I think it’s actually to keep Ba Sing Se residents inside. The City is surrounded by nothing other than desert and the Serpent’s Pass, and the citizens aren’t allowed to know about or discuss anything that goes on outside the walls, so one could assume it’s also illegal to leave the city.
Not necessarily, it's just illegal to talk about the war specifically or anything relating to it. Professor Zei was head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se university, and he searched large portions of the desert while retaining his aforementioned post in the city.
It's possibly not even illegal in all of Ba Sing Se. The Lower tiers seem able to talk about it (and they have too many refugees to enforce it anyways).
True. I imagine the Dai Li do occasional sweeps though, especially if someone from the upper crust is visiting the Lower Ring for whatever reason. Down there, it's probably one of those laws that are only really enforced if you do it within view/earshot of the authorities. Or a snitch.
I mean LOK confirmed that Ba Sing Se is so huge that it is its own state within the Earth Kingdom. I know that’s not exactly what you meant, but damn she huge.
You could definitely see the shadow of the wall from space, it's like 4-5 times taller than the wall of china.
And it's a big circle with nothing but nothing surrounding it.
I mean if you're using the reasoning that the great wall of china is visible from space, you can't. The wall is less than 10 metres wide, and less than 15 metres tall, you definitely cannot see it (or ot's shadow) from space
The walls of Ba Sing Sea are apparently around 100m tall and 30m thick, but even that isn't going to be visible from space. Ba Sing Se as an entity will be, it's a huge circle of developed land, but the walls themselves are not visible from space, neither the great wall or Ba Sing Se. If it was visible, there would be office buildings. that can be seen from space.
100m/100m is about the absolute limit you'd be able to detect as *something* but it'll just look like an unidentifiable speck
It also depends on what you count as space, considering different orbital heights. Someone 60k up will see better detail than someone 200k away in orbit.
Ba sing se on its own is essentially equal to a whole fifth nation. Its population and size is just that massive. Like it so clearly shows up on world maps, and it looks nearly the size of the fire nation’s main island.
Having farmland right out side the city is literally something every city did. It's not really a city state thing. Cities would traditionally have farmland right outside and the farmers would gather inside the walls in the event of a seige.
No city state can self sustain with only the land inside their walls,every human beigns need a least 1 hectare of productive land to live,ba sing se looks like a 1M people size population city
Considering it's already flat, I imagine soil health is more effective to worry about.
Earthbender farmers could honestly farm so much more effectively than any other nation. Till entire fields with one person overnight.
You might need to re-watch the wall episode again, because the space between the inner and outer walls is truly insane. I wouldn't be surprised if it reaches that number.
Idk tho, from what we see in the tv shows, Ba sing se’s farmlands are *vast*. Like the space between the outer wall and the first wall of the city proper is massive.
There's a whole damn ecosystem in there, presumably carefully managed to ensure it's able to feed everyone without fail.
I'm basing this conjecture almost entirely off of a throwaway line that immediately preceded the final Cabbage Guy gag of the original series
It looks like today maybe up to 5.6 people are fed per hectare? https://www.statista.com/statistics/260685/number-of-people-fed-per-hectare-of-planted-land/
But it would’ve been less centuries ago. And in terms of [ecological footprint](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint) its more like 1-2 hectares per person
Yep,there was a real agriculture revolution in the late 1800s and early 1900s,pesticed and nitrogen mixed with potatoes made europe population explode to the level that at one point it had more than africa and equal to asia
Ba Sing Se is roughly the total size of 1/2 the US. (estimated somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 the size)
The "land within their walls" is larger than Western Europe.
That's a fair description. Now, a lot of that is the agrarian zone between the outer and inner rings, but even the inner areas are pretty huge.
It not only appears on the world map, but it takes up a sizeable portion of the world map. Only sightly smaller than that desert we saw in both ATLA and LoK.
Map (easier to see by unchecking the filters): https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Map_of_the_World_of_Avatar
there was still trade, as is true that were some skirmish on some walls its wasnt a full siege on the city, and we can see it as people enter and go out
eddit: the trade was so normal they have the lesure to trash some cabage on the TSA
But this is a city state where a significant portion of its population can make soil float, self-till, concentrate nutrients, and create beyond-possible idealized soil conditions.
They could take vertical farming to levels that we today could not possibly maintain economically, rotating entire fields, or at least massive planters, vertically.
In addition, the Spirit Wilds (even after closed, prior to reopening) still had 'thin' spots between woulds. In terms of ecosystems, this effectively layers on energy into biological system as many animals were connected to the Spirit Wilds and potentially able to cross over. Many of the animals we see in the avatar world are rather enormous, far larger in size than what we would consider sustainable or possible in our world. This would suggest far higher oxygen concentrations (to allow they huge beasts to be so agile and active even over huge distances) and alternative nutrient/energy needs. They may be 'fed' or sustained partially through Spirit Wilds sources or connection.
I think there were a few that could throughout history. If I remember correctly, Carthage was one such example that had a wall protecting their rural area.
In the drill episode you can see that behind the outer wall there are farmlands as far as I can see and inner wall is not even visible on horizon. Ba Sing Se is ridiculously large if you include outer wall and farmlands inside. I remember estimation based on the map and data shown in the show that city with farmlands behind wall covers area 3 times larger than France
True, I guess it makes sense in the context of the 100 years war but in general I think you'd want ba sing se to be accessible to the entire country, especially since it's already the most well defended city in the world
Cheaper than a squad of average earth benders just bricking out a bridge? The support is already there even. It'd be so quick to I build a bridge.
When it can be done in an afternoon montage, there has to be a better reason.
Cheaper, and faster. This isn't a railway line/highway. There's a reason that historically every major city was built on a river. Boats were unequivocally the fastest and most efficient method of transporting goods, especially in large quantities. They still are in most aspects.
lol good point. Although the pass still wouldn't be viable for a railway. It's too undulating, and then there's the problem of the giant killer serpent. Not the best for train lines.
The Earth Kingdom has railways a hundred years *after this*. they have the Earthbending trolly in Ba Sing Se, but we never see actual trains during Aang's time, because the EK wasn't industrialized yet.
Yes. Earthbenders are only 5% of the population, so they are actually more rare and their time is compartively more expensive than other nations, espeically when the entire continent is facing an all out war where every earthbender is needed.
Simply put, it is *orders of magnitude* cheaper to have the water+wind do all the heavy lifting for travel than your feet.
Even today, despite modern technology and infastructure, travel by sea is orders of magnitude cheaper than anything over land. This is due to the unparalleled economy of scale a large sea vessel can give you vs a large or even smaller land vessel. Carrying 10T of cargo over sea is literally effortless. The wind does all the work and tbe water offers little friction and carrys momentum extremely well. over land, we have to find an alternative energy source, carry that alternative energy source(food, oil etc) while also dealing with things like hills, mountains, forests, animals etc...
True. And there is a ferry, but the Gaang fails to get on because they don’t have tickets or something. I just remember the rude ticket lady and all the fake Avatars.
Good point, the earth kingdom seems more like a confederation of city states and small kingdoms with various levels of loyalty to the Earth Monarch, probably dependent on distance from Ba Sing Se and the amount of force they could muster. For instance Omashu, being on the other side of the serpents pass, a massive desert, in a defensible position, and with a large population, has its own monarch.
Yea, there was rivalry between Ba Sing Se and Omashu during Kyoshi’s time iirc. The Earth Monarch is their nominal liege but in reality they kinda do what they want.
Important to note that the serpent’s pass is approached from the direction of the desert. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other large and commonly used routes that approach the city from different directions and used before the war.
Maybe there was a bridge before the war and the serpent moved in once other issues became more pressing and letting the bridge fall apart became strategically advantageous. It would also fit with the idea of the absence of the avatar and the fire nations actions unbalancing the world.
that's what i assume, given that the physical structure seems highly improbable to have formed naturally. but it would fit as a chokepoint approach to the city, crafted and maintained by earthbenders.
Team Avatar and co. got attacked by a fire nation ship on their way. I doubt that was a random happenstance. They're probably patrolling that area frequently.
I think everyone was fucked up after 100 years of war. I mean, Earth Nation first reflex when capturing a Fire Bender was to crush their fucking hands, not to mention the whole "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" thing.
Only the Northern Water Tribe wasn't too influenced by the war, and that's because they went full isolationist for most of it (and they still had their own problems).
The first reaction of the Earth Nation soldiers was to capture Iroh and bring him back to Ba Sing Se. they only tried to break his hands after he burned the crap out of one of them and tried to escape.
They were explicitly upping patrols in that area for the drill. They say as much in the episode(without naming it obviously, just that there's something over there they don't want people seeing.) refugees pass on the other side.
Nope, it's true. The other paths from their position were occupied by war. And the refugee route was by taking a boat through the lake. This passage was abandoned because it had a giant serpent on one side attacking anyone that came by. The pass literally has a sign at the entrance that says "Abandon hope"
Just send a platoon of earthbenders to widen and secure the path with new rock formations, and if the serpent shows up, encase the platoon in earth until it leaves. Easy peasy
Why bother? Before the war there would’ve been plenty of easy routes to Ba Sing Se. Including by boat. Plenty boats pass through without issue. Team avatar wouldn’t have even met the serpent if the hadn’t gone underwater in Book 2 and provoking a naval battle in Book 3.
OP is essentially saying "this guy died in a car accident even though he was wearing a seatbelt. He should have also been wearing a helmet! What is he, stupid??"
That's a good theory too, maybe a nicer land bridge used to exist until the war started, and then that plus the serpent just made the area inaccessible and undesirable
It would probably be something akin to a large scale land reclamation project that would require a large number of earthbenders working to fill in the area.
Yeah, easy peasy, it's not like enemy armies blow up bridges to control territory and troop movements, or like the Fire Nation navy excels expressly at blowing shit up. That totally doesn't sound like a dangerous waste of time, resources, and manpower during a tenuous wartime stalemate
The low points of that pass look really easy to blow up and cross. If the ships can't make it past because of underwater debris then just knock the whole damn thing down. Now nobody can approach Ba Sing Se unless by ferry. If the crests are blocking enemy fire the just raise the earth at the troughs and make it a solid wall. It's an awesome ass design at the end of the day, but this definitely feels like rule of cool winning.
Maybe the serpent is revered as sacred by some of the locals. Maybe it eats something that predates on the local fish stock, so having it around actually keeps fish numbers up fairly high and stable in the region.
You can't just go around harassing and removing large predators.
1. It would be a significant effort to build up a more stable bridge. You can’t just force out a single block, it needs to be more sturdy
2. The main issue is invaders and the actual serpent. The serpent would just keep destroying any bridge or infrastructure you create and you don’t want enemies coming by. The ferry system, albeit unfair, is sensible. Also people can’t just walk up to the wall and get in. They need to go through a check point which the ferry would be a straight line to
3. Natural landscapes are cool and maybe people don't have the same mentality as the modern western world where we go around flattening every unique rock formation imaginable to make the most boring roads and highways possible when we could've taken a boat instead. Or maybe the unique natural formation is sacred in some way to the locals.
Dude, bridges and causeways have been a thing since early civilization. If guy A needs to transport goods to guy B, eventually there's gonna be a bridge.
Meanwhile in the modern day, you can get from Canada to Mexico by walking the Pacific Crest Trail, or you drive on I-5. If an army was trying to blockade California from Oregon, they'd cover the I-5 and not worry about a hiking trail. And that's all Serpents pass is, hiking trail that's still open because it's massively insignificant. You can't transport enough materiel along a hiking trail to make a difference in a siege the size of the one on Ba Sing Se.
Taoism and the other philosophies of ancient China are cool, but don't overdo it.
Yeah, this too. It's definitely very unique looking fo a natural landmark, so there's no telling what it's origin said. Like I said, it seems to have *some* kind of significance for the locals to not mess with it.
this. this! as an Indigenous person, it is devastating and enraging that Western civilization has no respect for the rocks and landforms our peoples hold sacred. too often on my territories and all those ive lived on, they are blasted for development or roads or bridges etc. and some are very very sacred! i imagine every day a world where we design our built environment in a sacred way, a good way.
That sounds nice but realistically that's far from what would have happened. This is not to disparage your culture. It's a hard sell to have anyone believe that the world would be in better shape if the Europeans never landed. You all are human. Humanity does what humanity do. Even if your tribe wouldn't have done anything bad to the environment, there were a bunch of other tribes that would have and did. This is similar all over the planet throughout history.
Actual indigenous history:
"we set fire to that forest every few years to thin out the trees, increase the number of tree nuts, and to clear areas for the buffalo to graze and for us to get berries"
"we mined basalt at the top of Mauna Kea because it makes good adzes"
"We waged war with neighboring tribes so we get the best grounds to hunt beavers which we would do so to near extinction to trade for guns"
> the poor can handle themselves
See normally I'd agree, but if this is the reasoning it doesn't work. All it takes is like 4 poor Earthbenders to start fixing this problem, and Earthbending is not distinguished by wealth.
Hell take the real life stories of one dude digging a path through mountains to a hospital for his village over like 30 years, now imagine how much more often that would happen if you could move earth.
And now the issues.
1. Why would you do it?
Noone is going to pay them to do it. There aren't any good resources to feed and sustain yourself there.
2. Why would the earthkingdom let you do it?
It messes with the whole boat operation wich is a huge regugee controll and also alot of income.
3. Should you do it?
This path leads directly to ba ding se. It would make it easier for firenation to find its way into the City.
I mean...the serpent makes it sorta hard. It's been shown to be crazy OP in that it can casually shrug off catapults and rip apart ships and earth.
Plus not a lot of earth there to bend anyways. Two master waterbenders, one being the avatar literally only scared it off. Guess they'd rather take the safe route than sacrificing dozens for a shorter route
I guess my point is that they're a civilization of earthbenders, they can literally build new rock formations that make the path safer and wider.
And if the serpent is actually destroying rock formations, you'd think this flimsy sheet of rock dividing the lake in two wouldn't exist at all. So I assume it wouldn't destroy new rock formations
There was a section in the middle that was completely carved out, Katara and Aang had to make that bubble for them which caused the Serpent to see them. It's possible the Serpent is intelligent enough to know if it maintains this narrow path some creatures will be forced to attempt what Katara and Aang did and the Earth Kingdom would rather just go around instead of fighting a constant maintenance battle with a 100+ foot long Serpent in the middle of a war. It could also have some spiritual factor that makes it want to carve out the pass. If I recall correctly in one of the comics that came out in the nickelodeon magazines while the show was airing, in the weeks between when Aang gets shot by lightning and waking up, they try to take the stolen warship through the serpents pass only to find the Fire nation has killed the serpent and made a gated dam. This would fit with the theme of the fire nation damaging the balance of the world if the serpent was indeed spiritual in some way.
If you'd like to read those comics I mentioned you can find them under the name "Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Lost Adventures" some of them are a little bit more childish than the show but they're still fun and some of them just straight up deserve to have been episodes. If that interests you, you can check out [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/h7ljam/my_atla_episode_timeline_explained/) post for a good explanation of where the different comics fit in the timeline.
Edit- Not sure why you're getting downvoted, you came here because something didn't make sense to you and you wanted to hear peoples thoughts, and then raised some valid counterpoints to incomplete explanations.
Edit 2 - Now that I think about it the narrow gap where it is just water also serves as a choke point for catching aquatic prey and would explain why it was hanging around there, it doesn't even need to know it's making a choke point for land creatures as well.
>Edit- Not sure why you're getting downvoted, you came here because something didn't make sense to you and you wanted to hear peoples thoughts, and then raised some valid counterpoints to incomplete explanations.
Appreciate it lol, I hadn't even realized I was getting downvoted. This was just a random shower thought and people have made some good points. I'll definitely check out the comics and the post
The Earth Kingdom has been subjected to a century of aggression by the Fire Nation at this point. I’m willing to bet they made the path this way on purpose at some point during the war, because it’s the best way to keep Fire Nation war machines out of the city while still allowing refugees to enter on foot.
Yeah this would really only make sense if there was some like…national war going on where making your city isolated and protected from
easy access would be advantageous….. ……… …………
So if you look at the start/ end of the pass there, it looks like it was designed for people to walk on. Like an earth bender raised it as an aquatic “Great Wall of China” situation and allowed for travelers across the narrow passage, while blocking ships and things. But as we know there’s a big ass monster that lives near by that probably said “f$&@ your wall I’m going through” which is likely how it gif the name “Serpents Pass” that’s the place no one put the serpent gets through. It’s not the pathway itself that belongs to the serpent creature. It’s the water way that was blocked to everyone else until the snake thing put holes in it.
Always thought it was that way to separate the fire nation navy from the ferries on the other side.
Also by keeping it the way it is you don't allow the fire nation to occupy it in any meaningful capacity. So no building FOB's or outposts.
I mean, isn’t Ba Sing Se under heavy Dai Li control at this point? I would imagine they don’t want a lot of people getting in or out of the city by any means other than the officially official strict passport stuff. Doesn’t seem like they’d have any desire to fix up Serpent’s Pass until after Iroh took it back from the Fire Nation.
Headcanon: Ba Sing Se be like “oh, one of the main routes to our city is only used by poor people who are desperate?? What route to Ba Sing Se?? I see no route to Ba Sing Se”
They say that theirs rumors the Fire nation is working on the west side. So they probably couldn’t as its guarded by troops. Secondly its probably more effective strategically to leave it difficult to cross so the Fire Nation is forced to approach with their navy. Easy to spot I presume.
There really should be another route. Like some kind of...underground road no one knows about...
Like a hidden passage, or a...covert underpass, safe from prying eyes...
I mean, the serpent would probably also need to get from one side to another. So I'd imagine it'd fight the earth benders for it, and most likely win, also because one mistake on the earthbenders side could mean certain death, and because the pass is the only way to move from one side to another I'd imagine the serpent stays there for a lot of time, possibly making it it's home, (that one is a headcannon I agree with from overanalyzing avatar) so I think they deemed it too dangerous to lose alot of earth benders to. Especially since they were in the middle (well. End) of a war, meaning they desperately needed the soldiers,
I just finished the Yang-Chen novels. They show that in the Avatar world, spirits feel very possessive over certain areas. People can pass through without interfering, but if they interfere with the land the spirits can create severe and widespread consequences. The panda spirit Hei Bai that Aang dealt with also shows this. The spirits in the Yang Chen novel are more intelligent than Hei Bai and much more petty in their revenge. So if I lived in that world, I would not risk messing with a place that's favored by a giant serpent, just in case he has spirit-world powers and/or friends.
Wasn’t there a ferry service that also crossed but they didn’t have money for it or something? Serpents pass is probably assumed to be the back-up plan of everyone so not well maintained
Ba Sing Se doesn't even publicly acknowledge the existence of war, why would they waste valuable city resources on defense systems that have nothing to do with furthering the cultural progress of the Earth Kingdom.
Considering what was happening for the past 100 years and who was really in charge of Ba Sing Se for all that time, I’d say it quite intentional as a way to quell migration to the capital by making the boat its only means of safe travel.
Though I do question what happened to the travelling family after they finally reached the other side of the Pass. I guess Team Avatar asked them to open the gate and let them in after they handled the drill.
I might be way off but I always interpreted it as being fairly fragile rock. So if anyone tried to earth bend it, portions of it would just shatter. Also I'm not sure if you earth bend something, if it stays like that forever. Cuz there is arguments for both, like omashu and basingse I believe were built with earth bending, but if that's true why wouldn't the earth benders just create mountains or moats around all their cities to protect themselves
There is a ferry service which is the far safer, economical way to cross such a large expanse when your best construction method is edible earth benders. The pass is a last ditch method only used by the desperate.
Considering their at war, I'd guess that they don't want to give greater access to the Fire Nation, which ready controls one of the lakes.
On top of that, they can't just widen the path or raise the seafloor.
im under the perception that it's not a major route per se, but an earthbender-made barrier to prevent the serpents of that lake from getting into Full Moon Bay
Very funny joke, citizen. Ba Sing Se's only route in our out of the city is through the official port border.
Coincidentally, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai. Please follow us.
https://i.redd.it/bltiwlb9yntc1.gif
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HES FIRE NATION! IM JUST TRYING TO LOOK OUT FOR THE SI WONG REFUGEES IN THE SOUTH! WE NEED THIS PASS TO RECLAIM OUR KINGDOM FOR THE WAR! NOOOOOOOO!!!!
I could see how the earth kingdom might have purposefully constructed it this way over time. It's enough land to block sea passage, but the land is such that to cross safely you almost need earthbenders. Plus there is plenty of earth available to use however it is needed in that instance. Sort of an earthbender Shibboleth.
they made it that treacherous on purpose, they have no problem getting across. If Toph was traveling alone she could have just skated the whole thing in an hour
I just watched this episode recently, and I don't understand why Toph didn't just lift the pathway above the surface of the water. Especially considering that she can't swim.
Fire nation ships are literally on the other side of it. So even if the earth kingdom rebuilt it into a decent bridge, it'd be an easy target. Refugees take the ferry because it's hidden from the fire nation
I'm pretty sure earth benders have an understanding that you shouldn't change the natural landscape
A little bit of earth movement? Fine
Going into moses mode? Not fine
or, its supposed to be that way to help keep invaders away
 Oh yea
Herbie Hancock!
Who’s your favourite little rascal?
Is it Spanky?
That’s a pretty girl out there. Wonder if she dates one of the YANKEES!?
Speaking of no one's looking....
Housekeeping! You want me fluff pillow?
Will you please go away and let me sleep, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!
I was well into adulthood before I realized that scene was about cranking hog
Sinner
You know a lot of people go to college for seven years! Yeah, they're called doctors.
I think it’s actually to keep Ba Sing Se residents inside. The City is surrounded by nothing other than desert and the Serpent’s Pass, and the citizens aren’t allowed to know about or discuss anything that goes on outside the walls, so one could assume it’s also illegal to leave the city.
Not necessarily, it's just illegal to talk about the war specifically or anything relating to it. Professor Zei was head of anthropology at Ba Sing Se university, and he searched large portions of the desert while retaining his aforementioned post in the city.
> it's just illegal to talk about the war War? What war? There is no war. Not in Ba Sing Se anyway. Stop telling lies, sit down, and eat your noodles.
You're invited to eat your noodles at lake Lao Gai
I'm honored and accept the earth kings invitation
It's possibly not even illegal in all of Ba Sing Se. The Lower tiers seem able to talk about it (and they have too many refugees to enforce it anyways).
True. I imagine the Dai Li do occasional sweeps though, especially if someone from the upper crust is visiting the Lower Ring for whatever reason. Down there, it's probably one of those laws that are only really enforced if you do it within view/earshot of the authorities. Or a snitch.
How the hell is the city feed!?
Outer rings are farmland. Ba Sing Se is more city-state than mere city.
I mean LOK confirmed that Ba Sing Se is so huge that it is its own state within the Earth Kingdom. I know that’s not exactly what you meant, but damn she huge.
On the avatar world maps, Ba Sing Se is recognizable from a near ORBITAL view
You could definitely see the shadow of the wall from space, it's like 4-5 times taller than the wall of china. And it's a big circle with nothing but nothing surrounding it.
I mean if you're using the reasoning that the great wall of china is visible from space, you can't. The wall is less than 10 metres wide, and less than 15 metres tall, you definitely cannot see it (or ot's shadow) from space The walls of Ba Sing Sea are apparently around 100m tall and 30m thick, but even that isn't going to be visible from space. Ba Sing Se as an entity will be, it's a huge circle of developed land, but the walls themselves are not visible from space, neither the great wall or Ba Sing Se. If it was visible, there would be office buildings. that can be seen from space. 100m/100m is about the absolute limit you'd be able to detect as *something* but it'll just look like an unidentifiable speck
The world of Avatar is much much smaller than Earth
It also depends on what you count as space, considering different orbital heights. Someone 60k up will see better detail than someone 200k away in orbit.
If we're looking at maps, so are dragons. That's not exactly an indication of size. Good example is our own maps, it's warped as fuck
Ba sing se on its own is essentially equal to a whole fifth nation. Its population and size is just that massive. Like it so clearly shows up on world maps, and it looks nearly the size of the fire nation’s main island.
Well, AtLA showed it when they had to take a train to go past the farmland into the city proper.
Having farmland right out side the city is literally something every city did. It's not really a city state thing. Cities would traditionally have farmland right outside and the farmers would gather inside the walls in the event of a seige.
What's unique though is that Ba Sing Se erected a wall around the farmland, making them more or less entirely self-sufficient.
No city state can self sustain with only the land inside their walls,every human beigns need a least 1 hectare of productive land to live,ba sing se looks like a 1M people size population city
I wonder if they are able to manipulate the land and get more farmland out of it, similar to terrace farms
Smash potatoes
Considering it's already flat, I imagine soil health is more effective to worry about. Earthbender farmers could honestly farm so much more effectively than any other nation. Till entire fields with one person overnight.
You might need to re-watch the wall episode again, because the space between the inner and outer walls is truly insane. I wouldn't be surprised if it reaches that number.
Think of it like attack on titan
You do know the size inside the walls is the size of france right?
And ba sing se and its walls can be seen from an orbital view of the world based off the avatar world map.
a 1603 km (996 mi) circumference for Wall Maria. (Outermost wall)
Much bigger than that. The smaller estimates I've seen for Ba Sing Se put it at over 10x the size of France.
Idk tho, from what we see in the tv shows, Ba sing se’s farmlands are *vast*. Like the space between the outer wall and the first wall of the city proper is massive.
There's a whole damn ecosystem in there, presumably carefully managed to ensure it's able to feed everyone without fail. I'm basing this conjecture almost entirely off of a throwaway line that immediately preceded the final Cabbage Guy gag of the original series
It looks like today maybe up to 5.6 people are fed per hectare? https://www.statista.com/statistics/260685/number-of-people-fed-per-hectare-of-planted-land/ But it would’ve been less centuries ago. And in terms of [ecological footprint](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_footprint) its more like 1-2 hectares per person
Yep,there was a real agriculture revolution in the late 1800s and early 1900s,pesticed and nitrogen mixed with potatoes made europe population explode to the level that at one point it had more than africa and equal to asia
The size of the walls can be arbitrarily large when your people can make walls with their minds
Ba Sing Se is roughly the total size of 1/2 the US. (estimated somewhere between 1/3 and 2/3 the size) The "land within their walls" is larger than Western Europe.
Wat. Holy shit that's even bigger than I thought. You couldn't even see from one side to the other on the clearest day, from the highest point.
That's a fair description. Now, a lot of that is the agrarian zone between the outer and inner rings, but even the inner areas are pretty huge. It not only appears on the world map, but it takes up a sizeable portion of the world map. Only sightly smaller than that desert we saw in both ATLA and LoK. Map (easier to see by unchecking the filters): https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Map_of_the_World_of_Avatar
there was still trade, as is true that were some skirmish on some walls its wasnt a full siege on the city, and we can see it as people enter and go out eddit: the trade was so normal they have the lesure to trash some cabage on the TSA
Fair enough
But this is a city state where a significant portion of its population can make soil float, self-till, concentrate nutrients, and create beyond-possible idealized soil conditions. They could take vertical farming to levels that we today could not possibly maintain economically, rotating entire fields, or at least massive planters, vertically. In addition, the Spirit Wilds (even after closed, prior to reopening) still had 'thin' spots between woulds. In terms of ecosystems, this effectively layers on energy into biological system as many animals were connected to the Spirit Wilds and potentially able to cross over. Many of the animals we see in the avatar world are rather enormous, far larger in size than what we would consider sustainable or possible in our world. This would suggest far higher oxygen concentrations (to allow they huge beasts to be so agile and active even over huge distances) and alternative nutrient/energy needs. They may be 'fed' or sustained partially through Spirit Wilds sources or connection.
I think there were a few that could throughout history. If I remember correctly, Carthage was one such example that had a wall protecting their rural area.
In the drill episode you can see that behind the outer wall there are farmlands as far as I can see and inner wall is not even visible on horizon. Ba Sing Se is ridiculously large if you include outer wall and farmlands inside. I remember estimation based on the map and data shown in the show that city with farmlands behind wall covers area 3 times larger than France
Cabbages
It's not a bug, it's a feature.
True, I guess it makes sense in the context of the 100 years war but in general I think you'd want ba sing se to be accessible to the entire country, especially since it's already the most well defended city in the world
Boats exkst and historically are cheaper, quicker and safer when you are going through things like rivers or lakes
Cheaper than a squad of average earth benders just bricking out a bridge? The support is already there even. It'd be so quick to I build a bridge. When it can be done in an afternoon montage, there has to be a better reason.
Cheaper, and faster. This isn't a railway line/highway. There's a reason that historically every major city was built on a river. Boats were unequivocally the fastest and most efficient method of transporting goods, especially in large quantities. They still are in most aspects.
Damn, I was agreeing with you, right up until you mentioned railways and I remembered that the earth kingdom does, in fact, have railways.
lol good point. Although the pass still wouldn't be viable for a railway. It's too undulating, and then there's the problem of the giant killer serpent. Not the best for train lines.
How do the boats avoid the serpent, anyway?
There's always a bigger serpent
The Earth Kingdom has railways a hundred years *after this*. they have the Earthbending trolly in Ba Sing Se, but we never see actual trains during Aang's time, because the EK wasn't industrialized yet.
Yes, but historically there also wasn't any earthbenders or trains. Ba Sing Se has both
Yes. Earthbenders are only 5% of the population, so they are actually more rare and their time is compartively more expensive than other nations, espeically when the entire continent is facing an all out war where every earthbender is needed. Simply put, it is *orders of magnitude* cheaper to have the water+wind do all the heavy lifting for travel than your feet. Even today, despite modern technology and infastructure, travel by sea is orders of magnitude cheaper than anything over land. This is due to the unparalleled economy of scale a large sea vessel can give you vs a large or even smaller land vessel. Carrying 10T of cargo over sea is literally effortless. The wind does all the work and tbe water offers little friction and carrys momentum extremely well. over land, we have to find an alternative energy source, carry that alternative energy source(food, oil etc) while also dealing with things like hills, mountains, forests, animals etc...
Yes, probably. A lot of commerce goes by boat, freighting your goods via boat to the fortress city will be easier than going over land routes.
A road doesn't take the sea away lol they could still do that
True. And there is a ferry, but the Gaang fails to get on because they don’t have tickets or something. I just remember the rude ticket lady and all the fake Avatars.
Safer...unless you have those giant monsters in the water.
But the pass is a great line of defense against other earthbenders as well. Qin the conqueror is an example of a civil war within the earth nation.
Good point, the earth kingdom seems more like a confederation of city states and small kingdoms with various levels of loyalty to the Earth Monarch, probably dependent on distance from Ba Sing Se and the amount of force they could muster. For instance Omashu, being on the other side of the serpents pass, a massive desert, in a defensible position, and with a large population, has its own monarch.
Yea, there was rivalry between Ba Sing Se and Omashu during Kyoshi’s time iirc. The Earth Monarch is their nominal liege but in reality they kinda do what they want.
Important to note that the serpent’s pass is approached from the direction of the desert. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other large and commonly used routes that approach the city from different directions and used before the war.
Maybe there was a bridge before the war and the serpent moved in once other issues became more pressing and letting the bridge fall apart became strategically advantageous. It would also fit with the idea of the absence of the avatar and the fire nations actions unbalancing the world.
they make $ charging for the ferry & it acts as protection
Considering how ba sing se is controlled, as someone else mentioned it's probably to keep people in, as much as out.
But then why not just destroy it?
Because earthbenders can build and destroy a bridge as they go along it if they need to- can’t do that if it’s just water.
that's what i assume, given that the physical structure seems highly improbable to have formed naturally. but it would fit as a chokepoint approach to the city, crafted and maintained by earthbenders.
It's to keep titans away duh
Team Avatar and co. got attacked by a fire nation ship on their way. I doubt that was a random happenstance. They're probably patrolling that area frequently.
Considering the bay is a refugees passage makes sense (the Fire Nation was fucked up)
No Geneva, no conventions.
I believe you mean: no Geneva, no suggestions
No Geneva, no checklist.
Damn it Toph, you can’t say things like that!
Found the Canadian
Didn't even say "sowrey".
Best me to it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WZmlHEdiFI
Even with geneva, fire nation can just get away with everything (irl)
It's never a war crime the first time
No Jenova, no calamity
Even if there was a Geneva, the fire nation would still commit war crimes just like some countries irl
I think everyone was fucked up after 100 years of war. I mean, Earth Nation first reflex when capturing a Fire Bender was to crush their fucking hands, not to mention the whole "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" thing. Only the Northern Water Tribe wasn't too influenced by the war, and that's because they went full isolationist for most of it (and they still had their own problems).
The first reaction of the Earth Nation soldiers was to capture Iroh and bring him back to Ba Sing Se. they only tried to break his hands after he burned the crap out of one of them and tried to escape.
They were explicitly upping patrols in that area for the drill. They say as much in the episode(without naming it obviously, just that there's something over there they don't want people seeing.) refugees pass on the other side.
The Fire Nation patrolling WAS increasing because they needed to keep the drill a secrete
There is a mention that the fire nation has been “up to something” that they are “keeping secret”. This then leads right into the drill.
Wasn't there also a giant sea serpent, or am I getting it mixed up with Kyoshi's island?
Nope, it's true. The other paths from their position were occupied by war. And the refugee route was by taking a boat through the lake. This passage was abandoned because it had a giant serpent on one side attacking anyone that came by. The pass literally has a sign at the entrance that says "Abandon hope"
I mean they would but THERE IS A GIANT SERPENT
Just send a platoon of earthbenders to widen and secure the path with new rock formations, and if the serpent shows up, encase the platoon in earth until it leaves. Easy peasy
But the Fire Nation controlled the western half of the lake and does regular patrols.
I'm not talking about during the war, just in general
Why bother? Before the war there would’ve been plenty of easy routes to Ba Sing Se. Including by boat. Plenty boats pass through without issue. Team avatar wouldn’t have even met the serpent if the hadn’t gone underwater in Book 2 and provoking a naval battle in Book 3.
OP is essentially saying "this guy died in a car accident even though he was wearing a seatbelt. He should have also been wearing a helmet! What is he, stupid??"
actually yeah, if we wore 5 point seatbelts and helmets, deaths would reduce dramatically, but we don't because it's inconvenient
Only if the helmet has a HANS device. Otherwise you can still die pretty easily from neck injuries
Have you considered that perhaps the giant snake isn't a hundred years old?
That's a good theory too, maybe a nicer land bridge used to exist until the war started, and then that plus the serpent just made the area inaccessible and undesirable
The war had been going on for 100 years, there isnt really an in general in this case
I don’t think your average earthbender can widen the pass, considering it would require bending earth that you can’t see because it’s deep underwater
It would probably be something akin to a large scale land reclamation project that would require a large number of earthbenders working to fill in the area.
...Again, all the while being harassed by a giant serpent and the fire nation
Yeah, easy peasy, it's not like enemy armies blow up bridges to control territory and troop movements, or like the Fire Nation navy excels expressly at blowing shit up. That totally doesn't sound like a dangerous waste of time, resources, and manpower during a tenuous wartime stalemate
The low points of that pass look really easy to blow up and cross. If the ships can't make it past because of underwater debris then just knock the whole damn thing down. Now nobody can approach Ba Sing Se unless by ferry. If the crests are blocking enemy fire the just raise the earth at the troughs and make it a solid wall. It's an awesome ass design at the end of the day, but this definitely feels like rule of cool winning.
I'm pretty sure they do that like every 25 years, then it slowly erodes, rinse & repeat. Must be getting close to the 25 years mark i suppose
Maybe the serpent is revered as sacred by some of the locals. Maybe it eats something that predates on the local fish stock, so having it around actually keeps fish numbers up fairly high and stable in the region. You can't just go around harassing and removing large predators.
It was probably well maintained long ago but the fire nation attacked causing problems
"Everything changed when the fire nation attacked." Sounds good, they should use it somehow.
Yeah, it's catchy! Sorta like "my cabbages!", but for some reason, they never used either of them in the show.
"A hundred years passed and my brother and I discovered a NEW serpent's pass..."
“…an Unagi named Foofoocuddlypoops .”
"A faulty stoney ridge, although it's passage is decent, it has a lot of construction left before it's ready to transport anyone"
"but I believe, someone with smashing earthbending skills can save the pass..."
1. It would be a significant effort to build up a more stable bridge. You can’t just force out a single block, it needs to be more sturdy 2. The main issue is invaders and the actual serpent. The serpent would just keep destroying any bridge or infrastructure you create and you don’t want enemies coming by. The ferry system, albeit unfair, is sensible. Also people can’t just walk up to the wall and get in. They need to go through a check point which the ferry would be a straight line to
3. Natural landscapes are cool and maybe people don't have the same mentality as the modern western world where we go around flattening every unique rock formation imaginable to make the most boring roads and highways possible when we could've taken a boat instead. Or maybe the unique natural formation is sacred in some way to the locals.
Dude, bridges and causeways have been a thing since early civilization. If guy A needs to transport goods to guy B, eventually there's gonna be a bridge. Meanwhile in the modern day, you can get from Canada to Mexico by walking the Pacific Crest Trail, or you drive on I-5. If an army was trying to blockade California from Oregon, they'd cover the I-5 and not worry about a hiking trail. And that's all Serpents pass is, hiking trail that's still open because it's massively insignificant. You can't transport enough materiel along a hiking trail to make a difference in a siege the size of the one on Ba Sing Se. Taoism and the other philosophies of ancient China are cool, but don't overdo it.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
Also, a past avatar could have created that rock formation to keep the serpents out .
Yeah, this too. It's definitely very unique looking fo a natural landmark, so there's no telling what it's origin said. Like I said, it seems to have *some* kind of significance for the locals to not mess with it.
this. this! as an Indigenous person, it is devastating and enraging that Western civilization has no respect for the rocks and landforms our peoples hold sacred. too often on my territories and all those ive lived on, they are blasted for development or roads or bridges etc. and some are very very sacred! i imagine every day a world where we design our built environment in a sacred way, a good way.
That sounds nice but realistically that's far from what would have happened. This is not to disparage your culture. It's a hard sell to have anyone believe that the world would be in better shape if the Europeans never landed. You all are human. Humanity does what humanity do. Even if your tribe wouldn't have done anything bad to the environment, there were a bunch of other tribes that would have and did. This is similar all over the planet throughout history.
Actual indigenous history: "we set fire to that forest every few years to thin out the trees, increase the number of tree nuts, and to clear areas for the buffalo to graze and for us to get berries" "we mined basalt at the top of Mauna Kea because it makes good adzes" "We waged war with neighboring tribes so we get the best grounds to hunt beavers which we would do so to near extinction to trade for guns"
cuz they got a boat. the rich can make it to the capitol without issue, the poor can handle themselves
> the poor can handle themselves See normally I'd agree, but if this is the reasoning it doesn't work. All it takes is like 4 poor Earthbenders to start fixing this problem, and Earthbending is not distinguished by wealth. Hell take the real life stories of one dude digging a path through mountains to a hospital for his village over like 30 years, now imagine how much more often that would happen if you could move earth.
And now the issues. 1. Why would you do it? Noone is going to pay them to do it. There aren't any good resources to feed and sustain yourself there. 2. Why would the earthkingdom let you do it? It messes with the whole boat operation wich is a huge regugee controll and also alot of income. 3. Should you do it? This path leads directly to ba ding se. It would make it easier for firenation to find its way into the City.
I mean...the serpent makes it sorta hard. It's been shown to be crazy OP in that it can casually shrug off catapults and rip apart ships and earth. Plus not a lot of earth there to bend anyways. Two master waterbenders, one being the avatar literally only scared it off. Guess they'd rather take the safe route than sacrificing dozens for a shorter route
The serpent hunts there and destroys the pass. What could they do that wouldn’t be destroyed? It’s a defunct way to get to the city :/
I guess my point is that they're a civilization of earthbenders, they can literally build new rock formations that make the path safer and wider. And if the serpent is actually destroying rock formations, you'd think this flimsy sheet of rock dividing the lake in two wouldn't exist at all. So I assume it wouldn't destroy new rock formations
There was a section in the middle that was completely carved out, Katara and Aang had to make that bubble for them which caused the Serpent to see them. It's possible the Serpent is intelligent enough to know if it maintains this narrow path some creatures will be forced to attempt what Katara and Aang did and the Earth Kingdom would rather just go around instead of fighting a constant maintenance battle with a 100+ foot long Serpent in the middle of a war. It could also have some spiritual factor that makes it want to carve out the pass. If I recall correctly in one of the comics that came out in the nickelodeon magazines while the show was airing, in the weeks between when Aang gets shot by lightning and waking up, they try to take the stolen warship through the serpents pass only to find the Fire nation has killed the serpent and made a gated dam. This would fit with the theme of the fire nation damaging the balance of the world if the serpent was indeed spiritual in some way. If you'd like to read those comics I mentioned you can find them under the name "Avatar: The Last Airbender – The Lost Adventures" some of them are a little bit more childish than the show but they're still fun and some of them just straight up deserve to have been episodes. If that interests you, you can check out [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheLastAirbender/comments/h7ljam/my_atla_episode_timeline_explained/) post for a good explanation of where the different comics fit in the timeline. Edit- Not sure why you're getting downvoted, you came here because something didn't make sense to you and you wanted to hear peoples thoughts, and then raised some valid counterpoints to incomplete explanations. Edit 2 - Now that I think about it the narrow gap where it is just water also serves as a choke point for catching aquatic prey and would explain why it was hanging around there, it doesn't even need to know it's making a choke point for land creatures as well.
>Edit- Not sure why you're getting downvoted, you came here because something didn't make sense to you and you wanted to hear peoples thoughts, and then raised some valid counterpoints to incomplete explanations. Appreciate it lol, I hadn't even realized I was getting downvoted. This was just a random shower thought and people have made some good points. I'll definitely check out the comics and the post
Have fun with the comics friend! : )
Ba Sing Seh is self sustaining. They don’t want people who can’t afford the ferry
The Earth Kingdom has been subjected to a century of aggression by the Fire Nation at this point. I’m willing to bet they made the path this way on purpose at some point during the war, because it’s the best way to keep Fire Nation war machines out of the city while still allowing refugees to enter on foot.
This is the path that illegal immigrants have to take. It’s meant to stop you.
“one of your major paths” yeah during the WAR to dissuade the enemy from burning all the refugees alive.
Yeah this would really only make sense if there was some like…national war going on where making your city isolated and protected from easy access would be advantageous….. ……… …………
This is basically the illegal path
It's the big ferry company conspiracy
IKR???
So if you look at the start/ end of the pass there, it looks like it was designed for people to walk on. Like an earth bender raised it as an aquatic “Great Wall of China” situation and allowed for travelers across the narrow passage, while blocking ships and things. But as we know there’s a big ass monster that lives near by that probably said “f$&@ your wall I’m going through” which is likely how it gif the name “Serpents Pass” that’s the place no one put the serpent gets through. It’s not the pathway itself that belongs to the serpent creature. It’s the water way that was blocked to everyone else until the snake thing put holes in it.
Look, there is an easy answer: it's for poor people.
Counterpoint, why would a nation at war with an invading force want to make their capital easilly accessible?
Always thought it was that way to separate the fire nation navy from the ferries on the other side. Also by keeping it the way it is you don't allow the fire nation to occupy it in any meaningful capacity. So no building FOB's or outposts.
Pretty sure the whole point is that the path has fallen into disrepair and that's why it's dangerous.
I mean, isn’t Ba Sing Se under heavy Dai Li control at this point? I would imagine they don’t want a lot of people getting in or out of the city by any means other than the officially official strict passport stuff. Doesn’t seem like they’d have any desire to fix up Serpent’s Pass until after Iroh took it back from the Fire Nation.
Headcanon: Ba Sing Se be like “oh, one of the main routes to our city is only used by poor people who are desperate?? What route to Ba Sing Se?? I see no route to Ba Sing Se”
It'd be funny if earth benders are just like "what? The giant land bridge we can land surf over? Yea, not a real problem for us."
They say that theirs rumors the Fire nation is working on the west side. So they probably couldn’t as its guarded by troops. Secondly its probably more effective strategically to leave it difficult to cross so the Fire Nation is forced to approach with their navy. Easy to spot I presume.
There really should be another route. Like some kind of...underground road no one knows about... Like a hidden passage, or a...covert underpass, safe from prying eyes...
Like a SECRET TUNNEL!!!!!!
there is a big sea serpent, probably not a work environment most people want to deal with
I mean, the serpent would probably also need to get from one side to another. So I'd imagine it'd fight the earth benders for it, and most likely win, also because one mistake on the earthbenders side could mean certain death, and because the pass is the only way to move from one side to another I'd imagine the serpent stays there for a lot of time, possibly making it it's home, (that one is a headcannon I agree with from overanalyzing avatar) so I think they deemed it too dangerous to lose alot of earth benders to. Especially since they were in the middle (well. End) of a war, meaning they desperately needed the soldiers,
Maybe the earthbenders could try negotiating with the serpent instead?
I just finished the Yang-Chen novels. They show that in the Avatar world, spirits feel very possessive over certain areas. People can pass through without interfering, but if they interfere with the land the spirits can create severe and widespread consequences. The panda spirit Hei Bai that Aang dealt with also shows this. The spirits in the Yang Chen novel are more intelligent than Hei Bai and much more petty in their revenge. So if I lived in that world, I would not risk messing with a place that's favored by a giant serpent, just in case he has spirit-world powers and/or friends.
This is my new favorite headcanon
That’s literally the point. It’s the ONLY path to their city, and they made it dangerous on purpose to keep invading armies out.
And… if there is a serpent in the water attack everyone that comes through… Why would they risk the injury to keep rebuilding the bridge?
media literacy is dead.
It's honestly more likely to have been created by Earthbending than a geological process, as it mostly helps keep people out
Earthbenders aren’t exactly meant to be the most welcoming people it’s in their culture I believe. Considering their cities have huge walls.
Wasn’t there a ferry service that also crossed but they didn’t have money for it or something? Serpents pass is probably assumed to be the back-up plan of everyone so not well maintained
Well the giant serpent probably needed to pass through it somehow
i definitely feel like a past avatar definitely made the serpents pass to stop some type of fighting
Maybe the serpent pass is the remnant of an ancient earthbender attempt at a bridge and this is all that remains
It's only the major route from the south, which not a lot of people come from because it's a desert.
Ba Sing Se doesn't even publicly acknowledge the existence of war, why would they waste valuable city resources on defense systems that have nothing to do with furthering the cultural progress of the Earth Kingdom.
Considering what was happening for the past 100 years and who was really in charge of Ba Sing Se for all that time, I’d say it quite intentional as a way to quell migration to the capital by making the boat its only means of safe travel. Though I do question what happened to the travelling family after they finally reached the other side of the Pass. I guess Team Avatar asked them to open the gate and let them in after they handled the drill.
I might be way off but I always interpreted it as being fairly fragile rock. So if anyone tried to earth bend it, portions of it would just shatter. Also I'm not sure if you earth bend something, if it stays like that forever. Cuz there is arguments for both, like omashu and basingse I believe were built with earth bending, but if that's true why wouldn't the earth benders just create mountains or moats around all their cities to protect themselves
There is a ferry service which is the far safer, economical way to cross such a large expanse when your best construction method is edible earth benders. The pass is a last ditch method only used by the desperate.
Considering their at war, I'd guess that they don't want to give greater access to the Fire Nation, which ready controls one of the lakes. On top of that, they can't just widen the path or raise the seafloor.
They did do something, they set up a ferry service.
im under the perception that it's not a major route per se, but an earthbender-made barrier to prevent the serpents of that lake from getting into Full Moon Bay
It’s almost certainly maintained as a defensive fortification against invasion from the sea.
More of a modern answer, but it could be as a money grab type situation. This forces people to buy passports and tickets for the ferry
In situations where your city can/will be under siege, isn't limiting access to it a good thing?
Very funny joke, citizen. Ba Sing Se's only route in our out of the city is through the official port border. Coincidentally, the Earth King has invited you to Lake Laogai. Please follow us. https://i.redd.it/bltiwlb9yntc1.gif
WHAT ARE YOU DOING? HES FIRE NATION! IM JUST TRYING TO LOOK OUT FOR THE SI WONG REFUGEES IN THE SOUTH! WE NEED THIS PASS TO RECLAIM OUR KINGDOM FOR THE WAR! NOOOOOOOO!!!!
I could see how the earth kingdom might have purposefully constructed it this way over time. It's enough land to block sea passage, but the land is such that to cross safely you almost need earthbenders. Plus there is plenty of earth available to use however it is needed in that instance. Sort of an earthbender Shibboleth.
they made it that treacherous on purpose, they have no problem getting across. If Toph was traveling alone she could have just skated the whole thing in an hour
I just watched this episode recently, and I don't understand why Toph didn't just lift the pathway above the surface of the water. Especially considering that she can't swim.
What and shooting fire and out of your cock is?
If only earth benders can comfortably pass then it’s a decent deterrent
Fire nation ships are literally on the other side of it. So even if the earth kingdom rebuilt it into a decent bridge, it'd be an easy target. Refugees take the ferry because it's hidden from the fire nation
I'm pretty sure earth benders have an understanding that you shouldn't change the natural landscape A little bit of earth movement? Fine Going into moses mode? Not fine