#if this is canon I’m so sorry

[ufo-driver]

Could Ty-Lee be considered an energy bender?

I wouldn’t doubt if someone had already considered this theory before, but I tried finding if anyone had this idea. Nothing came up, so I guess I have to talk about it!

This semester, I have a TV in my dorm room, and a cool roommate to watch ATLA with. He has never seen the show, and quickly fell in love with it. Through his eyes, I’ve been seeing it all for the first time with new thoughts…

Introduction:

I know that Aang discovers energy bending at the end of the show. This is, of course, how he removes Ozai’s fire bending, rendering him powerless.

While energy bending is shown and described, very little detail is given in terms of its limitations, leaving me with many questions;

Is the Avatar the only person who can be an energy bender?

Is energy bending only accessible via Lion Turtle, or can it be inherited like other methods of bending?

Is the level of energy bending displayed by Aang only representative of a fully realized energy bending master combined with the power of the Avatar?

If methods of bending are learned from nature- fire from dragons and the sun, air from flying bison, water from the moon, and earth from badger moles- then energy bending must be granted from lion turtles. Does this mean that all other creatures can theoretically gift a human with bending abilities?

With all these questions left unanswered, it is hard to give a concrete answer to the nature of energy bending. What makes this even more complicated is the abilities of Ty-Lee.

Ty-Lee and Her Power

There are already many theories that debate Ty-Lee’s ancestry and its connection to Air Nomad Refugees. I am not opposed to the idea that she could have air bending abilities, but it would only be consistent with the canon if she was unaware of them; hence why she only “seems” to air bend. However, this can be explained as many years of practice and strength training that allows her to defy gravity.

The power that captured my attention in my latest re-watch is her unique ability of chi-blocking. Before, I accepted this as a form of general martial arts that she had learned over time, as being connected to Azula would easily grant her access to higher levels of self defense training.

However, I then compare her abilities to Aang. Ty-Lee has the ability to temporarily remove someone’s bending, something that she calls “chi-blocking.”

If I recall correctly, the entire concept of Chi is that it’s spiritual energy that flows everywhere. Ty-Lee, most likely unaware of her ability, is literally energy bending.

Of course, this would be the case assuming that not only the Avatar can energy bend, along with confirmation that full removal of bending is only possible at a level of energy bending mastery with the power of the Avatar.

Ex) while toph is powerful, I doubt she could move tectonic plates and create a separate island like Kiyoshi did

Another thing that makes Ty-Lee’s “chi blocking” interesting to me is her canonical ability to see people’s auras. Because she is able to manipulate chi, she can go as far to **physically see** the chi (or energy) that surrounds people’s bodies.

Of course, it would be easy to brush off as a metaphor, or even just Ty-Lee being a bit kooky. However, the latest rewatch made me realize that she says it so matter-of-factly, as if she has been able to do this her entire life, as if this is her normal.

I also want to point out that her ability to see auras could be similar to how Toph is able to earth bends: they can feel and “see” the medium they are bending, thus making it easier for them to bend.

It could be explained that her ability to disable someone’s bending is just another form of her ability to disable someone’s use of their arm (see when she fights Sokka). However, those are genuine pressure points, and this method of fighting has been studied scientifically.

This is not at all like the method of temporarily disabling bending. There are no physical signs of this; no muscle weakness, atrophy, or numbness. All that happens is the loss of bending, which can be seen as well when Aang defeats Ozai.

Of course, for this to be true would also mean that bending is of another energy that would inevitably cause a deficit once removed, causing physical weakness.

Because Ty-Lee is not on the same power level of Aang, assuming that his power is what allows him to remove bending, she can only block chi. Of course, it is possible that Ty-Lee unknowingly has this ability and just never has the necessary situation to use it.

This would explain why Katara, only having her energy disconnected temporarily and not removed, would not experience any physical effects as there would not be an energy deficit.

What Would this Mean for Ty-Lee’s Character?

If Ty-Lee is an energy bender, it raises many questions of her origins that could be important to the overall writing of ATLA.

Although the children born of the previous Avatars only have been seen to bend what their original bending nation was, it could be possible that Ty-Lee inherited her energy bending from relation to previous Avatars.

Whether this is because she is related to a distant air nomad Avatar or even Roku (which could explain how she had the possibility of meeting Azula in the first place, as she could be of a noble family).

In the show, Aang faces every kind of bender, many of them being more advanced in skill than Aang. The threat of Ty-Lee’s potential energy bending would seem powerful and impossible to overcome. This makes Aang’s mastery of energy bending more satisfying!

This could also explain why Azula confront’s Ty-Lee in the beginning of season 2. Knowing of her ability, Azula would absolutely monopolize it in case it needs to be used on the Avatar. Azula could have gotten any skilled fighter to accompany her, and yet she chose Azula.

You may ask, “well then why is Mai there?” In my opinion, including Mai is just a method for Azula to manipulate Zuko (knowing of their romantic history) and use Mai’s presence as psychological warfare. Her skill, although apparent, is irrelevant to fighting in general. This is its own separate theory, though.

Is Ty-Lee the Only Energy Bender Seen in ATLA?

The more that I analyze the show, I think of how Ty-Lee is very connected with spirituality. When I observe other “spiritual” characters, I also think of Iroh.

It is important to note that Iroh was jaded for his entire life by the programming from the fire nation. Assuming that Iroh has only began his spiritual journey after his failure at Ba Sing Se, he has not put much time into practicing this.

Ty-Lee has spent her entire life fine tuning her skills, unlike Iroh.

I think that energy bending, unlike other bending methods, could be learned. Considering chi is constantly flowing and is everywhere, it is inherently more available than other types of bending.

While Iroh can’t bend energy, he is tapped into chi and spirituality in general. He seems to know things that others don’t, somehow being able to say the exact thing someone needs to hear.

This is something that Ty-Lee can also do. She is often needing to read emotions, and placates Azula when she is at her most stressed. This is basically the much unhealthier version of Iroh and Zuko’s relationship.

So while the level of energy bending shown from Ty-Lee is not matched by other spiritual characters, it does seem that it can be learned over time while others have a higher predisposition. If anything, I’d compare it to midi-chlorians allowing people to have a higher sensitivity to the Force.

As far as canon from the show alone goes, Ty-Lee seems to be self taught, the show implying that only circus training could teach her this fighting method. Color me not-convinced.

Note; I do believe that there are energy benders alone in LOK, but I haven’t seen the entire show as it didn’t do the same thing for me that ATLA did. I know it’s important to consider all sources, but this is what I have! Feel free to reblog with explanations/thoughts that correct anything in this post.

[hypertechnica]

THE LOVE TRIANGLE

ford, fidds, and bill are living in a late 70s/early 80s sci fi psychological horror film that was buried upon release due to its explicit gay themes but quickly became an underground cult hit

numerous associations would decry its depiction of homoeroticism between its principal characters, but nobody could deny the surrealist film had its merit. “it’s like someone concocted an unholy combination between the shining and space odyssey and then died of the instantaneous nuclear fallout. why would anyone make this? are they stupid?” one reviewer said.

more alternates + sketch under the cut

[potato-lord-but-not]

Oscar finding out something quite intriguing about Noel at the worst possible time, as requested by @percymawce-arts :^)

[aesthetic-uni]

Miles “Who’s Morales” vs Gwen “Gwwwwanda” vs Pavtir “You seem like a nice young woman I do not know” FIGHT

[gardentool]

[Another Itadori training session]

Nanami: You couldn’t use Black Flash fast enough. You just killed Y/N.

Y/N: Honey…

Nanami: I can’t hear you, Y/N. You’re dead.

Nanami, to Yuji: They bled out in your lap. How will you break the news to me? Let's see.

Yuji: We don't have to do this.

Nanami: Ah, Itadori, how are things going with Y/N, the love of my life? Wait, why are you here at this late hour? And whose blood is that?

Yuji: Okay, I get it.

Nanami: It's Y/N’s? This is devastating. I'm inconsolable. And…

[Nanami snaps his fingers]

Nanami: I’ve killed myself.

Yuji: Cool. I can see this is gonna be fun…

[locusfandomtime]

The maths fandom is wild. “Real” and “imaginary” numbers? I think you mean canon and non-canon. You guys seriously go “this is my number oc his name is i and he is the square root of -1” when in numbers canon lore it’s actually impossible to square root a negative but sure whatever. “Complex numbers”? I think you mean a character x oc ship. “f(x) = 3x - 5”? That is self-insert fanfiction.

[theoldkyokodied]

If you follow my main you had to know this was coming… anyway. Enjoy these bloodweave doodles :)

[buckleylove]

Evan 'Buck' Buckley and Eddie Diaz: Their Story So Far

So, here’s the Buddie timeline that I promised!

Once again, this is a rough guide and I may be a month or so out in certain situations but I’m pretty happy with it overall!

[chaoflaka]

[rystiel]

idk what we’re all calling the concept of fiddlestan working together but i’m calling my version the portal partners AU 🙏🏼

[agoddamneddelight]

gay holmes literally means so much to me as a lesbian. like growing up realizing i’m gay and feeling rejected in a lot of areas of my life but having these stories to depend on; it’s so healing to interpret holmes’ withdrawn, “bohemian” nature to be caused by the same feelings of rejection. and also ofc theres something about this little mf surviving decades and getting to grow old w/ his life partner in a time where society hated his existence and it’s like maybe i can get through fucking tuesday. maybe there’s hope for me and i like to think people like me thought that in 1895 too.

[bloobydabloob]

Holy shit I love your Dirk interpretations, it's so true and I could talk about this shit forever. I feel like another part of his character that people seem to forget (along with Roxy for some reason) is that he's from the future in solitude in an apocalyptic wasteland. I just see that part of his character always removed which is disappointing because I feel like that's a pretty big part, especially regarding his themes around technology, his brother's theme of Time, his own isolation, and how he plays in the vastness of the universe and spacetime.

Art I drew related to the subject because I like to respond to asks with art.

But absolutely. I certainly understand where the lack of discussion over his isolation + upbringing comes from, considering a majority of the fanbase that I have seen builds their ideas based on their own version of postcanon. I’m not entirely sure how that would be fixed, but certainly even in the somewhat recent past I would see a lot more content regarding his upbringing both literally and symbolically. I don’t have much to add regarding the things you’ve mentioned, because they just are what they are. Dirk being confined to a singular room left to him by a father figure he never met, in a future where the only other person left on the planet is someone he cannot pursue a relationship of because of himself, with purely 3 robots to keep him companion, one being an exact replica of his own brain who is *also* trapped inside a pair of glasses, is about as literal as it gets to me.

The contrast to me involving the flooded, organic world in comparison to the little speckle of Dirk’s apartment packed with the dude and his technics is not only a representation of his isolation and entrapment within himself, but also of his lack of control. I think his obsession with & themes of control are a direct product in the case of Dirk specifically *of* this kind of upbringing. His themes of technology are also related to his themes around control. So much of his character is actually revolved around this to me like so much. Dirk is so deeply disconnected from humanity in every way and so much of his character + symbolism is based around that.

It doesn’t even have to be about the symbolism or anything though. It’s just pretty *interesting* in the literal sense that he lives in the middle of the ocean in the future. There’s not only a lot to theorise on to do with his young life there, but on how it might affect him in the way he acts for the rest of his life. The latter part is probably what I see mentioned the most by people talking about Dirk regarding this, I’m surprised I don’t see more discussion on the former too though. I really ought to actually talk more about Homestuck stuff on here. I will do it myself.

Roxy & Dirk’s relationship is largely ignored though because there is a narrative a certain demographic spreads that Dirk resented and blamed Roxy for her interest in him, and thus too many people believe that their relationship was or would continue to be an abusive one. Realistically, I believe it’s important to acknowledge that the way Roxy treated Dirk regarding his homosexuality wasn’t right while still acknowledging the obvious amount of respect and admiration Dirk had for Roxy. I mean we have a huge piece of dialogue from their post trickster mode conversations on the quest beds from Dirk purely stating how he feels about Roxy that people completely ignore somehow. I think this usually happens to characters that are women though. I know everyone says it, but it is true. Jane gets the exact same treatment of boiling her down to solely her negative aspects. The things I see completely mischaracterising both of them are horrific.

I mean how much more explicit can it get that their relationship is obviously very important to Dirk? But I digress. I think the best or I should say “most interesting” interpretations of their relationship usually come from DirkRoxy shippers actually.

I would be interested to hear about Dirk’s relation to his brother’s theme of time though. I don’t have any thoughts on this and I don’t recall ever hearing anyone talk about it before. If you or anyone else would be willing to enlighten me I’d be thrilled.

[silvykinesis]

Some Kingdom Hearts sketchbook stuff!!!

(Don’t mind all the soriku I have brain rot and they’re so in love)

[dead-but-still-sarcastic]

Orbwin and Chorb!

Orbwin and Chorb are snuggling together all warm and cozy in the opening of the backpack

Prompt: orbs, for @deadboyween

[nostalgicish]

he’s literally babygirl

edit: new pfp :)

[crystallizsch]

that one time at the beginning of this october when i injured (exaggerating) my finger in the shower somehow