Talk:Fire Nation/@comment-70.191.93.233-20120525031617/@comment-24.34.102.146-20120527185236

@ above anon (and I'm not person who wrote the comment at the very top)

Indeed, all of what you say is true. I've commented what you said to a few other people who claimed the Fire Nation was based off of Japan. But you're also ignoring all the Japanese influences the Fire Nation has as well.

1. Geography - Before the creators of Avatar started designing the Fire Nation, they went to Iceland to look for inspiration, and they found tons of it. They went back home with a tropical Iceland type idea. This caused the Fire Nation to resemble Japan (and to some extent, Hawaii) geographically. That scene Sokka painted in Sokka's Master was heavily influenced by some valley in Iceland. The tiny islands in the eastern Fire Nation represent Japan's Ryukyu Islands, while the western Fire Nation represents Honshu.

2. Industrial Revolution - If you take the Fire Nation out of the Avatar World, the technology becomes very primitive. The reason is because the Fire Nation is the only technologically advanced civilization in the Avatar World. They have the best technology, as they could mass-produce tanks, warships, hot air balloons, blimps, bombs, and even a giant drill! To me, this looks a lot like the Industial Revolution Japan underwent during the Meiji Era. During that time, Japan surpassed China as the foremost Asian power that was not a European colony because it had better technology, similar to how the Fire Nation overpowered the once unstoppable Earth Kingdom. The Earth Kingdom was like a Tang or Song Dynasty China from a technological viewpoint.

3. War - If the Earth Kingdom is China, then the Hundred Year War could be looked at as the Sino-Japanese War. After all, like how Japan had better technology than China and was winning because of it, the Fire Nation is using it's power against the Earth Kingdom. Japan invaded China for a very long time and was winning for most of it, but collapsed towards the end. This is similar to how the Fire Nation invaded the Earth Kingdom.

Also, as a side note, the Sun Warriors are like the Aztec Peoples of Mexico.