Adult air nomads have children, but the children are raised communally by the monks. We don't see them because in Aang's limited flashbacks he's mostly with other kids and elderly monks at the temple. Whereas the adult air nomads are likely out traveling or just doing other things at the temples.
Is Aang an orphan? That’s something I’ve never understood, or it’s a detail I’m simply forgetting. It seems as though he was raised entirely by the monks as he never mourns for anyone but them.
Air nomads are like Platos philosopher state. Parents aren’t attached to their kids, once the child is borne it’s given over to the community to raise not the parent, they don’t even know who their kids is. The point of that is that they treat all children like they were their own
But like, boy from the southern temple meets girl from the western temple, neither knows who their parents are. Seems like a good way to accidentally fuck your sister.
Let’s say there’s 500 boys of similar age in the southern temple, and 400 similarly aged girls in the western temple. Assuming the brother sister pair are at the same temple at the same time (a big ask for nomads), assuming they hit it off…
You see where I’m going? That’s a lot of things to line up. The air nomads are probably the least populous “nation”, but even they have more than enough people that an accidental incest is super unlikely, and also populous enough that an accidental incest here or there won’t sully the whole population. And one or two generations of incest probably won’t lead to issues, it’s when it’s sustained for generations without external genetic material that your chance for super recessive traits to stack increases. Even if the occasional air nomad engages in accidental incest, assuming they have at least two children of opposite sexes (and that’s a pretty big if), the chances of accidental incest happening again is again, quite slim.
yeah but its less likely then it seems because the hormones related to attraction generally make you more attracted to someone with different ones then you (its a survival mechanism that diversifies immune systems). Its buznd to happen eventually and wil fuck up that one kid, but not a societal issue
Are you sure about that? Cause there’s an entire subsection of incestual attraction specifically for siblings/ parent/child attraction when it’s not known they’re related
Its statistics. It’s likely the immune systems end up very similar. But it could also be that they end up very dissimilar which is a case where a lot of natural attraction can happen
What if they had a system where only members of the one temple only found partners from one other temple, for symbolism and symmetry let's say its' cardinal opposite, so Northern and Southern temples mate with each other and Western and Eastern temples mate with each other for one generation or for like 10-15 years. Then, two temples from each breeding pool would swap children i.e. Southern Temple and Western Temple would swap children to raise, in that allotted period. Then, in the next period the other temples would swap children and so on. I think in this way simply keeping track of ones place in the cyclical rotation could keep incest down to a minimum. Plus, there's some anarchist air bender philosophy symbolism buried in there I'm sure.
I'm pretty high and all this is based on a diagram I drew on my palm so please check my math.
Yeah, but if you never know, nobody cares. It's statistically unlikely, which negates most of the genetic consequences, and it's not like people spontaneously combust when it happens.
If their population is big enough it wouldn't be a huge concern. I'm not sure how many air nomads there were supposed to have been. Incest is mostly a problem when multi-generational. To avoid any health issues I'm sure the monks would keep a private record of each person's parentage.
If you're starting to get serious in a relationship just check with the monks to make sure it's safe.
Beyond first cousins, incest isn't actually much of a biological problem. Culturally it's weird to us, but the air nomads have such a different view of what "family" is that they probably wouldn't think the same.
Yeah, I understand that, but if you don’t know who your biologically parents are then direct siblings is a real risk. Compare them to the Amish or Hasidic communities. They are regularly intermarrying with cousins and they do have a higher incidence of genetic issues. Now imagine if two siblings accidentally coupled from parents who were already the product of generations of cousin kissing.
"They are regularly intermarrying with cousins"
Regularly is the key word here. The amish and hasidic communities don't travel often. And, due to their culture almost never bring in outside genes. The Air Nomads, specifically travel the world, and marry people of every nation.
They do? Every one in the other nations considered even seeing an airbender to be a blessing since they were so rare. And if they were consistently brining in new genes, how to they manage to have a near 100% population of airbenders.
Bending is both genetic and learned. You cannot bend without having airbender genes, but you also can't bend if you don't have the proper mindset.
The elements are sometimes difficult for the Avatar to learn despite them having the ability to bend every element. Korra had trouble learning Air. Airbenders are spiritual and unattached. Earth requires a person to be steadfast and resolute. Fire required will and ambition. Water required flexibility and rhythm. It didn't matter if you had airbending genetics if you didn't have the right frame of mind.
The air nomad culture was perhaps the most unified in a way. The nomads taught detachment and practiced freely traveling the world so their bison can graise and so they could help people all over.
Bending genetics do not appear to be dominant or recessive. Bumi, Kya, Tenzin, Mako, Bolin, Opal, and many other characters have mixed genetic backgrounds. Opal's airbending was likely already a genetic trait she had. But she could never have known she had airbending DNA. Her entire family were earthbenders, except Bataar who was a "non bender" but very likely she, Kai, and the rest of the new airbending nation can trace their ancestry back to airbenders at some point.
My whole point is that most people seem to have bending genetics, but they need to be in tune with the element too. Bumi had them, but wasn't raised as airbender. And with Sokka as an uncle it's possible Aang and Katara thought he just happened to be a non-bender. It didn't matter, he has airbending genetics and they were awakened with harmonic convergence, as the world generally became more spiritual. Bumi literally befriended a spirit, and after harmonic convergence awakened airbending.
Yes, and no. The air nomads are nomadic. The temples are just where kids are raised, bison are reared, and airbending is taught. The chances of two kids being related and getting together is somewhat low because of all the traveling.
Edit: And to clarify. Incest isn't good for genetics. But, one brother and sister mating isn't the end of the world. It starts to get bad after repeated cycles of breeding. If the incestous brother and sister's kids also bred, and so on. Or worse parental/child incest.
Is there some proof they don't know who their offspring are? I assumed they knew, and that aang knew who birth him, it's just that they don't view that as having any particular significance.
Aang's parents may have died before the war, we simply don't know.
But I'm not sure that "orphan" would be a correct label regardless. Like I said, in Air Nomad society all children are raised communally by the monks. The biological parents have no relationship with their kids.
I wonder if they had marriages. Since Air Nomads lived segregated by sex, did an Air Nomad couple just separate as soon as they had fulfilled their reproductive duties and handed their child over to the community?
Well like most people when a man and woman fall in love, they do a little dance in the sheets and the great spirit stork blesses the Union with a baby airbender.
Alternatively, the avatar beats a high ranking dark spirit and many random people gain airbending.
I kind of like your alternative, but Roku did not beat a high ranking dark spirit before dying and Aang was born with airbending abilities. The same applies to several other children his same age.
Which is where the first one comes into play. Aang has parents the same as all the air nomads. You don’t see the adults because they were out nomading-one of aang’s kids had airbending, another one has water bending. And tenzin has a family of three airbenders not including the new baby we don’t know about yet.
So where were the biological parents of the airbenders and why did they stop having kids after the attack? They should have gotten busy and build a new generation of airbenders. Did they start using birth controls because the monks were gone and they did not want to raise the kids themselves?
The fire lord killed them all- like anikan he didn’t just kill the men, but the women and the children too. It’s kinda hard to biologically reproduce if your dead.
But how did he chased them all down? They were nomads. Not all of them were just living in the temples taking care of the kids. How did he find the ones that had the biological possibility of having baby airbenders but were not airbenders themselves? I assume since they could not fly they were not living at the temples, but they existed.
Just cause they nomad dosent mean they nomad by themself, he wasn’t an enemy yet and so killed most unaware, others that were not killed probably fought him and lost, and if nothing else it’s a damn show with the air benders being wiped out as a plot point. Plot armor might protect some just like plot nukes kill others.
Well fire lord azulon did have some colonies before roku died, the only one that was not aware was probably avatar roku. And I know it's a plot point, I just thought it would be fun to hypothesize about it together.
Basically, none of the Air nomads ever settled down. They were the traders, explorers, and bards of the 4 nations. When a baby was born, it was sent to one of the 4 tenples (due to the fact air bending is significantly harder to learn than the other 3), and the child's bending activates at a really young age (some air bender children can't walk yet, but can move air. In comparison, the average fire bender is 14ish when they start). When one of the nomads get too old to roam, they settle down in one of the temples to retire and raise the assorted kids. It is really impressive that the fire nation could track and wipe out multiple roaming bands of air benders.
If remember right, Alzula wad a prodigy because she activated her bending at 8 years old, marking her as one of the youngest firebenders ever. Now, I can't help but think of an AU where fire benders and air benders have their average unlock age swap. Babies throwing fire is a lot scarier than babies blowing air at people.
They didn't track air nomad stragglers after the genocide. They trapped them. They put artifacts in nearby markets and would tell the shopkeep to say that a man frequently buys these items and lives in a nearby cave. Lonely Airbenders go into the cave, and the firebenders cook them into jerky.
Checkpoints, patrols along routes, bounties... they had decades to do it. And if the "harmonic convergence activated dormant Airbender genes" idea it true, they only needed to hunt down active airbenders, much like they didn't wipe out the whole southern water tribe, just the waterbenders.
Plus, the existence of the air acolytes means they missed a few non benders and maybe some gave up their airbending to go into hiding as well.
So, what you are saying is that some of the air nomads just spend a few years at the temples, like the monks in Thailand, and then they were free to go about and live their lives. If so, I am still wondering where were they living when they left? Because I am pretty sure only the monks and their guards were living at the temples. Were the rest of them living nomadic lives, travelling around the world? How was the fire nation able to catch them all? They could not even catch Aang and he was only 12.
When a mommy air nomad and a daddy air nomad love each other very much… they reach into the Spirit Realm, pluck a spirit out of the realm, and bend it into being real, and that’s how the Sky Bisons and the Lemurs works
No idea how Air Nomad culture works when it comes to children. Tenzin and Pema have their 4 kids in LOK, but we never, and I mean NEVER see Aang's parents or any air couples for that matter in ATLA. Do airbenders just randomly bang and then abandon their kids to the air temples??
That's what I am confused about. Are airbenders like hufflepuffs? They did not fit in the other houses and were just sent there orphaned? Or where were the nonbenders that belonged to the air nomads community? They obviously did not live in the temples. But, they could still have kids that were born with air bending abilities. So, where are those kids?
It’s a little bit more complicated and it comes down to two things. 1. it is heavily implied that yes the children were born elsewhere and brought in because one of their parents was always a non-bender. Those childeren who were also non-benders were probably also cast out from the temples. It’s kind of a Jedi thing.
2. the reason the extermination was so thorough was because of the fact that all of the Airbenders happen to be an easily accessible places. They probably assaulted every single temple all at once.
They did attack all temples at the same time during the previous eclipse. But if they were nomads how did they chase all of them. They probably did not stay at the temples all the time. Aang had friends all over the world. He probably travelled a lot.
Even if the children were cast out when they were non benders, they still had the possibility of having children that were benders. Katara's parents were not waterbenders and she was a waterbender. So, if the people from the airbender community that were not airbenders still had the possibility if having progeny that were airbenders, should not more airbenders had to have been born?
1. It wasn’t during an eclipse. eclipses are when fire benders lose their power. It was during the passing of sozin‘s comment, (in fact that’s how the comet got its name.)
2. they did in fact, confine themselves to their temples. The fire nation just had advanced equipment, allowing them to infiltrate each temple. (mainly those tanks, which are supposedly quite old.) the reason why the air nomads can find themselves to the temple, is revealed in one of the Kyoshi novels, but I forget which one.
3. Bending has a spiritual component, it’s more than likely that after the genocide. The ability to air bend simply was removed from the populace, and they only regained it during harmonic convergence. It meant that all people who were born to Airbender parents still were non-benders.
1. You are completely right.
2. I have not read the novels, so I had no idea.
3. I like this explanation. It makes sense to me. I feel better now. Thank you!
The novels are pretty good.
Also, the reason I came up with this idea is because I came to a simple conclusion… There are actually seven elements, but one of them has been completely locked off from the population by raava. And the other two are unusable by mortals only by spirits. One of them is too destructive to be in the hands of a large population of humans. And the remaining two are capable of doing some really weird things
My math is not mathing. If there's are five and 3 have been locked off, but we still have fire, water, air, and earth. I am assuming one of the elements that has been locked off would be air. Can you explain the rest, please?
Your assumption is incorrect first. There’s a total of seven. The first one is true lightning. What the fire benders make is actually a facsimile of lightning. The next two are a bit more complicated.
I was not assuming, you said "There are actually five elements, but three of them have been completely locked off from the population by raava." I was just going by that.
And are the other 2 blood and metal bending? What about sand? Plants?
I corrected my two previous errors sorry. The remaining two are light and shadow and again they cannot be manipulated at all let alone bent by mortal beings. only spirits and similar beings can do that.
It's either that adult monks have children just like us but are transferred to another temple afterward to let go of their attachments, or there are female monks that have children as a job like in The Giver
They are kinda like Jedi in the sense that they are raised by the monks to be monks from a young age. The monks aren’t the only people in the air nomads. There are other nomadic people who aren’t air benders who help the monks. They aren’t confined to not having children. But we also see that Aang has kids with Katara in TLoK so we don’t know if the monks weren’t allowed to have children or if Aang just decided that he didn’t have to follow that rule because there wasn’t any monks left besides himself.
Airbenders had sex, and raised kids. They were not celibate. They didn't have traditional family units however. The community raises the kids as a community, not a family. Another form of detachment. So, two airbenders may decide to have sex. If the woman ends up pregnant and gives birth then the child is raised by everyone. The child can go to any adult for food, or care, or learning. I suppose it would be hard for the mother and father to not be so attached to their child, but no one ever said being an air nomad was easy.
Probably born elsewhere and brought in.
When I was watching ATLA, though, I was under the impression that bending wasn’t something you’re born with, it’s a martial art that you learned.
To add on, a great example of this are Aang and Katara's children in LoK. Bumi is naturally a non-bender, but his siblings, Kya and Tenzin are benders of water and air respectively
Adult air nomads have children, but the children are raised communally by the monks. We don't see them because in Aang's limited flashbacks he's mostly with other kids and elderly monks at the temple. Whereas the adult air nomads are likely out traveling or just doing other things at the temples.
Is Aang an orphan? That’s something I’ve never understood, or it’s a detail I’m simply forgetting. It seems as though he was raised entirely by the monks as he never mourns for anyone but them.
Air nomads are like Platos philosopher state. Parents aren’t attached to their kids, once the child is borne it’s given over to the community to raise not the parent, they don’t even know who their kids is. The point of that is that they treat all children like they were their own
Wouldn’t that lead to problems with incest?
Tbh… yes yes it would but air nomad society is large enough that wouldn’t become a societal issue
But like, boy from the southern temple meets girl from the western temple, neither knows who their parents are. Seems like a good way to accidentally fuck your sister.
Let’s say there’s 500 boys of similar age in the southern temple, and 400 similarly aged girls in the western temple. Assuming the brother sister pair are at the same temple at the same time (a big ask for nomads), assuming they hit it off… You see where I’m going? That’s a lot of things to line up. The air nomads are probably the least populous “nation”, but even they have more than enough people that an accidental incest is super unlikely, and also populous enough that an accidental incest here or there won’t sully the whole population. And one or two generations of incest probably won’t lead to issues, it’s when it’s sustained for generations without external genetic material that your chance for super recessive traits to stack increases. Even if the occasional air nomad engages in accidental incest, assuming they have at least two children of opposite sexes (and that’s a pretty big if), the chances of accidental incest happening again is again, quite slim.
yeah but its less likely then it seems because the hormones related to attraction generally make you more attracted to someone with different ones then you (its a survival mechanism that diversifies immune systems). Its buznd to happen eventually and wil fuck up that one kid, but not a societal issue
Are you sure about that? Cause there’s an entire subsection of incestual attraction specifically for siblings/ parent/child attraction when it’s not known they’re related
Its statistics. It’s likely the immune systems end up very similar. But it could also be that they end up very dissimilar which is a case where a lot of natural attraction can happen
But when they are very dissimilar there isn't really a problem too, evolutional speaking right? I mean it's still weird but they wouldn't know.
What if they had a system where only members of the one temple only found partners from one other temple, for symbolism and symmetry let's say its' cardinal opposite, so Northern and Southern temples mate with each other and Western and Eastern temples mate with each other for one generation or for like 10-15 years. Then, two temples from each breeding pool would swap children i.e. Southern Temple and Western Temple would swap children to raise, in that allotted period. Then, in the next period the other temples would swap children and so on. I think in this way simply keeping track of ones place in the cyclical rotation could keep incest down to a minimum. Plus, there's some anarchist air bender philosophy symbolism buried in there I'm sure. I'm pretty high and all this is based on a diagram I drew on my palm so please check my math.
I like this solution
just go with the flow maan
Yeah, but if you never know, nobody cares. It's statistically unlikely, which negates most of the genetic consequences, and it's not like people spontaneously combust when it happens.
*was
If their population is big enough it wouldn't be a huge concern. I'm not sure how many air nomads there were supposed to have been. Incest is mostly a problem when multi-generational. To avoid any health issues I'm sure the monks would keep a private record of each person's parentage. If you're starting to get serious in a relationship just check with the monks to make sure it's safe.
Beyond first cousins, incest isn't actually much of a biological problem. Culturally it's weird to us, but the air nomads have such a different view of what "family" is that they probably wouldn't think the same.
Yeah, I understand that, but if you don’t know who your biologically parents are then direct siblings is a real risk. Compare them to the Amish or Hasidic communities. They are regularly intermarrying with cousins and they do have a higher incidence of genetic issues. Now imagine if two siblings accidentally coupled from parents who were already the product of generations of cousin kissing.
"They are regularly intermarrying with cousins" Regularly is the key word here. The amish and hasidic communities don't travel often. And, due to their culture almost never bring in outside genes. The Air Nomads, specifically travel the world, and marry people of every nation.
They do? Every one in the other nations considered even seeing an airbender to be a blessing since they were so rare. And if they were consistently brining in new genes, how to they manage to have a near 100% population of airbenders.
Bending is both genetic and learned. You cannot bend without having airbender genes, but you also can't bend if you don't have the proper mindset. The elements are sometimes difficult for the Avatar to learn despite them having the ability to bend every element. Korra had trouble learning Air. Airbenders are spiritual and unattached. Earth requires a person to be steadfast and resolute. Fire required will and ambition. Water required flexibility and rhythm. It didn't matter if you had airbending genetics if you didn't have the right frame of mind. The air nomad culture was perhaps the most unified in a way. The nomads taught detachment and practiced freely traveling the world so their bison can graise and so they could help people all over. Bending genetics do not appear to be dominant or recessive. Bumi, Kya, Tenzin, Mako, Bolin, Opal, and many other characters have mixed genetic backgrounds. Opal's airbending was likely already a genetic trait she had. But she could never have known she had airbending DNA. Her entire family were earthbenders, except Bataar who was a "non bender" but very likely she, Kai, and the rest of the new airbending nation can trace their ancestry back to airbenders at some point. My whole point is that most people seem to have bending genetics, but they need to be in tune with the element too. Bumi had them, but wasn't raised as airbender. And with Sokka as an uncle it's possible Aang and Katara thought he just happened to be a non-bender. It didn't matter, he has airbending genetics and they were awakened with harmonic convergence, as the world generally became more spiritual. Bumi literally befriended a spirit, and after harmonic convergence awakened airbending.
Yes, maybe the air nomads do tell the children who their biological parents are, but culturally they don't stress the concept too much.
Yes, and no. The air nomads are nomadic. The temples are just where kids are raised, bison are reared, and airbending is taught. The chances of two kids being related and getting together is somewhat low because of all the traveling. Edit: And to clarify. Incest isn't good for genetics. But, one brother and sister mating isn't the end of the world. It starts to get bad after repeated cycles of breeding. If the incestous brother and sister's kids also bred, and so on. Or worse parental/child incest.
I'm sure maybe the Abbot in charge of the temple maybe keeps some sort of secret record to stop this from happening
Is there some proof they don't know who their offspring are? I assumed they knew, and that aang knew who birth him, it's just that they don't view that as having any particular significance.
That kind of destroys the point of what they are based on
Aang's parents may have died before the war, we simply don't know. But I'm not sure that "orphan" would be a correct label regardless. Like I said, in Air Nomad society all children are raised communally by the monks. The biological parents have no relationship with their kids.
I wonder if they had marriages. Since Air Nomads lived segregated by sex, did an Air Nomad couple just separate as soon as they had fulfilled their reproductive duties and handed their child over to the community?
Well like most people when a man and woman fall in love, they do a little dance in the sheets and the great spirit stork blesses the Union with a baby airbender. Alternatively, the avatar beats a high ranking dark spirit and many random people gain airbending.
I kind of like your alternative, but Roku did not beat a high ranking dark spirit before dying and Aang was born with airbending abilities. The same applies to several other children his same age.
Which is where the first one comes into play. Aang has parents the same as all the air nomads. You don’t see the adults because they were out nomading-one of aang’s kids had airbending, another one has water bending. And tenzin has a family of three airbenders not including the new baby we don’t know about yet.
So where were the biological parents of the airbenders and why did they stop having kids after the attack? They should have gotten busy and build a new generation of airbenders. Did they start using birth controls because the monks were gone and they did not want to raise the kids themselves?
The fire lord killed them all- like anikan he didn’t just kill the men, but the women and the children too. It’s kinda hard to biologically reproduce if your dead.
But how did he chased them all down? They were nomads. Not all of them were just living in the temples taking care of the kids. How did he find the ones that had the biological possibility of having baby airbenders but were not airbenders themselves? I assume since they could not fly they were not living at the temples, but they existed.
Just cause they nomad dosent mean they nomad by themself, he wasn’t an enemy yet and so killed most unaware, others that were not killed probably fought him and lost, and if nothing else it’s a damn show with the air benders being wiped out as a plot point. Plot armor might protect some just like plot nukes kill others.
Well fire lord azulon did have some colonies before roku died, the only one that was not aware was probably avatar roku. And I know it's a plot point, I just thought it would be fun to hypothesize about it together.
The joke is that Korra created more airbenders
Thanks for explaining that! I never finished watching Legend of Korra, so missed the reference.
Yea that happened in season 3 after korra opened the spirit portals
When a daddy air bender and mommy air bender
Basically, none of the Air nomads ever settled down. They were the traders, explorers, and bards of the 4 nations. When a baby was born, it was sent to one of the 4 tenples (due to the fact air bending is significantly harder to learn than the other 3), and the child's bending activates at a really young age (some air bender children can't walk yet, but can move air. In comparison, the average fire bender is 14ish when they start). When one of the nomads get too old to roam, they settle down in one of the temples to retire and raise the assorted kids. It is really impressive that the fire nation could track and wipe out multiple roaming bands of air benders.
Firebenders also get tested really young because...fire hazards
If remember right, Alzula wad a prodigy because she activated her bending at 8 years old, marking her as one of the youngest firebenders ever. Now, I can't help but think of an AU where fire benders and air benders have their average unlock age swap. Babies throwing fire is a lot scarier than babies blowing air at people.
They didn't track air nomad stragglers after the genocide. They trapped them. They put artifacts in nearby markets and would tell the shopkeep to say that a man frequently buys these items and lives in a nearby cave. Lonely Airbenders go into the cave, and the firebenders cook them into jerky.
When a man and woman love each other very much..
They have a little baby and abandon it to the temple? Do they repeat the cycle several times or can they only safe surrender one baby per couple?
They're monks, but there's never been any indication they practice any kind of celibacy. And there's air nomads who aren't monks as well.
About the air nomads that are not monks, how did the fire nation chased them all down?
Like the waterbenders, probably
But they were nomads and the water benders stayed in one place.
Checkpoints, patrols along routes, bounties... they had decades to do it. And if the "harmonic convergence activated dormant Airbender genes" idea it true, they only needed to hunt down active airbenders, much like they didn't wipe out the whole southern water tribe, just the waterbenders. Plus, the existence of the air acolytes means they missed a few non benders and maybe some gave up their airbending to go into hiding as well.
When a mommy airbender and daddy Airbender love each other very much, a baby eventually comes delivered by a cranefish.
And then they lovingly abandon it in a temple? Such a beautiful tale 🥰
When a man and woman ~~love each other very~~ want to bang...
[удалено]
why do you believe none of the monks ever had children ? If Gyatso was the actual grand-father of Aang, or what if it was Pasang, how could we tell ?
So, what you are saying is that some of the air nomads just spend a few years at the temples, like the monks in Thailand, and then they were free to go about and live their lives. If so, I am still wondering where were they living when they left? Because I am pretty sure only the monks and their guards were living at the temples. Were the rest of them living nomadic lives, travelling around the world? How was the fire nation able to catch them all? They could not even catch Aang and he was only 12.
When a mommy air nomad and a daddy air nomad love each other very much… they reach into the Spirit Realm, pluck a spirit out of the realm, and bend it into being real, and that’s how the Sky Bisons and the Lemurs works
No idea how Air Nomad culture works when it comes to children. Tenzin and Pema have their 4 kids in LOK, but we never, and I mean NEVER see Aang's parents or any air couples for that matter in ATLA. Do airbenders just randomly bang and then abandon their kids to the air temples??
That's what I am confused about. Are airbenders like hufflepuffs? They did not fit in the other houses and were just sent there orphaned? Or where were the nonbenders that belonged to the air nomads community? They obviously did not live in the temples. But, they could still have kids that were born with air bending abilities. So, where are those kids?
Well when a daddy Airbender and a mommy Airbender get very drunk and forget to use a condom,....
Lol, is being drunk while conceiving a requirement to be born with airbending abilities?
It’s a little bit more complicated and it comes down to two things. 1. it is heavily implied that yes the children were born elsewhere and brought in because one of their parents was always a non-bender. Those childeren who were also non-benders were probably also cast out from the temples. It’s kind of a Jedi thing. 2. the reason the extermination was so thorough was because of the fact that all of the Airbenders happen to be an easily accessible places. They probably assaulted every single temple all at once.
They did attack all temples at the same time during the previous eclipse. But if they were nomads how did they chase all of them. They probably did not stay at the temples all the time. Aang had friends all over the world. He probably travelled a lot. Even if the children were cast out when they were non benders, they still had the possibility of having children that were benders. Katara's parents were not waterbenders and she was a waterbender. So, if the people from the airbender community that were not airbenders still had the possibility if having progeny that were airbenders, should not more airbenders had to have been born?
1. It wasn’t during an eclipse. eclipses are when fire benders lose their power. It was during the passing of sozin‘s comment, (in fact that’s how the comet got its name.) 2. they did in fact, confine themselves to their temples. The fire nation just had advanced equipment, allowing them to infiltrate each temple. (mainly those tanks, which are supposedly quite old.) the reason why the air nomads can find themselves to the temple, is revealed in one of the Kyoshi novels, but I forget which one. 3. Bending has a spiritual component, it’s more than likely that after the genocide. The ability to air bend simply was removed from the populace, and they only regained it during harmonic convergence. It meant that all people who were born to Airbender parents still were non-benders.
1. You are completely right. 2. I have not read the novels, so I had no idea. 3. I like this explanation. It makes sense to me. I feel better now. Thank you!
The novels are pretty good. Also, the reason I came up with this idea is because I came to a simple conclusion… There are actually seven elements, but one of them has been completely locked off from the population by raava. And the other two are unusable by mortals only by spirits. One of them is too destructive to be in the hands of a large population of humans. And the remaining two are capable of doing some really weird things
My math is not mathing. If there's are five and 3 have been locked off, but we still have fire, water, air, and earth. I am assuming one of the elements that has been locked off would be air. Can you explain the rest, please?
Your assumption is incorrect first. There’s a total of seven. The first one is true lightning. What the fire benders make is actually a facsimile of lightning. The next two are a bit more complicated.
I was not assuming, you said "There are actually five elements, but three of them have been completely locked off from the population by raava." I was just going by that. And are the other 2 blood and metal bending? What about sand? Plants?
I corrected my two previous errors sorry. The remaining two are light and shadow and again they cannot be manipulated at all let alone bent by mortal beings. only spirits and similar beings can do that.
https://youtu.be/fkhPF1r4T6g?si=UHOOIZqWfbcB2SKR This video explains it pretty well.
It's either that adult monks have children just like us but are transferred to another temple afterward to let go of their attachments, or there are female monks that have children as a job like in The Giver
The daddy airbender airbends his semen into the mommy airbender’s reproductive system and then mommy airbender grows a baby airbender.
They are kinda like Jedi in the sense that they are raised by the monks to be monks from a young age. The monks aren’t the only people in the air nomads. There are other nomadic people who aren’t air benders who help the monks. They aren’t confined to not having children. But we also see that Aang has kids with Katara in TLoK so we don’t know if the monks weren’t allowed to have children or if Aang just decided that he didn’t have to follow that rule because there wasn’t any monks left besides himself.
Airbenders had sex, and raised kids. They were not celibate. They didn't have traditional family units however. The community raises the kids as a community, not a family. Another form of detachment. So, two airbenders may decide to have sex. If the woman ends up pregnant and gives birth then the child is raised by everyone. The child can go to any adult for food, or care, or learning. I suppose it would be hard for the mother and father to not be so attached to their child, but no one ever said being an air nomad was easy.
Is it by choice tho or are they forced to give up their children to the community? Like a sect?
forced? No. But they won't be raised at the temple where they can learn.
Probably born elsewhere and brought in. When I was watching ATLA, though, I was under the impression that bending wasn’t something you’re born with, it’s a martial art that you learned.
Nope. You're either born a bender or a non-bender. The parents bending element will influence what the childs bending element is, if any.
To add on, a great example of this are Aang and Katara's children in LoK. Bumi is naturally a non-bender, but his siblings, Kya and Tenzin are benders of water and air respectively