The Dragon Prince
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Lithose
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Man, surprised to read this thread. Show is not...good? I don't know. Leaving the absolute dogshit animation aside (Seriously, I actually closed my video player because I thought it was lagging) but the story is just, off. Got to episode 6 with my kids and they got bored and I don't really have the drive to continue. Characters are frustrating, clumsy and clearly serve the plot rather than the plot being driven by them. Why did the Assassin start to trust the humans? Why did the humans who even say they don't trust the assasin, choose to lock up the woman he really likes in order to help the assassin who broke in to kill a fucking child? Why are the humans apologizing constantly when their history has a mass expulsion from the dragon assholes that probably wiped out many many people, all due to the "crimes" of one guy? You're literally going to displace an entire race, steal all their land, and fuck up their lives (Potentially killing thousands) and denying them access to extremely valuable resources because of a single dude, and then act like they attacked wihtout provocation later? What? And on that note, were there even crimes? So far "dark magic" seems to just be extracting magic from meat. Do none of the magical creatures eat meat?
I get they are probably planning on exploring this as the show goes on, but the problem is, by the main characters not displaying these different points of view and DEFENDING it, it robs any arc between them for resolution. There really is no tension or misunderstanding there--the humans are wrong, and they constantly apologize for it. It seems like the counter weight here is supposed to be the elves killing the King, which eventually will add to this disagreement/tension, but it should already be there--even if the humans were wrong, the prince, who was raised to believe the humans were right, should start out disagreeing with the elf lady. Instead he flat out says 'you're right, we're bad, let me help you!'....Again, where does that come from? Are the humans taught from a young age what assholes their fore-bearers were? The elf claims they "murdered the dragon"--why doesn't the human say "the dragon which drove my people from their homes and cut us off from the primal magic?"--because it seems like that would be a pretty big fucking deal. But nope, its just "I'm sorry for what humans did" (Literally the line, lol. Its so awkward. )
Also the show has a real problem with telling not matching the showing--super unstoppable assassins run into about an even number of human guards and get....wiped the fuck out? Why were the humans worried about these clowns? Oh, I know why--because they have a host of powers that make them into spider-man with knives, except in that hallway scene they forgot to use them all. Why? I don't know if its just that it was too short a season to let the characters grow organically or actually explore the depth of this kind of conflict, but right now its treating the elf and older kid kid with the same naivety and innocence toward past wrongs as the 7 year old kid, and it screams of characters who are acting the way the plot needs.
I get they are probably planning on exploring this as the show goes on, but the problem is, by the main characters not displaying these different points of view and DEFENDING it, it robs any arc between them for resolution. There really is no tension or misunderstanding there--the humans are wrong, and they constantly apologize for it. It seems like the counter weight here is supposed to be the elves killing the King, which eventually will add to this disagreement/tension, but it should already be there--even if the humans were wrong, the prince, who was raised to believe the humans were right, should start out disagreeing with the elf lady. Instead he flat out says 'you're right, we're bad, let me help you!'....Again, where does that come from? Are the humans taught from a young age what assholes their fore-bearers were? The elf claims they "murdered the dragon"--why doesn't the human say "the dragon which drove my people from their homes and cut us off from the primal magic?"--because it seems like that would be a pretty big fucking deal. But nope, its just "I'm sorry for what humans did" (Literally the line, lol. Its so awkward. )
Also the show has a real problem with telling not matching the showing--super unstoppable assassins run into about an even number of human guards and get....wiped the fuck out? Why were the humans worried about these clowns? Oh, I know why--because they have a host of powers that make them into spider-man with knives, except in that hallway scene they forgot to use them all. Why? I don't know if its just that it was too short a season to let the characters grow organically or actually explore the depth of this kind of conflict, but right now its treating the elf and older kid kid with the same naivety and innocence toward past wrongs as the 7 year old kid, and it screams of characters who are acting the way the plot needs.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Looking forward to it, because I liked S1. But... saying the frame rate is better is not exactly a high bar to meet.
Drakain
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Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Yes, you literally can cut out 1/2 or 2/3 of the amount of animated models to draw. Animated movies (i.e. Disney hand drawn ones) are run at 24 fps to match traditional movie fps but the models and background objects being animated vary. For Anime and TV cartoons usually you have 12 fps for moving models and 8 or 6 fps for background objects. Since 24 fps is the standard for animation worldwide they started categorizing drawing requirements as "on ones" or twos, threes, or fours. Ones would be every frame, twos every other frame, etc.
The problem is that animation isn't about hand drawing any more, so much is done digitally. Now you also have modern 3D models put in a moving 2D background scenery composited with other effects. The result is not everything lines up perfectly and you may have a motion smoothing problem. It is possible to get animation to look great at 12 fps although it requires some tweaking and being very knowledgable about your software and how things end up. But very rarely do you see things like Akira where they chose to do everything at 24 fps, as that does jack up the costs.
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moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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Just watched S2. Aside from the obligatory SJW bullshit it was pretty good. Looking forward to S3.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I liked S1, watched some of S2 now. So the Moonshadow elves intentionally destroyed their moonmagic nexus to deny humans from ever discovering it and learning how to use it. To continue this they project illusions onto any humans who wander into the ruins so they can't even get a glimpse from the scraps. Furthermore, humans are cut off from the primal magic itself so they have no choice but to resort to this Dark Magic which is the same reason that all the magic users attack them for this, "atrocity."
Damned if you do damned if you don't!
Damned if you do damned if you don't!
Malakriss
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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I wouldn't be surprised if the true history had humans regularly making the primal magic connection but the dude trapped in the mirror corrupted ancient humans leading to the exile and his imprisonment. Totally expect to find out Callum's fever dream double was actually the guy, meaning a plotline to sever Claudia's connection with dark magic is likely required in a couple seasons.
moonarchia
The Scientific Shitlord
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TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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I'm not too far but I was under the impression that the guy in the mirror is some fag elf in a distant land. Rather than a prisoner.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Oh wow. This series does embrace the humans are evil thing pretty hard. ROFL.
Not only did the humans only go to Xadia to save themselves from starvation, to which the Elves gave no shits about, they also only killed the thunder dragon in SELF DEFENSE while they were trying to flee back to the human kingdoms.
Not only did the humans only go to Xadia to save themselves from starvation, to which the Elves gave no shits about, they also only killed the thunder dragon in SELF DEFENSE while they were trying to flee back to the human kingdoms.
Qhue
Trump's Staff
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Well it was years later that they came back to kill the Dragon King in vengeance, but it's clear that both sides have been escalating all of this for eons.
I really enjoy that Claudia and Soren are very reasonable sorts of villains who see themselves as doing the right thing. Even Claudia's use of Dark Magic is explained away in a way that makes sense given the limitations of humans...or at least apparent limitations given Kallums first steps of his journey to Archmage status and Ezrins ability to connect to animals. This magic skill probably comes from their badass swordswoman mother's side of the family.
I really enjoy that Claudia and Soren are very reasonable sorts of villains who see themselves as doing the right thing. Even Claudia's use of Dark Magic is explained away in a way that makes sense given the limitations of humans...or at least apparent limitations given Kallums first steps of his journey to Archmage status and Ezrins ability to connect to animals. This magic skill probably comes from their badass swordswoman mother's side of the family.
TJT
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah I don't feel Dark Magic is evil at all other than yeah using reagents of sometimes living things can be gross, sure. Most of Claudia's reagents are preserved eyeballs, spiders, and other shit nobody cares about. It will have to come to a head and have Viren or Claudia use a sentient being like an elf to do something for it to be somewhat bad. Stupid elves have innate connections to the primal sources and scoff at humans and their stop gap measures. Real pricks.
Claudia and Soren are great. Soren may be dumb but they were totally in the right to attack the red dragon. What's he doing floating around human cities anyway? And he did burninate a bunch of shit after the first arrow missed him. Rather than just fly away and not come back. Fuck that guy.
Claudia and Soren are great. Soren may be dumb but they were totally in the right to attack the red dragon. What's he doing floating around human cities anyway? And he did burninate a bunch of shit after the first arrow missed him. Rather than just fly away and not come back. Fuck that guy.
Qhue
Trump's Staff
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