The Dragon Prince Rewatch 1.4, "Bloodthirsty"

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There's a lot going on, and not all of it good.

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1.4, "Bloodthirsty"

Written by Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

You have to hand it to her...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

As Callum and Ezran sleep, Rayla sits in the moonlight and contemplates her situation. She remains bound to the sworn vengeance of her cohort, even as she has turned away from enacting it, even as she struggles against the bond.

They have not gone far from the castle of Katolis, where funeral proceedings for the fallen King Harrow have begun. Not all are pleased with the speed with which proceedings have moved forward, but Viren presses ahead despite others' misgivings. There is some resistance to igniting the king's pyre, but, again, Viren presses ahead with his intent to wage war on Xadia and crown himself, claiming that Ezran and Callum are dead.

It pays to sketch out the basics.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary

In the morning, Rayla and Callum confer regarding the the magical item he has purloined. Rayla explicates basic magical theory to him. Callum realizes that some of the material is familiar to him; he purposes to return to the royal winter lodgings to retrieve some relevant equipment. Rayla objects, but Callum prevails upon her as Ezran wakes.

This one knows what she's about, to be sure.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Arriving at the lodgings, Rayla proceeds ahead of Ezran and Callum to retrieve the noted equipment. They find the lodging unattended--until an armed company arrives, in turn. Callum and Ezran present themselves and try to stall for time with the company--which is commanded by their aunt, General Amaya. After greeting the boys enthusiastically and warmly, she takes charge of the area, noting the likelihood of infiltration and setting up so secure the location. After the boys successfully distract her, Amaya relates the reason for her presence: royal orders.

See the above comment.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Amaya's troops take up residence at the lodging. Rayla's infiltration proceeds as the boys confer about how to proceed. She achieves her objective, albeit with difficulty occasioned in large part by the formidable Amaya. The boys contrive to extricate her from captivity; their methods are not entirely upright, for which they earn rebuke from Rayla as they make their escape together on a boat going downriver. Amaya sends the hunter Corvus to pursue and retrieve the boys; she and her company depart for the capital as Viren prepares to be elevated. Her arrival--with the news that the princes live--thwarts his aims.

Discussion

It is not to be wondered at that the episode visually references Tolkien, given the series genre and the status Tolkien has within that genre--along with adaptations of his work. The funeral procession for King Harrow winds along a path that recalls Peter Jackson's take on the Argonath and Rath Dínen. Nor is it to be wondered at that the episode makes use of some of the same kinds of anachronism at work in Middle-earth. In Tolkien's corpus, the hobbits seem further forward than the people of Rivendell, Gondor, and Rohan, despite being nestled out of the way away from "civilization," at least sartorially. Similarly, the present episode appears to make use of coffee, and while there was some use of the basic plant, the hot version familiar to modern audiences is a later invention and popular beverage, as attested.

In both cases, though, the inclusion serves--intentionally or not--to make the setting more accessible to the audiences likely to watch the series as it premiered. (I am likely part of the presumed secondary audience, having watched the show-creator's earlier projects and having a daughter who is part of the presumed primary audience.) Many who would be thought to watch the series would also have watched Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, and many more of them would be likely to drink "hot brown morning potion"; including such things makes the setting more familiar, helping to create the "inner consistency of reality" upon which Coleridge's willing suspension of disbelief depends. So there is that to consider.

Less helpful is the oblique reference to blood libel; as Ezran, Rayla, and Callum proceed, Rayla offers Ezran a bottle of a red fluid. Callum demurs, explaining that they don't drink blood; Rayla, offended, replies that the bottle is full of berry juice. The casual assumption, however, that an elf would drink blood does call to mind the repeated anti-Semitic assertions that blood, particularly taken from ritual killing, was a commonplace in Jewish communities (discussed here and elsewhere). While the assertion is authentically medieval, and it is repudiated swiftly and apologized for, it is not the most apt reference to make in a period when anti-Semitic violence and rhetoric were growing unacceptably prominent. At the same time, however, it would be disingenuous or dishonest to note the things that the medieval world, broadly conceived, got wrong--the more so when their pernicious influence continued far longer than should ever have been the case.

Happier far is the treatment Amaya receives. Although she does show her own prejudices in the episode, her deafness is accommodated smoothly and her capabilities as a commander and as a combatant are made clear. She also avoids the "boob-plate" problem all too common to depictions of women warriors in fantasy fiction (such as discussed here); her armor is of a kind with the other fighters in her company. As such, she is presented as being another warrior--exceptional, yes, but another--who simply is a woman, who simply is deaf, rather than her gender or condition of ability being the overriding focus of her character. And that, we need more of.