Season two of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince utilizes the wonderful world-building and character development from the first season to enhance an already engaging narrative.
The dragon prince, named Zym, has hatched and it is up to human princes Callum (Jack De Sena) and Ezran (Sasha Rojen), along with their elvish friend Rayla (Paula Burrows), to get Zym back to his mother. The trio seeks to save Zym from becoming a pawn in the human/elvish conflict.
Callum and Ezran’s late father’s advisor, the dark wizard Viren (Jason Simpson), has taken over their kingdom looking to start an all-out war.
However, Viren is not the epitome of evil. As the show explores his character, the audience can understand and even empathize with him.
Reminiscent of old-school fantasy, the show introduces new human and elvish cultures this season, while Callum begins to learn more about magic.
The elemental magic in The Dragon Prince will feel familiar to fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which series co-creator Aaron Ehasz also helped create. Humans are unable to wield elemental magic, but have found a dark alternative. Human mages like Viren and his daughter Claudia (Racquel Belmonte) draw their power from dark magic, which requires a living sacrifice.
Viren holds the philosophy of the-ends-justify-the-means, and without Harrow’s moral code to keep him in check; he gets ever closer to his goal. His kids, on the other hand, are trying to develop their own philosophies.
Claudia and her brother Soren (Jesse Inocalla) are more present this season and toe-the-line between good and evil. Soren is a jock with little understanding of the effects of his actions, and while Claudia is book-smart; she has a hard time navigating the nuances between right and wrong.
They still manage to be likeable characters, which demonstrates how ostensibly good people can do evil things through thoughtlessness and ambition. Callum and Ezran are forced to deal with the death of their father in a way few children’s shows would dare. No punches are pulled as the writers ground the emotions the pair feels in truth and reality, refusing to sugarcoat the nature of dealing with death.
The show should be applauded for seriously addressing difficult topics, and the way they handle disabilities is no exception.
General Amaya, Callum and Ezran’s aunt, is powerful, forthright and hilarious. She is also a deaf woman of color who communicates with American Sign Language.
Her deafness is essential to who she is and how she engages with the world, but it is not her defining trait. Above all, she was Harrow’s most trusted ally, and extremely loyal to her kingdom and family.
Show writers spent a lot of time working with members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing community to build an inclusive world, and ensure the character felt authentic.
“The scene where she’s at her sister’s grave—we were worried, because it’s a show for children, that we might lose people. But the animation came back, and she was so emotive, and it’s so beautiful,” show writer Devon Giehl said. “I think even in the absence of subtitles, it really stands on its own. And she’s a deaf character—we wanted it so that understanding what she’s communicating here is for the deaf audience.”
A big improvement from the first season is the 3D animation. The colors are vibrant, and the stiff character movement from the first season is significantly improved.
With the increasing momentum of the plot, it is easy to see why fans are eager for season three. The excellent storytelling, beautiful animation and complex characters are more than enough to warrant watching the whole season in a single sitting.