Sorry if this is a bit long but I do really like coming here to talk about our latest fiction gripes lol. Ok so I totally agree with you about tdp and now s5. It's definitely something that started back in s4 but I was still trying to be optimistic. The show is as wide as an ocean but about as deep as a puddle recently. Pick a lane on how mature you want the show to be writers? I love kids shows i do (I loved Nimona), and I love adult fantasy animation as well (Vox Machina). And yes no show is without flaws, but guess what, the thing that they both have in common is GOOD emotional writing and choices that don't make the audience feel stupid when watching it. The dragon prince would have been amazing if it started out as a darker more mature adult show like vox machina. But it instead WAS written with the emotional stability and thought provoking messages of being for all ages that Nimona has (seasons 1-3)! I think the time jump kinda screwed with the pacing and the writers thought older characters must mean a little less fart jokes, more horses getting eviscerated (that was something I was THROWN with lol). But writing depth is not that simple obviously, I do like the more mature fight scenes and villains(the sea captain was actually pretty cool and I wish we could've gotten more of him) but just constantly jumping back and forth between the childish schneagains of claudia and her boyfriend and then back to something more dangerous and "scary" is not a good way to try to bring in every audience age group. I'm kinda tired of the 3D art too? Imagine if the characters were animated in 2D just like all of the fantastic 2D backdrops and end credit art. Oh well i guess. I am curious what their "hard hitting" writing will turn into (even though I think you're right in that it alienates the very young audience that made the show successful?). I just wish I could go back to feeling the show gave me back in the first 3 seasons, because I still love the characters themselves.
I forgot to add cause I just thought more about it lmao. The overall Satisfaction is what is missing from tdp in these past two seasons. In seasons 1-3 what was really fun to watch was the character growth, Rayla and the boys learning to trust one another and what got everyone into this situation in the first place. Now its kinda stalled and it sorta feels like its more filler than giving us the meat we so desperately want. Like what happened in the two years Rayla was away? What are aaravos's more grand scale plans? Why do they refuse to touch more on Raylas parents and Runaan in the coins?Etc Etc Etc But nooo give us another season of slow filler and fart jokes just to get to one goal (that they honestly could have done by the middle of the season) and than we're just left with a WELP SEE YOU NEXT YEAR. Ummmm yeah thats about it off the top of my head lol
No worries, my asks are always open to ppl ranting about fiction~~
Awwww I am so so sorry you were disappointed, but yeah your gripes are valid! I have it way easier, I realized I was just charmed by the setting and none of the seasons were for me actually, but I can imagine how it must feel to want more of something you've enjoyed and only keep getting bad versions of it. You're so right that the plotline of arc 2 feels like filler- we cut back to the characters and they are STILL in some random woods STILL talking about the same stuff STILL being boring and then we do it for 18 episodes. This is where I think the show would profit fantastically from "monster of the week" format, where yeah we spend 18 episodes traveling but every episode or two delivers SOME form of a narrative conclusion. It doesn't even have to be literal monsters if they think that's too childish, it could be any kind of short, self contained stories that add up to a larger story, kind of like how a proper cartoon aimed at all ages should be lololol. Your last bit of ask 1 depicts how I feel perfectly - "I wish I could go back in time and feel the way I did during the first few seasons, also I wanna see what is soooo dark and mature that kids can't be exposed to it".
