Fire Bending

[El Santo Maxican]

'Firebending' is written as 制火朮, roughly translated as "the method of controlling fire".

Firebending is one of the four elemental Bending Arts, the pyrokinetic ability to create and control fire. The people of the Fire Nation, as well as the lesser known Sun Warrior Tribe, practice this type of bending. Fire is the element of power, consisting of overpowering force tempered by the unflinching will to accomplish tasks and desires. Fire bending draws its power from the sun and the first human Fire benders learned their techniques from the dragons.

Origin Point

It has been revealed that Fire benders learned Fire bending from the sacred dragons that had once populated their land. The first people to learn from the dragons were the Sun Warriors. In the remains of their once great civilization, people have discovered that Fire bending represents energy and life. Fire benders draw their powers from the sun and other solar objects. A solar eclipse has the potential to completely negate a Fire bender's power, revealing a direct connection between the sun and Fire bending. Fire benders are also said to draw power from volcanic energy and lightning, though this has never been seen in the series.


Notable Features


Fire bending moves are based mainly on the style of Northern Shaolin kung fu, but with a few techniques from Northern Seven Star Praying Mantis. These martial arts feature quick, successive attacks that exert extreme power for just a moment (much like an explosion, called ging lik). It optimizes a strong continuous offense, sacrificing defense for greater power, the principle behind a preemptive strike, making Fire bending the most aggressive of the four bending arts.

Fire benders use their internal body heat as a source of their bending to create fire. This facet of Fire bending is in sharp contrast to the other bending arts, which manipulate already present representations of their element (though Fire benders can also control or enhance flames nearby). Unlike other bending disciplines, Fire bending has few defensive moves aside from blocking and dodging, although master Fire benders are able to create walls of fire to absorb incoming attacks or shoot down incoming projectiles.

Fire bending uses concentrated barrages of fire to overwhelm opponents before striking a fatal blow. Swift, whirling kicks and punches generate diverse shapes for offensive attacks.

Circular motion also seems to be a crucial element to the skill as it seems to be a precession to "power up" the Fire bender's flames. When creating lightning, the Fire benders often move their arms in slow, circular motions, a bit like Water benders but with more tension. As said before, whirling kicks or punches are used many times in the series to create arcs, or just to power their bending.


Alternatives

• Combustion
  Unlike normal Fire bending, this does not produce a flame directly from the body. Instead it concentrates energy nearby to super-heat the air around or at a great distance, producing situated explosions with a great deal of precision. This technique is extremely effective and very destructive, capable of use at close and long-range, can completely disintegrate hill-sized boulders and instantaneously evaporate large bodies of water with ease. This is probably due to the energy being entirely focused into creating the explosion, without wasting energy maintaining a long range jet of flame. However, the technique has the potential to be just as hazardous to the user as it can be to their surroundings. The sole weakness is its reliance on an uninterrupted flow of chi, as blocking the chi paths in the forehead from where the combustion beam issues forth causes potentially fatal backfires.
  
  
• Lightning Bending
  Also known as "the cold-blooded fire", certain powerful Fire benders are able to generate and manipulate lightning by separating the yin and yang energies. Lightning is considered the most powerful Fire bending technique, and its use is available only to a select few Fire bending prodigies and masters. Lightning generation is the ability to generate and direct lightning. It requires peace of mind and a complete absence of emotion.
  

Specialized Skills

Novice Level

[-] Fireballs
A basic ability; jabs and punches produce miniature fireballs and missiles of flame. These can be charged up to create larger slower bursts, or swift repetitive strikes to keep opponents off balance.

[-] Fire Streams
Another basic Fire bending ability, Fire benders can shoot continuous streams of fire from their fingertips, fists, palms, or legs. These streams can be widened to create flame-thrower like techniques. Fire Nation soldiers are often seen using this technique to damage or destroy villages or towns.

[-] Blazing Rings & Arcs
Spinning kicks or sweeping arm movements create rings and arcs to slice larger, more widely spaced, or evasive targets.


Practitioner Level

[-] Fire Bomb
A more short range attack, a Fire bender can create a flame at the end of a limb, and thrust the flame down in a explosive burst.

[-] Fire Daggers
Creating blowtorch-like jets from the fist or fingertips to use as close range sword-like attacks. However, these lack the ability to actually block physical objects.

[-] Fire Whip
An extension of a fire stream, this continuous stream of flame can be used as a whip.

[-] Fire Blade
A more advanced version of a blazing arc, Fire benders can narrow their fire arcs to create thin blades of fire that they can launch at their opponents.


Expert Level

[-] Fire Lashes
An even further extension of the Fire Whip/Stream, Fire benders can create a long lash of Fire, and bring them down on their enemies or create smaller, multiple lashes and envelop an area with fire.

[-] Fire Circle
A technique demonstrated by the Sun Warriors. They created a circle of fire and suspended it in the air for an extended period of time.

[-] Shield of Fire
Creates a protective fire shield around the front of, or the whole body of, a Fire bender that can deflect attacks and explosions. May be a less powerful version of the Wall of Flames.

[-] Fire Disks
A whirling disk of flame, used at long range.


Sifu Level

[-] Heat Control
Certain advanced Fire benders appear to have the ability to control heat. Using this technique, Fire benders can heat liquids, like water or tea, heat metal to scalding temperatures, or melt ice.

[-] Blocking Fire
A skilled Fire bender can diffuse and extinguish an oncoming fire blast from another Fire bender with a swift kick, jab, or defensive movements, allowing them to stop attacks.


Master Level

[-] Wall of Flames
One of Firebending's few defensive techniques, either a situated explosion or controlled inferno, this wall of concentrated flames acts as a barrier to incoming attacks. It may be a more powerful version of a Fire Shield. It not only protects against attacks, but when used right, can be used to stealthily escape from foes.

[-] Heat Redirection
Heat absorption allows for the absorption of heat from one hand and passing through one's body and out the other hand.

[-] Jet Propulsion
Skilled Fire bending masters are able to conjure huge amounts of flame to propel themselves at high speeds on the ground or through the air.

[-] Pressure Control
An advanced form of Heat Control; the Fire bender superheats the air around him, causing a rise in air pressure in small, enclosed areas with explosive results.


Special Sets

[-]Blue Fire
Fire benders can control the intensity of their Fire bending, reflected in the color of the flames. These blue flames are more efficient than the standard yellow and orange flames produced by lesser forms of Fire bending, channeling more energy into the attack and likely traveling further without dissipating. While not to be confused with lightning, blue fire also seems to possess more physical force and produce a combustive effect more intense than that of normal fire, likely due to the fact that it superheats the air around it as it strikes (the same process that creates thunder).

[-]Lightning Redirection
In a technique developed after observing the re-directing techniques of Water bending, one is able to redirect the course of lightning strikes by absorbing it through one arm, guiding it through their stomach, and out his other arm.

Fire bending Spirit

A Fire bender's powers seem to increase during the day in the presence of the sun. Because of this solar sympathy, their powers are weakened at night and a solar eclipse can temporarily negate their powers entirely, much like Water benders' powers are negated during a lunar eclipse. Aside from their main power source, the sun, Fire benders also draw their energy from other heat sources, including volcanic activity, lightning, and passing comets (if they somehow become a heat source, such as Sozin's Comet, which ignites when it brushes the atmosphere). A Fire bender's power is intensified in warmer climates and is at its peak when situated near their native equatorial homelands during the summer.

Firebending's distinctiveness is in its uncontrolled nature; fire, if left to itself, will consume everything it can. Fire bending is thus a matter of controlling an element rather than directing it. Many Fire benders are intoxicated by their power, while more prudent ones feel damned by it. However, its roots and nature are fully explored, properly controlled, fire is life and industry, comforting and creative.

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