The Dragon Prince has ended, the Mystery of Aaravos is done and now we’re in another hiatus phase, questioning if we are going to get a season 8, 9 and 10. To be honest with you all? I don’t want those seasons. The Mystery of Aaravos was a failure and does not deserve a sequel. Not helping how even Aaron Ehasz is now getting somewhat annoyed and upset not everybody is guzzling down the quality of this story with joy. With a guy who was head writer on Avatar the Last Airbender you’d think he’d know by now giving a good series and story has to be done carefully and if not done well and it’s badly received then you shouldn’t be in the industry or getting your work out to the public. But of course, he isn’t the only one to blame as there’s other factors, like Devon Gheil’s bizarre comments on the characters, Netflix not being clear on what they wanted with The Dragon Prince after the first arc and leaving the studio hanging. Lots of people are to blame for this series falling to little crumbling stones, there’s names and companies. But for the most part I, the Wandering Fox, will talk of how and why the Mystery of Aaravos was a failure.
Let’s look at the first culprit, this being:
Uncertainty
Thanks to Devon Gheil revealing this prior to the Star Season being released, there was uncertainty of whether there’d be any continuation of The Dragon Prince with Netflix. In the screenshot below, Devon explains to a fan on tumblr after questioned of why the final scene with Claudia and Viren didn’t mention the two-year time skip.
Devon revealed here they almost didn’t even get one more season, which makes me think Netflix revealed what they wanted a bit later in 2020, and following that the writing team desperately wrote up a rough cut of what they wanted and went on to work on it instead of going “Okay, let’s think on this”. Now, could Netflix have given them a deadline as in “Get these seasons out by the next couple of years or your done” then maybe that could explain the rushed and terrible quality cos the writers were desperate to get it out there.
However, Devon has let slip here a big criticism the writers have gotten. Instead of adapting to the limitations Netflix gave them, they instead went way too big with the series and crammed way too much in there that wasn’t even needed or earned. Working in limitations creates all kinds of creative ideas, it’s like the early slasher films having to work with practical effects to get across the horror, or the early 70s Tv shows with limited budgets allowed for quality writing to take hold with more self-contained stories. So, Devon may have provided evidence Netflix were being odd after the final battle of that season, but she also let slip the writer’s frustrations of having limits to their work.
Which brings me to the biggest culprit.
The Writing
The writing for the series took a shocking dive from season 4. After all these years of waiting, this is what we get? Granted, the first three seasons were not perfect but it was consistent enough and told a tight story where everything connected more organically and balanced out the humour. Yeah, the humour was always a weak part of the show but it at least wasn’t MCU levels of humour where it cut in serious moments, and it fitted more with how the characters were younger. Aaron Ehasz repeatedly said the Mystery of Aaravos was going to be “Darker, more mature, like the latter Harry Potter books” paraphrasing here but he definitely said it’d be darker and mature.
I’m sorry but what’s so dark and mature with Terry’s farts, him and Claudia wiggling their butts in front of a comatose Viren, or Soren flossing or running around in the woods in his pink jammies? Or how about appeasing Rex Igneous with a Chocolate Tart? Or how about we have two totally different themes clashing horribly with each other in season five with Kim’dael slaughtering elves and humans then we get Ezran and Soren having a kiddie cartoon section of naming the baby glowtoads? Or how about the resolution to Finnegrin in Soren telling Fin’s enslaved minion Elmer to stop being like him? Why exactly is Elmer gonna listen to a guy he just met over the guy who he’s known far longer than him?
Or how about the constant meta references to other franchises like The Lord of the Rings, Twin Peaks, or Avatar? Seriously, the Avatar references got even more prominent in season 7 with Terry copying “Hello, Zuko here”.
Yes, The Lord of the Rings was referenced in season 2 but even then they didn’t dwell on it, made only tiny references, then that was it. I’d take “One does not simply walk into Xadia” over “Why don’t we form the Fellowship of the Pearl, fly the prison to a volcano and drop it in!?” Ugh, guys the more you do this the more I don’t see it as it’s original setting and more of a poor man’s fan fiction. In fact, you referencing all this stuff makes your show look way way more pathetic. Do your own thing, stop the references.
It’s not just that but the writers bloated out the cast. We have Karim, Kim’dael, Terry, Finnegrin, Kosmo, Astrid, in fact if you revised this you could easily cut Kim’dael out of the story as she didn’t get anything out of this, she didn’t steal the Sunseed, Myenna did. And why is Kim’dael here? This character is tied more to Rayla but they don’t even meet again! With a bloated cast like this you’re struggling to tell a simple story. Sure, your Sunfire elf story connected to Aaravos in the end with Sol Regem destroying Katolis and Aaravos killing Karim then taking the Sunforge, but even then you could’ve done that whole thing a lot better, the whole stuff started because a Sunfire elf wasn’t allowed to light a candle in the tent city with the human architect telling him not to.
Uh…..writers, this woman created a tent city for a race of elves called SUNFIRE ELVES! These guys can set themselves on fire! You could’ve come up with anything else but this relies on utter idiocy on lots of characters for this. Besides, the Sunfire elves have an empire don’t they have another city they could take the people of Lux Aurea to? C’mon writers, this was the best you could do?
The writing also completely ignores certain elements that were major setups or skirt around it for some reason, like Callum’s possession by Aaravos in season 4, you have the characters hardly acknowledge it with Soren ruining a moment, Ezran surprised Callum is scared Aaravos could control him again, then we get Rayla saying “Aaravos can’t make you do anything!” Rayla you just saw him do it, WTF!? She brushes his suicidal concerns off by grabbing his nose and telling him to decide his own path which is honestly a pathetic attempt at breaking the ice, it’s too funny.
Or how about the whole resolution to Through the Moon? Rayla wants to apologise, Callum doesn’t want it, he just kisses her and it’s over with. Why even have Rayla run away? What did she even do other than finding Stella and going to Scumport? If you weren’t going to resolve it properly then you shouldn’t have done this story in the first place!
Coming back to Rayla running away, the series handled that badly. Those who didn’t read the book were confused why Rayla ran away, then upon her return they skirt around the subject and you have Devon Gheil, the head writer, blame CALLUM for the awkwardness of the reunion, not the girl who LEFT HIM ON HIS BIRTHDAY AFTER PROMISING NOT TO, DOESNT KEEP IN TOUCH OVER TWO YEARS THEN WALKS BACK IN WITH A CUDDLE MONKEY! Even in season six we don’t get a proper apology from Rayla, Callum doesn’t want to hear it, even though it’s clear Rayla wants to say sorry. As for why Rayla came back? She missed Callum…wow, you wasted two years of your life for you to realise your boyfriend meant that much to you? Oh, and you have to read this on the website.
Then there’s Scumport; in season 4 they keep saying there’s still tension and hate between elves and humans, but in Scumport, in Xadia, humans and elves are living side by side just fine! You guys love contradicting yourselves don’t you? Or how about how you said it takes over a hundred years for an Arch dragon to talk, but it takes Zym just a couple of years of his life then he talks? Where exactly was the character development for Zym?
Why is Ezran still a silly little kid despite everything he went through in seasons two and three? He gets better in seasons six and seven, but you’d think after leaving Callum, struggling to be a king, betrayed by Claudia, almost being killed by her illusion of Viren, then two years of being king you’d think he’d have matured, but no. Still the silly kid who doesn’t listen to his people’s concerns about inviting a dragon over, wants to see Zym again, then goes on adventures even though he’s the king and has to stay where he is, then he gets everybody in trouble in season 5 with not a ounce of guilt from him or any reprimanding from his friends?
Or how about the climax of season 4 in which Callum doesn’t try to fight Claudia even though he has Ibis’s Skywing staff right behind him, he could’ve easily frozen Claudia, knock her down with some wind or even electrocute her. Rayla could’ve ran up to her and beaten her up, but no, they just stand there and let her win.
The show even bluntly admits it skipped over important stuff, like Ezran forgiving Zubeia for having Harrow killed, Amaya learning to let go of her hatred, or Claudia bonding with Aaravos during the two years, Domina Profoundus, or Soren and Viren’s talk in season four being sent to a short story on the website, where exactly was this? You saving it for a graphic novel spin off only a tiny number of people will read? What, is that how we’re gonna get Terry meeting Claudia?
It’s where I have to tell you this. Aaron lied. He and the whole team LIED. They promised us this would be darker and mature. They promised us season 7 would be the end, though they then changed their minds halfway on that and gave us a loose end in season 7. They promised we’d see Callum and Ezran be different when of course we didn’t. Callum’s more ballsy and harder, but Ezran took five seasons to change. You said “Aaravos is so strong, he’s the master of all Primal Sources, the Arch dragons are scared to face him, they have to defeat him with trickery”. Your posters gave us lies, you had them tease Domina Profoundus was gonna be a big player in season 5 but she wasn’t, you promised serious Ezran in season 5 but he wasn’t, your Claudia poster for season six teased big things when all we had was her having a bath in the water, get all unsure with a animal then free Aaravos. Oh man all these promises. And Aaron and the writers have the nerve to demand an extra season. So what? More lies? More childish writing?
Oh you lot. How about instead of trying to make your tiny show into a franchise, why not make better, smarter storytelling? Which brings me to:
Trying to be a franchise
The best way to describe this problem The Dragon Prince got was MCU Syndrome. It looked at the MCU and tried to make itself as a big franchise like it. The problem was that it wasn’t ready. The DCEU had the same problems, and I find The Dragon Prince comparable to it. Instead of focussing on the interesting story aspects that season three had set up, it chosen to bulldoze that aside and do a spin off book that not everybody read and introduced a whole load of characters while struggling to focus on the core characters of the show. Through the Moon, yes, I’m talking about it. Not just because of Rayla running away at the end, but you had that, and the rebuilding of the Moon Nexus go on in this book, which wasn’t talked of in the series especially in season six upon which we return to the Moon Nexus. There were lots of fans complaining about how they’d have to go and buy a book to find out what occurred.
Then we get the Bloodmoon Huntress graphic novel which is an insight in Rayla’s childhood and why she was scared of water, as well as giving us Kim’dael the vampire elf who basically is the reason why humans think Moonshadow Elves drink the blood of others. If only we had this explored in the actual series instead of a book. If only we could’ve explored how this stigma affected Moonshadow elves in the series? If only this character met Rayla again instead of being relegated to a subplot which had only been made to get Sol Regem to fly to Katolis. If only you didn’t reintroduce this character in a series of short stories on the website not everybody is going to read?
The short stories as well had several in there which could’ve made it in the show, like Aaron’s infamous quote of “It wouldn’t be visually interesting” seeing Soren and Viren interact in Season 4, that got made in a short story on the website. Or Ezran’s hatred of Runaan which had nothing spoken of in the series.
The tie in media was done to try and make the franchise bigger than what it was. By the end of the finale to the third season The Dragon Prince grew a sizeable fan base but not as big as Avatar’s, you can’t just go and make a bunch of spin off books that even a big chunk of your fan base isn’t going to be aware of let alone trying to entice new fans. If the creatives really wanted The Dragon Prince to truly stand up strong then they should’ve focussed on the tv side of things, do the whole seven seasons, then see if they can try doing a spin off if The Dragon Prince has truly earned it. But that would mean having to tell a more interesting story season three had left the writers right in front of them and hey, unless they do a soft reboot, it’s just going to be a case of “Oh bloody heck why didn’t we do that!?”
Through the Moon doesn’t even justify it’s own impact on the series as what we got out of it was a rather pointless relationship drama which had been resolved as if a cartoon baddie was hiding a dead body under the rug right in front of the detective who doesn’t want to look to it, a plot device to bring Runaan back and a two year timeskip which has yet to answer the true questions of:
What happened to Del-Bar, Evenere, and Neolandia?
Why didn’t Soren go looking for Claudia?
Why didn’t Ethari try contacting Rayla after the Silvergrove heard she fought at the Spire?
Why didn’t everybody start looking to Callum and think “How can a human do magic!?”
Why didn’t Ezran mature during the timeskip?
How did Terry and Claudia meet?
How did Amaya and Janai fall in love?
Speaking of questions, I got a few:
Why didn’t anybody steal the Novablade of it was in the graveyard? That dust came off it way too easily, you mean to tell me this ancient sword which could hurt a Startouch elf wasn’t stolen?
Why haven’t we found out why Ezran can talk to animals?
Why didn’t Harrow come back to the boys after he escaped in season two?
Why didn’t Lissa reach out for Soren after season 3?
Why did Aaravos not use any of the Primal Sources in the final battle and went down like he was in a wrestling match?
Why didn’t the Cosmic Order come to stop Aaravos?
Why didn’t we get Claudia captured?
Why did we get a pitch-black screen of Rayla and Ezran doing a cartwheel instead of Soren and Viren interacting in season 4?
This?
Was more “visually interesting” than this?
Then there’s this.
This is the map of Xadia. Ever since season 3, there has been this odd travel of the characters. Ezran and Corvus get back to Katolis in ONE DAY while it took the heroes WEEKS to get to the Divide.
Season 6: Claudia, Terry and Viren took a few days walking through the middle of NOWHERE IN XADIA from THE SEA OF THE CASTOUT back to Katolis, without any difficulty or wondering where they were going.
Season 6: Callum and Rayla flew FROM THE STARSCRAPER UP IN THE NORTH all the way to the Moon Nexus in one day! How on Xadia did Callum’s arms not bulk up upon getting to the Moon Nexus!? Besides, it took him and Rayla DAYS to get to the Starscraper. Oh and look at that. How did they not see Katolis burning while they flew down on the Moon Nexus?
This brings me to my last point:
Behind the Scenes
Much like what I brought up above, Devon Gheil revealed The Dragon Prince was in an uncertain place after season 3, though as we know changes happened following The Mystery of Aaravos being greenlit. We know the director of the first three seasons, Giancarlo Volpe, left and was replaced. The writers were swapped around in between this period and the lack of quality without Volpe’s guiding hand is easy to see. Combine this with how possibly late Netflix gave them the green light we ended up getting horrific animation errors like Rayla’s face markings disappearing, Ezran’s backpack disappearing from his shoulders in one scene, Callum’s scarf disappears here and there.
I know they keep using COVID as excuse, to which I say “So…you guys are trapped indoors, but you’re fine as far as we know. You are contacting each other all the time through the internet. You can do video calls, sharing your ideas, giving each other criticism. So…you’re going to blame Covid for the quality of your writing even though that shouldn’t be a problem? Covid would affect the animators obviously, but you lot, the writers? I smell something and it’s not Terry’s “beautiful” farts”. I smell something greener and just as stinky. I look to The Owl House. Season 1 was released in 2020, they worked halfway on season 2 by then, and they had to do the second half during Covid. Did the quality of that show fall apart?
NOPE!
Did the writing get crap?
Uh, let me think……NO!
The behind the scenes drama continued after season 4 with how bad that season was, you can tell the team was not ready for the backlash. Some of the animators got passive aggressive with a few fans for noticing the errors, Devon Gheil made that odd answer of why Terry is the one exception to Claudia even though she hates elves, Justin Richmond was getting cocky with the criticism, and Aaron to me was a wreck in that Q&A with him saying “It wouldn’t be visually interesting” in regards to Soren and Viren, or Devon Gheil blaming Callum for the awkwardness of the reunion.
It’s obvious, judging by Devon’s comment up above, Netflix was not happy with the series, creating a bitter relationship between them and Wonderstorm with the latter blaming Netflix for the slow release of season six and then at comic con ended up revealing Netflix was not sure of renewing them for seasons 8, 9 and 10, urging the fans to give season seven good praise and increase its viewership up to get it renewed. Uh, let me tell you this……no. If you didn’t keep constantly changing plans from saying seasons 4-6 was the second arc and season 7 was the third and final arc, then flat out said no, 4-7 was the second arc and you’d complete the series by season 7, only to write yourself into a corner with a lot of bad writing choices and think you have the balls to demand Netflix give you more seasons, then I’m sorry to say but no. You want to give us those seasons? learn from your mistakes. Yes, look at those oh so “nasty” comments criticising your writing, swallow your pride and accept your not the best thing since sliced bread, and actually tell a good story with proper maturity and properly end it.
My advice is probably falling on deaf ears, but hey, I tried.
Though before I go, I will give the Mystery of Aaravos some credit.
I like Callum’s upgrade. He’s taller, looks very regal, is more muscled, yet still has this adventurous kind side to him. I love him, he’s my favourite out of all the characters and I’m happy with him in the end.
It was nice getting to know Janai more.
I quite liked the Starscraper.
And Viren was good in this story.
That’s it.
But from today, it’s done. I will do fan art of The Dragon Prince, but my journey with it is over. If you do get those seasons, cool, I won’t be back, good luck and learn from your cock ups. Oh, and Aaron?
Make something visually interesting.
I’m the Wandering Fox and I’ll see ya later.
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