The Legend of Korra: The Origin of Sandbending

 The mythology of Avatar: The Last Airbender has played a crucial role in the world-building details of The Legend of Korra. Therefore, the original series's events still have a significant role to play in the latest series. In one of the arcs, the series even focused on the origin of bending and the first Avatar. However, despite the presence of so much content and resources, there is a good possibility that most fans would have missed out on a subtle detail that is hiding in plain sight. 

In the original series, one of the most mysterious and unexplained bending arts was Sandbending. However, despite there being so little information about it, the series's first two seasons did not even mention it even once. Even when it finally came up in the second season, there was not much discussion. Earthbending was used to navigate the environment in the Si Wong Desert by the sandbenders who used to create tornadoes to soar across the dunes. 

Even Toph, the earthbending prodigy, struggled to pick the skill. However, later she managed to master sandbending with practice, but it raises an important question, how did the sandbenders first learn the skill? Toph later went on to become the developer of metalbending. Her Metalbending Academy is proof that once new forms of bending are pioneered, they become simpler to learn. However, it is strange that the badgermoles who first taught earthbending to human beings could not sandbend themselves. Then it is essential to ask, who developed the skill in the first place?

The answer can be found in one of the interesting phenomena seen on The Legend of Korra series. Korra and Asami are chased down by a humongous sand shark when they were stranded in the Si Wong Desert. The beast was surprisingly moving through the sand with the same ease as its aquatic counterparts in the ocean. The event was an essential clue for unraveling the mystery of sandbending and its origin. Most viewers were so awed by the beast that they even overlooked the fact that the shark wouldn’t have managed to move through the sand without bending. 

Without altering the landscape significantly, it would have been impossible to move through the sand so quickly. In order to move the best would need gigantic dunes and sinkholes created by its path. However, the giant sharks just glide through the desert with ease, as if it was water and not sand. It would have only been possible through sandbending, and no other theory can explain it.

If the theory turns out to be accurate, then sand sharks will be the original sandbenders who could be credited for the origin of sandbending. It is a valuable piece of the Avatar lore that could serve as the backstory for an essential and mysterious bending art. Apart from the Badgermoles, dragons, as well as sky bison, are also bending animals. Still, it is nowhere mentioned that only these three animals can bend elements in Avatar's world.  So, the theory that giant sand sharks were the original sandbenders can't still be rejected and there is a chance that it might turn out to be true.

Harley Smith is from London (U.K). Before he started writing blogs he went through various occupations such as teaching, programming and travelling. But his favorite job is writing blogs for antivirus technology for customer.yppoint.com

Source: Legend of Korra