Dark Horse Comics recently hosted a live reading of The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars Part 1—the first part of a graphic novel trilogy, taking place immediately after the events of the series. Voice actors Janet Varney and Seychelle Gabriel reprised their roles of Korra and Asami, respectively, bringing the pages of Michael Dante DiMartino, Irene Koh, and Vivian Ng’s work to life as they embodied the story of the Avatar and her girlfriend on their first date. Give it a watch!
When we watched Korra and Asami walk through the spirit door in the series finale, it didn’t feel like an ending so much as a new beginning—one that The Legend of Korra continued in the graphic novel series and gave us a peek at their blossoming relationship. But it’s one thing to read about it and another to experience it with the characters themselves.
The reading of Turf Wars’ first chapter starts around eight minutes into the Twitch livestream, which you can watch below. Dark Horse also shared the excerpt as a free download for folks to read along with the actors.
Dark Horse social media editor Cara O’Neil also hosted a Q&A with the voice actors, which starts around 22 minutes into the recording. Topics included their familiarity with the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender before joining the project, who they’d cast in a live-action version of The Legend of Korra, and what Korra would do for a job if bending didn’t exist. While sharing their favorite Korrasami moments, Varney talked about debuting an episode that hinted at Korra and Asami’s future relationship—something the actors knew was coming, but the audience didn’t.
“The other [Korrasami moment] that I flash to was when we were at NYCC and we were able to watch the episode ‘Korra Alone’ of the fourth season. Where she writes the letter to Asami and is saying, ‘You’re kind of the only one’—kind of like what she was saying in Turf Wars just then—‘You’re the only one I feel I can really still connect with,’” Varney said. “When we were watching that all together—and it was the first time for those of us who could be there to see it—the whole place just exploded with Korrasami love before it was even canon or anything. It was so exciting to hear that response and go, ‘Just you wait.’”
They also shared a tidbit of what Korra and Asami would be doing if they were stuck at home social distancing like we all are right now.
“I feel like Asami would be a tinkerer, tinkering away at little projects,” Gabriel said. “Making fun stuff, maybe like fun smarthouse stuff. Like an automated smoothie maker or blender—” Varney interrupted, “That’s so funny, I was literally about to say I feel like Korra would ask Asami to make a faster noodle preparer or something. Korra’s like: ‘My part is I help eat everything! I’m a tester, I test everything out!’”
The Legend of Korra is available to watch on CBS All Access, which has extended its free trial to 60 days (more information here). The Turf Wars graphic novel series is out now through Dark Horse.
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