Baguazhang mainly inspired airbending in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Baguazhang is a Chinese internal martial art whose name means “eight-trigram palm.” Its characteristic circle-walking, turning, evasive footwork, and sudden changes of direction translate naturally into the show’s conception of air as elusive, mobile, and difficult to pin down.
The series’ creators consulted martial-arts expert Sifu Kisu to give each bending discipline a distinct physical language. Waterbending drew on tai chi, earthbending on Hung Gar, and firebending on Northern Shaolin. That is why the wrong options are associated with other elements rather than air.
Airbending’s choreography also reflects Air Nomad values. It emphasizes retreat, redirection, agility, open-handed techniques, and avoiding lethal finishing moves. Aang’s fighting style therefore looks different from the more rooted power of earthbending or the direct aggression of firebending, even though all four fictional arts share a broader Chinese-martial-arts foundation.