Better Bender than Iroh?

Iroh's shown to be a very versatile firebender, and it may be hard to find a better bender than him.

Iroh breathed pure heat out of his nostrils while chained up. The heat made the metal glow red hot instantly.

Iroh sustained the fire breath technique in combat with enough force that it traveled a good distance and vaporized a section of wall, leaving no debris and barely any dust on the ground.

During Sozin's Comet, Iroh created flames out of the ground (rather than his own body) through simple breathing, making it bigger and larger with his inhalation and exhalation, then compressed those flames he's been holding into a ball in front of him and launched them as an attack.

Iroh knew lightningbending. He created and guided that power with an injury on a scale that isn't really seen otherwise without Sozin's Comet, fired it off with minimal charge time while running, and created a whole new technique: lightning redirection, something only he knew for a period of time until he taught it to Zuko, who then taught it to Aang. Iroh used lightning redirection on natural lightning, curving it into the water, as well as lightning that Azula hadn't fully fired off.

That being said, who, in a pure bending sense, is better than Iroh?

@highmantra_x0sp@azronger@haikyuu444@geekryan@anthp2000@mrgetmebodied: @nathanthecynic: @viking1205: @thebluedragon20: @thebooyzz: @xzone: @chloros: @aystarr: @bigdreamer48: @scarlet_wiccan: @edgelord91: @vengefulshot: @byondeon: @eslay03: @indomitableregal:

Ozai maybe

I personally think no one in TLAB is a better bender than Iroh. Indeed, there are more powerful benders in the series but Iroh is overall the best bender.

King Bumi is a contender, though it is hard to say specifically because his full knowledge was kept somewhat vague. He has some of the most impressive earthbending feats of the entire franchise and seems spiritual in his own unique way. He had a sophisticated understanding of the concept of jing and the nature of earthbending. He also has an insane range with his bending and can bend with just twitching his face which shows an incredible degree of control.

Toph by the time she is an old woman is also a strong choice. She was trained by the original earthbenders. She seemingly invented seismic sense. Invented metalbending. Was at least aware of lavabending. Ended up inventing the crazy wire fighting metalbending style the metalbending police use. Her metalbending was so good she could pull liquid metal poison out of a person's body through their pores better than anyone else on the planet.

I actually don't know if there's any bender more innovative to their style than Toph was. She didn't just invent a whole new sub-element; she also refined it to a precise art and saw it evolve into a bunch of unique styles within her own lifetime.

Katara

@metaljimmor: Spoilers if you haven't read the Kyoshi novels.

His brother and Roku are the only firebenders that I think are better than Iroh to be honest.

This isn't limited to combat or firebenders, keep in mind.

@cocacolaman:

Fair. Though even without having invented seismic sense Toph revolutionized earthbending by creating an entire, widely used sub-element and a whole style revolving around it.

Honestly, the only ones I can see coming close are Toph and Bumi. Bumi seemed to have complete mastery and control of Earth while Toph invented and completely refined a whole new form of bending. As Mace windu once said "who is greater: the inventor of a new form, or the master of the classical form"-ROTS novel. It's pretty hard to tell who was a better bender out of these three masters

I don't really like comparing benders of different elements like that. It's always going to be vague, almost completely subjective and unbalanced. In regards to firebending, Iroh is probably the most knowledgable, well-rounded and skillful one we have seen, although others compare.

@cocacolaman: I didn't consider much in terms of combat here. A section in Azronger's blog about how Ozai was connected with Firebending was one reason why I put him up there. Actually remove Roku from there. The only thing he has over Iroh is psychic bending.

Considering all elements, Toph should be above him, she has a pretty good case for the overall number 1 spot as well, obviously due to her contributions towards Metalbending and development. In terms of spiritual knowledge, Guru Pathik, Aang, Unalaq and Zaheer are all on his level.

• Korra
• Roku
• Kyoshi
• Aang
• Azula
• Zuko
• Mako
• Bolin
• Tenzin
• Katara
• Jinora
• Unalaq
• Ming Hua
• Lin
• Suyin
• Toph
• Kuvira
• Amon
• Tarrlok
• Bumi
• Ozai

Feel I forgot a few benders

Ozai

P'li

Ghazan

Ming hua

Zaheer

All Avatars

Non-amped BBenders

and lots more imo.

• Katara
• Aang (only in Air)
• Toph
• Bumi (possibly)
• Kuvira (possibly)

Interesting. Why Kuvira?

(even tho u werent talking to me lol)

Personally, I would consider Kuvira as someone close to Iroh and/or others mentioned because just like Toph and Iroh, she uses styles/techniques that no other bender performs.

Despite attempts to replicate this style by both her army,

And even Su,

no one utilizes it the same as fluently or as in-depth as Kuvira. Furthermore, being able to contend with a restored Korra for as long as she did, speaks volumes.

Another reason I would suggest Kuvira for this type of title is her precision. By now everyone here has seen Kuvira's introduction-fight scene, she was landing direct attacks on moving targets tens or even hundreds of meters away; and landed them all directly on places that would immobilize them on the spot.

@thebooyzz:

no one utilizes it the same as fluently or as in-depth as Kuvira. Furthermore, being able to contend with a restored Korra for as long as she did, speaks volumes.

Kuvira definitely has her own style of fighting, but that's only one aspect of bending. Same with fighting Korra; though I should mention that Kuvira had a major advantage there. Korra had no water, no earth, and her fire was hard countered. All she had was metal and air, and Kuvira had a full area of metal, so she was literally in her element. Put Korra in a situation where she only has fire and air, Iroh would definitely handle himself with Korra.

Another reason I would suggest Kuvira for this type of title is her precision. By now everyone here has seen Kuvira's introduction-fight scene, she was landing direct attacks on moving targets tens or even hundreds of meters away; and landed them all directly on places that would immobilize them on the spot.

This is fair enough. Not many people can replicate that.

Comparing Iroh and Kuvira really isn't fair in my opinion. Kuvira is a specialized fighter who focuses primarily on metalbending, and she's showed very good precision and control with metalbending, but she was never an amazing earthbender. Iroh's different. Case in point:

This is a show of Kuvira's almost unique skill with metalbending. However, even if I'd never watched The Legend of Korra, I could have imagined a metalbender doing these things, and I'm guessing novice metalbenders in verse could conceive of doing this, even if they didn't have the skill. Even the basic concept of metalbending is easy to understand, if hard in practice.

Iroh? He can take firebending, which at its core is about bending out of your body, and bend it without even using his body, just the ground around him. He can bend pure heat out of his nostrils with enough precision to either heat up tea or turn metal red hot. He conceived of lightning redirection. Even other masters would have trouble theorizing some of the things that Iroh just does.

I don't want to downplay Kuvira, but quite simply, she's not a White Lotus master or a prodigy.

@cocacolaman: Good points, not gonna argue them. My main point was just that she's not FAR behind Iroh, she's more like a Tenzin imo.

Toph by comparison, I guess.

@joshtaku: iroh has bad feats

Iroh is overrated and none of these feats are grand.

He's fighting weak fodder and uses martial arts more than fire bending

You iroh stans

Tenzin.Unalaq.Kuvira.Ozai.Pli.Ghazan.

Toph

@thebooyzz: tenzin is above iroh

@cocacolaman: iroh is weak your just a iroh fanboy he has no feats on kuvira level your bias

Toph, Azula too.

@ronnylamar: why you hating on Iroh

Toph Beifong.

@joshtaku: he’s weak he has bad feats

He’s a bad fighter though

@straight-fire: he’s overrated in fights