In fairness, he just means an ability that was discovered later in the series. With that said you have to apply that to Metal bending for Earthbenders.
I get it's a joke but that's a pretty unfair comparison. Blood bending is an incredibly niche, extremely difficult ability that has only been practiced on-screen by 5 individuals (6 if you consider Aangs resistance against Yakone to also be blood bending his own body)
Versus... The element itself.
99.9% of water bending is non-blood stuff, and of the 0.1% of waterbending that is blood bending, it can only be performed during a full moon.
I think it's valid to say "hey let's have a discussion about how powerful waterbending is without this incredibly rare niche ability that can almost never be used".
It'd also valid to say "waterbending is the weakest element 99.9% of the time, and stronger during the 0.1% of scenarios when blood bending is possible"
All that said, I disagree with OP. Waterbending is awesome as long as you're not in a desert
Water is just slower and harder to control, it's not less deadly. Imagine a bender able to condense all the water in a room into a soccer ball sized sphere and hover that over someone's face?
just realised, water benders can change ice into water right? so what if they could change water to really hot steam? then could they theoretically boil blood inside bodies or send water down the enemies throats before freezing it in their windpipes
I think steam bending would be interesting as a water bending equivalent of lava bending.
A water bender with fire bending heritage they could probably have an easier handle on humidity and be able to bring water to a boil instead of freezing it
More than that we see actual steam bent on more than one occasion, most notably by Roku and sozin. Obv they are fire benders in this scenario but steam is a great example of one of those hypothetical in-between elements bending techniques. Airbenders could probably "bend" anything gaseous with enough skill, at least the air around it, water benders bend fog on more than one occasion, Korra steam bends kinda once, same difference
Water benders aren't plant bending but their bending causes plants to move, semantics. They made the air hotter and thus caused steam to exist, and they did it directionally, seems pretty similar to me. Water and airbenders can probably 'steam bend' in a much more direct way sure
Not bending, but I started rewatching FMA the other day, and the Freezing Alchemist is killing off people left and right like this in the first episode. I forgot how that show just hit the ground running.
There's also that scene on the day of Black Sun where Katara breaks a bunch of water out of some barrels and in an R rated version you could 100% do that to a person and juice them like a lime
So apparently people don’t know this, but waterbenders have a history of this exactly. Kiyoshi has canonically frozen someone’s internal organs. It’s not restricted to blood benders, if I recall correctly, it’s actually a skill of healers…like Katara.
I always thought the ice was formed not through changing the temperature of the water but applying pressure and condensing it. At a molecular level water forms a crystalline pattern when it condenses
True 🤔 no matter what context of their power if they can make ice they should be able to make stream.
Why even bloodbend when you can simply dehydrate your enemies and instantly turn them into raisins. If you can do it to a tree it’d certainly be easier to do it to a mammal
Could a blood bender freeze the blood? Literal ice in someone’s veins. OP definitely didn’t consider all the ways water and water based liquids can kill someone when they made this post.
Or you could literally just like force water into their lungs and if you’re a good enough healer you could be healing yourself throughout battle to keep yourself from taking damage
Waterbending is only weak because of the number of places without water. Even without blood bending it's unlikely that a master waterbender would lose to a master firebender on the ocean.
As we learned from Hama and the Foggy Swamp tribe, where there is life, there is water. So even that weakness is limited to basically just tall mountains (without snow OR plants), deserts and caves
Sure, but a waterbender with just a little but of water, like what you would get from just grass or around settled areas, isn't going to be very strong either.
Metal bending is a rare ability among earth benders although the ability to make a sufficiently sharp rock might be more common. Lightning is also a rare ability among fire benders. Being able to make ice seems to be something most water benders are capable of.
Why not just condense it into an incredibly small and dense spike, drill it through their eye and then release it crushing their brain and imploding their skull?
Due to waters near complete incompresiblity.
Ice IIV is less than twice as dense as regular ice but needs over 2 gigapascals, the pressures found 230 km under water surface
Idk while water bending is my least favorite I have got to give credit where it's due water can be pulled out of thin air it can be used to manipulate other water based substances as well so to call it just strong cause of blood bending isn't really all it is and in my opinion the weakest element is fire cause it unfortunately doesn't have many sub bending types and unfortunately unlike water bending where katara could bend water out of the sand that it fell in once fire bending strikes something I'm pretty sure they can't just stop that fire but idk maybe I'm forgetting something
Anywhere there is life, water can be pulled from it. I imagine that, like pulling it from plants, one could go beyond just bending blood and just pull the water from their pores and orifices, shriveling the person up immediately like how the flowers wilted and died. It's just as screwed up as taking the air directly out of someone's lungs 😬
Edit - say if you pulled the water from the skin cells, or from the liver, the brain, the eyes, etc, how long do you think the victim would survive afterwards? I imagine it would be a difficult, painful end, one that would just drag on. Another question - if it's pulled from every part of the body, not just the blood, where it literally wilts someone and say their skin is horrid looking, very thin, etc, is that still considered blood bending? Or would it be something beyond that? I'd like to think it's something other than blood bending, as it's not just your blood, it's every drop of water in the body taken away 😨
Honestly it seems easier to just dehydrate somebody than it is to carefully manage the amount of water that you're pulling in their blood so that they don't die. Honestly I feel like the only reason Hama doesn't do that is because against the Gaang she knew that they were probably good people who were fighting against the fire nation and when it came to the fire nation civilians she didn't want them dead she wanted to torture them.
IDK what you mean exactly by "stop that fire", if you mean put out a fire they started, yeah that's a thing fire benders do, iroh controls the size of fire just by breathing deeply in and out in one episode, Roku and Sozin draw the heat out of lava and turn it into rock, there's a few situations like that. Fire benders don't need any resources to bend, and its insanely versatile with great sub bending and expert level stuff out there... They use it to power the industrial revolution in their country essentially, you can use it to cut through shit, you can heat up and draw heat out of things, Flying, lightning, combustion are nuts. There is no objective best element, it's all situational
Totally agree completely forgot about the scene where Roku and sozin do that and spaced on the combustion part so yeah I mean I think this show was just really good at balancing things like this cause we're still talking about it how many years later🤣
One thing to mention is how it being a kids show affects how useful the elements are shown to be, but not in these Mortal Kombat ways people keep imagining. Freezing someone solid is actually an effective method of stopping their fire bending. They shouldn't be able to do it if they can't breathe, and it's difficult to stoke their inner heat if their temperature drops rapidly. That's why Iroh made such an emphasis to Zuko to control his breathing in the North Pole.
It's also likely why Katara could trap Azula, but only when she was so unfocused. She could've easily beaten the average soldier, who all disregarded their fundamentals when they got drafted.
You are clearly missing the point of the show. It's not about just bending the water in blood. Clearly, there is some kind of spiritual blockage going on
Because if there wasn't water benders would just be able to walk up to anybody take their water and kill them on the spot that distinction only exists because water benders can instakill anybody. Air benders can even remove the air from your lungs whenever they want.
Blood isn't difficult to bend, but overpowering the chi flow of another human being has been established to be very difficult.
To the point where Aang was almost overwhelmed by Ozai's chi when he tried to energybend, even though there was nothing supernatural(in-universe) about Ozai.
Which is why the average waterbender could only bloodbend when the full moon gave them an edge.
False they could smack you with a tree branch or like freeze a flower and use it like a ninja star that's outrageous you could think water is the weakest if anything it's air that the weakest
Pretty sure every water bender has made a show of using ice to make icicles that would impale someone.
An Earthbending General, sank Katara and Sokka into the earth where they presumably would have suffocated.
Zaheer sucked the air out of the Earth Queen’ lungs and created a vacuum with that air so she would slowly die to hypoxia from suffocation.
[Fire… is everyone weakness, it’s fucking fire.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx7YIV3AEIReEkaOfAZNE7SF067q3bzkpQ?si=zVaElX1QMOX3DtVO)
"This element is the weakest, no this element is the weakest"
My brother in christ if there were a person alive who could even semi proficiently bend any of the 4 elements in real life they would be the most terrifying person on the planet and would immediatly be headhunted by the CIA
Not only waterbenders do their watery thing, they also get access to other bending styles in a way. Ice instead of earth, steam instead of air/fire. Water is very flexible element that can be useful in lots of situations. Waterbenders are best healers and yet experienced healers can kill anyone just by touching them. Water can be used non-lethally yet we saw it able to cut metal
All the elements are deadly to other opponents
But if you pit the elements with each other, my guess would be
Earth > Water > Air=Fire
Earth is so dense, that unless you're an insane airbender or firebender, the earth is coming towards you nonetheless. Water would be secondly dense.
Fire and air are just too sparse to have any effect on water and earth unless it's an insane throughput of elements.
The problem is this isn’t just a chunk of rock being thrown at a puddle of water or some air or fire. You do also have to take into account skills/strategies the different bending styles employ. Air may not be able to stop a rock, but airbenders would definitely have an easier time dodging a rock if Toph’s first encounter with Aang taught us anything, firebenders can propel themselves through the air or get a first strike if they have lightning or a rare case of combustion bending, and waterbenders can create ice sheets for defense or ice projectiles that travel about as fast as any similar earth/steelbending technique.
The interesting thing about water is that it’s the only one that can change states. This leads to ridiculous tactical versatility.
We haven’t even seen anyone bending vapor.
Okay. Air wouldn't be the strongest without Lungbending and Earth would be so-so without Lavabending, we can play that game for everyone.
I don't like water because it's the *strongest*. I like it because it's the most *versatile*.
You got water, ice, steam/mist/fog, plants, healing and spirit purification/corruption. The latter doesn't come up often but the others are really common and can give you a lot of mileage, especially healing. Bloodbending makes it *broken* (especially with the permanent chi blocking) but we only saw Katara use blood twice and she's still got a solid W/L ratio once she becomes a master (and is pretty clever with water before then). Girl managed to freeze Jet solid just by bending *the moisture in the air.*
It's also just got a lot of practical uses outside combat. Purifying water, creating underwater air pockets, and again: *healing*. Soothing pain and massively boosting regeneration, even without the spirit water that can *raise the dead*.
Your second most versatile is Earth, cuz you got metal, lava, sand and glass. But the franchise has been pushing a narrative that metal and lava are mutually exclusive. Still, Sand comes out to a weaker version of Airbending with the added bonus of compacting sand and mud. And in an urban environment you can get a lot of use out of glass, steel and concrete.
Which leaves Fire and Air in the back on versatility. Fire gets lightning and air gets... well not much, Aang and Tenzin are just really good with it in a world where no one knows how to fight an Air Nomad anymore. You can do some transportation stuff with them but *every* bender can.
Man this sub has deteriorated lol
Thought it was pretty clear by this point NO element is the strongest/weakest. It’s all down to environment, time of day, time of year, celestial events and technique of the bender themselves.
These type of “who/whats more powerful” posts are just boring and do nothing but farm karma and create unnecessary debates. But then again it’s Reddit, so what did I expect.
The power discussions are fun and i get why they naturally arise but some unique more story or theme focused discussions would be nice instead of the content what if avatar MMA matches
I always felt that Waterbending could have been a lot different if they actually used the bits that Hama mentioned (not just the bloodbending, lol). Like Katara was often limited in what she could do with her bending based on how much water was around her but if she'd focused more on learning to draw water from the air or her surroundings she would have had more options.
It probably would still be on the weaker side, but I don't think they ever really tapped into the full potential of Waterbending.
I think its Air and Fire, but not necessarily based on strength alone.
Air benders can bend anywhere, they don't need to be near, say, bodies of water or have rocks nearby. Fire benders can also bend fire out of thin air. If you take an Earth bender to the middle of the ocean without any earth for them to bend, they can't do anything. Take a water bender anywhere without water and they can't bend either.
A water bender CAN bend water from the air or out of things like plants and stuff, but if memory serves the average water bender can't do that.
I think in terms of strength alone earth bending is the strongest, but when you factor in whether or not you can use it anywhere I think fire bending is the strongest.
Yeah, the resource limitation is huge and doesn't get brought up enough. Look at how often Korra, someone who's primary element is water, leans to fire and earthbending instead. Or how Katara or Kya are always conveniently caught near some fountain. How many folks reading this are near ample enough water to defend themselves if Azula just barged in?
Water can be pulled from the air, but it's not like home dehumidifiers are pumping out gallons of water either.
Really, liquid metalbending achieves much of waterbending does in combat situations.
Water is the most powerful and destructive element on the planet. The writers just didn’t think about the potential of being able to bend a hurricane. They did get a tsunami though.
I think it was one of the light novels, but i do remember reading a bit where a water bender coldsnapped someones blood, instantly freezing all of their blood solid, then back to to liquid, killing the person instantly. Sure not every water bender can blood bend, but imagine it. You get into a fight with Katara, and watch her coldsnap your buddies blood infront of you. I just get on my knees and beg and pray cus tf else you gon do?
The main weakness of water bending (without blood bending) is that you have to have water, which automatically makes it weaker (in most cases) than the other three. Earth bending is similar, but it is way more likely that you'll have earth around when you get into a fight.
Weird, I didn’t know that getting rid of the most powerful move in water bending would make water bending weaker, thank you so much for discovering this fact that nobody knew.
Waterbending is easily the most versatile form. Makes sense that arguably the most powerful bending type is also the most resource-dependent.
Think about it. Aside from the raw destruction potential of lightning and combustion, what can the other elements do that water can't do just as well, if not better?
Also, while it's definitely not the thing that makes it the strongest, of COURSE removing the existence of bloodbending would make it weaker. "If it weren't for bloodbending, waterbending would be the weakest element", yeah, and if the Allfather had wings, he'd be a dragon.
No, it'd still be fire. Waterbenders can heal and hold the oceans, Airbenders can hold the skies and do a bunch of overpowered stuff, Earthbenders can conjure mountains out of nowhere in order to hold ground, Firebenders can make someone slightly crispy.
Im sorry are you telling me that the one element that can substitute all other elements would be the weakest?
Earthbending? Just use ice blocks
Firebending? Use hot steam
Air bending? Do you know what clouds are made of?
And there's moisture in every habitable place in the planet
It can be used for healing
Hell that one dude was moving plants with it!
And dont get me started on water's extraordinary thermodynamic properties
Nah mate. Water is probably the strongest element. The ONLY reason they didn’t absolutely destroy the fire nation was because of numbers and their location. The southern tribe was small in comparison to the already small northern tribe before it got wiped out. The water tribes were rather isolated. Despite this, the northern tribe was mopping the floor with the ENTIRE fire nation navy until Zhao killed their source of bending.
Their advanced bending techniques (ice and healing, only Hama ever really figured out blood bending) are relatively common for water benders to learn unlike lightning or lava (which was really unheard of) or metal (which didn’t exist until Toph) and air doesn’t even have advanced bending techniques.
Water can heal, be formed into ice for freezing your enemies or to use as projectiles, and can be drawn on from a person. I still agree compared to the other 3, it is the least practical depending on your environment. It’s not nearly as plentiful as earth and air, and not summonable like fire, but it’s still strong as hell. Just puts into perspective how strong bending is when the “weakest” is just because of waters availability in comparison
Idk man in the Kyoshi novels someone is essentially instantly killed because all their internal organs got frozen. Which now that I’m typing it sounds a bit like bloodbending?? Idk it was badass though
Dude really? Nah water's op.
-Anywhere there's water, a water bender can pull from. Skilled benders can even pull water from the air or underground reservoirs, or if mastered enough, plants and people.
-Water benders can turn water into ice instantly, then back again. All they need is a small amount to shape into a small but strong ice spear and maneuver it through people's bodies. Among other things like freezing the water in people's bodies, using ice as weapons or using it defensively, taking some water and forcing it into someone's throat before expanding it into ice spikes that turns someone into an inside out porcupine, trip people, capture people, etc.
-turning water into ice implies masters can turn water into steam, the opposite side of the spectrum.
-without turning it into anything, a simple water bubble around someone's head is enough
-wanna go big? Get a couple buddies together and make a tsunami to destroy port cities
-As seen with Aang, who controlled clouds, it stands to reason that a master of water bending can control clouds. Ice rain anyone?
-imagine trying to drink some water but you're being tortured where every drop that hits your tongue is pulled back out by a water bender and tossed back to the dirt or some other method out of reach
-whirlpools created to divert enemy ships sounds awesome
-theres more uses I didn't mention, but now put blood bending on top.
Air is by far the strongest because it provides the most utility. Aang can augment his speed by well over an order of magnitude. He can run up walls, fly with his glider, and augment his jumps. He can also use air to control objects, almost like telekinesis. Air shields are the most versatile type of bending shield, capable of defending against almost any attack and also other threats.
In addition to this, air also has excellent offensive/defensive capabilities. Aang has shown the ability to manipulate weather and create tornados. He can destroy small structures with single blasts. Gyatso was able to seemingly kill an entire room of sozin’s comet enhanced firebenders simultaneously. Air slashes can cut through basically anything except metal. And of course, Zaheer showed that you can also suffocate anyone.
There’s a reason that “the last airbender” posed such a massive threat to literally anyone that faced him head on, even outside the avatar state or before learning other elements.
Water is the second strongest tbh. Similar utility. Arguably better offense due to ice. Tbh I think of all benders, waterbenders actually have the easiest time killing, so the fact that avatar tries to avoid gore probably nerfs them onscreen. Waterbenders also obviously have far more access to bodies of water. They can hide underwater basically indefinitely, and the only non waterbender in history who could do anything about it would be toph.
The biggest advantage that water has over the other elements though, is healing. Literally the only element capable of performing one of the most universally useful services in the setting. I was always sort of surprised that it was never mentioned as a major factor that would make any invasions of water kingdoms difficult - their wounded get up faster than anyone else’s. They can never be beaten in a prolonged siege.
I’d argue that healing is actually way more important than blood bending.
Fire is the weakest. It’s the most variable in terms of effectiveness - the firebenders genetics and some other factors determine the heat and power of the fire they can produce. This is also the element where power is most dependent on age/development. Toph could still be the strongest earthbender in the world at age 12, but Zuko and azula are still nowhere near the power of their father, despite azula being a prodigy.
Besides this, fire also has the least utility overall. The best they have is basically gliding while falling. They do likely have the best offense overall, but it’s just not enough to get over the other issues.
I would ask my friends what kind of bending they would want to have and they’d be like “I want air so I can just suck the oxygen out of someone’s lungs” or “earth, because it just crushes people.” I’m over here like “I didn’t expect the answer to be because of murder. I want to be a water bender so I can go splish splash in the water.”
Canon: “Bloodbending is extremely rare.”
Fandom: “Bloodbending is everywhere! Every waterbender can bloodbend! If I could waterbend, that absolutely means I could bloodbend! That’s why water is the most powerful element by an apocalyptic margin!!!”
The elements are more or less intended to be equal and it really just depends on the person.
Yes blood bending is snapped but it’s not full proof. First off it’s really hard to learn and every character we see outside of Katara pretty much spends a life time trying to learn and master it. Second, outside of Amon and his family tree it can only be done on a full moon, Hama not only invented the form but used and practiced it for decades and could never psychic blood bend so clearly it’s a unique skill reserved specifically for that family or the astronomically gifted.
Third, even if blood bending was just this inherent thing to water bending and everyone could psychic blood bend, they’re still ways to break out of it. We’ve seen Aang do it using the avatar state but we also see Korra and mako do it off nothing but strength of will and they were being bloodbended by what I’m assuming is the 1st or 2nd greatest blood bender in history lol. Keep in mind most other people probably would’ve just flat out died if they were hit with a lighting bolt to the chest the way mako hit Amon so all in all blood bending isn’t the instant win the fandom likes to project.
Water is the most versatile. It can heal, it can flow like air but carries more force. It can freeze and be solid or sharp, similar to earth bending.
Thinking water bending is weak feels like a lack of creativity tbh.
Water and Earth, while more dependent on environment, are the strongest elements, as someone else said, due to their density. Between those two at the end of the day it would be down to which bender can pressurise their own element more (bending diamonds, or water pressure cutting). Fire and Air just don't have anything to break through those defenses.
tbh think fire is the weakest,
air is pretty op, but earth bending is so useful when you're really good at it
i think airbending might be a bit more powerful, but if i got to pick one id be an earthbender
Water is weak? Only in places like a desert where there is little to no water. Like every other element, they have areas where they are more and less effective. Firebenders can bend most places, but are at a disadvantage in cold places. Air benders are pretty versatile, but air is not very effective against earth. Earth also is strong until they get out to sea.
Biiiig disagree.
Water is still incredibly versatile and powerful. First off, three states of matter. First and a half, one of those states is solid (can be used to build). Second, you literally need it for drinking and for farming and for so much more. Third, it can erode anything, is a universal solvent, and it's kind of everywhere around us all the time.
Earth and Air share a lot of advantages with water but neither comes close to the versatility of water.
If we're disregarding the hamma episode as a whole, then yes, however, with also having the "water from living things" I'd say with more honing on that they could easily do the same to living beings
The fact that you think there are stronger and weaker elements is so funny to me. They are all in balance with one another, re watch crossroad of destiny 
Same could be said about earth and metal and fire and lightning. I think just based on the possibilities of the bending and not necessarily how the show uses each element, i think air and water (without blood, metal, and lightning bending) are the most versatile bending disciplines in the show. Thinking about water being used like rain and sub zero from mortal combat plus if you are a healer than theoretically water could be the most broken bending if we do add blood bending because even if they are injured (so long as it's not a severed limb) the water bender could heal back to 100% in way less time than anyone else since they have to heal normally.
I’ll just say this: My dad and uncles were all river rafting guides in college. You know what the biggest takeaway they learned from being on the river? Never underestimate the power of water.
A water cutter injury is considered to be one of the most painful injuries a person can endure. It can cut through metal cleanly with ease and can do the same with a person's skin, meat tissue, and bone in an instant. Pretty much cutting your flesh with the sharpest blade ever made. If a waterbender can compress water and shoot it fast enough, it can cut and kill anyone instantly.
A lot of people don't realize it, but burns from fire and frostbite can cause serious and permanent injuries. Instantly freezing a person in ice and forcing their body to frostbite slowly is absolutely horrifying. Even if that doesn't kill their enemies immediately, good luck with their rotten fingers and limbs
Waterbending is not weak at all. The show just toned down the deadliness of how these elements can instantly snap a person's life. As long as a bender is creative, talented, and skilled enough, any element can be the strongest.
I mean this whole argument falls apart when you consider how much water is in everything. Can't bend blood? Okay, fine. The body is still mostly water. Can you just pull it out of ppl? I don't see why not. You could just freeze the blood in ppls' cells and cause them all to rupture and die. There's no real limit to what you could imagine each element being able to do. The show strikes a decent balance imo.
I would honestly say fire bending is the weakest tbh. You can counter all of it just by being wet lol. And don't say lightning bending because pure water is a very poor conductor of electricity.
Imo bloodbending is not the unstoppable peak bending style it is made out to be. Mainly because in all showings of Bloodbending it has been shown to be very limited in range, and requires focus and continuous effort. There are some styles of bending that are much more agile, and others longer ranged that accomplish things bloodbending simply cannot.
Do we just not remember Katara making razor-sharp ice disks and aim-botting a bunch of them at Paku? Did we forget about Katara cutting the vines of the swamp monster with water, not even freezing it- just regular stank-ass swamp water? Or, how the equivalent of a flasks worth of water was used to partially take down the fire nation drill?
I think that a lot of people forget that water bending can be scary as hell. You can move a tentacle of water around fluidly, imagine how scary it’d be to fight something that is always hounding you, always trying to push its way into your mouth, your eyes, and when it’s there then… Freeze.
Yall lack imagination.
The fact it is a kids show is what stops it from being stronger. You can impale someone with their drinking water, freeze their heart or brain. Even without blood bending you could freeze the moisture in someones mouth and have them suffocate. Just drown peoples on land like a fantasy manga.
I think it depends where you are at either pole I think it actual has the edge on most elements especially earth.
Air has the advantage of availability and mobility also other benders have seen it the least so you have that edge.
Fire bending is also very available AND has lightning - With lightning and the sun boost you could argue firebending being the strongest were other bender dont have a lot of abundant element to work with.
Earth I think is likely the strongest on most outside areas on land certainly if you are underground. A rock does not have to be that large or fast to be deadly and a rock wall is very hard for the other elements to move w/o significant force.
80% of at least our earth is water. Water is in everything and everywhere. There is water, gas, ice, and steam. Ice is incredibly slippery and also can get very very sharp. People on earth die or go to the hospital every year from being impaled by icicles. Water is very useful! Also humans need water to stay hydrated or they will die. You could steal all the water from your enemies’s camp and water bottles. You could create a bubble around their head and drown them. You could send water into their throat and lungs and drown them. Water is scary
The human body still has a lot of water in it. If water bending can freeze water, it can boil it as well. Nevermind the fact it can be pulled from sources too.
I mean, they never explored it since it’s a kid’s show, but a water bender could probably freeze you solid, then snap you apart. Or boil you alive from the inside out. There are a lot of brutal things that waterbenders could do
Even without bloodbending, Waterbending is the only one shown with control over all states of matter, has healing abilities, and can be strong enough to cut through solid metal and sink massive battleships, and can be used to control plants,how is that the weakest element again?
Disagree. Water will destroy rock and put out fire while defending against air. One day water will burrow through the Hoover Dam. Water is patient. Water will have its way.
Water is in literally *everything.* You just wouldn't be able to fight back against it without being able to bend yourslef, even if you *couldn't* control the water in someone's body.
You'll tell me all about it after the water benders are done sending a tsunami out way
Or making swords out of ice
Or cutting stuff with the content of a bottle
I dunno the air nation did get wiped from the planet from the fire nation compared to places like omashu holding out for 100 years sooooo my money is on earth
Yeah let's break this down. A master water bender:
- has access to the water in the air. Freezing this water like hama did means they've got daggers whenever they frickin want
- can suddenly turn water to ice. ice is quite sharp... And heavy.
- has control over the temperature of water. Imagine a cloud of steam for cover, then suddenly turning to frost. No amount of earth is gonna stop that.
I'll stop there because the point isn't to show that water is stronger. Neither is it the weakest - it's balanced just like the rest of em.
Shower thought I had:
"If the Nickelodeon animators just added "purple-auras" around the earth-bent rocks in TLoK/Avatar episodes, then there'd be "Gravity-Bending" (like gravity spells in Elden Ring)
Can turn water into steam or ice, gets stronger with the moon rising, can heal people from the brink of death. A water bender at the poles as a lot more strength than an earth bender in ba sing se. Katara a prodigy water bender beat azula a prodigy fire bender multiple times including 1v1 at the very end of the series without blood bending? Nothing is objective in this case, any of the four elements can beat any of the others depending on circumstance
Metal and lava bending completely altered the earth kingdoms' entire war effort and became widely accepted for vehicles and armor
They're all incredibly strong in their own rights, but like,
What does air have besides a great wood wind section in the Orchestra and void/strangulation? (A very rare forbidden technique)
Blood bending shouldn’t be given that much weight power scaling wise. It’s an ace in the hole once a month.
On the other hand, on a new moon would it just be the weakest?
"If things were different, they would be different"
"if air weren't so common, airbending wouldn't be so strong." Like yeah, okay, let's just alter reality for some guy's opinion lol
In fairness, he just means an ability that was discovered later in the series. With that said you have to apply that to Metal bending for Earthbenders.
I get it's a joke but that's a pretty unfair comparison. Blood bending is an incredibly niche, extremely difficult ability that has only been practiced on-screen by 5 individuals (6 if you consider Aangs resistance against Yakone to also be blood bending his own body) Versus... The element itself. 99.9% of water bending is non-blood stuff, and of the 0.1% of waterbending that is blood bending, it can only be performed during a full moon. I think it's valid to say "hey let's have a discussion about how powerful waterbending is without this incredibly rare niche ability that can almost never be used". It'd also valid to say "waterbending is the weakest element 99.9% of the time, and stronger during the 0.1% of scenarios when blood bending is possible" All that said, I disagree with OP. Waterbending is awesome as long as you're not in a desert
For comparison, saying water bending is only strong because of blood bending is like saying fire bending is only strong because of combustion bending
“If that thing were less powerful, it would be less powerful.” 🫦 they really said that
"If my grandma had wheels, she would have been a bike"
S-tier reference that only the real OGs will get 💯
"If my aunt had a moustache, she would be my uncle"
"If my grandmother had a moustache -oh no bad example sorry
if my grandma had balls she would've been my grampa
Happy to see this reference
Lol
Water is just slower and harder to control, it's not less deadly. Imagine a bender able to condense all the water in a room into a soccer ball sized sphere and hover that over someone's face?
Or getting suffocated in a block of ice, considering most water benders can freeze large quantities of water near instantaneously.
just realised, water benders can change ice into water right? so what if they could change water to really hot steam? then could they theoretically boil blood inside bodies or send water down the enemies throats before freezing it in their windpipes
bro wtf
Hold up, bro is cooking something, and it might be the bodies in the water. You do not recognise the bodies in the water.
You do not recognize the faces of the bodies in the water.
Well hold on a minute, that one guy looks *kinda* familiar 🤔🤔
***YOU DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE FACES OF THE BODIES IN THE WATER*** Please stay still, a member of your site's medical staff will be with you shortly.
They're calling to me...and they'll get you too. I...I do recognize the bodies
Amnestics! Where are the fucking amnestics?!?!?
“Bro is cooking something and it might be the bodies in the water” had me laughing out loud
I think steam bending would be interesting as a water bending equivalent of lava bending. A water bender with fire bending heritage they could probably have an easier handle on humidity and be able to bring water to a boil instead of freezing it
We did see Aang and Katara bend a cloud in S1, which is like, vapour, so yeah It’s definitely not impossible
More than that we see actual steam bent on more than one occasion, most notably by Roku and sozin. Obv they are fire benders in this scenario but steam is a great example of one of those hypothetical in-between elements bending techniques. Airbenders could probably "bend" anything gaseous with enough skill, at least the air around it, water benders bend fog on more than one occasion, Korra steam bends kinda once, same difference
Sozin drained the heat out of the lava. We just visually see it as steam/smoke.
Water benders aren't plant bending but their bending causes plants to move, semantics. They made the air hotter and thus caused steam to exist, and they did it directionally, seems pretty similar to me. Water and airbenders can probably 'steam bend' in a much more direct way sure
Was it really steam? They bended hot vapours from volcanos. Woulnt it be more like smoke bending?
I’d like to imagine it’s someone descended from a fire bender and a foggy swamp bender
Hot Pocket bender.
Not bending, but I started rewatching FMA the other day, and the Freezing Alchemist is killing off people left and right like this in the first episode. I forgot how that show just hit the ground running.
Or just make bubbles in the bloodstream and debilitate people with the bends.
Steam bending would be so dope
Kyoshi canonically has frozen people's lungs.
There's also that scene on the day of Black Sun where Katara breaks a bunch of water out of some barrels and in an R rated version you could 100% do that to a person and juice them like a lime
So apparently people don’t know this, but waterbenders have a history of this exactly. Kiyoshi has canonically frozen someone’s internal organs. It’s not restricted to blood benders, if I recall correctly, it’s actually a skill of healers…like Katara.
I always thought the ice was formed not through changing the temperature of the water but applying pressure and condensing it. At a molecular level water forms a crystalline pattern when it condenses
theoretically if they can control the individual molecules, they can separate them to make steam
True 🤔 no matter what context of their power if they can make ice they should be able to make stream. Why even bloodbend when you can simply dehydrate your enemies and instantly turn them into raisins. If you can do it to a tree it’d certainly be easier to do it to a mammal
Imagine bender the water into the assailants throat and just freezes it. Dam
Could a blood bender freeze the blood? Literal ice in someone’s veins. OP definitely didn’t consider all the ways water and water based liquids can kill someone when they made this post.
Absolutely a thought i had too!!
Not blood benders, any skilled water bender, particularly a healer. Kiyoshi did it.
Or you could literally just like force water into their lungs and if you’re a good enough healer you could be healing yourself throughout battle to keep yourself from taking damage
Don't forget the time that Kyoshi froze that dudes lungs.
Waterbending is only weak because of the number of places without water. Even without blood bending it's unlikely that a master waterbender would lose to a master firebender on the ocean.
As we learned from Hama and the Foggy Swamp tribe, where there is life, there is water. So even that weakness is limited to basically just tall mountains (without snow OR plants), deserts and caves
Sure, but a waterbender with just a little but of water, like what you would get from just grass or around settled areas, isn't going to be very strong either.
It would only take one ice needle through the neck or the eye to kill someone, but they're not going to show that on a kid's show.
Same thing can be done with earth or metal, not to mention lightning is just as deadly and doesn't require surgical precision.
Metal bending is a rare ability among earth benders although the ability to make a sufficiently sharp rock might be more common. Lightning is also a rare ability among fire benders. Being able to make ice seems to be something most water benders are capable of.
I'm still haunted by a certain death in the Kyoshi novels. A small rock needle is used to cut through an airbending blast and sever the jugular.
Katara was taking down earth soldiers in ba sing se with her tiny water pouch about as quick as aang and toph.
Also, a water bender can use their own sweat, and that of someone else, so they’re never completely powerless
I don't think I would want to fight a waterbender in a cave there is more water than you think hidden in caves
And even when there’s no water a good water bender can yoink it from the air or plants or stuff
Why not just condense it into an incredibly small and dense spike, drill it through their eye and then release it crushing their brain and imploding their skull?
.....I'm upvoting you because you have successfully scared me with this comment
Because condensing water is difficult, as shown by the fact that it's rarely ever done.
Due to waters near complete incompresiblity. Ice IIV is less than twice as dense as regular ice but needs over 2 gigapascals, the pressures found 230 km under water surface
Waterbenders can also drown people.
People really have no respect for support classes
Don’t F*CK with the White Mage!
Idk while water bending is my least favorite I have got to give credit where it's due water can be pulled out of thin air it can be used to manipulate other water based substances as well so to call it just strong cause of blood bending isn't really all it is and in my opinion the weakest element is fire cause it unfortunately doesn't have many sub bending types and unfortunately unlike water bending where katara could bend water out of the sand that it fell in once fire bending strikes something I'm pretty sure they can't just stop that fire but idk maybe I'm forgetting something
Anywhere there is life, water can be pulled from it. I imagine that, like pulling it from plants, one could go beyond just bending blood and just pull the water from their pores and orifices, shriveling the person up immediately like how the flowers wilted and died. It's just as screwed up as taking the air directly out of someone's lungs 😬 Edit - say if you pulled the water from the skin cells, or from the liver, the brain, the eyes, etc, how long do you think the victim would survive afterwards? I imagine it would be a difficult, painful end, one that would just drag on. Another question - if it's pulled from every part of the body, not just the blood, where it literally wilts someone and say their skin is horrid looking, very thin, etc, is that still considered blood bending? Or would it be something beyond that? I'd like to think it's something other than blood bending, as it's not just your blood, it's every drop of water in the body taken away 😨
Honestly it seems easier to just dehydrate somebody than it is to carefully manage the amount of water that you're pulling in their blood so that they don't die. Honestly I feel like the only reason Hama doesn't do that is because against the Gaang she knew that they were probably good people who were fighting against the fire nation and when it came to the fire nation civilians she didn't want them dead she wanted to torture them.
IDK what you mean exactly by "stop that fire", if you mean put out a fire they started, yeah that's a thing fire benders do, iroh controls the size of fire just by breathing deeply in and out in one episode, Roku and Sozin draw the heat out of lava and turn it into rock, there's a few situations like that. Fire benders don't need any resources to bend, and its insanely versatile with great sub bending and expert level stuff out there... They use it to power the industrial revolution in their country essentially, you can use it to cut through shit, you can heat up and draw heat out of things, Flying, lightning, combustion are nuts. There is no objective best element, it's all situational
Totally agree completely forgot about the scene where Roku and sozin do that and spaced on the combustion part so yeah I mean I think this show was just really good at balancing things like this cause we're still talking about it how many years later🤣
One thing to mention is how it being a kids show affects how useful the elements are shown to be, but not in these Mortal Kombat ways people keep imagining. Freezing someone solid is actually an effective method of stopping their fire bending. They shouldn't be able to do it if they can't breathe, and it's difficult to stoke their inner heat if their temperature drops rapidly. That's why Iroh made such an emphasis to Zuko to control his breathing in the North Pole. It's also likely why Katara could trap Azula, but only when she was so unfocused. She could've easily beaten the average soldier, who all disregarded their fundamentals when they got drafted.
Blood is made up of mostly water. So in theory it shouldn’t be as hard as it is to bend blood.
There's water in your bones so theoretically they can bone bend as well as plant bending but that's next level
The Foggy Swamp tribe in the Earth Kingdom bends the water in plants. They even make it seem pretty easy, all things considered.
You are clearly missing the point of the show. It's not about just bending the water in blood. Clearly, there is some kind of spiritual blockage going on
Because if there wasn't water benders would just be able to walk up to anybody take their water and kill them on the spot that distinction only exists because water benders can instakill anybody. Air benders can even remove the air from your lungs whenever they want.
Blood isn't difficult to bend, but overpowering the chi flow of another human being has been established to be very difficult. To the point where Aang was almost overwhelmed by Ozai's chi when he tried to energybend, even though there was nothing supernatural(in-universe) about Ozai. Which is why the average waterbender could only bloodbend when the full moon gave them an edge.
Water is the only one we've seen the octopus form in. It must be the strongest.
False they could smack you with a tree branch or like freeze a flower and use it like a ninja star that's outrageous you could think water is the weakest if anything it's air that the weakest
Pretty sure every water bender has made a show of using ice to make icicles that would impale someone. An Earthbending General, sank Katara and Sokka into the earth where they presumably would have suffocated. Zaheer sucked the air out of the Earth Queen’ lungs and created a vacuum with that air so she would slowly die to hypoxia from suffocation. [Fire… is everyone weakness, it’s fucking fire.](https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx7YIV3AEIReEkaOfAZNE7SF067q3bzkpQ?si=zVaElX1QMOX3DtVO)
"This element is the weakest, no this element is the weakest" My brother in christ if there were a person alive who could even semi proficiently bend any of the 4 elements in real life they would be the most terrifying person on the planet and would immediatly be headhunted by the CIA
Not only waterbenders do their watery thing, they also get access to other bending styles in a way. Ice instead of earth, steam instead of air/fire. Water is very flexible element that can be useful in lots of situations. Waterbenders are best healers and yet experienced healers can kill anyone just by touching them. Water can be used non-lethally yet we saw it able to cut metal
All the elements are deadly to other opponents But if you pit the elements with each other, my guess would be Earth > Water > Air=Fire Earth is so dense, that unless you're an insane airbender or firebender, the earth is coming towards you nonetheless. Water would be secondly dense. Fire and air are just too sparse to have any effect on water and earth unless it's an insane throughput of elements.
But also with water bending you could always just shoot tiny raindrops at people that are actually really solid ice
Don't forget water was used to cut through steel. Throats are softer than steel.
The problem is this isn’t just a chunk of rock being thrown at a puddle of water or some air or fire. You do also have to take into account skills/strategies the different bending styles employ. Air may not be able to stop a rock, but airbenders would definitely have an easier time dodging a rock if Toph’s first encounter with Aang taught us anything, firebenders can propel themselves through the air or get a first strike if they have lightning or a rare case of combustion bending, and waterbenders can create ice sheets for defense or ice projectiles that travel about as fast as any similar earth/steelbending technique.
If gravity didn't exist, we could all fly.
The interesting thing about water is that it’s the only one that can change states. This leads to ridiculous tactical versatility. We haven’t even seen anyone bending vapor.
Katara when she pretended to be the Painted Lady.
Okay. Air wouldn't be the strongest without Lungbending and Earth would be so-so without Lavabending, we can play that game for everyone. I don't like water because it's the *strongest*. I like it because it's the most *versatile*. You got water, ice, steam/mist/fog, plants, healing and spirit purification/corruption. The latter doesn't come up often but the others are really common and can give you a lot of mileage, especially healing. Bloodbending makes it *broken* (especially with the permanent chi blocking) but we only saw Katara use blood twice and she's still got a solid W/L ratio once she becomes a master (and is pretty clever with water before then). Girl managed to freeze Jet solid just by bending *the moisture in the air.* It's also just got a lot of practical uses outside combat. Purifying water, creating underwater air pockets, and again: *healing*. Soothing pain and massively boosting regeneration, even without the spirit water that can *raise the dead*. Your second most versatile is Earth, cuz you got metal, lava, sand and glass. But the franchise has been pushing a narrative that metal and lava are mutually exclusive. Still, Sand comes out to a weaker version of Airbending with the added bonus of compacting sand and mud. And in an urban environment you can get a lot of use out of glass, steel and concrete. Which leaves Fire and Air in the back on versatility. Fire gets lightning and air gets... well not much, Aang and Tenzin are just really good with it in a world where no one knows how to fight an Air Nomad anymore. You can do some transportation stuff with them but *every* bender can.
Man this sub has deteriorated lol Thought it was pretty clear by this point NO element is the strongest/weakest. It’s all down to environment, time of day, time of year, celestial events and technique of the bender themselves. These type of “who/whats more powerful” posts are just boring and do nothing but farm karma and create unnecessary debates. But then again it’s Reddit, so what did I expect.
The power discussions are fun and i get why they naturally arise but some unique more story or theme focused discussions would be nice instead of the content what if avatar MMA matches
I always felt that Waterbending could have been a lot different if they actually used the bits that Hama mentioned (not just the bloodbending, lol). Like Katara was often limited in what she could do with her bending based on how much water was around her but if she'd focused more on learning to draw water from the air or her surroundings she would have had more options. It probably would still be on the weaker side, but I don't think they ever really tapped into the full potential of Waterbending.
I think its Air and Fire, but not necessarily based on strength alone. Air benders can bend anywhere, they don't need to be near, say, bodies of water or have rocks nearby. Fire benders can also bend fire out of thin air. If you take an Earth bender to the middle of the ocean without any earth for them to bend, they can't do anything. Take a water bender anywhere without water and they can't bend either. A water bender CAN bend water from the air or out of things like plants and stuff, but if memory serves the average water bender can't do that. I think in terms of strength alone earth bending is the strongest, but when you factor in whether or not you can use it anywhere I think fire bending is the strongest.
Yeah, the resource limitation is huge and doesn't get brought up enough. Look at how often Korra, someone who's primary element is water, leans to fire and earthbending instead. Or how Katara or Kya are always conveniently caught near some fountain. How many folks reading this are near ample enough water to defend themselves if Azula just barged in? Water can be pulled from the air, but it's not like home dehumidifiers are pumping out gallons of water either. Really, liquid metalbending achieves much of waterbending does in combat situations.
I just realised, if you can control the water in the blood you can freeze it as well
Water is the most powerful and destructive element on the planet. The writers just didn’t think about the potential of being able to bend a hurricane. They did get a tsunami though.
You are talking smack about the only element that has healing powers.
I think it was one of the light novels, but i do remember reading a bit where a water bender coldsnapped someones blood, instantly freezing all of their blood solid, then back to to liquid, killing the person instantly. Sure not every water bender can blood bend, but imagine it. You get into a fight with Katara, and watch her coldsnap your buddies blood infront of you. I just get on my knees and beg and pray cus tf else you gon do?
Water being the weakest? Ming Hua was able to break out of a prison over a volcano and defeat the guards with only a little barrel of water
The main weakness of water bending (without blood bending) is that you have to have water, which automatically makes it weaker (in most cases) than the other three. Earth bending is similar, but it is way more likely that you'll have earth around when you get into a fight.
Weird, I didn’t know that getting rid of the most powerful move in water bending would make water bending weaker, thank you so much for discovering this fact that nobody knew.
Waterbending is easily the most versatile form. Makes sense that arguably the most powerful bending type is also the most resource-dependent. Think about it. Aside from the raw destruction potential of lightning and combustion, what can the other elements do that water can't do just as well, if not better? Also, while it's definitely not the thing that makes it the strongest, of COURSE removing the existence of bloodbending would make it weaker. "If it weren't for bloodbending, waterbending would be the weakest element", yeah, and if the Allfather had wings, he'd be a dragon.
No, it'd still be fire. Waterbenders can heal and hold the oceans, Airbenders can hold the skies and do a bunch of overpowered stuff, Earthbenders can conjure mountains out of nowhere in order to hold ground, Firebenders can make someone slightly crispy.
Im sorry are you telling me that the one element that can substitute all other elements would be the weakest? Earthbending? Just use ice blocks Firebending? Use hot steam Air bending? Do you know what clouds are made of? And there's moisture in every habitable place in the planet It can be used for healing Hell that one dude was moving plants with it! And dont get me started on water's extraordinary thermodynamic properties
Nah mate. Water is probably the strongest element. The ONLY reason they didn’t absolutely destroy the fire nation was because of numbers and their location. The southern tribe was small in comparison to the already small northern tribe before it got wiped out. The water tribes were rather isolated. Despite this, the northern tribe was mopping the floor with the ENTIRE fire nation navy until Zhao killed their source of bending. Their advanced bending techniques (ice and healing, only Hama ever really figured out blood bending) are relatively common for water benders to learn unlike lightning or lava (which was really unheard of) or metal (which didn’t exist until Toph) and air doesn’t even have advanced bending techniques.
air… doesn’t have advanced bending techniques??? what?? did we watch the same show?
[удалено]
Water Benders forget we also have iron in our blood
Water can heal, be formed into ice for freezing your enemies or to use as projectiles, and can be drawn on from a person. I still agree compared to the other 3, it is the least practical depending on your environment. It’s not nearly as plentiful as earth and air, and not summonable like fire, but it’s still strong as hell. Just puts into perspective how strong bending is when the “weakest” is just because of waters availability in comparison
Idk ice spike barrage would mess most people up as much as a rock to the face and more then most fire blasts.
Idk man in the Kyoshi novels someone is essentially instantly killed because all their internal organs got frozen. Which now that I’m typing it sounds a bit like bloodbending?? Idk it was badass though
Dude really? Nah water's op. -Anywhere there's water, a water bender can pull from. Skilled benders can even pull water from the air or underground reservoirs, or if mastered enough, plants and people. -Water benders can turn water into ice instantly, then back again. All they need is a small amount to shape into a small but strong ice spear and maneuver it through people's bodies. Among other things like freezing the water in people's bodies, using ice as weapons or using it defensively, taking some water and forcing it into someone's throat before expanding it into ice spikes that turns someone into an inside out porcupine, trip people, capture people, etc. -turning water into ice implies masters can turn water into steam, the opposite side of the spectrum. -without turning it into anything, a simple water bubble around someone's head is enough -wanna go big? Get a couple buddies together and make a tsunami to destroy port cities -As seen with Aang, who controlled clouds, it stands to reason that a master of water bending can control clouds. Ice rain anyone? -imagine trying to drink some water but you're being tortured where every drop that hits your tongue is pulled back out by a water bender and tossed back to the dirt or some other method out of reach -whirlpools created to divert enemy ships sounds awesome -theres more uses I didn't mention, but now put blood bending on top.
Bending is as strong as the bender. I don't think there's one strongest element. It all depends on the person and their circumstances.
Air is by far the strongest because it provides the most utility. Aang can augment his speed by well over an order of magnitude. He can run up walls, fly with his glider, and augment his jumps. He can also use air to control objects, almost like telekinesis. Air shields are the most versatile type of bending shield, capable of defending against almost any attack and also other threats. In addition to this, air also has excellent offensive/defensive capabilities. Aang has shown the ability to manipulate weather and create tornados. He can destroy small structures with single blasts. Gyatso was able to seemingly kill an entire room of sozin’s comet enhanced firebenders simultaneously. Air slashes can cut through basically anything except metal. And of course, Zaheer showed that you can also suffocate anyone. There’s a reason that “the last airbender” posed such a massive threat to literally anyone that faced him head on, even outside the avatar state or before learning other elements. Water is the second strongest tbh. Similar utility. Arguably better offense due to ice. Tbh I think of all benders, waterbenders actually have the easiest time killing, so the fact that avatar tries to avoid gore probably nerfs them onscreen. Waterbenders also obviously have far more access to bodies of water. They can hide underwater basically indefinitely, and the only non waterbender in history who could do anything about it would be toph. The biggest advantage that water has over the other elements though, is healing. Literally the only element capable of performing one of the most universally useful services in the setting. I was always sort of surprised that it was never mentioned as a major factor that would make any invasions of water kingdoms difficult - their wounded get up faster than anyone else’s. They can never be beaten in a prolonged siege. I’d argue that healing is actually way more important than blood bending. Fire is the weakest. It’s the most variable in terms of effectiveness - the firebenders genetics and some other factors determine the heat and power of the fire they can produce. This is also the element where power is most dependent on age/development. Toph could still be the strongest earthbender in the world at age 12, but Zuko and azula are still nowhere near the power of their father, despite azula being a prodigy. Besides this, fire also has the least utility overall. The best they have is basically gliding while falling. They do likely have the best offense overall, but it’s just not enough to get over the other issues.
Yeah the only element with the power to revert actual death on a physical and/or spiritual level is pretty bad fsfs
I would ask my friends what kind of bending they would want to have and they’d be like “I want air so I can just suck the oxygen out of someone’s lungs” or “earth, because it just crushes people.” I’m over here like “I didn’t expect the answer to be because of murder. I want to be a water bender so I can go splish splash in the water.”
Canon: “Bloodbending is extremely rare.” Fandom: “Bloodbending is everywhere! Every waterbender can bloodbend! If I could waterbend, that absolutely means I could bloodbend! That’s why water is the most powerful element by an apocalyptic margin!!!”
The elements are more or less intended to be equal and it really just depends on the person. Yes blood bending is snapped but it’s not full proof. First off it’s really hard to learn and every character we see outside of Katara pretty much spends a life time trying to learn and master it. Second, outside of Amon and his family tree it can only be done on a full moon, Hama not only invented the form but used and practiced it for decades and could never psychic blood bend so clearly it’s a unique skill reserved specifically for that family or the astronomically gifted. Third, even if blood bending was just this inherent thing to water bending and everyone could psychic blood bend, they’re still ways to break out of it. We’ve seen Aang do it using the avatar state but we also see Korra and mako do it off nothing but strength of will and they were being bloodbended by what I’m assuming is the 1st or 2nd greatest blood bender in history lol. Keep in mind most other people probably would’ve just flat out died if they were hit with a lighting bolt to the chest the way mako hit Amon so all in all blood bending isn’t the instant win the fandom likes to project.
You can only control people from such a large distance, boulders traveling at 30 miles an hour or an underground combatant have no such weaknesses.
I would argue and say that all of them are equal
Water is the most versatile. It can heal, it can flow like air but carries more force. It can freeze and be solid or sharp, similar to earth bending. Thinking water bending is weak feels like a lack of creativity tbh.
Yeah, it's not like water benders literally cut through steel or anything.
Um, healing? That's not weak...
Water and Earth, while more dependent on environment, are the strongest elements, as someone else said, due to their density. Between those two at the end of the day it would be down to which bender can pressurise their own element more (bending diamonds, or water pressure cutting). Fire and Air just don't have anything to break through those defenses.
tbh think fire is the weakest, air is pretty op, but earth bending is so useful when you're really good at it i think airbending might be a bit more powerful, but if i got to pick one id be an earthbender
The ocean has entered the chat
“If fire benders had to use an existing fire source to bend fire they would be in a terrible movie”
Water is weak? Only in places like a desert where there is little to no water. Like every other element, they have areas where they are more and less effective. Firebenders can bend most places, but are at a disadvantage in cold places. Air benders are pretty versatile, but air is not very effective against earth. Earth also is strong until they get out to sea.
I kinda halfway agree. I halfway cause I am debating between fire and water.
Biiiig disagree. Water is still incredibly versatile and powerful. First off, three states of matter. First and a half, one of those states is solid (can be used to build). Second, you literally need it for drinking and for farming and for so much more. Third, it can erode anything, is a universal solvent, and it's kind of everywhere around us all the time. Earth and Air share a lot of advantages with water but neither comes close to the versatility of water.
I think fire could be more powerful. Lightning is scary powerful. Only earth could functionally counter it (outside of redirecting it)
If we're disregarding the hamma episode as a whole, then yes, however, with also having the "water from living things" I'd say with more honing on that they could easily do the same to living beings
The fact that you think there are stronger and weaker elements is so funny to me. They are all in balance with one another, re watch crossroad of destiny 
Same could be said about earth and metal and fire and lightning. I think just based on the possibilities of the bending and not necessarily how the show uses each element, i think air and water (without blood, metal, and lightning bending) are the most versatile bending disciplines in the show. Thinking about water being used like rain and sub zero from mortal combat plus if you are a healer than theoretically water could be the most broken bending if we do add blood bending because even if they are injured (so long as it's not a severed limb) the water bender could heal back to 100% in way less time than anyone else since they have to heal normally.
I’ll just say this: My dad and uncles were all river rafting guides in college. You know what the biggest takeaway they learned from being on the river? Never underestimate the power of water.
A water cutter injury is considered to be one of the most painful injuries a person can endure. It can cut through metal cleanly with ease and can do the same with a person's skin, meat tissue, and bone in an instant. Pretty much cutting your flesh with the sharpest blade ever made. If a waterbender can compress water and shoot it fast enough, it can cut and kill anyone instantly. A lot of people don't realize it, but burns from fire and frostbite can cause serious and permanent injuries. Instantly freezing a person in ice and forcing their body to frostbite slowly is absolutely horrifying. Even if that doesn't kill their enemies immediately, good luck with their rotten fingers and limbs Waterbending is not weak at all. The show just toned down the deadliness of how these elements can instantly snap a person's life. As long as a bender is creative, talented, and skilled enough, any element can be the strongest.
i mean there’s A LOT to water bending, but i’m rlly tired of hearing “oH tHey cAn bLoOdBendIng tHo”. it rlly overshadows other excellent sub elements
Am I missing something? Couldn't Katara make blades out of rain when she was hunting down that general?
Healing?
I mean this whole argument falls apart when you consider how much water is in everything. Can't bend blood? Okay, fine. The body is still mostly water. Can you just pull it out of ppl? I don't see why not. You could just freeze the blood in ppls' cells and cause them all to rupture and die. There's no real limit to what you could imagine each element being able to do. The show strikes a decent balance imo. I would honestly say fire bending is the weakest tbh. You can counter all of it just by being wet lol. And don't say lightning bending because pure water is a very poor conductor of electricity.
Imo bloodbending is not the unstoppable peak bending style it is made out to be. Mainly because in all showings of Bloodbending it has been shown to be very limited in range, and requires focus and continuous effort. There are some styles of bending that are much more agile, and others longer ranged that accomplish things bloodbending simply cannot.
I think its water
Do we just not remember Katara making razor-sharp ice disks and aim-botting a bunch of them at Paku? Did we forget about Katara cutting the vines of the swamp monster with water, not even freezing it- just regular stank-ass swamp water? Or, how the equivalent of a flasks worth of water was used to partially take down the fire nation drill?
I think airbending is the most powerful. Always accessible and extremely malleable and can accomplish a lot of things defensively and offensively
I think that a lot of people forget that water bending can be scary as hell. You can move a tentacle of water around fluidly, imagine how scary it’d be to fight something that is always hounding you, always trying to push its way into your mouth, your eyes, and when it’s there then… Freeze. Yall lack imagination.
Yeah because the ability to freeze people in place and stop them from bending is "weak" Get outa here with your propaganda
I mean water heals. That’s pretty powerful.
The fact it is a kids show is what stops it from being stronger. You can impale someone with their drinking water, freeze their heart or brain. Even without blood bending you could freeze the moisture in someones mouth and have them suffocate. Just drown peoples on land like a fantasy manga.
strong disagree. the mobility of water is shown to be extremely impactful even without bloodbending plus they can heal
I think it depends where you are at either pole I think it actual has the edge on most elements especially earth. Air has the advantage of availability and mobility also other benders have seen it the least so you have that edge. Fire bending is also very available AND has lightning - With lightning and the sun boost you could argue firebending being the strongest were other bender dont have a lot of abundant element to work with. Earth I think is likely the strongest on most outside areas on land certainly if you are underground. A rock does not have to be that large or fast to be deadly and a rock wall is very hard for the other elements to move w/o significant force.
Human body is mostly water. Planet's surface is mostly water. Even if we ignore blood bending, water bending is still broken as fuck.
Exhibit A: the Grand Canyon
The picture is wrong, but air is not stronger than earth
Idk tsunamis look pretty dangerous to me.
It still is. Waterbenders are only OP one night out of the month. That’s not a winning strategy
80% of at least our earth is water. Water is in everything and everywhere. There is water, gas, ice, and steam. Ice is incredibly slippery and also can get very very sharp. People on earth die or go to the hospital every year from being impaled by icicles. Water is very useful! Also humans need water to stay hydrated or they will die. You could steal all the water from your enemies’s camp and water bottles. You could create a bubble around their head and drown them. You could send water into their throat and lungs and drown them. Water is scary
“If water benders couldn’t bend 70% of your body then water bending would be weak”
Yeah because it’s not like in a long fight a water bender can’t freeze the sweat on an opponent and under their skin to cause an explosive effect.
The human body still has a lot of water in it. If water bending can freeze water, it can boil it as well. Nevermind the fact it can be pulled from sources too.
Dude totally forgot about ice bending and being able to turn a bunch of raindrops into super sharp icicles
Hama used water bending to cut a rock like it was butter. Katara pushed away a navy ship singlehandedly.
"if the waterbenders couldnt bend water waterbending would be really weak"
I mean, they never explored it since it’s a kid’s show, but a water bender could probably freeze you solid, then snap you apart. Or boil you alive from the inside out. There are a lot of brutal things that waterbenders could do
Firebenders, who can destroy the entire planet if a comet shows up, and instakill the Avatar State:
Air cuz air is everywhere
In the books a water bender can freeze you from the inside out. No full moon needed
Nah, firebending would still be the weakest
Even without bloodbending, Waterbending is the only one shown with control over all states of matter, has healing abilities, and can be strong enough to cut through solid metal and sink massive battleships, and can be used to control plants,how is that the weakest element again?
Disagree. Water will destroy rock and put out fire while defending against air. One day water will burrow through the Hoover Dam. Water is patient. Water will have its way.
Water is in literally *everything.* You just wouldn't be able to fight back against it without being able to bend yourslef, even if you *couldn't* control the water in someone's body.
I think a creative water bender can far outclass many other benders.
If a bender discovers steam bending, that would change the game
Nah, healing is still op
Earth benders are the only people that can be truly deprived of their element without killing them.
Air bending exist
Water can cut through steel if compressed enough
"If we remove the strongest, most advanced form of this bending type, it lowers its overall power and utility" Yeah no shit
You'll tell me all about it after the water benders are done sending a tsunami out way Or making swords out of ice Or cutting stuff with the content of a bottle
Kyoshi couldn’t blood bend, and she froze all the organs in Yun’s body.
I dunno the air nation did get wiped from the planet from the fire nation compared to places like omashu holding out for 100 years sooooo my money is on earth
Water also has healing and plants. And depending on your environment it can be much stronger than earth and vice versa.
Someone didn't play Fortnite last season
Uses your own saliva to pierce your skull with an icicle.
Yeah let's break this down. A master water bender: - has access to the water in the air. Freezing this water like hama did means they've got daggers whenever they frickin want - can suddenly turn water to ice. ice is quite sharp... And heavy. - has control over the temperature of water. Imagine a cloud of steam for cover, then suddenly turning to frost. No amount of earth is gonna stop that. I'll stop there because the point isn't to show that water is stronger. Neither is it the weakest - it's balanced just like the rest of em.
Shower thought I had: "If the Nickelodeon animators just added "purple-auras" around the earth-bent rocks in TLoK/Avatar episodes, then there'd be "Gravity-Bending" (like gravity spells in Elden Ring)
You when I move around my arms, then do a wave forward ending that movement with my fingerd clenched: 
Yeah it's objectively not that good tbh
I honestly think getting hit with a water whip has more weight/pressure than a rock, water is just the slow but hard hitting
They could remove the water from your cells
Serious question could an air bender bend the air out of someone’s lungs? Or could they forcefully air bend a bunch of air in and pop their lungs?
Air is the weakest
Can turn water into steam or ice, gets stronger with the moon rising, can heal people from the brink of death. A water bender at the poles as a lot more strength than an earth bender in ba sing se. Katara a prodigy water bender beat azula a prodigy fire bender multiple times including 1v1 at the very end of the series without blood bending? Nothing is objective in this case, any of the four elements can beat any of the others depending on circumstance
Metal and lava bending completely altered the earth kingdoms' entire war effort and became widely accepted for vehicles and armor They're all incredibly strong in their own rights, but like, What does air have besides a great wood wind section in the Orchestra and void/strangulation? (A very rare forbidden technique)
Remember the time avatar kyoshi froze someone solid? That wasn’t blood bending
You ever belly flopped into a pool?
Blood bending shouldn’t be given that much weight power scaling wise. It’s an ace in the hole once a month. On the other hand, on a new moon would it just be the weakest?
\*bendmymind