The one thing no one seems to be discussing is Amon's motives. This seems to be a key factor to me in determining who he is and why he operates the way he does.
One thing that is certain is that Amon is lying. There is no way what he wants "equality." He claims the "bending elite" control the city... this is pretty much true: at least 2 of the 5 current councilmembers are benders (Tenzin and Tarrlok), the police force is made up entirely of metalbenders, and Tarrlok's task force were all waterbenders. They control all the laws and justice in the city. On the flip side, all the gangs that we've seen have been made up of benders. Non-benders seem to just get bullied and subjugated. That said, Amon's claims are fairly accurate. He may take a violent approach toward action but if he's being truthful he is more of a revolutionary than a terrorist. Considering this show is airing on a children's network I doubt the creators are going to design the primary villain to operate in such a grey area.
So if not equality, what is Amon's endgame? My guess is power-it's the same thing practically every (human) villain in this fantasy world has wanted: Sozin, Ozai, Azula, Long Feng, Yakone, Tarrlok... even Chin the Conqueror. Every one of them was completely focused on gaining or maintaining power. It's not a huge stretch to theorize this is Amon's goal as well.
If that IS his motive, the next logical question is: How does starting a war against benders help Amon achieve power? The simplest conclusion is he sees the benders as his biggest threat. If he can get the non-benders to rally against the benders, and teach them how to fight benders, he'll have a divided people he can manipulate against each other. If Amon believes his ability to take away bending is permanent he may have some plan to strip all benders of their power, giving him and his forces a severe advantage.
Another strong possibility requires Amon to be a bloodbender. With this power, Amon could potentially have supreme control over everyone except other bloodbenders. The one major threat would be the only person who has ever demonstrated the ability to strip him of his powers forever--the Avatar. What if his plan has been to remove the Avatar from the equation before she achieves her full potential and has the ability to stop him? If he does have the ability to cripple people of their bending permanently (or at least believes he does) he may intend to simply strip the Avatar of her power. If not, he knows he must kill her.
My final question: Why didn't he just kill her when he got the chance? There is the reason he gave her before: he was afraid of her becoming a martyr, which could rally the benders and non-benders against him. Even bloodbenders have to sleep, and not everyone is as hesitant to kill as Aang was. The other option is that he knows killing the Avatar will just reincarnate her into her next life and he'd have to begin the chase again. If Amon knows that killing an Avatar while in the Avatar state will end the cycle (something Koh would have gladly shared with him), his plan may be to end the Avatar permanently. He had to let Korra go because she hadn't yet learned to access the Avatar state. Once she does, his plan would then be to lure her into the Avatar State and end the threat once and for all. After that he could end his deception and take control of Republic City and then the world.
Edited on 06/14/2012 11:22pm