Season 6, Episode 2 of the Netflix series The Dragon Prince, titled “Love, War, and Mushrooms,” is directed by George Samilski and penned by Paige VanTassell. The episode begins when Soren, Azymondias, and Pyrrah arrive at Sunfire camp to recruit Corvus (Omari Newton) in their journey. Corvus agrees to help and he joins Soren, Zym, and Pyrrah in their search for the missing Dragon Queen, using his skills as a tracker.
Queen Janai and the “Six” Horns
Queen Janai (Rena Anakwe) meets with her generals, the Six Horns. However, there are only five present because the sixth, Miyana (Cecilly Day), has betrayed Janai to join Janai’s traitorous brother and the former Sunfire Elf Prince, Karim (Luc Roderique). Janai is angry at how her generals have not noticed Miyana’s betrayal and is even more frustrated with how they hide their true feelings behind their traditional masks. Janai has one of the generals remove his mask, showing how afraid he is of his queen. This frustrates Janai further and she ends the meeting. Janai does have good intentions and is a great military leader but this somewhat does not make her a good politician.
Cultures and traditions are significant in holding a society together and the traditions of the Sunfire Elves lasted for thousands of years. Janai stating how frustrated she is at how the Six Horns and Karim are still loyal to the old ways and not their queen is kind of wrong. The generals do respect Janai as their monarch, but they all grew up living under the old ways of the Sunfire Elves. They follow the laws of justice and tradition to wear masks to not reveal their biased expressions when it comes to making judgment or orders. One monarch cannot just immediately change a culture that has lasted many, many generations. Reforms and changes last generations and even the leaders who started them do not live long to see it.
The desire to change the laws of tradition is what led to conflicts in many stories like George RR. Martin’s The Song of Ice and Fire. The Targaryens faced opposition by the Faith of the Seven, Westeros’ version of Christianity divided by seven deities, due to their Targaryen culture and the need for incest to keep their Valyrian blood pure, which went against everything the Faith stood for. This was seen when King Maegor I Targaryen the Cruel had a war with the Faith of the Seven during his dark reign as king. Additionally, as seen in House of the Dragon, some Westerosi nobles and lords joined the Greens against Queen Rhaenyra and her Blacks faction because the latter dismissed the Faith of the Seven cultures; these nobles and lords grew up respecting and learning. Cultures are important and it requires time, patience, and compromises for reforms or changes to be implemented. Changes that can be accepted by everyone by both leaders and people alike.
It can be concluded that Janai is merely frustrated in her duty as a queen because she was never raised to be one in the first place. Janai grew up to be a military leader; Karim grew up to be a Sunfire mage and priest of some sorts; and the former two’s deceased older sister, Khessa, was the one raised to be a queen. It might be why she immediately and unrealistically dislikes the military traditions of the Sunfire Elves since she leads all the Six Horns as their supreme commander and has led them for a very long time, far before Team Zym helped plant the seeds to bring peace between humans, elves, and dragons. Overall, Janai’s anger is merely her venting frustration for having difficulty in leading her people as their queen. She needs all the support and advice she will need to become a good queen. This form of support is presented when Amaya signs, with the aid of a vocal translator Gren (Adrian Petriw), to Janai that her frustrations will not help end the problem with Karim and Miyana. It is nice that the show is addressing, via Amaya, that Janai’s actions and frustrations are unwarranted.
Janai’s Grief
Janai heads to the Sun Tree, which once housed a Sun Seed that Miyana stole for Karim, at the Sunfire Temple. She grieves at how her family and home is being destroyed one by one with the dark plague in Lux Aurea, the death of Khessa, and the betrayal of Karim. Janai grieves and her anger is released when her fire abilities start burning the Sun Tree. Amaya and Gren arrive on time to stop Janai from falling further into grief.
Janai tells Amaya that she believes there is no hope left as many of her people are turning against her reign, the Sun Seed is lost, and Karim and Miyana are rebelling against her. Amaya comforts Janai but warns her of what happens if she falls further into grief with a true story from Katolis: The King with 1,000 Eyes. “[The King] was betrayed by a trusted advisor, and he began to doubt everyone around him. So he made them all spies, turning one against another. His seeds of doubt grew into tangled vines of paranoia that strangled his kingdom. His fear became a self-fulfilling prophecy. One by one, everyone abandoned him. The king died friendless, his kingdom consumed by chaos.”
Later, the next morning, Janai is at the Sun Tree again where she talks with Amaya about what she signed the day before. Janai holds a copy of the story Amaya told her after borrowing it from another human. The Sunfire Queen reads the story but explains that Amaya left out one important detail: that the king’s true love remained with him long after everyone abandoned him. However, the king grew suspicious of her loyalty and banished her. With this detail in mind, Janai sees Amaya as her love and source of comfort since they fought alongside each other during the Battle of the Storm Spire.
The story of “The King with 1,000 Eyes” is a nice nod to The Song of Ice and Fire story of King Aerys II Targaryen, the Mad King. King Aerys II Targaryen shares a tragic similarity with the fictional King of One Thousand Eyes in their descent into paranoia and madness. Both were once promising rulers whose trust was shattered by betrayal, leading them to see enemies everywhere and turn against even their most loyal allies. This overwhelming fear isolated them, pushing their kingdoms into chaos and ultimately leading to their downfall. Aerys’s reign, like that of the King of One Thousand Eyes, is a cautionary tale of how unchecked paranoia can destroy even the most powerful leaders. The One Thousand Eyes could also refer to Bloodraven (Brynden Rivers) who used fear and his thousand crow spies with the power of greensight and warging to protect the reign of King Daeron I Targaryen the Good and that of his family. However, Bloodraven’s actions are so controversial and cruel that everyone abandoned him.
Karim’s Plan
In an unknown location, Karim talks with Miyana of his plan to use the Sun Seed to heal the eyes of Sol Regem, the Archdragon of the Sun. With the power of the Archdragon, Karim can defeat Janai and her other five Sunfire armies. Armies are useless against dragons as they are technically flying or walking nukes as George R.R. Martin compared his dragons during wars against armies in his stories. When dragons go to war, everything burns.
The Mushroom Mage
The Zubeia search party tracks the Dragon Queen to a forest near the Storm Spire. As Pyrrah scouts across the skies, Soren and Corvus investigate the area where Zubeia (Nicole Oliver) crashed. Their only leads are the mushrooms and the trail they make, so they follow the mushrooms. The mushroom path leads to Soren, Corvus, and Zym later encountering a giant walking mushroom who protects the Mushroom Mage Mukho (Anand Rajaram).
Mukho is like the Tom Bombadil of The Dragon Prince in a way, based on his love for both his songs and nomadic lifestyle among nature across the world. Like Tom, Mukho helps whenever one is in need. He found Zubeia and helped heal her of her corrupted wound. It is smart that Mukho used a spell to magically make Zubeia into a tiny dragon so she can be treated without hurting everyone around her. This is smart as dragons are very large. Despite this, Zubeia’s small size is humorously adorable as is Zym’s when he became small, with the aid of the Mushroom Mage, to visit his mother. Zubeia tells her son that her healing and treatment will take time and that Zym should return to Ezran and help him out as a brother and friend.
Janai and Karim’s Rallying Speeches
Janai and Karim later give a speech to their supporters as an act of encouragement in the conflict that is to come between the two siblings. However, the speeches of Janai and Karim are different. Janai’s is more peaceful and relatable in a positive way while Kairm’s is more war-like and glorious in a negative way. This comparison shows how a leader should approach and lead their people and what they should not do to become cruel and selfish dictators in the long-run.
The Directions of the Key of Aaravos
The episode ends with Callum rolling the Key of Aaravos as a compass which points and marks a specific direction once rolled like a dice. Callum marks the spots where he rolled the key during his travels across Xadia. All of them seemingly point to one location, Ocean Point, a region at the edge of the southern regions of Xadia. What could be there? The Season 6 posters indicate that the Key of Aaravos works well together with a book Aaravos once held. Perhaps the final treasure is infinite knowledge if the key and the book are combined? Knowledge of each and every one of the Arcanums? This is likely the case.
Rating: 9/10