The Dragon Prince (season 2)

So, yeah, I took in the second season of The Dragon Prince over the weekend. Looking back at my notes from the first season I see my opinion has changed little. I enjoyed it and am invested. I like most of the characters and their interplay. The animation feels decidedly more fluid this season, much to my appreciation. And I still have an issue with the tonal shifts and fluctuating feel of some characters.
Claudia is cute, caring, a little ditzy... and so utterly amoral in her quick usage of dark magic. The way she turns to it in desperation to heal Soren would, in may stories, be a display of how noble intentions can lead to atrocity, but the impact is sort of lost due to how gleefully she uses that same power the rest of the time.
Soren picks a fight that puts him in a position that could lead to some serious character development as he's forced to face the consequences of his actions. Though the final fallout hasn't happened by season's end, I fear taking away the most personal of those effects (his injuries after fighting a dragon) means that the character won't actually learn anything from having picked that fight in the first place.
Viren's arc cuts him a lot of slack in avoiding people who might dissuade him while he pursues any means to unite humans against Xadia, including starting to take lessons from someone who appears to be an evil, imprisoned elf mage. Working with the enemy to try to fight someone who may be the enemy? Yeaaaah. I sorta wish there was some real indication dark magic was affecting his mind rather than just stupidity.
Callum coming to learn primal magic is not unexpected, but raises a lot of questions as he seems to be the first human to do so. Is it truly that no human before has gone through the same existential crisis and revelation that everything's connected, but they're all capable of it? It actually sort of makes me wonder about his absent-from-the-story blood father, as the other option that comes to mind is he might be half Xadian. Hmm.
Rayla has a lot less development to go through in this season, which is a little sad - just beginning to realize she has feelings for Callum.
And as the season closes, Ezra (the youngest of the main characters) makes what's probably the most mature decision by choosing to go back to face the turmoil at home, leaving the journal to Xadia to Callum and Rayla. Of course, it won't be that simple, but that move probably is the best to keep things from blowing up from the human side.
Overall, yeah, I want to see more. I could do without the existential crises, though.

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