My idea for the next Avatar

Some sequels are just the first thing again, but with a higher budget.  Some sequels expand on the original story and take it in new and interesting directions.  And some sequels try to be too different and end up falling off a cliff.  It must have been about a year or so ago when I saw some rumors about Seven Havens, the new Avatar series.  To be honest, my knee jerk reaction was it seemed like they were flirting with falling off a cliff.  But I said I would give it a watch before making up my mind.  Of course I don’t have a Paramount+ account, but maybe they have a free month trial version.  So I’ll probably watch it someday, but it probably won’t be for some time.

Anyway, after I heard these rumors, I started to wonder, Well, what would I do if I had to write the story of the Avatar after Korra?  After some thought, I came up with an idea.  I figured I should write it up, but then other stuff happened, and I kind of forgot about it.  But when the trailer for Seven Havens came out, I figured if I was ever going to write it up, I should do it now.  So here’s my basic idea for what I would have done if I was writing a series for the Avatar after Korra.

First off, who is the villain of the series?  There isn’t one.  My idea is that the various nations have grown tired of war, and with the Air Nomads working to keep the peace, there isn’t much room for the Sozins and Kuviras of the world to start.  There are still minor disagreements and wars, but they are much smaller.  The result is the Avatar showing up just seems like an escalation.  Do we really need to go nuclear over a couple of small islands?  So there aren’t that many human reasons for the Avatar to get involved.

There are still natural things the Avatar can get involved in.  If there’s a hurricane or a volcanic eruption, the Avatar will show up to either try to disperse it or to save everyone they can.  Which is great, but what about the boring day to day?  What does the Avatar do then?

I imagine that at some point Varrick invents VarrickVision or something, so most people in the world would have some version of a TV.  So I imagine the Avatar having various shows.  Like they could go to locations in the world/spirit world and host historical/nature documentaries.  Or they could have a show going around and talking with people with rare bending abilities, or try to find people with new bending abilities.

So it would have just been … worldbuilding the series?  I’m sure some personal drama could be figured out.  Like maybe the Avatar has a younger sibling who, at first, is excited to be that close to the Avatar.  But they grew up with stories of Aang and Korra fighting armies and mechs, and they get upset when the realize they’re related to the “boring” Avatar.  I imagine this Avatar’s “Team Avatar” would be more … corporate.  There would be one to oversee the media accounts of the Avatar, and one would handle any legal issues.

That was my idea.  Would it have worked?  No.  If, somehow it had been greenlit, it would have been canceled after a season.  Instead of battles and high drama it would have just been exploring new areas of this world.  The point would be that not every Avatar needs to deal with the end of the world.  Or perhaps we could just be setting things up for the next Avatar.  Like things seem peaceful, but maybe the series ends with some unknown secret society succeeding in assassinating the Avatar.  What then?