<p>I love the twins!!! Desna and Eska are awesome. </p>

<p>@TUW </p><p>Almost. A few. more. minutes.... </p>

<p>@Empressofmlenibone Indeed! I agree with you 100% :) </p><p>@Kingdom Alright, bro, tell me what you think when you're done :D </p>

<p>It's inherited because the Lion Turtles stopped giving people the power to bend the elements after the whole Wan, spiritual devastation, thing. And the only way to explain how people currently have bending abilities is because it's passed down genetically. Kya got waterbending from her mother, Katara. Tenzin got airbending from Aang, and Bumi just happened to not get anything. All airbenders can bend air. It seems to be a dominant trait. Katara probably had a heterozygous trait for being able to bend and somehow Bumi got the recessive trait for that meaning he can't bend. Something like that. Maybe like with baldness, the bending trait can skip generations. Like if Kya (Katara's mom) couldn't bend, then it skipped Katara and Bumi inherited it somehow.  </p>

<p>It seems like more people are born without bending with the exception of the AN. Aang's the only character with bending parentsbesides Piandao and he can't bend. Everyone else either has non-bending parents or one bending and one non-bending parent </p>

<div class="quote"><i>Intelligence4 wrote:
we know that bending is not based solely on genetics, per bryke interview. they didn't want it to be genetic cuz that could/would result in a bloodline holding themselves over others and using their power to enforce it and all that jazz. so they decided to have bending be based on a combination of genetics and spirituality. it wasn't really explained further than that, so the rest is speculation. <p>the fact that people born in a particular nation bend that nation's element, and not some other element, leads me to believe this: being a bender or not has to do with spirituality, while which element you bend has to do with genetics. </p> </i></div>
<p>Can you post the interview? Because I don't think being able to bend elements has anything to do with spirituality. As we know, Korra had like zero spiritual capabilities for the longest time. She doesn't have a connection to spirits like Jinora does. And Mako and Bolin don't seem spiritually inclined. So I don't really get how bending has anything really to do with having a spiritual connection..  </p>

<div class="quote"><i>LitanyofWebs wrote:
<div class="quote">The Wikia Editor wrote: <p>I've also heard a theory that states that humans already were capable of naturally bending the elements before they started living on lion turtles and that the lion turtles took those abilities away in order to prevent the humans living on their shells from hurting each other.  </p> </i></div>
I believe this to be the case. This is the reason that the Lion Turtles repressed bending when the humans returned home. They couldn't properly harness the power so the Lion Turtles repressed it in order to protect them. They only unleashed humans innate capabilities, they didn't create them. Only after the Avatar was created did humans venture out into the world and that is when they found the Sky Bison and the Moon, etc, and subsequently learned the nature of their abilities and learn how to properly harness them. Bending is an art, an extension of oneself, just being able to move water is not. That is the distinction.
</div> <p>See I always thought that the Lion Turtles only gave certain people bending abilities upon request. Is it stated anywhere that everyone knew how to bend the elements before the Lion Turtles took it away?  </p>

<p>The Lion Turtle that talked to Aang said this: "In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements but the energy within ourselves." So yeah, humans did not have the ability to bend the elements before living on Lion Turtles. The Lion Turtles gave them that ability. But supposedly anyone can bend the energy within themselves if they practice meditation or have an innate ability to do so. I don't think the Lion Turtles took anything away from the humans. They presented them with the elements.  </p>

<p>Here's the interview: </p><p>http://www.avatarspirit.net/interviews.php?id=19 </p>

<div class="quote"><i>
Winterlotus90 wrote:
And the only way to explain how people currently have bending abilities is because it's passed down genetically. Kya got waterbending from her mother, Katara. Tenzin got airbending from Aang, and Bumi just happened to not get anything. All airbenders can bend air. It seems to be a dominant trait.
</i></div>
<p>
About the genetics theory (bending is a genetic only thing): There is no logical way, bending is inherited by genes alone. Let's think about a bending/non-bending gene and let's say non-bending allele A is dominant (given the fact there are far more non-benders than benders) and bending allele a is recessive. If this is the case, all benders must be homozygotes having an "aa" allele pair. The isolated air nomads community would have no non-bending allele in their gene pool at all (since there are no original non-bending air nomads). And by this logic, all three kids of Aang and Katara would have to be born as benders as well. If it was the other way and bending was dominant "A" (which is unlikely) and non-bending is recessive "a", then Aang would have an "AA" allele pair (same argument as before), thus all his kids would be given the bender allele at least by Aang and they would all be benders. Katara in this case could be no bender at all though, since both her parents were non-benders and as such they can not have the bending allele in their DNA (if it was dominant). So there must be much more complicated genetics than just one gene. But no matter how complicated things get, if bending is a recessive phenotype, two bending parents could not have a non-bending child. </p><p>And by this logic, Bumi can not be Aang's child (neither Zukos, nor Haru's - Sokka on the other hand =O). Aang probably knew this and for this reason he didn't love Bumi the same as Tenzin... </p>