Airbending is Underestimated and The Most Inclusive Element in Avatar! 

Honestly Aang's enemies should be thankful he was pacifist

I would do anything for more seasons of Ang’s adult life...

I was always annoyed that "sound-bending" was never explored. Sound is literally just air vibrations, so an air-bender should be able to do anything from creating zones of silence to creating explosively loud noises.

That's why airbenders had to be nomads so they don't go around choking people.

It really is underestimated, cuz everyone viewed it as the kindest and most simplest element, until Zaheer started to fly and suffocate ppl.

If they Air Nomads wanted to, they could have conquered the world way faster than 100 years. Lucky for everyone, they’re innately peaceful.

honestly surprised that super-speed wasn't mentioned... Aang did it when getting medicine for his friends, and it was played off as a sort of joke in in the show but an ability like that would be ridiculously useful

Not sure if it's canon but I'm convinced that the airbenders were pacifists not out of choice but out of necessity. They knew they needed to be pacifists to maintain balance, because air is crazy powerful. Also, it has been confirmed that the characters can't see the air being bent; the animation is for the audience's benefit only.

Aang wasn't the only Airbender. Appa was also an Airbender

It's sad to see the air nomadic culture, teachings and beliefs being swept away and replaced with offensive and aggressive attacks. I'm glad to see there is still some of the culture left through aangs family.

I’ve always been baffled that the writers never thought of sound bending. It’s the perfect answer to lightning bending, blood bending, and metal bending for air benders. Sound is just vibrations in the air, so it makes sense that a skilled air bender would be able to manipulate those vibrations. Such a technique would allow an air bender to create audio illusions to trick their combatants, which falls in line with the air benders’ pacifistic teachings. With this technique, one could create mimicry noises, redirect sounds, or maybe even throw their voice to whisper secret messages into a distant person’s ear. On the more hostile end of things, a sound bender could create loud, piercing tones to stagger enemies, and even cause deafness. The creative possibilities are immense!

In the show we have seen many ways to disarm benders: For earthbenders, remove the earth. Keep them in a metal or wooden platform in the sea. For waterbenders, keep them in a dry hot place. For firebenders, keep them in a cold damp place. But you cannot disarm an airbender, since air is everywhere. Airbenders can bend their own breath, literally creating shockwaves just by blowing air off their lungs. To supress an airbender you would have to kill them.

Airbending is definitely the stealthiest element you can make silent footsteps, use astral projection for espionage, use invisible attacks, and kill someone silently.

You forgot the part where Zaheer LITERALLY FLIES.

If an Airbender went crazy, they could increase air pressure and rupture ears or force air into people's lungs making them explode. Furthermore, by creating a vacuum, water and fire are completely neutralized.

Airbending is the most underestimated element in avatar cuz they had a pretty good sense of humour 😂😂

I think the choking technique would be really effective against fire benders since it seems like breathing is an important aspect to their art.

I just want to add that when aang was fighting lord Ozai in the avatar state, he literally threw an airblast strong enough to blow right through pillars of stone

I am impressed with Aang's willingness and ability to stick to his non-lethal principles, but I am also impressed with Yang Chen's practicality. "You have a job to do, just cap him for the greater good."

Storms are hot air, mixing with cold air. Hurricanes and tornadoes are storms that mix at super increased speeds. Airbenders could theoretically storm bend. Just putting that out there.

It was lucky the air benders were monks.... Imagine if they were imperial warriors 🤦‍♂️

Remember when sandbenders took Appa, Aang's emotions were out of control. He was so mad that he killed a giant bee with his airbending. He didn't push it, because it died on impact. Like an air slash. It was really a powerful scene because knowing Aang, he doesn't want to kill anything if possible. All life is precious to him, but he was beyond his limits. Appa being his best friend and last memory of his past, we can understand why. So in my opinion, air is the dominant element. It can slash through anything and is basically everywhere.

Didn't the Lion Turtle mention that the different forms of bending are actually one? The differences are simply constructed by humans. For example if you have complete control of air can't you vibrate individual molecules of oxygen fast enough to heat them up and set them on fire? Edit- Guru Pathik: Even the separation of the four elements is an illusion. If you open your mind, you will see that all the elements are one. Four parts of the same whole. Even metal is just a part of earth that has been purified and refined.

While Zaheer’s suffocation technique was slow and ineffective in combat, it was a makeshift version. If you look at the scene where Aang discovers Gyatso’s body, we notice a few things. There were dozens of fire nation bodies, no structural damage and no scorch marks anywhere on Gyatso or the room. These were dozens of Sozin’s comet empowered fire benders, yet no visible fire damage. Explanation, he created a large scale vacuum that suffocated all of the fire benders, as well as preventing their flames. He kept up the vortex until he died of exhaustion (he was an old man after all), taking dozens of fire benders with him in the process. In that vortex, fire wouldn’t work since there’s no oxygen, water would freeze before it could be bent effectively, and all other benders would quickly suffocate, without enough time to focus on their bending. This technique could possibly be the greatest crowd control and negation move in all of bending. It could effectively counter most benders, even techniques with superior fire power such as lava or combustion bending would be useless if the bender was caught in the vortex. This is of course all hypothetical, but it’s crazy to think that there’s a potential air bending technique that could eclipse even blood bending in effectiveness.

I like the theory that the reason the people gifted with Airbending after Harmonic Convergence *only* hailed from the Earth Kingdom, is because they are actually descendants of Air Benders who fled the Air Temples during the genocide, or had possibly left before the genocide began. According to the Lost Adventures, released in 2011, many Airbenders actually survived the initial attack, probably those who were away from the temples on the day of the comet, as well as a few who may have fled. According to Zhao in the comic, the surviving Nomads were hunted down, or trapped, until only Aang remained, however knowing the Airbenders' philosophy and training of wit over muscle, and their pacifist nature, I find it very hard to believe that Sozin managed to kill every single one of them. In this theory, if you aren't already familiar, the story goes like this: The surviving nomads flee the air temples, and while some are captured and killed, others would have likely assimilated into Earth Kingdom towns and communities, fearing the consequences of being discovered... inevitably many of these nomads would have married or had children. These children would have all been half-earth kingdom, and due to the trauma of the genocide and the fear of Fire Nation, their Airbending abilities may have been suppressed, and over the years, subsequent generations would have had their Airbending completely bred-out due to the overwhelming gene pool of Earthbenders and non-benders in their bloodline. Keep in mind Airbending is a very spiritual element, unlike all of the other nations, Air Nomads were all benders due to their heightened spirituality, if something were to happen, and they were to lose that spirituality - say, if a war were to break out and all the airbenders were hunted down to near-extinction, it's possible that their children might not have inherited that spiritual connection, but would have still had the same genetic code that physically allowed them to bend. So then, a hundred and seventy-ish years after the genocide, harmonic convergence happens, and suddenly hundreds of (seemingly)random people who previously had no bending abilities whatsoever, suddenly became Airbenders overnight... coincidentally, all of them are Earth Kingdom citizens.... almost as if there were some event that would have connected the Earth Kingdom to Airbenders. Now, obviously, as all their airbending ancestors would have died over a century ago, it's impossible to know for sure that this is true... but, we do know the airbending lineage of at least one of the "new" airbenders - Bumi... Not the Earth King, but Aang's son... Bumi was born a non-bender, to a family composed entirely of benders, technically it is possible as Katara's family was made up of mostly non-benders, but keep in mind - all Air Nomads were born as benders... so it could be that Bumi was already an airbender, but due to a spiritual block, couldn't access his abilities. In other words, what if all the people who were "gifted" with Airbending, were actually already Airbenders, whose distant ancestors had lost their abilities due to a lack of connection to the spirits, and when Harmonic Convergence came, it simply re-opened their chi-paths by reconnecting them with the spirits. It's just a theory, but in my opinion, that explanation is a lot cooler, and makes a lot more sense than simply saying they were just "given" the abilities because spirit magic.

You know the REALLY terrifying thing about the asphyxiation technique? The guy was doing it wrong. If he just did it the other way around, forced excess air into the lungs instead of pulling it out, it would have instantly ruptured the majority of the alveoli and resulted in the victim coughing up blood, which would then wind up getting into any alvioli that survived the initial assault. That's a single instant attack that results in a fatal injury, even if it doesn't kill instantly. The aspyxiation technique would take around 2 minutes to kill a person, that's how much oxygen stays in the blood in terms of ability to keep the brain alive. Ending the technique any time before the 2 minutes passes means the brain survives and they can recover. As for the lung rupture technique I just described, it's a single move that's over in an instant and leaves them having to deal with choking on their own blood. It would take about the same 2 minutes for them to die, but they will not be able to recover on their own. Their only hope is to get a water bender to heal them, but seriously, what will the water bender do? They would have to force water into the damaged lungs. As such, the only healing method for the injury inflicted by this attack will only speed their death. There would be no way to survive after becoming the victim of the lung rupture technique.

10:12 a rather fast method of killing a person with air bending would be to force air into the lungs, instead of pulling it out. It doesn't matter how much you try to breathe if your lungs has completely ruptured.

Zaheer literally made Air Bending highly offensive and brutal...

I'm still mad there was never an airbender with a bow and arrow.

Air bending should have gotten sound bending as a secondary bending the way earth gets lava and metal, water gets blood, and fire gets lightning

Why don’t they just do a series with the earth bending avatar. Especially now with its rise in popularity

"never possessing a formal military..." *Shows Meelo with an army of lemurs* 😂😂😂😂😂

Airbenders can go from a gentle breeze to the might of tornado real quick.

Personally, I think that what Zaheer did to the Earth Queen was what Monk Gyatso did on a much larger scale with the Firebenders he killed. My thoughts is fire can't spread without air present and if he pulled all the air from the room they were in they could not fight back and all of them including Gyatso suffocated and died there.

“As Avatar Aang once said: when we hit our lowest point, we are open for the greatest change” Iroh who said it first: Am I a joke to you?

“But everything changed when the air nomads attacked” That would be tuff, especially when bending air out of someone’s lungs no one would stand a chance!

First and foremost, airbending is the only element that the enemy can't see. It is made visible for the viewers, but none of the characters in the series can not see the air, being bended. Which gives the air nomads the biggest advantage.

"You're breathtaking."

I just realized no one can even see the air they bend.

The thing is that the air bending aang does no one can actually see it, The Show Just Lets You See The Air Aang Bends so basically what I'm trying to say is that we can see the air bending on the screen but the characters in avatar can't see it

Honestly, if Airbenders didn't follow a "no kill" rule Tenzen would have obliterated Zahir and co.

It's 2019... I need my childhood back...

Yes . airbending can do earthbending and firebending. They just need to make the air lift the ground, throw the earth, lift and shape the water and put pressure on it

Friendly airbender: I am the eye of the storm Hostile airbender: I AM THE STORM

Fart bending is the most powerful

I often think it's a shame Airbending didn't have more of a presence in the story.

The whole choking thing Zaheer did was very underrepresented. It wouldn't in fact be a slow death. If an Airbender could, in fact, create a vacuum around your head strong enough, it could suck out way more than just air, it could rip your internal organs out and rupture your eardrums (and would only take seconds) leaving you completely useless. It is also shown that bending takes focus, stability and good breathing so removing any benders air-supply abruptly like that would leave them as incapable of fighting back as any non-bender, so as a dueling ability it is unparalleled because it has no counter (also a whirlwind that stong and close to your face would completely impair your vision and hearing also). Also, sudden pressure changes like that are able to outright kill a person by rupturing blood vessels in the brain. And the technique could easily be turned into a useful skill against multiple foes. I'm sure with enough practice a well-trained bender could create a dozen if not dozens of air pockets like that choking multiple people at a time. I'd also like to point out the inconsistency of the show in regards to how much effort a technique like that actually takes to pull off. Zaheer is shown having to constantly create motion with his hands to keep the sphere going, but it's basically an air scooter except you're not riding it but putting it on a person's head. Aang has been able to keep an air scooter going for an extended amount of time without performing any movement beyond the initial forming of the sphere which only takes about a second at most. So according to the world's own logic, an airbender should be able to almost instantly create a spere around their opponent's head and then either just watch silently as they die or use the diversion to get up and personal to deliver the final blow. Also, you could just reverse the process and instead of sucking out air push air into the opponent's body rupturing their lungs and potentially even their stomachs which no one would survive and would also only take a couple seconds to achieve with the right amount of force (which should be easy enough if you can already create a tornado and air pressure strong enough to knock people back several feet.

*Overall Airbending pros outside combat* - you can basically fly (multiple ways) - full 3D movement - potential superspeed - potential weather controll - cool tricks at parties

Love the video but I think you really skimmed past Monk Gyatso vs the Fire Nation soldiers too quickly. Remember, Monk Gyatso was able to take out a room full of Fire Nation soldiers DURING Sozin's Comet, where the soldiers would have been at the height of their power. If this doesn't show how truly powerful Air as an element is, idk what does. I've seen theories of how he did it and some that I have liked includes mass asphyxiation technique that Zaheer used on the Earth Queen OR sucking out all the oxygen in the room effectively taking out the fire, killing the soldiers, but also sacrificing himself. This explains why the soldiers are lying on the floor but his stance remains meditative. Again, love the video!!

Higher forms of air can be pressure, sound, flight (already seen), etc. I don't really think the astral projection is part of the airbending skill, doesn't connect to the element of air at all, but more on the character of an airbender.

as a kid, i always would rather be a firebender but as i grew older, i became more drawn to airbending and now i would definitely want to be a airbender

I think, if an airbender is talented and skilled enough, that they could possibly 'bend' other elements. Like how Aang used wind to blow away the large boulder that Toph launched at him (begore Aang learned to earthbend). Or if they understand the physics behind how fire and air interact, they could possibly use air to project fire (obviously from an existing source like a torch or attack from a firebender). Same for water, like how wind blows waves, an airbender could possibly manipulated how water moves, with the use of air. Can really go for about anything, since air is so versatile and possibly limitless with how it can interact with anything.

Air bending would be invisible under most circumstanstes but let's remember that multible factors can make it visible. 1. Dust. 2. Dirt. 3. Moister like a fog. 4. Cold tempertures

If an air bender controls all forms of air, then they could (in theory) control air vibrations and create a form of sound bending that could be good for offense

I believe that socca's boomerang is the most underrated tho it is just my opinion.

Aang is the best air bender he was so creative with his bending and everyone he went up against are lucky cuz if he was as ruthless as Zaheer no one would even stand a chance, fire lord Ozai would of lost in the first 2 minutes if aang redirected the lightning at him

Airbending was really powerful Until the fire nation attacked

Air bending is the most powerful in my opinion. I don't care what people say about bloodbending. Air bending has : Flight, Suffocation Vortex, Fire bending disabling (by taking all the oxygen out of the flame) , Heightened agility, Astral Spirit Projection (still debated, but we've only seen airbenders do it so far which is probably because air is "free", light and everywhere), Air blasts that can push many things back with deadly force, air storm, and tornado creation, and not to mention the ability to still have oxygen underwater by creating a protective seal around your head.

I'm surprised you didn't include when Aang took out that mosquito wasp. One of the most impressive display of force by an air bender in the show I think.

No one: 14 year old girls in the avatar universe:omg I was born into the wrong element I'm spiritually a airbender

Could use poisonous gas and send it literally anywhere. Stealth attacks, suffocation preventing fire benders from bending. Many many other things as well.

YES, FINALLY PPL GET IT Airbenders unite!!

Imagine being able to pull the air out of the lungs of an entire army

spoiler alert for the Rise of Kyoshi: the airbender that was Avatar Kuruk's companion, and the closest thing to a father figure to Avatar Kyoshi, Master Kelsang was able to single handedly defeated a fleet of bandits in the open sea atop his air bison by creating his own made storm to destroy the ships and drown the bandits, earning him the title of The Living Typhoon. all in the name of keeping the peace and balance of the world without an Avatar, as they were still in search for the next Avatar in the cycle. seems the world really gets thrown into chaos and imbalance without an active Avatar keeping the peace and order. come to think of it, while the Avatar spirit Raava, is at "rest" or "inactive" like while the Avatar is still being searched for in the case of Kyoshi that took them too long to search and recognize (apparently the longest search in recorded history), or gone for a 100 years in the case of Aang, or even Korra's state of major injury and depression in just 3 year's time, Vaatu's influence, even when imprisoned or gone for the moment, would already start to spread.

I always knew it's really strong and Aang is just so defensive fighter so it may not always seem so powerful. But hell, I really wanted Airbenders to invent Sound Bending. Although it would probably be about as OP as blood bending and Zaheer was already a total monster without it.

Id be a great Airbender. I can dodge and evade conversations like no other. Edit: Thank you fellow airbenders for the likes :)

Elemental fighting types: Water: Neutral as it can be defensive and offensive with lots of flexibility. Earth: Mostly Defensive but has lots of ulility. Fire: Very offensive and can be very destructive yet beautiful. Air: Defensive/Evasive with fast movements that assist in avoiding/warding off attacks and enemies.

Avatar : The last Airbender Appa "are you kidding me? " 😂😂

It’s literally my favorite element, and I’ve been saying it’s overpowered forever

"When we hit our lowest point we are open to the greatest change" Great quote.

Can we just get an avatar show about the events after the last airbender and the events leading up to legend of korra ?? That would be awsome

The sheer freeform-ness and creativity of Airbending is why it's my favorite bending. Soundbending is just, INFINITE potential.

Airbending could instantly collapse the lungs killing automatically.

Air is my favourite element. It sucks how it's seen as so weak and even potrayed that way in the show, which is disappointing. I believe it's the most powerful and the strongest element, maybe that's the reason why they're pacifists. Scratch that, Air IS the most powerful and strongest element. They know their power and strength but it's still disappointing how people still outshined aang (almost) constantly unless he was in his avatar state or using other elements. It's the most underrated and overlooked element. Even people who are disagreeing still miss the whole point (mostly cuz they refuse to listen).

as you have shown in one of the clips, aang was angry and used his airbending to cut a moth. We rarely see airbending beingg used to cut but a master certaintly could cut anything...

Bro, imagine how OP Airbendimg would be if the air nomads werent pacifists and went full out war veterans

Please do Chiblocking. You are doing all the bending. You plan to do what binds them together. So why not do what tears them down.

Zaheer was ridiculously overpowered. All that with virtually no training time or learning curve. Talk about a Gary Sue.

Zaheer was deeply spiritual about his beliefs, it is no surprise to me how quickly he mastered air bending or that he could use it for a malevolent purpose.

"When we hit our lowest point, we are open to the greatest chnage."

Airbending was always my fav bending, I love the movement they do with it. From I saw Aang, Tenzin and Zaheers prowess I fell in love.

The fire lord new their power and potential that’s why he waited for the comet to kill them all

"Gyatso taking several fire benders lives" thats an understatement

Here's my biggest question about airbender culture: how were children born? Did the monks and nuns date? Were there special nuns for carrying babies a la Handmaids Tale? I want to know more about the relationship structure.

SliceofOtaku: With spiritual projection, an air bender can spiritually traverse elsewhere in mere SECONDS, completely unhindered by WALLS, CLIMATE, TERRAIN or even SOLID OBJECTS! All the while still retaining the ability to communicate with others. It can be considered the greatest air bending technique ever created! Tenzin: (uses the telephone) SliceofOtaku: ....

What about sahir's ability to fly freely? I feel like that's the ultimate Airbending tecniche , just to remind you that Aang's master killed many firebenders before they died and that they were at 200% capacity thanks to the comet sozin just wanted to remind them that to take away many firebender with him it was a real beast.

Yeah, air bending gets completely overshadowed by the other nations advanced techniques like lightening, metal, and blood bending.

i really wish the new airbenders connect to their spirituality like the first ones did

imagine the potential for combat techniques like altering how air carries vibrations like sound waves to amplify them offensively or high and low air compression altering to mess with the breathing of who they fight, or compress air and use it to launch like a hard projectile?

Zaheer is my favorite character off of Korra. He was so wise but that wisdom gave him tunnel vision.

"No one has ever faced an airbender in combat" Any lawyer in ace attorney: Incredible! everything you said was wrong!

Okay, remember when they are getting clothes in the fire nation? Aang puts on a crazy costume and he says: “all I need now, is to airbend a blade onto this sword!” Which displays that air can be compressed and sharpened. Kind of the same way water is used to cut things, air could probably do this better even. I think the gliders they use, don’t need to be crafted with wood, and could even just be made of air itself.

asphixiation, true flight, possibility of another technique similar to blood bending, aerokinesis (using air to simulate telekinesis), alternate bending techniques: sound bending and weather bending.

Video ideas: - chi blocking - animals in the avatar universe - villians of the avatar universe (fire king ozai, amon, oonalock, vatoo, zahirr, kuveria, min the conquror, koh the face stealer, azula, ausamis dad -heros of the avatar universe (avatars, team avater 1, team avater 2) -non benders (pama, may, june , sokka, ausami - last of all... CaBbAgE mAn

Just finished watching this series and it's really great! You always manage to find lots of amazing clips that go right with your dialogue (on a side note, seeing clips side by side really drives home the fact that Korra's animation is better, and, man, I can appreciate that!)

Just wanted to say I'm glad your channels back. I've missed many of your Avatar video's.

Air Bending is definitely the best bending form. Water Bending has a few OP specialties in it. Earth Bending has the most utility effects, like being able to instantly build a stone house. But overall, Air Bending is just the best. It has magnificent defense, it has the ability to do "stun" damage, even in a high-level fight, and flight is the best of all powers. If you don't like what's going on where you are, you can just leave! Bye, Felicia!

Only realized now that monk kiatsu (idk the real spelling) is so powerful to defeat a lot of firebenders at close range during sozins comet time. Maybe he used zaheer's style of drawing air from all of their lungs at once so the area is not that damaged.

Air bender should be able to blood bend for blood delivers oxygen lol

Loved the video! You're absolutely right, and I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt that airbending had a lot more to it that people may have ignored.