i rant a lot

Republic City is built to accommodate machines, factories, and cars. The jobs we see non-benders having are in business, including Asami's dad who's a millionaire. The jobs we see benders having are factory workers and organized crime. With a few exceptions such as the metal-bending police unit and the ruling council.

It seems to me that benders are the ones who are oppressed in Republic City, at least materially. The presence of benders in police and government don't change it much since despite its name, Republic City in season 1 isn't a democracy. Benders being oppressed would also make sense as a continuation from ATLA, where we saw Earthbenders and Waterbenders being oppressed by the Fire Nation, and the United Republic is comprised of former Fire Nation colonies.

But the plot is saying that non-benders are oppressed. Amon and his Equalists are presented as having a point but going about it in the wrong way (plus Amon himself being a fraud).

It would've made more sense to be the other way around. The Avatar comic series Imbalance (which is otherwise pretty bad) actually does that right, with benders feeling threatened by the rise of technology in the pre-republic Republic City. LoK shows the end point of that process after decades of technological and societal evolution.

Time to talk about this awful person. He sucks. And I love him to pieces. He’s a fantastic character. It’s often overlooked that the 2003 anime had hella strong characters (complex, realistic, ambiguous, and meaningful to the well-woven themes of this deeply symbolic series while retaining identities outside of being puppets to the overarching plot), and Roy Mustang was one of them. 

I. The Flame Alchemist, Hero of Ishval 

II. His goal to be Fuhrer

III. His relationship with Ed 

IV. His resolution, and what it all means