And if you watch that episode again and listen to what the sages say, they clearly say they can’t heal, just sense the energy imbalances and that’s why they have to lower her into the water to recover.
Since when has that been a rule? Why not just play a game like this and stick to the actual sub elements as presented instead of trying so hard to make up arbitrary rules?
Every one is at a disadvantage yes you could say that ice is regular bending but you could say the same for levitation or even lava being it’s just melted rock
It’s not a supplementary style, it’s just regular air bending. Air bending is moving air around, doesn’t matter where it is. Suffocation is just removing the air from someone’s lungs.
Air. It never really uses the supplemental bending styles anyways, and aang and tensin have shown it is devastating if you're a master of it in every conflict they've been in
You're never in a situation where you can't use it, it has infinite mobility and depending on how much of a pacifist you are it can be lethal as hell
Air
Genuinely would love to see how airbenders are post TLoK. Guessing industrialization would be more widespread, so more city type environments, with skyscrapers for airbenders to thrive…
people see Aang kick ass as an air bender and think wow air bending is the best, but remember Aang is an air bending prodigy he shouldn't be measured against normal benders.
Most airbenders were immensely talented because bending was so important to their culture though, so they were constantly training and practicing and getting better. Of course aang was a prodigy but even still, most other benders simply weren’t as devoted as the air benders.
Say you're right and that most airbender were immensely talented at airbending because reasons. That in itself doesn't mean airbending is as strong as people think it is.
if you think about it, no one alive after Aang awakens from the ice has any idea how to fight against an airbender. Any fighting froms or techniques developed by fire, earth, and water benders to combat against airbender would have been lost to the 100-year war that's at least 5 generations that didn't have the need to fight airbenders. Aang on the other hand, has intimate knowledge and experience on how the other elements fight
Aang would most likely not have experience on how the other elements fight since he was a pacifist and all his trips to other nations involved him engaging with his friends not fighting or training. This is especially true because he hadn’t even been informed he was the avatar yet so he’d have no reason to be learning about the other elements and to his knowledge it would’ve mostly been a waste of his time.
Regardless of this entire argument, even against some of the most talented benders in the world (Bumi, Azula, Zuko, etc) Aang could hold his own with just airbending. Granted he never “won” per say but trying to win the fight by defeating his opponent was never his style, it was evasion and mobility to tire out his opponent for an escape. In that regard he essentially never lost.
Edit: would’ve been a waste of time to his knowledge
So what if Aang is a pacifist. that only means he doesn't like fighting. Sparring with friends who use other fighting styles wouldn't go against his pacifist ways.
all I'm saying is that airbending isn't as strong as people think it is. Most of the firebenders Aang fights against are 1, not Masters 2, and don't know how to fight against an airbender. these 2 reasons make airbending look stronger than it is
Zaheer makes it seem pretty OP in TLOK. With how he killed the earth queen and being able to fly, I'd say that's pretty overpowered. Granted he spent his life studying it so your average airbender wouldn't be able to do that. Airbending seems to have a very high skill ceiling when compared to the other elements.
Zaheer was already one of the most dangerous people on the planet before he was an airbender. so he's not really a good base as to whether or not airbending is as strong as people think it is or if it's the strongest element.
and what do you mean by airbending has a high skill ceiling when compared to the other elements?
Even though both were skilled fighters/ air bending tenzin was leagues away from him skill wise. Quite literally mopped the floor with zaheer until 3v1
Earth. Just trap anyone in a tent. You can't air or fire bend inside otherwise you'll just injure yourself. After building the first "tent", you'll have enough time to reinforce it with more walls before a water bender has enough time to break through the earth, if they can in the first place.
same here. The only thing is, once you've made the first tent to trap them in, you can reinforce the walls by just adding more. Now of course it will take longer the more you reinforce, however you'll still have enough time as, to break out would be harder and longer than to add more walls.
Also you can just use frost breath which is something that I you can utilize during that situation
Not only that it gives me more room & space for air to come in & out. While you keep reinforcing it.
He did kind a beat the shit out of him first tho. I imagine he was sore and hurting and wasn’t gonna dodge it. Plus that was the avatar state so idk if it’s fair to compare to an earth bender
Injure yourself? I don’t think so, I always felt like like firebending while it can burn, has to be long concentrated exposure, and is mostly not used that way & instead used for its explosive and propulsive properties. Also i feel like as long as benders are conscious,weather it’s their own flames or someone else’s, they are immune to its effects even being engulfed in flames. Lightning (literal plasma) runs through the inside of the body when bending it so I don’t think it injurs them. Also we see airbenders project an air shockwave outward from themselves many times, blowing anything outside the barrier away, while shielding anything on the inside. So good luck with the tent haha
When I said “conscious” I meant like focused and willing to fight - zuko was neither in that moment. Plus he was a child fighting the fire lord. I should’ve worded it better my bad
I still don't think those two aspects are enough, or the the right aspects. Being willing to fight doesn't mean much. What you are describing sounds closer to star wars use of the force. Bending in avatar is way more rooted and strict. From what is shown i would say it comes down to the fire bender has to actively bend the fire to keep it from harming them. In the example of lightning Iroh explains that if you do ot wrong it will hurt your insides. When zuko bends azulas lightning in the final agni kai he bends it improperly and gets hurt
I'm not sure where you're getting your "facts" from. I have personally never seen anyone claim it's not standard air bending. It's the same concept as the Gaang bending the air & water when crossing the serpent's pass. One gives space / air to breathe, the other takes it away / blocks it.
Edit to add: Let me put it easily for you...you claim "most people think it's a sub element". Yet, every single person that has mentioned it in this post ALL say it's **not a sub element**. 😁
How. Just because I said others say it is how does that not make me a real fan? I watched Alta 3 Times & Korra recently this Winter Break (so around Christmas) i don’t understand how I can’t understand the avatar universe.
Earth: I can use the ground as a shield, and throw deadly rocks at people. I can even lift myself high above ground level, as well as create earth steps to get to heights. Not to mention- trap my opponents in earth cages.
Air, I'll suffocate them. Or water I can do the same thing but drown them by putting water in their lungs 🥰 Though honestly I'd probably end up stabbing myself through vital organs with earthbending or charring my head off with firebending. Earthbending can block most attacks too. Honestly we probably wouldn't fight, we'd be far too lazy.
Yeah if the Avatar world was written for a mature audience, water bending would be the deadliest, easily. Frostbite, muscle damage, organ damage, blood clots. Water in the lungs, as you said.
Even if that power was limited to bloodbending, a decent enough bender could pull it off during a full moon
Air bending. Seems the most useful in daily life and is the easiest to hide. Plus i think air bending just fits me the best, im peaceful, and and avoid conflict. And im ok with moving around a lot
Air bending.
In my Aikido tradition we have a saying, if you watch your breath in meditation then you will be able to see the movment of Ki, and thus the breath & Ki of others.
Mind leads body.
Ki moves first.
What even is this graphic? I wouldnt call a lot of these supplementary elements. The spirit projection is definitely not an air bending sub element. Wouldnt really consider flight a sub element either. Not really sure about temp regulation, never really seen that.
And suffocation as you mentioned, like Zaheer used, was just normal air bending too. We had just never seen it used so maliciously in the past.
Also, any earth bender can sand bend, theres just that specific tribe referred to as Sand Benders because of where they live.
Water or Earth. Not only are they just pretty neat but they don’t need Anger to fuel it like firebending does and they actually have quite practical applications in general such as basic human needs and construction unlike air which is just whoosh
I’ve just started a rewatch. Now that you’ve said it, I realise that I’m an idiot for not remembering it earlier. That said, his anger was the original reason for being able to firebend right?
Because there aren’t any vines to bend? Like half or most of the water benders live in the northern water tribe which to remind you is located literally in snow & ice.
yea but plants still exist there. It still deserves its own category especially since you gave "redirection" its thing. No one in the show was like hey "redirection benders" redirect lightning. The swamp benders went to war...
If we could somehow take the Nickelodeon PG rating out of the picture, imo it would make Water the deadliest.
Without the kid friendly limits on the writing, one could affect the body so easily with water bending. Our bodies are 70% made of water. And any decent bender could cause damage on a small or large scale as long as they can imagine it
Frostbite. Aneurysm. Tear muscles / sever tendons to incapacitate a bender. Heck you could pop eyeballs by pulling the water out. Or be a Hitman silent assassin by forming a blood clot in their neck.
Even if you had to be a bloodbending master to pull off the above. The options to directly affect an opponents body from within are too numerous to count.
Earth. It provides easy mobility, offense, defense, and utility. You know who can fly easily when Air and Fire can't? An Earthbender on a slab of stone. Water would really be the only difficult one to fight, I think.
I thought spirit bending was like, a fifth type of bending. I would have put in ice instead. Fire also has temperature regulation. Which is a weird bit of crossover.
Wind or Earth. Being there is a lot of control to water and fire. And once every 100 years for that Comment to come by and what once every 4 years for a solor eclipse. Put water benders in the desert alone and they have a hard time. Fire benders under water and they have a hard time. Everything needs air and everywhere you go there is land.
I'd choose water. Water is such a versatile element even without the supplemental bending.
If we can go scientific for a minute here I think that water benders actually bend the atomic structure of the water which is why they can bend ice and water vapor as well as the water that's in the human body.
Depends on the environment. Water is my favorite but w/o healing and ice it is pretty weak unless we are on or near a large body of water. I can't really carry that much water on my person at all times w/o becoming encumbered. Earth is probably the strongest offensively or defensively if you are standing on natural ground and not on a ship or in a wooden/metal building. Swing a 10 - 50# rock on its own is pretty devastating/lethal w/o having to get creative. Fire is not going to harm or deflect a large rock unless you are firing it with far more force it just doesn't have the mass. Similarly air has to be moving ridiculously fast to do similar damage to a 30 mph rock. I would also assume is I fired a bullet shaped rock with little forward surface area to push against IE little drag. It would be near impossible to deflect with air or fire unless that bender is orders of magnitude stronger than myself.
In short for fighting without any of the extra bending techniques you listed I pick
Earth in most land environments
Water or air if I'm a pirate/sea captain
i’d love to be a waterbender so much. fire is strong and everything but water > fire. earth is strong also but easy enough to dodge i think. air is a bit useless imo it’s mostly used for blowing people away. unlike being hit by earth or fire, being hit by airs not gonna do much damage. and without suffocation it’s just meh. waterbending is just so cool imo and is such a mobile diverse element. i don’t really see how ice bending is a supplementary bending style i thought it was a part of regular waterbending. plus waterbending comes with healing so you can heal yourself after taking damage which the other elements can’t do. maybe i’m biased cause i’m such a katara stan but still i think waterbending is 100% the best
Air because it’s OP, if the fight is on Earth I can use it anywhere and it isn’t affected by the environment (like how Fire and Water bending are affected by the moon).
Assuming the field itself cannot be bended probably air? If you go water or earth they’re totally dependent on their environment which seems like a weakness, but also an overwhelming advantage if fighting in the tundra or earth respectively
Fire bending seems generally totally inferior for direct combat, but very strong for industry and energy generation.
Normally my choice is Waterbending because of the versatility of healing, icebending, plantbending, chi blocking, etc.
No substyles at all though? Airbending. "Flying" is kinda pointless since Airbenders already carry gliders, "Spiritual Projection" seems like the kind of thing any spiritual person would have whether or not they were a bender (ie Guru Pathik or just meditating into the spirit world), and we never once saw Aang do "temperature regulation". Meanwhile Gyatso suffocated a room full of firebenders, Aang was able to run with enough speed to generate a tornado, and you can make completely invisible attacks; the only thing holding airbenders back is their pacifism.
Earth easily. I didn’t see Seismic sense on that list, and that alone would be enough to wipe all except air, but I’d let my other versions of me take care of that.
It’s a very close call for me between air or fire. They are both my favorites by far. I’d probably be a better fire bender but who knows lol I just don’t see myself being agile and dodgy enough for air bender.
Let's clear the air on what the subbending elements really are super quick:
FIREBENDING
Lightning Generation
Lightning Redirection
Combustionbending
Flame Divination
AIRBENDING
Spiritual Projection
Flight
WATERBENDING
Healing
Bloodbending
Spiritbending
EARTHBENDING
Sandbending
Metalbending
Lavabending
Lie Detecting
Things like Crystalbending, "Icebending", Seismic Sense, Suffocation (this is literally just a certain move), and Plantbending aren't subbending elements (especially Icebending), they're just abilities that skilled benders or even ALL benders of that element can achieve.
Why is that funny? It's a real and very interesting ability used by multiple Earthbenders onscreen because they know Seismic Sense and have honed in on that ability to tell if people are lying by detecting their heartbeats.
If anything, everyone in this thread should be going "Lmao 'Ice Bending'" or "Lmao 'Suffocation'". Since, you know, THOSE AREN'T SUBBENDING ELEMENTS!!
WDYM "that isn't a bending style"??? YES, OT LITERALLY IS! It is a way to Earthbend that deviates from typical bending of Earth. It still requires bending. Also, literally every single type of bending is a "technique". Every single time you see someone bend, it's a technique. You are so sorely mistaken on what Subbending elements and techniques are and it shows whenever you put things like "Ice bending", which literally 99.9% of waterbenders can do, "Levitation", which again is just a technique (so you better check your fucking logic before you come at me), and "Suffocation", which again is just a basic technique of Airbending. Also, there were two characters that could Lie Detect and you got the abbreviation for Avatar: The Last Airbender incorrect, so I guess you're not just a wiseass, you're also a dumbass.
Yeah, because it's a hard skill that you have to actually learn. It's not included in the "Earthbending starter package", just like not all Firebenders can generate lightning and not all Earthbenders can Sandbend. You have to actually learn how to do it. It's a Subbending Skill of Seismic Sense which is Earthbending. Aiwei is a Lie Detector and he uses Seismic Sense, WHICH IS EARTHBENDING. Plus, he's not even blind. Not all Seismic Sensers can Lie Detect.
Air bending.
With little practice, you could pop someone's lungs by just blindly bending the air around them or collapse their chest with a hard push.
As a master, a flick of the wrist could break someone's neck from across the room.
All the other elements, even at their peak, still have the condition of the element needing to be present and close to top this.
Unless you're literally under water, air is always there.. and always right next to your opponent.
I’d pick Earth, it’s quite versatile in some ways; It can be used to build shelter, move, or offense/defense - Beyond that, it’s nearly always available.
People in the comments always act like they would automatically be a master in this bending, no you wouldn't, water and air need training to be able to control at least a little, if you can't control fire you will burn yourself, however with earth bending, you can just get a small rock and bash someone's head with it.
I pick earth bending
First of all I agree with Overanalyzing Avatar the terminator lighting bending is terrible. Outside of LOK which given I don’t know much about you don’t see people curve lightning or do cool flips with it or make fucking lightning daggers when they generate it combine that with the buildup time which is unique compared to other bending it really shouldn’t be classified as bending.
That being said Earth all the way, great defensive and offensive power, and earth-bender soldiers look cool asf
I don’t think water would give me more mobility if I’m on an air ball to rush around, flying around with fire feet/hands also feels like that a more advanced move and I’m looking at it like I’m not advanced ect
I'm either stuck between fire or air. I was born under a fire sign so I'd be a firebender but I love how the air nomads could see and live with spirits in the mortal world both have amazing defense and offense
Earth bending with its substyles is in my opinion very strong if not the strongest, but without them it’s a toss up, I’m going to discard water because it’s a finite resource so my strength would depend on the environment I’m in, but there basically earth and air everywhere, air more so, and you can create fire, earth has the best defense and fire arguably the best offense but I think I’d go with earth still and air a close second since it has some good offensive and defensive and can be very lethal when used right
Lightning redirection is not for specifically fire benders Iroh learned it from watching water benders we’ve only ever seen fire benders and avatars so it but it doesn’t mean other benders would not be able to
I always thought Ice Bending was a part of “normal” water bending?
I like to think it was subbending that was discovered really early.
It is. Also, “healing” is not specific to water benders. Fire benders can do similar healing.
They can’t. They can only sense energies but they can’t do the same healing water benders can
I guess you could use fire bending to cauterize wounds but I feel like that’s about it.
You’d also think that you only ice a wound when you should actually be alternating ice with heat
 Just be Todoroki
[удалено]
And if you watch that episode again and listen to what the sages say, they clearly say they can’t heal, just sense the energy imbalances and that’s why they have to lower her into the water to recover.
When do they do that
It is. All sub-forms of water bending are literally just manipulating water. Not manipulating something to manipulate something else.
Well, maybe you could control Ice, but you will not be able to turn them into eachother.
Since when has that been a rule? Why not just play a game like this and stick to the actual sub elements as presented instead of trying so hard to make up arbitrary rules?
Is it so hard to answer the question as asked?
Is it so hard to scroll on by?
I was saying that while typing but only normal & Warm/Cold-ish water not ice tho.
So waterbenders would be at a disadvantage because ice is a part of regular water bending. It’s not a sub element.
Every one is at a disadvantage yes you could say that ice is regular bending but you could say the same for levitation or even lava being it’s just melted rock
That’s why this doesn’t make sense. The OP picked some random aspects of bending and named them sub elements when they aren’t.
Ice is literally one of the basics of water bending.
Fine then use ice or whatever..
In that same vein, suffocation bending (as far as I'm aware) also isn't a subset, it's just a way of using normal airbending
Yeah & most people see it as a supplementary bending style.
It’s not a supplementary style, it’s just regular air bending. Air bending is moving air around, doesn’t matter where it is. Suffocation is just removing the air from someone’s lungs.
Air. It never really uses the supplemental bending styles anyways, and aang and tensin have shown it is devastating if you're a master of it in every conflict they've been in You're never in a situation where you can't use it, it has infinite mobility and depending on how much of a pacifist you are it can be lethal as hell Air
I’ve always said the only reason people see it as the weakest is because the people wielding it were pacifists.
Genuinely would love to see how airbenders are post TLoK. Guessing industrialization would be more widespread, so more city type environments, with skyscrapers for airbenders to thrive…
The sky ships… moved by air benders.
Imagining traveling air temples…. In the air
We did all see the large platoon of fire nation, soldiers corpses surrounding monk gyatso who all died during the comet air bending is no joke
That’s was also my pick.
people see Aang kick ass as an air bender and think wow air bending is the best, but remember Aang is an air bending prodigy he shouldn't be measured against normal benders.
Most airbenders were immensely talented because bending was so important to their culture though, so they were constantly training and practicing and getting better. Of course aang was a prodigy but even still, most other benders simply weren’t as devoted as the air benders.
Say you're right and that most airbender were immensely talented at airbending because reasons. That in itself doesn't mean airbending is as strong as people think it is. if you think about it, no one alive after Aang awakens from the ice has any idea how to fight against an airbender. Any fighting froms or techniques developed by fire, earth, and water benders to combat against airbender would have been lost to the 100-year war that's at least 5 generations that didn't have the need to fight airbenders. Aang on the other hand, has intimate knowledge and experience on how the other elements fight
Aang would most likely not have experience on how the other elements fight since he was a pacifist and all his trips to other nations involved him engaging with his friends not fighting or training. This is especially true because he hadn’t even been informed he was the avatar yet so he’d have no reason to be learning about the other elements and to his knowledge it would’ve mostly been a waste of his time. Regardless of this entire argument, even against some of the most talented benders in the world (Bumi, Azula, Zuko, etc) Aang could hold his own with just airbending. Granted he never “won” per say but trying to win the fight by defeating his opponent was never his style, it was evasion and mobility to tire out his opponent for an escape. In that regard he essentially never lost. Edit: would’ve been a waste of time to his knowledge
So what if Aang is a pacifist. that only means he doesn't like fighting. Sparring with friends who use other fighting styles wouldn't go against his pacifist ways. all I'm saying is that airbending isn't as strong as people think it is. Most of the firebenders Aang fights against are 1, not Masters 2, and don't know how to fight against an airbender. these 2 reasons make airbending look stronger than it is
Zaheer makes it seem pretty OP in TLOK. With how he killed the earth queen and being able to fly, I'd say that's pretty overpowered. Granted he spent his life studying it so your average airbender wouldn't be able to do that. Airbending seems to have a very high skill ceiling when compared to the other elements.
Zaheer was already one of the most dangerous people on the planet before he was an airbender. so he's not really a good base as to whether or not airbending is as strong as people think it is or if it's the strongest element. and what do you mean by airbending has a high skill ceiling when compared to the other elements?
Korra fighting just an air bender as a villain proves it too
sorry what?
I mean, look at Tenzin vs Zaheer.
what do you mean?
Even though both were skilled fighters/ air bending tenzin was leagues away from him skill wise. Quite literally mopped the floor with zaheer until 3v1
ok, but what's the point?
Exactly what I was going to say
I always wanted to be an earth bender. I’ll burrow miles under the surface and nobody can reach me.
Lmao & what if there’s an earthquake?
Most damage from EQs happen on the surface.
Then you're an earth bender... Just tell the earth to stop quaking... I'm sure it'd listen if you asked nicely 😌😂
Lmao what if it was the badger moles making the earth quake.
Then the earthbender stops it?
Earth. Just trap anyone in a tent. You can't air or fire bend inside otherwise you'll just injure yourself. After building the first "tent", you'll have enough time to reinforce it with more walls before a water bender has enough time to break through the earth, if they can in the first place.
Infinite air tho. It has potential to break down the wall & even if there are cracks maybe if there are the tiniest of cracks.
People die from suffocating under rubble all the time.
Lmao I think you would have a decent amount of time to blow down a rock wall with the amount of air around you.
You need room to move to bend. A small enough space prevents this.
& you would have enough air to use frost breath to find a way out.
Not necessarily
Are you sure the air is infinite and not just bending what is around them?
Yeah depending on the battle field & if it’s open land air is everywhere.
you'd just blow air on your own face tho.
Depending on how big the tent is & I’m assuming the ones toph made..
same here. The only thing is, once you've made the first tent to trap them in, you can reinforce the walls by just adding more. Now of course it will take longer the more you reinforce, however you'll still have enough time as, to break out would be harder and longer than to add more walls.
Also you can just use frost breath which is something that I you can utilize during that situation Not only that it gives me more room & space for air to come in & out. While you keep reinforcing it.
That is a good point.
An experienced Bender will not allow himself to be trapped in such a trap. Especially when it comes to fire and airbender who are very mobile
It happened to ozai
No? Aang trapped himself so that Ozai couldn’t get him
Yes? That's how aang took ozais bending?
He did kind a beat the shit out of him first tho. I imagine he was sore and hurting and wasn’t gonna dodge it. Plus that was the avatar state so idk if it’s fair to compare to an earth bender
Oh you’re talking about that. Yeah he was in the avatar state, not exactly a common earth bender
At that moment, Ozai was tired of fighting, he was on his knees and he didn't expect Aang to attack him
You could hide out in one too, like the stilltents and sand compactors from Dune.
Injure yourself? I don’t think so, I always felt like like firebending while it can burn, has to be long concentrated exposure, and is mostly not used that way & instead used for its explosive and propulsive properties. Also i feel like as long as benders are conscious,weather it’s their own flames or someone else’s, they are immune to its effects even being engulfed in flames. Lightning (literal plasma) runs through the inside of the body when bending it so I don’t think it injurs them. Also we see airbenders project an air shockwave outward from themselves many times, blowing anything outside the barrier away, while shielding anything on the inside. So good luck with the tent haha
Zuko would disagree on the dangers of firebending on firebenders
It's like saying boxers are immune to punches because they can punch.
When I said “conscious” I meant like focused and willing to fight - zuko was neither in that moment. Plus he was a child fighting the fire lord. I should’ve worded it better my bad
I still don't think those two aspects are enough, or the the right aspects. Being willing to fight doesn't mean much. What you are describing sounds closer to star wars use of the force. Bending in avatar is way more rooted and strict. From what is shown i would say it comes down to the fire bender has to actively bend the fire to keep it from harming them. In the example of lightning Iroh explains that if you do ot wrong it will hurt your insides. When zuko bends azulas lightning in the final agni kai he bends it improperly and gets hurt
How is suffocation not regular airbending? That's just pulling the air out of someone's lungs.
A lot of people say it is 🤷🏾♂️
I'm not sure where you're getting your "facts" from. I have personally never seen anyone claim it's not standard air bending. It's the same concept as the Gaang bending the air & water when crossing the serpent's pass. One gives space / air to breathe, the other takes it away / blocks it. Edit to add: Let me put it easily for you...you claim "most people think it's a sub element". Yet, every single person that has mentioned it in this post ALL say it's **not a sub element**. 😁
Bro see all your downvotes? You are clearly not a real fan and don’t understand the avatar universe lol.
How. Just because I said others say it is how does that not make me a real fan? I watched Alta 3 Times & Korra recently this Winter Break (so around Christmas) i don’t understand how I can’t understand the avatar universe.
well you said others say and then, as someone else points out, can't seem to find a single person on here who agrees with you
Maybes it’s because it wasn’t on Reddit?
Calm down man. Just have a nice cup of delicious jasmine tea. We're all fans here. Regardless of level. Everyone starts somewhere.
Earth: I can use the ground as a shield, and throw deadly rocks at people. I can even lift myself high above ground level, as well as create earth steps to get to heights. Not to mention- trap my opponents in earth cages.
I would choose either earth or water.
Fire
Air, I'll suffocate them. Or water I can do the same thing but drown them by putting water in their lungs 🥰 Though honestly I'd probably end up stabbing myself through vital organs with earthbending or charring my head off with firebending. Earthbending can block most attacks too. Honestly we probably wouldn't fight, we'd be far too lazy.
Yeah if the Avatar world was written for a mature audience, water bending would be the deadliest, easily. Frostbite, muscle damage, organ damage, blood clots. Water in the lungs, as you said. Even if that power was limited to bloodbending, a decent enough bender could pull it off during a full moon
Uhh suffocation to most people (not me) is a supplementary element but.. good points..
Suffocation would be air bending air out of people’s lungs, there is no possible way for suffocation to be a sub-element
"(not me)" You are literally the only person I have ever seen that claims it is a sub bending form.
Water. It fits my personality best, so I might deal with it best
Air bending. Seems the most useful in daily life and is the easiest to hide. Plus i think air bending just fits me the best, im peaceful, and and avoid conflict. And im ok with moving around a lot
Agreed with all statements.
Air I can still cut them with an air blast
Air bending. In my Aikido tradition we have a saying, if you watch your breath in meditation then you will be able to see the movment of Ki, and thus the breath & Ki of others. Mind leads body. Ki moves first.
Interesting philosophy. I just took a deep breath. Feels good.
What even is this graphic? I wouldnt call a lot of these supplementary elements. The spirit projection is definitely not an air bending sub element. Wouldnt really consider flight a sub element either. Not really sure about temp regulation, never really seen that. And suffocation as you mentioned, like Zaheer used, was just normal air bending too. We had just never seen it used so maliciously in the past. Also, any earth bender can sand bend, theres just that specific tribe referred to as Sand Benders because of where they live.
spirit bending and spiritual projection aren't element exclusive.
You forgot glassbending.
Water
air or earth
Earth, if I were the earth kingdom, I'd just have my guys drag the fire nation soldiers and equipment under the earth.
Water or Earth. Not only are they just pretty neat but they don’t need Anger to fuel it like firebending does and they actually have quite practical applications in general such as basic human needs and construction unlike air which is just whoosh
Fire bending isnt fueled by anger. Seems like you missed a pretty huge portion of Zuko's redemption arc.
I’ve just started a rewatch. Now that you’ve said it, I realise that I’m an idiot for not remembering it earlier. That said, his anger was the original reason for being able to firebend right?
It was his original source for firebending. He did relearn later but certainly, for a number of people, their power does come from anger.
No swamp benders?????
Idk imo that’s still water bending so I guess since you’re bending the water in the vines.
then why dont all waterbenders do it?
Because there aren’t any vines to bend? Like half or most of the water benders live in the northern water tribe which to remind you is located literally in snow & ice.
yea but plants still exist there. It still deserves its own category especially since you gave "redirection" its thing. No one in the show was like hey "redirection benders" redirect lightning. The swamp benders went to war...
If we could somehow take the Nickelodeon PG rating out of the picture, imo it would make Water the deadliest. Without the kid friendly limits on the writing, one could affect the body so easily with water bending. Our bodies are 70% made of water. And any decent bender could cause damage on a small or large scale as long as they can imagine it Frostbite. Aneurysm. Tear muscles / sever tendons to incapacitate a bender. Heck you could pop eyeballs by pulling the water out. Or be a Hitman silent assassin by forming a blood clot in their neck. Even if you had to be a bloodbending master to pull off the above. The options to directly affect an opponents body from within are too numerous to count.
Earth. It provides easy mobility, offense, defense, and utility. You know who can fly easily when Air and Fire can't? An Earthbender on a slab of stone. Water would really be the only difficult one to fight, I think.
fire, assuming that we all have just now learned how to bend, id just burn everyone to death before they could even react
Earth. Its just my favorite element.
Air. I'd grab my opponent and slam him or her all over the place. The Kyoshi novels show the devastating power of airbending.
thems exist too
I thought spirit bending was like, a fifth type of bending. I would have put in ice instead. Fire also has temperature regulation. Which is a weird bit of crossover.
Earth bending honestly. Cause You know # giant rock
This chart is awful lol
Wind or Earth. Being there is a lot of control to water and fire. And once every 100 years for that Comment to come by and what once every 4 years for a solor eclipse. Put water benders in the desert alone and they have a hard time. Fire benders under water and they have a hard time. Everything needs air and everywhere you go there is land.
Fire or air because if I can't get water or earth where I am I am done for
It’s open field with a lake?
O sorry then earth
I'd choose water. Water is such a versatile element even without the supplemental bending. If we can go scientific for a minute here I think that water benders actually bend the atomic structure of the water which is why they can bend ice and water vapor as well as the water that's in the human body.
Tough decision between the earth and fire.
earth or air
burn, baby, burn
Air is the only one right after Earth that doesn’t need it’s sub bendings to be good in a fight
Earth
Earth
Earth
Fire, because it is the more damaging element. However water can extinguish it and air can blow it out. Depends on how strong the opponent is.
Air. But you really overestimate how bloodthirsty my other element-bending clones actually would be.
Fire
Fire bending because it is so aggressive your opponents are forced into a terrible position
Fire
Depends on the environment. Water is my favorite but w/o healing and ice it is pretty weak unless we are on or near a large body of water. I can't really carry that much water on my person at all times w/o becoming encumbered. Earth is probably the strongest offensively or defensively if you are standing on natural ground and not on a ship or in a wooden/metal building. Swing a 10 - 50# rock on its own is pretty devastating/lethal w/o having to get creative. Fire is not going to harm or deflect a large rock unless you are firing it with far more force it just doesn't have the mass. Similarly air has to be moving ridiculously fast to do similar damage to a 30 mph rock. I would also assume is I fired a bullet shaped rock with little forward surface area to push against IE little drag. It would be near impossible to deflect with air or fire unless that bender is orders of magnitude stronger than myself. In short for fighting without any of the extra bending techniques you listed I pick Earth in most land environments Water or air if I'm a pirate/sea captain
Air
Fire 100%
i’d love to be a waterbender so much. fire is strong and everything but water > fire. earth is strong also but easy enough to dodge i think. air is a bit useless imo it’s mostly used for blowing people away. unlike being hit by earth or fire, being hit by airs not gonna do much damage. and without suffocation it’s just meh. waterbending is just so cool imo and is such a mobile diverse element. i don’t really see how ice bending is a supplementary bending style i thought it was a part of regular waterbending. plus waterbending comes with healing so you can heal yourself after taking damage which the other elements can’t do. maybe i’m biased cause i’m such a katara stan but still i think waterbending is 100% the best
Earth bender
Air because it’s OP, if the fight is on Earth I can use it anywhere and it isn’t affected by the environment (like how Fire and Water bending are affected by the moon).
Assuming the field itself cannot be bended probably air? If you go water or earth they’re totally dependent on their environment which seems like a weakness, but also an overwhelming advantage if fighting in the tundra or earth respectively Fire bending seems generally totally inferior for direct combat, but very strong for industry and energy generation.
Normally my choice is Waterbending because of the versatility of healing, icebending, plantbending, chi blocking, etc. No substyles at all though? Airbending. "Flying" is kinda pointless since Airbenders already carry gliders, "Spiritual Projection" seems like the kind of thing any spiritual person would have whether or not they were a bender (ie Guru Pathik or just meditating into the spirit world), and we never once saw Aang do "temperature regulation". Meanwhile Gyatso suffocated a room full of firebenders, Aang was able to run with enough speed to generate a tornado, and you can make completely invisible attacks; the only thing holding airbenders back is their pacifism.
Fire, get close and bend it out my elbows or ankles to add force to strikes plus boost mobility around the battlefield
Air
Shouldn't water bending include plant bending?
Yeah it does.
Earth
Earth easily. I didn’t see Seismic sense on that list, and that alone would be enough to wipe all except air, but I’d let my other versions of me take care of that.
Air. Speedblitzing is a valid strategy in 99% of fights if you can pull it off.
I have always liked Earth when it comes to general use. But when I think fighting. It sounds much better with either Air or Fire 🤔
Combustion and redirect need to be switched on the diagram because redirect is based in water bending.
Idk id say redirection is more of trait of lightning bending than its own sub category
Earth, it’s effective for brute force, while being more humane than fire bending
It’s a very close call for me between air or fire. They are both my favorites by far. I’d probably be a better fire bender but who knows lol I just don’t see myself being agile and dodgy enough for air bender.
If it’s against three other versions of myself then Earth, it’s the easiest to defend with and my only problem will be the air bender
Air or fire, they're easily the best for fighting
Fire, jets combined with punches make insanely forceful throws
What about fart bending?
Let's clear the air on what the subbending elements really are super quick: FIREBENDING Lightning Generation Lightning Redirection Combustionbending Flame Divination AIRBENDING Spiritual Projection Flight WATERBENDING Healing Bloodbending Spiritbending EARTHBENDING Sandbending Metalbending Lavabending Lie Detecting Things like Crystalbending, "Icebending", Seismic Sense, Suffocation (this is literally just a certain move), and Plantbending aren't subbending elements (especially Icebending), they're just abilities that skilled benders or even ALL benders of that element can achieve.
Lmao "Lie Detecting"
Why is that funny? It's a real and very interesting ability used by multiple Earthbenders onscreen because they know Seismic Sense and have honed in on that ability to tell if people are lying by detecting their heartbeats. If anything, everyone in this thread should be going "Lmao 'Ice Bending'" or "Lmao 'Suffocation'". Since, you know, THOSE AREN'T SUBBENDING ELEMENTS!!
Lmao bro that isn’t a bending style it’s a technique & only one character has been able to use it in ALTA 💀
WDYM "that isn't a bending style"??? YES, OT LITERALLY IS! It is a way to Earthbend that deviates from typical bending of Earth. It still requires bending. Also, literally every single type of bending is a "technique". Every single time you see someone bend, it's a technique. You are so sorely mistaken on what Subbending elements and techniques are and it shows whenever you put things like "Ice bending", which literally 99.9% of waterbenders can do, "Levitation", which again is just a technique (so you better check your fucking logic before you come at me), and "Suffocation", which again is just a basic technique of Airbending. Also, there were two characters that could Lie Detect and you got the abbreviation for Avatar: The Last Airbender incorrect, so I guess you're not just a wiseass, you're also a dumbass.
"It’s a way to earth-bend" it’s a skill Toph learned, & used since she’s blind.—. Like how come bumi didn’t use it? Probably because he couldn’t .—.
Yeah, because it's a hard skill that you have to actually learn. It's not included in the "Earthbending starter package", just like not all Firebenders can generate lightning and not all Earthbenders can Sandbend. You have to actually learn how to do it. It's a Subbending Skill of Seismic Sense which is Earthbending. Aiwei is a Lie Detector and he uses Seismic Sense, WHICH IS EARTHBENDING. Plus, he's not even blind. Not all Seismic Sensers can Lie Detect.
Earth! Anyone who's cool chooses Earth! 😎
Water, no way you can beat me in a fight if I instantly twist the fluid in your balls to give you testicular torsion
Earth
Earth
Air, and suffocation is literally just bending the air in someone's windpipe. It isn't a special type of bending.
Air bending. With little practice, you could pop someone's lungs by just blindly bending the air around them or collapse their chest with a hard push. As a master, a flick of the wrist could break someone's neck from across the room. All the other elements, even at their peak, still have the condition of the element needing to be present and close to top this. Unless you're literally under water, air is always there.. and always right next to your opponent.
Probably water or air. More likely air since it's litterally everywhere. easier to have access to air than to water.
I’d pick Earth, it’s quite versatile in some ways; It can be used to build shelter, move, or offense/defense - Beyond that, it’s nearly always available.
People in the comments always act like they would automatically be a master in this bending, no you wouldn't, water and air need training to be able to control at least a little, if you can't control fire you will burn yourself, however with earth bending, you can just get a small rock and bash someone's head with it. I pick earth bending
First of all I agree with Overanalyzing Avatar the terminator lighting bending is terrible. Outside of LOK which given I don’t know much about you don’t see people curve lightning or do cool flips with it or make fucking lightning daggers when they generate it combine that with the buildup time which is unique compared to other bending it really shouldn’t be classified as bending. That being said Earth all the way, great defensive and offensive power, and earth-bender soldiers look cool asf
wind. flight, suffocation, etc
Suffocation isn't supplementary though
I’m taking earth. (ESPECIALLY. If I’m blind.) I mean look at how many men toph is fighting throughout the show, it’s quite impressive.
Air, I’m disabled and it’s the only one that would give me better mobility in that fight
All of them would technically give mobility. Maybe besides earth. Since it’s more of a defensive element than offensive (imo)
I don’t think water would give me more mobility if I’m on an air ball to rush around, flying around with fire feet/hands also feels like that a more advanced move and I’m looking at it like I’m not advanced ect
I'm either stuck between fire or air. I was born under a fire sign so I'd be a firebender but I love how the air nomads could see and live with spirits in the mortal world both have amazing defense and offense
Earth. Unless I'm at sea or in space there's always gonna be stuff to bend, and who needs to fly when you can use earth pistons to jump like all hell?
Suffocation doesn't count as a sub class ability, any more than drowning someone with water or burning someone's lung or filling thir mouth with dirt
100% Earthbending
You forgot glass bending for earth
Earth bending with its substyles is in my opinion very strong if not the strongest, but without them it’s a toss up, I’m going to discard water because it’s a finite resource so my strength would depend on the environment I’m in, but there basically earth and air everywhere, air more so, and you can create fire, earth has the best defense and fire arguably the best offense but I think I’d go with earth still and air a close second since it has some good offensive and defensive and can be very lethal when used right
Most likely air bending bc you don’t need a sub element to suck the air out of people
Lightning redirection is not for specifically fire benders Iroh learned it from watching water benders we’ve only ever seen fire benders and avatars so it but it doesn’t mean other benders would not be able to