#the dragon prince fundementally fails in its themeing and applying it across all the story and the actors in it

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

the fandom’s discourse around dark magic is pretty much just a manifestation of “people know what they’re upset with, but not the root cause/can’t verbalize a solution to what they’re upset about.”

people who are unhappy with how dark magic is treated generally understand how the narrative frames it. they are correct in saying that there is a problem, and that it somehow involves the setting and dark magic, and then say that maybe it could be fixed if the magic system were changed. but their prescribed solution doesn’t work. the deeper problem is how the narrative uses (or doesn’t use) dark magic.

(flashback reel effect here, basically entirely rewritten but the format still doesn’t work for a full-fleged post so i will keep this transition in.)

that’s what really kills dark magic in this series, right? the fantasy question, “was dark magic good to use and when should it be used, if ever?” should be a jumping off point to explore all the other ways in which people value and instrumentalize power (ie sol regem literally saying the humans are inferior because they are less powerful) instead of staying only at the shallow level of “dork magic is bad for you.” just because the elves don’t use dark magic doesn’t mean they are immune to this discussion. indeed, the very first episode of the show shows us the moon elves engaging in a ritual that can be described as blood magic--binding their limbs to the blood of their targets; is this supposed to be magic that is Pure and Good? is the base problem really just dark magic, or what it represents? and more importantly, is what it represents limited to its practioners? the early answer--especially that we see this stuff from the xadians and are informed of their implied failed genocide early on--would be “no.”

but the later answer is “yes.” this early promise of the show is undercut by the show’s babybrained morality re: xadia and the elves. it never really critiques power in general at all except if its dark magic. it’s all fine and dandy and fun and smart to dunk on the humans, but xadians? insensitive. soren is bad and stupid for making a bad tactical decision, but pyrrah is a Good Dragon Friend even when retaliating against a whole village. it’s not tragic when ezran (a dumb child king who just let this happen) napalms his own people, because they have already been de-personed by dark magic. how convenient! 

and the story that dark magic creates--even if it is inherently harmful--is a great tragic story! the xadians, obsessed with power and how power makes you who you are, are stabbed in the back when some of the dredges finally discover a way to speak their language--and this doesn’t cause basically any self-reflection on their part. instead they basically go all out genocidal and no matter how bad dark magic is, this is extremely disproportionate. but the series still goes “but they are no angels!!! but they are no angels!!!” to basically one side only. for the xadians, the show (and even the supplementary material!) basically does backflips and contortions to show how they are nuanced and how humans should respect them, but there’s basically nothing the other direction.

you can say “oh good inflammatoryfandomblog!!! you’re seeing the point!!!” except i don’t really believe that the show has any intentions of making good on this initial promise. it has given me no indication of doing so, and its asymmetric treatment of the conflict basically does the opposite of the above. this problem does not go away if you change the magic system. this problem does not go away by simply noting the thematic potential of the setup of dark magic. ideas are cheap, though this is one that perhaps costs a nickel instead of a penny. the real problem is the execution.