Seven years ago The Dragon Prince started and I tweeted that I really enjoyed the start; Amaya was sexy and Soren and Claudia as contrasting siblings were a lot of fun. I did not go into this series with hate in my heart; in fact, I'm not a hatewatcher at all. I watch things I enjoy and though I critique everything I watch, it's normally from a place of academic engagement more than anything. The Dragon Prince changed this for me because I unfortunately became very invested in Viren and his family's story and this shackled me to paying attention to the rest of this show as it became more and more unbearable.
Now it's 2025 and I finally forced myself to watch the (god willing) last season of this show. I don't have that much to say. It's a boring and predictable final run swaying back and forth like a building built on shaky foundations. There was nothing they could do to save this show at this point that wouldn't radically alter the show itself to a degree that would discredit the previous six seasons. All I can say is it lowkey felt like they were reading my blog (waves hello) and tried to once again respond to my loudest criticisms, but I can't say it did much for me. As ever, I'll begin my recap with what I liked of Season 7:
Aaravos switching up his possible elf disguises was funny. They had that man Jojo posing. Save him from this series.
The final look they went for was very warlock (in a WoW kind of way) which I found fun. It's interesting that the pale skin and grey eyes and grey-brown hair gave him a passing resemblance to Viren. Also interesting that they did a Snow White gag with him; reminds me of the discussions on here of Viren's Disney villain coding. [Which has its own negative implications ...] With how quickly he took to calling himself Claudia's dad, it really feels he was Single White Female-ing Viren.
Ezran actually got to be angry so that's nice I guess ...
Ezran's face when Rayla was trying to explain how assassins are good guys and not just murderers. See what I mean about them responding to criticisms? Lmao.
Self-eating was a cool concept.
I liked the unicorn skeleton.
I liked Rayla being willing to kill Callum.
Zubeia finally dead! We all cheered!
Claudia! Claudia, Claudia, Claudia ... generational slay and the consistently best part of the season. Acknowledging her father won't want to come back (thus setting her ambitions apart from his legacy) but continuing on; stabbing her fake mom; giving Callum the business; her absolutely peak dragon look; that she spares Soren.
"I'm still nice, I'm still me" is interesting. I'm not sure how much irony we're meant to read into it but it reminds me of David in FX Legion's "I save them -- I save everyone, I save love, I'm a good person" where he tells himself these stories while slipping further into his selfish, destructive ways. Claudia does visibly restrain herself, does make the right choice, and I do believe she doesn't want to hurt her brother as she's very family-motivated, but at the same time, how much is she invested in maintaining this illusion of heroism when nothing she was helping Aaravos do seemed liable to really help anyone? I like characters who really want to believe they're doing good.
They still eating them bugs huh.
Annoying fucking baitlings.
I cannot tell you how aggravating it is that Zym is just constantly in the background making Concerned Animal Faces as a moral weathervane. Seven seasons to let this character talk because they don't know how else to do anything engaging with him? Such a waste of screentime.
I get the gag is that Gren's keeping things PG, but I don't like that he censors Amaya's words. Not his job as a translator.
This show's tonal issues + unfunny writers plagued it to the very end.
Like how bonkers is it to have a character go "I know I sap swore" about KILLING HIS OWN SISTER?!
Aaravos didn't feel like a proper threat. He got owned so easily all the time. Imagine if Ozai was getting bowled over every five seconds before the end of ATLA.
Aaravos's devotion to Claudia feels a little unearned since it does seem to be genuine. I just don't get this guy really. Love to hear more explanation on his evil ghost-based plan.
Yet more moralizing about what Claudia is 'willing to do' from people who, MIND YOU, were willing to let her drown at the ocean or manipulate her emotionally or come at her with intent to kill. I don't mind the idea of a Claudia redemption but I hope she gets some bonds with new people who aren't nasty hypocrites.
This series sense of empathy and/or pacifism are unearned in a way that will be difficult for me to explain in a bullet point but like ... it feels shallow because can they really prove it? Our biggest bads are Viren, Aaravos, and Claudia, and in the end, none of them are really treated with true empathy. Viren saves himself. Claudia is still in the wind. Aaravos is just a big event villain. Our heroes can't even maintain a degree of admirable empathy for their own allies. How ridiculous to portray Ezran as mad with grief and anger to want consequence for Runaan's actions -- that they say "give Ezran some time" but never actually do -- that they expect him to capitulate immediately.
This makes all the Talk no Jutsu not work for me. Nobody has to try they just say one thing and it works. Closest it came to being earned was Runaan begging at the end of the season but like lmao all that just to undercut it by having Harrow Not Actually Be Dead.
This whole season was just more 'elves and dragons do no wrong, humans are vile' ... elves are allowed to be selfish in ways humans aren't, dragons continue to get a pass ... the way I cackled when Callum pointed out Ezran forgave Zubeia for sending the assassins as if this was ever a thing that was discussed before now? As if this goofy ass show didn't have the first thing Zubeia does upon waking up be exclaim joyfully at the sight of humans? Notice how Ezran has no response to that because he was presumably thinking "Wait, Zubeia sent the assassins?" and was too embarrassed to admit he never put two and two together.
Rayla continues to value elves over everything (see selfish elf point above.) Tell me why she had to bring Runaan's ass to Katolis at all. What did she think was going to happen? What? She just didn't want to go straight to the Moonshadow elves because she was banished and her shame of that is more important than Ezran's grief over losing his father? (Ezran was also going to be a Runaan victim, mind you.)
This of course means her relationship with Callum only continues to work because he perpetually capitulates to her, her people, her culture, her beliefs ... they just don't work otherwise.
Like, Callum, and by extension 'humans-and-magic' ... what the fuck, right? I discussed in this post how dark magic becomes a necessary and noble sacrifice and that's exactly what they did with Callum here, continuing his mirroring of Viren by saying he will die as a final absolution after this 'necessary evil' ... and like .... okay? This is the best humans can do, the show says: use the weapons of the enemy and destroy themselves to do it (the sword also falls under this.) The 'necessary' second-class citizens of this magical world, required to submit to a world order that knows better and continues to favour the 'deserving ones' in this top-down structure? #IMWITHAARAVOS
Don't get me started on Karim. These insidious writers are well aware they've created exactly this kind of inequity and so to excuse themselves they make him (black character btw) espouse these on the nose anti-immigrant sentiments to say 'See? We condemn this!' as if they didn't give us such heartwarming plots as 'human woman tries to put out a candle and gets 3rd degree burns and then is put on trial and somehow this is a both sides are bad situation' and 'arming yourselves after a dragon nukes your capital (and not a single Xadian offers aid or reparations) is a sign of a deteriorating moral core and not a tragic reminder of how deeply powerless humans are in this world.'
The best solution this show can think of for "Xadian-human equality" is to create Dvrstyvlle and promise 'everyone will have a voice' and continue its weak handwaving of centuries of bad blood and the historical banishment of humans with 'the average Xadian has no bigoted feelings towards humans' and 'well anyways humans did all this awful stuff which we'll emphasize heavily this season so you remember they Had It All Coming' ... like, full stop, these are writers who simply NEVER should have tackled the subject of colonialism. The moment they invoked the Trail of Tears every single decision they've made going forward is genuinely echoing hateful rhetoric. They didn't need to do all that, but they did, and this whole show's legacy is one of pro-colonialism.
That giving humans magic would be such an obvious way to help even out the disparity of this world but nah ... of course I'm sure they have never even planned on why humans lack magic and why they have to jump through such hoops for it. Like I get that TPTB don't WANT humans to have magic but that's not an explanation. Maybe they're saving it for The Dragon King. LOL.
The end of the season with the I hope every child in the dark is loved is NOT the gag they obviously thought it was ... when they use Leola as Aaravos's motivation out of the blue, make it so they only one really fighting for her is portrayed is a cruel and senseless, when the world order that killed her remains the status quo, when Claudia is loved only by villains and her absent mother is used to emotionally manipulate her ... what are we doing? If Aaravos is really meant to be sympathetic purely through this love of his child, why does he receive such a cruel death, why is he just the cackling villain most of the time? The tonal issues of this show ...
Aaaaand in the end conveniently all their villains are killed by someone else so their hands stay clean. Heartwarming. ❤️
This show's pacing is overall delirious btw why are they begging for more seasons. SEVEN SEASONS. SIXTY THREE EPISODES. **TWO EPISODES MORE THAN ATLA.** Did you feel how slow this last season felt? My notes for the last episode are "how are there twenty minutes left" and then "how are there ten minutes left" and thinking back over the show's run I can't believe it took this long to do so little. You can't compare this desired continuation to Korra because Korra was a true sequel series, the same setting and some familiar faces but a large time gap and a whole new cast and Scenarios. TDK is just going to ... continue the story of the crew fighting Aaravos?! HELLO? Let's wrap it up! It's not like he even felt that serious a threat considering how easily he was taken out. Maybe it's time stop ...
