A few weeks ago the sixth season of The Dragon Prince launched on Netflix. Like the previous seasons, this one had nine seasons. The series was created by Aaron Ehasz AND Justin Richmond and is produced by Wonderstorm.
For the sake of completeness, I was provided with a free month of Netflix to watch the season for the purposes of this review, but all thoughts below are my own.
I have another confession to make. Apparently I forgot to watch season 5 of The Dragon Prince when it came out, which means I ended up binging seasons five and six when I came to write this review. I’ll try to stick to season six, but there might be a bit of season five leaking into this. Now for the spoiler-free review.
I really liked it The Dragon Prince season six. It does a great job of tying everything together, tying up a number of storylines and making me love some characters even more.
This was much more coherent than season 4, which I appreciated, but I never felt like I was missing out on any given story. Unless I missed something (always a possibility), then we’ll only have one more season and I’m very interested to see how they wrap things up completely in just one season. Season 6 has intrigue, fights, romance, banter, and more. I dare say it might be the best season of The Dragon Prince Still.
Yes, the animation is still the same slightly choppy style, but at this point it’s clearly an artistic choice and not a budget issue. Right!? If you’re a fan of the series, I think you’ll love this season of The Dragon Prince.
The official spoiler warning is up and now I can talk more about what I liked. A good portion of season six focused on the politics of the Sunfire Elves. Queen Janai had to deal with her banished brother Karim who was being a tradition-bound idiot.
She had gathered a small army to rebel against Janai with the promise of support from the powerful ex-Archdragon Sol Regem. We have the wedding between Janai and Amaya, although tensions are high with the threat of Karim’s army. I’ll be honest, this storyline was my least favorite and felt like it dragged on. However, the ending was very satisfying.
I appreciated the little twist where Sol Regem turns against Karim and fails to show up to save his insurgent army, while Janai’s five armies presumably arrive to put down the revolt without too much trouble.
The second main plot is obviously Claudia and Terry. I still love Terry! Claudia has a bit of an identity crisis after Viren leaves to give himself up to the powers that be in Katalos.
She begins to question a lot of what her future holds and begins to realize the toll dark magic has taken on her as a human. Terry is obviously trying to show her that he doesn’t need dark magic (though maybe he could be less passive about things) and that he cares about her.
This story culminates with her manipulation by Aaravos to free him. I really appreciate that Terry sees through what Aaravos is doing and saying and points it out to Claudia. I genuinely wonder how this will ultimately impact their relationship, as she doesn’t seem to be listening to him at this point.
The third main storyline is the quest that Rayla and Callum undertake to try to find a way to destroy Aaravos. There is a lot of awkward tension in this storyline, but fans are ultimately rewarded with the long-awaited kiss.
The pair meet the Skywing Elves and we learn quite a bit about them and the Startouched Elves. We also get an interesting bit of storytelling in “Moment of Truth” when Kosmo (a Skywing Elves) is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to tell Callum a harsh truth.
In this part, everything goes black and white to show the possible outcomes, but then everything goes back to color when we find out what really happens, that is, that Kosmo does not reveal the truth.
At the end of this storyline, Rayla is faced with a difficult decision and ends up freeing Runaan from his coin and helping her parents, Tiadrin and Lain, pass on to the afterlife. It’s a bit of an emotional moment.
Now that I’ve provided the briefest of synopses for the three main storylines, I want to talk about Viren. At the beginning of season six (or maybe the end of season five?) Viren returns to Katalos and begs to be essentially thrown into prison.
He has fully realized that he was unjustified in the way he used dark magic and is prepared to accept the consequences. The rest of the season we see him in prison and in “Moment of Truth” (it’s crazy how this episode came back to mind) we learn how he was set on the path of dark magic and gives us a glimpse into Soren’s childhood.
It’s a very touching story and makes me love Soren even more. As part of his penance, Viren is writing this story in a letter to give to Soren who has been (understandably) cold to Viren since his return. In the end, Viren backs out of giving the letter to Soren and burns it.
This is already quite beautiful and very touching, but then Viren’s redemption becomes one of my favorites among all the movies and TV series.
Remember how I said Sol Regem abandons Karim? It’s because he goes to attack Katalos. During this dragon siege, the people are in danger and the situation is desperate. Soren makes the hard decision to ask his father to use dark magic to protect the citizens of Katalos and when he is informed that a human heart was needed for the spell, he offers his.
However, Viren is already obsessed with seeing the path Claudia is taking and instead casts the spell, sacrificing his heart for the spell and saving the people of Katalos. It’s not entirely clear to me whether this is a matter of Soren not knowing Viren would sacrifice himself or if it’s just Soren being surprised that his father went through with his plan, but it doesn’t matter for now.
The point is that this redemption was not rushed and it was done well. We saw the seeds of redemption in season 4 and the team let them ripen. Viren did not immediately become good. He did not immediately make a great sacrifice or a great act of redemption.
He thought about things, tried to atone through imprisonment, and after going through so much on his journey of redemption, he was given the opportunity for that great sacrifice. And it felt so good!
There’s another moment that I thought was incredibly well done and that’s when Claudia and Callum cast their spells. These spells seem to happen simultaneously and the way they’re presented is phenomenal.
The spells are nearly identical, but there are a couple of differences noted. Callum is actually doing it out of love for someone he loves. Claudia is being manipulated (she found Viren dead before this) by Aaravos and while she thinks she is tapping into love, it is quite clear that she is using a more twisted form of love.
This is something Terry tries to explain to Claudia, but she doesn’t listen. I’m not doing the scene justice, to be honest, but I promise it’s incredibly well done.
The season ends with Katalos in ruins, Aaravos and Runaan free, Karim and the rebels seemingly annihilated, and Terry and Claudia’s relationship changing to something more akin to “It’s complicated.”
Jokes aside, I honestly wonder how/if The Dragon Prince can be given a proper conclusion in just one season. To me, it definitely feels like a 2-3 season affair to wrap up considering our heroes have no idea how they could defeat Aaravos.
On the bright side, Callum and Rayla have the last quasar diamond and I’d be shocked if it didn’t play a major role in the equation.
I know I haven’t covered everything, so please share your favorite things about season 6 and other thoughts on The Dragon Prince in the comments below. You can stream all six seasons of The Dragon Prince now on Netflix. This is definitely going to be a tough season to top.
by Tommy Williams
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
