Vid: Bloodbenders Build a Levee

[attackfish]

Disclaimer: The music for this vid is Natalie Merchant's "Build a Levee", as performed live in San Diago on March 30, 2002. The footage in this vid comes from Avatar: the Last Airbender, and The Legend of Korra, which belong to Nickelodeon, as well as to Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko.

Summary: To bloodbend is to take back control.

Warning: Spoilers for all of Korra, Book 1, and all of Airbender Book 3.  Also *Spoiler, highlight to read* canon violence, canon murder-suicide, canon child abuse, canon animal cruelty, bloodbenders bending blood, just general creepiness.

Creator Commentary: Happy Halloween!  And happy early birthday to me!


Bloodbenders Build a Levee

Comments

[sholio]

I really enjoyed this vid! Great job blending the two canons -- and bloodbending is perhaps the most chilling place that the show goes as it explores the limits of its magical "rules", so I liked seeing it handled in vid form.

[attackfish]

Thank you! I had lots of fun with it. Bloodbending is so deliciously creepy and horror movie-esque, and it gets used repeatedly as a metaphor for cycles of abuse, and I wanted to do a Halloween vid for my birthday, so...

[weirdlet.livejournal.com]

...why is there no like!button I can mash?

I love how it's so simple, just letting the images and the moments flow by with the slow, steady music- that real quiet, but strong words about scary things so bad that you have to keep it low and subdued to let it out.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Well, it's posted to AO3, so if you really need to give kudos...

I thought about this while making this vid, bloodbending in both shows is all about being stripped of control, not just for the bloodbendee, but also for the bloodbender. Every single time we are shown bloodbending being learned, it's by force. I'm sure in the avatarverse, there are bloodbenders who sought out the technique and learned it willingly, possibly including Yakone, who we've met, but in the show itself, the only time we see it learned is through a violation. Hama is forced to invent it in the Fire Nation prisons, and then forces Katara to learn it in turn. Then Yakone forces Noatak and Tarrlok to bloodbend each other.

[redrikki.livejournal.com]

I like it. It's dark, but, at the same time...I don't know. The song says you have to make a choice when you have that sort of power and Katara at least makes the right one even as the others give into their despair and rage and thirst for power. And you showed that...all these people failed in the face of the power offered them.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

It's not just what you do about having power. I commented to weirdlet that every time we see bloodbending learned, the new bloodbender is shown to be the victim of their teacher, including Hama, if you count the Fire Nation war prison as her teacher. It's what you do about being made a victim. Hama, Tarrlok, and Amon (and possibly Yakone, but we don't know if he was ever a victim) choose to make more victims. Katara chooses to help others, and not to take revenge, but to seek justice.

[lokifan]

This is fantastic! Very simple and well-done, and yeah, the cycle of abuse comes through very clearly.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I've been wanting to do something with this song for months.