Saw your avatar au and immediately thought of this idea
what if ellie is a spirit that simon meets during the worst torture and isolation he was put through. She’s great company (ignoring how terrifying and almost incomprehendible she is sometimes) and slowly teaches him how to blood bend, using himself as a test dummy. Once he’s skilled enough, he uses blood bending to escape, not knowing how brutal it would be. He refuses to blood bend after that and hates that ellie has attached herself to him
After meeting grace and with the help of ellie, he starts experimenting with his blood bending after remembering how he bended his own blood to heal his wounds when escaping the fire nation. He goes on to discover a way to use blood bending to enhance the healing abilities of water bending
Okey no but like you kinda saw through my Simon plans, or some part of them. (Also I kinda end up yapping here I am so sorry)
I love your idea of spirit Ellie. Especially because I see Simon’s Tribe (the equivalent of EDEN in this AU) not being particularly fond of spirits, to the point of denying their existence. So Ellie being a spirit would clash with Simon’s knowledge (or lack thereof) on spirits and I find it really funny that this eldritch looking spirit (who is kind of the embodiment that everything Simon was taught was wrong) is just a deep annoyance to him that follows him around.
However, I do see Simon as a natural bloodbender, as someone who already knows how to do so before he gets captured by the Fire Nation. BUT part of my plan with him is that he eventually learns healing.
He hates his bending. He hates that whenever he focuses on the water around him, he can “feel” the other person’s water flow through them. But most importantly, he hates using it to hurt people. Bloodbending is known as a “dark art”, something that hurts the bender’s mental state, so I see Simon being really fucked up. But, with the help of Grace (and maybe Ellie), he learns water-healing.
There’s this conflict in ATLA with firebending where Zuko (and other firebenders) struggle to see his bending as nothing but a way to hurt. Fire is dangerous. But he learns that fire is alive, that it is life, that it can be good. Other inspirations come from Qifrey, from Witch Hat Atelier. He has deep trauma with water and sees it as dangerous; too little water and too much water can kill you. Still, he learns to use it and it’s the magic he’s most proficient at.
I see Simon as someone who hates water, hates blood, hates his bending. However, due to his upbringing, his bending (and thus, his ability to hurt) is where he sees his value. So losing an arm and having to relearn to bend is going to be a struggle, and maybe he can learn to make peace with his bloodbending in the process.
SO I REALLY LIKE YOUR IDEAS. Spirit Ellie is a 10/10, definitely stealing that, and using bloodbending to heal people just makes sense. Like, of course you want some help to keep the blood inside the body. And I love the ways to make his escape as traumatic as possible. Yes to that. I AM DEFINITELY KEEPING ALL YOUR IDEAS IN A COMFY BOX IN MY BRAIN, AND I HOPE YOU ARE OKEY WITH ME TAKING INSPIRATION FROM THEM cuz boy this has activated by ideas juice.
Thank you so much for your ask and sorry for yapping.
