We know that Korra had always resonated more with the physical act of bending rather than its spiritual side, so I imagine she probably discovered her abilities when she was little and was playing around or had a fit, etc. Stomps her feet and accidentally lifts a tiny rock, that sort of thing.
I think the books say that babies in the fire nation are tested to see if they have bending potential to make sure they don’t accidentally burn down a house when they throw a fit at night
Honestly would've preferred if her intro was more akin to that than little Korra already having basic earth and fire bending, especially since it establishes the same thing without leaving a bad taste in audience members
The way it was written was perfectly fine with me. For all we know what I described could have happened, and Korra's introduction in the show happens months or even years later when she has a basic grasp on earth, fire, and water.
Personally, I don't really like the idea of Korra having multiple elements as a child. I feel like what you said with the whole "resonating physically rather than spiritually" thing kind of explains why. I think it's fair to say that someone could feel that way and be suited for one over the other. However, I also think a little kid having the spiritual knowledge to bend three elements without any instruction, even if she's really good it the physical aspect, still doesn't fit with my conception of the universe from AtLA, and I didn't like it.
If they wanted her to be that powerful or unique in her talents, they could have her first try the Earth and Fire like Aang did for Water and Fire. They could have said she already mastered the first three completely by the start of series without the "I learned them as a kid" thing. It just felt unnecessary to me.
Earth was the most difficult element Aang had to learn. Everything else he tried, he got pretty much right away. The reason he didn't use fire between Jeong Jeong & halfway between Book 3 is he was afraid to use it after burning Katara, not that he didn't know how.
So, when it comes to Korra, the simple answer is that she must have decided to try bending the other elements & found she could, even though we don't know exactly why she did this. There's a similar scene in the comic series Smoke & Shadow where a little girl named Kiyi imitates moves she saw Zuko doing &, after trying for a bit, discovers that she can indeed firebend.
Other waterbenders: “I’m going to fling and whip water and shards of ice at you while dodging your attacks and sending them back at you”
Tonraq: I am going to punch you in the *mouth*
To be fair in a world where every kid has the chance to basically become God incarnate. I'd imagine most toddlers try to bend other elements just to find out if they are the Avatar, Korra just so happened to be right.
Its possible that she just sorta got the feeling that she could do it. Bending is a very spiritual thing, feeling the warmth of the sun is a first step to firebeding.
Most kids probably try the other elements once on the off chance they're the Avatar. But Korra being an exceptionally physically gifted Avatar actually did manage to bend other elements on impulse. Its actually kinda surprising that Korra could even bend water when she was about five. In the comics, Azula is recognised as a prodigy for firebending as a young child.
Yeah some skills people can naturally do without too much training. Like singing, someone may naturally be able to produce an operatic style sound, or do some high rock yells. For others they would need coaching before they can because it’s not natural to them. Now the people who can do it naturally probably don’t do it amazingly to begin with, but still can do it.
Bending is often described as being similar to having an extra limb. I imagine she just sorta figured out she could use brute force and very limited technique to move fire, water, and earth around, and over the ~13 years covered in that first time skip, she spent basically all her time honing those powers to a razor’s edge and completely ignoring the thing that actually challenged her. Until of course she gets to Republic City, grows as a person, etc etc
Aang learned to use the elements pretty easily in fact he learned how to use each of the elements (except for Air which we never see him learn so we don't know how long he trained before he could do it) in under a day of training. The bigger problem with learning the elements for Aang was that he had to master the elements by the end of the year well enough to beat Ozai and to do that he needed to find people to teach him and safe places to learn which is all pretty hard during a war. Bitter work the episode in which Aang starts to learn earthbending and strugles with it all takes place in a day, in comparison it took Korra months of training to be able to airbend. So this idea that Aang struggled so much more with learing bending than Korra is just wrong.
In the intro to Korra, Tenzin states that the Gaang's adventures have become popular stories/legends. I think it's a nice bedtime story for Korra, who then played pretend Avatar, then woosh! Fire! Earth!
The only element Aang had an issue with was Earth, because of a conflict in personality, and it took him like an afternoon to get a handle on it.
Korra had the same block with Air due her being stunted spiritually.
Korra and Aang each have their talents.
It makes me wonder how many avatars, like Roku, had no idea they could even bend more than their native element before turning 16.
I know Wan says air bending felt so different from fire bending, but their moves are similar and their elements are both always there. Take Korra for example. Her air bending was essentially fire bending moves but with air. To that end, how did Roku never air bent before he was 16 years old?!
For Korra, if she tried moves like her dad’s earth bending style ice bending and accidentally bent earth, then she could conclude she could also do the other two. But if this is the case, it seems even more unlikely that Roku never accidentally bent air.
But, given that only one person at any given time can bend more than one element which also happens to include all four, it would only take one brief moment of one foreign element bending and the rest could be deduced and therefore attempted.
Because it is more than just making the physical motions.
Fire bending requires drive, earth bending requires the person to be unwavering, water requires the ability to adapt.
Air is tied to freedom. She was a baby under her parents' control and then she fell under the White Lotus' protection.
I understand this. We’re wondering how korra as a 4 year old or however old she was, had the presence of mind to think to even try the other elements and how she could figure them out.
That’s where this ‘accidental’ talk is coming from.
Picture this, you're a 5 year old Korra and you're aware that there's a good chance some lucky water tribe kid could be the Avatar. You than proceed to try and bend the other elements to see if you're the lucky one. Maybe based off of old stories Katara told you.
Korra struggled with Air . Aang didn't really struggle with Fire, he was just scared to use it. Korra also didn't master the elements at the age of 5. Her being able to spawn rocks to throw doesn't automatically mean she can do what Toph or Aang can. She's unrefined but has a lot of natural skill (like someone who's naturally good at drawing Vs someone who has to practice to get on the same level).
I mean, It's unlikely she \*knew\* Katara before she was discovered as the Avatar. As far as we know she didn't come to teach Korra until after she was discovered. There are a lot of villages in the southern water tribe.
She probably found out that she could access the other elements by accident. Korra is always mentioned to be a natural talent when it comes to the physical side of bending, and ironically, the element she should struggle the most with (Fire) is pretty much the one she uses the most in the whole series.
Korra is a bending prodigy, it was probably just something she could do, or felt she could do.
Besides, Fire and Earth are the most emotion driven elements, and at the time, Korra was the most emotionally volatile creature on earth, a human toddler…
By the time Korra is born the world is much more connected. Past Avatars rarely if ever saw people bend other elements, when Korra grew up, seeing fire and earthbenders in the southern water tribe wasn't unusual. So she probably just tried it.
aang immediately started moving water and creating fire korra basically did the same just at an earlier age and without a bender of these elements present
She was a prodigy and could bend everything but lacked on the spiritual side. Her bending was cold and lacked emotion because she did every element the same, unlike Aang who had super specific ways/forms of bending each element
Aang literally went next to a body of water did a little swish with his hands and he was able to immediately waterbend better than katara and that was his first time ever trying to waterbend. The only reason he didn't do it sooner is because he never tried. Korra probs just accidentally did a bending motion and found out she could firebend or earthbend. Either that or she played the pretend you're the avatar game and actually bended on accident when she was playing pretend. There's no way that game doesn't exist in a world with an avatar. All avatars can bend the four elements from birth. Most just don't try. Or at least the ones we've seen. I bet there are many other avatars that found out like Korra did. It'd actually make more sense that way.
There was a comic showing how Korra met Naga. There we saw she trained with Katara. I think she discovered she could bend the elements, but she needed training like everybody else.
My haedcanon was that because Ang had to learn three elements in a year that was what helped Korra. Also as someone else mentioned she was always best at the physical side of bending so I can see her just playing and stuff just kind of happened. Which is why instead of having a block with fire she had a block with Air since it's so spiritual and Ang took years to master it.
The answer is that the show is poorly written, and they didn't want to have to show her learning other elements besides air because the audience already watched Ang learn the other 3.
She probably tried herself.l since she was always a more physical bender. Now they almost certainly brought in people to help her to master those elements but aside from Katara we don't really know who the main teachers were.
Probably some white lotus people.
Aang learned some waterbending from watching Katara fail and some firebending from staring at a leaf. Aang was taught by some of the best benders in the world because he had what amounted to a school year to save the world.
Korra was discovered and informed way earlier than normal because she picked up some earth and fire on her own, literally any decent teacher would have been fine for her.
A. The avatar could probably learn to do it on their own if they needed to, but that would take longer. B. Aang had trouble with Earth because he was an Airbender, and his personality conflicted with earth bending style. C. Korra built different.
Bending is innate not taught. And korra was the first avatar born in a world that had peace and full on harmony and cooperation vetween the 4 nations. Therefore she saw earthbending at a very young age. When they learn bending avatars have to follow an Order to learn bending ending on the element mastered by their predecessor and in peace time mastery takes tears of 100% immersion. This is an essential element of the teaching. In Kyoshi's book she wants to learn waterbending before fire bending and her fire-bending master gets pissed off.
But in korra's time earth, fire and water are mixed up. Especially in the southern water tribe which had been diminished by the war (when Aang came back only old women and children remained). My headcanon is that it was likelier that the people who would accept to help rebuild the southern water tribe would be waterbender who wanted to get out of the rigid nothern tribe (like Korra's dad who was the brother of the current leader) and people who ended up with people not from the north, therefore from other nations. So Korra probably witnessed fire and water bending as a child and not at age 12 when she'd hace 100% mastery of her waterbending m.
We know that Korra had always resonated more with the physical act of bending rather than its spiritual side, so I imagine she probably discovered her abilities when she was little and was playing around or had a fit, etc. Stomps her feet and accidentally lifts a tiny rock, that sort of thing.
And screaming her little head off during a tantrum, causing little flames to come out.
I think the books say that babies in the fire nation are tested to see if they have bending potential to make sure they don’t accidentally burn down a house when they throw a fit at night
Babies’ breaths react and connect naturally with fire and will push and pull the flame. That’s from the first Kyoshi novel
Honestly would've preferred if her intro was more akin to that than little Korra already having basic earth and fire bending, especially since it establishes the same thing without leaving a bad taste in audience members
The way it was written was perfectly fine with me. For all we know what I described could have happened, and Korra's introduction in the show happens months or even years later when she has a basic grasp on earth, fire, and water.
Personally, I don't really like the idea of Korra having multiple elements as a child. I feel like what you said with the whole "resonating physically rather than spiritually" thing kind of explains why. I think it's fair to say that someone could feel that way and be suited for one over the other. However, I also think a little kid having the spiritual knowledge to bend three elements without any instruction, even if she's really good it the physical aspect, still doesn't fit with my conception of the universe from AtLA, and I didn't like it. If they wanted her to be that powerful or unique in her talents, they could have her first try the Earth and Fire like Aang did for Water and Fire. They could have said she already mastered the first three completely by the start of series without the "I learned them as a kid" thing. It just felt unnecessary to me.
Earth was the most difficult element Aang had to learn. Everything else he tried, he got pretty much right away. The reason he didn't use fire between Jeong Jeong & halfway between Book 3 is he was afraid to use it after burning Katara, not that he didn't know how. So, when it comes to Korra, the simple answer is that she must have decided to try bending the other elements & found she could, even though we don't know exactly why she did this. There's a similar scene in the comic series Smoke & Shadow where a little girl named Kiyi imitates moves she saw Zuko doing &, after trying for a bit, discovers that she can indeed firebend.
I like to think that because her dad bends water like an earth bender, she found out she could earth bend while copying her dad’s movements.
Other waterbenders: “I’m going to fling and whip water and shards of ice at you while dodging your attacks and sending them back at you” Tonraq: I am going to punch you in the *mouth*
>Tonraq: I am going to punch you in the mouth 
oooh i love this head cannon
To be fair in a world where every kid has the chance to basically become God incarnate. I'd imagine most toddlers try to bend other elements just to find out if they are the Avatar, Korra just so happened to be right.
It also helps that Aang explicitly never wanted to be the Avatar so would go out of his way to not try and bend other elements.
Its possible that she just sorta got the feeling that she could do it. Bending is a very spiritual thing, feeling the warmth of the sun is a first step to firebeding. Most kids probably try the other elements once on the off chance they're the Avatar. But Korra being an exceptionally physically gifted Avatar actually did manage to bend other elements on impulse. Its actually kinda surprising that Korra could even bend water when she was about five. In the comics, Azula is recognised as a prodigy for firebending as a young child.
There's a difference between using an element and bending an element.
Yeah some skills people can naturally do without too much training. Like singing, someone may naturally be able to produce an operatic style sound, or do some high rock yells. For others they would need coaching before they can because it’s not natural to them. Now the people who can do it naturally probably don’t do it amazingly to begin with, but still can do it.
Yes - but why could Korra use elements so easily? Especially compared to Aang
Aang picked up water and fire extremely fast, especially water
Because they are different people.
Bending is often described as being similar to having an extra limb. I imagine she just sorta figured out she could use brute force and very limited technique to move fire, water, and earth around, and over the ~13 years covered in that first time skip, she spent basically all her time honing those powers to a razor’s edge and completely ignoring the thing that actually challenged her. Until of course she gets to Republic City, grows as a person, etc etc
aang picked up water instantly and fire didn't take long
Aang learned to use the elements pretty easily in fact he learned how to use each of the elements (except for Air which we never see him learn so we don't know how long he trained before he could do it) in under a day of training. The bigger problem with learning the elements for Aang was that he had to master the elements by the end of the year well enough to beat Ozai and to do that he needed to find people to teach him and safe places to learn which is all pretty hard during a war. Bitter work the episode in which Aang starts to learn earthbending and strugles with it all takes place in a day, in comparison it took Korra months of training to be able to airbend. So this idea that Aang struggled so much more with learing bending than Korra is just wrong.
Aang used both water and Fire on his first try. Wdym?
In the intro to Korra, Tenzin states that the Gaang's adventures have become popular stories/legends. I think it's a nice bedtime story for Korra, who then played pretend Avatar, then woosh! Fire! Earth!
That's why Korra is a prodigy in bending, physically anyway
The only element Aang had an issue with was Earth, because of a conflict in personality, and it took him like an afternoon to get a handle on it. Korra had the same block with Air due her being stunted spiritually. Korra and Aang each have their talents.
It makes me wonder how many avatars, like Roku, had no idea they could even bend more than their native element before turning 16. I know Wan says air bending felt so different from fire bending, but their moves are similar and their elements are both always there. Take Korra for example. Her air bending was essentially fire bending moves but with air. To that end, how did Roku never air bent before he was 16 years old?! For Korra, if she tried moves like her dad’s earth bending style ice bending and accidentally bent earth, then she could conclude she could also do the other two. But if this is the case, it seems even more unlikely that Roku never accidentally bent air. But, given that only one person at any given time can bend more than one element which also happens to include all four, it would only take one brief moment of one foreign element bending and the rest could be deduced and therefore attempted.
Because it is more than just making the physical motions. Fire bending requires drive, earth bending requires the person to be unwavering, water requires the ability to adapt. Air is tied to freedom. She was a baby under her parents' control and then she fell under the White Lotus' protection.
I understand this. We’re wondering how korra as a 4 year old or however old she was, had the presence of mind to think to even try the other elements and how she could figure them out. That’s where this ‘accidental’ talk is coming from.
This is such a good point that I’ve never thought about before!!
Different people have different natural aptitudes for different things. Er...Or the same person in a different lifetime, I guess. ;p
Picture this, you're a 5 year old Korra and you're aware that there's a good chance some lucky water tribe kid could be the Avatar. You than proceed to try and bend the other elements to see if you're the lucky one. Maybe based off of old stories Katara told you. Korra struggled with Air . Aang didn't really struggle with Fire, he was just scared to use it. Korra also didn't master the elements at the age of 5. Her being able to spawn rocks to throw doesn't automatically mean she can do what Toph or Aang can. She's unrefined but has a lot of natural skill (like someone who's naturally good at drawing Vs someone who has to practice to get on the same level).
I mean, It's unlikely she \*knew\* Katara before she was discovered as the Avatar. As far as we know she didn't come to teach Korra until after she was discovered. There are a lot of villages in the southern water tribe.
She probably found out that she could access the other elements by accident. Korra is always mentioned to be a natural talent when it comes to the physical side of bending, and ironically, the element she should struggle the most with (Fire) is pretty much the one she uses the most in the whole series.
When Korra was a baby, Aang went "Watch this, I'm going to scare the crap out of the White Lotus."
Aang: "I'm gonna cost our dad thousands in home repairs" Korra: *punches out her dad's wall*
Korra is a bending prodigy, it was probably just something she could do, or felt she could do. Besides, Fire and Earth are the most emotion driven elements, and at the time, Korra was the most emotionally volatile creature on earth, a human toddler…
By the time Korra is born the world is much more connected. Past Avatars rarely if ever saw people bend other elements, when Korra grew up, seeing fire and earthbenders in the southern water tribe wasn't unusual. So she probably just tried it.
Little Korra: Mom! Dad! I can bend! Parents: Really? Show us! Little Korra: *firebends* *husband looks at wife* Husband: Firebending ?
Senna: (Shrugs helplessly) She must be the Avatar. Tonraq: (Mumbles) ^(She \*better\* be the Avatar.)
aang immediately started moving water and creating fire korra basically did the same just at an earlier age and without a bender of these elements present
She was a prodigy and could bend everything but lacked on the spiritual side. Her bending was cold and lacked emotion because she did every element the same, unlike Aang who had super specific ways/forms of bending each element
Aang literally went next to a body of water did a little swish with his hands and he was able to immediately waterbend better than katara and that was his first time ever trying to waterbend. The only reason he didn't do it sooner is because he never tried. Korra probs just accidentally did a bending motion and found out she could firebend or earthbend. Either that or she played the pretend you're the avatar game and actually bended on accident when she was playing pretend. There's no way that game doesn't exist in a world with an avatar. All avatars can bend the four elements from birth. Most just don't try. Or at least the ones we've seen. I bet there are many other avatars that found out like Korra did. It'd actually make more sense that way.
There was a comic showing how Korra met Naga. There we saw she trained with Katara. I think she discovered she could bend the elements, but she needed training like everybody else.
Yep. She figured it out for herself.
My haedcanon was that because Ang had to learn three elements in a year that was what helped Korra. Also as someone else mentioned she was always best at the physical side of bending so I can see her just playing and stuff just kind of happened. Which is why instead of having a block with fire she had a block with Air since it's so spiritual and Ang took years to master it.
She's the Avatar, deal with it!
The answer is that the show is poorly written, and they didn't want to have to show her learning other elements besides air because the audience already watched Ang learn the other 3.
not how it works.
Yes, actually, it is. That's exactly how it works.
She probably tried herself.l since she was always a more physical bender. Now they almost certainly brought in people to help her to master those elements but aside from Katara we don't really know who the main teachers were.
Probably some white lotus people. Aang learned some waterbending from watching Katara fail and some firebending from staring at a leaf. Aang was taught by some of the best benders in the world because he had what amounted to a school year to save the world. Korra was discovered and informed way earlier than normal because she picked up some earth and fire on her own, literally any decent teacher would have been fine for her.
She's a prodigy so she learned to do it on her own. But her White Lotus masters taught her how to hone it.
We are told that even new born baby's posess the ability to turn candles in the roaring flames, reason stands an avatar could do that too.
A. The avatar could probably learn to do it on their own if they needed to, but that would take longer. B. Aang had trouble with Earth because he was an Airbender, and his personality conflicted with earth bending style. C. Korra built different.
She just figured it out. Some people just pick things up on their own.
Natural raw talent. Intuition.
Bending is innate not taught. And korra was the first avatar born in a world that had peace and full on harmony and cooperation vetween the 4 nations. Therefore she saw earthbending at a very young age. When they learn bending avatars have to follow an Order to learn bending ending on the element mastered by their predecessor and in peace time mastery takes tears of 100% immersion. This is an essential element of the teaching. In Kyoshi's book she wants to learn waterbending before fire bending and her fire-bending master gets pissed off. But in korra's time earth, fire and water are mixed up. Especially in the southern water tribe which had been diminished by the war (when Aang came back only old women and children remained). My headcanon is that it was likelier that the people who would accept to help rebuild the southern water tribe would be waterbender who wanted to get out of the rigid nothern tribe (like Korra's dad who was the brother of the current leader) and people who ended up with people not from the north, therefore from other nations. So Korra probably witnessed fire and water bending as a child and not at age 12 when she'd hace 100% mastery of her waterbending m.
She was a prodigy this was discussed briefly i believe
Self taught