I always found it interesting that in B3 we're shown that a considerable amount of bandits in the Earth Kingdom are actually rebels, directly stepping up against the queen, like this guy (whose name is apparently fucking Gombo) and his squad.
And the people who took over Ba Sing Se were also mainly members of the impoverished lower ring rising against the oppresive upper ring.
Of course they would reject Wu being placed back on the throne, from their perspective that would be just going back to the system that hurt them for ages. Why would Suyin, someone shown to value freedom help place him upon the throne? Especially when asked by a pair of foreign leaders who very obviously have a lot to gain in placing someone as impressioable and easily manipulatable as Wu on the throne.
I just feel... icky that we say that stamping down these people is one of Kuvira's "good" accomplishments. Like, I'm sure there were bandits who were using the situation for their own gain, but it seemed like so many of the insurgents were just people who had been used and abused by a cruel monarchy that oppressed them.
Wow congratulations you kicked the assess of a bunch of untrained poor people who wanted a better life good job queen you want a sticker
And these insurgents would probably be the ones most likely to be locked away in the labour camps, considering they're "political" prisioners, rather than just regular criminals. This is the same divide we've seen irl in the Soviet Union, one of the inspirations behind Kuvira.
And yeah I get that these are complex situations and shit but we really only got a snippet of the anarchy in the earth kingdom and I wish we were shown more because we are only left to speculate based on what little we got in B3 which really painted the people of the Earth Kingdom as victims.
