Whatever point they were championing is now wrong just by being in proxy to the villain’s atrocities, rather than confronting the point itself. Like, it’s a legitimate point that Fire Nation settler colonies got to become their own country after the war, instead of being returned to the Earth Kingdom. Or trying to make the Earth Kingdom a coherent modern state instead of the fractured feudal mess it always had been. But because Kuvira does terrible things that complicated history now doesn’t have to be addressed. Amon and Red Lotus also fit this mold. 

I started reading the Kiyoshi book (no spoilers please) and the yet still vague  mentions of the Yellow Neck Rebellion seems like it would fit; whatever they where rebelling against (which the two shows depict the earth monarchy/their agents in the Dai Li to be a justifiable force to rebel against) doesn’t matter because it turns out they where just bandits that didn’t really believe in their cause.

I admit I could be missing something. It’s been a couple years since I watched Korra, and I haven’t finished the Kiyoshi book.

One thing that irks me about the franchise is that it seems like anyone who’s “anti-establishment”, in whatever way, is secretly evil. So whatever point they championed is actually wrong by proxy