“DOTA: Dragon’s Blood”, the animation, since its announcement, has been well awaited by the game fans. Davion quite deferred to the game sketch that the fans are quite used to; however, the rest of the character sketches were based distinctly on the game characters’ designs. However, the series attempted to provide good depth in the story, but its narrative failed miserably. The storyline is more complex than it needs to be, with the characters being borderline one-dimensional. The storyline simply gets rid of the characters whenever they are not needed. They don’t surface for more than 4 episodes at a time and suddenly become very important to provide better support.
The series simply focuses more on the main characters, with plots introducing side characters who could have been cut out of the story. Some of the animation scenes, like the fighting scenes, could have been much better because the creators simply blurred most of the faces of the elven fighters as well as the moon warriors. There were many appearances, like The Shopkeeper popping up at the beginning and then at the end. The Crystal Maiden popped up with the winter dragon tagging along with her to save Davion, Kaden, Bram, and Fymryn from Terrorblade’s havoc. Auroth follows them to meet Lina and Mirana. However, she loses her life in the process and is never mentioned again. Also, they completely ignored Rylai too after that pop-up. The Shopkeeper only pops up to set up the base for the next season, and however much emphasis is placed on the Shopkeeper’s oath, the series does not explain its implications. The main saving grace of the series depends on the various easter eggs hidden inside.
The Character Of ‘Davion’ Explained
Davion, in the first season, is introduced mainly as an arrogant and brave Dragon Knight, who rushes to tackle the dragon alone. However, later, the narrative insists that Davion has the brains to support his brawn, and he does not rush into fights; he has no way to win. But the narrative drags him down yet again when it describes him as a playboy who does not remember any of the women he has been with. Davion is depicted as a handsome and well-built, rugged man who is famous for being one of the best dragon knights. His character has a little growth once he has a connection with Mirana. He literally describes himself as brave yet foolish. After he meets Slyrak, his strong sense of justice leads him to help out Slyrak and defeat Terrorblade, who was possessing Uldorak. He loses his life in the process and wakes up with himself hosting Slyrak’s soul. As the plot of the story gets more complicated, Davion loses control of Slyrak after a fight with Kaden. Mirana has to bring him back, and then everyone accepts his odd behavior.
As the seasons go by, Davion seems to have mellowed down and seems to put more trust in other people’s rational plans instead of rushing into them. He is a good support for his friends, and he helps them out by being there for them and comforting them when they need it, but his character did not go through much growth. Before his death, apart from the fact that he could host the souls of other dragons due to the Invoker’s deal, his entire personality was a little washed out and seemed to lack a certain depth. Most of his dialogues made it seem that his disposition was focused mainly on throwing out unnecessary curses to make him appear more rugged and tough.
The Character Of ‘Mirana’ Explained
Mirana, from the beginning, is depicted as someone who is suffering from immense guilt and is also unaware of how the world works. The story first tried to depict her as a damsel in distress and Davion as the knight in shining armor who stepped in to save her from the various thugs and their crass behavior. Mirana was then portrayed as somebody with a righteous sense and who trusted people too quickly. The narrative quickly rectified the situation, with Mirana proving herself to be quite badass and needing nobody’s help to save herself. Her relationship with Marci proved that she kept her loyal friends near her so that she could protect them. She was carrying enormous guilt throughout, and that fueled most of her actions. However, when she took her stance as the Empress, she became a well-suited ruler.
Mirana developed her leadership qualities as the story progressed because the narrative introduced her as having none of those qualities instilled. She always ran with a sense of fear in her and was overly grateful to Selemene for accepting her, but her righteous sense always allowed her to treat everybody fairly, which is why, even after she feared for her life while staying near Davion, she never left him alone. Even though the narrative made it appear as though she was simply a character made to support Davion, Mirana broke away from that narrative easily and instead became the main character with more power than Davion. In the new world, she was the one to gain her memories back before the rest of her group could. She did follow Davion for a bit, but then she followed her own path of setting things right. She even argued and asked him to leave when she felt he was not ready to face the situation. In the new world, Mirana realized that Davion needed a lot more growing up to do before he could face Slyrak or his death. She was hurt due to the Invoker freezing her in the void and forcing her to watch as her friends and family were being destroyed due to the Mad Moon imploding in the sky. But she did not let it hold her down; rather, when Fymryn helped her out, she was determined to make the world a better place.
Mirana’s character, just like Davion’s, felt one-dimensional. Her character was a little bit too stretched out, although better written than that of Davion, and her personality loomed more on a studious and righteous front. She is very pretty and has an ethereal charm to her after she becomes the Solar God.
The Character Of ‘Marci’ Explained
In the entire series, if anybody deserves to be known as the best character, it would be Marci. She single-handedly brought down the entire den of thugs when the dark Elf betrayed Mirana and Marci and sold them to the dealers. Marci punched the teeth out of the Elf and broke the bones of the rest of the guards. Marci unconditionally supported and protected Mirana, and in return, Mirana tended to even the slightest discomfort Marci felt. According to the story’s narrative, Marci was not born mute; she was tortured into becoming mute as a result of her family’s low social standing. Mirana made sure she got justice and accepted Marci as her own. She has a very sweet personality that can turn into a more soul-crushing badass one in the flick of a coin. She communicates with Mirana well and is very accepting of loyal friends.
However, her character is always put at a disadvantage for the sake of progress. She is not allowed to use her powers to save Mirana and herself when the situation arises due to plot armor. Her personality, meanwhile, involved being loyal to Mirana to the extent of laying her life down for her in a heartbeat. She was even ready to be used as a weapon to help Mirana escape. She followed Mirana wherever she went and would never venture anywhere without her. She was also mostly on the lookout and communicated through whistles to let Mirana know of the positions during a long-range battle. Mirana followed her instructions and could handle the archery with ease.
The Character Of ‘Fymryn’ Explained
Fymryn remains to be one of the most complex characters in this series. Her family of Elves and the rest of the Elven Enclaves mainly worshiped Mene, the previous Moon Goddess. But they were driven away from their homes as they refused to worship Selemene after Selemene took over Mene as the new Moon Goddess. Fymryn always felt like an outsider in her clan. Due to her powers, she believed that she would be chased out as a freak and never be accepted. However, her power gave her the strength to believe that Mene could be brought back and the stories she heard were real. This illusion that she created served as the beginning point of the whole fiasco. She stole the Moon Lotuses from Selemene’s temple in the Nightsilver Woods and then set off a series of events that ensued in utter chaos. The Elven enclaves were enslaved, and their friends were slaughtered. Fymryn’s attitude that nothing could go wrong and the stories could never be wrong shattered her confidence and put her in a deep depression.
She tried to be upfront with everybody, but she was very easy to manipulate. Fymryn was the reincarnation of Goddess Mene, which helped her take her rightful position from Selemene after being carefully manipulated by the Invoker. Fymryn really gave into other people’s thoughts of her and pushed most of the blame onto Mirana. She was always stuck between denial and utter self-loathing about her actions. She recklessly rushed in to make the situation better but ended up making it much worse. She did have her new group’s back all the time during the battle with Terrorblade and came to rescue Mirana when she needed it. She did have a redemption arc like Luna, and all possible talks about how the war had actually started were simply pushed under the rug.
The Character Of ‘Kaden’ Explained
Kaden is that type of character who could have been mentioned in the passage, but the narrative deemed it necessary for him to join the band of misfits eventually. Kaden’s personality was centered mostly around the incident where he was the only person to survive a dragon attack. Not just any dragon, but Slyrak. He tried experimenting on Davion to bring Slyrak out just to slay him to avenge his brothers that he lost at the cost of another Dragon Knight. He strayed away from his oath once he came to know that Davion’s body housed the soul of Slyrak. He has a very rugged and cold exterior that screams, “I will kill you if you annoy me. His only regret was getting caught up in the past and not focusing on the future, which led him to lose his family. He was absolutely closed off and abided by the set rules of Dragon Knight. His character did not go through a growth phase either as the series progressed, with the only exception of him developing a soft spot for Davion and feeling remorse when Davion died. Not once did he repent about what he did to Davion nor about when he had let him be experimented on. Although he later forbade the father from further experimenting on Davion, those incidents were again swept under the rug as Davion accepted him into his troop.
The Character of ‘Filomena’ Explained
As the daughter of the Invoker, Filomena remains the prime reason behind the chaos that ensued in the series. The Invoker simply wanted to resurrect her and confirm she was healthy. Filomena lost her life to a disease that’s incurable. Her personality made her stand firm in her decisions and also migrated through a lot of complex subjects that her father kept hidden from her. In the New World, Filomena is depicted as a curious elf with a knack for experiments to satisfy her curiosity and answer mysteries. She was determined to find out what was wrong with the world, and she went against her father’s orders to achieve her goal. She helps Mirana set the world straight and also gives her father a chance to right his wrongdoings. She mostly stands for what she deems right and will even cross her father to achieve it. She respects everybody’s decisions, and she respects her thinking and her decision and expects her decisions to be respected as well.
