kelly :)

So I was re-watching Avatar again and I couldn’t stop thinking about how amazing Azula is at lying. Not necessarily just being clever, but what really got me was that even Toph can’t tell when she’s lying. There’s no character other than Azula who can lie well enough to trick Toph. 

Azula is ridiculously clever, we know that. But her being good at lying isn’t all about her being clever. In the Invasion episode Azula says he is a 400 foot tall purple platypus bear, which is an obvious lie, but Toph couldn’t tell by her body’s reaction. 

It wasn’t about her being clevre, it was about her body chemistry. So I think its reasonable to assume Azula is able to control things in her body like her heart rate or blood pressure, in order to make herself a convincing liar. And keep in mind, its not just that she’s ‘good at lying’. Throughout the series we never see anyone fool Toph as well as Azula. Toph is extremely sensitive to the slightest vibrations; if there were any giveaways, she would have spotted them. 

I have two theories for why Azula can control her body so efficiently. For starters, and the most obvious, Azula is a total badass. And is very diligent, and needs to be not only perfect, but in control. It could be reasonable to assume she’s just extremely powerful and a horrifyingly dedicated perfectionist, which is why we all love her already.

I do have another theory that I’ve been toying with; that maybe her lightning bending is a part of it. All movements in the body are controlled by electrical impulses, that would mean her breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc., everything that would give her away as a liar. While I don’t necessarily think its a true, active, assertive bending style, as there would have had to be more canon to support something like that, I think maybe it just adds to her control of it more. There are very few lightning benders, and Azula is the one see we use that subset the most avidly. Maybe she just has more of a feel for electricity, for that form of energy, and therefore can control it better in her own body. She can sense those slight changes, like Toph, and would be able overtime to try and learn to control it. 

In LoK everyone was so confused when Noatak could take people’s bending away, and it seemed like they were confused because they didn’t think anyone but the avatar was powerful enough. 

But I really don’t think taking someone’s bending away is about power. 

Before Aang took Ozai’s bending, he obviously encountered the giant Lion Turtle. When the lion touched Aang, and he was surrounded by that green light, although we didn’t know it at the time, I think the lion was gifting him with bending; the same way that the original benders got their bending, as shown in the episodes with Avatar Wan. I think it was much more than just a spiritually enlightening moment. 

Plus if energy bending is just a sub form of water bending, it would make sense that the lion turtle was a giant island in the ocean. 

We never find out where Noatak went in the years between running away from his family and going to Republic City. I think its entirely possible that he ran into the Lion Turtle, and was gifted with energy bending, just like Aang before the comet. Especially since he’s a water bender, its safe to assume he would stay around the ocean, where he was most comfortable, and where the Lion Turtle lives. 

The only question is why would the lion turtle give him this power? 

Maybe since it could only read his energy, and Noatak himself believed his cause was truly noble, the Lion Turtle still gifted it to him.