How Powerful Is The Avatar? Aang & Korra Compared Ver

Both Aang and Korra possessed great abilities, but they also had their unique set of strengths and limitations that defined them and their time as Avatars.

Aang and Korra are two separate versions of the Avatar in Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, each with the same underlying skillset and vastly different methods of wielding it – but how powerful are they and how do their powers differ? Both Avatars were extremely talented, yet their abilities were utilized in different ways.

How Powerful Aang Was

Aang was an Avatar and an exceptionally powerful Airbender. He showed early signs of airbending prowess, becoming the youngest Airbender to achieve mastery until Jinora, many years later. During the Fire Nation’s siege on the Northern Water Tribe, he took out multiple Fire Nation ships using only air bending. He picked up water bending quickly and learned earthbending and firebending in a short period of time while under extreme duress. He held his own against Ozai for a long time without the Avatar State during their final confrontation, a feat made all the more astounding by the fact that Ozai was boosted by Sozin’s Comet. In the end, Aang required the Avatar State to conclude his battle with Ozai, which greatly increased his power. Aang effortlessly defeated Ozai thanks to the Avatar State. During the siege on the Northern Water Tribe, he also employed the Avatar State to wipe out the Fire Nation navy and take out a large portion of the Dai Li.

How Powerful Korra Was

Like Aang, Korra was a very powerful Avatar. She was a great fighter and exhibited talent for bending water, earth, and fire when she was only four years old. It took her a while to pick up airbending and enter the Avatar State, but she mastered both once she understood the spirituality involved. Even without the Avatar State in season 1, Korra was a force to be reckoned with. She generated massive waterspouts, tore up city streets, and defeated master firebenders with ease. Korra was the first Avatar to master spirit bending and metal bending. She learned the former from her uncle Unalaq and used it to defeat Vaatu and control demonic spirits. Suyin Beifong taught her how to metal bend, and because of her excellent athleticism and mastery of the bending arts, she picked it up quickly. She also learned how to bend energy from Aang’s spirit, and she used this ability to help others bend again.

Why Aang & Korra’s Powers Were Different

Aang and Korra’s talents diverged in part due to their temperaments, although having the same core set of abilities. Because of his upbringing, Aang was more of a pacifist who concentrated on spirituality. His abilities, particularly his airbending and meditative abilities, are a result of this. Korra has always excelled in the physical part of bending, and her love for it has driven her to take on fights head-on.

Their abilities, however, differed according to their unique circumstances and the historical periods in which they served as the Avatar. For example, after Ravana’s annihilation, Aang’s Avatar State was greater than Korra’s because he could rely on his connection to all previous Avatars. Korra relied on her own strength and connection to the revived Raava to do extraordinary feats like bending pure spirit energy, despite the fact that she lacked that capacity. Korra possessed more unusual skills than Aang, like metal bending and spirit bending. Metalbending was a new discipline during Aang’s time as the Avatar, thus he didn’t put much effort into mastering it. It’s only natural that Korra learned it because it had become such a popular bending method by the time she was born. Spiritbending is the same way, as it wasn’t developed while Aang was an Avatar. Without such methods, he was still powerful, but Korra’s skill set made her more versatile in a fight.

One of the most important concepts in both The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra is that the Avatar must change as the world changes. That is, at its core, why the powers of these two great Avatars differed: Korra’s world was distinct from Aang’s, and it required a new Avatar. Both Aang and Korra pushed the limits of the Avatar’s strength, laying the groundwork for their successors to follow in their footsteps and reach new heights.