The Dragon Prince is an incredibly solid fantasy-adventure series with likable characters, some interesting world-building, and a great third season, even if it takes a while to fully reach its potential.
The Dragon Prince takes place in a world that has a massive border in the middle separating the humans and the rest of the magical creatures (particularly elves), and tensions are rough after the humans presumably killed "The Dragon Prince". However, two humans and an elf, Callum, Rayla, and Ezran, find the Dragon Prince's egg and start a mission to return the egg to where it belongs and stop an incoming war, or at least that' s what the first three seasons are about. Book 4 will be starting an entirely new arc. I think the core premise of The Dragon Prince is simple but effective, but it's bolstered by the incredibly well-done world-building. This show's world is fairly easy to understand, but shows a lot of potential for exploration of how it ended up this way. There is a lot of compelling material that can be derived from the conflict between the elves and the humans, especially since neither side is entirely in the right here. It's not like Avatar where the Fire Nation is unequivocally the bad guys, instead it's all super morally gray, which is something I admire.
I also think most of the characters are incredibly likable, with the main trio having especially well-defined character arcs. But while I do really like Callum and Rayla, the entire massive cast has something to like about them. Soren and Claudia are detestable at times, but their banter is incredibly entertaining. Viren ended up warming me up to him as a villain, especially around Book 2, but Aaravos is insanely charismatic and a joy to watch whenever he's on screen. But even the minor characters are great! Amaya shows more personality without speaking (she's deaf) than a large portion of the cast, Aanya is a young monarch who's admirable in how she stands up to Viren, and Corvus's dynamic with Ezran is genuinely heartwarming. There's also a lot of representation throughout the show, but all of it is done incredibly naturally.
However, I do have a bunch of problems with the show. The pacing can be incredibly slow at times, which feels even worse knowing that each season is nine episodes long. Knowing that Books 1-3 form an entire arc, I feel it would've made more sense if they were compressed into a 22-24 episode long season. I also don't think the humor manages to land as much as it should. There are a bunch of jokes that just fall flat and feel overly childish given how dark this show gets at times. I'm not against appealing to kids, but there are kids shows that are far more witty and consistently hilarious than this (Phineas And Ferb, Avatar). My other gripe was with the animation, as the first season utilized a stuttering frame rate that looked really distracting. Thankfully, they did away with that in Book 2, but the animation still felt a bit stiff at times. On the other hand, the shot composition is great, the characters became far more expressive as of Book 2, and the action scenes are surprisingly good.
Book 1:
The first book is definitely the weakest of the bunch, as it's packed to the brim with set-up and preparation for the rest of the series. Callum doesn't meet Rayla until Episode 2, and the story doesn't really begin until the end of Episode 3, and this is in a nine-episode season. However, it does do a solid job of introducing the show's world, and it does have a great character arc in the form of Rayla trying to make up for her attempted assassination of Ezran and for almost killing the egg. The highlights of this season are "Moonrise", which is a massive battle that the first two episodes were building towards, and "Wonderstorm", an incredibly satisfying finale that wraps up all of the character arcs while still leaving a lot of loose ends for the next season to pick up.
3/5 Stars
Book 2:
The second season focuses on the heroes bringing the newly hatched dragon to the border, while also doing more to explore the world's history and Callum's attempts at using magic. Honestly, this season felt like more of the same to me, and was just as slow-paced as the first. The opening arc about the confrontation with Soren and Claudia was alright, but nowhere near as compelling as the battle during "Moonrise", and the next few episodes focused on the villain Viren rather the main cast. Thankfully, the final stretch of episodes was excellent, and the season finale "Breathe" was a packed and cliffhanger-heavy ending to the season that was easily the best episode yet. I also think this season made me care about Viren more, I didn't like him much in Season 1, but his attempts to figure out who was in the magic mirror and get to know Aaravos was genuinely compelling.
3/5 Stars
Book 3:
Right from the get-go, Book 3 has an energy that wasn't there in the first two books. The first episode alone was one of the most intense in the whole series, and it only get better from there. Rayla and Callum in Xadia was easily the highlight of the season, packed with tons of neat locations and unique premises, and it had a surprisingly great romance between the two. The Sunfire elves also got a lot more focus here, which I just loved. I also loved the big final battle at the end of the season, which was easily the best episode so far. I didn't love all of the plot directions this season took, particularly Ezran taking the throne only to quickly lose it to Viren, but overall, it felt like The Dragon Prince had finally hit its stride. The highlights this season were the intense "Sol Regem", the heartwarming "Hearts And Masterminds", the devastating "Hearts Of Cinder", and as mentioned before, the top-notch "The Final Battle".
4/5 Stars
Overall, I definitely enjoyed this first arc of The Dragon Prince. It has great characters and an interesting world, but I feel like it took a while to really get good. Hopefully, once Book 4 comes around, we can really see this show live up to its full potential.
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