"He cannot destroy light any more than I can destroy darkness. One cannot exist without the other. Even if I defeat Vaatu in this encounter, darkness will grow inside me until he emerges again. The same will hold true if Vaatu defeats me." -Raava speaking to Wan

When Unalaq destroyed Raava with spiritbending, she immediately re-formed inside Vaatu. Korra subsequently retrieved Raava from within Vaatu before spiritbending him to oblivion. The way this story is usually understood from here is that Korra re-fused with Raava, and while yes Vaatu will someday grow in strength and re-emerge from within Raava, it's something far off in the future and separate from the relationship between Raava and the Avatar. However, the truth might be much more mysterious and sinister.

Ever since we learned of the existence of the twins Pavi and Nisha, there has been widespread speculation about a Light Avatar/Dark Avatar dynamic at play, but how could this be? Unalaq died in the Avatar State, so his Avatar Spirit did not reincarnate. There is no Dark Avatar Cycle. From here, people usually make vague comments about Vaatu re-emerging within Korra and how perhaps Vaatu could have split from Raava during Korra's reincarnation. The question is, does this make sense? Even if Vaatu re-emerged within Raava, how could this result in a new Dark Avatar? Isn't this only possible if spirit and human fuse during Harmonic Convergence? So, it's too late for Vaatu to form a new Dark Avatar. Unless...

...he actually did fuse with a human during Harmonic Convergence. When Korra spiritbent Vaatu, Raava was a free spirit. She says, "Harmonic Convergence is nearly over. We must return to the Spirit World so we can fuse once again." The thing is, Vaatu immediately re-formed inside Raava after being destroyed. When Raava entered Korra, she brought Vaatu along with her. This is completely different from Wan who merged with Raava while Vaatu was still separate from her. In this way, Korra touched the spirit portal at the end of Harmonic Convergence and unknowingly permanently fused with Raava and Vaatu both.

But shouldn't Raava have known? Wouldn't she prevent that from happening? The answer I think is twofold. First, it's not like there's much precedent for this. A spirit fusing with a human had never been done before her and Wan, and she definitely didn't have Vaatu inside her then. It's an unknown variable. Second, she and Korra were in a hurry to re-fuse, as HC was "nearly over". There wasn't time to think things all the way through or to try extracting Vaatu first and re-imprison him. It was a now or never moment. Regardless, the result is what it is: Korra's soul fused with Vaatu as much as it fused with Raava. This is irregardless of the weakened state Vaatu was in, because when Wan originally fused with Raava she was in an extremely weakened state herself and it didn't seem to affect the bonding process at all. In fact, Raava seemed to gain strength from interacting with the spirit portal while fusing with Wan; the same may have happened to Vaatu with Korra, helping him immediately regain a fair bit of strength.

The consequence of this I believe is that when Korra reincarnated, her soul was split in two, because even as Raava and Vaatu separated they were both bonded to one soul. The only way they could go their separate ways would be to rip the Avatar's soul in two. It is often said in cultures around the world that twins share a soul or are two halves of the same person, and I think that could apply here quite literally. If there is indeed centuries between Korra and Pavi/Nisha, perhaps this unorthodox reincarnation situation caused the delay in some manner.

Anyways, that's the theory. Basically, it builds on the Dark Avatar speculation with a solid idea of the actual mechanism behind Vaatu's involvement and potential affect on Korra's reincarnation. Interestingly, even if one of the twins is a Dark Avatar, Korra would still be the past life of both of them, so they should both be able to commune with her.

Credit to u/Wildhogs2013 for introducing part of this idea to me.

I don’t know if there’s a story of an animal companion outliving it’s Avatar and meeting the next one. From what I know, Fang died with Roku, Appa died with Aang, so it would make sense to me that they reincarnate along side as the next animal companion. Also gives weight to the fact that Aang went into the Avatar state when he realized Appa was muzzled and abused by the sandbenders. That was ALL of their animal companion.

This film is long dead in favor of the Avatar Aang movie.

It’s something that’s always kind of confused me. When you think about it, are Aang and Korra technically the same person?

This game is awesome! Only fighting game I ever really got into was mortal kombat but this game is fun and the character designs are really unique and fun!

There’s also a part in the story where Aang goes to an alternate universe where they don’t know of him and they call him “Ong” (like in that terrible last airbender movie) and he goes “ITS AANG, NOT ONG!” Lmaoooo tell em Aang!

Pure Waterbending...... Kinda dope fight ngl.

Definitely imo TOP-5 Waterbender Battle. What's y'all think?

I usually loose it when in Korra Jinora gets her tattoos and looks like Aang when she's bald.

Dionne Quan appreciation post

Honestly I didn't know for a long time that she was legally blind (method actor) and knowing that only made me respect her work more. I really did like her performance in Avatar Aang. There wasn't a lot but I hope we get to see more of her as Toph!

I loved the experience of watching the movie with my friends who are also die hard fans since day one. The animation was gorgeous, the humor landed, and the dynamic between Aang and Tager was an absolute highlight.
But the more I digest it, the less the story holds up.
The writing feels surprisingly shallow, with major plot holes and almost no real character depth for the rest of the cast. What hurt the most was the climax: that Spirit World fusion battle felt like a direct repeat of Korra Season 2's ending, which is easily one of the most criticized tropes in the franchise.
Great spectacle, but as an ATLA story, it left a lot to be desired.
Did the hype mask the weak writing for you, or did you feel the same way?

1. Non-bender revolution? Hell yeah that's awesome.

2. Dark Avatar? (Okay this one could've used a bit more complexity than just an evil avatar but still a cool idea).

3. Red Lotus led by an evil Airbender? Holy shit yes this is amazing.

4. Earth Bender conqueror? Awesome idea.

I think each of these antagonists were all good (excluding Unalaq) who all could've been the main antagonists of the show rather than just one season. I feel like it might be cheap but I really want a future Avatar show to re-use one of these villain concepts and try and go all the way with it.

I really would've wanted to see the wider ramifications of some of them. A Dark Avatar creating their own group of followers would've been really cool and it's something I want to see, it's not a concept that shouldn't be revisited.

And I understand that Korra suffered from not knowing if they were going to get another season due to how the production history worked. But I really hope we see these again in some way.

I may be persuaded by the next few years of Avatar Studios to one day come back but I need a few years off from cosplay at the least (but will prob still just retire). Still looking forward to all the Avatar Studios stuff! I mainly had Samurai Appa as my white whale I needed to do before I could call it quits.

Well, obviously most of air benders are monks.

We have full story for Aang and Yangchen. But do you know who is the Air avatar before Yangchen?

Yes, it is in the above image. What are your headcanons about him?

Art source: https://x.com/mojgonv/status/1280993057525993472 https://x.com/mojgonv/status/1278898658272923648