The Great Gates is the thirty-second episode of The Dragon Prince. It is the fifth chapter of the fourth book, "Earth".
While Ezran and team set out on a quest to visit the Archdragon of the Earth, Claudia and Viren try to communicate with the mysterious being.
Plot[]
Atop the pinnacle of the Storm Spire, Team Zym holds a funeral for Ibis. When Callum casts "Sepultura Caelo" through the use of his Sky staff, Ibis's body, which was covered by a sheet, is turned into a flock of birds which ascend into the sky. Shortly after, Zubeia takes off into the sky after them. Later, Callum is the only one left at the pinnacle and is joined by Rayla, who thinks back of the last time she had been at this place and how she had leapt to her certain death from the pinnacle's edge. When she remembers how Callum had spread his wings to save her,[1] he begins to cry and Rayla asks whether he wants to talk about it. Just like he had during their last time together at the pinnacle, Soren shows up and interrupts them to call for a meeting. Inside the Storm Spire, Zubeia concludes that someone must be working to free Aaravos, which Soren knows to be his sister, Claudia. He realizes how it must have been Aaravos who had manipulated Viren all this time, and believes that Claudia is following in their father's footsteps. Additionally, he points out that her bracelet had been left on the floor of the cave. When Rayla wonders how they would find someone she had failed to find for two years, Ezran asks Zubeia how to locate the prison of Aaravos, as it is the one thing Claudia would be looking for. Since each Archdragon holds a clue to the prison's location, Zubeia suggests to find Rex Igneous, the Archdragon of the Earth, whose lair is located beneath the great mountain of Umber Tor. While she offers Team Zym to fly them there, she forbids Azymondias to come along, fearing she could lose him again.
While Zubeia leaves the Storm Spire, Claudia, Viren, and Terry follow the newly hatched Being through the forest. While the Being has not yet spoken, Terry finds joy in the ooze that he leaves behind. When Viren believes that the creature is finally about to speak, the Being spits more ooze into his face. Claudia wonders if they should name the Being and dubs him "Sparklepuff", followed by "Sir Sparklepuff" after Viren insists to name him something more dignified. Further into the forest, Terry picks up more ooze and solidifies it further by adding dirt to it. When the Being stops again, Claudia interprets his strange behavior as wanting to play "Word-Hands", a popular guessing party game. She understands his shown gestures as "lizard in a hat", which Viren doubts to be the correct answer. When the Being stops yet another time, Claudia thinks he wants to play "Picturama" instead. When the Being seems to draw another lizard in a hat, Viren realizes that he has pictured a dragon.
While everyone else is asleep, Soren tells Zubeia how nice it is to be on the side of the good guys this time. Zubeia finds it to be kind that the humans had brought the court jester along, and Soren explains how he is the head of the Crownguard, which he compares to the Dragonguard. Zubeia states that if his sword is as sharp as his wit, she deems King Ezran in good hands. At sunrise, the group arrives at the great mountain of Umber Tor and land in front of its Great Gates, where Team Zym dismounts from Zubeia's back. When Ezran approaches the gates, the earth begins to rumble and the two guardians of the gates, Terbium and Chert, emerge from their slumber. Chert finds the word "guardian" to be over the top, while Terbium insists that they are carrying out a sacred duty. Growing impatient, Zubeia demands for the two to open the doors so they could speak to Rex Igneous. However, they inform her that the mighty dragon is not accepting audiences and tells her to try next century. After Zubeia threatens to reduce the two to pebbles, they open the gates, just for the group to discover that a landslide has blocked the entrance. When Chert suggests to take the other entrance, the two describe that a smaller path lies within the Drakewood, deep inside the Uncharted Forest. Zubeia tells Ezran to pick his words carefully when facing Rex Igneous, and Terbium and Chert confirm that the old dragon has an unpredictable temper.
Inside the settlement of the Sunfire Elves, Amaya arrives at the scene and Gren summarizes the events that had transpired between Lucia, their chief architect, and the Sunfire Elf Yonnis.[2] He tells Amaya how Lucia is healing and how he hopes that things can settle down. Inside the tent, Lucia wonders whether she is under arrest for extinguishing a candle. Amaya insists that she is being kept inside the tent as a precaution, as the elves are unhappy with what she has done. Although Lucia refuses to see why they are upset and wants to leave, she ends up staying anyway, seeing as Amaya deems the general camp to be unsafe for her. She then informs Lucia that Queen Janai will decide over her fate.
Making their way through the Drakewood, Rayla tells everyone to get down when the Drakeriders of the forest pass by on their dragons. She explains how they throw people into a place called the Pit of Despair if spotted in their territory, and is tasked with finding the entrance alone. However, Soren insists to accompany her. Although Rayla asks Callum to accompany her, he sends Soren to go with her instead.
Making their way through the forest alone, Soren brings up how tense things seem to Rayla. When she thinks he is referring to the world's impending doom, he corrects that he means her relationship with Callum instead. Although she insists that she does not want to talk about this topic with Soren, he informs her how much her leaving had hurt Callum, and that they just have to work through the weird parts before things can get better. When Rayla is about to ask him what he is trying to say, the two notice the screech of a Earth Dragon in distress. In a clearing, the Drakerider Warlon has cornered a dragon and readies to display his capture to the apprentice Drakerider N'than. When Warlon blinds the dragon with his bola, Soren wants to step in, though Rayla denies his request, not wanting to risk being seen. Soren questions if Rayla has stopped caring about innocent dragons being hurt, and if she was not called a Dragon Guard because she cared. However, Rayla simply says that they can not save everyone. Now on his own, Soren jumps into the scene regardless and manages to knock out Warlon with a gourd after initially struggling against him in battle. When he tries to get the dragon to leave, however, both of them are captured by the bolas of other Drakeriders.
At a campfire, Viren again tells Claudia and Terry how the Being was trying to describe Rex Igneous and the mountain of Umber Tor. Claudia concludes that Rex Igneous must know the location of the prison, though Terry is more interested in showing off the new substance he has created from the ooze that he calls "goofy goo".
At their camp, Ezran tells Callum that they already have enough firewood after he had brought more, noticing that something is off with his brother. When offered to talk about it, Callum says how he finds himself back "in that moment" whenever he closes his eyes, and Ezran reassures him that Rayla does not mean to make him feel that way. Surprised, Callum corrects that he meant the moment Aaravos had taken over his body, though he admits that he does not know how to feel about Rayla either. He describes how he was both happy and mad when she had returned and how he struggles to forgive her. He then jokes that relationships seem harder than magic despite it being complicated as well. When Rayla returns to their camp alone shortly after, Ezran and Callum wonder where Soren is. Rayla brushes his absence off as him just wondering around, though in reality he has been thrown into the Pit of Despair in a village of the Drakewood, where he faces the dragon he had tried to save once more.
Characters and Cast[]
- Callum (Jack De Sena)
- Rayla (Paula Burrows)
- Ezran (Sasha Rojen)
- Bait
- Stella
- Azymondias
- Soren (Jesse Inocalla)
- Zubeia (Nicole Oliver)
- Viren (Jason Simpson)
- Claudia (Racquel Belmonte)
- Terry (Benjamin Callins)
- The Being
- Gren (Adrian Petriw)
- Amaya
- Lucia (Ana Sani)
- Terbium (Jason Simpson)
- Chert (Mark Hildreth)
- Warlon (Ben Cotton)
- N'than (Dylan Schombing)
- Squeaky
Spells[]
| Sky Spells |
Trivia[]
- The guardians of the gate were designed by Hanna Hofer.[3]
- Soren refers to Team Zym as the "Dragang" in a nod to a popular fan-name based on the "Gaang", a fan-made name for Team Avatar from "Avatar: The Last Airbender". (7:15 min)
- The party game "Word-Hands" is a parody of "Charades", while "Picturama" is a parody of "Pictionary".
- The guardians of the Great Gates were originally supposed to be voiced by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond. However, they eventually decided to leave it to the professionals.[4]
- Soren said "Ding, Ding, Ding. Meeting TIME!" and then remarks that he did that before, in which Callum and Rayla have an intimate talk about their feelings until Soren shows up.[1]
Credits[]
- Terry is holding a piece of goop in a reference to the movie 1997 movie "Flubber"'.