The Dragon Prince S3 and Frozen 2

[nrgburst]

These were both amaaaazing, totally blowing away my expectations! (And my expectations were actually fairly high, because of how solid their predecessors had been!) Absolutely see Frozen II in theatre if you can! (Bring tissues- I cried at least twice! And stay for the after-credit scene!) I am tempted to go again- it was that good.

We binged TDP S3 in one night- it dropped at 5pm our time, so my kids and I just watched it through supper and until bedtime like an extra long movie. Things I loooved:

• Amaya getting a solid, action-y arc! YASSSS Her relationship with Janai and that delightfully nerdy as-yet-unnamed translator ("If my translation is correct --and it is-- she suggested an unusual way in which your body could accommodate your sword...") is what we need all the fic for! 
• Ezran actually choosing to be king despite being a child, and actually making really level-headed decisions as well as childish ones. His priorities are different than his father's, even if his father was known as a good king. That ended up being the best possible thing, and seeing his father's most damning choice right up close and petrified really illustrated it so well.
• Viren being a gaslighting dickwad of a dad and therefore Soren finally breaking free. I actually did not think he'd be strong enough to do so, and seeing him choose and know he'd finally done the right thing was so awesome. Although my heart breaks for Claudia and she's the one I most want to write fic for. She's made such horrible choices and paid such a terrible cost and you know exactly why she clings to the belief that she's doing the right thing. :(((
• The whole Aaravos&Viren arc being gross and dark AF and yet lol "little bug pal" and utterly extra as well. My kids watched it without problems- like it wasn't gory or terrifying? Also enjoy watching Viren suffer during his Descent, hahaha suck it, dude.
• BAMF Queen Aanya shooting two arrows at once and turning the tide in the end! With the Broken Links marching with her! SO TRIUMPHANT.
• The Easter eggs! The Wonderwall by the Oasis! The Magical Girl transformations! The Sokka references! This series is just so much fun! :DDDD
• Ethari getting a name and a backstory! And the Only Mostly Dead reveal for Runaan, although we all suspected with the coins, the flower was confirmation!
• More lovely sketches with both foreshadowing and backstory! 
• Epic battles and an epic ending! 

The things I didn't really care for:

• Why the fast forward on the Rayla/Callum ship? Ew, I would have preferred just cute tension and blushing/brushing hands & stammering. It felt so forced and unnatural and there was so much of it?
• Nyx's arc was over way too fast. Disappointing.

•  

Waiting for the next season will be torture again, especially with the recent problematic news about the showrunner. :/



As for Frozen 2, I can't get over how wonderful the character arcs were for both Anna and Elsa- the trailers were so deliberately (maddeningly) cryptic. But their journeys were transformative and brave and meaningful and it's such a pleasure to see Disney smash or invert tropes! Like Kristoff's whole arc was about proposing to Anna. That's it. The movie never made him the hero or focus beyond his three minute ballad shot like a 90's music video.

I also loved how they delved into backstory for the original Frozen and made everything deeper and more culturally relevant. The funny references to the original (and one sly mention of Hans Christian Anderson!) were wonderful too! Olaf does a terrible recap in case you don't really remember the plot, so don't worry if you don't re-watch beforehand- it was 6 years ago!

Definitely worth a re-watch, and the music is great too! Have had "Show yourself" and "All is found" and "Into the unknown" on repeat. <3 


Has anybody else watched either? What did you think?

Comments

[wheatear]

Frozen 2 had a post-credits scene? Dammit! (What was it? I left the cinema as soon as the credits rolled...)

Agree with all your thoughts! Kristoff's 90s music video was brilliant, one of the funniest parts of the movie, but I went in expecting the main focus to be all about Anna and Elsa and it was, so I couldn't have asked for more, really.

[nrgburst]

Yes! It’s another terrible!recap of the latter part of the movie from Olaf to his snow siblings (Marshmallow and the snowball babies from Frozen Fever). The reason they’re so bad is because Olaf doesn’t use transitional phrases to order his thoughts! I think you can find it on YouTube- somebody put it on tumblr but it looks like it has been deleted. It goes something like: Aaaaaaahhhhahhhhh! (Olaf screeching imitating Elsa calling back to the Secret Siren) Be yourself, Elsa! Oh I will, mama, I will! Elsa’s dead. Olaf’s dead. Anna cries. And then a bunch of important stuff happens that I forget but it doesn’t matter because I was right and Water Has Memory and so, I live and so do you!

Marshmallow: we live? WE LIIIIVE! GOOOD STORY!

(They all celebrate and it is adorable.)

I didn’t expect Kristoff to get the hero’s arc either, but I didn’t expect a whole arc about His Romantic Feelings either? Like it was so nice: the typical girl supporting character arc for the boy! Bless Frozen for being about the AnnaElsa relationship- I was wondering if Elsa would get a female love interest (“I’m sorry Secret Siren, but I’m blocking out your calls”) but I’m glad it didn’t end up Romantic Interest vs. Responsibility.

Also Happy Birthday! :D

Sent from my iPhone

[wheatear]

Aw, that sounds cute! I did enjoy Olaf's recap of the first film. :D

And yeah, Kristoff's supporting character arc was sweet. Anna and Elsa are the heroes. Loved it.

Thank you!

[dirty_diana]

Your kids are braver than me! (Not surprising, I am a wuss.) TDP was absolutely a bit too dark and gross for me, lol. But I did love Soren breaking free. It was very cathartic. Claudia's descent has been perfectly paced - it is sad but not surprising. Her resurrection of Viren? *shivers*

There was indeed an awful lot of Rayla/Callum! I like them okay, but it was a lot.

[nrgburst]

Yeah, I don't hate the ship, it's just the pacing/sheer amount of it all this season, all at once. Like from growing crush to I love you in 9 eps was too breakneck for me. Maybe there were hints in S2, but I must have missed them?

I am re-watching season 1 now, and it makes me even more sad that Soren and Claudia are now on opposite sides. I'm wondering if it will come down to Viren tasking her with killing him to finally make her realize? And I'm wondering if Aaravos somehow came up with Dark magic to start- he sure seemed to be sucking the magic out of Azymondias.

[mythicmistress]

Here from holiday_wishes. I'm probably not going to see Frozen 2 anytime soon. However, I'm happy to weigh in on The Dragon Prince S3. I liked many of the same things you did (the Sokka references had me laughing for a good while, and Soren managing to get away from Viren was so cathartic). The same goes for dislikes- There was not nearly enough of Nyx, and I didn't like how fast Callum and Rayla got together. It wasn't the first time I've seen a couple get together really quickly though- that time was during season five of Samurai Jack with Jack and Ashi, that one was even faster (about three episodes at the most). I wonder if the reasoning behind getting Callum and Rayla together that quickly was due to the allegations against the showrunner possibly getting the show canceled.

[nrgburst]

Hi! Welcome! So glad to talk about TDP anywhere! :DDD Want to be friends?

Yeah, I doubt it? Those allegations surfaced when the show was almost done production on S3, and storyboarding and animation and voiceovers etc. take months so I'm betting they rushed the storyline to get to ILU by ep 9 and Callum literally jumping off a cliff for her. I'm re-watching S2 right now where he almost kissed Claudia though and I'm even more ugggh over how fast they did the Rayla/Callum. I dunno, I wish they had foreshadowed it a bit more so it didn't feel so forced.

I'm not averse to characters getting together quickly- Arya and Gendry on GoT went from reunion one ep to sex in the next- but there was a history of crushing on her part 5 years previous. Like we all knew exactly how she felt about him loooong before she went for it. This just went from unlikely friends to I WILL WORD VOMIT MY FEELINGS to NOW WE ARE KISSING. Very tell not show, IMO, which is why I think I found it harder to just go with it?

[mythicmistress]

Yeah, you're probably right about Callum/Rayla. I'm not sure why I thought that.
I tend to post a lot of negativity on my journal (it's my primary way of venting), so I'm not sure if you would like to be friends, but you're welcome to drop by if you like.