The Funniest Possible Karma for Avatar: Seven Havens That Would Never Happen
Avatar: Seven Havens is promising to be pure chaos. Meaning it's unlikely the new Avatar will have a good teacher.
It would be hilarious if the worst possible candidate for the job had no choice. Namely, Zaheer.
Old, grumpy, anarchist child-murdering Zaheer having to restore balance to the world after sacrificing everything to destroy everything. Outliving his friends and lover, and even surpassing Korra in terms of lifespan. He gets what he wanted, a world of pure chaos, but finds, just as Korra told him happened with the Earth Queen, even worse parties taking advantage of the power vacuum. There is no true freedom in chaos. And it's partly his fault, as he planted the seeds for this chaos all those years ago. He's out on probation because with no avatar candidate and the tide of public opinion, the new governments in charge of his cells probably support him. But any government supporting an anarchist is a red flag.
Korra's spirit appears to him rubbing this all in when he encounters the young child and her sibling. She points out his ideals once again failed. But she can only teach Alora so much. And Zaheer is probably the only adult responsible enough to keep Alora and her sibling alive given how many seem to be gunning for him. He can either choose to stick to his ideals and watch them fail over and over again, or he can finally get his head out of his ass and do the right thing for once.
Zaheer tried killing Korra and the Avatar. He finds himself forced to train Alora in airbending while scouting potential teachers who won't try to turn them in for a bounty or kill them. It of course disrupts the cycle because an earthbender must learn fire and air before water, but they're short on options, and he suffers the consequences of this disruption. This guy would be the anti-Iroh, someone who did believe in his ideals but became a monster because of them. Iroh started making amends for his body count long before Zuko became exiled, as we saw with the dragons; Zaheer is only starting. So he's going to be terrible for the job.
Korra knows Zaheer would have preferred dying of old age or fighting an oppressive government. But she's not going to let him. He owes her.
We know this won't happen because such a story would take too many narrative risks. Zaheer made an impression on older viewers, and new ones would need to get up to speed. Done right, however, it would be hilarious.
