It’s a common elemental theme we see across stories, fantasies, etc. It seems like it is an element that should be part of that pantheon but maybe there is a scientific explanation of why it isn’t? Or is it simply, they did not have enough understanding of it at the time those 4 were suggested.
Electricity is pretty much just very directed fire if you think about it in a sorta abstract way.
Thats why ATLA was objectively correct that fire benders could also handle lightning.
maybe fire in classical alchemy is more like energy than just fire. I wonder what other elements are if you extend that logic to them
The problem is heat energy/fire would kinda get all the cool shit. Like lava was given to the earth benders in LoK and I always felt that didn’t make as much sense as fire benders having access to it.
Air, water and earth all just have the one thing that really makes much sense. Water can do ice and stuff since that’s just a phase change for the element they control but what do earth and air get?
matter for earth, not sure about air. this kind of falls apart now :x
Air controlling any gaseous substance and water any liquid would have been cool. By the way can waterbenders bend steam? Or change phase from ive to water to steam?
If water benders can bend blood then at advanced levels Air benders should be able to create vacuums. Suck the air out of your lungs, make the water in your blood boil from the pressure change.
At the same level Earth benders should be able to bonemeld. Reshape your bones while you’re using them.
You’re getting into the problems with the magic system of the ATLA universe when taken to its extremes.
If you really let them all go hog wild people wouldn’t be fighting in a combat sense but more in a instantly kill you kinda way. I can see why they stopped at lightning for a kids show. The blood bending was already a bit extreme and I am still a bit surprised Nickelodeon let that happen.
more importantly, why is wood not in the four western elements? Wood fucking rules
not sure what stories and fantasies you like reading, but most elemental magic systems i know of usually contain electricity as one of the elements. mostly a manga reader here.
Maybe they just didnt know what electricity was. Maybe it was lumped in with air and/or fire.
I think it was lumped into fire. Since lightening does cause fire in nature. Moreover, I think fire stood for heat as well since fire is pretty much the only way to naturally heat something
I mean, what is “Aether” in a historical/classical context? Would that fit?
Edit: I guess not. Aether seems to be more like…‘dark matter’ or ‘gravity’ than electricity.
I suppose the most straightforward and general answer to this is: understanding is a process, and alchemy is from a much earlier stage of that process than chemistry and electricity.
The Greeks knew of electricity, knew of static shocks and lightning, but since the only thimgs they could apprise of it was that it zapped you and made noises, they must have assumed that it was something secret.
Zeus’s lightning bolts must have been hammered together of billions of those tiny zaps you get from sheepskin and amber. The blacksmith that can weld lightning must be a deity, all in all it is too great a subject for mere mortals.
And then Ben Franklin came along and slew Zeus and stole his lightning.
I now I use Zues’ power to read your words from great distances. Take that, puny god.
