mysticdinosaurcatcher

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STARTING TOMORROW

Scientists in weather and climate are live streaming for 100 hours to make their case to the American public.

They are live streaming, but engagement is necessary for it to work. SHARE THIS WITH PEOPLE, RECORD THE STREAM, POST CLIPS OF IT THAT ARE FUNNY, if you can tune in, PLEASE DO!

This is something that has to be heard by as many people as possible. Put it on in the background! See if you can get other people to watch it! Do whatever you can do support those who are trying to be supported! Anything and everything helps!

TUNE IN HERE

article I posted screenshots of here

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

@raayllum I know you've told me to stop sending you messages about Star Trek: Prodigy. That said, I have to send you this because there may be limited time to watch the show.

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I love these

Won’t someone think of the children?! A Zero Appreciation Post

By Ames

Okay, I meant to only do a Rok-Tahk appreciation post because a) she’s the best and b) who has the time to write all these blogposts? But I just can’t help myself. The community’s efforts to #SaveStarTrekProdigy have motivated me to keep the posts going, so here’s some more love for Star Trek: Prodigy. These installments probably won’t be as intense as the Rok post, but check out what makes Zero such a great character.

[images © CBS/Paramount… I guess? For now? Yikes.]

Zero reintroduces us to the Medusans

“Is There in Truth No Beauty?” is one of my favorite The Original Series episodes. It’s very understated, but it’s one of those gems from season three that actually holds up and does something interesting. Not only is its guest character Miranda Jones one of the most unique characters of that show, but it also introduces us to the Medusans, a race of pure energy, the sight of which will drive a corporeal being mad. They’re also naturally brilliant navigators, telepathic, profound, agender, and just plain cool! I was so jazzed that Prodigy not only reintroduced this species, but also built on them in creating Zero’s character. Zero’s Medusan experiences form a lot of their character, from their intrinsic communicating abilities, to their guilt whenever their appearance is used as a weapon, to their natural curiosity which comes out all the freakin’ time, as you’ll see below. Plus they built themself a cool containment suit that hovers! What’s not to love?

Zero loves a good puzzle

This Medusan might be the most curious character in all of Star Trek (you’d think it’d be a Caitian, wouldn’t you?). It’s no wonder that Murder Planet lures them into a trap by tempting them with a hedge maze that conceals even more confounding secrets. Zero is also this close to solving the boat puzzle in “Time Amok” before getting outfoxed by the fox, and of course they’re a regular denizen of the “Cellar Door Society” holoprogram: purveyors of puzzling puzzles, amateur sleuthing, and milquetoast mysteries. This sense of wonder with everything in the world around them is positively contagious! Zero is basically a nebulous nerd, and that’s just adorable! It’s a boon for Trekkies everywhere to be able to see geekiness played so positively and we can see ourselves in Zero all over the place. Hoot hoot!

Zero is the perpetual optimist

“A dying star. What a rare and exciting way to meet our doom,” says Zero in “Starstruck.” It almost becomes a running gag that Zero finds every single experience to be a perplexing thing of wonderment and intrigue, even when it nearly kills everyone. Especially when it nearly kills everyone. When they think they’d died in “Time Amok” (and specifically have memories of doing so!), they treat it like it’s just a new phenomenon to analyze and cherish, which would be a little unnerving if Zero weren’t the quirky character they’ve been consistently portrayed as. It’s all part of that Medusan nature of theirs: one that is renowned for having the most beautiful and complex thoughts in the universe. It’s unclear how young Zero is in their species, but I assume they’re considered juvenile, and their natural wonderment at everything is something childlike and pure, making the perfect entryway into science fiction because they make every concept sound fascinating!

Zero fights assimilation

By “Let Sleeping Borg Lie” (great title, by the way!), Zero is at their lowest moment in the series. While saving everyone from The Diviner’s control in “A Moral Star,” they accidentally harm Gwyn, causing some memory loss (Hey, we did a whole blog on that topic! Cross promoting, ftw!), and are feeling like an absolute butt about the whole incident. And they see an opportunity to make it up to the crew by volunteering for what could easily be a suicide mission: getting assimilated by the Borg to figure out how to shut down the Living Construct on the ship. Zero is tempted by the appeal of belonging to a hivemind again like they’d been with other Medusans, but it is their devotion to the rest of the crew that snaps them out of it (and probably a little bit of Medusan superpowers for good measure). Belonging to the Protostar is already enough of a family for them, as has been the pattern with the other characters as well.

We love you, Zero! We love the other crew members of the Protostar too! We love Star Trek: Prodigy! Check out the other character appreciation posts for Rok-Tahk, Dal R’El, Gwyndala, and Jankom Pog while you’re here. I know I can speak for not only the other hosts here at A Star to Steer Hey By but for myriad other fans when I seriously hope someone picks up this wonder of a show. We’re really looking forward to seeing more from these amazing child characters, and we’re seriously wishing we get that opportunity. #SaveStarTrekProdigy

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I love these

Won’t someone think of the children?! A Jankom Pog Appreciation Post

By Ames

Okay, I meant to only do a Rok-Tahk appreciation post because a) she’s the best and b) who has the time to write all these blogposts? But I just can’t help myself. The community’s efforts to #SaveStarTrekProdigy have motivated me to keep the posts going, so here’s some more love for Star Trek: Prodigy. These installments probably won’t be as intense as the Rok post, but check out what makes Jankom Pog such a great character.

[images © CBS/Paramount… I guess? For now? Yikes.]

Jankom makes you change your mind

Jankom is the character I had the most trouble coming up with good headlines for in this blogpost, and here’s why that’s actually a good thing! He’s supposed to be the obnoxious, goofy, jokey comic relief character for kids to giggle at. He has a weird tick in that he speaks about himself in the third person, which starts off funny and then gets tiresome. He’s voiced by notorious character actor Jason Mantzoukas, who plays pretty much every role he touches maximum-Derek, over-the-top zany. But once you learn about all the trauma in Jankom’s backstory, you understand him a little more, and what seemed like a really annoying character for frankly most of the season materializes into a character who makes a lot of sense. It would be like finding out Jar Jar Binks were abused as a child and that’s why he’s such a screw up. Especially for a kid’s show, it’s actually a really nice way of portraying a character who has more going on under the surface than he lets on, and you shouldn’t just judge a book by its cover, as you’ll see below…

Jankom has PTSD

In an era in which more and more is known about autism or ADD or anxiety or PTSD or other mental health conditions, it’s actually quite great to see a character whom the audience will immediately dismiss out-of-hand and then have him get fleshed out as a person whom the rest of the crew accepts in spite of his eccentricities. And you may kick yourself a little bit! I remember a lot of people thinking “Ugh, Jankom is simply the worst,” myself included, and then feel like an asshole when his backstory gives you some of the traumatizing reasons why he’s like that from the episode “Preludes.” Prodigy reminds us over and over again to be more accepting of people’s differences by showing us these great characters who love each other unconditionally, and why can’t we do that ourselves?

Jankom served on a sleeper ship

“Preludes” also informs us that Tellarite orphans (Jankom’s an orphan – that’s something else to hopefully get to explore!) are put on sleeper ships. We learn that Jankom was in cryostasis for two centuries before his ship malfunctioned and he woke up. As we’ve discussed whenever cryostasis comes up, putting someone in the freezer for a period of time has some interesting implications on the world of the show. This makes Jankom literally a relic from the past! We don’t know [yet] what his life was like before going into cryo, but that does put his birthdate right before the time the Federation was getting founded in Enterprise, so that’s kinda neat. And when we see his backstory as de facto engineer of this constantly breaking sleeper ship, we also understand more about Pog’s preoccupation with wanting to fix things. Jankom Pog can fix it!

Jankom gives us a main Tellarite character

We’ve never had one of these! The Tellarites have come a long way from the horrible pig masks from “Journey to Babel,” and I am dying to know more! Sure, they’re Federation royalty, being one of the founding members of the Federation, and Enterprise gives us a little bit more of them, but most everything we know about them is that they’re argumentative gluttons who particularly don’t care for Andorians very much. Prodigy does well to keep this consistent, especially when we see Dr. Noum acting incredibly judgmentally toward just about everyone, especially Jankom Pog for being short in “Crossroads.” We don’t get to learn much new about them except the aforementioned penchant for using cryosleep to span long distances in space. They’re so nice to see and I want more.

We love you, Jankom Pog! We love the other crew members of the Protostar too! We love Star Trek: Prodigy! Check out the other character appreciation posts for Rok-Tahk, Dal R’El, Gwyndala, and Zero while you’re here. I know I can speak for not only the other hosts here at A Star to Steer Hey By but for myriad other fans when I seriously hope someone picks up this wonder of a show. We’re really looking forward to seeing more from these amazing child characters, and we’re seriously wishing we get that opportunity. #SaveStarTrekProdigy

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I love these

Won’t someone think of the children?! A Gwyndala Appreciation Post

By Ames

Okay, I meant to only do a Rok-Tahk appreciation post because a) she’s the best and b) who has the time to write all these blogposts? But I just can’t help myself. The community’s efforts to #SaveStarTrekProdigy have motivated me to keep the posts going, so here’s some more love for Star Trek: Prodigy. These installments probably won’t be as intense as the Rok post, but check out what makes Gwyndala such a great character.

[images © CBS/Paramount… I guess? For now? Yikes.]

Gwyn has parent baggage

As we mentioned back in our parents of Trek blogpost, a lot of characters get the backstory of having terrible or absent parents that forms the foundation of their personality. And The Diviner does just that for his progeny Gwydala. His shitty parenting forms so much of her character’s journey. She’s started off with so much pressure on her shoulders to complete his life’s work even though she doesn’t even know what that is yet. Like those put on Wesley by The Traveler in “Where No One Has Gone Before,” the expectations are really hard to live up to, especially when Gwyn learns they are at odds with being the kind of person she naturally wants to be. Writers out there take note: Now that’s some good inner conflict!

Gwyn is Vau N’Akat

I’m a sucker for some good time travel stories, and the whole backstory of Gwyn’s race the Vau N’Akat is sure to win someone like me over. I’ll be honest, this plotline is a little complicated for a kid’s show, but once you wrap your mind around it, it’s absolutely fascinating. The Federation somehow botched first contact on the planet Solum in the near future, and the Vau N’Akat nearly destroyed themselves in a civil war. It’s really a refreshing twist to see the Federation blow something this badly, and for a society to not prance willingly into joining up. Time passes, and Chakotay stumbles through a wormhole in the Protostar fifty years into a future in which this species has nearly destroyed itself, so they all go back in time to try to destroy the Federation. The season one finale of Prodigy sets it up for season two to put even more responsibility on Gwyn to try to save her people… Fingers crossed that we get to see it.

Gwyn starts off on the wrong side

For the first few episodes of the season, Gwyn is at odds with the rest of the Protostar crew. The conflict within her is between doing what she perceives to be right and what would make her father proud of her, and those two things are rarely the same. It takes until “Terror Firma” for Gwyn to see that her father has never had her interests in mind, and then she’s able to cross to the good side. Starting a character off with an entirely different goal than the other characters (they all want to leave Tars Lamora and she wants to return to The Diviner) is Storytelling 101. It gives the characters natural tension and an opportunity to either come together or split apart. Happily for us, Gwyn proves to be at her best when she is with her crewmates.

Gwyn makes up for her years of silence

There’s an excellent scene in “Starstruck” in which Rok tells off Gwyn for standing by for so long while the prisoners on Tars Lamora were treated horribly. And Gwyn really struggles with this! She’d been stuck under her father’s boot for so long, unable to act according to her own wishes. Even when she tries to stand up for the young pink cat thing in “Lost and Found,” you know it’s not going to go anywhere. I complained in my Children in Star Trek post that kid characters too often are props for the episode to make a point, and Gwyn fights against that plot device to become her own character. She finds her voice (a really appropriate character journey for a natural linguist like Gwyn) when she finally speaks up for the unwanted of the prison planet and ultimately helps to free them. Now that’s a person I want to be in catboots with!

We love you, Gwyndala! We love the other crew members of the Protostar too! We love Star Trek: Prodigy! Check out the other character appreciation posts for Rok-Tahk, Dal R’El, Jankom Pog, and Zero while you’re here. I know I can speak for not only the other hosts here at A Star to Steer Hey By but for myriad other fans when I seriously hope someone picks up this wonder of a show. We’re really looking forward to seeing more from these amazing child characters, and we’re seriously wishing we get that opportunity. #SaveStarTrekProdigy

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I love these

Won’t someone think of the children?! A Dal R'El Appreciation Post

By Ames

Okay, I meant to only do a Rok-Tahk appreciation post because a) she’s the best and b) who has the time to write all these blogposts? But I just can’t help myself. The community’s efforts to #SaveStarTrekProdigy have motivated me to keep the posts going, so here’s some more love for Star Trek: Prodigy. These installments probably won’t be as intense as the Rok post, but check out what makes Dal R'El such a great character.

[images © CBS/Paramount… I guess? For now? Yikes.]

Dal starts off as a terrible captain

The great thing about starting off a character with a lot of messed up personality flaws is that there’s that much room for them to grow. Like I said in Rok’s post: Perfect characters are boring. We saw a similar guided development in Julian Bashir in Deep Space Nine; he was downright unlikable early on until his relationships with other characters on the station gave him some foundation and his experience throughout the seasons provided the building blocks to becoming an ethical, respectable, and likable person. We’re seeing the same thing with Dal, whom we first see as a jerk for a lot of the show. He’s selfish. He’s clueless. He sees his crew members as things that do his bidding while he only does what’s best for him. You’re meant to hate his character. And that’s a good thing, because he’s not done cooking.

Dal comes clean to Janeway

One of the first really redeeming moments we see from Dal is when he first comes clean to Janeway about being Starfleet at the top of “Time Amok.” Damn, I just can’t say enough good things about that episode apparently. It provides so many learning moments for the characters, as you can see in spades in Rok’s plot in that episode as well. Dal could have continued the lie that they are cadets, but he’s growing. And out of some combination of frustration, guilt, and finally doing the right thing, he starts thinking of people other than himself. “Time Amok” is the perfect place for that first step in the right direction since it’s when the kids start acting like a crew themselves, way near the midseason break! Baby steps, Dal. He’s getting there.

Dal has inner demons

The longer character arc for Dal over the course of the season is his quest to find out who his people are. Being the only one of his kind is a huge weight for him to bear, and his loneliness guides his character for better or for worse (very frequently for worse, as mentioned above). He feels alone and so it’s fitting for his character to look out for only himself. It’s a long road to discovering his origins in “Masquerade,” an episode which expounds on his character isolation right when he was feeling like he might belong, and turning that character trait on its head by shifting it to his being an abomination. Dal is incredibly fragile, and it’s only through love from his friends that he starts to accept that he doesn’t need a family because he already has one in them. Sure, that’s a cutesy message, but it’s a kid’s show. Duh.

Dal goes fast

Okay, this one’s silly, but considering the whole Star Trek franchise has decided for some reason that all captains need a catchphrase and also a comical little metascene about them creating their catchphrase, Dal’s quote “Go fast” is probably my favorite. Okay, Captain Pike’s “Hit it” is pretty good too and always delivered excellently (that man can say anything and it’ll sound great), but there’s something innocent and sweet about “Go fast.” Dal is almost always out of his element when captaining the Protostar, and shows his naïveté by calling things childish names like the “pew pew button” and the “beamy part,” and it’s all a nice little giggle because he’s a kid. “Go fast” is the sort of silly that’s appropriate for his character, who is faking it until he makes it. And boy does he make it! Go Dal! 

We love you, Dal! We love the other crew members of the Protostar too! We love Star Trek: Prodigy! Check out the other character appreciation posts for Rok-Tahk, Gwyndala, Jankom Pog, and Zero while you’re here. I know I can speak for not only the other hosts here at A Star to Steer Hey By but for myriad other fans when I seriously hope someone picks up this wonder of a show. We’re really looking forward to seeing more from these amazing child characters, and we’re seriously wishing we get that opportunity. #SaveStarTrekProdigy

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I love these

Won’t someone think of the children?! A Rok-Tahk Appreciation Post

By Ames

Last week, we covered just why your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By largely dislike the children characters in classic Star Trek (tl;dr: it’s mostly because they’re written as props instead of people, or so I make my claim). There is one show in the franchise, however, that’s a huge outlier in how its children characters are written, acted, and treated overall as individuals who grow and develop. Obviously, it’s Star Trek: Prodigy. Since basically all of the main characters are children, the show would have failed if it couldn’t make them compelling and relatable to both a young audience and the preestablished fanbase. 

And against the odds, it succeeded like whoa. There’s a reason why the fanbase is in such an uproar right now about Paramount’s avaricious cancellation of the Emmy Award–winning animated underdog (go sign the petition if you haven’t yet!), and that’s that the show is just so surprisingly good. We’re the last group of people who would laud a kid’s show so much, and we absolutely adore it.

Read on below for what Prodigy gets so right when establishing its children characters. Rok-Tahk is the prime example here because a) she’s voiced by Rylee Alazraqui, a legit child voice actress, who NAILS IT, b) she ticks all the boxes for what makes a good child character, and c) she’s just the best. Period. But let me explain anyway…

[images © CBS/Paramount… I guess? For now? Yikes.]

Rok is more than you expect

I think all the kids who made our favorites list in last week’s blogpost have one thing in common: they had some kind of hidden depth to explore. A character having some kind of twist or secret or hidden identity is just a staple of science fiction. We see it in Barash and Taya, who turn out not to be the children they appear to be. We see it in Mezoti, whose dual nature as both a young innocent girl and a Borg drone with the collective experiences of a whole hivemind makes her endlessly fascinating. 

So when this massive rock creature whom we start off being intimidated by turns out to be the sweetest little girl, we’re immediately interested because it subverts our expectations. We’re forced to remind ourselves not to judge someone by how they look on the outside, something Star Trek has been doing since its very conception. And then when we learn even more about her and realize that her jailors put a child in a prison camp, we can’t help but root for her.

Rok is allowed to just be a kid

Sure, Rok is still smarter than your average kid, but she’s smart without being obnoxious like other naturally brainy kid characters I could name. *cough cough Wesley Crusher* As the obvious example, Wes is exhausting as a character because he’s a boy genius who is acutely aware of it and his supernatural smarts force him into situations another kid wouldn’t be in. He isn’t allowed to be a kid because he is first and foremost a child prodigy. 

Rok, on the other hand, is first and foremost a child in the show Prodigy! Her excitement about new encounters is because most encounters to her are just that: new! She plays “Delta Heart Magical Veterinarian” in the holodeck, she loves ice cream, she plays with the cute little creatures on “Dream Catcher” planet, she naturally cares for Murf as though he were her puppy. Rok’s youth informs how she reacts to circumstances in the show and she acts accordingly in ways that aren’t forced, better suited for other characters, or just downright unnecessary. And seeing the universe through the eyes of someone with such a clean slate allows the audience to make their own judgements about the Protostar crew’s circumstances episode by episode.

Rok is a freakin’ alien monster

Prodigy also introduces us to the Brikar, a new alien race of rock monsters. And everyone accepts her without a single word! Now that’s the Star Trek way! From the moment we meet Rok-Tahk, she’s not physically cutified or even feminized, which is frankly refreshing. She’s less humanoid than most creatures we meet, outside of say, the Horta or Murf. It’s also a great use of the CGI-animated medium because live-action shows can’t pull stuff like this off. 

I’m honestly impressed to see any female character, let alone a little girl, portrayed in a way that isn’t that cookie-cutter kind of attractive that we see everywhere. Rok is BIG. Rok is HARD. She’s not feminine or pretty or soft. Her cuteness comes from how she acts, talks, and treats people. And the crew of the Protostar and the Starfleet officers we meet later treat her like they treat everyone else: like a person. The people who run the slave show in “Preludes” pin her as a monster because they don’t/can’t know her. But our other main characters do get to know her and barely even bring up her size! And when they do, Rok subverts it by proclaiming that she doesn't want to be the muscle on the ship, and they go with it. I love that.

Rok has character flaws

Like any person, especially a well-written character in a television program, Rok isn’t perfect. Perfect people make for obscenely boring television (unless it’s a satire or something), and perfect children are just plain not believable and take you out of the story. But Prodigy writers went a few extra steps in developing someone like Rok to have credible flaws for her situation that also informs how she acts, changes, and grows. Rok overthinks and doubts herself constantly because she has anxiety. She’s suffered through traumas, like some of the orphaned boys mentioned in last week’s blog have, and that gives her something to overcome over the course of the season and [hopefully] beyond. 

And, as mentioned above, she’s also really young! She doesn’t have the experience and knowledge yet to save the day every week. She knows she has limitations and when she remembers this, she panics, freezes, and languishes in self doubt. I’m thinking specifically about the turmoil she goes through in the supremely excellent “Time Amok,” in which she is forced to be alone (already terrifying) and also with so much pressure put on her (downright immobilizing!). Audiences can relate to anxiety and stress like this. It doesn’t matter that she’s a kid: we all get what she’s going through and connect with her immediately.

Rok grows throughout the season

You’d think it would be easy to create story arcs that help child characters grow since they’re going to grow up just by virtue of natural development anyway, but it’s harder than you think. Both Jake Sisko and Wesley Crusher get things to do as they get older that build on the foundations for their characters, but they also had several seasons to work with. Rok, in just one season, has her entire world opened up for her because of the nature of the story, and she runs with it!

This is a science fiction show, so of course the characters are going to love science, and watching Rok learn, try new things, occasionally fail, and try again is an excellent entry point into STEM. Just like how a lot of today’s doctors credit watching Dr. McCoy and today’s engineers got their start because they wanted to be like Scotty, and just like how many women and people of color joined the space program specifically because of Nichelle Nichols, I really hope that kids today watching Rok-Tahk and crew are captivated by science in that same way. I would be.

We love you, Rok! We love the other crew members of the Protostar too! We love Star Trek: Prodigy! Check out the other character appreciation posts for Dal R’El, Gwyndala, Jankom Pog, and Zero while you’re here. I know I can speak for not only the other hosts here at A Star to Steer Hey By but for myriad other fans when I seriously hope someone picks up this wonder of a show. We’re really looking forward to seeing more from these amazing child characters, and we’re seriously wishing we get that opportunity. #SaveStarTrekProdigy

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I’m going to make one last plea! If you’re in ANY of these fandoms: The Owl House, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Dragon Prince, Star Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Ninjago, Transformers, Gravity Falls, or any other similar series, please give Star Trek Prodigy a watch! Seriously, just answer the following questions:

Do you like episodic content with an overarching story that builds and builds over time like Avatar?

Do you like the found family trope?

Do you like mysteries and science fiction?

Do you wanna try Star Trek but are daunted by it’s enormous history and legacy?

Do you like characters that grow and change between episodes and become better characters?

Do you like dark plot lines, trauma, and existential dread hidden in a kids show?

Are you feeling like there isn’t anything new to watch now that The Owl House is over?

If you said yes to ANY of these questions then Star Trek Prodigy is the show for you! It’s a CGI Nickelodeon show that gradually introduces you to the Star Trek universe in a gentle way through colorful characters and crazy sci-fi exploits! When a bunch of alien kids enslaved on a mining asteroid stumble upon a Federation Starship, they band together and use the ship to escape their captors. With the help of a holographic mentor, the crew of alien kids learn to work together and become a family. Along the way there’s time traveling shenanigans, deadly alien planets, devious aliens, and an underlying mystery about the ship and how it got stuck on in the mining asteroid to begin with!

Please please PLEASE take a look! It’s such s good show with great writing and easily fills the void we’re in for new animated shows! I promise you, it’s worth the time to check it out!

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

@raayllum Did you ever have room in your head for more than just TDP?

Do you have any thoughts on Star Trek: Prodigy?

I haven't watched it yet, but I'd like to. Maybe sometime in August once my head has room for more than just TDP in it

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

Listen to the lyrics! It’s about two people separated by a great distance yet still loving and caring for each other and hoping to be reunited some day! Add to that the fact that Rayla is associated with the moon and Callum is associated with the sky and I’d say the song fits them pretty well!

Do you remember that I sent a message saying that "Somewhere Out There" from "An American Tail" is a potential season 4 rayllum song? h t t p s : / / w w w . y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ? v = 2 j z l S e F L r 7 A

I think so! It’s a childhood song for me so IDK if i’ll associate it hardcore with Rayllum, but maybe!

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

This was a question that I asked. I didn't notice that I had been logged out of Tumblr.

I can't remember if you've read this or not but I'll share it with you: h t t p s : / / w w w . h y p a b l e . c o m / t h e - d r a g o n - p r i n c e - s e a s o n - 2 - e n d i n g - m e a n i n g /

yes i have!! it’s a very sweet article and such a nice realization / analysis for the season two finale, which is already one of my favourite episodes!

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

I seriously doubt they'll leave Zubeia's character undeveloped for long now that we've met her.

Do you also look forward to getting to know Zubeia come season 4?!

i suppose so, but i also don’t have many thoughts regarding zubeia in season four. we may get to know her very well, may not. so far the most developed dragon characters are sol regem and zym (i would say arguably in that order, too) and zym falls into the role of being a macguffin and sol regem as an obstacle just as much as they’re characters, respectively

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

callum’s flirting with rayla face, reblog if you agree

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

i saw some people saying that the rayllum subplot in s3 distracted the plot from rayla and callum’s character growth. what do you think??

I think this comes from a misunderstanding of what Rayla and Callum’s romantic arc means for each of them, and mistreating all their other emotional beats that don’t have to do with romance in s3. 

For example, as I’ve said before, you can take the romance out of their plotline in S3 and not much actually changes. Rayla’s speech happens and they get past Sol Regem; they still have a fun time in Xadia; being banished from the Silvergrove still guts Rayla and makes Callum angry on her behalf; she pushes him away and he runs after her and supports her (maybe take out the “beautiful” / blush but everything else would be exactly the same, minus the kiss of course) and Nyx steals Zym. They get Zym back. Callum has to confront emotions regarding Avizandum. They climb the Spire and Callum still does his best to be there for her. She would still give him the pendant because he’s her family, they have the argument, Callum discovers the truth, and they decide to make the decision of what to do next together. He still goes off the cliff for her. 

What, then, is the point of the romance? If it’s not necessary, why is it there? Well, it arguably adds emotional depth. I’ve said before that one of the reasons why I’m not worried about Callum and Rayla breaking up is because it is narratively more challenging and more thematically apt for them to be together. Because if they were best friends, but didn’t want to build a life together, okay then... he goes back to Katolis and she’s in Xadia. They don’t have to figure out how to be an elf-human couple, how to bring their peoples/lands together, where to live somewhere in the middle in any way, etc. 

But being together makes each of them happy. The end of 3x04 is all the worse because we know they like each other but were doofuses with a misunderstanding, and they lost Zym. AKA two losses instead of one, if you’re responding to the show the way its intended for you too. Then, they get Zym back in 3x05 and work out their losses. And it’s arguably these things that add the mystery because if you watched the trailer / see that Nyx is shady, well of course she’s going to steal Zym or that wouldn’t be setup. And of course Callum and Rayla are going to get him back. Plotlines are naturally set up to be executed and resolved.

Romantic subplots have a bit more guess work of when. I don’t think anyone expected them to kiss four episodes in or for it to be resolved the next ep, ergo both of those things are surprising. It’s nice to have. 

But that’s all more technical stuff, arguably. What about that emotional depth I mentioned? Well, falling in love for each of them deepens what their arcs are already about in many ways. That’s not to say that they don’t have other arcs - both of them have to figure out what they’re fighting for, exactly - but even those arcs aren’t separate from each other in a platonic lens. 

One of Rayla’s primary arcs is to learn to let people in and be vulnerable with them. She likes to be in control of her emotions. Well, falling in love is for many people (unless you’re aro and ace, and even then, speaking from my own experiences) is one of the most out of control, vulnerability inducing things ever. Callum is also a partner who challenges Rayla in those particular ways while also supporting her and taking care of her and letting her be independent. Over the course even of just season three, we see her struggle and get better at being emotionally vulnerable with him, both with her feelings about him and about other things in her life. She learns that he’s a safe place for her hopes, fears and her heart. That vulnerability doesn’t equal rejection and that she can be fully open with him, which would not be possible if she had to hold her romantic feelings for him to her chest and if they were not returned. She also learns that she has someone she can rely on to have her back, always, which for someone who started the series as the outsider in her group and then felt routinely isolated, means a lot. 

As for Callum, one of his arcs is to figure out how he can protect the people he loves. Whether in making plans, advancing in his magic, or being there for them emotionally. With Ezran gone in season three because he’s off having his own arc, Rayla is the channel this is explored through in the season (by and large). He wants to protect her from Sol Regem too; we see his temper come out in the Silvergrove; he patiently waits her out in 3x04. Love inspires his magic to grow to greater heights, literally. However, Rayla is a partner who also takes care of Callum and makes sure that he’s okay too. She takes him on a delightful tour of Xadia, saves him, and emotionally supports him too. Giving Callum another relationship after his one with Claudia failed disastrously, especially when he was the one who got hurt in it, is also just very much. Callum deserves the chance to fall in love (either again or arguably for the first time) in a more mature manner and have someone love and cherish him in return, and Rayla absolutely gives that to him. He’s a kid in season three who has similarly lost / is separated from all his remaining family for most of it, and Rayla means that he’s not alone, either. 

If someone likes platonic Rayllum more and wasn’t a fan of the romance, that is 100% their prerogative and preference. But as a preference, it’s subjective, and to say that it hindered their growth in season when - in my eyes and narratively, I think - absolutely did the opposite is a very easy argument to dismantle. 

Because their relationship has always been crucial to each other’s character growth in previous seasons and they’re the most natural romantic partner for each other by far. Paying close attention to how their bond operated in s1 led me to predict basically all of 3x04′s emotional arc for Rayla even before s2 came out, and that Callum would open up to her eventually about his mother, which he did in 3x06. 

Season three just adds a dash of Romance to it to deepen the emotional arcs that are already there and give some extra wins along the way. If anything, it strengthens both of their characters by revealing more about them.

At the end of the day, this just means I enjoyed s3 more than those people did, and

I’m gonna continue enjoying my canon otp and all their lovely interactions, you do you fam. 

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

@raayllum You should definitely try watching more of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts. If I remember correctly I had difficulty getting into it at first but now I really like it.

Somewhat random, but what are your thoughts on Benson and Troy from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts for the ship asks?

i watched the first five ish episodes of kipo but personally couldn’t get into it - i found it to be a bit too quirky / zany for my tastes and while i do love the backgrounds i don’t love the character design. bit too sharp and pointy for me. 

that being said i am very proud of kipo and dreamworks bc benson is one of the main three characters and he’s a gay black boy and i’m pretty sure troy is his love interest and is also a character of colour and we love to see it!

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

A Black Artists Matter call for action

Hello TDP Family, Hello dear Janaya (and not!) shippers.

In light of current events, we are taking a stand.

We, a very diverse group of people in the Janaya Discord (HERE), have talked a lot on how we can support the Black community in this important time.

We might not have money to donate, or the ability to protest, or even the resources to commit to other kind of actions.

But we do have a platform. And as such, we have to use it. We have a voice, and we have to raise it.

We want to create a master post for The Dragon Prince fanartists who belong in the Black Community and boost their voices. We want to show our support and help in any way we can.

We therefore ask any Black artists (fanartists, fanwriters, videomakers, etc) who feel comfortable sharing their profile to drop us an ask or reach out to us in whatever way is easiest to do so. We’re happy to boost your creative works, to celebrate your creations, and highlight your contributions. 

We will be reblogging a couple of works from the artists who reach out to us as well as creating the master post mentioned above. If you have specific works you would like us to reblog, please let us know!

Additionally, we will try to post resources and ways to support the BlackLivesMatter movements.

So far, we have @path-of-sunlight ‘s initiative that you can find HERE.

If you know of similar initiatives from the TDP fandom, please share them with us, and we will boost them for you.

Safety Note: Please make sure you have permission if you suggest other fanartists to us. We will be checking for consent from individual creators before we include them in the masterpost. 

[mysticdinosaurcatcher]

What do you think was going through Rayla's head before and after Callum kissed her on the Ambler? (after her face just scream "Oh no. We're not dragging this out" but I'm still curious)

3x05 is such a good Rayllum ep dear god. I’ve talked a bit about it here in another meta, but I continually find myself impressed at how the kids power through their awkwardness and go back to 1) taking care of each other, and 2) focusing on their mission. 

Rayla more successfully than Callum perhaps (after she thought she got rejected she was clearly prepared to bury her feelings for him as Deep, Deep Down as possible and act like they weren’t there). So then, on the ambler, she’s just very glad that they got Zym back, are all alive, and that saving Nyx didn’t bite any of them in the butt. She’s not exactly in a good mood.

Callum, of course, seeing her bluntness, feels differently.

So he launches into his second heartfelt speech: “It’s because Rayla is a hero.”

Rayla, at first, just looks confused, so Callum elaborates. A quick look at Nyx, who is of course also hearing this.

Keep reading