Is Avatar: Seven Havens Worth Watching? Our Review of the New Series

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The new animated series in the Avatar universe has arrived on Paramount+, bringing twin sisters, a post-apocalyptic world and an Avatar cycle seen as a major threat. In today's article, we break down the show's strengths, weaknesses, visual style and story to answer whether it's worth watching.

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Why is everyone talking about Avatar: Seven Havens?

Two twin sisters, a world in ruins, and the Avatar seen as history’s greatest villain. In short, that’s it.

Avatar: Seven Havens recently premiered on Paramount+. More than 200 years after the events of The Legend of Korra, the world has suffered a devastating cataclysm, and what remains of humanity now regards the legendary Avatar cycle with dread.

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Developed by original creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the animated series introduces Pavi, a lonely girl surviving on the streets of the walled city of Allora, and Nisha, her twin sister who had been lost until then. When both discover they can bend all four elements, the very structure of everything we knew about the Avatar’s reincarnation cycle is turned upside down.

At first glance, the premise of “two Avatars at the same time” may seem like a narrative gimmick. But Seven Havens delivers an intriguing survival-and-mystery plot full of political conflict and spiritual imbalance.

The new era and the franchise universe

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Unlike previous series, this world isn’t waiting for a hero with hope. Humanity survives in seven isolated cities called Havens, and the population grows up being taught to hate and fear Avatar Korra, whom they blame for destroying the old civilization.

That shift gives the franchise an almost post-apocalyptic identity, recalling survival classics set in arid landscapes and forgotten ruins.

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While Avatar: The Last Airbender focused on the journey through war and The Legend of Korra on industrial modernization, Seven Havens embraces a tone of survival and mystery, where the past is unknown and the spiritual cycle itself is something everyone fears.

Official trailer

Analyzing Avatar: Seven Havens

First impressions

You hit play, expecting the classic journey of learning the elements.

The first scene immediately shatters that expectation by showing how Allora society views the Avatar: as a monster responsible for the end of the world. There are even amulets being sold on the streets to protect citizens from the Avatar.

We start with only Pavi, alone in the streets, surviving and running from the cadets.

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Pavi and Nisha: opposites and the twins’ big reveal

The twin duo carries the show on their backs with cute moments and disagreements, working as complementary opposites that recall the clash between Aang and Korra’s personalities.

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Pavi is empathetic, sensitive, and reluctant. She survived years alone on the streets, talks to insects and stones to keep hope alive, and doesn’t want the responsibility of being the Avatar. The series also portrays her disability (she is missing the lower part of her left leg) with considerable realism, showing phantom pains and falls as part of her journey.

Nisha, meanwhile, was trained for years by the Order of the White Lotus; she is confident and ambitious, but also very impulsive. Her identity was shaped to make her a hero, which leaves her vulnerable when her certainties are shaken (and everything in the context suggests they will be at some point).

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The mystery at the start of the series, both of them bending all the elements, generates plenty of curiosity. It’s not one bending two elements and the other bending the other two. Both are the Avatar. So how did that happen?

Visuals, animation and the ‘loss’ of bending

The visual style of Seven Havens divided opinions when it was announced, but it makes sense within the show’s premise.

The production moved from the traditional Studio Mir to a French studio, adopting a pastel-toned aesthetic with a slight inspiration from 1990s anime and modern Western animation. Although some secondary frames are simpler and less fluid than in Korra, the art direction delivers beautiful (if perhaps not especially detailed) backdrops, as well as fight scenes that are very well executed for the protagonists.

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I felt a drop in quality. The difference between Avatar: The Last Airbender and Seven Havens is undeniable. But it’s tolerable, and the new animation’s aesthetic fits the more desert-like setting of Seven Havens.

Another point that draws attention is the state of elemental bending:

- There are significantly fewer benders in the world.

- The sub-bending styles (such as metalbending or bloodbending) seem to have been lost.

- Bending has become a practical tool.

This “loss” is very consistent with the narrative: in a destroyed world where cultural transmission was interrupted, people bend intuitively and by improvising, or receive training to do their part in the Brigade.

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What bothers me most is that Seven Havens has a “mystery box” style narrative. With every answer provided, more questions arise. Who is the red spirit? Who are the two twins an embodiment of?

And these are questions that are taking a while to be answered, given the show’s faster pace. I hope it has good explanations to stay interesting.

Strengths of Avatar: Seven Havens

- The dynamic between twin sisters Pavi and Nisha

- Interesting worldbuilding, exploring new South Asian cultural elements (such as Indian cuisine and Islamic/Hindu architecture)

- A tone of mystery and survival (perhaps too much mystery)

- A realistic and respectful approach to Pavi’s physical disability

- A very good soundtrack

Weaknesses of Avatar: Seven Havens

- The fluctuation in animation quality

- Some dialogue is under-explanatory or stiff

- For those seeking direct nostalgia for the classic Four Nations, it may be a little frustrating

Is Avatar: Seven Havens worth watching?

With Avatar: Seven Havens, the franchise has taken a necessary risk if it wants to keep moving forward. But it is ambitious, and it may have worked. Instead of delivering more of the same, the series offers an engaging mystery, interesting characters, and a revision of the rules of the Avatar universe itself.

The question that remains is: are you willing to abandon nostalgia for the Four Nations and dive into a post-apocalyptic world where the Avatar must prove she isn’t the villain?

If the answer is yes, Avatar: Seven Havens is for you!

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