Is the Technological Advances in The Legend of Korra Really That Unbelievable?: Zaofu Edition

[Winter]

Something that occurred to me after writing the previous post was that, buy and large, most fans don't seem to mind Zaofu even though it is the MOST technologically advanced Anything in Avatar. Like most who seem to dislike or even hate Republic City either don't mind or flat out love Zaofu.

Why is that? Why do so many fans seem to like this almost sci-fi city that is set in a fantasy/steampunk world?

As I mentioned in the other post the technological advances in the first season of Korra does make sense when you look at the tech that already existed in The Last Airbender. Again, TLA had a GIANT DRILL that was taller then some buildings and spanned at least a couple of miles along with tanks, submarine and airships of of all this tech only the submarines used bending in it's construction. So, the leap from that to cars, planes and trains isn't that much of a leap especially when you consider that non-benders would do everything they could to catch up to their bender counterparts (which, after the war, had diminished in numbers during the 100 year war due to the Fire Nation hunting down and capturing/killing benders from other nations (you know, for kids)).

However, I have a theory as to why fans are more okay with Zaofu then they are with RC. I don't think it's how fast the tech advanced, I think it's the look of the world. One issues fans have with RC is that it looks to Western City (ignoring the fact that RC is based on late 20's or early 30's Eastern Cities but that's besides the point) and I think that ties into why fans issues with RC and the tech of Korra as a whole.

By contrast Zaofu has a more Eastern feel to it with the esthetics having elements often found in Chinese art styles (like the City Domes have a Lotus look to them which is rather common in Eastern Style art and is based on the Lotus Temple in India


youtu.be/GD6qtc2_AQA
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Also, Zaofu incorporates more of Avatar's World Building elements like how the City is kinda run by Metal Bending in addition to more modern tech like engines and trains so as a result it's easy to see this fitting into the world that has been established. Things like Cars and Planes don't require bending in the slightest and trains were shown to need Benders in order to work in TLA and going back to another point I made the submarines needed Benders in order to work. So a City that is only possible because of Metalbending that has a look that feels more Eastern then Western to most casual viewers I think this plays a major factor in why fans are overall okay with Zaofu over RC even though it IS a lot more advanced.

[Thebestoftherest]

Again a lot of the tech of Korra is 1920 with a few hiccups while Last Airbender tech is that of 1850 which was around the age of the wild west, which again a few hiccups. I think that other than the giant mecha and flying giant humming birds works that way.

[Winter]

Again a lot of the tech of Korra is 1920 with a few hiccups while Last Airbender tech is that of 1850 which was around the age of the wild west, which again a few hiccups. I think that other than the giant mecha and flying giant humming birds works that way.

I'm sorry but I can't get over the Drill. I know I keep harking on that but it's a feat of engineering that can't be overlooked. Same thing with the tanks and airships, as soon as you include those things Korra's tech is not that outlandish. These aren't hiccups, these things are bloody miracle tech in terms of how this world works.

Again, the Drill is something that should not work. The amount of power for something like this would need is ridicules and would likely have broken the Fire Nations Economy just to build PART of it and again, it runs on STEAM!!! That's like saying you can't have a gun but you can have a Death Star.

I know that the tech in Korra is based on 1920's while Avatar is suppose to be more 1850 but I'm sorry no. As soon as we look at Aang's time, my willingness to assume that the tech in Korra is to advanced goes out the window because if anything the tech is only SLIGHTLY more advanced then Aang's time.

[Thebestoftherest]

The air ship was invented in 1852 around the same time period as Last Airbender

[Winter]

The air ship was invented in 1852 around the same time period as Last Airbender

And could only fit one person were REALLY small and I doubt it could house space for any sort of weapons and likely couldn't support any sort of metal. The real world counterpart for the The Airship we see in Book 3, aka the Zeppelin, didn't even FLY until 1910 and were STILL not nearly as advanced or as roomy as we see in TLA. And keep in mind that the Fire Nation somehow went from a regular hot-air balloon to a fleet of Zeppelins in less then year.

Zeppelins, on a side note, needed helium to attain flight because it was the only thing that could get the ship off the ground as hot-air wasn't nearly strong enough to do the job.

So, in a 6 to 8 month period the Fire Nation got a Hot-Air Balloon discovered or created helium, figured out how to combine the two to make Zeppelins that could house at least 50 people AND ALSO figured out how they could hold up heavy metal figure heads on ALL their ships.

In other words, in TLA the Fire Nation somehow skipped 58 Years of Technological Advances... in 6 or 8 months.

[CharlesPhipps]

I think the fact the first episodes of Avatar have fucking steam powered battleships basically precludes any complaints about technological progress.

[Lazerlike42]

I don't think the dissonance that many see between TLAB and Korra is about the technology in itself. Sure, if you pick only the technological items from the original series - mostly from the Fire Nation, of course, but not exclusively - and compare them to only the technological items from Korra, they're plausibly 100 years or so apart.

The problem is that even if the technology from Avatar is similar to a real world 1850s level of technology, the rest of the society comes across as being much older. In some ways the technology of the world of the original Avatar series even seems almost inconsonant with the rest of that world itself, but ultimately it just works in the way that a perfectly crafted fictional world can work. I think comparable examples of technology which generally seems out of step with the rest of the world nevertheless working well might be the games Guild Wars 2 and Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and honestly a lot of anime, which makes sense given Avatar's origins. These are cases where the world is this frankly strange mix of advanced technology and loosely medieval style fantasy but it just somehow works. Why it works is difficult to rigorously define, but it does.

I think the one of the biggest problems with Korra, taken on its own, is that this mix just doesn't really work in the same way it does in some of these other properties. Don't get me wrong, I like Korra a lot more than many people seem to. I do have problems with it, but the technology is not one of the big ones. Still, I do think there's just something missing from that "magic sauce" which makes it all work so well in Avatar. Taken on its own, the mix of culture/society and technology in Korra works okay, but it doesn't work great in my opinion.

Either way, I think it really sticks out as seeming like much too rapid advancement from TLAB not because of the technology, but because of the various cultures of the world. While the technology, taken in isolation, might plausibly fit with the given timeline, the cultural changes seem much, much more drastic. Korra's automobiles may be only a few decades past the Last Air Bender's steam ships, but Republic City seems centuries beyond Ba Sing Se and a millennia past many of the villages which Aang and his friends visit.

So why do people usually hone in on the technology? I think it comes down to what people most associate with or remember from Avatar. While the show does have steam ships and the Drill and
mechanical tanks, I think when the average person thinks about Avatar they think of the eastern medieval fantasy aesthetic. The technology is present, but not usually. Usually we see settings and clothing and cultures inspired by the Ming Dynasty or feudal Japan. In Korra, the technology often takes front and center. Even when it's not strictly speaking the primary focus, the technology is often "looking over the shoulder." For example, much of the first season heavily features professional bending, and this is almost always accompanied by the radio play by play of the match, so even though the technology isn't meant to be the focus, it still sort of permeates the whole experience.

Even when the technology really is absent from Korra, the overall aesthetic and sense of the society and the culture is just worlds away from Avatar, and I think that's what people who see a drastic difference are really thinking about. They may hone in on the technology because it's an easy thing to point to, but really the differences are much deeper than that.