The Dragon Prince: Season 3 (3/5)
While not a bad season, this is easily the weakest of the three.
I should specify that it's been ages since I saw seasons 1/2, and that there's no real explanation as to why I never got round to season 3 until now - probably in part due to season 4 being imminent. Whatever the case, season 3 has significant issues that dragged it down for me, mainly due to its plot. To this end, I'm going to divide this review into three sections - the "Xadia Arc" (Callum and Rayla heading to the Storm Spire), the "Katolis Arc" (events in Katolis), and the Final Battle (no arc, the last episode can be examined on its own. So on that note:
XADIA ARC
There aren't as many issues here with the Katolis Arc, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Callum and Rayla are a pair of cinnamon buns that need protecting on their ship. Or, snark aside, the relationship between them goes full-fledged romance in this season, but it's done well, helped by the fact that we had two seasons leading up to it (I don't recall if there was outright attraction in season 1, but there definitely was by the end of season 2, so good job there). However, the Xadia Arc has an issue that's arguably endemic to this season, that things happen because they have to, regardless as to whether they make sense.
I'll be more speciific. The pair need to get to the Storm Spire to reunite Zym with his mother. Meeting one of Reyla's parents, he sends a magic bird thing to have aid be sent to them. The next episode shows the bird being killed by a Skywing elf, who shows up, and introduces herself as Nyx to the pair, pointing out that she can fly Zym to the mountain much faster than them walking. The pair are suspicious, but as they haven't seen what the viewer has, they have no concrete reason to distrust her...until she abandons them in the desert, but is then rescued, then leaves, no harm, no foul, right? I was waiting for some grand reveal that Nyx was some kind of agent of Aaravos or something, or wanted Zym for her own purposes, but her actual motivations are never brought up. Taking things as writ, we can only assume that she DID want to take Zym to his mother, and that if she had, the season would have ended much earlier because the job would be done.
I bring this up because it's an example of "stuff happens, damn the reasons." Or, alternatively, I have a sneaking suspicious that either the writers were short on time, or just couldn't fit everything in, because it feels like the season's story is missing material. But overall, the Xadia arc (in as much as getting to the Storm Spire) is decent. The Katolis Arc, on the other hand...
KATOLIS ARC
The writing is bad, and the writers should feel bad.
I'm not exaggerating, there's stuff that happens here that just doesn't make sense. Thanks to Viren's actions in season 2, four of the Five Kingdoms are clamouring for war. But Ezran returns, and things immediately go wrong when literally as soon as he steps into the throne room, triumphant music plays, and the crown gets put on his head. No questions asked. This has got to be the fastest coronation in history. Also, I cannot, for the life of me, work out what Ezran is even trying to do here. As it can summized as:
-Kasef: We want to attack Xadia.
-Ezran: No.
-Kasef: We'll attack Xadia with Katolis, or attack Katolis.
-Ezran: Okay, I'll abdicate.
-Viren: I'm king now.
-Ezran: So, war's averted right?
-Viren: Nup.
That's a bit unfair, but it's not far from the truth. Ezran wants to avoid war (nevermind the insanity of the other nations wasting resources on Katolis for Ezran not committing to war), so he abdicates, which somehow translates to him being imprisoned in place of Viren. What? Why? Did I miss something, or did the writers? It doesn't help much when Viren rallies the army and declares that everyone who doesn't want to fight should leave, and some people do, and I was waiting for someone, anyone to denounce him, but nup, it just never happens. It's like the writers just forgot to write these things, or chose not to for reasons I just can't understand.
-Ezran escapes, and ends up flying on a magic wing creature to Callum and Rayla. So...basically, all of his actions in Katolis were at best, a waste of time, or at worst, actually made things worse, since it led to Viren being freed, albeit indirectly. Also, it's similar to the eagle/Mordor question - not as blatant, but what took our heroes 3 seasons to do on foot is accomplished by Ezran in a single episode via flight. Um, sure. Go for it.
-All of that would be questionable enough, but it gets worse. Viren leads the armies of four of the five kingdoms into Xadia, and we later learn that he doesn't have any real plan. This in of itself isn't bad writing - it actually fits Viren and works thematically - but what doesn't work as well is that we have to believe that no commander in any army asked Viren what his plan was. When Soren of all people is the one asking what the plan of attack is, something has gone terribly wrong in your command structure.
-But then, maybe they don't have to worry, because the Sunfire Elves are hilariously incompetent. Viren's combined army, which we later learn is 10,000 strong, manages to march within sight of Lux Aurea (their capital, and the biggest city we've seen in the setting so far), and Viren, allowing himself to be captured, reveals the existence of his army to their queen. So basically, a 10,000-strong army marched through Xadia, with not a single elf noticing, to the extent that it could approach the Sunfire Elves' capital, and catch them unawares. Yeah...no. This is just too much. I know the Sunfire Elves are meant to be arrogant, which is why Viren's plan to get the queen's staff works, but there's a difference between arrogance, and incompetence, and this gets too far into the latter.
-It's worth noting that apparently, the entire city is destroyed with only a handful of survivours. Keep that in mind.
-Viren turns his army into literal monsters bar a few, including Soren (who escapes), Claudia (who's loyal to her father, despite her misgivings), and Saleer. Why Saleer? Saleer helped get Viren on the throne, but why is he spared? What does he think about the monsterizing process? I don't know, because while he's part of Viren's army, I don't think he has a single line of dialogue after the army heads east. Again, it's like the writers just forgot about him, or they just didn't have time to do anything with him, because he just stops being a character along the way.
Overall, this arc is weak, riddled with contrivances that stack up over time. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a kid's (teens at most) show, but the prior seasons didn't have this many problems. At the least, things made sense in the context of their own universe. And yeah, there's some really hooky dialogue in this season (such as Callum telling Rayla how emotionally torn he is by...saying how emotionally torn he is), but really?
Whatever. Final battle time.
THE FINAL BATTLE
Both arcs eventually converge as the protagonists mount a defence of the Dragon Queen (who's fallen into a coma because of grief), as Viren and his army approach, seeking to kill Zym because...um, Aaravos wants Viren to (this isn't bad writing, again, Viren's lack of a real plan fits his character at this point). I'm giving this its own section because a) both arcs reach this point, and b) it's arguably a microcosm of the whole season - cool stuff is happening, but it begins to buckle under contrivances if you think about it too much.
So, on one side, we have the remnants of the Sunfire Elves - apparently all that survived Lux Aurea. Not too many, and you'd think they'd be a mite pissed about the apparent genocide of their people, but nup, this doesn't come up. We later see them bowing to Ezran for instance, so apparently they're totally over their anti-human prejudices. It's so weird, it's like being slaughtered by a human mage makes them LESS prejudiced, not more. This being a series that has alternated between moral ambiguity and the "humans are bastards" trope, but I covered that in reviews of prior seasons (though the flashback at the start of this season keeps up the trend). Regardless, joining the Sunfire Elves are Soren, Amaya, and Ezran leading a flight of dragons, because I guess Daenerys wasn't available. 0_0
The battle itself is actually fairly good for the most part - the tactics used make sense, at least on the part of the Sunfire Elves (oh so NOW you start to act intelligent), whereas Viren's tactics are more based around trickery. However, the tide turns in the protagonists' favour with the arrival of Annya and her army. Y'know, that girl from season 2, who is seen briefly in the credits of a season 3 episode with Corvus and Opali, and who's apparently led her army into Xadia to do...something.
Yeah, sorry, this makes no sense. It relies on the following to happen:
-Corvus and Opali get to Annya
-They convince Annya to lend her army to do...something (remember, they don't know what's actually happening in Xadia in this time period)
-Annya, despite refusing to march to war in season 2, marches to war in season 3 for reasons that are never given or questioned (I don't think she even gets a line).
-The army makes it in time, despite setting out after Viren's army.
-It arrives with the strength to fight.
-It knows automatically that the "human" army is actually the bad guys, and that the elves (the people they've hated for 1000 years) are the good guys.
...fine, whatever. Might have been nice to see any of the leadup to this, but nup. Again, maybe I'm spoiled by more adult fantasy, that goes into the logistics of moving armies around continents (see Game of Thrones for example), but even by the series's own standards, this is questionable. Also, what's average joe's motivation here? I can imagine the conversation playing out.
Commander: We're marching to war.
Joe: Why?
Commander: Viren's leading an army into the land of the elves to kill a pair of dragons.
Joe: ...not seeing the problem here.
What's also questionable is that the battle ends and the elves and friendly!humans are not besties. Maybe. I mentioned the Sunfire forgiveness issue before, but season 3 has a weird take on things. By all the lore that's been established so far, the hatred between humasn and elves goes back 1000 years, but here, the implication is that things onyl really started to go bad with the death of Thunder and the stealing of Zym's egg. I bring this up in part because of season 4, which implies that after 2 years, things are pretty swell between the two races. I...no. Just no. Fantasy or not, you can't end 1000 years of hatred in 2 years or less. Even Chronicles of Narnia did it in 3 between Telmarines and Narnians, and that, at least, had the excuse of being a borderline fairytale. Even Avatar: The Last Airbender (which the creators worked on) ended at the start of the Fire Nation beginning to make ammends, not a "we're all good now, right?" moment.
So, yeah. Zym's mother wakes up, all's right in the world. Again, this is kind of neat, but events feel rushed. Hypothetically, the series could have ended here if it cut out the Viren/Aaravos cliffhanger, but even then, it really feels like it needed another episode, season 4 or no.
So, yeah. The season is a net positive, and there's plenty of stuff I liked, but there were so many contrivances, it really started to bog things down. I don't think this is nitpicking - nitpicking is pointing out how few people actually die in the series, for instance - there's severe plot issues that I just couldn't ignore. Just hope season 4 is better, if/when I get round to it.
While not a bad season, this is easily the weakest of the three.
I should specify that it's been ages since I saw seasons 1/2, and that there's no real explanation as to why I never got round to season 3 until now - probably in part due to season 4 being imminent. Whatever the case, season 3 has significant issues that dragged it down for me, mainly due to its plot. To this end, I'm going to divide this review into three sections - the "Xadia Arc" (Callum and Rayla heading to the Storm Spire), the "Katolis Arc" (events in Katolis), and the Final Battle (no arc, the last episode can be examined on its own. So on that note:
XADIA ARC
There aren't as many issues here with the Katolis Arc, and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Callum and Rayla are a pair of cinnamon buns that need protecting on their ship. Or, snark aside, the relationship between them goes full-fledged romance in this season, but it's done well, helped by the fact that we had two seasons leading up to it (I don't recall if there was outright attraction in season 1, but there definitely was by the end of season 2, so good job there). However, the Xadia Arc has an issue that's arguably endemic to this season, that things happen because they have to, regardless as to whether they make sense.
I'll be more speciific. The pair need to get to the Storm Spire to reunite Zym with his mother. Meeting one of Reyla's parents, he sends a magic bird thing to have aid be sent to them. The next episode shows the bird being killed by a Skywing elf, who shows up, and introduces herself as Nyx to the pair, pointing out that she can fly Zym to the mountain much faster than them walking. The pair are suspicious, but as they haven't seen what the viewer has, they have no concrete reason to distrust her...until she abandons them in the desert, but is then rescued, then leaves, no harm, no foul, right? I was waiting for some grand reveal that Nyx was some kind of agent of Aaravos or something, or wanted Zym for her own purposes, but her actual motivations are never brought up. Taking things as writ, we can only assume that she DID want to take Zym to his mother, and that if she had, the season would have ended much earlier because the job would be done.
I bring this up because it's an example of "stuff happens, damn the reasons." Or, alternatively, I have a sneaking suspicious that either the writers were short on time, or just couldn't fit everything in, because it feels like the season's story is missing material. But overall, the Xadia arc (in as much as getting to the Storm Spire) is decent. The Katolis Arc, on the other hand...
KATOLIS ARC
The writing is bad, and the writers should feel bad.
I'm not exaggerating, there's stuff that happens here that just doesn't make sense. Thanks to Viren's actions in season 2, four of the Five Kingdoms are clamouring for war. But Ezran returns, and things immediately go wrong when literally as soon as he steps into the throne room, triumphant music plays, and the crown gets put on his head. No questions asked. This has got to be the fastest coronation in history. Also, I cannot, for the life of me, work out what Ezran is even trying to do here. As it can summized as:
-Kasef: We want to attack Xadia.
-Ezran: No.
-Kasef: We'll attack Xadia with Katolis, or attack Katolis.
-Ezran: Okay, I'll abdicate.
-Viren: I'm king now.
-Ezran: So, war's averted right?
-Viren: Nup.
That's a bit unfair, but it's not far from the truth. Ezran wants to avoid war (nevermind the insanity of the other nations wasting resources on Katolis for Ezran not committing to war), so he abdicates, which somehow translates to him being imprisoned in place of Viren. What? Why? Did I miss something, or did the writers? It doesn't help much when Viren rallies the army and declares that everyone who doesn't want to fight should leave, and some people do, and I was waiting for someone, anyone to denounce him, but nup, it just never happens. It's like the writers just forgot to write these things, or chose not to for reasons I just can't understand.
-Ezran escapes, and ends up flying on a magic wing creature to Callum and Rayla. So...basically, all of his actions in Katolis were at best, a waste of time, or at worst, actually made things worse, since it led to Viren being freed, albeit indirectly. Also, it's similar to the eagle/Mordor question - not as blatant, but what took our heroes 3 seasons to do on foot is accomplished by Ezran in a single episode via flight. Um, sure. Go for it.
-All of that would be questionable enough, but it gets worse. Viren leads the armies of four of the five kingdoms into Xadia, and we later learn that he doesn't have any real plan. This in of itself isn't bad writing - it actually fits Viren and works thematically - but what doesn't work as well is that we have to believe that no commander in any army asked Viren what his plan was. When Soren of all people is the one asking what the plan of attack is, something has gone terribly wrong in your command structure.
-But then, maybe they don't have to worry, because the Sunfire Elves are hilariously incompetent. Viren's combined army, which we later learn is 10,000 strong, manages to march within sight of Lux Aurea (their capital, and the biggest city we've seen in the setting so far), and Viren, allowing himself to be captured, reveals the existence of his army to their queen. So basically, a 10,000-strong army marched through Xadia, with not a single elf noticing, to the extent that it could approach the Sunfire Elves' capital, and catch them unawares. Yeah...no. This is just too much. I know the Sunfire Elves are meant to be arrogant, which is why Viren's plan to get the queen's staff works, but there's a difference between arrogance, and incompetence, and this gets too far into the latter.
-It's worth noting that apparently, the entire city is destroyed with only a handful of survivours. Keep that in mind.
-Viren turns his army into literal monsters bar a few, including Soren (who escapes), Claudia (who's loyal to her father, despite her misgivings), and Saleer. Why Saleer? Saleer helped get Viren on the throne, but why is he spared? What does he think about the monsterizing process? I don't know, because while he's part of Viren's army, I don't think he has a single line of dialogue after the army heads east. Again, it's like the writers just forgot about him, or they just didn't have time to do anything with him, because he just stops being a character along the way.
Overall, this arc is weak, riddled with contrivances that stack up over time. Maybe I'm expecting too much from a kid's (teens at most) show, but the prior seasons didn't have this many problems. At the least, things made sense in the context of their own universe. And yeah, there's some really hooky dialogue in this season (such as Callum telling Rayla how emotionally torn he is by...saying how emotionally torn he is), but really?
Whatever. Final battle time.
THE FINAL BATTLE
Both arcs eventually converge as the protagonists mount a defence of the Dragon Queen (who's fallen into a coma because of grief), as Viren and his army approach, seeking to kill Zym because...um, Aaravos wants Viren to (this isn't bad writing, again, Viren's lack of a real plan fits his character at this point). I'm giving this its own section because a) both arcs reach this point, and b) it's arguably a microcosm of the whole season - cool stuff is happening, but it begins to buckle under contrivances if you think about it too much.
So, on one side, we have the remnants of the Sunfire Elves - apparently all that survived Lux Aurea. Not too many, and you'd think they'd be a mite pissed about the apparent genocide of their people, but nup, this doesn't come up. We later see them bowing to Ezran for instance, so apparently they're totally over their anti-human prejudices. It's so weird, it's like being slaughtered by a human mage makes them LESS prejudiced, not more. This being a series that has alternated between moral ambiguity and the "humans are bastards" trope, but I covered that in reviews of prior seasons (though the flashback at the start of this season keeps up the trend). Regardless, joining the Sunfire Elves are Soren, Amaya, and Ezran leading a flight of dragons, because I guess Daenerys wasn't available. 0_0
The battle itself is actually fairly good for the most part - the tactics used make sense, at least on the part of the Sunfire Elves (oh so NOW you start to act intelligent), whereas Viren's tactics are more based around trickery. However, the tide turns in the protagonists' favour with the arrival of Annya and her army. Y'know, that girl from season 2, who is seen briefly in the credits of a season 3 episode with Corvus and Opali, and who's apparently led her army into Xadia to do...something.
Yeah, sorry, this makes no sense. It relies on the following to happen:
-Corvus and Opali get to Annya
-They convince Annya to lend her army to do...something (remember, they don't know what's actually happening in Xadia in this time period)
-Annya, despite refusing to march to war in season 2, marches to war in season 3 for reasons that are never given or questioned (I don't think she even gets a line).
-The army makes it in time, despite setting out after Viren's army.
-It arrives with the strength to fight.
-It knows automatically that the "human" army is actually the bad guys, and that the elves (the people they've hated for 1000 years) are the good guys.
...fine, whatever. Might have been nice to see any of the leadup to this, but nup. Again, maybe I'm spoiled by more adult fantasy, that goes into the logistics of moving armies around continents (see Game of Thrones for example), but even by the series's own standards, this is questionable. Also, what's average joe's motivation here? I can imagine the conversation playing out.
Commander: We're marching to war.
Joe: Why?
Commander: Viren's leading an army into the land of the elves to kill a pair of dragons.
Joe: ...not seeing the problem here.
What's also questionable is that the battle ends and the elves and friendly!humans are not besties. Maybe. I mentioned the Sunfire forgiveness issue before, but season 3 has a weird take on things. By all the lore that's been established so far, the hatred between humasn and elves goes back 1000 years, but here, the implication is that things onyl really started to go bad with the death of Thunder and the stealing of Zym's egg. I bring this up in part because of season 4, which implies that after 2 years, things are pretty swell between the two races. I...no. Just no. Fantasy or not, you can't end 1000 years of hatred in 2 years or less. Even Chronicles of Narnia did it in 3 between Telmarines and Narnians, and that, at least, had the excuse of being a borderline fairytale. Even Avatar: The Last Airbender (which the creators worked on) ended at the start of the Fire Nation beginning to make ammends, not a "we're all good now, right?" moment.
So, yeah. Zym's mother wakes up, all's right in the world. Again, this is kind of neat, but events feel rushed. Hypothetically, the series could have ended here if it cut out the Viren/Aaravos cliffhanger, but even then, it really feels like it needed another episode, season 4 or no.
So, yeah. The season is a net positive, and there's plenty of stuff I liked, but there were so many contrivances, it really started to bog things down. I don't think this is nitpicking - nitpicking is pointing out how few people actually die in the series, for instance - there's severe plot issues that I just couldn't ignore. Just hope season 4 is better, if/when I get round to it.
