Antagonist: If my ideology is enacted, everything will be better!

Liberal Protagonists: oh fuck how will we deal with this, I have no arguments to defend the status quo

Antagonist: just kidding, all that ideology was a trick, I'm Just Evil™

And then they can kill him without thinking about anything at all. Happens all the time.

Off the top of my head is legend of korra (I know im 2 weeks late for that discourse) the Black Panther movie, and even Pokemon Black/White have the same themes

    • kilternkafuffle [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      But it IS an accurate critique of Amon and Unalaq though (the weaker seasons). Spoilers follow. Korra had zero response to Equalist arguments except force. It was their violent tactics and the fraud at the center of the movement that are the only justification to bring them down. Unalaq similarly had a (theocratic?) ideology that Korra has no answer to, and it's only Unalaq's corruption and willingness to kill his family members that shows him to be the bad guy.

      The fact that Korra learns from both Zaheer and Kuvira (and they learn in turn) is what makes the last two seasons great.

      However, Kuvira is not an ethnonationalist - she's an authoritarian irredentist/imperialist (maybe she'd have stopped after conquering Republic City, but maybe that was a lie too and she'd just keep going). She's not doing ethnic purges and accepts all willing supporters, e.g. Water Tribe's Varrick.