Bloodmoon Huntress is the second graphic novel based on the Netflix show "The Dragon Prince." I wrote about the first one in this post. What's also really exciting is around the time the new book came out, the show finally announced that the fourth season would be coming out in November! Huzzah!
This book is different from the first graphic novel, instead of taking place after season 3 ended and being a continuation of the story, it takes place much earlier. Rayla is a moonshadow elf who is one of the main characters in the tv show. Here she is shown as a child who is living with her adoptive fathers for the first time after her parents leave to guard a dragon. It gives a lot of insight into Rayla's relationship with her dads, as well as why she started training to become an assassin.
The book opens with Rayla being mad at her parents for leaving her. If they want to serve the greater good, she reasons, then they should stay with her and not cause her pain. They leave anyways though, and Rayla is left with Runaan and Ethari. Ethari is much more of a homebody and typically watches Rayla, but she's curious where Runaan goes since they won't tell her. She eventually learns that he is an assassin, and is confused why he'd kill for a living instead of staying with Ethari.
The bloodmoon is coming up soon, it's a time of the year when there's a huge festival that no one is allowed to leave. Rayla is suspicious as there clearly is some danger being hidden. She then runs into a lost elf in the woods whose family was kidnapped by a moonshadow elf who wants to kill them and drain their blood. Rayla tries to get help, but no one believes her. So she runs off on her own. Rayla faces off with the mysterious elf, and gets herself pushed into a river in the process. Ethari and Runaan find her then, having realized that she ran off and that she was right. The two of them drive off the blood-sucking elf and they all head home safe.
Rayla says she understands now, sort of, why some people feel called to protect not just themselves but strangers as well. She asks Runaan to train her to become an assassin as well.
The book is great because we don't know much about Rayla's childhood and background. Seeing her deal with losing her parents makes you understand much more about her relationship with her surrogate parents, Runaan and Ethari. And watching her decide to become an assassin is an incredible arc. It makes a lot of sense to me with events that then transpire in the show.
Rayla ends up failing as an assassin, she ends up not being able to kill. It's literally the first thing that happens in the show and it sets off a chain of events. But as we learn in this book, I don't think she actually wants to become an assassin. I think she mostly wants to follow Runaan, get trained by him and spend time with him and be like him. The fact that she fails later makes sense because Rayla at the end of this story seems to understand why people will put their lives towards service to something larger. I don't think she understands the ramifications of making that choice for herself.
I quite liked this book, it's a quick read but it's what I needed to get excited for season 4 of "The Dragon Prince!" I can't wait until November!
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