AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Yes, but what IS air exactly? Is it the specific combination of oxygen that humans breathe? Just the oxygen itself? Gasses in general?

I think Aang bent perfume once, but maybe he just bent regular air and used it to diffuse the perfume quicker?

I think it's not bending air so much as wind generation and control. Like how Firebenders can summon fire and push it to their will, Airbenders can summon air currents and direct them as they so please.

I can get Water or Earth, every liquid is water to some extent, and Earth is just one combination of minerals or another, but Fire is a reaction, and Air is pretty vague. Hell, maybe the exact defintions of the elements are just mental projections of some underlying reality bending skill that all Benders posses and are able to tap into to some extent. It works that way because thats how they think it works.

A haiku:

But if you make wind
Are you not actually
Just moving the air?

Precisely, Kamak
Wind is the movement of air
By outside sources

Then you are moving
The ethereal aether
Ergo, bending air.

It just seems like semantics. Moving air causes currents, and making currents causes air to move.

Exactly, which brings back the point: What is the mechanics behind bending? What decides what is Air and what isnt?

Alright Kamak, I guess it's more an argument as to which causes the other.

As for the mechanics of bending, I keep being reminded that there are "original masters", like the moles and the dragons, that inspired benders to be able to manipulate the elements. And considering they require a different chakra path and different fighting styles, I'd say the mechanics of bending are just focusing on one element or another. They're all pretty similar, and you could argue that the fact that a waterbender can cause water to float is a kind of airbending, or an airbender using wind to blow out or enhance flame is a kind of firebending.

Though really with that theory, anyone can become the avatar with the proper training and discipline, so I'm wondering how accurate that is.

Well something to understand is at one point there was no elemental bending, and only energybending. You could assume that every other form of bending is just a more focused energybending. It seems to be matched to genetics too, so maybe energy benders just slowly died out and the elemental benders were the only ones left, who became more and more focused onto one element each.

This might be why we only ever see Avatars energy bending. They're the only ones who can open every chi point, everyone else either has one or none to potentially open, and having all four might be the key.

This would also mean that, since energybending seems more soul oriented, that benders might be actually bending their own souls to manipulate an element they're keyed into.

One thing I'd like to see in this more modern setting is the creation, or attempt, at an artificial Avatar.

Airbenders can definitely move other stuff around but it was never as deft as natural earth/fire/water bending. It was just Aang brute forcing it.

(not counting when he was the avatar demi-god state)

I was actually kinda hoping Amon would try pulling this, maybe in book two, a spirit will try something like this, or try to usurp Avatarness from Korra.

It doesn't even have to be a "traditional" Avatar with earth, wind, water, and fire. Maybe it's a technological Avatar, who wields electricity (not as a subset of fire but as its own thing), machinery, and some other fancy "elements."