Rex Igneous is the thirty-fifth episode of The Dragon Prince. It is the eighth chapter of the fourth book, "Earth".
At last, the friends come face to face with the mighty dragon - only to discover he's expecting gifts. Karim hatches a plot to dethrone the queen.
Plot[]
Team Zym and N'than arrive inside the lair of Rex Igneous where Azymondias grows worried about the encounter, informing Ezran that his father, Avizandum, and Rex Igneous were not at good terms with each other. As not to enrage him with Zym's presence, the group decides to disguise the dragonling. Rayla remembers how Runaan had once cast a disguise spell,[1] though is too far away from the Moon to cast it herself. To supply her with moon energy, Callum hands over his Moon Opal to her, which she uses to temporarily turn Zym into a dog. As they can now move on, N'than brings up the requirement for gifts again, which everyone else had previously missed the mention of. When they proceed, the group lies their eyes onto the lair of Rex Igneous with awe, though the dragon himself seems nowhere to be found.
Janai brings Amaya to the stables of the Sunfire Elf settlement, where she introduces Aegis, a Twin-Tailed Inferno-Tooth Tiger and love interest of her own mount, Embertail. After Amaya asks if she wanted to talk at the stables or if they are taking a trip away from the camp, the two lovers mount up and fly off. As Karim witnesses their departure, he grows frustrated and storms into the tent of Miyana, who questions whether he has no care for maintaining their secret relationship. Karim vents out his frustration over how the royal couple goes off for a picnic in broad daylight while their people are forced to live in tents, and inquires whether the Six Horns are ready to overthrow Janai yet. Miyana is unsure whether they are willing to take action despite being unhappy, and states that these things take time. Believing time to fall short, Karim asks whether Miyana is familiar with the War of Blood and Ash, and retells the story to her. He explains how the former King of Lux Aurea went mad and ruled his city as as a tyrant. To stop him in his tracks, his brother, the first Golden Knight of Lux Aurea, led his armies to the dethrone the king, leading to a great civil war. As their armies clashed, Lux Aurea drowned in both death and fire, with ash blackening the sky and the sun shining in a blood red shade. When war lead to nothing but chaos and suffering, the Golden Knight instead decided to abandon his war and to issue his brother a challenge instead: a duel to the death. As the victor would rule Lux Aurea and the knight reigned victorious over his brother, he replaced the tyrant as the new Sunfire King. With this victory, all war ceased. Following this example, Karim decides to challenge Janai for the throne and asks Miyana to inform the Six Horns that this challenge would take place at sunrise.
Rayla scales the rocky pools of water inside Rex Igneous lair to further look around for the dragon, displeased that it seems that they have come for nothing. As the water begins to bubble and Rex Igneous starts to emerge, Rayla quickly returns to the group where she is confronting the mighty Archdragon of the Earth together with the others. After N'than tries to soothe Rex Igneous through flattery, he announces that his visitors have brought gifts. Seeing no other choice, Rayla presents her butterfly knives as a sacrificial gift, summarizing how they had been crafted by Ethari from moonsilver and used by an experienced assassin. Following in her example, Callum gives up his Sky staff, stating for it to be important, as he had received a primal staff as a human despite all the crimes his kind had committed against Xadia. Lastly, Ezran offers the crown that had been forged from the sword of his father,[2] King Harrow, and explains how it symbolizes strength, and how strength does not always have to include weapons and war. Despite delivering their meaningful gifts, however, Rex Igneous is unimpressed.
Out on a mountain field, Janai expresses her feelings to Amaya, voicing how she wants to be a beacon of hope for her people, who are afraid and feel lost after everything that had transpired in the past. She admits that she herself is also afraid and feels like she can not serve her role properly, and that Karim may be a better fit for the throne, leading her to consider to run away with Amaya. When Amaya asks what life Janai wants for herself, Janai realizes that she wants to continue her duty as the queen, though feels as if she can not have both her throne and love life at once. Amaya kisses her and encourages her to just embrace both parts of her life at the same time.
Miyana returns after talking to the Six Horns and assures Karim that they will attend the royal blood duel between him and Janai. While she is still not sure that the Six Horns will turn against Janai, Karim believes to know his sister, and that she is likely to forfeit the duel, causing her to lose by default. Karim is sure that, come sunrise, history will be changed for the better.
After Rayla asks whether their gifts were not enough to him, Rex Igneous makes the group aware of how he has amounted piles of legendary treasures that are catching dust around him, and says how he is tired of visitors. As he readies to kill them, Ezran asks to offer one more thing: the brown sludge tart given to him by Barius.[3] Despite being sceptic at first, Rex Igneous finds himself enjoying the newly invented tart quite a lot and allows Team Zym to state their cause. When Ezran asks where the prison of Aaravos is located, Rex Igneous erupts into laughter and questions why he should reveal the location of the most dangerous being in Xadia so casually to a group of children. When he readies to leave, Ezran states that they had been sent by Queen Zubeia herself, to which Rex Igneous first reacts with surprise, then anger. Rex Igneous wonders why she is not asking Avizandum for help, asking whether the former Dragon King is too busy hunting humans for sport at the Border. He continues to mock Avizandum for wanting an endless war and for provoking as many fights as possible so he could one day die as a martyr for Xadia, which causes Azymondias to lash out and bite the dragon's leg. When he is being tossed off, Zym's disguise is broken and Ezran introduces him as the Dragon Prince and son of Avizandum. Infuriated, Rex Igneous continues to mock Avizandum for sending his son, assuming him to be too cowardly to face him himself, until Ezran informs him of the former's death. At the revelation, Rex Igneous grows calmer and explains how the two of them were once friends before becoming rivals, then expresses his condolences to Zym. Once Callum and Rayla explain that Claudia, the daughter of the murderer of Avizandum, plans to free Aaravos, Rex Igneous recalls how it had been a human, the Orphan Queen, who had once put a stop to Aaravos's schemes, and realizes how much Ezran resembles her. To the surprise and disappointment of the group, however, Rex Igneous informs them that he does not know the location of Aaravos's prison despite being granted the knowledge, and Callum realizes that he must be speaking in riddles. He quickly concludes that he must possess a map, when Claudia suddenly enters the scene and uses a dark magic spell through the melody of her ocarina, which puts everyone except Zym to sleep.
Characters and Cast[]
Spells[]
Moon Spells | Corrupted Sun Spells |
Trivia[]
- The episode shares its name with the Archdragon Rex Igneous.
- Rex Igneous's lair contains the glider of Aang and the boomerang of Sokka from "Avatar: The Last Airbender". (13:50 min)
- The episode mentions the events of "The Royal Council", in which Ezran had decided to have the sword inherited from his father be forged into his new crown.