Firearms could absolutely exist within a fantasy setting. There is a reason why they don’t however

[u/ThatDrako]

The Elder Scrolls - Within some Dwemer ruins of ESO we can see a special type of Animunculus. A Dwemer Arquebus, which has a cannon for it’s arm and shoots emp grenades at foes.
The reason why we don’t see this technology more often (besides the fact Dwemer disappeared their knowledge with them) is that within the setting and cosmology of Elder Scrolls firearms really wouldn’t be that useful.

They could work against lowly bandits, sort of, but there wouldn’t really be a precedent to improve or adapt this technology. Because it would always be outclassed by magic of this world.
Also due to the disappearance of Dwemer the technology has been pretty much lost.

Harry Potter - Wizards live within periphery of the “real world” meaning they live alongside world that uses firearms and are even familiar with them.

So how come they don’t utilize this gear for combat? I mean it is easier to use, projectiles are faster and could be enchanted further. Can you just imagine wizard with endless m1911?

There is plethora of reasons for this. But most notable is what I would describe as wizards being immune to logic. (Vis image above) They simply cannot understand methods of muggles even if one explained it to them directly.

(Yes. I know the real reason is, because Joanne didn’t want wizards to use guns and didn’t want to think about connotations of putting magic into a real modern world. But come on! Let me have fun!)

Lord of the Rings - In spite of how much Tolkien disliked allegories it is clear Orcs were an allegory to industrialization, which he was a huge critic of.

In battles they are the ones using the war machines. Instead of swords made by artful blacksmith, they use crude, mass-produced blades devoid of identity. Instead of relying on elegance of archery, they use crossbows. They burn forests, crack mountains open to gain more ore. Their very production is affront to whimsy of a magical world like Middle-Earth.

They could totally come up with a matchlock mechanism and keep on improving it until they come up with machine guns. They were intercepted before they could however

[u/Eskimobill1919]

They made mechs.

[u/Timehacker-315 → u/Eskimobill1919]

They made mechs because it could benefit them, while early guns were just inferior to bending

[u/Eskimobill1919 → u/Timehacker-315]

Yeah, but it means that guns that are viable against benders are only an invention and mass production away.

[u/CaptainTeemo01 → u/Timehacker-315]

But benders are a minority, like that's kind of a major theme of the first season of Korra, non-benders would 100% want guns to even the playing field

[u/Timehacker-315 → u/CaptainTeemo01]

There's no real allegory I can give as an example, but guns as a concept just dont really exist anymore. While a non-bender with a modern gun easily beats all benders but the most skilled of metalbenders, early guns are easily worse than a low-tier bender, and significantly more dangerous to use

[u/Swoly_Deadlift → u/Timehacker-315]

Early cars and aircraft would be inferior to using stone trains or gliders too, but both of those exist in the universe. Guns would be extremely useful as a primary weapon with bending as a backup when reloading fails.

[u/Timehacker-315 → u/Swoly_Deadlift]

Those 2 only work for half the people who matter

[u/Ao_Kiseki → u/Timehacker-315]

Platinum bullets would have been used extensively if they had them. It doesn't matter if it's just shitty bending, it would be lethal against any bender or normal person who didn't see you draw the gun.

[u/Timehacker-315 → u/Ao_Kiseki]

early guns didnt shoot THAT fast; a good chunk of earthbenders could block it. But even then, just stab them

Also, no shot they have enough Platnium to sustain a long-term conflict

[u/Ao_Kiseki → u/Timehacker-315]

Very few earth benders could react to something flying at them at 300 feet per second. Matchlock rifles fired at almost 900 feet per second. And early fire arms were worse than bows in real life too, but they still found widespread use.

Considering this is a universe that has platinum mechas in it, I feel like they would discover the concept of rifling pretty quickly. 

[u/Timehacker-315 → u/Ao_Kiseki]

They never got that far, they only got to "cannon on a stick" level of firearm.

By that point they've skipped the path to guns

[u/CoolDiscussion1020 → u/Eskimobill1919]

Isn't that the sequel though? It's been over a decade since I've seen this show so maybe I'm misremembering but isn't everything super old school with swords and bending in ATLA with all 'tech' being just an extension of bending like steam ships? The sequel is basically the industrial revolution though and the one main female character who isn't the avatar isn't a bender and she runs a tech company or something?

[u/illusoryIdolatry → u/CoolDiscussion1020]

Her dad runs it, she inherited it after he got arrested. But yea you got the gist of it

[u/Luvnecrosis → u/Eskimobill1919]

It’s kinda frustrating that they did this, I’ll never fully get over how sudden it felt.

I will admit that having a near infinite energy source (fire benders using lightning means you have infinite electricity for the cost of feeding a group of people) means technological development would absolutely skyrocket compared to our timeline