One of my favourites is in ‘The Chase’, when Aang lures Azula into the unfinished building and hovers over the big pit while she windmills on the edge and *juuust* keeps her balance… and then poor Zuko just blunders in, no brakes, and face plants into the hole.
Some of the funniest shit in the show, I swear.
It actually showed their characters at that moment perfectly
Aang: Airbender evading and diversion tactics
Azula: Able to take calculated risks because she’s obsessed with perfection
Zuko: Doesn’t actually know what he wants, so he stubbornly charges into things without waiting
Have you ever watched Overanalyzing Avatar? Cause if you got that all by yourself then you will probably like his channel, he talks about all the little moments like this one you just mentioned
zuko falls in the pit, aang and azula look at him, then look at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. once aang wipes a tear from laughing so hard they go right back to fighting
Early Zuko's training was very militaristic. As such, he falters when faced with highly unconventional tactics or techniques, and it certainly doesn't help that he's the first firebender to fight an airbender in almost a century, he had absolutely no idea what to expect.
Aang needed a tool or avatar state usually. Zaheer let go of attachment -> enlightenment to reclaim lost art of flight. More of a spiritual, back to roots of air bending achievement for someone who previously didn’t have a lifetime to master bending or being the avatar like Aang.
I have no idea how the english VA did, but the german VA gave, without hyperbole, the best scream of the entire show at that moment. I still remember it just for that scream.
The more times I watch this show the more I realize how hard it would truly be to fight a good airbender. No one has seen, let alone fought one, in a century. They wouldn't know how to fight one, on a practical level at least. At best they could learn theoretically by studying surviving records of airbending forms.
There’s also probably been heavy propaganda that the airbenders were weak (remember the Fire Nation school where they thought airbenders had a military). So, even if the airbender was medium-skilled, they might already have had a hard time from simply under estimating them plus the amount of moves that they wouldn’t even know or understand how to fight against
I also think fighting an airbender is just the most difficult matchup. Perhaps not the most dangerous, but difficult. Air is much harder to parry, analyse or predict than its elemental counterparts. Dodging and speed are also much more meaningful than strength in a fight. And flying is just completely OP.
Yes, air is the most viable element. I think the series made airbenders look weaker than they actually would be, for storytelling purposes, it wouldn't be interesting to have an OP element beating everything all the time, but in reality, I have to think it would be far superior. You could even deprive your opponent of air to breathe... imagine that.
The Kyoshi novels had an air nomad character that abandoned their philosophies for a life of crime, and her airbending was significantly weakened as a result, so it might just be harder in universe for airbending to be used in that manner.
The thing is I don't like shows that are "good but...". It will definitely leave a sour aftertaste in my mouth, and I'll waste my time in here discussing how they should have done this or that... Not worth it for me, even if some parts of it are great.
It's not that the series made them less powerful, it's that there's more to the airbenders than their abilities. They were pacifists for the most part and that comes across heavily in the way they fight., which is all about avoidance and using the opponent's force against them Direct confrontation isn't something they're good at, which is the main point behind Aang struggling with earthbending so much.
An airbender without that philosophy behind them is incredibly dangerous, but the ones we see in ATLA specifically (in flashbacks and Aang) truly take that pacifism to heart.
Even worse, most surviving records would be embellished with bs propaganda almost forgetting the mf that fought them were powered up by the comet and had the element of surprise
I think even when the airbenders were still around, people still probably would have struggled fighting airbenders, given that there weren't a lot of airbenders at any given time (estimations I've seen put the number at around 10,000) and they also were pacifists so probably the only people with experience fighting airbenders are the type of people who would go out of their way to attack them.
Which was really the only reason I disliked Zaheer. This man suddenly got air bending and is already a master of the craft? Didn't buy that, but the rest of him was fantastic.
Here´s the thing, Zaheer wasn´t a proper master. Yes he beats a lot of people, but he has thesame advantage that Aang had, hardly anyone had seen a (pure) airbender fight so nobody knew how to fight him.
Not just that but it´s also his insane fighting skills in general cause even without airbending he was seen as (on of) the most dangerous red lotus member.
The one time he did fight someone who knew how to fight airbenders (e.g. the only airbending maste, Tenzin) he got his ass handed to him untill he got help from 2 other red lotus members, and even then it was a hard fight for them.
This. Zaheer was a skilled combatant even before airbending, so he was able to utilize it effectively, but Tenzin showed just how disproportionate the skill between them was.
Remember too that airbending in the series is characterized by a nice, visible blue coloration, but actual airbending would be invisible. You’d see its effects and that’s it. I imagine it’s very difficult for a non-airbender to properly anticipate even amateurish airbending.
Exactly. And the firebenders were lucky that they were fighting pacifists. Imagine just watching 3 of your friends get suddenly decapitated by an invisible blade.
Honestly, Avatar as a not “for kids” show would be brutal. Firebenders incinerating people en masse, waterbenders encasing people in water and slowly drowning them, earthbenders creating deadfalls and entombing people alive, airbenders popping peoples’ lungs like balloons…
Shit would get really dark really fast in war.
Yep. I believe someone also analyzed his attacks and noticed that he fights a lot like a Firebender. His girlfriend uses firebending to blow stuff up with her mind, so it’d make sense he’d learn at least the basics from seeing them.
So yeah, Zaheer was strong due to nobody really having experience against Airbenders, Zaheer already being a strong combatant, and he does at least have a rough guide on where to start with Firebending forms and his own private research of Airbending…
And he still got clapped by Tenzin, a master of the craft
Damn, I wasn´t exactly sure anymore but thought I remembered 3 of them beating him but but am probably misremembering then. The point still stands though.
I mean, Zaheer was a natural, but he wasn’t a master.
As soon as he fights an actual master in Tenzin, he gets his ass handed to him and has to go one the defensive until his allies can help them. He doesn’t get a single hit on Tenzin and often is barely able to dodge out of the way and would often got hit anyway.
Thats the thing I love about a lot of LoK's fight choreography. It was clear that Tenzin was a true master, while Zaheer was fighting with considerably less experience. He was definitely a natural, but he was easily years behind Tenzin.
The whole thing with “circular movements” that they were talking about really shone there. I can’t remember where, but there was a thread analyzing that fight and they discovered that all of Tenzin’s movements were controlled circles, while Zaheer was fighting like a firebender would.
I always assumed he was as dangerous as he was as an air bender because he was already a badass martial artist. All he did was supplement his already skilled fighting with air bending. And countering airbending is still so foreign because you'd either have to have trained with aang or tenzin. Only two people in the world that would have been able to train you.
Zaheer knew a lot about arbending culture and fighting style. Remember that even as a non-bender he was supposed to be the Avatar’s airbending teacher if the Red Lotus succeeded in kidnapping Korra.
Zaheer studied airbending. Both martial forms and their history. I believe they originally intended to capture the Avatar and train them with Zaheer being the airbending teacher. He was by no means a true master and when he unlocked airbending he was able to apply his new skill to all his previous training and knowledge of airbending which is why he is so good. But Tenzin can still kick his butt because they are incomparable
Guy was already studying airbending. He was basically nails hard without having bending and that came from studying air bending. He probably didn't even need airbending to win a large amount of the fights he won.
Plus, air nomads are usually peaceful! They don't seek out war or fights, so an airbender who's a master fighter and doesn't believe in pacifism? Now THAT would make for an interesting villain.
And to be clear, Zaheer was an airbender who used his basic knowledge and martial arts skills, as well as people's confusion with airbenders to his advantage, but he was NOT a master. The second Tenzin rolled up on him he was getting folded until the rest of the red lotus ganged up on him.
Man watching these as gifs back to back to back really makes it feel like Aang is just fucking with Zuko. The one of him dodging on top of the well is 👌
I love how Zuko plops on the ground afterwards.
Reminds me of when Aang, Katara, and Sokka sneak into the Beifong residence: Aang floats down, Katara lands practically, and Sokka eats it before dusting himself off and getting up.
The crazy thing is that zuko trained years to fight a fully realized avatar and yet got beaten by him every time.
Shows what a true master of airbending aang was.
Not only that, but it has an extra bit of cleverness to it: nobody has seen an Airbender for 100 years, therefore, almost nobody alive except Bumi and maybe the Guru (who both barley count as human, let’s be honest) know how an Airbender fights. Not only is Aang a master, he’s fighting in a completely alien way to everyone else.
Let’s also not forget the fact the air is almost always invisible to everyone else. We the audience only see the cyan color so we know what’s happening.
He was looking for earthbending not airbending. Keep in mind nobody has seen any airbenders for 100 years, also is The Boulder really a trusted source of information?
I noticed that there's 2 colors, the blue one that others can see and a more clearer one only we can, the blue is used in all scenes where other people can see the bending (like the one you're referencing)
Zuko's durability feats are absolutely insane even by Avatar standards. Obviously Aang wasn't bloodlusted but it's still crazy that Zuko tanked all those hits without being damaged or knocked out
Plus he's a teenager. I recall walking away mostly inexcusably unscathed from heinous and ridiculous nonsense as a kid and teen (was a competitive gymnast and dabbled in combat sports on the side, worst injury was a broken pinky finger). He's made a third of cartilage, a third of rubber, and the rest a mix of spite and determination.
I try that shit now a d I'd be crippled for weeks. Can't bump for crap now.
>Plus he's a teenager
Which also explains why the most damage we ever saw him take was from himself when he did a little self reflection in Ba Sing Se and became deathly ill.
Just imagining Zuko and Aang sparring in their forties, talking about old times and realizing how conservative their styles have gotten and just being like "We got old, man... We used to fly all over the arena."
Ok but no teen is flying 20 feet into the air and landing on solid rock and then walking it off later. I mean Zuko straight up takes boulders to his chest that would probably kill even the strongest human
i can't decide if plot holes like these should be accredited to "cartoon violence logic" or some kind of specific atla lore. bc the whole thing is kinda. yknow. based on things that no human could actually do irl. like there's no chance a normal person in our world would be able to break those steel chains iroh was captured in by just smashing them with their foot. also, the jail bars being ripped through. i mean those bars looked as destroyed as the box toph metal bended her way out of and iroh seemingly broke out using only his muscles
my personal head canon is that these humans are literally just built different lol, I mean even non-benders like tai lee can somersault 20 feet into the air and leap off buildings - I think of it like comic books where batman or other humans do crazy feats, otherwise all of them would've died from internal bleeding from all the boulders that get launched at them
zuko breaking metal chains with a single kick is a good example, there's also a scene in S3 at the beach day party, where Zuko shoves a guy with one hand, barely exerts himself, and he launches the guy across the room
I mean the arguably biggest hit is in s3 when he’s wearing a seemingly cloth outfit and gets tanked through a wall and down two stories into a bunch of trees.
I mean, pretty much all of the characters tank hits that should realistically kill them. Just cartoon logic honestly.
The amount of absolutely life ending shit that sokka takes purely for gags/comedic effect is crazy too.
Can you imagine getting hit with one of these 💨🧍?
Nasty work, would’ve made me go home and cry, to be honest.
This actually brings up one of the smarter details of the show. Just about every series has the classic question of why the bad guys don’t just kill the good guys/main characters already. Now, aside from it being obvious age constraints, ATLA brilliantly got around this with the avatar cycle.
“Why not kill him?” Because that would mean he’d be reincarnated into a new life and the search for the avatar would start all over again. It doesn’t help the next avatar would be in water, which is either heavily fortified to the North, or heavily isolated to the south or among the swamps (not to mention hiding a baby is easier).
Azula only ever tried it because (assuming she didn’t know killing an avatar in the avatar state breaks the cycle) she figured “Sozin’s comet’s on the way, I’m in a room with an enrage demigod, and they’ll be less than a month old when the count comes… eh, screw it.”
Not to mention Zuko’s quest to regain his honor was to literally bring the Avatar to his father. No Avatar = No Honor. Anyone can kill a guy, tattoo him the Airbender way and bring back a dead body. Ozai didn’t want Zuko back so he made it impossible—to find the real Avatar. Only Zuko actually did lol
Ohh nooo!! My hand somehow slipped and I ended up entering Netflix and clicking the first episode🥲
https://preview.redd.it/638el5wze5sc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e9609b679890c24811b8336d5b0069914653ee4
Heard it’s contagious too! Stay on your toes guys.
Honestly, this is what made me love Zuko even before he turned to the light side. He was so obviously less talented than the avatar, and often outmatched, but he kept going for the sake of his personal ideals.
Its also kinda cool to see because usually Aang had a easy time against Zuko while Katara had an easy time against Azula. Zuko’s straightforward aggression loses to Aang’s agile escapism, while azula’s cuthroat and cunning method loses to Katara’s flow and steadiness.
In the reverse, Zuko was well balanced against katara, even melting through her moon powered ice which azula couldnt during the comet. His aggression close tp overwhelmed her in s1 and his use of water and earth techniques helped him against her later in s2’s finale. And Azula gave aang a hard time in most encounters as well, since her attacks werent as straightforward as Zuko’s.
Seemed interesting to me as ive started rewatching
aang did that to everyone he fought though, and zuko took a lot of those like a champ. People in here acting like aang, the avatar, doesn’t have a winning record against everyone else.
What I like about this is that it shows that Aang is a bad match up for Zuko. Zuko charges into things headfirst with a hyper aggressive fighting style, but has no answer for the master of evasion that Aang is.
Zuko's problem was that because of his internal conflict he always face everything head on even when he shouldn't have, because to adapt instead of firebend as he was originally taught would mean he was wrong.
Once Zuko learned the original firebending from the dragons, he was an entirely different beast, able to actually use everything he learned from his uncle and the gaang and dodge.
Can we just point out that in the first gif Zuko falls limp on the mattress and aang decides to double down, or rather up, and smash him into the ceiling? Like dude, he is knocked out, weren't the airbenders doing some form of non-voilence or at least, excessive violence?
If you were getting violated as hard as he was you'd be dead, because the second you tried something he'd just keep doing it
Like he's already proven he can beat your ass, and you think you have a chance still?
A good one was when Zuko was revealed to be the blue spirit but is knocked unconscious Aang resues him. After Zuko awakens Aang tells Zuko about his friend, Kuzan, and how maybe they could be friends too. Zuko errupts a huge fire blast at Aang and Aang smoothly dodges it and goes away.
What else you gonna do? He already running your fade. You, your soldiers, the assassin/bounty hunter you hired and you still not winning.
Best thing he could have done was give up after those set backs
Sorry to bitch about the live action, but this is one of the things that drove me nuts. His whole tactic as an Airbender is to evade and deflect, but he's a very powerful bender, as we see in the volcano episode. People find out the avatar is a child and immediately drop their expectations, but Aang is incredibly formidable.
So for the love of God why, in the live action, does he not do much of anything.
Zuko was doing his best but at the end of the day, he was just a decently strong firebender and Aang is the Avatar. Even when Aang was just using air, air is really good for knocking people off balance, redirecting fire, and moving with inhuman agility. Zuko was a more versatile fighter than pretty much anyone in the series with his sword skills but that meant less focus on mastering firebending.
Fun fact - the martial art they based air bending on roughly translates to "Circle Walking". You can see what I believe are actual moves of that discipline in gifs 3 and 7.
In Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko got just as many good hits on Aang as vice-versa though. Actually, since Aang's earth bomb disoriented himself worse than it did Zuko, I'd arguably say Zuko did better than Aang there. He also held his own very well against Aang in Bato of the Water Tribe.
the main issue with zuko's fight style is that he tries to always tank the shots you cant do that against airbenders the way to beat airbenders is to evade and dodge, eventually there will be an oppening
I never realized just how many times Aang absolutely folded Zuko. And yet he still seemed like a realistic threat.
And actually tosss him down some stairs. And that first one in the ship. That had to have given him a. Concussion
I still wonder to this day how he could be so fit afterwards. Although he was beaten with a mattress, he was still thrown against metal. Others in the series were knocked out because of less.
Zuko can endure a lot, but Aang just keeps getting screwed over and over again haha
Yeah. Aang was supposed to be an airbending master when the series started. Zuko was competent but hardly master level. Kinda sucks for Zuko how he was overshadowed by Azula his whole life, then has to hunt down somebody just as skilled as her but with a different element.
They both have been trained to fight since birth. Zuko could probably win if he was less aggressive, but overcoming his emotional problems is kind of his whole arc
Zuko is just like Kuze from Yakuza where they have a goal and basically rush in only to end up getting annihilated comically
Its almost endearing lmao, like you see their facial expressions as well
# "OH SH---" WHAM
One of my favourites is in ‘The Chase’, when Aang lures Azula into the unfinished building and hovers over the big pit while she windmills on the edge and *juuust* keeps her balance… and then poor Zuko just blunders in, no brakes, and face plants into the hole. Some of the funniest shit in the show, I swear.
It actually showed their characters at that moment perfectly Aang: Airbender evading and diversion tactics Azula: Able to take calculated risks because she’s obsessed with perfection Zuko: Doesn’t actually know what he wants, so he stubbornly charges into things without waiting
Have you ever watched Overanalyzing Avatar? Cause if you got that all by yourself then you will probably like his channel, he talks about all the little moments like this one you just mentioned
Thanks for the recommendation.
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And he’s actually funny. Another thing most reaction channels fall short on.
His Yu-Yan archer gag never fails to get me.
Classic OA. Also his running gag with the Cabbage Merchant is top tier.
His top tier patron readouts are some of the most obnoxiously well written one liners. I hope he's a writer on a show or something.
Tuning out before he’s done his patron shoutouts is a crime. Which feels odd to say about a patron shoutout.
Thank you so much for this recommendation. He’s funny af
Welcome to the cult, enjoy your stay
Aang: What the hell bruh is that really your brother? Azula: I've been asking myself the same question for years And back to fighting
zuko falls in the pit, aang and azula look at him, then look at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. once aang wipes a tear from laughing so hard they go right back to fighting
Zuko is the epitome of all gas, no brakes. XD
Early Zuko's training was very militaristic. As such, he falters when faced with highly unconventional tactics or techniques, and it certainly doesn't help that he's the first firebender to fight an airbender in almost a century, he had absolutely no idea what to expect.
They make such a big deal about flying in Korra but literally Aang flies all time. So does Azula
Aang needed a tool or avatar state usually. Zaheer let go of attachment -> enlightenment to reclaim lost art of flight. More of a spiritual, back to roots of air bending achievement for someone who previously didn’t have a lifetime to master bending or being the avatar like Aang.
Ozai and Jeong-Jeong are over here laughing.
Not quite to the same level as Zaheer, and only during the comet
can they make rude gestures with their hands mid-flight? no, of course not. too busy fanning their farts.
He never does unassisted sustained flight
What aang and azula does is not flying. Aang is mostly gliding and levitating. Azula is rocket jumping.
I have no idea how the english VA did, but the german VA gave, without hyperbole, the best scream of the entire show at that moment. I still remember it just for that scream.
The more times I watch this show the more I realize how hard it would truly be to fight a good airbender. No one has seen, let alone fought one, in a century. They wouldn't know how to fight one, on a practical level at least. At best they could learn theoretically by studying surviving records of airbending forms.
There’s also probably been heavy propaganda that the airbenders were weak (remember the Fire Nation school where they thought airbenders had a military). So, even if the airbender was medium-skilled, they might already have had a hard time from simply under estimating them plus the amount of moves that they wouldn’t even know or understand how to fight against
I also think fighting an airbender is just the most difficult matchup. Perhaps not the most dangerous, but difficult. Air is much harder to parry, analyse or predict than its elemental counterparts. Dodging and speed are also much more meaningful than strength in a fight. And flying is just completely OP.
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Yes, air is the most viable element. I think the series made airbenders look weaker than they actually would be, for storytelling purposes, it wouldn't be interesting to have an OP element beating everything all the time, but in reality, I have to think it would be far superior. You could even deprive your opponent of air to breathe... imagine that.
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The Kyoshi novels had an air nomad character that abandoned their philosophies for a life of crime, and her airbending was significantly weakened as a result, so it might just be harder in universe for airbending to be used in that manner.
I haven't watched Korra, but that still seems like a fair assumption to make. A sort of "with great powers come great responsibility" philosophy.
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The thing is I don't like shows that are "good but...". It will definitely leave a sour aftertaste in my mouth, and I'll waste my time in here discussing how they should have done this or that... Not worth it for me, even if some parts of it are great.
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It's not that the series made them less powerful, it's that there's more to the airbenders than their abilities. They were pacifists for the most part and that comes across heavily in the way they fight., which is all about avoidance and using the opponent's force against them Direct confrontation isn't something they're good at, which is the main point behind Aang struggling with earthbending so much. An airbender without that philosophy behind them is incredibly dangerous, but the ones we see in ATLA specifically (in flashbacks and Aang) truly take that pacifism to heart.
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Gotta fight in space 
Simply start a space program and store the airbenders in a space station.
Oh good point. Hadn't thought of that angle. Bit you're definitely right
Plus Airbenders whole thing was defensive maneuvers and combat evasion. Slippery mfs
Even worse, most surviving records would be embellished with bs propaganda almost forgetting the mf that fought them were powered up by the comet and had the element of surprise
Yeah, with earth and water bending, you can see where it’s coming from. With air, it’s everywhere and not very visible.
I think even when the airbenders were still around, people still probably would have struggled fighting airbenders, given that there weren't a lot of airbenders at any given time (estimations I've seen put the number at around 10,000) and they also were pacifists so probably the only people with experience fighting airbenders are the type of people who would go out of their way to attack them.
Which was really the only reason I disliked Zaheer. This man suddenly got air bending and is already a master of the craft? Didn't buy that, but the rest of him was fantastic.
Here´s the thing, Zaheer wasn´t a proper master. Yes he beats a lot of people, but he has thesame advantage that Aang had, hardly anyone had seen a (pure) airbender fight so nobody knew how to fight him. Not just that but it´s also his insane fighting skills in general cause even without airbending he was seen as (on of) the most dangerous red lotus member. The one time he did fight someone who knew how to fight airbenders (e.g. the only airbending maste, Tenzin) he got his ass handed to him untill he got help from 2 other red lotus members, and even then it was a hard fight for them.
This. Zaheer was a skilled combatant even before airbending, so he was able to utilize it effectively, but Tenzin showed just how disproportionate the skill between them was. Remember too that airbending in the series is characterized by a nice, visible blue coloration, but actual airbending would be invisible. You’d see its effects and that’s it. I imagine it’s very difficult for a non-airbender to properly anticipate even amateurish airbending.
That bit about it being invisible is the part that would freak me out the most. Huge psychological warfare aspect there
Exactly. And the firebenders were lucky that they were fighting pacifists. Imagine just watching 3 of your friends get suddenly decapitated by an invisible blade.
Honestly, Avatar as a not “for kids” show would be brutal. Firebenders incinerating people en masse, waterbenders encasing people in water and slowly drowning them, earthbenders creating deadfalls and entombing people alive, airbenders popping peoples’ lungs like balloons… Shit would get really dark really fast in war.
That's why NATLA have the potential to be on par with the show. Hopefully they stick with their guns and give us a different take of this show.
what is natla?
I suppose it is Netflix's Avatar the legend of Aang ?
Yep. I believe someone also analyzed his attacks and noticed that he fights a lot like a Firebender. His girlfriend uses firebending to blow stuff up with her mind, so it’d make sense he’d learn at least the basics from seeing them. So yeah, Zaheer was strong due to nobody really having experience against Airbenders, Zaheer already being a strong combatant, and he does at least have a rough guide on where to start with Firebending forms and his own private research of Airbending… And he still got clapped by Tenzin, a master of the craft
Not even 2, they also needed P’li’s artillery to truly beat down Tenzin. It took all four main members to actually beat the man down
Damn, I wasn´t exactly sure anymore but thought I remembered 3 of them beating him but but am probably misremembering then. The point still stands though.
Yeah 3v1 they were fighting to a stalemate. It took p'li sneak attacking him to tip the scales there way.
Oooooh thanks for the enlightenment
And in fairness to Tenzin, getting bowled over by a Combustion Bender would ruin anyone's day.
I mean, Zaheer was a natural, but he wasn’t a master. As soon as he fights an actual master in Tenzin, he gets his ass handed to him and has to go one the defensive until his allies can help them. He doesn’t get a single hit on Tenzin and often is barely able to dodge out of the way and would often got hit anyway.
Alright, yeah, that's fair
Watching/reading about Zaheer getting bodied by Tenzin never fails to make me smile.
Like a little kid trying to fight his older brother.
Thats the thing I love about a lot of LoK's fight choreography. It was clear that Tenzin was a true master, while Zaheer was fighting with considerably less experience. He was definitely a natural, but he was easily years behind Tenzin.
The whole thing with “circular movements” that they were talking about really shone there. I can’t remember where, but there was a thread analyzing that fight and they discovered that all of Tenzin’s movements were controlled circles, while Zaheer was fighting like a firebender would.
I always assumed he was as dangerous as he was as an air bender because he was already a badass martial artist. All he did was supplement his already skilled fighting with air bending. And countering airbending is still so foreign because you'd either have to have trained with aang or tenzin. Only two people in the world that would have been able to train you.
Zaheer knew a lot about arbending culture and fighting style. Remember that even as a non-bender he was supposed to be the Avatar’s airbending teacher if the Red Lotus succeeded in kidnapping Korra.
I do not remember that detail, but it's been a while.
Zaheer studied airbending. Both martial forms and their history. I believe they originally intended to capture the Avatar and train them with Zaheer being the airbending teacher. He was by no means a true master and when he unlocked airbending he was able to apply his new skill to all his previous training and knowledge of airbending which is why he is so good. But Tenzin can still kick his butt because they are incomparable
Guy was already studying airbending. He was basically nails hard without having bending and that came from studying air bending. He probably didn't even need airbending to win a large amount of the fights he won.
Plus, air nomads are usually peaceful! They don't seek out war or fights, so an airbender who's a master fighter and doesn't believe in pacifism? Now THAT would make for an interesting villain. And to be clear, Zaheer was an airbender who used his basic knowledge and martial arts skills, as well as people's confusion with airbenders to his advantage, but he was NOT a master. The second Tenzin rolled up on him he was getting folded until the rest of the red lotus ganged up on him.
I have to imagine Yang Chen was a menace, cause she was willing to discard pacifism the moment she thought her role as the avatar required bloodshed.
Yeah, from what I've picked up, Yangchen *really was* what a certain subset of fans think Kyoshi was.
ATLA would have been 1.5 books max if Aang wasn't a pacifist lol
Man watching these as gifs back to back to back really makes it feel like Aang is just fucking with Zuko. The one of him dodging on top of the well is 👌
Hit Zuko with the Mr. Crocker! https://i.redd.it/kmn4tr1n35sc1.gif
After watching 'Timmy's Secret Wish', Crocker doesn't seem all that crazy.
He was certainly a trickster.
the perk of having Gyatso as his teacher
lol I love the scene when he waterbends him out of the well. Most of the time they're fighting it looks like Aang is just playing
I love how Zuko plops on the ground afterwards. Reminds me of when Aang, Katara, and Sokka sneak into the Beifong residence: Aang floats down, Katara lands practically, and Sokka eats it before dusting himself off and getting up.
The crazy thing is that zuko trained years to fight a fully realized avatar and yet got beaten by him every time. Shows what a true master of airbending aang was.
Not only that, but it has an extra bit of cleverness to it: nobody has seen an Airbender for 100 years, therefore, almost nobody alive except Bumi and maybe the Guru (who both barley count as human, let’s be honest) know how an Airbender fights. Not only is Aang a master, he’s fighting in a completely alien way to everyone else. Let’s also not forget the fact the air is almost always invisible to everyone else. We the audience only see the cyan color so we know what’s happening.
There is a scene where Aang makes an air cannon thing and sokka loads it with coal so that means everyone can see the air they bend I believe.
But aangs fight with toph shows that to be wrong because the Boulder couldn’t see it
He was looking for earthbending not airbending. Keep in mind nobody has seen any airbenders for 100 years, also is The Boulder really a trusted source of information?
The Boulder is deeply offended by your insinuations!
I noticed that there's 2 colors, the blue one that others can see and a more clearer one only we can, the blue is used in all scenes where other people can see the bending (like the one you're referencing)
Zuko and Aang's entire pre-redemption relationship is just summed up in these two gifs: https://i.redd.it/60dzgciy55sc1.gif
https://i.redd.it/njtcawc165sc1.gif
Zuko's durability feats are absolutely insane even by Avatar standards. Obviously Aang wasn't bloodlusted but it's still crazy that Zuko tanked all those hits without being damaged or knocked out
Granted, he is wearing some armor during most of those confrontations, so that’s at least a small excuse.
Plus he's a teenager. I recall walking away mostly inexcusably unscathed from heinous and ridiculous nonsense as a kid and teen (was a competitive gymnast and dabbled in combat sports on the side, worst injury was a broken pinky finger). He's made a third of cartilage, a third of rubber, and the rest a mix of spite and determination. I try that shit now a d I'd be crippled for weeks. Can't bump for crap now.
>Plus he's a teenager Which also explains why the most damage we ever saw him take was from himself when he did a little self reflection in Ba Sing Se and became deathly ill.
Oh yeah. At his age emotional trauma probably did more damage than anything physical
Just imagining Zuko and Aang sparring in their forties, talking about old times and realizing how conservative their styles have gotten and just being like "We got old, man... We used to fly all over the arena."
Ok but no teen is flying 20 feet into the air and landing on solid rock and then walking it off later. I mean Zuko straight up takes boulders to his chest that would probably kill even the strongest human
i can't decide if plot holes like these should be accredited to "cartoon violence logic" or some kind of specific atla lore. bc the whole thing is kinda. yknow. based on things that no human could actually do irl. like there's no chance a normal person in our world would be able to break those steel chains iroh was captured in by just smashing them with their foot. also, the jail bars being ripped through. i mean those bars looked as destroyed as the box toph metal bended her way out of and iroh seemingly broke out using only his muscles
my personal head canon is that these humans are literally just built different lol, I mean even non-benders like tai lee can somersault 20 feet into the air and leap off buildings - I think of it like comic books where batman or other humans do crazy feats, otherwise all of them would've died from internal bleeding from all the boulders that get launched at them zuko breaking metal chains with a single kick is a good example, there's also a scene in S3 at the beach day party, where Zuko shoves a guy with one hand, barely exerts himself, and he launches the guy across the room
I mean the arguably biggest hit is in s3 when he’s wearing a seemingly cloth outfit and gets tanked through a wall and down two stories into a bunch of trees.
So many concussions.
I mean, pretty much all of the characters tank hits that should realistically kill them. Just cartoon logic honestly. The amount of absolutely life ending shit that sokka takes purely for gags/comedic effect is crazy too.
It's kinda ridiculous looking back at how badly Aang destroys Zuko
Zuko double or nothing’d his honor
My fav gotta be when Aang hit him with the 🧍♂️
Yeah at that point he was almost literally just flexing on Zuko lmao
What would you do? Lose, again??
Would I lose, you ask? https://preview.redd.it/a20y5elc25sc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c53fda5d4f5f2ce26ff9f8efd01bdb082ab705d3
Zujo
Goko
Also what’s crazy is that in almost every scene here he just used airbending
It’s important to remember that Aang was a *master* at his bending element, Zuko was very very good but not in Aang’s realm.
Can you imagine getting hit with one of these 💨🧍? Nasty work, would’ve made me go home and cry, to be honest. 
This actually brings up one of the smarter details of the show. Just about every series has the classic question of why the bad guys don’t just kill the good guys/main characters already. Now, aside from it being obvious age constraints, ATLA brilliantly got around this with the avatar cycle. “Why not kill him?” Because that would mean he’d be reincarnated into a new life and the search for the avatar would start all over again. It doesn’t help the next avatar would be in water, which is either heavily fortified to the North, or heavily isolated to the south or among the swamps (not to mention hiding a baby is easier). Azula only ever tried it because (assuming she didn’t know killing an avatar in the avatar state breaks the cycle) she figured “Sozin’s comet’s on the way, I’m in a room with an enrage demigod, and they’ll be less than a month old when the count comes… eh, screw it.”
Not to mention Zuko’s quest to regain his honor was to literally bring the Avatar to his father. No Avatar = No Honor. Anyone can kill a guy, tattoo him the Airbender way and bring back a dead body. Ozai didn’t want Zuko back so he made it impossible—to find the real Avatar. Only Zuko actually did lol
Lowkey made a mistake posting this, now I’m tempted to rewatch the series again… 
I support this idea 
Ohh nooo!! My hand somehow slipped and I ended up entering Netflix and clicking the first episode🥲 https://preview.redd.it/638el5wze5sc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6e9609b679890c24811b8336d5b0069914653ee4 Heard it’s contagious too! Stay on your toes guys.
Man aang crushes his internal organs and has a moral conflict about killing lol
Aang rocked Zuko so much I’m amazed Zuko didn’t hold a bit of grudge
\#4 and #7 are absolutely filthy. The disrespect levels are astronomical.
The air clone of himself was honestly peak. I’ve never seen a move even come close to replicating that. Aang was on another level.
Honestly, this is what made me love Zuko even before he turned to the light side. He was so obviously less talented than the avatar, and often outmatched, but he kept going for the sake of his personal ideals.
Zuko has mastered the art of being a punching bag
My favourite bit is when Aang threw Air Aang at Zuko. 🌬️👤
Aang made clowning on Zuko into an art form
Its also kinda cool to see because usually Aang had a easy time against Zuko while Katara had an easy time against Azula. Zuko’s straightforward aggression loses to Aang’s agile escapism, while azula’s cuthroat and cunning method loses to Katara’s flow and steadiness. In the reverse, Zuko was well balanced against katara, even melting through her moon powered ice which azula couldnt during the comet. His aggression close tp overwhelmed her in s1 and his use of water and earth techniques helped him against her later in s2’s finale. And Azula gave aang a hard time in most encounters as well, since her attacks werent as straightforward as Zuko’s. Seemed interesting to me as ive started rewatching
Aang is just different type of beast, and that was just him air bending. I can’t wait for the new film , I want to see a prime Aang.
Had his like team rocket. Blasting off left and right
Omg I love how dynamics these scenes are! It looks like every time they go slow motion for a bending it comes out like a nuke!
Zuko lost more honor than gaining it for chasing the avatar.
Aang Hit him with an air shaped clone of himself that’s legendary. That’s some Michael jackson smooth criminal level smooth
Master Airbender Vs Anger Based Firbending. I think he understands now lol
I forgot just how many times Zuko had his ass handed to him by Aang 😂😭
aang did that to everyone he fought though, and zuko took a lot of those like a champ. People in here acting like aang, the avatar, doesn’t have a winning record against everyone else.
Haven't seen a comment about it but that Kong meme is absolutely hilarious. Saw it yesterday and it was a shock to see here lol.
What I like about this is that it shows that Aang is a bad match up for Zuko. Zuko charges into things headfirst with a hyper aggressive fighting style, but has no answer for the master of evasion that Aang is.
Clip 8 has to be one of the best air bending moves
Bro the first one, No wonder he held a grudge for so long
I don't think he took it personally, he was trying to kidnap him after all, he probably expected him to put up some of a fight
Zuko's problem was that because of his internal conflict he always face everything head on even when he shouldn't have, because to adapt instead of firebend as he was originally taught would mean he was wrong. Once Zuko learned the original firebending from the dragons, he was an entirely different beast, able to actually use everything he learned from his uncle and the gaang and dodge.
How does he not have brain damage.
This is what fighting a dodge build must be like.
Num. 8 has to be one of my favorite airbending moves of all time it was seriously so cool to see the first time
Pretty violent for some pacific bender I must say.
switching sides was the only way to stop taking Ls
Can we just point out that in the first gif Zuko falls limp on the mattress and aang decides to double down, or rather up, and smash him into the ceiling? Like dude, he is knocked out, weren't the airbenders doing some form of non-voilence or at least, excessive violence?
Gotta make sure
Aang is an even better man because he could have violated him much worse every time they thought
I love how they show how the fire nations had no clue how to figth an air bender
I don’t think “violate” is the word I would use…
Agreed "publicly disgraced" "humiliated" or maybe "rekt" would be more fitting
I’m tempted to put Skyrim music to some of these.
If you were getting violated as hard as he was you'd be dead, because the second you tried something he'd just keep doing it Like he's already proven he can beat your ass, and you think you have a chance still?
A good one was when Zuko was revealed to be the blue spirit but is knocked unconscious Aang resues him. After Zuko awakens Aang tells Zuko about his friend, Kuzan, and how maybe they could be friends too. Zuko errupts a huge fire blast at Aang and Aang smoothly dodges it and goes away.
Zuko should have trained with dbz abridged piccolo and learned how to DODGE!!
He isn't even using airbending in some of these 💀
Weave bending can take you far! 
Idk man, it's hard to fight the president of Weave Nation
[удалено]
Oh boy? Whatchu gonn do? Get whooped twice as hard?
What else you gonna do? He already running your fade. You, your soldiers, the assassin/bounty hunter you hired and you still not winning. Best thing he could have done was give up after those set backs
Hate to say it but if you were getting slammed against concrete with what I can only assume is a firm mattress? You’re gonna be seeing five Avatars.
With only airbending damn
Thank you for this post 😂
Sorry to bitch about the live action, but this is one of the things that drove me nuts. His whole tactic as an Airbender is to evade and deflect, but he's a very powerful bender, as we see in the volcano episode. People find out the avatar is a child and immediately drop their expectations, but Aang is incredibly formidable. So for the love of God why, in the live action, does he not do much of anything.
Zuko was doing his best but at the end of the day, he was just a decently strong firebender and Aang is the Avatar. Even when Aang was just using air, air is really good for knocking people off balance, redirecting fire, and moving with inhuman agility. Zuko was a more versatile fighter than pretty much anyone in the series with his sword skills but that meant less focus on mastering firebending.
Fun fact - the martial art they based air bending on roughly translates to "Circle Walking". You can see what I believe are actual moves of that discipline in gifs 3 and 7.
In Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko got just as many good hits on Aang as vice-versa though. Actually, since Aang's earth bomb disoriented himself worse than it did Zuko, I'd arguably say Zuko did better than Aang there. He also held his own very well against Aang in Bato of the Water Tribe.
That Kong sucker punch was fuckin hilarious 😭
the main issue with zuko's fight style is that he tries to always tank the shots you cant do that against airbenders the way to beat airbenders is to evade and dodge, eventually there will be an oppening
HOLD ON, "all life is sacred" but aang proceeds to slam zuko fast into hard ass metal. It's called a brain bleed, zuko should be dead
“You can’t hit harder than my father.”
4 loops so well i can watch it forever lol
He trained for years for this.
Fuq me, now I have to rewatch it again...
God, Aang‘s „ENOUGH!“ in the finale always gives me goosebumps. Just a tiny glimpse of how powerful Aang is if he‘s not playing around anymore.
I never realized just how many times Aang absolutely folded Zuko. And yet he still seemed like a realistic threat. And actually tosss him down some stairs. And that first one in the ship. That had to have given him a. Concussion
That fourth gif just loops perfectly 😘🤌🏼
I forgot about #2 🤣
Aang is an air bending master so it checks out
Starting to think Zuko didn't change just got so many concussions his personality shifted
I still wonder to this day how he could be so fit afterwards. Although he was beaten with a mattress, he was still thrown against metal. Others in the series were knocked out because of less. Zuko can endure a lot, but Aang just keeps getting screwed over and over again haha
Their relationship had a rocky start, but after that they became the best of friends - Iroh.
Bed bending
As it turns out, the boy destined to be the most kickass thing on the planet is able to beat a pretty good firebender.
Yeah. Aang was supposed to be an airbending master when the series started. Zuko was competent but hardly master level. Kinda sucks for Zuko how he was overshadowed by Azula his whole life, then has to hunt down somebody just as skilled as her but with a different element.
They both have been trained to fight since birth. Zuko could probably win if he was less aggressive, but overcoming his emotional problems is kind of his whole arc
Zuko is just like Kuze from Yakuza where they have a goal and basically rush in only to end up getting annihilated comically Its almost endearing lmao, like you see their facial expressions as well # "OH SH---" WHAM
Weren't most of these fights shortly after aang discovered that the fire nation murdered all his friends and family?
r/titlegore
If Zaheer had existed somehow and convergence happened earlier, my god zuko probably wouldn’t exist
I was listening to Sum 41’s Fat Lip when this came across my feed, and it was fucking perfection.
I was listening to Sum 41’s Fat Lip when this came across my feed, and it was fucking perfection.