Thread:Aggression25/@comment-5142966-20140903043950/@comment-3560733-20140916043549

Ok, a few things:
 * Sky Bisons: Sky Bisons are animals. Animals do not have the capability of sentient thought. Sentience is a requirement for attachment. For example, if a human's house is on fire, he's going to leave it in most cases, but he will regret the things in it lost as they are his. An animal, whose home is set on fire, however will not. They will flee purely out instinct. The only exception to this would be if they had young left behind, but; this still is instinct. It is not a form of higher level thought. It is merely a biological trait passed down. Going off the concept that you need to rid yourself of attachments to achieve the ability to fly(and assuming that such a requirement even applies to the Sky Bison) then it's quite simple. They have already achieved this as they cannot form "true" attachments as sentience is required.


 * Zaheer: In my opinion, Zaheer is in no way a master. Taking the term as strict as possible, a master in the Air Nomad ranks is more than just a powerful bender. They must achieve many spiritual and even cultural requirements to be a master and receive their tattoos. This being said, this "master", that you are referring to in this instance Aggression, is not an airbending master, but simple a master in the eyes of the Air Nomad culture. However, even defining master using what Hydro is referring to; someone who is a master of solely airbending, the term still does not apply. Taking the example of the fight with Tenzin that was used for example: if you watch it again, Zaheer is struggling heavily to compete with Tenzin. It is only when he is rejoined by his comrades that he is able to get the upper hand, let alone be on par with Tenzin. Most of his use of airbending is like Aang early on in TLA. He is fleeing and dodging, but not because of some pacifistic principle he holds. It's because he does not have the capabilities to fight on par with others. In nearly every instance, you see him backing off and the other members of the Red Lotus go ahead and fight. The few times we do see him take the foreground, he is using his airbending in a subversive, albeit interesting, way. For example, as it was used before, with the Earth Queen. This is not an example of something special that can be done with airbending. It's actually an extremely simple technique. You simply never saw Aang or the others use it this way because it is contrary to the teachings and culture of the Air Nomads. An example of Aang using this same power would be when he and his allies are underwater and he creates a bubble of oxygen for them. He is directly forcing oxygen(specifically) to be in a certain location. The only difference is that he is pulling it all to one area rather than removing it from one. So, going off of all of this; he is in no way a master of airbending. The only major feat he has achieved is flight and even that isn't necessarily a master ability. It is merely an ability that requires a very specific mindset and lifestyle to achieve.


 * Toph: Just something I'd like to mention minorly. Toph didn't "Toph learned Earthbending from the original source, the Badger Moles". She may have learned it from what people at the time believed was the source, but we've seen from the story of Wan that all bending was given to humans from the lionturtles.


 * Attachment: Something I'd like to hit on specifically. While a major theme in the last season and the sole "reason" Zaheer was able to achieve flight, attachment(in the way it is used in the show) isn't exactly accurate. For example, many believe that Zaheer was only able to fly when he did because his girlfriend had just died, and as such he lost his last attachment in the world. While the writers may have intended it to be interpreted this way, it's not actually true. Her death doesn't mean he is suddenly unattached to her. In fact, his grief over her death is, in itself, an attachment. He is also, quite fervently, attached to his goal to rid the world of the Avatar. While it my be construed that he is "without attachment" and, as I said, even meant this way be the writers, it's not actually true.