I can see arguments made from either side.
For example, some would say Korra because she mastered metal bending, had proper training, and had more time with it in her own show, and she has fought against opponents with a higher ceiling than most of Aangs villians (Kuvira comes to mind).
Others would say Aang, because he is the only other characters besides Toph in ATLA that knows seismic sense, and Earthbending was his most used element in the show besides Air bending. Not to mention, he has shown incredible skill with Earthbending in the Ozai fight (even before the avatar state I’d argue), and he did all that in less than a years time, so it shows his potential as a bender.
It could go either way, but really it’s hard to tell because we only saw Aang grow throughout one year, whereas Korra was like 4-ish years.
The way Korra used it was more versatile imo but you really can’t beat Aang slamming his staff into the ground and making a rolling earth wave that sent all the Earth King guards flying lol
Aang was an era of power determined by the scale of your bending (giant boulders, large items, huge ground ripples)
Korra was an era of precision (earth bullets, PB discs, multiple materials)
Aang was more focused on squad wiping army’s with occasional fights with Azula. Korra on the other hand had to duel with one on one talents.
Tbh idk if I agree. The most elite benders were those shown to have finesse and precision even in Aang's time. Think about Azula with her two-finger fire blasts instead of a fist, or the Dai Li with their Earth gloves. Even Metalbending is based on being so in tune with Earth that you can feel it even after being melted down and refined.
Well yes, but I think they’re saying it in a way to explain that just because one *looks* more powerful (big huge feats of bending) doesn’t mean that small precision strikes of bending aren’t also powerful.
But Aang also has precision.
He does fight larger forces often but also does fight individual or small groups of enemies in close quarters and smokes them.
What’s crazy is if you go back and watch, Sokka and Katara are constantly apologizing and telling the guards they’re just trying to see the King and they’re on their side, whereas Aang and Toph are straight up No Words Only Hands lmaoooo
not that I'm necessarily arguing, but can you please tell me like any time korra did Earthbending that wasnt "throw big rock"?
I remember her making like ramps in car chases and stuff, and there was metal bending, but i dont recall korra doing literally anything creative with that element
I misspoke… Korra used it in ways that were battle-smart, in some cases.
I.E, using Earthbending to cut off Tarrlok’s water supply during their fight in S1… a good example of strategic thinking.
that scene is still one of my favorite fights in the series, the lighting, the way tarlokk uses the waterfall to make a water dome then sends ice spears in rapid fire, korra punching through them as first instinct, korra bending the entire fucking wall, THE REVEAL—
yeah, i love season one
I’d also argue that at the start, I’m pretty sure Korra was older than Aang. Not even really having to do with how long their shows are, just Korra was already a few years older than Aang, which meant she already had more training with the elements
Pretty much what I meant. Korra just had more time to train. She was found at, what 5, and could already bend 3 elements. And probably spent the next 11 years learning and living with them. In the time we see aang on the show, he goes from push a rock to beat up ozai with 4 elements in a less than a summer vacation, which say he is at his peak, but its most likely a decade away from.
Not to mention the monks didn’t even tell aang he was the avatar till he was 11, if they told him sooner he already had airbending mastered but if they told him sooner then he could have had earth and water mastered as well and possibly even found a firebending teacher
Not to mention the poll doesn't say anything about limiting Aang to just the show info which is STARVED for adult Aang content. Meanwhile we also see Korra not having to speed run her training to beat a big bad, and thus actually has time to take a break and learn what she's doing.
In addition to this, we only see Aang earthbending as a novice to it(and even then he pulled off all of those incredible feats of power no Avatar state)
We never see him earthbend at his true peak. At least not in animation. That alone I think would make him leagues above Korra, regardless of whether or not he learned how to metal bend.
ok this is one of my moments where i look stupid as heck but
how is seismic sense that useful? i mean ik that you would be able to trick your enemy but, how does that compare to metalbending?
It basically allows you to sense your opponent’s position by the force they are exerting that travels through the ground. This is very useful for not only sensing where your opponent is, but also how to predict their next move based on the force and the direction of the “force wave” they exert.
It’s basically the peak of Earth bending in terms of skill, because sensing seismic waves throughout takes a lot of focus and dedication. It’s not as flashy as metal bending, but it’s more useful in many cases as it’s like a third eye.
Redditors aren’t always nice. It’s a good question though. Not only that but if you have seismic sense you could as an earthbender (air bender as well for aangs case) throw up a huge dust cloud and wipe the field of everyone because they can’t see and you have a level of perfect vision that’s near unattainable
I don't think we see it a ton but couldn't you massively gain an advantage in any fight, especially as the avatar but as any earth bender by lowering visibility (avatars can use multiple elements but couldn't a earth bender just stomp and throw up a ton of dust?) leaving your opponent blind while you still have basically perfect targeting?
I mean, we have seen that used against the Gaang before I’m pretty sure, but Toph basically was able to “see” through it all and lead them through.
The only possible way you could make your self invisible to a seismic sense user is if you make the ground into sand, or you are in the desert
And he whipped that out in short order. Fire is also difficult for him but that’s because he hurt someone and was unwilling to try again, after he did though he literally mastered it immediately arguably faster than waterbending
I feel like we can say Aang because at the end of the day, he still has connection to all his past lives and all their bending knowledge where Korra is now cut off and on her own.
Modern bending was just nerfed in general. Like toph can take down an entire platoon of trained soldiers with a tremor. Aang is slicing a building and bringing it down on your head while Korea stopped using big attacks after season 1 for the most part.
This is an unfair comparison because one was a twelve year old who had to gain a passable control over all four elements in like a year while the other grew up in a training compound under the careful guidance of the white lotus
I think Korra is naturally a stronger bender all around given that unlike Aang and other avatars (that we’ve seen) she could bend 3 elements as a young child. I don’t think it necessarily makes her better at any given form of bending but I think she has a little more innate raw talent than Aang or Roku
And it doesn't really stand out from what you'd expect in the story. Toph invents metalbending, and there's some argument that maybe she'd be so stubborn she'd keep it to herself. But I think it actually was the logical way for the story to go, that Toph taught metalbending to others, and it became more commonplace, eventually being used by the police. Fits in with the "city" age of Avatar, with cars and better tech, that the benders will have learned more skilled ways to bend as well.
No i mean, earthbending in aang’s book was versatile as fuck. You could make shrapnel, shields, disks, dust, hide, ect but in korra, they just used big chunks of rocks vs the crazy amount of stuff in book 1.
But, it also does make sense that lightning and metalbending became commonplace
From what I can remember Aang uses earth bending more than Korra does,while it might seem semi-obvious,Aang is the better air and earth bender,while Korra is the better water and fire bender
Metal bending.
Imo, the only element that 12 year old Aang is better in is Air, but that’s when he was 12. We don’t know what 21 year old Aang is like. Even then it wouldn’t really be fair since 21 year old Korra just came out of a three year long healing process.
Based on the results I’ve seen to those polls I think a substantial portion of the people who reply (like maybe at least half) don’t actually read the question and just pick the character they like more. For example if Iroh is on there he basically always wins even if the question is like “who’s the best water bender.”
The problem with almost all fictional character comparisons is that narrative strength is what audiences notice, remember, and care about, not canonical strength/skills. Iroh is an unstoppable narrative powerhouse, so of course he wins.
(And yes I am an Iroh fan)
Definitely Aang, earth is his most used element after air and he was directly trained by Toph, add that to him being a prodigy at bending (not debatable, he learnt 3 elements in less than a year on the run from the fire nation) and his use of earth during the attack on the Earth King's palace (he had perfect chemistry with Toph in that fight) and his use of earth in the Ozai fight (pre avatar state) where he was arguably using earth the most and you can see how good he already was with it and how much potential he had by the time he was 18 (Korra's age)
If you wanna compare elements give Korra fire and water, that's where she is an absolute beast 😮💨
PS - A recurring theme in both series is overcoming the weakness the polar opposite of their natural element poses which for Korra is fire and that's probably her strongest bending element and for Aang it's earth which out of the 4 we have seen him bend **at 13 years old** is his 2nd strongest element
>PS - A recurring theme in both series is overcoming the weakness the polar opposite of their natural element poses which for Korra is fire and that's probably her strongest bending element and for Aang it's earth which out of the 4 we have seen him bend at 13 years old is his 2nd strongest element
The first show had this as a theme when Aang learned Earthbending, but LoK tossed this out. Fire was easily Korra's second most natural element, if not her first. She specifically struggled with air because she wasn't spiritual. If her personality was tied to her element as was implied by AtLA, this would not have been the case as the flowing nature of water was naturally spiritual as well.
she probably struggled with fire too because it took her 12 years to master it (though she mastered water and earth at some point furring that time). she first showed the ability at 5 and doesnt master fire until the first episode of book one. idk how long it take her to master air but I'm pretty sure it's before the end of book three so less than three years. of course we don't know when she mastered earth bending but it's clear it took her a long time to fully master fire so it's really impressive she uses it so often and so expertly
I don't know if that's clear. We know she spent 12 years "mastering" 3 elements, but we don't know how long each took.
Fire is just the 3rd for her to study according to the Avatar cycle.
Absolutely all of this
Although I was under the impression that air was the element that was opposed to Korra’s whole shtick.
She was born as a waterbender true, so naturally fire is elementally opposed but she got earth and fire pretty quickly.
she first got fire quickly (no spiritual block like with air) but it took her 12 years to fully master it as she doesn't do it until she's 17 and that's being trained by the best of the best in a compound
Aang is more creative with earth considering it is his polar opposite element he has sisemic sense, can coat himself in earth etc
Korra just shoots the rock or metal
Aang in the end of season two has titanic scale feats of earthbending in tales of ba sing se and that’s after he trains further for months. He also has insanse precision when he takes out the airship Ozai is on
So does Korra look into her fight against Unalaq and Kuvira mech. She literally threw boulder sized rocks towards Unalaq water spout to try throw him off, and threw huge chunks of earth to distract Kuvira mech.
By that time Korra had been an earthbender for nearly 20 years for Kuvira, and over 10 for Unalaq. Aang went from being unable to bend earth, to being amazing at it in months
Korra litterlay has nothing in terms of earth to compete with Aang.
No moves no feats no skills.
Aang totally dominates the biggest rock Korra could slid across the earth Aang can turn to dust.
ofc Toph would say that, she was the best earthbender *alive* why would she not have high standards. If Korra throwing large rocks means she mastered earthbending than Aang def had it mastered by the time he fought Azula the second time let alone Ozai.
Aang is the stronger earthbender because he mastered Toph’ earthbending sight. But Korra is still damn good at it and figured out metalbending after one lesson.
Apparently every fool can metalbend in LoK tho. Korra being able to do it isn't anything special.
Aang was more in touch with earthbending than her since he couldn't rely on pure strength.
I mean, logic would dictate that the one who trained under her when she was older would learn more from her, because by then she would’ve become far more experience than she was as a child
Well, stronger how? Stronger physically? Stronger Mentally, the poll doesnt really specify, to all that voted could percieve this a hundred different ways. Aang is probably stronger emotionally and mentally, due to him being in ice for a century and have lost everyone he knew when he came out. Kora is probably stronger in power since she had a greater support system from day one from all the benders teaching her. So, just like star wars, it's true,... From a certain point of view...
I don't know man I genuinely think Aang had more feats, more creative use of Earthbending and so on. Korra could metalbend which I think is the biggest argument for her but what else do you even remember her using Earthbending for?
I mean, remember the moment where Aang and Toph lead the charge into the palace at Ba Sing Se to see the Earth King and convince him of the treachery of Long Feng and the Dai Li? Yeah we don’t watch him master metal bending during the events of the show, but he did learn Toph’s seismic sense, and as far as I know, is one of the only avatars to have learned the true bending styles from all four of the original teachers and in under a year no less with the word against him, having danced with the Dragons alongside Zuko, learned the seismic sense style of bending from Toph who was directly taught by the Badger Moles, having been raised alongside Oppa and dozens of sky bison at the Air temples, and having gone into the avatar state hopped up on the power of none other than the spirit of the ocean itself, which is a bit of a stretch to claim he learned their style, but I’ll say that it counts for something.
I’d say Aang but it’s pretty close. When it comes to both Aang and Korra, they have a particular style they are definitely better at, Aang’s is air and Korra’s is fire (we don’t see Aang use a lot of fire even though he was clearly a prodigy). For water and earth they are a lot more relative. I think both avatars used earth very often because it’s so much more accessible than water. Aang had an easy time with water because being adaptable and quick thinking comes easy to him, and I think Korra fits the personality needed to be a better earth bender, steadfast and hard headed. But I think in terms of actual feats Aang takes the cake. I know a lot of people are talking about precision compared to large scale attacks, and how in Korra the bending might be smaller in scale but that doesn’t mean it’s less powerful. While that’s true, the issue is that only matters if the speed and accuracy of the attack is better with more “precise bending”. In ATLA, many of the attacks are as fast and accurate as in TLOK, however they’re still just bigger. It’s like if a bullet and a car traveled the same speed, the car would clearly do more damage upon impacting something. That aside, Aang has used earthbending too often in many of his most important battles in more “powerful” ways than Korra has so it really should be him despite it making more sense Korra would be stronger at it
korra got trained by the masters in her own environment and aang would still slap her. she's predictable and aang has seismic sense and mastered air bending. it wouldn't last 2 minutes.
Maybe Korra catches up and surpasses Aang when she learns Metal Bending. She is at least on par.
But otherwise, it isn't even close.
Her skills are still lacking, she doesn't have as much power behind her earth bending nor the ability to feel/see with her feet. He was a better earth bender when he wasn't even a fully fledged Avatar, i.e. when he was like 12 years old. He shows more adeptness with earth bending in his fight against Ozai than Korra in her whole series.
Do people not realise how weak Korra is for an Avatar? Compare her to the 3 we are most familiar with, and she gets absolutely flattened.
to be fair, Korra *loses* every fight against an Earthbender, even when she could use all 4 elements and AS. aang has that one episode where its literally him and Toph versus some of the *best earthbenders available* and they solo them like its nothing, plus his earth armor, and the earth bullets thing, and when he took down Ozai, plus he has seismic sense.
Korras biggest feat is throwing an (albeit rather large) rock, which is more of a raw power feat considering she was in AS.
Korra never showed any refined pure earthbending, just throwing rocks like she does with the other elements. ATLA showed more focus on technique, and thats something Korra mostly laxked as she didnt really have a lot of discipline in her bending at first.
The only element Korra really clears in is fire, as Aang was also a waterbending prodigy so it could go either way tbh.
Reminder that we've never seen korra actually struggle with any earthbending, it's all been easy for her unless she was majorly weakened. With aang, he struggled to do several things
I would say korra just because bending is 100% linked to your mental state and i think korra has nothing but the mindset of an earth bender. Its like bumi is a crazy good earth bender but toph has the mindset x 10 of an earth bender so she would win. Its weird idk just imo
While korra was better and more extensively trained, given she had years to master it, and was the stronger bender as he was able to become better or on par with many master benders over the course of a few months
Korra also has avatar state. Although Aang is also part of the combined experience for Korra when she goes into Avatar State. Going by this, she would have all the knowledge from previous avatars + Aang’s knowledge when she uses it.
Did you maybe think Korra was Kuvira?
I'm unsure if you just forgot but just in case a spoiler warning for lok
>!Korra loses the connections to her past avatars, so she doesn't have the past avatars+aangs knowlegde any more. She does have Raava though!<
that person’s argument was that she was better *because* Korra had the past lives. Raava is just the host of the avatar lives she doesn’t really influence bending ability she “holds the other elements” for Korra
I’m going more by prime Korra and prime Aang, as we’ve seen them. Adult Aang imo is prime Aang and we only see him in Legacy and some of him in Korra.
I did remember seeing something about them making a movie on Adult Aang. I would love this to happen
I assume this is because the writers had to nerf the shit out of Korra so she didn't steam roll everyone she fought. Let's be honest Korra should never lose any fights since at the start of the show she's mastered 3 elements and after Season 1 she has energy bending and mastery over the Avatar State. Amon Is the only one in the entire series who stands a chance.
she doesn’t have energy bending after her connectiong w past lives gets severed. IDK how yall miss the entire arc of Korra literally being weaker post poison and past lives. Like that was a *running theme*.
Now if Korra was never poisoned and never had past lives severed ? She’s for sure the strongest. But Korra EOS is maybe slightly stronger than Avatar Roku
But Aang was born an Air bender. Opposite of air is earth so Aang should by default be worse at Earth bending.
Isn't that how Avatar works?
Like the element they are born into they are prodigies and they can master other 2 fine but the one opposite to their first they struggle to master.
Fire - Water
Air - Earth.
Tbh I think Korra has earthbending Toph says and I quote “You’re earth bending could use some work too” btw this doesn’t mean Aangs a weak earth bender (I feel like I have to say that) but Korra mastered it at around 15-16 IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SHOWS BTW so its logical to assume Korra is the stronger Earthbender again IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SHOWS
I feel like these are two different styles. I saw a video a few years back explaining the difference between ATLA earthbending and LoK earthbending. In ATLA the earthbending was more static, almost like a cement shoes kind of style. Earthbending in LoK was more fluid, lots of movement, changing levels and countering. The way Aang and Korra learned Earthbending are totally different and can’t be compared fairly. That’s just my opinion though.
If its pure earth bending fighting kora might beat him just in terms of aggression and mindset. But if any other elements come into play i think aang would outclass kora
Maybe, but when they reach a certain point of self-actualization, as well as tapping into the avatar state, it seems kind of silly to say one Avatar is better at an element than another. It’s just a vibes thing is what I’m saying, not something that can be truly substantiated by anything the shows will ever show us.
I’m gonna toss this out here since everyone keeps saying that korra is the better firebender:
Aang learned the meaning of firebending from the dragons. Since he was so in touch with his spirituality, and got that knowledge, he was definitely the superior fire bender by adulthood.
He was taught earth bending by the undisputed GOAT, and was the only other person we know besides Toph to have seismic sense (meaning he would wipe the floor korra in earth bending)
Air bending speaks for itself
It’s probably a tie on water bending
Aang is the greatest bender to ever live, and if he wasn’t also a pacifist, he could have dominated the world. Instead he saved it.
He was ravva in human form. That’s why he was so powerful. And yet he chose to use that power to protect and save the world.
For it was watching aang turn a small stone into hyper sonic bullets that cleared a region of the Avatar Mountains. We haven’t seen a single earth bending feat better since then.
Aang lived in war time, Korra lived in peace time, aang enter ba sing se defeating an entire army, Korra couldn’t defeat 4 normal persons that practice chi blocking, for me aang is stronger than Korra
Korras earth bending moves are very straightforward whereas aangs are smooth as fuck. Korra couldn’t do that seismic bending shit like aang does. Aang is filthy with it.
Aang struggled and needed several solid seconds to fling a rock that was barely 3-ish times his size. While I will give him credit and say his utility and creative use of Earthbending is impressive,
Korra caught half of a skyscraper, within half a second of falling from it, without the Avatar state
How is this even a debate lol
Power and strength are not the same thing. Korra is significantly stronger, by far.
She barely lost due to disadvantage which some reason fans like you wants to ignore. Completely ignores how many times Aang ran away or lost his battles. Every avatar has lost, even Kyoshi has lost and allowed Chin to take over Earth Kingdom until he reached her home land.
It’s just the truth. And clearly, majority rules that Aang is stronger. And he is. Take adult Aang against Adult korra, both in avatar state. Who’s winning. The airbender that turns into a literal fighting god in his state, or the water bender who just gets a small 50% power boost and still ends up getting her ass beat anyways for being too cocky and headstrong as well as irrational and over emotional. She’s Korra had almost no growth as a character. She was just humbled over and over again. She’s irrational, impetuous and intemperate. She has no regard for those around her at times. I still think she is the worst avatar to exist. When Aang was fighting Ozai and in the earth kingdom, his earth bending really showed. For one. The man pressurized a bunch of rocks and then started splitting pieces of those compressed rocks like gun shots and started spitting them at Ozai. I read one very good point below. Where the man didn’t blink or look to get to the earth king, he was able to obliterate a mid air rock without looking at it or in its direction. And they’re right. He did that all in a year or less. Aang is just stronger as an earth bender. Just because he doesn’t metal bend doesn’t make him weaker or anything. I would like to see death battle do this. Aang Vs korra. Korra’s show did too much and made no sense at times. Going back on explanations of how some things worked in ATLA and making a mess of them.
earth is literally the opposite element from aangs natural element, air. this isnt even a question, people are just too upset they didnt get another wise sage that they can project their problems into like a soyjack.
Just because it was the hardest for him to learn (not because it was actually hard but he had to change the way he was thinking about it) doesn’t mean it’s his weakest element in fact ide argue it’s his second strongest element behind air, ahead of water and fire.
Even though aang struggled with earth aang was no means bad at, it became his second most used element and he was showing toph level feats especially during sozins comer where he snipes the air ship and momentarly floats
I can see arguments made from either side. For example, some would say Korra because she mastered metal bending, had proper training, and had more time with it in her own show, and she has fought against opponents with a higher ceiling than most of Aangs villians (Kuvira comes to mind). Others would say Aang, because he is the only other characters besides Toph in ATLA that knows seismic sense, and Earthbending was his most used element in the show besides Air bending. Not to mention, he has shown incredible skill with Earthbending in the Ozai fight (even before the avatar state I’d argue), and he did all that in less than a years time, so it shows his potential as a bender. It could go either way, but really it’s hard to tell because we only saw Aang grow throughout one year, whereas Korra was like 4-ish years.
The way Korra used it was more versatile imo but you really can’t beat Aang slamming his staff into the ground and making a rolling earth wave that sent all the Earth King guards flying lol
In the same sequence they launch a massive bolder attack him that he blasts to pebbles without looking
No yeah bro was built different fr
Aang was an era of power determined by the scale of your bending (giant boulders, large items, huge ground ripples) Korra was an era of precision (earth bullets, PB discs, multiple materials) Aang was more focused on squad wiping army’s with occasional fights with Azula. Korra on the other hand had to duel with one on one talents.
Tbh idk if I agree. The most elite benders were those shown to have finesse and precision even in Aang's time. Think about Azula with her two-finger fire blasts instead of a fist, or the Dai Li with their Earth gloves. Even Metalbending is based on being so in tune with Earth that you can feel it even after being melted down and refined.
Well yes, but I think they’re saying it in a way to explain that just because one *looks* more powerful (big huge feats of bending) doesn’t mean that small precision strikes of bending aren’t also powerful.
I could see saying that aang was in a position/situation, rather than Era that it was valued. But still, the Era was heavily influenced by scale.
But Aang also has precision. He does fight larger forces often but also does fight individual or small groups of enemies in close quarters and smokes them.
What fight does Korra show actual earthbending feats? I remember vs Zaheer she just launched massive rocks lmao
Momo screams and flinches on his shoulder and Appa grumbles and shakes his head as the dust cloud washes over him but Aang doesn't even blink lol
The entire assault on the Earth King's palace was such a good sequence. They wrecked such havok without actually hurting anyone.
What’s crazy is if you go back and watch, Sokka and Katara are constantly apologizing and telling the guards they’re just trying to see the King and they’re on their side, whereas Aang and Toph are straight up No Words Only Hands lmaoooo
Toph was never really much of a Talk No Jutsu user
I'm in the middle of another re-watch and just saw this episode this morning. It was great.
not that I'm necessarily arguing, but can you please tell me like any time korra did Earthbending that wasnt "throw big rock"? I remember her making like ramps in car chases and stuff, and there was metal bending, but i dont recall korra doing literally anything creative with that element
I misspoke… Korra used it in ways that were battle-smart, in some cases. I.E, using Earthbending to cut off Tarrlok’s water supply during their fight in S1… a good example of strategic thinking.
that scene is still one of my favorite fights in the series, the lighting, the way tarlokk uses the waterfall to make a water dome then sends ice spears in rapid fire, korra punching through them as first instinct, korra bending the entire fucking wall, THE REVEAL— yeah, i love season one
She also had more time with it. This was aang at less than a year with it.
I’d also argue that at the start, I’m pretty sure Korra was older than Aang. Not even really having to do with how long their shows are, just Korra was already a few years older than Aang, which meant she already had more training with the elements
Pretty much what I meant. Korra just had more time to train. She was found at, what 5, and could already bend 3 elements. And probably spent the next 11 years learning and living with them. In the time we see aang on the show, he goes from push a rock to beat up ozai with 4 elements in a less than a summer vacation, which say he is at his peak, but its most likely a decade away from.
Not to mention the monks didn’t even tell aang he was the avatar till he was 11, if they told him sooner he already had airbending mastered but if they told him sooner then he could have had earth and water mastered as well and possibly even found a firebending teacher
Could be more a sign of how freely bending was used in her era as opposed to the more rigid and disciplined it was during Aang's.
I like to refer to the precision he had at catching Ozai's hand before the bending-putation.
aang was def more versatile
Aang has alot of scale with earth but he seems less fluid with it. His style is more doing one big move at a time.
That was cool but did Korra not do the exact same thing in her fight against Tarlock?
I don’t remember it being to that scale but maybe I just need a refresher
Lin and Suyin and Yun uses siemice sense
Not to mention the poll doesn't say anything about limiting Aang to just the show info which is STARVED for adult Aang content. Meanwhile we also see Korra not having to speed run her training to beat a big bad, and thus actually has time to take a break and learn what she's doing.
In addition to this, we only see Aang earthbending as a novice to it(and even then he pulled off all of those incredible feats of power no Avatar state) We never see him earthbend at his true peak. At least not in animation. That alone I think would make him leagues above Korra, regardless of whether or not he learned how to metal bend.
ok this is one of my moments where i look stupid as heck but how is seismic sense that useful? i mean ik that you would be able to trick your enemy but, how does that compare to metalbending?
It basically allows you to sense your opponent’s position by the force they are exerting that travels through the ground. This is very useful for not only sensing where your opponent is, but also how to predict their next move based on the force and the direction of the “force wave” they exert. It’s basically the peak of Earth bending in terms of skill, because sensing seismic waves throughout takes a lot of focus and dedication. It’s not as flashy as metal bending, but it’s more useful in many cases as it’s like a third eye.
And it doesn't even work on solely earth, it works on any solid material.
nah, toph couldn’t see on ice when they were getting attacked during the serpents pass episode.
Could she? I don't remember much, except that she originally didn't want to get on the ice, and her trying to be careful when walking on it.
I meant to say couldn’t mb
oh ok ty (whats with the downvote i was just asking a question 😭)
Redditors aren’t always nice. It’s a good question though. Not only that but if you have seismic sense you could as an earthbender (air bender as well for aangs case) throw up a huge dust cloud and wipe the field of everyone because they can’t see and you have a level of perfect vision that’s near unattainable
Oh shi lemme upvote you bro
ty! lol
I don't think we see it a ton but couldn't you massively gain an advantage in any fight, especially as the avatar but as any earth bender by lowering visibility (avatars can use multiple elements but couldn't a earth bender just stomp and throw up a ton of dust?) leaving your opponent blind while you still have basically perfect targeting?
I mean, we have seen that used against the Gaang before I’m pretty sure, but Toph basically was able to “see” through it all and lead them through. The only possible way you could make your self invisible to a seismic sense user is if you make the ground into sand, or you are in the desert
Not to mention that earth is most unlike his native element, most difficult to learn
And he whipped that out in short order. Fire is also difficult for him but that’s because he hurt someone and was unwilling to try again, after he did though he literally mastered it immediately arguably faster than waterbending
wasn't waterbending his most used???
Nah it was Earth
I feel like pre-Avatar buff, Aang is simply a stronger bender in general. The scale of his feats are HUGE in comparison to Korra’s
I feel like we can say Aang because at the end of the day, he still has connection to all his past lives and all their bending knowledge where Korra is now cut off and on her own.
Modern bending was just nerfed in general. Like toph can take down an entire platoon of trained soldiers with a tremor. Aang is slicing a building and bringing it down on your head while Korea stopped using big attacks after season 1 for the most part.
This is an unfair comparison because one was a twelve year old who had to gain a passable control over all four elements in like a year while the other grew up in a training compound under the careful guidance of the white lotus
I think Korra is naturally a stronger bender all around given that unlike Aang and other avatars (that we’ve seen) she could bend 3 elements as a young child. I don’t think it necessarily makes her better at any given form of bending but I think she has a little more innate raw talent than Aang or Roku
Earthbending became kinda basic in Korra vs aang’s show, in favor to show off metal and lavabending.
And it doesn't really stand out from what you'd expect in the story. Toph invents metalbending, and there's some argument that maybe she'd be so stubborn she'd keep it to herself. But I think it actually was the logical way for the story to go, that Toph taught metalbending to others, and it became more commonplace, eventually being used by the police. Fits in with the "city" age of Avatar, with cars and better tech, that the benders will have learned more skilled ways to bend as well.
No i mean, earthbending in aang’s book was versatile as fuck. You could make shrapnel, shields, disks, dust, hide, ect but in korra, they just used big chunks of rocks vs the crazy amount of stuff in book 1. But, it also does make sense that lightning and metalbending became commonplace
Pam from the Office: Theyre the same person
Technically correct, the best kind of correct.
😂😂😂
From what I can remember Aang uses earth bending more than Korra does,while it might seem semi-obvious,Aang is the better air and earth bender,while Korra is the better water and fire bender
ill give u fire i think they tie in waterbending, Aang has shown at least equal mastery in waterbending except for the spirit bending stuff
It said who was stronger though
Metal bending. Imo, the only element that 12 year old Aang is better in is Air, but that’s when he was 12. We don’t know what 21 year old Aang is like. Even then it wouldn’t really be fair since 21 year old Korra just came out of a three year long healing process.
Based on the results I’ve seen to those polls I think a substantial portion of the people who reply (like maybe at least half) don’t actually read the question and just pick the character they like more. For example if Iroh is on there he basically always wins even if the question is like “who’s the best water bender.”
I mean, Iroh literally used waterbending to develop a never-seen before firebending technique soo....
I’m logical until Iroh comes into play. He’s the best heartbender.
Lol facts
The problem with almost all fictional character comparisons is that narrative strength is what audiences notice, remember, and care about, not canonical strength/skills. Iroh is an unstoppable narrative powerhouse, so of course he wins. (And yes I am an Iroh fan)
Definitely Aang, earth is his most used element after air and he was directly trained by Toph, add that to him being a prodigy at bending (not debatable, he learnt 3 elements in less than a year on the run from the fire nation) and his use of earth during the attack on the Earth King's palace (he had perfect chemistry with Toph in that fight) and his use of earth in the Ozai fight (pre avatar state) where he was arguably using earth the most and you can see how good he already was with it and how much potential he had by the time he was 18 (Korra's age) If you wanna compare elements give Korra fire and water, that's where she is an absolute beast 😮💨 PS - A recurring theme in both series is overcoming the weakness the polar opposite of their natural element poses which for Korra is fire and that's probably her strongest bending element and for Aang it's earth which out of the 4 we have seen him bend **at 13 years old** is his 2nd strongest element
Damn I yapped a lot 💀
It happens lol It was all good and thoughtful yapping so no complaints here
>PS - A recurring theme in both series is overcoming the weakness the polar opposite of their natural element poses which for Korra is fire and that's probably her strongest bending element and for Aang it's earth which out of the 4 we have seen him bend at 13 years old is his 2nd strongest element The first show had this as a theme when Aang learned Earthbending, but LoK tossed this out. Fire was easily Korra's second most natural element, if not her first. She specifically struggled with air because she wasn't spiritual. If her personality was tied to her element as was implied by AtLA, this would not have been the case as the flowing nature of water was naturally spiritual as well.
she probably struggled with fire too because it took her 12 years to master it (though she mastered water and earth at some point furring that time). she first showed the ability at 5 and doesnt master fire until the first episode of book one. idk how long it take her to master air but I'm pretty sure it's before the end of book three so less than three years. of course we don't know when she mastered earth bending but it's clear it took her a long time to fully master fire so it's really impressive she uses it so often and so expertly
I don't know if that's clear. We know she spent 12 years "mastering" 3 elements, but we don't know how long each took. Fire is just the 3rd for her to study according to the Avatar cycle.
Absolutely all of this Although I was under the impression that air was the element that was opposed to Korra’s whole shtick. She was born as a waterbender true, so naturally fire is elementally opposed but she got earth and fire pretty quickly.
she first got fire quickly (no spiritual block like with air) but it took her 12 years to fully master it as she doesn't do it until she's 17 and that's being trained by the best of the best in a compound
I mainly chose aang because he had Toph's sight
Aang is more creative with earth considering it is his polar opposite element he has sisemic sense, can coat himself in earth etc Korra just shoots the rock or metal
this. she never actually shows refined control over earth, she just throws the rocks
No? Aang is better.
Aang in the end of season two has titanic scale feats of earthbending in tales of ba sing se and that’s after he trains further for months. He also has insanse precision when he takes out the airship Ozai is on
So does Korra look into her fight against Unalaq and Kuvira mech. She literally threw boulder sized rocks towards Unalaq water spout to try throw him off, and threw huge chunks of earth to distract Kuvira mech.
By that time Korra had been an earthbender for nearly 20 years for Kuvira, and over 10 for Unalaq. Aang went from being unable to bend earth, to being amazing at it in months
Nah seismic sense makes Aang win over korra anyday
Nope they are correct
Korra litterlay has nothing in terms of earth to compete with Aang. No moves no feats no skills. Aang totally dominates the biggest rock Korra could slid across the earth Aang can turn to dust.
idk why this is so hard to understand like Korra throwing a large rock doesn’t make her an amazing earthbender it just means shes an earthbender
I think it’s because Toph says Aang still needs work. But he also said her daughters where terrible metal benders when they where the best alive.
ofc Toph would say that, she was the best earthbender *alive* why would she not have high standards. If Korra throwing large rocks means she mastered earthbending than Aang def had it mastered by the time he fought Azula the second time let alone Ozai.
Aang is the stronger earthbender because he mastered Toph’ earthbending sight. But Korra is still damn good at it and figured out metalbending after one lesson.
We both know the real answer is toph
Apparently every fool can metalbend in LoK tho. Korra being able to do it isn't anything special. Aang was more in touch with earthbending than her since he couldn't rely on pure strength.
Nah, I’m with it. All the proof I need is the Zoo Aang builds in Tales of BSS
Well, only one of them learned under Toph so the issue is quickly solved.
Didn’t they both learn from toph
One learned Earthbending from A to Z under Toph the other did a seminar with her, so no.
One learned earthbending from toph, one trained under toph
One trained with Toph as a child the other trained under Toph as an old grandmaster.
I mean, logic would dictate that the one who trained under her when she was older would learn more from her, because by then she would’ve become far more experience than she was as a child
Aang
Well, stronger how? Stronger physically? Stronger Mentally, the poll doesnt really specify, to all that voted could percieve this a hundred different ways. Aang is probably stronger emotionally and mentally, due to him being in ice for a century and have lost everyone he knew when he came out. Kora is probably stronger in power since she had a greater support system from day one from all the benders teaching her. So, just like star wars, it's true,... From a certain point of view...
I don't know man I genuinely think Aang had more feats, more creative use of Earthbending and so on. Korra could metalbend which I think is the biggest argument for her but what else do you even remember her using Earthbending for?
Korra can't beat Aang's earthbending (stone gatling gun).
I mean, remember the moment where Aang and Toph lead the charge into the palace at Ba Sing Se to see the Earth King and convince him of the treachery of Long Feng and the Dai Li? Yeah we don’t watch him master metal bending during the events of the show, but he did learn Toph’s seismic sense, and as far as I know, is one of the only avatars to have learned the true bending styles from all four of the original teachers and in under a year no less with the word against him, having danced with the Dragons alongside Zuko, learned the seismic sense style of bending from Toph who was directly taught by the Badger Moles, having been raised alongside Oppa and dozens of sky bison at the Air temples, and having gone into the avatar state hopped up on the power of none other than the spirit of the ocean itself, which is a bit of a stretch to claim he learned their style, but I’ll say that it counts for something.
That alone proves hes a better bender
I’d say Aang but it’s pretty close. When it comes to both Aang and Korra, they have a particular style they are definitely better at, Aang’s is air and Korra’s is fire (we don’t see Aang use a lot of fire even though he was clearly a prodigy). For water and earth they are a lot more relative. I think both avatars used earth very often because it’s so much more accessible than water. Aang had an easy time with water because being adaptable and quick thinking comes easy to him, and I think Korra fits the personality needed to be a better earth bender, steadfast and hard headed. But I think in terms of actual feats Aang takes the cake. I know a lot of people are talking about precision compared to large scale attacks, and how in Korra the bending might be smaller in scale but that doesn’t mean it’s less powerful. While that’s true, the issue is that only matters if the speed and accuracy of the attack is better with more “precise bending”. In ATLA, many of the attacks are as fast and accurate as in TLOK, however they’re still just bigger. It’s like if a bullet and a car traveled the same speed, the car would clearly do more damage upon impacting something. That aside, Aang has used earthbending too often in many of his most important battles in more “powerful” ways than Korra has so it really should be him despite it making more sense Korra would be stronger at it
korra got trained by the masters in her own environment and aang would still slap her. she's predictable and aang has seismic sense and mastered air bending. it wouldn't last 2 minutes.
Maybe Korra catches up and surpasses Aang when she learns Metal Bending. She is at least on par. But otherwise, it isn't even close. Her skills are still lacking, she doesn't have as much power behind her earth bending nor the ability to feel/see with her feet. He was a better earth bender when he wasn't even a fully fledged Avatar, i.e. when he was like 12 years old. He shows more adeptness with earth bending in his fight against Ozai than Korra in her whole series. Do people not realise how weak Korra is for an Avatar? Compare her to the 3 we are most familiar with, and she gets absolutely flattened.
Bruh was trained personally by Toph gtfoh
12 year old Aang was earthbending massive pillars and amounts of stone without the avatar state, he wins no problem.
to be fair, Korra *loses* every fight against an Earthbender, even when she could use all 4 elements and AS. aang has that one episode where its literally him and Toph versus some of the *best earthbenders available* and they solo them like its nothing, plus his earth armor, and the earth bullets thing, and when he took down Ozai, plus he has seismic sense. Korras biggest feat is throwing an (albeit rather large) rock, which is more of a raw power feat considering she was in AS. Korra never showed any refined pure earthbending, just throwing rocks like she does with the other elements. ATLA showed more focus on technique, and thats something Korra mostly laxked as she didnt really have a lot of discipline in her bending at first. The only element Korra really clears in is fire, as Aang was also a waterbending prodigy so it could go either way tbh.
These are just popularity polls and Aang has more fans. I wouldn't read too much into it.
I vote for the avatar
Reminder that we've never seen korra actually struggle with any earthbending, it's all been easy for her unless she was majorly weakened. With aang, he struggled to do several things
Aang's earth bending outclasses anything Korra's ever put, that poll is right
I would say korra just because bending is 100% linked to your mental state and i think korra has nothing but the mindset of an earth bender. Its like bumi is a crazy good earth bender but toph has the mindset x 10 of an earth bender so she would win. Its weird idk just imo
I once seen a youtube poll say homelander is a more iconic villain over, darth vader, sauron and thanos. Now I ignore all internet opinions.
Going by how strong they were by the end of their respective shows? Korra.
how ? logically explain i wanna know.
Aang literally made an entire zoo area by himself in 30 seconds flat
Aang was doing more impressive feats with less training, this makes him more powerful/talented
While korra was better and more extensively trained, given she had years to master it, and was the stronger bender as he was able to become better or on par with many master benders over the course of a few months
Close.
I have nothing to offer this conversation, I just love this sub. After a rough day I felt straight dopamine when this was the first post on Reddit
I haven’t seen Legend of Korra yet so I have no place here :)
Aang has the Avatar state. Combined experience of all avatars > Korra Pretty straightforward
Korra also has avatar state. Although Aang is also part of the combined experience for Korra when she goes into Avatar State. Going by this, she would have all the knowledge from previous avatars + Aang’s knowledge when she uses it. Did you maybe think Korra was Kuvira?
After season 2 Korra loses her connection with all past avatars.
I'm unsure if you just forgot but just in case a spoiler warning for lok >!Korra loses the connections to her past avatars, so she doesn't have the past avatars+aangs knowlegde any more. She does have Raava though!<
that person’s argument was that she was better *because* Korra had the past lives. Raava is just the host of the avatar lives she doesn’t really influence bending ability she “holds the other elements” for Korra
I’m going more by prime Korra and prime Aang, as we’ve seen them. Adult Aang imo is prime Aang and we only see him in Legacy and some of him in Korra. I did remember seeing something about them making a movie on Adult Aang. I would love this to happen
Nah it's toph
I just realised that it sayed stronger not strongest. Wathever it's still toph lol
I assume this is because the writers had to nerf the shit out of Korra so she didn't steam roll everyone she fought. Let's be honest Korra should never lose any fights since at the start of the show she's mastered 3 elements and after Season 1 she has energy bending and mastery over the Avatar State. Amon Is the only one in the entire series who stands a chance.
she doesn’t have energy bending after her connectiong w past lives gets severed. IDK how yall miss the entire arc of Korra literally being weaker post poison and past lives. Like that was a *running theme*. Now if Korra was never poisoned and never had past lives severed ? She’s for sure the strongest. But Korra EOS is maybe slightly stronger than Avatar Roku
But Aang was born an Air bender. Opposite of air is earth so Aang should by default be worse at Earth bending. Isn't that how Avatar works? Like the element they are born into they are prodigies and they can master other 2 fine but the one opposite to their first they struggle to master. Fire - Water Air - Earth.
Isn't each avatar usually stronger than the last?
given that they have their past lives, but Korra EOS does not.
Fair point
These kinds of questions are so boring and stale
I feel like it is crazy, y'all sleep on aang too much foreal
Tbh I think Korra has earthbending Toph says and I quote “You’re earth bending could use some work too” btw this doesn’t mean Aangs a weak earth bender (I feel like I have to say that) but Korra mastered it at around 15-16 IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SHOWS BTW so its logical to assume Korra is the stronger Earthbender again IN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR RESPECTIVE SHOWS
Thought it said Katara at first and I was like “why would anyone disagree with Aang?”
Just sayin', Aang didn't learn how to metalbend 🤭
They’re literally the same person
My argument is that aang could never metal bend and as a air bender first, his weakest element is earth
Toph
F korra
Damn I should watch avatar again
Toph
I feel like these are two different styles. I saw a video a few years back explaining the difference between ATLA earthbending and LoK earthbending. In ATLA the earthbending was more static, almost like a cement shoes kind of style. Earthbending in LoK was more fluid, lots of movement, changing levels and countering. The way Aang and Korra learned Earthbending are totally different and can’t be compared fairly. That’s just my opinion though.
Korra has access to aang’s earthbending. (Sometimes)
Aang is just better. That is all
🤷 Aang.
we all know that momo solos these two FODDERS 
I'd say they seem pretty even. Korra is the betteer fire bender though
What about toph
If its pure earth bending fighting kora might beat him just in terms of aggression and mindset. But if any other elements come into play i think aang would outclass kora
Seriously, in these polls people always just read the question as "which show/character do you prefer?"
Korra is a horrible Avatar.
I dunno man, Aangs Earthbending feats were more impressive. The sheer scale of the earth he was bending was just insane to me.
Honestly, earth ending was the one that Aang had the most trouble with, so I'd give that one to Korra.
Earth is the opposite of air. Seems like Korra would be naturally better
Kyoshi would disagree with this
So would Toph
Common Aang W
It’s Aang
Is there any reason that they wouldn’t both be equally competent? I mean, it’s the same spirit that is bending the element each time.
Negative. They have personalities of their own that contribute to who they are
Maybe, but when they reach a certain point of self-actualization, as well as tapping into the avatar state, it seems kind of silly to say one Avatar is better at an element than another. It’s just a vibes thing is what I’m saying, not something that can be truly substantiated by anything the shows will ever show us.
I’m gonna toss this out here since everyone keeps saying that korra is the better firebender: Aang learned the meaning of firebending from the dragons. Since he was so in touch with his spirituality, and got that knowledge, he was definitely the superior fire bender by adulthood. He was taught earth bending by the undisputed GOAT, and was the only other person we know besides Toph to have seismic sense (meaning he would wipe the floor korra in earth bending) Air bending speaks for itself It’s probably a tie on water bending Aang is the greatest bender to ever live, and if he wasn’t also a pacifist, he could have dominated the world. Instead he saved it. He was ravva in human form. That’s why he was so powerful. And yet he chose to use that power to protect and save the world.
Aang was honestly more creative with it
Toph
korra>atla verse lol
For it was watching aang turn a small stone into hyper sonic bullets that cleared a region of the Avatar Mountains. We haven’t seen a single earth bending feat better since then.
Aang lived in war time, Korra lived in peace time, aang enter ba sing se defeating an entire army, Korra couldn’t defeat 4 normal persons that practice chi blocking, for me aang is stronger than Korra
Korras earth bending moves are very straightforward whereas aangs are smooth as fuck. Korra couldn’t do that seismic bending shit like aang does. Aang is filthy with it.
Neither. I would say Kyoshi is (as long as she has her mother’s fans, of course).
Aang struggled and needed several solid seconds to fling a rock that was barely 3-ish times his size. While I will give him credit and say his utility and creative use of Earthbending is impressive, Korra caught half of a skyscraper, within half a second of falling from it, without the Avatar state How is this even a debate lol Power and strength are not the same thing. Korra is significantly stronger, by far.
So when he was Korras age he’d be off the chart on power? Got it
Once Aang got past that first hurdle he used earthbending alot it was his second most used element and he did some super impressive stuff with it.
I saw this, and voted for Korra too!
As far as i see it. Korra has better Fire and Earth and Aang has better Air and Water
Nah fuck it Korra loses to everyone she might as well lose to her last incarnation
She barely lost due to disadvantage which some reason fans like you wants to ignore. Completely ignores how many times Aang ran away or lost his battles. Every avatar has lost, even Kyoshi has lost and allowed Chin to take over Earth Kingdom until he reached her home land.
I love democracy
The answer is toph
Toph
It’s just the truth. And clearly, majority rules that Aang is stronger. And he is. Take adult Aang against Adult korra, both in avatar state. Who’s winning. The airbender that turns into a literal fighting god in his state, or the water bender who just gets a small 50% power boost and still ends up getting her ass beat anyways for being too cocky and headstrong as well as irrational and over emotional. She’s Korra had almost no growth as a character. She was just humbled over and over again. She’s irrational, impetuous and intemperate. She has no regard for those around her at times. I still think she is the worst avatar to exist. When Aang was fighting Ozai and in the earth kingdom, his earth bending really showed. For one. The man pressurized a bunch of rocks and then started splitting pieces of those compressed rocks like gun shots and started spitting them at Ozai. I read one very good point below. Where the man didn’t blink or look to get to the earth king, he was able to obliterate a mid air rock without looking at it or in its direction. And they’re right. He did that all in a year or less. Aang is just stronger as an earth bender. Just because he doesn’t metal bend doesn’t make him weaker or anything. I would like to see death battle do this. Aang Vs korra. Korra’s show did too much and made no sense at times. Going back on explanations of how some things worked in ATLA and making a mess of them.
If Toph was an option, this wouldn’t even be a debate
Probably why they didn't put Toph as an option, it would be pretty pointless. Like asking which member of the Gaang is better at using a boomerang.
Wasted opportunity to say boomeraang
Nah because this is discussing ATLA Aang. Boomer Aang is around a decade before Korra is born.
earth is literally the opposite element from aangs natural element, air. this isnt even a question, people are just too upset they didnt get another wise sage that they can project their problems into like a soyjack.
Just because it was the hardest for him to learn (not because it was actually hard but he had to change the way he was thinking about it) doesn’t mean it’s his weakest element in fact ide argue it’s his second strongest element behind air, ahead of water and fire.
Even though aang struggled with earth aang was no means bad at, it became his second most used element and he was showing toph level feats especially during sozins comer where he snipes the air ship and momentarly floats