Seven Havens: On the Horizon, Into the Storm, The Order

It feels like just yesterday we were watching Korra and Asami walk off into the sunset (or spirit world) together, and now it’s twelve years later. In fact, In-Universe it was over two hundred years ago, and there’s a new Avatar in town – two in fact!

These episodes are being released in sets of three, which is kind of a bummer since it means we’re already halfway through the season after just two weeks, but thankfully it’s recently been announced that Seven Havens will be running for four seasons and not just two. That puts it on par with The Legend of Korra, and gives it more scope for a larger, more in-depth story.

The name of this season (or “book”) is “Survival,” which calls to mind the difference between living and merely surviving. They’re two very different things, and it would appear that life in this reimagined world is a lot more tenuous than it was back in Korra’s day. Civilization has been destroyed and then rebuilt across seven fortified havens after something called “the cataclysm.”

It’s not quite post-apocalyptic, since society is still largely functioning, but it would seem food is scarce and bending abilities are on the wane, with less benders born every year. More concerning, the Avatar is considered an enemy of the people. Though details are still (deliberately) vague at this point, Korra is said to have “let [humanity] down” and elaborate skits are performed that blame her for the aftereffects of the cataclysm – which among other things, involve terrifyingly violent storms.

I’m sure we’ll get more details later, but for now a lot of questions are raised. Do people think she caused the cataclysm? Or just wasn’t able to stop it? Did they vanquish her as was depicted in the play? Or did she perish some other way? And why has there been such a gap between her and the emergence of the next Avatar?

And what’s with those seven kids dressed in seven different colours? Clearly they’re representative of the cities, but I’ve also seen a theory that they symbolize the chakras, which seems a bit of a deep-dive. I suppose we’ll see.

We’re introduced to little Pavi who appears to be even younger than Aang (who was twelve at the start of his show) and living rough in the wastelands, scavenging for food in the cities, and interacting only with her monkey-cat Geet and a range of imaginary friends. It all points to one thing: she’s profoundly lonely.

But she’s motivated by both love and fear: first in helping a little beetle find its family, and later in avoiding “the Brigade.” This is a militarized force that drafts young people with the ability to bend, regardless of what they or their parents think, in the name of the city’s protection. They take a boy from his home with a reasonably light touch, but the firmness with which he’s separated from his mother and Pavi’s obvious fear of being noticed by them gives it all a rather ominous touch.

Yet the Brigade doesn’t seem to be all bad. We meet Jae, whose early characterization demonstrates he’s a sticker for the rules, despite being an airbender, who are generally known for their carefree natures. He’s part of this Brigade, whose members are divided into teams of four, with one cadet representing each element. Though we don’t learn much about his friends/teammates at this early stage, they clearly get along and work well together (as when they swiftly repair a crumbling aqueduct).

Despite his stringent adherence to procedure, love of checklists, somewhat worrywart nature and tendency to go above-and-beyond with very little provocation, Jae is a good egg, and we see some of that airbending spirit with his use of a hoverboard to glide around. I love the way this thing works: there’s a tiny whirlwind powering its base, allowing it levitate and manoeuvre at the same time.

The show also establishes something of a rapport between himself and Pavi, almost without the two of them realizing it. First with this shot:

And then with Jae noticing her watching him:

Because of this little glimpse, he finds her familiar when they cross paths later at the festival, and he notices her earthbending to save a beetle’s life – identifying her as an unregistered bender. I like that we see her earthbending first, as it’s her primary element (as the Avatar following Korra, who was born to the Water Tribes, Pavi is first and foremost an earthbender).

Jae chases her into the wastelands just as a storm strikes, and at a critical moment, she saves his life by airbending away some flying debris. This means only one thing: she’s the Avatar. That strain of music when she exposes herself to save him? It’s the Avatar theme and it gave me full-body chills. I think it was at this point that I thought: “we’re back!”

This all brings us to Captain Karthik, who is a high-ranking officer of the Brigade and a mentor-figure to Jae. Appearance wise, he looks like a mix of Seahawk and Glimmer’s father from She Ra. 

But there’s something about him that is so Hidden Villain-coded that my hackles rose immediately, from smoothly handling the grieving mother trying to prevent the recruitment of her son, to the way he says: “you have to trust me,” to Jae. Anytime a reasonable-sounding authority figure insists on someone trusting them, you should do anything but.

Still, he hasn’t really done anything wrong so far. Maybe it’s a double Bait-and-Switch.

Having been brought back to the safety of Ellora and the compound where the benders train, Pavi makes a run for it again… only to meet her twin sister in the exercise yard.

The beginning of the next episode and Karthik’s voiceover gives us a little more insight into what exactly is happening here. Nisha is also the Avatar, living incognito among the other bending cadets, forced to hide her power under the protection (and surveillance) of Captain Karthik.

As we find out later, he discovered her three years ago, and in his discussion with Jae, he divulges that he’s hopeful about her future. There’s apparently an understanding between them that she’ll be “a hero to the people” – that is, when they’re ready to accept her. There’s a lot of anti-Avatar sentiment out there.

But Nisha is chomping at the bit for the chance to prove herself, so when a siren goes off to indicate a huge incoming storm, she defies Karthik’s orders and heads out – only to be disappointed when Pavi chooses not to accompany her. Like the Jedi, both girls are moved by compassion and a sense of duty, but whereas Nisha is too impulsive and confident, Pavi is afraid to expose herself, knowing how people feel about the Avatar.

As they argue, and then split up, a strange red electricity crackles across the city. Not long after, a strange black and red diamond shape emerges from the storm and begins to levitate through the streets – perhaps looking for something? Or someone?

Okay, we’re all thinking it: this thing looks a lot like Vaatu, the primordial spirit of chaos and destruction that Korra fought in season two of her own show. It’s been a while since I saw those episodes, and I’m a little fuzzy on the details of how it was finally vanquished (something to do with a tree?) but I do recall some pushback from fandom on what they felt was the Christianization of Avatar universe – that is, the introduction of good and evil cosmic forces into a strictly Asian setting.

I can see their point, even if I also think there was a bit more nuance to the situation than that, but… well, I’m going to wait upon events and see how this is handled. If this is Vaatu, it will no doubt feed heavily into the mystery of what happened with Korra so long ago, and why she’s so vilified today.

Commander Bountan runs for it, and though the strange entity doesn’t kill him, it does leave him a gibbering wreck with a creepy red glint to his eyes. In the next episode, we’ll see the same thing in the eyes of a panicking camodillo (a camel/armadillo hybrid), so clearly there’s some sort of infectious mind disease at work here, probably brought on by proximity to the being’s red energy.

Although the entity stops short at the sight of the Avatar (perhaps recognizing her?) it DOES then attack her with a strand of lightning. So, is it trying to hurt Nisha or attempt something else? Because when Pavi turns up, it shows them a vision: four people in the desert, their two monkey-cats, one of the twins falling, and a ruined city. Then the entity disappears, though not because of anything the girls did to it.

The only thing that remains is a diamond-shape scorch mark on the ground, and a number of geometric red crystals strewn across the city. It’s safe to say they’ll be causing some trouble in episodes to come.

In the aftermath, Jae is obviously after some answers about the Avatar’s presence and the fact there’s two of them, though Karthik encourages him to just get back to his life and forget all this ever happened. Jae wants to go straight to the Council and tell them about the existence of two Avatars, only for Karthik to call his bluff: by all means, he can tell the Council – and then deal with the serious consequences for the girls afterwards. Of course, Jae opts out.

This demonstrates that Karthik is a deft hand at manipulation. He also has an old friend on the Council called Kayoko with whom he has some flirty vibes, and it doesn’t take much to see that he’s subtly gunning for the role of Commander. 

And yet for all of these villain-coded moves, he’s also confident enough to acknowledge the city’s vulnerability and suggest that Ellora ask for assistance from the other cities. Kayoko disagrees with him, thinking it’ll make them look weak, though I’m sure this won’t be the end of that conversation.

Every show has permission to utilize one Contrived Coincidence, and here’s this one: Jae notices two individuals open a secret passage in one of the walls of the compound and go inside. Er, okay. Why does it even need to be a secret passage if it’s so easily spied upon, and those using it do nothing to ensure they’re not being observed? Jae follows them in, and gives himself away immediately.

It’s the Order of the White Lotus, though that’s not automatically to be considered a good thing, as anyone who has read The Dawn of Yangchen will already know. Jae describes them as “a cult that worships the Avatar,” which nobody technically denies, though I don’t recall that being the case in Avatar: The Last Airbender. There the White Lotus was a cross-nations organization that transcended tribal barriers in support of the Avatar, but we don’t actually have the Fire Nation, Water Tribes, Air Nomads or Earth Kingdom anymore, do we. The only thing that unites them now is the Avatar and secrecy.

And honestly, secrecy is hardly ever a good thing. Often it’s more for maintaining the feeling of being special than the greater good.

Again, Jae is told he must choose between his ordinary life and taking on a degree of responsibility for the twins, though of the two girls, he clearly has more of a rapport with Pavi. During their first joint training session (in a cavern filled with green crystals – hmm, that certainly looks familiar) Nisha blows off his airbending advice while Pavi is horrified by the violence it entails, and the two have their first fight. Ironically, it’s a fight about fighting.

I haven’t been the first to bring this up, but it very much feels like these two are being written as deliberate reflections of the last two Avatars: peace-loving Pavi is Aang, and the more boisterous Nisha is Korra. OR SO IT WOULD SEEM. There’s a good chance a twist is coming up…

The girls resolve their difference and learn about teamwork by helping Jae earthbend a barrier around the aforementioned crazed camodillo, and Pavi proves the effectiveness of the pacifist approach by recognizing the creature’s fear and singing it a lullaby to calm it down.

Speaking of this little song, she also remembers some of the lyrics, as does Nisha. It would appear their mother sang this song to them when they were younger, and the two of them float the possibility that she (and their father) might still be alive.

And of course, Jae choses to stick around for the sake of the girls, even if it means telling fibs to his boyfriend. I like that so far, our three main characters are primarily motivated by love and compassion for each other and the world they live in, though the episode choses to end on an ominous note, with three masked figures on a sand dune overlooking the city. Dun, dun, DUUUUN!

Miscellaneous Observations:

It doesn’t turn up until the third episode, but we get a brand-new introduction! Jae narrates the whole: “fire, water, air, earth” spiel and the twins feature in every single demonstration of bending. It looks pretty cool, but the one detail that caught my eye is that Pavi doesn’t have a wooden pegleg, but a more modern-looking, presumably metal one. Is that something she’ll acquire in the future?

One day I’ll start my in-depth rewatch of Avatar: The Last Airbender and talk about how excellently it handles its exposition in the pilot episode. Truly, a masterclass at how to introduce the basics of a complicated world without bogging the action down in infodumps. They pull off a similar feat here in Seven Havens, though there’s a lot of leaning on the existence of its predecessors – for example, it’s obvious the showrunners are assuming everyone already knows what bending is.

There’s a lot to establish here, but also a mystery to solve – or perhaps a number of little mysteries that will no doubt end up coalescing. Was Pavi born without her leg or did she lose it in an accident? Where are the twins’ parents, and how did they get separated? How important is the lullaby – obviously very important to the girls, but wasn’t the tune also being hummed by the guard in the very first scene? How did he know it? What was up with the levitating diamond thingy? Was it Vaatu? Some other spirit? What does it want, exactly?

Also, where did each girl’s monkey-cat come from, as they definitely seemed to know each other.

The animation is nice, but not at quite the same level of what came before. The Legend of Korra in particular was gorgeous thanks to Studio Mir, which is now animating X-Men ’97 (also gorgeous). I’m not sure why the change between studios occurred (this was animated at La Chouette Compagnie in France), but these characters have more anime-style faces, and aren’t quite as expressive. Plus, I just like consistency between various instalments of the same franchise (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was great, but I wish it looked more like Shrek and less like Into the Spider-Verse).

According to Karthik, Nisha isn’t ready to take on the role of Avatar just yet, and the world definitely isn’t ready for her return. Is Karthik stalling for time for this stated reason, or is there some other agenda at play? The cities are staging annual plays to vilify Korra, so he’s right in saying a time of chaos and fear isn’t the best time to reintroduce the figure that everyone blames for the situation they’re all in, but then shouldn’t the White Lotus have been trying to push back on this narrative for the past two hundred years?

I loved Geet the monkey-cat! She captures the agility of both animals and I loved this look:

This is just how cats look when they’re startled and/or wary. In fact, I got this exact look from a cat on my driveway just before watching this episode. And this shot of her balancing nonchalantly on a ledge was lovely too:

It may become more pronounced in later episodes, but I picked up on a bit of nationalism at work here. The play has one of the kids announce Ellora is the best of the seven cities, and Koyoko decided that they not ask for bending support because it would make them look weak.

I like the characterization of Jae as a stringent rule-follower despite being an airbender, as it immediately creates a contrast with the likes of Aang and other carefree Air Nomads. As in most sequels or reboots, absolutely everything is informed by what we’ve seen before; everything exists in relation or comparison to “the norms” established by prior instalments in the franchise. This is not always a bad thing, as it gives the writers a solid basis on which to flip expectations or fill in blanks. The best sequels will build instead of repeat – after all, we wouldn’t have the superior Toy Story 2 without the original Toy Story laying all the groundwork.

This firebender has half of Korra’s signature hairstyle. Significant?

The franchise’s sense of humour is still intact. When the actors yell: “does an Elloran cover from the storm?” the audience responds: “no!” – but you can hear someone cry out: “little bit!” Later Karthik warns Jae that one of the council members is very hard of hearing, and sure enough, when we enter the room there’s an elderly man cupping a hand behind his ear as he strains to listen.

On that note, there’s also some really sharp dialogue throughout. Pavi calls Karthik Nisha’s “teacher dad boss,” which is not only funny but succinctly sums up how she sees their relationship. Later she describes the White Lotus as: “your guards… guardians,” a self-correction which also contains a loaded assumption.

Then there’s the comment from the firebending White Lotus member (sorry, haven’t picked up his name yet): “if she won’t fight, what good is she?” which is a somewhat dire comment, especially when paired with Nisha’s: “we are the Avatar, we have to know how to fight,” and her response to Pavi’s declaration that she doesn't care about being the Avatar: “oh, so you don't care about me!” Nisha clearly defines herself as being the Avatar, and that violence is intrinsic to that identity. 

I loved the moment where the twins simultaneously remember each other’s names, though it raises another question: did they naturally forget each other due to their young ages, or did something happen to make them forget?

Karthik claims that most of their history has been lost, but at least one scroll remains that depicts Aang, Roku and Kyoshi. That was a nice little Easter egg, but also pertinent that Korra was not depicted alongside them.

On learning that there would be twin Avatars prior to watching these episodes, I was kind of hoping Pavi and Nisha would be able to bend only two elements each, meaning they’re only a “full” Avatar when they’re together. But as that’s not the case, I will respect the writers’ choices and not do that obnoxious fandom thing where I insist my ideas are better than theirs. (I still think it would have been cool though).

And on that note, does anyone feel that they’ve deliberately made this show romance-proof? Or more accurately, shipping-proof? Its two protagonists are nine-year-old children and their older brother/mentor figure already has a boyfriend. There’s not a lot fandom can do with that. Given that certain sects of this fandom are STILL griping and moaning about shipping endgames from the original show all these years later, I sure as hell wouldn’t blame anyone involved in this project of staying well away from any ship bait.

Well, that was our first three episodes! I’m already a week behind with this write-up, and as I post this, I’m right in the middle of the next three.