I agree with a lot of you. It certainly had the look of energy bending, but I don't think thats what it was. In The Last Airbender, Aang put his thumbs on both Ozai's head and heart and even the lion turtle, when showing him how to energy bend, touched both Aangs forehead and heart. Also, in the avatar extras, the pop-up mentioned that it is something only the Avatar can do.

I guess it's possible Amon learned it from a spirit like Koh (like someone mentioned earlier), but I personally hope it is an advanced form on chi blocking that only seems permanent. I think an interesting storyline would have Korra's bending powers taken away, and at first she'd be upset and feel useless, but it would actually turn out to be a good thing for her, because without the physical side of bending, she'd finally be able to focus on the spiritual side. Eventually she'd learn how to give people back the bending powers they lost. (On a side note, I can't wait until she talks to Aang like how Aang use to talk to Roku.)

As for who Amon is, there are a lot of possibilities. It could be Bumi, jealous he was the only non-bender in a family of powerful benders, or he could be a decendant of someone from the first show, reason unknown for now. What I'm hoping for is he's a complete unknown with a very good backstory. Whether or not the backstory he gave is true or a complete lie, I'm not sure. He could be fighting for revenge, jealousy, power, or maybe something we haven't even thought of yet.

Like a lot of other people, I do get the feeling that he is probably a bender. If he is, I hope he's not a firebender though. I'd hate for the bad guy to be a firebender again. Earthbending is okay, but bugs me a bit because of the Dai Lee being bad guys. A waterbender might be interesting because the only "bad" waterbender I can think of from the first series was the bloodbender. It would also be spooky if Amon had that power and used it to control people or crush their organs, but I get the feeling the Councilman from the Northern Water Tribe is going to be a semi-bad guy, so I doubt Amon will be a waterbender too. Although if he is a firebender, that could be a possible explanation for how he takes away bending, sending a bolt of lightening through their brain, between the fingers he places on the forehead and back of the neck.

I think the only villain that wasn't deep enough in the original series was Ozai; they didn't give him enough backstory or focus on his character enough. But everyone else was just fine and I think Oman is very intriging. We obviously don't know nearly enough about him to say that he isn't deep enough. There is so much more to be revealed, but from what was revealed so far I think he has the oppurtunity to be more deep and complex.

amon's mask looks just like the painted lady, not that it has anything to do with his identity

only the avatar can, and even if that's not true, your spirit also has to unbendable, at least according to lion turtle dude,

and im pretty sure having an unbendable spirit means that you have to have a pure heart or something

While I think Amon is the scariestthing since the offspring ofJaws, Freddy Krugger and Spongebob. The guys got a point.

You have people running around with the power to crush, freeze or burn your eye brows off, thereis obviously going to be a few bad eggs (not to say that those who do good should be punished) I'd be a little willing to support him.

Ofcourse he's going about it the wrong way butwe haven't seen him use the technique on a good person yet. Until that episode airs he is pretty much Batman fused with Joker