The Legend of Korra/WMG/the Gaang

For theories about other subjects, see The Legend Of Korra Wild Mass Guessing Index.

Katara will not die in this series either

Remember the fortune teller? She predicted that Katara would die when her great grand-daughter was born. Unless book 2 takes place several years after Book 1, Katara most likely will not die.

• Katara could be like Obi-Wan of the Star Wars saga, The Constant. Someone that is connected to both of the series, and present in both as well, while being a major character in it. Obi-Wan in the prequels is probably the main character, while in the next trilogy he took a step back and became some sort of extra. If something happened to Tenzin by the end of season one, Katara could replace his position. Katara, being one of the two (we know of) that is in the previous series and the current one, is most likely not to die.
• Katara's two other kids are older than Tenzin, so they could easily have adult children of their own. (So could Tenzin, if he hadn't had his kids so old.) It's not unlikely, then, that Katara already has great grand-children, so there's nothing to conflict with what the fortune teller said.

Korra will give us the future of the Avatar cast.

Who ended up with whom, what happened to the world, Zuko's mom, post-epilogue related stuff, Toph's parents, Ty Lee's Azula's future...Also, some of the cast will be descendants of the first series's cast.

• Given the presence of Tenzin, Aang's son, let's call this one at least partially Confirmed.
• Rumored character Wei Bei could be Wei Beifong.
  • I got money on Toph and The Duke.
  • I got money on them too.
  • Thirded.
  • Forth... ed.
  • Five-ded? From now on, let's just say "5!" "6!"
  • Okay then. 6!
  • 7!!
  • Possibly confirmed: Beifong, Toph's daughter, is a character.
  • If the dad is The Duke, it would explain why she has her mother's last name.
    • Though she may have taken it since the Beifongs are a prominent family.

The Gaang are/were the senior members of the White Lotus.

Aang or Zuko was the Grand Lotus after Iroh, and Katara, Sokka, Toph and (maybe) Suki had the same ranks as Pakku, Jeong Jeong, Bumi, and Piandao.

• Confirmed with Katara, holy cow.
  • Semi-jossed with Sokka, as he's confirmed dead, though it's possible he was previously a member.

How the Gaang died.

Given the 100+ lifespans we've seen before, I highly doubt everyone died of natural causes. Here's how I think everyone died.

• Toph: Circumstances conspired to place her on a ship at sea without any waterbenders on board, which sunk taking Toph with it.
  • Given that she founded the police force, she might have died doing her job, or perhaps her daughter was involved?
  • A recent theory seems to be that Toph was killed by the man who threatened peace 42 years ago, which is the reason why Lin dislikes the Avatar; because Aang couldn't save her mother.
• Sokka: Got too close to the Unagi after moving in with Suki on Kyoshi Island.
• Katara: Poisoned by one of Aang's enemies.
  • This one is jossed, Katara is confirmed to be alive.
• Aang: Gets revenge for Katara's death, then dies of grief over her.
  • Also jossed, as Katara outlived him.
  • Korra said that the 100 years in the iceberg caught up with Aang. He was 66.
• Zuko: Assassinated by his second son's wife.
  • Jossed, The Welcome To Republic City game confirms that Zuko is still alive.
  • I like the Sokka one
  • I second the opinion of the above troper. I can seriously see that happening, sadly.

Katara will die during the series, likely in a season finale.

• the purpase of having most of the Gaang be dead seems to be Passing the Torch for the new generation. Katara seemed to sadly accept that, which is why I give her the life expecency of at least a season. But seriously, she looks ancient. She won't survive the series.
  • And then we'll get a Together in Death scene with Aang and Katara. Tears will ensue.
  • I hate to support a theory that's really heartrending, but it does make sense, and not only would it make room for the above, but it'd be a great place to have a gathering of all her kids, and a few others who would be most likely to see her off; like an elderly Zuko, even perhaps also an appearance by Chief Lin- if only in respect and honor for her own mother. Finally culminating in that Together in Death moment...dammit...it's almost too damn sad.
  • You know what would make it even worse/better? If they played "The Avatar's Love", Aang and Katara's love theme, when they're reunited.

Azula broke out of prison (or wherever they were keeping her after she went insane) and killed everyone from the first series in a fit of madness before killing herself

Because there is no way EVERYONE from the original cast could have died unless some serious shit went down. Especially since Bumi lived to be over 100 years old.

• Now wouldn't that be a bridge-dropping?

The Equalists caused the death of at least most of the Gaang.

Most of the Gaang are benders, and pretty famous ones at that. They would be the movements first targets. Suki and Sokka were also targeted because they were friends with bender, or they died protecting their friends. Some of the Gaang may have died because of other reasons, but mostly its the Anti-Benders fault.

The main cast of the previous series died heroically while taking down a four hundred foot tall purple platypus bear with pink horns and silver wings.

It makes sense.

• Would make a great homage to Azula but would piss off everyone
  • It's the way they would have wanted to go.
    • Well, minus the platypus.

Sokka will have gone on an epic quest to get his Space Sword back

And then become the greatest swordsman in the world, and taught it to many of his fellow Southern Water Tribespeople.

Sokka will be a sword master like Piandao.

He'll have his own idiosyncratic (and comedic — this is Sokka) way of "testing" students if they're truly ready to learn. Like Piandao, he'll also be a senior member of the Order of the White Lotus.

• He would make an awesome badass Grandpa.
• Jossed: Katara explicitly mentions in the first episode that Sokka has already died.
  • There's always flashbacks to consider, he could have still been all these things, and we'll hear or see it from those who knew him.

Azula/Sokka happened after the war, and was key to the founding of the Equalist movement.

In short, Azula's mental health improves significantly, caused by(or leading to) a Heel Face Turn. In an attempt to make up for her past actions, she helps with the founding of the United Republic, becoming romantically entangled with Sokka in the process. Suki doesn't like this one bit, obviously, causing the founding of the Equalists.

• Really, I just like the irony of a Crack Pairing that happens offscreen being vital to the premise, while the Kataang/Zutara debate that dominated the fandom is reduced to trivia.
• Also, it might explain why Ty Lee trained Amon, if she lost both of her potential love interests to each other.

Iroh is still alive, and doesn't look like he's aged at all.

Probably not, but I would be very happy if this was true. It'd be even better if he was also breeding dragons (to try to keep them from going extinct.)

Zuko will be this series' Iroh.

I could already see him teaching Korra about the balance between the four elements, just like what Iroh taught to Zuko in an episode. Bitter Work, maybe?

• Now that we know Zuko's alive, I want this to happen!!
• He'll even look like Iroh and inherit his obsession with tea, plus he'll hit on Pema and Chief Beifong to show he's become a Dirty Old Man like his uncle was. He won't hit on Korra because even Even Perverted Ex-Firelords Have Standards. Korra will be extremely offended by this and Tenzin will be exasperated as usual.
• To add onto the above he'll insist that brewing tea brews inner peace and in the process, get Korra hooked on the stuff too.

King Bumi will still be alive in this series

Avatar Kyoshi lived to be 230 years old; who's to say Bumi isn't alive and well at the age 182 as of Legend of Korra? Also of note, if you check his age on That Other Wiki it doesn't say that he's deceased as of Korra, while it does say so for the rest of the Gaang. It could be a simple oversight, but then again it may not be.

• I suspect that if he is still alive, he is using his power in the White Lotus to sabotage the anti-bender revolts. Perhaps he will at some point utterly destroy important infrastructure as a continuity nod.

Aang didn't die of old age.

All it takes is some simple math to reach this conclusion. A:TLK takes place 70 years after the first series, and Korra looks to be about 16 judging by the concept art. Therefore, Aang died when he was about 66 (12+ 54). Considering powerful benders like Iroh, Bumi, Pakku, and most Avatars live to be much older than this, it isn't much of a leap to assume that Aang died, not of old age, but instead in a manner very similarly to how Roku did: he was either murdered or left for dead, possibly by someone he trusted. Assuming this is true, the principal question concerning Aang's death isn't "How did he die?" but rather "Who killed him?"

• Possibly Jossed by Word of God:

Bryan Konietzko: You gotta keep in mind that [Aang] was frozen in a state of suspended animation for 100 years, so he kind of burned up some of his extra Avatar time.

• • Of course, it's still possible that Aang didn't die naturally.
  • I thought it meant that the Avatar is destined to live for a certain amount of time and Aang had spent 100 years of his destined life span in that ice.
  • While that may explain Aang's "early" death, the rest of the original cast is supposed to be dead too. The 3 most powerful single-element benders (and a sword master) of that generation didn't make it to their mid-eighties? Even if Aang died peacefully, something must have happened to the rest of them later.
    • And now there is a large anti-bender sentiment. These things probably aren't unrelated.
  • Not to mention that some Avatars have lived much longer than a hundred years. Kyoshi, no matter how you slice it, lived for over two hundred years or more. It would make sense if Aang died young by Avatar world standards (i.e. eighty or eighty five), but even if you allow the maximum among of time for Aang to be alive (i.e. Korra told she is the Avatar at twelve and then going through a "cram-tastic bending session" like Aang), the maximum time Aang could have been around is about seventy-five years.
  • And you also have Zuko's unusual death to take into account. Word of God is that Sozin lived to be over one hundred, in part due to the power of the comet. Zuko was around during the comet, and yet he would have lived to be ninety one at the maximum (and that's if he keeled over the day the new series started).
    • Why assume that Zuko is dead with no evidence? He could still be an elderly Firelord for all we know.
    • Maybe chi is somehow leaving the world due to the anti-bending sentiment? All benders would suddenly become short lived.
    • That really doesn't make sense. Benders are supposed to be unusually spiritual people and possess powers for this reason, so why would they be affected by the feelings of unspiritual people?
    • Zuko's supposed death might not be all that "unusual." He got electrocuted pretty badly during his fight against Azula. It's quite possible that the injury took years off of his life-span... especially because the scarring was in a bad location and could've plagued and pained him for the rest of his life.
  • Last couple of points are jossed. Zuko is confirmed to still be alive.

An 82 year old Toph will teach earth bending to Korra

Likely Jossed; rumor is that Korra will already be a master of everything except Air. Which isn't to say that Toph wasn't Korra's instructor; just that it will be backstory either way.

• I tend to think that Toph was the one to teach her, I doubt there's a better earthbender in the world and Toph would certainly have the financial/political pull to make it happen if she wanted it to. only reason I can see for her not to teach Korra is if its too painful for her to be around the reincarnation of her friend.
  • Which is kind of doubtful when you consider how hopeful she sounded in The Avatar and the Firelord after Aang mentioned Roku's line about friendships transcending lifetimes.
  • Alternatively, Korra might have refused Toph's wish to be her earthbending teacher. Perhaps because she already had someone else committed to her, or because she's trying to avoid living in Aang's shadow whenever possible. Following up arguably the most important and influential Avatar in modern history has to be tough.

Toph was a Grade-A Mama Bear.

First of all, it gives a nice contrast to her parents. Second of all, Chief Beifong has some fairly large scars on her cheek. No matter how she got them, it's hard to imagine that the person responsible got off without a bunch of rocks in their face.

Toph still lives, but she's totally blind now due to diabetes.

Toph developed diabetes in her old age, and, after treating her doctor's dietary rules with the same respect she showed any other rules, ended up needing to get both legs amputated below the knee. What tremor-sense Toph still has left is pretty lousy, and she needs a live-in nurse to help take care of her. She spends most of her days alone in her luxury mansion, eating food she hates, listening to pro-bending matches on the radio and daydreaming about the springtime of her life when she was still the champ.

• Well, I've got my daily dose of depression today, thank you very much.
  • Seconded. If Toph had to lose her legs, she'd learn to walk on her hands. Heck, Bumi could earth bend with his face. There's no reason Toph couldn't do the same.

While she helped train them, Toph was never officially a member of the police force.

Unless she mellowed out from old age, becoming a police officer seems out of character for Toph. Too authoritarian. While she might have helped out in the event of a major emergency, she was never officially a member of the force.

• I agree. Either that, or when Toph ran the metalbending cops, it was a little less strict and obsessive about order in the city than it is under Lin Beifong's command. I can see Toph agreeing to try to control rampant, ugly crime in the city while kicking the ass of the offenders, but not to go as authoritarian as Lin did.
  • My theory is that when Toph was running things, Republic City wasn't the great capital that it is now. It was kind of a frontier town, and Toph was running things like a sheriff rather than a big-city police chief, with her apprentices as deputies. That's something Toph would be a natural at.

Ty Lee will or will not reappear

Will Not: She is a minor character, arguably the least important of the main characters Will: Could be a chance for more screen time seems like she would live long techniques could be used by antibenders.

• Confirmed.
  • That she will or will not appear?
    • Yes.
      • Dammit, River!
• Ty Lee won't be in it, everyone in the original is dead.
  • Flashbacks are your friend.
  • Identical granddaughter, perhaps? Hopefully?
  • Seven identical granddaughters.
  • Seven identical daughters each having seven identical daughters resulting in forty-nine identical Ty Lee granddaughters. Why? Cause they can.
    • NO! You miscalculate! Ty Lee is one of seven in the first place, so if we assume each of them had seven identical daughters who each also had seven identical daughters, that's somewhere like 343 identical Ty Lees. This must be where the entirety of the non-bender fighting force comes from.
    • My God! A Ty Lee army. 343 Ty Lee fighters commanded by their 49 Ty Lee parents, so 392 Ty Lees so far. Unless they reach the Great-Granddaughter Generation (it could happen), adding another 2,401 Ty Lees. If that happens HEAD FOR THE HILLS!!! The Ty Lees Are Taking Over The World!
      • I for one welcome our pink overlords.
    • Hopefully the 1 out of 2,401 Ty Lees will try to be different from the rest, resulting in a Ty Lee that helps the Avatar stop the impending horde of Ty Lee's. And in order to be different, this Ty Lee will be the Straight Woman instead of the Cloudcuckoolander.
    • Ty Lee herself tried to be different, which would mean 1/7 of the 2,401 Ty Lees would be unique.
  • Ty Lee will appear as a slightly batty, but badass old lady in Kyoshi Warrior uniform fighting the Equalists. Turns out Amon (or some high-ranking Equalist) was her Deceptive Disciple, and she's rather pissed that someone is abusing the techniques she taught. OK, not likely due to the "everyone's dead" thing, but you know that would rock.
    • Partially jossed. Chi-blocking is hardly a unique skill, but in the original the only one shown to use it was Ty Lee. Apparently it's a very ancient art, probably developed by non-benders in order to fight off their naturally more powerful opponents.
      • Let's say if Ty Lee did grow up to be an old lady, she'll give a Curb Stomp Battle to the Equalists with a taste of their own medicine. Never Mess with Granny

Ty Lee, Sokka, and Suki will all receive a major in-universe Historical Hero Upgrade... by the Equalists.

Face it, Team Avatar is going to have a lot of plays, operas, and novels written about them. Heck, by Korra's time there will probably be silent movies about them. But the social movement that will give rise to the violent Equalists didn't come out of nowhere. So who will artists sympathetic to the anti-benders — or artists simply looking to make a buck off them — re-purpose history for their propaganda purposes? Simple: they'll give the non-benders surrounding Avatar Aang Historical Hero Upgrades. Suki will be a feminist-ish figure for Earth Kingdom women, important in a now-industrial society that has men and women sharing roles, with the benefit over Toph that she's a peasant who made good. Sokka is the male non-bender who could hold his own alongside the greatest benders of his generation. Ty Lee can be the "good German" who was Fire Nation but wasn't guilty of her nations crimes. In fact, she turned against her own crown princess, and not merely out of friendships, but, according to writers of a certain political bent, in the name of justice and human decency against bender oppression. (Mai's contribution here is minimized by the Equalists, since she was a 'traitor' who was romantically involved with the Firelord.) Moreover, Ty Lee can be a feel-good figure for the people of Republic City in terms of multiculturalism, as she left her homeland to live abroad amongst foreigners.

• • Not to mention that the Equalists employ chi-blocking skills not dissimilar to Ty Lee's in order to fight benders. They had to learn them from somewhere.
    • Probably not from her, the skill is very old and very difficult, but there were people who trained it in secret.

Wang Fire will become a major icon of the Equalists

Going through some old bureaucratic paperwork, Fire Lord Zuko will find mention of a Private Wang Fire who died heroically fighting against earthbenders and waterbenders. Knowing full well that "Wang Fire" is just Sokka's alter ego (perhaps hearing of the events from the Gaang himself), Zuko will expunge "Pvt. Fire's" name and "deeds" from the records, as he technically never existed. However, as Fire's sergeant said, "his memory lives on," and the bearded Sokka's "final battle" will grow upon the years into an epic tragedy, with Wang Fire fighting heroically against a vast army of Earth- and Waterbenders until his inevitable demise. The anti-benders will note this and seize on Zuko's erasure of Fire from the records, claiming it to be Benders jealously hiding the fact that non-benders can be just as Badass - or even more so - then those who bend the elements.

• In addition, the flag of the anti-benders will be Sokka's Boomerang and Space Sword, symbolizing the ultimate weapons of non-bending. Sokka Style combined with Wang Fire Legacy will be the patron saint of non-bending.

The compound wasn't Aang's idea.

While Aang knew that something had to be done to keep an Avatar from going missing like he did, he only realized it near the end of his life and he didn't have enough time to come up with a specific plan. So he basically told the White Lotus to handle things for him. When he finally meets Korra as her Spirit Advisor, he'll explain what happened, but apologize to her nonetheless.

Zuko will have a cameo

Now that we know he's alive, he'll have a very short just-passing-through appearance, possibly as a Big Damn Heroes moment. My wish is for Zuko to intervene in a fight with the Lieutenant, grabbing an electrified kali stick and redirecting the charge into the Lieutenant's face. Then he can teach Korra how to redirect lightning off-screen, if she hasn't learned that yet.

• "Retired and traveling the world as an ambassador" is just code for "can show up at any time."

Hiroshi Sato was sponsored by a member of the Gaang.

Probably Sokka. He was having his shoes shined and was doing small talk with this boy who started to gush about his dream of making motor transport reality for everybody. Needless to say, Sokka would be incredibly exited over such a technological achievement, and cough up the cash for the prototype on the spot.

Yakone killed Sokka

Look carefully at that vision flashback which shows the grown-up Gaang in "The Voice in the Night" - Aang looks furious, which is not at all typical for him. Something really bad must have happened to get him that pissed off. Something like one of his friends being killed. We know it can't be Katara or Zuko since they're still alive. My bet is it was Sokka, who was specifically confirmed in the first episode as having died. We see Sokka in the flashback too, with a very serious - pained? - expression on his face. And the Yakone incident is apparently still a sensitive subject with Tenzin 42 years later. My guess is that Yakone was a rogue bender (perhaps even a bending supremacist) and Sokka's death at his hands had something to do with the start of the Equalists - if even a skilled and experienced warrior like Sokka can be cut down, what non-bender is safe? Perhaps the Equalist movement even started with Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors, who are already established as having learned chi-blocking from Ty Lee.

• Agreed. Something drastic had to have happened to make Aang that angry, and harming his friends could be one of those things. Of course, Toph could also have been killed, but right now Sokka seems like the more reasonable option, considering how he's confirmed as dead.
• Seconded. In the flashback in episode 6, Toph is seen pointing at something or someone for Aang to look at, and Aang is seen going all Avatar state on Yakone.
• Even more support in episode 8-- Korra has another flashback in which Yakone can clearly be seen attacking and inflicting great pain upon Sokka with bloodbending. He also hits Aang and Toph with it; while Aang obviously survives, this puts Toph in jeopardy as well, given that we don't know her current status.
• Wow, they both lived. I guess we can call this one Jossed, though it was certainly a close call for them.

At least some people from the first series took up pro-bending

Zuko and/or Katara could almost certainly get into a sport like pro-bending. It seems even more like something that would appeal to Toph, but she would be disadvantaged because she couldn't see any of the flying elements. It would be in-character for Haru, Bumi, or anyone from the Earthbending tournement (especially The Boulder) to be their third man. Hell, they might have even invented the game.

Sokka started the equalist movement

He didn't have any harm intended when he started the movement. He just wanted equality in the workplace and in quality of living between benders and non-benders. Unfortunately many of his followers bore deep resentment towards benders and tainted his idealistic campaign to something more hateful and radical.

Dante Basco's character will be a young man named Lee who works at the local Jasmine Dragon outlet.

And Lee's mom/grandmother will be Jin. Or Song.

Some more Zuko theories:

• Zuko will save Korra from whatever Tarrlok is planning. (Bonus points if he drags her back to Republic City while she's in the spirit world.)
• Dante Basco's character will be Zuko's grandson/traveling partner. He will be a huge fan of his Grandpaand take notes on everything he does.
• Firelord Zutara (C'mon, that's a rockin' name!) shows up, explaining to her father and maybe son that it's no longer safe to be in Republic City . . . and then shows them them the fleet she's donationg to Korra's cause. Zutara will be a middle-aged Ursa expy with some inexplicable Deadpan Snarker traits.
• Zuko will either use a cane or be prone to coughing fits. Nothing serious, just something to show his best years are behind him. He may also require constant tea breaks.
• Zuko will tell a successful Koan.Then he'll tell whoever he told it to that it took him several decades to come up with it.
• After escaping Tarrlok, Korra will go to Katara, knowing she was one of the few who will remember how Yakone was beaten. She will call for Zuko's aid and the two will help Korra defeat Tarrlok.

Toph is alive.

This is based entirely on Hiroshi's "Not even your renowned mother can bend a metal so pure" statement. Note that he says can, not could.

• • No, he says could.

Zuko's official title now that he's retired:

Fatherlord

Zutara will become canon in this series

Well Zuko is Wandering the Earth and will probably make it to Republic city during the series and at the same time the widowed Katara will be visiting her family, they meet up after years and one thing leads to another and the next thing you know steam bending.

• Zutara is likely the name of Zuko's daughter...

Azula killed everybody's parents

About fifteen years ago, Azula escaped from her prison and started committing random acts of violence in an attempt to destabilize Republic City (or maybe she's just that crazy now) She killed Amon's parents and burned Amon, but couldn't bring herself to kill him, because now he reminds her of Zuzu and she ran away. Then she killed Asami's mother, and then she killed Mako and Bolin's parents.

• Zuko abdicated the throne to his daughter three years ago so he could chase down Azula and stop her crazy shit!

Suki was the prosecutor at Yakone's trial.

Brown hair, gray eyes, and a sharp, confident voice that could've been shaped from years of training a militant group of Badass Normal women. You be the judge.