What’s the new Avatar show about? Maybe Korra can tell us

It’s official: We’re getting a new Avatar show, and it’s going to be centering around the Avatar following Korra. However, according to the official synopsis, the role of Avatar isn’t exactly a good thing in this day and age: 

Avatar: Seven Havens is set in a world shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra – but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.

The show isn’t expected to come out till next year, so that’s the extent of what we know for now. But because we’re totally normal about the Avatar world here, we’re going to read into every single word of this three-sentence synopsis.

The new Avatar is dealing with the ramifications of a “devastating cataclysm” and battling “spirit enemies.” Considering that the open portals to the spirit world was one of the big lingering threads from The Legend of Korra, I believe that something with the spirit world has gone very wrong.

Wait, remind me what happened at the end of The Legend of Korra?

The second season of Korra was all about big spirit battles, as Northern Water Tribe chief Unalaq tried to release Vaatu, the spirit of darkness and chaos, and reopen the portals to the spirit world. While Korra thwarted his plans to fuse with Vaatu, she did decide to keep the spirit portals open, which allowed spirits and humans to freely move between worlds for the first time. 

The biggest ramification of Unalaq’s whole “bring the spirit world back” campaign was a bunch of people — including extremist Zaheer — getting airbending powers. And Zaheer’s mission against the Avatar meant that Korra had a bit more of a direct problem to deal with than the longer-term effects of opening the spirit portals back up. 

But the synopsis for Seven Havens could mean that something big happened with the spirit world that no one could have predicted. And the challenge will be even juicier for this new Avatar, because she won’t have the connection to the spirits of the past Avatars (well, except for Korra, probably). In the battle with Unalaq, Raava, the spirit of light and peace that resides in all Avatars, was temporarily destroyed. When she came back and re-fused with Korra, the Avatar cycle was restarted — but all connection to the previous Avatars was lost. 

So, did Korra fuck up?

Maybe she did! Here’s the thing: Every single Avatar fucked something up. Yes, even Aang! After all, even though he stopped the Hundred Year War and helped rebuild, he neglected the spirit world, which in turn kicked off Unalaq’s whole “release Vaatu” schtick (which, in turn, led to the Water Tribe civil war). So if you really want to get technical, it was Aang who fucked up, but if you wanna get even more technical, it was Roku who fucked up before that by failing to stop Sozin, and if you wanna—

That’s exactly what makes the world of Avatar so rich. Everything has a cause and effect, and what was a good decision in the moment might have unintended consequences some decades later. As it turns out, being the human embodiment of light and peace, the bridge between worlds, and the keeper of balance is not an easy job, or one that you can really prepare your successor for.

Because of the nature of Avatar stories (the old one has to die before a new one arrives!), we get to see the world at different points in time — and if everything is totally hunky-dory because the previous Avatar was so perfect, then there’s no story! The rapidly expanding technological aspects of Korra’s world were a sharp contrast to Aang’s. It makes total sense that non-benders, who were particularly shafted in the Hundred Year War, would be investing in technology that would keep them safe and put them on equal playing fields with benders. 

When it comes to Seven Havens, unless Korra died at a prematurely young age, the new show probably takes place at least in the real-world equivalent of the ’80s. (Korra’s technological equivalents put the show in the 1920s; Korra ends the show at age 18; if she lived to her mid-60s, like Aang did, that would put her death around the 1970s; I’m adding at least 12 years to that, since the new Avatar is probably at least Aang’s age, if not older. But there’s a ton of caveats here because Korra could’ve lived way longer and we don’t know how old the new Avatar is at the start of the show — ANYWAY). The last time we saw Korra, she and Asami were taking a much-needed break in the spirit world, leaving behind a human world now permanently merged with the spirit one. It’s possible that life when they got back wasn’t as hunky-dory as it appeared to be, and people didn’t acclimate as well as Korra hoped they would.

Regardless: The phrases “dangerous era” and “civilization’s last strongholds” indicate that it’s probably not all leg warmers and Walkmans; there appears to be a post-apocalyptic edge to this new era, less retro-future idealism and more Mad Max wasteland. And I, for one, am super excited to see what that means. I trust creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko to take the story in the most interesting direction possible. They haven’t steered us wrong yet.