 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 rewatching the whole thing when it came out on Netflix. And in watching the show now, a bit older than when I first saw it 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 comment 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 game 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 Civ 6, cavalry charges were still common in World War One. Yeah, in World War One, when the cavalry were charging machine gun defenses, and even World War Two, so the Poles embark 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 support both land, naval, and air forces. But this technological advancement wasn't because the Fire Nation was that much smarter than everyone else. Omashu developed an advanced mail delivery system, spread across the second largest city in the Earth Kingdom. The Southern Water Tribe invented complex canal systems to raise ships into the city. And even Saka and the Machinists invented submarine and torpedo technology in 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, some tanks more destructive than the Earth Kingdoms? Well, there were two reasons. The first is because, unlike other bending disciplines, firebending didn't offer an inherent form of transportation. We're going to be talking about normal skilled benders here, not rare exceptions like Zahir, 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 they had flying bison 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 Earth benders 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-footspeed 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 in 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 hogs. And even with technologies that the Firebenders didn't originate, like the hot air balloon, their transportation scientists are the ones who transformed them from this to these. On top of the technological pressures, there's the more obvious fact that Firebenders are the only bending discipline that represent 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, and airbending could have powered planes, but only firebending paints a clear method for how to power technology of any kind, not just one. Another reason why firebending is inherently more versatile, and thus more powerful. Besides this, firebending is also inherently more powerful than any other discipline for the reasons given to us by Master Zhang Zhang. Sure, an incredibly powerful earthbender might be able to bring down a mountain on his enemies, or the top-of-the-line waterbender might be able to bloodbend them. 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 places like the Earth Kingdom where there were very few waterbenders 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 firebenders 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 taught teach metalbending 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's siege of Ba Sing Sei that traditional attacks on metal war machines were largely ineffective, and just the fact that Fire Nation chips were made from metal made them much stronger and more versatile than any waternationship. Access to metal and the ability to refine it was an invaluable asset for these early empires. We know from the lore that the Earth Kingdom had plenty of metal deposits in the ground that they could mine, and they even boasted metal tanks that 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, were obviously much better suited to the mass-gale production of metal for the war machines. And the advantage metal played cannot be understated. Metal affected everything, even the uniforms. Ever noticed that watertribe 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 inherent metallurgical capabilities, the Fire Nation was essentially in the Iron Age, while the rest of the world was in the Stone Age. Using 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 at 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, Long Feng, appeared not to care much about any sort of counterattack on the Fire Nation, and a similar thing can be said about the Northern Watertribe. So it is easier to fight a war, when almost no one wants to launch counterattacks. In this theory, about the importance of controlling metal holds up, because decades later, when Korra 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, 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 whose mastery of metalbending 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 Fire Nation was destined to dominate the planet. Maybe if Aang hadn't gotten in the way, the loving Fire Lord could have spread his nation's 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 comments 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.