We’re back to finish off our look at the Dragon Prince. And just to clarify my issues with the pacing. It’s not that any particular episode drags, but more a price of a 9-episode season that spends 1/3 of its length getting everything in place. In a longer season, (hell, if it were 12 instead of 9) I wouldn’t complain, but with only 9 episodes to play with, you have to allocate time accordingly and I feel too much of it is spent in the opening. And no, I’m not expecting the show to complete the quest by season’s end, but I expect them to build to something, let’s see if the next 3 episodes alleviate my concerns.
The Dagger and the Wolf
Our trio are taking shelter in a cave in the mountains.
Ezran’s suffering with a cold. But he’s doing better than the egg, which is
looking dimmer every minute. Solem and Claudia arrive at the Banther Lodge, as
Solem tries to use some tracking dogs to track them. It leads them as far as
the water but not really much further.
Needing help, they approach a village and yikes, Rayla’s arm
is looking worse too. Of course, it’s a human village so Rayla wears a cloak
over her horns, doesn’t really disguise her skin tone, tattoos and general look
and her human impression is, of course, cringeworthy.
I don’t really care for cringe humour; I rarely find it
funny. Whilst in the village, they come across a pompous cock who speaks of his
mighty feats and challenges people to try and defeat him, whilst only armed
with a dagger. He challenges Rayla but a giant human with a big sword
challenges him, with most people making bets on him to win. The dagger is
special and cuts straight through the sword. It’s a ‘sunforge blade’ created by
sunfire elves, they stay as hot as when they were forged for hundreds of years,
without losing shape presumably. The sheath is inscribed with a magical rune to
protect the user from the heat.
Callum theorises that it might be able to cut through
Rayla’s wrist-binding and encouragers her to go get it whilst he and Ezran,
whose cold is gone thanks to plot-convenient berries, go to find help for the
egg.
Claudia knows a tracking spell but needs something personal
to find them, Soren notices a lock of Rayla’s hair caught by an arrow, they can
use that to track her and hence the princes. The princes find an animal Doctor
after 2 or so minutes of Callum trying to lie, they eventually show him the
egg. How did you think this was going to play out?
Rayla finds the guy with the blade and tries to get him to
cut the binding, unfortunately when showing her hand, she reveals her 4
fingers, letting him on that she’s an elf. Of course, Rayla easily beats him
and takes the dagger, however it doesn’t cut the binding. She leaves the blade
behind and moves on. He still has the sheath so it’s not like she could use it
without it.
The animal Doctor says he can hear that it’s dying, but
there is a place where a miracle has happened before, a placed called the
Cursed Caldera. They meet a young girl, Ellis, and her wolf, Ava. The miracle
happened and saved Ava’s life. 3 years ago, Ellis found Ava caught in a
hunter’s trap, Ellis freed her but the leg was badly damaged and had to be
removed. Her parents believed that putting her down was the kindest thing, as
they couldn’t afford to keep her, but Ellis ran with her into the Cursed
Caldera, she persevered through the terrifying ‘curse’ and found refuge in a
cave where what looks to me like an elf came and restored her leg.
Soren and Claudia find the next ingredient for the spell, fireflies,
Claudia bottles a few but now they need to climb the highest mountain in the
region. The Princes and Rayla reunite and compare notes before being chased out
of the village by elf-hating humans. They stop, seeing where they’re headed and
thinking they’re dead anyway.
Can’t say this episode did much for me, it’s solid enough
but most of the humour really draws it back
Rating 7/10
Cursed Caldera
Rayla, Callum and Ezran shelter in the forest. Ellis and Ava
somehow got ahead of them and offer to serves as their guide to the miracle
healer. Introductions happen and the adventure continues, each helping each
other up the mountain. With night falling though, they stop to come up with a
strategy to deal with ‘indescribable terrors.’
Callum’s plan is so simple he decides to describe it first
in sound effects. I feel for a moment they mixed him up with Sokka. Anyway,
Bait can disorient them visually, Ava can bark and disorient them orally,
Callum can use the lightning spell, which thanks to a realisation from Rayla he
now knows the incantation for and Rayla can use her one good hand to finish the
job.
Back at the castle, Viren gives their elf prisoner, Runaan,
some food and drink. He wants Runaan to explain the mirror in exchange for his
freedom but Runaan believes he’s already dead. Viren sees this as a challenge,
to find something he fears more than death.
The group encounter a giant leech monster and their plan
goes a bit awry and they’re forced into retreat, splitting up in the process.
Ezran and Rayla head up a tree, with Rayla struggling to climb with her arm.
Callum, Ellis and Ava end up on top of a cliff, and are likely safer, as the
slug lies in wait for either group to climb down.
With them split up but unable to move, it’s time for some
character growth. Rayla working through her empathy and commitment issues
whilst Callum works through his insecurities about being a mage. They all come
down, thinking the leech is gone but it returns quickly, the group enact their
original plan, and it’s successful, with Rayla proving that she can finish the
job.
Viren shows Runaan the mirror and Runaan tells him he’s
succeeded in finding something worse than death, but he refuses to say more, so
Viren uses dark magic to extract his soul or something and trap him in the
coin. Ezran notices something about Ava and realises that there is no miracle healer
at the tree.
It’s an intense episode, with some nice bits of character
growth thrown in, probably my favourite episode to date.
Rating 8.5/10
Wonderstorm
Ezran has always had a connection with animals, something
you might’ve seen hinted at a few times during the show. But he refuses to
elaborate on his point and that makes everyone not believe him. Callum had
apparently experienced mischievousness from this and is most inclined not to
believe him. Rayla’s naturally mistrustful and Ellis has first-hand experience
of the so-called miracle healer. Truth is though, Ezran is right, something we
will get to soon.
The Moon rune is on the cube and glowing the higher they go,
they hear a mysterious noise, at Ezran’s request Rayla takes a look and finds a
mummy strung up in the trees, which crumbles to dust when she tires to free it.
They keep walking, through what seems to be a lot of webbing, and we see the
giant spider that created it sneaking up on them. They run from it for a while
but Ezran can sense something about it.
He’s certain the spider isn’t real, it doesn’t talk like
spiders talk. He’s met with disbelief and sets out to prove it. Whilst the
spider screams at him, it doesn’t do anything at all, putting all the others at
ease, Callum in particular owes Ezran an apology, finally doing the “I’m a
jerkface’ face referenced before.
They arrive at the tree, as a Moonshadow mage, Lujanne,
arrives. She’s an illusionist and guardian of the moon nexus. Ava’s 4th
leg is in fact an illusion much like the spider. They show Lujanne the egg and
she believes the only way to save is to hatch it, but a Stormdragon would only
hatch in the eye of a storm and the weather is clear for miles. If only they
hand a storm in a jar that would be useful at this point.
Callum smashes the primal stone and creates the storm from
which the egg can be hatched, the wind nearly blows the egg away but Rayla manages to hold onto it until the eye is formed around them. The egg is struck
by lightning repeatedly and that eventually leads to it hatching, after another
bullsh*t fakeout. With Bait’s help, the dragon, Azymondias (or Zym for short)
opens its eyes and befriends Ezran.
Ezran tells Zym about Rayla helping him and Zym pays his
debt, removing the bind around Rayla’s arm. Meanwhile, Soren and Claudia make
it to the top of the mountain and Claudia casts her tracking spell, finding
them. It looks beautiful to them but Lujanne is less certain and Viren, looking
a bit worse-for-wear, I might say, watches from the castle
It’s a solid climax to the season with the end of multiple
arcs. It’s a shame it all came to a head so soon.
Rating 9/10
We’ll get to season 2 later on, but now we’re entering the
obligatory theme month, it’s NETFLIX MONTH 2
No comments:
Post a Comment