Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra both portrayed bloodbending as this wicked art that could only be used for evil, to the point of having the practice banned in Korra’s timeframe.  But… let’s not be too hasty about this.

Bloodbending is the ability to manipulate a person’s fluid-bearing organs, right?  Wouldn’t that kind of ability be a massive asset to a doctor?

Someone has a large wound?  No problem, bloodbending will keep them from bleeding to death.  Pneumonia?  We’ll bend that fluid right out of your lungs.  Heart attacks, strokes, aneurysms, pleurisy… hell, it could probably even be used for completely non-invasive surgery, and applying something like Toph’s seismic sense to bloodbending would be even more effective than an MRI.

I’m just wondering if Aang was aware of the positive applications of bloodbending when he banned it, deciding that the risk of its misuse outweighed its benefits, or if he honestly thought no good could ever come of it.

That’s it, Book 2 of Korra needs to have a bloodbending doctor in it for the sweet, sweet cognitive dissonance.

I’m going straight to hell for this.

It all makes sense now.

With Legend of Korra going ten kinds of fish-shaped lately, time to throw out some fish-shaped theories of my own on the goings-on of the Avatar world.

1. Korra’s visions aren’t flashbacks
They’re happening real-time, in the spirit world. Think about it. The three canon characters we see in the flashbacks are Aang, Sokka, and Toph, who also happen to be the three canon characters who are confirmed to be dead at this time. But wait, isn’t that other guy Yakone? Didn’t Aang fight him 42 years ago? Well, yeah, that’s the point. 42 years ago, Aang would have been 41 years old. 10 years younger than Tenzin is at this point. Does he really look 10 years younger than Tenzin in those visions? No, he reasonably looks like he could be 66, the age he was when he died, and the age he’d be in the spirit world. Plus, if this really was a flashback to some horrible event that happened 42 years ago, Tenzin was 9 at the time. You’d think he’d know about it.

2. Tarrlok is the moon spirit
Yue gave up her human life to the moon spirit and became the moon. So what did the moon spirit become? This may explain how he’s able to bloodbend without a full moon. The guy Aang’s fighting in Korra’s visions may be his astral side. He represents the Northern Water Tribe, which is where the moon spirit came from. The only weird thing about this is that Nick’s website specifically lists him as 37 years old.

3. Makorra is endgame
Simply because the writers wouldn’t devote that much time to giving those two at least a bit of fluffy interaction in every episode if they didn’t intend to do something with it. If it’s just one big shiptease, that’s going to amount to a lot of wasted time. But from a competent writing perspective, that also means…

4. Asami isn’t evil
If Asami turns out to be a bad guy, then that makes Mako’s choice way too empty. Korra getting the guy simply because his previous girlfriend turned out to be evil incarnate and he decided to fall back on her isn’t exactly much of a victory for her character. If she’s going to end up with him at all (and, honestly, I would be perfectly happy if she remained single, but again, that means lots of wasted time on shipteasing Makorra), then he needs to consciously decide she’s the better option based on equal merits, not because his hand was forced.

5. Amon is Koh
Because why not. The Faceless One is out trolling the Avatar like the good old days.