Nickelodeon sets Avatar: Last Airbender sequel for 2011

Enjoy the ride. It only gets better from there.

 

It was also implied that Aang's turn wasn't the first time that the Avatar had to master the elements in such a short amount of time.

 

Good point. As stated above, Aang proved that you can master the elements quickly if necessary, but that was because he was forced to accelerate the pace. It seems unlikely that Korra, the very next Avatar, would coincidentally need to follow an equally accelerated training schedule. So maybe she's more like 18, though that would be pushing it for the lead of a Nickelodeon show.

Well, non-Avatars can't bend more than one element, but that's a moot point here, since Korra has been the Avatar from birth even if she didn't find out that she was until later. So yes, Korra will have always had the potential to bend all four elements. But then, so did Aang, and he never discovered his potential for bending other elements until he was told that he could and specifically taught how.

 

Has it ever been explicitly stated that someone can only bend one element?

I think it'd be neat to meet a dual-element bender actually. (But only as an anomaly)

Side Note:
Even though they've said Korra has mastered Water, Earth, & Fire... She probably hasn't had the opportunity to master Plants, Metal, & Lightning.

Or combos like Mud (Earth & Water), Lava (Earth & Fire), etc.

 

Mud itself should be easy enough to bend, both Toph and Katara could manipulate mud by themselves. Lava on the other hand has only shown to be controllable by a fully realized Avatar in the Avatar State.
As for the sub-techniques like Plantbending, Metalbending, and Lightningbending the Foggy Swamp Tribe might be more active in the world by LOK so they could teach waterbenders the ability, Toph may have started a school to teach her listening technique which would probably include metalbending, and I think that lightningbending may have died out if Zuko never mastered it (he could redirect but never generate). That is unless Azula escaped or secretly taught people. Maybe an antagonist in the new series will be a group of Firebenders trying to finish what Sozin started.

On a slightly different subject, most likely after the war the Fire Nation would share its technology with the rest of the world, perhaps adapting it to use coal more uniformly or wood, as shown by the way Republic City is described as Steampunk. Do you think that non-benders would have developed firearms by the time of LOK? Do you think that LOK should even address this at all?

 

Well, the whole core premise of the series is that the Avatar's the only one who can bend all four elements. I don't know if it's been explicitly stated that nobody could bend two or three elements, but the clear underlying assumption was that everyone but the Avatar was a single-element bender only.

Iroh knew lightningbending too. I'm sure there are other firebenders expert enough to have the skill.

 

The last half of season 2 is probably the show at its very best.

 

The creators answered a question if Aang's and Katara's children could be Air- and Waterbenders. The answer was no, their children would be either Airbenders or Waterbenders or no Benders at all. Only the Avatar can bend more than one element, no exceptions.

 

Which is kind of stupid, but needed if there is to be a show.

 

I doubt that Iroh would be teaching anyone to generate lightning since he is most likely the only one who can do it after the events of Sozin's Comet.

 

^My point is that, if Iroh and Azula can do it, there are probably others in the world who can do it too. After all, they had to learn it from somebody. So the same people who taught them might've taught others.

 

It is implied in the series that Iroh invented both techniques and the technique is only taught to members of the Royal Family (and eventually Aang).

 

I didn't get that implication at all. It's implied that Iroh learned how to channel lightning away from him, but I don't think he was the one who invented lightning bending itself.


Here's another Avatar question. I think it's right to assume that bending is genetic, which is why you have the different nations. Two Firebenders could never give birth to a waterbender, for example.

That said, if none of Aang's children are Airbenders, that would truly mean the end of Airbenders for good. If that is the case, when the Avatar cycle comes back around to another Airbender, what will happen? There will be no Airbenders to become the Avatar. Will the Avatar cease to exist?

 

Tenzin is confirmed to be an Airbender, so as long as he has at least one child who is an Airbender and that child also has an Airbender child and as long as Aang's line doesn't die out there should be plenty of Airbenders by the time the cycle gets back to the Airbenders. Who knows how long Korra will live or for that matter the next Earth and Fire Avatars. It could very well take over 500 years for the cycle to get back to Air.

 

I don't think it's genes, exactly; after all, Katara can waterbend but Sokka can't. It's more to do with the spiritual character of each nation. In "Bitter Work," Iroh explained to Zuko how each nation's element is fitting for that nation's overall psychology as a people and a culture.

We already know from the press release for The Legend of Korra that Aang's son Tenzin is an airbender.

We also know that in the A:TLA finale,

Spoiler: A:TLA finale

Aang gained the ability of energy-bending (or chi-bending, as I think of it), the power to alter a person's chi in a way that affects their bending ability. He used this to take away Ozai's firebending, but it stands to reason that he could also use it to endow non-benders with bending abilities, or realign their bending abilities to a different element. So he could create new airbenders that way.

 

Ah, I must've missed the spoiler about Tenzin.

 

So that follow-up mini-series we heard about months ago became this, right? There's still not a limited run mini starring Aang coming out?

 

Even if Aang's line did die out, or none of his children were airbenders, I'd imagine the world they exist in would figure out some way to reintroduce airbenders. Eastern philosophies focus so much on the balance of things, yin and yang, and it would throw the world out of balance too much for the airbenders to be gone forever. It's something that I imagine would have drastic consequences if it went on for too long, and I'd think it would result in some severe course correction on the part of the universe...and probably that correction would involve some team of kids and an epic quest.

 

I could see it being the end of Bending forever. Perhaps all Benders get their powers from the Avatar spirit. If the Avatar is gone, Benders may cease to exist.

 

That's unlikely, the Waterbenders get their powers from the moon spirit and lost them when it was killed and the lion turtle said people were bending energy in the time before the Avatar.