Just finished the latest episode. Did anyone else think that adult Aang didn't look like him at all?
Well considering they changed the way they draw people he's not going to. The characters in Korra are drawn with a much more realistic touch. All the kids in last airbender had a more cartoony flare to them.
For a while, I thought Tarrlok may have been Amon and he was playing both sides of the Equalist/bender divide for some personal gain. The fact that he was a blood bender who could do so at will made me feel even stronger that he may have been Amon. Amon's ability to remove bending appeared to be much more painful and to work differently than Aang's as shown in the flashback to Tarrlok's father. It's possible that a skilled blood bender could monkey around with the target's internals/chi paths/etc. enough to prevent them from bending without actually removing their bending ability in the same way Aang did.
Of course, when Amon showed up later, that disproved my hunch that he was Tarrlok, but his ability to resist Tarrlok's blood bending still made me think he may be a blood bender himself. It seemed like it was affecting him at first, but he was eventually able to overcome it. Perhaps as a powerful blood bender, one more powerful than Tarrlok, he could bend his own blood to neutralize someone else's blood bending.
Bloodbending is a pretty decent explanation for the powers Amon has exhibited. I'm still inclined to think it's more of a spiritual power of some kind, but bloodbending isn't a bad explanation.
Amon never struck me as possibly being Tarrlok, though. There could well be some kind of connection between them, but Amon does not seem the type to be working mostly for personal gain.
The Amon/Tarrlok thing only hit my mind for a short while when he demonstrated blood bending. However, before then, I also did think that the two were somehow in league with each other.
http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Energybending is, I think, a much better fit for Amon's powers, now that I've looked it up. His powers are clearly more spiritual in nature, and the ability to energybend his own spirit would explain his resistance to bloodbending as well. In fact, this may be how Aang managed to resist Yakone's bloodbending (though he was in the Avatar State at the time).
As for the two being in league, I was inclined to think so earlier, but it seems less likely to me now.
Since Amon isn't Tarrlok, it's almost certain he's not a blood-bender. There might be an Aang-style energy-bending thing that both lets him take away bending and makes him partially immune to bending. He might also be a robot. Or maybe he's a post-defeat grandchild of Ozai and Aang taking away Ozai's bending gave his kids superpowers! Yeah, that's unlikely.
I had the same series of "Tarrlok is Amon" thoughts as everyone else, though. Look, it's groupthink!
Having the same thoughts isn't groupthink, unless you're rationalizing it after the fact.
I think the evidence is pretty solidly in favour of Amon being an energybender, but with relatively limited ability due to being self-taught. Also, he's definitely not a robot, or the bloodbending would've had zero effect on him.
Also, I think it would be amusingly ironic if chi-blocking turned out to be a form of energybending, which would make the equalists all benders.
Oh yeah, I also considered that Amon is also quite possibly an energy bender as well. I just opened up blood bending as another possibility to explain his abilities -- especially since his ability to remove a person's bending looks so different from Aang's.
Well, Amon's ability is definitely different from Aang's, and I do suspect that the effects are different, but that doesn't stop both abilities from being different energybending techniques. Also, there's some good reasons why Amon's ability would be different: 1) He was (possibly) self-taught, as opposed to learning from a giant turtle. 2) Amon's own spirit is not peaceful the way Aang's is.
Another issue: chi means life energy, right? So energybending is actually just "chi-bending", and it would make sense that chi-blocking is just a primitive form of chi-bending.
As such, Amon would simply be a chi-bender with more skill than the typical chi-blocker, but not as much as Aang had.
It's unlikely now. While Tarrlok was still around, I was actually hoping Korra would pull a face-heel-turn and team up with Amon to fight injustice, but that was really a pipe dream.
Google has the answers. It's a professional wrestling reference generally. A face is someone the crowd "likes to like", a heel is someone the crowd "likes to hate", and a turn is going from one to the other. So Hulk Hogan in his prime was an iconic "face" and whoever he was against was generally a "heel".
Google has the answers. It's a professional wrestling reference generally. A face is someone the crowd "likes to like", a heel is someone the crowd "likes to hate", and a turn is going from one to the other. So Hulk Hogan in his prime was an iconic "face" and whoever he was against was generally a "heel".
See, creamsteak explained it way simpler and more straight forward than those two links.
Part of me wanted to see Katara come onto the scene and just own Tarlok with her bloodbending, but Amon intervening seemed more appropriate.
Also George, you could have Googled it. :P
I thought older Aang looked fine. It just seems that both him and Sokka had their noses became more pronounced as they got older. Also Sokka referencing Sparky Sparky Boom man was great.
Katara was only able to bloodbend during the full moon, unless her skills somehow got better in the 70 or so years since then. Tarrlok's trick was that he could bloodbend anytime he wanted.
Yeah, I know that from the only episode we've seen of it. It's definitely not out the realm of possibility that she would be a more proficient bloodbender.
I think Katara easily has the talent, but I suspect Tarrlok's ability requires significant practice, and I rather doubt Katara would have practiced bloodbending actively.
I would think so as well since at the end of that episode in season 3, she was mortified of her being that powerful. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that she wouldn't have practiced it as a precaution or as a last line of defense if there were ever a time where she may need to use it.
Just start a spoilers thread and discuss plot there.
Of course, this leads to an interesting dichotomy. When there's a spoilers thread on anything like this, ALL conversation goes immediately there, and thus the non-spoiler thread is completely dead and useless. But, if the majority of the people discussing something are up to date and want to actually discuss it topically, then people who are avoiding spoilers are already second-class citizens conversationally (within the realm of the topic itself).
It's best to not participate in any conversation online where you are not up to date and simultaneously are sensitive to spoilers. The spoilers tag really only exists for light one-off use, not to protect people who can't perform basic personal due diligence. ;^)
Comments
Of course, when Amon showed up later, that disproved my hunch that he was Tarrlok, but his ability to resist Tarrlok's blood bending still made me think he may be a blood bender himself. It seemed like it was affecting him at first, but he was eventually able to overcome it. Perhaps as a powerful blood bender, one more powerful than Tarrlok, he could bend his own blood to neutralize someone else's blood bending.
Amon never struck me as possibly being Tarrlok, though. There could well be some kind of connection between them, but Amon does not seem the type to be working mostly for personal gain.
As for the two being in league, I was inclined to think so earlier, but it seems less likely to me now.
I had the same series of "Tarrlok is Amon" thoughts as everyone else, though. Look, it's groupthink!
I think the evidence is pretty solidly in favour of Amon being an energybender, but with relatively limited ability due to being self-taught. Also, he's definitely not a robot, or the bloodbending would've had zero effect on him.
Also, I think it would be amusingly ironic if chi-blocking turned out to be a form of energybending, which would make the equalists all benders.
1) He was (possibly) self-taught, as opposed to learning from a giant turtle.
2) Amon's own spirit is not peaceful the way Aang's is.
Another issue: chi means life energy, right? So energybending is actually just "chi-bending", and it would make sense that chi-blocking is just a primitive form of chi-bending.
As such, Amon would simply be a chi-bender with more skill than the typical chi-blocker, but not as much as Aang had.
Face Heel Turn != Heel Face Turn, by the way.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/DarthWiki/TVTropesRuinedYourLife
Also George, you could have Googled it. :P
I thought older Aang looked fine. It just seems that both him and Sokka had their noses became more pronounced as they got older. Also Sokka referencing Sparky Sparky Boom man was great.
Of course, this leads to an interesting dichotomy. When there's a spoilers thread on anything like this, ALL conversation goes immediately there, and thus the non-spoiler thread is completely dead and useless. But, if the majority of the people discussing something are up to date and want to actually discuss it topically, then people who are avoiding spoilers are already second-class citizens conversationally (within the realm of the topic itself).
It's best to not participate in any conversation online where you are not up to date and simultaneously are sensitive to spoilers. The spoilers tag really only exists for light one-off use, not to protect people who can't perform basic personal due diligence. ;^)