After getting swarmed by mosquitoes last weekend, this weekend should be chill and less blood-sucker-y. I started watching Mr. Robot on Netflix, which is different, but interesting so far. I’ve also read two nonfiction books in a row, so next is a comic and then we’re back to a couple of fiction books.
Slowly working my way through God of War; just pulled up to the giant stone mason.
The Dragon Prince/King Situation
Alright, fam, we’ve got to talk about The Dragon Prince.
The Dragon Prince is a Netflix animated series created by Aaron Ehasz, the lead writer (but not the creator!) of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the wake of Legend of Korra, and people’s problems with that, some people tended to credit Ehasz with the best writing of the original Avatar, because he wasn’t involved with Korra at all (not because he had some kind of feud, he was just busy with other things). When he announced the series with Netflix, The Dragon Prince, people were very excited!
The series originally ran for three seasons, and because it got enough popular press and views it got renewed for another four–which is what the makers hoped for, as they pitched it as a story with several seasons of story. The gist of it is that in a world divided between the human kingdoms and the magical land of Xadia, three kids try to bring peace to the divided countries by delivering the egg of the dragon prince back to his mother.
Spoiler alert! This is accomplished at the end of season three, the conclusion of the First Arc. There was a lot of wondering what would happen next, and then we got four more seasons, labeled ‘Mystery of Aaravos’, centered around the revealed villain. It led up to a final battle with that villain, only for the audience to be told that the story isn’t really done, there are major Plot threads to keep going, and please keep the positive word up about the show so we get a Third Arc.
A lot of fans were disappointed. We were under the distinct impression that with seven seasons, we were getting a completed story. Season three left us wanting more, and then we got more, and after several storylines that seemed to go nowhere, we got an ending that didn’t wrap up everything. It was like, after the First Arc, the makers said, “We need your support to do a Second Arc and finish the story!” only for them to not finish the story.
It doesn’t help that some of the storylines in the Second Arc weren’t exactly popular. There’s a whole set of problems launched because the human architect of a refugee camp of Sunfire elves didn’t even consider the fact that the Sunfire elves might start a fire in the campsite.
There are certain things that aren’t really explained or explored at all in the story, when they really should be. One of the lead characters, Ezran, can talk to animals, and we’re never actually told why, oddly enough, as humans generally can’t do that sort of magic. And given that dragons are a large part of the Plot, we get surprisingly little worldbuilding about the dragons themselves.
Welp! At San Diego Comic-Con this year, they revealed that while Netflix hasn’t greenlit a Third Arc, they were going to try to move forward with one (The Dragon King), and announced… a Kickstarter campaign. That’s right! Once again, they said, “We need your help to do a Third Arc and finish the story!”, except this time they’re asking for money.
And yeah, some fans are excited about the possibility. But a lot of us feel a bit burned. We gave the show a second chance, and they didn’t really use it. They wasted it on storylines we sometimes didn’t want, and left on a little cliffhanger. Frankly, I think that’s a bit harsh, though at the same time I can’t help but wonder if they were ever planning to give this show an ending. It’s entirely possible that if this story arc gets the go-ahead, then it might end on another cliffhanger that doesn’t complete the story, either.
To be fair, part of the draw of The Dragon Prince was not just to make a show, but to create a whole world to live and tell stories in. That’s not really what they’re doing, though, as they’re just continuing one story for as long as they possibly can. If they were telling a bunch of different stories set in this world, I think it’d be accepted much better by the fanbase.
As it is, though, it just feels like they’ve got no real plan other than to pad things out until funding dries up. And unless they prove that they’ve got something really good in store, that might be sooner rather than later. I can’t blame the fanbase if they don’t quite rally behind this show as much as the makers hope they will.
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