Legend of Korra speculation
I am now caught up through Episode 7 of Korra and have come up with some ideas. I haven't been reading any other online speculation save lirazel's, so I'm sure that I'm far from the first person to come up with this idea, but I wanted to present it to you now.
We know for a fact that Aang and Katara's other son, Bhumi, isn't an airbender. However, do we know that he's a waterbender, or any sort of bender at all? What if he isn't a bender?
Imagine: you're the son of the Avatar and a powerful waterbender, and you can't bend. At all. You've got your uncle Sokka as an example of non-bending awesomeness, and likely Suki and maybe Ty Lee, but then you've got Toph and Zuko and later on Lin and your own brother (and possibly sister). And then at some point you move to Republic City and you see all these people using their gifts, the gifts you've always wanted, for things like committing crimes and showing off in an arena. That's gotta hurt.
Maybe your dad taught you a few techniques that didn't actually use bending. Maybe you did some training with Ty Lee or people she'd trained in chi-blocking. You probably grew up hearing the stories of how your dad defeated Fire Lord Ozai by blocking his bending. Maybe you heard the stories of when, for a while, your dad couldn't enter the Avatar state. Hmm. So you start putting a few things together, start working really hard, and maybe after years and years, you figure out how to use your chi-blocking to disable a person's bending permanently... or cause them enough of a mental block that they won't be able to reverse it.
Bhumi being Amon would explain a few things. It would explain why Tenzin seems to know more about Amon than he's telling. It would explain why Amon didn't take away Korra's powers at the island, or why he didn't go after Tenzin and Lin at the arena.
Heck, Amon wouldn't even be lying about an unscrupulous firebender killing his father, because technically Azula *did* kill Aang. The face-scarring bit might be a lie (or a deliberate invocation of Zuko), or maybe Azula went crazy and came back for revenge.
I think Bhumi is older than Tenzin, so he would be in his mid to late 50's, but age doesn't seem to be a negative factor in the Avatar world. Witness his namesake, Bhumi the King of Omashu, still pretty darned spry at 112. Or Iroh, or Pazu, or Sokka's master whose name I'm forgetting at the moment. Age serves a master bender or martial artist very well, and Amon's style is that of someone who's trained for many years to move the way he does.
So, there's my theory. Maybe next episode we'll learn all about Aang and Katara's other kids and it'll be completely shot, but I figure I might as well throw it out there and see what you all think.
Edit: It's Bumi, not Bhumi (Bhumi is an earth avatar in FFXI, and both it and Bumi likely have the same name source) and he is indeed confirmed to be a non-bender (and to perhaps be taking after his namesake in looks).
We know for a fact that Aang and Katara's other son, Bhumi, isn't an airbender. However, do we know that he's a waterbender, or any sort of bender at all? What if he isn't a bender?
Imagine: you're the son of the Avatar and a powerful waterbender, and you can't bend. At all. You've got your uncle Sokka as an example of non-bending awesomeness, and likely Suki and maybe Ty Lee, but then you've got Toph and Zuko and later on Lin and your own brother (and possibly sister). And then at some point you move to Republic City and you see all these people using their gifts, the gifts you've always wanted, for things like committing crimes and showing off in an arena. That's gotta hurt.
Maybe your dad taught you a few techniques that didn't actually use bending. Maybe you did some training with Ty Lee or people she'd trained in chi-blocking. You probably grew up hearing the stories of how your dad defeated Fire Lord Ozai by blocking his bending. Maybe you heard the stories of when, for a while, your dad couldn't enter the Avatar state. Hmm. So you start putting a few things together, start working really hard, and maybe after years and years, you figure out how to use your chi-blocking to disable a person's bending permanently... or cause them enough of a mental block that they won't be able to reverse it.
Bhumi being Amon would explain a few things. It would explain why Tenzin seems to know more about Amon than he's telling. It would explain why Amon didn't take away Korra's powers at the island, or why he didn't go after Tenzin and Lin at the arena.
Heck, Amon wouldn't even be lying about an unscrupulous firebender killing his father, because technically Azula *did* kill Aang. The face-scarring bit might be a lie (or a deliberate invocation of Zuko), or maybe Azula went crazy and came back for revenge.
I think Bhumi is older than Tenzin, so he would be in his mid to late 50's, but age doesn't seem to be a negative factor in the Avatar world. Witness his namesake, Bhumi the King of Omashu, still pretty darned spry at 112. Or Iroh, or Pazu, or Sokka's master whose name I'm forgetting at the moment. Age serves a master bender or martial artist very well, and Amon's style is that of someone who's trained for many years to move the way he does.
So, there's my theory. Maybe next episode we'll learn all about Aang and Katara's other kids and it'll be completely shot, but I figure I might as well throw it out there and see what you all think.
Edit: It's Bumi, not Bhumi (Bhumi is an earth avatar in FFXI, and both it and Bumi likely have the same name source) and he is indeed confirmed to be a non-bender (and to perhaps be taking after his namesake in looks).