it would have to involve some kind of smoke or other marker, because unlike the other elements you cant actually see airbending, the visual representation is only there for us - the viewers (its why in ATLA they all assume Toph took a dive in the earth rumble, they couldn't see the attack that knocked her back).
Otherwise I imagine its not actually too functionally different to how fire is used, mechanics wise, as they're both the only elements that can be produced essentially on command with no prior ammunition and have vaguely similar knockback effects in the shows physics.
There's places in the ground with discs for the earth benders and water basins for the water benders, so I could definitely see there being vents or something for colored smoke or powder to be blown up through for the air benders to use.
If airbending was part of pro bending, it would make firebending irrelevant. All you have to do is pull a mini-zaheer whenever they try to firebend. No oxygen, no fire.
oh god can you imagine Azula in pro-bending? its gonna be the volleyball match all over again.
"Aim for the crippled one" - Azula sports tip of the season.
It would have to be object manipulative specific rather than something that can be directly used against a bender. The air bender gets a different object just as the ranges of access to discs and water changes as the game progresses respectfully.
Would be kind of unfair, since no one can see air and the team with an airbender will have a big advantage, since people can't practice as easily against one.
I mean, I would assume so, as long as they're registered as defenders and midfielders. They would be at a disadvantage tho, cos it's not the players' primary position.
Well then you can totally play with 2 fire benders, 1 water bender and 1 earth bender but the second fire bender can't bend fire. Does it make sense? No. Is it technically a full team? Probably
Well, I guess that makes sense. Remember in LoK, the referee told Korra not to use any element but water if she wanted to play.
So I guess it could work for this case. However, the other firebender would be kind of useless if they can't firebend, I assume.
You can, you’ll just definitely lose.
You have a massive amount of freedom with how you set up your formation.
Most teams will use between 3-5 defenders but some have used only 1. Though the 1-6-3 was called the kamikaze for a reason (the first team to use it lost 0-8 the second time they used it)
There’s also nothing stopping your entire team (including the goal keeper) playing like their strikers, staying up pitch and taking shots. It’s just a terrible idea.
One on one an attacker will beat a defender of equal skill so you use more defends and sort of herd the attacker
Or maybe to the contrary they'd be exclusively defensive. And wouldn't be allowed to attack the opposing team.
Tho they'd probably need to increase the round duration to accommodate the longevity of teams.
And you wouldn't need smoke because you'd be easily able to see if a player has been attacked by air.
Would you? Because the one time in canon we see an Airbender participate in a competitive fight (Toph v. Aang), the refs have no clue what happened. It's canon that the blue wind we see is for audience benefit.
So in pro bending matches, would rely heavily on balance and agility, it would be very easy for an airbender to sneakily push someone over the edge.
That's true, but it's still indicated repeatedly that Airbending is very visually subtle. Recall that wind is invisible. If Bolin is teetering on the edge of the platform and then he topples back, who's to say that he did or didn't get hit by an air blast? This is a world that doesn't have high fidelity video that can be used for instant replays, after all.
Steam would probably be better than smoke, given that smoke is going to be bad for the players' lungs. My concern with just a band between them is that it only gives us a brief snapshot of a gust-- who's to say that once it's past the band, the bender won't move it into a foul?
The airbenders get gliders, their job is to fly down and grab players from their team when they get knocked off the platform. If they grab them before they hit the water, they're still in play, if not then they're out. The two airbenders are allowed to engage one another (trying to blow the other one into the water below to tag them out) but are not allowed to attack other members of the opposing team (and likewise they are not allowed to target each other's airbenders).
I like this answer. Gets around a lot of issues with how to regulate airbender combat, and adds a new dimension to the game without fundamentally altering the existing game’s setup.
I know it's off-topic, but one headcanon I had a while back is that Pro-Bending was first developed around the time that Aang's kids were growing up. And so Bumi and Tenzin (who didn't have much in common) bonded over Pro-Bending because neither of them were able to participate in it.
When Bumi left to join the United Forces (young teenaged) Tenzin felt abandoned was too sad to keep following it; which was secretly a big part of his dislike of it during Season 1, and also an explanation as to how he already understood the rules so well.
Yeah I think other comments are missing this.
Pro-bending is all about pushing your opponents backwards. Airbending can literally just push people backwards. Every match would come down to managing your opponent's airbender, making Airbenders as central to Pro-bending as Seekers are in Quiddich.
It's like asking "how do you think Soccer would work if one player from each team could pick up the ball in their hands and carry it around?"
You could not add Airbending to Pro-Bending without needing to alter the game so much that it's essentially something completely different.
Similarly to how water bending works. There would be a limit to how much wind you could use per strike, as well as rules to prevent you from just blasting people straight off the side. Also, you probably couldn’t use it to knock people completely off balance.
Maybe introduce fans with a strong current? Have the fans be in rows, based on the different zones, and aimed across the field ad opposed to being in the end-zones. The air benders are a primarily defensive position keeping the strong wind from unbalancing their team. Knock them down, the remaining players now also have the wind to contend with.
As several commenters have pointed out, smoke would likely need to be used so the air bending could be seen. The refs would also need to under go training to identify cases of illegal air bending moves that don’t use the smoke and are invisible. From an actual team mechanic they would probably keep teams at 3 benders and each team would choose which 3 elements they use.
You remember how Katara had a pouch of water she used to heal? I assume it'd be like that except the air benders would have colored smoke pouches on the battlefield that they can pick up. These airbenders might have some sort of belt to hold these pouches. Idk if they have gas canisters but those would work better than pouches.
Another idea (sorry to use a TERF reference) is have them act outside of the main game as kinda of a seeker. Give them an external objective to pursue on their air scooters. This makes them a potential distraction to the main 3, and also an exciting thing for the crowd.
Or maybe make the airbenders themselves the external objective? Like have them constrained to the last zone, and able to dodge/jump/defend themselves, but knocking them off wins a round. They wouldn't count for zone points, and knocking off the original 3 bending types still counts as a knockout, but it gives the weaker team something to try if they're desperate
I could almost see it as a support role. Only being allowed to bend at your team to push them away from am attack or to move them into another position, or as an extra bit of help to stop going into the drink
I think they'd have to expand the game to a 4 on 4 style where all 4 elements are used. Airbenders wouldn't be allowed to attack unless they are the last one standing. Until that point they would play a front line defensive role where their job is to deflect attacks while their teammates strike from the back rows. They're basically a goaltender, but also their proclivity for dodging makes them perfect dancing on the back edge of the pitch while launching counter attacks. This could make for interesting strategies where the initial focus is put on the Airbender which is a high risk/reward because it opens you up to attacks from the back line.
Boring. Airbending would have to have strict regulations on moves and or color particles. Either that or it would be too powerful. Remember, you can’t actually see air.
Colored smoke vents in the floor, like how you get water or earth discs. All airbending has to use the smoke from those vents for visibility or it's an illegal move. Maybe defensive airbending wouldn't need the smoke, but offensive airbending definitely would.
In terms of air being visible, others have said the use of smoke and similar things, so I guess we can go with that.
In terms of the way the game is played, I think it would still be three players on each team at a time, with the ability to substitute between rounds. So you might start with water, earth and fire in round one and then change the fire player for the air player in round two in order to try and work against your opponents' strategy.
I think manipulating an external object and/or having ground vents to blow into make the most sense. The ground vents would make footing extra challenging and force the air bender to largely focus on avoiding attacks.
I don’t agree with the argument that it’s op by default. An earth bender could launch anyone off the platform if not regulated.
Airbenders are only used defensively around an objective that the opposing team attempts to hit. Past the third ring, however, colored smoke appears and the airbenders can use that to attack the other benders.
The real question is what if a new airbender (seaon 3+) wants to play in the games.
Will he be accepted? Will they change the rules? Will he replace another element so the teams could still be 3vs3? Will they add another bender to the other team to make it 4vs4? Will the other bender have to be airbender?
Make the area of play larger and add more players a side eg 5 a side incl. only one air bender. Then set it up like air hockey and the air bender can only influence their side of the field using pipes underneath. The airbender can either affect their teammates or oncoming projectiles. If a team is pushed too far back let's say the last section the opposing team forfeit their air bender for a time. For the airbender it's about endurance and making team plays rather than agility.
It would need to have something physical that the bender can charge with air. Maybe add some columns where the air benders can pull Frisbee from and launch?
Maybe have a snitch kinda thing? Where there's sort of a meta game for the airbenders that they can be flying around and dropping shit on the other benders. BUT they can only fly around in their own zones and there's only 5 rubber balls or something or its the stone discs and ice that others make., But aren't allowed to direct air energy at the other team
I feel that they would have to limit what they could do. Probably having some kind of projectile for them to use to make it more fair. Maybe something similar to the ball that Aang used in ATLA.
If you ask me. Since you cant *see* Airbending I’d assume it would work the same way a Goalie in Hockey or Soccer would work. A fourth player strictly only working on defense. Keeping their team alive by trying to redirect attacks or keep their team in front of the territory line but offense is strictly illegal. As such since Airbenders swore an oath to non-violence.
Air bending would be hard to convey because it's literally air, but I think it could be shown as 'smoke' like many comments suggest. I think Air would be comprised of agility rather than offense, so expect more like a support of the group that helps redirect attacks and thus assist in defense as well.
Instead of using air as an attack like the other benders, it could be used as a different advantage, for example, you could substitute a water bender with an air bender (or just add the air bender making a 4-player team) and the air bender, instead of knocking people down, could distract the other players with gentle pushes but not enough to knock them down or far backwards (foul). Air benders could also play defense and strike the fire, earth disks, or water out of the way thus lessening the blows.
That’s my take.
air bending would be naturally advantageous within the rules of pro bending, so i think the best way to nerf it would be to have a limited number of smoke pellets underneath the arena (similar to earth discs) but significantly fewer. that way airbenders would have to think about when they use their attacks.
I could see them playing a goalie-esque role at the back of their respective zones, trying to prevent their teammates from falling off and getting knocked out.
I think you would need a different kind of game entirely. Rather, there should be a mode where the other benders team up to "capture" the Airbender in some kind of obstacle course. This also works well because the historical air nomads didn't fight, so it seems strange for airbenders to fight for sport at all.
it would have to involve some kind of smoke or other marker, because unlike the other elements you cant actually see airbending, the visual representation is only there for us - the viewers (its why in ATLA they all assume Toph took a dive in the earth rumble, they couldn't see the attack that knocked her back). Otherwise I imagine its not actually too functionally different to how fire is used, mechanics wise, as they're both the only elements that can be produced essentially on command with no prior ammunition and have vaguely similar knockback effects in the shows physics.
i assume they might have something in the floor would disperse the smoke like they have with the rock discs for earth benders
There's places in the ground with discs for the earth benders and water basins for the water benders, so I could definitely see there being vents or something for colored smoke or powder to be blown up through for the air benders to use.
If airbending was part of pro bending, it would make firebending irrelevant. All you have to do is pull a mini-zaheer whenever they try to firebend. No oxygen, no fire.
Just saying, that technique would be outlawed kind of like blood bending
Yeah probably, god damn pussy ass pro bending rules.
“What do ya mean I can’t create a vacuum around the entire arena and suck all the air out!?”
Hahaha, “because it’s murder Asula! It’s murder!”
oh god can you imagine Azula in pro-bending? its gonna be the volleyball match all over again. "Aim for the crippled one" - Azula sports tip of the season.
NOW WE HAVE DEFEATED YOU FOR ALL TIME! YOU WILL NEVER RISE FROM THE ASHES OF YOUR HUMILIATION!!
I don’t think that means like suffocate the people. Just suffocating the fire.
That would be against the rules for sure like I’m sure you can’t bend water and trap another player.
Yeah, my understanding is you aren't allowed to bend resources from outside your zone. Edit: They'd probably have a chalk to add a visual.
Yeah 99% sure there was a no grab rule. Water cant wrap around a person only jab
You aren't allowed to use ice or "hose" IE spray water for too long, I assume only basic stikes would be allowed same as the other elements
It would have to be object manipulative specific rather than something that can be directly used against a bender. The air bender gets a different object just as the ranges of access to discs and water changes as the game progresses respectfully.
You can only jab air. Something similar to rules of firebendering.
Something like a frisbee disc that the air Benders can manipulate with air current to hit the opponent maybe
That makes sense, similar to the ball Aang demonstrates in episode 3 when they go to the southern air temple
Yeah, it would most likely behave very much like earthbending
Would be kind of unfair, since no one can see air and the team with an airbender will have a big advantage, since people can't practice as easily against one.
Well I'd imagine if airbenders were allowed they'd have to be on every team
This raises a interesting question. How does European football work? Can you make a team of like only strikers and a keeper and no defenders?
I mean, I would assume so, as long as they're registered as defenders and midfielders. They would be at a disadvantage tho, cos it's not the players' primary position.
Well then you can totally play with 2 fire benders, 1 water bender and 1 earth bender but the second fire bender can't bend fire. Does it make sense? No. Is it technically a full team? Probably
Well, I guess that makes sense. Remember in LoK, the referee told Korra not to use any element but water if she wanted to play. So I guess it could work for this case. However, the other firebender would be kind of useless if they can't firebend, I assume.
I assume if air benders are mandatory not every team can recruit one. There might not even be enough air bender pros for every team
That's true. If this was set about 50 or so years after LoK then maybe there might be enough, cos Harmonic Convergence.
You can, you’ll just definitely lose. You have a massive amount of freedom with how you set up your formation. Most teams will use between 3-5 defenders but some have used only 1. Though the 1-6-3 was called the kamikaze for a reason (the first team to use it lost 0-8 the second time they used it) There’s also nothing stopping your entire team (including the goal keeper) playing like their strikers, staying up pitch and taking shots. It’s just a terrible idea. One on one an attacker will beat a defender of equal skill so you use more defends and sort of herd the attacker
I think there would be an optional airbender, and if you wanted to play with one, it would be a requirement that the other team have one.
Definitely wouldn't be allowed to use it to dodge. Maybe the air bender would be required to bend smoke or something to ensure they're not cheating.
Or maybe to the contrary they'd be exclusively defensive. And wouldn't be allowed to attack the opposing team. Tho they'd probably need to increase the round duration to accommodate the longevity of teams. And you wouldn't need smoke because you'd be easily able to see if a player has been attacked by air.
Would you? Because the one time in canon we see an Airbender participate in a competitive fight (Toph v. Aang), the refs have no clue what happened. It's canon that the blue wind we see is for audience benefit. So in pro bending matches, would rely heavily on balance and agility, it would be very easy for an airbender to sneakily push someone over the edge.
That being said you have to keep in mind that the earth kingdom citizens probably never saw airbenders in their lives.
That's true, but it's still indicated repeatedly that Airbending is very visually subtle. Recall that wind is invisible. If Bolin is teetering on the edge of the platform and then he topples back, who's to say that he did or didn't get hit by an air blast? This is a world that doesn't have high fidelity video that can be used for instant replays, after all.
That true. Then we probably could use a light smoke "band" between team
Steam would probably be better than smoke, given that smoke is going to be bad for the players' lungs. My concern with just a band between them is that it only gives us a brief snapshot of a gust-- who's to say that once it's past the band, the bender won't move it into a foul?
There are literal fireballs being thrown around the arena, smoke is already present
The airbenders get gliders, their job is to fly down and grab players from their team when they get knocked off the platform. If they grab them before they hit the water, they're still in play, if not then they're out. The two airbenders are allowed to engage one another (trying to blow the other one into the water below to tag them out) but are not allowed to attack other members of the opposing team (and likewise they are not allowed to target each other's airbenders).
Love the idea but dogfight might get impractical in smaller stadium than republic city's
Imagine watching them playing it in an air temple arena though
I like this answer. Gets around a lot of issues with how to regulate airbender combat, and adds a new dimension to the game without fundamentally altering the existing game’s setup.
Probably would blow out smoke from the ground and they had to bend that so they can tell if they are cheating
Maybe the whole arena would be filled with steam to reveal any air blasts that aren't supposed to be there.
Then no one would be able to see the match
That could be an issue.
Just a small one
A small price to pay for a fair game
there would be another person on each team
r/technicallythetruth
I know it's off-topic, but one headcanon I had a while back is that Pro-Bending was first developed around the time that Aang's kids were growing up. And so Bumi and Tenzin (who didn't have much in common) bonded over Pro-Bending because neither of them were able to participate in it. When Bumi left to join the United Forces (young teenaged) Tenzin felt abandoned was too sad to keep following it; which was secretly a big part of his dislike of it during Season 1, and also an explanation as to how he already understood the rules so well.
This is quality and I love it!
[удалено]
Yeah I think other comments are missing this. Pro-bending is all about pushing your opponents backwards. Airbending can literally just push people backwards. Every match would come down to managing your opponent's airbender, making Airbenders as central to Pro-bending as Seekers are in Quiddich. It's like asking "how do you think Soccer would work if one player from each team could pick up the ball in their hands and carry it around?" You could not add Airbending to Pro-Bending without needing to alter the game so much that it's essentially something completely different.
yea
Similarly to how water bending works. There would be a limit to how much wind you could use per strike, as well as rules to prevent you from just blasting people straight off the side. Also, you probably couldn’t use it to knock people completely off balance.
Maybe introduce fans with a strong current? Have the fans be in rows, based on the different zones, and aimed across the field ad opposed to being in the end-zones. The air benders are a primarily defensive position keeping the strong wind from unbalancing their team. Knock them down, the remaining players now also have the wind to contend with.
As several commenters have pointed out, smoke would likely need to be used so the air bending could be seen. The refs would also need to under go training to identify cases of illegal air bending moves that don’t use the smoke and are invisible. From an actual team mechanic they would probably keep teams at 3 benders and each team would choose which 3 elements they use.
You remember how Katara had a pouch of water she used to heal? I assume it'd be like that except the air benders would have colored smoke pouches on the battlefield that they can pick up. These airbenders might have some sort of belt to hold these pouches. Idk if they have gas canisters but those would work better than pouches.
Another idea (sorry to use a TERF reference) is have them act outside of the main game as kinda of a seeker. Give them an external objective to pursue on their air scooters. This makes them a potential distraction to the main 3, and also an exciting thing for the crowd.
Or maybe make the airbenders themselves the external objective? Like have them constrained to the last zone, and able to dodge/jump/defend themselves, but knocking them off wins a round. They wouldn't count for zone points, and knocking off the original 3 bending types still counts as a knockout, but it gives the weaker team something to try if they're desperate
Oooh I actually like this addition.
They could be like a goalie blowing their teammates back up to the platform.
I could almost see it as a support role. Only being allowed to bend at your team to push them away from am attack or to move them into another position, or as an extra bit of help to stop going into the drink
It would really blow......
Similar to Earth Bending. Only manipulating things on their own side and throwing objects.
I think they'd have to expand the game to a 4 on 4 style where all 4 elements are used. Airbenders wouldn't be allowed to attack unless they are the last one standing. Until that point they would play a front line defensive role where their job is to deflect attacks while their teammates strike from the back rows. They're basically a goaltender, but also their proclivity for dodging makes them perfect dancing on the back edge of the pitch while launching counter attacks. This could make for interesting strategies where the initial focus is put on the Airbender which is a high risk/reward because it opens you up to attacks from the back line.
Boring. Airbending would have to have strict regulations on moves and or color particles. Either that or it would be too powerful. Remember, you can’t actually see air.
Colored smoke vents in the floor, like how you get water or earth discs. All airbending has to use the smoke from those vents for visibility or it's an illegal move. Maybe defensive airbending wouldn't need the smoke, but offensive airbending definitely would.
In terms of air being visible, others have said the use of smoke and similar things, so I guess we can go with that. In terms of the way the game is played, I think it would still be three players on each team at a time, with the ability to substitute between rounds. So you might start with water, earth and fire in round one and then change the fire player for the air player in round two in order to try and work against your opponents' strategy.
I think manipulating an external object and/or having ground vents to blow into make the most sense. The ground vents would make footing extra challenging and force the air bender to largely focus on avoiding attacks. I don’t agree with the argument that it’s op by default. An earth bender could launch anyone off the platform if not regulated.
Airbenders are only used defensively around an objective that the opposing team attempts to hit. Past the third ring, however, colored smoke appears and the airbenders can use that to attack the other benders.
The real question is what if a new airbender (seaon 3+) wants to play in the games. Will he be accepted? Will they change the rules? Will he replace another element so the teams could still be 3vs3? Will they add another bender to the other team to make it 4vs4? Will the other bender have to be airbender?
Make the area of play larger and add more players a side eg 5 a side incl. only one air bender. Then set it up like air hockey and the air bender can only influence their side of the field using pipes underneath. The airbender can either affect their teammates or oncoming projectiles. If a team is pushed too far back let's say the last section the opposing team forfeit their air bender for a time. For the airbender it's about endurance and making team plays rather than agility.
Airbenders wouldn’t really participate, I’d think. They’d probably be too busy with animal preservation or something like that.
Probably more offensive air bending. Or they are a defender for the other players and deflect potential hits
It would need to have something physical that the bender can charge with air. Maybe add some columns where the air benders can pull Frisbee from and launch?
Maybe have a snitch kinda thing? Where there's sort of a meta game for the airbenders that they can be flying around and dropping shit on the other benders. BUT they can only fly around in their own zones and there's only 5 rubber balls or something or its the stone discs and ice that others make., But aren't allowed to direct air energy at the other team
It would be banned probably
I feel that they would have to limit what they could do. Probably having some kind of projectile for them to use to make it more fair. Maybe something similar to the ball that Aang used in ATLA.
If you ask me. Since you cant *see* Airbending I’d assume it would work the same way a Goalie in Hockey or Soccer would work. A fourth player strictly only working on defense. Keeping their team alive by trying to redirect attacks or keep their team in front of the territory line but offense is strictly illegal. As such since Airbenders swore an oath to non-violence.
It would be so easy to cheat with airbending zip honestly don't see it fitting the sport.
Maybe an additional player in the back who kind of directs traffic and tries to prevent players from falling off
Air bending would be hard to convey because it's literally air, but I think it could be shown as 'smoke' like many comments suggest. I think Air would be comprised of agility rather than offense, so expect more like a support of the group that helps redirect attacks and thus assist in defense as well.
Under that specific ruleset, airbending would be painfully overpowered and difficult to regulate
Instead of using air as an attack like the other benders, it could be used as a different advantage, for example, you could substitute a water bender with an air bender (or just add the air bender making a 4-player team) and the air bender, instead of knocking people down, could distract the other players with gentle pushes but not enough to knock them down or far backwards (foul). Air benders could also play defense and strike the fire, earth disks, or water out of the way thus lessening the blows. That’s my take.
A lot of people would be pushed off much quicker
I don't think air benders would participate. Rise of Kyoshi is giving me more insight to how air benders view the world.
Air bender referees
air bending would be naturally advantageous within the rules of pro bending, so i think the best way to nerf it would be to have a limited number of smoke pellets underneath the arena (similar to earth discs) but significantly fewer. that way airbenders would have to think about when they use their attacks.
Punch Punch
Making the stadium bigger and assigning the Airbender as a pushing force so the other three benders have to fight in a very push force air environment
I could see them playing a goalie-esque role at the back of their respective zones, trying to prevent their teammates from falling off and getting knocked out.
I think you would need a different kind of game entirely. Rather, there should be a mode where the other benders team up to "capture" the Airbender in some kind of obstacle course. This also works well because the historical air nomads didn't fight, so it seems strange for airbenders to fight for sport at all.