A curious detail introduced later in The Legend of Korra explains much of the caution the White Lotus brought to the Avatar's upbringing at the start of the series. When the splinter group known as the Red Lotus are introduced, it is explained that the anarchists tried to kidnap Korra when she was young in order to raise her under their philosophy. Thankfully for the safety of the world, they were stopped. Yet the possibility of an evil Avatar Korra proves a frequently fascinating question for Avatar fans. In fact, under the guidance of the Red Lotus, Korra very well could have been the most powerful Avatar in history.
Even with The Legend of Korra's history unfolding as it did, Korra proved to be a top tier bender in each of the four elements. She was a prodigy who was already bending multiple elements while still a toddler, and by the time she was a teenager she was already intertwining firebending, waterbending, and earthbending more deftly than Aang had before her. Korra's natural talents allowed her to quickly pick up metalbending once she began training in the skill, showing just how receptive she was to sub-bending skills whenever she took the time to learn them. Under the Red Lotus' guidance, she could have been even better.
Though she grew up under the guidance of Katara, one of the Avatar world's most skilled waterbenders, it seems there were few other true masters involved in Korra's training during her time isolated in the White Lotus compound. The White Lotus themselves proved to be a shade of their former glory during the sequel series, and by comparison it seems the splinter group that left them years prior -- the Red Lotus -- were legendary in their talents. Zaheer, Ghazan, Ming-Hua, P'Li, Unalaq, and Aiwei all had unique talents almost no other Benders demonstrated. If they were successful in kidnapping Korra as a child and molding her as they intended, the possibilities could have been remarkable.
Even without airbending, Zaheer's spiritual mastery was unlike any other figure seen in Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. He could enter and teleport within the Spirit World at will, doubtless capable of providing the spiritual guidance Korra was almost lacking entirely. The truth seer Aiwei could've taught Korra metalbending at an earlier age given how quickly she picked it up. Unalaq could have done much the same for spiritbending since Korra picked that skill up quickly as well, and that's just dipping into the abilities Korra could probably do once she was exposed to them.
An Avatar with Ghazan's lavabending, P'li's combustionbending, or Ming-Hua's unprecedented command of water tendrils could all have been additions to the Avatar's repertoire that would have made Korra a singular talent among the world's most powerful Benders. Even if it were the case that such abilities were impossible to learn, the mere presence of earthbending and firebending masters would surely have been beneficial to Korra's development. The cost for all of that would not have been insignificant, however. The Red Lotus only sought to train Korra in order to condition her with their anarchist philosophy, and the Bridge Between Worlds would have been turned into a destructive force that would shatter both those worlds apart.
The endless possibilities of an evil Avatar Korra brought up under the guidance of the Red Lotus proves fertile ground for fan fictions set in the Avatar world, but the really exciting possibility is that exploring such scenarios remains a realistic possibility even so many years after The Legend of Korra ended.
Marvel's What If...? proves a present and massively popular example of entertaining such speculative questions. With Avatar Studios looming in the future with a bounty of possible projects, a Red Lotus Korra does not seem so farfetched.
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