AVATAR: THE LEFT-HANDED AIRBENDER...

     I wonder if the Air Nomads in the Avatar universe had a handedness to their airbending power?

source

     For instance, when I imagine generating a vortex of wind around me, it always develops in a counterclockwise motion. If I imagine shooting a blast of wind from my dominant hand, it also spins in a counterclockwise corkscrewing fashion (from my perspective...it would be clockwise from your viewpoint) and again, if I imagine shooting a blast of wind from my left hand, it is only a straight-up gust with no spin whatsoever.
     I asked Roommate about this, who is left-handed, and without leading on my part, he told me he imagined such vortices spinning clockwise when he thought of how they might spin.

     Makes me wonder if I might be on to something...

     In-Universe, the Air Nomads had all been killed prior to the start of the series and precious few glimpses are ever given to their way of life before the start of the Hundred Years War allowing for little exploration into the quirks of their culture.
     Still, might it possible that handedness determined the natural spin of one's vortices. It's not like it would be impossible to spin them the other way: it just wouldn't be your instinctual motion. After all, you can teach yourself to write and other tasks with your non-dominant hand. I can eat almost as comfortably left-handed as I do right-handed though with the latter I retain better control over the utensil.

     I wonder how clockwise benders might be viewed by counterclockwise benders? I choose clockwise as the minority because the emblem of the Air Nomads shows three swirls all moving in a counterclockwise rotation.

Emblem of the Air Nomads (source)

     Would their powers effectively cancel each other out when used against one and other (or at least lessen the severity of the attack or effectiveness of the defense)? Would they be embraced as an enhancing diversity or viewed with skepticism since they'd likely be a minority? Because they have the "opposite flow", would it affect the way they see the universe? Do they eat meat?
     If the latter, might they have been complicit in betraying the majority Air Nomads to the Fire Nation because they had wanted to rule only to have it backfire on them when Firelord Sozin chose to wipe all Air Nomads out?
     The non-canonical character Afiko was said to have hailed from the Southern Air Temple and betrayed his fellow Air Nomads. According to the card game where his character exists, he was said to have been envious of Aang, the new Avatar, and so revealed the secret location of the temple to the Fire Nation, allowing its soldiers to wipe out the monks who lived there. How did his vortices manifest?

Afiko: clockwise airbender?

     Stuff we'll never know...

LET'S SEE HOW I DID, SHALL WE?

     Not too long ago, I made some rather bold predictions about the direction the new Avatar: The Legend of Korra show would go. Right off the bat, I had some wrongness because I was under the impression that this show would be like the previous one, three seasons long and with an overarching storyline. The show was actually just supposed to be a miniseries of 12 episodes. It's been renewed for a second season of 14 episodes, but I am guessing they will only be marginally connected story-wise (but not character-wise) to the season just ended.
     But anyways, let's see how well I did...

1. There is a fifth element in addition to the traditional four of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire and this element is, for the lack of an appropriate term, Qi [Chi]. This possibility came to light in the original series's finale when Aang removes the Fire Lord's ability to bend.

----- Wrong. Amon's removing of another bender's bending power was a specialized form of waterbending but how this was done was not explained. The traditional four elements remain thus.

2. Amon, the leader of the Equalists is a Qi Bender and knows this, but is content to manipulate everyone opposed to Benders in an effort to secure his position of power.
----- Wrongish. Though Amon was a bender...specifically a waterbender introduced in the penultimate episode which kinda bugged me as it felt like an Asspull rather than a constructed mystery with clues for us viewers to follow. However, I should get partial credit because Amon was content to have everyone believe he was a normal who had figured out how to "equalize" society. He lost his grip on his followers when his waterbending was revealed.



3. Qi Bending affects the other four Elements, but not the Qi Element.
----- Wrong, though partly correct if only sort of. Amon did take Korra's bending away, but only the elements she had been expressing. Once she lost her water, earth, and firebending abilities, she could suddenly airbend which enabled her to defeat Amon. This however, may be related to bloodbending - a highly specialized form of waterbending - which allows one to control another living being like a puppet. Perhaps bloodbending a person into forgetting how to bend their respective element is what Amon was actually doing and since Korra had never learned how to airbend before, that ability could not be taken away though if Amon were to touch her again, I'm guessing he would have totally removed her bending.

4. Korra will battle Amon, possibly in the first season finale, and lose her ability to bend for most of, or the entire second season. This will give her an invaluable opportunity to see life from the other side. The Equalists accuse the Benders of oppression of non-Benders. She will now be in a perfect spot to find out if this is true or not. I think she will find extensive evidence of Bender oppression that she will dedicate her life to correcting.
----- Mostly wrong. Korra did fight Amon in the season finale, but only lost part of her bending and since I was wrong about this being a multiple season story, none of what I said afterward actually matters. However, if the show were being exceptionally clever, they could still do this. See my next "prediction" for more.

5. Korra will regain her ability to bend the traditional Four Elements by either learning how to Qi Bend on her own (paralleling her current difficulties in mastering Air Bending), learning how to do it from Aang (somehow), or through an encounter with a reclusive lion-turtle.
----- Wrong...and right. She did regain her abilities from Aang (and all the previous avatars I presume) when she finally made a spiritual connection to them in her lowest moment. She used this knowledge ex machina to restore the bending of all those who had lost it to Amon. Now if the show takes an interesting twist next season, what we saw as viewers could actually be the second season finale and instead of Korra going mere moments from her darkest hour and needing to be alone to suddenly regaining her confidence, being regarded as a true Avatar, and wishing to give Mako another chance. Korra says, "Not now Tenzin (rest of lines)..." to a figure whose head is offscreen. He's dressed like Tenzin, her airbending instructor, but was actually Aang spiritually connecting with her and showing her how to restore her own bending and everyone else's by extension through, uh...magic, let's say. And off Korra goes to fix everything. But what if it really was Tenzin the first time, and Korra goes off only as an airbender on a quest to find her spirituality and/or undo Amon's blocks on her bending abilities? That could be interesting. And then, when she ostensibly fails, she goes back to that very place in defeat only to finally make the connection that we've already seen.

6. Korra, upon mastering Qi Bending, will thus become the world's first true Avatar as no Avatar previously, has ever shown true mastery of all Five Elements (except for perhaps Aang) most likely due to the reclusivity of lion-turtles.

----- Wrong. Though Korra is regarded as a fully-realized Avatar in the finale.

7. Korra will get around this detail by figuring out not only how to soulbend to take away one's bending ability, but also its opposite and learn how to restore bending in people or even give bending to nonbenders. Korra will repopulate the world of Air Nomads through soulbending.

----- Sort of. She did get to figure out how to restore the bending to those who had it taken from them but Korra is not shown turning, let's say, the Air Acolytes into actual airbenders nor do we know if such a thing might be possible in the first place. In this show, there are only four known airbenders plus the Avatar.

     The lesson here folks? Don't make predictions. Amirite?

BECAUSE WHY LET A PERFECTLY GOOD LABEL GO TO WASTE?

     After watching the most recent episode of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, I had a thought. At one point, the former chief of police reminded Councilman Tenzin that protecting his family from Amon, who can take a bender's abilities away from them, was absolutely imperative since he and his children were the last of the Air Benders. I wondered why this was so. After all Aang, the previous Avatar, was born an Air Bender and carried that, uh...let's call it the airbending gene within him as several of his family have the airbending ability that, for a time, Aang was the last possessor of. Aang lived for like seventy years after the end of the events in the original series. He obviously had children, but why not a fuckload of children? And I'm not talking with just Katara.

     Now I know such a subject isn't appropriate to bring up openly in a children's show, but that doesn't mean it could not have happened nor does it mean that it could not be told to the audience subtly that Aang had LOTS of children in an effort to reestablish the airbending nomads who were killed off genocidally by the Fire Benders a hundred years prior to the events of the original series. One would think that no matter how much he may have loved Katara, this drive to restore the airbending population would be an imperative of his. Why didn't Aang impregnate as many women as possible in life in order to do this? Like I said, it could've been implied that this had been done and handwaved to the audience since this new show takes place so many years later. The suspicion could've been borne out by making sure there would be at least one Aang-ish looking person in the background people in large crowd scenes every week.

     Something like that would have amused me...

ADDENDUM:  Okay, now I really have to wonder why Aang didn't go all impregnating happy. I was looking at the TVtropes link, and a posted picture showed Aang and Katara's three children: Kya, a waterbender; Bumi, a non-bender; and Tenzin, an airbender. Now remember, Aang is the LAST natural born airbender on Avatar Earth. One would think, especially if it took three tries to get the world up to two airbenders, that Aang might have a personal interest in increasing the population of Air Nomads by fucking around...y'know, for the cause. I'm sure Katara would understand.
     And okay, I know they can't explain that openly in a kids' show, but it could still be implied. Tenzin got lucky and three, possibly all four, of his kids are airbenders meaning Tenzin has done more for the Air Nomads than Aang has. But still, there are only four (maybe five) of them on the ENTIRE PLANET.
     Now, since the job of the Avatar is to bring balance to the world, I am going to say (and add to my predictions for the show) Avatar: The Legend of Korra will get around this detail by figuring out not only how to soulbend to take away one's bending ability, but also its opposite and learn how to restore bending in people or even give bending to nonbenders. Korra will repopulate the world of Air Nomads through soulbending.

A BOLD PREDICTION (a.k.a. How Many Episodes Until I Am Completely Proven Wrong)

      I finally started watching the legacy series to Avatar: The Last Airbender called Avatar: The Legend of Korra. It's wonderful to again find myself in a familiar world, a world I imagine that will not end in cancellation disappointment like Babylon 5's legacy series Crusade. I actually forgot that Avatar Earth is Wuzzle planet :-)

      The series is three episodes in and I am boldly and almost certainly incorrectly making these predictions:

1. There is a fifth element in addition to the traditional four of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire and this element is, for the lack of an appropriate term, Qi [Chi]. This possibility came to light in the original series's finale when Aang removes the Fire Lord's ability to bend.

2. Amon, the leader of the Equalists is a Qi Bender and knows this, but is content to manipulate everyone opposed to Benders in an effort to secure his position of power.

3. Qi Bending affects the other four Elements, but not the Qi Element.

4. Korra will battle Amon, possibly in the first season finale, and lose her ability to bend for most of, or the entire second season. This will give her an invaluable opportunity to see life from the other side. The Equalists accuse the Benders of oppression of non-Benders. She will now be in a perfect spot to find out if this is true or not. I think she will find extensive evidence of Bender oppression that she will dedicate her life to correcting.

5. Korra will regain her ability to bend the traditional Four Elements by either learning how to Qi Bend on her own (paralleling her current difficulties in mastering Air Bending), learning how to do it from Aang (somehow), or through an encounter with a reclusive lion-turtle.

6. Korra, upon mastering Qi Bending, will thus become the world's first true Avatar as no Avatar previously, has ever shown true mastery of all Five Elements (except for perhaps Aang) most likely due to the reclusivity of lion-turtles.