The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.9, "Breathe"

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As the second season of the series ends, things look like they might be looking up for some...

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2.9, "Breathe"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

Oh, yes, hi, Ezran.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Ezran, astride a banther (a bear-panther), confronts a fearful Claudia. She begins to plead her case with him and marvels at his ability with animals. They start to confer as they walk through the damaged town, Claudia asking about Ezran's motives. He notes having learned of Harrow's death, and Claudia remarks about her parents' divorce and its effects on her; Ezran offers some comfort before receiving some in return. They discuss their brothers, and Claudia asks for Ezran's help to find something to aid Soren.

Is it obvious yet?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

At the castle of Katolis, Viren rages at Aaravos, who calmly acknowledges the situation and Viren's need. Aaravos offers him assistance, and Viren begins to be persuaded to admit his desires. 

I do not want what he's having.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Callum continues to struggle through the effects of having worked dark magic, proceeding along his internal journey. Rayla continues to tend him, frantically, as he encounters a mental image of his mother, Sarai, and confers with her. The image bids him focus on his breath, her actions and words paralleling those Rayla speaks in the physical world. He wakes with a connection to an elemental magic, the Sky arcanum. He attempts to wax eloquent about it, but he cannot explain well; instead, he demonstrates his new power, decisively, and to the amazement of those near him.

A quote from Hank Hill might fit here:
"Bwaaaaaaaah!"
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Ezran accompanies Claudia into the forest near the damaged town, using his abilities to find a particular bush. Claudia sends Ezran back to Callum; after he leaves, she turns her attention not to the bush, but to the deer nearby. Soon after, she arrives in Soren's hospital room and performs magic upon him; the spell leaves him able to move again, although it has cost Claudia much. They begin to return to the castle of Katolis.

Ezran returns to Callum with Corvus. The group confers, somewhat sadly. As they purpose to depart, Ezran announces that he will return to Katolis to take up the throne that is his birthright and work to pacify matters among the human kingdoms. He sends Callum and Rayla on to Xadia with Zym, parting from them with loving words. They proceed across a dangerous path, Zym assisting in the revelation thereof as he is urged via a psychic bond with Ezran and propelled by Callum's magic. But a guardian bars their way further forward.

After he casts a spell to foment fear among the other human kingdoms, Viren finds himself pursued through the castle of Katolis. He resists capture for a time, brutally, but is eventually taken; he rages against Aaravos but is counseled to patience as Aaravos withdraws his influence but penetrates more deeply into the mage...

Discussion

The comments about dream visions that attach to the previous episode continue to apply to the present one. In addition, the episode completes an instantiation of what TVTropes usefully calls "Traumatic Superpower Awakening." The idea is that passing through a traumatic experience leads to the kind of revelation that admits of access to abilities that defy "normal" physics. The series has played with the idea previously; the dark magic seen worked by Viren and Claudia consumes the lives of others, arguably displacing the caster's own experience of trauma onto the sacrificial victim (though the present episode affirms that the working is itself traumatic to the caster, not least in the evident aging and physical alterations the casters undergo; note the last image here). And there is some antecedent in medieval literature for the phenomenon; writing in The Lancet, Corinne Saunders cites a number of examples that "can illuminate, and are illuminated by, contemporary theories of trauma and dissociation" and which present connection with the otherworldly--in the medieval cases, circumscribed by Christian understanding, but still outside "normal" reality--as emerging from trauma. While it is the case that there are other antecedents for the series's depictions, there are some, and some prominent, that hail from the medieval; the use of the trope therefore does work to accentuate the medievalism already clearly at work in the series.

The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.8, "The Book of Destiny"

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In the penultimate episode of the season, many characters are left in dark places.

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2.8, "The Book of Destiny"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

Nobody's singing...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following the fight at the dragon, the three princes, Rayla, and Bait proceed through the rain towards Xadia, Callum suffering from his exertions. Claudia begins to tend to the injured Soren without success; he has been rendered quadripeligic, and Claudia makes to take him to a physician.

As the princes, Rayla, and Bait reach shelter, Rayla upbraids Callum for his use of dark magic. He slips into delirium, beginning a strange internal journey that forces him to confront his background and himself. Rayla tends him throughout, if somewhat grudgingly.

How the problem with this is unclear...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Katolis, the high council receives reports that Viren is in hiding and must be pursued. Viren continues investigating the mirror and the figure within it: Aaravos. Viren cuts contact with Aaravos and departs stealthily, trying to conduct research. Every mention of Aaravos he encounters clears itself in front of him before he can glean any information. He confronts Aaravos about this.

As Rayla and Ezran tend Callum, Corvus appears. Recognizing Ezran, Corvus identifies himself and lays down his arms, saluting the new king. Ezran realizes his father has died and rages at Rayla before he takes a walk to clear his head. At length, Corvus pursues Ezran, despairing of his life in the woods; Rayla, laughing, dispels his fears.

In a nearby town, Claudia frets as Soren is examined. The prognosis is poor; the physician expects no recovery. Claudia proposes to inform Soren; it does not go well for either of them, with Soren sullenly musing on his failure as a hero and his injuries, as well as his mission to kill the princes. Claudia, for her part, reacts adversely to his words and ransacks the physician's office looking for a remedy until she is ejected.

"Hi, Claudia."
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Walking the streets, Claudia encounters Ezran.

Discussion

Callum's experiences in the episode smack of the medieval dream vision, which Mary Wellesley notes "was as popular in the Middle Ages as the novel is in our own time"; prominent English-language examples include Dream of the Rood, Pearl, and Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes. In them, there is typically a frame in which the narrator falls asleep, with the dream itself--and its psychologically dense malleability--allowing for sustained involvement of otherwise impossible things and deeply symbolic figures that can then be explicated, either within the narrative didactically or by audiences. While the constraints of media change specifics of form, the general pattern appears to bear out in the present episode.

Not just dark, but dark and teenaged.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

For example, Callum is confronted with a dark version of himself that attempts to persuade him to take up dark magic more fully. He is also greeted by his deceased mother and stepfather, as well as dragged through a suddenly appearing ocean and confronted by Villads. He moves from scene to scene with no real transition, evidently at random and with little seeming sense, though with occasional bits of overt silliness--until the end of the episode, which stops before resolution.

Exhibit A.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Exhibit B.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Notably, too, the library at Katolis appears to be well stocked with texts in multiple languages. One evokes the Orientalism already identified as at work in the series, presenting script reminiscent of if not actually in Arabic. (I do not read the language and so cannot tell for sure; the fault is mine and not the episode's.) Another reads in Danish (and offers a lovely bit of insight into the character of Aaravos and his potential significance). Although common concepts of the medieval depict the period as being illiterate--and it is true that literacy among the people of medieval Europe was far more restricted than it has since become, or than it was in Roman Europe, due in part to limited access to paper--it is far from the case. Indeed, the dream visions of which Callum's experiences in the episode partake are themselves attested in medieval writing. Further, as Jocelyn Wogan-Browne notes, medieval English was deeply multicultural, pulling from many languages and peoples; as Katolis and the human kingdoms evoke medieval England in many respects (the Pentarchy comes to mind as but one example), it is not to be wondered at that it, too, would exhibit a multilingual repository--the more so because of the presence of scriptoria across Europe, about which much has been written, and eloquently, by other scholars.

The episode and its series are fantasy, yes, but they are rooted in what has been and can be observed of the medieval from which they draw so much.

The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.7, "Fire and Fury"

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The lyric "Break on through to the other side" comes to mind...

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2.7, "Fire and Fury"

Written by Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

Yahtzee!
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

While overnighting in a cave, Callum considers the Key of Aaravos. Its purpose and powers elude him, but he avers feeling close to a breakthrough in his magical powers. The looming threat of dragons and the difficult passage into and through Xadia encourages Callum to seek more magical knowledge, and Rayla notes the presence of a secret, easy passage into Xadia.

This does seem to capture the moment, doesn't it?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Soren and Claudia drag Corvus to a nearby town, fretting about their diverted mission to track Ezran and Callum. Corvus tries to effect escape, to no avail, and the town is found to be under threat of dragon attack. Soren purposes to take command and eliminate the threatening dragon. Siege weapons are deployed, angering the threatening dragon.

Rayla is wakened from sleep by the sounds of the nascent melee; she and the princes move to investigate as the fracas ensues, proceeding much as might be expected. Soren orders continued fire on the dragon, to little avail, and he releases Corvus to evacuate the local populace. Soren also enlists Claudia's magical help to ensorcel a ballista bolt to take down the dragon. The bolt strikes true, felling the dragon--near where Rayla and the princes look on, aghast. Ezran moves to aid the dragon; Rayla and Callum follow, finding the dragon injured but alive.

This is not the face of victory.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Viren returns to Katolis after the summit of the Pentarchy. Opeli, the religious leader of Katolis, upbraids him sharply for it, and he, stunned, does not refute her claims against him. He withdraws to his sanctum and considers the mirror again, relenting at last in his opposition to the bloodletting from the ritual proposed by the in-mirror figure. He connects with the figure more fully through the portal formed via the ritual, taking a parasite upon himself that allows them to speak together.

Ezran works to ease the dragon, finding the ballista bolt in its side; the princes and Rayla work to remove it. An armed party from the town approaches, and Rayla moves to defend the dragon; the princes persuade her to move off, but only just. Soren, leading the armed party, has the dragon secured as the princes and Rayla return to their camp. Rayla frets over her decision to flee as the dissection of the dragon is considered. Callum agrees to help Rayla, at least in principle, though he notes his incapacity; Rayla avers her own place, and she makes to help the dragon, moving off in haste.

This is a Bad Sign.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

She arrives and attacks the armed party alone. She makes some headway towards releasing the dragon before she is beset, fighting Soren again. Callum muses on Rayla and finds himself obliged to assist her--with dark magic. He moves off to do so, taking Claudia's book and working a foul spell against the armed party. It is frighteningly effective, freeing the dragon--which reveals to Soren that it yet lives. Rayla extracts Callum as Soren faces the dragon again--to his catastrophic, paralyzing injury.

Ezran, who had been left alone with Bait and Zym, loses the dragon in the woods. He finds Zym at the scene of the fight, and the injured dragon departs. Soren's injury distracts Claudia from capturing the princes.

Discussion

https://i.gifer.com/7Ca3.gifhttps://i.gifer.com/7Ca3.gif

But it isn't Mordor, is it?
Image taken from Gifer, used for commentary.

There is another of the interesting medievalists nods that punctuates the series early in the episode. When considering passage into Xadia, Callum notes the difficulty of crossing the lava-river at its border; Rayla notes that it is not as much a problem as might be thought. The exchange references the meme-tastic line from Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring in which Bean's Boromir proclaims in exasperation that "One does not simply walk into Mordor." It is another reference to the Lord of the Rings films from the turn of the twenty-first century, a common reference point for "the medieval" and medievalism in the way Paul Sturtevant discusses (or here), as well as more broadly for the culture of the series's anticipated secondary audience--the parents whose children might well be watching The Dragon Prince and who might themselves have been watching Jackson's films when they came out in days that seem so long ago, now.

The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.6, "Heart of a Titan"

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As the rewatch moves into a new year, its backward look comes to a close. At least for now...

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2.6, "Heart of a Titan"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

She's a fine ship, truly.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The Ruthless continues towards Xadia. Rayla confides in her captain, who offers wisdom. Callum reads Harrow's last letter to him; it confesses much to him and offers no small amount of advice as "a lie, a wish, and a secret." The lie is that of history, which will aggrandize unduly. The wish is that Callum and Ezran will be free from pasts that are not their own. The secret is supposed to be in the winter quarters; the cube that Callum had had Rayla retrieve therefrom had belonged to the elven archmage Aaravos, and Harrow had intended Callum to have it, thinking it--the Key of Aaravos--might be of use to him. Callum reaffirms his brotherly love, and the Ruthless approaches the shore under the shadow of a dragon.

Sad, yes, but resolute--and not wrong.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Meanwhile, the Pentarchy summit continues, as does Viren's story to Aanya. The problem encountered by the combined Duren / Katolis expedition into Xadia erupts into melee as the human party begins to fight the magma titan, seeking to kill it to harvest its heart so as to power the dark magic they need to feed the two kingdoms. They succeed in the battle and flee from Xadia; the King of Dragons interdicts them, and the three queens--Sarai, Annika, and Neha--fall to secure the others' retreat. The ritual that follows is similarly successful, allowing Duren and Katolis to survive the winter. Even so, Aanya refuses to send her kingdom to war on the say-so of Katolis. Viren erupts into anger again, upbraiding the monarchs for what he perceives as their cowardice.

Discussion

Someone failed a final saving throw...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The fight with the dragon depicted in the episode seems to borrow somewhat from Dungeons & Dragons, although correspondences are not exact. (I remark with some joy, though, that the titan's heart looks very much like a d20.) The dragon attacks with a distinct breath weapon (only a few times) and by lashing with its tail; I very nearly expected to see a claw / claw / bite sequence. This is not unexpected, of course; for all its flaws (and it continues to have them, although progress is being made), D&D is a common enough entry point into medievalism, something decidedly engaging and easily accessible, so references to it are able to stand in for the medieval, as such, for a great many.

Such is perilous, of course; post-medieval work necessarily fails to fully capture the medieval from which it borrows and which it may purport to depict, and the constraints of media and genre necessitate selection of concepts to push forward. It is a markedly incomplete portrait that forms when such paints are the only ones used. It remains incumbent upon those who have worked to produce better pigments in more shades to ensure that they are available for use, for those who have done the work to understand (better) what the medieval actually was to point out what is right and what is less so--as the Society has long held, witnessed here, here, and elsewhere.

In the wake of events at the United States Capitol on 6 January 2021, it becomes clearer that the work of medievalists to better understand the medieval and to work against the deployment of wrong-headed, wrong-hearted ideas about it and its significance is far from done. The repugnant ideology espoused by such people as acted against democratic processes while cloaking themselves in trappings of the ostensible medieval, as well as by many others who have done the same as they have acted against peaceful protests and against people who had done no wrong, must be opposed, and those who continue to espouse it must be held in opprobrium. Even in looking at something as seemingly innocuous as a children's cartoon, it must be so--because even in something as seemingly innocuous, wrong-headed, wrong-hearted ideas can be planted, their pernicious seeds taking root and choking out the good lives that others might lead.