@geekryan:
Evading a bloodlusted AS Korra but choosing to ignore one very important detail: she was poisoned. She was by no means fighting even near her best, and she was constantly in and out of the AS
No she wasn't. She couldn't cancel the avatar state because of the poison, and only quit the AS after Su extracted it from her body. You're confusing this fight with season 2 finale and Unalaq. And Korra was doing completely fine aside from specific moments when the poison started very notably affecting her. Her aim wasn't off, her power and scale didn't suffer from the poison, her mobility was better than ever.
And despite evading her, he was still tagged by her several times
Once when she distracted him with a boulder and tackled him in the air, literally physically slammed into him, which he reversed pretty quickly. And second time when Korra was throwing freezing waterblasts from so far away you can't even see her in the scene. He dodged four of the five. Neither is an option for Azula here. She can't fly and doesn't have Korra's range with her fireblasts.
This was not a combat situation for the most part, it was an escape attempt mixed with waiting for the poison to stop Korra so he can land the killing blow
He didn't try to escape, his goal was waiting until the poison kicks in. And there were exchanges of bending attacks between them, so it was a fight.
Landing hits on her by doing a fly-by, while she was struggling with the poison
She wasn't struggling with the poison. There are several specifically framed moments when this is the case. And neither of them was when he tagged her.
This tactic won't work on Azula, who is faster, more agile, and won't be struggling with poison at the same time
Azula is neither faster nor more agile than Korra. And she definitely doesn't compete with flight Zaheer in agility either.
The very, very few air blasts he used....they didn't really harm her in any significant way. Zaheer seriously lacks AP.
Azula doesn't have Korra's durability in the avatar state either. Just making her struggle to immediately get up is already a significant achievement. Not to mention that he straight up knocked her out twise in a row on Laghima's Peak. Which, considering her durability even in base, proves that his potency is just fine.
Azula has tagged Aang on more than one occasion, as well as blitzed Iroh before he or any of Team Avatar could react
It was mid book 2 sleep deprived gaang and Iroh distracted and not looking at her. And there is actual evidence that sleep deprivation nerfed them (unlike the poison, which is your assumption), in Katara losing to Mai, despite beating her earlier in Omashu under identical circumstances and also only with a pouch of water.
And Azula only ever tagged Aang by pushing through his earthbending defenses (the drill - a few weeks into learning earthbending, the catacombs - using fragile crystals as armor), and never by being faster or catching him off guard on the move, she never tagged him as a moving target actively trying to evade her attacks. Not counting her zapping him in the back while he is also a static target turned away from her and being distracted. And blasting through his earthbending defenses is not going to happen by EoS, as his defenses could withstand barrages and fire streams from comet powered Ozai, who is above Azula even in base. So just because it was Aang doesn't mean that she would be able to pull that off after his significant improvements. If you exaggerate this point to make its flaws more clear - it's like saying that season 1 episode 2 Zuko beat the avatar. Which - while technically true - is not that much of a feat in context.
Azula does engage in CQC, but she doesn't always do so
She did in the absolute majority of her fights. Trying to disregard this despite always pushing for "consistency" or lack there of in arguments is strange, mate.
She fought from range against Aang on several occasions, against Katara, and against Zuko on several occasions
Care to elaborate on which specific scenes you're talking about?
If we are discussing who is more likely to engage in CQC between Zaheer and Azula...it's Zaheer
Right... Azula, who does it in almost every fight, is less likely to get up close in a fight than Zaheer... who can fly. And this is the case because..?
Remember the Day of Black Sun, where Azula didn't have her bending and yet evaded Aang, Toph, and Sokka for an extended chase?
No, i don't. Because Toph attacked her once early on in that encounter, and Aang attacked her five times in a span of ~20 seconds. Toph spent the rest of it dealing with Dai Li (Azula failed to evade her when she was about to shank Sokka though), and Sokka was useless that entire fight and didn't attack her once. The chase was only "extended" because of the Dai Li interfering.
And you think Zaheer, who is far below Aang and Toph, is going to tag her WITH her firebending?
I mean, he tagged someone with much more speed and mobility, so... yes.
Azula has tons of experience against Aang, a more powerful, skilled, and versatile airbender than Zaheer
Who used airbending for very narrow and easy to dodge attacks, instead of spamming something like this in quick succession, tends to hold back a lot (especially during the eclipse where his goal was to capture her and question about Ozai's whereabouts), and also can't fly. Azula doesn't have experience against airbending. She has experience against Aang. Who - while a great airbender - is not that great of a fighter with it when it comes to offense in active combat scenario.
That's absolutely untrue. In the vast majority of his fights, Zaheer fought from up close or from a few meters away. He isn't a ranged fighter. Examples: Tonraq, Kya, Tenzin, etc.
Sure. The little difference between those and this fight is that it's void Zaheer. And the point stands - while flying he doesn't get up close without an advantage, doing it only when his opponent can't do anything about it.
For some reason, you are thinking of the Korra vs. Zaheer encounter as an actual fight. It was not. The majority of the fight involved them chasing after each other, which is not a standard fight. Zaheer was on the defensive for the most part; Korra was fully on the offensive. Throughout their entire encounter, where he had plenty of opponents to attack her from range, he only managed to land 1 fair hit on her from range, and that was after she had dodged the first two blasts
Even if it couldn't be "technically" categorized as a fight, it does in absolutely no way negate the feats demonstrated in it or any of the things i said. Korra was chasing him at a much higher speed and with much better mobility than Azula is capable of, barraging him with attacks that he consistently dodged. And you're purposefully misrepresenting what happened. Zaheer didn't try and fail to tag her at every opportunity he had (unlike Korra). But every time he switched to offense he tagged her, showing that he knows how to pick his moments for offense well. He was doing the same against Kya, only attacking her twise in that fight, both times landing the hit and taking her out of the fight. He was doing the same against Tonraq in the north pole. These are all "actual fights", and it only shows consistency and that it's his fighting style.
he only managed to land 1 fair hit on her from range, and that was after she had dodged the first two blasts
That's why he spammed them in quick succession. That's how Korra tagged him with a waterblast. If Aang tried to do that during the eclipse may be he would've managed to tag Azula too.
Comparing Korra from this encounter to her normal AS self is completely faulty. They just aren't comparable
All you have in defense of this idea is that she was poisoned, while providing zero evidence to it actually affecting her combat prowess outside of the moments the poison clearly hurt her to the point she failed to maintain her jets and so on. Not to mention that any version of AS Korra is still miles above Azula in most aspects.
Even when Zaheer fought Kya and Tenzin, he was mostly focused on evasion/escape, and yet he still got tagged
By your own logic the fight against Kya wasn't a fight until Zaheer stopped trying to escape and actually confronted her. Kya managed to grab him with a water arm and slam him into the ground when he was turned away from her and wasn't looking at her. He clearly wasn't trying to "escape" from Tenzin, as he had reasons to stay in the temple and keep fighting. Which he didn.
If Azula can contend against Aang, a significantly superior airbender than Zaheer and with an advantage in every aspect except mobility
Which she can't actually. Dodging a few of his small scale attacks while he's holding back doesn't prove that.
then Azula isn't going to struggle against Zaheer
She will, as she still doesn't have enough agility, mobility and range to deal with him.
The potency of her fire blasts are too much for him to handle
Which is irrelevant as he's not the "blocking" kind of guy and she's not tagging him with flight anyway.
she has plenty of options to tag him that don't just involve spamming basic fire blasts
Which are? Name ONE option she has that will make it impossible for him to dodge.
Feel free to present actual feats for your claims, and I will gladly point out how none of them are valid against Azula
Cute. I've brought up plenty of actual feats of his and you failed to debunk either of them. She's not competing even with this supposedly weakened version of Korra in mobility, power, scale, agility, durability or range. Zaheer doesn't need Azula to be poisoned here because she's basically helpless in this fight anyway.
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