Talk:Iroh/@comment-3278061-20110928165231/@comment-1025281-20111104005215

It's time to put this argument of "who has the most powerful Firebending in terms of sheer power" to bed. I suggest you go back to the second last episode and make your comparisons again, or compare images from Piandao.org. For your convenience, I have the two clearest images of Iroh's most impressive Firebending feat in the series, and Ozai's. Ozai begins burning down Wulong Forest here, and Iroh issues his fire blast here. Both feats were premeditated and orchestrated without interference. Both images show the brothers at approximately the same scale. By sheer distance, Iroh's fire blast clear wins out. Moreover, elementary school physics says it takes a lot more force to destroy one of the world's strongest and thickest walls than to merely set some trees alight, which again gives Iroh a clear win here.

You say that Iroh's combat ability was far more limited that the more agile fighters Ozai, Azula and Jeong Jeong, but you have failed to consider that the ability to win a confrontation is far more important than the ability to look cool during one. What kind of idiot would fly around doing all sorts of tricks rather than simply expend the smallest amount of energy required to disable an opponent? Shock and awe sure looks cool, but the show and real world history both show that without a cunning strategy, it's useless. The ability to fight smart is far more important, and out of the Firebenders, Iroh and Azula are the two examples who best exemplify the ability to fight smart rather than submit to raw demonstrations of Firebending prowess. Single-handedly aking down all these Imperial Firebending guards without actually seeing too much fire being used – that's impressive.

Furthermore, you doubt Iroh's mental toughness. Aside from the fact that it's a lot tougher to exercise restraint than to give yourself over to excessive displays of prowess every time you get in a fight, I think you've failed to understand what kind of person Iroh is. You've assumed that everyone wants political power, and those who never want it are the ones who are weak. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature. Humans, at their most primal and basic level, want to survive, and chances of survival are theoretically improved with more power. Thus, without the power of the civilised mind, humans will desire to either be the person in charge or have a very strong influence on the person in charge. Iroh rejected power, even though it was his to have – since we know of his army's absolute loyalty to him, what was stopping him from bringing in his loyal troops and launching a coup against Ozai? That demonstrates a very strong will to push aside human instinct.

In the end, however, it comes down to a single question: if you were to go on a very dangerous journey or quest, and you had to pick between companions from the Fire Nation, who would you take? Would you take the person who can just win all the fights you get into? Or would you take someone with brains and a heart, with the ability to win all the fights a pleasant bonus? I'd take brains over brawn any day, Iroh over Ozai. Except if the brawn happens to be the Avatar.