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nautiscarader · 5 years

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The Dragon Prince - Season 2

It is very rare to see a show which has improved in nearly every aspect, but lo and behold, TDP season 2 delivers more.

Just... more.

More drama, more characters, more action, more humor, and more dark, complex, and mature storylines.

Spoilers galore beneath

First and foremost, I am very happy that the animation department has listened to our cries - the choppy animation is no more. The cell-shaded animation is odd, but it certainly no longer distracting from the action. And if you want to watch TDP season 2, then you need to pay attention to everything on the screen, because the things that happen on the screen are marvellous.

The ongoing story, together with expanded flashbacks are excellent, and make the world believable and realistic. Wars do not happen in one day, they are the effects of years of conflicts, slowly building up, and the show has given us excellent reasons to believe and be invested in them.

Very few shows have created such interesting villains like this one. Soren, Claudia and their father, Viren aren’t just evil. They are not evil overlords and kidnappers - they are properly constructed characters with deep motivations.

Viren is a pragmatist, who is slowly consumed by the dark magic, thus skewing his morals. His children follow his steps, though themselves start to realise he might be wrong, and yet come to the same reasoning as he did: that power can be used to overcome problems, even if it done in an immoral way.

Our protagonist grow up as well: I was mighty afraid that the show will do the “liar reveal” cliché between the brothers, or between Rayla and Callum, regarding the news of their father’s death, but fortunately, the writers have dodged the bullet on two occasions, because of proper build-up and the mountain of trust between the three (or four, since Claudia delivered it). The lessons they learned were deep, life-changing and not easy to swallow, and I think they accepting them will help kids all over the world.

Speaking of difficult things to bear: Soren’s kinda-disability. the way it was handled was magnificent, albeit with Soren’s slightly awkward acceptance of it. But Claudia? She reacted just like you would if you were hit with such grave news. Characters in TV shows get slammed all over place without any bones breaking, but here? No, they did not joke. A dragon smashes you into a rock, you get a spine broken. End of story. On one hand, it would be interesting to see his character with the disability, but given he is a part of the cast, it would be problematic, I guess. And Claudia using Bambi’s life forces to revive his ability to walk might have even more dire consequences. Will she have to sacrifice more and more animals to keep him alive? Will the dark magic flowing through him corrupt him? Will Soren have to sacrifice his ability to walk in order to cleanse himself? Who knows, the possibilities are quite vast.

Speaking of possessions: Callum and dark magic. That was something I wanted to see in S2, and I think it has been handled really well. Callum has potential to be a dark wizard, and while he has discovered his sky arcaneum, I have a feeling he will be tempted to dabble with dark magic in the future, breaking our hearts again.

And on top of that, you have relationships. Callum, Rayla and Ezran have very different connections to Soren and Claudia, as, say, Team Avatar to Zuko and Azula.

Callum and Ezra were - and arguably are - friends with Claudia and Soren, they do have strong bonds (in case Callum and Clauida something even stronger), since they’ve known each other since childhood. It is not just a hero/villain cliché - they are, once again, well-defined characters, and as a result their relationships are strong, well-grounded and believable.

And the hugs between Rayla and Callum are melting all of shippers’ hearts, I cannot overlook that (but still no kiss, or almost kiss yet, but have almost had “I love you”).

The action is superb. Fight scenes are fast, well-planned, and gripping, exactly what you’d expect from a fantasy series.

And of course, with a whole new half of continent to explore, as well as half a dozen plot lines in the human half to resolve, new seasons will have tons of opportunities to once again punch us in the gut, make us laugh, cry and be thrilled.

So, are there any negative aspects...?

Well... yeah.

One thing that is kinda unavoidable, are the parallels to Avatar The last Airbender. From occasional jokes and subtle nods, like with the haiku and syllables counting, through slightly more transparent like the animal hybrids, through bloody-freaking-obvious, like Callum being an airbender. Or sky mage, or whatever you name them here. It is pretty weird to see this happening again, since, well, it invokes the parallels to ATLA instantly, and let’s face it, ATLA is still better, so you might not necessarily want to remind us of a show we’d rather watch, Dragon Prince.

Another one is Ezran’s character. Mind you, he got better in S2, especially with the revelation of his father becoming a spirit birb hybrid dying forever, but he is just a bit bland and too perfect for a 10-year old. I joked about it in my recaps, but he is jesus - he can do no wrong. And that is bloody boring! Look at Callum - he has flaws, he makes mistakes, that’s what makes him complex. And what does Ezran do? He goes off-track and can’t even get himself mauled by a banther properly. Get rekt.

He reminds me of Charlie from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate factory - that kid was freaking perfect, without any flaws whatsoever, spewing moralistic phrases left, right and center, contrary to the one from the book and the classic movie.

Plus, his abilities are never explained, and are so damn plot convenient! It is one thing to just having a skill of handling animals - that I would accept - another thing is being able to understand them - that’s a bit too much, but still cool - and something wildly different is TO HAVE A DIRECT MIND LINK WITH THEM. Ezran is OP, pls nerf. And the worst thing is, with just a bit of clever rewriting, they wouldn’t need that. Just move the splitting scene after they cross the moonpath bridge - so that Ezran is still with Zim when he has to fly to save them. Solved.

I guess you can make a counter-argument that he also learns it, just like Callum does with magic, but guess what: Callum makes mistakes, so we see he learns! I would like to see Ezran mistranslating some wild animal’s wish and getting comeuppance when he has to run up the tree. I KNOW! BRING THE TAFFY HIPPO FROM HIS DREAM! YES! HE WILL BE HIS SPIRIT TEACHER! Ekhm, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Ezran’s unexplained abilities.

In fact, I think so far TDP kinda delivered a disappointing deus-ex-machina payoffs in both seasons: mind link in S2 and Zim’s magic-breaking teeth in S1 allowing Reyla to have her hand. I was slightly disappointed then, and I was slightly disappointed now.

But I am willing to forgive it. Because quite literally anything else in the series is top-notch. The characters, for the most part, are complex and three-dimensional. The decisions they take are not simple and black-and-white. The villains are superb and blood-freezing, being able to scare you from the screen. They have added just enough Azula and Ozai juice to Viren and Aavaros to make them menacing and entertaining to watch. I love it.

On more than a few occasions the show has caught me off-guard and surprised me with its decisions, and I cannot wait for more of them.

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp spoilers

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