Paramount+
Three centuries on from the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the world of the show has changed to an almost unrecognizable degree. Gone are the elemental nations of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Gone, too, is the industrialized civilization of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, with its jazz-age vibes and obsession with technological advancement. Rebuilding society after a cataclysm that reshaped the world, the surviving population now resides in isolated “havens” like the walled city of Ellora, whose people work hard to shield themselves from bandit attacks, natural disasters, and terrifying incursions from the Spirit World.
Masterminded once again by showrunners Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: Seven Havens takes another big creative swing like Legend of Korra, exploring new territory instead of replaying the hits like so many sci-fi/fantasy franchises today. In fact, this series is so anti-nostalgic that instead of revering Korra as a beloved historical figure like Aang, the people of Ellora blame her for the cataclysm that cast the world into chaos 200 years ago, establishing a bleak epilogue for the hero of the previous show. The basics of the Avatar universe are easy enough for new viewers to pick up (benders are people born with the power to wield one of the four elements; the Avatar is a reincarnated hero who can wield all four), but this story is probably best enjoyed with some knowledge of what came before.
In this era, the Avatar has become a kind of boogeyman, a reputation bolstered by generations of propaganda. If a person happened to be seen wielding multiple elements, they’d face imprisonment or worse. As a result, our nine-year-old Avatar protagonist Pavi (Saheli Khan) has been living in hiding for as long as she can remember, foraging for food in Ellora’s garbage and sleeping in a cave with her animal companion, an adorable giant cat-monkey named Geet (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, whose array of animal noises is a load-bearing pillar of the American animation industry.) The sweet-natured and cautious Pavi has no real conception that she’s meant to do something with her Avatar powers, just that she needs to keep them secret for her own safety.
9.5
Avatar: Seven Havens
Like
- Gorgeous visual world-building
- The post-apocalyptic setting is a welcome evolution for the Avatar universe
- Thoughtful but kid-friendly political storytelling
- The balance between the young protagonists and adult supporting characters appeals to both sides of the audience
Dislike
- The music isn’t as memorable as in previous Avatar series
Seven Havens‘ kid-friendly tone actually makes room for more nuance than we tend to see on the adult side of post-apocalyptic fiction. Its cast is full of lovable, upbeat characters who want to do the right thing, but they exist in an environment that is far from utopian. Since everyone here has been raised to see Avatars as a force for evil, Pavi would become public enemy No. 1 if her secret ever got out. Similarly, benders now play a more contentious role in society than they did before.
In Ellora, every bender must register with the government, and once they reach middle-school age they’re drafted into a defense force known as the Brigade. Our main viewpoint characters for this organization are a squad of cool, badass young adults, led by a well-meaning but naive airbender named Jae (Major Curda). However, you can’t expect every bender to share a similar enthusiasm for their legally enforced duty. The Brigade’s harsh recruitment tactics create a class divide between benders and the rest of the population, with tensions inevitably ramping up when the Brigade struggles to defend the city from outside threats.
[Skip to the next paragraph to avoid SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1.] The looming risk of Brigade recruitment is another reason for Pavi to stay in hiding, because if someone notices that she has any kind of bending powers, her secret won’t stay secret for long. And that’s exactly what happens in Episode 1, revealing the twist that will shape the rest of the series. When the Brigade’s sternly paternal commander Karthik (Akshay Khanna) finds out about Pavi and her powers, he’s shocked — but not for the reasons we expect. It turns out that he has already found a child whom he believes is the Avatar: a young girl named Nisha (Aishu Devan), who is clearly Pavi’s long-lost twin. The two girls are identical aside from the fact that Pavi has a prosthetic leg, and they quickly form a close bond. But why does this generation of the reincarnation cycle require two Avatars instead of one — and why can neither of them remember where they came from?
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In a franchise that was already praised for its visual imagination and thoughtful world-building, Seven Havens’ animation team upped their game with the gorgeous landscape of Ellora and its sunset-hued desert surroundings. With a layout resembling a geometric mandala, Ellora is a multicultural civilization that draws inspiration from the iconic sci-fi illustrator Moebius and leans more toward South Asian influences than the previous Avatar shows. We learn early on that much of the world’s history was lost in the cataclysm 200 years ago, but the show’s locations and character design transmit a lot of information that doesn’t need to be spoken aloud. Many Ellorans wear clothes or follow food traditions that reflect their diasporic background in cultures like the Water Tribes or Earth Kingdom, but they’re now united in their loyalty to Ellora, sharing a deep distrust of outsiders.
Book 1 of this series is titled “Survival,” and that goal defines the post-apocalyptic nature of the setting, which is full of futuristic touches (for instance, Jae uses his airbender powers to travel by hoverboard) while homing in on the precarity of the haven’s way of life. Moving on from the historical allegories of the previous two Avatar series, this feels more relevant to the experiences of younger viewers today — particularly the way Seven Havens depicts ordinary people succumbing to paranoia and bigoted ways of thinking.
Following Netflix’s soulless live-action Avatar remake and the mixed blessings of the recent Avatar Aang feature film (which was beautifully animated but very basic in terms of plot), Seven Havens marks a triumphant return for the original Avatar co-creators. Tonally, it echoes the youthful charm of The Last Airbender, while the complexity of its world-building calls back to the strengths of Legend of Korra. Fans will also be happy to hear that after Korra‘s creative team fought hard to include a queer storyline in the final few episodes of that series, Seven Havens now includes queer characters among the main cast from the start.
Arriving more than a decade after its predecessor, Seven Havens reminds us why the Avatar universe remains so beloved across all age ranges. With its young protagonists and Teachable Moment subplots, Seven Havens is very much a children’s show — more explicitly so than the YA atmosphere of Korra. Yet it’s also a pleasure to watch as an adult, particularly in the literal sense of Seven Havens being better looking than 99% of genre programming elsewhere. Hit pause at any point, and you’ll see beautifully conceived fantasy architecture, cool creatures, and characters brimming with visual personality. It’s a real thrill to see Avatar return to our screens, ready to welcome a new generation of fans.
Premieres: Friday, Oct. 9 on Paramount+ with three episodes, followed by a new batch of episodes each week
Who’s in it: Saheli Khan, Aishu Devan, Major Curda, Akshay Khanna, Dee Bradley Baker
Who’s behind it: Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko (creators and showrunners), Ethan Spaulding and Sehaj Sethi (executive producers), Alexandra Chiu (supervising director)
For fans of: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Avatar: The Legend of Korra
Episodes watched: 6 of 13