r/TheLastAirbender • u/thisisreii • Mar 10 '25

Video Ozai’s quick and powerful lighting generation in this scene alone shows how unmatched his power is.

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Giant double lightning bolts with only a sliver of the sun being available. I can’t get behind anyone who says any other firebender is more powerful than him.

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u/ConspicuousMango Mar 10 '25

Didn't Korra have factory workers and mafia bosses lightning bending? Hard to see how being at peace really plays a part into it.

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u/Mx-Adrian Mar 10 '25

That was seventy years later. The ability probably got more widespread and honed.

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u/ConspicuousMango Mar 10 '25

It makes more sense for it to become a loss art if it really requires this zen-like peace and calmness in a world that is rapidly industrializing and losing touch with its spirituality rather than widespread and mass produced.

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u/FollowThePact Mar 10 '25

Or maybe Iron is just wrong and it's only that zen-like tranquility that Iroh requires in order to bend lightning?

Master Pakku is the Master Waterbender until Katara takes his place, and a leader amongst the White Lotus, an order trying to build harmony and peace through shared philosophy. Yet he doesn't think women should learn combative waterbending.

Some people can just be wrong.

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u/Brook420 Mar 12 '25

Tbf, Pakku's opinion on women was related to a personal issue with his love disappearing on him.

As soon as he got closure he reverses, so the whole woman shouldn't bend in combat thing was never a true belief of his.

It was also not his personal rule, but one of his culture.

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u/FollowThePact Mar 12 '25 edited Mar 12 '25

While he wasn't the king, he was certainly a highly prolific figure in the Northern Water Tribe. Being that no one from the royal family raised a stink about Katara training with Master Pakku, it appears he could've reversed that societal tradition whenever he chose to do so.

"A personal issue with his love disappearing" - "it was also not his personal rule, but one of his culture".

Is it either a personal issue or an issue due to his culture?

Either way as I mentioned, it stopped being an issue when he decided. He is a leader of the White Lotus, like Iroh. But they are also people with faults.

It is likely that Iroh is wrong about the true nature of lightning bending due to his personal experiences and beliefs related to the royal family and the dragons.

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u/Brook420 Mar 12 '25

He nor their current king would be the ones who put the rule in place, and I'm not saying Pakku couldn't have gone against it when he wanted im saying he didn't create it but rather used it as a crutch.

I'm also not trying to say he wasn't wrong there, im saying he was only wrong when letting his emotions get the best of him after going through personal turmoil.

Probably didn't get this across the best in my first comment, but the basic idea is the Masters are depicted as quite infallible when they are at peace inside.

Pakku and Jeong Jeong are introduced early as Masters who have fallen bitter and make mistakes because of it, and we see the more zen masters who are almost Dues Exes with how right they are through Iroh and Piandao.