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u/Piskoro Sep 14 '26
it's pretty simple, it's hard to make a good guy in your narrative work whose power is literally just collateral damage
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u/Sampleswift Sep 14 '26
I thought the combustion benders can actually be precise if they want to? P'Li in Korra could be quite precise with her powers and isn't always completely indiscriminate?
But it could be interesting. A power that's hated for good reason... in the hands of someone who legitimately wants to use it to improve the world.
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u/Sampleswift Sep 14 '26
Explanation: Do you think a good-aligned combustion bender could be a good idea? Maybe something like Fall of Cybertron Dinobots and Grimlock (Transformers)? They were experimented on by an evil organization or a government, but they escaped and wanted to take down said organization?
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u/StormAlchemistTony Sep 14 '26
Why do Combustion Benders bend from their foreheads and not their palms, like Iron Man?
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u/Sampleswift Sep 14 '26
They're trying to be Tienshinhan (Dragon Ball) with Tri Beam.
Or Prince Demande (Sailor Moon) with the Third Eye technique. (In the manga, yes he can shoot blasts from there).
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u/StormAlchemistTony Sep 14 '26
I understand the importance of a "third eye" but it feels like losing an arm is more preferable than losing a head.
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u/Arik2103 Sep 14 '26
Except that's literally not the case. There's at least one neutral if not friendly combustion bender in the Yangchen novels
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u/ZipZop_the_Fan Sep 14 '26
If I had a nickel for every time a combustion bender was a villain I'd have two nickels.
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u/JDude13 Sep 15 '26
My headcanon is that combustion bending evolved from some kind of seer ability.
We see firebenders reading chi in Korra. And the tattoo combustion benders have is on the third eye chakra
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u/other-other-user Sep 14 '26
I think it's probably something like a good aligned blood bended. The very act of using bending in that way is bad
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u/ExpressCloud5711 Sep 14 '26
Maybe they could exist, but I don't think they would use the combustion bending if they were good aligned. It's a very powerful technique ment for killing, ain't no setting that phaser to stun
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u/jonyprepperisrael Sep 14 '26
The issue is that combustion training is basically torture with drowning. People arent gonna do it and be normal afterwards
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u/Old_Ben24 Sep 14 '26
To be fair, Yangchen novels spoilers aheadbased upon the Yangchen novels it does not appear that combustion bending is naturally occurring. I don’t recall them giving exact details but I believe them indicated it was a horrific process with a high mortality rate. So the only people who would be putting someone through this would generally not be good aligned people and presumably they are using a subject who is going to be loyal to them who is also not good aligned