Everyone's Sad story includes fire benders as the bad guys.

[Radiant Mercy]

Aang: Firebenders destroyed my home and killed all the airbenders, making me the last.
Zuko: My father, the Fire Lord, was the one who burned my face and exiled me from the Fire Nation.
Katara/Sockka: Fire benders killed our mother.
Bolin/Mako: Fiebenders killed our parents.
Amon: Fire benders killed my family and injured me in the process(Even though this wasn't true).

Not all Firebenders are evil. I'm talking about Iroh and Zuko here, when he let go of all his anger.
I don't like the way Mako threathens people with fire when he gets desperate or angry(this is shown in the episode when they are searching for Korra and he terrorizes that Equalist in the tunnel building.)

I mean, the producers could have been a little more original. Unless, they are trying to make Firebenders seem truly malevolent.
But then that goes back to Iroh and his peacefulness, right?

They are bad guys in the other elements too:
Yukone and Amon are waterbenders.
Long Feng is a earthbender.

They couldve said a waterbender drowned their parents.
Or that an earthbenders caused an landslide that killed their family or whatever.
Of course, the Airbenders were already dead and don't seem to have the guile to do these things. XD

I dunno. Maybe it's the easiest thing every to say that a Fire Bender did this or that to you and get on your life. And maybe it's the easiest thing to see a firebender doing these things since they are oh so evil.

[iKarnezar]

Everyones got their dark sides. Firebenders seem to be synonymous with anger and aggression. Even when Zuko became good he still had an aggression to his style.

Waterbenders have their Bloodbenders, who all seem to let the power get to their heads.

Earthbenders have their Sandbenders, who're all appearing to be a bunch of thieves and bandits. Although we might see a darker side to Earthbenders in the up and coming books of LOK.

[Perturbed Panda]

Well it's a cultural trait of firebenders to be ambitious and willfull. Unfortunately these positive traits are often mixed or even smothered by their rage that fuels their firebending.

All the other nations seem to want to live peaceful and steady lives. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that these two opposite lifestyles come in conflict with each other, the more powerful one winning quite often.

[SaturnineSonata]

I hadn't really noticed that. There are lots of other "Evil" waterbenders and earthbenders that victimize people in the series. It's just not the main characters/ story line so you don't notice it as much. the main villain of LoK is a waterbender, after all.

[Majojojo]

There's also the fact that a lot of these things happened during the 100 year war, or not too long afterwards, in which I'm guessing quite a few firebenders were feeling like everyone hated them because of the war, so they acted out of aggression and pressure, possibly. I think a lot of it has to do with the time period. Even though Mako and Bolin's parents died within the last 15 years or so, some firebenders may feel regret and are letting it eat at them. I don't know. It does seem like firebenders are considered the stereotypical bad guy but I can't help but feel like it's the aftermath of beingn the bad guys in a war. I mean, think about the World Wars. Both had a lot of German hate. And I hear German hate still, even though they aren't bad guys, just have a crappy history because a few individuals. Same for the Fire Nation. But yeah. I'm done. Kay.

[iKarnezar]

Firebenders = Slytherins.

They're kinda destined to be assholes.

[olive17]

During the war, the people of the fire nation considered themselves to be smarter, more civilized, and more innately gifted than the entire rest of the world, and this myth was reinforced in homes and schools. It's likely that there are still old guard firebenders who believe that the war was a just cause, and resent the other nations because of it. Some firebenders who lived in the colonies probably felt forced to give up their homes (in fact, perhaps they were forced or pressured into returning to the fire nation).

Basically, regardless of modern politics, it's likely that there's still a lot of bad blood between firebenders and the rest of the world. I'm not surprised that there has been violence against people like Asami's mother (probably a non-bender) and Mako and Bolin's parents (presumably an earthbender married to a firebender, or at least someone from the earth kingdom married to someone from the fire nation - so there might have been some racism at play in their murders).

[Kaori Setton]

I have a sad story about Firebenders.

I wake up one saturday morning to watch the newest episode of LoK. It was an amazing episode and it ended with me finding out General Iroh would be fast approaching to aid in the equalist suppression.

A week passes, and then I hear him. Dante Basco. I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Why is that teen-appropriate voice coming out of this grown man? And then it hit me. They hired a one-trick pony to voice a firebender.

From that point on, the disappointments culminated. His entire fleet was wiped out. He aided Team Avatar in the least possible manner, and almost sent Boomy to his doom.

[olive17]

Kaori Setton

I have a sad story about Firebenders.

I wake up one saturday morning to watch the newest episode of LoK. It was an amazing episode and it ended with me finding out General Iroh would be fast approaching to aid in the equalist suppression.

A week passes, and then I hear him. Dante Basco. I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Why is that teen-appropriate voice coming out of this grown man? And then it hit me. They hired a one-trick pony to voice a firebender.

From that point on, the disappointments culminated. His entire fleet was wiped out. He aided Team Avatar in the least possible manner, and almost sent Boomy to his doom.

Don't dis Dante he is the cutest. :C

But you're right that his voice wasn't right for Iroh.

And yeah, wtf was up with how quickly that fleet was wiped out. When he fell off the boat I was like "OH NO" and then he got saved and everyone LEFT and I realized that he is the only member of the fleet that we see rescued, and I was just like, seriously? What about the rest of them? Did they all die? Why didn't Korra stick around to rescue as many of them as she could, if she couldn't help them win the battle? They weren't that far from land - maybe some of them made it? In that case, why didn't they regroup and continue fighting, or hide out like Korra and her team?

[Kaori Setton]

olive17

Kaori Setton

I have a sad story about Firebenders.

I wake up one saturday morning to watch the newest episode of LoK. It was an amazing episode and it ended with me finding out General Iroh would be fast approaching to aid in the equalist suppression.

A week passes, and then I hear him. Dante Basco. I couldn't quite wrap my head around it. Why is that teen-appropriate voice coming out of this grown man? And then it hit me. They hired a one-trick pony to voice a firebender.

From that point on, the disappointments culminated. His entire fleet was wiped out. He aided Team Avatar in the least possible manner, and almost sent Boomy to his doom.

Don't dis Dante he is the cutest. :C

But you're right that his voice wasn't right for Iroh.

And yeah, wtf was up with how quickly that fleet was wiped out. When he fell off the boat I was like "OH NO" and then he got saved and everyone LEFT and I realized that he is the only member of the fleet that we see rescued, and I was just like, seriously? What about the rest of them? Did they all die? Why didn't Korra stick around to rescue as many of them as she could, if she couldn't help them win the battle? They weren't that far from land - maybe some of them made it? In that case, why didn't they regroup and continue fighting, or hide out like Korra and her team?

Dante did a good job with Zuko. But it's like he didn't even try to get into character for Iroh.

"Okay, Dante, you're going to voice act for us again. So you're a firebender-"

"Oh, okay, got it. Say no more. Same-old, same-old."

Fleet was probably mainly killed some taken as prisoners. I mean, they were being bombed. I like that Tenzin called for a fleet because it was sensible. I don't like how useless it was animating that entire piece of plot. Every minute counts when a season is that short *coughadventuretimecough*