Commander Gren often acts as her translator, but there are a few really beautiful sequences of signing that remain untranslated because the creators decided that “when Gren wasn’t speaking for her, she spoke for herself… wanted it so that understanding what she’s communicating here is for the deaf audience.” Amaya’s Deafness is an integral part of who is she, but it does not define or overwhelm her plot in the story. And she is a Deaf woman of color who communicates via American Sign Language. As the aunt of the princes Callum and Ezran (two of the main characters), she is emotionally connected to the rest of the cast.
#ASL TRANSLATION FOR AMAYA DRAGON PRINCE SERIES#
As one of the king’s most trusted allies, she is among the most powerful players in the series – she is on the front lines of the war with Xadia, the magical kingdom in conflict with the human kingdoms. Again, I still love this character and her general portrayal, and I do think there are moments in the series that complicate her supercrip status, but in The Dragon Prince, the creators sidestep the supercrip trope, and other common disability tropes, in ways that are incredibly fresh and awesome for a mainstream fantasy series. But she also falls into the extremely common trope of the supercrip (someone who is disabled but has some kind of superlative or magical ability or genius that “compensates” for that disability.) For Toph, earthbending functions as magical sight she can see just as well (and frequently better) than her companions when her bare feet are touching the ground. In a lot of ways, she’s a great character (funny, curmudgeonly, and extremely capable).
#ASL TRANSLATION FOR AMAYA DRAGON PRINCE FULL#
Full disclosure: I love Toph, the blind master earthbender who mentors Aang and plays a crucial role in defeating the series’ Big Bad, Fire Lord Ozai. To explain exactly why it’s so good, I’m going to backtrack to Avatar and the character of Toph.
What really stood out to me, though, is the story’s engagement with disability, because it is ON POINT. (Commander Gren, General Amaya, and Prince Callum.
I’m especially fond of Claudia, a young mage with a terrible (and therefore wonderful) sense of humor and purple gradient hair that is #goals, and General Amaya, who I’ll get to in a minute. There’s a lot of hype about The Dragon Prince, and I think it’s pretty well deserved: it’s a fresh, fun high fantasy series with well-rounded characters, including lots of women and POC, which is exactly what I would expect from the people who made Avatar and Korra. Currently, only one season (Book One: Moon) is streaming, but more seasons are hopefully in the works. I’m a big fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, so when I heard that there was a new series, The Dragon Prince, streaming on Netflix from some of the same creators, I was psyched.
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