Against The Dragon Prince Extras

Not all my thoughts made it to the final cut

Intro

I originally wrote a lot more for my Against The Dragon Prince article. However, after an intense editing process, the paragraphs and images below were removed from the final cut.

One of my principle advisers was Jared Trueheart and he made a lot of helpful suggestions and he shared some of his observations. I included a number of these but those I didn’t are in this Substack post.

No Dragon Prince - Only a Dragon Dog

A puppy in the first three seasons and a big dog in the rest of the show as shown here.

This complaint is basically a nitpick atop the mountain of criticisms I have and will continue to level on this show. From one point of view, this particular issue is the cherry on top of the cake.

The show is literally called THE DRAGON PRINCE. But the dragon prince, who is called Azymondias (or Zym for short), is not a prince or even his own character.

He is a pet.

Zym doesn’t speak until the very last episode of the show. All the other dragons talk but he doesn’t. Instead, he yaps, growls, yelps and barks like a dog.

You could replace Zym with a flying dog that breathes lightning and almost nothing would change. Past season three, you could write Zym out of the plot and nothing would change.

What is the point of having a dragon character if he isn’t actually going to be a character?

It’s emblematic of a wasted opportunity and a lack of imagination on the part of the writers.

Zym isn’t a dragon prince; he is a dragon dog.

Callum and Rayla’s “romance” and a suggestion that could have fixed it

Terrible Writing Advice has good ideas on occasion.

It is hard to imagine how you could save TDP after Rayla’s decision but one way would be with a love triangle.

And yes, I am serious.

If I were a writer on the show and were forced to accept the creative decision of Rayla leaving Callum the way she did for two years and I were asked to clean up Ehasz’s mess, I would create another character – a young, humble cleaning maid in the Katolis Castle (we’ll call her Jana).