All past Avatars seem to have at least one fuckup or a regret that one or more of their next lives will have to deal with.
Szeto, quite literally, worked for the Fire Lord of his time. Although his work brought peace and prosperity to the Fire Nation, ending the conflicts that were destroying the islands, it also caused a centralization of the administration that would later allow Fire Lord Zoryu and his descendants to centralize all the power, which would end up leading to Sozin and the Hundred Year War. Since he seemed to prioritize the Fire Nation, he most likely neglected the rest of the world, too, which means that Yangchen had to step up more for international issues.
Yangchen was a highly revered Avatar to the point that she was deified; she helped the nations progress and flourish. However, focusing too much on human matters and always favoring humans, she neglected spirits. That led to Kuruk having to deal with the consequences.
Kuruk, unlike Yangchen, focused too much on Spirit World issues—to the point that it cost him his life and died very young—, seemingly neglecting human issues, causing the Peace of Yangchen's era to deteriorate very quickly. His premature death and apparent neglect led to Kyoshi having to deal with a very unstable world.
Kyoshi managed to stabilize the world during her extremely long life—in contrast to Kuruk's short life—and is remembered as a highly effective and respected Avatar. However, her big mistake and regret was the creation of the Dai Li, which would later help with the Conspiracy of Ba Sing Se, help Azula conquer the city or start kidnapping the new airbenders: overall, give Aang and Korra headaches.
Roku enjoyed relative stability at first after Kyoshi's death, though this didn't last that long; he lived through a industrial revolution and the rise of nationalism in more than one nation. He was a very diplomatic Avatar who managed to stop a war between the Northern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom, and became a respected Avatar. However, he was indecisive when it came to stopping his former friend Sozin, which was probably the biggest mistake and regret: it led to the genocide of a whole nation and a war that lasted a hundred years, leaving Aang to deal with it.
Aang ended the Hundred Year War and helped create a new nation where people from everywhere could leave peacefully. However, by letting Yakone live and escape prison, and failing to fully give nonbenders a voice in Republic City, caused Korra a lot of headaches with Amon and the equalists. Furthermore, another one of his biggest regrets was running away before the Air Nomad Genocide (although it was not really his fault, he was a child and an untrained Avatar and had he stayed, he probably wouldn't have been able to avoid it: he would have probably died too or been captured), and his biggest wish was to rebuild the Air Nation one day, which Korra did during her life, making up for what he thought was his biggest mistake.
Korra will probably have one of those mistakes/regrets too, and I really wonder what it'll be. We know it likely won't be neglect of neither spirituality or human issues like Yangchen or Kuruk, since she seems pretty focused on both. So far her biggest regret seems to be losing the ability to make contact with her past lives, so maybe it'll be that? The next Avatar will somehow manage to regain their connection with the rest of the past Avatars? Doesn't seem likely to me but idk. Or maybe more Red Lotus bullshit, since in the show they said that there were probably more members and Korra didn't stop them all? Idk
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