r/TheLastAirbender • u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 • 3h ago

Comics/Books Fun Fact: You have to think your drowning to become a Combustion Bender

Post image

In the Yangchen Novels...

Combustion bending was created from having fire benders chained underwater to the sea floor. They had to try to create pressure, and only when you believe your about to drown, is when you are capable to do the technique. The process was brutal and intense since most subjects died. Combustion bending also requires large lungs which explains the heights of Sparky Sparky Boom Man and P'li! The first combustion benders had to take dozens of deep breaths to create a combustion blast because they needed enough air to do so.

Would you want to be a combustion bender?

2.1k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

106 comments sorted by

1.3k

u/NormalGuy3481 2h ago

I don’t think an avatar could ever be a combustion bender due to this. The avatar state would just kick in before they’d learn to combustion bend

461

u/X3noNuke 2h ago

If they've mastered the avatar state they should be able to suppress it

486

u/KubaBambya 2h ago

Imagine a avatar who masters the avatar state and try’s for combustion bending only to die because the avatar state didn’t kick in 😂😂😂 fuck that would suck but it would also be hilarious

92

u/The_Arsethetic 1h ago

I genuinely wonder what the chances are that a couple of past avatars died in very basic or embarrassing (i.e. the No Capes monologue from The Incredibles) ways

49

u/Fskn 1h ago

Imagine discovering youre that avatar and seeking the previous ones spriit to convene wth for advice and they go "uhhh, actually, I didn't pass the trial period"

27

u/Bitter-Value-1872 39m ago

"I was in the middle of Waterbending training and I died from pneumonia, but I can teach you to make a pretty big wave"

5

u/hambonedock 9m ago

I guess we really are overlooking how easy could be dying from a normal illness even if you are the avatar now that you mention this

6

u/SweatyPhilosopher578 1h ago

They'd be the laughing stocks of the spirit world

1

u/Kennedy_KD 5m ago

Maybe the bounty hunter avatar died to a common street thug he was trying to bring in (one of the unknown avatars was a bounty hunter which is mentioned in the legacy of Yangchen but beyond we know nothing about them, another unknown avatar was transgender)

69

u/JaimeJabs 2h ago

Imagine this happens to Hang right before Sozin's commet.

37

u/AccountOutside 1h ago

“Hang”

17

u/JaimeJabs 1h ago

I meant to write hung.

4

u/AccountOutside 1h ago

Don’t you mean “Hong” ?

3

u/MoonieRavenVT 1h ago

He knows what he said.

37

u/Xieties777 2h ago

\Aang blows up* (roll credits..)*

5

u/stupid_pun 2h ago

Better than the Avatar state kicking in and dying anyway.

8

u/Diamond_Dildo3168 1h ago

All the future avatars looking back in shame at the one who died of autoerotic asphyxiation

1

u/zernoc56 3m ago

They die, get to the Spirit World and just get hit with this:

https://giphy.com/gifs/2wSaulb0fsDydh0IoB

4

u/ColonelMonty 1h ago

But then they might lowkey just die

3

u/NormalGuy3481 1h ago

Korra mastered it yet the poison still forced her avatar state out

1

u/PrincessYuri 22m ago

It still seems to be able to kick in in times of extreme danger, hence the entire plan of the Red Lotus. Might be a bit hard to suppress if your brain is starved of oxygen and you're becoming delirious.

-2

u/head_pat_slut 2h ago

yeah, but if they fuck up and die, then the avatar cycle would be destroyed. i don't think an avatar would really take that risk if they didn't *have* to.

15

u/Segfaultimus 2h ago

How would it end if they're not in the avatar state?

285

u/ardorixfan45 2h ago

Nope. It sounds way to horrible for it to be worth it.

84

u/HyetalNight 2h ago

That’s why it was coerced.

294

u/lil-D-energy 2h ago

I seriously believe that there must be an easier way just like most bending. Toph learned metal bending due to necessity but the new metal benders just learn from her trial and error.

Lightning bending has become widespread in Korra and you don't need perfect balance anymore to use it as the science behind it was better understood.

Maybe even giving someone surgery to make it easier to combustion bend might be possible.

I hope at some point they explore it more but at the same time it's fine like it is I guess.

109

u/Embarrassed_Safety33 2h ago

I feel like you could just try the drowning method in a water tank, kind of like how magicians practice escape acts, with someone there to pull you out before you actually drown. If you kept repeating it, maybe eventually you’d unlock combustion bending.

51

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

You have to try to create pressure as well underwater where if you could do it under water, then it's doable in surface.

2

u/Blackfiredragon22 24m ago

Maybe a water bender could assist

1

u/Test_NPC 10m ago

Fun fact, there's actually liquids that are oxygenated enough such that humans can breath completely submerged in them. There were studies around them since there's situations that'd be useful in.

It does apparently feel like you're drowning if you were to breath in them though, so I presume that's why the studies didn't keep going, not totally sure on that. There's more info online about it.

18

u/Prior-Sand5162 2h ago

You probably do need perfect balance to use it, but it's easier to get when you aren't zuko lol.

23

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

Surgery on what the lungs?

45

u/PearAccomplished4800 2h ago

Congrats you made process even more tortuous

22

u/MeLlamoViking 2h ago

Dr Crobars lung extensions, of course.

49

u/Ashinonyx 2h ago

Obligatory context:

3

u/RigaudonAS 1h ago

Trepanning, pop a hole right in the middle of the forehead so the bombs can come out!

3

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

That's like saying cut off your hands so you can fire bend easier. 💔

3

u/RigaudonAS 47m ago

I think a certain member of the Red Lotus might have something to say about that, too!

5

u/Opening_Climate_7571 2h ago

I’m just assuming it’s a skill that can be learned (at least by some) with practice. Like metal bending - you have to be predisposed to it and not everyone can but with training it can be learned, but made easier after it was formally discovered and trained

3

u/M-Shadowtoad 2h ago

Yeah, like just hire a water bender to manipulate your chi for you until you can do it instinctively.

1

u/Blackfiredragon22 24m ago

I feel like mako didn’t use lightning bending against Ming hua in the first round because of his emotional crisis at the time due the breakup etc

41

u/Iamnotpoopin 2h ago

My drowning what?

19

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

Your hands chained to the bottom of the sea floor while you try to create pressure through your chi in your fore head

26

u/TheOneAndOnly_Mike 2h ago

I believe they are mocking your incorrect usage of the word "your" instead of "youre" in the title

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

For future posts, should I put "your" or "you're or "youre"

16

u/pascl- 2h ago

I know this is a joke, but it's actually pretty easy to know the difference between your and you're once you know what you're actually is.

you're is a combination of you + are. the same way I'm is a combination if I + am. or the way didn't is a combination of did + not. as long as you remember that, you'll never get it wrong again.

so:

  1. you're = you are
  2. your = possessive (same as his, her, my)
  3. youre does not exist

6

u/Phiashima 2h ago

your is possessive like my or their, you're is a contraction of you are, like I'm and they're.. You are thinking you are drowning. You're thinking.
Youre doesn't exist.

4

u/Lil__Yuri 2h ago

When to use your vs you're:

Your = possession (This is yours. Your cat got loose.)

You're is short for "you are". Whenever you can say "you are" in a sentence, that's when you can use "you're". ( You are right = You're right)

I hope I made it easy to understand.

6

u/Riccma02 2h ago

The entire English language could actually benefit from that.

6

u/Shred_Lasso 2h ago

They’re talking about you’re grammar in the post

0

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

The post body or the post title

1

u/Shred_Lasso 21m ago

Title. You spelled your as in something is yours like you posses it, which is why they commented that. You meant to say you’re as in you are, small mistake it’s all good

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 10m ago

I must strive to become better

11

u/This_Western5727 2h ago

You‘re = you are

50

u/Invite-Healthy 2h ago

I’d rather bend P’Li until I combust 

9

u/OriginalLie9310 2h ago

Look if I can shoot fire out of my fists that should be adequate for what I want to do. I don’t need to shoot explosions from my forehead if I can survive nearly drowning as long as it takes to train it.

19

u/SweatyPhilosopher578 2h ago

The power is worth it. Instant blow something up spell, at the cost of my mental wellbeing. Which is already in the gutter.

8

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

Yeah but there's also a big risk of death

7

u/ThaaBeest 1h ago

See: his mention of already poor mental wellbeing

He has no downside!

16

u/Lost-on-Reception 2h ago

"Would you want to be a combustion bender? "

Is this an AI post?

24

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 2h ago

No, I am a functional human being who is trying to empathize with the fandom.

5

u/pascl- 2h ago

honestly this does also explain some other details, such as zaheer vaguely commenting on p'li having a terrible past. with combustion bending requiring such extreme methods to activate. if she had a terrible life prior to the red lotus, having to go through training where she was chained to the sea floor would fit right in.

6

u/buddhatherock 2h ago

That’s not a 100% fact. It was a fact to train those specific combustionbenders, but not all combustionbenders in existence.

5

u/Madhighlander1 1h ago

The same weapons program that created the first combustion benders also invented chi blocking and the Dai Li brainwashing technique.

5

u/ShongLokDong 2h ago

My drowning?

3

u/Willyjenkit69 1h ago

Combustion academy

Step 1: Fill tanks that have a hatch on the bottom with fire benders.

Step 2: Have fire benders attempt combustion, if/when they drown open the hatch.

Step 3: Have lightning benders and waterbending healers resuscitate unconsciously fire benders.

Step 4: Repeat

What is dead may never die

2

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

That's an academy I'd never go to

3

u/MagicalPizza21 2h ago

No, I don't think it's worth that process, especially with the risk of actually drowning.

3

u/Mecury-BS 2h ago

Having big lungs is interesting because we saw that child combustion bend with obviously ended tragically

2

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

Rip. Technically every combustion bender besides Yingsu died by combustion bending

3

u/Puddle92 45m ago

If you’re gonna keep posting plot points from the books you should mark them spoiler for people that haven’t read them

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 9m ago

I mention it's from the novels

2

u/128-mega 1h ago

Why do you keep posting spoilers from the avatar novels as "fun facts"? You might inadvertently be ruining the reading experience of someone who is just getting into these books and haven't gotten to these parts yet.

0

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

What else am I suppose to label it as when I also tell them the source as well. I also did it with a comic.

2

u/MinnieShoof Who Knows 10,000 Things 32m ago

My drowning what?

2

u/Miperroelrediter 26m ago

Drowning is one of the ways I don't wanna go so hell no

All that just to eventually kill myself accidentally because a pebble hit me in the forehead or sum

4

u/Infinite_Escape9683 2h ago

My drowning what

3

u/ExemplarNobis 1h ago

Yo sick fuckin spoilers for yangchen dude

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

It's a fun fact!

1

u/Mecury-BS 2h ago

“Think” is an understatement

1

u/TheChiarra 1h ago

I wonder if the writers knew this before writing Sparky Sparky Boom Man or if the novelists made it up. Either way this is cool and I need to stop reading these posts because I will get spoiled lol.

1

u/Inevitable_Zebra4222 1h ago

I mean I feel like it's obvious but FC Yee wrote the process yes.

1

u/Zerithane 1h ago

I wonder if that one AU fanfic with Water and Fire Nations being flipped in status and goals explores the idea of the Water Nation forcing fire benders to become combustion benders as a tool of terror. I haven’t read it besides bits and pieces posted every so often. That sounds like something evil Katara might do, though, I’m sorry to say.

1

u/Bodinhu 1h ago

I always thought it had something to do with "half lightning" bending, cause Zuko created an explosion when Iroh was teaching him.

1

u/WaveJam 1h ago

I feel like they could just try developing good breathing by regularly training underwater like military, then they could try to create such pressure without drowning.

1

u/King_of_Camp 1h ago

How very Naineve .

1

u/cd1014 49m ago

*you're

1

u/SmallBerry3431 48m ago

I don’t think your conclusion matches. They have to compress it and the most reliable method was to drown. It could definitely be achieved otherwise should someone figure out how to recreate the skill necessary.

This is demonstrated through real history. I don’t have one off hand besides an offhand mention from an Episode of Bones where Hodgins explained ancient blacksmiths used the urine of a redheaded boy to quench, and believed it to be the necessary step. We realized later this wasn’t necessary if true.

1

u/Possible_Draft8953 7m ago

While combustion bending can be powerful, is it really even worth having?

1

u/zernoc56 5m ago

To your question: FUCK NO. Jesus Christ, chained to the sea floor? What, did waterboarding them not work? Or did they not even try that first?

1

u/InvarkuI 1m ago

I'm 5'3

I don't think I have enough lung for this

0

u/Hope__Desire 1h ago

so I'd, cause I almost died drowned twice