ok, so I tried to find an old thread that talks about this, but if it exists, it must be way back in the old threads. So, I will try it here.

OK, so when Aang dies, the last air bender, how will the avatar survive?? Does Gaia not need all four in order to exist? I have a theory, but I wanna hear some first.

But, in the Sozin's Comet book, the creators did say that the world is still out of balance because of the loss of the Air Nomads.

It could be said that the cycle woud simply skip, but that technically isn't in the regular balance, as the previous Avatars had airbending along with the other elements. Of course there is also the evergoing theory about having children...

yeah, I was thinking about the baby theory, but as it will be half water half air, how would that work out???

my theory was that Aang, now a master in energybending, would take some non-bender humans and endow them with air bending power. although I dont see aang just "re-making" the air nomads and may just let it go. Well, until the return of the air avatar there would be let's say 80 years per avatar, although avatar kyoshi lived to be 200, but lets say 80 times three would be over 200 years...there could be time for no-benders to learn air bending, but since the nomads learnt it from the flying bisons, who are now extinct, I dont see that happening.

Hmm, this is puzzling indeed.

An interesting idea that someone brought up (Wiselad?) was that if Aang can take someone's bending away, can he also grant bending to nonbenders? And if so, can he only give someone from the Water Tribe waterbending or can he grant them whatever element they want.

Think about that mindbender.