The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.2, "Half Moon Lies"

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It is an episode of revelations, things showing up under the pale moonlight...

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2.2, "Half Moon Lies"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

The best part of waking up...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Soren makes to attacks the seemingly ensorcelled Rayla, though he hesitates to assail a sleeping opponent. She is not as entranced as might be thought, however, and defends herself ably. Callum intercedes, halting hostilities and explaining some of the situation and ushering everyone off to rest.

Who's the fairest?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Katolis, Viren again considers the plundered mirror. He plies his magical skills, at some risk and pain to himself, and only in his extravagance does he uncover information; there is a chamber on the other side of the mirror.

The next morning, Callum and Ezran confer about Claudia, while Soren and Claudia confer about the princes and Rayla. They purpose to persuade them back to Katolis, and the princes reveal that the egg has hatched into Azymondias. Claudia is immediately enamored, although she is still held in suspicion; Soren's lie about Harrow does not help matters.

The two groups--Soren and Claudia; Ezran, Callum, and Rayla--confer internally about how to proceed until Claudia intervenes and takes Callum on a walk. He reveals more than he ought, and Claudia offers him a tome of dark magic, which he refuses. Soren watches the younger ones play and purposes to set up an "accident" to eliminate Ezran; Rayla interdicts his plans.

Such nuggets of insight...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Rayla consults with Lujanne about the current situation. What she offers is not of much help to Rayla, and the erstwhile assassin makes to confess to Callum and Ezran. She happens upon Callum after he is with Claudia and learns of Harrow's death.

Discussion

Soren's complaint early in the episode that attacking a sleeping opponent "doesn't seem...sporting" may appear to be a caricature of chivalry as commonly understood to apply to medieval knighthood; the parsing that follows certainly pushes it in that direction. That said, there is a decided sense in such chivalric romances as Malory's or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight that chivalry is a game, or at least a gamification of combat. Indeed, a number of scholars have attested to such ideas already--JJ Anderson's 1990 "The Three Judgments and the Ethos of Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," Victoria L. Weiss's 1993 "The Play World and the Real World: Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," René Moelker and Gerhard Kümmel's 2007 "Chivalry and Codes of Conduct: Can the Virtue of Chivalry Epitomize Guidelines for Interpersonal Conduct?" and Joshua David Maldonado's 2020 "The Game at the Green Chapel: A Game-Oriented Perspective on Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," among many others, speak thereto. (Some are even outside paywalls.) Even a causal reading of such works shows the knights commonly approaching fighting as much akin to a sport, both in tournaments (where such might be expected) and in open conflict (where it generally should not). There are rules, don't you know, and concepts of parity between combatants--which are sometimes abusive and sometimes abused; Lancelot's fight with Maleagant in Malory comes to mind as a prominent example. If it is a caricature, it is a knowing one, and more accurate than many such pieces are, even if perhaps unintentionally.