Avatar: The Last Airbender depicted Aang's struggles saving the world from the challenges the previous Avatars created, and ever since then, it has been a theme in the franchise to show how every Avatar responds to the legacy of their predecessors. In the prequel novels The Rise of Kyoshi and The Shadow of Kyoshi, this proved truer than ever, as Kyoshi not only had to deal with the problems of Kuruk's time but also meet the legendary standard that Yangchen set before her.
In The Dawn of Yangchen, the cycle will continue as the prequel novel explores Yangchen's own challenges in living up to her predecessor, Avatar Szeto. But just what do we know about Szeto's legacy, and what might that mean for Yangchen's journey?
Much of Yangchen's life is largely a mystery in the Avatar franchise, as she was seldom seen in the original series. Luckily, the novels and comics provide more detail about her life, fleshing out Yangchen as a legendary figure who navigated international tensions with such diplomacy that she kept the world safe from war even past her own lifetime. The comic The Rift even delves into a conflict she had with the spirit General Old Iron shortly after she mastered the four elements. However, judging by The Dawn of Yangchen's synopsis, much of the story will take place around or even before the earlier days of her career.
The synopsis for the novel emphasizes Yangchen's inexperience during its setting and her growth into her role as Avatar in stark contrast to her predecessor Szeto. It sets up a story in which Yangchen's struggles with Earth Kingdom politics and the threat of a weapon of mass destruction threaten the stability of the world, but from what we know of Szeto's time, such political machinations were the Fire Avatar's forte.
The Shadow of Kyoshi established that Szeto was a wise and tactical Avatar whose primary accomplishments resulted from his mastery of bureaucracy as much as the four elements. Rising through the ranks of the Fire Nation's political infrastructure, Szeto became the Grand Advisor to Fire Lord Ysor. With a shrewd sense of accounting and diplomacy, he managed to unify the Fire Nation government during a time of great strife and hardship from natural disasters, making him a revered figure even generations after his death.
However, what's most notable about what we know of Szeto's life is how little of it seemed to hold influence over the rest of the world. Although Szeto is widely celebrated in the Fire Nation, there is little to nothing in the canon about his influence on the political stability in the other Four Nations. While he was undoubtedly a powerful bender, seen in a flashback erupting multiple volcanos while in the Avatar State, it seems that what Yangchen may have to deal with primarily are his failings to balance the rest of the world while tending to his own nation.
Indeed, the Earth Kingdom proved to be rife with corruption and conflict by the Era of Kyoshi two cycles later, and the problems there were so deeply entrenched that they remained even in the days of following Avatars like Roku, Aang and Korra. This could mean that the inexperienced Yangchen is in over her head where the Earth Kingdom's crown is concerned.
Given that the Air Nomad survives the conflicts of her time and manages to succeed where Szeto failed, this stands out as one of the most intriguing elements of the upcoming novel that fans should anticipate. Indeed, Yangchen's own failings were already explored in the prior Kyoshi novels. Every good story needs a good conflict, after all, and it appears that Yangchen will have no shortage of those in the days before she became the myth that would last for generations.
