The title says it all pretty much.
right off the I just want to say that I’m not a big fan of this show; I went into it hoping that it would be good, but was prepared for it to be bad. I’m more so just interested in why this show is getting a lot of praise when I personally feel that it’s just sorta average at best.
Isn’t that the show that had the Avatar: TLA writer?
Yeah pretty much
I’ve heard its really good, but have yet to watch it. The abysmal frame rate is a huge turn away.
Honestly I would recommend you check it out just for the sake of it even with the frame rate, you can get used to it even tho it doesn’t really get any better.
Alright.
Of all the recently released Netflix shows, Hilda is by far my favorite, but this looks pretty good. I’ll give it a watch when I can.
I really want to try this out, as I’m a die-hard Avatar fan, but as Primal said, the frame rate is a big obstacle in me trying. It’s a production choice I just don’t quite understand. Does it at least get sped up in action sequences, or is it stuck like that the whole time?
it’s mostly the same the whole time, tho from my memory it did look worse whenever a character was running around especially when it’s being shot at a distance.
Oh joy…
Honestly I would recommend watching just for the sake of curiosity, I personally don’t think it’s very good and I’m kinda shocked as to why the majority of people I’ve seen think it’s amazing, but if you are interested it’s best to just watch through it and make up your own mind on it.
It’s a good show. Even those the animations and frame rate are kinda off, the plot, characters, and overall story is really good.
Good show. Waiting not so patiently for season three.
Aunt Amaya for the win!!
Binged this show and I absolutely love it. My favorite character has got to be Rayla. She manages to both pull off the kick@ss serious assassin feel while also being the awkward and emotionally flippant teenager that she is. Being able to believable and effectively flip back and forth between intimidating warrior and adorkable goof is amazing. And then they throw a Scottish accent on top of all of that, which I love immensely.
Other favorite characters would be
Callum, all admit partially because he’s one of the main characters, but because he’s also a really good character. Even if he is just diet Sokka sometimes.
Ezran, the surprising single voice of reason while traveling with two bickering teens, as well as being really responsible and confident for his age.
Bait, who is just the goodest boy. (Seriously that one part when he shoved a bunch of jelly tarts into Ez’s cell and then jumped down there himself. That was beautiful) and he also has so much more visible emotional depth and range than I would have ever expected out of the tag along animal sidekick.
Soren. Just Soren. He’s an absolute idiot but he tries his best. That’s all I think I need to say.
Amaya, who is hands down the best aunt character I’ve ever seem in anything ever. And also uses a shield as on offensive weapon which I love.
And Gren. Where do I even start with this lad. He’s just so absolutely pure and I love it.
I know no one cares, but that’s not gonna stop me from posting on a 4 year old topic to ramble on about a show almost no one will care about!
I have kind of a love hate relationship with this show. On one hand, I really appreciate what the creators tried to do in making a morally gray fantasy show still aimed at kids. There’s some really nice visual design, some of the character concepts are cool (especially Aunt Amaya, she was the best for a while).
The problem, is that the writing is just baffling. As I mentioned, the show tries to portray this big conflict/war between elves and humans as a complicated morally gray cycle of violence. But it’s just not. The elves are 100% the bad guys in my mind, and the show fails to produce a good reason to justify their actions against dark magic. I can’t say too much without getting into spoiler territory, but the main antagonist named Viren should be the main protagonist. It honestly feels like someone wrote a story about a character who wants to do the write thing, but is surrounded by fools who won’t listen to him, and is out of good options, thus pushing him farther toward an ends justify the means mentality. Instead, it felt like the show took that character, slapped a few random, uncharacteristic mustache twirling moments, and made him the main villain. There’s a bunch of other problems with the writing throughout the show, but it’s just so baffling how popular it is, and how rarely these issues seem to be addressed (though it looks like the fandom is recognizing them more lately).
If anyone’s curious about the show, I’d say go ahead and watch it; it’s not too long, and even though the writing does fall flat, it’s still entertaining (even if the entertainment does sometimes come from how unreasonable everyone is aside from Viren).
I must admit I was hesitant for a good while to write anything in the Entertainment section of the MB explicitly to express my feelings about this show.
It has nothing related to the message board itself but more of my often temperamental nature when it comes to things I love inexpressibly. (As in this case.)
So, the fact is that TDP not only became my favorite animated series on Netflix after I’d watched its first three seasons back in 2019, But it is, at the moment, has become my most beloved & adored show since Atla. 
Sure, it has a few minor writing issues, especially in the first season, but after that, it improves in miles with each step.
The 4th season did retain some of the less appreciated aspects of the 1st season, which is a bit unfortunate but understandable as S04 served as an introduction to the next Arc of the story (The mystery around Aaravos (the main antagonist).), so it’s forgivable, IMO.
The characters are all very intriguing and well-written, my favorites are still the story’s leading trio for various reasons I would like to explain in more detail, but I don’t have time for it now.
The world of Xadia also feels rich in myths and awe.
Overall, these are all I could write about this show.
If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try!
It is worth it! 
Although I see where you’re coming from with these criticisms, I still feel that some of your points are not factually correct.
Well, except that a human mage used dark magic to turn the Dragon’s king Avizandum into stone thus waging war across the entire continent of Xadia. If I recall correctly, the prologue narration at the very beginning of the show mentioned that humans wanted dark magic because normally they couldn’t use “regular” magic. (or at least, most of them…) Plus, we did see in Viren’s case but once in Callum’s, how dark magic can corrupt a person’s mind and soul very easily.
-First, He’s not the main antagonist, that is Aaravos, the star-touched elf, who was prisoned into that mirror, that Viren found in his former friend, King Haarow’s room after He was assassinated.
-Second, no offense, but had we watched the same series? 
It was clear by the end of S01, that He was anything, but a good person.
He tried to kill His Best friend’s sons without any good reason, with His son and daughter.
Then, he tried to lead the other human kingdoms into a fatal war with the elves.
And last but not least, He tried to take over His friend’s kingdom from the rightful heir to the throne ( Prince Ezraan ) and almost turned that into a full-on dictatorship.
He is also incredibly smug, arrogant, and hypocritical towards anyone, who disagrees with him.
So, no.
He would’ve been a terrible protagonist. 
Breaking News! The trailer for the 5th season is here:
Edited for Triple Post - BioKnight
I know this response is super late, but I’ve got some college assignments due that I don’t want to get done, so my procrastination has led me back to a response I wanted to make a year ago, lol. If I come across a lil overbearing here, I apologize, but The Dragon Prince and this topic particularly is honestly something I am really passionate about, and I love sharing my thoughts with others. Spoilers for seasons 1-7 ahead.
This was after said Dragon King murdered three human monarchs for the grave grave crime of crossing a boarder (which unjustly exists, but we’ll get to that) to kill a lava monster in order to save 100,000 people from starving to death (the fact they’re starving can also be traced back to the Xadians).
This is the crux of The Dragon Prince’s morality problem. So many of the Xadian’s reactions can be traced back to them being upset about humans harnessing dark magic.
Except here’s the thing: there’s nothing wrong with dark magic. The show attempts to give reasons why it’s wrong, but I think they all fall flat. We are told that it ‘corrupts the soul’ as you mentioned, but there is extremely little actual evidence that it actually corrupts people beyond discoloring skin and hair.
Other reasons the show gives is that it’s a shortcut. Which is a stupid argument. Driving a car is a shortcut, heck, riding a mount is a shortcut, but you see a lot of Xadians riding mounts around.
The show argues that it is wrong because of the fact that it uses creatures as magical components, but the same argument could be made for eating a hamburger. Granted, some vegans do hold to this position, but for a vegan to argue that someone eating meat is a justified reason to commit mass exile (and quite frankly genocide when you look at the conditions the human’s were forced into [hence why the starvation was partly their fault]) is crazy.
So, I’ll stick up for Aaravos a little less than I would Viren, but now that seasons 6 and 7 are out, I think his actions are pretty justified, seeing as his whole motivation was raging against a system which decided capital punishment was the only proper punishment for an extremely young autistic girl who’s grave grave crime was only that she taught humans how to do magic out of compassion (the show is vague as to weather this magic was primal or dark magic, but it honestly doesn’t matter). Even if it was dark magic, seeing as there’s not real reason why dark magic is wrong, it makes the star-touched court insanely evil for coming to this conclusion.
I do not see at all how that was made clear, in fact, I think he is one of the closest things the show has to a good person, even if he is flawed.
So, of all of Viren’s misdeeds, this one is admittedly pretty dark, but to say it was “without any good reason” is simply untrue. Humanity’s monarch which had overseen the security of the entire species had just been assassinated, and an extremely powerful dragon egg was missing along with the princes. Viren was afraid that if it turned out that the princes hud turned traitor and were in collaboration with the elves, then all of humanity would be in jeopardy: spoilers, he was completely correct in this fear.
This is another anti-Viren argument that I see brought up: him telling Claudia and Soren to prioritize securing the egg over each other’s well being. Frankly, this is not an evil expectation to have. Claudia and Soren are some of Katolis’s top agents, and the egg is likely one of the most important things on the continent. It is right and just for Claudia and Soren to prioritize the duty of their mission over each other’s well being: they would be really crappy servants of the realm if they didn’t.
Honestly, the fact that Viren is willing to put his own children, who he clearly loves, in harms way in order to protect humanity shows his selflessness.
Correction: he tried to rally the rest of humanity to unite in defending themselves in a fatal war which was being brought on by the elves. The Breach was under attack by Sun-fire elves, and it is heavily implied that this is nor the first time the Standing Battalion of Kotalis has had to keep the Xadians from invading. General Amaya literally chastises Viren when they meet, warning him of “the dangerous forces gathered at our boarder.” A threat which Viren seems to be the only one taking seriously, but she still hates him for some reason. A dragon had also been flying into Koralian airspace, which is essentially the equivalent of flying a fighter jet over another nation.
Humanity was in a time of crisis after a king had just been assassinated: Viren was completely justified in wanting to go to war. It is insane and traitorous that the rest of the pentarchy did not agree (but we’ll get to that later).
While technically true, you are leaving out a vast amount of context. Firstly, he was the only individual with a competent plan to save Harrow, but Harrow refused it (more on this later as well). If Viren were truly just out for himself and after power, he would not have done this.
Then, after Harrow dies, does Viren use this as a chance to greedily grab power and name himself king? No, he instead identifies that seeing as the king is dead and princes are missing, the nation needs some kind of leader in this time of crisis; in fact, there already seems to be a regent system in place for just this kind of thing. So, now does the evil, scheming, power hungry Viren insist on a claim for the regency? No, after Amaya hardly criticizes his suggestion and accuses him of wanting Harrow’s death (again, despite being the only one seriously trying to stop it), he offers her the regency, which she rejects, instead telling him to leave the throne empty, which during a time of war, is really really stupid. Only after Amaya proves her utter belligerence and incompetence does Viren start grabbing power, but as is clear by both his words and actions, not for his own benefit, but for the survival of humanity.
Oh, and it turns out he was right to fear Prince Ezraan on the throne, child rulers are kind of bad at ruling, and end up elevating their favorite chef’s into positions on the high council, as well as actively working against the interests of humanity.
Can he be smug at times, sure, but honestly, Viren is far more selfless, kind, and reasonable than he is any of those things.
Going back to the pentarchy episode, he does treat Queen Aanya like a child unequipped to understand the complexities at play, and once gain it turns out that he is completely correct in that assumption, as she refuses to go to war despite the elves literally invading the boarder at that point.
On a quick aside, why does she refuse to go to war? Because she’s ant-violence I guess. What does she end up doing a season later? Marching to war against Viren in order to stop him from attacking Xaida in defense of humanity.
Ok, so back to Viren. The entire show likes to spin this narrative that he’s this power hungry monster, but again, his actions just do not point to his motivation being anything other than wanting to help humanity and help others.
Viren is above all, selfless. It is Viren who rides back in a vain attempt to save Tanya’s parents, severely risking his own life in the process. It is Viren, not any of Harrow’s guards, who is ultimately willing to swap bodies with his king so that his friend may live and he may die, even going so far as to give a seriously heartfelt goodbye to his own daughter who he thinks he’ll never see again. And lastly, it is Viren who uses his own freaking heart as a dark magic component in order to save the lives of a kingdom that only ever criticized and rejected him. You can not seriously write a character that willing to consistently lay down his life for the greater good and still claim that he’s just a power hungry egotist.
Honestly, show me examples of Viren being unjustly arrogant and hypocritical, because I am trying to think of them and coming up short.
At the end of the day, The Dragon Prince is a fascinating show because it is as consistent as it is evil with the main thesis/theme of the show: Those who are powerful deserve to be powerful, and those who are weak deserve to be weak; any empowerment of the weak is evil, and if you were meant to have powers, you would have been born with them. I think that this is a pretty evil message for a show, yet it makes sense when you look at how people treat Viren simply because of the fact that he is not royalty, or how the Xadians treat the humans for not having power.
When you’re a tyrant, the best thing you can do is keep those under you weak, and the Xadians manage to do that by vilifying the only thing humans can consistently do to match them. Dark magic is not considered evil because it’s actually evil, but because it let the humans stand up to tyrants, it let them dare to question those in power.
That’s what makes this show so compelling for me, I think. Viren is in a world that punishes you and vilifies you for standing up to tyrants and bullies, that will execute you for empowering others out of compassion (just look at what they did to Leola), yet despite all of this, Viren still choses to stand. Even if all the other characters call him a villain, heck, even if the show runners themselves call him a villain, he choses to stand up for those who need it. It’s how he lived, and it’s how he died.
Did he do some bad things, yeah, he was in a horrible situation due to the evil/incompetency of others and he made the choices he thought were best for his people, and sometimes those choices lead down dark roads. But ultimately, Viren put justice, humanity, and the good of his kingdom above himself: if that’s not the hallmark of a hero, I don’t know what is.
