What is your opinion on the portrayal of bloodbending vs that of energybending in atla? It might be a stretch but I think because energybending is solely used by Aang, it is not thought of as "evil" as the way bloodbending is.
That might be the most perfectly succinct way to describe the difference between the two bending forms that I have ever seen.
A part of the fact that Aang does nothing to gain the ability to energybend and instead it is simply bestowed upon him at the last second as a cop-out to making a choice, is that this technique, its cost and its consequences are not at all discussed in any form. In “The Puppetmaster” we got an entire episode dedicated to the way water can be harvested from practically anywhere, including the human body, and what it means, with the disturbing visuals of dead Fire Lilies and crumbled sucked-dry trees to drive the point home
and this comes as an extension to the already established manipulation of water in plants that we saw in “The Swamp” and the creative water sources in “The Runaway”. In “The Old Masters” and “Avatar Aang” we get, like, what? a combined 30 seconds of explanation of how energybending works? only it’s more of an inspirational quote than an actual explanation... Honestly, we still don’t know how this works or why it works and why is Aang able to preform this technique in the first place.
Considering the horror narrative of Hama’s story and the atrocities that she committed*, it’s obvious why bloodbending was framed in such a dark and heavy light when it was presented. The fact that is was never touched again except to be used when Katara was at her “darkest” in “The Southern Raiders”, shows what the creators think about this ability. It’s ridiculous to think that in thousands of years of history not a single waterbender besides Hama has ever bloodbent**, or that there is no existing traditions, discussions about it’s possible use in healing, or even taboos about this subject in Water Tribe cultures. But, anyway, the writers just tossed this ability aside and declared it “forbidden” in LoK, so that kids will know just how bad bad bad this bending form is.
Energy bending, on the other hand, never got this treatment, even though it is absolutely horrifying???? and lacking any redeeming quality that I can find like with using bloodbending for healing??? They didn’t bother to go into the depths of horror that is energybending in AtLA, but boy oh boy did they try to in LoK. But instead of actually talking about energybending they did a pretty sinister thing (in my opinion), that feels like it was specifically made so as not to taint the purity of the technique and its wielder, and just copy-pasted the implications of energybending onto bloodbending.
LoK’s first season actually tried to touch on the pain and devastation of what it means to be stripped away from your bending abilities. And even though it was far from perfect and never fully explored or resolved, at the very least they showed us that side. We see how drained and sad that pro-bending player (don’t remember his name) was after losing his bending, we see how heartbreaking Lin’s power-stripping was and what a sacrifice she had to make to ensure that the last airbenders in the world will not lose their abilities, we see how broken Korra is after losing her own bending, even though she still has airbending, and the very very much implied suicidal thoughts that it brought to her. We understand that taking someone’s bending has gravitas, has deep emotional implications. But... we can’t talk about energybending in a bad way, right? So...
HEY KIDS! Did you think ebergybending was a random ability that did whatever the plot needed it to do with no plausible reasoning or explanation? Well! From the people who brought you the Magic of the Pointy Rock, we re-introduce you to bloodbending!! But now! It can take your bending away! For some reason! We don’t know why! It just does!
**Bryke at some point, probably**
So beside shifting the entire discussion from one technique to another, even though only one of them actually does the thing we are talking about, they went so far as to make sure we don’t suspect for a second that what we see is actually energybending, showing Amon/Noatak always positioned behind the person he strips, using only one hand on the forehead
instead of Aang’s position in front of the person, with two hands, one on the forehead and one on the chest (don’t even get me started on what a horrible ending this shit was. I swear if I see one more literal deus ex machina in this franchise I’m gonna scream! oh wait, this is just season 1...)
(Sorry for the low quality of photos. I don’t have LoK for obvious reasons so I had to screenshot these from youtube)
So, in summation, yeah you’re absolutely right. Energybending is specifically and methodically portrayed in a positive way, even when it shouldn’t be, especially in light of and in contrast to bloodbending, a form that gets far too many beatings and more than it deserves, for reasons that I don’t understand at best and I don’t think I want to understand at worst (the fact that this is a Katara-centric ability and her lack of statues in LoK, its connection to Katara’s very much existing brutal and belligerent tendencies that are continually ignored and swept aside for the “dream girl” image, the connection between bloodbending and anti zutara rethoric in tsr... this list isn’t pretty)
* I still don’t understand how Hama’s victims were alive. She kidnapped just one person each month, but the cave was full of people. Did she feed them? cleaned their potty buckets? like what was the point?? to make them live through the pain that she had to live through as a prisoner? how is this sustainable for one old lady? this makes zero sense and drives me crazy to this day. There should have only been one living person, the most recent that was kidnapped, and just skeletons around them. That would have been more logical. And it’s not like skeletons weren’t shown on the show... sorry, I’m rambling (and haven’t seen the episode in years, I hope I remember it correctly).
** Toph’s metal bending is a little different, since obviously metal had to be invented at a certain point so no one could attempt to bend it before that. Human bodies on the other hand have been more than available and full of water since the dawn of humanity, and I doubt there hasn’t been a single waterbender powerful enough who could sense the presence of water in people and, I don’t know, tried to talk to someone about it? also, waterbenders are healers?? they actively know the human body, not just coincidentally? how did no one talk about this before?? and regarding metalbending again, It’s not entirely unreasonable that Toph really was the first to bend metal, since of course there has to be a first in everything. But honestly if you ask me it’s a little... weird. But this is very much off-topic.
