You forget a critical element in Fire Nation's overall technological progress.
Best stuff being outsourced to a certain Earth Kingdom refugee!
Mechanist's creativity drives their developments.
If he's overlooked something there is a good chance it's not getting done.
Thats one thing that always bothered me. Why is the best the Mechanist do for the Avatar and friends an old school hot air baloon when the fire nation gets full on war blimps. That is some seriously short turnaround on R&D and construction or the designs were already done. If they were already done couldn't he have done a slightly better job? Oh wait, kids show...
As for the new chapter, I think it does suffer a little from your lack of sleep. That or Azula is rather delerious throughout. If that is the intent it comes through as the fight has a kind of floaty feeling. As for the pirates, well they clearly arn't normal, and clearly were out hunting Azula, though maybe not by name or even description. Just that they knew they were to go capture/kill a firebending master. Too bad they met a heatbender instead.
Fire nation technological progression seems incredible even without him. Assuming its anything near normal, to go from the idea of a ballon and one damaged prototype to airshipfleet in less than a year.
Or some other things, like the emchanization in Omashu, turned into whats seems to be industrial town in months....
Both construction and development seem to be pretty incredible with these guys.
But so's Fishzilla! Think of it as getting in character!
Azula is getting more a bit strange here at times, but this isn't necessarily bad (actually, even amusing sometimes), and as before, it's not inappropriate for someone who's both delirious to the point of blacking out and getting angrier at the situation and the people involved—this chapter's Jolt was described as repulsive, whereas in the prior first impression seemed at least somewhat positive (maybe I'm misreading that, though). And in this chapter, Azula seems to maintain focus better than in the last. I mean, over and above to suddenly switching to emotionless mode.
Regardless, I hope both you and Azula get some rest.
Eighteen of them are below decks rowing, with fifteen of them being chained to their seats. One man is standing at their front, his mouth wide, possibly yelling.
Your new senses are impressive as hell. Heat sensing would have been useful even if it was limited to some analogue of infrared vision, but truly a three-dimensional sense is just out there.
'I think we can't use the heat sense in such a prolonged way. We just discovered it.' I tell her my first assumption. It makes sense, considering how it even takes Toph many years.
Makes sense, though personally my first guess would be that you can't focus effectively due to the amount of information involved—as a function of it simply being 'on', rather than the length of time it is active. Though that would be very simple to test if you can turn it back off.
Additionally, blind people tend to still have an active visual cortex; it's just not processing actual visual information. Toph learned how to do it young enough so that brain plasticity was high and so her brain would be better able to rewire itself. So it's possible that Toph has an advantage other than experience—if she's using her visual cortex for the tremor-sense, that's something you might never quite match unless you also go blind.
Or perhaps you will...
Azula: "I'm a starbender. Your argument is invalid."
And here I was just wishing that Fishzilla could go Yoda on the scum named Jolt's lightning. Unfortunately, by the time she could do that, she'll probably be the wrong size for it.
Although one could bullshit some redirection ability even without being able to generate lightning. Let's try.
A natural lightning strike is a multi-stage process, involving (1) a large electric potential difference, (2) the chaotic electrical breakdown of the air, and (3) the main discharge, where the current flow is dominated by the most conductive paths created by the prior ionization of the air. Canonically, lightning-bending involves separating yin and yang, which almost certainly corresponds to (1) in some mystic way, and furthermore the benders can guide but not control the direction of the discharge—it's rather unclear what that means exactly, but a reasonable interpretation is that they don't directly control the electrical breakdown of the air that will determine the path of the discharge, and can only affect it indirectly through the electric potential.
Someone that can generate plasma can throw a wrench into this process, by providing alternative highly conducting paths for the discharge. I wonder if Fishzilla's heatbending is enough to generate plasma that's strongly out of thermal equilibrium—specifically, one where ionization isn't high but the electron temperature is much hotter than the temperature of cations and neutral particles, which can remain low. That would have the relevant benefits of plasma at a significantly reduced energy cost.
It might be just plain impossible to heat-bend in that way, though. That's where the "bullshit" part would come in (also, IRL "cold plasmas" are produced electrically, rather than some uber-fine heatbending). On the other hand, all bending is already such anyway, and this would continue the trend of Fishzilla doing something outrageous because she can conceptualize from a modern perspective. People in the Fire Nation almost certainly understand temperature in the bulk sense, but that the same material can have microscopic particles at completely different temperatures would be a bizarre claim.
Ok, stopping rambling now...
P.S. Since 'but' is a coordinating conjunction, a comma will do.
We are not prepared for an open confrontation; so they will have to go with a sword-and-dagger combination. ... It is nice to see that the girls have been paying attention; yet they aren't listening to our instructions to stay low at all.
...
A little; but our enemy can hurl more lightning than Emperor Palpatine.
At the same time, the bodies that make up of the other, smaller galley charges on, just twenty meters away and trying to knock our ship onto one of the nearby rocks.
Singular/plural mismatch: should be either 'that is not the move' or 'those are not the moves'. Perhaps the former is better, since the previous sentence descripes a particular (singular) action.
At the same time, the flaming sails above us fall, and we only notice at the last moment because the intensity of the focus required for moving something so large.
Fire nation technological progression seems incredible even without him. Assuming its anything near normal, to go from the idea of a ballon and one damaged prototype to airshipfleet in less than a year.
Minister Qin's reaction to the hot air balloon is beyond odd. Cut that out and the situation is somewhat better: hot air balloons were originally Fire Nation technology anyway, and the Mechanist modified them for his own use. So there would be no dissonance between them and the Fire Nation developing airships—just say those airship ideas were percolating for a lot longer and would have happened at some point even without the Mechanist's input.
There's your normal schizo-tech that's common in fantasy settings, and there's the kind that implies that everyone involved is being genuinely dumb. The immediate alternative is that only Minister Qin derped, rather than Fire Nation in toto... or perhaps that Qin intentionally exaggerated the importance of the Mechanist's balloon in order to regain some face immediately following the Fire Nation's loss in the whole fiasco.
Why in the world would the Fire Nation have trains? They're an island nation, and the only other place that they could use them is the Earth Kingdom, which is filled with Earth Benders, who could very easily destroy large sections of rails.
EDIT: Apparently, there's a train the Fire Nation, in one of the comics. Also, I was under the impression that the Fire Nation was a lot smaller than it actually is, according to a map that I saw. The point still stands for trains in the Earth Kingdom, though.
even the tanks that they use are easily taken out by earth-benders fucking with the treads, but something that requires several hundred miles of rail?
couldn't you just stick a big earthen spike through the track every half a mile, thus rendering the entire thing completely worthless? or just wait till a train is passing and derail the entire thing, killing everyone onboard?
Months of work destroyed or sabotaged in moments by any random earth-bender worth his salt, because the track is too long and you can't possibly guard the whole thing.
Firenation may be an "island nation" insofar that they arent one continous landmass, but unless you have one of those measurements where the whole avatarworld fits into a lake, some of these islands are big enough to make rails necessary or practical.
Hell, even only going by the mid-size calcs the biggest few islands are something like hundreds of miles in size.
even the tanks that they use are easily taken out by earth-benders fucking with the treads, but something that requires several hundred miles of rail?
couldn't you just stick a big earthen spike through the track every half a mile, thus rendering the entire thing completely worthless? or just wait till a train is passing and derail the entire thing, killing everyone onboard?
If they really want to be dicks they can just slightly shift the landscape on random chunks of track. Not enough to be really visible, but enough to tilt the train over.
But not for ages. And Japan, for all it's other great things about it, has a tendency to copy what America scientifically and culturally (somewhat) does since WWII. They even have a miniature Lady Liberty in their harbor.
Korea.... Did the US help them build that for the military?
But not for ages. And Japan, for all it's other great things about it, has a tendency to copy what America scientifically and culturally (somewhat) does since WWII. They even have a miniature Lady Liberty in their harbor.
Korea.... Did the US help them build that for the military?
Also, it never exactly hit me before, but that heat-bending is extremely bullshit. I mean, really what is heat? Heat is movement. Heat is energy, light, Electromagnetic waves. Only thing without heat or movement exists at zero-degree Kelvin. At that point, theoretically nothing exists.
SO with this, Fishzilla can potentially control everything or given her track record, reduce the world to nothing.
Also, it never exactly hit me before, but that heat-bending is extremely bullshit. I mean, really what is heat? Heat is movement. Heat is energy, light, Electromagnetic waves. Only thing without heat or movement exists at zero-degree Kelvin. At that point, theoretically nothing exists.
SO with this, Fishzilla can potentially control everything or given her track record, reduce the world to nothing.
Yeah, she could also literally play Maxwell's Demon, defy the second law of thermodynamics, and reduce entropy.... Wait have we just solved the Worm Entities' entropy problem?
Yeah, she could also literally play Maxwell's Demon, defy the second law of thermodynamics, and reduce entropy.... Wait have we just solved the Worm Entities' entropy problem?
Also, it never exactly hit me before, but that heat-bending is extremely bullshit. I mean, really what is heat? Heat is movement. Heat is energy, light, Electromagnetic waves. Only thing without heat or movement exists at zero-degree Kelvin. At that point, theoretically nothing exists.
SO with this, Fishzilla can potentially control everything or given her track record, reduce the world to nothing.
Well, she theorically could yeah but I doubt that in practice it is that easy. Even with a lot and a lot of training. So I don't think it is relevant right now.
Not quite. Energy bending is more the bending of another person's life-force. Though, she already technically has the other elements since they are all matter, and heat takes the form of movement and sub-molecular vibrations in matter.
Well, she theorically could yeah but I doubt that in practice it is that easy. Even with a lot and a lot of training. So I don't think it is relevant right now.
You're right, I just thought I'd mention it.
A major issue is that these are now less to do with power and more to do with skill. Given time all of this is easily achievable, save those limited by raw power.
Yeah being soul-fused with the spirit of light (or yang spirit I guess) tend to do that... On the other hand the avatar tend to think of his/her elements as separate from one another while Azula heatbending isn't so limited. In a battle between them any attack of the avatar is at 1/4 of their possible power while Azula is more efficient...on the other other hand 1/4 of infinite is also infinite so...
Yeah being soul-fused with the spirit of light (or yang spirit I guess) tend to do that... On the other hand the avatar tend to think of his/her elements as separate from one another while Azula heatbending isn't so limited. In a battle between them any attack of the avatar is at 1/4 of their possible power while Azula is more efficient...on the other other hand 1/4 of infinite is also infinite so...
One of the main things about the Avatar is that not only does he have the Raw power from Raava, but he also has a literal 100 lifetimes of experience in the bending arts.
I'm sure by the time canon rolls out, Fishzilla will be more than a match for Aang, but as she is now I'm fairly certain he can beat her. Remember, bending potential aside, Aang is a master Air bender who can use his abilities effortlessly, while Fishzilla fainted trying to fight fire-bending pirates with the new abilities.
As a fully realized Avatar he'd still be more of a threat. One of the feats for previous avatar's(Kyoshi) is separating a strip of land from the main land and creating an island without causing any visible damage to the people, and in the Avatar state Aang has access to the skills of all the past Avatars.
A list of Aang's feats I found online, which may or may not be entirely accurate, though serves as a general guideline.
Tldr: Fishzilla is strong but so is the Avatar. And also Aang has the potential to learn what she knows as well.
though, IMO Aang's Katsujinken approach to fighting would give Azula the advantage. I think a greater threat to her, would be Korra or some of the other avatars since they are better trained in the other Bending arts and are willing to kill.
One of the main things about the Avatar is that not only does he have the Raw power from Raava, but he also has a literal 100 lifetimes of experience in the bending arts.
I'm sure by the time canon rolls out, Fishzilla will be more than a match for Aang, but as she is now I'm fairly certain he can beat her. Remember, bending potential aside, Aang is a master Air bender who can use his abilities effortlessly, while Fishzilla fainted trying to fight fire-bending pirates with the new abilities.
As a fully realized Avatar he'd still be more of a threat. One of the feats for previous avatar's(Kyoshi) is separating a strip of land from the main land and creating an island without causing any visible damage to the people, and in the Avatar state Aang has access to the skills of all the past Avatars.
A list of Aang's feats I found online, which may or may not be entirely accurate, though serves as a general guideline.
Tldr: Fishzilla is strong but so is the Avatar. And also Aang has the potential to learn what she knows as well.
though, IMO Aang's Katsujinken approach to fighting would give Azula the advantage. I think a greater threat to her, would be Korra or some of the other avatars since they are better trained in the other Bending arts and are willing to kill.
Mmm...I'm not sure that even in the future Fishzilla could beat the "avatar state" Aang, or at least not in a straight fight. The raw power of the Avatar and his skills in single elemental manipulation are frankly inhuman.
I was only pointing out that he usually doesn't use his skill in, for example, fire manipulation in conjunction with air to create a stronger fire attack, he usually fight as if he is 4 people attacking one after the other instead of a single master of all elements. Plus he isn't very creative in his interpretation of what is an element and tend to rely too much on his "4 elements instead of 1" advantage.
So skill-wise a Fishzilla with a mastered heatbending/plasma and creativity on her side have him beat(since heat manipulation beat a single element manipulation any-day) the problem is that with enough raw power even plasma can be brushed aside.
Mmm...I'm not sure that even in the future Fishzilla could beat the "avatar state" Aang, or at least not in a straight fight. The raw power of the Avatar and his skills in single elemental manipulation are frankly inhuman.
I was only pointing out that he usually doesn't use his skill in, for example, fire manipulation in conjunction with air to create a stronger fire attack, he usually fight as if he is 4 people attacking one after the other instead of a single master of all elements. Plus he isn't very creative in his interpretation of what is an element and tend to rely too much on his "4 elements instead of 1" advantage.
So skill-wise a Fishzilla with a mastered heatbending/plasma and creativity on her side have him beat(since heat manipulation beat a single element manipulation any-day) the problem is that with enough raw power even plasma can be brushed aside.
The ways in which Aang is uncreative could be expounded upon for days, airbending is a winbutton if you just make it too thin for the enemy to breath or for fire to burn etc. Honestly I put a lot of it down to him being so young and inexperienced, he's really not more than a journeyman in any of the bending arts, if an exceedingly powerful one. He lets his raw strength compensate for his lack of finesse.
Mmm...I'm not sure that even in the future Fishzilla could beat the "avatar state" Aang, or at least not in a straight fight. The raw power of the Avatar and his skills in single elemental manipulation are frankly inhuman.
I was only pointing out that he usually doesn't use his skill in, for example, fire manipulation in conjunction with air to create a stronger fire attack, he usually fight as if he is 4 people attacking one after the other instead of a single master of all elements. Plus he isn't very creative in his interpretation of what is an element and tend to rely too much on his "4 elements instead of 1" advantage.
So skill-wise a Fishzilla with a mastered heatbending/plasma and creativity on her side have him beat(since heat manipulation beat a single element manipulation any-day) the problem is that with enough raw power even plasma can be brushed aside.
That's why I mentioned the other avatars would probably be more dangerous. You should remember that Aang's only been learning the other elements for an year, actually less given the rest of the show's events and the time they took to travel to the Northern water tribe. he can't be called a master in any element except wind, which is crippled by his pacifistic tendencies.
If you've seen the latest LoK season, you'd see want an airbending master (Tenzin) and a villainous air-bender is capable of.
