Assignment One Revised Again

Observation One

Relevant Background Information:The Avatar series is set in a fictional world; “The Legend of Korra” is set in a major world city called Republic City. In this world, some people can manipulate one of the four elements being fire, air, earth, and water. These people are known as benders. The Avatar is the only person with the capability of mastering all four elements, the concept of bending will be explained more thoroughly in the rules and conventions section. This observation was season 1 episode 5: The Spirit of Competition. In the episodes prior to this one Korra, who is the Avatar and currently has control over waterbending, firebending, and earthbending, has recently moved to Republic city to learn airbending. She has also gotten involved with a probending team, in order to help further her training and be as well rounded as an Avatar she can be. The basic premise of probending is there are three players on each team. One earthbender, one firebender, and one waterbender on each team. The object is to knock all of the opponents down or out of the ring using your elements.

Figured World: A large social environment that has an implied set of regulations for expected conduct.

Rules and Conventions: “The Legend of Korra” and “The Last Airbender” are two different television shows, which are part of the same series. “The Legend of Korra” is set about 70 years after “The Last Airbender” so all of the settings and pretty much all of the characters are different. Observation one three are of “The Legend of Korra” while the second observation is of “The Last Airbender.” The specific figured world in the series I choose to observe is the earthbenders. Essentially, controlling the elements is a lot like superpowers. Firebending is the ability to manipulate and create fire through movement, earthbending is the ability to manipulate rocks through movement, waterbending is the ability to manipulate water through movement, and airbending is the ability to make and manipulate wind through movement. All of the bending movements are based of off Chinese martial arts and this is the way that people interact. Earthbending is a different form than waterbending, which is a different form than firebending etc. A punch in the martial art would translate into thrusting a rock in earthbending, same with all the types of bending just with different elements. For example water is very smooth and flowing while fire is very harsh, passionate, and even angry sometimes and air is free and unattached being very evasive instead of head to head. The purpose that I choose the earthbending community is that there are many different types of earthbenders with different types of values and morals that live all over the world. The traditional earthbender was originally thought to be very tough, sturdy, and stubborn. In order to manipulate earth, you have to be like the element itself. As time progressed so did the culture and it branched off into subcategories of different disciplines, such as sandbending, metalbending, and lavabending. But just normal earthbenders vary so much between them. It is the difference between a 300 pound guy who calls himself “The Hippo” who just throws boulders around as hard as he can hoping that he hits something. Or a blind little girl that relies on feeling vibrations through her feet and being defensive and precise with her strikes. Republic City is on of the main settings of “The Legend of Korra” and it is a “Steampunk” kind of roaring 20’s time period city. Technology using

fossil fuels and electrivity is booming and people are living life to its fullest. There are no machine guns or weapons of mass destruction. People use their bending as a way to interact. Whether it is brothers beating on each other, a sparring match, a gang fight, a fight to the death, or acts of war. So that being said, obviously some places are nicer communities than other so depending on the location; it would not be surprising yet expected for a guy to hold a boulder over your head if you step through in the wrong part of town. Since “The Last Airbender” is 70 years before “The Legend of Korra,” the technology and culture is a bit more primitive. For example most of the transportation is by foot or animal. There is no electricity or packaged food. Some of the communities of practice that I will be observing are the different variations of earthbending such as probending, sandbending, metalbending, and lavabending, along with the traditional earthbending.

Interview Questions:

Interviewee: The interviewee is Noah. He and I have grown up with each other and both have followed the Avatar storyline closely. It is safe to say that we are both as knowledgeable about this subject as each other. This is the reason that I chose him to interview. Even though we both know a great deal and equal amount about this television series, we still have different opinions and viewpoints on aspects, which makes him n quality interviewee.

Q: How do the traditional earthbenders carry themselves compared to non-benders? Other benders?A: They have reverence for their culture and the process of earthbending has to be head on and have a more coarse personality due to the way they have to be to when bending rocks. They generally have a more masculine ambiance about them, not violent but not peaceful (down to earth).

Q: When you think of a traditional earthbender, what is the image that comes to mind?A: 6’ tall with defined muscles with “Granola”. Not super tone, but granted there are always exceptions, also not particularly “fat buff” either.

Q: How have earthbenders as a whole evolved over time?A: All of their culture has remained the same throughout time but when metalbending came along, it divided them more and they separated themselves according to what they bend. Since only select earthbenders have the ability to bend metal, the community of metal benders, especially the ones that live in Zaofu, which is an entire city, made of metal inhabited only by metalbenders, consider themselves to be more elite than the average earthbender.

Q: How do the specific subcategories within earthbending differ from each other? How much does each of the subcategories identify themselves with earthbending?A: The sandbenders live in the desert because they can live effectively in the desert, most metalbenders live in an all metal city (Zaofu) because they can live effectively, and

traditional earthbenders commonly live in relatively “earthy” towns and villages where they fit in to the environments; they can capitalize on their abilities so that the highest level of ease of living is achieved.A: They don’t define themselves as an earthbender, they recognize that they can bend earth but do not consider themselves earthbenders nor do they place themselves in the same community as traditional earthbenders.

Q: Explain how pro-bending has introduced new techniques into and changed the style of earthbending.A: It has more of a modern feel like quick jabs and not elongated movement like urban fighting styles more adapt to the time period and not as much of an open playing field. The fighting styles of earthbenders in probending are more adapt to street fighting because of the area being a major city. There is a lot of gang activity and if a bender is caught in crosshairs they better know how to defend themselves. This could be how the form of probending got started before it became a recognized organized sport.

Actors: The role that is played in a figured world or community, somebody who has a specific purpose.

Bolin: Bolin is the earthbender on the probending team the Fire Ferrets. He grew up on the streets of Republic City with his older brother Mako. So he is experienced in defending himself against gangs and violence on the streets. He does not strike one as the typical rough and tough manly earthbender; he is more of a goofy, corky, young spirited guy. Even though he is quite big and muscular for an older teenager, he has more of a sensitive personality. His style of earthbending reflects his personality and his upbringing.

Korra: The Avatar, capable of mastering all four of the elements but currently she can bend all but air. She is a very determined and stubborn young lady no more than 20 years old who acts more like an earthbender even though her natural element is water. She is obviously most skilled in water bending compared to others. This episode she does not bend any earth, however, because this episode is mainly about the probending tournament where she also is on the Fire Ferrets team, where she is only allowed to bend water due to the rules of probending.

Mako: The firebender on the Fire Ferret team and Bolin’s older brother. Mako is a very determined and confident young man who is probably in his young 20’s. Since he and Bolin lost their parents when they were young, Mako assumed the responsibility of practically raising Bolin. Mako is the type of guy that figures out what needs to be done and gets it done. He does not fool around or waste time. Firebenders are often determined and ambitious like Mako is.

Artifacts: Emotions, feelings, ideas, or objects that have some sort of significance in a culture/community/figured world.

Love Triangle: In this episode it is evident that Bolin is developing romantic feelings for Korra and Korra has feelings for Mako who is already in a relationship with another girl Asami, but is not entirely sure if he likes Asami or Korra more. This causes problems because Bolin takes Korra out on a date just to have fun but then Korra confesses her love to Mako who conveys that the feeling is not actually mutual. She ends up kissing him unaware that Bolin was standing right there. This is why they were slipping up in the probending matches, because none of their heads were in the game.

The Championship Title: The Avatar’s job is to keep peace and balance in the world. Korra being the young and rebellious girl that she is does not exactly look forward to doing the dirty laundry of the world. This probending tournament is a great way for her to work for something that she knows peoples’ lives do not depend on it. For Mako and Bolin it is a very big deal. Since they grew up as orphans, they never were lucky or won anything. So they are putting all of their time and energy into this. They are dependent on it.

Communities of Practice: Also referred to as learning networks, thematic groups, or tech clubs, a community of practice is groups of people who all work together for a common interest and improve each other along the way.

Pro Bending Teams: This is the most obvious community, especially the Fire Ferrets. The team that consists of Korra, Mako, and Bolin. They are all very close to one another and even though there are times where there are conflicts between them, they always resolve it. They share a common goal, which is to win the championship title, which would be the first time they ever won. So they all do their best as part of the team to better themselves as well as each other. The sport of probending is a spectator sport where two teams each of three members, one waterbender, one firebender, and one earthbender battle against each other on an elevated hexagonal ring with open backs and short elastic rope barriers along the sides. The object is to knock all of the opponents down or out of the ring. All players must wear protective gear as for the intention is not to hurt the opponents. A referee makes decisions, calls fouls etc. There are usually three rounds to a match unless it is not decidable by the time the time limit runs out on the third round.

Domain: A domain does not require membership in a community nor does not have to be in the same field of knowledge. It is something that links people together whether they know it or not in terms of a shared interest.

Rival Teams: Even though they might hate or fear each other. Those can and are used as a great motivator. They see how each play and learn their styles, see where they are strong, and where they are weak. They might not even realize it but since they are all working towards the same goal they are in a way helping each other.

Practices of the Community: A collective assembly of knowledge and experiences used in a community to improve the community.

Backgrounds: Korra has a very different background compared to Mako and Bolin. Korra grew up in a safe home where she had master benders teach her the ways of their elements to prepare the Avatar for her purpose: to restore balance to the world. Mako and Bolin had a struggle everyday while growing up. Find a place to sleep, where to get food, who they had to protect themselves from etc. Even though their lifestyles were different, they both had the same idea, which was be as ready and prepared for when they were threatened. Korra always had more training type exercises while for Mako and Bolin it always the real deal every day, if they lost, there might not have been a second chance to get back up and try again tomorrow. Both of these upbringings have different values that they can bring to the probending scene.

Literacy Practices: The multiple ways of practicing within a community with many ways of communication.

Hints/Signs of Affection: From the start of the episode it is easy to tell that these young adults have a little bit more than just a regular friendship going on. Bolin tries to move toward the fact that he wants more than just a normal friendship form Korra. She does of think much of it. When he took Korra out on a date, whether he had romantic intent or not he just wanted to make her feel like she was a one of a kind girl. She had a wonderful time but did not see Bolin the same way that he saw her. It made the whole situation even more complicated when Bolin saw Korra kiss his brother. He felt heartbreak from her, and betrayal from him.

The Observation:

0:45: The scene starts as the probending team called the Fire Ferrets which consists of Korra, Mako, and Bolin are practicing in their training room. Korra hurls water at both Bolin and Mako. Bolin deflects the blow with an earth disc and Mako disperses the water attack by kicking it with fire then sends two quick fire punches toward Bolin who again shields himself with earth discs. They playfully battle among themselves until they are all on the ground on their butts laughing. It is evident that they are more than just teammates judging by the way the practice with each other. They discuss how it is nice to have Korra at the practices because in the past her other commitments kept getting in the way. Bolin mentions that she committed to the Fire Ferrets before she made other ones. They form a team huddle and the expression on their faces and subtle music in the background imply that there might be some hint of romance in the air. Bolin looks at Korra and Korra looks at Mako. They conclude with addressing that their first match is that night for the tournament.

6:00: The first match of the tournament. The Fire Ferrets vs. The Red Sand Rabaroos. The bell rings as the first strike of elements collide in between the two teams. Bolin dodges several attacks then hurls an earth disc straight at an opponent knocking her down and back. With an assist from Mako, Bolin make a side shot to two of the opponents

putting all three of them down giving the win to the Fire Ferrets for the first round. Round two Bolin gets pushed back then as a blob of water comes speeding at him, he quickly pulls up an earth disc to block the attack, then accompanied by Korra to retaliate, again winning the second round. In round three the Fire Ferrets are working as a “Well oiled machine” as the announcer puts it. Each of them sending several quick and smooth attacks towards their opponents, finishing with Bolin who finishes them off with a series of flying earth discs.

12:30: The Fire Ferrets enter the quarterfinals as they face a team that is older and more experienced called the Borqupines. The first round the Fire Ferrets get knocked out of the ring in a matter of seconds. They are not on their game like they were in the first match. In round 2 Bolin starts out with summoning three earth discs, strongly cross throwing the first two and putting a powerful kick on the third one all hitting the same opponent. Bolin goes on a whirl, launching disc after disc at the Borqupines practically being a one-man team. Thanks to him, they get the second round. Round three ends up being a tie which results in a coin toss and whoever wins the toss picks the element that they wish to choose for those benders go against each other one on one. The Fire Ferrets win the coin toss and initially Mako volunteers to fight, but Bolin tells him that his head is not in the game like it usually is so Bolin takes the challenge. It starts out with Bolin and his earthbending opponent Chang summoning up three earth discs each and swift movements and rapidly hurling them at each other. Bolin goes in for a grapple, which gets countered throwing Bolin into the air where he chucks a disc back at Change pushing him back stunned, when Bolin touches the ground he powerfully kicks to discs at Chang blowing him out of the ring giving another win the Fire Ferrets.

17:00: The semi final match, the Fire Ferrets vs. the Buzzard Wasps. Two teams that are said to be the most well matched in age, size, and strength. The Buzzard Wasps come out with well-executed combos and strikes. The Fire Ferrets get knocked back and Bolin gets hit in the gut causing him to vomit. Just as they are about to get knocked out of the ring, the timer bell goes off signaling the end of round one. Round two starts and Mako immediately gets knocked back and accidentally fires on Bolin, which distracts him and results with him out of the ring. Down 2-0 after round two they regroup and at this point Bolin and Mako are ready to give up but Korra will not let go of the championship so easily. Bolin gets pushed back and takes an earth disc directly to his right shoulder rendering it useless. Mako turns to him and takes a side shot knocking him out followed by Bolin. Korra being the only one left, dances effortlessly around the ring in an attempt to not get hit by any attacks. Somehow able to line all three of the opponents up she blasts a powerful water jet at them knowing all of them out at once.

Observation 2

Relevant Background Information: In “Avatar, The Last Airbender” which is the sequel to “Avatar, The Legend of Korra” Twelve year old Aang is the last airbender and is also the Avatar, which means he is capable of mastering all four of the elements being water, earth, fire, and air. In less than a year he has to master all four elements in order to defeat Fire Lord Oazi, who is the ruler of the fire nation, preventing him from destroying the earth kingdom like his ancestor did to the air nation. With the help of friends who

know how to manipulate different elements, they go on their journey around the world in order to prepare Aang for his battle with Fire Lord Oazi. The episode observed is season 2 episode 9: Bitter Work. This episode is about Aang leaning how to earthbend. This is set in the time period before electricity was discovered.



Aang: Aang is the Avatar and the only airbender left, it is up to him to introduce more airbenders into the world. He is a very goofy young teenager who likes to goof of and have a fun time. The air nomads who raised him were very free spirited and detached from a lot of the physical distractions. This characteristic is very evident in Aang. But when the time comes to be serious and get something done, he will set his mind to it because he knows that if he is not well enough prepared to face Fire Lord Oazi when the time comes, the entire world will suffer the consequences.

Toph Beifong: Aang’s best friend and earthbending teacher. Toph is blind and she uses earthbending to feel vibrations in herself and everything around her almost like sonar to get a 3-D map of her surroundings in her mind. This is how she developed the technique of metalbending. When she was trapped in a metal box with no way out, she repeatedly hit the box until she could feel the bits of earth in the impure metal and used that to bend it. She is definitely one of the most skilled earthbenders in the world. She is blunt, straight forward and takes on her challenges head on.

Katara: Katara lived in the South Pole where she learned the very basics of waterbending until she decided to go with Aang and teach him waterbending. She is a very caring and loving young girl who takes on the role of a mother in the group. This is due to the fact that her mother was killed when she was about eight years old while her dad was off at war. So she had to assume all of the responsibilities that her mother had. She deeply cares about every person in the group especially Aang.


Aang’s Glider: Every airbender owned a personal glider that is basically like a kite that only airbenders can use. They bend the air currents around them in their favor so that they can basically fly. This is one of the only items that Aang has from his home. Since the fire nation wiped out all of the airbenders except for Aang, this is more than just a wooden stick with cloth sheets attached to it. It resembles his heritage and his airbending roots. Aang hold his tradition very close to him since it is his sole responsibility to carry on the airbending culture.

Toph’s Blindness: The fact that Toph is blind only makes the level of her earthbending skill more meaningful. Aang was told by an old and wise friend that he needed to learn earthbending from somebody who waits and listens to the earth before attacking. Because grunting and snorting and hurling huge boulders as hard as you can all over the place may take a lot of strength, but not much skill. Aang being only a kid going up against a full grown adult man definitely should not rely on his strength to win, but instead strategy. This is why Toph is the perfect earthbending teacher for Aang, because she literally does listen to the earth.


The Earth Kingdom: The earth kingdom consists of most of the world’s population, especially since the air nation is 99% extinct. They also take up the most land mass than any other element. The world in “The Last Airbender” is very segregated and it is very rare to see a water bender in earth kingdom territory. Although all are welcome everywhere except only fire nation people are allowed in fire nation territory because they are waging war against the rest of the world. Oazi plans to conquer the earth kingdom because he knows that if he can achieve that, then the rest of the world will come easily. This is easier said than done though, the people of the earth kingdom are very stubborn and will fight until their very last breath as long as they have hope. They are a very patriotic people who are strong and will not go down without a fight. Altogether, they are the strongest and most strong-willed people in the Avatar world.


Saving the world: Usually the Avatar is only told his identity when he/she reaches adulthood. In Aang’s case, he has less than a year to defeat Oazi so that he does not conquer and destroy the earth kingdom. Aang’s group of friends and him all work together, train with each other, and push each other every day to prepare themselves for what lies ahead of them.

Practices of a Community: A collective assembly of knowledge and experiences used in a community to improve the community.

Team Avatar: The group of teenagers that live and travel with Aang are commonly referred to as “Team Avatar.” This team consists of Aang, Katara, Toph, Sokka (a nonbender), and Zuko (a firebender). With all of their special talents, skills, and abilities combined they become an unstoppable team when they put their minds to it. Sure there are stronger foes out there, but one thing that Aang points out to Oazi as he is in the midst of the final battle with him is that the one thing that he has that Oazi does not, is friendship. Aang believes that this is the reason why they work so well as a team.


Messenger Hawks: The only way to send a long distance message quickly was by a messenger hawk. Unfortunately these hawks were only available to the fire nation who was conquering the rest of the world. Not only that, only the upper class wealthier citizens could afford them. The hawk had a canister strapped on to its back which could hold a letter and somehow every hawk knew how to get to all of the different mail stations all over the world.

Past Avatars: The Avatar’s spirit is reincarnated whenever they die and lives on in the next baby that is born of the cycle being earth to fire to air to water and so on. If the Avatar can meditate and concentrate on his/her inner soul, he can communicate with all of his past lives. Aang always goes to the Avatar before him Roku whenever he needs guidance or help. All of the Avatar’s experiences and knowledge are in the current Avatar as long as they know how to access it.

The Observation:

2:30: Aang is very anxious to learn complicated earthbending moves, but Toph suggests that he just starts with moving a rock. She explains to him that the key to earthbending is the stance, since earth is a stubborn element; you have to be steady and strong to impact it. Toph demonstrates by moving a boulder at least four feet high with ease slamming in to the cliff fifty feet away. When Aang attempts it, he accidently airbends himself backwards away from the boulder instead of pushing it away from him.

4:20: Katara questions why Aang failed at moving the rock because from her perspective, he did it the exact same way as Toph did. Aang starts to say that it might work if he approaches the rock from a different angle. Toph cuts him off and explains that there is only one way to move the boulder and that is by facing it head on. There is no clever solution or trick to move it. Toph’s boldness in telling Aang what he is doing wrong catches him off guard and discourages him a little. Katara explains to Toph that he really responds to positive encouragement and “gentle nudges” in the right direction. Toph thanks her and the next scene is Toph pushing Aang through a series of very strenuous and obviously very difficult earthy exercises. As Aang progresses through them it is evident that the more he trains the more sturdy he is and earthbender material he is becoming. Since Toph is blind, she is teaching Aang earthbending by feeling the vibrations in the ground like she does. This is shown by all of the exercises she puts him through. One of them being having him being blindfolded and trying to hit rocks that Toph is raising from the ground like a game of whack-a-mole.

8:40: Toph decides to try a different method to teach Aang earthbending. This time, instead of trying to move a rock, he is going to attempt to stop a rock. Aang looks up the cliff in front of him in fear and he sees a long path leading right to him with a boulder sitting on top. Katara intervenes because she does not want Aang to get hurt so she asks Toph if she really thinks that this is the best way to teach Aang earthbending. Toph thinks

about it and then blindfolds Aang explaining that this way is better because now he will really feel the vibrations of the boulder coming toward him to stop it. Toph sincerely thanks Katara and Aang sarcastically thanks her. At the last second Aang jumps out of the way and Toph runs up to him angry telling him that his stance and form were perfect but he wimped out at the last second. He says that he just panicked and he didn’t know what to say and yelling at him if he thinks he has what it takes to be an earthbender, to which he replies with a somber “no”.

12:25: Aang and Katara are practicing some simple waterbending techniques to help him relieve some frustration due to his inability to grasp earthbending. She assures him that this is only a temporary block and he will eventually get it. Aang admits that he is not able to move a rock and acknowledges that he needs to face the rock and the situation head on. Katara, trying to comfort him explains that earth is particularly difficult for him to learn because it is his opposite element, just like fire is to water.

20:00: Aang goes looking for Sokka since he has been gone hunting all day. He finds him stuck in a crevice in the ground and Aang tries to airbend him out of it but it does not work. Sokka suggests he tries to earthbend him out so Aang tries to do that only to be unsuccessful again. The next thing they know both of them are face to face with an angry saber-toothed moose lion. It charges at them several times and Aang airbends it off to the side a few times then finally delivers a powerful wind gust knocking the beast back on its butt, it then gets up an walks away. When the dust clears, Toph is sitting on a rock off to the side slowly applauding Aang. He asks her why she didn’t do anything to help them face the beast if she was sitting there the whole time. She responds with a nonchalant “I guess it just didn’t occur to me.” Aang agitatedly gets up in her face and she demands him to earthbend and tells him that if he can defend his ground against a crazy beast then he has the stuff it takes to be an earthbender. He determinedly gets in his stance and powerfully punches a rock next to him sending it flying into the cliff. Toph congratulates Aang and tells him that he is officially an earthbender now.

Observation 3:

Relevant Background Information: Korra’s objective is now to go around the world searching for newly activated airbenders and recruit them to move to the air temple and learn the ways of the air nomads and become an airbending master. One of the newly activated airbenders is Opal, who is Suyin’s daughter. The episode depicted is season 3 episode 8: “The Terror Within.” Not everybody wants what Korra wants though, she learns that there is an antagonist group called the Red Lotus that is trying to prevent her from recreating the air nation along with other things.



Lin Beifong: Otherwise known as Chief Beifong, Lin is the chief of police of Republic City and one of Toph’s daughters. She took over the police force after Toph retired. The Republic City police force consists mostly of metalbenders. She is one of the best metalbenders there is considering that her mother invented the technique. Lin has a very hard and bitter outside that has a complicated past and has a reason and a memory for every characteristic that she has. She is rash, merciless, and unforgiving. Her personality fits perfectly with her job being the chief of police in a big city. Allowing her to be not held back by personal feelings and emotions is a key requirement to be as effective as she is. She followed in her mother’s since she was a teenager and always felt like she had to be the mother of Suyin.

Suyin Beifong: Sister of Lin and daughter of Toph. Suyin is the leader of Zaofu. She is almost like the alter ego of Lin. She is very jovial, welcoming, generous and pleasant to be around. She is also a metalbender, about as equal skill level as Lin. When she was young she was always the rebellious teenager, thinking that she could get away with anything because her mother was always so caught up in her job.


Zaofu: Zaofu is said to be the most secure place in the world because it is made of all metal, has 24 hour security, and is a completely closed metal done at night. A team of metal benders bend enormous wedges up over the city to metal a completely closed metal dome, protecting it from any foreign invaders. Metal is thought of as the element or substance that cannot be affected by most other things. So the importance of safety and security in the city is of utmost importance. The metalbenders that live there are very proud to be who they are and where they live.

The Avatar: The most important component to the Red Lotus’ vision. Since they believe that the world should return to its “natural state” where everything is equal and fair and power is distributed evenly between everyone, they believe that the Avatar disrupts this vision and must be disposed of.


The Red Lotus: An anarchist organization whose identity, along with their goal was completely anonymous to the public. The Red Lotus' goal is to have all the benders and nonbenders coexist again in a way of life that does not include positions of power and world leaders. They believe that this is achievable by giving all power to the people, in other words, chaos. The only presently alive members of the Red Lotus are Zaheer; a powerful airbender their leader, Ghazan; a lavabender, P’Li; a combustion bender, Ming-Hua; an armless waterbender that

uses water as her limbs, and Aiwei; a metalbender and truth seer. Together all of their abilities combined makes them very capable of accomplishing the most difficult tasks.


Power Disc: This is a metalbending sport created by Suyin’s sons. The object of the game is to get a metal disc into the opponent’s goal by bending it to ricochet off of surrounding walls and pillars. This is a competitive game between two metalbenders that creates unity whether they realize it or not.

Zaofu Guards / Republic City Elite Police: Standard uniforms consist of all metal. It works exceptionally as armor, and can also be used for offensive attacks by taking pieces off of it and shaping it differently into a weapon. Metal cables are used as the main way of capturing and restraining a criminal. These are a very lightweight weapon so it is very easy to bend and control by a metalbender but almost impossible to counter by anyone else. Every guard and police member is disciplined in the same metalbending technique and work toward the goal of making the community a safer place.

Practices of a Community: A collective assembly of knowledge and experiences used in a community to improve the community.

Metalbending: Every single person that lives in Zaofu is a metalbender. They all use this as a way to relate and connect to each other. It is not as big as other cities since few earthbenders have the ability to metalbend, this makes the city relatively close knit. The majority of metalbenders consider themselves more advanced or “higher up in the food chain” compared to regular earthbenders. Although not necessarily in a pompous or smug fashion. They see it as a way and reason to create community between themselves.


Radio: The radio is the most common way to communicate. It can be programmed to just be a two-way radio, a broadcast signal, etc. It is very effective in terms of military communication especially over long distance.

Aiwei: Aiwei is an earthbender and metalbender who has a very unique ability called truth seeing. What he is able to do is feel a person’s heart beat slightly speed up if they are lying. He can use this to his advantage by not telling a person that he knows they are lying or not. He can also lie to other people about somebody else lying to hide something. He does this and says a guard in Zaofu is part of the Red Lotus after interrogating him when really it is Aiwei himself that is betraying Korra. He betrayed her by letting the Red Lotus into Zaofu via an underground passage.

The Observation:

0:00: Korra is metalbending sparring with Wei and Bolin is trying to metalbend with Wing. Korra tries to attack Wei with metal cables, but being a more experienced metalbender, he counters her attack and puts her on the ground. He exclaims how awesome he thinks it is to train with the Avatar. Wing complains about indicates by his tone of voice that he does not want to be training with Bolin since he is not a metalbender. Wing sandwiches Bolin in between two metal tiles and says that the best way to learn metalbending is “Trial by fire.” Mako makes fun of Bolin for not being able to metalbend to which Bolin responds with “Mako, metalbending is extremely difficult, no one gets it right away if they can get it at all. It’s not normal.” Korra does a fancy spinning move lashing out her cable taking Wei’s foot and tossing him up in the air, then exclaims “Woohoo! Metalbending champion!”

5:30: The Red Lotus is in the midst of kidnapping tranquilized Korra when Mako and Bolin see them and alert the Zaofu guards. Lin, Wei, and Wing and numerous guards put up a barrier of metal walls surrounding the Red Lotus. They think that they have won and demand for the Avatar to be released when Ghazan lavabends a moat all around them melting the metal walls entrapping them. Zaheer then attempts to airbend steam all around them to create cover so they can escape. As he is twirling his glider around a guard binds his wrists together with a cable and throws him away separating him from his allies as P’Li shoots a combustion beam at him which is blocked by a metal wall held up by another guard. The metal barriers are being used as cover and shields from P’Li’s explosive attacks. They realize that there is no way to retrieve unconscious Korra from the Red Lotus with all four of them guarding her. Suyin and Lin drop down from the top of the dome over the city by cable to try to rescue Korra. In order to do this Bolin has to stun P’Li by shooting a small rock at the center of her forehead which is the source of her combustion blasts. Between all of the lava plumes and water flying past his face he manages to hit her exactly dead square in the middle of her forehead right as she looks up at Suyin and Lin and begins to blast, rendering her neutralized. They land down on the island in the middle of the lava moat, grab Korra, and start to recoil up when Zaheer flies on his glider up toward them and tries to attack Lin but Suyin shoots her sharp metal pieces from a gauntlet she is wearing through Zaheer’s glider sending him spiraling toward the ground. He creates a tornado of smoke with which the Red Lotus uses to escape unseen and without the Avatar.

Documents

Assignment One Revised Again