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This series tops out at Okay for me, my main takeaway is that it really isn't doing a lot to differentiate itself from avatar and it can't quite seem to decide on a tone.
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Oct 14, 2018 03:32
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kidcoelacanth posted:This series tops out at Okay for me, my main takeaway is that it really isn't doing a lot to differentiate itself from avatar and it can't quite seem to decide on a tone. You're absolutely right. It was okay, but I got really sick of Sokka + Annoying Kid Brother and lizard/frog. The animation style was also super-jarring. I loved the backgrounds from the Avatar series, some looked like wonderful art.
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Oct 21, 2018 07:04
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Next season is scheduled to come out on Netflix on February 15th. Pretty quick turnaround!
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Jan 16, 2019 18:48
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That's the benefit of only animating 10 frames per second.
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Jan 17, 2019 01:19
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Ccs posted:Next season is scheduled to come out on Netflix on February 15th. Pretty quick turnaround! I'm actually...excited about it.  The series really got me, and the creators (and the person in charge of the main twitter) have been really nice and fun. Same goes with the guys that made Castlevania. 
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Jan 17, 2019 02:46
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I'm hype - I'll be interested to see if the animation changes much (given there's been some commentary from them making it more fluid iirc) or if that'll be an S3 deal. I never minded S1 though, personally. I've seen way worse, like the Berserk show.
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Jan 25, 2019 15:05
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I noticed it being framey and I would hope they paid for those other 15 frames or whatever this time, but it didn't bother me too much. I wasn't super into the story on the other hand, but I'll give anything these guys do a fair shot.
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Jan 25, 2019 15:15
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IRQ posted:I noticed it being framey and I would hope they paid for those other 15 frames or whatever this time, but it didn't bother me too much. I wasn't super into the story on the other hand, but I'll give anything these guys do a fair shot. They were moments were the animation was super fluid, in a lot of fighting scenes, so if they got more budget hopefully they will make things better this time. Anyway, I'm still gonna watch it. Elves, dragons, magic, bad magic yay! 
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Jan 26, 2019 01:59
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Desperado Bones posted:I'm actually...excited about it. I am too, although I really did think that right at the end it was suddenly fast. Like they had to get the prince saying he could speak to animals in and it felt weird.
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Jan 26, 2019 02:44
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Taear posted:I am too, although I really did think that right at the end it was suddenly fast. Like they had to get the prince saying he could speak to animals in and it felt weird. Idk, there were several hints beforehand, so the prince speaking to animals didn't just come out of left field
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Jan 26, 2019 13:00
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Ccs posted:Next season is scheduled to come out on Netflix on February 15th. Pretty quick turnaround! Reminder that S2 comes out this Thursday! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc2gmVTb6-k
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Feb 13, 2019 04:30
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It's baaaaaack
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Feb 15, 2019 09:33
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Just finished, and I think I enjoyed it much better than season one. And a smooth FPS throughout
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Feb 15, 2019 12:54
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Aaravos is a gift
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Feb 15, 2019 14:30
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Kazy posted:Just finished, and I think I enjoyed it much better than season one. And a smooth FPS throughout They fixed that strange frameyness? Great!
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Feb 15, 2019 15:25
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Does the dad turned bird story get any progression?
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Feb 15, 2019 15:57
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ArmyOfMidgets posted:Does the dad turned bird story get any progression? The bird escapes the cage and flies out a window right at the end. Unrelated, I can't believe Soren built a zipline. With that reckless child endangerment, he's basically a goon. Pyrotoad fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 15, 2019 |
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Feb 15, 2019 21:52
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It's kind of cool the storylines they've opened up now Aaravos, Aaravos's key, the dragons know the prince is alive, Ezren has a spiritual connection with Zym, dark magic causes permanent damage, but humans are capable of finding their own magic from their own lessons, the obvious budding romance between Amaya and the Sunfire Knight etc. I don't like the overall pacing of the show. It feels very stop-and-go, and there's no clear over-arching path with known points of tension (it seems like we can just stumble on a battle at a random fort at any point in the story without pretext). But if some of the speeches/dialogues we saw in S2 were anything to go by, there's going to be tons of payoff moving forward.
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Feb 15, 2019 23:52
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IRQ posted:They fixed that strange frameyness? Great! I think it's a combination of their animators getting fully comfortable with the software/pipeline and a shift in philosophy from, "We're going to try to pretend this is 2D," to, "This is clearly 3D with 2D principles." It's a vast improvement over S1, and I'd go so far as to say it's actually some of the best anime-styled 3D I've seen for a show, even compared to long-runners like RWBY or big name properties like Berserk (2016). Ernie. posted:I don't like the overall pacing of the show. It feels very stop-and-go, and there's no clear over-arching path with known points of tension (it seems like we can just stumble on a battle at a random fort at any point in the story without pretext). It's definitely one of the weaknesses of its writing. Adventure shows like this tend to thrive off of establishing threats well in advance of the party actually reaching them, but S2 doesn't really have that; it's a murky trip across the countryside with them stumbling into occurrences entirely by coincidence. I was actually, genuinely surprised that they managed to both reach and cross the border, because it felt almost like an afterthought with how little build up there was to it.
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Feb 16, 2019 16:23
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Vermain posted:It's definitely one of the weaknesses of its writing. Adventure shows like this tend to thrive off of establishing threats well in advance of the party actually reaching them, but S2 doesn't really have that; it's a murky trip across the countryside with them stumbling into occurrences entirely by coincidence. I was actually, genuinely surprised that they managed to both reach and cross the border, because it felt almost like an afterthought with how little build up there was to it. Yeah it felt weirdly paced, they get away on a flying thing in episode 3 and make a deal about rushing across the water so they can be as quick as they can then when they get to the other side the brother/sister combo have already basically unknowingly caught up on horseback and then they spend another 3 episodes there. Enjoying the show quite a bit now but like, it's going to feel very stop and starty if they keep a similar pace and number of episodes in each season. Even if they keep up the cadence of a new season every 6 or 7 months.
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Feb 16, 2019 16:35
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Just finished and yeah geez that went by quickly. Every ep felt like they ended in a flash but each episode was actually longer than a traditional 22 minute broadcast cartoon episode. Anyway, good season; I think it was better than the first! What little there was of it, anyway. I'm not sure I buy that Callum can learn magic just like that (surely other humans have had epiphanies like this before?) but if it's a result of having that cube I can accept it. Too early to say but I'm not sure I like that we're getting a transparently evil villain whose presence I really hope isn't going to culminate in a "put aside our differences to team up against a common enemy" ending. Last thing, I'm a bit annoyed that this is the second time they built up Viren to be a multifaceted antagonist only for him to end the season with "what if Jafar and the Night King had a child".
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Feb 16, 2019 16:55
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A reminder not to skip the end credits (especially on the last episode) otherwise you'll miss lots of cute little bonus moments Ezra vs the dream hippo, Lujanne vs her illusionary doubles and at least one loose end getting tied up the super optimistic soldier chained up in the hidden dungeon gets rescued!
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Feb 16, 2019 17:13
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Gah! Netflix automatically skips to the next ep without showing those; I thought it'd be smart enough to let me see them if they existed! Edit: oh... they're just illustrations, not actual scenes Argue fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Feb 16, 2019 |
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Feb 16, 2019 17:14
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Argue posted:Just finished and yeah geez that went by quickly. Every ep felt like they ended in a flash but each episode was actually longer than a traditional 22 minute broadcast cartoon episode. Part of it is them spreading themselves too thinly. It's not a sin to have A/B plots, but they're doing A/B/C/D plots in some places, and it forces them to skip huge gulfs of time or reduce interactions to short back-and-forth exchanges to fit it all together. If you look back at Avatar, episodes generally restricted themselves to either A or A/B plots, and those plots were usually within the same rough geographical area and chronological period. The average episode of Dragon Prince jumps between three of Callum/Rayla/Ezran, Soren/Claudia, Amaya, and Viren. S2 makes it even more confusing with two episodes largely dedicated to flashback storytelling. There's so many drat plots demanding screen time that it's hard to make a coherent, interesting A plot, especially when you've got less than half of the usual episodes of a cartoon show's season. I admire their storytelling ambition, but you have to understand and work with whatever restrictions you have when it comes to productions like this. I think it would've benefited them immensely to cut Viren's screentime down so that his story is the B plot for, say, 3-4 episodes, with Claudia/Soren filling the B plot for the rest of the episodes, and either excluding a C plot or cutting it down to a few minutes in 1-2 episodes at most.
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Feb 16, 2019 17:26
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The Sea Captain and Parrot need a spin-off show.
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Feb 17, 2019 01:38
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Ernie. posted:It's kind of cool the storylines they've opened up now Aaravos, Aaravos's key, the dragons know the prince is alive, Ezren has a spiritual connection with Zym, dark magic causes permanent damage, but humans are capable of finding their own magic from their own lessons, the obvious budding romance between Amaya and the Sunfire Knight etc. I really have no idea how you've got the idea of a romance between Amaya and the Knight (who they have named on twitter but I've forgotten it!). They've got a usual sort of...equals rivalry. That's it! Interesting that the queen of [place with the blue rose] was the daughter of two women, as well as the really feminine face of the star elf baddie. Nice that they're doing different stuff like that, I wonder if it's down to Netflix? I enjoyed it but felt they needed to get a move on in the first two episodes. It's like there's so much to tell and only 9 episodes to do it in doesn't feel like enough. Hope there's another series and it's out as quickly as series 2 was. I like that everyone has a good motivation and I'd really like to learn what the person in the mirror wants. Like someone else said, I hope they're not just straight up evil. And their voice is the same person who did Koh in Avatar! interesting that in Callum's dream the king was chained up. That really suggests he is just trapped in the bird. Especially since it escaped at the end, although Valen didn't actually seem too bothered by that. They sure binned that wolf girl off with barely even a word, she must have had like six lines before they got shut of her. And yea, I just want more. I'm sad it's over so fast.
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Feb 17, 2019 02:18
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Taear posted:They sure binned that wolf girl off with barely even a word, she must have had like six lines before they got shut of her. Eh that makes sense to me, I think she was just in it to go up the mountain and see what was up with the lady who helped her. Made a nice change from a lot of these shows where a character like that would be like "oh I'll join you, person I just met and drop my entire life to come on this potentially deadly thing you're doing". Anyone else sort of expecting some sort of thing where (people seem to be putting speculation in spoilers so I will to, I don't necessarily think this will happen though, just an idle thought). They get to the Dragon King with his son near the end of season 4 say and he's like "Hmm, my son being "killed" and my home ransacked was actually quite a convenient case for war, now I'll have to find another one" and bringing him back doesn't really change too much. Like both countries are now being lead by warhawks willing to propagandise their enemies and twist things? I guess rather than it being a "both sides are as bad as each other" thing it'd be more like the dragon taking the opportunity to try to make sure the humans can't ever strike at his home ever again. So essentially it becomes more of a situation where they have to gather the people who want peace on both sides to try and resolve the war some way. The showrunners seem to be interested in trying to explore some tough stuff. thebardyspoon fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 02:34
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thebardyspoon posted:Eh that makes sense to me, I think she was just in it to go up the mountain and see what was up with the lady who helped her. Made a nice change from a lot of these shows where a character like that would be like "oh I'll join you, person I just met and drop my entire life to come on this potentially deadly thing you're doing". Oh yea I'm not saying it doesn't make sense, I was just surprised. The show does well at both supporting tropes and shooting them down. Like Callum learns to use elder magic, we knew that would happen. But that it didn't happen in a moment of crisis in the final episode is unexpected, at least to me. I will say I'm getting a bit uncomfortable at jokes about blind people though, it feels like it's the last disability it's okay to laugh at for some reason. Like they weren't extra bad with him, I just can't imagine them being like that if he couldn't walk or hear.
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Feb 17, 2019 02:38
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Taear posted:I like that everyone has a good motivation and I'd really like to learn what the person in the mirror wants. That'll take some backstory to know for sure, but I'd bet anything he's the actual creator of Dark Magic, and he passed it on to humanity either out of curiosity (because his own people were unwilling to try and master it) or spite. He subsequently got trapped in the mirror and his name was erased from history via illusion magic because the Moonshadow elves wanted to hide the truth of which race started off the whole conflict. Taear posted:I will say I'm getting a bit uncomfortable at jokes about blind people though, it feels like it's the last disability it's okay to laugh at for some reason. I think they treated Villads fine as a character. His blindness is never made out to be an impediment and he's not stumbling around like Mr. Magoo everywhere. The only sight-related gag is his double eyepatch, which is funny because it's both unexpected and ridiculous-looking and not because he's disabled. Vermain fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 02:43
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Vermain posted:That'll take some backstory to know for sure, but I'd bet anything he's the actual creator of Dark Magic, and he passed it on to humanity either out of curiosity (because his own people were unwilling to try and master it) or spite. He subsequently got trapped in the mirror and his name was erased from history via illusion magic because the Moonshadow elves wanted to hide the truth of which race started off the whole The cube is named after him isn't it? I know they only say the name of it once but I was sure it is. and since it has a dark emblem on it and they definitely played up the guy in the dream being Aaravos before he turned around I'd say you're probably right there. I don't think he's been erased though, if you wanted you could read up on him. I assumed the blurring text was down to the caterpillar effect, not something that would happen to anyone at all who reads the book. And he wasn't staggering or being too bad, it just felt like being blind and narcoleptic was a joke but being deaf isn't a joke. Like I say, it's not terrible, just a bit weird to me. I did like that they've out and out answered some things fans asked. Humans using magic without the primal sources, that sort of thing. It felt like Aaron had seen people's questions and tried to make it clearer, which was a first on a show for me.
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Feb 17, 2019 02:56
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Vermain posted:That'll take some backstory to know for sure, but I'd bet anything he's the actual creator of Dark Magic, and he passed it on to humanity either out of curiosity (because his own people were unwilling to try and master it) or spite. He subsequently got trapped in the mirror and his name was erased from history via illusion magic because the Moonshadow elves wanted to hide the truth of which race started off the whole conflict. His name wasn't erased from history, he just made Viren be unable to read then. Apparently the book is in Danish, and people over at Reddit have already translated the passages: quote:Aaravos Though I'm not sure why he'd keep Viran from reading this. If anything, it'd make him trust Aaravos even more. Argue posted:Just finished and yeah geez that went by quickly. Every ep felt like they ended in a flash but each episode was actually longer than a traditional 22 minute broadcast cartoon episode. It'd really cheapen it for me if it weren't from his own doing and was because of the cube, or a magical parent or something
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Feb 17, 2019 02:58
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Kazy posted:It'd really cheapen it for me if it weren't from his own doing and was because of the cube, or a magical parent or something Aaravos already showed that you can master every form of Primal Magic, even though he was only born with the Moon arcanum. My guess is that the S1E1 mythic history is a bunch of bullshit and pre-exodus humans were treated as second class citizens in Xadia, prevented from learning any of the arcanums due to their lack of an inherent one. After Aaravos invented Dark Magic and gifted it to them, they never saw a reason to use anything else, especially since the knowledge of arcanums and nexuses were hoarded by the elves away from human hands once the exodus occurred. Callum is able to learn Primal Magic because he's actually visited a nexus to speak with a genuine mage, and is broad-minded and accepting enough to try and understand the perspectives and feelings of others to earn the insight he needs. Vermain fucked around with this message at 03:16 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 03:14
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Kazy posted:It'd really cheapen it for me if it weren't from his own doing and was because of the cube, or a magical parent or something
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Feb 17, 2019 04:30
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Vermain posted:Aaravos already showed that you can master every form of Primal Magic, even though he was only born with the Moon arcanum. My guess is that the S1E1 mythic history is a bunch of bullshit and pre-exodus humans were treated as second class citizens in Xadia, prevented from learning any of the arcanums due to their lack of an inherent one. After Aaravos invented Dark Magic and gifted it to them, they never saw a reason to use anything else, especially since the knowledge of arcanums and nexuses were hoarded by the elves away from human hands once the exodus occurred. Callum is able to learn Primal Magic because he's actually visited a nexus to speak with a genuine mage, and is broad-minded and accepting enough to try and understand the perspectives and feelings of others to earn the insight he needs. The other reason that we should suspect that the S1E1 mythic history introductory scene is at least partly bullshit is that it's narrated by Aaravos himself. He's not only manipulating Viren, he's manipulating the viewers.  Also note that Aaravos appears in the historical introductory scenes when the elves are banishing the humans to the West before the war starts but when they skip forwards to the end of the war he's nowhere to be seen, possibly because the other elves figured out his poo poo and already imprisoned him. Also he's had a presence in every episode so far, he narrates the opening credits and it's his hands which open the scroll to start every episode. The magical cube that helps Callum unlock his Sky arcanum was also created by Aaravos, I'm guessing it was intended to force humans to accept dark magic and kill off any but the most determined humans who wanted to learn Primal magic. I figure that he's going to be a majorly central figure in not only the upcoming storyline but also the entire history of the great war. Don't forget that the king and queen of dragons once had a direct line to him via the mirror, I'm guessing he may have been the one to give their egg to the humans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-djK0YhLmg
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Feb 17, 2019 04:42
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mystes posted:He didn't really do enough himself to justify it without any other factors, though. For me, it's less that he doesn't do enough and more that the revelation doesn't connect strongly enough to the larger theme that gets set up. Most of the season emphasizes how trying to separate yourself from others and solve problems on your own doesn't ultimately work, no matter how noble your intentions might be. A stronger revelation would've been Callum coming to understand the Oneness that he talks about in a literal sense: he's a part of the same shared journey as Rayla/Ezran, and the desperation he's feeling over what he sees as a personal quest to learn magic is hurting his friends. Letting go of that anxiety - learning to breathe - is what would ultimately give him the critical insight that he needs to grasp the Sky arcanum. Vermain fucked around with this message at 05:18 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 05:16
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Vermain posted:For me, it's less that he doesn't do enough and more that the revelation doesn't connect strongly enough to the larger theme that gets set up. Most of the season emphasizes how trying to separate yourself from others and solve problems on your own doesn't ultimately work, no matter how noble your intentions might be. A stronger revelation would've been Callum coming to understand the Oneness that he talks about in a literal sense: he's a part of the same shared journey as Rayla/Ezran, and the desperation he's feeling over what he sees as a personal quest to learn magic is hurting his friends. Letting go of that anxiety - learning to breathe - is what would ultimately give him the critical insight that he needs to grasp the Sky arcanum. I think you're sort of right in that that if this was something he could have reasonably been expected to achieve, the writers would probably have him achieve it after some sort of growth in his character so it's not that crazy to interpret this as what actually happened. However, in this case doing so ignores the fundamental problem that in the world of the show (if everything we've been told is true) it simply doesn't make sense that this could be achieved purely through normal character growth without some other factor. If it comes from some sort of character growth or realization it would only make sense if it's character growth or a realization nobody else would have ever had. mystes fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Feb 17, 2019 |
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Feb 17, 2019 05:39
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I thought this season was pretty much perfect. The characters are more lovable than ever before, there were a great deal of satisfying moments, and the animation style looks so much smoother you're forced to wonder why they didn't just set it like this in the first place.
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Feb 17, 2019 08:00
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Vermain posted:Aaravos already showed that you can master every form of Primal Magic, even though he was only born with the Moon arcanum. He's actually a 'Startouch' elf, not 'Moonshadow'. His arcanum would've been the stars.
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Feb 17, 2019 12:30
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mystes posted:However, in this case doing so ignores the fundamental problem that in the world of the show (if everything we've been told is true) it simply doesn't make sense that this could be achieved purely through normal character growth without some other factor. Like I mentioned in another post, it's highly likely that everything Lujanne told Callum was bullshit. It was either her being misinformed due to elf culture treating humans as inferiors, or she was doing the same thing she did with Rayla, where she gave him advice (that he'll never be able to learn the arcanums as a human) that she knew he'd reject and make him even more dedicated to pursuing his goal.
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Feb 17, 2019 15:44
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Argue posted:Just finished and yeah geez that went by quickly. Every ep felt like they ended in a flash but each episode was actually longer than a traditional 22 minute broadcast cartoon episode. It really isn't that implausible that Callum would be the first human to discover the secret to learning primal magic without an inborn connection. It's not at all uncommon for people to assume something to be utterly impossible after a couple of failed attempts - just look at how much of the science and technology we take for granted today was once written off as wild fantasy. Though I don't know if I entirely agree with how they've handled the morality of dark magic. With the rock monster, it's one thing to argue if it's really okay to kill one intelligent lifeform to save many many people. But when thousands of people are are in imminent danger of starving to death, that's generally not the right time to be preaching about hard work and not taking shortcuts and so forth. And yes, if they're going to have Viren go from "willing to do morally questionable things to help others" to "garden variety Evil Overlord", they really ought to offer some logical explanation. At this point, the only one I could think of would be if long-term exposure to dark magic turns people into assholes.
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Feb 17, 2019 16:24
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