Equality is always thought to be this noble cause to fight for.
And oftentimes it is.
But like with so many things in the world, we can be
too invested in the fight that we forget that
forget about what we're even fighting for.
But on today's episode, we'll be looking at a character who wanted to see equality in his own world.
But his methods make you really question if he was in it for equality
or just authority.
And of course, I'm talking about the mass leader of the equalists, Aman.
Hey, what's going on guys? My name is Nate. You're listening to the Otaku Liberation,
a show where we help you break free from the chains that hold you back in your life
by connecting biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get right on into it.
And again, I know I say favorite anime and technically religion core isn't but
it's close enough. So we're doing it anyway.
And now for today's episode, there are three main points that I want to cover
about about Aman and what he stood for.
And they are again equality, revolution, and power.
And I'm going to break down what each of those means to the character.
So first we're going to start off with the motive behind Aman's fight for uh fight and what he stood for.
And that was the notion of equality.
So his motive was equality.
So Aman fought for equality among benders and non-benders.
And this whole idea, this whole belief stemmed from uh from his childhood, right?
I'm sure a lot of us can kind of see that in
not just Aman but different characters even some in our own beliefs and our own way of thinking.
It typically stems from
whether childhood trauma or just childhood memories and things like that.
But in Aman's case, this stemmed from his belief that bending only caused suffering to others
and that benders had an unfair advantage over non-benders.
And this all really started when Aman, then known as Noatuk, which is his birth name,
and his brother Tarlock were trained in the ways of blood bending by their father Yakone.
And in order to really understand it, let's take a little deeper look at Yakone, Aman's father.
And because we'll see where all of this started.
So Yakone was a very powerful blood bender who could blend bend without a full moon.
Which was previously unheard of and is honestly a super rare and powerful skill.
And for those who don't know, blood bending is a
technique of water bending or more of a sub bending style where water benders
you know bend the blood, bend the water to moisture in another being's body
and can basically become like puppet masters over them.
It's really creepy but also in my opinion,
one of if not the most powerful styles of bending because you can literally take control of other people.
But the biggest caveat to that was that it was only possible during a full moon
when water benders were at their strongest.
But that changed with Yakone and eventually his kids Noatuk and Tarlock.
So that's kind of that's what makes Yakone such a dangerous individual and by the way
dangerous individual and by virtue his children as well.
But in Yakone's case his bending was actually taken away by Avatar Aang.
And this led Yakone to actually seek revenge on the Avatar.
And he wanted to do so by turning his own sons into living weapons.
And of course that means a lot of really harsh training which twisted Amon's idea.
Because the harsh training and treatment that Yakone put his sons through
caused Amon to become this cold and distant individual.
He no longer felt this kind of love or peace that most normal people would have about them.
He became very calculating and willing to do anything to accomplish his goal.
And it was rough to say the least.
And honestly Amon began to revel in his power of blood bending and what it had over people.
Honestly now that I'm sitting here recording really this man's kind of a hypocrite right?
Because he on one hand he felt like benders had an unfair advantage over non-benders and
that they should be equalized.
But it's also the same man that reveled in his own power as a blood bender.
Arguably one of the most powerful benders outside of the Avatar themselves
which is kind of weird.
But anyway and this kind of twisted Amon's idea of justice and what it means.
And this twisted idea led to the creation of the equalists in the anti-bending revolution.
Because again he wants to even the playing field more or less.
And he really feels like that benders shouldn't have the ability to bend.
On one hand you would think he would go about it to equip non-benders with the tools to be able to
defend themselves and things like that.
Such as chi blocking and all the tools that he used in the show like the electrical gauntlets
that the equals used and things like that.
So it didn't have to be a terrorist about it.
He could have I don't know opened up a class somewhere who knows.
But that's not the road he chose.
And for those who joined his cause they wanted to be free from the oppression that benders had
placed on them.
But the problem with this sentiment is that not all benders were the ones causing problems.
The main culprits were the bending gangs in Republic City like the triple threat triads.
And it also didn't help that the leaders of Republic City the United Republic Council
were entirely made up of benders.
Which made the non-benders feel as if they had no representation in their own city.
And I can get that.
So I see where the pressure points are with this whole ordeal.
It wasn't so much that the benders that all benders were evil all benders were oppressing
the non-benders.
It was just the select few.
But it was enough of them to start causing this issue.
And it felt like the powers that be the ones governing the city weren't doing enough to
correct this.
And actually we know we look back at our own history and world right.
If enough people start feeling like they're not being heard then revolution start in case
point right.
And yeah honestly it kind of just mirrors a lot of our real life scenarios where the
majority in this case like benders are often punished for the sins of the few right.
Because it wasn't just hey we're angry at these bending gangs for what they're doing
to our people we're angry at all benders whether or not you've done anything bad or not.
And of course this means this could be from the the airbender children who are just now
being born to the avatar herself.
And no one was safe from this.
And no one was safe from this right.
Everyone was a target.
Every bender was a target.
And so Amon sought to correct this within Republic City and eventually the entire world.
Now he didn't want to just stop at equalizing Republic City and making it so everyone was
on the same playing field.
He wanted to spread this to the entire world and just basically commit bender genocide.
And it's it's I'll tell you one thing you know he fits perfectly with this season's
theme of ambition right.
Because he he was really out there.
But for me the fight of equality is is an admirable one.
And honestly it's something that I personally stand behind.
I think we should all be you know see ourselves as as equals because again we're all
children of the Lord.
We're all we're created with the same love and attention.
Now how we express these things are different.
I think we were different.
We're not all the same.
And and we need to acknowledge those differences and how we can use them to help each other.
But no one is less than the other.
And as a matter of fact let's look at what the Bible says about this.
And Galatians chapter three verse twenty eight.
This is there is no Jew or Greek slave or free male and female since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And this verse really speaks to the concept of equality and unity among believers and
emphasizing that in Christ there is no distinction based on factors such as ethnicity social status
or gender.
And what that means is that in Christ he sees us all as his children.
He loves us all.
And there's no like just because I'm a black man doesn't mean he loves me any more than
you know than a white woman or a Hispanic man or an Asian lady.
You know we're all loved equally.
And it's just this notion that since we are all loved equally that we shouldn't be trying
to tear each other down for whatever the case may be.
You know what I'm saying.
But I know it's it's pretty hard for us as as people historically.
Right.
To get along with each other and to not fight each other.
But it's something that I think we should all strive for.
And that's because basically we're all equal in the odds or lower.
So that leads me to to a question.
Justice equality and any other noble cause you fight for are all wonderful things.
But how far are you willing to go to achieve your goals?
And I ask this because honestly we have to be careful.
We have to be careful with our ideals with our ambitions with our goals and dreams and
things like that because the means don't always justify the end.
And Amman himself is actually going to prove this for us.
So now that we have a little bit a little bit of information on his motive let's take
a look at the methods that Amman used to make his dream a reality.
And that was the use of fear and hatred.
Now, in theory, what Amman fought for was right.
Again, this is the theme for this entire season.
But in reality, he calls in even greater division among vendors and non vendors because of what
he was doing.
I mean, some of these things include openly threatening vendors and relishing in the fact
that they were powerless against him.
Stoking the hatred between vendors and non vendors causing them to be at odds with each
other even more.
And even going so far as kidnapping children and taking away their bending.
Remember when I said nobody was safe and not even kids, kids who haven't even had the
opportunity to do anything bad.
He was just like, no, you're gone too.
And this was this was a frightening time for Republic City because no one had there's
never been a villain or a terrorist such as him because it what made him honestly, in my
opinion, what made him so dangerous wasn't the fact that he was a blood bender.
It wasn't the fact that he could take away bending, but it was the way he was able to
get people to follow him.
Right.
I mean, it's not it's not just Amman.
And we see with the rest of Cora's villains as well, they all have this charismatic personality
where they they're able to get people to join their cause and get them to do to do their
work.
But also they're not afraid to get down and dirty themselves, which honestly I can respect
in a leader, but also again, it's just based them that much more of a difficult opponent
for Cora.
And especially for someone like Amman, because again, the ability to take away someone's
bending was thought to only be possessed by the Avatar.
But as we see, as we see here, that that's not that's no longer the case.
So Cora has to reconcile that with herself.
OK, how can I take this guy down with an ability that I should I should only have?
And I'm telling you right now, it wasn't easy.
It wasn't easy.
And the reason that Amman did all of these things again, the threats, the kidnapping,
the removing of bending, the stoking the flames of hatred, he did all of this just so he can
bring the animosity between vendors and non-benders to a boiling point.
And it was so bad that despite Cora's best efforts, she couldn't even calm the citizens
of Republic City.
And the city itself was about to be ripped apart because of this because of this movement,
because of this animosity.
And which is sad.
I mean, Amman had the city right where he wanted it.
And when it comes to hatred and anger and all these things, this is this is what the
Bible says about it, because it's not none of us good.
We know it's not good, but let's see why it's not good.
And it says in Proverbs chapter 10, verse 12, hatred stirs up conflicts, but love covers
all offenses.
And this verse really captures the idea that hatred fuels conflicts and discord and that
love has the power to forgive and eventually even overlook these offenses.
Now, am I saying that Cora should just love Amman and everything be hunky dory?
No, of course not.
But the concept of the love versus the hatred is that right now, non-benders are hating
vendors because they feel oppressed.
Because again, like I said earlier, the gangs that are in Republic City are oppressing the
people or really being abusive and the non-benders feel like they have no representation.
So instead of going to war against each other, we should look at the people who are in the
public city and who are against each other.
We should have learned to, or they should have been able to learn to accept each other
for the differences.
And the vendors who aren't committing these atrocities should have stood up for the non-benders
against the gangs in Republic City, because gang violence and stuff like that is detrimental
to everybody, not just the non-benders, but everyone in the city.
So it would be nice if the vendors who weren't committing these things came together with
the non-benders who were being oppressed and fought back.
I honestly think that maybe something, this scenario with Amman and the equalists wouldn't
have happened.
I'd really believe that, but it did.
And this is where we are.
And I know for me, not so much like a hatred, but you just anger and emotions in general,
they can overwhelm and override logic a lot of the time.
And if we're not careful, our emotions, especially negative ones like fear and hatred,
can cause us to lose sight of the real goal that we're even striving for.
And we can be caught up in the throes of ambition and we're just really just go, go, go, go,
go on this thing 100%.
But if we're not careful, it can honestly lead us to not only destroy ourselves, but
to honestly go against the very thing that we're even fighting for.
But I'm just thinking back to the whole equalist movement, right?
How he wanted something that honestly was a very pure idea, but he was just like, nope,
I'm going to burn the world down just to get it, which kind of defeats the purpose, right?
And I don't know, Amman's just an interesting character to me.
I hate that he went out the way he did, but I think he's just a very interesting character
to me to be honest with you.
I don't know why he went out the way he did, but the ideas behind him were interesting.
But again, his use of fear and hate just amplified the problem.
He sought the fix.
Again, back to this whole thing of he's just going all in on this crazy idea or this crazy
method, I should say, to make his idea a reality, making the problem a hundred times worse.
But so right now we're going to go over the result of Amman's actions, which may surprise
you was actually a brighter future.
I know I spent this last, I don't know how many minutes talking about how too much ambition,
at least in the wrong, with the wrong methods can be detrimental to your vision.
But in Amman's case, it was actually kind of worked out.
So let me let me kind of explain.
So while Amman's grand plan of ridding the world of bending may have been a failure,
the impact he had brought, the impact he had brought international awareness to problems
that non vendors had to face in Republic City.
And what I mean by that is that because of Amman and his actions, it kind of pulled back
the pull back the lid on all of the problems that we were talking about earlier in this
episode of non-bender facing just the oppression, the non representation, the things like that.
You know, Amman more or less kind of became a martyr to be to be fair.
And everyone was like, OK, this was a problem.
The fact that it took a terrorist that almost destroyed the city with his riots and whatnot,
it took this in order for us to get to pay attention to these things.
And so, OK, let's reevaluate what we're doing here.
And so the biggest win from this whole conflict was the actually the dissolution of the United
Republic Council.
Again, the Council of all vendors representing each of the nations.
So the northern southern water tribes, the Fire Nation, the Earth Kingdom and Tenzin,
who represented the Air Nation, which was like five at this point.
But they all decided to step down and have a Democratic president over a public city
so the people can vote who was in power.
And actually, the first president, Raiko, was actually a non-bender who won by the majority
vote.
So now non-benders have representation in their own government for their city.
And as someone who's being a non-bender themselves, he can relate to the woes of non-benders in
his own city a little bit better.
And so it was actually all worked out, not worked out for the better, surprisingly enough.
So what does this all mean?
It means that despite Amman's tactics and twisted desires, the promise of equality for
non-benders and vendors was that much closer, if not there already.
Because again, this is a huge win having Raiko be their Democratic voted president.
Honestly, Amman may have been the first villain that Cora faced, but he wasn't really that
evil, at least in my opinion.
I mean, he was misguided definitely towards the end of his life.
But I can't really say he was completely evil.
I mean, his childhood shaped him into the revolutionary that he was.
Now again, that doesn't excuse his actions, but it does show that his intentions were
just, his methods weren't.
And again, like I said, the theme of this entire season is that good intentions can
have bad consequences if you're not putting them in the right place.
And it is easier said than done, but that's something that we all have to keep in mind.
It's like, okay, what are we striving for?
Why are we doing these things?
And how can we do it in the best way without causing harm to ourselves or other people
or anything like that?
So yeah, don't be a terrorist guys.
But hey, did you like this episode?
Please let me know in the comments down below or even leave a review.
But whatever you do, please share with somebody that you think needs to hear this message
or who just likes the Legend of Cora.
Either one works for me.
Come back next week where I'll be going over a character who wanted the world to go back
to spiritual roots, but he decided to do it by plunging it into eternal darkness.
I know really weird.
These characters are way out there, but can you guess who it is?
Let me know what you guys think down below, but whether you guess it or not, I want you
to always remember you are the main character of your story and that story doesn't end until
he says so.
All right.
Be blessed.