r/HatsuVault•
Suariiz

Nen users with disabilities

Discussion

I was rewatching the Avatar series (not Cameron's, but the kid with the blue arrow in his forehead) and they sometimes comment on how disabled benders end up "naturally" becoming absurdly talented benders. The most obvious example is Toph, who, in addition to learning to earthbend as a baby, learned how to use seismic sense and developed metalbending. Another example would be Ming-Hua, who was born without both arms and is one of the greatest waterbenders in the series.

My point is, obviously, that this is an extrapolation of something that actually exists: the human brain is plastic enough to "compensate" for certain losses, since the cerebral cortex is sectoral and organized in such a way that we can have a fair notion of which groove or fold interferes where and how (of course it isn't so simple, but you get it). When, for example, someone is born or loses their vision, it is visible in an MRI that the area that in theory would be "inactive" is being used to intensify other activities, such as touch, hearing, among many other possible ramifications.

In view of this dissertation, I come to the dear Masters of the nen art with the provocation: Could this logic be "adapted" to Nen users? Not only in terms of physical disabilities, but also mental ones. What do you think would be the results of implementing this within the rules of Nen use?

Posted Sep 11, 2025, 5:03 PM UTC

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