(Writer's note: I got a little carried away with this. I may have written some things a little sloppily but there's just so much that I can't be bothered to effectively proofread it. Everything below is entirely speculation or fan-theory and is made for both entertainment and ventilation of my own thoughts.)
I'm not going to be the first or the last person to say this, but let's face it: Avatar is such a remarkable and loved franchise that it'll be bound to get more content sooner or later. Even though the Star Wars movies were "done," people knew more were on their way, it was just too good to pass up. That's how I feel about Avatar. Even if it's just another video game or a comic, no doubt will we see Korra again, and there's so many possibilities in the lore to explore.
Something that really caught my attention was the episode in TLA in which Guru Pathik teaches Aang about the chakras, which becomes even more interesting after seeing "Beginnings" in LoK. Puthik describes how each chakra is associated with an emotion and an element. You'll notice that the cultures of each element are often associated with the corresponding element.
The Earth Chakra is associated with survival. The Earthbenders are no doubt a resilient bunch. They were among the primary targets when the 100 year war began, and, unlike the Air Nomads, were able to fight back to the point of having a (mostly) functioning kingdom by the time of Aang's reemergence. They were able to survive an onslaught of attacks over the course of a century, and the concept is fairly rooted in the style in which they bend: Earthbending is easily the most defensive bending style, often forming walls and sometimes making armor, as well as being focused around counterattacking after the opponent has made the first move.
The Water Chakra is associated with pleasure. The people of the Water Tribes take pleasure in being around others, especially family. Nearly every single notable waterbender has some sort of close family member, or a mention of such. The Water Tribes are the only group to go in depth with their marriage customs, which appear to be important to their culture. The affection of waterbenders is evident in the fact that Water Tribe characters are unusually susceptible to being a part of romantic relationships (Sokka, Katara, Korra, etc.).
The Fire Chakra is associated with willpower. It can be thought that this could be the primary factor in the seemingly over-aggression that led to the Fire Nation invasion, and what stopped them from cutting their conquests short after a hundred years of war. With enough willpower they were determined to rule the world, no matter how much time or death it would take. Firebending characters often have some sort of guiding motivation, such as Zuko trying to find his honor, to Ozai wanting to conquer all.
Finally, the Air Chakra is associated with love. The Air Nomads were described as being extremely peaceful, and were never a part of any wars or conflicts. They found compassion in all living things, going so far as to practicing vegetarianism to conserve the life of animals. Aang often struggles with the idea of ending the life of even the most evil of villains, and always chooses the path of mercy when he has the chance. In LOK, the airbenders go from pacifists to preservers of peace, and although they're slightly more progressive than their predecessors, they still focus on providing help to those in need and providing love to all the innocents in the world.
Bending is looked at as the art of manipulating one's chi, and the chakras serve as "hot spots" of chi build up. I don't remember if they specifically stated it, but it can be thought that each type of bender has access to a chakra that the others don't, and that's the source of their abilities.
In "Beginnings," humans resided on the backs of the giant lionturtles, who would bestow the power of the elements by "unlocking" the corresponding chakra. The episodes showed Avatar Wan exploring the world and discovering the different lionturtles, who were associated with different elements, and, in turn, different chakras. It would be safe to say that every lionturtle had its own chakra and every chakra had its own lionturtle.
But wait... There's seven different chakras.
Guru Puthik goes on to describe three more chakras:
Sound, associated with truth and lies.
Light, associated with insight and illusions.
Thought, the most powerful chakra, associated with the cosmos and earthly attachments.
It was never officially said that Wan found all the lionturtles, or that they were all dead besides the one that Aang encounters. If my theory is correct, then there must be at least three more lionturtles somewhere in the world, and, if history is any indication, there would be humans living on them. And, much like in the past, the lionturtles would freely give their inhabitants the powers of their chakras.
It wouldn't be difficult to imagine the different kinds of bending that would come from these- Sound would be able to mimic voices or create sonic blasts. Light would be able to see in darkness and create illusions, as well as possibly blinding others. Thoughtbenders would be the most dangerous though, as they'd be able to straight up control minds or manipulate emotions.
Now, take a look at the map. The creators have said that their planet is currently in a Pangaea-esque supercontinent, and the other half of the globe is a giant ocean. It wouldn't be surprising to have various islands scattered throughout them, where undiscovered cultures could thrive. If the 20's-ish era of LoK is anything like the 1920's of the real world, then they'd still be off discovering uncontacted civilizations around the world.
I'd like to think that during the Harmonic Convergence in Beginnings, the Light, Sound, and Thought lionturtles could sense the coming crisis, and fled to the farthest point possible from the rest of the world, where their peoples would find each other and have their own political dynamics.
You'll notice that the original spirit portals are at exactly the northern and southern poles of the world. What if the presence of two portals served as a means of "ventilation" of cosmic energy, where the rift between the two worlds literally cut through the entirety of the planet? If that were the case, then at the end of LoK, where Korra accidentally creates a third portal, a fourth one would have to open up at the other side of the planet, where the three undiscovered bending nations would be hiding.
The extended story would pick up exactly where Book 4 left off, where Korra and Asami would be venturing in the Spirit World and find the newly opened portal, and end up discovering this land on the other side. Given that Thought is one of the chakras, I'd imagine they'd be a pretty advanced civilization and might even have invented technologies of their own. One of the new nations would react over aggressively and threaten to invade the "old world" after Korra tries to settle tensions between the nations of the "new world," all while trying to find balance among the spiritual significance with newly discovered "elements."
The new antagonist would be an extremely powerful thoughtbender, who controls people against their will, but works in secret behind a more eccentric emperor of the light or sound nations. Thoughtbending would be unique in that the bender doesn't have to be readily present to maintain its effects, much like how a fire can burn down a forest long after a firebender leaves. The new villain would affect the motivations of several main characters and test their trusts in each other.
There could be a possibility of Korra confronting the new lionturtles and asking them to integrate the new chakras into the Avatar cycle in order to fight the new threat, once again demonstrating Korra to be the most influential Avatar of all time.
Submitted February 15, 2015 at 01:44AM by pocketbutter http://ift.tt/17bsRZq
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