Talk:Amon/@comment-71.226.66.30-20120507061954/@comment-4888161-20120507063907

Interesting and well thought out, but don't forget the other side. The war was started by an Evil King (well he turned evil when he strove for power and dominance above all else) who wanted more power than just the throne and world domination. They did not just use bending to do this, but superior technology as well. Even if there was no bending, it would likely have been tried. And don't forget the Fire Nation discriminated against all bender who weren't firebenders as well. There will always be people who, if in a position of power, would abuse things. Bending may have been the primary tool used as it makes sense in the Avatar world. But had it not been bending, it would have been something else. Wars for conquest are common in our history in the real world, and we never had bending.

The primary flaw in Amon's plan is that there are people who would abuse weapons of any kind (whether that be bending or not) to take advantage of the weak and defenseless. If bending was gone, then the same kind of people who use bending to extort others would find some other means to do the same thing. It doesn't address the real problem, and instead blames an ability that not everyone has for that problem. If Amon's story is true, this misconception he has would likely be caused by his personal grudge from his experience with the firebender, thus proving him to not be equal but unfairly prejudice.

I realize you said you do not agree with Amon's philosophy, but it is hard to believe that Aang would either. Aang only took Ozai's bending away because it would be too dangerous to let him live and keep his bending, and didn't want to kill him. He would not be for doing that in anything but an extreme case like Ozai where it would be unsafe to let them live with their bending. Aang would likely not go around teaching others how to do that, and Tenzin said Aang was the only one known to have been able to.