Every Avatar Villain Ranked From Weakest to Most Fearsome

Avatar has never been short on great bad guys. Some are blunt-force monsters with fire for days, some are politicians with smiles and secrets, and some literally want to rewrite the rules of the universe. Not all of them matter in the same way, though. A few changed the course of the story and the Avatar world forever; others showed up, made trouble, and cleared the stage for the heavy hitters. Here is how they stack up, from least consequential to stone-cold iconic.

Quick refresher before we start

Both shows come from the same creative duo, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Avatar: The Last Airbender ran 3 seasons at Nickelodeon Animation Studio, and remains a critic and audience darling, sitting around a 9.3/10 on IMDb and a perfect 100% with critics. The Legend of Korra ran 4 seasons at Nickelodeon Animation Studio (you will sometimes see an additional production credit for Ginormous Madman Films on Korra). It holds roughly an 8.3/10 on IMDb and an 89% critic score. If you want the short version: one is universally beloved, the other is acclaimed and more divisive by design.

The villains, ranked

1. 14. Earth Queen Hou-Ting (The Legend of Korra)
   Cruel, corrupt, and all about control. She bleeds her citizens with heavy taxes, crushes dissent with the Dai Li, and even tries to kidnap newly awakened airbenders for her private army. She pisses off Korra fast, but she exits just as quickly and doesn’t leave the kind of mark the bigger bads do.

2. 13. Combustion Man (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   A human grenade launcher with zero small talk. Zuko hires him to assassinate Aang, and this silent tracker turns every encounter into a minefield thanks to his combustion-bending. Big presence, but no voice, no backstory, no ideology — so he works as a visual menace, not a memorable character.

3. 12. Long Feng (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   From humble origins to Ba Sing Se’s Grand Secretariat and secret head of the Dai Li, he is the definition of power behind the throne. He censors news of the Hundred Year War, surveils the city, brainwashes dissidents at Lake Laogai, manipulates Team Avatar, captures Appa, and enforces a no-war policy to preserve a fake utopia. And then Azula shows up and outplays him in about five moves, taking his agents and his city out from under him.

4. 11. Jet (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   Not evil, just radicalized. The Freedom Fighters’ leader looks heroic until he’s ready to drown a whole town to nail the Fire Nation. He later tries to turn things around in Ba Sing Se, but his obsession gets him snatched and brainwashed by the Dai Li. He shakes off the conditioning long enough to stand up to Long Feng — a short, sad arc that still lands emotionally.

5. 10. Hama (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   A Southern Water Tribe master who survives Fire Nation imprisonment by inventing something truly awful: bloodbending. She can hijack your body like a puppet. Her episode is small-scale but seismic — she puts a new, terrifying tool on the board that later villains run with.

6. 9. Fire Lord Sozin (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   The architect of the Hundred Year War and the man behind the Air Nomad genocide. He only appears in flashbacks, but his long shadow sets up the entire conflict of The Last Airbender. History’s monster, not a week-to-week character — and that’s the point.

7. 8. Commander Zhao (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
   All ambition, not enough wisdom. He hunts the Avatar, manipulates Zuko, and escalates the war with the siege of the Northern Water Tribe. Then he does the unthinkable: kills the Moon Spirit. Yes, he literally murders the moon, plunging the world’s balance to the brink. Subtle? No. Unforgettable? Absolutely.

8. 7. Unalaq (The Legend of Korra)
   A strong pitch with a messy delivery. Unalaq wants to reunite the human and spirit worlds, teams up with Vaatu, and becomes the Dark Avatar. The consequences are gigantic — Korra loses her connection to past Avatars and the spirit portals stay open — but his arc feels rushed, and he plays more like a conventional villain than the setup promised.

9. 6. Vaatu (The Legend of Korra)
   The spirit of darkness and chaos in its purest, most impersonal form. He corrupts spirits, fuses with Unalaq for the Dark Avatar, and aims to dominate both realms during Harmonic Convergence. He’s a cosmic threat, not a character with layers — a primal force designed to test Korra at the highest stakes.

10. 5. Kuvira (The Legend of Korra)
    A ruthless organizer born of postwar chaos. Kuvira sets out to reunify the Earth Kingdom by force, and she is frighteningly competent at it. Her authoritarian order is believable, her strategy sharp. The softening near the end and a flicker of remorse blunt her legacy a bit, but she’s still one of Korra’s most grounded, formidable foes.

11. 4. Fire Lord Ozai (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
    Tyranny turned up to 11, voiced by Mark Hamill for extra menace. Ozai’s presence looms over the entire series, and when he finally steps into the arena, he’s a cataclysm waiting to happen. He’s also pretty one-note — more an overwhelming wall to climb than a complex person — but the scale of his threat earns the high slot.

12. 3. Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
    Precision, paranoia, and blue fire. Azula is a prodigy and a master manipulator driven by perfection and fear. Watching her mind unravel as her cruelty peaks is brutal and unforgettable. She is as compelling as she is terrifying, and she dominates every episode she’s in.

13. 2. Amon (The Legend of Korra)
    The face of a movement. Amon weaponizes real, simmering resentment toward benders and reframes Korra’s struggle as one about power and privilege, not simple good vs. evil. Even when his own truth cracks, his charisma keeps people with him. He forces the Avatar to reckon with systemic inequality — and that makes him stick.

14. 1. Zaheer (The Legend of Korra)
    Absolute freedom, zero compromise. Calm, articulate, and deadly, Zaheer rejects nations, rulers, and even the Avatar’s place in the world. He isn’t greedy; he is ideological, and he acts on it. What he does to Korra and the world keeps echoing long after the fight ends. That conviction makes him the franchise’s most dangerous thinker — and its most compelling villain.

Disagree with the order? Of course you do. Tell me who you’d bump up or down.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra are streaming on Paramount+ and Prime Video.