyatso himself, their strongest bender. In a contained room that he likely just sucked all the air out of so the enemy couldnt firebend and suffocated them all.
There is a popular theory that some Airbender did survive, however, to avoid being spotted by the fire nation they assimilated into the culture and suppressed their airbending. So much so that it ended up lying dormant in their descendants, but when harmonic convergence occurred, the massive release of spiritual energy reactivated those henes, and that's where we get the Airbender of korras generation.
Side note, a bison could outrun a war balloon, but we clearly see they hadn't been invented until ATLA, could the air bison outrun dragons though, they were still around and it was known that the fire nation would keep them as companions
That is a good point. I do think that, especially given how nomadic they were, a good portion would escape the temple genocide. And it could've been a really interesting storyline seeing Aang interact with Air Nomads who might've lost their values and culture do to the necessity of hiding in the war.
But on the other hand, the Fire Nation would be sustaining their extermination campaign for the rest of that 100 years. Most genocides in history that were successful did so in less time unfortunately. And the few that survived would have to go deep into hiding and assimilation into the Earth Kingdom. And we see with Aang's children that only 1 in 3 of them were born airbenders, so if they did go into hiding, and if they did have kids with Earth kingdom people, the majority wouldn't be airbenders and if that compounds over generations that would mean a very small percentage of an already very small population, that on its own could amount to 0. Plus remember, any survivors would be the grandchildren and great grandchildren of people who went deep into hiding. Its very possible that to hide better, those original survivors never taught their children how to bend, and in fact told them to hide it. That, combined with the fact that airbending power is tied to spirituality, the power and knowledge of these descendants might've diminished enough that they never even knew they were airbenders. Or if they did, they certainly wouldn't come out of hiding until they knew the war was fully over, since the Fire Nation was very much close to winning by the time of the show. Maybe Harmonic Convergence in Legend of Korra is what reawakened these powers in the decedents.
What if the remaining Air nomads lost their ability to airbend due to trauma caused by going through and witnessing Sozins attack (don't want to use the "m" or "g" word cos youtube..), and harmonic convergence just reactivated their descendents airbending ability or something.
Seems like the Airbender gene was somehow made dormant for generations after the genocide. Maybe someday we'll see an explanation for that. My guess would be that air benders were forced into hiding because of how ruthlessly they were being eradicated. Many years and generations of not using their abilities to remain hidden may have affected their ability to bend the element at all. But obviously when the spirit portals were opened those many dormant airbender genes from descendants of air benders reactivated
In a comic it was explained they used traps to capture and kill any Air Nomads caught by them, presumably they took the time to spy on the Airbender.
We can prob then infer that the ones who survived could have been the ones from Korra's generation.
You know, lay low as to not die?
It's possible other Airbenders escaped as some temples don't even have dead bodies, and as I said were killed by traps or hunters.
Why is it the case that many Airbenders from Harmonic Convergence are in Ba Sing Se? And only a few are outside? That's just my explanation on it anyways
The way I've always seen it, Aang is the last known airbender. The other air nomads have probably lost their airbending ability after a couple of generations because the survivers had to suppress their ways in order to blend in and avoid detection by their enemies. It's possible that Ty Lee is a descendant of an air nomad and is completely unaware of it because her family managed to hide out in the fire nation. It's why Ty Lee and the only one of her sisters we've seen both have gray eyes whereas the rest of the fire nation have gold colored or yellow eyes.
I like the idea of Airbenders actually having survived and having created offsprings. I like the headcanon that all those who get airbending in LoK after the harmonic convergence actually could airbendended all the time but didnt because they didnt knew they were and had that block like Zuko had a firebending block after joining the gang.
Even the remaining air Benders had to hide and change their identity. The fire nation was wildly looking for the avatar whom they knew to be an air nomad. So even if some people survived, they most likely either got hunted or changed identities. They eventually died off in the 100 years aang was gone. They never procreated for the reasons you mentioned: they are monks.
Regarding the air nomads not foreseeing their demise, just as Aang said, they thought that fire benders wouldn’t be able to reach the top of the mountains, but they had machinery that allowed them to. That’s why they weren’t ever ready to defend their home or run away. They thought their home was the safest.
Exactly, that whole video I was thinking “you clearly know a lot about atla but do u know anything about atla” like when he says something about people taking kids and jumping on a bison, like did u not see the fire power they had in the last episode of the season, anyone flying was basically a sitting duck. I don’t really get why he can’t buy that all of them were killed off
@@karnage2948 That’s another good point. Even average firebenders are capable of generating devastating blasts of fire during the comet.
Where’s the rule saying that Air Nomads aren’t allowed to have kids? Would everyone follow the no kid rule even if it existed? No, like look at our main characters and you can see that they had kids.
@@thegifting267 monks abstain from sex. There are specific people in the communities to reproduce. That is why nomads in the show don’t have parents or aren’t guarded by them
@@RodrigoSilva-cy4no Real life ones do, but there’s nothing in the show that supports Air Nomad do as well. The only thing we know is that Air Nomads are not raised by their parents. Anyways what about Aang? Aang sticks to Air Nomad ways quite a bit so why did he have kids if it wasn’t allowed? Him having kids and the so-called no kid rule never was brought up. If there was a no kid rule it should’ve been mentioned, but it wasn’t at all.
Instead of having "airbenders magically reappear through the harmonic convergence" in Korra, there should have been a part of TLA, maybe in the comics that were intended to show what the 4th season could have been, where some earth kingdom families start having grandparents revealing something that their parents had them hide from everyone, artifacts from their original airbender culture. Kinda like the "Air acolytes" plot point, but with some of them actually being descendants from airbenders, wich would make Aang question his initial reaction to them.
Aang would see this happen more and more in the public while visiting earth kingdom cities, and would be confronted with the task of:
a: turning down a growing but not genuine interest in airnomad culture from people who are not really taking it seriously
b: accepting those who can't be airbenders but who really are into airnomad culture, including descendants of airbenders who, after many attempts at training, will remain unable to airbend.
c: trying to convince descendants from airnomads to actually give a shot at airbending (Like the Korra recruiting "montage" we got that pointed out the Earth Queen as being evil for forcefully recruiting airbenders for her army but showing them do almost the same thing without correctly exploring the ethical nuances)
d: face the fact that some of those airnomad descendants just don't want to renew with airnomad culture because they are perfectly assimilated into earth kingdom culture.
e: have the responsibility to now train new airnomads into not only their culture, but also their bending, having no time to really perfectly transmit everything, therefore having to accept compromise and change (Wich would not only tie in with the Yangchen festival arc in the comics, but also hints at him not having enough time for all of his kids in the future.)
I’ve thought this for a long time, in fact I truly believe that ‘the last Airbender’ was a going to be an all out misdirect and we would discover surviving air nomads had there been a book 4! It’s really too bad it was never made because I also think we would’ve seen Iroh’s backstory and spiritual journey which would have tied in nicely, AND seen some extra Airbender ding skills!
I think Aang probably might've found out some of the other air benders could've based on you're thought process. With several big cities not concurred until the show takes place like Ba Sing Say. They could've gotten kids safe and hidden among water or earth bending territories. The monks could've changed their views long enough to no long look or act like monks.
I like to think that some airbenders found that one turtle lion that flies through the air, then they pulled a Harriet Tubman and saved a few more to bring back to the promised land
Honestly I feel the same way about Katara being the last Southern Water Tribe bender. I get that in the comics there are younger kids who are shown to water bend that Katara teaches so the Fire Nation only (almost) ended Southern Water bending for a interim period but still there should be other people in the South who can bend. Obviously they would be few in number and scattered but Katara shouldn't be the last known one, just among some of a dwindled population.
I always liked the idea of Ty Lee being a descendant of the Air Nomads.
I like the fanficy idea of an airbender kid maybe around or slightly older than Aang that escaped but because they never became a master they didn’t have an arrow and it wouldn’t take a lot of hiding for their hair to grow back enough to enter normal society somewhere and just refuse to ever airbend again. Even if they met someone and had a family it would be safer if they never told them who they were.
It actually is a mystery how the firebenders actually made it up to some of the temples that even Aang was surprised to see them there because Aang believed the only way to get to the temples was by flying at least on a Bison as the mountains were really difficult to climb. Also the Fire Nation didn't really have airships until soccer helped the engineer create them. It's not confirmed to my knowledge but I also think Kora hinted at what really happened to the Airbenders as I think they probably hid their airbending and didn't teach future Generations how to airbend to keep them safe from Fire Nation attacks but most likely they integrated into the Earth Kingdom as we see that's where most of the new Airbenders in Kora come from. Even Aang's originally non-bender son Bomi had his airbending unlocked during the harmonic convergence in Kora which may hint that there are descendants of Airbenders to this day who just didn't know how to airbend because they never learned because their parents were too afraid to carry on their tradition.
Edit to add
Perhaps The Hidden heard of wild Sky bison in Kora are actually long descendants of air bison hidden by the air Nomads because they couldn't stay with them anymore for both there and the Bisons own safety.
But since most of these plots were on Kora your point that in ATLA alone it doesn't make sense is a good point.
I’m like 90% sure the fire nation used dragons to attack the air temples during sozin’s comet
We see that azula can hover with firebending normaly. Id imagine firebenders can fly during the comet.
If I remember correctly that was a comic about the air nomad being tricked by the fire Nation with Air nomad artifacts so technically the fire Nation knew there were some survivors and decided you know just in case if there any left we still need to kill them and also it be over 100 year so that why
I actually hoped throughout the entire show that aang would find another air bender. Was hoping so hard lmao. I definitely agree there should have been a couple.
Damn I never took time to think about it like that. Even if they lost their territories and temples they had allies all over, including Ba sing se whose wall never fell. Unless they were strictly against mixing with other groups they would have the air bending Gen all over the earth kingdom. Clearly Aang's interest in Katara shows they had nothing against mixing with others
Aang's relationship with Katara doesn't say anything. Gyatso was much more lax with Aang than many of the other elders. While it might have not been a specific tenet of nomad culture, it is possible many of the elders personally disliked the idea of mixing with the other nations. Either just because or because those other nations didn't adhere to their teachings and they found it distasteful. Point being that even if they were refugees, there was likely a huge barrier to mixing that Aang wouldn't have experienced with Katara both for his age and the circumstances in which he met her.
I agree with what you said and I would add a few more points that supports what you’re saying.
1. So every Nomad that survived just so happened to stumble upon traps that are in random locations?
2. Every Nomad that survived just so happened to not have any children?
3. Having a weak connection to spirituality doesn’t mean people can’t bend, like almost every bad guy doesn’t have any sort of connection. Hell some random good guys basically don’t have a connection and they can still bend. By the way some people who are very spiritual can’t even bend so spirituality doesn’t 100% determine if you can or not.
4. They are Nomads. Basically there could be dozens of them inside friendly nations when the war started.
5. The Fire Nation didn’t have any War Balloons when the war started. What does this mean? It’s quite likely that Nomads at the Temples could’ve escaped on Bison.
Now yes some Firebenders have the ability to fly, but the only people who are capable of doing that are the most skilled in the world. Did the Fire Nation just so happen to have hundreds of Ozais 100 years ago? Even if the Fire Nation did have that many very high skilled people at once there’s no way those very few skilled people could possibly take out everyone at the temples. How come? The locations of the temples would easily make it possible for people to fly away.
In brief normal soldiers and normal Firebenders would have to climb the mountains, which are supposed to be unreachable/quite tough to get to the top without a flying Bison.
Really it doesn’t make sense how the Fire Nation snuck up on the Nomads, like how do you not notice an army marching through your land or at the bottom of the mountain.
Was there no one flying around when the Fire Nation was coming close to the mountains? Was there no one collecting food that could’ve possibly seen the Fire Nation coming close to the mountain? Man we know that some Nomads already did escape and survived the attack, but somehow all of them stumbled upon traps.
6. Genes being more dominant. OK so Air Nomads should always produce Airbenders according to the lore and are the only group that always produce Benders. What does this mean? How can other nations genes be dominant in the Avatar universe when Air Nomads always produce Benders?
Yes perhaps after multiple generations their descendants bending would be weak and might not only produce Airbenders, but the time period within Avatar was only 3/4 generations.
Really people from each of those generations could still be alive and would still have kids. In short the likelihood of the Nomad’s descendants not at least producing one Airbender or a few dozen is low.
7. Realistically there would still be people that can do weak Airbending.
Now yes some of them might not immediately say that they are Airbenders after the war, but even then the likelihood of every person not seeking out Aang or coming out and saying they can bend is extremely low. It should also be mentioned that the show doesn’t say any Airbenders exist whatsoever except for Aang.
I've often wondered about this myself, but one thing your video made me think of that I'd never considered before is why the Air Nomad genocide doesn't seem to really matter to the rest of the world. Like, throughout the show, how many times is it even mentioned?
Not to mention most Airbenders were nomads who usually weren’t at air temples. To me, it makes sense that Airbenders would simply go into hiding, but what makes no sense to me is that none of the Air Nomads who survived and had kids simply didn’t inherit Airbending.
I have much the same thought except that I think there probably are a few small pockets of airbenders around but they are such a small secretive group that they don't appear in avatar. Keep in mind 100 years is only 3 or four generations. I am a little surprised and disappointed that during the time of Legend of Korra, instead of just having random people get airbending (which doesn't feel like it fits quite right) that you don't start getting great grandchildren of surviving air nomads coming out of the woodwork. Also why isn't there only the type of bending associated with a nation in that whole nation? War creates bastard kids from the invaders, and beside there is a total possibility for people to move from one nation to another? For example: Why aren't there already before the shows mostly earthbenders in the earth nation but a sprinkling of other types of benders mixed in too?
Maybe the Fire Nation waited to invade for some Air Nomad holiday when many of them would be in the temples. Then simply hunted down the very few who didn't return to get massacred. That combined with disease, natural events and the Fire Nation persecution could absolutely wipe out whatever few remained, especially if the survivors were stubborn and carried on their customs and didn't procreate with many others. I mean, Aang as the VERY last Air Nomad refuses to give up his culture. Maybe many of those Air Benders were the same, making them easier to hunt down and find and less likely to merge with other societies and start new families.
In the Netflix show, it was pointed out that the Air Nomads all went back to their temples as a sort of mass celebration for the coming of the great comet (Sozin's Comet). This allowed Sozin to attack them when the temples would have been at peak capacity, thus killing most if not all of the airbenders. Sozin also fed false information to the Earth Kingdom, making the world believe that he was going to invade the Earth Kingdom and not the air temples. This I imagine gave the Air Nomads a false sense of security as they didn't realize they were the real target for Sozin's attack when the comet arrived.
The power granted by the comet was secret lost information. There's no reason to assume the nomads simply knew about it, especially when it took a legendary vanishing library for even one guy to know about the lunar eclipse.
Roku died from exposure to toxic gas. Sozin could have literally brought his body back and there would be no reason to suspect the fire bender.
And this is just kind of how fiction works.
There is such a simpler question as to why there are no airbenders. One is that the handouts of bending is not 100% genetic. The first benders of each nation *learned* bending from some elemental creature. Meaning they had the ability before they learned the skill. Presumably this means that a lot of "non benders" in each culture have bending of another culture but just not the training.
But even beyond that, no culture is 100% siloed. There is always going to be a certain amount of cross-pollination even between the most hated of people groups. And someone is going to be a niese or nephew of some long forgotten relative from another culture. Even if that person was not a bender themselves, they would likely have the gene to pass down.
And this brings up yet another big question. Why is the avatar the only one gifted with the ability to control multiple elements? If a water and earth bender bang it out what would be stopping them from having the ability to bend both? Even if to a lesser extent? Which isn't how genetics work by the way, it's typically a have it or not sort of thing.
So then perhaps it isn't a genetic thing, but a reincarnation thing. Does that then imply there are a fixed number of benders for the fixed number of souls granted with that power by the turtles? And what would keep a soul then locked to a particular nation? Just as the avatar pops up willy-nilly across cultures surely other spirits would have even less control over where they show up in the world?
... And that is to say nothing of the issue of reincarnation among a population boom. I mean, did we magically have 10 billion souls we were cycling through over longer ages this whole time? Or are some people genuine souls and others just sad little shells of biology? This line of reasoning becomes super problematic very quickly.
Still, avatar is one of my favorite shows of all time, and I was stoked to show it to my kids during the pandemic! I backed the ttrpg last year and was stoked to hear they are finally printing it. Going to supprised my kids with running a campaign with them when it gets here... Which should be around or slightly after Christmas. Looking forward to bringing some of these questions to the game and see how my kids grapple with them! Should be a good time!
My head cannon is that many Airbenders went into hiding and abandon their air bending just like the Jedi Purge where Jedi have to abandon their Lightsabers and the Force.
I thought it was established in the legend of Korra that he wasn't the last one, because people of course ran and hid, and didn't teach their children how to do it anymore.
Tensin takes in random air benders they find and teaches them. There's also a fan theory that Tylea (sp?) is descendant of an air bender line, even though she's not a bender of anything.
yeah that could have happened. for a moment I thought that sparky sparky boom man was a enslaved ari assassin that through firebending practice mixed with air control made explosions.
it's not that so now ....now I'm just thinking only angs fam knew anything and some how.. believed no one can touch them...like how ang said the only way to reach them is a flying bison.
so... yeah that could kill them all.
I personally think that dragons had a huge role to play in the invasion of the air temples. Their heightened fire abilities and ability to fly would make them incredible assets to insuring that once the fire nation had invaded, so air nomads could leave. That said, I think this is likely what drove a wedge between them and the fire nation. Following the extermination of the air nomads, I think the dragons probably decided they would no longer be part of the fire nation’s plans. This leads to Sozin’s campaign to valorize anyone strong enough to go out and hunt the dragons, leading to their eventual near extinction talked about in the show
Here’s what I think went down. (Sorry, it’s kinda long)
Sozin’s Comet is on the horizon. The Air Nomads are in fact aware that this could spell all out war for them as the avatar being born into their culture puts a big target on them. In knowing this, with the avatar missing, many of the air nomads currently at the temples congregate to one or two, the Southern, and possibly the Western or Northern. They evacuate the vulnerable to escape to a safe place, preferably somewhere like Ba Sing Se or Omashu. This would include children, some women, and some of the elderly who are unable to fight. The rest would be given the option to stay and fight, or flee. Many, being that they’re pacifists, decide to flee. But most stay, along with Monk Gyatso and probably the others of the counsel, and defend their spiritual home. Some decide to go back to the other temples, but most stay at the two temples and are ultimately killed off. This is because we only ever see fire nation armor and any bodies at the Southern temple, and the Northern is lived in so any bodies would’ve been cleared out. It could also be the Western, given how difficult getting to the temple is, and the suspension over the canyon means that many of the killed nomads could’ve fallen off the temple. But regardless, the comet comes and the air nation falls. Sozin is surprised. The air nomads weren’t as caught off guard as he had predicted, and they had yet to find the avatar. But the war has only just begun. Sozin declares victory over the air benders and puts a bounty on any remaining nomads while starting his search for the avatar. The remaining air benders are devastated. Some of the nomads who were traveling at the time of Sozin’s Comet, wouldn’t have known what went down and are much more transparent about their heritage, and would be quickly sought out and killed. Out of the refugees, Some decide to fight and are killed off, some are caught while traveling, some are offered a place to stay, only to be turned over to the fire nation for the bounty or for safety. The number of air nomads is dwindling. However, a select few retreat to the earth kingdom capital and a few remote towns and find a place to settle down. But they can’t return to their previous way of life and must blend in with the earth kingdom. They stop bending entirely, and abandon their traditions and culture to adapt. The younger ones grow up and start families with earth kingdom citizens. Though they tell their children a little of their heritage, they forbid them to act different, to keep them safe. And the children have no problems doing so as they are raised in the earth kingdom. Many of them have lost the ability to bend air. And soon those children grow up and start families. And they forgetfully leave out anything about being a descendant of the air nomads. And then those children grow up, unaware, and completely unable to bend air. And soon, roughly 50-60 years into the war, the air nomad’s whereabouts are all but erased from history. As far as anyone knows or is concerned, they were all killed. Then by the time Aang wakes up, all the original benders and their children are dead. A very small amount of the oldest descendants are aware of their heritage, but stay silent, wanting nothing to do with the war and fearing for their lives and their family’s lives should they speak up.
And that is my theory on what happened.
Couple of things, I like the theory, but it was the Northern air temple that had people living in it after the attack, the inventor guy remember, and the western air temple was the one suspended over the canyon
@@samcochran8203 that’s what I meant. I get the 3 confused lol
@@sealink129 lol
While bending is part instinct, it also part training. Let be honest, if you found out your people were wiped out for air bending - the best way to survive after wards would be to A) not air bend yourself, and B) make sure your kids learn not to air bend and C) never mention being an airbender. Likely any who did would be hunted down and killed - as a prime example: Katara is the ONLY water bender in her tribe after their numbers were decimated since the firenation just came and straight up killed any waterbender, as well as came back when they heard there was another waterbender.
I think there's one thing you overlooked, the Air Nomads would have seen him as the savoury and may have dropped alot of there war prevention and defenses, too try and find him, they new he was the next Avitar, and yhe longer it went on the more efforts they would have too put into finding him.
Its very likely that he had a .uch bigger part in the genaside of his race more than he relises.
I know it’s hard to believe, and yeah there should have been at least a few survivors. But let’s not forget that Sozins comet gave an entire army the power to wipe out entire landscapes single-handedly.
I've always had this problem too but hey the world is a big place airbenders who did escape probably his in earth kingdom nations and never used their powers and as a result never taught their kids which is where harmonic convergence always came into play for me that the people in the earth kingdom who recieved bending were descents of people who escape the genocide
Of course he isn't. We got Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, Meelo, Bumi...
There is a fan theory that some air nomads survived and went into hiding throughout the world. Ty Lee is theorized to be decended from the air nomads. The people survived but the culture had to be abandoned and the ability to bend air was lost.
I have so much problems with his takes
1. Knowledge of an invasion do not mean Air no nomads have a knowledge to counter an invasion
2. Underestimate how evil The fire Nation is
3. He thinks the Fire Nation just attacks The Air Nomads territory and be done
No the Fire Nation hunting down the nomads make fake Air Nomad hut as a traps
There are more points
Something I picked up from irons 4 nations talk to zuko is the hidden issues with each of the nations.
1.the fire nation is described as powerful and the people strong willed. But this will can be corrupted and there power used to bring suffering
2. Water tribe and described as having a strong sense of community and respect for traditions but this means they are stuck in there sexist ways when the gang arrive at the norther water tribe end of book 1
3. The earth nation are resilient and enduring but this has the consequences of stubbornness and lack of empathy shown by The avatars first earth bending master trying to trigger the avatar state by pushing him emotionally to far
4. This is the big one the air nomads detached themselves from Wordly concerns and find peace in freedom this however lead to them being caught off guard by the fire nation. Although the masters may have heard rumours it’s in the air nomads culture to ignore the rest of the world to focus on freedom it’s why the fire nation are able to effectively take out almost all off them swiftly. Makes you think about the amazing world these writers created almost everything works when you peace together the events of the story
One thing I would have added was that Sozen's comet lined up with an Airbender holiday. That would create a reason that most air Nomads would have returned home only to be slaughtered.
My problem with aang being the last air bender is, even if the fire nation killed all the air benders, how did they kill the turtle duck Island thing, the in the past gave them the ability to bend the element and can take them away. We know that they can still be alive as seen in the last season.
They pretty much removed themselves from interfering in human culture. The only time even one of them does anything is season 3 with Aang. I think it's like some people believe in some religions. The deities start the world, and then they let things progress. They only get involved if something goes completely into the crapper.
What I don't get, is how there aren't Air Nomads who aren't benders, and how there aren't Airbenders who aren't Air Nomads. I know the official explanation for the first point, is that they're such a spiritual people, that they all have bending, but how can we *KNOW* somebody is going to be a spiritual/enlightened person from birth? And what about those who don't want to be monks/nuns and just want to be free and live their own lives? What about those who left and settled in other nations and had families there? What if they had children and some of those children were born with Airbending and grew up in, Ba Sing Se, for example? Even if someone was born to monks/spiritual people, it doesn't mean they want to be that way, or that that lifestyle will suit them. And I don't believe in a person being forced to follow a certain path based on factors beyond their own control such as where they're born, or who their parents are. There has to be some Airbenders who don't believe in forcing their children into a certain lifestyle or indoctrinating them into a certain belief system from the time they're too young to question it. So there's definitely people born of Air Nomads who are not spiritual, and there's definitely people who would be born as Airbenders without being part of the Air Nomad culture or growing up in the temples.
6:56 actually no... flying is a technique very few air benders mastered (I think there are 2 characters we know of) and you couldn't use gliders either, you would be recognized immediately so you would have to walk.
Consider these guys lived on mountain temples away from civilization, they would've to walk, we have no idea how far, to civilization while being hunted down by a military force and blend in with a culture you don't know anything about and not draw ANY suspicion. Oh yeah, and your traditional tattoos? Good luck surviving with those
Another fan theory is that since airbending has a very spiritual and an uplifted free spirit requirement in order to bend, since the survivors gave up both their airbending meditations and monk heritage and integrated themselves into a foreign nation to escape the fire nation, they were neither physically nor spiritually free and thus lost the ability to airbend. And they didn't pass on the knowledge to their children to protect them from the fire nation. Thus when harmonic convergence happened, all the airbenders who emerged are descendants of the survivor airbenders whose abilities were reawakened. As Aang said, if you can't get enough spirituality, just go to a more spiritual place. Harmonic Convergence the entire world more spiritual by linking the physical and spiritual realm.
The surviving air benders hid in they earth kingdom, But due to the lack of being able to freely air bend they lost the ability to bend air completely.
Just an idea and a possible solution to Korra's story during book 3.
This was addressed in the comics, taking place between S1E16 and S1E17, where they had these huts up in the mountains with pilfered air nomad goods, then had some at a market nearby to lure lone nomads up there, then get ambushed by fire nation soldiers. It's really sad, but good world building.
Some did escape, they hid their bending by becoming less spiritually inclined, and their descendances didn't have much of any spiritual influence and air bending basically became a recessive gene, and that's how air benders came back in Korra.
When a huge spiritual event happens it forced people to deal with spiritual stuff basically awakening air bending in them.
There some fair points, but I'm going to respectfully disagree.
Sure, the air nomads more than likely saw the writing on the wall, hence why they were rushing to tell Aang he was the avatar, even if they were fighting with one another over what to do with him (mostly Gyatso vs everyone else). And it's not like they didn't fight the good fight, there were too many skeletons around Gyatso's and there is a suspicious lack of corpses outside the building, though I'm guessing others took them away (both Fire Nation soldiers and Air Nomads to do what their culture do to their deceased) while the more powerful monks stalled.
Sozin was ruthless when it came to achieving his goal of "sharing the Fire Nation's prosperity" with the rest of the world, and lived for another 20 years and would stop at nothing to wipe out the Air Nomads. Yes, there were airbenders who weren't at the Temples, many went into hiding, and still hunted them down until extinction. Some did manage to assimilate, as some, including myself, believe that Ty Lee is a descendant of an airbender who went into hiding with a relatively high-ranking Fire Nation Noble who didn't actually agree with Sozin's rule, though they would've to lay really low in order to live, which means no bending, nor telling anyone about their status. Even if some managed to reproduce, it's possible they died before being able to pass on their bending knowledge and the kids' remaining families just never mentioned it out of fear of the Fire Nation.
I agree with the points on how people could air bend, but that doesn’t totally align with if they would (while there was such persecution against air benders). It’s like the episode where Katara imitates and earth bender to infiltrate the prison, but with death being the end result instead of (more likely) imprisonment
Another point of if people could air bend is whether or not people could learn to bend as the original benders (those learning from animals, not given power by spirits) did or Zuko did in the case of lightning
If I remember correctly, the fire nation only knew about the comet because of the information from the library. And this was the reason it was sunk into the desert. Big Owl dude was pissed that info was used to start a war. And remember, it was 100 years after the attack. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the ones that survived, when learning of the traps being set for them, would hide their abilities and tell their children to aswell. Eventually leading to the next generations not even knowing they were Airbenders or knowing never to show their abilities for fear of their lives.
I wonder if some survived as members of the White Lotus? That group doesn't too much screen time, other a few key players we meet throughout the series. Their identities would have to be secret, at least until Ozai is defeated. Maybe some even gave up their cultures, as you suggested, to blend in.
Coming from the other direction, maybe they died defending their Sky Bison, capable of flying, but very trackable. Appa is also the last of them, and they're tied to Airbending, so definitely deeply linked to their culture.
One thing I thought would have probably saved the air benders is if some of them went to the Northern Water Tribe who have very spiritual traditions which the air nomads would have an easier time adapting. That way the spiritual connection can keep the Air Bending alive during the 100 year war but have their smaller numbers diminish that way there can be a few airbenders not enough to fill up the temples but to give Aang hope the Air Nation to be revived.
Also add an Airbending kid to team Avatar to learn and eventually revive them by the time Korra is around.
There was a scrapped episode from season 1 that ended up as a comic. Where Aang hears about an air nomad hideout, but turns out be admiral Zhao who taunts him about how his people fell for traps so easily.
I think because the Airbender normally live in the cloud that they do not have the same logic that a person on earth would have because the airbenders seem to not have the same experience and they have very little trouble so I think if they were more down to Earth and the experience the things that a person people experience they would know what to do instead because the have the Avatar that put all their hopes on him because they don't have the same mentality that normal person would
I feel like even if some of the air nomads were to escape, and survive with the fire nation hunting them, if they reproduced, air benders wouldn't be able to "come back" because the reason that air nomads were able to even airbend was because of the lifestyle they had. To me, the story of the nomads makes sense, definitely makes you think, enjoyed the video. You definitely earned a new sub from me
They explained in in Korah. A great wound was dealt to the force and caused unbalance then harmonic convergence happened and everyone that was supposed to be an air bender suddenly was one. Like people at age 50 just suddenly had air bending powers
I’ve heard a theory that Tai Li (I can’t spell) was a descendant of an air bender. Due to facial structure, but also her care free nomadic lifestyle is very similar to that of the Air Nomads. And she loves acrobatics and knows about chi on a level close to air benders
Bro they did such a good job making it seem natural that even as you’re explaining it I’m thingking ok why shouldn’t he be the last one then it hit me 4 whole air temples full and not 1 SINGLE survivor other than aang? That doesn’t make sense the air benders must not have been fit to live in the world if they got wiped out so thoroughly
This makes me think of a fanfiction I read in it all the nations had their spirit and they believed it like Agni for fire and tui and la for water so on but the air nomads didn’t believe in their spirit and it messed with him I forget how but with this in mind and how they come back in korra it could be the universe was tryna reset the air Benders for breaking the balance somehow
Yeah, realistically some would have went into hiding and probably never air bend again. over 3- 4 generations plus they would also would only survive if they have not had the tattoos yet that would give them away that they were airbenders. Not to mention some kids could have escaped, its impossible to 100% genocide on any population, but they also had bison for life so they would also would only survive if they did not have a big animal that also doesn't give them away since they are for life. Not to mention Earth benders probably would have sheltered a few of them, it would have been cool if they hinted that 3-4 generations that some were hiding but could not fully master air bending but could be renowned sportsman or something due to breath work and lung capacity. Since I bet they would take advantage of those air-bend natural abilities without using it as a martial arts.
There's a trope in modern storytelling regarding acceptance.... Especially with wise noble characters who are aware of the coming danger..... We see Yoda given prophetic visions and warning of Order 66 and doesn't make contingencies or alter course, and like the other pacifist Airbenders allow destiny to unfold, seeing any attempt to alter the "will of the force" to go against their core principles.
Guru Pathik clearly comes from a place that isn't one of the four nations. Since he knew Gyatso, it stands to reason that the airbenders were perhaps the only people in contact with Pathik's home region. Maybe because it is far enough across a sea that its only reachable by flying. Maybe the survivors fled there.
I think it’s plausible that they were all wiped out, just not on the day of Sozin’s comet. Some likely escaped or weren’t there. But over the course of the next 100 years the fire nation likely set traps for the air benders, hunted them down, and paid a lot of money to people who would hunt them down. We’ve seen the fire nation use bounty hunters before, so they could get into areas like Ba sing se, or omashu, heck the fire nation could’ve hired bounty hunters from those cities. I think it would’ve been cool for there to be airbenders in the North Pole though, I think it’d make sense for them to live there.
I've said to myself, during these invasions, at least a thousand Airbenders escaped and found refuge in the other nations. Some inevitably being caught but others for a means to suppress their abilities to the point that they generally forgot how to airbend and THEN that leads into Korra's story arc for Book 3.
Also, Azulon (not Sozin) & the Fire Nation had to be held in check for the better part of 50-60 years by some organization or group cos there is no way a civilization that advanced & powerful takes a century to finally have a full-scale war.
This is why we need a series following these exact events within the timeline during Aang's frozen stasis.
Honestly, in my head canon, the Airbenders that came about during Korra were all descendent from Air Nomads than survived the initial assault and they were unable to airbend prior to convergence because the Air Nomad way of life was lost and we are their ancestors that could airbend have died. So, they lack the spiritual connection needed to airbend. So, when convergence happened and new spiritual energy began flowing back into the world, he awoken the hidden connection these characters had to prior Air Nomads. If there was an airbender alive after Aang was dethawed, we would be talking a child or grandchild of an air nomad.
However, as for knowing what is going on, they did allow Aang (who the heads knew as the Avatar) go into the Fire Nation as a kid. So, they may have no known to what extent or they didn't want the Fire Nation to know what child was the Avatar.
Another small issue I find in the logic of the show is just how far the fire nation got with their ambitions, the first attacks on the world/Earth kingdom were made when Roku was still alive and we know about his incompetence for not killing Sozin n not shutting down those plans entirely but you’d think the rest of the world or at least the Earth Kingdom and their territories would buckle up something serious because Roku would’ve had to die at some point, meaning sozin or his heirs would be free to continue their plans,wasn’t like the fire nations aggression was a surprise, other than the attacks on the air nomads and even still
Most of the other nations by the time we see them are scared of the fire nation. This would make them not want to harbor people who could make it so the fire nation attacks their area next. Also, any master airbender would be be super easy to spot, I mean, they have tattoos on their forehead and hands, both super easy things to see. As for Ba Sing Se, we can assume that some airbenders were here during the comet. However, my fan theory is that the Earth King or Queen told them they would offer them sanctuary and actually turned them over to the fire nation in a deal with Sozin. He wouldn't attack Ba Sing Se is there were no airbenders there. This could have been a lure for airbenders seeking safety. We also can assume that Ba Sing Se attacks didn't start until after Sozin had pasted, as Iroh did lead one of the best attacks on the city. Also, as most things in the avatar universe are related to reach other, it would tie in really well to when The Earth Queen in Legend of Korra was mistreating airbenders.
Assuming all of the airbending masters were either killed, as they were super easy to spot, or in amazing hiding, they probably didn't have children, knowing that their kids would also have to hide any abilities if they had them and could also be killed. Lets say they did have kids, we know all air nomads are airbenders due to their deep spiritual connection. When they are losing hope and being murdered, would they still keep that deep connection? So would their child even be born with bending? We know just an airbender losing touch with spiritually heavily weakens their airbendering. (Kyoshi's mother having to use fans because her airbending was so weakened)
Also, most seem to become masters between 13-17 years old, so they would be young and trying to survive on their own. Plus, they aren't masters yet. The comics had a scene showing how these people were lured and captured. They are young and never had to survive on their own, let alone with a target on their back. The card games actually go over a young airbender who fought the fire nation, she survived for a few years, she couldn't forever.
While there could be other airbenders by the time Aang is born, that is my theories.
You underestimate how powerful comet boosted fire benders are
A theory I saw is that the nomads integrated into a bunch of different societies and hid their bending. After a 100 years if there was anyone who could still airbend, they didn't know about it, or where told that airbending us dangerous and never to use it. That's where the airbenders cane from during harmonic convergence, they were people who had air nomads for ancestors but after so many years of not bending, the ability was supressed completely. The harmonic convergence simply unlocked those abilities in people who already had the potential for it.
Let's not forget that instance of phenomenon of random people getting air bending abilities, but that didn't happen until after Aang's era.
There is also the angle of an alternate generation of airbenders as a result of any possibly fled air bison. Kind of like Toph's gaining of earth bending being very unlike other earth benders that were shown at that point in the show since hers was a gift from an animal known to gift the ability to earth bend. And the mentality of non-traditional bending can be seen in characters such as the swamp water benders, or the blood bender, or the act of metal bending being very different from standard earth bending, and the fact that Korra shows what air benders can do when not attached to that monk background- it doesn't suddenly go away because of a lack of spirituality.
Other parties have also brought up that the fire nations' method of targeting air benders included luring them into secluded spaces, but if even one survived an encounter like that then it would raise the question as to why or how they would fall for it again and not just avoid anything that was connected to that culture.
People bringing up Ti Lee potentially being a descendant to air benders would also make sense based on her paralyzing ability and how it could very much be her method of using air bending that she is unaware of having, especially since the attack itself has movements that could be considered a combination of earth bending and water bending choreography. {as for why it's as close to that as it is I could not tell you because last I remember she's from the fire nation and would likely not have taken notes from either nations.}