2012-06-11, 08:02 PM
Corn Wrote:Like how lightning bending is not extremely common?
Like how everyone and their grandmothers can do metal bending?
Like how this random dude somehow knows how to spirit bend?
Like how the series finale of the old Avatar pulled a deus ex of spirit bending?
It really doesn't matter that much for me compared to all of the above. As long as they make it so that everyone can't blood bend that easily, it's fine by me compared to what else they did. I mean, I might even argue that it might be a necessity, as Korra could probably easily destroy Tarlok otherwise, and we all know how boring that is.
Lightning Bending was uncommon 80 years ago, and was likely kept as a royal secret in the Royal Family. No one outside of the Royal Family could Lightning Bend (that I remember, please correct me if I'm wrong).
Metal Bending was thought impossible until Toph mastered it. The only reason she discovered it is because she was blind, and could sense the Earth inside of the Metal. Once that was determined, it was just a matter of teaching others to take advantage of the small amount of Earth in the metal as Toph had. It wasn't that people had tried and failed, it was that people thought it was impossible so they never tried.
We don't know that Amon is Spirit Bending. It is only assumed because he is taking away bending. Someone else mentioned that his stance and hand placements differ from when Aang Spirit Bent. Also, Aang learned Spirit Bending from a Lion Turtle. It was an unknown secret, and it could easily be that Amon ran into a similar situation that Aang did and learned it a similar way...or simply by watching Aang...or by travelling to the Spirit World much like Iroh did, and learning it from the Spirits themselves.
Spirit Bending as a deus-ex, while may not be the best thing they ever did either, wasn't breaking known facts. We have 70 episodes of Avatar that show that Benders aren't as powerful as Yakome. The only way to get nearly that powerful is to be the Avatar. You have the most powerful Benders in the entire world and none of them came close to that. Hell, without the Avatar State he could even take out Aang, who should be beyond a master of Water Bending, AND still take out 100+ people in that court room. It just doesn't make sense. Spirit Bending doesn't take everything we knew about the Bending Arts and throw it out the window, it was it's own Art altogether. This is an established Bending Art, magically going from "Once a month super power that can control a few people" to "Whenever you want control entire rooms and cities." It screams bullpomegranate.