Having waited for The Legend of Korra panel for hours in the same room that housed the Doctor Who and The Walking Dead panels, I ended up with big expectations in terms of content and material. I wish my expectations had been met. But first, on the few details regarding tomorrow’s episode of The Legend of Korra: Book 4 Balance.
Book 4 Episode 2
SPOILER ALERT:
This episode is mostly a character building episode where we don’t really see a whole lot of plot. Questions we were left with from the first episode are answered as we see Korra struggle internally with post traumatic stress, which was the result from her ordeal at the end of last season. Korra begins physical therapy and regains her strength, thanks in great part to Katara’s help. After some time, Korra makes the solo journey back to Republic City only to be dissuaded by her own image in the Avatar State. She then turns to a voyage of further self discovery where she finally comes to a city where she takes on underground fighting.
One night after a particularly brutal fight, (Korra doesn’t win) she is lead by a cute little dog to a swamp where she finally encounters Toph, who enlightens her on how she can see Aang’s spirit within her.
The Panel
While the episode was beautiful, the panel that followed was underwhelming at best. By no means do I mean to disrespect the fandom, Bryan Konietzko and Michael DiMartino when I say this. However, this having been, as they put it, their FarewellCon, I expected more.
After the screening and a short video from the actors (typical acting shenanigans portrayed in farce of voice actors), a few words were said before sketches were shared and the panel drew to a close.
While I do not hold the creators or actors at fault for this, I do believe that just like switching the show from TV to Internet only, this was a huge missed opportunity. In no other panel that I’ve been to yet has the exhibitor had to moderate the panel himself, and yet there was Mr. Konietzko tapping his laptop showing us the concept art that they worked so hard on because it mattered to us. And them. But not the studio. A fandom as devout as this one should have had more to savor after waiting through two other panels in order to get good seats to this subpar experience.
