In honor of Avatar: The Last Airbender’s (A:TLA) 20th anniversary, Nickelodeon has announced a new series, Avatar: Seven Havens. And well… the news has definitely gotten some strong reactions from fans, but not in a good way.
What’s going on with Seven Havens?
Avatar: Seven Havens is a 2D animated series with 26 half-hour episodes — split into two seasons titled Book 1 and Book 2, with 13 episodes each. There’s no word on when it will premiere, but the creators of Avatar, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, are back as co-creators and executive producers.
It takes place years after the previous sequel series, The Legend of Korra (TLoK), in a world “shattered by a devastating cataclysm.” A young Earthbender learns she’s the new Avatar after Korra, but unfortunately, this marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. To make matters worse, she’s hunted by both human and spirit enemies. It’s up to her and her long-lost twin to uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization crumbles.
The show’s premise has caused fans to pin Avatar Korra as the one to blame for the post-apocalyptic world Seven Havens will be set in. They accused her of starting the apocalypse, creating a mess for her successor to clean up, and ruining the Avatar’s reputation of being a protector that brings balance to the world.
Why is Korra getting so much hate?
Korra is a very divisive character because of how she was initially written. In the first two books of TLoK, she was brash, arrogant, violent, rude, and impulsive. She was quick to dive into situations fists first (or flames first) without thinking things through, which usually made things worse.
It was frustrating to see because the franchise has been praised for having strong, compelling female characters in A:TLA. It didn’t help that the rest of the female cast in TLoK like Asami Sato, Jinora, or Lin Beifong were better written and more likable than Korra. While the fiery waterbender did get some much-needed character development in Books 3 and 4, the damage was already done.
But what really did Korra in was when she lost her connection to the spirits of all the previous Avatars that came before her.
The controversial plot twist was a gut punch to the fandom because one of the defining traits of being the Avatar is having that link to their past lives. It allowed writers to flesh out the Avatar universe by adding lore and context to certain events that the audience (or the characters) wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.
But now thousands of years of history are gone, and we’ll probably see in Seven Havens how it’ll affect the new Avatar since she won’t be getting the guidance and wisdom Aang and Korra got.
Is Korra responsible for the cataclysm described in Seven Havens?
It’s hard to say because there’s a lot about Avatar: Seven Havens that’s a complete mystery. But the real story is probably more complicated and nuanced.
Maybe Korra isn’t at fault and she’s been blamed posthumously as a scapegoat? Maybe she died trying to prevent said cataclysmic event and failed? It’s possible that Korra didn’t recognize the rise of a future enemy until it was too late — similar to what happened with Roku.
I wouldn’t be surprised if DiMartino and Konietzko brought in past adversaries from TLoK and incorporated them into Seven Havens. The Red Lotus, Equalists, and destructive technology that weaponizes spirit energy are unresolved plot holes from TLoK that could be expanded upon in the new series. They could also bring back Vaatu and his attempts to create a dark Avatar to corrupt the world.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of story Seven Havens will tell us once it premieres. But one thing is certain — the Internet will have a lot to say about it.
