I'm afraid I don't know what I would have done after that. [But apologizing to Korra and refusing to be freed sounds a lot like desperation, which he doesn't like.]

...Kidnapping you was the wrong thing to do, but I thought if Amon was defeated because of me I would have finally accomplished enough to free myself from my father's legacy. Given how both my brother and I ended up, I can see that it was a misguided effort.