The Dragon Prince Rewatch 3.7, "Hearts of Cinder"

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Despair is kindled as the season approaches its end.

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3.7, "Hearts of Cinder"

Written by Neil Mukhopadhyay
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

It's a strange squee.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Claudia fawns over the Xadian wildlife as she takes samples of it and the united human armies march onwards. Soren tries to confer with his father about their objectives and goals, but Viren deflects the questions, angrily, and holds up Kasef as a counter-example. Viren privately consults Aaravos about the plan, finding only cryptic answers and a push towards conquest--and control of Azymondias. The nearby city of Lux Aurea, by report, contains materials that victory will require; Viren balks at the prospect of conflict and of his self-sacrifice.

Take the long way home...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

At the Stormspire, Zym, Ezran, Rayla, Callum, and Bait make for the dragon's lair at the mountain pinnacle. There are stairs in abundance, so all can ascend, and Callum mulls over his burgeoning romance with Rayla before they encounter a gate with forbidding writing upon it. They proceed despite the warning, their breathing becoming ragged and labored.

A face of some interest.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Meanwhile, Viren presents himself to the queen of the Sunfire Elves, Khessa, offering information about a fallen former queen. Under guard, he is pressed for the information, demanding passage for his army; Khessa bids him be put to trial, and he faces the light that had beset Amaya. It exposes the corruption of his magics, and Khessa comments that he "will be purified."

Dark tidings, indeed.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Janai calls on Amaya, conferring with her about the arrived Viren. Amaya warns her against him, and they rush to interrupt proceedings before he can work against them. They are too late to interdict him, however, and Viren, supported by the horrifically embodied Aaravos, wreaks ruin upon Lux Aurea and its ruler, corrupting the area's magic and turning it to his end.

As Zym, Ezran, Rayla, Callum, and Bait continue, the lack of air tells upon the humans and the elf. Help for them arrives in the form of the dragon they had aided before, who scratches out a magical symbol. Ezran copies the symbol for Callum, who enacts its spell, enabling them all to proceed together--and they reach the summit of the Stormspire, where they are greeted with dour news.

Viren returns to the armies, empowered, and calls for volunteers to undergo a transformative working. Soren refuses it, but Kasef accepts it and is corrupted as he is given strength and power; Soren flees. Claudia tries to keep him, and he tries to persuade her to come away with him they part in sadness. Viren works the ritual on the assembled armies, transforming them all.

Discussion

As I watch the episode again, I am struck less by the continued medievalism--the tropes already in place remain in place, after all, even if there is more of the overtly fantastic about the episode, but even that fantastic follows depictions of Tolkien by Jackson, Nasmith, and Howe and so touches back upon the medievalist underpinnings of the series--than I am by the postcolonialist critique that seems to be in play in the episode. The exchanges between Khessa and Viren smack of imperialistic powers still scorning the uprising former subalterns that have acquired new tools to use to overthrow the former oppressive power structures--and those tools are clearly evil, even as the innate powers of the elves cannot be said to be inherently or even necessarily good. "You are lesser beings" is hardly an enlightened attitude (despite what entirely too many people still think), and calls to "be content with what you are given" ring of the kind of dismissive attitude still all too prevalent in current and former colonial centers towards those who have been and still are oppressed.

Those who are still more fully engaged in academe than I may well have more to say about the matter, of course; I am not up on my readings anymore, some time having passed since I was even nominally a professor and longer since I could make a full-time effort of being so. But I can note that, yes, the Manichean allegory upon which so much colonialist discourse depends is frustrated (to some extent) in the present episode--although I will note that the worst acts are wrought by the palest-skinned present, which seems a neater inversion than might otherwise be the case. At root, though, there are few if any "good guys" in this--which is as it should be, even in a children's show.