>>717157059
The Northern Water Tribe is small, but their strategic homefield advantage and extending any battle into night means they get stronger. South has been devastated by over 100 years of raids. Air Nomads can be lethal and can fly and have the high ground from their mountain temples, but were caught off guard by numerically, technologically superior Firebenders amped by the comet. Earth Nation has the most people and defenses but are technologically inferior to the Fire Nation and with their land being so big are subject to spreading forces too thin or intel being lost. Not to mention the Dai Li conspiracy. The Fire Nation is the smartest, they have steampunk tech from tanks to giant drills to airships. They have the 2nd largest nation full of men and women devoted to the cause of taking over the world, opposed to demoralized and strategically inferior men in the Earth Kingdom. ATLA sort of mirrors LOTR in that the villain really is a few regions short of worldwide dominance. Ba-Sing-Se and Omashu really were the last truly free places. Almost everywhere else has Fire Nation troops and settlements.
With all of this I feel like each nation has their bending advantages and disadvantage and sometimes a home field advantage. Problem is tech overcomes so much. Morale impacts things alot. The Fire Nation would have kept adapting and making new machines from their conquered resources or just vaporizing everything with the comet again once it passes. Lets say Aang never woke up. Ozai would STILL use airships built by that inventor guy and pocket-nuke everything. He would have no reason not to, even if BSS was free, he could burn it down and start over. Ultimately everything rested on Aang and his friends training and rallying allies to their cause otherwise the world would be Fire Nation. Even if it took another 50 years to conquer some smaller unchecked islands or the Northern Tribe.
