Have you ever wondered how life would be like with no rules?
Okay, maybe don't answer that.
But this is the very question that the character on today's episode sought to answer.
And today we're taking a look at a villain who wanted to plunge the world into chaos
because he believed that freedom is only found in the chaos.
And of course I'm talking about the leader of the Red Lotus, Zaheer.
Hey what's going on guys my name is Nate and you're listening to the Itaku of Liberation.
A show where we help you break the chains that are holding you back in your life by
connecting some biblical principles with themes from your favorite anime.
And without further ado, let's get on into it.
So Zaheer's ambition is probably the most radical one we'll see this season.
But it's also something that you will have to honestly think deeply about.
Or at least I did, right?
And it's pretty interesting.
So Zaheer's basically motive behind his ambition was the belief that disorder is the only true
order.
Okay, what does that mean?
Basically, like I said in the intro, he believes that true freedom, being free from things,
is only found in chaos when things aren't the status quo.
And honestly, he had a little bit of a point, maybe not to that extreme, but let's take
a deeper look at it.
So Zaheer was the definition of an anarchist.
And again, he wanted the world to be in chaos, for no real rhyme or reason, right?
There was nothing that there was no hidden agenda with him.
What he said was what he wanted.
He just wanted the world to essentially be on fire.
And the reason for this, the reason why he was like this is because he blames the world
leaders for the major imbalances in the world.
So think back to Amman and Unalak's ambitions.
Both of them more or less blamed the state of the world for how the nation's leaders
acted.
Again, Amman with the inequality between benders and non-benders and Unalak with the state
of the world and its lack of spirituality.
And honestly, again, like I said, in a way Zaheer was right.
It's because of the corrupt leaders at the top of the nations or not even necessarily
corrupt but those who weren't as involved as they should have been led to the state
of the world that they were in at that time.
Case a point mainly with the Earth Queen in Ba Sing Se.
Because she was really only in it for the power that the position held, not so much
what she had to do for her people.
And again, thinking back to the council of a republic city, right, before they had a
president, it's the same type of issue that Amman dealt with because there's no non-bender
representation on that council.
And that led to, it's more or less the issues of non-benders being kind of swept under the
rug because no one was really there to defend them, to be their voice, right?
And so this is kind of what Zaheer was talking about is that kind of corrupt leaders need
to be taken out.
And so I'm not going to go too deep into this, but it kind of holds true because the improper
leadership can cause major problems, especially when you're talking about the state of the
world as a whole and beyond just your own city, your country, your nation, right?
And you start talking about the state of the world at large, then it's like, okay, it all
starts from the top.
So if the top is out of line, then the rest of the nation is going to follow.
So again, Zaheer has a point in the fact that corrupt leaders or those who are unfit to
lead should not be leading.
But again, he took it to the extreme and said, it's going to plunge the whole world into
chaos.
And I don't think that's what the people want.
So let me ask you this.
So what good can possibly come from chaos?
Just think about it.
Because I know the way I see it, I'm going to answer it.
Is that really the only good that can come from it is that that someone more suited is
going to come up out of the chaos.
Because I hope I'm saying this quote justice, but it's like the mother of invention is necessity,
I believe is what it is.
So basically, you know, invention or ingenuity or whatever you want to call it is comes through
because of a need of a dire need is either like life or death type of thing is either
we get this done or this happens or else we're going to die.
And I think that whole environment is good because we get some of the best invention
to come out of it most times.
Right.
And as we'll see on a future episode, again, like with everyone else this season, the idea
is good, but the execution was not.
So so yes, I do say that some good can possibly come out from chaos.
But with everything, it kind of comes with a grain of salt.
Right.
So next, we're going to move on to to Zaheer's method.
We've covered his motive.
His motive is belief that disorder is the only true order.
But the method he used to achieve his goal was his cleverness and innovation.
Now if you've seen the series and you know this, but for those of you who haven't seen
Legend of Korra and Zaheer always seemed to be one step one step ahead of Korra and the
rest of the team, no matter what.
And it was it was kind of scary.
During his during his initial imprisonment, Zaheer showed that he was a smart and patient
individual waiting for the right opportunity in order for him to do something.
So kind of kind of going back to the harmonic convergence and all that stuff after Korra
defeated Unalaq and she kept the spirit portals open.
After that, many nonbenders around the world gained ability to airbend and Zaheer was one
of them.
And Zaheer didn't know if this was the opportunity he was waiting for, but he still he still
decided to act then and there because again, he's a learned individual.
He's very competent with his abilities.
And just within a few, I don't know, maybe days or hours of having airbending, his rough
form is his rough usage of the of the bending style coupled with his already intimate knowledge
of just the way that they are nomads in general made for an exceedingly dangerous individual
already.
And that's that's something to get to really think about, right?
Because someone who's never had his ability before in his life is already taking out white
lotus members, which are supposed to be like some of the elite benders, right?
Because they're sworn in to protect the avatar, right?
So they have to be at least capable in some some degree.
I mean, he just took them all out in an instant.
And I mean, that's just his physical prowess.
Again, the main selling point, the main main trait of Zaheer is again his his smooth talking
self.
And it's funny because I mean, that's another one of his main selling points.
He's very charming and charismatic.
And these traits allow him to sweet talk his way into deals with all types of people.
I mean, for he was able to basically go to Air to Air Temple Island and train under under
Nantenzon's kids and with the rest of the newly formed Air Nation.
And also he was able to convince us to connive his way into the Earth Queen's palace, right?
Because he was like, yeah, we can get the avatar for you.
Don't worry.
And he's always he always came came off as somebody who was non threatening.
And I think this is a skill that all leaders should have, regardless of your what you're
a leader of, is that you should be able to speak and have people listen.
Because if no one has no one's listening to you, then are you really a leader or just
leading yourself?
All right.
And that's something that's truly invaluable, because as a leader, you're trying to garner
influence for whatever goal you're trying to reach.
And Zaheer had a deep understanding of that.
That's why he was able to convince, you know, so many people that he was just this harmless
dude when in reality, he's the leader of a terrorist movement.
And and honestly, if you think about how a lot of serial killers are in real life, right?
I don't think there's too many of them.
There was like, oh, yeah, they were just this super weird person that nobody wanted to interact
with.
He reminds me of a lot of more super charismatic and they got people to let their guards down
so they could, you know, do do their deed.
And that says a lot, right?
We're we're designed to be to be in community, right, to talk to people and interact with
each other and to build a relationship and stuff like that.
So for somebody, when you have a deep, when you have a deep understanding of how to interact
with other people, or at the very least how you come across other people, that's powerful.
That's really powerful, and depending on how you use it can make you can you can be the
worst people in mankind or one of the best ones, right?
Because no matter what side of the coin you're on, you're still able to build up that influence
to gain that power.
And it all comes down to how you use it.
And I know for me, that's something I'm still trying to improve, right?
Is to how to effectively communicate with people in my everyday life.
And even now on this podcast, or even on my YouTube channel is being able to effectively
communicate the message I'm trying to bring to you guys in the way that you can understand
it.
It's not too high level, it's not too overhead, right?
And hopefully in an entertaining way, right?
Because the whole reason I started this because I love anime and figure it's a it's a good
bridge between the message messages I want to share and give me just some good entertainment
because maybe shows are awesome.
At least in my opinion.
But anyway, in the here's case, it was because of these skills that he almost succeeded in
his mission as a whole.
I mean, he killed the Earth Queen, plunging the Earth King, Earth Kingdom into into chaos.
And he almost succeeded in killing Korra in the Avatar state, which was one of his main
goals.
So for those of you who don't who don't know Avatar or about the series in general, again,
the Avatar is supposed to be the bridge between the physical and spiritual worlds.
And of course, you know, they're masters of all four elements and things like that.
But one of the key aspects of the Avatar is the Avatar state.
So when they enter it, they basically get a superpower boost, you know, all their bending
becomes more powerful and things like that.
But what it also does is connect them to all of their past lives and all of their past
lives are channeled into this into the current Avatar at the same time.
So they have all of their skills that they may have cultivated, you know, their knowledge
and things like that all at once.
And as you know, for the Avatar, when they die, they get reincarnated into the next element
in the cycle.
Right.
And it keeps going like that on and on and on and on because it goes from air to water
to earth to fire in that order.
And the only caveat to that is if the Avatar is killed in the Avatar state, since all of
the past Avatars are just there together, then it effectively ends the cycle.
Like if they're if they are killed in the Avatar state, the Avatars no more.
They're not coming back.
And that was Zaheer's ultimate goal, because he felt that as long as the Avatar was around,
whether it was Korra or the next one after her, then the truly chaotic world he sought
to build can never be a possibility.
So he needed to remove that piece from the board.
And he almost did it.
I mean, if you think back to Korra's episode on the podcast, talked about how much trauma
this man put her through from poisoning, kidnapping, and just really mess with her psyche even
years, years after the fact.
And it's partly because of Zaheer that the next person I talk about on the podcast was
able to to do the things that they did.
It's because of what Zaheer did to Korra during his season.
And it's really oh man, it's again Zaheer again really one of the most interesting characters
on this show, just for his whole philosophy, but more importantly his relationship with
Korra and how he went from, again, spoiler, spoiler territory.
All right.
I mean, let me bring it back.
Some of the stuff I'm going to share in the next episode.
But just understand that Zaheer, Zaheer's main asset was his ability to let people's
guards down and basically have people listen to his voice when he spoke, which is something
truly, truly invaluable.
So now after all the things said and done, the main result from Zaheer's ambition was
actually the power vacuum that he left behind after he killed the Earth Queen.
So despite Zaheer being defeated and captured, the damage was already done.
True he didn't plunge the entire world into chaos like he sought out to do.
He didn't kill the Avatar in the Avatar state to end the cycle, but he did do something
very significant.
He killed the Earth Queen in Bossing Sei, which essentially plunged the Earth Kingdom
into chaos.
I mean, there were riots and looting everywhere.
Now granted, it's because a lot of the people were oppressed.
Some of the poor people were felt less than compared to the rich upper echelon of the
society.
So they saw their opportunity and took it.
And honestly, it was nuts because Zaheer's removal of the Earth Queen created a power
vacuum for anybody to join.
Right.
It was just up for grabs.
I mean, the Earth Kingdom wasn't complete and utter chaos and dismay.
Which is what he wanted.
Which is what he set out to do when he first set off on this path.
And it's just honestly, just this whole idea, not just for Zaheer, but for anybody, right?
When you set off for this grand goal, right?
I'm just thinking about another phrase or quote, whatever you want to call it.
If you aim for the stars, you may end up on the moon, right?
Or something like that.
Which basically is you shoot for something that's so far off, something that seems impossible,
right?
But just for you attempting it, you end up closer than you ever thought you could have.
And I know in the here's case is a very morally wrong type of ambition, right?
But just think about it.
Think about how close he was actually achieving his goal.
And not just how close he was, but the impact he actually left.
Because his goal was to plunge the whole world into chaos, to create a world free from order,
so it can be truly free.
But what he ended up with was an entire nation in that state.
It wasn't the whole world, but the Earth Kingdom, I honestly think at this point was what?
The second largest?
I think it was the largest nation in the world.
And he did pretty well for himself considering everything.
But that really sparked a thought with me.
I have all these different ambitions of where I want to go and who I want to be, whether
it's with my brand, my ministry here on the podcast, on YouTube channel, and whatever
else comes of it.
My goal is to revolutionize the world and change people's lives for the better.
And I may get there, I may not, but I do know that I'm closer now than I was a year ago,
right?
Because a year ago I didn't have this podcast, I didn't have the YouTube channel, I didn't
have even an idea of what it is I truly wanted to do in the world.
And I was just going to be stuck in the rat race, working the nine to five that I just
didn't really like for years and years and years and years until I retire and don't really
enjoy life.
And honestly, just looking back now, looking back over the past year and how much things
have changed, it's really eye opening.
So I just imagine what Zaheer's feeling in this moment, knowing that he accomplished
something even if it wasn't his entire goal, right?
And honestly, another kind of relapse that stems off from this power vacuum is that in
the chaos, in the chaos that Zaheer made in the Earth Kingdom, arises Kuvera, who is a
former resident of Zalfu.
Zalfu is like the metal city founded by the Beifongs, Toph and her daughters, and everyone
there can metal band and is pretty futuristic compared to the rest of the world, I think
even by Republic City standards.
So Zalfu is pretty well off.
And Kuvera is from Zalfu.
Now Kuvera sees this power for herself under the guise of uniting the Earth Kingdom.
That's what she says she's doing it for.
But as I will cover in the next episode, we'll see it's a little deeper than that.
But the main point for this episode is that Zaheer's actions led to the creation of something
that he despised, an oppressive regime.
Think about how ironic that is.
This man set out to get rid of the impressive leaders, to get rid of the corrupt and wicked
leadership.
But in his quest, he actually made room for an even worse leader to get put in the place,
get put into power.
And that's just, man, that's nuts.
That's nuts to me.
It's just like, man, I've worked so hard to finally accomplish my goal.
And now everything that I hated has come to pass because of what I've done.
And if I can just sum this whole thing up, what I learned is you got to be careful with
what you wish for and be ready for the consequences of your actions because we never know how
our actions are going to pay off in the long run.
Something so small, something so a choice, so insignificant in the moment can be life
changing without us even knowing.
So we have to be careful of the things that we do, the actions that we take and the ambitions
that we hold because we never know what's going to come up and on the other side.
So I hope you guys love this episode.
Let me know by leaving a comment down below or a review and share it with whoever you
think needs to hear this message today.
And join me next episode for the finale of this season of the attack of liberation, where
I talk about Kuvira and her rise to power, though extreme, was necessary for the future
of the Earth Kingdom.
And I also have a special announcement towards the end of that episode that you don't want
to miss.
So until then, always remember you are the main character of your story and that story
doesn't end until he says so.
All right.
Thank you guys for watching.