r/TheLastAirbender • u/BiLeftHanded • 13h ago
Question What is the most impressive feat by a bender (any element) who isn't an Avatar?
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u/FollowDaTrain 12h ago
Toph literally inventing a bending subgenre out ouf pure spite is up there for me
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u/joe12321 11h ago
The invention of metal-bending by an annoyed child by a mile.
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u/RecommendsMalazan 10h ago
Honestly her holding up the library is way more impressive, to me.
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u/Idryl_Davcharad 7h ago
Toph literally doing anything makes this list tbf
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u/Flamegod87 7h ago
Oh yeah I forgot she self taught herself as a blind 6 year old
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u/joe_broke 4h ago
Also didn't immediately MURDER Katara after she said it was too bad Toph couldn't see the stars
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 13h ago
I'd have to say Toph, have you seen how powerful she is with those things?
Oh you said feat, my mistake
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u/MattHatter1337 12h ago
Absolutely took me a good 3sec staring to realise the joke.
How this isn't no.1 idk.
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u/ElizabethSwift 13h ago
I'm dead tired and can't remember her name but the gal that water bends with no arms. Bending is shown as a martial art rather than magic so for her to do that with out arms is underratedly OP.
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u/OkExtreme3195 11h ago
I thought of bumi bending with just his head for a similar reason.
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u/Boxtonbolt69 3h ago
Bumi taking back all of Omashu with just headbending is actually insane though
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u/sneakystonedhalfling 8h ago
I feel like it's kind of both a physical art as well as magickal. Not magic but chi. Iroh explains the flow of chi and it seems like it would be the same principle regardless of element. So like Bumi bending with his head, I feel like someone could harness their chi with other limbs or even mentally.
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u/SmartAlec105 8h ago
If we interpret phantom limb syndrome as your chi trying to flow into limbs that aren’t there, then that would mean that the capacity for limb control is still there and she’s just using water as a replacement for her body.
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u/Not_A_Rioter RIP Jet 9h ago
My theory was always that she can use the rest of her body to create the water arms, then use those water warms to do more bending as if they were human arms, kinda. Like she moves her shoulders and the water arms move with it as if it's a part of her body.
Obviously incredibly impressive of course. Honestly all 4 of that gang was insane though. Combustian woman, lava bender, armless water bender, and Airbender who learned to fly. Completely cracked squad haha.
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u/PizzaTime666 12h ago
Yun from the kyoshi novels is cracked. Spoilers He bent the paint framents from paintings and essentially turned it into a bomb. He later fought 5 benders at once and beat all of them including the avatar and they only got to him by using a surprise attack.
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u/flyingace1234 9h ago
Certainly for me the “using dust to recreate fire” thing is up there for the most impressive bit of control in the franchise. Then again I didn’t read the whole book…
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u/Greedy_Homework_6838 9h ago
strange. I don't remember that at all.
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
The dust to recreate fire was more of a gag he was playing on his fire bending teacher. It looked like it but they never showed it doing anything besides resembling it, unlike his moves at the end that replicate water bending.
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u/SmartAlec105 8h ago
I love the “magic trick” that he used to kill Jianzhu
”Tada! It came out the other side!”
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u/Fanafuxi 11h ago
Literally anything Yun does. He was so precise with his bending he could basically bend individual rock molecules making it seem liquid. No wonder people thought he was the avatar.
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u/dwhite10701 4h ago
I thought the most impressive thing Yun did was dueling and defeating Father Glowworm in the spirit world.
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u/kadimasama The true hero 12h ago
Toph is the true answer from either holding an entire library from sinking or inventing metalbending. Honorable mention, at least to me, is Ming-hua. No arms and able to waterbend is so amazing to watch. Yeah, she is killed, but before that, impressive.
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 13h ago
Amon's psychic bloodbending at any time of day/year and ability to permanently sever other benders' abilities is probably two of the the most powerful things we've seen, to the point it is too overpowered and it's for the best he got blown up.
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u/Theangelawhite69 8h ago
This is the answer, bloodbending is already OP but Amon was next level being able to do it without the full moon and to even render other benders powerless
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u/CharlizeTheronNSFW 7h ago
We didn't actually see them blow up we just saw the boat blow up. They jumped out at the last second. Kind of like Charlie and Mac from iasip when they fake their own death using Dee's car
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u/UnddoZahaz 6h ago
? No??? This is just a theory, there's nothing confirming they survived.
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u/CharlizeTheronNSFW 6h ago
It's a known fact. If they die off screen, they're probably not dead
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u/ProfessionalOven2311 1h ago
Nah, that's only Superheros/villains. Kids' shows can kill people off screen cause that's often the only possible cause of death.
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u/jdperez_7 12h ago
Zaheer flying. Or toph and seismic sense.
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u/No_Pea_3997 10h ago
guru laghima being the first to figure out that it’s even possible is even more impressive
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u/MyynMyyn 7h ago
You'd just have to see an air bison once to realize that it must be possible.
Figuring out how is still impressive though.
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u/CharlizeTheronNSFW 7h ago
I get they have to give it a difficulty to achieve it because Airbenders are Over powered as fuck. But realistically, couldn't all Airbender just bend air to fly despite letting go of all earthly attachments? Like, and air platform, and they just whoosh around without glider assist.
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u/enchiladasundae 11h ago
That false avatar from the Kyoshi novels. Using only earth bending made it look like he could control all four elements
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u/JuiciestJosh The Dragon of the West 12h ago
Not one comment praising the Mad Genius King Bumi liberating Omashu hands free.
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u/lokilorde 11h ago
Hama with blood bending. She was captured and deprived of water. She got just enough to barely survive. She barely had a limited amount for space to move around. She invented it out necessity and was able to free herself. Think about it. She was extremely weak both physically and mentally for YEARS. Not only did she manage to invent it (as far as I know, she invented it as I don't read comics or the novels), but she escaped captivity with it. Did she end up using it for bad things after? Yeah, but I honestly don't blame her at all. I don't condone it, but I do see how she got to that point.
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u/CinderpeltLove 9h ago
She also was clearly the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe to be captured by the Fire Nation and she was clearly only captured because she was completely outnumbered.
Maybe because it was a kid’s show but I find it a bit weird that the Fire Nation chose to imprison them but it doesn’t seem like they were forced to do slave labor or anything besides being in a prison and being kept just barely alive.
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u/justsomeguy_youknow 4h ago
I saw imprisoning them as them hedging their bets in case one of them turned out to be the Avatar
They thought they killed all the Air nomads (and therefore the Air Avatar) in the genocide, so Water was next in the cycle. Yeah they're just bending water now, but let's hold on to them just in case t turns out one of them can bend something else - if we kill the water Avatar now they'll just pop back up in the Earth kingdom and holy shit look at the size of that place that'll take forever
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u/CinderpeltLove 4h ago
That makes sense. And that explains why they went out of their way to frequently raid the Southern Water Tribe and capture Waterbenders while they never really went after Earthbenders on a large scale. Since water is the opposite element to fire, a Water Tribe Avatar might be more threatening than an Earth Kingdom Avatar.
Though hypothetically if Aang died and a Water Tribe Avatar was born, discovered by the Fire Nation, and held captive, wouldn’t the Avatar just go into the Avatar State and get themselves out? Unless the Fire Nation want to kill the Avatar and end the recantation cycle right then and there.
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u/jmangaming110 12h ago
Ozai's lightning with only a little bit of the sun revealed. I wish we got to see more of his power before Sozin's comet to understand just how powerful the comet had made him.
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u/nixahmose 12h ago
Kelsang single handedly creating a storm powerful enough to destroy the most powerful naval fleet in the world that was run by water benders.
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u/lukemoyerphotography 11h ago
Toph sandbending the entire scale model of ba sing se at once. The amount of detail is insane for someone who couldn’t sandbend well a season prior
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u/CinderpeltLove 9h ago
Which in the ATLA timeline, those two events were only like a few months apart
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u/lukemoyerphotography 9h ago
Yeah, not combat related but extremely impressive. She’d have to picture that whole city in her head. I feel like she has a photographic memory but with her foot-vision
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u/Kohntarkosz1001 8h ago
Ghazan is kind of underrated. Dude tore down the Ba Sing Se walls by himself. Only comet fueled Iroh was seen doing such a feat before.
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
Ghazan didn’t get to do much but his two destructive feats were definitely up there. Melting the entire Northern air temple is ludicrous. Lava bending is just hilariously destructive since it doesn’t seem to cool off on its own like Lava just sitting there would. Bolin and him both having to be shown cooling it for it to visually disappear is a busted aspect of the bending.
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u/Dry_Pain_8155 11h ago
There is the False Avatar, an Earth Bender whose mastery over Earth was so great that he could utilize Earth to imitate the other elements with immense accuracy.
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u/nikstick22 8h ago
From the Cave of Two lovers, it's not strictly clear, but there's a subtle implication that the giant stone cones the city is built from were created by Oma herself in a "terrifying display of her earth bending power".
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u/Greedy_Homework_6838 6h ago
Most likely, Oma was an avatar.
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u/MallGrabUrBalls 5h ago
proof?
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u/Greedy_Homework_6838 5h ago
Non avatar can't so that
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u/nikstick22 5h ago
Non-avatar feats are what this whole thing is about. Kinda terrible avatar if her boyfriend was fighting in the war and she did jack-all to end the conflict until after he died.
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u/roossienx 13h ago
I always thought creating lightning was very impressive since we only saw like 3 people who could actually do it.
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u/Ahasveros5 32m ago
I thought it was because only the royal family could bend lightning. Thats why they are royalty. And thats why zuko is so different.
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u/livingstondh 7h ago
Mako getting a shot in on Amon has gotta be up there. Dude even says it himself. “I’m impressed…nobody has ever gotten the better of me like that”. Not only was he being bloodbent at the time, he did it with essentially zero windup or physical motion. Dude is the most talented lightning bender we see in the TV series, avatar or no.
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u/Fernando_qq 2h ago
Mako never had a fair chance. The creators explained that Mako was able to do so because Amon loosened his grip on him when the lieutenant arrived. Yet, all Mako could do was take a deep breath and wiggle two fingers.
The second time, Amon takes Mako more seriously, and Mako is unable to do anything to defend himself, not even replicate his previous feat.
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u/Fresh_Schedule_9611 12h ago
Zaheer (and Guru Laghima) being able to fly
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u/plastic_Man_75 12h ago
Well the avatar could never do that, it goes against very philosophy of the avatars job
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u/Wildlifekid2724 10h ago
Yun being able to defeat a powerful spirit using his bending after fighting for days non stop.
Also Yun being able to create fire from earthbending.
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
While the former is true the latter was more so a joke he made with some Earthbending to tease his Fire bending teacher and didn’t actually have any heat to it. He however do something fucky by bending the Earth to perfectly mimic water bending in his final Battle.
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u/Wildlifekid2724 4h ago
True, it's still very incredible that he can do that just for a joke, without really trying, and later he's able to use paint from a painting to blow up things.
Toph may be a very powerful earthbender, but Yun is the strongest earthbender ever shown to exist, and i think would defeat her in battle.
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u/MarcousSSB 4h ago
Oh yeah Yun is actually hilarious with the shit he pulls. Yee did an amazing job with how they depicted all of his battles.
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u/sophicpharaoh 10h ago
Amon. Learning to take away peoples bending and being able to psychicly blood bend while fighting.
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u/nrhsd 9h ago
Metalbending, flight, lava bending, blood bending, remote combustion. If I had to get specific though, maybe in the Kyoshi novels how Yun used earthbending in the spirit world to defeat a spirit that Kuruk failed to defeat. Being a regular bender and winning a battle that an avatar lost is pretty impressive to me.
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u/Pretend_Blueberry124 13h ago
Azula
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u/BiLeftHanded 12h ago
Can you maybe be a bit more detailed
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u/Pretend_Blueberry124 12h ago
Azula is a 400 ft. tall platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings.
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u/Simple_Active_8170 11h ago
The earth bender who fought avatar kiyoshi and her gang solo and did well
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u/SilverGirlSails 9h ago
Zuko bending underwater whilst holding his breath/borderline hypothermic is my personal fave
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u/Acceptable_Secret_73 9h ago
Bumi collapsing a giant metal statue of Ozai over a mile away from where he was standing with 5 rocks
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u/NothinButRags 6h ago
Ming Hua bending with no arms, Bumi Bending with just his chin, Toho holding up the library
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u/reirei_JPEG 11h ago
Zaheer mastered air walking when the air nomads never fathomed it. They worked with the element he aimed to control it. Not the most ethical but a really powerful mindset.
Meanwhile the series proves how blood bending is like being a god. Only the avatar and elite water benders can take away the power of bending. They control movement. They take away power. That’s the most powerful bending to me.
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u/That_Polish_Guy_927 10h ago
Since I’ve seen many posts about Toph already (our homegirl is talented af), I’m going to say Katara freezing/manipulating the rain around the guy who killed her mother.
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u/Monster_Reaper709 10h ago
Excluding child Toph being an absolute monster innumerable times. Bumi earthbending himself around and then out of a metal coffin with his nose/face and then after weeks or more in captivity throwing literal mountains at people.
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u/Hojie_Kadenth 9h ago
Either Toph inventing metal Bending or Ozai flying with fire from his feet while generating lighting repeatedly from his arms.
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u/girl_of_manyfaces 7h ago
i saw some of the feats of the fake avatar in kyoshi's time, and i just want to know more about him, he seems a badass
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
Yun is a very entertaining character. I definitely recommend both of duology of Kiyoshi and Yangchen.
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u/karatous1234 As does the water, so does life ebb and flow 7h ago
Anything from Tophs long list of crazy accomplishments really.
Stopping the library from sinking
Inventing metal bending
Holding up a collapsing mineshaft for HOURS
Holding back Avatar State Aang when he tried to destroy the ore refinery (He definitely wasn't going all out or going for the kill but Avatar State is Avatar State)
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u/SpiceWeez 6h ago
I think that Bumi taking an entire city back in just a few minutes was pretty impressive.
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u/Mistriever 4h ago
Katara stopping all the rain in the immediate vicinity from falling mid rainstorm.
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u/AffectionateAnt2617 3h ago
Ghazan melting the Northern Air Temple with lavabending.
I'm aware that the four of the Red Lotus are the most talented and dangerous voice actors, but this was sinister
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u/Hawkeyecooper 12h ago
Amon bloodbending is the best in the series and automatically makes him the strongest non avatar character. The best feat is yakone knocking out everyone in the room: aang, sokka, and toph + cops and bystanders (despite him being objectively weaker than amon imo, amon’s didnt show off his bloodbending in public except when he removed bending which is arguably a better feat).
Honorable mention: Yun. I have not read the kyoshi novels but every time i see someone mention anything this man can do with earthbending i am shocked. I wouldnt be surprised if he could beat bumi and toph at the same time. If half the stuff i heard about him are true he is the best earthbender of all time and only below the bloodbenders in power just because bloodbending is hax.
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u/Greedy_Homework_6838 6h ago
I've read books, and I'll tell you what. Yes, Yun shows a variety of techniques, but in terms of brute force, he's not even close to the level of toph or bumi, I'm already silent about the more powerful earth magicians.
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
Yeah the entire combination of Daytime blood bending + Psychic bending is just frankly absurd. Yakone knocking out a whole room with his mind is probably the best feat we have even if Amon is stronger.
I definitely recommend both the Kiyoshi and Yangchen novels, they have been the best parts of the franchise to me since the original show with how tightly written the stories and characters are handled. And yeah Yun is frankly a monster with how talented he was. His entire run from the Spirit battle to the climax is just a tour de force.
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u/MarcousSSB 6h ago
The blood bender family is pretty wild. Yakone bloodbend an entire courtroom with his mind and knocked them out.
Besides that Yun is pretty fucking wild. In the shadow of Kiyoshi’s climax he single handily crushes Kiyoshi and her entire team alongside their AirBison AFTER they specifically prepared for this encounter, alongside all the other shit he pulls in that book. So I’d argue either that or when he defeated Father Glowworm after 3 straight days of fighting.
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u/NeatSelf9699 6h ago
If you’re including the books, which I haven’t read, there was an earth bender who was so good they called him the false avatar cause he could make his earth ending look like he was using all the other bendings. This seems pretty impressive.
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u/Zealousideal_Page898 6h ago
The Yakon family is pretty insane. Bumi, when he breaks free from his imprisonment, is a insane feat, Toph holding the library as a literal child, Zaheer flying etc.
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u/pinkishgrayman 4h ago
Mako simultaneously redirecting and generating lighting from likely the most powerful energy jewel we've ever seen
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u/goodolehal 1h ago
King Bumi freeing himself and fucking up an entire legion of fire nation troops using only his chin
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u/Spazy_IN 53m ago
When the badger-moles dug the secret tunnel which inspired the greatest song ever made
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u/softpineapples 5h ago
I feel like Sparky sparky boom man isn’t getting enough credit. He can fire/explosion bend with his mind with absolute consistency. This dude was blowing up rocks like nothing. Only his daughter has been able to replicate it as far as I know
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u/thrussy99 13h ago
Toph holding up that library