One firebender that I think is often overlooked is Sozin. When Sozin and Roku were sparring as teenagers, Sozin won the fight and said "Looks like I win
again, Rooku." That implies to me that Rooku has a history of defeating the Avatar in their firebending duels. We know throughout Last Airbender that Katara/Toph were obviously better water/earthbenders than Aang, but Sozin vs Roku is the first example we've ever seen of an Avatar getting defeated in a 1v1 in their original element. And judging by Sozin's words, this isn't the first time Sozin has achieved this feat which makes it even more impressive.
We next get a re-match between Sozin and Roku more than 12 years later. Roku pretty much defeats Sozin easily which isn't surprising since Roku is a fully realized Avatar at this point. But there's two interesting things about Sozin in this fight. The first thing is that the fire attack that Sozin uses is without a doubt the largest fire blast that any firebender has used outside of the comet. Like that fire blast was
massive. The second thing I noticed is that Roku didn't use water or firebending during this fight. Not using waterbending makes no sense since there's no water in the Sozin's throne room, but why didn't Roku use firebending? I think deep down Roku knows that Sozin is better firebender than him and therefore it's more pragmatic to fight Sozin with the other elements.
Next we see Sozin and Roku battling a volcano. Notice how Sozin is heatbending? This is the only example of redirecting heat that we've seen in the series so it implies that Sozin invented this technique. Anf frnakly, being able to remove the feat from a volcano to the point that you actually cool it is a really impressive feat.
So yeah, taking all this into consideration, I'd have to say in my opinion that Sozin is the 3rd strongest firebender of all time (excluding Avatars). Ony his grandsons Iroh/Ozai have better firebending feats than him.
What are your guys thoughts on Ming-Hua and Ghazan? Imo, they're definitely up there. Ming-Hua has such an unique fighting style, and lavabending is hella powerful.
Both of them are very impressive. The way Ming-Hua can bend without her arms is wild. Ming-Hua stomped the royalty waterbending twins easily. She also stomped multiple White Lotus and Dai Li agents. She had a tiny bit of difficulty against Kya but she defeated her as well without too much trouble, Kya only landed one blow and that's pretty impressive since she's Katara's daughter. And of course, that scene with her choking Mako with one arm and drowning Bolin in a water sphere with the other arm is iconic.
She's in my top 3 favourite characters in the Avatar universe and I'd rank her in my top 5 waterbenders of all time (excluding Avatars). Ghazan is also in my top 5 earthbenders but he's not one of my favs so he's not getting the attention that I gave to Ming.
Prime Azula would no doubt in my mind be the strongest firebender.
I honestly feel like if Aang had Azula's mindset, he'd be top 3 as one of the strongest benders with just airbending alone. Not even using the other 3.
Agreed.
Azula was named after the prodigy Azulon, was capable of generating blue flames, and was a clear child prodigy. I have no doubts that if Azula crew older and her mental health didn't decline, she would be as skilled and famous as Toph is now.
In terms of combat, how would you guys rank the elements?
Air > Earth > Fire > Water.
Air is number one for me as if you master it to the point that Zaheer did, it's kinda unbeatable. You can fly, allowing you to easily dodge any fire attacks and not worry about losing your footing against an earth bender. Getting tagged should be nearly impossible. Since air is everywhere, you can freely fight using only ranged attacks which is a great combo with flight. And it's arguably the most lethal element as you can air bend the air in your opponent's lungs, leading to a near-instant kill.
This is probably a cliché and boring answer and probably not what you're looking for, but I consider all four elements to be equal. We've seen monsters with each element and we've seen total scrubs with each element. I think it depends on the user, not the element. All four elements are equal.
I'll respond to your other points about blood/lava bending in my next reply, Drago.
