Tumblr crosspost (19 November 2019)
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anghraineAn anon said:
AU where Mako and Bolin completely fuck up Amon and Tarrlok's plans before the escalations (they see Noatak practicing his waterbending one day, and Bolin recognizes his voice from "The Revelation;" they notice he looks like Tarrlok; Bolin blurts out "Councilman! Amon is your brother!" at a press meeting; they describe Noatak's appearance and voice; Tarrlok puts two and two together). How different would everything be?
I replied:
Hmm, it’s pretty hard for me to see Mako and Bolin putting the pieces together on that alone, or probably having that much access to Tarrlok. Even if they did, I think Tarrlok would be mind-meltingly enraged (on both the ‘dead brother’ and ‘nuclear hatred of Amon’ fronts) and instantly have them thrown out without actually being able to accept the conclusion himself. It probably wouldn’t change a whole lot in the long run.
Buuuut.
I could envision some scenario where Bolin associates Amon and Tarrlok (“they’re practically brothers if you think about it…”) and Aang sends his loudest YES! THEY’RE BROTHERS! SOMEONE LISTEN vibes to Korra, who’s like … yeah, Bolin, you’re right, lol, imagine if they were (Aang: AGHHHHH). But she has a ‘weird feeling’ about the whole idea, and she and Mako start to suspect that there’s some connection between Amon and Tarrlok that Aang is trying to communicate, even though of course they’re not literal brothers.
I can see one of them (probably Mako or Korra) having the WAIT WAIT. BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE epiphany, and Aang managing to get a spiritual fistbump through. I imagine that Korra would either confront Tarrlok immediately (because she assumes he’s in cahoots with Amon—that would make for its own, very difficult plot) or going to Tenzin, depending on her frame of mind at the time.
Either way, if the reveal happened too late in the game, it wouldn’t change a whole lot from canon, just because Tarrlok canonically figures it out so soon after bloodbending Korra. So it’d have to be before that.
The most straightforward one is Tenzin convincing Korra to bide her time until the Dragon Flats incident (or Team Avatar only putting the pieces together immediately before it), when instead of saying he’s just like Amon, she says he’s just like ‘his brother’.
Tarrlok: ?????
And, depending on whether he loses his shit quite so fast with a certain element of bewilderment (and flashbacks, probably) at play, the plot could swerve there, though (assuming that Tarrlok accepts the truth) he could still have any number of possible responses. The most pragmatic one would be roughly similar to canon—formally announcing that Amon is a bloodbender in a press conference or some such. It wouldn’t have such a powerful effect without Noatak’s self-destruction immediately following it, but I could see it weakening his support and that leading to … something.
(Tarrlok would be completely miserable about doing this and tbh I’m not sure he could hold it together much beyond that.)
It’s also possible, of course, that he does lose his shit, but probably not as violently as in canon. The first thing I thought of is pulling a Korra and calling for a one-on-one duel specifically for the purpose of confronting Noatak, though I’m not sure if he really would (if he did, Noatak would be in the awkward position of leaving him to talk or making something of a martyr out of him by capturing him).
The other possibility is that the revelation would be devastating enough to leave Tarrlok in something like the mental state of canon—less penitent, but basically passive and withdrawing into himself, just passing the information on to Korra or Tenzin and leaving them to deal with it (and probably being placed under extremely close observation, ostensibly on the chance that Amon will try and take him into custody for any of the numerous reasons he has to do it).
There are lots more ways this could wind out, too (what if the revelation came early in the arc rather than late?—though that makes the Aang element harder to accept). But it is hard for me to see Mako and Bolin as the main movers of this sort of revelation—and, unfortunately, difficult for me to see Noatak and Tarrlok reaching any kind of rapport in any of the scenarios except pretty far along the way.
(I also like the idea int eh last one that ... they're like. okay, who is equipped to guard an emotionally devastated bloodbender? And the clear answer is Katara. LOL, Tarrlok and Katara's life-changing field trip! ... Anyway, this answer is probably not what you were looking for, but is what came to mind.)
AU where Mako and Bolin completely fuck up Amon and Tarrlok's plans before the escalations (they see Noatak practicing his waterbending one day, and Bolin recognizes his voice from "The Revelation;" they notice he looks like Tarrlok; Bolin blurts out "Councilman! Amon is your brother!" at a press meeting; they describe Noatak's appearance and voice; Tarrlok puts two and two together). How different would everything be?
I replied:
Hmm, it’s pretty hard for me to see Mako and Bolin putting the pieces together on that alone, or probably having that much access to Tarrlok. Even if they did, I think Tarrlok would be mind-meltingly enraged (on both the ‘dead brother’ and ‘nuclear hatred of Amon’ fronts) and instantly have them thrown out without actually being able to accept the conclusion himself. It probably wouldn’t change a whole lot in the long run.
Buuuut.
I could envision some scenario where Bolin associates Amon and Tarrlok (“they’re practically brothers if you think about it…”) and Aang sends his loudest YES! THEY’RE BROTHERS! SOMEONE LISTEN vibes to Korra, who’s like … yeah, Bolin, you’re right, lol, imagine if they were (Aang: AGHHHHH). But she has a ‘weird feeling’ about the whole idea, and she and Mako start to suspect that there’s some connection between Amon and Tarrlok that Aang is trying to communicate, even though of course they’re not literal brothers.
I can see one of them (probably Mako or Korra) having the WAIT WAIT. BUT WHAT IF THEY ARE epiphany, and Aang managing to get a spiritual fistbump through. I imagine that Korra would either confront Tarrlok immediately (because she assumes he’s in cahoots with Amon—that would make for its own, very difficult plot) or going to Tenzin, depending on her frame of mind at the time.
Either way, if the reveal happened too late in the game, it wouldn’t change a whole lot from canon, just because Tarrlok canonically figures it out so soon after bloodbending Korra. So it’d have to be before that.
The most straightforward one is Tenzin convincing Korra to bide her time until the Dragon Flats incident (or Team Avatar only putting the pieces together immediately before it), when instead of saying he’s just like Amon, she says he’s just like ‘his brother’.
Tarrlok: ?????
And, depending on whether he loses his shit quite so fast with a certain element of bewilderment (and flashbacks, probably) at play, the plot could swerve there, though (assuming that Tarrlok accepts the truth) he could still have any number of possible responses. The most pragmatic one would be roughly similar to canon—formally announcing that Amon is a bloodbender in a press conference or some such. It wouldn’t have such a powerful effect without Noatak’s self-destruction immediately following it, but I could see it weakening his support and that leading to … something.
(Tarrlok would be completely miserable about doing this and tbh I’m not sure he could hold it together much beyond that.)
It’s also possible, of course, that he does lose his shit, but probably not as violently as in canon. The first thing I thought of is pulling a Korra and calling for a one-on-one duel specifically for the purpose of confronting Noatak, though I’m not sure if he really would (if he did, Noatak would be in the awkward position of leaving him to talk or making something of a martyr out of him by capturing him).
The other possibility is that the revelation would be devastating enough to leave Tarrlok in something like the mental state of canon—less penitent, but basically passive and withdrawing into himself, just passing the information on to Korra or Tenzin and leaving them to deal with it (and probably being placed under extremely close observation, ostensibly on the chance that Amon will try and take him into custody for any of the numerous reasons he has to do it).
There are lots more ways this could wind out, too (what if the revelation came early in the arc rather than late?—though that makes the Aang element harder to accept). But it is hard for me to see Mako and Bolin as the main movers of this sort of revelation—and, unfortunately, difficult for me to see Noatak and Tarrlok reaching any kind of rapport in any of the scenarios except pretty far along the way.
(I also like the idea int eh last one that ... they're like. okay, who is equipped to guard an emotionally devastated bloodbender? And the clear answer is Katara. LOL, Tarrlok and Katara's life-changing field trip! ... Anyway, this answer is probably not what you were looking for, but is what came to mind.)