I'd say water because of blood bending, but then again fire benders can summon lightning, and also earth benders can bend metal. So which is considered to be the best element? And why does it seem like air bending is the weakest element?
shareI'd say water because of blood bending, but then again fire benders can summon lightning, and also earth benders can bend metal.
And why does it seem like air bending is the weakest element?
That doesn't really answer my question. And Ang usually had trouble with most opponents, except for just regular benders.
shareActually, it did answer your question. The only opponents Aang had any actual trouble against were Azula, Ozai, and Combustion Man.
And like I said, if you've watched Korra, you've seen how dangerous and powerful airbending is.
But here is a more specific answer: Aang is a pacifist; he doesn't unleash the full power of airbending.
Zaheer shows what an airbender is truly capable of. He kills someone by sucking the air out of their lungs and suffocating them.
Can't stop the signal.
You answered one of my questions. The main question was, which element is considered the strongest?
Although you are right about Ang be a pacifist, but I'm sure he's had trouble with more enemies than you listed I just can't think of any at the moment.
I'm also only on episode 2 of Legend of Korra so I'll just have to wait and see.
but I'm sure he's had trouble with more enemies than you listed I just can't think of any at the moment.
And flying without a glider
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I think earth is probably the strongest, or at least the most practical in a fight.
We've all seen how Earthbenders can immobilize enemies by wrapping rock around them. The fact that this is a kid's show aside, it would be incredibly easy for an earthbender to crush somebody like this. Just collapse the rocks inward and turn them into jelly. Or hell, just throw a giant boulder on top of them, or shoot out a sharp rock and impale them. Without the cartoon physics and convenient misses, earth is an extremely lethal element. There's all sorts of other cool stuff you could do too. In her debut episode Toph was able to blind her enemies with a dust cloud and then use earthbending to see, giving her a huge advantage (I'm surprised she never took advantage of this again -I guess out of consideration for her allies). With metalbending she could take out entire airships singlehandedly. Even the platinum bots in Korra could have been dealt with by just opening a large hole in the ground and burying them. It's great for defense, too, something's headed your way, just pull up a huge stone slab to block it with. Or make yourself a suit of rock armor. Great element all around.
Fire is probably second. It's very powerful offensively, needing only a single good hit to take someone out. But it lacks the utility and defensive power earth has, and it's more chaotic. As we saw with Zhao, a firebender who isn't careful can easily become self-defeating. Though I'd imagine a skilled firebender could probably use this to their advantage, spreading fire everywhere to trap foes and/or hurt them with convection.
I'd put water third, generally. It's not as strong defensively as earth, and not as dangerous as fire. You could probably drown someone with it, but that would take awhile. Again, kid's show aside, impaling with icicles is probably the best way to kill with waterbending. It also has some utility, namely healing, it can be used for restraint like earth, though I doubt it's as effective at it since water and ice are generally softer than rock. It may also be somewhat more limited due to water being comparatively rarer than earth and air, though this can be circumvented. And of course, there's bloodbending, easily the most broken skill in the Avatar world. But since very few waterbenders can reliably bloodbend, I wouldn't count it as part of the basic skillset.
And air is the weakest. It's great for mobility, but not much else. Offensively, you can blow people around, and probably hurt them pretty bad if you do it hard enough, but it's not that impressive compared to what the others can do. Even Zaheer's asphyxiation, terrifying though it might have been, isn't a very efficient way of killing someone. Defensively, you're really good at running away, but have no practical defenses if that fails. Worst element IMO.
You know that does make sense considering the earth kingdom is the biggest of the four. Although that does bring up the question of how the fire nation managed to beat them in the first place.
But I think I'd place water second because you could also immobilize your enemy the same way earth benders can but with ice.
You know that does make sense considering the earth kingdom is the biggest of the four. Although that does bring up the question of how the fire nation managed to beat them in the first place.
But I think I'd place water second because you could also immobilize your enemy the same way earth benders can but with ice.
Yeah I think we're agreed on air being the weak link. Cutting someone's air supply is pretty neat, but I feel like they should've given air something cool and unique like they did with the other elements.
Earth had metal, water had blood, and fire had lightning.
But air...I don't know it was just missing something that I can't quite put my finger on.
Air does have a sub-technique. Airbenders that are spiritually in tuned are capable of astral projecting themselves. It's not really a great offense, but it can be used to find someone as well as communicate with them.
shareAnd air is the weakest. It's great for mobility, but not much else. Offensively, you can blow people around, and probably hurt them pretty bad if you do it hard enough, but it's not that impressive compared to what the others can do. Even Zaheer's asphyxiation, terrifying though it might have been, isn't a very efficient way of killing someone. Defensively, you're really good at running away, but have no practical defenses if that fails. Worst element IMO.
. Offensively, you can blow people around, and probably hurt them pretty bad if you do it hard enough, but it's not that impressive compared to what the others can do.
I don't think you quite get what air can do. Air can crush people too. Think of atmospheric pressure.
Hurricanes are the one of, if not the most, destructive forces on earth. They're very impressive and aren't just "blowing" things away.
Zaheer took his time torturing the queen by asphyxiating her. He could have just as easily blown air into her and burst her lungs even quicker.
Not to mention air is all around us and everything passes through it. Light, sound, and even smell all pass through and are affected by the air.
Earthbenders can be neutralized through metal, wood, or platinum cages. Waterbenders can be neutralized in hot arid areas and are weaker in the day. Firebenders can neutralized in cold places and are weaker at night.
An airbender cannot be separated from his/her element. They'd have to be killed.
That sounds great, but is it really stuff airbenders can do?
Zaheer pulling the air out of the Earth Queen required a long and convoluted series of bending motions, wouldn't stuffing a lot of air into someone be the same?
Or to just restrain one so they couldn't do bending at all, as we saw them do multiple times throughout the series.
Well, Aang was a master Airbender so we did see it against a master..
shareAang was just a child. Far from a master.
Can't stop the signal.
Did you not see his arrows? Those mark that he has earned the rank of Airbending master which is achieved by mastering the 36 tiers of airbending or mastering 35 tiers + invent an airbending Technic which he did with the Air Scooter.
shareTouche, that's right.
In any case, he's still a child. A child with a black belt is not the same level of opponent as an adult with a black belt. As Tenzin proved.
Can't stop the signal.
Aang's bending was extremely powerful even at a young age, I'd say he was just as good as Tenzin as an adult if not better. Plus we saw how powerful others around his age were, such as Azula, Toph and Katara. Each of them were incredibly powerful in their respective arts.
shareIt changes, because of the Avatar. Though the Avatar masters all elements, that Avatar will always be a bit stronger in it's born element. So When the Avatar is Aang, the air element is strongest. In Korra's case it is Water Bending. Notice that Roku decided to make his home in the fire nation, and that Aang put special emphasis on the Air Temples. It isn't like he couldn't be dominant in another element, he could, but the familiarity of his natural talent will always received the most attention, therefore the most power. And whatever element the Avatar best demonstrates will always be the dominant attribute.
share1. Earth
2. Water
3. Fire
4. Air
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You need air to breath is all I will say
Also you need oxygen for fire.
My personal theory is that Airbending is the strongest. Maybe not the most deadly, but definitely the fastest and most versatile. Water and Earth require a source of the respective element to function, with the exception of absolute masters. Firebending is probably the most deadly, but unless you're a master, and/or know lightningbending or Combustion, it's hard to control (see Admiral Zhao as an example). Water and Earth are on pretty equal footing. The reason Airbending seems weaker is that the Air Nomads are a much more peaceful culture, and avoid violence by being more defensive. An Airbender without the Air Nomad code of ethics can be very devastating, as you can see from the Legend of Korra.
shareI just finished the first two seasons of Legend of Korra, and I'm starting to see just how badass an airbender can be with Tenzin. He's a lot more offense than defense, unlike Ang. But I still don't think it could be air. I'm thinking water because if you run into a blood bender you're screwed, unless of course you're the avatar.
shareAang also had the benefit that no-one had seen an airbender in 100 years so everyone he ever fought against had zero training against defending against air attacks.
share1. Earth
2. Air
3. Water
4. Fire