My idea of what dragon princes are come from old Chinese tv serials that I used to watch as a kid, so when this came out on Netflix and R recommended it to me, I put it aside for a while. Then, I celebrated my brithday with my friends and we had the time to watch it, so we watched season 1 at one shot because it consisted of nine, 20-minute episodes. I was also more motivated to watch it because one of the writers, Aaron Ehasz, worked on Avatar The Last Airbender, which is one of my favourite shows.
Before the show begins, we get some backstory about how the world used to be united and magic existed everywhere. Then, humans created dark magic, which was frowned upon, so they had to be shunned to the west of the world. Of course, they exacted revenge, killing the dragon that guarded the border and destoying the egg that contained its heir. The egg is, of course, the dragon prince. In present day, we follow Callum and Ezran, step-son and son of the King Harrow. Harrow himself has received the news that elven assassins have come for him and he has to gather his army to protect them.
Bla bla bla spoilers, you know the drill.
What I liked about this series are the female characters. Rayla, the elf who escorts both princes Ezran and Callum to return the dragon egg is an awesome bad-ass who is skilled at combat. We also see her struggle with a moral dilemma–kill prince Ezran (because she and the other races with magical abilities were under the impression that the humans started the conflict), or show mercy? It was interesting to see her go against what her leader wanted and learn that she was afraid of telling people that she was scared of water as she was trained not to show “weakness”.
Then, there’s also General Amaya, aunt to both princes. She’s deaf and has an interpreter follow her around. She’s smart and capable, but also a bit naive as she left Viren (the King’s advisor who wants to take the throne) after telling him that she’s explicitly sending her first officer (I think?) Gren on a mission to rescue the princes.
Lastly, there’s Claudia. Far from being some one-dimensional noble lady pining over suitors, I like that she’s skilled at dark magic and inadvertently teaches Callum some magic spells. I’m hoping that she will develop more as a character in the second season–she’s probably going to find out that she was sent to actually kill the princes, so I would like to see her tackle being in that pickle.
I also did like that the King was dark skinned and that the family was a mix of two different races. Awesome.
As for weaknesses? I thought Viren’s political manoeuvring was a tad too predictable, and I didn’t like that General Amaya was so naïve–didn’t she realise that Viren would disobey her once she left after giving Gren the mission? I wanted to see more politicking amongst the characters and more cunning. but I guess I will have to wait until the seasons progress.
What I also didn’t like was Callum’s character — he felt like a Sokka (he’s a character from Avatar The Last Airbender) knockoff and having the same actor play Callum was a little bit of a cop-out. There are way too many similarities between these two characters — the goofing off, the wisecracking, and being good at strategising. Granted, it’s only the first season, but I definitely want to see a lot more character growth from Callum.
All in all, it’s a thoroughly addictive fantasy TV series. I really want to know where it goes next.