All elements are lethal. Air bending, create a vacuum or a vortex around the assailant or just force it out the person's lungs. Fire and rock are far more direct. Rock, create a pit below the person, then instantly seal it! Water, blood bend, or pressure wash them or create a bubble over their head to dry drown them. It is lucky that it was a mainly kids show so they didn't show the TRUE ramifications of each element. They get around it by saying certain techniques were banned but they didn't want to show how messed up the war actually would be!
don't forget that 1. earth is metalbending too so just imagine that and 2. any rock can be broken down to super small pieces to be shot like sharp as fuck bullets. Aang did that second one multiple times.
Also, Fire being capable of using explosions and lighting, wich travels at 61kms/s (and yes, it can be redirected, but you gotta be really skilled and ready to do it, otherwise, you'll get smoked)
I feel like the idea that you have to censor stuff like that is pushed by the powers that be to make the population easier to control more than it is to keep people safe.
Waterbender: Hydraulic pressure piercing flesh is a major problem. Ice blades held together by the Bender's will can slice through you, spikes, bloodbending, etc. Earth: Blunt force trauma, spikes of all kinds, sand blasting, lava, swords. Fire: Burns, lightning, scorched lungs from breathing super heated air. Air: In terms of oxygen, you have no oxygen.
Lava was part of fire bending but if I remember he was half fire half earth. Earth could likely survive most things thrown at them when they use metal bending to make themselves knights and protect against conventional bending or teleport (dig holes) to a different location to avoid blood bending/suffocating.
Water bender could separate oxygen and hydrogen. Two explosive elements. Could be compressed into a neutron star since water isn’t compressible but atoms are. Also could pull all the water out of your body.
@@luanguThat's not how that works. They're not controlling elements, like periodic table elements. They're controlling Elements, as in, the four Elements described in certain philosophies.
From a lore perspective and the powers shown in Avatar, the Earth Kingdoms were at full on war with the Fire Nation throughout pretty much the entirety of the 100 year war. The Fire Nation was also taking them seriously the whole time and constantly improving their war technology at full speed. The Northern Water Tribe didn't do anything until the war was at their doorstep and it took an angered god using the Avatar to push back the Fire Nation. Even before the "kill the moon spirit" cheat, most water benders were having trouble even with the full moon on their side. Katara was powerful, but she was exceptional even before she got proper training in water bending. The Southern Water Tribe lost pretty much all of their benders and were only able to minimize losses to a couple of Fire Nation ships during the raids. I know they mention blood bending but until the mess that was Korra, bloodbending could only be done by the most powerful of waterbenders under the Full Moon. That being said. Sozin did specifically target the Air Nomads by surprise and with the power of the comet to ensure they were fully dealt with. You could argue he did this because he knew the Avatar was an Airbender. However, when they go to the Southern Air Temple the place is a massive battlefield graveyard with plenty of fire bender bodies as well.
Earth fortifies really well is the issue. Water can't do that. Ice melts outside of specific places which limits the population and cities they can build. Earth is the best for building an empire in fertile lands to support a nation. Air was a good target because they wouldn't be able to resist a siege like the other two and it kills possible messengers.
... water tribe was masacrating fire nation when it was a night. Water tribes only had problem with fire nation because their amount of people is extremely limited, because of their locations. Main benefit of fire bending is that it is extremely easy to use, so generating army is the easiest, while water bending while being the strongest and most diverse, is the hardest to master or even use. Air benders where powerful nation because all their peoples where great benders, trained from the childhood. Over all fire nation should not be able to win against them if they attacked their temples as air benders could easily kill thousand by simply throwing them into the air and letting them fall to their deaths at the bottom of the mountains. They probably lost only because of their limited numbers and pacifist mindset. Earth benders problem is that they manipulate the least amount of their element, so fire nation tanks where good enough to block most earth nation attacks. But when those tanks meet any good bender from fire nation they become close to useless.
In the blood bending episode I thought that's spooky stuff, but what the old women did with the flowers would be instant, effective and not needing a full moon. Using that on your opponents would be nasty.
@@Merilirem It still eludes me how anyone would be able to siege the air temples if the hadn't the most powerful element on their side - the element of suprise. Those airbenders could hafe simply fled the encounter
It's actually pretty balanced that water bending in base form is the weakest element, but blood bending is easily stronger than everything else combined. No other element has a literal insta-kill button
No wind nullifies all of them with the ability to create a vacuum. Water needs air pressure to stay a liquid, earth would be shredded by sheer negative pressure, fire and lightning needs oxygen or even a medium to even form.
@@leafy_cynical6732 "Water needs air pressure to stay a liquid" Or water-pressure. And you'd need a giant vacuum just to very slowly vaporise a small amount of water. "earth would be shredded by sheer negative pressure" Absolutely nothing would happend to the stones they are throwing "fire and lightning needs oxygen or even a medium to even form." No? Fire is just the heat generated and as it is shooting outward without any fuel it is safe to assume it needs no oxydizer either. And lightning... ever heard of a vacuum-tube? (And notice something about the name?)
@@leafy_cynical6732 There are ways around that. For instance surround an air bender in earth and they've lost access to the air and are gonna suffocate. Hell, make a dome of earth around yourself and the air bender loses access to your air (though this does blind you as well). Water benders can do basically the same thing and their defensive dome doesn't inherently blind them. Then, since the water bender doesn't have to touch water to bend it, you just do your blood bending.
@@leafy_cynical6732 "shredded by sheer negative pressure" you know there are rocks in space, right? And even if the rocks were reduced to dust, earthbenders can still bend dust (with some training)
I'd honestly go for Airbending. Air is literally everywhere, and you don't have to be a 1 in a billion talent to go full darkside with it, nor do you need to wait for a full moon. Besides, Airbending gives you easily the greatest mobility of all four elements, and who wouldn't want to fly or ride around on the little air ball?
I've never seen the anime but all the powers seem very strong if used by someone who can wield them as a weapon. You could do some crazy things with air alone.
Korra made water bending beyond busted with blood bending at will. Only the Avatar was able to overcome it. Korra lost and the plot had her "learn to air bend".
@@kpny8484 Jet engines, which exclusively use the power of air... Have you ever seen videos of people behind or in front of them? It is horrifying how quick and easy it is to throw a human around.
From a place that has hurricanes and tornadoes, I can say it's not "that" the wind is blowing, but "what" the wind is blowing. Like trees, traffic signs, mail boxes, chunks of buildings, and whole vehicles. Smashing into other things and creating more debris for the wind to blow around, and start fires. And will blow the ocean inland as storm surge. Air is the element that can do it all.
I believe it. The thing that always comes to mind for me is that Kurt Russel movie, "Soldier" (specifically the one scene where wind hits the graveyard and at least a few of the attacking soldiers are impaled with scrap metal crosses)
Something i think is important to rule out is sub-bending, at least the highly rare ones such as blood, lava, flight, combustion. Most masters of elements never even master a sub element in Aang's era, and in Korra's era something like bloodbending is still rare (partly because of laws) AND is still exclusive to the full moon (not every waterbender will be Yakone or Amon guys), therefore not reliable as most claim it is. When we're talking about which element is the best, it should be factored in terms of amateur to expert levels and kept close to base elements. Its very easy to get out of hand otherwise and go full X-men with "an earthbender can pull the iron out of someones body!"
@@mateopadron5533 sure, but rare techniques like that shouldn't be factored in too much, it doesn't play that big of a role in the grand scheme of bending. if you or I were in avatar, it's unlikely we'd ever be some main antagonist who's the exception to the status quo, let's be honest
@@ShadowsK.Y It depends what the goal is. If you are just talking most deadly, it doesn't matter how rare it is. Defining an overall best would be trickier. Its water BTW. Water is the best. Its specials are too good, aka healing and blood bending. Also while blood bending isn't always doable water out of air or plants absolutely is if you are taught. Overall it has the most coverage.
@@Merilirem , I like how you mention water in air and plants as if that isn't just necessary for water benders to even try to keep up with the other benders (and certainly isn't an argument for them being better). Earth and air are always available in massive amounts and fire is generated from the bender. Water benders typically have to find better sources than humidity and plants to actually do anything of significance (like how Katara used a canteen all through the series).
@@Meriliremfire is superior. What is a water bender going to do when a firebender zaps them with a blast of lightning? Even without lightning bending, a fire blast still beats a waterblast in a head to head contest.
For the dedicated slingshot video I would suggest you move the wooden poles a lot closer to each other. This will not only make it shoot more accurate (since there is less horizontal variability along the acceleration path) but it will also result in more power because the overall draw length will be longer thus accelerating the projectile for longer when firing. Additionally, having the poles closer to one another will make it so the force vectors (I may have made that word up but I hope it's clear what I mean by this) of the rubbers contracting more closely align with the direction in which you want to accelerate the projectile which will lead to a lot more of the energy actually being imparted onto the projectile.
You beat me to it. I had a three person slingshot for water balloons when I was younger. It would go straight and accurate the closer together we held the supports. Fun times were had. Phone calls were made, I got grounded a few times. It was all part of growing up.
Legend of Korra actually showed us how lethal Air was if the user wasn't a pacifist; you can't get more powerful than literally sucking the air our of people's lungs and making wind blades at incredible speeds. Plus, there isn't a way to deprive someone from using this bending.
zaheer was just a rampaging plot device and WAY more powerful and skilled than he had any right to be. that stuff was just bs. to be clear: it *is* possible if you're a very powerful and skilled airbender, but i think you'd have to be on at least aang's level
Bloodbending is arguably even worse. Basically gain complete control over your target and you can just kill them instantly at any point. Imagine if Katara and Azula swapped places and Azula had blood bending.
Also it's the best element for stealth. Not only can you be completely silent by preventing sound waves from propagating, but theoretically you could bend the air around you to create a mirage, rendering yourself invisible.
@@DeusExNihilo Bending the air around you would absolutely not make you invisible. Best case scenario, it would slightly obscure your location in a similar way being under water does.
Yes but I would argue air is the most versatile and they cannot realistically be deprived of their element. One thing most people get wrong is that firebenders can make fire from nothing when they actually need a flame to start out with that they can then grow. Though obviously earth is also pretty hard to be deprived of but not impossible like shown in the anime. Even if they are a metal bender thick enough wood would do the trick. There’s also a strong case for is being almost impossible to not get water as you have saliva and sweat though obviously that’s a limited resource and an air bender will almost never have a limited supply
@@nickbob2003the only time fire benders needed to have a flame to manipulate before bending was in the shitty live action movie that nerfed every element to absurdity.
@nickbob2003 canonically the fire of firebenders comes from the energy of the chi. They don't need a preexisting flame. They produce it in the same why your body produces heat
@@nickbob2003 All elements are everywhere. There's even water in the air that can be extracted. The Fire (heat) from the body, the air and other source. Soil is literally everywhere. And there are places with less "air".
Meanwhile I'm over here thinking, "How do earthbenders even LOSE a fight?" I mean, literally ALL you gotta do when someone squares up, is clap them between two giant slabs of earth- probably from right beneath their feet. Like slamming a book shut. Except with blood and viscera.
In terms of the ATLA show, Ty Lee, despite not being a bender took down a platoon of Earth Bender soldiers, using acrobatics, being on quick on her toes, plus chi blocking. It takes a lot of skill for a REGULAR earth bender to lift rocks and heaps of earth, more so in molding such dense materials to be weapons (or just hurling them against an enemy). Quick stepping opponents have decent chances in dodging such atracks. Of course, it depends on the skill of the Earthbender and his/her opponent's combat capability. Exceptions also could be considered, like metal bending and sand bending (which, for Earthbending sub techniques are quite swift), but in most cases REGULAR Earth Benders (EB) rely on powerful movements and strikes, which could be devastating when they connect, but a bit slow and could be inflexible, which could run the risk of a swift (even punishing) counter if a EB overcommits.
@@el52 To be honest, we're not talking about a particularly intricate move here. Take your hands, and hold them flat, together, at the wrist. Now clap your hands together. Now imagine those are two giant rectangular rocks, from beneath someone elses' feet. One quick CLAP, and you've got instant bender soup.
Depends on the location as well as how good you are at bending the elements. Remember the scene where a group of earthbenders fought back against firebenders by using a small rock? Or Zuko using firebending to melt ice by generating enough heat while he was submerged under water?
Easily Earth. Every battle just became a siege. City walls built in an afternoon, every bender is a trebuchet yeeting big rocks as needed. Trap and snap your enemies ankles if you don't want to entrap them with new walls and roofs. Oh and also for your societies sake you have no excuse to have homeless people. Rock solid apartment complexes built in a day make housing cheap. The only reason that the Earth Kingdom wasn't a powerhouse was due to 1. An innefective government and 2. Earth benders being fairly rare.
Earth Kingdom was very much a powerhouse. If not for the second comet, Fire Nation couldn't really defeat Earth Kingdom for a 100 years. Ultimately the whole war was only between them, cause Air Nomads died instantly and Water knobs were aggressively useless.
@@endlessnoodle3056 Fire was only winning due to industrialization and the comet. They had to industrialize because fire is a relatively weak fighting element, but it is useful once you introduce steam power.
@@thewanderingronin5433 I'm only thinking of standard bending. In which case the fire benders will be better at working metal, exactly as they did in the show. Before the invention of steam power,fire is kind of weak compared to the other elements. Once steam power is invented, fire becomes a power force. It allows for a rapid industrialization since you don't really need a lot of coal mining in comparison to real societies. Your fire is perfectly controlled at all times, making it significantly safer.
As someone who recently burned themselves pretty badly with 400° oil I can attest that fire is not an instant show stopper because afterwards I continued to finish the remaining 6 hours of my shift
I see many people talking about Bloodbending and bending the air in your lungs, but they have their weaknesses and the 4 elements are well balanced by the strenght of their users. Combustion, Lightning benders and earth benders in general can hit people from farther away than we've ever seen someone bloodbend, and even Mako, a FIRE BENDER, was able to resist bloodbending enouth for a counter attack. And being able to bloodbend outside of a full moon is an exception, there are "one in a lifetime" benders of every type. And with the entire "bending air out of the lungs" thing, do you see how long it took Zaheer to do it? If the queen was a bender, she would have been able to counter attack. There is a reason why he never does it outside of this "ceremonial execution"
I will say that intent is important. Bloodbending has never really been used lethally even when clearly possible, bloodbending seems to give such power that its users get sloppy and revel in the absolute control they have. Its the strongest against humans and could even augment Ines own movements to insane degree's but its so rarely used no one ever truly masters it. Even the family was only one family. They couldn't master its potential especially given how messed up the dynamic was.
You have to take into account that in Avatar firebending has force to it, most likely from the burning gasses, so it's not liquid fire, it gaseous blasts of fire, so I think the power level was a mite diminished in this test.
They had many problems... -their fire hat low heat and fire benders create sort of explosions of fire, fire blast and not just fires. -in water bending they forgot ice bending completely -in earth they forgot that earth best benefit is trapping people with stone -in air bending they forgot that gravity exists and air bender could easily throw people into the air and then slam them into the ground with air blast. They also forgot that each bending style has different level of difficulty and amount of bending that they can do.( fire the easiest, then air, earth and lastly water is the most difficult) (air benders manipulate the biggest volume of their element, then it is fire benders, water benders and earth benders control very small amount of earth) + -water bender can easily fill person throat wit water and freeze it -same with fire bending but not freezing but it would kill -air bending could simply change pressure to blow the lungs of the person and all of their attacks are invisible
I love the martial art style of firebending, but earthbending is so much fun to think about. Not only is it a weapon, its a method of control. You can shape the entire arena against your oppenent(s) (just look at bumi and aang's fight), and you have control over most buildings and structures. I love the fighting style of firebending, but earthbending just has so much application
Tyranth is right, blowing up the lungs would be way more effective just based on the limits that most waterbenders experience when trying to waterbend. We only know of a few waterbenders who were even able to bloodbend and it is explained that most benders need a full moon to even attempt it. Meanwhile, firebendenders can just be popping people's lungs.
The problem is when the air pressure in your lungs is higher than the air pressure outside by a large degree it just gets sucked out of you. It's the first thing that happens to your body in a vacuum. The air in your lungs even if trying to hold your breathe just gets sucked out of you. I dont think you could explode someone's lungs unless they have a way of containing it inside you...
And adding to this, people have collapsed lungs all the time, it's not an instant death Causing all the water in your body to either burst out of you or instantly freeze stabbing you through your body? Including your heart? Thats instant death
Firebenders have really only been shown being able to manipulate fire by extending it from themselves. Can't just point at someone and make their lungs explode.
@@chromaticblue3976 I agree, I think that to explode a person's lungs they would need to be touching them but I don't think that's entirely unreasonable given how close some of the combatants are in the original series.
Using just the elements themselves, i think its worth noting that waterbenders could also bend ice in the show, or freeze water, which would be like throwing razor blades even without the intense pressure of something like modern water jets. For morr large scale maneuvers though, Earth is really slept on. Ya gotta realize every Earth Bender is essentially a walking trebuchet, that shits dangerous. What I find really interesting though is the idea of augmenting martial abilities with bending. The first place my mind goes to is an archer who's also an airbender, with a glider they could move around a battlefield quickly, and with the bending itself they could accelerate an arrow to ridiculous speeds, stabilize it's flight path, or maybe even just guide it to exactly where the archer is aiming. Archery + Wind powers seems like an absolutely lethal combination that I've not really seem explored before, and I'm sure theres plenty of others I'm not thinking of right now
In the show airbenders can do superspeed too. It's rarely used and seems to lack reflexes or reaction time that are normally included, but who needs to trow stuff when you can run fast enough to kill opponent with a dagger before they can even finish their first move.
@@linkolek I think a big part of that is that they still have relatively normal reflexes and reaction speeds so they're literally just using air to move really fast, but it would be like driving really fast for you or me. Everyone probably has a limit to how fast they could effectively go and still react to the world around them. That's why I like the archery idea, you're just pushing the arrow really fast or using the air to guide it
@@linkolekSuper risky to go in for a dagger attack at high speeds especially if it's an earth bender. one rock between you and them and they might not even need to make a proper attack.
We as people sometimes have bad days ... I'm about to go to bed and with joy I saw that Shadiversity has a new video. This brings a smile to my face, because I so much enjoy watching goofy and nerdy stuff (you know what I mean) that takes you away for a moment from reality.
Even though water could be dangerous if the person really knows what they are doing I would place my bet on earth. If you get hit by a bolder you are just dead
Plus no element has better defensive capabilities. A rock gets thrown the air bender and fire bender have to dodge. The water bender has to either put up a lot of water or dodge. But the earth bender can just put up a wall.
Disappointed that they passed up the opportunity to break out some slings, staff slings, trebuchets, and catapults for earthbending. The damage from a simple sling with a chicken egg sized rock can be pretty impressive.
While the original cartoon was relesing, there were shorts called "creating the legend" where each form of bending was highlighted, as well as which Chinese martial art they were based on.
i remember getting 3-man water balloon launchers banned from my university. we'd have it pulled back like 12 feet at a 40 degree angle and send them out the window to rain down on people outside. the most fun.
Shad seems to be unaware of the concept of "stop drop and roll", if you're caught on fire it's not like the fire is magically unable to be put out though a variety of means, one of which only requires yourself and the ground
Depends on what is on fire. If its your clothes then yes its easy to stop drop and roll and put it out. If it's your flesh that has actually caught fire and your fats are burning? That's much harder to put out.
Can't stop drop and roll quite a few types of fire. Pretty sure magical bender burners are probably a little harder to put out than a standard fire. Plus one thing not taken into account is whether your clothes are made out of fire retardant materials or not. If they are then you are pretty safe from a gentle scorching, if not you could go up like a cheap, poorly constructed halloween outfit before you can react
Ive always wanted to earth bend. Im an artist so making golems out of earth and manipulating them like a mech is my dream. The magma bending and sand bending is just a bonus
MAN, something they never explored in the cartoon and never heard anyone talk about: Water EXPANDS when frozen. Waterbenders can FREEZE water at will. Waterbenders could theoretically one-shot ANYONE by freezing them from the inside. Unless I'm missing any specific... No, Katara could freeze water in a hot sunny day in the Serpent's Pass episode. This never happened in the cartoon, but instakilling people with waterbending should be entirely possible. Instakill / 10
It has full people charring down into cinder, it's basically avatar for adult ish, it's not on par with the tv series because it's not a kid show anymore
Building off of what Nate said that "air is the medium that everything flows through", I would actually argue that air is the most powerful if you think of what the nature of a tornado is capable of. If it happens overseas and it causes a hurricane which can cause mass floods. Air has a capacity to pick up rocks and hurl them causing mass damage. Air fuels fire making it stronger and hotter. So not only is air a force of nature that can stand on its own in regards to elemental bending, it is actually the one key element that can enhance the strength of them all. Which would mean that if you had the ability to manipulate air, then you would have the ability to influence the rest with relative ease making you an overall Chad.
The dinosaurs would like a word with you, as would pompei.....And Atlantis is on line three. All depends on power output and rules/restrictions/limitations of bending
"Air and gravity are not the same thing, but a skilled Airbender can make one imitate the other." - Flavor text on Downdraft from the AtLA tcg. Always stuck with me and made me want to be an Airbender. Hilarious video, thanks for the fantastic work guys!
Sadly with a moderate level of understanding of uranium, under most circumstances that's just earthbending again but with a heavy rock made of uranium instead of any other rocks. and it would take a lot more effort to pull uranium out of the environment on the scale required to do anything special.
"Actually, the HATE will boil the water." 😂 now we know why firebenders changed from using the Sun as their power source to using their own internal hatred. What's the Sun gonna do, slowly evaporate the water over the course of many hours?
@@RachDarastrix2 it's any feelings of passion, though those who do not connect to the sun don't have fire that's as strong, since that's the root of all life
@@mateopadron5533 Makes sense actually, you ever see how much your health gets run down just from a lack of sunlight caused by Winter even though you are constantly going outside in an attempt to get sufficient exposure?
I hope Shad knows of Goblin Slayer. In the middle of the first season he destroys a powerful monster with a teleportation scroll that he had a mage connect to the bottom of the ocean, making it into a short duration, insanely high powered water jet. Also, on the point of blood bending, in ATLA, because of contaminants in the water (aka blood cells and food, etc.) blood bending was impossible outside of periods of full moon, as the full moon supercharged water benders' powers.
If avatar wasn't a kids show any battle against earth benders would result in a battlefield where the bodies of the enemy would be unrecognizable. Fire would too, but to much less devastating effect than wide area of affect shrapnel and boulders.
@@MaDmanex100 If blood bending is gonna be mentioned, which is even rarer and can normally only be done during a full moon, I think lightning deserves to be mentioned too.
I assumed fire bending was more about concussive force like an explosion than actual fire since the show constantly shows it throwing people around like a ragdoll but maybe that's just their insistence on not seeing people be burned to death in a kids show.
I think many people forget that airbenders are speedsters too. It doesn't matter how deadly your power is if your opponent can kill you with a simple dagger before you can move. Granted, in the show this power was rarely used so it might be very difficult. Especially considering that their superspeed seems to come without super reflexes or reaction time.
Air, you can latterly just pull the air out of someone's lungs,or you can expand the air in the blood streams of people basically exploding their insides
A test with water balloons and Ice blocks from the slingshot, would have been nice. Because they never bend water in a high pressure stream. They throw 1 m^3 of water in your face. love the idea of testing bending elements😂
The obvious follow-on episode to this needs to be an analysis of Saka's meteorite sword and what kind of materials a meteorite would need to have in it to make the best sword.
Historically, meteorite swords are just iron swords. Although it's an interesting question if there are any other materials a meteorite could have in it that would make a good sword.
I think they hit the nail on the head when talking about how airbenders control the medium in which all other elements need to move through. It allows for greater ease in avoiding and redirecting attacks. Both of which are perfectly suited for the pacifistic Airbenders.
One thing i always noticed in the cartoon is how sturdy the characters are, as cartoon characters. In the vase of Earthbending, even backround characters routinly get hit by rocks that eould easily weigh 50-100 pounds going at 90mph. That would pulverize a real person, but in the cartoon it seems to only do as much damage as a hard punch
Fun video. While earth does seem like the best element to inflict direct lethal damage on a single target when aimed, I think two aspects that are worth considering that do come up often in the show are: - Usage in group vs. group scenario's - Defensive applications In groups I think that depending on the environment, fire could become a lot more impactful because it can create hazardous terrain that spreads without needing further sustenance from the bender, so they can focus on even more attacks. But it has very little defensive utility. Water would also have strong applications to control a battlefield and negate the ability of others to attack, so while it's not as immediately devastating it could overwhelm other elements given enough time. Air seems to be mostly used for defense/redirecting projectiles and enhancing mobility. It's not a very powerful element by itself offensively, but if the combatant is also a skilled martial artist or warrior then that ability is much further enhanced by air than the other elements are capable of. It's no coincidence that the air benders are portrayed as shaolin monks.
I'm working on a Zelda comic and in my world they use magic. That said Wind is by far the strongest of the elements in my story. I've been trying to think outside the box as far as what each of the elements can do, and in my brainstorming Wind was by far the most versatile. Imagine a talented Wind user holding the air around you solid... you cant move. Imagine him ripping the air out of you preventing you from breathing. Imagine applying a steady air pressure on you simulating heavy gravity forces dropping you to the ground. Hitting people with high pressure concussive blasts, cutting..... list of possibilities goes quite deep.
i have a fair bit of biase for fire, i mean come on, its fire! i imagine air would be the most utilitarian water is the most... gruesome and equally merciful earth has the most brute force mentality (need more power? throw bigger rock)
air for me is good for the support ability rather than offense. while a master can be very deadly with vacuum and such, if talking about normal level stuff, things like air sensing and pushing your own body to evade attacks is what air excels at. as well as making air flows around you to move projectiles. you can do that with other elements but you wont be able to see. But personally, I'm more for earth for it's versatility. the ability do do great damage and build things and burrow into the earth to escape or hide is just so much fun.
So some things I've actually thought of in regards to this. Fire bending is the only bending that does not require you to have the element present since fire is a form of energy, not a physical element, which is also why fire benders are potentially capable of lightning bending, since it's just another form of energy. Fire benders also cannot generate velocity because energy does not have mass. All forms of bending can be overpowered if you start getting into technicalities, but I generally perceive it in terms of them being a martial art. It's not a system where you can just magically control whatever element you are a bender of but one where you manipulate it through martial artistry just like you would a physical weapon, which is why skilled non-bender combatants are capable of going toe to toe with benders quite regularly.
Water bender vs Fire bender i think depends on location, heavily. I think this is why the fire nation required so much resources, tanks, and to even disable waterbending to defeat the water tribe's fortified city. If water is present they can almost certainly dismiss firebenders in most situations. Because bending is such a martial arts focused art as-well, i think you'd need to compare more than just the elements, but how to get powerful or unusual techneques. The actual motions may incur more advantages, disadvantages. Fire bending for example based on my vague recollection seems to fire off way faster than water. Whereas water bending is the natural counter to fire. They feel very balanced to me lol
I used to work as a painter and before we painted the house we would have to pressure wash the siding and we had to use one of those industrial pressure washers and I remember trying to retighten the tip on the sprayer and I accidentally got my hand in front of the jet of water and it ripped off a few layers of skin and left a seriously nasty red angry wound that looked basically like a burn does
This was quite a fun watch. I feel the slingshot video would need to be a two part. One with just yall then a second with maybe some inpute from Jörg Sprave. He is all about slingshots after all lol. Cant wait to see what yall make and test next
If you look into the science of weather you will realize that airbending is by far the most powerful. Someone that is powerful enough with airbending could manifest any weather they want.
To test fire, any flamethrower would be the correct stand-in. In the cartoon, fire behaves a lot like a solid when hitting other things, which makes no sense. Water should 100% beat it as it hits through without any time to evaporate. Zero defensive power, no deflections, nothing. And realistically, if you were hit big a wall of fire you'd still have plenty of time to react as fire has zero direct damage, it is purely a DoT. Fire kinda weak. To test water, a firefighter hose would do perfectly... And we all know how those are used for crowd control. Then there's water in very high pressure cutting through METAL, and it can be used, in enough quatities, as a wall for defense. Water OP. And that is just with water as-is, not even talking about waterbenders being able to FREEZE it at will. To test earth, well... What is there to say? CATAPULT. CANNON. 100% solid projectiles. Blunt trauma. Concussions. Earthquakes to throw enemies off balance. And is the best for defense. Earth OP. Air is a much different topic as it is used more easily for evasion and tiring out the enemies. Don't need much attack power when your enemy can't attack anymore... And then they do have plenty of attack power with being able to knock things over, make enemies tumble and be vulnerable... But the cruel uses of vaccum, yeah, that's a total killer. Air OP.
Fire bending seems more like explosion bending than just moving around flame though. Azula even uses it as propulsion. Also heat can be generated, or at least manipulated, without flame. It also seems like the flames are particularly high temps in general. There's some level of combination of manipulation of thermal and kinetic forces possible around the flame and if you can imagine being able to manipulate those forces then there's a lot of force to be worked with even with relatively small flame.
4:25 now that i got a clear view, the "flame dispenser" is analogous enough to dragon fire. 4:38 or perhaps that fire extinguisher, since the "smoke" has more similar physics to fire.
Try a mechanical Tire inflator in 15:15, I know that power of compressed air can put a hole in someone off of, I know because I read the instructions, it just takes a bit of effort.
I like your new pauldrons Shad, I think they look great. I am patiently and excitedly waiting for another titan sword update, love the stuff you guys are doing it really is Shadiversity's best content so far.
Honestly, I would say Earth as the most deadly followed closely by Water if we are assuming an 'average' (IE non-main plot mook level) bender. They are quite flexible in usage, have defensive options, long range kill attacks, and can hard counter a lot of what fire and air can do.
It's a fact that each element can kill effectively given the right circumstance. The human body is just full of vulnerable, squishy, and crunchy stuff!!
I reckon it's probably possible to kill someone without an element at all, just gotta hit em in the right spots with enough force, maybe something fancy, like a stick would do.
Air is like water but without the requirement of needing to be near the element, you always are. But airbenders have more utility. They are lightfooted, can fly with the right equipment, are.more.in tune with the spirit, etc. Plus, airbending can create harder to dodge aoe attacks. Like, you can't dodge a powerful gust of wind, and even in nature we have winds capable of lifting you off your feet. If you get lifted high enough, its game over. Idk, i just think air is the most useful. Just the ability to fly would be nice.
It's definitely water, water can do basically do the air attacks except they hit harder, with ice bending they can basically do all the rock attacks except they're also sharper and cause a cold effect, they cover all the weapon attacks slicing, piercing and bludgeoning, it's basically the best for both attacking and defending, not to mention the additional abilities like blood bending and healing
I like the idea of earthbending, there's a specific move they do which I could see as very effective. You grab big chunks of stone and blast off smaller bits rapid fire. You have a shield and a method of attack.
I think out of the standard use cases: Air is harder to judge due to the limited examples we see as well as the feasibility of real world testing. The average air bender brings a ton of utility and mobility, and I think it could supplement weaponry usage more than the others. Also the fact that it is everywhere makes using it easier. Water is more deadly than air of course, but with the caveat that the ability to use it is more limited. I think something to take into account is how state transformation seems to be much closer to a 'common' technique, so shifting between steam, liquid, and ice states changes up how Water can be used, then depending on training it does have healing properties. Earth...well as is shown in the video and talked about, its basically "What if we take siege equipment, and make it a magic person who can fire so much faster." I'd argue that in 90% of cases, its probably the most deadly without needing to try that hard. Even if someone can only control rocks even twice the size of their fist, they are doing some serious damage. Fire I'd consider roughly equal to water in deadliness when you think about it, outside of the fact that it may be more tiring to use, but isn't limited by the environment. Up front it is almost a weird blend of the other 3 in deadly and ease of use. Like air I think it is best used alongside a weapon, especially if we are looking more at the average bender.
For next slingshot safety, you could make a post with a pulley behind it and have a line attached to the pouch, the shooter can stand well out of harms way to the side while still pulling the pouch from the center.
One for Nate - regarding the Sun Tzu comment - there's some mention of water: "If water is to assist the attack, the flood must be overwhelming." Also check out the Wikipedia article on the Battle of Fancheng - it's really interesting :)
All elements are lethal. Air bending, create a vacuum or a vortex around the assailant or just force it out the person's lungs. Fire and rock are far more direct. Rock, create a pit below the person, then instantly seal it! Water, blood bend, or pressure wash them or create a bubble over their head to dry drown them. It is lucky that it was a mainly kids show so they didn't show the TRUE ramifications of each element. They get around it by saying certain techniques were banned but they didn't want to show how messed up the war actually would be!
Yea, sozin in the netflix show literally vaporized some people. That's definitely not a kids show
don't forget that 1. earth is metalbending too so just imagine that and 2. any rock can be broken down to super small pieces to be shot like sharp as fuck bullets. Aang did that second one multiple times.
@@kohakusora7474Aang: Haha, 5.56mm NATO rocks go brrrrrrr
Also, Fire being capable of using explosions and lighting, wich travels at 61kms/s (and yes, it can be redirected, but you gotta be really skilled and ready to do it, otherwise, you'll get smoked)
Imagination is a weapon. Those who lack it are the first to die. (c)
No matter the element they use.
I'm glad we have some experts who are able to test real magic for all of us adventurers to know which spell to cast when we are in a pinch.
If magic were real, people would definitely be making videos like this 😂
i feel that censoring the "fire-dispenser" makes it look SO MUCH worse then it actually is🤣🤣🤣
😂🤣😂
First I thought someone is peeing on the fire.
I feel like the idea that you have to censor stuff like that is pushed by the powers that be to make the population easier to control more than it is to keep people safe.
looks like pissin' flames!!!
@@andrasbiro3007me too
Waterbender: Hydraulic pressure piercing flesh is a major problem. Ice blades held together by the Bender's will can slice through you, spikes, bloodbending, etc.
Earth: Blunt force trauma, spikes of all kinds, sand blasting, lava, swords.
Fire: Burns, lightning, scorched lungs from breathing super heated air.
Air: In terms of oxygen, you have no oxygen.
Lava was part of fire bending but if I remember he was half fire half earth. Earth could likely survive most things thrown at them when they use metal bending to make themselves knights and protect against conventional bending or teleport (dig holes) to a different location to avoid blood bending/suffocating.
@@scott8448 Lava bending is only Earth.
Water bender could separate oxygen and hydrogen. Two explosive elements. Could be compressed into a neutron star since water isn’t compressible but atoms are. Also could pull all the water out of your body.
@@luanguThat's not how that works. They're not controlling elements, like periodic table elements. They're controlling Elements, as in, the four Elements described in certain philosophies.
earth also has metal-bending
From a lore perspective and the powers shown in Avatar, the Earth Kingdoms were at full on war with the Fire Nation throughout pretty much the entirety of the 100 year war. The Fire Nation was also taking them seriously the whole time and constantly improving their war technology at full speed.
The Northern Water Tribe didn't do anything until the war was at their doorstep and it took an angered god using the Avatar to push back the Fire Nation. Even before the "kill the moon spirit" cheat, most water benders were having trouble even with the full moon on their side. Katara was powerful, but she was exceptional even before she got proper training in water bending. The Southern Water Tribe lost pretty much all of their benders and were only able to minimize losses to a couple of Fire Nation ships during the raids. I know they mention blood bending but until the mess that was Korra, bloodbending could only be done by the most powerful of waterbenders under the Full Moon.
That being said. Sozin did specifically target the Air Nomads by surprise and with the power of the comet to ensure they were fully dealt with. You could argue he did this because he knew the Avatar was an Airbender. However, when they go to the Southern Air Temple the place is a massive battlefield graveyard with plenty of fire bender bodies as well.
Earth fortifies really well is the issue. Water can't do that. Ice melts outside of specific places which limits the population and cities they can build. Earth is the best for building an empire in fertile lands to support a nation. Air was a good target because they wouldn't be able to resist a siege like the other two and it kills possible messengers.
... water tribe was masacrating fire nation when it was a night.
Water tribes only had problem with fire nation because their amount of people is extremely limited, because of their locations.
Main benefit of fire bending is that it is extremely easy to use, so generating army is the easiest, while water bending while being the strongest and most diverse, is the hardest to master or even use.
Air benders where powerful nation because all their peoples where great benders, trained from the childhood. Over all fire nation should not be able to win against them if they attacked their temples as air benders could easily kill thousand by simply throwing them into the air and letting them fall to their deaths at the bottom of the mountains.
They probably lost only because of their limited numbers and pacifist mindset.
Earth benders problem is that they manipulate the least amount of their element, so fire nation tanks where good enough to block most earth nation attacks. But when those tanks meet any good bender from fire nation they become close to useless.
In the blood bending episode I thought that's spooky stuff, but what the old women did with the flowers would be instant, effective and not needing a full moon. Using that on your opponents would be nasty.
@@Merilirem It still eludes me how anyone would be able to siege the air temples if the hadn't the most powerful element on their side - the element of suprise. Those airbenders could hafe simply fled the encounter
It's actually pretty balanced that water bending in base form is the weakest element, but blood bending is easily stronger than everything else combined. No other element has a literal insta-kill button
They are all deadly and it's the user that determines which is actually the deadliest
No wind nullifies all of them with the ability to create a vacuum. Water needs air pressure to stay a liquid, earth would be shredded by sheer negative pressure, fire and lightning needs oxygen or even a medium to even form.
@@leafy_cynical6732 "Water needs air pressure to stay a liquid"
Or water-pressure. And you'd need a giant vacuum just to very slowly vaporise a small amount of water.
"earth would be shredded by sheer negative pressure"
Absolutely nothing would happend to the stones they are throwing
"fire and lightning needs oxygen or even a medium to even form."
No? Fire is just the heat generated and as it is shooting outward without any fuel it is safe to assume it needs no oxydizer either.
And lightning... ever heard of a vacuum-tube? (And notice something about the name?)
@@leafy_cynical6732 There are ways around that.
For instance surround an air bender in earth and they've lost access to the air and are gonna suffocate. Hell, make a dome of earth around yourself and the air bender loses access to your air (though this does blind you as well).
Water benders can do basically the same thing and their defensive dome doesn't inherently blind them. Then, since the water bender doesn't have to touch water to bend it, you just do your blood bending.
@@leafy_cynical6732 "shredded by sheer negative pressure" you know there are rocks in space, right? And even if the rocks were reduced to dust, earthbenders can still bend dust (with some training)
agreed
I'd honestly go for Airbending. Air is literally everywhere, and you don't have to be a 1 in a billion talent to go full darkside with it, nor do you need to wait for a full moon.
Besides, Airbending gives you easily the greatest mobility of all four elements, and who wouldn't want to fly or ride around on the little air ball?
Plus, tornados. And, what happens when it goes over water, a hurricane. Then, what makes a fire worse? Wind.
and arguably you can use airbending to manipulate fire, water and earth. So it can do them all, but it can't fully master the other 3
I've never seen the anime but all the powers seem very strong if used by someone who can wield them as a weapon. You could do some crazy things with air alone.
Korra made water bending beyond busted with blood bending at will.
Only the Avatar was able to overcome it. Korra lost and the plot had her "learn to air bend".
@@kpny8484
Jet engines, which exclusively use the power of air... Have you ever seen videos of people behind or in front of them? It is horrifying how quick and easy it is to throw a human around.
From a place that has hurricanes and tornadoes, I can say it's not "that" the wind is blowing, but "what" the wind is blowing. Like trees, traffic signs, mail boxes, chunks of buildings, and whole vehicles. Smashing into other things and creating more debris for the wind to blow around, and start fires. And will blow the ocean inland as storm surge. Air is the element that can do it all.
I believe it. The thing that always comes to mind for me is that Kurt Russel movie, "Soldier" (specifically the one scene where wind hits the graveyard and at least a few of the attacking soldiers are impaled with scrap metal crosses)
Something i think is important to rule out is sub-bending, at least the highly rare ones such as blood, lava, flight, combustion. Most masters of elements never even master a sub element in Aang's era, and in Korra's era something like bloodbending is still rare (partly because of laws) AND is still exclusive to the full moon (not every waterbender will be Yakone or Amon guys), therefore not reliable as most claim it is.
When we're talking about which element is the best, it should be factored in terms of amateur to expert levels and kept close to base elements. Its very easy to get out of hand otherwise and go full X-men with "an earthbender can pull the iron out of someones body!"
Bonebending is also a thing! and it's canon
@@mateopadron5533 sure, but rare techniques like that shouldn't be factored in too much, it doesn't play that big of a role in the grand scheme of bending. if you or I were in avatar, it's unlikely we'd ever be some main antagonist who's the exception to the status quo, let's be honest
@@ShadowsK.Y It depends what the goal is. If you are just talking most deadly, it doesn't matter how rare it is. Defining an overall best would be trickier.
Its water BTW. Water is the best. Its specials are too good, aka healing and blood bending. Also while blood bending isn't always doable water out of air or plants absolutely is if you are taught. Overall it has the most coverage.
@@Merilirem , I like how you mention water in air and plants as if that isn't just necessary for water benders to even try to keep up with the other benders (and certainly isn't an argument for them being better). Earth and air are always available in massive amounts and fire is generated from the bender. Water benders typically have to find better sources than humidity and plants to actually do anything of significance (like how Katara used a canteen all through the series).
@@Meriliremfire is superior. What is a water bender going to do when a firebender zaps them with a blast of lightning? Even without lightning bending, a fire blast still beats a waterblast in a head to head contest.
For the dedicated slingshot video I would suggest you move the wooden poles a lot closer to each other. This will not only make it shoot more accurate (since there is less horizontal variability along the acceleration path) but it will also result in more power because the overall draw length will be longer thus accelerating the projectile for longer when firing. Additionally, having the poles closer to one another will make it so the force vectors (I may have made that word up but I hope it's clear what I mean by this) of the rubbers contracting more closely align with the direction in which you want to accelerate the projectile which will lead to a lot more of the energy actually being imparted onto the projectile.
You beat me to it. I had a three person slingshot for water balloons when I was younger. It would go straight and accurate the closer together we held the supports. Fun times were had. Phone calls were made, I got grounded a few times. It was all part of growing up.
Yep. Joerg Sprave has done the groundwork that proves this.
Legend of Korra actually showed us how lethal Air was if the user wasn't a pacifist; you can't get more powerful than literally sucking the air our of people's lungs and making wind blades at incredible speeds. Plus, there isn't a way to deprive someone from using this bending.
Well... technically if you give a bender a gun. Then it's still probably air bending. Cause Arial assult.
zaheer was just a rampaging plot device and WAY more powerful and skilled than he had any right to be. that stuff was just bs.
to be clear: it *is* possible if you're a very powerful and skilled airbender, but i think you'd have to be on at least aang's level
Bloodbending is arguably even worse. Basically gain complete control over your target and you can just kill them instantly at any point.
Imagine if Katara and Azula swapped places and Azula had blood bending.
Also it's the best element for stealth. Not only can you be completely silent by preventing sound waves from propagating, but theoretically you could bend the air around you to create a mirage, rendering yourself invisible.
@@DeusExNihilo Bending the air around you would absolutely not make you invisible. Best case scenario, it would slightly obscure your location in a similar way being under water does.
All elements can be equally powerful when mastered to the extreme. A combination of the types is going to beat any single element.
Yes but I would argue air is the most versatile and they cannot realistically be deprived of their element. One thing most people get wrong is that firebenders can make fire from nothing when they actually need a flame to start out with that they can then grow. Though obviously earth is also pretty hard to be deprived of but not impossible like shown in the anime. Even if they are a metal bender thick enough wood would do the trick. There’s also a strong case for is being almost impossible to not get water as you have saliva and sweat though obviously that’s a limited resource and an air bender will almost never have a limited supply
@@nickbob2003the only time fire benders needed to have a flame to manipulate before bending was in the shitty live action movie that nerfed every element to absurdity.
@nickbob2003 canonically the fire of firebenders comes from the energy of the chi. They don't need a preexisting flame. They produce it in the same why your body produces heat
@@nickbob2003 All elements are everywhere. There's even water in the air that can be extracted. The Fire (heat) from the body, the air and other source. Soil is literally everywhere. And there are places with less "air".
Meanwhile I'm over here thinking, "How do earthbenders even LOSE a fight?"
I mean, literally ALL you gotta do when someone squares up, is clap them between two giant slabs of earth- probably from right beneath their feet. Like slamming a book shut. Except with blood and viscera.
Yeah, I mean earth benders have been shown to do that, and they can summon armor out of nowhere
Or just send 2 spikes of earth straight up through their ankles to their hips, can't bend if you can't bend your knees
It takes some skill to do but yeah it's the easiest kill you can get. Avatar people were way more durable is why it didn't just work like that.
In terms of the ATLA show, Ty Lee, despite not being a bender took down a platoon of Earth Bender soldiers, using acrobatics, being on quick on her toes, plus chi blocking.
It takes a lot of skill for a REGULAR earth bender to lift rocks and heaps of earth, more so in molding such dense materials to be weapons (or just hurling them against an enemy). Quick stepping opponents have decent chances in dodging such atracks.
Of course, it depends on the skill of the Earthbender and his/her opponent's combat capability. Exceptions also could be considered, like metal bending and sand bending (which, for Earthbending sub techniques are quite swift), but in most cases REGULAR Earth Benders (EB) rely on powerful movements and strikes, which could be devastating when they connect, but a bit slow and could be inflexible, which could run the risk of a swift (even punishing) counter if a EB overcommits.
@@el52 To be honest, we're not talking about a particularly intricate move here. Take your hands, and hold them flat, together, at the wrist.
Now clap your hands together. Now imagine those are two giant rectangular rocks, from beneath someone elses' feet.
One quick CLAP, and you've got instant bender soup.
Depends on the location as well as how good you are at bending the elements. Remember the scene where a group of earthbenders fought back against firebenders by using a small rock? Or Zuko using firebending to melt ice by generating enough heat while he was submerged under water?
i have never seen such epic music played over people spraying meat with a pressure washer
Easily Earth. Every battle just became a siege. City walls built in an afternoon, every bender is a trebuchet yeeting big rocks as needed. Trap and snap your enemies ankles if you don't want to entrap them with new walls and roofs.
Oh and also for your societies sake you have no excuse to have homeless people. Rock solid apartment complexes built in a day make housing cheap. The only reason that the Earth Kingdom wasn't a powerhouse was due to 1. An innefective government and 2. Earth benders being fairly rare.
Earth Kingdom was very much a powerhouse. If not for the second comet, Fire Nation couldn't really defeat Earth Kingdom for a 100 years. Ultimately the whole war was only between them, cause Air Nomads died instantly and Water knobs were aggressively useless.
@@endlessnoodle3056 Fire was only winning due to industrialization and the comet. They had to industrialize because fire is a relatively weak fighting element, but it is useful once you introduce steam power.
Especially when one factors in metal bending
@@thewanderingronin5433 can't really. It wasn't a thing until the very end of the war.
Firebending, however, gives mad access to metalworks
@@thewanderingronin5433 I'm only thinking of standard bending. In which case the fire benders will be better at working metal, exactly as they did in the show.
Before the invention of steam power,fire is kind of weak compared to the other elements. Once steam power is invented, fire becomes a power force. It allows for a rapid industrialization since you don't really need a lot of coal mining in comparison to real societies. Your fire is perfectly controlled at all times, making it significantly safer.
As someone who recently burned themselves pretty badly with 400° oil I can attest that fire is not an instant show stopper because afterwards I continued to finish the remaining 6 hours of my shift
I see many people talking about Bloodbending and bending the air in your lungs, but they have their weaknesses and the 4 elements are well balanced by the strenght of their users.
Combustion, Lightning benders and earth benders in general can hit people from farther away than we've ever seen someone bloodbend, and even Mako, a FIRE BENDER, was able to resist bloodbending enouth for a counter attack. And being able to bloodbend outside of a full moon is an exception, there are "one in a lifetime" benders of every type.
And with the entire "bending air out of the lungs" thing, do you see how long it took Zaheer to do it? If the queen was a bender, she would have been able to counter attack. There is a reason why he never does it outside of this "ceremonial execution"
Takes time and concentration to pull off to.
I will say that intent is important. Bloodbending has never really been used lethally even when clearly possible, bloodbending seems to give such power that its users get sloppy and revel in the absolute control they have. Its the strongest against humans and could even augment Ines own movements to insane degree's but its so rarely used no one ever truly masters it. Even the family was only one family. They couldn't master its potential especially given how messed up the dynamic was.
I still daresay the fifth element. She can multipass all others
I understood that reference
Still the best alien opera to date.
Leeloo Dallas Multipass.
"How do you kill someone with love?"
**STIs have entered the arena**
Hahaha good one 👌
The problem with the way you did fire, technically you just bent a liquid that's flammable. A water bender with extra steps
You have to take into account that in Avatar firebending has force to it, most likely from the burning gasses, so it's not liquid fire, it gaseous blasts of fire, so I think the power level was a mite diminished in this test.
They had many problems...
-their fire hat low heat and fire benders create sort of explosions of fire, fire blast and not just fires.
-in water bending they forgot ice bending completely
-in earth they forgot that earth best benefit is trapping people with stone
-in air bending they forgot that gravity exists and air bender could easily throw people into the air and then slam them into the ground with air blast.
They also forgot that each bending style has different level of difficulty and amount of bending that they can do.( fire the easiest, then air, earth and lastly water is the most difficult) (air benders manipulate the biggest volume of their element, then it is fire benders, water benders and earth benders control very small amount of earth)
+
-water bender can easily fill person throat wit water and freeze it
-same with fire bending but not freezing but it would kill
-air bending could simply change pressure to blow the lungs of the person and all of their attacks are invisible
I love the martial art style of firebending, but earthbending is so much fun to think about. Not only is it a weapon, its a method of control. You can shape the entire arena against your oppenent(s) (just look at bumi and aang's fight), and you have control over most buildings and structures. I love the fighting style of firebending, but earthbending just has so much application
Tyranth is right, blowing up the lungs would be way more effective just based on the limits that most waterbenders experience when trying to waterbend. We only know of a few waterbenders who were even able to bloodbend and it is explained that most benders need a full moon to even attempt it. Meanwhile, firebendenders can just be popping people's lungs.
The problem is when the air pressure in your lungs is higher than the air pressure outside by a large degree it just gets sucked out of you. It's the first thing that happens to your body in a vacuum. The air in your lungs even if trying to hold your breathe just gets sucked out of you. I dont think you could explode someone's lungs unless they have a way of containing it inside you...
And adding to this, people have collapsed lungs all the time, it's not an instant death
Causing all the water in your body to either burst out of you or instantly freeze stabbing you through your body? Including your heart? Thats instant death
also bone benders are also canon and don't have the whole moon restriction
Firebenders have really only been shown being able to manipulate fire by extending it from themselves. Can't just point at someone and make their lungs explode.
@@chromaticblue3976 I agree, I think that to explode a person's lungs they would need to be touching them but I don't think that's entirely unreasonable given how close some of the combatants are in the original series.
Water - blood bending
Rock - bone crushing
Air - breath taking
Fire -burning desire for EXLOSION!!!
Or brain bending. Block the electrical signals in someone’s brain using lightning bending.
All of them could instantly destroy brain then
Using just the elements themselves, i think its worth noting that waterbenders could also bend ice in the show, or freeze water, which would be like throwing razor blades even without the intense pressure of something like modern water jets.
For morr large scale maneuvers though, Earth is really slept on. Ya gotta realize every Earth Bender is essentially a walking trebuchet, that shits dangerous.
What I find really interesting though is the idea of augmenting martial abilities with bending. The first place my mind goes to is an archer who's also an airbender, with a glider they could move around a battlefield quickly, and with the bending itself they could accelerate an arrow to ridiculous speeds, stabilize it's flight path, or maybe even just guide it to exactly where the archer is aiming. Archery + Wind powers seems like an absolutely lethal combination that I've not really seem explored before, and I'm sure theres plenty of others I'm not thinking of right now
Can firebenders deal with relative absence of heat?
In the show airbenders can do superspeed too. It's rarely used and seems to lack reflexes or reaction time that are normally included, but who needs to trow stuff when you can run fast enough to kill opponent with a dagger before they can even finish their first move.
@@DarkZodiacZZ Remember the cooler from the burning rock?
@@linkolek I think a big part of that is that they still have relatively normal reflexes and reaction speeds so they're literally just using air to move really fast, but it would be like driving really fast for you or me. Everyone probably has a limit to how fast they could effectively go and still react to the world around them. That's why I like the archery idea, you're just pushing the arrow really fast or using the air to guide it
@@linkolekSuper risky to go in for a dagger attack at high speeds especially if it's an earth bender. one rock between you and them and they might not even need to make a proper attack.
We as people sometimes have bad days ... I'm about to go to bed and with joy I saw that Shadiversity has a new video. This brings a smile to my face, because I so much enjoy watching goofy and nerdy stuff (you know what I mean) that takes you away for a moment from reality.
Even though water could be dangerous if the person really knows what they are doing I would place my bet on earth.
If you get hit by a bolder you are just dead
Also applies if you get hit a a giant iceberg thrown by a water bender 😂
@@helo_people also applies to a torrent of flames
dude earth benders have blood bending on crack, they have bone bending, which is effective both on yourself and others
@@slkjvlkfsvnlsdfhgdght5447 TLDR:just don't get hit
Plus no element has better defensive capabilities.
A rock gets thrown the air bender and fire bender have to dodge. The water bender has to either put up a lot of water or dodge.
But the earth bender can just put up a wall.
Disappointed that they passed up the opportunity to break out some slings, staff slings, trebuchets, and catapults for earthbending.
The damage from a simple sling with a chicken egg sized rock can be pretty impressive.
“You pick it up, and then... you shoot it.”
I believe that is called _throwing._
While the original cartoon was relesing, there were shorts called "creating the legend" where each form of bending was highlighted, as well as which Chinese martial art they were based on.
i remember getting 3-man water balloon launchers banned from my university. we'd have it pulled back like 12 feet at a 40 degree angle and send them out the window to rain down on people outside. the most fun.
Shad seems to be unaware of the concept of "stop drop and roll", if you're caught on fire it's not like the fire is magically unable to be put out though a variety of means, one of which only requires yourself and the ground
Depends on what is on fire. If its your clothes then yes its easy to stop drop and roll and put it out. If it's your flesh that has actually caught fire and your fats are burning? That's much harder to put out.
I mean, yes, but the Firebender will just... keep lighting you on fire while you roll on the ground.
Can't stop drop and roll quite a few types of fire. Pretty sure magical bender burners are probably a little harder to put out than a standard fire. Plus one thing not taken into account is whether your clothes are made out of fire retardant materials or not. If they are then you are pretty safe from a gentle scorching, if not you could go up like a cheap, poorly constructed halloween outfit before you can react
Ive always wanted to earth bend. Im an artist so making golems out of earth and manipulating them like a mech is my dream. The magma bending and sand bending is just a bonus
The censorship made this 100 times funnier, I love the fire piss
Yeah, a stream of burning liquid coming from a pixellated object at Tyranth's waist looks like a really odd Japanese porn scene.
Water, without a doubt, cut steel, bloodbend, freeze and smash. Hands down, Water.
yup
And the tears of SJW's could be weaponized against them!
MAN, something they never explored in the cartoon and never heard anyone talk about:
Water EXPANDS when frozen.
Waterbenders can FREEZE water at will.
Waterbenders could theoretically one-shot ANYONE by freezing them from the inside. Unless I'm missing any specific... No, Katara could freeze water in a hot sunny day in the Serpent's Pass episode. This never happened in the cartoon, but instakilling people with waterbending should be entirely possible.
Instakill / 10
Air.
You can't bend the other elements if you can't breathe due to either your lungs being blown from to much air or suffocating from lack of it.
You forgot heal
Air may be difficult to test but we know tornados wreck stuff pretty effectively.
The most deadly element will be the Netflix show. It's already killing my enjoyment.
oh no :(
The most deadly element is Shyamalan’s movie
It has full people charring down into cinder, it's basically avatar for adult ish, it's not on par with the tv series because it's not a kid show anymore
@@timmygilbert4102 it’s avatar but shit
@@MistbornTaylor it's just you
Building off of what Nate said that "air is the medium that everything flows through", I would actually argue that air is the most powerful if you think of what the nature of a tornado is capable of. If it happens overseas and it causes a hurricane which can cause mass floods. Air has a capacity to pick up rocks and hurl them causing mass damage. Air fuels fire making it stronger and hotter. So not only is air a force of nature that can stand on its own in regards to elemental bending, it is actually the one key element that can enhance the strength of them all. Which would mean that if you had the ability to manipulate air, then you would have the ability to influence the rest with relative ease making you an overall Chad.
ang litterally used a micro tornado to hurl coals on the show when they were on the earthbender prison
The dinosaurs would like a word with you, as would pompei.....And Atlantis is on line three. All depends on power output and rules/restrictions/limitations of bending
"Air and gravity are not the same thing, but a skilled Airbender can make one imitate the other." - Flavor text on Downdraft from the AtLA tcg. Always stuck with me and made me want to be an Airbender. Hilarious video, thanks for the fantastic work guys!
Before they broke the illusion by showing the body of the flame dispenser, it was like wow one of them has an OP UTI to be peeing out flames!
It's all fun and games until someone learns how to bend an actual element and bends uranium.
Avatar the last nukebender
Sadly with a moderate level of understanding of uranium, under most circumstances that's just earthbending again but with a heavy rock made of uranium instead of any other rocks. and it would take a lot more effort to pull uranium out of the environment on the scale required to do anything special.
"Actually, the HATE will boil the water."
😂 now we know why firebenders changed from using the Sun as their power source to using their own internal hatred. What's the Sun gonna do, slowly evaporate the water over the course of many hours?
I thought they switched to using their anger? ... Maybe that's just the translation from Japanese to English being to blame.
@@RachDarastrix2 it's any feelings of passion, though those who do not connect to the sun don't have fire that's as strong, since that's the root of all life
@@mateopadron5533 Makes sense actually, you ever see how much your health gets run down just from a lack of sunlight caused by Winter even though you are constantly going outside in an attempt to get sufficient exposure?
@@RachDarastrix2 what translation? airbender is an american made show, it was in english originally. it was never translated from japanese...
@@saphcal My mistake, maybe I just didn't remember what they said.
I hope Shad knows of Goblin Slayer.
In the middle of the first season he destroys a powerful monster with a teleportation scroll that he had a mage connect to the bottom of the ocean, making it into a short duration, insanely high powered water jet.
Also, on the point of blood bending, in ATLA, because of contaminants in the water (aka blood cells and food, etc.) blood bending was impossible outside of periods of full moon, as the full moon supercharged water benders' powers.
Goblin slayer - buys 9th level spell scroll, uses it for 6th level spell effect.
@@SRocinante DnD reference?
@@SRocinante "DAMMIT I PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THAT SQUIRREL!!! *WHERE IS MY SQUIRREL!??!?!?!* "
He's already done a couple videos on GS, actually.
@@jsb6975.ah.crapbaskets True. I forgot about that
With the Earth bending, Aang shot rocks off like bullets and that would absolutely destroy and shred anything up
If avatar wasn't a kids show any battle against earth benders would result in a battlefield where the bodies of the enemy would be unrecognizable.
Fire would too, but to much less devastating effect than wide area of affect shrapnel and boulders.
Now update this technique to metal-bending and you have...actual bullets! Or knives if you wanna be edgy...
Fire bending also got lightning. I think that's important to remember. While fire might not kill you immediately, lightning probably will.
It is way more rare and you should take the average right?
@@MaDmanex100 If blood bending is gonna be mentioned, which is even rarer and can normally only be done during a full moon, I think lightning deserves to be mentioned too.
@@TheHornedKing yes i agree with that. I think lightning is not something they had knowledge of at the time perhaps.
Water and earth benders could shield themselves. Air benders could potentially disrupt the build up before the discharge.
I assumed fire bending was more about concussive force like an explosion than actual fire since the show constantly shows it throwing people around like a ragdoll but maybe that's just their insistence on not seeing people be burned to death in a kids show.
You built a slingshot and DIDN'T tell us its features.
Shad just needs a wind tunnel or wait for a cyclone and boom. Simulated airbending
There have been stories of people doing stupid things while pressure-washing and ripping their fingers off.
I think many people forget that airbenders are speedsters too. It doesn't matter how deadly your power is if your opponent can kill you with a simple dagger before you can move. Granted, in the show this power was rarely used so it might be very difficult. Especially considering that their superspeed seems to come without super reflexes or reaction time.
Could an Earthbender pull all the minerals out of you? I don't know if that would hurt or just make a target anemic.
I was thinking that 🤔
ask magneto
no, you're thinking about this way too scientifically
they're never shown to do that so no
yes! If they are very skilled, bonebenders are also canon!
Air, you can latterly just pull the air out of someone's lungs,or you can expand the air in the blood streams of people basically exploding their insides
A test with water balloons and Ice blocks from the slingshot, would have been nice. Because they never bend water in a high pressure stream. They throw 1 m^3 of water in your face.
love the idea of testing bending elements😂
They kind of did when Aang and Katarra were slicing up the metal structure of that massive drill as it was tunneling into the wall.
Blurring the flame dispenser makes it look like you're pissing fire.
The obvious follow-on episode to this needs to be an analysis of Saka's meteorite sword and what kind of materials a meteorite would need to have in it to make the best sword.
OOH!!! Yes, this this, what kind of metals are in a meteorite that would be useful for this.
@@als3022Carbon Fibre :P
Historically, meteorite swords are just iron swords. Although it's an interesting question if there are any other materials a meteorite could have in it that would make a good sword.
wow. youtube censoring flamethrowers now
why hasn't anyone DONE something about this? ideally something involving a flamethrower.
I think they hit the nail on the head when talking about how airbenders control the medium in which all other elements need to move through.
It allows for greater ease in avoiding and redirecting attacks. Both of which are perfectly suited for the pacifistic Airbenders.
When I clicked on this video the first thing that came to my mind was who would be the perfect airbender. I am glad we agree
Earth is super versatile.
It can just take sooooo many forms. Just need to be imaginative.
firebender could explode the oxygen around just like a thermobaric bomb i guess
That's why people get blasted back from it in the cartoon
One thing i always noticed in the cartoon is how sturdy the characters are, as cartoon characters.
In the vase of Earthbending, even backround characters routinly get hit by rocks that eould easily weigh 50-100 pounds going at 90mph.
That would pulverize a real person, but in the cartoon it seems to only do as much damage as a hard punch
As someone who’s been a fan but hasn’t been keeping up, that intro with the 3 legends was spectacular
10:15 i thought for a hit second they were about to bring out Jorg Sprave with some new nightmare contraption and a hearty german laugh.
Fun video. While earth does seem like the best element to inflict direct lethal damage on a single target when aimed, I think two aspects that are worth considering that do come up often in the show are:
- Usage in group vs. group scenario's
- Defensive applications
In groups I think that depending on the environment, fire could become a lot more impactful because it can create hazardous terrain that spreads without needing further sustenance from the bender, so they can focus on even more attacks. But it has very little defensive utility. Water would also have strong applications to control a battlefield and negate the ability of others to attack, so while it's not as immediately devastating it could overwhelm other elements given enough time. Air seems to be mostly used for defense/redirecting projectiles and enhancing mobility. It's not a very powerful element by itself offensively, but if the combatant is also a skilled martial artist or warrior then that ability is much further enhanced by air than the other elements are capable of. It's no coincidence that the air benders are portrayed as shaolin monks.
I'm working on a Zelda comic and in my world they use magic. That said Wind is by far the strongest of the elements in my story. I've been trying to think outside the box as far as what each of the elements can do, and in my brainstorming Wind was by far the most versatile. Imagine a talented Wind user holding the air around you solid... you cant move. Imagine him ripping the air out of you preventing you from breathing. Imagine applying a steady air pressure on you simulating heavy gravity forces dropping you to the ground. Hitting people with high pressure concussive blasts, cutting..... list of possibilities goes quite deep.
Censoring the handheld fire dispenser makes it look worse than it actually is.
especially since it just looks like its peeing on boromir.
i have a fair bit of biase for fire, i mean come on, its fire!
i imagine air would be the most utilitarian
water is the most... gruesome and equally merciful
earth has the most brute force mentality (need more power? throw bigger rock)
Call it a "Flame Projector" and be careful using a fire extinguisher on people, it can harm the lungs!
Those first shots of the flame dispenser look like someone pissing fire, especially with the pixelation.
air for me is good for the support ability rather than offense. while a master can be very deadly with vacuum and such, if talking about normal level stuff, things like air sensing and pushing your own body to evade attacks is what air excels at. as well as making air flows around you to move projectiles. you can do that with other elements but you wont be able to see.
But personally, I'm more for earth for it's versatility. the ability do do great damage and build things and burrow into the earth to escape or hide is just so much fun.
This was a very strange test
- Boromir the tough
Default 4 Air. If you are a prodigy Water + Blood
consider... earth + bone! (It's canon too)
So some things I've actually thought of in regards to this. Fire bending is the only bending that does not require you to have the element present since fire is a form of energy, not a physical element, which is also why fire benders are potentially capable of lightning bending, since it's just another form of energy. Fire benders also cannot generate velocity because energy does not have mass. All forms of bending can be overpowered if you start getting into technicalities, but I generally perceive it in terms of them being a martial art. It's not a system where you can just magically control whatever element you are a bender of but one where you manipulate it through martial artistry just like you would a physical weapon, which is why skilled non-bender combatants are capable of going toe to toe with benders quite regularly.
fire needs oxygen, confirmed. A firebender is rendered useless in a vacuum, it was displayed in the show.
These guys are such a joy to watch and listen to. Always upbeat and fun.
Thanks for being consistently awesome, gentlemen.
Fire. You forgot to test the LIGHTNING!
Water bender vs Fire bender i think depends on location, heavily.
I think this is why the fire nation required so much resources, tanks, and to even disable waterbending to defeat the water tribe's fortified city.
If water is present they can almost certainly dismiss firebenders in most situations.
Because bending is such a martial arts focused art as-well, i think you'd need to compare more than just the elements, but how to get powerful or unusual techneques. The actual motions may incur more advantages, disadvantages.
Fire bending for example based on my vague recollection seems to fire off way faster than water.
Whereas water bending is the natural counter to fire.
They feel very balanced to me lol
If a bender is creative enough, his bending skill is the most deadly.
I used to work as a painter and before we painted the house we would have to pressure wash the siding and we had to use one of those industrial pressure washers and I remember trying to retighten the tip on the sprayer and I accidentally got my hand in front of the jet of water and it ripped off a few layers of skin and left a seriously nasty red angry wound that looked basically like a burn does
The epic music when you were using the pressure washer really got me.
Great video, guys! Very fun! Thank you!
#EarthKingdom
I have to say the " fire dispenser" is genius. I wouldn't have thought that would work. I'll just file that bit of knowledge away for later use.
This was quite a fun watch. I feel the slingshot video would need to be a two part. One with just yall then a second with maybe some inpute from Jörg Sprave. He is all about slingshots after all lol. Cant wait to see what yall make and test next
If you look into the science of weather you will realize that airbending is by far the most powerful. Someone that is powerful enough with airbending could manifest any weather they want.
You guys have had a lot of fun with many of your videos, but I think this is the most fun I've ever seen you have. Cheers!
To test fire, any flamethrower would be the correct stand-in. In the cartoon, fire behaves a lot like a solid when hitting other things, which makes no sense. Water should 100% beat it as it hits through without any time to evaporate. Zero defensive power, no deflections, nothing. And realistically, if you were hit big a wall of fire you'd still have plenty of time to react as fire has zero direct damage, it is purely a DoT. Fire kinda weak.
To test water, a firefighter hose would do perfectly... And we all know how those are used for crowd control. Then there's water in very high pressure cutting through METAL, and it can be used, in enough quatities, as a wall for defense. Water OP. And that is just with water as-is, not even talking about waterbenders being able to FREEZE it at will.
To test earth, well... What is there to say? CATAPULT. CANNON. 100% solid projectiles. Blunt trauma. Concussions. Earthquakes to throw enemies off balance. And is the best for defense. Earth OP.
Air is a much different topic as it is used more easily for evasion and tiring out the enemies. Don't need much attack power when your enemy can't attack anymore... And then they do have plenty of attack power with being able to knock things over, make enemies tumble and be vulnerable... But the cruel uses of vaccum, yeah, that's a total killer. Air OP.
Fire bending seems more like explosion bending than just moving around flame though. Azula even uses it as propulsion. Also heat can be generated, or at least manipulated, without flame. It also seems like the flames are particularly high temps in general. There's some level of combination of manipulation of thermal and kinetic forces possible around the flame and if you can imagine being able to manipulate those forces then there's a lot of force to be worked with even with relatively small flame.
4:25 now that i got a clear view, the "flame dispenser" is analogous enough to dragon fire.
4:38 or perhaps that fire extinguisher, since the "smoke" has more similar physics to fire.
You definitely should do a dedicated video for that slingshot
Try a mechanical Tire inflator in 15:15, I know that power of compressed air can put a hole in someone off of, I know because I read the instructions, it just takes a bit of effort.
If you do a video with the giant slingshot, you must use the phrase "Let me show you its features!" at least once.
I like your new pauldrons Shad, I think they look great. I am patiently and excitedly waiting for another titan sword update, love the stuff you guys are doing it really is Shadiversity's best content so far.
Honestly, I would say Earth as the most deadly followed closely by Water if we are assuming an 'average' (IE non-main plot mook level) bender. They are quite flexible in usage, have defensive options, long range kill attacks, and can hard counter a lot of what fire and air can do.
It's a fact that each element can kill effectively given the right circumstance. The human body is just full of vulnerable, squishy, and crunchy stuff!!
I reckon it's probably possible to kill someone without an element at all, just gotta hit em in the right spots with enough force, maybe something fancy, like a stick would do.
Air is like water but without the requirement of needing to be near the element, you always are.
But airbenders have more utility. They are lightfooted, can fly with the right equipment, are.more.in tune with the spirit, etc. Plus, airbending can create harder to dodge aoe attacks. Like, you can't dodge a powerful gust of wind, and even in nature we have winds capable of lifting you off your feet. If you get lifted high enough, its game over.
Idk, i just think air is the most useful. Just the ability to fly would be nice.
It's definitely water, water can do basically do the air attacks except they hit harder, with ice bending they can basically do all the rock attacks except they're also sharper and cause a cold effect, they cover all the weapon attacks slicing, piercing and bludgeoning, it's basically the best for both attacking and defending, not to mention the additional abilities like blood bending and healing
Loving the new pauldrons Shad 😂
I like the idea of earthbending, there's a specific move they do which I could see as very effective. You grab big chunks of stone and blast off smaller bits rapid fire. You have a shield and a method of attack.
I think out of the standard use cases:
Air is harder to judge due to the limited examples we see as well as the feasibility of real world testing. The average air bender brings a ton of utility and mobility, and I think it could supplement weaponry usage more than the others. Also the fact that it is everywhere makes using it easier.
Water is more deadly than air of course, but with the caveat that the ability to use it is more limited. I think something to take into account is how state transformation seems to be much closer to a 'common' technique, so shifting between steam, liquid, and ice states changes up how Water can be used, then depending on training it does have healing properties.
Earth...well as is shown in the video and talked about, its basically "What if we take siege equipment, and make it a magic person who can fire so much faster." I'd argue that in 90% of cases, its probably the most deadly without needing to try that hard. Even if someone can only control rocks even twice the size of their fist, they are doing some serious damage.
Fire I'd consider roughly equal to water in deadliness when you think about it, outside of the fact that it may be more tiring to use, but isn't limited by the environment. Up front it is almost a weird blend of the other 3 in deadly and ease of use. Like air I think it is best used alongside a weapon, especially if we are looking more at the average bender.
For next slingshot safety, you could make a post with a pulley behind it and have a line attached to the pouch, the shooter can stand well out of harms way to the side while still pulling the pouch from the center.
Don't worry, Shad. I won't do any of this at home.
I'll go to the park and do it.
I have a lot of historical examples of lances, but no modern day testing. Could you please make a vid about said weapon?
One for Nate - regarding the Sun Tzu comment - there's some mention of water: "If water is to assist the attack, the flood must be overwhelming." Also check out the Wikipedia article on the Battle of Fancheng - it's really interesting :)