The Dragon Prince Season 7 Review: A Thrilling but Unsatisfying Conclusion

The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos Season 7 brings a high-stakes conclusion to the eventful tale of the world of Xadia.

The season, while filled with thrilling moments of battle and reveals, leaves the story at an unsatisfying and open-ended conclusion, with some characters getting less attention than others.

There is no confirmation of a renewal, and it seems increasingly unlikely that there will be one. Yet, it’s clear that this open-ended season was made with a potential Season 8 in mind, leaving several of the arcs unresolved.

 

Aaravos, the towering and powerful Startouch elf who has been the catalyst for many of the events so far, is finally free in Season 7 to torment the world. He has a world-ending plan to put in motion with the assistance of Claudia, who has inherited her father Viren’s talent for dark magic.

While Viren was the main antagonist in the previous seasons, he ended this season by sacrificing himself to protect his son. While his story reaches an ending that feels earned, his daughter is not so fortunate.

Claudia could be a compelling antagonist because she does not truly believe that what she is doing is evil and rationalizes it with her love for her father. She is often manipulated by Aaravos into acting on his behalf.

This season, her motivations take a backseat in favor of his, which became a detriment to her character, too.

Her last important lines onscreen as she nearly strangles her brother Soren and Corvus, member of King Ezran’s Crownguard, to death are: “I could kill you both! But… I’m still nice. I’m still me.”

Claudia has not been able to move past a very rigid belief in what she is doing, and after so long, it feels boring.

We do see one more scene with her waiting for Aaravos to come back in seven years, as he promised, but Claudia never gets a chance to be on her own. She is always trying to prove herself to her father or to Aaravos (who became the replacement for her father).

 

Aaravos’ plan to sentence the world to eternal night is enough to bring the wide cast of characters from Lux Aurea to the Silvergrove together for the final plan to stop him. Some characters that had important roles in past seasons make brief cameos too.

However, most of this cast gets the short end of the stick when it comes to development — except for Ezran.

He became king at nine years old and has grown significantly since then. This season, he has to battle against his own anger and thirst for revenge after witnessing the destruction of Katolis.

This is perhaps the most successful change this season. Ezran has always been the most kind and forgiving ruler, trying to break the cycle of hate between humans and the magical races. But this season sees Ezran’s noble ideals challenged, and he comes very close to continuing the cycle he has tried so hard to break.

Unfortunately, not all of the cast is given the same oppurtunity to end their stories on a high note.

Callum, who has struggled with his aptitude for dark magic and seemingly resolved that in Season 6, yet again is drawn towards dark magic. Somehow, he develops backward, and we see little explanation for it.

Despite some character development issues, the season does deliver a little on the promise of the final showdown with Aaravos.

In his towering physical form, Aaravos is exactly the threat he seems, and the animation team effectively conveys the scale of the fights, especially the final showdown between Aaravos and the Archdragons.

After the final showdown and the farewell to Queen Zubeia (RIP), the final episode features what is basically a series of vignettes concluding the story for most of the characters. Except, some of the conclusions feel unearned or just plain confusing.

Rayla and Callum are finally together after going through many difficult hurdles, and Ezran announces the building of a new city for all of Xadia’s people, magical or not. It represents a new beginning for the world itself that the Archdragons sacrificed themselves for. 

One of the scenes that feels like it undercuts the rest of the story so far is the reveal that King Harrow, whose assassination triggered the events of The Dragon Prince, could possibly have switched bodies with his pet bird.

For all of the emotional weight that King Harrow’s death had, this feels like it was a last-ditch attempt to justify another season. The moment of Ezran’s forgiveness for Runaan, Harrow’s assassin, could have meant so much more.

Visually, the show remains stunning, with imaginative illustrations of the elves, the magic spells, and the landscapes of Xadia. There are, however, animation goofs here and there that leave me wondering if the animators had enough time to finish the show.

The Dragon Prince is primarily aimed toward kids, so it will mostly deal with heavy issues like grief and hatred in a way that might seem cheesier than necessary to the adults watching.

The show has consistently explored themes of forgiveness and redemption and what it means to do anything for the people you love, no matter the cost. That is no more apparent than in this season, through Ezran and Aaravos’ respective arcs.

While the show has managed to touch on these themes in particularly moving ways before, it does not explore it far enough this season.

This season, while exciting in theory, does not go far enough to give all its characters an appropriate conclusion that respects their roles in the story so far.

Aaravos is now gone for seven years, and Xadia has to prepare for round two. It would make for a gripping Season 8 to see what happens seven years later when he comes back. Sadly, we have no idea if that will happen.

Season 7 of The Dragon Prince gives its fans a thrilling final battle sequence with many twists and turns but ultimately falls short of tying a neat bow on the series in its (potential) final season.

Well-developed and expansive fantasy animated shows are few and far between. Despite some hiccups, The Dragon Prince has been one of them throughout its run. If this is really its end, I will be sad to see it go.

Stray Thoughts:

• Karim meeting his end during his final act of betrayal by literally being crushed by Aaravos’ hand was… quite shocking for a kids’ show and also quite fitting.
• One of the relationships whose downfall I was personally rooting for was Terry and Claudia, and I am so happy that Terry finally realized his worth and moved on.
• Using Claudia and Soren’s mother to emotionally blackmail her into becoming better was a terrible choice.
• By far the best subplot: Callum trying to prove himself as the best boyfriend to Rayla’s disapproving adoptive father Runaan.
• Having Avizandum be the enforcer for Aaravos in the final battle was twisting the knife. Kudos to the writers for diabolical work!
• R.I.P. to the Mama bird who inadvertently became the catalyst for all of Aaravos’ evil master plan; you will be missed.

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All episodes of The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos Season 7 are now streaming on Netflix.

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