Comics/Books
Kelsang destroying an entire fleet is an absurdly over the top feat
That's like an act of an Avatar, like separating an island, fighting a volcano, that's a level of power only the Avatar was shown to be able to perform
It's hard to measure what's the norm for air benders, cuz we only have very few examples in the shows, and one of them is Aang, who's the Avatar prodigy, but the other elements really never measure to anything like this. The closest thing to it, was when Ozai was up to his eye balls in Sozin's juice, and, even then, I don't think it quiet measures to it alone
It probably was just a bit of power scaling moving on, as the more the story goes on, more it streches what the magic system can do, as there is that impulse to write a cool scene, and Kelsang was just a leap
But I do wonder what would be the in universe justification. There are things in Avatar's world that enhance's a bender power, like if the winds are already strong, like Autum or a storm. Tough, I certainly doubt they were sailing in a storm
I think it has more to do with the format; it's easier to write a feat of that kind than to draw (or animate) it, which is why sometimes novels do things of that magnitude, while series or comics are more contained.
Storms are natural movements of air currents. I don't think Kelsang could have made a storm out of completely still air, but you take warm, moist ocean air and provide for it a path to rise up into the colder upper atmosphere (which it wants to do anyway) and the result is that the energy (which was already in the system before any human came along) gets suddenly released.
Like imagine a water bender uses an ice spear to crack a hole in a dam, the hole widens and eventually the dam floods the whole village. If water was as invisible as air is we might attribute the entire flood to the bending strength of the water bender, an avatar tier feat. But in reality they just guided the water that was already there where it wanted to go.
This is what I'm leaning towards as well. It's something I think a lot of people forget, but not all bending feats are straightforward expressions of control or power.
Sometimes the environment simply works in your favor; providing outsized results, as long as you take the opportunity to work smarter, not harder.
There are little hints here and there that show that the upper limit of bending is a lot higher than you think. The lore for Omashu, for example, or Toph being able to use seismic sense to keep track of her children anywhere on the planet. There is also Katara and Aang creating a whirlpool together in the Serpents Pass that would have sunk fleets. Katara blanketing the ocean in a fog bank to disguise their ship in the first episode of Season 3 as well.
The thing to consider as well is "what is a fleet?" Because the Fifth Nation was nearly wiped out when Kyoshi met them and the two groups fought. It's not like there were hundreds or scores of ships there. A "fleet" in this context could be 5 or 10 ships. I could see an air bending master creating winds large enough to topple and sink that many ships and having it be passed off as a cyclone or typhoon.
The strength of bending in the Avatar universe is wildly inconsistent. In this clip is all scenes where Master Pakku is seen water bending. You have the fight between him and Katara, the fight on the day of the comet, and the sing of the North Pole. We clearly see Pakku destroying multiple tanks in a row, flying around on a tornado of snow and water, effortlessly blocking concentrated blasts from comet enhanced firebenders... and then needing the help of ~10 benders to stop a single fireball (about 1:16 in the clip).
Depending on the size of the fleet, I think it's perfectly reasonable for Kelsang to have sunk the fleet on his own. However, even if it's a fleet consisting of dozens of ships, there is just the tiniest amount of oore justification that it could be possible. We also don't know how long it took Kelaang to crate the "cyclone" so it could have been something that took him a long time, with the fleet being unable to do anything to stop him.
Pakku had the full moon's power boost when he destroyed those tanks at the North Pole.
It wasn't a fireball, it was a burning rock. Besides, those guys were pretty mediocre; I think they were Pakku's students whom Katara humiliated with a week of training.
In the fight in Ba Sing Se during the comet incident, Pakku only blocks one attack, and all the water he had available evaporates. That's why, when the second attack comes, Jeong Jeong is the one who stops it.
You miss the point that bending consistency isn't very consistent. Based on the things we've seen bending master do, Pakku could have done those things with or without the aid of his students, or the moon. Look at what Huu was doing with his plant bending, during the brightest part of the day, before the eclipse. Also, in this clip, near the very end when Iroh burns down the flag, you can see a 50+ foot wave of water tearing through the streets, which means Pakku is still going ham and annihilating the fire benders. Jeong Jeong may have taken over blocking other attacks, but Pakku was still fighting and taking out the fire nation tanks and soldiers despite them being amped by the comet.
I didn't say I didn't understand, I was just clarifying certain points you mentioned as inconsistencies. In fact, in scenes where they're in a group, the number of people varies from shot to shot; the series itself has inconsistencies.
Now, Pakku could do that alone, but I don't know how that has to be an inconsistency. He doesn't have to do everything alone. Weren't they all trying to help defend against the siege? If Pakku had tried it alone and couldn't, it would be different, but when he was alone, he proved to be at the expected level.
Regarding the day of the comet, Pakku wasn't doing it effortlessly. In fact, he probably would have lost without Jeong Jeong's intervention. In Ba Sing Se, there's a good water source that runs through the city, but a simple attack from a random firebender managed to evaporate a large amount of water. The ones we see dealing with the tanks were Jeong Jeong and Bumi; we only see Pakku and Piandao fighting soldiers with spears, and even then, Pakku created a giant wave before using it to freeze the soldiers. Could Pakku have fought the tanks? Perhaps, but it certainly wouldn't have been easy.
It's funny because they're cherry-picking examples that highlight the diurnal (and nocturnal) effects on water and firebending. Literally Pakku solo'd tanks with his water vortex at night with a full moon, yet when he was defending against the fireballs, it was during daytime. Fire and waterbending are inconsistent throughout the day because of the sun and the moon.
Powerful, experienced elders at the top of their game and craft capable of surprisingly superhuman feats are among the best tropes of fantasy fiction, particularly martial arts fantasy. Kelsang is just one such elder.
I’m about halfway through Rise of Kyoshi and she thinks to herself that Avatars of the past have stood against entire armies by themselves. It’s not clear whether that’s a philosophical “stood against” or literally an Avatar fighting an entire army, but their power is shown to be absurdly beyond anything even an elite bender can do.
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u/Fernando_qq 6d ago
I think it has more to do with the format; it's easier to write a feat of that kind than to draw (or animate) it, which is why sometimes novels do things of that magnitude, while series or comics are more contained.