This is the kind of question that no one asks, but want answers. Obviously I prefer Air. People seem chill in there.
The big differentiator in this thread is “can you bend?” because if you’re stuck in an Air temple unable to fly, that would kind of suck. I guess if you had a buddy with a sky bison, that might make it easier. But the Earth kingdom seems to have their shit the most figured out out of all the kingdoms (Fire’s fascism notwithstanding).
That depends on whether or not I can be a Bender. Culturally I think I’d be better suited as an air nomad, it fits my wanderlust and passive lifestyle. Otherwise the earth Kingdom, especially if I could be an earth bender.
If I could bend, I think I’d choose the earth nation. Imagine how much cool shit you could build. Need an extension on your house? Here’s a brand new stone wall in 30 seconds.
I would take it upon myself to solve homelessness, if it existed. You need a house? Done. You need a house? How many rooms? Done.
I would build so. much. stuff. It would get weird.
Honestly, this right here is the main reason I don’t believe any real-world bending would end any way other than Earth Kingdom dominance. Peaceful dominance, hopefully.
You can’t wipe out their infrastructure as long as someone is alive who knows how it’s done.
Oh, fire nation bulldozed your house because they felt like it? Well boom. Stomp stomp punch. New identical house made of stone.
Bridge collapsed to cause chaos? Stomp stomp punch, it’s back.
Don’t feel safe living out in the open where fire nation scouts could murderhobo you harder than my last D&D group? Stomp stomp punch, now you have a vast mansion underground in which you can simply… Not go above ground until you need to.
Of course, underground living isn’t simple as “hole in ground, hide all day” but still… There is 0 reason the EK shouldn’t go full Vietnam War tactics.
It depends on the time period. Pre-Sozin, probably Fire Nation, since they hadn’t slid into fascism yet and were living basically in a golden age of prosperity.
Post-Sozin until the end of the war, it depends on my ethnicity. If I’m ethnically Firish, probably the Fire Nation colony cities in the EK. They benefited economically from the FN imperialism but didn’t really have to live with the police state fascism of the mainland FN. If I’m anything other than Firish, I’d want to live in Ba Sing Se or Omashu. For like 99% of the war they didn’t have to deal with hardly any of the consequences of the war, other than a refugee crisis from the rest of the EK. Only during the last year of the war did they have to live in Vichy Earth Kingdom.
Postwar, any big city in either the FN or EK.
I have the fire nation symbol tattooed on my arm. I’m a fire performer, so I don’t think much would change there. Post-Aang fire nation, ideally.
