when the dragon prince first came out i was really interested in the show, in the worldbuilding, the themes of intergenerational violence and breaking the cycle, but as time went on so many plot threads were tangled or dropped, things retreaded, and the focus moved to be so much on callum and rayla (mainly callum and his relationship with rayla) and i just

i don't really care about callum, i became less interested in his character and his arc as time went on. i don't care about 'boy discovers he is Special with magic' type plots and the things i did like about his character - his experience as the "step son" of the king, his relationship with ezran, all this faded into the background as the seasons passed. he and ezran barely communicated in the later seasons, their conflicts were never fully addressed or resolved. callum's whole "struggling with darkness" arc came to nothing, and his struggle barely impacted his relationships with anyone but rayla

add to this that i had no interest in rayllum as a ship and i enjoyed tdp less and less, because over time it became The Rayllum/Callum show. ezran was sidelined more and more and i loved the hints of his arc as the inheritor of generational conflict, as a child forced to grow up so soon, that we got but it was never given the time it needed to be fully given justice.

and zym. zym was given Nothing. he faded into the background. he was treated like a dog, a plot point, but almost never did we see him treated as a complex character with his own motivations and feelings. this extended to zubeia too - we never see a reckoning of the fact she ordered the assassination of harrow and ezran. she and ezran never grapple with this despite it being a core plot point that shaped everything in the show.

ugh

and yeah. i have no interest in the dragon king, because i know it will just be the callum/rayllum show, and i just. i don't care