The Media Man Reviews: The Dragon Prince Season 7

Here we are, the final season (for now) of this rollercoaster ride of a series.

The Dragon Prince has been a rough one, and those who have been following my blog for the past couple of years should know that very well given my lengthy reviews and critiques of Seasons 4, 5 and 6. The show started off great with the first three seasons, but come Season 4, the quality just hasn't been the same since then. We've had three seasons in a row of overstuffed plots with equally overstuffed casts of characters, an overreliance on humour that is more annoying than funny, dumb plot points that require the characters to do dumb things to make them work and much more. Season 6 was at least a marked improvement over Seasons 4 and 5...barely.

So there's a lot of pressure on this thing to be a satisfying finale for the show and conclude The Dragon Prince in a way to please everyone.

So, does Season 7 end the show on a high note (for now)? Or should we let Aaravos swallow this thing? Let's find out...

Section 1: The Story

Following on from Season 6, our heroes are in their darkest hour. Aaravos is finally freed and he's out for revenge against those that took his daughter away. Tension builds as Aaravos initiates his gameplan and our heroes may have to compromise their morals in order to finally defeat him...

In my previous reviews, my most recurring issue with this series has been the story is overstuffed and full to bursting with plot and characters. Does Season 7 fix this issue? Not quite, but it IS better paced and structured than Seasons 4 and 5 were, that's for sure. The plots all converge together, and we don't have any side plots that feel like padding or wasting time in this season. It's not perfect, but it does feel a lot easier to follow the story in this season compared to the other seasons before it. It doesn't feel quite as overstuffed this time around.

Another criticism I had with the previous seasons was the overreliance on humour and how the comedy was more annoying than funny. That too has been fixed here. While we do still get some dumb jokes here and there, this season is by far the LEAST overly-comical season we've had since the first three seasons. In fact, I'd say this season tonally feels the closest to the first three seasons of The Dragon Prince than Seasons 4, 5 and 6 did! There's far less humour in here and the situation is actually treated as a serious situation at long last. The characters aren't making jokes every five minutes and the humour is mostly saved for the breather moments. While the humour still feels a little childish at times, it's not as excessive so it feels less annoying. Oh, and we actually get a joke that's genuinely funny with one of the Moonshadow Elf kids saying to Rayla that Callum wants ten babies with her. No joke, that moment was the probably the hardest I've EVER laughed at any joke this series has told. Congratulations writers, you finally told a joke that's actually laugh-out-loud funny for once. Took you four seasons to do it. =P

With this being the final season, naturally the stakes feel the biggest they've ever felt in the show thus far and the show really does keep the tension building. There's a lot of times where it looks as if our heroes might win, but then something happens and it goes wrong for them, so now they have to improvise and try something else in order to win. And considering we've gone from defending a kingdom to having to save the world now, that's the king of big stakes a series finale should have. And when all is said and done, the show does (mostly) have a pretty solid conclusion to the series with some doors open for another season (though it really shouldn't have done so). I know that ending the series with Callum and Rayla kissing on a bridge together was THE perfect way to cap off the show...provided the writers don't ruin it by forcing the series to continue.

I also like the prominent themes of innocence and truth that make the meat of this story. There's a lot of talk about how innocence can be corrupted which is reflected nicely with how Ezran has become more hardened by Katolis's destruction and how Aaravos's world came crashing down after Leola was taken away from him, and there's the fact Aaravos makes a point about never lying, he just speaks half-truths and lets everyone else fill in the blanks. A lot of cunning manipulators rely on such tactics, and I wouldn't be surprised if that's also a commentary on how people in real life, especially those in positions of power, would do the same thing Aaravos does in order to coax people into following them and taking their side. Very topical stuff here and HIGHLY relevant themes in this day and age to include in a story.

Oh and I am SO happy that this season didn't undermine Viren's sacrifice in Season 6. I was worried they'd do so, but no, they finally let Viren STAY dead and didn't bring him back again. They could've easily done that, but thankfully they didn't and I'm so relieved at that.

And finally, because this season tones down the humour and actually embraces its darker tone for once, the emotional moments actually hit much harder than they ever did in the previous seasons. I know I felt a punch to my gut when Callum just broke down crying at the sight of Katolis in ruins. The fact Soren was there and didn't ruin it with a stupid joke made it even better. This is the kind of stuff we should've gotten more of in the previous seasons, not dumb jokes about Terry's nice-smelling farts or Terry and Claudia wiggling their bums in Viren's face or the poo joke. When you're not forcing humour in all the time, the characters can actually have real, proper emotional reactions to what's going on and feel like real people instead of clowns trying too hard to be funny.

So overall, Season 7 sounds like a good season, right? Not so fast readers, I'm only just done talking about the good stuff. Now it's time to cover the bad.

First of all, I hate how the season dares to end with opportunities for another season. Season 7 is supposed to be the end, so MAKE IT THE END! Don't leave sequel hooks in the hopes it'll get another season, this story does not need to continue! Just let it be the end! Because of this, we have annoying things like Claudia getting away scot-free in the end without even the tiniest of punishments for her actions. They finally get rid of Karim and let HIM die, but Claudia gets to live without consequence for her actions?! That's horrible! Claudia should've either died or gotten captured, she shouldn't have been allowed to get away like that just so we can have an unnecessary sequel hook.

Oh, and because the show can't just end conclusively, we have another forced sequel hook: the twist that King Harrow isn't actually dead and is in the body of Pip. They pretty much hinted at it in the previous seasons, but after Season 2, Pip escapes during the commotion as Viren is taken down and then the show just forgot about him until the very final episode of this season. Why are we only bringing this up NOW when the series is (supposedly) over? Why wasn't this brought up before? Because we needed a forced as hell sequel hook to force this series to continue, I guess? I have no idea... This twist, as some have pointed out, also retroactively ruins some of the scenes we got in Seasons 2 and 5 since, surprise, surprise, King Harrow's actually not dead! This reminds me of Young Justice Season 4 in how so much of that season's story and character moments didn't matter in the end because Superboy wasn't actually dead. It's the same here as King Harrow actually being alive undermines the emotional turmoil that went on between Ezran and Runaan in this season alone, as well as the emotional stuff with Callum and Viren respectively in previous seasons. Harrow should've been dead for real, him being alive just undermines so much of the show before it.

There's also moments of story that just don't add up, such as the Nova Blade turning out to be in the hands of a statue marking Ezran's ancestor's grave or the Cosmic Forces not getting involved with Aaravos as he carries out his big plan. You're SERIOUSLY expecting me to believe that the Nova Blade, this legendary sword that can kill a Startouch Elf, was just hiding in the hands of a statue marking someone's grave this whole time? That was stupid and everyone knows it. The fact Ezran only finds it because Aaravos just happened to say a few words that give him a hint was ridiculous too. Why would his ancestor hide such a powerful weapon and leave no way of finding it? How was anyone supposed to figure out where it was outside of sheer coincidence? Hell, why even hide it in the hands of a statue in the first place when there are much safer ways of hiding it? And if the sword was there this whole time, how did nobody know about it and how has nobody tried to steal it? And what was even the point of the Nova Blade in the first place since it doesn't even get to kill Aaravos in the end? It's like they hung a Chekov's Gun on the wall and forgot to fire it! Either the Nova Blade should've been used to finish Aaravos off, or it shouldn't have existed at all, plain and simple.

And as mentioned earlier, why did the Cosmic Forces raise such a stink about Leola teaching magic to humans but when Aaravos comes to mess up the world, they don't bat an eye and never once try to intervene?

Speaking of Aaravos, he's kind of a letdown here. His best scenes are when he's being sly and manipulative, but in battle, he's surprisingly a pushover. He gets defeated rather easily by exploding arrows and quickly tied down by normal chains and needs his undead minions to set him free, and then come the climax of the series, he essentially gets defeated because the ghost of Sir Sparklepuff distracted him long enough for Zubeia and Avazandium's ghost to take him down. Pretty anti-climactic for the guy who's supposed to be the big bad of the series. You'd think with this show being created by the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender that the final boss would be more of a threat. I mean this guy wields the power of all six Primal Stones and was such a threat that the Archdragons didn't dare face him, yet here he barely uses any of his powers and the Archdragons dare to face him. Talk about not living up to your potential!

And once again, we have moments that only occur because the characters do stupid things for the sake of the plot. For example, Lujanne uses an illusion trick to make Claudia think she's her mother, and somehow it NEVER ONCE occurs to anybody that they should've aged the illusion up so she doesn't look unchanged? No wonder Claudia didn't fall for it! Worse still, when Claudia stabs Lujanne and breaks the illusion, the characters just stand around like idiots and worrying about Lujanne instead of just attacking Claudia. Aanya at the very least could've driven an arrow through her skull before Claudia even had time to think about using that immobilization spell, but no, she just stands there worrying about Lujanne and by the time anybody thinks to attack Claudia, it's too late. And then there's how Janai and her allies trust Karim to help them out in the climax and, big shock, he betrays them for the umpteenth time and makes everything worse. Why the hell did Janai trust him despite the previous three seasons showing he's the LEAST trustworthy guy ever?! It feels like a flimsy excuse to make Karim seem important to the story when this plot could've worked exactly the same as it did without him.

So yeah, Season 7 has a lot of issues that prevent it from being a perfect conclusion. However, I still find it an improvement over Seasons 4-6 in some areas and I did find it a mostly satisfying conclusion. With a few changes, it could've been an even better conclusion...

Section 2: The Characters

As usual, there's a lot to cover here, so bear with me.

Naturally, I'm starting off with our main character, Callum (voiced by Jack DeSena). Callum continues to be great and one of the saving graces of this show. I like how he takes the situation the most seriously of anyone here and that Aaravos being freed really is a devastating blow to him. He's also the kind of guy who exhausts all options first before going with the worst one, such as when he came up with a plan to imprison Aaravos again and when that didn't work, he reluctantly had to resort to Dark Magic to imprison Aaravos in a coin. And yet he has enough foresight to make sure he can't be controlled, so he has Runaan set up to kill him once he becomes corrupted. Callum really is a true hero this season, willing to do whatever it takes to stop the villain, even if it means sacrificing his own life to do it. As is, we still see his kinder and softer side, namely in the scene where he plays with the Moonshadow elf kids. That was pretty wholesome. And of course, his devotion to Rayla is as sweet as ever.

Speaking of Rayla (voiced by Paula Burrows) she surprisingly does very little in this season aside from act as emotional support for Callum and Runaan. While yes, she does get her own subplot in where she has to convince the people of Silvergrove to un-ghost her, it's largely unconnected from the main plot overall and feels like it's just there because it's the final season and Rayla needed that bit of her story resolving before the end. Otherwise, she has surprisingly little to do with the main plot of this season, and that's disappointing. The only real fight scene she gets is one with Soren when trying to rescue Runaan and that's about it. At least the scenes she has with Callum are still as sweet as ever, especially the bridge scene in the final episode.

And now onto one of the big characters that we have to talk about in this season: King Ezran (voiced by Sasha Rojen). I have to say, seeing Ezran being all serious and angsty is quite a staggering change from happy and innocent Ezran. As is, it's actually satisfying to see him FINALLY read the room for once and stop being such a child over everything like he was before. His arc makes perfect sense and we can't fault him for he feels considering Runaan murdered his father (or at least thought he did) and Katolis was destroyed too so now he's pretty much homeless. The only thing wrong with Ezran's arc here is how rushed it felt. It was going pretty well at first, but then by Episode 3, Aanya just tells him a story about Duren, takes him to visit a cave full of fire rubies and then suddenly, he's not angsty anymore. I'm just saying, he should've taken a lot longer to mellow out than he did here. He did get an awesome scene with Aaravos at least where he just is NOT taking his crap whatsoever and effortlessly destroys whatever argument he tries to make. The kid's getting good, is what I'm saying.

And given I mentioned him earlier, let's cover Runaan (voiced by Jonathan Holmes) next. It really feels like he should've come back a season earlier, because bringing him back in the last season of the show (for now) just feels a bit late for him. As a result, he's stuck sharing screentime with everybody else and the development with him and Ezran just felt rushed in the end. I also find it so strange how he's so chummy with Rayla despite the fact that last time they saw each other, they were fighting over Zym's egg and Rayla deviating from the mission pretty much got him captured and his comrades killed. You'd think he'd have a bone to pick with Rayla after all that, but no, he's strangely fine with her and has no real animosity towards her at all. If his return had been a season earlier, we could've had him and Rayla at odds with each other and have them develop so Runaan forgives Rayla by the end and then this season could've had his development with Ezran. If this show didn't have so much plot and characters stuffed into it, we wouldn't have issues like this...

Another character who plays a big part in Ezran's story is Queen Aanya (voiced by Zelda Ehasz). She mostly plays a supporting role for Ezran and she does help bring him out of his funk at least. She also helps in briefly subduing Aaravos at one point by providing the fire rubies that give our heroes some more powerful weapons to use, so that was cool of her. I also must confess that this season has me kind of shipping her and Ezran, and I doubt I'm the only one.

#ezranxaanyaOTP

Soren (voiced by Jesse Inocalla) is pretty pointless this season. Thankfully, he's been toned down after Seasons 4-6 heavily flanderized him so he's not as annoying here, but at the same time he doesn't really have much to do with the plot aside from just providing another person to fight against Aaravos. If you took him out, nothing would change. If he was to have ANY point in the story at all, then he should've at least subdued Claudia and successfully arrested her instead of Claudia getting away at the end.

Queens Janai (voiced by Rena Anakwe) and Amaya get their own subplot too in where they have to decide on what to do with Karim and his forces. While Janai wisely decides to just execute him in the end, that's undermined by her deciding to trust him again when they need a powerful Sunfire mage to destroy the sun stone in order to stop Aaravos's plan and, surprise-surprise, he betrays them again and thus her stupidity and inability to see how her brother's a lost cause nearly dooms everybody. I get that Karim's her brother and all, but let me tell you, if Karim was MY brother, I certainly wouldn't have been as stupid as she was. Unlike her, I can accept that people are lost causes and cannot ever be trusted again.

And speaking of Karim (voiced by Luc Roderique), he continues to show what an aggravating idiot he can be. The guy just refuses to take the damn hint already and only proves what a lost cause he is. And just when he might finally show he can do something good in the end, he betrays everybody and tries to bargain with Aaravos...which only gets him killed in the end. Like, what did he expect to happen? =P It says a lot about how loathsome a character is when their death is one of the season's highlights. It also further emphasizes what a colossal waste of space he was too since this plot still could've happened without him. Just rewrite it so that Janai has to destroy the sun stone instead of Karim but Aaravos shows up before she can do it and presto, same outcome but without Karim wasting four seasons worth of plot for nothing.

While we're talking about elves, let's talk about Terry (voiced by Benjamin Collins). I can't begin to tell you how happy I was when this poor, naive idiot FINALLY got the hint that Claudia is evil and dumped her ass. Like really, what took you so long, moron? =P I'm so glad the show didn't have Claudia kill him after that as that would've been too cruel a conclusion to his story. Instead, having him help our allies and live to see the formation of Everkind at the end was a nice way for his story to end. I wish it didn't take so damn long for him to see the obvious (love really must make you blind...), but hey, better late than never I guess.

And speaking of Claudia (voiced by Raquel Belmonte), I already mentioned my problem with her in the story section. I will never forgive the writers for not letting her die or get captured at the end just so they can find an excuse to forcibly continue this show if it ever gets another season. This evil creature has committed far too many crimes and shouldn't be allowed to be a Karma Houdini. They let Karim finally die, so why couldn't they do the same for Claudia? It's not like she's that instrumental in Aaravos's eventual return in seven years, this story doesn't need her in it anymore. Just get rid of her already!

On that note, let's finally talk about the big villain of this series, Aaravos (voiced by Erik Todd Dellums). After spending the entire show being this intriguingly mysterious enigma who poses a big threat to the world at large and has powers beyond comprehension...he's pretty lackluster in execution. As mentioned in the story section, all his best scenes are whenever he's talking with the characters and being sly and manipulative with his "I never lie" approach by feeding them half-truths and leaving them to fill in the blanks. Whenever he gets in on the action, he's not all he's cracked up to be. He gets defeated rather easily at one point, doesn't use all of his power despite being this incredibly powerful being that makes even dragons reluctant to fight him and is defeated rather anti-climactically. Now being a Startouch Elf, he can't really "die", so of course that's pretty eerie to think that in seven years time, he can come back and try again, but if he's this much of a pushover, then his return won't seem that big of a deal next time. He should've posed more of a threat and not been so easily defeated is what I'm saying.

The cast are a mix of great, pointless, OK or disappointing, and that's a shame as this is meant to be the series finale and so the cast should've been at their best in order to make the finale feel more special.

Section 3: The Animation

Despite this being the final season of the show, the animation I feel has the least amount of interesting things to talk about compared to the last three seasons.

Now I'm not saying the animation is bad by any means. The animation is like the ONLY thing that's been consistently good about this show post-Season 3. The character designs are still top-notch as ever, the colouring is as crisp as always, everything is so gorgeously detailed and full of things to look at and the character animation is as expressive and full of life as it has been in the previous seasons.

It's just that, there's not much else to talk about regarding this season. We've kind of already seen everything before so there's not really anything new to look at aside from the Puzzle House and the Garden of Innocence. The Puzzle House is OK, if every standard in terms of whimsical fantasy places that are full of puzzles and even then, we don't see all that much of it. The only real puzzle we see is the carousel ride and that's it, so it doesn't feel much like an actual Puzzle House. The Garden of Innocence on the other hand is a great example of the background being a visual metaphor for the story's themes. Aaravos makes it sound peaceful, tranquil and idyllic, but then it's later revealed to actually be a graveyard for unicorns, thus showing there's darkness hidden beneath the beauty. It's an apt metaphor for how things that seem good on the surface have a hidden dark side to them.

As is, all the locations we see here are locations we've seen before, so we once again don't get to see much of anything new. And when we do see some of these old locations, something feels off about them. Case in point, the Silvergrove. Last time saw it, there were hundreds of Moonshadow Elves walking around faceless due to Rayla being ghosted. Here, the place is strangely deserted with nobody in sight. Like, where did they all go? Did they all die offscreen or something? I guess the animation budget didn't allow them to animate more Moonshadow elves so they had to make do with this, but it's just so weird to be back here and see nobody else in the grove.

And then there are the action scenes, which I'd say are probably the most underwhelming action scenes we've had in the entire show. The fights we get are either very brief, barely have any exchanging of blows or are pretty limply handled. I already talked about how Aaravos's defeat was incredibly anticlimactic with him getting distracted in the middle of the fight so Zubeia and Ghost!Avazandium could take him out. That was pathetic. It says a lot when Season 3's climax felt more befitting of a series finale than this did. It's so weird how the action took a downgrade here, because this show's proven to be very good at action scenes in the past, so what happened here?

Also, I must comment on how hilariously Sol Regem's skeleton sticks out whenever its onscreen. It looks like it was rendered in an old video-game or something and it just barely blends in with the background whatsoever. What that was all about, I have no idea.

Overall, the animation isn't bad by any means, but it feels the most underwhelming of the animation we've had in Seasons 4-7 with not much new to look at and some really lame fight scenes. At least it was still pretty to look at.

Overall

The Dragon Prince Season 7 is overall a mostly satisfying conclusion to the series. It's held back from being a perfect conclusion thanks to the problems mentioned, but it does fix some of the issues of the previous seasons and ultimately did give a decent conclusion, even if it's a little open-ended in places. All I can hope for now is that this series IS the final series and we don't get any more after this one. The Dragon Prince is done, don't force it to continue is what I say. If it is going to continue, then don't expect me to return for it. My journey through Xadia is over and I ain't coming back...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Do you like The Dragon Prince Season 7? Do you not like it? Do tell me.

Join me again next week for my end-of-year post. See you then media fans!