Also notice how firebenders in TLOK seem able to generate lightning much faster than anyone in ATLA. Yet, in ATLA, lightning was used to blow holes through stone walls and destroy cliff faces. Mako couldn’t even mange to kill Amon with a point blank lightning blast! I think that even though lightning generation is much more common on, most people aren’t proficient enough to use it on the same level as Azula, Iroh, or Ozai.
I think they can be just as proficient, but trade off power for speed. Out off all the lighting bending we’ve seen mako has been the best. Being able to continually flow lightning for like what, 20 secs? Use lightning without arm movements, and redirect lightning after he’s been struck. Stricken? Anyway, I don’t think it makes much sense to say someone like mako isn’t as proficient. I think that h just usually trades off power for Speed. Also, he doesn’t want to kill anyone😂 azula and ozai want to murder people with their boltz 💀
Don't forget the fact that Zuko learned that Firebending is actually energy control rather than mere manipulation of fire, and likely that he spread the True Firebending practices and philosophy since it seemed to really do him a lot of good [and definitely helps break down the previously traditional thought that firebending was associated with anger]
But philosophy is not a technology. You cannot believe the vast majority of fire benders suddenly adopted Zuko's ideology instead of being the average Joe's they always were. For every Iroh and Zhao you have hundreds of prison guards. Just people living normal lives.
@@andredulac4456Firelord are so powerful and knowing that the Firelord's philosophy is like that the avarage joe would think that's it's better because their Firelord is doing it
Irl, a similar thing happens in sports. Where there's some sort of ceiling, and after the first person breaks it, it becomes far more common. A good example being the sub 3 minute mile.
3 point revolution in basketball, tiki-taka (or at least some variation of it) & Gegenpress/player work load versatility in Football/Soccer. Once something is proven to be successful, everyone will try to copy it.
100 years of constant war, the ceiling was reached long ago. This is clear as there would be nothing of value in having weak benders in the frontlines. The only characters capable of shooting or redirecting lightning in ATLA are the top 3 after Aang. Random people being able to shoot lightning would be like the average jogger running as fast as Usain Bolt. It makes no sense.
metalbending also spread pretty fast after toph began practicing the skill and teaching other earthbenders. not too far fetched to think the spread of lightningbending was similar
@@marricksinon2057 Yeah, cause that was basically something that has never existed in the entire history before. That's like an equivalent to what a creation of lightbulb and wires did in our world
@@jeegunugger1871 Now, come on. Bloodbending is too dangerous to be known publicly. Imagine thousands of bloodbenders uniting against the world. Even an avatar would have died after such war. The only avatar in all of history that has a chance against that is probably Kyoshi, since she was strong enough to separate an entire continent in two (also, she achieved eternal youth and therefore couldn't die from old age. But eventually she did die because she couldn't live for much longer after everyone she knew and loved had already died)
It’s probably due to advancements in technology and the realisation that they needed electricity, to which Zuko was probably like “I have an easy way of producing electricity”…
@@katfans7124 But he knew of the technique, and Iroh probably was still around to teach the first generation. Zuko also knew the theory, and knew how to redirect them, which is useful while teaching it.
That's what I was thinking too, someone probably presented a new invention to Aang and Zuuko while Republic city was being developed, a small generator that could generate power and ignite a light bulb. They could have used air or water bender to move it, but Zuko might have thought of skipping the middle man and just use people to generate electricity. It might have even been a development started by the Fire Kingdom, maybe using their fire bending to boil water and spin a generator.
Exactly. With all the open-source information online, would someone learn, I don't know, Assembly Language out of blue? But if you have a million job openings that pay 500k then you would see three years old picking up assembly language.
When it make more sense for l lightning bending to use as a form of meditation at the strat since ozai ruined the mindset and killed all but two dragons Then as tech evolved lightning because useful
I wonder if Zuko could have learned combustion bending. He did create small explosions when he tried to lightning bend, so there could have been the potential to refine that
Years ago, one of the original storyboard descriptions mentioned something along the lines of how benders do not have as much spirituality, and the result is cheaper and more fast paced bending. This would line up with the new version of lighning bending, where it is common place, but the lack of spirituality makes it lack oomph
Also with rage no longer being used for fire bending it could also cause advance techniques being readily available but with some it might make their bending stronger or weaker depending on the person
That would be great, but that's not what we see 90% of the time in the show. If anything, the modern benders are way more powerful, and rare bending skills are now the average. Zaheer is pretty much the sole exception to LoK's standard of "powerful bender with 0 spirituality" And sure, the lightning bending isn't as powerful, but they're still using one of the most advanced and dangerous sub element bending out there, as if it's a normal tuesday. ATLA established that even _attempting_ electrical bending without spiritual balance would kill you.
@@GeneralTaco155555a it’s pretty clear that on average lightning bending became easier and weaker. Don’t think any of the lightning benders in LOK had strikes as powerful as Ozai’s. Expecting the average person to be using lightning bending as well and powerfully as some of the strongest characters in ATLA is naive.
@@GeneralTaco155555a What I see is that the benders in LOK are more skilled in bending techniques but they’re less powerful because bending isn’t a precious thing anymore like in the past, to them its just like any ordinary tool.
@@tommyshelby8373 who is less powerful though? We see bloodbenders able to stop the avatar themselves in the middle of the day, without even moving. The only thing anyone can come up with people being less powerful, is that people can tank more hits from things that would've killed someone in ATLA. Which isn't evidence of bending being less powerful, it just means they gave everyone stronger plot armor
Lighting was a suppressed skill by the Royal family, others could do it, but it was rare. Once the war was over, it was taught to other fire benders. It’s like how Toph created Metal bending, and taught others and now her daughter has a whole city of metal.
@@SkRo0L3w5eI completely agree. Zuko had all the knowledge of lightning generation but failed to do it because he lacked spiritual development. It kept exploding in his face. Mako or any criminals in LOK dont seem spiritually advanced enough to use lightning. They use it only because of plot.
@@SkRo0L3w5e I mean that's how natural progessions in life happens. things that was once considered new for example like Advanced Math some people can easily pick up on the equations while other slowly learn to understand it over time.
Back in the day in tricking, only a few people were able to do a double backflip. Now, many people pushed the skill gap and a lot of people know how to do a double back now. It’s the same with lightningbending
An interesting fact to point out: in the Kyoshi novels, she fought a pirate who used lightning against her. He was a powerful and important figure in his clan, but a long shot from fire nation royalty..
Fire Nation Royal family: *practices lightning generation* Also the Fire Nation Royal family: *gatekeeps the teaching.* Fire Lord Zuko: "And I took that personally..."
This is basically confirmed in the Kyoshi novels. Xu Ping An, who discovered the technique, was kept in a top secret prison in the earth kingdom that only the firebending royal family and a handful of high-ranking earth kingdom officials knew about.
The world is shrinking, just like you used to have to hike miles to a Shaolin temple to learn kung fu there are now dozens of places in every town. Better transportation equals greater dissemination of information, equals more skilled labor.
yeah, like even though korra was born in the water tribe she still learned fire bending in the water tribe instead of travelling all the way around around the world and learning it at an ancient sun warrior civilization
If you read rise of kyoshi, it’s explained that lightning bending was so rare it was considered a myth, a legendary type of bending that didn’t actually exist, the yellow neck leader was interrogated for years before they got any info on how it worked, it was also faster than the one used by azula. Years later when Azula improves on lightning bending making it stronger than ever, it’s already known by the royal family in the fire nation that it exists, so the royal family probably passed down the yellow neck version of lightning bending and azulas lightning bending is unique, all other characters who use lightning bending use it quickly, and do little damage like the one used in korra, but when azula uses lightning bending she builds it up before release making it more powerful(it’s the same thing she does with her flames, there’s no oxygen in it but she holds it long enough for it to stack in power)
I recall reading an official LOK concept art book and them explaining the need more more firebenders to learn how to use lightning due to the industrial revolution and the rapid advancement in technology.
i wonder if their formal education degrees have bachelor, masteral, and doctarate in Bending. like when they say the avatar is the master of all four elements, its literally a degree (like Master of Arts in Fire Bending) given to an avatar.
This very much seems to be the case in the Earth Kingdom, where there were entire schools dedicated to bending & people like Toph were considered "unskilled" because they hadn't had formal training. Same thing, to an extent, at the Northern Water Tribe where women and men were traditionally taught separate bending styles. edit: We also know Zei was a professor at Ba Sing Se University's anthropology department, I wonder if Ba Sing Se University offered bending courses as well...
The air benders do 34 techniques to become a master or 33 and invent your own technique (Aang's was the air scooter) So it's probably something similar like obviously moving a pebble is harder than moving a literal giant metal monument by simply stabbing a smiley face into the well face and moving it that way.
I will say that it actually reminds me more of real life martial arts, becoming a master in taekwondo is an actual title given to those who are able to achieve the 4th dan black belt and above. This exam is even regulated by an international body
LightningBending was kept unkown to thoes outside of the royal family at first, but Zuko brought an equality and alowed the knowledge to all firebenders.
my theory is that, Zuko lead a change in fire bending to be less about anger and destructive passion, in the way the dragons showed him. This means more firebenders with clear heads even when blasting. And in turn leads to the rise of more lightening benders given it requires more inner peace and calm. With the rise of techniqually skilled benders we get a new vocation. Edit: heh 69 likes
@YoItsKernal It actually does make sense. Zuko had a complete revelation his entire worldview was turned upside down when he learned from the ancient dragons. Learned that true power came from control, inner peace, and balance. Rather than anger, hatred and pure emotion.
Also, with the "industrial revolution" that occurred in Republic City, the demand for lightning bending went up, and so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to consider many firebenders wanted to learn that skill.
Separately, I'd add that with the White Lotus coming out of the shadows, many bending techniques - especially techniques formed from the interrelationships of different nations- came out into the public view.
There will be challenge like "Lightning Challenge : How Many Times I Could Strike Lightning Without Passing Out" or tutorial channel "How to Master Blood Bending for Dummies in Just 3 Days" kind of UA-camrs
I’m imagining “making an entire decorated house with just earth bending” or “DONT BEND BLOOD AT 3AM (NOT FAKE!!! COPS WERE CALLED!!!)” And maybe stuff like “the different fire bending movements, and how to use them” or video essays like “why is gender imbalance most prominent in water people?”
@@midnightartist43 I can definitely see some stupid kids making videos like “BLOOD BENDING PRANK GONE WRONG” or viral fight videos going around like “GUY IN BAR STARTS A FIGHT BUT ACCIDENTALLY RUNS INTO BLOOD BENDER”
I actually liked that lighting bending was only used by a selected few because that’s what made it special but seeing how just any body can use it now just takes that away for me
I just finished watching the Last Airbender and have started watching Korra and that is one that that definitely stood out, a lot of the advanced techniques (such as lightning bending) jumped from being only a handful capable of generation and/or redirection to suddenly every third firebender using it despite how it being first introduced Iroh stating it was extremely dangerous; not only for the target, but also for the user and even just one misstep would mean it backfiring and potentially killing the user. Simple meta explanation is the classic curse of power creeping, as a series goes on you need to keep raising the stakes. This is somewhat addressed in the series with the psychic blood bender where the flashback to the trial has Sokka saying there are many styles throughout the world and within those extremely rare and unique variants, and so the psychic blood bender must be one of those. In the case with lightning perhaps there is some rare innate talent and after republic city was established the information was made more available and those with the talent were able to somewhat safely test themselves. It's, in my opinion, a weak explanation but so far the only one I can come up with. (Realistically though it's still the classic power creeping. Just like Aang going until the very end of the entire series to master the Avatar state while Korra needed just the first season and then could use it at will)
That wouldn’t make logical sense though. Bending in itself is widespread and the alternative elements would be widespread by association and people spreading information. It was never described as a limited or rare skill in the sense that only certain “special” people could learn it. It was explained as a skill that’s difficult to learn and master. Information about it being spread would have allowed it to be more common.
@@h3llboyyy407 That was probably my least favorite thing they showed for airbenders in LOK. They were already OP why make them potentially even more so?
@@dancingbymoonlt nahh it wouldn’t make sense for it to be common ground. Lightning was a master technique. Everyone is not a master. In the sang series, even soldiers weren’t that good at just fire bending. They were novices compared to ppl like general jao (however you say it). It just bad story writing in korra
"even street criminals" Lightning Bolt Zolt is a Triad leader, not a mere street criminal. Mako learned from him. The only others in LoK that do lightning are his coworkers, it still needs some explanation like the one you provide but it's not just some guy on the street pulling robberies, it's a whole mobster at the top of the food chain, not unlike the people who held lightning secrets prior to the firelord's family monopolizing them.
@@okebedoke it's a specialized skill only true masters with peace of mind can use. Uncle Iroh couldn't even reach Zuko, so that's the point. How does a factory manager teach a random guy off the street when a prince with full martial education can't master it with a teacher like Iroh and literal dragons.
@@reilen4359you need peace of mind when you’re learning it. you don’t need to be calm for the rest of your life to use it. when azula lost her mind in the finale, she was still able to use lightning bc she’s already mastered it. why should a factory manager not be able to teach a random guy off the street? you can be a factory manager and also be a master firebender - they’re not mutually exclusive. zuko was taught by iroh but not the dragons. how would the dragons teach him lightning bending when they can’t do it themselves and have never been shown to have any skill with it? the reason zuko couldn’t learn it is the same reason aang couldn’t do metalbending and bolin couldn’t do metalbending. some ppl got it and some ppl don’t.
@@melexo Even though Aang should be fully capable of it too being the avatar. The avatar should be able to do anything but like Zaheer says, they limit themselves.
Blood bending is manipulating fluids inside of a tube(vein) swamp bending is manipulating the vines, by using the water to hold the vines. It's the difference between reaching out and grabbing a vine to use(swamp bending) blood bending is like have a really powerful magnet that is stuck inside of someone else. The person isn't moving, the blood inside of them is forcing them to move. Kind of like when using a magnet to secure something to your fridge.
Most of it is. Bloodbending is taught within a single family that hyper focused on it. Metalbending is more spread out because it's being actively taught and developed as a technology but is still mostly used by specialized teams. Most other forms of unusual bending are used by just one or two people. Lightning bending is really the odd one out. Mako doesn't mention having any kind of specialized training for it. And somehow jobs associated with this specialized skill pay less than being a beat cop which requires no bending at all.
@@BonaparteBardithionyea i agree wih you. i mean for metal, air and bloodbending lore makes sense. Bloodbending is still guarded knowledge, air benders heritage is being democratized and there is a whole academy and city for metal bending. Lighting Bending treated as peasent common skills that doesnt pay well seem to like stretch. Likely it was a writing issue. They wanted Mako to be seen as talented and strong while at the same time be seen as poor and downtrodden. And these put strain on the lore. They should have made it so that lighting bending is earned by Mako not given so easily.
Korra also has electricity damn near everywhere, so the basic concept is probably taught in public schools, meaning it isn't so foreign to the average firebender.
He also said in the same breath that only a select few firebenders can separate the yin and yang energies. Insinuating master class proficiency with firebending. Korra retconned that for some reason
@@markbunst5961 Well, she actually is very focused on every goal she sets on accomplishing. Clearing her head of destructive rage to generate lightning made sense enough. She was insane in the end, but her intention of shooting lightning at Katara was a calm and mischievous one, by the looks of it
Lightning generation is a technique that is mastered using water bending techniques while fire bending, so it makes sense that after the war when people of different backgrounds started cooperating that those teachings would become more wide spread.
The way Iroh taught it is the spiritual, more powerful way. Newer lightning benders use a different mindset. It's similar to how Bolin showed how her orthodox earthbending was classic but his Pro Bending was more suited for the times
@@SantomPh "Only a select few fire benders can separate these energies" -Iroh Ain't no way he said this is in a symbolic way. This isn't the only time LOK breaks Avatar Lore.
@@xiaoxiao3260 I can totally see where you are coming from. Mako's lightning shot couldn't kill Amon at point blank range. But Iron stated that you need to separate the 2 energies to CREATE lightning, saying that only a "select few" could do it. Even though lightning in LOK is less powerful, the fact that almost EVERY firebender can do it fully breaks the "select few" concept that iroh put in the first place.
@@goldenminecard1723 I'm thinking that mayeb they found another way to do it other than separating the two energies, because how else would the skill get this weak if people are doing it properly? enabling most firebenders to do it, but the downside is that its more of an imitation to the actual skill and isn't as strong as the one taught by iroh, so what iroh said became not completly true, but stands true in regards to only a select few can use this skill powerfully by seperting the two energies. I wonder if they said anything about the method of using it jn LOK.
Redirection wasn’t in any scrolls. It was invented and perfected by Iroh who studied waterbenders. In a bid to make things more modern, the legend of Korra writers made some huge leaps.
It's not that big of a leap to think that after lightning-bending became public knowledge, Iroh and Zuko made the redirection technique public as well and taught others how to use it, causing both lightning-bending and redirection to spread just like Toph did with metalbending. I think lightning-bending was another piece of knowledge that the fire nobles kept guarded in their bloodlines (we know Ozai and Azula can lightning-bend too, at least) and was given to the public after the war when everything starts coming out. It's then important that they should be able to learn to defend themselves from lightning attacks, too!
Well, at the time the fire nation literally sought to exterminate all non-fire nation people. So it's no surprise that they never learnt about using parts of other bending to their benefit. As nations exchanged information, some smart people would surely figure stuff out.
@@mostlyimpulsive3462 still should require master levels of proficiency, since it's a master class technique (toph, the best earthbender and iroh stating only a select few benders can have the skill to separate yin and yang) so not every joe in LoK should have picked it up.
I also feel like this is the demytification of martial arts happening in real time. In the real world, as the years go by, fighters will begin to learn various martial arts and cherry pick the strongest lessons to create a more optimal fighting style. Modern communication technology like the Internet further boosts the speed of information transfer. Enter MMA. Methods like lightning bending techniques gets modernised to become more efficient and more achievable by average joe
@TheWeeaboo Well, I'm noy suggesting the average Joe has the talent of a prodigy. It could take a prodigy to master bending in times of war and poverty while being managable for a less talented individual in an environment with more information and resources at their disposal. Modernizing and analysing traditional martial arts can also lead to improved training methods and streamlined skills effectively lowering the skill floor. We can see both of these points when thinking about the Olympics. Look at the records celebrated decades ago. Thanks to modern fitness and human kinetics research, modern atheletes have way better training and diet programs. Plus, the ability to dedicated your whole life to sports as opposed to juggling another job helps out so much as well.
I remember a scene where Mako was in a line of firebender workers shooting lightning into some kind of power grid. If that’s how the city gets their electricity, I can see why the once special technique is now taught in the mainstream
2 other reasons… 1) with no more war and it being a time of peace for roughly 50+ years…there was surely a huge population boom with way more talented benders walking around. 2) technological advances in communication & travel (printing press, radio, electricity, etc) helped allow for information about the advanced bending techniques to be spread at an unprecedentedly fast rate. Anyone who wanted to learn how to do it knew exactly where to go in order to be taught.
You think the writers of one of the most incredible worlds in fiction don't put this much thought in their worldbuilding? Bruh! It's because they did that these gaps can so easily be filled in.
@@MidnightSnackx you need the writers to treat you like how rings of power did? the writing is great and allows us the audience to come with several theories in the meanwhile while they continue to expand the universe through avatar studios. you LoK haters sure need a lot of literacy hand holding.
The blending of cultures definitely also contributed. As Iroh has stated when he learned Lightning bending, he learned of how the water bender tribes lived and applied it to fire bending.
Well you're probably not wrong. It seems like something Iroh would do. However in the comic series a cult group busted Azula out of jail. I'm sure she probably would have taught it to them because of their loyalty.
@@Kyss111 that's true but the cults' allegiance was made out of loyalty to Ozai and Azula because they (like many other members of the fire nation) did not aproove of Zuko's rule.
@@U.V_30 Yeah, but I said the most dangerous, and I'll ad in combustion bending. Why should this bending be publicly accessible if it has a draw back of blowing yourself up, and frying people easier? A Knife and a Bomb are both dangerous... Witch one do you think shouldn't be easily accessible to the public?
Consider how the world records for sports have become more and more impressive over the years. It’s possible that birth rates increased over the years after the war, leading to more people and statistically, more people capable of high level bending feats. Or maybe it’s that once it becomes well-known that it’s possible, people try and train for it more and more and more achieve it, like how the 4 minute mile was once considered impossible, but now high-school level athletes can do it.
seeing as they now need electricity, i could also see the governments of the world trying to get fire benders to learn this, i could imagine schools could have classes on subskills like lightning and metal, as there are now jobs that depend on those skills, and then we have criminals learning it because "hey that looks pretty cool"
@@shizachan8421 yes also if you think about it we see people in korra taking lighting hits, and recovering pretty quickly, but in last airbender every time someone gets hit by lightning it's devestating or even deadly. so there is clearly less power behind it
@@Chrismosis I think thats actually a nice detail, if you ask me. So Lightning Bending has become more mainstream, but it isn't really teached and utilized as hyper destructive martial art anymore. I would also guess that the focus shifted towards more easy, fast and less potent lightning bending because not only is there a higher demand for it, the demand is probably to be capable of creating lightning continously for longer amounts of time. I could imagine that the machines probably can't even take the high voltage lightning strikes the likes of Azula and Ozai created without breaking down pretty fast and the workers there are probably continously bending lightning for probably your average 8 or more hours work day every day. Lets be real, I don't think the proper martial arts lightning benders probably couldn't do that with their more potent version, just shooting out lightning for hours straight every day, it was clearly more of a maximum destructive power to end any battle in an overkill style of bending back then. Going even further with headcanons, there are probably also safety concerns behint it, not only avoiding that a bunch of people master one of the most deadly forms of bending but also just the risk of workplace injuries if a bunch of firebenders would shoot out deadly voltages of lightning right next to each other continously.
If this theory about the Airbending scrolls and books and Zaheer learning Airbending techniques from them is true, then Zaheer literally has Aang the Avatar to thank for his vast Airbending knowledge. Which he then used to try and kill the Avatar forever several times but eh, swings and roundabouts XD
In ATLA, Iroh claims it is a technique that requires peace of mind and that any fire bender that can separate the positive and negative energies can create lightning. Lightning bending is a lot like metal bending…anyone can master it if they are dedicated enough to learning it. Metal bending was rare but now there’s a metal-bending police force. The difference is that it’s implied by Iroh that lightning is more common than we see on screen, that “people” call it the cold-blooded fire. It would make sense that LoK delivers on that implication, so much so that it has become a blue collar job to lightning bend for energy
I love how Lightning magma metal bending all became industrialized and more commonplace due to it being easily accessible. Still very dangerous industrial work but cool to watch 😅
Kinda like how knowledge of stuff that happened during ww2 become increasingly widespread after the war. Factor in the invention of the printing press during or after atla and knowledge was definitely going to be massively widespread.
Except it is not a technology it, it is a hyper advanced technique of a martial art. It is not a matter of knowledge alone, it is a matter of discipline. Or whatever you can have that mastery as a factor laborer.
@@KittSpiken Well Lightning bending was only difficult because to achieve it, firebenders had to practically become the opposite of their cultural nature to achieve. Lightning bending is not about aggression, fierceness, power, and other things. But rather a calm and clear mind, inner peace, and more. Martial arts, as your point is mentioning, evolved into Korra to be more efficient. ATLA bending was a lot more big with their moves which is less efficient than just keeping a closed defense and using swift and quick offense. Bending styles evolved to be more conservative and quick paced for faster attacks for better chances to hit their opponent. So I see no reason why Lightning bending wouldn’t follow suit soon after to be developed and learned to the point firebenders found it easier to learn. On top of the fact that there has been decades worth of peace, so the traits holding back a firebender from learning Lightning would slowly diminish.
I think the best explanation to this is Zuko wanting to pass on the teaching behind lightning. Before his reign, the Fire Nation had a very self-centered culture, and to help his people expand their worldview the way Iroh taught him when he taught him the technique, the 4 nations wisdom, etc to ensure a more lasting peace
It's kind of like how industrialization and the globalization of economies allowed for more people to get access to education in the real world. Not only that but you also have all of the people who took their experience gained from the war to become innovators, educators, etc.
The real reason is that the new writers thought that Lightning Generation and Metalbending were really cool and wanted to experiment with how they could use them in fight scenes with no regard to how that affected how special they were.
@@SpicyWeiner777 no, korra had many more new people writing the story. It wasn't just the same guys who wrote ATLA. How else could have Korra become so bad?
@SpicyWeiner777 The original writers for ATLA left the LOK after the first season, citing "creative differences." Simplified this means the people in charge wanted everything season to be bigger in terms of stakes, and they didn't care what pre-established lore they needed to break to do it. Hence the horrendous kaiju battle in Season 2, and even worse mech battle in Season 4. Nickelodeon wasn't listening to them at all so they quit.
@@witherwolf3316 What? That didn't happen. None of that actually happened. The Netflix quitting story is about the Live Action. Korra is from about 10 years ago , pre-Netfux era , from Nicklodeon. The writers, being Bryke , didn't quit Whorra. But Aaron Ehasz , another major writer of AtLA wasn't there. And while Bryke are visionaries , they just didn't have the writing talent to pull it off (and it's shows in S1 , though the writing staff in S2 didn't help much either) anyway his absence was felt in my opinion.
Also, like 100+ years passed and natural human advancement dictates that skilled labor can quickly become unskilled given enough time. So, in a magic system that translates to eventually hyper specialized moves will become commonplace with the passage of time
Something glanced over with both metal bending and lightning is technology. Electricity and metallurgy have greatly improved by the time of Korra. Makes sense as society takes control of these elements it's easier to bend them.
Also firebending was thought as the bending of wrath in atla, while that changed into its purer form after ozai was overthrown. This likely made the general populous more proficient.
One thing is when Amon took that lightning thug’s bending away, it went from lighting, downgraded to fire, and then ceased. That’s not how Royal Lighting Bending works. Iroh stated how you aren’t making the energy, you’re just separating ambient energy and guiding it to your target, like how an actual lighting cloud would do it, but Korra Lighting Bending just seems to be “Firebending, but harder.” There’s none of the separating motions that go into Royal Lighting Bending. It’s like two separate roads to the same destination, but one is far more complicated, but does it way better. This can also be seen in the difference in power. New Lighting will take you to the ground spasming, but you’ll recover. You get hit even with a glancing blow by Royal Lightning and you don’t have a master healer right next to you and you’re freaking dead, not to mention the detonation force Royal Lighting can have on a target.
@@spicydino996 By that logic no one is a bender of any element except fire and lightning. Lightning was most often only used against other lightning benders in TLAB. waterbenders don't meterialize their own water out of nothing. Eathbenders don't materialize rocks and metal out of nothing. Even air benders don't materialize their own air( except tenzin's son 😅🤣) So just because he can't materialize it in TLAB, doesn't mean he didn't learn like, every other street thug in LoK.
@@seekeroftruth2206 Lightning generation and redirection are two separate skills, Zuko even tries to generate lightning but because he is unbalanced it just causes an explosion. We see characters like Mako, Lightning Bolt Zolt and Iroh II all using lighting generation in Korra.
@@spicydino996, I am sure 100% Zuko learned lightning when all those comic book events had happened. He is talented and powerful enough for this. Same with Aang.
@@crabcrab3048 plus, Zuko learned that firebending doesn’t have to come from anger and hate, so he probably got the hang of lightning bending during the comics. I don’t really know the world too well so I might have glossed over a lot
I had an idea that would have been very cool if the creators had implemented it. Drug usage. The lightning bending being easier to use under the effects of a drug(with a talented firebender able to simulate the result sober after succeeding a few times while less talented or insecure benders becoming overly reliant and eventually addicted) could have been amazing to give Mako some depth and also give non-benders more reasons to hate the average bender and not just the triads.
for anyone who has seen this show the reason is obvious. Electricity. It was stated in the show that fire benders are payed well for the back breaking work of serving as a human vandagraph generater. The city's power grid is mainly ran by lightning benders
It does make sense like, extremely well kept secrets to separate the royal family from the masses becoming common place knowledge, still a skill in itself, but less of a rarity since dissemination of knowledge isn't big in these types of monarchies
Tenzin, Kya and Bumi mention some of the Air Nomad curriculum they learned as children so it literally wasn't all from Aang's memory, some of it definitely survived the Hundred Year War
@@Black_Death69AC nigga they were cut off from the world they say that a lot only a few traveled they only really communicated with other nations when it came to the avatar
@@SirDougey no that's not true at all they ALL traveled the world except the monks who taught at the air temples. Like seriously read the fucking lore and comics
After the war was over, fire bending began to depend less on anger and strong emotions. Lightning bending requires a clear head and neutral emotions, that is why we don't see Zuko using it.
I see this question a lot. The answer is just very similar to metal bending. Which an entire city of people and an army sized police force can do. But I guess Toph did dedicate part of her life to teaching it and making schools. It’s never stated about Zuko. But I’m sure part of reforming the fire nation included changing fire bending training and masters. Teaching more of the Iroh/dragon style of fire bending than the aggressive ways of the royal family and fire nation army.
Also the quality of education between a:tla and lok went from political ideology and standard subjects like language and math to actually caring a little bit about the students and how they can serve their nation/republic city's future.
The real reason for this is that they forgot that requirements are very specific to the person’s mentality so that even if you have access the techniques you most likely still will be unable to use them, and this is the same to some extent for mental bending in which being blind was a important part of figuring out their mechanics. They just wanted a their scene and move the world around it instead of the other way around
Lightning is so common, it pays less than selling dumplings on a street corner. World building in Korra is great on the outside but when you peer just a little closer it is half baked
I never understood why so many people had a problem with this just because the show only showed 3 people doing doesn't mean their the only people in the world who knew about it plus by korra all the nations are connected so plus its almost a entire century word of the technique should get out. I feel it's just atla fans wanting everything to be the exact same because it's such a background thing go get mad over
It's sort of like the blood-bending scenario. Not only were both sub-elements considered deadly, but they were also extremely difficult to learn. Iroh explains that to bend lightning, you must balance your natural yin and yang energies. Something not everyone can do. Zuko gets it wrong and it explodes. Lightning redirection was just as dangerous, since one slip up would take you out of commission or even kill you. Due to the risks of learning it, it's unlikely to be common. ATLA only had two known blood benders. Hama and Katara. Hama was imprisoned and Katara disapproved of the act in general. So obviously she wouldn't spread it. Yet, not only is it being used, but you can do it telepathically in broad daylight. The only sub-element that should be widely practiced is metal bending. It's not taboo, there are no drawbacks, but it would still require someone well versed in earthbending.
@@hg.c7987 tbf amon had a genetic mutation I believe that allowed him to do that in broad daylight. Plus he was the only of about 4 blood benders we have seen, and only he was the most relevant one. The other 3 were either a side character, or a background character being used to explain why bloodblending is illegal. I feel like those fire benders that were imprisoned by Hama would indeed share horror stories of it. Stuff like that would reach others and soon there will be some sicko that tries and attempts it. Plus. I see no reason why a water bender, with knowledge and tech advancing, wouldn’t go at some point “Well… what if I try to bend the water in a person’s body…” which could be used to try and cure blood stream ailments and other things related to blood. Water benders, especially healing ones, can detect the injuries in a person’s body by using water. So it’s not a far stretch to say they aren’t using a very small form of blood bending to detect injuries.
@@terrakage4462 Amon's dad was also a psychic blood bender. He did it in broad daylight too and taught it to his son. As far as Hama's victims are concerned, they were in the fire nation. For tales of Hama to spread from a rural fire nation village all the way to the north and south water tribes is a stretch considering, in terms of even technological development, they're the least advanced - and they're remote even now. Heck, the Airbenders have reverted back to their nomadic roots and are more in touch with other nations. There is no explanation for why Amon and his father are able to bloodbend in broaddaylight, or why Amon can take away someone's bending but Katara cannot restore said person's bending.
@@hg.c7987 Actually there is explanation why amon can "take" bending. It is revealed that he blocked bending, never taken it. He used bloodbending to block a chi point that allowed benders to bend. Which is why korra was able to cure anyone who had their bending "taken". It was a facade to make it seem like he was much more powerful than he actually was. And as I said, I believe it was mentioned that it is a genetic mutation that allowed those bloodbenders to do that. Which is extremely rare. Amon then ended up offing himself so now there is no waterbenders with that mutation anymore until it develops in another person again at some point, which will be a very rare occurence. As for the spreading. Republic city mixed a lot of cultures. And I mentioned this later, but any healing waterbender could develop a use for bending if medical related. As water benders used water bending to detect injuries in the body. So it could have spread in many ways. Or simply, the guy that got arrested by aang, he alone would be a popular enough story for any water bender who remotely heard about it to try bloodebending. Keep in mind the next bloodbender after katara learned was abount 20 years later after the events of ATLA. then Amon and his family developed theirs decades down the line.
@@terrakage4462 The explanation of how was never stated on screen. We're just meant to infer what happened for some reason. If Amon taking away bending works on the basis of manipulating chi, my question remains: why wasn't Katara able to restore bending? In ATLA, we're shown how healing works. By using water as a catalyst, they can redirect energy paths around the body. We see the lady in the northern water tribe do it; we see Kya manipulating Jinora's energies to keep her alive after her spirit had left her body. So why can't healers, who manipulate people's energies to induce healing, restore the bending Amon blocked? Considering spirit bending is a thing now, water benders can, to a certain extent, manipulate spiritual energy. So why can't they restore the bending Amon blocked? We're never told about a genetic mutation; we're just shown that these guys are so broken they can blood bend in broad daylight with their minds. Better yet, they can take people's bending away. Having blood bending this broken was a problem because, without plot convenience, it made no sense how Amon could lose. There were numerous opportunities to kill Korra or take away Korra's bending, but he chose not to because...why not🤷 Had they given some sort of limitation to this psychic ability to blood bend in broad daylight, it would have made sense. But Amon is essentially a juggernaut who lets Korra get away each time, even though it's against his best interest. It made Amon come off as incompetent rather than intimidating.
I thinks it's because during the war the firebenders were thought to use their aggression to firebend and since lightning bending isn't about aggression, as seen when Zuko tried it, they couldn't do it.
@@crabcrab3048 Yes they are aggressive, but I would say they are very controlled aggressive, in contrast to Zuko and I think that made the difference. Azula used to firebend using 2 fingers to be more precise.
I’m willing to bet that by the future, metal ending will probably be more prevalent than earthbending due to the rise in airships…and possibly even spaceships.
one thing to note is that the tecnique was secluded so it was likely not properly enhanced. Iroh was supposedly who discoveeed it studying the water tribe (although Kyoshi novels had one appear) and when Iroh was teaching it to Zuko he explained how deadly it could be for the user too, by using it incorrectly could lead to you redirecting the charge straight into your own internal organs, same with redirecting it. the charge up movements could also be a safer way to use it to prevent that, as well as how they managed to make it have accuracy and range, because when Azula was practicing it, he couldnt hit things too far and it lacked accuracy, which makes sense since electricity follows the path of least resistance, and if its strong enough to travel in the air, its gonna follow an erratic pattern across the air pockets in the atmosphere which are the lightning tendrills, until it finds something to ground. when we see the ones in Korra using lightning fast they dont seem as destructive, and when Mako used it on Amon, it was a desperate last ditch efgort move to try and break Amons bloodbending grasp on him, which was likely not only significantly weaker but also only hit him because he was standing right next to mako, it probably wouldnt go far at all, he virtually "shortcircuited" the tecnique.
It is safe to assume the Royal family supressed knowledge of Lightning Bending, to give themself a edge. With Zuko Firelord - and Azula working against him - this knowledge spread easily.
That was definitely one of the things I hated the most in legend of Korra. The fact that they made regular benders do things that it took legendary benders and our favorite main characters from The Last Air Bender, years of learning, blood, sweat, perseverance, and tears, just downplayed all the hard they did to obtain that power and just downplayed the powers itself. Toph with her metal bending and Zuko with his lightning are the prime examples and the ones they lowkey hoed the most lol
I will believe that information was suppressed basically to allow the royal family to maintain their edge over the rest of the fire nation. A lot of the fire nations traditions had actually been lost over the hundred years and was in the ice but I do agree that the power of the ones from the legend of Korra are just not at the same level. But then again, when you think about that the royal family were the ones using it and they were some of the most powerful fire avengers in the world. It makes sense that even though they can use lightning match those guys
Wdym this is an example of good world building, it’s only logical that certain bending styles only possessed by the royal family would become more common after the war, and in 70 years so many things can happen
@@federicotorresani9117 more common=/= factory workers have mastery of this advanced technique. It's treated as military technology becoming a consumer product, like a Civ video game tech tree. Zuko was initially unable to learn the technique with Iroh as his teacher, but young benders pick it up now going to public school so they can be useful factory cogs? It's wholly nonsensical.
@@KittSpiken the fact is, it’s not a really advanced technique, it was simply kept a secret by the royal family, since lightning bending is very powerful. Zuko was in a deep state of inner turmoil, that’s why he couldn’t lightning bend, but he could redirect with no problem, that’s because firebenders are naturally more aware of the flow of energy in their bodies (their whole bending depends on it). It makes so much sense that once the knowledge became widespread more and more people would be able to lightning bending, it’s exactly the same as metal bending, and topo believed everyone could do it,so why not lightning?
@@federicotorresani9117 yes; accepting the Korra retcons, it is no longer an advanced technique, along with metal bending. But thats post hoc rationalization. In the Last Airbender, when a firebender was shown to be able to produce lightning, it was one of two things that marked Azula as a prodigy (along with her blue flames). On top of that, she could not perform the technique perfectly. Her being a prodigy is a character trait separate from her bloodline. However her station as the princess did grant her more time to study and train at bending than any other firebender would have available. on top of her natural talent. Metalbending was a product of Toph's unique seismic sense (she also was presented as a prodigious talent), original presented as her finding impurities in the metal that could still be manipulated as earth. The fact is: the idea that these techniques are now in wide use is super contrived. They came idea first in the writing process and then an explanation was wrung out of the idea, as opposed to organically developed from the story. Which is a big problem with Korra as a whole. It is no skin off my back if you like it, if none of that bothers you. The direction they took the series in never worked for me, so I didn't watch it. I'm not an invested hater. Only later, I went back to dissect parts of it as a writing study, mostly around the world building and why it was a non-starter for me.
@@KittSpiken but that’s the thing really, it’s not a retcon. Seriously there many other problems with korra, due to the writers or the way Nickelodeon handled things, but lightning and metal bending aren’t really in that list. It makes perfect sense that once a bending technique is discovered, once you spread that knowledge it’s going to become readily available. Azula did perfect the technique, hell she was even able to do it while she was going crazy, something that should have been impossible according to iroh’s explanation. And with metal it’s the same, toph could sense those Earth particle thanks to her seismic sense, but once she knows she can bend metal she can teach others to do the same, explaining how. Since you didn’t watch korra it makes complete sense that you wouldn’t know this, but in tlok the only reason we see so many lightning benders is because there’s a scene in a factory dedicated to them, so it makes sense as to why they would be there in such numbers. Same with the street criminal, you don’t become a powerful boss without being a skilled bender. And with metal bending it’s again exactly the same, toph taught people (and it was still hard to learn) and created a police force comprised solely of metalbenders, that’s why we see so many of them in the same place. And btw metal bending is still quite rare, with bolin claiming only 1 in 100 Earth benders can do it. At the end of the day lightning and metal bending are not advanced technique, they’re mostly dependant on knowledge, and then skill, not everyone can do it, and not everyone does, even in tlok, but the whole point of making them more common was to show the advancements made in the 70 yrs after the war thanks to aang, zuko and toph. Anyway this is all explained well in the comics and in the kyoshi novels, so really calling them retcons is quite a reach. I think you should watch korra to form a better opinion cause to them it’s sometimes even more enjoyable than atla, even if the writing is inferior in some points
Thank you….Thank you SO much for calling it Lighting Generation, as it is the proper term. “Lightningbending” is such a clunky mouthful, yet so many have adopted it as the proper terminology. It’s nice to see someone use it correctly!
Remember when Iroh said bending Lightning is super dangerous because if you do it even slightly wrong, the lighting will rush to your heart and kill you? yeah, TLOK forgot about that
Actually the most likely explanation is the writers, producers, directors, animators, etc decided to just have more people do lightning bending because it’s cool. There’s not always an in universe explanation for changes like this since it’s not a change that happens in universe, it happens in a board room.
I still kinda hated this change, same with metal bending. They both became far too wide spread for such advanced teqniques that were suposedly hard to use and required mastery.
Well this is a very common thing in a lot of eastern folklore and mythos. What starts off as an exceptional feat in one generation becomes a bit more of a standard in the following generation as more people strive to become the same caliber of the previous generations heroes.
@@K.G444 I mean once one person learns bloodbending what stops the entire water tribe from learning, next thing you know you’ve got people bloodbendjng other people on non full moons. It’s not progression, it’s Op and stupid
@@Jakc. I mean it went from something Hama learned from desperation to something Katara was taught to randomly 3 people know it AND they can use it without the full moon
@@adamallen8787 which was a genetic mutation if I remember. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. That’s still only a few benders that know it and 2 of which weren’t even vital to the story. Amon ended up being one of the best villains to come out of Korra. They didn’t “ruin” powerscaling, as that would require it to break the fundamental laws of the universe, which it is doesn’t. Lightning bending is more widespread but much weaker due to how easy it is to do it now. Getting stronger charges requires channeling. Metal bending got diversified (which toph went off to teach others how to metal bend anyways so it was going to happen anyways) and still only a select few people can bloodbend and it’s basically a war crime to do so. So almost no one knows how to bloodbend. No bending type became overpowered or underpowered due to the changes made. Which means powerscaling was not ruined.
This and the evolution of firebending, with the economic pressure put on firebenders by the demand for energy as the catalyst, lots of firebenders learned to humble themselves and generate lightning.
Also notice how firebenders in TLOK seem able to generate lightning much faster than anyone in ATLA. Yet, in ATLA, lightning was used to blow holes through stone walls and destroy cliff faces. Mako couldn’t even mange to kill Amon with a point blank lightning blast! I think that even though lightning generation is much more common on, most people aren’t proficient enough to use it on the same level as Azula, Iroh, or Ozai.
I sometimes thought of, they used it for living/occupation like how mako makes money using his Lighting.
Ахахахахаахахаха. Молнии Мако намного сильнее молний азулы.
I think they can be just as proficient, but trade off power for speed. Out off all the lighting bending we’ve seen mako has been the best. Being able to continually flow lightning for like what, 20 secs? Use lightning without arm movements, and redirect lightning after he’s been struck. Stricken? Anyway, I don’t think it makes much sense to say someone like mako isn’t as proficient. I think that h just usually trades off power for Speed. Also, he doesn’t want to kill anyone😂 azula and ozai want to murder people with their boltz 💀
@@relyk9157 читай комиксы. Азула кидала молнии с намерением убить,а от них даже сознание не теряли
The way I thought of it is that the quick or instant lighting is significantly weaker in power than the lighting that takes a few seconds to charge
Don't forget the fact that Zuko learned that Firebending is actually energy control rather than mere manipulation of fire, and likely that he spread the True Firebending practices and philosophy since it seemed to really do him a lot of good [and definitely helps break down the previously traditional thought that firebending was associated with anger]
But philosophy is not a technology. You cannot believe the vast majority of fire benders suddenly adopted Zuko's ideology instead of being the average Joe's they always were. For every Iroh and Zhao you have hundreds of prison guards. Just people living normal lives.
@@loserinasuit7880 why that ? Zuko is the firelord now, he can ask the firebending schools and masters to teach his way.
@@andredulac4456Firelord are so powerful and knowing that the Firelord's philosophy is like that the avarage joe would think that's it's better because their Firelord is doing it
@@loserinasuit7880 zuko can rework the entire education system if he wants. Being firelord has a lot of privileges
@@austinslack4695 It is not possible or practical to have the entire nation able to produce or redirect lightning as it requires decades of training.
You mean like how toph was the first person to metalbend and now the whole police force can do it with ease
The force that *she* runs? (ran)
I can’t tell if you are just being dumb or not.
And personally taught them
She had a whole academy teaching them earthbending and even metalbending. She also encountered 1 student know how to lavabend.
Irl, a similar thing happens in sports. Where there's some sort of ceiling, and after the first person breaks it, it becomes far more common. A good example being the sub 3 minute mile.
Or that one thing nobody could do until Tony Hawk did it. And now random kids are doing it.
You mean sub 4
3 point revolution in basketball, tiki-taka (or at least some variation of it) & Gegenpress/player work load versatility in Football/Soccer.
Once something is proven to be successful, everyone will try to copy it.
Same with small ball era in basketball
100 years of constant war, the ceiling was reached long ago. This is clear as there would be nothing of value in having weak benders in the frontlines. The only characters capable of shooting or redirecting lightning in ATLA are the top 3 after Aang. Random people being able to shoot lightning would be like the average jogger running as fast as Usain Bolt. It makes no sense.
metalbending also spread pretty fast after toph began practicing the skill and teaching other earthbenders. not too far fetched to think the spread of lightningbending was similar
Toph was probably the most influential person in the world after aang and zuko, metal bending was like the industrial revolution in terms of impact.
@@marricksinon2057 Yeah, cause that was basically something that has never existed in the entire history before. That's like an equivalent to what a creation of lightbulb and wires did in our world
Bl⭕⭕d bending would be widespread aswell if katara wasn't such a selfish bee itch
@@jeegunugger1871 Now, come on. Bloodbending is too dangerous to be known publicly. Imagine thousands of bloodbenders uniting against the world. Even an avatar would have died after such war. The only avatar in all of history that has a chance against that is probably Kyoshi, since she was strong enough to separate an entire continent in two (also, she achieved eternal youth and therefore couldn't die from old age. But eventually she did die because she couldn't live for much longer after everyone she knew and loved had already died)
@@maxmanchik yep exactly
It’s probably due to advancements in technology and the realisation that they needed electricity, to which Zuko was probably like “I have an easy way of producing electricity”…
Aren't zuko not a lightning bender? He only manage to redirect not bending
@@katfans7124 But he knew of the technique, and Iroh probably was still around to teach the first generation. Zuko also knew the theory, and knew how to redirect them, which is useful while teaching it.
That's what I was thinking too, someone probably presented a new invention to Aang and Zuuko while Republic city was being developed, a small generator that could generate power and ignite a light bulb. They could have used air or water bender to move it, but Zuko might have thought of skipping the middle man and just use people to generate electricity. It might have even been a development started by the Fire Kingdom, maybe using their fire bending to boil water and spin a generator.
Exactly. With all the open-source information online, would someone learn, I don't know, Assembly Language out of blue? But if you have a million job openings that pay 500k then you would see three years old picking up assembly language.
When it make more sense for l lightning bending to use as a form of meditation at the strat
since ozai ruined the mindset and killed all but two dragons
Then as tech evolved lightning because useful
The wider spread of the sub bendings is likely only common in republic city, due to the sub types being a kind of hybrid of bending styles.
Only lava bending is a hybrid( of all the subs i know
@@maximdeschagt6971 combustion is air and fire, from the mountains of fire nation
@@andreblima21 your source? Because you can easily say fire is also a hybrid because fire needs air to be able to burn
@@andreblima21 I'm pretty sure that was made up by the community in order to give a more "logical" explanation of the magic system
Thank god that there are only two Sparky Sparky Boom man and Sparky Sparky Boom woman.
We got sparky calm wise man
There were some that may have existed back in Yang Chen's day...
I wonder if Zuko could have learned combustion bending.
He did create small explosions when he tried to lightning bend, so there could have been the potential to refine that
Years ago, one of the original storyboard descriptions mentioned something along the lines of how benders do not have as much spirituality, and the result is cheaper and more fast paced bending. This would line up with the new version of lighning bending, where it is common place, but the lack of spirituality makes it lack oomph
Also with rage no longer being used for fire bending it could also cause advance techniques being readily available but with some it might make their bending stronger or weaker depending on the person
That would be great, but that's not what we see 90% of the time in the show. If anything, the modern benders are way more powerful, and rare bending skills are now the average.
Zaheer is pretty much the sole exception to LoK's standard of "powerful bender with 0 spirituality"
And sure, the lightning bending isn't as powerful, but they're still using one of the most advanced and dangerous sub element bending out there, as if it's a normal tuesday. ATLA established that even _attempting_ electrical bending without spiritual balance would kill you.
@@GeneralTaco155555a it’s pretty clear that on average lightning bending became easier and weaker. Don’t think any of the lightning benders in LOK had strikes as powerful as Ozai’s. Expecting the average person to be using lightning bending as well and powerfully as some of the strongest characters in ATLA is naive.
@@GeneralTaco155555a What I see is that the benders in LOK are more skilled in bending techniques but they’re less powerful because bending isn’t a precious thing anymore like in the past, to them its just like any ordinary tool.
@@tommyshelby8373 who is less powerful though?
We see bloodbenders able to stop the avatar themselves in the middle of the day, without even moving.
The only thing anyone can come up with people being less powerful, is that people can tank more hits from things that would've killed someone in ATLA. Which isn't evidence of bending being less powerful, it just means they gave everyone stronger plot armor
Lighting was a suppressed skill by the Royal family, others could do it, but it was rare. Once the war was over, it was taught to other fire benders. It’s like how Toph created Metal bending, and taught others and now her daughter has a whole city of metal.
ontop of that, not all firebenders could do it and in a way those who could would be considered akin to our more skilled craftmen
You have just repeated what the video said. 😂
You bright nothing to the conversation. & Lightning became so common because Korra is trash
@@SkRo0L3w5eI completely agree. Zuko had all the knowledge of lightning generation but failed to do it because he lacked spiritual development. It kept exploding in his face. Mako or any criminals in LOK dont seem spiritually advanced enough to use lightning. They use it only because of plot.
@@SkRo0L3w5e I mean that's how natural progessions in life happens. things that was once considered new for example like Advanced Math some people can easily pick up on the equations while other slowly learn to understand it over time.
Back in the day in tricking, only a few people were able to do a double backflip. Now, many people pushed the skill gap and a lot of people know how to do a double back now. It’s the same with lightningbending
That street criminal you're referring to - was the Avatar TOLK equivalent of a mafia boss in NYC
also does anybody else remember the swamp benders?
present!
@@melvinalonzo5257 would you like to see another swamp bender? I sure would.
@@seekeroftruth2206 of course !
In season four of lok toph lives in that swamp
And don't forget the sand benders!
An interesting fact to point out: in the Kyoshi novels, she fought a pirate who used lightning against her. He was a powerful and important figure in his clan, but a long shot from fire nation royalty..
She was shook when she was struck.
damn I need to refresh my memory of that book
I gotta get the books
The fire nation royalty learned it from that guy
Also according to Kyoshi's fire bending teacher lightning bending was a myth in the Fire Nation at the time.
Fire Nation Royal family: *practices lightning generation*
Also the Fire Nation Royal family: *gatekeeps the teaching.*
Fire Lord Zuko: "And I took that personally..."
Personal head-canon is that Zuko never learns lightning generation because it was used to almost kill his friends multiple times
Zuko is so op he doesn't need to generate lightening and is so proficient at deflecting it back if the enemy decides to use against him.
@@DaveO0808 I agree, however I meant it more as a joke, but you're right, Zuko is OP
This is basically confirmed in the Kyoshi novels. Xu Ping An, who discovered the technique, was kept in a top secret prison in the earth kingdom that only the firebending royal family and a handful of high-ranking earth kingdom officials knew about.
The world is shrinking, just like you used to have to hike miles to a Shaolin temple to learn kung fu there are now dozens of places in every town. Better transportation equals greater dissemination of information, equals more skilled labor.
yeah, like even though korra was born in the water tribe she still learned fire bending in the water tribe instead of travelling all the way around around the world and learning it at an ancient sun warrior civilization
If you read rise of kyoshi, it’s explained that lightning bending was so rare it was considered a myth, a legendary type of bending that didn’t actually exist, the yellow neck leader was interrogated for years before they got any info on how it worked, it was also faster than the one used by azula. Years later when Azula improves on lightning bending making it stronger than ever, it’s already known by the royal family in the fire nation that it exists, so the royal family probably passed down the yellow neck version of lightning bending and azulas lightning bending is unique, all other characters who use lightning bending use it quickly, and do little damage like the one used in korra, but when azula uses lightning bending she builds it up before release making it more powerful(it’s the same thing she does with her flames, there’s no oxygen in it but she holds it long enough for it to stack in power)
I recall reading an official LOK concept art book and them explaining the need more more firebenders to learn how to use lightning due to the industrial revolution and the rapid advancement in technology.
To those wondering why lightning are sub bending of fire benders,
Electricity and Fire are like siblings, which they are both energy.
i wonder if their formal education degrees have bachelor, masteral, and doctarate in Bending. like when they say the avatar is the master of all four elements, its literally a degree (like Master of Arts in Fire Bending) given to an avatar.
This very much seems to be the case in the Earth Kingdom, where there were entire schools dedicated to bending & people like Toph were considered "unskilled" because they hadn't had formal training. Same thing, to an extent, at the Northern Water Tribe where women and men were traditionally taught separate bending styles.
edit: We also know Zei was a professor at Ba Sing Se University's anthropology department, I wonder if Ba Sing Se University offered bending courses as well...
I always wonder what it would be like if the avatar existed in the modern day. In our world or theirs. I think it might be like what you said.
The air benders do 34 techniques to become a master or 33 and invent your own technique (Aang's was the air scooter)
So it's probably something similar like obviously moving a pebble is harder than moving a literal giant metal monument by simply stabbing a smiley face into the well face and moving it that way.
The Airbender tattoos are basically a Ph.D in Airbending.
I will say that it actually reminds me more of real life martial arts, becoming a master in taekwondo is an actual title given to those who are able to achieve the 4th dan black belt and above. This exam is even regulated by an international body
When everyone's special, nobody is.
That's a very weird take in defence of fuedalism and eugenics lolololo
Korra ruined metal and lightning bending
@@pitanga1724 y’all so miserable 😂
@@Bxyxoxthat's why he's called pitanga it's pi-tanga = Tanga
it might be a bit means but I'll post it anyway
@J. A. It's not a defense of those things. You're projecting it as a defense, when it's only a statement.
I love that she starts yelling after revealing the thefts of the Air Nomad genocide. You go off sister, genocide and theft make me mad too! 👏🏿💯
LightningBending was kept unkown to thoes outside of the royal family at first, but Zuko brought an equality and alowed the knowledge to all firebenders.
my theory is that, Zuko lead a change in fire bending to be less about anger and destructive passion, in the way the dragons showed him. This means more firebenders with clear heads even when blasting. And in turn leads to the rise of more lightening benders given it requires more inner peace and calm. With the rise of techniqually skilled benders we get a new vocation.
Edit: heh 69 likes
This makes no sense lowk
@@YoItsKernal did you watch the show?
@YoItsKernal It actually does make sense. Zuko had a complete revelation his entire worldview was turned upside down when he learned from the ancient dragons. Learned that true power came from control, inner peace, and balance. Rather than anger, hatred and pure emotion.
Also, with the "industrial revolution" that occurred in Republic City, the demand for lightning bending went up, and so it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to consider many firebenders wanted to learn that skill.
Separately, I'd add that with the White Lotus coming out of the shadows, many bending techniques - especially techniques formed from the interrelationships of different nations- came out into the public view.
Imagine UA-cam in the avatar universe, bro has meditation videos and Playlists for people to practice.
How to generate lightning part 3🤣 don’t forget to subscribe to my channel for more firebending tips and techniques
Imagine getting into an argument with your water tribe girlfriend and she starts looking up “How to Blood Bend” tutorials. 💀💀💀💀💀💀🤣🤣🤣🤣
There will be challenge like "Lightning Challenge : How Many Times I Could Strike Lightning Without Passing Out" or tutorial channel "How to Master Blood Bending for Dummies in Just 3 Days" kind of UA-camrs
I’m imagining “making an entire decorated house with just earth bending” or “DONT BEND BLOOD AT 3AM (NOT FAKE!!! COPS WERE CALLED!!!)”
And maybe stuff like “the different fire bending movements, and how to use them” or video essays like “why is gender imbalance most prominent in water people?”
@@midnightartist43 I can definitely see some stupid kids making videos like “BLOOD BENDING PRANK GONE WRONG” or viral fight videos going around like “GUY IN BAR STARTS A FIGHT BUT ACCIDENTALLY RUNS INTO BLOOD BENDER”
I actually liked that lighting bending was only used by a selected few because that’s what made it special but seeing how just any body can use it now just takes that away for me
I just finished watching the Last Airbender and have started watching Korra and that is one that that definitely stood out, a lot of the advanced techniques (such as lightning bending) jumped from being only a handful capable of generation and/or redirection to suddenly every third firebender using it despite how it being first introduced Iroh stating it was extremely dangerous; not only for the target, but also for the user and even just one misstep would mean it backfiring and potentially killing the user. Simple meta explanation is the classic curse of power creeping, as a series goes on you need to keep raising the stakes. This is somewhat addressed in the series with the psychic blood bender where the flashback to the trial has Sokka saying there are many styles throughout the world and within those extremely rare and unique variants, and so the psychic blood bender must be one of those.
In the case with lightning perhaps there is some rare innate talent and after republic city was established the information was made more available and those with the talent were able to somewhat safely test themselves. It's, in my opinion, a weak explanation but so far the only one I can come up with. (Realistically though it's still the classic power creeping. Just like Aang going until the very end of the entire series to master the Avatar state while Korra needed just the first season and then could use it at will)
I don't mind Mako lightningbending, but I wish it was still a rare skill barely anyone knew.
That wouldn’t make logical sense though. Bending in itself is widespread and the alternative elements would be widespread by association and people spreading information. It was never described as a limited or rare skill in the sense that only certain “special” people could learn it. It was explained as a skill that’s difficult to learn and master. Information about it being spread would have allowed it to be more common.
@@dancingbymoonlt true , only thing that should be rare is Airbenders flying
@@h3llboyyy407 That was probably my least favorite thing they showed for airbenders in LOK. They were already OP why make them potentially even more so?
Ditto
@@dancingbymoonlt nahh it wouldn’t make sense for it to be common ground. Lightning was a master technique. Everyone is not a master. In the sang series, even soldiers weren’t that good at just fire bending. They were novices compared to ppl like general jao (however you say it). It just bad story writing in korra
"even street criminals"
Lightning Bolt Zolt is a Triad leader, not a mere street criminal. Mako learned from him. The only others in LoK that do lightning are his coworkers, it still needs some explanation like the one you provide but it's not just some guy on the street pulling robberies, it's a whole mobster at the top of the food chain, not unlike the people who held lightning secrets prior to the firelord's family monopolizing them.
Ok, how about factory workers then. They pulled in street urchins to work in factories, just shooting lighting into machines.
@@reilen4359people running the factories probably teach em
@@okebedoke it's a specialized skill only true masters with peace of mind can use. Uncle Iroh couldn't even reach Zuko, so that's the point. How does a factory manager teach a random guy off the street when a prince with full martial education can't master it with a teacher like Iroh and literal dragons.
@@reilen4359you need peace of mind when you’re learning it. you don’t need to be calm for the rest of your life to use it. when azula lost her mind in the finale, she was still able to use lightning bc she’s already mastered it.
why should a factory manager not be able to teach a random guy off the street? you can be a factory manager and also be a master firebender - they’re not mutually exclusive.
zuko was taught by iroh but not the dragons. how would the dragons teach him lightning bending when they can’t do it themselves and have never been shown to have any skill with it?
the reason zuko couldn’t learn it is the same reason aang couldn’t do metalbending and bolin couldn’t do metalbending. some ppl got it and some ppl don’t.
@@melexo Even though Aang should be fully capable of it too being the avatar. The avatar should be able to do anything but like Zaheer says, they limit themselves.
Blood bending is manipulating fluids inside of a tube(vein) swamp bending is manipulating the vines, by using the water to hold the vines. It's the difference between reaching out and grabbing a vine to use(swamp bending) blood bending is like have a really powerful magnet that is stuck inside of someone else. The person isn't moving, the blood inside of them is forcing them to move. Kind of like when using a magnet to secure something to your fridge.
I still think all the specialized bending should've been rarer in Korra
Most of it is. Bloodbending is taught within a single family that hyper focused on it.
Metalbending is more spread out because it's being actively taught and developed as a technology but is still mostly used by specialized teams.
Most other forms of unusual bending are used by just one or two people.
Lightning bending is really the odd one out. Mako doesn't mention having any kind of specialized training for it. And somehow jobs associated with this specialized skill pay less than being a beat cop which requires no bending at all.
@@BonaparteBardithionyea i agree wih you. i mean for metal, air and bloodbending lore makes sense. Bloodbending is still guarded knowledge, air benders heritage is being democratized and there is a whole academy and city for metal bending. Lighting Bending treated as peasent common skills that doesnt pay well seem to like stretch.
Likely it was a writing issue. They wanted Mako to be seen as talented and strong while at the same time be seen as poor and downtrodden. And these put strain on the lore. They should have made it so that lighting bending is earned by Mako not given so easily.
at least a new subset of bending came from korra, magma bending
Korra also has electricity damn near everywhere, so the basic concept is probably taught in public schools, meaning it isn't so foreign to the average firebender.
Maybe because it's a life of prosperity since there's no longer war.
Iroh said it himself lightning bending needs a clear focus and peaceful mind
He also said in the same breath that only a select few firebenders can separate the yin and yang energies. Insinuating master class proficiency with firebending. Korra retconned that for some reason
Yeah Azula really is the embodiment of clear focus and peaceful mind
@@markbunst5961 Well, she actually is very focused on every goal she sets on accomplishing. Clearing her head of destructive rage to generate lightning made sense enough. She was insane in the end, but her intention of shooting lightning at Katara was a calm and mischievous one, by the looks of it
Lightning generation is a technique that is mastered using water bending techniques while fire bending, so it makes sense that after the war when people of different backgrounds started cooperating that those teachings would become more wide spread.
It’s really a lesson and commentary on the lengths people in positions of power will go to keep that power.
"Ying and Yang ,positive and negative energy. Only a select few fire benders can separate these energies"
-Iroh
The way Iroh taught it is the spiritual, more powerful way. Newer lightning benders use a different mindset. It's similar to how Bolin showed how her orthodox earthbending was classic but his Pro Bending was more suited for the times
@@SantomPh "Only a select few fire benders can separate these energies"
-Iroh
Ain't no way he said this is in a symbolic way. This isn't the only time LOK breaks Avatar Lore.
@@goldenminecard1723 but in the LOK it's much weaker than in the last airbender, so maybe it didn't completely break the lore?
@@xiaoxiao3260 I can totally see where you are coming from. Mako's lightning shot couldn't kill Amon at point blank range.
But Iron stated that you need to separate the 2 energies to CREATE lightning, saying that only a "select few" could do it. Even though lightning in LOK is less powerful, the fact that almost EVERY firebender can do it fully breaks the "select few" concept that iroh put in the first place.
@@goldenminecard1723 I'm thinking that mayeb they found another way to do it other than separating the two energies, because how else would the skill get this weak if people are doing it properly? enabling most firebenders to do it, but the downside is that its more of an imitation to the actual skill and isn't as strong as the one taught by iroh, so what iroh said became not completly true, but stands true in regards to only a select few can use this skill powerfully by seperting the two energies. I wonder if they said anything about the method of using it jn LOK.
Imagine dudes in Republic City getting into a bar fight and just start throwing lightning at each other
I really liked this part of the show, a realistic evolution in the general public knowledge and skill
Redirection wasn’t in any scrolls. It was invented and perfected by Iroh who studied waterbenders. In a bid to make things more modern, the legend of Korra writers made some huge leaps.
It's not that big of a leap to think that after lightning-bending became public knowledge, Iroh and Zuko made the redirection technique public as well and taught others how to use it, causing both lightning-bending and redirection to spread just like Toph did with metalbending.
I think lightning-bending was another piece of knowledge that the fire nobles kept guarded in their bloodlines (we know Ozai and Azula can lightning-bend too, at least) and was given to the public after the war when everything starts coming out. It's then important that they should be able to learn to defend themselves from lightning attacks, too!
Well, at the time the fire nation literally sought to exterminate all non-fire nation people. So it's no surprise that they never learnt about using parts of other bending to their benefit. As nations exchanged information, some smart people would surely figure stuff out.
Iroh might have written a book on it. As Mako showed lightning users can instinctively redirect lightning, even though Iroh understands how it works
@@mostlyimpulsive3462 still should require master levels of proficiency, since it's a master class technique (toph, the best earthbender and iroh stating only a select few benders can have the skill to separate yin and yang) so not every joe in LoK should have picked it up.
They could have just made scrolls about redirection after Zuko became Fire Lord
I also feel like this is the demytification of martial arts happening in real time.
In the real world, as the years go by, fighters will begin to learn various martial arts and cherry pick the strongest lessons to create a more optimal fighting style. Modern communication technology like the Internet further boosts the speed of information transfer. Enter MMA.
Methods like lightning bending techniques gets modernised to become more efficient and more achievable by average joe
@TheWeeaboo Well, I'm noy suggesting the average Joe has the talent of a prodigy.
It could take a prodigy to master bending in times of war and poverty while being managable for a less talented individual in an environment with more information and resources at their disposal.
Modernizing and analysing traditional martial arts can also lead to improved training methods and streamlined skills effectively lowering the skill floor.
We can see both of these points when thinking about the Olympics. Look at the records celebrated decades ago. Thanks to modern fitness and human kinetics research, modern atheletes have way better training and diet programs. Plus, the ability to dedicated your whole life to sports as opposed to juggling another job helps out so much as well.
I remember a scene where Mako was in a line of firebender workers shooting lightning into some kind of power grid. If that’s how the city gets their electricity, I can see why the once special technique is now taught in the mainstream
2 other reasons…
1) with no more war and it being a time of peace for roughly 50+ years…there was surely a huge population boom with way more talented benders walking around.
2) technological advances in communication & travel (printing press, radio, electricity, etc) helped allow for information about the advanced bending techniques to be spread at an unprecedentedly fast rate. Anyone who wanted to learn how to do it knew exactly where to go in order to be taught.
Y'all put more thought into this than the actual writers. That's a mood
You think the writers of one of the most incredible worlds in fiction don't put this much thought in their worldbuilding?
Bruh!
It's because they did that these gaps can so easily be filled in.
@@deldarel If you think the writing of Kora is legendary, I literally can't help you, I'm sorry
@@MidnightSnackx cry
@@MidnightSnackx you need the writers to treat you like how rings of power did? the writing is great and allows us the audience to come with several theories in the meanwhile while they continue to expand the universe through avatar studios. you LoK haters sure need a lot of literacy hand holding.
@@MidnightSnackxif you think the writing in the entire series is legendary, then no one will be able to help you lol
Ngl Amon scared the crap outta me when I was younger and still kinda does lol
The blending of cultures definitely also contributed. As Iroh has stated when he learned Lightning bending, he learned of how the water bender tribes lived and applied it to fire bending.
In my fan fic it is both azula zuko and iroh who teach the fire nation then it spreads to the world
Can you share a link to your fanfic?
Well you're probably not wrong. It seems like something Iroh would do. However in the comic series a cult group busted Azula out of jail. I'm sure she probably would have taught it to them because of their loyalty.
@@markeviouslipscomb3460 loyalty? The only thing that azula counts on is fear
@@Kyss111 that's true but the cults' allegiance was made out of loyalty to Ozai and Azula because they (like many other members of the fire nation) did not aproove of Zuko's rule.
@@stonefree7973 I assumed it was a bit because he says both then proceeds to list three people.
Amazing idea! Let's make lightning bending, one of the most dangerous forms of bending to people and the user accessible to the public.
Every type of bending is dangerous
@@U.V_30 Yeah, but I said the most dangerous, and I'll ad in combustion bending. Why should this bending be publicly accessible if it has a draw back of blowing yourself up, and frying people easier? A Knife and a Bomb are both dangerous... Witch one do you think shouldn't be easily accessible to the public?
@@U.V_30 advanced forms of bending are even more dangerous and some bending just comes naturally to others
Consider how the world records for sports have become more and more impressive over the years. It’s possible that birth rates increased over the years after the war, leading to more people and statistically, more people capable of high level bending feats. Or maybe it’s that once it becomes well-known that it’s possible, people try and train for it more and more and more achieve it, like how the 4 minute mile was once considered impossible, but now high-school level athletes can do it.
Since bending is a central part of that setting, it advancing and developing over time is pretty realistic.
seeing as they now need electricity, i could also see the governments of the world trying to get fire benders to learn this, i could imagine schools could have classes on subskills like lightning and metal, as there are now jobs that depend on those skills, and then we have criminals learning it because "hey that looks pretty cool"
I'd also imagine that lightning bending in a mundane job environment is probably easier than mastering the skill for martial arts.
@@shizachan8421 yes also if you think about it we see people in korra taking lighting hits, and recovering pretty quickly, but in last airbender every time someone gets hit by lightning it's devestating or even deadly. so there is clearly less power behind it
@@Chrismosis I think thats actually a nice detail, if you ask me. So Lightning Bending has become more mainstream, but it isn't really teached and utilized as hyper destructive martial art anymore. I would also guess that the focus shifted towards more easy, fast and less potent lightning bending because not only is there a higher demand for it, the demand is probably to be capable of creating lightning continously for longer amounts of time. I could imagine that the machines probably can't even take the high voltage lightning strikes the likes of Azula and Ozai created without breaking down pretty fast and the workers there are probably continously bending lightning for probably your average 8 or more hours work day every day. Lets be real, I don't think the proper martial arts lightning benders probably couldn't do that with their more potent version, just shooting out lightning for hours straight every day, it was clearly more of a maximum destructive power to end any battle in an overkill style of bending back then. Going even further with headcanons, there are probably also safety concerns behint it, not only avoiding that a bunch of people master one of the most deadly forms of bending but also just the risk of workplace injuries if a bunch of firebenders would shoot out deadly voltages of lightning right next to each other continously.
If this theory about the Airbending scrolls and books and Zaheer learning Airbending techniques from them is true, then Zaheer literally has Aang the Avatar to thank for his vast Airbending knowledge. Which he then used to try and kill the Avatar forever several times but eh, swings and roundabouts XD
In ATLA, Iroh claims it is a technique that requires peace of mind and that any fire bender that can separate the positive and negative energies can create lightning. Lightning bending is a lot like metal bending…anyone can master it if they are dedicated enough to learning it. Metal bending was rare but now there’s a metal-bending police force. The difference is that it’s implied by Iroh that lightning is more common than we see on screen, that “people” call it the cold-blooded fire. It would make sense that LoK delivers on that implication, so much so that it has become a blue collar job to lightning bend for energy
I love how Lightning magma metal bending all became industrialized and more commonplace due to it being easily accessible. Still very dangerous industrial work but cool to watch 😅
It's how technology progress
Ngl...life would be dope as hell if this is how humans lived.
Kinda like how knowledge of stuff that happened during ww2 become increasingly widespread after the war.
Factor in the invention of the printing press during or after atla and knowledge was definitely going to be massively widespread.
Except it is not a technology it, it is a hyper advanced technique of a martial art.
It is not a matter of knowledge alone, it is a matter of discipline.
Or whatever you can have that mastery as a factor laborer.
@@KittSpiken Well Lightning bending was only difficult because to achieve it, firebenders had to practically become the opposite of their cultural nature to achieve. Lightning bending is not about aggression, fierceness, power, and other things. But rather a calm and clear mind, inner peace, and more.
Martial arts, as your point is mentioning, evolved into Korra to be more efficient. ATLA bending was a lot more big with their moves which is less efficient than just keeping a closed defense and using swift and quick offense. Bending styles evolved to be more conservative and quick paced for faster attacks for better chances to hit their opponent. So I see no reason why Lightning bending wouldn’t follow suit soon after to be developed and learned to the point firebenders found it easier to learn. On top of the fact that there has been decades worth of peace, so the traits holding back a firebender from learning Lightning would slowly diminish.
I think the best explanation to this is Zuko wanting to pass on the teaching behind lightning. Before his reign, the Fire Nation had a very self-centered culture, and to help his people expand their worldview the way Iroh taught him when he taught him the technique, the 4 nations wisdom, etc to ensure a more lasting peace
It's kind of like how industrialization and the globalization of economies allowed for more people to get access to education in the real world. Not only that but you also have all of the people who took their experience gained from the war to become innovators, educators, etc.
The real reason is that the new writers thought that Lightning Generation and Metalbending were really cool and wanted to experiment with how they could use them in fight scenes with no regard to how that affected how special they were.
@@SpicyWeiner777 no, korra had many more new people writing the story. It wasn't just the same guys who wrote ATLA. How else could have Korra become so bad?
@SpicyWeiner777 The original writers for ATLA left the LOK after the first season, citing "creative differences." Simplified this means the people in charge wanted everything season to be bigger in terms of stakes, and they didn't care what pre-established lore they needed to break to do it. Hence the horrendous kaiju battle in Season 2, and even worse mech battle in Season 4. Nickelodeon wasn't listening to them at all so they quit.
@@witherwolf3316 What? That didn't happen. None of that actually happened. The Netflix quitting story is about the Live Action. Korra is from about 10 years ago , pre-Netfux era , from Nicklodeon.
The writers, being Bryke , didn't quit Whorra. But Aaron Ehasz , another major writer of AtLA wasn't there. And while Bryke are visionaries , they just didn't have the writing talent to pull it off (and it's shows in S1 , though the writing staff in S2 didn't help much either) anyway his absence was felt in my opinion.
@@witherwolf3316 You are super misinformed because Netflix had absolutely nothing to do with this 💀
@@terrakage4462 Fair point, wrong company. Meant Nickelodeon. Point still stands.
That and my guess is that Zuko and Aang saw lightning redirection as a self defense type move, so they might have actively spread the information
Also, like 100+ years passed and natural human advancement dictates that skilled labor can quickly become unskilled given enough time. So, in a magic system that translates to eventually hyper specialized moves will become commonplace with the passage of time
Something glanced over with both metal bending and lightning is technology. Electricity and metallurgy have greatly improved by the time of Korra. Makes sense as society takes control of these elements it's easier to bend them.
when you know sahir got his killing air style from the same people Ang thaught where peacefull 😅😅
The most likely explanation is that Bryke didn't know what the hell they were doing.
Он знал,и даже больше,объяснил
Also firebending was thought as the bending of wrath in atla, while that changed into its purer form after ozai was overthrown. This likely made the general populous more proficient.
One thing is when Amon took that lightning thug’s bending away, it went from lighting, downgraded to fire, and then ceased. That’s not how Royal Lighting Bending works. Iroh stated how you aren’t making the energy, you’re just separating ambient energy and guiding it to your target, like how an actual lighting cloud would do it, but Korra Lighting Bending just seems to be “Firebending, but harder.” There’s none of the separating motions that go into Royal Lighting Bending. It’s like two separate roads to the same destination, but one is far more complicated, but does it way better. This can also be seen in the difference in power. New Lighting will take you to the ground spasming, but you’ll recover. You get hit even with a glancing blow by Royal Lightning and you don’t have a master healer right next to you and you’re freaking dead, not to mention the detonation force Royal Lighting can have on a target.
there were 4 lightning benders in avatar the last Airbender. Prince Zuko, his uncle Iroh, his sister, and his father.
Zuko was only able to redirect lighting, Aang as well. They both were never shown being able to produce lighting on their own.
@@spicydino996 By that logic no one is a bender of any element except fire and lightning.
Lightning was most often only used against other lightning benders in TLAB.
waterbenders don't meterialize their own water out of nothing.
Eathbenders don't materialize rocks and metal out of nothing.
Even air benders don't materialize their own air( except tenzin's son 😅🤣)
So just because he can't materialize it in TLAB, doesn't mean he didn't learn like, every other street thug in LoK.
@@seekeroftruth2206 Lightning generation and redirection are two separate skills, Zuko even tries to generate lightning but because he is unbalanced it just causes an explosion. We see characters like Mako, Lightning Bolt Zolt and Iroh II all using lighting generation in Korra.
@@spicydino996, I am sure 100% Zuko learned lightning when all those comic book events had happened. He is talented and powerful enough for this. Same with Aang.
@@crabcrab3048 plus, Zuko learned that firebending doesn’t have to come from anger and hate, so he probably got the hang of lightning bending during the comics. I don’t really know the world too well so I might have glossed over a lot
I had an idea that would have been very cool if the creators had implemented it.
Drug usage.
The lightning bending being easier to use under the effects of a drug(with a talented firebender able to simulate the result sober after succeeding a few times while less talented or insecure benders becoming overly reliant and eventually addicted) could have been amazing to give Mako some depth and also give non-benders more reasons to hate the average bender and not just the triads.
for anyone who has seen this show the reason is obvious. Electricity. It was stated in the show that fire benders are payed well for the back breaking work of serving as a human vandagraph generater. The city's power grid is mainly ran by lightning benders
It does make sense like, extremely well kept secrets to separate the royal family from the masses becoming common place knowledge, still a skill in itself, but less of a rarity since dissemination of knowledge isn't big in these types of monarchies
uh. the reason the world know so much about airbending history is because of Aang
Tenzin, Kya and Bumi mention some of the Air Nomad curriculum they learned as children so it literally wasn't all from Aang's memory, some of it definitely survived the Hundred Year War
it obviously wasnt all from his memory but what im saying is Aang chose to share the information with the world unlike air nomads who were secluded
@@SirDougey air nomads weren't secluded they were literally nomads that's a goofy ass thing to say.
@@Black_Death69AC nigga they were cut off from the world they say that a lot only a few traveled they only really communicated with other nations when it came to the avatar
@@SirDougey no that's not true at all they ALL traveled the world except the monks who taught at the air temples. Like seriously read the fucking lore and comics
After the war was over, fire bending began to depend less on anger and strong emotions. Lightning bending requires a clear head and neutral emotions, that is why we don't see Zuko using it.
I see this question a lot. The answer is just very similar to metal bending.
Which an entire city of people and an army sized police force can do.
But I guess Toph did dedicate part of her life to teaching it and making schools. It’s never stated about Zuko. But I’m sure part of reforming the fire nation included changing fire bending training and masters. Teaching more of the Iroh/dragon style of fire bending than the aggressive ways of the royal family and fire nation army.
Nice Explanation
Also the quality of education between a:tla and lok went from political ideology and standard subjects like language and math to actually caring a little bit about the students and how they can serve their nation/republic city's future.
The real reason for this is that they forgot that requirements are very specific to the person’s mentality so that even if you have access the techniques you most likely still will be unable to use them, and this is the same to some extent for mental bending in which being blind was a important part of figuring out their mechanics. They just wanted a their scene and move the world around it instead of the other way around
The best explination is that they didn't actually carr and just wanted to push their agenda through a recognizable medium.
Lightning is so common, it pays less than selling dumplings on a street corner. World building in Korra is great on the outside but when you peer just a little closer it is half baked
I never understood why so many people had a problem with this just because the show only showed 3 people doing doesn't mean their the only people in the world who knew about it plus by korra all the nations are connected so plus its almost a entire century word of the technique should get out.
I feel it's just atla fans wanting everything to be the exact same because it's such a background thing go get mad over
It's sort of like the blood-bending scenario. Not only were both sub-elements considered deadly, but they were also extremely difficult to learn. Iroh explains that to bend lightning, you must balance your natural yin and yang energies. Something not everyone can do. Zuko gets it wrong and it explodes. Lightning redirection was just as dangerous, since one slip up would take you out of commission or even kill you. Due to the risks of learning it, it's unlikely to be common. ATLA only had two known blood benders. Hama and Katara. Hama was imprisoned and Katara disapproved of the act in general. So obviously she wouldn't spread it. Yet, not only is it being used, but you can do it telepathically in broad daylight. The only sub-element that should be widely practiced is metal bending. It's not taboo, there are no drawbacks, but it would still require someone well versed in earthbending.
@@hg.c7987 tbf amon had a genetic mutation I believe that allowed him to do that in broad daylight. Plus he was the only of about 4 blood benders we have seen, and only he was the most relevant one. The other 3 were either a side character, or a background character being used to explain why bloodblending is illegal.
I feel like those fire benders that were imprisoned by Hama would indeed share horror stories of it. Stuff like that would reach others and soon there will be some sicko that tries and attempts it. Plus. I see no reason why a water bender, with knowledge and tech advancing, wouldn’t go at some point “Well… what if I try to bend the water in a person’s body…” which could be used to try and cure blood stream ailments and other things related to blood. Water benders, especially healing ones, can detect the injuries in a person’s body by using water. So it’s not a far stretch to say they aren’t using a very small form of blood bending to detect injuries.
@@terrakage4462 Amon's dad was also a psychic blood bender. He did it in broad daylight too and taught it to his son. As far as Hama's victims are concerned, they were in the fire nation. For tales of Hama to spread from a rural fire nation village all the way to the north and south water tribes is a stretch considering, in terms of even technological development, they're the least advanced - and they're remote even now. Heck, the Airbenders have reverted back to their nomadic roots and are more in touch with other nations. There is no explanation for why Amon and his father are able to bloodbend in broaddaylight, or why Amon can take away someone's bending but Katara cannot restore said person's bending.
@@hg.c7987 Actually there is explanation why amon can "take" bending. It is revealed that he blocked bending, never taken it. He used bloodbending to block a chi point that allowed benders to bend. Which is why korra was able to cure anyone who had their bending "taken". It was a facade to make it seem like he was much more powerful than he actually was. And as I said, I believe it was mentioned that it is a genetic mutation that allowed those bloodbenders to do that. Which is extremely rare. Amon then ended up offing himself so now there is no waterbenders with that mutation anymore until it develops in another person again at some point, which will be a very rare occurence.
As for the spreading. Republic city mixed a lot of cultures. And I mentioned this later, but any healing waterbender could develop a use for bending if medical related. As water benders used water bending to detect injuries in the body. So it could have spread in many ways. Or simply, the guy that got arrested by aang, he alone would be a popular enough story for any water bender who remotely heard about it to try bloodebending. Keep in mind the next bloodbender after katara learned was abount 20 years later after the events of ATLA. then Amon and his family developed theirs decades down the line.
@@terrakage4462 The explanation of how was never stated on screen. We're just meant to infer what happened for some reason. If Amon taking away bending works on the basis of manipulating chi, my question remains: why wasn't Katara able to restore bending? In ATLA, we're shown how healing works. By using water as a catalyst, they can redirect energy paths around the body. We see the lady in the northern water tribe do it; we see Kya manipulating Jinora's energies to keep her alive after her spirit had left her body. So why can't healers, who manipulate people's energies to induce healing, restore the bending Amon blocked? Considering spirit bending is a thing now, water benders can, to a certain extent, manipulate spiritual energy. So why can't they restore the bending Amon blocked?
We're never told about a genetic mutation; we're just shown that these guys are so broken they can blood bend in broad daylight with their minds. Better yet, they can take people's bending away.
Having blood bending this broken was a problem because, without plot convenience, it made no sense how Amon could lose. There were numerous opportunities to kill Korra or take away Korra's bending, but he chose not to because...why not🤷
Had they given some sort of limitation to this psychic ability to blood bend in broad daylight, it would have made sense. But Amon is essentially a juggernaut who lets Korra get away each time, even though it's against his best interest. It made Amon come off as incompetent rather than intimidating.
I thinks it's because during the war the firebenders were thought to use their aggression to firebend and since lightning bending isn't about aggression, as seen when Zuko tried it, they couldn't do it.
That’s a good point, but on the other hand, we have Ozai and Azula who were aggressive, I would say.
@@crabcrab3048 Yes they are aggressive, but I would say they are very controlled aggressive, in contrast to Zuko and I think that made the difference. Azula used to firebend using 2 fingers to be more precise.
I’m willing to bet that by the future, metal ending will probably be more prevalent than earthbending due to the rise in airships…and possibly even spaceships.
one thing to note is that the tecnique was secluded so it was likely not properly enhanced. Iroh was supposedly who discoveeed it studying the water tribe (although Kyoshi novels had one appear) and when Iroh was teaching it to Zuko he explained how deadly it could be for the user too, by using it incorrectly could lead to you redirecting the charge straight into your own internal organs, same with redirecting it. the charge up movements could also be a safer way to use it to prevent that, as well as how they managed to make it have accuracy and range, because when Azula was practicing it, he couldnt hit things too far and it lacked accuracy, which makes sense since electricity follows the path of least resistance, and if its strong enough to travel in the air, its gonna follow an erratic pattern across the air pockets in the atmosphere which are the lightning tendrills, until it finds something to ground.
when we see the ones in Korra using lightning fast they dont seem as destructive, and when Mako used it on Amon, it was a desperate last ditch efgort move to try and break Amons bloodbending grasp on him, which was likely not only significantly weaker but also only hit him because he was standing right next to mako, it probably wouldnt go far at all, he virtually "shortcircuited" the tecnique.
It is safe to assume the Royal family supressed knowledge of Lightning Bending, to give themself a edge.
With Zuko Firelord - and Azula working against him - this knowledge spread easily.
That was definitely one of the things I hated the most in legend of Korra. The fact that they made regular benders do things that it took legendary benders and our favorite main characters from The Last Air Bender, years of learning, blood, sweat, perseverance, and tears, just downplayed all the hard they did to obtain that power and just downplayed the powers itself. Toph with her metal bending and Zuko with his lightning are the prime examples and the ones they lowkey hoed the most lol
I will believe that information was suppressed basically to allow the royal family to maintain their edge over the rest of the fire nation. A lot of the fire nations traditions had actually been lost over the hundred years and was in the ice but I do agree that the power of the ones from the legend of Korra are just not at the same level. But then again, when you think about that the royal family were the ones using it and they were some of the most powerful fire avengers in the world. It makes sense that even though they can use lightning match those guys
I like it. Korras world has industrialised, like how a lot of things in our's that were uncommon then are now industry standard
Same reason tons of well thought out world building was discarded: because someone in the writers room thought it was neat. 😒
Wdym this is an example of good world building, it’s only logical that certain bending styles only possessed by the royal family would become more common after the war, and in 70 years so many things can happen
@@federicotorresani9117 more common=/= factory workers have mastery of this advanced technique.
It's treated as military technology becoming a consumer product, like a Civ video game tech tree.
Zuko was initially unable to learn the technique with Iroh as his teacher, but young benders pick it up now going to public school so they can be useful factory cogs?
It's wholly nonsensical.
@@KittSpiken the fact is, it’s not a really advanced technique, it was simply kept a secret by the royal family, since lightning bending is very powerful. Zuko was in a deep state of inner turmoil, that’s why he couldn’t lightning bend, but he could redirect with no problem, that’s because firebenders are naturally more aware of the flow of energy in their bodies (their whole bending depends on it). It makes so much sense that once the knowledge became widespread more and more people would be able to lightning bending, it’s exactly the same as metal bending, and topo believed everyone could do it,so why not lightning?
@@federicotorresani9117 yes; accepting the Korra retcons, it is no longer an advanced technique, along with metal bending.
But thats post hoc rationalization.
In the Last Airbender, when a firebender was shown to be able to produce lightning, it was one of two things that marked Azula as a prodigy (along with her blue flames). On top of that, she could not perform the technique perfectly.
Her being a prodigy is a character trait separate from her bloodline. However her station as the princess did grant her more time to study and train at bending than any other firebender would have available. on top of her natural talent.
Metalbending was a product of Toph's unique seismic sense (she also was presented as a prodigious talent), original presented as her finding impurities in the metal that could still be manipulated as earth.
The fact is: the idea that these techniques are now in wide use is super contrived. They came idea first in the writing process and then an explanation was wrung out of the idea, as opposed to organically developed from the story.
Which is a big problem with Korra as a whole.
It is no skin off my back if you like it, if none of that bothers you.
The direction they took the series in never worked for me, so I didn't watch it. I'm not an invested hater.
Only later, I went back to dissect parts of it as a writing study, mostly around the world building and why it was a non-starter for me.
@@KittSpiken but that’s the thing really, it’s not a retcon. Seriously there many other problems with korra, due to the writers or the way Nickelodeon handled things, but lightning and metal bending aren’t really in that list. It makes perfect sense that once a bending technique is discovered, once you spread that knowledge it’s going to become readily available. Azula did perfect the technique, hell she was even able to do it while she was going crazy, something that should have been impossible according to iroh’s explanation. And with metal it’s the same, toph could sense those Earth particle thanks to her seismic sense, but once she knows she can bend metal she can teach others to do the same, explaining how. Since you didn’t watch korra it makes complete sense that you wouldn’t know this, but in tlok the only reason we see so many lightning benders is because there’s a scene in a factory dedicated to them, so it makes sense as to why they would be there in such numbers. Same with the street criminal, you don’t become a powerful boss without being a skilled bender. And with metal bending it’s again exactly the same, toph taught people (and it was still hard to learn) and created a police force comprised solely of metalbenders, that’s why we see so many of them in the same place. And btw metal bending is still quite rare, with bolin claiming only 1 in 100 Earth benders can do it.
At the end of the day lightning and metal bending are not advanced technique, they’re mostly dependant on knowledge, and then skill, not everyone can do it, and not everyone does, even in tlok, but the whole point of making them more common was to show the advancements made in the 70 yrs after the war thanks to aang, zuko and toph. Anyway this is all explained well in the comics and in the kyoshi novels, so really calling them retcons is quite a reach. I think you should watch korra to form a better opinion cause to them it’s sometimes even more enjoyable than atla, even if the writing is inferior in some points
Thank you….Thank you SO much for calling it Lighting Generation, as it is the proper term.
“Lightningbending” is such a clunky mouthful, yet so many have adopted it as the proper terminology. It’s nice to see someone use it correctly!
Remember when Iroh said bending Lightning is super dangerous because if you do it even slightly wrong, the lighting will rush to your heart and kill you? yeah, TLOK forgot about that
That was lightning redirection, not lightning bending itself.
@@llGemini19 ur right
Seems you forgot too cause you can’t get your techniques correct
I remembered reading that Lightningbending was only learned to the royal family and the nobles. Commoners weren't allowed to learn it.
Actually the most likely explanation is the writers, producers, directors, animators, etc decided to just have more people do lightning bending because it’s cool. There’s not always an in universe explanation for changes like this since it’s not a change that happens in universe, it happens in a board room.
Actually the most likely explanation for it is that the creators of legend of Korra never saw a shark they weren't willing to jump.
This. This is the true answer and everything else is an emotional defense of ‘but it’s cool so I want it to be a thing’
Lok is still the better series, though 🤷
@@Fl4shbackbad bait, too obvious
Hell nah@@Fl4shback
I still kinda hated this change, same with metal bending. They both became far too wide spread for such advanced teqniques that were suposedly hard to use and required mastery.
What I’m hearing is, Zuko best boy
Well this is a very common thing in a lot of eastern folklore and mythos. What starts off as an exceptional feat in one generation becomes a bit more of a standard in the following generation as more people strive to become the same caliber of the previous generations heroes.
I absolutely hate that it spread so much. Same with blood bending and metal bending. It just ruined the power scaling
Lol who cares; it’s called progression
3 bloodbender in TOK. 2 in ATLA didnt spread much
@@K.G444 I mean once one person learns bloodbending what stops the entire water tribe from learning, next thing you know you’ve got people bloodbendjng other people on non full moons. It’s not progression, it’s Op and stupid
@@Jakc. I mean it went from something Hama learned from desperation to something Katara was taught to randomly 3 people know it AND they can use it without the full moon
@@adamallen8787 which was a genetic mutation if I remember. I don’t see how that’s a bad thing. That’s still only a few benders that know it and 2 of which weren’t even vital to the story.
Amon ended up being one of the best villains to come out of Korra. They didn’t “ruin” powerscaling, as that would require it to break the fundamental laws of the universe, which it is doesn’t. Lightning bending is more widespread but much weaker due to how easy it is to do it now. Getting stronger charges requires channeling. Metal bending got diversified (which toph went off to teach others how to metal bend anyways so it was going to happen anyways) and still only a select few people can bloodbend and it’s basically a war crime to do so. So almost no one knows how to bloodbend.
No bending type became overpowered or underpowered due to the changes made. Which means powerscaling was not ruined.
Because they stopped learning how to only use anger for bending and unlocked their energies 🤷🏽♂️
Their lightning became weaker tho so I’m not sure if it benefited them or not
@@Aab031 it didn’t
@@marlom7882 it did
@@Aab031 I thought you said you’re not sure
@@marlom7882 honestly I was high when I wrote that
This and the evolution of firebending, with the economic pressure put on firebenders by the demand for energy as the catalyst, lots of firebenders learned to humble themselves and generate lightning.
"only the chosen firebender..." , I guess everyone is chosen
Mako used it to generate electricity, too. How the times change!