Back in Avatar Aang’s day, people rode ostrich horses to work. Before that, they were living on the backs of giant magical spirit turtles. Now in the age of Korra they’ve got fancy cars? Planes? Metal cities? Giant robot battles? What year is this!? The Legend of Korra doesn’t give answers, but we can take guesses.
The future is now, baby!
Before Avatar Aang defeated the Fire Lord and restored balance to the world, that world was a very different place. The Fire Nation was a totalitarian empire. The Earth Kingdom was an absolute monarchy. The poles housed traditional Water Tribe societies. The Air Nation was but a memory. As for technology? It wasn’t really a thing. Cities were built by benders. Fires were lit with coal. People used animals, boats, or bender-propelled vehicles to get around.
Everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked. They had technology but it was only reserved for the military. Electricity indoors? Not even the Fire Lord had such a thing. For a real-world comparison, Avatar Aang came of age in basically the mid-19th century. 1800s biz. Taylor Swift would have loved it.
After the Avatar brought peace to the world, the Fire Nation shared its technologies with the other nations and a technological explosion occurred. Electricity was used for industry, and industry BOOMED. The world advanced rapidly within the span of a lifetime. Soon there was radio. Indoor plumbing. Skyscrapers. The culture changed with it. Democracy! Jazz music! City living! The world would never be the same. For a real-world comparison, it was the Roaring Twenties. (After all, that’s when the first automobile came out.) In Korra, the Satomobile had just hit the market. Sure the real world didn’t have flying robots and plant-powered Spirit weapons, but the comparison stands.
(featured image: Nickelodeon)
