You know I just realized, they made the two most prominent benders other than the avatar, mako and bolin, be extremely poor and grew up on the street, their bending is the only thing that they’re able to use to make money. Meanwhile the most prominent non-bender is asami, a wealthy industrialist and daughter of one of the most influential engineer in the city. Kinda the opposite of what the story wants us to think is happening.
Not at all. The story wasn't about income inequality at all. It was might makes right, which is proven when mako became a gangster. Amon tried to surpass that with his own, which made him right. The real theme was resentment, which is what causes all wars if not might.
Back when I was watching the show, it honestly felt like this season intentionally means to smear activists, protesters or social movements. There were so many parts where it would have been totally natural to show some form of oppression against non-benders, but instead they seemed to actively avoid showing anything to motivate or justify Amon’s plot.
@@milky_peppa Fully agreed, they seem to carefully avoid showing strong examples of why people who aren't the corrupt leaders lying to control their people would be moved to follow Amon -- and this suggests, whether they meant to or not, that in their eyes large protest movements don't draw their power from many individuals who are all in some way affected by the conflict enough to protest, but instead are really the product of corrupt leaders manipulating sheep, and so people attempting to self govern should not be considered individuals with their own interests and rights.
On the Sydrome point, I always assumed his motivation wasn't to make everyone super because it would make thing. His whole plan was to get rid of all the old heroes, use his inventions to play super hero to get all the love and admiration they got as the only hero, then when he got bored, sell his inventions to make the idea of a super hero no longer a thing since everyone can have powers. doing so would make him the last great Super Hero and destroy the legacies of people like Mr. Incredible. Selling his stuff seemed like a means to his actual goal of just creating the ultimate ego boost.
But that's still (hypothetically) a good thing! Now people who couldn't even walk can fly, and average folks can move mountains. It's a good thing, so long as it's handled well, but the movie treats giving people telekinesis and flight is just as bad as genociding an entire class of humanity. The movie doesn't delve into that at all, it just sits there.
@@thehayze259 He says give everyone power, and that everyone can be super. Unregulated superpowers is an awful idea to just give to the masses, especially when he makes it clear that he doesn't give a shit about the consequences so long as the most amount of people get it so super heroes are no longer special. Syndrome isn't trying to help people, it's just to further his revenge.
@@thehayze259Bending is a very regulated power. The second that benders start doing crime other benders step up to put them down and hand them over to bender police without issue. In the Incredibles Mr. Incredible was lawsuited into retirement for saving people. There is no regulation for super powered people but to make them disappear. Even if you take out Syndrome’s ulterior motives behind ‘making everyone super’, there’s no possible way in that verse that anything good would come out of it. I mean, the Incredibles family is the biggest example we have or what happens when good people try to do good for the sake of doing good. Either the judicial system collapses, or companies (especially medical companies) fight each other to trademark that tech to sell it back to the consumer at prices that will leave a lot of people dead and the society even more dystopian. See, Insulin.
Unregulated superpowers are a problem, so how about we talk about regulation? How about we discuss that super ban further, instead of (sort of) writing it off as a bad thing? He obviously has selfish motivations, but if it led to good outcomes, why not do it?
Frustrating that no one ever tries to tackle the issues Amon brings up, despite there being basically no shown issues, Korra never goes ok what's the problem maybe we can fix it. Instead she spends most of her time just being scared whenever Amon is vaguely alluded to and being manipulated.
It's really my issue. Like, we COULD have had that really cool scene where Korra confronts the issues Amon talks about, where she goes to non-bending neighborhoods and sees squalor. Then, trying to bring peace and balance, she decides to DO something about it, so a villain like Amon is no longer necessary. It could have been incredibly deep an nuanced, and would have made Korra much more relatable and sympathetic! But we just got generic good and evil with some unfitting extra flavor.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying she has no right to be scared, she's a sheltered girl who's just been thrusted into a big mess. To me it just felt any time the writers needed something to happen she would suddenly waffle in some way despite her character and the supporting cast being around to help her through it. It didn't feel like understandable and genuine hesitation.
If we think about, in TLOK , the points that vilains have is never debated properly, in the end, fight is all that matters. A exemple would be that place where Republic City is, belongs to the earth kingdom, but its more logical to just aceppts a fight kuvira without any debate they think. Why put this points in the first place if we just gonna ignore them?
About the gang of benders scene: the police who are benders came to deal with the situation? They even arrested korra, the avatar who's the most privileged bender of all time because she caused property damage she's thinking that it's her job to deal with crime like a generic superhero?
@jinxact532 That's valid, but aang would try first to convince them to stop what they're doing. Then he would stop them by the mastered avatar state, easily overwhelming them without any property damage.
Actually Syndrome is the perfect comparison. Both he and Amon are faking societal issues as justification for seeking revenge on someone else. They've created these shallow, empty arguments against super powers as a reason to go about destroying super powers to try and erase the likeness and even the memory of the person they actually want revenge on. Everything Syndrome does is just to get back at Mr. Incredible. All he really cares about is that Mr. Incredible is beaten, forgotten and no one like him will ever appear again. Amon wants Aang's legacy destroyed. The city, the benders together in harmony and, of course, his successor/reincarnation. Nothing else matters to him. Leaving her alive but without bending is the ultimate trophy. They're kind of close to being the same character, except one destroys the city as it's part of the goal and the other destroys a city as a means to his goal.
the problem creeps in when you write the character less comedically as if maybe they do have a point, you have a main character who is incapable of interestingly engaging with that villains' ideas, and then you do a chair pull at the end of the story and show they're just a Syndrome, just as you've said.
@@debrachambers1304 Yeah, rewatching it, he's really hard to pin down because his brother is an unreliable narrator for the flashbacks and most of his scenes in the present are him in 'performance mode' where he's gotta keep the act up to keep his followers on his side. I phrased it that way, but I suppose it is more of a 'the only thing we know he cares about and prioritizes is' instead of an 'only thing he cares about, period.'
i dont think he want to destroy aangs legacy well he cant its all written in the history he is getting rid of bending from the world because all the wars in history of his world happened because of bending they devided into 4 like they are diffrent races one thinks they are better time after time like in aangs time but if their are no bending their wont be this devision and he despise hurting no benders using the bending he never killed anyone even tho he had soo many oppertunities but yes he wanted to get love from people i dont see from his point of view its bad he didnt force people to gather around him once who thought he is right came to him. i think his motivation is more than revenge cuz he didnt had an enemine and if i was their i might think bending maybe the problem for all of this too. wouldnt u when u have every war in history of urs happened cuz one nation thought they were better cuz their bending is superior
I have a major disagreement with an implication in your video here. Syndrome is not one of the “has a point villains,” not by a long shot. The dude kills supers so that when he sends his death robot to attack a city he’ll be the only one to “save” people, he’ll be the only “hero.” He then says when he’s tired of being a fake superhero he’ll get rich off making everyone else as super as him, thereby making no one special. He doesn’t do either of these things out of any selfless motivation, it’s all selfish. He thinks he deserves the spotlight and when he intends to leave it he intends to make sure no one else will enter that light ever again, that’s his perspective and goal. The fact that his retirement selling super weapons happens to objectively benefit people is not some righteous act when his motives for doing so is purely selfish. None of this is speculative, it’s directly stated his motives: Why he killed the supers: Syndrome: “Oh come on, you gotta admit this is cool! Just like a movie: the robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throw some screaming people. And just when all hope is lost? Syndrome will save the day! I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were.“ Mr. Incredible: “You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could pretend to be one?” Why he sells his weapons: Syndrome: “And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... maniacal laughter no one will be. Syndrome: “See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich?“ The point of Incredibles and Syndrome is that to force special people into mundanity, because by nature of being special that means others aren’t special, to level some sort of “playing field” is wrong and downright evil. Trying to say “Syndrome has a point” completely misses the point, he does not, he forces circumstances to make him look special and intends to make everyone less special after. The people will not be empowered by his weapons they will be even worse off because they are robbed of the chance to find what makes them special by taking the easy way out, and many people may not be able to afford it anyway leading to a lot of bad power dynamics becoming even worse.
I felt the exact same way with his Syndrome take. Because giving weapons to the common folk was never his main point, it was always about him and his childlike tantrum of desperately wanting to be like a supe. He only thinks of giving his inventions when he is old and "already had his fun"
@@no___0ne926But Syndrome wasn't MAKING a point. He was just saying what he would do in his retirement as a final "F you" to Mr. Incredible. It's not something that requires more depth than that.
@@no___0ne926 Syndromes actions completely line up with his goals, it just so happens to not line up with the goals The Hayze thinks are his goals. He implies Syndrome is one of the "villain with a point" type antagonist after his, in my opinion valid, critique of Thanos only to later equate Syndrome as similarly "[bringing] up this really interesting idea about how he can give everyone super powers [but] they have him say one line in a creepy voice and then they never bring it up again." Implying that Incredibles is trying to make Syndrome a complex villain when in reality he is a simple selfish villain. Yes, it would be an "interesting idea" for an antagonist to "have a point" and sell or give his weapons to make people super, but that's not what Incredibles is about. As I've clearly outline in my og comment, Incredibles is about not forcing super people to be mundane and by making the main villain someone who pretends to be a super hero is more compelling then the pretend half baked "I wanna give everyone weapons because I have a point" Hayze thinks Incredibles is about. "yeah it could be dangerous, like, we don't want Syndrome to just give everyone laser eyes" but that's exactly what he intends to do! "And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions!" Even worse he intends to only give it to people who will pay him well! This "Syndrome had a point, but the point didn't make sense" critique is just bad media literacy, he didn't have a point, his intentions were evil and they make sense in that context alone. The reason they don't make sense in the context Hayze thinks it exists in is because that's not the context for Syndrome, he's a bad dude, doing a bad thing, for selfish reasons, and gaining selfishly entirely. Anyone Syndrome "helps" along the way is purely by accident and he's more than willing to help bad people too. I'm not saying this to be like "you shouldn't dislike Syndrome," we all have our tastes and for all I care you could consider Incredibles worse than Adam Sandler movies, but the critique Hayze is making and you by extension is wrong and I will critique that critique because that is no longer an opinion it's just blatantly wrong. Syndrome is not a "villain with a point." Stop trying to give him one.
The way I interpreted Amon and Thanos is that they are actually delusional. In the case of Thanos, it is aparent from the moment he states his pursuit for purging half of the life forms in the universe to solve the problem with resources. As seen in the next movie, he didn't limit his purge to only "intelligent life-forms", but also non-sentient animals and plants too (e.g. there's a tree that respawns in the Avengers HQ after Hulk does the Blip). Getting rid of half these life-forms means that near half the resources are gone, making the problem persist. The fact Thanos didn't think of it or care about thinking of it is a subtle way of indicating that he is in fact delusional. In the case of Amon, it's much easier to see without having to go through a lengthy dissertation about the politics in the Avatar world. In the very first episode Amon appears in, one of the very first things he says in his introductory speech is: "Benders have been the cause for all wars, in every time period". The people in that small crowd get behind that statement because they hold resentment towards benders and because they don't know of a world where benders don't exist (so they can't fact-check what Amon is saying). But for the audience, who live in a world without bending, it should be immediate to notice that Amon's statement is bullshit: War, inequality, and conflict exist even without bending, and removing it from a world where bending exists wouldn't be enough to stop these things. Amon as a villain is not defined by pursuing a civil rights cause; he is defined by deceiving and manipulating the masses to pursue his personal vendettas. The fact that the bogus civil rights movement lacked a legitimate point (as per this video's analysis) further cements Amon as a deceiver, akin to a cult leader.
Thanos' "solution" Would not even make sense altogether, because killing half of every population would also disrupt all trade-routes and balances. The problem with running out of resources isn't its lack, but its stagnancy. (There was another video that was on this subject.) Its why just printing out more money if abused leads to inflation. With the comic his motivations were more clear; he was making sacrifices to lady Death as a form of misguided wooing. What it might do, is reveling other people that have the same argument as ultimately poor reasoning(Which we already know is absurd ). Its been clear for awhile that we should be educating (more) people, not having more pointless bloodshed or forced epigenetics programs.
[ In the very first episode Amon appears in, one of the very first things he says in his introductory speech is: "Benders have been the cause for all wars, in every time period". The people in that small crowd get behind that statement because they hold resentment towards benders and because they don't know of a world where benders don't exist ] One thing they did right was further cement that with the avatars origin story. It wasn't the Benders persay, but more how the world became what it was. Bit of a broken jade pot moment (the Chinese myth). Interesting that Raava was carried in a vessel.
The end when he gets away in that boat was really bad written. I was like no way. That's how they end the first season. I wanted to see more. It felt like 3 different stories.
I liked comic Thanos's rationale for snapping much more. He wanted to purge everyone so that he could give the ultimate gift/tribute to Lady Death. There was no great grand goal, just self centered horniness.
Thanos’ plan is even more stupid when you realize whole over population and limitations of resources stops being an issue the second a species becomes space faring. Even within one’s own solar system there’s plenty of asteroids and gas giants to mine, comets can be harvested for resources, O’Neal cylinders for farming, and people can live just about anywhere if they’re creative enough. Once you achieve ftl for every inhabited star system there’s gonna be 50 uninhabited ones ripe for the taking. And Thanos’ magical bling gauntlet opens up sooooo many possibilities. Transhuminism, ring worlds, Dyson spheres, just shrinking cities to the size of a shoe box and sticking them on a shelf.
I think people tend to misinterpret Syndrome’s speech. Making everyone super isn’t his motivation. His motivation is that he wants to get revenge on Mr. Incredible for snubbing him years ago and that final move of giving everyone super powers is less of an altruistic move and more of a final way to spite Mr. Incredible, because Bob’s main insecurity is wanting to be a superhero again and this line twists the knife in harder by saying he never will. Is it extremely petty? Yes. That’s what makes Syndrome a villain. His crusade is purely driven by spite, not misplaced altruism
his plan could have positive outcomes despite his petty intent However of course it couldn’t because he’s The Villain in a work of fiction that was written to present elevating “the undeserving” to positions of power as a work of evil
I like this video aside from one thing. Syndrome isn't really a character written to have a good point, it's already in his name he has a big Hero Complex and really looked up to heroes but only really saw the adoration and glory in the gig. In his flashback of being rejected, Bob was alone but the earlier scene where that takes place he was actually in the middle of convicting a villain. And later on during his plan, he sucks at even being a pretend hero because the point is that Syndrome lacks the mentality to be a good hero.
Agreed. I'm so sad so many people think Syndrome "has a point/should have a point" disregarding the actual point the film makes. I have a comment on this video I'll paste right here if you'd like to read the points I made: "I have a major disagreement with an implication in your video here. Syndrome is not one of the “has a point villains,” not by a long shot. The dude kills supers so that when he sends his death robot to attack a city he’ll be the only one to “save” people, he’ll be the only “hero.” He then says when he’s tired of being a fake superhero he’ll get rich off making everyone else as super as him, thereby making no one special. He doesn’t do either of these things out of any selfless motivation, it’s all selfish. He thinks he deserves the spotlight and when he intends to leave it he intends to make sure no one else will enter that light ever again, that’s his perspective and goal. The fact that his retirement selling super weapons happens to objectively benefit people is not some righteous act when his motives for doing so is purely selfish. None of this is speculative, it’s directly stated his motives: Why he killed the supers: Syndrome: “Oh come on, you gotta admit this is cool! Just like a movie: the robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throw some screaming people. And just when all hope is lost? Syndrome will save the day! I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were.“ Mr. Incredible: “You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could pretend to be one?” Why he sells his weapons: Syndrome: “And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... maniacal laughter no one will be. Syndrome: “See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich?“ The point of Incredibles and Syndrome is that to force special people into mundanity, because by nature of being special that means others aren’t special, to level some sort of “playing field” is wrong and downright evil. Trying to say “Syndrome has a point” completely misses the point, he does not, he forces circumstances to make him look special and intends to make everyone less special after. The people will not be empowered by his weapons they will be even worse off because they are robbed of the chance to find what makes them special by taking the easy way out, and many people may not be able to afford it anyway leading to a lot of bad power dynamics becoming even worse."
@@cheezeebutter452 Yeah the disability/capability angle is more holey than Swiss cheese. Especially since in what way is Syndrome not both special and capable? He's a tech and business wizard. I think another theme that people rarely cover in Incredibles is that of ego. In the first few moments of the story both the villain and the driving conflict were made because they thought themselves too important for people. "You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!" That man in his self-importance started a domino chain to have superheroes lose the only purpose their talents have, all because he wanted to make his death grandiose. Syndrome couldn't see the forest for the trees and didn't see that the reason why Mr. incredible was mad at him was because he screwed up with a villain that was endangering innocent lives. Even though Bob hates his new life, he still tries to find ways of being a hero by helping an old lady out from being screwed over by the insurance company he's working in. He simply loves helping people because he's able to, he's satisfied saving people from a building as much as he's happy to fight a villain, heck he even dropped everything as he realized the horror of what Syndrome had done, there was no happiness or thrill at the prospect of taking down such an evil man just horror at the extent this kid was willing to go. He hates that Dash's skills are being stifled because he'd be great at it and that the kid wants to run. One of the takes I can get with the movie is that if the cost of fairness is to limit people then fairness is an illusion. A paradox, fighting unfairness with unfairness defeats the point. It's about not letting the gifts you have get to your head.
@@trulymrword 100% you are absolutely right. That's another good example too yeah, dash, he is the embodiment of the critique of fairness through enforced limits. I'm glad you mentioned that Bob was even trying to do good while working for a slimy insurance company because another comment on this video related to this topic asked someone else to give evidence why this point is the actual point of the film and not that "Syndrome had a point" and I replied by contextualizing the scene where Bob is in his boss' office. He's being given another lecture on how he's supposed to be a good worker and stop helping their clients penetrate the bureaucracy of insurance whilst a man gets mugged. He his legally forced to not help that man, he is contractually forced to not help that man, and those that are legally allowed to help him aren't close enough. All of this ties into the core themes of the film about individual abilities over level playing fields and their consequences and people miss all that whilst at the same time arguing the film would've been better if it had tried to improve on a point it was never trying to make in the first place. I haven't even watched the film in a while, I'm sure I could pull more examples if I did, it's sad to see people completely miss all of these details. I hate to say it's bad media literacy because I don't want to sound pretentious and also anyone who believes their right about media believes they're the literate one's but I can't help but feel people miss the point of the film they keep trying to put a point into that didn't need them to fix in the beginning. I have a whole lot of feelings on this clearly but I am glad to talk about this film stuff with you.
Frankly, I call that group of villains that "People who sound like they have a point, but are actually some of the dumbest people you've ever met" and it infuriates me that no hero ever actually confronts their motivations or plans. Thanos' plan was to kill half of everything, not everyONE, everyTHING. Plants and animals would die alongside sapient life. Even if Thanos was right, and that led to a utopia, it would take two, three, probably a maximum of four generations for the population to return to before "The Snap". That means that once every hundred or so years, you have to gather the infinite stones AGAIN and kill half of everyone AGAIN. But that's not even the real issue, because Thanos' plan was to break every supply chain in existence, all at the same time. This would cause massive shortages of every resource imaginable, and would likely lead to the complete collapse of society and all of everyone dying. Imagine if you wanted to get in your car, buy something, and return home. You can't drive your car because it's out of gas, you can't get more gas because the pumps are empty, the pumps are empty because there's no semitrucks, there's no semitrucks because there's no mechanics, drivers, or supervisors to handle orders and send out shipments. Everything you could do, that would require someone else to do something else, is gone because that supply chain is broken. But even THAT isn't the real issue, because Thanos is wrong about basic economics. Having more people means there can be more specialists, and those specialists can produce food at an insane rate. Right now, we're producing so much food that a lot of food is being thrown away because we can't eat it fast enough. If he's worried about over population, then it's freaking SPACE dude! Do you have any idea how much space is in space? You could make the population of the universe quintillions, and there would still be plenty of room. I mean seriously, it's actually all of space. Frankly, Thanos is my least favorite Marvel villain. It would be Kill Monger, but Thanos operates on a bigger scale and both of their plans immediately collapse under the lightest scrutiny. And Amon had so little of point it was ridiculous. Back during the hundred years war, if you could shoot lightning out of your fist, you were a god among men. You were untouchable, unbeatable, and fame, wealth, and pleasure were at your fingertips. If you can shoot lightning out of your fist, you are a factory worker. All the richest people are non benders. Non benders run companies, non benders design new technology, non benders make art, Unity City is so stacked against benders that the strongest benders are factory workers. If you think Syndrome had a point, go watch Mega Mind.
I forgot to add this, but you know who's a quality villain? Senator Steven Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In the final showdown, Armstrong admits to Raiden that all his speeches and posturing are a lie. He wants everybody to fight everybody, and that's the kind of villain I can get behind.
Tbh halving half of everything just wouldnt change much, supply chains wouldnt be broken because again, yes half the engineersh or whatever are gone, yes but remember also half of the customers are gone, in other words, the ratio is the same its literally just like it isherkrtrdzszh now jushterkrtrdzszh on a smaller scale.
@@LastFantasiaWeaponsYeah but youre forgetting he ultimately jusht wanted to better the american economy, through the wrong means but nonetheless shtrillkrtrerdzszh the right message deshpite the “too much” way of doing it, at least from what i remember, ive gotta go back at playing it and also beat the DLCs at Revengeance Difficulty lol.
@@SimoneBellomonte If all those people were in the same place, and supply chains were only one person, and Thanos didn't remove half of the plants and animals, you would be close to having a point.
Why you ignore the biggest point of the protest scene? And say his point of non bender injustice was never shown? The crowd turn against Korra because she openly said she was considering using her bending to shut the protester up after he ask. Korra literally proved his entire point those with power had no issue of using it for their own gain
That proves a point on the protest yes but the other issues stay present, there's still no real or actual examples of non-benders being discriminated or just simply ignored for not being able to bend elements
@@etherealhatred what about the scene when nonbenders were being rounded up by the police and called out to Korea saying "you’re are avatar too help us”?
@@kendalljasper309 Yes but that was WAAAAAY later, but we were told this was always an issue, you can't say there is an issue in a society and show one or two minor examples, not address it for a while, and then show an extreme example, this makes the conflict feel more recent and less impactful.
If anything it shows a nuanced idea, halfway abadoned. It kept the Villan, kept the theme and following. But no real examples and never forces Korra to confront the issue that made the equalists possible. The fact everyone gets along after Amon is defeated just cements how poorly executed the idea was.
11:30 - the problem about that is that benders are *objectively* better at some things. A non-bender construction worker is inevitably going to be worse at the job than an earthbender, whereas there will not be a difference between the performances of a black man and a white man. A waterbending healer is going to be worlds better at the job than a non-bender, whereas that difference will not exist between a woman and a man. Provided, in both cases, an equal skill/training at those tasks. And that's kinda the crux, because IRL (theoretically) anyone can get the same training and have equal (more or less) skills, so gender- or race-based discrimination is baseless, but you *cannot* learn to be a bender if you weren't born one, so you're going to be inevitably unequal in at least some arenas.
Amon and Syndrome were both very clearly not motivated by empowering the weak. They were motivated by hatred of the strong. Amon is drumming up hatred and resentment towards people over an immutable characteristic that people see as an unfair advantage (with more merit than you see in irl leaders who follow this line of logic, tbh.) He’s an angry genius who hates bending and benders because of his own personal trauma, and is charismatic enough to mobilize an army of other resentful assholes by playing into their preconceived notions. This angle is ALSO not fleshed out well enough, mind you, but thinking of him as an activist that has a point is your first mistake. Possibly even the writers’ first mistake if they legitimately thought that declaring an oppressive dichotomy existed without evidence was enough for everyone to accept it as truth.
Honestly Syndrome suggesting he just sells the tech to me always struck more of a "this'll solidify my downpayment on my Retirement Island AND my Holiday Island! AND piss off Mr. 'Good ole days' " then anything substantially thought out. Like he didn't care at all about the lives he destroyed to get to where he was. There's a scene that lists -every hero he's every had his deathbot defeat- and a scene where he drops -said deathbot in the middle of a city and lets it destroy everything and everyone in sight.- Like yeah.. the guy is totally motivated to make peoples lives better. Not just his own.
Syndrome wasn't about empowering the weak, he was just focused on revenge. Making others super was just an extension of that revenge after had all the fun and spotlight he could get from his hero act. He didn't actually care about people outside of the praise they'd give him.
Amon was believed to be a kind of chosen Messia. His followers believed the story that he got his powers to stop bending from the spirits, something they didn't understand at all at the time. He IS a cult leader. Making someone out as the enemy for having something inaccessable to you is also not that far fetched. That way, the movement stopping with Amon shown as a liar is also way more believable. In short, Amon doesn't need to have a valid point in order to get people to follow him and as an extremist (literally spelled out in season 4) he doesn't have to be a person that thinks things through either. I don't think the Authors put that much thought into it, though^^ . As for the pointless scenes and subplots: Yes, definitly true.
My personal theory is that the writers got scared, they got planned all this opression and real discrimination issues, an Amon with no second intentions behind, and a real division in the society was destined to happen. But they didn't knew how to fix the problem, how would you keep bending and avoid being used as tools of opression, you can't. And being unable to resolve the problem they give up and the make up a much tamer story, one that could be resolved by the incompetent Korra
I think a lot of writers don't like writing nuanced villains because they don't want their main characters to be seen as bad people. Like, Ozai is intimidating and all, but he's pure evil, there's absolutely nothing wrong with opposing him. But with Amon, if he WAS a nuanced villain with a point, and Korra was still 100% against him, it would reflect really badly on her. That's a pretty fine line to tow, and while it could create a really fantastic story, it's a bit risky. So a lot of writers, including the writers of season one, decided to just make Amon pure evil, but have him throw in stuff about equality to make him SOUND nuanced.
@@thehayze259I think having vilains who do not have nuance is not problem in it of itself( watch "osp trope talk:pure evil" to see my point) ) the problem is how some of this vilains can have genuine nuance at the beginning An example is ironicely Amon's brother Tarlok When he was first introduced the guy has a lot of subtext and implications but they are all wasted has it's reavealed he just wanted to control the city This makes the scene where he kills himself and his brother fall completely flat since he was just pure ego and evil.
Hey, I like OSP too! And yeah, I totally agree, pure evil villains or ones who are just motivated by greed are totally fine. In fact, a lot of the best villains in fiction are just evil and corrupt. It's mostly just an issue of introducing nuance and then dropping it. It just leaves a ton of plotholes, and makes the villain into a strawman.
The cat people who act suppressed but in reality got off fucking easy for starting a war and then loosing it. Or am I misremebering another mid anime. They kind of all form together.
@@aaronlaughter6471Worse, the animal trait people who start a revolution after centuries or millenia of poor treatment and oppression, FUCKING WON, and somehow still got fucked over in peacetime by being given a barely habitable island to fuck off to if they can't handle the blatantly racist Kingdoms. If you actually follow parts of the lore, Atlas and Mistral essentially operate under Jim Crow while Vale and Vacuo officially don't allow discrimination but don't do anything to prevent it.
@@11sonicspeed I always thought so. Some faunus are naturally stronger than humans, even being born with crazy animal abilities in many cases, and all of them can naturally see in the dark. I'm surprised they weren't the ones to oppress humans.
Korra learning the philosophy of airbending would actually be pretty interesting. We never really got that with Aang bc he was already an Airbender and his culture was wiped out, heck we could have had a nice little call back of Korra channeling Aang at the end after Tenzin teaches her airbending, and Aang saying to Tenzin how he's made him proud of successfully passing on their culture. I would have loved that so much more than a quick flashback of an old villain Aang once took down.
Syndrome's plan is to crush the human spirit with "gifts". He's going to solve all their problems, sounds great right? Well because there's no problems there is nothing to defeat, nothing to strive for anymore. Why excel when everything is great all around? When everybody is at their peak, then everyone is mediocre. Syndrome never had a point, and he just wants to be the genius around the worms.
26:23 But there's an issue here, too. You quite literally confirmed that benders are working class.. not all benders are fighters, nor would they be. And every incredibly clever inventor in both ATLA and Korra, were non benders. The top swordsmith in the Fire Nation was a non bender. The Beifongs in ATLA were rich, filtny rich, and only Toph could bend as far as we know. Jet and his freedom fighters were highly skilled and talented and FREQUENT took out Fire Nation soldiers. The Kyoshi Warriors, non benders, were obviously formidable until overpowered by grown soldiers who demonstrated absolutely no ROE. The Professor from Ba Sing Se, not a bender. The EARTH KING IN BA SING SE not a bender. Tai Li and Mai both came from presumably non bending families. If only 25% of the population are benders and they do like, all of the manual labor, including healing, military, policing, power generation etc, Im not sure how theyd ever be able to discriminate against non benders in any real way. They're literally the working class, meanwhile Cabbage Corps, Sato Engineering and presumably all the artisans, merchants and inventors are just doing just fine and not expected to use their genetic gifts to prop up society. Which, again. 25% of the population. Amon is 100% useless and in order for you to even FIX the story you ironically have to take away positive attributes already known to non benders.
Don't forget, Zuko infiltrated, fought (with Aang) an entire fire nation fort, and escaped, just using two swords. Like even high-profile Benders will use non-bending tricks and skills to fight other Benders.
@@strifeandharmony6472it's as if Bending is not all of his identity. Although conflicted, Zuko demonstrated his worth had he bends any other element. Heck, even if he isn't a bender!
@@naufalmEZa Agreed, but that seems to be what Strife was saying -- that the world always had plenty of room for people's skill without resorting to bending, even in areas like fighting, which are clearly the natural domain of benders.
But you can use guns to hung food and protect yourself. Of course for every analogy about using guns for piece there’s several more about melting swords into plows and wielding hammers in battle signifying that piece is a nice objective and all but sometimes you gotta fight like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s arc, and it’s starting to rain.
14:10 Not to the majority of people, but at their fundamentals, guns ARE tools as well. Tools of destruction, yes, but there are still many who rely on these tools to ward off predators, hunt down the food they need to survive, and defend their homes. I understand this may be a bit harder to imagine if you say grew up in the city, but guns are a necessity in some people's lives just as much as a hammer or truck.
They are, but the point of a gun is still ultimately to kill stuff. Hopefully animals, but sometimes people too. I get that, a lot of people, especially back in the day, relied on them to hunt their food. But bending is not a tool explicitly made for killing, it's a general purpose where one of its incredible number of uses is to kill people. If you remove guns in the real world, it would make life harder for a fair few people living out in the forest, but if you removed bending in Avatar, all of society would collapse.
My problem with LOK has always been, that it sets a problem, finds it insolvable, and then shifts it to a personal thing (it is not a systematic problem, just villain is bad). I understand, a war is easy, but politics is complicated. War is about survival, politics is about compromises, and is boring to watch. So we have a protagonist who isn´t able to deal a compromise and try to have more action scenes than in the literal war. I enjoy characters and themes, but never get it.
Honestly, I think that politics is incredibly interesting. If you can relate it to character drama, it could be way more engaging than a fight scene. And being about politics doesn't mean you can't have fight scenes - it just means the people you're fighting change.
@@thehayze259 I think for a little while you are right but that inevitably politics will get boring because...it never ends. You won't really ever be able to change someone who is cemented in their views so either things must end in a fight scene, which makes all the politics before a waste of the audience's time, as either the protagonist or antagonist takes things too far and the two sides realize their extremes can't be reconciled. Or both sides remain civil and argue with words...forever...which does not make a fun story.
@@thehayze259Thatsh exactly why i love shows like Overlord and the Slime Isekai, their fantapolitics are just top-notch and Dungeon Food also has excellent world-building as a contourn to an excellently-balanced and delicious mealzszhdkrtrerdzszh and im honeshtlyierkrtrdzszh exdzszcdxdfghjkiutrerdzszcited to see it bloom and evolve even more when S2 eventyually dropsh arounkrtrerdzszhdzszdzszh.
@@RilfDanielsonYoure saying that but characters motivations are literally jusht politics, its not classic politics as in the sense of the word youre thinking it is like in irl, its politicsh in the sense that the villain or antagonist has viewsh which clash with the heroesh view and that createsh the shtruggle, and sure some villains dont change their viewsh after theyve defeated, but some othersh do, without “politics” we wouldnt even have hero vs. villain kindzszh of shtroeriesh to neven begin with lolkrtrerdzszh.
That water bending health care thing is an interesting idea Imagine seeing water benders using healing techniques in a more modern setting, possibly having to charge large amounts of money due to how much practice they have to put into learning this, which gives non-benders a bad impression of them because they think they’re overcharging them, even though the prices are justified and don’t discriminate benders from non-benders Or alternatively, another interesting angle could be water-benders losing their job as people favor modern medicine over traditional healing, which is something that any non-bender could do, and could be something water benders feel threatened by This actually makes me think of a whole nother route the series could’ve taken! We see how bending gets integrated into various industry, but imagine that as technology becomes more advanced, bending becomes obsolete as new technology comes out that allows non-benders to do all the same things that benders could, and even those lucky enough to be born benders stop using their powers because technology is so much easier This causes a divide between the younger generation who favor the use of modern technology, and the older generation who worry about hundreds, if not *thousands* of years of tradition, including generations of their own heritage, being forgotten! Edit: of course bending is still simpler and easier, but you get the idea
Oh dw theyll probably show that in the Earth Avatar show, and Fire Avatar is supposedly going to take place in the future, itsh gonna be interesting for sure!
I think Amon not having a point, is the point. He doesn’t care about the non benders of republic city because he’s neither a non bender or from republic city. He cares about his own goals and building a cult of ki blocking anti benders is how he gets his goal. He cares about dethroning the avatar as revenge for his father. He’s actually very similar to a lot of real world examples. I hate to get political, but trump for example is one of the richest men around but his audience is the poorer conservative crowd because he knows what to say to get them on board with what he wants, Syndrome actually is a good example too. He doesn’t actually care about non supers, he cares about revenge against mr incredible. Getting rich and selling his tech is just a byproduct and means to an end. He really doesn’t care about any of it outside of getting revenge against mr incredible Amon is much of the same and I think that’s the point. He’s using fake social injustices to gain power in people who might feel weak. Non benders aren’t actually all that much worse off in society but his story and his claims makes it feel like they are. Outside of a few scenarios Sokka never felt inferior to katara or Zuko because he was a non bender, he often used various gadgets and his skills to compensate. He’s knocked out more benders with a boomerang than most people ever have successfully thrown a boomerang. There isn’t a discrepancy between bender and non bender right, but Amon benefits from making you think there is
@@isuruFO I quite like LoK’s villains despite what the common consensus is. The writers had to make drastic thematic changes to oppose Korra cause Korra and Aang have very different problems as people. Fighting Firelord Ozai would have been probably a months journey for Korra and she would have beaten him through pure brute force and probably ended up killing him. But for Aang such a physical opponent is what he’s not good at. But Aang probably would have been able to see right though Amons reteric and been able to defeat him easily while Korra couldnt because she’s used to facing her problems head on Korra lives in a vastly different landscape than Aang and as such the problems get much harder to face head on as there’s bureaucracy, laws, and miles of political arguments she needs to get through to solve the issues. I think the Arc with her dealing with the spirit would invasion thing did it best with her wanting to simply do things her way but getting stopped at every boundary because of negotiations she has to do. Aang was a negotiator in a world that needed a warrior, Korra was a warrior in a world that needed a negotiator
At least with Syndrome his actual goal wasn't actually making everyone super, it was his excuse. Syndrome just had a massive ego. He had a parasocial relationship with Mr.Incredible, and the bad kind where he felt obligated to be accepted by Mr.Incredible as his sidekick. And when he was rejected his ego snapped and he held what should of been a petty grudge but dialed it up to the extreme. Even his name is a reference to his. Syndrome is a villain with no actual point. He is just some guy who couldn't get over rejection and built up a narrative as an excuse to get his revenge.
I think his point was that the movie *_could_* have brought it into the movie as a really good motivation, because it brings up a really interesting point, but the film instead just has it as a single throwaway line. They're the ones who opened that can of worms, then never does anything with it.
I will say that people need to stop doing the Malcolm X vs Dr.King allegories because they were a lot more a like in their beliefs than people assume. Certain people (the rich and powerful) have softened the image of king because it makes them feel safer. But from a writing standpoint it would make their fantasy stand-ins way more interesting in their dynamics and character arcs.
Oh yeah, King was actually a full on radical. He was a peaceful guy, but that didn't make him any less radically progressive. He was very unpopular for most of his career, but is remembered fondly nowadays. I think that would have been good for Amon, too.
thanos is specially stupid because not only he decides to kill trillions but he doesn't solve the big problem he wants do adress, after he kills half of the universe he then destroys the stones wich is completely stupid because eventually the universe will reach the same point it had before he used the snap
Plus what he did also wrecks the logistics system, since it means that we have trucks crashing, planes crashing, boats losing their pilots, spaceships crashing, ect; which all make resource scarcity worse since some of those trucks, boats and spaceships could be carrying food. Also it is killing half of the people creating food.
@@randomarcgunner4543Yesh but ure forgetting that not *ALL* of the planes, or boatsh, etc. are crashing, just half of them, the ratio is literally the same, overpopulation is shtrillkrerrtrdzszh a thing jushtrerrtrkrtrdzszh on a shmaller scale than before, think of it like 2 mens surviving (or trying to lol) on a single apple vs. 100 men on 50 applesh, the ratio is literally identical the only difference is the shcale at which it happens, sure planes crashing would be problematic but again dont forget that statistically speaking only half of them are, and same for boatsh and other thingdzszh, etc. lol, if logisticsh have less resources available, but have also less demandzszhorerkrtrdzszh then could it really be considered breaking it the logisticszh systemszh?
So in short, basically nothing has changed, the situation ishnt better, but it also ishnt worsherkrtrdzszhertrdzszhsatesth by any means or stretch of the imagination.
@@SimoneBellomonte All those now driverless vehicles will crash into those vehicles that still have drivers, and vehicles that need multiple pilots (such as planes) will crash regardless of the fact that one pilot survived. Then think of how much this will harm infrastructure, not to mention how all the logistical systems will need to instantly be reworked. That aside please double check your comments before posting.
The thing is... as I agree with everything you say, I can actually imagine Amon as a realistic villain. Just look up on the internet the amount of people saying "Thanos was Right" And savor yourself the taste of knowing how people in the world are stupid enough to actually defend genocide becouse of poorly thought concepts.
He didn't understood Amon's true motivations at all. He tried to picture Amon as a person with moral values or philosophy, while he was an extremist who needed followers for his plans. He just knew many people disliked benders and filled them with hatred. Basically his supporters are the equivelant of conspiracy theorists.
@@painpapadopoulos8120While yesh amon was nothing more than a jushtrerkrtrdzszh ash a cult leader, he at leasht had a point unlike thanos, who yesh did have a point but used the wrong solution to it.
I mean, that there washnt exactly a better solution to solve the injusticesh for non-bendersh (asshuming there wash 1), like Malcolm X, violence has to be used against violence in my cynical view, peace canth sholvrerkrtrdzszh everything sagdgferlrgityuilkkjkiuytrerirkrtrdzszh, while thanos solution couldve been eashily superseded by smthringdkrtrerdzszhh elshe lmao.
20:00 My personal belief on the whole Pro Bending thing is that it doesn't have to be bad or boring. Especially if it has an opportunity to contribute to the plot. Especially if it were to become more common for later avatars to take up Pro bending as a hobby for improving their usage of different bendings, and get made allowed to serve as wild cards whenever they have to fill in someone else's role on the team. Hell, with the return of many more Air benders, the teams could be expanded to 16 member teams in the case they wanted to expand the game to include more complex and wacky rules. Such as mono 4 on 4, dual color match ups, or one for all. Go back to any 90s anime with a tournament arc ever, and you will often find them to be just plain awesome. It was a big opportunity to see an amazing duel between two or perhaps even more characters in a all out brawl for our entertainment. With all the cheer and fan fair of a WWE wrestling match. Pro bending should've been a reflection of our desire to watch people get into a ring and beat the living shit out of each other.
I always thought it was bizarre there was next to no real aftermath to the first season. It almost feels like it was inconsequential and other than knowing who’s who, you could jump into season two without watching the first. The Equalists just disappearing is also disappointing.
Yeah the biggest problem is amon SHOULD have a point. Think about the fire nation, a hundred years of a war between benders with normal folk stuck helplessly in between. On top of that you'd have benders who abuse their abilities as well. It wouldn't be wrong for a counter culture to rise against benders, especially benders who are in power. But nope amon is a bender, he was the son of a gangster who never actually cared about non benders and non of these issues are ever brought up properly and dropped completely. Like korra completely upended peoples lifes by leaving the portal open, another bender in power making decisions that destroy their lives and it's barely addressed.
I'm not going to defend Korra. Not my hill to die on. I will point out a few things though: 1. Sozin didn't hate airbenders or kill them because he wanted to prove fire bending. The man did it because the avatar would be born an air nomad, his journal even states this outright. 2. The creators did a horrible job on this, but the answer could be right in front of us. How many of the problems in the ATLA world have been solved peacefully? "We need to get our family to the Earth Kingdom capital- oh shit, a sea serpent!" "We are hunting the avatar, let's burn your whack ass village down to force your hand" "Youre a sexist old man who refuses to teach bending, instead of hopping from one teacher to the next I will fight you." 3. "Where are the social revolutionaries?" China didn't really have them. The Emperor stepped down and allowed for a new Republic led by Chiang Chai Shek before regions manned by members of the revolutionary army breaking off regions to form independent military cliques. There's no peaceful solution there. Can't talk to military leaders wanting personal power and say "why not democratically improving things!" It's why the Communists gain prominence, they offered benefits to the majority of downtrodden people compared to keeping China as it was going. If they wanted to show a faction like the equalists making sense in a post-war world it would need to make sense. Maybe the Equalists were founded in the Earth Kingdom in response to the Dai Lee or bandits attacking them. THAT WOULD MAKE A GREAT DEAL OF SENSE! Having them walking over to Republic City saying "yeah, we have similar but worse problems. Our Government operates like the triple threats and your city is just a diplomatic center between the four BENDER nations! The great war was fought because of bending and we lost the air nomads AND nearly lost the largest of the 4 nations when Ozai tried burning the earth kingdom down! We almost lost the moon because Fire and Water benders beefed. We all get caught up in THEIR politics!" Could have worked from that angle and dismissing peaceful protests by showing Republic City and the earth kingdom using bending to put down riots/protests. 4. You got a lot of comments about Syndrome already, man didn't deserve to be accused to only "kind of having a point but insane." Man just wants vengeance on Mr. Incredible and heroes, seeking the love they were given in a bygone era and destroying supers that looked down on him for "not having powers." Entirely selfish motivations but understandable. Amon is less so.
At the start of Legend of Korra season 1, Republic City is ruled by a 5 member council of benders appointed to rule the city-state by the rulers of each of the other nations in the world. The Fire nation sends a fire bender to rule. The Earth Kingdom sends an earth bender to rule. The two Water Tribes each send one water bender to rule. Aang's grandkids send their dad to rule. The show then goes on to prove the advantages benders have by making all pro athletes, the best paid factory workers, all the cops, and everyone in power with the exception of the Henry Ford parody all bender. All this comes after Last Airbender establishes that every nation is run by hareditary monarchies, most of which are benders. If you really don't understand why being ruled over by foreign arristocrats with zero representation or hope of advancement will always lead to revolution, you need to study history. Edit: Amon is the head of a cult of personality. Look at the last 2 decades American politics. Fascist cult leaders that never get questions by their fanatics are one of the most common types of real world villains.
I think Amon could have been a perfectly fine villain if he was just a hate-monger who played up on people's inferiority complex in relation to benders. They would have had to scale down the things Amon did, but if his ultimate goal would have been to take the Avatar's bending (the representation of all bending), he could have still been an acceptable villain.
@painpapadopoulos8120 But that's not how the story portrayed him. Amon was portrayed as an anticlassist revolutionary, when he should have been set up to be an underground terrorist who had a small to medium band of hate-mongers. His goal shouldn't have been to free the world of benders as much as it should have been to destroy the pillars of bending society. He still would have been a hypocrite, but at least it would have sold him more realistically and could have rid us of all the anachronistic and over-the-top technology. That just ruined it for me.
@@Black_Guy Amon's goal wasn't equality at all. It was pretty obvious his motive was to conquer Republic city. Like Turlok, Amon was a shadow of his father. He was an extremist and a manipulator. He was portraid as a revolutionist, because this was his way to cover his real motives. He seeked revenge in the name of his father. In reality he never had an ideology.
@painpapadopoulos8120 But I think the problem was that nothing he said had much basis to start a revolution. Revolutions aren't based on imaginary issues. If one guy is trying to convince a mass of people something is bad, they'd need to have a similar experience to buy in. There was no sign of non-bender oppression until after Amon started his revolution, and Tarlok started his curfews because of Amon. Amon sold himself as a solution to a problem that never truly existed. It would have been much more believable if he had a crew of maybe 30 to 50 well-trained members whose plan was to say strike the most powerful and influential benders just to spread a message of bender hatred. It would be something like white supremacy but for non-benders since non-benders are the majority of people, and they may feel forgotten or taken for granted. Something like that.
I really liked this video because it addresses some of my problems with Amon (and TLoK) as well as adds some I didn't think of. I recently rewatched Avatar TLA and TLoK and was shocked by the drop in the writing. I remembered TLoK being worse but not as bad as it was. What also makes this video relevant is that I've recently seen an increase in Avatar TLA hate from Korra fans. The main reason I dislike TLoK is because just going to remain an annoying blemishing on the Avatar franchise. Everything that was set up in TLoK will remain part of the franchise no matter how bad it was. The perfect scenario would be if TLoK got a reboot that retconned majority of the series. However, the best I think we'll get is some of it just being retconned out. What's annoying is that Amon could have been a terrifying villain if he wasn't written so badly. I would love other videos like this looking at the other villains from TLoK. Here are some additional thoughts I had: I hate how TLoK turns bending into just throwing elemental punches. It takes out the element that made it unique and fun to watch. I really can't understand why anyone would call the TLoK better than AtLA when TLoK does everything worse. 22:55 is why Thanos in the comics was better. Comic Thanos literally just wanted to impress Death by killing half the universe. 24:30 I think Syndrome's point was that if he used his tech the way he explained then no one would be super and his whole motivation is to be a super. He doesn't want everyone to be super. Ok, something else I think should be brought up is that benders and non-benders are not equal. It's the same problem with mutants in X-Men comics. Should they have equal rights? Yes. But are they equal? No. Having a superpower is not the same as being a different race. Non-benders wouldn't be able to do every job that a bender can do. Even some of the jobs they can do they wouldn't be able to do as well as a bender. Should anyone get paid the same for doing a job worse than someone else? Consider both a non-bender and an earth bender have jobs as construction workers. The earth bender is just going to be better at their job and get more work done. Shouldn't they get paid more than the non-bender if they're doing more work? Another example is that a non-bender could never compete in pro-bending.
I can explain the reason Thanos wanted to wipe out half of existence. In the comics the reason he wants to wipe out half of existence is so that he can be with Lady death to appease her he wants to cause a ridiculous amount of death and destruction.
Syndrome is written very consistently . His motivation is not that he sees a societal imbalance and wants to correct it for altruistic (but misguided) reasons. He is characterized as an emotionally immature man-child who wants to spite Supers, specifically Mr. Incredible, whom he thinks has wronged him. His plans do line up with this revenge motivation very well: first he wants to cement himself as a better hero than Mr. Incredible; both to publicly shame his former idol and establish himself as superior. Then when he's too old and feeble to do this anymore, he will distribute his inventions among the populace; not to benefit the people, but to render natural superpowers completely irrelevant, thereby crapping on the Supers' legacy one final time before retiring. The idea of bettering society never crosses his mind even once, despite many fans trying to attribute this motivation to him. It is all about aggrandizing himself and diminishing those who he feels have betrayed him. Pure spite and selfishness.
I kinda expected there would be discrimination against firebenders, like they had a 100 years war going on and people just forgot? This discrimination of non benders just came so random and out of nowhere. A missed opportunity in my eyes
Yo, what if the big reveal was that Amon was actually Sokka's _grandson_ or something? And while it may not be his _full_ reason, part, at least of _part_ of his worldview would be through that lense. Being descended from one of the people who saved the WORLD...but. Since this is years later, we see how in the long run, people dismissed that he even had a part to play in saving them, simply because he had no _bending!_ And while his friends may have stood up for him, the general public still never saw him as their hero. They wouldn't treat him as a _gLOriOUs_ savior like how they saw all of his friends. And, because of that, he wasn't rewarded the same. His name wasn't revered like the rest, tragically _forgotten_ in some circles, even. his kids grew up hearing two very different, conflicting stories about their father. Their dad was the only source of info about him being a hero, and with his often very goofy, _overly dramatized_ form of telling stories, they steadily grew up believing the majority more and more... By the time Amon was even born, Sokka would already have a rather mixed relationship with his kids. But that wouldn't sway the dear grandson one bit. Amon LOVED his grandfather's stories. Sokka loved to make his little grandson laugh, and he took pride in his grandson's ability to waterbend, saying it'll get him a lot farther than having no bending at all. The two were a near-inseperable pair, and unlike his kids, Amon would never grow to doubt Sokka's tales one bit! (it would be both cute and tragic if there was a connection made about Amon's presentation, grandious lies, and charasmatic storytelling abilities being inspired by and learned from his grandpa. the same techniques we once saw bring so many smiles now being used to sway thousands down the path of violence) Amon would grow up watching first hand what having no bending does to someone. Even someone who literally saved the WORLD can only live a _slightly_ nicer than average life. And no doubt as Amon grew and Sokka started wearing down to age, the cracks in the old man's always positive demeanor would start to show through. A haunting sight to his grandson. To find out nearly all those smiles were nothing but lies. To watch helplessly as Sokka was worn more and more down by his inability to move on from the war and the many lies told about him since then. It would certainly be a darker twist, but doing something would not only make Amon's view more understandable, but it would even tug on the viewers' heart strings, since they too would feel terrible about what happened to Sokka after everything he had done. Sokka's story would still have much joy in it, but it is Amon's fixation on all the bad parts that starts him on his path in the wrong direction. Amon would go on to help his old grandpa to the very end, all while fuming underneath about the injustices done to the dear old man he loved so much. Perhaps his parents grew distant and or too busy to be there for their son, so it was Sokka who raised the boy through much of his child and teenhood. When Sokka finally succumbed to a generic illness and died, Amon was MORE than enraged; after watching a man who should have been treated like a KING die like an unimportant commoner, he knew things needed to change. Before Sokka died, Amon secretly became more and more shameful of his bending. He had what could only be described as "mixed feelings" for such a thing. He was a prodigy and even took pride in what he could do. He was also highly experimental with his gift. Crafty and creative, _just_ like his grandfather. But at the same time, there was a large part of him that felt he didn't deserve it. Any compliment he heard about his bending, he turned into an _insult_ against his grandpa. And it was because of all these mixed feelings that when his grandpa did die, he finally snapped. He swore to NEVER use his bending again. In honor of his grandpa, he would show the world just how great a non-bender can truly be... However, he never _did_ deliver on that promise in the end. Again, because he was so crafty and creative, he found a way to use his bending to completely RID of others' abilities. This is where he began his slow descent into becoming the villain who aims on changing the world forever. In this AU, after his true identity is reveled, Korra and company would have a major dilemma about fighting one of Sokka's own descendants, seeing it like a slap in the face to such a memorable hero. But, most importantly, from here is where Amon would slowly start to have his redemption arc. Say he was technically beaten at the end of Season 1, leading to his identity being revealed. He would still be a potential but lesser threat afterward. And a lot like Zuko, his path to redemption would be a slow but sure one. And though he never ends up teaming up with "team Avatar" he does change from being a radicalist to instead turning to more peaceful ways to solve his problems. For the most part, he'd still be an activist and all that, but this time, on a new path, would aim for peace over violence, making him an ally destined to _technically_ achieve the promise he made to both himself and a dying Sokka: to change the world and make it better for non-benders, all without the use of his _own_ bending. It would be beautifully poetic. He was forced to use bending for a cause he believed would fulfil his promise. But in ding so, he broke half of that promise. But, after leaving that line of thinking behind, he is able to fulfil BOTH halves of his promise. ... Anyways yeah that's it. lol :P
Not everyone has to be related to each other. Just because someone is significant in the plot does not mean they have to be related to a previous character. You just make the world unrealistically small that way.
@@ko71k52 it wouldn't be like they would have been kicked to the street and died in poverty or anything. Their family would still be a relatively wealthy one, especially in thanks to Sokka becoming a swordsmaster and making money from training soldiers and the like. But the difference between himself and the other members would be that he had to build this wealth and respect all on his own work _after_ the Fire Nation's defeat. He would hardly get anything from saving the world, longterm at least. He would still be a respected elder in his community. It would just be that one aspect about his non bending and legitimacy as a world saver that stirs drama.
I swear they didn't elaborate on the bender discrimination for one of two reasons 1. Being to accurate to real life discrimination could have Nickelodeon in hit water 2. They just expected you to think aince thats how things happen in real life qe would get the picture from our own understanding of discrimination in our world
ATLA dealt with genocide and the horrors of war. You think showing non-bender discrimination is where Nick would draw the line? This really sounds like cope...
@@TuskyBaby dealt with sure, it they didn't show it happening on screen. Same thing in LOK they talk about it but we don't see benders walking around calling non benders normies or something
@@PokeHokage You don't need to watch a genocide to feel the effects, but they also show us Giatso's dead body for good measure. Theres a mountain of difference between violence like that and just some basic discriminatory language. Cartoons tackled subjects like that often around that time (Static Shock also comes to mind). Korra was not pushing any boundries.
Amon is a villain with a point (manipulative assholes can and will prey on people's fears/insecurities to seize power for themselves) and that point is conveyed well. You just don't like that point because you were hoping for some social revolution plot.
I also think that if they made Amon have a point and made him not a total fake they could have incorporated the equalists into later seasons, with strong political causes like this with such a massive support base, especially if their leader isn’t a liar, They’ll fight on, maybe not the recruited masses but at the very least his elite chi blockers. Maybe even have equalist remnants turn around in the later show with the whole earth tyrant and have them work with Korra against the dictator, two former enemies unite against a worse evil, I would have loved to see that
A good video with some decent points. A few things. 1. Sozin didn’t genocide the air nomads because he thought firebending was superior; he did it because he wanted to start his conquest and the only person in the entire world who could possibly stop him in his eyes was the avatar. (Sozin literally says this himself in The Avatar and the Firelord: “I knew the next avatar would be born an airbender, so I wiped out the air temples.” 2. Amons main point is the 100 year war and the fact that the fire nation used bending to nearly end the world. As well as the fact that we see extortion of non-benders in episodes like Imprisoned where Harus mother gets extorted by the firebenders. 3. I do agree that there should’ve been more examples of benders extorting people in Korra, but we literally see the triads use bending to extort someone; Amons argument isn’t so much that benders are oppressive to specifically non-benders (that’s what his followers think), but that bending itself is a problem. 4. With the guy in episode one who is peacefully protesting I think there are some implications that peaceful protest has been going on for a while because it’s not like Tenzin told Korra not to go to air temple island because there’s violent protests in republic city, and another point to it is even if it’s a bit unrealistic that the non-benders would side with him so quickly, Korra does pretty much immediately prove his point by using her bending as a near first response. 5. The last one is more of a personal grievance, but please stop injecting your political beliefs into the situation. I agree with some points you brought up and can see the validity of others, but it’s an analysis of a fictional show beloved by people all over the world please don’t bring personal beliefs into an analysis of writing.
Well said bro every time he just had to make an unnecessary exposition of his political opinion for essentially no reason. Couldn’t have said this better myself.
@@thehayze259 except you do inject your own personal beliefs into it. I understand referencing movements like BLM and January 6th, but blatantly calling one fighting true injustice while the other moronic (even if it’s true) is still injecting unnecessary personal bias.
@@thehayze259 you also didn’t mention any of my other points and went straight to the politics. I am curious as to what you think about the other points of discussion that I mentioned.
Yeah, of course I did. My point was that every movement has a trigger, so I used an example of one I thought was justified and one I thought wasn't. If I stopped "injecting my politics," then my point would have been significantly weaker.
Thanos not using the infinite power he was given to fix the problem, was them showing us why he's the villain and called the "Mad Titan". Also, and this is more Marvel's fault, but they did go into the repercussions of the snap bringing everyone back. First as a little joke in "Far From Home", then as a plot point in "Falcon and the Winter Soldier". Also Syndrome explained his plan of showing up to save the day, becoming a "hero", and then giving out his tech once he's retired and had his fun.
This is SO GOOD!! I love how you fixed the problems with the writing, and all the real issues you bring up. I really want to see a video like this done with Zaheer. It probably would go over many of the same points, because let's be honest they are the same plots just done with different paint- but that would be interesting nontheless.
A bit ironic with the religious one since the avatar could be claimed to be a religious figure chosen by the spirits to fix the world. Pops up every generation, tries to fix the problems, if failed things get much worse. Though that could work in the villain's favor and also explain why he would threaten, but not remove Kora's power. Half due to the fear ahe might undue it due to her being the avatar... And also he could claim she is going against the will of the spirits as they should be working together as he will simply 'wait' for her to understand her role. Could even throw in a jab about the previous avatar by stating when he didn't accept his role the world got stuck with the 100 year war and when he did accept it the war ended.
Amon should have been like the “Anti Aang.” A sadistic violent manipulative old fart who hates bending because of what Tarlock’s family did to him. Instead of burn scars he should have scars from frostbite & have it so that he was actually saved by them but he wanted to die with his family & it was other water benders who killed his family in the first place & he gathers crowds like a shepherd his lot of sheep. Give him some speeches straight outta Senator Armstrong’s repertoire, & make him irredeemable instead of a person who’s redeeming others. I mean what a better villain for the antonym successor to Atla ayy?
I disagree with your point about Syndrome though. Because his main motivation is not to give everyone superpowers. His main motivation was to fulfill his power fantasies of being a superhero by playing pretend regardless of how many people he killed to get there and how much destruction he was going to cause in his fake battles. The idea of giving his tech to everyone so that everyone could be a superhero too is not his main motivation, that's mostly a last act of vindictive revenge against Superheroes, he wants to take away their status but only after he grows too old, and bored with that status himself. He doesn't even pretend that his point was to lift up non-superpowered people. It was made very clear that this was all about his power fantasy and the chip on his shoulder he had against superheroes since he was a kid. I don't think Syndrome is a villain with a point because he doesn't actually have a point. His plan would ultimately bring a benefit to the world, but he isn't driven by that, he isn't doing it for the greater good. You can argue that it would have been better if that aspect had been explored, but Syndrome is not a character like Killmonger who is right in his philosophy and beliefs but wrong in his morals and actions. Syndrome's motivation is pure self-indulgence, he doesn't even pretend he is doing this for some sort of cause. The one that could be argued does fall into this category is Screen Slaver from Incredibles 2. Because, while her primary motivation is personal revenge against Superheroes, her message and views are kind of right. Her parents were murdered because her dad was overreliant on Superheroes. She is 100% correct that people without superpowers shouldn't rely on superheroes all the time and shouldn't grow accustomed to do nothing and wait to be rescued by superheroes, because the heroes can fail, they can't be everywhere at once, they can be beaten, then can be corrupted, and they cannot always save them....and then the movie kinda forgets about that plot and makes it about media obsession, and Screen Slaver's plan still relied on superheroes, and the entire situation was never actually addressed in the end and didn't tie to the main plot of the family either. I don't know, man, Incredibles 2 is a mess.
my take to make Amon work: have Amon and his brother Tarrlok be working together to take over Republic city. Tarrlok is the face and like the show has been working his way up the city's government but he also owns and uses most of the city's news papers and the radio station to promote himself and slander his political enemies, but he has a problem the equalists. the equalists in this version is a growing movement to have all the people of the city living there treated equal and have equal rights for voting, owning property, ect by removing the requirement to prove your from x nation/tribe. Tarrlok uses this movement to gain even more power, by having his brother Amon from a shadow/stawman version of the equalists that's about the evils of benders that conveniently removes Tarrloks political rivals while making the average equalists look bad. Tarrlok in turn uses Amons actions to have the metal bending police conduct raids against the equalists that are not apart Amon's, with Korra 'leading' the one raid that does hit one of Amon's staged equalists bases. but Amon becomes radicalized by his own messaging becoming a messiah figured by the growing shadow equalists as more and more non benders turn to Amon against the growing tyranny of Tarrlok. Amon turns against Tarrlok stripping him of his bending and locking him away while Amon and his equalists seize control of the city.
notes: in my version Tarrlok is a fire bender while Amon is a water bender, their father is a water bender but married/or had 'relations' with a fire bender. think it would be better if Amon does have scars on his face, from when Amon and Tarrlok first came back to the city and were reclaiming their fathers old gang territories. Tarrlok is not so secretly the head of the fire bender gang in the city and when Amon was stripping some of them of their bending it was a form of cleaning house. the city's government is ruled by five seats, four of them by appointment by the four nations while the fifth is a elected by the local legal citizens, usually the fifth seat sides with benders natives nation is so usually fire or earth nation has the most sway. legal citizens are people who can prove they are from x nation or can prove they descended from them. very easy from benders sense they can bend but for non benders it requires paper work, contacting their nations embassy, dressing the part and ideally having a bender relative vouching for them. in the early days this was needed to see how much aid was needed from each nation to support their citizens and prevent double or triple dipping from the aid by devious people or groups. now days its used as voter suppressant and in Tarrlok case as a way to strip property from the nons and give it to the citizen/benders that back him. nons are a slur against non benders and non citizens often viewed the same thing, it denotes they are tribe less, nation less and viewed as parasites by the Tarrlok and parts of the higher class who are mostly benders or bender related. most nons born in republic city but lost their papers or don't know what nation they hail from. this is a growing problem generation to generation sense people being people have been marrying or having kids with other nations people causing dual citizens which is 'solved' by having the parents or who ever is writing the birth certificate picking one. big reason why the equalists is so very popular because they want to remove that requirement and that the appointment system and instead having a democracy along with other things. my version Tarrlok is a excellent example of the failure of the current system, he born and raise by water benders, spend most of his life living in the water nation but because he can bend fire he is 'officially' a fire nation citizen even though he never been there and practically flaunts his papers are forged and his persona of a fire bender is made up. so naturally Tarrlok fights to up hold the current system because he knows the holes in it and exploits them to his advantage. Tarrlok and his goons been quietly purging records then bulling people who are suddenly treated as nons having them jump through hoops to reprove they are legal citizens or failing to having their homes, business, citizenship stripped from them. Tarrlok has been careful to the public at large not be seen doing this but he and his supporters been getting wealthy and powerful doing this. Asami and her father Hiroshi are not bender nor from a family of benders but wealthy and well to do anyway despite being non benders and not as touch with their native nation. Hiroshi has been targeted by Tarrlok for supporting equalist and being wealthy and powerful while not being a bender, causing Hiroshi to prove and reprove his and his workers citizenship making him want to support the equalists even more. when Amon started making bigger and bigger scenes making the equalists look bad, Hiroshi publicly break from the equalists movement as they suppressed by Tarrlok and the metal bender police. but quietly he makes contact with Amon offering his and his company support. Hiroshi can see the writing on the wall if Tarrlok isn't stopped all non benders will be driven out of the city and their homes, their livelihood stripped from them. if peaceful means of reforms are blocked then only violent means are left. Asami doesn't know her father is doing this instead she is still a equalist if a more quiet one and is more interested in finding and stopping Amon.
I mean, non-benders are objectively inferior to benders. A bender can become as smart and skilful as Sokka but Sokka can't bend water or any element no matter how hard he tries. Inequality is pretty much a given in a world like that. Honestly in a world like that its surprising that non-benders arent slaves.
No, you're conflating motivation with actions. The motivation is to hurt a specific person. The actions are grand, sweeping societal changes that invalidate everything the revenge target ever was. They aren't motivated to 'make the world a better place', they are 'making the world a better place' as a means to achieve the motive of 'the suffering of this person I hate'.
11:35 So I don't think you can make a law telling people what to pay. You can do a law for equal pay for equal work sure, but if the job requires you to shoot lightning or flames then non-benders are out of luck. You can't say that the guy shooting lightning is bound to the same wage as a guy who mops the floor when their done. We see Mako sweating at the end of his shift, its hard work. If you make it so that other jobs that the benders are perfectly capable of are mandatory higher pay because or equal to the benders generating the power then over time they won't do that job anymore. Why break a sweat shooting lightning all day when I can make the same amount of money pushing papers or doing something else that is perhaps easier? You have to make sure you don't remove the insentives of the firebenders making electricity since they clearly rely on it. If you mandate that non-benders make more money by the nature of being non-benders then maybe your nice but also a bit of a hypocrit since you are arguing for non-discrimination between benders and nons. You could argue for recognizing the difference and insisting on a legal discrimination that provides government subsidies or higher base pay for non-bender employees. However, if this angers the bender population then they have far more leverage to go on strike with. You could find yourself without electricity or healers or cops/soldiers. It really is a very fascinating issue that the writers of LoK didn't bother exploring, opting instead to write a love triangle. I feel like they watched @TerribleWritingAdvice and took it seriously.
Why can't you? They both take time, they're both hard work, and while one does provide more value, the other absolutely isn't valueless. Plus, the guy with the mop still needs to feed his family, and without janitors, every power plant would be disgusting. And there's problems with this, of course, it would remove some incentive to do a power plant job, but I completely agree with your ending point. This is a potentially really interesting topic that they keep baiting throughout the season, and then never use.
@@thehayze259 I agree with you there, and I recall realizing as I was typing how complex this issue actually is. On one hand we need people to work of course and incentivize them to work hard and stimulate the economy. The show seems to have a capitalist economy system so going off that we also need to make sure there is work for nonbenders. The issue there is that there isn't anything a non bender can do inherently that a bender can't also do. So for jobs that don't involve bending I'd say we can have laws that prohibit non bender discrimination but it also can't allow for anti bender discrimination. So we would see that benders can go for any job within their bending type and non bender occupations. While non bender's are limited and can't perform in large segments of the economy do to natural and uncontrollable circumstances. It really is fascinating to explore this. I think a major part of it is building out a roster of occupations and figuring out which ones can take advantage of bending or would be utterly replaced by bending in the world space. There would definately be jobs that we have solved using tech that the Avatar world has answered with bending and never revisited.
When it comes to Thanos, I would argue that the movie suggests that Thanos is just insane that there aren’t real overpopulation problems. Thanos talks about how his race died out due to overpopulation and that made him believe that all races have the same problem. The movie even shows that he doesn’t correctly follow his own logic of killing half: he kills half of the asgardians who were just decimated and when he does the snap, that halves the populations of all the places he “saved”. It also doesn’t solve the problem of new species coming around with overpopulation or the damage done by killing half of all species. Thanos isn’t correct, he just so firmly believes his own insane ideology that he sounds convincing. There’s no evidence of overpopulation being common in the marvel universe
Just because a show look mature doesn't means it is , if that's the case one piece is the most childish show ever , i hate it when people look at the last Airbender and legend of Korra and say legend of Korra is more mature because it looks mature
My criticism of the video is that I think it's missing the point. At least in my opinion. Watching Korra, from my perspective was like watching a social politics simulation for kids. Fact is benders are being discriminated against but they have the "magic powers." Benders in universe are basically seen as "the muscle." Amon's point from a writing perspective was supposed to illustrate gaslighting personified & the societal consequences thereof for personal gain. Remember, that he's doing all of this as a revenge/power plot for his dead father. (We may not know "exactly" why but that doesn't matter because that IS the point, kinda. He's evil for the sake of being evil.) Amon just wants to be powerful by ANY MEANS NECESSARY! He's based deeply in machiavellianism & dark triad traits. At his core, Amon is just faulty biological programming from his toxic fathers gang upbringing of gaslighting & brainwashing his sons, wanting them to avenge him in some way after he was brought to justice for his crimes then had his bending taken by Aang. Amon is just a crying child broken morally by his upbringing. In a way he is SUPPOSED to be a pathetic, generic, irredeemable villain to emphasize how in the real world, the masses can be made fools of & a movement started up over one toxic, twisted, egotistical, charismatic, manipulative, confused idiot who's selfish, self-serving ambitions weren't even his own! Amon is & was simply just a ghost of his fathers ambitions. A broken man with no actual free will. From this angle, Amon is actually sadly relatable. I feel as though that subtle nuance was missed by a lot of fans watching. 😁 "Sins of the Father are paid for my his son's" as the saying goes. 😓 Could the writing have been better? Yes, but that requires more budget, seasons, run time & support from Nickelodeon corporate which at the time was gaslighting the writers & producers of the show making them think that each season was the series finale. ... And it's kinda hard to work under those circumstances 😓😅 I would have loved if Amon's death was a fake out & we got him back and perhaps teamed up with another season villain. But That was definitely asking too much for at the time Nickelodeon drama. 😓🤦♂️
Amon had a lot of potential for some great worldbuilding and character development for Korra herself. Them glossing over his point, making him a fraud and killing him off wasted so much potential to elevate story
I think the equalits should have been frustrated Firebenders and Fire Nation descendants who are facing some degree of discrimination after the war similar to how Germany was hit disproportionately hard after WWI.
On the Syndrome point, I always took ut that he didn't actually care about "making everybody super" since he even states he'll use his tech to become a famous hero (with, it seems, manufactured crises) first and after he's had his fun release it to the public to become MORE wealthy and famous. Pair that plan with his whole "when everyone is super, nobody will be" line and its less a genuine drive to address what may be a genuine issue in The setting and more that Syndrome wants to drag the heroes down and satisfy his own ego.
This was a great video but the problem with your take on syndrome is he just wanted attention in the end The reason why he didn’t give people super powers when he was alive because he was gonna do super hero stuff himself He killed off retired hero’s so that way he can have the spot light when his robot does bad things He also said once he’s retired he would give all his stuff out and because everyone is super No one would be
I always thought it was really weird that like the show thought amon being a bender made his point invalid. Life if there was some masked guy doing black rights activism right. And then he gets outed for being white. It's not like everyone who supported him will now like dislike him. It'd most likely be some radical black separatist minority right. In fact that is also a way the show could have gone towards. Because he was a child soldier blood bending guy. He could have hated bending because of his personal history with it. Not really realizing there are also positive aspects of bending. For there to then be an agreement between the protagonist and amon where they realize some people shouldn't have bending. And some people should. Kind of like some tools in real life you know. Actually leading up to the seasons after this when people ask why korra is qualified to be the avatar.
I fucking hate that lighting, the cold fire, one of the most powerful fire bending techniques that a few people could learn became a batery.🤦 Also, i just came from your B&W video and as far as i remember in that game they never show you pokemon that are being treat bad by people (but i haven't seen or played the game since...2012, god). The only crew that does it is team plasma. So when i watched Amon, i watched some similar to Getchis.
14:22 the thing about the gun; you can literally use an air gun to cutdown a tree. You can use a flamethrower to help you smelt, etc. There are guns that can be used like tools instead of destructive tools, hell gun, guns are used for hunting; an AR 15 is going to have trouble taking down a boar but will take it down. A gun can and IS able to help you. Hell, a gun can help you protect your home.
23:03 the problem I’ve always had with this framing/criticism of Thanos is that no, overpopulation is NOT a “legitimate problem.” It’s not a *real issue,* in reality or in the MCU. Resource scarcity *is,* but that has fuck all with too many people populating the world/universe. Thanos is an insane egotist who believes very very strongly that he has a good motive, but he doesn’t. From square one, his logic is faulty, so it follows his solution would be as well. He does not have a “legitimate grievance,” overpopulation/birth rate is not some problem to be solved. To treat it like one is to accept without evidence that his bullshit terms are the correct lens to view the world through. There’s no legit cause for the viewers or the heroes to say “gee maybe Thanos was right and we should be concerned with policing or managing how many people are born in the universe”. That would be utterly stupid,
Having fewer people would lower the impact of the problem, at least temporarily (thank you Malthus). And having that be the point of the character would be fine, I personally think the way we distribute resources is pretty fucked up, but they never bring that up as an argument or anything. Thanos just says his three lines and then everyone calls him a monster without addressing his supposed fundamental motivation.
@@thehayze259 yeah, cause…he IS a monster. Only a monster would give his train of thought any legitimate credence, and by the time Endgame roles around its clear in his characterization that his motives and proselytizing come more from being a sanctimonious shmuck who wants to *feel* right than it does from actual moral consideration. Killmonger and Syndrome are the same way- in the end their supposed motives are just a symptom of a deeply personal drive that places their emotional need to be “correct” over what actually makes any logistical or moral sense. Criticize that approach to those character all you want, but it’s very deliberate with each of them. There’s no real argument to be had between them and the heroes because they’re disingenuous, and Thanos in particular doesn’t have a leg to stand on beyond the vague destruction of his own planet solidifying what was most likely a preexisting mania and ego.
Tldr: I just don’t think any wise person’s response to the defeat of Thanos would be “ok but what ARE we gonna do about overpopulation”. The story is choosing to position his malthusianism as inherently psychotic, and suggesting that we shouldn’t even consider approaching the world’s ills on those terms. Honestly I’d say the entire runtime of Endgame IS the argument against Thanos- he got what he wanted, we saw the result, and as far as we can tell not a single person’s quality of life was actually better off for it barring *maybe* Bruce/Hulk for largely independent reasons.
@@ThePondererThank you! All of these dumb think pieces do nothing but purposely misunderstand villains. Theyre horrible people with flimsy reasoning to justify their extreme views… i have no idea why people go out of their way to purposely misunderstand such a simple thing
I've heard overpopulation was propaganda from White Supremacists to get rid of everyone they didn't like, so frankly, I think it works as a villainous motivation for the guy who's nickname is 'The Mad Titan'.
I agree with your take. Amon is very cool, very scary, and the legacy of The Equalists is that a non-bender is elected President of Republic City. All that being said, his motivations don't make any sense. Being related to Tarrlok and Yakone does nothing for the character. He should have been a spirit bender, or a non-bender.
Tbf it's kinda made clear that Amon's and Tarrlok's motivations are just control, plain and simple. Their daddy issues are there not just to show how they resent their father or want revenge in any kind of way, but to show how it shaped their minds. Even if they hate their father, the shadow of his abuse made them seek exactly what he tried to push on them. They were abused and continued the cycle by seeking the only thing they knew, more power. They don't really have any real goals, they are just broken, and tried to get power in two different ways. It's like-, explicit Idk. Their motivation kinda suck when you look at what their motivation is SUPPOSED to be, and the showrunners could have definitely made a better job at giving them an actual motivation considering they were supposed to reference REAL political problems, but it's not really bad writing imo??? It's just a wasted opportunity, but Amon's character does have a very explicit motivation with very explicit reasons.
Isn't Syndrom's motivation for making everyone super, so no one is... Like, make superheroes not super anymore because it's normal to be able to do the kind of stuff they do?
Thing is the average none bender isn't Asami. Many none benders and benders have jobs or own small businesses and are extorted for protection mo ey by the triads who in most cases are benders, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was a chi blocking triad as well that was just never mentioned. So to the average none bender they are faced with benders abusing their power and making their lives miserable even if it's not government regulated. Amon makes very good use of the discontent by dressing up a huge strawman called bending and present himself as the solution. He's very smart and enigmatic. He found Hiroshima Sato at his most vulnerable moment after his wife died and manipulated and fed his anger and hatred to use his resources. Did Amon have an actual point? No, but does a cult leader need to have a solid point or just be good at manipulating the masses. Still not sure why Amon himself wanted to remove all bending though. The government did one really stupid thing, a police force of only metal benders. Considering the small percentage of earth benders that can even learn metal bending are they importing them from the Earth kingdom? That part never made sense.
Considering Amon's words to Yakkone, it seems like he *does* hate Bending. The only form of it he ever regularly uses is intentionally cultivated to disrupt other Benders, and he only resorted to using Bloodbending in a more traditional way against the Avatar. He probably only also used it on his Lieutennant because he needed to keep focusing on using Bloodbending. And he then only used Waterbending in order to not drown. While he probably does want power and revenge, and was absolutely manipulating the Equalists, I think it's very likely he believed his own speeches to an extent, especially after being essentially raised as a living weapon by his father.
Could you potentially have a story where Amon is still kept as highly illogical, but have the point of the story be about how he utilizes charisma and emotional manipulation to still rally people to his side in spite of not having a good point? Perhaps akin to a non-religious/non-spiritual version of the cult idea?
I think there would've been also room for something interesting keeping Amon's bending. I mean, if he wasn't aware that what he was doing was bending, it could've been really interesting, having this character that thinks they have been blessed with the ability to rid the world of bending, and thought of it like a gift that could help him get revenge for the fact that most of his family (except Tarrlok) was murdered by a fire bender and scarred for life, only to then realize at the moment where he almost drowns, and instintively waterbends to get out of the water, that he is a bender, and have him have a mental breakdown in which his whole worldview shatters, like, he is just the same as the ones he swore to destroy, but how can he live without the goal that has kept him moving for his whole life. Like, it could lead to two possible conclusions, or him acknowledging that he was wrong, and benders are not as evil as he thought, and the actions of few shouldn't blind him of the goods bending can do for society, or him digging his heels because he is so far gone, and Tarrlok's sacrifice also becomes a mercy for Amon, with him realizing that he is being betrayed by Tarrlok, but realizes he is ok ending it like that, maybe a "If things could be like in the past again" or "And yet it will go up in flames again" just before the flames engulf both of them, just a little too late for Tarrlok to second guess if Amon might have still been able to change (even if Amon knew that was not the case.). Don't know, maybe it's not as good, since I feel it might cheapen a bit the blow of Tarrlok's sacrifice, since his whole idea was that Amon couldn't be redeemed, and having it be accepted by Amon would've lessened that idea, I think the whole idea of him being unable to come to terms with the fact that all he thought was a lie and accepting his fate with only a tear in his eye as he realizes he is being betrayed, I feel that's kinda tragic and it is usually a way to end a villain's journey that, at least in my opinion, makes them quite memorable.
For Hiroshi and Varrick being introduced in season 1. They should be non- benders but are the only ones part of the 1% but are still being discriminated and are seen as inferior because of being non-benders, despite being part of the 1%. We see this with Black and other minorities who are business owners or part of the wealth establishment but are still being seen and treated as 2nd class citizens and are often punished if they challenge them or surpass them in some shape or form.
I disagree. Hitler also didn't have a point prosecuting the Jews. Yet so many jumped on board. People don't need a legitimate reason to be angry and upset. Or to feel like they are beeing treated poorly. It's enough to convince them that they should be and suddenly everything bad happens to you because of this or that. Tell a blond person that blond people are hated and suddenly all the bad things are happening to them due to "discrimination"...
Those are very good points you brought up. It suspect it is because the *idea* that non-benders would very likely be treated as second-class citizens makes so much sense, that we don't always critically ask whether that is actually shown. The main inequalities I've found were the city council solely consisting of benders (mentioned), as well as the police force employing all metal benders we see, and no non-bender I can recall (not mentioned). I'd argue those points are still important enough to grant Amon's positive reception among the population validity, especially if both have been ongoing for years. That last part is indicative of the main problem with the narrative -- the valid and interesting points the Equalists bring up are at best hinted at, but more often left to the imagination. We cannot be sure about the council/police force being bender-only for years. If head-canon provides those details, it may be making the first season more interesting than it actually is.
I have two questions: 1) How the Blood Bending was passed if the only ones that had that ability were the old lady that first learn it and Katara? Yeah, maybe offscreen there were other Blood Benders but never mentioned 2) HOW Amon could remove the bending ability from benders if the only one who could do it is the Avatar itself? How did he learn to do it?
I think the writers explained the taking away bending bit as him using blood bending to block their chi rendering them useless. Still doesnt excuse not explaining it in the show though. As for how they know how to blood bend no idea that is genuinely never explained as far as I can tell even by the writers.
Bloodbending is a matter of Waterbending skill and strength, not a genetic technique in and of itself. When Yakkone says that his family are the greatest Bloodbenders in the world, what he's really saying is that they are exceptional Waterbenders who devoted much of their training *to* Bloodbending. They are able to Bloodbend during the day, Yakkone and Amon psychically, because they're just that good at Waterbending. The concept of some Benders having more raw power than others was introduced in the same episode as Bloodbending. The Puppetmaster.
Make amon a nonbender. Make him be chosen by an evil spirit (or hell even vaatu who was freed by amon somehow but needs to gain power) and make him NOT die but be arrested into some world security prison. Which forehshadows red lotus as he was somehow part of it
I believe you made some valid observations and points about season one and The Legend of Korra in general, but I think it would help to acknowledge that this was a show produced for a network that primarily makes animation for children. I'm not saying that kid's media cannot talk about complex issues, but that I think Korra bit off more than it could chew by choosing themes and issues that would require a lot of nuance to possibly explain. While The Last Airbender did a great job of explaining why war is terrible, I believe the writers were helped by the fact that criticizing war and fascism is an accessible message, and it was done across three full seasons. Having to explain the intricasies of class struggle, civil rights, violent vs. non-violent activism, the ethics of revolution and the dangers of dogmatic leaders of said revolutions is harder to do, and in twelve episodes no less.
I disagree with the whole "Thanos has a point" thing. Even without the Infinity stones, the entire overpopulation crisis can be averted by providing underdeveloped countries (or planets in this case) with aid and contraceptives until they can reach the more developed ones. Also the point about finite recourses is very weak, because new materials, fuels, proceses and uses for well known recourses are found everyday. For example, copper was originally used in tools, and when iron was discovered it was thrown to the wayside, it's only uses being in jewlery and maybe cheap pots. Today however, copper is incredibly valuable because it's used in wires, and we have more methods of extracting it. Anyways, sorry for the yap session, I'm just peeved how everyone takes what billionaire tycoons say about personal freedoms without realizing it they're not the ones who will suffer the conscequences of population control laws.
I remember hearing that originally Assami was going to be an equallist. Imagine if they kept that, making her the MLK of the Equalist movement gives her more to do.
9:40 the thing is is I know that bending isn't entirely genetic. With Aang he literally had to LEARN other elements, and then MASTER them. Kora has INSTANT MASTERY of all four. If Aang can learn elements, it stands to reason with enough study and training under a proper teacher, even non benders can learn bending; sure, it'd take a while to learn all the elements. And learning all four could take years of tuition in a college of each element, but Aang is proof that you CAN learn bending in the universe. In fact the only bending I don't see used is Spirit Bending: But I'd say that that one is likely off limits because shooting lasers from your fists would be seen as "too destructive", akin to Culvera's rail cannon.
I have to disagree on the protests part, I wouldn't use biased corporate media when discussing politics regardless of their political slant. It doesn't do you any good either from people watching you to take you seriously or for you to figure out what you're saying is actually true, most of those protests have been incredibly violent for one and two Lenin and his gang were pretty violent too, anti sex work and very hateful and violent towards other demographics of the population and absolutely abused their power and were also book burners
I don’t fully think him having no real point is a flaw, because he doesn’t actually care about his own movement. Don’t get me wrong, Legend of Korra is definitely a terribly written show 90% of the time, but I liked Amon because he was a terrible villain. No one stopped to question his issues because people just like being mad and want to be apart of something. If Amon says that benders discriminate against non benders, they kind of just follow his lead. Amon wasn’t interested in his own movement but used it because it made him seem like a discriminated activist rather than just a dictator who wanted power.
Korra was shown messing around with her bending as a child. I would have loved to see how that became a problem later, when she came to Republic City. Imagine people already don´t like benders, because they abuse their power and then the young Avatar comes around and uses 3 different elements to mess around with the people on the streets just for fun. 🤣 Of course she would have thought of it as a joke, but people would have gotten easily provoked by that. That would have been a beautyful way to adress the problem.
I would disagree with that. I think the idea of a none bender terrorist organization is really cool, and I think they handled it well. I also like the amount of mystery surrounding amon
It is sad they downplayed how chi blocking would in many cases equalize non and benders militarily, but it also reminds you how little that matters unless you’re willing to commit a guerilla warfare. Which clearly we all know gives wonderful results in a very short time.
I have a question about technology in Korra. Why are there not more types of technology that work with Bending? Avatar had a lot of that, and you would expect this brand of technology to evolve at least as much as the regular type.
I don't think you understood his goals/aspirations. He does not actually believe in getting rid of bending or the Equalist's movement. After all, he is a bender himself. He rallies non-benders to his cause due to their non-representation in Republic's City council. Essentially, he saw a power vacuum and filled it. Utilizing the flag of "equality" as the rally call, and then he built his extremism around it to maintain the momentum he built. He probably intended to become the representative of non-benders in the council, and only switched to extremism either due to the incompetence of the avatar, council pushback and/or he believed he could actually take over with the help of Hiroshi Sato's financial support. At the end of the day, his entire goal was power. We can see this theme being reflected by his brother, and father. Does that make him one dimensional? No. It just makes him a manipulator who sees the Equalist movement as a means to an end. If he had succeeded, it would have certainly resulted in disaster, though. I have 0 doubt that all nations would've rallied together to put an end to to someone (who would've most likely had to kill the Avatar to conquer Republic City) have the power to remove bending, and have a whole movement related to that. Also be responsible for wiping out the Air Benders again. Republic City most likely have been destroyed, and Amon executed or killed in combat.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one that picked up on this. The whole point is that Amon was full of shit. And while the discrimination between benders and non benders does not actually exist, the insecurities do. If you don’t believe insecurities can be weaponized to radicalize people against issues that don’t actually exist, just take one cursory glance at the real world.
@@jarrickhillery8664 this is the point. Whether they are expressed or not the bender possess something they do not and that is more than enough to rally around. It happen irl all the time for far less real disparities than literal magic powers.
That is the problem Amon does not believe in what he preaches and there is no discrimination against non benders. The writers did not have the guts to actually explore the idea that benders are oppressing non benders and actually fix the problem so they just made Amon a bender and make it that he did not believe in equality and then the equality movement magically disappears.
Spot on and its pretty obvious but i guess people wouldnt have content and “think pieces” if they didnt purposely try to misunderstand a pretty simple story. Hell a political figure being full of shit in the name of seizing power is way more realistic when you look at the real world
I love TLOK but I still agree with most of your points. That said, I think your Part 2 about oppression was weak and showed you either weren't paying much attention, or you don't fully understand systemic oppression. I recommend watching "The Admiral's Analysis".
Damn, I just remembered I forgot to ask people to subscribe
Honestly you earned it you got mine! Great video!
Hey.
Just wanted to ask if I wrote too much on my thread.
Nah don't worry.
I took a look at a few other videos you made and I subscribed :p
Well dang now I can’t do it. Everyone knows you can only subscribe if you have verbal consent from the UA-camr
You know I just realized, they made the two most prominent benders other than the avatar, mako and bolin, be extremely poor and grew up on the street, their bending is the only thing that they’re able to use to make money. Meanwhile the most prominent non-bender is asami, a wealthy industrialist and daughter of one of the most influential engineer in the city. Kinda the opposite of what the story wants us to think is happening.
Exactly, right? The story tries so goddam hard to make it so Amon doesn't have a point, and yet simultaneously tries to pretend he has one anyway.
Not at all. The story wasn't about income inequality at all. It was might makes right, which is proven when mako became a gangster. Amon tried to surpass that with his own, which made him right. The real theme was resentment, which is what causes all wars if not might.
Back when I was watching the show, it honestly felt like this season intentionally means to smear activists, protesters or social movements.
There were so many parts where it would have been totally natural to show some form of oppression against non-benders, but instead they seemed to actively avoid showing anything to motivate or justify Amon’s plot.
@@milky_peppa Fully agreed, they seem to carefully avoid showing strong examples of why people who aren't the corrupt leaders lying to control their people would be moved to follow Amon -- and this suggests, whether they meant to or not, that in their eyes large protest movements don't draw their power from many individuals who are all in some way affected by the conflict enough to protest, but instead are really the product of corrupt leaders manipulating sheep, and so people attempting to self govern should not be considered individuals with their own interests and rights.
Wait wait how am I just now realizing that Jesus korra is fucking bad 💯
On the Sydrome point, I always assumed his motivation wasn't to make everyone super because it would make thing. His whole plan was to get rid of all the old heroes, use his inventions to play super hero to get all the love and admiration they got as the only hero, then when he got bored, sell his inventions to make the idea of a super hero no longer a thing since everyone can have powers. doing so would make him the last great Super Hero and destroy the legacies of people like Mr. Incredible. Selling his stuff seemed like a means to his actual goal of just creating the ultimate ego boost.
But that's still (hypothetically) a good thing! Now people who couldn't even walk can fly, and average folks can move mountains. It's a good thing, so long as it's handled well, but the movie treats giving people telekinesis and flight is just as bad as genociding an entire class of humanity. The movie doesn't delve into that at all, it just sits there.
And he did all of that just because Mr. Incredible told him to screw off as he made the situation with Bomb voyage even worse.
@@thehayze259 He says give everyone power, and that everyone can be super. Unregulated superpowers is an awful idea to just give to the masses, especially when he makes it clear that he doesn't give a shit about the consequences so long as the most amount of people get it so super heroes are no longer special. Syndrome isn't trying to help people, it's just to further his revenge.
@@thehayze259Bending is a very regulated power. The second that benders start doing crime other benders step up to put them down and hand them over to bender police without issue. In the Incredibles Mr. Incredible was lawsuited into retirement for saving people. There is no regulation for super powered people but to make them disappear. Even if you take out Syndrome’s ulterior motives behind ‘making everyone super’, there’s no possible way in that verse that anything good would come out of it. I mean, the Incredibles family is the biggest example we have or what happens when good people try to do good for the sake of doing good.
Either the judicial system collapses, or companies (especially medical companies) fight each other to trademark that tech to sell it back to the consumer at prices that will leave a lot of people dead and the society even more dystopian. See, Insulin.
Unregulated superpowers are a problem, so how about we talk about regulation? How about we discuss that super ban further, instead of (sort of) writing it off as a bad thing? He obviously has selfish motivations, but if it led to good outcomes, why not do it?
Frustrating that no one ever tries to tackle the issues Amon brings up, despite there being basically no shown issues, Korra never goes ok what's the problem maybe we can fix it. Instead she spends most of her time just being scared whenever Amon is vaguely alluded to and being manipulated.
Well in fairness to Korra if I could bend even one element I’d stay as far away as possible from a guy that could take it away from me forever.
It's really my issue. Like, we COULD have had that really cool scene where Korra confronts the issues Amon talks about, where she goes to non-bending neighborhoods and sees squalor. Then, trying to bring peace and balance, she decides to DO something about it, so a villain like Amon is no longer necessary. It could have been incredibly deep an nuanced, and would have made Korra much more relatable and sympathetic! But we just got generic good and evil with some unfitting extra flavor.
Korra is basically a dumbass teenager, brought up in the secluded area in the far North. Why do you even expect her to resolve such issues rationally?
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying she has no right to be scared, she's a sheltered girl who's just been thrusted into a big mess.
To me it just felt any time the writers needed something to happen she would suddenly waffle in some way despite her character and the supporting cast being around to help her through it. It didn't feel like understandable and genuine hesitation.
If we think about, in TLOK , the points that vilains have is never debated properly, in the end, fight is all that matters. A exemple would be that place where Republic City is, belongs to the earth kingdom, but its more logical to just aceppts a fight kuvira without any debate they think. Why put this points in the first place if we just gonna ignore them?
About the gang of benders scene: the police who are benders came to deal with the situation? They even arrested korra, the avatar who's the most privileged bender of all time because she caused property damage she's thinking that it's her job to deal with crime like a generic superhero?
Aang would've done the same it's mainly because if she sees wrong she will try to stop it
@jinxact532 That's valid, but aang would try first to convince them to stop what they're doing. Then he would stop them by the mastered avatar state, easily overwhelming them without any property damage.
@@Fictionist10101 Korra is just hot headed as hell
@@Fictionist10101Aang during AtlA might have talked a little more, but he would've still tried to stop it, and didn't have overwhelming power.
@@fredranzalot4849
You are arguing their point, but he did have overwhelming power.
Why would the Equalist movement even reject Amon after finding out he's a bender? Everything he did was with their best interest in mind.
Actually Syndrome is the perfect comparison. Both he and Amon are faking societal issues as justification for seeking revenge on someone else. They've created these shallow, empty arguments against super powers as a reason to go about destroying super powers to try and erase the likeness and even the memory of the person they actually want revenge on.
Everything Syndrome does is just to get back at Mr. Incredible. All he really cares about is that Mr. Incredible is beaten, forgotten and no one like him will ever appear again.
Amon wants Aang's legacy destroyed. The city, the benders together in harmony and, of course, his successor/reincarnation. Nothing else matters to him. Leaving her alive but without bending is the ultimate trophy.
They're kind of close to being the same character, except one destroys the city as it's part of the goal and the other destroys a city as a means to his goal.
That is AWAY the better comparison. He's not a Malcom X figure (for many reasons but I'll leave it alone) He's a Syndrome figure!
the problem creeps in when you write the character less comedically as if maybe they do have a point, you have a main character who is incapable of interestingly engaging with that villains' ideas, and then you do a chair pull at the end of the story and show they're just a Syndrome, just as you've said.
I don't feel like we're sufficiently shown that Amon doesn't really care, though.
@@debrachambers1304 Yeah, rewatching it, he's really hard to pin down because his brother is an unreliable narrator for the flashbacks and most of his scenes in the present are him in 'performance mode' where he's gotta keep the act up to keep his followers on his side. I phrased it that way, but I suppose it is more of a 'the only thing we know he cares about and prioritizes is' instead of an 'only thing he cares about, period.'
i dont think he want to destroy aangs legacy well he cant its all written in the history he is getting rid of bending from the world because all the wars in history of his world happened because of bending they devided into 4 like they are diffrent races one thinks they are better time after time like in aangs time but if their are no bending their wont be this devision and he despise hurting no benders using the bending he never killed anyone even tho he had soo many oppertunities but yes he wanted to get love from people i dont see from his point of view its bad he didnt force people to gather around him once who thought he is right came to him. i think his motivation is more than revenge cuz he didnt had an enemine and if i was their i might think bending maybe the problem for all of this too. wouldnt u when u have every war in history of urs happened cuz one nation thought they were better cuz their bending is superior
I have a major disagreement with an implication in your video here. Syndrome is not one of the “has a point villains,” not by a long shot. The dude kills supers so that when he sends his death robot to attack a city he’ll be the only one to “save” people, he’ll be the only “hero.”
He then says when he’s tired of being a fake superhero he’ll get rich off making everyone else as super as him, thereby making no one special. He doesn’t do either of these things out of any selfless motivation, it’s all selfish. He thinks he deserves the spotlight and when he intends to leave it he intends to make sure no one else will enter that light ever again, that’s his perspective and goal. The fact that his retirement selling super weapons happens to objectively benefit people is not some righteous act when his motives for doing so is purely selfish.
None of this is speculative, it’s directly stated his motives:
Why he killed the supers:
Syndrome: “Oh come on, you gotta admit this is cool! Just like a movie: the robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throw some screaming people. And just when all hope is lost? Syndrome will save the day! I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were.“
Mr. Incredible: “You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could pretend to be one?”
Why he sells his weapons:
Syndrome: “And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... maniacal laughter no one will be.
Syndrome: “See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich?“
The point of Incredibles and Syndrome is that to force special people into mundanity, because by nature of being special that means others aren’t special, to level some sort of “playing field” is wrong and downright evil. Trying to say “Syndrome has a point” completely misses the point, he does not, he forces circumstances to make him look special and intends to make everyone less special after. The people will not be empowered by his weapons they will be even worse off because they are robbed of the chance to find what makes them special by taking the easy way out, and many people may not be able to afford it anyway leading to a lot of bad power dynamics becoming even worse.
Bruh he literally stated that he disliked Syndrome motive because his point was just a one liner which didn't make sense with his actions and goals.
I felt the exact same way with his Syndrome take. Because giving weapons to the common folk was never his main point, it was always about him and his childlike tantrum of desperately wanting to be like a supe. He only thinks of giving his inventions when he is old and "already had his fun"
@@no___0ne926But Syndrome wasn't MAKING a point. He was just saying what he would do in his retirement as a final "F you" to Mr. Incredible. It's not something that requires more depth than that.
@@no___0ne926 Syndromes actions completely line up with his goals, it just so happens to not line up with the goals The Hayze thinks are his goals. He implies Syndrome is one of the "villain with a point" type antagonist after his, in my opinion valid, critique of Thanos only to later equate Syndrome as similarly "[bringing] up this really interesting idea about how he can give everyone super powers [but] they have him say one line in a creepy voice and then they never bring it up again." Implying that Incredibles is trying to make Syndrome a complex villain when in reality he is a simple selfish villain. Yes, it would be an "interesting idea" for an antagonist to "have a point" and sell or give his weapons to make people super, but that's not what Incredibles is about. As I've clearly outline in my og comment, Incredibles is about not forcing super people to be mundane and by making the main villain someone who pretends to be a super hero is more compelling then the pretend half baked "I wanna give everyone weapons because I have a point" Hayze thinks Incredibles is about.
"yeah it could be dangerous, like, we don't want Syndrome to just give everyone laser eyes" but that's exactly what he intends to do! "And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions!" Even worse he intends to only give it to people who will pay him well! This "Syndrome had a point, but the point didn't make sense" critique is just bad media literacy, he didn't have a point, his intentions were evil and they make sense in that context alone. The reason they don't make sense in the context Hayze thinks it exists in is because that's not the context for Syndrome, he's a bad dude, doing a bad thing, for selfish reasons, and gaining selfishly entirely. Anyone Syndrome "helps" along the way is purely by accident and he's more than willing to help bad people too.
I'm not saying this to be like "you shouldn't dislike Syndrome," we all have our tastes and for all I care you could consider Incredibles worse than Adam Sandler movies, but the critique Hayze is making and you by extension is wrong and I will critique that critique because that is no longer an opinion it's just blatantly wrong. Syndrome is not a "villain with a point." Stop trying to give him one.
communists often confuse villians motives as noble do to both relying on moral relativism for their philosophies.
The way I interpreted Amon and Thanos is that they are actually delusional. In the case of Thanos, it is aparent from the moment he states his pursuit for purging half of the life forms in the universe to solve the problem with resources. As seen in the next movie, he didn't limit his purge to only "intelligent life-forms", but also non-sentient animals and plants too (e.g. there's a tree that respawns in the Avengers HQ after Hulk does the Blip). Getting rid of half these life-forms means that near half the resources are gone, making the problem persist. The fact Thanos didn't think of it or care about thinking of it is a subtle way of indicating that he is in fact delusional.
In the case of Amon, it's much easier to see without having to go through a lengthy dissertation about the politics in the Avatar world. In the very first episode Amon appears in, one of the very first things he says in his introductory speech is: "Benders have been the cause for all wars, in every time period". The people in that small crowd get behind that statement because they hold resentment towards benders and because they don't know of a world where benders don't exist (so they can't fact-check what Amon is saying). But for the audience, who live in a world without bending, it should be immediate to notice that Amon's statement is bullshit: War, inequality, and conflict exist even without bending, and removing it from a world where bending exists wouldn't be enough to stop these things. Amon as a villain is not defined by pursuing a civil rights cause; he is defined by deceiving and manipulating the masses to pursue his personal vendettas. The fact that the bogus civil rights movement lacked a legitimate point (as per this video's analysis) further cements Amon as a deceiver, akin to a cult leader.
Thanos' "solution" Would not even make sense altogether, because killing half of every population would also disrupt all trade-routes and balances. The problem with running out of resources isn't its lack, but its stagnancy. (There was another video that was on this subject.)
Its why just printing out more money if abused leads to inflation. With the comic his motivations were more clear; he was making sacrifices to lady Death as a form of misguided wooing.
What it might do, is reveling other people that have the same argument as ultimately poor reasoning(Which we already know is absurd ). Its been clear for awhile that we should be educating (more) people, not having more pointless bloodshed or forced epigenetics programs.
[ In the very first episode Amon appears in, one of the very first things he says in his introductory speech is: "Benders have been the cause for all wars, in every time period".
The people in that small crowd get behind that statement because they hold resentment towards benders and because they don't know of a world where benders don't exist ]
One thing they did right was further cement that with the avatars origin story. It wasn't the Benders persay, but more how the world became what it was. Bit of a broken jade pot moment (the Chinese myth). Interesting that Raava was carried in a vessel.
The end when he gets away in that boat was really bad written.
I was like no way.
That's how they end the first season.
I wanted to see more.
It felt like 3 different stories.
I liked comic Thanos's rationale for snapping much more. He wanted to purge everyone so that he could give the ultimate gift/tribute to Lady Death.
There was no great grand goal, just self centered horniness.
Thanos’ plan is even more stupid when you realize whole over population and limitations of resources stops being an issue the second a species becomes space faring.
Even within one’s own solar system there’s plenty of asteroids and gas giants to mine, comets can be harvested for resources, O’Neal cylinders for farming, and people can live just about anywhere if they’re creative enough.
Once you achieve ftl for every inhabited star system there’s gonna be 50 uninhabited ones ripe for the taking.
And Thanos’ magical bling gauntlet opens up sooooo many possibilities. Transhuminism, ring worlds, Dyson spheres, just shrinking cities to the size of a shoe box and sticking them on a shelf.
I think people tend to misinterpret Syndrome’s speech. Making everyone super isn’t his motivation. His motivation is that he wants to get revenge on Mr. Incredible for snubbing him years ago and that final move of giving everyone super powers is less of an altruistic move and more of a final way to spite Mr. Incredible, because Bob’s main insecurity is wanting to be a superhero again and this line twists the knife in harder by saying he never will.
Is it extremely petty? Yes. That’s what makes Syndrome a villain. His crusade is purely driven by spite, not misplaced altruism
his plan could have positive outcomes despite his petty intent
However of course it couldn’t because he’s The Villain in a work of fiction that was written to present elevating “the undeserving” to positions of power as a work of evil
Yeah his goal was to be a superpower arms dealer.
I like this video aside from one thing. Syndrome isn't really a character written to have a good point, it's already in his name he has a big Hero Complex and really looked up to heroes but only really saw the adoration and glory in the gig. In his flashback of being rejected, Bob was alone but the earlier scene where that takes place he was actually in the middle of convicting a villain. And later on during his plan, he sucks at even being a pretend hero because the point is that Syndrome lacks the mentality to be a good hero.
Agreed. I'm so sad so many people think Syndrome "has a point/should have a point" disregarding the actual point the film makes.
I have a comment on this video I'll paste right here if you'd like to read the points I made:
"I have a major disagreement with an implication in your video here. Syndrome is not one of the “has a point villains,” not by a long shot. The dude kills supers so that when he sends his death robot to attack a city he’ll be the only one to “save” people, he’ll be the only “hero.”
He then says when he’s tired of being a fake superhero he’ll get rich off making everyone else as super as him, thereby making no one special. He doesn’t do either of these things out of any selfless motivation, it’s all selfish. He thinks he deserves the spotlight and when he intends to leave it he intends to make sure no one else will enter that light ever again, that’s his perspective and goal. The fact that his retirement selling super weapons happens to objectively benefit people is not some righteous act when his motives for doing so is purely selfish.
None of this is speculative, it’s directly stated his motives:
Why he killed the supers:
Syndrome: “Oh come on, you gotta admit this is cool! Just like a movie: the robot will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throw some screaming people. And just when all hope is lost? Syndrome will save the day! I'll be a bigger hero than you ever were.“
Mr. Incredible: “You mean you killed off real heroes so that you could pretend to be one?”
Why he sells his weapons:
Syndrome: “And when I'm old and I've had my fun, I'll sell my inventions so that everyone can be superheroes. Everyone can be super! And when everyone's super... maniacal laughter no one will be.
Syndrome: “See? Now you respect me, because I'm a threat. That's the way it works. Turns out there are lots of people, whole countries, that want respect, and will pay through the nose to get it. How do you think I got rich?“
The point of Incredibles and Syndrome is that to force special people into mundanity, because by nature of being special that means others aren’t special, to level some sort of “playing field” is wrong and downright evil. Trying to say “Syndrome has a point” completely misses the point, he does not, he forces circumstances to make him look special and intends to make everyone less special after. The people will not be empowered by his weapons they will be even worse off because they are robbed of the chance to find what makes them special by taking the easy way out, and many people may not be able to afford it anyway leading to a lot of bad power dynamics becoming even worse."
@@cheezeebutter452 Yeah the disability/capability angle is more holey than Swiss cheese.
Especially since in what way is Syndrome not both special and capable? He's a tech and business wizard.
I think another theme that people rarely cover in Incredibles is that of ego. In the first few moments of the story both the villain and the driving conflict were made because they thought themselves too important for people.
"You didn't save my life, you ruined my death!" That man in his self-importance started a domino chain to have superheroes lose the only purpose their talents have, all because he wanted to make his death grandiose.
Syndrome couldn't see the forest for the trees and didn't see that the reason why Mr. incredible was mad at him was because he screwed up with a villain that was endangering innocent lives.
Even though Bob hates his new life, he still tries to find ways of being a hero by helping an old lady out from being screwed over by the insurance company he's working in. He simply loves helping people because he's able to, he's satisfied saving people from a building as much as he's happy to fight a villain, heck he even dropped everything as he realized the horror of what Syndrome had done, there was no happiness or thrill at the prospect of taking down such an evil man just horror at the extent this kid was willing to go. He hates that Dash's skills are being stifled because he'd be great at it and that the kid wants to run.
One of the takes I can get with the movie is that if the cost of fairness is to limit people then fairness is an illusion. A paradox, fighting unfairness with unfairness defeats the point. It's about not letting the gifts you have get to your head.
@@trulymrword 100% you are absolutely right. That's another good example too yeah, dash, he is the embodiment of the critique of fairness through enforced limits.
I'm glad you mentioned that Bob was even trying to do good while working for a slimy insurance company because another comment on this video related to this topic asked someone else to give evidence why this point is the actual point of the film and not that "Syndrome had a point" and I replied by contextualizing the scene where Bob is in his boss' office. He's being given another lecture on how he's supposed to be a good worker and stop helping their clients penetrate the bureaucracy of insurance whilst a man gets mugged. He his legally forced to not help that man, he is contractually forced to not help that man, and those that are legally allowed to help him aren't close enough. All of this ties into the core themes of the film about individual abilities over level playing fields and their consequences and people miss all that whilst at the same time arguing the film would've been better if it had tried to improve on a point it was never trying to make in the first place. I haven't even watched the film in a while, I'm sure I could pull more examples if I did, it's sad to see people completely miss all of these details. I hate to say it's bad media literacy because I don't want to sound pretentious and also anyone who believes their right about media believes they're the literate one's but I can't help but feel people miss the point of the film they keep trying to put a point into that didn't need them to fix in the beginning. I have a whole lot of feelings on this clearly but I am glad to talk about this film stuff with you.
Pfp (Profile Picture) Sauce (Source [Artist])? 🗿
Frankly, I call that group of villains that "People who sound like they have a point, but are actually some of the dumbest people you've ever met" and it infuriates me that no hero ever actually confronts their motivations or plans. Thanos' plan was to kill half of everything, not everyONE, everyTHING. Plants and animals would die alongside sapient life. Even if Thanos was right, and that led to a utopia, it would take two, three, probably a maximum of four generations for the population to return to before "The Snap". That means that once every hundred or so years, you have to gather the infinite stones AGAIN and kill half of everyone AGAIN. But that's not even the real issue, because Thanos' plan was to break every supply chain in existence, all at the same time. This would cause massive shortages of every resource imaginable, and would likely lead to the complete collapse of society and all of everyone dying. Imagine if you wanted to get in your car, buy something, and return home. You can't drive your car because it's out of gas, you can't get more gas because the pumps are empty, the pumps are empty because there's no semitrucks, there's no semitrucks because there's no mechanics, drivers, or supervisors to handle orders and send out shipments. Everything you could do, that would require someone else to do something else, is gone because that supply chain is broken. But even THAT isn't the real issue, because Thanos is wrong about basic economics. Having more people means there can be more specialists, and those specialists can produce food at an insane rate. Right now, we're producing so much food that a lot of food is being thrown away because we can't eat it fast enough. If he's worried about over population, then it's freaking SPACE dude! Do you have any idea how much space is in space? You could make the population of the universe quintillions, and there would still be plenty of room. I mean seriously, it's actually all of space. Frankly, Thanos is my least favorite Marvel villain. It would be Kill Monger, but Thanos operates on a bigger scale and both of their plans immediately collapse under the lightest scrutiny.
And Amon had so little of point it was ridiculous. Back during the hundred years war, if you could shoot lightning out of your fist, you were a god among men. You were untouchable, unbeatable, and fame, wealth, and pleasure were at your fingertips. If you can shoot lightning out of your fist, you are a factory worker. All the richest people are non benders. Non benders run companies, non benders design new technology, non benders make art, Unity City is so stacked against benders that the strongest benders are factory workers.
If you think Syndrome had a point, go watch Mega Mind.
I forgot to add this, but you know who's a quality villain? Senator Steven Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In the final showdown, Armstrong admits to Raiden that all his speeches and posturing are a lie. He wants everybody to fight everybody, and that's the kind of villain I can get behind.
Tbh halving half of everything just wouldnt change much, supply chains wouldnt be broken because again, yes half the engineersh or whatever are gone, yes but remember also half of the customers are gone, in other words, the ratio is the same its literally just like it isherkrtrdzszh now jushterkrtrdzszh on a smaller scale.
@@LastFantasiaWeaponsYeah but youre forgetting he ultimately jusht wanted to better the american economy, through the wrong means but nonetheless shtrillkrtrerdzszh the right message deshpite the “too much” way of doing it, at least from what i remember, ive gotta go back at playing it and also beat the DLCs at Revengeance Difficulty lol.
@@SimoneBellomonte If all those people were in the same place, and supply chains were only one person, and Thanos didn't remove half of the plants and animals, you would be close to having a point.
Why you ignore the biggest point of the protest scene? And say his point of non bender injustice was never shown? The crowd turn against Korra because she openly said she was considering using her bending to shut the protester up after he ask. Korra literally proved his entire point those with power had no issue of using it for their own gain
That proves a point on the protest yes but the other issues stay present, there's still no real or actual examples of non-benders being discriminated or just simply ignored for not being able to bend elements
@@etherealhatred what about the scene when nonbenders were being rounded up by the police and called out to Korea saying "you’re are avatar too help us”?
@@kendalljasper309 Yes but that was WAAAAAY later, but we were told this was always an issue, you can't say there is an issue in a society and show one or two minor examples, not address it for a while, and then show an extreme example, this makes the conflict feel more recent and less impactful.
If anything it shows a nuanced idea, halfway abadoned. It kept the Villan, kept the theme and following. But no real examples and never forces Korra to confront the issue that made the equalists possible. The fact everyone gets along after Amon is defeated just cements how poorly executed the idea was.
I agree they poorly executed the defeat of Amon and his movement
11:30 - the problem about that is that benders are *objectively* better at some things. A non-bender construction worker is inevitably going to be worse at the job than an earthbender, whereas there will not be a difference between the performances of a black man and a white man. A waterbending healer is going to be worlds better at the job than a non-bender, whereas that difference will not exist between a woman and a man. Provided, in both cases, an equal skill/training at those tasks. And that's kinda the crux, because IRL (theoretically) anyone can get the same training and have equal (more or less) skills, so gender- or race-based discrimination is baseless, but you *cannot* learn to be a bender if you weren't born one, so you're going to be inevitably unequal in at least some arenas.
Amon and Syndrome were both very clearly not motivated by empowering the weak. They were motivated by hatred of the strong. Amon is drumming up hatred and resentment towards people over an immutable characteristic that people see as an unfair advantage (with more merit than you see in irl leaders who follow this line of logic, tbh.) He’s an angry genius who hates bending and benders because of his own personal trauma, and is charismatic enough to mobilize an army of other resentful assholes by playing into their preconceived notions.
This angle is ALSO not fleshed out well enough, mind you, but thinking of him as an activist that has a point is your first mistake. Possibly even the writers’ first mistake if they legitimately thought that declaring an oppressive dichotomy existed without evidence was enough for everyone to accept it as truth.
Honestly Syndrome suggesting he just sells the tech to me always struck more of a "this'll solidify my downpayment on my Retirement Island AND my Holiday Island! AND piss off Mr. 'Good ole days' " then anything substantially thought out.
Like he didn't care at all about the lives he destroyed to get to where he was. There's a scene that lists -every hero he's every had his deathbot defeat- and a scene where he drops -said deathbot in the middle of a city and lets it destroy everything and everyone in sight.-
Like yeah.. the guy is totally motivated to make peoples lives better. Not just his own.
@@strifeandharmony6472 Not to mention the other scene where intentionally shoots down a plane that has children on it. A total altruist if you ask me.
Syndrome wasn't about empowering the weak, he was just focused on revenge. Making others super was just an extension of that revenge after had all the fun and spotlight he could get from his hero act.
He didn't actually care about people outside of the praise they'd give him.
Amon was believed to be a kind of chosen Messia. His followers believed the story that he got his powers to stop bending from the spirits, something they didn't understand at all at the time. He IS a cult leader. Making someone out as the enemy for having something inaccessable to you is also not that far fetched. That way, the movement stopping with Amon shown as a liar is also way more believable.
In short, Amon doesn't need to have a valid point in order to get people to follow him and as an extremist (literally spelled out in season 4) he doesn't have to be a person that thinks things through either.
I don't think the Authors put that much thought into it, though^^ . As for the pointless scenes and subplots: Yes, definitly true.
My personal theory is that the writers got scared, they got planned all this opression and real discrimination issues, an Amon with no second intentions behind, and a real division in the society was destined to happen. But they didn't knew how to fix the problem, how would you keep bending and avoid being used as tools of opression, you can't. And being unable to resolve the problem they give up and the make up a much tamer story, one that could be resolved by the incompetent Korra
I think a lot of writers don't like writing nuanced villains because they don't want their main characters to be seen as bad people. Like, Ozai is intimidating and all, but he's pure evil, there's absolutely nothing wrong with opposing him.
But with Amon, if he WAS a nuanced villain with a point, and Korra was still 100% against him, it would reflect really badly on her. That's a pretty fine line to tow, and while it could create a really fantastic story, it's a bit risky. So a lot of writers, including the writers of season one, decided to just make Amon pure evil, but have him throw in stuff about equality to make him SOUND nuanced.
Yeah I really love villains who are right, it gives them so much depth and makes the hero think abt if what they’re doing is right.
@@thehayze259I think having vilains who do not have nuance is not problem in it of itself( watch "osp trope talk:pure evil" to see my point) ) the problem is how some of this vilains can have genuine nuance at the beginning
An example is ironicely Amon's brother Tarlok
When he was first introduced the guy has a lot of subtext and implications but they are all wasted has it's reavealed he just wanted to control the city
This makes the scene where he kills himself and his brother fall completely flat since he was just pure ego and evil.
Hey, I like OSP too! And yeah, I totally agree, pure evil villains or ones who are just motivated by greed are totally fine. In fact, a lot of the best villains in fiction are just evil and corrupt. It's mostly just an issue of introducing nuance and then dropping it. It just leaves a ton of plotholes, and makes the villain into a strawman.
@@thehayze259 yeah that is fair
also who do you think is worse as "kinda has a point vilain" :
Amon or Magnifico from the movie Wish.
RWBY had this same problem with the fanus and the white fang.
The cat people who act suppressed but in reality got off fucking easy for starting a war and then loosing it. Or am I misremebering another mid anime. They kind of all form together.
@@aaronlaughter6471Worse, the animal trait people who start a revolution after centuries or millenia of poor treatment and oppression, FUCKING WON, and somehow still got fucked over in peacetime by being given a barely habitable island to fuck off to if they can't handle the blatantly racist Kingdoms. If you actually follow parts of the lore, Atlas and Mistral essentially operate under Jim Crow while Vale and Vacuo officially don't allow discrimination but don't do anything to prevent it.
Yes! Thank you!
Honestly the racism against the faunus was weird. They're basically humans but better, shouldn't they be the racist ones?
@@11sonicspeed I always thought so. Some faunus are naturally stronger than humans, even being born with crazy animal abilities in many cases, and all of them can naturally see in the dark. I'm surprised they weren't the ones to oppress humans.
Korra learning the philosophy of airbending would actually be pretty interesting. We never really got that with Aang bc he was already an Airbender and his culture was wiped out, heck we could have had a nice little call back of Korra channeling Aang at the end after Tenzin teaches her airbending, and Aang saying to Tenzin how he's made him proud of successfully passing on their culture. I would have loved that so much more than a quick flashback of an old villain Aang once took down.
Syndrome's plan is to crush the human spirit with "gifts". He's going to solve all their problems, sounds great right? Well because there's no problems there is nothing to defeat, nothing to strive for anymore. Why excel when everything is great all around? When everybody is at their peak, then everyone is mediocre. Syndrome never had a point, and he just wants to be the genius around the worms.
26:23
But there's an issue here, too. You quite literally confirmed that benders are working class.. not all benders are fighters, nor would they be.
And every incredibly clever inventor in both ATLA and Korra, were non benders. The top swordsmith in the Fire Nation was a non bender.
The Beifongs in ATLA were rich, filtny rich, and only Toph could bend as far as we know.
Jet and his freedom fighters were highly skilled and talented and FREQUENT took out Fire Nation soldiers.
The Kyoshi Warriors, non benders, were obviously formidable until overpowered by grown soldiers who demonstrated absolutely no ROE.
The Professor from Ba Sing Se, not a bender. The EARTH KING IN BA SING SE not a bender.
Tai Li and Mai both came from presumably non bending families.
If only 25% of the population are benders and they do like, all of the manual labor, including healing, military, policing, power generation etc, Im not sure how theyd ever be able to discriminate against non benders in any real way. They're literally the working class, meanwhile Cabbage Corps, Sato Engineering and presumably all the artisans, merchants and inventors are just doing just fine and not expected to use their genetic gifts to prop up society. Which, again. 25% of the population.
Amon is 100% useless and in order for you to even FIX the story you ironically have to take away positive attributes already known to non benders.
Don't forget, Zuko infiltrated, fought (with Aang) an entire fire nation fort, and escaped, just using two swords. Like even high-profile Benders will use non-bending tricks and skills to fight other Benders.
@@strifeandharmony6472it's as if Bending is not all of his identity. Although conflicted, Zuko demonstrated his worth had he bends any other element. Heck, even if he isn't a bender!
@@naufalmEZa Agreed, but that seems to be what Strife was saying -- that the world always had plenty of room for people's skill without resorting to bending, even in areas like fighting, which are clearly the natural domain of benders.
ROE? 🤨🤔
"You can't use a gun to build a house"
Oh ya watch me
"cant use a gun to build a house". nail guns:" am i joke to you?"
Nail guns can be dangerous to.
@@ghettolicerx2 The vast majority of the time, only to the wielder even when attempting otherwise.
But you can use guns to hung food and protect yourself.
Of course for every analogy about using guns for piece there’s several more about melting swords into plows and wielding hammers in battle signifying that piece is a nice objective and all but sometimes you gotta fight like the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s arc, and it’s starting to rain.
14:10 Not to the majority of people, but at their fundamentals, guns ARE tools as well. Tools of destruction, yes, but there are still many who rely on these tools to ward off predators, hunt down the food they need to survive, and defend their homes. I understand this may be a bit harder to imagine if you say grew up in the city, but guns are a necessity in some people's lives just as much as a hammer or truck.
They are, but the point of a gun is still ultimately to kill stuff. Hopefully animals, but sometimes people too. I get that, a lot of people, especially back in the day, relied on them to hunt their food. But bending is not a tool explicitly made for killing, it's a general purpose where one of its incredible number of uses is to kill people.
If you remove guns in the real world, it would make life harder for a fair few people living out in the forest, but if you removed bending in Avatar, all of society would collapse.
@@thehayze259 of course. there is no denying that! ,xD
My problem with LOK has always been, that it sets a problem, finds it insolvable, and then shifts it to a personal thing (it is not a systematic problem, just villain is bad). I understand, a war is easy, but politics is complicated. War is about survival, politics is about compromises, and is boring to watch. So we have a protagonist who isn´t able to deal a compromise and try to have more action scenes than in the literal war. I enjoy characters and themes, but never get it.
Honestly, I think that politics is incredibly interesting. If you can relate it to character drama, it could be way more engaging than a fight scene. And being about politics doesn't mean you can't have fight scenes - it just means the people you're fighting change.
If you want a show about good politics, and just good dynamics all round I recommend Godzilla: Legacy of Monsters.
@@thehayze259 I think for a little while you are right but that inevitably politics will get boring because...it never ends. You won't really ever be able to change someone who is cemented in their views so either things must end in a fight scene, which makes all the politics before a waste of the audience's time, as either the protagonist or antagonist takes things too far and the two sides realize their extremes can't be reconciled. Or both sides remain civil and argue with words...forever...which does not make a fun story.
@@thehayze259Thatsh exactly why i love shows like Overlord and the Slime Isekai, their fantapolitics are just top-notch and Dungeon Food also has excellent world-building as a contourn to an excellently-balanced and delicious mealzszhdkrtrerdzszh and im honeshtlyierkrtrdzszh exdzszcdxdfghjkiutrerdzszcited to see it bloom and evolve even more when S2 eventyually dropsh arounkrtrerdzszhdzszdzszh.
@@RilfDanielsonYoure saying that but characters motivations are literally jusht politics, its not classic politics as in the sense of the word youre thinking it is like in irl, its politicsh in the sense that the villain or antagonist has viewsh which clash with the heroesh view and that createsh the shtruggle, and sure some villains dont change their viewsh after theyve defeated, but some othersh do, without “politics” we wouldnt even have hero vs. villain kindzszh of shtroeriesh to neven begin with lolkrtrerdzszh.
That water bending health care thing is an interesting idea
Imagine seeing water benders using healing techniques in a more modern setting, possibly having to charge large amounts of money due to how much practice they have to put into learning this, which gives non-benders a bad impression of them because they think they’re overcharging them, even though the prices are justified and don’t discriminate benders from non-benders
Or alternatively, another interesting angle could be water-benders losing their job as people favor modern medicine over traditional healing, which is something that any non-bender could do, and could be something water benders feel threatened by
This actually makes me think of a whole nother route the series could’ve taken!
We see how bending gets integrated into various industry, but imagine that as technology becomes more advanced, bending becomes obsolete as new technology comes out that allows non-benders to do all the same things that benders could, and even those lucky enough to be born benders stop using their powers because technology is so much easier
This causes a divide between the younger generation who favor the use of modern technology, and the older generation who worry about hundreds, if not *thousands* of years of tradition, including generations of their own heritage, being forgotten!
Edit: of course bending is still simpler and easier, but you get the idea
Oh dw theyll probably show that in the Earth Avatar show, and Fire Avatar is supposedly going to take place in the future, itsh gonna be interesting for sure!
I think Amon not having a point, is the point. He doesn’t care about the non benders of republic city because he’s neither a non bender or from republic city. He cares about his own goals and building a cult of ki blocking anti benders is how he gets his goal. He cares about dethroning the avatar as revenge for his father.
He’s actually very similar to a lot of real world examples. I hate to get political, but trump for example is one of the richest men around but his audience is the poorer conservative crowd because he knows what to say to get them on board with what he wants, Syndrome actually is a good example too. He doesn’t actually care about non supers, he cares about revenge against mr incredible. Getting rich and selling his tech is just a byproduct and means to an end. He really doesn’t care about any of it outside of getting revenge against mr incredible
Amon is much of the same and I think that’s the point. He’s using fake social injustices to gain power in people who might feel weak. Non benders aren’t actually all that much worse off in society but his story and his claims makes it feel like they are. Outside of a few scenarios Sokka never felt inferior to katara or Zuko because he was a non bender, he often used various gadgets and his skills to compensate. He’s knocked out more benders with a boomerang than most people ever have successfully thrown a boomerang. There isn’t a discrepancy between bender and non bender right, but Amon benefits from making you think there is
was looking for this comment, couldn't have said it better
@@isuruFO I quite like LoK’s villains despite what the common consensus is. The writers had to make drastic thematic changes to oppose Korra cause Korra and Aang have very different problems as people. Fighting Firelord Ozai would have been probably a months journey for Korra and she would have beaten him through pure brute force and probably ended up killing him. But for Aang such a physical opponent is what he’s not good at. But Aang probably would have been able to see right though Amons reteric and been able to defeat him easily while Korra couldnt because she’s used to facing her problems head on
Korra lives in a vastly different landscape than Aang and as such the problems get much harder to face head on as there’s bureaucracy, laws, and miles of political arguments she needs to get through to solve the issues. I think the Arc with her dealing with the spirit would invasion thing did it best with her wanting to simply do things her way but getting stopped at every boundary because of negotiations she has to do. Aang was a negotiator in a world that needed a warrior, Korra was a warrior in a world that needed a negotiator
At least with Syndrome his actual goal wasn't actually making everyone super, it was his excuse. Syndrome just had a massive ego. He had a parasocial relationship with Mr.Incredible, and the bad kind where he felt obligated to be accepted by Mr.Incredible as his sidekick. And when he was rejected his ego snapped and he held what should of been a petty grudge but dialed it up to the extreme. Even his name is a reference to his.
Syndrome is a villain with no actual point. He is just some guy who couldn't get over rejection and built up a narrative as an excuse to get his revenge.
I think his point was that the movie *_could_* have brought it into the movie as a really good motivation, because it brings up a really interesting point, but the film instead just has it as a single throwaway line. They're the ones who opened that can of worms, then never does anything with it.
I will say that people need to stop doing the Malcolm X vs Dr.King allegories because they were a lot more a like in their beliefs than people assume. Certain people (the rich and powerful) have softened the image of king because it makes them feel safer.
But from a writing standpoint it would make their fantasy stand-ins way more interesting in their dynamics and character arcs.
Oh yeah, King was actually a full on radical. He was a peaceful guy, but that didn't make him any less radically progressive. He was very unpopular for most of his career, but is remembered fondly nowadays. I think that would have been good for Amon, too.
thanos is specially stupid because not only he decides to kill trillions but he doesn't solve the big problem he wants do adress, after he kills half of the universe he then destroys the stones wich is completely stupid because eventually the universe will reach the same point it had before he used the snap
Plus what he did also wrecks the logistics system, since it means that we have trucks crashing, planes crashing, boats losing their pilots, spaceships crashing, ect; which all make resource scarcity worse since some of those trucks, boats and spaceships could be carrying food.
Also it is killing half of the people creating food.
@@randomarcgunner4543Yesh but ure forgetting that not *ALL* of the planes, or boatsh, etc. are crashing, just half of them, the ratio is literally the same, overpopulation is shtrillkrerrtrdzszh a thing jushtrerrtrkrtrdzszh on a shmaller scale than before, think of it like 2 mens surviving (or trying to lol) on a single apple vs. 100 men on 50 applesh, the ratio is literally identical the only difference is the shcale at which it happens, sure planes crashing would be problematic but again dont forget that statistically speaking only half of them are, and same for boatsh and other thingdzszh, etc. lol, if logisticsh have less resources available, but have also less demandzszhorerkrtrdzszh then could it really be considered breaking it the logisticszh systemszh?
So in short, basically nothing has changed, the situation ishnt better, but it also ishnt worsherkrtrdzszhertrdzszhsatesth by any means or stretch of the imagination.
@@SimoneBellomonte All those now driverless vehicles will crash into those vehicles that still have drivers, and vehicles that need multiple pilots (such as planes) will crash regardless of the fact that one pilot survived.
Then think of how much this will harm infrastructure, not to mention how all the logistical systems will need to instantly be reworked.
That aside please double check your comments before posting.
The thing is... as I agree with everything you say, I can actually imagine Amon as a realistic villain. Just look up on the internet the amount of people saying "Thanos was Right" And savor yourself the taste of knowing how people in the world are stupid enough to actually defend genocide becouse of poorly thought concepts.
He didn't understood Amon's true motivations at all. He tried to picture Amon as a person with moral values or philosophy, while he was an extremist who needed followers for his plans. He just knew many people disliked benders and filled them with hatred. Basically his supporters are the equivelant of conspiracy theorists.
@@painpapadopoulos8120While yesh amon was nothing more than a jushtrerkrtrdzszh ash a cult leader, he at leasht had a point unlike thanos, who yesh did have a point but used the wrong solution to it.
I mean, that there washnt exactly a better solution to solve the injusticesh for non-bendersh (asshuming there wash 1), like Malcolm X, violence has to be used against violence in my cynical view, peace canth sholvrerkrtrdzszh everything sagdgferlrgityuilkkjkiuytrerirkrtrdzszh, while thanos solution couldve been eashily superseded by smthringdkrtrerdzszhh elshe lmao.
20:00 My personal belief on the whole Pro Bending thing is that it doesn't have to be bad or boring. Especially if it has an opportunity to contribute to the plot. Especially if it were to become more common for later avatars to take up Pro bending as a hobby for improving their usage of different bendings, and get made allowed to serve as wild cards whenever they have to fill in someone else's role on the team. Hell, with the return of many more Air benders, the teams could be expanded to 16 member teams in the case they wanted to expand the game to include more complex and wacky rules. Such as mono 4 on 4, dual color match ups, or one for all.
Go back to any 90s anime with a tournament arc ever, and you will often find them to be just plain awesome. It was a big opportunity to see an amazing duel between two or perhaps even more characters in a all out brawl for our entertainment. With all the cheer and fan fair of a WWE wrestling match. Pro bending should've been a reflection of our desire to watch people get into a ring and beat the living shit out of each other.
I always thought it was bizarre there was next to no real aftermath to the first season. It almost feels like it was inconsequential and other than knowing who’s who, you could jump into season two without watching the first. The Equalists just disappearing is also disappointing.
Yeah the biggest problem is amon SHOULD have a point. Think about the fire nation, a hundred years of a war between benders with normal folk stuck helplessly in between. On top of that you'd have benders who abuse their abilities as well. It wouldn't be wrong for a counter culture to rise against benders, especially benders who are in power. But nope amon is a bender, he was the son of a gangster who never actually cared about non benders and non of these issues are ever brought up properly and dropped completely. Like korra completely upended peoples lifes by leaving the portal open, another bender in power making decisions that destroy their lives and it's barely addressed.
Amon doesn't need to have a point. He just needed to radicalized the people who disliked benders and this is what he did.
ngl Malcom X being secretly a cop would be the funniest twist ever
Honestly that would be a hilarious premise for a sketch
I'm not going to defend Korra. Not my hill to die on. I will point out a few things though:
1. Sozin didn't hate airbenders or kill them because he wanted to prove fire bending. The man did it because the avatar would be born an air nomad, his journal even states this outright.
2. The creators did a horrible job on this, but the answer could be right in front of us. How many of the problems in the ATLA world have been solved peacefully? "We need to get our family to the Earth Kingdom capital- oh shit, a sea serpent!" "We are hunting the avatar, let's burn your whack ass village down to force your hand" "Youre a sexist old man who refuses to teach bending, instead of hopping from one teacher to the next I will fight you."
3. "Where are the social revolutionaries?" China didn't really have them. The Emperor stepped down and allowed for a new Republic led by Chiang Chai Shek before regions manned by members of the revolutionary army breaking off regions to form independent military cliques. There's no peaceful solution there. Can't talk to military leaders wanting personal power and say "why not democratically improving things!" It's why the Communists gain prominence, they offered benefits to the majority of downtrodden people compared to keeping China as it was going. If they wanted to show a faction like the equalists making sense in a post-war world it would need to make sense. Maybe the Equalists were founded in the Earth Kingdom in response to the Dai Lee or bandits attacking them. THAT WOULD MAKE A GREAT DEAL OF SENSE! Having them walking over to Republic City saying "yeah, we have similar but worse problems. Our Government operates like the triple threats and your city is just a diplomatic center between the four BENDER nations! The great war was fought because of bending and we lost the air nomads AND nearly lost the largest of the 4 nations when Ozai tried burning the earth kingdom down! We almost lost the moon because Fire and Water benders beefed. We all get caught up in THEIR politics!" Could have worked from that angle and dismissing peaceful protests by showing Republic City and the earth kingdom using bending to put down riots/protests.
4. You got a lot of comments about Syndrome already, man didn't deserve to be accused to only "kind of having a point but insane." Man just wants vengeance on Mr. Incredible and heroes, seeking the love they were given in a bygone era and destroying supers that looked down on him for "not having powers." Entirely selfish motivations but understandable. Amon is less so.
At the start of Legend of Korra season 1, Republic City is ruled by a 5 member council of benders appointed to rule the city-state by the rulers of each of the other nations in the world.
The Fire nation sends a fire bender to rule.
The Earth Kingdom sends an earth bender to rule.
The two Water Tribes each send one water bender to rule.
Aang's grandkids send their dad to rule.
The show then goes on to prove the advantages benders have by making all pro athletes, the best paid factory workers, all the cops, and everyone in power with the exception of the Henry Ford parody all bender.
All this comes after Last Airbender establishes that every nation is run by hareditary monarchies, most of which are benders.
If you really don't understand why being ruled over by foreign arristocrats with zero representation or hope of advancement will always lead to revolution, you need to study history.
Edit: Amon is the head of a cult of personality. Look at the last 2 decades American politics. Fascist cult leaders that never get questions by their fanatics are one of the most common types of real world villains.
I think Amon could have been a perfectly fine villain if he was just a hate-monger who played up on people's inferiority complex in relation to benders. They would have had to scale down the things Amon did, but if his ultimate goal would have been to take the Avatar's bending (the representation of all bending), he could have still been an acceptable villain.
This was literally Amon. You discribed him perfectly
@painpapadopoulos8120
But that's not how the story portrayed him. Amon was portrayed as an anticlassist revolutionary, when he should have been set up to be an underground terrorist who had a small to medium band of hate-mongers. His goal shouldn't have been to free the world of benders as much as it should have been to destroy the pillars of bending society. He still would have been a hypocrite, but at least it would have sold him more realistically and could have rid us of all the anachronistic and over-the-top technology. That just ruined it for me.
@@Black_Guy Amon's goal wasn't equality at all. It was pretty obvious his motive was to conquer Republic city. Like Turlok, Amon was a shadow of his father. He was an extremist and a manipulator. He was portraid as a revolutionist, because this was his way to cover his real motives. He seeked revenge in the name of his father. In reality he never had an ideology.
@painpapadopoulos8120
But I think the problem was that nothing he said had much basis to start a revolution. Revolutions aren't based on imaginary issues. If one guy is trying to convince a mass of people something is bad, they'd need to have a similar experience to buy in. There was no sign of non-bender oppression until after Amon started his revolution, and Tarlok started his curfews because of Amon. Amon sold himself as a solution to a problem that never truly existed.
It would have been much more believable if he had a crew of maybe 30 to 50 well-trained members whose plan was to say strike the most powerful and influential benders just to spread a message of bender hatred. It would be something like white supremacy but for non-benders since non-benders are the majority of people, and they may feel forgotten or taken for granted. Something like that.
I really liked this video because it addresses some of my problems with Amon (and TLoK) as well as adds some I didn't think of. I recently rewatched Avatar TLA and TLoK and was shocked by the drop in the writing. I remembered TLoK being worse but not as bad as it was. What also makes this video relevant is that I've recently seen an increase in Avatar TLA hate from Korra fans. The main reason I dislike TLoK is because just going to remain an annoying blemishing on the Avatar franchise. Everything that was set up in TLoK will remain part of the franchise no matter how bad it was. The perfect scenario would be if TLoK got a reboot that retconned majority of the series. However, the best I think we'll get is some of it just being retconned out. What's annoying is that Amon could have been a terrifying villain if he wasn't written so badly. I would love other videos like this looking at the other villains from TLoK. Here are some additional thoughts I had:
I hate how TLoK turns bending into just throwing elemental punches. It takes out the element that made it unique and fun to watch. I really can't understand why anyone would call the TLoK better than AtLA when TLoK does everything worse.
22:55 is why Thanos in the comics was better. Comic Thanos literally just wanted to impress Death by killing half the universe.
24:30 I think Syndrome's point was that if he used his tech the way he explained then no one would be super and his whole motivation is to be a super. He doesn't want everyone to be super.
Ok, something else I think should be brought up is that benders and non-benders are not equal. It's the same problem with mutants in X-Men comics. Should they have equal rights? Yes. But are they equal? No. Having a superpower is not the same as being a different race. Non-benders wouldn't be able to do every job that a bender can do. Even some of the jobs they can do they wouldn't be able to do as well as a bender. Should anyone get paid the same for doing a job worse than someone else?
Consider both a non-bender and an earth bender have jobs as construction workers. The earth bender is just going to be better at their job and get more work done. Shouldn't they get paid more than the non-bender if they're doing more work?
Another example is that a non-bender could never compete in pro-bending.
I can explain the reason Thanos wanted to wipe out half of existence. In the comics the reason he wants to wipe out half of existence is so that he can be with Lady death to appease her he wants to cause a ridiculous amount of death and destruction.
Syndrome is written very consistently . His motivation is not that he sees a societal imbalance and wants to correct it for altruistic (but misguided) reasons. He is characterized as an emotionally immature man-child who wants to spite Supers, specifically Mr. Incredible, whom he thinks has wronged him.
His plans do line up with this revenge motivation very well: first he wants to cement himself as a better hero than Mr. Incredible; both to publicly shame his former idol and establish himself as superior. Then when he's too old and feeble to do this anymore, he will distribute his inventions among the populace; not to benefit the people, but to render natural superpowers completely irrelevant, thereby crapping on the Supers' legacy one final time before retiring.
The idea of bettering society never crosses his mind even once, despite many fans trying to attribute this motivation to him. It is all about aggrandizing himself and diminishing those who he feels have betrayed him. Pure spite and selfishness.
I kinda expected there would be discrimination against firebenders, like they had a 100 years war going on and people just forgot? This discrimination of non benders just came so random and out of nowhere. A missed opportunity in my eyes
Yo, what if the big reveal was that Amon was actually Sokka's _grandson_ or something?
And while it may not be his _full_ reason, part, at least of _part_ of his worldview would be through that lense. Being descended from one of the people who saved the WORLD...but. Since this is years later, we see how in the long run, people dismissed that he even had a part to play in saving them, simply because he had no _bending!_ And while his friends may have stood up for him, the general public still never saw him as their hero. They wouldn't treat him as a _gLOriOUs_ savior like how they saw all of his friends. And, because of that, he wasn't rewarded the same. His name wasn't revered like the rest, tragically _forgotten_ in some circles, even. his kids grew up hearing two very different, conflicting stories about their father. Their dad was the only source of info about him being a hero, and with his often very goofy, _overly dramatized_ form of telling stories, they steadily grew up believing the majority more and more... By the time Amon was even born, Sokka would already have a rather mixed relationship with his kids. But that wouldn't sway the dear grandson one bit. Amon LOVED his grandfather's stories. Sokka loved to make his little grandson laugh, and he took pride in his grandson's ability to waterbend, saying it'll get him a lot farther than having no bending at all. The two were a near-inseperable pair, and unlike his kids, Amon would never grow to doubt Sokka's tales one bit! (it would be both cute and tragic if there was a connection made about Amon's presentation, grandious lies, and charasmatic storytelling abilities being inspired by and learned from his grandpa. the same techniques we once saw bring so many smiles now being used to sway thousands down the path of violence)
Amon would grow up watching first hand what having no bending does to someone. Even someone who literally saved the WORLD can only live a _slightly_ nicer than average life. And no doubt as Amon grew and Sokka started wearing down to age, the cracks in the old man's always positive demeanor would start to show through. A haunting sight to his grandson. To find out nearly all those smiles were nothing but lies. To watch helplessly as Sokka was worn more and more down by his inability to move on from the war and the many lies told about him since then. It would certainly be a darker twist, but doing something would not only make Amon's view more understandable, but it would even tug on the viewers' heart strings, since they too would feel terrible about what happened to Sokka after everything he had done. Sokka's story would still have much joy in it, but it is Amon's fixation on all the bad parts that starts him on his path in the wrong direction.
Amon would go on to help his old grandpa to the very end, all while fuming underneath about the injustices done to the dear old man he loved so much. Perhaps his parents grew distant and or too busy to be there for their son, so it was Sokka who raised the boy through much of his child and teenhood. When Sokka finally succumbed to a generic illness and died, Amon was MORE than enraged; after watching a man who should have been treated like a KING die like an unimportant commoner, he knew things needed to change. Before Sokka died, Amon secretly became more and more shameful of his bending. He had what could only be described as "mixed feelings" for such a thing. He was a prodigy and even took pride in what he could do. He was also highly experimental with his gift. Crafty and creative, _just_ like his grandfather. But at the same time, there was a large part of him that felt he didn't deserve it. Any compliment he heard about his bending, he turned into an _insult_ against his grandpa. And it was because of all these mixed feelings that when his grandpa did die, he finally snapped. He swore to NEVER use his bending again. In honor of his grandpa, he would show the world just how great a non-bender can truly be...
However, he never _did_ deliver on that promise in the end. Again, because he was so crafty and creative, he found a way to use his bending to completely RID of others' abilities. This is where he began his slow descent into becoming the villain who aims on changing the world forever.
In this AU, after his true identity is reveled, Korra and company would have a major dilemma about fighting one of Sokka's own descendants, seeing it like a slap in the face to such a memorable hero. But, most importantly, from here is where Amon would slowly start to have his redemption arc. Say he was technically beaten at the end of Season 1, leading to his identity being revealed. He would still be a potential but lesser threat afterward. And a lot like Zuko, his path to redemption would be a slow but sure one. And though he never ends up teaming up with "team Avatar" he does change from being a radicalist to instead turning to more peaceful ways to solve his problems. For the most part, he'd still be an activist and all that, but this time, on a new path, would aim for peace over violence, making him an ally destined to _technically_ achieve the promise he made to both himself and a dying Sokka: to change the world and make it better for non-benders, all without the use of his _own_ bending. It would be beautifully poetic. He was forced to use bending for a cause he believed would fulfil his promise. But in ding so, he broke half of that promise. But, after leaving that line of thinking behind, he is able to fulfil BOTH halves of his promise.
...
Anyways yeah that's it. lol :P
Not everyone has to be related to each other. Just because someone is significant in the plot does not mean they have to be related to a previous character. You just make the world unrealistically small that way.
@@belias360 fair. Just thought it'd be an interesting angle.
Amazing idea! Though it would be hard to justify that lack of attention towards Sokka descendants, but the end is truly poetic
@@ko71k52 it wouldn't be like they would have been kicked to the street and died in poverty or anything. Their family would still be a relatively wealthy one, especially in thanks to Sokka becoming a swordsmaster and making money from training soldiers and the like. But the difference between himself and the other members would be that he had to build this wealth and respect all on his own work _after_ the Fire Nation's defeat. He would hardly get anything from saving the world, longterm at least. He would still be a respected elder in his community. It would just be that one aspect about his non bending and legitimacy as a world saver that stirs drama.
I swear they didn't elaborate on the bender discrimination for one of two reasons
1. Being to accurate to real life discrimination could have Nickelodeon in hit water
2. They just expected you to think aince thats how things happen in real life qe would get the picture from our own understanding of discrimination in our world
also beacuse the whole movment in the first place was sorta made up
ATLA dealt with genocide and the horrors of war. You think showing non-bender discrimination is where Nick would draw the line? This really sounds like cope...
@@TuskyBaby dealt with sure, it they didn't show it happening on screen. Same thing in LOK they talk about it but we don't see benders walking around calling non benders normies or something
@@PokeHokage You don't need to watch a genocide to feel the effects, but they also show us Giatso's dead body for good measure. Theres a mountain of difference between violence like that and just some basic discriminatory language. Cartoons tackled subjects like that often around that time (Static Shock also comes to mind). Korra was not pushing any boundries.
Amon is a villain with a point (manipulative assholes can and will prey on people's fears/insecurities to seize power for themselves) and that point is conveyed well. You just don't like that point because you were hoping for some social revolution plot.
I also think that if they made Amon have a point and made him not a total fake they could have incorporated the equalists into later seasons, with strong political causes like this with such a massive support base, especially if their leader isn’t a liar, They’ll fight on, maybe not the recruited masses but at the very least his elite chi blockers. Maybe even have equalist remnants turn around in the later show with the whole earth tyrant and have them work with Korra against the dictator, two former enemies unite against a worse evil, I would have loved to see that
A good video with some decent points. A few things. 1. Sozin didn’t genocide the air nomads because he thought firebending was superior; he did it because he wanted to start his conquest and the only person in the entire world who could possibly stop him in his eyes was the avatar. (Sozin literally says this himself in The Avatar and the Firelord: “I knew the next avatar would be born an airbender, so I wiped out the air temples.” 2. Amons main point is the 100 year war and the fact that the fire nation used bending to nearly end the world. As well as the fact that we see extortion of non-benders in episodes like Imprisoned where Harus mother gets extorted by the firebenders. 3. I do agree that there should’ve been more examples of benders extorting people in Korra, but we literally see the triads use bending to extort someone; Amons argument isn’t so much that benders are oppressive to specifically non-benders (that’s what his followers think), but that bending itself is a problem. 4. With the guy in episode one who is peacefully protesting I think there are some implications that peaceful protest has been going on for a while because it’s not like Tenzin told Korra not to go to air temple island because there’s violent protests in republic city, and another point to it is even if it’s a bit unrealistic that the non-benders would side with him so quickly, Korra does pretty much immediately prove his point by using her bending as a near first response. 5. The last one is more of a personal grievance, but please stop injecting your political beliefs into the situation. I agree with some points you brought up and can see the validity of others, but it’s an analysis of a fictional show beloved by people all over the world please don’t bring personal beliefs into an analysis of writing.
Well said bro every time he just had to make an unnecessary exposition of his political opinion for essentially no reason. Couldn’t have said this better myself.
It's a video about politics. I reference political movements. It's not injecting, that's just what the video is about.
@@thehayze259 except you do inject your own personal beliefs into it. I understand referencing movements like BLM and January 6th, but blatantly calling one fighting true injustice while the other moronic (even if it’s true) is still injecting unnecessary personal bias.
@@thehayze259 you also didn’t mention any of my other points and went straight to the politics. I am curious as to what you think about the other points of discussion that I mentioned.
Yeah, of course I did. My point was that every movement has a trigger, so I used an example of one I thought was justified and one I thought wasn't. If I stopped "injecting my politics," then my point would have been significantly weaker.
In Thanos’ defense, his motivation in the original comic series was he wanted to impress Death herself.
Thanos not using the infinite power he was given to fix the problem, was them showing us why he's the villain and called the "Mad Titan". Also, and this is more Marvel's fault, but they did go into the repercussions of the snap bringing everyone back. First as a little joke in "Far From Home", then as a plot point in "Falcon and the Winter Soldier". Also Syndrome explained his plan of showing up to save the day, becoming a "hero", and then giving out his tech once he's retired and had his fun.
This is SO GOOD!! I love how you fixed the problems with the writing, and all the real issues you bring up. I really want to see a video like this done with Zaheer. It probably would go over many of the same points, because let's be honest they are the same plots just done with different paint- but that would be interesting nontheless.
A bit ironic with the religious one since the avatar could be claimed to be a religious figure chosen by the spirits to fix the world.
Pops up every generation, tries to fix the problems, if failed things get much worse.
Though that could work in the villain's favor and also explain why he would threaten, but not remove Kora's power.
Half due to the fear ahe might undue it due to her being the avatar... And also he could claim she is going against the will of the spirits as they should be working together as he will simply 'wait' for her to understand her role.
Could even throw in a jab about the previous avatar by stating when he didn't accept his role the world got stuck with the 100 year war and when he did accept it the war ended.
Amon should have been like the “Anti Aang.”
A sadistic violent manipulative old fart who hates bending because of what Tarlock’s family did to him.
Instead of burn scars he should have scars from frostbite & have it so that he was actually saved by them but he wanted to die with his family & it was other water benders who killed his family in the first place & he gathers crowds like a shepherd his lot of sheep.
Give him some speeches straight outta Senator Armstrong’s repertoire, & make him irredeemable instead of a person who’s redeeming others.
I mean what a better villain for the antonym successor to Atla ayy?
There is nothing more annoying than an antagonist where no one criticizes them on all of the things that would make them compelling
I disagree with your point about Syndrome though. Because his main motivation is not to give everyone superpowers. His main motivation was to fulfill his power fantasies of being a superhero by playing pretend regardless of how many people he killed to get there and how much destruction he was going to cause in his fake battles.
The idea of giving his tech to everyone so that everyone could be a superhero too is not his main motivation, that's mostly a last act of vindictive revenge against Superheroes, he wants to take away their status but only after he grows too old, and bored with that status himself.
He doesn't even pretend that his point was to lift up non-superpowered people. It was made very clear that this was all about his power fantasy and the chip on his shoulder he had against superheroes since he was a kid.
I don't think Syndrome is a villain with a point because he doesn't actually have a point. His plan would ultimately bring a benefit to the world, but he isn't driven by that, he isn't doing it for the greater good. You can argue that it would have been better if that aspect had been explored, but Syndrome is not a character like Killmonger who is right in his philosophy and beliefs but wrong in his morals and actions. Syndrome's motivation is pure self-indulgence, he doesn't even pretend he is doing this for some sort of cause.
The one that could be argued does fall into this category is Screen Slaver from Incredibles 2. Because, while her primary motivation is personal revenge against Superheroes, her message and views are kind of right. Her parents were murdered because her dad was overreliant on Superheroes. She is 100% correct that people without superpowers shouldn't rely on superheroes all the time and shouldn't grow accustomed to do nothing and wait to be rescued by superheroes, because the heroes can fail, they can't be everywhere at once, they can be beaten, then can be corrupted, and they cannot always save them....and then the movie kinda forgets about that plot and makes it about media obsession, and Screen Slaver's plan still relied on superheroes, and the entire situation was never actually addressed in the end and didn't tie to the main plot of the family either. I don't know, man, Incredibles 2 is a mess.
Everyone wants a villain who "has a point", but so many are deathly afraid of making a villain who could be right.
Because that would force them to actually prove them wrong in a logical consistent way which is a lot more difficult than people think.
my take to make Amon work:
have Amon and his brother Tarrlok be working together to take over Republic city. Tarrlok is the face and like the show has been working his way up the city's government but he also owns and uses most of the city's news papers and the radio station to promote himself and slander his political enemies, but he has a problem the equalists. the equalists in this version is a growing movement to have all the people of the city living there treated equal and have equal rights for voting, owning property, ect by removing the requirement to prove your from x nation/tribe. Tarrlok uses this movement to gain even more power, by having his brother Amon from a shadow/stawman version of the equalists that's about the evils of benders that conveniently removes Tarrloks political rivals while making the average equalists look bad. Tarrlok in turn uses Amons actions to have the metal bending police conduct raids against the equalists that are not apart Amon's, with Korra 'leading' the one raid that does hit one of Amon's staged equalists bases. but Amon becomes radicalized by his own messaging becoming a messiah figured by the growing shadow equalists as more and more non benders turn to Amon against the growing tyranny of Tarrlok. Amon turns against Tarrlok stripping him of his bending and locking him away while Amon and his equalists seize control of the city.
notes: in my version Tarrlok is a fire bender while Amon is a water bender, their father is a water bender but married/or had 'relations' with a fire bender. think it would be better if Amon does have scars on his face, from when Amon and Tarrlok first came back to the city and were reclaiming their fathers old gang territories. Tarrlok is not so secretly the head of the fire bender gang in the city and when Amon was stripping some of them of their bending it was a form of cleaning house.
the city's government is ruled by five seats, four of them by appointment by the four nations while the fifth is a elected by the local legal citizens, usually the fifth seat sides with benders natives nation is so usually fire or earth nation has the most sway.
legal citizens are people who can prove they are from x nation or can prove they descended from them. very easy from benders sense they can bend but for non benders it requires paper work, contacting their nations embassy, dressing the part and ideally having a bender relative vouching for them. in the early days this was needed to see how much aid was needed from each nation to support their citizens and prevent double or triple dipping from the aid by devious people or groups. now days its used as voter suppressant and in Tarrlok case as a way to strip property from the nons and give it to the citizen/benders that back him.
nons are a slur against non benders and non citizens often viewed the same thing, it denotes they are tribe less, nation less and viewed as parasites by the Tarrlok and parts of the higher class who are mostly benders or bender related. most nons born in republic city but lost their papers or don't know what nation they hail from. this is a growing problem generation to generation sense people being people have been marrying or having kids with other nations people causing dual citizens which is 'solved' by having the parents or who ever is writing the birth certificate picking one. big reason why the equalists is so very popular because they want to remove that requirement and that the appointment system and instead having a democracy along with other things.
my version Tarrlok is a excellent example of the failure of the current system, he born and raise by water benders, spend most of his life living in the water nation but because he can bend fire he is 'officially' a fire nation citizen even though he never been there and practically flaunts his papers are forged and his persona of a fire bender is made up. so naturally Tarrlok fights to up hold the current system because he knows the holes in it and exploits them to his advantage.
Tarrlok and his goons been quietly purging records then bulling people who are suddenly treated as nons having them jump through hoops to reprove they are legal citizens or failing to having their homes, business, citizenship stripped from them. Tarrlok has been careful to the public at large not be seen doing this but he and his supporters been getting wealthy and powerful doing this.
Asami and her father Hiroshi are not bender nor from a family of benders but wealthy and well to do anyway despite being non benders and not as touch with their native nation. Hiroshi has been targeted by Tarrlok for supporting equalist and being wealthy and powerful while not being a bender, causing Hiroshi to prove and reprove his and his workers citizenship making him want to support the equalists even more. when Amon started making bigger and bigger scenes making the equalists look bad, Hiroshi publicly break from the equalists movement as they suppressed by Tarrlok and the metal bender police. but quietly he makes contact with Amon offering his and his company support. Hiroshi can see the writing on the wall if Tarrlok isn't stopped all non benders will be driven out of the city and their homes, their livelihood stripped from them. if peaceful means of reforms are blocked then only violent means are left. Asami doesn't know her father is doing this instead she is still a equalist if a more quiet one and is more interested in finding and stopping Amon.
I mean, non-benders are objectively inferior to benders. A bender can become as smart and skilful as Sokka but Sokka can't bend water or any element no matter how hard he tries. Inequality is pretty much a given in a world like that. Honestly in a world like that its surprising that non-benders arent slaves.
No, you're conflating motivation with actions.
The motivation is to hurt a specific person.
The actions are grand, sweeping societal changes that invalidate everything the revenge target ever was.
They aren't motivated to 'make the world a better place', they are 'making the world a better place' as a means to achieve the motive of 'the suffering of this person I hate'.
11:35
So I don't think you can make a law telling people what to pay. You can do a law for equal pay for equal work sure, but if the job requires you to shoot lightning or flames then non-benders are out of luck. You can't say that the guy shooting lightning is bound to the same wage as a guy who mops the floor when their done. We see Mako sweating at the end of his shift, its hard work. If you make it so that other jobs that the benders are perfectly capable of are mandatory higher pay because or equal to the benders generating the power then over time they won't do that job anymore. Why break a sweat shooting lightning all day when I can make the same amount of money pushing papers or doing something else that is perhaps easier?
You have to make sure you don't remove the insentives of the firebenders making electricity since they clearly rely on it. If you mandate that non-benders make more money by the nature of being non-benders then maybe your nice but also a bit of a hypocrit since you are arguing for non-discrimination between benders and nons.
You could argue for recognizing the difference and insisting on a legal discrimination that provides government subsidies or higher base pay for non-bender employees. However, if this angers the bender population then they have far more leverage to go on strike with. You could find yourself without electricity or healers or cops/soldiers.
It really is a very fascinating issue that the writers of LoK didn't bother exploring, opting instead to write a love triangle. I feel like they watched @TerribleWritingAdvice and took it seriously.
On the point on the equal pay thats exactly what i was thinking
Why can't you? They both take time, they're both hard work, and while one does provide more value, the other absolutely isn't valueless. Plus, the guy with the mop still needs to feed his family, and without janitors, every power plant would be disgusting.
And there's problems with this, of course, it would remove some incentive to do a power plant job, but I completely agree with your ending point. This is a potentially really interesting topic that they keep baiting throughout the season, and then never use.
@@thehayze259 I agree with you there, and I recall realizing as I was typing how complex this issue actually is. On one hand we need people to work of course and incentivize them to work hard and stimulate the economy. The show seems to have a capitalist economy system so going off that we also need to make sure there is work for nonbenders. The issue there is that there isn't anything a non bender can do inherently that a bender can't also do. So for jobs that don't involve bending I'd say we can have laws that prohibit non bender discrimination but it also can't allow for anti bender discrimination. So we would see that benders can go for any job within their bending type and non bender occupations. While non bender's are limited and can't perform in large segments of the economy do to natural and uncontrollable circumstances.
It really is fascinating to explore this. I think a major part of it is building out a roster of occupations and figuring out which ones can take advantage of bending or would be utterly replaced by bending in the world space. There would definately be jobs that we have solved using tech that the Avatar world has answered with bending and never revisited.
No way you played the Avatar intro WITHOUT THE ELEMENT MONOLOGUE?! The music is incomplete without the element monologue.
Because Nickelodeon would have copyright struck the video.
When it comes to Thanos, I would argue that the movie suggests that Thanos is just insane that there aren’t real overpopulation problems. Thanos talks about how his race died out due to overpopulation and that made him believe that all races have the same problem.
The movie even shows that he doesn’t correctly follow his own logic of killing half: he kills half of the asgardians who were just decimated and when he does the snap, that halves the populations of all the places he “saved”. It also doesn’t solve the problem of new species coming around with overpopulation or the damage done by killing half of all species.
Thanos isn’t correct, he just so firmly believes his own insane ideology that he sounds convincing. There’s no evidence of overpopulation being common in the marvel universe
Just because a show look mature doesn't means it is , if that's the case one piece is the most childish show ever , i hate it when people look at the last Airbender and legend of Korra and say legend of Korra is more mature because it looks mature
My criticism of the video is that I think it's missing the point.
At least in my opinion.
Watching Korra, from my perspective was like watching a social politics simulation for kids.
Fact is benders are being discriminated against but they have the "magic powers." Benders in universe are basically seen as "the muscle."
Amon's point from a writing perspective was supposed to illustrate gaslighting personified & the societal consequences thereof for personal gain.
Remember, that he's doing all of this as a revenge/power plot for his dead father.
(We may not know "exactly" why but that doesn't matter because that IS the point, kinda. He's evil for the sake of being evil.)
Amon just wants to be powerful by ANY MEANS NECESSARY!
He's based deeply in machiavellianism & dark triad traits.
At his core, Amon is just faulty biological programming from his toxic fathers gang upbringing of gaslighting & brainwashing his sons, wanting them to avenge him in some way after he was brought to justice for his crimes then had his bending taken by Aang.
Amon is just a crying child broken morally by his upbringing.
In a way he is SUPPOSED to be a pathetic, generic, irredeemable villain to emphasize how in the real world, the masses can be made fools of & a movement started up over one toxic, twisted, egotistical, charismatic, manipulative, confused idiot who's selfish, self-serving ambitions weren't even his own!
Amon is & was simply just a ghost of his fathers ambitions.
A broken man with no actual free will.
From this angle, Amon is actually sadly relatable.
I feel as though that subtle nuance was missed by a lot of fans watching. 😁
"Sins of the Father are paid for my his son's" as the saying goes. 😓
Could the writing have been better? Yes, but that requires more budget, seasons, run time & support from Nickelodeon corporate which at the time was gaslighting the writers & producers of the show making them think that each season was the series finale.
... And it's kinda hard to work under those circumstances 😓😅
I would have loved if Amon's death was a fake out & we got him back and perhaps teamed up with another season villain. But That was definitely asking too much for at the time Nickelodeon drama. 😓🤦♂️
Amon had a lot of potential for some great worldbuilding and character development for Korra herself. Them glossing over his point, making him a fraud and killing him off wasted so much potential to elevate story
I think the equalits should have been frustrated Firebenders and Fire Nation descendants who are facing some degree of discrimination after the war similar to how Germany was hit disproportionately hard after WWI.
On the Syndrome point, I always took ut that he didn't actually care about "making everybody super" since he even states he'll use his tech to become a famous hero (with, it seems, manufactured crises) first and after he's had his fun release it to the public to become MORE wealthy and famous.
Pair that plan with his whole "when everyone is super, nobody will be" line and its less a genuine drive to address what may be a genuine issue in The setting and more that Syndrome wants to drag the heroes down and satisfy his own ego.
This was a great video
but the problem with your take on syndrome is he just wanted attention in the end
The reason why he didn’t give people super powers when he was alive because he was gonna do super hero stuff himself
He killed off retired hero’s so that way he can have the spot light when his robot does bad things
He also said once he’s retired he would give all his stuff out and because everyone is super
No one would be
20:30 actually a love square which doesn't make it better
I always thought it was really weird that like the show thought amon being a bender made his point invalid.
Life if there was some masked guy doing black rights activism right. And then he gets outed for being white.
It's not like everyone who supported him will now like dislike him. It'd most likely be some radical black separatist minority right.
In fact that is also a way the show could have gone towards. Because he was a child soldier blood bending guy.
He could have hated bending because of his personal history with it. Not really realizing there are also positive aspects of bending.
For there to then be an agreement between the protagonist and amon where they realize some people shouldn't have bending.
And some people should. Kind of like some tools in real life you know.
Actually leading up to the seasons after this when people ask why korra is qualified to be the avatar.
I fucking hate that lighting, the cold fire, one of the most powerful fire bending techniques that a few people could learn became a batery.🤦
Also, i just came from your B&W video and as far as i remember in that game they never show you pokemon that are being treat bad by people (but i haven't seen or played the game since...2012, god).
The only crew that does it is team plasma. So when i watched Amon, i watched some similar to Getchis.
14:22 the thing about the gun; you can literally use an air gun to cutdown a tree. You can use a flamethrower to help you smelt, etc. There are guns that can be used like tools instead of destructive tools, hell gun, guns are used for hunting; an AR 15 is going to have trouble taking down a boar but will take it down. A gun can and IS able to help you. Hell, a gun can help you protect your home.
The writing in this show in general is not exactly known to be...
How do I put it...
Competent.
23:03 the problem I’ve always had with this framing/criticism of Thanos is that no, overpopulation is NOT a “legitimate problem.”
It’s not a *real issue,* in reality or in the MCU.
Resource scarcity *is,* but that has fuck all with too many people populating the world/universe. Thanos is an insane egotist who believes very very strongly that he has a good motive, but he doesn’t. From square one, his logic is faulty, so it follows his solution would be as well.
He does not have a “legitimate grievance,” overpopulation/birth rate is not some problem to be solved. To treat it like one is to accept without evidence that his bullshit terms are the correct lens to view the world through.
There’s no legit cause for the viewers or the heroes to say “gee maybe Thanos was right and we should be concerned with policing or managing how many people are born in the universe”. That would be utterly stupid,
Having fewer people would lower the impact of the problem, at least temporarily (thank you Malthus). And having that be the point of the character would be fine, I personally think the way we distribute resources is pretty fucked up, but they never bring that up as an argument or anything. Thanos just says his three lines and then everyone calls him a monster without addressing his supposed fundamental motivation.
@@thehayze259 yeah, cause…he IS a monster. Only a monster would give his train of thought any legitimate credence, and by the time Endgame roles around its clear in his characterization that his motives and proselytizing come more from being a sanctimonious shmuck who wants to *feel* right than it does from actual moral consideration.
Killmonger and Syndrome are the same way- in the end their supposed motives are just a symptom of a deeply personal drive that places their emotional need to be “correct” over what actually makes any logistical or moral sense. Criticize that approach to those character all you want, but it’s very deliberate with each of them. There’s no real argument to be had between them and the heroes because they’re disingenuous, and Thanos in particular doesn’t have a leg to stand on beyond the vague destruction of his own planet solidifying what was most likely a preexisting mania and ego.
Tldr: I just don’t think any wise person’s response to the defeat of Thanos would be “ok but what ARE we gonna do about overpopulation”. The story is choosing to position his malthusianism as inherently psychotic, and suggesting that we shouldn’t even consider approaching the world’s ills on those terms.
Honestly I’d say the entire runtime of Endgame IS the argument against Thanos- he got what he wanted, we saw the result, and as far as we can tell not a single person’s quality of life was actually better off for it barring *maybe* Bruce/Hulk for largely independent reasons.
@@ThePondererThank you! All of these dumb think pieces do nothing but purposely misunderstand villains. Theyre horrible people with flimsy reasoning to justify their extreme views… i have no idea why people go out of their way to purposely misunderstand such a simple thing
I've heard overpopulation was propaganda from White Supremacists to get rid of everyone they didn't like, so frankly, I think it works as a villainous motivation for the guy who's nickname is 'The Mad Titan'.
I agree with your take. Amon is very cool, very scary, and the legacy of The Equalists is that a non-bender is elected President of Republic City. All that being said, his motivations don't make any sense. Being related to Tarrlok and Yakone does nothing for the character. He should have been a spirit bender, or a non-bender.
Tbf it's kinda made clear that Amon's and Tarrlok's motivations are just control, plain and simple. Their daddy issues are there not just to show how they resent their father or want revenge in any kind of way, but to show how it shaped their minds. Even if they hate their father, the shadow of his abuse made them seek exactly what he tried to push on them. They were abused and continued the cycle by seeking the only thing they knew, more power. They don't really have any real goals, they are just broken, and tried to get power in two different ways. It's like-, explicit Idk. Their motivation kinda suck when you look at what their motivation is SUPPOSED to be, and the showrunners could have definitely made a better job at giving them an actual motivation considering they were supposed to reference REAL political problems, but it's not really bad writing imo??? It's just a wasted opportunity, but Amon's character does have a very explicit motivation with very explicit reasons.
Isn't Syndrom's motivation for making everyone super, so no one is... Like, make superheroes not super anymore because it's normal to be able to do the kind of stuff they do?
Thing is the average none bender isn't Asami. Many none benders and benders have jobs or own small businesses and are extorted for protection mo ey by the triads who in most cases are benders, though I wouldn't be surprised if there was a chi blocking triad as well that was just never mentioned.
So to the average none bender they are faced with benders abusing their power and making their lives miserable even if it's not government regulated.
Amon makes very good use of the discontent by dressing up a huge strawman called bending and present himself as the solution. He's very smart and enigmatic. He found Hiroshima Sato at his most vulnerable moment after his wife died and manipulated and fed his anger and hatred to use his resources.
Did Amon have an actual point? No, but does a cult leader need to have a solid point or just be good at manipulating the masses.
Still not sure why Amon himself wanted to remove all bending though.
The government did one really stupid thing, a police force of only metal benders. Considering the small percentage of earth benders that can even learn metal bending are they importing them from the Earth kingdom? That part never made sense.
Considering Amon's words to Yakkone, it seems like he *does* hate Bending. The only form of it he ever regularly uses is intentionally cultivated to disrupt other Benders, and he only resorted to using Bloodbending in a more traditional way against the Avatar. He probably only also used it on his Lieutennant because he needed to keep focusing on using Bloodbending. And he then only used Waterbending in order to not drown. While he probably does want power and revenge, and was absolutely manipulating the Equalists, I think it's very likely he believed his own speeches to an extent, especially after being essentially raised as a living weapon by his father.
Could you potentially have a story where Amon is still kept as highly illogical, but have the point of the story be about how he utilizes charisma and emotional manipulation to still rally people to his side in spite of not having a good point? Perhaps akin to a non-religious/non-spiritual version of the cult idea?
I think there would've been also room for something interesting keeping Amon's bending. I mean, if he wasn't aware that what he was doing was bending, it could've been really interesting, having this character that thinks they have been blessed with the ability to rid the world of bending, and thought of it like a gift that could help him get revenge for the fact that most of his family (except Tarrlok) was murdered by a fire bender and scarred for life, only to then realize at the moment where he almost drowns, and instintively waterbends to get out of the water, that he is a bender, and have him have a mental breakdown in which his whole worldview shatters, like, he is just the same as the ones he swore to destroy, but how can he live without the goal that has kept him moving for his whole life. Like, it could lead to two possible conclusions, or him acknowledging that he was wrong, and benders are not as evil as he thought, and the actions of few shouldn't blind him of the goods bending can do for society, or him digging his heels because he is so far gone, and Tarrlok's sacrifice also becomes a mercy for Amon, with him realizing that he is being betrayed by Tarrlok, but realizes he is ok ending it like that, maybe a "If things could be like in the past again" or "And yet it will go up in flames again" just before the flames engulf both of them, just a little too late for Tarrlok to second guess if Amon might have still been able to change (even if Amon knew that was not the case.).
Don't know, maybe it's not as good, since I feel it might cheapen a bit the blow of Tarrlok's sacrifice, since his whole idea was that Amon couldn't be redeemed, and having it be accepted by Amon would've lessened that idea, I think the whole idea of him being unable to come to terms with the fact that all he thought was a lie and accepting his fate with only a tear in his eye as he realizes he is being betrayed, I feel that's kinda tragic and it is usually a way to end a villain's journey that, at least in my opinion, makes them quite memorable.
For Hiroshi and Varrick being introduced in season 1. They should be non- benders but are the only ones part of the 1% but are still being discriminated and are seen as inferior because of being non-benders, despite being part of the 1%. We see this with Black and other minorities who are business owners or part of the wealth establishment but are still being seen and treated as 2nd class citizens and are often punished if they challenge them or surpass them in some shape or form.
This honestly would have been cool too, like even though they have the benefits of being rich, they're still treated poorly.
7:25 your editors got the arrows backwards
this
I disagree. Hitler also didn't have a point prosecuting the Jews. Yet so many jumped on board. People don't need a legitimate reason to be angry and upset. Or to feel like they are beeing treated poorly. It's enough to convince them that they should be and suddenly everything bad happens to you because of this or that. Tell a blond person that blond people are hated and suddenly all the bad things are happening to them due to "discrimination"...
Those are very good points you brought up. It suspect it is because the *idea* that non-benders would very likely be treated as second-class citizens makes so much sense, that we don't always critically ask whether that is actually shown.
The main inequalities I've found were the city council solely consisting of benders (mentioned), as well as the police force employing all metal benders we see, and no non-bender I can recall (not mentioned). I'd argue those points are still important enough to grant Amon's positive reception among the population validity, especially if both have been ongoing for years.
That last part is indicative of the main problem with the narrative -- the valid and interesting points the Equalists bring up are at best hinted at, but more often left to the imagination. We cannot be sure about the council/police force being bender-only for years. If head-canon provides those details, it may be making the first season more interesting than it actually is.
I have two questions:
1) How the Blood Bending was passed if the only ones that had that ability were the old lady that first learn it and Katara? Yeah, maybe offscreen there were other Blood Benders but never mentioned
2) HOW Amon could remove the bending ability from benders if the only one who could do it is the Avatar itself? How did he learn to do it?
Yea pretty big plotholes, wouldve been good if amon knew pressure points to disable chi from benders or somethin
I think the writers explained the taking away bending bit as him using blood bending to block their chi rendering them useless. Still doesnt excuse not explaining it in the show though. As for how they know how to blood bend no idea that is genuinely never explained as far as I can tell even by the writers.
Bloodbending is a matter of Waterbending skill and strength, not a genetic technique in and of itself. When Yakkone says that his family are the greatest Bloodbenders in the world, what he's really saying is that they are exceptional Waterbenders who devoted much of their training *to* Bloodbending. They are able to Bloodbend during the day, Yakkone and Amon psychically, because they're just that good at Waterbending. The concept of some Benders having more raw power than others was introduced in the same episode as Bloodbending. The Puppetmaster.
Make amon a nonbender. Make him be chosen by an evil spirit (or hell even vaatu who was freed by amon somehow but needs to gain power) and make him NOT die but be arrested into some world security prison. Which forehshadows red lotus as he was somehow part of it
We....we don't talk about Vaatu.
I believe you made some valid observations and points about season one and The Legend of Korra in general, but I think it would help to acknowledge that this was a show produced for a network that primarily makes animation for children. I'm not saying that kid's media cannot talk about complex issues, but that I think Korra bit off more than it could chew by choosing themes and issues that would require a lot of nuance to possibly explain. While The Last Airbender did a great job of explaining why war is terrible, I believe the writers were helped by the fact that criticizing war and fascism is an accessible message, and it was done across three full seasons. Having to explain the intricasies of class struggle, civil rights, violent vs. non-violent activism, the ethics of revolution and the dangers of dogmatic leaders of said revolutions is harder to do, and in twelve episodes no less.
The original AtLA did it quite successfully.
I disagree with the whole "Thanos has a point" thing.
Even without the Infinity stones, the entire overpopulation crisis can be averted by providing underdeveloped countries (or planets in this case) with aid and contraceptives until they can reach the more developed ones.
Also the point about finite recourses is very weak, because new materials, fuels, proceses and uses for well known recourses are found everyday.
For example, copper was originally used in tools, and when iron was discovered it was thrown to the wayside, it's only uses being in jewlery and maybe cheap pots. Today however, copper is incredibly valuable because it's used in wires, and we have more methods of extracting it.
Anyways, sorry for the yap session, I'm just peeved how everyone takes what billionaire tycoons say about personal freedoms without realizing it they're not the ones who will suffer the conscequences of population control laws.
I remember hearing that originally Assami was going to be an equallist. Imagine if they kept that, making her the MLK of the Equalist movement gives her more to do.
One thing can be said, is that amon trembled so belos could run
9:40 the thing is is I know that bending isn't entirely genetic. With Aang he literally had to LEARN other elements, and then MASTER them. Kora has INSTANT MASTERY of all four.
If Aang can learn elements, it stands to reason with enough study and training under a proper teacher, even non benders can learn bending; sure, it'd take a while to learn all the elements. And learning all four could take years of tuition in a college of each element, but Aang is proof that you CAN learn bending in the universe. In fact the only bending I don't see used is Spirit Bending: But I'd say that that one is likely off limits because shooting lasers from your fists would be seen as "too destructive", akin to Culvera's rail cannon.
I have to disagree on the protests part, I wouldn't use biased corporate media when discussing politics regardless of their political slant. It doesn't do you any good either from people watching you to take you seriously or for you to figure out what you're saying is actually true, most of those protests have been incredibly violent for one and two Lenin and his gang were pretty violent too, anti sex work and very hateful and violent towards other demographics of the population and absolutely abused their power and were also book burners
I don’t fully think him having no real point is a flaw, because he doesn’t actually care about his own movement. Don’t get me wrong, Legend of Korra is definitely a terribly written show 90% of the time, but I liked Amon because he was a terrible villain. No one stopped to question his issues because people just like being mad and want to be apart of something. If Amon says that benders discriminate against non benders, they kind of just follow his lead. Amon wasn’t interested in his own movement but used it because it made him seem like a discriminated activist rather than just a dictator who wanted power.
Korra was shown messing around with her bending as a child. I would have loved to see how that became a problem later, when she came to Republic City. Imagine people already don´t like benders, because they abuse their power and then the young Avatar comes around and uses 3 different elements to mess around with the people on the streets just for fun. 🤣
Of course she would have thought of it as a joke, but people would have gotten easily provoked by that. That would have been a beautyful way to adress the problem.
Awwww, man, Amon is asowme. He's one of my favorite villains
Don't get me wrong, he looks really cool, and he sounds cool too! The overall plot is just really poorly written.
I would disagree with that. I think the idea of a none bender terrorist organization is really cool, and I think they handled it well. I also like the amount of mystery surrounding amon
It is sad they downplayed how chi blocking would in many cases equalize non and benders militarily, but it also reminds you how little that matters unless you’re willing to commit a guerilla warfare. Which clearly we all know gives wonderful results in a very short time.
or maybe those chi blockers just aren’t as talented as Ty Lee?💀
Bro attacks matt walsh in the same video he softballs mao. Truly, we have reached peak reddit.
I THOUGHT I SMELLED COMMIE IN HERE
@@dontkickmychick6076 Yeah you know, this mao guy had some pretty good ideas actually, but this walsh guy? Literally a terrorist.
who tf
you know how bad of a person you gotta be to have less positives than Mao Zedong
@@DgSezn You know how delulu you gotta be to actually think that.
...I think you missed a few things about and the whole point of Syndrome.
I have a question about technology in Korra.
Why are there not more types of technology that work with Bending?
Avatar had a lot of that, and you would expect this brand of technology to evolve at least as much as the regular type.
Because it wasn't nearly as well thought out as AtLA, that's why.
I don't think you understood his goals/aspirations. He does not actually believe in getting rid of bending or the Equalist's movement. After all, he is a bender himself. He rallies non-benders to his cause due to their non-representation in Republic's City council. Essentially, he saw a power vacuum and filled it. Utilizing the flag of "equality" as the rally call, and then he built his extremism around it to maintain the momentum he built.
He probably intended to become the representative of non-benders in the council, and only switched to extremism either due to the incompetence of the avatar, council pushback and/or he believed he could actually take over with the help of Hiroshi Sato's financial support.
At the end of the day, his entire goal was power. We can see this theme being reflected by his brother, and father. Does that make him one dimensional? No. It just makes him a manipulator who sees the Equalist movement as a means to an end. If he had succeeded, it would have certainly resulted in disaster, though. I have 0 doubt that all nations would've rallied together to put an end to to someone (who would've most likely had to kill the Avatar to conquer Republic City) have the power to remove bending, and have a whole movement related to that. Also be responsible for wiping out the Air Benders again. Republic City most likely have been destroyed, and Amon executed or killed in combat.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one that picked up on this. The whole point is that Amon was full of shit. And while the discrimination between benders and non benders does not actually exist, the insecurities do. If you don’t believe insecurities can be weaponized to radicalize people against issues that don’t actually exist, just take one cursory glance at the real world.
@@jarrickhillery8664 this is the point. Whether they are expressed or not the bender possess something they do not and that is more than enough to rally around. It happen irl all the time for far less real disparities than literal magic powers.
That is the problem Amon does not believe in what he preaches and there is no discrimination against non benders. The writers did not have the guts to actually explore the idea that benders are oppressing non benders and actually fix the problem so they just made Amon a bender and make it that he did not believe in equality and then the equality movement magically disappears.
Spot on and its pretty obvious but i guess people wouldnt have content and “think pieces” if they didnt purposely try to misunderstand a pretty simple story. Hell a political figure being full of shit in the name of seizing power is way more realistic when you look at the real world
Exactly.
I love TLOK but I still agree with most of your points. That said, I think your Part 2 about oppression was weak and showed you either weren't paying much attention, or you don't fully understand systemic oppression. I recommend watching "The Admiral's Analysis".
Good sport would at least provide a counterpoint it a definition. Saying 'you don't understand X' is a claim that puts burden of proof on you
@@Anton_Jermakoŭit’s not that serious bro lpl