once the reveal of Noatok being amon happened I figured that Amon was simply lying about hating benders, and targeted a widely held sentiment so that he could use the equalists to destroy the city itself to spite both his father and brother for whatever reason.
I mean back when Amon was a mystery the fake story about him being disfigured by fire benders seemed plausible and the equalists certainly bought it
The whole Amon/Tarrlock thing just ended up being a really janky brothers feud in my eyes
Someone earlier brought up that the whole Amon/Tarrlok thing was sort of a legacy villain. Aang stopped Yakone, and then Korra had to stop what Aang couldn't: his kids. I really liked that idea, and I genuinely think it's a fantastic one. Problem is that it didn't pan out that way. I mean, both can also be looked at as trying to create peace, going about it in totally different ways as pointed out earlier. I don't deny that's a cool idea as well.
Ultimately though, I think both of them were so angry because of their childhood that they both ended up on a power trip. Tarrlok takes over a position of power in Republic City and gains immense amount of control, doing whatever he wants. Noatak creates the Equalist movement so he can get off on, not only a very public display of power and one that others help promote, but the ultimate form of power as well: literally taking bending away. He had everyone in the palm of his hand. In fact, they both did. At the end of the day, though. I never bought their motives; they just came off as great big assholes.
Honestly though, every single villain in this series is about power. Power and how it's handled really seems to be the major theme.
-Amon and Tarrlok were about using power to subjugate others and gaining control over others. Tarrlok through politics and Amon through direct force. The fact that both are uberbloodbenders supports this, since it's all about controlling people and living things.
-Unalaq was about as straight forward of a megalomaniac as one can get, and only cared about gaining power for himself.
-Vaatu was about creating chaos and creating a world where spirits dominated humans. He even went so far as to corrupt spirits and force them to do his bidding.
-The Earth Queen is an abusive monster with her political power. I mean, Ba Sing Se is a shithole. Even the upper ring.
-Zaheer fits this theme the least, but he was about chaos and anarchy. However he resorted to using force in order to achieve this goals. Resorting to straight up murder in fact. Not necessarily about power, but he definitely liked to use his. And he makes a point to inform Korra of her "limitless" power.
-Finally, we have Kuvira. I mean, she's transparent as fuck. She wanted to create order in the world (primarily Earth Kingdom), and resorted to force in order to do so. She then got ambitious and a bit over the top (to say the least) and began to go absolute. Pushing 100% no holds barred control over everything, and constantly escalating the situation: Creating spirit weapons and aggressively attacking isolationist and otherwise peaceful groups. She wanted total dominance, all so that way she wouldn't feel weak. Granted, she wanted this for others, but it cost them more than they gained, I feel.
Even then, Korra also has a struggle with her own power as well. First, she's proud of it. She's proud of being an Avatar, and loves wielding that power. It's part of what makes her conflict with the Equalists so interesting: Here's the ultimate bender and symbol of bending power, and she has to stop a group that hates her, not because of what she is, but because of what she represents: The ultimate bender. That has caused a lot of pain to those people. Then, she has to deal with losing that power and it breaks her. She feels useless and after getting it back (Book 2) she becomes unbelievably arrogant.
Essentially abusing her power to a degree, and even craving it (she wants so badly to access her spiritual abilities) until she reconnects with her roots. This humbles her, because now she realizes why she has it and what she has to do with it. Until of course, she realizes that this power is being used by another (Unalaq) to achieve their goals (Harmonic Convergence and shit). She loses her past lives, becomes a giant spirit, regains Raava, and then decides to leave the portals open.
After this (Book 3), she then decides to use her power to keep the peace. For what it was originally intended. Book 4 becomes interesting though, in that she feels powerless. Now she doubts her powers and her ability to use them. With good reason, too. I mean she's been beaten down so much and been treated like and outdated relic and as a generally unwanted person. Who wouldn't lose their confidence? Her journey during that book then is to regain confidence and control over her power.
The power theme carries to even to a lesser scale, with Varrick. Varrick slowly but surely starts using his power (his intelligence and ingenuity) in service of others and to help others, rather than just to serve his own ego. Wu is next in line for the monarchy, and eventually decides that the power he was so excited to use (and abuse) that is best left in the hands of the people.
I mean, I'll admit it's not all well thought out, but it's what I've seen throughout the show.
