We’re back with the final episodes of the Dragon Prince. Though the show was renewed for 4 more seasons none of them have surfaced yet and it’s possible the recent slashing of animation budgets may have hindered matters further. But I digress, enough theorising, let’s get to the meat of the matter.
Chapter 7 – Hearts of Cinder
With the army now in Xadia, Claudia is collecting new
creatures for her spells and Soren is beginning to wonder what the plan is, or
if Viren has one at all. Aaravos convinces Viren that his plan requires the
conquering of all of Xadia, the key being to kill the Dragon Queen and
recapture the Prince. To accomplish this, they need something in the citadel of
the sunfire elves. Viren is unsure about risking his troops before the main
battle so Aaravos has a plan involving him going in alone.
Meanwhile, Ezran, Rayla and Callum being their ascension of
the Stormfire peak. Part way up they see a warning written in elvan ‘prepare to
draw your last breath.’ Not unsurprising as the air gets thinner, making
Viren gets an audience with the sunfire queen who uses her
light staff to reveal his true nature and sentences him to be purified, Amaya
is informed of this and warns that he is no king and they’re likely playing
into his trap. And that is soon confirmed as Aaravos’ bug takes over a guard’s
body, steals the sun-staff and kills the sun queen, the general, who I believe
is her sister is upset over all of this and Amaya has to restrain her.
Ezran passes out from the thin air briefly, when he comes to
a dragon he’d met back in I think season 1 is there to greet him, drawing a
symbol in the ground.
Viren returns to the army, Aavaros’ bug now having grown to
the size of a snake. He promises to upgrade his army with the sun-staff to make
them immune to both elvan and dragon fire. He offers it to Soren who turns it
down but Prince Kasef is the first to receive the gift. Soren uses the
transformation to leave as Viren then uses the magic on everyone else at one.
Claudia follows briefly, trying to persuade him to turn around but fails
Turns out the symbol the dragon drew was a spell, draw your
last breath meant draw it as a spell. With that help, they make it to the top
of the mountain, but it could all be for nothing the Dragon Queen is reportedly
dead.
It’s a good episode, ramping up the stakes and actually
giving purpose to some of the stuff with Amaya that felt like it was padding
for a while
Rating 8/10
Chapter 8 – Dragonguard
Dead may have been exaggerating it a bit, she’s had her eyes
closed for 10 days and hasn’t gotten up. Seeing her child might help bring an
end to her suffering but Zym isn’t ready, especially hearing her in a bad
shape. Ezran approaches the sleeping dragon and tries to get her to awaken but
its no good.
Being here also opens up bad memories for Rayla, it’s where
her parents supposedly ran away from the dragonguard. Soren is racing toward
the storm spire, having grown a full goatee in the last few hours. He begins
his ascent of the storm spire but of course the thin air without a spell to
help him means he’s close to passing out when he meets the dragon, thankfully
Ezran was riding him or he would have been toast there and then.
Time to get caught up with current events, and basically
Soren says they’re doomed. And the sky elf around doesn’t have much more to say
than get the dragon prince as far away from the battle as possible, and Callum
thinks he might be right. Rayla does too, but she can’t go with them, leading
to redeem her parents’ mistakes, even if she dies in the process. She gives
Callum her necklace to remember her by, a moon opal with some connection to the
moon archanum. Callum remembers Lujanne’s spell from an earlier episode, one
that gave people an insight into history.
He enters the dragon queen’s lair and casts that spell,
seeing what really happened with Rayla’s parents. We don’t see the spell
directly but Ezran narrates what he saw to Rayla. Most of the Dragonguard did
flee but not Rayla’s parents. They fought but with his magic, Viren is able to
defeat them however Rayla’s mother suggests that the egg might be a valuable
source for Viren, and persuades him to take it alive, though they both end up
dead because of it.
They decide to work out what to do together but it’s Soren
who has the final word, Viren is evil and the more powerful he gets the harder
it will be to stop him and protect Zym. Whatever the odds, they need to stop
him here and now. And some help comes in the form of Amaya and the sunfire
general, I think this is the first time we find out her name, Jamai. And
they’ve come with remaining sunfire elves. And whilst their combined power is
formidable, it may not be enough. Ezran and the Skywing elf head off to get
more re-enforcements
They’ve certainly set the stage for an epic showdown, pity
we’ve only got one more episode to show it off.
Rating 8.5/10
The Final Battle
Still, this final episode is significantly longer than the
others so that help. Callum has painted his arms with symbols in an attempt to
recreate a sky elf spell to grow wings. It’s not happening. Soren officially
apologises for his earlier bullying.
Aaravos’ plan for Viren is simple, capture the prince and
Aaravos will teach him how to absorb its power and become nigh unstoppable. War
meeting and the job is simple, hold the line, protect the Dragon Prince at all
costs, they have the high ground, providing them with a few advantages,
thinning the lines for Callum to use his lightning spell. Still, even with Sun
elves’ support they’re badly outnumbered.
Rayla promises to be the last one standing, protecting the
dragon prince at any cost. The battle begins and the sun elves start off strong
but Claudia breaks through their defensive shields, Viren has given her command
of the staff. Ezran arrives with some dragon re-enforcements but the dragons’
fire only makes these enhanced soldiers stronger and they begin using their
weapons to take the dragons down as they try and attack on the land.
Zym decides she’s ready to see his mother. Rayla helps her
take the steps, but of course she’s still sleeping and very weak. Zyn latches
onto her, feeding her a few lightning zaps but she still doesn’t awaken, Zym
merely lies at her side, right where his egg once was. Callum faces off against
Prince Kasev, who is fast enough to get to him before he can perform his
spells, but help arrives with human re-enforcements, lead by young queen Aanya
and featuring just about every friendly human face we’ve seen.
With that number of re-enforcements, the battle is
ultimately won. However as the begin clearing the wounded and I suspect
probably dead also, Viren is nowhere to be found. Ezran spots Claudia and ends
up tripping on a tarped body, Viren’s to be exactly, only he isn’t dead, or
even close. Soren has to come to his aid, facing his father for the first time.
When Viren refuses to lay down his arms, Soren stabs him through the stomach. It
shocks and pains him to have done so though.
But Claudia seems relatively unscathed for someone who
should be grieving, and that’s because he was just an illusion. Ezran can see,
because he can do that now apparently, that Zym is in danger, Viren had used
the battle as a distraction to get to the top of the mountain. He freezes Rayla
in place but thanks to a bait flash it manages to run, but Viren and Aaravos
soon have him cornered again.
Thanks to Bait, again, Rayla manages to escape the ice, but
she’s soon disarmed and her only choice to save Zym is to charge Viren off the
cliff, she does so. But Callum is not far behind, he dives off the cliff after
and finally manages the spell to grow wings and save them both as Viren
plummets to the ground.
Armies, both human and elvan have saved the Dragon Prince, a
great step on the road to peace. As the episode’s conclusion nears we see Zym’s
mother awaken and the two finally unite. Zubeia couldn’t be happier to see what
has happened.
Unfortunately, it’s not all over, Claudia used Dark Magic to
revive Viren, and Aaravos’ bug is undergoing some kind of metamorphosis.
It’s a pretty interesting finale that honestly, I wish had
had more time to it. I know action, even in animation, is expensive so I
respect why they decided to limit the battle to the final episode. Still, I’m
left wanting more and we will get more… eventually.
Rating 9/10
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