The Dragon Prince Final Initial Thoughts
Yes, I know that title is an oxymoron, but it’s pretty appropriate. These are my final thoughts in the several minutes after just finishing the show. Any thoughts I post on it after this will be after I’ve had more time to look at it from a distance, with more objectivity. If I ever want to do that.
Anyways, The Dragon Prince was a really incredible journey. The music was phenomenal and perhaps one of my favorite parts of the entire show. The art style did take some getting used to, but that by no means takes away from the show’s heart; especially since I was fine with it by the finale. The fight scenes are badass.
The story itself is really clever. Every detail, from Ezran’s hands leaving behind jelly-prints to the elves’s ritual in the first episode, all find ways to weave themselves back into the narrative with enough significance so that it’s impossible to forget about them while binging the show. Every scene feels purposeful. And the villains? They’re each characters of their own. Not a single character in this show feels shallow. There’s something deeper to each of them, or at the very least, hints of something deeper that has yet to be fully explored.
But my favorite thing about this show? It is so wonderfully, beautifully character-driven. At its core, The Dragon Prince is about these characters learning to work together to protect their home and the things they love while learning about themselves in the process, and the plot never detracts from that. The characters and their development and their state of mind always comes first, and the show always makes sure to dedicate focus to progressing our main cast as individuals as well as as a team—and a family. Seriously, Callum, Ezran, and Rayla are one of the better “found family” dynamics I’ve seen in any television series in a long time. Their interactions are just given so much weight to ensure the fluidity of their development works, and boy does it work.
At the end of the day, that’s my main take away from the show. The clever character-driven writing creates a story that feels so fresh amidst a world that feels so massive and immersive, and I can’t wait to see the next step in Callum, Ezran, and Rayla’s journey.
As of right now, my favorite characters are Rayla and Ezran, and their interactions were definitely my favorite on the show. I knew Rayla would be my favorite going in, but Ezran was a pleasant surprise; his character has so much more nuance, and the fact that I could see it from just his first few scenes says a lot about the brilliant writing this show has achieved with its characters.
But that’s all I have to say for right now. This show is really, really clever, and at times horrifyingly yet fascinatingly dark. It had me wincing, it had me laughing, and it had me enthralled. No matter how my opinion may vary in the following weeks as I gain more distance from the show, I can proudly proclaim that I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the journey it took me on, and nothing can remove that irrefutable fact.
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