WMG / Korra Plot Book 2

Season 2 will be called Energy or Spirit. There will probably be a small time skip between the seasons

Well what else can we possibly name it? It appears that Korra hasn't had sufficient time to complete her spiritual development yet with more than half of season 1 over. And villains don't pop out of thin air. It takes some time for them to come up with their plans and start operations. And we might expect to see Tenzin's 4th child by then, who might turn out to be a non-bender.

• Metal. She takes up Metalbending under the tutelage of Lin.
• It's "Spirits", as of San Diego Comic Con 2012.

Season 2 involve a Time Skip with a complete overhaul to the law system

It will be a 6-18 month skip in where Korra is sufficiently advanced in Airbending, a change in the council with Tenzin the only one to still be in his position, and Amon's legacy had some notable effects in that there is an extra seat for a non-bender or two. Not only the time skip justifies how they changed (repairing buildings, restoring order, fixing broken livelihoods), but gives time for a new Big Bad to get ready.

• That would be confirmed on all accounts. Book 2 takes place 6 months after Book 1, during which the council was dissolved in favor of a president who happened to be a nonbender. Also, the Big Bad's goal was meant to be played at this particular point in time.

Season 2 will feature an analogue to the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.

It's the right time period for the Korra Era, and Mike and Bryan love their historical parallels. Perhaps there will even be a "race against the clock" for Korra to master the Avatar State as a series of tremors grow in strength, so she can use her godlike powers to avert a city-shattering disaster. Or the city will simply be devastated and, in the wake of the failed Equalist Insurrection, fragment into a warring No Man's Land that Korra and her allies have to unify with block-by-block street-fighting and negotiation.

• Or maybe in season 1, an Earthquake will give the Equalists the break they need to attack the city.

There will be between-scenes timeskip reveals at some point in the show.

While the somewhat erratic pacing of TLoK may and will likely be chalked up to the writers, etc., being unused to maintaining all desired threads in such a short span of episodes—in contrast to AtLA's expansive 61 episodes, where the exploration of characters, plot, and so on could gradually be accomplished—it could also be possible that later episodes will reveal that there were moments in between the sudden change of scene, or moments before a discreet flashforward, that the audience (and most likely, Korra) had not been privy to, divulging crucial information or hints about Amon or another character's out-of-character behavior that would've been too obvious to reveal early on.

Korra will spend season 2 mastering energybending.

After she defeats Amon in the season 1 finale, she will realize she is capable of energybending. She will spend season 2 practicing the lost art (as well as trying to make Republic City a better place for non-benders) mostly in an attempt to find if bending powers can be returned to those who lost them. After all, if they can be taken away, surely they can be given as well. People will expect her to use her powers to take away bending from benders who abuse their powers but she would have issues with the idea, due to the trauma Amon put her through.

The next Books will deal with Korra learning the spiritual side of bending

It's stated she never got the spiritual side of the Elements. Air is one that can't be learned without spirituality, after realizing how little about the spiritual side she actually knows, she'll travel and learn the spiritual side while facing new villains.

The next season will have a Metalbender main villain, and the third season will have a Combustion Man esque villain

Now it has been shown that Amon was a Water/Bloodbender I realised that a possible parralel to the original series may not be in what Korra learns, but in whom she faces. Book 1 of ATLA was water, and the main villain of season 1 was a unique waterbender, Book 2 was Earth and thus a villain of season 2 will be a metalbender (one of the police maybe?) and season 3 will have our old friend "Evil firebender Murderer" (although we can cross Amon's parent's from his offscreen death tally now) who has combustion man like powers.

• Jossed on the Metalbender villain (at least until Book 4)), confirmed on the Combustion Man villain.

The second season will begin with Korra waking up in the South Pole compound...

Still unable to bend three elements, because the last scene was All Just a Dream. Korra will regain her bending for real over the next twelve episodes, as it has been traditionally done—by traveling the world. This will help her overcome her spiritual block, and be a little less Deus ex Machina.

• I would so watch that. Here's hoping! The only problem is that that might be difficult to do properly over only 14 episodes...still, it almost seems like the most logical choice, since Korra finished out the first season looking for all the world like a fully-realised Avatar. How else could there possibly be any kind of conflict for her?
  • How about the conflict of being a fully-realized Avatar? Having to deal with the responsibility of it all now that she doesn't have her old excuse of, "Well, I'm only in training." The Avatar's ultimate task isn't just learning the four elements. They're only a means to an end. Her bottom-line job is maintaining balance in the world, and that's still a tremendous task. And, meanwhile, she's still only a teenager who just got her first tiny tastes of airbending and the Avatar State. There's still a long road ahead of her.
• Or, possibly, able to bend the three elements but only while in the Avatar State, which was all she was shown to do in the last scenes, and she will have to remaster bending those elements while in her normal state. Similarly, Lin Beifong will have to spend time early in season 2 relearning metal bending.
  • Eh, Jossed. The end results of Book 1 were very real.

There will be moral conflict in the second season about restoring the bending of certain people Amon debended.

So we've firmly established that Korra is capable of restoring the bending of those who've had it taken away by Amon. This is absolutely excellent news, since we can give Lin Beifong back her earthbending! Oh, wait, remember that most of the people Amon started with were corrupt jerks like Tahno or Triad kingpins like Lightning Bolt Zolt? Remember, Korra is their Avatar too - what right does she have to refuse to restore their bending? On the other hand, it's very likely if she does restore their bending, they'll return to the exploitative, criminal lifestyles they used to live. What to do?

• Tahno has shown some humbling and it is likely that Lin and the metalbenders will automatically arrest the criminals. Cue a potential funny moment such as this:
  Zolt: *kisses Korra's shoes. Thank you, Avatar. Thank you so mu- *gets subdued by metal coils*
  Beat
  Zolt: I'm still going to jail, aren't I?
• Since Korra expressed her sympathy to Tahno already, I picture her requiring a "no more cheating ever" promise from the Wolfbats before she restores them, which will probably be a good enough redemption for the Jerk Jocks. Zolt and the other criminals are a tougher case that could well be played for some drama, but maybe they could be arrested and serve their time, with a promise from the Avatar to come back and restore their bending when they get out. The prison guards would probably appreciate that arrangement.

The next season will feature a Holier Than Thou airbender/air acolyte as the Big Bad.

• Because it would be amazingly ironic for the values of the airbenders to be twisted into something sinister. Obviously, the group of air acolytes will most likely be a cult, and Tenzin will attempt to disown the group so that he and his family doesn't get lumped in with them.
• And it can show how even Air Nomads aren't immune to having their dark side.
  • Jossed, at least as far as season 2 goes. Season 3, however, features someone with a surprising amount of knowledge about Air Nomad culture and gained air bending to boot, and he's one of the most dangerous villains we've seen.

The Big Bad of Book 2 will be a spiritually attuned individual, if not a spirit himself. Alternatively, there will be two opposing forces, industrial and natural, fighting each other.

We've been told that the theme of The Legend of Korra is tradition vs. modernity. With Amon we were teased about the possibility that someone might challenge the Avatar as the world's spiritual representative. In Book 2, which most likely will focus on Korra's energybending, she will have to face the spiritual imbalance produced by the modern society, and the suffering of nature that results from it. Think Hei Bai from the original series, and imagine a whole army of them with similar grievances. I expect that the story will work out in a manner similar to Princess Mononoke, where humans are genuinely building a better life to themselves, opposing tyranny, poverty and disease with their technology, but at the same time unwittingly trampling the natural world under their heels, and causing themselves harm in the long run. This time the enemy isn't something that Korra can outright defeat, but she must mediate peace between the two worlds, as her duty as the Avatar requires, and providing the Aesop that while protecting nature is important, that doesn't make technology and progress evil in themselves.

• Partially supported by information given at Comic Con 2012 — the second season will be called Spirits, and it's strongly implied that the Big Bad will be a spirit of some sort.
  • Confirmed big-time. Not only was the villain, Unalaq, spiritually attuned, he was in league with the ultimate dark spirit, Vaatu.

Some time in Season 2, a villain will try to turn Asami against Korra and Mako, expecting to take advantage of her jealousy.

• The attempt will fail, spectacularly, and will end with another patented Asami close-quarters curb-stomp.

Tahno will become a member of Team Avatar next season

He's very popular with some fans, and there should be a full-time waterbender on the team.

• Jossed. Tahno doesn't even physically return until the final three episodes of Book 4, and those were non-speaking cameos.

The next season of Korra (or the next series of Avatar) will be entitled 'Tales of Republic City

It will be a collection of stories showing the old and new Team Avatar, and others like Lin and Tenzin, set in Republic City, showing the development of and life in Republic City through different years.

• This will also give Korra a chance to show the non-bending population of Republic City that she's their Avatar, too.

There will be a 3-5 year Time Skip between Book 1 and Book 2, during which time Jinora will have earned her Airbending Master Tattoos.

• There isn't a really need for a Time Skip for that plot development to happen; Aang got his when he was twelve. Jinora just needs to invent a new airbending technique to qualify. And personally I'd much rather see it in the show itself than have it happen during a time skip.
• In addition, Jinora will join Team Avatar, which would be cool because, A) the Team would have a female member who isn't involved in the boring love triangle/dodecahedron with Mako, and, B) the Team would then neatly have one of each four bender types plus a a Badass Normal, just like Aang's team had.
• What if they had to deal with one of the Airbabies not wanting the tattoos? What if Jinora rejected that? I think if would be interesting if they had to deal with modern Airbenders conflicting with traditions of Air Nomad culture.
  • Jossed. It takes place 6 months later. The multi-year Time Skip along with Jinora getting her tattoos do come at the end of Book 3.

The Next Season will involve the bending triads returning

• After Amon's downfall, any bending criminals are free to commit atrocities without the fear of getting de-bended. There will probably be remnants of the Equalists waring with them while Korra and the others try to stop the two factions from destroying everything.
  • Without fear of getting de-bended? Did you forget what happened to Yakone? Spiritbending still exists, and with the avatar around and well, the city council may even introduce this as an official punishment for the most serious bending crimes (like bloodbending).
    • Maybe but theirs only one Korra and most of the benders don't even know what she's capable of. If she just decides to round up all the bending criminals and energybend them, she wouldn't be much different from Amon.
    • If Korra chooses to come out to public with the technique, and she pretty much has to if she wants to restore the bending of the people Amon crippled, the Council could set up a law specifically to de-bend the most dangerous bender criminals for the good of the society. Unlike Amon, Korra would respect the due process. It's the difference between a prison and a concentration camp.
• Confirmed! In "Peacekeepers," members of the Agni Kais were shown bombing a building during a Southern Water Tribe peace march, but they seem to be on somebody's payroll.

Season 2 will involved Korra learning the special bending skills

She'll be visited by the spirit of Aang who explains that with the new bending styles the Avatar needs to learn them in order to be able to continue to keep the balance. Therefore he'll instruct Korra to learn Plantbending (possibly from a descendant from the Swamp), Metalbending (possibly from Lin), Lightning (most likely from Mako or Iroh or Zuko), and then Tenzin will teach her the special style of Air (possibly Sound) after she's mastered enough of Airbending.

• I actually thought about this myself. But you forgot one....Blood. She would(have to) learn bloodbending and it would create a whole new set of problems, since everyone sees it as evil. Ultimately resulting in bloodbending being used for good.
  • She does learn how to calm dark spirits from her Uncle, Unalaq. This comes in really good use in the finale for the ultimate dark spirit.

Season 2 will be about Korra learning the Cultural and Political skills needed to be a modern Avatar

Mako's knowledge of the underworld will help him to become one of the most effective and respected new recruits on the force.

But once someone learns of his past association with the Triads, it will cost him his job.

• Used in "The Guide" where the two corrupt cops cite Mako being a former Triad when arresting him in their frame up.

Book 2 will involve Koh the Facestealer

Korra is similar to Avatar Kuruk (both are from the Water Tribe, combative and prideful) the last Avatar to engage Koh before Aang. These similarities will possibly make Koh decide to do steal the face of one of her friends (most likely Mako or Tenzin) to punish her for her pride like he did with Ummi. The book will end with Korra either doing something to redeem herself to Koh so he'll give the faces back (assuming he can do it) or finding some way to return the faces to her friends without killing Koh.

• Quite plausible, given how book 2 is "Spirits" and Koh was surprisingly popular. If this happens it'd be more likely Mako than Tenzin, just to draw another parallel with Kuruk. Then at least one or two episodes could be devoted to getting Mako's face back; if Koh won't do it, maybe they could figure out some variant of energy bending to do it.
• Jossed. Koh isn't even mentioned in the program, never mind appearing.

The Dark Spirit is unnatural to the Spirit World.

During the Korra Comic-Con panel, art and screenshots of season 2 were shown, including a new antagonist, the Dark Spirit. Now, most of the spirits we've seen resemble animals in some way, but the Dark Spirit is this smoke/sludge/blob thing. My theory is that the Dark Spirit is something unnatural to the spirit world, something that came about through unconventional means. Either it was a spirit created from darkness, or it was a regular spirit that was corrupted, similar to the polluted river spirit from Spirited Away. After all, the creators of Korra do take a lot of inspiration from the works of Hayao Miyazaki...

• Then again, Hei Bai looked like an unnatural monster too, when he first appeared.
  • But Hei Bai's true form resembled a huge panda. Hei Bai took the monster form when he was really, really angry.
    • If you didn't know that Hei Bai was a Panda, you'd never be able to guess from his angry form. He had six legs and his body porportions were compleatly different from a regular panda. About the only thing that was the same was the coloring.
    • That still doesn't change the fact that Hei Bei's regular form was a panda.
    • Who's to say that the Dark Spirit doesn't have a similar angry Game Face on in the previews as Hei Bai did?

The Lieutenant will perform a Heel–Face Turn.

Having discovered that that the entire revolution was founded on a lie, he will finally question his own anti-bender sentiment. I'm pretty sure he's hit his lowest point, making him open to the greatest change.

• Jossed. The Lieutenant never appears again in the program after Book 1.

Amon's style of debending will reappear in the next season.

We're still not even sure whether Amon was actually using bloodbending to take bending away from others. Korra speculates so, but Tarrlok says he has no idea how Amon could do what he did. And even Katara, the most powerful waterhealer in the world, couldn't reverse the effect of Amon's debending; only the Avatar was able to do that, with energybending. All this leads to the conclusion that Amon was not just using a specialized form of bloodbending. If it was only bloodbending, why didn't the writers explain it as such in the finale? The reason why Amon's technique of debending, as well as where and how he learned it, still remains such a mystery is probably because the writers intend to use it in future episodes. In season 2 we will learn who taught the technique to Amon, and we will meet others who are able to debend in the same manner too.

• But where's the ethereal glow associated with energybending? Obviously the eye/mouth light show is gone, but the contact points glow when the Lion Turtle imparts the knowledge to Aang, and when Aang debends Yakone and rebends Korra, and when Korra rebends Lin. None of that with Amon. Plus, observation of Amon's debending technique shows that he presses down slightly on the forehead. It's probably a combo of Chi-blocking to do a total-body block, and then bloodbending to make it permanent.
  • There was no glow on Yakone when Aang energybent him— it was localised entirely to Aang, which we know was a result of him using the Avatar State. If it was really supposed to be some kind of weird chi-blocking/bloodbending combination, it would have been nice to get some kind of concrete explanation within the episode, but all we got was Korra suggesting it and Tarrlok half-heartedly dismissing it, admitting that he doesn't get it either. Honestly, if that ends up being the actual reason, it would reek of Voodoo Shark.
• A lot of people have been asking how season 2 can provide any credible threat to Korra, now that she knows how to bend all four elements, can access the Avatar State, and can use it to restore bending to those who have been debent... If get to meet Amon's "debending master", the one who taught him how to take away bending, it's quite possible he is more powerful than Amon ever was. What if this master can take away one's bending permanently, so that even the powers of the Avatar can't restore it? That would certainly up the stakes for the second season.
  • I really hope not. Debending was the big threat of the Season 1, but having the same thing as the focus of Season 2 would be just rehashing the old thing. The threat of Season 2 needs to be something new and original. Preferrably something that simply can't be dealt with through strength alone — as indeed was the case with Amon, as well.
    • Season 2 is apparently going to be about the Spirit World and have a spirit as the villain. Bending cannot be used in the Spirit World so it's not something Korra would be able to solve with fighting. It should also be noted that things that cannot be dealt with through strength, it's pretty much a given that Korra would need to learn that eventually. The Avatar's job doesn't just involve defending, it involves keeping the peace, which can't always be done through shooting fire.

Grey DeLisle will voice Korra's female cousin

And her nickname is 'The Dark Spirit', owing to her personality and appearance.

• Jossed.

Korra's ability to Energybend has something to do with the Spirits in Book 2

According this link, Korra wondered what she did to piss the spirits off. It could be possible that with her ability to Energybender, she's been abusing her powers such as temporarily giving non-benders an ability to bend since we never know what will happen if the Avatar energybends a non-bender. Or giving benders another element to bend.

Aang's death will be a revealed as a major Plot Point over the course of the series.

Besides being responsible for Korra's creation, I like to think that Aang's death will not only have been a symbolic passing (the transition into Republic City) but will also have a major plot relation to the rest of the series. Perhaps the main series villain or next Azula will be responsible for killing Aang at 66. Or maybe his death will be partially responsible for creation of the equalists. Either way, the passing of the new nation's heroic savior will at least be revealed as a major plot ^note conspiracy or otherwise over the course of the show.

There will be two more series afer this.

The first will be about the next earthbending avatar in the avatarveres's equivalent of modern times.

the second will be about the firebending avatar in the future and will bring back alot of the ideas the creators came up with back when the original show was supposed to be more Sci-Fi and futuristic.

This brings the franchise back full circle both element-wise and time-wise.

Book 2's plot will involved the Spirit World or aspects of it "leaking" out into the physical world.

Nicked this idea off of the Republic City Dispatch podcast on Tumblr— it would work as an explanation for why the Dark Spirit (or what we assume to be it, anyway) is running around in the real world, and the idea seems to tie in with some of the weird, ethereal imagery seen in the South Pole concept art at SDCC.

• Confirmed.

The Dark Spirit is an avatar that died without letting go.

Or several of them considering that when we saw the previous avatars on screen they were all mixed up after Kuruk's row meaning they could have been the avatars that achieved full control of avatar state but what of the ones that didn't? Their collective consciousnesses were pulled together as their fear, shame, guilt, and regrets took them over becoming the Dark Spirit. Korra will have to ease their souls in order to free them.

• Jossed. There are several dark spirits, all of them nature related, with one, Vaatu, being the Avatarverse's Satan.

The Dark Spirit is instead Yakone or his sons

We don't know the full side effects of removing someone's bending with energy bending.

• Jossed. They are forces of nature and/or darkness. Their master, Vaatu, has no connections whatsoever to Amon, Tarrlok, or Yakone.

The Dark Spirit is the reason for the avatar

While I do believe that the avatar was the way for planet's spirit to experience human life there could have another reason long ago. Before the first avatar the human and spirit realms were one and humans lived in fear of malevolent spirits. Eventually the planet's spirit decided to help mankind by creating the first avatar who's greatest success was separating the two realms but keeping them close at the same time.

• Confirmed thanks to the events of the Beginnings episodes.

Book 2 's plot will involve the Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is when the lines become the physical world and the spirit world become blurred. Book 2 will correspond to winter, the Krew will be at a festival, and Book 2 is called Spirits.

• Confirmed. It's when a spirit portal is opened as part of a plot to release the dark spirit Vaatu.

Season 2 will be two parts, Korra in the Spirit World, and the post-Equalist affairs in Republic City

We know Korra will be off having ghostly adventures and dealing with the weird shadow-blob monster mentioned above, but what about the aftermath of what has happened in Republic City? That will be getting attention (with Lin back as police chief perhaps), and maybe give us a look at Bolin and Mako working separately, Bolin in the City, Mako off helping Korra (or causing hilarity in the South Pole).

There will be a Water Tribe Civil War in Book 2, and Korra will struggle with which — if any — side to take.

Unalaq's Northern faction will want to make the Water Tribes more united than ever. They'll go about this in a few ways: bring ancient Water Tribe spiritual beliefs to the fore to strengthen their people's national character, forces businessmen like Verrick to invest in fellow Water Tribe companies rather than in foreign ventures like Future Industries, plus end foreign influence and certain "modern" practices. This will also have the air of the elitist, urban North Pole lording it over their rustic Southern cousins. Meanwhile, the Southern faction under Tonraq will fight for the SWT's independence. Perhaps even wishing to form a republican chieftainship verses the hereditary one of the North. For Avatar's usual historical parallel, think Yuan Shikai's short-lived bid to create a modern Chinese Empire verses the Republic of China in the 1910s.

Korra, meanwhile, will be torn for three reasons. First, she actually likes her mentor uncle and believes he's honestly trying to do the right thing. He's no Sozin or Amon. Second, the Water Tribe's civil war will be a strictly internal affair. Unlike how Amon's attack on the balance of the world via anti-benderism made her an Avatar problem, this won't strictly fall under the Avatar's purview. Like with certain past Avatars, she could feel the need to stay away from internal political disputes so long as nobody is trying to attack her position as Avatar, like when Chin tried to conquer Koyshi's home village or the Earth King tried to order Kyoshi around. Third and finally, Korra could be indecisive because she can't decide what's best for the world: a unified Water Tribe, or a further divided one that could set a dangerous precedent for separatism.

Varrick is ultimately going to be a good guy.

It's a fake-out. The creators are counting on us to remember the example of Hiroshi Sato and be wary of the charismatic businessman with incredible resources. When we first meet him, the show will emphasize his greed and his lack of scruples, and several characters will be wary of him and question which side he's on. In the end, Varrick's inner goodness will shine through and he'll help Team Avatar when they need it most. He's not a bad guy, just an Unscrupulous Hero in the vein of Han Solo.

• As of "Civil Wars, Part 2" this is looking to be confirmed. There are still ten more episodes until the end of the season, however, so he's not in the clear yet.
• As of "The Sting," this is pretty much Jossed.
  • As of Book 4, this is confirmed.

Korra's trusting Unalaq is going to be a huge mistake.

It'll turn out that he's a fanatic who's idea of balance and what the spirits want is as off as the Equalists' idea of Equality. He'll manipulate Korra throughout the season. Eventually she'll have a "my god what have I done" moment and turn on him, but in the next two books will have to deal with the loss of trust from both her friends and the world in general.

• Confirmed. She breaks off from Unalaq rather early in the Book when he incarcerates her father, and eventually discovers that he manipulated her into opening the southern portal in order to free Vaatu

The Dark Spirit is somehow related to Azula

They have the same voice actress (Grey DeLisle) and the spirit's fighting style, according to Avatar Wiki, is Fire.

• DeLisle has confirmed that she's going to be playing three distinct characters in Book 2. I sincerely hope that at least one of them is either Azula herself, or somehow related to her.

The conflict between the More Spiritual Than Thou North and non-spiritual South may well have spilled over into Republic City, dividing Northern and Southern immigrants there. And that's how we got Yakone, Amon, and Tarrlok. And boy, does Korra have a lot of cleaning up to do.

Asami will ask Korra to be an advertising spokesperson for Future Industries.

"I'm Avatar Korra, and this is my favorite company in Republic City."

The remaining television seasons will go through the cycle of seasons again, just more subtly.

(I didn't come up with this one, I'm just posting it.)

All the previous seasons in the Avatar franchise have followed the cycle pattern: water, earth, fire and air. We know that Book Two of Korra will focus on the Spirit World, but the Water Tribes will also play an important role. Furthermore, Word of God is that Book Three will have Lin Beifong and the Earth Kingdom in the spotlight. If this pattern continues, Book Four will give focus to the Fire Nation. Basically, Korra will restart the cycle of seasons present in the past, but it won't be the primary focus of each story.

• Originally confirmed with the airdate patterns that the Books are following so far. Book 1 aired during the Spring of 2012, Book 2 during the Fall of 2013, and Book 3 during the Summer of 2014. Book 4 breaks the pattern altogether by airing/streaming during the Fall of 2014, a month and a half after Book 3 and one year after Book 2.

A possible look into Unalaq's motives and the training.

At least part of the reason Unalaq is so eager to have Korra under his wing is to use her to hurt Tonraq. From what little we saw in the preview, Unalaq seems to be the type who would rather heckle those he considers beneath him than converse with them, sort of a like a downplayed internet troll. Being so spiritual, he's likely envious, maybe even embarrassed, that his less-spiritual 'rube' of a brother sired the ultimate spiritual being (The Avatar) and he seems more concerned with criticizing Korra's instructors than praising her for her progress. It seems that his teaching Korra is more Activist-Fundamentalist Antics than anything else. Also, by Desna and Eska's introverted personalities, it isn't likely that Unalaq is very loving with them, so why should Korra be different?

At first, things will be going good but will soon go sour as Unalaq begins to showcase his true nature: a huge bastard. Korra will silently endure the insults about her friends, her family and Tenzin, but it will come to a breaking point when, with the return of Chakras, Unalaq goes about the final unblocking the wrong way and tries to force Korra to abandon her loved ones rather than making it her choice as Aang was allowed to do. He cite's Aang's reluctance to let go of Katara as one of his many failures, revealing that he has a low opinion of the Avatar and deliberately praying on Korra's insecurities as a bad Avatar.

Am I insinuating that Unalaq will be a villain? No. More that he'll just be a troublesome creep, sort of like Tarrlok was seen before 'When Extremes Meet', clearly a shady dude, but seems pretty harmless. Sorry, but I just can't see him being a likable character.

• So far he has seemed like a Tarrlok Mk. 2. The Northern Water Tribe seems to be overcrowded with these guys.

  • Well, he turned out to be a latter day Ozai, plus his motives were much darker than what was listed here.

Tonraq's behavior towards Korra (and Unalaq to a lesser extent) is his attempt to compensate for what happened in the previous season.

Let's recap: Korra went through hell last season. She was repeatedly attacked by dangerous terrorists trying to kill her, kidnappped by an unstable bloodbender who planned to keep her as a hostage, and went into a serious depression after Amon temporarily took her bending-the thing that Korra defines herself by.

And Tonraq blames himself. He was the one who set up the compound; he was the one who was supposed to protect her. But when Korra decided to leave for Republic City, he didn't stop her. He decided to take a leap of faith and trust that his daughter was ready for the outside world. And as a result, he had to go through every parent's nightmare: his child was in terrible danger and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Fast forward to now. Now Korra's dealing with a conflict that's not only much closer to home, but it's dealing with things that Tonraq has experience in. He can help now; he can make sure Korra doesn't have to go through that again. But thanks to Unalaq, he's screwing up before he can even get started.

Korra will become a Villain Protagonist

But not all that evil. She was told to follow what she thought was right and she will believe in what Unalaq and follow him all the way to his goal. Her past selves will completely disaprove of this and cause serious conflict, Mako and Bolin will be unwilling pawns constantly telling her what she's doing is wrong, but she won't listen. She will then face My God, What Have I Done? moment and seek to atone for it.

• Jossed, Korra has become a much darker Anti-Hero, but she has left Unalaq and stayed good.
• Second theory, none of the above will happen.
  • Confirmed

Unalaq's pacification skill can be learned by any bender, not just waterbenders.

Because waterbending is getting a little too broken.

• The Sun Warriors probably had a technique for it. Return of the Dancing Dragon?

Unalaq's powers can be used to shut down the Avatar State.

As in, he can forcibly prevent Korra from using it. Seems like a logical extension of the powers, and if Unalaq does turn out to be the bad guy, this serves as a way to level the playing field a bit.

Koh will steal Tonraq`s face in order to punish Korra:

Similar to how Koh punished Avatar Kuruk for his action Korra`s arrogance will cause her to lose her father and realize how badly she screwed up

• Jossed. No Koh, I'm afraid.

Unalaq will be revealed as a villain...

but only acting under the control of the Spirits, much like The Illusive Man in Mass Effect 3. For all we know the show will have its own version of At the Mountains of Madness going on due to the spirit world creatures resembling Eldritch Abominations and the season being in the water tribe nations.Confirmed. He is a villain, but willingly serves one dark spirit: Vaatu.

The Ancient Spirit Portal was anything but...

There is no way that such a macguffin would be introduced and unambigously be a good thing. It has to be a valve or a vault of some sort that allows spirits into or out of the native reality, or keep malevolent ones locked away, and cracking it open will have dire consequences. Just as planned.

Korra is not herself after cracking open the portal

Something dark probably snuck into her flesh and is starting to influence her actions.

Unalaq is 'just' a Well-Intentioned Extremist

He does use...some form of bending (apparently waterbending, looks and perhaps functions like a form of spiritbending) to pacify spirits and he does see the Southern Tribe as threatened by spirits. And that's it. He'll go ahead with his forceful (i.e militaristic) way of imposing his methods upon his brother's tribe, and naturally he will meet resistance. But while Unalaq acknowledges the importance of the spirit world more than his brother does, he's also seriously underestimated the threat it poses, and overestimated the efficacy of his counter-measures. This heavy-handed approach is misguided, and will backfire. What looks like, and what Korra initially takes to be the perfect solution, isn't as simple as it first appears.

• Jossed. He's much more than that, and it gets dark when we discover who he's been working with.

Unalaq's "spiritbending" is actually a form of bloodbending

He is forcing the spirits to calm down and go back to the spirit world against their will.

• But the water Unalaq is bending is definitely from outside the spirits, which don't seem to have any blood to bend...

Unalaq is controlling the spirits.

Whenever you see spirits appear, attack, or cause mischief Unalaq has an involvement in it. Everything is planned by Unalaq.

• And he's the one pissed at Tonraq for destroying the spirit forest at the North Pole. The angry spirits at the South Pole have nothing to do with it, they just cut a deal with Unalaq.
• Yes he is, indeed.

Unalaq isn't evil, but he is wrong.

It'll turn out he genuinely is trying to restore balance. But his methods are actually the wrong way to do it and will actually create worse inbalance. For one thing you can't force people to be spiritual.

• Jossed in a way.

Unalaq is being misguided by a Spirit.

Corollary to the above WMG and a bit long winded so bare with me.

More specifically the oldest one in the universe, the Spirit of the Void.

The Void is what existed before every other being. When the Earth Spirit created the other Spirits and beings, they consumed much of the Void’s territory and power.

The Void tried to starting a war between humans and Spirits by creating a Void in the humans, taking away their ability to bend energy and causing things like greed, power lust, and distrust and in the Spirits making Dark Spirits that attacked the humans and demanded sacrifices, hoping they would destroy each other and allow the Void to reclaim what, after all, belonged to it in the first place.

The first Avatar managed to stop the war with the bending arts and seal the Void in the North Pole’s Spiritual Nexus. Until Tonraq invaded the Spirit forest and weaken the seals that kept the Void in place. The Void knew that only the Avatar could release the seals and that Tonraq would father the new Avatar. But the Void didn’t have form enough to force him to do anything and Tonraq wasn’t the type to believe a spirit who appeared to him. But Unalaq’s religious devotion allowed it to be manipulated; Pretending to be a water spirit and giving him the Spirit Calming ability by controlling the Void in Unalaq’s heart. Creating the Dark Spirits to attack the Water Tribes, getting Tonraq banished and making Unalaq Chief, letting him believe that he was chosen by the Spirits to unite the water tribes and correct the balance of the World, all the while trying to get Unalaq to release the rest of its seals and allow it to escape and restart the war between humans and Spirits.

• Related to the above, it could be that if Unalaq is being manipulated by a Spirit, it may have used his pathological envy of his older brother - a brute of a warrior who somehow fathered the Avatar of all people - to consume him.
• In a manner of speaking, he is working for one, Vaatu.

Bolin and Eska's breakup is going to be explosive...mostly on Bolin's end.

Basically, Eska decides to Kick the Dog in a major way that Bolin cannot ignore or rationalize. Unable to take it anymore, Bolin reaches his breaking point and explodes, calling out Eska for her behavior and generally being a terrible girlfriend.

Of the twins, Desna is the nicest.

Comparatively speaking, anyway. Based solely on one thing: when Bolin carting the twins around, Pabu is sitting in Desna's lap. I trust Pabu's judgement in such matters.

• Also in the Peacekeepers, he seems confused at Unaloq's conflicting messages regarding the portal and it doesn't seem to have occurred the to that his father could have been lying. Eska, on the other hand, doesn't even bat an eye. Actually, Unaloq is often compared to Ozai, Eska is similar in many ways to Azula, and there is never mention of the twins' mother. Keeping all this in mind, Desna actually becomes a very fascinating character. He's what could have become of Zuko had he never been banished and escaped his father's clutches!

The forbidden art of bloodbending will be used in the upcoming civil war.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Varrick, not Unalaq, is the real Big Bad, apart from the dark spirits themselves.

Not only are there tensions between North and South, but there are also tensions within the Southern Water Tribe. Varrick is a Rebel Leader of a more extremist faction that wants to push for war against Unalaq. Varrick was the one who wanted to rally the Southerners on his side. Varrick most likely ordered his inner circle to attack Unalaq, Korra would defeat the attackers, and they would get arrested. This would work in Varrick's favor, because when his men get arrested, Varrick would have the edge to convince the Southerners to go to war.

Plus, Tonraq getting arrested was most likely part of Varrick's plan, Unalaq first suspected Varrick, but Varrick pinned the blame on Tonraq to buy himself some time. By making Tonraq the fall guy, Varrick would divert Unalaq's attention away from him, so that Varrick could execute his real plan to overthrow the chief. Or, Unalaq suspected that Tonraq was in league with Varrick. Either way, Korra has been set up, seeing as her dad had nothing to do with that attack.

• Jossed. Unalaq is one of the main Big Bads. Varrick was just a supporting villain

There is no villain at all in the second season.

It seems that the main theme of The Spirits is family, and all the conflicts and misunderstandings that can poison the relationships within it. The same process is seen happening on multiple levels, from Jinora and Ikki's arguments to the brewing war between the two Water Tribes. But not one of those situations can end happily if one side were to vanquish the other, regardless of who is in the right or wrong. Korra's test this time is to mediate and bring peace between people, not defeat the bad guy. The spirits are raging because of imbalance, all right, but not due to the lack of spirituality among the Southerners, but because of the conflict between people. Unalaq has the right idea in attempting to reunite the tribes to calm the spirits, but he's approaching the matter all wrong, failing to understand that he's escalating the conflict, not solving it.

• Jossed. There is definitely a villain in Book 2.

Unalaq is planning on using the portal he mentioned in episode 3 to send a massive army through it and conquer the southern tribe entirely

He seriously gives off that kind of self-righteous vibe, the sort that could very easily be a front for truly selfish actions, but even if they aren't, I don't see many redeeming qualities in him at all. He has shown nothing but contempt for everything the southern tribe stands for, its culture, its people, everything, and since he is willing to exert military might and occupy the place rather than have any kind of a discussion, it's clear that his plans for "reuniting" the two tribes using that portal are not going to be remotely benevolent. Opening that portal is going to result in total military conquest.

• It ends up being used for another purpose entirely that is much worse.

Korra will resolve the conflict by learning how To Win Without Fighting

As stated in earlier WMGs, "Spirits" is shaping up to be Good Versus Good. Unalag wants to reunite the water tribes and calm the angry spirits, the spirits are angry because of imbalance, and the southerns are angry because of Unalag's aggressive methods. Furthermore, Unalag 'defeated' the spirit in the first episode peacefully.

Korra is caught in the middle of all of this and as of Episode 3 she supported Unalag because of his spiritual effectiveness and because he supported her. Evenutally she will break off from him as well and place herself above and apart from the water tribe to create a settlement that can please everyone. She will enforce this agreement with her status and that will be the last part of the season.

I'm the Avatar. You gotta deal with it!

• Might be a good point about what Korra will come to learn in this Book, because is certainly coming across as (relatively) more diplomatic this time round. But as for Unalaq's intentions his spiritual side is looking far more doubtful as of episode 4, when it turns out his method of unification began years ago when he engineered Tonraq's banishment by having the Northern Tribe attacked. While his warning about the Dark Spirits yet appears to have some weight behind it (reacting violently to desecration of their land sounds about right), his method of - and motivation for - dealing with the more mundane side of this conflict is shown to be even worse than it appeared. Even if he's right about the spiritual 'deprivation' of the South having very real consequences. Korra sums it up by accusing her uncle of being power-hungry, but in some respects, he still has a point.

Korra will resolve the civil war by killing someone!

Think about it. It's pretty much the opposite of what Aang would do (even though he did technically kill Zhao), thereby taking Contrasting Sequel Main Character to it's logical conclusion. There's also precedence for Avatars killing off tyrants and conquerors (we're looking at you, Kyoshi), so it's not completely unreasonable to think this might happen. Korra also threatened to murder Judge Hotah twice in the same episode, and has shown a willingness to kill in the past as demonstrated by her fight with Tarrlok. After all, it's highly unlikely that he would have survived Korra's firebending assault if he hadn't blocked it with his bloodbending.

• Confirmed, she defeats Vaatu by purifying Unalaq in his Dark Avatar state, killing him in the process.
  • Somebody better pick up that phone, because I totally called it!

Unalaq will be overheard indirectly planning to kill Korra.

Because the Sozin parallels are not yet painful enough. It'll be something along the lines of "Sixteen years is plenty of time to take the South, and in the meantime, we can always prepare for the inevitable." For added drama, the eavesdropper could be someone who's already protective of Korra like Tonraq or Mako, or possibly both. Enraged beyond restraint at the threats against Korra, he/they would dramatically reveal himself/themselves and then Unulaq and The Shinning twins proceed to have their ass cosmically handed to them. This will defiantly not be the big climatic battle, but it'll be fun to watch.

And just because it's the one line Bryke has yet to cross, there will be blood.

• "Peacekeepers" had Unalaq telling Eska and Desna to capture Korra alive, as he lied about not needing her to open the Northern portal. So it's likely Jossed. For now, at least.

Zhu Li is actually a spirit.

Albeit a new kind of spirit, born with the changing times and rise of industry. She works with Varrick partly because it gives her a chance to be where she belongs, and partly because he makes her laugh.

The Nuktuk film will involve...

• ...an Affectionate Parody of silent film, Franchise/Conan the Barabarian and the Superman Theatrical Cartoons.
• ...Eska appearing as an evil baroness character. Varrick included her mostly so Bolin could get some catharsis.
• ...a bunch of jabs at the live-action film. Like people protesting against it because the earthbender Bolin was cast as a Water Tribesman. "Stop whitewashing our culture!"

Varrick orchestrated the bombings

Seems like something he'd do to increase support for the Southern Water Tribe.

• Mako finds a link to a gang when he recognises the bomber's photo, and isn't there some suggestion (Word Of God, All There In the Manual?) thatVerrick's involved with gangsters? There's the entirely minor fact that the red coat worn by the bomber is the same style as Verrick's (long, white trimmings), and the gangsters we've seen before are colour-coded by national/gang affiliation). Which could just as easily be a visual Red Herring. Similarly with the fact that Verrick is quite blunt in stating that there is money to be made from war, and he's got his fingers in a lot of proverbial pies. Alternatively, he could just be entirely unscrupulous.
• Confirmed. Varrick did indeed plan these bombings as False Flag Operations.

The Dark Spirits are the good guys.

They've turned dark to obstruct Unalaq's plans.

• So... that gigantic Dark Spirit that showed up at the end of "Peace Keepers" ate Korra to save her from Eska and Desna? It looked like Korra was winning until he showed up.

Getting eaten by the giant Dark Spirit sent Korra into the Spirit World.

Korra will then spend most of the episode "The Sting" wandering around the Spirit World, trying to find an exit. Bonus points if she finds Wan Shi Tong's library as a set up for "Beginnings." Or better yet, she meets Avatar Wan himself.

• It didn't send her to the Spirit World. It instead contaminated her Avatar Spirit, setting off the Beginnings episodes

Whether or not Wan Shi Tong has mellowed out since we saw him last...

...He will use Sokka Style during a battle with someone.

• Or he'll at least have learnt something else about what humans are like...which either made him more receptive to those looking for help in mortal matters, or made him even worse. They're resourceful when they don't have power on their side, but once again they're coming to him with tales of war. Either way there's got to be some reference to the last people who did that...and bashed him in the head with a book.
  • He has not.

Someone within Future Industries orchestrated the bombings.

The bomb detonator definitely looks reminiscent of Future Industries tech, Hiroshi was VERY GOOD at designing explosives as demonstrated during the Battle of Republic City, and the company desperately needs money. As Verrick pointed out, a war would be extremely profitable opportunity for F.I., and it's possible that someone in the company already had the same idea.

Korra will soon have to deal with the repercussions of her overly-headstrong attitude and rash decisions-making.

She'll also have to stop and think about why she acts like that, and will be forced to get some humility. Her upbringing and the negative effects it had on her will be addressed.

The whole series is an analogy to the American War of Independence

The Northern Water Tribe is England versus the Southern Water Tribe which is America.

After getting out of the Spirit World (where else would she end up after being swallowed by a spirit at the end of the episode before the episode before Beginnings?), Korra actually will make it to the Fire Nation and enlist their help.

It'll make a nice bookend/callback to the Fire Nation invading the South in At LA.

• As of the end of "The Sting," Korra has apparently washed up on an island within the Fire Nation (or at least the guys who found her were wearing Fire Nation garb) with no memory of who she is or how she got there. Maybe she somehow lost her memory while traveling though the spirit world?

Desna and Eska already knew ahead of time that the dark spirit was coming after Korra, so they planned on what would happen to her at the end of "Peacekeepers."

When Desna and Eska began their journey to find Korra, they first found the dark spirit, and assumed it was trying to find the Avatar, too. So, they followed it. Once they found the Avatar, Desna and Eska fought her as a distraction, so that way, the spirit could get closer quicker. After they stopped, neither of them warned or helped Korra with the spirit right below - they just floated there, watch her get taken away, and headed back, to report to Unalaq that she will now no longer be a problem.

• Unalaq specifically instructed them to bring Korra back alive. Unless they can control dark spirits and use them as a method of transporting prisoners, it's unlikely they were planning on Korra getting eaten.

Zhu Li has a Hidden Buxom.

Because Actor Allusion.

Theories for the next few episodes.

A dark spirit (known to be under manipulation by Unaloq) took her and the twins didn't exactly seem surprised, so it's a definite possibly that he has her. Leading into The Beginning, it might be a longer replay of Out Of The Past, possibly with more time lapsing, more time in the spirit world, more searching and maybe even a new member for the scrappy heap! This troper absolutely adored Out Of The Past, so she's eager! Oh, also, instead of Naga, Pokey will be the one to find Korra when she escapes, which is how she reunites and makes amends with Tenzin and his family. Hooray!

• The first part is jossed - "The Sting" shows that Unalaq definitely doesn't have Korra, and the twins think she was killed by the spirit.

The main aesop of this season is learning how to deal with betrayal and disappointment

It seems like everyone this season is either betraying someone else or being a Broken Pedestal. Tenzin and Korra's father disappoint Korra when it's revealed that they stuck her on the compound for most of her life. She in turn goes against them by snubbing them in favor of Unalaq after he flatters her. Unalaq turns out to be the Cain to his brother's Abel and an Evil Uncle Manipulative Bastard to boot. Bolin ditches Eska at the wedding altar, though to be fair he had very good reasons to do so. Less sympathetically, Bolin blows off Mako, the older brother who has supported him his entire life, after getting a taste of fame as an actor. Mako betrays Korra in favor of his duty to Republic City and breaks up with her. Varriq turns out to be a Corrupt Corporate Executive who is manipulating the Gaang and both sides of the Water Tribe civil war. The only character who doesn't seem to be betraying anyone else is Asami, and even she only barely avoids this since she kissed Mako after he already broke up with Korra. Besides the Dark Spirits, Korra and the Gaang's main struggle through this season will be learning how to deal with broken trust.

Mako will get Bolin to go on a date with Zhu Li so he can search through Zhu Li's records in the meantime.

Unfortunately, he won't find anything because Varrick only has Zhu Li handle his legitimate operations.

Whatever is causing the Spirits to go nuts is affecting everyone's personalities, making them arrogant, amoral, irritable...

At this point it's the only explanation for the wildly fluctuating personalizes of the Krew and company.

• This seems to be heading towards being confirmed. It seems totally in character and within the capabilities of Vaatu.

Unalaq isn't really a bad guy

Well Intentioned Extremist? Unquestionable so, heavy on the extremist. But evil guy who set up his brothers fall in order to take the throne? That has been thrown into question now that Verrick's true character has come to light. Who's to say it wasn't him that paid off the judge to not only play the part that he did, but to also feed Korra bad information when she questioned him? Who's to say he didn't pay one of his rebels to point the finger at Korra's parents and get them arrested in the first place? Only time will tell.

Zhu Li is The Man Behind the Man

Ten to one she's Chekhov's Gunman. (Seriously, we're expected ignore a Hypercompetent Sidekick who manages to keep up with Varric with little trouble beyond the inherent grief of her role?) It wouldn't be that much of a stretch for her to turn out far less meek and passive than she seems and actually be pulling Varric's strings directly or indirectly...

The Korra that washed up on the beach is not the complete Korra

After being eaten by the spirit her soul was sent to the Spirit world and her body spat out. Her soul is currently trying to find a way back to it's body while the body wanders around, not knowing a thing about what it is or what's going on.

Zhu Li is an undercover cop

I got this theory from one of the comments on the Avatar V-Logs Doug Walker did. It is rather odd how unquestionably loyal Zhu Li is towards Varrick, no matter how degrading the job is. He has always been suspected of shady activity, so Lin sent Zhu Li to keep an eye on him. The reason why Lin kept brushing Mako off was because she didn't want him to blow the plan.

• It would provide a reasonable justification for Lin turning into a straight example of Da Chief when Book 1 made it clear she's not quite like that when the situation demands another approach. Her ignoring a low-ranking newbie like Mako is one thing, but it appears she's not investigating any alternatives for the bombing other than the Northern Tribe being responsible.
• Given the Reveal of 'The Sting', if Zhu Li is an undercover cop, one might have to wonder about her safety as Varrick almost certainly knows Mako's onto him, and may have his own suspicions about his 'loyal' assistant.

Someone (most likely Unalaq) is possessed by Vaatu, giving him the power to unleash the dark spirits

Vaatu, having seen what Raava was able to accomplish when merged with Wan, decided to do the same and merge with another human. Vaatu doesn't grant the power of being able to wield the four elements as Raava and Wan got theirs from the Lion Turtles, but instead grants his human with the power induce his darkness over the spirits. In the case of it possibly being Unalaq, Unalaq's is not actually purifying the spirits but simply taking away the darkness he induced on them to make people think he's purifying them.

The old lady fire sage in "Beginnings"

Her real identity is Azula. Not my theory. Saw it on IMDB. So after her time in the institution and finding the truth about her mother, she finds meditation as a means of keeping calm and follows the way of the sages.

Amon/Noatak was involved with the events of Book 2

His involvement more specifically is based on the fact that ever since he was raised by Yakone he realized that the Avatar was the most powerful being in the universe. Moreover, in "The Revelation" he said that he was able to contact with the spirits and they granted him the power to take people's bending away since the Avatar has failed humanity. However, it's possible that the whole "cover-up story" for Amon's rally wasn't so out of line. Perhaps Amon DID in fact contact with spirits about the issue to grant him such power. The spirit Amon had contacted with could have very well have been Vaatu. With his dark spiritual energy, Vaatu was able to strengthen Amon's bloodbending since it is considered a dark variant of waterbending. After contacting with the spirit, Amon's bloodbending was now powerful enough to block bending. Taking this a step further, it could be possible that Noatak had a very strong spiritual connection with the dark spirits to the point of being Vaatu's first "Dark Avatar" subject like how Raava was to Wan. With Noatak now physically dead, it's possible that he will play a spiritual role near the end of Book 2. Overall, perhaps there is somehow a deeper connection between Korra and Noatok than we thought there was.

Korra is so brash and violet because Vaatu is growing in power inside her

.Raava did say that after the convergence, even if she won, Vaatu would grow in power and eventually come out of her, just in time for the next convergence. With the time so close at hand, and her always inside the Avatar, the current Avatar would naturally be negatively influenced by the power of chaos and destruction.

• This makes a lot of sense, however Wan sealed Vaatu into that tree in the spirit world. Would there be a two of Vaatu flying around?
  • I would back OP up by saying it could be a possibility that Vaatu was freed sometime earlier by someone without us knowing about it. If true, perhaps Unalaq either knew or didn't knew about it. If it's the former, Unalaq could very well have been trying to prevent chaos and was misunderstood for being a villain. Only question is who was the one that freed Vaatu. This should probably be its own WMG, but whatever.
    • Vaatu was imprisoned in a tree. Maybe when Tonraq destroyed the spirit forest in that flashback, Vaatu was released at that time.

Omashu is built on a dead lion turtle.

With the knowledge that in Wan's time all humans lived in cities built on top of lion turtles, Omashu's cone-like shape seems to give it all new connotations. It's even possible that Oma and Shu were indeed the first earthbenders, who were imbued with the power by the turtle and then learned from the badgermoles to use it to build their intricate tunnels, not just chuck rocks, thus making the two stories consistent with each other.

Meelo's lemur legion will be a Chekhov's Gun.

At some point Tenzin's family and the Southern Air Temple will come under attack, but the attack will be thwarted by Captain Pokey of the lemur air force, under the command of Meelo.

Unalaq is a Well-Intentioned Extremist, after all.

He wants to open the spirit portals before the Harmonic Convergence in order to somehow release Raava from the Avatar Cycle and have her return to fight Vaatu in her full power, thus restoring what he perceives to be the true balance of the world. He might also be afraid that if Vaatu isn't released from his imprisonment before the Convergence, he will die and reincarnate from Raava, thus undoubtedly causing the Avatar to become a force of destruction rather than balance.

• Something along those lines seems very likely. Unalaq's explanation of the Dark Spirits seemed to be lacking something, too one-sided, and now it appears his good intentions are leading towards the very thing that Vaatu unleashed on the world 20,000 years ago; a chaotic merging of the physical and spiritual worlds.

The dark spirit attacked Korra so that she would be forced to confront her true nature

When the Fire Sages found Korra she didn't know even who she was. Then the spirits of past Avatars inform her that she has been separated from the Avatar Spirit. The fact that she has no idea of her identity in this state emphasises just how fundamental that spirit is to Korra herself. It's not just a part of her, a role that she's trying to take responsibility for and grow into; it is very much who and what she is. By temporarily removing all of her personal conflicts and drive to solve things through force while ignoring or being ignorant of the true influence of the spiritual realm on that of the physical world, she is in a position to finally understand how far the conflict goes and how she can deal with it. It's too convenient and too specific for it to be entirely down to chance. Perhaps there was some sort of spiritual influence that caused this event to happen. It wouldn't be the first time a spirit, or one connect to them, intervened at a critical moment.

Vaatu is Koh the Face Stealer.

Seven reasons:

• 1. Koh seems to love screwing with Avatars (Kuruk, anyone?).
• 2. Back in the original series when Aang went to see Koh, his lair was close to the Spirit Oasis, located in the North Pole. The Harmonic Convergence takes place where the poles meet in the Spirit World.
• 3. Koh lives in a tree. Where was Vaatu imprisoned? A tree that looks suspiciously like Koh's lair.
• 4. Referencing back to Kuruk, Koh is said to have lured his fiancee into the Spirit World, which could indicate him not being able to leave.
• 5. Koh steals faces. Some other WMGs have said that Vaatu probably has the ability to bond with a human like Raava did. What if he tried, but the person was unwilling? Maybe he just resorted to stealing faces. (Okay this one is unlikely, but this is WMG so whatever.)
• 6. He told Aang they would "meet again".
• 7. Let's face it. Wouldn't it be so freaking cool?!

Unalaq's Plan.

• Is to merge with Vaatu and become a second avatar
  • That actually makes a lot of sense. He's believes that only he can return the Southern Water Tribe to it's spiritual roots and he's power-hungry. He was willing to set loose angry spirits on his own city to get his brother out of the way, so he might not see merging with Vaatu as too big a sacrifice.
    • At the end of The Sting, Unalaq is shown stepping out of the portal, and dismisses a question from his children if he was in the Spirit World. It's possible that if Vaatu isn't already released (as suggested above), he's manipulating Unalaq in the same way he manipulated Wan.

Origin of Bending.

In the original show we were told humans learned to bend by watching the moon, dragons, badger-moles and air bison, and many have called this into question after the episodes "Beginnings" were the lion-turtles were shown giving humans the abilty to bend. However in the same episode Raava says that more and more spirits have come to the physical world and have made the humans retreat to the Lion turtles for protection. The theory is humans had already learnt bending when the spirits drove them to the lion-turtles and the lion-turtles made them give up there bending while they lived on them and gave them back their bending when they left. This explains how both shows are correct.

• Maybe the lion-turtle did in fact gave humans bending but they needed the moon, dragins, badger moles and sky bisons to learn how to bend their respecive elements properly?
• Maybe humans learned it first, and the lion turtles took it when they became their guardians. Its highly doubtful they'd want people doing that on their backs, and explains why they gave it back to whoever no matter what; its not theirs in the first place.

Vaatu will merge with a human since he realized how effective the combo was when Avatar Wan kicked his ass to create a "Dark Avatar".

And it will bite him in the ass when his host dies while he's using the "Dark Avatar" state. Vaatu will either be Killed Off for Real or sealed forever instead of 10,000 years.

• All my yes.
• This is why Unalaq is trying so hard to open the portals before Harmonic Convergence. He wants power, and Vaatu will give it to him if it means being free and kill Raava for good.
• Confirmed. In "Darkness Falls" Vaatu merges with Unalaq during the Harmonic Convergence.

Lin Bei Fong is just playing the gullible lemming

Specifically ,she knows the two detectives are either full of shit or at least criminally incompetent. However, she is playing along in order to let them lull themselves into a false sense of security so whoever is pulling their strings gets cocky and drops something blatantly obvious. She is investigating Mako's claims, but is pretending to not do so in order to throw off suspicion. Then when the time is right, she's going to spring the trap. A similar tactic used by Cracken in the X-Wing Series in regards to finding the mole in Rogue Squadron.

• as a possible part of that, President Raiko is in on it and the two are hoping to put Mako back into the Water Tribe Civil War so they have a man on the inside who can find out just exactly what is going on and Mako is in the perfect position to do so (friends of the Avatar, already familiar with one of the main suspects, etc.), potentially meaning the two are going to work together to get Mako released quietly and shipped to where he can do some good. Presumably, if true, Raiko and Lin have documentation of some sorts to make sure Mako's name gets cleared after it is all done, potentially with that promotion to detective that Mako mentioned back in Rebel Spirit.
  • She may be trying to avoid another Cabbage Corps debacle.
• This makes sense. Lin is an Earthbender, after all - and the philosophy of Earthbending is neutral jing, watching and waiting for the right moment to strike.
  • Partially confirmed - she had enough suspicions that as soon as she saw the fight break out between Bolin and the President's kidnappers, she took her metal-bending cops and went straight for Varrick. By the time Bolin got one of the kidnappers to confess that they were sent by Varrick, Lin was already standing in his VIP box waiting to arrest him.

Unalaq will capture Korra and somehow force her to open the Northern Portal

As of the end of The Guide, Korra and Jinora aren't physically present in the Spirit World, leaving them unable to use their bending powers. Unalaq is at no such disadvantage.

• Can you gimme a Confirmed!

The spirit and mortal realms will be merged in the aftermath of the second season

Possibly as a consequence of opening the Portal. This will force Korra to find a way to make peace between the spirits and mortals once and for all as opposed to merely separating the two. It's basically what Aang and Zuko did with Republic City (proving that people from very different backgrounds can call the same place home and work together), but on a grander scale.

• Sorta confirmed. Korra decideds to leave the portals open after she defeats Vaatu.

Unalaq knows that Vaatu is evil, and is planning on betraying him

Variation on the "Dark Avatar" theory: Unalaq is planning on fusing with Vaatu so he can enter the Dark Avatar State...

...AND DESTROY VAATU PERMANENTLY BY COMMITTING SUICIDE!

• Jossed. Unless he was planning on a Suicide by Cop type thing.

Varrick is innocent

Varrick didn't do anything. He didn't attack his shipments, didn't set Asami up, and didn't frame Mako. He is absolutely the kind of character that all the evidence pointing to it could just be coincidences.

• There's still the question of the bombing, because the popular explanation makes no sense when one considers Mako's first-hand account, and if it's not Varrick protecting his interests (profiting from war) then someone has to be responsible and Unalaq is an unlikely candidate (it doesn't seem he wants or needs the backing of the Republic). Although Mako finding a case and connections when there are none would be a pretty cynical but simple explanation for Lin's apparent narrow-mindedness/incompetence over this. In the face of the evidence against Varrick, what does the OP think could be the explanation? Is it all gang activity, and Varrick has a shady past which just seems to implicate him?

• Jossed. He's guilty.

We'll get to see Zuko meet Iroh again.

Tell me you don't want that.

• Expansion: Zuko meets Iroh again...and Zuko decides to ascend to the Spirit World as well.

Relating to the above, Unalaq wants to become the Anti-Avatar

...And then once he defeats Korra, he'll absorb the spirit of Raava inside him as well, meaning that the balance between the spiritual personas of good and evil will live in him, elevating him to some sort of godhood.

• The Anti-Avatar part is confirmed. And he does absorb Raava, by extracting her from Korra and beating her to death, taking the past Avatars with it. It doesn't last long.

Varrick is the mastermind behind the attack on the President.

Upcoming episode summaries show that Raiko is going to be attacked. This is Varrick's handiwork, as part of plan to force Republic City into the civil war by staging an assassination attempt and blaming it on Unalaq.

• Confirmed.

In the confrontation with Vaatu and/or Unalaq, Korra will use a four-element version of the pacification ritual.

Like Vaatu said: "To hate me is to give me breath. To fight me is to give me strength." Given that, the best option for Korra to win against Vaatu may well be Sheathe Your Sword. A four-element version would be quite fitting for the avatar to use. And let's face it, taking down Unalaq using his own ritual would be beautifully ironic.

• Part confirmed. She only uses water.

Korra will decide that the best way to keep Vaatu in line will be to absorb him and have Raava hold him back

• For all intents and purposes, this does happen.

Once Mako is proven Innocent, He'll become a Private Eye

• All but confirmed in "Night of A Thousand Stars." Beifong compliments him and says he'll make a great detective. Those Two Guys, confused, say there aren't any detective vacancies. She corrects them—there are now two vacancies.

Unalaq will use energy bending to turn a human into a dark spirit

Unalaq was seen using energy bending on Jinora with it slowly creeping up her body. When he uses light energy bending on a dark spirit, the spirit turns good. We haven't seen what happens when he uses dark energy bending. He'll use it on Jinora, causing her to go completely insane, and Korra will have to restrain from fighting to avoid hurting her. Korra and Jinora will most likely have a "I Know You Are in There Somewhere" Fight, and Korra will hopefully be victorious.

The events of Book 2 might lead into the events of Book 3.

The first season did not have any sort of cliffhanger because the creators of the show didn't know if there would be a second season to lead into. The show has been confirmed for at least two more seasons, so they very well could create some kind of cliff for the show to hang on at the end of season 2.

• Confirmed. It gives airbending to people in Book 3, including its villain.

The season will end with Korra and many other characters being trapped in the Spirit World.

And some, if not most or all, of the next season will be about the characters trying to find a way out.

• Jossed

The season will end with many parts of the material and Spirit worlds coming together.

And future episodes will focus on dealing with the implications of that and Korra trying to keep peace.

• Confirmed

Vaatu will refuse to merge with Unalaq, and is most likely using him

I mean seriously, why on earth would the all powerful dark spirit would want to merge with a puny human in free will? It's clearly obvious that Vaatu is tricking Unalaq into freeing him just to betray his wish on becoming a dark avatar. However, that doesn't necessarily mean he won't merge with him, it's just that at first he will refuse to do it until some other force makes him to.

• Jossed. Though you do have a valid point. What could Vaatu have gotten from Unalaq that he couldn't have by being a 50-foot tall spirit? At least Raava had the excuse of being weakened.
  • Maybe he wanted Unalaq's waterbending?
  • The episode itself answered that question rather well : Vaatu is not powerful enough on his own to defeat the Avatar. He needed Unalaq's help to even the odds.

Furryfoot and the other Dragonfly Bunnies were working for Vaatu from the beginning.

Seriously, what if Tenzin's spirit cleansing ceremony drove them away because they were actually evil the whole time? They could have been trying to lure Jinora to the meditation circle so Korra would enter the spirit world via meditation instead of being forced to use the Southern Portal, which would have allowed her to fight Unalaq on even footing. Furryfoot also took Jinora straight to Wan Shi Tong, which was obviously a horrible, horrible idea even before The Reveal that he was working with Unalaq.

The Northern and Southern Tribes are no longer enemies, but they won't become allies either.

The Southern Tribe plan to become independent. The Northern Tribe want nothing to do with them anymore.

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