#Callum i feel is a bait and switch we all think its going to be Callum but no

[stuck-in-jelly]

[madou-dilou]

Exactly !

Pacifist characters are so compelling in a barren world, and I can think of no better example than Daniel Larcher, from the show A French Village.

Servier (the French prefect) : "... I'll try to negociate with the Germans. If I belly dance, we should be able to get down to fifteen Jews, or maybe even ten...

Daniel Larcher : "Negociate ? Do you hear yourself talking ? You can't bargain human life !" Servier : "Listen. Do you want to save people or make nice speeches ?"

This show takes place during the occupation of France by the Nazis. And it would be so easy to turn it into a simple tale of good versus evil -they are fighting literal Nazis. But the show takes place in the grey area.

Daniel : People will never forgive us for what we are doing. Servier : We are saving ten lives, Larcher. 

Daniel Larcher is a doctor so people are used to rely on him. He wants to help people and is shown repeatedly to go out of his way to do so, but then he is put in charge by the Nazis. He is an idealist but constantly forced to compromise to save as many lives as possible.

Judge : Did Daniel Larcher work for you as a spy ? Heinrich Müller : Heavens, no ! As spy, we try to use competent people. Mister Larcher was just a nice guy, who, in the middle of a war, was trying to be at peace with everyone. The epitome of the martyr, suffering, useless humanist.

As a result, everyone hates him, the Nazis find him too soft and the resistants (among which his little brother) deem him as a traitor. He tried to give his own life more than once but was always denied. He gets captured and beaten up by the resistants, tortured by the Nazis. By the end of the war, everyone hates him and he hates himself the most. When this character was on-screen (at every episode basically) you knew you were in for a cry.

Concentration camp survivor : Do you remember I asked you to make us leave this place ? Daniel : Yes, I do. You offered me money. And I refused. Survivor : As a result, my wife and children are dead ! Daniel : ... I take the jury as witness. Would it have been fair to let the Golmuntz family go because they had money and not the others ? Survivor : And ? Daniel : Would it have been moral ? Survivor : They all died. 140 men, women and children killed the very day they arrived in the camp ! You're the one to talk about morals ! Daniel : I did not know they were sent to die ! Survivor : That's not true ! Saying this, you're killing them for the second time ! Daniel : I did not know !

But if we want to go for something closer to TDP, we have its big brother, the series TDP constantly avails itself of through its elemental magic system, its books and pointless references breaking the immersion : Avatar, The Last Airbender.

I feel like TDP tried to replicate what Aang was with Ezran : the carefree yet compassionate child who is suddenly forced into immense responsibilities and horrible choices. Aang's struggle with deciding to kill the Fire Lord is a moral one, but there is more to it than that. If he kills Ozai, it means forsaking the principles of the Air Nomads, and as the last survivor of their genocide, Aang simply can't do that.

Ezran fails as a pacifist character because there are no such consequences.

The closest was in arc in the first half of season 3, which was very compelling but was butchered by the end of season 3, where we switched from this :

Each one of these pieces is 500 people. Five hundred men and women. Some are moms and dads, and have kids waiting for them at home. All of these are sons and daughters. Sisters, brothers, friends. They're real people, Bait. And after the battle... How can I let this happen?

To this :

*triumphant music*

And these people's deaths were never mentioned again.

When a character breaks his principles, it should break him. Just like Callum is when he uses dark magic. Just like Viren when he decided that Soren's life weighted less than what he percieved as the greater good. Just like Harrow when he killed Zym.

Harrow, contrary to Ezran, gets consequences. He loses his wife, he relinquishes his sense of morals, loses his self-esteem and he eventually commits suicide over remorse.

It makes him likeable, which Ezran is not.

The absence of consequences, gods....

When Ezran makes mistakes, such as abdicating in Viren's favour, we are given contradictory messages : he is a child so he makes mistakes (Opeli), but he is the bravest and wisest king Katolis has known in centuries (Corvus). Before the final battle, Ezran was characterized as a pacifist through and through : he finds the egg, he has the idea of returning the egg (so he does consider it as a person) to its mother to end the war; and once he is king and forced to choose between horrible outcomes where many people die, he hates it, he is disgusted with himself and the very idea that there even is a winning side in a war. He gives up the throne hoping to save lives.

But when he is told that all of these people have been transformed and that they have no choice but to kill them all... he doesn't argue. He doesn't bring up that these people may be detransformed, that they still have a family, nothing. He just does it. It's completely out-of-character. And it's never brought up again. He doesn't hate himself for being forced to do it. No one reproaches anything to him. It has no consequences. On contrary, it's a victory through and through, a triumph of the good side over the evil side. So much for pacificism and the inherent value of all lives.

And Ezran continues to escape consequences as the show progresses.

The Council Meeting, the perfect opportunity to show us how the world has evolved, how Ezran deals with all the trauma and events, is just a succession of cringe jokes.

When the painting is torn, (by whom and why ? No one cares) he gets away with a cute speech, and then leaves to his fun adventure; while the absence of the king has been established in the previous seasons as a catastrophe... but this time it's not. Somehow.

When he stays behind to try to talk to Rex Igneus despite the Earth Archdragon being obviously in so state to hear him, he forces the group to stay with him and look for him even though the entire place is crumbling on them, it's a miracle they didn't all die.

When he endangers the whole group again in order to save three tadpoles, which has all of them (Callum, Rayla, Soren) but him tortured, no one calls him out. He does not feel bad either. We just deal with the situation but no one holds him accountable, not even a reproaching glance, nothing. He just gets away with it.

Callum, Rayla and Soren were tortured, for God's sake, could he at least look guilty ?

Worst of all, his accommodating principles are affecting the entire show's message.

Ezran is characterized as an empathetic person. But the problem is that this empathy just stops sometimes even though his characterisation is still superficially present. When he is forced to kill thousands, he somehow just does it without trying to argue. But when it's about saving three tadpoles, he endangers the whole party and the whole world with it. And both are framed as the right thing to do. The killing of all these humans is even framed as a triumph : blasting music, funny gags, Aanya's heroic cavalry charge saves the day, all the monsters are getting killed -so much for the inherent value of all lives or the "does it think, feel, have a family?". Idem when Ezran straight-up justifies everything Avizandum did, including killing their mom, right in front of Callum, Callum doesn't react as if it were a normal thing to say. Same with the Pyrrah situation, Ezran rushes to help the poor creature who has just burned a village of his people, innocent human civilians, right in front of him.

What lesson are we supposed to learn here ?

That all lives are important except human lives ?

Does it feel ? Does it think ? Does it have a family ?

?????????????????????????????

Oh, and by the way...

So the show doesn't actually even have the excuse of these soldiers being transformed beyond redemption. What happened here was mass murder.

But it's either a triumph or not acknowledged at all.

Well, to be clear : of course Ezran and co had no choice but to kill them. What rubs me the wrong way is that it's never framed as a tragedy. They thought they could break the cycle, but are forced, in order to end it, to perpetuate it, once again, one -they hope, last time. Even though this mentality is exactly what brought all of them here in the first place. Ezran should be outraged, disgusted, horrified.

To mention ATLA one last time, what made the last Agni-Kai so memorable ? It's the music. It would have been so easy to blast an epic symphonic orchestra. But instead, we have slow, minor chords that tear your heart apart when you are not expecting it. It's the good guy defeating the evil girl, yes, but it's above all two abused siblings forced to fight each other to death.

In TDP, war becomes morally justified and fun.

And since Ezran never gets consequences, it feels like he has no flaws, that he doesn't need to grow, that the show completely agrees with his vision.

And I think it has to do with a certain vision of high fantasy and the representation of dragons, not just as fantastical creatures, but the very forces of nature itself. We humans have vilified them -St George, forgotten them -industrialisation and exploitation (not just of nature but each other, exactly the way Viren does with dark magic and his manipulative behaviour). We try to fight them, to win over them. So it's up to the heroes to realize that this is a false vision and that the real monsters are the humans who are unable to learn.

Problem is, that vision just does not align with the ... gritty fantasy The Dragon Prince has started as.

To speak again of ATLA, the latter starts as an extremely simple situation. Jesus must save the world from the Nazis. But as the show progresses, we have this :

Meanwhile, The Dragon Prince :

At the beginning we were told that things were not that simple, and we were shown it as we followed the perspectives of both sides. It was delightful to follow because of how conflicting it was. It was dragons and elves and knights and mages but it could as well have been steam, gaslight, goggles and zepplins. It was a story about how bloody history is, about how prejudice is difficult to overcome, about how all lives are inherently valuable in themselves.

And at the end, we have this.

Who are the good guys ? Who are the bad guys ? You have four hours.

It just doesn't align with a this vision of high fantasy that has the humans responsible for everything that ever went wrong. As it it, Ezran never demands that Xadia aplogises. Zubeia sent the assassins who killed Harrow and almost killed Ezran and it's never brought up. Never.

But humans do apologize. Soren takes Pyrrha down because she was terrorizing and killing innocents, but he is the one who somehow has to apologise to her, not the other way around... Which means now he is part of the good guys who get to threaten civilians to be eaten by a dragon for contesting the king as all good guys do. Claudia talks of generational trauma but it's not like we can take her seriously after she spent two years alone between her dad's rotting corpse and Satan whispering in her ear, especially since she displays massive hypocrisy right afterwards.

And Ezran says that they have to solve all this without violence; but it's contradicted by what we are shown, his absolute absence of remorse or doubt over Claudia's leg. His childhood friend's leg was cut off and they left her to bleed out at the bottom of the ocean and none of the protagonists even care and I am still supposed to think of them as pacifist main characters I should root for.

It's so unbalanced.

And it's because the story is not about prejudice and generational trauma, but actually about how humans are accountable for what has become of nature.

The real important bit of the Magma Titan thing is not the oppression of humans by Xadia, it's Viren saying that he will be able to artificially warm the earth so humans thrive, and Sarai objecting that the Titan may be the last of its kind. We are not meant to read "a desperate mage finds a way to save his starving people that has been oppressed for centuries." We are meant to read "the dark lord provokes global warming by killing the last member of an endangered species because humans are just unable to be reasonable. They are not satisfied with what they were given, so they take what doesn't belong to them, kill it and transform it into filth."

Keesha saus this and is proven right as she speaks. So yes, it is inherently evil to use organic dead matter (we still eat meat and wear fur though because it's medieval fantasy), and three tadpoles are more valuable and worthy of screentime than hundreds of thousands of human lives.

Meanwhile, Rayla struggles with her dead family as she bears the burden of saving them, she struggles with being rejected by everyone she ever loved even though their ideology was wrong, and her self-destructive tendancies end up hurting the love of her life, Callum; and her only way to save her family is that Callum agrees to do what terrifiies him the most. Callum struggles with his temptation to use dark magic, even if it's to save people, he is terrified to end up like Viren. Viren struggles as his entire world view was shattered, as he realises all the sacrifices he made only led to bad outcomes, and now he helplessly witnesses his daughter doing the same mistakes he did so he can live, while all he wants is to just die. Claudia is willing to go to any lengths to get her family safe, but everyone she ever loved keeps abandoning her over and over while she did nothing to deserve this (her mom left, Callum and Ezran switched sides, Soren switches sides too, Viren dies twice, one killed and the other one by choice), which leaves her to lose her sanity.

Ezran... is just there. He tells us he is angry but we are not shown it. The only time he has had inner conflict since season three episode 5 is in a side story.

An excellent one, by the way.

“It belongs here,” rumbled Pyrrah in his mind. “Do you think all pretty things are free of pain?” Ezran frowned as the cerulean glow of the aquamarine caught in her eyes. “I can smell the blood upon your pretty crown. Was it not once a blade? Perhaps you should leave it here, too, with all these terrible things.”

It's exactly what the show should be about instead of cute animals and demonstrating that using dead organic matter automatically changes you into a monster and justifies everything bad that ever happened to you. Ezran is confronted with how recent and ancient and yet still festering the wounds of the world are. He is confronted with his own grief, he realises he actually struggles to let go. He misses his dad. He is confronted with the fact that he owes his throne to violence -his crown, which he had reforged from his dad's sword as a symbol of the war being over, still reeks of blood. And he hates it.

And the same ought to be said of Soren. Since the ending of season 3, Soren brought little to the table. His jester persona isnt the mask he puts on to ignore his grief. It's what he is, nothing more. During the good scene of A Song of Love and Loss, which was about grieving our loved ones and what the war did to them no matter on which side they were, Soren doesn't even flinch. When he says "it's so good to be part of the good guys", we are meant to take him face value.

His short story "Strangers" was excellent, too. As Ezran realises the past is still a festering wound, Soren literally faces the past, and the wound is reopened and bleeding, both for him and Viren.

But it's side stories. Not the show.

The show, so far, much like Soren, has "no idea what nuance is". The show prefers to spend time on introducing pets or jelly tarts gags.

In the show, so far, Ezran is an empty shell.

So, no, Ezran doesn't need to grow up because The Dragon Prince is validating his vision through and through. He has no inner conflict since everything he does is either right or not his fault actually because he's just a child. He has no consequences because the story's vision is built around his. The events and messages bend around him. On contrary to Viren, who is wrong no matter what he tries, CF @kradogsrats 's post about how his attempts at following Harrow's logic by privileging either the individual or the collective keep backfiring : https://www.tumblr.com/kradogsrats/747310241889337344/i-accidentally-like-a-thousand-words-of-a?source=share

So all Ezran has left to do is to preach to the audience that it's not very nice to be mean.

Which is why he is insufferable.

If Dark magic is set up to be morally wrong no matter what, we ought to be shown that anything is better than using it.

That Viren *should* have let Soren and the hundreds of thousands of people die starving, that Callum *should* have let Pyrrha and Rayla and Soren and himself and Ezran and Zym be tortured.

The characters must choose to not use it knowing what horrible consequences this choice will bring, and these horrible consequences have to actually happen and have dreadful long term repercussions, and NOT to be Deus-ex-machinaed away.

So no new Arcanum somehow unlocked or dragon somehow showing up just in the right time or anything like it. Just the plain consequences, however horrible.

The closest we got was Harrow's death way back in season one, and even it's consequences were Deus-ex-machinaed via the egg and the frankly insane gamble that Zubeia would agree to stop the war to thank the protagonists.

So far, every time someone used it, it was framed as wrong and unjustifiable no matter the circumstances.

So, okay.

Show us why not using it to save your kid, your friends, your people, and let all of them die, is actually the right thing to do, the right, moral, "no shortcut" path.

[fandomsandflyingstingrays]

Season 4 Thoughts: Ray Edition

First of all, a disclaimer: all of these might change after I watch the season a second time, it usually takes me going episode-by-episode with full context to form a full opinion. That being said, right now, my feelings on the season are mixed. I definitely think it’s my least favorite of what we’ve gotten so far (not that it’s bad! Just less good). I’ll get into that, but I want to start off by talking about what I liked:

The animation was breathtaking. Everything was so smooth, I loved pretty much all of the character redesigns, and the scenery was gorgeous

I loved that conflict between the humans and elves didn’t end with returning to Zym to his mother, and I loved how that was explored. The show continued on with doing what it does extremely well: making sure that the conflict is never black-and-white. I always thought that both sides had valid points

(Also: Ezran’s speech deserves a point of its own because that was fantastic. You could hear his anger and pain so well as he was talking about it and his conclusion that you have to hold all your emotions to move forward was so wise. Plus it being juxtaposed by the fight with Ibis... incredible)

Janai and Amaya. Their dynamic was so wonderful and sweet and you can really see how they bring out the best in each other. They had better get married and be the best queens the sunfire elves have ever known

Terry, as a character, is fantastic. He’s so sweet and devoted, the way he sees the world is fascinating, and his reaction to killing Ibis and journey with how he dealt with it was very compelling

The whole villain (?) trio was great actually, they still all have very believable flaws and are still likable despite their actions (although Claudia less so than she has been)

TERRY CONVINCING CLAUDIA TO RETURN THE COINS. First of all, because it means neither of them are beyond hope, but mostly because we’re FINALLY GETTING SOME CLOSURE ON THAT PLOT POINT RUTHARI REUNION WHEN

Bait was a little champion. His bond with Ezran in previous seasons was cute, but I adored seeing how connected he was with Callum. And the fact that he was the final push to open Rex Igneous’s door. 10/10

Ezran subverting the whole “we will sacrifice our treasured possessions to you” trope by realizing their gifts to Rex should mean something to him. I love that it was a baked good that got him to talk. Honestly, same

But with that being said, the whole season kind of felt... off, especially in the beginning. It really took a while for the tone to find its footing. The humor felt really jarring at first, and it really switched from super dark to super light very quickly (for example, two minutes of bathroom jokes and a guy coughing up blood as he dies in the same episode). I also wasn’t really a big fan of Rayla’s plotline. First of all, her disappearance was never really explained- it pretty much alienated anyone who hasn’t read TTM, and I’m sure a lot of viewers haven’t. And the way it threw off the group dynamic wasn’t fun for me. I loved the show primarily because even though there was conflict between the characters, they still bantered and fought for each other and there were tons of moments where you saw how much they cared about each other, and that was missing here. I liked that Callum didn’t forgive Rayla right away, but I really do wish he’d at least gotten a chance to explain why her leaving hurt him and have them air that out a bit, because she really didn’t seem to get it. The fact that she never apologized or acknowledged that leaving him with absolutely no word for two years would hurt... I’m so sure she’s smarter than that. I’m hopeful that season 5 will go into Rayla’s disappearance in more detail and kind of negate this critique, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Overall, I enjoyed the season, and I think I will even more once I watch it again! It just took a while to find its footing, and I do think I liked arc 1 better so far

[beautifulterriblequeen]

TDP rewatch: Soren in the balance

As we come up on S3 in the next few months, knowing that Soren’s character arc will be pretty intense, I’ve got that duality of narratives on my mind. The ones from Harrow’s letter to Callum--the narrative of strength and the narrative of love.

I’ve made a post about how the castle represents the narrative of strength and the Banther Lodge represents the narrative of love, directing the motives and actions of the characters who enter or stay in those places.

Viren tries to stay in the narrative of strength--the castle--at all times. He raised his children within its walls. And when he sends them out after the princes, he hopes that they take that narrative with them. 

He calls Soren up to the battlements for a quick meeting, hoping to instill his own motives in his son. Viren may think that Soren’s see-saw metaphor is child’s play, but it’s actually spot on, foreshadowing Harrow’s letter by a full season. The see-saw conversation is S1′s Harrow Letter.

Viren: History has come to a crucial tipping point.

Soren: So you’re saying things could go either way. Like a see-saw!

Viren: Yes. History is like... a see-saw. If we are strong enough to make the right decisions, humans may finally return to Xadia and take back the great magical lands that are rightfully ours. But if we are led by a child king...

Soren: He’ll make bad choices?

Viren: He will make weak choices! History will tip the wrong way, and the forces of Xadia will crush not only Katolis, but all the five kingdoms!

[emphasis mine]

You can see how Viren is attempting to lead and program Soren to see things from a narrative of strength. At the end of his pep talk, Viren takes Soren’s chin in his hand and forces his son to look at him. He tells Soren, “This won’t be easy, but you are strong.”

Viren is really working his son hard here. He’s doing his utmost to make Soren feel that he has no choice but to do as his father says. And unfortunately for Soren, he really wants to please his dad and make Viren proud of him. He doesn’t feel he’s worth loving unless he’s making Viren proud.

He probably gets that straight from Viren, who grew up with similar feelings.

This screenshot below is as close as Soren and Claudia get to the Banther Lodge--the narrative of love--thus far in the show. They arrive on the grounds. Soren even climbs a few steps. But he doesn’t go inside. Claudia stays even further away than he does.

It’s a first attempt for Soren to metaphorically break out of his father’s narrative, and it fails. What would have happened if he’d gone inside? We may find out, if they stop to rest here on their way back to Katolis Castle in S3.

But in the meantime, we’re left with the credits sketch of Soren weighing down his seesaw of history, wearing armor and representing the narrative of strength, literally outweighing Bait, who is part of Team Narrative of Love--Bait is the fourth member of the original Dragaang, and he’s been inside the Banther Lodge on the regular. Little dude can even croak sympathetically.

Soren has a lot to learn. Maybe what we see when S3 gets here will be him struggling to switch narratives because he doesn’t think he can stay where he is anymore--a natural development of his crisis of faith when his neck was broken. Or maybe the narrative of strength--Viren, maybe Claudia too--will find him weak and turn on him. Or both.

Hang in there, Soren. You’re worth saving, buddy, and you deserve love just for being yourself. I hope someone teaches you that in S3, because it’s worth learning and it’ll change your life.

[thehappyspaceman]

The Dragon Prince Recap/Review (Season One)

Hey guys, Spaceman here. I know you’re probably wondering where my Favorite Christmas Songs video is by now, or where really any content whatsoever is. Well, the truth is that I spent the first part of this month and most of last month preparing for an entrance audition for a particular music college, whose name I can’t currently disclose (I want to be sure I get in before I talk about it), hence the lack of new content. But that’s all over now, so I’m prepared to get back to work on videos, art, and possibly even music! Yeah, remember when I did music? Anyway, while I’m working on that, I thought I’d write something to keep you guys interested.

Many of you may be aware of this, but from August to September of last year, I really got into Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s my current obsession and even took the title of my favorite animated series of all time from the previous holder, Gargoyles, which was no small feat. It got to the point where after I finished watching it, I felt a bit of a hole in my life and needed to find something else to replace it. This is when I heard about Netflix’s series The Dragon Prince, which was described as being similar to Avatar, as well as being created by Avatar’s director Aaron Ehasz and featuring the involvement of some of Avatar’s cast and crew. I watched it and… thought it was okay? Just okay, but not great. This month, however, news was released that it was getting a second season, and I was interested, so I figured I might as well watch it again and type out my thoughts. How was it? Let’s take a look.

The Story

The Dragon Prince is set in a world where humans and elves are in conflict. There’s a lengthy explanation for this, which the show thankfully provides at the start of the first episode.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to watch this in every episode. Anyway, the egg of the dragon king is presumed destroyed, and is imminent war between the elves and humans. As both sides prepare for the war, the elves attempt to assassinate the human King Harrow and his heir, the young Prince Ezran; however, during the attack, fifteen-year-old elf Rayla discovers that the egg was not destroyed, but rather stolen. Rayla teams up with Ezran and his half-brother, Callum, to deliver the egg back to the dragons. Meanwhile, Harrow’s advisor, the mage Lord Viren, is intent on war, and sends his own children Claudia and Soren after our heroes.

That’s just the really condensed version of the plot. During the nine episodes in season one, there is a lot of exposition and a lot of other things happen that I haven’t even mentioned. I would do an episode-by-episode recap for this show, but honestly, they all kind of blend together. Unlike with other animated shows I’ve watched recently, there aren’t really any standalone episodes I can think of. Each one kind of just moves straight into the next, which I guess makes sense for a series on Netflix, a service notorious for encouraging binge-watching.

The very first thing I noticed about The Dragon Prince was that it doesn’t really have any true antagonist on either side (at first). Like, you can’t really say, “Oh, the elves are evil,” or “Oh, the humans are evil.” I was super skeptical when the intro described that the humans were to blame for a lot of the problems, including discovering dark magic and slaying the Dragon King, but the intro also pits the elves in the wrong, showing them banishing all the humans instead of just banishing the few who discovered dark magic.

That leads me into discussing a major theme that’s prevalent at least in season one, the theme of prejudice and tolerance. From the few things that the humans know about the elves, they are painted as horrific killers. Humans think of elves as being bloodthirsty killers—literally and figuratively—and the elves are similarly shown holding stereotypes about humans. The fact that Callum and Ezran teamed up with Rayla was only due to the circumstances; it takes several episodes before they are able to fully trust one another. This is a theme that I’ve also seen done well in another favorite fantasy show of mine, Gargoyles.

Admittedly, a few parts of this story seem rather derivative, such as the six primal sources of magic being reminiscent of the Four Elements from Avatar, which leads me to the next topic…

The World

I will admit that it’s not entirely fair to judge a TV show based on its first nine episodes. Granted, I usually hold the policy that if a show’s first five episodes don’t get you hooked, then you should not be required to keep watching (take note, Steven Universe fans). The thing is, this show did get me interested, and I want to see it continue to develop, because what we have so far isn’t much. It kind of just feels like a standard fantasy world, with elves, dragons, castles, and assorted monsters, which, okay, is a tried and true formula by Tolkien and others, but after the world of Avatar, with its focus on Asian culture, its unique animals, and its nearly steampunk technology, I can’t help but feel like this is a slight step down.

That’s not to say that it’s bad, of course. There are a few things that make it really pop out and feel real. The background art, for one, is incredible. Some of the monsters feel unique, too, like those on the Cursed Caldera—one of them even kind of looks like a graboid from Tremors. Also, I like what they did with the elves’ design here. They could have easily just made them pale humans with pointy ears, but instead they put a lot of detail into it, giving the different groups of elves different skin colors, horns, and having them have only four fingers instead of five. Those are some nice touches.

The Characters

Let’s move on to the characters, starting with Rayla, who is easily my favorite character of the group. She admittedly has a bit of a Zuko thing going on, as she was assigned to hunt down the main characters but turns against her original group to help join the main characters on her mission. Other subtle details are similar, too, like her long-lasting inner conflict with her past and her use of dual swords. That said, her journey is a little different; for one thing, Zuko took nearly the entire run of Avatar to fully go through his heel-face turn, only switching sides halfway through the show’s final season. With Rayla, she joins the heroes in the third episode, which cuts out much of the emotional journey but also lends itself to more interactions with the human characters. She’s much funnier, for another thing, giving her share of snide remarks but also scoring a bunch of laughs when she goes undercover disguised as a human in one of the episodes—can you say, “How do you do, fellow kids humans?” Paula Burrows delivers a great vocal performance, which adds to the character.

Next up is Callum, the main human lead. Now, it’s incredibly easy to draw comparisons between his character and Sokka: Both are goofy, “normal” teenage boys in a world filled with magic, not very adept with fighting but good at planning things. More importantly, of course, is the fact that Callum is literally voiced by Sokka’s voice actor, Jack DeSena. Comparisons… were gonna pop up, is what I’m saying. And I’ll admit that the first time I watched The Dragon Prince, it was super jarring to hear Sokka’s voice coming out of Callum every time he talked. But there are some differences. While in Avatar, Sokka is the most responsible member of the group and the only one with any real degree of survival training, Callum is more inexperienced and callow, not good with a sword and only starting to learn magic. He’s also noticeably more chill and less panicky than the Sokka of season one of Avatar and shows that he can actually draw much better. Though considering Sokka’s drawing ability…

…that’s not really saying much.

Now to move on to Ezran, Callum’s half-brother. I have to admit, of the main characters, he’s probably the weakest, at least to me. I don’t know, he kind of feels a bit flat as a character. All I remember about him is the fact that he can understand animals, which is unique, but he doesn’t really have much of a personality aside from just being your typical kid. I know, it’s not easy to characterize a small child whilst making them believable… though again, Avatar managed to do so well. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t keep comparing these two shows, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t super easy.

Not helping is Ezran’s pet, a glow toad named Bait. As far as animal sidekicks go, I definitely prefer Appa from Avatar; hell, even Momo managed to get a few asskicking moments. Bait kind of just lies around and eats stuff. Several times, he manages to get the main characters into trouble, which I found a little bothersome. The one good thing about him is that his glowing abilities do come in handy a few times to temporarily blind enemies, though… I’ll get back to that later.

The trio is pursued by siblings Soren and Claudia. Soren is a young knight and a bit of a dumb jock but has a heart of gold. Claudia, meanwhile, is a nerdy mage who comes off as a bit awkward. They are always fun when they are on screen and have a believable relationship. It’s also worth noting that early on, Callum is revealed to have a crush on Claudia, which… oh boy, let’s hope the shipping discourse in The Dragon Prince’s fandom doesn’t get as bad as the Avatar fandom. I can already see a potential clash between the Claudia/Callum and Rayla/Callum crowds. (Full disclosure: I’m on the Rayla/Callum side.)

The other characters were cool, too. For as little time as we got to know him, I liked King Harrow, Ezran’s father. Even for his cringey dad humor, he was an intriguing character. It’s hinted that there was a lot of stuff in his past that we don’t know about, like his involvement with dark magic. Also intriguing was Lord Viren, Soren and Claudia’s father. It’s easy to see that he was once good and still has some good in him, as shown by his friendship with Harrow, but he has been corrupted by his use of dark magic and is too far gone. Finally, Aunt Amaya, Callum and Ezran’s deaf aunt who’s a solder on the frontlines, was another character I wound up loving. It’s rare that we see people with disabilities get good representation in animated series (another thing I loved about Avatar with the blind character Toph).

But okay, if we’re going to talk about this show, then I might as well bring up the one criticism that every other critic has already made about it. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

The Animation

Yes, among all the mixed reviews of this show, one consistent criticism was the animation. It seems to be CGI, but is going for a 2D, hand-drawn look; unfortunately, the way the pull it off is not necessarily the greatest. Take a look at the trailer for an example of what I’m talking about.

No, your computer is not glitching out; that is the framerate they went with. And this choppiness is something that seems to be a trend with certain CGI shows outside of this one, with Rooster Teeth being the most notorious offender. If they really wanted to make it look 2D, they should have actually animated it hand-drawn. Doing this just pulls me out of the moment. (Oddly enough, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does something very similar with its framerate, yet I don’t have any problem with that movie doing it.)

To be entirely fair, this is something that Aaron Ehasz has acknowledged. Apparently, season one was given a very low budget, and he has promised that season two will have a steadier framerate. Judging by the trailers I’ve seen for season two… yeah, it already looks way better. Also, with my second watch of season one, I found it much easier to look past. Maybe I was just used to it by then?

Assorted Other Stuff

Warning: This section goes into minor spoiler territory. I would highly advise not reading past this if you want to remain spoiler-free when you go into season one. Got it? Alright.

One other complaint I have had is the comedy, which is really hit-or-miss in a lot of places. As I mentioned before, the scenes where Rayla is disguised as a human are hilarious, and some of the snarky dialogue is also witty as hell, but there are other moments with awkward puns and some potty humor that just feel forced to me. There’s one scene in episode six where Callum is obviously having an erotic dream about Claudia, which seemed unfitting for this show… though to be fair, Avatar also had its share of adult humor.

See also.

Another awkward tidbit is that twice, when Ezran is about to use Bait’s ability to blind his enemies, he says the line, ���Say hello to my little friend,” an obvious shout-out to the classic 1983 gangster film Scarface. My question is, why is that line thrown in there? Are most kids going to catch that reference? Call me strange, but regardless of what adult fanbase this show will capture (which, let’s be honest, it will), I highly doubt its target audience is watching Brian De Palma films.

Though maybe they should be.

Speaking of strange homages… well… take a look. 

Your eyes don’t deceive you. Rayla is doing the infamous Naruto run, where you extend your arms out behind you as you run forward. And she and the other elves do this run multiple times during the show, too. It is neither practical nor particularly cool-looking, so I don’t know why this was done in the original show, and I genuinely hope this was only meant as an homage, because… again, it’s really damn silly.

The soundtrack of this show is rather nice, I will say. It’s not as memorable as Avatar or Gargoyles’, but I did find myself humming the end credits theme song after finishing watching. Speaking of which, during the credits, we get some cute drawings of the characters, some of which connect to the episode, others are apparently meant as foreshadowing for later episodes and plot points. If you watch this show, definitely do not skip the credits.

Now, as for stuff that I hope for the new season. I would like to know more about the cube that Callum and Rayla found at the winter lodge. It seems to have some kind of connection with the Primal Sources. Also, the mysterious magical mirror, I hope we can find out something about that. It was foreshadowed pretty heavily in episode eight, so I doubt they won’t do anything with it. Speaking of magic, I’d love to see Callum do more magic in the new season. It probably won’t be more wind magic, since he destroyed the sphere to birth the dragon, but Callum clearly has potential to become a great mage. Also, I would love to find out more about King Harrow’s past, as well as more about Callum and Ezran’s deceased mother, the Queen. We see Viren and Amaya mourning her by her gravesite in one scene, and Callum drawing her in another. How did she die? What was she like? These are all worthwhile questions for season two, or for future seasons after season two depending on how long the show goes for.

Conclusion

The Dragon Prince is a worthwhile watch. It’s nowhere near as great as Avatar or Gargoyles yet, and it is still clearly paving its own identity, but I still find it enjoyable enough and feel that it has potential for greatness. My main criticisms would be to up the animation quality and to develop the characters more, though my guess is that both will already happen in season two, which will be dropping later tomorrow, February 15.

But yeah, you have my attention, show. Don’t screw it up.

~Spaceman

[anonforlackofabettername]

Sleepover ask: Re the Dragon Prince. I've seen lots of people who seem to think that Claudia is going to be the Azula of the series - others think she'll be the Zuko. What are your thoughts? Related, do you agree with the large part of the fandom which thinks that dark magic is evil/corrupting, or the smaller part that thinks it's not that black and white?

My only fandom interaction is memes and fanart so I'm pretty removed from any theories that are floating around. I have no clue what the fandom is saying and if what I'm saying matches up with something that's already been said. That goes for both parts of your ask, though I’ll get to the dark magic stuff later. Part of me isn't even sure what you mean by the Azula of the series or the Zuko since I’m missing that meta. The way I'm choosing to interpret it, is that by Azula you mean a character who is frighteningly competent, a direct antagonist to the main heroes, and is the lesser shadow of the main antagonist that nevertheless hangs over the main heroes more often and arguably does more damage. I'm choosing to interpret it that by Zuko you mean a character who is slightly incompetent, spends the majority of the early parts of the story as a direct antagonist and the shadow hanging over the heads of the main heroes, but by the end of the story undergoes a redemption arc and joins the main heroes, eventually turning on the main antagonist and without whom the main heroes would not be able to win in the end. 

(This is fucking long so I’m adding a read more)

That being said, I don't think Claudia fits either of these. Neither does Soren. I think they maybe might fit Zuko's role, but that's a bit of a stretch. And I'm gonna say why. Claudia despite being a lovable goof in personality is frighteningly competent when it comes to magic. However magic in this universe comes with a lot of complications and components. Thus we don't get to see her expertise as often as we saw it with Zuko and Azula's firebending. Also a thing to keep in mind is that Claudia and Soren are friends with Ezran and Callum. Soren has been told to kill the princes, true, same with Claudia being told to bring back the egg, but they both care for the boys in a way that Zuko and Azula couldn't because to them the avatar was a nameless figure. These people grew up together. They share relationships. Callum even has a crush on Claudia. Its not like the foe yay sexual tension of Katara/Zuko. These people up to the start of the series lived with each other and saw each other every day. Soren was training Callum and was captain of Harrow's guard. There is a familiarity that you can't ignore and which I think will be a major conflict for Soren specifically, when we finally get to that confrontation and he has to either kill them or let them go. Right now they are supposed to be on a mission to bring the princes home which is the exact opposite of both Zuko and Azula's missions to kill Aang. However, that being said, they are on a mission to kill Reyna. Soren and Claudia showing up is a threat because they are a) trying to stop the princes from returning the egg, and b) they're likely to try and kill Reyna in the process.

However, the main heroes don't even know that Soren and Claudia are trying to find them. Aside from running from their Aunt and the run in with Crow, they don't know who is following them and what will happen if they get found. So its not like in Avatar where every couple of episodes they had to bolt out of wherever the adventure of the week was because Zuko showed up and was hunting them. They're mostly trying to get the egg, now a baby dragon, back to the border and his mother as soon as possible.

And again you have to take the world itself into account. Within the world, elves are the bad guys to humans. They kicked humans out of Xadia. They've killed hundreds in the war. They literally assassinated Harrow, though it is unclear if Ezran and Callum have realized their dad is dead. In fact Callum was convinced that Reyna drank blood, thats how much elves are the boogeymen of the human kingdoms. Now we know that’s not true and the elves were justified for parts of it, and both sides are equally guilty.  If you want to compare the show to Avatar so much, then think of it this way. The human kingdoms are the fire nation, the elves the Earth Kingdom, and Ezran and Callum have just realized how shitty their people have been to the rest of the world. In this case, that makes Ezran and Callum Zuko in the middle of his redemption arc, when he’s working through his shit while traveling the earth kingdom to get to Ba Sing Se, and Soren and Claudia are Azula towards the end of that arc when she's like ‘help me kill the avatar and I'll make sure our dick of a dad lets you come home.’ Only in this case killing the avatar is returning the egg. Its not a great metaphor, and its been a while since I've watched avatar, but that's the feeling I get overall. Its Zuko realizing that the Fire Nation has done some fucked up shit and feeling helpless to fix it because he’s just an exiled prince.

I’ve gotten very off topic at this point. Um, I think going back to the Zuko or Azula thing, I think it depends. It depends on what happens when they finally catch up with the boys. If Claudia is Zuko, she’ll see Zym with the boys, recognize it as a sentient creature that deserves life and to be reunited with his mother and help the boys. If she’s Azula she’ll see Zym as a threat to Katolis that could one day rival Thunder and decide he needs killing. And of course there’s always other options, those are just two potential outcomes and they don’t even include Soren and what he decides to do about what his dad told him to do.

Your other question was about dark magic.  I don't know if dark magic is inherently corrupting. If it is, I think we’ll definitely see evidence within the show. In general when it comes to fiction magic is magic, no matter its source. Sometimes sources are inherently evil while others are inherently good but for the most part its meh and magic just is and how people use it makes it good or evil. However, in this case, you can't ignore where dark magic comes from. It doesn't come from negative thoughts and feelings like the dark side of the force. It doesn't come from shadows or darkness like half a dozen different magic systems.

Dark magic in TDP comes from the direct exploitation of creatures with inherent magic. To use dark magic you need a plant or creature with inherent magic that the mage then twists and exploits to do what they want. To find the Moonshadow elves Viren used a moth. For the switching spell Virin used the two-headed snake. Claudia crushed a bug to create fire at Harrow’s funeral. Nothing about dark magic is innate, nothing about it is natural, and in fact it comes from exploiting natural creatures and resources. You are using the life force of a living being and generally its dead afterwards.

This isn’t important for things like plants or bugs or whatever. Yeah Claudia killed a bug and used its life to summon fire. Whatever, who here hasn’t killed bugs before? It starts to matter however when you’ve got people like Ezran who can talk to animals and understand what they’re saying. I’m sure being a glowtoad there’s a spell that Claudia could cast using Bait. That’s not okay since Bait is a pet as well as a living creature but if it happened to another glowtoad I doubt anyone would care. But since Ezran can talk to the animals, he does care because he knows the animals are not consenting. It also starts to matter when you have magical creatures that are sapient and intelligent enough to put their foot down and say I will not let you exploit me like this.

So I don’t know if dark magic is inherently corrupting, but the idea of using creatures is an inherently dehumanizing and corrupting one. To dark mages, these animals, and even the elves and dragons and any other magical creatures that we haven’t met yet, are less than human and exploitable. To Virin and Claudia the egg wasn’t a baby, it wasn’t a person, the egg was a weapon. Because to them dragons, magical creatures, and the like are tools and weapons. This has got some serious race implications because the last time we thought of an entire class of people as tools we had slavery and it was legal.  

To use dark magic, you have to be in this mindset that people are tools to be exploited. I have no idea what dark magic using an elf’s life force or a dragon’s life force would look like. I’m sure its possible, and I’m sure I wouldn’t like the result. There is a reason the elves took one look at dark magic and said ‘not today satan’ and decided it was a severe enough crime to exile the entire human race from Xadia. They were not about to let themselves be used. There is a reason the elves are the boogeymen of Katolis and the rest of the human kingdoms and part of that is they’re the enemy and part of that is if they are monsters, if they aren’t human, then no one will care what abuses happen to them.

So no, I don’t think using dark magic is inherently corrupting. I don’t think the magic itself corrupts. However I do think that to use dark magic, one must look at the world through a corrupted lens. You must be okay with harming living creatures to accomplish what you want, and you must be okay exploiting others. Anyone who believes in the intelligence and personhood of all creatures and then uses dark magic is either ignorant or a hypocrite. When it comes to Claudia, I think she’s partially a hypocrite and partially doesn’t see how what she’s doing is harmful and wrong. She sees only the potential of dark magic, and hasn’t yet realized what she’s harming to get her way.