While The Dragon Prince tries to give the message of how morally questionable actions are ultimately self-serving or will bring more trouble down the line, taking the actions of the antagonists in a political lens can result in some viewers finding justified points the writers did not consider.
- While Viren gets himself a 0% Approval Rating with his rushing of King Harrow's funeral, when traditionally seven days should be spent grieving beforehand, and his attempts to install himself as regent on account of the King's sons being nowhere to be found, both of which are motivated by his desire for power, the reasoning he gives for these actions actually make a good deal of sense. While it's a gross breach of tradition, he's not wrong that Harrow was assassinated by people of Xadia, regardless of the fact that it was in retaliation for Harrow and Viren's murder of Xadia's king, so the time spent mourning Harrow could be better spent properly preparing Katolis' defenses and organizing the military to retaliate. He's also not wrong that, whether temporary or permanent, Katolis does need to someone to lead them not only as a sign of strength, but also to handle important administrative tasks such as taxation or working with the other Kingdoms to address the threat, and putting those on hold and leaving the country without a figurehead until they can find the legitimate heir, who's no older than 10, doesn't appear to have had much formal training in leadership as of yet, and for all they knew could have been killed by the Moonshadow Elf assassin holding him hostage or some other unknown circumstance, is not exactly the wisest move.
- The angry mob that chases Rayla in episode 7 is supposed to represent mindless intolerance and hatred. Yet Rayla wasn't just some innocent, harmless civilian; she's a trained assassin of a hostile foreign power, who infiltrated their kingdom with the express purpose of assassinating their leader. Furthermore, said king (who was apparently popular and well respected) was outright murdered by Rayla's teammates just a few days prior, and it's widely believed that the crown prince was abducted by them as well. Although their actions may have been unwarranted and unnecessary (Rayla had put herself at extreme risk to abandon her mission), the townsfolk had good reason to be on alert for elven warriors sneaking around their village and would not have any way to know that she had abandoned her assassination attempt early on. And even though she didn't do the murder itself, she still was part of it until the last five or so minutes, which at bare minimum makes her guilty of conspiring to commit murder, not to mention conspiracy to assassinate the leader of a foreign government.
- In season 2, episode 1, Lord Viren demands that Katolis coordinate with the other human kingdoms to check Elven aggression, only to be shot down by other "more reasonable" lords who a) are afraid of escalating the conflict further, and b) believe that such a decision is ultimately prince Ezran's choice, and their hands are tied until he's returned to the throne. Yet the conflict has already escalated; elves are ambushing patrols near the border with lethal force while dragons capable of wiping out entire villages are ranging deep into human territory. Viren may be an amoral usurper, but the other lords (who are obviously meant to be the voice of reason) come across as naïve capitulators who are allowing bureaucracy to throttle a realistic solution to a genuine crisis (albeit a crisis that Viren created in the first place). Further, the elves that assassinated the king were sent by Xadia- like it or not, that is an open declaration of warnote .
- That said, it must also be noted that a few months before the beginning of the series the King of Katolis and his High Mage both rode deep into Xadia and engaged in lethal violence against Xadia's acknowledged overlord after being given a chance to walk away, then insofar as anyone (including Harrow) knew smashed the egg of said overlord with malice aforethought. The former would commonly be considered justification for an outright war, the latter (being the operative equivalent of dashing a babe in arms against the proverbial stones) would only rarely be considered anything but. Indeed a kill team sent against the offender would be considered a limited response and King Harrow himself appeared to acknowledge this given his refusal to flee or hide. Were High Mage Viren the second half of the target list rather than Harrow's own son one would be very hard pressed to consider Runaan's squad (or by extension Xadia) the villains of the piece in any sense.
- This also extends when he, albeit through deception, finally does get a meeting with the rulers of the other kingdoms. He supposed to be shown as in the wrong for using dark magic induced illusions to intimidate the rulers into agreeing and being condescending towards Aanya, while Aanya is supposed to be shown as a wise child ruler due to her refusing on the grounds that she'd rather not expend the lives of her soldiers and believing Xadia's action don't warrant retaliation requiring the Kingdom's joining together. The problem is that Viren's concerns still come off as reasonable due to the fact that his King was assassinated, patrols are being attacked by elves using lethal force and dragons have been sighted near villages. In contrast to Viren, Aanya and the other rulers, who are following her lead, come off more as Suicidal Pacifists who are willing to let Xadia do as they please since unlike Katolis, who are going through a Succession Crisis because of them and seem to be the only ones suffering harassment, they haven't been personally affected by their actions. Duren in particular, based on Aanya's refusal, come off as Ungrateful Bastards since regardless of the number of people saved in comparison to those in their army, Katolis did stop a famine plaguing their kingdom at the cost of their Queen's life, something they did by request of Duren's previous Queens when they could have just as easily and had every reason to just leave them to suffer and potentially starve to death completely due to their own food shortages.
- Soren and Claudia's plans to kill Pyrrah. While it's ultimately Soren's fault that she attacked, firing a Ballista at her when all she was doing was flying above town to intimidate them, the fact of the matter is that Pyrrah torched a town, causing untold amounts of property damage and potentially injuring and killing a number of innocent villagers in the process, all over the actions of one man. Regardless of how Callum or Rayla feel on the matter, that is an open act of aggression that needs some manner of retribution, if not due to the conflict with Xadia then at least to give peace to anyone who lost their homes or loved ones and don't feel safe with Pyrrah being left to fly above their heads like nothing happened. Despite this, the whole affair is treated more like someone innocent being captured while Soren and Claudia are treated as the villains for wanting to use her parts in Dark Magic.
- Prince Kasef is supposed to be seen as a hotheaded Jerkass blinded by lust for revenge after the near-fatal attack on his father. The problem is that the writers seem to have forgetten that Kasef doesn’t know what the viewers know (i.e. that the attack on his father was a False Flag Operation and that Callum and Rayla have a real shot at brokering peace by returning Zym to his mother). From Kasef’s perspective, ignoring Viren’s warnings and opting for appeasement failed to stem elven aggression and cost innocent lives. And now, when Kasef’s people are scared and looking for leadership, he comes to Katolis for help and instead gets lectured about turning the other cheek by an unproven boy king. Kasef has plenty of justification for believing that Ezran is an incompetent ruler or possibly even a Mole in Charge. Kasef’s threat to attack Katolis if he doesn’t get his way is both foolish and spiteful, but Ezran might have been able to avoid the whole situation by showing Kasef a little more empathy and taking his concerns seriously, instead of just shutting him down and then letting Corvus insult him.
- Although, Kasef loses much of his justification once Ezran does explain to him about returning the Dragon Prince, yet Kasef still completely dismisses Ezran's stance.
- Dark mages in general are this for a large portion of the fandom, who disagree with the show's stance regarding how bad dark magic is given most of the time it involves using animals - not people - who happen to be magical to achieve feats that could otherwise not be accomplished by humans. Season 3's reveal about Ziard and humanity's past in Xadia have only strengthened this camp. There is also the argument that killing animals for their magic is not morally different from killing them for food, especially since dark magic can be used to help humans survive by, among other things, directly growing more food.
