the reason I love the dragon prince so much is because they are characters who I resonate with and become everything ive tried to be- everything good ive tried to be and bad ive tried to fix. they set the example of learning from mistakes and redeeming relationships and choosing the right thing even when its hard. especially s2 callum was important to me bc the episodes and of his panic attack dream was everything I felt and a representation I needed in those moments. a character who felt he didnt belong in anything he tried, but against all odds found his place. and in the moment he had to abandon the one thing he found for himself in order to save others (smashing the primal stone), he did it in a heartbeat. he always puts others before himself even if it means he has to do the wrong thing, he is loyal to a fault. he loves and trusts unconditionally. he is 100% genuine with everything he says and he is always there to lift up his friends and especially his brother. everything he says is from the heart; I especially keep thinking about how he comforted rayla at the oasis and gave ezran the same speech about changes that harrow told him. and at the same time, despite acting as the voice of reason, reassurance, and rights, he has no idea where he fits in and so desperately wants to find it (at least in the beginning seasons). and that's where I find I connect to him the most. despite having no clue where I fit in the world or even with those around me, I know I want to be there to be a voice of comfort and genuineness.
and soren, he has one of my favorite character arcs in all tv/cinema. he begins cocky and pretentious, yet doesn't understand why he does everything he does. but it's to earn his father's approval. he would do anything for his father's approval. but by the end of s3, he does a full 180. when he's injured, he's relieved. that he can't do anything evil because he can't do anything at all. over my young life ive had many moments of realization that things ive said and done in the past were selfish and wrong. I look up to sorens ability to come out of his experiences and apologize for his poor behavior and does so through actions. he goes from seeking his father's approval to understanding his own values and worth and would go as far to kill his own father bc it's the morally right thing to do. few people have such good in their heart to put pure morals above any selfish desires.
in the dragon prince, the biggest conflict is family. everything viren does is for his family: to keep them safe, to give them what he never had. granted, many of virens actions are selfish and quite the opposite of helpful to his family, namely when he would continuously choose power (the egg) over his own son and lie about his loved ones' wishes to benefit himself. claudia too acts out of the love for her family: viren and soren. her first act into evil is to bring soren back to feeling and though not evil in nature, she goes beyond the natural and causes havoc in reversing natural events, giving her the first white streak of hair. the rest come from reviving her father. claudia acts entirely in love for her family and would cross the border of morals to keep them safe. up until season 4 (and maybe further), her acts can be justified by the trauma and conflicts of her childhood, constantly having to pick sides, beginning with her parents' divorce. she refuses to leave any of her remaining family behind and would do anything for them. she crosses the line into morally evil when terry points out how cruel it is that she tricked rayla with the gold coins, and it becomes clear that she does not carry any empathy for those outside of her immediate loved ones. this is where her actions can be compared to callum's in season 5. when faced with the danger that rayla will be fed to the ocean creatures, callum has no choice but to use dark magic to release himself from the chains and save her. in this situation, there really was no other option than for callum to release himself in order to save the others. dark magic has always been regarded as evil under any circumstance, yet this situation creates nuance between using dark magic for good, and what is considered "good." it could be argued that claudia is using her magic for good, to save the ones she loves, just as callum is saving the ones he loves. what makes one cause more justified than the other, and is there a situation where dark magic is considered good? it makes it difficult to understand where I stand on my opinions of claudia, especially after this recent season. this show makes me think about morals, my place in the world, and how these characters have guided me in my own philosophies. though it's become much darker in the recent seasons, one thing I do enjoy is how much it makes me think. when it comes to storytelling, the dragon prince is extremely open-world. even if unintentional, I'd like to think the vastness of the tdp world is supposed to make us question what is right and what is possible even moreso.
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