>>98625399>>98625497>>98614194From the wiki:
>Fire Lord Ozai figuratively described it as giving firebenders "the power of a hundred sunsand
>When Sozin's Comet arrived at the end of the summer as predicted, it once again increased the firebenders' power one hundredfold, giving them the power required to eradicate the remaining earthbender rebellions.So Gyatso managed to kill 11 Fire Nation Troopers who were 100x more powerful than normal. So under normal circumstances that equates to 1 Master Air Bender = 1100 Fire Nation Troopers. You could factor in the fact that Gyatso had the advantages of fighting on his home turf and that he killed the guys in a corridor, but the fact remains that Gyatso killed 11 minimum people who could do pic related. This could easily establish Airbenders as the hard counter to Firebenders.
But we have to keep in mind that Gyatso was a MASTER Air Bender. Given the Fight between Aang and Zuko early in the series, Benders of similar training would be similarly matched, right?
WRONG
The airbenders could have wiped the floor with the firebenders if they wanted to anytime they wanted to except for Comet Day; and they didn't want to since they were pacifists. They were vegetarian for fucks sake. But they were still a threat, and Sozin saw a golden opportunity to wipe out the people who could have killed him any other day. It explains why he, instead of subjugating the Earth Kingdom, which would not be completely ruled by the Fire Nation 100 years later, he chose to attempt to kill a child who would have reincarnated in the water tribe anyway. No he wiped out the Airbenders because, despite their pacifist ways, only a few rogue masters could have kicked his army back to the islands or straight up killed them.
Aang wasn't the target, he would have been an easy promotion for some lucky General at best.
