Talk:Bloodbending/@comment-5227089-20120624054606

Here is my theory on why the "bending severing" technique is essentially energybending. I don't know if this has already been theorized but here goes.

The page on healing says that healing works by redirecting the flow of chi using water as a medium. If we assume that energybending bends chi energy, then it follows that waterbending can be used to indirectly "bend" energy. An extremely skilled waterbender, such as Amon, would be able to do more than just redirect the flow, but stop or sever the flow, achieving the same effect as energybending. And by the same effect, I mean energybending also "severs" one from their bending.

But not just any master waterbender can do it. Only someone who has mastered bloodbending without the moon can do it. Because bloodbending already requires a lot of bending power, which is ordinarily received from the moon. Being able to do it any time means the bender has either built up an amazing amount of power within himself, or practiced bloodbending to extreme precision on par with Toph's ability to detect the tiny fragments of earth in metal.

So only the most powerful bloodbenders can indirectly energybend. But it doesn't beat straight up energybending. It takes a lot of effort just to learn to bloodbend without the moon. It probably took a lot more to learn how to use it to take people's bending away. Amon specifically learned that technique because that's the only one he knew about and that's all he wanted to be able to do.