Headscratchers / The Legend Of Korra Equalists

Headscratchers pertaining to the Equalists (including the Lieutenant and Hiroshi Sato) from The Legend of Korra. Return to the index for more.

Equalists in general

Why don't the Equalists just learn how to bend?

• Bending is like a form of martial arts in the world of Avatar. Heck, remember the arc in the original series where they met Toph? There was an earthbending teacher that offered lessons for money, just like any karate teacher that's in it for the business would. There are even scrolls with instructions on how to bend in them.
  • The TV series has made it pretty clear that elementbending is a skill one innately has. The lessons and whatnot are only meant to hone the abilities a bender already has. Sokka wouldn't be complaining about being the only one in the group who can't bend if he could just take a couple lessons.
  • Per the above, this is the reason the Avatar is so special. If one could just learn whatever element they wanted, there'd be no need for an Avatar because anyone could do it.
  • While OP was oversimplifying, his question is still valid, and actually something I felt that was never addressed. It seems like, while bending is an innate skill you're born with, someone at some point LEARNED how to bend, either from Dragons (fire) Badger Moles (Earth) Flying Bison (Air) and, um...the moon (water). I kind of assumed that one would have to be highly spiritual and possibly do some kind of weird spirit magic thing to do so, but unless those are just creation myths (whic i guess is possible, but it doesn't feel like "no, bending is just a genetic quirk that some humans have and some humans don't" would be the answer in a universe with spirits who actively participate in world events) i feel like the answer needs to come in this series. it would be cool for a non-bender to bust there ass and somehow come up with a way to learn bending. it would be even cooler if someone learned a totally new element from a different animal/celestial body (though for the life of me i can't think of one that wouldn't fall into the previous 4).
  • There is a possibility that these stories are just myths created to explain how the natural process behind the bending happens.
  • It's combination of innate and learned. Oma and Shu learned to earthbend by mimicking the Badgermoles, for example, but not everyone would have had the spark to be able to do so. Apparently once the four elements were established it solidified the rules for future generations and led to the Avatar Cycle; energybending pre-dates the Four Nations and the Avatar. I suppose it's possible that you could have a group of non-benders try to learn from a scroll and one of them turns out to have had the latent ability all along, but it wouldn't be common, because with the bending arts being known quantities now, the potential for bending obviously tends to be recognized for what it is at a young age, hence all the young benders.
  • Just because someone at some point initially learned to bend from an external source doesn't exclude the possibility that the ability has innately been there all along in the people of the world. For example, a child can learn about his/her cultural, genetic heritage and then proudly carry on the traditions, but it doesn't mean that heritage wasn't there in the first place. In simpler terms: maybe the ability to bend was already there, and the "discovery" was just the push to get it going.
  • Bending is definitely innate. Scrolls and tutors exist to teach the skills and spiritual connection you need to be really good at it. Just think about this: First of all if anyone could learn to bend then when the Fire Nation was a military state it would have turned every citizen into a firebender. Secondly we've repeatedly seen competent child benders, Meelo is both too young and too inattentive to have learned complex martial arts from his father, Korra learned to firebend and earthbend before she was likely to have been exposed to either and long before she could have started training.
  • Anyone can learn how to bend actually. It just takes high spirituality. Before The four bending arts, there was spirit/energy bending, the bending of one's and other's energy. To do this, one must be pure (what type of pure isn't stated) and Balanced. In other words, one must have a high spiritual state. From this one bending, the other arts developed, and then the four nations developed from this as well. There was one nation that stayed with this high spirituality approach, the air nation. The point of this is that due to the high spirituality of the Air nation, they were able to ALL be air benders. No other nation rivaled the levels of the Air Nomads in terms of this. This also explains how Amon learned Energy bending. He said the spirits talked to him, thus he (if telling the truth) seems to be very spiritual as were the people before the nation's time.
  • If anyone could do it, then Pathik would be a bender. For that matter, the Air Nomads would have figured out the energy bending thing a long time ago. It's not just spiritual, and never has been.
  • If "high spirituality" was the only factor that Korra would be the most useless bender ever rather than a master of three elements. There's blatantly a selection process that occurs before birth. We've seen lots of unspiritual benders and no non-benders who later became benders thanks to spirituality.
  • It could also be a case where bending is dependent on the local spirits, not a person's genetics, like if a spirit is present when a child is born they can chose to "bless" them with the ability of bending whatever element the spirit is associated with. It could also explain how Amon had the potential to spirit bend and said he was taught it by a spirit or why only one of the identical twins in the first series could bend and the other could not.
  • Bending-potential may be caused spiritual interference during birth, but it raises the question of why Yueh wasn't the best waterbender ever instead of a nonbender...
  • The spirits seemed to have other plans for her.

Conversely why do the Equalists bother taking people's bending away?

• Bending is a martial art and the Equalists seem to have their own super-awesome-ninja-like martial art which has proven effective against bending. The Equalists might as well train all non-benders in that martial art and level the playing field rather than building a giant machine that can chi-block every bender in Republic City (That could be their plan, right?).
  • Because you can't train all non-benders to be awesome ninja chi-blockers. Besides, one-on-one a chi-blocker has an edge. Scale that up to an army and the chi-blockers are going to lose badly. When the benders have a lot of targets to hit, they're going to do much more damage.
  • Besides, is being a Badass Normal really as cool as shifting and tearing chunks of the ground, shooting fire bolts from your hands, or drinking without touching your beverage.
    Korra: What are you talking about? Bending is the coolest thing in the world.

Are the Equalists Right?

• Although it's pretty clear that Equalist methods are pretty freaking awful, is their overall complaint all that wrong? It seems fairly clear that non-benders really are at a disadvantage in a world without bending, and we're seeing lots of hints that they're effectively second-class citizens (e.g., the council that rules the city is composed of benders, as is the entire police force). If you were a non-bender in such a society who found yourself effectively at the mercy of benders, politically as well as practically, wouldn't a message of opposing bender power have a lot of force?
  • It's not exactly black and white enough that you can slap a right or wrong label on it, but Amon wouldn't have so many followers if he didn't make any good points. It's not exactly hard to imagine a person who can't bend feeling like they're not as good as those who can - the very first scene of the first series involved Sokka complaining about Katara being a bender, no doubt partially out of a little jealousy. Benders have more job opportunities such as the Earthbenders who pushed the trains and the Firebenders powering a generator. They probably even get paid a little more since Bending-only jobs would have a higher demand than the jobs that anybody could do. Nearly every sport or game we've seen thus far requires control of some element or another, most notably pro-bending which of course requires all three. So, yes, clearly a movement promising you that you are special despite the fact that you can't bend wouldn't have to go very far to find followers.
  • Jealousy is by far the smallest factor here. Fear is what is at play in Republic City. It is very deliberate that one of the first things we see during Korra trip through the city is non-benders cowering in terror from a group of bending criminals. It's childish to dismiss the Equalist agenda as "jealousy" when its a major plot point that they're actively being terrorized. Look at the raid in episode four, even for chi-blockers there is no defense against benders unless you attack them first (or massively outnumber them).
  • Their overall complaint isn't completely wrong. The Triple Triads were shown to be abusers of their bending among other things, and left unchecked, as shown by Koraa's action in the first episode, can cause lots of property damage. However, simply removing bending is not the solution. I mean, for the sake of argument, let's say Amon's plans of completely removing bending from the world does happen. How sure are the people that no one will abuse whatever power they have, no matter how small it is? there still weapons like knives and swords. Or political and/or monetary powers. The main problem isn't bending being the cause of problems, as they are simply tools. The problem is the nature of people. Look at our own history and you'll see it over and over again. Guns don't kill people, the person pulling the trigger does. Elemental bending doesn't kill people, BENDERS do!
  • Amon would probably pose his solution as a way of creating meritocracy. No one is born with superpowers, instead they have to work to gain power.
  • Like Hiroshi Sato, one of the most powerful people in the series and a non-bender? Or, I dunno, Sokka?
  • Guns aren't a good example to use since the portion of society that is physically unable to use guns is very small. Not to mention that "bending doesn't kill people, benders do" is a pretty good Equalist rallying cry. Benders are killing them. Benders need to be stopped.
  • Benders also save them. Benders help them. Benders are their friends and family and loved ones. Because some people use guns to harm others doesn't mean that everyone who owns and properly uses a gun should have it taken away and incinerated into ash.
  • "Benders also save them" just drives the issue home. Non-benders are totally dependent on benders just to stay alive. That's a very bad thing. Debending is one solution to it, almost certainly the worst one given the tremendous econoic, spiritual, and human cost involved. Ironically Hiroshi is in a perfect position to end the problem without Amon's involvement. If his wife's death hadn't made him so hateful he could have sold mechs and shock-gloves peacefully. The most serious problem (that non-benders are powerless against malevolent benders) would be dealt with. Economic and social issue would remain, though.
  • That's assuming the Council wouldn't outlaw such things, fearful of them being used by nonbenders rising up against their masters.
  • The shock glove he might be able to pass off as a self-defense item, properly licensed. "Self-defense armored mecha" is a pitch he could likely only make to the military.
  • For most of the season it is easy to sympathize with the Equalists, but the finale shows us that a) Amon's motives are far from pure, and b) that despite his claims of a "bending elite" benders and non-benders exist at all levels of society. The fact that Republic City's homeless population has no sympathy for the Equalists is telling.
  • This is likely a major reason behind the (all-bending) council being replaced by an apparently non-bending president in the second season. The Equalists DID have a point, and taking Amon out of the picture wouldn't make their movement disappear, so there needed to be reform.
• The argument that the Equalists are right forgets one thing: Even though the Equalists do have legitimate grievances and were founded in response to very real problems, their actions directly contradict whatever point they have. They wanted to fight oppression of nonbenders by benders, yet once they've taken over Republic City, they do exactly the same to benders AND non-benders, albeit with technology instead of bending. Even before that, they've done stuff like: Attacking non-benders who aren't with them (e.g. electrocuting Shiro), sabotaging the city and tying up emergency services (what happens if someone has a medical emergency and can't access medical services, or if criminals take advantage of the chaos to commit crimes?), trying to blow up a stadium full of innocents, kidnapping and de-bending innocent benders, and the crowner: attempting to wipe out Airbending despite its practitioners suffering worse than anyone else at the hands of bending, to the point where it was rendered near-extinct via genocide less than two centuries ago. In other words, what was effectively a second attempt at genocide. Amon is also explicitly stated to have been driven by a subconscious lust for power in addition to his sincere beliefs in founding the Equalists, and it shows: Instead of eliminating oppression entirely, the Equalists end up redirecting that oppression, towards benders and non-benders not with them alike. In other words, it was a change in name and rhetoric, while keeping the same underlying power structures.

What if the Equalists have kids who are born benders?

• It's established in the Avatarverse that there's always a 50/50 chance people are born benders (not counting the Air Nomads since ALL of them were born benders). Ever since the Equalists made their presence known it's bugged me that even they're all non-benders, they could likely have relatives and even offspring that are benders. I can only imagine being a child born a bender to have parent(s) who are fierce anti-benders. A bit of Fridge Horror sets in right there...
  • I imagine it would unfold the same way it does in X-Men when an anti-mutant couple has a mutant child. Some of them will disown their bender children and throw them out into the street. Others will try to hide it and tell their kid never to use their evil bending powers, for fear of what the other Equalists will do if they find out. In fact I'd bet money that this very thing will be a plot point in a future episode.
  • They could simply take the child to Amon for some corrective energybending.
  • Imagine the kid's reaction. You can bet there'll be an instance of one or more of these tropes: Why Couldn't You Be Different?, Have You Tried Not Being A Bender, The Unfavorite.. Then having the kid de-bended. If the parents have it done against their will...
  • Not if you provide a proper cultural background firsthand, which the Equalist would've no doubt done, should they have won. Teach the kids from youth that it's not their fault if happen to have these powers, but nevertheless they should be removed as soon as they manifest for the sake of common good, yadayadayada. Debending doesn't seem harmful, other than the power-loss-induced depression, but for a child who didn't have time to get used to their powers that wouldn't be a problem.
  • Eh. There has never been a bender born from two non-benders as far as we know. We've seen benders born from benders, benders born from one bender, and benders give birth to a non-bender. But never non-benders having a bender.
  • Katara. Neither her mother Kya nor her father Hakoda was a bender, remember? Katara was the last bender in her tribe.
  • As far as we know, neither of Toph's parents were benders, either.
  • A proper cultural background won't change the fact that losing your bending is akin to losing a limb. We don't amputate healthy limbs, so why would removing bending from a kid who hasn't done anything to warrant removal of their bending be acceptable??? That's practically a recipe for intergenerational trauma.

Just why did the Equalists leave their most important opponents for the last?

• OK, maybe Amon wants to deal with Korra last, but why would his men leave a member of the Council, Chief of the Police and the Avatar lying on the side unguarded while ordinary officers were being loaded into trucks? They seriously didn't realize that this could only be a bad idea, even if no outside help did arrive?
  • Whose to say they wouldn't have loaded those three? They simply hadn't gotten to it, yet.
  • They were left for the last, unguarded. Three most dangerous people in the whole group. Just how is this supposed to make sense?
  • Tenzin was tied up and unconscious, and the other two were also unconscious. They had also matter-of-factly lost to the mecha and were in a sealed room. They weren't going anywhere.
  • There were still a few Equalists manning mobile suits. If they got back up, they'd have to fight the suits again and in a weakened state. Plus, maybe Hiroshi and company just got cocky. They had just bagged the only living airbending master, the police commissioner, and Avatar.
  • And even then, Sato and the Lieutenant were still keeping an eye on them, since they managed to catch Mako and Bolin so quickly.

Why are the Equalists taking prisoners?

• I'm certain this will eventually be answered in upcoming episodes, but it seems strange that if Amon already took away their bending, then why force them in their prison? For example, the police officers that were captured had their bending taken away, but they were in a prison cell, and Tarrlok's bending was taken away, and Amon and his forces took him away.
  • It's only been a few days. He may have only gotten around to it recently and they just weren't ready to release them yet. They were also in a sensitive area. They're a security risk.
  • Because they are police who will continue fighting them in any way they can in spite of losing their bending.
  • They might be bad for the Equalists' PR. It's one thing to de-bend gangsters and sport cheaters, but imagine Tarrlok parading these cops in front of the press. You don't want to put a human face on the enemy targeted by your revolution.
  • Um... maybe because no one knew of the underground tunnels yet? Why release metal bending cops who could then go and blab your secret to the world?

If the Equalists were that easy to find, why didn't Chief Beifong and/or gang Avatar look for them earlier?

• In episode 9, the protagonists are able to find the Equalists easily based on a hunch Chief Beifong had, and on what Bolin remembered about his capture in episode 3. Since they've had this information for several episodes, why were they using it only now? Didn't it occur to Chief Beifong earlier to question Bolin about his captivity?
  • It's possible that she flat-out wasn't told any details about the whole thing. It's not like she and Korra were in very friendly terms with each other, and it never occurred to Korra to relay the information about details like which street they were going to anyone. So Lin would only know that Korra busted an Equalist meeting, which would give no information of their true hideout. And there's simply too many tunnels under the city to search blindly, even with Earthbending.
  • Add to that that the reason Bolin got into the mess in the first place is because he was involved with the Triple Threats. Not exactly something you'd tell the police, right?
  • It's true that Chief Beifong initially wasn't in friendly terms with Korra and the gang, but wouldn't it still have been in their interest to help the Chief catch the Equalists by giving her the information they had? Also, the relationship between the Chief and Korra's gang got much better after episode 6. In episode 7 they all worked together with the Chief to defeat Hiroshi Sato, and she swore she would save her kidnapped officers from the Equalists, yet even after that it didn't occur to her or Bolin or anyone else to discuss where they might find the Equalists? As for Bolin's involvement with the Triple Threats, there was no need to bring that up. Bolin could've simply said that the Equalists kidnapped him because he was a prominent pro-bender, I'm sure the Chief would've believed that.
  • Because no-one thought about it. They had a lot on their plate, and no-one came to consider the possibility. Mako just happened to have a flash of inspiration when Korra was captured. While it has nothing to do with the matter, Lin isn't stupid, and would be unlikely to believe that Bolin just happened to be captured along with a Triad boss and enforcers.

How are the Equalists able to field such a large mechanized army/air force?

• Let's start off with the chi-blockers, elite soldiers capable of taking down trained benders, performing all sorts of missions like infiltration, kidnapping, all around badasses. It takes years to be able to reach their level of skill, and Amon seems to have a core force of about a couple hundred of these guys. Next, you have the mecha-tanks, a totally new type of mobile war platform made from a very rare element and prototyped in a secret underground factory and put into production in such numbers that Amon and Hiroshi don't bat an eye when they lose six of them. Then, they have the war balloons, enough of them to completely knock out the police balloons in short order. And you know they have a naval force somewhere in their toolbox, not to mention the electro-gloves.
  The question is... How? Or at least, how have they been able to do this without anyone picking up on it? It would be akin to a major military build up occurring within the borders of the United States without anyone at the White House realizing it. You have to move the material, train the soldiers, train the workers, build the factories, assemble the vehicles, et cetera. This is nation-building stuff. The Equalists are acting a lot like a sovereign nation, not like a clandestine group of assassins trying to fight the system.
  And it's not just an oversight by the Republic City leadership. How could the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom, and the Water Tribes completely miss this? How could their militaries and intelligence services be so blindingly incompetent? This is a conspiracy numbering in the thousands, if not tens of thousands, and not one person blabbed? Not one person noticed odd movements of war materiel, or the construction of these weapons and platforms? Very, very odd.
  • Considering the competence of Amon and the Equalists, I'd say they have a great amount of knowledge about how to field their operations, as well as how to execute them in the field. And whatever they needed, if it was legal and payed for in all aspects (or appeared to be), virtually no one would explore the reports in depth until too late. And I think it's reasonable to assume that they've stockplied resources for quite awhile, in addition to extensively training underground.
  • Plus, even if it still wouldn't hold up... this is usually part of the Willing Suspension of Disbelief aspect every show has. And now that Amon has taken control of Republic City, he has access to everything he needs easily.
  • I kinda guessed that Sato provided a lot of what they have. Money is a powerful force. Stranger things have happened, but you are right, a lot of the blame for this falls squarely on the establishment for even allowing it to happen. Also, i think that Non-benders are a majority in this world (I think. I could be wrong) so, if non-benders were at all swayed by Amon's movement (Given the level of Charisma he has, i'm betting a lot of people are) they might be willing to look the other way or even assist, even if they are part of the Fire Nation/Earth Kingdom/Water Tribe intelligence community.
  • I agree. A Sato Did It. Bear in mind that Equalist forces have always emphasized quality over quantity. Just look at the Equalist airship from "And the Winner Is...", it took down an entire patrol of police airships, which are also made by Future Industries. In fact, it was a moment of Fridge Brilliance for me once I realized that Future Industries might have designed the Equalist airships specifically to destroy the police airships. This is evidenced by the scene in "Turning the Tides," just before Tenzin loses consciousness he sees a police airship crashing. The top of the airship is pouring smoke. The police airships, like the Equalist airships, are hybrids; their lift is boosted by propellers and/or wings(the writers likely made them hybrids to hand-wave their huge payloads which an ordinary balloon couldn't lift). The police airship's lifting rotors, all four of them, are on top of the airship. Destroy those and the airship can't hold itself up anymore. It all fits the Equalist theme of finding a Logical Weakness.
  • There's only so much money can do. Yes, it can do some things, like fund the research and prototyping for all these new units. Perhaps pay for the highly professional army that Amon has built up. But, we're talking about a scope and magnitude beyond even a single industrial tycoon. Because once actual production ramps up, the problem becomes all the more complicated. We're talking about the movement of hundreds of thousands of tons of raw materials. The yearly salaries of a work force of thousands. Did Sato use Future Industries factories to do most of this work? Probably not, or the police would have found a whole lot of evidence during their search. So, he built new factories, hidden and away, which meant that the movement of those tons of raw materials could be tracked to these nice secret locations. Each new complication just adds to the magnitude of this problem. And if he pours most of his wealth into the development of these platforms, that means his business in Future Industries suffers. I'm not sure if Future Industries is privately owned or publicly traded, but I'm sure someone would have noticed.
  • I wouldn't underestimate the power of a "single tycoon". Hiroshi Sato is stated to be the wealthiest person in Republic City, and possibly even the world, barring royal families. Don't forget the Equalist rally in "the Revelation", either. Those are thousands upon thousands of fervent, almost cultish supporters, in the midst of an economic boom, no less. And it's not like the Equalist tactics are Zerg Rushing either. They focus entirely on being elite, stealthy saboteurs, right on down to their infantry. Those 20 or so airships can take down at least a dozen airships, each. Their Chi Blockers and gloved terrorists can take down several high-powered benders at a time like it's a piece of cake. The only fighting style they seem truly vulnerable to is Airbending. You're treating the situation like it's open warfare, it's not. They deliberately sabotaged the city so they could catch it off guard and conquer it with the least possible resistance. That minimizes their reliance manufacturing to as little as possible.
  • It would be one thing if the Equalists were simply stealing hardware off of the assembly line. But it's suggested that the Equalists have entirely new platforms that the rest of the world doesn't have, that they're way ahead of the technology curve. This is not something easily explained away by the actions of a single captain of industry.
  • The weapons themselves might be new, but the parts going into them could just be repurposed from existing production lines, then assembled at a secret factory by ideologically pure Equalists. We know Hiroshi already has one such factory. Casting the molds for the mechas is a tough one, but the gloves and biplanes don't seem terrible complicated.
  • Fun fact! During World War II, Henry Ford had his factories reorganized to put out one complete warplane per hour. So yes, one captain of industry can revolutionize technology pretty damn quickly.
  • Even funner fun fact! During the height of World War I, when manufacturing was still nascent at best, the Zeppelin Company produced one airship every two weeks! I'm surprised the Equalist's don't have a larger air force, to be honest.
  • I suppose these World War One warplanes were built in secret factories using secret supply lines and a secret work force? That Henry Ford surprised the United States government with this secret arsenal? That is my point exactly! The Equalists are acting like a nation state, not a oppressed terrorist group. The point isn't that an army can't be built. Sure, with even a fraction of the economy on your side, you can build a pretty sizable war machine. Just look at the Fire Nation or the United Forces. But to do it in complete secrecy? Can Hiroshi Sato completely hijack an entire economy to work for the Equalist agenda for so long without any hint or murmuring? If you can point to any examples in history, by all means.
  • Amon said the Equalists had been hiding for years so they could afford to take things slowly. They don't need a bomber every hour or an airship every two weeks, one a month for five years would supply everything we've seen.
  • In complete secrecy? What do you think aircraft factories were DOING in World War 2, painting bulls-eyes on the roof? No! They WERE, in fact, secret, and many were even camouflaged. And we KNOW that the Equalists have secret factories. Look, let's lay it all out: the only really hard thing to hide is the airships, of which there are about a dozen or so that we've seen. The gloves and mechs are small enough in both numbers and in physical size to be manufactured and hidden effectively. However, an airship is difficult to hide, obviously. So what are the Equalists known for doing? They hide in plain sight. These Equalist airships were pretty clearly manufactured by Future Industries. The same company... That manufactures airships. For the police. How could anyone know the difference if they were just, say, manufacturing a girder? Literally the only thing that gives them away is their paint scheme, and the fact that they're armed to the teeth. So what is an Equalist to do? If it were me, I would simply commission a type of airship for some BS reason, and when they were complete, finish the construction by adding the weapons and symbols you intended to be there the entire time. It wouldn't be the first time in history that someone has done such a thing, either. In early WW1 they commissioned civilian luxury Zeppelins to military service, by simply filling them with bombs and covering them in machine guns and Iron Crosses.
  • Complete secrecy from your government is completely different than a government contractor building weapons in secret from civilians and foreign nations. Yes, it's impressive what industry can do. And it's impressive what people can do in secret. The thing is, their output is damn impressive in its own right, and it was done in complete secrecy.
  • It's like you didn't even read what I wrote. My point is that it doesn't HAVE to be secret if you are hiding it in plain sight, as the Equalists are wont to do. I proposed a perfectly valid explanation, with pertinent historical backup, and I think you're still arguing that it's impossible because you don't want to be wrong. And besides, no one said their secrecy is perfect or without leaks. Even a street rat like Mako knew perfectly well what the Chi-Blockers were, and even how long the effects of their attacks lasted.
  • ... given that was the first time I've chimed in on the subject, or seen this HS, I don't think that I'm "still arguing because I don't want to be wrong." I just don't think your explanation is terribly convincing. I would just go with the "they've been amassing over years" explanation but they have been operating in near-perfect secrecy; until the beginning of the series the Equalists and Amon were an utter surprise. Other than the anti-bending demonstrator there's no evidence that anyone had any idea about the Equalists before the plot began. Part of it is obviously they weren't finding things they weren't looking for them, but it's the sheer scale of it... they have enough military hardware to take over the entire city, and rout the Republic Navy (at least put up a fight, we'll see when the finale hits). That just seems unbelievable to me. Even with Sato's backing, that's an utterly, utterly obscene amount of capital, manpower, and heck, just plain storage space for them.
  • Whoops, I'm sorry, it's just that you were making the same points as the person I was writing to, so I assumed you were him/her. And I'm having difficulty understanding why my explanation isn't "terribly convincing". Are you saying that the historical precedent that happened with actual airships is unconvincing? But anyway, you raise a valid point about storage space. I think that they probably have a hangar somewhere where they keep them, maybe owned by Future Industries. You also raise a valid point about capital, seeing as those mecha-tanks are solid platinum and whatnot, but there are two possible justifications for this. First is the existence of Earthbending, which undoubtably would make mining easier, and second is the apparent lack of demand for platinum goods, which would allow Sato to buy enough to make mecha-tanks rather cheaply. And airships don't actually require as much raw materials or money as you might think. They are, after all, mostly just empty space. A good rule of thumb is that airships tend to cost roughly a third as much as an airplane of equal cargo capacity, a rule which diminishes the smaller the airship is and widens the larger it is, due to the square-cube law.
  • The historical precedent is unconvincing because it's irrelevant. The question is not whether someone can manufacture that much, but rather can it be manufactured within the confines of the city without alerting the government. At this point given that they had an airfield outside the city, and a hidden manufacturing plant within it I'm just going to assume they have more manufacturing plants outside the city, or that base just happens to house a HUGE production center.
  • How exactly is that irrelevant? Just because you say that they were manufactured in the city and nobody noticed does not mean that they were manufactured there, or that there was anything to notice. The precedent- Imperial Germany quickly modifying civilian luxury Zeppelins into warships- has nothing to do with HOW or WHERE they were manufactured, because at the time of manufacture they weren't for the military. And who said the government had not been alerted? Why would they even care about a new type of civilian airship Future Industries was building? Clearly, the Equalists also use tricked-out satomobiles and bikes, but how could the government possibly predict what they would be used for when they were simply civilian models on a production line?
  • Let's not discount the possibility that some benders may be sympathetic to their cause. Indeed, they might have helped Amon and Sato build those underground complexes and even volunteered for de-bending afterward. Consider that history has plenty of people who detest their own social, economic, political, or racial group. Its even possible a bender might agree that bending is too dangerous too keep around. Also consider that the Equalist seem to have a huge budget, any number of benders might decide working for Amon and then getting de-bended is worth it as long as they make enough money to retire on in the process. "Sure, I'll help you build this complex of yours and let you take away my bending afterward, if you pay me a cool million in advance."
  • This is my point. Bender society is not monolithic, and some of them can be bribed to Amon's cause, or at least be sympathetic to it. But again, non-bender society is the same way. It is not monolithic, and a conspiracy of thousands is likely to have several holes, no matter how rigid, charismatic, and security conscious Amon is. That none of these holes brought the entire thing crashing down is... odd. In fact, the only hole in security was a deliberate plant.
  • How did they have such skilled pilots? Just an example of Universal Driver's License or Instant Expert? Keep in mind their airfield was outside the city, but close enough that they reacted to the fleet coming within minutes. Any training or even test flights would draw attention from the city. The airships make sense, that's older technology that people are used to. Seeing airships flying around wouldn't raise any concerns, even if the pilots needed training. But this is a brand new technology, and the pilots were skilled enough to accurately bomb ships with completely unguided bombs. And maneuver themselves so that their rear-firing bolas would can hit a following plane.
  • Maybe they tested them somewhere more secluded? The earth kingdom is big and has plenty of barren areas. Not to mention airplanes are somewhat easier to hide than airships.
  • Outside of the air raid near the end, at no time do the Equalist actually engage in open warfare. Everything they do is conducted via guerilla tactics ending with a decapitation strike against Republic City's leadership. Their success at conducting such warfare most likely masks their true numbers and once they suffer a decapitation strike themselves, they're easily subdued.

How Do the Equalists Expect to Sustain the Society without Benders?

• Benders have been shown to be a major part of the infrastructure: the city is powered by fire benders, metal benders make up the police system (and probably factory workers), and in the previous series the tram system in Ba Sing Se was powered by earth benders. If benders are so crucial to the every-day goings on then what is going to happen when all these people are gone? Their technology seems to be directly linked to the manipulation of bending and there's been very little to suggest that such technology could exist without bending. Wouldn't the entire world go into a dark age if there were no more benders? How is that progress?
  • The real life Industrial Revolution didn't need anyone with superpowers to happen. They'd be starting with a basic knowledge of how the needed technology works and without benders who can do the work of dozens of people employment numbers would probably skyrocket. Obviously the pace of development would slow tremendously but things aren't likely to collapse. Sato is something of a one man Industrial Revolution as it is and the Lieutenant seems to have a generator on his back to power his clubs so electricity might not require firebenders.
  • The thing is, the real life Industrial Revolution didn't have superpowered benders to supplant the massive amount of resources consumed by industry.
  • But it still happened, perhaps more painfully than in the Avatar world, but it did happen. The wide eyed revolutionaries might not see exactly how much damage the change would cause but they do have Hiroshi Sato in their leadership. A collapse is far from inevitable. Regression, sure, but they're not likely to fall into a dark age.
  • It still happened, and many missteps and fatalities were incurred because of it. Not to mention the incredible amount of resources consumed by the human race to maintain our modern lifestyle, resources that are saved from consumption in the Avatar verse thanks to the Benders' various abilities supplanting them.
  • No one is saying it would be a good thing but industry is possible without superpowers. They'd stay at their current level of technology and start incurring all the damaging effects they'd been missing. Prices would rise across the board, wages would drop on average, work injuries would rise, life expectancy would drop. The real world didn't fall back into the 1700s because the Industrial Revolution came with downsides.
  • Amon's rehtoric implies that he wants to debend everyone but I don't think he's explicitly said he's going to yet. They could keep sympathetic (or enslaved) benders around if they really needed them.
  • While you could probably find some substitute for lighting bending at the power plant (like hooking it to a river), or earthbender miners in a short while, medicine takes longer to advance without the proper setting. Who's going to replace waterbending healers?
  • This is by far the most pressing issue. They understand technology just fine. We haven't seen much medical knowledge outside of waterbending. Mortality rates in Republic City would skyrocket above current levels. That is the kind of thing that causes counter-revolutions.
  • There's also the fact that it will take time to replace those things if all the benders are gone. I'm sorry, but most people won't like to hear:
  • "We took the power from all the lightning benders, so people living in these area will have to deal without electricity for a few years until we reconfigure all the power plants."
  • Or "Hey, the price of building material and construction has gone up since we don't have earthbenders to do some of the heavy lifting and moving and mining"
  • Or "Your kid's doctor the healing waterbender has no powers anymore. Little Lee badly burnt his leg? Oh, well, he'll just have to wait for it to stop hurting for a while and pray it won't scar! A lot of people don't like the removal of their modern conveniences, even if it's only temporary.
  • It's why certain changes (buying organic, changing what your car/home is powered by, etc) don't always go over well either. People worry about losing conveniences or money.
  • Amon may be willing to allow certain benders to keep their bending, once they no longer have power, if they don't attempt to rebel. He did offer Lin a chance to keep her bending in return for information.
  • Or he could just have been lying - 'punishing' a bender for betraying their allies is the sort of thing Amon likes to do anyway.

What'll happen with the Equalists now?

• Do they just randomly drop everything and go back to their old lives now that Amon is revealed to be a liar?
  • They'll probably return in the next season. Maybe someone else will take up Amon's mantle.
  • While the creators have been less than honest in the past they did say that the seasons of Korra would be selfcontained. The Equalist movement probably won't be a major part of the next season (though I'd personally love to see The Lieutenant sitting on the Council as a representative for non-benders).
  • Considering that he aided with a terrorist who did a lot of damage, that's unlikely. If the Lieutenant survived (since the scene implies that he was killed via Blood-bending) he probably would show up at some point.
  • Korra will probably take care of the Equalists during the six-month time-skip between seasons. If Aang could master all four elements while traveling around the world AND put end to a hundred-year-long war in the span of eight months, Korra should be able to resolve a dispute between benders and non-benders in six.
  • As of the beginning of the second season, the (all-bending) council has been replaced by an apparently non-bending president, implying that some SERIOUS legal reforms took place. A good majority of the Equalists, disillusioned by the reveal that their leader was a bender and satisfied with the new reforms, probably simply took off their gas masks and went back to their regular civilian lives.

Did anybody ever try a non-agressive way of dealing with the Equalists?

• This might just be because we jumped in in the middle of the uprising, but was the council's first reaction to a group of their citizens expressing dissatisfaction with their governing system really to treat them like terrorist threats? Did anyone ever suggest asking the Equalists to appear before the council and state their grievances. Maybe create a focus group to investigate the sources of the bender-are-oppresing-us feeling in the non-bendig community and rectify situations where policy is biased in favour of benders. Consider adding non-benders to the Council in order to better represent the diversity of their city. At least make a gesture of meeting them half way. Amon would never let his side back down and Tarrlok would probably sabotage anything that threatened his authority on the Council but it would have been harder to turn your basic citizen into a revolutionary when you can see your government taking action to try and change the things you've been complaining about once they were alerted to it.
  • I think that's the route that Korra's going to take afterwards. Remember "when extremes meet"? She was PISSED at the way non-benders were being treated.
  • Also, Tenzin, tried to oppose such measures but he was consistently outvoted.
  • I'd just like to point out that the Equalists were preaching in the streets without opposition in the first episode. Until they started kidnapping and de-bending folks, and saying they wanted to do it to everyone, the Council seemed to have no major problem with them. There is a big difference between the Equalists and people who are disgruntled with the power of benders, in that the Equalists' explicitly stated goal is to end all bending, and Amon wouldn't be building those mecha if he wants to affect peaceful social change. All of the council's extreme actions were undertaken by Tarrlok, who we are specifically told is kind of a dick, in response to those of the Equalists. And even then, he still didn't do much good; they were basically running around with impunity.
  • Agreed, if Amon really wanted a peaceful resolution then he would never built those mecha to begin with. And it's Truth in Television, that some terrorists won't negotiate.

Bullying A Dragon

• Okay, so once again, there's that "We hate the people with superpowers!" plot going on. Now, I understand the concerns of the non-Benders, and I get that not every Bender is a good-hearted soul who won't abuse it, but here is my issue: With all the "Let's permanently block their ability to bend!" talk, you'd think that someone would say, "Hey, uh...let's not give them a good reason to hate us!" Especially if said person is the AVATAR (aka, the one who could turn Republic City into a smoldering wasteland if he/she so chose.) Are they just asking for Korra to find a reason to go apecrap on them and the city in general? Plus, don't they remember Aang? The previous Avatar who saved their collective asses from the Fire Nation? If they know she's the new Avatar (and likely the reincarnation of Aang) why are they pissing her off? Are they just trying to get her angry enough to go apeshit and Avatar-State the crap out of them and the city in general?
  • If i were an Anti-Bender? That is EXACTLY what i'd want. The Avatar using her godlike powers to slaughter a bunch of people? that's exactly the kind of press that proves every single thing that Amon is spewing. Martyrs make for good press. I'm willing to bet that this will be a plot point in future episodes, especially if Amon is smart enough to organize a situation wherein Korra goes Apeshit on some peaceful protesters.
  • A large part of the Equalist's rhetoric seems to be that people shouldn't have to live in fear of offending a Bender just because of what that Bender might do in retaliation. Amon's story paints a nice little picture of this, with his family being oppressed by a Bender, and then them all being killed when his father tries standing up to said Bender. The people of the city suffering under the gangs aren't going to think "Gee, let's try to be as inoffensive as possible and maybe they'll leave us alone", because they know that there is no possible way that that could ever work. With the way he presents it, Amon's power seems like it's a perfect 'solution' to the problem of Bending; i.e. "Standing up to the Benders will just get us killed, but this guy can take away their Bending, and so we'll have nothing to fear from them anymore".
  • And about Aang having saved them from the Fire Nation, the Equalist view is that a war wouldn't even HAPPEN if Fire Benders didn't exist to begin with, so the Avatar saving their asses would be unnecessary. It's a flawed point of view, sure, but one can see it working as propaganda.

Why did Shiro, the pro-bending announcer, get electrocuted by the Equalists?

• According to Wordof God, he was also a non-bender.
  • Amon probably didn't want anyone's voice going out on the airwaves except his own.
  • The Equalists are violent, ideological revolutionaries. Non-benders opposing their agenda would be the equivalent of class traitors and treated as such.
  • "If you ask me, a blood traitor's as bad as a mudblood."

How does a terrorist group have so many members?

• Seriously, am I the only one wondering why there seem to be an almost unlimited amount of Equalist soldiers? First of all, there wasn't much discrimination against non-benders to begin with, especially not violence. There are almost no reasons to join the Equalists unless someone you know got killed by a bender, like Amon and Hiroshi, but it's not like that many people have been killed by benders. Not to mention, these are dedicated soldiers, trained in the art of chi-blocking and all that stuff. It's obvious by now they aren't just Well Intentioned Extremists, they're terrorists. You don't see someone who doesn't really like benders join a TERRORIST GROUP to try and get equality. So, how is there so many people willing to give up their life for the cause?
  • The problem is assuming that he got all of his troops from Republic City instead of taking them in from all of the nations. He has a lot of people for one city, but from across five nations that span the entire globe it's a lot less unbelievable. As for there not being that much discrimination, there is still the fact that it appears all of the triads in Republic City alone are completely staffed by Benders, as we saw in the original series with Zuko Alone Benders still oppressed people. So think of it as generations of pent up aggression at the inequality of power between benders and non-benders.
  • Also keep in mind that the Republic City houses millions of people, and judging by the numbers we've seen, I'd estimate that there are only a few hundred full-time Equalist chi-blockers out there. Sympathizers who are willing to look the other way, or give financial aid and other indirect support probably amount to a few thousand at most. There were organizations in early 20th century Europe with equally grand plans to reorganize the society to their liking with similarly numbered ranks, who took over countries and reigned for decades.
  • The show has failed to show it but there were three large all bender gangs in the city. The number of non-benders people who don't want to be helpless in the face of that kind of abuse must be tremendous. Except for one scene all of this has been off screen so its impossible for us to really sympathize with their position.
    • Even so, Amon seems to rally people by saying that society favors benders over non-benders, which can't be tied to the gangs, who are criminals. If Equalist supporters don't want to be oppressed by gangs, fine, but that's got nothing to do with rebelling against the government.

So is Equalism dead? Is that even a good thing?

• Obviously Amon and his army were terrorists but defeating them still leaves the Avatar world with just about the worst possible social problem a society could ever face. Even if the somehow eliminate bender gangs, institutional oppression, and Smug Supers non-benders they've only just started to address the issue. There is a class of people with enormous economic and military privilege that is chosen entirely at random. Its kind of impossible for a society to not self destruct under that kind of pressure over and over again. The finale didn't do anything to address this, I guess I'll have to hope for the next season.
  • I suppose we are left to assume things would improve without Tarrlok oppressive non-Bender rule and that the Equalists would be less of a threat to innocent Benders. Perhaps someone else would take Amon's mantle.
  • But Tarrlok was far from the only one oppressing the non-benders, and we never saw him oppressing the non-benders until later on. People like the members of the Triple Threat Triad seemed to be more of a direct threat.
  • Makes me really wonder how many Triple Threat Triad members Amon debended.
  • They're probably going to deal with that stuff next season.
  • I imagine that the reveal of Amon as a liar, as well as a bender, will have caused the terrorist Equalist movement to lose credibility and fall apart, for the most part, but a push for non-bender rights will still exist. Maybe it will come up in the second season.
  • Equalism is probably dead and yes, it is a good thing since it was a violent, destructive, usurping, indiscriminate hate group. However, that doesn't prevent Equalism successor movements from popping up, who feel that the Equalists had a point, or that the Equalists were abusing a valid point to move their own agenda.
  • In the second season, the (all-bending) council is replaced by an apparently non-bending president, so presumably there was some serious legal reform that removed much of the institutionalized oppression. No word on the status of the bending triads, though.
  • The fact that the president is elected from the local populace (bending and non-bending alike) may be a bigger help for the actual problems, as the SWT, NWT, EK, & FN appointing non-bending Governors General would only help counter the superficial silliness Amon exploited.

The Equalists have a point?

• Where are people getting the idea that the Equalists had a point in what they were doing? There are characters like Amon or Hiroshi who had their loved ones killed by benders, and we see bender gangs like the Triple Threats extorting weaker non-benders using their power, but that's not something they should've held against the city. Those people were criminals, and we never had any indication that people were "looking the other way" with regard to them. So why would the Equalist supporters cheer and applaud, say, a family of innocent airbenders being de-bended, and how is an elected president any better than a council of leaders? The council being made up of benders had nothing to do with anything.
  • For some reason a big part of the fanbase seemed to believe that there was no difference between being an Equalist and being a non-bender (you can find entire rants about how there being no sympathetic Equalists is bad writing and not just them being violent terrorists).
  • Exactly. Even though the Equalists do have legitimate grievances and were founded in response to very real problems, their actions directly contradict their arguments. They wanted to fight oppression of nonbenders by benders, and yet they do exactly the same to benders AND non-benders once they've taken over Republic City, albeit with technology instead of bending. Besides, any point they had would be destroyed by attempting to wipe out Airbending despite its practitioners suffering worse than anyone else at the hands of bending, i.e. effectively attempting genocide a second time. Instead of eliminating oppression entirely, the Equalists end up redirecting that oppression, towards benders and non-benders not with them alike. A change in name and in rhetoric, while conserving the same underlying power structures.

Hiroshi Sato

In episode 7, why did Hiroshi Sato plant the fake snitch that lead the police, Korra, and Tenzin to his lair?

• Hiroshi admits that he planted the "repentant" Equalist worker who told Lin, Korra, and Tenzin about the lair under his mansion. But why did he do that? Just before this, Lin and Tenzin thought Korra had misunderstood the snippet of conversation she had heard, since no Equalist equipment was found in Hiroshi's warehouses. If Hiroshi hadn't set up the fake snitch, Lin would've given the investigation and Hiroshi could've continued working on his mechas. The only explanation I can think of is that Hiroshi wanted to deal with Lin, Tenzin, and Korra now, instead of waiting to strike them with the mechas later on, but what was the reason for this haste? It can't be that Hiroshi thought getting rid of the three would've stopped the investigation, since Lin obviously had told other cops about searching the Sato mansion, plus Lin, Tenzin, and Korra disappearing while they were investigating Hiroshi's possible involvement with the Equalists would've been really suspicious anyway. And it can't be that Amon told Hiroshi to catch them, because if Amon wanted to get the three at this point, he could've done it during his attack to the arena in the previous episode. So what exactly was Hiroshi thinking?
  • He says why right after he wins. It was a test run. If you want to test your anti-bender mecha, you test them against benders. And if the police already suspect you, then who better to test it against than the biggest badasses in the city?
  • But if the mechas didn't work, the equalists would loose one of their major benefactor and any opportunity to improve and fix their new weapon. And if they worked but some of the people investigating Hiroshi's house didn't rely only on metalbending (like, say, Tenzin and the Avatar), the equalists still risked having an important ally arrested for nothing. If Hiroshi wanted to test his weapons, he should've just asked the equalists to kidnap one or two metalbenders, so even if the mechas failed the benders were still surrounded by chi blockers and couldn't expect back up. He didn't need the biggest badasses in town, just any metalbender.
  • But Hiroshi clearly knew the mechas were un-bendable, that's why he built an entire wall out of the same material. In order to see how the mechas would hold up in a real fight, he needs masters from each element. Tenzin, Lin, and Korra fit that perfectly. That was the point of the test-run. To see how much the mechas could withstand.
  • Also, while Lin and the police might've still suspected Hiroshi, it was implied that they would've given up the investigation for now, had he not lured them to his cave. So the Equalists would still have had more time to prepare for whatever they are planning to do. Attacking the chief of police while she's investigating you will blow you cover regardless of if you win or not. So either the Equalists are about to launch a full-scale mecha attack immediately after the events of episode 7, or Hiroshi is an idiot. I guess the next episode will prove which is the case.
  • Hiroshi says in the phone conversation that they were going to strike soon. They had to test the mecha, and at that stage failure would have been a colossal setback. Better to know your mecha work and eliminate some problem benders than risk your prototypes in the field. Kidnapping a couple metalbenders wouldn't cut it.
  • Extra planning time would not have helped the Equalists. Amon is using the choas and confusing to his advantage here. The Council and police force have only just realized what a big threat the Equalists are, they need a lot more time to plan how to combat them. The longer they wait to attack, the more organized their opponents will be.
  • I think that Hiroshi and Amon thought it was only a matter of time until they found out what Hiroshi was up to after Korra overheard Hiroshi, so they decided to face them well-prepared. Possibly, the reason they wanted to take them to Amon was not (only) to de-bend them, but also to keep them from telling the public about the mechas. The disappearances could have been somehow traced to Hiroshi, but what to do without evidence?
  • Maybe they just wanted to get all these high-status benders at one time, without police air support.
  • They were sealed in a room full of armed Equalists, who have been shown capable of taking down all types of benders multiple times. Even if the mechas didn't work, they would still get taken down and incapacitated. Amon doesn't take gambles. He knows to only ever pick strategies that'll help him regardless of the outcome (exampe: threatening the pro-bending arena).

The Lieutenant

The Lieutenant can take out benders...

• Yet Asami of all people, took him out in a matter of seconds. Not that she's weak, but still...
  • This has been discussed on other pages. Basically, she took him down because: a) she's skilled in hand-to-hand combat, in contrast to benders. b) He underestimated her and probably thought he'd just walk over and lower his stick and the job is done.
  • On top of this, the Lieutenant, along with the other Equalists, is trained to fight benders and is likely used to just fighting benders. Someone skilled in non-bending, hand-to-hand combat, might prove more of a challenge.
  • It wasn't a drawn out fight, like with Mako and Bolin, or with Korra; Asami very quickly hit him with that electrified gauntlet. I imagine in a longer fight without the gauntlet, she wouldn't fair as well.
  • She took him out with electricity, the same way he always takes others out in a matter of seconds. Same technique/weapon, same result, just a different person using it.
  • She was also able to take out earth benders.

How the HELL is the lieutenant alive in the finale?

• Just from what I remember off the top of my head, he's been swatted off a cliff by a polar bear dog, and thrown off the roof of the pro bending arena by Korra. He said he devoted his life to Amon's cause - I think maybe that should be plural.
  • Motorcycle armor is tough stuff, apparently. He seems to be Made of Iron, but of course Amon DID make that sickening clenching gesture that suggests yes, the Lieutenant is well and truly dead this time.
  • People in the Avatar-verse are just made of tougher stuff than in our world. Lots of people in both series underwent blunt-trauma injuries that would result in crippling or death in Real Life, but managed to shrug it off.
  • He fell into the bay after being smacked by Naga, and may have reached the water instead of the dock around the arena after falling off the roof as well. The Avatar-verse has Soft Water.
  • He fell into the trees on the beach, not that water. Those probably softened his landing.

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