Happy 20th anniversary to my favorite TV show, Avatar: The Last Airbender. One of these days, I got to write a formal post about it. For this post however, I want to write down seven things I hope to see in the newly announced Avatar: Seven Havens.
To start off with some general thoughts, I’m very curious about the show. I think it’d be cool to see Korra’s successor in the Earth Kingdom (or judging from the premise, whatever’s left of it). The idea that people think the Avatar will destroy humanity, as opposed to saving it, sounds really interesting. If you watch Korra, a problem Korra kept running into was the world not wanting or needing the Avatar. Taking that a step further for the next series sounds about right. I am skeptical about the world being on the brink of collapse, with only seven “havens” remaining. It feels like the franchise is pushing the reset button and saying that Korra left a big mess for her successor to clean up. That said, I thought it’d be tough to move the canon forward after Korra so I get the rationale behind the premise. Plus, I should reserve judgement until the show is out (which could be a while from now).
As of writing this post, there’s only just the first press release for the show so I don’t expect to be right on anything. It’s just a bit of fun. There are a bunch of leaks about the show (this show’s been leaked for a while actually). I chose not to dig for those but it is entirely possible that those are real and I’m automatically wrong with my guesses. I don’t often get comments but just in case, I ask anyone who reads this post to not bring up the leaks.
1. One Overarching Plot
Korra differed from The Last Airbender by doing multiple story arcs as opposed to one overarching conflict. Although Korra technically covered more ground, I slightly prefer The Last Airbender‘s approach, where that show is a big, three season epic. Korra‘s structure also created this weird issue where stuff doesn’t matter after one season. The Equalists and Red Lotus pretty much disappear after Books 1 and 3 respectively and the show does little with Korra’s decision to keep the spirit portal open at the end of Book 2. The one major exception was the collapse of the Earth Kingdom and that’s likely thanks to Books 3 and 4 getting greenlit together. Since Seven Havens is already greenlit for two seasons, I’m hoping it’s just one continuous conflict like with The Last Airbender.
2. Re-introduction of Chakras
Definitely the biggest shot in the dark out of all my guesses. I’m wondering if there is any other meaning behind the number “seven” in the show’s title, aside from there being seven last strongholds. The only thing in Avatar lore at the top of my head that involves that number are the chakras, which were introduced in “The Guru”, the penultimate episode of The Last Airbender‘s second season. Those disappeared from the story right after that episode so while it’d be a huge deep cut, there’s more that could be done with the concept. That said, there probably are just seven major locations in the show.
3. The Avatar can connect to all of her past lives
I get the reason behind Korra losing her connection to her past lives at the end of her show’s second season. It was so that she’d be left to make her own decisions as the Avatar. But I don’t know, that never sat well with me and it was on my least favorite creative decisions in Korra so I wouldn’t mind a retcon. Another reason why I think it might happen is that it’d feel silly or awkward if the new Avatar talks to Korra’s spirit and no one else. Alternatively, I can see Seven Havens not having the new Avatar connect to Korra at all. Like I don’t know, maybe something happened to Korra and/or Raava so a spiritual connection is not possible again. It’d be a wild choice but then so is screwing up the world into just a handful of havens.
4. The Avatar’s twin is a non-bender
It is confirmed by the official synopsis that the new Avatar is joined by her long-lost twin. It could be fun and interesting if the twin is an identical sister but that’s likely not the case since the press release likely would’ve specified that in the first place. I can see the twin being the Avatar’s Earthbending teacher (or one of the other bending arts if there’s mixed ancestry) but I’d like to see them be a non-bender. I think the show could do a couple of interesting things with the relationship between these siblings if one is the most powerful person on the planet while the other is just a normal human.
5. One member of Team Avatar is a spirit
The press release confirms that there will be spirit enemies. I’m hoping then that there’s a spirit that allies the new protagonist, maybe even join her version of Team Avatar. Depending on the spirit’s design, it could either be a humanoid or act as the Avatar’s animal companion like Appa was for Aang and Naga was for Korra. We’ve never really had a spirit as a main character before so it’d be an obvious shakeup to do for the new series.
6. Greater LGBTQ representation
If my blog got more views, I’d probably get a comment objecting to this hunch. I’d also find it stupid and funny that someone would ague against diversity in Avatar of all things, before then deleting the comment of course. Korra‘s series finale is famous for its final shot, which confirms Korra and Asami as a romantic couple. It was a baby’s step but it was unprecedented at the time and it took fans by surprise. Hell, I was stunned because, even though I shipped those two around the start of Book 3, I thought Nickelodeon wouldn’t let it happen. There sadly might still be a lot of resistance again but I can see Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko wanting to do more representation with Seven Havens, certainly at least more than a bunch of subtext and one semi-explicit shot. It would of course have to be done really well too, in order to drown out any vitriol aimed towards it.
7. Jeremy Zuckerman composing the soundtrack
Probably the safest bet out of any of these. Jeremy Zuckerman did music for both The Last Airbender and Korra. He’s been with the franchise since the beginning and his music is just as synonymous to it as DiMartino and Konietzo’s contributions. I’d be shocked if Zuckerman doesn’t get hired back to compose for Seven Havens.
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