2020-05-24 20:38:43 ¶ ●

## AIRBENDER RESULT

Waterbenders value community. Earthbenders crave stability. Firebenders are made of willpower. So what about Airbenders?

Airbenders want nothing other than freedom. The freedom to express, to choose, to love, to breathe, to exist, to be. It’s quite simple, really. An Airbender will do anything to be free, to exist as they wish to exist without conflict. For this, you’ll find many incredibly understanding individuals within this particular element and you are likely one of the many. Somebody who respects the opinion and choice of another person because as an Airbender, you place so much value in freedom. Generally, these benders work with life rather than against it, using the wind currents to guide them across the sky.

Of course, this means Airbenders are naturals at avoiding conflict. They don’t enjoy it and they will do anything to keep fights from happening. This isn’t to say they’re never angry or that their emotions never get the better of them. Airbenders are still human after all; They have needs, things they need to get out like any other element as they’re unavoidable, but they’ll always consider alternative methods that won’t cause a fight. Notably, it’s not uncommon amongst Airbenders to be quite skilled when it comes to personal responsibility. Their actions are their actions and they know this. What I mean is that they are much like Earthbenders in some respects. Where Earthbenders will stifle their own wants to maintain order, Airbenders are likely to lie or quiet themselves in favour of maintaining peace and this doesn’t feel unnatural or wrong for them to do. It helps that they’re also known for letting go of negative emotion easily once the immediate moment has passed. It’d take something truly painful for an Airbender to hold a grudge. Aang is a prime example. He wants conflict to be resolved quickly with the least amount of damage done. When faced with two warring tribes, he creates an elaborate lie that completely ceases the argument they were having. Even when dealing with the genocide of his people, he never goes so far as to blame everyone in the Fire Nation. He feels his immediate anger and then chooses to instead honour and maintain the legacy of his people.

Just to be clear, an Airbender isn’t incapable of defending themselves or will simply never enter a fight. They absolutely are capable and can fight. When backed into a corner, when there’s no other option, many Airbenders will defend themselves, but it’s only as a means of protection–whether they’re protecting themselves or protecting another person. It’s a matter of necessity. Just because they prefer to avoid conflict doesn’t mean they’re less fierce or dangerous than the other elements. Consider Monk Gyatso for a moment and the haunting image of his skeleton surrounded by dozens of other skeletons. Or even Yangchen. The words she imparts to Aang also speak of operating on necessity, of sacrificing her spiritual needs in favour of selfless duty. She was the Avatar. She needed to be proactive. Airbenders will do what needs to be done when there is no other choice, but truthfully, it’s probably best for all of us to never push an Airbender so far.

Now, as said before, Freedom–whether it’s personal or worldly freedom–is the most important thing to an Airbender and without it, they can feel bogged down or like they’re being suffocated by everything around them. I like to call these Caged Airbenders. Without the freedom to choose, to be who they are, these benders will lash out and it won’t be pretty—especially when they aren’t naturally inclined to conflict. When Airbenders are angry, boy, are they angry and they will go to any lengths in order to feel like themselves again, to feel like they have a choice. Consider, again, Aang as an example. When it’s revealed he’s the Avatar, his entire life changes. The people he called his friends at the Air Temples started to treat him differently, his teachers—aside from Gyatso—became much stricter, and they tried to forcibly separate him from the only person who still treated him like Aang the child rather than Aang the Avatar. Out of desperation, because he feels like he’s being suffocated and forced to be something aside from himself, Aang runs away. When weighed down by expectation and when they’ve finally had enough, Airbenders push back like strong winds and transform into destructive tornadoes in their attempts to regain their freedom. This isn’t to say every Caged Airbender will turn self-destructive, but their actions in retaliation will most likely be thoughtless and desperate. They simply do so because they feel they must without thinking about the consequences of their actions.

In the end, Airbenders understand that what really matters is the freedom to choose. Without this, they feel like they can’t breathe. This is partly why Aang struggles so much as Sozin’s Comet gets closer. The idea that he must kill Ozai removes any autonomy he has over the matter and also greatly contradicts the values taught to him by his old teachers–the ones he swore to uphold in light of their genocide. As any Airbender would, he exercises any possible option and you, as an Airbender, are most likely the same.

Air exists all around us. Imagine if it suddenly decided when and where we breathe? It’d be impossible to live. Without freedom, an Airbender knows it’d be just the same, just as impossible. So, as the wind shifts direction, you know there’s always another way. There’s always another choice to make and you want the freedom to do so. You just want to breathe.