The Dragon Prince Rewatch 2.9, "Breathe"

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

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.