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The Dragon Prince Season 2 Review

The second season of The Dragon Prince is an improvement upon its predecessor with a darker and more interesting overall storyline.

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“Those who fail tests of love are simple animals.

They deserve to be motivated by fear“

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Callum, Rayla, Ezran and the newly hatched Prince Azymondias leave the Cursed Caldera and embark on a journey across the sea towards the border between the human kingdoms and Xadia. This season was just as funny as the first one with a lot of humor and goofiness, but it was also darker with moments that hint at brutality and murder. Those plot points happen off screen, but still they made the show more mature and more engaging to adult viewers.

The show continues to have an animation problem as the CGI is overly choppy and uneven in quality. But the score continues to be epic and suitably medieval. The voice acting also shines with everybody delivering a great performance. The action is excellent, but I do want more of it in future seasons.

This series definitely has an extremely slow pace for better and for worse. On the one hand, it moves too leisurely, making every season feel like a prelude to the main story that will happen in the next season, but on the other hand, this approach positively impacted the character development, which was once again fantastic.

Callum gets a terrific arc this time around. He gets to grow as a person and he gets to try out dark magic in order to save his friends. This negatively impacts him, which leads to those dream scenes that show us his deepest fears and desires. These sequences were overly extensive, but very moving and well done.

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I just adore Ezran. He is one of my favorite characters once again and it’s difficult not to absolutely love this kid. He showed his mature side throughout this season and how he handled the realization of his father’s death was quite commendable. I do question why he has to be a king, though. For a show that tries to be modern with its casting choices, it seems to be too stuck in the past with how royalty is realistically established within this fantasy world.

Rayla is wonderful per usual and there is a hint of romance that develops between her and Callum that seemed grounded in reality and well realized. Her action scenes continue to be the best of the bunch. The show is also pleasantly Disneyesque in its depiction of animals as sidekicks. Not only is Bait wonderfully grumpy and endearing, but Zym is simply adorable as this incredibly cute baby dragon.

Claudia and Soren are quite intriguing this season. They verged on being villains while still firmly remaining in the gray area. Soren was quite unlikable at times, but Claudia being a hero in one scene and almost a villain in another made her constantly riveting and unpredictable. The other characters did not get much to do and the flashbacks were overlong, though undeniably well crafted.

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But one of the highlights of the season has to be Viren, who continues to be a terrific villain. A fallen hero/antihero who has by now become a villain due to so many bad circumstances, his arc is so well handled and highly believable. The slow pace in this instance works as it made his progression toward a villain grounded and his character more complex. Aaravos is introduced this season and this sort of dark elf that taunts him from the other side of the mirror with his deep voice was the darkest and most intriguing development on the show yet.