Like in Avatar, a brief prologue sets up the world’s mythology. The land of Xadia is rich with magic, derived from six sources (the sun, the moon, the stars, the air, the ocean, the earth), but a war between elves and humans erupts when some humans begin to practice dark magic (the seventh source). Dragons create a border made of molten lava, elves on one side, humans on the other, and the most powerful dragon of them all, Thunder, the dragon king, mans the border… until, that is, he is slain by humans and his only egg is destroyed.
Some months later, in the human kingdom of Katolis, its noble King Harrow (Luc Roderique) prepares for an assassination attempt from a band of elves. Harrow is sending the kingdom’s two princes, stepson Callum (Jack De Sena) and his younger son, Ezran (Sasha Rojen), away to their winter lodge for protection. Ezran, wide-eyed and innocent but seemingly wise beyond his years, is accompanied by his pet glowtoad, Bait, a disgruntled-looking animal that, true to its name, resembles a giant toad that occasionally releases plot-convenient flashes of light. His half-brother Callum, like most soon-to-be-15-year-olds, is more doubtful of himself, not quite brave, not quite smart, and not quite old enough to make adult decisions. He doubts his place in the royal family, referring to Harrow as “The King” instead of “dad” or even “stepdad,” a development that likely came about with the death of the boys’ mother an indeterminate number of years earlier. Callum is voiced by Jack De Sena, known to Avatar fans as the former voice of Sokka, and I’ll admit there was an expectation of comic relief. But while Callum is occasionally sarcastic, he is a very different character from Sokka and it wasn’t hard to distinguish the two after a few episodes.
The shady advisor, Viren, quickly establishes himself as the story’s chief antagonist, with his most loyal minions being his son, Soren (Jesse Inocalla), a soldier, and daughter, Claudia (Racquel Belmonte), an extremely skilled mage. Again, I could not help but think of Avatar’s Zuko and Azula, but where Zuko was moody and angry, Soren is a pretty-faced idiot who seems generally well-liked, and Claudia is flirty, bookish, and cool, whereas Azula was just insane. The siblings are often paired together on unscrupulous missions from their father, and for Soren, the seeds of doubt already seem to be planted.
In spite of the similarities of their children, Viren is no Lord Ozai. For starters, he seems to genuinely care about King Harrow… until that love and respect clashes with his ideal vision of what is best for the kingdom. I’ve no doubt that Viren will continue his downward spiral, and it will be interesting to see how he justifies his obviously tyrannical behavior but it will be more interesting to see which, if either, of his children will continue to stand by him while he loses the thread.
The characters really worked for me, for the most part. Despite Callum being the ostensible lead, Rayla takes center stage in Book One, receiving the most in-depth development. Callum is right behind her, though, as the potential to be a more powerful character is hinted at several times. Ezran could be a little boring at times, as his too-perfect instincts didn’t give him much conflict to sort through. He is young though, and it seems like the journey has just begun; in the meantime, he and Bait provide moments of levity to counter Rayla’s struggle with a dark choice.
The only other quality of The Dragon Prince that I found distracting was their bizarrely anachronistic use of lines from films. It’s one thing when characters use modern dialogue in a fantasy setting—it is a kid’s show, after all, and it’s easier for kids to connect to characters that talk like they do. It’s another thing entirely to hear child characters in a fantasy setting say things like “sweep the leg” and “say hello to my little friend.” While it took me out of the action momentarily, it was only a minor distraction. I do hope that, going forward, the show drops these references and stands on its own two feet.
There has been no word yet on a second “book” of The Dragon Prince, but the framing of this story suggests that Ehasz and Richmond have so much more story to tell. As Book One focused on the first magic source mentioned in the prologue, the moon, one would assume that Book Two will focus on the sun. The Dragon Prince has a long way to go to truly stand on its own beside the likes of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra; the dialogue can be cliché and the characters need fleshing out, but the potential is strong. I’ll be looking forward to seeing how this world evolves and comes into its own.
