Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Netflix Retrospective - The Dragon Prince Book 2 (Sky) Chapters 1-3

Ok, we’re back with Dragon Prince, Zym is now a hatchling, Rayla’s now free from her bindin, Viren’s up to no good and the quest continues. Let’s see where we go next with book 2: Sky.

Chapter 1 – A Secret and a Spark

We see Amaya patrolling the border between the human and Elf kingdoms, a hot volcanic region and that is one tough horse she’s riding. She spots a small crevice in the rocks before being set on by elves. She’s able to hold her own in a fight but one of them carries a sunblade that cuts through her sword like butter. Amaya knocks her back long enough to make a retreat.

After Callum provides us with a series recap and we can see that the animation is no longer as choppy. Callum’s writing a letter to the King, making Rayla somewhat uncomfortable as she knows he’s dead.

Meanwhile, Viren is trying, unsuccessfully to get his advisors to call a meeting with the heads of the other Human Kingdoms to combat the ‘elf threat.’ We get a little moment with Lujanne reminding us that she’s an illusionist and Rayla celebrating having both hands. OK, we’re 7 minutes in, can the plot start now.

Rayla wants them to move on, they’ve been there 2 days and “dark forces” are pursuing. But Ezran is instead asked to help Zym learn how to fly and Callum wants to learn some moon magic now that his primal stone is… gone. Lujanne takes him to an ancient site, and I think there’s some foreshadowing about the villain on the other side of the mirror but we’ll move on for the moment. Viren finds the royal seal, which may provide some legitimacy to his attempts to gather the 4 nations.

Ezran’s teaching attempts are less than successful, and Callum’s learning runs into a roadblock, without a primal stone, he can’t do magic. Still, this exposition about the way that magic works is overcomplicated and boring… Rayla’s constant patrols have her completely worn out, and at the worst possible time as Soren and Claudia arrive, the latter using a magical flute to compel her to sleep, and Soren ready to deliver a killer blow.

I wish I had much positive to say, this episode is largely an excuse for an exposition dump about magic, which I’ve spared you most of, it’s relatively dull. Very little actually happens in this episode.

Rating 5/10

Half Moon Lies

Soren is hesitant to kill a sleeping opponent but it turns out Rayla was faking, she used a rose with a sharp thorn to keep herself awake. So a fight ensues with Claudia content to take a back seat until it looks like Soren is on the ropes.

The fight is brought to an end as Callum arrives, explaining what he can and promising they can duke it out in the morning if they can’t be convinced they’re on the same side. Back with Soren, he’s looking in the magic mirror and confident that its secrets will be revealed.

Claudia decides that to further persuade them she’ll make them pancakes but the moment she reveals she used dark magic to make them, no-one’s that hungry. They finally get around to showing them Zym and saying their mission is too important for them to come home. Soren has the idea of lying to their faces about their dad missing them.

Rayla tries to convince Callum that they’re lying and not to be trusted but can’t bring herself to tell them about their father just yet. But the timing couldn’t be worse as Claudia is making an attempt to gain Callum’s trust, by being instantly forgiving about the fact that he smashed her primal stone… Meanwhile Soren is looking at his secret mission, deciding whilst can’t attack Ezran directly he can direct him towards his own demise.

Callum mentions his sadness over the loss of his magical abilities and Claudia directs towards mastering dark magic. Callum refuses, wanting to learn primal magic, whilst Claudia calls him judgemental for dismissing dark magic.

Rayla is onto Soren, who’s using a loose zipline to try and get Ezran to fall, but when she tells Callum, it just comes off as her being judgy, especially since Ezran had come to no harm from it. Rayla comes to Lujanne for advice about this, and comes to the conclusion herself that she needs to be upfront and honest, at least with Callum.

Soren attempts to use a truth potion to see the mirror’s secrets only work when the lights are dimmed, he sees a place of unknown origin. Callum and Claudia are adorably awkward but it leads to Claudia confessing what happened to the King to Callum, meaning Rayla never got the chance to.

This episode has a little more story going for it, but it’s an adventure show where the journey’s kinda stopped.

Rating 6/10

It’s been just over a month since I did those first 2 episodes, I’m hoping to get through the rest of the season in as few sittings as possible. Let’s go

Smoke and Mirrors

We open with Viren, still trying to work out what the new scene in the mirror is about. Before that can go anywhere, Rayla is constantly apologising to Callum for not telling him but to be honest, Callum isn’t openly mad at her, at least not yet. His concern is having to tell Ezran. He can’t bring himself to wake him up so just sits beside his bed.

Claudia comes back to Soren holding back tears and Soren acts like a supportive if dense older brother. They still have a mission to bring the princes back, which Claudia says she can still do. The morning comes as Ezran wakes up and begins to regale Callum with a dream of being chased by the baker on a rhino or something…

Callum and Ezran take a walk but hard as he tries he can’t bring himself to tell Ezran about his father’s death. He talks to Rayla, admitting he knew deep down but had been trying to deny it to himself, which is definitely what I had inferred from the events of the last season.

Back with Siren, the scene in the mirror has changed slightly the fire is now lit, and a strange figure in a black starred cloak enters, checking out the books before leaving. Callum and Rayla have decided that the plot has lingered for long enough and they have to leave. Claudia brings Callum to the side and gives him the sealed letter the King wrote for him, Callum decides he’s not ready to open it yet.

Claudia’s next move is to offer her and her brother’s services to the mission, something Callum is eager to accept but Rayla is hesitant to trust. Rayla visits Lujanne and has an idea to test whether the two can be trusted. They meet up and begin their journey. But of course Soren and Claudia have other plans and make their move.

The figure in the mirror walks towards it, giving Soren a good look, but it’s also clear that whoever this figure is, the mirror doesn’t work both ways. Lujanne had used the illusion collar to create an illusion of Callum and Ezran to expose them. It works and through the intervention of Corvus, they escape. But Corvus is captured by Soren and Ezran

The group fly away on Lujanne’s moon bird, and the sensation of high-altitude flight helps Zym spread his wings, providing some relief in what’s a challenging time for Callum.

I get the want to build this up, but the audience is already siding behind Rayla so there was no surprise to any of this. That being said, it builds intrigue regarding the mirror and has some great character moments including a well-executed Rayla plan

Rating 7/10

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