History Headscratchers / AvatarTheLastAirbenderFailureOfScienceForever

*** Given how stubborn people can be, as well as the fact the Fire Nation isn'tlosing (ie no external pressure to)? Probably yes.

[[folder: Scientific and technological advancements]]

*** The association between [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation radiation]][[note]]will slowly kill you[[/note]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorescence phosphorescence]][[note]]glows in the dark[[/note]] is pure fiction. There are plenty of radioactive elements that don't glow, and glow-in-the-dark substances that aren't radioactive. (In the 1920's through the 1950's, a lot of watches and clocks were painted with a mixture of radium and zinc sulfide. The radium was radioactive, and the zinc sulfide was [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioluminescence radioluminescent]][[note]]glows when exposed to radiation[[/note]]. This mixture thus glowed all the time, making it possible to read your watch in the dark. When the danger of radium was discovered, and people found that their clocks were painted with radium, they thought that it was the radium itself that was glowing. Thus, the pop culture notion of "glowing green radiation" was born.)

** Technically, they don't (not in the sense they live shorter; there's just no major discrepency). Look at Guru Pathik - he has to be older then Aang's 112 years, if he was "a close personal friend of Monk Gyatso's". WordOfGod states that longevity in the Avatar world is a result of high chi levels and a connection to nature. Benders are naturally going to be more likely to have a great deal of chi, since that's the source of their abilities, but it's clearly not impossible for a spiritual normal to achieve the same results.

** If you're talking about the Herbalist institute, they didn't go there. They were in the ruins of Taku where the woman and Miyuki happened to be around that time.

* How ''are'' characters are able to stand so close to lava?! The most {{egregious}} example is in the 3rd season premiere when Aang sticks his glider and within seconds in bursts into flame. If the lava was that hot, then how was he able to do that while barefoot?

** Maybe Airbenders can control air temperatures. Aang NEVER seems cold.
** It gets pretty cold up in the mountains, you know. He's just used to it.
*** But ''bare-chested over ice?''
*** Yes. It's mentioned in the manual somewhere that Aang knows a special airbending trick to regulate his own body temperature, which is why you never see him bundled up against the cold.
*** Should be mentioned that there's real life monks who've perfected a breathing method to regulate body heat in a manner to let them survive really cold environments with little-to-no ill effects. Given that the Air Nomads are pretty clearly meant to be Buddhist monks, it makes sense that Aang would be able to do this too.
*** Aang seem to dry-wash himself all the time when he get mucked up, so why shouldn't he know a cheap trick in order to regulate his body-temperature. This seem like a low-level ability, and he is like a LivingGod.

* The oddly inconspicuous lack of any form of firearms. The Fire military's transportation is steamships, airships, and tanks, circa UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Their artillery, on the other hand, is arrows, catapults, and spears from TheDungAges. Seems as good an example of SchizoTech as any until you realize that there is in fact evidence of gunpowder in the show. You can see fireworks in "The Deserter" and explosives in "Siege of the North". So what reason would these people have not to be using cannons and muskets and bayonets? All of which predate steamships and tanks, by the way.
** FamilyFriendlyFirearms . That is, not having any in the first place.
** Here's a crazy thought: Maybe it's because they can already shoot fire out of their hands at will and control it at a distance. If you could do that, would you bother trying to invent something as clumsy and random as a musket?
*** That still doesn't cover the non-bender soldiers, the archers, or why the ships have catapults mounted on them as opposed to the smaller and more efficient cannons, though. See the AnnoyingArrows article on why bows were phased out by guns: Arrows did not penetrate plate armour as effectively as bullets, took more effort to use, and were more difficult to learn to use. Moreover, given the Fire Nation's industries guns would be easier to mass-produce than bows, and FireBalls in the show are not shown to be very effective as long-range weapons-- not to mention they are very conspicuous, not extremely fast, and therefore quite easy to dodge. Additionally, Firebending might actually make guns faster to load and fire because then you wouldn't have fumble with a match and fuse.
** The world is a bending-based aristocracy. Bending is seen as a gift and a privilege--so those rulers who put themselves above those without Bending aren't going to fund or encourage things that would let "ordinary" people pull off the same kinds of feats they can. It's like in the last book of ''Literature/CodexAlera'', when everyone realizes the catapults and fire orbs are capable of outdoing the High Lords in outright destruction, and that alone is going to severely shift the whole societal paradigm.

*** Weapons (even the more advanced ones) are not necessarily superior to bending. Also, bending is typically only used for close combat; firearms are long-range weapons so the strengths and weaknesses of the two don't really overlap.
*** Our world also had a cavalry and plate armor based aristocracy, and yet cannons, muskets, pike formations and large fortifications were all invented.
*** That is not remotely true. Aristocracy was not ''based on'' your ability to wear armor or ride a horse. It was based on wealth and land. Wealth and land that you kept via an army ''with soldiers'' that you equipped with those things. The benders in charge, especially in the Fire Nation, ''do not'' want the average solder to have weapons on par or better than bending.

** Actually, day and night are only long periods during the Summer and Winter months of each pole. They are pretty average otherwise. If Book 1 began in Winter then by the time 1x19 and 1x20 occurred it was probably mid to early spring. Still close enough to winter for the nights to be unusually long, but close enough to the solstice for the roughly 1 month period of constant night to occur. Also, 'north pole' probably isn't literal, as the canal city wouldn't work there seeing as its totally covered in land on the world map.
** Plus the Avatar world might be flat, so the days would be the same.
*** I would actually say that the Avatar world being flat is the most likely thing. After all, the solar eclipse seems to have happened over the entire planet at once.

*** Re-imaging an entire system just to have a flat world with solar and lunar eclipses wouldn't really simplify things.
*** OTOH Bryke said the map shown in the intro every episode is all there is; no "new world" exists on the other side of the globe. Makes for a pretty small world or an empty hemisphere. Personally, this Troper likes the idea of a flat world better, elephants and turtles optional.
*** We actually see the world being a globe when the 'comet' first arrives.
*** Not to mention that a 'pole' is, by definition, the axis around which a planet rotates. Ergo, the North Pole and the South Pole must be on opposing sides of a spherical planet.

** Not to mention, he had to have replaced it at least once--it was rendered useless after his battle with Jet, for example.
*** If memory serves, Toph was using it to crack nuts, and would you really want Toph cracking nuts with you primary weapon, especially when she could just punch the ground and get her own nutcracker? No. And, it's the little kid "It's my stuff, you can't touch it" state of mind.
*** Besides, it set Toph up for her ''great'' one-liner:
--> "It's not the ''only'' delicate instrument around here, Twinkle-Toes!"
** I always saw it as a sex joke...
** Metal becomes extremely brittle when it's exposed to low temperatures. Much more brittle than a nutshell.

* June and her scent-tracking beast Nyla. In her first appearance Nyla's tracking skills are treated plausibly enough, but when they return in Book 3, Nyla's sensitive nose has apparently been replaced with a scent-based real time GPS system. Just by smelling Aang's glider and pacing in a circle for a few seconds, Nyla is instantly able to determine that Aang no longer physically exists in the world, and by smelling Iroh's sandal, it is immediately able to hone in on his current location and set a direct course for him, without having to find and follow the actual trail Iroh took to get there himself. ''SCENT DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.''
** The first appearance shows that Nyla sees a colored trail of scent in the air. Aang being on the lion Turtle solves his problem, while Nyla simply followed Iroh's scent trail to find him. I see nothing wrong.
*** Nyla followed Katara's scent trail, which was perfectly logical. In Book 3, it knows which direction to go to find Iroh without following his actual trail, and knows that Aang can't be found at all without leaving the space of a few yards across, which implies a spiritual power that is completely at odds with its original presentation.
*** The above troper explained it more clearly than I could. Scent is made up of microscopic particles, all the tiny pieces of you that fall off and are left behind wherever you go. So it exists only in places you've physically been to. Nyla following Katara was done right because Zuko and June had to find an old trail of hers and follow it for half the episode to catch up to her. Nyla following Iroh was not done right, because it led them straight to him ''without'' finding his trail. Logically, Nyla would have had to follow the only trail of Iroh's scent that was present, that being ''Zuko's'' trail, because he was carrying the sandal, back to where he split up with Iroh, and then follow that trail to Iroh, presuming Nyla's nose was good enough to pick up such an old scent. This would have taken them to Iroh, but it would have taken days or weeks because of all the backtracking, not the few hours it took in the show. And Nyla's being able to determine that Aang no longer existed with just a few sniffs is pure horsecrap. The only way this is possible is if Nyla's scent tracking is actually a supernatural power that somehow treats a person's scent like constantly emitted radio waves and her nose a receiver (a Global positioning system, in other words), which is completely the opposite of how it was treated in book one. It should have instead followed "his" trail (the trail of Katara and Sokka carrying the glider to June that is) back to the ocean and then lost the trail because ''Aang disappeared on an entirely different freakin' continent seperated by a freakin' ocean''. You can't track someone's scent over an ocean, the trail gets washed away.
*** It is distantly possible that Nyla was able to find Iroh's scent so quickly because Iroh had conveniently passed through the area on his way to Ba Sing Se; if that were the case, then Nyla would naturally pick up the fresher trail rather than tracking Zuko and the sandal all the way back to the Fire Nation and starting from there. It's admittedly a stretch, but not as big a stretch as the idea that Nyla simply picked up on Iroh's present location. While we're hand-waving, you could also suppose that Jun was exaggerating out of hubris rather than acknowledge that Nyla couldn't find Aang because he hadn't been through their area recently enough to lay a traceable scent trail (although this doesn't explain why Nyla didn't follow the scent left by the glider).
*** Zuko kept Iroh's sandal for Nyla to sniff.
*** No duh. That's not what the complaint was about.
** Actually something that bugged me about the first appearance is that while tracking Katara's scent via the necklace they went to a location Katara had never been. While it lead to an amusing scene with Miyuki, Only Aang had been there. Katara was back with Sokka.
*** They couldn't have gone back to thank her for assisting in saving their lives, and having an amusing offscreen scene with Miyuki, especially after [[AesopAmnesia learning the value of taking breaks when needed]]? Or that [[ProperlyParanoid Zu]][[CrazyPrepared ko]] wanted to confirm with the locals periodically, in case Jun eventually started leading him on a wild goose chase and he had to go back to the last time someone saw a bald kid with an arrow on his head?
** You guys seem to be missing the most obvious explanation possible for the sake of complications. Iroh has a very strong smell.
** Is it unreasonable to speculate that maybe Nyla's sensory power is, in fact, partially supernatural in nature?
*** Which would explain why the giant, ancient, energy bending Lion Turtle would disrupt Aang's trail.

[[folder:Lava and convection]]
* How is it that the characters are able to stand so close to lava?! The example that bugs me the most is in the 3nd season premiere when Aang sticks his glider and within seconds in bursts into flame. If the lava was that hot, then how was he able to do that while barefoot?
** For the same reason that they're able to take direct hits from balls of blue-hot fire and barely get singed, leap fifty feet in the air, get boulders hurled at them and get thrown dozens or hundreds of feet without getting worse than bruised. ''Avatar'' is {{wuxia}} - the laws of physics are bent as a result.
** Lava is actually way, way hotter than the series makes it out be. In real life, buildings will spontaneously combust before lava even touches them. It bugged me throughout the entire series. But lava is one of the most-nerfed natural phenoemenons in any action movie/series, probably because of the significant lack of lava in many well-populated areas.
** [[ConvectionSchmonvection There happens to be a trope for that.]]
** [[HandWave Maybe lava is colder in the Avatar world.]]
*** Here is another possible reason, if the Avatar is able to harness all elements then it could be that he would also have a slight resistance against things like heat, cold, and a rock getting bended at him.
** The Avatar world is basically just so full of RuleOfCool that real life properties just don't fit in enough for any natural elements not to have something magical or mythical involved in the whole process.
** Airbenders are able to use special breathing exercises to regulate their body temperature in areas of extreme hot or cold. It's the same reason why Aang was able to hold out so well at the North and South Poles without wearing anything but his normal clothes. And no one else seemed to get close enough to the lava to suffer it's effects.

* Toph's blindness and vibration sensing has always been portrayed very inconsistently. Sometimes she appears able to "sense" airborne missles (rocks, fire, Mai's pointy daggers.) a couple of other times she is relatively helpless in certain situations because of her blindness, she has no idea where the sea serpent is when it attacks, cannot cope with (extremely noisy) giant flying insects, and of course in her first appearance is foiled by aang's air bending, that she cannot see to dodge or block. In the balance her blindness rarely poses the issues that it could and should. For instance how often does she accurately punch another characters arm despite the fact that she would only have a general idea of where the arm is in space? Wouldn't she be utterly unable to protect herself if an opponnent tried to punch her in the nose? If she had some sort of 'daredevil sonar' she wouldn't have had any problem in the desert.
** It's been established that Toph can see anything that is touching the earth. Anything that isn't touching the earth, she is unable to see. When she's blocking rocks and stuff, she's not reacting to the rock as much as she's reacting to the person making a throwing motion at her (In most cases, she's blocking earthbending stances, which she knows enough about). It just so happens that those people tend to be ''standing on the ground'' when they do so. How does she block Mai's daggers? Her sense is so refined that she can "see" ants from a good distance away. She can "see" the knife leaving Mai's sleeve. How does she punch people? She sees their [[http://piandao.org/screenshots/earth/earth6/earth6-470.jpg whole]] [[http://piandao.org/screenshots/earth/earth6/earth6-1436.jpg bodies]]. And she could likely dodge a punch so long as the guy's standing on the ground. As for the bugs, she can certainly hear where they are, but by the time she chucks a rock, it moves, and in any possible direction, which she can't predict because it's not touching the ground.

*** So it basically depends on her being able to judge the velocity of objects as they are fired/thrown/bended at her? All right... guess a certain amount of WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief comes with the territory. Mai was riding a lizard though.
*** The Gaang were running away at that moment. Toph was using her earthbending to launch herself onto Appa. It's entirely possible that avoidng Mai's darts was a lucky cooincidence.
*** You know how a dog will turn away in the direction that you pretend to throw something? It's kind of like that. She sees the person making a motion that is used to hurl things, notices that the person is aiming for her, and puts up a shield in the likely event that the person is throwing something at her. And as I said before, Her sense is so refined that if you're on the ground, and said ground is solid enough that she can feel vibrations, Toph can see you. Full stop.
*** Toph's ability to pick out the direction of someone's arm gestures precisely is explicitly shown while fighting the wasp-vulture critters in "The Desert". Katara gestures at a target, and Toph lifts and launches a rock with extreme precision at the target Katara indicated. So yes, she can follow someone's hand gestures with extreme precision, probably because she views everything from a radically different perspective than most people.
*** Why does the fact that Mai was riding a lizard change anything? The lizard was in contact with the ground, and Mai was in contact with the lizard. Thus Toph can see both of them.
** I think she's also able to sense rocks and other objects that are airborne because they're ''made'' of rock. She's able to detect Mai's knives because they're made of metal, too, and she's developed metalbending. If its airborne but not made of rock, she can't see it.
*** If memory serves, this was confirmed by Toph (or the commentary, i don't remember which) somewhere in Season 3.
*** If you watch the episode "The Blind Bandit", the one that introduces Toph, with the Extras, it specifically says that Toph can sense Earth even if it's in the air. Other objects, not so much. (although she might've been able to avoid Mai's daggers by "seeing" the way she throws them. By doing so, she could have been able to tell where they were going.)
*** In addition to that, this is explicitly stated again in The Runaway. She's able to cheat in the shell game thing because she can sense the rock. The thing which bothers me more is how her "seeing" on wood is treated. In The Painted Lady and the Runaway, she's thrown through a loop because she is forced to stand on wood and she can't see as a result. Then, by The Puppetmaster, she's able to see in Hama's house just fine. That can't even be explained away as feeling the earth beneath the house because a)there was earth beneath the jail cell in The Runaway and b)she was even able to see in Hama's attic.
*** I think there's been a slight misunderstanding. The problem in "The Runaway" was that Toph can't bend wood; it was never indicated that she couldn't see on it. And "The Painted Lady" never states that Toph had any difficulty seeing on wood, or that it was throwing her for a loop.
*** Wood doesn't make her blind so much as it doesn't give her anything to work with. Recall in the desert, she's able to identify a ship from kicking it, saying she hit it hard enough to get a good look. Maybe it has to do with how much earth is ''in'' the wood. In "The Painted Lady," the wooden planks are over water, so unlikely to have much dirt on them. Hama's attic, however, might be dirtier.
*** Well, she saw that ship by sensing the sand around it. When she kicked it, the sand around it vibrated but there was a hollow ship-shaped hole in the middle of the vibration. I don't think she saw anything in the wooden jail cell, she didn't really look at anything other than Katara. She probably knew she was running because she heard. As for the other wooden places, I don't know.
*** Wrong. She was effectively blind throughout that whole episode because ''sand doesn't vibrate'', remember? Toph never once said that she can't see on wood, some people just assumed that because of some minor details that were taken the wrong way. The evidence that she can see on wood is much stronger then the evidence that she can't.
*** Wrong Wrong. She was blind because the every sand particle would vibrate, making her vision "fuzzy."
*** Wood resonates much more strongly than stone, so I'd assume that any disadvantage posed by not standing on earth would be countered by the fact that she's standing on something that most non-super-blind-earthbenders would be able to pick up at least some vibrations through. Maybe it'd be a little blurrier or something, but it doesn't leave her disoriented and helpless the way that being on sand or in the water or air does.
** The most likely explanation for how Toph 'sees' is that her feet send vibrations out, which resonate outward and onto any object connected to the earth. Her earthbending allows her to feel the vibrations coming back, which lets her see the object. When she's in water or on Ice or Appa she has no connection to the earth, so she isn't getting any response. I'd assume that after so many years in her mansion she'd have become accustomed to sensing on it.
** Regarding the issue of Toph getting thrown by Aang's airbending, I think it was less that she couldn't see him bending than that she naturally thought she was fighting another earthbender. Getting hit by wind instead of having a rock thrown at her threw her for a bit of a loop.
** Basically, as I understand it, Toph can sense the basic shapes of people so long as they're on the ground. So she can sense Katara's basic shape and maybe even the outline of her clothes, but physical details like Katara's eye color or Aang's arrow tattoos, or Zuko's scar will be completely lost on her unless informed of it. She can see through solid earth, even if they're in the air. However, if the earth isn't solid enough (ie, the planks over the water and the sand), Toph is basically blind in every way possible until her feet smacks into solid wood.

* How did The Ember Island Players manage to get black lights for the avatar state effects? I assume its just fire in a metal dishes for the lights normally, but blacklights seem out of place.
** It was not Black Lights: The lights were off. The paint glowed in the dark.

*** They have glow-in-the-dark rocks. Grind 'em up and put them into the paint. Assume that they come in different colors, while you're at it.
*** There are naturally occurring florescent substances that have nothing to do with radiation.
** Black-light fireflies in a jar. Hey, why not? Plenty of insects can see in the ultraviolet.

** Spirit Magic.
** They don't. Look at Guru Pathik - he has to be older then Aang's 112 years, if he was "a close personal friend of Monk Gyatso's". [[WordOfGod Word of God]] states that longevity in the Avatar world is a result of high chi levels and a connection to nature. Benders are naturally going to be more likely to have a great deal of chi, since that's the source of their abilities, but it's clearly not impossible for a spiritual normal to achieve the same results.

* In one episode, there was a massive Fire Nation naval blockade - around a "whole continent" iirc. Given the number of ships we see at a random spot around the perimeter, the Fire Nation must have more battleships than people. Also in that episode, one of these ships ''put on the brakes and audibly ground to a halt'' to avoid hitting Zuko's ship. To me it's so obviously unrealistic that there must be some weird reason for it.

** If you're referring to the blockade from Book 1, that was specifically ordered by Zhao to keep the Avatar from getting to the Fire Nation uncaptured. Not only was it temporary, it most likely only blocked off a portion of Fire Nation waters - a just large-enough area to ensure that going around would take up far too much time.

* Some of the things waterbenders can do with their water just makes no sense. Shaping it into a whip to lash someone, fine. Shaping it into a whip to lasso them, fine. I can see them shaping it into a "gel" so dense it doesn't just splash around whatever it's touching. But how the hell do they use water like a blade to cut things? Even metal? Water can cut things by enormous velocity/pressure, but these guys just slice it around like a blade and it somehow cuts clean through things.
** The same way you can slice things with thin blades of air, I guess.
** Water jet cutting machinery is capable of slicing into metal and other hard materials, but they always shoot the water in a single, concentrated direction. That said, it might be posible to do this in a curved motion but the velocity and pressure would have to be extrememly high to make up for the lack of concentration.
** More likely it's the whipping motion. It doesn't take too much skill to cut soda cans with a basic leather whip.

** Sugar is a combination of water and Carbon Dioxide, both can be found in the air. For the energy source, perhaps photosynthesis (which allows you to store them by keeping it in the dark) or chi (which explains why it works by putting it on people).

* Teo(the kid with the glider chair). His chair lacks padding, and realistically, he would need some kind of soft padding to prevent pressure sores. He's even shown sleeping on his back - when you spend most of your day in a hard chair, sleeping on your back is not a good idea. Also, there's the risk of renal failure depending on how low the injury was, and without daily physical therapy sessions, there's a danger of serious problems like thrombosis and possibly gangrene due to poor blood circulation. Props to the show's creators though for making a disabled character without making his disability the focus of the episode.

** I myself thought it was because fire, lightning and the sun are all in the same high-energy state of matter, plasma.
*** Exactly. Firebenders bend energy. While firebenders can and do bend existing fires, they typically generate their own fire. The same is true of the lightning produced, just with energy in a different state.
** Traditionally, lightning is a mix between fire and air, like mist is air + water or lava is fire + earth. If you think about it; theoretically, airbenders should be able to lightningbend as well.
*** Actually, lava isn't fire and earth, it's just earth. Really, really, hot earth.
** The issue with the bending of elements is whether they just bend the literal element in the name or just the state of matter associate with it (fire = plasma, earth = solid, water = liquid and air = gas), we have some hints that is the second, earthbenders can bend coal for example, that has nothing chemically earth on it and the aforementioned bending of electricity by firebenders (also I wonder if waterbenders can bend some other kind of liquid like oil or milk). The problem with this theory will be waterbender’s ability to turn water in ice though.
*** That can't be the case, though - if it were, earthbenders would be able to bend any solid object, and waterbenders would be able to bend lava and other liquids that don't contain water. Firebenders can bend lightning because they create fire from the energy in their own bodies, so lightning is doing the same thing, just more precise and refined. And coal is just a rock. It's a special type of rock, but a rock nonetheless.
** Iroh developed lightning redirection from watching waterbenders, the Guru says that the boundaries between the elements are illusory, and there are more than a few themes that suggest that it could be theoretically possible for a normal bender to work with more than one element (like the swamp benders, who seem to incorporate some limited handling of plants). It's just the same problem as people have with any other skill - it takes a very long time to become very good, and even benders of one element can get to the point where they're very very good at only a few manifestations of their elements. (The thing about the Avatar is that he is so strong and capable that he is naturally equally capable of mastering all four.) Given that it is possible for non-Avatars to develop something of a limited multi-specialty, whether "waterbenders can handle fog" or "firebenders can handle lightning" probably has more to do with these learned artificial distinctions between the elements than whether there is some natural law deciding which category contains "metal" or "lightning" or "vines".
** There's never an indication that a normal bender can work with multiple elements. Bending the plants was bending the ''water'' in the plants. The Avatar is the only person who can do things with more than one element, and it has nothing to do with being "so strong and capable," it's that they're literally unique in that ability.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:How long have they been using bows & arrows?]]
* How does most of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender still use bows and arrows? In the modern world, bows and arrows were invented around 10000 years ago. Yet in the episode, The Cave Of The Two Lovers, it clearly shows the beginning of earthbending, which meant that it was before the avatar cycle began. There have been roughly a thousand avatars since the beginning of bending. Assuming that the avaerage age for an avatar was closer to 150, a few decades above the average bender, that means that the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been using bows and arrows for at least 150000 years and probably more than that. I know that guns and their feasibility has been discussed, so why is there no wide spread use of firearms? There is gunpowder shown in the series and the fire nation uses cannons during the invasion attempt on the day of the eclipse, so why are there no guns used by the armies of almost any nation?
** Firstly, the average age for an avatar was not 150. Aang and Kyoshi actually lived exceptionally long; they were actually the oldest two people in history IIRC. Second, just because we invented something and use it often [[TechnologyLevels doesn't mean it applies to every other culture]]. There can be plenty of reasons why guns are not used, such as gunpowder being rare/hard to make for mass production, or that someone has invented a gun but the armies thought just having a ton of soldiers was the cheaper/easier option. I mean, it is a weapon you need to hold. Someone can just use bending and knock it out of your hands.
*** ...Aang was one of the oldest people in history? I thought he died when he was in his sixties or so.
*** Aang is 112 in the first episode, just because he looks young doesn't mean that century didn't count.
*** But...why would it count? He was frozen solid, unconscious, and his body didn't grow or change at all.
*** Because he was actively using the Avatar state that entire time. He spent 100 years bending continuously in the most stressful way possible. He didn't age but he burned his lifeforce out.
** In real life, the invention of the first firearm (the firelance, 1000 A.D.) didn't quite replace bow and arrows. Frankly, I find it weirder that they use catapults instead of cannons or rockets.

[[/foler]]

*** Because he was actively using the Avatar state that entire time. He spent 100 years bending continuously in the most stressful way possible. He didn't age but he burned his lifeforce out.

* The oddly inconspicuous lack of any form of firearms. The Fire military's transportation is steamships, airships, and tanks, circa UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. Their artillery, on the other hand, is arrows, catapults, and spears from TheDungAges. Seems as good an example of SchizoTech as any until you realize that there is in fact evidence of gunpowder in the show. You can see fireworks in "The Deserter" and explosives in "Siege of the North". So what reason would these people have not to be using cannons and muskets and bayonets? All of which predate steamships and tankS, by the way.

*** But...why would it count? He was frozen solid, unconscious, and his body didn't grow or change at all.

*** Aang is 112 in the first episode, just because he looks young doesn't mean that century didn't count.

*** ...Aang was one of the oldest people in history? I thought he died when he was in his sixties or so.

** Firstly, the average age for an avatar was not 150. Aang and Kyoshi actually lived exceptionally long; they were actually the oldest two people in history IIRC. Second, just because we invented something and use it often [[TechnologyLevels doesn't mean it applies to every other culture]]. There can be plenty of reasons why guns are not used, such as gunpowder being rare/hard to make for mass production, or that someone has invented a gun but the armies thought just having a ton of soldiers was the cheaper/easier option. I mean, it is a weapon you need to hold. Someone can just use bending and knock it out of your hands.

* How does most of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender still use bows and arrows? In the modern world, bows and arrows were invented around 10000 years ago. Yet in the episode, The Cave Of The Two Lovers, it clearly shows the beginning of earthbending, which meant that it was before the avatar cycle began. There have been roughly a thousand avatars since the beginning of bending. Assuming that the avaerage age for an avatar was closer to 150, a few decades above the average bender, that means that the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been using bows and arrows for at least 150000 years and probably more than that. I know that guns and their feasibility has been discussed, so why is there no wide spread use of firearms? There is gunpowder shown in the series and the fire nation uses cannons during the invasion attempt on the day of the eclipse, so why are there no guns used by the armies of almost any nation?

** The issue with the bending of elements is whether they just bend the literal element in the name or just the state of matter associate with it (fire = plasma, earth = solid, water = liquid and air = gas), we have some hints that is the second, earthbenders can bend coal for example, that has nothing chemically earth on it and the aforementioned bending of electricity by firebenders (also I wonder if waterbenders can bend some other kind of liquid like oil or milk). The problem with this theory will be waterbender’s ability to turn water in ice though.