Avatar: Seven Havens is a far more mystery-driven series than its predecessors, The Legend of Korra and Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar Korra supposedly caused a cataclysm that destroyed most of the world, but it’s unclear why she would do that and how the new Avatar might be able to fix things. The first episode of Seven Havens premiered on Oct. 9, and the writers may have already provided some big hints about what’s going on.
This article contains spoilers for the first episode of Avatar: Seven Havens. In the series premiere, “On the Horizon,” Ellora — the Haven where this season takes place — celebrates a festival to mark its founding in the wake of the cataclysm. The actors in a play explaining the history are dressed in a rainbow of colors.
Those colors also appear in charts of the seven chakras. An overhead image of Ellora shows the Haven of Wind and Sand appears to be made of red-hued rocks, the color associated with the root chakra. The Avatar franchise is based on Buddhist mysticism, following the cycle of reincarnation that Aang, Korra, and the new Avatars Pavi (Saheli Khan) and Nisha (Aishu Devan) are all part of.
Series co-creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko previously dove into chakras as a meditation aid in the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2 episode “The Guru,” when Guru Pathik trained Aang to cleanse blockages from his seven chakras in order to gain control over the Avatar State. The root or earth chakra is the very first chakra Aang learns to open. As Pathik explains, that chakra, found at the base of the spine, deals with survival and is blocked by fear.
Ellora’s motto is “For the survival of Ellora” and its people are constantly vigilant to new threats. Fewer benders are born each year, and all of them are conscripted into the Bending Brigade to protect the Haven. The imbalance is clearly becoming critical, manifesting in the angry red energy appearing in Ellora in the Seven Havens trailer.
Each season of Avatar: The Last Airbender was named for the element Aang was focused on mastering. The Legend of Korra deviated with that model through seasons subtitled Spirits, Change, and Balance. Avatar: Seven Havens season 1 is Book 1: Survival, indicating that Pavi and Nisha will need to figure out how to bring Ellora back into balance.
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