Woman of the Month: Claudia

 Claudia from The Dragon Prince

In recent years I have been reluctant to feature female characters in these posts before their stories have been completed. I well remember writing enthusiastically about the likes of Lexa and Vanessa Ives, only for them to come to deeply depressing ends.

But I feel reasonably confident that Claudia will come out the other side of this story intact, regardless of how closely she’s currently skirting to true darkness. It’s clear (to me at least) that Aaron Ehasz based this character heavily on Azula, of whom he once said he would have liked to write a redemption arc, one attained through the unconditional love of her brother. Having not been given the chance to do that with Avatar: The Last Airbender, the concept has been co-opted for The Dragon Prince between Claudia and Soren, the best characters of the show by an embarrassingly large margin.

Claudia is first introduced as a young mage with burgeoning powers, as well as the focus and discipline to hone her craft, but it’s her relationship with her widowed father that informs most of her character. As glimpsed in the graphic novel Puzzle House, the disappearance of her mother and the control that magic can give her are important facets of her personality, leading to blind obedience and loyalty to her remaining parent.

Across the seasons, she grows increasingly proficient in Dark Magic, something that initially seems incongruous with her sunny, cheerful disposition. This gradually becomes more ominous as her father ropes her into participating in various crimes (including the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince) though it’s her brother Soren who first realizes just how far across the line Viren has gone.

Most of the major turning-points in her life have involved her family: sacrificing a deer to save her brother from paralysis, turning on Soren after seeing him kill what he thinks is their father to save an innocent, and finally bringing Viren back from the dead and going to increasingly compromised lengths to ensure he stays that way. There’s even a visual component to her fall into darkness: her dark black hair gradually turning white with the strain of the magic she’s using.

I love a good corruption arc, and where we leave Claudia at the end of season five is definitely a point of no return for her. Having used aggressive force against the show’s heroes in an attempt to free a profoundly dangerous being from captivity, their counter-attacks lead to the loss of one of her legs. I have a strong suspicion that she’s not going to take that very well.  

There’s real darkness in this girl and she’s probably going to get worse before she gets better. And yet, I’ve never showcased a villainous character on a Woman of the Month post before, and I don’t think I’ve done so now. There’s still hope for Claudia, but she’s got to hit rock bottom before she can start finding her true self.