Amon and Tarrlok are rumored to have mastered the art of realizing that the moon is always full in ATLA, granting them bloodbending powers the likes of which no one has seen before
Its also amazing that during the fight, Katara’s stance when she blocks the water totally throws Hama off because normally waterbenders use the “turn defense into offense” method of fighting. However katara takes a very earthbender like stance and straightforwardly BLOCKS the water. Its a moment of “WAIT THATS ILLEGAL” for Hama and its amazing.
It's something you see a number of particularly skilled benders do, and it's a cool subtle detail. If you go watch the final Agni Kai, you might pick up that Zuko uses a lot of waterbending- (redirecting fire jets), earthbending- (standing strong and blocking an attack), and airbending-style moves. There's one particular airbendery spinning attack he does that really seems to knock Azula off-balance.
@@maddie9602 I think the spinning attack you mentioned is actually one of his signature moves! He got it because his VA does breakdancing iirc, but it could suggest he'd learned from some airbending techniques before, maybe through Iroh or while he was at one of the temples?
When katara blocks the big attack, Hama is shocked because that’s not a water bending technique. Water bending is about redirecting and turning your opponents energy back on them. What katara does is an earthbending move. Just another time where they show that when you combine the four elements, combine multiple views, you get something even greater than the sum of its parts.
I never got the impression that katara just magically "got" bloodbending. I feel like hama was carefully and sneakily teaching katara the basic technique and mindset of bloodbending during their stay. Hama was probably planning for katara to learn bloodbending that night, it just happened in a different way than she had planned.
I also don't think it was very sudden, since we had already seen Katara to have learnt how to move the water in other life forms through bending the water out of the trees. In the next case, she just kept the water inside its life form before bending it
@@danielcingari5407 There's also the fact she's pulled water out of peoples lungs before after they've almost drowned to death. So with that she already had a bit of knowledge of bending water in people's bodies, the trees were just to help find those smaller bits
Plus she has been trained in medical waterbending which probably hits on similar principles, so she likely has a leg up on practical application once she knows the possibility exists.
I like to believe when Katara says she she’s stronger she means technique wise, especially in that one shot where instead of redirecting the water she stands strong and blocks it like how you would normally see an earthbender do
I could see how constantly hanging out around the avatar, seeing every form of bending there is, being useful in developing your own form of bending in unique ways.
Exactly, I never viewed it as some arbitrary "power level" situation. She just knows what she's doing, and can control her element far better than Hama can. Being able to overcome another water-bender's grip on her just comes down to finer mastery and control. Even if Katara wasn't directly taught the technique, it was explained to her, and being a powerful water bender she could likely feel the grip Hama had on her. After a few moments, she was able to override, and overcome it. This is likely how she was able to take up the technique so quickly her self, to save Aang and Sokka.
She was taught by one of the best waterbenders in the world, have basically as much fighting experience, have fought against another waterbender (Something I would assume Hama probably didn't do much throughout her youth), is currently training the avatar, have the healing ability and is overall just one of the strongest waterbenders in world. It isn't too suprising she would be able to somewhat quickly do what Hama is doing when seeing her technique. I mean I am pretty sure the whole "pull water out of the flowers/trees" is partly training to control water she can't see inside the body of someone.
If I had a penny for every episode of this show where the Gaang is taken in by some mysterious stranger they met in the wood, who Katara trusts but Sokka is immediately suspicious of, and Sokka is eventually proven right after said stranger exploits Katara's waterbending for nefarious deeds, I'd have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's strange it's happened twice.
"Congratulations, Katara, you're a bloodbender" I actually do really love that Hama openly outs Katara in front of a group of Fire nation civlians and they don't react to it. For them, I'd say those citizens let Katara off the hook becuase they just wanted the nightmare to be over. Its subtle but it makes for great head canon.
A more probable explanation is that bloodbending was still unheard of and that it sounded as nonsense to the civilians. They had no way to tell she was a waterbender. And of course, many Fire Nation citizens did not approve of the national xenophobia and they probably would have had no problem with their saviors being from the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe or Air Nomads anyway. Some must have been locked in there for years or even decades.
TBF even if they did know what it means and believed her, and weren't grateful to the gaang for saving them, they should know better than to fuck with a bloodbender.
I once heard that Katara blocking Hama's water and it making a big splash was from her taking an Earthbender stance, which shows that it isn't just Aang learning multiple elements.
I kind of don't like that interpretation that much because it seems pretty simplistic to me when every block is seen as an earthbending move. But I like that it's somewhat open to interpretation
@@androkguz a direct block is somewhat an earthbender move. Water is about reflecting, air about dodging and fire… to challenge it? Dunno about the fire style tbh
@@danielsnoopeh1807 I think fire would either be dissipation or matching and overwhelming. we have seen both from fire benders when it comes to blocking.
I've heard a lot of criticism about the ending of this episode, specifically that Katara learns bloodbending unrealistically fast. It's certainly not the strongest scene that the show has ever produced, but I thought that it worked, and actually fits reasonably well into the narrative. Here's why: I think that her picking up bloodbending so quickly is not intended to be reflective of Katara's skill/talent/work ethic as a bender (which are admittedly significant in their own right), but rather demonstrates an ability gained through a change in perspective. Take Toph and metalbending for example - she's never shown practicing or really trying to metalbend for the majority of her first half on the show, mostly due to a preexisting dogma that it "isn't possible". But she is basically able to do it right away when she broadens her perspective, and starts to think about/concentrate on the fundamentals of the bending itself - that there is still earth contained within metal, and that that earth can still be bent. And with this perspective in mind (alongside an impetus to learn it in the form of being in a metal cage), she is able to metalbend. I would argue that she learns it basically as quickly as Katara does (a small portion of screentime at the end of the episode), but nobody I saw every really complained about it. // (On a side note, I think that people don't complain about Toph learning metalbending too quickly is that people just like her more and she's set up more as a "prodigy" than Katara is, but that's a different story). Going back to Katara though, I think that the same general principle applies. She was never lacking in skill/talent to do bloodbending, but until this point she had never been opened up to the perspective that it was possible. Then, in the setting of her fight with Hama, she was presented with the same factors as Toph - perspective and impetus. When she learned of the possibility of bloodbending, she was able to do it, because she needed to do it in order to save her friends. And narratively, I feel like this fits with the fluid nature of bending as not simply a fighting technique, but a mental/spiritual practice as well, wherein the limitations of the practice of bending are more often related to what is not known about it.
My thought was always that the change in perspective required for bloodbending was the realization of the water within all life, explained directly by Hama, in addition to the acceptance of life as a suitable subject for bending. Basically the inherently distasteful idea of overriding the free will of another would make it so that even with perspective, significantly more desperation would be needed to attempt it. Blood-bending is a tool of survival, seeing life as a tool comes out of necessity, Hama threatened Katara and the Gaang specifically to create a situation where the only possibility of survival was to do something truly unpleasant, similar to her imprisonment .
Yeah to me not only the impetus to save her friends, but when Hama bloodbent Katara and she 'fought' back, she probably already had to learn 'how' to bloodbend to stop from happening to herself, so she probably learned at that moment 'how' to do it too.
Also people weren't paying attention to power scaling from book 2 & the earlier episodes of book 3. We saw that she can easily walk/run on water, capsize watercrafts, create her technique of bending, & so on. People ignored all that. Yet Zuko redirecting that much lightning on first try is an easier concept to digest.
I was literally about to comment something similar, as I always found the scene to be not as crazy as my friends thought, but you literally just commented exactly my thoughts and more. I completely agree, awesome ideas my man.
Sokka's scream at the end of his ghost story is still one of my favourite jokes in the show and I have no idea why it's not amazing or anything I just find it hilarious
Ikr, made me sad because that moment really hit me. Like she was full of adrenaline and the idea of what she just did just dawned on her. And Sokka and Aang just silently comforting her is great too.
Idk, I never really bought that breakdown. She did what she needed to do in order to save sokka and aang. Realistically, she's done a lot worse things that she should be feeling bad for, not causing pain to an old lady and preventing her from murdering two people she loves like LOL this breakdown almost seems like a "oh my god i saved sokka and aang, i should have never done that" moment and i've hated that because katara didn't kill anyone. she just merely incapacitated someone, and only temporarily at that.
@@growingoaks it was more of a moral standpoint, I always understood it as something she was very against, and having to do it went against what she believes in.
Lol fwiw for anyone curious she doesn't actually reveal it there. She says "it is too painful still to talk about" or something to that effect. So the actual reveal is way later, yes.
When Hama killed all those Fire Lily's, I always took it as an allegory. One where the flowers represent innocent fire nation citizens that she is apathetic towards killing to "survive" as she puts it. Maybe I'm reading too far into it, but if they meant to do that, then I think its cool.
@@GameyRaccoon While you're technically right, the differences between the two can be so negligible that they are often interchanged. Keep in mind that most writers only differentiate them by length. Such as a metaphor being a passing phrase, and an allegory as a longer narrative or a picture. It's important to remember they are so closely related, that the line can blur, and this situation can thus be considered a short allegory. "An allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance." In other words, the flowers (visual representation) being killed by Hama (an event) has a dark subtext (moral significance).
It’s probably common head cannon that the moon is full so often because Yuei knows that the fuller the moon is, the stronger water bending is, and she wants to assist the people of her tribe by granting them strength.
@@snally6111 Thats why its called head cannon lol. I really like the idea that Yuei wants to help water benders and maybe even katana and aang specifically
Honestly, at the end of this series you should host a huge Kahoot with random trivia questions that even some hardcore avatar fans would have trouble with
Momo can pick up on social cues, that's something tons of animals do.. if everyone else is scared, he gets scared. This is a great episode with lots of well thought out logic, but it's also the episode where, both in the present and in backstory, _ludicrous_ measures are taken to keep prisoners in a situation where, realistically, they would be executed. but can't because Nickelodeon.
Ikr. In war prisoners are taken for two and ONLY two reasons either as bargaining chips during negotiations and so that surrender is seen as a viable option compared to fighting to the death. A war of extermination like the one waged by the southern raiders would never take prisoners
This one actually has an explanation! The fire nation raided the water tribes because they thought the avatar was located there, not knowing aang survived. Killing the avatar would have them be reborn in the earth kingdom, which they couldn't figure out how to conquer yet. So they kept the benders alive to neutralize the potential avatar threat.
Well I once heard a theory that the reason they were doing that originally was because the next Avatar would be born into the Water Tribes, one of the reasons for the raids. That's why the kept them alive - if they accidentally killed the Avatar, who may not realize that they're the Avatar, then the cycle would just continue. (But decided later on to kill them anyway, because of Hama showing them that waterbenders had ways of being dangerous even without direct access to water and it wasn't worth the risk, which is why Katara's mother was killed after all that instead of imprisoned) Which admittedly is a theory with holes in it too, but not impossible.
Idk man, this show has never been shy about fire nation killing people. A few examples: -We KNOW Sozin straight up commited genocie by killing all airbenders, we even see Gyatso's skeleton, which is crazy for a kid's show. -We see the raiders of the south attacking the south pole, and the guy who kills Kya says "I'm not taking prisoners today" implying he kills her. Kya also says "take me as your prisoner". She expects to be taken because she knows other benders who have been taken. -In the episode "The avatar state" the earth nation commander (can't remember his name) points to wounded soldiers and says "this are the lucky ones", impying there's a lot of death happening in the battlefield. I see your point, but I don't think that's Nickelodeon censoring, as they made clear that the fire nation IS killing innocent people. In a war, a side may have their reasons to keep prisoners, getting intel for example: Kya's murederer tells her "My sources tell me there's one more water bender". That source was probably a waterbender they were torturing.
I think Katara learning blood bending pretty immediately isn't actually detracting from her. I think Katara, in all rights, is a water bending master by this point. She's diligent in practicing, and she's a fast learner. Also Hama I feel like has been teaching her all the little things she needed to know to get it. "There's water in all things, you can control that, watch me do it to these flowers. Now you try." And having Hama use blood bending on her, she sees the moves.
I love that katara uses an earthbending stance to block against hama, you see how much it unnerves hama. Aang isnt the only one picking up techniques from different bending styles. Great video once again
Honestly, i felt like the move Katara makes when knocking Hama off her feet by using the water from the air around her looks alot like earthbending too. Waterbending is known for using open hands that make these wave moves, but in that clip she actually uses fists, somthing that is more common in earth and firebending.
The"Aang isnt the only one picking up techniques from different bending styles" part, isnt really surprising since in Bitter Work Iroh and Zuko are using techniques from Waterbending
Makes sense why Katara would employ other bending styles in the fight. Hama not only knew a waterbending style completely foreign to Katara, but Hama was also skilled enough to be the last waterbender to be caught by the Fire Nation raids and the only one to escape because she invented a brand new bending style. If Katara fought with waterbending technique alone, she may not have won. So, throwing in other bending styles that Hama is clueless about is smart move on Katara's part.
You should have talked about the ending! always creeped me out how Katara cries and Hama laughs after she accomplish her goal, to pass bloodbending to another master.
Right it’s like star wars where the emperor doesn’t care if he’s struck down cause he knows the act of hatred required to do so will just create another sith
What I find interesting is that nobody that is taking her away pays any attention to what she is saying, like, “hey guess what! There’s not just one of me over here guys! She’s right there I just looked at her and called her by name! And she’s a bloodbender! Surely I don’t need a long explanation to show you how that works to allow you to understand that I was bending your bodies the whole time! With my very obvious and revealing staement you can take me away and let her cry about it!”
@@atsukana1704 This may sound callous, cynical, rude, but Katara got what she deserved from Hama for daring to tell her what is and is not possible, not realizing that the Hama will not listen to her. Katara takes on too much, not realizing that she shouldn’t do it, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. She's dumber than she looks if she thinks everyone will listen to her. If she was told that this is not happen, then it not happen. And don't care what she thinks about it. Katara is an impudent girl who decided that everyone owes her, but in fact this is not true - the world does not owe her anything. She doesn’t understand that if you tell people what they can and can’t do, especially Hama, they won’t listen to you and even kill you. For her unwillingness to understand this, Katara was rightly punished. But unlike Katara, I understand that you shouldn’t take on too much, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. I understand that the world doesn't owe me anything, I have humility. Therefore, I urge those who take on a lot - DON’T DO THIS, IT WILL NOT BRING TO GOOD, BUT WILL BRING TROUBLES AND MISFORTUNES!!!!
I also love the detail of all Hamas techniques before blood bending looking very violent. Like she pulls the water out of the air and that's really cool, but then she turns it into sharp claws made of ice. And then she pulls water out of the flowers and immediately slices a rock into chunks.
I never realised this, but just like how everyone had a life changing trip with Zuko this season, everyone also had a significant tutor/upgrade in skill this season. And Toph misses out on both...
You're wrong on the significant tutor thing. Its just that her tutors weren't teaching her bending or fighting; which she is already at her peak when we meet her, and then breaks her own limits again developing metalbending. She was always stubbornly independent, and it was in this season that she finally accepted help and was able to acknowledge others.
@@maca39 Kinda yeah, when Zuko lost his hatred drive he relearned fire bending and got a lot stronger because it came from the source instead of just hatred, sure he didn't get an significant upgrade like metal bending or blood bending, but his fire bending went up by a lot after learning it from the dragons.
The “my bending is more powerful than yours” moment makes sense in that Katara is bending her own blood to resist Hama, and in a way immediately learning how blood bending works, so her using it a moment later checks out.
Personally I didn't find someone being a more powerful bender weird. I did take it to mean that Katara can move more water, further away and faster. The idea that bending can be more or less powerful is already at the center of some very important plotpoints for the episode and the entire show- Sozin's comet, The Eclipse, and Blood bending only being possible during the full moon. You could change the line to "I'm a better bender than you are", but then the viewer questions if Katara is better why did she spend the entire episode learning from Hama? I think the line gets across well that even though Katara isn't necessarily the more creative, knowledgeable or clever bender in every situation, Hama can't beat her with brute force. The reason for that power discrepancy under the same conditions *is* likely skill, practice and mentality, but at this point well into the show I prefer trusting the viewer to infer that from previous episodes than having Katara deliver an expository monologue.
I feel like Katara getting blood bending came when she learned how to take the water out of the plants. It's about being able to control the water within a living object so it makes sense to me.
I also think that she somewhat got the hang of it because she was being blood-bent by Hama, so she had somewhat of a tutorial in that as well. Lastly, I think she might have been already bloodbending her own body to some extent to resist Hamas control, which then led to her having some experience with it when she took control of Hama.
@@matthewgallaway3675 I don't think that's really any relevance. That's bending water out of a tube, not squeezing the water out of something like a sponge.
I always wrote off the moment she just “picked up” as ok because it was unlocked by an intense rush of emotions. We’ve seen other moments in the show where high emotions results in more intense or powerful bending-although more reckless too.
Yeah and I think it's not so much her "suddenly learning the technique" but more so using the water bending skills she already has (amplified by the Moon) and simply applying them elsewhere. Like Hama said, it's all about just "keeping an open mind." The water in one's body is just as much water as from anywhere else. Knowledge of this fact alone may be enough for a skilled water bender to just apply the techniques they already know onto a person by simply visualizing them as a giant sack of water. Obviously Hama is much more refined in the practice as she assumes a "puppet master" stance as though she's even using her individual fingers to control specific parts of the body, while Katara assumes a more standard stance. But that doesn't stop her from doing it at all.
It's sort of like the thing that keeps you from stabbing yourself or the nearest person when you're holding a very sharp knife, but can very easily cut through a carrot or a tough steak. It's not that it's *hard,* it's just that you have been conditioned to not think about it that way your whole life. I mean, bloodbending is also probably also really hard, but it's the two things together that make it so uncommon.
i mean thats basically the whole point of bitter work, aang being forced to confront the saber tooth moose lion in a do or die situation "unlocked" earthbending, critical moments of inspiration or decision making when you're thinking isnt necessarily an asspull as much as a tipping point, an "aha!" moment, yknow? and bloodbending isnt nearly so far removed as earth was from an airbender's approach
2:03 I like to think Hamma only snuck up BECAUSE Toph could hear screaming. If I heard people screaming underground in the middle of the woods i'd be a little distracted too. She probably still should've noticed but it always at least made sense.
The bending move Katara uses to block Hama's attack is actually more like earthbending (hold your ground) than like waterbending (redirect). I really like that in such moments the writers apply the 'combining bending techniques make for better bending' philosophy that Iroh mentioned earlier with Zuko and lightning bending!
I do like the idea of Katara watching Toph training Aang and thinking about how to adapt earthbending technique to waterbending (and doing something similar with using a water version of the Breath of Fire trick that Zuko presumably taught Aang to melt the ice that she'd frozen herself and Azula in in the finale). Once Aang was up to master level in waterbending and was more focused on learning the other two elements, she probably had a fair bit of free time on her hands, and she strikes me as someone always ready to learn more.
A person could also argue that she probably would have been a lot more concerned about people trapped and screaming under a mountain, something that is definitely NOT normal, than an approaching old woman, something that is at least relatively normal, even in the woods.
Or maybe she was just plaing along the spirit of spooky stories night and decided to not react since she could tell if old lady is a threat or not. ....or not.
11:26 My interpretation of that line was just that Hama was a frail old woman in comparison to Katara. Nothing to do with power levels or anything crazy like that.
I really LOVE the fact that not only does it make sense story-wise to wait with teaching Katara these skills but it also makes sense lore-wise. Why would the people in the watery, snowy, constantly surrounded by water in all its forms area even begin to wonder if they could potentially learn how to take water out of plants/the air. They would have no need for it since they always have so much water around them so that thought probably didn't even cross their mind. We see swamp benders ofcourse bend the vines but they live in an area where the plants are so full over water that it makes sense that they would have figured it out after a while but I honestly don't remember if they all do it or if it is only the guru kinda dude that does it...and he mostly seems to have done it in order to scare the ever living shit out of potentially harmful people. Katara had no real reason to learn it from her master and didn't have the time to even think about being taught by the swamp benders but now she have been in a few situations where water isn't constantly at her disposal so ofcourse she would begin to think about it by now.
Good points! Also, the air in arctic and antarctic climes is super dry (Antarctica is technically a desert, for example), so scrounging for water in that way would never be very fruitful around the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.
Kinda an unrelated comment but waterbenders are extremely terrifying because your entire body is 70% water that includes your skin blood veins just about everything in your natural body and they can also kill you in surprisingly terrifying ways as well
@@acat6145 Yeah. IF they can bend your body. Which most of them can't, unless it's a full moon and even then mlst of them have no knowledge of any techniques related to this.
Something I like is how it can be concluded that it's because of Hama that the Fire Nation stopped taking Waterbenders alive and started killing them, meaning that Bloodbending scared them, which no shit it scared them, but also ended up getting Kya killed since she claimed she was the Waterbender, getting her killed. All that to say that Hama is the main reason for Kya's death.
The Firenation is the main reason she got killed. You can't blame a victims demise entirely on the actions of another victim, when they wouldn't be cought in that situation without an agressor.
Saying that Hama is the main reason Kya died kinda ignores the agency the entire Fire Nation had in the conflict. But yes, Hama is a link in the chain of causality that led where we are in the story at the beginning, and thats nice.
@@hadarc01 I don't think it's not a reason though. Like it's just a fun idea to think well why did the fire nation kill water benders now what changed, Hama made it change and honestly that's just a cool theory.
Hey, did anyone notice that Hamma only appeared to the group (peacefully I might add) after Katara's "True southern water tribe" story about "Mom"? Hamma mentions in the very next scene that the group should've been careful, since people have been disappearing in those woods, and we know from hindsight that those are her hunting grounds. But even though they're wearing Fire Nation clothes and the moon is almost completely full, she probably could've bloodbent them if she needed to, but as she listened, she realized she needed to meet them. I never noticed that before this watchthrough of Overanalyzing Avatar, honestly, not even the series itself, because there's at least a minute of pause between the scenes where they appear on screen.
My head canon about the “my bending is more powerful than yours” nonsense is that katara has subconsciously done what Zuko learned from iroh - to take wisdom from different bending styles. In this instance specifically the stubbornness of earth bending, we see that with her character and interactions with toph at first she was very much like water, being diplomatic and such but she learns to stand her ground more.
I don't think it's nonsense though? If bending was simply a matter of discipline, then why is Azula the only character that can bend blue flames? Raw talent is a thing that has always been applicable to bending. Katara's control over water is stronger than Hama, and so she can overpower Hama's influence on her blood when she figures out the basis for the technique: bending the water inside something.
@@Birthday888 which is why I think it has to do with her learning about the mindset of earth bending by being there during aangs training and having it influence her bending. I like to think of it as more nuanced than simple power scaling, a lot of the moves katara uses in the fight have her more rooted in the ground than usual and when she directly blocked one of hama’s attacks seemed more like an earth bender move to me. I mostly referred to it as nonsense to reflect how my guy was voicing his opinion on it in the video
About katara getting bloodbending immediately: It might just be that she needed to hear that it could be done. She has been bending water mixed with other components, like soup, for a while. Additionally she’s been shown to bend water which she cant see but only knows she’s there, such as in a water pouch. In essence bloodbending is no different than doing these two things. I guess the hardest part of bloodbending would be doing it for an extended period of time without seriously harming the internal organs/interfering with the circulation of blood. If while bending hama she does not care about this, she could theoretically bloodbend in a very rough and unrefined way.
@@Birthday888 And the second time we see her bloodbending, it's not a complicated maneuver either, just forcing the commander of the Southern Raiders to his knees. We don't see anything close to the sophisticated maneuvers Hama is shown using.
except blood bending isn't "bending water with stuff in it" it's a whole different form of bending. in fact it's been specifically stated that it's such a rare variant of bending, that no amount of lessons can teach it to someone who isn't a born blood bender, unlike other bendings like metal, lightning, or healing that can be taught to almost anyone with enough lessons.
I think that healing should be brought up when discussing how quickly Katara learns blood bending. He mentioned in the video that Katara’s speed at learning water bending is based on hard work, which is true for fighting, but she intuitively picks up healing almost instantly. It is never mentioned if Hama can heal or not but I wonder if Katara has a better understanding of the human body.
One key thing to note is that when Katara was a beginner Waterbender, she was able to bend water out of Aang when he swam with the Unagi in "The Warriors of Kyoshi" episode. Also considering the mindset of what Hama was teaching Katara such as there's water in places you wouldn't expect, it adds more to how Katara was able to Bloodbend without doing it before she had to use it on Hama.
The other thing is that Katara wasn’t bloodbending anywhere near what Hama was doing, and doesn’t in the other bloodbending episode either. Hama can move people like puppets on strings, having them draw swords, walk great distances and open locks. Katara can just grab people and force them down a little. It’s like Aang’s early fire bending vs Zuko’s, she can “do” it, but she hasn’t “learned” it
I swear ever since Katara used bloodbending on that southern raider, the thought of her claiming revenge always scared me. She was basically stronger than Aang without the avatar state. Imagine if she became an actual killer.
Hama says she can only do it during the full moon, but clearly Katara is much better then her in physical attributes of bending, it's doubtful that she could Bloodbend anytime she wanted to, but she can probably do it at night. Amon and the other Bloodbenders were the extreme prodigies of their time.
@@madrigal1213 also. She used her hands to feel as opposed to her feet. Maybe her feet would be much more aware of acute sensations, while feet give a larger spectrum of feeling. Actually, considering that they are resting by a fire, using her feet to 'see' might be tiring and she's just balancing with her hands and accidentally felt something she wasn't expecting.
Honestly I don't mind that Katara picks up bloodbending quick. At this moment she was already a waterbending master and had more of a 'feel' for water than some other waterbenders. so Doing bloodbending (though not very precise) would make sense for her to do. Also she had experience with healing magic, which would most likely have a similar touch as bloodbending
Actually I would think Katara being emotionally unstable would have an opposite effect in this case. Using the water in a person's body to control them seems like a task that would require years of practice and still a huge amount of focus and probably literal surgical precision. Maybe a desperate Katara would be able to overpower Hama but it would likely result in the old woman getting ripped apart.
@@eddiereuger9402 I mean it depends on the person and the exact response they have but in some cases strong emotions can lead to a sort of focussed state
something i love about bloodbending is that when people normally waterbend its flowing, free and majestic but with bloodbending its rigid, clunky and crude things like this is why i love this show you could potentially never notice things like this
I feel like Katara in particular has taken significant amounts of efforts to bend in unusual fashions. In particular, the concept of bending unseen water is onw she has had for a while, which she had to learn all the way in book one, to follow through with Jet's plan to cause the geyser's to flow. She has bent many forms of very impure water, including that of the drill's outflow and yes, the river of the Painted Lady episode. She's been heavily tested in terms of unusually specific liquids and unusual actions. It's definitely not handled well in terms of "I know kung fu", but it's certainly not a stretch to see her first understand blood bending enough to overpower Hama's influence on her blood leads to then bending Hama. Change what's said and I think it would work.
This is just how I understood it but I also felt like when she broke out of hamas grasp she was using blood bending to control her own blood and break the grip Hama had on her. When she says “my bending is more powerful than yours” I saw it as her saying exactly what she meant. She has a more powerful control over the water so she can break out of the grip. This also makes it make sense how she blood bends Hama a little later. Her control over the water (blood in this case) is stronger so she can blood bend Hama. It’s not her first time blood bending on Hama too because she used blood bending to control her own blood and break from hamas grip. This is just how I like to think about it but if you do think of it like this both of those moments make sense and play out just as amazing as the rest of the episode
I feel that Katara being wildly naturally talented is well-telegraphed throughout the show. The way her bending can far surpass its usual strength when she is extremely angry or upset is shown from episode 1.
And the boost from the moon. And practicing on other living things (plants). Although, Hama should have started with small animals and Katara being forced to pick it up to save the little animal's life or something.
you should have mentioned the part at the end when Hamma said to Katara "you're a bloodbender now" and Katara starts crying, realizing she is changed by this ability, and will never be the same again. its both very creepy and it makes Hamma impactful even though she was defeated. I really liked it.
@@Newt2799 This may sound callous, cynical, rude, but Katara got what she deserved from Hama for daring to tell her what is and is not possible, not realizing that the Hama will not listen to her. Katara takes on too much, not realizing that she shouldn’t do it, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. She's dumber than she looks if she thinks everyone will listen to her. If she was told that this is not happen, then it not happen. And don't care what she thinks about it. Katara is an impudent girl who decided that everyone owes her, but in fact this is not true - the world does not owe her anything. She doesn’t understand that if you tell people what they can and can’t do, especially Hama, they won’t listen to you and even kill you. For her unwillingness to understand this, Katara was rightly punished. But unlike Katara, I understand that you shouldn’t take on too much, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. I understand that the world doesn't owe me anything, I have humility. Therefore, I urge those who take on a lot - DON’T DO THIS, IT WILL NOT BRING TO GOOD, BUT WILL BRING TROUBLES AND MISFORTUNES!!!!
I don't like how when Toph is like "people screaming underground", they don't immediately snap into action. When the screams suddenly stop and Hama shows up, they're just like "what were we just talking about?"
@@assordante2205 If my friend started telling me there were screams coming from under ground, my first thought would be "Yeah, okay, sure buddy" or "you're just hearing things". Not "shit, you're right, let's go underground and check *immediately*"
@@PlayerZeroStart But like what about toph herself? Also the Gaang has been through enough shit to at least warrant trusting toph enough to check it out after the initial "You are definitely not being funny right there's actually screaming" period, they had like 2 days to do so
It always baffled me that Hama remained in the fire nation. It took her a while to get out of prison obviously, but staying behind enemy lines just for revenge is interesting. Some interesting old people in this show.
I think it just plays into the overarching narrative that the heroes of the story are all children (which makes sense, it's a kids show) but the kids are the ones not yet scarred by years of war and generations of adults being lost to it. The kids still pay a price by losing their innocence and childhood, but the narrative sets up a very believable sense that these kids are literally the best hope for the world. Contrast that with something like Harry Potter, where the kids have to be the heroes for plot reasons and the adults are conveniently out of the picture due to some contrivance. Like Hermione is the ONLY person to figure out the monster in Book 2 is a Basilisk or that Lupin is a werewolf when there are hundreds of others that could have made those connections with the exact same access to information and abilities. The audience has to roll their eyes and make excuses that aren't supported by the narrative. Avatar sets up Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko as believable heroes without ignoring the roles the adults have to play. The adults aren't the main characters for believable reasons all carefully laid out in the narrative.
I feel like there wouldn't be many vessels making their way to the Water Tribes that weren't military vessels, and anyone trying to travel to the Water Tribes would be very suspicious behaviour
Actually, it is revealed in the upcoming boarding game, Avatar: Legends, that when Zuko became Fire Lord, he freed all prisoners in the Fire Nation that are from other nations, specifically Hama, it said that bcause of her bloodbending abilities, she was banished to Wolf’s Cove ( Southern Water Tribe’s Capital City ) to live there and never exit the city. So APPARENTLY Hama got a good ending, she came back to her home just recovering from the Fire Nation raids, and maybe she finally met Kanna again
She was told that the swt was destroyed. From fire nation propaganda. After years of torture and seeing her friends die too. She was stuck and the ptsd made her look for revenge since she had nothing else.
@@nyetloki it wasn’t destroyed, but the waterbending lineage was almost extinct, i assume It started to go on again by Siku and Sura, since Kya, Kataras only waterbending child, doesn’t have a child and is lesbian, all other waterbenders in the south come from the Northern tribe
In my opinion, Katara saying her bending was "more powerful" just comes across as her bending being better, which tracks with what we've seen. I get his point about the writing, but I saw this as a confirmation of her training and instincts rather than something that discredits her work ethic. Also people can do amazing feats in moments of extreme need. That's real life cannon.
@@somethingsomethingelse7706 But this is a waterbender actively blood bending another waterbender. Doesn't make sense to me that bloodbending just stops working.
@@ghostderazgriz Fair point, to me Katara saying her bending was "more powerful" implied that she could exert control of her own blood more than Hama could. In this way, she was on her way to learning blood bending when she stood up and resisted. Outside the avatar state, we've only seen waterbenders can resist this ability so it tracks. Also with this interpretation, Katara using bloodbending so quickly makes mores sense too
I absolutely love how Sokka's VA hits the same note as the BGM at 0:53. I am deeply curious as to whether it was intentional on someone's part or a happy little accident.
So funny story: Today is a full moon, and when I looked up at it I thought ‘oh look, it’s the stupid full moon again! It’s always there!’ Then a split second later I realized that it’s natural and not a flaw from any writers. Haha I watch these shows too much! These are great! Keep up the good work! 👍
Katana blocking the water instead of earth bending is very “earth bender.” The dynamic styles of the gaang is a massive part of what makes them so powerful
I feel like the “more powerful” was her strength of will. Possession is usually a battle of willpower. How hard can you fight before giving in? It’s a little twisted and scary. Bloodbending between Hama and Katara reminds me somewhat of the scene in which Aang takes the firelord’s bending. I believe they were both a battle of inner strength, a battle of souls as they are in this universe, their essential forms. I also believe the “power” of their bending derives from this inner strength, and Katara won out in that moment.
I agree! It wasn’t “I’m inherently more powerful than you are” it was “who I am is stronger than who you are” Katara has always had such a strong sense of herself and her values, so I find the line fitting.
It could also just be a tug of war scenario where if 2 benders are bending the same thing the one with the most strength wins out or whatever, bending still needs exertion and effort, Toph struggled holding up the library, she didn’t effortlessly bend it back up. While it may seem ridiculous there is precedent that bending has physical elements to it as well as spiritual
I kind of see it as since katara is younger she's "stronger" Of course someone in their prime is going to be stronger than someone in there 60s-80s unless your like iroh who's still actively training himself I don't really get that with hama she got to a certain point and just maintained it rather than trying to make herself better None of that probably made any sense
The mention at the beginning of Momo reacting to human speech is explained by the fact that he has above average ear size, and likely hearing, so he probably heard the screaming for himself. This also explains why he was the first to notice Azula’s convoy in The Chase.
This episode is wonderfully shot, Hama looks so menacing with the moon in the background. It’s also sad that she draws energy from the moon to do horrible things.
I think Katara picking up bloodbending so quick is directly due to her hard work and mastery of her element. Once you gain a high enough mastery in a skill it becomes much easier to pick up skills in a similar discipline. Like if you're a master clarinet player it's much easier to pick up sax than a beginner would.
When you think about healing and bloodbending are two sides of the same coin. Both deal with the body but operate differently, and Katara is deemed a master healer. I think her getting bloodbending quickly makes sense
This episode whips! I also like how Katara had to bend water from the environment against Hama even though she was initially hesitant on the concept. When push comes to shove, she is willing to break personal codes to get the job DONE. And then feels the emotional reprocussions after.
It also explains why she will steal without the slightest hint of remorse, but only if there aren't alternatives. And then get upset if the others do it outside of the situation of pure necessity.
I always just interpreted "more powerful" as just being better, in both technique and practice. Hama is a mostly self taught bender, the resourcefulness she gained to survive taught her some tricks that many other water benders may not know but Katara is a master of the art and has a lot more experience bending in fights. I always assumed that Katara figured out the general premise of bloodbending when fighting against Hama's grip on her, since it was her own blood she had more minute and easier control and since she knew the basics she could apply it to Hama drawing on her experience and intuition to figure it out. She could do all this because she's a master, her bending is stronger so applying existing skills in a new way will come more naturally. Sorry for the ramble just some thoughts I had on the finale.
I always thought that when Katara said her bending was more powerful than Hamma's she had already learned Blood Bending, just didn't wanna use it. By the time she actually did, she didn't even notice she did. She did it out of instinct to protect Sokka and Aang. Das just my personal view ig
I don’t really like that explanation. I feel like it should’ve been more widely known in that case. After 100 years of war you would expect some fire nation soldiers to experience people using blood bending. I always liked the concept that Hama discovered the ability in prison and spent years honing her ability
I mean, Hama was already prepping her for blood bending by expanding Katara's view on what constitutes "bendable water". First by bending water she can't see, and then extracting water from within living things. The next logical step is to bend the water within living things. Like how Toph immediately starts bending metal the moment she realizes it contains earth impurities inside. Also, all of the gang are prodigies, including Katara even if she isn't as overtly referenced as much as Aang and Toph.
I’ve always seen it as Katara’s bending being from her being younger and not as worn out. I’ve also always though that she was “ressisting” bloodbending by blood bending her self after her own will as a counter. This would have given her practice in blood vending ahead of that final moment
Just tried to explain to myself, that maybe the Avatar-Earth moon might have some weird orbital mechanics and that's why it's full most of the time. Well apparently that is not the case.
It is odd, given the otherwise exceptional attention-to-detail, that they don't have the moon pass through phases from episode to episode -- maybe have it be a crescent for a few episodes, then a quarter moon, then a gibbous, being full for one night and then going back through gibbous, quarter, and crescent to the night of the new moon. Or even just have it default to crescent instead of full.
I have a few points which could be overanalized. - Since Toph is a living lying detector she could've detected that there was something wrong with the things that Hama was saying - Aang's hair has grown really long to the point at which it falls a little over the head band (probably already mentioned in earlier episodes) - why doesn't Toph open the first door to the attic with her arm ring ? - why didn't Toph tell the group about Hama being in the House when they were breaking into the attic - at 6:41 who's that guy on the left dancing on that mountain, that looks hilarious I've just watched the Episode up to 6:45 so these are my points until now, perhaps I'll edit this once there's more points that fall into my line of sight
I do love the emotional turmoil Katara goes through when she sees someone using Water Bending so vilely, specially someone from her own tribe, when she never met any other Southern water bender
I like to think Katara nailing it was more of a "In the moment" kind of deal rather than her just perfecting it. Similar to parents being able to lift cars if their children are in danger
0:59 man door hand sword car door. I cant believe no one in the comments caught this super deep cut joke. I couldnt stop laughing for like 5 minutes. Well played!
This is the first episode where I've truly noticed the difference in the quality of animation from season one to season three. There were so many parts where he went back and forth between the two (especially when showing Hama's capture and the similarities to Aang's). It totally showed and gave me new perspective.
Hahahah idk this is gold I actually laughed when you edit “HOW DID YOU ESCAPE?” *”blood bending”* This episode is dope as hell too It gets over noticeable but a lot of the humor on this episode is real good, the animation in general is well as too, how big Hamma’s house is shown really well, how they enter the house and than search for like a minutes to find the puppets and than the hairbrush. And how funny the animation jokes can be, Angg’s reaction to the soup, Toph’s 0 reaction to her scaring the group when they find the hairbrush.
I think the reason katara was able to bloodbend so fast was because she could feel the technique being used on herself and she understood it due to her own anger and hatred since thats where this technique draws its power (nice parallel to shooting lightning since that requires complete peace of mind) since she had so much bottled up anger and anger toward hama she was able to blood bend herself free and bloodbend hama
I don't think it's actually bad that Katara just "gets" bloodbending. Throughout the entire episode we see her getting taught and mastering it's operating principle: living things got water in 'em, therefore they can be bent. So when the full moon hits she realizes it can be used on people. Therefore, her bloodbending is actually just her overcoming a mental block to use those principles on people instead of plants.
Also also I think the reason she said “I’m much more powerful than you” was just a way for her to regain control of her body by having a massive confidence boost when the adrenaline kicked in.
I always felt like Katara getting bloodbending immediately is executed quite well, actually. It's clearly very crude - she interrupts what Hama is doing, and then pulls her down to the ground. That's about it.
and it's clear that Katara is a really skilled water bender. She already has good habits and techniques so it's kind of just like adding another component.
Yeah, I think it was just an awkward line more than what was reall happening. Keep some common sentiments in mind that is consistent throughout ATLA and Korra: - it is generally harder to bend something the farther away it is. And the dropoff is drastic, not just linear - under that principle, it is generally much harder to bend an element around another bender of that element. That's why you may see stuff like sinkholes used by earthbenders, but never on another earthbender. - This of course can be negated if the other bender is off guard or otherwise focused. - lastly, bending's power, like any other martial art, is tied to your physical stamina in addition to Chi (something we sadly have little explanation about in the univverse, so it's mostly stamina) So with this in mind: - It is very hard to bloodbend another water bender once they understtand what is happening. Even if Katara is a lot weaker (she isn't by this point) it would be easy for her to break out once she listened to the flow of her own body (yes, Amon really throws this for a loop, but we can all agree Amon was crazy OP, even among all the other crazy OP enemies Korra had) - obvious bush but: Hama is old, and hasn't had the best life. She is physically much weaker, and that can cap her potential with bending. her full moon boost is shared by Katara, so that doesn't matter. - Lastly, the moment she learned Bloodbending was a very careful moment: Hama was already bloodbending, so all her concentration was on manipulating Aang/Sokka. She was about as off guard as she could be without being unconcious. So Katara didn't have to do AS much as normal to bloodbend a person. - I also always had a small theory that Hama wanted Katara to stop her, the ultimate fight or flight test. Her main goal this whole episode was to spread the tecnhiques of the southern water tribe, and she ultimately succeeded. She was old but her legacy would live on as he knowledge inevitably spread, and Katara would inevitably use it as a new tool in her arsenal.
10:46 my favorite thing about this moment is that even if you’ve already put together what’s happening (pretty likely), giving it a chilling name like ‘bloodbending’ and even more so just hamas bone-chilling delivery makes the reveal hit HARD ooooof
I always felt like this episode really glosses over the whole marionette thing, like they use as a jump scare and it is obviously foreshadowing, but it never gets brought up again. Why does she have them? Is it her actual job to make them? Is it just for fun? Does it help her blood bend? She doesn't even make an excuse for them, they're just kinda there. Also, as many people pointed out, Katara used a sort of quasi-earthbending move to block Hama's attack, which mirrors how Iroh uses a quasi-water bending technique to redirect lightning. It kinda opens out some questions about what other techniques and advantages could be unlocked by simply bending differently.
If you like and comment on this video, that thing that you're worried about will work out. I bet. Probably.
Pog
It better not
I loved this vidio
good
Thanks, I hope so, I need things right now to work out.
Amon and Tarrlok are rumored to have mastered the art of realizing that the moon is always full in ATLA, granting them bloodbending powers the likes of which no one has seen before
That actually makes sense in the show.
Ha! 😅
You know, you might be right!
Ugh no, it was said they mastered bloodbending without the need of full moon.
@@TeDDo1337 you've missed the joke
Its also amazing that during the fight, Katara’s stance when she blocks the water totally throws Hama off because normally waterbenders use the “turn defense into offense” method of fighting. However katara takes a very earthbender like stance and straightforwardly BLOCKS the water. Its a moment of “WAIT THATS ILLEGAL” for Hama and its amazing.
And having that Hama was sharing her expertise and Katara wasn't sharing much of hers, Hama should be like: wait I don't know how to do that!
It's something you see a number of particularly skilled benders do, and it's a cool subtle detail. If you go watch the final Agni Kai, you might pick up that Zuko uses a lot of waterbending- (redirecting fire jets), earthbending- (standing strong and blocking an attack), and airbending-style moves. There's one particular airbendery spinning attack he does that really seems to knock Azula off-balance.
@@maddie9602 I think the spinning attack you mentioned is actually one of his signature moves! He got it because his VA does breakdancing iirc, but it could suggest he'd learned from some airbending techniques before, maybe through Iroh or while he was at one of the temples?
@@bananasinfrench what do you mean by VA?
@@zoutewand VA means voice actor. As a fun fact, the voice actor of Zuko is also the actor that played Rufio in the movie Hook!
When katara blocks the big attack, Hama is shocked because that’s not a water bending technique. Water bending is about redirecting and turning your opponents energy back on them. What katara does is an earthbending move. Just another time where they show that when you combine the four elements, combine multiple views, you get something even greater than the sum of its parts.
A similar thing happens in the duel between Zuko and Azula. Zuko uses moves that are reminiscent of water and earthbending techniques.
Hmmm
Hmmm.
I never got the impression that katara just magically "got" bloodbending. I feel like hama was carefully and sneakily teaching katara the basic technique and mindset of bloodbending during their stay. Hama was probably planning for katara to learn bloodbending that night, it just happened in a different way than she had planned.
I also don't think it was very sudden, since we had already seen Katara to have learnt how to move the water in other life forms through bending the water out of the trees. In the next case, she just kept the water inside its life form before bending it
@@danielcingari5407 There's also the fact she's pulled water out of peoples lungs before after they've almost drowned to death. So with that she already had a bit of knowledge of bending water in people's bodies, the trees were just to help find those smaller bits
DEF DUDE. Teaching Katara how to manipulate the water in the flowers was lowkey bloodbending on plants.
@@silentassason She's also a healer so she's already bending people's energy.
Plus she has been trained in medical waterbending which probably hits on similar principles, so she likely has a leg up on practical application once she knows the possibility exists.
I like to believe when Katara says she she’s stronger she means technique wise, especially in that one shot where instead of redirecting the water she stands strong and blocks it like how you would normally see an earthbender do
I could see how constantly hanging out around the avatar, seeing every form of bending there is, being useful in developing your own form of bending in unique ways.
Exactly, I never viewed it as some arbitrary "power level" situation. She just knows what she's doing, and can control her element far better than Hama can. Being able to overcome another water-bender's grip on her just comes down to finer mastery and control. Even if Katara wasn't directly taught the technique, it was explained to her, and being a powerful water bender she could likely feel the grip Hama had on her. After a few moments, she was able to override, and overcome it. This is likely how she was able to take up the technique so quickly her self, to save Aang and Sokka.
She was taught by one of the best waterbenders in the world, have basically as much fighting experience, have fought against another waterbender (Something I would assume Hama probably didn't do much throughout her youth), is currently training the avatar, have the healing ability and is overall just one of the strongest waterbenders in world.
It isn't too suprising she would be able to somewhat quickly do what Hama is doing when seeing her technique.
I mean I am pretty sure the whole "pull water out of the flowers/trees" is partly training to control water she can't see inside the body of someone.
@@PineappleLiar huh which is interesting as thats what Iroh did too to learn Lightning redirection
Yeah he missed the fact she blocked it instead of dodging really shocked Hama
If I had a penny for every episode of this show where the Gaang is taken in by some mysterious stranger they met in the wood, who Katara trusts but Sokka is immediately suspicious of, and Sokka is eventually proven right after said stranger exploits Katara's waterbending for nefarious deeds, I'd have two pennies. Which isn't much but it's strange it's happened twice.
Also forgot the "fire nation" vengeance thats wrong
What was the other
@@Xpwnxage Jet
It's two nickels, not pennies
@@wavelength0123 actually, it's gold coins. Or yuan
"Congratulations, Katara, you're a bloodbender" I actually do really love that Hama openly outs Katara in front of a group of Fire nation civlians and they don't react to it. For them, I'd say those citizens let Katara off the hook becuase they just wanted the nightmare to be over. Its subtle but it makes for great head canon.
A more probable explanation is that bloodbending was still unheard of and that it sounded as nonsense to the civilians. They had no way to tell she was a waterbender.
And of course, many Fire Nation citizens did not approve of the national xenophobia and they probably would have had no problem with their saviors being from the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribe or Air Nomads anyway. Some must have been locked in there for years or even decades.
They also may think that Hama's just crazy
@@floridaball4896 that's my headcanon as well. But OP has a pretty good idea on it too
TBF even if they did know what it means and believed her, and weren't grateful to the gaang for saving them, they should know better than to fuck with a bloodbender.
Even if someone was hostile to all non-fire nation people, I wouldn’t take her comments seriously. She’s clearly a crazy serial killer.
I once heard that Katara blocking Hama's water and it making a big splash was from her taking an Earthbender stance, which shows that it isn't just Aang learning multiple elements.
Quite similar to Irohs lightning redirection. And his "drawing inspiration from multiple sources".
I kind of don't like that interpretation that much because it seems pretty simplistic to me when every block is seen as an earthbending move. But I like that it's somewhat open to interpretation
@@androkguz a direct block is somewhat an earthbender move. Water is about reflecting, air about dodging and fire… to challenge it? Dunno about the fire style tbh
@@danielsnoopeh1807 I think fire would either be dissipation or matching and overwhelming. we have seen both from fire benders when it comes to blocking.
This is really common actually. When zuko fights azula he uses all 4 elemental techniques
I've heard a lot of criticism about the ending of this episode, specifically that Katara learns bloodbending unrealistically fast. It's certainly not the strongest scene that the show has ever produced, but I thought that it worked, and actually fits reasonably well into the narrative. Here's why:
I think that her picking up bloodbending so quickly is not intended to be reflective of Katara's skill/talent/work ethic as a bender (which are admittedly significant in their own right), but rather demonstrates an ability gained through a change in perspective. Take Toph and metalbending for example - she's never shown practicing or really trying to metalbend for the majority of her first half on the show, mostly due to a preexisting dogma that it "isn't possible". But she is basically able to do it right away when she broadens her perspective, and starts to think about/concentrate on the fundamentals of the bending itself - that there is still earth contained within metal, and that that earth can still be bent. And with this perspective in mind (alongside an impetus to learn it in the form of being in a metal cage), she is able to metalbend. I would argue that she learns it basically as quickly as Katara does (a small portion of screentime at the end of the episode), but nobody I saw every really complained about it. // (On a side note, I think that people don't complain about Toph learning metalbending too quickly is that people just like her more and she's set up more as a "prodigy" than Katara is, but that's a different story).
Going back to Katara though, I think that the same general principle applies. She was never lacking in skill/talent to do bloodbending, but until this point she had never been opened up to the perspective that it was possible. Then, in the setting of her fight with Hama, she was presented with the same factors as Toph - perspective and impetus. When she learned of the possibility of bloodbending, she was able to do it, because she needed to do it in order to save her friends. And narratively, I feel like this fits with the fluid nature of bending as not simply a fighting technique, but a mental/spiritual practice as well, wherein the limitations of the practice of bending are more often related to what is not known about it.
I wonder whether Hama blood bending Katara first made an impact on Katara understanding how to do it.
My thought was always that the change in perspective required for bloodbending was the realization of the water within all life, explained directly by Hama, in addition to the acceptance of life as a suitable subject for bending.
Basically the inherently distasteful idea of overriding the free will of another would make it so that even with perspective, significantly more desperation would be needed to attempt it.
Blood-bending is a tool of survival, seeing life as a tool comes out of necessity, Hama threatened Katara and the Gaang specifically to create a situation where the only possibility of survival was to do something truly unpleasant, similar to her imprisonment .
Yeah to me not only the impetus to save her friends, but when Hama bloodbent Katara and she 'fought' back, she probably already had to learn 'how' to bloodbend to stop from happening to herself, so she probably learned at that moment 'how' to do it too.
Also people weren't paying attention to power scaling from book 2 & the earlier episodes of book 3. We saw that she can easily walk/run on water, capsize watercrafts, create her technique of bending, & so on. People ignored all that. Yet Zuko redirecting that much lightning on first try is an easier concept to digest.
I was literally about to comment something similar, as I always found the scene to be not as crazy as my friends thought, but you literally just commented exactly my thoughts and more. I completely agree, awesome ideas my man.
Sokka's scream at the end of his ghost story is still one of my favourite jokes in the show and I have no idea why it's not amazing or anything I just find it hilarious
is it referencing something? it somehow sounds familiar
@@verstone2486 I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it in a B movie, but I seriously don’t remember the name
right lol
Totally. I love how his scream coalesces with the creepy music to make it ambiguous whether the sounds are diegetic or not.
@@verstone2486 He's doing a 50s b-movie theremin wail.
Seeing Katara break down after blood bending was a really emotional moment, I wish you mentioned it.
Maybe in Raiders from southc epizode would be.
Ikr, made me sad because that moment really hit me. Like she was full of adrenaline and the idea of what she just did just dawned on her. And Sokka and Aang just silently comforting her is great too.
Idk, I never really bought that breakdown. She did what she needed to do in order to save sokka and aang. Realistically, she's done a lot worse things that she should be feeling bad for, not causing pain to an old lady and preventing her from murdering two people she loves like LOL this breakdown almost seems like a "oh my god i saved sokka and aang, i should have never done that" moment and i've hated that because katara didn't kill anyone. she just merely incapacitated someone, and only temporarily at that.
@@growingoaks it was more of a moral standpoint, I always understood it as something she was very against, and having to do it went against what she believes in.
That’s a good name
I approve
7:06
I nearly died of laughter.
No, literally--I was eating and started choking because I didn't expect her to be all like "bLoOdbEnDiNg" right there
Omg same...but in a different episode😭😭 these videos are dangerously funny
Lol fwiw for anyone curious she doesn't actually reveal it there. She says "it is too painful still to talk about" or something to that effect. So the actual reveal is way later, yes.
Yes!! That was hilarious, I didn't see it coming either.
I haven’t watched the show in years so that threw me off like “there’s no way she revealed it that early?!??” 😂
I’ve watched this show a billion times and I deadass still thought I was going crazy for a slight second before I realized it was just editing.
This episode lowkey gave me nightmares as a kid
Same. As Small Ones, we would always skip it on rewatches. So, so creepy.
“Low key”
Me too
The beginning was the worst for tiny old me
the animations at the end with her face
SCARYH
When Hama killed all those Fire Lily's, I always took it as an allegory. One where the flowers represent innocent fire nation citizens that she is apathetic towards killing to "survive" as she puts it. Maybe I'm reading too far into it, but if they meant to do that, then I think its cool.
that plus the way the lillies wilt to black looks an awful lot like the patch got scorched almost as a mirror of what the fire nation has been doing
@@biscuittactician that’s a good point!
I always saw it as a way to show its apathy towards other living beings
that's not what an allegory is. The literary term you're thinking of is metaphor.
@@GameyRaccoon While you're technically right, the differences between the two can be so negligible that they are often interchanged. Keep in mind that most writers only differentiate them by length. Such as a metaphor being a passing phrase, and an allegory as a longer narrative or a picture. It's important to remember they are so closely related, that the line can blur, and this situation can thus be considered a short allegory. "An allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance." In other words, the flowers (visual representation) being killed by Hama (an event) has a dark subtext (moral significance).
It’s probably common head cannon that the moon is full so often because Yuei knows that the fuller the moon is, the stronger water bending is, and she wants to assist the people of her tribe by granting them strength.
What lol, no. Its just that the animators thought full moons looked cooler so did them more often
@@snally6111 Thats why its called head cannon lol. I really like the idea that Yuei wants to help water benders and maybe even katana and aang specifically
that would fuck up the balance of the planet's ecosystem in countless ways
@@pauloricardo-wn6ps yeah but that’s spirit magic so it doesn’t count
Honestly, at the end of this series you should host a huge Kahoot with random trivia questions that even some hardcore avatar fans would have trouble with
YES, YES, A MILLION TIMES YES!! I WOULD JOIN!
Like where do ashbananas come from
He actually already did that in a live a while ago but it would be different now since he has so many more subscribers
I would so do that
Which one of these episodes does not have a full moon in it?
Momo can pick up on social cues, that's something tons of animals do.. if everyone else is scared, he gets scared.
This is a great episode with lots of well thought out logic, but it's also the episode where, both in the present and in backstory, _ludicrous_ measures are taken to keep prisoners in a situation where, realistically, they would be executed. but can't because Nickelodeon.
I think Momo was also wigged out because he was getting suddenly crushed between three people, more than what they were scared of.
Ikr.
In war prisoners are taken for two and ONLY two reasons either as bargaining chips during negotiations and so that surrender is seen as a viable option compared to fighting to the death.
A war of extermination like the one waged by the southern raiders would never take prisoners
This one actually has an explanation! The fire nation raided the water tribes because they thought the avatar was located there, not knowing aang survived. Killing the avatar would have them be reborn in the earth kingdom, which they couldn't figure out how to conquer yet.
So they kept the benders alive to neutralize the potential avatar threat.
Well I once heard a theory that the reason they were doing that originally was because the next Avatar would be born into the Water Tribes, one of the reasons for the raids. That's why the kept them alive - if they accidentally killed the Avatar, who may not realize that they're the Avatar, then the cycle would just continue. (But decided later on to kill them anyway, because of Hama showing them that waterbenders had ways of being dangerous even without direct access to water and it wasn't worth the risk, which is why Katara's mother was killed after all that instead of imprisoned)
Which admittedly is a theory with holes in it too, but not impossible.
Idk man, this show has never been shy about fire nation killing people. A few examples:
-We KNOW Sozin straight up commited genocie by killing all airbenders, we even see Gyatso's skeleton, which is crazy for a kid's show.
-We see the raiders of the south attacking the south pole, and the guy who kills Kya says "I'm not taking prisoners today" implying he kills her. Kya also says "take me as your prisoner". She expects to be taken because she knows other benders who have been taken.
-In the episode "The avatar state" the earth nation commander (can't remember his name) points to wounded soldiers and says "this are the lucky ones", impying there's a lot of death happening in the battlefield.
I see your point, but I don't think that's Nickelodeon censoring, as they made clear that the fire nation IS killing innocent people. In a war, a side may have their reasons to keep prisoners, getting intel for example: Kya's murederer tells her "My sources tell me there's one more water bender". That source was probably a waterbender they were torturing.
I think Katara learning blood bending pretty immediately isn't actually detracting from her. I think Katara, in all rights, is a water bending master by this point. She's diligent in practicing, and she's a fast learner.
Also Hama I feel like has been teaching her all the little things she needed to know to get it. "There's water in all things, you can control that, watch me do it to these flowers. Now you try." And having Hama use blood bending on her, she sees the moves.
I love that katara uses an earthbending stance to block against hama, you see how much it unnerves hama. Aang isnt the only one picking up techniques from different bending styles. Great video once again
Honestly, i felt like the move Katara makes when knocking Hama off her feet by using the water from the air around her looks alot like earthbending too. Waterbending is known for using open hands that make these wave moves, but in that clip she actually uses fists, somthing that is more common in earth and firebending.
The"Aang isnt the only one picking up techniques from different bending styles" part, isnt really surprising since in Bitter Work Iroh and Zuko are using techniques from Waterbending
Makes sense why Katara would employ other bending styles in the fight. Hama not only knew a waterbending style completely foreign to Katara, but Hama was also skilled enough to be the last waterbender to be caught by the Fire Nation raids and the only one to escape because she invented a brand new bending style. If Katara fought with waterbending technique alone, she may not have won. So, throwing in other bending styles that Hama is clueless about is smart move on Katara's part.
You should have talked about the ending! always creeped me out how Katara cries and Hama laughs after she accomplish her goal, to pass bloodbending to another master.
Right it’s like star wars where the emperor doesn’t care if he’s struck down cause he knows the act of hatred required to do so will just create another sith
What I find interesting is that nobody that is taking her away pays any attention to what she is saying, like, “hey guess what! There’s not just one of me over here guys! She’s right there I just looked at her and called her by name! And she’s a bloodbender! Surely I don’t need a long explanation to show you how that works to allow you to understand that I was bending your bodies the whole time! With my very obvious and revealing staement you can take me away and let her cry about it!”
@@atsukana1704 I always assumed they didn’t care about Katara because she helped everyone escape earlier
@@atsukana1704 This may sound callous, cynical, rude, but Katara got what she deserved from Hama for daring to tell her what is and is not possible, not realizing that the Hama will not listen to her. Katara takes on too much, not realizing that she shouldn’t do it, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. She's dumber than she looks if she thinks everyone will listen to her. If she was told that this is not happen, then it not happen. And don't care what she thinks about it. Katara is an impudent girl who decided that everyone owes her, but in fact this is not true - the world does not owe her anything. She doesn’t understand that if you tell people what they can and can’t do, especially Hama, they won’t listen to you and even kill you. For her unwillingness to understand this, Katara was rightly punished. But unlike Katara, I understand that you shouldn’t take on too much, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. I understand that the world doesn't owe me anything, I have humility. Therefore, I urge those who take on a lot - DON’T DO THIS, IT WILL NOT BRING TO GOOD, BUT WILL BRING TROUBLES AND MISFORTUNES!!!!
I also love the detail of all Hamas techniques before blood bending looking very violent. Like she pulls the water out of the air and that's really cool, but then she turns it into sharp claws made of ice. And then she pulls water out of the flowers and immediately slices a rock into chunks.
I never realised this, but just like how everyone had a life changing trip with Zuko this season, everyone also had a significant tutor/upgrade in skill this season. And Toph misses out on both...
Toph is already the best at earthbending, she needs no tutor/mentor.
....But yeah, I feel you on her missing out. XD
Toph got her upgrade with Metalbending at the end of season 2 though
You're wrong on the significant tutor thing. Its just that her tutors weren't teaching her bending or fighting; which she is already at her peak when we meet her, and then breaks her own limits again developing metalbending. She was always stubbornly independent, and it was in this season that she finally accepted help and was able to acknowledge others.
wait Zuko's tutor/upgrade are the dragons? or did I forget something?
@@maca39 Kinda yeah, when Zuko lost his hatred drive he relearned fire bending and got a lot stronger because it came from the source instead of just hatred, sure he didn't get an significant upgrade like metal bending or blood bending, but his fire bending went up by a lot after learning it from the dragons.
I have to say this is probably one of my favorite episodes in the whole show it’s just so creepy and awesome to watch
What up check mark
Oh it's a fan
Hey love the content you create over there! Hope you’re doing well and in a better place mentally
Hey, you're a guy I watch
Wtf are you doing here man
The “my bending is more powerful than yours” moment makes sense in that Katara is bending her own blood to resist Hama, and in a way immediately learning how blood bending works, so her using it a moment later checks out.
Yeah I agree
Personally I didn't find someone being a more powerful bender weird. I did take it to mean that Katara can move more water, further away and faster. The idea that bending can be more or less powerful is already at the center of some very important plotpoints for the episode and the entire show- Sozin's comet, The Eclipse, and Blood bending only being possible during the full moon.
You could change the line to "I'm a better bender than you are", but then the viewer questions if Katara is better why did she spend the entire episode learning from Hama? I think the line gets across well that even though Katara isn't necessarily the more creative, knowledgeable or clever bender in every situation, Hama can't beat her with brute force. The reason for that power discrepancy under the same conditions *is* likely skill, practice and mentality, but at this point well into the show I prefer trusting the viewer to infer that from previous episodes than having Katara deliver an expository monologue.
I know it's late. This scene always gives me "my kung fu is stronger than yours" vibes.
Well said
I feel like Katara getting blood bending came when she learned how to take the water out of the plants. It's about being able to control the water within a living object so it makes sense to me.
well we have seen her bring water out of peoples lungs so I don’t think it is getting water in living bodies but it definitely helped
I also think that she somewhat got the hang of it because she was being blood-bent by Hama, so she had somewhat of a tutorial in that as well.
Lastly, I think she might have been already bloodbending her own body to some extent to resist Hamas control, which then led to her having some experience with it when she took control of Hama.
Also she pulled water out of Aangs lungs before she was properly trained.
Add to that, all she even did was stop Hama from moving and make her get close to the ground. That's very basic compared to what Hama was doing.
@@matthewgallaway3675 I don't think that's really any relevance. That's bending water out of a tube, not squeezing the water out of something like a sponge.
I always wrote off the moment she just “picked up” as ok because it was unlocked by an intense rush of emotions. We’ve seen other moments in the show where high emotions results in more intense or powerful bending-although more reckless too.
Yeah and I think it's not so much her "suddenly learning the technique" but more so using the water bending skills she already has (amplified by the Moon) and simply applying them elsewhere. Like Hama said, it's all about just "keeping an open mind." The water in one's body is just as much water as from anywhere else. Knowledge of this fact alone may be enough for a skilled water bender to just apply the techniques they already know onto a person by simply visualizing them as a giant sack of water. Obviously Hama is much more refined in the practice as she assumes a "puppet master" stance as though she's even using her individual fingers to control specific parts of the body, while Katara assumes a more standard stance. But that doesn't stop her from doing it at all.
It's sort of like the thing that keeps you from stabbing yourself or the nearest person when you're holding a very sharp knife, but can very easily cut through a carrot or a tough steak. It's not that it's *hard,* it's just that you have been conditioned to not think about it that way your whole life.
I mean, bloodbending is also probably also really hard, but it's the two things together that make it so uncommon.
She never used it after, did she? I never watched LOK
i mean thats basically the whole point of bitter work, aang being forced to confront the saber tooth moose lion in a do or die situation "unlocked" earthbending, critical moments of inspiration or decision making when you're thinking isnt necessarily an asspull as much as a tipping point, an "aha!" moment, yknow? and bloodbending isnt nearly so far removed as earth was from an airbender's approach
@@jodiwilliams2602 Well I don't wanna spoil anything. But I'll just say yes, she did use it more than once.
2:03 I like to think Hamma only snuck up BECAUSE Toph could hear screaming. If I heard people screaming underground in the middle of the woods i'd be a little distracted too. She probably still should've noticed but it always at least made sense.
The bending move Katara uses to block Hama's attack is actually more like earthbending (hold your ground) than like waterbending (redirect). I really like that in such moments the writers apply the 'combining bending techniques make for better bending' philosophy that Iroh mentioned earlier with Zuko and lightning bending!
I do like the idea of Katara watching Toph training Aang and thinking about how to adapt earthbending technique to waterbending (and doing something similar with using a water version of the Breath of Fire trick that Zuko presumably taught Aang to melt the ice that she'd frozen herself and Azula in in the finale). Once Aang was up to master level in waterbending and was more focused on learning the other two elements, she probably had a fair bit of free time on her hands, and she strikes me as someone always ready to learn more.
I like this idea and I think it's supported my Hama's look of shock and surprise. She's probably never seen anything like it.
It's possible that the underground screaming was too loud to Toph for her to notice an extremely quiet old lady
It's like going to a loud concert and someone walking up to you
A person could also argue that she probably would have been a lot more concerned about people trapped and screaming under a mountain, something that is definitely NOT normal, than an approaching old woman, something that is at least relatively normal, even in the woods.
Or maybe she was just plaing along the spirit of spooky stories night and decided to not react since she could tell if old lady is a threat or not. ....or not.
There were also 3 people shivering and shaking in place between her and the old lady
to be fair tophs never been good at calling out people approaching them that werent imminent threats, which is kinda fair
11:26
My interpretation of that line was just that Hama was a frail old woman in comparison to Katara. Nothing to do with power levels or anything crazy like that.
The masculine urge to yell at the full moon like a werewolf
Joke starting to get old
the feminine urge to bloodbend your enemies to act out your revenge
0:52
You’re from twitter aren’t you
@@tylerian4648 this reply is perfect
I really LOVE the fact that not only does it make sense story-wise to wait with teaching Katara these skills but it also makes sense lore-wise.
Why would the people in the watery, snowy, constantly surrounded by water in all its forms area even begin to wonder if they could potentially learn how to take water out of plants/the air.
They would have no need for it since they always have so much water around them so that thought probably didn't even cross their mind.
We see swamp benders ofcourse bend the vines but they live in an area where the plants are so full over water that it makes sense that they would have figured it out after a while but I honestly don't remember if they all do it or if it is only the guru kinda dude that does it...and he mostly seems to have done it in order to scare the ever living shit out of potentially harmful people.
Katara had no real reason to learn it from her master and didn't have the time to even think about being taught by the swamp benders but now she have been in a few situations where water isn't constantly at her disposal so ofcourse she would begin to think about it by now.
Good points! Also, the air in arctic and antarctic climes is super dry (Antarctica is technically a desert, for example), so scrounging for water in that way would never be very fruitful around the Northern and Southern Water Tribes.
The guru seems to be the only person capable of doing it or you'd think the other swampbenders would have used it as well in the Invasion.
Huu is the name of the vine bender👍🏽
Kinda an unrelated comment but waterbenders are extremely terrifying because your entire body is 70% water that includes your skin blood veins just about everything in your natural body and they can also kill you in surprisingly terrifying ways as well
@@acat6145 Yeah. IF they can bend your body. Which most of them can't, unless it's a full moon and even then mlst of them have no knowledge of any techniques related to this.
STOPPP the "how did you get away?" "BLoOdBenDinG" made me BURST OUT LAUGHING
Something I like is how it can be concluded that it's because of Hama that the Fire Nation stopped taking Waterbenders alive and started killing them, meaning that Bloodbending scared them, which no shit it scared them, but also ended up getting Kya killed since she claimed she was the Waterbender, getting her killed.
All that to say that Hama is the main reason for Kya's death.
The Firenation is the main reason she got killed. You can't blame a victims demise entirely on the actions of another victim, when they wouldn't be cought in that situation without an agressor.
Saying that Hama is the main reason Kya died kinda ignores the agency the entire Fire Nation had in the conflict.
But yes, Hama is a link in the chain of causality that led where we are in the story at the beginning, and thats nice.
It seemed like Yon Rha vented his feelings towards his own mother onto Kya.
@@hadarc01 I don't think it's not a reason though. Like it's just a fun idea to think well why did the fire nation kill water benders now what changed, Hama made it change and honestly that's just a cool theory.
@@digitaltailsmon4096 It is a reason, just not the main one.
This is the creepiest episode no doubt
yeah agreed but the episode with Koh was terrifying as hell too
It's up there with the Dai li training all those Ju Dees under lake Laogai
Edit: Joo Dee not Ju Dee
this is the creepiest thing of anything no doubt
@@qq3088 oh yeeah you're right. "I'm Joo Dee. Welcome to Ba Sing Se." - still creeps me out ngl
This is basically the only horror episode, everything else are scenes.
Hey, did anyone notice that Hamma only appeared to the group (peacefully I might add) after Katara's "True southern water tribe" story about "Mom"? Hamma mentions in the very next scene that the group should've been careful, since people have been disappearing in those woods, and we know from hindsight that those are her hunting grounds. But even though they're wearing Fire Nation clothes and the moon is almost completely full, she probably could've bloodbent them if she needed to, but as she listened, she realized she needed to meet them.
I never noticed that before this watchthrough of Overanalyzing Avatar, honestly, not even the series itself, because there's at least a minute of pause between the scenes where they appear on screen.
Oh I didn't even think of that!
I 100% believe that Hama was considering trying to add them to her puppet collection until she overheard Katara talking about the Water Tribe.
My head canon about the “my bending is more powerful than yours” nonsense is that katara has subconsciously done what Zuko learned from iroh - to take wisdom from different bending styles. In this instance specifically the stubbornness of earth bending, we see that with her character and interactions with toph at first she was very much like water, being diplomatic and such but she learns to stand her ground more.
I don't think it's nonsense though? If bending was simply a matter of discipline, then why is Azula the only character that can bend blue flames? Raw talent is a thing that has always been applicable to bending. Katara's control over water is stronger than Hama, and so she can overpower Hama's influence on her blood when she figures out the basis for the technique: bending the water inside something.
@@Birthday888 which is why I think it has to do with her learning about the mindset of earth bending by being there during aangs training and having it influence her bending. I like to think of it as more nuanced than simple power scaling, a lot of the moves katara uses in the fight have her more rooted in the ground than usual and when she directly blocked one of hama’s attacks seemed more like an earth bender move to me. I mostly referred to it as nonsense to reflect how my guy was voicing his opinion on it in the video
I think Katara had a mix of cross cultural technique AND a fair deal of more Brute Force in her Bending then Hama.
@- SageAegis - Aang doesn't know how to bloodbend though and he def would've clapped full moon Hama regardless of that in a 1v1 with the AS.
About katara getting bloodbending immediately: It might just be that she needed to hear that it could be done. She has been bending water mixed with other components, like soup, for a while. Additionally she’s been shown to bend water which she cant see but only knows she’s there, such as in a water pouch.
In essence bloodbending is no different than doing these two things. I guess the hardest part of bloodbending would be doing it for an extended period of time without seriously harming the internal organs/interfering with the circulation of blood.
If while bending hama she does not care about this, she could theoretically bloodbend in a very rough and unrefined way.
Not to mention Katara knowing how to waterbend the water out of Aang's lungs.
It's not like she does anything complicated with the bloodbending either. She just freezes her in place.
@@Birthday888 And the second time we see her bloodbending, it's not a complicated maneuver either, just forcing the commander of the Southern Raiders to his knees. We don't see anything close to the sophisticated maneuvers Hama is shown using.
except blood bending isn't "bending water with stuff in it" it's a whole different form of bending. in fact it's been specifically stated that it's such a rare variant of bending, that no amount of lessons can teach it to someone who isn't a born blood bender, unlike other bendings like metal, lightning, or healing that can be taught to almost anyone with enough lessons.
I think that healing should be brought up when discussing how quickly Katara learns blood bending. He mentioned in the video that Katara’s speed at learning water bending is based on hard work, which is true for fighting, but she intuitively picks up healing almost instantly. It is never mentioned if Hama can heal or not but I wonder if Katara has a better understanding of the human body.
One key thing to note is that when Katara was a beginner Waterbender, she was able to bend water out of Aang when he swam with the Unagi in "The Warriors of Kyoshi" episode. Also considering the mindset of what Hama was teaching Katara such as there's water in places you wouldn't expect, it adds more to how Katara was able to Bloodbend without doing it before she had to use it on Hama.
The other thing is that Katara wasn’t bloodbending anywhere near what Hama was doing, and doesn’t in the other bloodbending episode either. Hama can move people like puppets on strings, having them draw swords, walk great distances and open locks. Katara can just grab people and force them down a little. It’s like Aang’s early fire bending vs Zuko’s, she can “do” it, but she hasn’t “learned” it
"When the moon turns full..."
Like... every night!
momo’s face when hama says “hello children” is priceless 🤣
I swear ever since Katara used bloodbending on that southern raider, the thought of her claiming revenge always scared me. She was basically stronger than Aang without the avatar state. Imagine if she became an actual killer.
Pretty sure she's caused unintentional fatal injuries to enemies before, just like Aang.
Legend of Korra actually answers a question like this, but not as well as you'd like.
.......Yeah no if Katara ever became evil we're all screwed.
Hama says she can only do it during the full moon, but clearly Katara is much better then her in physical attributes of bending, it's doubtful that she could Bloodbend anytime she wanted to, but she can probably do it at night. Amon and the other Bloodbenders were the extreme prodigies of their time.
@The Timbs You mean like in just waterbending alone or....
I think Toph was too focused in on the people underground trying to get more information which is why Hama snuck up on her
Yeah, its like when you tunnel vision on something in the distance. You can often not be aware of what moves in your peripheral vision.
@@josephbolton5893 Exactly what I was thinking. Her focus was far away on something quiet, so she was necessarily blocking out things nearby.
@@madrigal1213 also. She used her hands to feel as opposed to her feet. Maybe her feet would be much more aware of acute sensations, while feet give a larger spectrum of feeling.
Actually, considering that they are resting by a fire, using her feet to 'see' might be tiring and she's just balancing with her hands and accidentally felt something she wasn't expecting.
2:15 As a person who does archery, yes, it’s always more fun when you’re shopping for deadly weapons.
I love the setup for bloodbending. It’s ironic that waterbending, one of the gentler bending arts, created the most frightening bending.
Honestly I don't mind that Katara picks up bloodbending quick. At this moment she was already a waterbending master and had more of a 'feel' for water than some other waterbenders. so Doing bloodbending (though not very precise) would make sense for her to do.
Also she had experience with healing magic, which would most likely have a similar touch as bloodbending
Actually I would think Katara being emotionally unstable would have an opposite effect in this case. Using the water in a person's body to control them seems like a task that would require years of practice and still a huge amount of focus and probably literal surgical precision. Maybe a desperate Katara would be able to overpower Hama but it would likely result in the old woman getting ripped apart.
@@eddiereuger9402 I mean it depends on the person and the exact response they have but in some cases strong emotions can lead to a sort of focussed state
Also, a combination of both discipline, hard work, *and* raw talent.
something i love about bloodbending is that when people normally waterbend its flowing, free and majestic but with bloodbending its rigid, clunky and crude things like this is why i love this show you could potentially never notice things like this
I feel like Katara in particular has taken significant amounts of efforts to bend in unusual fashions. In particular, the concept of bending unseen water is onw she has had for a while, which she had to learn all the way in book one, to follow through with Jet's plan to cause the geyser's to flow. She has bent many forms of very impure water, including that of the drill's outflow and yes, the river of the Painted Lady episode. She's been heavily tested in terms of unusually specific liquids and unusual actions.
It's definitely not handled well in terms of "I know kung fu", but it's certainly not a stretch to see her first understand blood bending enough to overpower Hama's influence on her blood leads to then bending Hama.
Change what's said and I think it would work.
Agreed! And don’t forget she bends soup too :)
This is just how I understood it but I also felt like when she broke out of hamas grasp she was using blood bending to control her own blood and break the grip Hama had on her. When she says “my bending is more powerful than yours” I saw it as her saying exactly what she meant. She has a more powerful control over the water so she can break out of the grip. This also makes it make sense how she blood bends Hama a little later. Her control over the water (blood in this case) is stronger so she can blood bend Hama. It’s not her first time blood bending on Hama too because she used blood bending to control her own blood and break from hamas grip. This is just how I like to think about it but if you do think of it like this both of those moments make sense and play out just as amazing as the rest of the episode
avatar animating team:puts reflection in raindrops
also avatar animating team: has full moon almost every day of the week
I feel that Katara being wildly naturally talented is well-telegraphed throughout the show. The way her bending can far surpass its usual strength when she is extremely angry or upset is shown from episode 1.
I feel like the barrier to blood bending would largely be the knowledge that it can be done and being willing to do it.
And the boost from the moon.
And practicing on other living things (plants).
Although, Hama should have started with small animals and Katara being forced to pick it up to save the little animal's life or something.
you should have mentioned the part at the end when Hamma said to Katara "you're a bloodbender now" and Katara starts crying, realizing she is changed by this ability, and will never be the same again.
its both very creepy and it makes Hamma impactful even though she was defeated.
I really liked it.
Ikr. To me, it had the same impact as telling someone "You're a cannibal now." That's how heavy-handed it felt.
ESPECIALLY cause she bloodbends like a few episodes later with no remorse about it
Yeah Hamma was defeated but in her point of view she won, as her goal was passing on bloodbending to another master.
@@Newt2799 This may sound callous, cynical, rude, but Katara got what she deserved from Hama for daring to tell her what is and is not possible, not realizing that the Hama will not listen to her. Katara takes on too much, not realizing that she shouldn’t do it, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. She's dumber than she looks if she thinks everyone will listen to her. If she was told that this is not happen, then it not happen. And don't care what she thinks about it. Katara is an impudent girl who decided that everyone owes her, but in fact this is not true - the world does not owe her anything. She doesn’t understand that if you tell people what they can and can’t do, especially Hama, they won’t listen to you and even kill you. For her unwillingness to understand this, Katara was rightly punished. But unlike Katara, I understand that you shouldn’t take on too much, because it will bring troubles and misfortunes. I understand that the world doesn't owe me anything, I have humility. Therefore, I urge those who take on a lot - DON’T DO THIS, IT WILL NOT BRING TO GOOD, BUT WILL BRING TROUBLES AND MISFORTUNES!!!!
I remember watching this as a kid on Halloween when it premiered… man, that was something else. Truly stunning episode.
I don't like how when Toph is like "people screaming underground", they don't immediately snap into action. When the screams suddenly stop and Hama shows up, they're just like "what were we just talking about?"
Tbh it’s realistic tho that’s how most people would react.
@@boredasf4856 I would disagree with that. Even if that were how people might react, that is definitely not how the avatar crew would.
they probably just tossed it up to the ghost stories, Toph trying to scare them, as a teen I'd probably do the same tbh haha
@@assordante2205 If my friend started telling me there were screams coming from under ground, my first thought would be "Yeah, okay, sure buddy" or "you're just hearing things". Not "shit, you're right, let's go underground and check *immediately*"
@@PlayerZeroStart But like what about toph herself? Also the Gaang has been through enough shit to at least warrant trusting toph enough to check it out after the initial "You are definitely not being funny right there's actually screaming" period, they had like 2 days to do so
1:25 it’s a example of monkey see monkey do, Momo sees that every one else is scared so Momo joins the others in being scared.
It always baffled me that Hama remained in the fire nation. It took her a while to get out of prison obviously, but staying behind enemy lines just for revenge is interesting. Some interesting old people in this show.
I think it just plays into the overarching narrative that the heroes of the story are all children (which makes sense, it's a kids show) but the kids are the ones not yet scarred by years of war and generations of adults being lost to it. The kids still pay a price by losing their innocence and childhood, but the narrative sets up a very believable sense that these kids are literally the best hope for the world.
Contrast that with something like Harry Potter, where the kids have to be the heroes for plot reasons and the adults are conveniently out of the picture due to some contrivance. Like Hermione is the ONLY person to figure out the monster in Book 2 is a Basilisk or that Lupin is a werewolf when there are hundreds of others that could have made those connections with the exact same access to information and abilities. The audience has to roll their eyes and make excuses that aren't supported by the narrative.
Avatar sets up Aang, Sokka, Toph, and Zuko as believable heroes without ignoring the roles the adults have to play. The adults aren't the main characters for believable reasons all carefully laid out in the narrative.
I feel like there wouldn't be many vessels making their way to the Water Tribes that weren't military vessels, and anyone trying to travel to the Water Tribes would be very suspicious behaviour
Actually, it is revealed in the upcoming boarding game, Avatar: Legends, that when Zuko became Fire Lord, he freed all prisoners in the Fire Nation that are from other nations, specifically Hama, it said that bcause of her bloodbending abilities, she was banished to Wolf’s Cove ( Southern Water Tribe’s Capital City ) to live there and never exit the city.
So APPARENTLY Hama got a good ending, she came back to her home just recovering from the Fire Nation raids, and maybe she finally met Kanna again
She was told that the swt was destroyed. From fire nation propaganda. After years of torture and seeing her friends die too. She was stuck and the ptsd made her look for revenge since she had nothing else.
@@nyetloki it wasn’t destroyed, but the waterbending lineage was almost extinct, i assume It started to go on again by Siku and Sura, since Kya, Kataras only waterbending child, doesn’t have a child and is lesbian, all other waterbenders in the south come from the Northern tribe
In my opinion, Katara saying her bending was "more powerful" just comes across as her bending being better, which tracks with what we've seen. I get his point about the writing, but I saw this as a confirmation of her training and instincts rather than something that discredits her work ethic. Also people can do amazing feats in moments of extreme need. That's real life cannon.
Yeah, I think the idea is fine, it's just the phrasing that's really weird.
Ok but being a better bender doesn't "cancel out" other benders.
Why wouldn't blood bending work on Katara?
@@ghostderazgriz i think that is how bending works in zuko and kataras fight when the elements come together they cancel out
@@somethingsomethingelse7706 But this is a waterbender actively blood bending another waterbender. Doesn't make sense to me that bloodbending just stops working.
@@ghostderazgriz Fair point, to me Katara saying her bending was "more powerful" implied that she could exert control of her own blood more than Hama could. In this way, she was on her way to learning blood bending when she stood up and resisted. Outside the avatar state, we've only seen waterbenders can resist this ability so it tracks. Also with this interpretation, Katara using bloodbending so quickly makes mores sense too
I absolutely love how Sokka's VA hits the same note as the BGM at 0:53.
I am deeply curious as to whether it was intentional on someone's part or a happy little accident.
So funny story: Today is a full moon, and when I looked up at it I thought ‘oh look, it’s the stupid full moon again! It’s always there!’ Then a split second later I realized that it’s natural and not a flaw from any writers. Haha I watch these shows too much! These are great! Keep up the good work! 👍
LMAO
Katana blocking the water instead of earth bending is very “earth bender.”
The dynamic styles of the gaang is a massive part of what makes them so powerful
2:30 I think he loves shopping in general and he just feels down because he gets bad vibes from Hama
I feel like the “more powerful” was her strength of will. Possession is usually a battle of willpower. How hard can you fight before giving in?
It’s a little twisted and scary. Bloodbending between Hama and Katara reminds me somewhat of the scene in which Aang takes the firelord’s bending. I believe they were both a battle of inner strength, a battle of souls as they are in this universe, their essential forms. I also believe the “power” of their bending derives from this inner strength, and Katara won out in that moment.
I agree! It wasn’t “I’m inherently more powerful than you are” it was “who I am is stronger than who you are”
Katara has always had such a strong sense of herself and her values, so I find the line fitting.
It could also just be a tug of war scenario where if 2 benders are bending the same thing the one with the most strength wins out or whatever, bending still needs exertion and effort, Toph struggled holding up the library, she didn’t effortlessly bend it back up. While it may seem ridiculous there is precedent that bending has physical elements to it as well as spiritual
I kind of see it as since katara is younger she's "stronger"
Of course someone in their prime is going to be stronger than someone in there 60s-80s unless your like iroh who's still actively training himself
I don't really get that with hama she got to a certain point and just maintained it rather than trying to make herself better
None of that probably made any sense
I don't know why but ever since I first watched that episode I just assumed Katara was bloodbending herself to fight Hama.
That “How’d you get out of there?” “BLOODBENDING” edit had me howling 😂😂
The mention at the beginning of Momo reacting to human speech is explained by the fact that he has above average ear size, and likely hearing, so he probably heard the screaming for himself. This also explains why he was the first to notice Azula’s convoy in The Chase.
This episode is wonderfully shot, Hama looks so menacing with the moon in the background. It’s also sad that she draws energy from the moon to do horrible things.
I think Katara picking up bloodbending so quick is directly due to her hard work and mastery of her element. Once you gain a high enough mastery in a skill it becomes much easier to pick up skills in a similar discipline. Like if you're a master clarinet player it's much easier to pick up sax than a beginner would.
yes this makes so much sense
Plus she wasn't really puppeteering Hama, just kinda made her stop then pushed her to the ground
That doesn't mean you instantly can do something perfectly on the first try.
This episode scarred me as a child and still gives me slight chills when I watch it
When you think about healing and bloodbending are two sides of the same coin. Both deal with the body but operate differently, and Katara is deemed a master healer. I think her getting bloodbending quickly makes sense
This episode whips! I also like how Katara had to bend water from the environment against Hama even though she was initially hesitant on the concept. When push comes to shove, she is willing to break personal codes to get the job DONE.
And then feels the emotional reprocussions after.
hehe, good foreshadowing for later ;)
It also explains why she will steal without the slightest hint of remorse, but only if there aren't alternatives. And then get upset if the others do it outside of the situation of pure necessity.
12:09 Hama looks surprised at how Katara blocks her attack, something waterbenders don’t usually do
I always just interpreted "more powerful" as just being better, in both technique and practice.
Hama is a mostly self taught bender, the resourcefulness she gained to survive taught her some tricks that many other water benders may not know but Katara is a master of the art and has a lot more experience bending in fights.
I always assumed that Katara figured out the general premise of bloodbending when fighting against Hama's grip on her, since it was her own blood she had more minute and easier control and since she knew the basics she could apply it to Hama drawing on her experience and intuition to figure it out.
She could do all this because she's a master, her bending is stronger so applying existing skills in a new way will come more naturally.
Sorry for the ramble just some thoughts I had on the finale.
I always thought that when Katara said her bending was more powerful than Hamma's she had already learned Blood Bending, just didn't wanna use it. By the time she actually did, she didn't even notice she did. She did it out of instinct to protect Sokka and Aang. Das just my personal view ig
I don’t really like that explanation. I feel like it should’ve been more widely known in that case. After 100 years of war you would expect some fire nation soldiers to experience people using blood bending. I always liked the concept that Hama discovered the ability in prison and spent years honing her ability
I mean, Hama was already prepping her for blood bending by expanding Katara's view on what constitutes "bendable water". First by bending water she can't see, and then extracting water from within living things. The next logical step is to bend the water within living things. Like how Toph immediately starts bending metal the moment she realizes it contains earth impurities inside.
Also, all of the gang are prodigies, including Katara even if she isn't as overtly referenced as much as Aang and Toph.
I’ve always seen it as Katara’s bending being from her being younger and not as worn out. I’ve also always though that she was “ressisting” bloodbending by blood bending her self after her own will as a counter. This would have given her practice in blood vending ahead of that final moment
I really like Homma’s voice actor, she does the perfect job of being sweet and nice or creepy and threatening
Just tried to explain to myself, that maybe the Avatar-Earth moon might have some weird orbital mechanics and that's why it's full most of the time. Well apparently that is not the case.
My head cannon it's always full so that sokas girlfriend can watch over him
It is odd, given the otherwise exceptional attention-to-detail, that they don't have the moon pass through phases from episode to episode -- maybe have it be a crescent for a few episodes, then a quarter moon, then a gibbous, being full for one night and then going back through gibbous, quarter, and crescent to the night of the new moon. Or even just have it default to crescent instead of full.
1:33 I think he can pick up the vibes of human emotions and just mimicked his humans’ reactions
I have a few points which could be overanalized.
- Since Toph is a living lying detector she could've detected that there was something wrong with the things that Hama was saying
- Aang's hair has grown really long to the point at which it falls a little over the head band (probably already mentioned in earlier episodes)
- why doesn't Toph open the first door to the attic with her arm ring ?
- why didn't Toph tell the group about Hama being in the House when they were breaking into the attic
- at 6:41 who's that guy on the left dancing on that mountain, that looks hilarious
I've just watched the Episode up to 6:45 so these are my points until now, perhaps I'll edit this once there's more points that fall into my line of sight
The house was wood so maybe Toph couldn't feel so well through it.
The dancing guy, whaaaat XD It cracks me up, thanks for pointing it out
Hama didnt lie once. Also dancing guy is hillarious i never knew😂😂😂
Hama comes across as such a stone cold killer that she honestly would probably beat a lie detector. There are some who can lie that well.
“Analized”
I don't think you wanna use _that_ word
lmao
I do love the emotional turmoil Katara goes through when she sees someone using Water Bending so vilely, specially someone from her own tribe, when she never met any other Southern water bender
8:13 you could argue that the Gaang see mostly high-income or rich towns since their destination is the capitol
Toph did sense Hama coming, she wasn't scared like the rest of the group
Momo doesn't talk, but like most pets he picks up on the vibe of the owners
I like to think Katara nailing it was more of a "In the moment" kind of deal rather than her just perfecting it. Similar to parents being able to lift cars if their children are in danger
0:59 man door hand sword car door. I cant believe no one in the comments caught this super deep cut joke. I couldnt stop laughing for like 5 minutes. Well played!
Most terrifying horror story ever.
This is the first episode where I've truly noticed the difference in the quality of animation from season one to season three. There were so many parts where he went back and forth between the two (especially when showing Hama's capture and the similarities to Aang's). It totally showed and gave me new perspective.
Hahahah idk this is gold
I actually laughed when you edit
“HOW DID YOU ESCAPE?”
*”blood bending”*
This episode is dope as hell too
It gets over noticeable but a lot of the humor on this episode is real good, the animation in general is well as too, how big Hamma’s house is shown really well, how they enter the house and than search for like a minutes to find the puppets and than the hairbrush.
And how funny the animation jokes can be, Angg’s reaction to the soup, Toph’s 0 reaction to her scaring the group when they find the hairbrush.
I think the reason katara was able to bloodbend so fast was because she could feel the technique being used on herself and she understood it due to her own anger and hatred since thats where this technique draws its power (nice parallel to shooting lightning since that requires complete peace of mind) since she had so much bottled up anger and anger toward hama she was able to blood bend herself free and bloodbend hama
I dunno dude, i would say that the fact that Katara immediately getting Blood Bending is a nod to how much she has matured as a Bender/Martial Artist.
I don't think it's actually bad that Katara just "gets" bloodbending. Throughout the entire episode we see her getting taught and mastering it's operating principle: living things got water in 'em, therefore they can be bent. So when the full moon hits she realizes it can be used on people. Therefore, her bloodbending is actually just her overcoming a mental block to use those principles on people instead of plants.
Always amazing. I wish you had touched upon Hama's final jab at Katara, because it really sours the gangs victory.
Also also I think the reason she said “I’m much more powerful than you” was just a way for her to regain control of her body by having a massive confidence boost when the adrenaline kicked in.
I always felt like Katara getting bloodbending immediately is executed quite well, actually. It's clearly very crude - she interrupts what Hama is doing, and then pulls her down to the ground. That's about it.
and it's clear that Katara is a really skilled water bender. She already has good habits and techniques so it's kind of just like adding another component.
6:43 Mans is vibin in the back on the ice self to the left. Love to see it.
Toph never screams or freaks out at Hama’s sudden appearances. I always thought she just didn’t mention it to the group and let them freak out.
She probably did
i took the whole "I'm more powerful than you" thing as katara being younger and more physically able
@@zee-fr5kwthe pessimistic and elitist subtext behind this is scary
Yeah, I think it was just an awkward line more than what was reall happening. Keep some common sentiments in mind that is consistent throughout ATLA and Korra:
- it is generally harder to bend something the farther away it is. And the dropoff is drastic, not just linear
- under that principle, it is generally much harder to bend an element around another bender of that element. That's why you may see stuff like sinkholes used by earthbenders, but never on another earthbender.
- This of course can be negated if the other bender is off guard or otherwise focused.
- lastly, bending's power, like any other martial art, is tied to your physical stamina in addition to Chi (something we sadly have little explanation about in the univverse, so it's mostly stamina)
So with this in mind:
- It is very hard to bloodbend another water bender once they understtand what is happening. Even if Katara is a lot weaker (she isn't by this point) it would be easy for her to break out once she listened to the flow of her own body (yes, Amon really throws this for a loop, but we can all agree Amon was crazy OP, even among all the other crazy OP enemies Korra had)
- obvious bush but: Hama is old, and hasn't had the best life. She is physically much weaker, and that can cap her potential with bending. her full moon boost is shared by Katara, so that doesn't matter.
- Lastly, the moment she learned Bloodbending was a very careful moment: Hama was already bloodbending, so all her concentration was on manipulating Aang/Sokka. She was about as off guard as she could be without being unconcious. So Katara didn't have to do AS much as normal to bloodbend a person.
- I also always had a small theory that Hama wanted Katara to stop her, the ultimate fight or flight test. Her main goal this whole episode was to spread the tecnhiques of the southern water tribe, and she ultimately succeeded. She was old but her legacy would live on as he knowledge inevitably spread, and Katara would inevitably use it as a new tool in her arsenal.
8:39 Funny how this Fire Nation guy has Sokka’s haircut or an equivalent
Fun fact: The Hebrew translation of this episode's title decided to call it "The Dark Side of the Moon" instead. I mean, it makes sense...
The german translation chose to name it 'Drama around Hama' and I really don't know why. I mean yes it rhymes but... Kinda takes away the creepiness 🤣
I love Hebrew.
@@strongfish9198 LMAOO
5:49 "There are just as many soup bending episodes as there are blood bending episodes"
Its little things like this why im subscribed to you
10:46 my favorite thing about this moment is that even if you’ve already put together what’s happening (pretty likely), giving it a chilling name like ‘bloodbending’ and even more so just hamas bone-chilling delivery makes the reveal hit HARD ooooof
They all left the "Don't" tier?
That's sad. But also probably a good idea for their bank accounts.
I mean he does say...don't
@@Tree_-wp5zn I take it as a challenge. You say don't, well guess what 😀
@@mantaspauza526 no.. don't please god. No!
Right? It was the only reason I read the comments, to see if anyone alse noticed
I always felt like this episode really glosses over the whole marionette thing, like they use as a jump scare and it is obviously foreshadowing, but it never gets brought up again. Why does she have them? Is it her actual job to make them? Is it just for fun? Does it help her blood bend? She doesn't even make an excuse for them, they're just kinda there. Also, as many people pointed out, Katara used a sort of quasi-earthbending move to block Hama's attack, which mirrors how Iroh uses a quasi-water bending technique to redirect lightning. It kinda opens out some questions about what other techniques and advantages could be unlocked by simply bending differently.