Regarding avatar state and Amon's plans (obviously spoilery)

[Grollo]

Here's my thoughts about why Amon didn't kill Korra when he had the chance.

His plan is likely to take away all bending, for all time. I don't know what his plans are for the general populace, but the most prominent bender is the avatar. The thing is, if he kills Korra, she will just be reborn somewhere in the earth kingdom - and probably hidden from him this time. He needs to end the avatar cycle completely. How can you do that? By killing the avatar in the avatar state. Korra has so far not been in this state at all, so Amon has held off killing her. He simply will wait until she is channelling the avatar spirit and kill her quickly.

Getting to her quickly even in her powered-up form probably won't be too hard for him. He is good enough at dodging that I don't remember him ever getting hit by a bending attack. We have also seen him resist bloodbending, so he might resist other bending powers as well.

Does Amon know that killing an avatar in the avatar state ends the cycle? Not necessarily. That is something we only knew Aang to know - but then energybending was a skill only Aang had too, so it's not very farfetched.

What do you guys think?

[Archsage]

Has... has Amon ever killed anyone?

[neur0tix]

Ofc that killing the Avatar is useless, even General Zhao knew it. But you know its not over, over ... i mean ... there is always Katara with some magic water right?

[Melon Lord's Revenge]

Amon has said somewhere that he has a weapon, and its not the electrocuting gear or the mechs but something else...I think he's waiting for Korra to go into the avatar state, and his weapon will some how interfere with this, allowing him to channel the power of the avatar. Perhaps it's a machine that once powered with spirit energy harnessed from the avatar state, he can then set it off like a bomb or similar to an electro magnetic pulse, but it's purpose causes all benders within range to lose their bending if they're in the blast radius. Because he can try to round up as many benders as he wants and take away their bending one by one, but that would take a lifetime...he needs a quicker solution. That's my guess We'll find out!

[ASimpleLotus]

To me, this is the biggest question introduced in the series. Amon explicity said that he allowed her to keep her bending for a reason and that it was for something in the future. Why? My biggest theory is that Amon is directly going to gain something to benefit him once Korra hits the avatar state. Maybe he has the ability to STEAL the avatar state. Maybe that effectively ends the avatar cycle as well? What if he wants her to gain her spiritual side in order for him to reach something. Maybe he needs to speak to the past avatars or reach the spirit world and use the avatar as the "bridge" between the spirit world and the real world. If you remember from TLA, that's exactly what the Avatar is.

[neur0tix]

To me, this is the biggest question introduced in the series. Amon explicity said that he allowed her to keep her bending for a reason and that it was for something in the future. Why? My biggest theory is that Amon is directly going to gain something to benefit him once Korra hits the avatar state. Maybe he has the ability to STEAL the avatar state. Maybe that effectively ends the avatar cycle as well? What if he wants her to gain her spiritual side in order for him to reach something. Maybe he needs to speak to the past avatars or reach the spirit world and use the avatar as the "bridge" between the spirit world and the real world. If you remember from TLA, that's exactly what the Avatar is.

Nah, its simplier. Since he want to rid world of benders, he just wants Korra to go Avatar state so he can break avatar cycle.