Now, with plenty of time to think, I revisited the questions Katara and Sokka asked me. Why don't other benders master other elements if it's possible? Several thoughts come to mind. First is the belief in the impossibility of mastering other elements. From birth, training, to old age, they only know that only the Avatar can master all elements, while others are restricted to one. This belief is an absolute truth for them, not easily disproven on their own. Second is the process's speed. I didn't have a teacher or someone to guide me as others did, so I had to forge my own path. Perhaps if I had a teacher, I might have mastered waterbending faster. It took my brother and me over a year to control a mere droplet of water using my methods. But now, dare anyone call me a weak waterbender to my face! Then prove it by surviving after that! My path to mastering bending doesn't rely on gestures. Perhaps these gestures and movements prompt the bending within us to act according to certain algorithms, requiring almost no willpower and making mastery almost instantaneous. I focus on the element and... I don't know how to explain it... if I were to use analogies... though they are also awkward... in short, during meditations, I somehow make something inside me, possibly the source of bending or the Chi itself, adjust to the desired element. Not just adjust, but become like it. The first time was the hardest. It took over half a year before I even understood what I was trying to achieve with those meditations, and only then did the process begin. Slowly, gradually, but with each session, I became more and more synchronized with the element. The first time was the most difficult! After that, achieving the necessary "vibration" of energy becomes easy, and it's just a matter of training the element itself. If we disregard the wasted time, I meditated on water for just nine months, five to six hours a day. In the cage, I meditated on earth for the same period, almost around the clock, even replacing sleep with trance. When mastering bending through movements, you develop synchronization and then the element itself. This doesn't work with foreign elements! For foreign elements, you first need to achieve synchronization, then develop it. Benders initially have high synchronization with their element, and a few sessions bring it to the necessary level. Or emotional peaks, like what happened to me on Kyoshi Island. I hadn't achieved synchronization with fire, but the peak of emotions allowed me to reach the necessary level for the first time, and I managed to neutralize Zuko's fire, though it took a lot of energy. Probably because I was unaccustomed to it. But just emotions won't do anything! You need great synchronization for emotions to help make a leap in development. Third is dispersion. Regular benders aren't Avatars, and bending doesn't come to them with great ease, so it's easier and more practical for them to become stronger in their element than to spend a vast amount of time and energy mastering another element at any level.
Avatar The Last Airbender: Not Avatar
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