The Dragon Prince Season 6 review – A breath-taking journey across Xadia

I have been following The Dragon Prince on Netflix since the first season. I’ve always enjoyed the characters and unique worldbuilding. So when I had the chance to take a look at an early screener of Season 6, I had to jump on it. I have to see what happens to Rayla, Callum, King Ezran, Zym, and everyone else that makes this show so special.

Slight spoilers ahead for season 5, and I’ll do my best to discuss season 6 without giving away major spoilers. I’m also going in with an assumption you’ve seen the first five seasons of The Dragon Prince. With that said… Let’s head back to Xadia!

Season 5 ended on a cliffhanger and now, in Season 6, we have characters at different states of being as Callum and Ezran achieved their goal and snagged the magical prison pearl containing Aravos, the main antagonist who has been playing chess while the others were playing checkers. Meanwhile, last we saw of Claudia and Viren, Claudia lost a leg in the fight with Callum, Ezran, and Rayla while Viren was ready to give up his life as he regrets the decisions he’s made that has led him and his family to where they are now.

The first episode of Season 6 is extremely emotional. Huge shoutout to Racquel Belmonte (Claudia) and Jason Simpson (Viren) for some of the most emotional voice acting I’ve heard from a season premiere. We watch this season as these two characters struggle with their identity. Viren, putting his family above everything for so many years, has lost sight of why he was so focused on obtaining power, believing his family will be safe because of it. This was his struggle in Season 5 after being resurrected, and paying for his crimes becomes the forefront of his arc now. Meanwhile, Claudia follows what she’s learned from living with her father and does what has to be done for her family… no matter how vile, which we see an example of in episode one…

Back in Katolis, home of King Ezran, Callum, and Soren (Viren’s son and Kingsguard for Ezran), the group, alongside Rayla and the rest of the council, must decide what to do with Aravos. We also left Season 5 with Zym’s mother, the Dragon Queen, badly hurt and being treated by a mysterious Mushroom Mage. After some haunting dreams and a risk to the kingdom, King Ezran decides to allow Callum and Rayla to search for the Starscraper, home of a special group of elves who may be able to help destroy the prison pearl holding Aravos since they hold the Novablade, an ancient blade able to kill Aravos. King Ezran also sends Soren and Zym to search for the Dragon Queen to make sure she’s alive.

We also get the continuation of the Queen Janai and Amaya romance, hoping to finally get married this season. This, while Queen Janai’s brother, Karim, stages a rebellion against her with his partner, one of the Six Horns sworn to protect Queen Janai betrayed her and took her army to Karim. The drama between these two factions is intense as both sides believe so deeply that they’re right. Will Karim free the Archdragon Sol Regem to help fight on his side? Will Queen Janai and Amaya be able to be happy? We shall see.

So, the main objectives after episode one and for the rest of the season is this: Callum and Rayla search for a way to destroy the pearl containing Aravos to free Callum from the darkness in his heart. King Ezran wishes to take more responsibility as a King. Soren and Zym search for the Dragon Queen. Queen Janai and her brother Karim are at odds and the tension is mounting. Viren wishes to apologize to those he’s hurt and make any amends he can, while Claudia searches for who she is without her father to guide her.

Something I’ve always loved about The Dragon Prince is worldbuilding. The usage of magic as an everyday thing for some cultures like the Elves, for others, it’s newer and quickly changing everyday activities, like for the humans. Along with that, I love how dragons, elves, humans, and everyone else live in different ways across Xadia and have for a very long time. We see everything from beaches to snowy mountains this season, and get to see multiple stories from different cultures across Xadia.

This season has a lot of twists and turns for nine episodes. I really loved how they split up the party. We get a little more about each character and what they can do on their own or away from the other characters we’re used to seeing them with in the past few seasons. This allows for each character to get a little more in-depth character development and moves everyone forward for the next season.

Getting to see King Ezran lead his kingdom, sending everyone out and taking responsibility for the people he’s ruling over made me very excited. Meanwhile, letting Callum and Rayla go on their own lets us see their romance blossom from just flirtation and staying away “for each other’s safety”. It always seemed to me like that specifically would never happen as long as Callum was focusing so hard on his brother King Ezran and Rayla was focusing on Soren and Zym.

A surprise for me was the amount I came to love the characters of Viren and Claudia in this season. The past few seasons have those two at odds with my favorite characters, going as far as to kill some of the most important adult characters helping the main crew. However, this season really shows aspects of each character that you begin to realize the “why” behind everything they did and it creates a new way of thinking about the two of them. There’s also a lot of poor Terry (Claudia’s adorable elven boyfriend) crying, so if you love Terry, be sure to have tissues ready.

It also wouldn’t be The Dragon Prince without the animal companions. This season is the largest the roster has felt with everyone seemingly having their own companions throughout the journey. Some are obvious like Bait / King Ezran and Stella / Rayla, but the additions from last season of the Baitlings make for some amazingly funny moments I don’t want to spoil. Each little animal companion, just like everything else in The Dragon Prince, is unique and fun.

Wonderstorm did a great job with the writing for this season, seemingly taking it to another level now that the characters are a little more mature (yes, even Soren) and this allows for some intense dialogue to be discussed between characters. The biggest one is about family, and how families should treat each other. I know a lot of people my age who could have used a conversation like one that happens in episode five. The ability to have these conversations is going to help a lot of people have a little taste of therapy.

One of the biggest things about this season is the music. While The Dragon Prince is full of magic, the music makes some of the scenes MAGICAL. There’s a scene from the trailer for Season 6 with Callum wearing a blindfold flying in the air, I can confirm, that has one of the most beautiful soundtracks to go along with the beautiful animation for the scene. In context, it’s one of my favorite scenes in the entire season.

The animation for The Dragon Prince continues to be top notch and consistent between seasons. Wonderstorm does a great job of showing action scenes and flying scenes in such a special way that allows for the magic of the world to take the forefront. One of my favorite elements of the show is flying and Rayla’s gymnastics. The dragons, Callum, (and others?) flying in this season feels so magical, and seeing the details like feathers falling off makes it even that more magical. The dragons also feel so powerful when they fly. Each dragon we’ve seen has been unique from aesthetics to power, and this season is no exception. Finally, several times we get to see Rayla’s gymnastic abilities in full form. With all the magic in the world, it’s fun to see the sword vs sword fights still being so otherworldly.

Season 6 has a little bit of everything. You have the political intrigue of Queen Janai and Karim fighting over the heart of their people. There’s Shadow of the Colossus style fight scenes, sword versus sword fights, magic fights, and the show is called The Dragon Prince, so be ready for some dragons. While the season ends with another cliffhanger, Wonderstorm has proven that they have a plan for this story with each season giving us answers to earlier questions while providing us with new things to worry about for the future.

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