Korra's Worldbuilding: How did technology advance so quickly? [ Avatar: The Last Airbender ] 

From swords to sharks with fricken laser beams on their heads, probably. Get ma book + please leave a review! tinyurl.com/y5mwpyyj ~ Tim

So everything really did change when the fire nation attacked

Imagine if Aang was infertile. Boom. End of airbending for real.

The Fire Nation was advanced enough to build that giant drill. That’s a massive technological feat accomplished before Ozai’s defeat. It makes perfect sense for the all of advancements made between the two series.

I think its just so common for science fiction and fantasy settings to basically freeze in tech development that it is strange to see a setting actually develop. Most fantasy/science fiction settings have tounsands or even millions of years of backstorie in which they constantly use similar armor / vehicles / weapons /whatever.

I mean to be fair, once our world entered the industrial revolution, our technology really skyrocketed.

“The Air Nomads didn’t advance at all in this period... because they were *dead* “ I laughed too hard at this. Edit: there’s a warzone down that away, I advise avoiding it👇🏻.

There were like, 60 years, between the first air plane and the moon landing. Tech advances pretty fast.

It isn’t too far fetched. Aang was 12 at Sozin’s Comet and 66 when he died. We start Korra’s show when she’s 17. That’s 71 years between Sozin’s Comet and Korra’s pilot. That’s 71 years of peace (no world wars like real life) which is a lot of time for invention and discovery, especially for people who can bend. The Fire Nation already had combustion engines, cars and airships during the 100-year war. Not to mention Sokka invented the submarine, lol. 71 years is like going from 1849 to 1920. In 1849, most people were still using horses and messenger birds. By 1920, we had cars, telegraphs, and electricity.

Everything changed, when -the fire nation attacked- *steam power was made*

I guess Technology advances fast when everyone can do literal magic

Finally someone who agrees with me that the progress wasn't so crazy. It made perfect sense to me. With all the stuff they already had, these things just seemed natural.

I like how you break this down. It’s amazing how far our world came in terms of technology. For 100 years we went from barely able to get a wooden plane off the ground to putting a man on the moon. From being unable to get anywhere without an animal to cars, subways etc. Even to the Internet and phones, it’s amazing to look back and see how fast it all came

Metal bending was a big part in how the technology seemed to “jump” in quality and quantity

As usual, I absolutely loved the video. However I am incredibly disappointed that you didn't call Republic City the Big Cabbage.

I also think of Sokka and Toph’s contributions. Sokka was a genius and there were certainly many others like him who could now dedicate their minds to advancing problems in homes and whatnot instead of the war, and Toph invented metalbending so obviously

It's strange that they were so slow when they can literary control the elements stuff like terraforming or building huge buildings is so much easier in Avatar

I would actually consider Metalbending to be technology. It is a type of skill that can be used for industry and production. It is no different from pottery or the wheel.

Most people don’t realize how much of the world TODAY still lives in a rural/agricultural livelihood, untouched by much industrialization. It’s literally like taking a step back in time

I think we just misjudge the time gap. Its easy to forget that we skipped a generation between Ang and Korra, because Katara and Zuko are still around (and they look damn healthy for 85-90 year olds). Its a huge time gap. And it feels very jarring, because we come to think of Korra as the "next" generation, while in fact she is the one after. The more ridiculous thing is Varrick randomly inventing stuff during the show without having any of the precursor technology present. Real inventions didn't start out in their final form. Inventions got better in tandem with our understanding of the underlying science. And oh, boy there were mistakes made during that journey.

There’s 70years between them, plus Aang spent most of his life in rural communities while Korra lived in an urban environment. It’s like Aang lives in 1860 rural China and Korea in 1930 New York.

Fire nation: meiji restoration japan Earth Kingdom: late qing china Air nomads: tibet Water tribes: inuits

The air nomads didn't change at all ..... Because they were dead 10:10 I couldn't stop laughing

Somewhat late to the party, since I wanted to actually get to see LoK myself before watching this video, but you've pretty much said what I would have. I think a large part of the "problem" comes from the different perspectives. Most of A:TLA is from the perspective of the relatively primitive cultures, while the most advanced culture in the world is the antagonist. With tanks and airships and ironclad cruisers, the Fire Nation was clearly sneaking into the 20th century, technologically speaking - but given that the REST of the world feels like a typical fantasy setting, it's easy for the casual viewer to overlook that and just see the Fire Nation stuff as being big and bad and evil and industrial without really registering just how advanced the Fire Nation really was. This is probably especially easy because we don't see conventional guns in TLA (or LoK, really - the 'guns' we see are essentially energy channels) - because bending is used instead. For a lot of people, presence or absence of guns is a shorthand for how advanced a setting is, and not having them makes a setting a medieval fantasy, even when the fantastical elements make it so that guns are much less likely to be developed. You can see additional signs of this when the gang infiltrate the Fire Nation - the Fire Nation school, for instance, probably wouldn't have been that out of place a century or so ago. One can think of how much of our world was still essentially agrarian (feudal agrarian, even) as late as the First World War. Heck, one could view the Hundred Year War as being comparable to what might have happened if the Europeans had actually tried to conquer China during the Opium Wars rather than just using their military superiority to extract concessions. So if you take the Fire Nation, which is at the very least on par with late 19th century technology, and advance that by seventy years... frankly, if anything, I'd expect LoK technology to be MORE advanced. Meanwhile, in LoK, most of the series is from the perspective of the most advanced or second most advanced (it's notable that we never really get to see the Fire Nation directly in that period) culture in the world, while in the rest of the world, technology has spread to multiple relatively high-tech 'hubs' rather than it all being centered in the Fire Nation. So the different perspectives make it look like there's a big gap in technology. In reality, those, the Fire Nation was around 1900s technology when it came to military vehicles (tanks probably could have been invented around then if there'd been a big enough war on to justify them, rigid dirigibles, heavier than air flight in its infancy) while Legend of Korra is... really, not THAT much more advanced when you think about it, possibly sitting around the 1920s or 30s at the latest. So the REAL question should probably actually be... why was it so slow? And the probable answer to that was that the Hundred Year War had suppressed technological development that didn't show the potential for an immediate military payoff, so while military vehicles were fairly advanced, this hadn't filtered into civilian vehicles and the 'blue sky' research that ultimately led to things like the radio wasn't being done. So much of the period between A:TLA was probably marked by civilian technologies catching up - and some of which, such as radio, would turn out to also have military applications. TL;DR: The technological advance was actually relatively SLOW compared to the real world, it just felt like a big jump because we switched from the perspective of the relatively low-tech cultures to focusing on a relatively high-tech city.

My great grandfather was born in 1909 he died in 2005. When he was born there was no electricity in rural East Texas and only 10 years before cars came to Texas, but were so expensive that no one used them. So no car no electricity to the burgeoning information age in his lifetime. I'm actually surprised that the estimated 90 years from when ATLA takes place to the time LoK takes place there isn't more technological advancement.

Remember one of the wright brother that creates airplane still alive when the first atomic bomb explode, let that sink in. Less than half a century, from a small paper airplane to metal plane carrying bomb that can level a city

13:55 BG = Before Genocide (of Air Nomads) Year 0 = Sozin wiped out the Air Temples AG = After Genocide

I agree completely with this analysis. I never saw the problem of the apparent jump in technology, it's literally a mirror of our own history. Plus, having benders would be immensely useful for an industrialization process, easily being able to speed up many aspects.

To be fair, the fire nation had already built devices like that drill vehicle to pierce the wall at Ba Sing Se when Aang was still a teen. So roughly a hundred years took place between that and Korra being born. If they shared that kind of technology with the world, then it wouldn't be shocking that they'd advance that much in a century

“Random earth kingdom village number 45” 😂😂😂

Ba Seng Se did have a pretty effective public transportation system even if it was powered by Earthbending.

After the events of A:TLA, the Fire Nation shared its technology. Remember, the Fire Nation was very technologically advanced (it had tanks and airships) where most other cities were technologically void for the most part and functioned off of bending. We first get a glimpse of this in the last few episodes of the first Book, however this point is further driven home when we get to Ba Sing Se. Outside of their tram/train, the city's technology was pretty limited. For a more real-world application, look at the ORIGINAL Pokemon Blue/Red/Yellow era of Gameboy Classic graphics then look at the VR/AR we have today. Less than 50 years have passed but we have made AMAZING strides in that area. Now that's just 50 years. LOK takes place at least 50 years into the future because I think there's canon sayin that Aang lived to be in his 60's (the iceberg didn't HALT his aging, it merely slowed it) and that's assuming that as soon as the Avatar died, they're immediately reincarnated however this is not likely. There's a heavy Eastern presence in the show and reincarnation is part of most Eastern religions and it's generally agreed that reincarnation is not instantaneous. Using these facts, I posit that it's actually NOT too unbelievable.

Sony: *strikes all ATLA videos* Tim: *makes ATLA video* Sony: AM I JOKE TO YOU?

Aang stands for A - after A - Air N - Nomad G - Genocide

Just started the episode, but wanted to mention this, in one of the Wii games which was seemingly pre-firelord’s defeat, we do see a steam-punk “mech” like machine similar to the equalist’s ones. It was powered by a fire bender, water bender, earth bender, and a nonbender working together, a group who essentially provided the groundwork that became the Equalists, but with benders among their members.

the effort that goes into these videos is just amazing

11:00 The gunboat diplomacy was always seen that way from the American side, but the Japanese version was hilarious. They found the one guy in Japan who could speak English and sent him as their delegate- without at all explaining what their stance was. The Tokugawa wanted to remain isolationist, and were willing to fight a war to maintain that isolation. But the delegate didn’t know this, so he agreed to the opening. When he told this to the Emperor, he and the Shogun were FURIOUS. The biggest development in Japanese history came down to a misunderstanding that nobody outside the political structure understood the core principles of foreign policy. This, folks, is the importance of a well informed society.

"And the Air Benders didnt evolve at all in this period. BeCaUsE tHeY wErE dEaD!"

Very interesting video. One thing I've noticed with a lot of fantasy stories like The Last Airbender, is you never see technology going on past the 1920s, but never more. Meaning you never see late-20th, early-21st level technology in these kind of stories, and I always found that interesting

I love how we have such parallel analysis of the development of technology between the two shows.

Also I think that Korra’s decision to leave the Spirit Portals Open started another technological revolution, where the crazy Spirit Energy did some crazy shit.

Metal Bending probably played a huge role in advancing technology. I mean Toph built the statue of Aang, knowing that I'm sure metal bending was used to build alot of structures.

14:50 "Rise of the melon lord" good to see you implemented the most important event in that year.

The advancement in tech makes sense to me because i can see the other nations wanting to flatten the curve. The Fire Nation has had exclusive access to these advanced weapons, and even though the war is over they'll definitely still be on edge and want to use this time to catch up so they won't be at such a disadvantage again

_We're not cavemen! We have technology... [proceeds to smash the computer]_ *~ Patrick Star*

The fire nation controlled and stifled everything for 80+ years. A technological boom made sense in legend of korra. The Metal bending phenomenon as well as lightening bending would have played a major role and helped further technology in a faster way.

Your videos are always so great and interesting and always help expand the avatar video. THANK YOU

People complain about how the world evolved so fast but ignore the fact that we went from horses and carts to landing on the moon in 70 years

Quick answer before watching: Benders can bend things into specific shapes instead, reducing the need to develop machinery that makes other machinery.

I'd like to also point out that just because theres technology being used somewhere. That doesn't mean its widespread. My grandmother grew up during the depression. Cars existed in bigger cities(New York, Chicago, ect) but in the country side(Kentucky) where she lived they still used horse drawn carriages.

The question is actually very easy to answer: They would take materials with earthbending, then Model it with metal bending and Fire bending, make fuel with firebending, and make fabrics with earthbending

I remember hearing that in Republic city was based off of Japan after the Meiji restoration. They didn’t have a industrial revolution. They were just caught up really quickly to the rest of the world.

Sony: Claims all of the avatar videos Tim: Uploads another Sony: *surprised pikachu*

Technology didn't advance all that quickly. I mean, the fire nation was using steam powered ships from like the very first episode of The Last Airbender. It's like going from the 1850's to the 1920's.. well, right up until that final season of Korra anyway, where they just decided to go straight up Sci-Fi.

Tl;dr - the "rapid technological escalation" is mostly a viewer perceived illusion caused by most time in ATLA being spent in the Earth Kingdom and most time in LoK being spent in an incredibly prosperous and uniquely diverse formerly Fire Nation city, with the Fire Nation being the most technologically advanced nation in ATLA.

Yeah, never really understood people complaining about the tech jump aside from the skyscraper sized mech at the end.

I like to imagine Zuko released the secrets of lightning bending to the public as an act of good faith to republic city, knowing that it could be a great power source for developed cities.

18:36 There is also the fact that people in the Avatar Universe can literally bend the elements, something that people in our world cannot do. I feel like that's the best reason as to why technology was developed quicker.

I still have one major problem with this world building is that a lot of this technology has little reason to be invented. I mean depending on your nation you wouldn’t have a reason to invent certain tech. I mean what use is electric lights when you’re almost entire population can summon and control fire with their hands. As well some tech hasn’t even been made possible in our world like mech suits.

This is one of your BEST analysis videos on ATLA/LOK world building.

Huh, the ability to have INFINITE POWER and BEND METAL AND EARTH TO YOUR WILL makes industrial development faster. Who would have thought

I mean to be fair when Toph invented metal bending it had to be a major step forward especially being now on the same team as the fire nation with their steam power. Also in a way Katara knowing blood bending, with her overall character, could turn that into a medical breakthrough to help with quality of life. Also you end up having their inventor friend getting to invent for peace instead of for war.

I've always found the thought of aliens coming to earth and learning about our history and either being amazed or amused how fast or slow we developed certain things fascinating

I enjoyed the critical analysis of the assumptions behind world building. Very refreshing and would love to see this explored within the context of the avatar world. The books go into far more detail into the cultures, languages and peoples of the world and would love to see the way they perceive their worldfrom their cultural and historical perspectives explored.

The city of Ba Sing Se and even the Lion Turtle city of the first Avatar were relatively modern. Katara and co lived in villages that were sheltered from the world.

I had a much harder time with the apparent cultural and technological stagnation during the 10,000 years between Wan and Aang. Wan's time should have been set in the stone age.

In a normal situation I couldn't care less about what you are talking about. But you make it so interesting, I can't stop watching your videos.

Come to think of it, it’s really interesting the level of technology they had in avatar without electricity. They had metallurgy, presumably figuring out how to insulate heat in furnaces and fire bending into them to smelt iron. Then someone started experimenting with heating and cooling water and realized that they could convert the heat from fire bending into kinetic energy by using a steam engine. Then someone must have figured out how to implement that into ships and tanks. The fire nation knew how to mine coal, so that became an effective fuel source for them. A fire bender presumably would get tired heating a ship for hours on end, but coal wouldn’t, not after it gets that initial heat to start burning. I wouldn’t be surprised if before the hundred year war, airbenders and earthbenders worked with fire benders to make steel.

This basically makes me want to see a follow up to Legend of Korra where the world has developed beyond ours

I really like that Legend of Korra advanced technology the way it did. Too many fantasy worlds just keep technological development as a fixed state for centuries or even millenia.

Those New York and Hong Kong photos looked like the 1980s, not the 1920s. This was a great discussion regarding the enormous amount of inventions mentioned from the past two centuries, and thanks for clearing up some mysteries in the series.

I’m so glad you made this video!! I question the technological timeline all the time so I’m grateful there’s someone who knows so much about the avatar universe and is able to explain it!!

Satoru became the first ever man to be forklift certified, what a legend

"Yeah, I know from all the people you took to prison camps." -"Now that's what I call established infrastructure. You're welcome."

I noticed that the Legend of Korra's world shares some characteristics with Dieselpunk, Steampunk (flying balloonships) and Techno-Magic (Kuvira controlling the energy of the vines from the Spirit World through the Mecha's cannons)

Great analysis! Thanks for uploading!

Our real life worldbuilding is absolutely terrible writing, we got access to 2300s tech in july 16th 1945

“100 AG: Rise of the melon lord” One of the many reasons I love this channel

11:12 I love how your American accent is just a stereotypical Italian gangster

Reminded me of that joke in one of the Hitchhikers Guide books about this one like 8-armed alien species that invented aerosol deodorant before the wheel

The other problem with trying to comparing our advancement vs another world's advancement is thinking the physics of the worlds are identical. I mean in Avatar you have a world where basically magic exist, so they can rely on a lot of things we can't. For example the need to setup large coal mines and such when you can instead use human labor to generate fire to power those machines. Or the abundance of electrical energy that people can make and the potential need to store it might give rise to a quicker advancement on electric batteries and electric powered cars. Earth benders being able to move massive amounts might reduce progress in heavy machinery used in mining. In other examples say you have a Fantasy world in which healing magic is present. It might end up reducing the development on medicine because what need is their to research advance medications when you can just go to a "healer" that will cast a spell on someone who is sick to heal them. Or in a more sci-fi series they have an alien who is studying human advancement wander how we managed to advance so quickly as the spread of disease is a major hurdle to the rise of early civilizations as the more crowded it becomes the greater risk of rampant disease spread by pest. And while most other species took centuries to millennia to accomplish proper containment methods to prevent this humans did it in a fraction of the time all while still not meeting some of the current galactic standards on containment. In it they end up speculating it was the domestication of animals like cats which kept the pest under control that allowed humans to thrive where other species had struggled and suffered from a slower urbanization rate. So until we have more real world examples to compare ourselves to we can't really be sure how fast or slow our progression rate was. Because we don't know what sort of advantages or disadvantages we have. For example the majority of fossil fuels are not from the dinosaurs as people tend to think. They are the result of trees during a time before bacteria were able to eat them and thus when a tree died it just laid there not decaying as it slowly got buried. So you have whole forest full of piled up trees that got buried and eventually turned into fuel for us today. If this oddity of nature had not happened we would not have tons of coal around to fuel the rise of the industrial revolution.

"and the air nomads didnt really advance during this time period, because theu were dead." that really got to me

Um, do you re realize how quickly technology progressed in the real world? In 75 years we went from horse and buggy to space exploration .

" You don't want to find out what happens when you don't trade with me"

I’m somewhat in the middle. I love the look and can still maintain my suspension of disbelief with no issue. But I still feel like they’ve shot themselves in the foot now that they must progress further than that roaring 20s kinda style. The ancient medieval theme just compliments martial arts perfectly and no one can tell me otherwise.

"And the air nomads didn't advance much during this period...because they're dead"

Remember, the industrial revolution wasn't all about rising wealth and prosperity. Most people horribly suffered under inhumane conditions. Life in early industrial working-class communities meant sweat shop work, diseases, no hygene in a post-apocalyptical wasteland where the air was filled with soot and the sun was being blocked by smoke. This would make so much more sense as a basis for a anti-bender movement, than what is presented in the show.

I know this video is like 3 years old and I stumbled onto it by accident while catching up on some Hello Future Me writing content, but I think that the biggest factor of the speed of technological advancement is the speed that information can be spread. Word of mouth for much of history led to little progress, then writing came along and made much of early civilization's advancements possible. The printing press came along, allowing for large amounts of information to be copied and distributed easily, and with it, the industrial revolution. Then, telecommunication made it possible to send messages extremely quickly across great distances, allowing for the advancements of the 19th and 20th centuries. And now, we have the internet, allowing for instaneous communication to huge variety of people/databases, and we are only beginning to see the beginning of the next revolution that this brings about as a result. Basically, the speed of information is directly correlated to the speed of technological progress.

156:03 I love that he called toph melon lord

I wasn’t surprised actually, since technology has changed so much in the past hundred years.

Technology advanced faster in real life than it did in Avatar.

You said "upside down picture of scandanavia" and my brain immediately pictured an upside down LANDSCAPE picture.... took me a minute...

I love that he says that volume two will deffinatly happen one day and two years later its here

11:07 "Knock Knock, it's the United States. Open up your country, stop having it be closed. "

Also, in avatar, a significant portion of the population can literally affect the bare elements at will. Imagine how much you could advance with metal benders, not to mention water, Earth, and fire? It would accelerate stuff so much. Xao Fu, a mega city entirely made of metal, practically surfaced overnight.

Another aspect to consider is Uncle Iroh's lightning bending. By studying Water bending techniques, he managed to expand firebending capability and redirect Azula's lightning. Not only would the union of bending help complex machines form as benders take on the different components of a given technology, the bending used to create the technology and support Bending-Based Industrializations would've greatly increased in efficiency and power. A low level firebender could do more by studying other bending techniques, to where their bending could get close to the power level of top firebenders before the War. This combination of bending techniques is why the Avatar's bending is so powerful, why the Avatar can do more with their bending than any other bender.

I love how it says "rise of the melon lord" at 100AG

The thing you've got to remember is that technological and scientific advancement is exponential. The more technology develops, the faster we tend to develop new ones, as each enables the process in various ways.

The "Rise of the Melon Lord" on the timeline lmao

Apparently I've already liked this bit I'm glad I saw it again!