Talk:Bending Arts/@comment-41.220.69.5-20101128152614/@comment-3466073-20110306033509

You're all thinking about this incorrectly. If it's genetics how did the first benders bend? It's LEARNED. The reason why Katara was a bender but Sokka wasn't is because Katara is more calm to learn while Sokka is more hot headed and wouldn't have the focus. If someone was born in the Earth Kingdom (post war) and moved to the Fire Nation as a child I'm sure that Earth Kingdom child could learn Fire bending.

As why people can only learn one form of bending... because their body's chi won't be able to handle it like the avatar's body. Once you learn a form of bending you can only learn that one form forever. That would also explain why some people can't bend, they either can't focus enough or they lack the chi power to do so.