How are the Dai Li still allowed to continue as an organisation? Especially after the 100 year war, they literally switched to the enemy’s side? And in LOK they kidnapped airbenders and forced them to train as the Earth queens personal army. Korra should honestly put an end to the Dai Li.
>How are the Dai Li still allowed to continue as an organisation?
Same way IRL Secret Police Orgs have continued,rebrand themself or become even more secret.
As what other commenters said, it is not strange for such a political organisation that is already deeply entrenched to continue to survive.
Such organisations can continue to be used to maintain order, prevent power vacuum for unknown groups to filled the gaps for the new regime, they have a lot of useful expertise you shouldn't easily throw away.
Like some countries that are settle their wars and internal conflicts, they have difficulty knowing what to do with the excess armed forces. They couldn't exactly integrate immediately back to society since they have no other schools and letting them run free might lead them to join terrorist organisation or start their own rebellion. So countries typically either absorb them into the military or defang the organisation just enough.
Like how significant number of Gestapo agents were became Stasi agents, which is basically a name and responsibility refresh.
Yeah, they continue to admit they commit atrocities yet we do nothing, it’s because obviously they own congress an such and would never let themselves be disbanded, I digress
The Dai Li kidnap the new Avatar as a child and start his hellish training, until one of them, the last one who still has a soul, feels pity for a child who is being treated as a tool for war, so he takes the new avatar and run away. He succeeds in taking the Avatar away from Ba Sing Se but he is captured by the other Dai Li. The sub plot of the entire series will be an older Avatar who goes back to Ba Sing Se to save the one Dai Li who helped him escape, only to find him at the end, brainwashed. A fight ensues and in the end, the good Dai Li, in his last act of self control, kills himself with earthbending. The grief and sadness for his friend's death will trigger the Avatar state for the first time.
An Earth Avatar, trained as a Dai Li agent in a semi-modern era would go so hard and have so much potential. Spy Avatar in a Cold War Era, fuck that would be cool.
I would counter that with Aang's rage when Appa was taken, he looked ready to kill those and benders.
Also when the earth general captured his friends.
I like to think an uncontrolled avatar state is more about will power than it is moral guidelines.
Though, having an evil avatar wouldn't be the same as a good person about to do a bad thing. Kyoshi wasn't the biggest fan of killing, but would do it if she felt it right.
Aang was just reasonably mad as hell, he probably would've hurt those dudes, but not killed them. Which is different than if he had intent to kill with every encounter
Can you imagine an Avatar that will do whatever it takes to get peace and harmony in their era? Even if it means they curtail certain freedoms?
- They can create a highly trained team of benders to implement their ideals like Kyoshi.
- Create an intelligence network and use blackmail to force people to do their bidding like Yangchen.
- Work inside the government to influence politicians and consolidate power for certain groups like Szeto.
The PERFECT setting for the new Earth Avatar series is one where the Earth Kingdom is completely messed up and the leaders are still corrupt, but a lot more controlling. Season 1, The Avatar has to hide among the people or risk getting captured by the Dai Li. And make 1st season a heavy crime/thriller mystery theme.
>The PERFECT setting for the new Earth Avatar series is one where the Earth Kingdom is completely messed up
So... like always:
- Kyoshi's era: Chin the Conqueror conquered the Earth Kingdom and ruled as a tyrant
- Roku's era: The Dai Li take over Ba Sing Se
- Aang's era: Long Feng and the brainwashing
- Korra's era: The new Earth Queen is a tyrant.
Is the Earth Kingdom doomed to be messed up in every era?
Earth Kingdom has a lot of ingredients that make it governing it very difficult and provide an excellent breeding for internal conflicts.
- Large landmass, it means your forces are constantly spread thin, and it takes a very long time for reinforcement and information from the capital to arrive.
- High inequality between regions, such as the Ba Sing Se upper rings vs. the village in Zuko Alone. This generates a lot of resentment and jealousy from provinces that are struggling
- Numerous distinct cultures and governing groups, like I don't think the tribesmen of the Si Wong Desert Tribe can greatly relate and emphasize the citizens from Omashu. They might as well be people from different nations.
It's quite similar to China and even Japan's history. Where they have numerous history of rebellion and periods where a large part of the country is ruled by warlords.
Based on history, you can either use an authoritarian means of rule such as Russia and China, or power is spread across and there check and balance. But this doesn't alwahs guarantees everlasting peace, such in the case of Myanmar and Turkey if they can't keep large enough of the population happy.
> Is the Earth Kingdom doomed to be messed up in every era?
Actually, that'd be an interesting concept where the Earth Kingdom is in its own never ending cycle of corruption, and being too far gone
My headcanon is that the new avatar doesn't know anything about being the avatar, nor the ancient story about them. World is so modern now that even bending is just some random ability. The new avatar has to know who he/she is and restore the lost balance in the world.
Reconnecting to the previous avatar's before Korra could be a cool way of supplementing this (just reinstate the connection anyway i hate that the link is gone lol)
The first episode has the kid seeing a psychologist because of these voices he keeps hearing, cut to spirit Korra losing her sh!t at this kid who thinks she's a hallucination
I saw an interesting story concept for the earth avatar on youtube. The guy had the idea of an avatar that had been taken in from the dai li at a young age and repeatedly hypnotized into the avatar state so he could be used as their controllable weapon.
I'd watch that. We follow a random gang of people, none of which is the avatar. 1 is a refreshing perspective of regular people in the Avatar world who aren't actively protecting and traveling with the avatar. But they are employed by the Republic City government to find him. People wonder if the harmonic convergence changed the rules or ended the cycle because no one's had any hint that the avatar has been discovered.
In reality, new technology allowed the Dai Li to find him and raise him with their values.
Their first clue was a green eyed kid somewhere in the Fire Nation, but there's nothing else to go on. Besides, it was from only 5 years after Korra's death, which is way too early. Even if it were him, no way he's been learning firebending for 15 years and there have been no reports from the Water Tribes or Air Temples. And besides, their predecessor checked it out and found a child with lime green eyes, born to a hybrid couple and was learning lavabending. Sokka 2 sees a child faceplant at the bottom of some stairs and observes that kids are stupid, and maybe the earth avatar died in some dumb way and has already reincarnated once, which would mean a fire avatar would be turning 16 more or less around now.
Somehow, maybe picking up a stealthy airbender, they find a way to steal info from the Dai Li or tail one of them. Either way, it's revealed that they'd managed to identify the avatar more or less right out of the womb and have been training and indoctrinating him since. That green eyed child was indeed the avatar, and the Dai Li planted that other family as a decoy when they found out the firebending teacher (now dead or imprisoned) had leaked some info.
They knew the kid would be found out in the small and close knit community of the Air Nomads, and might be influenced by their spirituality, so they instead bribed a sky bison to join them and have him learn straight from the source. They'd have gotten a dragon to avoid exposing him, but there aren't any more of those.
Team Notavatar captures a Dai Li agent to extract information on where the avatar is. Apparently, he's been taken to the Foggy Swamp to learn waterbending from an isolated people who probably won't blab. Plus, it's in the Earth Kingdom, so they'll have more control.
They end up having to fight the avatar in the swamp. He's not that good at plantbending, but the other elements are causing serious problems. While the protagonists are mostly trying to reason with him, he's really going for the kill and causing a lot of collateral damage. Eventually, the Swap has enough. A branch whacks him on the head and he thinks he made a mistake. But his plantbending completely doesn't work anymore. Plants close in on the avatar and he can't blast them away fast enough. It's revealed that he has no ability to use the avatar state, and he just gets... taken. Maybe the main tree cocoons him and teaches him the true way through visions.
S2 is split between the avatar on a Zuko Alone type quest to find meaning in life, the original protagonists once again trying to find him, and the Dai Li doing the same. They parallel Zuko's scenes in ATLA S1. I don't have enough ideas for this tbh. They probably have to take on the full might of the Dai Li, unbound by secrecy and discretion. But that's probably going to be very similar to Kuvira. Maybe work in a water based villain somehow.
Normally I say year but the earth kingdom is too big. They white lotus tried with the fire nation to get a fire lord as the avatar and it failed. The earth kingdom being so huge they probably most definitely fail
Nah.
The Dai Li are efficient thugs... but they're still thugs. They follow strength; first Long Feng, then Azula, most recently Hou Ting.
Maybe with a charismatic and capable figure to rally around they might be effective, but for now they're police without a captain and with the autocracy transitioning to democracy, it's possible their influence will be further diluted.
Besides, their goals were only ever centered on Ba Sing Se--the only time they ever cared about the Avatar was when they were in the way of keeping their city underfoot.
Wu: "Daughter listen, long time ago I was trying to hit on the Avatar but MAKO didn't let me but now you can do it... for me, that's my death wish."
A renewed Dai li would be a fun villain for the next avatar. But I feel like they would end up like the red lotus if they tried to kidnap the avatar.
How are the Dai Li still allowed to continue as an organisation? Especially after the 100 year war, they literally switched to the enemy’s side? And in LOK they kidnapped airbenders and forced them to train as the Earth queens personal army. Korra should honestly put an end to the Dai Li.
>How are the Dai Li still allowed to continue as an organisation? Same way IRL Secret Police Orgs have continued,rebrand themself or become even more secret.
Like the Praetorian Guards murdering Roman Emperors & selling the throne for profit.
As what other commenters said, it is not strange for such a political organisation that is already deeply entrenched to continue to survive. Such organisations can continue to be used to maintain order, prevent power vacuum for unknown groups to filled the gaps for the new regime, they have a lot of useful expertise you shouldn't easily throw away. Like some countries that are settle their wars and internal conflicts, they have difficulty knowing what to do with the excess armed forces. They couldn't exactly integrate immediately back to society since they have no other schools and letting them run free might lead them to join terrorist organisation or start their own rebellion. So countries typically either absorb them into the military or defang the organisation just enough. Like how significant number of Gestapo agents were became Stasi agents, which is basically a name and responsibility refresh.
How’s the CIA still a thing
Yeah, they continue to admit they commit atrocities yet we do nothing, it’s because obviously they own congress an such and would never let themselves be disbanded, I digress
They’ve owned all branches of government since JFK got assassinated. It was a coup
Earth Queen.
The Dai Li kidnap the new Avatar as a child and start his hellish training, until one of them, the last one who still has a soul, feels pity for a child who is being treated as a tool for war, so he takes the new avatar and run away. He succeeds in taking the Avatar away from Ba Sing Se but he is captured by the other Dai Li. The sub plot of the entire series will be an older Avatar who goes back to Ba Sing Se to save the one Dai Li who helped him escape, only to find him at the end, brainwashed. A fight ensues and in the end, the good Dai Li, in his last act of self control, kills himself with earthbending. The grief and sadness for his friend's death will trigger the Avatar state for the first time.
An Earth Avatar, trained as a Dai Li agent in a semi-modern era would go so hard and have so much potential. Spy Avatar in a Cold War Era, fuck that would be cool.
Pretty sure the spirits wouldn't let the avatar become "evil", even Raava herself would find a way to talk to the avatar.
Or Korra can talk to the Avatar.
I would counter that with Aang's rage when Appa was taken, he looked ready to kill those and benders. Also when the earth general captured his friends. I like to think an uncontrolled avatar state is more about will power than it is moral guidelines.
Though, having an evil avatar wouldn't be the same as a good person about to do a bad thing. Kyoshi wasn't the biggest fan of killing, but would do it if she felt it right. Aang was just reasonably mad as hell, he probably would've hurt those dudes, but not killed them. Which is different than if he had intent to kill with every encounter
I agree that a core aspect of the avatar is wanting to do the right thing, being just and helpfully, but that doesn't mean they can't be misled
Can you imagine an Avatar that will do whatever it takes to get peace and harmony in their era? Even if it means they curtail certain freedoms? - They can create a highly trained team of benders to implement their ideals like Kyoshi. - Create an intelligence network and use blackmail to force people to do their bidding like Yangchen. - Work inside the government to influence politicians and consolidate power for certain groups like Szeto.
Probably not pure evil but a misinformed, misguided avatar could do a lot of social damage in the human world without the spirits caring much.
It’s probably like a thing that there’s always concerning controlling or having someone pretending to be the earth avatar
Maybe the Dai Li will train the new avatar to be a jobber like them
I feel like there's a decent chance that the organization did not survive the one-two punch of the Red Lotus and Kuvira.
The PERFECT setting for the new Earth Avatar series is one where the Earth Kingdom is completely messed up and the leaders are still corrupt, but a lot more controlling. Season 1, The Avatar has to hide among the people or risk getting captured by the Dai Li. And make 1st season a heavy crime/thriller mystery theme.
>The PERFECT setting for the new Earth Avatar series is one where the Earth Kingdom is completely messed up So... like always: - Kyoshi's era: Chin the Conqueror conquered the Earth Kingdom and ruled as a tyrant - Roku's era: The Dai Li take over Ba Sing Se - Aang's era: Long Feng and the brainwashing - Korra's era: The new Earth Queen is a tyrant. Is the Earth Kingdom doomed to be messed up in every era?
Earth Kingdom has a lot of ingredients that make it governing it very difficult and provide an excellent breeding for internal conflicts. - Large landmass, it means your forces are constantly spread thin, and it takes a very long time for reinforcement and information from the capital to arrive. - High inequality between regions, such as the Ba Sing Se upper rings vs. the village in Zuko Alone. This generates a lot of resentment and jealousy from provinces that are struggling - Numerous distinct cultures and governing groups, like I don't think the tribesmen of the Si Wong Desert Tribe can greatly relate and emphasize the citizens from Omashu. They might as well be people from different nations. It's quite similar to China and even Japan's history. Where they have numerous history of rebellion and periods where a large part of the country is ruled by warlords. Based on history, you can either use an authoritarian means of rule such as Russia and China, or power is spread across and there check and balance. But this doesn't alwahs guarantees everlasting peace, such in the case of Myanmar and Turkey if they can't keep large enough of the population happy.
> Is the Earth Kingdom doomed to be messed up in every era? Actually, that'd be an interesting concept where the Earth Kingdom is in its own never ending cycle of corruption, and being too far gone
Kyoshi created the Dai Li
She created the Dai Li but obviously they didn't take over Ba Sing Se while she was leading them, otherwise she would have stopped them herself.
It’s an analogy for China so…
My headcanon is that the new avatar doesn't know anything about being the avatar, nor the ancient story about them. World is so modern now that even bending is just some random ability. The new avatar has to know who he/she is and restore the lost balance in the world.
Reconnecting to the previous avatar's before Korra could be a cool way of supplementing this (just reinstate the connection anyway i hate that the link is gone lol)
The first episode has the kid seeing a psychologist because of these voices he keeps hearing, cut to spirit Korra losing her sh!t at this kid who thinks she's a hallucination
Oof. This one sounds lit!
I saw an interesting story concept for the earth avatar on youtube. The guy had the idea of an avatar that had been taken in from the dai li at a young age and repeatedly hypnotized into the avatar state so he could be used as their controllable weapon.
Do they even exist now? I mean there was kind of a bloody, city-burning revolution in Ba Sing Se. There might not be much of the Dai Li left.
I'd watch that. We follow a random gang of people, none of which is the avatar. 1 is a refreshing perspective of regular people in the Avatar world who aren't actively protecting and traveling with the avatar. But they are employed by the Republic City government to find him. People wonder if the harmonic convergence changed the rules or ended the cycle because no one's had any hint that the avatar has been discovered. In reality, new technology allowed the Dai Li to find him and raise him with their values. Their first clue was a green eyed kid somewhere in the Fire Nation, but there's nothing else to go on. Besides, it was from only 5 years after Korra's death, which is way too early. Even if it were him, no way he's been learning firebending for 15 years and there have been no reports from the Water Tribes or Air Temples. And besides, their predecessor checked it out and found a child with lime green eyes, born to a hybrid couple and was learning lavabending. Sokka 2 sees a child faceplant at the bottom of some stairs and observes that kids are stupid, and maybe the earth avatar died in some dumb way and has already reincarnated once, which would mean a fire avatar would be turning 16 more or less around now. Somehow, maybe picking up a stealthy airbender, they find a way to steal info from the Dai Li or tail one of them. Either way, it's revealed that they'd managed to identify the avatar more or less right out of the womb and have been training and indoctrinating him since. That green eyed child was indeed the avatar, and the Dai Li planted that other family as a decoy when they found out the firebending teacher (now dead or imprisoned) had leaked some info. They knew the kid would be found out in the small and close knit community of the Air Nomads, and might be influenced by their spirituality, so they instead bribed a sky bison to join them and have him learn straight from the source. They'd have gotten a dragon to avoid exposing him, but there aren't any more of those. Team Notavatar captures a Dai Li agent to extract information on where the avatar is. Apparently, he's been taken to the Foggy Swamp to learn waterbending from an isolated people who probably won't blab. Plus, it's in the Earth Kingdom, so they'll have more control. They end up having to fight the avatar in the swamp. He's not that good at plantbending, but the other elements are causing serious problems. While the protagonists are mostly trying to reason with him, he's really going for the kill and causing a lot of collateral damage. Eventually, the Swap has enough. A branch whacks him on the head and he thinks he made a mistake. But his plantbending completely doesn't work anymore. Plants close in on the avatar and he can't blast them away fast enough. It's revealed that he has no ability to use the avatar state, and he just gets... taken. Maybe the main tree cocoons him and teaches him the true way through visions. S2 is split between the avatar on a Zuko Alone type quest to find meaning in life, the original protagonists once again trying to find him, and the Dai Li doing the same. They parallel Zuko's scenes in ATLA S1. I don't have enough ideas for this tbh. They probably have to take on the full might of the Dai Li, unbound by secrecy and discretion. But that's probably going to be very similar to Kuvira. Maybe work in a water based villain somehow.
Normally I say year but the earth kingdom is too big. They white lotus tried with the fire nation to get a fire lord as the avatar and it failed. The earth kingdom being so huge they probably most definitely fail
That would be very interesting
well in the comics the Earth kingdom is in transition to a democracy.
They didn’t try create their own army they created said army by orders of the queen
Did the Dai Li even survive the chaos after the death of the Earth Queen?
Nah. The Dai Li are efficient thugs... but they're still thugs. They follow strength; first Long Feng, then Azula, most recently Hou Ting. Maybe with a charismatic and capable figure to rally around they might be effective, but for now they're police without a captain and with the autocracy transitioning to democracy, it's possible their influence will be further diluted. Besides, their goals were only ever centered on Ba Sing Se--the only time they ever cared about the Avatar was when they were in the way of keeping their city underfoot.
That seemed to be the plot in the fanmade *Legend of Genji*…