Not true at all, Firebending is powerful and you can bend it but it also requires a great deal of energy to use and a lot of emotion for its most powerful benefits.

In ‘Zuko Alone’ there was an Earthbender who used Hammers to Earthbend as well as fight and that’s pretty advantageous, aside from that the Earthbender is able to call walls from the earth more sturdy then a solid oak door (Try Kicking one in.) and you will see that there is a balance there.

Airbending is powerful as well as it doesn’t ‘require’ anything to use but is amplified by things like fans and sweeping motions, also a good Airbender is a master of dodging to such a degree that it is unreal as illustrated when General Fong tried to awaken the Avatar State in Aang by having his army assault him.

Water is a little stranger and requires more care then the others, it also starts out the weakest of all the elements, after all unless you are a master you generally are forced to carry a flask. Also Waterbending is environmental and also potentially the most powerful, in a rainstorm they have as much water as the storm, in the sea they have water as far and deep as can be fathomed, and at higher levels of skill they have the moisture in the air that they can pull and even steam and ice are there weapons. That and waterbending is the ONLY bending element that is capable of healing wounds at a fast rate or drawing poison out of a persons body, imagine a master healer in a rainstorm using the rain like a sort of immortality technique, its not impossible, yes the rain is being used, but there’s a sky full of it.

Firebending is a more balanced and alive style then the other 3 however, its adaptable but not as much as air, its moldable, but not as much as water, its powerful, but not as much as earth. And its basic form is a lot easier to control resulting in a lot of Firebenders; it’s also the only self sustaining element that can do its work without a bender.

As far as weapons go, all of the bending can be used with weapons as illustrated or could be used to make a weapon. Firebenders often use Swords, Earthbenders sometimes use Hammers and Airbenders almost always use staffs.

Waterbenders could take and compress water to form a weapon like an Ice Sword given some water, which is a lot easier then finding a well forged blade in most cases, after all, a Firebender can’t pull a new sword from a water well in a City, a Waterbender could.

But on closer look, the weapon users are not the strongest benders, Aang’s best techniques of air don’t use the staff, Toph could beat that Hammer guy without even moving probably, and Azula is a lot more powerful then Zuko despite his having blades, and Waterbenders can just lance and freeze there air making an indefinitely moldable weapon adaptable to any situation.

After an amount of skill is acquired, it seems that weapons are most of the time far inferior to having the hand free for extra bending, after all, Azula uses both hands in focused motions to summon lightning, and Iroh uses both hands to defend from lightning.

Firebending are ACTUALLY very WEAK. They can't DEFEND themselves using their bending.
Earthbender can make a wall of earth.
Waterbender can create a shield of ice and they can heal themselves
Airbenders can blow away attacks, or create a shield a whirlwind, or they can just simply jump high, dodging attacks.
Now what can you imagine that firebender block attacks without equipments or vehicles? It's their absolute weakness.

tjionghuo,

It is obvious that you have not checked your pms recently... Please type your posts in a word processor THEN post them.. for it is obvious your grasp on grammar and syntax is lacking.

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE, PLEASE READ YOUR PMS

I too agree with Hanabi. Yes, fire benders do have the advantage of being able to use their bending in any situation, but that does not give them a practical advantage against most of the other elements. Rarely would a fight occur between an earth bender and a fire bender where the earth bender would not have any earth to bend with, or a water bender with no water to bend. The earth/water bender would not put himself into a situation where that could happen. Air benders are sort of irrelevant, since theoretically, air exists everywhere a fight like this could happen. Therefore, because of this, it is not a great advantage for the fire benders in most cases.

To add to that, as tjionghuo already pointed out, fire benders have the constant problem of defending themselves against large, pointy objects, flying their way at great velocities, or more commonly known as rocks from earth benders and ice from water benders. I will generally exclude considering air because there are no air benders on this site (other than Aang) so I see no point. Now, one of the main problems I see for a fire bender is defense, as I've already said, since if he/she can not dodge an attack, he/she will get hit; fire can not block a boulder flying his/her way. The only thing I could think of is scorching or melting the rock or ice, so that there is nothing left by the time it gets to the fire bender, but I see this theory as kind of impractical due to lack of time and the intensity of fire required. Earth benders can sprout a rock wall out of the ground, water benders could use a wall of ice, air benders could just avoid and evade, but fire benders can do none of them, except evade, but at a much more limited rate than air benders.

Now so far, I've pointed out fire benders have disadvantages, but in my opinion they are by no means inferior to the other elements. Firstly, fire bending, I think, would have the fastest learning curve of all the elements. Secondly, it is certainly the most destructive and intense, providing the best offensive; attacks would come in fast and deadly.. If a fire bender keeps his opponent on his heels, not letting him attack, he does not have to worry about his own defense, and it's problem solved. So because of all these reasons, I think the elements are pretty balanced when it comes to equal term fights.

Now regarding weapons, I don't think it makes much difference if the fire bender throws a fire ball at you from his fist, or from the tip of his sword. It does grant the element of surprise, but I would think that anyone fighting a fire bender should realize the possibility of it happening, and plan accordingly.

Now feel free to correct me on anythig I have stated if you find proof of it somewhere, because I get the feeling I've missed something I should have mentioned.

Well, guys, there's really no reason to say firebenders can't defend themselves. Even if it doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense, bending is the manipulation of chi into the environment. Meaning, all attacks by benders have a backing of their Chi. In Zuko Alone, Zuko's whirlwind of fire knocked the hammer dude pretty far back. Then there's what happened when Zuko tried to make the lightning, remember? He created a giant explosion that threw him back. Personally, I'm surprised he hasn't furthered that. And remember the fire whips Zuko was fighting Katara with? They could cut crystal like butter, and when they touched Katara's waterwhips, they clanged and recoiled. That should be proof enough there's some force behind them.

Personally, I think water's the most powerful element, hands down. Shifting from solid to liquid to gas is just so amazingly powerful, I wonder why Katara's not any more creative with her techniques like Aang (air bubbles, wind resistance, ect.)
and Toph (moving the ground under people, that sweet-ass revolving rectangle she put out the meteor fire with, ect.) are. Air's pretty much cheating, but then again, Aang hasn't used vacuums to cut anyone. If he did that, it'd be a little bit more godmode, but Aang's a nice guy, so that probably won't happen for a while. Until then Air only does bashing damage and sets up for more attacks.

So yeah, now you guys know another n00b's opinion, but come on, humor me, think about it.

Hmm… First off I would like to say that I don’t believe there is a disadvantage to bending while using a weapon as a catalyst. Once you develop more advanced techniques it’s probably a huge advantage to have a sword or fan or whatnot (Aang totally slammed that Firebender with Kyoshi’s fan!).
All of the elements are really well balanced when pitted in equal numbers and skill levels. Its when you get down to the numbers game that you see why the fire nations been winning, that along with a huge surprise in the first attacks and numerous machines o’ death.
So yea all of the elements are pretty much equals, I can’t say much more about that I just posted to talk about bending with weapons.

I think it all balances out. Firebenders use an internal source for their powers so they're not as dependant on an outside force like the other benders. Then again air, water and earth can all block a fire attack. I think that's the trade off.

Water seems the most versatile and earth seems the most practical and fire the most destructive. Which is better seems more like a question of personal prefference. I'm sure there's some personality quiz out there that tells you what kind of bender you are. Passionate for firebenders, versatile for waterbenders and pragmatic for earthbenders.

The whole using weapons with bending thing always kind of confused me. Nothing really seemed augmented, it just looked really cool.

I thought that I'd add my two centsworth, that Firebenders do have other weaknesses. It's true that earthbenders and waterbenders are weaker or even powerless when they are far away from their element, and to some degree airbenders might have a tough time fightingt in a constricted space (since they need to constantly move around). As for firebenders, don't forget that 1: firebenders, like earthbenders, rely a great deal on their stance and a base on the ground and moreso on their breath. As we saw when Zuko challenged Zhou to an Agni Kai, remove a firebender's balance and make them lose control over their breath and you've created a serious opening. But not only that, think back to when the Gaang was in the desert; if it hadn't been for Katara's water pouch, she would have been defenseless. The same may be true for firebenders and cold conditions; Zuko was certainly weakened when he was out on the tundra at the end of Book 1. Because firebenders draw their power from the heat within their own body and the sun, perhaps when they are in cold conditions and the sun is blocked by clouds, it is harder to use their firebending because the heat within their body is going down.

Going back to that breath thing, wouldn't it be awesome if Aang used his airbending to draw the air out of opposing firebenders? It wouldn't kill them, it'd just knock them out for awhile, and prevent them from using their bending. Wonder why he hasn't done that before.

firebenders cant use there bending power,when the sun isnt up,right?


[glow=gray,2,300]

Yi Feng Edit:

Lee Hinoyama, it is clearly obvious that you didn't read the rules. It is clearly stated that all non RP posts have to be a MINIMUM of 300 characters.

This is your first Warning... Please read the rules [/glow]

I believe we've seen firebenders use their abilities during their siege on the North Pole. The only thing I have heard of actually taking away the ability to firebend is a solar eclipse.

As for Aang not bending the air out of enemies, or even maybe thinning it a little, I think it's due to Aang being creative but not cruelly creative. I'm sure there were airbenders in the past who have done some sick stuff with airbending. Aang's not that kind of guy, though. Just like how Katara won't bloodbend.

With this Avatar World, everything is about balance. Water and Fire balance each other out, as do Air and Earth. This creates harmony in the universe — like Avatar Roku said to Sozin, "The Four Nations are meant to be just that: four."

My interpretation is that no one element is "better" than another element. Each element has its downfall, as well as a power boost. Fire benders may have no need of an external source, but night weakens their power, and from what we've heard, the solar eclipse will take it away. Also, as we've found out in "The Puppetmaster," water is all around us, even in places we won't think of looking — the atmosphere, our sweat, vegetation. It may still be an external source, but it's more abundant than we first thought. Air is also all around us, and unless they're in a building or structure of some sort, earthbenders always are in contact with their element. (Unless they're flying through the air on Appa. )

See? Fire benders don't have an unfair advantage unless the environment makes it so. There are plenty of ways to incapacitate a fire bender — like Botan mentioned, stance and breathing is everything, as well as concentration and emotion.

Adding to the fact that the fire benders dont really have any Defences. They are one of the most inventive people, I think. If you can remember they have, tanks that can scale walls while protecting the benders. They also have a weight counter system to turn thems selves back up. The drill, witch its purpose is self explanatory. Also even though it hasent made its reappearance as of yet, the blimp witch the fire nation soldiers found at the bottom of the hill. Also the fact there boats are coal powered making them way faster then the wind powered sailers the other nations use. Over all I think that gives both the fire benders and the fire nation a larger advantage, bending or no bending.

Rei - I'd like to say that fire benders DO have defense. If you look at the martial art that Fire Bending is based on (Northern Shaolin Kung Fu), there are plenty of stances and defensive moves a fire bender could incorporate into their fighting. I have practiced N. Shaolin, and I can tell you first hand that there is no shortage of defensive moves in the fighting style.

wow when you guys reply you really reply

anyway, i do agree with you on this, since Firebenders have the advantage in the sun which is up about 16 - 18 hours of the day when their only time of weakness is like once every trillion years *over exaguration* and 6 hours out of the day when water bending trumps firebending (which imo opinion water bending should trump firebending at all times) along with that Earth benders always have earth around them,. Like that one episode were the group of earthbenders were trapped on the boat and they used the coal to bend granted you put them in a metal cage they can't bend it but same for firebenders, Iroh is in jail and he couldn't use firebending to get out. idk its difficult to explain. Waterbenders have their sweat lol and airbenders can pretty much bend where every they want so its a yes and no sort of deal i guess

Iroh mentioned in one episode (I can't remember which) that every element has its own advantages and weaknesses; it just keeps everything balanced so no one element is capable of being more powerful and dominant over all the others. And aside from solar eclipses, a Firebenders' ablities are also temporarily weakened from the bender being cold or wet. :]