#it would mirror soren stabbing viren in season 3

[stardustamaryllis78]

Why can I see a scene happening in season 7 where there's a confrontation between Soren, Aaravos and Claudia and Soren is like "Get away from my sister, Aarvados!" and then he stabs him

But my guy Aaravos is an immortal being and Soren's mortal sword stabbing him is kind of just a ticklish like feeling to him and Aaravos is just like "How cute"

Soren internally "cruuddddddddddddddddddddddd"

[raayllum]

Hi, love your blog! I was just wondering how you think Callum and Rayla would react to Ezran telling them about Claudia and Viren's illusion at the end of season 3? Do you think they'd instantly get protective/angry or would one of then maybe try to comfort Ezran first? I've just been thinking about it for a while because I haven't seen much discussion about Ezran's trauma from the event. (Ik Soren told Rayla about it in ttm, but I don't think he mentioned Ezran's involvement with it)

Sorry for such a long ask!

Hello & thank you for your kind words! Ez is one of my favourite characters in the whole show and I always love to talk about him more <3

So I've actually written a few pieces that touch on Ezran and trauma, but most of them were posted like... over a year ago so they are buried in my tags perhaps, but?

Ezran (+ Soren) post s3 oneshot with some trauma on both sides

Ezran reflecting on his relationship with Viren after s3

Answering an ask about Ezran's likely PTSD + @legend-of-the-fandoms then wrote a piece about Aanya supporting Ezran through it

Ezran's possible thoughts / feelings regarding the Leap and Through the Moon (as we'll be doing the reverse down below soon enough)

A great @jellyjay ficlet of Rayla and Ezran being there for each other after the war

it's a shorter scene, but @blutopaz15 ch3 of "clean slate" has rayllum explaining the leap to soren & ez, with soren & ez explaining what happened right back. lots of big feelings all around

how trauma would possibly manifest for all four of the castle kids (including ezran) plus rayla

why the boys appear to be coping better in TTM than rayla is

In case you are interested.

As for how I think Callum and Rayla would react to the whole "illusion Viren conjured by Claudia almost stabbing Ezran and Soren stabbing Viren to stop it," thing? Oof, it'd be a lot - and I'm gonna work under the assumption both Ez and Soren are in the room explaining it too

Rayla's chest would get steadily tighter the second the boys explain that Ezran found 'Viren' on the battlefield, because she knows it's not him, but they wouldn't be telling the story with such grave faces if it was a moot point, so what went wrong? (Is possibly what gets the thought in her head of wanting to find Viren's body at all, and growing more distressed when they don't.)

I think Ezran would get to the fact Viren almost stabbed him before Callum, who has been listening sadly and silently and a little anxiously, pulls his brother to him and starts fussing. Like in 3x06 with "Are you hurt? Let me look at you" but a million times worse. Rayla gasps with a hand over her mouth, no tears but she’s close, eyes stinging. Ezran reassures both of them but especially that his brother that he’s fine, and becomes a little overwhelmed by all the fussing (it’s crowding and he’s emotional too) and semi-angrily bursts how Soren resolved the situation.

Callum calms, a bit, but he still keeps an arm wrapped around Ezran while Ezran and Soren talk/explain. Rayla takes one of each of their hands, probably. She looks at Soren while he talks and sees a vivid, clear mirror image of herself, and they have a unique understanding from that day forth.

Callum also looks at Soren with new eyes, and is a lot more relaxed around letting Soren and Ez hang out one-on-one / trusting Soren wholly with Ezran’s safety in general, because he knows the lengths Soren is willing to go to, now, are the same as his own. 

As for why I think they all must know, Rayla isn’t surprised at all that Soren killed his father, so she clearly knew - and why would she know but not Callum? Moreover, I don’t think Soren could drop a bomb like that and not be asked “Why did you do it” (out of concern, nothing accusatory) and he’d say for Ezran, and well, they can all understand that. So I think everyone who would presumably knows, knows. 

[battlekidx2]

The Dragon Prince Rewatch Thoughts and Ideas About the Future

Since season 3 is right around the corner I have decided to rewatch the first 2 seasons of the dragon prince. And the show was better upon a rewatch than I remember it being. Knowing certain things that are going to happen changes how you read scenes near the beginning and allows you to notice the seeds for future events or character choices. There is a scene in the second episode, before we are told of Rayla’s fear and dislike of water, where she is determined to set her mistakes right and she gets to a river and hesitates, gathers her berrings, and then crosses. This scene is only a couple of seconds long, if that, but you can tell that she is wary of water even before you’re told. There are plenty more moments like this and it astounded me while I was watching. 

The pacing also feels better while rewatching. When I first saw the dragon prince I remember thinking the pacing felt off. In some moments it was really fast while others it was really slow. I’m typically not that affected by pacing, but there were certain moments that I felt needed more time to develop that were rushed through and some that were given too much time that weren’t that important to the story. I still think that some moments were rushed, but the slower moments fit a lot better now. For example when I first watched season 1 I was genuinely surprised that it ended at episode 9. It didn’t feel like a finale at the time, but going immediately into season 2 felt a lot more organic.

Now to get into talking about my thoughts on the show as a whole. And my predictions for the future.

Characters:

Rayla- Rayla is my personal favorite character. Our introduction to her manages to showcase the characteristics of her that will become the driving force of the story, her compassion which clashes with her mission and immense skill. It only takes a single scene to set up her most important characteristics to the story. It was interesting to learn how her culture affects the way she sees herself and the people around her. And how it lead to her negatively viewing herself because compassion and fear are frowned upon. She also didn’t just get over her bias against humans. Her view changes gradually and her decision to travel with the princes didn’t come from her being more enlightened than other elves, but from her unique set of circumstances with her past and inner conflict. The writing of Rayla managed to impress me yet again while watching the show. I couldn’t believe that they managed to create a character that was able to organically kick start the plot without neglecting the societal biases that would affect her character. I believe Rayla is a really well written character that has a lot of potential to grow. We will probably get to explore a lot of it in season 3. I hope to get her backstory and a greater expansion of Moonshadow elf culture now that her and Callum are in Xadia.

Callum- Callum really becomes a great character in season 2. Season 1 felt like it was setup for his character and season 2 was the season where he actually got to shine. His insecurities and disposition made for an interesting, yet predictable, starting point that was enhanced by how well it juxtaposed with Rayla’s insecurities and personality. They used it to create an interesting dynamic between the two. This insecurity lead to him gaining an intense focus on magic, because it was the first thing he felt he excelled at, until he finally learns how to perform it without a primal stone or resorting to dark magic. This also lead to a juxtaposition between him and Claudia, which I have no doubt will be explored more in depth later. Claudia is falling farther and farther down the hole that is dark magic and becoming over reliant on its “quick fix” nature, while Callum is taking the long path to learning primal magic which seems to be a safer, longer term fix than dark magic. Callum is a character I find the most interesting when he is mirroring other characters. He manages to put the journeys of others into a different perspective.

Claudia and Soren- These are the characters, other than Rayla, that I think will benefit the most from season 3. There is a lot of setup with their relationship between their father, the princes, and each other. They seem to be set up to take different paths within the third season to either follow their father or find some sort of redemption. Soren is the one with the most interesting relationship to their father in that, while Claudia ultimately seems to care more for her brother’s well being than their father’s opinion of her as shown with her decision to save Soren not the “egg” during her moment of truth, Soren wants so badly to make their father proud that when he’s paralyzed he’s happy because now he can’t do the bad things he felt he had to do to make his father proud. This moment changed the way I saw his character. He no longer seemed mean spirited or “evil”. And it lead to me believing that he could be heading toward a path of redemption where he eventually breaks free of his father’s influence. Claudia on the other hand has relied more and more on dark magic to where she will find herself at a crossroads where she will acknowledge the negative aspects of dark magic and choose either to continue down the rabbit hole or reject it. I want to believe that Claudia will make the decision to reject dark magic, but I have the feeling that Claudia and Soren will find themselves on separate paths where Soren will reject their father and try to save Claudia from herself and Claudia will continue down her path of dark magic and by association down the path of her father’s acceptance, at least initially. She is characterized as someone who cares a lot about the people close to her and she will do anything for them, so I think in the end she will make the right choice unless something drastic happens.

Ezran- The final member of our trio. He’s the character who’s future I’m the least sure of/have the least ideas of where it can go. He’s finally grown enough to stop running from his problems like he did so many times before, but he hasn’t shown an affinity for leading, mostly due to his young age, which leads me to believe he won’t hold the throne for very long in season 3. Ezran running from his problems and him liking hide and seek become sort of intertwined. In the first episode Ezran plays hide and seek with Bait and later runs away to hide in the secret tunnels in the castle when Callum harshly told him the truth about the moonshadow assassins. Later in season 2 he plays hide and seek with Bait and Zym while Callum and Rayla are defending the dragon, which he realizes was a bad idea when he can’t find Zym. He later “runs” away after learning the truth about his father’s death, but actually goes to talk with Claudia to go back and take the throne. The realization that hide and seek was a bad idea can be paralleled with his realization that he can’t run and hide from his responsibilities like he tried to before. Him actually playing hide and seek with someone other than Bait, who is easily found, made him realize that “hiding” actually created more problems, possibly losing Zym, than it solved, combating boredom. This was an interesting parallel I found on my second rewatch that once again hints at what is going to happen before it actually happens.

Story:

The dragon prince is a show that finds its basis in darker themes such as the cycles of war and vengeance, societal bigotry, that neither side is entirely just in war, etc. These are all heavy themes that the dragon prince handles surprisingly well. The pilot episode alone shows all of these things directly and doesn’t shy away. It ends with King Harrow and all the elven assassins but Runnan dead with Rayla, Callum, and Ezran on the run in hopes that while they have lost today they may be able to stop future all out war if they manage to accomplish a near insurmountable task with everyone seemingly against them. There isn’t a victory, just a quiet desperation that they must succeed later. This is very different from most animated shows aimed at the same demographic. This starts out dark and then gets lighter then slowly becomes even darker than before. Shows I’ve seen this compared to like Avatar: the Last Airbender, the Legend of Korra, etc all had much lighter pilot episodes before delving into much darker territory. This sets the bar right out of the gate. The story does a much better job than a lot of cartoons I’ve seen at dealing with the messiness of war. Both the humans and elves have done bad things in the name of “justice” and the show acknowledges this instead of naming a side that is “right”. This is rare in shows that thrive off of good vs evil. With the dragon prince no one seems truly evil. Even with Viren, who is the closest to a big bad this show has, is steeped in shades of grey. This is the major thing that sets the dragon prince apart from its contemporaries. The basic premise of the story is pretty straightforward and something that has been done before, but the way it does it is unique.

 It’s a bit hard to put into words all the things I think about the dragon prince, but this is my best stab at it. It looks like the dragon prince will continue to raise the stakes with this upcoming season and become darker and more morally nuanced with the upcoming season. I’m really excited for season 3 to release and hope it manages to continue the great things that it has done with its previous two seasons

[canvaswolfdoll]

CanvasWatches: The Dragon Prince (Season 3)

And we’re back! Since the last batch of episodes… my life has changed very little. Dog’s still adorable. D&D campaigns keep stalling due to lack of time or interest of others. Not producing any of my own epic projects.

Yup.

The third season continues its trends of subverting tropes with kind of a lackluster pay off, while playing other tropes benignly straight. We finally get into Xadia, which has some interesting fauna. But even the character writing is starting to wear a bit thin. Everyone’s been settled into their roles and personalities, and few characters get to interact with others they hadn’t previously.

So, same recommendation level as last time: watch it if you have time and/or have been following it, but it’s not a major tragedy if you don’t.

We open the season with backstory for the inventor of Dark Magic, Ziard, and a former Dragon King, Sol Regem. Sol Regem wants Ziard to stop with the dark magic. Ziard is like ‘we humans don’t have naturally occurring magic, this is literally our only way to defend ourselves from you magical folk.’ to which Sol Regem responds “Stop it or I’ll raze your home city.”

So Ziard sacrifices himself and a few birds to blind Sol Regem and saved the city.

Which means the founder of Dark Magic is a good guy, and Dark Magic may not be inherently bad, and this is what I wanted and I’m sure I’ll be deprived of the conclusion once the series actually ends.

So, what are the arcs for the various teams?

Well, Team Escort lost Ezran, so it’s just Callum and Rayla making googly eyes at one another and becoming an official couple about half way through the season. I appreciate them not dragging the romantic subplot any further than necessary, and even granting us half a season to watch them be love birds, but it also smoothed out their dynamic, cutting down on the banter they once had. I miss their quips.

Team King (Ezran, Opeli, Corvus) are dealing with Ezran’s new authority and Viren being Viren. It’s nice to watch Ehran’s morals being tested, and showing that doing the right thing can be more difficult than just going to war. There’s political maneuvering that, in a more complex show, would’ve had more grey areas, but it’s mostly just Team King versus Team Viren.

Speaking of Team Viren, he picked up Aaravos and Prince Kasef, so Viren in no longer alone! He is also no longer in charge, as without King Harrow to set goals, Viren lets Aaravos call the shots. Viren is remarkably easy to lead. Viren’s actual goals also seem murkier than previous seasons. He clearly wants power, but I no longer know to what end. Is he avenging Ziard? Does he want world domination? To bring Humanity to greater heights? Or is he just a more active Lord Ozai? Regardless, his moral ambiguity is out, and I miss it.

Finally, Team Dark (Claudia and Soren). Turns out, I got their meta roles backwards in the first season review! Claudia is the loyal Azula to Viren’s Ozai, while Soren is the Zuko. I am disappointed by this arrangement, because watching Claudia’s descent into evil means she gets less funny moments, and I don’t think Soren can shoulder the full Zuko arc. Also, fear of making big changes prevents the narrative from doing anything really interesting.

The third season has a heavy case of fast travel. What took Team Escort three seasons to cover is now done by full armies in three episodes. There’s a giant sea in the way, remember? And a lava flow? Characters travel back and forth with remarkable ease for people without Rheairds.

After Viren’s rather drastic actions last season lands him in a cell after sending out magically created assassins with only the voice of a mysterious Startouch Elf named Aaravos, who is such an obvious example of what Viren would be if he were totally self-motivated that I’m astounded that Viren hasn’t ditched him, Ezran has kind of a mess to handle upon assuming the throne. The other four human kingdoms want to avenge their murdered/injured rulers, but Ezra doesn’t want to continue the cycle of violence, which is good in theory, but Prince Kasef is pushy and is willing to wage war of Ezran’s kingdom if necessary.

Also, Ezran spares Claudia and Soren from sharing their father’s fate, because that would be a jerk move. Team Dark confronts Viren about his secret missions, and Viren elects to burn his relationship with Soren to maintain the loyalty of Claudia.[1]

All this ends with Viren taking the throne (again) and Ezran taking a bird to rejoin Team Escort.

Now in charge, Viren’s like ‘I’m in charge of all the human armies now!’ and all the human armies are like “Checks out.”

But first, he needs to keep his end of the trade he made with Ezran, and lets soldiers opt out if they’d like. But they have to wear a broken chain patch to mark their cowardice. You’d think this would lead to a subplot about those who abandon the mission being shunned, but that would require more than nine episodes worth of time, so it’ll pay off at the very end instead.

What about Team Escort? Well, Callum and Rayla are finally being forced to confront their unresolved romantic tension as they keep walking towards their goal.

Initially, Rayla’s trauma of being unpersoned by her hometown acts as a nice distraction. I mean, sure, you sent a literal child to kill another younger child, and used a vague sort of magic tracking to decide she abandoned the mission as opposed to unforeseen events transpiring, but, sure, Night Elf knock-offs, make her a ghost in her own home town. You jerks.

Rayla eventually gets to talk with her Uncle’s husband, who only offers to send an advance message to the Dragon Queen and not, you know, telling the rest of town Rayla’s on an even better and less murdery mission and maybe we should reperson her?

Does anyone think of ways to resolve more than one problem at a time? Or think laterally? Is… is that why this fictional history is the way it is? Literally only three kids are able to conceive of consequences of their actions? That should be the adults jobs!

Mirroring the inland sea from last season, Xadia has a giant black sand desert with deadly zombifying snakes and hot sand. So that’s fun.

Luckily, a Skywing elf named Nyx has a giant lumbering camel to transport them over two days. She’s here to kidnap Zym under the theory of a reward, but I love her design and character so she better come back!

Maybe throw her into the Teen Girl Rogue Squad I want. She’d play off Amaya well.

Anyways, the trip is enough for Callum and Rayla to finally decide to be an item. So they’re an item with half the season to go.

Which, cool, we get to actually watch a relationship develop beyond the ‘We’re dating now’ point, but there isn’t actually down time to dig into that, so instead Callum and Rayla bicker less and it’s lame.

But Ezran took a moon phoenix, so he’s caught up. Time to climb a mountain!

Oh, by the way, Amaya got taken prisoner by Sunfire elves, acquires an elf girlfriend abruptly, and escapes with her to join Team Escort. Whoo.[2]

Team Viren plus Dark lead their army to the Sunfire Capital so Viren can steal a staff to forcibly upgrade his forces, and Soren finally decides enough is enough, and flees to join Team Escort while Claudia converts fully to Team Viren. Now, Claudia doubling down on her loyalty to her father is disappointing for a number of reasons, but, again, a later thought.

Anyways, Team Escort has gotten to the Dragon Queen, but she’s in a despair coma, and they get information an army is coming, so guess it’s time to prepare for war?

War ensues. It looks bad for our heroes for a bit, but then reinforcements bearing the banner of the broken link appears to flip off Viren specifically.

Good guys win the battle. During clean up, Ezra stumbles upon Viren, who threatens to kill him, but Soren shows up to defend Ezra. Then Cluaida shows up to make this tragedy even more Shakespearan.

Soren stabs his father, but it’s just an illusion.

Which is the first major missed opportunity. Yes, Viren[3] has a confrontation to have with Rayla and Callum in the Dragon Queen’s lair, but I think this confrontation didn’t add much. Having Soren kill his own father and having to face the emotional consequences of that instead of disappointing Claudia…

Actually, what was the point of illusion Viren? Could it have killed Ezran? Why would Claudia be okay with killing Ezran? Why kill Ezran at this point?

Anyways, Soren should’ve killed Viren, and Claudia could’ve still necromancied him back to life.

Instead, Viren falls off a mountain. It’s meh.

With all that done, the Dragon Queen wakes up and is pleased to have her son back (reasonable) and there’s two human/elf couples present (weird). I mean, she’s the first dragon shown not to be deeply anti-human, and I’m not sure that tracks? Shouldn’t she be in favor of the separation, or were there a bunch of bedroom arguments between her and her husband about racial politics?

Anyways, if we didn’t have three more schools of magic to get through, this would be the point we get the ‘where are they now’ epilogue, as all conflicts are resolved.

Except Claudia resurrects her father, and…

Wait. Viren had an elf prisoner. He could’ve resurrected Harrow. What is his deal? What are his motivations.

Anyways, the grub that was acting as the speakerphone between Viren and Aaravos went to pupate and it’s scary to our dark mages.

Which finally brings me to what I really wanted to see happen: Aaravos should’ve traded puppets. What would’ve been a better power move than him setting Viren up for failure so he could use the more gullible (and powerful?) Claudia instead. They’ve been slow rolling his deal, but what better way to firmly plant Aaravos as the most Machevallian Jerk than to out ‘for the greater good’ Viren himself? There’s an inevitable conflict between the two, as Viren hates elves despite being too trusting of Aaravos, so why not have Aaravos shrug off Viren getting stabbed by Soren and send his grub to Claudia’s ear?

Heck, why not have him teach her the wrong spell and use Viren’s body as a vessel?

Come on, this is one of the few times I’m actually advocating killing someone off. I never do that. But the story potential we’re now missing is tremendous!

Anyways, despite my snark and notes, I did enjoy the season. Not as much as the second season, as it got too locked into the myth arc to have as much fun as the last season, but the show’s maintaining what strengths it does have. However, I can easily predict it falling from grace sooner than later. Story-heavy shows struggle to maintain momentum past three seasons, and research indicates there’s four more planned.

Still, I’m excited to see what happens now the main quest has been completed.

If you enjoyed this review and what more, please use the tags below to explore my other writings, as well supporting my patreon (for early access and regular support) or my ko-fi (for a quick tip). I want to do more fun things.

Kataal kataal.

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[1] Which had the potential for a much, much better pay off than we got. [2] Just once, I want the person whose confident the other is too stubborn to admit their crush to be wrong. I would love that dynamic. [3] Wearing some nice pajamas.