The show Avatar: The Last Airbender takes audiences to a world where the world is divided into fire, earth, water, and airbenders, who have the ability to control these elements with their will. The series shows the clash between these nations, field by the Fire Nation’s quest for world domination, and the Avatar’s quest to stop the war.
While the four abilities are the most known powers in the universe, there are other subsets of these powers that the members of these tribes have developed. One of the most dangerous of these is bloodbending, which is used by certain water benders and is classified as a dark art. However, a Reddit user theorized if earthbenders could ever control a person’s bones by controlling the minerals within the bones, making it an even scarier dark art.
What Is Bonebending in Avatar: The Last Airbender?
Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra built on the four main techniques in the in-show universe. Variations of the earth, fire, air, and water techniques that have been canonized include bloodbending, woodbending, and metalbending. In The Legend of Korra, it is even shown how an airbender can control the air in one’s lungs and use it against them.
However, one fan-made bending technique has not been canonized in Avatar yet but could potentially be the most dangerous power one could wield in the universe. Bonebending, the ability to control the minerals found in one’s bones is theorized to be one of the scariest powers. It is usually attributed to earthbenders.
Bonebending is not a canonized power in Avatar: The Last Airbender, but according to CBR, it was developed long ago by an earthbender named Shuyao, who used the ability to control the calcium in his teeth to turn into fangs and then use it to deal with his bullies. But even according to the theory, the power was long-forgotten and was never used for years.
However, CBR also mentioned that Toph Beifong, the most powerful earthbender of her time, had developed the ability and that was the reason for her amazing agility and skills when an older version of the character appeared in The Legend of Korra. The theory also stated that bonebenders have the ability to control skeletons and fossils as well.
Is Bonebending Really Possible In The Avatar Universe?
While these are only theories and have not been canonized in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe, bonebending essentially works in theory as there have been instances of people controlling the elements of nature in one’s body and turning them for their own use. One of the scariest dark art in this category is bloodbending, which turns the victims into puppets of the perpetrator.
However, certain users on Reddit disagreed with earthbenders in Avatar being the only members being able to use the power as minerals were present in water too. One user mentioned how both bloodbending and bonebending would not work scientifically. They said,
“Bones in the body don’t contain calcium in the same way that it is found in the earth, as calcium in the body is part of a hybrid compound that lacks the mineral components required for earthbending. However, the same is true for water in the body as well, meaning blood bending shouldn’t work. You can’t crack the human body open and fill a water bottle. So since blood bending is a thing, why can’t bone bending be a thing also? Both are equally ridiculous even by the pseudo-science logic of bending.”
Some also mentioned that the theory was flawed because this would mean that earthbenders could potentially waterbend, bloodbend, and musclebend by targeting the minerals in a body. However, in the Avatar universe, bloodbending and metalbending are still possible, despite using similar pseudoscience logic. Hence, it is entirely possible for bonebending to be a thing.
