Elemental Magic: Avatar VS Genshin

The power to control water earth fire air, but also lightning ice and even vegetation one thing we can't deny in terms of Elemental Magic, The  Avatar series and Genshin Impact are two of the biggest and most  influential fantasy stories out there also both are set in Worlds  divided by Elemental Nations and where the main character is the  only one who can manipulate all elements the tales share a lot of characteristics but they're also fundamentally  different from one another so today let's h

ave a look at where  they agree and where they don't starting with… in the world of Avatar people are either  born with the capacity for magic or not and that's a genetic trait there are exceptions in the legend of Korra but we're not going to talk about that we're exploring the basics here their magic system is divided  in four different elements water earth fire air quick side note: every single time  I talk about bending as a magic system somebody comes to my comments and says Na-a-a! bending

is not magic the creators themselves said that in an interview you foolish maggot you uncultured swine you’re so ugly you make my eyes tear up with bile here's the thing you need to separate in-world  knowledge from real life knowledge for the people who live inside the  world of Avatar bending is just bending it's not magic at all, it's a thing a  phenomenon that exists in their world for us, the audience, outside that world  it's a phenomenon that doesn't exist except in the realm of fiction

inside the realm of fiction it's a very  common occurrence, it's called magic and and good magic if you ask me if Mozart finished composing  The Magic Flute and said this is not music, this is a spluff spoff™ it would, you know, still be music you can't just do that, the meaning  of words is a social contract bending is magic bending the elements is not a rare trait here,  it's common enough that essential work like providing electricity for a city or making ice cream for your crush  depends on

one element or another that's what makes this system  interesting: magic is everywhere from the big battlefields to the kitchen table and that's also what makes the Avatar, the only  individual who can wield all elements, so special but we'll get to him later in the video this society-enveloping widespread magic  is in direct opposition to Genshin’s system we've explored Genshin's  magic inner workings before, there's a card to the video If you haven't  watched it, but here's a quick recap: in t

his world individuals with a  a drive, a passion, an obsession they’re gifted Elemental Magic  by a higher plane of existence it comes in the form of a vision an amulet like object that helps you  channel one of the Seven Elements pyro, hydro, geo, anemo, cryo, dendro, electro here's a scene when a character receives  a new vision, this is how it looks it doesn't have to look dramatic like  that but hat guy is a bit of a showoff the thing I find brilliant  in the system is that the elemental pow

ers themselves manifest  as part of that character's passions Nilou is a devoted dancer, so her  water powers manifest like that Hu Tao is the proud owner of a funerary  parlour so her fire powers manifest like that Navia just loves to be a gangster so  her earth powers manifest like that sidenote: a lot of the criticism to Genshin's  Magic system comes from the fact that this does doesn't make any sense what does dancing has to do with water? or funerary parlours with  fire? it has no connectio

n I find it repulsive, disgusting I just barfed a little inside  my mouth thinking about it if that's your perspective here's  a framework that might help you enjoy a lot of stories  you don't enjoy right now stories are not engineering  blueprints, they're not police reports, they're not step-by-step guides stories are not made to make sense and sometimes sense can get  in the way of a good story fiction, fantasy included, is made  to evoke emotions and instil ideas to make you think and to mak

e you feel most fantasy stories of nonsense in  one way or another, Avatar included people hurl boulders at one  another and they don't die they fling fire around they don't burn but that's okay cuz stories  are not there to make sense, they're there to provoke something  inside your brain chemistry this is the important behaviour, this  is the thing that needs to happen and sometimes for that to happen, stories  ask you for a little suspension of disbelief we build this incredible world just fo

r you don't bring your world here, come  to our world for half an hour just just live by our rules Genshin might not make you feel anything  and that's another category of criticism but just know that nobody was ever  trying to make sense over here, okay? I promise you that other beloved and  influential stories make even less sense good? good, let's continue so because the magic comes from and looks like the character's passions, the way it  manifests is unique between characters even if they u

se the same element and Visions are not nearly as  common as in Avatar's world imagine Vision holders as exceptional figures in our world they would be the Michelin star  chefs, the professional athletes, the virtuosos yes, they exists, you've probably  cross paths with one before but it's not something that happens every day a system like that invites  stories about the individual, and especially invites stories  about the individual's passion sure, many stories in this world  are about element

al fights, but I think it's fair to say  that most stories - over 50% are about the passions that allowed  people to be magical in the first place more often than spitting fire,  you'll see Yang Fei being a lawyer more often than using healing magic, you'll see  Baizhu giving prescriptions like a normal doctor more often than freezing enemies, you’ll  see charlot looking for newspaper headlines and since the only people with powers here are the exceptional ones, you can expect the characters  to

be out of the ordinary in some way Avatar has a different take since bending is relatively common  and people are born with it, you can expect magic to be everywhere it's just another normal thing in  life like cooking and kids playing Benders and non-benders alike we get to see  stories of normal people, of exceptional people and normal people who are on  their way to become exceptional and the special thing about them doesn't  have to have any connection with bending think of it that way, Gen

shin is more interested  in stories that feel like superhero stories the really unique people with incredible  powers doing the thing that only they can do so we look at them and think:  what if I was special like that Avatar is taking a more Disney approach anyone can be a great character as  long as they have an emotional journey magic and worldbuilding are there just  to colour, to house those experiences so we look at them and think,  I recognize myself here both approaches have a lot of val

ue and  point into different styles of storytelling but coming back to this idea of  housing an experience, a story what about their locations? where do they happen? in both those stories the world is divided in  nations that align with a specific magical- yes yes exceptions I know, but follow my line of thought here Nations that align with a specific magical element the Earth Kingdom is the nation of earthbenders,  and it's easy to spot in their architecture under the influence of the geo  arch

on, Liyue is the city of contracts the Northern Water Tribe is one of the settlements  where waterbending is practised and taught Fontaine is the country of  hydro - I mean, look at it it's not trying to hide it I want to swim in a giant cube sounds very similar, right? well, not really here's how they approach the  same trope from different angles in Avatar the Fire Nation is the  place where firebenders are born Fire magic is a characteristic of its people a genetic characteristic and of cours

e they build an  infrastructure and culture from it because benders are there,  numerous among the population in contrast if you head to Inazuma  the electro nation in Genshin, you'll find visions of all seven elements and electro won’t be especially abundant what grants magic is passion,  not genetics or citizenship but Inazuma is ruled by the electro archon, and also thunder and lightning are  an integral part of its landscape when talking about Elemental nations, in  Avatar the people are ali

gned with an element in Genshin everything else  is, including the local deity because of that genshin offers its  players incredible landscapes to explore and the Nations look and feel very different  from one another as you walk around and though genshin has many many side stories,  the main stories revolve around the archons the big important people, the gods of each element sometimes those archons take leadership  positions in their own Nations and sometimes they like to observe  from the si

delines and help when needed but they are there to represent  their nation's ideals and morals, they're both made of and makers of each Nation just like with the Visions the nationalisation of each element is also very focused  on the one exceptional individual this is the type of story Genshin wants  to tell, stories about special people superhero stories while Avatar wants to go broad picture the writers thinking to themselves look at the beautiful world our people built this is not an natural

formation,  this is people working hard we want you to think about it, we  want you to picture real people Benders and also non-benders inhabiting our  world for decades to build those structures both physical but also cultural structures there's all sorts of people living here and you get to see a small portion of the  briming life this world contains one of Avatar's most beloved episodes, maybe the most beloved is the ultimate  form of this style of Storytelling in Tales of Ba Sing Se we take

a step back  from the big events we've been following and we just see our beloved characters  interacting with the city like normal people it's just a couple of hours for each character but by the end of it you see they could have entire lives just like that  just living in this one city and those lives wouldn't be boring or unimportant by using variety the the show wants  to prove that the whole world is alive even away from the events and  the characters we're following and hey let's talk abo

ut those characters the Avatar, the single soul that  can harbour the four elements fated to return and return  in a reincarnation cycle The Traveler - not human -  a being from another world though not even they know where they hold no vision and yet  they can control all elements why? how? this idea of mastering all elements  is not new, it's centuries old but what is it doing here? we can't analyse those worlds and their stories without talking about the  main characters we’re following the T

raveller and the Avatar are the  excuse we need to explore all elements since both those worlds are very intricate, it's always handy to have a  good narrative reason to explore and learn about the different parts of the  world and the magic that permeates everything in that sense both characters  occupy the same archetype, but one thing makes them very  different from one another the Traveller is an outsider and as they don't belong to Teyvat they need  the most basic explanations on how things

work that's a great excuse for us to to learn the different mechanics from  multiple regions of this world and we, the audience, come from the same  place of ignorance as the main character in other words, if your world has  this very interesting toilet system where people use three shells to clean themselves but every single character in the  story is well aware of the system then why would they talk about it? an outsider presents exactly this opportunity also just by being an outsider The Tra

veller  becomes a topic of conversation in Teyvat who's that strange person  with powers nobody else has? as they travel, their popularity grows and they start to meet people who've  heard of their recent deeds in contrast the Avatar is  part of the world they inhabit both in the sense of the  character, like Aang or Korra, but also in the sense of the role  of the Avatar over the centuries take Aang, for example through him we learn about the  Air Nomad's philosophy and habits but in order to t

alk about his way  of living he needs specific contexts if nobody offered Aang meat,  we'd never know he's a vegetarian why would we? he'd have no reason to talk about it he'd just - be but when he does explore those contexts,  for example when he revisits a city he knows we have a deeper way to experience this world not just how the world works, how  the mechanics of the world operate but contextualising the world in  time and through personal experience we also see the long lasting  influence

past avatars still have, and how that influence is  partially transferred to him so in a way: the Traveller is a new urban legend and the Avatar is a walking myth both give us the chance to explore  the elements and the Nations but both the Traveller's  ignorance and the Avatar's vantage point context are interesting tools that lead to different styles of Storytelling is one of those worlds and its  magic system better than the other? sure, of course but that's an incomplete question if you want

to talk about  preference you must ask: for whom? maybe you think one of those  worlds feels more alive or maybe one of those magic  systems flares up your imagination or maybe you just prefer one because you  grew up with it, and that's perfectly fine you are allowed to I'm sure nobody watching this video will write  a long comment below detailing how stupid how ignorant people are for having  a different opinion from theirs right? ....................................................right? Hmm

m we shall see you rotting little s- hi I'm Joriam. I'm a Brazilian writer  and this is where I talk about art and story and the human heart please consider subscribing, I  just reached 10,000 subscribers I've been doing YouTube for 12 years  and I never reached anything like that it's so coo, thank you so much  for subscribing, it's so cool it's the coolest thing in my life and if you enjoyed this video, you  might also enjoy this other video here where I compare how Tolkien  and Miyazaki wrote

about nature comparison videos are neat and a special thank you to my patrons even if  you're just giving 2 dollars or 2 euros a month it's just is so cool that you  chose to support this tiny channel thank you so much see you next time, tchau