Avatar: The Legend of Korra

Is the element genetic too? Bolin and Mako are related, but the have different bending.

Yes, otherwise there wouldn't be seperate nations for each element if it was random. All benders in the water tribes are waterbenders all benders in the fire nation are firebenders etc,

I think Aura hit it on the head. Theres an element of genetics but its hardly absolute.

But is it completely impossible for someone to have a little air in them? The may be monks, but they're also nomads who spend their whole lives traveling. Couldn't one accidentally knock up some fire chick a couple hundred years ago?

Sure.

And then the Fire Nation kills his descendant when he manifests airbending. Soon the bloodline mysteriously disappears.

Pretty sure pre sozin fire nation wouldn't do that. They wanted the earth kingdom after all.

The thing about the genetics argument, besides the twin thing, is that it really doesn't make much sense.

Assume the bending is a recessive gene since Katara is the only bender in her family. It is possible that the recessive gene was passed down and Katara just happened to get two genes for bending...but then how could any of her kids be a non-bender since they'd have to get a bending gene from her? Unless Aang had one but then does that mean Air bending is dominant over the non-bending gene? And if that is the case how come Air bending would also have to be recessive in the face of Katara's Water-bending? That would need to be the case for them to have a water bending kid.

Tl;dr

Aang and his family disprove the bending being genetics thing based on how we understand genetics. Too bad so sad.

Edit: Mind you this is high school biology. It could be that some genes are recessive in the presence of certain genes and dominant in the presence of others. I've never heard of it but not my area of expertise by any means.

I read somewhere that all air benders are born in the autumn, fire in summer, winter has water, and spring breeds earth guys. Maybe the bending gene just makes you a bender but the conditions of your birth decide your element. All oftenzin's kids are benders and pema isn't tough.

We're looking way into it. Bending is genetic but the writers didn't bother looking up simple biology or didn't let it get int he way of the story.

It makes as much sense as dissolving a council and giving the power to one person to make things fairer in life. But at least the writers admitted they don't know squat about politics...

Well to be fair, every nation besides the air nomads had a monarchy and they're the ones who survived.

If I didnt know for a fact that this thread is full of LOK fans i'd assume its some sort of anti-LOK thread. Not a single positive comment lol

I like this series 🙂

Originally posted by SamZED
If I didnt know for a fact that this thread is full of LOK fans i'd assume its some sort of anti-LOK thread. Not a single positive comment lol

In a vacuum if season one didn't exit then it would have been perfect. Except so far what we got was a lot of recycled material. Still good but we just saw it...

But that's probably why they wanted to make Korra a one season show to begin with so you can't blame them.

Originally posted by Nephthys
Yes, otherwise there wouldn't be seperate nations for each element if it was random. All benders in the water tribes are waterbenders all benders in the fire nation are firebenders etc,

I think Aura hit it on the head. Theres an element of genetics but its hardly absolute.

Swamp bender.

New theory.
Water + earth= swamp bender
Earth + fire= sand bender
Fire + air= sun warrior
Air + water= what ever pathik is.

Originally posted by iscaremonkeys
what if my mother was from the water tribe but my father was from the earth kingdom?
after they combined elements would I be a water bender and an earth bender?

No. You would be either, or neither. Just look at Aang and Katara's kids. There are three of them, one water bender, one air bender, and one non-bender.

One air one water and one other. Just wait and see bumi have the same spirit mojo as pathik.

Originally posted by stickman618
No. You would be either, or neither. Just look at Aang and Katara's kids. There are three of them, one water bender, one air bender, and one non-bender.

Nope.

Actually, that was something I was wondering. Is spirit bending something anyone can do or is it just another facet of water bending?

I hope it's the former. But considering how much the writers seem to love water bending I wouldn't be surprised (although I would be immensely disappointed) if it were the latter.