Okay I’m writing this just to clarify something I find important.

“Talent” in this story (and probably others I make) can be described as three things.

One, the ability to pick up and store information about the given subject.

Two, the ability to apply said information efficiently.

Three, the ability to take said information and make adjustments and improvements.

These three are what I consider Talent as in storytelling.

And there are multiple ways these can be discovered and used.

Take for instance Cynthia and Newt, Cynthia is a very methodical person who is a pioneer in her field, she explore the how and why something does an action the way it does.

Newt, coming from Earth, is familiar with the scientific method and was a programmer, which requires so many different values, variables, and much more to make a somewhat decent program.

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Coming from Earth, a very information based world with millions of different studies and fields of research that explore why and how the universe works, his thought process is very similar to Cynthia’s.

This is incredibly lucky as he found a teacher who teaches in a similar thought process to himself and can more easily pick up information and understanding that way.

However if Newt were to say, get a teacher who uses Ki and explains and teaches him more through instinct then methodical procedure, he would have a difficult time learning and be considered “Untalented” by people who learnt the same way.

People’s talent can manifest in different ways, it merely is about how they learn rather than how to make them learn better with one incompatible method of teaching.

Of course there is a side note of this however, Manipulation of Energy, Mana is notoriously difficult to manipulate, and picking up and adjusting to it could be considered a talent.

In this case I would say, because of how Manipulation of Energy is in this series I would say this also is about compatibility with teaching methods.

Say a student has trouble moving Mana as a Gas, he is untalented and just can’t seem to keep hold of the visualisation and manipulation of it, but when he pictures it as a liquid that flows like a river, he can manipulate effortlessly.

If you’re still confused about this all, just ask in the comments, I’m happy to clarify.