Three. Them airbenders all dead. Except then they ain't. But they was.

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>>153620693
Xadia is on the other side of the ocean

>>153620693
Always thought it felt a bit empty too

>>153620693
why is the earth kingdom so big compared to everyone else

>>153620866
They live in Earth afterall

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>>153620693
But really, have you seen how high the Air Temples are? How did the Fire Nation get there? The army just climbed up with ropes and picks? Doubtful. Why wouldn't the Airbenders just push them down with air in an instant. There were no stairs or pathways either, as the Air Nomads went around on flying bison and their gliders. (There was even one guy who straight up unlocked flying!)

The Fire Nation has those wall climbing tanks now sure, but they didn't have that technology during Firelord Sozin's time, nor under Azulon's. We know this from the mural depicting Firelord Ozai, as it's the only one which depicts the modern armoured vehicles of the Fire Nation, meaning they were, if not necessarily invented, but definitely only used on a large-scale under his rule, which has only been going on for what, like 12 years since the show starts? (Since he became Firelord when Zuko and Azula were already born.) The Air Temples were destroyed shortly after Aang got frozen in ice, that was about a HUNDRED years ago!
The Fire Nation could NOT possibly have carried out the Air Nomad genocide, it is logically impossible. Even if an army somehow makes it up to a temple (and we know one did, I'll get back to this later), the Air Nomads can easily just fly away and the Fire Nation has no way of catching up to them, since they don't yet have the Zeppelin or War balloon technology either (Not that they would be fast enough anyway).

At the Southern Air Temple, where Aang lived, we can see the remains of a Fire Nation army and can see signs of battle. THIS IS THE ONLY AIR TEMPLE WITH SUCH REMAINS!
How did the Fire Nation make it up there? The only logical explanation is that the Air Nomads took them up themselves. Why would they do this? They probably didn't know the Fire Nation was intending to be hostile.

1/2

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>>153620693
>>153620964
The Fire Nation Soldiers, along with their leader came to order the Air Temple's monks to accept vassalage under the Fire Lord, which they refused and so they fought.
There is only a single Air Nomad skeleton in the temple, that belonging to Monk Gyatso. NO OTHER AIR NOMAD SKELETONS ARE TO BE FOUND!
Gyatso stayed behind to fight the army while the rest of the Air Nomads fled to warn the other Air Temples. After this the Air Nomads abandoned their temples and went to the Earth Kingdom where they assimilated over the generations. Their knowledge of Airbending having to be kept a secret to not have the Fire Nation on their tail again, who were searching for the Avatar amongst them.

This also explains why a character like Ty Lee seems to resemble Aang and has many qualities like that of an Air Nomad. The Nomads assimilated into the Earth Nation and later some of these assimilated Nomad descendants would end up parts of the new Fire Nation colonies, and thus it would make it possible for an Air Nomad descendant to become part of the Fire Nation.

This would also explain why the Sand Benders also have Air Bender-like qualities too.
The Air Nomad "Genocide" never happened, I rest my case.

>>153620972
Possibly, or maybe they used jet propulsion to fly up there during Sozin's comet.

>>153621071
maybe, but that still doesn't explain why there are no dead bodies in any of the temples except that one with Gyatso and a bunch of dead fireniggers.

there's the one with the inventor, maybe there he just cleaned up the bodies, but that still leaves two temples canonically empty and deserted and also a bunch of suspiciously air nomad-like people scattered around the earth nation

>>153620693
>the city of ba sing se is nearly as big as the entire fire nation
how exactly has the fire nation been such an issue? even with the technological advantage, logistically the earth kingdom should have crushed them decades ago, just through the sheer numbers and resource advantage

>>153621165
not only that but earth benders have the unique advantage of completely reshaping the landscape of any battle to their advantage. instantly dig trenches, sinkholes, etc
having tanks doesn't mean much if a dude can just drop the earth out underneath it

4 elements is fine, but there really should have been a lot more kingdoms and ethnicities and cultures, even if they’re all still chink coded

>>153621202
Right, bit chiche but the sand benders could've been their own nation, maybe even the swamp guys. It also doesn't make sense to me how the Water tribes are basically the same just reskinned despite being on literal opposite sides of the world, the air nomads too but they make a bit more sense since they are supposedly travelling between them from time to time.

>>153621165
>>153621172
They've showed several times that most earthbenders aren't really that good at earthbending or just treat it as a useful tool. Their spiritual connection to earthbending is pretty much null and they don't train it all that well or creatively. Boomi gets to be one of the strongest earthbenders mostly because he understands the subtlety of the bending and only Toph manages to rival him. So, in around 100 years of war, only 2 earthbenders managed to reach the level of earthbending prowess necessary to actually fight an army by themselves, everybody else is so much weaker that the threat of fire is more than enough to keep them in check.

>>153622339
It's really funny to think how the strongest army we saw was probably was Kuvira's. A bunch of metal bending dudes with plenty of metal at their disposal. You can't even use swords or tanks against them. Fire nation would've been fucked.

Now with the movie, we can theorize that older armies could've been even more powerful based on the bending Tagah was pulling out of his ass against Aang

>>153620912
Then the water nations would be bigger.

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>>153620693
Huge? You can literally travel from the poles to the equator on jet skis, it's a very tiny world.

>>153620693
Is good world-building based on how logical and realistic a world is or how memorable and gripping it is? Avatar's world makes very little sense under scrutiny, but the cultural landmarks and politics clearly stick with people. The Western Air Temple is just cool. Ba Sing Se is cool. The Northern Water Tribe's ice walls are cool. And they aren't just cool in a vacuum. They're cool in the ways they differ from each other and how they evoke our world.

The real world has like five real nations and two hundred really small ones no one cares about. It makes sense for fictional worlds to have only a few nations, and often it's just two

>>153622970
>Is good world-building based on how logical and realistic a world is or how memorable and gripping it is?
Both and more. Being memorable doesn't make good world building at all. Most of the things you mentioned have been done to death in other stories.

>>153620693
>>huge world
>no scale provided on the map
Bold assumption given no frame of reference.

>>153623007
You're asking a lot from a cartoon written by the seat of one's pants. But fair enough. It is only good in comparison to its competition, there are plenty of fantasy novels and worlds that make more sense and are memorable.

>>153623053
The longest travel time I can remember then citing is 1 month, but assuming it takes 5 times than that, it still much smaller than our world. BUT, that's not even the biggest problem. How many big cities can you remember? Fire Nation capital, Omashu, Ba Sing Se and Northern Water Tribe, with a few villages and towns here and there, and that's it. It's like they didn't even try to make sense, which makes me question why they put so much focus on the world map. Unless their intention was to eventually expand the world. When I was younger and only watched a few episodes of the show I thought the whole story was told on just a few isolated disputed islands/continents and not literally the whole world, I thought they would eventually reveal more land

>>153620693
why isn't there a northern air temple? or is it hidden so well that everyone has forgotten about it, which is why it doesn't appear on any maps?

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>>153624795
?

>>153623053
>>153623251
It's a JRPG map, it only shows what's relevant for the plot.

Hasn't always been the case, like the Earth Kingdom had to become united, before it was just a continent full of different peoples and nations whose only thing in common was that they had earthbenders.

>>153621165
Isn't this just an exaggeration, like on a lot of oldtimey maps? Ba Sing Se is huge but I don't think it's country-sized like the walls on Paradis in Attack on Titan

>>153624899
but why is it located in the Earth Kingdom? shouldnt it be on an island like the other three temples?

>>153620726
Yeah...never undestand...ALL the Air nomads where airbenders?

That's a pretty racist nation

>>153623251
>I thought they would eventually reveal more land
How could they justify their absence in the war?

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>>153620693
It's good for the original show. It's simple and easy to understand. So children and general audiences can immediately get the setting. It's also very neatly tied together. Bending is the main magic of the world, and it's also connected to each of the four people groups and nations.

What's fun is how they expand on the premise. How a new group of people have taken up the Northern Air Temple, the swamp and sand benders hidden in the Earth Kingdom, the island of the lost fire benders.
It takes the intuitive premise and then expands it to make it feel like a bigger world.

However it does become too simple when the setting is expanded beyond the original story. You can clearly tell in Korra and whatnot that the show is being forced to exist in this world rather than the world serving the show nicely. That's probably why the new show will be after some apocalypse that changed everything

>>153625187
It was never unified though, the closest thing was Kuvira's empire.

>>153625417
Of course it was more like a loose confederation (i.e. Omashu was a city-state with its own king), but it was more cohesive by the time of ATLA than it was in the past

>>153620693
I mean, there's two different water tribes and the southern one is more of a confederation of smaller tribes. And the Earth Kingdom is actually a bunch of kingdoms that are nominally vassal states to Ba Sing Se.

>>153625213
Maybe Earth expanded into that land after it was abandoned

>>153620866
They probably created more land

>>153625398
I don't know if Korra was actually intended to be a mini-series or to have more seasons (statements vary) but they originally wanted to focus more on Republic City, then they expanded the setting because people wanted it to be more like the original series. It's like they also wanted to focus more on the new characters with only Katara really being there as a bridge to ATLA, and then we saw old Zuko and Toph. Sokka got the short end of the stick, he had to stay dead because he was explicitly mentioned as such at the start of the series.

Rewatching Korra animation is actually surreal. It's hard to believe that, yeah we used to have animation THAT good

>>153620693
>>153625398
>Korra
Reminder that nearly all spirituality, via the Fire, Earth, and Water sages, came from one bumfuck Fire Nation island. Bravo Mike

>>153625516
does the map shown in the opening (when Katara says that all 4 nations lived in harmony) predate the start of the war? In that map, its already part of the Earth Kingdom

>>153623251
>The longest travel time I can remember then citing is 1 month
I know that the first book takes place over the winter, the second over the spring, and the third over the summer. Sozin's Comet came at the end of the summer to be precise.
Assuming the length of seasons is the same (which I expect, as it doesn't seem that the world is that different in that regard to ours), that puts the whole story over around nine months

>>153621202
There are. Lots of nomadic cultures. For example the swampbenders, the sandbenders, the colonies were treated as a seperate, distinct society by the fire nation, the Earth Nation was basically warlord-era China where each strip of land was independent. Only the Water tribes and Airnation were monoethnic and monocultural, but they were basically concentrated on 6 small spots combined.
Granted, none of them were fleshed out, but ovviously a short show like Avatar had to docus on the essentials.

>Spirituality Ranking
1. Airbenders
2. Waterbenders
3. Fire Benders
4. Earth Benders

>>153625564
I've said it many times, but they really should've abandoned pro-bending as a central story element in favor of Mako and Bolin as some street rats guiding Korra around the city. Spend all that time fleshing out the city instead of shitty ass pro-bending.

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>>153620733
May Aaron Asshat forever burn in hell for what he did to these poor girls.

I can't wait for Unalaq to teach Nisha the assassin techniques he learned in the red lotus

>>153620693
It's not that huge. Appa flying at like 20-35mph made it from the south pole to the north in like a week or two.

>>153620693
I always thought the planet was really tiny and mostly empty. Esepcially when one city takes up a gigantic amount of the eastern continent.

I used to assume that world was around the size of the moon.

>>153620964
On comet day they just did the fire rocket flying trick and flew up into the temples.

>>153621335
I would have thought there might be Polynesian waterbenders.

>>153622339
I did think the Earthbenders had zero imagination outside of
>Make rock float
>Make rock fly at enemy
Despite having the largest amount of sub types of bending out of everyone. They never seem to evolve at all. If a rock cannot stop the enemy, then they throw a bigger rock, then start desperately throwing more rocks.

>>153620693
Well the only one actually called a nation is the Fire Nation. The Earth Kingdom has various kings and rulers that all operate nominally under the rule of the Earth Kingdom Emperor. And the Water Tribes are at least two distinct polities.

>>153620693
It's not that large. People traverse its entirety on foot over the course of a few years.

>>153620693
ATLA universe really does raise a lot of questions
>how did the nation with the innate ability to fly get wiped out so easily?
>why did none of the other nations step in to help or shelter refugee air nomads?
>why kill the sky bison?

>>153629327
I need an elf

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>>153620693
I think it's fair to assume that in a world where people can master the elements in all kinds of terrain and atmospheres, the resulting topography would be pretty different from ours.

>>153620693
How the fuck was the earth kingdom losing the war? The fire nation is so tiny by comparison, and everyone knows earth beats fire.

>>153629965
Appa is fast tho

>>153632059
Earthbenders are shitters

>>153632059
Fire Nation seemed to have more competent leadership and a technological advantage.
Think the Sino-Japanese war in WW2

>>153630406
How did the Fire Nation manage to attack all 4 Air Temples at the same time, while also making sure that no Airbenders were traveling between them or anywhere else in the world? There's no way they killed all the Airbenders. Some must be hiding somewhere.

>>153620693
My headcanon is that the world we follow is the original spirit world, and the spirit world was the original human world, which is far bigger than this

>>153631523
And generally people would congregate to regions with their elements to exploit it. Earthbenders would live on the larger continents, Firebenders near volcanoes, Waterbenders near ice, and Airbenders up on mountaintops. And with these people their families would join them, creating villages, which grow into cities, city-states, and then collectively nations.

>>153634540
Sure but it makes no sense to only have one or two huge places per bending. It makes no sense that we don't have any waterbending city near rivers in the Earth continent for example, not everyone wants to live in snow and ice

>>153634574
There's the swamp dwellers, if they count. They're Waterbenders. But I also gathered that spiritual power was likely stronger in the regions where natural connections to the elements are stronger, more prominently influencing the bending gene to be expressed. So a tribe of Waterbenders could live in the Earth Kingdom, but over time they'd produce fewer and fewer Waterbenders until the trait went extinct from the tribe completely.

Remember that every single Air Nomad was an Airbender, without exception. They had that deep of a spiritual connection.

>>153634600
>But I also gathered that spiritual power was likely stronger in the regions where natural connections to the elements are stronger, more prominently influencing the bending gene to be expressed
>Remember that every single Air Nomad was an Airbender, without exception. They had that deep of a spiritual connection.
Damn, very good point, you might be right.

Interestingly if the airbender Tai Lee theory is right, this could explain why she is capable of such athletic feets that we've only seen other airbenders execute, without actually bending, could be some kind dormant airbending gene thing going on

>>153634611
>athletic feets
kek feats*

>>153620693
The world was exactly sufficient for the show. Unfortunately they then made more show.

>>153625277
I assumed the monks were all airbenders and there was a nonbender agricultural population to support them, but that they all got shoah'd just in case.

>>153620693
Don't forget how utterly boring the element control system is too.

>>153634600
That only makes sense if living in certain places allowed for the creation of benders of a certain element.
That bending is tied to living in skecial places.
But its not. The ability to bend and type of element is gebetic destiny not spiritual or location siecific.
Meaning that the air benders are even more inbred and tied to eugenics ideals then the fire benders.
They never really did any satisfying ir even decent world buildiblng and did almost no thinking about its power systems or implications.

It makes sense they woukd have this idea when there is not a single bi m-racial person to ever be born in the avatar world before korra. And aang and kataras children. The oldest is a dyke thus no children with weak water bending, the middle is childless with no bending, and the youngest, which he sient the most time with and has his skin tone, is the only air bender and has tons o bastards.

Its a really fucking stupid story that had all of three seasons if that in it.

>>153634827
What improvement would you suggest?

>>153620693
>people call this good worldbuilding
because they dont just make 4 monolithic kingdoms and call it a day?

the water tribe is split into 2 distinct nations on either ends of the world, with the southern tribe being a loose coalition of numerous small tribes
with other, smaller, water villages like the swamp tribe scattered in between

the earth kingdom is made up of dozens of independent kingdoms that are only united via their outfits
they werent even a single kingdom in the time of kyoshi, when chin the conquerer was explicitly trying to conquer everything

while having only 4 nations was done to maintain narrative elegance, its certainly wasnt dont lazily

>>153634849
The story did have all of three seasons, ESL-kun.

>>153634849
No, it's spiritual too. The Avatar exists as a manifestation of the Spirit of the Planet, to interact with the humans who live on it. And as such, every Avatar can bend all elements.

>>153620693
Do you think good world building is when you create a bunch of useless lore that will not ever be relevant to the show story? If these are the only places that matter then theres nothing wrong with them being the only places that appear.

>>153632059
>Earth Kingdom = China
>Fire Nation = Japan
Numbers advantage can only get you so far if you just fucking suck. Still, they stalled the Fire Nation so bad that the war dragged on for a fucking century, in a sort of mirror of Japan getting its dick stuck in a meatgrinder in China for nearly a decade.

>>153634885
the fire nation also had tanks and giant mechanized drills
they also managed to consolidate their early gains into more or less permanent colonies, helping equalize the numbers advantage somewhat with the ability to use earth kingdom resources

>>153620693
The recent Aang movie literally says that everything here is just one continent and the rest of the planet is nothing but ocean.

>>153634862
Thats my point. Idiot.

>>153634856
You are littetally going by fannon created from whats haphazardly thrown into the show by other writers.

There is some freedom in creating a vague world and presenting things and testing them out to see what sticks. But they never go beyond the basics.
Its lazy.
Even tite expands on the thread bare world building in bleach.
Hell jk rowling did it with harry potter.
Bryke? They created new china themed new york and rewrote the basic nature of their world to be the oppisite of what the midwits liked and threw in blackrock approved crap everywhere.
They already knew what the auduence liked. They really only had to do more of it and expand on it.

Go full ghibli/zelda and skip edgy teen shounen.

>>153634898
>You are littetally going by fannon
only going by whats seen in the first series
there northern and southern water tribes are explicitly seperate in cultural and political identity
the earth kingdom was not always a single political entity, with chin the conquerers plan to conquer all of the earth kingdom being an anomaly that required the avatar to intervene

sandbenders, swampbenders, and other small polities like koyshi island all have distinct cultures compared to the capitals of their respective kingdoms

only the fire nation is totally unified, which makes sense because they are much more modern than the other kingdoms and embody more modern concepts of nationalism

>>153634925
Like I said, a few insignificant one off groups that you are extrapolating on in fan theories.
>modern concepts of nationalism
The fuck are you talking sbout

Maybe im really just dissatisfied with the concept overall and that 8s coloring my perception.
I bow out.
I concede.

>>153634940
>Like I said, a few insignificant one off groups that you are extrapolating on in fan theories.
>if we ignore all the exceptions, then there are no exceptions
good job

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>>153634885
>Numbers advantage
There will never be a reasonable explanation for how a group of people who can shoot fire are somehow beating a group of people who can shoot rocks, throw boulders, raise walls or make trenches in seconds, turn solid ground into quick sand, dive under and tunnel through the ground, etc. That is even before you get through the logistics of how the Earth Kingdom isn't just absolutely fucking rolling in metal development when mining ore is a complete joke to them.

It does not make any sense. Imagine actually trying to advance into EK territory as a fire nation soldier when any cliff or hill is just a landslide waiting to bury your entire platoon and every enemy soldier is somehow simultaneously an archer AND whole ass catapult AND can raise foot thick stone walls wherever they want. Imagine spending two days building a camp with perimeter walls when an earthbender comes along and makes a few gestures and your carefully built walls fall over. Imagine being in an ambush where the attack isn't just suddenly shards of rock are peppering you, it's suddenly five of your guys are yanked completely underground and instantaneously buried alive.

The Fire Nation is plot armored, full stop. See pic related. The ability for firebenders to hold their own is just based on them somehow being able to tank being hit by hundreds of pounds of stone and dust themselves off with some bruises rather than be mulched or have limbs crushed and torn off.

>>153635055
The Fire Nation is more industrialized than the Earth Kingdom and produces more armored combat units. Once they developed tanks they deployed them all the time. And Ba Sing Se relied heavily on its massive walls to keep besieging enemies out, which even repelled the Fire Nation until, you guessed it, they brought in heavy machinery to bore a hole through it. Plus, like when Toph was captured, the Fire Nation can throw enemy benders into metal cages to keep them from bending their way to escape. Toph's determination just overrode this.

Also your pic was Earthbenders versus a non-bender, as Zuko was trying to stay undercover. The moment he decided to break that cover he immolated the village and kicked the Earthbender troopers' asses in an instant. The Fire Nation employs Firebenders as assault troops, leaving non-benders to support and backup roles.

>>153635208
Industry is still dependent on resources and is beholden to the elements.
No tank is making it through a land where the earth beneath its treads is controlled with a wave of the hand.

As for armor. Do you know how knights of old fought each other? Wasnt stabbing. They clubbed each other to death. Hell, ask soldiers and even football players if impacts are titalky nullifued by armor.

>>153635055
>The ability for firebenders to hold their own is just based on them somehow being able to tank being hit by hundreds of pounds of stone
They have actual tanks, though

>>153635235
By "armor" pretty sure anon means armoured forces a.k.a. tanks, not armoured infantry.

>>153635247
>>153635249
The control the ground
Litterally.
What in the fuck are tanks going to do?

>>153635274
Self-right, apparently. Though I think that was a modern innovation in the show?

Tanks are built to go over trenches and ramparts. Did the earthbenders ever actually display the ability to move that much earth that fast? Other than Toph and Bumi. It's been a long time since I watched the show, I seem to remember them having to stand statically and work as teams to make any real earthworks. Meanwhile they'd be under fire, from vehicles impervious to rock-throwing. It felt about right, I don't think it was outrageous plot armour.

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>>153635247
The "tanks" are just armored, mechanized transports. You see that the "firing" is actually just a firebender shooting flames out of it. Consider how much time, effort, and resources go into making those tanks, and then transporting and running them, usually with like 3 crew members. Now consider that a single earthbender can just open a hole underneath one and it is now trapped, or turn the terrain into stand and it is now trapped, or throw the tank and the crewmembers are now fucking dead inside.
> the Fire Nation can throw enemy benders into metal cages to keep them from bending their way to escape
Where are you putting those cages? Because literally ANY PRISON ON THE LAND is just a place with rocks to fucking use to escape
>Also your pic was Earthbenders versus a non-bender, as Zuko was trying to stay undercover.
Being undercover doesn't fucking mean anything. The point is that no human being should surive being hit in the chest by 200 pounds of rock going a decent speed. Consider how absolutely a mace, or a pipe or a bat fucks up a person. Zuko should be dead, his chest should be caved in. The idea that he's casually deflecting rocks that probably way 100-150 pounds, with swords ONE-HANDED is laughable. The idea that somehow Iroh casually destroys boulders or can catch and fling them with chains rather than having his ancient arms ripped out of the fucking socket is laughable.

Please actually consider what a rock is and what sort of force is behind solid stone and then thing about how absurd every earthbending involved fight is.

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>>153635351
>turn the terrain into stand and it is now trapped
I don't think you know how tanks work so it's weird that you're going so hard on this.

Their mistake was making the fire nation want world domination instead of just to expand their empire. That way they could have just focused the entirety of the story on a single small continent, but maybe they felt that would be too much world for a single Avatar to manage?

>>153623001
Europe alone is like 10000 times larger than the avatar world.

>>153635434
They had the number of places they needed, no more and no less. The only reason people are complaining about it is that they made sequels.

>>153625398
That’s why they wanted to focus on republic city only in season 1.

>>153635444
Should’ve had the foresight to plan for sequels even if you had no intention to ever follow through

>>153634895
What…

Why didn’t they just make the earth kingdom as big as Eurasia plus Africa, the fire nation as big as the Americas, and the poles as big as Australia?

>>153635470
because it slows things down too much without modern travel speeds or teleporting. worlds shrink to accommodate the necessary tension. video games get around this with non-literal maps.

>>153621165
Dont think, earthbenders are the most broken in the series when think about the fact that a novice can bury someone alive in a few seconds

>>153635490
Air benders are up there
And if you consider that 90% of tgeir planet is water the waterbenders should have never had serious trouble from anyone.

>>153635456
Uh, no. The opposite. Make a sequel if it's appropriate and you have a vision for it and room, or else don't. Don't mutilate your original work to milk it for a sequel.

>>153635517
No. You expand on your world and story letting people get lost in it.
Giving them plenty to think about and consider.

Besides. The whole last airbender and zuko asking ozai where his mother is was clear sequel bait.

>>153635513
High speed rocks means Earthbenders are walking guns

>>153621335
a loose connection of nomads not being a codified nationstate is one of the few points where the world building isnt retarded.

>>153635539
Sure, for the sake of the story itself. But you don't "plan for sequels even if you had no intention to ever follow through". That's insane, you're talking like a capefag.

>>153635540
Controlling air means breathing in razorblade and invisible highspeed canonballs.

>>153635489
Good thing they live in a fictional magical world, and they can just make appa fly as fast as they need him to.

>>153621165
The answer is the same as why Japan was winning against China. If you think you have some reason why it should go different in Avatar vs real life, the answer is no, the allegory is more important than having a logical plot.

>>153635571
Them all being wiped out in a singke night because of a single attack is very retarded.

>>153635540
They don't actually have high speed rocks. Big and heavy and ought to be very lethal properly speaking, but if you watch any of the earthbending they're actually slower than just tossing something.

>>153635605
Dude a slow head size rock will still cause brain bleeding

>>153635585
Like as fast as a jetplane? Suspension of disbelief about them sitting on his back wouldn't hold up.

>>153635611
>ought to be very lethal properly speaking
Just not catapult level of lethal.

>>153635612
>Based on the distance between Earth's poles (~12,430 miles or 20,000 km) and an estimated, consistent flying bison cruising speed of roughly \(15-20 \text{ mph}\), it would take approximately 26 to 35 days (roughly 620–830 hours) of continuous flying.

>>153635798
This is LADEN bison velocity we're talking about, the maths get pretty complicated.

>>153635490
Not true until Korra where bending was turned from an extension of the body honed through martial arts into generic superpowers

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>>153620693
You still haven't realized ATLA operates on Rule of Cool? It's a fantasy cartoon, anon; LET IT BE FANTASTICAL

>>153635055
To be fair, Earth benders did not have the *need* to mine. Think about it
>need water? just earthbend some channels or a well
>need food? just use earthbend to grab some trees, hunt or make a farm
>need housing? just make one
And the fact that they have a ton of land to explore and not many enemies means that they can just stay within the walls and live their lives just fine, ignoring everything outside of it.

They were comfortable, cocky, and besides the Dai Li, most earthbenders didn't look that in touch with their bending, at least the martial side of it

>>153620693
Rwby only had 4 kingdoms and 1 animal n****r enclave

>>153621165
my understanding was that the Fire Nation was the only one nation that was actually 100% united; the Water Tribes and Air Nomads were divided by geography, and the Earth Kingdom was actually closer to something like more than a dozen kingdoms with vaguely similar cultures and heritage.

>>153635055
You assume that the average earth bender can do all of this when the average Earth Kingdom soldier is just able to throw a moderately sized rock and maybe ski down a mountain. I mean heck, Toph who is just 12 years old became a legend in Unterground fighting despite facing opponents with multiple decades of experience. Most Earth Benders just ain't shit.
And considering how decentral the earth kingdom is, the Firenation could easily have a large advantage in battles. They lost a fleet of like a hundred ships in Season 1 and it didn't hurt their military capabilities and they sent hundreds of soldiers and multiple tanks just to destroy an airtemple which they presumed was only populated by a few civilians. With such a tremendous numbers advantage they could easily capture one isolated region after the next.
And it's not like they casually razed through the Earth Kingdom anyway. Ba Sing Se survived for decades, Omashu also stood without problems until Season 2 or 3.

>>153635055
The real issue is the series makes it seem like the entire Earth Kingdom is one big quarry and earth benders inexplicably summon and shape stone like it was nothing. Earth benders with access to stone are bad, but earth benders stuck with a bunch of dirt are a lot less scary. The thing is for all their defensive capability, what the show doesn't show is how easily the fire benders would win for one reason only: Balloons. I mean yes, they eventually did that a bit, especially with the zeppelins at the end, but they should have been doing that shit 100 years earlier, and the horror of the Fire Nation shouldn't have been the benders, but the firebombing from the balloons you can see coming but can do nothing about.

But then, its a kids show. They're going to touch on shit like bloodbending and sucking the water out of living things, but no one was going nearly as hard as they could with their magic element schtick.

>>153620693
>huge world
Do we ever get any geographic information to go by?
I mean we took a flying bison from the south pope to the north pole. We had some delays and never get an exact speed at which they travel, but did we ever get confirmation that the whole world was a Earth size equivalent?
I mean we kinda base Fire Nation on Japan, Earth Kingdom on China, Air Temples on Tibet, so is the world size like half of Asia in geographic space?

>>153637251
As is, the Fire Nation could casually wreck all their coastal and riverside cities. They would have a hard time moving men and materiel around at the very least.

>>153637323
Not in show. It all seems to be on the one hemisphere, though.

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>>153620726
>>153625277
>>153634822
My headcanon before the later seasons of TLoK was that all people were benders, and airbending was the hidden default bending, if there was no talent for any other. However, it was also the hardest to unlock and required a more specific monk mindset and discipline to use. And I assume at lower levels airbending would also be the least noticeable type of bending, perhaps just allowing you to move a little faster or throw projectiles more accurately than other people.