Amon was different from the Fire Lord of The Last Airbender. In many ways, Fire Lord Ozai fit into the tropes of the Romantic (note the capitalization) villain. A power hungry monarch, he was basically the dragon Aang needed to slay in order to bring balance to the world.



Amon is a different sort of beast. He doesn't want power. He doesn't want to take over the world. He's more complicated than that. Amon wants to bring equality to Republic City. He wants to take bending away from the people that are oppressing those who can't defend themselves. In many ways, Amon could be compared to revolutionaries like Che Guevara or Malcolm X, who want to change the world by any means necessary.

However, the writers of the show have always advocated peaceful revolution. We saw this in the first series with Jet, who was a similar kind of revolutionary that eventually (arguably) saw the error of his ways. We saw this with Aang in the finale, who did not execute the Fire Lord but instead took away his tools for destruction. It makes sense that Amon is portrayed as a villain in this universe as he is not advocating peaceful revolution.

In direct contrast with The Last Airbender, where viewers don't even see Fire Lord Ozai until the second season, Amon gets a lot of screen time. And for good reason. The writers wanted to communicate how dangerous and capable he was. He was a brilliant orator, able to whip crowds into an anti-bender frenzy. He was able to beat the Avatar in one on one combat just to show her that he could. There was a sense of danger with Amon that didn't exist with Fire Lord Ozai. It actually felt like there was a chance Korra and her friends could fail, and they nearly do.