Avatar: What should they do next?

[phantom000]

I saw a video on youtube announcing that Netflix was going to make a third Avatar series, yeah it was an April Fools joke. But it made me wonder, if they were going to do another one, what should it be about?

Here is my thought.

What about a story of an Avatar's fall from grace? An Avatar that starts out a hero, like Aang or Korra, then becomes a kind of anti-hero like Zuko, then a borderline villain like Kuvira or Jet, then finally crossing into full villain becoming something like Ozai or Amon. Ironically, bringing balance to the world by uniting the four nations against him.

I thought of a framing device of Aang or Korra studying the records of the past Avatars and discovering a gap in the record. A single Avatar that was deliberately erased from history and when they try to summon their past lives to speak to him Roku and Kyoshi warn them that this is something best left forgotten.

So what would you do for the next Avatar series?

[Megabob452]

The idea of exploring a past Avatar is something I could get behind.

Personally I would go with one that's a few reincarnations after Wan, first one to be primarily an earthbender, and see what the world was like at that point in history. Still early enough for the general populace to not know what the Avatar is, no rules established yet for how the Avatar should exercise authority, demonstrating why the various traditions came into existence later on. This would also be prior to the formation of the four nations, when people were still spreading out from where the lion-turtles dropped them off, and we could see how the Avatar played a role in setting borders that lasted until Aang's day. We'd get to see the Sun Warriors in their heyday, the underground city of Ba Sing Se before the above ground walls were built, the Water Tribes splitting in two and going their separate ways, and truly see the Air Nomads beyond the limited viewpoint we got from Aang's flashbacks.

As for the main conflict of this era, I would have it be the precursor nations against civilizations lost to time. This Avatar comes across benders using elements Wan never found, based on the chakras that aren't used by conventional bending, sound, mind, and light. Abandoned by the lion-turtles like the rest of humanity, but never knowing why and never having the Avatar reincarnate among them, these civilizations resent the main four elements that are prospering while the three are in decline. By the end of the conflict these three civilizations are doomed to fade away, eventually forgotten altogether by history, the only memory remaining being in the past lives of the Avatar.

Of course, that's just one possibility. Really just a fanfic idea that's too big for me to do properly.

[phantom000]

The idea of exploring a past Avatar is something I could get behind.

Personally I would go with one that's a few reincarnations after Wan, first one to be primarily an earthbender, and see what the world was like at that point in history. Still early enough for the general populace to not know what the Avatar is, no rules established yet for how the Avatar should exercise authority, demonstrating why the various traditions came into existence later on. This would also be prior to the formation of the four nations, when people were still spreading out from where the lion-turtles dropped them off, and we could see how the Avatar played a role in setting borders that lasted until Aang's day. We'd get to see the Sun Warriors in their heyday, the underground city of Ba Sing Se before the above ground walls were built, the Water Tribes splitting in two and going their separate ways, and truly see the Air Nomads beyond the limited viewpoint we got from Aang's flashbacks.

That would be fun to see. I was kind of surprised they explained the origins of the Avatar in LOK but they actually did a good job. The Avatar is such a big deal that his mere appearance would have a huge impact on the world. Still it is a bit of a retcon since TLA explained where the different bending arts supposedly came from. You could say that after thousands of years parts of history have been lost or misinterpreted, Asimov did that with his history of the future.

Remember the story of Oma from The Cave of Two Lovers? What if Oma was actually the first Avatar from the Earthkingdom and the city she created, Omashu, was actually the first great city of the Earthkingdom? The first step on the road to the great empire they would eventually become.

[Fuzzy Necromancer]

You know what I'd like?

I'd like the next avatar to be a non-binary earthbender.
"Are you a boy or a girl?"
"I'm the avatar."