Blood bending. Wow. That was much darker than I expected this season and I see now why they've stepped up the comedy a bit.
It does make me wonder how Nickelodeon is viewing this. Rumor has it this might be the last season of Avatar so the writers seem to be pushing things as far as they can considering the limits of airing on a child/teen station. Reminds me of the Ren and Stimpy censorship back in the day.