The Dragon Prince - Pretty Good

[Distant Stare]

Has anyone else watched the Dragon Prince? I just finished a season two and had a few thoughts.

1) Characters
The show does a good job with several of its characters. Most fantasy type stories suffer from one dimensional villains. The antagonist here is balanced and likable. In fact, the show has a problem with having too many characters for so little run time. The writers functionally kill off two characters in the first season by sending them to a dungeon. To make this worse, the passing is very slow.

2) Passing
The passing is far too slow. Large segments of each season are spent in one location focusing on innter-personal drama. While slice-of-life type episodes are not bad, they should be inter spaced with and suite the tone of the plot. During season two, nearly half of the screen time was spent on a sailing ship. Also, interesting lead characters are ignored often in favor of others when they should be balanced.

3) Tone
The tone is all over the place. The characters will in one instance be crying over the loss of their father, and seconds later be telling jokes. Instead of using humor with a comic relief, or using it as a mechanism to build up the relationships of those in the story, it is artificially interjected.

4) Diversity: Some of it Tolerable
It is a Netflix original, so expect liberal propoganda. Sometimes, the multiracial liberal attitudes ruin the immersion. Especially considering that this is a medieval Tolkien fantasy. The are lesbian queens for instance. There is also a lot of anti-able propaganda. One of the characters I like is a general who is deaf. It does not fit. Sign language makes an interesting addition to the character, and the translator is also a good character, but it once again ruins immersion. If were writing, I would have made the protagonists mother deaf, rather than the general. It fits better. I would have also written in a reason for her being deaf, not just because of muh diversity. Maybe it was caused by an accident which set some plot point along. When these things dont feel natural, they detract from the consistency of the universe. You should not have to suspend disbelief of basic logic when viewing.

 

[Marco Fucko]

Sometimes, the multiracial liberal attitudes ruin the immersion. Especially considering that this is a medieval Tolkien fantasy.

I'm honestly not totally against liberal attitudes in fantasy but they do feel more natural in something like sci-fi. Fantasy has a certain degree of inherent rightist thought and execution (at least when played out in a standard way), so just sprinkling diversity and looser social tolerances doesn't really mesh that well with things like being born into nobility or as a commoner, wars being fought for religious or familial reasons, etc. I mean to mirror reality a bit Monarchy and feudalism were killed by modernism. It doesn't matter if you're a member of the nobility because bullets don't discriminate, all a privileged birth gets you is distance away from the frontlines.

Meanwhile early sci-fi has a solid foundation in leaning left, with series like Foundation and Dune warning against hegemonic power structures and charismatic leaders in favor of putting the responsibility of the future more on the common person, or the high born person willing to work against their environmental interest.

Sad to know the tonal and pacing issues that seem to common in modern storytelling are still up and about. You'd really think they'd understand to have characters talk on the road or after a major event to help it break more cleanly.

 

[Muttnik]

The show is fine. I like Aaron Ehasz. Him not being around for Korra is why the latter sucked the way it did.

 

[Y2K Baby]

Girl farts.
Big smelly.
Lol indeed!

 

[Crazedking]

Its okay-ish. Obviously considering the creator of the show the best comparison is The last airbender.

It actually start in a similar fashion. Group of kid goes on an adventure to save the kingdom with a big new fantastic world to explore based on tolkien-ish fantasy stuff instead of asiaverse. Its all downhill from here.

There is a clear progression of SJW values that you can see going from The last airbender -> Korra -> The dragon prince.

From as you put it, trying to be pro-bleist? or whatever with its deaf character, 3legged dog or blind captain etc. Sounds nice but feels really forced compared to the character Toph whose blindness was actually a core part of her character. The deaf commander is deaf but just happen to be a badass because reason and enter the second issue i have the story.

Only female characters are allowed to be badass. Male characters are either white evil male or incompetent. This is a recurring point throughout the show.

Hoh and i havent even talked about the 3 main characters because lets be honest, they arent very interesting. Their interpersonal drama is often cringey and the comedy often fall flat.

The action is boring. From the creator of the last airbender, none of the love and care that went into animating bending and combats is gone. The magic system is also super uninteresting compared to Bending.

The world piqued my interesting early on and i could even see glimmer of the things that made me love The last airbender but its just overall fall flat imo.


But hey overall, its a great kid show. Ive probably outgrown show like this and now see The last airbender through nostalgia glasses which taint my opinion of this series. I really wanted to like this show so im gonna say. Give it a shot and make your own opinion.

 

[Distant Stare]

There is a clear progression of SJW values that you can see going from The last airbender -> Korra -> The dragon prince.

I noticed that the Humans are almost played like beings of original sin. They are even considered to be a lesser species because they can not do magic. The heroic king is human-guilt personified, and lets himself be killed, leaving a child behind to be the new king.

From as you put it, trying to be pro-bleist?

fucked it up; anti-ableism.

or whatever with its deaf character, 3legged dog or blind captain etc. Sounds nice but feels really forced compared to the character Toph whose blindness was actually a core part of her character. The deaf commander is deaf but just happen to be a badass because reason and enter the second issue i have the story.

I thought that the blind caption was the best. It was comedic, not preachy. The reason why the three legged wolf is a terrible arc is because the elf bitch preaches about how humans would never except a three legged dog.

Only female characters are allowed to be badass. Male characters are either white evil male or incompetent. This is a recurring point throughout the show.

I disagree. It is just that the females are too serious too often. Rayla, Claudia, and the General all drive the story forward because they have goals and push forward to accomplish them. The males just tag along. The only exception to this is that one mage, who is the bad guy (Who did absolutely nothing wrong)

It is sad to see what could have been a really good series have its wings clipped by this sort of writing. Most properties suffer from the same problem: Doctor Who, nu-Star Wars, ect

 

[Safir]

God no, it's horrifying and horrifically retarded. Much worse than even Whorra. It's Burgers? : the animated series.

The show starts with unstoppable magical assassins going after a king, who thinks he deserves to die has to "nobly accept his fate as befits a king", refuses to accept one person's sacrifice that'd save his life, but nevertheless has his troops fight the assassins and get killed in large numbers. This is a role model.

Unbelievably, it goes downhill from there. There's a Greta Thunberg-like cunty young girl voiced by Ehasz's daughter, whose existence makes a joke out of every other character's growing up plot. Every adult, every ruler even, is a retard compared to her. Get this, she's a "daughter" of two mixed-race lesbians, but she wasn't even raised by them (they ded). Why is she so wise? Idunno, you gotta deal with it!

At the end of the second season (where I dropped it), a character gets full body paralyzed. Never mind that most characters' bodies have endured worse physical strain without any damage (typical cartoon action) and by the standards of the show, he just got a bit dusty. Gotta have a Very Important Episode. That's not the worst thing. The worst thing is that his sister cures his paralysis with animal products. This, in Ehasz's mind. makes her practically irredeemable (he said so in an interview). Meanwhile, the good guys are shown eating (illusory, but they didn't know it) chicken, bugs and egg products.

Fuck this cartoon.

 

[Distant Stare]

The show starts with unstoppable magical assassins going after a king, who thinks he deserves to die has to "nobly accept his fate as befits a king", refuses to accept one person's sacrifice that'd save his life, but nevertheless has his troops fight the assassins and get killed in large numbers. This is a role model.

it was virtue signaling. Leftist art reflects leftist sociology

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

I'm honestly not totally against liberal attitudes in fantasy but they do feel more natural in something like sci-fi. Fantasy has a certain degree of inherent rightist thought and execution (at least when played out in a standard way), so just sprinkling diversity and looser social tolerances doesn't really mesh that well with things like being born into nobility or as a commoner, wars being fought for religious or familial reasons, etc. I mean to mirror reality a bit Monarchy and feudalism were killed by modernism. It doesn't matter if you're a member of the nobility because bullets don't discriminate, all a privileged birth gets you is distance away from the frontlines.

Meanwhile early sci-fi has a solid foundation in leaning left, with series like Foundation and Dune warning against hegemonic power structures and charismatic leaders in favor of putting the responsibility of the future more on the common person, or the high born person willing to work against their environmental interest.

Sad to know the tonal and pacing issues that seem to common in modern storytelling are still up and about. You'd really think they'd understand to have characters talk on the road or after a major event to help it break more cleanly.

Thanks for pointing this out. Liberal values in Fantasy and post-apocalyptic movies belong like the Pope at a titty bar. Progressivism is a product of prosperity and technological development. These are the things that freed men from having to do backbreaking labor for 15 hours a day to earn a crust of bread and freed women from staying in the kitchen and squeezing out 8-10 babies just to have enough surviving kids to help out on the farm. SJWs think Liberal Values came about by magic: the "End of History" came around and "progress" just happened because it was just destined to happen. Evolution is a force that only goes in one direction: up.

The thought of inequality causes SJWs so much stress that they must edit the past and make it the way it should have been in their works of fiction. Who wants to learn about real history with its battlefield rape, death in childbirth and women not being allowed to own property? Let's recreate the past in a way that's comfortable to us! With women being superior leaders, superior fighters, and having limitless power with no responsibilities! There's no sexism, racism or homophobia anywhere! And no religions, too! Imagine allll the peeeeeoplleeeeeee.......

SJWs like fantasy stories because they like the idea of magic (free power for nothing or nearly nothing!) and they like castles and colorful fashions. They also like the idea of being royalty because, once again, free power for nothing! You don't have to earn a place in the nobility, you're just born into it because you're so awesome! Nevermind that in real life, royal positions often come with burdensome responsibilities and severe restrictions on one's own personal freedoms, including the freedom to marry whomever you choose. None of that matters though because your self-insert main character can ride a dragon! Woooo!

In watching shows like "The Toys that Made us", I've been shocked to learn how many writers of popular cartoon franchises were, in fact, war veterans. At one time, most writers were men who had tasted battle in some way - WW2, Korea, Vietnam... These were men who traveled the world and had real experiences. Todays cartoon writers are a crop of soyboys and dangerhairs whose only real brush with danger came when they saw an anti-gay preacher on their college campuses waving a Bible and they screeched at him until he went away. Not only do they not know how to write proper battles or governmental procedures, they don't even know how relationships work. They spend their time living in a bubble with people who are just like them, and who see nothing wrong with abusive personal relationships or unbridled narcissism. The characters they write are dysfunctional adults who mostly act like children, but since the SJWs who are writing them are writing them for other SJWs, no one in their circle or fandoms seems to notice.

 

[Distant Stare]

Thanks for pointing this out. Liberal values in Fantasy and post-apocalyptic movies belong like the Pope at a titty bar. Progressivism is a product of prosperity and technological development. These are the things that freed men from having to do backbreaking labor for 15 hours a day to earn a crust of bread and freed women from staying in the kitchen and squeezing out 8-10 babies just to have enough surviving kids to help out on the farm. SJWs think Liberal Values came about by magic: the "End of History" came around and "progress" just happened because it was just destined to happen. Evolution is a force that only goes in one direction: up.
...
The thought of inequality causes SJWs so much stress that they must edit the past

I think that this is especially important when considering historical or fantasy fiction. This sort or reminds of the Battle Field 5 controversy in which disabled female soldiers were put into the game to fight Nazis. One of the leftists involved described how they lied and told their children that there really were women in WW2 on the front because they did not want to have to explain anything otherwise.

"The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser. " - Ted Kazynski

On the other hand, I do not think that the people who are writing this have this motivation. Instead, I think that the thought process involves more of a focus on exposing young people to their propaganda. Children who grow up watching cartoons about lesbian queens will become tolerant of homosexuals and other deviants when they grow up.

On a side note, I think that the antagonist of this series is easily an metaphor for ethanonationalism. His rational for doing all that he does is securing the existence of humanity, at the expense of the foreigner.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I'm honestly not totally against liberal attitudes in fantasy but they do feel more natural in something like sci-fi. Fantasy has a certain degree of inherent rightist thought and execution (at least when played out in a standard way), so just sprinkling diversity and looser social tolerances doesn't really mesh that well with things like being born into nobility or as a commoner, wars being fought for religious or familial reasons, etc. I mean to mirror reality a bit Monarchy and feudalism were killed by modernism. It doesn't matter if you're a member of the nobility because bullets don't discriminate, all a privileged birth gets you is distance away from the frontlines.

Meanwhile early sci-fi has a solid foundation in leaning left, with series like Foundation and Dune warning against hegemonic power structures and charismatic leaders in favor of putting the responsibility of the future more on the common person, or the high born person willing to work against their environmental interest.

Sad to know the tonal and pacing issues that seem to common in modern storytelling are still up and about. You'd really think they'd understand to have characters talk on the road or after a major event to help it break more cleanly.

Thanks for pointing this out. Liberal values in Fantasy and post-apocalyptic movies belong like the Pope at a titty bar. Progressivism is a product of prosperity and technological development. These are the things that freed men from having to do backbreaking labor for 15 hours a day to earn a crust of bread and freed women from staying in the kitchen and squeezing out 8-10 babies just to have enough surviving kids to help out on the farm. SJWs think Liberal Values came about by magic: the "End of History" came around and "progress" just happened because it was just destined to happen. Evolution is a force that only goes in one direction: up.

The thought of inequality causes SJWs so much stress that they must edit the past and make it the way it should have been in their works of fiction. Who wants to learn about real history with its battlefield rape, death in childbirth and women not being allowed to own property? Let's recreate the past in a way that's comfortable to us! With women being superior leaders, superior fighters, and having limitless power with no responsibilities! There's no sexism, racism or homophobia anywhere! And no religions, too! Imagine allll the peeeeeoplleeeeeee.......

SJWs like fantasy stories because they like the idea of magic (free power for nothing or nearly nothing!) and they like castles and colorful fashions. They also like the idea of being royalty because, once again, free power for nothing! You don't have to earn a place in the nobility, you're just born into it because you're so awesome! Nevermind that in real life, royal positions often come with burdensome responsibilities and severe restrictions on one's own personal freedoms, including the freedom to marry whomever you choose. None of that matters though because your self-insert main character can ride a dragon! Woooo!

In watching shows like "The Toys that Made us", I've been shocked to learn how many writers of popular cartoon franchises were, in fact, war veterans. At one time, most writers were men who had tasted battle in some way - WW2, Korea, Vietnam... These were men who traveled the world and had real experiences. Todays cartoon writers are a crop of soyboys and dangerhairs whose only real brush with danger came when they saw an anti-gay preacher on their college campuses waving a Bible and they screeched at him until he went away. Not only do they not know how to write proper battles or governmental procedures, they don't even know how relationships work. They spend their time living in a bubble with people who are just like them, and who see nothing wrong with abusive personal relationships or unbridled narcissism. The characters they write are dysfunctional adults who mostly act like children, but since the SJWs who are writing them are writing them for other SJWs, no one in their circle or fandoms seems to notice.

The biggest problem with modern writing in general is that it transplants ideas wholesale from modern times into sci-fi/fantasy and it just feels forced. You can have liberal values in a fantasy setting but they should be justified by the society and technology present, but instead it is usually presented as some big-brained "how could those savages don't act that way" (pretty much every case of feminism in medieval times). In sci-fi it's just as bad because they'll either have a problem that can be completely solved with tech but ignore that possibility (Romulans need federation ships to evacuate a planet) or try to make an insane parallel that just strawmans the whole thing and usually make the writer's ideals seems worse because of it (genocidal aliens should be co-existed).

 

[neverendingmidi]

I watched it up to the deaf-mute general being introduced. That was where my "oh fuck this" point was hit. I can see a support person who is excellent at tactics, creating plans back in the rear, who is deaf. Sure no problem. But a front line fighter where she can't even give orders without disarming? I mean she has to use her hands to talk! When you have enemies pressing up against you, you can't just drop a sword and wave your hands around hoping that your translator isn't being chopped to bits at the time and is able to relay the orders.

That's not even pointing out how easy it would be to do an ambush attack.

 

[Kari Kamiya]

One of my brothers has been watching it and he likes it, but he's not the best person to judge cartoons or movies and the like. He's just watching to be entertained, and apparently he doesn't have an issue with it, but I've refused to watch it because it looks kinda fugly for CGI (Netflix makes everything ugly, of course), and the deaf-mute general never once made sense to me. Looks like I made the right call judging by the posts above. I think the setting of the fantasy land and A:TLA is what got him into Kingdom, though, so if anything, it's introducing him into bigger and better properties in the same vein as he broadens his interests. Think as long as he stays away from the fandom (far as I know, he has), he should be okay.

SJWs like fantasy stories because they like the idea of magic (free power for nothing or nearly nothing!)

Which is hilarious because in actuality magic still follows a set of rules, and if you step out of line with those rules, you suffer the consequences that can potentially kill you. But SJWs are all "Rules for thee, not for me" and don't believe in being responsible for your fuck-ups, so that's why it's such a common power fantasy for them. Not helped that not even J.K. Rowling followed her own rules, whatever the fuck those rules even were.

In watching shows like "The Toys that Made us", I've been shocked to learn how many writers of popular cartoon franchises were, in fact, war veterans. At one time, most writers were men who had tasted battle in some way - WW2, Korea, Vietnam... These were men who traveled the world and had real experiences. Todays cartoon writers are a crop of soyboys and dangerhairs whose only real brush with danger came when they saw an anti-gay preacher on their college campuses waving a Bible and they screeched at him until he went away. Not only do they not know how to write proper battles or governmental procedures, they don't even know how relationships work. They spend their time living in a bubble with people who are just like them, and who see nothing wrong with abusive personal relationships or unbridled narcissism. The characters they write are dysfunctional adults who mostly act like children, but since the SJWs who are writing them are writing them for other SJWs, no one in their circle or fandoms seems to notice.

Fucking this. Just all of this. War is hell, always, and there's reasons we have to go to war, but not even the War on Terror worked in keeping this alive in cartoons involving war. Probably because of who the president was who oversaw it, and then who the president was in continuing it past its expiration date while pretending it wasn't an issue, but there was something about it that made people into hippies more-so than during Vietnam, but much more pussified. It's warped these people's sense of reality to the point where only the whitest of white males should get the capital punishment, otherwise the villain should have him/herself (depends on how hot and dark-skinned they are) a redemption arc and it all goes away!

Maybe we should just bring the draft back. But I digress.

Also despite having no knowledge of this series, being out of the loop makes the shipping in this show sound hilarious and I can see this going the way of Voltron.

And this is why we can't have nice things. I'm looking forward to this shit showing up in the shippers thread in the future.

 

[Distant Stare]

And this is why we can't have nice things. I'm looking forward to this shit showing up in the shippers thread in the future.

Tumblr cringe will grab on to it. I have the feeling that the same autistic fever responsible for waifu cults on r9k also creates shipping cults on tumblr

 

[LuthienTinuviel]

"Due to allegations about Aaron Ehasz's history of mistreating female coworkers and not listening to concerns made by women and LGBTQ+ people"

Oh, that's the story I mentioned in the She-Ra thread. Basically, it was a former PR employee who bitched Ehasz didn't listen to her ideas, and after a bit of digging, it was implied that she was basically mad Ehasz didn't want to persue Harrow/Virren as an actual romantic relationship.

Overall, I think the show is okay. The deaf general didn't really bother me because of Toph in ATLA, and I know that her being blind was Ehasz's idea, so him having characters with disabilities in his own show didn't really surprise me. Like, why not, who cares. It's a pretty basic fantasy world story but with what happened with the PR employee, I don't think Ehasz is intentionally pandering or that he intends to, so I have to at least respect him for integrity (which is a rare thing these days...).

 

[Distant Stare]

Oh, that's the story I mentioned in the She-Ra thread. Basically, it was a former PR employee who bitched Ehasz didn't listen to her ideas, and after a bit of digging, it was implied that she was basically mad Ehasz didn't want to persue Harrow/Virren as an actual romantic relationship.

I think this explains why Western animation is going down hill in quality despite the tools of the trade never being easier to use. Leftists care more about where an idea comes from than what the idea actually is. Twp decades ago, this is exactly what people opposed to diversity said would happen

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Has anyone else watched the Dragon Prince?

I have and it is aggressively average, but watchable.

 

[Distant Stare]

I have and it is aggressively average, but watchable.

Aggressively average is a tragedy when artists are given all the tools they need to produce masterpieces