The GOOD Sides of Blood Bending - Avatar the Last Airbender

[@Koroto]

📌Quick clarification about the nuclear reactor / nuke example: I said "same technology" as in just super broadly splitting the atom. Definitely should've clarified a bit there because the tech behind making it a weapon and a reliable energy source is obvs a bit different whereas bloodbending is just.... bloodbending, but I think you get the idea. Same (or similar) powers can be vastly different when wielded by different people. 😅

[@xenostar6482]

My view on Hama is definitely "If I was her I would probably do the same thing, but she is evil and had to be stopped"

[@nigelcarter6895]

Was about to say iroh can relate to his thought process​@@windums560

[@xenostar6482]

@@windums560 exactly

[@Aeunax123]

Tea

[@samuelclayhills3298]

If I was her I would totally torture innocent civillians who had nothing to do with my imprisonment especially since most of them are young folk. Yikes my dude.

[@michaelsangiovanni1934]

Bru the 224 ppl liking this r psychotic

[@nightknight498]

I'm pretty much convinced that other people used bloodbending before Hama did, and also that Yakone probably discovered it himself. Katara was able to realize that there is water inside her when she broke out of the wooden cell by bending her sweat, and even way before we've seen the Swamp People bend plants. The idea that there is water inside living beings is very much a thing in universe. From that point on, you'd just accidentally stumble across it eventually. A similar thing also happens later with Zaheer and the Earth Queen. Your average Air Nomad, raised under the strict pacifist morals of the monks, would of course never consider doing something like this, but here as well, the general idea that you can technically just suck out the air from someone else if you wanted to is probably somewhere in there.

[@seeleunit2000]

Well, yeah. But apparently you have to be pretty talented to actually do that. Because I figured that out a long time ago.

[@anubion42]

@@seeleunit2000it can be both. Just like metal bending you need to feel the elements surrounded by noise. Could be rock in metal, water in meat, air in meat. Earth in metal in meat. (Korras mercury poisoning) It’s all elements surrounding by noise. You just gotta be skilled enough to sift through the noise.

[@fabiopauli420]

5:50 i lowkey think our ancestors would be absolutely amazed that they have a decendant where its entire society is living the equivalent of Royality in their time.

[@naturesfinest2408]

Theyd be upset they didnt get to live it and even more upset that peope are upset whilst living an objectively "easy life". With all the creature comforts most could only dream of. Ac, instant heat, instant clean water, instant hot clean water, a fire that burns and easily goes out no fuss. And so much other stuff. This is human nature, though, and current civilization is very very new. If we dont destory ourselves or some other terrible thing, i think in another 10 to 20 thousand years humans will be happier on the average. We wont need to be constantly worried, we'll have almost no reason to fear. Like a real smart dodo. We'll have gotten rid of certain base fears for a more comfortable mental state. But im being VERY optimistic.

[@Sunaki1000]

Well in return they have easier Housing. You win some, you loose some.

[@naturesfinest2408]

@@Sunaki1000 yes, all of them sleeping in the same room sometimes with the barn animals, who were needed to help keep them warm in the winter nights where people would freeze often. They didnt own their homes all to much either. They worked other peoples land. And if they did own their homes, it would keep getting split among children till there wasnt enough to go around. Yeah, rent is skyrocketing, housing too. I agree, this isnt good. But I dont think we are at a point, yet, where we can say we are anywhere near worse off. That isnt to say we shouldnt see whats up and try to fix it, just not worse off.

[@Sunaki1000]

@@naturesfinest2408 Yeah pretty much my point. Its important to look into the Futur and dont be sadisfied whit Status Quo.

[@naturesfinest2408]

Just because you are satisfied doesnt mean you cant grow. You can be content and still think about the future.

[@hobbyist518]

I saw no moral issues with Hama using bloodbending to escape war prison. If she was ever attacked by fire nation soldiers hunting her, or random muggers or something, when she’d just been minding her own business, it would be fine in a situation like that as well. Hama using it to kidnap and imprison innocent civilians was not morally acceptable. Simple as that.

[@Sakurasan2023]

Yes

[@jorgec98]

21:14 well, that's exactly how combustion bending was invented. A small group created an extremely powerful derivative bending style which was later exploited for nefarious means.

[@Stop_Gooning]

"Combustion" is the wrong name for what they do; regular fire benders are using combustion. The "combustion benders" are creating the effect of a self oxidizing high explosive, which is a completely different chemical process. Fire bending is weird because they actually _create stuff_ to bend. What is the fuel that is burning? Pays not to ask

[@TheRatchz]

@@Stop_Gooning The fuel is CHI...i think lol.

[@Stop_Gooning]

@@TheRatchz fire isn't _just_ energy though, it's also *stuff.* All the other benders need their stuff in order to bend, but fire benders create their own with magic (unless it's the M Night Shlamanalom movie).

[@anubion42]

@@Stop_Gooningwhile yes the fire benders do create their fire. I think it’s less magic then let on. But I also don’t want to say “it’s just chi”, They still need something to bend. But I don’t think it needs to be defined if that makes sense. Ima kinda ramble but I think how fire works is fascinating. That’s why we see zuko struggling to fire bend pre dragons. His source of fuel has literally run dry and he’s running on fumes. Until he find his new source that isn’t revenge and destruction, but creation and life. We also see the true cold also stop fire in the North and B.Rock, which makes sense from a temperature angle but Iroh commenting “it comes from the breath not the muscles” makes me wonder. You’re breathing gets very inconsistent and difficult as hypothermia sets in. It would make sense that anything tied to the breath becomes increasingly difficult as you’re breathing worsens. these always gave me the impression that there’s something more to fire then just magic. That there is still a “something” that’s being manipulated for fire. I find emotion, rage specifically, or “breath” but I think that’s more controlled emotion. A deep breath to calm yourself before committing to something. You could of gone without but now that you’ve focused your mind it’s better, more in control. I think the final Agni Kai is a brilliant example of this. Azula is wild and has the bigger attacks, but zuko is controlled, calm, and making very intentional moves to cut through, clearly stronger even if outpowered. He’s in control (till he gets cocky) It’s just a harder source to lose or deprive someone of then water. But yea I went on way longer then intended it’s way more intense then I thought when I started typing. TLDR: I like to think it’s bending actual raw emotion, probably rage or frustration, but also the kind of feeling like you know it’s gonna suck but the outcome will be worth it. because once you have a grasp on them (iroh and redeemed zuko) the bending is stronger then those using unfiltered emotion “it comes from the breath” Fire is definitely the odd one tho

[@YukiteruAmano92]

19:54 I know this is a pedantic nitpick but our eyes don't point forwards because we're predators. Our eyes point forward because we're descended from brachiators. When your main means of getting around is swinging from branch to branch, it's very important that you know *exactly* where in space that next branch is because getting that wrong _once_ could mean death. Basically all primates have forward facing eyes for that reason and many species are completely herbivorous. After we descended from the trees there will have been a long period where our eyes only pointed forward vestigially and, if we hadn't specialised into tool using and projectile throwing (for which strong stereoscopy was a useful exaptation) then we may have eventually lost our forward facing eyes, adapting eyes on the sides of our heads for better peripheral awareness. Humans are pursuit predators, stereoscopy is only really useful for ambush predators that pounce. We don't pounce (though we can lay ambushes). The whole 'Front eyes=predator, side eyes=prey' thing is rather an oversimplification. Sloths have forward facing eyes and great white sharks have sideways ones. What forward facing eyes means is that this is an animal with an evolutionary history of needing to be very good at perceiving what's in front of it. Sideways facing eyes means this is an animal with an evolutionary history of needing to be very good at perceiving what's around it in all directions. Nothing more,

[@marzipancutter8144]

Generally it is true though that hunting correlates strongly with wanting to perceive in front, and being prey correlates strongly with needing to see in all directions. As far as I'm aware there aren't any/many pursuit hunters with sideways eyes, so I'd appreciate examples if you have some. I don't know if there's much data on persistence hunters that don't necessarily want to see in front. Otherwise saying front-facing eyes are vestigial in the pursuit hunting is little more than a wild assumption, and saying "stereoscopy is only really useful for ambush predators that pounce" is a far worse oversimplification with far less utility than "Front eyes=predator, side eyes=prey" Because that one actually has strong correlations backing it. Sharks aren't really good as examples for this either. Arguably sharks DO have their most important sensory organ directed in front of them, it just so happens that the most important sense for their environment isn't sight but electroreception. Hammerheads are the only exception for this.

[@YukiteruAmano92]

@@marzipancutter8144 Monitor lizards are persistence predators that have sideways mounted eyes.

[@snowfox94]

Seeing your human body is weird. Im use to the phantom voice lmfao. You handsome bastard.

[@Koroto]

I can wrap myself in a greenscreen and just be a floating head in videos 😂😂

[@tyronwhittle1868]

​@@Korotodo it

[@diegobeusekamp3887]

​@@Koroto i call bluff

[@zombieinkhakis6891]

@@KorotoDO IT

[@Ethorp]

Yoooo​@@Koroto

[@KrazyStargazer]

I love how much variety Bending offers. We thought it was just limited to the 4 elements but as time goes on we learn about subgroups of bending. Id love yo explore even more subgroups of bending.

[@MysticMylesZ]

1:50 That's always the thing I think of with the taboo of blood powers. "Ok so some can control blood powers?" "And that seems dark & intimidating because, blood, bleeding ...And potentially spiritual ideas?" "Ok understandble." *But do you have any idea the insane medical stuff* & non combat stuff you could potentially do with the ability to control blood?! 😅

[@jenniferdaniels701]

I know. I thought of a fanfic plot where twins are told that one would marry one of the most powerful benders of their time, and the other would end up in prison. They chose a 'golden child', who ended up using blood bending on the 'black sheep' to save her life. So, an apology and willingly taking the bad future.

[@Stop_Gooning]

Bones are full of minerals. Minerals are rocks. Toph bend rocks. Toph bend bones.

[@jenniferdaniels701]

@@Stop_Gooning That would have the same stigma as blood bending, wouldn't it? You're bending a person somehow, not random objects.

[@Stop_Gooning]

@@jenniferdaniels701 That depends: You could use Earth bending to reinforce *your own* bones. Water bend _your own_ blood to use as a weapon. Air bend O2 into your bloodstream faster.

[@brucealanwilson4121]

@@MysticMylesZ You can't bloodbend without inflicting a lot of pain on someone. There's that. What kind of person wants to deliberately hurt someone?

[@Orangenkraft]

Blood benders couldn’t restart a heart. That takes electrical activity. They could, however, do extremely efficient CPR, which has the hope of regaining electrical activity

[@Koroto]

Probs should've clarified that - yeah, I meant just super-charged CPR.

[@jb111082]

@@Koroto Lightning bender+Blood bender=Greatest CPR team ever

[@seanrea550]

There is a possibility that the existing healing arts within water bending are low level blood bending gorms that are not recognized as such as they use pools of water to assist and they manage the flow of energy around the body.

[@marzipancutter8144]

Unlikely. The healing that can be done with waterbending is MUCH more potent than what you could ordinarily do by moving blood around. Most afflictions aren't related to the blood in your body, at best the water in your cells (Which ISN'T blood). And even then, only a minority of problems are related to cell water content either, and there is little that can be achieved by moving it around. Healing arts also cure the cell structures and proteins, and have been shown capable to restore chemical bonds that should have been irreversibly destroyed (like what happens in a burn). They are so much more advanced than moving body water around that I'm not even sure there is any further advantage by adding bloodbending to healing techniques.

[@blackpowderkun]

There is a fantheory where waterbender healer is aware of bloodbending but never had the midset to use it against someone's will. This is why I think waterbending was split in the north

[@deandredukes95]

There's always the hyena of morality at the garden gate, and the real wolf at the end of the street.

[@kapitansosnowiec8296]

The fuck does that even mean??

[@kjj26k]

There are two wolves inside of you One of them is a hyena

[@monerb7185]

it would be interesting if the earth avatar series touches on some of the positive side of blood bending or a potential positive side like what if that avatars water bending master is like amon and can blood bend at any time but tries to focus on using it for healing isntead of what amon tarrlok and hama used it for

[@ChonkersCentral]

Backbending next, I wanna see Sokka in the spotlight

[@LuisSierra42]

Sokka Rizz

[@fabiopauli420]

I need a seperate upload of "there is no yapping in ba sing sai" So i can send it to my friends on discord when i had one of my yapsessions. please Koro make it an unlisted video idc

[@Koroto]

Lmao, I'll make a better version of it first. I realized the meme potential of that when I made it too 😂

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

When Waterbending becomes scary.

[@Burrito_bois]

I disagree

[@dannyl434]

having just finished Gen V I am somehow more scared and intrigued by bloodbending than ever before! And I've been watching Avatar again and again for years.

[@ViridianCrisis7]

The initial reaction of Katara working to outlaw bloodbending makes sense for her character and thinking that if the knowledge can die with her it’s fine. But as it stands in LoK it’s already out there so starting official training in the Water Tribes is probably the best option to mitigate possible harm by giving those capable of blood bending a healthy way to direct that power

[@hilgigas09]

I feel the taboo around Bloodbending is informed by its impracticality. It's only usable at a specific time in the month under certain conditions. Lightning and Metalbending, in contrast, are always available to the user so there is time and room to experiment with other applications. Like those super inefficient powerplants or metal art pieces. As it stands the only known use is controlling other people. Another consideration, whether intentional or not, is the use of technology in the show. The zeppelin, the drill, oil, and the engine, revolutionary discoveries and the first instinct was warfare. The balloons were used for bombing runs, the drill to breach Ba Sing Se, and engines were used for tanks. The Fire Nation had access to crude oil and a means to process it long before the series starts. It's used to douse boulders and launch them with trebuchets. They still don't have asphalt or industrial tar by Korra's time. (I'm not sure about the track on the Sato estate, the texture seems off.) Katara trying to keep it hidden was too little too late all of Hama's victims knew about her power but, she made sure to silence any witnesses. Freeing her prisoners means someone lived to tell the tale. Best case scenario, get ahead of the story and gather people to research less sinister uses. Because let's be honest immolating people or turning them into paste are considerably more horrific.

[@brucealanwilson4121]

The thing is that being on the receiving end of bloodbending HURTS.

[@EragonTheDragonRider]

Just wanted to point out that nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, although based on the same physical principles, are different tecnologies. Having access to one doesn't inherently mean that you can use the other. You could design a nuclear power plant that can be used to make bombs but you could also design them so that producing weapons with it is utterly impossible. Other than that great work on the video

[@Stop_Gooning]

There is nothing that CAN'T be used as a weapon, especially if it makes my Geiger Counter go BRRRRRRRR You don't need to achieve nuclear detonation to completely irradiate a city.

[@split776]

I don't understand how anyone could justify Hama's actions - fighting by any means necessary is what you do when you're cornered, have limited resources and in grave danger. You can't build a comfortable life for yourself and then start going outside, kidnapping and torturing/killing random civilians, and say "well I had no other choice". Hama's efforts could've been directed, as you've said, to actually helping with the war - she could probably break everyone out of the Boiling Rock prison and who knows how many other POW camps in Fire Nation territory! She could've done something like what Katara did as the Painted Lady, disguise herself and use her incredible never-before-seen abilities to convince people she's a spirit who came to tell them Ozai is corrupting the physical world and thus start a religious* revolt/uprising, she could've gone undercover and stopped major Fire Nation attacks before they've begun. Instead she chooses over and over to enact cruelty upon civilians - revenge/"justice" may be the excuse she tells herself and others (Katara), but let's be real, this is cruelty for cruelty's sake. Hama's the villain 100%

[@8Phoenix8]

One thing people don’t think about. Bloodbending could have been used for older people who have a certain dysfunction. Or blood transfusions, but… scary tho since it’s high chance of people going crazy

[@ekadria-bo4962]

Video : "The people who resist bloodbending are WATERBENDER WITH FULL MOON Or FULLY REALIZED AVATAR" Korra: Are you forgetting me, bro?

[@brucealanwilson4121]

@@ekadria-bo4962 She was a waterbender under the full moon.

[@MrPiccoloku]

@@brucealanwilson4121 And a fully-realized Avatar when she was actually able to resist effectively. I guess you could also distract the bloodbender

[@MysticMylesZ]

4:01 I feel you there, got Sickle Cell, not autoimmune but some of the effects are the same.

[@teamaang7915]

The look on zuko's face when katara blood bends the southern raider. He was like "fkkkkkkkk"

[@marvinandremutesasira5944]

Water obstructed by layers of meat...............

[@Koroto]

its true tho 🗿🗿

[@ssgsaxgamer4902]

Tbf, it seems like people don't have great control of the bloodbending. Whenever I see someone do it, the person getting bloodbended ends up really stiff and I'm willing to bet it's hard to control the blood in a more subtle way that would be needed to use it to do something like fix a blood clot. Basically, I feel like it'd be really easy to accidentally pop the blood vessels in the brain when trying to fix a stroke.

[@two_squared]

I just found this channel after finishing avatar, and it’s helping me form opinions about the show

[@TheMysteryDriver]

You didn't have any opinions of your own?

[@nonime9566]

I like the camera setup. Nice to see the face behind the videos :)

[@MineFor2Player]

While watching your videos, the topics, the amount of knowledge and insight you get from watching them, and the production/edition they have, I thought this was another channel on the million subscribers, but man, only 125k? With this amount of content and quality? You're 200% underrated, I'll binge watch your channel, great mf work

[@namtellectjoonal7230]

4:00 You kind of brought up a chillingly fitting example here. Because there's a word for wanting to create the "perfect" human: Eugenics. It's something that has gone horribly wrong already, resulting in millions of people dead, locked up, or forcibly sterilized. And even though there's now more "refined" methods of engineering human bodies, the fundamental problem persists: Who decides what a perfect human is? Can there even be one answer? What about certain disabilities that might be perceived as a "defect" by many but form a central part of the identities of many disabled people? Should they not be allowed to exist? Again: who could ever decide such a thing? So far humanity hasn't had a very good track record with that kind of power and I see it the same way with blood bending. Yeah, the ability could be harnessed for good, but unfortunately humanity can't be trusted to use this power responsibly.

[@carringtonbearden4479]

Honestly, I would love to see you do a review of either the TV series or the manga of Vineland Saga. It is genuinely the most thought-provoking and deeply human story I have read. It truly affects the mind.

[@MysticMylesZ]

3:00 Biological, virus bacteria, etc. If not that weapon, then probably chemical. Ok, it was the nuclear.

[@jessieBird96]

Morality is just another block in the rich people tower.

[@samuelclayhills3298]

Bloodbending as a technique isn't really anymore evil than anything else its just that 4/5 users in the cartoons have been evil to some degree. The only one who wasen't decided to outlaw its use because she realized the danger of making it even stronger since the only real counter is a stronger bloodbender or the avatar. If we think about it realistically and use it in our world then it would be 100% fatal as blood is only supposed to go one way. Actually using bloodbending would probably destroy all the blood vessels and condemd people to bleeding to death if you don't just acidentally blow upp their heart or cause a anyurism. Tecknically it could maybe be used in healing but considering how even in the avatar world it is still inherently dangerous and harmfull or every user is just a master surgeon who knows the human body inside and out. Since healing exists and is more reliable and less dangerous its not really necesary to use bloodbending that way. At this point in the avatar verse society there really isn't a need to risk more by using bloodbending instead of using healing.

[@Stop_Gooning]

I feel like there are a lot of ways that bending could be used on your opponent's body directly. Aang could overinflate your lungs or suck all air out of your chest and Toph could [probably] bend the minerals in your blood/bones.

[@alecrutz956]

the sucking air out of people thing technically was done in korra, where the guy suffocated someone with air bending

[@iliaselmaghrebi9114]

Civilians pay taxes and help the economy. Many will be working on roads, buildings, and fabrics to produce items used by the military. If I had gone through what Hama did go through, I would probably go berserk and kill everything. We people may never fully recover from losing a parent or sibling, but try to imagine the pain of losing all your brothers, sisters, parents, uncles, nephews, aunts, nieces, friends, colleges, teachers, literally your whole tribe. I would really not care about anyone at this point. I may be a psychotic person also. Katara did lose her mother, not her whole tribe. Aang, while losing his whole tribe, did discover it 100 years later, so while it is difficult, as you can see in the show, he moved on quite fast. It's really not the same as being someone who experienced the horror.

[@jofish5678]

That concept of how light vs dark is baked into humanity is a great point!!

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

8:39 That is of course a concern when anything happens to someone, are they truly the same person they were before the event. Have they changed after they fell off the ladder? When they somehow got revived after being blown up by a nuke did, they really come back the same? Especially concerning would be teleportation when it just rebuilds your body over at the place you want to go.

[@HOLDENPOPE]

I mean, if they themselves are able to wonder that, that probably proves continuity of consciousness. Can't wonder anything if everything goes black forever while a clone of you runs around in your place.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

@@HOLDENPOPE Not really, while that would certainly prove to themselves that they are still conscious it doesn't necessarily prove to others that they are still conscious, anything a conscious man can do could be perfectly replicated by something that is not conscious, this means there is really no way to prove whether someone is conscious to anybody but themselves.

[@stonerbland256]

Nuclear shoutout to Kyle Hill

[@Jan12700]

Nuclear is just bad in economic terms, it's too expensive. Renewables like Solar and Wind with Battery Storage are better and way way cheaper. Even the World Nuclear Report says so. Kyle Hill just ignores and lies about it, he just does propaganda.

[@nhpkm1]

Vineland saga recommendations is absolutely on point it's timeless classic.

[@Dilmahkana]

The less we try to control nature, and the more we become custodians for nature; the less we put ourselves above others, and the more we understand that we're only a part of a part of a part of a massive web of complexity; the less we try to fit nature and complexity into our limited worldview, and the more we try perceive living complexity; The happier and longer 'We' will live, the more beautiful and meaningful 'Our' lives and actions will be, the deeper 'Our' love will be.

[@darrenremund5680]

Nice video, I love the analysis, though I do think that one point that should have been investigated further is the idea of personal responsibility with regards to the morality of blood bending. You touch on the idea briefly with the worry over being used to commit crimes but don't quite dive into the ramifications on a legal and social level. The ideas of who is responsible for their actions is already complicated, but adding the layer of "I was forced to do it" being literal and not the result of coercion really throws a wrench in how you determine accountability (not to mention the mental ramifications). All in all, lots of awesome points and a fun analysis of the morals investigated through our stories!

[@Skirakzalus]

Here's a scenario: What if at the end of Korra S1 she doesn't get her bending back just like that and the only way to restore it would be by Katara undoing what was done by blood bending using the same method?

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

21:08 Yes, for previously mentioned reasons, as if 100 blood benders can take on thousands of stampeding cows or even humans for that matter.

[@cullenlatham2366]

I always knew the evil, and mostly stopped there. Practically no amount of good would offset the potential of evil. Did i even consider what good could come of it? no, and some of that potential is amazing, but that doesnt change what blood bending is. You nailed it; it breaks all the rules and is too powerful to have a counter. In the ideal world where we could see the good of blood bending without the bad, it would have to come through an insane level of bureaucracy and red tape, teaching only the ways blood bending can help and finding some way to prevent it from doing harm, but there is pretty much no way to do it without the risk of a weak link breaking the chain. "you can learn it if you agree to be put under its effects to prevent its misuse"? who's stopping the the "preventer of misuse" from misusing it? Blood Bending needs to be fundamentally changed to see any use publicly, but that process itself will require research as the magic system is just a bit too hard to handwave it away in backstory, especially after we have already seen it used as evil. Priming. We were primed to see the evil, and if lead with evil, there is practically no way to make the power good without rewriting what it can do.

[@DomyTheMad420]

the medical potential for blood bending goes so much further then i can explain: - (modern) surgeries become somewhat trivial if you can sense and stop bleeds. - extremely efficient CPR ( as mentioned by Orangenkraft ) - Aneurysm detection altho i have my doubts about bloodbending being of use for treatment.. I've got stuff to do but my mind is still swimming in the VAST sea of potential of giving a modern medical experts bloodbending. sure they'd be of must of as bloodbending assistants just staring at the patient for a few hours... but still. they'd potentially raise surgery survival rates to 99.99% FOR STARTERS.

[@Kias_Draco]

Btw since you forgot you don’t need to be a realized avatar or waterbender under the full moon to resist blood bending. Maco did enough to shoot Amon with lightning and Korra did later to kick Amon out the window. Amon resisting Tarlock due to non full moon bending makes sense too. I feel the thing is training, spirit, and power affects the strength or even the amount of people being bended. But it does make you think about the ways to resist it.

[@yurkdawg]

Btw very nice recommendation on Vinland Saga. ATLA and AOT are my top two animated stories, but Vinland Saga is high up in a very small second tier of runner-ups. Heck I spent more time than I care to admit just pondering that wonderful panel you showed...

[@itsjustvick]

can't have dinner without my dose of koroto

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

19:53 Offense is always an effective option. And as for defense, one person can only blood bend so many people, just scare a bunch of bulls into a stampede and trample the blood bender, stampedes are by far the strongest method of attack even if you have magic bending stuff.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

12:25 If I benefit from someone else's loss that means my morals are doing exactly as intended and as I think all others should do, ensure that your descendants will be the only living things left in the end.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

2:52 Uh, my mind went to the stick with a pretty sharp rock on it, what's a nuke going to do?

[@TnT_F0X]

Using Earth Bending to bind limbs. Fine. Using Metal Bending to bind limbs. Fine. Using Water bending to freeze someone's entire body in place with no air. Fine. Using Blood Bending to bind someone... JAIL!!!!!

[@snintendog]

Power is power regardless. "Its at the whim of the user. Salvation or Destruction."

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

3:37 Genetic engineering is the most sure-fire way to kill whatever you're engineering, especially if you're engineering yourself.

[@mr.waffles8739]

I think they should have had a secret task force of blood bending doctors that only a very select few know exist

[@the-Rebel-Mage]

If I'm trusting a surgeon not to kill me while cutting me open I can trust a healer not to kill me with my own blood

[@MrNubfish]

Still getting used to seeing your face on screen, throws me of every time. Love your videos, keep it up man!

[@wabschall]

I do like thw idea of like a "combat medic" school where they are legally allowed to learn and use blood bending specifically to do emergency medicine in the field.

[@coalopalatticus6964]

Side tangent About a month or two i saw both the discussion on blood bending being used for medical uses and how blood bending takes away bodly autonomy on a tumblr blog where the owner is very open about the fact they suffered CSA, and a few times during this video my mind drifted back to those posts

[@chrisblischke6764]

Sung jinwoo is a character who uses necromancy to save the world, so he is view positively throughout the series.

[@aistikasmursu9432]

in my opinion blood bending should have been made public from the get go, cuz when everyone is special no one is, if everyone is aware of it then everyone will know the counter to it and if everyone capable of using it knows how to then simply by nature the amount of people who wish to maintain the statuesque will be higher than those who want to change things and by that margin no conflict would ever occur, because the cost of victory would always be too costly for either side to take initiative.

[@Telepathic_Snail_Overlords]

NEVER BEEN THIS EARLY! Korotos is a snack!

[@christopherrodriguez8154]

For more possibilities regarding the use of blood bending, we can look to the TV show Shadow and Bone, specifically their Heart Renders, as they have very similar abilities

[@domi6026]

Actually an amazing video

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

11:08 Personally I wouldn't say Hama was right exactly, she had the goal of helping others who weren't fire benders instead of the goal of helping herself and her children exclusively and killing every other living being, which inherently makes her very wrong.

[@lukaslambs5780]

I personally don’t think bloodbending is unethical. How is it more ethical to smash someone with a rock, burn them with fire, stab them with an icicle, or throwing people around hard enough to break all their bones. Killing is killing. Korra and Aang could have saved a lot of suffering if they were able to bloodbend!

[@lukaslambs5780]

To clarify, Hama is evil and a war criminal but I don’t think bloodbending is any more or less moral than any other form of bending.

[@Arsenic7533]

The only "immoral" part of it is that it's like a cheat code compared to the other types of bending. Otherwise yeah, you're right.

[@TheMysteryDriver]

You can block all those things. You can't block a blood bender.

[@vuyilemdladla4576]

@@TheMysteryDriver he said as the Fire Nation burned down his village and kills his infant daughter.

[@lordpessimism]

@@TheMysteryDriver You can't block a bullet. Are guns war crimes too?

[@kenna8112]

whats still blows my mind during hama's episode is the fact she didn't let anyone else out??? Like she got free and there were literally no guards. They had multiple keys so why didn't she release all her fellow waterbenders???

[@VeguldenZilverling]

Damn you beat me to this topic.

[@digitaltailsmon4096]

When It comes to Blood Bending I always thought the idea was interesting due to how it kinda felt like the dark version of healing. Both in some way manipulate water through the body to do something with it. But while one heals. another is used to control. That element of control is the reason for Blood Bending being nightmarish in its idea. You said it best yourself with the idea of it taking away the very ability all people have. The ability to fight against someone. And without it, I feel we are made less than human. Almost un living in a way.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

2:08 Here are the drawbacks of this idea, while it seems great to be able to immediately clear blood clots there are potential ways this can go wrong, for instance, it would be very easy and hard to detect for someone to kill the person they're intended to help during one of these surgeries, they could chalk it up to nothing more than a failed surgery which is undoubtedly not too uncommon due to human error and the precision needed. This would make it hard to get a trustworthy blood bender for surgery on those of high political stature, additionally if blood clots no longer mean certain death, then the body may not have any pressure to avoid them leading to evolution removing any safety measures to prevent it over time.

[@EatTheRichAndTheState]

I get the point but using rich people as an example is prety much the worst example, you know, considering they get rich by stealing our labour, if anything is not stealing but recuperation, like if you took back your things from a thief no one in their right mind would call that stealing

[@sebastienholmes548]

Stealing implies it was involuntary.

[@ambriasaunders1869]

Exactly! I'm very much okay with people stealing from the rich! They hurt the entire planet and don't deserve what they have!

[@8Phoenix8]

What happens when the new Avatar (earth or sandbender) has to deal with a full bloodbending army.

[@VeguldenZilverling]

18:52 where do those extremely good intentions come from, though?

[@yurkdawg]

Hey my guess (from the image of Long Feng) about the subject of this video was right after all! (Lol sorry don't mind me - gotta take small victories where I can ;) )

[@KaysNewGroove]

2:50 Nuclear energy and nuclear weapons aren't the same technology. They rely on the similar physics, but they are so incredibly different technologies that you can't compare them. You can't turn a nuclear weapon into a power plant, and you can't turn a nuclear plant into a weapon, they are just so different on a fundamental level that liking them to each other is exactly why there's a negative stigma around nuclear energy. It's a very bad analogy considering that using blood-bending for medicine and blood-bending for war is using the exact same thing for two different purposes, where nuclear weapons and power are using two very different, only tangentially related things, for two very different purposes.

[@aaronosbourne2560]

I think its down to a violation of another human body. But as you say it could also be used to help people. It's like how if someone just kissed somebody else out of nowhere without consent it would be a violation. But if someone is unconscious they may need mouth to mouth in the context of CPR. And as somebody who is first aid trained we are taught to assume consent to do CPR if the person is unconscious right up until the point where they wake up and are able to speak

[@SpammytheHedgehog]

I want to know how Amon could bend blood without the full moon?

[@PizzaFreaak]

It never was really explained he just could bc he can i guess. I have my guess on bad writing

[@Koroto]

magic ✨

[@Companion92]

Maybe you can lear to do it without the moon if you train long enough

[@vukmijatovic]

Well moon boost warerbenders power so a realy powerfull one could bend blood whitput it

[@EVacStation]

It's his kekkei genkai technique. Like the sharingan

[@cheusingher8734]

What if Katara used bloodbending to recover sick or injured people, and what if THAT is one of the reasons why she is the best healer in the world. Lol imagine if she used that to her advantage and only used it when helping someone instead of thinking it’s only scary to control them!l? She could’ve used it for much more than for evil.

[@Jurassicparkfan1025]

So, blood bending can be used for good and evil. Just like any other bending.

[@SarahAbramova]

10:28 maybe they fear heights BECAUSE they know their balance sucks. Ever thought of that? This is like saying "bad swimmers fear drowning more". Well duh.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

15:23 Then they deserved to die for being unable to stand up to Hama, of course there may be use for them in which case I might try to stop her or something and then I might get killed too, but in that case, I was in the wrong.

[@brynmisk]

Have you looked into any of the Elden Ring lore? I think you would find much of it deeply fascinating.

[@Koroto]

I haven't. Vaati has for me 🗿🗿

[@brynmisk]

@@Koroto Saaaame

[@eyalbrusilovsky3520]

The OSRS reference sent me 💀💀

[@hi-ougidemonfang]

11:47 many philosophical fields would disagree with you here. It doesn’t even entirely make sense in the way you put it yourself. Let’s say you believe it’s ok for rich people to have their property stolen. You probably have a reason why you think that, some goal in mind or problem you want to address rather than “rich bad”. In those cases one could absolutely have a self consistent world view where them having their stuff stolen is morally wrong, but having the rich persons stuff stolen is morally right. Many philosophers would base what’s morally right by what the community needs rather than what the individual needs, or would say the ends justify the means. About the first thing you learn in philosophy is that there’s at least 5 morally correct takes and they all differ with each other in either motive or outcome. If you follow your own line of logic then you get to the point where social safety nets and social security nets are morally wrong. After all you didn’t consent to taxes, the government came and yanked your stuff, and just as the rich person couldn’t be held to account for the communities sake, neither can you. It doesn’t matter that it’s the government who’s doing the taking, theft is theft after all, and the good it does clearly doesn’t matter. The point is ethics is complicated and you narrowing it down so small doesn’t actually do anyone any good.

[@PolliitoAle]

From the moment bloodbending was presented in the avatar universe i was horrified by it and i kind of felt alone in that take bc everyone else seemed to think it was the ultimate cool move 😂 just the thought of my body being controlled against my will is terrifying beyond understanding for me, and other's autonomy and fre will are similarly important to me, no one should have the power to manipulate someone else like that

[@Heylon1313]

camera segments are fun but not worth the drop in audio quality imo

[@Koroto]

Aye, I'm still workshopping solutions for that. Definitely want to have more on-camera segments to help with false claims n stuff, but the difference not even in quality but just sound bothers me too. 😅

[@regs3941]

idk, the whole point of fighting is to force a specific outcome of events only you or your group want. You are taking away your opponents autonomy anyway, be it through blood bending or threatening or even killing them with another bending technique or weapon. The only difference is, that instead of the force coming from an extrinsic source, the opponent becomes the weapon themself against themself.

[@alexandratsankova5825]

i'm convinced about everything except the autoimmune issues, as i don't think that's as simple as the others and just being able to bloodbend might not be enough to heal that

[@frankiv8714]

I never saw bloodbending as an evil or horrible thing. If is used for taking away a criminal's free will and autonomy before he or she runs away or counterattack and then put that person under arrest, I don't see it wrong. It's almost the same as handcuffing someone in order to arrest him - in both scenarios the criminal is unable to fight back or defend himself. It can also be used for self defense against an assaulter, armed attacker, r4pist, etc. And now that I mentioned R*pe, there are people who compare BB to this crime, but tbh it doesn't make sense because bending blood is not a sexual act.

[@MTGBear]

Saying what happens after makes no sense for Kamara or thorfinn. You know who did it. Once they're gone you're done. You think guts is going after anyone after Griffith?

[@yxnilI]

Very cool video!

[@Mooskym]

In ATLA, Blood Bending was wisely nerfed by the writers to only be possible to execute during the full moon, and even then only by absolute master Water Benders. If an overpowered technique can only be used in very specific times, and everyone with working eyes can tell when that time is, it would be fairly trivial for enemies to prepare a counter or proper defense against such a technique. However, ATLOK, doing what ATLOK does best, ruined that idea by letting some people perform that technique whenever they want, without even doing any bending movements, and still made it EVERN MORE POWERFUL by allowing the benders to seal the bending of others permanently. At least the writers of that show had the decency to limit this beefed-up technique to only one family, but it really is not enough.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

15:20 No that's not flawed, at that point it just comes down to whether Hama can best the random civilians, if she can then she is in the right and they are in the wrong, and vice versa. That's not flawed that's just how the world works, like Schrodinger's rightness there is no way to know which one was correct until one of them dies first.

[@flameofthephoenix8395]

8:12 Necromancy is also fine.

[@mscrabson]

There are multiple wars going on right now. You can ask the civillians who suffered, if it’s justified - to blame, to hate and harm the civilians of the offender

[@MotorcycleCheetah]

Well let me add this then: “If we consider the practical side of things like Blood Bending, you must also take into consideration the VERY REAL threat of those learning it TURNING evil.” The fact of the matter is, give someone enough power and they, usually, will forego their morals in favor of strengthening themselves somehow. That’s why things like The Dark Side of The Force, Bloodbending, among other “Bad Powers”, are labeled as such. They come from a darker place and are often used to their fullest extent by dark people. You cannot bloodbend without realistically admitting the fact, that you ARE in someway puppeteering someone; even if you justify it as helping. And if you don’t, that’s some olympic level mental gymnastics. You cannot use the Dark Side of the Force without tapping into the corruptive aspect. The Force binds all life together, and thus preserves it. Using the force to harm and take life, aka the Dark Side, is unequivocally Bad. If you do something once, YOU CAN do it again. And it will become easier to justify each time until you no longer feel the need to. If someone can justify something as a necessity, they will probably do it at least once.

[@deadshotplaysgamez7304]

Floating head Koroto when?