snup

Not really a theory, just some rough speculation, but I genuinely feel like Daemin was originally supposed to be a much more important character in later seasons, and for some reason, they decided to introduce him earlier in Season 1. I’ve seen a few people mention this too, but when you look at how many scenes Daemin was noticeably absent from, only to suddenly appear in other scenes out of nowhere, something feels a little off. Here’s my thinking: I believe Daemin was originally intended to be a Season 2 character who would eventually travel with Nisha and possibly a few other characters. But as the story developed, the writers may have realized that introducing him out of nowhere in Season 2 wouldn’t work very well, so they decided to move his introduction into Season 1. The problem? They probably didn’t have enough time or budget to properly develop him within the existing storyline. This could explain why so many of his scenes ended up being cut. And why him instead of another random character? Because he may have been an addition to the original Season 1 plan, making his scenes easier to remove without affecting the main storyline. I also think it makes sense that they prioritized developing the people of Ellora, especially if most of them are going to be left behind as the story moves towards the other havens and introduces characters who will become more important later. So why do I think Daemin will still be important? His voice actor mentioned that they had recently finished recording the upcoming seasons. I’m not sure whether he meant Season 2 or Seasons 3 and 4, but considering Season 2 was originally supposed to release alongside Season 1 before those plans changed, it’s interesting. I refuse to believe all that marketing surrounding Daemin, especially the whole “new waterbending master of Team Avatar” thing, was for nothing. Daemin is also a very empathetic character. He understands people better than most, and we’ve already seen that. He even defended Korra, albeit jokingly, basically pointing out that we don’t know what she was going through. He also understood Zi well enough to know she wasn’t going to kill him just because she wanted to. I think Nisha will eventually leave Ellora and begin travelling on her own. I don’t know whether she’ll end up visiting the same haven as Pavi, but I really don’t see her staying behind. I also think she’ll have her own travelling companions, and Daemin could be one of them. Maybe he’ll even be her only companion initially. Another thing I’ve been thinking about is that the twins might end up travelling to completely different havens. We have three seasons left and six havens still to explore. If each twin visits a different haven per season, that gives the writers a pretty interesting way to introduce all six while developing two separate journeys. TL;DR: I think Daemin was originally meant to be a major Season 2 character who would travel with Nisha. They moved his introduction into Season 1, couldn’t properly fit him into the narrative, and ended up cutting a lot of his scenes. But I don’t think that means he’s unimportant. I think we’re going to see a lot more of him in Season 2. Or maybe I’m just completely delusional. 😭