[ SECRET POST #1951 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1951 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 102 secrets from Secret Submission Post #279.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[miakun.livejournal.com]

Watch the first season of A:tLA. When they go to the airtemple, Aang bats Sokka around like it's hilarious. He throws him through the air with his bending prowess. Imagine living in a world where you constantly have to fear the whims of people with these powers who not only use them but make up the majority of the leadership. The Council at the city is all benders. There were no non-benders on those seats. We haven't seen a Fire Lord non-Bender. Benders run everything.

And that class they broke in on, the chi-blocking. That looked exactly like a self-defense class. The only reason the police showed up when the Triads were terrorizing that neighborhood was because Korra was throwing things into buildings. Other than that, those people seemed to have lived in fear of benders pushing them around. And you know what, most of the wars we've had history on started by benders.

And the police! Are all benders! They're metal benders, thereby Earth Benders.

I'm not saying they had nothing to do with Amon. I'm not even saying Amon isn't an extremist, or a bad dude. I'm just saying, he's a dude with a point. And I think it's pretty clear Korra's going to be learning that point sometime in her arc.

I just mean, I don't think all the Equalists are bad people. And I don't think non-benders wanting to defend themselves are bad people. Amon's cause is pretty intense, but there's some truth to it as well, which is why it's so effective.

[(Anonymous)]

But there were plenty of non-benders that weren't treated like crap, and were respected. Sokka just had the unfortunate job of being the show's butt-monkey (I always hate when characters get saddled with that status). But what about the Kyoshi Warriors? None of them were benders, and everyone respected them as able to protect their community. Or Jet's rebel group? Nobody cared that they weren't benders. Or Piandao (who was a respected White Lotus member)?

As for the council, did they say that they were all benders? We know that whatshisface is a water bender, and Tenzin is obvs a bender, but did they state that they were ALL benders? I just assumed they were all representatives of the nations, but not necessarily all benders (after all, in AtLA the Earth King wasn't a bender, and Mai's parents had Fire Nation political power and they weren't benders).

And it looked like a self-defense class...that DID have Amon's thugs hanging out in it. Thugs who were involved with a vigilante who felt that it was his right to kidnap and de-bend people...because he thought they deserved it. If there hadn't been any of Amon's thugs around (and they had just had a picture of Amon up), I could better go along with the "They were only defending themselves!" thing. They didn't NEED to associate with Amon, but they chose to.

And we don't know if the police would have showed up if Korra hadn't stopped the Triads, but considering the Random Equalist Guy in the park gets defended by the police (who show up and demand to know what Korra is up to when she's shaking him down for info about Bolin), I don't think they ONLY showed up because of Korra. I figured they were already on their way, and just happened to nab Korra as well because of her wanton property damage.

And as for the POLICE being all benders, we've only seen them all like, once. We don't know what there whole system is like, or if literally every single member of the entire police force is metalbenders (unless this was stated and I missed it).

Anyways, as of now, it seems like Amon is pretty obviously playing off of people's fears and anxieties for power (rather like that Water Tribe Dude who's name I can't remember...Tarlock? Something like that?) so anyone who would be like, "HEY, HE'S NOT ALL BAD!" I would have to roll my eyes at. I would like to have a non-Equalist-identifying non-bender help bring home to Korra the potential plight of the non-benders. And I would just generally like to see more of this world in general, so I can feel more connected to the plight of the non-benders.

If Asami was an out-stated Equalist (as in, "I am working with Amon and think he is doing the right thing and stripping benders of their natural abilities is A-OKAY because they might abuse them")...yeah, I think she'd pretty much be a villain, or at least horribly misguided. She'd be at least as much of a villain as Jet was in Jet. Certainly not beyond redemption, but certainly going about everything in a terribly wrong way.

[(Anonymous)]

Considering that it's a TV show, they are going to have to address that things are not equal between benders and non-benders. I mean, it's pretty much impossible that the show deliberately brings up the idea that the non-benders are being oppressed only to turn around and say "LOL, NO THEY WEREN'T!"

That being said, I don't think they'll over-complicate everything by using the same name for people who want equality and those who kidnap and de-bend innocent people.

[(Anonymous)]

+1

I can see sympathizing with the Equalist if we were shown that they had a reason to be upset with benders, but they don't. We know from A:TLA that being a non-bender holds no one back. Hakoda is another non-bender who was in a position of power. As was Arnook. So in A:TLA, the Northern Water Tribe, the Southern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom were all ruled by non-benders. Plus the only Air Temple that had people living at it were non-benders.

[(Anonymous)]

da
No one? No non-bender ever has been disadvantaged? Just because we've seen several instances of awesome-- almost a century ago! in a very different society from what we see in LoK-- doesn't mean that's the universal experience.

What about that young non-bender couple (with the pregnant wife) we saw several times who were displaced by bender-started war? What about that family Zuko stayed with for a bit-- they and their town were all being harassed by the earth-bending guards ostensibly there to protect them from the Fire Nation. What about- heh- the cabbage merchant who constantly had his means for supporting himself wrecked by benders? Jet and his group made their own way, but they had banded together to fight the Fire Nation in the first place because they got dicked over by fire-benders. What about the merchants we saw in the first LoK episode getting the shake down from bender gangsters? (Power dynamics and retribution aside, it's not like they were being threatened with guns and could go buy their own guns to defend with.) Hell, even think of the Equalist protestor in the park who Korra bullied to get information to find Bolin. Like his message or not, he wasn't doing anything but talking until someone more powerful comes along and basically assaults him.

[(Anonymous)]

Some of those people's lives would have been worst if they had been benders though. The Fire Nation was rounding up benders left and right. There was at least two raids on the Southern Water Tribe to kill and/or capture waterbenders and there was that ep where we saw them throwing earthbenders in jail (it wouldn't surprise me at all if other Earth Kingdom villages they conquered also that their earthbenders thrown in jail for no reason). For some of those people, being a non-bender saved their lives.

[(Anonymous)]

And for others, being a non-bender was a detriment.

I'm just saying it seems a bit of an overstatement to declare that no non-bender has ever been screwed by the system, especially based on 70-year-old evidence. And though I hate to make the comparison and sound all social-justicey, it's a little like saying that because we have wealthy, successful black people and even the President of the US identifies as African-American, racism is over and no black people anywhere are being held back. Or a better example-- there are female entrepreneurs and CEOs and politicians, therefore there is no sexism or misogyny, anywhere, ever. (I say that's a better example because gender had more 'perks' than race, e.g. being able to avoid the draft, better chance of getting a lifeboat on the Titanic, stuff like that, comparable to non-benders not being jailed or executed.) Being born white and male (or a bender) doesn't mean you're guaranteed keys to a mansion and the corner office, but it does give you some advantages that others lack.

[(Anonymous)]

That's my main issue with the Equalist plot line. It would have been one thing if LoK was a brand new series but we have three seasons of canon that shows us how awesome non-benders can be. Because of that it just makes the Equalist appear really whinny and stupid. If Amon won and got rid of all bending I picture them celebrating and then five minutes later be complaining about their electricity being out, wondering what was wrong with it and wanting to know when it would be back on.

(And just to add to the list of important non-benders, Lo and Li who had one of the most important jobs in the Fire Nation in training Azula. They obviously did a damn good job at it considering how skilled Azula was when it came to firebending.)

[(Anonymous)]

>but did they state that they were ALL benders?

In episode 4, at the council meeting, Tarlokk says something about "all us benders" when convincing the council to form a task force. That heavily suggests all the members are benders themselves.