What Went Wrong With The Dragon Prince Season 4? 

This season's problem is that it didn't feel like a season. It felt like a buildup to season 5. Edit: What I'm saying is that it felt more like a buildup than a season. Were seasons 1 & 2 buildup? Yes. But they also felt like actual _seasons_ on their own. Season 4 doesn't.

I hate how writers are so scared of main character having a stable relationship

I love how this season is called "Mystery of Aaravos" and yet the Dragon Queen just gives us all the answers in the first few episodes and then we just get nothing that is related to him

"Rayla and Callum broke up off screen" *I'm seriously at my limit*

man... this season just felt like it was being handled by a completely different team from the people behind the first 3 seasons, the childish humor is worst than it has ever been (Claudia having a fart fetish is just why) and almost nothing happen the whole season besides being setup, hell the fact that it's supposed to be focused on Aaravos and he shows up just once just feels like false advertisement even if his single scene is great... idk felt like we needed more

I think it's insulting that Rayla apologized to Ezran on-screen and not to Callum. Almost as if Rayla can do whatever she wants, consequence-free and Callum is in the wrong for being rightfully upset with her ditching him on his birthday and, 🙄 of course, never writing him letters during the two years she was away from Callum

I agree about you saying "this season is allergic to skipping anything", but it doesn't skip unimportant scenes. It skips the important ones!!! Like Viren and Soren's reunion conversation happening OFF SCREEN is UNFORGIVABLE!! If they do that to Runaan and Ethari's reunion I may cry 😢

When Aaravos possessed Callum, he straight up read the entire room hard enough to make a best selling audio book.

My main problem with season 4 is that throughout the whole season callum and rayla have their relationship problems that won’t make any sense unless you read the book and by the time they resolve it the season’s already over. 😢 I also can’t help but feel that the B plot with the sun elves was used for just a little bit of padding.

I'm a little sad we didn't get Callum slowly being manipulated by Aaravos BUT that scene with possessed Callum with Aaravos roasting the cast was so worth it!!!

Honestly the biggest letdown for me was that Bait seemed to be more Callum’s pet then Ezran’s. I saw Bait and Ez interact once

One of my main disappointments with season 4 was that they didn't explore Callum being a sky mage and the implications of this. As far as I can remember Veiran and Claudia have never seen him use his sky magic, something that they have always believed to be impossible for humans without a primal stone. I feel like Veiran and/or Claudia learning about Callum's magic could have caused an interesting story arc. Also, I feel like Callum only used like 3 spells in the entire season which was disappointing as I wanted to see his progress with Sky Magic over the two year time skip.

This season felt like another example of Netflix cutting up full seasons in half

A lot of the issues with dragon prince is that they use a “tell don’t show” method for a lot of the issues. If I wrote season 4 I would made so that Callum stayed in Xadia to train with Ibis so that his death would’ve been more impactful. I would have written out the sun fire subplot, or at least make it have some lasting relevant consequences. Aaravos wouldn’t be a moustache twirling villain but rather someone who misguidedly gave humans dark magic to help them. And with his centuries of imprisonment he would grow bitter and vengeful like how he is in the show. On another note I feel like the dragon prince needs to be a more mature show to take its themes more seriously.

I'm really happy with Viren. Like, he's the ONLY character I genuinely liked this season. Everyone else felt... more childish. More annoying. Heck, I was hoping for a rebound with Soren, but Soren just... got back to his S1 self again. Viren though strove to be different. Well, 'strove.' He saw his death. He felt the nothingness after. He didn't want to go, unfulfilled. And honestly, that's the most mature thing this season did.

The character writing suffered so hard. It feels like a completely different team behind it. They kept cramming in Avatar references, it feels like fans of the show and its past writers took over. Claudia has none of the conflict or depth that she used to. The scene where Callum was possessed by Aaravos is supposedly a big moment for Callum because he tells Rayla to kill him if he gets possessed again. But the scene where he’s possessed doesnt shoe Callum being scared or stressed or that he even cared about being possessed. What happened to this show? I did not wait 3 years for this

Almost all of the problems are because of the time skip. Imagine if we had begun on the 2 days instead of 2 years. We could have the aftermath of the battle (what happened to all the magic infused humans?), the start of the camp building (giving us REAL tension between the Sun elves and humans. We could see the elves refusing to take orders from human carpenters, workspeople etc), we could have had the dragon queen return the princes to the human kingdom (more tension, but like 'Here is the mate of the dragon that killed our king and queen, but... wait, she's brought the kind and prince back!?' to give us the whole 'letting go of previous anger' thing. We could then have HER discover the mirror, or, like, have Callum (or Soren) bring it up, with her reacting in a panic/shock about it because Aaravos, giving us a more natural flow into that, without the whole book of translation time waste. Our raylum could have been the pair reluctant to split up with Callum accompanying whomever to go and find Rex, while Rayla remains with the queen as a guard, but both of them sorta wanting to be with the other. Meanwhile, we could have skipped the whole mountain climb thing and just have the staff be with Claudia, and start THAT storyline with them waiting for the right time to open the cocoon. Our Viren plot could be him refusing to touch the staff and showing regrets and maybe not bringing it up with Claudia, who he sees as taking on his mantle. maybe not wanting to disappoint her by revealing that he has lost his drive/desire. We could even have Terry meeting up with some other earthbloods to drive home THAT conflict, maybe even doing the 'kill an elf to protect Claudia' with a bully of his? Could even have had the bully gang be called the Turfs as a fun tongue in cheek joke. But the ending of this season should have been episode 4 or 5 at most. This felt like half a season's worth of content. And it's a shame, because there was a lot of hype, for a middling at best set of filler.

I really felt like the callum and Aaravos stuff was wasted. I expected to callum to find Aaravos mirror and properly meet him alone like Viren did but instead the dragon queen just told the entire group and Aaravos shattered his own mirror. I hope they do something with Callum and Aaravos in later seasons

When the comic came out, the whole community wondered how they would explain the Rayllum breakup in S4. Turns out they just weren't going to explain it at all :D

I'm half way convinced Terry is being kept around as a sacrifice to bring Viren back to life. She needed a whole fawn to make Soren walk. She will eventually need a person to bring him back. What better way to get a sacrifice, then to befriend it and keep it around for later. Not gonna lie, I'm almost hoping this happens and Viren actually tries to stop her. I really think the series could end with his redemption. Also if Terry isn't a sacrifice then he is proof Claudia still has some good in her. The way I described her to a friend I'm trying to get to watch the show is either the writers are making an Azula or a Zuko, only time will tell.

I notice that the Earth Dragon said that Thunder the Dragon King would often try to provoke conflict with the human so he can start a fight with human, Something he was critical of. Not alot of people seams to pay attention to this. He has no reason to lie to the human and he didn't know that Zym was their. He had no reason to expect that humans to be on the Thunder side. Also the theme of the show seams to be generational conflicts and shades of grey, so it would should mean Thunder did bad stuff as well. Also would that mean Viren was not crazy for viewing Thunder as a giant threat if Thunder was also instigating boarder conflicts.

I also have a problem with Terry accepting Dark Magic, cause even considering what you said in the video, he still is an Earth Elf...the one race of elves that should be the most connected with life and nature cause of their magic, and Dark Magic is the magic that literally steals life to fuel its spells. So yes, it should be a big issue even for an outcast elf that is questioning elven paradigms.

Poor Terry. I’m scared for him because Claudia never liked elves. I have a theory that she’s going to use him for the dark magic she needs to permanently revive her dad at the end 😢

*”The Mysteries of Aaravos”* And yet we only see him once throughout the entire season. I guess that is being pretty mysterious lol

In the first 3 seasons it actually felt like alot of stuff was going on at one especially since each season ended on a cliffhanger and the season opening continues exactly where we left off, this season felt like it was to little and not enough going on and the ending felt like a mid season finale. I was also really expecting callum and aaravos to have a proper greeting and acknowledgement of one another and keep in mind that callum has already lost his nother, father and step dad and almost his brother and several occasions. I understand him being upset rayla is gone but it's not like he's moping every second. Before his birthday celebration when we saw him, he was his normal happy cheerful self. It was only at the party he started to really sulk. Also the fact that Viren and soren reunited and we had no interaction between the 2

Amaya not taking the situation seriously doesn't make a lot of sense. She likely would know that is an important tradition for the elves. From all the previous scenes it seemed like she knew it was a somewhat complicated situation and was going to try to get both sides of story. It seemed that one out of place character moment was only so Janai's brother could seem to have somewhat of a point

What probably ended up bothering me the most was the "bad guy trio" retrieving the staff. Not that they did it at all, obiously, but when they chose to do it. Claudia KNEW that Viren would be on a timer once revived, so it would be wise to do all the preparations that could be done before that, you know, BEFORE THAT. The dragons were only leaving after they'd already begun ascending the mountain, and she clearly didn't need Viren himself to get the staff. Very small changes could have fixed that, but oh well...

Honestly, i felt like the amaya and janai subplot shouldve been its own series/mini movie that came after the season.

Also, Rex outright told the main cast this "Avizandum love to provoke fights with humans, he enjoyed killing them!" What was the main cast's reaction?: "😑 I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that and assume that Avizandum is a good person just because he's Zym's dad and pretend that he's not racist in any way whatsoever."

When Soren gave the speech while trying to open the door, I genuinely thought he was going to connect with an arcanum. I just wanted something to happen

my biggest gripe with this season is one that can be easily fixed in the next season. That being that we never saw any interactions between Soren and Verin when the bad guys captured him. That scene where he just kept yelling no was the first “conversation” the two had since Verin tried to make Soren a lava zombie.

I'm still convinced Claudia is keeping Terry around for spare parts. Like just knowing magic tropes and how dark magic works in Dragon Prince, I can see the spell being like "You transfer the remaining years of Y person into X person" and Elves having longer life spans why wouldn't she try and give her dad that little extra bonus?

The biggest issue i had with the Sun elf plot was the sheer stupidity of Jinai's brother. The Sun Elf queen marrying a human is only an issue if they were to have a mixed race kid. Then, maybe, it would be a succession issue, with magic being race-based. But no, its a gay marriage. Jinai's brother is next in line, no matter what, now. His children will inherit. And he's already in a relationship with one of the top Masks/Generals. And the whole thing with the Seed. It just stunk of a "if i can't get it within MY lifetime, it doesn't matter" mentality.

Katolis has fire and candles for some rituals revolving around death (at least the elites do). It feels odd the the engineer lady and Amaya wouldn’t know this.

I have mixed feelings on this season. There was some stuff that I did like. Example; I liked some of the character beats. Example; Viren's PTSD and him humbling himself for a bit, and realizing how short his is on earth and how people should cherish their time was a good writing. Kind of wish they had done more with that. This show is also doing a good job of showing how corrupt Claudia is becoming and her strong dislike of elves. That speech she gave Callum when tied up was great. I'm also glad that the season didn't pretend like everything was okay between the elves and the humans. I appreciated scenes like Erzan's speech about people being angry contrasting with Claudia's battle on the mountain. But then...you have stuff like how the pacing was rushed, and there was barely any time for stuff to breathe. Anyone else feel like the seasons (particularly this one) need more then 9 episodes? Heck; I would be fine with a 13 episode season that trimmed the fat and fleshed out things more. Get rid of trash like the fart scenes and characters messing around, and focus more on scenes with character building and interactions. For example; Soren sees his dad alive and literally his only reaction is, "Nooooo". That's it? Why not give us more depth to Soren seeing that his father has returned? And then when the show does act like it's going to take it seriously, with stuff like Callum saying the Rayla, "I need you to kill me", with his fear of being possessed, it's treated like a joke with Rayla's, "Just don't get controlled". Really writers?

They really did Rayla so dirty this season and she’s my favorite

Rayla acts (as if she is) and sounds more mature. If elves live for at least one century then shouldn’t she age slower? Rayla carries herself as if she’s gone to to California and found herself after 12 years while Callum seems like he’s aged 4 months since they broke up.

I wish it had been longer, and had way less annoying kiddy shit, but it at least progressed the story by a fair margin. I’ll still watch season five, but I think there is a good chance the show is going down hill.

another (though comparatively minor) problem i had with janai and amaya this season: i feel like it was kind of a weird choice that in doing the timeskip the show just like... skipped an entire stage in their relationship. like they went from liking each other in the end of season three to getting engaged in the first episode of season four. ik their romance isn't the most important thing but the fact that they didn't spend ANY time showing them in the dating stage was kinda weird (unless you count one of the short stories they put out but that's on a similar level to rayllum breaking up in a comic lmao).

Terry has no real reason to be supporting Claudia. He should know that Viren tried to kill the dragon prince, the destined protector of Xadia, but he just goes along with whatever she does anyways. We see him morally conflicted about killing the sky mage but I feel like he's a little too accepting of Claudia's gleeful gathering of magical flora and fauna just to turn them into dark magic fuel. Maybe he's aware of all this but chooses to go with her because he's in love, but it doesn't feel like it. I feel like his morality doesn't align with his group and their goals and this conflict is not adressed enough.

I loved how when presenting their gifts, Callum said that the staff was given to him despite the fact he stole it from his dead body

honestly, i had been waiting for Claudia to meet Cullum and find out that he can use magic (not dark magic) because if am mistaken this should be a huge blow to her and make her question all the things she did/does when using black magic.

It's called the "Mystery of Aaaravos" but then they just revealed his secrets in the season. Like what??

Karim's rebellion was *so* underwhelming. They could've built it up to make it seem more serious than it ended up being, maybe not to the point of *actually harming* Janai and Amaya's relationship(although the angst of that would've been so sweet), but it could've worked as one of the big arcs in the series(re-taking Lux Aurea and dealing with civilian unrest). Instead...well...as I said it was *very* underwhelming.

I had no idea why it was so underwhelming 😩 I was getting so hyped for something so short. If Book 5 comes I hope we have more episodes and the show actually goes places. I still love the show though, it's just so weird. 😕I wouldn't expect this ever but It did do some good stuff like the Dragon Queen's character and the ongoing plot of the Dragon Queen's Quest. You're right the show IS special. . Hopefully Book 5 will be great😞

I think the one thing I most certainly didn't like was Soren didnt get a chance to confront his abuser. Soren's able to be pretty damn cheerful despite the crap he's had to deal with. His mother couldn't stand the sight of him, because Viren didn't let him die, so she left. His father thought he was worthless, because he wasn't a mage and was dimwitted, so he used and gaslit him at every turn. I felt he deserved either making Viren realize he's a crap parent. THe show's probably gonna push for Viren to become a better parent, or you know axe him...again. But even if that's the case, Soren deserves to say his piece, because he's had to hold back how badly he's been treated his entire life.

The biggest mistake of this season, to me, was the exposition dump on Aaravos. I loved that scene from somewhere in the previous seasons where Veran goes to the library to investigate and the pages ominously fill with ink to destroy any info that he would've been able to find on this mysterious figure. And then the dragon queen just spoilers all of us by spilling all the beans at once. Seriously.

I actually think Terry is a terrible character. He actually enables Claudias evil behaviour. He does so much evil in this season and people don't seem to notice, calling him "a moral compas". Terry literally kills a dude by backstabing, enslaves Soren and cheers at Claudia's evil plans. Hell, he knows what Viren did, why would he align with him in the first place.

I'll admit, it would have been so much cooler if Calum had seen Aaravos in the mirror by himself, like before Rayla came in. Then he'd have a better reason to bring the mirror to the Dragon Queen's lair and it'd be much scarier for him when someone he thought could do nothing possesses him and claims him to be a puppet!

I really hope this season is just one of those "weird seasons" and the rest of the show is just back to the normal greatness we're used to.

These are the questions that came to my mind when the camp sideplot began: Why are the sun elves living in camps made by humans two years after their capital city was taken and the army that took it no longer exists? Can't they retake their capital city because their sun is corrupted? If so, in which ways does that affect them? Do they lose their sun powers under the black light? Is it a reminder of their failure to protect it? Isn't there any other city of sun elves that they could make their new capital city? Did all the sun elves just live in a single city? Are they making efforts to build themselves a new city? How much progress was made in 2 years? Why was the camp made by a human architect? Are the sun elves incapable of making their own camps?

To be fair, Amaya’s iconic misunderstanding of the proposal was pretty thoughtful foreshadowing for that part of the plot.

Honestly, I really liked the season...until it ended so abruptly. I originally didn't look up how many episodes it had, so I was just expecting a story to come out of it before it ended. 9 episodes later, I had barely any story, and no more new ones to watch. I think season 5 might be a redemption, or at least I hope it is going to be. Edit: The show means a lot to me, I've never felt so excited for a season to come out. I'm just saying that I'm looking forward to season 5 MORE than I was season 4.

This season was so disapointing. I didn't like it, it had too many jokes, and the drama with rayla and callum was unnecesary

I was super hyped for this season because when I heard that there was a two year time skip, I wanted to see Callum's magic and how he improved. There was such a buildup for Callum learning and using magic throughout the first three seasons, and the scene where he grew wings was so beautiful- but he only uses them once, to fly from one side of the castle to the other. Did he forget about them when they sent Zym to be their "eyes", resulting in his capture? Why risk the Dragon Prince when you have someone else who can fly? Besides his wings, I really wish there was more of a showcase of his magic. And I really wish Zym could speak, and acted less like a dog. He's cute and all- but he would've stopped being a mascot, and actually become a character for once. He immediately understood English as a hatchling, so what's stopping him from learning it over the span of two years?

This video really put into perspective for me how frustrating it is that the only characters that matter are the main characters. They constantly talk about "the people" all over the place, but "the people" never actually get to make their perspective heard. All we get are the elites and nobles talking on their behalf, seemingly just presuming to know what their feelings are without asking them.

To be fair, I feel like Rayla feeling like a “shadow of her former self” might be intentional, and also very realistic to what one would do if they were very “down bad” like Rayla is

14:30 15:30 That's my issue as well. The conflict between Xadia and the Pentarchy has been going on for a millennia, and there is plenty of people on both sides who has suffered for it. Their actual grievances are never shown, and are supposed to be content with pretty speeches. For example, what about the Sunfire soldiers who Amaya killed the day she met Janai? Their families had far more reasons to be pissed off about their incoming marriage than some stupid traditions. Did Zubeia ever apologize to Callum amd Ezran for sending the elf assassin team? Are they fine with the chance of rescuing Runaan, Harrow's murderer, from the coin?

I have to disagree about the Karen and the candle thing. It was so incredibly forced and cringe. As I've seen other people point out, how does the architect in a Sunfire elf camp not realize that there's gonna be fire everywhere, especially having been living with them for 2 years at this point? And how, in these 2 years, did she not already know about the candle tradition for funerals? That entire plot point was conflict for the sake of conflict. I absolutely hated it.

What the hell did they do to Rayla? From a daunting, funny and complete character I admired in the first three seasons to a dainty lady who only expects in a kinda obsessed way to get Callum's attention. I can't get over this. No matter what next seasons will show us, I think that what creators managed to create is already wretchedly destroyed for good.

"As wide as an ocean, but as deep as a puddle" is probably the best way to describe this season. Its 3-4 episodes worth of actual content stretched into a full season and half the content that IS there feels almost half-baked because it has to make room for all the diversions along the way The Sun Elves storyline had so much potential, but it felt hollow because of how little setup there was *before* sh!t went sideways The "Dragang" and the antagonists are both on a glorified fetch quest with constant detours And the bits of lore and screentime we get on Aarovos , while interesting, don't make up for how pointless the first 3 episodes feel.

The thing that really stood out to me this season was the writing. It felt very,,,,,unnatural and expositional, especially in the first couple episodes. I haven’t rewatched seasons 1-3 in a while, so maybe I’m wrong, but it felt so weird and contrived. Like, it would constantly tell us what was happened rather than show us,,,,and then tell us a couple more times in the same scene, if you didn’t get it the first 5 times. They refuse to let you work stuff out on your own, and instead have to spoon-feed every single instance, as though you won’t understand it from context clues alone. The scene that sticks out the most is right at the end of episode 2, when Callum discovers how the tome of translation works. He slams his hand down and knocks some ink on one side of the page, which then magically appears on the second side. At this point, you’re thinking “oh, that’s cool, you write something on one side and then it translates for you.” That’s where it should end - especially considering that Callum is an intelligent character in canon - but no, Bait has to visibly notice this, push the ink towards Callum to get him to notice, basically going “did you see that?! Something interesting happened!! Watch and we’ll explain it multiple times!!”. And then he has to say “What? That ink wasn’t on both sides? How did it get there?”. And then a camera shot to the mirror, incase you didn’t already guess what he’s gonna use it for. And then back to Callum with “Oh! Wow! You write something one side, and it translates it over! How can I use this?”. And then another shot of the mirror, but this time a close up of the runes, just to really hammer home what he’s doing, because they audience are clearly too stupid to understand what’s going on :). And then we finally get “I can use this to translate the runes on the mirror! Wow! Thanks bait!”. This scene lasted about 4-5 minutes, but it honestly could have been 2. AND IT DOESNT EVEN FUCKIN MATTER, BECAUSE ITS INFORMATION THAT WE ALREADY KNOW, AND A MUCH MORE INTERESTING PLOT POINT IS INTRODUCED IN THE SAME SCENE WITH RAYLA’S RETURN. The endless over explaining and spoon-feeding feels more at home in a kids show, along with all the second-hand cringe I got from literally most of Callum’s scenes, but it just doesn’t fit the vibe of the earlier seasons. The voice acting and conversations between characters also feel quite stiff and unnatural - pretty much all apart from Soren, who is pretty much the only character I can sit and enjoy without getting bored at this point - but I’m hesitant to blame the voice actors, as I have a lot of respect for them, and the dialogue in general is a large part of what makes it feel so stiff, because it’s not how regular people (or even the characters from the last 3 seasons) interact with each other. Of course people can still in enjoy the season, and I’m glad that they were able to find some happiness in it, but it just felt so clunky and contrived and unnecessary that I found it difficult to personally enjoy and get invested in it.

This season feels like it was written by Twitter comments.

Yep, agree completely. I was quite disappointed with this "season." It felt like nothing actually happened. The proposal and wedding plot line felt totally out of nowhere and awkward. And the most unforgivable part of this season was that it's literally named after Aaravos and he's only 1 scene in the entire "season" just to possess Callum for a minute while he villain monologues.

Been waiting for SC to return to this once it came out

Honestly, Rex Igneous was my favorite part of the season. I was like, "Finally! An actual relevent obstacle in their path with common sense!" And then it ended stupidly with him attacking everyone when clearly there was only one enemy. Hurray, I guess. The whole thing would have more impact for me if Claudia had died, leading to Viren becoming evil again.

The writing seems way more clunky this season. Maybe I miss the single episode arch’s of the characters learning something at the end of each episode, but I see it all starting with them failing to establish Rayla and Callum’s relationship. (I did not read the comic and was very confused.) At the very beginning they failed to set their king pin and at the last episode, the dominos fail to fall on their dramatic arch. Which is funny because they could’ve solved it with only a few tweaks. Imagine this: we flash back to a few days after the battle at the mountain. The celebrating is done and the morning rises on the day everyone is packing to leave. Rayla had trouble sleeping, so she has been up all night, sitting on a rock, thinking. Callum comes to tell her that the armies are packing and moving out, going back home. Rayla confirms her fears that Viren is still out there. Callum tells her the searches have been called off, but tries to assure her that their group would be ready if Viren or Claudia ever came back. Rayla can’t sit with that. She tells Callum she intends to go on her own to find Viren and Claudia, arrest them and bring them to justice. Callum and Rayla have an argument. It ends with Callum saying he is going home with Ezran. Rayla says she’s going on alone. They part ways sadly. Without this scene, we have no clue where their relationship is at! We have no idea why it should feel so awkward when Rayla suddenly shows up in Callum’s room two years later. (Also Callum nerding about magic when he believes there is a threat to his brother’s life does not make any sense. We know he likes magic! Him being high mage isn’t enough of a hint? Or him studying the magic mirror in his office? Callum would drop everything and not let anything get in his way if he believed Ezran was going to die right in that moment. That doesn’t make sense.) Anyway, now it makes sense why Callum is keeping his distance from Rayla. We feel his pain, but not at the expense of our empathy for Rayla too. Now their dynamic is set. Rayla is pursuing Callum, but Callum isn’t letting her in. She is trying to bridge the gap between them and she sees Callum is not. At this point, she should be the one trying to ‘get him back’. She could even be overcompensating and nervous and awkward, worrying what she could do to make it up to him. To prove her intentions. She never left to not be with him, she just needed to know Viren was dead. Or to find Claudia and arrest her. Something to conclude the story. While she is pursing him so hard, Callum is still keeping his distance, being rather cold at times. He could even say something very hurtful to her. Then by the time Rayla is alone with Soren and he brings up Callum, we understand why Rayla is feeling some anger and despair for their relationship. “Have I done too much damage? “ She is now pulling away from Callum and the pain the relationship is causing, hence why she’s reluctant to talk about it with Soren and ends up walking off on her own. Then by the time Rayla and Callum see Viren in Umber Tor, they can’t believe he’s alive. Rayla is so shocked that she can’t say anything. She stands there, torn. Go after Viren or stay with the group? Callum sees this conflict in her, squeezes her hand and tells her to go after him, nodding his approval. Touched, she squeezes his hand back, giving him a kiss on the cheek before running into the cave. Callum is slightly worried but has faith she’ll be okay. (The rest of the series is the same, but needs more dramatic flare, timing and performance.) So, with Rayla pursuing Claudia, she holds Terry at knife point. Claudia in turn, holds out the prison coins of Rayla’s foster dad and parents. Claudia threatens to throw the coins in the lava. (If we feel good about Rayla’s choice, then we should feel the despair of her not getting her family back. If we feel bad about Rayla’s choice, then we feel her loss was somewhat justified. Because we are supposed to want her family back, I’m going with the former, as a prompt.) Rayla thinks about the offer, but says she won’t make a deal with her. She doesn’t want to let Claudia continue her evil. Claudia throws the coin bag. But in that moment, we understand where Rayla’s loyalty truly lies. She lets Terrry go and jumps to catch the bag. For once, she is choosing her family over her duty. But upon catching the bag, Rayla sees the coins are just rocks. Claudia laughs, still with the bag, leaving Rayla despairing. She chose duty and lost her family. Then when Rex Ignious spits out Rayla’s knife on the ground, Callum rushes to grab it and cries over it, thinking Rayla didn’t get out of the mountain safely. He thinks that kiss was the last time he’d see her again. But then Rayla cries out from under the rubble and everyone rushes to dig her out. Callum holds her shoulder then drops into a hug. “I’m glad you came back,” he says, relieved.

I believe that the whole Sun elf plot line was a huge waste of time, especially how they did it. Instead spreading it thinly throughout the season they yet some how waste so much time. If they dedicate 1 to 2 full ep on it through the season that would make each plot line feel so much better. I also feel like that they should have made Callum more mature or make him pretend to be more mature while also having him struggle to distance himself from Rayla cause he's mad and have Rayla try to realize how her action have consequences

If im being completely honest the Janai and Amaya plot was my favorite out of all of them. The other ones just felt so rushed and unimportant, and while the sunfire elf plot wasn't super important to the actual storyline, it was the best developed one

Korra and The Dragon Prince are those few shows perfect for critical dissection. Its this mix of good and bad that some how exist together without destroying each other. Yet problems continue, and that ATLA cred still provides a comparison of when they knew how to fit pieces together.

I hate how you have a buildup through 3 seasons, they established a relationship, and it is thrown out the window for a pointless side quest and drama.

Hey! Don’t sell yourself short. I’m one of those people that discovered you through the Dragon Prince. I really fell in love with the content and the show. So, I’m sad that this season didn’t live up to the others. Fortunately, I do have hope for the following seasons, too. I’m still invested in the world and characters, so I will remain cautiously optimistic. Keep up the great work! I’m looking forward to the next video. Sending lots of love from Japan! Take care!

I think it makes perfect sense for Callum to feel the way he does about Rayla still. Your first love is felt very intensely, specially as a 14 yr old, and in a medieval world it's a lot harder to meet someone else I imagine. It's not like he has tinder.

I didn't mind season 4 and I don't think the series is ruined now or anything like some do, for me it felt like season one, where a lot of it was just set up for what'll come in later parts. Honestly when I rewatched the first three seasons in preperation for four you really do notice how much better it flowed together, making me think they probably write the three as one big season but only release parts. Which mind you is a problem and they shouldn't do that but I get it. Having said the pacing was still really slow but I thought that about season one and the following seasons developed the characters better and the pacing was smoother so I'll wait until next season to really complain too much though I get why people are upset.

It felt like 1/2 or 1/3 of a season. Also should have been called Mysteries of Rex Igneous considering that's more of what it felt like.

Callum and Reyla were hit with complete character assassination the hardest because GOD FORBID we have a stable couple in a series. The writers completely butchered 3 seasons worth of character development in 1 fucking comic. This season was such a massive let down from S3

I was so confused over when Rayla and callum broke up. Now I know when, and I’m ticked off. I felt like I missed an entire season 3.5 the whole time I was watching. 😑

biggest problem is that aaravos only gets one proper scene (besides the intro), i think they could of at least included very short quick shots of him throughout or at least a quick shot at the end of the season since viren and the gang got the map

this season happened so quickly it literally felt like a recap

They fridged her. *She may not be dead, but her entire personality was sacrificed to motivate the character further into hyperfocusing on the quest...because even he is cringing at her being a completely different person

I am most worried about the decline of the animation quality. While I have hopes for the story to pick up I'm not sure if we are going back to season 3 animation quality. In this season all movements felt robotic, the facial expressions were less animated, the textures looked shiny instead of the painted look of the previous seasons.

I do want to say I quite like the stone dragon guardians. They’re pretty fun side side characters

Even Korra couldn't use the animal sidekicks right. Momo and Appa are unique in that sense. When it was just Bait, they were good at writing him in. Idk what the 'cute' lunar lemur is here for

One of the worst parts for is the fact that the dragon queen said that "Every arch dragon has a clue to Aarvos's prison" or somethin like that, but then they just say, "oh ye, this earth dragon guy can tell us where he is" and it's just frustrating

The time skip was iffy. It seemed that the main plot that really benefited form the time skip was the plot with Amaya and Janai’s but even then it didn’t need a full 2 years. They also could’ve let the audience see more of their relationship form. I get that there were seeds of a relationship but we didn’t see them grow together into romance. I guess kinda the plot of Rayla coming back and things being awkward the time skip kinda helps. The time skip was a choice that I think wasn’t used in the best way. Time skips are difficult to handle but it didn’t seem super necessary. The main thing that I thought was crazy was that Claudia was dating Teri. I like him as a character but the dating didn’t need to happen especially off screen. I would not have thought Claudia would date an elf at this point in the story. He could’ve been someone that Claudia met and he helped her out with getting certain ingredients for her dad. He could’ve been one of the few elves that is more on Claudia’s side. I do at least appreciate that the writers were using him to help with some character development for both Claudia and Viren. They didn’t need to have him date Claudia. They could’ve had him be someone that Claudia thinks is useful to keep around bc he’s on her side. If they wanted to do a possibility of romance then maybe Teri could have a crush on Claudia and he could still save her and kill the guard. It doesn’t make sense for Claudia to start the season reciprocating the feelings partly bc she likely would have been too focused on saving her dad to care about romance. He could still have that conversation with Viren. They could’ve had either Viren or Teri get caught by Rayla. Once the cave was falling in. It could’ve been either one pointing out that Claudia was being too mean. If it was Viren then it could’ve been from him being shocked that his daughter who used to be a lot nicer was being super mean. If they had Teri to kinda help with his arc then that makes sense for him to look at it that way. I guess Teri does make more sense to be captured in that moment bc if it was Viren then Rayla likely would’ve straight up stabbed him. Maybe she would spare him for the sake of getting answers. They could still do the whole but don’t you want your parents back they are in this coins type thing.

The comic actually passed me off. They put one of the most IMPORTANT story for 2 of the MAIN CHARACTERS in a side comic that not all fans can get it killed the moment.

The king of 20 people. Good one hahaha

I also don’t like that Rayla is still banished from the Moon Elves. Everyone now knows she didn’t abandon her mission and it turns out her actions were ultimately for the better. I mean I can’t imagine it’d be impossible for Rayla to ask the Dragon Queen for a small favor to ask the shadow elves to at least listen to Rayla explain herself. Also, I WISH the first elf to see Callum use magic was that moon teacher they first met early on. We never see her again and she did a lot, her phoenix even sacrificed themself to carry Ezran all the way and I don’t think we ever saw what happened to it.

thank god for this video. i was seriously going crazy over how disappointing season 4 was and how no one seemed to feel the same. there are still points in this that i don't necessarily agree with, but it's so therapeutic hearing my issues being voiced by someone else too

SPOILERS AND RANTING: I think what really set my expectations for this season was the whole mountain climb ep. When Claudia says they need to go get his staff and it's on top of the mountain, I'm just wondering "oh, why didn't she do it sometime in the last 2 years? She even has like, a sidekick now. There must be some magic ritual reason that he has to get it himself or something. Maybe she'll explain on the way?" But after enduring that recurring fart joke (..why?) fear of heights, a whole existential crisis moment and 2 anxiety attacks where he just passes out, they basically get to the top and she tells him she doesn't need his help, and they'll just meet him at the bottom. WTF?? A. ) Why wait till you're at the top of the mountain to do this when he's clearly been struggling the entire time? B. ) It took you 2 years to bring this character back from death, and he has literally blacked out twice during the climb. But you think it's totally fine for him to just do the whole descent by himself??? What truly broke me, though, was when Claudia (who has presumably been killing a lot of innocent creatures lately) plays a trick on one of the heroes to save Terry who's being held hostage with a knife to his neck. And it is only THIS point, this incident where she actually doesn't end up hurting anyone and tries to save a life - HIS LIFE - that Terry thinks Claudia has gone too far. This is a character btw, that KILLED someone to save her earlier in the same season. just...what? And I know this is just B plot stuff but Amaya did that chick dirty not defending her AT ALL. Even saying nothing would've been less cruel. The architect was insensitive, but she said it herself that there was a rule about open flames within the camp that the elf broke. And she even pointed out that the reason for the rule was to protect the people living in flammable cloth tents. Surely there's an argument to be made that protecting the lives of hundreds of currently living people might have priority over a memorial for one singular already dead person, especially to one unfamiliar with the tradition. The council was comprised of Sun-Elves so it wouldn't be shocking if they still deemed her guilty despite any defense. Then Janai could step in and be the merciful leader, without making Amaya look like a total jerk for not even trying when a life was on the line. Janai could even show off her wisdom by explaining that her indentured servitude to build a shrine is not just a merciful alternative to execution, but also a useful solution to this problem in the future - a place for the Sun Elves to hold their ceremonies safely and a place for humans to respectfully learn about their religious customs. ( I don't know why this bothered me so much but it just felt out of character for Amaya ) Okay, rant over. Thanks for coming to my TED talk lol

I came here to find out how the season ends. I can’t get through it. Breaks my heart cause I watched the first three seasons over and over and loved them so much 😞

The scene with an elf mourning his mother is one of the worst I've ever seen. There were many ways these two could resolve the situation. When I was watching it I wanted to yell "just move the fucking candle out of the camp and let this man mourn his mother". Even if none of those tow could come up with this simple idea, there were many people there just watching and doing nothing. Seriously, anyone could step in and say "Calm down, we need to find a solution that is good for both sides". The woman architect acted like an angsty teen - at least I can't imagine any grown adult reaction to a person mourning the loss of their mother being "I don't care about your superstitions". So yeah this scene was awful and forced

For me, the major problem that this season (and a lot of other shows now that I think about it) is that the writers are sacrificing a lot for the plot. Because the season is only 9 episodes long and there are three major plots going on simultaneously, it's hard to get invested when it feels like not enough time was dedicated to each one. We can't focus on things like Callum and Rayla's rocky relationship, or the tension still remaining with elves and humans because it keeps getting pushed to the side in favor of the main plot. 9 episodes just isn't enough to handle everything.

the real problem is that by the time you're feeling like something is going to happen the episode is over and so is the momentum... I really hope they fix these issues

My biggest problem was the timeskip and how it made for too much "tell" and not enough "show". When Claudia told Viren about all the thing she's been doing and "I had to do things I never imagined I would be able to do", that's just bad writing because we didn't SEE any of it. It's why I didn't like Amaya and Janai getting together because we only just saw them starting to become friends and now they're getting married? imagine if we saw Season 1 Callum and Rayla, who are only starting to just get used to the idea of Elves and Humans being friends, suddenly say they love each other.

Bro when he call Callum a simp that sent me and he is not wrong

My problem isn't even the 3 main plots in theory, it's just that nothing feels fleshed out. In the previous seasons, to me it always felt like plots at least had consequences on the other plots and while you can kinda say that about the viren and dragon plots (not rly tho imo) the sun elf plot is just completely removed from everything. The world just doesn't feel connected anymore to me. Idk.

My main problem with this season’s setup, is that everything that is happening with the humans and elves and dragons adjusting to live with each other. A lot of the problems they come across feel like conflicts they’d face in the beginning and not 2 years later. Like the whole human burning out the sun elf’s ceremony candle, I feel like that whole interaction would have happened in the beginning when humans and elves started out. It’s 2 years later and you’re telling me the elves haven’t at least attempted to share with the humans of their customs and vice versa? Or how come it took Ezran 2 years for the Queen of the dragons to visit the human kingdoms? Wouldn’t this be more in the start of the 2 years when they’ve made peace? Also if Rayla left Callum because she felt Viran wasn’t dead, how did she know he was alive when it took 2 years for Claudia to bring him back from the dead? The only realistic thing was Callum’s distant behavior once Rayla made an appearance after being gone for 2 years.

What ruined it was that they flossed not once but twice

“I need you” 😃 “to kill me” 🤬