Hello everybody. I apologize for the lack of posts. I've just been very busy lately. Anyway, I did see your requests for lavabending to be the next post and I love to talk about the bending arts so I am talking about lavabending today. It is also my favorite sub-skill even though water is my favorite element.
Lavabending was not always established to be a subskill of earthbending
During the run for the original series, lavabending had not been established as being a sub-skill of earthbending. Avatar Extras later stated that "Lava bending is a combination of earthbending and firebending." This implies that the Avatar is the only one who could lavabend, and only Avatars were seen lavabending in Avatar: The Last Airbender. It was not until Book Three: Change of The Legend of Korra that we learned that earthbenders were capable of lavabending, as we saw Ghazan lavabend in "Rebirth."
Zuko lavabended in a non-canon short
Zuko used Lavabending in the super-deformed short "Bending Battle." The short was non-canon anyway and this was before lavabending had been established to be a sub-skill of earthbending and not firebending. When Katara doused Zuko's lava dragon with her waterbending, it turned into regular stone.
Lavabending was the first sub-skill shown in the series
One might believe that the first sub-skill seen in the series is either Healing or Lightning Redirection (as Iroh used it in "The Storm.") However, the first sub-skill to be seen in Avatar: The Last Airbender is actually lavabending. When Roku manifested in Avatar Aang during the episode "Winter Solstice, Part 2: Avatar Roku," he demonstrated the use of lavabending and ended up destroying the temple with it.
Avatar Kyoshi is the only known female lavabender
Avatar Kyoshi is the only known female lavabender, as all other lavabenders (Szeto, Roku, Sun, Ghazan and Bolin) are male. Kyoshi was seen lavabending when she created Kyoshi Island, as she was manipulating the land at the tectonic level in order to separate the mass from the mainland.
Ghazan's lavabending is based on Bajiquan
While lavabending has not really been explored as far as mechanics go, Ghazan's style of lavabending does seem to be based on Bajiquan, a Chinese style of martial arts that specializes in short-range, explosive power, and is known for elbow and knee strikes. This is especially evident when Ghazan is fighting an opponent at a close range.
