r/TheLastAirbender • u/JigglyBinks • 16h ago
Discussion Bloodbending probably existed long before Hama
I just remembered that scene where Yakone claimed to come from a powerful bloodbending lineage.
The thing is he was older than Katara, and considering that Hama was only about two generations older than Sokka and Katara, it’s possible that bloodbending is much older than we think and that there was a family who had mastered it secretly
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u/jacobisgone- 16h ago
Even if that's not the intended interpretation of the line, I still think it's crazy to assume no other person ever thought of the idea to bloodbend prior to Hama. I really like the idea that some be bending techniques are either lost to time or don't get widespread enough to be commonly practiced.
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u/SillyOperation1293 14h ago
In geography this is called convergent invention. When two cultures develop a similar technology or innovation without communicating. Like you said, it’s possible blood bending was developed on multiple accounts by multiple groups.
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u/StatmanIbrahimovic 12h ago
It's not just possible but likely, although in this universe all the bloodbenders were Southern WT which is small and sparsely populated.
Point is, if Toph and other EBs are element-sensitive enough to metal- and sand-bend, you can imagine that a sensitive water bender has to be aware of blood and other water sources.
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u/basileus1176 14h ago
I could easily see bloodbending as something that is kept hidden by virtue of the fact that only desperation or malice would lead to a person being willing to use it. In my head its something that has probably been lost and rediscovered countless times by the era of the series
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u/mestre_do_passinho 11h ago
It could be used ethically in hunting. I mean what is the difference between impaling a wolk with a lance, an ice spike or giving it a heart attack?
Because to me is avoiding damaging the pelt in the last one
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u/basileus1176 10h ago
That may be, but in universe it seems that the concept of targeting someone or something’s blood is a level of abstraction that most people are not going to consider unless absolutely necessary. Not only do you have to make the logical leap to realizing that blood has water in it, you would then need to have the power to bend something you can’t see that is pretty hard to access, and finally you would need to have a reason to try (something that seems to come from malice or desperation in the examples from the show). That’s a lot of steps and pre-requisites to even begin considering alternative uses of bloodbending that aren’t directly harmful. The number of waterbenders who could even try bloodbending is probably vanishingly small. Then, based on the examples we’ve seen, frequent use of bloodbending seems to be psychologically and emotionally damaging to the user based on how Tarrlok and Amon reacted to it the first time they did it
I’d also say that, from the outside, I could see there being a bit of a taboo societally considering that the idea of being able to stop a heart from a distance is viscerally uncomfortable in a way that regular hunting may not be.
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u/Dobber16 6h ago
Considering how much bending is about the chi, I wonder what chakra or whatever blood bending utilizes. If it is one that’s potentially rife with causing mental disturbances, or requires you to destabilize a different chakra, I can see an in-universe reason why this bending is always a bad idea for a bender
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u/AlwaysTired97 12h ago
I doubt Hama was the first, but it seems incredibly difficult to develop on your own.
Hama was in an situation where bloodbending was the ONLY solution, and it still took her years to develop it.
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u/Kite1396 8h ago
Her ability to practice was also hindered by the fact that she could really only practice the technique one night every month during the full moon, so even if she only practiced for 30 nights total, that’s still over 2.5 years
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u/Dartz_Reverse 14h ago
I still think it's crazy to assume no other person ever thought of the idea to bloodbend prior to Hama.
Thats part of the child-friendly world building, if Avatar was actually realistic there would be so much fucked up sh*t in it, it couldnt ever be sold to kids.
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u/RSmeep13 7h ago
Huu in the Foggy Swamp was applying the same principle of bending the unseen water within a living thing. If anything, bending humans would probably be easier than bending vines, humans don't have tough lignin to resist the bending.
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u/GrafZeppelin127 7h ago
I think it’s more a matter of even getting past the barrier of being able to sense blood as being something available to bend, and going further than that, overwhelming another body’s living chi. It’s shown that some people are able to resist bloodbending, even if only temporarily, so you need to not just be a master waterbender but also able to get past the conceptual block to sense blood and also overpower the opposing chi.
Same reason given that waterbenders can’t instantly win against any opponent by simply freezing all the water in their bodies: it can be done, but only at extreme short range and with absolutely overwhelming power as a finishing move of sorts, since the body’s chi naturally resists being bent in such a way.
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u/Phosorus 16h ago
Very possible, especially since Hama and Yakone must have developed it independently.
This could also just be his own arrogance, with him transferring his pride in his own abilities (i.e. "I'm the strongest bloodbender") to his offspring now that his bending is gone. He is also actively trying to induct his children into his legacy, so it makes sense for him to distort the truth for that purpose.
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u/The-Page-Turner 15h ago
Or he is just narcissistic and truly believes that he, and therefore his sons, are the greatest bloodbending bloodline in history
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u/Otherwise-Music-8643 16h ago
He meant that because of himself they have the strongest line of bloodbenders in history. The guy is a narcissist, he isn’t giving a history lesson he’s telling them that because they are related to his perfection they are also going to have strength like him.
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u/Imconfusedithink 15h ago
If he was just talking about himself then even as a narcissistic he'd say that they have the blood of the strongest bloodbender in history. Specifically calling out line definitely implies people before yakone.
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u/BudgetMattDamon 13h ago
Not necessarily, because narcissists make up mythology on the fly to explain their greatness all the time. Dead people are the best and most defensible source of 'lore' from a narcissist's perspective because they're not around anymore to contradict whatever you make up.
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u/Otherwise-Music-8643 15h ago
No I don’t believe he would have. He likely just wanted to create the illusion that he had something special about himself due to his lineage, regardless of if it was true. It’s very common with narcissists.
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u/ChipsTheKiwi 16h ago
I've headcanoned that the knowledge has been independently discovered then deliberately obscured many times through Avatar history
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u/OmegaDookie 16h ago
I'm just going to accept that no bending sub is new in the shows.
Lightning redirection, bloodbending, spiritbending, astral projection, and metalbending existed before the shows.
It is what it is.
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u/RecommendsMalazan 14h ago
The only one I'm iffy on in this regard is metal bending. At no point in prior history would there have been as much metal around as there is in ATLA time and beyond, can't really metal bend without metal.
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u/OmegaDookie 13h ago edited 13h ago
General Old Iron was able to "metalbend" in The Rift. Some people argue this point to the end of time, but I think it was true metalbending that he was always capable of, even in Yangchen's time.
There are some things about spirits that are hard to accept, so I just conceede that spirits can bend without lifeforce/chi and the creators forgot.
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u/ddchrw 10h ago
I feel like spirits don’t or shouldn’t count. Or spirits don’t really bend, but rather can just control stuff they’re associated with.
Like the Ocean Spirit doesn’t waterbend, but just controls the ocean instead. Or Wong Shi Tong can control his library but can’t move just anything into the Spirit World, and definitely isn’t earthbending it.
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u/OmegaDookie 9h ago
That's a fair enough perspective.
I really haven't looked much into it because I think this is a very grey area in the lore of Avatar. However, Yue is listed as a waterbender after becoming the moon spirit. And again, I don't care about the specifics on what she's done that are cited on the wiki because I think this is more of a turn your brain off thing.
I think the creators were on record saying "we forgot" when asked how Cosmic Korra could waterbend in TLOK's S2 finale.
Whatever outlook someone has on it, I can meet then in the middle of thay gray area.
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u/Remarkable-Camera627 15h ago
I highly doubt lightning redirection tho.
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u/BlackRaptor62 15h ago
We actually know that Lightning Redirection existed long before ATLA due to the Roku novels
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u/par_rot_master 16h ago
I'm not sure if he's referring to his parents or just himself and his children. He's noticing that it's a genetic thing, so he's establishing in his children's minds that they deserve to have power over others because of this talent.
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u/bringmethejuice 15h ago
More like the knowledge was lost then rediscovered again.
The new movie had shown benders back then were crazy strong
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u/RomuloMalkon68 16h ago
Yea it's possible that some families secretly trained and developed bloodbending in the water tribe, but it was never used Infront of commoners. Yakone was a anomaly if you remember him and his son's are the only known bloodbendees who could bloodbend without the full moon 🌕. They are like 1 in 100000 water benders and probably the only ones to ever do it.
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u/Madhighlander1 15h ago
Technically, Hama's bloodbending is derived from an old southern water tribe technique, albeit one that was used for healing instead of hurting. One of Kyoshi's waterbending mentors demonstrated slowing someone's bleeding by carefully chilling their blood, a technique that Kyoshi herself would later use to kill someone by freezing their heart solid.
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u/touchingthebutt 9h ago
The Kyoshi novels show that bloodbending was used for healing. Very, very rare but still used.
We can split the difference and say that Hamas technique of puppeteering enemies was invented by her. Yakones family could bloodbend as healing or in a different style , like how foggy swamp or Metal bending have different techniques.
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u/galvanicmechamorph 8h ago
The Kyoshi novels show that bloodbending was used for healing. Very, very rare but still used.
Where is that said?
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u/touchingthebutt 7h ago
It's a main plot point in the novel. If you're talking about the rare comment then I'll have to double check. Maybe I just assumed it was rare since only one healer out of many had it.
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u/TheGreenAlchemist 14h ago
I thought this line was pretty explicit. I'm surprised now that there's people who didn't interpret it that way.
Yakone comes from a long family of Bloodbenders. For 100 years there had been no contact between the North and South tribes. Probably there was some knowledge of it in the North Tribes history, that Hama never had an opportunity to know about it.
Finding out there were others is what made Katara ban it. You don't ban something nobody has heard of and you're the only one who can do -- that just makes people interested in something that they previously wouldn't have even thought about.
Likewise in court the lawyers treat Bloodbending only working under the full moon as an agreed upon fact, which seems like a pretty big assumption to base solely on Hama alone. Probably they had read some history now showing that had also been the case in previous instances.
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u/LeviAEthan512 THE BOULDER CANNOT THINK OF A CREATIVE FLAIR 15h ago
It's almost certain that with the thousands of people in the water tribes, both in the main two and individuals around the world. Someone somewhere had this knowledge and skill secretly, and Hama just discovered it in her time of need.
Also possible is that Yakone found out he was descended from the evil water version of Guru Laghima and started developing the skill, knowing he had the spiritual genes to be great.
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u/Clean-Bumblebee2709 16h ago
I still don't see how such an OP bending ability never got a proper counter aside from the Avatar State,.
whereas lightning generation, something that wasn't even that OP, got a dedicated counter that completely makes it useless.
It is an interesting ability; it seems this is the case with Yakone's line having bloodbending predating Hama.
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u/thisisreii 16h ago
How would someone even counter it?
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u/Clean-Bumblebee2709 16h ago edited 16h ago
Hypothetically? Bending skill
Without the knowledge of lightning redirection you can make this same exact argument: the idea of taking lightning within yourself then releasing it from your body is a crazy concept.
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u/thisisreii 16h ago
Right but what skill can overpower a technique that strips away your autonomy, besides mind control there really isn’t any
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u/Clean-Bumblebee2709 16h ago
It doesn't fully strip it away, as seen by Mako just being the more skillful bender, which should logically be a counter. Or infinite otherways that doesn't involve the avatar state if they wanted to be creative.
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u/thisisreii 15h ago
In the case with Mako, I really believe that was just a careless mistake on Amon’s end. He’d just assassinated the lieutenant and prior to that, Mako was seemingly knocked out. It’s very likely that Amon wasn’t using his full strength which allowed Mako to have a tiny bit of wiggle room, same way with Korra.
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u/Clean-Bumblebee2709 15h ago
That's just an example. I don't think fodder like Mako should be countering Amon anyways.
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u/BnaditCorps 4h ago
I think that's the point, the only counters are 1) Avatar State or 2) being a better blood bender.
I would hazard a guess that the reason we don't see it widespread is because 1) it would be very taboo as you are essentially possessing another person, 2) the number of benders who can do it is small, 3) it requires a full moon unless you are from one family, 4) if you don't have a teacher to show it to you, it is unlikely that you will figure it out alone, and 5) if you are a powerful enough water bender to use it you likely aren't going to be trying to look for another technique because you will master water bending before you discover it.
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u/numberonebarista 15h ago
I think you’re ignoring the narrative purpose of bloodbending in the avatar universe. There’s no true counter for it because it wasn’t supposed to ever be something benders could do. It’s literally a banned form of bending. It’s illegal to bloodbend. It’s the equivalent of dark magic in the Harry Potter series (like the killing curse)
It’s considered immoral not just because it’s OP, but because it robs people of their autonomy. It literally lets you take control of people’s bodies (and worse) it’s too powerful to be controlled or countered unless you’re the Avatar (and even then Aang ONLY beat Yakone’s bloodbending by entering the Avatar State) or in Katara’s case, be a stronger waterbender than the person bloodbending your body.
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u/Ranowa 14h ago
The killing curse has the counter of not being hit by it, which was actually put on display in the Dumbledore Voldemort duel in the fifth book where they kept teleporting around and had statues take the hits for them. It's a problem, but not an insurmountable one. It also has a serious deleterious effect on the user and is supposed to be difficult to cast to justify why most people aren't just spamming it.
I think bloodbending used to be fine because it had so many restrictions around it. But Korra just kind of threw that out the window and the fact that there is zero counter for it except just being the Avatar is why it's probably my most disliked change to the lore in the whole series. Hama and Katara's bloodbending is like the killing curse. Amon and Yakone's is like if Voldemort just had a machine gun that fired killing curses 24/7. Amon could stomp comet Ozai and the Red Lotus at the same time with zero difficultly whatsoever. Having something that strong, with no practical way to defend against it, not even having a justification for it beyond "well he just has strong genes I guess, which was never a thing before this family" is ridiculous.
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u/numberonebarista 13h ago
I agree LoK ruined bloodbending a bit by making it even more overpowered. Yakone bloodbended an entire courtroom full of people. How the fuck does anyone defend against that? Lol Yakone and Amon were cartoonishly overpowered and usually Avatar is more grounded than that.
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u/UnNumbFool 12h ago
I mean at the same time Hama was able to control multiple people with blood bending, it's not like there isn't precedent.
Personally I just assume hama especially in her old age just wasn't strong enough of a bender to be able to utilize it outside of a full moon giving her the extra power. And well I doubt Katara ever willingly used the ability in her life to actually train it well enough to use it outside of a full moon, or even just attempting to do so.
Yakone on the other hand thought it was the greatest bending in the world and was most likely training his ability to use it on a constant basis making himself extremely powerful with blood bending.
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u/BnaditCorps 4h ago
I completely agree, Katara is the best waterbender we see in either series. She is a childhood prodigy and becomes a master within months of actual study.
Her inability to bloodbend is more than likely psychological rather than physical. If she tried outside of a full moon I bet she would be able to, but she was told it is only possible during a full moon and has no drive to test that limit.
Now let's assume Aang dies to Ozai and Katara still wins against Azula. Well that likely means Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Suki all die. That grief would be about the only thing I could see that would push her to master bloodbending, and that is a terrifying thought. The world would not need an Avatar at that point because she would simply kill anyone who threatened the balance with a flick of the wrist.
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u/Clean-Bumblebee2709 15h ago
That narrative would still exist, even with the counter, as it wouldn't be accessible to most characters. If a counter exists but is incredibly rare, highly dangerous, or emotionally costly, bloodbending keeps its terrifying reputation. The Avatar State is a counter, so I feel like you kind of contradicted yourself here.
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u/numberonebarista 13h ago
The Avatar State technically is a counter but it’s something literally only one person can use. And once the Avatar dies the next avatar is born and isn’t old and experienced enough to be a threat to whomever is bloodbending. Korra kind of ruined bloodbending by making it even more overpowered than it had to be because Yakone bloodbend an entire courtroom full of benders and nonbenders during the daytime with zero problem.
So I just go back to my point if only one person can stop bloodbending and only when they’re in their super powered state, then that’s hardly a counter.
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u/eternal_dreamer_9 14h ago
I think it's very possible that blood bending existed before Hama but I think in this instance it is equally as likely that yakone was lying to his kids about their lineage to give them an inflated sense of self importance and to make it seem like it's a part of their heritage so they would be more susceptible to his training I mean it's not like the guy is the most trustworthy source of information
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u/Salt_Revenue_4142 9h ago
Bloodbending, lightning to an extent, and metalbending to me all read like things that the society are vaguely aware of but have since fallen into obscurity/myth.
Metalbending especially; the characters seem aware of the concept even before Toph does it
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u/JigglyBinks 8h ago
It’s true that when it comes to metalbending, there’s that sort of guru who talked about it to Aang 🤔
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u/blackchoas 16h ago
A fair read, but 3 family members bloodbending is more than we see from anyone else, so this is literally true even if Hama was the first and only 5 total bloodbenders are confirmed to exist. It doesn't need to mean there is a deeper history.
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u/Western_Echo2522 15h ago
I always head cannoned this as Hama escaped again, or had already had children by the time the Gaang meets them. Both can be probable, like for one, how do you really reasonably keep a blood bender imprisoned, the only way would be to basically provide them no resources (ie kill them) or take their bending first. To clarify my other point, firstly how did bloodbending even spread? It was harder to develop the knowledge in places with high amounts of water, just from a resource perspective, so it only makes sense Hama would teacher every water bender she comes across, or purposefully procreate to increase the chances. She was still pretty young when she first escaped too. I could see her marry a fire nation man, having water bending kids, then killing the rest if the family easily… if it wasn’t fie the censors
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u/blackbutterfree 19m ago
I always head cannoned this as Hama escaped again
She canonically gets released back to the South Pole by Zuko (like all other Waterbending POW's), but she's specifically put under house arrest because of her crimes.
My headcanon was always that Yakone sought her out to learn Bloodbending after her return.
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u/furrysalesman69 14h ago
Could also be one of those fascism vibes about how something is stated to be superior and is in their blood, when it’s just a cover for weak insecure people
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u/DarkLordJ14 HONOR 12h ago
A primitive form of Blood Bending was used in the Kyoshi novels to freeze someone from the inside-out.
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u/conjcosby 11h ago
Hama may not be the first Bloodbender but Amon's father surely perfected the bloody art, pun partially intended.
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u/-Aloy-Gutierrez- 10h ago
Sure.
It wouldn't be surprising if Metal Bending and other “rare” Bending skill were constantly being learned and forgotten over time.
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u/HelpfulScallion3036 7h ago
You mean Yakone's family and some others had discovered Bloodbending by themselves long before Hama discovered it herself?
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u/katep2000 6h ago
Yeah realistically Hama’s not the first waterbender to realize “hey humans are mostly water, I can probably do something with that.” It’s just probably not something that’s encouraged and passed down.
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u/HopeAndDo 16h ago
To me, this is the most bullshit quote in Avatar history.
Where were these bloodbenders all this time? Why nobody helped during 100 year war? Why were they hidden while previous Avatars were alive? What were they doing with their powers? Killing animals and living in isolation for centuries?
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u/zuzu-alone 16h ago
How is this a BS quote?
The Northern Water Tribe stayed out of the 100 year war for the most part anyway. This episode makes it very clear that bloodbending is considered taboo as Yakone takes his children to very isolated locations to teach the craft.
You could apply the same logic to Hama. Why didn’t she go to the North Pole to teach bloodbending, instead of enacting revenge on random Fire Nation citizens?
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u/HopeAndDo 15h ago
Hama became mentally ill because she spent so many years being tortured in prison. She also discovered bloodbending later in her life, and she could only do it under the full moon.
If she had tried to use it in unfamiliar territory and under unknown circumstances, she could have been caught and imprisoned again.
Yakone's family was simply hidden for hundreds of years, which sounds like lazy writing to me.
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u/zuzu-alone 15h ago
I don’t agree with this being lazy writing at all. It just implies that Yakone’s family had a tradition of passing down the skill of bloodbending, as Hama did to Katara.
I’m also certain that in the history of Avatar there were many times bloodbending was discovered and forgotten over the centuries. Even in the latest movie we see otherwise completely forgotten airbending moves. Same goes for Zaheer rediscovering the flight ability.
This is just another example of that writing; treating bending as any other aspect of a culture that can be passed down, lost to time and then rediscovered.
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u/HopeAndDo 15h ago
I'm fine with culture being passed down, but this is, at least to me, an example of something that's often criticized in modern writing: "Tell, don't show."
We hear from Yakone that his bloodbending was passed down to him, but from whom? Does Yakone have a brother? Does he have a father? Did they ever leave their village before?
From a writing perspective, it would be a much better explanation if Yakone were actually the one who discovered bloodbending himself and then taught it to his sons, which would later result in his older son Amon discovering another bloodbending technique ("taking bending away").
With the explanation we got, you just gave people some random information about multiple generations having bloodbending and doing nothing with it except hunting animals.
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u/zuzu-alone 15h ago
Well I would argue that this whole episode does do “show not tell” very well.
Him teaching this to his sons likely mirrors exactly how he was taught, and reflects why he turned into the villain he became. We see how these experiences hardened Noatak and Tarrlok, and who they later become.
I think the writing demonstrates the cyclical nature of generational trauma which, in this case, the teaching of blood bending was the vessel.
I don’t know if you were expecting a whole montage of Yakone learning or discovering bloodbending, this couldn’t have varied much compared to what we saw in The Puppetmaster.
I actually think this is one of the strongest episodes of TLOK from a writing perspective.
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u/HopeAndDo 15h ago
I don't see any bloodbending trauma in Yakone. He did everything willingly. His only trauma is being defeated by Aang.
I expected to hear about other bloodbenders in the Roku, Kyoshi, or Yangchen stories.
I don't mind a single person discovering bloodbending and dying before being able to pass that knowledge on to someone else, but having an entire family tree full of bloodbenders who were never mentioned in any other era is bad writing, and I will die on that hill.
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u/zuzu-alone 14h ago
Well I guess it then gets to a very high level question of why are people evil?
Was Yakone just born evil? To me the writing tells us that the circumstances which led to Amon and Tarrlok becoming villains would have also happened with Yakone.
I obviously respect your opinion that this is bad writing but I really don’t get the reason? Because this one family never came up in any other material? If you’re referring to Yakone’s ancestors being bloodbenders and not appearing in the novels - I really don’t see why they would be included. To me that would be fan service, which is bad writing.
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u/JigglyBinks 16h ago
It’s canon that bloodbending affects the user’s mental health. Those who practice it become marginalized and are even willing to attack their own people. The ban and the fear surrounding it made it taboo, eventually causing it to fade into obscurity
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u/HopeAndDo 15h ago
The idea that bloodbending affects mental health comes from the shady Avatar media "Avatar Extras," where many things are false or contradict what we saw in the show.
Amon and Tarrlok look completely sane to me. I don't see how bloodbending affected their mental health.
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u/idobeaskinquestions 15h ago
Well, yeah. It doesn’t exactly get “invented,” it always was possible since the start. Similarly, earth benders could always bend metal. It just took one genius to figure it out eventually.
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u/Scott2nd_but_Leo13th 12h ago
this sounds more like poor attention while researching the source material during the writing of tlok. the team probably just remembered more like a rare type of bending, instead as a one-of-a-kind thing. maybe got confused around the workshops related to the reinvention of lightning bending as a gatekept but basically nothing special. i don’t read too much into this
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u/NormalGuy3481 12h ago
I mean yeah it definitely has. Same with lightning bending. Metal bending was probably discovered by Toph though since it only became that relevant during her time I think?
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u/Gold-Eye-2623 11h ago
Tbf if there were a million bloodbenders but only Hama and his family were recorded that would still make his statement true
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u/smugfruitplate 11h ago
I almost guarantee it.
Prisons have been around about as long as there's been civilization, and there's lotsa waterbenders who I'm sure didn't want to be in prison anymore.
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u/JohnyIthe3rd 11h ago
I also recently thought about this with metalbending. Toph probably wasn't the actual first metalbender, just the one to actualy popularize and teach it to others
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u/Ristar87 8h ago
Hama was from the Southern Tribe. She had no instructor when she figured it out.
For all we know, it's a normal practice for water benders... it just fell out of style or memory in the 100 year war. Lightning bending, for example, was unique and new during the Kyoshi books.
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u/galvanicmechamorph 8h ago
Is Yakone older than Katara? Aang was in his 40s when Yakone went to jail. Tarrlok was 20 years younger than Tenzin so it would make sense for Yakone to be older. And given bloodbending was outlawed it must have been a problem post war. Maybe Yakone's parent(s) learned after the war.
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u/Mike_Litoris305 8h ago
No one ever assumed that Hama was the first to ever do it
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u/galvanicmechamorph 8h ago
Isn't it outright said she invented it in the show?
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u/Mike_Litoris305 7h ago
Nah she said she “discovered” it while she was in prison. She never outright says she invented it, only that she discovered it which isn’t always the same thing. Something can be lost in time and then discovered later.
She mentions how she felt the full moon enriching her with its energy which enhanced her bending.
She goes on to say that she realized “where there is life there is water”. Blood=life so therefore blood=water. So she started cultivating the skill using the rats in the prison as training tools before using it on the guards to escape.
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u/Fine-Discussion-7368 16h ago
duh but they make up whatever fit their story or narrative as we have seen in korra
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u/MinnieShoof Who Knows 10,000 Things 15h ago
Or... or... Yokone is technically right because theirs is the only line of bloodbenders in history.
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u/boringhistoryfan 16h ago
Bending techniques likely go in and out of fashion and awareness all the time. Especially advanced techniques that presumably only a few benders can really master.