The Dragon Prince: An underrated Netflix original

Photo Credit: Netflix

1. The Story and the Setting

While the overall summary may seem like it’s like any other fantasy show, the series has a charm much similar to that of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s well paced and it’s clear that a lot of thought has gone into how the narrative plays out. The first couple of episodes are a little slow, but the story picks up the pace soon enough and is quite engaging.

The setting of the story makes for a very interesting arc all by itself, very unique since “magic and elements” is nearly an overdone concept for fantasy shows these days. The Dragon Prince is set in a land where magic is derived from six primal sources – earth, sky, ocean, moon, sun and the stars – but humans, as they always do, become greedy once one of the mages starts to draw magic from living beings. This makes all the creatures of magic unite and drive humans out of Xadia, which then live as five separate kingdoms known as the Pentarchy. The Pentarchy is separated from Xadia by what is known as the Breach, a gigantic river of molten lava, that is guarded by the King of Dragons, Thunder.

The main conflict of the series starts when the inhabitants of Xadia seek revenge against the human king who, with the help of dark magic, kills Thunder, for reasons that are revealed eventually on the show. The last surviving heir of Thunder, yet to hatch from his egg, is also believed to have been destroyed, much to the fury of Xadians.

With a dash of humor and just the right amount of drama and emotion, the protagonists of the story aim to bring peace to the warring lands while facing a villain with twisted motives who will stop at nothing to bring about war.