Legend of Korra - Zaheer's Philosophy

Zaheer's philosophy is basically what liberals/centrists think is anarchism.

Nature is NOT chaos. A common misconception. Humans create chaos but never nature

Every Anarchist eventually hits the same wall regardless of their intelligence or competence. Destroying a tyrannical government is a no-brainer, but if the people don't know who to choose as a replacement the cycle could repeat or worsen. Peace and strength are easily the two most difficult traits to synergize with each-other. Zaheer believed far too much in strength and callousness despite his obvious intelligence and ability. True peace is being able to balance strength, wisdom and compassion without letting corruption take hold since perceived "weakness" is the perfect forbidden fruit for any opportunist. The human capacity to place excessive value on the self over the whole has consistently turned us into the monsters we fear the most for almost our entire history.

Henry Rollins as Zaheer is IMO one of the best voice casting in all of animation.

Zaheer was literally spitting fax and then Korra said "it will throw the world into chaos" and Zaheer just went "yeah disorder is great" like wtf chaos is fundementally in oppostion to chaos since chaos creates opression. Anarchists believe in highly organized structures but organized horizontally without hierarchy. like the writes clearly dont understand anarchism and seemingly didnt even try to understand it

it’s so sad to see the monstrous lengths zaheer goes to in the name of freedom. i genuinely believe he’s one of the wisest written characters known to animation history, and i adore his immense attachment to the spiritual world. his heart was definitely in the right place, just the wrong position…

@wirxaw tanev
That's an analysis that explains zaheer 's ideology than I do

Zaheer's martial art is not freestyle. He specifically studied and practised arm bending martial arts but he didn't have the air bending part. Considering air nomands were wiped, most armies trained on fighting the forms that exist (water, fire, and earth). Hence, Zaheer had an advantage by using a style people are not used to train against. When he got his air bending, he excelled quickly because he already had the moves down.

The problem with Anarchy and the problem with Zaheer is ultimately is stonewalled by one reality. People chose structure, they continue to choose structure every single day. If we the people, in an ambiguous sense decided tomorrow we were done following laws or governments then that's it. Its done. If you have no one to follow rules or enforce them, they cease to be a material reality, they stop existing whole hog.

But nobody wants to be in the world alone, and few want to do something for nothing. People want assurances, protections and most of all, people want to be safe, they want to comfortable and they want their children to be safe and comfortable. Anarchy gives people absolute freedom from all institutions, and what that really means in practice, is you have the absolute freedom to struggle to survive, which will likely result in a miserable, hard life or an early death.

Zaheer is wrong, because Anarchy is wrong. It's not the natural order of things, animals don't adhere to it universally, we as a species certainly don't and honestly, I have no misconceptions about nature and it's not a life goal of mine to live like a fucking animal.

Man I just subscribed, I love what you do with your philosophical and analytical assessments of media, very very good stuff 👍👍👍 but man that extra deep voice definitely helps it along. Very epic and easy to get pulled into listening to for hours. I put your videos on my headphones when I go on runs. Thank you so much for making this video and all of them on your channel. You're incredibly talented.

Not a shred of philosophy in the video

Kuvira did nothing wrong, come at me.

He's literally a left anarchist terrorist

the fact that the legend of korra is carried by its villains and animation is insane

"See, I took a seat on the Council not because I wanted to, but because Nick asked me to. Because we were both realists. We knew that, despite all the diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, that to build a really better world sometimes means having to tear the old one down. And that makes enemies."―Alexander Pierce, Captain America: The Winter Soldier

“People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.”
― Alan Moore, V for Vendetta

Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the establishment and everything becomes CHAOS. im an agent of chaos. Oh you know the thing about about CHAOS. Its fair

A wooden prison for the earth bender

A frozen tundra for the fire bender

A waterless prison for the water bender


Me: launches zaheer to the moon

Dude. This analysis is everything. I’ve always loved Zaheer as the first true “Airbender villain” cause his ideology is rooted in truth but his execution is done with malice. The duality of his character to achieve flight by letting go of earthly attachments but still having this unwavering need to destroy without the thought of cause AND effect. Very well done.

Zaheer did nothing wrong.

I like how zaheer had the humility to admit his wrongs

Damn Communists

"Freedom without responsibility is selfish." That sums up Zaheer just perfectly.

"Everyone thinks they're the Hero of their own story."

- Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2.

This is why we Bitcoin

“Freedom should be chosen for one self, not forced on to others”
-Blade Wolf

I liked Zaheer more than Korra. His only problem is that he was ahead of his time. Like Leo Tolstoy.

Gyatso: unseen air
Ang: air of bliss
Tenzin: air of discipline
Milo: air of chaos
Zeheer: pur tornado.

Zaheer and Amon are my favorite villains.

He took things too far, just as Toph said, but he DID have some interesting ideals. That's something that can be said about all the main antagonists of LoK.

They should have put zaheer in the lava prison and the armless one in the mountains

I believe his philosophy is “the lack of good writing”.

Fцск Zaheer, chaos obsessed гетагd. He’s just Unalaq 2.0 with rivaling bullshit powers.

Zaheer is like Andrew Tate fighting the matrix in avatar style

Fun fact: Zaheer is played by Henry Rollins, one of the lead vocalists of Black Flag which is a well-known Hardcore Punk band

I can believe that Zaheer was dangerous even without bending remember how Ty lee regularly fought with and took out entire groups of benders and she wasn’t even an actual martial artist she was an acrobat with knowledge of pressure points

If Zaheer wasn't in chains, he would have killed Kuvira

Legend of Korra had easily the best villains in the series

Me estoy refiriendo a KORRA

Sajir es la persona que le debería sér el padre de o un maestro es muy bueno en la actuación

Literally if Aang didnt stop unlocking all his chakras hed be able to fly like Zaheer

Zaheer's methods, especially assassinating the earth queen and the avatar, are rooted in the historical context of late 19th and early 20th century anarchism: propaganda of the deed. This era of anarchism had a popular illegalism bent where many leading figures of the ideology believed that in order to kickstart a popular revolt against tyranny, anarchists must take it upon themselves to kill politicians, businessmen, etc., to demonstrate the vulnerability of their system and inspire laypersons to do the same.

Of course, this didn't happen. Propaganda of the deed infamously was a key factor in the first red scare, a massive crack down by capitalist nations in 1919 on any radical left ideology, leading to mass arrests, deportations, black listings, and execution. Popular opinion rapidly turned against anarchism, as fears of domestic terrorism by lawless mobs took over the nations' psyches (pushed along by the counter propaganda of the ruling classes of course).

This flaw is often present in anarchistic antagonists as without it, not only is there no meaningful conflict, but there would be no meaningful challenge to their ideas. Anarchists propose above all else human liberty, free from hierarchical dominance. The only way to oppose that is to fail in meaningfully implement those ideas through flawed and objectionable actions, especially if they contradict the desired outcome.

airbender flamethrower earth and water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

if zaheer has a mask like amon's it more enigmatic and yet interesting character if done, but zaheer without mask is Good wriiten villain

Zaheer might love the amish, or certain bhudist monks.

John Lennons song imagine is literally the ideology of the red lotus.

the thing is we never see korra making a valid counter argument to zaheer views, in terms of the earth queen both kinda agree, were it not for korra being the avatar, korra would probably agree with a lot of zaheer views

I believe the fatal flaw in Zaheer's thought was that he believed that anarchy was natural, hierarchy artificial. Any keen observer of nature will tell you that nothing is more natural than dominance hierarchies. Every social species is hierarchical to varying degrees. It is anarchy and egalitarianism which are artificial and would need to be maintained constantly.

If the Red Lotus had succeeded in defeating Korra and ending the avatar cycle, they would still have needed to contend with Kuvira; and even if they were able to defeat her, someone else would have risen up to take her place. The sad reality is that most humans don't really want to be free, no matter what rhetoric they might spout to the contrary. Ironically, most humans must be FORCED to be free -- as oxymoronic as that sounds.

Zaheer was more than a man. What he became was a force of nature -- air personified. His motives were most noble; but he himself was misguided. Instead of trying to kill Korra, he should have freed Vatu and himself become a dark avatar. Actually maintaining an artificial state of global anarchy would have demanded no less than a dark, chaotic avatar to maintain it.

"I'M ABOUT TO HAVE A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN MY HEAD REALLY HURTS!!!! " - zaheer 1978

“True freedom can only be achieved when oppressive governments are torn down.” -Zaheer, Legend of Korra.

This video got me into watching the series! Would love to see videos about the other villains too