What happened to modern technology in Avatar: The Seven Deadly Sins?

Note: This article contains spoilers for all six episodes of Avatar: The Seven Deadly Sins.

We're now six episodes into Avatar: Seven Havens, and many big questions still remain a mystery. What actually caused this disaster? Who are the Faceless? Why are there twin avatars?

However, this latest batch of episodes finally offered some hints of what might be coming for modern technology. As you may remember from The Legend of Korra, Republic City was at the heart of an industrial revolution that produced cars, machinery, and even radio broadcasting. So what exactly happened in the 225 years since Korra to destroy all of this?

Before we get into theories about what could have happened, let's take a look at what technology we've actually seen at the show so far.

The first few episodes of Seven Havens are completely devoid of any technology, but we get our first glimpse of something in episode 5 when Pavi and Nisha are digging up artifacts in Karthik's office. They discover an old radio that appears to still be working and receive a transmission, possibly from members of the White Lotus group in other bunkers. When Chancellor Kayoko found the radio and accused Katik of contacting other shelters, she wrote it off as a "broken relic from the old world".

Then later on at the end of Episode 6, we get a look at Chancellor Kayoko requesting help from the other shelters via a much more precise radio setup. While Karthik secretly uses what appears to be a relic, it's clear that the bunkers still retain primitive broadcasting systems to keep in touch. This fits very well with the whole "apocalypse" vibe as radio signals rely on lower frequencies and minimal power to send messages over longer distances. The fact that his radio station is hidden in a secret tower room only serves to confirm that this technology is going to be used sparingly.

Another big clue about the technology also comes from episode 6, where the benders, who seem to be affected by a strange red energy, arrive in a room that appears to be a generator. On the way, they pass a series of flickering lights, indicating that the base is actually powered by something instead of relying on firelight. This is where we see the mysterious red energy (which may or may not be Vaatu) interacting with this electrical grid.

The generator room appears to be very low tech, reminiscent of the more advanced airships we saw in Avatar Aang. This suggests that although some sort of technology is used to power Elora, it is not as advanced as you would expect from a society that should be more industrialized.

Now that we have an idea of ​​what kind of technologies humans are still working with, we can start to make some reasonable guesses about what really happened. The most likely reason for the technological collapse is something that happened after Korra opened the soul portals. The giant soul vines found their way, of course, and humans began to use them as a source of energy. This resulted in a combination of technology and soul energy that no one was really ready for.

We saw the devastating power of this combination in The Legend of Korra, when Kuvira uses tree roots to launch a nuclear energy ball that she installs on a giant mecha suit. The only reason the cannon didn't cause the mass carnage it was capable of was because Korra was able to channel the massive blast with some good old Spiritbending.

So why does all this matter to Seven Havens? Well, at the end of The Legend of Korra, the soul vine energy is still a controversial topic. Korra makes it clear that she is against any further investigation into the matter, and that the President of Republic City supports her. But it sure looks like that wasn't the end of it all. Although Seven Havens has yet to reveal what exactly happened, it seems that Soul Vine technology was at the heart of it.

Another obvious clue to make for this is the strange lamp Pavy finds in Karthik's office, among other artifacts. It appears to be some sort of modern use of the vine, suggesting that the technology was probably intertwined with the physical world.

At the heart of every Avatar conflict is the issue of balance. For Aang, the nation would stop the fire and restore balance to a world at war with itself. For Korra, it was all about restoring the balance between the spirit world and the physical world. Neither avatar fully succeeded, but Korra's story was left almost unfinished due to all the ambiguities after opening the spiritual portals on the world.

The prevailing theory as to the cause of the disaster at Seven Havens, and the one I believe to be the most likely, is that the use of Spirit Vine energy got out of hand. As with any natural resource, its abuse causes problems and destabilizes the balance between the spirit world and the physical world. Catastrophe, in this case, could most likely be the spirit world forcefully trying to rebalance things by destroying humanity and the technology it has created.

This theory explains why the only gadgets we see in Seven Havens seem to be very low-tech, and why the Chancellor is so cautious about using radios. It also explains why the mysterious red energy is some kind of electricity/soul energy combination that only avatars can deal with.

While this theory seems to explain why technology is noticeably absent from the series, it's still just a theory. It's unlikely that we'll uncover all of Season 1's secrets, especially now that it's been extended to Season 4. In the meantime, it's certainly fun to dig into what really happened to the world Korra left behind.

Jacob Kienlen is a senior audience development strategist and writer for IGN. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he has called the Northwest home his entire life, with a bachelor's degree in communications and 10 years of professional writing experience, his expertise spans a variety of pop culture topics—from TV series to books to the latest Lego sets.