@killianduclark: I was thinking more of all together. so like if you view toph and yun to be the greatest in their eras then you could choose between toph and yun for best earthbender
Aang for air, Amon for water (without bloodbending would go with Unalaq post fusion), Bumi or Yun for earth (leaning Yun) and for fire Azula/Pli for feats but for logic and hype I'd go Ozai.
Water has the strongest benders overall with several people in that group who I'd place above Aang or Azula/Ozai and who would be competitive with Yun and Bumi.
Gyatso for air. He should be theoretically as good as Aang was during the series, but better in combat than Aang. So, if we exclude avatars, I'd pick Gyatso as the best Airbender. If avatars were included, it'd be Yangchen most likely or Aang by his adult life.
For fire, the major contenders are from the royal family of Aang's time, Iroh is likely the most skilled given his versatile array of moveset in Firebending including heat bending, lightning generation and redirection, conjuring flames out of thin air, excellent connection and knowledge on fire as a whole while Ozai is canonically confirmed as the strongest Firebender of his time. I don't see any notable difference between the two to be frank given the difference in skill is as minimal as it is between their raw strength. Azula is another option alongside P'li that I'd throw in here. Azula is capable of everything her father and uncle could do, to a relatively lesser degree and P'li's mastery over combustion bending and her single Firebending showing the north pole is of the highest quality. If we throw in avatars, I'd probably give Roku the number 1 spot. He is capable of doing everything Iroh or can with just fire along with his psychic bending skill which makes it seem like he has an impenetrable barrier against conventional fire.
For water, I'd say Katara is the single most skilled Waterbender in history, similar to Iroh, she's capable of everything related to Waterbending, excluding spirit bending, which is just an advanced form of healing. She also is amongst the strongest waterbenders alongside Korra and Yakone's kids, while also possessing extremely high amount of skill, on par/exceeding with the likes Ming Hua and Korra. Her extensive capability with water is why I put her at 1.
Earth is a legitimately hard case. A prime Kyoshi(if we include avatars) and an adult Toph are unanimously the top 2, but if we simply go with what we have seen, I'd say it's between Bumi and Yun at the top. I'd likely go with Bumi more often than not. Yun is possibly more talented, but Bumi doesn't lack in that area and I think he's slightly more powerful than Yun as well.
I'm just going by who I feel are the best Combatants as Benders for this rather than the most Connected or Innovative, and not including Avatars:-
Earth) I'd give it to Post-SF Yun personally, but Bumi and Toph wouldn't be far behind at all.
If we allow hypothetical Primes, then Prime Kyoshi and/or Prime Toph would overtake them.
Fire) As a combatant it's Ozai for me with his Statements, Hype, Top-Tier Mastery in both Charge-Up Lightning & Jets, and phenomenal Constitution to back it all up.
Accounting for hypothetical Primes, Prime Iroh, Prime Azulon and especially Prime Azula could be very notable interests as well.
Air) Off of his numerous Top-Tier implications, Aang-Scaling, decades more over his student in Refinement at the peaks of Nomad Activity, and shown readiness to harm & kill when necessary, I give this to Gyatso, with Tenzin right behind, when excluding Avatars.
Prime Aang and Prime Kelsang have some very capable potential to hold up as well on the hypothetical front.
Water) If we're excluding Bloodbenders, I'd personally give this to Post-SF Unalaq (No DAS ofc), with Katara being a mighty formidable second when excluding Avatars like Korra & Roku.
Prime Katara and Prime Korra are absolutely notable as far as the hypothetical end goes.
Air: Tenzin or Gyatso... really depends on if you go by hype or by showings
Water: Katara pretty easy
Fire: Ozai is the strongest Iroh is more skilled
Would have gone with your list all things considered (and not just mastery alone) but I think comics azula surpassed Iroh by a little in terms of skill.
It's challenging to put one bender as 'the best' in each category since people shine with their elements in many different ways. There are also several characters of whom we haven't really seen a lot of, and just have to go off assumptions. And another thing is, we haven't seen the prime versions of everyone yet. With that being said, I tend to favour benders who are specially connected, versatile and well rounded with their elements.
Water: Katara - One of five bloodbenders in existence, a renowned healer in her elder age, a powerful waterbender with training from Southern, Northern and Foggy Swamp style. One of two waterbenders who can bend water from air, and a plantbender.
Earth: Toph - Best seismic sense, an artistic sandbender, the inventor of metalbending, a powerful earthbender, and Swamp Queen in her elder age.
Fire: Azula - Blue fire, potent and precise, lightningbending and redirection. This was the hardest for me. It could go to Iroh too as the inventor of redirection and of course all his other attributes.
Air: Jinora - Earned her arrows at a young age which is the symbol of a true master. She is incredibly spiritually gifted and is the only one we have seen with spiritual projection. Although she hasn't displayed large amounts of power like other notable airbenders such as Aang or Kelsang, I still think she's destined for greatness lol. Safe picks are Aang or Gyatso.
This is the only correct answer. Toph and Bumi are tied except Toph only gets better while Bumi dies, and the comic shows that they were relatively even when Toph was 12.
Fire is Iroh, Ozai is the stated most powerful firebender, but Iroh thinks he has a chance against him (presumably because of superior skill, being trained by the dragons and by every nation).
Air is Gyasto, because Aang is the best air bender we see by feats and he says Gyatso is the best air bender.
Water is Katara cause she's the only water bender to master blood bending as well as healing, and she was elevated to master level in like 1 week by Pakku.
This is the only correct answer. Toph and Bumi are tied except Toph only gets better while Bumi dies, and the comic shows that they were relatively even when Toph was 12.
Fire is Iroh, Ozai is the stated most powerful firebender, but Iroh thinks he has a chance against him (presumably because of superior skill, being trained by the dragons and by every nation).
Air is Gyasto, because Aang is the best air bender we see by feats and he says Gyatso is the best air bender.
Water is Katara cause she's the only water bender to master blood bending as well as healing, and she was elevated to master level in like 1 week by Pakku.
@cocacolaman: I did say it could go to Iroh as well and that it was the hardest pick for me lol
Iroh GOAT ;)
Azula can breathe fire and redirect natural lightning, Iroh could never conquer ba sing se in a few weeks or create a lightning Field or kill an Avatar, just saying.
@gunchar16: IMO Iroh has shown more versatility than anyone else with firebending and he’s also comparable to Ozai as a combatant. Azula’s main thing has always been her unique blue fire and besides that I think the only thing she’s shown that Iroh likely can’t do is the lightning ball thing she did.
@gunchar16: IMO Iroh has shown more versatility than anyone else with firebending and he’s also comparable to Ozai as a combatant. Azula’s main thing has always been her unique blue fire and besides that I think the only thing she’s shown that Iroh likely can’t do is the lightning ball thing she did.
To be fair, I think the blue flames were a sign of her flame's heat/potency and she really only trails behind an amped Ozai/Iroh and fully realized Avatars in raw power feats, not to mention her skill and speed being top tier in the verse. I feel like Azula can be both underrated and overrated at times.
@killbilly:I personally think that Azula is the third-best firebender in the franchise, not counting Avatars, and her blue flames are definitely a big part of that. It's not really a knock against her at all to say she's not as good as Iroh; he's just really, really good.
Bends pure, intense heat with practically no movement from his noseSeemingly senses lightning as it forms in the skyIsn't phased at all by redirecting Azula's fully charged lightning(Raises flames from the ground) and compresses the flames into a ball
Not to mention he can defeat Ozai in combat, something Azula couldn't do. She learned lightning redirection in the comics but Iroh's the most versatile and knowledgeable firebender we've ever seen. It doesn't even help Azula if we bring in physicals, either, because Iroh's physical feats are top tier as well.
@killbilly: I personally think that Azula is the third-best firebender in the franchise, not counting Avatars, and her blue flames are definitely a big part of that. It's not really a knock against her at all to say she's not as good as Iroh; he's just really, really good.
@killbilly: I personally think that Azula is the third-best firebender in the franchise, not counting Avatars, and her blue flames are definitely a big part of that. It's not really a knock against her at all to say she's not as good as Iroh; he's just really, really good.
It seems you and I are in agreement then. :)
Fantastic! :)
Very off topic of this convo but it just popped in my head since Bumi's also someone worth talking about here, what do you think about this?
King Bumi toppled a giant statue over with notable effort but pretty quickly despite being hundreds of meters away from it, while the Beifong sisters and Bolin working together at full strength could barely manage to make a loosely attached top half of a building budge enough to slide the rest of the way down on its own while standing right nearby the building. What are your thoughts on the two feats here and how they compare to each other?
@cocacolaman: Multiple benders destabilizing a structure that honestly is likely dwarfed by the statue of Ozai depending on which perspective shots you're going with is far less impressive than Bumi's feat, though for a second it did appear like the multiple benders actually picked up and moved the upper portion of the building through the air as opposed to merely toppling it over but my eyes could have been tricking me there.
I think Toph happens to be the best Earth Bender. Water is Katara but I haven't seen her blood bending after that episode with the witch. Neither in comics or anime. Fire is probably Azula excluding the Avatar counting her feats. Air is Aang
In terms of quantity of feats and partial holistic intent Katara, Toph, Aang, and Azula are obvious choices for their respective elements
Taking statements and limited but on average very impressive bending displays into account, than Ozai, Iroh, Unalaq, Ming Hua, Sozin, Izumi, Iroh II, Yun, Bumi, Gyatso and Kelsang are all contenders in their respective elements.
I will categorize them in 2 columns: Fighting and Non-Fighting bending abilities (non-Avatars)
I am also not gonna place them based on power in the respective category, since this is about the best benders, and the best doesn't always means the strongest
Air:
Fighting
Tenzin
Jinora
Zaheer
Non-Fighting
Jinora
Zaheer
Tenzin
Water:
Fighting
Dark Avatar Unalaq
Amon
Yakkone
Non-Fighting
Katara
Amon
Yakkone
Earth:
Fighting
Yun
Toph (she is second cause I like her more than Bumi, but I rate her and Bumi equally as good at fighting)
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