Waterbending



Waterbending, one of the four Bending Arts, is a hydrokinetic and cyrokinetic ability to control water and its forms, combining this with martial arts. The people of the Southern Water Tribe, the Northern Water Tribe, and a few in the Earth Kingdom mastered this technique some time ago. Its season is winter.

Notable Waterbenders

 * Fire Avatar
 * Avatar Yangchen
 * Avatar Kuruk
 * Avatar Kyoshi
 * Avatar Roku
 * Avatar Aang
 * Katara
 * Master Pakku
 * Hama
 * Yugoda
 * Tho
 * Due
 * Hue

Origin


Source: Water

Learned From: Moon

The people of the Water Tribe first learned Waterbending by observing how the moon pushed and pulled the tides of the ocean. They then learned how to simulate the effect themselves. As such they have a strong spirital connect to the Moon (and its counterpart the Ocean) and any adverse effects on these mediums can affect them too.

According to the episode "The Waterbending Scroll," the word 'waterbending' is written in Chinese as 截水神功, which is best translated as "The Divine Ability to Halt Water".'

Fighting style
Waterbending is based on the style of Tai Chi, which is a martial art that features slow movements and elegant forms that evoke the feel of flowing water. According to Iroh, water is the element of change and adaptability. Waterbending provides a versatility of experience and has the most diverse range of attacks and techniques in all forms of bending.

Waterbending's strength is its defensive capabilities which, rather than supporting a separate set of offensive methods, are transformed into attacks and counters - defense into offense. Rather than simply stopping an attack directly, Waterbending's defensive maneuvers focus on control, turning an opponent's own strength against them.

Water Manipulation: Almost all forms of waterbending involve moving and shaping a body of water to the users desire. By simply levitating a large mass of water a waterbender can move water anywhere they wish, even parting it under the surface of a lake or sea, allowing them to walk along the bottom of a basin without the need to swim. These large bodies can also be used as weapons, either by shaping them into gigantic whips, swung repeatedly at a target as a snake like body, or simply dropped onto an opponent to smother them or put out a fire. Given waters fluid and completely malleable nature a wide variety of shapes and movements are possible.



Water Pressure Manipulation: Waterbenders are also able to manipulate water pressure, allowing their techniques to grasp other objects or cutting through without simply parting around them. Since water is incompressible it can be used as a semi-soild while being able to move and flow like a liquid.



Water Whips: The most frequently seen move, involves creating a lashing tendril of water to swipe at an opponent. The shape, size and length are all determined by a waterbenders control, more powerful benders can great larger whips or ones of greater finesse. Due to waters incompressibility a whip can be sharpened into a blade that can even slice through metal and flesh with relative ease.



Water Jets: High pressure jets can be used to force opponents back or even blast clean through a target if focused enough.

Water Drill: A high pressure rotating column of water. Capable of exerting a significant amount of pressure upon a solid surface, that allows the action of a drill.



Water Waves: By moving a large mass of water without separating it from its original source, water benders can create waves of any size. This can be used to sweep opponents away or even as a form of transport, with the bender surfing on the crest of the wave. This same proccess can be used to propel water bourne craft.



Thermokinesis: Waterbenders also possess thermokinetic abilities regarding their element, meaning that they can freeze, melt, evaporate or condense the water they manipulate at will. Changing the phase of water allows for multiple techniques in the course of a battle, from encasing an opponent in ice to hiding behind a wall of mist. Ice and steam/fog can also be molded in a diverse range of shapes. Ice provides a degree of hard lethality since it can be moulded into spikes or blades to pin down or impale opponents or provide a more permanent trap or protection. Steam or mist can obscure a battlefield and mask movement.

Water Walls/Water Shields: Water can be molded into any shape and can by used to deflect an attack, trap opponents in a viscous body, reshaped and propelled at an attacker before they can recover, or solidifed into a shield of ice. This diversity and ability to swiftly change to suit the situation is what makes waterbenders defense so adaptable.

Waterbending Master Level
The mark of a master waterbender is the ability to swiftly change from one state of water to another and rapidly switch techniques during combat, keeping the opponent off guard while constantly adapting to the enemy as demonstrated by Master Pakku. For example, deflecting a stream of water away from himself, freezing it, using it to slide behind Katara before melting it and using it counterattack.



Water Spout: This high level technique involves controlling and a whirlpool-like pillar of water as a weapon, rotating it can directing its movements at the same time. Another form exists nicknamed the "Water Snake", in accordance to the waterspout's constantly shifting and coiling movements.



Octopus form: A body of water formed around the user into 8 or so whip like limbs which can be used to grasp or strike an opponent or to intercept and seize incoming attacks. It is assumed that this requires a great deal of concentration.

Streaming the Water: Developed by Katara this technique involves covering her body or limbs with water which she can easily shape and mold to form whips, quickly propel as missiles and grab opponents from a distance, while at the same time providing a permanent and adaptable shield and armor. The adaptability of this technique allows her to quickly shift her techniques into any other related waterbending method.

Avatar Level Waterbending
Tsunami: Since they can control larger bodies of water The Avatar is capable of creating and controlling water bodies of far greater size and scale, including causing massive tsunamis at will.

Special Techniques
Plantbending: A member of the Foggy Swamp Tribe, Hue, has illustrated that Waterbenders can manipulate the vines and roots of plants by bending the ample amount of water within them. Going further, a skilled Waterbender is able to instantaneously extract the liquid from the plants for utilization. The advanced practice of using plantbending allows the gathering of flora and basic plants to create a golem of sorts that the bender can exist inside of to manipulate as if their own body.



Cloudbending: In, "The Fortuneteller", it's shown that (because clouds are made with water and air) a skilled Waterbender or Airbender can manipulate them easily. In the same episode, Aang and Katara join their powers to create a giant skull form with the clouds who is the sign that the volcano will erupt, so the villagers will be safe. It's still unknown if a Waterbender can perform this technique without an Airbender and vice versa. But even if it's the case, the Avatar can manipulate that two kind of bending so it's not a problem for Aang.

Bloodbending: Bloodbending is introduced in the episode "The Puppetmaster." Considering that humans are made of 70% water, Bloodbending does not necessarily bend blood, but the fluids in one’s body, allowing the user to manipulate a bodies muscles to move as they wish or to stop movement completely. Potentially a Bloodbender could stop a victims heart or crush internal organs though this has not be stated. This art is apparently only possible during the full moon when a waterbenders power is greatest. Only two people, Katara and Hama, have mastered this technique. Despite having lived in the Fire Nation now, Hama originated from the Southern Water Tribe. Bloodbending is considered quite a sinister art since it forces the bender's will over the victim. Katara was forced by Hama to learn this technique in order to stop Hama from making Sokka and Aang kill each other. Hama discovered this technique when she was captured by the Fire Nation and was imprisoned for years. She first figured out how to do it by bending the water inside the prison rats when her power was enhanced during a full moon. After the rats, she tried to bend the prison guards forcing them to open her cage and prevent them from following her. Hama later used it to kidnap Fire Nation civilians making them literally walk into her clutches and imprison them, but she was later found and arrested.



Enhanced Waterbending
It is enhanced during the night, due to its lunar sympathy. During a Full Moon, Waterbending is apparently greatly enhanced, to the point where a single waterbender can overpower multiple firebenders and other soldiers. Bloodbending is only possible during the full moon. A Waterbender can also resist Bloodbending during this period for the same reasons.



Opposing Bending Art
Waterbending is the opposing bending art to Firebending though it is similar in its require for inner discipline and strong connection to external forces.

Like all the bending arts, Waterbending is balanced out as to not be more or less powerful than the other arts. The series has repeatedly illustrated that it's the skill and prowess of the user that determines victory.

Weapons
So far, the only times a weapon has been used with Waterbending is when Avatar Kyoshi uses her fans to create a wave in "Avatar Day," and in "The Earth King," when Aang used his staff to freeze water. It has been stated that, given their almost "Samurai-like" cutting techniques, a katana or a cane sword would be the best weapon suited for a Waterbender.

Healing
Each of the four bending disciplines contain special sub-skills unique only to certain members of each element. Waterbenders in particular possess the ability to heal wounds by redirecting energy paths (or chi) throughout the body, using water as a catalyst.

Physically, this draws on the restorative properties of water to organisms such as human beings that are primarily composed of it. Though powerful, Waterbending healing cannot heal every ailment---for example, Jet's wound in "Lake Laogai" or the complications associated with Princess Yue's birth. In the Northern Water Tribe, this ability is the only aspect of Waterbending taught to female Waterbenders, due to the traditionally patriarchal culture of the tribe. It is not known to what extent the Northern Water Tribe teaches healing to men; no male Waterbender has been shown using this ability in the series so far. In rare cases, a waterbender may develop this ability without training.

Weaknesses
External Water Source: A Waterbender's weakness is his or her need for an external source of water, though a skilled Waterbender can condensate the natural moisture in the air or on the ground into a usable form. As a result, traveling Waterbenders carry a water skin with them at all times.

Binding: A second vulnerability, however, lies within the use of one's arms as a primary means of Waterbending. This leaves the Waterbender vulnerable when he or she is bound at the hands or has had the flow of chi blocked in the arms. As of yet, there have been few instances in the series where Waterbending was performed with the lower body, such as when Katara anchored her feet in ice during her fight with Master Pakku, or when she created a piece of ice to use as a surfboard when fighting a giant sea serpent. Another lower body technique is outlined on the Waterbending scroll stolen by Katara, from which both she and Aang learned a technique named the Water Whip. However, Katara used her feet when she fought the guards Earthbenders, in the Royal Palace, in the episode "The Earth King", performing a larger than normal water whip.

Emotional State: A Waterbender's power comes from the internal life energy chi. Due to this, a Waterbender's power is connected to his or her present emotional state. If an inexperienced Waterbender were to lose his or her temper, their waterbending force is intensified, but in turn, control is lost. This was demonstrated twice by Katara, the first occasion ironically serving as the catalyst of the series. Although this has the potential to be quite dangerous, it also serves as a boon to a bender with proper training and experience, as well as balance over their emotions.



Lunar Eclipse: Another Waterbending weakness is its dependence on the moon (see below). Although Waterbenders gain power from the moon (with Waterbending at its zenith during full moons), the moons absence results in a complete loss of Waterbending ability (As seen in The Siege of the North Part II). It is theorized that a lunar eclipse would also negate a Waterbenders power.

Overcoming Weakness
It was later revealed that some of the standard Waterbending weaknesses could be rendered useless if known how. A skilled Waterbender can pull water particles out of air, plants, and even their bodies if needed. The draw back is, the bender must be able to move to do so, meaning a binded waterbender would still not be able to bend.

Elemental Symbol
The symbol for water and waterbending is a circle comprised of a stylized rightward-facing ocean wave, with three spiral crests, breaking over three wavy diagonal lines representing water. It also shows how the moon and ocean spirit work together. The symbol is featured in connection with Northern Water Tribe spirituality, and on the pendant worn by Katara, originally carved by a Waterbender named Master Pakku for her grandmother as an engagement present.

Spirituality and Waterbending
''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." Like the moon controlling the tides, Waterbenders move water using their chi to mimic gravitational pull by choosing how to direct their energy utilizing two jings, which in turn work to push and pull the water being controlled. Because of this lunar sympathy, a Waterbender's power is stronger at night, at their absolute zenith during a full moon, and lost during a lunar eclipse. A Waterbender's power is also enhanced during the rain. This is most likely due to the fact that rainwater is nothing more than moisture from the Ocean that has condense into the clouds and precipitates back to the earth. Futhermore, a Waterbender's power is strongest when he or she is situated in colder climates, during the winter, or near their native polar homelands.

Legend further elaborates that Tui (meaning "push") the Moon Spirit, and its symbiotic partner La (meaning "pull"), the Ocean Spirit, gave up their immortality to be a part of the mortal world. In fact, these spirits exist in the physical forms of two koi fish eternally circling one another in a pond, in the highly spiritual oasis, in the capital city of the Northern Water Tribe.



The "push and pull" relationship between the moon's gravity and the water's inertia is represented by Yin and Yang. The Moon Spirit koi is white, with a black forehead marking, and the Ocean Spirit koi is black, with a white forehead marking, mimicking the two primal forces.

Without the equilibrium of these two spiritual aspects, Waterbenders lose their powers. This was illustrated when Tui's mortal form was killed by Admiral Zhao during the Fire Nation's siege of the Northern Water Tribein "The Siege of the North Part II". The moon disappeared from the sky, the balance of the world was upset, and the Waterbenders defending the North Pole were rendered powerless.

The Fire Nation's invading fleet was subsequently defeated when the Avatar, Aang, acted as a literal avatar of La and combined to form a gigantic water creature that swept the Fire Nation forces out to sea. Balance was restored when Princess Yue, who had received a part of Tui's life force at birth to prevent her immediate death, returned that force and sacrificed herself so that Tui might live.