The Dragon Prince season 1 ends on a high note, but danger lurks ahead

The first season of The Dragon Prince wraps up just the way a fantasy series ought to: victory for the main trio of heroes. But greater dangers await them ahead, and the show’s finale credits tease what will likely be the next great hurdle.

[Ed. Note: This post contains pretty heavy spoilers for the first season of The Dragon Prince]

In the last scene of season one, high mage Viren stands atop the castle, his eyes dark and face corrupted after draining the elvish assassin Runaan of his magic and trapping him in a coin. It’s ominous, especially juxtaposed right against the victories of the main trio of characters. Viren’s not messing around and he now has a trove of dark magic at his disposal.

The penultimate episode introduced certain dark magic artifacts and practices. Not only were there the magic-sucking, soul-trapping coins, but Viren’s mysterious mirror, which he kept covered in his office, seems to top them all in terms of sheer power. The ability to master the mirror plagues him so much that he is willing to let Runaan go in order to learn its secrets. But all Runaan reveals is that the mirror is “something worse than death.”

He refuses to tell Viren what it does, which essentially dooms him to being trapped in the coin, so there must be something real bad with that mirror.

In a blink and you’ll miss it end credits card, there’s an outstretched hand pressed against the glass of the mirror.

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All we really know is that the mirror was the only thing the Dragon King and Queen kept by their bedside, it’s somehow so bad that Runaan would rather be trapped in a coin, and there’s someone on the other side. Perhaps the dark mage from the opening title exposition? Perhaps someone — or something — else entirely.

But for the main trio, the season ends on a high point. As far as Callum, Ezran and Rayla are concerned, their mission is going well. The Dragon Prince hatched and he’s the cutest darn dragon you ever did see. Even though Callum sacrificed his magical abilities by breaking the primal stone, Rayla is freed from her oath to kill Ezran since the Dragon Prince was able to bite off her binding. Along with their new friends Ellis and Ava the wolf, they can take this moment of relief to laugh on the top of the Cursed Caldera as pretty sparkly lights float gently from the sky.

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We know those lights actually come from dark mage Claudia’s tracking spell, which means that Claudia and Soren know exactly how to find them. Without each other’s knowledge, the two siblings have each been tasked by their father Viren to deliver a heavy feat: Soren has been ordered to kill the two young princes; Claudia has been told to return the (now-hatched) egg to Viren, no matter what the cost.

Whether Claudia and Soren attempt to fulfill their father’s wishes or if they have a heel-face turn and join the heroes is still up in the air. Given their overall goofy and kindhearted personalities and attachment to Callum and Ezran (and knowing the creators’ past track record), we suspect the latter, but even so they’re currently on track to at the very least be some major roadblocks for our main trio

While Callum, Ezran and Rayla’s mission seems simple enough to them (deliver the Prince to the Dragons, avoid getting killed), there’s still the question of whether or not the land of Xadia will accept their peace offering. This first season showed us what humans think of elves and dragons, but King Harrow said that there have been wrongs on both sides, so it is very possible that the elves and dragons aren’t exactly keen on making peace that easily.

All that combined with the threat of Viren’s dark magic and the mysterious mirror that means the trio’s mission isn’t as dry-cut as they might think. Especially now that Callum’s lost his source of power, the stakes are raised for the next season.