#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.

[cometcon]

I saw a post recently with someone saying they couldn't believe we were actually right about Harrow being put in Pip and escaping his death because I guess the show finally decided to wrap up the thing they very blatantly set up, which ok so first of all:

But then the OP said they'd thought it was one of the more far fetched theories from Season One and I just...

Far fetched??

F A R F E T C H E D????

F a R f e T c H E d????????

...Uh huh...

Ok.

Let me teach you something about media literacy, because it's apparently been dead for a while.

This is a double-headed soulfang serpent.

It's VERY PROMINENTLY introduced in Episode Two. Viren teaches us about it through introducing it to the other characters, who are until that point unfamiliar with its existence. There is no reason to have an entire scene dedicated to it if it won't become important later.

This is called a Chekhov's Gun. In Stagecraft and play writing, this is referring to a rule laid down by Anton Chekhov, a famous and excellent playwright who is most known for teaching that if a gun is prominently displayed in a scene which otherwise didn't need one, then that gun had better by fired by the next act (I personally believe it's ok to fire whenever so long as it's done before the story ends and is relevant to the plot). This has been a base rule of visual storytelling and building audience expectation for a long time.

Let me break down for you how they continued setting up this Gun and executed its full establishment including Pip's part in it throughout the set up episodes of Season One.

That's a very prominent well-drawn gorgeous bird being focused on by the 'camera' for seemingly no reason in an animated show which needs to focus only on important things because animation is fucking expensive... Then that bird sure is very frequently placed on that prominent character's shoulder...

Damn. I sure hope plot relevance doesn't happen to this very prominent bird and very prominent fucking snake Viren BRINGS INTO THE BEDROOM WITH HIM BEFORE THE ATTACK.

OH LOOK WHO ELSE IS THERE IN A FOREGROUND SHOT FOR SEEMINGLY NO REASON. Gee, I wonder why the animators CHOSE to put Pip in frame in a very otherwise unconventional and unnecessary way if it didn't have the purpose of subtly reminding us he's there???? Why would they need to keep nodding to that???? I wonder why he's so damn important????

Oh hello Pip you sure are right there in reach next to Harrow right at the pivotal moment of this very heated argument about dark magic and Viren's place in the pecking order. Sure would be awful if, say, an increasingly hurt and angry powerful dark magic practitioner threw a

DOUBLE-HEADED SOULFANG SNAKE

at you within the next minute in a fit of rage...

AND THEN

Viren talking to Pip just before his coronation like he's gloating at a fucking bird for some reason while the SONGBIRD DOES NOT SING is RIGHT FUCKING THERE. That sure is a significant amount of time spent on Harrow's weirdly prominent pet bird. Damn, that sure is a lot of beef to have with a fucking bird, Viren. I WONDER IF MAYBE THAT ISN'T PIP AT ALL???? WOW. WHAT A WILD THOUGHT.

Pip BEING AROUND AND PROMINENT BEFORE THE ATTACK and then going missing later in the story after we've established Ezran can fucking talk to animals is RIGHT FUCKING THERE.

The reason why we called this all the way back in Season One is because it was BEAUTIFULLY set up by whoever actually knew how to do visual storytelling and write well on the show before I assume they got fired and Season 4 dropped and caused me physical pain trying to watch it hammer shit hamfistedly into our heads like we're all 3 years old or something.

One of the reasons media is bad now is that things like Chekhov's Gun, along with numerous other basics of story writing, have been thrown out the door with all the expensive experienced writers who capitalist dickheads didn't want to pay/any new people coming in who do care but who don't get the room to actually learn and execute this stuff because we always need to have the next new thing out the door yesterday regardless of its quality or lack thereof. And as a result, way too many audience members aren't developing and maintaining media literacy and then complaining when they don't get spoon-fed shit because that's what they're used to, so writers are instructed to dumb it down even further and hit you over the head with shit like "Oh I can't believe it's been T W O Y E A R S! (No one could tell just by the fact everyone is clearly older and there's no way we could do this stupid retcon in some less hamfisted way elsewhere with more nuanced imparting of that information. Shove it in and hope they don't care. Quick, distract them with a fart joke!!)"

'Far-fetched.'

Jesus christ, this hurts my fucking soul on so many levels.

We're not smarter than you, we just fucking pay attention and then get a hammer to our skulls for our efforts because whoever fired the good writers and wouldn't teach the new ones/didn't know jackshit about the most basic writing rules themself decided not to trust their audience anymore to have the intellectual capacity and attention span of at least a 10 year old. Something something, self-fulfilling prophecy apparently.

(I'm trying to do a compromise of not being a dick while still getting to express my frustration at OP over this by keeping it away from everyone who wouldn't want to see this so I don't rain on their parade/be mean to that OP on their post. Don't come at me if you like the show to the point you can't handle people criticising it or having strong opinions about people not knowing the most basic shit as an audience member anymore. I made my own post and didn't put it in the main fandom tag/tagged it as criticism for a reason.)

[idkjustletmescroll]

Warning: if you liked the dragon prince as it is, go right ahead and scroll on by :) this is basically what I would have done differently/liked to see, even if I did really like the show overall

We're just going to get right into it. This pretty much only pertains to act 2. I liked act 1. Anyways!

1: Ezran stays in katolis in season four; sunfire elf plotline rewrite

It's no secret that most people dislike the sunfire elf sideplot, and, despite the fact that janai and amaya are both my fav characters and my fav ship, it doesn't fit in to act 2's overall story. I'd have liked for them to continue the human/elf plotline both through sunfire politics and katolis', as well; there's no way ezran's speech in the graveyard in season 4 just made it a non-issue. Tbh, I didn't feel like ezran contributed much to the gang's journey in season 4, and, considering that act 1 had it be such a major plot point that the kingdom needs its king, I'd have liked for him to stay in katolis and, along with the sunfire plot, develop a plotline about humans and elves not only needing to reconcile, but come together to defeat aaravos (elf magic + human creativity and resourcefulness).

Also, the show mentions janai's grandma, queen Aditi, ALL THE TIME, and then never really does anything with her character--or the orphan queen. Since lux aurea canonically has a massive and ultra-important library ("bookery"), time could've been devoted to research there, too. It would have been a way to work in plenty of exposition.

2: The Terry issue

My issue with Terry is that he's just not important. I don't care about this guy. I spent most of act 2 dreading when he was on screen because I just don't care. Sure, he's sweet, but...why is an elf involved with a dark mage? How does he even get involved with claudia? How does he justify all the terrible things they're doing? I think it would've been interesting to see an elf who not only doesn't mind dark magic but defends it, presenting more issues for the main cast (i.e. callum) to think about. In my opinion, he should have either died or abandoned claudia fully in either seasons 5 or 6. He would have been the last person who loved and supported her unconditionally leaving her, one way or the other, and therefore leaving her fully vulernable to aaravos' manipulations. I'm sorry, but most of what he did in season 7 was centered around getting the gang not to hurt claudia, and it was pissing me off. No, you don't have to agree, this is just an opinion.

3: Rayllum

Yes, I know, I know, it's just a kid's show. Yes, I know rayllum is an audience fav, and even if it's not mine, I understand why people like it so much. It's cute, it's fun. My issue with act 2 rayllum is that it feels like the show focuses a lot more on their relationship than on the individual characters. I'd like rayla to actually explain to callum why she left: she was paranoid, she wanted to make sure viren was gone for good. Could she have finished him off herself, if it came down to it, looking him dead in the eyes and using her swords? There's a question that keeps coming back to haunt her: is she able to end a life? Why couldn't she have let callum and ezran help her? She's failed at everything else (in her eyes). She can't go home, her own adopted fathers either banished her or tried to kill her. She couldn't fail at this, too. She had to do something. That's interesting.

And on callum's side, I think it would have been cool to see him connecting with the ocean arcanum...without the finnegrin plot, bc I didn't like it. He sees ezran growing up, and that's kind of scary, not always knowing what his little brother's thinking or feeling anymore. Callum's growing up, too, and, as much as he loves being high mage, he still wants to explore the world and learn new things outside of katolis; he's getting political marriage offers; his life is going to change soon, one way or the other, and that's scary, and he doesn't really have a parental figure to talk to, with Amaya being away. He can't always control or predict rayla, and he can't control or predict or prevent all of his losses, either. Since that's the ocean arcanum's whole deal, I think it would have been a neat way for him to get it.

There we go, plotlines for individual characters instead of the whole relationship, that still include and effect that relationship. Also, I would somewhat tweak callum's decision to help rayla in s7. First, he would also have his own conflicting feelings about runaan. He agrees runaan should be allowed to go to his home and husband, but insists that ezran will be easily convinced as soon as things settle down, "in a few weeks." Rayla goes through with the breakout anyways, callum's hurt but decides to go along with it, and--and this is very important--HE DOES NOT LIKE RUNAAN. He does not FORGIVE Runaan. Maybe they talk it out, but either way, runaan being the one to have killed harrow effects callum in some way. S7 made it more of an ezran thing. Callum also feels a lot more torn up about betraying ezran, maybe seeing some sibling pairs in the silvergrove that make him think back on his brother.

4: The key of aaravos

Just some resolution to the key, guys. It's been emphasized CONSTANTLY in the show since s1 episode 4. Idk what it would be, I just want it to be SOMETHING.

[howhow326]

The way he begs for more seasons every 3 years has to be studied

[spacerockfloater]

Aemond baby, get behind me.

[pixii33]

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

[tategaminu]

Posting this here because Eugene liked it on twitter and Reddit is probably already plotting to take me down

[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.

[venice-1987]

The thing is, I actually do like the dumb shenanigans in the Silvergrove. I think domestic Callum with the children is adorable. I think him interacting with his future Fathers in law is great. I think characters need downtime in addition to stress time to reveal their characters in both instances. It makes for better, more well rounded characters.

The issue is that the show simply did not have dumb shenanigan time, and while I do put some of that on the showrunners for not delegating that well with the time they had, it is also a matter of how much time they were given. Idk how it works, but arc 2 desperately needed longer season for the amount of story threads it wanted to have.

[m4rs-ex3]

broyals is peak siblings because OF COURSE when you're IN THE MIDDLE of your incredibly climactic world-saving final act of heroism your little brother shows up like "NAH I GOT THIS" and fucks everything up

[chronicallylatetotheparty]

I think western media has relied on non-human races as shorthand for oppressed groups so much that audiences have been primed to look for that instead of actual imperialist ideology.

One of the criticisms I've repeated about the Dragon Prince is how the writers take the Aesthetics of fantasy imperialism/indigenous people and just switch them without bothering to change anything about their ideology or historical context.

Kenna on TikTok was right when she said that a franchise where the oppressor and oppressed were all the same species makes a better racism allegory.

The fact that the Four Nations were all human added to the themes of imperialism and genocide in ATLA. While on the opposite side of the coin, the Xadians all being different species undermines it.

You can say Fire Nation people were a bunch of imperialists without going into bioessentialism. You CAN'T say humans are a bunch of warmongering monsters without sounding like an eco fascist.

The Sunfire elves textually being the most fantasy racist group is fine because they're elves, therefore oppressed, and the white writers made them superficially based on African-French speakers.

Meanwhile Katolis is "obviously" a Fantasy European Imperialist nation and therefore the oppressor. Never mind that it's had a black, now mixed, ruling family for a thousand years. Or that it's citizens aren't just white.

I remember seeing a post comparing the taboo against Black Magic to Xtian fundamentalism. At first I thought that was a bit much but no. Season six revealed that TDP has a canonical Hierarchy of Beings so that guy was absolutely right.

In Xtian fundamentalism doing something good the "wrong" way is the same as doing something bad.

Save a kingdom from starving? Well you had to kill a rock monster so obviously the right thing to do was let hundreds of thousands of people starve to death. (I've had weirdos go onto my posts and literally say this.)

Break the chains preventing you from saving the people you love? Well it hurt you so the right thing to do was let your friends and loved ones drown I guess.

Your son is dying? Better protect some old man's sense of moral purity than save a child.

All of these actions are not considered bad because they had a negative effect. They're considered bad because they go against the dominant power's desired order.

They're inherently bad because "humans" are inherently bad. Because human ways are not as pure as a direct connection to an Arcanum.

Note: this^ is imperialist ideology.

The idea that a group of people fighting for their survival justifies ethnic cleansing and mass murder is imperialist ideology.

The idea that the scary, blasphemous practices of a people you don't understand makes them dangerous, and therefore justifies you "defending yourself", is imperialist ideology.

The Liberal focus on "cycles of violence" and "both sides are at fault". Instead of on reparations for the people they killed and the homes they destroyed is imperialist ideology.

But Katolis has a pseudo-medieval aesthetic and the elves do not.

I was so angry at the scene where Sol Regem burns Katolis because THIS is the poor helpless dragons the humans "colonized"!? This living air bomber is the "victim" of the big, bad humans? One Archdragon can destroy an entire city single handedly and you expect me to believe the elves and dragons ethnic cleansing of humanity was REASONABLE!?

No. We are past any doubt or rationalization. What Sol Regem did to Katolis was just a small glimpse of what the elves and dragons did during the Human Exile. Just a small glimpse into how imperialist powers treat those that they cannot exploit.

And then demonize them for daring to oppose/question/subvert the imperialist's god(s) given superiority.

[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.

[pixii33]

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.