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Assorted Thoughts on Gunsmith Cats (1995-1996)

Welcome back to part five of TheHappySpaceman coming to terms with anime. Here, I will actually be talking about one that was recommended to me by someone in the comments of my Metropolis review, and this is also the first anime series that I’ve watched all the way through. The series is called Gunsmith Cats.

Now, I’ve done little research on its creator or this series in general, and the Wikipedia page is very short, so it’s not like I have a lot to go by. Pretty much all I knew about Gunsmith Cats before I watched it was that it’s based on a manga of the same name and features hot babes, guns, car chases, and a funky soundtrack. Just listen to that intro!

And before anyone asks, yes, I watched the dub version of the anime, not the subtitled version. That’s what I usually do with anime, only here, it actually kind of makes more sense to watch the dub. The entire series is set in Chicago; realistically, the characters would be speaking English as opposed to Japanese. Not that this show pays close attention to realism, but I’m just trying to find an excuse for my laziness and distaste for having to read while I watch anime.

The plot is that these two girls, Irene “Rally” Vincent and “Minnie” May Hopkins, run a gun shop while also taking cases as bounty hunters, but they are found out not to have a license for their weapons, and are forced to work with the ATF to crack a weapons-smuggling operation, all whilst a funky soundrtrack plays and the characters blow stuff up, contribute witty banter, and provide lots and lots of fanservice.

The first thing I should talk about is the main character, firearm markswoman Rally Vincent. This character was the reason I stuck around to watch all the episodes. Talk about a strong, likable female lead. Rally is everything a character in a fun, dumb anime like this should be. She’s a tough girl, independent, but has a heart of gold. She doesn’t want to take a case without pay, but when she does take it she’s determined and doesn’t give up until she’s done. She’s sarcastic but lovable, and she’s hot as hell. In fact, Rally might even be one of my new anime/cartoon crushes. She’s just that great a character.

Also proving to be likable in a different way is Minnie, Rally’s housemate and explosives expert. Minnie is the more feminine of the two, and while she can sometimes get a bit annoying in her voice and her overly cute, “kawaii” mannerisms, it’s not distracting and does fit the character. Plus, it’s a blast (pun intended) to see how much fun she has in rigging bombs and blowing stuff up. She even comes off as maniacal at times! The best part about her character is definitely the banter that she and Rally have.

The supporting cast is pretty good, too. Agent Bill Collins serves as the sleazy, misogynistic yet surprisingly competent ATF agent who blackmails Rally and Minnie into helping the ATF. Becky Farrah, the computer hacker and source of information, is a bit annoying in her overly worried first appearance, but proves to be helpful and likable later on as the resident nerdy girl. Finally, the cast is rounded off with the big bad, Russian former KGB assassin Natasha Radinov. I’ll admit that the overblown Russian accent did sometimes pull me out of the action, but it fit with the tone this show is going for. I’ll talk more about this later.

Another thing worth praising about here is just how accurately Gunsmith Cats portrays Chicago. I have to admit that I haven’t been to Chicago since 2012, but considering that this series is created by Japanese people and is set in a city that they have no knowledge of, it legitimately feels like what I remember of Chicago. It could have easily just felt like any generic Hollywood city, but apparently the animation team went the extra mile by actually visiting Chicago before they made this series. Kudos.

The animation is also great. Again, I’m not a connoisseur of this genre, so I wouldn’t know how this stacks up against other anime series, but the design and attention to detail shows how much work was put into every frame. One of my favorite parts is the car chase in the second episode. It feels like it came right out of an ’80s action movie, and I mean that in the best possible way.

And all of that isn’t even talking about the music for this series. I know that the series has gone out of print on DVD, but if nothing else, I feel like this anime’s soundtrack should be released to CD, because holy hell, the Chicago funk music here is always on the mark, matching the mood and intensity of the given scene to a T.

Unfortunately, I do have some minor criticisms related to the story and visuals. The mastermind of the smuggling operation, for example, is incredibly obvious and it wasn’t really surprising when he was the one. No spoilers, but when they introduce his character, it’s just out of nowhere and I was like, “Oh, he’s the villain.”

Gunsmith Cats also seems to have a pacing issue. The first two episodes are great, but the third episode gets really slow-paced and intense all of a sudden. When the first two episodes were fun and lighthearted, having the third one literally put the main character’s life at stake without much buildup comes off as a bit jarring.

There are some other things that don’t add up. Being made in the early days of the Internet, this series doesn’t seem to know how hacking works, which is kind of distracting in one scene where they use it to their advantage to gain the upper hand against the villains. Whenever Minnie detonates one of her bombs, the characters don’t get hurt or even injured; they’re just mildly dazed, Wile E. Coyote fashion. Not to mention the biggest plot hole of why it isn’t ever questioned where Rally and Minnie get their guns and explosives. You’d think that the ATF would want to know that valuable information, but no, it’s never brought up.

While we’re at it, there are a few short scenes and lines of dialogue that are silly, too. In the scene above, why don’t they just call it Pepsi? They use the Pepsi logo and everything, so it’s not like simply calling it Pepsi would get them sued. There’s another line in the first episode where Minnie asks why Rally doesn’t get a boyfriend, saying, “You’re not getting any younger,” which makes little sense when Rally is a nineteen-year-old anime girl. She looks younger than me, and significantly more attractive! What’s also unintentionally hilarious is that the voice acting gets kind of silly at points. When the three main characters are angry, I guess the pissed huffing and puffing translates better in the original Japanese dub than in English, because here, it sounds very—no other way of putting it here—sexual, and I find myself laughing when I shouldn’t be.

Speaking of sexual things, have I mentioned that there’s a lot of fanservice here? I mean it. In the first episode alone, there’s a ripped blouse scene and dozens of panty shots. It’s always the fun type of fanservice, though, and I never felt uncomfortable with it, like I did during, say, the topless scene in Akira. With that said, though, sometimes the fanservice can get distracting and even kind of silly. One great example is when the main character’s top is ripped off and she goes through an entire fight scene with only a bra on top… and it doesn’t even have a front strap holding it on.

Pfft, yeah right! Unless you glued that bra to your breasts, there’s no way that is staying on during an entire fight scene! Thought from what I’ve heard, the original manga was way worse with this, featuring actual nudity and sex scenes; the only nudity here is a nipple shot when a character is visiting a porn site, and even that plays into the plot.

Honestly, though, all things considered, the fanservice here kind of makes sense and same with the plot inconsistencies and general cheesiness. Remember when I said earlier that Gunsmith Cats has a specific tone going for it? That tone is that, despite the genre, it never really feels like an anime. It feels like an ’80s action film that just so happens to be both animated and made about seven years too late. This explains a lot, like Radinov’s accent and the constant breaking of the laws of physics for awesome action scenes, and it definitely works in Gunsmith Cats’ favor, so I can’t be too angry at that.

But there is one thing about Gunsmith Cats that pisses me off beyond belief and that I will always be angry about, and that is that it’s just too short. This show consists of only three episodes, each one around twenty five minutes long, and it kind of whizzes right by you. At the end of the third episode, I was left with anime blue balls. There were so many possibilities for things we could have seen and new characters we could meet! Unfortunately, it’s over after only three episodes, and judging by the fact that its DVD has gone out of print, it doesn’t look like we will be seeing more of those anytime soon.

But in the end, Gunsmith Cats is pure fun. Great anime cheese, and an excellent homage to both Chicago and ’80s action films. If you don’t care about a complicated plot or actual danger and just want to see hot babes shooting guns and spewing cheesy banter, then I’d definitely recommend giving it a watch. You can find all the episodes on KissAnime.

~TheHappySpaceman

Assorted Thoughts on “Hallelujah Money” by Gorillaz

Hey guys, I’ve wanted to write this for a few days now and finally got the chance to do it. Sorry for not finishing my next video review, but I’ve had my hands full with homework, essays, and the recording of my first podcast. (I’ll make an announcement about that later!) But anyway, I’ve wanted to make this for a while, so let’s talk about the newest song released by Gorillaz, “Hallelujah Money.”

Now let me first give some background. My parents raised me on a lot of older music from the ’60s and ’70s, but from about 2010-2015, I started discovering a lot of bands and artists from the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s that I missed out on, like Muse, Foo Fighters, Depeche Mode, etc. One of those bands was Gorillaz, the collaboration between lead singer/pianist/songwriter Damon Albarn (formerly of Blur) and cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (creator of Tank Girl). I was first drawn to listen to their music due to the not often used concept of a band whose members are all cartoon characters, but when I actually did listen to their songs, I realized that this wasn’t just a novelty band. This was the real deal, so I bought all three of their albums, Gorillaz (2001), Demon Days (2005), and Plastic Beach (2010). Everyone should listen to these albums at some point in their lives. They’re that good and actually tackle serious topics, like depression, consumerism, gun violence, the War on Terror, and pollution.

However, it seemed that just as I was getting into their music, they broke up. In 2013, Damon announced a hiatus due to creative differences between himself and Jamie, which really depressed me. It didn’t help that the story arc shown in the videos of Plastic Beach was left permanently unfinished due to budget cuts from their record company, and their last two offerings before the split were somewhat underwhelming. I consider 2011’s The Fall as less of a cohesive album and more of a weird compilation of unfinished that Damon Albarn recorded on his iPad while on tour, and 2012’s “DoYaThing” was forgettable and brought little closure to the Plastic Beach arc.

But after two years of waiting, they finally announced in 2015 that they would get back together, and they’ve spent their time since then promoting the hell out of this album. I mean it, too. There have been several pictures of the characters posted to tease the new videos, with each one having had a redesign. A series of videos called “The Book of Gorillaz” were posted summarizing the Gorillaz’ story between the end of the unfinished “Rhinestone Eyes” music video and now, which directly goes against what happened in the “DoYaThing” video, but it offers much better closure for that arc. The band’s fictional guitarist Noodle has been super active, too; she got an Instagram account used to further tease the new album, she appeared in a Jaguar Racing commercial, and she even got an OKCupid online dating profile! Are cartoon characters even allowed to get profiles on that site?

The point is, they got me hyped, and I couldn’t wait to listen to the first taste of their new music. And just a few days ago, they dropped a new song, “Hallelujah Money,” and I rushed to listen to it. How was it?

…Eh?

This is a weird song for me. I have found so many things wrong with it, yet I still feel a need to defend it from other Gorillaz fans who hate it. It was certainly a strange choice for the first taste of their new sound.

Now I found out a few hours after I listened to “Hallelujah Money” that this isn’t actually the first single from their new album. I’m not entirely sure how to interpret that, though. Does it mean that this isn’t the first official single from the new album, but it will still be on the album? Or does it mean that it won’t be on the new album and was just a standalone song that they recorded and released separate from the album? Gorillaz have done that before; look at their past songs, “Rockit” and “DoYaThing.” Both of those were recorded and released separate from any album; “Rockit,” released in 2004, was not a part of Demon Days, and “DoYaThing,” released in 2012, will, as far as I’m aware, not be included on the upcoming album. So this is not uncommon to do; however, I was unaware of that when I listened to it. I thought it was a weird first song to tease the album with. I was expecting another “Clint Eastwood,” another “Feel Good Inc.,” or another “Stylo.” But this?

Okay, let me first defend this song by saying that people’s reasons for disliking it are kind of stupid. This song is very clearly about Donald Trump becoming the 45th President of the United States. I’ve avoided talking much about this topic, but I’ll sum it up by saying that it’s already taken a toll on my family and I’m scared for what’s to come. Anyway, people in the comments of this video are hating the song because it’s political, which I find kind of funny because Demon Days and Plastic Beach were both mostly about political-themed topics and nobody seemed to mind those albums.

But with that said, there are a few things I find weird about this song. Musically, it follows the same avant-garde style that was present in The Fall, which was not what I was expecting. The best description I can give for it is politically-fueled gospel to a trip-hop beat. For a song by Gorillaz, there isn’t really a lot of Gorillaz in it, not even in the music video; 2D shows up in puppet form to sing the chorus, and Murdoc appears at the beginning and end of the video as a still image. I was hoping for more cool animation in their videos, but we don’t get a lot of that.

The next problem is the featured artist, poet and singer Benjamin Clementine, who is featured more on the song than Damon/2D. He has a nice crooning voice. My only problem is that I have a hard time understanding what he’s singing/saying due to his British accent. The only words I recognize from him are ones about “building walls.” This wouldn’t be a problem if the song had a nice tune/hook to sing along to; the problem is that it doesn’t have that. Apart from the chorus, which just repeats the title, “Hallelujah Money,” and 2D’s part, I can barely remember how the song goes.

And then there is this weird part at the very end where it shows a clip from SpongeBob SquarePants of the title character running away and bawling. Why did the video cut to that? I’m not sure if it’s in the actual song or just the video, but it throws me off every time I watch it. Apparently, it’s SpongeBob’s reaction to when Mr. Krabs tells him, “You’re fired,” the catchphrase that Donald Trump takes credit for popularizing in his TV show The Apprentice, but it seems like sort of a vague reference to make. The only people who would get that are SpongeBob fans, and I doubt that there’s a very high crossover audience between SpongeBob fans and Gorillaz fans.

I will say this, though: at least with this, Gorillaz fans can’t claim that they’re getting too mainstream. There were some Gorillaz fans who claimed they were getting too mainstream in their last album, Plastic Beach, so now that they’ve released this, one of the least mainstream songs in their entire discography, fans can no longer claim that.

So, final thoughts? Well, despite all the criticisms I’ve made, I’ve listened to it a few times over and, well, it isn’t terrible. I at least see what they were trying to do. Whether they did it successfully is up for debate. I guess I like it more in concept than I do as a song. I agree with the political message—we live in an era where we could certainly use a Demon Days Part Two—and don’t think that they style they’re going for is an inherently bad one. For a better attempt at this, listen to track 13 of Demon Days, “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” with Dennis Hopper. I also don’t leave this with zero hopes for the new album. Yes, there is a chance that this could be what the entire album sounds like and that it could wind up being a huge disappointment, but they’ve worked on this album for around two years now. I’m still skeptical, but coming from the same guys who made “El Mañana”? C’mon. They have to have better stuff in store.

~TheHappySpaceman

The Dragon Prince Recap/Review (Season One)

Hey guys, Spaceman here. I know you’re probably wondering where my Favorite Christmas Songs video is by now, or where really any content whatsoever is. Well, the truth is that I spent the first part of this month and most of last month preparing for an entrance audition for a particular music college, whose name I can’t currently disclose (I want to be sure I get in before I talk about it), hence the lack of new content. But that’s all over now, so I’m prepared to get back to work on videos, art, and possibly even music! Yeah, remember when I did music? Anyway, while I’m working on that, I thought I’d write something to keep you guys interested.

Many of you may be aware of this, but from August to September of last year, I really got into Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s my current obsession and even took the title of my favorite animated series of all time from the previous holder, Gargoyles, which was no small feat. It got to the point where after I finished watching it, I felt a bit of a hole in my life and needed to find something else to replace it. This is when I heard about Netflix’s series The Dragon Prince, which was described as being similar to Avatar, as well as being created by Avatar’s director Aaron Ehasz and featuring the involvement of some of Avatar’s cast and crew. I watched it and… thought it was okay? Just okay, but not great. This month, however, news was released that it was getting a second season, and I was interested, so I figured I might as well watch it again and type out my thoughts. How was it? Let’s take a look.

The Story

The Dragon Prince is set in a world where humans and elves are in conflict. There’s a lengthy explanation for this, which the show thankfully provides at the start of the first episode.

Don’t worry; you don’t have to watch this in every episode. Anyway, the egg of the dragon king is presumed destroyed, and is imminent war between the elves and humans. As both sides prepare for the war, the elves attempt to assassinate the human King Harrow and his heir, the young Prince Ezran; however, during the attack, fifteen-year-old elf Rayla discovers that the egg was not destroyed, but rather stolen. Rayla teams up with Ezran and his half-brother, Callum, to deliver the egg back to the dragons. Meanwhile, Harrow’s advisor, the mage Lord Viren, is intent on war, and sends his own children Claudia and Soren after our heroes.

That’s just the really condensed version of the plot. During the nine episodes in season one, there is a lot of exposition and a lot of other things happen that I haven’t even mentioned. I would do an episode-by-episode recap for this show, but honestly, they all kind of blend together. Unlike with other animated shows I’ve watched recently, there aren’t really any standalone episodes I can think of. Each one kind of just moves straight into the next, which I guess makes sense for a series on Netflix, a service notorious for encouraging binge-watching.

The very first thing I noticed about The Dragon Prince was that it doesn’t really have any true antagonist on either side (at first). Like, you can’t really say, “Oh, the elves are evil,” or “Oh, the humans are evil.” I was super skeptical when the intro described that the humans were to blame for a lot of the problems, including discovering dark magic and slaying the Dragon King, but the intro also pits the elves in the wrong, showing them banishing all the humans instead of just banishing the few who discovered dark magic.

That leads me into discussing a major theme that’s prevalent at least in season one, the theme of prejudice and tolerance. From the few things that the humans know about the elves, they are painted as horrific killers. Humans think of elves as being bloodthirsty killers—literally and figuratively—and the elves are similarly shown holding stereotypes about humans. The fact that Callum and Ezran teamed up with Rayla was only due to the circumstances; it takes several episodes before they are able to fully trust one another. This is a theme that I’ve also seen done well in another favorite fantasy show of mine, Gargoyles.

Admittedly, a few parts of this story seem rather derivative, such as the six primal sources of magic being reminiscent of the Four Elements from Avatar, which leads me to the next topic…

The World

I will admit that it’s not entirely fair to judge a TV show based on its first nine episodes. Granted, I usually hold the policy that if a show’s first five episodes don’t get you hooked, then you should not be required to keep watching (take note, Steven Universe fans). The thing is, this show did get me interested, and I want to see it continue to develop, because what we have so far isn’t much. It kind of just feels like a standard fantasy world, with elves, dragons, castles, and assorted monsters, which, okay, is a tried and true formula by Tolkien and others, but after the world of Avatar, with its focus on Asian culture, its unique animals, and its nearly steampunk technology, I can’t help but feel like this is a slight step down.

That’s not to say that it’s bad, of course. There are a few things that make it really pop out and feel real. The background art, for one, is incredible. Some of the monsters feel unique, too, like those on the Cursed Caldera—one of them even kind of looks like a graboid from Tremors. Also, I like what they did with the elves’ design here. They could have easily just made them pale humans with pointy ears, but instead they put a lot of detail into it, giving the different groups of elves different skin colors, horns, and having them have only four fingers instead of five. Those are some nice touches.

The Characters

Let’s move on to the characters, starting with Rayla, who is easily my favorite character of the group. She admittedly has a bit of a Zuko thing going on, as she was assigned to hunt down the main characters but turns against her original group to help join the main characters on her mission. Other subtle details are similar, too, like her long-lasting inner conflict with her past and her use of dual swords. That said, her journey is a little different; for one thing, Zuko took nearly the entire run of Avatar to fully go through his heel-face turn, only switching sides halfway through the show’s final season. With Rayla, she joins the heroes in the third episode, which cuts out much of the emotional journey but also lends itself to more interactions with the human characters. She’s much funnier, for another thing, giving her share of snide remarks but also scoring a bunch of laughs when she goes undercover disguised as a human in one of the episodes—can you say, “How do you do, fellow kids humans?” Paula Burrows delivers a great vocal performance, which adds to the character.

Next up is Callum, the main human lead. Now, it’s incredibly easy to draw comparisons between his character and Sokka: Both are goofy, “normal” teenage boys in a world filled with magic, not very adept with fighting but good at planning things. More importantly, of course, is the fact that Callum is literally voiced by Sokka’s voice actor, Jack DeSena. Comparisons… were gonna pop up, is what I’m saying. And I’ll admit that the first time I watched The Dragon Prince, it was super jarring to hear Sokka’s voice coming out of Callum every time he talked. But there are some differences. While in Avatar, Sokka is the most responsible member of the group and the only one with any real degree of survival training, Callum is more inexperienced and callow, not good with a sword and only starting to learn magic. He’s also noticeably more chill and less panicky than the Sokka of season one of Avatar and shows that he can actually draw much better. Though considering Sokka’s drawing ability…

…that’s not really saying much.

Now to move on to Ezran, Callum’s half-brother. I have to admit, of the main characters, he’s probably the weakest, at least to me. I don’t know, he kind of feels a bit flat as a character. All I remember about him is the fact that he can understand animals, which is unique, but he doesn’t really have much of a personality aside from just being your typical kid. I know, it’s not easy to characterize a small child whilst making them believable… though again, Avatar managed to do so well. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t keep comparing these two shows, but I’ll be damned if it isn’t super easy.

Not helping is Ezran’s pet, a glow toad named Bait. As far as animal sidekicks go, I definitely prefer Appa from Avatar; hell, even Momo managed to get a few asskicking moments. Bait kind of just lies around and eats stuff. Several times, he manages to get the main characters into trouble, which I found a little bothersome. The one good thing about him is that his glowing abilities do come in handy a few times to temporarily blind enemies, though… I’ll get back to that later.

The trio is pursued by siblings Soren and Claudia. Soren is a young knight and a bit of a dumb jock but has a heart of gold. Claudia, meanwhile, is a nerdy mage who comes off as a bit awkward. They are always fun when they are on screen and have a believable relationship. It’s also worth noting that early on, Callum is revealed to have a crush on Claudia, which… oh boy, let’s hope the shipping discourse in The Dragon Prince’s fandom doesn’t get as bad as the Avatar fandom. I can already see a potential clash between the Claudia/Callum and Rayla/Callum crowds. (Full disclosure: I’m on the Rayla/Callum side.)

The other characters were cool, too. For as little time as we got to know him, I liked King Harrow, Ezran’s father. Even for his cringey dad humor, he was an intriguing character. It’s hinted that there was a lot of stuff in his past that we don’t know about, like his involvement with dark magic. Also intriguing was Lord Viren, Soren and Claudia’s father. It’s easy to see that he was once good and still has some good in him, as shown by his friendship with Harrow, but he has been corrupted by his use of dark magic and is too far gone. Finally, Aunt Amaya, Callum and Ezran’s deaf aunt who’s a solder on the frontlines, was another character I wound up loving. It’s rare that we see people with disabilities get good representation in animated series (another thing I loved about Avatar with the blind character Toph).

But okay, if we’re going to talk about this show, then I might as well bring up the one criticism that every other critic has already made about it. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

The Animation

Yes, among all the mixed reviews of this show, one consistent criticism was the animation. It seems to be CGI, but is going for a 2D, hand-drawn look; unfortunately, the way the pull it off is not necessarily the greatest. Take a look at the trailer for an example of what I’m talking about.

No, your computer is not glitching out; that is the framerate they went with. And this choppiness is something that seems to be a trend with certain CGI shows outside of this one, with Rooster Teeth being the most notorious offender. If they really wanted to make it look 2D, they should have actually animated it hand-drawn. Doing this just pulls me out of the moment. (Oddly enough, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse does something very similar with its framerate, yet I don’t have any problem with that movie doing it.)

To be entirely fair, this is something that Aaron Ehasz has acknowledged. Apparently, season one was given a very low budget, and he has promised that season two will have a steadier framerate. Judging by the trailers I’ve seen for season two… yeah, it already looks way better. Also, with my second watch of season one, I found it much easier to look past. Maybe I was just used to it by then?

Assorted Other Stuff

Warning: This section goes into minor spoiler territory. I would highly advise not reading past this if you want to remain spoiler-free when you go into season one. Got it? Alright.

One other complaint I have had is the comedy, which is really hit-or-miss in a lot of places. As I mentioned before, the scenes where Rayla is disguised as a human are hilarious, and some of the snarky dialogue is also witty as hell, but there are other moments with awkward puns and some potty humor that just feel forced to me. There’s one scene in episode six where Callum is obviously having an erotic dream about Claudia, which seemed unfitting for this show… though to be fair, Avatar also had its share of adult humor.

See also.

Another awkward tidbit is that twice, when Ezran is about to use Bait’s ability to blind his enemies, he says the line, “Say hello to my little friend,” an obvious shout-out to the classic 1983 gangster film Scarface. My question is, why is that line thrown in there? Are most kids going to catch that reference? Call me strange, but regardless of what adult fanbase this show will capture (which, let’s be honest, it will), I highly doubt its target audience is watching Brian De Palma films.

Though maybe they should be.

Speaking of strange homages… well… take a look. 

Your eyes don’t deceive you. Rayla is doing the infamous Naruto run, where you extend your arms out behind you as you run forward. And she and the other elves do this run multiple times during the show, too. It is neither practical nor particularly cool-looking, so I don’t know why this was done in the original show, and I genuinely hope this was only meant as an homage, because… again, it’s really damn silly.

The soundtrack of this show is rather nice, I will say. It’s not as memorable as Avatar or Gargoyles’, but I did find myself humming the end credits theme song after finishing watching. Speaking of which, during the credits, we get some cute drawings of the characters, some of which connect to the episode, others are apparently meant as foreshadowing for later episodes and plot points. If you watch this show, definitely do not skip the credits.

Now, as for stuff that I hope for the new season. I would like to know more about the cube that Callum and Rayla found at the winter lodge. It seems to have some kind of connection with the Primal Sources. Also, the mysterious magical mirror, I hope we can find out something about that. It was foreshadowed pretty heavily in episode eight, so I doubt they won’t do anything with it. Speaking of magic, I’d love to see Callum do more magic in the new season. It probably won’t be more wind magic, since he destroyed the sphere to birth the dragon, but Callum clearly has potential to become a great mage. Also, I would love to find out more about King Harrow’s past, as well as more about Callum and Ezran’s deceased mother, the Queen. We see Viren and Amaya mourning her by her gravesite in one scene, and Callum drawing her in another. How did she die? What was she like? These are all worthwhile questions for season two, or for future seasons after season two depending on how long the show goes for.

Conclusion

The Dragon Prince is a worthwhile watch. It’s nowhere near as great as Avatar or Gargoyles yet, and it is still clearly paving its own identity, but I still find it enjoyable enough and feel that it has potential for greatness. My main criticisms would be to up the animation quality and to develop the characters more, though my guess is that both will already happen in season two, which will be dropping later tomorrow, February 15.

But yeah, you have my attention, show. Don’t screw it up.

~Spaceman

Assorted Thoughts on The Dragon Prince Season Two

Hey, guys. Spaceman here, and… *sigh* …fine.

Since I reviewed season one of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince last week, I suppose I should talk about season two, which premiered last Friday. But I thought I already told you guys, The Dragon Prince… just doesn’t do much do much for me. Don’t get me wrong; season one wasn’t bad or anything, but it just kind of felt standard and a bit meh, so it was hard to get too excited for the second season, and I’m not going in expecting much—

HOLY SH—okay, wow, um… so, The Dragon Prince season two is actually kind of awesome, so… just… completely disregard everything I said in that last paragraph, because jeezus, I was wrong as hell. Seriously, this season is legit! Nearly every problem I had with season one is rectified in season two, all while still remaining subversive to my expectations. Let’s get into it!

The Animation

Okay, the first big, kind of obvious thing I have to talk about is the animation. That was one of the most criticized aspects of season one, the CGI, semi-2D look that just felt choppy in a lot of places, and I was super critical of it myself. Well, I have to hand it to Wonderstorm, because they really pull through on season two. It looks much smoother and more professional and doesn’t pull me out of the moment as it did in season one. Series creator Aaron Ehasz said in interviews that the animation would be more smoothed out, and I’m glad to hear that those words weren’t just hollow. It seems that the crew behind this show are willing to listen to criticism.

The Characters

I already talked about the main characters in my review of season one, so I don’t feel the need to talk much about them, since I don’t want to go into major spoiler territory just yet. With maybe one exception: Ezran. I criticized his character as feeling flat in season one, but he actually improves quite a great deal in season two. It’s nice seeing him form a bond with the baby dragon, Azymondias, and how it takes a toll on Bait, his animal companion from season one, who feels neglected. Also, his reaction when he discovers that his father had died seems… very believable. With little time dedicated to it and few words spoken, he goes through the entire spectrum of emotions upon discovering this: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and then acceptance. His acceptance ties in with a very important decision he makes in the last episode of the series, though I’ll get to that in the spoiler section.

Among the characters from season one I neglected to talk about are Ellis and her pet wolf, Ava. They only appear for the first three episodes of season two, but I liked them well enough and they do help out our main characters a great deal. I also like Lujanne, the Guardian of the Moon Nexus. It’s nice to see other elf characters, since we have yet to actually arrive in Xadia, and she’s funny in the kooky kind of way; it’s pretty clear that spending years alone protecting the Moon Nexus has made her go a bit off the deep end.

Some of the more notable characters include Gren, who always seems to maintain a cheerful attitude even when things are going wrong—I remember him saying, “Why see myself as chained down, when I can see my self as chained up?” which was a pretty funny moment—and Captain Villads, the blind narcoleptic pirate who Rayla and the princes hitch a ride with.

Hey, I just realized, I’ve been talking about the characters in The Dragon Prince and somehow neglected to mention the dragon prince himself! Azymondias, nicknamed Zym, is the hatchling from the dragon egg last season and he is adorable. Even Claudia seems to think so!

But okay, time for a full review of the plot. It goes without saying that there will be spoilers, so unless you have seen the new season, read at your own risk.

Spoiler Discussion

I was a little shocked, first off, that this show only takes place a day or so after the first season’s finale. I figured there would be a time skip or something, but no. That said, the story in season two is executed amazingly. First off, the big question from last season was how Ezran and Callum would react when finding out that the elves offed King Harrow. Well, surprisingly, neither one went with the reaction I was expecting. I was afraid that we would go through the clichéd path of “Oh no, what if Callum and Ezran got angry at Rayla because of what the other elves did?” which we all knew would end with them forgiving her, of course. But no, they avoided that trope altogether. Callum’s big struggle was how he was going to tell Ezran the truth without breaking him. Similarly, Ezran’s first thought was whether Callum knew, which was followed by him going on a long walk by himself and talking to Claudia about it. This is when he makes the decision to leave Ezran, Callum, and Zym—yes, leave the Dragon Prince whom he has developed a connection with—and return to Katolis to take over the throne for his late father. This is a major twist and something that nobody was expecting, but I honestly quite enjoy how it was handled.

It was great seeing all the new locations and characters. Possibly the most interesting one was Duren, led by its young ruler, Queen Aanya. This girl delivers some serious verbal blows to Viren and it’s just amazing to see. But also, finding out about her kingdom was really damn cool. We learn about her parents, the Queens of Duren—you heard right—and how Katolis assisted them in a quest to bring food for both kingdoms when they were starving during the winter.

I’m glad to see more LGBT+ characters in animated shows, and while a lot of people criticized it for the Queens’ death, it doesn’t seem too bad to me. They’re treated like heroes, and we knew of their fate beforehand, so it’s not like it was playing their deaths for shock value—hell, they died in the same battle that took the life of Queen Sarai, Callum and Ezran’s mother. Besides, the creators promised before that there would be more LGBT+ characters as the series progresses… and hey, they promised that season two would have better animation, which it did, so I don’t see any reason not to trust them.

Viren was also a nice touch. Like the first season, he comes off as an antagonist but still has his human moments, where he doesn’t seem like he was simply manipulating people for his own benefit. One of the best moments in the show is when Viren tells Aanya the story of her parents’ heroism; this is contrasted with a scene of Callum reading a letter from Harrow telling about his mother. In many of the flashbacks, we see Viren helping Katolis and standing by Harrow’s side, and it shows that he and Harrow truly were friends before Viren’s love of dark magic took over. It’s also revealed later that Viren had a wife, the mother of Soren and Claudia, but she left him. That was another interesting tidbit. You don’t often see divorce in a fantasy environment.

Speaking of baddies, let’s talk about Aaravos, the elf in the mirror. Now, I was immediately impressed with this character for his cool design, mysterious ways, and booming voice, and it seems that a lot of the Internet shares my enthusiasm! Maybe a little too much, in fact… Yes, Tumblr in particular has taken a… ahem… liking to this character, and I’ll be honest, I don’t get it. He’s cool, sure, but come on, guys. Don’t you think you’re letting your love of this fictional character go too far?

Oh, Amaya, you can crush my head between your thighs any day… what were we talking about again?

Yes, we do actually find out some stuff about Sarai here! She and Harrow had a really beautiful relationship. For one thing, it seemed like while she was alive, they ruled together, not that Harrow was the ruler and Sarai just sat around. She was a friend and top consultant to him as much as she was his wife, one half of his whole. I distinctly remember a scene where she basically tells him off, that an idea he and Viren had was a bad one, and both verbally and physically kicks his ass in the process. That was really telling of their relationship and made it all the more heart-wrenching when it shows how she died.

Another major part of this season is Callum’s quest for magic. In season one, he was using sky magic with the primal stone, but he destroyed it in an act of selflessness to hatch Zym. Here, he has once again found himself lost without any clear role in the group: he had noted before that he wasn’t a capable swordfighter and that when he was doing magic, it felt like his true calling more than anything else. He tries multiple times to connect to the primal source, even though he wasn’t born with it. However, possibly the biggest shocker was this moment:

…Oh my god. Callum, what are you doing? Callum, no! Don’t use dark magic! That’s not the way! Oh god, he’s using dark magic. We’re all screwed.

Nearly as much of a shocker moment as this is when, during a battle, Soren gets flung and lands in such a way that we hear a cracking sound. You may not think too much of this, until it becomes increasingly clear that he’s not getting back up again. However, the saddest part is when he reveals that he is actually relieved that he was injured, because it means that he wouldn’t have to go through with Viren’s order for him to kill the young princes.

This scene, man. This damn scene was hard to watch. It really shows the humanity that every character has, exposed as they go through the story and have to be put through so much.

And then… well, no more beating around the bush. Callum and Rayla: It’s gonna happen. Like, as usual, I won’t know for certain until/unless it does actually happen, but it’s looking more and more like it. But so far, it’s been handled really well. Rayla is first angry at Callum for using dark magic in the earlier scene, but it took a physical toll on him and he becomes very ill from it. While she first tries to hide it, over the scene it looks more and more like he won’t make it and she becomes seriously concerned for him and shows that she really does care about him. It looks as though she’s about to say something to him—a confession, maybe?—right before he recovers. To be honest, the way they’re building it up, it could either turn out to be a romance or a great friendship, but it feels very natural and I’m all for it either way. And if it is the former, I’m glad they aren’t pulling the typical romance clichés in cartoons, like having Callum crush heavily on Rayla (hell, he was crushing on Claudia up until she betrayed him this season) or having Rayla act in the tsundere, “I don’t like you, idiot” kind of way. But yeah, I’d love to see where this goes.

(Don’t worry about Callum, by the way. He’s not in danger, he’s just going through a really trippy fever dream that allows him access to sky magic.)

Other Stuff

As much as I’ve talked about everything else, the humor in this season is also really on-point, much more so than the last season! I found myself laughing out loud at a lot of points. That said, some of the more reference-based humor… doesn’t exactly hold up. Like, there’s a scene where Rayla pulls an extended Sailor Moon gag, and another where Callum literally says, “One does not simply walk into Xadia,” and… this Simple Minds reference:

Because in a medieval fantasy environment, everybody has seen The Breakfast Club, right? Perhaps the only one I can get behind is this credits gag with Aaravos imitating the Gatsby pose:

Which seems much more fitting there than in the show itself, since the credits are just filled with little gags like that.

As for questions about season three, most of my questions in my last post have been answered, but it did open up a few new questions. Who is Aaravos and what is his motivation? I’m assuming he’s an antagonist, but he could easily subvert our expectations. Will returning Zym back to the dragon queen really bring an end to the war? We’re only two seasons in out of a presumed six or seven, and I figured it would take a lot longer to get to Xadia than it did, but they’re already there, so it’s going to have to be stretched out a lot further, I figure. Finally, there’s a fan theory going around that King Harrow swapped bodies with Pip, Harrow’s bird. Is there any truth to that? We saw Pip escape in this season, so it could have been, but I don’t know.

Conclusion

Season two of The Dragon Prince was an improvement on season one in every way. The show really came into its own with this season, much more so than with the first one. I loved the characters, the animation, the worldbuilding, the soundtrack, and unlike the first season, which just left me feeling meh, this one actually makes me want to see a lot more, and… yeah, I’m a fan now. Congratulations, show. As Leonardo DiCaprio put it, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention.

Once again, I implore you: don’t screw it up. But this time, I trust that you won’t.

~Spaceman

Assorted Thoughts on The Dragon Prince Book Three

Hey guys, TheHappySpaceman here. The Dragon Prince. What more do I need to say about it other than what I’ve already covered in my first two reviews? Well, a lot actually.

I was impressed with the show’s improvement from Book One to Book Two and was super excited for where it was set to go in the future. Since then, I have joined the TDP fanbase and supported the show by making memes, reactions, AMVs, oneshots, and plenty of fanart. However, when info dropped last month about Aaron Ehasz and the workplace environment at Wonderstorm potentially not being so good, I didn’t know what to make of it, and as more and more info came out, I became even more confused. Though the fanbase was becoming incredibly toxic due to the near-constant infighting, I promised myself that I would still stick around for Book Three, seeing how excited I had been for it before the controversy, but I almost wondered if it would be worth it.

So, after so many accusations and hollow words thrown around, and after nine months of anticipation… how does it hold up?

…Oh! Okay, wow, this season was a ton of fun. And yes, it’s exactly as good as I figured it would be after seeing Book Two. Everything I could have hoped for from this series really goes full-force here and it rarely if ever lets off the brakes.

The Story

After a brief intro as exposition, the plot starts immediately after the events of the Book Two finale where Callum and Rayla have entered Xadia and have to face many challenges along the way, including archdragon Sol Regem, Rayla’s hometown, and a rogueish elf thief. All the while, Ezran arrives back to Katolis and has to face the challenges of dealing with being king of a country that he finds in chaos, being pressured to enter war and be the king that Harrow was, while Soren and Claudia are confronted with the decision between helping their own father wage war against Xadia or joining their friends.

The Characters

This season introduced a number of interesting new characters. We got to meet some more dragons, for one thing, and while hearing them speak was pretty jarring at first (they talk normal English, which is strange since we’ve never heard them speak before), it turned out to be pretty awesome in establishing the characters. Most notably, we meet Sol Regem, the dragon who appeared in the opening of the series and was on many of the posters, and I’m surprised how he kind of turns out to be a major dick. Since was on so much of the promo materials for the show, I wasn’t figuring this, but he wound up being a racist jackass who was willing to kill our protagonists, including the young dragon prince Zym, all because of his hatred of humans.

He’s not the only dragon we meet. We also meet Avizandum, otherwise known as Thunder, the late King of the dragons, in flashbacks, and we get to see just how he died. As well, we get Zubeia, Zym’s mom, and Pyrrha, a dragon who Ezran had met in the prior season and befriends. My favorite one might be a nameless dragon who is unchained by Soren and nuzzles him. That’s a really cute scene.

We also meet a lot of new elves this season. Of particular note is Ethari, the Moonshadow elf blacksmith who had been seen in the end credits for Book One and had previously been given the fan name “Tinker.” There was a lot of fan speculation that Ethari was Runaan’s boyfriend and that the two of them raised Rayla together while her parents were gone. Well, this season proves that theory entirely false. No, Ethari is Runaan’s husband. Again, way to go with LGBT+ rep, Wonderstorm (especially since the episode that introduces Ethari was written by a woman in the LGBT+ community)! Ethari’s dynamic with Rayla is also very interesting and shows that he truly does care about her even after her town essentially banished her.

This season officially introduces us to Janai, the Sunfire elf that Amaya was battling in Book Two. I find it interesting how, in many ways, the two characters perfectly mirror each other: Both women are highly dedicated to their duty of their respective countries, and both of them are sisters of royalty, with Janai’s elder sister being the Sunfire Queen. This gives them an interesting dynamic with their interactions. Also of note is Kazi, Amaya’s translator this season who kind of gives off C-3PO vibes. Every scene with them is very funny.

Additionally, this season introduces us to a whole new race of elf: Skywing elves! It only makes sense, since we’ve already met Moonshadow, Sunfire, and Startouch elves; that only leaves two more to go. The two Skywing elves we meet are Ibis, a mage who works directly for the dragon queen Zubeia; and my personal favorite, Nyx, a loveable rogue type of character who our heroes meet when crossing the midnight desert. Man, I love Nyx, and yet, I feel like this season doesn’t do enough with her. I mean, they introduce her in episode four, and then she just kind of disappears after episode six. I was hoping that she’d play a bigger role, especially seeing how hyped up she was in the trailers for this season. Still, maybe she’ll appear again. She played an interesting part as an antagonist and I’d like to see her come back.

Speaking of antagonists, how about this guy? Prince Kasef. Man, the writers wanted to make a real jerk type of character and they succeeded. He’s the warmongering son of King Ahling who takes over after his dad’s injuries from last season. Outside of a cool design, there is nothing redeemable about this character. I’m not faulting the show for this, for the record. It seems like it was the writers’ intention to make him a complete asshole, very comparable to Viren in a lot of ways. Kasef is taken down in a pretty spectacular way, for the record, and it’s hard to say he’ll be missed.

But of all the new characters introduced, to me the real standout character of the season is one of the main leads from all the way back in Book One. Man… Soren is just great this season. After breaking his spine in Book Two, we get to see him go through so much character development beyond just being the dumb comic relief. He starts to question what is right, what side he should be on, and he is put through so much hell in the process, but he comes out better for it in the end. Leave it to the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender to make me feel sympathetic for a character like this.

The Animation

Holy crap, the animation in this season is so damn impressive! Bardel Entertainment already fixed the animation in a major way between Book One and Book Two, but this season gives us some seriously amazing moments that I never would have expected from this show after watching Book One. Everything feels so much more fluid this season, even more improved than Book Two in that respect. The backgrounds are downright stunning, too. They feel so real, like you could actually be there with the characters. One of the major gripes I did have with the first two seasons was the facial animation, and how the mouths kind of looked derpy and unexpressive, perhaps due to the CGI medium the characters were animated in. But here, everyone is so emotive and expressive that you can watch the season without audio and still understand what’s going on. There’s a particular scene with Amaya and Janai that I’ll get into later that perfectly shows this. This isn’t only in the mouths, either; we also see little details like characters’ pupils dilating, or the elves’ ears slumping down or perking up depending on the mood. These were little touches that they didn’t have to include, but the fact that they did makes it so much more of an enjoyable watch, because you notice new little details each time you watch it.

The Relationships

I don’t usually have a separate section in my previous season reviews about this, but this season was heavily based on character relationships as much as individual characters, whether they be relationships between family members, friends, comrades in battle, or romantic partners. Just a warning: This section will get into spoiler territory. If you have not watched the season before reading this, I strongly advise you to stop reading and go do that.

The first relationship I’d like to talk about returns to Soren. During the course of this season, he starts to question the morals of his father, Viren, and Soren has to struggle between his duties to his father and his duties to his country as a member of the crownguard. We get the sense that Claudia has always been Viren’s favorite, and that the abuse and gaslighting Soren has to deal with in this season is nothing new and Viren’s contempt for his son has been building up a long time. Soren’s relationship with Claudia strains in this season until, when not wanting to make his sister choose between him or Viren, Soren cuts ties with her. The scene where he says goodbye and leaves is genuinely a heartbreaking one, and in general, you can feel the emotions all the characters are going through.

With Amaya and Janai, the two form a mutual respect over the course of the season. Amaya defeats Janai at the breach, but when seeing that the Sunfire general is hanging for her life, she ultimately saves Janai from dying. As the days go on and Amaya becomes a prisoner, Janai defends her against the Sunfire queen and they soon form a friendship that hints that it might lead to something more. But the scene that really increases the characters’ development is when Aaravos straight-up murders the Sunfire Queen. This sends Janai into a rage and she runs in, willing to risk her own life to avenge the death of her sister, but Amaya tackles her to the ground and gives her a solemn look of understanding, of knowing how it feels to lose her own sister. This little exchange is very powerful. I’ve always said that a scene is effective if it manages to give you chills without any dialogue, just letting the music and animation speak on its own, and, well, this scene passes that test. (Major shout-out to Frederik Wiedmann’s score, by the way; it really shines in this entire season.)

And… well, okay, there’s no use dodging it anymore. Let’s talk about these two.

Rayla and Callum. Oh boy. So, remember in my last review how I said it was likely that Rayla and Callum were going to get together by the end of the show? Well, since this show has a planned seven-season run, I was expecting it to happen way later, like in Book Six, or more likely for them to pull the Last Minute Hookup thing where they confess their love and finally kiss at the end of the last season. That trope always frustrates me, but it’s a good way of stretching out the romantic tension for as long as possible to keep fans interested, so I figured that’s what was going to happen, right? Well…

Yeah, I went into this season expecting a slow burn, but instead we got a freaking forest fire. Holy crap, I was not expecting them to hook up this early in the show. And it didn’t happen in the last episode, either; no, they shared their first kiss in episode four, smack in the middle of the season. And you know what? I’m all for that. The writers handled their relationship really well and it felt surprisingly believable and not rushed despite happening so soon. It hasn’t been confirmed how long Callum and Rayla have known each other for, but I’ve calculated that it’s been anywhere between 20-30 days since they first met, which is more than enough time to fall in love. Part of why it works is that the dynamic didn’t really change much. They already had a beautiful friendship, and the only thing that has changed between them is that there’s now more kissing. I wouldn’t have depicted their relationship any other way if I had made it canon. This does open up the question of where they’re going to go with it in future seasons, but as usual, I trust the writers not to screw it up. I may honestly dedicate a whole post to why Rayla and Callum’s relationship works, but we’ll see if I have time for that.

Other Stuff (incl. spoilers)

For the most part, the humor in this season is on point. With the exception of an oddly-placed fart joke in episode two, I found myself laughing at most of the scenes where I was supposed to laugh. Highlights include Soren putting stacking three pieces of bread to make a “bread sandwich,” Callum seeing a boomerang and finding it “oddly familiar” (hi, Sokka), and Nyx taking the dragang (Callum, Rayla, and Zym) past a magical forcefield protecting an oasis, saying, “Anyway, here’s the wonderwall.” I had to do a double take with that because I was laughing so hard. Though I think my personal favorite may be when Ibis laughs at Callum because “humans can’t do magic” and Callum does this.

Just, the look on his face. He’s so done and it’s hilarious.

One thing I was surprised by in this season was the sheer amount of violence. This one really does feel like an all-out war. Apparently, the violence was enough to get it rated TV 13 in some countries (though it’s still listed as TV Y-7 here) and honestly, I can see why. There’s an all-out battle scene in the last episode that could be compared to the climax of Return of the King. Everyone is fighting each other; even the Baker from Book One gets a few punches in there! Not only that, but there are a huge number of onscreen deaths in this season. As previously mentioned, we get to see the Sunfire Queen be Thanos’d. Prince Kasef gets a pretty spectacular death when Queen Aanya has a Big Damn Heroes moment and shoots an arrow through his head. Not to mention that we get to see Viren die not once, but twice! Even though Claudia resurrects him using dark magic, it’s still pretty great to see because he’s a turd. (No offense to Jason Simpson, though—love ya.)

By far the hardest death scene to watch, however, is the death of Avizandum, the Dragon King. In the flashbacks, we get to see how Harrow and Viren killed him, and, well… it’s really painful. The death, by way of petrification, is shown to be slow and agonizing, and Avizandum is shown tearing off his wings in a futile attempt to survive just to make it back to Zubeia. Even Harrow is mortified, with a look of “Oh god, what have I done?” on his face. In his last moments, Avizandum sheds a tear knowing that he will never be able to see his son grow up, and we as the audience are given a grim reminder that everyone… is a person. Even our enemies have families they care about. Avizandum may have been a gigantic, powerful dragon who hated humans, but at the end of the day he was still a dad who wanted to protect his son.

My One Complaint

Okay, so I’ve talked about everything I love about this season, and how it has significantly increased the show’s potential. With all that said, why can’t I give this season my full props? Well… I’ll be honest, it’s because of the pacing. Remember how I said this season rarely if ever lets off the brakes? Yeah, that’s both a blessing and a curse. There are a lot of people online who believe that Rayla and Callum’s relationship was rushed, and I somewhat agree with them, but only to the same end that everything in this season felt rushed. Nine episodes just isn’t enough time for each season. This has been a problem I’ve had with previous seasons, too, but here, it felt especially rushed because so much happened in this season that it felt like we couldn’t dedicate enough time to everything. I’m not saying that every season needs to be twenty episodes long like Avatar—especially since, with four more proposed seasons, we’re already supposed to be getting more episodes than Avatar if all goes according to plan—but 10-13 episodes per season would probably be beneficial for future ones, especially since future arcs of the show are overall going to be shorter (only two seasons each instead of three). Or hell, maybe make the episodes longer. Of course, if that’s my biggest gripe with this season, then we still have it pretty good, let’s be honest.

Where Do We Go from Here?

So, the question remains, where does the show go from here? There are supposed to be four more seasons, but the final episode of Book Three, titled “The Final Battle,” honestly feels like a series finale in a lot of ways: There’s a big epic climax, Rayla and Callum are together, Zym is reunited with his mom, and the elves and humans have formed an alliance, if only temporary. It all seems too easy, doesn’t it? My guess is that this was meant as a pseudo-series finale just in case Netflix doesn’t renew the show for a fourth season.

However, as I’ve rewatched the season, I noticed that they still leave a lot of loose ends. Most notably, Aaravos is seeming to metamorphize and grow outside of his mirror. Judging by how Aaravos really let loose in this series, I can’t wait to see more of him as a villain and find out about his backstory. Also, Rayla was ghosted—or banished—from her hometown after failing her mission in Book One. Will she ever be able to go home again? On a related note, what did happen to her parents? Are we to assume they were trapped in coins like Runaan (and speaking of which, will Runaan ever get out)? There are also other unresolved plot points, like Claudia’s path down the road of dark magic, Viren’s ex-wife, and Callum’s dad. The last one is especially interesting to me, since it would be cool to know if Callum is secretly half-elf, which is why he knows how to do primal magic. Oh, and my question from last season about whether Harrow’s soul is in Pip’s body still remains. So it seems like they left enough open-ended so that they could continue with a new season.

I do hope to see how Rayla and Callum’s relationship develops in the future, though that may just be the shipper in me talking. But in all seriousness, this does open up some potential. As far as we know, Rayla and Callum are the first human/elf couple, so how is that received? Will they be judged by others? Will certain problems arise from this? I hope the upcoming seasons explore this and don’t just pull the usual romance clichés, though the writers have been pretty good at avoiding those so far.

I also have to wonder: When interviewed, the creators of The Dragon Prince said that there would be a time skip between Book Three and Book Four, since each of them is part of a separate story arc. How much of a time skip will it be? I can’t imagine that it will be over a year, but if it is, I hope they don’t do one of those things where since the main cast is too old now, they replace all the main characters with new ones and expect the audience to get invested in them. I highly doubt they will do that, though. It would be too jarring.

Conclusion

If you have been sleeping on The Dragon Prince, I highly urge you to check it out. Book Three is everything I had hoped the first two seasons would be, and more. With fantastic animation, likable characters that go through unique development, and a downright beautiful score (seriously, major props to Frederik Wiedmann), it wonderfully wraps up the first major arc of this series. I hope Netflix renews the show for all seven seasons, because this one has left me wanting more.

~Spaceman