‘Why is the Avatar a girl?’: ‘Avatar: Seven Havens’ is already causing controversy, and it’s not even released yet
Avatar: The Last Airbender is expanding with the new Avatar: Seven Havens series. Although the series was just announced, internet users are already predictably disgruntled because the Avatar will be female.
The franchise has been experiencing a resurgence with the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender adaptation and the upcoming movie Aang: The Last Airbender. Shortly before Avatar: The Last Airbender‘s 20th anniversary, news broke that Nickelodeon greenlighted another sequel series, Avatar: Seven Havens, from the original Avatar creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. The series takes place after Avatar: The Legend of Korra and follows a young earthbender who discovers she’s the Avatar while the world is “shattered by a devastating cataclysm.” The discovery sets her on a dangerous mission with her “long-lost twin” to “save the Seven Havens” before civilization collapses.
Naturally, details on the newly announced series are scarce. All we really know is that Avatar is returning to the screen. While most fans are excited about the series, the usual bad actors were triggered by one word in the synopsis: she.
People are already mad that the Avatar is female
It’s believed that the girl in Avatar: Seven Havens is the next Avatar directly after Korra. Users looking for excuses to be angry about the Avatar being a girl claimed they were concerned about the Avatar being female twice in a row. User @DekuMight55 wrote, “Why is the Avatar a girl back to back?”
There’s no reason to be concerned about the Avatar being female back-to-back, as the show has already confirmed this is possible. After all, it literally has a 50/50 chance of being either male or female. The Avatar before Aang was Roku, so there have been times in Avatar history when the Avatar was the same gender twice in a row. Of course, everyone knows the reason these people are upset isn’t because Avatar: Seven Havens broke some in-universe rule by making the Avatar a girl. They’re angry that the Avatar is female, period.
Given all the right-wing hysteria over “wokeness” and “DEI,” it has bizarrely become commonplace for people to get triggered by shows simply acknowledging that people can be female or having women in lead roles. Numerous X users quickly began complaining about the news, bemoaning how it’s going to be “Korra round 2” or becoming hysterical by the thought that she might be queer, even though absolutely nothing has been said about her sexuality. One user even did quite the mental gymnastics to insist, with no evidence, that Avatar: The Last Airbender is predominantly targeted at boys and to claim he already knows Avatar: Seven Havens will fail like Legend of Korra … even though Legend of Korra was a huge success.
Ultimately, the Avatar has never been genderlocked. The only cycle it needs to adhere to is through the nations: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. Since Korra was a waterbender, the next Avatar needs to be an earthbender, which Avatar: Seven Havens is following. Additionally, complaining about gender this early is absurd. After all, the synopsis mentions a long-lost twin, with many already suspecting the twins have the Avatar power split between them. There’s a chance this unidentified twin could be a male. For all we know, we could get a female and male Avatar. However, even in this scenario, male X dwellers would probably still cry that both twins aren’t male.
Ultimately, the gender of the Avatar doesn’t matter. Real fans will be happy that there’s another Avatar series from the original creators and wait for more details. Only people who don’t appreciate the franchise will throw a premature tantrum because they were triggered by the word “she” in the synopsis.
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