‘The Dragon Prince’ Season 3 Review: One Of The Best Fantasy Shows On TV
Season 3 of 'The Dragon Prince' is epic, emotionally powerful and full of exciting twists and turns.
The Dragon Prince just keeps getting better.
Season 3 of this epic tale of magical elves, gargantuan dragons, and an ancient enmity between the races of men and the magical creatures of Xadia only pushes the story further and deeper while expanding the world ever wider, and solidifying The Dragon Prince as one of the great animated fantasies of our time.
Oh, and it has literally the cutest baby dragon you will ever see. No joke.
Some spoilers for Season 1 and 2 follow–I will keep this review spoiler free for Season 3.
The Story So Far
In Season 1, the world and its conflict was established, along with a cast of interesting, often complicated characters. We learned that the magical land of Xadia and the human kingdoms had long been enemies. Things only got worse when the humans of Katolis killed the Dragon King.
Bit by bit over the course of the next two seasons we learned more about just what happened in the backstory. The elves of Xadia believed the humans had destroyed the egg of the Dragon King and Queen, but they had in fact stolen it instead. When the Moonshadow Elves attacked, looking for vengeance against the King Harrow of Katolis (Luc Roderique) their mission appeared to be a success–though we never saw a body.
Chaos ensued, and Harrow’s two children–his young son and heir Ezren (Sasha Rojen) and older step-son Callum (Jack De Sena)–left with the egg of the Dragon Prince and an unlikely companion, Rayla (Paula Burrows)–a Moonshadow Elf assassin.
Callum and Rayla.
They were pursued both by their aunt, General Amaya (who is deaf) as well as the children of the dark mage, Lord Viren (Jason Simpson). Claudia (Racquel Belmonte) is a dark mage apprentice, though far more lighthearted than her father. Soren (Jesse Inocalla) is a somewhat dim kings guard.
What follows is a grand adventure that constantly upends our expectations of both the characters and the deep, rich history of the fantastical world that creators Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond have crafted so lovingly.
By the end of Season 2 we have a mounting conflict between the races of men and elves. We have a baby dragon, Zym. Callum has become the first human (that we know of) to tap into elemental magic rather than dark magic. Up to this point, only elves and other magical creatures could use magic. Humans had to sacrifice magical creatures to harness dark magic. Somehow Callum figures out how to tap into air magic.
Meanwhile, his relationship to Rayla has grown noticeably closer. Ezren and Zym have a bond that goes beyond mere closeness, with the two actually looking like one another, and even sensing one another over great distances. And the loyalties of Claudia and Soren–torn between the boys and their power-hungry father–have been tested.
Lord Viren himself has attempted to take power in Katolis, and urged the other four human kingdoms to go to war. He meets a mysterious Startouch elf named Aravos (Erik Dellums) who he finds when gazing into a magic mirror that once belonged to the Dragon King and Queen. Aravos reeks of evil, and we learn that he’s imprisoned somewhere, though he does not know where.
Viren himself is eventually imprisoned by the remaining powers-that-be in Katolis, though he continues to speak with Aravos by way of a strange little caterpillar that speaks with Aravos’s voice in his ear.
