Why Are There Two Avatars in Seven Havens?

Are there really two Avatars?

Yes. Pavi and Nisha are identical twins, and both can bend water, earth, fire and air. In the first episode Pavi finds Nisha practising all four elements in a palace garden; later, Karthik has Pavi show her bending and confirms she can control all four too. From then on the show calls them the twin Avatars, and they train together.

Why is that such a big deal?

Because the Avatar has always been one person. When an Avatar dies, the Avatar Spirit is reborn into a single new body, and that rule has held through every Avatar from Wan to Korra. Two Avatars alive at the same time has never happened before, and co-creator Michael Dante DiMartino has said that “twin Avatars” was the new idea he and Bryan Konietzko built the mystery around.

Was there a secret Avatar between Korra and the twins?

No. This was one of the most popular theories, because roughly two centuries separate Korra’s era from the twins. DiMartino shut it down in an interview with GamesRadar+, saying Korra was the previous Avatar and there was no one in between.

That leaves a real puzzle, which the interview itself points out: if a new Avatar is born when the last one dies, either Korra lived an extremely long time (Avatar Kyoshi reached 230), or something stopped the cycle for years. The show hasn’t said which.

What do we know about the twins’ past?

What’s been shown	Where it leaves things
They lived with their mother as small children, who often sang to them	Pavi still remembers the song
Around 396 AG a storm in the Harshlands separated them and wiped their memories	Neither remembered the other
Karthik found Nisha after getting a letter from her parents, saying where she was	Their parents may still be alive
Pavi lost her lower left leg in the same incident	She’s the first known Avatar with a permanent physical disability
A spirit called the Anomaly showed them a fragment of their past	Both blacked out; what they saw isn’t explained

With Jae and Karthik’s help, the twins set out to uncover their origins and how they connect to the Avatar Cycle, which is where the answer is likely to come from.

The fan theories (unconfirmed)

None of these are confirmed. They’re the explanations fans discuss most:

• The Avatar Spirit split in two. Raava, the spirit inside every Avatar, divided between the twins, possibly because of whatever happened to Korra.
• Vaatu is involved. Raava’s dark opposite, Vaatu, whom Korra defeated in The Legend of Korra, is a favourite suspect, and searches for him have spiked since the premiere.
• The havens are a clue. The colours of the Seven Havens match the seven chakras, with Ellora as the red root chakra, and fans read that as a hint the twins’ journey runs through all seven.

The creators have openly encouraged theories, calling the show a mystery story, so expect answers to arrive slowly over the planned four books.

Want the backstory first? See why the Avatar is hated in Seven Havens and when the show takes place.