Airbending
- † indicates deceased.
- Avatar Yangchen †
- Avatar Kuruk †
- Avatar Kyoshi †
- Avatar Roku †
- Avatar Aang †
- Avatar Korra (In Training)
- Monk Gyatso †
- Jinju †
- Air Nomad Boy †
- Tenzin
- Appa
- Monk Pasang †
- Monk Tashi †
- Unnamed Fire Avatar †
 |  |
 | |
Airbending | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Source | Air |
| Learned from | Flying Bisons |
Contents[show] |
Notable Airbenders 
Edit
Origin Edit
It is said that Airbenders first learned their bending 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, and are given to a practitioner once their training is complete. Unlike other nations, all Air Nomads are born Airbenders, due to the high amount of spirituality infused in the culture. On Aang's wanted poster in The Blue Spirit and Sozin's scroll in The Avatar and the Fire Lord, the word Airbending is written as 截氣神功 (jié qì shén gōng) which translates as "The Divine Ability to Halt Air", while the word Airbender is written as 風脅功師 (fēng xié gōng shī) which translates as "Wind-Coercing Master".
Fighting Style Edit
Added by RenatablsBa Gua, which utilizes circle walking (the idea behind it being the act of walking the Eight Trigrams), is known for its constant circular movement, which makes it difficult for opponents to attack directly or land a blow. Since it's always maneuvering, nobody can get a solid hold-on of this maneuver. Maneuvers employ the entire body with smooth coiling and uncoiling movements, utilizing dynamic footwork, open-hand techniques, punches and throws. A common tactic is to maneuver behind an opponent and mirror their movements, preventing them from turning to face the practitioner.
Unlike other bending disciplines, Airbending is almost entirely a defensive art, similar to its practitioners and is the most dynamic of all other elements.
According to Iroh, air is the element of freedom.
Airbending Abilities Edit
Air Manipulation: By using circular, evasive movements, Airbenders build up massive momentum; this buildup of energy is released as massive power. It also allows for wind-based counter-attacks that knock opponents off-balance, mimicking the sudden directional shifts of air currents. Attacks vary from simple gusts of wind to miniature
Added by ThailogAir Barrier: This is a more powerful defensive technique where the entire body is surrounded by a dome of air that deflects attacks from all directions.
Air Marbles: A technique used by Aang. He causes two or more marbles to spin in a circle between his hands in an attempt to impress people. He rarely does it. It could however be used to shoot small objects, like marbles, at very high speeds, similar to a bullet.
Added by RenatablsAir Punch/Kick: Another more offensive move than is typical of Airbending discipline, air punches or air kicks are small, compressed formations of air that can be fired off the fists or feet of an Airbender. This is similar to many Firebending abilities and the air blast, yet in the sense that it involves the firing of compressed or solidified air at an enemy in a non-continuous fashion i.e. the bender does not create a single great stream of air. This move is seen in the episode "Nightmares and Daydreams" when Aang produces several air punches in rapid succession towards a practice-Fire Lord dummy.
Added by RenatablsAir Suction: A technique used to bring people or things towards the airbender. It is used by Aang in many episodes, like "The Boy in the Iceberg" and "The Library", when he pulled Professor Zei out of harm's way, and "The Warriors of Kyoshi", when Aang takes up the fans dropped on the ground when he was fighting Zuko.
Breath of Wind: Very similar to the standard air jet but created from the mouth and lungs. It requires extremely good breath control to employ effectively. Size and focus is more easily controlled, including narrow jets that can strike targets as small as insects, to large gale force gusts capable of cooling magma into solidified rock. This has been exhibited by both Aang and Roku.
Enhanced Speed: Airbenders enhance their movement in battle; they can run swiftly by decreasing air resistance around them and even sprint across or run up vertical surfaces by generating a wind current behind themselves to propel them forward. Aang has been shown using this to run many times faster than an average human and maintain this for very long periods, allowing him to travel long distances without gliding or jumping. When used by a skilled Airbender, this technique can enable the Airbender using it to travel at a speed almost too swift for the naked eye to be able to see properly. A master Airbender can use this technique to briefly run across water, as shown by Aang in "The Warriors of Kyoshi".
Enhanced Agility: Air movements can also be used as a levitation aid. Airbenders jump high and far by riding on strong gusts of wind and can slow or deflect falls by creating cushions of air. The constant movement required by this art makes airbenders naturally flexible and agile. Even without bending they can easily maneuver around an opponent by ducking, jumping, and side stepping, appearing to flow around their opponents without expending any energy at all, letting the opponent tire themselves out and thus creating exploitable openings. This conservation of energy combined with high stamina gives them an advantage in prolonged combat. Toph Bei Fong, a blind Earthbender who uses her bending to tell where people are walking or running in relation to her, once told Aang that she could easily identify his walk by the fact that he has a very light step.
Added by RenatablsAir Ball: An airbender can create a compressed ball of air by moving their hands together in a circular motion. This technique has many applications such as levitating small objects or tripping opponents.
Multiple Target Attacks: An airbender can send large, wide-spanning waves of air towards multiple enemies with one long, sweeping motion from an airbending staff or from the bender's limbs. Aang has been shown to use these moves countless times throughout the series often completely blowing opponents away.
Airbending Master Level Edit
Air Vortex: A spinning funnel of air of various sizes. This can be used to trap and disorient opponents or as a potent defense since it will deflect and repel any objects and can even throw them back at an opponent (as demonstrated by Aang in his duel with Bumi, the air column easily throwing aside a boulder the size of a bus). In Avatar State an air vortex can reach winds up to 125 miles per hour. Air Wake: First shown by Aang in "The Crossroads of Destiny", by running in a circle and instantly building huge momentum, a master Airbender can shoot a blast of compressed air shaped like the user's body at a target. This move seems to have great concussive force.
Air Blades: A more offensive move than is typical of Airbending principle, this involves a focus slicing air current that can cut through stone or timber with relative ease. This is frequently conjured with a staff rather than the body, using the narrow profile of the object to create a more focused and precise air movement. This move could prove fatal if used on an individual.
Added by Renatabls
Added by RenatablsFlight: In the same way sky bison can fly and stay aloft for extended periods of time, a master airbender can achieve this same feat by generating and controlling air currents around their bodies.
Avatar Level Airbending Edit
Augmented Airbending Moves: While in the Avatar State, all of the previously discussed Airbending moves are generally augmented making them far more powerful in an Avatar than even a bending master. This ability of the Avatar State to increase the power of an Avatar's bending technique is not restricted, of course, to Airbending; in fact an Avatar's power increases with all the bending styles once they have entered the Avatar State. Tornadoes/Hurricanes: In addition to very large and powerful air movements, an Avatar level bender can create massive tornadoes and hurricanes at will.
Air Sphere: Similar to the air shield, this powerful defense surrounds the bender in a sphere of spinning air that deflects anything coming in at them, levitate across varied distances and can even disintegrate the ground beneath them. Aang subconsciously uses this technique only while he is in The Avatar State. Avatar Roku used this technique in "The Avatar and The Fire Lord" when protecting his village from the volcano.
Strong Wind: It is possible for the Avatar to unleash extremely powerful winds. In "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang", while extinguishing three enormous fire whips, Aang unleashed a straightforward wind attack at Ozai. Ozai was shaken, but apparently didn't take much damage from the hit. However, the same attack did great damage to a nearby rock pillar, weathering through the entire thickness of the pillar in a matter of seconds.
Air Sphere: Aang was initially able only to hover for extended periods of time while in the Avatar State, but in "Sozin's Comet, Part 4: Avatar Aang", Aang utilizes this technique for flight. The Avatar flies at high-speeds while inside the air sphere, which also acts as a barrier to protect the bender during impacts, strong enough to withstand a high velocity impact with rock.
Special Techniques Edit
Added by RenatablsAt the beginning of season 3, Aang destroyed his damaged glider, though it was replaced at the beginning of the invasion of the Fire Nation by a more advanced version created by the Mechanist and his son Teo, which can also deposit snacks when the handle is twisted.
When visiting Roku's past in "The Avatar and the Fire Lord", Aang sees his then young mentor Monk Gyatso using a variation of the usual flying, using the glider as a makeshift board, surfing on air.
Air Scooter: The Air Scooter, a form of ground transportation invented by Aang himself, is a spherical "ball" of air that can be ridden balancing on it like a top. He has used the technique in many episodes, usually to provide quick bursts of speed as well as to overcome vertical surfaces, including in The Drill in order to scale the wall of Ba Sing Se. The Air Scooter is also shown to be capable of levitating in the air for short periods, only 5-10 seconds in a stationary position. The Air Scooter is seen in the opening credits of every episode except the first, and first appeared in actual episode content 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. In a flashback in the episode, The Storm, Aang tries to teach this move to his Airbending friends. They all initially fail, but eventually master the art well enough to develop a game that requires the use of the air scooter.
Added by ThailogAirbending is the only art that apparently has no specific sub-skill or specialized form that has as of yet been revealed. Although it has been speculated Soundbending (see above) could fit into this category.
Opposing Bending Art Edit
Airbending is the most passive of the four arts, as many of its techniques center around mobility, evading and eluding the opponent (together with the Air Nomads passive teachings and pacifistic beliefs). Earthbending is the direct opposite of this. While the Airbenders avoid or deflect oncoming attacks, Earthbenders absorb them or overwhelm them with superior force. Airbenders are constantly moving in circles, while Earthbenders require a firm root in one place to effectively bend. Like all of the bending arts, Airbending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts, though it is easily the most dynamic and agile of the four. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it is the skill and power of the user that determines victory.
Weapons Edit
Unlike other nations, who only rarely use weapons with their bending, Airbenders commonly use their signature staffs to augment their powers in battle. This is usually done by enhancing the air movements created by sweeps or thrusts of the staff. With the staff's narrow profile, the currents created can be be more accurately controlled and even shaped into cutting blades. Metal fans can also be used in combination with Airbending as seen by Avatar Kyoshi and Avatar Aang. Also Aang has proposed the idea of a weapon called a Wind Sword, whilst the group were shopping in a weapons shop in the Fire Nation. Aang stated that an Airbender uses a sword hilt, channels air out and swings it around like a blade.
Weakness Edit
Airbender Principles regarding Fatal Moves: Though deemed the most dynamic of the Bending Arts, the most controversial aspect of Airbending is its supposed lack of fatal moves, being a more defense-inclined art. This aspect in itself is a reflection of the principles held by the Air Nomads, which preaches the preciousness of all life and avoidance of violence whenever possible. But on the issue of principles, there are instances where an Airbender has resorted to lethal force during a conflict. Such examples include, Aang striking down a buzzard-wasp snatching Momo as seen in The Desert (although he might not have actually killed it, he did attack out of anger, something that the airbenders are told to avoid). Even Avatar Yangchen herself confesses to deeds that were in direct violation of her Air Nomad teachings, even though for the greater good ("Sozin's Comet, Part 2: The Old Masters"). Nevertheless, when applied correctly, Airbending can be as lethal as any other Bending art. Airbending moves such as the air blade and air blast could prove particularly fatal against living creatures seeing as they can cut through stone/timber and break entire rock-columns in half respectively. Another example of airbending lethality is Monk Gyatso's off-screen battle with the Fire Nation's invasion of the Southern Air Temple. Although an elderly and gentle person, when confronted with an obvious attempt of genocide to kill all of his people, Gyatso's powerful airbending enabled him to eliminate many Fire Nation invaders before succumbing to fatigue or injury and ultimately, death. Enclosed Spaces: Though rarely exhibited, an Airbender would be significantly disadvantaged in an enclosed space, restricting their movement and ability to dodge attacks, but this weakness can be neutilized by creative use of airbending, as shown by Aang in The Avatar Returns. Though it is difficult to separate an Airbender from their element, if one was submerged under water or earth, or even chained as Aang was in The Blue Spirit, for example, their ability to bend could possibly be compromised. Though, with ingenuity an Airbender could likely use a minuscule amount of air in their lungs, similar to a Waterbender's ability to use their own sweat. Aang used this to good effect by knocking Zhao over just by blowing on him. Like Waterbending's sweat manipulation, in many situations, this likely would not be sufficient due to its limited supply.
Elemental Symbol Edit
Added by Thailog Spirituality and Airbending Edit
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, where the strong breeze helps their Airbending. 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. 
Added by RenatablsThough 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, known as the four Avatar Relics, the Avatar has been found. Traditionally, knowledge of his or her identity as Avatar is kept from the child until age sixteen. (A similar test is used by Tibetan Buddhist monks when a reincarnated Lama is expected.)
Air Nomads generally espouse a philosophy of conflict avoidance and respect for all forms of life. 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, as shown throughout the series.
Airbenders emphasize intuition and imagination; to an Airbender, there is always another path to take, as air flows wherever it can.
The Air Nomad Genocide Edit
Added by ThailogIronically, 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.
The last known vestiges of Airbender culture include one surviving Flying Bison, Appa, and a winged lemur, Momo, both of whom are Aang's companions. 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. The Southern Air Temple is the only temple in which bodies of countless Fire Nation soldiers and Monk Gyatso's corpse are present. Also some Air Nomad clothing may have endured the 100 year war as at the end of "Avatar Aang" Aang has started wearing orange monk robes, although it is possible they were specially made for him.
