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madou-dilou · 1 month ago

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Thoughts on the moral imbalance between humans and Xadia

*The Dragon Prince* presents itself as a story about breaking cycles of violence, about two civilizations learning to coexist, about individuals rising above history’s mistakes. "Breaking the cycle", "Narrative of love instead of narrative of strength". The most symbolic quote of the show being Janai's "I define history. History doesnt make me." On paper, it seems like a fair exploration of war, prejudice, and reconciliation. But beneath this veneer of balance lies a troubling asymmetry: while the worldbuilding suggests an even conflict, the *moral weight* of the story is disproportionately placed on humans.

And I wondered I felt that way, because as a matter of fact, the show does not hesitate to depict Xadian cruelty on multiple occasions.

So I think it has less to do with the message than the execution.

That it's actually completely unintended.

We see it from the very first episode, where humans are driven from their lands in an act of ethnic cleansing. We see it in Runaan's unrepentant racism, in Avizandum’s and Sol Regem's indiscriminate slaughter, in Keesha’s fiery wrath she unleashes in the name of justice on every human she comes accross, in Karim’s supremacist ideology, in Finnegrin's torture of Rayla, in Kim Dael's literal thirst for blood. Xadia is not a utopia.

And yet, these acts of violence, these crimes against humanity, are never truly confronted.

They are treated as regrettable but understandable, the result of individuals rather than a systemic pattern of oppression. Well, Karim's arc, is an attempt at portraying that systemic oppression for he actually has plenty of followers within the population of sunfire elves, but it sadly doesn't suffice for it's treated as violence feeding itself, and the human protagonists themselves convienently never face racism.

Human violence, on the other hand, is never just an individual failing—it is a reflection of humanity itself.

When Viren, Claudia and Callum turn to dark magic, it is not just their personal descent but a cautionary tale about human ambition and desperation. When Soren attempts to take down a dragon that just burned a town to the ground, he is framed as part of the problem, a cog in the ever-turning wheel of revenge. When the protagonists we're suposed to root for chop the childhood friend's leg off, no one among them gives a damn because she's a dark mage. Even Ezran, a child who has never harmed anyone, spends much of his time trying to *prove* that humans deserve a place in the world, as if their right to exist in peace is something that must be earned. When thousands of humans get killed at the end of season 3, they happen to have convienently turned into monsters by their leader Viren, so it's portrayed as the necessary victory of good over evil, with no reflection at all upon the weight of their ugly deaths in a show that prides itself on being anti-war!

Hundreds thousands of humans are killed by a human in an anti-War show and it's presented as a victory of good over evil. What lesson are we supposed to learn from this?

There is no clearer example of this imbalance than Callum’s relationship with magic. Dark magic uses organic matter to function but is portrayed as morally unforgivable no matter the circumstances, even when it doesn't kill or provoke pain to get fueled, for it's vaguely supposed to evoke all the bad versants of "exploitation", concepts like scientism, pollution or rape. Yet as far as anyone knows, dark magic is the *only* way for humans to wield the forces of the world. It is dangerous, yes, but so is every form of power in Xadia—it is no more inherently evil than a dragon's ability to burn someone alive or an elf's ability to suck someone's blood dry. And yet, when Callum is forced to use dark magic to save his friends, the act is treated as so vile, so soul-destroying, that he spirals into suicidal despair. His use of dark magic is not just a mistake—it is a *moral failure*, a stain on his very being. He crushed two already dead corpses of slugs but his soul is somehow stained almost beyond repair.

But when Callum somehow gains an Arcanum, the kind of magic elves and dragons are simply *born with*, it is framed as an evolution, something to be celebrated. Never mind that the Ocean Arcanum was just shown to be capable of torturing a girl to death. Never mind that moon magic was used in episode one to force a child to kill an even younger child. Never mind that humans have spent centuries barely surviving, with dark magic as their only tool in a world designed to exclude them. Callum uses on Claudia the Ventus Frigoris spell that was previously used in front of him to torture Rayla, and I only noticed that because a fan pointed it out : it's not addressed.

I would add that all though the show starts and presents itself as a nuanced exploration of war, oppression, and cycles of violence, its underlying framework is actually an ecological parable. Instead of examining human conflicts with complexity, the show depicts a world where humans represent destructive civilization, while magical beings—especially dragons and elves—embody a lost natural harmony.

The story frames humans as inherently greedy and short-sighted, their struggle for survival reduced to exploitation. Dark magic serves as a metaphor for environmental destruction—presented not as a tool that can be used responsibly, but as an inherently corrupting force. Meanwhile, magical creatures are positioned as righteous victims, their own wars and greed either ignored or excused.

Meanwhile, human suffering—starvation, war, or displacement—is dismissed as self-inflicted.

The show frames humans as an unnatural force that disrupts the balance of the world. They are the only sapient beings who cannot wield primal magic, and their only means of survival is through dark magic—metaphorized as industrial exploitation. This framing strips them of moral complexity; their struggles are not seen as political, social, or even practical, but as a fundamental flaw in their very nature.

This bias is explicitly voiced through characters like Keesha, an elf who spits out her racist belief that all humans are parasites. The show never challenges her view—instead, it validates it visually and narratively. Viren, a human who embodies intelligence and ambition, is transformed as she speaks into a literal parasite monster through dark magic, reinforcing the idea that human striving is inherently corrupting.

The series does not invite viewers to see the human perspective. Viren’s desperation to save Katolis from famine is not explored as a tragic necessity but condemned as villainous. When Ezran is challenged, it's either by angry morons or people who are left off-screen. Visually and narratively, the show reinforces this bias. In season 7, when Ezran finally considers defending Katolis from dragon attacks, the cinematography echoes earlier scenes depicting Viren’s villainy. The message is clear: even self-defense is framed as morally suspect when it is humans who do it.

The narrative does not care about these contradictions. According to it, dark magic is human, and therefore a corruption. The Arcanum is Xadian, and therefore a gift.

I don't mind the contradictions itself, but the way the show doesn't adress it : for example, Runaan, who, as an efficient assassin whose credo consists on taking as little lives as possible lives while respecting life's inner value, also happens to have been tortured, should revile useless suffering. He could tell Callum to stop torturing Claudia, and Callum refuses to, arguing, to Runaan's horror, it's a necessity : therefore Viren's logic of "necessary sacrifices" isn't just a byproduct of dark magic but is applicable to any sort of power.

Viren saves Katolis with the exact spell he used to protect his soldiers from the fire, and which back then had allowed the protagonists to kill all of them without a second thought -yet as the spell is revealed to actually have no dehumanizing effect at all, the protagonists conveniently never are put in front of this and therefore never face the implication : it means they actually did kill real people back then at the battle of the Storm Spire, and their peace was built on ground saturated with blood they spilled. I'm repeating myself, but I wouldn't mind this if the show took time to address that. And since it doesn't, it's clearly unintended.

Another example of that is the way no one wonders what Callum's access to magic, or the Cosmic order's murder of Leola, means. Everyone thought human magic was impossible up until this point, and Ezran reveals in a dialog after the timeskip that it's now known that Callum actually isn't the first. This discovery completely changes how the power imbalance between Xadians and humans was thought of : turns out it isn't natural, but orchestrated by the Cosmic Order. But the show doesn't seem to realize this at all.

It is not that TDP paints Xadians as perfect -it really doesn't, but that it never truly demands introspection from them. An angry mob chases Rayla down because she is an Elf, but the moonshadow children (whom we have all reason to think are being raised by the same "Nothing in humans is worth mercy" principles as Runaan was), are somehow absolutely adorable to Callum because systematic prejudice apparently doesn't exist in Xadia. When Ezran preaches peace, it is always humanity that must rise to the occasion. When Viren falls, his downfall is treated as the natural consequence of human arrogance. When Zubeia, the widow of a king who murdered countless humans, steps in to help the heroes, she is never asked to even acknowledge her people’s past crimes. She is simply accepted.

The show *does* depict Xadian atrocities (the ethnic cleansing of humans, the unprovoked burning of towns, Avizandum's indiscriminate slaughters), but these events are not treated as a moral burden for Xadia to bear. In contrast, human violence is always tied to questions of morality, accountability, and cycles of vengeance. When Viren commits atrocities, they are framed as moral failings that demand consequences. When Avizandum, a random red dragon or even Ezran kills humans (he kind of tried to burn thousands of people alive), it is either ignored, excused, or at best framed as an unfortunate necessity. Sol Regem is the only dragon portrayed as a monster. Zubeia, despite her attempts at killing Harrow and Ezran that kickstarted the shows, is never once portrayed as having any *moral obligation* to recognize this crime or even human suffering. Ezran straight-up defends Aviandum's massacres, saying it was all to protect Xadia, and no one bats an eye, not even Callum, who lost Sarai at his hands as she was preventing a famine he caused. Plus, Callum sadly actually knew her, on contrary to Ezran.

The season 2 scene where a dragon burns a human town is one of the most glaring examples of this bias. The dragon’s actions are never explained, never questioned, and never even *remembered* by anyone. Soren, who wants to kill the dragon *after* it has already committed mass murder for no reason, is framed as the real problem.

Viren, for all his hubris, eventually spends three seasons agonizing over his remorse, failures, self-hatred and desperation. Soren acknowledges his wrongs and grows from them. Even Claudia shows guilt over what she does. But no Xadians express remorse over the sufferings of humans, including literal ethnic cleansing. Karim is too much of an idiot, constantly humiliated and getting a ridiculously funny death, to be a believable threat; and Janai never seems to struggle against her own old prejudice, it's just gone.

Xadians are allowed to move on from their history without reckoning with it. Humans are not. And so, despite its gestures toward nuance, *The Dragon Prince* remains a story where only one side is asked to do reflective criticism.

Mind you, I wouldn't mind any of that if it were intentional. I would even praise it. It would then show incredible protagonists whose naivete fails to acknowledge that peace isn't peace if only the side that is still a victim of a huge imbalance of power reflects and atones.

The show, in Arc II, almost succeeds in this when portraying Ezran's failed diplomatic feast. But since anyone who opposes Ezran either is portrayed as a brat (Viren, Kaseef, Karim) or not given a voice or even an appearance at all (who tore this portrait and why?), it fails - but how are we supposed to understand Soren's side when he says anyone who disagrees with Ezran's policy deserves to be eaten by Zubeia?

And the show almost succeeded in portraying complexity when Ezran himself, hit in his heart twice in a row when Sol destroyed his home and Runaan was set free without first taking accountability, eventually takes measures to ensure Xadia never attacks again (the show even frames him in similar angles and words than Viren). But it comes way too late.

And the show almost succeeds at portraying complexity when the archdragons are given an entire memorial in the cemetery of their victims but Viren's very name is entirely erased while he just sacrificed himself saving Katolis - and also prevented literal famines. It is a golden opportunity to reflect upon selective memory. But since that erasure, all though carefully thought out as a punishment for Viren by the narrative, is never addressed or brought upon by any of the characters (I don't know, something like, "He did great things. Terrible things, but great things as well." "However controversial he was, he did save us more than once" "Are you mad? Others might be tempted to follow his example." "I agree. This is something we have the duty to prevent. We can't let the future generations abide by his justifications and crimes." "Crown guard Soren, what are your thoughts on this matter?" "Do as you see fit. This ... man... wasn't my father. Whatever his legacy is, I will have no part in it."), it instead feels like it's so obvious it shouldn't even be discussed. Granted, the show does the same with Karim, who justifies his supremacist views appealing to History, only to be crushed by it as a really fun gag. But since Viren actually had a point, on contrary to Karim, his erasure feels unfair.

However, I just did a huge generalization... for have to adress the case of Runaan!

Runaan, as an assassin who carried out Xadian orders, is the *only* Xadian character who is truly forced to reckon with his actions. He killed Harrow not as a lone rogue actor as I thought until season 7 since Zubeia's role is completely ignored, but as an agent of Xadian authority—Zubeia’s authority. And yet, when the time comes for accountability, he is alone in his guilt.

Runaan's guilt is genuine, a weight he carries throughout. He doesn’t ask to be excused. He acknowledges that the culture he was raised in was toxic. He doesn’t demand that Ezran absolve him. He simply acknowledges what he has done and begs for forgiveness, fully aware that he may never receive it. This is, ironically, the *most balanced* approach to morality the show has ever taken.

But it comes too late. Seven seasons too late. And worse, it is *undone* by the revelation that Harrow was alive all along. What could have been a powerful moment—a Xadian finally confronting the weight of their actions, without excuse or justification—is cheapened by the show’s refusal to let the consequences be real. If Harrow is still alive, then Runaan didn’t truly take anything irreparable from anyone.

And so the show wastes its one opportunity to truly explore Xadian accountability. Runaan is an outlier, a singular case that never expands into a larger conversation. Meanwhile, Zubeia, who is the one who gave Runaan the order to kill Harrow, is never asked to answer for it. She remains the benevolent dragon queen, taxi-driving the protagonists while avoiding any real introspection -aside from a short story. Ezran is the one who has to do all the diplomacy work.

If *The Dragon Prince* had committed to this moment earlier then perhaps the show could have made good on its premise of breaking cycles. But instead, it falls into its old habit: absolving Xadians without demanding growth, while humans continue to bear the weight of history alone. Humans who commit atrocities are framed as reflections of humanity’s *inherent* tendency toward war and destruction. For example, the very late reveal in Book 7 that it was the humans that devastated their own lands because of their greed feels like an attempt at ignoring the ethnic cleansing and oppression Xadia submitted them to in the first place.

In season 6, we are told the story of how Leola got murdered by the Cosmic Order a few centuries ago because she taught Primal Magic to humans. This knowledge was erased, leaving Aaravos as its sole bearer : yet despite Callum's status as the first human wielding Primal Magic for centuries, this discovery never is shown to recontextualize the past and recent history between Xadians and Humans, and Callum's safety is never compromised by the Cosmic Order. And the heroes are never shown as to unknowingly enforce an unfair status-quo. As they are fighting Aaravos, they are simply portrayed as defeating Evil. The Cosmic Order never appears or reacts to any of Aaravos or Callum's actions, leaving us to wonder if Aaravos just made them up so Claudia and the viewer would side with him.

And then, there’s Viren. The character who has borne the *entire* moral weight of the show’s conflict from the very beginning. The one who suffers, agonizes, and ultimately dies twice—first as a so-called “Disney villain,” then as a broken man who finally understands the cost of his choices. But even in his lowest moments, even in his most genuine sacrifices, the show never gives him a pass.

In Arc I, he was a clear victim of the Magneto syndrome, the narrative trick where a character fighting against oppression is deliberately villainized to prevent the audience from engaging with their ideas. Viren, despite being the only character who directly challenges Xadia’s superiority, is not ultimately not allowed to remain the nuanced character he was first portrayed as. Instead, he is turned into a *Disney villain*, complete with glowing eyes, sadism, Nazi references and sinister smiles, so that his ideology can be dismissed without true debate. His valid criticisms of Xadian arrogance, his recognition of the inherent power imbalance between humans and elves, his warnings that peace is impossible when one side is forced to *earn* its existence—all of it is buried under the weight of his aesthetic villainy.

This is why his death at the end of the first arc is the moment the show brushes aside all of Xadia’s wrongs, all its atrocities, in the name of peace. With Viren gone, with the “evil human” defeated and all of his convienently monsterified humans killed, the story no longer has to acknowledge the legitimacy of his fears. There is no reckoning for the ethnic cleansing of humanity. No reflection on how Xadians have treated humans as disposable. No examination of the *reasons* that led Viren to act in the first place. His death is not just the end of his character—it is the *erasure* of his argument. When the exact thing Viren was fearing eventually happens to the capital in season 6, all though Ezran in season 7 does finally acknowledge that maybe it's not a good idea to have no protection when your immediate neighbors are dragons, he is framed in evil angles as he is taking dispositions.

Viren is not allowed to move on from his mistakes the way Xadians are. He is never given the luxury of having his violence framed as an unfortunate necessity, despite constantly refering to this concept. His use of dark magic, even when it is to *save lives*, is treated as an unforgivable sin - he only needed Lissa's tears to save their dying boy and the show had the audacity to frame that as rape, while Callum’s acquisition of an Arcanum—something that should be equally terrifying, given how we’ve seen it used for torture—is treated as a glorious evolution.

Unlike Zubeia, unlike Janai, unlike any Xadian character who has benefited from systemic oppression with the exception of Runaan, Viren is expected to bear his sins until the very end. As he asks for anyone to listen to him after he learned the errors of his ways, he is told he doesn't deserve any mercy. He started his last season finally free yet ends it trapped in a cell, framed as a butterfly caught in a spider's web, spiraling in further despair. He decides to burn his note to Soren, where he explains his guilt, and thus carries it with him to the grave. And after he sacrificed himself to save a city, he is eventually completely forgotten by history, not even getting mentioned by any of the characters while the Archdragons have an entire memorial built in a cemetery full of their victims. I understand putting past grievances behind, but what would Xadians think of a memorial to Viren built right in the middle of Lux Aurea?

Killing the princes, the false-flag operation, destroying Lux, all that was bad. I'm not saying he was right on everything. But the show won't really acknowledge that he was actually right on *anything*. The truth—the one the show refuses to fully acknowledge—is that Viren was right about far more than the story allows. He was right about dark magic being humanity’s only means of survival, right about the hypocrisy of Xadian arrogance, right about the *inevitability* of conflict when one side is forced to constantly prove its worth. And yet, even as the world validates his warnings, even as the destruction he predicted comes to pass in season VI, he remains the villain. Ezran is framed similarly as he was, using the same shot composition, poses and vocabulary but no one ever says "Damn, he actually had a point." Because TDP was never interested in truly engaging with his perspective—it only ever wanted him to serve as a cautionary tale to this lesson :

It's not the oppressors who must reckon with their people's crimes but the oppressed who must prove themselves deserving of peace.

The show doesn’t even seem aware of what it is doing. It is not an assumed narrative choice that would say "Two obstacles to peace there are : prejudice on both sides, and when only one side agrees to make concessions." No, this bias is accidental and that’s what makes it so frustrating.

It's so terribly sad because I think it's completely unintended.

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