Two days ago, Ashley Edward Miller, producer of DOTA: Blood of the Dragon, reprinted a tweet from Artifact Widows that jokingly "commanded" the rapid production of the third season of the web, which seemed to indicate that the rumored "grand finale" of the critically acclaimed series was already in production.
"Dragon's Blood" is a "Dota 2" theme animation co-produced by Netflix and V Society. The anime is based on the story of the Dragon Knight Davian and the Priestess of the Moon, Mirana, telling the story of the heroes in the game who fight to defend the ruins outside the battlefield.
(The following contains some spoilers)
The main stage is set in the Silver Leaf Forest and the land of the Sun Kingship, weaving two main lines of "Davian was possessed by the Father of Flame Slerek during the Dragon Slayer Operation" and "Femling stole Seremone's Lotus Practice Prophecy", which were connected by the horror blade to shape the new world's wild hopes and the revenge of the seekers against the Dark Moon Goddess, and the lonely millennium sage and the truth-telling demon made countless transactions in countless time and space through the mysterious merchant's contract, leading to the fall of Serimone and " Rebirth", the annihilation and reconstruction of the dragon, and the Sun Princess's return to her continuous divinity.
Due to the similarity of broadcast times and the long-standing relationship between the games, it is natural to compare "Dragon's Blood" with the "League of Legends" theme animation "Battle of Two Cities"; Although the latter is not an order of magnitude from the former in terms of input, production and publicity. However, when the Anime of League of Legends and Dota 2 are placed in front of the audience at the same time (and both respond well), we can see the plural possibility of adapting the game's animation.
Unlike "The Battle of Two Cities", which focuses on the connection and dispute between Zuan and Piltwolf, and paints a delicate group portrait in a season, "Dragon's Blood" is more extensive. It ditches many of the details, speeds up the tempo, and often solves a war in just one episode, intending to write an epic of triumphal victory—in fact, at least in the first half of the series, I saw a traditional Hollywood story of Sir David's personal heroism.
The Dragon Slayer of the Dragon Castle had indulged in the many benefits of honor and status, and had spent a lot of time and refused, but as he was possessed by Sleric and involved in the conspiracy of the Terrifying Blade, Davian and Milana embarked on a completely different path than before. He started out to slay dragons and later to defuse crises; He experienced the betrayal of affection and the indifference of love, step by step from becoming a true hero. When the Dragon Knight prays to the Father of Flames and the dragon descends on the material plane again, it is not only a desperate prayer, but also a heroic transformation. Overall, although there is a suspicion of facialization, Dragon Knight is indeed a qualified American drama male protagonist.
But Dragon's Blood didn't neglect the portrayal of other characters. On the one hand, because of the original hero setting of "Dota 2", these characters naturally convey a lot of information when they appear in the series, on the other hand, you will feel that the screenwriter's interpretation and play of the hero's background, as well as the portrayal and shaping of the original characters, are also very successful.
The Winter Wyvern Aurox is a good example. The backstory of the No. 5 hero, who has appeared frequently in the professional arena of Dota 2, has been completely newly interpreted in Dragon's Blood. In the game, Auros is portrayed as a poetry-loving dragon scholar who writes dragon poems in his lair; The last sentence, "She's not content to write a hero's legend, she's going to make it herself" explains why she joined the Relic Wars. In "Dragon's Blood", Auros appears in the second season as a companion of the Crystal Virgin, rescues Davian and his party from the Fall of the Dragon Castle to the Ice Dragon's Lair. Influenced by the Celestial Crystal, she cuts herself off from Thunder (the dragon center), is knowledgeable, loves poetry, and has a good sense of humor, helping bram, a cute joke, to get out of the shadows and become a true dragon knight. Not only that, but she also transformed into a human form and became involved in the dispute over the Sun Kingship with the protagonist group, and was the first to step forward after sensing the Killing Intention of the Void Dragon Governor. She is not a cold dragon poet, but a gentle big sister who is close to people- Bram directly calls "marry the right dragon", and the players are also infected by her, and begin to call on the V Society to make the Auros form treasure.
Another commendable character is Milana's maid, Marcie. The series spends two seasons telling the story of the mute maid's adventures at Milana's side. Although unable to speak, Marcie would whistle to indicate the location of Milana's enemies, like an observer at the sniper's side; In addition, her emotional eyes and smile also express her views strongly - Marcie's silent opinion and Milana's self-talking spit are rare and relaxed daily routines in the tense and exciting plot development, which is extremely reassuring. "Contrast" is an important reason for Marcie's popularity. The delicate-looking maiden is born with divine powers, easily lifting a drunken Davian and even Milana's big cat; And she, who had always been quiet, exploded with amazing strength in the face of extreme anger, and used the flesh of a mortal to punch a set of good punches at the dragon clan that had evolved for thousands of years.
Overall, over the course of 16 episodes in two seasons, Dragon's Blood not only "stood up" for the game heroes who appeared in the series. Carl, Luna, Horror Blade, Rolling ( of the same kind ) , these heroes born out of the Warcraft 3 map editor completely faded the original holster, ushered in a new story. Dragon's Blood also doesn't forget the rest of the so-called "DOTA Universe" – the legendary Dragon Knight Carden, who only appeared in Dota Overlord in the form of equipping the "Carden's Blade", also played a major role in the series.
After the first season aired, Marcie was chosen by the V Society to become the new hero of Dota 2 due to her super popularity, achieving a kind of backlash from the spin-offs — in retrospect, her final battle gave life and meaning to the big move called "Fury Punch".
I think most DOTA players are happy with Dragon's Blood. We've always portrayed the DOTA player community with a slightly older age and a mediocre acceptance of the so-called "two-dimensional style," but the popularity of Dragon's Blood (and the recent initial success of Perfect World's virtual anchor Dodo) seems to be reversing that impression to some extent. With the addition of Marcie and the launch of davian and Milana's animated themes of mind and body, the series brings more artistic dimensions to Dota 2, which is naturally gratifying.
For me, without Twin Cities, I would think that the two seasons of Dragon's Blood currently on air are the best game adaptations in the world — even if I've been playing Dota 2 significantly longer. It must be admitted that "Battle of Two Cities" has a more professional production team and more perfect setting support, choosing a more flattering entry point and a more abundant length.
Duration is an important factor restricting the quality of Dragon's Blood. Due to the extensive, grand and unintegrated worldview background, the performance of "Dragon's Blood" relies more on the screenwriter; The 30-minute length of the 8 episodes doesn't seem to support grand narratives involving nations, gods, or even cosmic laws — which makes the pace of the series, especially later in the second season, too fast-paced, and the consumption of important characters at the end (such as Aurors with a praying arm and Marcie suffocating in a meaningless conversation between Milana and the Void Dragon after a battle of the gods, let alone Lena who is completely out of condition), feels too light.
Of course, we have praised many works in which death is very "light", but this lightness itself is born out of the atmosphere of the story and has to play some role in the story. Dragon's Blood isn't such a heavy story, and death doesn't play a big role — so, in my opinion, late in the second season, the producers' grip on plot and combat scale was almost on the verge of being out of control.
Nevertheless, on the whole, "Dragon's Blood" can still be said to be a complete story and full of characters. On the other hand, it is precisely because the characters of Marcie and the Ice Dragon are three-dimensional and thick that they will have such a huge gap at that time. In the face of many Japanese animations (originals, manga adaptations, and similar "crossover works by film and television directors") or even "bad stories", this game-themed anime series positioned as fans to work can indeed be said to exceed the audience's expectations - not to mention that the third season, which is considered to be the finale, is still broadcast, and these criticisms cannot be completely conclusive.
Hopefully, after a period of precipitation, they will be able to grasp the slightly out-of-control cage in the final story. At least in my opinion, Dragon's Blood should not spend too much time telling the story of a plane of great change, but should selectively find some meaningful entry points. The streamlines of the elemental laws, the annihilation and rebirth of the superior dragon are too far away from the "man", but in the twilight, the unqualified dragon knight Bram trembles and reads the verses written by the deceased dragon.
As Luna says at the end of the second season when she rejects Seremone, she is a knight of Milana, the commander of the Dark Moon Legion, not the goddess's beloved son, not the defined "Scourge of the Plains". Ironically, when the power of the Moon God faded from the Dark Moon Warrior, the radiance of the sun was ignited from the princess. Disobedient to money and blood, the Blazing Mage lay bloodied on the throne that did not belong to her, and Milana finally returned to the game that had been arranged—a sad victory, I think.
All in all, due to Ashley's momentum and the many unresolved issues at the end of the second season, people are beginning to look forward to the arrival of the third season. How will the Father of Flame, who travels alone to the Hell of Evil, fight the Terror Blade? How will the Prayer with the Dragon Soul complete his deal and revenge? When Pemline returns to the arms of Serimauni, how will the change of the new god and the old god continue? What kind of epic will the Dragon Knight who leaves the Dragon And the Sun Princess who betrays the Moon weave? People can't wait to see the story end.
After writing these criticisms and prospects, I opened Dota 2, which I hadn't played for a long time, and replaced it with Dragon's Blood. When the Arrow of Luna hit me through the jungle, I felt that the hero who had accompanied me for several years carried a new story and personality, and the experience was wonderful.
As for playing the No. 4 position and shopping all over the place and finally losing the game, that is another matter.