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
No comments:
Post a Comment