Avatar Szeto to star in next Chronicles of the Avatar books?

(Art by Avatar News)

Avatar Szeto, the fire Avatar before Yangchen, Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and Korra, could be the main character of the next Chronicles of the Avatar novels.

In a recent interview with Nerds of Color, Chronicles of the Avatar writer F. C. Yee said he doesn’t know if he’ll be writing more books after Kyoshi and Yangchen, but “if he had his choice of what Avatar to tackle next, he named Avatar Szeto as a possible candidate.” 👀🔥

F. C. Yee introduced Avatar Szeto’s backstory in the Kyoshi books, revealing that he was born in a time of crisis in the Fire Nation due to natural disasters, plagues, and clan conflict. Instead of using his divine position as Avatar to enforce his rule, he joined the Fire Nation government as an entry-level bureaucrat and worked his way up with no special privileges until he was an advisor to the Fire Lord– that’s why he has that vizier-like hat in the few glimpses of him we see in Aang and Korra’s eras.

But as we all know, there’s more to every Avatar than their legacy, and in the Yangchen books we learn that Szeto’s life was secretly messy and “a library of intrigue in the realm of spycraft and trickery”.

His name comes from the Chinese Han dynasty title 司徒 (Sītú) meaning “Minister over the Masses”.

Avatar at SDCC 2023

Here’s your rundown of the Avatar franchise’s presence at San Diego Comic-Con this year:

👉 [CANCELLED] Avatar: Braving the Elements—Live! on Thursday July 20th at 1pm!

The Braving the Elements panel this year has been ***cancelled*** last minute due to the SAG-AFTRA strike meaning that hosts Janet Varney (the voice of Korra) and Dante Basco (the voice of Zuko) aren’t attending SDCC.

This is the panel that Avatar Studios revealed their first animated movie, the adult Team Avatar one, at last year; we don’t know what would have been revealed, if anything, this year.

It’s possible the soundtrack that was just announced today completely out of the blue was supposed to be revealed at this panel.

👉 Water, Earth, Fire, Air: Continuing the Avatar Legacy on Saturday, July 22nd at 12:30pm!

This year’s publishing panel is still on. This is where we could get news on novels, comics, etc.

This is the panel that the Azula in the Spirit Temple solo graphic novel was announced at last year, as well as the new Korra comic trilogy/trio, the first of which is supposed to be focused on Mako. This SDCC, we’re hoping that Mako comic is fully revealed, as well as maybe preview pages for Azula, and an even longer shot would be finding out who the next ATLA and/or TLOK comics will be about (Azula/Mai/Ty Lee; Mako/Bolin/Asami??)

It’s also possible with The Legacy of Yangchen just having coming out this week that the next Chronicles of the Avatar novel will be announced, revealing which Avatar the next books will be about, but they haven’t previously had news at comic cons so it’s not a sure deal.

👉 Mattel ATLA collector set

Mattel is releasing an Avatar: The Last Airbender collector set on the Barbie movie’s release date this Friday!

It will be available at the Mattel Creations booth, check out more info here.

👉 The Legacy of Yangchen exclusive edition

An exclusive edition of The Legacy of Yangchen is available at booth 1216!

That’s it as far as I know. It’s a pretty low-key SDCC this year across the industry due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. For Avatar, keep an eye out for potential publishing news and don’t have any expectations beyond that.

Read The Legacy of Yangchen Chapter One: Depths now!

Courtesy of Polygon, you can now read F. C. Yee’s Yangchen Book 2 Chapter 1 for free ahead of the novel’s release on July 18th!

In it, the main villain Chaisee gets some backstory…

Check it out below:

Chapter One: Depths

Chaisee understood from an early age that to be successful, you needed to be willing to go further than others thought possible.

To wit—the villagers of her little unnamed island dove for prized cucumber-sponges far below the glistening surface of the waters, where sunlight faded and ears threatened to burst. No one in the Mo Ce considered such a feat viable or worth the risk.

But Chaisee’s people ignored the prevailing wisdom. Without the aid of waterbending, they trained their bodies to accept the pressure, their minds to embrace the signals that they were dying. Dive after dive, they forced their way farther into the depths and scraped their hands raw against the slimy spikes of the reef to come up with little puffballs of a creature that, once carefully killed and dried, would fetch a generous string of coins on the open market.

She and her fellow villagers willingly took on the often-fatal endeavor again and again so they might eat for another season. And faraway nobles washed their faces with the cured exteriors of cucumber-sponges, the softest touch known in the Four Nations. A mutually beneficial agreement based on one party’s willingness to torture themselves and the other side’s complete distaste for the slightest physical discomfort.

As Chaisee grew older, she began to manage the village’s books. She took over from her father the negotiations with haulers who came to collect the sponges, pearls, dried shellfish meat—the secret was to spy on other suppliers while using uncharted islands as stashes to control market prices. She had no reason to suspect her future would contain any disturbances to this arrangement other than the occasional monsoon.

The ship that broke the cycle arrived with battened sails and swooping foredecks. Strangely, it bore flags of both the Fire Nation and the Earth Kingdom. The party that came ashore in longboats was led by junior ambassadors from both countries. In front of Chaisee’s assembled village, they read a proclamation decreeing that the inhabitants of this island would no longer be allowed to produce certain goods of the sea. By a vanishingly rare agreement between Earth King and Fire Lord, the exclusive rights had been granted to some merchant they’d never heard of in a faraway city that was completely landlocked.

This can’t be, Chaisee’s father had said, hushing her with a raised hand. Suddenly the negotiator again. We protest this decision. You must at least give us the chance to formulate a response. To buy time, he resorted to their island’s customs of hospitality. Let us entertain you tonight as honored guests. We can talk of bargains in the morning.

The officials agreed. They needed to reprovision and take on fresh water anyway. While the ship’s quartermaster negotiated the purchase and loading of supplies, a feast was quickly put together for the important visitors and their crew.

The general nervousness among the villagers ebbed as they shared good food and drink with the sailors around the burning fire in the square. The meal would remind these strangers that the island was home to families like theirs and that a measure of humanity should prevail over dictums sent from afar.

Chaisee did not partake wholeheartedly. She stayed removed and observed, as was her habit, which meant she saw in full when one of the sailors picked up a torch and flung it into the largest hut. Like one might offer a bone to a guard animal. She wasn’t fast enough to stop him or speak out.

The building was the one used to store the drying cucumber-sponges, and in their raw state the dusty, porous bodies of the sea creatures were better than the best tinder. The roof blew out with a roar, spewing heat and flame and embers over the adjacent huts. The fire spread so fast that half the village was ablaze before the screaming started.

Chaisee remembered the reactions of the ambassadors who had obviously given the order, their faces lit by the blooming, dancing flames. They rolled their eyes, snorted in contempt, and departed as calmly as they came. Annoyed with the whole affair at best. Her father was too distraught, occupied with fighting the fire, to prevent the outsiders from reaching their longboats and leaving the shore unimpeded.

She watched the delegation go, understanding that a confrontation would have achieved nothing. The letters they bore granted them the power and voice of their rulers. There were no criminals here; her livelihood burning away was the law enacted. She might as well have tried to exact justice from the leaders of the Four Nations themselves. What fool could aspire to that?

We weren’t strong enough to keep this from happening, she thought as her neighbors desperately tried to carry water to the fire in buckets, gourds, cupped hands, wailing as their futures dissolved into smoke. We didn’t have the right friends.

Working yourself to the brink of oblivion was pointless if you couldn’t defend the life you made. Maneuvers, deals, negotiations were simply dance steps. Pageantry. The true arbiter waiting at the end of the performance was violence.

Chaisee’s ruined village was a kiln that baked the lesson into shape. She kept it in mind as she sought work on islands closer to the official Fire Nation archipelago. The form held hard and without cracks as she made her name in trade, mastering the codes of business spoken in every country while accumulating leverage over her partners and rivals alike. When the Platinum Affair clamped across the world, she was quick to see opportunity and predicted correctly how it would condense power even further into a few hands.

By the time she became eligible for the role of Zongdu in Jonduri, the war had already been fought and won. In the minds of the shangs, there were no rational choices other than Chaisee to lead the city. Her selection was unanimous.

In many ways, Zongdu Henshe, her counterpart in Bin-Er, was of a similar mindset as Chaisee. Though he was a fool who squandered information and resources with no regard for strategy or long-term consequences, he had successfully ground her plans to a halt by threatening to turn over everything he knew to the Earth King. He’d stolen the fruits of her labor, her means of becoming immune to harm in all the ways her little childhood village was not.

Henshe’s waywardness had posed a greater threat than any of the brilliant men and women whom Chaisee had tangled with in the past. The wise could be counted on to do what was wise; there was no predicting the actions of a buffoon. But now Henshe was gone, and with him her assets. Chaisee had been left without a move. She could only sit and wait.

“Mistress.” Chaisee’s newest attendant announced herself, pausing on the warped floorboard by the door of the nursery. Each shift of the girl’s socked feet produced a squeak like a pained bird. “Mistress, you have a—”

The baby woke. A scorching wail rose from the teak crib in the corner.

Chaisee rubbed her forehead, taking care not to cover her face completely. “I just got him to sleep!” She had to raise her voice, something she never used to do, in order to be heard.

“I’m sorry, Mistress, but you have a letter and—”

“Leave it and get out!” The attendant scurried over, laid the envelope on the desk in the nursery, and fled for her life.

She didn’t see Chaisee drop her snarl as soon as she was gone. The girl would report back to Fire Lord Gonryu that her mistress was cracking under the strain, uncharacteristically showing more emotion. Perhaps frustrated by her child. Distracted, and therefore less of a threat.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Chaisee’s son was a sharp reminder for her to stay focused. And his cries were a perfect deterrent to eavesdroppers. Taking her time, as calm as if she were listening to the serenade of a babbling brook, Chaisee opened the letter. She drew a chair over to the crib and rocked it gently while she read.

The message was nonsense. But it was written in a hand she recognized and contained hidden signals that let her know exactly where to find the person who’d sent it.

Her son quieted down, but she knew he would start howling again if she stopped rocking. Perhaps his skin was prone to rashes. A frustrating prospect, when she already bathed him with cucumber-sponges, which were much more expensive these days than back when she was a girl. She went through an amount that would have made her younger self gasp, but there was no softer touch she could resort to.

Chaisee folded the paper back up with one hand and looked around. The nursery she’d constructed in the mountaintop estate was dark and cool, a respite from the sweltering heat outside. But the entire house would pass to the next Zongdu of Jonduri once her term ended.

She’d have to leave this place behind soon and start over again. Those were the rules laid out by the heads of state, who never had to worry about moving on from what they’d built while they were still alive. The Avatar, young Yangchen, was like that too. She would be the bridge between humans and spirits for her own little eternity before she passed and a new Avatar was born.

There were a lot of powerful people in the way of Chaisee’s ambitions, laying exclusive claim to permanence. They’d be sovereigns of their domains until the very day they died, never having to fear their status being stripped away, never knowing what it was like to be naked and vulnerable.

Chaisee could be the last person standing among them, if she chose the right path, proved herself willing to go to depths beyond reckoning, and remained a step ahead of the other players in a game that could reshape the Four Nations themselves. An outrageous folly, but one she had the means for. And the will.

She looked at the letter again and smiled. With the right incentives, anything was possible.

Chronicles of the Avatar: The Legacy of Yangchen by F. C. Yee hits shelves this summer on July 18th, 2023!

This is the second Yangchen novel after last year’s The Dawn of Yangchen, and the fourth Chronicles of the Avatar novel after The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi!

Check out the cover reveal above the the official description below:

“Common enemies make for strange friends …

Avatar Yangchen has succeeded in bringing a measure of stability to Bin-Er, but her successes have been limited to a single city, and rumors concerning Unanimity—a weapon capable of total obliteration—have led to increasing tensions among the Four Nations.

Desperate to restore diplomacy, Yangchen attempts to de-escalate hostilities between heads of state. But in the wake of a brutal assassination and the freeing of Unanimity, Yangchen is forced to bring Kavik—the trusted former companion whose betrayal crushed her—back into her fold.

As the Four Nations teeter on the brink of conflict and she begins to unravel the power-hungry Zongdu Chaisee’s true agenda, Yangchen is forced to measure the worth of humanity, and how much can be sacrificed in the name of balance.

This taut and provocative fourth installment in the Chronicles of the Avatar series follows Avatar Yangchen as she charts the course of her legacy, finally making peace with her choices and facing Avatarhood with the courage it demands.”

Official art from Chronicles of the Avatar: The Dawn of Yangchen!

Featuring:
🍃 Avatar Yangchen
🌊 Kavik of the Water Tribe
⬇️ Nujian, Avatar Yangchen’s flying bison

Art by Rola Chang!

The Dawn of Yangchen is the third novel in the Chronicles of the Avatar series by F. C. Yee, following The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi. Out now everywhere books are sold!

Kyoshi books writer F. C. Yee says he’s not involved in the animated Kyoshi movie coming to theaters in 2024, set to be directed by Voltron showrunner Lauren Montgomery

We recently learned from Avatar Studios heads Bryke that the studio’s animated movies coming to theaters will not be adaptations of previous books or comics. Earlier, we exclusively revealed the subjects and dates of the first three movies, including that the first, coming 2024, will follow Avatar Kyoshi.

Put these two things together, and we know that the Kyoshi movie won’t be an adaptation/remake of F. C. Yee’s amazing Avatar Chronicles novels The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi, but a brand-new story that will “feed off” of the expanded universe content like the books.

Now, F. C. Yee, in an interview about his next novel, The Dawn of Yangchen, has revealed that as of now, he has actually had no involvement with Avatar Studios’ animated plans and doesn’t know anything about what’s in store. Check out the full quote:

CBR: “Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DeMartino have been very hush-hush about what Avatar Studios has in store for fans in the future. Did you have much insight into what those plans are? Are there any blood oaths you want to betray by giving fans an idea of what they can expect?”

F. C. Yee: “Honestly, I have none; the novel publishing arm is a different unit. I’m as curious as the rest of the fandom!”

(Source: CBR)

Now, I’m guessing this is a bit of a PR answer just because the Kyoshi movie hasn’t been officially announced yet, but that he probably does at least know about it behind the scenes since he’s pretty important in Avatar canon right now, especially her era. But, I don’t think he’s lying about not being involved. The Kyoshi movie is Avatar Studios’ first project, which they’ve been developing in earnest for probably a year at this point, and I think if he was involved he would have already been working on it for a while. He was also writing a whole Yangchen book during that timespan, and is already planning a second, which I find to be unlikely if he was working on a huge new flagship movie. It is possible that this is just an official PR non-answer for right now, and that when the Kyoshi movie is officially announced his involvement will be revealed too, but I think right now I’m gonna take his words at face value and believe them, meaning he really isn’t involved in Avatar outside of the novels.

Well, if F. C. Yee isn’t involved, who is? The untitled Kyoshi movie is set to be directed by Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunner Lauren Montgomery and produced by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko, and Eric Coleman. It’s reported to hit theaters in 2024.

Yangchen Book 2 is confirmed!

Ahead of the release of Avatar Yangchen’s first book, The Dawn of Yangchen, in the Chronicles of the Avatar novel series (currently consisting of The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi), Book 2 has already been confirmed!

In a new interview with CBR, Kyoshi and Yangchen author F. C. Yee teased that Yangchen Book 2 is already planned and in the works. Here’s the full quote (emphasis mine):

CBR: “We also have a drastically different setting, with Shang cities like Bin-Er unlike any place Avatar fans have seen. As an Avatar fan yourself, I imagine there’s a constant conflict between whether to explore a previously established piece of the world or to build your own. What sorts of factors guide you in making those decisions?”

F. C. Yee: “The helpful method [of] world-building is to use parts of the show’s universe as pieces of living history, which is only possible because of the brilliant work done by the original creative team. Book Two of Yangchen’s story will probably take place in Taku, which we get a glimpse of in “The Blue Spirit” as a once-prosperous city now in decline. The show’s world-building has Taku as a place where cargo was distributed. It’s not unreasonable that there would be more cities like that, and the passage of time allows for them to be different than what we’ve seen before.”

You guys know I’m a huge proponent of the Kyoshi novels and F. C. Yee’s writing and contributions to the world of Avatar, so this is definitely a big win in my books!

If the Yangchen books follow a similar schedule to the Kyoshi books, Book 2 will most likely come out some time next summer, but until then, a new era begins as The Dawn of Yangchen hits shelves this July 19th!

An eleven-year-old Avatar Yangchen meets a new past Avatar and travels to the Spirit World for the first time in the first official preview from Chronicles of the Avatar: The Dawn of Yangchen

With the highly anticipated first Avatar Yangchen novel by The Rise and Shadow of Kyoshi author F. C. Yee due to hit shelves in under two months, we have our first official preview from the prologue: Voices of the Past; and Chapter One: The First Step, courtesy of Gizmodo!

In it, a young Yangchen is an uncontrolled conduit reliving past Avatars’ experiences both good and bad, including a new named past life: Avatar Gun, whose tragic memories of a haunting failure send her into a feverish state.

You’ll learn more about Avatar Gun in the preview, but with them we now know of ten named Avatars:

• Wan (fire)
  …
• Gun (unknown element)
  …
  
• Salai (unknown element)
  …
  
• Szeto (fire)
• Yangchen (air)
• Kuruk (water)
• Kyoshi (earth)
• Roku (fire)
• Aang (air)
• Korra (water)

Man, this franchise is so cool. Note that we don’t actually know the order Gun and Salai are in.

We also learn the names of five past Avatars’ team members: Jetsun (Yangchen’s older sister, featured in the preview and the POV of the prologue!), Mesose (Gun’s companion), Angilirq, Praew, and Yotogawa, as well as the name of the Earth King who died about ~300 years before Yangchen’s time (so about ~850 years before ATLA and about ~920 years before TLOK, wow!): Earth King Zhoulai.

With all that lore setting the tone, we then follow Yangchen’s first journey into the Spirit World at age 11, at a stone circle above the Western Air Temple similar to the one at the Eastern Air Temple where Yangchen’s future life, Korra, enters the Spirit World for the first time centuries later!

Without further ado, you can read the full preview here:

Voices of the Past

Jetsun paced down the hallway, trying to stay ahead of the screams.

The high ceilings of the Western Air Temple tended to make echoes of whispers and explosions of dropped teacups. Though the girl was back in the infirmary being watched by the elders, her cries of pain sprang from every surface, bouncing off the hard stone.

Jetsun couldn’t take it anymore and broke into a full run. Ignoring decorum, she sped past her sisters, ruffling robes, upsetting inkpots, prematurely ruining colorful sand paintings that were meant to be ruined only once they were finished. No one scolded her or gave her sharp looks in passing. They understood.

When she ran out of floor she jumped. The upside-down construction of the temple meant that despite its overall size, there was very little space to stand on, nothing connecting the spires but thin air and a three-thousand-foot drop. She didn’t have her glider. Eminently dangerous, but she could make the leap without it.

Air at her back and air against her robes gave her enough loft to land on the next tower, the one containing the Great Library. Tsering, chief caretaker of the books, waited in front of the tall shelves. The older woman’s kind eyes were edged with worry. “I saw you coming. Is it happening again?”

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