Every Avatar & Korra Character Who Could Bloodbend

Bloodbending is a rare ability in both Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so only a handful of characters are able to do it – and there’s only another handful of characters who can resist it as well. A huge part of the reason bloodbending is so rare is because it wasn’t used – or really, known – until Aang’s time as the Avatar, and even then only two people were known to have the ability.

Thousands of years before the events of the two shows, people could only bend an element if they were imbued with the power from a lion turtle; those humans even lived on the lion turtles to avoid clashing with spirits. Later, after people stopped giving their bending powers back to the lion turtles, they began to pass down their abilities to new generations. And so the four corners of the world eventually saw new benders emerge with innate abilities to control the elements. Of course, at the same time, there was also the Avatar, who was able to control all four elements – yet it would take centuries for new, sub-bending abilities to be discovered.

In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Iroh proved his proficiency in bending lightning (a sub-bending technique of firebending) and Toph later learned to bend metal (a sub-bending technique of earthbending). For waterbending, the sub-bending technique was bloodbending; it was believed the first bloodbender was Hama, but she wasn’t the only one. In fact, there have been five bloodbenders in the world of Avatar, though it’s certainly possible others have existed at some point.

Hama

Hama was the supposed inventor of bloodbending, but there have been theories for years that the Avatar fought a bloodbender long before Hama lived. She learned to control people’s blood while being imprisoned by the Fire Nation, using the moon to amplify her powers. First she tested her bloodbending powers on elephant rats but ultimately trained herself to bend human blood.

Katara

When Katara first met Hama, she was excited to learn more waterbending from a skilled bender, but that later backfired. Hama attempted to teach Katara how to bloodbend, but Katara refused; she didn’t want to harm others by using that power. But when Hama forced Aang and Sokka to fight, potentially to the death, Katara gave in and used bloodbending to stop Hama. Noting its wickedness, Katara managed to have bloodbending outlawed in Republic City many years later.

Amon

Amon was The Legend of Korra season 1’s main villain, and his ruthlessness was feared among Republic City’s citizens because he had the unique ability to take people’s bending powers away. Korra later learned that this was because he was bloodbending, something he learned from his father, Yakone. Amon was arguably the strongest bloodbender the Avatar world has seen, considering he didn’t need the moon to augment his powers.

Tarrlok

Amon’s brother, Tarrlok, also knew how to bloodbend – but unlike his villainous sibling, Tarrlok resisted his father’s training and tried to be a better person. However, he still new how to bloodbend because he used it against Korra when she confronted him in his office. But he was only able to control her for a brief time and he wasn’t strong enough to control others, like Amon.

Yakone

Yakone was a notorious criminal and known bloodbender, who was tried and convicted in Republic City years before Korra was born. Remaining members of Team Avatar – Aang, Sokka, and Toph – weren’t able to resist Yakone’s bloodbending powers, and so Aang had to enter the Avatar State to defeat him. Aang then used his energybending powers to take away Yakone’s bending.

About The Author

Mansoor Mithaiwala
(1887 Articles Published)

Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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