Winding Legacies: A 'The Legend of Korra' Rewrite

Episode 6: Old Wounds Part 2

"The key is to know exactly what you want the metal to do and bend it to your will. My mother didn't become the first metalbender by simply waiting for the metal to listen to her, she made it listen."

Suyin placed her palm against one of the metal beams holding the pavilion upright. She pulled it back, then, forced her hand forward. And, without her ever touching it again, it curved inward without any struggle. "Your turn."

Bolin and Korra apprehensively turned to each other. There wasn't much instruction in her words, so how in the world were they expected to—

"Oh," Korra frowned as Rirran did exactly what Suyin explained first try.

Suyin pursed her jaw. "You couldn't even pretend to be bad at it so I could teach you." Rirran grinned and jerked his arm toward his body, pulling the metal column back into place.

"You are teaching me! This is the first metalbending lesson I've ever had." Bolin's jaw widened.

"Then how in the world did you just do that?" He knew that Rirran was THE Earth Slayer, but he was flabbergasted. Not just any earthbender can metalbend.

"Earthbending has always been a breeze for me," he shrugged. "Give or take a few forms and mindsets."

Man, Bolin was so jealous.

"Alright. Regardless of how good anyone else is, you both can still learn to metalbend because it is only a measure of what you can do, not what anyone else can." Suyin shooed Rirran behind her so she could speak to Korra and Bolin directly without him getting in the way.

"No, everyone knows that it takes a highly skilled earthbender to be able to bend metal," Bolin said.

"But skilled in what?" Suyin raised her brows, hoping for them to supply her with an answer. But when neither of them could think of it, she said, "Skilled in knowing their limits. The only way you can push further and bend something to your will is to know at what point you need to keep going. So, when you feel like you can't possibly push your bending anymore than you already have, that is your sign to keep pushing. Only then will you find new skills that you might have once thought were impossible."

Suyin smiled as Korra and Bolin's eyes shone with a reinvigorated belief in themselves. "I told you I would be a good teacher. I give all my kids that speech and it works wonders. Now, like I showed you before."

For a good while Bolin and Korra punched at the metal columns with all their might, and by the end, Korra had made a considerable cut in hers, though not nearly as smooth as Suyin or Rirran's. Bolin, on the other hand, hadn't even made a dent. "Don't worry about it, Bolin," Rirran smiled, clasping Bolin on the shoulder as Suyin studied Korra's work. "There are other steps before one can say they really know how to bend metal."

Bolin sighed. "I think I'm just a rock guy, not a metal bender." He tried his best to make a smile and pass off what he said as a light-hearted comment, but he couldn't. He really wished with all his heart that he had a special bending skill like that.

"You are so much more than that, Bolin, you just gotta see that yourself. Push past your limits and whatever Suyin said. I know you can." Bolin snorted and looked up at Rirran.

"How do you know that?"

"I picked you to help teach my bending class for a reason. You have potential. You just gotta figure out what it is in." Their conversation broke as Korra leaped up with an excited yell, a blob of metal moving silkily between her hands.

"Look! It's moving!"

Bolin felt familiarity ring through him as he watched Korra guide the metal swiftly around them, like she was cutting up the ground with its liquid flow. But he shook it away to let a genuine smile crawl onto his face. "Congrats, Korra!"