Poll: Evil Airbending, Waterbending and Earthbending moves

[ScorpionPrince]

I was rewatching Avatar: the last airbender the other day and it made me wonder: "What if the other nations we're the bad guys? what kind of devious moves would they be able to do?"

I'm curious what you can come up with. Note that you doesn't have to be shown on TV. Let your imaginations fly.

The second question would be: Which nation would make for the second best "evil" nation? the earth Kingdom, the water tribe, or the air Nomads?

Here are some things i came up with:

An evil Airbender would be able to:
- take out the air out of the lungs directly, choking the victim
- increase the air pressure around the victim to extreme amounts, popping the ears and crushing the head
- create giant, devastating tornadoes
- lift a victim high up in the air, who would then fall to his death.

An evil Waterbender would be able to:
- bend the fluids in the victim, giving the bender control over the body (as seen in the original series)
- use razor-sharp ice shards made from rain, for example (as seen in the original series)
- turn all water in the victims body to gas, thereby exploding the victim

An evil Earthbender would be able to:
- create all kinds of crushing traps
- bury someone alive at the flick of a wrist (and proper stance)
- push someone off the side of a cliff, or have the ground disappear from under them

I realize while I'm typing that these sound more like fatalities with an avatar twist, but bear with me

 

[senordesol]

It can all be used for ill. Were I a waterbender, I'd probably just put a water ball over someone's face and let nature do the rest.

I'd like to see some sweet-ass combo moves. Earth + Water to make quicksand, Air and Fire to make a blinding flash. etc

 

[Arrogancy]

The title of this doesn't quite match the content. I thought that you were going to talk about which nation (after the fire nation) would be the next most inherently evil. To the matter at hand though, I think that the Water Nation is the only nation that has any "evil" moves. Bloodbending is extremely vicious and sadistic, no other nation has anything that can match how horrible this is.

 

[Nathan Crumpler]

If I were a water bender I would engulf some one in water and immediately freeze it. They would die from lack of oxygen because hypothermia and frostbite doesn't exist in that world.

 

[Nathan Crumpler]

If I were a water bender I would engulf some one in water and immediately freeze it. They would die from lack of oxygen because hypothermia and frostbite doesn't exist in that world.

One more thing, I would also make snow cones. That isn't evil, but it's something I would do in between evil deeds.

 

[Resetti's_Replicas]

The Airbender's methods of killing sound the most evil and painful, so I'm going with them.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

OP, you do know that your first suggestion for water benders is something that Katara actually learned how to do during the show, right? She wasn't exactly happy that she had the knowledge, but it is something the creators of the show thought of.

OT: Honestly, it sounds less like Mortal Kombat style fatalities, and more like what happens any time a powerful channeler winds up on the battlefield in The Wheel of Time. So, basically, if Avatar had been written with adults in mind, rather than kids, that's the kind of thing that would have happened in the show.

 

[CulixCupric]

well, there was blood bending in the series, and it was derived from water bending, so I'm saying evil blood/water-bending tribe.

 

[Smiley Face]

In terms of a whole nation? That becomes something of a problem in the sense of making a useable story.

Earthbenders, it would pose the greatest problem to storytelling - they can't pose a serious threat to waterbenders, because they live on the frozen poles, in the middle of the ocean - no earth. The airbenders, if they could create self-sustaining airborne dwellings, could also remain immune to attack. Firebenders, on the other hand, would be toast - nowhere would be safe from an organized onslaught from below. It makes it too easy for the earthbenders.

Airbenders would face the problem of not being able to reach the Earthbenders - they'd just create an underground environment. Sure, they never did that in response to the Fire Nation, but they didn't need to, walls were enough - until they got tech. Moreover...

Waterbenders and Airbenders face the problem that their power is just not inherently destructive enough to make them a believable threat - Ice is destructive, but is only believable in cold climates, and the other 'evil' combat solutions are too specific - use them too much, and they're one-trick ponies without originality, because unlike FIRE, they're not basic enough ideas to be used in creative and dynamic ways.

That said, from a stylistic point of view, the evil Earthbender works best. Sure, some areas may be out of reach, but not all, and they're just the most threatening of the groups, short of the Fire Nation.

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

I'd say the earth nation would make for a good 'villian nation'. They're a big nation in terms of size and population, have that rough and tough personality, and feel like a very 'strong' sturdy element.

air nomads are the least villainous, seen as apparently every last one of them was a peace loving air bending monk.

As for evil abilities, well they've pretty much all been covered. I disagree with the 'turning all the water in a persons body to gas' as a water bender ability. I don't remember water benders ever having the ability to turn stuff into gas, they deal with liquid and ice, not gasses.
Something more fitting in my oppinion would be sucking all the liquid out of someone. It's just an extension of blood bending and seems less... goofy, then making people explode.

perhaps subtle fire-bending would be able to boil someones blood into a gas though :/
Such a cheery discussion topic.

Speaking of topic, this is slightly off it, but:
I wish there there were more 'derived' bending abilities.

There really only the lightning for fire benders, metal for earth benders, and blood/'swamp' for water benders.
Unfortunately, most other things are already covered by normal bending (i think).
Stuff like mud bending, it was shown that both water benders and earth benders could already do that like normal, or those sand tornados that the desert guys made.

I guess you could try and think of a new one for air benders. Perhaps 'sound bending', since sound waves travel through the air they could maybe manipulate them, make a vacuum to silence sounds, or let the air come crashing back in for a thunder clap.

But it's actually pretty hard to think of other bending-derived abilities.

finally, to steer this back on topic:
It would make for an interesting story if one of the avatar's turns out evil, all the nations having to pull together to overcome them and beat them at their own game by working together with their bending.


edit:
evil Earth benders could make tidal waves, since they're created by earthquakes normally.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

Your titles makes it sound like which nation has the most potential for being evil. Your post is talking about brutal killing moves.

I'm not gonna bother with the "Potential Evil" string. I will rule out the Air Nomads entirely though. They're pacifists.

As for the "Brutal Kills" string, I don't see much point. I'm pretty sure all of them can come up with some pretty nasty things. I'll guess that all three have at least one way to suffocate you to death (buried alive/water coffin/forcibly removing air from body or environment).
Even the normal style for Water and Earth is really brutal if you think about it. Getting crushed by several gallons of water or having a rock the size of your bed being tossed at you will likely be fatal and hurt like hell. You've already mentioned Ice Blades. Earth may also get in on the blade action with some style modification (instead of relying on blunt force trauma all the time).

So yeah, I'm not feeling the whole "let's see who can make the nastiest kill move" competition.

 

[samuraiweasel]

Read Codex Alera, you've got em all in there...

 

[CheckD3]

Actually, from what I know, Airbending isn't like Earth and Water, but like Fire, where it's more about creating it and using it to your physical disposal, rather than controlling it like a waterbender would water. That said, 'evil' Airbending would be launching people into the air to land on the ground, and using wind slices to cut people apart.

I still say that the most evil bending is the Bloodbending. Controlling people at the huge length that Hama did means that you could do your deeds from the shadows, and if learned about would be a scape goat, but imagine if it could be mastered so that Bloodbending would allow for the controlled to also be able to bend. Or use non-benders to start a war. The possibilities I think are most dastardly with Bloodbending than the others.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well earth benders have more of the right attitude to go bad, but water benders could be way nastier, like proper Darth Vader evil.
I remember one episode where they touched on blood bending... now that opens up some creepy ass ideas.