Amon - The New Spiritual Leader

I have mentioned before how Amon’s Equalist movement has a lot of religious elements to it. Click me!

• He calls his followers ‘brothers and sisters’, not 'comrades’.
• He calls his rallies 'Revelation’
• He claims to be in contact with the Spirit World
• He replaced Aang/the Avatar with himself
• He sets up his de-bending line/basecamp on Air Temple Island

And that there is a potential parallel, not only to the rise of the Communists and the Chinese Civil War, but also to the Taiping Rebellion.(Where Hong Xiuquan, who claimed (through visions) that he was the younger brother of Jesus founded the 太平天囯 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom).

And now we see another piece in the puzzle: Take a look at what he did to Aang’s statue. He did NOT tear it down, as is/was common during all communist revolutions  i.e. the sacking and burning of temples and churches.

Instead he replaced Aang’s face with his, the Air Nomad symbol with his flag. He is not just toppling the Avatar, he is replacing him. With himself.

Part Three: Energybending vs Taking Someone’s Bending

Again we can compare how Aang’s method and Amon’s differ.

Aang touches two chakras, Amon only one.

For Amon’s way of taking away bending only the touch on the forehead seems to be necessary (he never touched Tahno’s neck). No visible glowing is involved, either.

Aang touches two chakras and we see him glowing both times, even tough in Yakone’s case the glowing is a lot less strong than in Ozai’s, it is still visible.

Another thing I found interesting. Take a look at the gif. Amon seems to be pushing down on that man’s forehead with visible strength, as if pushing something in.

Is this a kind of bloodbending that locks chakras/chi flow? A kind of advanced chi blocking that requires no bending?

Should true energybending take that much physical force?

Energybending: Part One

Energybending: Part Two

Is Amon part machine?

Good question, and while him being some kind of cyborg would be awesome, I would just like to point out that they either have Borg technology, or that, at least, his hands are human. I do not think we ever see any other unclothed body part, other than his eyes.

Let’s run with this idea and speculate merrily along the way:

Why can’t Lin bend him?
He’s made from platinum, which canonically cannot be bend.

Is Amon a bender? The evidence speaks for it.

Compare the two gifs. Katara fighting off Hama trying to bloodbend her, and Amon doing the same to the much stronger bender Tarrlok.

Given, Katara had never encountered this kind of bending before, which puts her at a disadvantage, but that is not the point I am trying to make.

Amon does feel the effect of the bending, we see him falter in his step, but he is much less affected by it and seems to have an easier time throwing it off. Even Aang could not fend off Yakone without going into Avatar-state.

It takes an enormous amount of power to fight off bloodbending and we never see anyone but a fellow waterbender/Avatar even able to fight it sucessfully. Now, we have seen several examples of super-benders in LOK already, which leads to the conclusion that Amon is one of them, and probably a waterbender, too. 

More about Amon:

The Taiping Rebellion - Religious elements in the Equalists

Be the leaf, Amon

Amon Poster - Real World References

The Meaning Behind Amon’s Name

Amon’s Mask - Analyzed through Beijing Opera Symbolism

Republic City, Yu Dao, Imperialism, the Boxer Rebellion and Hong Kong

What time period is ATLA set in

Implications of The Founding of Republic City i.e. The Promise Part One