#i've been cursed to overthink the lok b1 storyline for all eternity haven't i

[army-of-mai-lovers]

tbh I think watching lok b1 fucked up my brain permanently because it’s been months since I finished the show and yet every night before I go to sleep I start thinking about these very plot-relevant questions like “are nonbenders in Republic City systemically oppressed? how so? were they able to vote in local elections? it seems like they weren’t able to because there are no nonbenders on the Council. but wait, Sokka was on the Council, and he was a nonbender. so between Sokka’s death and the start of lok, did nonbenders lose their right to vote? or did they always not have the right to vote, but benders just voted for Sokka in the Council elections because they liked him? why would a nonbender not be allowed to vote but then be able to run for office? was Sokka given special treatment because he was friends with the Avatar and the Firelord? did Sokka further the systemic oppression of nonbenders? but why would he do that? how would he do that? what did systemic oppression of nonbenders look like prior to the start of lok? clearly, Tarrlok rounding up nonbenders was supposed to parallel instances of authoritarians scapegoating racial and ethnic minorities in the real world, but there had to have been some kind of buildup to that, probably in the form of legal and social disenfranchisement of nonbenders by the government. but we, the audience, never actually see the  effects of that disenfranchisement. Both Asami’s mom and Mako and Bolin’s parents are killed by benders (specifically Firebenders) and there’s that scene in the beginning where the Triple Threats are antagonizing local businesses, but do any of these actually indicate systemic oppression of nonbenders? those are definitely evidence of certain individuals using their power to hurt other individuals, but you can’t really chalk that up to a coherent system of discrimination, especially since none of those people were connected to a government body. and yeah we see the government antagonize nonbenders in lok b1, but it’s after Amon’s already risen to power, and so one would assume that the government has already antagonized nonbenders enough that they’re willing to follow essentially a cult leader because of their dissatisfaction with their station in life, allowing tensions to grow to the point that Tarrlok can use nonbenders as a scapegoat without much pushback. but, while there aren’t actually very many nonbender characters in lok, those who are in the narrative are all immensely successful people (Hiroshi Sato and Varrick are both wealthy industrialists, Bumi is a military leader, etc). but this is probably just a symptom of lok’s obsession with rich and powerful people at the expense of the everyman, so I probably shouldn’t assume that the status of these nonbenders reflects the status of every nonbender in Republic City. but if we look at atla, benders were never treated as better than nonbenders on a systemic level, except maybe in the Fire Nation, and actually we have evidence of benders being treated worse than their nonbending counterparts as a result of Fire Nation imperialism in both the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes (not to mention the decimation of the Air Nomads, who according to canon are all benders.) so is bender supremacy a result of Fire Nation colonialism? but then why are Earthbenders and Waterbenders treated well under this system? further, wouldn’t Asami’s family have some kind of privilege as Fire Nationals, despite their status as nonbenders? is that why they were able to get rich in a world that’s hostile towards nonbenders? plus, Amon is one of the villains of this season, but if he’s trying to fight for a group that’s been systemically oppressed in Republic City, wouldn’t he be a good guy? but taking away people’s bending is wrong, plus he bloodbended Korra, so obviously we’re meant to interpret him as a villain. he didn’t even get a redemption arc like Kuvira did, so I guess he must have been really bad. so was it just that people didn’t like his methods, or did they genuinely not believe in his cause of fighting against bender supremacy? if they just didn’t like his methods, did anybody start working on some plans to address disparities between benders and nonbenders after they defeated Amon? did President Raiko solve the issue of bender supremacy? how did he do that so quickly? if bender supremacy was such an issue on an individual and systemic level, why did they never talk about it again? were nonbenders allowed to vote in that election? was this just a Romeo and Juliet situation where both sides had equal power and hated each other for no reason? but no, if that were the case then nonbenders would have had enough institutional power in Republic City to not be rounded up when Tarrlok decided they were a threat, and there probably would have been at least one nonbender Council member in Korra’s time. did they ever talk about the fact that a government body rounded up all the nonbenders in the city? were there reparations? did Korra and the rest of the krew assist in giving out the reparations? was there nonbender housing discrimination?” and before you know it I’m screaming and tearing my hair out demanding bryke let me see the Republic City constitution because why didn’t anyone sue the government what the fuck is this plot--