Man guys, I've really enjoyed reading through this discussion, so much so that I had to make an account here so that I could weigh in.
I'm new to this so please forgive my silly mistakes.
Aang vs Zaheer
I give this to Aang in both round 1 and round 2, for similar reasons as others have said (ie. Tenzin was beating Zaheer on his own pretty decisively before the rest of the RL got involved, and Aang > Tenzin). Zaheer would put up a pretty good fight, but ultimately loses.
Katara vs Ming Hua
I think this would probably be the closest of all the match ups. Katara has greater versatility in what she's been shown to be capable of doing with her bending (ie. using her own sweat, drawing water right out of the air, plant-bending, blood-bending etc.), and her range is much better. Ming Hua has consistently been shown to need to get fairly close to her opponents before she can attack. However it is true that Ming Hua's agility is far better than Katara's, so she can probably dodge and evade a lot of Katara's attacks while using her water arms to get close enough to Katara and potentially take her out. Unless Katara is able to take control of the water that Ming Hua uses as her arms, and I'm not sure there's any evidence that she could, I think this fight could go either way. I'm calling it a stalemate.
Toph vs Ghazan
Again, I think this would be a close one, but I think the win probably goes to Ghazan. The point of Toph being able to sense lava and the incredible accuracy and speed of her earthsense is a good one, and I think it is the main reason this match would still be close. However, all Ghazan needs to do is burn Toph's feet, and she's out. Given how quickly he's been shown to turn the ground into magma, I think he'd force Toph to spend most of the battle evading his attacks - and I don't think Toph has the agility to keep that up for very long, at least not against an opponent like Ghazan who is probably faster and much more agile than her. Going through Toph's battle scenes, she tends not to jump or run around very much. Admittedly, this might be because she never has to, she's easily able to steamroll over most of her opponents. But I think it is telling that in most cases she blocks attacks with an earth wall rather than getting out of the way. She'd have trouble using that strategy against Ghazan, because he can completely liquify earth walls. He does this easily to all of Bolin's attempts to block him, and even does a freaking backflip over one said wall seconds after turning it molten (evidence of his agility). Now, Toph is a far better earthbender than Bolin, but she's still at a significant disadvantage here. And I say this with much love for Toph. Unless she gets access to some metal (unlikely if the battle is in the Crystal Catacombs) she doesn't have many options for taking him out - he's capable of turning any earth thrown at him into magma and sending it straight back at her. I'm inclined to believe Ghazan's control over earth is pretty damn phenomenal given he can speed up its molecular state from solid rock to liquid magma, so even if Toph trapped him in the ground I think he'd have no trouble bending himself back out again. So I give this one to Ghazan.
Zuko vs P'Li
I pretty much agree that, 1 on 1, Zuko can't beat P'Li. However, I have to respectfully disagree with those that think he'd get curb-stomped by her. Zuko is tougher than many people give him credit for. He does not go down easily.
I think the best example of this is during the Seige of the North episodes at the end of season one. Zuko, at this point, has narrowly survived an assassination attempt where his ship was blown up while he was still inside. He is clearly still injured from that incident, as evidenced by all the gashes and bruises on his face (and those are just the ones he can see). Yet despite this, he swims through freezing arctic water, climbs up galciers, and fights Katara - who by this time is well on her way to becoming a full fledged master waterbender - in her own element during a nearly full moon. And he holds his own despite his injuries and suffering from cold exposure (which would be considerable given that they're in the NORTH POLE and he just swam through FREEZING WATER). Granted, he does have to wait until the sun comes up and she loses her full moon edge before he can beat her, but the fact that he is still standing long enough to take advantage of this is impressive in and of itself. Katara is only able take him down later during the full moon, after he has tired himself out running through an ARCTIC BLIZZARD carrying an unconscious twelve year old on his back.
I agree that P'Li's feats at the North Pole are impressive, but I think Zuko's feats at the north pole are at least equally impressive.
Now, I know that just because he was able to survive all this punishment at the north pole doesn't necessarily mean he'd be able to withstand P'Li's combustion attacks. I brought this point up first as an example for how much endurance Zuko has - he won't tire out easily. This is an important point for later.
However, we know he can withstand P'Li's combustion attacks because he was able to withstand Combustion man's attack.
@raimundopedrosa said:
Zuko got DESTROYED by Combustion Man when he wasn't even looking or paying him any attention. P'Li is deadlier and can counter anything that Zuko throws at her.
I respectfully have to disagree. It's true that at the beginning of the fight Combustion man easily blocked Zuko's firebending and pushed him aside, and when he did turn his full attention to Zuko he knocked him off the ledge and out of the fight. For these reasons I agree that Combustion man was able to counter everything that Zuko threw at him, and P'Li could probably do the same.
However, Combustion man did NOT destroy Zuko. You're overlooking the fact that he fired a combustion shot at Zuko POINT BLANK RANGE, and not only did Zuko block and survive it, he was completely unscathed at the end of the fight. The only reason that shot took him out of the fight is because the concussive force of blast pushed him off the narrow ledge they were standing on. But it didn't even knock him off balance. He was still on his feet prior to going off the side, and given how he was able to keep his balance when the force of Ozai's lightning pushed him back in an earlier scene, I am pretty sure that had there been more space, all Combustion Man's shot would have done was push Zuko back several feet. He'd still be standing, and he'd be completely unharmed. This from a combustion blast at POINT BLANK RANGE (I don't think this point can be emphasized enough). If Zuko can withstand a combustion blast at point blank range, he can likely withstand any combustion blast thrown at him (provided the terrain is not to his disadvantage, such as being thrown off a cliff or into a rock wall).
You can see it in the video here, 0:56 seconds in.
And you can also see at the end when he's climbing up that he's completely uninjured.
(On an unrelated note, I just noticed that his scar is on the wrong side throughout this whole scene LOL)
I'm not going to argue whether Combustion Man > P'Li or vice versa. For the purpose of this argument I'll say they're at least equal in terms of the power of their blasts. Therefore, if Zuko can withstand Combustion Man, he can withstand P'Li. Not to mention, Zuko has been shown to be pretty fast and agile, I think he's also capable of dodging some of P'Li's attacks. Between blocking and dodging and the fact that he has very high endurance (so he can keep it up for quite a while) I don't think he'll be that easy for her to take out.
I still agree that he'd most likely lose since as you said P'Li can probably counter any of his firebending attacks. So I think P'Li will win, but Zuko certainly won't make it easy for her.
Now, if we include Sokka in this match-up (seriously, Sokka needs more love), and make it Sokka & Zuko vs P'Li, I say Sokka and Zuko have a good chance at winning. All Zuko needs to do is keep P'Li occupied while Sokka gets in position to hit her third eye with his boomerang. Sokka already did this with Combustion Man. You keep saying that Combustion Man > the whole Gaang, but the fact is that one of Sokka's feats is DESTROYING Combustion Man (seriously, watch that video - CM is obliterated). So it's reasonable he can do it again with P'Li, provided he has someone else to distract her (which, as discussed, Zuko is quite capable of doing). Also, speaking of group synergy, Sokka and Zuko displayed some pretty amazing teamwork in the Boiling Rock episodes - keep in mind that up until two episodes earlier they were mortal enemies and at the beginning of the BR two-parter they were still extremely awkward around one another. To go from that to fighting as a seamless unit against Azula on the gondola is pretty impressive and shows just how well they can work together. I'm not saying the two of them would defeat P'Li easily, but I think they are certainly capable of it.
Yeah, that's my two cents. I didn't mean for it to blow up into such a long post, lol, sorry! I am having too much fun with this discussion.
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