| abstract
| - Some years after the Hundred Year War, Avatar Aang established the United Republic Council as a means of keeping no single nation from exerting its own will over the infant country. It was comprised of five members and came to be chaired by Southern Water Tribe representative Sokka by 128 AG. The Council put Yakone on trial for the crimes he committed as a bloodbender and sentenced him to life in prison. After being sentenced, however, Yakone single-handedly bloodbent everyone in City Hall and escaped. Avatar Aang quickly caught up with him, however, and removed his bending. In 170 AG, following an Equalist gathering where Amon showcased his ability to permanently remove people's bending, the Council convened over the best course of action. Tarrlok proposed to create a task force to find Amon and bring him to justice. Councilman Tenzin opposed this aggressive move, stating that it would only further divide the bending and nonbending communities of the city. Tenzin was strengthened in his opposition as Tarrlok volunteered to lead the task force himself, seeing that move as a play to gain more power. In order to gain the approval of the other three Council members, Tarrlok drew a comparison between his own actions against Amon and the actions of Avatar Aang against Yakone, stating that they were both willing to deal with danger head on. The waterbender emphasized that Amon was not going to stop with the bending triads, and was going to come after every bender in the world, including the friends and families of the Council members, unless they voted for the task force and let him stop Amon. This argument worked, as the Councilors, except Tenzin, voted in favor of the attack, and subsequently declared Amon to be public enemy number one. Several days later, Amon called on the Council to shut down the Pro-bending Arena on the night of the championship match or there would be "severe consequences" should the Council fail to comply. Concerned about the safety of the innocent spectators, the Council members unanimously agreed to shut the arena down. Korra, Mako, and Bolin barged in on the closed Council meeting and argued that they should not give in to Amon's threats. Just as Tarrlok was about to make the decision final by slamming the gavel on the table, Chief Lin Beifong showed up and halted him by destroying the object with her metal cables. Agreeing with Korra, she stated that the Council should show some backbone and offered to personally oversee the extra security measurements during the tournament with her Metalbending Police Force. Except for Tenzin, the rest of the Council agreed to Lin's offer and let the tournament continue. At a later Council meeting, Tarrlok proposed that a new law be created to outlaw Equalist membership and create a curfew for all nonbenders. Tenzin strongly opposed the proposal, but the other Council members voted in favor, thus approving the law. Not too long afterward, the other three Council members and Chief Saikhan were called to City Hall by Tenzin, who had gone to the Equalists' secret underground prison and discovered that Tarrlok had lied about Korra's kidnapping. The five of them, along with Lin and the rest of Team Avatar, confronted Tarrlok and were informed by the council page that Tarrlok was a bloodbender. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Tarrlok was able to bloodbend everyone into unconsciousness, made his escape, and later captured by Amon. Just prior to the Equalists' battle for Republic City, the Council attempted to hold a session without a Northern Water Tribe representative. However, all the Council members except for Tenzin were captured by Amon's forces. With Tenzin as the only person on the Council who was not incapacitated, the leadership of Republic City was solely in his hands, as acknowledged by the council page. Through the joint efforts of Team Avatar and General Iroh, the Equalist threat was neutralized and Amon was driven from the city. The former Equalist leader and Councilman Tarrlok escaped the city on a speedboat, though the latter sacrificed himself to end Amon's life by blowing up their vehicle. Due to his death, the title of chairman and the council seat for the Northern Water Tribe became vacant, though this would prove inconsequential, as the council dissolved itself some time after these events.
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![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)