Astronomy of Avatar the Last Airbender

   I have always been a fan of Avatar the Last Airbender and some of the most interesting episodes were influenced by astrology.

    Taking a look at water bending and firebending, they change based on where the sun and the moon are in the cycle. In Book One: Water, the Avatar, Aang, learns how to bend water and is trained when this form of bending is at its most powerful. We learn that water benders have the most strength at night and during full moons. Although this show is fiction, there are some accurate elements that make these ideas more plausible. Much like Earth, the moon has a gravity pull of its own. This causes the moon to pull the ocean closer towards it; since Earth’s gravity is stronger, we don’t feel the pull, but it becomes apparent in oceans and large bodies of water. The oceans are pulled toward the moon creating tides on the side closest to the moon. Using this logic, water benders act in unison with the moon to control the movement of water and use the shifting gravity to create more aggressive attacks. In another episode, the moon is removed, which wouldn’t be possible in real life, but during this episode water bending was not possible because there is no conflicting gravitational pull to help create the movement.

    Firebending is similar in the fact that the Sun also has its own gravitational pull, however it isn’t nearly strong enough to be the fully influential force. Firebenders' powers increase based on heat, gravitational pull of the Sun, Summer solstice, and other celestial events, like comets. For instance the summer solstice means that the sun will be the closest to the earth based on its angular distances meaning that firebenders will be more powerful when closer to the equator. Another example that reflects real life is Sozin’s comet, this comet comes around every 1000 years, like other comets in our solar system. The celestial occurrence creates more energy for the firebenders to release more powerful attacks. The gravitational pull of the sun will be larger during summer solstice than the winter solstice because of the closer angular distance to the Earth meaning it's at perihelion on Earth's orbit.

    Earth bending and air bending are unlike the other two elements. They are not influenced by astrological events. If we look at earth bending, those benders could potentially go anywhere and retain their abilities so long as there is material. There is an episode where a comet crashes into Earth and an earth bender makes it into many different shapes. Air benders are similar, as long as they have air or some form of gas they can airbend.

References:

“Astronomy in the World of Avatar.” Avatar Wiki, avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Astronomy_in_the_World_of_Avatar.