The Dragon Prince: Season 1-3
Showrunners: Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
I came across The Dragon Prince on Netflix almost by mistake. I was looking through their animation selection, missing the presence of a good young-adult animation in my life. Once the series started, I began to feel some familiar feelings. Characters were profound, but had a sense of humour. The storyline, while distinctly fantasy, had its own sense of heart and creativity. This is the moment I realised I was watching the spiritual follow up to Avatar: The Last Airbender. The Dragon Prince filled the animation void I had been feeling ever since the end of The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. A strong transition from the spiritual into the fantasy world, The Dragon Prince introduces us to complex morality, unique fantasy lore and compelling characters.
In typical Avatar style, the animation deals with some pretty serious and complex morality issues. The villains aren’t necessarily black and white like they were in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and our heroes are often put in precarious moral positions themselves, delving into dark magic, endangering those they love to attain power, and threatening the death penalty to those who have wronged them. Callum, Ezran and Rayla remain clearly the heroes of this series, but their interaction with the wider world puts a veil of shades of grey on every decision they make.
The primary villains of the show, Viren and Aaravos, are both compelling in their own unique ways. Viren, clearly a man who craves power and peace, is a far more complex man than the Fire Lord in Avatar. Throughout the seasons, Viren becomes more and more desperate as he seeks peace for all humanity. As kingdoms and leaders refuse his desire for battle, he seeks the help of a mysterious man in a magical mirror. This is when Viren’s path turns from desperate to dangerous. When Viren interacts with his children, you get a glimpse of his humanity, but as the seasons progress, this humanity dissipates. His ever-loyal children Soren and Claudia find their own part in Viren’s plans, and they too act as well-developed and compelling adversaries to the heroes. Basically still children themselves, they have the complex task of being friends with Callum and Ezran while acting against them to win their father’s love and approval.
The Dragon Prince’s animation style took me a little while to adjust to, but once I did, I could see it had complex shading that fit with the nuance of the characters. The inherent and pure magic of Xadia compared to the stark contrast of the dark magic (powered by humans) beautifully illustrates their stark differences.
The fantasy lore of The Dragon Prince isn’t too derivative, building from their own mythology rather than relying on previous fantasy lore from Lord of the Rings and others of that nature. It feels both familiar and different in its execution. The series brings us instantly into a familiar medieval-style setting, with kings and princes dealing with wars. It introduces us to a divided world between elves and humans. A world of magic and one of humanity. However, it has its own identity coloured by a rich taxonomy of elven subspecies (Moonshadow, Sunfire, and Skywing elves, among others) and its development of dark and primal magic and their moral implications.
The Dragon Prince brings back the essence of what made Avatar: The Last Airbender such a great series while still remaining prominently its own creation with unique characters and not relying on the hype of its predecessor.
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