Two Avatars at Once: What Seven Havens Changes About the Cycle

Spoiler warning: this explainer covers the first three episodes of Avatar: Seven Havens.

Since Wan, the cycle has produced one Avatar at a time. Seven Havens opens with two: twin sisters Pavi and Nisha. Here's how the cycle worked until now, what the premiere actually shows, and which explanations are still theories. Each section is labeled Canon, Recap reporting or Theory.

How the cycle worked

Canon. The first Avatar, Wan, lived roughly 10,000 years before Korra. He joined with Raava, the spirit of light, which started the reincarnation cycle and a long struggle with Vaatu, the dark spirit. The Legend of Korra told that origin story in its second book.

When an Avatar dies, the Avatar spirit is reborn in the next nation in a fixed order: Water, Earth, Fire, Air. The recent line shows the pattern:

• Kuruk, Water
• Kyoshi, Earth
• Roku, Fire
• Aang, Air
• Korra, Water

By that order, the Avatar after Korra should be an earthbender, and Pavi is one. The surprise is that she isn't alone. Official materials have not said what Nisha's native element is.

What the premiere shows

Canon. Pavi is a young earthbender living on the streets of Ellora, one of the seven havens left after a disaster called the Cataclysm. According to NickALive's recap, she uses more than one element to save her mentor Jae from a storm, and she soon learns that her long-lost twin, Nisha, is also the Avatar. MovieWeb's recap says both girls can bend all four elements.

Nisha hasn't been on her own. Karthik, the captain of Ellora's guard, found her three years earlier and kept her as his ward while she hid her powers. NickALive's recap adds that Karthik belongs to the Order of the White Lotus and starts training both sisters.

The twins and their mentors agree to keep the secret. Much of the world blames Korra for the Cataclysm, so the Avatar is feared rather than trusted. Slate called the sisters "the first-ever twin Avatars," and MovieWeb described the reveal as a franchise first.

Vaatu's return

Recap reporting. NickALive's premiere recap, crediting Variety, says a storm carries in a smaller version of Vaatu. He can possess people and animals. Pavi and Nisha stop him, but he escapes and shows them a vision of the Cataclysm.

Not yet confirmed. Slate's review refers only to an unnamed entity. How large Vaatu's role is, and whether he had anything to do with the Cataclysm, should become clearer as Book One airs.

Theory, not fact: did Raava and Vaatu split?

Theory. The most discussed explanation comes from CBR writer Katie Doll. Her argument starts with The Legend of Korra, which already had two Avatar-like figures at once: Korra, and Unalaq, who fused with Vaatu to become the Dark Avatar. From there she suggests that twin Avatars could mean one is tied to Raava and the other to Vaatu. She reads Pavi as the Raava twin and Nisha as the Vaatu twin, and she floats the idea that the Cataclysm disrupted the cycle and freed Vaatu.

MovieWeb's Amanda Mullen offers a different guess. She suggests the split is tied to the Cataclysm, and wonders whether Raava divided the role to restore balance if Korra had been corrupted.

Neither idea has been confirmed by the show or by Avatar Studios. Treat both as theory until the series answers the question.

Korra's broken link

Canon. In the second-book finale of The Legend of Korra, which aired in November 2013, Korra lost Raava to Vaatu during the fight with Unalaq and won her back. Her connection to the Avatars before her did not come back. The Paramount+ guide to Seven Havens repeats that Korra lost her link to past Avatars.

That matters now. Past Avatars have long been a source of guidance: in the original series finale, Aang sought advice from his past lives, Kuruk among them. If the chain of memory ended with Korra, the twins may have no older Avatars to ask, and the one predecessor they might still reach is the person the world blames for the Cataclysm.

Questions to watch as Book One continues

• Do Pavi and Nisha share one Avatar spirit, or does each carry something different?
• What is Nisha's native element?
• How big is Vaatu's role, and is he connected to the Cataclysm?
• What did Korra actually do, and why does the world blame her?
• Who are the twins' parents, and where did the girls come from?
• Can either twin reach Korra, or anyone before her?

Episodes 4–6 arrive October 16, episodes 7–9 on October 23, and the four-episode finale on October 30. Book 2 is already ordered, and Paramount+ renewed the series for Books 3 and 4 on premiere day, so these answers may take more than one book.