Avatar question and thoughts.

[frigidmagi]

"Are you from the colonies?"

"huh... Yeah, I'm from the colonies." (may be slightly paraphrased).

When Aang said that, I mentally kicked myself, hard. You may be asking why, let me explain.

Ever since Season 1, we've been seeing Firenation colonies on Earth Kingdom soil. From what we can tell, they're fairly well developed (to the point Zuko and Iroh can get massage and such within walking distance of the Earth Kingdom). There are families, villages, farms, businesses the whole deal.

This leads to one question.

Aang defeats the firelord, the Firenation is forced to stand down and restore the Earth Kingdoms independence...

What the hell are they suppose to do with the Fire Nation colonist? Send they to a "home" some of them have never seen before? Is there even room for all of them in the orginal Fire Nation islands?

On the flip side the Earth Kingdom is going to be angry (fuck everyone is angry it's war for a 100 years!) and isn't going to want a bunch of firebenders on its land...

So... What are they gonna do about the Firenation colonies?

[Charon]

That's one thing that's always confused me some. The Firenation is, pretty much, an island chain of volcanoes. Where the fuck have they gotten the armies to take on a nation that probably has over 20 times their amount of habitable land and resources? I guess the answer is from the colonies... but still.

As for the Firenation colonies, I imagine that people are going to be forced out of their homes and moved, or become earth nation citizens. Either way I don't think this will be a rushed job because there's an Avatar hanging around to make certain that everyone gets treated fairly.

[frigidmagi]

My best guess comes from the secret history episode. Where the Firelord claims to the Avatar of that time that the Fire Nation is unbelievably prosperous and the war would eventually help everyone.

First: Volcanic ash can be pretty fertile from what I understand, maybe that combined with some farming advance resulted in a population boom. Extra population= more craftsmen and soldiers.

Second: Tech advances, we've seen a good control of steam tech from the Fire Nation, I assume that's a force multiplier.

Third: That damn comet. My personal belief is that the Fire Nation used the comet to wipe out the Air Nomads and hit a strike on the Earth Kingdom grabbing some badly defended coastline. They would be aided in this by both the other nations being off their guard and the fact that the Earth Kingdom doesn't seem really unified in the sense that the Fire Nation is. For example King Boomie doesn't seem to really owe that much alligence to the government in Ba Singh Sah (I am sorry for the misspelling).

Forth: They were also able to take out the water benders or isolate them quickly. We see this in the blood bending episode and in the siege of the North Pole where from what the Chief says it seems like the last attack was over 86 years ago! If it was aimed at their offensive power then the Northern Water Tribe was either unable or just didn't care enough to try to rebuild and take on the Fire Nation Navy, which to be fair is one hell of a navy.

[Charon]

My best guess comes from the secret history episode. Where the Firelord claims to the Avatar of that time that the Fire Nation is unbelievably prosperous and the war would eventually help everyone.

First: Volcanic ash can be pretty fertile from what I understand, maybe that combined with some farming advance resulted in a population boom. Extra population= more craftsmen and soldiers.

This is true, but you still need fresh water and viable land. I guess they must have some large farms somewhere then.

Second: Tech advances, we've seen a good control of steam tech from the Fire Nation, I assume that's a force multiplier.

Very very true, but the tanks are new technology, the Inventor guy was the one who made them (IIRC), plus when at least a tenth of the people you're fighting are essentially carrying Rocket launchers (benders), tech isn't quite as big of an advantage.

Third: That damn comet. My personal belief is that the Fire Nation used the comet to wipe out the Air Nomads and hit a strike on the Earth Kingdom grabbing some badly defended coastline. They would be aided in this by both the other nations being off their guard and the fact that the Earth Kingdom doesn't seem really unified in the sense that the Fire Nation is. For example King Boomie doesn't seem to really owe that much alligence to the government in Ba Singh Sah (I am sorry for the misspelling).

The comet was definately used to wipe out the Air nomads, but the Fire nation had taken land from the Earth kingdom, probably decades before even that (See Roku's confrontation with Sozen when they are both still middle-aged.) Though I will agree that the Earth Kingdom seems much more fractious than the Fire nation or even the Water Tribes. That probably has to do with that the Fire nation is just that a nation, complete with nationalistic pride while the Earth Kingdom is a kingdom, which tends to have more loyalty towards the local lord.

Fourth: They were also able to take out the water benders or isolate them quickly. We see this in the blood bending episode and in the siege of the North Pole where from what the Chief says it seems like the last attack was over 86 years ago! If it was aimed at their offensive power then the Northern Water Tribe was either unable or just didn't care enough to try to rebuild and take on the Fire Nation Navy, which to be fair is one hell of a navy.

Well it's pretty easy to isolate a group when, for one they're situated on opposite sides of the pole, and secondly when they're in inhospitible lands. I think they were never really concerned with either of the water tribes. Because lets face it, they have probably a smaller population than even the Fire nation, and get them far enough inland and they lose a lot of their power.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I dont know where you got the idea that the Fire nation is an island chain. It has one larger landmass with a lot of island colonies if you look at the map at the opening. From what I see they easily have the landmass to support a large population. Additionally, while they have engaged in a large scale invasion of the Earth Kingdom, the Earth Kingdom still probably controls most of its territory, because they are so spread out, I mean for fuck's sake it has taken over a hundred years for the Fire Nation to conquer the territory they have.

It is obvious the earth kingdom is losing the war though. ANd that is because they are decentralized. Their monarch did not even know of the war, and his puppet master seemed content to solidify his power within Be Sing Se. Each city seems to me to effectively be on their own.