Talk:Airbending/@comment-75.194.18.96-20120311032145/@comment-4888161-20120323003331

I respectfully disagree with the above anon. It is quite a good theory actually. But the properties of air actually make it one of the more destructive elements if used a certain way. You see, wind is simply moving air (obviously). While the air itself doesn't harm anything, the wind can. The air nomads used these properties to avoid harming others, but when it is manipulated a certain way it becomes very destructive with plenty of finishing moves. Strong vacuums and wind slashes are just a couple of the many things that can be done. So I believe it is personal choice because it would have to be. But if an airbender wanted to they could easily tear everything to shreads.

All you have to do is look at extreme whether. In the United States, we've gotten hammered by twisters already this year, and it's only March. Some poor people got hit in february by a strong tornadoe, only to get snow the next day. Hurricanes/Typhoons are another thing that can be quite destructive, particuarly in higher categories. A strong airbender can create comparable winds, although if they aren't the Avatar it might not be quite so extreme as the higher end stuff. It's still plenty destructive, though. And it becomes more so when combined with other things, like maybe air slashes. We've seen enough techniques to know plenty of these destructive moves exist in airbending. They just aren't used because we have yet to see an airbender without that peaceful philosophy.

I think where the confusion lies (beyond the fact we've only seen pacifist monks for airbenders) is that air is versitle enough of an element that it has great potential for both destructive and passifist styles. In other words it is strong at both. Water can also be quite destructive, but in the show we often saw more passive approaches to that too. It all depends on how it is used. Since the monks were a peaceful race, they developed their style of airbending around that.