I did these a while ago before the official design was revealed. Adult (first slide) teen (second). I have to draw the official design sometime because I love it. The horns here are really wonky.

Also the rayllum zine applications close tomorrow.

Since it's it been recently been brought up, regarding this show and the apparent Arc 3 "The Dragon King," which may or may not even be made, I think now would be a good time to talk about this topic.

A common misconception that I've seen within several discussions, is that a mature rating is somehow some kind of uninhibitor for quality or depth, suggesting if a show is more "adult" it will therefore be smarter and better.

However, the simple truth is that a rating is simply a indicator of the content you can potentially see, not a measure of it's narrative merit. It indicates the presence of elements like graphic violence, explicit language, or sexual themes, but it says nothing about the quality of the writing, character development, or plotting that contains them.

A story can be filled with mature content and still be shallow, poorly paced, and emotionally empty. When a show uses these elements as a crutch, mistaking edginess, profanity or gore for depth, the result is often a product that aims for shock value over substance, failing to build a world or develop characters that audience can genuinely invest in.

I've seen some people say that a lower age rating, such as PG, is often perceived as some kind of creative limiter, but this view vastly underestimates the power of clever writing, subtext, and cultural resonance.

If we look at the vast history of entertainment, it's filled with films and series that tackle incredibly profound and dark subjects within the confines of a family-friendly rating. For example, lets look at Avatar: The Last Airbender for reference and simplicity's sake. It explore themes of war, genocide, trauma, and moral ambiguity with a nuance that many mature-rated shows fail to achieve.

Similarly successful films from studios like Pixar or DreamWorks have dealt with complex emotions like grief, depression, and loss. These stories succeed because their creators are forced to be more inventive, using metaphors, suggestions, and strong character arcs to convey their message, rather than relying on explicit themes. These limitations can foster a higher level of creativity, proving that powerful storytelling does not depend on unrestricted content.

All of this leads to my central point, if a story is fundamentally weak, removing the content restrictions will not fix its core problems.

If a show suffers from a weak script, underdeveloped characters, or a meandering plot within a PG framework, granting it a mature rating is merely cover up on a flawed structure. Adding profanity doesn’t make flat dialogue compelling, and adding graphic violence doesn’t salvage a poorly choreographed or meaningless action sequence.

The mature elements become a distraction rather than an enhancement. A truly compelling narrative is built on a strong foundation of storytelling fundamentals, regardless of the rating.

If a creative team cannot tell an engaging story with the tools available at a lower rating, it's highly unlikely that the simple addition of mature content will suddenly give their work the quality it was missing from the start.

If you have anything to add, feel free to share your thoughts down below. I'll try to respond to each reply.

On the Archer subreddit someone compared Mr. Deadly's death to Aaravos's so I couldn't help myself but make this.

I made a post on here recently, asking how you guys think Arc 2 should have been handled. I enjoyed the responses, and I want to keep them coming, but be kind and respectful in the comments please 🙏 thank you.

I want to ask agian how do you guys think arc 2 should have been handled concerning the criticism it has received, but more specificity this time. For example:

1. Should Rayla just released all 3 of the cursed coins in the moon nexus, or should she still bring back Runaan?

2. Should they have just cut the whole Karim thing and have him be a supportive friend to Callum, or just kill him at the end of S5 and have him do a successful coup against Janai? (I’m asking this because one of the major criticisms TDP is that they had a hard time picking and managing plot-lines and plot points, how do you think they should have handled this?)

3. Should the time skip just be 1 year where Rayla doesn’t leave, or cut it back further to six months?

4. How do you think the other human kingdoms should have been incorporated? This is a VERY tricky one. Thinking about it, the only other human monarch who would have any positive impact on the plot in arc 2 would be Aanya, but should thier have been another Pentarchy meeting in arc two with Ezran and some new leaders?

5. How should they have shown cluadia and terry meeting?

Thier is more I could talk about, but how would you want Through the Moon and Arc 2 re written based on the criticism it has received? I wanna hear your thoughts, but please be respectful and nice, thank you 😊

I just finished the show after returning from it since not watching it since season 3 and I really have to say that I still love this show so much it's become my comfort show I know that season 4 and 5 are objectively pretty bad but I can still happily binge it because I love the characters and world that has been built. But the ending was just anticlimactic, callum monologuing his entire plan to aaravos seems a bit silly it would've been so much more effective if we learned the plan along side the characters. That's even if callum got to make his sacrifice which would've been such a good story beat if callum is forced to abandon everything even after realising that his one truth was rayla it would've made for such a good tragedy type of story line and then ofc rayla being the one to kill a now aaravos posessed callum would be soul crushing but it would add real consequences to the big final battle. Instead callum is pushed to the side as soon as ezrin shows up with this super weapon sword which he never uses and is again pushed to the side in favour of the archdragons which is ok but personally I just didn't really care for them at all. It felt like they were trying to give everyone their special moment whereas they should've focused on their main characters. I had to rant about this just because it's so frustrating that one of my favourite shows has to have a mediocre ending. Also leaving an open ending just tells me how badly the writing are trying to hang onto the series which is a good thing im sure we would all love to see more of xadia in the dragon king but they need to know when to stop. Trollhunters stopped at 3 because their story was over and they didn't add in new things to force a longer series. Similar with arcane with just 2. 7 seasons is already excessive and at some point the writers are just going to have to make an ending that is truly conclusive but i feel like the show has already dragged on long enough to have an effective ending. Anyways thank you if anyone bothered to read this and im probably wrong about alot of things because I haven't really done any research and these are just my thoughts after finishing the series

Hey TDP fandom! Hope everyone is having a good month and a welcoming start to the fall season. We have a lot to cover in the progress of the TDK kickstarter as well as exclusive updates we have received from the Wonderstorm team. Let’s review all the kinds of TDK content, news and updates we’d received throughout the entire month of August!

Aaron and Justin hosted a TDP watch party on the TDP discord server to celebrate with the fandom for reaching over 10,000 followers on the TDK kickstarter. It was recorded and the videos are available to watch on the official TDP YouTube channel in case you missed the event. We managed to watch the following episodes with Aaron and Justin discussing the development and character storylines:

The Final Battle season 3 episode 9

Moment of Truth season 6 episode 6

Nova season 7 episode 9

Wonderstorm announced they’ll be attending at NYCC 2025 hosting a panel to reveal more surprises for the TDK Kickstarter campaign.

Justin unexpectedly announced that the TDK kickstarter will launch on September 16 as well as revealing new concept art of Soren!

Wonderstorm attended the PAX event hanging out with the fandom in person for 4 whole days straight winning prizes, making art, getting exclusive buttons, even receiving extreme clothing!

Aaron Ehasz mentioned in his Twitter account something about attending a Comic Con in Africa? I didn’t know Africa hosted Comic Con! Learned something new!

This is all the TDK news, content and updates that we received throughout the month of August! GET READY FOR THE TDK KICKSTARTER TO LAUNCH ON SEPTEMBER 16th! CAN’T WAIT!!!