I bet you did! It was quite a popular cartoon since it was made by Aaron Ehasz, Head Writer and co-executive producer of Avatar: The Last Airbender. And Avatar was a fucking amazing cartoon, easily one of the best of its era! Shame that they fucked up the lore completely with the trash fire called Korra but oh well.
So, I expected that cartoon to be at least close to Avatar in quality. And the result is...well...it's not as terrible as Korra, not even close. But it isn't as good as Avatar either. Mainly because most of the good parts just aren't as good as the stuff from Avatar and there are many problems with the plot and the characters which I will address soon.
The short version of the plot as Wiki says: "Set in a fantasy world on the fictional continent of Xadia, the story centers on the human princes Callum and Ezran and the Moonshadow Elf Rayla, who seek a peaceful resolution to the thousand-year-old conflict between the human kingdoms, the dragons and elves whilst taking care of the infant Storm Dragon, Azymondias, the titular Dragon Prince." The Dragon Prince is divided into seven "books" or seasons and while they are all connected, with one being a direct sequel of the previous one, they each focus on their own thing. So, for example, Book One: Moon is about introducing (most) of the characters, the lore, and world-building and it's all about the journey the characters have to do to take Azymondias to his mother in Xadia. That alone is quite different from Avatar since the goal of the characters across all seasons is always the same: to defeat the fire lord and have Aang train with the masters to become the Avatar.
That means that there are seasons that are just better or worse than others and that's quite a divisive factor among the fans. I agree with what I think are the majority that the best season is the third one (Book three: Sun). In a way you can tell that this was probably going to be the ending in case Netflix wasn't going to renew the series since for the most part it would be a nice way to end things. And, ironically, despite having four more seasons after this point, we would have fewer questions about the ending of the cartoon ended here compared to what we got in season seven...
They really tried to make this a biiiig thing, maybe even bigger than Avatar. The Dragon Prince has quite a few games, graphic novels, side stories, and books! I think there's more "extra content" even than Avatar? Since I never read or played any of that stuff I have no idea how important it is though. I wouldn't bother with any of those things unless you're really a big fan of Dragon Prince. Since this is a show that has seven seasons, each different from the other, and it's far from being an underground thing as anyone can easily watch it on Netflix I want to avoid going deep into the show itself. Plus, my main thing is reviewing the "furry stuff" of the show or game or whatever! So, I will just talk about the things that bothered me in the spoiler section. Especially the ending.
So, before I go into the spoilers, I would say that if you like Avatar you should give The Dragon Prince a chance. Just don't expect it to be as good as Avatar, but you can rest assured it isn't as bad as Korra either. Even with the issues I will get into detail soon, this is an ok show at least. And, sometimes, it can get quite good.
We live in a weird world where trash like Velma somehow gets two seasons while stuff like Koji https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CurciFKenEg&t=14s has an amazing pilot and we still have no idea if it will even become a full series. Or the show starts amazingly but has an ending SO FUCKING BAD that it contaminates the entire thing making it unwatchable which was the case with say...Star Vs the Forces of Evil.
So, despite the issues I will address very soon, I don't think they're enough for me to recommend you stay away from The Dragon Prince. If you like Avatar, give the first season a chance and see if it will hook you up. If it does, you will probably enjoy the rest of the show despite its issues. And...don't expect much from the ending!
Now I will talk about my issues with the cartoon’s ending. If you want to avoid spoilers and want to see what the cartoon offers for furries which is the main point of my review, then please scroll down to the “KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT” section!
MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES AND THE ENDING
As mentioned already, Season 3 is what both me and I believe most of the fans consider the best season of The Dragon Prince. That doesn't mean that it is perfect though. While it's mostly satisfactory, the ending still kinda is a cliffhanger ending leaving some stuff in the open. But that's nothing compared to how they ended not only season 7 but the whole series. It's like a MASSIVE Cliffhanger! Much worse than the ending of season 3! This is so weird since they knew for at least around the time of season 3 that they would be getting four more seasons! Why on Earth did they end up on this cliffhanger?! So many things are either barely addressed or just left in the open! That's not to mention the things they really just fucked up...
-Let's start with Harrow. His death was fine and all and it was maybe the main reason why the first season was even a thing. It's also what made two of the main characters change and start their journey (yes, Ezran and Callum). So...why did they do that? This retcon of making him not only alive all this time but the way he "survived" as for some weird reason Viren switched his soul with a random bird's. And it's implied that this was even part of the plan all along.
This retcon is probably the worst thing about the ending though I guess this is debatable. But so...even if we assume that Harrad was forced into this, why he never tried to do anything as a bird to talk to his family to let them know the truth about him? Sure, he was in a cage at first but eventually he left it. And remember, one of his kids can literally TALK TO ANIMALS. So there's no reason for him to don't even at least try to contact them. Unless his mind was also turned into a bird since bird brain is in a bird body but in this case, he's basically dead already.
This doesn't make sense for Viren either. Why do this? Even if it was to protect the king, what exactly was the plan? With his human body dead with the bird's soul they wouldn't switch back anyway. And that's assuming Viren didn't use this to trick that stupid king into doing that just to make it easier to get rid of him in case the assassins failed.
Later though, Viren went with his redemption arc (which btw was one of the best arcs of the series even if it wasn't perfect) which also brings into question why he didn't tell anybody about what he did. Did he just forget that he trapped his friend, the king's soul into a fucking bird? This time with him in the cell would be the best time to bring this dumb retcon up. At least it would be possible to do something with it instead of suddenly bringing it up for the ending when nothing can be done about it.
And what would be their plan if somehow they even found that bird that could be anywhere in their world now? Maybe already dead? Only dark magic would be able to switch his soul back and his body isn't there anymore. Do they even have a plan?
This is one of the worst retcons I ever seen. Not only by itself is dumb and makes no sense but it also ruins the "theme" they were going for in this last season, about forgiveness. Since the king wasn't killed there is nothing to forgive.
-Runaan. What the fuck he was thinking of returning to Katolis after what he did? What did he think was happening? And yeah, it was crazy that Rayla also didn't see that coming. That sequence was so damn bizarre. Like Ezran said, it was like he was the only one who wasn't acting weird there. As far as they were concerned, Runaan was the one who murdered their father! And their father wasn't just anyone but the king! Obviously, he has to pay for that!
I don't even know what's more bizarre about this...that Rayla somehow thought Runaan could just go there and it was all going to be ok or how Callum didn't seem to give a shit at all that not only his stepfather's murderer was there and he didn't even talk to him about what he did but how he was so quick to betray his brother just because Rayla decided that Runaan shuddered enough already. She didn't care that he did what he did, only because he was her "father". If he wasn't someone important to her I find it hard to believe she would even care this much.
Also, the show can't decide if Runaan wants to pay for his actions or not. He allows himself to be captured but then escapes with Rayla who, btw, was willing to kill soldiers to escape if it came to that. And only reason she didn't was due to Callum's betrayal which was completely and easily forgiven like it wasn't a big deal.
This arc made everyone involved either dumb or selfish and it made me feel bad for Ezran since it seemed they were going to make him go through a dark path or something thanks to this arc which would be something at least. But nah, the plot forces him to just do what everyone wants him to and forgive Runaan anyway. And nothing came out of this. And this was already bad enough without the Harrow nonsense I just talked about.
-Ezran for the most part was ok through the series and even the ending. If anything, it seemed they were going to do something interesting with him by the last season with "dark path" he was going to thanks to Sol Regem's attack. But in the end, they canceled that before it was a thing. And they also NEVER explained why he can talk to animals. So it just feels like giving him a random power to be useful when the plot needs it to be. Which sucks but nothing compared to what happened with Callum...
-Karim and Janai. Like other things from that ending, it felt like those two needed another whole season to really end their arc in a good way. We don't know the consequences of Janai's actions this season and have no time to find out. And that's not even counting the whole thing with Karim having a kid. This could be good. What will Karim do now? But in the end, this whole arc was thrown under the bus to work with the main plot so Karim just decides to use it to betray his sister AGAIN and dies like a little bitch. The way it's done it's so fucking bad that Aaravos did Janai a big favor in killing him lol. Even she knows it's so fucking dumb to let him live again since she asked him how many times she needs to forgive him for betraying her. But the way they did it, he died in a way that has nothing to do with his and Janai's arc. Besides it didn't make sense, what was his big plan? To let everyone else die and only him, his wife, and his son alive? Or he was so dumb he somehow had no idea about what Araavos's plan was despite certainly Janai telling him about it?
-Callum. For the most part, I think he was fine like Rayla though their romance is a mixed bag. Aside from how easily he betrayed his brother to protect the murderer of his stepfather only because of some elven pussy, what bothered me the most about him were two things.
First, the biggest issue with Callum is the most obvious and the series never bothered to explain despite being quite important. Why in the fuck he can use not only one kind of magic...but two?! He ends the series using Water and Sky magic which means there was no reason he couldn't use the others not even counting Dark Magic!
This is a big plot hole since the series went out of its way to explain why humans can't use magic like the elves can. Every elf is born connected with a primal source to some degree which also explains why, say, not all all Sunfire Elves are as strong with magic as Karim. And that makes sense. What doesn't is a human that isn't born with any of that kind of connection can use not only one magic but two! And quite well! It's crazy that this never went explained in the series or none of the characters including Aaravos thought they should look deep into it. The whole point of Dark magic even exists is that it's the only magic that humans are supposed to be able to use! And no, the pathetic explanation the show gave us doesn't cut it. It's basically Callum "realizing" he actually can use magic which is fucking bullshit. Unless we are supposed to believe that not a single human in history has ever tried to use magic or studied it besides trying Dark magic.
The other issue is even if we assume that somehow Callum got some secret knowledge or something that allows him to use such magic without the need of a certain artifact or something physical...why is he such a selfish human he's keeping it all to himself? We never saw him trying to spread the word and teach others to use magic. If he can do it despite having no connection with any primal source like the elves do then all humans should be able to, at least to some degree! And yet the little shit never bothered. At the very least Claudia should be interested in finding out how Callum pulled that off. You would think Callum would want to teach others to show that humans don't need to use dark magic! Especially after learning the connection it has with Aaravos!
-Terry was a fine character but it's like they went out of their way to try and ruin him at the last season. He murdered someone before this season! And yet, he somehow kept his innocence which allowed him to read the map? What?? Not only does that make no sense since killing someone like he did would drastically change him enough to lose that innocence but what he did next was even worse. And the fact that he was ok with what happened already shows he should never be able to read that map.
Sometimes the characters of this series that are supposed to be our heroes do dumb or even evil things. The biggest example of this until the last season was when Rayla held Terry hostage at knifepoint, so Claudia gave her the chance to trade Terry for the coins with her parents and Runaan’s souls. It was Rayla that refused which makes what she did later to save Runaan even worse since if she cared so damn much for him she should had accepted the deal for him alone not to mention her parents. Facing this situation, instead of losing her future leverage and possibly destroying the souls of the parents and Runaan completely, Claudia cleverly used a decoy. Rayla didn’t give Terry up, so Claudia didn’t give her the coins back because that would be stupid. And Rayla should be glad that Claudia did that because she was so dumb she fucked up and failed to get the "coins"! It was even ridiculous that Terry called Claudia on this like Claudia was the one who was in the wrong here.
What happened in the last season was even worse though. The plan to use the illusion of Claudia's mother who walked away from the family when she was like what four to catch her off-guard is nothing less than evil. The kind of trickery only a villain would use. It's shocking that not only the heroes are doing that but her own brother is ok with that?! And Terry too?? The same Terry that walked away from Claudia because of a dumb lie that wasn't even a big deal? Terry, you remember you killed someone to protect that girl, right?
Even if we assume that what he did was ok, the fact he was fine with such an evil plan to be used against his former girlfriend makes me question how he could see that map, to begin with. This was such a mess that made me wonder if this was another example of the writers trying to make Claudia sympathetic despite being a villain. And speaking of Claudia...
-Claudia...oh, poor Claudia. Until the very end, the series tried to have the cake and eat it too. They try to make her a villain but also never commit to making her go all the way in. Always trying to make her still "nice" too. And similar to what they did with Karai from TMNT 2003, it just doesn't work. Especially when she already went too far to resurrect her father. Heck, she even killed Akiyu only to make sure nobody would trap Aaravos again! And yet, until the end, they still try to make her nice like she could always redeem herself! Claudia would be one of the best villains ever if the writers weren't such pussies since we would see her transformation into a villain from the first season and it would make sense. A shame since that aside and while it was rushed so I get why not everybody liked it, I think her relationship with Aaravos made sense. It was just sadly rushed and fucked up since it became a thing too late in the game. And speaking of Aaravos...
-Aaravos. I just don't understand. This season just turned Aaravos into a fucking joke. His plan? Makes no sense. And even if it did, his beef was supposed to be with the other Startouch elves, not with the creatures of that planet. Besides, they didn't seem to give a flying fuck about anything he ever did there since they couldn't be bothered to even show up, not even by the end when he was that close to getting his plan into action lol.
One of the reasons his plan almost didn't work was because he spilled the beans to Terry and he...let him leave. Just like that?! Why? He had everything to lose if Terry warned others about his plan! And even if he didn't want to hurt him because of his relationship with Claudia, he could still imprison him or something.
His actions through this season just don't make sense. He tries to poison Callum by giving him that apple which implies he saw him as a threat but later when he is confronted by him he does absolutely nothing when Callum, acting like a complete moron, spills his entire plan to Aaravos. That powerful Startouch Elf should be able to easily crush him with his bare hands even if he had no magic at all to attack him before Callum cast his magic. He tells Ezran about the sword that can kill him...why exactly? So the others have more chances to ruin his plan? And if he knew where the sword was why he would not do anything about it before starting his plan?!
There are more examples like that. It's crazy they made the big bad guy this inconsistent if not stupid. Oh, and they also had the nerve to try and make him a sympathetic villain at this point by suddenly giving him a dead daughter. Fuck that.
-The ending itself is one of the most open I ever seen in my life for this kind of cartoon. Basically, nothing is concluded lol. Aaravos? As he said himself, he died but he will come back in seven years and this time the only Archdragon that will be around is the young Azymondias. Maybe this would be different if Zubeia wasn't so dumb and helped Aaravos by distracting Rex so her dead mate could kill him. Urgh.
The conflict between Ezran and Callum after he betrayed him? Gone in less than five minutes after they met and talked by the end. Same about how Ezran was basically forced to forgive his father's murder because the plot demanded it. Ezran also stopped going through the dark path they put him in earlier.
Claudia? Seems she is going to chill around for seven years, waiting for Aaravos to come back. And a few of the characters are now on a journey to search for Harrow trapped in a bird and...yeah...it's a big nothing burger.
This ending MIGHT be fine if this was the ending of just one more season. But that isn't the case, this is the ending of the entire series! So it's crazy that we feel this needs another season to conclude the plot! Are they trying to get Netflix to give them a sequel or something? Because that's exactly what it feels like.
END OF SPOILERS
JUDGMENT OF THE KEMONO SCALE
Dragon Prince is a show that I think flew too close to the sun. It was a mistake to give those guys four seasons at once since they either didn't know what to do with so many seasons or they still felt entitled to get more. If the show ended in season three, it would at least alternate between good to fine for most of the episodes. As it is...watch season one and see from there if you wanna see the rest but be warned. The ending won't make it to your top ten list of best endings ever lol. But I doubt it will make it to your top ten worst either.
I already explained how this works in my previous journal "It's Kamikazetime for Jin Jin and the Panda Patrol! Review #1" so, please check it out to understand the idea and such about the Kamikaze Scale!
Furrywise I have to say that Dragon Prince is what I would call jack of all trades, master of none. Why's that?
Some shows like Buddyfight are like "master of all trades" since pretty much all of their furs are hot as sin itself. In the case of Dragon Prince, they focused on the dragons (will talk more about them shortly) but we still have other races around in that world. Maybe too many though...
Maybe too many Elves. There are too many of them! Yes, that makes sense for the lore of this show and all but we are speaking about furry stuff here! And elves...as far as I'm concerned they don't count as furry characters. At most, they are what I consider "kemonomimi" characters. You know, characters that are humans but with animal ears and sometimes tails too. Yeah, that.
Given how important many elves are to this show since the final boss is also an elf, they tend to show up a lot. So they compete with precious screen time against the human characters which tend to be most of what the main cast are. For the merciless kemono scale this is a big nono!
The elves aside there's only one race that shows up the most. And yes, it's the dragons! By that, I mean the Archdragons though. There are many different types of dragons but only the Archdragons show up the most and are what we can consider characters. Obviously, of all of them, the one that we see the most is the dragon prince himself...Azymondias! Aside from him though the one we see the most is his mother and that's it. The rest really don't show up much at all compared to both of them.
At least they all talk except Zym himself since he's still a child throughout the entire series so we never see him talk at all except to Ezran thanks to his power to talk to animals. This means that as cute as Zym is he's almost like a feral character most of the time, especially compared to the other dragons that we see like his mother.
And aside from the elves and the dragons, it's really a mixed bag. The one that shows the most even more than Zym is Bait which is a glow toad and it's really just Ezran's pet. But him aside...we have a bit of everything that barely shows up lol. From some mounts like Embertail and Aegis, both being Inferno-tooth tigers; Ava a large wolf; "The being" who is technically an elf demon thing I think?; Stella the cuddlemonkey who joins the party too late and doesn't talk anyway and a few others here and there like some golems, stone guardians and I'm sure there are even more of those random furry-like characters in the other Dragon Prince media. But if so they only show up there and not in the series. Plus, design-wise...there's a good reason why despite this cartoon being quite popular thanks to its connection to Avatar you barely see porn of any furry from it lol.
This means that for all "furry purposes" Zym is really the only "good" furry character that will be on the screen most of the time. But he doesn't talk since all his "character" goes through Ezran and what he says that Zym wants or is saying. As for the other dragons, while they do talk and have their personalities and pretty much all of them are important to the plot in a way, they just don't show up much. Besides...they are those generic big Western dragons that you see in any Western RPG. Can't say that they will be interesting to most of the furs watching though I'm sure that big feral-looking dragons have their fans. But it will take a while for the show to get to the first of them...and yet you better don't expect to see any of them much until the last season and even so, it's not that much lol.
That's why it's a mixed bag. Despite the cartoon having a wide variety of furry characters most of them just aren't good design-wise and none of them see much on the screen anyway except only the dragons. And even so you better only count with Zym for most of the time to be on the screen.
So, for those reasons, I believe that The Dragon Prince deserves a...*points dramatically at the cartoon* A TWO OUT OF FIVE OF LOF IN THE KAMIKAZE SCALE!!! A bit close to three but can't give it to the series when we can only count on one good furry character to be there most of the time! It only escaped in getting an embarrassing one LoF because at least we have the dragons and a few other furry characters too even if the series barely does much with them aside from the dragons.
Commissions based on this cartoon so far: one! I mean...I wrote a story based on it as a commission. So it counts right? xP
So, I think I recommend this cartoon only if you like what you saw in season one or at least think you wanna see more to know what will happen. But you should do it for the cartoon itself and not for the furry unless you really like Zym or big feral dragons that can talk are your thing! And don't think this will be as good as Avatar, can't say it's even close. It does have some good moments here and there though especially in season three.
Aaaand that’s it for this one! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this review. Please leave your comments and opinions about it and also about The Dragon Prince if you happen to have watched it or maybe wanna check it out thanks to this review xD. I want to leave those journals as a place where people can discuss the respective things being reviewed here!
You forgot all about the cube that Callum carry around throught the whole show. The only thing it did was glow the symble that associated with the nature what it was near. They try to make it seems like that was supposed to be a big revealed thing but nothing came of it.
We do finally hear Zym talk for the first time at the end. He shock by how his own voice sound, but what makes it even crazier that Ezran is wierded out by hearing zym talk for the first time. When he been able to understand him the whole time.
I agree they should have ended the show on season 3, but now they left way to many questions that will not be answered.
You forgot all about the cube that Callum carry around throught the whole show. The only thing it di
I didn't forget xD. It was the writers that either forgot it or they "GS Ball"ed it. So no reason to talk about it after all the stuff that happened at the end.
That was so...weird and at a bad timing that I didn't even want to bring up, yeah...he sounded so damn cheerful after what happened, and aside from what you said, it just didn't make sense.
Unless they got the sequel they probably want but fuck that. After being given four more seasons when stuff like Owl House got canceled and they had to deliver the rushed third season, those guys don't deserve more chances.
I didn't forget xD. It was the writers that either forgot it or they "GS Ball"ed it. So no reason to
