That's true. It would be useful if he needed to see something quickly.
He could try multiple pulses of fire-bubbles, too, although he might be able to get information about the speed and direction of movement from just one. On the other hand, an earthbender could fake him out with a rock heading in one direction as he sends out his fire, then wait for him to dodge and aim the rock at his new location. Multiple pulses would be safest and he could accidentally fry his enemy, which is what he's trying to do anyway. (That would make it difficult for Zuko to fight alongside someone.)
What kind of equivalent skills do you think blind air and waterbenders would have, if any? If a blind airbender can tell the shape of everything the air is touching, that's basically like not being blind. You couldn't use that skill to read, but you could use it to see around corners. (The fact that Aang neither does that nor mentions it suggests that a blind airbender would not have a gamebreaking skill like that.) A less overwhelmingly unfair version might be the ability to sense air currents. That could allow an airbender to find people and obstacles by the way they divert wind around them, but only on a windy day.
If a waterbender could feel the shape and size of any nearby body of water, that could also potentially be an overwhelming advantage, if sensing the location and configuration of, say, a person's cytoplasm and blood plasma counts as sensing a body of water. While ink is still wet, I believe it has water in it, which would allow a blind waterbender to write and spot any drops of ink that get on the paper, but not to read. So a blind waterbender could feel where people are and could write well, but would not be able to get environmental information except by using a trick similar to Zuko's.
On the other hand, depending on the definition of earth, Toph might be able to read pencil lead, if pencils existed in her world. (It occurs to me that if Toph can read something, she can bend it. Written contracts simply would not work for her.)
Speaking of creative uses of bending, I always wondered why no one on the show ever spat for bending material (especially when Katara was desperate enough to sweat for it and Hama was desperate enough to bend rats) or cut xemself for bending material (considering how dark Hama's backstory got already, she seems like an obvious choice of person to bite a vein open and use that as a weapon).
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branchandroot
Re: Quiet Shadowed Places - The Cooler
Date: 2012-12-03 02:30 am (UTC)He could try multiple pulses of fire-bubbles, too, although he might be able to get information about the speed and direction of movement from just one. On the other hand, an earthbender could fake him out with a rock heading in one direction as he sends out his fire, then wait for him to dodge and aim the rock at his new location. Multiple pulses would be safest and he could accidentally fry his enemy, which is what he's trying to do anyway. (That would make it difficult for Zuko to fight alongside someone.)
What kind of equivalent skills do you think blind air and waterbenders would have, if any? If a blind airbender can tell the shape of everything the air is touching, that's basically like not being blind. You couldn't use that skill to read, but you could use it to see around corners. (The fact that Aang neither does that nor mentions it suggests that a blind airbender would not have a gamebreaking skill like that.) A less overwhelmingly unfair version might be the ability to sense air currents. That could allow an airbender to find people and obstacles by the way they divert wind around them, but only on a windy day.
If a waterbender could feel the shape and size of any nearby body of water, that could also potentially be an overwhelming advantage, if sensing the location and configuration of, say, a person's cytoplasm and blood plasma counts as sensing a body of water. While ink is still wet, I believe it has water in it, which would allow a blind waterbender to write and spot any drops of ink that get on the paper, but not to read. So a blind waterbender could feel where people are and could write well, but would not be able to get environmental information except by using a trick similar to Zuko's.
On the other hand, depending on the definition of earth, Toph might be able to read pencil lead, if pencils existed in her world. (It occurs to me that if Toph can read something, she can bend it. Written contracts simply would not work for her.)
Speaking of creative uses of bending, I always wondered why no one on the show ever spat for bending material (especially when Katara was desperate enough to sweat for it and Hama was desperate enough to bend rats) or cut xemself for bending material (considering how dark Hama's backstory got already, she seems like an obvious choice of person to bite a vein open and use that as a weapon).