Klonor
22-02-2007, 02:14
Imagine yourself walking through a dense forest and approaching a vast clearing, within which you find four seperate mystical totems. Each totem represents a respective attribute of one of the four martial arts styles of the title: Tai Chi http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8a/Kind.jpg, Hung Gar http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/Stength.jpg, Northern Shaolin http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/93/Intense.jpg, and Ba Gua http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9e/Peaceful.jpg. You stop before the four symbols and ponder their meanings before deciding which to adopt as your own personal philosophy. Which do you pick?
If you've read this far, which I'm sure at least half of the people who started reading this thread have not done, and happen to enjoy television programming designed for children in the 6-11 age range, and who doesn't, I'm sure you've realised that these four styles are, in fact, the foundations of the four Bending Arts within Avatar: The Last Airbender (The Legend of Aang in Europe and other such foreign places). Unfortunately, if I'd included any of the actual arts in the title I'm sure this thread would be filled with little more than "w00t! Aang rules!" "Katara rocks!" and "Zuko's so hot!" so I decided to do a little name substitution (How clever am I? I mean seriously, who else would have ever thought of doing that?). Thankfully, this little bit of substitution can still remain faithful to the original intent of the thread, it's not a random and nonsensical sentence which simply misleads the readers, so I get remain truthful yet, at the same time, not open the floodgates for Zutara fanfic and newbie gushing. Yay for me!
Anyway, back to the first paragraph, which of the four Bending Arts would you choose for your own personal style? Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, or Airbending?
Personally, I'm conflicted between being an Airbender or an Earthbender, with Waterbender in a relatively distant second and Firebender quite a ways beyond that.
Air is essentially a universal element with regards to people, wherever humanity can survive there is Air within Bending distance, the only external element that one is never seperate from. In addition to its universal availability it is also the peaceful art, which prefers conflict avoidance as opposed to head-on contact, a belief which I've always expressed in my own life. It is also, after Earthbending, the most useful of the Bending arts in non-combat lifestyle. While it's true that Waterbending is also extraordinarily useful, as exemplified by the Water Tribes very civilization constructed solely of water in its various forms, it is also extremely dependent upon the setting in which it is used. An ice-city will not last on the equator, no matter how well constructed it is, and water only exists in sufficient quantity in certain points of the planet (Namely the lakes and oceans), and many locations are completely devoid of the element. Air you can use no matter where you are.
Earth is, however, even more useful than Air is. Like Waterbending, it can be used in nearly all facets of life outside of combat, from construction to transportation, but unlike water it has a solid consistency that makes it available where water is not (A rock is a rock no matter where you put it). It's also more available than Waterbending since, though water is much more plentiful than earth, humans are adapted to life aboard solid land and require much which can not be attained from the sea. However, as I said, there's more water than solid earth on the planet, which means that there's a huge portion of the planet where you have nothing to bend.
If Earthbending was more readily available, or Airbending useful in more ways than simply assisting in daily life, that would put one or the other in the lead, but right now it's really a dead heat.
How 'bout you?
If you've read this far, which I'm sure at least half of the people who started reading this thread have not done, and happen to enjoy television programming designed for children in the 6-11 age range, and who doesn't, I'm sure you've realised that these four styles are, in fact, the foundations of the four Bending Arts within Avatar: The Last Airbender (The Legend of Aang in Europe and other such foreign places). Unfortunately, if I'd included any of the actual arts in the title I'm sure this thread would be filled with little more than "w00t! Aang rules!" "Katara rocks!" and "Zuko's so hot!" so I decided to do a little name substitution (How clever am I? I mean seriously, who else would have ever thought of doing that?). Thankfully, this little bit of substitution can still remain faithful to the original intent of the thread, it's not a random and nonsensical sentence which simply misleads the readers, so I get remain truthful yet, at the same time, not open the floodgates for Zutara fanfic and newbie gushing. Yay for me!
Anyway, back to the first paragraph, which of the four Bending Arts would you choose for your own personal style? Waterbending, Earthbending, Firebending, or Airbending?
Personally, I'm conflicted between being an Airbender or an Earthbender, with Waterbender in a relatively distant second and Firebender quite a ways beyond that.
Air is essentially a universal element with regards to people, wherever humanity can survive there is Air within Bending distance, the only external element that one is never seperate from. In addition to its universal availability it is also the peaceful art, which prefers conflict avoidance as opposed to head-on contact, a belief which I've always expressed in my own life. It is also, after Earthbending, the most useful of the Bending arts in non-combat lifestyle. While it's true that Waterbending is also extraordinarily useful, as exemplified by the Water Tribes very civilization constructed solely of water in its various forms, it is also extremely dependent upon the setting in which it is used. An ice-city will not last on the equator, no matter how well constructed it is, and water only exists in sufficient quantity in certain points of the planet (Namely the lakes and oceans), and many locations are completely devoid of the element. Air you can use no matter where you are.
Earth is, however, even more useful than Air is. Like Waterbending, it can be used in nearly all facets of life outside of combat, from construction to transportation, but unlike water it has a solid consistency that makes it available where water is not (A rock is a rock no matter where you put it). It's also more available than Waterbending since, though water is much more plentiful than earth, humans are adapted to life aboard solid land and require much which can not be attained from the sea. However, as I said, there's more water than solid earth on the planet, which means that there's a huge portion of the planet where you have nothing to bend.
If Earthbending was more readily available, or Airbending useful in more ways than simply assisting in daily life, that would put one or the other in the lead, but right now it's really a dead heat.
How 'bout you?