Rayla and the princes try to show everyone the egg as the elves arrive with the moon and Viren makes a final attempt to convince Harrow of his plan. Now of course, it's been a while since I last posted about The Dragon Prince, but I was quickly able to remember what happened before and my surprise at some of the quick changes here. For those who forgot, the second episode ended with Viren's idea of using a soulfang serpent to save Harrow by sacrificing someone else to put his soul in their body, and Ezran, while running with Callum from Rayla, revealed the intact egg of the Dragon Prince. I remember with that episode being impressed with hos Harrow stood firm in his conviction to not use the soulfang, and I had some dark theories about Viren. With night falling, King Harrow prepares for battle, while Claudia complains to her father about not understanding Harrow's refusal of the soul-switching spell. Viren admits that the king can be hardheaded and that he feels the wrong decision was made. He and Claudia look at a painting of himself and Harrow; he explains Harrow insisted they stand together because he knew Viren would always be trustworthy at his side. Admitting that he always has, Viren decides he has to continue doing so and prove himself the man Harrow once believed him to be, simply saying he has one more idea for convincing the king. When Claudia asks for clarification, he says she'd only try to stop him, and merely gives a "goodbye" when she asks if this means she should try to stop him anyway. Harrow's letter to Callum suddenly rolls out to her feet, and when she decides to check the painting, she finds Ezran's jelly hand-print and pulls the painting aside. Down through the tunnels, Rayla and Callum realizes the potential of the egg to stop the war, and Ezran happily reveals he can tell the Dragon Prince is okay inside. Claudia suddenly arrives, stating her father saved the egg, declaring she'll protect the princes from Rayla, who says Viren didn't save the egg, but rather stole it. Callum asks Claudia why Viren would do such a thing, and she says it was so the elves and dragons couldn't use it; Rayla doesn't understand how they could possibly do so. Believing Rayla is just playing dumb, Claudia says it's a weapon, though the former believes it to be just an egg, and Claudia urges Ezran to slowly walk toward her as she readies a spell against Rayla. Ezran chooses to remain with Rayla when he realizes she's right: the egg's not a "thing" like Claudia says, and it wants to get back to its mother. As Ezran leads Rayla down another tunnel, Claudia prepares to attack, so Callum knocks away her primal stone, causing her to fire at the ceiling, then shackles her to the wall before following Ezran and Rayla with Claudia's stone. Claudia reaches for a candle nearby and uses it to conjure two dark wolf spirits to chase the trio; Rayla turns to fight them as Callum runs ahead of Ezran into a dead end. Rayla discovers that although the smoke wolves can hurt her, she's unable to damage them, so Callum uses Claudia's primal stone to blow them away with the "Aspiro" spell she cast earlier. Though Callum claims he's never been much of anything, a stunned Rayla, with chipper aid from Ezran, points out this means Callum is a mage. Up in the tower, Viren brings his snake basket, taking a jab at the soldiers and simply saying the basket is what will protect the king, as he would do anything to ensure Harrow's safety. Back with the kids, Rayla asks Ezran to give her the egg so she can get it to the roof, but Callum points out they can't for sure trust her since 10 minutes prior, she chased and tried to kill him. Warning them that others are coming, she demands the egg again so she can stop them, but Ezran simply says he'll take her to the roof. Viren enters Harrow's room, and though he says he's thought about the king's words, Harrow coldly asks why he has then returned with the snake. Viren explains that he's coming to Harrow not seeing him as his king, but as a friend and brother, causing Harrow to accuse him of seeing himself as better than everyone else. Despite Viren begging him to listen, Harrow angrily continues that Viren is wasting his precious time, and demands that he call him "your highness" instead of being informal. Offended, Viren snaps back, causing Harrow to rise, saying he may have encouraged Viren's arrogance before, but now he wants the mage to realize his place is on his knees at Harrow's feet. While Viren grudgingly obliges, Harrow calmly states that the mage is a servant of the people of Katolis, and Viren simply snarls as he kneels. Outside, Rayla is on a walkway and gets Runaan to come out; he is angry that she didn't listen to him, angered when she asks to end the mission, and shocked to learn of the Dragon Prince's egg. She tries to explain the situation, but Runaan snaps that humans are liars, only for Callum and Ezran to step out with the egg. Rayla points out that they can't be taking vengeance for something that didn't happen, but Runaan reminds her that they bound themselves to the task. When her request of peace falls on deaf ears and Runaan demands the egg, Rayla draws her swords and tells Callum and Ezran to run and keep the egg safe. While she faces her former ally, Callum tries to reach King Harrow, but Viren stands in his way as the remaining elves strike. With this episode, we do a 180 that surprised and somewhat bothered me with both Viren and Harrow, though it is understandable to an extent.
In the previous episode, Viren was so certain that his plan was the proper one and repeatedly urged Harrow to go through with it. We still have that happen in this episode, and Harrow's later anger reinforces Viren's decision, but starting out it seemed as though he was suddenly more willing to follow Harrow's order and simply wanted to make one more attempt to convince him. What more bothered me was the about-face Harrow pulled, as although he was likely angered that Viren would bring the soulfang back in, I was surprised by his actions. Going from trusting Viren completely to demanding that the mage call him "your highness" and kneel at his feet seemed dramatic and only made Viren angry when he was trying diplomacy. I think the quick change is likely a point about the childish stubbornness and anger for not just these two, but the majority of humans and elves in this world. While both men are obviously wise,it's clear that each of them is unwilling to give too much thought to what the other is saying, and in they get upset that the other doesn't listen to them, causing them to become angry, which further ruins chances of finding a middle ground. If this is the case with these two, it seems likely to be the case for the two races as a whole, as they've apparently been feuding for centuries without even considering an alternative to violence, with Rayla and Claudia's encounter of course showing that not all the right information is known. We actually don't see Harrow again for the remainder of the episode, but a magical act that Viren later pulls, along with this silence, suggests to me that he did something to the king. There is a more believable change with Rayla, as she quickly accepts the princes for the good, honest kids they are and decides to work with them. Of course on the other side of it, Callum points out how they can't exactly trust her yet, and even Ezran seems to have issues with her, though he also seems to be hearing the Dragon Prince give him information from within the egg as well. The idea of Rayla changing her mind this quickly easily makes sense to me, The revelation in the tunnels that Callum is a mage didn't surprise me entirely, though it does pose an interesting idea I hadn't considered before. As I'm used to fantasy books and games like The Inheritance Cycle and Skyrim have led me to assume the main character will likely become good at magic as they go on their adventure. Normally, a main character in fantasy would at least be good at swordfighting, and stories like the aforementioned brought in protagonists who also learn how to use magic. With this series, we have a female protagonist who's good at fighting, but thus far doesn't seem to use magic, and Callum, who is a mage, actually can't use a sword. Often times a starting-out hero like Callum would either be already somewhat trained or they would be taught as the adventure goes, but here before the adventure begins, Callum can't use a sword and hasn't done anything that would suggest he's capable of quickly learning. To bring up one of the show's creators Avatar: the Last Airbender past again, Callum in this way reminds me of someone like Aang. Now Aang of course does know how to fight, and is actually the youngest airbending master, until his granddaughter Jinora, but he doesn't have the typical protagonist element. When you think back to most kids shows, fire and the color red are often used for heroic protagonists, especially in anime and anime-inspired programs, often because of its power. In Pokemon, fire is often the easiest starter to explore with, in Digimon the main character always has a fire-partner, and heck even the old campy show Captain Planet had its fire-wielder, Wheeler, as the unofficial leader of the group. With Aang, however, we got a character who was much calmer that we usually saw from a learning leader, as they're normally hotheaded and his element was the more naturally passive air. Rather than fighting, Aang, as a monk, would most often to try avoid combat when possible, especially when using airbending, and the free, careless nature of normal air matched Aang's peaceful, carefree views. In a similar way to Aang not being a typical protagonist, Callum too is taking a different route, as he's not physically impressive and can't use a classic hero's sword. He is instead a mage, which will focus more on his mind than his body, which thus far seems fitting as he can be intelligent and we've seen he's artistic as well. Seeing Rayla and Runaan go at it is impressive and fun, as she tries to buy the boys time and both combatants are empowered thanks to the moon. Their designs while feeling this power are quite a thing to see, taking on a more typical kind of dark elf look, which essentially invisible skin in the dark and their eyes changing color. With the full-moon attack taking place and the kids with the Dragon Prince's egg in their possession, I'm excited to see what will happen as the egg is transported.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
April 2020
Categories
All
|