The Dragon Prince

[WIP; to administration: please refrain from editing]

About

The Dragon Prince is a computer animated cartoon and television series created by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond and produced by Wonderstorm as a Netflix original series. The show, following human half-siblings Callum and Ezran and the elvish assassin Rayla as they attempt to put an end to an oncoming war and bring peace to their land, has garnered critical praise since its premiere in late 2018, alongside a growing fandom. A second season is set for reaand accompanying video game are currently in production.

Premise

In the fantasy world of Xadia, humans have discovered dark magic, capturing and using the magical creatures of the land to use as ingredients, and being driven to one end of the continent as a result by the elves and the dragons. After it's discovered that the humans had killed the dragon king and his heir's egg, war is imminent and a successful assassination attempt is made on the human king, letting the war-intent mage and advisor Viren seize power. Meanwhile, human half siblings Callum and Ezran alongside Rayla, a moonshadow elf assassin, find out that the egg was not killed, but in fact stolen, thus making it their goal to return the egg to the dragons, halt the war, and bring peace to Xadia.

History

The Dragon Prince was created by Aaron Ehasz, known mainly for being the head writer for Avatar: The Last Airbender, though he also wrote episodes for Futurama, and Justin Richmond, a former Naughty Dog employee known for co-directing Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. Both had worked for Riot Games, the developers of League of Legends though in different roles. In 2017, the two founded Wonderstorm alongside Justin Santistevan, who also worked at Riot Games as head of finance for research and development, as a way to create animated series and video games simultaneously, with this show being the company's first project.^[1]

The Dragon Prince premiered on September 14th, 2018 with 9 episodes in its first season on Netflix as part of the service's original programming.On January 12th, 2019, it was announced that the show's second season would premiere on February 15th.

Reception

The show received positive reviews upon release. On IMDb, the show has accumulated an 8.3/10 rating from over 5,000 users. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has received a 100% rating from 9 reviews marked "fresh", with an average rating of 7.9/10, and a 90% user rating. The series has also earned a 4 star rating out of 5 from Common Sense Media.

Matthew Dougherty, writing for IGN, gave the series an 8.5/10, concluding "The Dragon Prince is one part Game of Thrones and one part Avatar: The Last Airbender, bursting with dragons, epic action, and only the silliest, most grin-inducing humor. While the season feels too short, like the meat of the story is still to come, these nine episodes pack enough of a punch that the prospect of a second season is deeply exciting."

One aspect of the show that was noted and criticized by some was the animation style of the show, which resulted in less smooth character movements. Shamus Kelley, writing for Den of Geek, said while the series had a large amount of potential, he also wrote, "The biggest problem is it’s very hard to enjoy all that when the animation is perplexingly stuttering."

Online Relevance

On Twitter, the show's official account has accumulated over 40,000 followers.

Fandom

Fan Art

Search Relevance

External References

^[1] VentureBeat – Wonderstorm is a new TV and game studio from League of Legends and Uncharted 3 vets