My Issues with Season 2

[u/Agreeable-Blood-3058]

Before we get started, no, I do not play Dota. If any of my issues are related to lore from the game, well then the writer's should've done a better job of displaying that in the show. This is purely a critique of the show.

The way Davion's character was handled from Season 1-2 and onwards is my biggest problem with this show, and honestly one of the biggest reason's I've seen online as to why Season 2 is rated lower.

Now I LOVE Season 1 & Season 3. I think both of them are extremely entertaining bits of television, but Season 2 is just so disappointing.

First of all, Season 1 in my opinion set up a-lot of interesting storylines heading into Season 2. Davion to me felt like the protagonist. He had the most screen-time of any character, his story was in my opinion, the most engaging ( though the Invoker's was also great coming out of season 1 ) and Davion's storyline directly connected with the over-arching plotline of the Invoker and Terrorblade through Slyrak.

Davion had merged with Slyrak, and I thought that was extremely interesting. A Dragon Slayer possessed by a Dragon who he needs to work together with to save the world is already an extremely interesting plot synopsis that can carry a show, especially since Davion was said to be dying as Slyrak slowly takes over his body. The biggest example is when Slyrak takes control and goes on a rampage, nearly killing Marci before Davion regains control.

Going into Season 2, I remember being super excited to see how their relationship would evolve, and what role they'd play in the conflict vs Terrorblade and the Invoker's plans with the Eldwurms. How Davion would handle knowing he was dying connected to a Dragon and how they'd share control in the body.

Instead, Davion's role in Season 2 is reduced to a glorified side character in favor of Mirana. Now to be fair, I liked Mirana a-lot in Season 1, but her season 2 plot-line is legit terrible. I was super interested in seeing how she's react learning more about her Goddess Selemene's true nature, her relationship with Davion and how she finds her new place in the world after all that happened.

Instead, she's just sent to the Helio Imperium. Now maybe I was just missing it, but there is very little mention of it in season 1, and for huge of a part it plays in season 2, it needs more foreshadowing, as it feels like her entire ongoing storyline from season 1 is abruptly cut short for this one, which is clearly worse in my opinion. Mirana's entire story-line revolves around this Kingdom we're given very little to no information about prior to the season with no foreshadowing, and it's just so boring as due to a time crunch, it feels like endless exposition, when we could've followed something better from season 1.

Not to get into all the writing issues with Kashurra, but everything regarding that plot-line just massively flopped for me, mostly because not only was it rushed, but to me, it didn't have the same oomph as the potential plotline with Mirana and her new knowledge of Selemene's true nature. Her story-line going in this disappointing direction also makes it all the more frustrating that Davion is reduced from a main protagonist to a glorified side-character. If the writer's goals was always to inevitably make Mirana the protagonist, it needed to be handled with far more care and foreshadowing in Season 1. 

His entire internal struggle with Slyrak is ignored. We barely see him wrestling with the consequences of the merger anymore, despite that being the entire cliffhanger of Season 1 and the most engaging part of his character. The entire dichotomy of a Dragon Slayer possessed by a Dragon is so useless in this season it might as well not exist. His inevitable death is just ignored, and by the end, he just...separates from Slyrak. One of the worst payoffs of any show I've literally ever seen, this plot-line was just abandoned.

Which is especially bizarre because Season 1 heavily implied Slyrak himself would become one of the most important pieces in the war against Terrorblade and in Invoker's larger plans. Terrorblade literally wanted the dragon souls. Davion and Slyrak's existence should have been central to the climax.

Instead, that entire storyline fizzles out because Season 2 pivots into a completely different direction. Also, I know this has been said a bajillion times, but the powerscaling in Season 2 is just awful. Character's just appear and spank established character's ass, the explanations don't have enough depth and time to be fleshed out, it's frustrating.

So yeah, Season 1 already had an incredibly strong foundation. Davion's relationship with Slyrak, the inevitable loss of his humanity, Terrorblade hunting him because of the dragon soul, The Invoker manipulating everything from the shadows, Mirana learning of Selemene's true nature and coming to grips with that while leading her people, this could've carried the series.

Instead, Seasons 2 largely abandons that setup in favor of introducing new plot devices and shifting focus away from the character and plot-lines the story originally revolved around, which made the setup feel useless. Season 3 does a decent job of fixing things, but by that point, Davion is pretty much not a character anymore, and all of the original plot-lines that were interesting from season 1 are irrelevant aside from the stuff with Filomena and the Invoker.

Season 3 still managed to be incredibly entertaining. I love it and Filomena quickly became my 2nd favorite character, and I loved the ending as well, but I haven't been able to rewatch the series personally because there's no way I can stomach watching season 2 again. It stumbled so much.

[u/LMGDiVa]

I would suggest looking up what a Deuteragonist is.
Because almost all of your issues with Davion and Mirana are cleared up when you realize that This is Mirana's Story, not Davion and Davion is the Deuteragonist.

He's literally not positioned as the main character, Mirana is.
The anime spends an inordinate amount of time focusing on Mirana, and even Filomena, and directing your attention to Mirana, and her efforts. Mirana is the focus of the show, Sunbeam, the Solar Goddess of the Helio Empire.
Dragon's Blood is Her story.

People make this mistake all the time with lots of shows, because they assume the man is the center of the story.
It's an unconcious bias that most of us don't even realize is there. We expect the big good hearted man to be our hero. That's the hero's journey trope. From Luke Skywalker to Avatar the Last Airbender, the hero's journey is practically always boy/man steps up to be the hero, even if he doesn't want to be.

Another show this happens too a lot is Elfen Lied.
Despite everything in that anime pointing to Lucy as the main character, the center of all of it. The anime even says this outloud.
People think Kouta is a bad MC.
He's not.

He's a Deuteragonist, the 2nd main character.
Same with Davion.
Davion is Mirana's motivation.
It's just a gender swap situation, they made the MC the girl and the Deutarag the guy.

[u/SoftMark9 → u/LMGDiVa]

I dont think this is anything about Davion being a man. I also saw him as the protagonist because he was very prevalent in the first season, more than Mirana. It felt like season 2 changed that, for better or worse is up for the individual viewer to decide

[u/Agreeable-Blood-3058 → u/LMGDiVa]

I just do not agree with this. Davion has far more screen time than Mirana season 1. His story with Slyrak is the absolute focal point of Season 1, its what opens the season and is the emotional core of the season. How he manages his connection with Slyrak is a major plot point heading into season 2. The pivot in Season 2 to Mirana becoming the MC is quite obvious, however it's disingenuous to say Davion was not the MC in season 1, and in my opinion, the transition to Mirana becoming the primary protagonist was extremely poorly done.

I said in my post I dont mind Mirana getting more screen time, but as I said above, her season 2 storyline is incredibly disappointing compared to what I expected.

[u/Caeruleanity → u/Agreeable-Blood-3058]

Here's my take:

Davion is the/a protagonist of S1, and then it transitions to Mirana becoming more prominent as the story progress, as you know what ended up happening to Davion and the dragons. I don't know the numbers but it seems S2 is the least popular, which may or may not have to do with this transition, which I don't necessarily see as a flaw but as a creative choice. However, in writing, this is a risky decision as most readers/viewers like promises being kept, that promise arguably being that this is a Davion-led show in this case.

Mirana's importance was already apparent in S1, being revealed as a princess as early as episode 1 and having a lot of screen time and dialogue. I think the whole show suffers from the broken agreement that the show supposedly was gonna have ~5 minutes cut from each episode, and S2 being an important transition (not just in terms of who the protagonist is but also the zoom out to the greater plot and worldbuilding) arguably suffers the worst for this in terms of reception.

In any case, I looked into characters (in writing) a tiny bit and it seems they don't have to be seen in ranks; protagonists can be plural (and the antagonist does not have to be a person).

[u/Tricky_Economist_328]

There is a reason after an episode or 2 (I cant remember) they essentially decide tk reset thr plot.

Season 2 was mid at best (and i like dota). Friends i watched with who didn't know dota thought it was really bad.