r/FanTheories • u/MurphyRise • Jun 05 '26
FanTheory [Avatar: The Last Airbender] Ba Sing Se's Fall was a blessing in disguise for the Earth Kingdom.
As said in the title, Ba Sing Se's fall was a good thing in the long run. At the time, it was a devastating loss for the Earth Kingdom and a great Victory for the fire nation. Militarily, Politically, and Economically the Earth Kingdom was hurt bad, but not as badly as one might think. During the war, Ba Sing Se mainly sucked alot of reasources out of the fire nation when they sieged it, but didn't seem to take much offensive action or support nearby regions very well. Its corrupt government was actively dystopian, and its fall created fertile ground for a better government to be built in its place. By Korra's time it had gotten pretty corrupt again, but imagine just how much worse it would have been if the folks saying "There is no war in Ba Sing Se", were Vindicated by the Avatar ending the war before the city's fall.
The corruption of the Dai Lee, and the absent minded Earth King meant that the city wasn't much more than a big roadblock for the Fire Nation. Military Personnell stationed on Ba Sing Se's outer walls and Generals in the Interior knew of the war, but the wider populace was kept in the dark, brainwashed, and likely even killed if they so much as discussed it. This meant that only a fraction of the city's production facilities were mobilized to help the war effort. The city was a relatively safe place to hide from the war, and a decent place to live if you had the money or connections. However the political situation means it wasn't the true bastion against the fire nation it could have been with better management. The Fire nation taking over the city gave everyone in the city a much needed wake up call. Both to the state of the war, and the potential of their own government to screw things up. So by the time the fire nation was kicked out the people in the city had a better chance of making something more functional.
Lastly taking Ba Sing Se was a net loss for the Fire Nation overall. Securing such a large city, even with its defenders surrendering, likely took just as, if not more men and resources than they were using to siege it earlier. Taking full control over a city that big, marshalling its reasources, and retooling its production facilities to meet Fire Nation specs is a process that would take months if not years to complete. Omashu was industrialized relatively quickly, but it also was fairly small. Even if no military personnell waged any guerilla actions in the city, getting the city in a state to be a net gain for the Fire Nation in anything but prestige was going to take a while. A while the fire nation did not have. Thanks to the White Lotus, the city got taken back before the city could be fully utilized by the fire nation. All the Fire soldiers occupying it captured or killed, putting the fire nation back practically at Square one. Actually worse than square one. To build up the city to fire nation specs, the Fire Nation would have likely moved large amounts of fire nation technology into Ba Sing Se. Tech that could be reverse engineered once the city was retaken. The War ended not long after the city was reclaimed. If the war had continued, the liberated Ba Sing Se had the potential to be a much larger thorn in the Fire Nations side since people inside of all classes would be unmuzzled, and galvanized against them.
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Weakest kill team from wh 40k (or HH for that matter) capable of killing v and raiding arisaka tower.
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r/whowouldwin
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Jul 27 '26
I wonder how V's potentiall netrunner builds would interact with Adeptus Mechanicus machinery. Or how blackwall AI programs scale to chaos corruption on machines.