The FORBIDDEN Earthbending Ability that Made Earth Benders IMMORTAL

Throughout the years there have been many forms of illegal, forbidden and outright terrifying bending abilities that were discovered and then forgotten… But there was one ability based in the Earthbending tree that actually granted a wise bender immortality… And it may actually even be the reason for Avatar Kyoshi’s ridiculously long lifespan… #avatarthelastairbender #thelegendofkorra #avatarkyoshi

So to begin the story, we must go back long before the time of Aang, to the era of Kyoshi. During this time, Kyoshi discovered the journal of her mother, who was involved in a shady criminal group.

In this journal is a description of a man who Kyoshi’s mother believed was a legendary figure named Tieguay the Immortal. Shockingly though, Kyoshi’s mother believed this figure to be part of her group, but hiding his identity…

Now sometime later, Kyoshi encounters a strange man and remembering the description in her mother’s journal, she is immediately reminded of Tieguai the Immortal. This would be shocking as this master was said to have lived before the four nations existed.

Though he plays coy, Lao Ge hints that he may have known Guru Shoken, a philosopher who lived 4000 years ago! Lao Ge did this through using forbidden earthbending technique to prolong his life indefinitely.

So how did he pull off this feat? Well As Lao Ge trains Kyoshi in earthbending, he reveals the secret. Through precise control of chi paths in the body and literally bending the metal within their own cells, an earthbender can preserve their own vitality and continuously regenerate their cells. Essentially, they can decide which version of themselves to remain as forever!

Lao Ge explains this in the following way: “Divide your body in two”, he said, while Kyoshi practiced heating and breaking a piece of scrap metal. “Then divide it again, and then again, and again. What would you have left. “A bloody mess”, Kyoshi retorted. She burned her hand and yelped. Exactly, Lao Ge Said. Put the pieces back, and put them back again, and again and again one more time, and you’re whole once more. Kyoshi replies: A human being isn’t a block of stone. He replies: “That’s where you’re wrong, the illusion that the self is separate from the rest of the world is the driving factor that limits our potential. Once you realize there’s nothing special about the self, it becomes easier to manipulate. In a way, Lao Ge discovered how to lock his body at a certain point in time by arranging his cells in a way that would maintain his current state. No growth or no decay, simply at rest. Now combining this knowledge with the fact that he hinted at knowing Guru Shoken, a 4000 year old philosopher, it’s pretty clear that Lao Ge is the real deal. He truly has conquered death and used a rare and highly controversial form of earthbending to bend the state of his own body into eternal rest. As we know, bending any internal body liquid or material is clearly forbidden by natural law, meaning even a person who has never bended an element will know that it is wrong.

Lao Ge gained total mastery over his body body, and therefore his life using these forgotten techniques. While most benders use chi to enhance their abilities, Lao Ge refined it to an unheard of level, combining it with the manipulation of his own cells. - conquering aging itself!

. His exploits prove bending can go far beyond the elements, with earthbending granting true immortality.

Lao Ge's mastery of life extension may even explain Avatar Kyoshi's ridiculously long lifespan of over 200 years. It's likely she learned these secrets from her master. He remains one of the most fascinating and mysterious benders in Avatar history precisely because of this terrifying power over life and death!

[redfox]

It would have been hilarious if it was revealed that the cabbage guy was the immortal guy and he just wanted to grow and sell his cabbages for all time.

[AnasMahmoud-dzsm]

if he bends the iron and magnesium in his cells wouldn't that technically make him the first metal bender before toph????

[hardcandy]

All elements have the ability to heal. In Korra, a fire sage used fire to heal her. Also in Rise of Kyoshi, it was said that firebending can be used to heal poisons. People only think it is just water bending since they are the common healers.

[gabrielfear]

Maybe lightning bending could be used to map the neural pathways in the brain and replicate them allowing the user to imprint their consciousness onto others and and achieve a form of immortality that way

[RigBone]

Was Bumi doing the same thing? I mean we know that he was well over 100 years old by the fact that Aang remembers playing with him before the iceberg incident.

[afrikasmith]

Kiyoshi: Oh, right. There's an Earth Bending ability that helps you live longer.

Aang: You could have told me that long before I died!🤦

Kiyoshi: Yeah My bad.

[kintokatt]

I love how the "ultimate" move of air and earth is "let go of your tethers"

[dwalters]

I feel like water bending, or more specifically blood bending, could be used to a similar effect, seeing as the body is mostly water. In fact I always wondered why blood bending HAD to be a bad thing. Katara being a healer should have realized that blood bending could literally be used to take someone that's bleeding out on the brink of death, and bring back enough blood into their body for them to survive. Even forcefully close the wound by inducing clotting in a certain spot. The level of control necessary would be immense, but if anyone could pull it off, it'd be her. These "forbidden techniques" don't have to be evil, it really just depends on the person using it and their outlook.

[yusha]

This is amazing and shows you how much depth the show goes into and how Earth and Air bending are opposites of each other in many more ways than just the elements being opposite of each other, air-bending about the self escaping the its material conditions and earth bending technique placing the self firmly in its materiality.

[earthboundisawsome]

I always thought it was interesting that if there could be bloodbending people on the water end, if the human body is just made up of natural elements from the earth, couldn't someone just learn to control people like puppets? Or even just disassemble them on a molecular level?

[uncleirohsteashop]

I think it would be cool if each of the four elements had their own version of an "ultimate power ability". Like for ex. Water bending could just be like the most powerful healing in the world to where you'd heal someone enough to where you could bring them back to life. Fire bending kind of had something like that with Ozai using the power of a literal comet to burn the planet.

[aladiex]

Lao Ge could be in the Next Avatar Series

About other thoughts I believe bloodbending can be used as a more enhanced version of healing. And after Katara's death it should be more accepted.
Perhaps an Amon/Tarlok relative is out there as a future advocate of this idea.

In relation to Air, I believe that Projection will have an important role for technology to communicate with holograms. Even helping mute people to speak through their projection.

[hannibustoogfyrre]

What if this why Aang was able to stay alive and young while frozen in ice?
He wasn't just _frozen, _ he was in the Avatar State with that granted power and knowledge passively holding his body together!

[greggorywhitman]

I wonder if it could be used against someone else, decaying their body or something of the like.

[trippyhippy]

One has to wonder, if Aang was doing something similar to this while in the iceberg, and one also has to wonder if this could have prevented Aangs relatively young death, had he known the discipline for this type of bending.

[eliscore]

From what it sounds like, your mind is trapped in the moment it has frozez unable to mentally grow. Kyoshi was so set in her ways

[leonelcarita]

seeing how this literally goes around using forced cellular regeneration based on the description, I gotta say, this means that bringing someone who died a few seconds ago is possible. not only that but healing scars among other things

[chaosdirge]

I recently listened to the audiobooks about this and I want to know more about him honestly, I'm also curious if he's still alive after Korra. It would be really interesting to see him in the future of the series. I'd like to know just how old he is, Is it possible that he could even be older than not just the 4 nations but as old as the avatar themselves? Which would make him over 10 thousand years old. I mean imagine that really, imagine if he was old enough to know what it was like to live on the back of a giant Lion turtle while the rest of the world had no clue such things existed?

I feel like there is alot of potential in the character, previous run ins with older avatars, what made him pursue his life of being an assassin, I think this is the first time we've actually been given someone that clearly just counters the avatar in every way while also going after relatively the same goal by different means. The Anti-Avatar wanted total control. Lon Ge just wanted to give people freedom and provide the world with his own sense of balance.

[supernaturalawesome]

I'd make the case that this technique is similar to blood bending in the same way as other cross over element bending techniques. Earth and fire benders can influence lava in different ways and water and earth benders can both mud bend. It's a similar technique using a different element in a more refined way. Also, I don't think it's just the metal compounds he's bending. There are plenty of "earth-like" elements present in the body. He's likely influencing all of them to a degree. When you start breaking down elements into there chemical makeup you start blurring the lines between them. As Laogai and many other characters have said in different ways, the separation of yourself and the 4 elements is an illusion. All living things have aspects of all the elements within them.

[maestrulgamer]

1:19-Bending the METAL in cells?
Toph:🤬