"So?" Mai shrugged. "I would have pushed him and then held him down."
Katara glanced at her, and shook her head again. "That's not the same."
"Yes it is," Mai said, flat contradiction. "It's exactly the same."
"You don't understand," Katara replied. "The woman I learned it from - the woman I learned it was possible from, she was a monster. She used it on people to force them to walk right into their own prison."
"I could do that with a knife to their throat," Mai pointed out, in the same tone of voice. It made Katara pause and look at her. "There's lots of ways of making people do something they don't want to, Katara. That doesn't mean the techniques themselves are wrong." She shook her arm slightly and one of her throwing knives slid out between her fingers. She handed it to Katara. "These kill people. Which is even worse."
Katara wasn't sure she agreed with that. "Blood-bending takes people's choices away from them," she said, frowning at the knife in her hands, turning over the thought at the same time as the blade.
"Killing them takes every choice possible away from them," Mai replied. "Threatening to kill them narrows it down to two choices, and one of them is dying. It's how you do it and why that matters."
This is very cool, and as a sidenote completely reinforced that one of the characters living in my head is twisted-around so that the distinction between a choice to obey or die, or just taking someone over, is utterly gigantic.
He'd really not take being held and directed at knife-point as Mai suggests personally in the same way he would something like bloodbending.
I also like that Katara is caught on the ethics of the situation, while pragmatic enough that Mai's focus on functionality is something she can be persuaded by...
no subject
"So?" Mai shrugged. "I would have pushed him and then held him down."
Katara glanced at her, and shook her head again. "That's not the same."
"Yes it is," Mai said, flat contradiction. "It's exactly the same."
"You don't understand," Katara replied. "The woman I learned it from - the woman I learned it was possible from, she was a monster. She used it on people to force them to walk right into their own prison."
"I could do that with a knife to their throat," Mai pointed out, in the same tone of voice. It made Katara pause and look at her. "There's lots of ways of making people do something they don't want to, Katara. That doesn't mean the techniques themselves are wrong." She shook her arm slightly and one of her throwing knives slid out between her fingers. She handed it to Katara. "These kill people. Which is even worse."
Katara wasn't sure she agreed with that. "Blood-bending takes people's choices away from them," she said, frowning at the knife in her hands, turning over the thought at the same time as the blade.
"Killing them takes every choice possible away from them," Mai replied. "Threatening to kill them narrows it down to two choices, and one of them is dying. It's how you do it and why that matters."
This is very cool, and as a sidenote completely reinforced that one of the characters living in my head is twisted-around so that the distinction between a choice to obey or die, or just taking someone over, is utterly gigantic.
He'd really not take being held and directed at knife-point as Mai suggests personally in the same way he would something like bloodbending.
I also like that Katara is caught on the ethics of the situation, while pragmatic enough that Mai's focus on functionality is something she can be persuaded by...