The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.7, "Fire and Fury"

Read the previous entry here.
Read the next entry here.

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

---

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.