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I know that waterbenders can freeze and melt water/ice, but what is the limit to this?

Can a waterbender heat water to boiling? Steam? I know that waterbenders can bend steam (Korra did it when she went to the anti-bending rally), but can she create the steam if needed (without combining her firebending)?

If not, why? If they can freeze water and then cause it to heat up again, what is stopping them from heating the water further?

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  • You can heat water vapor not only by adding heat, but by increasing the pressure. According the rules of thermodynamics, out of pressure, volume and temperature you can choose one to keep constant, and alter a second one by changing the third one.
    – vsz
    Commented Dec 14, 2012 at 7:11

3 Answers 3

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It's explictly stated in the Official Pro-Bending Rulebook (originally available on Brian Konietzko's blog) that Waterbenders are prohibited from making use of water states such as ice, fog and steam during their bouts.

Official Pro-Bending Rulebook - Waterbending rules

  • Water must be used in a liquid state, not as a gas or solid. So no steam, fog, or ice is permitted.

The capacity to turn ice into water into steam would suggest that Waterbenders are able to heat water in a quite dramatic manner.

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  • So essentially, Jet was jumping to conclusions regarding Iroh.
    – Mateen Ulhaq
    Commented May 20, 2020 at 12:46
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They certainly can create steam/mist, which would probably be from temperature control; Katara does that when she does the Painted Lady thing. There seems to be a fair amount of debate as to whether she's changing the state of the water or the temperature. It's possible that the steam thing she did was just causing rapid evaporation or calling the steam from somewhere else or condensing the steam that was already in the air.

In any case, I don't think they must be able to make water hot on a whim, otherwise surely the waterbenders would sew tiny hot water bottles into their clothes to heat up and warm their toes living on the poles like they do. Plus being able to throw boiling water around would make waterbenders way more overpowered than they already are as the only ones with healing powers.

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  • Well, they should be able to, in theory. Water benders can manipulate water molecules to how ever they see fit. They can condense it, levitate it, spread the H20 molecules further apart and etc. To heat water and create steam, all a water bender would have to do is speed up the rate of movement of the individual H20 molecules, which in turn creates thermal energy/steam
    – Reiko96
    Commented Apr 20, 2014 at 21:55
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    @Reiko96: I don't think water benders can manipulate water at the level of individual molecules. If they could, blood-bending would be a lot easier and more precise.
    – Kevin
    Commented May 27, 2017 at 6:47
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    Pretty sure you can create mist without heating water... Steam, definitely, but I don't see how mist belongs in this argument.
    – Broots Waymb
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 13:44
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Some earthbenders are able to heat stone enough to liquify it, so waterbenders must be able to heat the water. But just as only a few can manage it amongst earthbenders, the temperature you can reach must depend on your own strength.

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  • Why must waterbenders be able to heat water? Is there anything that suggests it?
    – Edlothiad
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 11:24

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