Hama

"water"

- They threw me in prison to rot, along with my brothers and sisters! They deserve the same! You must carry on my work!

Hama was a waterbender who was born in the Southern Water Tribe. She was captured and imprisoned by the Fire Nation during their campaign to weaken the Southern Water Tribe, but she eventually escaped through the use of a new waterbending technique she developed while incarcerated, bloodbending. Hama held an especially deep grudge against the Fire Nation and its people, attempting to carry out revenge whenever and wherever possible.

Early life


In her youth, Hama was very close friends with Kanna, the grandmother of Sokka and Katara. Over sixty years prior to the series, Hama was one of the many waterbenders of the Southern Water Tribe. When she was young, the Fire Nation began raiding the Southern Tribe, systematically weakening them with hit-and-run attacks and capturing waterbenders. Hama and her fellow waterbenders did everything they could to resist the ruthless firebending army and managed to freeze at least one ship into suspended ice, supposedly the same one Katara and Aang saw while penguin sledding. However, as the raids continued, more and more waterbenders were captured, until Hama was the last. Finally, she too was captured and led away in chains, with Kanna watching in tears.

Discovering bloodbending
While imprisoned by the Fire Nation, she and the other waterbenders were completely caged and separated from each other. The prison's air was dry, to prevent the waterbenders from drawing water from the air. When they were given water, their hands and feet would be chained to avoid any chance of using their bending. However, each month she could feel the power of the full moon and knew that there had to be a way to escape. She eventually realized that water exists within all living things, and during the full moon she began to manipulate water in the bodies of rats that crawled into her cage. She spent years developing this technique, called bloodbending, which could only be used with the full moon enhancing her abilities. After mastering the technique, Hama controlled one of the guards, forcing him to unlock her cage. Having been tortured for decades, she finally escaped her imprisonment, freed by the very guards assigned to keep her locked in.



Hama later moved into a small Fire Nation village, becoming the keeper of a small inn. She used her powers to secretly abduct people every full moon, sadistically keeping them in a prison as revenge for the treatment she suffered. The disappearances caused the villagers to be afraid to go out during the full moon.

Meeting a fellow waterbender
When Aang and his friends were camping in the woods passing the time by telling ghost stories, Hama suddenly appeared after hearing Katara's story of a little girl her mother knew, who mysteriously disappeared. She offered them a safe place to stay for the night warning them that the woods they were camping in were unsafe, telling them that people had been mysteriously disappearing during the full moon. The group accepted her offer to stay with her in her inn for the night. The next morning, Hama and the rest of the gang went to get some supplies on a nearby town; during this time, Katara and Hama got along very well. Soon after, Hama found them snooping around. She showed them a water tribe comb, revealing to the group that she was a waterbender from the Southern Water Tribe but was captured a long time ago. She offered to teach Katara what she knew in order to carry on the tradition of the southern waterbending. Katara happily agreed to learn, wanting to know more about her tribe's cultural heritage.



The next day, she taught Katara a series of techniques for waterbenders to obtain water in a foreign land. She first demonstrated that it was possible to pull water out of thin air. She told her to keep an open mind and that there was water in places she never thought about. She then led Katara to a field filled with fire lilies and told her that water could even be drawn from living things. She demonstrated this by harvesting the water from the flowers around them and using it to slice through a rock. However, drawing water from the flowers dried and killed them. While Katara was amazed by the demonstration, she regretted that the fire lilies were destroyed. Hama dismissed her concerns quickly, telling her that they were simply flowers and that a waterbender in a foreign country had to do what they must to survive. She then told Katara that she had one more technique to teach, one that could only be used during the full moon. When Katara expressed hesitance due to the rumors of disappearances, Hama reassured her, stating that two master waterbenders under a full moon should be able to handle anything.



That night, Hama led Katara into the forest and told her about the technique of bloodbending. Horrified by the idea of controlling another person's body, Katara refused to learn bloodbending. Hama argued with her, stating that it didn't matter whether she wanted to learn it or not and told her that the power to use it existed either way. She said that they must have vengeance on the Fire Nation for trying to wipe out their entire culture. The outburst led Katara to realize that Hama had been causing the villagers to disappear, but Hama angrily stated that the people of the Fire Nation deserved the same treatment that they had given to her and all the southern waterbenders. Hearing this caused Katara to adamantly refuse to learn bloodbending and to try to stop Hama from further terrorizing the town. Hama used the technique to temporarily force Katara into submission. However, Katara quickly regained control of her body, reminding Hama that she drew power from the full moon as well, and also stating that her waterbending was more powerful than Hama's. The two began to battle, each drawing water from the grass, the trees surrounding them, and the air. Both combatants demonstrated their mastery over waterbending, but after a furious fight, it became obvious that Katara was the superior bender. Aang and Sokka arrived, having found and released Hama's prisoners, determined to stop her. Hama turned the tables on them and used bloodbending to control the two, forcing them to attack Katara and then each other. Katara was then forced to use bloodbending to subdue Hama and protect Aang and Sokka. Toph arrived with the other villagers, who handcuffed Hama and took her away, vowing to imprison her forever. Hama remarked that her work is done, as Katara had already willingly used bloodbending and laughed as she was dragged off, leaving Katara in tears.

Personality
At first glance, Hama appeared to be a gentle, kind old woman. She possessed a caring, maternal personality which eventually won her Katara's full trust. Determined and strong-willed, Hama fought persistently to ward off the Fire Nation during the Southern Water Tribe raids. However, later events unveiled a much darker and, quite frankly, unstable side of Hama. Her discovery of bloodbending led her to become power-hungry and driven to extract revenge on Fire Nation civilians whenever possible. Long to hold a grudge, she actively retaliated against the Fire Nation by imprisoning local villagers as a way to punish them for the devastation they brought upon the Southern Water Tribe. She revealed a cruel side to her, showing no mercy towards the Fire Nation or even Katara, as she willingly used bloodbending on her.

Abilities


Hama was a very powerful and creative waterbender, and along with Katara, was one of the only two living waterbenders from the Southern Water Tribe. She was also the only remaining master of the Southern Style, as Katara was taught at the North Pole. Hama was very knowledgeable in her art, and was able to create shields and projectile streams of water easily. In addition, when no large source of water was around, Hama could draw water out from plants, reducing them to withered husks, or even draw water from thin air.

Hama was also the creator of bloodbending, a technique that allowed her to manipulate the blood in other creatures' bodies, effectively controlling their actions; however, it could only be performed during the full moon, when a waterbender's power was at its peak. This technique was extremely powerful, so much that she could easily overpower both Aang and Sokka's wills and control them both at the same time.

Trivia

 * The word Hama (浜) means "beach" in Japanese. This word may have been adopted in the Inuit language for "coastal area" and the name of one their pihiq or Inuit songs. The name "Hama" may also be derived from the Greek word "Haima", meaning "blood", which is appropriate, as Hama was the inventor of bloodbending.
 * The puppets Hama kept in a closet were all identical to the people she held prisoner. This is reminiscent of a Robert E. Howard story entitled, "The Pool of the Black Ones".
 * The structure of the story was highly similar to that of the ancient Chinese tale, The Inn of the Donkeys, which can be found in Cyril Birch's anthology.
 * Hama was one of the few Water Tribe members not to have a "K" in her name, or to have blue eyes as hers were gray.
 * Hama was one of the few female waterbenders shown in the series, the others being Katara, Yugoda, those shown in her flashbacks, and all female Avatars.
 * Hama was one of the few people in the series who had piercings.
 * Hama was the only waterbender to have long fingernails, similar to Azula's.
 * Hama appeared to have a light skin tone in her old age, which is unusual, since most people from the Water Tribe have a slightly darker skin tone. She was shown to have a more typical skin tone before she was captured.
 * Hama was briefly mentioned by Kanna in the movie adaptation, "", as being the last waterbender in the South Pole until the Fire Nation came and took her. This may foreshadow an appearance in the third movie, should one be made.