#viren is a kids show antagonist

[madou-dilou]

[raayllum]

I want you to elaborate, please 🥺

Re: this post regarding that it's thematically important for Xadia to have failed Rayla.

So TDP demonstrates by and large what is required for a 'both' (or triple pronged) sides conflict to work, if we have the dragons, the elves, and the humans loosely on their own sides, with 90% more collaboration between elves and dragons. You need a good reason for each side to have beef with each other, even if those things are also flawed in their own ways and perspectives (the assassins were wrong that Harrow was someone who would do only harm to the world, but that doesn't mean he hadn't done genuine harm and, as far as he knew, let an actual newborn baby be murdered for the exact same preventative measure).

But the other important thing is that all the sides also have to have ways that they fail their own people. Otherwise it's too heavily tilted in a "well this one side is Much Much Better than the other" and leaves everything lopsided, which is the exact opposite of what you want.

After all, genuine both sides conflicts do exist in real life. When it comes to TDP, I always think about xenophobia / antiblackness in Asian communities and anti-asian sentiment in Black communities. This intracommunity racism doesn't help anyone except structures of white supremacy, it ruins opportunities for solidarity, and it leaves interracial partnerships and Mixed race kids out in the cold in particular. Intracommunity racism is equally wrong on both sides, at the very least, and it's fucking complicated, for a variety of reasons. (I've also heard from a lot of Eastern European people that TDP's handling of issues resonates with them as well). Either way, you are failing your own people, as well as others.

This is why Xadia has the magical moral high ground - primal magic over dark magic - and why the Pentarchy as the well, moral, moral high ground: introducing breaking the cycle to their Xadia counterparts, wanting to solve issues together over hyper independence. The Pentarchy - Katolis specifically - embraces imperfection and asymmetry ("It's okay to be afraid of things" / the uneven towers of Katolis). Xadia maintains perfection and rejects anything less, covering it up in a variety of ways ("If she is not useful, get rid of her" / "Moonshadow elves aren't supposed to show fear, ever"). We see this carry wholeheartedly into S4 where the Orphan Queen was, most likely, the only one to criticize and question Aaravos, at least at first; "It was a human who saw through the Fallen Star's schemes" as he was "respected and beloved by all" previously.

The Pentarchy is flawed because it relies so heavily on having and letting kings solely make decisions (everything in S2 and S3 with Viren and Kasef; this is why it's actually a good thing that Ezran has the means and encouragement to leave in S4). A lack of magic means it is understandable why they turn to dark magic, because resource sharing has broken down across the kingdoms, never mind with Xadia, when it comes to things like famine. But Harrow heavily fails his children because of dark magic, his actions of revenge resulting in instigating a war, leaving his children as orphans, and susceptible to a world of grief, pain, and fear. Sending them away from the fray is already too late, no matter how much Callum posits "Can't you just make peace with them? It seems pretty simple to me!"

We see this in two of our primary antagonists, working against Callum and Ezran, being human. In order to write a conflict like this, you must have antagonists on all sides, and Viren and Claudia (and councilman guy / Kasef) primarily fill those roles. And they specifically have to go after other humans (Ezran, Callum, Aanya for Viren, as well) to show the flaws in the systems Viren is manifesting.

If humans don't fail other humans, all you have is humans failing elves - and that's precisely what the elves believe is going on. It means "this system fails only your enemies" which doesn't seem like a problem. Again, can't have one side be Too Good, or it doesn't work, and if a system works for you (dark magic) you will have no reason to reject it, even if you probably should.

But Rayla isn't sent away from the fray. She's sent right into it, and more than that, she's there because she wants to be. At the beginning of the series, Rayla has fully bought into the Cycle; not without good intentions, but disastrous consequences for both herself and others, even before she spares Marcos. And again, this is important: Rayla is a Believer. Until she isn't.

While certain individuals fail Callum and Ezran in particular, generally, we see that they were raised in a pretty happy, emotionally safe home. While both have their own issues of self esteem, neither have strong issues of persistent self loathing. It is the societal history of dark magic and lingering fear/paranoia getting in their way, bolstered by the military surrounding them being unable to consider a life without war.

Likewise, Rayla was also raised and surrounded by assassins who were heroic protectors, in a world at war. But what if you weren't at war? What if you didn't have to be at war? Runaan can't fathom this, just like her village can't fathom a world where Rayla was captured or injured or just delayed, or countless other reasons that would've meant she survived and nobody else did. Instead, they deem Rayla guilty and flawed by association; she isn't just banished for her survival - which, just Survival is worthy of a punishment, when you are supposed to act like you are "already dead" - but specifically because she's seen as her parents' daughter. "They thought I ran away. Just like my parents."

Likewise, without the botched assassination mission and Rayla to carry that weight, Xadia and the elves would seem much too perfect. Why should they care if their assassination mission was, in the human point of view that they've already disregarded (just as humans disregard elven viewpoints around dark magic), bad, when it doesn't harm their own people? Except that it does.

This is amplified by the fact Rayla is the only 'hero' who ends arc 1 like a villain. Everyone else can go home. Soren even asks why Claudia didn't try to, in 4x07. But Rayla can't - she doesn't have a home in the Silvergrove to go home too. Like Viren, Claudia, and Aaravos, she's branded as a Traitor. Like Aaravos, she was seen as a liar. "What good is an assassin who's too afraid to kill?" (TTM) A lot of good, if that's not your only expectation of her. If she's allowed to grow and make mistakes. But she never has been - at least not by her own people ("Even if her own people might misunderstand, and turn against her"). They took a 15 year old girl and made her think she had to stay behind and die for mistakes she didn't even make (3x08).

Xadia punishments have to be harsh and unfair, and they're unfair precisely because they expect perfection and rigidness from people who are inherently flexible and compassionate, because no one is Perfect. Rayla screwed up her mission and got Ghosted in series; in the novelization, her troupe wanted to kill her (per custom) for sparing Marcos. We see this in Moonshadow culture in particular, but also Sunfire elves (Lucia made a mistake, but it was never worth her death), and in Zubeia's quest for revenge after losing her family. It casts Janai's statement of "Gone are the days we shed blood for justice" in a new light because that or Banishment/exile (expelling humans) is what Xadia has always done, but no longer.

If you want to change a society / people / culture, you have to give them reasons to change. This is seen most through the ways those societies/cultures/structures fail their own people. The people who aren't in the 'in-group' or at least not properly. (Think how ATLA talked about indoctrination within the Fire Nation and how their own people were also suffering as a result of their imperialism; not more than the other nations, but not without their own pitfalls). This is also reminiscent of the way Ezran approaches the painting's vandalization in 4x03; rather than being angry over it, he acknowledges the way he's fallen short that paved the way for it.

TDP is very interested in a Mutual Discard (how both Viren and Harrow trash / throw out their own relationship) and mutuality in general. But for the bulk of the show (until S4 really) Rayla is our only main elf character; Janai and Terry only join those ranks later, and Aaravos is too shrouded in mystery to really be able to tell (although again, S4 starts shedding light). Thus, if we want the Pentarchy and Xadia to be flawed in how they treat their enemies and their own people, Rayla has to carry the brunt of that load in S1-S3; the narrative doesn't really have any other options.

So just as the Pentarchy and plenty of humans fail the two of our three protagonists, Xadia and the elves specifically have to fail our third protagonist, otherwise Xadia would come off culturally / socially as too perfect. It is thematically in the show's best interest to let the Silvergrove be as flawed as it is, as well as any other social / cultural aspects (Janai makes it so that soul candles can burn in a specific area that's safe, not just wherever; although dark magic is a slippery slope, we always understand precisely why humans are using it) be likewise flawed and sympathetic and understandable.

That's why Ezran's speech is so poignant. Just like Rayla (and everyone and everything else) it's not pure idealization or total demonization.

Humanity and Xadia can fail themselves and one another repeatedly, and each can still be worthy of growth and protection, because it's not about deserve. It's not about punishment. It's about rehabilitation and belief.

For Rayla and the Silvergrove, too.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

I keep thinking about Silmarillion, and I was wondering : what do you think of Fëanor ?

I don’t know exactly how it should be seen...

Ooh, Fëanor. Gosh, okay, let me change the channel in my brain.

Fëanor is, at heart, a Capitalist Inventor. He's Dark Tony Stark. He creates endless things for the world to use, but what truly drives him is the bone-deep belief that he and his chosen ones deserve his most prized possessions more than anyone else. And he's willing to kill anyone on both sides to get them back. He swears an oath to fight until he gets what he wants, and thus seals the doom of untold thousands he'll never even meet.

That's an antagonist. Which is not the same thing as a villain. But Fëanor is very much an experience to be survived - or not - rather than any kind of ally. Much of what he does in the Silmarillion is imbalanced, driven by emotions he doesn't seem willing or able to control. And because he's an elf among elves, and they all live a very very long time, the effects of his choices carry forward for thousands of years. This one dude got a lot of people killed, directly and indirectly, including his whole family. For an elf was supposed to love the stars, he wasn't very stellar. Our Man in Valinor was way more into fire.

The part that bothers me about his character - and this is a modern take looking back at JRR Tolkien and his world in the last millennium - is that Fëanor is born this way. He is flawed from birth, and he's just Like That, forever. No chance to change, no encouragement to be different, to be softer, to be better, to corral his spirit of fire into something more light than heat. He's just dangerous chaos from start to finish. He comes into the world sucking his mother's spirit dry so she dies, he lives his life disagreeing with everyone around him except his sons, and he goes out encouraging those sons to hold to their unholy oath to retrieve the Silmarils or die trying. Which they do - the "die trying" part, anyway.

He's a piece of work.

He was also a brilliant, god-tier craftsman. I guess that's what happens when you study under the Vala Aulë himself, who literally shaped the physical world into existence.

He created the Silmarils, capturing the combined light of the Two Trees into three brilliant gemstones in a way no one ever did before or since.

He crafted the palantíri, which not even Sauron could replicate later.

He invented Tengwar script, which is the swirly elven writing we all associate with Middle-Earth.

He crafted the mysterious Feanorian lamps, which are crystals that emit blue light and cannot be doused.

He was constantly thinking up new ideas and crafting them. Eru only knows what he made that has been lost. You'll notice none of these things he made are swords. Yet he led an attack against the Teleri on his way out of Valinor, and the Teleri defended themselves, so I kind of assume he was also a weaponsmith, trying out new ideas in metal form if nothing else.

Brilliant and misguided, a flawed juggernaut, destined to drag the entire world and countless lives off course. The earlier these characters show up in the timeline, the more destructive chaos they end up causing.

I do not like Fëanor. He's a White Guy, doing as he pleases with no thought for the consequences, to himself, to those of his family he actually likes, or to anyone else. He holds enough privilege and power that people keep following him into disaster, and then he just goes and does it again, without learning a damn thing from his imbalanced approach. He even dies thinking he did nothing wrong ever in his life. Like... Bitch.

Having power is no guarantee that you deserve power, and Fëanor is a prime example of why.

This has nothing to do with the objects he made. Those are just tools, free to be taken and used for good or evil, as the palantíri were, and as every message ever written in Tengwar was. Would the world have been better off without the Silmarils at all, or the palantíri? Would a different language script have somehow altered the world for the better? Since it's fiction, we could just decide that Yes, Yes It Would, or No Actually Not.

What's not fictional is my distaste for presumptuous assholes with a bit of power but no self-awareness, because I've already met too many of them who weren't fictional, either.

You want my unvarnished opinion of Fëanor? He's a billionaire. And I'm glad he got eaten. It wasn't nearly soon enough.

Eat your billionaires before they get all crusty, kids. They taste best fresh and plump. Nom nom.

Still here? Oh, then it's time to compare Fëanor to TDP! Because as much as I despise him, he makes for excellent storytelling angst and conflict, and vicarious conflict is how we learn to avoid it in our real lives - if we're paying attention.

I've said before that I'd like to see some kind of Oath of Fëanor effect in TDP. The absolute horror at seeing good characters get yoinked into bad deeds just because they promised? Ahahaha, horrible, thank you, I'll have some more. If the Moonshadow assassins have something like that behind those creepy binding ribbons, I'm gonna be cackling in between my tears, fam.

But Fëanor himself? Oh, do you see, that's Aaravos! He's even got that craftsman side, since he made the relic staff, and boy is it swirly.

(Does that make Ethari a Celebrimbor type, separating himself from the dark deeds of his forebears yet still massively talented, creating amazing magical devices?)

Aaravos is the main villain of TDP, as far as we've been told. He's crafty, in both senses of the word. Did he have some angsty complex family life with half-siblings and a mother who died because she birthed him? Maybe. Stars can be born from the detritus of other stars that exploded and died, so there's a sciencey metaphor there already.

Of interest: Fëanor had seven sons, and the world of TDP has seven kinds of magic. Aaravos created at least one of them. Did he create primal magics too, from the deep magic that came before? Might there be some kind of oath involved there, with the first elves to wield differentiated magic?

How about those primal stones that look like palantíri? How many of those did Aaravos craft? Can he use one from his library to spy on people who have them or something? That would mean he could already know a ton about Viren even before he came to the Storm Spire and stole the mirror. Woah.

What about a Silmaril equivalent? Are there especially glorious magical gemstones in Xadia? Did Aaravos wear them in his crown and now he's mister Grumpy Glam without them?

Did he create the original runes that diverged into all the elven languages? With his sloppy handwriting? Heh, the other elves must've been very patient.

You know... Aaravos has been called a Promethean figure, gifting humans with knowledge and skill they didn't have. But that gift was the gift of fire. A tool. A tool employed by craftsmen.

Fëanor literally means "Spirit of Fire."

In the end, Fëanor was consumed by his own spirit. He never learned to vibe with it, and it destroyed him and many others. Sounds a lot like dark magic.

Maybe the real Oath of Fëanor in TDP is one you have to speak backwards.

[captain-azoren]

A thought occurred to me in regards to Soren;

He didn't really have a guide to help him through his redemption or show him the way to the good side. Claudia wasn't that person, even if it seemed like she would be for a time. Callum and Ezran didn't really push him towards good either even when they were justifying their quest.

No, Soren just had one last little nugget of goodness still buried deep in his heart that stopped him from crossing the line (though the zipline and attacking wolf girl brought him very close). It made him question and doubt his father's words, and it was when Viren tried to gaslight him that Soren knew what was right.

It does kind of help that Soren didn't start out in an antagonistic position, unlike Zuko who was undeniably on the "bad guys" side of things at the start of atla. Soren wasn't indoctrinated as strongly as the FN kids. He didn't have an insatiable loathing towards elves. Soren was just going from lawful neutral to neutral good.

[hamliet]

Who are your top 10 female villains? And your top ten male villains? Thank you!

Oooooh. Well, in this list I am including antagonists (people I see as conflicted/not committed to like, the bad side, if there even is a bad side, but basically oppose the protagonist at some point). Also, they are in no particular order:

Female Villains:

Cersei Lannister (A Song of Ice and Fire)

She's sympathetic enough so that we understand how she came to be the way she is, yet terrifying and depraved enough that we fear for the characters around her. I don't think that's an easy balance to strike for a character: if you make them likable it's hard to keep audiences from rooting for them, but the balance is struck perfectly with Cersei.

Azula (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

As @aspoonofsugar wrote recently on Azula, I think she is a fantastic female villain. I think she is sympathetic despite her actions, and I wish the story had explored her redemption, which was clearly hinted.

Claudia (The Dragon Prince)

The first three seasons have kind of been Claudia's fall. While as a whole I don't think TDP is very well-written, I do think that Claudia, Viren, and Soren's family dynamic is a polished gem of writing that literally carries the story. I fully expect to see redemption for Claudia down the line, but not until she spirals further and further. At the end of season 3, Claudia resorts to killing someone to save her father's life when she has nothing and no one else left, and she makes this choice after her brother Soren (now redeemed himself) chooses to kill their father in front of Claudia, devastating her. Their choices are clear parallels and both are somewhat negative, somewhat sympathetic. Soren can't kill his past: he has to live with it, and Claudia can't cling to the past: she has to let it go.

Delores Umbridge (Harry Potter)

She is awful and I hate her, but you're also supposed to hate her. Her comeuppance is hilarious ad perfect, and just--I think she's a fantastic villain because she reminds every single one of us of an albeit exaggerated version of a teacher we all know.

Karren von Rosewald (Tokyo Ghoul:re)

Karren is TG:re's best written character in my opinion. Her tragic arc takes place throughout the first three arcs, which imo is also the highest point in the series. Karren just wanted to be loved, and if she had to die, at least she got to die as herself. 

Nora (Noragami)

Nora! The reason I read Noragami is pretty much for Nora and her redemption arc. The fandom hates her for... reasons, but she's always been primed for redemption. Her name is in the title (which yes also refers to Yato, etc.) She's important. I wrote a few metas on Nora, notably here.

Enoshima Junko (Danganronpa)

Despair. It's fun to find a character who is, well, just plain fun, but who is also bored, despairing, cruel, and terrifying. She's unique and a brillaint character.

Toga Himiko (Boku no Hero Academia)

I'm not the first one to say that Toga is BNHA's best written female character, but I do agree that she is. She, like Junko, is fun and interesting, and she has an arc that is compelling. Her actions directly move the plot; she’s bloodthirsty and yet uniquely empathetic and compassionate. 

Yoshimura Eto (Tokyo Ghoul)

Eto's backstory and her motivations were fascinating. She was one of the most complex characters in the entire story, and despite the fact that you understood why her father gave her up, you also understood her pain and justified anger at his doing so. She perfectly illustrated the divide between human and ghoul.

Male Villains:

Shigaraki Tomura (Boku no Hero Academia)

BNHA's best-written male character, imo. His backstory and the current chapters that focus on him are extremely well-done, thematic and full of character development, and detailed artistically. He gets so much focus that I can tell he's important to Horikoshi, and I'm excited to see where he goes.

Dabi (Boku no Hero Academia)

I'll admit there's a lot missing here. Namely, we don't know his identity for certain, but it seems basically certain that he's Todoroki Touya; however, we still don't have his backstory. Still, his fury at the presumed father who destroyed his family and yet has the audacity to be a "symbol of hope" is fascinating to me, and I'm excited to see how he develops as well. (Both Shigaraki and Dabi seem primed for some kind of redemption).

Adult Trio: Illumi Zoldyck, Hisoka Morow, Chrollo Lucilfer (Hunter x Hunter)

Am I counting these three as one so that I can get extra characters? Of course I am. In all honesty I really think all three of these antagonists are really well done, sympathetic and/or likable. They're the shadows of the three MCs they foil: for Illumi, Killua, for Hisoka, Gon, and for Chrollo, Kurapika. They represent the traits the three protagonists (sorry Leorio) don't want to acknowledge in themselves, and therefore their encounters with their shadows are particularly thematic and powerful. Also, one doesn't usually kill their shadow, but instead integrates with it, so I highly doubt the three of them will be killed by their respective protagonist.

Meruem (Hunter x Hunter)

Yes, again, HxH. It has great antagonists. But Meruem's development is literally one of the most powerful I've ever read about. I don't know anyone who starts his story not loathing him, hoping he dies, and then by the end of it, ebfore you've even realized it's happening, you're crying for him and Komugi. His arc explores human nature at its finest, most horrific, and ultimately most beautiful.

Furuta Nimura (Tokyo Ghoul:re)

Furuta's a fantastic villain whom I wish got a better ending (not even redeemed really, but just... something more). He was so damaged by the system of an unfair world that he made it his life goal to become the villain and burn the system down, destroy it no matter what it took--and also hoped to destroy himself in the process, as he was born knowing he would die young and longed for it. I wish he had been forced to live.

Mori Ougai (Bungo Stray Dogs)

Mori's utilitarianism is chilling. He's not exactly unlikable, despite being absolutely morally repugnant, and the Beast AU from Asagiri himself shows us that Mori is certainly capable of a positive life and positive change; however, within the canonical story, I don't see that for him. He's been set up IMO as the final boss of the series, and his habit of targeting the most vulnerable (especially children) to control people is almost certainly going to bite Dazai in the ass eventually.

Eren Jaeger (Shingeki no Kyojin)

I can't believe I'm writing this. I don't know what to call Eren: he's the protagonist, and he's sunk to becoming the final boss. While it's possible he, like Furuta and like Lelouch of Code Geass, is playing the villain, I really hope not, as I think the themes are much more powerful if Eren sincerely believes what he proclaims to believe. He's a kid who has always wanted to fight for freedom and for the people around him, and now we're seeing the dark side of those traits, wherein he's destroying the world via genocide to save the people close to him. He's driven by fear and by anger at the cruelty and unfairness of the world, and he's forgotten the beauty of it. I hope Mikasa can  remind him before the end.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Bungo Stray Dogs)

MY BOY. Look if a character is named after my very favorite real-life author, I must stan. But actually I do think Fyodor is well written and a master manipulator. He's modeled after my favorite character in all of fiction, Dostoyesvky's Demons' Alexei Kirillov. He really seems to want human connection, to live, and has forgotten that empathy is an important and necessary part of both of those. I hope--and think it is likely given BSD's prolific redemption arcs--that he will remember eventually.

Lee Yut-Lung (Banana Fish)

Again,, he's less a villain than an antagonist. Like Ash, the main character, he is a teenage boy betrayed by the people who were supposed to protect him and abused his whole entire life. He's driven by a desperate need to be loved and jealousy that Ash is loved while he is not. His ending, when Sing finally tells him he will in fact be staying by Yut-Lung's side and will help Yut-Lung redeem himself, "because you're in pain... your soul's bleeding, even now" is literally the perfect ending for him.

Jin Guangyao (Mo Dao Zu Shi)

I've written a lot on Jin Guangyao, but he's a walking tragedy. He ties with Wei Wuxian, the protagonist, as my favorite, and the reason is because they are two sides of the same coin--in fact, they're the same side of the same coin. They're not very different, and the fact that he finally at least got empathy in the end and was able to push the person he loved most to safety because of that--well. Brb time to cry.

[aspoonofsugar]

Hello Meta Queen! Do you have any thoughts on how TPD is clearly inspired by ATLA, and how the writers may be further developing similar themes/characters?

Hello friend!

Let’s see...

THEMES

I think that the main theme of ATLA is the idea of bringing back balance to the world.

Atla is a story about finding an equilibrium both on a personal level and on a macro-level:

Being in equilibrium lets people love themselves and others. It also comes with accepting diversity and interpreting it as something enriching.

This is why the Avatar is a person bending all four elements. It is because the four elements represent different aspects of the self and bending all four means finding an equilibrium among them. Similarly, all the four cultures presented have positive sides and negative sides and they need to cohexist and to accept each other.

This is precisely why the theme of equilibrium is linked to the theme of diversity. ATLA is a series which deals and promotes diversity. It shows how people can learn from different cultures:

It is not by chance that in the end the characters who lose are Azula and Ozai, who are both out of balance. Azula can’t find harmony inside herself and this is why she loses despite all her talent. Ozai fails to understand the equilibrium of the world. He tries to destroy said equilibrium and this is why he loses his own bending in the end.

Differently, the main characters all find balance within themselves and with others.

Aang is challenged by other bendings. In particular, earth-bending challenges him to face poblems head on (the whole story starts because he runs away after all), while fire-bending challenges his fear of violence and of his own power (and he manages to go all out at the end of the story).

Zuko reconciles the different sides of his complicated legacy and starts respecting other cultures.

Sokka learns that he does not have to change himself to be who he wants to be. What is more, he develops a strong respect for women.

Katara finds an equilibrium between the positive and negative traits of herself and her bending. She also forgives Zuko, but does not forgive her mother’s killer.

Toph must find an equilibrium between her desire of freedom and her wish to stay close to her loved ones. Not to count an equilibrium between her strength and the necessity of accepting help.

When it comes to Tdp, it is more difficult to discuss themes because the series is not over.

That said, I think that an important theme (probably the main theme) is this:

This is because the characters keep repeating it. The idea is that people must be free from their past. They must know about it and they can learn from it, but they should ultimately not feel bound to it.

This is why Ezran chooses to be a peaceful king, while his father was a warrior. This is why Callum decides he will still be a mage despite being a human. This is also what we see at play in the dynamic between Viren and his children. On one hand Soren has had a positive development because he broke free from his father. On the other hand Claudia is spiralling because she can’t.

This theme is expressed through the arcana of the sky. After all, it is not by chance that this is the arcana the main character connects to and which is embodied by Zym himself.

In short, Atla is about bringing back an equilibrium which went lost, while Tdp is about overcoming the status quo to create a new world.

Despite this difference, this does not mean that the main theme of one series is not present in the other as a secondary theme/personal conflict.

For example, Aang’s final choice is ibetween killing Ozai and finding another solution. He even asks past avatars and they all tell him to kill Ozai. However, Aang in the end chooses not to and stays true to his own philosophy (which shows how learning from other people/cultures does not result in erasing one-self/one’s culture).

Similarly, Zuko too is a character who breaks free from his father’s mentality.

At the same time, Tdp too, like Atla, shows different cultures and the importance to learn about them.

When it comes to this, we can see how the two series make a similar use of another narrative element aka the worldbuilding.

WORLDBUILDING

The two series’ worldbuildings have clear similarities. In both universes there are different kinds of magic linked ot different elements. What is more, these types of magic are connected to different cultures and embody different values.

In Atla we have:

In Tdp we have seven kinds of magic, but I will mostly comment on the four we got to know the most up until now.

The Sky Arcana symbolizes freedom:

It is the ability to act without any constrictions from your surroundings. It does not mean that you should ignore them, though, but rather that you should use them to go where you want to go. This is why people should not just follow air-currents, but they should be the sails and use the winds to go where they want. This is just anoter way to express the main theme of the story, as I have stated above.

It is possible that among the negative traits of the sky culture there is the tendency to become selfish/act in a whimsical way. I think that this is well conveyed by Nyx and by the Sky Elves being among the members of the Dragon Guard, who ran away.

The Sun Arcana symbolizes honor and purity to the point that it can purify Dark Magic. However, this obsession with purity leads to see the world in black and white and to become self-righteous.

This is why the queen of the Sun Elves dies after all. And it is Sol Regem’s discrimination and rigidity, which led to him losing his sight. What is more, the loss of the sight for a Sun creature is a pretty karmic punishment. Finally, it is interesting that he used to be the previous Dragon King. The fact that he is not anymore shows how such a narrow mentality can’t help in the construction of a new world.

The Moon Arcana is the opposite of the Sun one. So, while the Sun is about revealing the truth behind appearances, the Moon is about illusions. The moon culture celebrates illusions and appearances both in a positive and in a negative way.

Moonshadow Elves can make use of appearances both in how they trick their enemies’ senses and in how they trick themselves:

Because of illusions they can dominate their fear. However, this has also a negative aspect:

Moonshadow elves are asked to repress their fears and to feel shame for it. Similarly, they give the way things seem too much importance. This is at the root of what happened to Rayla’s parents and to Rayla’s herself. Because of a simple suspect of betrayal, they were erased. Again the cancelling magic is particularly powerful because the Moonshadow cultures gives so much importance to appearances. Think about what an enemy could accomplish if they were given access to a village where nobody could see them.

Finally, there is Dark Magic, which symbolizes many things.

First of all, it symbolizes the difficult relationship humans have with nature. On one hand they need to use natural resources to survive and to fight natural forces. On the other hand this kind of exploitation knows no bundaries. What is more, it gives people the feeling everything can be obtained easily and that there are no boundaries. As it was shown in Claudia and Viren’s arcs, this creates a lot of negative consequences for both the dark mage and the others.

As one can see, the different approaches have both positive and negative aspects and they need to balance each other out. Finally, Tdp, like Atla seems to have a character, who will master more than one element:

Personally, I am not a fan of this hypothesis and I think this is an instance where Tdp should try to be different from Atla.

In Atla, the concept of a person mastering all four elements was in the premise of the series itself and was used intelligently. Aang is a protagonist who does not want to be an avatar and his arc is to accept this part of himself. It is about finding an equilibrium between who he is as a person and his role. Moreover, the fact that he is the avatar ends up creating conflict, instead of solving it. Because the avatar exists and is an air nomad, the Fire Nation destroys the Nomads without second thoughts. In short, being the avatar creates problems to Aang as a person.

When it comes to tdp, I would prefer for different characters to show the potential to connect to different primal sources. It would be interesting if the main characters ended up connected each one to one or two elements. For example, let’s think how interesting would be to see Rayla connect to the Arcana of the Ocean since she is scared of water. Or Claudia become connected to the Sun Arcana, so that she can purify herself from Dark Magic. Or Ezran to the Earth Arcana, since he has affinity with animals. Soren has trouble with illusions, so it would be very interesting to see him struggling with the Moon Arcana.

In short, there would be a lot of potential to such a scenario, instead than having one single character being the one connecting to many elements. It would make Tdp more of a coral story and I think that would be more unique and interesting.

That said, I am open to see how the whole matter will be trated by the story itself.

These thoughts lead us to the last section of this answer.

CHARACTERS

As said above, Callum might end up having a similar role to Aang. There is also the fact that both start the story by running away and that both are connected with the air element in their respective franchise. Ezran too has similarities with Aang, given how both are non-violent and are kids who have a great responsibility despite their young age.

Other than this, though, the characters I would mostly like to talk about are my two favourites:

Who I see as basically a mixture between Sokka/Katara and Azula/Zuko.

It is clear that the structure of their arcs is similar to Azula and Zuko’s. They are the children of a main antagonist and they are both going through different journeys. Soren has managed to distance himself from Viren, while Claudia is still loyal to him.

That said, The starting point of Claudia and Soren is different from the one of Azula and Zuko. In Atla both Azula and Zuko start as clear-cut antagonists, while in Tdp Claudia and Soren are immediately given likable traits and presented as manipulated by their father. What is more, it is immediately clear that Zuko will have a redemption arc and that Azula is a more negative character than him. However, Tdp muddles the water more by having a whole season showing Claudia’s positive traits and Soren’s negative ones. That said, the series then uses the next season to make the siblings exchange roles. So Soren learns from his mistakes, while Claudia keeps spiralling.

In short, I think that Claudia and Soren are in a sense grayer characters than Zuko and Azula, at least in how they are presented to the public. This means that both couple of siblings have a similar degree of complexity, but that Tdp plays with the viewers’ expectations more than Atla. Or at least, I have this impression.

That said, both Claudia/Soren and Azula/Zuko explore similar themes and show the struggle of kids who must emancipate themselves from their father. It also shows the damage bad parenting can do (even if Viren is definately a more complex character than Ozai).

However, I would argue that Soren and Claudia also share common traits with Sokka and Katara.

I think that the similarities between Soren and Sokka are striking and clear. Both want to make their father proud, but they lack qualities which are celebrated by their respective parent/society. Sokka at the beginning lacks the physical strength and experience to be recognized as a fine warrior. Soren instead lacks the ability with magic and book-smart, which is appreciated by Viren.

Interestingly, they are opposite plays of toxic masculinity. Sokka tries to live up to an idea of masculinity he lacks only to discover that his strengths are his most “feminine” (culturally speaking) traits. Soren is a character who embodies a toxic idea of masculinity, but still feels unsure and unhappy despite it. It is not by chance that he deep down wants to indulge in activities, which let him show his sensitivity like poetry, for example.

In short, Sokka and Soren might superficially appear as opposite, but they are nothing more than the same concept expressed through two characters having opposite superficial traits.

Finally, both Soren and Sokka are often used as comic relief and this helps the public to like them and to connect with them.

Let’s talk about Claudia and Katara. I would say that, ironically, Claudia is a deconstruction of Katara. By this, I mean that Claudia and Katara share many traits. Both are children who are traumatized by the loss of their mother, for example. What is more, they have reacted to that loss by trying to keep the rest of their family together.

We see multiple times how Claudia is desperate to keep her father and her brother close and she tries to mediate between them.

Similarly, Katara, after Kya’s death, took upon herself the role of “heart” of the family and took care of her brother. She also shows anger towards her father for living, when they meet again in book 3.

Katara is a character who loves deeply and is highly empathetic and Claudia is the same. She is very sensitive and is genuinely sad when she has to tell Callum about his father’s death.

That said, the traits that are shown positively in Katara are deconstructed in Claudia. Katara and waterbenders in general, for example, are said to be able to think outside the box and they turn their weaknesses in strength (their whole fighting style is to turn defense into attack). This is the same principle behind Dark Magic and it is how Claudia justifies her use of it to Callum.

Even more importantly, it is Claudia’s love for her family and to an extent for her community, which leads her astray. It is telling that the Dark Magic starts to corrupt Claudia not when she uses it to attack her childhood friends, but when she heals her brother. Similarly, her hair becomes whiter not when she helps Viren in his plan, but when she resurrects him. In short, she spirals more and more when she uses healing magic. This is interesting if we think about how much Katara’s healing abilities are seen as a positive thing and as a symbol of her nurturing personality. Katara even resurrects Aang when Azula kills him at the end of season 2, after all. That occurrance is definately not framed as a negative thing.

What I am trying to show is that Claudia is an example of a character where those positive traits Katara has are shown as negative because of various reasons. This does not really mean anything by itself because the two characters are in different series, but it is still an interesting idea.

These are my main thoughts on the two series! Thank you for the ask!

[hirazuki]

Can't say I'm a fan of tdp s3's pacing, it felt way too quick (and ngl, the pacing has me rooting for Callum and Rayla to break up by the end like call me cynical but these two haven't even known each other a month.) Also I don't like the direction they took Viren in :/ he was actually starting to seem really sympathetic thanks to s2, until he gaslit Soren in s3.

Under a cut because salt and spoilers! :D

Yeah, exactly :/ The pacing was really weird, the humor was off (idk if it was just me, but most of the jokes or things that were played for laughs were… just not funny), Callum/Rayla was way too quick (I think that most fans would have been fine with them going in this direction but maybe only like 1/3 of the way by the end of the season?), and the discrepancy between what was going on with their easy-going fun little romantic adventure vs. the crisis the rest of the world was having and Viren’s body horror galore situation was just really jarring.

I have no idea what they’re trying to do with Viren and tbh I don’t think they do either – he started as a very pragmatic villain in S1, then became sympathetic antagonist in S2 with clear and understandable motivations, and now it feels like they went “oh shit we made him too sympathetic BETTER PUT THIS WHOLE SHINDIG IN REVERSE AND SPRINKLE SOME EVULZ FOR GOOD MEASURE,” which had me going 😑Not to mention his perceived horror at Claudia bringing him back from the dead -- if he was really that evil of a person, I feel like he wouldn’t be horrified? But from his expression, it looks like he thinks that maybe his daughter went too far??? Which makes no sense given how they’ve been building him up??? Are they setting Claudia up to be the next big bad? Is it because Aaravos is no longer in his mind/did dying release him from some star elf magic shenanigans? Wtf? Adding that to what we know about him being named after Ehasz’s close friend and that he’s a staff favorite (and remembering that Lotor was also based off of one of JDS’s close friends and was, supposedly, a staff favorite), I’m just not too hopeful about even things as basic as keeping character consistency.

It just felt like the whole show suddenly gave up any nuance it had built up in S2. The animation has gotten a lot smoother, to the point where I can actually watch without getting dizzy, and even though I’m not a fan of the visual world building as a whole (I can’t tell if they’re going for a medieval society, or renaissance, or enlightenment or what with their setting, there are too many conflicting elements for me to not find it distracting), the individual character designs are super cool, so I was really hoping this could be a series I eventually managed to settle into. I’d much rather genuinely enjoy a show than salt-watch it :/ 

I think what bugged me the most is that it professes itself to be a super progressive show, with representation and sense of morality, etc., except that it continues to glorify really archaic ideals without providing any kind of solid proof as to why these are good things. Like child monarchs or divine right to rule, etc. – I know Opeli said kings are chosen by vote, but there’s been nothing but proof to the contrary for that. Whereas Viren, who has been the only non-royal main character (along with his kids) and essentially the voice/perspective of a more common type of person, esp in S2, keeps offering some of the most forward-thinking and pragmatic courses of action, but which always keep being undermined as “dark magic = evil lolz.” I just… don’t get where they’re trying to go with this, I guess.

The dynamic between Aaravos, Claudia, and Viren was super enjoyable though. Kinda makes me wish the show was about them lmao. It feels like, once again, the writing surrounding the villains is more compelling than that of the protags, and I think that it’s, again, because of the fact that villains don’t have to be “cinammon rolls uwu” and can be real people, whereas the heroes have to be P E R F E C T. I just wish people would write characters as just people, regardless of where they fall on the archetype/moral scale X_X

(I’m not even gonna touch Kasef lol, someone better qualified than me can do that XD).

If anything, I feel like it’s super obvious there was Stuff™ going on behind the scenes, and if we didn’t know about it from the tweets, I would have def wondered what the hell was going on with the writing team. I read some reviews that chalked the pacing up to the show runners not knowing if the series will be renewed and wanting to provide closure should this be the end of the show, but also leave it open enough so that they could continue it if they got the chance, but like… supposedly this season was done some time ago and there was never any risk of it being cancelled, so there should have been no need to make it so rushed? 

 Idk man ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I feel like my biggest takeaway from this season is that either the whole AtLA team had one single braincell between them so that when they split to do their own projects, all those projects went dismally, or that the stars were in alignment for some kind of magic to birth AtLA. or it was actually ghostwritten by some third party lmao bc I literally have no other explanation for it. 

[zealouswerewolfcollector]

I actually believed that Soren killed his father and thought that it was a bit too much for a kid's show (I'd forgotten they upped the rating). Before the reveal, I even had the time to be surprised that they offed the main villain and thought that the role would go to Aaravos and Claudia (though she's an antagonist, not really a villain).

Anyway, I'm glad Viren is alive because he's a great villain and because I wouldn't want Soren to kill him. I hope Claudia will turn back before it's too late.

Great season. Now we wait.

[actualaster]

OKAY I’M MARGINALLY MORE COHERENT NOW.

So.  Below the cut for major s3 spoilers.

First off, I’m extremely invested now in Claudia and Soren’s dynamic.  They’re very well set up as opposites in so many ways, while being similar in others, and now that they’re fully on separate sides it’s set for both angst-central and also some incredibly interesting things.

Second, I’m deeply curious now about dark magic and death.  What did Claudia use on Viren?  Like, what did she have to sacrifice to bring him back?  What kind of effects will this have?  I mean aside from her hair color changing a bit more.

Third, I’m so glad my babies got together they’re just so cute and adorable and awkward and I love Callum and Rayla so much damnit I’m so glad we got them to kiss and to say “I love you” like hot damn finally, a ship that’s canon, gets to say the L word, AND is alive and with a happy (seeming, for now anyway) ending at last!  Look, most of my ships either end up with one person dead, something forcing them to be separated for eternity, or they never actually get to say “love”.  That or they just never become canon.  So I’m so damn happy that I finally have a ship I ship that’s actually explicitly canon.  ML when will you do that with the ship you’ve been teasing/basing your entire show around?

ON THE SUBJECT OF KISSES I’m so damn glad we got to see the gay kissing.  And since Runaan isn’t technically dead--and there may well be a chance to get him back yet--it’s not strictly speaking “bury your gays”.  Plus, it looks like we have potential between Amaya and Janai?  I think that’s her name?  Anyway we got possibly a chance of some nice non-dead wlw as well there.

Speaking of Amaya, she continues to be badass and amazing and I really love her and I would die for her.  She deserves more screentime, but she did get some pretty solid screentime this season.

Callum is OP AF now, lol.  But I mean, makes sense, and quite honestly I really love it.  I’m extremely interested in where he can go from here, how he can keep developing as a mage and I think he could be an extremely good opposition for Aaravos.  That he could connect with one arcanum is incredible, and that he could do what so few can is even moreso--but I want to see him go farther.  There’s so much potential there.  And he’s growing as a character, too, and I love it.

As for the pretty starry elf man himself, he’s very nice to look at, as usual lmao.  Okay, but seriously though he’s an interesting character and I am extremely interested in him and how he can develop.  I want more details about his imprisonment--I saw that mirror in the lair of the Dragon Queen.  And that he doesn't know where he’s imprisoned?  I’m really curious about that.  He’s very clearly using Viren for his own ends, and I want to know what those ends are.

Viren, however, can go fuck a cactus.  Or, well, that wouldn’t be fair to the poor cactus.  Like he was a shitty dad, but this season really cranked it up.  My heart broke watching him try and gaslight Soren like that.  I’m just.  I’m really glad Soren was able to realize Viren is wrong.  Viren, though, much as I plan to kill him in Soren’s name, is an interesting antagonist.  He really has himself convinced in some ways that he’s doing things for the greater good, but at other times he seems to embrace that he’s just greedy for power.  But he does have a setup that makes it understandable why he would do some of what he does, but at the same time they make a good job of him being understandable without being sympathetic.  We can see where he may have started down the path he’s on, even if he’s gone way too far, but we’re not meant to just feel super bad for him--his cruelty and callousness is shown abundantly.

When he was talking to Soren and Claudia and talked about sacrificing everyTHING that you love, that felt like a telling line about how he sees his kids--or Soren, at any rate.  He sees Soren as a tool.  He still sees Claudia as his daughter, but he’s.  Honestly with that line and then his willingness to volunteer Soren to be the first to be changed magically without bothering to give a shit about what Soren feels?  It’s pretty clear that Claudia is the only one he sees as a person.  And that’s just.  Heartbreaking.

And Claudia is heartbreaking, too.  Like don’t get me wrong I would slap her in an instant for some of what she does.  But she’s also tragic--we see the way she’s being manipulated.  It’s shown really well.  How Viren twists her around him, binds her to him.  How can she do anything but what Viren wants of her?  He’s put more effort in with her because he cares about her more, but also on some level I think he does think of her as a tool--just a more useful one than Soren.  But I just.  I feel bad for her, she’s being led down that path...

Soren was incredible, by the way, have I said that yet?  Especially how he’s managed to put into words what his father does--that he’s managed to see and understand that Viren can make you walk down a dark path while convincing you that it’s the right one...  That Soren was able to figure it out and come to terms with it is wonderful.  I just hope that Claudia can be made to see that, as well, before it’s too late.  I’m not sure that’ll be possible, though.  But seeing him willing to kill his own father, to do what he truly thinks is right?  I just had a massive “holy shit!!!” moment there.  His reaction after, too, helps because he really feels like a person, you know?  Anyway, I love him.

Also seeing how many other humans came to the aid of Xadia in the name of King Ezran was wonderful.  There’s really hope that maybe humans and Xadians can set their differences aside and join forces and befriend each other, that maybe after so long peace and reconciliation can be a thing.  It, of course, remains to be seen if it’s viable on a large scale but we’ve seen how well it can work on a small scale.  And obviously there’s a huge amount of animosity still to be worked out because each side has wronged the other many times, but there’s the possibility of working past that and of finding a future working together.

And Viren is still around to be a threat, and Claudia is clearly very powerful and I’m deeply worried about how she’d react if she couldn’t save Viren.  I mean, we saw her reaction with the thought of Soren being paralyzed--I don’t think she could survive an actual irreversible death in-tact.  If she had failed...

Well, I’m sure Aaravos would have been eager to use her to his own ends.  He’s encouraging Viren’s treatment of her as a tool, after all.

But I want to see what they’ll do next, how Aaravos will bend them to his cause now that they’ve lost their momentum.  Whatever cause that is.  Or perhaps Aaravos won’t need them anymore once his worm-thing hatches?  

I saw that synchronized moving in that final conflict, was he controlling Viren to some degree?  I really want to know what his designs for Viren are, tbh.

He’s really shaping up to be a very interesting antagonist.

Overall it was just a really good season, I have a lot of feelings, and I’m deeply curious to see where things can go from here.  And also will probably cry if it doesn’t get another season.

[onlyallytothesun]

Viren: The loss of a character (Part 1)

Viren is a character ,that since the beginning of the show, I always had mixed feelings about.

I never liked him but it wasn't for the same reason the majority of the fandom didn't like him.

I never saw him as interesting because everything about him as a character didn't make sense.

He felt like a punching bag, every time they needed some conflict they just made him the cause of it despite his established motivations contradicting it.

A good example is the transition from "on your knees" scene to basically everything wrong about Viren.

Recap:

In this scene Viren wants to save Harrow's life by switching bodies (that is implied). Harrow has enough of Viren's solutions and has a King fit where he puts Viren on his place.

From this scene comes the phrase "You are a servant".

Now this phrase seemed to foreshadow Viren's progression into villainy. But key word here is seemed. It didn't turn out like that. I'll get to that.

This scene served two porpouses for Viren's character:

- To establish a drift between him and Harrow.

- Forshadow or establish a certain insecurity of Viren we may not know of yet.

I love tropes that involve good people slowly loosing their grip and turning to antagonists.

This seemed like Viren's first step into that road, key word: first.

But it looked liked the tdp writer's couldn't wait a second more and decided that they needed Viren to be the antagonist of the season NOW. Throwing away slow build up or genuine scenes Viren had with Harrow or his kids. Now Viren was an abusive dad, who craved to be on the throne ,,, for some reason. Why? Becuase the plot demands it.

The writers by season 1 left Viren's motivations super vague to a point it became annoying instead of intriguing.

By this point Viren's character is not completely ruined there's still a shred of hope that next season things will start making sense.

Right?

Season 2: Hope after all

Viren this season was... different in a good way.

Don't get me wrong there's a lot of things that still didn't make any sense but with the introduction of Aaravos, it looked like Viren's character was going somewhere. I was able to enjoy him this season becuase I started to understand him.

With the mirror scene it showed how Viren view himself, could this be eluded to "you are a servant" phrase? Maybe but the writers kind of forgot about this and resume to showing you how EeEvil dark magic is.

Priorities woo!

The writers really don't do much to show you Viren progression , they just assume you get it and keep moving forward. Leaving his character empty.

Going back to Aaravos,

He showed up as a new opportunity for Viren to develop as a villain.

I mean Viren has to work with an elf, his mortal enemy. Perfect scenario for character development.

With the end of Season 2, Viren ends up at prison and let me tell you we all theorize how this would impact Viren and Aaravos' relationship.

So did the writers take the opportunity?

Season 3: You know the drill

Season 3 failed in many ways, be it consistency, character progression, conflict.

But of all, Viren suffered the most. Viren haters hated Viren, Viren stans hated Viren.

Nobody liked Viren, not even his own children.

And many were upset about this, but I wasn't. I knew his character had the possibility of falling flat but I won't deny season 2 got my hopes up.

By now his character doesn't really hold my interest and I'm no longer intrigued to see where his character goes.

But I am excited to see where another Viren goes:

I introduce you to the fanfic "Daylight saving" or in other words "How Viren's arc should have been written.

The writer takes a slower approach to his arc, highlighting his pettiness, yet blunt kindness. And I absolutely love it!

If you haven't read it, you need to!

Next meta I will go deeper on Viren's potential as a character.

[araeph]

Alright, I see you love The Dragon Prince so let me ask you a question about that if I may. What is your take on Lord Virens character? I don't know how I feel about him honestly, but I'm interested to see what direction the writers will take his character.

I think Lord Viren’s character is that of a sympathetic villain who has found himself in over his head. (Literally in this case.) Used to being the most manipulative and ruthless person in the room, with Aaravos he is clearly outmatched and has relinquished control of his own path, whether he’s aware of it or not. That being the case, I don’t think he is going to be the principal antagonist of the show, or that there will be a traditional Boss Showdown between him and Harrow, Callum, or Ezran. Another path may be for him to nearly lose his humanity, but regain it at the end for the sake of his children; however, considering how cheaply he was willing to regard both his kid’s lives in his quest to secure power, I personally wouldn’t find it terribly convincing.Instead, I think he will serve as more of a cautionary tale to Claudia, who is faced with a similar temptation to use Dark Magic, although Claudia’s motives are selfless while Viren’s are selfish. Viren may eventually become an unrecognizable creature, leading Claudia to second guess herself and how far she is willing to let the ends justify the means. 

[true-neutral-earth-elf]

"Viren's decision to fight Thunder is a perfect example of his fatal flaw; conviction without humility. He wants to help his kingdom and his people, but he's convinced that his way is the only way, and anyone who disagrees with him is either naive or a spiteful obstructionist. He latches onto the 1st creative solution he comes across and refuses to consider alternatives; he takes such a costly and pointless risk because it never occurs to him that just because he can help doesn't mean he should"

I Agree 100%.

Viren appears to be under the assumption that if he doesn’t take care of an issue, no one else will or they won’t do it right. This core belief is what causes him to act on impulse, such as when he attempted to fight Thunder or when he called for the summit, despite the clear consequences awaiting both choices. Surprisingly enough, these situations also show how shortsighted Viren is. Just as you said, Viren was the only one who could perform the ritual, the ritual they needed the heart for, which was only reason they were anywhere near Thunder in the first place. He doesn’t stop to consider the future consequences of his actions, simply doing what he thinks is right based off of the here and now. His use of dark magic is also a clear example of this major flaw. Whatever spell it is that he uses the butterflies for only covers up his damaged body and is probably also chipping away at his life force (kind of like covering up acne with makeup that also clogs pores), sure it works as a short term solution, but it won’t fix anything! If he were more concerned about the state of his body and how his negligence will affect Soren and Claudia, Viren would probably look for a healthier remedy that would prolong his life (like using anti-bacterial cream to treat the acne instead). But noooo, Viren can’t stop and think it through. He has to devote his entire life to playing the impulsive hero even when it’s not necessary or right! He kinda reminds me of my own father in this way. Both of them are putting themselves through hell, believing full heartedly that it’s the only way to get through life; and to what end? My dad is turning 43, he’s had back surgery for a compacted spinal disk and has lost feeling in his left leg, he’s needed a hip replacement for two years now, and at this moment his heart is in such horrid shape that the slightest rise in stress levels could give him a heart attack; his doctor compared his body to that of a 70 year old. Viren literally looks like he’s decaying from the inside out. And you know what? Neither of them are going to stop it. Because they believe their pain is worth the quick resolution to their problems! And Claudia is following in her father’s footsteps. Oh god, Claudia.... Viren won’t even stop to think about how this might affect his kids....or anyone else really. Not Harrow, Sarai, the queens of Duren, the soldiers and their families, Callum and Ezra...his ex-wife....no one. He’s inexplicably devoted to preserving Katolis; even if it costs half the population to do so. You know what makes this even worse? We can’t even hate him for this! His devotion is admirable, in a sad, twisted way. He truly believes he’s doing the “right” thing for his kingdom. I have this saying, a motto of sorts: “People will be people, and do as people do; that is, what they believe is right and beneficial to those they care for, even if they’re wrong.” Viren is the prime example of this concept. That’s one of the reasons he’s a great character and a phenomenal antagonist!

Honestly, I could probably write an entire personality analysis for Viren exploring his “good” and “bad” traits. But that isn’t necessary for this post, I’m sure you’re all already bored to death of my rambling 😓.

Thank you for reading!

[raayllum]

In regards to your last post, they did do that with Soren (ik ik you weren't talking about him) but his character has depth and a more satisfying arc (relating back to the vulnerability is strength theme) so I'm cool with him

Here's the thing about Soren though, honestly. He's just jerky and loyal enough to his father (and the fact that Viren asks him to kill the princes rather than Claudia in the first place) that in S1 it's more of a tossup, even if I do remember being more worried about Claudia / her skewed worldview in S1 than I was about Soren.

TDP also has more complex explorations of morality (if not in some ways just exploring actual morality) than most shows aimed at kids/young teens do.

In She-Ra, the war is mostly a backdrop conflict used to explore relationship conflict, so when characters do defect from like, a conquering empire, it's because they've realized they aren't 1) treated well there by their 'friends' or 2) would rather be someone's friend than enemy. That's fine as a show focus, but it is more shallow in the morality department; thus, even though I have issues with how Catra's redemption arc was executed, I still always absolutely knew it was coming. To be clear, there's nothing with a predictable character arc (I love good setup and subsequent payoff and would take that over a 'subversives surprise' any day) but it did make her less interesting / harder to watch her be continually terrible to the people around her, even when they just risked everything to save her from death.

In The Owl House, every antagonist besides the main villain is either just misunderstood, misguided, redeemed, or all three (hi Hunter, Amity, The Collector, Lilith). There are a few others - Boscha, Kikimora, Odalia - but they're all regulated to small episode conflicts (each get like maybe 2 eps as an antagonist at most) and it's just... they all want power. Okay, cool.

What I'm trying to say through these examples is that's not a lot of moral depth in their character arcs, and to me, that makes a redemption arc less interesting to watch. However, Soren is a very morally driven character and he struggles with the morality of his choices and of his father's. His redemption arc ties in many other important relationships in his life and develops them (Claudia, Viren, Callum, Ezran) all in different ways. Ezran is his king and becomes his new purpose; Callum is a second chance and also kind of a little brother and also kind of an emotionally unavailable best friend who doesn't entirely trust you; Claudia is his sister turned enemy; Viren is, well... We're gonna get into how complicated that is even more, I'm sure.

I guess that's also what it comes down to me, the sacrifice / inconvenience element of the character doing the redeeming. Soren had, and has, something to lose by staying on the side of the good guys. He defects for his safety, yes, but he leaves behind his little sister and his previous idealization of his father on his own terms through a series of events and his own realizations. He shows up on the good guys' doorstep with "We're doomed." Even in S4, he's still losing things and at least somewhat on the losing side, with his entire family on the other side of the line. (Compare and contrast to Amity, whose entire family - all four of them - unanimously ditch her crappy mother or Catra, who defects after realizing she's effectively worthless to the new #1 villain replacing her, etc. They lose nothing, really, in the end.)

And again, I think Soren's arc works because well... it's the only one that TDP has had in this way. Rayla defects immediately, so her redemption arc works a bit differently. Claudia is still in the middle of her "what if I got worse haha jk... unless?" arc. So they all work as his primary arc foils in a very nice way. Now Viren is going through a bit of Soren's S2 arc, which we'll have to see how that goes, but full fledged died and resurrected and dragged through the mud by his daughter's determination to keep him alive sad old sack of an evil man isn't an arc you see often, now is it?

Soren realizes he's wrong without 1) a mentor figure or 2) heroes pointing it out to him and offering him second chances (save Ez sparing both him and Claudia in 3x02, which had an impact for sure but like - think of how much more reaching out, comparatively, even someone like Zuko got from protag team). Part of this is also because Soren starts off in an interesting place for a 'redeemed character' which is that he starts off on the 'right side' (protecting the king) so he has more of a restoration/maturation arc than an outright redemption arc, in some ways.

So Soren's arc is unique within his story, it's very well paced, there's a depth of morality, and it's tethered to theme so so well. It's *chef's kiss* and refreshing for someone who honestly doesn't truthfully love redemption arcs most of the time (at least not the classical kind) so it's just. Nice, y'know? It's really nice

[beautifulterriblequeen]

I have a question, how do feel about Viren? Like, as a character? A majority of the fandom seem strongly dislike him (with reason), but I personally find him to be interesting, and I’m actually as invested in his storyline as I am in Callum, Ezran, and Rayla’s. I just really wanna know your thoughts on him

Ooh, Viren. *rubs hands gleefully* This is gonna be a long post.

Viren is complicated, and all my favorite characters are complicated. He’s powerful, morally gray, sympathetic (at times), highly intelligent, and proactive toward his goals. He’s also kinda hot when he embraces his evil badassery and stops stuttering for niceties to say. He’s comfortable with his thirst for power because he believes in the Narrative of Strength, that might is right.

And that is what makes him so dangerous.

i am wary of Viren. I don’t trust him to make what I consider to be good choices. Viren’s heart tries its best to be in the right place. He’s motivated by good things: family, friendship, loyalty. He acts to protect his kingdom, which contains untold thousands of human lives–an entire civilization–and which is part of a network of kingdoms that rely on each other to stand together against their enemies. This is absolutely a good thing to do for someone in his job position. But the methods he employs, and the tactics he uses, reflect a fatal flaw in his character.

Viren considers himself worthless without the power he wields, and he only values others for the things they can do for him (broadly speaking–Harrow running a good and safe kingdom does benefit Viren). Human (and elven?) life means nothing. Only results matter. 

This probably started when he was a child. My Viren Origin Story Headcanon is that he was a literal servant in Katolis Castle (or somewhere that allowed him to meet Harrow) and they became friends as kids. Viren’s very clever and dedicated. Harrow would’ve seen his usefulness and raised him to High Mage for the sake of his kingdom. But I also think Harrow’s “You–are–a–servant” was too specific to be a random insult. I think Harrow used it as a callback to a time when Viren felt worthless except for his use to the prince of the realm. Ironically, Viren’s friendship with Harrow could be a big part of why Viren feels worthless as a human being unless he’s pushing himself all-out to be useful. Harrow inadvertently (or advertently?) trained Viren to be this way. Or perhaps a toxic parent had already trained Viren to devalue himself. Or both. This makes Viren sympathetic. But it doesn’t excuse his choices.

However it came about, Viren’s gotten through life by focusing entirely on results. That’s pragmatism for you: the end always justifies the means. And much of the time, this will work just fine. But there’s a war on, and when push comes to shove, there are some lines that many–elven or human–won’t cross. But Viren doesn’t see the lines at all.

Viren offers the soulfang option to Harrow because having Harrow remain on the throne is more important than the life of a soldier with less to offer Katolis. Harrow lets Viren be High Mage. Harrow bestows rank and privilege on Viren, which Viren can use to be more useful, and thus feel more valuable as a person. If someone else runs Katolis, Viren might be devalued, and that scares him. He’s been devalued, and it’s driven him to claw his way up. He never wants to go back down.

Viren offers food to Runaan as a tactic, hoping to elicit cooperation. He treats him politely, even though Runaan’s an elf, an enemy combatant, and very possibly the person who murdered Harrow. That’s because Viren sees massive potential usefulness in Runaan, and he respects usefulness, even above loyalty to a fallen king and friend. If Runaan is willing to help Viren unlock the mirror’s magical secrets, then Viren can use the mirror to be useful to Katolis even without Harrow. But when politeness doesn’t work on Runaan, he tries the much harsher coin threat–switching the carrot for the stick. But Moonshadows are stubborn, and when he realizes he’ll never get the result he wants, then Runaan is entirely expendable, and Viren immediately stops wasting his time on him.

However, I always love the part where Runaan says, “You have succeeded,” and Viren goes entirely soft and eager: “Oh? Have I?” He’s like a little boy. “Did I do good? Did I? Please tell me I did good.” And it kind of breaks my heart that he’s so easily led by the opinions of others. If Runaan had been less honorable, he could’ve lied to Viren’s face all day long about that mirror, and Viren would’ve eaten it all up.

After sticking Runaan in that coin, Viren throws himself into research mode on his own, filling the dungeon cell with books and scrolls, even eating down there. And when he fails yet again to get the mirror to reveal its secrets, he loses his temper with himself and has a breakdown. Because the only thing that matters is results, and he isn’t getting any. He’s failing. Failing himself, failing Katolis. Failing to be useful.

But the instant the mirror turns on, Viren’s mood shifts. He’s successful. He’s calm, curious, eager again. Success is so valuable to him. And when he sees Aaravos, the archmage is like a walking reward for Viren’s persistence as well as a promise of even more power to come. Viren’s enchanted. Aaravos is everything Viren has ever wanted to be. He finally thinks he’s found what he’s been searching for all his life. At the end of the fight in S2E9, he says “I have all the power I need,” and that’s probably not something Viren ever really expected to say.

I honestly can’t see Viren being even remotely pleased to see his children come back from their mission in utter failure–and with Ezran alive and ready to take the throne, no less! “But they’re his kids, surely he loves them!” Except no. He only loves what they can do for him. Otherwise, they’re just bad employees.

The only way Viren’s kids will get back into his good graces will be by proving their usefulness to him. And I’m not sure they’ll both decide that’s worth doing. Viren can’t see any value in himself as a person, so he doesn’t value his kids, either–he really doesn’t–unless they’re capable and competent and successful. Claudia got comfortable killing things and harvesting their bits to please her dad. Soren doesn’t like dark magic, so he threw himself into swordsmanship and became the youngest head of the Crownguard in history. 

Viren is an antagonist. He makes choices that hurt and kill others. He’s certain that’s the only way. But he’s not looking outside the Narrative of Strength for ideas. If Viren is going to find redemption in this show–and that’s a big if but I’d honestly love to see it play out–he will need to learn to love himself. Because he does not love himself even the tiniest bit. He never has. And that makes me very sad. He can’t love anyone else if he doesn’t love himself first, if he doesn’t know what that feels like and why it’s important to people. Viren will never stop hurting and killing others in the name of progress and success until he learns to love himself. Then, by extension, he can love others and make better choices with the power he wields.

I don’t know if the show intends to offer Viren a chance at redemption. I think it will, but then, I don’t know if Viren will accept such a chance. I worry that he may see it as weakness instead of growth, since it will necessarily entail giving up some of the power he currently values so highly. I really don’t know what his fate will be. While I am very invested in the power he has to shake all the other characters up and drive the plot, I really cringe every time he hurts one of the other characters through his choices. I’m not sure there’s any named character that Viren hasn’t hurt or killed, directly or indirectly, at this point, and we’re only two seasons in. He really has a lot to answer for, and I’m honestly not sure whether he’ll survive that process.

Thank you, anon. Your ask is a gift.

[dragonprincefan]

It’s one week until The Dragon Prince will be available for everyone on Netflix.

Haven’t heard of it yet? You’re in for a treat.

The Dragon Prince is a new animated series created by Aaron Ehasz (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Justin Richmond (Uncharted) as the debut creation of their new story and play studio, Wonderstorm Inc. Adding to that prestigious team, we have Giancarlo Volpe (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Green Lantern: The Animated Series) as the Executive Producer for the animated series, and his experience in telling nuanced stories with complex characters is already shining through in the three episode preview.

Don’t worry. No spoilers here.

Let’s start out with the trailer if you haven’t already seen it.

I’ve seen a few people worried about the animation style, but having seen it in action, I can safely say there’s not much to worry about. An article over at Polygon did a good commentary on it, but it bears repeating. While there are a couple of moments where small details can seem a bit stuttering, they really are small moments (flags flapping in the wind in a wide shot, or a nod here and there) and easily overlooked or a matter of stylistic choice. The action, and there is so much action, flows smoothly and keeps you on the edge of your seat watching the interplay. (I could do an entire post on the creative weapon designs and will later.) The changing frame rate used in some scenes over others is put to good use, punching up some moments for extra effect.

The first three episodes introduce us to a world on the brink of war. There were originally six types of magic (Sun, Moon, Stars, Earth, Sky, and Ocean), but 1,000 years ago, a Human mage discovered Dark Magic. The horror of the newly invented magic caused the Elves and Dragons of Xadia to banish the Humans to the West, setting up a border guarded by the Dragon King, Thunder. In more recent history, the humans killed Thunder and destroyed the egg containing his sole heir, The Dragon Prince. This is what has brought Xadia and the Human kingdoms to the edge of war.

That’s the simple explanation. The one that makes the Humans out to be the unquestionable and unrepentant villains of our tale. However, life, and this story, are not such simple matters of black and white, and we quickly start to see that in the show as it presents the things that have happened thus far as shades of grey and a result of complex choices with wrongs committed on both sides. A lot of time is spent reinforcing that choices are rarely simple nor purely acts of good or evil and how violence can quickly become an unending cycle. It addresses honor and loyalty and how quickly it can become a mess when you start seeing the other side of a conflict as full people. The story is setting up complex and nuanced morality and views of history that I’m really excited to see where it goes.

It looks like family of various types is going to be a major over-arching theme of the story with step-siblings Callum and Ezran, the contrast of a more antagonistic but playful relationship between siblings Soren and Claudia, Callum’s complicated relationship with his stepfather, King Harrow, and Soren and Claudia’s relationship with their father. This is also set against Rayla’s relationship with Runaan and the other Moonshadow Elves and what is sure to be her burgeoning friendship with the two Human princes. I expect found family and other relationships not forged by birth to become increasingly important as the story continues.

Additionally, we have a beautifully diverse cast. King Harrow (Luc Roderique) is clearly a black man while his step son Callum (Jack DeSena) appears to be white and crown prince Ezran (Sasha Rojen) appears to be mixed. Despite initial screenshots of Rayla (Paula Burrows) and Runaan (Johnathan Holmes), not all of the Elves are pale skinned and white-haired. The crownguard is specifically stated to be comprised of men and woman, and we see a variety of skin tones and hair types of multiple genders. We even see a primary character with a visible limp who requires a cane much of the time. There was a lot of set up and introductions to get through in the first three episodes, and as we see our three leads (Callum, Ezran, and Rayla) traverse the world of Xadia, I expect to see even more visible diversity come in since it was stated as a specific goal of the crew during the San Diego Comic Con 2018 panel.

The writing itself walks a nice balance between those heavy themes of moral greys and smatterings of humor. The characters are quirky and believable. It would have been so easy to set up Claudia (Racquel Belmonte), Soren (Jesse Inocalla), and Viren (Jason Simpson) as purely antagonistic characters, but instead they aren’t. Viren’s motivations and loyalties are complex and you are left uncertain of what to make of him. Soren varies between clever and foolish, and while he teases, doesn’t seem to be genuinely ill-intentioned, helping as often as he jokes. Claudia too walks a fine line between airhead and genius with a fierce sense of caring and loyalty. Ezran and Callum are both young, and far more aware of the complexities of their world and position than they’re generally given credit for while still being kids who want to have fun and want the world to be simple. They’re all complex characters and seeing how they will grow and mature over the course of the story is exciting.

In just the first three episodes, The Dragon Prince has introduced multiple plot threads that promise a lot of potential and all threads that I’m fascinated to see not only how they end up, but how hey get to that ending. 

If there’s one criticism to be had from the first three episodes, it is just how much happened. There’s a lot going on, a lot of nuanced motivations and relationships introduced, and a lot of world-building set-up. It could easily be overwhelming. I think they overall did a good job of parceling it out in small pieces at a time to prevent it feeling like you’re getting huge info dumps, and leaving you fascinated to learn more at the end of each episode.

Side note: Watch the credits for every episode, the illustrations change each time, and I feel like they show even more of a glimpse into the characters and cultures of Xadia.

I really believe this is going to be the new show to watch. A complex world full of nuance, adventure, magic, dragons, and elves that doesn’t let the fantasy elements overwhelm creating strong characters that I think everyone is going to be able to find one or more that they can personally identify with on some level. 

All this is done while showing that the wider events of the world don’t leave children untouched no matter how much you try to protect them. With the themes that loyalty and honor, right and wrong, differ based on your position and perspective on the course of events while asking the questions of whether or not the ends justify the means and how you can end a cycle of violence makes it look like we’re in for some truly poignant story telling.

Remember how I mentioned that Wonderstorm is a “story and play studio”? That means this animated series is just the beginning of our introduction into a deeper world. While the wonderful team at Bardel Entertainment animated the series, the storytelling and direction comes from Wonderstorm which is also actively developing a connected video game. We don’t know yet what platform or play style to expect from the game, but we can probably safely expect it to be fully integrated with the story and world presented in the animated series, and the animation style of the show will translate very well into the 3D models of a game. Those seven different kinds of magic and various creatures and races create a lot of room for exploration in a game, and the history provided at the beginning of the first episode means games could be set at various places or times within Xadia, adding even more depth to the world-building.

I look forward to jumping into the truly immersive franchise the Wonderstorm team appears to be building, and I hope you all will too.

Remember to watch all nine episodes of the The Dragon Prince when they’re released Friday, September 14th. (Go ahead and add it to your Netflix list here.)

Join us on twitter to make #TheDragonPrince trend on September 14th. Starting at 2pm PDT, and going for at least an hour, make and RT posts with #TheDragonPrince in them. (Get your local time: link)

[thehappyspaceman]

The Dragon Prince Recap/Review (Season One)

Hey guys, Spaceman here. I know you’re probably wondering where my Favorite Christmas Songs video is by now, or where really any content whatsoever is. Well, the truth is that I spent the first part of this month and most of last month preparing for an entrance audition for a particular music college, whose name I can’t currently disclose (I want to be sure I get in before I talk about it), hence the lack of new content. But that’s all over now, so I’m prepared to get back to work on videos, art, and possibly even music! Yeah, remember when I did music? Anyway, while I’m working on that, I thought I’d write something to keep you guys interested.

Many of you may be aware of this, but from August to September of last year, I really got into Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s my current obsession and even took the title of my favorite animated series of all time from the previous holder, Gargoyles, which was no small feat. It got to the point where after I finished watching it, I felt a bit of a hole in my life and needed to find something else to replace it. This is when I heard about Netflix’s series The Dragon Prince, which was described as being similar to Avatar, as well as being created by Avatar’s director Aaron Ehasz and featuring the involvement of some of Avatar’s cast and crew. I watched it and… thought it was okay? Just okay, but not great. This month, however, news was released that it was getting a second season, and I was interested, so I figured I might as well watch it again and type out my thoughts. How was it? Let’s take a look.

The Story

The Dragon Prince is set in a world where humans and elves are in conflict. There’s a lengthy explanation for this, which the show thankfully provides at the start of the first episode.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to watch this in every episode. Anyway, the egg of the dragon king is presumed destroyed, and is imminent war between the elves and humans. As both sides prepare for the war, the elves attempt to assassinate the human King Harrow and his heir, the young Prince Ezran; however, during the attack, fifteen-year-old elf Rayla discovers that the egg was not destroyed, but rather stolen. Rayla teams up with Ezran and his half-brother, Callum, to deliver the egg back to the dragons. Meanwhile, Harrow’s advisor, the mage Lord Viren, is intent on war, and sends his own children Claudia and Soren after our heroes.

That’s just the really condensed version of the plot. During the nine episodes in season one, there is a lot of exposition and a lot of other things happen that I haven’t even mentioned. I would do an episode-by-episode recap for this show, but honestly, they all kind of blend together. Unlike with other animated shows I’ve watched recently, there aren’t really any standalone episodes I can think of. Each one kind of just moves straight into the next, which I guess makes sense for a series on Netflix, a service notorious for encouraging binge-watching.

The very first thing I noticed about The Dragon Prince was that it doesn’t really have any true antagonist on either side (at first). Like, you can’t really say, “Oh, the elves are evil,” or “Oh, the humans are evil.” I was super skeptical when the intro described that the humans were to blame for a lot of the problems, including discovering dark magic and slaying the Dragon King, but the intro also pits the elves in the wrong, showing them banishing all the humans instead of just banishing the few who discovered dark magic.

That leads me into discussing a major theme that’s prevalent at least in season one, the theme of prejudice and tolerance. From the few things that the humans know about the elves, they are painted as horrific killers. Humans think of elves as being bloodthirsty killers—literally and figuratively—and the elves are similarly shown holding stereotypes about humans. The fact that Callum and Ezran teamed up with Rayla was only due to the circumstances; it takes several episodes before they are able to fully trust one another. This is a theme that I’ve also seen done well in another favorite fantasy show of mine, Gargoyles.

Admittedly, a few parts of this story seem rather derivative, such as the six primal sources of magic being reminiscent of the Four Elements from Avatar, which leads me to the next topic…

The World

I will admit that it’s not entirely fair to judge a TV show based on its first nine episodes. Granted, I usually hold the policy that if a show’s first five episodes don’t get you hooked, then you should not be required to keep watching (take note, Steven Universe fans). The thing is, this show did get me interested, and I want to see it continue to develop, because what we have so far isn’t much. It kind of just feels like a standard fantasy world, with elves, dragons, castles, and assorted monsters, which, okay, is a tried and true formula by Tolkien and others, but after the world of Avatar, with its focus on Asian culture, its unique animals, and its nearly steampunk technology, I can’t help but feel like this is a slight step down.

That’s not to say that it’s bad, of course. There are a few things that make it really pop out and feel real. The background art, for one, is incredible. Some of the monsters feel unique, too, like those on the Cursed Caldera—one of them even kind of looks like a graboid from Tremors. Also, I like what they did with the elves’ design here. They could have easily just made them pale humans with pointy ears, but instead they put a lot of detail into it, giving the different groups of elves different skin colors, horns, and having them have only four fingers instead of five. Those are some nice touches.

The Characters

Let’s move on to the characters, starting with Rayla, who is easily my favorite character of the group. She admittedly has a bit of a Zuko thing going on, as she was assigned to hunt down the main characters but turns against her original group to help join the main characters on her mission. Other subtle details are similar, too, like her long-lasting inner conflict with her past and her use of dual swords. That said, her journey is a little different; for one thing, Zuko took nearly the entire run of Avatar to fully go through his heel-face turn, only switching sides halfway through the show’s final season. With Rayla, she joins the heroes in the third episode, which cuts out much of the emotional journey but also lends itself to more interactions with the human characters. She’s much funnier, for another thing, giving her share of snide remarks but also scoring a bunch of laughs when she goes undercover disguised as a human in one of the episodes—can you say, “How do you do, fellow kids humans?” Paula Burrows delivers a great vocal performance, which adds to the character.

Next up is Callum, the main human lead. Now, it’s incredibly easy to draw comparisons between his character and Sokka: Both are goofy, “normal” teenage boys in a world filled with magic, not very adept with fighting but good at planning things. More importantly, of course, is the fact that Callum is literally voiced by Sokka’s voice actor, Jack DeSena. Comparisons… were gonna pop up, is what I’m saying. And I’ll admit that the first time I watched The Dragon Prince, it was super jarring to hear Sokka’s voice coming out of Callum every time he talked. But there are some differences. While in Avatar, Sokka is the most responsible member of the group and the only one with any real degree of survival training, Callum is more inexperienced and callow, not good with a sword and only starting to learn magic. He’s also noticeably more chill and less panicky than the Sokka of season one of Avatar and shows that he can actually draw much better. Though considering Sokka’s drawing ability…

…that’s not really saying much.

Now to move on to Ezran, Callum’s half-brother. I have to admit, of the main characters, he’s probably the weakest, at least to me. I don’t know, he kind of feels a bit flat as a character. All I remember about him is the fact that he can understand animals, which is unique, but he doesn’t really have much of a personality aside from just being your typical kid. I know, it’s not easy to characterize a small child whilst making them believable… though again, Avatar managed to do so well. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t keep comparing these two shows, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t super easy.

Not helping is Ezran’s pet, a glow toad named Bait. As far as animal sidekicks go, I definitely prefer Appa from Avatar; hell, even Momo managed to get a few asskicking moments. Bait kind of just lies around and eats stuff. Several times, he manages to get the main characters into trouble, which I found a little bothersome. The one good thing about him is that his glowing abilities do come in handy a few times to temporarily blind enemies, though… I’ll get back to that later.

The trio is pursued by siblings Soren and Claudia. Soren is a young knight and a bit of a dumb jock but has a heart of gold. Claudia, meanwhile, is a nerdy mage who comes off as a bit awkward. They are always fun when they are on screen and have a believable relationship. It’s also worth noting that early on, Callum is revealed to have a crush on Claudia, which… oh boy, let’s hope the shipping discourse in The Dragon Prince’s fandom doesn’t get as bad as the Avatar fandom. I can already see a potential clash between the Claudia/Callum and Rayla/Callum crowds. (Full disclosure: I’m on the Rayla/Callum side.)

The other characters were cool, too. For as little time as we got to know him, I liked King Harrow, Ezran’s father. Even for his cringey dad humor, he was an intriguing character. It’s hinted that there was a lot of stuff in his past that we don’t know about, like his involvement with dark magic. Also intriguing was Lord Viren, Soren and Claudia’s father. It’s easy to see that he was once good and still has some good in him, as shown by his friendship with Harrow, but he has been corrupted by his use of dark magic and is too far gone. Finally, Aunt Amaya, Callum and Ezran’s deaf aunt who’s a solder on the frontlines, was another character I wound up loving. It’s rare that we see people with disabilities get good representation in animated series (another thing I loved about Avatar with the blind character Toph).

But okay, if we’re going to talk about this show, then I might as well bring up the one criticism that every other critic has already made about it. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

The Animation

Yes, among all the mixed reviews of this show, one consistent criticism was the animation. It seems to be CGI, but is going for a 2D, hand-drawn look; unfortunately, the way the pull it off is not necessarily the greatest. Take a look at the trailer for an example of what I’m talking about.

No, your computer is not glitching out; that is the framerate they went with. And this choppiness is something that seems to be a trend with certain CGI shows outside of this one, with Rooster Teeth being the most notorious offender. If they really wanted to make it look 2D, they should have actually animated it hand-drawn. Doing this just pulls me out of the moment. (Oddly enough, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does something very similar with its framerate, yet I don’t have any problem with that movie doing it.)

To be entirely fair, this is something that Aaron Ehasz has acknowledged. Apparently, season one was given a very low budget, and he has promised that season two will have a steadier framerate. Judging by the trailers I’ve seen for season two… yeah, it already looks way better. Also, with my second watch of season one, I found it much easier to look past. Maybe I was just used to it by then?

Assorted Other Stuff

Warning: This section goes into minor spoiler territory. I would highly advise not reading past this if you want to remain spoiler-free when you go into season one. Got it? Alright.

One other complaint I have had is the comedy, which is really hit-or-miss in a lot of places. As I mentioned before, the scenes where Rayla is disguised as a human are hilarious, and some of the snarky dialogue is also witty as hell, but there are other moments with awkward puns and some potty humor that just feel forced to me. There’s one scene in episode six where Callum is obviously having an erotic dream about Claudia, which seemed unfitting for this show… though to be fair, Avatar also had its share of adult humor.

See also.

Another awkward tidbit is that twice, when Ezran is about to use Bait’s ability to blind his enemies, he says the line, “Say hello to my little friend,” an obvious shout-out to the classic 1983 gangster film Scarface. My question is, why is that line thrown in there? Are most kids going to catch that reference? Call me strange, but regardless of what adult fanbase this show will capture (which, let’s be honest, it will), I highly doubt its target audience is watching Brian De Palma films.

Though maybe they should be.

Speaking of strange homages… well… take a look. 

Your eyes don’t deceive you. Rayla is doing the infamous Naruto run, where you extend your arms out behind you as you run forward. And she and the other elves do this run multiple times during the show, too. It is neither practical nor particularly cool-looking, so I don’t know why this was done in the original show, and I genuinely hope this was only meant as an homage, because… again, it’s really damn silly.

The soundtrack of this show is rather nice, I will say. It’s not as memorable as Avatar or Gargoyles’, but I did find myself humming the end credits theme song after finishing watching. Speaking of which, during the credits, we get some cute drawings of the characters, some of which connect to the episode, others are apparently meant as foreshadowing for later episodes and plot points. If you watch this show, definitely do not skip the credits.

Now, as for stuff that I hope for the new season. I would like to know more about the cube that Callum and Rayla found at the winter lodge. It seems to have some kind of connection with the Primal Sources. Also, the mysterious magical mirror, I hope we can find out something about that. It was foreshadowed pretty heavily in episode eight, so I doubt they won’t do anything with it. Speaking of magic, I’d love to see Callum do more magic in the new season. It probably won’t be more wind magic, since he destroyed the sphere to birth the dragon, but Callum clearly has potential to become a great mage. Also, I would love to find out more about King Harrow’s past, as well as more about Callum and Ezran’s deceased mother, the Queen. We see Viren and Amaya mourning her by her gravesite in one scene, and Callum drawing her in another. How did she die? What was she like? These are all worthwhile questions for season two, or for future seasons after season two depending on how long the show goes for.

Conclusion

The Dragon Prince is a worthwhile watch. It’s nowhere near as great as Avatar or Gargoyles yet, and it is still clearly paving its own identity, but I still find it enjoyable enough and feel that it has potential for greatness. My main criticisms would be to up the animation quality and to develop the characters more, though my guess is that both will already happen in season two, which will be dropping later tomorrow, February 15.

But yeah, you have my attention, show. Don’t screw it up.

~Spaceman