Every Avatar inherits the problems of their predecessor. That’s not altogether surprising, since each Avatar spends their life wielding all four elements to bring peace to the world and shaping it according to their own unique vision, then dying… only to be reincarnated into somebody else.
Wan, the original Avatar, established the spiritual status quo that would last for the next 10,000 years. After Wan permanently fused with Raava, the spirit of light, he imprisoned the spirit of darkness, Vaatu, within the Tree of Time. He then closed the spirit portals at the North and South Poles, separating humans and spirits, and assumed responsibility for serving as the bridge between their worlds. He died with humanity still at war with itself, and we don’t know how many incarnations it took to bring peace.
In The Last Airbender, we also see this dynamic play out between Avatar Roku and Aang. Roku’s failure to stop Fire Lord Sozin enabled the Hundred Year War, which Aang eventually ended. Aang, in turn, helped establish Republic City as a multicultural experiment, leaving Korra to contend with its political instability and rapid technological growth.
Perhaps the biggest mystery in Paramount’s new Avatar: Seven Havens series concerns what Korra left behind. More than two centuries after the events of The Legend of Korra, the world has been devastated by the Cataclysm, and the surviving pockets of civilization all remember Korra as the great destroyer who caused it. But did she really destroy the world because of something she did? Or did everything fall apart because of something she failed to do?
At New York Comic Con 2026, Seven Havens executive producers Sehaj Sethi and Ethan Spaulding spoke to Polygon about this pattern. When asked how much of the new series was created in response to fan reactions to Korra, Sethi’s answer included one particularly conspicuous qualification.
“The thing that was more important was to really show that every Avatar affects the next Avatar. Like Roku, what he did affected Aang. What Aang did affected Korra. And now, what Korra’s done — or not done — Korra’s choices have an impact, as well,” Sethi said. “We aren’t telling everyone exactly how yet, but that has had an impact. While this is a whole new world, the previous world has affected us in a way. We’re unpacking that in our mystery.”
Few of Korra’s many notable achievements are defined by what she didn’t do, but there’s one obvious choice that fits here better than any other.
Korra refused to close the spirit portals
During The Legend of Korra Book 2, Korra’s uncle, Unalaq, manipulates her into opening the southern spirit portal before opening the corresponding portal at the North Pole himself. With the Harmonic Convergence looming, that allows Unalaq to free Vaatu and fuse with him, becoming a Dark Avatar. After a dramatic, kaiju-sized fight against Unavaatu, Korra succeeds in killing them both. As the dust settles, she prepares to close the portals and restore the status quo. Yet she remembers Unalaq arguing that the Avatar shouldn’t be a bridge between the worlds and that Wan made a mistake. “What if humans and spirits weren’t meant to live apart?” Korra wonders.
“I've realized that even though we should learn from those who came before us, we must also forge our own path,” Korra says in a later speech to the masses. “So that is why I've decided to keep the portals open. Humans can now physically enter the Spirit World, and spirits will be free to roam our world. I will no longer be the bridge. Humans and spirits must learn to live together. My mission will always be to use Raava's light spirit to guide the world toward peace and balance. Harmonic Convergence has caused a shift in the planet's energy. I can feel it. Things will never be the same again. We're entering a New Age.”
That proved to be true: People throughout the world awakened airbending powers and spirit vines began consuming entire sections of Republic City, creating an area later known as the Spirit Wilds. For all the good it accomplished, however, Korra’s decision also gave humans unprecedented access to spiritual energy. By Book 4, the industrialist Varrick had discovered that spirit vines could be harvested as an extremely powerful energy source. Earth Kingdom general Kuvira weaponized that discovery, using the vines to power a cannon capable of obliterating entire cities.
During Korra’s final confrontation with Kuvira, the weapon goes out of control inside the Spirit Wilds. Korra enters the Avatar State and uses Energy Bending to block the blast, releasing enough energy to tear open a third spirit portal in the center of the city. Again, she decides not to close this portal.
Turf Wars inches closer to the Cataclysm
The Korra sequel comic Turf Wars makes that distinction particularly important. Picking up not long after the series finale, Turf Wars follows the Avatar and Asami as they return from their vacation in the Spirit World and discover that the new portal has become the center of a conflict. Developer Wonyong Keum wants to transform it into a tourist attraction, the Air Nomads want to protect it, and the spirits are angry that humans are attempting to claim and commercialize something sacred.
A dragon-eel spirit explicitly urges Korra to close the portal, warning that its location in the middle of a metropolis leaves the Spirit World vulnerable to exploitation. Korra refuses. She argues that closing the portal is not the answer and says she believes its spiritual energy will have a harmonious effect on Republic City.
Instead, tensions escalate. Spirits attack the humans fighting over the portal. Ultimately, after Korra and Asami save Keum’s life, he gives up the surrounding land. At least temporarily, the area becomes a sanctuary that humanity is responsible for protecting. That makes Turf Wars feel incredibly important in light of Sethi’s comment. Korra was directly warned about the dangers of leaving the portals open, then had to deal with some of those dangers, and still chose to keep the physical and spirit worlds connected. The fact remains: Because Korra left the portals open, humanity discovered how to extract, store, and weaponize spiritual energy.
The licensed Avatar Legends roleplaying game takes things a bit further. While Korra publicly opposes spirit-vine research and President Zhu Li imposes a general ban on the practice, scientists and corporations continue pursuing it illegally. The planet’s very energy shifted during Harmonic Convergence, then again when a new spirit portal was ripped into existence. What would continued use of spirit energy do to the planet?
We still don’t know any specifics about what caused the Cataclysm, but the overall trajectory seems pretty clear, especially given Sethi’s comment about what Korra didn’t do. Korra’s dream of humans and spirits living together ultimately restored the Air Nation and brought new spiritual life into the world. But just as Roku’s mercy toward Sozin carried a terrible cost, Korra’s idealism may have led directly to the Cataclysm itself. She certainly tried to do something to stop it, but even then, she was probably too late.
Maybe Korra should have closed the spirit portals after all.