bending
Bending is a crucial part of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but what happens if that bending is taken away? There are several ways in which benders can lose their ability to control the elements. Some are temporary, some are permanent, but all deeply impact the characters in the Avatar universe.
In The Last Airbender, bending removal serves as a solution for the show's central conflict. In The Legend of Korra, villains weaponize this ability in order to intimidate benders. Each show also examines how emotions affect bending, sometimes to the point of rendering it nonexistent.
How Legend of Korra Improves Avatar's Bending
Both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra explore how bending can be lost. For characters whose lives so often revolve around bending, the threat of this loss is devastating and raises the stakes of both shows. Here are all of the ways in which people in the Avatar universe can lose their bending.
Energybending
To talk about losing bending, it's important to understand how bending works in the first place. Benders are able to manipulate the elements thanks to the flow of energy, or chi, through their bodies. Energybending is the practice of bending that chi within oneself or someone else. The lion turtles taught humans bending, but they were also the first beings to practice energybending. In the finale of The Last Airbender, the last lion turtle gifts Aang with this power, which he uses to remove Fire Lord Ozai's firebending for good, putting an end to the Hundred Year War.
Removing Ozai's bending allows Aang to bring Ozai to justice without killing him, which would have gone against his personal beliefs. Later, Aang uses energybending to remove Yakone's bending, saving Republic City from his reign of terror. Energybending is not always used as punishment. While energybending can remove bending abilities, it can also restore them. In The Legend of Korra, Aang brings back Korra's bending with energybending, and Korra then restores Lin Beifong's earthbending.
Bloodbending
Bloodbending is a subset of waterbending. Developed in Avatar: The Last Airbender by Hama while she was trapped in a Fire Nation prison, bloodbending is the manipulation of the water within someone's body, and the exertion of one's will over someone else's. In The Last Airbender, it appears as a way to control people's movement, but in The Legend of Korra, it becomes a way to remove a bender's connection to their powers.
Throughout The Legend of Korra season 1, Amon, the leader of the Equalist revolution, strips benders of their abilities with bloodbending. Similarly to energybending, bloodbending allows Amon to block the chi paths within benders. Amon is the only bloodbender to possess this level of skill, and it's quite possible he pioneered the technique. The effects of Amon's bloodbending are permanent, making it one of the most powerful forms of bending. Even Katara is unable to heal Korra after Amon takes her bending away. The only known way to restore bending is through energybending from the Avatar.
Chi Blocking
First seen in Avatar: The Last Airbender, chi blocking is a combat technique that targets the chi paths in bender's bodies with a series of quick jabs. It temporarily incapacitates benders. Chi blocking is an effective way for non-benders to level the playing field in combat situations. It is also the most common form of bending removal seen throughout both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra.
Ty Lee is the first character to use chi blocking in The Last Airbender. Even though she is a non-bender, this fighting style makes her a force to be reckoned with. In season 2, episode 13, "The Drill," she takes out a whole squadron of earthbenders from Ba Sing Se by herself. She also chi blocks Katara in season 2, episode 3, "Return to Omashu" and Azula in season 3, episode 15, "The Boiling Rock, Part 2," proving just how good of a fighter she is and how effective chi blocking is against even the most powerful benders.
In The Legend of Korra, chi blocking evolves into the weapon of Amon's Equalist revolution. His fighters are called chi blockers, and there are even training facilities around Republic City dedicated to teaching chi blocking. Chi blockers also use evolving technology to their advantage. The electric gloves and batons Hiroshi Sato invents for Amon allow anyone to have the power of a chi blocker at their fingertips. Even though chi blocking's effects aren't permanent like energybending or bloodbending, it is still incredibly useful against benders, especially those who do not know how to defend against it.
Emotional Trauma
Emotional trauma is less of a way to remove someone's bending and more of a way to severely weaken it. Bending always comes back to chi and the flow of energy within oneself. When that energy is disrupted by something such as emotional trauma, it affects a bender's power to the point of it almost completely disappearing.
The clearest example of this is Prince Zuko's experience with firebending throughout season 3 of The Last Airbender. During the Day of Black Sun, Zuko deserts the Fire Nation and tells his father that he is going to join the Avatar and teach Aang how to firebend. After he joins Team Avatar, he finds himself unable to firebend with the same ferocity he used to have. In fact, his powers are all but gone. Season 3, episode 13, "The Firebending Masters" is as much Zuko's journey to regain his bending as it is Aang's journey to learn firebending.
The reason Zuko temporarily lost his firebending was because for the past years of his life, his sole focus and drive had been finding the Avatar and regaining his honor. He was motivated by rage, so his firebending was full of rage as well. After joining with Aang and finding his purpose, he lost that rage and, subsequently, the potency of his firebending. Zuko relearns firebending from the dragons, but this time realizing that fire is life and energy, not simply destruction. Despite his emotional journey briefly weakening his powers, Zuko's firebending returns stronger than ever.
There is a wide range of ways for characters to lose their bending in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. Each of them varies in terms of permanence and application. However, they all significantly impact the stories within the Avatar universe.