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Why does the Dai Li and Long Feng want the war to stay a secret?

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  • Avatar of Ultimate_ritic

    Ultimate_ritic

    [1]Nov 19, 2006
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    Originally I thought that Long Feng was controlling the king as a means of living the high life as resources could be diverted and for his own use. Upon seeing the latest episode, however, it seems that all he has managed to accomplish by hiding the war is a creating a considerably larger amount of work for himself than he otherwise would have.

    By hiding the war he essentially has to fight on two fronts as he has to constantly monitor the goings on within Ba Sing Se and fight the war (or there woud not be a Ba Sing Se to monitor).

    If he is working for the Fire Nation as a spy, why hasn't he advised the King to withdraw some troops from the defences in this time of 'peace' thus allowing the FN to easily invade.

    If it is an ego trip then surely he must realise that by not concentrating the city's resources on the war effort, eventually they will run out of soldiers and the means to defend themselves?

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  • Avatar of jason1985monkey

    jason1985monkey

    [2]Nov 19, 2006
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    You make an excellent point, why would he?

    The only thing I can think of is that by keeping the King in the dark, he is the one with the true power over Ba Sing Se. Evil people love power. Ba Sing Se is nearly a country in itself so being its 'secret' leader may be his kinda thing
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  • Avatar of Grintoth

    Grintoth

    [3]Nov 19, 2006
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    Um... haven't they pointed out why dozens of times n the show??? They don't want their people to be worried. Since Ba Sing Se is "safe" from the war, why would there be any reason to worry??
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  • Avatar of Ultimate_ritic

    Ultimate_ritic

    [4]Nov 19, 2006
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    Grintoth wrote:
    Um... haven't they pointed out why dozens of times n the show??? They don't want their people to be worried. Since Ba Sing Se is "safe" from the war, why would there be any reason to worry??


    (not to be taken as an offence) but are you really that naive? You're taking the word of a guy who lies and brain washes people for a living?! He's purposely deceiving his people and they are most definately not 'safe'. What would have happened if the gaang didn't turn up when the FN attacked with the drill?
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  • Avatar of Grintoth

    Grintoth

    [5]Nov 19, 2006
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    Think about it. If you were entirely safe from a possible nuclear war, would you want to be worried about it all the time? Sometimes, you don't need to know everything.
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  • Avatar of Falcondude123

    Falcondude123

    [6]Nov 19, 2006
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    Long feng did it because he wanted the power. He wasn't worried about the safety of Ba Sing Se. That was his idealist's illogical reasoning. All he wanted was to be incharge of everything. Even if it DID make more work for himself, he essentially was jealous of the King and wanted the ability to do what he wanted. I think his next move will be to either join league with Azula, or else start a civil war within the city.
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  • Avatar of Grintoth

    Grintoth

    [7]Nov 19, 2006
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    How exactly does keeping the was a secret give him power?
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  • Avatar of Eman5805

    Eman5805

    [8]Nov 19, 2006
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    Long Feng wanted control. And since he and his Dai Li are only in charge of upholding culture, if war preperations started he'd have no control as war and culture aren't the same thing(though some people in the past had war AS their culture) He kept the Earth King and Ba Sing Se in the dark about the war, so he'd have the whole city under his thumb. The Avatar would upset that by asking for aid in the war, which would obviously alert the king and Long Feng would lose that control. It's that simple. Now that he's out of control, he'll look for a way to get his power back. He has the Dai Li and potentially Azula as allies. I smell a coup...
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  • Avatar of Grintoth

    Grintoth

    [9]Nov 19, 2006
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    hmm. That's a good point. I think that concludes this thread.
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  • Avatar of Ultimate_ritic

    Ultimate_ritic

    [10]Nov 19, 2006
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    Why does he want control when he literally does nothing with it except??to hide the fact that he has control?
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  • Avatar of gilvatar

    gilvatar

    [11]Nov 19, 2006
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    Eman5805 wrote:
    Long Feng wanted control. And since he and his Dai Li are only in charge of upholding culture, if war preperations started he'd have no control as war and culture aren't the same thing(though some people in the past had war AS their culture) He kept the Earth King and Ba Sing Se in the dark about the war, so he'd have the whole city under his thumb. The Avatar would upset that by asking for aid in the war, which would obviously alert the king and Long Feng would lose that control. It's that simple. Now that he's out of control, he'll look for a way to get his power back. He has the Dai Li and potentially Azula as allies. I smell a coup...
    he want revenge because in high school he was knowen as Wide Feng. JK! I like your idea.
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  • Avatar of MCMLXVI

    MCMLXVI

    [12]Nov 19, 2006
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    Ultimate_ritic wrote:
    Why does he want control when he literally does nothing with it except to hide the fact that he has control?
    Long Feng said, "What's most important to His Royal Majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters. It's my job to oversee the rest of the city???s resources, including the military.", which suggests to me that he wouldn't ordinarily have authority to oversee the military; he just wants to.
    Edited on 11/19/2006 12:10pm
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  • Avatar of Miroku_of_Nite1

    Miroku_of_Nite1

    [13]Nov 19, 2006
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    He wants and has total control. But if the Earth King knew he would lose some control to the bureaucracy, and not be able to impose his ideas on the populace.
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  • Avatar of Jatin10120

    Jatin10120

    [14]Nov 19, 2006
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    I??think They want to control the ba sing se
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  • Avatar of Ultimate_ritic

    Ultimate_ritic

    [15]Nov 19, 2006
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    Why do you all stop after 'he wants control'???Because he isn't doing anything with the power he has so far acquired apart from stop people from talking about the war with the walls!? Atleast Wormtongue in LOTR had a purpose in spiltting Rohan's army from it's people. Long Feng is just telling everyone ssshhh while the war goes on.
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  • Avatar of MCMLXVI

    MCMLXVI

    [16]Nov 19, 2006
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    Ultimate_ritic wrote:
    Why do you all stop after "he wants control"? Because he isn't doing anything with the power he has so far acquired apart from stop people from talking about the war with the walls!? ??? Long Feng is just telling everyone ssshhh while the war goes on.
    Sure he's doing things with his greedily obtained power. He said that he's in charge of distributing the city's resources. That's probably more power than his position would ordinarily have.
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  • Avatar of Serenityblu

    Serenityblu

    [17]Nov 19, 2006
    • member since: 10/28/06
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    MCMLXVI wrote:
    Ultimate_ritic wrote:
    Why does he want control when he literally does nothing with it except to hide the fact that he has control?
    Long Feng said, "What's most important to His Royal Majesty is maintaining the cultural heritage of Ba Sing Se. All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters. It's my job to oversee the rest of the city???s resources, including the military.", which suggests to me that he wouldn't ordinarily have authority to oversee the military; he just wants to.

    Just reading that makes me come up with more questions then answers.

    1) where did the dai li come from or rather form and what are they really up too?

    2)?? It seem like there are more sercrets that haven't been revealed

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