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Avatar: Speed of light for the spirit beams

I've been sitting on this for a while, and have decided that the time has come. The point of this crt is to prove that all of the spiritual beams being thrown around in Avatar are primarily composed of light.

The beam refracts in a new material
The beam refracts when it passes through Cosmic Korra's body

The beam diffuses in a reasonably realistic way or reflects off a material that it can be expected to, such as a non-magical mirror
Yep. The light is diffusing so that the area near Korra and Unavaatu are lit up by their respective colors

It is stated to be composed/consisting of photons or light itself, again by a reliable source
  1. Bryke calls spirit energy a light source.
  2. The spirit portals, when opened, appear as beams of light (I’ll explain why the portals are relevant in a bit).
  3. When Aang is freed from the iceberg, the avatar state shoots a light into the sky which Zuko, the creators, and one of the show’s writers call light (it also creates an aurora.) The avatar state is the avatar drawing from Raava’s power (aka, the spirit of light and peace), which in turn comes from cosmic energy. Raava at full power should be capable of firing a beam like Vaatu, since Raava is Vaatu’s equal and opposite. Though the game is not canonical, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl shows this on the Legend of Korra stage, indicating that the developers of that game think the same way.
  4. At one point Varrick calls the beam a laser.

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I should note that the context of him saying this is during the middle of a hypothetical movie that he is making, based on events that have happened in the show so far. However, it should also be noted that Varrick himself is the person who invented the spirit beam that the Earth Empire later adopted. He witnessed the fight between Unavaatu and giant Korra from his jail cell.

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Given that he is an inventor and a genius, he should know what a laser is, especially since had created a movie that featured a laser in it.
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And the writers confirmed that the Unavaatu’s ray was what inspired him

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It has its origin at a realistic source of light, such as a camera
The mecha’s beam comes from spirit vines, which are obviously not a realistic source of light. However, when Vaarick is harnessing the energy from the vines for the first time (right before the first beam is accidentally fired) he says this:

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So electromagnetism was involved during the firing of the beam. This isn’t the first time that electromagnetism is mentioned in the Avatarverse, as it becomes a plot point in Book 4 that the mini mechs can be shut down with EMP blasts. Jinora also brings up radio waves and the light spectrum to Wan Shi Tong.

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Speaking of spirit vine energy and Vaatu’s ray, the ttrpg confirms that the energy in the vines and the energy that makes up the spirit portals is the same type of energy. This is self-evident, since Korra bending spirit energy made a portal, but it’s good to have confirmation.

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This is relevant because when one of the portals opens, it produces an aurora.

The creators have said that the portals are spitting out pure energy whose origin is celestial in nature.

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This is a good quote because it essentially confirms that nature in the avatar world can be observed through a scientific approach, as science, astronomy, etc all exist, but it also can be observed through a supernatural approach. Bending skills are using the real elements: when lightningbending is being used, it’s real lightning. The same thing goes for the spirits: when the moon spirit is fatally wounded, the moon actually disappears, and when the ocean spirit rises up, the creator’s commentary calls it the ocean. Therefore, this same approach should be applied to Raava and Vaatu, as while the concept they embody definitely has an effect on nature, and thus they can be seen as incarnations of good and evil, they should also be producing photons and such with their bodies. Other spirits can also turn into light.

The beams consistently travel in a straight line
Proof. There is exactly one time where the beam is not straight, and that’s when Varrick accidentally fires it from the train. He did say that reverse magnetic polarity was involved in this instance, which sounds like the Faraday effect. After Varrick flees from Kuvira’s army, Baatar Jr copies Varrick’s work and perfects the beam.

Who would this scale to?
If applied, the Colossus, Vaatu, Unavaatu, Raava, and Cosmic Korra would all get “speed of light” with their beams. Anyone who dodges the beams without aim-dodging would also scale.

Please be civil if you have arguments against my points. I don't want to hear “It's Avatar; they can't be that fast!” That's not an actual refutation.
 
The mecha's lasers explode, with noteworthy consistency throughout the video you provided. You could maybe argue the ships are ammo or something detonating, but the side of a mountain, numerous buildings, street pavement, and other such things also explode from the laser pretty much every time and cannot be explained away like the ships. This kind of goes against the idea of the lasers being actual light, as explosions like that would not happen with actual light. The spirit beings don't seem to have this issue so I could perhaps see some argument there, but the Colossus arguments I currently have to respectfully disagree on. For the time being, respectful disagreement on the count of the lasers exploding way too often to qualify as actual beams of light.
 
Why is causing explosions an antifeat for light exactly? I can understand pushing things back cuz KE and all that but with lasers the size and power of what we are talking about, they would be imparting ridiculous levels of heat. Rapidly heating something beyond what they can handle will make them expand violently (making them explode) and would also ignite them or things around them (hence fire). It’s the same principle behind lightbulbs exploding due to too much energy causing the filament to heat up, snap and hit the glass, blowing it up. I get “site standards” but this just seems like an odd antifeat to have when the lasers are able to vaporise huge amounts of material.
 
I think I remember someone telling me that "Laser beams generating explosions" isn't something that disproves lasers being real lasers; especially if the explosion could have been generated from the heat of a laser causing some kind of chain reaction.
 
There's no rule on here against light that it can't produce force. Plus it's doing it against it's equal and opposite.
 
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Bump.

Something that I forgot to talk about when I made the thread is that the spirit beam fired by the colossus and Vaatu has more slicing power then a plasma saw. In "Day of Colossus", Asami and Varrick have to rely on plasma cutters to get past the plating of the colossus because it's made out of platinum, a process that takes a while to the point where Asami's dead sacrifices his life in order to make a clean cut into the colossus. The creators of avatar specifically used plasma because it is hot enough to melt platinum.

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And when the core inside the Colossus goes haywire, the beams cut through the Colossus mush more efficiently than the plasma did.
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I think I remember someone telling me that "Laser beams generating explosions" isn't something that disproves lasers being real lasers; especially if the explosion could have been generated from the heat of a laser causing some kind of chain reaction.
I've messaged some mods on their walls, but no one seems interested in commenting here. Is there anything else I could do?
 
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I disagree strongly.

That isn't refraction. No direction is being changed.
That isn't diffusion. Diffusion is when it crumbles in the atmosphere like fairy dust.

"It's a light source". Fire is a light source. Lightning is a light source. Sparks on the ground are a light source. Light source means that light comes from it, not that the object in itself is light.

It makes contact with objects like the ground and it shows that it emits force. A lot of force actually. Caused a shockwave from the amount of force it emitted.

The light from the iceberg isn't good either, because that "light" which was just pure energy also emitted a shockwave.

"It's called a laser" damn near every ray of energy in fiction is called a laser.

The only thing even remotely decent is "the portal appeared as a beam of light". That's it. It's just saying that it looks like a beam of light.

Sorry but I strongly disagree with this.
 
I disagree strongly.

That isn't refraction. No direction is being changed.
That isn't diffusion. Diffusion is when it crumbles in the atmosphere like fairy dust.

"It's a light source". Fire is a light source. Lightning is a light source. Sparks on the ground are a light source. Light source means that light comes from it, not that the object in itself is light.

It makes contact with objects like the ground and it shows that it emits force. A lot of force actually. Caused a shockwave from the amount of force it emitted.

The light from the iceberg isn't good either, because that "light" which was just pure energy also emitted a shockwave.

"It's called a laser" damn near every ray of energy in fiction is called a laser.

The only thing even remotely decent is "the portal appeared as a beam of light". That's it. It's just saying that it looks like a beam of light.

Sorry but I strongly disagree with this.
Agreed
 
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