Voicetesting. Spoilers for all of TLoK possible in comments.

[i_am_the_solution]

I am not someone to be toyed with. However, your ideas intrigue me. There are places out there in need of equality, and while it is no easy task to build a movement from the ground up, I have done so before - people want a voice, want a revolution, want peace, enough that so long as there is a single person to lead them, they will always rise up. Without the Avatar impeding progress, there is much I could do for the people. The common people of the world have never been of great concern to her, but the common people have the numbers regardless of who has the political power.

Find me a place, and I will lead it to freedom. I have little need for time spent idle in your 'head space'. Living in a city where gang wars can rage like the elements that are used to oppress the people has shown me the damage hesitation can do to the lives of those without the means to defend themselves.

Wherever I go, I will not fail.

Comments

[deusrexmachina]

Whoa, hold up. What's this about the Avatar impeding progress when it comes to peace and freedom? I thought the Avatar was supposed to maintain balance and order.

That username is pure genius.

[i_am_the_solution]

The Avatar is misguided at best. The time where Bending brought balance to the world is gone. It may never have existed - there is no recorded war that did not start with Bending. The Avatar seeks to focus on fighting equality rather than the Triads, the gangs, the true corruption within our world. There can be no doubt these actions are slowing down the progress I and others like me seek to make. A world of equality is coming, regardless of how much some people cling to ancient and outdated ways.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Amon. And you are?

[raavashing]

[Cautiously, so cautiously...]

What are you talking about? The Avatar is supposed to guide the world toward peace. She isn't there to impede anything.

[i_am_the_solution]

Right now, there are four gangs of all-benders attacking the non-benders of Republic City. Nonbenders are not represented on the council for the United Republic. People starve in the street and the Avatar amuses herself playing bending sports and living in luxury on a private island. When she can be bothered to leave either of those activities, it is to fight me - as though those preaching equality are the only threat she can bother herself with. She hasn't so much as mentioned the crime levels in passing.

She doesn't guide anyone towards anything. She stands for nothing but the privileged upper class who raised her.

[raavashing]

[That didn't sound like any Korra he knew. And he knew three now. She was also the only Avatar to mention bending sports.]

That doesn't sound right. Are you sure you aren't confused about this? If there was such an obvious injustice, people starving, the Avatar would do what is in his, or her, power to help. And if she isn't doing anything you can see... maybe there's something else preventing her from acting that you don't know about. With that many people fighting each other, she might have her hands full keeping those with the power of the elements in check so that they cannot cause more damage.

Thanks!

[deusrexmachina]

[His eyes narrow a fraction, mouth a thin line as he listens. There's nothing about all this that doesn't strike a nerve. Still, he's going to try and keep a lid on his temper...for now.]

Amon, huh? The name's Rex.

And don't get me wrong, I know gangs can cause serious problems. [Via personal experience, no less.] But mind explaining how the Avatar is against equality outside of that? And if you think she's not for it, how are you going to make it happen?

[i_am_the_solution]

By siding with Councilman Tarrlok, who has enacted curfews on non-benders, made mass arrests of innocent people, and put restrictions down on an already marginalized group, she has made her position on the matter very clear. She has also helped make it criminal to discuss the Equalist movement. If we can no longer talk freely, then tensions will only rise. Eventually, actions are going to get more drastic.

My plans are being readjusted as the situation keeps moving in a rapid downward spiral.

[i_am_the_solution]

I am far from confused. Avatar Korra has never once fought any of the gangs. She does not have her hands full with anything but training - first alone in a decadent compound built just for her, and then on Air Temple Island far removed from the city proper. She is either blind to the problems of the city or has decided to ignore them. It matters not. Her inaction speaks for itself. We can no longer rely on the Avatar to protect or defend the people.

[raavashing]

You were never supposed to rely solely on the Avatar. But... she should be out there helping. Even if she's still learning to control the elements.

But you're wrong. It does matter if she's blind to the problems or if she's decided to ignore them. One is something that can be fixed, can he changed. The other is more problematic. If she's ignoring it, then she must have a reason for it... and how problematic it is depends on that reason.

Have you tried talking to her?

[i_am_the_solution]

I haven't spoken to her, no. Not at length. I have established my own solution to the problems ravaging the world, and she is not in agreement with them. As such, there's nothing for us to say to each other. She has nothing to say and will not hear my words. That impasse was forged before we even met.

[raavashing]

What solution is that?

[i_am_the_solution]

I will take away the Bending of the people of the world. Permanently.

And all shall be equal.

[raavashing]

You... you can't do that! That's not a solution! That won't stop the fighting! It won't stop humans who become violent from expressing that violence!

And on top of that, the elements are a gift! Taking them away from everyone, regardless of how they use it, is wrong. There are plenty of people who use the elements to help and to live in harmony with the world.

[i_am_the_solution]

It will place us all on an even playing field. I can not take the violence from someone's heart, but I can remove their ability to shoot lightning at anyone who angers them. I can stop people from being burned to death, buried alive, drowned, driven through with spikes of ice and earth. If no one has these abilities, all criminals will now be physically as strong as other people. There will be a fair fight, a chance for people to take back their own freedoms and safety.

Those people are very few and far between, and their inability or unwillingness to fix the world shows their existence is not helping. They are relics of a time long gone when perhaps bending could be used for good, but that era is over.

[raavashing]

That era can't be over! So long as the Avatar exists, the era of Raava continues! Peace will not come easily just because you remove the elements. Peace will come when humanity stops targeting each other as the problem and starts looking to themselves to fix their own mistakes.

Can some people with the power of the elements be problems? Yes. But you deal with them as individuals, not as a whole. You don't lump everyone into that. That only serves to cause more anger, more hate. More violence.

[i_am_the_solution]

Without the distraction of Bending and competition, the anger, the past genocide and wars it has incited, humanity will be able to look at each other as fellow people, without borders and categories. We will be equal, and in our hour of equality we will finally begin to learn how to move forward and work as a people, as a truly united republic. By preventing people from becoming bending criminals before they have the chance, the people will be protected, and we will find ourselves in an unprecedented era, one of peace and cooperation.

I will deal with the Avatar personally. When her Bending is removed, there will be no further problems from the Avatar line. It's a shame she was turned into the puppet of Tenzin's philosophy and then Tarrlok's, but she simply has to be removed. It's nothing personal.

[raavashing]

It sounds personal. It sounds personal against all who use the element. The power of the elements is not what incited the anger and wars. Those were fought equally with sword and spear. Different groups of people have always had problems living together in peace. Even within the same city and even when that city thought they were the only group of humans to exist. The problems you're blaming on bending existed long before there were nations. Long before there was an Avatar.

If you want to make a real difference, you need to find something to fix that actually needs fixing.

I love your Wan. <3

[i_am_the_solution]

Humanity's problems stem from two things: the lack of direction and the thirst for power. By placing a new government, a fair one where all people are represented equally in place, the first issue will be eliminated. By taking out Bending, the ability to be born into power over someone else unfairly will be removed. Things will not become peaceful overnight. But like a temple built into a mountain, the foundation will be firmly carved out and set up for the future to build upon.

I am fixing an error that never should have been allowed to occur. I am removing a curse from the world.

Your Amon is pretty great, too.

[raavashing]

I grew up in a city where there was no bending. Where the power of the element was granted to those that left and taken back before they were allowed to return. And you know what? What's happening in your city happened there too. Without any bending to influence it. People will be born into power. Period. Others will have more than some. They will hold the weapons and power, will hoard the food and the means of survival away from those without it simply to maintain their power over others. To maintain the order that keeps them in power.

The ability to be born into power over someone else unfairly is not removed just because there is no bending. Taking away the gift that the Lion Turtles entrusted to humanity isn't going to be the first step to solving the problems of the world. It'll just be sad.

Thanks! I have no idea what I'm doing with him, honestly.

[i_am_the_solution]

Your city operated under the old government. This will be a new government, a system of checks and balances, monitored on every level to ensure all people are treated equally, run by people who believe in the equality of the human race. The Equalist government will change how life operates for those who live under it. For the first time, there will be a ruling system in place designed to distribute power equally.

And we will learn to stand on our own two feet without relying on spirits and creatures who have clearly forsaken humanity.


[[OOC: I have absolutely got to sleep now but I'll be back as soon as I wake up. I love this thread.]]

[deusrexmachina]

...what?!

[It's too much to take in at once, the shock plain on his face.]

She would never--Korra isn't--that's not the kind of person she is!

[So much for keeping a lid on his temper.]

[raavashing]

How about instead of forcing people to live how you see is equal, you just let them live? Educate the ones who do wrongs, show them why it's wrong, but don't punish and control the ones who aren't doing wrong just because a few have used their power in an unjust way.

And the spirits didn't forsake humanity. They've done everything asked of them to help humanity.

[science_is_fun]

How are you defining "peace", exactly? [While Hank strives for finding ways to end conflicts peacefully, he's also heard these sorts of speeches from Kang the Conqueror, Ultron, and Doctor Doom, who all see "peace" as "no one resisting my take-over/destruction of the planet".]

[i_am_the_solution]

[Amon flatly fishes a newspaper from within his armor. It's there bright as day: Avatar Korra Joins Council Tarrlok's Taskforce. He hands the paper over to Rex so the young man can read the full article if he wishes, but there's a photograph of Korra and Tarrlok together right there on the front page.]

She has made her choice. This is who she stands behind now, and while Tarrlok is the one who makes the decisions, Korra is the one who enforces some and blithely ignores the others. She is no more an Avatar to the people now than Tarrlok is. Any good in her, any positive qualities she possesses, have been overruled at this point.

[i_am_the_solution]

If you think it is as easy as educating those that have done wrong and thus making them come to their senses, you carry too much naivete within you to see the true scale of the problem. Disarming the population allows for them to arm themselves so no one can be ambushed and lose everything and everyone they loved.

Then explain to me why they have not aided Avatar Korra, and yet I have continued with only minor setbacks. That would suggest that instead of abandoning humanity, they have picked a side they're rooting for, and it is not yours.