Viren continues his account of the expedition to get the Magma titan's heart, while Callum learns a bit of history himself through Harrow's last words.
Callum opens Harrow's letter, which starts by saying he kept a distance from the boy to respect his relationship with his biological father, but always loved him.
Saying the elves are coming soon and he took a yet unknown revenge on Xadia months before, Harrow decides to pass a lie, a wish, and a secret to his sons. Meanwhile at the meeting, Ahling returns from a bathroom break, and Aanya permits Viren to continue, glad to hear the story from someone who was there. Calling it a tale of love and sacrifice, he explains how their weapons were ineffective against the furious Magma titan, with Amaya taking a hit from a chain. Harrow instructed one of Aanya's moms to loose a harpoon into the spot they cracked before, then pushed their scorpion over a ledge to rip off the titan's chest plate. Now scarred, Amaya was able to propel Sarai into the air with her shield, allowing her sister to hurl a spear into the titan and make it crumble. Amazed upon seeing the titan's heart, Viren declares they can save everyone, resulting in cheers from the soldiers and joy from the queens. Amaya collapses, though is still able to joke with Sarai, and Viren, noticing sunrise is soon, says they can't face the Dragon King's wrath and must abandon the wounded. Mocking Viren for trying to whisper when she's deaf, Amaya says she can make it back on her own, and Sarai volunteers to stay behind with her. Viren urges Harrow to listen, since time is of the essence, but the king is adamant that they'll leave no one behind, angering the mage.
In Harrow's letter, he tells Callum how he'll be the closest adviser to Ezran when the young boy becomes king, and they'll be told the lie that history is a tale of strength.
Harrow says the stories of battles and empires that rise and fall are merely about power, while true strength is in vulnerability, forgiveness, and love. For those who don't know better, like he once was, Harrow claims these moments of true strength seem to be weakness, and he wants the boys to reject the false stories. On the deck, Villads points out Rayla's name is strange, but she reminds him his own name has a strange, silent "D" in it. She shocks him by revealing she's an assassin, but says she's never killed anyone, and he oddly encourages her to "never give up on your dreams." She admits she doesn't think being an assassin is her dream, and isn't sure what is. In Viren's story, he explains the weight of the titan's heart and the wounded soldiers slowed the groups escape as he saw and felt the sun rising. Just as they made it to the path back to Katolis, the air chilled and the sky darkened as Thunder flew toward them.
As Ezran plays with Zym, Rayla reluctantly listens but rolls her eyes as Villads offers the life advice that life is like a river: you can't see too far ahead, and much like how he can't see at all, you don't know where it will turn or lead.
She asks how this was supposed to help, and he explains that you can't control where your life goes, but can control yourself by figuring out who you are, and wherever the river takes you will be right where you needed to be. Amazed, Rayla commends Villads for his impressive philosophy, only to see he's fallen asleep as Berto promises to tell him what she said. Back in Viren's story, Harrow decided to hold off Thunder while the others return, but Aanya's mothers decided it was their duty, giving him a ring to return with. Thunder rampaged as the two distracted him, and Viren realized he could help. Using the storm primal stone, he used "Aspiro Frigis" to freeze the dragon in place. The queens, seeing this as an opportunity, charged, but Thunder broke free and whirled around, slamming them with his tail. Sarai realized the heart would be useless and went back for Viren, promising she'd see Harrow on the other side. In his letter to Callum, he says this was the last time he saw her and promises to watch over the boys. As we see Viren's tale come to a close, he asks Aanya for a final decision on the alliance, and Harrow's secret yields quite a bit of significance for Callum as the group notices a surprising sight.
Continuing Viren's flashback, this episode does an amazing job of both telling the show's history and hinting that there's more to it than we see.
The big point of this story is the fact that history contains lies and focuses on the bravado of big battles, and we see that happen with Viren's story. He's been using this to try convincing Aanya to join him, and as one of the only people there, he can mold the story to his purposes. This is especially true after Sarai goes back for him, as while others could dispute things he claims about the majority of the endeavor, only he knows what happened during the latter part of the battle with Thunder. Being an enormous battle, this is exactly the sort of thing Harrow talked about, as it's the main thing people will remember after hearing the story. We get to see what exactly Viren claims after Sarai tried to help him, but it's pretty clear there's a lie somewhere in his story. As soon as Sarai headed in, I assumed Viren either did something or just abandoned her, but he tells how they took a hit and he checked if she was alive. This seems off to me for a couple of reasons, starting with the idea that he'd stay behind to help Sarai when she seemed injured. To this point, we know Viren disliked the sway Sarai had over Harrow, and wanted a better position to convince the king of his ideas. A moment where she's injured is thus the perfect time to leave her, because no one will know he did so, and we know it's suspicious he'd stay behind anyway, because earlier he snobbishly mentioned the "additional burden of carrying the wounded." Viren was very narrow-minded on this mission, and from the get-go believed that any wounded should be left behind so the titan heart could make it back. There's also the fact that Thunder is still flying around, and I find it strange that the dragon would miss the lone Viren during his onslaught. I enjoyed getting to hear Harrow's philosophies in this episode, talking about how moments of kindness are often seen as weakness. Like he said, big battles and rising or falling empires tend to be what people remember, and because so many people are focused on building empires, they can make kind moments forgotten as weakness because they'll crush any who are kind. To Harrow, who was intent on working alongside the people, a kind rule is what is truly needed, as it can end cycles of violence and hatred. He's trying to pass this on to Callum and Ezran, and despite wanting to keep respectful distance from Callum, we see this already happening when he talks to Callum about death the way the boy recently tried talking to Ezran. In a way I'm reminded of the Pain saga from Naruto, one of my favorite arcs and one of the most widely enjoyed. To Nagato, or "Pain," violence was an unending circle caused by people experiencing pain: people lost friends and loved ones due to war or some other kind of violence, causing them to retaliate, causing the other side to counter again. When Naruto, who learned of this issue from his master, Jiraiya, finally faced Nagato, who also learned from Jiraiya, he had to question his own path and decide what to do with the frail man, as killing him would continue the cycle. Here in Dragon Prince, there is a similar situation between Xadia and Katolis, especially since both sides have propaganda about the other. We've yet to see what exactly the different elves think of humans, other than that they've done unspeakable things, but for humans we have clear thoughts on elves. In the first season, Callum realized a lot of things he'd heard about elves weren't true, and like Naruto having to forgive Pain, who'd taken important things from him, Callum had to forgive someone he believes is responsible for Harrow's death. For the kids, this is an easier task, as they'd come to know Rayla already, and they were mostly blank slates about elves, especially the young Ezran. The older citizens, meanwhile, have come to believe certain things over time about elves and now believe the elves just decided to assassinate their king on a whim. Aware of this, Viren is able to continue the cycle of hatred and pain by weaving his lies and beliefs into what's happening, causing elf hatred to fester. I also enjoyed the moment with Villads where he gives advice to Rayla, suggesting she not worry about where she's going, but just focus on figuring herself out. She has, to this point, pretty blindly accepted that she has to be an assassin as trained, so her goal has always been to lead herself down the path to becoming one. This has left her not really knowing herself, as she realizes she doesn't even know what her dream is, which I feel is a good lesson to teach. It can be easy to get caught up in what you think you're supposed to be, especially when you're young, which can cause you to lose yourself. He has a major point in saying we don't know where life is going to take us, as well, as no matter how prepared and organized you believe you are, there are always curveballs in life that can take you somewhere unexpected. Aside from story aspects, this episode had a dazzling display of the quality visuals the artists are capable of, particularly during the titan battle. The titan itself is already a beautiful sight, with magma flowing across its body in varying shades of orange, yellow, and red. As can be seen above, this is especially noticeable after the humans rip one of its plates off, as its chest gushes yellow magma while much of the rest remains orange. There is also a sad fade to the colors after its death: as the rocks and magma cool, the bright colors dissipate, replaced with a dead gray. This is of course a good representation of the titan's life ending, but it's also a showing of how these humans, in their violent actions, left what was once a glorious, shining creature into a dull mass of stones. Another moment I found some interesting symbolism in was when Viren uses an advanced version of "Aspiro" to try freezing Thunder. We've seen people on both sides of the egg issue using this spell of course, starting with Claudia and most often with Callum, but the stone is what drew my attention. It's safe to assume the primal stone Viren used was the same one Callum took from Claudia, meaning it's the one he sacrificed to help Zym live and hatch. I find it pretty ironic that the stone that was once used to stop the Dragon King ended up helping keep his son alive years later. With a lot of excitement, though-provoking moments and some great literary devices, this has been one of my favorite episodes this season, and with some history out of the way, the quest to return Zym will continue in the next one.
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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
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