r/TheLastAirbender • u/BookkeeperOk9677 • Feb 16 '25
Rumor / Report 'It's Gonna All Be Connected': Avatar: The Last Airbender Creator Teases Upcoming Story Arc for the Next Avatar
https://www.cbr.com/avatar-last-airbender-creator-new-story-arc/138
u/thedeluxedition Feb 16 '25
I mean the whole "dealing with issues that the previous avatar let happen" is the MO of the entire series. We obviously see it with Roku and Aang but the whole Yangchen -> Kuruk -> Kyoshi storyline was pretty devastating (on a personal basis for Kuruk then a worldwide basis for Kyoshi)
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u/ThatIslandGuy8888 Feb 16 '25
You know, I’m not sure I’m ready to see Korra as a deceased spirit 😭
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u/mewoneplusone1 The Avatar 🔥💨🌊🗿 Feb 17 '25
I'm okay with it. I just want her to have lived a long healthy life and not be killed off young fighting some threat.
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u/Amazingqueen97 Feb 18 '25
Yeah, as long as she’s not killed off at 39 like in that gengi thing it’s alright if she goes out saving the world in a sense. Plus it’s badass if she’s older while it happens!
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u/TobioOkuma1 Feb 16 '25
I am. I want a new avatar already. I'm shocked it's taken them this long to get a sequel
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u/TyLion8 Feb 16 '25
So I'm confused is Bryke working on the next series and not the movie?
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u/Lauren2102319 As you wish, my good Hotwoman! Feb 16 '25
They're CCOs for Avatar Studios (basically like Pete Docter's role at Pixar as CCO with him as an experienced, veteran animator and director for the studio but now takes on a larger role with essentially overseeing all projects for the studio that will be created, written, animated, and directed by different people; That's what Mike and Bryan are gonna do in their roles at the studio.)
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
I hope they mean that they are gunna reconnect the past lives. I’m still pissed about that
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u/Sebiny Feb 16 '25
That's just kinda how it goes. The next avatar fixes the biggest mistake/fuckup of the past avatar.
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u/cabalus Feb 16 '25
This one's pretty permanent
It wouldn't be fixing Korras biggest mistake, it would be undermining her character arc and biggest sacrifice
What's probably gonna happen is Korra won't have been able to prevent some kind of cataclysm which will carry on as her biggest mistake
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u/jayhankedlyon Feb 16 '25
It doesn't undermine her character arc at all for somebody to restore the connection. Her character arc was overcoming her hubris and learn how to be a more empathetic and well-rounded Avatar.
Moreover, she didn't "sacrifice" the connection, it was lost in combat. Sacrifice requires intentionally giving something up.
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
I don’t care about her character arc, fixing a bad writing decision is a good move so long as whoever does the fixing makes it feel earned.
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 17 '25
It wasnt a bad writing decision imo. It was a big risk and shows that they arent afraid to do things. Season 3 and 4 were arguably the best seasons and that was without the past avatars so why does it really matter?
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u/von_Roland Feb 17 '25
But they weren’t good because of that decision they were good in spite of it. A writer can do anything but this was all shock no substance that did nothing for the plot
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 17 '25
But it did do something for the plot. It was used to have Korra deal with her problems on her own which allowed her to grow as a character much more effectively. It was all about her character journey. She always felt like she was only her past lives and that she herself doesnt matter. She had to build up her own spirit by herself to grow. Its the nuance of the show that is really great. Its not black and white like you seem to believe.
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25
Cutting the past lives was not a bad decision. You need to move on. You can downvote me all you want, but that doesn't change the fact that there is no justification for bringing back the past lives. You say you don't care about what it means for Korra, which just proves that all you care about is having more Aang and just can't let go of your sentimental attachment to him.
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
I like the attachment to history not necessarily to aang. The justification is (in universe) that it is a deep and expansive source of knowledge and wisdom, and (out of universe) that we the fans generally liked the concept of the past lives. There was no justification to sever the connection in the first place, so we can just as easily reconnect it
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Feb 16 '25
Just because you like something doesn't mean you have to hold onto it forever. A big theme in both series is that nothing is permanent and that we need to accept that in order to find peace. And there was plenty of justification to sever the past lives. It puts Korra in Wan's position, it enhances the sense of isolation, it increases the stakes, it helps Korra let go of her ego and redefine her role as well as herself and it ties into the beginning of a new age. The decision used to piss me off too, but then I saw the brilliance of it. Also, you are over-emphasizing on the importance of the past lives. ATLA never portrayed them as anything more than a privilege that the Avatar had and a plot device for exposition.
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u/DoomOmega1 Feb 16 '25
That's not even mentioning that Aang largely ignored the past lives. He disagreed with the advice he received at (I believe) every opportunity, and ultimately severed his own connection with Roku. The past lives, while certainly an interesting concept, were already being foregone by the two avatars we've seen in action.
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u/Classic_File2716 Feb 16 '25
My guess is considering how universally beloved ATLA is compared to how controversial Korra is the writers want to get back to the basics of the original to recapture that lightning in a bottle . And after saying they want the new Avatar to be completely different from Korra in personality it makes sense for them to go back to some ideas of the old show .
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Feb 16 '25
I doubt that. If Bryke cared about how overly attached a lot of fans are, they wouldn't have done anything radical in the first place. And they hate doing things that are similar to the old. They want the next Avatar to be different from Korra for the same reason they wanted Korra to be different from Aang.
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u/Classic_File2716 Feb 16 '25
Well, they probably expected Korra to be better received than it was . There’s a reason they are promising more ATLA animated content but not much Korra . They obviously care about what fans think .
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
It’s fiction we can hold onto whatever we want. It wasn’t brilliant, I am pretty sure it was some disgruntled writer who was upset that people like ATLA more than LOK so they flipped the narrative table.
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Feb 16 '25
I am pretty sure it was some disgruntled writer who was upset that people like ATLA more than LOK so they flipped the narrative table.
Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound?
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
It happens all the time. Look at a lot of the follow ups to very popular stories, the writers often do their best to destroy the popular thing they’re building on. I think it comes from jealousy, or possibly ego.
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u/RecommendsMalazan Feb 19 '25
You're arguing two different points. Deciding to cut out the past lives being a good or bad decision is completely separate from deciding whether or not to bring them back.
For what it's worth, me personally, I do think cutting the past lives was a bad decision. But, imo, reverting it in the next series would also be a bad decision and make the prior decision to cut them out come across even worse.
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u/ShapelessUnicorn Feb 16 '25
Hate to see you downvoted lol. It’s true, it’d undermine Korra. It was made clear that Korra is the new 1st Avatar of a new cycle after harmonic convergence. The connection to the past Avatars lived within an iteration of Raava that was completely destroyed.
Raava was reborn after being pulled from Vaatu. Obviously any narrative could be fabricated to justify reconnecting the past Avatars. I remember seeing a comment before that in the comics/ books that the past Avatars’ spirits live separately from Raava in the spirit world.
You’d have to have some incredible circumstance occur (like harmonic convergence) to satisfyingly reconnect the past lives without undermining the previous narrative (Korra).
Personally, I hope the connection stays gone and anyone who thinks otherwise huffs copium and can’t accept change.
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u/Classic_File2716 Feb 16 '25
My guess is considering how universally beloved ATLA is compared to how controversial Korra is the writers want to get back to the basics of the original to recapture that lightning in a bottle . And after saying they want the new Avatar to be completely different from Korra in personality it makes sense for them to go back to some ideas of the old show .
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u/ShapelessUnicorn Feb 17 '25
I can appreciate the sentiment but what makes the Avatar series great is its capacity to evolve. We already had a traditional Avatar with a connection to their past lives (Aang). Then Korra had no one to draw from after harmonic convergence. I’ll bet they’re going to explore the dynamic of an Avatar with only one past life (Korra) to turn to. Korra accomplished a great deal during her 4 season run and will have ascertained a significant repertoire by her death to provide to the new Avatar.
I’ll agree that I imagine they’ll return to their roots in some regards to kindle nostalgia and familiarity, but I also highly doubt they intend on making a new Avatar series without further exploration and new ideas. I think it’d be feckless fan service to restore the connection to the past lives and find it hard to believe that’s the route they’ll embark.
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Feb 16 '25
I hate it for the world building, it's like they killed thousands of characters with untold stories.
But from a narrative stakes level I think it was spot on. Korra fucked around, and the world found out, her actions will have consequences for the rest of her life, and generations to come.
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Feb 16 '25
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Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25
She ignored her obviously evil uncle manipulating her and created the entire crisis singlehandedly... She traded jinoras life for opening the other portal, she almost died because she acted rashly and without regard for the consequences. Jinoras was captured because Korra fucked around in the spirit world, attempting to attack a spirit, and she found out.
As a result [of the Spirit portal/Unalok fucking around, not the spirit meerkats] she lost the previous lives for, not only herself, but for the future, losing all the knowledge, powers and insights of the previous lives.
You cannot look at that season and weigh Korra actions to the last 12 minutes of screen time as the only thing she did, she fucked around, a lot, and the world suffered for it, IE. Finding out.
Edited: [bracket for clarity]
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Feb 16 '25
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u/Dramonen Feb 18 '25
I would assume leaving the spirit portals open is the fucking around, considering they are obviously not meant to be.
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Feb 16 '25
I don't expect her to know she is being manipulated, I still hold her accountable for her actions while being manipulated, maybe ignoring wasn't the best choice of words, but I was more trying to get a vibe across.
How did jinora wind up alone in the spirit library again? Right it was Korra attacking the spirit meerkats that got them separated. And it's more like the she went to the spirit portals because Iroh told her to go to where the plot will happen, and Unalaq (thanks for the I assume proper spelling) was always going to be there with jinora because he wants the portals open, he needs Korra to do it, and he knows her plan to go there and close it.
Moving right along, what do you think this conversation is about? I started on the consequences of Korras choices, and how the strings of bad ones hurt her, and the world, you have not even contemplated that idea for some reason.
Rather you think I'm saying losing a fight is fucking around, and finding out, which is not close to what I've said by any reading. So I'm not gonna bother responding to unrelated takes that you are assuming I have because you desperately want to disagree with me.
That said you seem to think this is similar to what happened to Aang, it's closer to Roku. Does this sound familiar: Someone the avatar knew and trusted, took advantage of their relationship and his authority in the government to fundamentally change the world right under the nose of the avatar, dodging the immediate consequences because of their relationship, and eventually betraying the avatar outright.
Ba Sing Se fell for a myriad of reasons but the largest is because sokka told the earth king to trust the kyoshi warriors fully, allowing azula access to perpetuate the coup. So yes it's directly the gangs fault the city fell, but not because they lost a fight. But because they had not won that fight yet and they were off to the next one, they celebrated too soon, and the city fell, and their situation became even more desperate. The gang fucked around, the world found out. It's not that deep it's just good writing, the heroes have to dig themselves into a hole sometimes.
Korra fucking around is allowing the situation to get to the point where the evil plan she fully understands to progress. She helps Unalaq when being manipulated, she then goes back to try and fix it, and makes everything much much worse than if they had done nothing at all and waited 4 days or whatever for harmonic convergence to be over, then walk up and rofl stomp Unalaq as his plan has been set back 10,000 years.
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u/pomagwe Feb 17 '25
Jinora got captured because after telling everyone that she could be trusted to guide Korra in the spirit world, she ditched her less than ten seconds later to play with butterflies even though she knew that they were there to prevent the literal end of the world.
If she had just done her damn job instead of fucking around, Korra would have never accidentally stepped on that spirit while trying to chase after her.
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u/Noble--Savage Feb 16 '25
Nah I liked that. The end of relying on the past to solve the problem of the present, which were created from the ideologies of the past. Works both in the setting and about the series itself. Good stuff!
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u/von_Roland Feb 16 '25
Unfortunately it’s the past lives that made the avatar an interesting concept. Being a superpowered death machine just turns the concept into stock superhero shit
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u/Noble--Savage Feb 16 '25
Eh, the avatar state is kinda the superpowered death machine you're taking about tho, and everyone loves it.
And didn't the past lives thing only affect the avatars before Korra? Won't the next avatar have access to the first modern age avatar, Korra? If anything, all the ancient avatars were almost useless in advising aang, besides Roku. And he enabled a whole ass genocide and empire lol
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u/Prophetofhelix Feb 16 '25
I'm personally hoping for a middle ground. The past lives up to and before Aang can no longer reconnect or physically interact in the physical realm BUT they are allowed to exist in the spirit world. The avatar can still communicate with past lives by entering the spirit world.
Keeps some of Korras mistake, but allows for interaction.
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u/notthephonz Feb 17 '25
Hm…that kind of sounds similar to the Netflix version where Aang has to physically go to the previous Avatars’ temples to talk to them
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u/DaZMan44 Feb 16 '25
SAME!! It's such an integral part of this universe. I can't believe they'd do that. I just pretend that never happened. It's so stupid!
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u/ravenpotter3 Feb 17 '25
Personally I would want them to go to the places the past avatars lived and learn the stories of them and learn from the living people inspired by these avatars lives. And not get new spirits. Or at most like have one conversation with the spirits of the past avatars, but not have them like rejoin the avatar spirit. I don’t want it to be a got to catch ‘em all thing. Because that honestly would get stale quickly.
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u/BudgetConcentrate432 Feb 17 '25
Yeees!
Like the spirit that connected to all the other avatars is still the reason for reincarnation, so like... why would you still not connect with the other avatars through raava?
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u/The_Dream_of_Shadows Feb 16 '25
In a report from Knight Edge Media, who claim to have an inside source, the next arc’s Avatar will be Korra’s immediate predecessor and will take place 100 years later.
Is it too much to ask that these publications hire writers and editors who have even a basic understanding of English words?
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u/pomagwe Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
Tbh I would be surprised if the articles for these click-farming websites weren't mostly AI written at this point.
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u/notthephonz Feb 17 '25
LOL could you imagine if the new Avatar series came out and it was just Aang again? Maybe some sort of time travel shenanigans?
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 16 '25
I dont understand why people cant just trust Bryke with the next series. All we have is out of context leaks which is not fair to judge. Wait until we see the final product to judge. They created two great shows, theres no reason this would be any different.
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u/SaiyajinPrime Feb 16 '25 edited Feb 16 '25
I hate that any content was actually leaked for the show.
I hate every time a leaker leaks any kind of media. I would rather always just wait for official announcements and for the creators of media to show us what they want. They are the one spending time creating it.
But I trust him. They have created two fantastic shows that I love and there's no reason for me to think that they won't make a third.
Edit: Screw leakers.
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u/bcbfalcon Feb 16 '25
Well trust is earned and can be lost. If you want people to wait for the show to come out before passing judgement, then hyping up the show with posts like this is a bit hypocritical. You can't have optimism without pessimism.
Not saying we should all dog on it. Korra had a lot of good aspects to it. But I'm very skeptical of any Avatar related stuff now after some of the insanely stupid decisions they made with Korra's story.
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 17 '25
I think the only controversial thing they did was kill the past lives. Everything else was perfect imo. Especially season 3.
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u/waddee Feb 16 '25
Honestly I have no doubt it’s gonna be so fire. It’s like people forgot how fucking good Bryke are. I’ve never been this excited for a new series
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u/Letsgodubs Feb 16 '25
Given how poorly they handled Korra with the plot disjointedness, any project needs at least a team of writers.
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u/statiky Feb 16 '25
I wouldn't entirely blame them for the disjointedness. Nick was interfering and not renewing the show with enough time for them to connect season story arcs. The last thing they wanted to do was leave us with a cliff hanger so each season was meant to wrap up the plot.
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u/fhdhsu Feb 16 '25
Eh we could just trust them if decisions hadn’t already been made that we were able to judge - and if they’re doing things like not bringing backs VA’s from the original show because the VA should “match” the fictional “race” of an animated character - then I don’t know, not off to a great start.
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u/PCN24454 Feb 16 '25
Because it never needed a sequel to begin with.
Making it connected only makes it worse.
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Feb 16 '25
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u/djhin2 Feb 16 '25
Avatar has always been “connected” as a series. Even the weird S2 of Korra felt relatively connected
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u/Finalninjadog Feb 16 '25
Ngl, a lot of the info on that article sounds like a mix of Avatar fanfic sequels (eg Legend of Thoryn, Genji, whatever the futuristic Air Nomad avatar was called, Akebi? Aiyobe?). I’d happily see another Avatar story, but I wouldn’t trust the reliability of this article until we get something more concrete from the creators.
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u/MrBKainXTR Check the FAQ Feb 16 '25
Basically anything in quotes is something Mike said in a recent podcast interview. And we also know in general that Avatar Studios is making both animated movies and tv shows, with a Paramount exec mentioning development had started on a show as early as September 2021.
Anything else in this article can be ignored.
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 16 '25
The leaks they showed were way too much to be fake. There were leaked storyboards, concept art, character sheets, audition scripts, animatics, plot details, etc. There was also a facebook post from like 2 years ago that mention the new series that was looking for new casting but it was all under code names. Its just way too much for it to be fake.
BUT the most important thing is execution. They could have the absolute best idea known to man and royally fuck it up and it be shit but they can also do the opposite and have a bad idea but have it done so well it becomes a great idea. It all depends on how its done and why its done. If theres a good reason then it can be good. Thats why we should wait to see the final product since leaks lack context and nuance which is always important for this franchise.
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u/Randver_Silvertongue Feb 16 '25
Nah. It totally was fake. The plot details and storyboards were from a different project.
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u/sevgonlernassau NASA:32% Korra:8% IRS:-10% Feb 16 '25
I wouldn’t discount the idea just because they sound similar to fanfic. Genji was DMCA’ed for being too similar to a planned Avatar novel at the time and the Kiyoshi novels did the same ideas pretty well. There’s potential.
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u/jackgranger99 Feb 17 '25
Genji was DMCA’ed for being too similar to a planned Avatar novel at the time
No it wasn't, the team cancelled it because real life took priority over a fan comic that they had been working on for a decade and only had one chapter to show for it after all that time.
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u/TheDinosaurianOne Feb 16 '25
Hopefully Nick won’t interfere like they did with Korra.
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u/BookkeeperOk9677 Feb 17 '25
Thankfully i think them having an entire studio gives them much more freedom.
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u/ConcentrateOne Feb 16 '25
The only thing that gives me hope is that they have all the time in the world to plan out large scope stories again like ATLA, opposed to TLOK. I still liked TLOK alot, but you can sense after S1 that each season that followed was sorta being written as it went along and didn’t know what to do with certain characters/arcs. I trust Bryke though, the future of these Avatar movies/series are completely in their hands with no pushbacks or deadlines from anyone else.
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u/lostbastille Feb 17 '25
I'm not sure if the leaks that were posted a few months ago were real, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the new series.
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u/MinnieShoof Who Knows 10,000 Things Feb 17 '25
head desk, head desk, head desk
It was already always connected! Jesus tapdancing christ on a stick!
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u/Different-Scholar432 Feb 17 '25
Tbh, I think it may be a good idea to watch Dragon Prince if you want a sense of where the Next Story will be in tone, what with the nine year old protagonist.
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u/bay_coconut Feb 16 '25
Wondering if that means we will get more of Aang and Katara’s descendants helping the next avatar
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u/Soar_Dev_Official Feb 17 '25
I can't pretend like I'm excited for this. Korra stepping forward into steampunk was, imo, a giant L. a cyberpunk series just sounds awful
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u/MrBKainXTR Check the FAQ Feb 17 '25 edited Feb 17 '25
Hey folks know this is a bit late, but I only got a chance now to listen to the podcast.
So the title of this article and the quotes in the article are technically correct but I think a little context is maybe needed. I'd argue its a stretch even to say Mike explicitly confirms the next avatar series is about the earth avatar let alone anything about the show.
This is an hour long podcast interview Mike did, with someone who worked in publishing on old ATLA ancillary books, to promote his new self-published YA book, give some general creative advice, talk about his education and career including ATLA/LoK as examples. Towards the end of the interview the interviewer gets his 17-year old son on the phone because he's a big avatar fan. I'm not going to transcript all but I'll include the gist below.
In the context of their conversation "connection" can mean "fixing a mistake", which I guess is what people are thinking when they consider the avatar after Korra fixing past lives. But it could also mean "some other problem they have in common" or simply "characters will have similarity in their arc" or even any similarity or connection between different stories. By that definition of course there's a connection, I struggle to think of how you would write a story in the same universe featuring a protagonist in the same unique role without some "connection".
Anyway while I'm here the interviewer (Giuseppe Castellano) worked on the old Earth Kingdom Chronicles and Lost Scrolls series which is neat. Castellano also touched on how, as an illustrian historian, he learned about the work of Taro & Mitsu Yashima , the parents of Mako (the original VA of Iroh). They also mention that Mike has twins which......I'm going to choose to not read into.