The Dragon Prince Netflix Original Season 3 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
Hey everybody! I finally got around to watching The Dragon Prince’s season 3 on July 7, 2020. This season review took longer than usual due to everything—Coronavirus Pandemic, personal issues with my blog, Black Lives Matter Movement—going on since 2020 started, but I’m finally here and ready to discuss Avatar The Last Airbender’s spiritual successor with y’all, as Head Writer Aaron Ehasz was heavily involved in this show’s writing and production. For those interested in my season reviews regarding The Dragon Prince or ATLA, the links are listed below:
Synopsis: The story is set in a world called Xadia. Humans and elves are at war with each other because the humans used dark magic to kill the Dragon King and his egg known as The Dragon Prince. The main characters—Ezran, Callum, and Rayla—discovered that the egg was not destroyed, setting them off on a quest to return The Dragon Prince to its mother—The Dragon Queen—and stop the war.
Season 3 is truly epic, bringing together the various conflicts and side-adventures from the previous two seasons by season’s end. Every character—especially our three heroes—continue to grow in ways that made watching the first three seasons an amazing experience. I actually ugly-cried watching the season 3 finale. I hadn’t cried that bad in a while. Good job, The Dragon Prince! There were so many payoffs in that finale, but I’ll get to that later in the review.
We have to go back to the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.
I sung-wrote those two sentences in italics.
The background and story lore deepened in this season to the point that the main plot involving Callum and Rayla seemed like a sub-plot. We learned more about what happened between King Harrow (Ezran and Callum’s father), Lord Viren (Claudias and Soren’s father), and The Dragon King (The Dragon Prince’s father) in addition to Rayla’s parents and their role in protecting The Dragon Prince from Lord Viren.
There was also more world-building for Xadia and its adorable creatures, as Callum and Rayla were finally closing in on the Dragon Queen’s home. We were also introduced to more characters and the many elf races—like the Sunfire Elves and the Skywing Elves—all with their own magic, culture, and accents.
The animation was stellar and cleaner in this season compared to the previous two seasons. Everyone’s skin tones—something I mentioned in my season one review—were also still distinct especially with the new Elven races introduced. Also, all the dragons shown in this series were majestic and gorgeous. Zym—The Dragon Prince—was still the cutest little dragon though.
Whenever people ask me about this show, I basically tell them, “This is an animated Game of Thrones show but with Avatar The Last Airbender’s childish fantasy aspects blended into the narrative.” This opinion of mine was most apparent during my viewing of season 3, as the flashback sequences were just as important as the present day—perhaps even more entertaining than present day if I dare say so myself.
What I enjoyed most about The Dragon Prince was its ability to show a character’s complexity and their reasoning behind doing the things they do. While Lord Viren is the main antagonist of the series, he does what he does thinking its best for the city of Katolis. His children—Claudia and Soren—are loyal and respectful to their father’s wishes, but they themselves aren’t evil people. Soren’s character development finally came to fruition during this season, when he finally stood up to his father’s verbal abuse and gaslighting.
Season 3 also wrapped up what was essentially a three-season arc—27 episodes—that could’ve been one whole season. In my earlier reviews, I complained about The Dragon Prince’s season count being only 9 episodes (too short!), but now I look at the first three seasons as a three-hour long movie like Avengers: Endgame or more accurately, The Lord of The Rings trilogy. The first three seasons of The Dragon Prince are basically an epic fantasy trilogy movie set.
However, the story isn’t over yet as we have more seasons—and a video game—to look forward to. I’m excited for season 4 to drop at some point. At this point, the release date has not been confirmed. Thanks for reading my thoughts on The Dragon Prince. It was good talking to y’all, and I’ll see you at some point with some The Legend of Korra season reviews. The Legend of Korra is coming to Netflix on August 14, 2020.