Avatar Seven Havens S1 Eps 10-13 & S1 Overall Quick Thoughts w/ Season 2 Predictions

This ep was largely just to get Pavi & Nisha together again. Only one portion had anything about the series plot, that being the visions Nisha saw when touching the crystal she saw in last ep's vision. The first shot shows her parent's (Pramodh and Saumya) traveling the Harshlands, but their with a 3rd adult. Perhaps a guide ala sherpa. Because I expect this ep to have the least revelations of the 4, I'll fill here with the all-important question I have yet to ask & answer: Why did Pramodh and Saumya need to travel the Harshlands? Maybe they knew the Avatar was not the destructive entity the rest of the world thought they were, but Nisha had done something with the red energy (and Vaatu?) that made her parents fear her. They then messaged Karthik about Nisha, left her to be found by him so he could train her, & took Pavi with them. When she realized she was abandoned, Nisha chased them in a sandstorm, and when her parents discarded her again, she became afraid and angry and unleashed that beam of red spirit energy. There has to be more to it than they felt the pressure of hiding the Avatars and just abandoned them. If that were true, why tell Karthik of only 1 of them or why tell him at all?
After the vision, Nisha says "It can't be true." and lied about the crystal being the thing that signaled Pavi to find her, saying that the spirit attacking her may have triggered it. She either saw more than what we saw, pieced together something about the visions or is afraid she inadvertently caused her parents' disappearance and is keeping Pavi away from the crystal so she can't find out for herself.
I do like how the spirits are still treated as alien-like in terms of what is known about them. It seems a given because the humans are trying to steer clear of the obviously abnormal storms across the planet, but I also mean from an audience's perspective; Despite how much focus was on the spirits & the Spirit World in LOK, the spirit side of this mythos is still the "final frontier"; There is still MUCH we don't know or the creators could explore with the Spirit World.

Ooohkay, awesome episode.
I get that the Faceless and the Avatar both are feared because most don't understand them, and there were obvious signs that Agam didn't hate the Avatar like Ellorans did in the previous ep, but do the Faceless not believe the Avatar was responsible for the Cataclysm? I'd find it hard to believe they don't hate the Avatar to some degree; Most of history, which is mostly word of mouth because 200 years has passed and most documented history is lost save for New Ba Sing Se apparently, says the Avatar put everyone in this current situation. Can the Faceless really look past that THAT easily?
Even if the animation isn't up to ATLA/LOK standards, the choices of what/how to animate are still great. Case in point, while Nisha is reeling after being asked to bend multiple elements in front of the Faceless, before she lies & says her bending is gone, her eyes dart a quick glance at Pavi before she says it. She wants to hide the true reason why she stopped bending from Pavi, so that glance shows she's mentally taking Pavi into consideration when creating this lie of a broad inability to bend.
Holy shit. Did NOT see Kayoko offing someone just to kick-start the red energy. Does that mean it's out of character for her to use this energy? Surprisingly, not really. The head of a Haven whose sole purpose is to ensure the endurance & SURVIVAL of humans has just found out that the harbinger of the destruction your facing has not only been under your nose this entire time, but your most trusted officer was helping her behind your back. Kayoko feels like she's in an uphill battle every day and she feels her control starting to slip. Plus, who's to say that the energy isn't affecting her to some degree. I was more startled that it was the 1st "non-PG" thing we've seen (not that this series hasn't used more graphic things in the past; ATLA had genocide for God sakes).
So Agam's our Guru Pathik (our Chakra teacher). It goes without saying at this point that this is the likely reason we haven't seen a shadow of the Avatar State from Pavi or Nisha. Though having the blocked chakras affect their usual bending is not something seen before (Aang's bending was fine). It could likely just be chalked up to how young they are compared to our other Avatars. Having Pavi not want to reveal herself as an Avatar still holds, but only for now. She accepted the training of Karthik & the White Lotus under the pretense that she'd be her own Avatar (not the focus-of-attention Avatar, which she's leaving to Nisha) but in this world of benders, any Avatar is going to be a focus.
Nice little heart-to-heart moment with the two girls, even if it's re-hashed territory (Pavi sees Nisha as brave & Nisha not wanting to lose Pavi). And after the escape from the Old World Ruins, Nisha pulls Pavi out of the vision of the parents (still keeping Pavi from seeing what she believes is the destruction she (Nisha) caused) & the Anomaly freaked out again, but of note is this is the 1st time a focus of the Anomaly's beam being forced back on it by the girls was shown. Jae having Agam intentionally captured so she can jailbreak the White Lotus and this sphere (or Dome as the next ep is titled lol) of red energy growing & threatening Ellora. Things are heating up!

It just keeps getting better! Nice starting scene of younger Karthik training Kayoko to earlier establish their feelings for each other.
Skipping to Pavi & Nisha hyping themselves up to stop the dome (skipped scene of Jae getting Lan to help in the jailbreak, a redemption we all saw coming a mile away). Starting to see Pavi get more decisive, even if it's a more resigned decision than outright bravery (you can see it in her eyebrows compared to Nisha's)
This jailbreak scene, despite not reaching the lengths & caliber of ATLA's/LOK's fight scenes is starting to wet my appetite. I really hope Paramount gives them enough time & budget to afford a martial arts consultant & choreographers (like Sifu Kisu of ATLA), but for now, this is fine.
Even though we have the "I'm doing this for you/the both of us!" trope here (Person A does something thinking they're protecting/helping Person B, but they're only protecting themself), it gets a pass because Nisha's still a kid. And we now have confirmation that the parents did take Pavi & leave Nisha behind, but more than that, they seem to want to keep them separated.
Again, some nice moments of bending/fighting and this "new recruit" Waterbender (Ulan) is kicking ass. I wonder if they'll do more with him other than just to show that even the ones more prone to Kayoko's words and not jaded by experience can choose the right path.
THE TAIKO DRUM MUSIC ALWAYS GETS ME PUMPED!!! Great, albeit short, fight on the ramparts. BIG props to Karthik's VA! There's aimless screaming and there's screaming with intent and his is definitely the latter. and SAUMYA IN THE DOME? Is it actually her (a fragment of her when young Nisha inadvertently released that beam) or the lead-in to a vision that reveals the truth? SEASON FINALE, HERE WE COME!

...I
FUCKING
LOVE
THIS
SERIES!!!
SOLELY focusing on Pavi & Nisha stuff because everything with Karthik/Jae/Agam is "save the people".
So Pramodh and Saumya DID know Nisha was "afflicted" with something and thought Karthik, through his training, would be able to cure her. It is worth mentioning that it casts Pramodh in a more negative light than Saumya (lotta scowls and pushing to keep going from him).
JEEZ they REALLY stab you in the heart with the separation scene! That glow around Pavi after the rocks collapsing HAS to be Raava and it goes without saying after seeing Nisha cause the rockslide (out of FEAR) that she's got Vaatu. Also shows why Pavi was needed in order to subdue the Anomalies (that I touched on in my previous post, paragraph 21 (TY Pastebin for the ability to quick reference paragraphs like that)).
Now obviously Nisha didn't intend to do that, but does that mean this reaction from Pavi make sense? Absolutely because of how she was before this moment. Like I said in paragraph 10 of previous post, Pavi always wanted a family; It's why she had the rocks with faces on them. It's why she pursued finding out about her bracelet. While Nisha, from her memory, was surrounded by people (White Lotus members mainly) telling her she will be this all-powerful being, bolstering her independence or need for it. Though both found out about having a family, Pavi's need to surround herself grew from years of separation & isolation while Nisha believed, aided by the fact that her parents "gave her up" to Karthik, that Pavi was enough. It sucks that this is all at the expense of Nisha but that's by design; they WANT you to hate that Nisha has been put into this position with Pavi so HOPEFULLY over the course of the seasons, it gets corrected (so help me God if they don't lol).
And THIS SCENE OF PAVI STANDING UP TO THE DOME, CASTING ASIDE HER FEAR, REVEALING HERSELF AS THE SECOND AVATAR, UNLOCKING HER CHAKRA AND THE ENERGY IT GRANTS, BENDING ALL 4 ELEMENTS WITH SUCH EASE & FLOW AND DIVERTING THE ENERGY INTO A CHANNEL IN THE SKY?!? Chef's. Fucking. Kiss. I knew I was in for a treat when they started with that slow-mo diversion of red lightning, but I was nowhere NEAR ready. The visuals, stunning. The animation as well as the beats it takes, thrilling. The music, on FUCKING POINT (Savior Jeremy Zuckerman). And then we see Korra! With the chakra bridge, which I will always be a fan of that visual (so cool how they married the bridge we saw Aang walk along while unlocking his final chakra with the other chakras we didn't see). And we get our next Haven; Next stop: Floating Isles.
Then we get back to the (designed) heartbreaking scene of Pavi disowning Nisha. Not sure if I'll do a separate write up of it our not, but I did say in a previous post that I hope they don't make the girl that has Vaatu as their Avatar Spirit the "evil" or "Dark" Avatar, and while she's certainly not evil, she's REALLY written into a corner as someone being perceived as the evil one BECAUSE of Vaatu & not her own choices. Thank God she has Karthik to make her feel better right now. Again, it's by design and HOPEFULLY with the intention to be "redeemed" down the line. Only time will tell.
And nice writing for Jae's reasoning for going with Pavi. Due to being conscripted into the Brigade, his entire life was formed by so many beliefs and for the sake of survival in this broken world. Now most of those beliefs have been revealed to be false and he witnessed a way to save the broken world, not just survive in it. He scared of losing the purpose he had in those false beliefs but finally has the choice of finding his own purpose. And Pavi, still desiring to have a family, accepts him on her journey. During this monologue, there are two major scenes of note; Ellora is not afraid of the Avatar/Nisha but more importantly, people are still afflicted with fear from being struck with the red energy. This most likely means that, like the process of unlocking chakras needs to be seen through to the end in order for the effects to stick (ATLA S2E19 "...Once you begin the process, you cannot stop until all seven are open."), the affliction will likely not clear until the final chakra is unlocked.
Lastly, there is the question of whether Nisha will stay in Ellora. I strongly assume not; Because we still don't know how there are 2 Avatars (or not meant to know) it makes sense that Nisha will be involved in the journey going forward to unravel that mystery.

And that's Season 1! I'd really have to watch it in one sitting to see/feel any glaring negatives, but after that finale, I can't think of any. Aside from the comparative animation/choreo drop (which I hope time & budget will fix), I was left wholly satisfied. As I said in the Eps 1-3 post, I love the style & music. The characters got some flesh out there while still having room for more. As a lore buff, I was enthralled by the plot.
Now, onto Season 2 broad predictions. Based on the 2nd chakra (Water/Sacrum/Pleasure/Guilt), at this moment, Pavi would most feel guilt about shutting Nisha out. However, that feels a bit too soon for Pavi to forgive Nisha in the next season, especially if they keep the routine of Nisha experiencing the blocking emotion; If Nisha were to feel guilt, it would obviously be about keeping the truth from Pavi, but I wouldn't want them to keep resorting to the previous season for every new chakra. It sounds very stunting from a writing standpoint. You wouldn't be able to let the new ideas of a new season/Haven/characters/moments have any substance or lasting power. It's a bigger concern especially considering the 3rd chakra (Fire/Stomach/Willpower/Shame) is blocked by shame, which has considerable overlap with guilt (although there is a difference; Examining guilt often focuses on how your actions hurt others while examining shame focuses on how your actions hurt your image of yourself). Plus, I would like for Nisha to progress with Pavi, if even a chakra behind her. It keeps Nisha relevant aside from just having her as a 2nd Avatar and if they bring back Vaatu as a threat, she'd be more formidable if she were close to the same power level as Pavi.
The only negative chakra emotions/concepts that aren't apparent or that I hope have a different correlation than what we have now are the final 3 (Lies, Illusion & Earthly Attachment). I hope by Season 5, we're past the lies Nisha told Pavi & I can't think of anything right now that would fill 6 & 7.
But that's all a long way from now. Right now, I'm reveling in this season and just the overall fact that Avatar is back!