The Dragon Prince: Is it the next Avatar: The Last Airbender? [ SPOILERS REVIEW ]
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
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![Korra's Worldbuilding: How did technology advance so quickly? [ Avatar: The Last Airbender ]](/img/n.gif)
*Some extra thoughts on the Dragon Prince:* Firstly, Amaya is deaf, not mute. The creators have stated: "Yep! She's deaf and can read lips!" I really enjoy how our MCs come from who could be seen as the 'bad guys' in the war - they used dark magic, killed magical creatures - and while I did talk about how it was a little jarring that the king so quickly turned on Viren, I should add I like to interpret this as a subversion of his character more than an inconsistency. If they show Harrow isn't the paragon of virtue he makes himself out to be (as I mention is suggested by a few lines eg. "There are wrongs on both sides, many of which I'm responsible for."), I will be really happy.
*Viren* : I only briefly touched on Viren. I really like how they started with him. We understood him as a practical innovator who genuinely cared about Harrow, but the later episodes somewhat simplified him to a power-hungry mage with even dark-veins. If he is to be the primary antaginist, I'd like to see them further develop that early side to him, as well as his bond with Claudia and Soren. Families are nearly always redemptive forces. It would really interesting to see Claudia and Viren slowly take more evil steps in their quest to stop the princes, not because of a drive for power, but out of a love for family, to protect one another.
*Worldbuilding* : The world as a whole had a strong sense of place, but the individual episodes didn't so much. It was hard to know where they were and what that meant in relation to other human kingdoms (it's implied there are multiple), Xadia, or elsewise. But the lore *is* fascinating and you definitely get the feeling that there is a lot more out there to know, that the world has breadth and complexity to learn of in the future.
Questions:
1. Most memorable moment? Mine: Rayla pinning down the scout.
2. Favourite character? Mine: Rayla.
3. Where could the show improve? Utilising every moment to deepen character/theme.
Stay nerdy!
~ Tim
I haven't seen the show yet but if it's anything like Avatar it will start out light-hearted and as the series progress it will gradually get darker and serious.
The show was meh. Avatar had something more than generic fantasy setting and one note characters.
A cartoon for children. Too much propaganda of current year.
Hello Future Me hey you pulled a leg sweep
My favorite character is Rayla and the princes' aunt.
I don't know how they would do this but I'm not the biggest fan of the magic system. One of my favorite things about the last airbender is the hard magic system. Sometimes it annoys me when there is " a spell for everything." But I still like it. I'll keep watching
6 primordial forces? sounds like bionicle!
0:28 common misconception between step and half brothers Ezran and Callum ARE NOT step brothers they are half brothers because they share a parent
They share the mom?
@@joaobastos6435 yes! they have different fathers but the same mother
@@lilalizabeth8176 but where does it say that? I thought they adopted him or something
@@joaobastos6435 it said that in the show. We don't know much about Callums birth father right now, all we know is he passed away. Then his mom remarried the king and they had Ezran
@@lilalizabeth8176 thanks! Might as well rewatch season 1 and search that moment 😅
petition to re-shoot all of the Harry Potter movies and make Tim official actor for the role of Hermione.
JK Rowling: “I never specified she was female.”
it's something she would say these days
toni Signed lol.
Let's just make Tim a gender and make Hermione become Timsexual.
I fucking hate Harry Poter
The introduction to this video is the best thing ever.
Udy Kumra I binged the whole thing yesterday and I was thinking “then everything changed when the fire nation attacked”.
I wished that was the intro to the actual show. My sisters and I started the show recently, and they didn't like how long the intro was. They zoned out and I had to summarize the intro for them. But they like the show, so that's cool.
I actually think that the intro was terrible. The dragon prince may be inspired by avatar but the magic system is completely different. Avatar magic system is just i can manipulate this element. In The dragon prince’s magic system each source if magic is inspired by a diffrent philosophy it really ticked me off that he compared the magic system as a bad rip off from avatar. Furthermore in avatar the entire fire-nation attacked, in the dragon prince one person started using dark magic and the entire human race had to suffer for it. In the dragon prince one human made a bad mistake not an entire nation.😠😠 i’m sorry i just really hated it when he did this intro.
Lin 2002, first off, calm down okay, it was a joke, and secondly, I can’t take your comment seriously with those emojis. They just look so funny
Sorry if i was rude, but i just feel really strongly that this video is incredible insulting to this show. This video in general really pissed me off and i needed to blow of steam. Again sorry if i was rude or something.
"I just like Gren"
- Everyone after watching TDP.
Note about the worldbuilding regarding the Elves:
They are more than just "Humans with weird ears".
Just the facts that they have horns and four fingers makes them stand out from other types of Elves.
@Nob the Knave Which is more diversity than many other fantasy races.
I still wouldn't think about their design as anything groundbreaking
So they’re just humans wit weird ears, an amputated finger and horns…
what's with their accents, I'm sorry but those changes doesn't really do much. just the "moon elf" fantasy has been rehashed many many times, probably even more than wood elves in hindsight
I think the most important thing to keep in mind regarding The Dragon Prince is that... it's just a few episodes, and it's deeply unfair when people judge it against the entirety of AtLA. I love AtLA and have for years, but Season 1 was a setup season for a large part, with many disjointed episodes etc. If anything, AtLA shows not to judge a series by a half-season worth of episodes.
That said: damn, I really, really enjoyed TDP. I bought the animation the moment I saw how expressive the faces can be, and then just stopped paying attention to the fact that it's CGI. Character-wise I really like most of the folks, and grew to love the Scottish-Valley Girl accent she does, even when people are generally baffled by it. I'm also totally on board with Sokka finally learning magic. Go get it tiger, you deserve it.
I'm quite interested what you think about the magic in the show, actually. I like that it seems to be more of a knowledge and resource-based. Kind of like DnD wizards, who are your classic studious types.
yeah I definitely got DnD wizard vibes out of it, as the spells were shown to need specific material, somatic and verbal components to cast.
@@joeljohnson3365 or focus, AKA primal stones, which allow you to skip certain material components. I really hope they dig into magic rules in future seasons. I'm a sucker for a good whoosh.
@@Mongward same but does callum destroying the primal stone he had mean he has to learn more spells so if there isn't a storm near he can still fight
@@powerstorm1309 probably? I'm on board for whatever, but I would definitely want to see him as a control wizard rather than damage dealer. He has good memory and good tactical sense, it would suit him well.
@@Mongward yeah but he really isn't capable of anything now since he destroyed the primal stone and as the illusionist says :there are no storms for miles" this shows he can't do any of those kind of spells or anything in a fight besides THE LEG SWEEP *leg sweeps mongward*
When the dragon Prince bit off Rayla's armband, it wasn't because he's all powerful. It was because the pact the armband represented was justice/revenge, and when the dragon prince didn't die, the human prince no longer needed to die. The only being who has the right to remove the pact is the dragon prince himself.
Ps. Watch the dragon prince be a girl, lol
I never saw it like that before. Just means there might be more scenes with subtle meanings like this.
But the other armband glowed red and fell off when the pact was broken. This one didn't
@@TheCarnivaI because that pact was complete, a king for a king, harrow was killed just as the dragon king was killed. But the second pact was unnecessary they wanted a prince for a prince, but how could they take that life if the dragon prince was alive and well
@@danahidalgoneira5119 but the king didn't die you see.. . His soul has been exchanged with the bird.. So he lives in the bird.. The king for a king pact wasn't complete.. i guess..
Wasiq Sultan Holy shit, yeah, that could be. Maybe it's not the soul that counts, since Dark Magic is bad and maybe the elfs don't count that. Technicaly Harrow died, his soul it's still alive, but his body died and maybe that's the only thing that counts
About your criticism of the King in his final exchange with Verin. I disagree with your point that it is out of character with the king. At this moment, Harrow is under an incredible amount of stress, he is likely to die by the end of the night, and is leaving two children behind to live as orphans. One of these children, even if he is a stepchild, he feels like he never got to know well enough. At this moment, the king is a man filled with regret about his choices in life, who will never get the chance to correct them. Add this to Verin's insistence that Harrow use dark magic, when Harrow has made it clear that he does want to use such tactics, I feel like it would be out of character for Harrow to not lash out. Just my thoughts, hope they make sense.
I agree. I think his "snapping" was earned
That scene makes a lot more sense when we get context in the form of flashbacks in the later seasons. Viren has a long history of pushing dark magic as the solution to all of their problems, and repeatedly talked Harrow into doing things he later regretted or at least had severe doubts about. Harrow is making it clear to Viren that he's done letting him talk him into using dark magic to solve all his problems. Viren has pushed him into things he's not comfortable with on many occasions, and now Harrow has decided to finally draw the line.
Perhaps he also thought that ordering Varin to kneel and know his place was the only way to get the soul transplant idea out of his head, either by virtue of it being an order or by making Varin hate him. Seems like a but of a stretch, but still possible
My criticism isn’t toward the King snapping at Veirn it’s in how it was executed. If we got more of Veirn trying to manipulate him or little more hints of his dark side I would buy it even more.
Even the “you should be on your knees” needed a little more touch to help make it seem more genuine. Maybe have the King say, “You speak as if you are my equal- no, you speak as if you’re above me, like some kind of god. I’ve always forgone the thought of you bowing because of our friendship. But now... now I wonder if I was wrong to do so. Will you attempt such a trick on my sons, your future king? And as your current king, I demand your respect for my status. Kneel!”
Agreed
From three seasons perspective, I like how most of your concerns were solved :D
I liked it, but 9 episodes is nothing... It felt like half a season to me :/ The animation bothered me at first but by episode 2 I was use to it.
Hard to call a season with only nine. Even most shows get at least 13 before they can call it a day.
Yes and i dont think we have a definite yes to a 2nd season not from ive seen anyway. Netflix is bad for this or i just have bad luck find a show i really like thats a netflix original either ends out of nowhere or takes FOREVER to get new seasons out 😐
I guess Netflix didn't want to waste too much money on a series they weren't sure was going to be well received, which, they have reasons to believe because of the hate the show was receiving because of the animation when the first trailers came out.
@@gustavowadaslopes2479 Castlevania got only 4 episode because they weren't sure it will do good but now they are making 2nd season with double episodes because it did extremely well...so I guess if The Dragon Prince does well, then they will make next season with more episodes... I hope it does well & Netflix renews it for new season.
Netflix will renew it(might take some time) and we do indeed get hope for more episodes.
I agree with most of your points, but I have to disagree with your view on Rayla and the sun sword (or whatever it’s called). I found the scene to be quite powerful in the context of Rayla’s past. This is a girl who has been taught from the beginning that violence is the answer; violence is the best way to achieve your goals. Hence, the moon elves turn to assassination as their answer to solving the war. However, when Rayla is faced with her own dilemma of getting a prejudiced human’s sword so that she can free herself, she does not choose a path of violence. Instead, Rayla opts for peaceful, non-violent tactics, even begging the man to help her and cut her silver binding. For Rayla to completely reject all that she has been taught and trained to do is quite powerful for me personally, as it shows her character consciously deciding to do things her own way, rather than the way she has always been told and has come to question. Rayla even explicitly states that “I’m not going to hurt you!” when the human fears her. Of course, he doesn’t believe her claim, coming from an assassin and all, but I think it was quite an emotional line that revealed Rayla’s true character, while also contrasting it with how others see her. Deep down Rayla is not a badass assassin; she is compassionate, brave and has great integrity, which she stands by, even when she is forced to pay the price for her moral values. Rayla could have simply fought the man and stolen his sword, and several characters and perhaps even the audience may have expected her to do just that. However, Rayla chooses her own path - a path of peace and honesty, and in doing so not only becomes a better person, but also risks her chances of success. Refusing to fight the human could have cost her the sword. Had he proven to be skilled in fighting, she may never have had the chance to attempt to cut off her silver bracelet. But Rayla risks this anyway, because she would rather do what she believes is the right thing, than commit a wrong just to achieve a goal.
I somewhat agree with this, but this was already revealed at the beginning when she let the scout live and it was more powerful. This is because it directly conflicts with the goal of killing the king/prince and not letting them know about them and what not but with the dagger dude you don't get the same feeling because he is just some dude.
@@theguntarian I'd actually claim that scene meant something else. I liked that it faced her with a situation where she wasn't given any chance like Callum and Ezran. The dagger guy immediately assumed she was going to take his dagger, in which she replies that she isn't going to steal from him. In this case, the scene is showing Rayla choosing to avoid conflict even in the face of someone completely demonizing her. And they see the consequence of that being chased out of town. She was faced with hatred and rose above it, that says something different to me than the opening scene with her.
I honestly liked the episode because finally MCs didn't just "fix a racist" in one episode or set it up to fix this particular racist. It made the tansion between humans and elves more real for me.
While it feels good to end on "everyone is happy and friends now" its just not how racism works.
“You know what? In a few years, when you’re older, buddy... we’ll sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk about sandwiches.”
I think "Potential" is the perfect description of this show. You didn't mention it, but I'm SURE you noticed it's basically just Avatar the Last Airbender fused with Lord of the Rings (which is a good thing). I'm with you on your assessment of season 1, but depending on how well the next seasons are done this show could end up being something really incredible.
minor similarity between all those shows, is contains fantasy elements. lol Otherwise none of those shows are even remotely similar lol
@@minibeech03 yeah lol
9:10 Viren had suggested that someone should die in his stead a few hours earlier, and then said "well someone not me". Then he goes and change his mind and is going to offer to do it himself but the king is still angry and they fail to communicate. You have to remember this all takes place in a single day.
"Potential" is a great way to describe the show. I'm particularly looking forward to learning more about the magic system, as it has some potentially interesting things going for it. For that reason, my favorite character is Calum, given that he is the "mage-in-training" for the group, so it seems most of the learning about the magic system will revolve around him, all the while other characters are using it and giving us a feel for the powers. Also Claudia, to a lesser extent, as she is already a full fledged mage and is there to show us the variety of powers dark magic has.
(Also something I noticed (which may change in the future) is that elves use magic much more naturally/fluidly than humans, as I have yet to see elves use any glyphs and they don't always incantations. I'm interested to see if this is just a quirk for Moonshadow Elves/moon magic, or if it holds true to the other elves and sources, and if it just holds true for specific powers.)
My favorite moment is a bit harder to pin down, so I'll mention a couple in different categories. The moment from when Calum stole the primal stone from Claudia to when he used his first spell. The moment when Amaya confronted Viren and told him how things were going to go down. And the part where Claudia used the locator spell (as that felt like the end of the prolog, when things are going to start off for real). Oh, and Claudia's fire spell lighting the braziers.
For criticisms, I didn't like how choppy the animation was (supposedly they intentionally dropped the framerate to help make it feel similar to more 2D, hand drawn animation, and the choppiness is a byproduct), and I agree that the dragon being able to tear off the band felt anticlimactic. Anything else I can thing of is less definable and primarily just an effect of how few episodes there are at the moment and will be resolved as the series goes on.
I really like the magic system too. They've taken all the spells from D&D based magic and organised them into really interesting categories. The magic orbs [cant remember the name] that focus a particular type of magic were cool as well, i like this magic system more than avatar or harry potters, the spellcasters are more specialized with their abilities in a really conceptually unified way. I cant wait to see the other kinds of magic as well.
I am looking forward to Soren and Claudia's character arcs. Also the magic in this show seems potentially captivating, although all we've seen is storm and dark magic.
Presto 76 I think the orbs were called Primal Stones or something like that. At the very least I know "primal" was in the name.
In any case, I agree that this one has quite a bit of potential. I particularly like the limiting factor, which I can easily see being exploited. Because of this, it kind of reminds me of a more limited Furycraft from Codex Alera (each person can command various nature spirits which fall into six categories, and a particular element can be blocked through different exploits. Like firecrafters can't use their power when too wet and if used in a confined space the power is basically suicide, aircrafters can't use their power if covered in dirt and aircraftings can be dispersed with salt, earthcrafters have to actually be touching the ground, etc. [edit: blocking people with affinity for multiple elements, or all of them, gets really creative too]).
I do still really like bending from Avatar a little more because of how fluid it feels, while Dragon Prince's magic hasn't had enough time to build up the proper depth.
Harry Potter, on the other hand... Yeah, it's magic system is extremely standard and doesn't have anything to it really. The strength of the books lies more in the society and characters. So I whole heartedly agree that Dragon Prince's is leagues better, even being in it's early stages.
And now I just kind of want to list a few pretty fun magic systems, like Allomancy (gain a specific power from ingesting a specific metal; powers include pushing and pulling metals, enhancing your senses, slowing down time, etc) and Feruchemy (store something in a metal trinket for use later, like your weight [technically effective mass], calories, physical speed, etc) from Mistborn, Surgebinding (get two of ten possible powers, in addition to faster healing and agility, so long as you have a supply of stormlight; the most prominent powers are altering the direction of "down" for an object [can be compounded or fractionally done], illusions, and changing the substance of an object; the author is going for a slow burn on this one, so we only know the names and basic effects of a lot of the powers and not the particulars) from Stormlight Archive, Nen from Hunter x Hunter (yes, I know, the one everyone brings up, but it still leads to some interesting and wacky powers), summoning in the Bartimaeus books (basic summoning, but implemented _really_ well), Furycraft from Codex Alera (particularly with how it affects the society in the books with everyday tasks), etc.
Nathan Higgins Plus a few others in minor circumstances, but few specifics. Right now we just have surface level stuff, but it does have potential.
The whole point of the binding was so that they could take vengeance for the Dragon Prince’s death. When the Dragon Prince hatched, and tore off the wrist binding. I thought it was poetic to when Reyla said “there’s no need for vengeance tonight.”
The Dragon Prince was the only one who could break the binding
I still wish that the animation was 2D. The animation style looks good with mostly everything besidrs the humans (also eleves but less). The Cell shaded 3D animation doesn’t have the same exaggeration that 2D animation brings and that shows the with the action and especially the comedy. The story seems pretty good so far, but the animation style is a little distracting to me. Dipping the frame rate doesn’t really help. The backgrounds also look really empty and not detailed. I do want to see were the show goes, but I hope the animation style improves somehow, the actual movement is good but I’m not convinced on the style.
3D animation is cheaper than 2D isn't it? Judging by the quality of the 3D animation, they didn't have much budget to produce the show.
I think it would be perfectly fine if the frame rate wasn't shit. Someone's told me it was a stylistic choice but idk of that's true
Honestly if was 2D I bet that would be twice as big now; I losted count of how many comments of "I tried to watch but the animation was distracting and horrible" I read in the past days and can't blame people for that... the trailers alone didn't made me want to watch it at all because of the animation, I'm glad I gave it a chance but had to re-watch a few scenes cause the animation indeed got in the way.
I disagree about the backgrounds, whenever it changes location I am amazed at how well this 3d cell shading simulates 2d while being quite gorgeous.
About framerate it could be better, there are fluidity in some scenes and others it's a bit awkward, but it's passable overall to be honest.
3D animation is cheaper but you need a rendering farm for high framerates which means investment. Unless a company specializes in making 3D shows you can expect most to start out with low frame rates and less detailed backgrounds.
My favorite moment is when Callum finally understood the sky Arcanum and cast Aspero without a primal stone
My only major frustration is in myself not knowing sign language. They set up some moments with general Amaya that I feel are supposed to be really meaningful and say a lot about her and her and her relationships, but there are no subtitles so unless you know sign language you don't really know whats going on. Hopefully Netflix adds subtitles for sign language
I think its really smart.
Puts a large portion of the audience in the shoes of other characters that can't understand her. Understand the frustration but just thought it was neat
@@spaceace9103If I can't understand a person then I'm not that attached to them. Yeah, I understand the fact that the creators are trying to make you feel how death/mutes feel but she might as well be speaking Chinese without subtitles. Many people love Chewbacca but to me he's just a noisy brute because I don't see subtitles.
Well, the elfes really over-reacted. 1 human discoveres dark magic, "Well, time to banish a whole race!"
Yeah and humans : human one : dude we found dark magic human two : YES NOW TO CONQUER THE WHOLE WORLD EVEN THOUGH WE WERE LIVING PEACEFULLY BEFORE
Myrdin Osrek I’m pretty sure that it was more then that. If I remember correctly from the show introduction, the dark magic caused a lot of problems
There is probably more to it than just that. We still don't know much of Dark Magic, but from what we have seen it seems to take the life essence out of living things to be casted, probably. (Remember that episode where Viren is in his room and performs some magic, and the butterfly dies?)
So it's not that they discovered dark magic, it's probably that whoever used it, probably caused some huge harm to elves.
@@rafaelrubio4443 yeah but it can also transfer the energy like from that dude in the cell (the leader of the moon shadow elves I forgot his name) his essence was put into the coin and the life energy was put into the dark mage dude / the main antagonist himself it seems because of the dark mage new look once he comes put the cell
Reminds me of the Covenant from Halo.
"Hey, our empire's religion might be wrong, better exterminate humanity before someone finds out."
I very much LOVE the Dragon Prince, just like how I love Avatar: The Last Airbender, but I don't understand why people keep trying to draw parallels between the two in plot structure. People keep talking about how the set-up is so similar but it REALLY isn't.
The war for one is a very different one compared to the A:TLA conflict. It's not just one nation deciding to conquer the world, and Thunder didn't keep the conflict from happening so much as he seemed to be a party that was 'neutral in name'. If that was true, why is he only noted as having destroyed HUMAN armies crossing the border? We don't hear him doing anything to stop Elves from crossing the border to attack. And before anyone says "Because the Humans are the aggressors and the Elves didn't attack them", keep in mind that such a dynamic wouldn't really even be called a WAR by the narrator. And how could Harrow have referred to 'wrongs on both sides' in a conflict that's been going on for what seems to be FAR longer than a single century, if the elves themselves weren't just as aggressive?
This leads me to think Thunder wasn't so much a peacekeeper as a glorified border guard, which would explain a LOT regarding why the Humans wanted him dead so much.
And if you think about the conflict between the Humans and Elves, at least with the story we've been given so far (which is certainly likely to be filled out more as the series goes on), the ELVES seem like the more blameworthy party. They essentially committed an ethnic cleansing by banishing all of Humanity to the west, and EVERY elf agreed to this, which would indicate a LONG period of treating and considering Humans as second class citizens at best, actively considering them lower than themselves. Not to mention the implications that they banished them simply for the actions of ONE person inventing Dark Magic.
Now, I'm willing to bet that there's more to the history than this, maybe they even the developers intentionally skewed the story for revelations and discoveries later, but the conflict is VERY different from Avatar.
Agreed. The Dragon Prince is good on its own way
I agree it's important not to draw comparison but it's very difficult to avoid making some reference to their previous work simply because we know what they are capable of, and would obviously love to be wowed on the same level as before. But the show is perfectly wonderful as it is and seems quite capable of so much more. We are just nitpicking I'd say ;) Even if it was judged as being on the same level as Avatar I'm sure we'd all revert to human nature and still find something to complain about.
Well, what would you do if a bunch of people gained great power...as long as they killed someone beforehand.
From I noticed so far, what makes Dragon Prince and ATLA plot line being similar is the circumstances for the groups in both shows. Both Aang and Callum's group have a limited time to complete their objective which is to prevent further bloodshed within their world. For Aang, to master the four elements and defeat the Fire Lord before Sozun's Comet and For Callum, to return the egg before an all out war begins. Then, you have the Groups that prevents them from reaching their goals such as Zuko and eventually Azula chasing after Aang and his friends, while you have Claudia/Soren chasing after Callum and his friends. Both scenarios have different reasons why each groups are reaching their goals but, the plot line itself is similar.
the comparison is unfair but impossible to avoid - that's how our mind works. The show is amazing and comparing them is only credit to The Dragon Prince Potential higher levels of amazing show that it has an older brother incredible as the Avatar.
by the way I think thunder was more of a super weapon balancing the war on the elvish side (in par with the human mages). Thou it isn't said specifically it seems even with the elves natural magical ability the humans had the upper hand in the war ever since Thunder died. Might be more than just dark magic that gives them an advantage, but it was what allowed them to take Thunder out of the equation so I guess it's a big part of it.
Your Hermione impression is perfect.
Claudia's character seemed the most inconsistent. Sometimes she seems completely happy-go-lucky with her head in the clouds, and sometimes she seems borderline evil but also very mentally present.
Marco Meijer That’s exactly why I don’t like her! Or her brother and father.
I feel like she was written to be mentally unstable...
@@ShapCast yea.
NothinButRags Almost a little like Azula.
Kiara Thompson kinda, except we follow Azula’s decent into madness. While we see Claudia mentally unstable from the beginning. She and her brother will probably get a redemption arc and join the good side.
You know what The Dragon Prince *really* reminds me of? *The Lion King*
The animation was a little odd at first, but it is easily ignorable because of the amazing storyline. Plus, I think the animation adds a sort of personality to the show.
I listened to your comment, and watch the season. It was SOOO worth it. Thank you
They need to increase the fps of the show though. I can SEE the frames sometimes.
Aeriosus yeah, that’s the most annoying part to me.
Isabel Decker I stopped watching it because of the animation but cause of your comment I might try to watch it again
The animation was a little odd at first, but it is easily ignorable because of the even more confusing poorly written storyline.
Time stamps (mostly copied n pasted)...
1:17 - Are Similarities To ATLA Bad?
2:26 - The Dragon Prince's Greatest Strength?
5:00 - The Villain's Introduction?
5:32 - A Rave About Rayla?
6:28 - Inconsistent Characterization?
9:28 - Minor Characters: Amaya
9:57 - Is The Story Good or Bad?
11:12 - Some Underutilized Episodes
12:10 - Beginning: Good or Bad?
13:16 - Problems With The Ending?
15:28 - The Animation / Art Style
16:29 - Recommended or Not? Final Thoughts.
Good review but in terms of the sun knife episode, I think does well enough as it touches on the degree of prejudice to elves and we learn about this kind of weapon and the elves who made it, both of which may get expanded on later. If he did overcome his prejudice and gave her the knife, I think it would have been too quick. We wouldn't have much of an understanding of the prejudice and may have come off too easy from a character we know little about, because with this kind of prejudice it isn't overcome so quickly or easily. He may also come back and have to answer for what he did.
Plus, the guy said he got the knife fighting in the war, didn't he? If he was telling the truth, then perhaps part of his prejudice is from him being shell-shocked.
Exactly, the prejudice is from, and I quote; "centuries of wrongs and atrocities on both sides". It isn't something to be easily overcome even in a single episode, it's the youth and innocence of the children that allows them to not be bound so tightly by these prejudices. This man had fought on the front lines of the war, typically war is either going to alter your preconceptions of your opponents or reinforce them.
Maybe during the conflict they see the acts of savagery from their own side and compassion from the enemy and realise that there isn't the blanket definition for the "good guys and the bad guys" and so they question the prejudices they grew up with and went to war over.
Or, in the opposing vein, the shock and trauma of being on the front lines of the conflict just reinforces their views and makes them even harder to shake. The man with the knife was an example of this latter, for his views to then be changed so easily would have been cheap.
Frankly, there was only one frustrating scene involving the prejudices and that was in Callum's choosing not to defend Rayla to Aunt Amaya and instead to claim that she was the monster that Amaya saw her as just to try and get them out of there.
Remember that their entire motivation for returning the egg is to do right by the dragons and to try and bring about an end to the war. Ezrin even says at the time that they should try and reason with her, but Callum does the exact opposite.
If Callum does not believe that they can change Aunt Amaya's mind with regards to a single individual Elf, given that she is someone who knows and loves them and holds them in a position of trust then how does his motivation remain to be to change the minds of two entire nations at war? This was a golden opportunity as far as trying to fulfil both of their goals goes, if they had at least tried then if it had worked then they get a free ticket to the border to return the egg and begin on their mission to pacify the nations, worst case scenario they do exactly as they did anyway and run.
However, they pass up the opportunity to try and in doing so make things infinitely more complicated for themselves later on. The only reason this occurs is because it served to further the plot, which could equally have been accomplished by having them try and having Amaya reject their plea and then the situation going down the same route it took anyway.
I agree, and I thought it was a cool moment when Rayla said “I’m not going to hurt you!”. I found that quite powerful because it cements her refusal to take an innocent life, despite having been trained and instructed to literally take lives. It shows her being true to herself and sticking to non-violent tactics to get the sword, rather than resorting to violence to achieve her goals.
Also I felt that it was more a moment for Rayla to understand humans better and see that they aren't barbarians because up until that point I think she feels the princes are more the exception then the rule with humans
Yeah definitely agreed, prejudice is not something you can overcome in the span of a conversation, especially not one so deeply rooted, having him overcome that would have made little sense to me as a story element.
When I watched the show I expected to not like it much, but then I was like
"Holy shit I want more!" And I agree, Rayla is the best, and i love that the elves have Scottish accents. The show has some really good it to slid humor in... but it made me a bit...sad I guess that there was only 9 episodes, I'll watch season 2 next week. Literally started it the other day. When all seasons come out I'm re watching it (wow my rambling is very inconsistent with one topic I think I'll stop now)
man, hearing sokka's voice almost confused me at first.
soka needed some magic powers this time around
Fish Head YAS
And actual drawing skills.
Matthew St. Cyr LOL
I think there might be a reason the dragon prince was able to tear Rayla's band off. Back in the first or second episode when the moon shadow elves swore an oath to kill King Harrow, I don't think they actually used those words (unless I'm forgetting that scene) because I'm pretty sure they swore to achieve justice specifically. Because they are assassins, the audience implies they must kill the king, who even admits he's committed atrocities, and to kill his son Ezran to achieve justice. Part of this is confirmed when King Harrow dies and one of the arm bands falls off each assassin who swore the oath, part of the oath has been fulfilled. The other part of the oath doesn't really make sense if they are supposed to kill Ezran because he is just a child who never hurt anyone, that wouldn't be justice. However, the dragon prince egg was stolen, so protecting the egg would help rectify part of the wrongs committed in the past. So when the dragon prince hatches, the oath has been fulfilled and justice has been achieved because Rayla helped protect him. That's why the dragon was able to tear the band off I think, and not because he is powerful but because justice was achieved, at least that's what I thought when I first watched it.
Seems acceptable. But when the first band falls of it does it naturally, just as it chances color to Red. Seems a bit inconsistent the same wouldn't happen with the second. Unless perhaps the redning is related to ending the oath through blood and death.
But still, the king is alive but trapped in that bird's body.
Nah the first band falls off as soon as they killed the King (his body at least); the Dragon ripping her wrist band off like it's nothing was just an easy way to show how freaking powerful the lil Prince is and what the stakes in case the wrong person put his hands on him.
@@Kiwi-Araga um...what?When was that ever said?
Heavily implied tho, could be wrong but still implied something suspicious is definitely going on with his death
The biggest problem I have with this season is that it felt incomplete. The heroes respond to the call to action, and they end with a major victory with the villains getting closer to them. But it never felt like there was tension that they were gonna lose, or that there was any resolution to the season, and that's because there was no major confrontation between the heroes and antagonists. They were all on their little side quests without ever crossing paths, and just when you think they're about to cross paths, the season ends.
Compare that to Avatar, both the heroes and villains have a main goal. Team Avatar has to get to the north pole, and Zuko and Zhao are constantly trying to stop them, and it ends with Team Avatar reaching the North Pole, but having to stop the Fire Nation from destroying it.
Imagine if the ending would've been the heroes having to confront the siblings while trying to save the egg, with Rayla having to face them with a bad hand, and Callum having to chose to defend her, even though the siblings are his close friends. Then Callum having to sacrifice the stone, the egg hatching, and that the dragon being able to tear off the wrist band would've payed off, because they went through a tough challenge and earned it.
The first season of ATLA had 20 episode where as the dragon prince only had nine.
@@markkoehr5003 That can be used as an excuse, but Jimmy's statement still stands. I too feel like most problem arose from an apparently small budget (animation and episode number in particular)
Konradas Milosevicius
But rather I think that the main conflict right now was the fact that the Dragon Prince be kept safe and the stakes were raised by his almost dying, and him being born is the big point of this season, the end goal is to reach Xadia, just like for Aang it was to defeat Fire Lord Ozai.
I feel the King's angry talk with Wizardman wasn't inconsistent with his character, because previously we wee the King also be angry and stubborn about the soul swapping snake. In both scenes he's getting increasingly nervous and irritated because he's about to get attacked by assassins at the height of their magical power. So he lashed out at his friend in private because he's still got the self control to not do it in front of his subjects and because said friend had been doing bad and shady stuff for years and the King has had enought of it.
With Sorin and Claudia, I don't know. They could just have grown up to be kind-of assholes. Their father does eat magic butterflies to cover up his evilness. I don't remember the scenes your talking about enought to comment.
The king is probably the bird
Yeah, I think so too. But what bothers me is that the binding on Rayla’s hand came off, meaning that the king was dead. If it only meant the body of the king was dead then the theory might be true, but I don’t know.
@@im_justkatt Well, hard to say for sure, but Viren fully believed it would work and the way they set up magic, I'm inclined to believe he'd know whatever magic powers the wristbands is a possibility. That's not any guarantee of course but I think it's telling they never made any indication that the body-switching wouldn't work, just that it was questionably moral.
Everyone says "I think so too" as if theres any doubt. It's actually quite odd how this series dumbs down their audience.
Of course hes the bird....the villain was practically giving it away when he talked to it in closed doors.
@@im_justkatt BECAUSE THE DRAGON BITE IT OFFF
MFidget studios the baby dragon pulled it off it could just be showing of the dragons power
8:15 I think Soren is trying to dehumanize the princes in order to do what he has to do easier.
Spoilers:
When that moon elf came down in the last episode, both my sister and I went, "YUE!"
Well, you should have specified spoilers for ATLA, not TDP
Hhhmmmm I N T E R E S T I N G
😂😂😂 that’s amazing
PLEASE, do an updated video!! Season 3 just dropped and it was great!, it expanded characters and story in very interesting ways
I'd love more! This is a worthwhile discussion topic for modern YA fantasy.
YES YES
NOW THAT SEASON 4 IS COMING WE NEED HIM TO REVIEW IT
I don't see how Soren takes the role as a big brother for Callum. It's more of a forced kind of friendship. Soren doesn't seem to think highly of Callum and only seems to act friendly because he is the prince. Of course, he is very loyal to the kingdom, but also to his father and it conflicts him a lot that his father wants him to kill the princes.
The mean comment from Callum was probably nothing Claudia really thought about. She is smart, but also a little bit of an airhead who is in her own world. So the comment probably kinda passed her.
I personally think during the whole "get on your knees scene" Harrow just tried to keep Viren from persisting in his plan with the snake. It wasn't the best way, but Harrow was stressed, he was annoyed by Viren disobedience. He couldn't see another way but to make Viren hate him in those last moments.
The Soren thing can be interpreted a lot of different ways, but that's actually the problem with it. We are shown Soren being friendly to Callum, even helping him out a bit with his sister, then later saying something mean about Callum when Callum isn't there, and finally, appearing conflicted about being told to see that the princes don't survive. We can guess what we like from that, but it's all we actually got. It's hard to care about, or understand his internal conflict, when it was so hamfistedly established.
But on the other hand, I see a neat setup from the Soren - Callum - Claudia stuff, in the first episodes, that sets up for a great pay-off moment later! Remember how Soren put on the show of 'being stabbed by Callum', to help Callum impress his sister? Then remember later, Claudia summons those shadow wolves to attack... all three protagonists, after they took the egg? Claudia has established that even when she's just after the dragon egg, she will attack the princes in the process. And Soren has established that he can take a hit if it might help Callum deal with his sister.
The pay-off there will be so interesting! I hope it's intended to happen in some way... or else the characters would kind of just be way less interesting than the potential feels.
But the thing is that you don't have to hate someone to talk shit about them. I saw this enough in real life. I did it myself! I was nice and helpful to a girl in my class, but later said something mean about her. It's not a inconsestity in Sorens character. He wasn't really afraid to badmouth callum during their practice scene, calling him out on being only adopted and not being an actual prince. And that's the thing. Soren doesn't have to hate Callum to not think very highly of him. He obviously loves his sister and is still a dick to her.
And his entire inner conflict comes from being a loyal knight to the king and the kingdom and going out of his to kill the princes is against everything he fought for before.
I don't get why everyone says Sorens character is inconsistent. It's just not explored enough, but everything he does makes sense.
But yeah, the setup is perfect for a future fight between them.
I think his character is considered inconsistent because it hasn't really been explored enough. What would take a couple hours to learn about a person in real life, has to all be condensed into a few minutes in a story... and in this story, Soren still needed another minute or two (without it only being for more jokes).
The inner conflict, he's shown to have around the end of the season, feels like I'm supposed to care/be concerned about where that puts him... but I have so little insight on his thought processes, his background, etc, that I just don't. I actually don't even know if he has inner conflict, or if he is just too dense and direct-minded to understand the subtleties his dad was telling him. I assume inner conflict, but that the dumb alternate is even plausible sort of cheapens the investment for me.
He will probably not feel inconsistent in the end, because we just need to know more about him.
Honestly, I really liked the animation style! For some reason, I found it very appealing, despite apparently a lot of people disliking it
I really have a problem with Viren. His character was really well introduced. His relationship with the King Harrow was incredibly well built. King Harrow died because of his pride, and in spite of all Viren's efforts to save him, the king treated him really cruelly. Viren was literally ready to sacrifice his life for him, but he could not choose the right words to convince the King and finally got treated as a shit... and couldnt save the King he considered as a brother.
He could have been absolutely devastated by this death, but maybe he has been tempted by power. Even if he feels disgusted by this temptation, and he is absolutely sorry for the king and the two princes, he couldnt resist to it. Because POWER !!! or power to protect his children Claudia and Soren, to protect his family ...
This part of his personnality could have been developed in a lot of episodes, which would make him as complex as Zuko was, Yes he could have been as good as Zuko ! BUT !
But Viren literally passed from this complex character to a Dark Villain who uses the dark sinistrer Magic of the Cursed Shadows to have power and torture people to rule the whole magic world.... WITHOUT ANY TRANSITION !!!!!!! BETWEEN TWO EPISODES ! ewwww.
This manicheism is so forced ...
What a waste of character !
(and Rayla reminds me a lot of The Witcher, I love her Scottish accent)
Yeah, Scar^W um, Viren… I totally agree with you about him.
@Madou, But Viren had been planning to manipulate the king even from the beginning. It wasn't some 360 degrees turn. Once Viren saw an opportunity to take power, he wanted to seize it. Think about it. The king refused to take Viren's request with the snake heads. Viren comes back later and tries to manipulate the king with kind words to get what he wants. It wasn't out of concern. It was out of selfishness. The king catches onto what Viren is up to and puts him in his place. Later, the king is killed. But notice how so far, the audience has been given *no* visual as to how the king was killed. We don't even know how it happened, other than that Viren is clearly behind it. And why would he lie about the kids being dead? Again, it's clear that Viren is somehow behind the king's death. This is a man who wants power, but he doesn't feel one dimensional. He will go to extreme lengths to get what he wants, but without exposing himself. He does have a point about how it may be mad for a child to have the throne instead of him, but he goes about it in a way that will unknowingly tear his family apart, through manipulating even his own children. This is a man who will do anything to save his kingdom, even putting his pride and arrogance over a king. And Viren knows that the only way he could do that, is to have the King murdered.
@@Stew91 not really, he was manipulative but also he presented some respect and consideration for the king and see that he was a good friend, when he see the painting i see he was really worried about the king, so the change is really strange, because he before this part of the "kings murder" he looks like someone who really wants to protect humanity so that change is like he always was the dark guy who wants to take over the world
@@dil2124 Really? I felt like secretly, he was trying to just get what he wants. When he approached the king and started trying to call him his friend and whanot, that felt like subtle manipulation. I saw the king's reaction as him quickly catching onto this, so he decided to put Viren in his place. Viren did seem like good friends at the start, and maybe he was. But as the war got more severe and drew closer , it seems like Viren started to think about what it would be like for him to be in power. He wanted the king out of the way, because he felt like he wasn't making the best decisions.
@@Stew91 he wasnt tried to get what he wants, he was trying to help the kingdom with means that cant be consider good, maybe they disagree, that doesnt make viren bad, but he never want to take the throne, viren wanted that harrow at least accept one of his advices, then viren became a shitty dark lord because i dont know, he use dark magic, and really dont use a thing that can be effective againts light magical beings, really harrow needs to play rpg
My take away having just finished the season is yea it has potential. If someone likes good fun characters and can look past a very simple plot in a generic fantasy setting then watch it and I think it will pay off.
The worst part of it though has to be Viren in my opinion. In the first couple of episodes I could tell he would be an antagonist but seemed a bit of a gray area - then he suddenly goes full evil. Basically they had what could be an intriguing Zuko like character and demoted him to Ozai. And Ozai only worked in ATLA because of being seldomly used early on which is SO not the case with Viren. Maybe the decision to use Viren this way was to make Soren and Claudia more gray characters but as you alluded to, their sudden turn into being willing to do something obviously bad was jarring when they were presented to be so good toward Callum and Ezran.
I would love to see more videos from you on this show. Not too many though but at least follow up with each new season. Also do you have any thoughts on Chekhov's 2-headed soulsnake? I personally hope somehow the king is living in the black/green bird pet of his.
I can definitely understand where you're coming from, and I feel very much the same way. They're definitely set up a few of plot devices (the magic cube and viper in particular) to be developed on. I think we will see both of them come back. As noted, I hope they return to that early complexity Viren had.
I'd really love if they used the soul viper to solve a problem in the future, but not necessarily that they bring the king back, as I feel that would take the wind out of the sails of some good emotional tension they will have when they realize Rayla is keeping that from them.
~ Tim
Interesting enough, I don't really think that Rayla is keeping much from Callum (though she thinks she is, which is an interesting internal conflict for her). I strongly suspect he knows what happened to king Harrow after they left, and doesn't want to believe it himself and certainly doesn't want to bring it up to Ezran.
I am wondering if the cube Callum has will become a channeling device similar to the primal stone he destroyed, except will be able to channel every source, as long there is material to activate it nearby. Unlike the primal stone which could only activate magic associated with air (air spell, lightening spell). I'm not sure I buy the prevailing theory that Viren managed to switch the souls of the king and his bird: mostly because it was shown that one part of the blood oath was fulfilled. If the king was still alive, how would the oath have been fulfilled? How would one have fooled the magic underlying the oath?
Since I am replying to a direct comment, Tim, I am curious if you have any additional information on something you have said in the video: you implied that there were nations similar to avatar in Xadia. I.E. Moonshadow elves were their own nation, Sun elves their own, etc. I don't get that impression at all. I get the obvious impression that there are races of elves in Xadia because we are shown at least that much in the show: we are introduced to Moonshadow elves, and Rayla refers to the Sun elves in episode 7. Other races of elves based off additional primordial elements are implied in the opening but never directly referred to yet. However, my impression is that Xadia is just that: Xadia. One country where there are multiple races living together with, perhaps, different things that each is responsible for or in charge of but not that they are their own nation like the separation we saw in ATLA. We have a hint that the humans have 5 kingdoms but as of yet no interaction with them, with perhaps Katolis being the one that is closest to Xadia and therefore in more direct conflict.
Overall, I really liked the show. The art style was a bit annoying at times but the background art was pretty. The story itself is off to a good start, I am not annoyed too much at any character yet. Rayla is, perhaps, tied for favorite character right now with Claudia. I am really hoping that they don't go psycho Azula with Claudia and instead develop more conflict with her personal friendship with Callum vs. the mission she is tasked to do. She seems a good cross between Azula's raw talent and maybe ambition, with Tai Lee's cute and bubbly but in the end a good person. The same with Soren, though I get more of a vibe from him of keep making decisions that gets things more and more out of control ala Zuko in the second and beginning of third books. We'll see. I can really see this as being, in the long run, about the youth of the two races recovering from the sins of the adults type redemption story.
I believe that the changes in personality are because dark magic affect the users in some way. Viren was in conflict with himself since he was friend with the king, but since the king humiliated him, he is losing control more and more.
I really enjoyed the dragon prince. I know a lot of people don’t like the animation style but for me it looks amazing. The way each character, especially Rayla was drawn with the level of detail and expression was great. The story is very compelling and I was always left wanting the next episode. I think this was a great set up season and as Tim said it has great potential as a series. I really look forward to the next season to see what they do with it because God Damn It 9 episodes isn’t enough.
The second season improved the animation a lot
It's 2020, the third season has aired months ago. I had high hopes. And I was disappointed. As Tim said, the show had huge potential, and then messes up at cruchial moments.The grand finale of season three felt inconsistant. E.g. (spoilers!) an allied army marches to the location of the final battle within hours, although it took the MCs weeks. Overall, everything felt quite rushed towards the end. It's a shame.
I have to say that I really do agree with you for the most part. It took me maybe half the season to decide but I really did enjoy this first introduction to the story and the characters.
Favorite moment really has to be Rayla with the scout for me as well. It was just so beautifully done and perfectly showed who her character is when the chips are down.
Favorite character is between Rayla and Claudia. Rayla is the best developed in my opinion but Claudia had moments that made me think "Yeah, that would be me."
I still wish they went with a different animation style but barring that I think an explanation or exploration of how powerful dragons actually are within the story would really help. Right now they kind of feel like Lion Turtles. Vaguely defined and wielding whatever power the heroes need to save the day....
Ultimately I liked it and I hope the next season is even better because as you said, it has a lot of potential.
I loved raylas face in the scene with the guy. the hood covering her eyes entirely shows an assassin just doing their thing. then it only covers half her eyes and its "im going to kill you" and a tiny bit more personal. lastly the hood goes above her eyes as they change and its "is what im doing even right?" before she lets him go.
My thoughts on Zym tearing off the band: because the band represents the life debt for him. He can tear off the band because it represented his own life.
Clever!
I feel like Soren’s mocking Callum will turn out to be resentment that Callum has such a strong bond and loving rship with an adoptive father, while Soren’s own own birth father seems disappointed in him and they don’t seem particularly close and Soren is desperate to impress his own father.
*edit: and I also think it would be interesting to see Soren go down a darker path. Everyone seems to expect Claudia to go dark bc she’s a dark mage, but what if SOREN went along w his father more bc of Soren’s resentment of Callum and his need to please his father. Claudia is already closer to Viren, but Soren is shown worrying about Virens approval or disdain.
Coming into this video right now after S3, I'd like your thoughts on how the show improved
The Introduction... you, my friend, are a treasure.
I am 98% certain the animation problem was NOT a budget thing--just look at the modeling and art direction. It is very hard for 3d animation to be that janky with the production value that clearly went into it. I'm pretty sure they were trying to mimic 2d animation by removing some frames--I just think they executed it poorly. I mean, one of the strengths of 3d animation is fluidity, and they should have used that to their advantage. If they wanted it to look 2d, they should have made it 2d. I think the show would have benefited more from doing so personally. If they couldn't afford to make it 2d, they should have maximized their potential with the 3d as much as they could.
I dunno, if I was the showrunner and saw the criticisms for the trailer, I would have screeched at my team to put the frames back in. Actually, I wouldn't have taken them out to begin with.
Dakota Mullkin
Star Wars the Clone Wars was 3-D but it was amazing.
You'd be surprised how much budget you can save if you render only 18 instead of 24 frames per second of runtime.
Also I'm hopeful that future episodes will have budget for all 24 frames, seeing how successful the first season was.
It's not all that janky honestly.
i liked the uniqueness of the animation and the frame thing was just adding to it's beauty in my opinion. also it gives a unique, memorably to it.
Jeremy A That honestly depends on the scene and personal definitions of janky. Admittedly some scenes were a lot better than others, but it does affect the overall quality and watchability when scenes are variable in that way.
I liked the show, and I think the most horrendous act that the show commits is that I want more now, I cant wait for season 2.
Now as you mentioned, the frame skipping... overall I think it is fine, and your brain adjusts for it. The only times that I think they should have made it smooth where they didn't is when they zoom in on characters and it is a close up moment. That really needs to be smoothed out otherwise it's very obvious and takes the watcher out of the story.
On a similar note, my cousins who are deaf watched this show, and though they did like the deaf character, they really were disappointed that they decided to have a deaf character, but not make the signing smooth. With how it is now, the signing looks all glitchy and isn't the easiest to follow. So it would be a really nice change if they at least made the signing smoothed out for those who genuinely want to see a character sign.
ESPECIALLY since they don't have subtitles for the signing.
... I'm hearing impaired (not so bad that I need to learn sign language... yet...) and can usually only watch movies with subtitles. And reading your comment felt familiar to an extent; if the animation is so choppy that even someone who knows sign language has trouble understanding it, then it should be subtitled, in the same vein that speech is subtitled for people like me.
@@Atlessa Yeah, I was sad that they didn't have something to tell us what she was saying when (Gren?) wasn't speaking aloud for her :c Especially when she was at her sister's monument/burial place(?), that could've been really touching.
I am almost certain the king is alive. Viren came in with the soul viper, and the scene made it clear that the bird was in the room with them. The king is never shown being killed, we never see a body or anything, the scene just kinda ends. I think next season they will reveal that his soul has been switched with the bird using the viper.
Jesse Golden The elven bands tied to the king’s life force fell off.
Well when the dragon hatched he was able to effortlessly bite off Rayla's band without Ezran being dead. So the bands don't seem to be 100% foolproof, they wouldn't really need to be since the elves just use them to increase their determination and resolve for their mission. I would think some powerful dark magic could release the bands.
Exactly.. Omg I thought I am the only one who saw that the king is alive..
My thoughts exactly! He's totally the bird, lolz xD
I think this is accurate. He's either in The bird, which explains why the bird was acting dissaproving followed by Viren's line: "No song for me?") OR Viren switched with the King somehow or was able to trap the King within himself. There is obviously a twist.
“I just like Gren” ME TOO
The REFERENCE to avatar is so obvious and that intro is perfect
Interesting fact: apparently the creators of the show have said that they took some inspiration from Fire Emblem. There are quite a few similarities I noticed: the war atmosphere, the protagonists being young princes who lose their father early on in the story and whose mother never appears, dragons seemingly being the most powerful magical creatures, and a character named Soren.
Fun fact: the Soren in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn is revealed in a twist to be (spoilers):
half-dragon on his mother's side as well as a Dragon Prince through his mother Alhmeda: daughter of King Dheginsea of the Dragon-Tribe Laguz, as well as a prince on his father's side by being the son of Mad King Ashnard: the primary antagonist of Path of Radiance,
Shit, I rather recently played Path of Radiance, and I never made that connection...
And I even thought that the deisgns of Claudia's dress (no, I refuse to call it robes. THOSE ARE NOT ROBES! XD) and most everyone's armor (Soren and Amaya for instance) looked right at home in a Fire Emblem cutscene.
So yeah, I believe it. And I'm looking forward to season 2. :D
King acts cruel because it's part of his personality that pushed him to make mistakes( killing dragon prince and stuff) in the past. I think it adds dimension to him and saves him from being "the good king".
yes, the king Hallard was a great character and his relationship to Viren was extremely well built
King Harrow*
While I agree with the characterization conflict with Soren and Claudia, I disagree with you on the King's final scene. Part of that is that you learn more about their relationship and history with seasons 2 & 3, but also that: PEOPLE ARE COMPLICATED!! lol
The King is facing his own demise and recalling the events that led to it. Events that Viren is mostly responsible for. The King went too far, yes, but not because he was acting out of character, but because he let the dark aspects of his character show in his final moment.
It's interesting to watch this after watching all 3 seasons to see the development of the parts you saw as flaws
First impression: Soren was kinda tired of Callum to begin with. Trust me, I’ve been there. It’s the mustard principle. Not a good way to be, but it happens.
The way you describe this series makes me think it's similar to the early Harry Potter movies, where the characters get their basic archetypes and personalities, the story is relatively simple and straightforward, and very lighthearted, compared to the later ones, where the creators delved into the intricacies, the origin of Voldemort, who you only really know as a scary name in the beginning, the connections between characters and their interwoven histories, and everything get wrapped up in a nice neat bundle. This series sounds like something that can't be complete until at least one more season is released, or at least that the creators are expecting to do so, which will hopefully be able to improve upon the recipe they already have going forward.
Most Memorable moment: mine: it’s all good
Favorite character: mine: a sorta minor character but gren all the way
Where could the show improve: I’m sure lots of people have said this, but framerate
Ok, so usually I do not really comment on youtube, but as I have watched the whole first season in one go just a few days ago, I’ll offer my opinion as well.
First off, I really enjoyed the series. I was very sceptical the first few episodes, because there were some big conceptual paralells between DP and Avatar (the ones you mentioned in the video and some more for me).
But they managed to twist these concepts into a world where they have different implications and a different feel to them.
The overarching conflict feels very personal as we can see the extremes of both sides in the first episode with the Princes (as innocent children) caught in the middle of them.
The moonshadow elves representing the traditional magical world, very aware of nature and it’s balance, and Viren as a representation of human dark magic users, who are very pragmatic in their approach of the value of the lives of non-humans.
This is also reflected in they way both sides kill. The assassins very clearly have the mindset that they are balancing a wrong, a king and a prince for a king and a prince, taking lives only when they really need to do so to accomplish their goals, but then similarily ruthless as Viren does when he uses the butterfly to selfishly replenish his own lifeforce. (As a sidenote, I think the whole magic system as it is can not be really discussed at the moment as we do not know enough about how it works.)
Viren himself is a very interesting character. I do not think he should be pushed into the stereotypical “evil uncle” trope yet.
I feel like he is conflicted in what he does, he cares for Harrow and the boys, but when Harrow very clearly refuses to accept his help and dark magic as a tool, even when it means certain death for him, he understands that he can not do the things he thinks necessary to save the human kingdom(s) with Harrow as the king (or the boys, as they seem to show a similar mindset to their dad). So the elf assassins turn into a tool for him to use to accomplish the next logical step, securing power for himself. Paralell to gaining political power, he gets more powerful as a dark mage, with the prospect of absorbing the lifeforce of the most powerful being in existance, the unhatched dragon prince, which corrupts him and turning him significantly more cold blooded than at the beginning of the series. (This can also be observed in Claudia to some extent, who sends bloodhungry shadow wolves after her former(?) friends once they diverge from her and her fathers ideology.) This development is a bit fast in my opinion, it would have shown greater effect if executed slower.
Also some people have pointed out that the whole double-headed snake was wasted screentime, but I think it was necessary both to show the conflict between Viren and Harrow, two sides of the same coin, one who wants to redeem himself for the mistakes he made and one who is consciously oblivious to the damage he has done to support his own ideology.
Additionally I think that Viren really used the snake to save Harrows spirit by exchanging Harrows and the birds spirit. I really hope that there will be a confrontation between them sometime in the series. (If my theory is correct.)
He certainly has the potential to turn into an emotionally harder to overcome villan than Ozai ever was, because of the personal connection and histroy there.
What I thought of as well was how Viren and the boys kind of represent the cycle of war you mentioned in a different video. Viren is twisted by fear and resentment because of the war, thinking the only way to proceed is by harming his enemies, while the boys, innocent children as they are, are not quite as set on their world view yet (they overcome their stereotypes concerning elves very quickly, despite the elves goal to kill their father) and seek to end the conflict by different means.
There is so much potential to build upon this theme, I really hope they don’t waste this opportunity.
Claudia and Soren need some work, but I also think that their depictions could be part of a larger story arch, may it be a redemption or coming-of-age style story.
I hope they do not stay as stereotypical.
Amaya is such a treat. I love her and it is very brave for them to include a character with her disability, they did a great job.
Callum is awesome, I like him because I can relate to him. I hope he can find himself during his journey. Ezran will grow up fast and he is already brave as a lion, so hehas some great potential as well.
Otherwise it took me a lot to get used to the animation style, which is really my only set criticism so far. It really looks choppy and cheap sometimes.
We also need a better understanding of the world, magic system and backstory of our main characters.
It’s a sweet childrens story so far, but if it steps up a bit and becomes a little more grown up it could be so much more.
But Avatar took a while to get to that point to, so I’ll give it the time it needs and hope for the best. Still, if Netflix would have given them more time (read episodes) to establish the world better in the first season I think many critics could have been silenced.
The king in the final scene with his friends was acting both out of hurt and misunderstanding. Considering the context of their previous conversation he felt betrayed a bit by the man he thought of as a brother. The final meeting he was already hurt that compounded by the missunderstanding caused him to act harshly. Especially since he felt those where his last moment so a bit of fear for the future of his kingdom and sons was mixed in there
Dude, they need a second season! Like now! I’m in love with this animation!
Who else was expecting ezaran to die for a couple of seconds in the water thus removing the armband? The show is great, granted I'm a sucker for fantasy. My only gripe is how slow the frame rate is. Hopefully, like RWBY, it gets better as the show progresses
Yes, I totally thought he'd die for a moment under water too. There were a lot of things in this show I expected that didn't happen. Sad to say, the things I expected were better than what has happened :/
8:51 I disagree. On my opinion, the king's character stayed true during all the season. His last scene with Viren might have shown him as a jerk, but he was genuinely fed up with dark magic and Viren's atitude. It's something I can't a normal person wouldn't do. I consider similar things to the other characters, but I would have to re-watch the scenes again to give further input.
11:55 This idea sounds... like a cliche. Sure, there is prejudice between elves and humans, and that was partially addressed on episode 4 and has more room to grow, but addressing the team in such a closed episode would've felt weaker. The episode is a guide episode, one that serves to steer the plot. It keeps Rayla's band relevant and a main theme(famous chocov's gun(name may be wrong)) and it explains why the gang had to go up a montain. Using it to be another "race 1 dislikes race 2, but character from race 2 really needs iten from race 1" would also undermine the war factor(hate between those who fought on the battlefield isn't something easy to brush off) while the theme can easily be addressed in further seasons, with Corvus, Amaya, Gren, Runaan or even Soren and Claudia. Having it be a breathing episode worked quite well, in my opinion, of course.
12:25 I will claim the episode comparison wasn't that great because "The Great Divide" wasn't well connected to the plot. They literally had to stop and use a plot reason for the team to go on foot and solve a random issue. In the eight episode, they had to seek a medic and ended up finding a possible solution to Rayla's hand issue. Each one approaches one solution at a time, directing the lore and making for a more well passed episode(switching between each) and leading to them to go seek the mountain for a cure and being forced to leave the town. Less contributing and more calm, but well connected to the plot and working as a good steer to the next episode.
14:26 I don't know. It felt more like they messed up in an escort quest and had to side quest for the well being of the guy(Huh, why games don't do this). It reminded that the egg needed to be protected and it would be an issue if anything happened to it. It also being only a 9 episode season, makes it a fairly good ending in my book rather than rushing the other plots(we had 3 episodes of starting the series before the main mission really started)
15:00 People theorize it has to do with the fact the egg being hatched nullified the mission: avenge the death of the dragon prince egg with the death of Ezra. It is sort of bad, and I agree it could have been handled better, but it was fine.
15:31 Magic dog is still dog, why that not bird?
I agree about Harrow. To me, that scene was perhaps the best scene of the entire first season. In Harrow's mind, his own leniency had allowed dark magic to create this entire nightmare. When Viren demonstrated that he believed in dark magic as a philosophy--not just a tool--Harrow came to equate Viren and Dark Magic as the same thing. So, when Harrow put Viren on his knees, he was, in fact, bringing dark magic under control.
This is a great example of a well-meaning choice having vastly unintended consequences as it basically creates the antagonist. Viren, who was before a gray character at best is given a violent shove into darkness when he can't handle being humiliated in such a way. It was a very well-written and subtly nuanced scene and I loved it.
AS MUCH DRAGON PRINCE AS POSSIBLE PLEASE!
I disagree that Harrow's final scene is inconsistent with his character. You say that previously he was quite understanding, and I don't think he was at all. Kind, yes. Understanding, no. He wasn't very understanding of what his sons were going through when he sent them away either. And as for why he snapped at Viren, here's my interpretation. There were a lot of atrocities committed during the war, and he blamed Viren for a lot of them, which soured their previously good relationship. Additionally he was under a lot of stress from the impending invasion. So when Viren came to him with the dark magic snake he wrongly assumed that he was there to push the same option he had already said no to. He also thought that Viren was being to casual even though that had been their relationship and Viren had no way of knowing that had changed. (Again, I don't think he's really very understanding, especially under pressure.) I think this was stupid, but a very believable kind of stupid that was entirely consistent with his previous characterization. So he interrupted Viren with a misguided demand for subservience and the argument just escalated from there.
I just watched the 1st season on Netflix , and i love it. I hope to see more seasons soon and more dragons on the good side of the kids , and the new little prince dragon hatching , witch is so cute .
I like this show but I can't tell which type of audience it's moving towards. But yah I think Claudia is the funniest so far but it's still meh.
Soren: Claudia I think your horse jus-
Claudia: That wasn't the horse :^)
That's as good as it got for me.
It’s a 3D animated show so they can just motion tween between the “low frame rate” poses (key frames). But if they smooth out all the frames then they would run the risk of having the characters move robotically (see RWBY V1 or any video game before 2004). Running with a low FPS can emphasize the emotion of the faces and stay on the right side of the Uncanny Valley (see RWBY V3).
My only issue with the animation is that the fight scenes are often much smoother than the other scenes and I find it kinda jarring going from smooth to choppy.
They Need to work on it a Little a more
Do you believe in Destiny?
Atlessa Close your eyes and leave the rest to me?
Oh wait your icon Pyrrah. NVM.
RT said they’re ahead on the script and that since they’re only doing 1 trailer they will have more time to spend on animation.
As you probably read in the discord, channel for Dragon Prince, my biggest criticism was the Dialog. I felt it was so clunky and they toneally shifted between moments of tension or emotion, or action, to these scenes of "oh no we're akward children" humor. And it was very jarring.
I do think the show improved into the middle episodes. And I agree that there's potential. I'm definitely coming back for Season 2.
For those who might be worried about the Animation. Its really on Par with early RBWY. It has clunky animation in its calmer scenes, but shines brightest in action scenes. And I think you can already see improvement towards the end to. I definitely think the later seasons are gonna have better animation as they work through it.
Do you believe in Destiny?
(also, how do I find that discord channel?)
I loved how the character's art styles don't depict their personality (for the most part). When you see Lord Viren for the first time, he doesn't have an evil feel. He seems like a wise old man, and a friend to the king. Claudia looks like this evil witch when you see her magic in action, but she cares about Callum and Ezran. She is just trying to obey her dad. Rayla looks like this evil monster, but is a sympathetic friend. All the elves look evil, but are in reality the victims. The humans misunderstand the elves, and fight back. Many TV shows have connotations behind their characters, and I love how you in this series you can't judge a character by their cover.
For me, the most memorable moment wasn't one of character development per se, but was really funny. It was the moment when you see Callum realize just why the cube's Sea rune is glowing :)
Favorite character has to be Claudia! A morally complex antagonist who the audience genuinely enjoys spending screentime with? Yes please! I for one didn't so much find her to be inconsistent, though Soren absolutely was. My read was that Claudia likes Callum in more a "oh, how cute" sort of way rather than as a "proper" friend, so her not being upset on his behalf works. It doesn't say just how old she is, but she struck me as just enough older than Callum to have that sort of relationship.
Where could it improve? Lip movements! I didn't mind the animation style (though it took some getting used to) except when you had a close-up of someone talking. I mean if you can animate Amaya's rapid-fire sign language that fluently you ought to be able to get better lip movements!
Someone else (who apparently knows sign language) mentioned that Amaya's sign language is actually too choppy to read. Make of that what you will.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the villain, specifically the motivational change.
Spoiler Warning ahead:
It seemed like he was actually a pretty decent guy in the first 2 episodes aside from his love of the obvious corrupting power of Dark Magic. I think that when he brought the two headed viper to the king and King Harrow asked if he truly would give his life for him he was hesitant. But, in episode 3 when we saw things like how he thought of Harrow as a companion, (especially with the picture of both of them when he was younger) he actually was going to give his life for the King. When Harrow said no and accused him of being insubordinate (and basically not listening to him and trashing his whole character) is the moment he actually became bad.
I'm interested to see if they do 6 seasons (one for every form of natural magic; not dark becuz its the real villain of the show.) and if so will Claudia be persuaded to the good side, forsaking her use of Dark Magic and her father's ways and teaching, or will be bad, forsaking the love shared between her and Callum.
It would have been nice to see them follow in Avatar's footsteps and create a villain specific to this season (Like Admiral Zhao in s1 of Avatar) while having an overarching villain, which may have been hard to do only having 9 episodes. Buuuut, it was still a pretty fantastic show.
It actually did feel logical to me about the wristband, magic is spoken in draconic for a reason(both in D&D and in the series xD) best scene for me, I loved how Claudiakeeps pointing ti her nose with her idea, favorite character: Rayla
My biggest criticism is in the Cursed Caldera(?) episode where Ezrin gives out an exposition dialogue about how he can talk to animals when its already been established that he has that connection from earlier episodes. That whole scene felt unnecessary and forced imo especially when Callum doesn't believe Ezrin because their whole relationship seems to be built on mutual trust and respect and not that kind of "you're just a little kid" dynamic that this scene portrays.
Also, the illusionist moon elf has some issues. I love her aesthetic but she just doesn't make sense? How can she make illusions that feel so real to everyone (like the wolf's leg) and how come she doesn't really comment on why Rayla is with these humans when its established that elfs don't like humans and vice versa? Her powers of creating illusions make sense but when the girl describes them as "like nightmares that are real" it doesn't connect because everyone has different nightmares. Also if that elf is the one making all the monsters then why are there real monsters and where did they come from?
The ending of this first season just makes more questions that it gives answers imo
That scene was so preachy and literal. There are much better ways to show a character's insecurities than just exposition. And I agree it was just confusing to see them suddenly fighting like they didn't have a good trusting relationship. There are so many spots in the script like that in the short season where the writing is off and character motivation does a 180. I wasn't impressed with this show.
Argentina Alvarez I feel like this is a problem with the series as a whole. Characters decision making seem to change with what the writers want to happen rather than what they would do. In the beginning of the show, Rayla was paranoid about humans being at the winter lodge (forgot its name). Then, later on in ep 7, she suddenly is the one who wants to interact with us five fingers. Viren was subservient to the king, until they argued and then he decided to become power hungry (I know about his motivations and why he doesn’t want the princes in charge. But that still doesn’t change the feel of his character after the kings death).
MJ D
I think it was more out their necessity, they didn't have food and needed to get help for the Dragon Prince.
She was less worried about her getting caught and more worried about the Dragon Prince.
I personally think that Viren is acting more out revenge and spite to King Harrow after the way he treated him, to me none of the character motivations feel unfounded or out of nowhere because it always feels like there is a reason, just not always apparent at first glance.
@@mjd268 and in general its the culture of the humans to dislike all elves and think theyre monsters... And the princes just don't. For some reason. I guess cause theyre the good guys and so noble and wow we love them for being so pure and understanding. But really, it was baseless and made them fell like incomplete characters. Like they didnt even realize the elves were there to kill the king? That didnt make any sense. Maybe the little prince wouldnt know because hes so young, but callum would understand. This show didnt know what it wanted to be 😔
Argentina Alvarez YASSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE JIST WENT “Oh by the way, I can speak to animals and the wolf says that all is lost”
you got a thumbs up just for that "spot on Hermoine impression" :D
I love your thoughts on this show though. ^,^
I dont think the point of the elf racism scene was meant to be an immediate fix.
It was first two things, INTRODUCING the racism, or more racism since its be referenced quite a bit on a smaller scale, but it was also to introduce the sunfire elves.
Now why was this more so introducing the racism compared to the rest? Because it does show how deep seeded it is.
So much so that the “stronger” swordmans in that town coward before the site of the elf and even after having everything explained, went on the rally the town becuz the only good elf is a dead elf/haters gonna hate/ blah blah blah.
This is hardly even the first season, its more like the first act or prologue to the rest of the story.
So it makes sense the century(ies? I forgot the timeline) long hatreds and wars wouldnt be solved with a single encounter with “one of the goods one.”
And im betting the reason it was heavily shown alongside the set up for the sunfire elves, is because there’s is going be racism amongst the elves too.
Since showing racism among the humans would be a little to on the nose.
1. When Runaan walked out after killing "harrow" and the turns red and falls off and he fires the bird arrow, I just really loved how explicitly implicit they were in saying runaan just killed somebody. Heck of a way to do that in something rated TVY7. Also it gave off some really sketchy vibes, likely because he killed the king's body but not his soul...
2. Fav character is definitely Claudia. I havent seen a good intellectual dork in media in a while.
3. Im sure theyll handle this down the road, but I want to see more the magic system. Ehasz even said that the whole idea for Dragon Prince started when he pitched his idea for a magic system to Richmond and they started to build a world off of it; I imagine its pretty fleshed out.
"2. Fav character is definitely Claudia. I havent seen a good intellectual dork in media in a while."
And a female intellectual dork to boot!
found this in my recommended 2 years later as a fan waiting for season 4, yes, im fully convinced this is the next atla
when i watched the trailer for the dragon prince, it gave me the ATLA vibe. I come to youtube and yep. seems like im not the only one
Great video dude! Just finished watching the series myself and I really enjoyed it. I agree with just about everything you said except for one thing, when I comes to inconsistent character moments, I think that Harrow was okay (sort of) and Callum went a bit off in one scene. When Harrow said all that stuff to Viren, while I don’t think it was justified, I think I can sort of understand what might have been happening. Harrow was literally sitting in the room where he was going to die, his sons (at least he thinks) are miles away and he will never see them again. He simply wants to spend his final moments in peace knowing he’s done something right, and here comes Viren, once again trying to convince him to try this plan that uses the very thing that got him in this mess: Dark Magic. And on the note of saying that Harrow didn’t consider him a friend? Viren all but said that first when he wouldn’t say he’d give his life in Harrows stead but offered up every other soldier in the room. I think he could have been a bit bitter and disgusted about that. Again, this doesn’t justify what he said, and I may be completely wrong and everyone is free to disagree, but that was my two cents on the scene.
As for Callum, it’s the scene where he disbelieves his brother about speaking with animals. Dude, you just found out that you can do magic, do you really believe that there isn’t a distinct possibility that Ezrah (I think I spelt that wrong) could do something slightly magical as well? Maybe if he’d said that closer to the beginning after we’d seen Ezrah be a little silly and give reason to doubt, it would make a bit more sense, but this just seems forced so that when Ezrah does his thing and sees through the spider and is right about the miracle healer it’s more dramatic. Don’t get me wrong, I love Callum to death, but that scene just seemed unnecessary.... though I did enjoy seeing the Jerkface Dance
Also, just a theory I wanted to run by everyone. I don’t think King Harrow is dead. We saw that Viren brought that box in with him with the snake. I think he used it and moved his soul to another body. What body you may ask? The kings pet bird! It just seems really obvious to me, the bird is such a chekov’s gun, and the way Viren had it caged and said “No song for my coronation” (or something similar) seemed very personal, and why not just let the bird fly away if it isn’t important? I’m sure I’m not the only one that noticed so tell me if you think this might be true.
I've always been intriqued by the show but have never really watched it
the first scene of ep 9 where the animal talk thing is revealed, it felt so missplaced and forced
Aiphaton1234 I felt it was kind of foreshadowed with the way he talks to his pet glow frog
Honestly, the worst part of that wasn't the misplaced or forced aspects of it..It's that we see him already have an intuitive understanding or connection with animals. The horse says NOTHING, makes NO SOUND, and he can understand that it saw something horrifyingly traumatic on the Haunted Caldera. Which, in reply to Travis, isn't the only time he understands a creature despite the creature not making a sound. Which is part of why Callum doesn't believe him: Ezren talks to animals, and yet they clearly don't respond to him with any sort of notable explicit actual vocal response. It's all in Ezren's head, literally.
If Ezren said that Good Doggo wasn't actually healed, that he can sense Good Doggo not being normal...then he could say that he doesn't feel anything from the spider. Not hunger, not fear, not anger. Not a single emotion or desire, which is weird. Same intent, using what was actually foreshadowed while leaving room for the power to develop and improve later on.
-----
But this gets to another thing: the magic-detecting glow-cube. It shined when near a giant sea creature, it shined when brought next to Rayla, it shined when brought to the Sky primal stone. It clearly shines when near a source of magic. So why didn't it shine when it was near Good Doogo and its Moon Magic necklace?
Anthony Hauser maybe only living creatures
Note that a raging thunderstorm is not a living creature. Clouds are composed of water vapor, and lightning is electrical discharge...chemically in a state of plasma if we want to get technical. Either way, not living. Yet the storm inside the primal stone yielded a reaction from the glow-cube.
Anthony Hauser maybe it has to be pure magic essence like the orb and not an item created by a magic spell
Viren is not a one note villan to me, he obviously believes in his own ideals and think he is saving humanity
Yeah hes probably got some .ore to him and its probably linked with whatever happened with his wife. As much as people love atla villain complexity wasnt its strongest point.
This is an interesting though...just to bring up what Guy from bacon battalion and how to be a great GM brought up: if a paladin is serving an evil God who commands them to slay children and the paladin wholeheartedly believes what they're doing is for the greater good, them being locked into a lawful-good alignment isn't actually a problem, because they think they're doing the right thing.
The topic is complicated.
It's 2am.
I'm waking up in 5 hrs.
Bye for now😂
You only become a villain when you lose, and you only become a hero when you win.
Yes of course when he stole the soul of the elf with a sadistic pleasure, he seemed so moved forward by his ideals.
He is kind of one note: do what ever it takes. However, it’s enough to create some moral complexity as the story goes on.
Is this Eragon meets Avatar: The Last Airbender?
That isn't a bad thing, necessarily.
Well, the the main difference here from eragon is that the magicians aren't over powered and nearly unbeatable to most things most things outside of the universe
I'd like to see how this video would change now that seasons 2 and 3 have dropped...
I was thrilled to stumble upon this show and then see this video from you!
I started watching "The Dragon Prince" because my boyfriend's youngest child (seven-years-old) was hanging out with me, the episodes lengths were short, and the thumbnail/description looked cute and age-appropriate for him. I almost immediately fell in love with it. I knew absolutely nothing about it, didn't know about any of the connections to AtLA people, or even notice that Sokka's voice was Callum's voice. (I learned about the AtLA connections from an article Google recommended to me about the upcoming live-action AtLA and about the voice actor from you in this video.)
Just last night I was talking to a friend of mine about the upcoming AtLA show and told him that he HAD to watch TDP because "it reminded me so much of AtLA, mostly in it's potential" and it's incredibly inclusive and diverse character list. It was delightful for me to hear you use the same wording to describe this.
I would like to say, though, that Soren's meanness didn't surprise me when he was mocking Callum when Callum wasn't around. That first time we met him, he was pretty mean to Callum in the words he used - his tone just didn't quite match the words so that it didn't sound as bad. I don't necessarily think he didn't like Callum, but more that he thought Callum was a waste of his time being that he was only a *step* -prince. I also don't think he's bad, per se (hence his hesitation on killing the princes), but I do think he's a typical bully-type in regards to making fun of those who won't fight back. Plus, he very much wants to make his dad happy and it doesn't seem like Viren is too friendly towards the princes.
I would also say that King Harrow didn't really seem out of character in his last scene to me. He is the king and, seemingly, Viren has been pushing the limits of what he could get away with for a while. It really felt to me that they had been extremely close, then Viren overstepped with the killing of the Dragon King and destroying (stealing) the egg (I can't recall off the top of my head if it's stated that Viren ordered the killing, but that's the impression I got, at least - I already want to rewatch this series!) and just continues to push the bounds of his official position because he's also the King's friend. It seems like something that would have been digging at King Harrow for a while and now, on the night he is certain that he will die, the night he wants to reflect on his past decisions and choices, Viren is going to harass him again about letting another innocent individual sacrifice their life so that the he could live, albeit in another body. Yeah, I imagine I would snap and rage and use my power as King to put Viren in his place, too.
As to your questions:
1. Most memorable moment? Callum first realizing that he's a mage and shouting it excitedly. It was hilarious and precious.
2. Favourite character? Ezran is my favorite because he's adorable and sweet, but he does so much with little complaining. And he actively loves his older brother. "Why don't you just call him dad? He would like that." (I'm sure those weren't the exact words, but that was my favorite moment from Ezran. Probably because my dad isn't my biological father and you could feel how much King Harrow loved Callum when they interacted. And it seems like Callum wants to call him dad and Ezran picks up on that. That was all beautiful to me.)
3. Where could the show improve? I definitely agree with using more moments to deepen the characters and theme. I feel they did a really good job with that already, of course, but I would definitely want more.
Side note, I discovered your channel fairly recently and have been enjoying all of your videos! Thank you for taking the time to make these. :-)
i just want to know what king harrow wrote in that letter for callum and it's really bugging me
So yes, the show is literally amazing. I get dreams of The Dragon Prince, if that tells you anything
I really wanted to like this show but it's just too dumb... The dialogue always feels like it was written for a 4 year old and there's just too many places where they break dramatic tension for a cheap gag. I also can't pin down any consistent motivations for any of the characters and it feels like they sometimes just do things because that's what the plot requires.
😂that avatar intro though😂🌫
I'd love to see more dragon prince stuff! I love hearing how you breakdown stories in animation and analyze and evaluate them! It really teaches me to think critically about the media I watch
Soren and Claudia were in an awkward spot at the beginning of the show but they really feel like characters from both sides (the princes and Viren) their sibling dynamic and Claudia herself are super likable (although Soren takes a bit more to get used to) but it always surprised me how this really likable character would suddenly have her eyes turn black, it was really intriguing to me.
Comment contains some spoilers: My favorite character is Ezran, although that is probably because I am commenting on this video after watching the whole series and Sarah is further developed in books 2 and 3, and I don't really favor him in book 1. I get most of my enjoyment from stories from the character arcs, and Ezan's arc about facing responsibility is perfectly reflected in moments like when he takes up the throne, vows not to run from his duties anymore, when he joins back up with Callum and Rayla, and when he joins the fight against Biden's forces in the finale. One criticism I have is that the finale isn't what most people would expect. It's a good finale with high tensions, but you have to rewatch it to really grasp it well. I expected an epic mage battle between Callum's natural skill and Viren's years of study and practice.
My petty bone to pick with this series is how Callum is Sokka 2.0. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Callum, but his major motivation is not being good at anything and wanting a proper skill. Sokka couldn't bend and that was a major motivation to learn sword fighting. Both of them are the plan guy. Both have sarcastic/joke-y tendencies. It's hard not to draw parallels when the characters are so similar AND you have the same voice actor.
I enjoyed watching the show, but it felt pretty rushed. If we're comparing to Avatar, there were multiple episodes in a season that had nothing to do with the overarching plot that allowed us to really delve into the characters in some way. The only episode that did that this season was where we find out about Reyla's fear of water, and even then they're still actively trying to get the egg to Zadia.
I also really love Amaya. I love that her deafness is just part of her character, it doesn't define her. She's by far my favorite character. The only thing I was deeply disappointed by was not knowing what she said at her sister's statue. It was clearly a powerful character moment that could have given us some insight into who Callum's mother was and her relationship with her sister, but no one in the audience gets that information. The jerky animation plus the fact that I don't know what sign language they used for the series, I can't know if the signing is 100% accurate. So even people who speak a sign language might not get it.
I think I'll watch the next season because I definitely see the potential for the show to be great, but if there aren't some improvements made, I don't think I'll watch past that.
Mariah Bowen it’s accurate
They use ASL, I really only know a lot of vocabulary so my knowledge isn't very useful (asl has it's own complex sentence structure) but there are often times that I recognize words that she uses and they translate well. Personally I think this is a great show if u want to test your asl knowledge!
I get your points and they are valid, but personally after watching ATLA, I wished for a series with Sokka as the main character and TDP was the amazing in that regard.
I'm finishing the 6th season and it's amazing. Tho the show is being very long and it could've been shortened, it's nice to see answers to previos questions and characters becoming more complex (Soren my beloved). It can be a bit bothering to get to a point where you think they made a breaktrough on how to stop Aaravos for them to hit a wall or you having to wait for a new season to see how it continues, but I think it's worth it.
Personally my favorite part is the storytelling and the complexity of the characters like Viren, tho his changes in attitude between seasons can seem a bit irrational, once you think about it a bit deeper the character makes even more sense than before.
And also Soren's whole character arc is AWESOME, his character changes so much trough the series, I love him.
As I understood the matter of the honor band: it was there until Ezran was killed in vengeance for the Dragon Prince but, because
of the care Ezran showed, Zym was willing to forgive the supposed treachery and because he was the 'victim' in question it was his right to free them from this bond. That it was a more symbolic/spiritual matter having to do with the rules of magic, his authority, and a grace that very few people in their world are willing to seek, much less show; clarifying that he had the right to forgive the Humans and free Rayla, and that he had the inclination to move forward instead of obsessing over past grievances. His first act is to free them.