The Legend of Korra addresses this slight flaw by humanizing its villains. They have backstories, motivations and personal philosophies, and the best of them all is the Bloodbender Amon.
Amon is the primary antagonist in The Legend of Korra S eason 1, and he offers some interesting questions about the world of the show. In the series' new, modernized world, cities are compacted thanks to the nations intermingling, crime seems to be running rampant and tensions between benders and non-benders are rising.
Benders vs. In The Last Airbender, most people born without bending take on unique skills that allow them to be as effective as any elemental; however, in the age of industrialization, many non-benders have stopped learning to fight and benders use their abilities for self-gain, like sports and work. It creates a rift among the citizens of Republic City , where non-benders feel the world treats them as second-class citizens.
Amon comes on the scene as an answer to their problems. Amon took down the all-bender council of Republic City, throwing it into chaos, while Zaheer wanted all kings and queens disposed of.
Amon set the stage for the very next villain: Unalaq, the chief of the Northern Water Tribe. Amon is a Water Tribe native, like Unalaq, and thus they both challenge the "good guy Waterbender" paradigm, just like Hama once did. Waterbenders are usually heroes in this franchise since water is soothing and nurturing.
But Amon uses it for evil ends, and that smoothly leads right into Unalaq doing the same thing. The main difference is that Unalaq never tried to hide his Water Tribe heritage. Amon was the villain of the first season Book One: Air , but despite his death in that season, he continued to appear in some shape or form throughout the story.
He "appeared" in Book Four: Balance as a humorous version of himself, talking on the phone with Vaatu, a cartoonishly evil Unalaq, and some other villains. It seems like this masked menace will never go away.
It seems like every villain after Amon owes his or her role as a bad guy to the masked Waterbender who came before them. Amon was a populist revolutionary like Zaheer, an evil Waterbender like Unalaq, and a disciplined soldier like Kuvira the empire builder. Amon never wanted to kill anyone, or even a whole group of people.
He would rob them of their bending, and capture them via bloodbending to subdue them. He was also skilled at evading enemy attacks and never used lethal force in return. All that could be said about Kuvira, and she used metal strips to capture her enemies rather than bloodbending. What's ironic about Amon is that he repeatedly calls out for equality and the end of all bender oppression, but based on his personal actions and experience, he has some contradicting views.
He must have reconciled these two sides in his mind years ago. He also scorned his younger brother, Tarrlok, for not having the stomach to make the most of his bloodbending talents. Amon claims to bring equality to the streets, but deep down, he must enjoy dominating other people, and he wants the strong to rule over it all. He's quite the hypocrite, in some ways. Once he realized both boys were waterbenders, Yakone began to eagerly teach them all he knew, hoping to use them to reclaim his place in Republic City and kill the Avatar.
His training was relentless and he had no problem teaching them how to bloodbend, something he could do without the full moon. Desiring revenge above everything, he even forced Noatak and Tarrlok to use bloodbending against each other. When Tarrlok refused, Yakone threatening him, only to be stopped by Noatak. Meanwhile, Tarrlok eventually became a member of the United Republic City Council and a fierce enemy of the Equalists, happily using violence against them.
As the leader of the Equalists, Noatak hid all his bending abilities, using chi-blocking and martial arts instead. Due to his incredible talent, he was able to bloodbend without any gestures or physical movements. It also made Amon a great villain for The Legend of Korra. He was a terrifying opponent who had incredible fighting skills while was also being incredibly smart and charismatic.
Although Amon did lie about his identity and past, his goals as the leader of the Equalists were genuine. Alongside his younger brother, the former councilman , Tarrlok , Amon was unknowingly shaped by Yakone to be a tool for his revenge against the Avatar. With his identity exposed and his followers deserting him, Amon fled the city with Tarrlok, but the latter ignited the fuel tank of their speedboat , killing them both.
Noatak and Tarrlok were happier during their younger years. Noatak was born in the Northern Water Tribe to Yakone and his wife , as the older brother of Tarrlok by three years. Growing up, he was a good-natured child who always looked out for his younger brother and wanted everyone to be treated fairly and equally. When Noatak and Tarrlok both discovered they were waterbenders , Yakone trained them ruthlessly to develop their skills. While Noatak was a natural, Tarrlok struggled to progress as quickly and was often verbally abused by Yakone as a result.
Noatak initially stood up for his brother, but stopped when Yakone ordered him to never talk back. When Noatak was ten, Yakone took his sons on a supposed hunting trip far from their home, where he revealed his true identity as a Republic City criminal and explained to them the power of bloodbending. Claiming that their family had the strongest line of bloodbenders in history, he expressed his intent to make his sons bloodbenders of the highest caliber in order to exact his revenge against Aang for stripping him of his bending.
Yakone trained the boys secretly during every full moon to use their bloodbending on animals, such as yaks and wolves. Noatak reveled in his newfound power, eventually mastering Yakone's unique psychic bloodbending technique by the time he was fourteen. As a prodigy, he carried the burden of all his father's expectations and demands.
Over the years, he became cold and detached. Tired of his father's treatment, a young Noatak bloodbent Yakone. Eventually, Yakone ordered his sons to bloodbend each other, which Noatak did with great ease, ignoring his brother's screams of pain until Yakone ordered him to stop. When Tarrlok refused to bloodbend Noatak, Yakone became angry and called him weak. However, as he started to lash out at Tarrlok as punishment, Noatak halted the attack by bloodbending his own father.
He then called Yakone weak for being stripped of his waterbending by the Avatar and reminded his father that they were his children, not his "tools of vengeance". He subsequently urged his brother to start a new life with him away from Yakone, but Tarrlok declined out of worry for their mother. This prompted Noatak to agree with their father's assertion that Tarrlok was weak.
After flinging Yakone in the snow, Noatak ran off into the blizzard, prompting Yakone and Tarrlok to search for him in the following days; they eventually assumed that he had perished in the storm. At some point in his life, Noatak figured out how to use bloodbending to disrupt a bender's chi making it impossible for them to bend. To garner sympathy and hide that he was a bender himself, Amon claimed that he was born on a small farm to a poor family of nonbenders that was being extorted by a firebender.
When his father had supposedly confronted the bender, he and the rest of his family were murdered and Amon's face was left scarred from the attack, forcing him to hide behind a mask ever since. He also claimed that he had been granted the power to remove bending by the spirits because they believed the Avatar had failed the world and wanted him to usher in an era of equality.
After Avatar Korra announced her official relocation to Republic City during a press conference at City Hall , Amon told his second-in-command that the Avatar's arrival would force them to accelerate their plans. Later, at an Equalist assembly called " The Revelation ", Amon revealed his plan to eradicate the world of benders, as they "had only brought suffering" and "were the cause of every war in every era". Amon rallied the sympathy of his followers with a false backstory, in which his family, all nonbenders, was extorted by a firebender and his face was left horribly scarred.
He also claimed to have been chosen by the spirits to usher in a new era of balance to the world by permanently removing people's bending in order to make equality a reality.
Amon removed Lightning Bolt Zolt 's firebending. As a demonstration of his abilities, Amon had his Equalist henchmen bring forward several captured Triple Threat Triad members, along with Bolin , and proceeded to remove their bending one by one, starting with the firebending of the notorious crime boss Lightning Bolt Zolt , whom he was able to defeat without the use of any offensive attacks.
However, before he could finally purge Bolin of his earthbending , Korra orchestrated a distraction by releasing a cloud of steam into the room, allowing Mako to rescue Bolin in the resulting confusion and escape. As the brothers and Korra were riding away on Naga , tailed by several Equalists, Amon allowed them to escape, remarking that the Avatar would be the perfect individual to spread the word about his powerful new ability. Before officially meeting Korra, Amon had made a severe impression on her with his actions during the Revelation rally by unknowingly plaguing her with nightmares in which he removed her bending.
After being proclaimed public enemy number one by the United Republic Council, he spread a message over the radio to his fellow Equalists, using the actions of the Council as proof of benders' oppressive nature.
Amon threatened to destroy Korra once and for all during their final showdown. After Councilman Tarrlok and Avatar Korra led a task force that successfully raided an Equalist training facility, Amon was publicly challenged by the Avatar to a midnight duel on Aang Memorial Island without the involvement of the task force or chi blockers.
However, Amon did not arrive on time, nor did he come alone. Just as Korra began to leave the island, several hidden Equalists reeled her inside the island's museum, where she was quickly overpowered and incapacitated by chi blocking.
Amon emerged from the shadows and revealed that he would allow her to keep her bending for the time being, stating that she would otherwise become a martyr and cause benders from every nation to rally behind her "untimely demise". However, he warned a terrified Korra that he would "save her for last" and finally "destroy her" in their inevitable showdown.
With that final statement, he proceeded to knock her out and flee with his group. Amon forcibly removed the bending of Tahno and the other Wolfbats. On the eve of the Pro-bending Championship match, Amon demanded that the Council end the hero-worship of bending athletes by shutting down the Pro-bending Arena and canceling the tournament, threatening "severe consequences" should they refuse. The Council voted to keep the arena open, which Amon revealed to be in line with his plans for the situation.
At the conclusion of the championship match, he entered the arena and stripped the victors, Tahno and the rest of the White Falls Wolfbats , of their bending powers. While his Equalists overpowered members of the Metalbending Police Force in the stands with electrified gloves , the revolutionary leader gave a speech in which he condemned benders, using the cheating of the Wolfbats as an example of their typical abusive behavior toward their fellow nonbending citizens. Furthermore, he stated that the fate of the same pro-bending team served as a warning to all benders who dared to oppose his goals.
Later in his monologue, Amon mentioned that the current tyrannical bending regime would soon be replaced with "a fair minded, Equalist" government.
0コメント