There was no new Korra this weekend because of Memorial Day (terrible, I know), but that shouldn’t stop us from having fun, should it? So this week, I’ve roped in fellow CliqueClack writer, Korra fan, and general excellent human being Katie to discuss the politics of bending, anti-bending sentiment, and to examine if Amon is really as bad as he appears.
Julia: So here’s something to debate — is Amon’s message necessarily bad?
I mean, to put it into real-world terms, being born a bender, in Republic City, is a massive privilege. The city is governed entirely by benders. Every seat of power is held by a bender. The supreme ruler of everything is that way because they can bend all four elements. Bending is fetishized and revered (think pro bending). Gangs of benders roam the streets keeping law and order based on their own whims.
And yet a good portion of the city are non-benders, and where does that leave them? What voice do they have? Sure, they can go the route of Hiroshi Sato, but even he isn’t safe from benders coming in and killing the ones he loves. The owner of Cabbage Corp (presumably also not a bender) is found suspicious and framed despite his wealth and prestige, because all it takes is a plant and the fact that he’s not a bender. And I’m sure making money is easier if you’re a bender than it is if you’re not.
Katie: For me, radicals in The Legend of Korra are so hard to get my head around because what they’re fighting doesn’t really have any direct parallel to our history.
Julia: See, that’s where I disagree — I think it’s very similar to what was happening historically in the beginning of the twentieth century because that’s the time, real-world speaking, where people started to question the ideas of privilege and wealth, and I think it’s interesting that much like the radicals then, the radicals in Republic City were often extreme and/or violent.
Katie: The beginning of unions come to mind, in particular.
Julia: Exactly! And looking back, we sympathize with those radicals despite their methods because they were right, that the power structure at the time was damaging except those born to the privileged elite, and that the makeup of the world was generally just unfair. It’s kind of like Amon is a Magneto without his Professor X.
Katie: But there are benders throughout the class system in Republic City as there are non-benders in each of the classes. Bending isn’t like being wealthy because you’re either born with it or you’re not — there’s no way to move up, unlike in business. And it’s not like being a certain race there’s nothing superhuman about any race on earth. While certain sects could have more power, it’s not part of their physical being. It’s just hard to compare to anything in our world’s history because we really haven’t had superpowered beings woven into our societies like this.
Julia: I don’t know, through most of history, rich, white, Christian, heterosexual men ruled the world. And they created all these myths about being the superior race. They even made up eugenics, which is like a fake pseudo-science saying how much more awesome and less barbaric they were. That was their justification for conquering people and taking over, that they were the master race. I mean, that sounds Hitler-y (Godwin’s Law! Sorry), but Hitler came from centuries upon centuries of rhetoric that said basically what he said, it just didn’t translate to real-world action the way he did.
But before I get too sidetracked by Nazis, we still have my original question: Is Korra (and therefore the audience) on the wrong side of this debate? Certainly she’s right to protest Amon’s methods, but is she wrong in protesting his message as well?
Katie: Well, here’s the thing — can we nail down Amon’s actual message, preferably in one sentence? Because if it’s “Non-benders need to be treated as equals with benders,” then sure, Korra and really the show’s audience can certainly get behind that, even if there might not be a clear-cut solution. But if the message is “Non-benders need to be treated as equals, and the only way to do that is to destroy bending,” then I don’t blame Korra at all for taking exception to that. Because bending is as integral to a bender’s life as breathing. You mentioned Magneto, but all I can think of is the Cure storyline. Sure, the people demanding mutants get the cure were the people in power, but it’s still destroying a part of a person in the name of equality. And when many of those mutants have done nothing wrong, is it really so righteous to scorch their gifts from the world?
When it comes down to it, Amon is taking an idea that most people agree with “we should all be treated equally” and making his own methods the only possible solution in the minds of his followers. If I can say one thing about parallels to our world, destruction and violence under the message of peace has certainly been seen in our own history. And when it comes to as complex an issue as elemental powers and the class system, just a blanket statement of “Destroy bending” doesn’t work for me.
Julia: True, I don’t think anyone would argue his methods are deplorable, but these are the same creators who brought us Zuko, so I doubt Amon is as black and white as he appears. Plus, I think a lot of Korra’s journey involves learning how to be softer and more compassionate instead of just a fighter. I mean, isn’t that what her being blocked with airbending and accessing her spiritual side is all about? Korra tries to bulldoze her way into every situation, including getting with the guy she likes. And maybe that works in fighting, but a huge part of being the Avatar is also empathizing and helping people work out solutions to their problems. So I feel like maybe by deliberately having Amon be an extreme incarnation of a real problem will force her to grow in that aspect, the way facing the Fire Lord forced Aang to grow into someone who could fight.
Either way, it’s certainly an interesting thing to consider, and I have to give serious kudos to the writers for putting something so nuanced into a “kid’s” show.
Clacked by Julia Hass 
on May 29, 2012 @ 18:49 EST5EDT
If you agree with the Equalizers in this series then you most likely agree with the Marxists of the World too. Don’t you want the wealth in our society to be redistributed? It’s unfair that only the wealthiest among us can reach towards success, and possibly become leaders of the world too. Don’t you think so?
A very interesting thought provoking article.
A few comments.
First, we don’t know for sure if every seat of power for each council seat is held by a bender. Sure Tenzin and Tarlock are both benders, but Sokka also was on the council and is clearly not a bender. Also, I believe that while it is normal for benders to be in control, the previous Earth King, Kuei with his bear wasn’t a bender.
This is a small point, but I think that it is important to note that non-benders still have a chance for representation even in higher forms of government.
I think that this better parallels real life. Where you have the majority of people who have been “born into their power”, and maybe that one or two token person that the system can point to and say that they are being diverse and you have a meritocratic system.
You are going to have the best chances of success if you are born into a high amount of power, with a lot of wealth, and you happen to be also the right race, ethnicity, sexuality (In the world of avatar, you just add the ability to bend into that mix, of “born into advantages”).
Also, the other thing to think about is that once you are in power, you generally want to stay in power. So if you are lucky to get a break and get into that upper echelon, you will probably want to set things up so that your kids can stay in that echelon.
This is true in the real world (look at George Bush to George W.) and also true in Avatar.
But is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe yes, maybe no, for the real world (but that’s a conversation for elsewhere). But I for one would be very sorely disappointed if that aspect of “old power” went away.
You can’t help but fall in love for all of the characters from The Last Airbender. You are rooting for them to, as Katara puts it in the start of every episode of the last airbender “change the world” and to not see their influence in the new world of The Legend of Korra would be really sad. I personally had very happy nerdgasms all throughout the last show, with the flashbacks, and seeing older Aang and Sokka and Toph, and was really happy that their (and every one else that we loved from the first series) had a good positive impact on the second series.
I think the big thing to consider then in the question “Do you support Amon’s cause?”is if you see a difference between what Amon really wants to what Republic City wants to what the avatar really wants.
If you see Amon simply wanting equality for everyone, I don’t think that the avatar would disagree with him there, but I have a feeling that the bad guys in that case would be Republic City (and more specifically Tarrlock). I’m thinking in particular the episode where Tarrlock was turning off the power in people’s houses, and putting that ridiculous curfew out, etc. Easy answer is to get behind Amon and the avatar and hate on the republic city council douchebags.
However if you become more specific, you can think that Amon is more Magneto-esque(an argument I liked a lot that you had Julia, but I have a slightly different take on it), lets throw out this old regime and establish a new one (although ironically Magneto was a super throwing out the regulars whereas Amon has regulars throwing out the supers). This is opposed to equality Professor X-esque, and where I think the avatar falls in this (where benders and humans of all nations could get along equally). The answer of supporting Amon is trickier.
Amon is being radical, because he doesn’t have faith that those in power will change by themselves. A very reasonable argument, and one that I agree with (and outlined earlier). It is just human nature that those with power will want to stay in power and set themselves up in a hierarchal position. He doesn’t have faith that those people with power will stand for the little man without power, and that it is up for the little man to stand up for himself.
Also, is it that bad to take away someone who is evil’s bending away? I for one cheered at Aang taking away Firelord Sozin’s bending. All the people that Amon has taken bending away from that we have seen (outside of the military officers) have been a mob boss/mob members, bullies/cheaters, and Tarrlock. And he has given all of them a chance to save themselves and fight. He even had the chance to at least try taking Korra’s bending away (we’ll see what happens when he does, I expect some Avatar-mode, but we’ll see) and didn’t.
The other side of it is the side of the Avatar. I’m going to reference Aang first, because I believe that his vision for Republic city was one of equality, with all people of all nations living in harmony, benders and non-benders alike. It would be difficult, but in the same way that he conquered the fire nation with benders and non benders, that there would be a balance between both. He would be opposed to anyone exerting unfair power over another group, because that was precisely what he was fighting against with the fire nation exerting their power over all the other nations. I don’t think that he would see anything wrong with the previous argument at the start of this post about those in power wanting to stay in power, (benders being the prime example), but the key thing was that they didn’t use their prestige to oppress others. I think that Korra would agree with that (key point was in her fighting against Tarrlock and his men when Tarrlock cut the power on those non-bending townfold), but it is going to be up to Korra to figure out the balance between sharing power and prestige to those with bending and those without it.