Season 2 of the Prince of Dragons reports without counting on the world-wide construction of Season 1

Warning: some spoilers coming for season 1 of The dragon prince.

In "Half Moon Lies", second episode of Season 2 of the animated TV show Netflix The dragon prince, writers have set up a nice clbadic conflict between rom and com. The elf badbadin Rayla (Paula Burrows) has a crush on the liberal prince Callum (Jack De Sena) and did not tell him that she knew that her stepfather, King Harrow (Luc Roderique), was dead. She finally resolves to announce the bad news, but the crush for Callum, the dark wizard Claudia (Racquel Belmonte), gives him reason. The predictable result would be that Callum and Rayla argue a lot for the way she hid the information from her. There would be a lot of drama in a conflict that hurts their relationship and pushes Callum further towards Claudia.

But that's not what happens. Callum does not pick on Rayla. Instead, he only thinks about how he will share the sad news with his young half-brother Ezran (Sasha Rojen), animal lover. When Callum talks to Ezran about his growth and the confrontation with hard truths, a monologue of emotional significance that deepens afterwards, Callum realizes he does not have the courage to tell the truth either.

The dragon princeThe second season is filled with such wonderful surprises. The first season of the show Avatar the last master of the air Aaron Ehasz, a senior writer, and Justin Richmond, a veteran video game developer, were promising, but disappointing compared to Ehasz's previous work. It is clear now that this season has been burdened by the weight of an immense amount of installation, introducing the world, its magical systems and its characters. Season 2 is a non-stop win.

In his new season, The dragon prince becomes both a deeply satisfying fantasy story and a deconstruction of its fantastic tropes, including those Avatar the last master of the air was guilty of himself. It is a world divided between human kingdoms and the magical kingdom of Xadia, where elves and dragons exert elemental magic. Humans like Claudia and her father, Viren (Jason Simpson), can cast spells only by stealing the power of magical creatures or using special magic items. Callum stole one of these during the first season of the series, which allowed him to use the magic of the sky, but he had to give it up to save the life of the main character of the series. He wants to use magic again without the crutch of a magic device, but a powerful elf tells him that his humanity makes this impossible. Meanwhile, Claudia tempts him to try black magic by emphasizing its egalitarian nature.

It's a fascinating conflict that touches the plot of the first season of Avatar spin off The legend of Korra, where the villain tries to foment the rebellion against "benders", people with the innate ability to manipulate the elements. The same idea extends to many fantastic stories involving hereditary power, of Game of thrones at The Lion King the Star wars Franchise – too often in this genre, power is tied to the circumstances of a character's birth, or to an innate special power that is not available to most people.

But as many of Dragon PrinceCharacters, Callum refuses to accept his apparent limitations. The authors have emphasized the diversity of representations in this series, with major arcs surrounding a deaf general who communicates with sign language, a kingdom ruled by an interracial bad couple and a blind naval captain who navigates his understanding of the wind, with the help of a seeing parrot. In an extremely powerful speech, King Harrow describes his desire to build a kingdom according to the philosophical principle of the veil of ignorance, where the laws are just for everyone, regardless of clbad, race or bad. While so much fantasy is based on characters with great destinies, Harrow exhorts Callum to ignore any imaginary restraint on his fate and to chart his own path.

This conflict also brings depth to the villains of the series. During season 1, Viren asked his son, the kind knight, a modest-sized horse, to murder King Harrow's sons, but a long flashback on season 2 shows Viren's true love for Harrow. Viren undoubtedly did terrible things with his dark magic, but he also used it as a practical solution to avoid tragedies. The same flashback sequence challenges the nature of fantasy's emphasis on heroic quests, while Viren and Harrow agree to lead an expedition to Xadia to kill a magma titan whose heart can be used to prevent starvation. "We killed a monster to save 100,000 people," Harrow told his queen, Sarai (Kazumi Evans), while they were fighting over the sword and the spear. "Is it smart? Does he think? It smells? Does he have a family? Does request. "You said you wanted to build a better world, to really change things. It will take decades of work. There is no monster you can kill and solve all your problems. There is no shortcut.

This is a powerful message for a child-friendly cartoon that goes to the heart of the critics of fantasy escape. The dragon prince full of beautiful action sequences, which are even better this season, thanks to the improvements made to the computer-generated animation of the show. The sequences of human soldiers fighting a Sunfire elf with a blade that can cross anything are of a breathtaking intensity, or Soren and Claudia are trying to use triggerfish to shoot down a dragon fire eater. But the show is often at its best in quiet scenes that only underscore the humanity of its characters and the impossible pressures that life has imposed on them. He teaches that there are no easy solutions and that people must question the wisdom of their elders and learn to recognize their faults and to forgive their mistakes.

Cut through the heavy material is the same sense of clumsy humor that made Avatar so charming. The wordless rivalry of Ezran's attention between Bait-glow-toad and Azymondias canine dragon is endless, and the dialogue is punctuated with references to influential pop culture such as The simpsons and The Lord of the Rings. There is even a nod to Avatar himself, while Soren has trouble finding a good haiku, while Claudia checks her work by counting the syllables on her fingers.

Season 2 is a significant improvement over Season 1 and opens up a new series of fascinating fields to come. The most notable is the introduction of the Else Mage of the Startouch, Aaravos, expressed by Erik Dellums with the same smoothness that he brought out the mesmerizing spirit of Koh in Avatar. "Why should I trust you?", Asks Viren, as they begin an obscure collaboration with terrifying potential. "You should not," Aaravos replies.

This disturbing line might seem clichéd in another work, but Ehasz and Richmond have shown a powerful ability to defy expectations for what should be a fantastic show for all ages. What began as a nice world-building exercise with cute kids in an adventure becomes an epic with nuanced characters and a philosophical approach to storytelling. If this can continue to surprise the audience with these social scenes and thrilling action sequences, The dragon prince could become a new clbadic of all time.

The second season of nine episodes of The dragon prince launches on Netflix on February 15, 2019.