Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021–2023)
6/10
Wasted potential
5 September 2022
Season 1 was actually, pretty good. Season 2 was... well, bad. The 2 episodes I had a tough time with the most, is written by someone credited for the upcoming "woke" Comix Zone film, which gives no hopes of it being enjoyable with those two episodes as a basis.

Season 2 is the point where characters stopped developing, since apparently they can only develop on their initial introduction.

Visually, it's Dragons in a more modern time (1,300 years later to be exact), but since it's a cliff and a crevice, there's little to explore. That's where the Nine Realms supposedly comes in, but we wouldn't know that without making a random guess.

There's not much of a catchy theme or melody, and while the voicework is fine, you've got the problem in the writing which reflects in the voice.

When you try too hard to diversify, the colors stand out. You've got the weird lil' bit hippy, somewhat stupid Asian girl, the shy friendless nerdy Indian girl, the awkward strong paranoid black guy, the charismatic yet rebellious white guy. "Diversity" stands out like a sore thumb because they're all archetypes.

The only thing that's been enjoyable has been the dragons themselves. On their own, they've got more personality than all the humans combined. Problem caused by Asian girl was so bad that I wanted to tap out but kept watching. The paranoia from the black guy was so damn cringy, because, why? That's the cliche you want to go with? Or the petty teenage argument that ends with the equivalent of "you don't have a dad"? What the hell was that even about? I can't even mark it as a spoiler because it feels like I'm just talking about plotholes. They have nothing to do with the character's development, it's just drama for the sake of drama.

I'm not even sure where to touch on the plotlines introduced in Season 2. There's a character, essentially a rich ass who inherited a lumber mill/farm, I'm not even sure anymore, and ends up burning it down by chance due to his ego. Of course, he'll eventually want revenge and then Season 3. This does not work for something with only 6 episode bursts per season. They haven't even been addressing the Dragon problem, and there's like two of those issues so far.

The story is supposed to be about Dragons, not humans. Focus more on the Dragons aspect. They don't care about the issues we humans face, they aren't eligible for the criterias we set. It's funny that despite saying all that, mythical creatures always have more humanity than humans themselves.

9 Realms could've spent it's time much better, but chose teenagers over the grand scheme that you'd expect from Dragons. Even as a standalone, it would've faired well, but the path and direction they chose is not a pleasant one.
1 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed