Talk:Airbending/@comment-110.33.12.96-20111218141713/@comment-75.101.1.190-20120206045540

I, for one, find if very likely that those fireball were NOT flaming boulders - for one thing, using rocks against a nation where half the population can control rocks at will would be a very stupid idea. For another thing, solid rock isn't flammable, making it a poor material to make fireballs out of. And yes, I do believe that Aang can deflect mudballs - if he can deflect regular old fireballs with no mass in them whatsoever, like in the second episode, then why would a bunch of densely packed flammable material be any different? And when I'm talking about Fighting Bumi and the Dai Li, I'm talking specifically about the giant boulders they threw at him, and the rock walls that they erected to impede him. If Aang could blow up a boulder coming right at him with a single kick, then he should have had no problem at all obliterating such obstacles. But he never even tries. Wait, scratch that - he fires a powerful airblast at Bumi at one point, who easily blocks with a rock wall. A THIN rock wall. Ergo, the fireballs are NOT rocks, with nowhere near the mass, and Airbending is never shown to have anywhere near the offense power of earthbending - or any of the bending styles, for that matter.

And to be clear, Aang DID slice the Buzzard-wasp in two - I re-watched that scene just be sure I know what I was talking about. It might be hard to make out, but the wasp hits the ground in two pieces. The whole point of that scene - of that episode as a whole, arguably - is how badly Aang can lose it when he looses a member of his surrogate family, doing something that he would never normally do.

And while it's never outright stared, it's clearly demonstrated that waterbending is better suited for cutting. For example, when Aang is on the Drill and chooses to use waterbending, not airbending, to cut a hole on top. Not to mention the number of times we saw Waterbenders slice cleanly through solid stone and steel, which Aang never did with airbending.

"I mentioned the telekinesis-like power before to just support how inventive and useful airbending moves are." ...and since that was never in question, I still don't know why you bothered to bring it up.

And while a lot of people had a problem with that "Aang can't hit Azula" scene, as far as I'm concerned, it wasn't a plot hole. The problem wasn't that Aang couldn't keep up, it was that he kept stopping to attack, while Azula focused only on staying away from Aang and dodging his attacks.

And the fact that Airbending doesn't have the offense of the other styles isn't conjecture - it's cannon. Never mind that is was demonstrated over and over again in the series, it was stated as much on the official website. Trying to say airbending has the same power as the other bending arts because "he cut a bunch of vines that one time" or "he deflected a few fireballs that might have been rocks" (and I'm certain they weren't) - THAT is conjecture.

And you know what? It's better that airbendng has a weakness. I mean, that's the whole idea - each style has it's own strengths and weaknesses, INCLUDING airbending. If airbending didn't have any weaknesses, then it would be overpowered compared to the other bending arts, completely breaking the "not one is inherently stronger then the other" thing. And no, "lacking a sub-skill" is not a weakness in the fighting style.