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A Review of Avengers: Endgame; The Rights and Wrongs

A Review of Avengers: Endgame; The Rights and Wrongs

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It's been 2 months since A4's release, and I think we've all been able to jump off the high train and be as objective as possible, bringing in the perfect opportunity for our genuine thoughts on the film, hence this blog. As you've probably suspected, I'll be listing the positive and negative aspects, and close with the end result of the pop culture phenomenon that was the final part of Marvel's cinematic adaption of the Infinity Saga. Keep in mind that this is my subjective opinion and mine alone, and wether or not you agree with it doesn't really matter. There's nothing more subjective in the world than the entertainment value of art in any of its forms. And as a final note, I think we should all know by now that this won't be a spoiler-free review.

Avengers 4: The Rights

Where to start here? As a whole, the film was a fantastic experience with a majority of high points. The technical aspects were undeniably worth their salt, from the writing and directing of the Anthony and Joe Russo, who have yet to let us down after 4 great films, to the brilliant acting from some of the biggest names in Hollywood, to the beautiful visual effects in each and every scene. Here's a list of what we're going to briefly break down and judge (positively) below:

  1. The General Concept
  2. The Character Arcs
  3. The Emotional Scenes
  4. The Action
  5. The VFX
  6. The Humour
  7. The References and the Cameos
  8. The Epilogue

1. The Concept

We all know the idea behind Endgame. A3 ended with half the population of the universe turned to dust by the Decimation, so the remaining Avengers, spread across the galaxy, attempt to reverse the effects of Thanos' snap. With direct tie ins to Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Captain Marvel, the movie centers around the heroes planning a comeback, travelling through history and searching for the Infinity Stones throughout a number of different timelines. This is basically the entire plot of the movie, but what's important and should be appreciated here, is the way it was executed on-screen in relation to the characters. The film focuses on the original heroes, the 6 founding members of the Avengers, and in large part, it serves as a quality goodbye to them - or most of them. I believe the writing and the direction doesn't get enough credit for this; this is virtually 8+ different franchises coming together in the closing part of 10 years worth of cinematic history, there is so much to show, so many potential aspects to explore, but let's face it, it is and will always be an Avengers story, and who's more representative of the Avengers than the old generation of the team? Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, the Guardians of the Galaxy; powerful allies, heroes with potential and fan-favourites, yet the film manages to not take the spotlight away from Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, or Hawkeye and Widow. Keep that in mind, the story could easily center around the New Avengers, but it doesn't.

2. The Character Arcs

Moving on to the individual arcs of each hero, particularly the original six Avengers. I feel like half of it could be done better, so here I'll focus on the most satisfying ones: Tony, Natasha and Steve.

"I love you 3,000."

Let us begin by what I consider the most developed character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tony Stark, A.K.A. Iron Man; when we first meet Tony, he's nothing but a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, he's created one of the most efficient weapons on the planet and he struggles to control it, often clashing with the government and even his very own people, like Pepper as a result. After he's recruited by Fury, he proves himself more of a hero than ever before, willing to sacrifice himself to undo the mistakes of the U.S. government while contributing to the defeat of Loki and the Chitauri, and scoring the first victory against Thanos. Even then, he's still struggling to feel at home with the Avengers, and he keeps on being his usual, eccentric self. The fact that he very often gets himself on the verge of death comes with backlash from his personal life, and not just Pepper. Being an Avenger and having a family is difficult, and we see that Tony does not even begin to discuss marriage or children until 3 years after Ultron's invasion, where things seem to be going well. Unfortunately, Thanos attacks and prevents a safe and sound environment for a family. When we first see him A4, he's still stuck in outter space, waiting for his death when the oxygen and the supplies run out. Nebula does whatever she can to keep him alive, but it won't work. After Carol rescues them and drops them off to earth, a devastated and guilt-filled Tony makes a quick attempt to end Thanos and reverse the effects of his snap, but to no effect. The Infinity Gauntlet is destroyed, and the world must come to terms with the new order of the universe. During the 5 year gap between this moment and the Avengers' second attempt, we see that Tony has found himself fortunate enough to build a family with Pepper by his side. He has Morgan, a beautiful, healthy daughter and he lives in peace and quiet with his the woman he's in love with. This is the peak of Tony's growth as a character; up to A3 we see that he's come to terms with the responsibility of being one of the Earth's Mightiest Heroes... just not enough to let go of his ego, not even when the world is at stake. He characteristically decides to put his phone away and not contact Rogers in the last film, but now we see that he's put all this behind him, he's accepted the burden of a hero, he lived failure and he saw the results of his mistakes with the wiping out of half the universe. He's as mature as he could ever be, and he's in the time of his life where he can make the right choices, and so he does, by assissting to Thanos' defeat. It takes more than enough courage to set aside such scarring differences, put your happiness, which you so long waited for, and your life at direct risk and finally sacrificing yourself for the cause. If you watch Avengers: Endgame, and then you watch Iron Man I and II, it's far from difficult to spot the differences on Tony's character. A4 provided him with a phenomenal character arc and a great goodbye.

"It's okay."

Another beloved character, Natasha Romanoff, A.K.A. the Black Widow. We all know what's the deal here; her dark past, she was not given a choice. She was taken in by the russian government and brainwashed into becoming a living, breathing weapon. When we meet her in Iron Man 2 and A1, Natasha is just a spy, who is there to do the job. She is asked to infiltrate, she does it, she is asked to fight aliens, she does it, no second guesses, she does everything she can to escape her past. Natasha had a lot of red on her ledger, years worth of blood on her hands, and she was not going to forget this any time soon. She had accepted that she's a lesser soul, one that did not deserve more chances than the ones she had been given, and that is why she seizes every opportunity to make up for her assassin status. The real character arc of hers was fleshed out in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where we slowly and subtly see her transformation from a cold-hearted spy to a hero. Rogers played a major role in her development, he is the one who gave her the nod she required to open up on her emotions and let go of her job, focus on herself and her own relationships. Steve needed a friend, and she gave him that all the while gaining a better understanding of herself, she's not worthless and she's not unforgivable, she's just another human being forced to make mistakes. She thought of herself as a monster, she believed she had nothing and then, with the Avengers, she finally found the home, the family she was looking for. Natasha would go out of her way to keep this family together, and we saw some of those attempts in Captain America: Civil War, where she supported that staying together, on either side of the coin, was more important than anything. It is this same family that turned her to who she was now, wether or not she realised it, a fully fleshed out superhero. When we see her in Avengers: Endgame, after the initial, failed attempt to take down Thanos, she's highily involved in the remnants of the world affairs. She's taken over the Avengers Facility and she's looking to fix the new world, still falling apart 5 years after the Decimation. She's searching for old allies and clinging in hope. When the Avengers finally find a way to reverse the snap, Natasha finds herself alongside Barton on Vormir of 2014. One of them has to sacrifice themselves in exchange for the Soul Stone and, as expected, they are going to fight over this. At the end, Natasha makes the ultimate sacrifice, she falls to her death, saving Clint and giving him the second chance he deserved to live his life, as he himself once did for her, indirectly saving half the universe too. This scene is important because it's the "endgame" of Natasha's own arc, she has wiped out all the red in her ledger and some more. She's a true, proven hero, not the assassin they tried to force her to be. It's a very bittersweet feeling, she has achieved her goals, she's free from her past and she now rests.

"Well... after I put the stones back, I thought, why not try some of that life Tony was telling me to get."

Finally, there's everyone's favourite soldier, America's ass, Steve Rogers, A.K.A. Captain America. To this date, Cap remains one of the standard characters to have faced struggles in the past, in his case the need to adjust to an entirely new world to the one he grew up and fought in, but remains pretty static afterwards. A4 did him well however, giving Steve the ending he deserved. We've seen the lengths he's willing to go to in order to protect others from Captain America: The First Avenger already, and he's proven himself a valuable and a more than selfless hero throughout his time as an Avenger. So much that he seemingly did not even regret the fact that he woke up one day, 70 years later and was recruited to fight aliens. Well, in this film, he's finally given his due. After he ensures that the universe is safe and returns the Infinity Stones, he takes the initiative to live his life in a timeline where he was never put on ice, where he grew old with the love of his life, Peggy Carter, and they finally had that dance they owed to one another. Steve virtually lived a perfect life, his dream, after he succeeded in all his goals as a superhero. Let's face it, there's no ending mroe satisfying than this.

3. The Emotional Scenes

Not once has Marvel released a film before that came close to touching me as much as this one. Throughout the 3 hour course, almost every character gets their due in terms of emotion, and no doubt they're all fantastic scenes. Firstly, let's put aside the 2 major death scenes, the sacrifices of Tony and Natasha respectively. Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson gave it their all in these scenes, and their performances were nothing sort of phenomenal. Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeremy Renner couldn't have been better, and the overall result was me reaching for tissues twice in one comic-book movie. I'll put Tony's funeral in this same category too, the one shot of so many characters in black, paying their respects to Iron Man outside his house, is too obvious to explain further.

Now, there's a whole other number of noteworthy scenes, some short, some long, but all very powerful. Many of them revolve around our heroes revisiting past allies. For instance, take Thor's visit on Asgard in an attempt to retrieve the Aether back in 2013. He meets with Frigga, minutes before her death in the hands of the Dark Elves. Apart from entertaining, the scene is very touching. Thor is still guilt-driven and feels like a failure, afterall he made the final mistake that led to Thanos' victory in A3, by not going for the head. He is physically and emotionally devastated, and the touch of his mother is the turning point of his character in this film. He only regains his confidence after Frigga sits by him, assures him that he's not a failure and gracefuly strokes his hair while sharing her wisdom. Before leaving, he lets her know he's missed her, retrieves his lost-in-the-hands-of-Hela-4-years-later hammer, and heads off to save the universe.

Meanwhile, Tony and Steve travel back to 1970 in Camp Leigh, to retrieve Pym Particles and the Tesseract. Before Tony can leave the facility, he gets confronted by Howard Stark, his own father. The interaction is interesting to say the least, esspecially with the inevitable irony going on, with Tony making up a fake identity on the spot and looking at a reflection of himself, the man he never truly got to meet in his time. While on the family discussion, Howard finally tells Tony that even though his child wasn't even born yet, there's nothing in the world he wouldn't do for him - remembering Tony's issues about how his father never told him he loved him, not even that he liked him, is a key aspect of this scene. On the other end of the scene there's Steve, coming across Peggy, standing a few feet away from her, with a wall right in the middle. The symbolic setting of this scene put together with the theme makes it all the more touching that he's standing right next to her, yet he needs to hold himself together and not come out, no matter how easy it'd be.

Another scene that's worth a mention is the opening, a scene that takes place during the Decimation, at the very end of Avengers: Infinity War. In a quiet, peaceful setting, we see Renner's Hawkeye lose his family, Laura and all his children while outside the farmhouse. They vanish right before they're about to have lunch, with Clint looking for them, right after we see how happy he finally is to spend time with his kids, even teaching them archery. The lack of any theme in the background makes the scene all the darker and more intense.

Finally, there's absolutely no way you could dismiss this last scene; Thanos has seemingly put down the toughest of the Avengers, he's called in his entire army and he's getting ready to annihilate earth, which he was going to enjoy very, very much. The Leviathans are coming from above, Thanos' followers arrive, Rogers' allies are all down and his indestructable shield is broken in half. He still stands up, he stands against the most powerful army of the universe, he stands against all odds and he is ready to go down a soldier's death. And then, "On your left", the portals open, the Avengers arrive, the sorcerers, the army of Wakanda, the Guardians, Asgard, everyone is here to defend humanity, and by extension the universe alltogether. The Avengers assemble.

4. The Action

One of the key aspects of every Marvel film are the action sequences, and you'll struggle finding a single action scene as iconic as the Battle of Earth. Once the Avengers have assembled, the armies charge at each other, he forces of earth against the army of the Mad Titan. It's nothing but spectacular watching all sorts of different character, with different powers and abilities, different fighting styles blending in together and teaming-up from ground and air as one. From the Valkyrie's Dragonfang, to Spider-Man's webs, to Iron Man's repulsor blasts. As always, the Russo brothers designed a battle to the smallest of background detail and did a great job setting up exciting combat and whatnot interactions throughout the entire sequence. A few spotlights include Captain America battling against Thanos right after he's lifted Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch forcing the Mad Titan to rain fire with her immense power, Black Panther defending the Infinity Gauntlet and the entire female cast coming together to open path for Danvers. I do think some aspects like the Black Order were underutilised, but nothing too serious. The movie also offers a few other good, well choreographed but more grounded sequences, like Ronin taking on the Yakuza and an undercover member of the Hand, the initial attempt to reverse the Snap or Cap fighting his past self in the Avengers Tower.

5. The Visual Effects

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What is there to say here? The CGI in the final battle with Thanos being a highlight as usual, capturing the most subtle of expressions on his face and giving him more humanine traits, such as when he realises and accepts defeat, taking a seat and waiting to be dusted. The well designed aliens and beasts on both sides... the most impressive part though is probably the cinematography. Not even A3 was so visually impressive, the shots of Clint and Natasha on Vormir speak of their own. Titan and Thanos' farmhouse also stand out as beautifully designed settings.

6. The Humour

As usual, a noticable portion of the film was comedic scenes. To be fair, I much preferred the balance between comedy and story-telling in A3, but that doesn't mean Avengers: Endgame didn't do a good job with this too. They overdid it in some aspects, which we'll get to below, but it was overall well put into the story, with some quality humour too. The references alone were very entertaining, but the silly stuff like "America's Ass", Peter describing Doctor Strange's powers as "the yellow sparkly thing that he does all the time" or the entire first scene with overweight, drunk Thor playing fortnite... come on, it's the MCU, we needed that scene.

7. The References and the Cameos

Avengers: Endgame is the final part of the Infinity Saga in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's the epilogue of a long story. One of the things I always appreciate in finale stories, is the summary of the whole thing, Endgame did this well using not only the time travel, but dozens of references and past characters. When Steve travels back to 2012 to retrieve the Tesseract, he finds himself in an elevator with Brock Rumlow and his S.T.R.I.K.E. operatives, who question Steve transporting the Tesseract himself, quite familiar? "Hail Hydra"... and because that wasn't enough, moments later, Cap took a taste of his own medicine; "I can do this all day". While travelling to Vormir alongside Natasha, Clint makes an exciting remark, "We're a long way from Budapest", as another reference to their adventures during their time as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, something that happened in the Battle of New York as well. The movie is filled with this as well as very entertaining cameos from the Ancient One, Alexander Pierce, Frigga, Loki, Jane Foster, Agent Carter, Howard Stark; great talents, but most importantly, for a good number of people at least, Edwin Jarvis. Yeah, we got to see what his physical form is like, and it's James D'Arcy's Jarvis, the Jarvis fans of Agent Carter have learned. I watched the show last year and I found it brilliant, so seeing the cinematic side of Earth-19999 recognise it, all the while we were so sure at this point that Marvel TV does not exist for Kevin Feige, was more than satisfying. This scene marks the first time Marvel Studios has included a character from Marvel TV in the films.

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And who could forget the cameo of the legendary Stan Lee, before he passed away. Unfortunately, this is more than likely the last Marvel movie we'll see him in, but it will be a long time before someone forgets his name. It's quite bittersweet seeing him driving that 1970s car, but at least he was here for the MCU till the final film.

Lastly, a very strong theory (that to my knowledge hasn't been confirmed yet) suggests that the entire final part of A4 was a direct reference to Tony's vision in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he sees the Leviathans descending to earth, Natasha lying in the same position as in Vormir (granted facing the other way) and Captain America's shield broken just like in Endgame. He could've saved them, and he did.

8. The Epilogue

More than anything, A4 is the epilogue of 10 years of storytelling, a goodbye to 3 Phases of films and a very small, subtle introduction to Phase 4. At the end of the movie, we see each arc's end result individually, we see Steve Rogers growing old and passting the mantle of Captain America to Wilson, all the while Sam is interacting with Bucky, opening the path to Falcon & The Winter Soldier, we see Spider-Man returning to his old life with his family and friends, setting up Spider-Man: Far From Home, we see Romanoff learning the name of her real father for the first time, plausibly linking to Black Widow, we see Wanda indirectly mentioning Vision, setting up WandaVision, we see Thor leaving with the Guardians and leaving Valkyrie to rule Asgard. The whole ending basically works as a way of introducing the limitless possibilities of Phase 4.

Avengers 4: The Wrongs

Really there isn't too many things I'd change about this film. It was a success because it was good, but it's also expected that something this big is going to have some flaws. I'll only briefly analyse each one because there isn't much to say here:

  • Time travel: I think the means of the plot moving forward has been rather obvious ever since A3 to many of us, and while they did try to undo the cliche nature of time travel using unique aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the Quantum Realm and even set up some new rules about it, which was a major point I might add, it also made things a little too complicated at points. It's easy to be confused about several scenes like Cap's ending after he returns all the Infinity Stones and a number of plot holes people are fighting over.
  • The funeral: Really, as beautiful as this scene was, something was missing - yeah, Natasha didn't get a proper goodbye from the public. I understand that there's a very good chance we'll see her 2023 self again in Phase 4, but in-universe, they're not supposed to know that... and on a meta level, they just didn't feel like her death was as important as Tony's, despite it being both vital to the plot and a big deal. They could have at least put her tomb stone, or picture or a flower next to Tony's. That was a big turn off, and the writers coming up with excuses like "it wouldn't be in character because she wasn't as much of a public figure" or "it could have happened off screen" really didn't help.
  • Thor as an overplayed gag: As entertaining as it was during the first few scenes, they really did overdo it with "fat Thor" at some point. Seeing the mighty King of Asgard, the physical perfection that is Chris Hemsworth, being all drunk, depressed and overweight was so weird that it was good, just... not for over half the movie. This was one of the mindsets he could have overcome earlier on.
  • Thor leaving Asgard to the Valkyrie: Don't get me wrong here, Thor and the Guardians have chemistry, and I really like Thompson's Valkyrie, it's just that it felt like a very weird choice. It's out of place that Val is all of sudden a "born leader". She spent years away from Asgard as a bounty hunter, she's forgotten was a kingdom is like, Thor's barely interacted with her even as fugitives; it wasn't well set up. Not necessarily a bad choice, more like something out of the blue. Plus, I was kinda disappointed that Thor won't get to save his people personally.
  • Ronin and Professor Hulk: Two of the founding members whose arcs in Endgame has a lot of potential, but they didn't live out to it. I liked the bits that we saw with them, we got a brief explanation of their motives for taking on these new identities, and we saw some good scenes with a rogue Hawkeye and and a Banner who has come to terms with his alter ego and has created the perfect combination of brains and brawn... but still... how did those happen? What exactly initiated these choices? It's not fleshed out enough, and it felt like a disservice.
  • The world post-Decimation: One of the most interesting parts of the movie is the world 5 years after the snap, we see the tombstones for the genocide, we see Steve attending support groups, also acting as a reference to Sam Wilson's previous job, and Natasha with the remaining world leaders explains that governments are still falling apart by the day. I don't think we saw enough of this, maybe in deleted scenes? Another thing to note is that the writers thought of having Natasha run an orphange instead of the Avengers Facility, further exploring the loss humanity had gone through during that time.

These are just some secondary changes I'd make, but I don't really mind most of them. It would also be nice to see some cameos of classic characters like Quicksilver, Heimdall and Lady Sif, but I guess we're fine.... frickin Wong with his attitude though... Overall, I'd rate the film with a solid 7.5/10 - it has its flaws and some weak scenes, but it's a very enjoyable story, packs a huge punch of emotion and in the grand scheme, let's face it, it works perfectly fine as the finale of Phase 3.

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The Black Order (MCU) Respect Thread

This might initially look somewhat unorganised, but instead of separating their feats on each category listed, I'll show each of their fights and analyse the feats shown below, both because their showings are not many and because they tent to utilise all of their advantages simultaneously in combat. I also apologise for the decent quality of the GIFs, this is the best quality I could download the movie in.

The Black Order

"Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hand of the children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributed to the balance..."

The Black Order, or the 'Children of Thanos', are a group consisting of some of the most dangeous individuals in the universe. They were handpicked by the Mad Titan himself to serve him in his raid of different worlds in search for the Infinity Stones. In the second part of the 'Infinity War' taking place in Earth-19999, the Black Order, alongside Thanos, slaughtered a horde of Asgardians led by Thor, Heimdall and Loki outside of Asgard's ruins, and retrieved the Space Stone. Afterwards, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian were assigned to acquire the Time Stone from Dr Strange, while Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight headed in Scottland to retrieve the Mind Stone from the Vision. By the end of the vital part of the War, all 4 members of the Order were dead, Maw being flushed out in space by Iron Man, and the rest killed during the Battle of Wakanda, Corvus Glaive taken out by his own weapon wielded by the Vision, Proxima Midnight shredded down after being sent onto the giant Threshers by the Scarlet Witch and Cull Obsidian imploding in conduct with the 'Hulkbuster's' gauntlet after crushing onto Wakandan shields by Banner.

Despite, at last, failing to retrieve the Infinity Stones themselves, the Children of Thanos served him well and managed to compete with and overcome the most powerful of the Avengers in battle.

Ebony Maw

"Your powers are inconsequential compared to mine."

Ebony Maw is the Leader of the Black Order, and arguably the most powerful member of the group. During the clash in New York, he faught and defeated Dr Strange in 1 on 1 combat, incapacitating and capturing both him and Spiderman through his highily versatile telekinetic powers.

Abilities

  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Durability
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Telekinesis
  • Levitation

In the first encounter with the Black Order in New York, Ebony Maw faced off against the combined efforts of Dr Strange, Wong, Spiderman and Iron Man for a good while and managed to pressure all of them.

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Effortlessly hrows aside a Cull launched by Iron Man at high speeds. Based on that, my take is that Maw can control the bodies of others at will if they're weakened enough to be unable to resist.

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Ebony was highily skilled in abusing the environment around him using his telekinetic abilities, adding great versatality and battlefield control in his powerset. Here, he sends the Mark L flying several stories up in the sky by manipulating the ground right below him, and then proceeds to attack Wong and Dr Strange with trees from around the street, projecting at high speed.

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Attempting to prevent Tony from closing in, Ebony used the debris from around the streets to great scale, notice how those pieces are all-around comparable to small building level, landing with force good enough to tremor the streets and cause small explosions, and that he's not particularly trying.

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Attacks Wong and Strange with a car at high speeds. Countered and thrown back at him at high speeds from Iron Man's repulsons, he slices it in half from further away and remains untouched in the middle.

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Lifts several small pieces of debris, tears them to tony pieces and attacks Wong and Steven with an incredible amount of bullet-like projectiles at huge volumes and fire rate.

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Tanks a super sized car mirror projected by Wong in his head, retaliates by quickly incapacitating using debris, overpowers Strange's magical whip, corners and encases him inside the surface of a building.

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Floors Strange and quickly incapacitates him by, once again, manipulating the ground below him to constrict him with vines. The contriction quickly knocked Steven unconsious by strangling him out, and then Maw lifted him up in the air by dispatching a large piece of the ground's surface. Notice how impressively Ebony outdrew Dr Strange by binding him before he could make use of the Time Stone.

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After Peter grabbed the unconscious Strange with his webs and attempted to get him as far away from Maw as possible, the latter used his levitation to get in a race with Spiderman and even managed to land hits on him without looking. He manipulates everything in the path to Thanos' spaceship and manages to almost grab Strange's body, until Peter leaves the cape back and keeps going.

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Achieving his objective, Maw removes the streetlight Peter was hanging from to not get sucked into the spaceship and captures the both of them.

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During Thanos' raid of the Statesman departing from Asgard, Maw and his siblings assisted in slaughtering the group of fugitives. After Thanos took down the Hulk, Thor attacked the Mad Titan but Ebony quickly encased him in dberis. Thor showed just how physically imposing his was later in the movie, and he showed that he still had strength left in him by charging at Thanos, making this an impressive showing of force applied by Maw's attempts.

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Lastly, while torturing Steven to give up the Time Stone, Maw demonstrated enough precision to manipulate several dozens of specialised needles without making the slightest of movement.

Corvus Glaive

"I thought you were a formidable machine, but you die like every man."

Corvus Glaive is an incredibly physically imposing being. Armed with the Glaive, his weapon of choice and one of the most dangerous weapons known in the universe, Corvus proved himself a capable fighter and powerful individual, fighting against the likes of the Vision and Captain America.

Abilities

  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Duability
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Skilled Fighter

Weapons

  • The Glaive
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Opening the Battle in Scottland in an attempt to retrieve the Mind Stone from Vision, Corvus stabbed him from behind with the Glaive. As Vision himself described, the blade canceled out his phasing abilities, something normally impossible, and damaged his vibranium body to the point of significant weakening.

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Immediately afterwards, Corvus proceeds to retrieve the Stone and take it out of Vision's body using the tip of the Glaive. Him and Proxima are stopped by Wanda's psionics, which they tanked, and again, even a shot powerful enough to send him flying through the glass window several stories below.

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Even though Vision was weaken, he could still travel in the air at high speeds and slammed Corvus around the buildings and towers of the streets creating holes on the surfaces, which Corvus tanked while grappling with the Vision himself. At full health, the latter is capable of grappling with the likes of Ultron and Thor, establishing Glaive as an exceptional physical beast.

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Later in the fight, he deflects a Mind Stone beam from the Vision with the Glaive, after it's been fired. Notice the precision involved here, as Corvus mantains the force of the beam and leads it back to Vision himself hitting him and knocking him down.

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After Wanda and Vision are shot out of the sky and into the train station by Proxima, the latter and her husband land from several stories up from the roof of the building, and they take the fall like nothing happened.

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When Cap's team arrived in Scottland to rescue Wanda and Vision, Sam attacked Corvus with a baragge of about 5 missles, with the latter deflecting every single one of them. At the end of the fight, a wounded Corvus showed that he's capable of calling the Glaive back at him at will, in a similar manner Thor can summon Mjolnir.

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Opening their second fight with the Vision, Corvus infiltrated Shuri's lab in Wakanda, taking out Ayo, second in command to Okoye in the Wakandan army, and several Dora Milaje soldiers in quick succession, deflecting beams from Shuri's weapon and taking her down too. Afterwards, Vision bullrushed him from behind and knocked both of them out the window forcing a fight in the forest.

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Corvus ended up gaining the upper hand once more, kicking Vision back, outmaneuvering him and impaling him with the Glaive. It's worth noting that in the end of his fight with the Captain, the Glaive impaled Corvus himself as well.

Corvus was clearly a better fighter than the Vision, managing to quickly outpace and tag him repeatedly. This is noteworthy as the Vision was capable of tangling with the likes of Thor in hand to hand combat, proving his skill. Even in this weakened state, it's still very impressive that Glaive could outperform him so well.

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When Steve opened the fight against Corvus rescuing the Vision, he repeatedly striked him in the face with his new Wakandan shields. This is impressive as it shows excellent piercing resistence on Corvus' part, as the shields themselves are partly blades, which Cap used to downright gut Outriders beforehand.

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After an exchange in which Corvus was disarmed, he proceeded to overpower, ragdoll and manhandle Captain America in a matter of a seconds, almost choking him to death before Vision stabbed him from behind giving him a taste of his own medicine. It's also notable that while Steve clearly outfaught Glaive, the latter kept up well enough that he was not awfully outpaced by "the greatest soldier of the modern era". Cap has proved both his skill and his physical abilities, injected with the Super Soldier Serum and fighting on par with world class assassins like the Winter Soldier and beings physically superior to himself like Spiderman.

Proxima Midnight

"We have blood to spare."

Proxima Midnight is the most skilled combatant in Thanos' Army. A superb martial artist with physiology similar to that of her husband, Corvus Glaive, and armed with her specialised Spear capable of projecting energy blasts and slicing through the most powerful of opponents, she has proven herself through her duels with the Scarlet Witch, or pairs of Avengers and high level fighters, such as Captain America, Okoye and the Black Widow.

Abilities

  • Superhuman Strength
    Superhuman Durability
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Master Combatant

Weapons

  • Midnight's Spear
  • Sword
  • Retractable Gauntlet Blade
No Caption Provided

Proxima was assigned with fighting the Scarlet Witch while Corvus used the Glaive to retrieve the Mind Stone. Here, we see Proxima tanking a high fall from a building and landing on her feet like nothing, proceeding to attack Wanda with her spear and shattering concrete just by swinging the edge around.

No Caption Provided

It's worth noting that Wanda's powers can operate so fast that she stopped an explosion going off back in Lagos, yet Proxima managed to pressure her and keep up with her powers incredibly well in close combat, and even prevented her from using her higher end raw power.

Here, Proxima also showcases extraordinary physique, making a leap launching herself about 100 ft. off the ground towards Wanda, in the span of a single second, whose psionics she overpowered using her spear's energy projection. Not even elite Asgardian warriors like Loki or the Valkyrie have demonstrated such high amounts of body strength.

No Caption Provided

After the initial exchange, Wanda managed to get ahold of Midnight, and after hearing Vision yelling in pain, she sent her flying inside a large fiery truck, lit up by Vision's beam, which exploded in conduct with her body and launched her back, breaking the truck itself in half. Proxima injured the core of the explosion without any injuries and was back on her feet attacking Vision and Wanda seconds later.

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Proxima got back up and launched an energy sphere from her spear. She managed to tag Wanda and Vision departing, from over 10 stories down and sent them flying backwards landing inside the train station. Afterwards, she got inside the building alongside her husband landing from the roof. Also notice how fast her blasts are, covering such distance in no time.

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After Captain America and his team's arrival, Proxima took on both Widow and Cap, armed with the Glaive, and managed to hold her own remaining untagged until disarmed and BFR'd by Falcon running interference. Fighting a pair of top notch martial artists combined and exchanging blows with them is not something many could do.

It's worth noting that the Avengers proved themselves extremely dangerous witht he Order's weapons, as Natasha made short work of Corvus wielding Proxima's spear right beforehand, yet she took on both her and Cap armed with her husband's weapon and was never actually put down. She would also have to look out for not damaging the Glaive, which might explain how Steve was able to hold his own in a strength contest against her, but still visibly trying while she wasn't.

In the same sequence, Proxima, like Corvus, showed herself capable of calling back her own weapon from further away, while it also proved strong enough to cut clean through Glaive, a very imposing physically opponent with excellent piercing resistence against material such as vibranium.

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Upon leading the army of Outriders in Wakanda, Midnight examined the outer shields and showed that her sword, created by Thanos himself, was powerful enough to go right through the shields. In battle, Okoye and Romanoff attempted to save Wanda from Proxima, who was about to kill her, and after about a minute of fighting 2 on 1 with Okoye and the Black Widow, she managed to overpower the both of them, abusing the opening of the shredders passing by. It's worth noting that this throw took down Okoye for the count, and Okoye is armored with vibranium weave covering her entire torso, showing by how she took a point blank kinetic blast from Killmonger's Black Panther suit.

Also worth noting that Proxima once again remained untouched in a 2 on 1, at least by Okoye, the general of the Dora Milaje and 'the best warrior in Wakanda', at least besides T'Challa himself. When the Winter Soldier took on a double team effort of Widow and Agent 13 back in the CIA Base, he struggled to keep up at all and took repeated clean hits. Meanwhile, Proxima kept up well enough with both of them, granted she has a stat advantage on them.

No Caption Provided

Eventually, after being pressured and disarmed 1 on 1, Proxima still overpowered Natasha unarmed, pinned her down and use her retractable gauntlet blade to overpower her. Notice how she does that using only 1 arm against what's likely Natasha's entire body strength. At this point, it's worth noting that Nat appears to be the only fighter who managed to land hits on Proxima, making her performance against the likes of Okoye and Captain America very impressive in regards to her combat skill. Proxima also handled Widow easier than the Black Panther could handle the lesser Hawkeye.

Cull Obsidian

"*growling sounds*"

Cull Obsidian is the muscle of the Order. He has shown himself capable of fighting and defeating not only incredibly powerful physically individuals, but also skilled and versatile ones too, such as Tony Stark's most advanced armors in the Mark XLIV and even the Mark L, proving he's more than just a mindless beast.

Abilities

  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Durability
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Skilled Fighter

Weapons

  • Multifunctional Axe / Hammer
    • Shield Function
    • Chain Function
    • Claw Function
  • Prosthetic Arm
    • Retractable Blade
No Caption Provided

In the Battle of New York II, Cull faught Tony Stark's new armor, based on nano-technology. He utilised his highily versatile weapon of choice and excellent speed to keep pace with Tony and overpower him. Here, he uses the chain function of his hammer to attack from range and then shield from Tony's laser beams.

No Caption Provided

Cull's axe could be used at such levels of striking that he almost overpowered Tony's shields, bashing him to the ground and then keeping him at bay. The Mark L suit was impressively competing with Thanos on Titan.

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Later in the fight, even without using the shield function of his axe, Cull blocked Tony's beams without damage, tagged him mid-fight and overpowered him. Such ability to keep up with and tagged a highily maneuvering, fast and skilled opponent mid-flight and pin him down while switching from different weaponry to another shows that Obsidian is more than a brick.

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Once again, blocking Iron Man's lasers while the latter is trying to outpace him from above, tags Peter with the claw function of his weapon before he can land in quick succession. it only becomes more impressive when Spiderman attempt sto attack him from behind again. Cull throws a car at him several stories up in the air, Peter counterattacks and throw it back at Cull, but he dodges.

Such clear display of skill, keeping up with incredibly is very uncommon in large, beasty bricks of Cull's weight class. Immediately afterwards, he managed to grab Iron Man within his claw's grip, launch him onwards and fully incapacitate him, proceeding to finish him off with a gauntlet blade similar to Proxima's.

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In Wakanda, Cull once again deomnstrated excellent efficiency with his weapons, using it as a chain to take out many members of the Dora Milaje before smashing them up close and personal.

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Banner entered the Hulkbuster amor before fighting off Cull Obsidian. Above we see that they're a physical match for one another, getting in a grappling contest and slamming several stories away from their starting position. Bruce's wit was his only advantage in this exchange, as shown above when he grabbed the shield after tricking Cull by using his repulsors.

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Eventually however, Cull proved more than a match for the armor physically. Here, he grabs an upper limb of the suit, uses the axe to slice it down, and finishes it off with an efficient takedown where he pulls it on a different direction to dispatch it. Banner managed to overcome Cull's superiority using the suit's advanced tech that tricked Cull, however he made it clear just how powerful the suit Cull was about to fight was before engaging, "this suit already kicked the crap outta the Hulk".

This is pretty much it for the Children of Thanos, 4 incredibly imposing beings, great side-villains, and physical obstacles with highily diverse skillsets for the Avengers to overcome.

62 Comments

Black Widow (MCU) Respect Thread

This is an upgrade to the old RT in this page. Apparently, the bullet point style works well, so this will be a re-organised, complete version of the same character breakdown. Once again, keep in mind that the purpose of respct threads is to present every accomplishment of a character. It is up to everyone to develop an opinion on their abilities in the end. Black Widow is upon as by December, so a quick fresh up of Natasha's badassery throughout the past 10 years should be nice.

Natalia Alianovna Romanova, "The Black Widow" [MCU]

"Fallaces sunt rerum species." (Iron Man II)

Intro.

"Natasha Romanoff was trained from a young age to cultivate a very specific set of skills in a Russian facility called the Red Room. There she honed the skills that would turn her into a human warrior who continues to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with super soldiers, Asgardians and people in armored suits. However, she eventually eschewed her KGB masters, switched allegiances and began working for the good guys."

Marvel.com, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), full on-screen report

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Table of Contents.

  1. Biography.
  2. Training.
  3. Espionage & Assassination.
  4. Stealth & Situational Awareness.
  5. Intellect, Tactical Ability & Quick, Deductive Thinking.
  6. Piloting & Hacking.
  7. Resources.
  8. Spy Equipment.
  9. Physicality.
  10. Hand-To-Hand Combat.
  11. Miscellaneous Skills.
  12. Combat Equipment.
  13. Notable Battles.

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I. Biography.

Natalia Romanova was born in Stalingard, Russia in 1984. At a young age, she was recruited by the KGB to be trained as a spy and assassin in the Red Room Training Programme, from where she graduated and grew to become one of the most efficient and renowned killers on the planet. Due to her continuous growing threat to Global Security, she got under S.H.I.E.L.D.'s and Nick Fury's radar, who in response sent special agent Clint Barton to eliminate her. The Hawk spared her however, seeing as she would be an excellent asset to the spy organisation, taking her in. Natasha quickly rose through the ranks of the S.H.I.E.L.D., became one of the most efficient agents and eventually, a founding member of the Avengers, an Initiative Director Fury designed composed of the earth's mightiest individuals to defend the planet that humanity never could. Romanoff met and was aspired by Steve Rogers, a living legend, and her teammates, defending the world against Loki, Ultron and eventually Thanos and their armies.

After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., everything went downhill. The Sokovia Accords, the Lagos incident, the Avengers' Civil War and Thanos' invasion were all timely put together to separate the Avengers, with Natasha going undercover as a fugitive alongside Rogers and Wilson. During the war for the Infinity Stones, Natasha fought Thanos' army, but he proved too powerful. The Decimation was accomplished, and half the world's population was wiped out.

Five years later, the remaining Avengers broke apart, and Natasha took point of the New Avengers Facility, remotely working with Nebula and Rocket Raccoon, James Rhodes, General Okoye and Carol Danvers to try and restore the world's balance. With Scott Lang coming out of the Quantum Realm, the Avengers along with Stark invented a way of "time travel", which they utilised to go a few years back and retrive the stones before Thanos could in order to undo the Decimation. Natasha and her fellow Avenger, Clint, were tasked with retrieving the Soul Stone from Vormir. Learning that they had to sacrifice something they loved to gain the stone, they fought over who would make the fall and ended up hanging on a cliff-side. Natasha chose to fall to her death to save half the universe, ensuring Barton that it was okay.

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II. Training.

"Young Natasha Romanoff took part in the KGB's secret "Red Room" spy training programme, emerging with a finely honed physique and a mind unrivalled in its steeliness. Natasha became one of the world's most ruthless spies and assassins whose code name - that of a deadly spider - is well deserved."

Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary, "Black Widow"

Natasha was taken in as part of the "Black Widow Programme", the advanced training programme of the original Russian assassin one that had been training individuals since before WWII, and trained "by the best", she was raised, forced to kill not just threats of the Soviet Union's security agency, but also her fellow trainees to survive, and graduate as the single most efficient student, never failing a single test.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Young girls are brainwashed and rigolously trained in espionage in all its glory (Infiltration, Hacking, Diplomacy, Multilingualism, Piloting, Interrogation, Disguise, Observation, Stealth among others). The final test of the perfect assassin consists of killing with no remorse.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Trained to physical perfection, Natasha developed mastery over the martial arts, as much as all manners of weapons, be it either traditional or high tech ones. Occasionally, the girls would be forced to duel each other to death, until only a few students remained. The graduation ceremony for the survivors, included sterilization, to wipe out every possible weakness from their life, force them to focus solely on their work as covert operatives.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

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III. Skill Set.

  • Espionage Expert
    • Infiltration & Escape Artist
    • Master of Disguise
    • Multilinguist
    • Expert Pilot
    • Master Hacker
    • Expert Diplomat
    • Observation & Intelligence Gathering
    • Master of Interrogation
    • Stealth Expert
  • Expert in Tactical Analysis
  • Master Assassin
    • Master Martial Artist
    • Expert Markswoman
    • Expert Gymnast
  • Weapons Specialist

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IV. Espionage. Assassination.

  • S.H.I.E.L.D. considers the Black Widow the 'perfect spy and assassin'. (S.H.I.E.L.D. Personell Files)
  • While working as an assassin for the KGB, Natasha was considered a major threat to Global Security, leading Nick Fury to task Special Agent Hawkeye with eliminating her. (S.H.I.E.L.D. Personell Files)
  • According to Maria Hill's evaluations, Natasha has the highest espionage record in S.H.I.EL.D. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E01, "Pilot")
  • Nick Fury considers the Black Widow his best operative (Iron Man 2: Black Widow: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.)
  • Successfully infiltrated Stark Industries posing as Natalie Rushman, Tony and Pepper's personal assisstant, closely evaluating Iron Man for the Avengers Initiative and handing in a full report to Nick Fury. (Iron Man 2)
  • Successfully infiltrated an undercover base of the 10 Rings in Russia under Coulson's directions, gathers intel on their plans and hijacks a large weapons shipment in one night. (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Interrogated Loki, the God of Mischief, and tricked him into revealing his plan to take down the Avengers to her. (The Avengers)
    • One of Natasha's interrogation techniques is feigning submissiveness to instill overconfidence in a subject so that they inadvertently volunteer information. (Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel's The Avengers)
    • This technique was applied in her encounter with Georgi Luchkov, a rogue military leader of the Soviet Union, who was 'giving [her] everything'. (The Avengers)
  • Nick Fury designed a lie detector with the sole purpose that Romanoff wouldn't beat it. The lie detector measures galvanic skin response, oxygen consumption, microexpressions, biofeedback, brainwaves, pupil dilation, voice biometrics. Ninety-six variables in all, and Fury still couldn't tell wether or not she beat it. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E19, "The Only Light in the Darkness")
  • Applying her knowledge in human psychology and undercover training, she runs circles around Brock Rumlow and his S.T.R.I.K.E. agents, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most elite tactical team, sent by Alexander Pierce to apprehend her and Rogers, whom she was subtly tutoring in the process. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) The Russo brothers mention that Steve was forced to play by her rules to survive this situation. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Director's Commetary)
  • Victoria Hand states that Romanoff and Barton never had an extraction plan going in on operations, instead she could make an extraction plan and successfully follow it on the spot (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S1E07, "The Hub")
  • Somehow, Natasha pinpointed the location of Fury's U.S.B. device after Rogers hid it inside the hospital's vending machine, and retrieved it without him noticing. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Successfully infiltrated Forte Meade to retrieve the Falcon EXO-07 suit, behind three guarded gates and a twelve-inch steel wall, noting before that 'it shouldn't be a problem'. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha's espionage training makes her an effective diplomat. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary) She represented the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. during court with the U.S. Government after the Hydra Uprising (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and attented the signing of the Sokovia Accords in Vienna as the Avengers' official representative. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • After her aliases and secret identities were revealed to the public by S.H.I.E.L.D., Natasha spent a year around the world creating new covers for herself. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha often conceals pistols in locations she visits in case of escalation, when she recruited Bruce Banner (The Avengers) and in Tony Stark's house party. (Avengers: Age of Ultron).
  • Using S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets and her personal resources, she collected and isolated intelligence and made a complete file on the Winter Soldier, his past and his missions, for Steve in a day. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Captured by Ultron Prime, Natasha used a traditional spy technique based on morse code, originating during the Cold War to contact Hawkeye with radio transmissions that Ultron himself couldn't pick up. She used Ultron's older body to construct these mechanisms. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Natasha is fluent in an unknown number of languages, which includes Russian, English, French, Italian, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Latin. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary)
  • After personally teaching Wanda Maximoff and the New Avengers the art of espionage, her and Vision could go on the run alone as fugitives and blend in for over a year. (Avengers: Infinity War)
    • “We have intentionally tried to strip that accent away for a couple of reasons. One is you’ll notice at the beginning of Civil War that Black Widow is training her to be a spy, and two is she’s been on the run, and one of the most distinguishing characteristics that she has is her accent." - Joe and Anthony Russo, Interview for "Avengers: Infinity War"
  • Natasha tracked down Clint Barton, gone rogue as the assassin Ronin, in Tokyo in a few days once she stepped into the field herself. Colonel James Rhodes with all his resources couldn't locate him for years. (Avengers: Endgame)

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V. Stealth. Situational Awareness.

  • Her S.H.I.E.L.D. file states she can hide in plain sight. (S.H.I.E.L.D. Personell Files)
  • Sneaks up on Loki, appearing out of nowhere right in front of his cell with him not realising until she's positioned herself. (The Avengers)
  • While hacking into a computer system in the 10 Rings' base, Natasha dodges multiple AR shots fired by a Russian assassin from behind her without looking. (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Hawkeye does not detect Natasha watching and approaching him until she appears at point blank range from his. (The Avengers)
  • Perfectly processes the situation and anticipates the Winter Soldier's next move thrice, avoids a headshot, rescues Steve and then kicks Sam out of the way when Bucky attempts to assassinate them in Washington D.C. in the span of 2 seconds (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Immediately pinpoints the location of Crossbones' two henchmen running inside a fully crowded market, without having full view of the market herself. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) Falcon needed the Red Wing to locate them.
  • 'Outreacts' War Machine and Black Panther when Ant-Man and Cap throw a truck and a size-altering disk that is about to blow them up. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • After training with Natasha, the Scarlet Witch could sense Hawkeye sneaking inside the room behind her from several yards away (Captain America: Civil War)

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VI. Intellect. Tactical Ability. Quick / Deductive Thinking.

  • Natasha is deemed a 'master hacker' by Marvel. (Marvel.com)
  • While been chased down by the Hulk, makes clever use of the environment shooting a steam-pipe above him to briefly blind him and get away. (The Avengers)
  • She's the one out of the Avengers to figure out they need to approach the portal to the Chitauri's world without brawn but brains (The Avengers)
  • Using one of her concealed Widow's Stings, she disables the killing device Alexander Pierce put on her and the other members of the World Council giving Fury the opening to shoot him down (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Heidi Moneymaker, Scarlett Johansson's stunt double, takes note of Natasha having to use her brain a lot in and be smart about her every move even in combat, due to her lack of superpowers. (Interview with the Stunt Doubles of Captain America: Civil War)
  • In a moment's notice, Natasha is the one to figure out Crossbones' plan for a battering ram heading towards the IFID HQ just by hearing Sam saying the truck's at maximum weight and the driver's armed. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Before a grenade can go off locked inside a truck, Natasha takes out one of Crossbones' armed guards, then uses the other one as a body shield to survive the explosion with no real injuries. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Outsmarts the Winter Soldier using her mobile device with a recording of her voice seemingly calling S.H.I.E.L.D. for reinforces, tricking him into thinking she's hiding behind the car and waiting for the right moment to catch him off guard. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Discussing the gathering of the Infinity Stones, alone in a room with Tony Stark and Bruce Banner, she's the one to figure out that 3 out of the 6 Infinity Stones are located in close proximity with one another during the right year (Avengers: Endgame)
  • She is also very resourceful in combat, using everyday items as weapons (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes)

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No Caption Provided

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VII. Piloting. Hacking.

  • Natasha is a skilled and experienced pilot capable of taking control of almost any aircraft with complete confidence. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary)
  • Successfully closes in on Ultron with Hawkeye's remote guidance, making her way through an entire city full of trucks, cars and human population with nothing slowing her down, making some particularly impressive maneuvers on her advanced motorcycle in the process, rescuing Cap by hading him the shield and reaching Vision's android body (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • With an impressive maneuver, she can also use the motorcycle itself as a weapon at a moment's notice. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Piloting S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Quinjets, she can dodge high speed energy attacks from Loki's Scepter. (The Avengers)
  • Drives one of Hydra's battle trucks at high speeds in a forest while dealing with incoming attacks. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Alongside Clint, she pilots the Benatar, the main spacecraft of the Guardians of the Galaxy. (Avengers: Endgame)
  • She successfully hacked into Tony Stark's database to gain intel on the Iron Man armor and Stark's security guidelines, without Tony realising (Iron Man 2). She then disabled all communication in Stark Tower to prevent contact with the outside world (Iron Man 2).
  • Natasha breaks into Ivan Vanko's computer system in Hammer Industries, remotely gains access to the War Machine suit, and in a matter of seconds, she shuts down Vanko's effects on it and reboots it for Rhodey to use freely. (Iron Man 2)
  • Hacks into the computer system on the Lemurian Star and collects the secret files Alexander Pierce put in. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha attempts to decrypt the USB flashdrive she acquired from the Lemurian Star, and while she does not manage to get past the firewalls and the Al set up by Arnim Zola, she does manage to apply one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s tracing programs to pin down the location of where the Al was been applied from. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha successfully infiltrates the main computer system of the Triskelion, disables the firewalls and the security protocols and gains access to every single one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s global files within minutes. Actually uploading the files on the internet required the Omega level access, but gaining access to the organisation's secrets was Natasha's work. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

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VIII. Resources

Natasha has direct ties to Tony Stark and Stark Industries as well as Nick Fury and the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D.Those are probably her major connections as far as resources go. She also took over as one of the World Leaders in the Avengers Tower after the Decimation, working alongside James Rhodes, Carol Danvers, Okoye and Rocket Raccoon to restore balance as much as possible. She most likely has other connections from her past we don't know of yet.

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IX. Spy Equipment (outside her standard combat gear, Natasha has access to spcialised spy tech).

  • Stealth Suit for Black-Ops
  • Lock picking gadgets
  • Advanced Mobile Device
    • Heat Signatures tracing
    • Wave Transmission tracing
    • Recording function
  • Photostatic Veil
  • Glider Harness
  • Mechanical window opener
  • Line Launcher
  • Encrypted earpiece & communications device attached to her Gauntlets

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X. Physical Stats (Strength. Durability. Pain Tolerance. Agility. Speed.).

  • Eric Johnson, Scarlett Johansson's personal trainer for Avengers: Endgame, states the Black Widow can lift 500 pounds. (Interview for Avengers: Endgame)
    • “What is the Black Widow able to do? Lift 500 pounds," says Johnson, who strategizes how to get Johansson as close as possible to these fantasy stats, including on Avengers: Endgame, opening April 26."
    • Black Widow can lift 500 lbs in the 616 Universe - the main comic book continuity - so it is questionable if they were referring to this version of the character. It is still a considerable note, however, given they take this into account for the MCU version of her. It is up to everyone's interpretation, but I felt the need to point that out.
  • Marvel states that Natasha boasts 'ultimate human levels of strength, agility and stamina'. (Marvel.com)
  • Natasha leaps on Captain America's shield, then grabs a Chitauri Charriot going at blur speeds with one arm [1], holds onto it for a while, climbs on top of it, cuts down the Chitauri metal chain and sends the Chitauri Soldier flying with a kick [2]. She then jumps onto the next Charriot and gains control [3]. Once she reaches the portal, she makes a roughly 4 foot tall flip and tanks an enormous multi-story fall with no injuries [4]. (The Avengers)
    • Keep in mind that at that point of the same day, Natasha had endured a chasedown by the Hulk, a metal pipe crushing on her leg from a point blank explosion, a fight with a bloodlusted Hawkeye and about 2 hours of fighting hordes of the Chitauri - real time of the battle revealed in a discussion with Rocket Raccoon. (Avengers: Endgame)
  • Sends a fully armored assassin flying through glass and wood with a kick (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes I)
  • Knocks out a mercenary wearing a helmet, by kicking his head on the roof of a truck. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Knocks out Hawkeye with one mighty punch - a punch that finally freed his mind of the Mind Stone's effects - after slamming his head on metal bars. (The Avengers)
  • Staggers the Winter Soldier, charges at him with a knee and forces him back groaning in pain [1], lands a punch on the leg - not the crotch, the knee [2] (hit's already landed on the third frame) - and chokes him out with quite a noticable effect for a Super Soldier [3] - while hitting him with elbows on the skull in an attempt to snap him out of mind control (Spider-Man: Homecomping Prelude), unfortunately she doesn't make it [4] (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Sends a fully armored mechanical Hydra suit flying with a kick, kicking open a reinforced door in the process. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
    • The exo-sceleton is composed of Chitauri metal (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary)
  • Sends a Hydra agent flying with an elbow and snaps the necks of two more agents simultaneously using her thigh grip and upper body strength, [1], [2]. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Overpowers Barnes' firing arm with a kick and pulls him backwards with her fiber wire. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Knocks down Corvus Glaive with a spin kick. (Avengers: Infinity War)
  • Staggers Proxima Midnight with a double kick. (Avengers Infinity War)
  • Recovers in moments from large slabs of concrete falling on her. (The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week VI)
  • Tanks a rocket going off at close range (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Takes a hit from the Hulk, who was smashing steel beams in the process. (The Avengers)
  • Tanks an elbow from Hawkeye directly in the face (The Avengers)
  • Tanks been thrown by the Winter Soldier on a car face-straight a few yards away (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Gets shot with an AR near the chest, she can still stand and walk minutes later despite losing a lot of blood (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Tanks a high fall on top of the Hulk, gets thrown away several yards and lands perfectly on her feet. (Avegers: Age of Ultron)
  • Grant Ward states that any agent worth their salt can 'adapt to pain, push it away'. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. S2E21, "S.O.S. I")
  • Dorothy Underwoof, a graduate of the precursor to the Black Widow Programme, stated this in terms of the training she endured when she was threatened in an interrogation:
    • "I've pulled out my own teeth... my own nails... my own hair. I've burned my own flesh with a blowtorch. There's nothing you have in that little box that will do anything other than bore me to tears. Truth serum? You can't be serious... like mother's milk." [1], [2] (Agent Carter: S2E07 "Monsters")
  • Using a henchman as a human shield, she tanks a direct explosion that blasted the steel door behind her and sent her flying out of the truck. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Tanks a knee from Proxima Midnight in the face, and gets back up immediately. (Avengers: Infinity War)
  • In an alternate death scene on Vormir, Natasha ran towards the cliff while her and Hawkeye were under attack by Thanos. She took 3 energy blasts that went right through her armor and body, to the other side, and stayed conscious, pushed herself to the end of the cliff, and even gunned down an alien in this condition. (Avengers: Endgame)
  • Natasha exceeds the greatest olympic athletes in acrobatic ability and gymnastic skills. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary)
  • Deflects an arrow from Hawkeye at point blank range using her gauntlets, then hits Clint with a Sting before he can react. (The Avengers Prelude: The Avengers Initiative)
  • Makes a full forward somersault and turns it into a double kick. (Iron Man 2)
  • Jumps out of a moving vehicle and kicks a Hydra agent. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Maneuvers around the Helicarrier's lower levels to run from the Hulk, with a hurt leg. (The Avengers)
  • Times two repulsor blasts while riding a motorcycle. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Aerially somersaults in between two repulsor blasts without looking, then lands and turns the evasion into offence (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Outpaces large amounts of automatic gunfire fired by small mecha-tanks with sensors (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Gracefully leaps through a laser barrier (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Outpaces Hawkeye's aim. (The Avengers)
  • Times the Winter Soldier's RPG (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Times the Winter Soldier's RPG again, parkours out of the way, evades a speeding car, outpaces a Hydra tactical team armed with Colt M4A1s and leaps out of cover before the car explosion caused by Bucky's missile launcher can reach her at point blank range, firing her Line mid-fall and landing on her feet (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Outdraws the Winter Soldier after he slams her on a car, firing a Sting at his metal arm before he can pull the trigger, even though he already had his arm pointed at her. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Before the capsule with the biological weapon can fall to the ground from a 5-foot long height, she guns down a mercenary with his gun aimed at her, and makes a forward slip to catch, landing perfectly on her feet afterwards (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Closes in on Crossbones' men balancing herself on her motorcycle, then doing some fast paced parkour without slowing down through a market full of obstacles and civilians [1], [2]. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • With a headstart, Natasha is running so fast that the Hulk chasing her in the form of a blur does not get to her for almost 10 seconds. (The Avengers)

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XI. Hand-to-Hand Combat.

    • Marvel describes her as a 'Master Fighter', listing some of her preferred unarmed styles; karate, judo, kung fu and wrestling. (Marvel.com)
      • She's shown mastery over spears, knives, staves, batons and improvised wire-like weapons among others.
    • Natasha's knowledge of martial arts is unrivalled. Due to this and her physical abilities, she is considered one of the most dangerous people on the planet. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary) Worth noting that this guidebook, signed by Feige's second in command, takes into account every fighter in the MCU films.
    • Heidi Moneymaker, Scarlett Johansson's stunt double, states that Black Widow incorporates 'every fighting style' in combat. (Interview with the Stunt Doubles of Captain America: Civil War)
    • Scarlett Johansson notes the incorporation of gymnastics and a dance background to Widow's unique hand to hand fighting style;
      • "My character is an expert in hand-to-hand combat, she's a mixed martial artist, she comes from a dance background, there's some gymnastics thrown into it, it's kind of everything all thrown into one big fighting machine." - Scarlett Johansson (Interview with Scarlett Johansson for Iron Man II)
    • Takes out several Hammer Industries guards using unarmed combat and a garrote wire [1], [2], [3], [4] (Iron Man 2)
    • Takes out at least 10 armed guards of the 10 Rings base in Russia on top of a steel beam, after noting that this is only halfway to a fair fight. (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
    • Easily takes out General Luchkov's hired muscle while tied to a chair [1], [2]. (The Avengers)
    • Defeats hordes of Chitauri Soldiers using their own spears in close quarters combat [1], [2] (The Avengers)
    • Takes out 3 of Batroc's 'top mercs' untagged. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
      • She is showcasing the advantages of superior agility in close combat here, particularly against a number of opponents, performing swft catwheels and perefect body balance to quickly close in from one henchman to the other while in a grounded position, and then abuse leverage to drop him, after wearing him down with precise elbows and side-kicks. Also note the momentum she builds using these tactics, her sweep kick sent this fully armored man flying off the ground and a couple of feet into the air, after breaking his arm.
      Takes out 3 of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surrounding S.T.R.I.K.E. Agents in a rapid display. (

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  • ). An interesting note is that S.T.R.I.K.E. would not even attempt to infiltrate the Director's office with Natasha in there, without Rumlow himself back-up.
  • Defeats four fully armored and armed assassins working for Eaglestar after they ambush and surround her unarmed in her hotel room. (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes I)
  • Takes down some of Klaue's large mercenaries unarmed in extreme close quarters. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Using her batons, guns along with efficient takedowns and submission holds in close quarters, she destroys hordes of Ultron Sentries (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Dominates Ant-Man, notably countering the size-altering properties of his suit [1], [2], [3] (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Takes out 9 of Crossbones' fully armed and armored mercenaries (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Breaks out of Crossbones' grip. (Captain America: Civil War) Unfortunately, his newfound immunity to pain caught her off guard, so he managed to BFR her.
  • Fights Crossbones' top men [1], [2] (Captain America: Civil War)
    • The the technical aspect and dexterity in Natasha's movements is the most notable aspect of this sequence.
  • Outmaneuvers Captain America and lands a neck strike, disarming him off his shield, all before he could touch her. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Matches Hawkeye blow for blow before Scarlet Witch interferes, although as she states they were 'pulling [their] punches'. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Takes down a geared up Hawkeye tasked by Loki with killing her, without the use of weapons (The Avengers)
    • The Russo brothers state that Natasha is a better fighter than Clint, based on this fight, considering it for the future movies.
    • “It’s a fight to see who’s going to kill themselves. It’s a crazy concept for a scene. And as you’ve seen in The Avengers, she’s a better fighter than he is. So when it comes down to a fight between the two of them, she wins.” - Joe Russo (Interview for Avengers: Endgame)
  • Outgrapples and pins down Hawkeye while in a disadvantageous position. She even provides herself with an opening to stun him with the Bite. (Avengers: Endgame)
  • Defeats Corvus Glaive using Proxima Midnight's spear - contrary to a common criticism, she did not surprise attack him either, he turned around and tried to attack her while she was about 10 feet away from him. (Avengers: Infinity War)
  • Holds her ground against Proxima Midnight using her collapsible, electric staff, effectively defends against her, deals a staggering double kick, outmaneuvers and disarms her and maintains a strong defence until Scarlet Witch regains consciousness and kills her. [1], [2], [3] (Avengers: Infinity War)

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XII. Marksmanship.

  • Natasha is an expert markswoman even using adapted alien arms. (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary) Trained in the use of various firearms, including Bucky's currently preferred M249 AR. (Captain America: Civil War)
  • Lands headshots on Chitauri Soldiers from a distance, while dealing with incoming fire. (The Avengers)
  • Draws and fires mid-catwheel while outpacing fully automatic gunfire from mechs armed with sensors. She also had to pinpoint weak spots on the machine whilst doing so. (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes III)
  • Takes out a group of Batroc's armored mercenaries while descending from a wire (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha crosses the bridge's width to the other side and hides from Bucky, who while above her targets Cap's position. Just in time, Nat pops up and takes a shot at him, hitting his goggles. A couple of things to note here: he was not in her line of sight, she used his shadow to calculate his position and succesfully quickscope him in the face. Most of his face was covered in bulletproof material so he survived. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
    • Another thing to note is the draw speed/rapid firing here. Again, it's too fast to catch with a blind eye, but for a split second after Bucky's goggles are shot, we see Natasha's already shot 5 more times in that direction - once again, in less than a single second. The first one did hit the target, the others were less accurate for obvious reasons that cannot be used against her considering the target wasn't in her line of sight.
  • Lands a headshot on an attacking Iron Legion armor without looking. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • In the flashbacks from Age of Ultron, we see a young Natasha training at shooting range in the Red Room. Take note because it's difficult to catch what she does without going over it again. She lands 2 headshots, she then switches arm and goes for a '10' and a '9' shot. The second quick switch between her arms is not a continuing part of the same sequence - it's a new shooting range with a new target, where in less than a single second she replicates the 4 shots we see her landing beforehand (2 headshots, a '9' and a '10') plus an additional fifth one on the '9 points' range. So not only did she land 5 shots in brief moments/a split second, they were also extremely precise shots, 4 of them actually hitting the exact same spots of the previous ones. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
    • Scene overview, frame - by - frame [1].
    • GIF of her drawing the pistol and shooting 5 times, with the Gfycat timer [2].
  • Lands repeated eyeshots at close range to take down charging Ultron Sentries, also note that she makes 5 of those in the span of 3 seconds (Avengers: Age of Ultron)
  • Demonstrates expert sniper skills aiming for Sitwell's tie from a distance where she remained invisible (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Natasha also has a good arm, using various weapons, throwing knives and batons, targetting weak points of the body at medium range - like her electric batons on the neck [1], and Captain America's shield. (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

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XIII. Misc. Skills.

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XIV. Combat Equipment.

  • Composite Tactical Battlesuit
  • Widow's Bite
    • Collapsible Staff
      • Dual Batons
    • Gauntlet Discharge
    • Widow's Stings
  • Widow's Line
  • Utility Belt
    • Dual Knives
    • Garrote
    • Smoke Discs - operate either as Flash Bombs, or Smoke Grenades
    • Hand Grenades & Miniature Explosives
  • Dual Glocks 26 loaded w/armor piercing rounds

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XV. Gear Breakdown.

  • Tactical suit designed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and further developed by Stark for heavy combat (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary)
  • Widow's Bite, multifunctional gauntlets designed by S.H.I.E.L.D. and further upgraded by Tony Stark. The Bite can unleash a powerul discharge of great voltage. (Guidebook to the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Marvel's Iron Man II)
    • All the below showings were performed as Natasha was using the lowest setting for the Bite; 40,000 to 50,000 volts. The maximum voltage ranges from 250,000 to 350,000 volts, five to seven times more powerful. According to Shuri, the lowest setting can lead to weakened or sore muscles, crapling, epidermal burns, temporary nerve damage and temporary lapses in consciousness. Juxtaposed to this, the highest setting can deal permanent nerve damage, third degree sub-dermal burns, loss of vision, and death. (The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond).
  • The Gauntlets can be used for standard defence [1] (The Avengers Prelude: The Avengers Initiative)
    • The Bite projects electricity that can 'stun and disorient even the most powerful foes'. (S.H.I.E.L.D. Personell Files)
    • Widow's Stings, small taser disks when launched near the opponent deliver a powerful discharge that can take out numerous targets at once without the need for direct contact [1], [2] (Iron Man 2), (The Avengers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes I)
      • The standard issue Stings by S.H.I.E.L.D. were strong enough to drop S.T.R.I.K.E. agents capable of resisting taser rods [1], and temporarily disable the Winter Soldier's bionic arm [2] (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)
  • Upgraded by Stark, the Stings deliver discharge powerful enough to subdue the Black Panther (Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary) and slow him down for over a minute [1].
    • Shuri states that one of the reasons she upgraded the Panther Habit was Widow's encounter with Panther. "Brother has mentioned on many occasions how he felt foolish that the Black Widow's projectile bites were able to keep him from pursuing Rogers at the Berlin airport. The new nanotechnology and kinetic disbursement in his suit should prevent a repeat issue." (The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond)
  • The new upgrade allows for long-range use with automatic shooters, with the disks launched at speed likely well above conventional arrows or RPGs, even T'Challa - enhanced to reaction speed of close range bullet timing - couldn't react in time when he was shot with them, granted he was caught off guard, [1], [2]. (Captain America: Civil War) Powers up concealed, 2.5 foot long dual batons, can be customised to fit the occasion.
  • Non-lethal, traditional tonfa to take on her teammates (Captain America: Civil War)
    • upgraded electric staves, joined to a larger, 5 foot long staff (Avengers: Infinity War)
    • The material of the staff is strong enough to clash with Proxima Midnight's weapons (Avengers: Infinity War)
    • the electric output combined with Natasha's own efforts are enough to make Outriders bleed open and drop them (Avengers: Infinity War)

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XVI. Notable Battles.

This section will just be 4 fight scenes from around the films (2012-2018 in the original timeline) that I consider Natasha's most impressive, demonstrating her versatile abilities and putting them to test against dangerous opponents. I've made these analyses myself before so I felt like including them here. I will include annotations of the opponents to highlight the threat level the character's gone up against.

Battle on the Helicarrier (The Avengers)

"This is Agent Romanoff. I copy."

Natasha takes on a mind controlled Hawkeye, tasked by Loki with killing her, after she had been traumatised physically and mentally by her encounter with the Hulk. Not only is she not at her best, she's also holding back against her friend, resulting into her fighting completely unarmed, and deprived off any usual lethal techniques she might prefer.

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Initially, she attempts to sneak up on Clint, grabs his bow and tries to disarm him, but he counters and elbows her in the face, which she basically no-sells, and the distance opens between them again. Natasha still dodges his hits and lands a spin kick on him. She then uses the environment to land another kick and proceeds to dodge a shot from him.

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She outmaneuvers him and dodges all his attempts for a little while more, grabs his bow and disarms him while forcing him back by hitting him on the leg and in the face. Also notice her cool use of the gauntlets as defence against his bow slam. He then draws a knife on her, she stops him, grabs his arm and twists it. He switches hands, she dodges and then they grapple. She's cornered and he starts pulling her hair, to which she responds with biting him, forcing him to drop the knife.

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With the knife out of the equation, she's free to outgapple him completely, switch positions, get out of the hold and get him in a position to slam his head against the metal bar near them and incapcitate him. This was enough to trigger his memories until she finishes him off with a punch to the face and gets the mind stone's effect completely out of him, "cognitive recalibration". It's important to note that she controlled the fight so well that she got him right where she wanted him to bang his head on hard steel.

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First off, I let us establish Clint as a combatant; he's fought Black Panther in the Clash of the Avengers: Clint opens by attacking Panther using his staff, spinning it to add momentum. T'Challa dodges the attempt and retaliates with his own, which Clint defends from. The exchange keeps going on, and at some points Clint is successfuly grappling with him evenly. He also blocks and dodges two incoming kicks in quick succession - [here is additional BTS footage for that] - basically, Clint is going blow for blow with T'Challa for quite a while, over 40 seconds overall, until he even outmaneuvers him enough to use his bow and get him on a hold of his own. It took Black Panther close to a minute to actually overpower Clint, despite the fact that he had to get out of this as soon as possible because Bucky was escaping the airport.

As for the Black Panther here's a small description of his abilities:

"[The Panther Habit] can absorb the energy, so it’s much harder to damage him as a character, and you can see that in the movie he can take a lot of punishment including bullets to the face. He is very well trained. He’s from one of the wealthiest countries on the planet, so there’s great infrastructure there; very technologically advanced country. So he’s been trained at the highest levels to fight, but he also has his own superpowers, which derive from the mythology of his nation."

Joe Russo, Inteview for "Captain America: Civil War"

He's fast enough to slice bullets out of the air at close range, he's a warrior trained since childhood to become a master martial artist, with the Panther Herb enhansing his senses to a superhuman level, he's covered in vibranium forming a borderline invulnerable suit head to toe and he's armed with vibranium claws. The fact that Widow could take down hard someone who proved a decent challenge to T'Challa is a noteworthy testament to her ability.

Battle of Sokovia (Avengers: Age of Ultron)

"Let's finish the job."

The Avengers fought Ultron and his Sentries in Sokovia, and each of them spread around the battlefield to individually take on hordes of the androids. The Ultron Sentries are pretty dangerous, they are based on Tony's Iron Legion and they are about twice as large as the average human. They could overturn cars and swim through concrete just to enter the battlefield. They are likely comparable to a Super Soldier in terms of raw strength (even though the Captain later adapted and took them out similarly using his skills) and their entire body is bulletproof besides very specific spots like the eyes. Even regular headshots won't do it, as shown when Maria Hill repeatedly shot at one of them attacking the Helicarrier and it did nothing but briefly slow it down.

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Natasha armed herself with her batons and took them on in close quarters. She somersaults right through a series of repulsor blasts in mid-air and then closes in to hits the Sentries on weak spots of the body, demonstrating extensive knowledge on anatomy and pressure points, as well as application of it. Several minutes later we still see her fighting alone, she throws one of her batons at the neck of a nearby Sentry to take it down. Steve comes in and gives her his shield to work with, which she effectively uses to stagger another one and have Cap finish it off.

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In the final part of the battle in the destroyed church, the center of Sokovia, she stood next to her teammates and used a combination of hand to hand, stick fighting and gunplay to fight the remaining Sentries, which resulted in a very high body count on her part. Before they manage to close in through sheer numbers, Natasha lands 5 close range eyeshots in 3 seconds while dual wielding her Glocks.

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Then, she uses them very effectively in close quarters to take them out with point blank shots while physically grappling with them and redirecting their attempts or holding them in place with her bare hands and signature grappling techniques, showing she can use efficient takedowns on explicitly superhuman opponents while skillfully abusing her weapons in the process.

Battle in Washington D.C. (Captain America: The Winter Soldier)

"Did I step on your moment?"

Natasha went up against a brainwashed Bucky Barnes in Washington D.C. Alexander Pierce personally gave the Winter Soldier orders to take out two Threat Level 5 targets, Captain America and Black Widow. He assassinated Jasper Sitwell and then attempted to kill Natasha, Steve and Sam.

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Initially, he tries to headshot the trio. He starts by shooting at Natasha through the roof, who dodges it and predicting his next moves, she gets on the front seats and saves both her teammates, pulling Rogers out of the way of Bucky's shot and kicking Sam away, showing exceptional awareness, adaptability, deductive skills.

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Then they get out of the car, and face the Winter Soldier head on. He uses his grenade launcher to try and blow them up, Natasha times it and gets out of the way. Steve blocks it with his shield but gets sent flying stories away into a bus and knocked out for a while. Bucky and his group of Hydra Agents, fully armed with assault riffles and an RPG, have a shootout with Natasha, who's forced to dodge the grenade, jump onto the nearby street, get out of the way of a speeding car and outpace the aim of 4 well trained shooters with heavy arms. Bucky then launches another grenade, and just in time, Natasha jumps off the bridge and while upside down uses her Widow's Line to safely land on her feet and find cover.

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Bucky then comes right at the edge of the bridge scanning for Steve's location, as Natasha has him believe she is down, and while running, she notices his shadow reflecting on the ground in front of her. She waits for him to aim at the bus, "hides in plain sight" and abuses the opening to land a headshot on him from directly below his position and an approximately 40-foot long distance, calculating the exact position of his body using the shadow to land a killshot. Unfortunetely, more than half of Bucky's face is covered with bulletproof material so he survived this.

*Note is the draw speed/rapid firing here. It's too fast to catch with a blind eye, but for a split second after Bucky's goggles are shot, we see Natasha's already shot 5 more times in that direction - once again, in less than a single second. The first one did hit the target, the others were less accurate for obvious reasons that cannot be used against her considering the target wasn't in her actual line of sight. Visit the markamship section; this rapid firing is a showing consistent with the Red Room flashbacks from Age of Ultron.

She then quickly finds cover to prepare for the worst case scenario where he survives that shot, and when Bucky pops out of the bridge again, she catches him off guard. They have another exchange with Natasha safe for the time being, until Bucky pulls off some impossible shots and heavily suppresses fire at her position (given the line of fire, it'd be impossible to hit behind her cover like that if he didn't ricochet his bullets, so I think he did, but it's rather unclear). Natasha gets out of the way to dodge the fire in time, and as she seemingly runs out of ammo, the Winter Soldier orders his agents to go after Captain America while he jumps down the streets to take her out.

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Knowing he's looking for her, Natasha places her high tech device behind a nearby car with a recording of her voice supposedly asking S.H.I.EL.D. for backup, tricking Bucky into launching a miniature greande at the car and blow it up. He immediately figured out something's not right though, but Natasha still manages to appear out of nowhere and get the jump on him from behind, swiftly disarming him and attempting to strangle him. Now, Bucky, being the super-assassin he is with similar training to Natasha's, basically reacted with what could be muscle memory and put him arm in front of his neck to prevent her from garrotting him. Not everyone would be so lucky though, and one touch with the garrote is all that's needed to slit someone's throat. He promtly overpowers her and slams her on a nearby car, which she immediately recovers from.

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She then uses one of her Widow's Stings to disable his metal arm, deprive him of his assault riffle once more, giving her time to escape and get civilians out of harm's way in the process - despite the fact that he had just flung her against a car and knocked her down, she still outdraws his trigger finger and hits him before he can shoot her after he has already aimed at her. Also I want to note that she doesn't leave because she's so hopelessly outmatched that she'd get dropped in seconds in a serious hand to hand fight, but because there's no way she can put down a Super Soldier like him without weapons in the long game and she knows it. He manages to pin her down and shoots her in the shoulder. She loses a lot of blood until Maria Hill rescues them from Rumlow's S.T.R.I.K.E. Team and has doctors attend to her wounds.

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First off, let's establish the fact that the Winter Soldier is a seriously tough opponent;

"When he is found he is haded over to Hydra's Soviet wing, where Zola oversees Bucky's transformation into a super-assassin. He is trained to be proficient with all modern weapons, and becomes a lethal martial artist - so lethal that he is branded the "First of Hydra", the greatest assassin in the programme."

Marvel Studios Visual Dictionary, "Winter Soldier"

Widow and Cap who have seen him in action describe him as a ghost and a fast, strong assassin. He is as experienced and tactical as it gets, he is an expert marksman who can fatally wound Nick Fury through a wall, and he is so skilled in stealth missions that he could ghost Black Panther, who with the Panther Herb, has been granted explicitly heightened senses. In full tactical gear and with a group of trained mercenaries backup, he ambushed Natasha who was in civilian clothes and armed with nothing but her glocks, a garrote and the original version of her Bite. She still came inches away from killing him twice, a testament to her training and experience as an assassin.

Battle of Wakanda (Avengers: Infinity War)

"Looks like we pissed her off."

When Thanos' army attacked Wakanda, Cap's fraction of the Avengers alongside T'Challa, the various tribes of the country and the Dora Milaje went face to face with the Outriders and Thanos' Generals, Glaive, Midnight and Obsidian. Proxima led the attack and unleashed the armies of Outriders to attack the heroes and Widow was fighting the beasts on the front line.

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Those beings might be mindless, but their raw savagery, fearlessly charging at anyone with great superhuman size, weight and multiple claws and teeth that could penetrate Stark's Hulkbuster armor, and the fact that they're strong enough to survive explosions and even going through the outter barriers of Wakanda makes them a great force to be reckoned with. Natasha still put down numbers of them, slashing them open with her electric staves. Then, immediately after, she faced one of the 4 elite generals of Thanos, Proxima Midnight.

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A furious Proxima initiates the fight by charging at Natasha, who combines her batons into a staff to defend against Proxima's sword slashes directly. Okoye then enters the fight and distracts Proxima, giving Natasha the opening to use her staff as leverage to land a double kick on Proxima, staggering her and forcing her a few feet back groaning in pain.

They keep fighting 2 on 1 with Midnight each, size parrying hits and fighting pretty evenly. Proxima abuses the distraction of the Thressers passing by above them though, and manages to land hits on Widow and Okoye, sending Nat flying back a few feet with a knee that she wasn't even braced for, and throwing Okoye away. Natasha tanked the knee and got back up to protect Wanda.

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They fight 1 on 1 for a while longer, and eventually Natasha collapses her staff into 2 batons to use in very close range. Proxima takes swings at her with her sword but she dodges them and grapples with her. She stops her next sword slash mid-attempt using one of her batons and precisely tags her with her other baton's electric discharge in the elbow to disarm her. Proxima then repeatedly punches her, and Natasha holds her own there parrying the hits until she gets pinned down. At this point, it's impressive that she's even alive for these few seconds: she's at a huge angular/position disadvantage, with Proxima on top of her ferociously releasing a concealed blade to put all her strength in overpowering Natasha. She still places her batons together to maintain a strong defence until Wanda regains consciousness and kills Proxima.

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All in all, Natasha is obviously outmatched against someone like Midnight in the long run, but she held her own very well for a while, impressive because of how dangerous Proxima is compared to any human.

"As one of the most fierce and formidable warriors in the cosmos, Proxima Midnight mercilessly uses her lethal skills to serve her adopted father Thanos in his quest to obtain all six Infinity Stones and erase half of all life in the universe. Proxima is such a skilled and sinister fighting machine that she is able to go toe-to-toe with adversaries who have super human abilities and powers, using just her combat training and her three-pronged spear. Proxima’s strength and superior skills in death dealing make her one of the most feared foes in the galaxy."

Marvel.com, "Proxima Midnight: On-Screen Profile: Threat Level Midnight"

Proxima is a highily skilled warrior, one of the best in the universe. The fact that she dealt with 2 opponents like Okoye and Natasha at once better than other master martial artists like the Winter Soldier, who became a punching bag when tagged team by Natasha herself and Agent 13 in the C.I.A., speaks of her level of skill alone and her fight with the metahuman Scarlet Witch is evidence of her superhuman physicality, taking direct explosions at point blank with no injury and easily making 100 foot-long leaps. On top of that, Proxima is very big, more than twice as big as Natasha, towering over her and even people like Captain America, fully armored head to toe by Thanos and given weapons above the paygrade of terrestrial arms to fight with.

Natasha overcame all that for a time, made clever use of her melee options, disarmed her and defended against her, saving Wanda right after Wanda saved her.

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This is it, folks. Respect the Widow!

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Hawkeye (MCU) Respect Thread

Hawkeye (A.K.A. Clint Barton)

"Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call" - Natasha Romanoff

Clint Barton is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most accomplished agents and the best marksman in the world. At a relatively young age, he was handpicked by Nicky Fury to join the organisation and train to eventually become one of the best on the field. Afterwards, he was asked to join the Avengers Initiative, and upon escaping Loki's mind control, he faught against his army alongside his teammates. Sometime afterwards, he resided at home with his family, who no one other than Fury and Romanoff initially knew about, and was assigned into helping fight the forces of HYDRA and later Ultron, only to retire afterwards. At last, Hawkeye partook in the 'Civil War' between the Avengers after helping Wanda Maximoff escape the New Avengers Facility, where she was held by Stark, and fight alongside Captain America's team. He got apprehended for his actions and imprisoned until Rogers freed him and the rest of his team. Clint has returned to retirement ever since.

Equipment

  • Recurve Bow, Staff & Quiver
  • Conventional & Trick Arrows
    • Explosive Arrows
    • Shockwave Arrows
    • Taser Arrows
    • Smokescreen Arrows
    • Grappling Hook Arrows
    • Hacking Arrows
    • Burst Arrows
    • Scatter Arrows
    • Thermal Arrows
  • Specialised Combat Knife / Dagger
  • H&C P30 Gun

Strength & Durability

"I knew I should have stretched."

Clint does not have many showings of sheer strength, however he's still proven a match for tough fighters, such as Black Widow, while also being surprisingly durable and able to fight and overwhelm superhuman opposition at times.

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Clint could effortlessly pierce through a HYDRA mech suit outside their secret base.

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More impressively, he could pierce Ultron Sentries with regular arrows and his bare hands. Ultron Sentries have been shown to be bulletproof more than once.

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Clint was durable enough to tank a speedblitz from Quicksilver, and while the latter was not going all out, he's still strong enough to tear apart small armies of Ultron Bots with his stronger bullrushes, so it's respectable enough.

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Clint also tanked a punch from a holding back Vision that was still strong enough to send him flying a few feet back.

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Lastly, Clint could tank a direct hit from Natasha's newly programmed Widow's Bite, which might not be as powerful as her recent one, but still packs enough electricity for a large discharge.

Speed & Agility

"Just can't seem to miss."

Clint excells in reflex and combat speed, and has kept up with some of the fastest people in the entire MCU.

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Clint has proven much faster than Director Fury, being able to shoot him before he can react or evade his own shot. Fury might not be a speedster, but he's still fast enough to casually aim dodge gunfire while driving at high speeds. Also, the second one can be argued to be bullet timing, although I personally disagree with such showings being so.

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Clint's surprisngly acrobatic, and fast enough to aim dodge War Machine's weapon and jump out of the way while perfectly balancing himself on the landing.

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Clint has shown himself capable of not only dodging, but also getting Fury out of the way from Loki's scepter's energy blasts.

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With a combination of stealth and reaction speed, Clint noticed Scarlet Witch coming from behind him and electrocuted her with a specialised arrow before she could attempt to use her TP on him. This same strategy worked on Thor.

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Even while heavily injured, Clint could evade repulsor beams, the second time being him jumping after the shot's been made.

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In a most impressive showing, Clint moved too fast for Tony to tag with his repulsors. Moments later, the latter was shooting multiple of his arrows out of the air.

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Clint can be highily acrobatic offensively too, here he somersaults over an Ultron Bot and headshots it.

Lastly, being able to keep up with Black Widow, who can react to grenade launchers, and even Black Panther, a casual bullet timer who sliced a bullet in 3 after it's been fired, puts him on the low level bullet timing tier.

Close Quarters Combat

"Really? I retire for, what, like 5 minutes? And it all goes to shit."

Barton is heavily trained in unarmed combat as well as melee weaponry, and has repeatedly proven to be one of the MCU's most skilled fighters at close range through his fights against master martial artists and enhansed beings.

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In the first showing, Clint casually takes down 2 Chiaturi soldiers by headshoting one at point blank range, disarming the other, throwing it off and kicking it out of the building. In the second one, he easily takes one down by tripping it with his bow and piercing its head with an arrow. The Chiaturi are no joke, physically they are capable of tanking extremely high falls like nothing and their strength is on Captain America's and Iron Man's weight class.

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Using his combat knife against Natasha Romanoff on the Helicarrier, Clint showed himself proficient enough with it to casually throw it from one hand to another and attempt a slash, and despite Natasha getting him on a hold, he still managed to point the knife directly at her face. Even in unarmed combat, he's been able to trade blows with her for a while.

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Their fight on the airport, where Clint ultised his upgraded bow as a staff against Natasha's tofa, was much more even and he even managed to get a momentary advantage and floor her. They're grappling each other, trading and evading attempts ultising both weapons and their hands to go toe to toe.

Black Widow is an amazingly skilled fighter on her own right, she's an assasin trained since she was a child, with several black belts under her name and impressive showings to go by, such as casually taking down 3 mercenaries while bound on a chair after being visibly 'tortured' physically.

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Even more impressively, Clint managed to fight on par with Black Panther for more than 40 seconds - for almost a whole minute - through his skill alone. Notice how they are trading blows with each other, with Clint blocking, dodging and retaliating T'Challa's attempts, have it be slashes or kicks and the like.

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Next thing we see on-screen, is Black Panther on a hold of Clint's grip, using his claws to slice down the staff, taking down Clint in a couple of hits and get away. The fact that Clint was good enough to get someone like him on a hold is impressive enough. He only lost the fight through sheer, absurd stat and striking disadvantage.

This is a top notch showing that not many peak human fighters could replicate. Not only is T'Challa a physical powerhouse far above Clint's weight class, being able to overpower Bucky's bionic arm, wielding a head-to-toe vibranium suit and having the single best reaction feat of any street leveller in the MCU - he's also a master martial artist trained in 'the highest levels to fight'. This makes for a nearly unmatched comination, and Clint proved much more skilled than someone as skilled as Black Panther, which speaks miles of his level of training and close quarters combat skill.

T'Challa's skill also shows, by the way he could repeatedly come close to manhandling the Winter Soldier - who really didn't do much better than Clint, if at all any better, against Panther. And despite what some might want to believe, Panther's mindset was practically bloodlusted against Clint. He saw Steve and Bucky getting away, and he had to end the fight as quickly as possible, he couldn't hope to let them escape - that's about as serious as it can get. And at last, the off-screen part of the fight couldn't have been intervened by the rest of the combatants in the Airport, mostly because (a) we see them fighting far away from anyone else while T'Challa runs to Steve and Buck after he drops Clint and (b) everyone was busy with their respective matchups in the meantime.

Marksmanship

"The city is flying, we’re fighting an army of robots and I have a bow and arrow. None of this makes sense."

Clint's keen eye gave him his code name, and it'd be underselling to say that he's an incredible archer and ranged fighter.

Draw Speed, Volume & Fire Rate

Clint's extraordinarly fast on the draw with his recurve bow. In training to not miss his spot on the Avengers, he is seen shooting 3 arrows in 1.9 second(s), much less than 2 seconds, and even implies that he can do better than that.

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Through his amazing draw speed combined with accuracy, he could quickly destroy several Ultron Sentries with relative ease at range, all surrounding him.

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And he was also fast enough to draw an arrow, set and shoot before Vision could reach him from a 5ft. distance away.

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He even managed to pressure someone as fast as Black Panther at range and keep him from closing in for quite a while. Lastly, it's worth noting that Clint can fire plenty of arrows at once, up to three the least. Moreso, it's worth noting that there's a chance his arrows travel at higher speed than most, given how he, for instance, can instantly take out grown men through standard protecting vests.

Accuracy & Precision

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In one of the most impressive shots you can make, Hawkeye managed to curve an explosive arrow and target specific part of the Helicarrier, likely by calculating the amount of force he had to put and let the wind handle the rest.

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Here, Clint headshots 2 Ultron Bots at once, showing exceptional ability to precisely pinpoint multiple targets in 1 throw.

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Clint can easily land headshots on people, from huge distances away even while being shot at.

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In the Battle of New York, Clint showed himself capable of hitting a speeding Chiaturi jet without looking, just by estimating the time it would take for it to circle around his location.

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One of Clint's most impressive accuracy showings would shooting down a wildly speeding Ultron Bot out of the air, maneuvering at high speeds - and doing so with little effort at that.

Trick Arrows

Clint carries an extremely wide arsenal of trick arrows, including the useful grappling hook arrow, the hacking arrow and the smokescreen arrow - esspecially useful for Special Ops.

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Clint's signature explosive arrows pack quite the punch. On HYDRA's base, he used them to blow up an entire warehouse.

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In the final fight against Ultron's army, Clint took numerous of his sentries down with explosive arrows. This also shows how he is able to use them up close without risking himself.

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Spamming them, he caused numerous explosions that sent several agents flying and KOed from the radius alone.

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Clint's weaker explosive arrows could visibly damage Tony's suit and force him backwards going off.

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Outwitting Loki, Clint blew up his Chiaturi jet and sent him flying visibly hurting him. Loki's an Asgardian durable enough to survive a brutal beating from the Hulk, and he's completely bulletproof.

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His most powerful ones are absurdly potent, enough to blow up and destroy large part of the Helicarrier.

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Clint also carries arrows that burst and fire thermal projectiles around the area they land on.

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Clint used his taser arrows twice against Vision, once in the New Avengers Faciity, and second in the fight at the airport. Vision is superhumanly durable, enough that he can fight Ultron, the semi-immortal android, 1 on 1. We later see how he treats peak human weaponry when Clint's baton breaks in conduct with his body so stunning him for this long is a very notworthy showing of output.

In regards to the discharge, they releash a powerful wave of electricity like a projectile, long before the arrow even lands.

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Clint has trick arrows that can releash a 360 degree shockwave that immediately takes out everyone on the field.

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Against Tony, he used an arrow that can turn into 6 projectiles in a single fire, surrounded and wildly manevuer around him.

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Last but not least, Clint carries thermal arrows that upon landing on a target, the target virtually starts burning and melting, like the Chiaturi jet above.

Agent Barton is one of the most impressive street levellers out there in terms of combat efficiency by all means, he is a master up close and at range with enough experience under his belt to give just about anyone a run for their money.

80 Comments

Batman (DCEU) Respect Thread

Note that this is not going to include any Anti-Superman suit feats.

Batman (A.K.A. Bruce Wayne)

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Bruce Wayne is a Billionare at day and a Superhero at night, known and feared in the criminal underworld of Gotham as the Batman. After witnessing the death of his parents at a young age, Bruce attempted a life of fighting against the unfairness of the world and protect his home city from suffering as he did. Throughout his years of fighting, he has apprehended some of the most dangerous individuals in the world and has faught against or alongside demi gods and metahumans of a high calliber.

Equipment

  • Bulletproof Armor & Gauntlets
  • Grappling Gun
  • Explosives
  • Batraangs
  • Smoke Grenades

Strength

Bruce is in peak human condition and has demonstrated excellent physical strength throughout his fights with superhumans and whatnot.

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Flips a grown man above his head and breaks his arm.

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Sends a parademon flying with a regular kick. The parademonds are obviously superhuman, as they could take out Steppenwold just by dogpiling him.

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All around, Bruce has shown himself capable of physically competing with parademons. Individually, a parademon is strong enough to dismantle something as large and durable as the batmobile.

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Breaks through a thin wall.

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Throws a grown man hard enough to break the same wall.

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Once again, overpowers a grown man with 1 arm and then grabs a large wooden box with his grapple gun, lifting some feet above ground level and sending it flying towards another guy, who gets KOed immediately.

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In what's probably his most impressive striking showing, Bruce litteraly punched through a large brick.

Durability

Bruce's body armor establishes him as bolderline superhuman. It can withstand massive amounts of blunt force damage, though parts of it are vulnerable to piercing output.

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Bruce's gauntlets are completely immune to piercnig output.

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Bruce also tanked a direct stab on the shoulder. I'd like to note here that getting tagged a couple of times trhough cheap shots against a group of 25 armed opponents attacking simultaneously is not a bad showing at all, given Bruce had just gotten out of a long-drawn fight with Superman himself.

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Here, Bruce tanks a throw from a parademon, who we've established are incredibly strong, hard enough to litteraly destroy the steel bars he was thrown on.

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Here, bracing himself, Bruce takes a hit from Superman. Now, Clark was pissed off and he had no trouble of crippling Bruce, he didn't want to kill him as he wanted to give a speech before so, and I won't argue as if Bruce tanked the hit. However, he took it, survived with rather unserious injuries and the hit was still strong enough to cripple the police car he was thrown on. Hours later, Superman proved strong enough to effortlessly move around multistory buildings.

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As shown, his gauntlets are also bulletproof, as shown more than once.

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While saving Martha, Bruce no sold an explosion with his cape alone.

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Bruce's helmet is also highily bulletproof, apparently.

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The gauntlets were also strong enough to easily defend against the parademons' plasma attacks.

Gear

As any version of Batman should, he carries a wide variety of weponry that is extremely effective in combat and grants him a highily versatile fighting style.

Grappling Gun

Batman uses his grappling gun very effectively in combat, usually to incapacitate the opposition and take them out afterwards.

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Guts a mercenary, draws him up close and knocks him out. On the bottom scan, he does the same to a superhuman parademon.

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The grappling gun also holds very large nets, extremely hard to dodge and strong enough to completely incapacitate something as strong as a parademon.

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Overall, Bruce has demonstrated great skill on using the grappling gun in h2h. Ultising his large cape to blind the opposition, he can swiftly draw the gun and bind them for a quick incap.

Batraangs

Batman carries around numerous small, pointy batraangs.

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He has shown enough precision with them to pinpoint the hold of a gun from a distance. It's worth noting that these batraangs can pierce concrete.

Smoke Grenades

Bruce regularly ultises smoke bombs along with stealth to evade opposing attempts.

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He's used them against Doomsday.

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And he's used them against Clark too. Notice how he disappears from one side of the roof and appears behind Superman, Bruce is a master of stealth when he needs to.

Explosives

Lastly, Batman carries explosives that he can throw at his opponents, and implode in conduct.

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He took down a parademon with it.

Skill

Despite being a physical beast, Bruce relies a lot on his martial skill too, and has demonstrated exceptional unarmed skill through his fights against large groups of opponents or his sheer choreography and moveset. He is known for fighting experience of over 20 years in the streets of Gotham, taking on individuals who have been described as some of the most dangerous in the world.

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Despite being stabbed and lying on the floor, Bruce swiftly takes down 2 of Luthor's mercenaries. Notice how he uses his legs to throw them off balance, getting up while kneeing the second one, while blocking all of the other one's attempts and hitting him on the legs to take him down.

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Disarms a thug and effortlessly thows him off (noting that he did not want to take him down, he had to use him to lure a parademon).

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In what's probably the most impressive part of Batman's fight in the warehouse, he took on 4 of Luthor's mercenaries attacking him at once, from 4 different angles. This is a skill showing not many could replicate, and perform similarly, at all, he's litteraly going back and forth in 4 different angles, as unlike most fodder fighters, these guys attack simultaneously and surround him.

In the first part of the gif, he remains untouchable by all of them at once, in the second, he grabs one of them armed with a knife and counters the blows of the rest using his arm.

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Against the physically superior parademons, Bruce demonstrated excellent unarmed skill, stomping an attempt, redirecting the armed hand, disarming the creature and finishing it off with a slash on the gut.

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Once again, Bruce takes on a large group of opponents charging at him simultaneously. Blocking and deflecting attempts from all ways, overcoming the mercenaries' reach edge, he manages to take down every single one of them without getting tagged once.

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Lastly, against Deadshot, Bruce quickly overwhelmed him up close. Blocking all of his attempts, misdirecting the arm with which he fired and breaking his leg with a kick. Particularly a great showing of precision, as in oder to avoid getting shot by someone as accurate as Floyd at point blank, who had just drawn a surprise gun mind you, you're going to need excellent skill in stopping incoming attempts or manipulating your opponent's ones.

Speed & Agility

Bruce is surprisngly fast as well. He's well above your average human and has dealt with high speed projectiles efficiently before, ultising his high level combat speed up close too.

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Reacts and evades a thug attempting to surprise him with a gunshot. He kept on evading the guy afterwards.

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Similarly, in his first scene, Batman easily outpaced a cop's gunfire. Both of those instances are most impressive because he's not running or jumping around, he's doing something as slow as crawling on a surface. Yet, he's still much faster than any human.

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While blitzing several parademons in the final battle with Steppenwold, Barry tripped (again) and almost fell. Bruce proved fast enough to not only percieve him fine and move in sync with his final movement, he even tagged him with the grapling gun. Now, I won't act as if Bruce caught a supersonic Flash in mid air, but this showing puts him at least on a casual arrow timing calliber.

The Flash was moving at massively supersonic speeds while fighting Superman, even this much slower, Barry is a lot faster than many projectiles street levellers often deal with. Percieving, moving in sync with and tagging him, is an exceptional showing of speed.

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Using his grappling gun, Bruce could aim dodge Doomsday's supersonic attacks.

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Dodges the parademons' plasma attacks after they've been fired.

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Dodges Harley Quinn's attempt to surprise him after acting KOed and attacking with a fast paced knife slash, hidden knife I might add, and one shots her afterwards. This is an excellent speed showing itself, as Quinn has proven fast enough to take down 2 armed soldiers, with far slower movement, before a dozen of other armed guards could properly aim and shoot her - with laser weapons to aid their aim. Outreacting her like that is not something many LA street fighters can replicate,

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Lastly, while, by word, the heavy batsuit does not allow for high end acrobatic capacity and evasion, Bruce is still capable of achieving great balance and timing with his body. Here, he backflips directly on the thug's head.

All around, the Batman of the DCEU has proven himself an excellent fighter, with highily versatile skillset, capable of challenging the best.

43 Comments

A:TLA Non-Benders Respect Thread

Time to respect the best fighters in the Avatarverse, putting many street levellers to shame with their amazing fighting skillz. I have an old Mai/Ty Lee RT but whatever, this one's better and updated and includes 2 additional characters.

Suki

"I am a warrior. But I'm a girl, too."

Biography

Suki was raised in the island of Kyoshi, a remote island in the east waters of the Earth Kingdom. Named after Avatar Kyoshi herself after her birth there, some hundreds of years ago, it is the homeland of the Elite Fighting group known as the Kyoshi Warriors, and has always been under their protection. Suki is the leader of said group, and she along with the rest of the village were honored with Avatar Aang's visit in the beginning of his journey. This inspired them to find a way to help more people around the world, and so they were assigned with escorting Earth Kingdom refugees into Bang Sing Se, the capital and safest city in the entire world. When Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors were ambushed by Princess Azula, she was captured and sent in a high security prison in the Fire Nation. After a few months, Zuko and Sokka attempted to break out both her and Hakoda, Sokka's father, and so it happened. Suki became an official member of Team Avatar and in the day of Sozin's Comet, she contributed into taking down Firelord Ozai's fleet of Airships before they could burn down an entire quarter of the world. Currently, Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors are Firelord Zuko's personal security team, assigned to defend the palace and stop any asassination attempts against him.

Equipment

  • Kyoshi Armor
  • Kyoshi Fans / Shield
  • Kantana Sword

Skill (martial arts, stealth, incapacitation techniques)

"It's not about strength. Our technique is about using your opponents' force against them."

Book 3: The Boiling Rock I
Book 3: The Boiling Rock I

Suki is an elite fighter who's been training half her life every day. She has 10 years of martial arts training, even when residing on Kyoshi Island in peace, she, and the rest of her team, can be seen practicing continuous forms every day to stay in shape and perfect their technique.

Above we can see those years of experience. Stimulating an opponent in fornt of her she's training in a form that combines both offence and defence, without a single movement going to waste, ending with a surprise, head on kick that gives her a good chance of reach. Notice that it's also a very "high" kick, which is fitting given Suki's small size.

Suki began her Kyoshi Warrior training at the age of eight.

Avatar Extras: Book 2: Earth, Secret of the Fire Nation: Part 1: The Serpent's Pass

As the older of the warriors, Suki also tutors new recruits around the world in their fighting style, which has been described as using the opposition's force against them. Due to this, physically superior opponents can often be overcome by redirecting the energy behind their strikes to them. This could easily be seen when Sokka attempted to (hillariously) charge at her. She grabbed him and used the monmentum he had already gained from the attempt, to casually spin him around like a ragdoll.

And exactly because Suki's style is also based on waiting for the right moment to strike and take one down, she prefers counterattacking, incorporating her agility to throw opponents off-balance. For instance, when the guard leaved himself open by kicking at her, she immediately grabbed his leg and tossed him over. Her mindset is basically turned into performing defensive / counterattacking actions to throw off the opposition before anything, which is partially why seeing her style in comparison to Ty Lee's more aggressive one was a beatuful sequence.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Suki's most impressive showing in hand to hand combat would be her fight with Ty Lee, an ex circus acrobat and skilled combatant / martial artist, aboard a gondola when they attempted to escape the Boiling Rock prison. At last, the fight turned out as a dead stalemate for more than a few minutes.

As a testament to her advance, Suki managed to block all of Ty Lee's attempts to tag her, while retaliating with her own stikes which includes both fists and surprise kicks. Normally that wouldn't be too impressive considering Ty Lee worked around them in her own right. However, we need to remember just how quick and evasive Ty Lee is in close quarters combat, exactly because of her master acrobat status. The fact that Suki repeatedly forced her to resort into blocking / deflecting instead of dodging is a noteworthy enough accomplishment. (I'll be talking more about Ty Lee's skill and fighting style in her own section below).

Shells
Shells

Speaking of Ty Lee, she also joined the Kyoshi Warriors at the end of the war, and tutored the team in the art of "chi blocking", commonly known as nerve strikes. By targetting the pressure points of the human body, Suki can paralyze one's limbs or entire body on the spot (and in the case of benders, take away their bending for a short period of time).

Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi, Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

In addition to her hand to hand skills, Suki is also trained in ultizing small cords, also included in her uniform, to tie up and incapacitate opponents. She can do is extraordinarly fast. She could tie Sokka's arm and foot in a knot in 0.00.80 second(s) (by timer) and tie both hands of the prison warden in a knot, in 0.00.60 second(s). This is exceptional combat/movement speed and combined with Suki's abilities of small joint manipulation, incapacitating the opponent can prove less challenging that expected.

Lastly, Suki is skilled in stealth. Combining speed with fast paced, cautious movements, she can sneak on a target and incapacitate them before they knew what hit them.

"I'm an elite warrior who's trained for many years in the art of stealth."

Suki, Book 3: The Ember Island Players

When Aang, Katara and Sokka first visited Kyoshi Island, the Kyoshi Warriors ambushed and stealth'd them. In Aang's case, it's exceptionally impressive because of his superhuman senses. Airbenders can feel the air currents behind their back and know it when someone attempts to attack from behind, most people would fail to sneak on them. This is explored more in Korra's era but Aang has excellent showings of ultizing this ability too. For instance, he could sense the assasin Combustion Man breathing from almost a hundred of feet away behind his back in an attempt to blow him up. Suki and her warriors could sneak up on him, so that's highily impressive.

Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi
Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi

At the end of the day, Suki is also extremely aware of her surroundings in combat, capable of reactnig to surprise attempts such as Ty Lee sneaking behind her or Azula's fireballs (not aimed at her, but aimed at her way).

Strength

"Sorry, warden. You're my prisoner now."

Book 3: The Boiling Rock I
Book 3: The Boiling Rock I

Suki is also surprisngly strong. She could easily send Sokka flying with 1 arm and even when she was sitting down. Notice that she did not even push him, she just grabbed his chin and threw him away.

Book 3: The Phoenix King
Book 3: The Phoenix King

And she could easily kick down one of Toph's earth structures. This is esspecially impressive because of how powerful of an earthbender Toph is. For instance, with her largest earth walls she can block explosions, from bombs strong enough to destroy submarines. For context, Team Avatar were in training at the moment, so Toph could arguably not be using her best earthbending, but this is extremely impressive regardless, esspecially considering the structure was directly coming out of the ground, stuck in it.

Gear

"The silk threads symbolize the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honor of the warrior's heart."

As the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, Suki is equipped with the armor, shield, kantana sword and metalic fans representing Avatar Kyoshi, whose style roots from the Asian Samurai warrios. Suki is an exceptional user of the fans, and has been using them against both benders and non-benders alike. The fans' length seems to be around half Suki's arm in size, which offers a good bit 50% more reach.

"Think of the fan as an extension of your arm. Wait for an opening."

Suki, Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi

Suki ultizes her weapon of choice, the fans, for defence and offence. They are highily versatile weapons in combat. Her options include disarming an opponent wielding a blade or a spear, dispatching their, already limited, reach advantage in battle, gaining a quick advantage.

Book 1: The Warrios of Kyoshi
Book 1: The Warrios of Kyoshi

Notice that even this simple Kyoshi Warrior is highily trained in the use of the weapon, she waits for the opening, grabs the spear, in a grip, and gets a monmentum by turning around, throwing it away and making the jump on the soldier. Once again, not a single movement goes to waste.

Smoke & Shadow I
Smoke & Shadow I

Suki's impressive use of the fans shows in getting through attacks, closing the distance and finding an opening, an opening means hitting them before or while they're in a striking stance, as we see above - common technique among high level blade users, also known as Riposte* - then, throwing the opponent off balance by using poking motions or straight up attacking them, (just by getting hit by the fan, a soldier was KO'd, with the blunt force going right through his steel helmet).

Riposte, by definition is an attack made immediately after a parry of the opponent's strike, it goes straight from the parry position to the target. Person that performs riposte pretty much exploit the fact that his opponent has to put foward his weapon in order to attack, to swiftly turn defense (parry) into an offense (riposte) when his foe is still in attacking position, not prepared to defend himself.

Credit to fellow viner, Foxerdes

Virtually, Suki is negating attacks with her fans, forcing an opening to strike in the other fighter's body. This is excellent against not only benders, but mostly close quarter combatants too and it surprisngly requires no speed or strength edge, seeing as how it is based on the previously disscused fighting style of the Kyoshi Warriors, using the opponent's force and monmentum against them.

Book 2: Appa's Lost Days
Book 2: Appa's Lost Days

In addition to this, the fans can also turn into a powerful shield on the spot, capable of defending Suki against plenty powerful strikes. Azula's firebending could not go through them, even if it did pressure them. Azula has some insane feats of power, even if those were obviously not her strongest ones. Still, she decimated a tree on her way to fight the Kyoshi Warriors, so it wouldn't be fair to assume those fireblasts were weak, esspecially when lower force of kinetic energy can be no sold by the shield. It should be noted that the shield is directly bound on Suki's arm, so she has both hands free to attack while also having a kind of "automatic" protection if needed.

Lastly, Suki is equipped with a 60cm long Kantana Sword. She doesn't have any noteworthy swordsmanship feats however. It's still a good tool for finishing off "bricks" with impossible blunt force durability. I will say though, that given they could deflect a high-volume attack from a marskwoman as skilled as Mai, it's great precision and good suppoort against ranged fighter, though Suki should mostly be capable to replicate similar or better feats using her bladed fans.

Speed & Agility

"This is a rematch I've been waiting for."

Book 3: The Boiling II
Book 3: The Boiling II

Suki has demonstrated excellent body control, acrobatic capacity and balance. She could easily run on a small army's heads and make her way through a prison riot, moving perfectly and not getting thrown off even a litle despite the prisoners fighting with each other from below.

Book 3: The Phoenix King
Book 3: The Phoenix King

In training with Team Avatar, Suki could easily go through the Melon Lord's attacks, here she is seen somersautling over a flaming boulder.

Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi
Book 1: The Warriors of Kyoshi

Even a Suki long before she primed, could easily dodge Zuko's fire blasts and get the jump on him (the Rhino slammed her away though). And when I say jump, I mean a 10+ ft. leap. Dodging attacks from Zuko should not be taken for granted either, he's surprsingly precise. For example, he has tagged decently unpredictable targets before, and he is extremely accurate, to the point where he can light numerous dozens of tiny candles all around himin rapid succession.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Even Suki's raw travel speed was impressive. By sliding on the floor, she easily crossed close to 20 ft. in less than a second.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Once she had made her way on the first balcony, she dodged a guard's fire blast, jumped on the bars, leaped 10 ft. up on the wall, crawled her way in the second one and somersaulted off of the bars.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Crawls her way up on the first floor, balances on the bars and somershaults in mid-air to immediately catwheel and take down one of the guards. Suki's consistent showings of blitzing the guards in the Boiling Rock prison are noteworthy, as these guards are, in fact, above fodder level reaction speed wise, capable of reacting to a surprise attack from Zukoat point blank range. Characters like Suki being able to handle them like nothing here is very impressive, Zuko was capable of reacting to and blocking explosions at point blank range for one and he has reacted to lightningbending numerous times, which has repeatedly being reffered to as electricity. And while decently dubious, Suki has also reacted to Azula's lightning at point blank range before, or at least tackled her before she could do something about it.

Book 2: Appa's Lost Days
Book 2: Appa's Lost Days

Suki could keep up with Azula's every movement in a head on assault. Azula has always been capable of more than matching both Aang and Zuko's combat speed while also having showings of moving at FTE speed such as when she first faught Aang.

Master Piandao

"Let's find out together how worthy you are."

Biography

Piandao was born to two firebending citizens in the Fire Nation, but despite the heritage, he wasn't gifted with bending abilities and so he was left early in an orphange, as his parents were ashamed of their only-born being a regular. In order to contribute in a militaristic society that was the Fire Nation, he was taught the ways of the sword, making the best of his natural talent in a boy's camp at the age of ten, and later joined the army. Over the years however, he grew tired of fighting inoccent people just so the Firelord would satisfy his thirst for power and retired. It is said that for his act of "treason", the army attempted to arrest him, but failed. Master Piandao travelled around the world in search of englightenment throughout the years of his resignation, honing his skills and, eventually, opening a school to train certain men, worthy of his knowledge, including a young Prince Zuko. When Team Avatar had set camp near the capitol of the Fire Nation, Sokka felt like he was good for nothing other than doing the "planning" and "thinking" in comparison to his bending teammates, and so decided to look for a Master to train proffesionally under the art of fighting, the man being none other than Master Piandao. Afer testing him, Sokka was deemed worthy of his own sword and since then, became a capable warrior himself. Master Piandao was never seen again until the day upon the arrival of Sozin's Comet, where he, along with the rest of the White Lotus Grandmasters, contributed to the liberation of Bang Sing Se. Currently, he is residing in the small town of Shu Jing, in his old training academy.

Equipment

  • Jian Blade

Swordsmanship

"The way of the sword doesn't belong to any one nation. Knowledge of the arts belongs to us all."

Book 3: Sokka's Master
Book 3: Sokka's Master

Master Pindao has at least 30 years of experience, studying and training with the sword. It is said that throughout his years of travelling around the world, he himself studied under other warriors, perfecting his skills until he was recognised as a swordsman of the highest order.

Piandao is considered the greatest swordsman in Fire Nation history.

Avatar Extras, Book 3: Fire, Sokka's Master

Beginning his training at the age of 10, Piandao was stated to have never lost a single one of his countless fights in a lifetime. Above, we can see his skill with the blade while tutoring Sokka in the art. The fluency with which he wileds the weapon is perfection, taking different stances, switching from unpredictable offensive to defensive stances, incorporating various different styles of martial arts, mostly Kung Fu and Southern Shaolin Styles, which bending is based on, in his movements.

Book 3: Sokka's Master
Book 3: Sokka's Master

Similarly, Piandao was extraordinarly precise with the blade. He frequently uses his hand as a means to aim and time his slashes right on point, in order to not let a single one go to waste. Such an assault would make it next to impossible to get close, while simultaneously leaves little to no room for reliable defence on the opponent's part.

A great demonstration of said precision was when Sokka used some dozens of bamboo sticks to slow Piandao down, but the latter was not phased the slightest. While closing the distance, the master was slicing down all dozens of the falling sticks around him without any single one of them even touching him, doing so with his eyes pointed right on the target and target alone.

Even Zuko, his student, was capable of similar precise showings against the skilled fighter, Jet. Jet's mastery over the Dual Hook Swords allows him to ultize quick maneuvers to trip up or grapple the opposition in ways, normally impossible for general sword users. He used this technique against Zuko in their swords duel, who quickly adapted to it and coutered the move, demonstrating fine control over it, and freeing himself from the grip.

The sword is a simple tool, but in the hands of a master it becomes the most versatile of weapons. And just as the imagination is limitless, so too are the possibilities of the sword.

Master Piandao, Sokka's Master

In action, the Master's words became facts, as he demonstrated an impressively diverse skillset while testing Sokka, combining hand to hand combat with the blade to throw off the opposition and abuse an opening, in a very uinque way. The great balance with which he wields the Jian is partly the reason he can do so, freely.

As far as head on defence goes, Piandao is both capable of replicating such, basic defensive techniques as well as countering them, extremely efficiently. When Sokka immobilised both their weapons to prevent Piandao from keep on attacking, the master easily went through his defence, using the monmentum of his entire body strength, focusing it on the high tip of the blade to not only break free of the grip, but also force Sokka back, throwing him off balance, creating another opening.

Master Piandao excells in the area of head on duelling, until one of the two swordsmen in play, is disarmed. After the test was over, and Sokka had proven how tactical of a fighter he is, Piandao decided to end the fight. While completely blinded, he disarms Sokka in a matter of 2 seconds, as a testament to his level of skill.

The Lost Stories: Swordbending

It's worthy of note that Sokka laster longer against Zuko, Piandao's student, who has also being reffered to as a master swordsman, in the same type of contest. Clearly, Zuko was also on another level, but not so much that he could take him down in 2 seconds, let alone in a pure swordsmanship skill contest (the firebender's superior stats are obviously a factor).

Book 3: Into the Inferno
Book 3: Into the Inferno

Master Piandao has made a comment on his sheer acrobatic capacity being inferior to that of younger opponents, such as Sokka. But when he was talking about versatile weaponry, he was most certainly not lying. Ultizing his skill, Piandao makes up for agility gap against opponents, using his very unique, optional style.

Above, we can see how uses his sword as a means of sliding on hard surfaces, such as Master Pakku's ice. This is esspecially impressive because of just how powerful of a waterbender Pakku is. He trained Katara in the art, and she has some insane showings of power, such as blocking attacks from the spirit, General Old Iron, the same multitonner spirit who went toe to toe with Avatar Aang's elemental giant while in the Avatar State.

I'd like to note that Piandao is essentially maneuvering around the battlefield this way, not limited by anything. His sheer draw speed allows for swift switching between this technique and offence, as he easily slices down the soldiers' spears, 4 of them in different directions with a single fling of the sword. Lastly, the monmentum he gains from slicing down each spear is impressive, as he uses it to leap high up in the air and land next to the other, right on the position he wants to.

Gear

"The first thing you must learn is that your weapon is an extension of yourself. You must think of it as another part of your own body."

Book 3: Sokka's Master
Book 3: Sokka's Master

Master Piandao's Jian Blade is about 80cm long, even longer than his arm, offering a huge reach advantage in combat. With his incredible skill over the blade already established, it should be noted just how lethal each slash could prove.

Piandao is not only the best swordsman in the Fire Nation ...

... But he's also the best sword maker.

Avatar Extras: Book 3: Fire, Sokka's Master

With his status as the best sword maker in the world, Piandao's blades are as lethal as you can get. Not only did he repeatedly pressure Sokka and his meteorite sword, with which he can effortlessly slice down hard steel surfaces, but he himself could easily pierce large brick walls with casual slices and dices. Additionally, he has proven capable of deflecting small rock projectiles from the powerful earthbender, King Bumi (which were likely not aimed at him however).

Speed

"We're all part of the same ancient secret society. A group that transcends the divisions of the four nations."

Despite his old age, Master Piandao is extraordinarly fast, and even posseses enhansed senses. Apart from his direct showing of outspeeding the swift fighter Sokka, who had just gained a monmentum by using the wall to get the jump on the master, yet Piandao could get his sword in position to swat him aside in the time it took for Sokka to reach him from near-point blank range, Piandao has a few other testaments of his raw combat speed.

"Piandao was once in a legendary battle where he alone defeated a hundred warriors."

Avatar Extras: Book 3: Fire, Sokka's Master

Taken from various sources, including his official backstory in Nickelodeon's Official Analysis, Piandao was capable of decisively winning against a hundred of Fire Nation soldiers, firebenders and whatsnot, simultaneously. Given that the battle is repeatedly being entitled "legendary", it is clear that the army was not fooling around. We have seen fighters soloing entire groups, dozens of different soldier and/or benders before, yet none of them were considered legendary, mostly just scenes to prove the single fighter's threat level.

It's fitting to say that the fact that Piandao could keep up with a hundred of trained fighters, presumably firebenders with strong ranged capabilities too, is an excellent showing of not just his skill, but his speed as much.

Book 3: Sokka's Master
Book 3: Sokka's Master

In the last part of his "fight" with Sokka, Piandao crossed about 50 ft. at high level FTE movement speed. This is nothing but exceptionally suited for his style of fighting, which revolves around abusing opening to throw the opponent off balance, making it easy to straight up blitz them.

Moreover, as stated earlier, Master Piandao seems to posses a superhuman, or at least accute, sense of hearing, to the point where he can pinpoint exact, precise images of his surroundings while blinded. Precise enough to directly tag Sokka's sword with his own without even being aware of his general position beforehand, and well, do this.

Mai

"There really is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for this place."

Biography

Mai was born in the Fire Nation to a noble citizen and political leader. Due to her childhood limitations of not being allowed to express emotions or opinions unless asked to, she grew up to become a dark and enclosed person, not amazed by any situation. At an early age, she attented the Fire Nation Royal Academy for girls, where she met Princess Azula and her closest friend, Ty Lee. Years after their graduation, the Governor was still followed by his daughter until their army finally conquered the famous Earth Kingdom City of Omashu. Princess Azula was tasked with hunting down her brother and uncle, entitled as traitors, as well as the Avatar himself, entitled as the only real threat to the Nation. On her part, Azula recruited Ty Lee and Mai to contribute on her mission. The trio chased down Team Avatar until the last phase of the Hundred Year War. Having captured the Kyoshi Warriors and taken over Bang Sing Se, ensuring the fall of the Earth Kingdom, all on their own they returned to the Fire Nation, where Mai was enjoying her life with Prince Zuko once again. With the eclipse upon the world and with Zuko realising the truth about his story, Mai was left behind and was only to be seen when she, at last, saved him in the high security Boling Rock prison. Having betrayed Azula, she and Ty Lee were sent in prison as well and were realeased some days later, by the end of the war and the Firelord's defeat. Currently, Mai's residing in the Fire Nation Capitol.

Equipment

  • Spring shooters w/ handarrows
  • Daggers concealed in her robes
  • Miniature Sai

Marksmanship

"Victory is boring."

Book 3: The Beach
Book 3: The Beach

Mai is an exceptionally skilled markswoman, skilled in throwing knives and arrows with incredible accuracy.

"In my mind, her training came from boredom. It's more or less self-taught. She's our interpretation of a stereotypical goth teenager or something and I just imagined her in her dark bedroom throwing stuff into the wall. It just grew out of this boredom."

Bryan Konietzko, an Avatar Springbreak with Mike and Bryan

Mai has been training since she was a child in the technique and has developed it into a fighting style, efficient in taking down virtually any opponent from a distance. As a projectile specialist, Mai has superb control over not only daggers and arrows, but any pointy object as it is. She is skilled enough to to pierce an ice spike through a fish, which takes plenty force on its own part, while not allowing the fish itself to move an inch. She can ricochet a spinning dagger to slice down large wall carpet while directly in front of it, without the daggers bouncing off the wall, but instead changing its direction. Lastly, she has demonstrated that she can determine the exact position of where and when her projectiles are going to land after she throws them upwards. Her immense control and precision also allows her to choose wether or not she's going to cut down or launch clothing away with her knives.

Sheer accuracy wise, Mai's dead precise. As demonstrated above, she could pinpoint wall carpets topping only an inch or 2 above the surface level of the wall, using a spinning dagger, and slice them down without even scratching the wall itself. Throwing her knives, she can disarm armed fighters. Similarly, she can pinpoint multiple tiny small targets at once, such as when she pinned down the Kyoshi Warriors' uniform without touching their flesh tagging about 6 or 7 points at once. As shown before, she appears to be very skilled at ricocheting, as she could throw a spinning dagger to get through a falling debris and on Aang's (head) position while he was running away, even though she couldn't see him.

Book 2: The Chase
Book 2: The Chase

Even against highily unpredictable targets, Mai's demonstrated perfect ability of pinning them down. When up against the prison guards at the Boiling Rock, she could pinpoint their lower sleeves even when they changed their stance long after she launched the daggers. She could also pinpoint Katara's, 1mm above skin level, armbands and pin her on a tree, which is more impressive due to the waterbender moving her hands up and downwards in an unpredictable manner to bend a wave. Despite all that, Mai pinpointed both of them simultaneously. And when up against a small army of the New Ozai Society, Mai quickly disarmed 5 people running at hersimultaneously, all of them moving at different speeds and attacking from different angles, all while dodging a fire blast.

Smoke and Shadow III

In her latest encounter with Azula in the royal graveyard of the Fire Nation, they had a brief 1 on 1 confortation. Azula dodged Mai's first attempt and kicked her to the ground, but Mai abused the opening of Azula's landing, and tagged her cloak unmasking her for the first time. Hours before, Azula proved fast enough to briefly dance around and hit the combined efforts of Ty Lee and Suki before they could react, at point blank range. Azula has also proved an amazingly difficult fighter to tag while evading, not even Aang, the fastest fighter in the world, could tag her with his singe-targetairblasts, noting that she was too quick even before her upgrade in Smoke & Shadow. This is also a good demonstration of how Mai can pin down opponents significally faster than her.

Gear

"You're so colorful, it's making me nauseous!"

Book 2: Return to Omashu
Book 2: Return to Omashu

Due to the nature of Mai's projectiles, she is capable of including impressive feats of veratality and surprising speed in her skillset.

Mai uses darts and daggers to fight.

... the spring loaded projectiles are hidden in her large sleeves.

Avatar Extras: Book 2: Earth, Return to Omashu

Mai's 4 limbs are armed with spring loaded, mechanical shooters, each of them carrying 10 handarrows automatically launched at high speeds. Through these shooters, Mai achieves impressive fire rate. Her opening shot against Aang, included her launching over a dozen of handarrows in not more than 1 second. High volume attacks are also applicable, as Mai can use up to a dozen of knives in a single throw.

Book 2: Return to Omashu
Book 2: Return to Omashu

Because of her shooters being concealed in all parts of her body, she frequently incorporates evasive movements and offence simultaneously, such as her fight with Katara in Omashu, above, and her short trade with Sokka near the Nan Shan River.

Projectile speed wise, Mai's arrows are very fast, considerably above regular bow and arrow, but not too fast. As they are thrown by the spring shooters, the force is not as great as when she throws knives herself, abusing her all around movement/combat speed and throwing strength in every move.

For instance, a Kyoshi Warrior was fast enough to time her arrows, but they couldn't react to her knife blitz. Furthemore, Sokka could time her arrows, yet Katara, in the same condition, couldn't react to her knives. Lastly, a solid comparison would be how the different projectiles performed against certain materials; while her arrows are not strong enough to pierce hard steel from a distance, and instead bounce off of the surface, Mai can easily launch grown men away and pierce said hard steel in the process, and do so with barely any effort as well.

Book 2: Return to Omashu
Book 2: Return to Omashu

It's worthy of note that, as a testament to the sheer speed behind the attempts, benders such as Katara and Toph, could barely react to Mai's thrown daggers every time they faught her, and almost got killed, even while at a good distance away. Note that penetrating Toph's earth barrier is also very impressive and shouldn't be taken for granted.

Lastly, Mai's draw speed has been stated to be extremely fast;

So we decided that she (Azula) would have basically picked out two people who had certain skills that she did not have. Ty Lee with her acrobatics and Mai with her super pin-point accuracy and quick draw skills.

Michael Dante DiMartino, An Avatar Springbreak with Mike and Bryan

Her being faster than Azula, draw speed wise, is very notable due to Azula's own notable draw speed. For instance, she could easily outdraw Zuko, despite visibly warning him of opening the 3 way dueal at Tu Zin, and despite his immense awareness and precision of the sourroundings. Similarly, she could throw double the amount of fireballs Zuko could in the same amount of time and he's demonstrated excellent speed himself before. Considering all these people ultize pyrokinesis that requires no litteral draw, but just fire, this says a lot about how fast Mai can pull out a knife.

Close Quarters Combat

"How are you gonna to fight without your bending?"

The impressive projectile and draw speed behind Mai's every attack allows for pressuring opponents even at close range. In fact, it would make it harder to actually react to the projectile itself up close.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Mai does ultize this advantage in close quarters, and at the same time we see that she's surprisngly strong, being able to stick this miniature sai into hard steel, to incapacitate the guard, with her bare hands.

She can easily grab and turn over or throw away grown men, and was even capable of casually kicking away the large steel bar preventing the line of the gondola of moving onwards.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

What's notable is that the bar was stuck in so deeply that it was launching away sparks digging in.

Speed & Agility

"You miscalculated. I love Zuko more than I fear you."

Mai has demonstrated impressive speed and notable evasive capacity in combat. She has shown herself capable of great feats of balance in her fight with Katara and skirmish with Sokka, as shown before, as well as the ability to slide on surfaces with ease, while pinpointing all her targets in the process.

Smoke and Shadow III
Smoke and Shadow III

Mai could dodge (instant/non charged) lightning from Azula in close quarters. Aim dodging shouldn't be an option here due to this being a surprise shot in a non-combat situation as well as Azula being significally faster than Mai all around, so the feat would go against the principle behind aim dodging (She should be more than capable of reacting to lightning, scaling wise, anyway).

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Against the guards at the Boiling Rock, Mai showed great travel speed. She quickly blitzed 2 of them and then covered a distance of 25-30 ft. in a matter of 2 litteral seconds. Furthermore, just blitzing those high level prison guards is notable, as I showed before one of them could react to Zuko cheap shotting him at point blank.

Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny
Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny

She also dodged an attack from Toph in their short fight in the Earth Palace that way.

Mai can also make some very strong leaps. She could immediately jump on a 10 ft. tall rooftop from ground level to rescue her brother from the Kerumikage Spirits. When Azula opened the fight with the Kyoshi Warriors, she covered a distance of about 20 ft, jumping onwards and in her first encounter with the Gaang, she easily went over Katara's ice wall, which was even taller than Katara herself.

Smoke and Shadow I

Lastly, in the fight against the New Ozai Society, Mai easily reacted to and one shotted a guy with a bola cannon that was fast enough to incapacitate Zuko, despite the Firelord even looking directly at him (he was worried and surprise so that must've played a factor, but it's notable nonethless).

Ty Lee

"My aura has never been pinker!"

Biography

Ty Lee was born in the Fire Nation along with 6 twin sisters, as part of the highest class in the country. Growing up, she was feeling unspecial and not different than her identical siblings, and so, after graduating from the Royal Fire Academy for girls, where she met, Mai and Princess Azula, she ran off and joined a travelling circus. There, she became a world class acrobat who people would come to see from all around the Earth Kingdom and the Fire Nation. During the last quarter of the hundred year war, Azula visited Ty Lee in search for recruits to join the mission on capturing the her brother, uncle and the Avatar. Azula manipulated Ty Lee into following her and together with Mai, they chased off Team Avatar and Zuko all over the Earth Kingdom. Throughout their mission, they captured the Kyoshi Warriors and used them as cover to secretly enter Bang Sing Se and organise a coup to take over the city. After the Earth Kingdom's fall, Ty Lee returned with her teammates in the capitol where they lived as royalty. Upon the arrival of a solar eclipse, and an organised invasion at the Fire Nation Capitol, she trained Azula in agility and balance so she could stall the Avatar and prevent him from facing a vulnerable Firelord Ozai. After Prince Zuko betrayed the nation, Ty Lee along with Azula and Mai tracked him down in the Boiling Rock where the Gaang members almost lost their lives. Ty Lee went against Azula's wishes that day, and betrayed her to save Mai from execution, later being imprisoned for doing so. Throughout her few days in prison, she bonded with the inmate Kyoshi Warriors and trained them only to join the group afterwards. Currently, Ty Lee is residing in the Fire Nation Capitol serving as one of Firelord Zuko's personal guards to prevent any assasination attempt that might rise.

Equipment

  • Kyoshi Armor
  • Kyoshi Fans / Shield
  • Kantana Sword

Skill (nerve strikes, martial arts)

"I want to join you on your mission."

Book 2: The Drill
Book 2: The Drill

Ty Lee's signature use of the pressure points technique is her greatest asset in a fight. Also known as chi blocking in Aang and Korra's era, the user hits the weak points of the human body to incapacitate the target for a short period of time. Above, we can see the effect just a few quick jabs can have on someone.

It's a very common notion in traditional Chinese martial arts...actually throughout all martial arts. It's very real, not some 'hocus pocus'. Kids don't try this at home, but there are nerve clusters in the body which can be used for healing using certain techniques or you can use them to interrupt body cycles and systems. I'm not an expert, but from what I've been taught most martial arts spend a fair amount of their curriculum regarding striking pressure points. They talk about interrupting the flow of chi. Benders are only as strong as their chi flow, they need this chi to flow from the breath, and then extend it past their body and manipulate or manifest the element. So as the chi is going from the breath and to the muscles, someone can interrupt that flow and they then can't bend. But it would work on a non-bender too because everybody needs chi. Chi can be translated as 'breath', the energy you get from breathing and oxygenation. So yeah, we thought it would be cool. We're always looking for some variety in skills and style. We thought it would make a cool character.

Bryan Konietzko, An Avatar Spring Break with Mike and Bryan

Through hitting those pressure points, Ty Lee can effortlessly take down men far above her weight class. In the bending world, it's esspecially dangerous as it can briefly take away one's abilities to perform the art.

Ty Lee. She doesn't look dangerous but she knows the human body and its weak points. It's like she takes you down from the inside.

Katara, The Drill

For most of the part, the technique bypasses durability, and Ty Lee has managed to easily incapacitate incredibly durable individuals ultizing it. When Azula attempted to attack Mai in the Boling Rock Prison, Ty Lee quickly took her down with 2 jabs.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Quite a few things are notable here. For one, Ty Lee hit Azula's steel armor and went through. And even without nessecarily being hit in the armor, Azula's clearly superhuman in terms of durability. In her Agni Kai with Zuko under Sozin's Comet, she tanked a large fire blast from him that sent her a few yards away and immediately got right back up. Without the comet, Azula's firebending is far above the early multitonner class, being able to vaporize a tidal wave from Katara, who on her own right could send a large warship a litteral thousand of feet away with a slightly larger wave*. Zuko's firebending was obviously as powerful and potent as Azula's at this point, so tanking something this powerful is very notable.

"Sozin's Comet is almost upon us, and on that day, it will endow us with the strength and power of a hundred suns. No bender will stand a chance against us."

Ozai, Sozin's Comet p1: The Phoenix King

But what's more notable is the fact that she tanked much higher output than that, when her bending was at its peak under Sozin's Comet. Firelord Ozai stated how the comet gave firebenders the power of a hundred suns, meaning it boosted their level of power by a very significant margin. It's therefore impressive how Ty Lee can get through some of the most durable individuals you'll find.

*Here's a small analysis on Katara's showing

Judging by how big these Fire Nation guards (should be around 6 ft. tall, average) seem in comparison to the ship's length (horizontally), the ship's back should be about 100 ft. long. And as we see in the gif, the ending result is the ships going from about 100 ft. distance to 10+ times more distance.

No Caption Provided

Above, is a detailed showing of every pressure point Ty Lee has hit. The green parts being hit paralyse one limb with the red ones instantly taking down one's entire body. Ty Lee's demonstrated her abilities plenty of times, against Katara, Sokka, Toph and Azula. It should be noted that the shoulder strike can instantly put someone unconscious. It's also worth noting that Ty Lee can use nerve strikes with kicks as well, making for an amazing asset in a hand to hand contest.

Aside from her mastery over this particular technique however, Ty Lee is also a notable martial artist and close quarters fighter. Impressively enough, she faught on par with Suki on top of a moving gondola in the Boiling Rock Prison, blocking and evading all her retaliating attempts (it's also rather arguable that Ty Lee underestimated her, but I wouldn't go this far). Suki is an incredibly skilled warrior herself, trained for more than 10 years and has demonstrated an excellent amount of skills, both in hand to hand and combat in general.

Book 2: Appa's Lost Days
Book 2: Appa's Lost Days

Against the other Kyoshi Warriors, Ty Lee used misdirection, with which she tricks the opponent into thinking she'll attack from a certain angle but quickly charges from another last moment. At the same time, Ty Lee abuses her sheer size in combination with her flexibility to take a stance dodging and attacking from below, not only making her a far more difficult target but also giving her precious moments and letting for more openings to attack.

Lastly, since she joined the Kyoshi Warriors, she has been training with them in their own forms and has therefore upgraded her skillset (at least a tad bit).

Gear

"The girls and I really bonded in prison. And after a few chi blocking lessons, they said I could join their group. We're going to be best friends forever."

Ty Lee is also equipped with the armor, sword and shield of the Kyoshi Warriors. While, she has demonstrated the same skill evel with them as Suki, her fans can turn into a powerful shield on the spot, capable of defending Ty Lee against plenty powerful strikes. Azula's firebending could not go through them, even if it did pressure them. Azula has some insane feats of power, even if those were obviously not her strongest ones. Still, she decimated a tree on her way to fight the Kyoshi Warriors, so it wouldn't be fair to assume those fireblasts were weak, esspecially when lower force of kinetic energy can be no sold by the shield. It should be noted that the shield is directly bound on Suki's arm, so she has both hands free to attack while also having a kind of "automatic" protection if needed.

Ty Lee is also equipped with a 60cm long Kantana Sword. She doesn't have any noteworthy swordsmanship feats however. It's still a good tool for finishing off "Goliaths" with impossible blunt force durability.

I will say though, that given they could deflect a high-volume attack from a marskwoman as skilled as Mai, it's great precision and good suppoort against ranged fighter.

Strength

"Look at that dusk cloud. It's so... poofy... Poof."

Ty Lee is surprisingly strong physically as well, being able to balance her entire body weight on 2 fingertips.

Book 2: Return to Omashu
Book 2: Return to Omashu

And in her team's first encounter with Team Avatar in Omashu, she effortlessly sent Sokka flying several yards away just by lightlypunching his foot.

Speed & Agility

"I joined the circus because I was scared of spending the rest of my life as part of a matched set."

Ty Lee's extraordinarly agile and flexible. From a young age, she had demonstrated great control over her body and after training for the circus, she was unmatched. Her amazing balance and acrobatic capacity allowed her to outmaneuver almost any fighter, creating openings to ultize for quick icnapacitation or evasion.

Book 2: The Drill, Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 2: The Drill, Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

Ty Lee regularly showed ehrself capable of maneuvering around platforms, easily moving from one side to another. Smilarly, she could somersault from chandelier to chandelier while wrecking Chant's beach house as well as parkour from tree to tree or thin wooden poles.

Book 2: The Chase
Book 2: The Chase

Clearly, Ty Lee's excellent agility makes her an amazingly difficult target to pin down, not only up close, but at range too. Above, we can see Katara is incapable of hitting her with continous efforts of fast paced water disks. Katara herself is pretty accurate with her bending, for instance she could pin Jet on a wall without touching anything but his clothing.

Book 3: The Boiling Rock II
Book 3: The Boiling Rock II

High leaps and somersaults are large part of her agility. She could regularly leap more than 20, 30 and even 40 ft. up in the air. Furthermore, her great balance and flexibility allowed for similar impressive showings such as balancing on a volleyball net, performing circus acts, effortlessly touching her head with her feet, climbing steel pillars, walking on her 2 arms or running on thin tightropesmultiple stories above boiling water.

Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny
Book 2: The Crossroads of Destiny

Sheer speed-wise, Ty Lee is insanely fast in all aspects. When Toph found out she wasn't a real Kyoshi Warrior and attacked her out of nowhere, she reacted to environmental earthbending and in a non combat situation. It's even more impressive because the projectile speed behind Toph's attacks is highily impressive too, too fast for Sokka to percieve for instance.

And speaking of Sokka, Ty Lee's most direct showing of speed was blitzing a tired Sokka, who was still fast enough to be above casual arrow timing level, deflecting arrows from Mai's shooters with his club. Noting once again, Mai's spring shooters launch tiny small arrows with enough force to penetrate Toph's earthbending. I could list an entire collection of Toph's insane raw power feats, but I'll just say that far lesser earthbenders can support several tons falling with small earth constructs. Now, Ty Lee was almost aspeedster compared to Sokka in this condition, she could flip and somersault upwards, get behind him and all while he was still focused on her starting position only realising she got there once she hit him.

Book 2: The Drill
Book 2: The Drill

While penetrating Bang Sing Se's outter wall with the drill, the general of the city sent a large group of elite earthbenders known as the Terra Team to take it down. Azula sent out Ty Lee to retaliate, and she effortlessly danced around their attacks taking down more than 2 dozens of people separated on small groups in a few seconds.

Book 2: The Guru
Book 2: The Guru

Lastly, Ty Lee could effortlessly cross 25 ft. in no more than 00,00,68 second(s) as well as outdraw Katara in the process. In their fight at Omashu Katara equipped with her water pouch could keep up with Mai's own speed, so that's highily impressive in its own right. While Katara was in fact surprised to see Ty Lee, Mai and Azula in the Earth Palace instead of the real Kyoshi Warriors, so that might as well be a factor too, both her and Ty Lee started moving the exact same moment.

Ultizing her agility, balance and perfect body control, Ty Lee can walk through opponents "like a leaf in the wind" even in close quarters.

So, that's just about it. If anyone wants any of these sources for the quotes and info I gathered, feel free ask.

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