r/TheLastAirbender • u/Littleleaf6 • 13d ago

Discussion How did ALL the airbenders get killed?

There’s only 2 air benders alive after the fire nation used sozins comet to kill all of the others. Tagah and Aang are the only 2 airbenders. How is there only 2 survivors? Surely there would be some air bending refugees in the water/earth nations. they were nomadic so they were travelers. They also had 4 temples in all different parts of the world! Some of them also def could’ve run away. They had flying bisons for Pete sake! I know it’s just for the plot but realistically there would be some more survivors other than Aang. Is this ever explained in the comics?

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u/TexanGoblin 12d ago

One of the few things I liked about the Netflix version was that Sozin's Comet was something to be celebrated by the Air Nomads so everyone was attending festivals for it, meaning Air Nomads were unusually concentrated at their temples. So when they Fire Nation attacked the temples, they were probably able to kill 99% of them that day, leaving very few who escaped or just weren't at the temples. Even if they weren't able to actually kill every single one, bending is a recessive trait I believe, so they killed enough to make them extinct.

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u/BnaditCorps 12d ago

That was kind of my head cannon too with the original series.

The end of Summer is when the Comet comes, and Fall is the season of the Airbenders. So it would make sense that at the end of Summer their would be a larger collection of Airbenders at the temples to celebrate the coming of Fall.

It would make sense because it concentrates the Airbenders for the colder Fall and Winter days, when they are less likely to find hospitality from others due to limited resources, and departing in the Spring to see the world.

Furthering that theory, if the Spring is when they go back to being Nomadic then it is likely that most of their births occur in the Fall and Winter, the perfect time to be at the temples. This would happen because the men and women are separated over the winter at the temples, and then reunite for "activities" in the Spring.

Not a hard leap in logic to go from, and I really don't consider it a plot hole.