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Different Forms Of Waterbending in Avatar The Last Airbender

Why The Moon Spirit Is Important For Waterbending

The Water Tribe's waterbenders are the only benders of the four major bending elements to not have learned their bending art from animals in Avatar: The Last Airbender. This difference leads to some benefits and tradeoffs that make them concurrently among the most powerful and the most vulnerable.

The origin of waterbending for modern humans was learned from observing the push-and-pull effect of the moon's gravity on the tides by the Moon (push) and Ocean (pull) Spirits. Because of waters' pervasiveness on the planet in many states and sources, waterbending has a high-use potential. But the source of the waterbenders' bending opens them up to the greatest weakness of all the nations in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Different Forms Of Waterbending in Avatar The Last Airbender

The waterbenders have developed numerous styles among the Water Tribes, including the Northern, Southern, Foggy Swamp, and pro-bending styles. Because the nature of water flows, waterbenders must learn to be adaptable. Their level of mastery to waterbend is connected to their ability to guide the flow of both water and the momentum of their opponents' attacks. This allows them to simultaneously defend and, if possible, redirect attacks.

While waterbenders can bend water from any source of water in their environment, they also have the ability to bend the water in the air, snow and ice, or water-based liquids such as tea. The Foggy Swamp tribe of waterbenders also demonstrated plantbending by manipulating the water within plants. Katara also used this method to mudbend, which is also a sub-bending form of earthbending. Hama, however, illustrated how a waterbender can instead draw the moisture out of plants to be used for waterbending as well. She realized in a Fire Nation prison:

"Where there is life, there is water. The rats that scurried across my cage were nothing more than skins filled with liquid."

There, under the full moon which filled her with energy, Hama developed her mastery over the forbidden waterbending sub-form, bloodbending. This form of waterbedning was forcefully passed onto Katara when Hama used bloodbending to control Sokka and Aang to attack each other. Using bloodbending to stop Hama was the only way Katara could save her brother and Aang. Hama's deadly lesson taught Katara that the true extent of waterbending reaches far beyond bending readily accessible water and plants.

Waterbending in Avatar: The Last Airbender doesn't end with its exhaustive list of techniques and ability to bend water for self-defense. It can also be used as a sub-form of spiritbending for healing purposes. Among the major bending elements, waterbending has been shown to be the most extensive bending art with techniques that span across earth, psychic, and spiritbending. A high-level waterbending master is theoretically capable of manipulating anything with water in it, including clouds, paints, chemical solutions, bodily fluids, and steam. The waterbenders' greatest weakness isn't the lack of water in their environments, it's the Ocean and the Moon Spirits.

Why The Moon Spirit Is Important For Waterbending

The Fire Nation's firebenders get their source of fire from the sun. The Water Tribe's waterbenders, however, do not get their source of water from the moon or Moon Spirit. They instead get their bending power from the Moon Spirit relative to the moon's waxing and waning cycles. They innately grow stronger by night just from the dominant presence of the moon.

Nonetheless, waterbenders are at their most powerful on a full moon and less so on a waning moon. When the Moon Spirit, inhabiting a koi fish at the Northen Water Tribe, was killed, the waterbenders were incapable of bending the water even though they were surrounded by vast amounts of it. This wasn't a temporary setback like the effect of an eclipse temporarily disabling the firebenders' ability to firebend. If the Moon Spirit, Tui, had not been restored to life to continue its dance with La, the Ocean Spirit, the waterbenders likely would have remained powerless. What might have happened to the waterbenders if the Ocean Spirit was killed instead of the Moon Spirit may have been fatal for them. Princess Yue notes:

" The legends say, the moon was the first waterbender. Our ancestors saw how it pushed and pulled the tides, and learned how to do it themselves. Our strength comes from the Spirit of the Moon. Our life comes from the Spirit of the Ocean. They work together to keep balance."

Naturally, because of their inherent connection to the Moon and Ocean Spirits, waterbenders are deeply spiritual. This connection may be why they are able to access spiritbending techniques without the intense meditation that airbenders do to access their spiritbending techniques or enter the Spirit World. It begs the question as to what, if any, spiritbending abilities are possible for earth and firebenders were they to be more spiritually than physically rooted.

The waterbenders of Avatar: The Last Airbender strike a unique balance that's defensive but not entirely pacifist like the Air Nomads, nor as collectively offense-oriented as the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation. By living harmoniously as a modern nation, the Water Tribes are the epitome of the balance that the Avatar seeks to create in the world. And they have the Moon and Ocean Spirits to thank for that lesson.