The first season is mostly made up of the three kids starting on their quest and bonding with one another as Viren sends his own children to stop them. Along the way they are tracked by Viren, a shady mage, that’s intent on starting the war in earnest. They set out on a mission to return the egg in hopes of stopping the fighting. Three kids, Callum, Rayla, and Ezran, soon discover the origin of that conflict, a destroyed dragon’s egg, was in fact stolen. The main story, dealing with a brewing war between humans and elves, is solid.
It takes time for a series to find its footing and build up enough story to really start hitting those beats that make it beloved.Īnd despite all of this, there’s still a lot of potential. Maybe if The Dragon Prince’s subsequent seasons are amazing we’ll all look back on these opening episodes as laying the groundwork for its own epic story. After nine episodes ATLA had done pretty much the same thing. We’ve met the main characters, gotten to know them, introduced the central conflict, and even started to build out some lore. Right now The Dragon Prince is primarily engaged in the establishment of its world.
You can’t fairly compare the two until The Dragon Prince has another full season or so under its belt. The first half of ATLA‘s first season was good but without the context of the rest of the series, it doesn’t stand out quite as much. Many fans have asked if The Dragon Prince is “ ATLA good” which is impossible to say, since even ATLAwasn’t “ ATLA good” after its first nine episodes. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a modern day classic, a series that is rightly held up as a masterpiece of modern animated storytelling. This simply isn’t a fair metric to judge the series. The marketing was extremely keen to capitalize on that series’ success, often stating “From the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender!” Considering the popularity of Avatar, it may have created some unreasonably high expectations. The Dragon Prince was created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, the former being the head writer of the beloved animated fantasy series Avatar: The Last Airbender. This is where the other hurdle comes in, one that isn’t directly the series’ fault. Scenes that should be getting us closer to the characters instead keep us at arms length because they’re off-putting to look at. It’s far less noticeable in the series’ well staged action scenes but it really does damage to the all important character moments. One shouldn’t be thinking about frame rates when trying to get invested in a fantasy world. While it’s not as bad as some will lead you to believe, it may have an affect your ability to immerse yourself in the show. As we pointed out in our review of the first season of The Dragon Prince, it’s choppy and makes you question if your internet is working properly. Let’s start with the animation, since this is easily the bigger of the two hurdles. The animation and the marketing for the series.
This is why you may not have checked out one of Netflix’s newest animated series, The Dragon Prince. The show’s first two hurdles that make for seemingly perfect reasons not to check it out. In our quest to whittle down our choices we sometimes look more for reasons not to watch something than reasons we should. You May Also Like.In our age of having a thousand different options for streaming, we’re pickier than ever. He seizes power after the king dies in the assassination attempt, and sends his children Claudia and Soren after the fugitives. But the mage Viren, King Harrow's advisor, is intent on war. Together they undertake to return the egg to the dragons to prevent war. One among the elves, the young Rayla, along with Ezran and his brother Callum, discover that the dragon king's egg wasn't in fact destroyed, but stolen. As forces gather, the elves attempt to assassinate the human king Harrow and his heir, the young prince Ezran. Now, after humans killed the dragon king and his egg, war is imminent. Long ago, the humans used dark magic, and were driven off by the dragons and elves to one end of the continent.
Viren gives Soren and Claudia secret orders as they set out on their mission. After a run-in with a soldier, Rayla leads the princes to high ground.