I love fantasy. I love battles of magic. I love clashes of light magic and dark magic. But, in the hindsight of realism, the use of one side using “dark magic”, a side that’s otherwise composed of both good and bad complexities, mind, can often prompt a raise of the eyebrow from the reader/audience. One that asks, “Why would you use something when you know it’s dark magic? Why would you use something so ‘obviously evil’?” Kind of like why would you keep trusting Saruman the White the minute you saw the kind of tower he lived in.
Now we come to The Dragon Prince, from, in part, Aaron Ehasz, from Avatar: the Last Airbender TV series renown. Arguably, it’s a much better successor in the spiritual sense than Legend of Korra was in the literal sense (though that may change if I change my mind one day and decide to give in and watch Korra). Then comes me, deciding to give Dragon Prince a shot now that I have no excuse to avoid the 3D animation style based on principle, given I’ve forayed into Land of the Lustrous, Beastars! and Blame! and liked them fine. Though, arguably, Land of the Lustrous and Beastars! are pinnacles of the 3D anime, but nonetheless, given The Dragon Prince is a 3D anime style (so anime in the same way that Avatar: the Last Airbender was), and given that I rewatched Avatar: the Last Airbender again recently and revisited that unfillable void, I figured I might as well dig in.
And already by episode 2, it’s clear how far we’ve come in realistically complicating the typical good forces vs. evil forces story in high fantasy. It struck me when King Harrow and his advisor Virin were arguing over the use of a form of–what else?–dark magic to use that could save Harrow’s life. He knows he’s about to be assassinated by Moonshadow elves, and Virin proposes a plan to save his life using the tenant of dark magic, that is, sacrificing another’s life to preserve his own. Harrow refuses, having already demonstrated that he’s been struggling with his allowance of “dark magic” being used in the past for the “greater good” of protecting his kingdom. That it’s the use of dark magic all this time that’s led to this critical point. On the surface, that might prompt another, “Well duh, it’s dark magic, of course it’s going to come back to bite you in the ass!”
But, first, some context.
In The Dragon Prince, magic is drawn from “Primal Sources”. So, the elements. Because this has the earmarks of a piece of work influenced by a previous work. We go from Avatar: the Last Airbender and the four classic elements of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth, to The Dragon Prince and magic comes from the Moon, the Sun, the Stars (even the sun is also a star, as you know), the Ocean, the Earth (not our Earth, anymore than it was in Avatar: the Last Airbender, ha), and the Sky. And this continent in this fantasy land, called Xadia, was rich with all this stuff, being all these Sources are of nature itself. Makes sense.
Magical creatures like elves and dragons got all that on lock from the moment they’re born, but humans, of course, not so much, since they’re not inherently born with it. And, of course, humans are not necessarily down with not getting a natural cut in magic, and eventually learn to draw from an as-yet-undiscovered seventh Primal Source, that being Dark. As you do.
And being that it’s Dark Magic, there has to be a few prices for using it. First is that doing Dark Magic means sacrificing the life of a magical creature in order to draw power, rather than the natural means drawing from the Moon, the Sky, etc that elves and other magical creatures can do innately. The other is that using Dark Magic is detrimental to one’s physical health (surprise, surprise). And of course you can use Dark Magic to counteract this, but, of course, that just feeds a vicious cycle, because that’s how that goes.
Here’s the thing though: later on we learn that there is a way for humans to perform magic without either resorting to Dark Magic or managing to get their hands on a Primal Stone, a stone that contains the essence of a Primal Source. Like there’s one for Sky Magic that contains an actual storm inside it. Thus, a human drawing from that can perform Sky Magic.
The other way that’s discovered later though is basically through hard work understanding how that Primal Source works, its mechanics and relationship with the rest of nature. Dark Magic meanwhile is characterized as a cheating shortcut. For those who have an appreciation of efficiency then, one can understand why anyone would use something called “Dark Magic”, that otherwise has a, “Come on, you’re really gonna use that?” vibe. And gives further credence to the idea that anyone who seems overall a good person can quickly fall down the rabbit hole of “turning evil” by using “dark magic”–i.e., the faster way, the “creative solution”.
With Dark Magic, it’s not just characterized as something that’s spooky-dark that makes your eyes go evil-eye-black, but also as cheating, as a shortcut to actually putting in the work to use power. Because, as it turns out, humans can do magic without having to resort to the methods only Dark Magic offers, they just have to put in the work to do it. Cheating is bad, fam!
Thus, we already see something labeled as “dark magic” as being used as honestly relatable, not unlike the same quandary of using something like a nuclear bomb (or two) to put an end to a war like WWII.
This is something I’m struggling with in my own writing of another manuscript I’ve got on the zero draft docket at the moment, one involving a fantasy world taking place on a continent of nations on the brink of war with each other, one that explores the complex inter-political intrigues and fundamentals of war therein. And The Dragon Prince has already given me plenty of clarity on these concepts, including why a nation of essentially good people, helmed by an essentially good ruler who is essentially a good person, would use something labeled “dark magic”. Definitely something to keep in mind if you’re having your own good time struggling with the use of less-than-moral methods in war, fantasy or otherwise.
Also, lowkey this is big rec from me to watch The Dragon Prince.
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