Both Azula and Ozai used it and definitely used rage to fuel their bending. It is possible that you had to use the Dragon style firebending to redirect lightning like Iroh and eventually Zuko did.

I haven't re-watched the series so I don't remember everything but I only remember the royal family of the Fire Nation using lightning. Ozai was the most powerful bender in the Fire Nation and Azula was his daughter and a prodigy and both were of royal descent.

If lightning was knowledge based and only passed down in the royal family then I don't understand why after hundreds of years of keeping it a secret, Zuko decided to share this knowledge with the world. If it is talent based and only Ozai, Azula, Iroh, probably Jeong Jeong, and maybe a few others could produce it, then everyone who uses it now is as powerful as the most powerful fire benders 70 years ago. A combination of the two runs into either problem. I am making some assumptions based on a not perfect memory and only what they showed us in the episodes of the first series so this could be way off base but the idea is just bugging me. That and blood bending being ridiculously powerful.

 

You're still not thinking of this right. The difference between the world Katara grew up in and the one she lives in now is the difference between an agrarian society and a fully industrialised nation. ATLA was basically set in a time when apprenticeships and family businesses were the sole means of passing on knowledge from one generation to the next. ALOK is set in a city that is essentially much the same as a modern day one where people are trained in skills to fulfil a specific niche in the job market.

So really, it's just a matter of availability. Those people capable of bending lightning went to Republic City and taught others how to bend it, who taught others, and so on. That's why there are so many benders of what were previously rare elements in the city. I expect once you get outside of the Republic City region things are much closer to how they were in ATLA, because the sheer amount of knowledge available in the city isn't so easy to access out in the rural areas.

 

Here's what bugs me though. Zuko was arguably one of the best firebenders of his time and yet he could not create lightning, only redirect it which, impressive in itself still does not compensate for his inability to create it. (I'm assuming he tried a lot off screen as well, that's the kind of person he is.)

So yeah, it wasn't really a matter of availability. I'm pretty certain that in A:TLA, lightning was, in addition to training being rarely available, crazy hard to master as well.

What I can accept, is that it evolved over time and they came up with a newer much more accessible/easier way to create lightning. The only drawback was that it was significantly weaker.

 

Definitely. The lightning Mako used on that chi-blocker's motorcycle a couple episodes ago was certainly not up to par with Azula's or Ozai's.

 

Or maybe Mako just isn't as talented as they were. Also, wasn't Zuko's problem that he couldn't get into the right state of mind to create lightning, so Iroh taught him to redirect it instead?

 

You put it better than I did.

 

Err, I can't accept that lightning bending isn't common. I don't see all these rare and powerful firebenders journeying through the world to the great republic city to put on a mask and shitty clothes and do this for minimum wage:

 

As much as I hate to say it, he has a point, to a degree. But then, that scene was such crap. When I saw it I just about turned off the show. To take something as rare and powerful and awesome as Lightning-bending and turn it into a fairly common skill was a terrible move.

(Note: Same with Metal-bending and Blood-bending. Though the Metal-bending police ARE pretty awesome, and I can kind of handwave that by assuming they're simply the best of the best, the SWAT of the Bending Police.)

Terrible enough that if I ever write Avatar!Fic I'm likely to ignore it altogether, or at least alter the circumstances. But then, that's the awesome thing about fanfic, you can do whatever the fuck you want with it. And if done well, it can still be good.

Edit: Do we KNOW that he got paid minimum/low wages? Perhaps its a temp job that pays well but only comes up every now and then so those capable of Lightning-bending jump on it?

 

With regard to lightning, firstly, it isn't as common as you all are making it out to be. Mako was able get that job, without any credentials or education whatsoever, in a very quick period of time, and the job was stated to "pay well"; ask anybody who knows something about jobs, and they'll tell you that jobs that pay well don't come easily to the uneducated. And especially in that swarming climate of 1920s, under-equipped jobs with financial stability are rare (DeMario, 1992). I don't know where you got that minimum wage impression from; it might not be the best pay in the world, but considering how scarce jobs would be in that economic climate, I'd say that Mako must possess a pretty rare skill set to be readily employed (Owens, 1995).

And the uniforms are no indication that the job pays horridly; what would you expect Firebenders wear while bending lightning, a tuxedo? It's an industrial environment, people.

Now, lightning is merely a skill-set which requires coolness and "focus" of intention, without hesitance. It's not about calmness, although that would help considerably. CheddarTrek, the reason why Azula and Ozai were so good at bending lightning was that they knew exactly what they wanted. Azula's determination for blood, while fueled by less than charitable means, was calculated and distilled to pure intent. Zuko, on the other hand, vacillated frequently and did not know what he wanted half the time. That's why he couldn't bend lightning.

Mako, I find, is rather "cool under fire" and has a lot of drive, which explains why he'd be able to muster the focus for lightning. In the first series, Firebending was limited to the upper-classes, but not exclusively to the Royal Family: Li and Lo were both able to bend lightning; they implied that it was a skill which required great "focus". Since Zuko would have been a Fire Lord whose foreign policy would have been rapprochement, attempting to deconstruct the image of a hierarchical and almost tyrannical Fire Nation, one could feasibly believe that he would allow lightning to be taught amongst the plebeians. Especially after his rejection of the Earth Kingdom's Harmony Movement, he would have needed to demonstrate his belief in the Fire-Earth détente.

For Republic City, the brainchild of him and Aang, would have required massive industrialisation in a swift period of time, one could imagine Fire Lord Zuko sanctioning the teaching of lightning manipulation in order to establish power supplies required for the construction factories. All in all, it makes sense to me.

Now, I'm sure that we already had this whinge-fest on lightning a few pages back. Let's stop whipping the dead whore, shall we?

tl;dr, it's not as rare as before, but still pretty rare. Deal with it, and enjoy the fine show that you're getting.


DeMario, N. (1992). Skills needed for successful employment: A review of the literature. RE:view, 24(3), 115-125.
Owen, L. (1995). Worker Turnover in the 1920s: The Role of Changing Employment Policies. ICC, 4(3)

 

I personally just thought that it made some sense. We know from canon that lightning bending has everything to do with state of mind, not power. Everybody has the potential to alter their state of mind if the circumstances and their self discipline allow it, which means that any firebender could potentially bend lightning.

I would imagine that where power comes in is in the strength of the lightning. It's already been mentioned that Mako's lightning was significantly weaker than Ozai's or Azula's, but then it's also pretty obvious that Mako is nowhere near Ozai or Azula's level of power.

Add in the already-mentioned possibility that lightning bending knowledge has become much more wide-spread since the end of the war, and the clear utility and efficiency of massive amounts of easily-generated electricity for a heavily industrialized society, and you've got a recipe for a shitload of mediocre (power-wise) lightning benders. With all that in mind, it actually makes a hell of a lot of sense that lightning bending would be portrayed as it has been.

EDIT: Damn, ninja'd be a post even more TL;DR than mine. A few good points there, too.

 

Here's a preview for the next episode.

Lance Henriksen is wasted on the Lieutenant. He's a complete joke.

 

This. Lieutenant Lightning used to be scary as fuck; he rolled on Lin, a master earthbender (and Tenzin, if memory serves). Now he's getting roflstomped by a polar bear-dog. Sad.

Also, whoever he is, Amon better have some pretty serious secret mojo to walk through the same bloodbending that skunked half the Gaang back in the day. Because he sure as shit didn't do it on willpower, because that's not how fucking bending works. Spirit bending or bending nullifying field or some bullshit, accept no substitutes. I want to see him take a goddamn punch already.

 

I can't agree with this.

How can you say that the Fire Nation wasn't a fully industrialized society? Did you see the shit they had? Nothing in Legend of Korra comes close.

On top of that, they'd been fighting an ongoing war for a century. They were both highly industrialized and militarized. I'd argue that Old Fire Nation was far more structured than the current Korra setting. The notion that the current setting is a better one for mass dissemination of a skill like lighting bending doesn't make sense. I mean you had literally thousands of soldiers trying to take over the world for a century and no one figures this out? Really?

The other notion is that lightning bending was a secret known only to the royal family, but that then begs two questions:

First, why did Iroh never teach his trusted commanders such a skill. He never struck me as a guy who would short change his own men just to follow the traditions of a royal line he clearly didn't hold much respect for.

Secondly, why after the war would Zuko and Iroh choose to teach this skill to the masses? Why didn't they use this ability like Ozai and Azula did? Watching the show, I always assumed it had a bad stigma to it or some other drawback that made the more pure Dragon style bending a better alternative. In short, if neither Zuko or Iroh thought that this skill was worth using, why would they go on to teach it to others?

In short, I think that the writers for Korra simply made a horrible continuity error in making lightning/blood/metal bending more accessible. They just wanted to be able to throw in more flashy stuff, but frankly I've found the traditional bending to be what's really lacking from the series so far when it comes to action sequences.

 

The firebenders of Aang's time - both of his times - were all forced into military service, and trained from an early age to fuel their abilities with rage. After being indoctrinated in a philosophy of aggression and anger from an early age, it doesn't seem easy to obtain peace of mind whenever you like. Especially not in the middle of combat.

These benders were soldiers, remember. Trained to be ruthless, to hate the people they fought with irrational vehemence, and strengthen their every action with anger.

In Korra's time, the bending lessons learned from the Sun Warriors may have become more widespead, reducing the focus on anger as fuel for firebending. Not to mention that being calm at work while poking a machine is much easier than while actually in the heat of combat. Even Mako sniping off Equalist bikes in the car chase scene is very different to full-scale battles.

 

I got the minimum wage thing from the fact that Bolin never thought Mako would be able to provide enough money despite knowing that he could bend lightning. If a day's worth of street thugery can get you more than a month's worth of lightning bending, then it's pretty minimum wage. And you bringing up education (Mako as uneducated, omg how did he get a job?) in a job that literally requires you to pump lightning into a generator is just wtf.

And now to drive my point home, how many benders have you seen in republic city? Now, how many firebenders have you seen? Very few. I can't even remember more than a couple. If I were to make wild sweeping inaccurate guesses, I'd say, 20% of the population of republic city are benders. And then I would guess 4% are water benders, 4% are firebenders and 12% are earth benders (including the police). Now, I'd estimate 25% of firebenders can lightning bend. So, final point, here's a job that powers the entire city, 1% of people can do it. It's not entirely low paying but if you were doing it full time, you could lead a lower middle class life.

I've always got the impression the Mako and Bolin were not well off. On the streets, orphans, whatever, they have literally no savings, no house, etc. You claim that (a) he has a rare gift of lightning bending and (b) that it pays really well? What do you think they were doing when not pro-bend? Why wasn't Mako doing this crazy awesome job?

/endrant. You're seriously stupid (in my humble opinion) if you think lightning bending isn't common.

 

I'm pretty certain Lightning bending was a closely guarded secret of the Fire Nation Royal Family. Azula, Ozai, Iroh. Those are the only ppl that used it in the previous series.

The fact that every other firebender can do it now is easily explained as Zuko or Iroh releasing the knowledge to the public to advance some cause or the other of Republic City (technology/industrialization maybe?).

Lightning bending's ubiquitousness also indicates that it isn't so much dependent on either power or skill, but rather a specific methodology.

One of my main gripes with the benders in this series is how WEAK they are, compared to the benders of the old series. Even the "strong" ones. Compared to Aang, Korra is laughable. Compared to Toph, Lin is a rookie. Compared to. Compared to Kitara, Torrlak is rubbish (yeah, even with his blood-bending);and I could go on and on with the comparisons. I mean, seriously, who ever thought that non-benders would one day pose a threat to the bending populace? The technological revolution made the benders go soft.

 

Basically what I see you saying is that every single Nazi was a rage-a-holic and Hitler was the only calm and sane one in the bunch.

Is that not a decent metaphor for Ozai/Azula and the average firebender soldier?

I don't really understand how Iroh's explanation makes any sense. All I can guess is that Ozai and Azula had mad firebending skills and much greater control than your average firebender. The notion that they had inner peace or some shit is laughable.

Regardless, I doubt Iroh was brainwashing his army when he was trying to break down the capitol of Earth country. He doesn't seem the type.

 

I miss when this thread was fun.

 

I'm not saying the firebenders were rabid dogs. They were taught to use anger to fuel their bending. The two were intrinsically linked, and the only way that they understood how to bend. Bending with a calm mindset directly opposed everything else they had ever practiced.

Soldiers are taught to do things in a specific way. How they think, how they fight, even so much as how they stand. Ozai and Azula were not soldiers, and thus more receptive to contradicting their training and mastering a new discipline.