#the dragon prince critical

[venice-1987]

I feel like Ezran would get a lot more grace within the show and the fandom both if they actually leaned into the fact that this is a terrified and angry 12 year old stressed out about how he is going to protect his kingdom that he is simultaneously grieving. Emphasis on terrified.

He could advocate for peace easily from a peaceful throne. That is being tested, and we did get quiet moments between king Ezran and Queen Aanya talking about ruling, but I think he could have also benefitted from quiet moments between kid Ezran and his adult support system (Soren and Corvus).

I also think this would have made the Harrow Bird reveal a bit more impactful. There are two facets to Ezran: him as a king, and him as a kid, which conflict so heavily. Him being tested like this and realizing that Soren was right in saying he was too young for this, and that there is a solution.

[spacerockfloater]

Aemond baby, get behind me.

[br0kenangel]

Aegon and Aemond in canon:

Aegon and Aemond in Ryan fanfic:

[jade-of-mourning]

hi i love your art it's so freaking cool

pls doodle rayllum i beg of thee (sorry i am just hungry for rayllum in ur style don't kill me)

thank you! rayllum is very cute; they don't give me brainrot like the magefam does, but i nonetheless enjoy their existence and am happy to serve!

this is also in response to @avenger09's ask:

couldn't quite envision it so this is kind of what happened haha

[rayllurn]

the dragon prince, s6 pairings [1 of 10] ↳ soren + corvus || "a good man...with a big heart"

[synchodai]

I really want to like HotD because I really like The Dance in F&B. But as the season went on, it became less of an adaptation of a story I remembered fondly and more of a prequel to a show I did not want to be reminded of. Please stop trying to mcu-ify the show and just tell a self-contained story. I absolutely do not care how this relates to characters who won't be alive for the next 200 years. Your plot and characters should matter and have stakes and motivations that are relevant NOW.

[snowblack-charcoalwhite]

Now that I think about Jaehaerys and the trace he and his death left in the show (or the lack thereof) I can't help but recall one more thing that makes me sad and angry.

Remember how Aegon raged and cried for his little son, how he destroyed his murderer with his own hands, how he was the one (save for Helaena, maybe) to mourn Jaehaerys the most? In the season finale though, while recounting every terrible thing about the position he is in, even Aegon fails to mention the death of his son. He remembers Sunfyre, his own terrible physical and not much better psychological state - and his, now missing, genitals. Apparently, the writers decided that there was no room for a brutally murdered child, Aegon's own blood who he loved wholeheartedly and lost so tragically.

And why would it be so? Surely not because the loss of Sunfyre, the burns, the broken leg, the pain, the powerlessness (and yes, the destroyed manhood as well) came to Aegon from Aemond, a Green character, his own brother (and the appointed boogeyman of the series)? Not because he feels alone and abandoned not only by Aemond, but by Alicent and Helaena, his family (Green characters as well)? And, of course, not because Jaehaerys' death, on the contrary, was the Blacks' doing (accident or not)? Of course, there is zero connection there, how could we think that even for a second.

[sunfyrisms]

having one faction being written as only heroic and awesome and the other being written as only villainous and awful negates the original message of grrm’s original work, btw. it’s kind of interesting to see how these characters are written (the greens being a dysfunctional family who don’t seem to like each other vs the blacks being given positive traits that belong to the greens in the books, or simply not writing things if the source material that could make the blacks seem not heroic) and how fans take this very seriously. it’s partly a result of the marketing strategy for season two, the whole “everyone much choose a side thing” because that’s… not the point of this war, at all. but it’s also the writing and it’s very deliberately very obviously pro targaryen, especially with the whole “aegon conquered westeros for the good of the world” thing they have going on. which is an incredibly strange take. i think it’s really telling when you compare how the tragedies are written. rhaenyra’s loss of her children is obviously and rightfully tragic. her journey in episode one of season two was so tragic and so beautiful because you don’t hear her speak until the end of the episode, when she finally realizes her son is gone. but you also have her riding a dragon immediately after giving birth to her stillborn daughter, who is never mentioned again, if i recall correctly, and that doesn’t seem… possible. but with the greens, you have a very horrific and traumatic event via the brutal murder of jaehaerys being reduced to two silly men committing a crime, when that crime was the beheading of, like, a five year old. you then have his grandmother having sex while this is happening, in an attempt to blame her for it, which is genuinely so infuriating. idk why i made this post, i saw that season two wasn’t even nominated for best television drama and i was just like. yeah i know that’s right. you cannot expect an show adaptation of a very well-known series from a very well-known author to do well when you completely ignore the original source material and then claim your interpretation is better or the truth. it’s simply insisting on itself and it’s simply pissing on the tragedy of the dance of the dragons and it’s simply exhausting.

[serymn31]

a rant

I’ve tried to forget HotD season 2 and I am definitely not looking forward to season 3 with the show runner so adamant over the changes they made. I expect HotD storyline to destroy itself and their egos will be at fault for not listening to GRRM, but that is a long rant for another time.

One thing that bothered me about the Helaena and Aegon relationship in s2 is they made it about ALICENT. We don’t get Helaena and Aegon mourning their son together, Alicent really had to be in the picture. We don’t get book!Helaena advising Aegon to choose the peaceful option, Alicent had to be there to mock Aegon. Helaena as queen doesn't even join the council. Helaena had to walk in on Alicent and Criston during Blood and Cheese to make it about her again, that she had to ‘forgive’ her.

In hindsight, Alicent saying to Helaena that “While I feel bad for Jaehaerys, my concern has been more for you” is kind of fucked up. It kind of sounds as if she's belittling the death of Jaehaerys. Maybe that’s what the writers and showrunners want, to make us not care about Jaehaerys at all.

We don’t see Aegon and Helaena interact again even after Rook’s Rest, we only see her stare at him while he’s brought in. Who stays with Aegon? Alicent yet again. Aegon hasn’t even interacted much with Jaehaera, his own daughter, except for one touch but we see Alicent carrying her. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[tategaminu]

I gotta say while I have enjoyed this season, the possession plot made me sad. Uh I always try to stay positive with this show so I'm gonna take this as a kind of critical but also hopes for the future because it could totally be a thing for Arc 3, I'm not extremely negative or anything, it's just an observation but hiding just in case:

We got a lot of foreshadowing regarding this topic (Kosmo telling him doing dark magic again would corrupt him entirely, Rayla saying to Callum he should choose the greater good over her, Rayla promising to kill Callum, etc etc) everything led to Callum doing dark magic for her, getting completely corrupted and her saving him, because she's his one truth.

But then... why was all of this? This didn't get to happen, or not something evern remotely similar, Callum didn't get to fully do dark magic, so the whole build up to the possession plot didn't come into fruition, the whole 603 episode. We don't know if Rayla would have gone thru it all the way.

I don't feel like Rayla's character is finished at all, yes she did save her dads but... that's it. She was willing to sacrifice Callum because choosing Callum would be choosing her own happiness, but also an important part for her would have been finally being selfish because this girl has always to sacrifice herself (like in TTM). I thought the build up was for them to choose each other so I don't think there was a lot of resolution regarding this.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't want to be negative, TDP is an slow burn show (look at the Pip plot) and also like there was also a lot of stuff with the cube we haven't seen, and that's connected to the possession plot as well. Aaravos has to come back in seven years so maybe the whole possession plot buildup will come in full in Arc 3, because... it's not really resolved at all. I don't know if Callum has fully done dark magic or not but I'm going for not since he's fine.

Another positive about TDP is that is way more enjoyable when you rewatch it to see the resolved things and foreshadowing and everything, so maybe when/if Arc 3 happens, I will look back at this season and say "yeah, I had to be patient!"

We need Arc 3 to happen, a lot of unresolved things, specially this one. I'm gonna be forever sad if we don't even get closure with this plot in particular.

[venice-1987]

This is somewhat critical, and very much spoilery, so read at your own risk/discretion. About my hopes for arc 3 when (manifest) we get it.

What really struck me in regards to the difference between arc 2 and arc 1 was just how stretched thin everything was in arc 2, which really does not do the show any favors, especially when the pacing in arc 2 is done as if it has the time to be slow. What I mean by all this is I don't think arc 2 did a very good job of exploring character, when arc 1 did a fantastic job of doing so, which is so much more evident with the final season of arc 2 releasing.

Throughout arc 1, there is so much development. Within the main trio, we get a human figuring out his place as a mage, trying to figure out his deepest connection to this thing that just feels right. We have an assassin who puts a greater duty above her family, her own reputation, above those she cares about, struggling with the loss of her parents that did the exact same thing. We have a child king who has to reconcile between the death of his father, his new responsibilities, doing what's right over what is easy, and growing his vision of peace.

We have a knight grappling between his loyalty to a father that despises him and between his own self worth, and his friends' lives, and what is right. We have a dark mage who grapples between her fear of abandonment and the loyalty she has to her broken family. We have a father who has lost what it means to be a servant, who both believes he is right in his cruelty, and believes he deserves the power he is taking.

And Arc 2 just...has way too much to ever have as much focus on these deeply compelling characters, which translates into us not really getting anything.

Rayla and Callums arcs are extensions of their arcs in act 1. Rayla abandons Callum for duty, and must reconcile with him, and choose between duty and him again at the end. Callum needs to figure out his connection to magic while retaining who he is. And they are some of the better written, but they still feel shallow compared to their younger selves. Ezran's arc is nonexistent until the last season, and while it was compelling, there was not much space for him to grow into that arc.

Soren had the potential for such a compelling narrative. He lost everything at the end of season 3, but gained everything too, and at the start of season 4, we see what he has. A support system. A boyfriend fellow crownguard he can lean on. But he now needs to reconcile with the fact that it is not over. His family has come back, his sister is evil, and his father is there. We get snippets of a great arc. We get his conversation with Claudia in the Drakewood. We get season 6's interactions with his and Viren. But season 7 sort of fumbles it, I'm not gonna lie. We see how he still cares about Claudia, we see his conflict between believing she is too far gone and hoping he can get her back. But there is not a lot of focus on him. And he has a beef with his mother that is never explored, but he keeps her picture on his person at all times, which is touched on for one moment and then gone.

And the villains are probably the most egregious in this regard. Terry is an accessory to Claudia. His conflict is reconciling with his good nature versus his support of Claudia, but that does not get touched on for three seasons, really, and when it does have consequences in the seventh season, there is no deeper self exploration into what he did wrong, what he supported all this time. Its just cause he was used and lied to.

And Claudia, her motives are pretty good. She has loyalty to her dad, so she tries to keep him alive, and then tries to find him when he leaves. But the seventh season is where it drops off for me. What is her loyalty to Aaravos over her living brother? There wasn't really much on screen development of their "father daughter?" relationship, so the motivation really just comes down to "cause why not continue down this path?" which is very very weak.

Viren was the best written. He had his arc, and it ended beautifully. That's probably why his absence in season 7 is so felt.

And Aaravos. I could believe that he just wanted to be free, and sure, revenge is a good enough motive. But his whole story with Leola just felt so...rushed.

The other characters, I have to be honest, I could not care less about. Astrid and Kosmo, the archdragons, kim'dael, kpp'ar, even Leola, feel like plot devices rather than characters. And Janai and Amaya, as good as their own characters were (or at least Janai's character), the sunfire plot was drawn out far longer than it needed to be.

In the stead of character, the seasons mostly focused on worldbuilding, which I don't fault it for, even if a lot of the worldbuilding comes out of nowhere. What I can fault the show for is dicking around for as long as it does. If its not going to go deep into character, what is the point of wandering in a forest for a season. What is the point of going on a funny pirate adventure for half a season until hot evil pirate elf forces some character development out of you. Whats the point of moonberry surprise hallucinations when we could spend that time doing something important in the FINALE of the arc.

I liked the seventh season, as much as I'm complaining, but it felt very...different from the others. I don't really even know how to describe it at this point cause I'm still reigning in my thoughts, but I feel a little disappointed at how little focus character had this entire arc. Maybe I was hoping this season would reign it in, but not really. Characters made powerful choices, but were given such little space for those choices to resonate, because there was just too much going on.

The hope for arc three that I mentioned before is this: reign it back into what made the dragon prince so compelling in the first place. That characters. Back when the plot was a little more simple "three kids try to return an egg to its mother, while the bad guys try to stop them." When the B plots didn't intrude, and there weren't so damn many of them.

In this ~seven year time skip I'm seeing, I hope they reign it in to focus on the main characters. Ezran, Rayla, Callum, Soren, Claudia. Less focus on the side characters, like Terry, Janai, Amaya, Corvus. And Worldbuilding where its natural and necessary. That is my hope.

[spacerockfloater]

The way the fandom and the other characters treat Aemond fills me with visceral rage.

He is the only one, save Criston, who’s still fighting for the Greens? Not only does he put all of his time into defending their cause and ruling, he is also risking his life on the daily by launching himself into battle? To win a war his mother gave the green light to? The mother who now hates him? The mother who betrays him for finishing what she started? Outrageous. Fucking outrageous.

And everyone is treating Helaena as if she is this poor little sunflower that must be protected at all costs. Uhm, fuck no? Aemond is right. Who’s going to protect her when Rhaenyra comes after them with her seven dragons? She’s no fucking child. She is an adult. Why are we infantilising her? Why should her brother fight for her if she’s not willing to fight for herself and her child? And the way she’s speaking to Aemond? Holding him accountable for burning her rapist? Their common abuser? And borderline rejoicing in his upcoming death? What the fuck.

I hate how all of the Team Green characters have been redeemed one way or another and their redemption is that they’re abandoning their claim to the throne. But Aemond is depicted as this show’s main villain simply because he’s still standing his ground? And he stands alone? Fuck everything.

Aemond Targaryen they could never make me hate you.

[br0kenangel]

Brain dead writers be like:

"aww Rhaenyra never wanted this to happens to Helaena, Rhaenyra knew she was innocent. Look how kind and loving Rhaenyra is."

"oh! Look how cool she is!!! See!!! Every innocent who she push towards Vermithor is dead BUT LOOK AT OUR QUEEN!!! She's petting him! Even Vermithor knows who's the queen here."

And their brain dead fans be like:

"Aegon usurping Rhaenyra because he was force to, BAD. Aegon don't love his sister, BAD. Aegon r*ping a girl, BAD. Aegon actually trying to be a good king and help smallfolks, BAD. Aegon hanging rat catchers because of his son, BAD. Aegon watching bastards fight, BAD. Alicent wanting revenge for her son's eye, BAD. Criston don't like our queen, BAD. Alicent is mean to her, BAD. Aemond claiming Rhaena's mother dragon, BAD. Aemond losing an eye and wanting an eye, BAD."

"Rhaenyra's bastards usurping Daemon's daughters, GOOD. Jace is a usurper because he's a bastard just like Joffrey, GOOD. Daemon groom his niece, GOOD. Daemon being a p*do r*pist wife killer, GOOD. Rhaenys killing people for a girlboss moment, GOOD. Rhaenyra starving smallfolks, GOOD. Rhaenyra watching the dragons burn innocent people (and mostly bastards), GOOD. Alicent selling out her family because of our queen, GOOD. Rhaenys claiming Daemon's mother dragon, GOOD. Rhaenyra wanting Aegon's head even after her husband already took a 4-6 years old head for her revenge, GOOD."

Now I don't care what team you are, if you think like that or you think one side are the good guys and the other the villains then you're a hypocrite. Sorry not sorry.

[arcadialedger]

It’s the Percy seeing Annabeth pull him out of the River Styx to Callum seeing Rayla in the stars as his one truth to Keyleth seeing Vax as her anchor pipeline for me.

[giftofgaypoetry]

"Owl house is just deliberately subversive harry potter clone"

What are you talking about?

"The Dragon Prince is just an avatar clone"

What are you talking about?

"Catra's just an azula clone"

What are you talking about?

"Everything is just copying steven universe"

What are you talking about?

"Hunter is just zuko"

What are you talking about?

"Luz and Anne Bunchoy are just the same character"

What are you talking about?

You guys do a disservice to everything you like because you want to compare them by trying to fit them into incorrect quotes and alignment charts. You want to sort things into boxes and you think its analysis?

[synchodai]

It's very important to me that Jacaerys Velaryon is not perfect. He suffers from the same affliction Robb Stark and most young, inexperienced commanders do — that despite being good at short-term strategic planning, his decisions in the book absolutely suuuuck long-term.

He wanted to send himself and his brother instead of ravens because he wanted to prove to the lords that they could ride dragons.

“We should bear those messages,” he said. “Dragons will win the lords over quicker than ravens.” His brother Lucerys agreed, insisting that he and Jace were men, or near enough to make no matter. “Our uncle calls us Strongs, but when the lords see us on dragonback they will know that for a lie. Only Targaryens ride dragons.”

They were so insistent on proving themselves as "Targaryen men" that they couldn't foresee the obvious danger of how easy it would be for some lord to take them hostage or sell them out to the greens.

It was his decision to send Aegon the Younger and Viserys II to Pentos while leaving Joffrey in the Vale.

The Prince of Dragonstone also had to care for the safety of his half-brothers, Aegon the Younger and Viserys, aged nine and seven. Their father, Prince Daemon, had made many friends in the Free City of Pentos during his visits there, so Jacaerys reached across the narrow sea to the prince of that city, who agreed to foster the two boys until Rhaenyra had secured the Iron Throne.

In this part, you could tell he saw Daemon's children as seperate from the brown-haired sons and made the unwise decision of relying on a foreign connection that he himself couldn't vouch for. He reaches out to a foreign ally he never spoken to and suddenly the brothers who he sends off to the Free Cities are targeted by Free City warships? It's uncertain if he was betrayed, but this tragedy could have been avoided if Jace wasn't so complacent about the Pentoshi prince's loyalty to Daemon and Corlys's naval dominance remaining uncontested.

And finally his biggest achievement/blunder was calling for the dragonseeds. Yes, it gave them the raw firepower needed to take King's Landing, but it also had the worst long-term affects on House Targaryen as a whole. It gave a bunch of untrustworthy randos access to their most powerful weapons and shattered the already crumbling mystique of Targaryen Exceptionalism. Not to mention how it burned and killed scores of their own men who tried their luck at claiming.

Like a lot of his decisions, this is a reckless gamble that only seems like a solid plan if you don't spend too long thinking about the possible consequences.

His poor decision-making isn't as obvious on the show because they gave a lot of his wartime contributions to Rhaenyra, probably since she's their designated main character and they had to give her something to do, but it leads to the unfortunate outcome of fans thinking Jace was this noble, put-upon boy who had the wisdom and temperance his peers lacked.

That's not only untrue, but also flattens his character by putting him up on the "perfect prince" pedestal that is so clearly his albatross. A lot of his choices were motivated by hubris and the desperation to prove himself as a man and prince. Once Rhaenys died and Corlys was instated as Hand (with Jace convincing him), Jace was empowered to make such decisions and act as the de facto head of the blacks — and almost every one of those decisions eventually come back to bite them.

He was a smart young man, that was clear by how he was responsible for securing key alliances. But he was also a foolhardy and inexperienced boy who modeled himself after a peerless adventurer and a rogue prince. Corlys and Daemon's rashness was ultimately tempered by their age and experience, but Jace didn't have the luxury of living through his mistakes.