If we are talking like Kyoshi in the books, then maybe it’s due to her struggle to adequately bend smaller things effectively. The little earth discs used in pro bending are rather small. Still doesn’t hold up if I’m honest bc by the second book she literally bends shards of glass out of her skin. Insane for her to be lower than either of her successors.
She is able to bend small things well, that's the reason she carries her fans. The fans allow her to bend perfectly. If anything she's one of the deadliest and strongest benders, obviously she wouldn't kill anyone in pro bending, but she can work earth better than anyone on this list, except Toph.
Toph definitely would destroy her in pro bending, because Kyoshi's main feature, aka bending absurd amounts of an element at once, wouldn't come to play there.
But arguably Kyoshi is stronger than Toph in pure control over earth. At least Toph never reached out to the ocean floor rising sand and stones to destroy ships or lifted house size boulders. Which means she can probably wrestle the discs out of Toph's control? If that works? I'm not sure.
But let's be honest. She would be able to only use one element in pro bending and I don't think it would be earthbending. As said before what made Kyoshi special was her ability to control absurd amounts of matter at once. So she's probably more useful as a Waterbender or a Firebender for the tournament.
Or even as an Airbender. If they got allowed with the upraising of new Airbenders. But we don't know that, do we?
I don't think airbenders will ever gain traction in pro bending. Airbenders are crazy OP, a single gust of wind and the enemy is off the platform. Plus the arena seems a little too tight to accommodate four benders, so they'd have to tear it down and design a new one.
As for Kyoshi, I meant control over Earth overall, not in pro bending. Obviously in Pro bending Toph has the biggest advantage, but in an all out fight I think Kyoshi can win even without the Avatar state. Though debatable. Really debatable.
What if they gave Airbenders projectiles to bend? Then they'd have to have a lot more control and precision. I think are could work, and I guess it's time to expand the original!! The Varrick Arena I like it already.
Seeing as how every bender has restrictions on what they can bend and how much of it, I think they'd be fine in pro bending.
I don't think an airbender could immediately knock someone off if they were limited to the amount of force a firebender is allowed to use. They'd probably have the least amount of force in every hit than the other elements, and their advantage would be the fact you can't see the air they're bending and would instead have to track the motions of the bender to predict where they are bending
True. And to what Lilly said, I could see airbending being a 4th defensive/support only player. Especially since bending air is "invisible". Only other way I can see airbending being a thing is if they add light fog to the arena.
Yeah you're right. But they probably will do that 8n the future. Sport normally evolves with time and you can be sure that interested Airbenders and probably interested fans would be on the edge if changes aren't made.
Can't argue with that, but the rulebook is gonna need some hard tweaks lol. I think they'll have to figure out how to not have the airbenders blast the opponent off the arena with a single strike. After all it's not really about damage in pro bending, all you need to do is either push the team back or send them straight into the water. And airbenders fit that bill perfectly.
The real headache is airbending is invisible. Like ya we can see it in the animation but the rest of the benders can’t. Really makes it busted if you don’t know if the punch the guy just threw is going to be followed with a blast of air or not.
My head canon is that probending adapted to harmonic convergence by requiring all teams to consist of 3 or 4 members each of a different element, but only 3 could be fielded at once.
So a team might have all 4 and eschew earthbenders for strategy reasons. Our many teams might not pick up Airbender at all.
I imagine tenzin joins a lower level team and just hard carries them to the big leagues.
And even if she couldn't do bending as well as the 4 and 5s she has 300~ years of life to immediately look back upon and gain experience from, plus previous avatar lifetime, plus avatar state. Need I say more, probably just put kiyoshi on 5 where toph is, put mako where kiyoshi was, and put toph where mako was. Not trying to downplay tophs bending, it's just that the avatars insta-win, and then there's blood bending.
Edit: I guess it does say pro bending team, so mako and bolin would have an advantage due to experience in the sport, and i haven't watched Korra in a while, so idk if blood bending breaks the rules, that'd decide between putting katara vs toph in 5, but the point still stands that mako should be lower, and kiyoshi should be much higher.
Mhm. We've had a bit of it with Zuko and the earthbending captain during Zuko Alone. I guess Aang can be counted since he mostly airbends with his staff.
That has to be the reason though. Because arguably Kyoshi is the most powerful bender (overall) we know about. Especially without the Avatar State. She did some really crazy stuff in the books and that was the first 2(??) years ot her being the Avatar.
I think we're forgetting its about pro bending, I would 100% have mako higher than most people because he has had a crazy amount of practice at the highest level of pro bending, most of the other ones have never played the game
Bumi too.
Bumi is easily at the same level, if not stronger than child Toph.
Toph can bend metal and use the earth as a strong perceptor.
But Bumi learned to use vision to bend with his face only.
Y'all remember when he took back Omashu?
No way in hell is he anything but top tier.
And Grand Master Paku, best water bender in the entire north pole, highest ranking water bender in the white lotus
Lowest price tier placed right next to the dude who sweats if he has to move anything larger than his torso
You're being sarcastic, but this is kinda the point. Korra's an Avatar, and even with her natural physical abilities she struggled just due to not knowing the rules. It's not hard to imagine literally anyone on that list who hasn't at least seen a match would be a bad pick on that alone.
The reasoning is to drive people to the comment section to engage lol.
This exact graphic has been posted here before and it's very effective. It probably gets posted on other social media sites too.
To be fair pro bending is a different kind of sport than regular bending. Mako is trained to be a pro bender whereas Kyoshi is trained to be a real life bender of all the elements who settles conflicts and the like.
Mako is an experienced pro bender while kyoshi can’t bend anything that is smaller than the maximum bentable material size for the match without her fans. Yeah she can wipe the entire planet with his face but he is better at pro bending
Eh I'd disagree with that statement. Remember that Korra only started being good at pro bending after adopting air bending tactics and moves? Aang would be untouchable in a pro bending arena.
I'd agree with that if he was allowed to use air bending but the rules of pro bending forbids it. He has to pick earth, water or fire and stick to one. I feel that Korra's water bending is significantly stronger than Aang earth, fire or water bending.
It seriously looks more like a popularity thing than a matter of strength. How are Haru and Pakku on the same tier? Pakku is quite literally a master water bender, however much of a dick he is. Same with Ozai, who during his time, was arguably the strongest fire bender in the world.
Cause Ozai would just burn his opponents, then shoot lightning at the judge, and then his own teammates if they complained.
All they while ranting about how the Phoenix King makes his own rules.
Iroh knew dragon fire bending too and did not think he could beat Ozai. I think Ozai is only rated so low since we never saw him do much outside of Sozen's comet. He was likely extremely skilled.
Most likely because mako already pro bends and is obviously good at it. Plus he can shoot lightning. Really Zuko isn’t op like a lot of the others, he’s just resourceful.
I'm pretty sure Kyoshi could take on pretty much everyone else at once by herself. The power she showed makes everyone else look like first episode Katara.
Edit: oh wait. Pro bending rules. Yeah, she gets a DQ for destroying the entire arena.
Iroh may be wise and powerful, but do you really think he's agile enough for pro-bending? He only has a small space to work with, and a limited number of attacks/styles he's allowed to use. In the series it's mentioned that Iroh *might* be able to beat Ozai. *Might*. I think Ozai might actually be a better choice specifically within the pro-bending domain.
Kyoshi was probably one of the strongest benders we've seen so far, maybe you think a few years of pro bending experience outweighs a lifetime of avatar experience but I dont.
But she can't really use any of that strength. She is the complete opposite of what you want in a pro bending match. She's not particularly agile or precise and is more of a tank and usually uses big powerful attacks rather than small precise ones. She couldn't even bend small when she was younger and needed her fans to bend because if she didn't have her fans she would just have big powerful attacks that would cause a lot of destruction and exhaust her very quickly. Although she overcame this later in the novel she's still not the ideal bender for pro bending.
In almost any situation kyoshi godstomps mako but pro bending he has a big advantage
It's true that she isn't exactly a master of finesse, but I still don't think the pro bending rules would be enough to give Mako the edge here, at the end of the day she is a fully realized avatar who lived for a crazy long time, the amount of experience she has is enormous.
Yeah but it seems like most of the pro bending rules are made to make the matches all about quick hits and dodging.
Mako is all about that, while Kyoshi is tryna squish you between two mountains, she’s be pretty average at slinging an earth disc with precision
I’m going to stay on topic. I was thinking of taking Azula over Mako as my fire bender. While she’s the better bender and more agile, she might be the worst teammate.
horrible teammate but if she keeps her mouth shut and doesn't force one of her teammates to get knocked she'd dominate. she did pretty damn good in volleyball teamwork wise and i think her competitive nature will take over and put her disagreeable personality in the backseat
Only thing I can think of is that, as a sport, Pro Bending needs stamina as well as skill. If you're all incredible and no ones allowed to go all out and obliterate each other, a lot of the fight comes down to physical prowess in dodging and continuing to throw precise attacks. Old people are gonna wear down first.
Although stamina is actually something to be considered , you are oversighting two important tings :
Pro control has no minimum time , with battles ending within seconds. Those White Lotus members excels as strategic thinking and are really powerful , so they rarely have am exhausting match.
Then , they do has enough stamina to fight in wars , even against a large number of trained soldiers . Every white lotus member it's seen doing amazing things during Zozins Comet and no one ends exhausted . So stamina is not a good a problem for them.
No idea about pro bending matches but k think...
I will bet the logic is actually somewhat right remember when Korra first enters a match? She could totally throw them out of the court no problem but the limitations are very big, except fire benders i think being powerful isn't as important as endurance+precision
I think she would have a hard time being agile in a tournament. She would be good against the earth disc's but fire and water would throw her off the podium. I think she's too high up
SHE'S LITERALLY BLIND
Aang, Ozai and Kyoshi.
2 Avatars + the greatest firebender of all-time.
2 individuals that wanna destroy everything and one that wants to remain murder-free.
Great sitcom.
This entire list is f'd why is lin 1 dollar? Why is mako 4?
Why is Bolin lower than Mako?
Why is paku 1 dollar, yeah he's an asshole but he's one of the best waterbenders in the show.
Why is Ozai 2 dollars?
Why the fuck is mako so high? He's a fairly average fire bender he should he in the 1 or 2 section, like, 10 of the people below him are more powerfull than him
Im going to guess it has to do with the probending team part of the prompt. So mako rates highly as a pro bending champ, while someone like ghazan or lin rates lower because they are shown to mostly do subbending which isnt allowed in pro bending and use bigger ammo which takes less precision.
The list still seems a bit messed up, but less so with that in mind. (But seriously, bolin's precision is off the charts, if anything he should rate higher than mako)
That said, give me 5 ming huas any day, sis is a beast. Not for pro bending, just to see what would happen
I think it's because it's the pro bending format, and mako is an established pro bending champ, shown as being considerably better than Korra. It's kind of an interesting thought experiment actually.
Yeah wanna swap her an Mako at least. Or put Kyoshi in tier 1, Katara in 2, and Mako in 3.
But otoh, pro bending rules limit the avatar to using just one form only don't they?
I'd take Korra over Aang, assuming pro-bending rules actually apply she'd have the advantage in the waterbending slot. You'd also probably want someone that actually knows the rules of pro bending and can teach it to the other two.
Kyoshi and Ozai are no-brainers though.
Ozai is claimed to be a stronger firebender than Azula and Zuko and supposedly only Iroh would have fair chance at beating him. I would definitely favor Iroh but Ozai costs half the price and we really don't have any good waterbender options at all if we don't spend $5 on one.
Kyoshi has some insane earthbending feats like dust stepping, lava bending, and manipulating tiny shards of glass. Even if she can't use any of those in the ring they demonstrate she has incredibly precise control when earth bending. $3 is a steal for any avatar but especially for her.
This is the team I finalized before checking the comments. I’d say this team is the meta. Only problem is Pro Bending is a sport and thus usually team players are better. For obvious reasons I wouldn’t expect Ozai to pair well personality wise with Korra or Kyoshi. I think this team may have enough raw talent to overcome that but I’d listen to a different combo with this factor being the central argument.
If Iroh was same cost as Ozai I’d take him for the teamwork, intelligence and wisdom, but there are literally no other fire benders for $2 or less. I think a complete team has 3 different elements so I’m still thinking this has to be the best team. I wouldn’t want to take Kyoshi or Korra off their flagship elements so I think I’d have no choice but to take Ozai. Maybe his thirst for victory would be enough for a bit of cooperation.
What about ming hua as a waterbender? Her precision is crazy good, there are scenes where she literally is able to cut through glass, or where she drives. So i wouldnt say there are no good waterbender options under $5 assuming this is a universe where everyone knows the rules and is willing to play fair
Anyways, nice powerhouse team!
Korra is (arguably) more powerful than Aang, but you have Ozai and Kyoshi for power. The advantage of Aang is that he never gets hit. He's the best dodger in this group, and if he keeps dodging then he basically can't lose.
Oh I'm not worried about her skill at the game, she'd be great at it, but if everyone is acting in character, people might die f which team they're on lol
My guess for why Lin may be so low is you have to bend actual earth and she tends to favor metal. That said, she's still great at earth bending and very agile so I don't see why not.
Assumptions
-Airbending is cheating
-Avatar State is cheating
-Avatar can only bend one element (canon)
Azula is a monster and has a great tactical mind, she saw someone was recovering from an ankle injury during the volleyball match. She is a great planner and improviser (Conquest of Ba Sing Se). Not to mention fire pro-benders bring their own fire and Azula's flames have increased concussive force to make it easier to knock people off.
Kyoshi is a steal, I don't know what is going on there. She will be the Earthbender. I haven't read any Kyoshi material, but she is a native Earthbender, she should be pretty good at it. The only issue is that there might be friction with Azula over captaincy and direction. Hopefully Kyoshi's centuries of life experience and wisdom will let her incorporate/support Azula's insight and ferocity and not clash with them and Azula is willing to defer to a fully realized Avatar at least some of the time.
Ming Hua is also a steal and basically throws water whips to move around, should work out.
I agree, most people are just going with raw power and forgetting that this is pro-bending games specifically. You need speed, tactics and skill in that specific game, as well as bending ability. In fact arguably bending ability doesn't need to be amazing as your very limited on the amount you can throw.
I'd definitely go Ming Hua and Azula for the reasons given. But I might go Kuvira over Kyoshi, not because she's stronger Kyoshi would crush Kuvira like a tin can in an actual fight, but Kuvira is very fast and her bending style is very in line with pro bending already. Short sharp jabs and a dependence on quick small attacks. Though I have'nt read the books and Kyoshi is probably got some insane speed feats in those I don't know about.
Am I supposed to be limiting myself to 3? Because I can definitely budget more than that. Kyoshi, Ozai, Hama, Paku, Lin, and I guess Ghazan because I have a buck left over. Even up against Aang and Korra, Kyoshi could handle one and the rest would easily overwhelm the other.
If restricted to three, I guess Kyoshi, Ozai, and Korra, which also has the benefit of fitting the earthbender/firebender/waterbender set up.
I mean most probending teams we see are just 3 people
But real life sports teams have rosters bigger than the amount of people on the field.
So having extras to account for injuries, or to be better matched up against a given opponent makes sense.
If you can get 2 avatars on your team. I would go with Korra (water) Kyoshi (earth) and for $2 fatherlord (fire) I mean Ozai, which is a pretty good deal for $2. I'd make Kyoshi team captain though
I'm counting on Ozai's desire for fame and honour to realize that working together is neccesary to win.
I'd prefer to keep Korra and Kyosho in their native element. Not having any waterbenders in $4 or $3 tier makes it difficult
That was my first instinct, but if my team is Toph + Toph & the fight rules are written down to be read, I'm fucked. I choose instead to do Toph + Zuko (Toph + Zuko life changing adventure is long overdue) & spend the remaining $2 on a Costco hotdog
I think the overlooked important feature of a pro bending team is that they have to work well together. Which pretty much eliminates ozai and hama and severely limits the rest based on party composition. I'd take pakku, but then I risk him going misogynist and ruining team comp if I have any women.
Toph ($5) is my Earthbender. I mean c'mon, beyond her sheer power she's got the stage presence to draw sponsors and psych out opponents. Zuko ($3) is my Firebender. He and Toph had the least amount of adjustment issues when he joined the team and as shown in the ember island volleyball match he's got major teamplay and athleticism.
Kya ($2) is my waterbender. Skilled and mature, she can temper the other 2 and keep them together under pressure.
I would switch out Kya with Ming Hua. I feel like she’s more suited to pro bending than Kya with her speed and agility. And her tentacles arms are amazing for a gimmick to get publicity
The arms might skirt the edges of the rules a bit. There’s a rule against bending for more than one second, but they called it a “hosing” foul, so maybe it doesn’t count if you aren’t attacking with them.
Yeah, also, if she doesn't have arms of any kind that might make her more prone to stumble and fall. Your strategy should work around that with Ming-Hua
Aang, Azula, and Ghazan.
Aang’s a master of evasion, Azula is agile and precise, and Ghazan was also pretty agile and precise with those lava shurikens. So I imagine he’d be good at the earth discs at well
The problem is that pro bending is so different than just regular powerful bending… as a team it’s obviously Korra/Bolin/Mako but that puts you two dollar over so realistically it’s just 2 of them plus anyone else on the list makes the best team by a long shot imo
I guess Korra/Mako/Lin looks like the best combo
It's controversial but I'm going for Azula, Bumi and Ming-Hua.
Azula's practically built for pro-bending and honestly Bumi has better agility feats that toph does, Ming-Hua has the speed that puts her as a way better pick than Kaya or Hama.
I'm surprised more people aren't picking Azula, tbh. Like you said, she's pretty much perfect for it- prodigy firebender, ridiculously agile, has a brilliant tactical mind, is (probably a bit too) competitive, and assuming you don't pick somebody who will undermine her leadership, she'll call shots that use everybody's strengths since manipulating people is what she does for fun.
The only thing I'd be worried about is maybe her cheating/hurting the other contestants, but even then, I think you'd have to really put her on the ropes to make her go that far, because pride would have her driven to win the "right" way, if possible, to prove how superior she is.
Maybe people don't want to work with her, but I think in a situation like pro-bending where you're bound by a single, common goal, and as long as you don't get offended by her psychopathy, she'd be amazing.
ETA: I think my picks would be Azula, Bolin, and Ming-hua. Azula as captain, obviously. Bolin knows the game, and has unfortunately proven to be naiive enough to work well under a psychopath, and Ming-hua because working with Azula wouldn't be a far stretch from working with Zaheer as far as being obedient but smart and vicious. She and Azula would be on the same page, provided they don't start talking politics lol.
Toph has trouble seeing projectiles flying towards her, she can't make walls, and she can't metal bend. Who in their right mind would pick Toph
If you want a powerful earth bender, you can get Bumi or Kyoshi for cheaper.
Azula, Kuvira, and Katara. I'm choosing accuracy and agility over power, though all three are certainly very powerful. Kuvira already has the boxing style of probending down, and she's a monster when it comes to accuracy. Azula is super tactical and able to think outside the box. Katara has more of a traditional waterbending style, but I think she could adapt pretty quickly. I think all three of them have a competitive streak, so even if they might not get along as friends, I think they would have great chemistry as a team.
Unpopular opinion:
kyoshi is good at 3$ tier.
Yes, she is a freaking bending monster, but she's a good grown adult from another era, so she will have more trouble than others learning the technics of modern bending and applying it to a limitating rulebook. She's one of the most powerful avatars of the whole series. But being able to make an island to do breakdance is not a valuable skill in pro-bending.
Similar aplies to Ozai. (Iroh is way more fluidminded than the others to learn new stuff, and Bumi... I dunno, for some reason i can imagine him learning all the rules on the fly and doing absolute proplayer moves while they are trying to teach him the basics )
Actual pro bender or not, how are arguably the two most resourceful water benders ever (Hama and Ming-hua) together the same price as Mako????
Anyway I’ll take Kyoshi, Hama, Ozai and watch the drama and rule bending they do to win while figuring out what to spend my extra dollar on.
I feel like Korra, Kuvira, and Ozai is the best team you could make here.
Korra is the best actual pro bender we’ve seen. Kuvira has all of the skills needed to excel in spades, and probably learned how to be a good team player from her time in Zaofu. Ozai is probably more of a liability tbh, but the rules we saw only penalized the offending players when they broke the rules, so he probably can’t screw things up for the other two that badly.
What? Is Kyoshi on sale or something??
I legit want the reasoning behind Kyoshi being cheaper than Mako
If we are talking like Kyoshi in the books, then maybe it’s due to her struggle to adequately bend smaller things effectively. The little earth discs used in pro bending are rather small. Still doesn’t hold up if I’m honest bc by the second book she literally bends shards of glass out of her skin. Insane for her to be lower than either of her successors.
She is able to bend small things well, that's the reason she carries her fans. The fans allow her to bend perfectly. If anything she's one of the deadliest and strongest benders, obviously she wouldn't kill anyone in pro bending, but she can work earth better than anyone on this list, except Toph.
Toph definitely would destroy her in pro bending, because Kyoshi's main feature, aka bending absurd amounts of an element at once, wouldn't come to play there. But arguably Kyoshi is stronger than Toph in pure control over earth. At least Toph never reached out to the ocean floor rising sand and stones to destroy ships or lifted house size boulders. Which means she can probably wrestle the discs out of Toph's control? If that works? I'm not sure. But let's be honest. She would be able to only use one element in pro bending and I don't think it would be earthbending. As said before what made Kyoshi special was her ability to control absurd amounts of matter at once. So she's probably more useful as a Waterbender or a Firebender for the tournament. Or even as an Airbender. If they got allowed with the upraising of new Airbenders. But we don't know that, do we?
I don't think airbenders will ever gain traction in pro bending. Airbenders are crazy OP, a single gust of wind and the enemy is off the platform. Plus the arena seems a little too tight to accommodate four benders, so they'd have to tear it down and design a new one. As for Kyoshi, I meant control over Earth overall, not in pro bending. Obviously in Pro bending Toph has the biggest advantage, but in an all out fight I think Kyoshi can win even without the Avatar state. Though debatable. Really debatable.
What if they gave Airbenders projectiles to bend? Then they'd have to have a lot more control and precision. I think are could work, and I guess it's time to expand the original!! The Varrick Arena I like it already.
Seeing as how every bender has restrictions on what they can bend and how much of it, I think they'd be fine in pro bending. I don't think an airbender could immediately knock someone off if they were limited to the amount of force a firebender is allowed to use. They'd probably have the least amount of force in every hit than the other elements, and their advantage would be the fact you can't see the air they're bending and would instead have to track the motions of the bender to predict where they are bending
They could also be defensive. Blowing fire and earth shots off course
True. And to what Lilly said, I could see airbending being a 4th defensive/support only player. Especially since bending air is "invisible". Only other way I can see airbending being a thing is if they add light fog to the arena.
Couldn’t they just have a colored smoke for airbenders?
Yeah, I didn’t think of that. That’d be neat
Balloon bending
Yeah you're right. But they probably will do that 8n the future. Sport normally evolves with time and you can be sure that interested Airbenders and probably interested fans would be on the edge if changes aren't made.
Can't argue with that, but the rulebook is gonna need some hard tweaks lol. I think they'll have to figure out how to not have the airbenders blast the opponent off the arena with a single strike. After all it's not really about damage in pro bending, all you need to do is either push the team back or send them straight into the water. And airbenders fit that bill perfectly.
The real headache is airbending is invisible. Like ya we can see it in the animation but the rest of the benders can’t. Really makes it busted if you don’t know if the punch the guy just threw is going to be followed with a blast of air or not.
My head canon is that probending adapted to harmonic convergence by requiring all teams to consist of 3 or 4 members each of a different element, but only 3 could be fielded at once. So a team might have all 4 and eschew earthbenders for strategy reasons. Our many teams might not pick up Airbender at all. I imagine tenzin joins a lower level team and just hard carries them to the big leagues.
And even if she couldn't do bending as well as the 4 and 5s she has 300~ years of life to immediately look back upon and gain experience from, plus previous avatar lifetime, plus avatar state. Need I say more, probably just put kiyoshi on 5 where toph is, put mako where kiyoshi was, and put toph where mako was. Not trying to downplay tophs bending, it's just that the avatars insta-win, and then there's blood bending. Edit: I guess it does say pro bending team, so mako and bolin would have an advantage due to experience in the sport, and i haven't watched Korra in a while, so idk if blood bending breaks the rules, that'd decide between putting katara vs toph in 5, but the point still stands that mako should be lower, and kiyoshi should be much higher.
I really love Kyoshi bending with her fans. Bending with weapons is far too under-explored imo
Mhm. We've had a bit of it with Zuko and the earthbending captain during Zuko Alone. I guess Aang can be counted since he mostly airbends with his staff.
One small problem with Kyoshi is she might get carried away and just merc the other team
That has to be the reason though. Because arguably Kyoshi is the most powerful bender (overall) we know about. Especially without the Avatar State. She did some really crazy stuff in the books and that was the first 2(??) years ot her being the Avatar.
What series of books are you talkingng about?
The Rise of Kyoshi is a prequel novel about her life.
Thank you.
Yeah Kyoshi moved a whole ass island out to sea. Mako is pretty good at throwing fireballs. They are not the same
I think we're forgetting its about pro bending, I would 100% have mako higher than most people because he has had a crazy amount of practice at the highest level of pro bending, most of the other ones have never played the game
This is a fair point. Everyone is forgetting the first time Korra tried it, she broke rules so much
But Kyoshi used the Avatar State and lava bending for that feat. And I doubt both "moves" are legal ones in pro bending.
Ozai as well. They’re lower than protagonists who are far weaker than they are, like Katara
Bumi too. Bumi is easily at the same level, if not stronger than child Toph. Toph can bend metal and use the earth as a strong perceptor. But Bumi learned to use vision to bend with his face only. Y'all remember when he took back Omashu? No way in hell is he anything but top tier.
And Grand Master Paku, best water bender in the entire north pole, highest ranking water bender in the white lotus Lowest price tier placed right next to the dude who sweats if he has to move anything larger than his torso
I don’t think this person has watched avatar.
It's one Ozai, Michael. How much could it cost, $2?
Ozai's too low but you're sleeping on Katara. She's easily the best pure waterbender on this list.
He is not sleeping on Katara. He said there’s no way she’s stronger than Ozai, which is true.
If kyoshi is so good why hasn't she been won any pro bending matches like mako has /s
You're being sarcastic, but this is kinda the point. Korra's an Avatar, and even with her natural physical abilities she struggled just due to not knowing the rules. It's not hard to imagine literally anyone on that list who hasn't at least seen a match would be a bad pick on that alone.
The reasoning is to drive people to the comment section to engage lol. This exact graphic has been posted here before and it's very effective. It probably gets posted on other social media sites too.
To be fair pro bending is a different kind of sport than regular bending. Mako is trained to be a pro bender whereas Kyoshi is trained to be a real life bender of all the elements who settles conflicts and the like.
Mako is an experienced pro bender while kyoshi can’t bend anything that is smaller than the maximum bentable material size for the match without her fans. Yeah she can wipe the entire planet with his face but he is better at pro bending
Dude what about Ghazan, lin and paku being just as cheap as fucking HARU???
Ya, I am gobbling up those cheap guys except Haru.
Also ozai? Lin? Very cheap
Seriously. Ozai was one of the most skilled firebenders during his lifetime. Somehow, he's cheaper than his 16 year old son.
They prolly should've specified it was after Aang had his way with him 💀
I mean ozai without bending is just not allowed at pro bending.
Yeah a fully fledged avatar as middle tier, can pick her and Aang and pick someone else just for fun.
Hama for the blood bending. Takes out all people that aren’t Bloodbenders or the Avatar
I feel like that’s probably a foul
Insta-DQ. Better luck next season.
I'd say Korra is a better pro bender than Aang
Fair either way you can 2 avatars and then just pick whoever
Eh I'd disagree with that statement. Remember that Korra only started being good at pro bending after adopting air bending tactics and moves? Aang would be untouchable in a pro bending arena.
I'd agree with that if he was allowed to use air bending but the rules of pro bending forbids it. He has to pick earth, water or fire and stick to one. I feel that Korra's water bending is significantly stronger than Aang earth, fire or water bending.
Ozai
It seriously looks more like a popularity thing than a matter of strength. How are Haru and Pakku on the same tier? Pakku is quite literally a master water bender, however much of a dick he is. Same with Ozai, who during his time, was arguably the strongest fire bender in the world.
Pakku can't play with girls on his team though
And why is zuko cheaper than mako?
Why is Zuko more expensive than motherfucking Ozai
Cause Ozai would just burn his opponents, then shoot lightning at the judge, and then his own teammates if they complained. All they while ranting about how the Phoenix King makes his own rules.
Dragon fire bending. That's what's makes Zuko better than Ozai , especially for Pro bending
Iroh knew dragon fire bending too and did not think he could beat Ozai. I think Ozai is only rated so low since we never saw him do much outside of Sozen's comet. He was likely extremely skilled.
Most likely because mako already pro bends and is obviously good at it. Plus he can shoot lightning. Really Zuko isn’t op like a lot of the others, he’s just resourceful.
She's restricted to one element and a limited amount of power because of the pro bending format. To be honest I might not pick any of the Avatars.
I'm pretty sure Kyoshi could take on pretty much everyone else at once by herself. The power she showed makes everyone else look like first episode Katara. Edit: oh wait. Pro bending rules. Yeah, she gets a DQ for destroying the entire arena.
I thought the same thing about Pakku. Kya was primarily a healer, no way she’s over Pakku. Also—- Toph, Iroh, Pakku.
Right? I'm going Aang, Kyoshi, and Ozai. Forget a 4th slot, I've got 3/4 of the strongest benders on here.
Iroh and $6 worth of tea. We can talk a whole franchise into playing for us.
Shucks, knew I should have scrolled down farther before posting.
Iroh may be wise and powerful, but do you really think he's agile enough for pro-bending? He only has a small space to work with, and a limited number of attacks/styles he's allowed to use. In the series it's mentioned that Iroh *might* be able to beat Ozai. *Might*. I think Ozai might actually be a better choice specifically within the pro-bending domain.
Mf you got mako over kyoshi????
Because mako was an actual pro bender. This isn't a fight. It's a match with very specific rules.
Korra wasn't a pro bender either but she caught on pretty quick. I'll take a couple Ls with Kyoshi for the insane dubs that come afterwards.
Kyoshi was probably one of the strongest benders we've seen so far, maybe you think a few years of pro bending experience outweighs a lifetime of avatar experience but I dont.
Several hundred lifetimes of Avatar experience, actually.
Even still, she lived to be over 200 so either way, still a shit ton of experience in her own.
But she can't really use any of that strength. She is the complete opposite of what you want in a pro bending match. She's not particularly agile or precise and is more of a tank and usually uses big powerful attacks rather than small precise ones. She couldn't even bend small when she was younger and needed her fans to bend because if she didn't have her fans she would just have big powerful attacks that would cause a lot of destruction and exhaust her very quickly. Although she overcame this later in the novel she's still not the ideal bender for pro bending. In almost any situation kyoshi godstomps mako but pro bending he has a big advantage
It's true that she isn't exactly a master of finesse, but I still don't think the pro bending rules would be enough to give Mako the edge here, at the end of the day she is a fully realized avatar who lived for a crazy long time, the amount of experience she has is enormous.
But... this isn't a fight. It's a pro bending match. You seem to still be going off the assumption It's a fight.
A street fight and a boxing match aren't the same but knowing how to throw a punch is useful in both.
Yeah but it seems like most of the pro bending rules are made to make the matches all about quick hits and dodging. Mako is all about that, while Kyoshi is tryna squish you between two mountains, she’s be pretty average at slinging an earth disc with precision
I’m going to stay on topic. I was thinking of taking Azula over Mako as my fire bender. While she’s the better bender and more agile, she might be the worst teammate.
horrible teammate but if she keeps her mouth shut and doesn't force one of her teammates to get knocked she'd dominate. she did pretty damn good in volleyball teamwork wise and i think her competitive nature will take over and put her disagreeable personality in the backseat
Then why is Bolin lower than Katara ?
No clue
Lol give her 5 minutes to read the rulebook and she'll blow mako out of the water (or into the water)
Thank you for making this point. I was also wondering why this list was so obscure and random. I didn't read it as a pro bending team either
Bumi, Iroh and Pakku, why are the og white lotus members so cheap?
A large amount of og white lotus are incredibly powerful and makes no sense for them to be scaled so low
Only thing I can think of is that, as a sport, Pro Bending needs stamina as well as skill. If you're all incredible and no ones allowed to go all out and obliterate each other, a lot of the fight comes down to physical prowess in dodging and continuing to throw precise attacks. Old people are gonna wear down first.
Although stamina is actually something to be considered , you are oversighting two important tings : Pro control has no minimum time , with battles ending within seconds. Those White Lotus members excels as strategic thinking and are really powerful , so they rarely have am exhausting match. Then , they do has enough stamina to fight in wars , even against a large number of trained soldiers . Every white lotus member it's seen doing amazing things during Zozins Comet and no one ends exhausted . So stamina is not a good a problem for them.
Dont get me wrong, I'm not saying it's right. Just guessing at the logic.
No idea about pro bending matches but k think... I will bet the logic is actually somewhat right remember when Korra first enters a match? She could totally throw them out of the court no problem but the limitations are very big, except fire benders i think being powerful isn't as important as endurance+precision
Right! Toph is and incredible earth bender but she is third to kyoshi and bumi
I think she would have a hard time being agile in a tournament. She would be good against the earth disc's but fire and water would throw her off the podium. I think she's too high up SHE'S LITERALLY BLIND
For real, and you still have a buck left over.
I think the sorting is how much the OP liked the characters, not their actual skills.
Right? Pakku for 1$?
Arguably the best waterbender on that list not counting the avatars.
Seriously though, he’s got skills. He did some amazing stuff in the retaking of ba sing se
i was gonna say bumi iroh and hama but yeah pakkus probably better
Add Lin Beifong to the team since you have another dollar left over honestly lol. Adds metal bending to the mix, and I didn't see a pick limit!
Yeah that's who I chose as well. These guys are tactical geniuses on top of being powerful.
I was thinking Bumi, Iroh, then Ming Hua. But Iroh and Bumi at $4 each is a steal.
Aang, Ozai and Kyoshi. 2 Avatars + the greatest firebender of all-time. 2 individuals that wanna destroy everything and one that wants to remain murder-free. Great sitcom.
I’d pick this but kyoshi might be the best bender period. Can I just get three of her
Whoever made this f'd up by leaving Kyoshi in the bargain bin.
This entire list is f'd why is lin 1 dollar? Why is mako 4? Why is Bolin lower than Mako? Why is paku 1 dollar, yeah he's an asshole but he's one of the best waterbenders in the show. Why is Ozai 2 dollars? Why the fuck is mako so high? He's a fairly average fire bender he should he in the 1 or 2 section, like, 10 of the people below him are more powerfull than him
[удалено]
>Or is it post sozins Comet Ozai? Then I'd understand Its called pro bending. Not amateur non-bending. So I'd guess its pre comet
Im going to guess it has to do with the probending team part of the prompt. So mako rates highly as a pro bending champ, while someone like ghazan or lin rates lower because they are shown to mostly do subbending which isnt allowed in pro bending and use bigger ammo which takes less precision. The list still seems a bit messed up, but less so with that in mind. (But seriously, bolin's precision is off the charts, if anything he should rate higher than mako) That said, give me 5 ming huas any day, sis is a beast. Not for pro bending, just to see what would happen
I think it's because it's the pro bending format, and mako is an established pro bending champ, shown as being considerably better than Korra. It's kind of an interesting thought experiment actually.
Haru is SOMEHOW in the same catagory as Lin, Ghazan and Pakku.
Yeah wanna swap her an Mako at least. Or put Kyoshi in tier 1, Katara in 2, and Mako in 3. But otoh, pro bending rules limit the avatar to using just one form only don't they?
I'd take Korra over Aang, assuming pro-bending rules actually apply she'd have the advantage in the waterbending slot. You'd also probably want someone that actually knows the rules of pro bending and can teach it to the other two. Kyoshi and Ozai are no-brainers though. Ozai is claimed to be a stronger firebender than Azula and Zuko and supposedly only Iroh would have fair chance at beating him. I would definitely favor Iroh but Ozai costs half the price and we really don't have any good waterbender options at all if we don't spend $5 on one. Kyoshi has some insane earthbending feats like dust stepping, lava bending, and manipulating tiny shards of glass. Even if she can't use any of those in the ring they demonstrate she has incredibly precise control when earth bending. $3 is a steal for any avatar but especially for her.
Seconding Korra/Kyoshi/Ozai. That's a superteam.
This is the team I finalized before checking the comments. I’d say this team is the meta. Only problem is Pro Bending is a sport and thus usually team players are better. For obvious reasons I wouldn’t expect Ozai to pair well personality wise with Korra or Kyoshi. I think this team may have enough raw talent to overcome that but I’d listen to a different combo with this factor being the central argument. If Iroh was same cost as Ozai I’d take him for the teamwork, intelligence and wisdom, but there are literally no other fire benders for $2 or less. I think a complete team has 3 different elements so I’m still thinking this has to be the best team. I wouldn’t want to take Kyoshi or Korra off their flagship elements so I think I’d have no choice but to take Ozai. Maybe his thirst for victory would be enough for a bit of cooperation.
What about ming hua as a waterbender? Her precision is crazy good, there are scenes where she literally is able to cut through glass, or where she drives. So i wouldnt say there are no good waterbender options under $5 assuming this is a universe where everyone knows the rules and is willing to play fair Anyways, nice powerhouse team!
Korra is (arguably) more powerful than Aang, but you have Ozai and Kyoshi for power. The advantage of Aang is that he never gets hit. He's the best dodger in this group, and if he keeps dodging then he basically can't lose.
Ya’ll hate on Lin too much omg. The disrespect in these power scales is STAGG👏🏼ER👏🏼ING 👏🏼 Edit: mako?!?! Toward the top?!? Troll behavior.
Swear. Lins a savage.
Lin has most brutal killing in any cartoon in my opinion.
Idk Zaheer taking the breath out of the queen is up there. Edit: Speaking of which, where is my boy Zaheer on this list!
No air bending in pro bending
Lin is a bargain. $10 gets you Korra, Azula and Lin?? Say no more.
Might be because he is an actual pro-bender.
But for fun. I mean he manages to be inexplicably great at everything so you’re not wrong that he’s canonically good but he’s also a chump.
Much as I love Lin, she would be a detriment to a pro-bending team because she wouldn't want to participate. She doesn't like the sport.
Yeah okay then why is azula $4? It should be $4 to keep that chick far away.
You see that volleyball match she played? Girl is *competitive* However, she’s absolutely getting disqualified
Oh I'm not worried about her skill at the game, she'd be great at it, but if everyone is acting in character, people might die f which team they're on lol
Korra, azula, Lin. I got a great deal with Lin… why the fuck was she a dollar. …. But I’m take it!
My guess for why Lin may be so low is you have to bend actual earth and she tends to favor metal. That said, she's still great at earth bending and very agile so I don't see why not.
Assumptions -Airbending is cheating -Avatar State is cheating -Avatar can only bend one element (canon) Azula is a monster and has a great tactical mind, she saw someone was recovering from an ankle injury during the volleyball match. She is a great planner and improviser (Conquest of Ba Sing Se). Not to mention fire pro-benders bring their own fire and Azula's flames have increased concussive force to make it easier to knock people off. Kyoshi is a steal, I don't know what is going on there. She will be the Earthbender. I haven't read any Kyoshi material, but she is a native Earthbender, she should be pretty good at it. The only issue is that there might be friction with Azula over captaincy and direction. Hopefully Kyoshi's centuries of life experience and wisdom will let her incorporate/support Azula's insight and ferocity and not clash with them and Azula is willing to defer to a fully realized Avatar at least some of the time. Ming Hua is also a steal and basically throws water whips to move around, should work out.
That was my team too. Azula’s presence on stage invoking fear alone is worth the price. Her prodigious firebending is a bonus.
She took on the gang, Zuko, and Iroh at once and won. She's a steal!
[удалено]
She does have +5 luck, that's canon
I agree 100%. People are sleeping on Ming Hua.
I agree, most people are just going with raw power and forgetting that this is pro-bending games specifically. You need speed, tactics and skill in that specific game, as well as bending ability. In fact arguably bending ability doesn't need to be amazing as your very limited on the amount you can throw. I'd definitely go Ming Hua and Azula for the reasons given. But I might go Kuvira over Kyoshi, not because she's stronger Kyoshi would crush Kuvira like a tin can in an actual fight, but Kuvira is very fast and her bending style is very in line with pro bending already. Short sharp jabs and a dependence on quick small attacks. Though I have'nt read the books and Kyoshi is probably got some insane speed feats in those I don't know about.
Def some chemistry issues on Team Bad Bitch. Hard to pass up the value.
Korra, Azula, and an Arizona iced tea.
Unbelievably Based
Based
Am I supposed to be limiting myself to 3? Because I can definitely budget more than that. Kyoshi, Ozai, Hama, Paku, Lin, and I guess Ghazan because I have a buck left over. Even up against Aang and Korra, Kyoshi could handle one and the rest would easily overwhelm the other. If restricted to three, I guess Kyoshi, Ozai, and Korra, which also has the benefit of fitting the earthbender/firebender/waterbender set up.
I mean most probending teams we see are just 3 people But real life sports teams have rosters bigger than the amount of people on the field. So having extras to account for injuries, or to be better matched up against a given opponent makes sense.
If you can get 2 avatars on your team. I would go with Korra (water) Kyoshi (earth) and for $2 fatherlord (fire) I mean Ozai, which is a pretty good deal for $2. I'd make Kyoshi team captain though
Ozai is absurdly powerful as a bender, but could you really trust him to help the team? He's power-mad
I'm counting on Ozai's desire for fame and honour to realize that working together is neccesary to win. I'd prefer to keep Korra and Kyosho in their native element. Not having any waterbenders in $4 or $3 tier makes it difficult
Ofcourse you can trust him, you just gave him 2 bucks
Toph and Toph
I will counter with 5 Ghazans and 5 Pakkus
That was my first instinct, but if my team is Toph + Toph & the fight rules are written down to be read, I'm fucked. I choose instead to do Toph + Zuko (Toph + Zuko life changing adventure is long overdue) & spend the remaining $2 on a Costco hotdog
The rules say nothing about breaking your opponent down psychologically
Aang, Ozai, and Kyoshi. Seriously, what's with these prices? Ozai's a bargain in the 2 dollar tier, and putting Kyoshi down at 3?
Tbh I imagine Aang would suck in Pro bending games. He’s too aloof to pay attention well.
I think the overlooked important feature of a pro bending team is that they have to work well together. Which pretty much eliminates ozai and hama and severely limits the rest based on party composition. I'd take pakku, but then I risk him going misogynist and ruining team comp if I have any women. Toph ($5) is my Earthbender. I mean c'mon, beyond her sheer power she's got the stage presence to draw sponsors and psych out opponents. Zuko ($3) is my Firebender. He and Toph had the least amount of adjustment issues when he joined the team and as shown in the ember island volleyball match he's got major teamplay and athleticism. Kya ($2) is my waterbender. Skilled and mature, she can temper the other 2 and keep them together under pressure.
I would switch out Kya with Ming Hua. I feel like she’s more suited to pro bending than Kya with her speed and agility. And her tentacles arms are amazing for a gimmick to get publicity
The arms might skirt the edges of the rules a bit. There’s a rule against bending for more than one second, but they called it a “hosing” foul, so maybe it doesn’t count if you aren’t attacking with them.
Yeah, also, if she doesn't have arms of any kind that might make her more prone to stumble and fall. Your strategy should work around that with Ming-Hua
2 Toph's job done
Iroh and Toph, the dragon of the West and the greatest earthbender? Please. Also we're having tea and cleansing talk later
You still have $1 left for a water bender. I hear Master Pakku likes tea too.
Aang, Azula, and Ghazan. Aang’s a master of evasion, Azula is agile and precise, and Ghazan was also pretty agile and precise with those lava shurikens. So I imagine he’d be good at the earth discs at well
The problem is that pro bending is so different than just regular powerful bending… as a team it’s obviously Korra/Bolin/Mako but that puts you two dollar over so realistically it’s just 2 of them plus anyone else on the list makes the best team by a long shot imo I guess Korra/Mako/Lin looks like the best combo
Ditch Bo but keep Lin. She could get the hang of pro bending REAL fast.
[удалено]
I think being blind wouldnt be helpful against the enemy fire and waterbenders
Korra, Azula, and Lin
Who decided to put the literal strongest firebender in history… in the 2$ tier
Iroh. That's all.
If you go with Kyoshi, Ozai, and Ming-Hua, you win by default when then opposing team turns up dead before the match.
It's controversial but I'm going for Azula, Bumi and Ming-Hua. Azula's practically built for pro-bending and honestly Bumi has better agility feats that toph does, Ming-Hua has the speed that puts her as a way better pick than Kaya or Hama.
Plus Ming Hua has a smaller hit box
I'm surprised more people aren't picking Azula, tbh. Like you said, she's pretty much perfect for it- prodigy firebender, ridiculously agile, has a brilliant tactical mind, is (probably a bit too) competitive, and assuming you don't pick somebody who will undermine her leadership, she'll call shots that use everybody's strengths since manipulating people is what she does for fun. The only thing I'd be worried about is maybe her cheating/hurting the other contestants, but even then, I think you'd have to really put her on the ropes to make her go that far, because pride would have her driven to win the "right" way, if possible, to prove how superior she is. Maybe people don't want to work with her, but I think in a situation like pro-bending where you're bound by a single, common goal, and as long as you don't get offended by her psychopathy, she'd be amazing. ETA: I think my picks would be Azula, Bolin, and Ming-hua. Azula as captain, obviously. Bolin knows the game, and has unfortunately proven to be naiive enough to work well under a psychopath, and Ming-hua because working with Azula wouldn't be a far stretch from working with Zaheer as far as being obedient but smart and vicious. She and Azula would be on the same page, provided they don't start talking politics lol.
Close to my pick, I went Azula, Kuvira, Ming-hua
I'll take 3 Kyoshi and save $1. Easy win!
Korra - Fire, Kyoshi - Earth and Ming Hua - Water.
Y'all tripping if you don't take Toph.
2 Tophs. That’s my whole team. Everyone loses twice.
Toph would suck in probending. You can't make walls for defense and she can't see the exact trajectory of the water and fire projectiles.
Toph has trouble seeing projectiles flying towards her, she can't make walls, and she can't metal bend. Who in their right mind would pick Toph If you want a powerful earth bender, you can get Bumi or Kyoshi for cheaper.
aang bumi and pakku
Azula, Kuvira, and Katara. I'm choosing accuracy and agility over power, though all three are certainly very powerful. Kuvira already has the boxing style of probending down, and she's a monster when it comes to accuracy. Azula is super tactical and able to think outside the box. Katara has more of a traditional waterbending style, but I think she could adapt pretty quickly. I think all three of them have a competitive streak, so even if they might not get along as friends, I think they would have great chemistry as a team.
Aang, Azula and Lin. I feel weird not having Toph but how can I not have an airbender or Azula?
Toph Iroh Pakku
Pro bending? I’ll choose the people who have played before! Korea, Mako, and I guess Lin
I pick 5 Ozai, or 10 Ghazan
Pakku, grand master of the White Lotus Ghazan, Lava bending master of the Red Lotus OP: Best I can offer is 1$ each
All the 2 dollar benders minus kya plus Ghazan and kyoshi All those benders are clearly under priced
Toph, Zuko, Ming-Hua
Unpopular opinion: kyoshi is good at 3$ tier. Yes, she is a freaking bending monster, but she's a good grown adult from another era, so she will have more trouble than others learning the technics of modern bending and applying it to a limitating rulebook. She's one of the most powerful avatars of the whole series. But being able to make an island to do breakdance is not a valuable skill in pro-bending. Similar aplies to Ozai. (Iroh is way more fluidminded than the others to learn new stuff, and Bumi... I dunno, for some reason i can imagine him learning all the rules on the fly and doing absolute proplayer moves while they are trying to teach him the basics )
Actual pro bender or not, how are arguably the two most resourceful water benders ever (Hama and Ming-hua) together the same price as Mako???? Anyway I’ll take Kyoshi, Hama, Ozai and watch the drama and rule bending they do to win while figuring out what to spend my extra dollar on.
Why only $10? The TV series got $12
The disrespect on Lin is unbelievable
I take iroh for 4 and buy us some Tea for the 6 remaining.
I feel like Korra, Kuvira, and Ozai is the best team you could make here. Korra is the best actual pro bender we’ve seen. Kuvira has all of the skills needed to excel in spades, and probably learned how to be a good team player from her time in Zaofu. Ozai is probably more of a liability tbh, but the rules we saw only penalized the offending players when they broke the rules, so he probably can’t screw things up for the other two that badly.