seen from Iraq
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seen from South Africa
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Israel
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seen from Türkiye
seen from Germany
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So, Ty Lee knows a whole bunch of pressure points that can disable bending, and a bunch more that just make people all floppy.
Are there also pressure points which just...kill people? Are all the denizens of the ATLA universe all just one rage induced poking session away from being wiped out by the world's pinkest mass murderer?
I like to think so.
How Ty Lee learned chi-blocking?
Yes, I know about all of the of airbender ancestor theory or she is an airbender herself, but I don't like it, I think it's stupid. This ability is ancient one, part of the history, was known in all four nations, airbending is not related. Maybe they invented it long time ago, but regardless, it's not related. The water tribe learned about chi in healings and all of that so they might have invented it themselves. We do not know. So yes Ty Lee has grey eyes, who cares. The eyes are the only hint for a possible ancestor, which could be logical because we know from avatar legends that's a lot of airbenders lived in the Fire nation in Roku's era. But it's still not an explanation for her abilities.
What I want to talk about is how she learned this secret technique. We saw in the Avatar comics chi-blockers from the Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom, but only now in the roleplaying game we got information about chi-blockers besides Ty Lee.
Fai Lan was a gang member in the Fire's nation capital city who knew chi-blocking. He was active few years before the series begin. Now a little reminder, Ty Lee had a hard time with her sisters, it wasn't easy for her in her house. So, she could have meet him at some point in the street of the city, even though it's not a place for a nobleman daughter to be, Ty Lee doesn't seem one who care. So, she could learn it from him, even before the circus she was good in acrobatics, so he could be impressed by her.
I know it can be sound weird that a criminal will notice Ty Lee and won't hurt her. So I have another direction but it less solid. There was another person from the Fire Nation who knew chi-blocking, it was Zeisan, Sozin's sister. Maybe she taught the technique to someone and this person was there to teach Ty Lee or someone else this person taught the chi-blocking. If Ty Lee's knowledge indirectly related to Sozin's sister it could be really interesting and ironic.
I think chi blocking foreshadowes energybending
The two things are so different that it's hard to connect the two without actually knowing that the latter exists. Chi blocking actually foreshadows Amon's physically-activated bending removal more than it does energybending, but no one tries to claim that chi-blocking justifies that particular reveal. (Chi-blocking plus water-healing might, but that's no longer even in the same ballpark as chi-blocking foreshadowing energybending)
I want Ty Lee to randomly jump onto the stage and temporarily render Romney's limbs useless.
Can we get a badass cosplayer here?
So, I just saw the Korra finale... (no spoilers)
I won't post any spoilery thoughts for a while because I'd hate to ruin the finale for anyone, but SRSLY. RIGHT NOW I'M HAVING A KNOCK-DOWN, DRAG-OUT FISTFIGHT WITH BOOKSHOP & CHERRYBINA OVER THE LOGISTICS OF CHI-BLOCKING, BLOODBENDING AND ENERGYBENDING.
BECAUSE HOW
DOES
THAT
SHIT
WORK.
(P.S. I do have my own theories and have read the ATLA: Annotated posts about energybending and chakras/chi-blocking pressure points, etc, so yeah, I know some stuff. But I can't go into any more detail here without spoiling some stuff from the finale. IN CONCLUSION, WE ARE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY REALY IDEA ABOUT HOW THIS SHIT WORKS UNTIL SEASON 2. BRB rewatching Korra on a loop until then.)
"Amon... where's Korra? I know you have her!"
No I don't. Now go away or I'll chi-black your face off.
How likely is it that bloodbending could be used to permanently disrupt chi pathways? I haven't seen anyone mention it, but surely it's a possibility?
Because I'm off in the realm of crazy guesswork with this hypothesis: Tarrlok and Amon are the same person, playing both sides of the Bender-Equalist civil war so that he comes out on top no matter the outcome.
