Did the Legend of Korra benders seem weaker to you?

In general they didn't have the same skill/power set, even masters like Tenzin seemed a lot weaker next to Pakku, Toph, Bumi, Azula etc their output was generally a lot less. Am I just imagining it? I haven't seen it in about 4 or 5 months and I am just sitting down for a marathon.

It could simply be becausel the none benders have become so powerful [Tech, fighting skill] and to show them as a threat, but just looking at their power levels, it seemed a lot less, I suppose Bolin and Mako aren't once in a 1000 year style prodigies like Azula/Toph but even Korra seemed weaker than Aang [Just an opinion, I don't want to get backlash for that statement].

But seriously, they all just seem so much weaker.

Yes, I felt that, too. They're a bit more technical/systematic, but raw power seems to be lacking.

yeah they do seem weaker

@princearagorn1: I know right , I mean I get why they'd have a more technical and precise approach with probending, but does that mean they have to compensate raw power? Another thing that annoyed me were the White lotus, I hope that they were just footsoldiers and that we get to see Katara and Zuko next season [Who I hope are WL members] going apes**t on some spirits.

I don't know, some did look weaker like Tenzin. But others like Mako or General Iroh certainly didn't.

It probably has to do with the Bending world losing it's touch with its spirituality as the world becomes more and more secular.

They did seem weaker but that was probably to give the non benders a fighting chance.

If non-benders would ever need a clear advantage, I'd think it be in the original series, where they had to depend on martial arts and acrobatics to be benders. In Korra, they have huge steam-punk advantages to even the playing field. They really shouldn't need a fighting chance in the form of nerfing bending power for that reason.

Were they though?

I mean they might be weaker in damage output but in the long run i dont actually thing they are. There was only one Metalbender in TLA while there are thousands now. Every single firebender probably knows how to do lightning at this point. Tech is a lot more advanced like past people have said also,Skills have changed.

Edit: I forgot to add,it might be because using bending is a lot more strict. There are thousands of cops that will arrest anything that even thinks of breaking the law in any way. Also since the revoloution with the Anti-Benders thing you dont want to go around destroying houses accidently with earthbending because this series is set in a city then mostly in deserts and small towns.

One thing i'd like to point out is that every Airbender that will ever of existed in the world from now on will be connected to the Water Tribe because of Katara. :)

It was the first season...

@rogueshadow

@pr0metheus: Yeah you're right, that is pretty powerful actually, I Wouldn't say the firebending is all that, earth and water are impressive though. I don't know, maybe it's the visuals [Or more likely it's just me :P].Plus we haven't really seen that many top [Very top] tier benders yet I suppose. You're right it is there, I just don't think we've seen that much of it yet I don't think, like I said Katara and Zuko unleashed in season 2.

Also, do you think we'll visit the fire kingdom, Earth Kingdom etc next season? I'd like to see how they're coming along tech and culture wise.

Do you know what would be reallyawesome too, if Korra met Guru Pathik.

@rogueshadow: 2 and 4 looked decently powerful,1 and 3 were meh-ish

I'm honestly not sure as there is no war going on between the nations and Amon is "dead". Might see the Fire Kingdom as Zuko is still alive isnt he? I cant remember if his son said he was dead.

That guy was creepy. He also told Aang to let Katara die so you know.

The true question that has been left unanswered i think every fan wants to know..

What happened to Momo?

Also isnt Book 2 suppoused to start on the 13th?

@pr0metheus: Yeah Zuko's alive, but retired as firelord, I liked Guru Pathik, he was nuts. It would be funny if he just kept showing up for all the different Avatars, just this random incredibly old Guru

And not technically, he told him to let go of the... Yeah he basically sad to let Katara die. And I was literally clawing out my eyes to find out about Momo, waiting for years and then when Korra came out... nothing but nothingness, Jesus it's worse than Jon Snow's mother.

@rogueshadow: As good as Zuko was,I liked him and all but i couldn't like him once he got his Uncle locked away. Who turned into a BAMF and broke a jail cell open with his bare fists..

I have yet to get around to watching Game of Thrones...I'm more of a Dexter guy.

For the second season they should make an enemy that has found out a secret to master all the elements also,or a past Avatar that was corrupted but never died but somehow it made another one? IDK.

In one of the seasons in TLA when Roku did all the elements at once it looked BA. I just want to see two Avatar's fight while using all the elements like he did in that episode. :)

@mitran: Yeap

"The Legend of Korra" Book 2 premieres Friday, 9/13 at 7 PM on Nickelodeon.

@pr0metheus: I always thought, that a minute or so before the eclipse broke out he just firebended straight out and owned until the eclipses firbending negation took hold.

Dexter's awesome, I'm on season 6 at the moment. I think fighting a past avatar would be incredibly awesome, but it would be tricky what if a past avatar, whilst Korra is traversing the worlds, leaps through the gap and possesses somebody? Does each individual Avatar spirit possess the capability to Bend all 4, or is it the core avatar spirit itself which does so? It would be awesome for them to hash it out somehow, I mean the lion turtle could have been a massive fail/ Deus ex machina, but they managed to make it feel natural somehow.

Also, I really - reeeeeeaaaaalllyyyy, hope we see some Koh, he was easily the scariest part of Avatar. When I watched it for the first time it was seriously creepy. I always liked Zuko. Emo angst for the win.

Koh must be the dark spirit, he was such a badass.

@rogueshadow: That could be it,I thought he was getting buff to breakout cause he knew he could overpower any one them with his strength since they dont have bending.

Im on season 7,waiting for season 8 to be over so i can watch the entire thing whenever i want without waiting. I believe each individual possesses it although they are all linked so it could be either or even both tbh. The past Avatar could be completely disconnected from the Spirt world (As maybe the Spirits of the past avatars abandoned him since he was corrupted and he no longer has access to it?),They could make him/her a seriously powerful bender ever surpassing Aang and book 2 could be about Korra having to go all Roku (or Aang) like Aang did when he first contacted Roku on that volcano island to defeat him,or having to learn to be a fully fledged Avatar and use the past Avatars againist Him?

Koh is that thing that steals faces isnt it? They could make Asami get her face stolen to create some tension.

@pr0metheus: Lol - need tension? Just torture Asami, nobody likes her anyway. Or a complete reversal, if the Avatar is essentially the spirit of the earth/life/balance, perhaps the dark spirit could be its polar opposite, the spirit of the spirit world/death.Chaos, its basic powerset is the same,but done in a different way, so his fire could be black, the earth might come out jagge and harsh,the water could be thicker,or something, he might even make thing naturally feel down and scare animals, a bit like dementors [since animals seemed to automatically love Aang, as he was basically nature incarnate]

Random but - do you know what annoys me, how Tarrlok lolstomped Aang even though he was a much more powerful water bender than Tarrlok.

@rogueshadow: Thats actually a really good idea. I'm guessing him going into Avatar state would just lifesteal everything living in a certain radius if he would be all about death.

Do you mean Amon? Either that or i missed a pretty exciting episode. PIS probably. Amon could of killed anyone with his Bloodbending at any point so yeah. PIS.

@pr0metheus: This idea's getting better all the time! But I'm guessing since Avatar is kid friendly, it would have to be that they get knocked out, or just collapse in a soul drain type deal [Minus the Avatar of course] and they'd probably have to add in some sort of will type thing, like if you're tough enough/ your will is great enough you wouldn't get soul sucked, there would also be some ritual or something, and the Dark Avatar could be the major big bad at the end of Korra's series, that would be awesome!

Oh and my bad, I meant to put Yakone, not Tarrlok.

Those advantages are only the electric glove or the robots. Besides that, people struggled against Amon's henchmen which the original crew wouldn't of struggled against. They seemed less powerful overall and I stand by my claim.

Yeah, they were slightly weaker.

As time went on people got less and less dependent on bending while technology got better. Furthermore aang and his crew grew up in a time of war were everyone had to be at the top of their game at all times.

Anyway the benders in lok seemed less skilled at bending the natural elements but the subsets seemed to be expanded on.

I think they might have been faster, but typically not quite as strong on average

but like Bolin said, the old styles would get trounced in pro bending since they're too slow, but they have nice power

@mrnoital:

but like Bolin said, the old styles would get trounced in pro bending since they're too slow, but they have nice power

seems like an analogy to TMA and MMA

No LOK bending is every bit as good if not better.

Pro Bending is a single sport that in now way defines how the entire world bends especially considering it exists in one city as a passtime.

Yes a lot characters in LOK focused on speed more but that doesn't mean much in any way shape or form they can't do heavy lifting as they consistently show. By that logic I guess ATLA characters are gonna get blitzed right since LOK characters are so much faster right? You can't dismiss the pros of the sport or technique you are generalizing and downplaying.

In LOK:

Waterbending strongly improved(Amon, Unalaq, Ming Hua).

Firebending improved. Now many people can use propulsion and lightning bending on the fly. It's no longer special. Characters like Azula wouldn't impress LOK characters that much in that regard. And Korra's desert feat is the largest firebending feat outside of the comet in either series surpassing Sozin's attack.

Airbending improved. Jinora and Opal held off a modernized army. Zaheer is a greater airbending prodigy than Aang. He was able to battle a master after a few weeks of having Airbending and unlocked an ancient Airbending technique after a few weeks!

Earthbending was better in ATLA in terms of single characters having better feats however that is because metalbending got more focus. But the building feat from Bolin, Suyin, and Lin implies that they are just as skilled in earthbending. Metalbending in general has vastly improved.

Energybending in Korra's hands has obviously improved.

LOK has all the top tiers too. Dark Avatar, Amon, Yakone, Tarrlock, Korra(even Astral version).

I don't remember this thread at all, but I agree with previous me

@aurelion-: Are you Pr0metheus?

Aside from air bending, water bending the others sucked.

I also believe this and no matter how many counter gifs and arguments I see it still feels like bending in Lok was a bit weaker.

bias maybe?

As I've pointed out before in combat bending 1vs1 almost always seem to be equal in strength with the exception of the outliers like Bumi or Combustion benders.

When Benders fight one another look at how body movements equal strength, a bending from a punch counters another benders punch but you can see where another bender will overpower a benders punch with a bending kick, we've then seen double kicks break through defenses multiple times.

Bending strength when 2 benders fight one another follows a formula.

Outside of combat the strength seems to be at the whim of the writers.

It's nice to think this but the reality is that the best fire, water, metal, air, and energy bending feats are factually in Korra. And the shows most powerful characters mythologically wise as well.

A lot of fans don't have a key eye or are incredibly biased. Even the writers are puzzled whenever these type of questions are brought up since they don't notice what the hell people are talking about.

Unalaq best waterbender

Yes

More likely than not. Anyone who thinks a teenage Katara would beat him need a reality check. Vaatu believed that fusing with him would be enough to beat the Avatar despite their connection to every avatar ever. That speaks volumes of his unmatched skill in waterbending that was consistently shown.

At least we can all agree that Ming-Hua gave us life.

No, what utter rubbish. It was faster, but hardly less powerful.

Let's be honest her. On average, the benders of ATLA are above LoK on account of the master bender being many more, but overall, no. There are certain benders like Unalaq, Tenzin, Kuvira, Ming Hua, P'Li etc. that are great and top tiers. Korra is no slouch either.

I wouldn't say so, they may just have appeared weaker because the ones who just had raw power to go on were countered by an army of specialist benders that were few and far between in the Last Airbender.

This. I could've sworn that was mentioned as a plot point somewhere.

In general, no. No one's King Bumi level (except Yakone/Amon/Tarrlok), but aside from him there are plenty of people in LOK that can toe to toe with anyone in AtLA.

Something else to take into account is that most ATLA benders had much more screen time + comics while most master benders from Lok had what? 5 episodes of feats each?

The average bender in LOK ranges from armies of metalbenders, to lightning bending workers, and even armies of chi blockers.

@tektonic: Those are fodder. An average Bender would be Tonraq. I said ON average. Not THE average.

The Dai Li and the Yuyan Archers are solidly above any of these people.

No. People losing touch with their spirituality was supposedly the cause of the rampaging spirits in S2 but that was mostly Unalaq's machinations. Nothing was said about bending being affected.