<p>Towards the end of <em>Avatar</em>, we see a lion turtle grant Aang the ability to energy bend. He telepathically says that he's the last of his kind. So at first, I thought maybe there was some natural disaster that wiped them all out, and then <em>Legend of Korra</em> came out where it was revealed there were hundreds of them. They were also fairly solitary. </p>

<p>Then it was revealed that the humans wiped them out. So how did the biggest creatures in the <em>Avatar</em> universe, able to support entire cities and ecosystems, allow themselves to be wiped out by people who they gave the bending to? even if they could throw lightning at it, I hardly think that would kill it. There were also flying ones( the lion turtles associated with air) and ones that could dive underwater. if this is that case why didn't they just fly heighter/ dive underwater?  </p>

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2020-05-05T07:07:42.177Z
This is based on multiple assumptions: a) bending specialisations hadn't been invented yet, b) the lion turtle Aang talked to was indeed 10,000 years old; c) the larger something is, the harder it is to kill.
F1Krazy
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2020-05-05T13:05:26.420Z
Alright, I fixed it. Thank you for the input and the edit.
xpert
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2020-05-05T13:23:33.293Z
No problem! This is a much better question now, and I have to admit that I'm curious about the answer myself.
F1Krazy
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2020-05-05T13:24:23.813Z
I have another question: What the heck do you do with a corpse that big.
xpert
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2020-06-13T20:22:12.050Z
I've actually seen a similar debate somewhere, and fans generally think that it's a writing error on behalf of the writers, because Bryke did not originally plan to use the lion turtles for anything else but to help Aang learn how to defeat Ozai without killing him. This is because the creators did not plan to make TLOK, which is why all the pieces fit well together in ATLA, and less so in TLOK. Hope this helps!
patty2904
<avatar>
How were the lion turtles driven to near-extinction?
# How were the lion turtles driven to near-extinction?
Posted by: username_0 on 2020-05-05
Towards the end of *Avatar*, we see a lion turtle grant Aang the ability to energy bend. He telepathically says that he's the last of his kind. So at first, I thought maybe there was some natural disaster that wiped them all out, and then *Legend of Korra* came out where it was revealed there were hundreds of them. They were also fairly solitary.

Then it was revealed that the humans wiped them out. So how did the biggest creatures in the *Avatar* universe, able to support entire cities and ecosystems, allow themselves to be wiped out by people who they gave the bending to? even if they could throw lightning at it, I hardly think that would kill it. There were also flying ones( the lion turtles associated with air) and ones that could dive underwater. if this is that case why didn't they just fly heighter/ dive underwater?
**Tags:** avatar
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: This is based on multiple assumptions: a) bending specialisations hadn't been invented yet, b) the lion turtle Aang talked to was indeed 10,000 years old; c) the larger something is, the harder it is to kill.  
> **username_0**: Alright, I fixed it. Thank you for the input and the edit.  
> **username_1**: No problem! This is a much better question now, and I have to admit that I'm curious about the answer myself.  
> **username_0**: I have another question: What the heck do you do with a corpse that big.  
> **username_2**: I've actually seen a similar debate somewhere, and fans generally think that it's a writing error on behalf of the writers, because Bryke did not originally plan to use the lion turtles for anything else but to help Aang learn how to defeat Ozai without killing him. This is because the creators did not plan to make TLOK, which is why all the pieces fit well together in ATLA, and less so in TLOK. Hope this helps!  
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