Airbender
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Airbender is a collective term for an order of people in the fictional universe of the Nickelodeon animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender. As members of the Air Nomads race, they are heirs to the martial art of Airbending, the aerokinetic ability to control currents of air.[1][2]
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[edit] Origin
It is said that Airbenders first learned their Arts from the Flying Bison, a sacred creature in the Air Nomads' culture. The Bison typically use their massive beaver-like tail to create gusts of wind, and as the name suggests, can fly without any visible means of propulsion. It is also said that the Airbenders had borrowed the arrow mark from the Flying Bison for their tattoos. These tattoos symbolize a person's mastery of the airbending art.
[edit] Fighting style
Airbending is based on the Ba Gua style of martial arts with a small hint of Hsing Yi, also known as "mind heart boxing."[3] These martial arts feature swift, evasive maneuvers that evoke the intangibility and explosive power of wind, drawing energy from the center of the abdomen. Ba Gua, which utilizes circle walking, is known for its constantly circular movement which makes it difficult for opponents to attack directly. Maneuvers employ the entire body with smooth coiling and uncoiling movements utilizing dynamic footwork, open-hand techniques, and throws. Ba Gua, with its soft, flowing movements and method of turning an opponent's energy against him, bears some resemblance to T'ai Chi, but tends to be more spontaneous and dynamic overall. Unlike other bending disciplines, airbending lacks fatal finishing moves, being an almost entirely defensive art.[4]
By using circular, evasive movements, Airbenders build up massive inertia; this buildup of energy is released with massive power. It also allows for wind-based counterattacks that knock opponents off-balance, mimicking the wind itself which transforms, coalesces, or disperses when coming close to being subdued. Attacks vary from simple gusts of wind to miniature tornadoes and cyclones. A common defensive tactic is to circle enemies, suddenly changing direction when attacked and deflecting as needed by throwing up gusts of air as a shield. Airbenders enhance their movement in battle, and can run swiftly by decreasing wind resistance, jump high and far by conjuring gusts of wind, cushion falls by creating cushions of air, and even sprint across or up vertical surfaces by generating a wind current behind themselves.[5] Master Airbenders can create vortices to entrap and disorient opponents, as well as massively destructive whirlwinds.[6] Avatar Level Airbenders can create massive tornadoes and hurricanes at will. Unlike other nations, who only rarely use weapons with their bending, airbenders commonly use their signature staffs to augment their powers in battle.[7] Metal fans can also be used in combination with airbending.
Airbending is the most passive of the four arts, as many of its techniques center around evading and eluding the opponent and is the opposing bending art to Earthbending. While the Airbenders avoid or deflect oncoming attacks, Earthbenders absorb them, or overwhelm them with superior force.
Like all of the bending arts, Airbending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory.
[edit] Elemental Symbol
The symbol for Air and Airbending is a closed, clockwise, inverted triple spiral triskele. This symbol is seen on the pendant on Monk Gyatso's prayer beads. It also seems to resemble a tomoe.
[edit] Techniques
[edit] The Glider
Aang possesses a small glider that can fold into a more portable staff. These staffs/gliders are hand-carved and crafted by Airbender monks.[8]
In glider form, Aang can use it in conjunction with Bending to hover and even fly as long as he has the strength to Airbend. As a normal staff, it can be used as a weapon in battle, to aid in Bending, and even as a levitation aid when spun above the head, like a helicopter propeller.
[edit] The Air Scooter
The Air Scooter, a form of ground transportation invented by Aang himself, is a spherical "ball" of air that one can ride. In a flashback in the episode, The Storm, Aang tries to teach this move to his Airbending friends. They all fail, at first, but eventually they master the art and develop a game that requires the air scooter to play. Aang says one must balance on it like a top. He has used the technique in many episodes, usually to overcome vertical surfaces, including in The Drill in order to run up the wall of Ba Sing Se. The Air Scooter is also shown to be capable of levitating in the air. The Air Scooter first appeared in, "The Avatar Returns", where Aang uses it to escape Zuko's ship. It was Aang's invention of this technique that subsequently earned him his tattoos and title of a master at such a young age.
[edit] Spirituality and Airbending
Young Airbenders are raised in one of the four Air Temples, at each corner of the globe, hidden away atop mountain ranges on remote islands. The Northern and Southern Air Temples are exclusively male, and staffed by Airbender monks, who instruct young Benders in their art. According to reports from Comic Con 2005, the Eastern and Western Air Temples are exclusively female. However in "The Storm", it was decided that Aang would finish his training at the Eastern Air Temple, and it was at the same temple where he, along with several other young boys, was first introduced to his animal companion, Appa.
Airbenders who have mastered the element are marked as such by blue tattoos striping along the head and limbs, terminating in an arrow on the forehead, backs of the hands, and the tops of the feet. Male monks sport completely shaven heads, and female Airbenders shave their foreheads, but leave the back of their hair uncut. A female Airbender can be seen in the episode, "The Avatar State," Book Two, Chapter One. In "Appa's Lost Days", through a flashback, an Airbender nun, Sister Iio, is shown to be in charge of the Female Airbenders of the Eastern Air Temple.
Though this ritual is probably not exclusive to Air Nomadic culture, when the Avatar reincarnation is to be an Air Nomad, the Air Monks test Airbender children to see if they are the reincarnation of the Avatar by asking them to select toys out of thousands. If the child selects the toys used in previous incarnations, the Avatar has been found. Traditionally, knowledge of his or her identity as Avatar is kept from the child until age sixteen. (This same test is used by Tibetan Buddhist monks when a reincarnated Dalai Lama is expected.(See Dalai Lama)
Air Nomads generally espouse a philosophy of conflict avoidance and respect for all forms of life. (comparable to the Jain/Buddhist/Hindu concept of Ahimsa[9]) This accounts for Airbending's stress on defensive maneuvers and its apparent lack of fatal finishing attacks. Due to the spirituality of the Air Nomads in accordance to the size of its population, every Air Nomad retains bending abilities. The Air Nomads have the smallest population but the most increased spirituality while benders in general make up only a small percentage of the larger, more populous nations. Furthermore, meditation was a vital part of an Airbenders' daily routines, as it helped them to focus their energies and understand the potency of and get in touch with their element.
[edit] The Last Airbender
A century before the time of the series, the Air Benders were the victims of genocide at the hands of the Fire Nation. The temples were invaded, and all the Airbender monks slaughtered in an effort to break the Avatar's cycle of reincarnation and ensure the Fire Nation's victory in their imperialist war.
Ironically, the only known survivor of the massacre is the very person the Fire Nation sought to kill in its quest for supremacy: the twelve-year-old Airbender and Avatar, Aang, had run away from home shortly before the war began in earnest and became trapped in suspended animation, frozen in an iceberg near the South Pole. He has since been awoken from sleep, and begun a quest to restore balance and peace to the warring nations.
The last known vestiges of Airbender culture include one surviving Flying Bison, Appa, and one winged lemur, Momo, both of whom are Aang's pets. The abandoned Northern Air Temple has since been colonized by displaced Earth Kingdom citizens, led by The Mechanist. The Eastern Air Temple is inhabited by Guru Pathik, who claims to be an old friend of Monk Gyatso.
[edit] Notable Airbenders
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "The Boy in the Iceberg". Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- ^ "The Avatar Returns". Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- ^ AvatarSpirit.net Interview with Sifu Kisu, Martial Arts Consultant
- ^ Nickelodeon's Official Avatar: The Last Airbender Airbending Guide feat. Sifu Kisu
- ^ "The Drill". Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- ^ "The King of Omashu". Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- ^ Official Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender website
- ^ "Bitter Work". Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- ^ http://www.dlshq.org/teachings/ahimsa.htm
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