Actually, no. Lots of people forget this, but metalbending doesn't actually have anything to do with the metal. It's manipulating the impurities within metal (the earth within it, so to speak) rather than the metal itself. That's why Korra, Lin and the metalbenders couldn't bend the platinum cage/armoured exoskeletons. There were too few impurities within them to bend.

 

I think bending sound waves would be an awesome variation on airbending.

Sucking air out of lungs and such seems like it'd just be focused vanilla airbending, not anything separate or very special.

 

Advanced airbending like that would likely fall under the same category as bloodbending during the full moon and the enhanced firebending during Sozin's Comet; impossible (for most) without special circumstances that allow it. Maybe a hurricane or something.

 

You're a bit behind the times.

 

I see it less that lightning and whatever bending is becoming more commonplace, more that Republic City is gathering the most talented benders in one place. Happens in real life with the most talented people, after all.

 

I may be wrong but isn't Mako an orphan from the street? It is obvious that he is talented but where would he have learned to create lightning so easily on his own? From another amazingly talented street urchin? It is not unlike the show for the avatar to coincidentally link up with the most talented benders in the world while on their quest but there have been hundreds of years of benders who I am sure were also very talented but didn't figure out lightning on their own. More people would have been using it by Aang's time and not just the royal family of the Fire Nation if it was easy enough for a teenager on the streets to learn from either himself or some random fire bender.

 

It may not ever be explained in the show in an effort to paint the two brothers in a positive light, but I think it's pretty obvious that Mako and Bolin learned their bending from the Agni Kai Triads, of which they used to be pseudo-members. Mako likely learned how to produce lightning from Lightning Bolt Zolt himself.

True, but who is to say that the process of lightning production isn't common knowledge among firebending masters? The actual power required to fuel it may be rare, but the knowledge might not be.

Really, you just need to be a powerful firebender that has achieved peace of mind. Sure, we never saw him use it, but I imagine Jeong Jeong could produce lightning with little effort.

 

Its the same as with Metal Bending, I think. Its a very specialized skill that Toph managed to train a bunch of people to use and now the entire police force is full of metal benders. Why can't this apply to Lightning? Some fire-bender worked it out or learned it from scrolls and such in Fire Kingdom - then moved to Republic City and gave classes to make some money. Mako isn't the only bender we've seen producing lightning in this series, after all.

On that note, might Aman be Yakone somehow? He did resist Tarlok's blood-bending. Also, Aang's first attempt to contact Korra - that we see, at least - comes when Korra challenged Aman and was captured by him. The scenes that we saw then were shown again in the last episode - of Aang on his air-scooter chasing after Yakone.

 

I'd be disappointed if he was. Yakone's a serial murderer and gang lord, and is overall rather pathetic, his skill with bloodbending notwithstanding. He just wanted power for power's sake like any two-bit criminal. Amon seems to be more sophisticated than that.

I do agree that Aang's visions probably have more meaning than what Korra initially assumed. Maybe there was something important that didn't get transmitted properly.

 

You know, I don't get why everybody here assumes the way Amon markets himself is what he is really like. He wouldn't be the first villain to portray himself differently to the masses just so he could get manpower. For all we know he couldn't care less about the non-benders and is just using them in his personal war with Aang's memory, some other Founder of Republic City or maybe the Council. I mean we haven't exactly seen his face so we can't even confirm if his face burning story was true.

I mean, yeah he might have a legit reason for hating benders and wanting to level the playing field but the point was just because he acts all sophisticated and noble doesn't mean he doesn't have ulterior motives.

EDIT: I may or may not have been thinking about how Lelouch used the Elevens in Code Geass when I typed this.

 

The reason we want to think that he's telling the truth is because a battle between a physical god and a criminal just out for money just isn't as epic as a battle between a physical god and a revolutionary.

Or rather, it'd have to be done really, really well, and they've spent this entire first season setting up Amon as someone who fights for principles and undoubtedly some unknown goal (as 'equality' is purposefully vague - it isn't as if he can cull every bender in the world himself). It'd be an unbelievably hard sell to swing him into the mercenary lane, not to mention a disappointing downscale from the last major villain. Money is so small-time compared to global domination by imperialism.

 

Generating lightning probably isn't too elite of a skill...Mako does this while working in a power plant, after all (and given that he's poor, he's clearly not getting paid much).

 

I'm pretty positive that the vast majority of us believe Amon has ulterior motives, and have speculated as such previously in the thread.

 

The lightning thing still does not make much sense to me. Commander Zhao was the admiral of the Fire Nation navy. He was the top pupil of Jeong Jeong. He was personally promoted by Ozai. He was definitely one of the most talented and knowledgeable benders in the Fire Nation. He was not able to produce lightning. He had ample opportunity on screen to show he could use it and yet he never did. I don't think he would have held back in his fights vs Zuko and the avatar if he could have used it. Hundreds of years of other avatars doesn't result in the head of the Fire Nation navy being able to use lightning but 70 years under Aang and some gangster and a street kid can use it at will.

EDIT: Also if Aang dying so early was not answered already here is this. The creators say he died early because he burned up so much energy keeping himself alive in the iceberg for 100 years.

 

Zhao also had a temper. Which the whole Fire Nation at War firebending style was based on. I think they made it pretty clear you can't produce lightning if your firebending with RAEG powers. So Aang/Zuko shared some of the secrets of Dragon style firebending. Now people with the talent have the mindset to use it in.

 

I want to see an advanced form of Air Bending or something. Lightning/Metalbending doesn't seem as cool since it's so common now.

 

We only ever saw members of the royal family use lightning in the first series (Azula, Ozai, Iroh). Maybe the knowledge of lightning bending was limited to the royal family and then post-war, Zuko or Iroh spread the knowledge of how to perform it.

As far as advanced Air Bending goes, I think weather control when in the Avatar State* or controlling the air in people's bodies would be the next logical extension. Or perhaps the ability to suddenly and drastically alter air pressure, to lead to gruesome effects similar to the Byford Dolphin.

*Hey, Kyoshi could move entire landmasses with earthbending. Fair if Avatar-level airbending can achieve similarly overpowered levels of ability.