The ancient mind is the source of all things and distinguishes between life and death, light and darkness, leading to a struggle between them and causing chaos in the universe. Gods, magical beings and rulers call for the restoration of the divided mind. The demon creates the world in its own image and reveals the truth in the midst of chaos, leading to wars and rivalry between humans and dragons. Knight Davion hunts fire-breathing monsters and is respected by the common people for his bravery. He meets Princess Mirana, joins a secret mission, and becomes involved in a series of unprecedented events affecting more and more settlements. The inhabitants of these settlements have hope for a future free from troubles, wars and sadness. The greatest danger is the Great Dragon, which Davion never managed to defeat.
We tell you why you should watch the first series based on the famous MOBA from Valve.
Searching for information about the game world from the description of items and rare replicas of heroes is something that can equally be attributed to both the Soulsborne series and Dota 2. Yes, Dota has lore, but Valve has been did not try to develop its game universe (the lore in Dota Underlords slightly complements the world of Dota 2, but it did not work out with Artifact).
That is why the announcement and imminent release of the animated series DOTA: Dragon’s Blood was so unexpected. Even Riot Games, which has been consistently developing the world of Runeterra from League of Legends for more than 10 years, has not yet managed to release its show on the League.
The first 8 episodes are already available to watch on Netflix, and we share our impressions of the first Dota 2 series.
Dragonblood is the first of two Netflix projects planned for 2021 by Studio Mir. The second should be The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf — a prequel about Vesemir, Geralt’s teacher
A separate joy is the use of their skills by the heroes. Even the passive ability Lunar Blessing of the Moon was successfully beaten in one of the episodes. But Invoker in the series, although he often conjures, does not use any of his abilities from the game on the screen. The mage can be seen summoning orbs of Quas, Wex and Exort, but for some reason he doesn’t stack them into any of the skills, at least not yet.
I was also pleased with the cast of voice actors, among which there was a place for Tony Todd, the voice of Dragon Knight from the game. In the series, he voiced only the dragon Slyrak, and Davion was given his voice by Yuri Lowenthal, Peter Parker from Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Troy Baker’s casting for the role of Invoker was perhaps the most successful: he perfectly managed to play a laconic sorcerer, behind whose arrogance a dramatic story is hidden.
Russian dubbing turned out to be very competent. Actors get into the images of characters, although almost no one falls short of the charisma of the original. Unless Mirana and Luna in dubbing succeeded better than the rest.
For Valve, this is the first official Dota 2 spin-off released by a third party. To be honest, it’s a pity that this didn’t happen earlier, because DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is an excellent and, perhaps, the only point at the moment to get acquainted with the world of Dota apart from the game itself, even if it turned out to be not without flaws.
Studio Mir took several events from the original canon written by Valve as a basis, and then supplemented it with new episodes, titles and names. As a result, the story in Dragon’s Blood turned out to be original and does not require prior study of the game encyclopedia, even if you have never launched the “defense of the ancients”.
Yes, only a third of the entire story is now available, and it makes sense to wait for the release of the remaining episodes. In the meantime, «Dragon’s Blood» manages to pleasantly surprise and intrigue, and one can only hope that the authors will be able to adequately complete the story they have begun.
A country where all fairy tales come to life
Many brave warriors, tired of watching the reigning lawlessness, refuse to calmly observe the horror that is happening around and decide to defend the innocent. Knight Davion is one of the few who stood up for the weaker and swore to protect those who truly needed his support. Every day, the warrior tirelessly fights the monsters that fill the planet, until fate introduces him to the mysterious princess Miranda. Communication with a nice girl turns out to be fateful. Davion is involved in a dizzying adventure, as a result of which the brave warrior unites forever with the dragon and irrevocably changes his own essence. Now the young man is forced not only to learn how to control the powerful force that is inside, but at the same time not to stop fighting the main enemy that interferes with the typical life of mankind.
Nowhere and never
The battle with the main enemy is in the past. All participants in the battle bitterly remember those who cannot fully enjoy the victory and mourn the losses instead of rejoicing at the destruction of the dragon. Deep down, everyone clearly understands that the worst is over. All that is now required of the people is to unite and restore the kingdom destroyed by the monster. People believe that the ruler will certainly deal with the resulting troubles and tell you exactly how to settle everything.
After facing a fairly strong opponent, Princess Miranda was able to discover her long dormant powers. Now she has an understanding of everything that is happening around. Thanks to the support from the outside, the brave warrior managed to defeat a fairly serious opponent and prove that the truth is always on her side. Thanks to her courage and devotion to the kingdom, the princess won the love of her people even more. No one has any doubt that Miranda will be able to continue to nobly manage the territory, fulfilling all her goals.
A new enemy is behind the gates
Returning to human form, Davion gets the opportunity to be close to the ruler and talk about everything that they had to endure over a long period of time. But this couple has only a little time for conversations, because a new evil has already appeared on the threshold, which has decided to destroy the world and destroy the dragon slayer along with Miranda. The powerful demon Terrorblade has long dreamed of capturing the entire territory and completely destroying the rest of the dragons. The real monster expects to get rid of the main rivals in turn, and then meet with Davion and take the power that is inside the valiant knight.
Large-scale fantasy project «DOTA: Dragon’s Blood» will tell about the fate of a young knight who travels the world and cracks down on those who try to harm the weak. Initially, the readiness to create a story about the traveler Davion became known in 2020. The streaming service Netflix has attracted a huge public interest in a computer game. Realizing that this could be a great idea for another anime, representatives of the channel received the rights to the film adaptation and attracted Ashley Miller to write the script, who later took over as showrunner.
The company’s employees are in no hurry to finally reveal the story of the first season. It is known that the author drew most of the inspiration for writing the script from the Internet game. Presented 8 episodes will appear on Netflix on March 25, 2021. Due to violent scenes, screenings are restricted to persons over 18 years of age.
What prepared the first season
Fragile warrior Davion expects to win world fame. He travels the world and helps anyone who needs it. Over the years of traveling around the globe, his figure has become recognizable by the villagers. Poor peasants always know that a warrior can be trusted with problems and a disinterested knight will certainly find a solution to their troubles. The traveler himself always dreamed of meeting the mighty dragon Slyrak. Davion always goes in the direction where there was information about the presence of a temporary refuge of a fire-breathing monster near the village. However, every time the knight reached the desired province, the fire-breathing creature was hiding. Finding Slyrak is only possible at the moment when the dragon becomes old. Before dying, the monster persuades the warrior to deal with him, and in return gives his killer a special power.
At the same time, on the other side of the planet, Princess Mirana renounces the throne and prepares to serve the Goddess of the Moon, protecting the priceless lotus flowers from bad people, which store the strength of her people. The representative of blue blood does not have time to take an oath, as someone sneaks into the sacred hall and takes several flowers with him. Mirana agrees to go on a perilous journey, promising to find the thief before the flowers are used for personal gain.
During the search for the scoundrel, Mirana meets Davion, who kindly agreed to provide assistance in a difficult mission. Fascinated by the beauty of a casual acquaintance, the knight promises to protect the girl and obey her orders unquestioningly. Only after a while the warrior concludes that the route he has chosen can bring him far from glory, but doom him to certain death.
What is the highlight of the season
The project provides an opportunity to enjoy a full screen version of the cartoon not only for video game fans, but also for people who prefer decent graphics. The copyright holders did not skimp on funds and decided to turn to professionals to create decent graphics. So the South Korean studio Studio MIR received an order to create animation, and well-known actors were connected for dubbing. If we add to everything that Ashley Miller, who previously worked on The Twilight Zone and Thor, was the showrunner and screenwriter, then there should not even be any doubt that the project is really worth attention.
A great start to an epic story
A month ago, like a bolt from the blue, there was an unexpected announcement of an anime series based on the game from which he was least expected — Dota. This MOBA is a vivid example of split lore, that is, the history of the universe, its heroes, the most important events must be collected and compared independently, like a mosaic. For example, through the replicas of characters or descriptions of objects. In games, the idea of split lore takes root very well: a clear description of the world becomes not an end in itself, but a pleasant reward in addition to gameplay for especially interested players.
Hollow knight is perhaps the best demonstration of this concept
Dota has been lagging behind its little sister, League of Legends, in terms of card reveals for a very long time (and it’s not just about Artifact and Legends of Runeterra). While Defense of the Ancients added a couple of vague descriptions a year, Lol spoiled fans with stories (although it was still impossible to read them) and videos, shared concepts and ideas, and generally skillfully pretended that MOBA was just one of the first projects of the developing franchise.
Spin-off «League of legends: Ruined king» — the first step in creating story games for this universe
But no matter how long Valve throws new pieces for the puzzle, the X-moment has finally come — the pieces of lore are put together in the form of an 8-episode anime.
Most of the characters in this series are not Dota champions, but completely new heroes
Dragon’s Blood isn’t surprising at first. Mirana and Davion look like typical fantasy characters, the locations lack originality, and the central conflict seems vaguely familiar. But gradually the story is gaining momentum, and you begin to become attached to the characters. In general, Dota is an incredibly toxic game, and revealing its lore is a great opportunity to finally see your favorite heroes in an adequate way.
Seeing Invoker as a full-fledged character, and not as an avatar for hardcore gamers, is simply magical
What I would like to praise for Dragon’s Blood is its focus on a small number of future champions of the Battle of the Ancients. Of the 120 playable characters, only 6 appear here. Starting a large-scale epic with a local adventure is a fairly correct approach.
At the same time, its creators, as if by chance, question the canonicity of the animated series, mentioning other worlds (that is, the Multiverse). Davion’s story in the anime and his official in-game biography are slightly different.
The description of Terrorblade also differs from the serial version. It seems that the creators of «Dragon’s Blood» have big plans for the wayward demon
Davion hated dragons all his life — and now he is forced to share his body with one of them. Mirana has always been faithful to her goddess — but now her ideals are being questioned. The princess and the knight begin to change in order to eventually come to their images. And their gradual metamorphosis is very interesting to watch.
Unfortunately, the upcoming fate of Davion is very sad
The enigmatic Invoker received the most new touches to his portrait. We knew only a few details about his past in Dota 2, such as the fact that he studied at the school of magic with Rubik. In Dragon’s Blood, the magician is also shrouded in a veil of secrecy, but the story of a tragic past is slightly revealed. Of all the characters that have come out of the game, it is Karl who looks the most intriguing — a sorcerer pursuing his own goals and playing fates like chess.
The goddess of the Moon, who was shown live for the first time in the series, also became an interesting way. It is her line that turns the fantasy adventure into a political thriller. By the way, the plot twist associated with Selemene personally reminds me of the twist with the Skrulls in Captain Marvel. Only for fans, the revelation of the goddess as a villain will come as a surprise, because before that she seemed to them purely positive. Ordinary viewers see her for the first time, so the wow effect is unlikely to happen.
The story of the cruel warrior Luna is given half hints, but if you read the description of the game character, everything falls into place
As I mentioned, the series is not shy about introducing new characters. And this is very important: firstly, you are more worried about them, because they do not have plot armor and they can be killed at any moment, and secondly, they perfectly help to reveal the protagonists we know. Personally, I liked Mirana’s assistant the most — the mute girl Marcy.
I wonder if the Bechdel test is considered passed if one of the heroines cannot speak?
For eight episodes of anime, the creators of the series generously sprinkled Easter eggs. In the Merchant’s shop you can find a bunch of familiar items. The goddess Niktasha is mentioned in passing (her nightmares gave birth to Bane), the influence of the Skinless Twins and the Dead God (their adherents are Bloodseeker and Undying) is guessed, representatives of the Axa and Bounty Hunter races flicker.
Art on the rich mythology of Dota 2
What disappointed me the most was the animation. Studio Mir, a South Korean studio, has a pretty impressive portfolio, from The Legend of Korra to the recent feature Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge. And the Dota series looks like a tangible step back, especially in the first episodes. When one character moves, the whole environment freezes in static, the characters seem wooden, and the cat weeps for detail. And 3D-graphics, to put it mildly, not happy. But the main problem is the noses, the animators seemed to be inspired by the plastic surgery of Michael Jackson. But the series is not shy about showing brutal fights in every detail.
Studio Mir is also making anime based on The Witcher, which is a little scary
Also, sometimes the abruptness of the animated series confuses. For example, in the seventh series, our heroes finally reconcile with each other and continue on their way. It would seem that, logically, this should be the seed for their future journey. But no, the next chapter becomes the last, and the company falls apart. It’s as if ten episodes with their journey were thrown out and only important plot points were left.
Imagine an Avatar where all the side adventures would be removed — we would get to know Aang and his friends much worse. Because such episodes are not fillers, but an important part of the life of the characters
Despite the rough edges, Dragon’s Blood is a great series that you can safely watch without knowing anything about Dota at all. There are two more seasons ahead, a lot of completely new heroes and undiscovered pages of lore. Looking forward to.
P. S. «Champion» in one of its original meanings — «defender, champion of something.» Therefore, the heroes who fight in the battle for the Protection of the Ancients and under their protection can be called champions)
If you are interested in the lore of Dota, pay attention to the YouTube channel Typical DotA. There are good speculations about the future, and hidden connections between the characters, and analysis of references. Looks like the best Russian content on this topic
What I didn’t like
- Adventure, Fantasy, ONA, 2021
- 2021
You and I are of the same blood
It should be noted right away that eight episodes is only a third of the series, so the story is still far from over. However, Dragonblood already has some prerequisites for a massive clash between the forces of good and evil, which could happen in the season finale.
The plot here is the story of the knight Davion, in whose body the soul of the ancient dragon Slyrak is locked, because of which the hero himself becomes one of the monsters he killed.
The scriptwriters make the right decision and fit the backstory of the hero within the first series, thus freeing their hands for further development of the character. There was a bit of a retcon to Davion’s story, but it’s only good for the story of the dragon knight.
Another storyline revolves around Princess Mirana and her search for magic lotuses stolen from the Silver Forest — the abode of the moon goddess Selemine. Davion and Mirana, after saving each other out of trouble a couple of times, decide to go to a mysterious tower where they can find answers to their questions.
It’s nice to watch the interactions of the characters, but the two of them still lack screen time. At some point, the conflict between the admirers of Selemine and the elves who renounced her comes to the fore. A lot of time is devoted to the owner of the tower, the powerful mage Invoker. Being removed from the events taking place in the world, the sorcerer still plays a significant role in the unfolding confrontation.
It would seem that Mirana and Davion are the main characters of the series, but they were deprived of attention, most likely on purpose. For further history, it was important to have time to show the consequences of the unfolding conflict within the first eight episodes. The Dragon Knight and the Princess of the Silver Forest will play an important role in the upcoming events, but for now they are deliberately left «in reserve».
In addition to them, the horsewoman Luna and the demon Terrorblade appear in the series, as well as several new secondary characters: Mirana’s partner Marcy, the elf with magical abilities Fimrin and the dragon knight Kaiden, Davion’s mentor. In the upcoming update for Dota 2, Valve is going to add a new playable character — it is quite possible that it will be one of the heroes of the series.
Could repeat
There are no complaints about the visual style in «Dragonblood», here you can almost immediately guess the handwriting of Studio Mir (it was also responsible for the «Legend of Korra»). The color palette is muted and only supplemented with a small amount of post-effects. The fight scenes are well choreographed and enjoyable to watch.
But sometimes there are questions about the quality of animations in battles. In the opening battle of Davion with the dragon, the number of frames per second is reduced so much that the battle, although it does not turn into a frank slide show, can hardly be called watchable. But fights between people turned out much better.
The quality of 3D models also raises questions: for example, Mirana and Luna’s mounts — Sagan and Nova — are animated at a higher frame rate and stand out strongly from the rest of the picture. The same goes for other non-humanoid creatures.
And in the second series, the episode when the heroes get to the city is shown through several freeze frames. Just?
There are also such strange «animations». It’s good that there are only a few of them for all eight episodes
Fortunately, these shortcomings are noticeable only in some episodes. In general, there is a feeling that two episodes were made for the pilot at once, which they decided not to redo when the rest of the season was given the green light.
But even in the first episodes, one cannot fail to notice the presence of “adult” themes: there is always a lot of blood in battles, the heroes do not deny themselves a drink, and the topic of sex (including group sex) is not taboo. There is still no frank nudity, but this is not a minus — the authors do not abuse the 18+ rating, so all of the above is organically inscribed in the framework of the narrative.
Dragon’s Blood, Season 1 watch online in good quality
The American animated series DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is a new project of the Netflix streaming service, based on the popular game of the same name. To create a full-fledged large-scale TV show, Ashley Edward Miller, known for his worthy work on the X-Men and Thor films, was invited as showrunner. The film adaptation of the franchise was taken up by the South Korean company Studio MIR, which had experience in creating well-known animation works and confirmed its professionalism in the global film market. The world premiere will take place on March 25, 2021.
Main storyline
Fantasy action takes place in the DOTA2 universe. In the center is the figure of the famous dragon knight Davion, who spent a lot of time exposing criminals and helping those in need. In his youth, he felt like a weak man, not ready to face more experienced opponents. Due to the many requests for power, Davion is faced with a dragon, ready to transfer power to a good guy. After this incident, the knight vows not to let the fire-breathing creature down and only return home after numerous feats.
An aimless journey around the world ends at the moment when the warrior meets the ancient and powerful Eldwurm, as well as Princess Mirana, who is entrusted with the return of special lotus flowers. Having learned the details about the true purpose of the journey of two famous personalities, Davion is not ready to be left out. He expects to use the opportunities for the good of mankind and accompany the princess on a dangerous route. However, the long route promises to bring the Trinity a lot of trouble, because some opponents are eager to interrupt the mission of the representative of the royal couple and deal with all her supporters.
Production
Plans to create a special cartoon based on the popular computer game appeared back in 2020, but it was not until the end of the year that Netflix Animation and Valve confirmed that work on the anime was already underway. It was also confirmed that among the American actors Freya Tingley, Tony Todd, JB Blanc have already signed contracts for voice acting. After the editing was completed, it was confirmed that the Dota: Dragon’s Blood multi-part cartoon has an age limit. Viewers over the age of 18 will be able to view it.
