#i don't haaaaaate tlok but they kept breaking worldbuilding to provide easy solutions to fights

[volixia669]

I say this as someone who doesn't despise TLOK, but does see its flaws.

They really botched the worldbuilding set up in The Last Airbender. And no, I'm not saying only the fire nation royal family should be able to bend lightning, in universe that's probably just propaganda.

But like. Fire bending is different. Most types of bending, you have to seriously try to kill someone with it as a beginner. Even Katara, who we see drastically improve over the course of the show, was extremely limited in how she could fight in the beginning. It wasn't until she had a scroll and could regularly practice forms, of which a point was made several times that she is putting in an extreme amount of practice, that she began to do serious damage. And still, a lot of that was also creativity.

But firebending? The point that it is extremely easy to hurt and even kill people with standard forms is made. Yes, Aang is a powerhouse, but look at your typical Fire Nation soldier. They're probably more average when it comes to bending, so they're good for a standard. Incidentally, we see them use a few specific forms, fairly basic, but effective. Primarily the ones that look like straight punches. And while we don't SEE any death because kids show, it's HEAVILY implied those forms have killed and maimed MANY. Those forms were used in multiple genocides in this show.

Now let's look at Iroh, Ozai, Zuko, and Azula.

All four of whom allegedly have the potential. But we're shown a contrast.

Iroh focuses on teaching Zuko how to REDIRECT lightning. And it's explained as really fucking hard. You have to control it like water, but if you waver in control, you WILL lose it and you WILL die.

Fire as an element hates being controlled, and lightning even more so.

And you'll notice that the lightning redirection? It's not even complete control. You basically have to capture the lightning, then get it the fuck out of your body as fast as possible. You can't even redirect it back at the other person. There's no time. It's THAT difficult to work with.

As for MAKING lightning? Well, something interesting is supposedly Ozai has the ability, but we rarely if ever see him use it. Hell, to scar Zuko? He uses a basic form. The punch. It's quite likely that while Ozai was given more advanced training, he prefers simple but powerful.

Azula though? Oh she's not just a prodigy. She's a prodigy attempting to show off to a physically abusive parent. So she not only has to do the advance forms, but do them perfectly. And yet.

And yet.

Not only do we see that Azula is practicing for long periods of time, like Katara is, but that it's still difficult.

The animators did a really great job, of showing just how much energy is being "controlled" and how difficult it is to even gather it then point it at someone.

So what does this have to do with Mako in TLOK?

Well sure, if he wants to use lightning, he can! Again, I don't think it's a technique only for the royal family.

The royal family just happens to be powerful enough benders that being able to briefly gather and control lightning is possible.

So they could have Mako lightning bend to show that for one thing, he's powerful, and for another, there's still a lot of propaganda surrounding the royal family circulating.

But Mako being able to control the lightning and not risk killing people with it? That's breaking the worldbuilding. And sure, MAYBE that would be possible. But by a teenager?!

Like, I could see an older Azula MAYBE being skilled enough to stun (which can still seriously fuck up the heart and potentially kill people irl) instead of kill. And I'm talking 50+ older.

But a teenager?!

Who doesn't even have the same power/chi/whatever metric TLOK uses as an AVATAR?!

Nuh-uh.

Doesn't work.

There's so much they could have done, but using lightning to stun Amon, who so much time is spent building up, is just...Extremely anti-climactic AND goes against own world building.

God i still hate how much they underpowered lightning in tlok. Mako shot a lightningbolt straight at Amon's chest. That should have killed him instantly. Aang got a bolt shot at him from way further away into his back and he died. Mako was literally inches away from Amon. And don't come at me with bullshit like "oh Mako made it so his lightning wouldn't kill him" because why on earth would Mako not aim to kill here?

Honestly the way this show maimed both lightning and metalbending is really annoying. I get it, these skills get perfected over time and more and more people start to train to learn them bla bla bla. I'm still allowed to be pissy about it lol