Was bending stronger in the past in Avatar?

So there have already been discussions about the differences between bending in ATLA and LOK, but that's not what this is about. I'm talking about before ATLA, before the Hundred Years War

In the flashback episode about Roku, we see some extremely powerful bending. Roku had possibly the greatest waterbending feat (in terms of raw power) outside of the Avatar State we've seen in the show, while Sozin filled his entire hall with a fire blast, creating more fire than any other firebender we've seen outside of Sozin's Comet (the only one who comes close is Jeong Jeong).

Bumi's the only bender in ATLA from before the War (except Aang) who we actually see in the show, and compared to other benders he seems extremely powerful.

Anyone else notice this? What do you think of it? Has bending gotten weaker since before the War? If so, what do you think happened? I'll try to post the videos later for reference

I wasn't really sure where to put this, but the LOK Duscussion thread is in off topic so I figured this would be ok

ATLA does seem superior when it comes to strength of bending.

There are those characters like Unalaq and Zaheer (and more) that seem to have bending capabilities that are on par with characters in ATLA.

IMO Season 2 and especially Season 3 brought LOK bending up to ATLA's level, at least much closer

What do you think about older benders like Roku and Sozin compared to ATLA and LOK

I've added the videos I mentioned in the op

Hey, guess what, this isn't a battle guys. Still, any thoughts?

@killerwasp@kidphillip@aressword@wbr17@korraspirit@gxrevolution96@jr_avatarexpert@dextersinister@thunderbolt30@nighthunder@metaljimmor@spartankobe@jacthripper@deathhero61@primebonnick@gizmorino@saint_sophie

@arcus: Its how you view it honestly. when it comes to whom had better bending, however for the topic though on strength I've seen only 1 person be stronger than ATLA bending which was Yakone, now i understand people will say thats blood bending, however in ATLA no one was blood bending at his level other than that. I honestly believe ATLA had the stronger benders. Now as for the overal whom was better thats a toss up, because in LoK they were more about idk how to explain it, but just movement and evading per say with precise hits rather than chucking a bolder at someone. Anyway thats my input on this topic.

I think a big reason TLA had better bending feats of power is because we saw more grandmaster tier benders doing their thing. People like Bumi, Sozin, and Roku who are above and beyond other benders, even the main cast.

That being said, now that we're meeting more grandmaster tier benders in LOK things are evening out. Unalaq was quite impressive, and Korra has shown a great deal more power outside the avatar state than she ever had before. Then we have people like Ghazan showing us unique bending powers never before seen and on quite a large scale at that.

I think LOK season 1 got a bad rep largely because the big bads were both bloodbenders, and so the fights never got to the scale we were use to. Bloodbending isn't very flashy, it's just incredibly lethal. I'm sure if we saw Amon fight with waterbending we'd see some incredible feats of power akin to his huge waterspout. Alas, we never did.

@metaljimmor: @killerwasp: but what about comparing guys like Roku and Sozin to ATLA or LOK benders?

@epictayman: what do you think?

Sozin and Roku are probably two of the most powerful benders we've seen in the whole series.

Roku is easily the most powerful Avatar we've seen..as he's also had the longest to master the elements. And Sozin is arguably the greatest leader in the history of the Fire Nation..at the very least he did the most what with exterminating a whole nation. I'd hardly put them as a benchmark for bending back in their day.

@arcus:

Well, for Sozin and Roku keep in mind they came from a time BEFORE firebending changed from the way of the dragon to being fueled by rage and aggression. They were still drawing power from the sun, which has been proven to be a more efficient form of firebending. It's possible LOK firebending masters could reach a similar scale, but we've not seen any firebending grandmasters yet.

As for Bumi, the guy was over one hundred years old. No one else in either show had that much raw experience.

@arcus: Let me get back to you on that when go do my research lol.

@epictayman: @arcus:

Its how you view it honestly. when it comes to whom had better bending, however for the topic though on strength I've seen only 1 person be stronger than ATLA bending which was Yakone, now i understand people will say thats blood bending, however in ATLA no one was blood bending at his level other than that. I honestly believe ATLA had the stronger benders. Now as for the overal whom was better thats a toss up, because in LoK they were more about idk how to explain it, but just movement and evading per say with precise hits rather than chucking a bolder at someone. Anyway thats my input on this topic.

When i say that i mean everyone including those people u listed.

His waterbending feat was only towards the end of his training to be fair, and being a leader doesn't inherently make you a more powerful bender. It's always possible they're just extremely powerful individuals, and maybe that's just it, I just think it's weird that out of all the other benders we've seen in ATLA and LOK we haven't seen anyone come close to that kind of power, except maybe Bumi

Do you think guys like Roku and Sozin were stronger than ATLA benders?

@arcus: Yes, i feel each generation has changes to it.

@arcus: I'm just saying Roku and Sozin are far from your typical bender..so using them as examples doesn't help give an idea of how powerful bending was back in their day. We honestly have no way of telling something like that..

I think the benders where stronger not the bending. I mean legend of korra has blood bending that doesn't need the moon or even hand movements, lava bending and now metal bending can be used as magnets. The benders in LAB though wow most were just prodigies no lie.

@primebonnick: While Lavabending wasn't necessarily shown in ATLA it was already acknowledged since the bender before Avatar Yangchen could lavabend as seen in the opening credits. Honestly it's one gripe I have about the series, the avatar is supposed to be the master of all four elements yet they can't do some of the bending(not counting metal bending which toph invented and bloodbending which apparent Hama was the first waterbender to ever discover it

ATLA does seem to have more powerful bender due to their experience in warfare. It also was the birthing stage of Blood Bending. The only advantage of LOK was that BB by her time was well developed along with other types of bending.

@redbird3rdboywonder: the Avatar can lavabend, we saw Roku, Kyoshi, and the other Avatar do it. The only special element I don't think we've seen an avatar use that maybe they should be able to use is lightning

@arcus: well I think the difference is that Roku and those of his era were at the top of their game, were as Aang (albeit he was still a badass) was a kid and Korra, (also badass) has barely entered her twenties

@machomustachio: but what about guys like Pakku or Iroh?

Am late?! Surely there would be special benders those who are powerful than the regular ones like toph she was more powerful than many other benders, unalaq too was no regular water bender.

My point is bending in the early times cannot be called powerful since it was only two people that was shown and some other few like bumi who could bend huge statues and crystals(which i think no one can), Iroh too was a crazy badass bender since his bending was fueled by the dragons not rage. And there are some people with potentials that i don't want them to kill people like jinora, kai, bolin, mako they have potantials to be great and powerful benders...... And again i forgot kyoshi who created an island from the shore of a main-land(that is also powerful), tenzin is like the most powerful airbender in his era and i think he can contend with aang by feats and others in ATLA.

I'd definitely consider it. Bending seemed much less powerful in LOK, the most powerful bending would have probably performed by Ghazan, but that was relatively uncontrolled.

@arcus: now that you say it, aang counts in before the war, too, right? He was overpowered by avatar standards...

Damn. The quality is extremely bad. If you have time the episode is 1-14 fortune teller: around 21 minutes in.

@princearagorn1: yeah he would count as before the war. When he really cut lose Aang's very powerful, shame we never got to see more of that

Because the original series had more powerful/grandmaster level characters, but holy sh*t did Season 2-3 of LOK bring them much closer to the quality of bending in ATLA.

People aren't reading the OP. This isn't about TLA vs LoK, it's pre-TLA vs BOTH TLA & LoK.

Pre-TLA stomps hard on TLA and LOK. Benders were ridiculous in terms of power. Post LOK most of the benders were utter weaksauce that even someone like batman would have no problem taking down.

@arcus: Well it kinda goes with what I was saying though, it just comes down to experience. Iroh was a highly ranked general, Pakku was a water bending master, and both were old warriors who lived there whole lives during war. So they had to train themselves to be as deadly/effective as possible my to not just survive but to protect and serve.

@deathhero61: I wouldn't say guys like Unalaq or Ghazan are weak @retconcrisis: exactly, thank you

Thats why i said most. Besides pretty much the main villians and korra and one or two exceptions. What bender isn't weaksauce in comparison? And yes Ghazan is weaksauce. Besides his lava bending he was nothing. His earth bending was lame.

I think one of the reasons bending seems more powerful in ATLA is because most of the special techniques are pretty common. When people saw Azula/Toph/Hama/Combustion Man/Aang lightning/metal/blood/combustion/airbending for the first time they were the only one or two people in the whole world that could do that. Now, lightning, metalbending and airbending are super common, and we have 3 people that could bloodbend without a full moon. Obviously they seem less powerful and unique, especially next to newer techniques like lavabending.

Actually, if you take that into account, Korra benders are probably much more powerful than Aang benders.

Another thing that you have to take into account is that Korra's time is more urban and populated. Obviously she can't go running around tearing the city with tsunamis and massive chunks of rock without destroying half the city and killing thousands of people.

@deathhero61: aren't you underestimating the benders... Lol at batman taking them down.... You can mention the benders that you think batman will take down, i really wanna know and if it was just a statement no problem.

@arcus: i think bending in lok was not powerful because they never really needed to be and same goes for the rest. Roku, sozin, bumi, showed it when they needed to, we would not know bumi was powerful if his kingdom was never invaded. Back in the time of wan bending was just wack it was just a tool to hunt and gather food so bending in early days can't be really considered powerfull

?

@deathhero61:

Well Ghazan's a lavabender, so...

Not every bender in ATLA was as powerful as Aang and the other main characters

In terms of Legend of korra, pretty much most of them that aren't villians or avatars or veterans from the previous show ATLA and a small handful of exceptions like kuvira who seems like she is going to become a villian as well.

@princearagorn1:

@deathhero61: i think you are underestimating them, firstly the pro-benders will beat batman, the earth queen's guards will finish him, the airbenders will beat him most notably tenzin's family he might beat the new ones but i still feel they will beat him, even bumi will give him a fight or just blast him with huge burst of air, and any metal bender will take care of him, mako, bolin(without lava), amon's brother(without blood-B), and some chi-blockers maybe beat but will surely give him fight.

@deathhero61: i think you are underestimating them, firstly the pro-benders will beat batman, the earth queen's guards will finish him, the airbenders will beat him most notably tenzin's family he might beat the new ones but i still feel they will beat him, even bumi will give him a fight or just blast him with huge burst of air, and any metal bender will take care of him, mako, bolin(without lava), amon's brother(without blood-B), and some chi-blockers maybe beat but will surely give him fight.

I said LOK i have absolutely no idea why you are including high tiers from ATLA like Bumi. And of course the earth queen's guards will take him down, they are fighting him as a group. Otherwise one on one they wouldn't survive. The only one from tenzin's family that falls under the exceptions category of beating him is freaking Tenzin. Otherwise the rest of tenzin's family gets so wrecked its sad. The only exceptional metal bender that's beating batman is toph who is one of the people i said would beat him anyway, and kuvira.(which is arguable considering batman's arsenal and skill) Amon gets beat since he prefers close combat instead of his main water bending, and prefers blood bending which korra managed to counter at the last second with pure strength alone. Mako in no way is beating batman, and neither is bolin . If you want to continue this we can do it in a PM not here where its basically off topic.

@deathhero61: will continue in p.m and it was tenzin's brother i meant when i said bumi..... See you in p.m

@deathhero61: and again i said amon's brother not amon himself, and again it was said that amon uses blood bending to control the movement of his opponent without them knowing making him knows where their attack will go watch the episode where he collected the bending of lightning bolt zolt and when bolin was captured and again korra broke free because of the avatar not really with strength.... Well we have a lot to discuss in the p.m

@redbird3rdboywonder: Thats true but you gotta remember though although they are the avatar they are still different people and with that comes different skills.

@arcus: I think bending in the avatar-verse is like the intelligence and smartness in reality we kinda had more intelligent people/scientist back in the days and less smart but in this era we are smarter but less intelligent to them so i think that's how bending is it was somewhat powerful then but now it is weak and there are styles(hence the pro-bending) with everybody using their own different ways unlike the elders who tend to follow 'the normal way' like tenzin........ I think that settles it.

I think it's less that and more that we could have these amazing displays of bending in the past that, if they were to happen in the present, would completely break the plot (and we mostly see really high end stuff in flashbacks).

Yes.