Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding — the Fire Nation [ The Last Airbender ]

I had a wildly successful Earth Kingdom world building video a while back, so naturally Sony probably stole it, so let's try again with the Fire Nation world building and today's video even has a interesting message of curiosity for sponsors. I can watch thousands of documentary and non-fiction titles from people like David Freak in Edinburgh on Curiousstream.com Hello future, but why is it even cooler because of a thing called Nebula, a streaming service I'm actually a part of and also from others? Awesome Youtubers that I know you watch or should watch the links below. This exercise is a feat of scientific ingenuity and pure destructive power.

Placing the Fire Nation in the middle of an industrial revolution was one of the more interesting world-building choices the writers made. What they did by creating the latest Airbnb, they had train networks, steam-powered hot air balloons at the end of the series, and they even researched chemistry. All of this is in stark contrast to the lower technological levels of the water tribes in the terrestrial kingdom that they have. Even if the loom had been researched, it would have been difficult to believe that such a small and less populated

nation

would have been able to take on the terrestrial kingdom, but historically the technological imbalance between the islamic empires, the european empires and those they conquered was a major factor in their success the writers seem to draw this out by giving the

fire

nation

an advantage in the hundred years war.

There's a reason for this geopolitical setup, but why the Fire Nation gave them an industrial revolution was not only a really interesting decision but a great example of The world building came from two things: geography and the magic system. Europe's industrial revolution was caused by a series of technological and economic advances, but two of them were crucial, which we are going to talk about with the discovery of coal as a portable, cheap and long-burning fuel. temperature fuel source in a way that it simply wasn't, as well as having access to massive iron deposits and developing iron working methods for building more durable train and ship machinery, so it came to pass that Britain already had both and the

fire

nation.

That first factor already has a portable fuel source that can control the temperature and amount of fire bent while for the second the Fire Nation is made from a chain of volcanic islands and one of the raw materials commonly found in environments volcanics is the metallic mineral. Interestingly, we know that the Fire Nation's geography was designed to mimic that of Iceland, another volcanic island, and its main export is metal. The Fire Nation is uniquely equipped for an industrial revolution before anyone else due to this intersection of their innate magic system and geographic advantages. and the water tribes in the earth realm simply lack this ability to generate energy or manipulate metal the way firebenders do and yes metal bending is a thing but it wasn't at the time okay just I'm going to get ahead of the comments about bending metal, no, but A secondary reason why the fire nation could develop industrially before anyone else is economic.

The other nations have elemental powers that help with the construction of buildings, particularly using water and stone. At the time of the

last

Airbender, there is little economic incentive to develop ways to manipulate. metal when alternative materials are much cheaper and available, in contrast, the financial economy would naturally have to compensate, so there would be an economic incentive to develop ways to work with metal in your buildings and create these machines now that we know that the nation del fuego uses coal reserves for its steam engines as well, but this is only to reduce the labor needed.

They can and probably started without it. Second part. The true power. The divine right to rule is something you are born with. A unified state requires three things. A direct flow. of information to and from the central authority a way to keep local politics in line with that central authority and a unified militaristic body to enforce laws and collect taxes for the central authority and a good agricultural location that is needed that the stronger are, more The authority can be centralized, so that the fire nation has the most centralized government of the four nations, concentrated in the hands of the fire lord, this is the control of the military economy and the cultural direction of the state, there is a national education curriculum and us.

I have seen the blue spirit that Ozai even promotes to Zhao personally a level of involvement not seen anywhere else in the world. Some of this is held together by propaganda in schools and in the complex administrative institutions of the Fire Nation. They keep detailed records and reading and writing is much more. common in the Fire Nation than anywhere else, but this centralized power structure would not be possible without the unique geography of the Fire Nation. It's no secret that Japan had a strong influence on Fire Nation aesthetics and design with food and clothing. and imperialism, but we can see that it follows the historical patterns of Japan in other aspects.

The Japanese capital moved from Kyoto to Tokyo in the 17th century, but the most important context here is that it moved to the Kanto plane, the population center of the country and the largest and most profitable area of ​​agricultural flat land, a control Narrowing these two things makes central governance much easier, although it's hard to tell from the map that the Fire Nation capital appears to have been founded where most of the flat, habitable areas are located. Agricultural land is found on this main island, making it not only a center of trade but also of population and therefore power, and this is something that the scattered resources and population of the terrestrial kingdom simply do not facilitate, but something interesting is that the nation's smaller land mass and the capital's position makes it relatively equidistant from all the nation's urban centers, especially with easy access by sea, and this makes these two factors in particular are much stronger.

We see on the beach that the guards on the distant cove island communicate directly with the capital instead of a regional authority per se they send a falcon directly to the fire lord and this direct flow of information to and from the central authority makes direct governance much more efficient. Trained birds can fly up to 500 kilometers per day establishing communications for administrative purposes throughout the state. virtually instantaneous by the standards of that day and this technological and geographical advantage would mean that they would even rule directly up to the pohai fortress as we saw in the blue spirit and this geographical layout makes it easier for capital to exert force in any given region by sending quickly diplomatic governors or military forces from the central authority if necessary, especially when combined with his steam navy, this, along with his strong communication, makes it really easy for the fire lord to keep local politics in line with his central authority and industry.

The revolution itself supports centralization. Railroads and steam power not only mean more efficient transportation of people and resources, but it means that those resources can be pooled. There is a reason to have centralized resource management. A benefit to her,

last

ly, is the fact that the concentration of population on this westernmost island also makes the third factor a unified militaristic body to enforce laws much more easily. Now there are other factors that play into propaganda, but the army mainly comes from the region under the direct rule of the fire lord, making it much easier to secure the loyalty he provides during famines and you've probably seen him as he travels all over. the country compared to the many states of the earth kingdom where most peasants would only be helped or only see their local lord and this is reflected in how the citizens of the fire nation view each other, there is really only one social division between the citizens of the colonies and the citizens of the continent.

Consider how the diadem master pointed out that they are clearly from the colonies with disdain. This population concentration would also explain why. Despite being an archipelago, they are all governed by the same state, island nations tend to be independent because exerting control across an ocean is difficult and expensive and island borders are defensible unless an island with a population much older dominates the rest, this pattern has continued at all times. The world and Japan, the UK, New Zealand, Indonesia and others now compare all this to Bar Singh, say, where large geographical barriers and great distances from the capital make central administration slow, expensive and inefficient, resulting in In a less centralized power structure with all 58 states being mostly autonomous they even have their own legal systems, third party our nation is enjoying a time of unprecedented peace and wealth in the

avatar

in the fire lord speaks to you Sosan people are experiencing a time of unprecedented peace and wealth even before the war and fire.

The nation throughout the series appears to be relatively wealthy compared to the rest of the world and there is a good reason why the Fire Nation has a generally higher standard of living: its geography as a chain of volcanic islands with an enclosed expanse of water and access to the mainland is perfectly situated for trade. The layout of these islands creates a natural navigable trade network between the cities of the region, as well as connecting all the towns with the main urban capital and it is this interconnectivity that generates wealth once free of internal conflicts around the world. 4th century BC, the Fire Nation was naturally created to prosper as a trading empire both internally and externally with the land kingdom of the Water Tripods in the Western Sea and, although we see it as a naval power during the last Airbender, in It is actually a natural situation.

As a result of the Fire Nation being a seafaring civilization due to trade, merchant fleets have historically been accompanied by ships capable of defending them from pirates (sometimes the French) and there is evidence to suggest that this may be where the Fire Nation began. naval prowess of the fire nation in the year 296. bg, the earth kingdom actually asked the fire nation to patrol the eastern sea on the opposite side of the continent, if they were going to do that, then the fire nation already it must have been a naval power at the time and in terms of word construction, it is not.

Surprisingly, the Fire Nation has focused its attention on naval power, protecting its economic dominance in the region, and as an island nation, the only way they could be harmed is through a naval attack. Compare this to the Earth Kingdom, whose larger but infantry-based army is Designed for ground combat and putting down rebellions, they simply don't have the same incentives, but naval control of the region also provides another important advantage. Places such as the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal and the Thailand Canal, play vital roles in connecting distant regions through trade makes traveling from Europe to China or from Europe to India or from India to China immensely faster and so it costs a lot for ships to use them in the same way that it is noticeably faster to travel through the fire nation strait between the islands than it is. to travel between the northwestern states and the southern states of the Earth kingdom, much less between any of the water tribes and the fire nation, they seem well aware of how they can exploit this for the benefit of the homeland, they impose heavy taxes to port cities and have Blockades have long been used to exert force in the region and, while there are alternative routes to the base, they say that just reaching the east coast makes it easier to transport goods to this important urban center using the entrance to the exterior wall as a result of this and the fire. being a naval power that protected and controlled this ocean is that they would have taxed the immense trade that passes through the region, a benefit that no other nation has, they are basically just taking wealth from the land realm, but this focus on international trade can Have Out Of Necessity we talked before about how the Fire Nation's volcanic geography means they have access to large deposits of metals but they also have coal and valuable stones like gold, which is why the Fire Nation has some of the most skilled blacksmiths. of the world. world, but I mean you can't eat coal or iron unless you really want to, but this is probably why theFire Nation developed an international trade network.

Their land is simply not particularly suitable for rice or vegetable production like the terrestrial kingdom is. rice usually grows on irrigated lowlands for which the mountainous land of the fire nation is not suitable for their farms, they were simply continually depleted because of this, as their population grew they naturally became more dependent on imports, so a strong naval force was not just about ensuring Prosperity but necessary to sustain the island chain. This is actually quite similar to the economic position of Japan, whose mountainous landscape makes 70 of them difficult to develop for living and working. I talked a little bit in my previous video about why the Fire Nation took over the Northwest. terrestrial kingdom at the beginning of the 100 years war fundamentally it is because it is the richest region in resources, what we can say here is that taking this was not only a wise long-term strategy but necessary if they wanted to survive without international trade. and Ireland's colonialist powers like the UK have historically had resource based extraction strategies when it comes to where they choose to colonize and the writers seem to go out of their way to show that the fire nation does exactly this, there is a good economic world and geographical.

Building reasons why they started the war here, but consider the concept of availability, the gold resources on these islands may give a different reason as to why gold is a fire nation color, it may not be simply because it is the color of light and the sun. or it is the color of the team, but because gold was a readily available resource assuming a role in their culture as it did in the Mesoamerican civilizations, which, interestingly, we know the warriors of the sun, a precursor civilization of the nation of the fire, you can see it in their aesthetic, they adopted the color gold because why not also the The fact that fish is a cheap and readily available food source for most population centers of the fire nation made it in an important part of its cuisine and export economy, unlike the inland terrestrial kingdom, which has conventional livestock as part of its cultural food. resources part four she's a real prodigy so a really curious element of the fire nation world building is gender equality yes i'm not even joking women get the same education they can sign up for the military and They can hold political office.

There were probably some women during The air nomad genocide hashtag, women can be fascist killers too. This doesn't mean there aren't gender roles, but they seem to be much weaker than in other nations and I think this stems from how firebending influences two. elements of world building social stratification and distribution of power I hate to be Hobbesian when it comes to state formation, but when Fire Nation society began, a natural upper class formed from firebenders and strong family groups. firebending that could monopolize, defend and control resources. much more easily than non-benders and it wouldn't really matter if you were male or female because fire repair is not strongly determined by the usual attributes of strength and endurance, as a sword fight often means that men do not they have a natural advantage in firebending duels against women the result of this is an upper class power that does not necessarily lend itself to gender inequality this is even institutionalized by kai agony a firebending duel with a measure of power legal to determine property disputes and otherwise men and women can participate in these, this is also the reason and I find it so cool that the royal family of the fire nation are not only powerful firebenders, but they choose to reproduce only with other strong firebending families, not only a way to ensure political ties with rivals but literally keeping the power to control fire within the family, no wonder only nobles can control lightning during the last Airbender, but perhaps a more important factor in the Fire Nation's gender equality is the specialization that each society grows as people specialize, individuals who become better at a specific role in society make society in general is better off and this comes down to gender roles, as we see in the northern water tribe, women are housewives and men are warriors, but these differences in the construction of the world arise from the different Roles that water and fire play in society.

Waterbending broadly has two branches, martial and healing, so gender roles were easily divided along those lines, as men and women specialized in essentially two different professions that reinforce gender roles, but Firebending Control, on the other hand, has no such division. Whether male or female, both specialize in the same way in this sense, fire control is an equalizer. Gender does not matter for the distribution of real or legal power and social norms cannot easily divide it into social roles. Now you may wonder why this is so. This is not the case with the earth kingdom and I think it comes down to the fact that Earthbenders comprise a much smaller percentage of the total population, so social norms will develop more independently of the sellers than in the fifth of the fire nation.

I can't find an interesting quote that fits this part. Interestingly, the island chain fits naturally with the main continent. Its arc of islands follows the arc of ua bay, which tells us that these lands probably separated from the mainland before, in addition, these sunken gaps between the islands. and the narrow strait between the mainland land realm and the fire islands suggest that there was once a land bridge. I really appreciate this because it's a world-building detail that's never talked about, but it's definitely there, they paid attention to what the island is like now. Civilizations such as the United Kingdom and Japan became continental drift and land bridges were formed so that the initial group of people could cross to them.

Really building on the subtlety of the last

airbender

, Fire Nation is a really interesting

study

and how island civilizations operate differently. to the mainland states and if you want to learn more about the construction of island cultures like the fire nation, then consider watching the samurai castle in the curiosity stream. It's a really great documentary that looks at how castle architecture evolved to adapt to geographical issues in Japan. An interesting thought experiment in world building. Actually, and what's even cooler is that you can get this and thousands of other titles free for 31 days if you go to Curiousstream.com superficial Future Me and use Hello Future Me as your code when you sign up.

Simply visit the site below. helps and it's only 2.99 a month after that which is nothing for those of you who are shameless in your nerd game like me and it comes with a nebula which is even cooler because I'm a part of this along with dozens of other youtubers who are really great, like the perfect Lindsey Ellis and many more links below, let me know how you get on, stay nerdy and I'll see you in the future.