The Dragon Prince: The Fantasy Genre - Now With Real People!
When you ask someone about what they think Fantasy is, they will probably say elves, dwarves, wizards…you know, basically J.R.R Tolkien. The thousands of books based on the Tolkien type of fantasy that have been written tend to have cover photos that feature white characters, human or otherwise. A previous post of mine talked about how disappointing it is that fantasy writers can imagine an entire world history on how dragons and humans would get along, but can’t imagine a world with people of color in it.
That is what makes a fantasy show like The Dragon Prince so refreshing. As of this post I am halfway through the second season. From the very first episode I was intrigued that a show which featured white elves, also featured a black king. Not only that, but the king also married a white woman and has a mixed race child. There are also other people of color sprinkled throughout the land, with the main characters receiving assistance from a character from what appears to be based off of Tibetan people.
A little further into the first season we are introduced to a character that is deaf. Not a deaf character that is ridiculed and called “dumb” because that is what was realistic for the middle age time period the show is set in. Instead, we have a high ranking, confident, warrior who happens to be deaf. A key element to be truly inclusive and not just tokenism is to have fully fleshed characters that happen to have a certain trait. Because that is exactly how people are in the real world.
Another example of inclusivity in the show occurs when one of the characters does a retelling of a past event. Two characters in the retelling are a lesbian couple who are mothers to a now child queen. The person telling the story nonchalantly mentions the female couple were her mothers, without batting an eye. Again, these are two characters in the story who just happened to be lesbian. The importance of normalizing that we live in a diverse world is important to have in a kids show.
Those are just some of the highlights that I wanted to touch on for this post. As I watch more of the series I might circle back to write my thoughts on the story itself. I will quickly say that the first season seemed to lean a little more heavily onto the Avatar: The Last Airbender roots, as the head writer for the beloved series was the co-creator for The Dragon Prince. However, I feel it started to have it’s own identity in the second season. But to me, seeing fully formed characters on screen makes it all the more compelling to watch.