It’s easy to believe that bloodbending is one of the most powerful skills in the Avatar franchise. Each time it shows up in the series, it proves incredibly powerful, requiring all the skills of those who face it in order to defeat the technique. However, the fact that it can be defeated leaves the skill just short of perfection. Compared to the true deadliest skill in a waterbender’s repertoire, bloodbending pales in comparison.
That’s right, there is one waterbending technique that is rarer, more effective and far more lethal than bloodbending has ever been — and it can only be found in the Kyoshi novels.
Bloodbending was first introduced in the original series in the Season 3 episode “The Puppetmaster,” in which its creator Hama showcased its ability to control living organisms by bending trace amounts of water in their blood. Hama discovered that the power of the full moon that enhances waterbenders’ abilities allowed her to control the rats in her Fire Nation prison, and she eventually honed the ability to be able to control her captors and free herself. When she showcased the cursed ability to Katara, Katara was first to use the ability on Hama in order to overpower her.
Over the years that followed, Katara went on to outlaw the ability. Its rarity, power and illicit nature meant that it rarely occurred thereafter, but in The Legend of Korra, a unique ability to bloodbend even without a full moon manifested in the crime lord Yakone, who then passed the trait on to his two sons — Tarrlok and the villain who would later become Amon. By paralyzing those around them, the bloodbenders proved to be a powerful force difficult to contend with. However, even they were each ultimately overpowered.
Yakone’s bloodbending proved useless against the Avatar State, and Amon was incapacitated on two separate instances by Mako and Korra when each bender managed to fight through Amon’s influence to counterattack. These few vulnerabilities showed that bloodbending was far from perfect, but if the waterbenders instead used their waterbending to influence the bodies of their target in a different way, they would have been far more successful. This is because bloodbending isn’t waterbending’s deadliest technique; instead, it’s freezing the organs in a foe’s body.
In Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Shadow of Kyoshi, the titular Avatar learned the ability from the waterbender Atuat, hailed as the greatest healer in the world. With her unparalleled understanding of the healing arts, Atuat discovered that a waterbender could freeze the organs of a target to kill them instantly. After Kyoshi learned the technique, she managed to execute the earthbender Yun in a single efficient move that leaves bloodbending looking downright harmless by comparison.
It’s said that the technique takes an extraordinary level of power and control, and Kyoshi had to train for nearly a month in order to master it herself. The ability has only ever been seen in the franchise that one time. Due to its ability to end a fight immediately, it may prove difficult to tell future stories where practitioners of the talent are challenged in the way bloodbenders so frequently were.
Despite being seemingly so powerful, bloodbending never had such a level of instant lethality. Freezing an opponents’ lungs may have been too graphic for the relatively young demographic meant for the original series and The Legend of Korra, but in the mature world of the Kyoshi novels, the real potential of bending is finally let loose.
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