Korra Theory: Origin of the Equalists, and Chief Bei Fong’s Father
this is lovely and i love you and i need this on my blogsomething-even-lighter-than-air:
wildbeardedbrownmanontheinternet:
This is a bit convoluted so bear with us.
Part 1: Suki
Right after Aang defeats Ozai and takes away his Firebending, Suki leans over Ozai and asks if Aang “finished the job”. Aang says that he found another way to restore balance, by taking away Ozai’s bending. We don’t see Suki’s face until Sokka walks over to taunt Ozai, but as he’s doing so, she’s looking down at him with a thoughtful, concerned expression. We submit that this is where the idea was planted within Suki - that benders weren’t dangerous if their bending is taken away.
Part 2: Ty Lee.
At the end of “Avatar the Last Airbender”, we see that Ty Lee has joined the Kyoshi Warriors. She says that after she taught them a bit of her Chi blocking, they became best friends. Immediately after Suki see’s how Aang dealt with Ozai, she lets a former enemy into the Kyoshi Warriors because she has the ability to take away a bender’s abilities.
In Korra, the Equalists are a group of people who use Ty Lee’s chi blocking techniques, and wear masks.
Masks vaguely reminiscent of Kyoshi facepaint.
Reminiscent in the kind of way that an entire group might be distorted over a hundred years. Both in their style and in their philosophy.
Ty Lee joining the Kyoshis is interesting because she joined the circus in the first place to avoid being part of a uniform group.
So here we see that she’s overcome that insecurity, and begins to see the merits of unity, and uniformity. The Kyoshi warriors become a force on par with benders, with their newfound chi-blocking abilities.
The speculation: After the war, Suki and Ty Lee begin to form a new philosophy for the Kyoshi Warriors, both influencing each other. Over time, the Kyoshi Warriors become the Equalists - perhaps the Equalists are a faction that broke off, but the Kyoshi Warriors are their origin.
Part 3: Toph
Its entirely canon that Toph has a little crush on Sokka. Suki was entirely aware of this.
In the same moment that Aang gives Suki the idea for the equalists, Sokka and Toph both taunt Ozai with the biting wit and sarcasm they’re known for. Suki, trying to fit in, tries to say something and comes up with:
“Yeeaaaah! Or how about king of the…guys who…don’t win?”
To which Toph responds,
“Leave the nicknames to us, honey”
This builds an insecurity in Suki. We already know that Suki has a tendency to be jealous in her relationship with Sokka.
Photo credit: sokkaxsuki.tumblr.com
Sokka spent so much time travelling with powerful benders. Why wouldn’t he choose them over her? This eats at her for years.
As the Kyoshi Warriors move more and more towards becoming the Equalists, Sokka states his discomfort with their new direction. Suki turns back to that insecurity, and paints the situation as a dichotomy she hopes Sokka will understand: Its us or them. Regular folks against Benders. Come on, Sokka. Its always been you and me, we’ve always been the odd ones out in the group. Y’know…
…Sokka refuses to see it this way.
They break up.
This cements Suki’s beliefs and galvanizes the birth of the Equalists.
Sokka, meanwhile, turns to the one member of their old group who shared his skeptical humor, the same girl he held close to him on a Firenation airship when he thought Suki was dead, with a crystal clear conviction that he would not lose her as well.
And so you have:
You’re Welcome.
Okay, so I have contemplated this for a bit and am now ready to share! To be clear, I think this theory has major flaws as well as credit (which I will discuss below), namely beginning after parts 1 and 2.
But I also think it is a potentially legitimate and very important theory. This is for a few reasons, but mostly because it takes Suki away from the sidelines and entrusts her with a monumentally important job. It’s no secret that I think she was underdeveloped as a main character and love interest. But from what we learned of her character, the way that (according to this theory) the Equalists formed is very believable. A few important factors must be taken into account:
1. Suki asking if Aang “finished the job” =/= she believes that Ozai should necessarily be dead. It DOES, however, make perfect sense that Suki would not think taking away Ozai’s bending did diddly squat. He’s one (very bad) person. The majority of the footwork was done while he sat in his throne and did no Bending at all. I personally thought that they should probably have also removed his vocal tract if they REALLY wanted to minimize his power (sorry for the mental image). Think about the “bad but influential” people of OUR world. None of them had any literal superpowers to reinforce their words. Bill O’Reilly doesn’t go around hitting people with lightning, yet somehow he has huge numbers of followers!
2. One of the crits I read said something like, “Suki would never do something this stupid”. Here I must point out that there is nothing illogical about the inclusion of chi blocking in the Kyoshi Warriors’ practices! In fact, it makes perfect sense. Aang really thought the best way to end the Fire Lord was by taking away his Bending, and so the development of chi blocking is the next logical step to evening the playing field between Benders and Non-Benders. It also fits perfectly into canon that Suki continues to diffuse Ty Lee’s skills throughout the rest of the group.
Here, I break off from the rest of the theory. Like, the entire thing. I’m not sure that Suki would develop a militaristic “us v them” attitude. It sounds a little too much like Jet. I think that if the Equalists DID come from the Kyoshi Warriors, it was likely a generational gap coupled with some other factor — for example, if a squad is stationed in Republic City to assist the police, it’s conceivable that they might develop their own mentality over time! While I believe that Suki could have crafted the original basis for the Equalists, I do not think her attitude would transform s drastically over such a short period of time.
I also think that, while the idea much throw up a red flag in Sokka’s head (moreso perhaps because the knowledge has the potential to be detrimental for BOTH parties if too many people learn it), it would have little to nothing to do with their break-up. Suki may become empowered by the idea, but she has already shown that she doesn’t need to take a Bender’s power away to kick their ass. I think she would have found it offensive that Aang only took away Ozai’s Firebending without considering that it may only be part of the problem. I think that it would be logical for her to take this idea and use it as an extension of the Kyoshi practices, but not as as a deliberate start to a major revolution.
In fact, it’s kind of contradictory to try to move from A.) Suki is offended that Aang thought taking away Ozai’s Bending was sufficient to stop him from exercising his power, to B.) Suki takes this idea and uses it to start a revolution. Because that kind of DOES imply that taking away a Bender’s Bending = powerlessness. OR, I suppose, you could read it as Suki’s wake-up call to the Benders of the world (“Don’t assume that all NonBenders are powerless”).
Also I think the first part of this theory has nothing at all to do with the potential demise of Sokka and Suki’s relationship. I DO have theories on the demise of their relationship (and the role that Toph could but probably does not play in it), but that’s not relevant at the moment.
So tl;dr - good start of a potentially GREAT theory! The basics all sounds pretty much legit, but it’s hard to delve that far into the future based off of such little knowledge.
Sorry if this was incoherent!
(via screams-flails-dies-etc)
