I've been a lifelong avatar fan well at least since 2005 when the show first
aired in fact when I heard the show was coming to Netflix in May I watched the
whole series online in preparation for then we watching the whole thing when it
came out on Netflix and then watching the show now a bit older than when I
first saw over a decade ago I realized something the Fire Nation was destined
to rule the world in a way that no other nation could. If you like seeing these
videos on some of the science behind shows make sure to let us know down in
the comments section below and let's jump in long ago the Four
Nations lived together in harmony then everything changed when the Fire
Nation attacked there are a few basic reasons why
firebenders were destined to rule the world the most obvious was their
technological prowess now if the video games civilization has
taught me anything it's that technology wins Wars if you don't believe me or
maybe you just don't play enough civics cavalry charges were still common in
World War 1 yeah in World War one when the cavalry were charging machine gun
defenses and even World War two so the poles embarked on desperate cavalry
charges against German tank divisions and obviously these went about as bad as
you would expect the Fire Nation had by far the most advanced technology of the
day the only nation to scored was land naval and air forces but this
technological advancement wasn't because the fire nation was that much smarter
than everyone else oh ma Shu developed an advanced mail delivery system spread
across the second largest city in earth Kingdom the Southern Water Tribe
invented complex canal systems to raise ships into the city and even Sokka in
The Machinist invented submarine and torpedo technology and a handful of
months based off less than ideal schematics but if the Fire Nation wasn't
smarter than everybody else how did they develop a Navy more
powerful than the water nation an air force stronger than the air nomads and
tanks more destructive than the earth kingdoms well there were two reasons the
first is because unlike other bending disciplines firebending's didn't offer
an inherent form of transportation we're going to be talking about normal skilled
benders here not rare exceptions legs are here whose
master of airbending was so great that he could slip his earthly bonds and fly
or especially powerful firebenders like fire lord ozai and princess Azula who
could also fly the air nomads could use their gliders to fly indefinitely
throughout the air not to mention that flying Bisons that they could use for
longer trips the Water Tribe even though they did build simple ships could
reverse the ice and waters of their homeland using their powers and even
earthbenders could sort of skate across the ground meanwhile the average Fire
Nation soldier had to walk this lack of a widespread means of faster than foot
speed transportation put a technological pressure on them to make vehicles that
would allow them to move faster as fast as benders of other nations could
inherently and this technological pressure wouldn't even be inherently
fitted to a militaristic society these transportation capabilities would have
been needed to set up trade and communication networks across a growing
civilization this growth and transportation would serve to further
unify the country which would then necessitate even stronger transportation
networks leading to a feedback cycle where the country's transportation
infrastructure grows as the country is further united and a more unified
civilization is key to a stronger civilization this is why Ba Sing se had
nearly no control over its kingdom basically every earth Kingdom village we
saw in the show was pretty much on its own and even Omashu
had its own king all this while the Fire Lord had supreme power over his country
with lookouts all over the nation and he coordinated the movements of armies and
navies around the world using his intricate communication networks and
messenger Hawks and even with technologies that the firebenders didn't
originate like the hot air balloon there are transportation scientists or the
ones who transform them from this to these on top of the technological
pressures there's the more obvious fact the firebenders are the only bending
discipline that represents a clear fuel source for machinery of any kind
firebending kept hot air in the airships and could light the coal in the engines
of their tanks ships and mega drills sure waterbending could have powered
ships an airbending could have powered planes but only firebending paints a
clear method for how to power technology of an
kind not just one another reason my firebending is inherently more versatile
and thus more powerful besides this bourbon is also inherently
more powerful than any other discipline for the reasons given to us by master
Zhang Jean water is cool and soothing earth is steady and stable but fire fire
is a lie it breathes it grows without the bender a rock will now throw itself
but fire will spread and destroy everything in its path if one does not
have the will to control it that is its destiny sure an incredibly powerful
offender might be able to bring down a mountain on his enemies or the
top-of-the-line waterbender might be able to blood bend down but even the
weakest firebender could start a blaze that could burn down an entire city
especially when most buildings outside of the fire nation were made out of wood
and in places like the earth Kingdom where there were very few water benders
that could help put them out this meant that an individual firebender was able
to cause much more damage than a bender of any other nation making them more
powerful and all this ignores the most important advantage that fire benders
innately had the ability to mass-produce the most powerful technology of the day
metal not until long after the events of the first series were topped each metal
bending to anyone else meaning apart from her we don't know of
anyone else who could bend it and we saw in the Fire Nation siege of Ba Sing se
that traditional attacks on metal war machines were largely ineffective
soldiers whatever you do don't stop shooting rocks down there and just the
fact that Fire Nation ships were made from metal made them much stronger and
more versatile than any water nation ship access to metal and the ability to
refine it was an invaluable asset for these early Empires we know from the
Lord that the earth kingdom have plenty of metal deposits in the ground that
they could mine and they even boasted metal tanks there were admittedly lower
quality than those of the Fire Nation so if they had access to metal why didn't
they have armies of metal clad weapons like the Fire Nation well metal needs to
be refined and this is a very temperature intensive process and
firebenders being able to produce the needed heat on their own
we're obviously much better suited to the Maskell production of metal for the
war machines and the advantage metal plate cannot be understated metal
affected everything even the uniforms ever notice that Water Tribe soldiers
are basically just wearing cloth armor and earth Kingdom soldiers barely do any
better throwing a hat and some nice bracelets on for extra padding meanwhile
Fire Nation soldiers were metal armor that served as a much stronger defense
against the other elements as a result of their inherit metallurgical
capabilities the Fire Nation was essentially in the Iron Age while the
rest of the world was in the Stone Age having this more advanced metal
technology is what allowed civilizations like the Roman Empire to expand their
borders and Caesar wasn't even a flying firebender this is why the Fire Nation
boasted advanced technologies like the drill that they used to break through
the outer wall of Ba Sing se while other nations rode around on ostrich horses
this coupled with the reasons above made the Fire Nation the strongest nation on
the planet and destined to dominate it obviously besides just the technological
and inherent superiority there were the psyches of the nations that play the air
nomads were peaceful and didn't even have an army unless you were taught in a
fire nation school I guess and the earth King was a puppet and his puppeteer
longfang appeared not to cure much about any sort of counter attack on the fire
nation and a similar thing can be said about the Northern Water Tribe so it is
easier to fight a war when almost no one wants to launch counter-attacks in this
theory about the importance of controlling metal holds up because
decades later when Cora becomes the avatar metalbending has made access to
metal far more ubiquitous and as a result you see a much more even balance
of power and technological advancements throughout the world whereas in Aang's
time our nation is enjoying an unprecedented time of peace and wealth
our people are happy and were so fortunate in so many ways and without
giving too much away in case you haven't seen legends of korra perhaps the most
powerful force on the planet is the one who is master of metal bending is the
greatest proving once again how critical metal refining is to power in the avatar
universe so yeah between their bending being inherently more powerful their
abilities to refine metal and their transport of need to develop
Advanced Technology the for our nation was destined to dominate the planet
maybe if Aang hadn't gotten in the way the loving fire could have spread his
nations prosperity throughout the world but what do you think of the firebenders
or are you more of a Southern Water Tribe sort of person be sure to let us
know down in the comment section below and if you want to check out our other
videos on some of the science behind popular shows click here have a great
day and remember there's always more to learn