The Stars.

Man, The Dragon Prince really is just "Children Experiencing the Horrors of War" the show, huh

Viren really said "I will do anything for my family and the greater good" so much that his children internalized "Got it, do anything for the greater good!" and "Got it, do anything for my family!" and both dedicated themselves to their mission statements, when his own mission statement was in fact self-righteous bullshit as he increasingly just wanted power. That's kind of funny. He was lying! But they believed him because kids tend to believe their parents, and now there are twelve psychological complexes between the three of them and depending on what happens with Viren in Season Six, they might all be on different sides.

as a lifelong ATLA fan who narrowly had ATLA dethroned as my top show by The Dragon Prince steadily over the past 5 years, the similarities between the two have very little to do with the surface level parallels that get regularly drawn between them.

Like ATLA, TDP has Books for seasons and chapters for episodes, but unlike ATLA, which only touched on storytelling sparingly as a theme, TDP is obsessed with interrogating storytelling and history and the presence of unreliable, biased narrators throughout many of its episodes (most notably 2x05, 2x06, 3x06, 4x04, and 4x07 among them). Half of what you learn in the 1x01 intro ends up being a lie once you reach S3, with more being steadily deciphered.

Yes, TDP has different magics with people living under those umbrella terms... for the elves. Humans are coming culturally at things from a completely different angle, and the elves' connection to their primal sources are discussed philosophically in detail, informing their practices and their culture first hand, including the way they chafe against humans, who are arcanum-less. Many animals in the world are also connected to magic, which influences both their design and which ones get hunted for humans' more 'clever' solution in dark magic, including each other.

The core issue of the Puppetmaster, down to being a coercive magic formed by someone deeply resentful of their imprisonment? Said puppetmaster is the main endgame antagonist of the entire show with all of S4 onwards being exploring the ethics of controlling people against their will in various methods, and the entire show itself being a thematic battleground of fate (imprisonment) vs free will for virtually every single character.

Where ATLA mostly concerns itself timeline wise with ending the war, very little thought is shown by any of the characters as to what they'll do after the war. This isn't a problem (as it reflects the sheer domineering scope of the conflict) but even Zuko being firelord is only ever really addressed with 2.5 episodes left till the finale. TDP, meanwhile, ends its 'war' in s3 and s4 opens up with dealing with the old wounds festering between people with centuries of history, the struggles that come when people aren't able to let go and believe they're safe or mourn in a healthy manner, and the religious/cultural clashes that may occur when trying to integrate different groups of people.

TDP also has an evil father with a devoted daughter and a brother who eventually defects, but it explores the reality of an abusive parent who loves/will sacrifice for you and your right to leave regardless, even if that means leaving the sibling you truly deeply love and who loves you in turn. Which means that when you and your sibling are on opposite sides of a deep ideological conflict, it actually really fucking hurts bc we've seen first hand just how much they love each other and also how and why everything fell apart not in spite of that love necessarily, but also because of it.

Aaravos in S2-3 - a mysterious manipulator, motives unknown, wiped from history books

Aaravos in S4 - possesses one of the main characters, insults everybody in the room, leaves

there is nothing i love more than when after possessing one of the heroes and insulting everyone of them by looking into their SOULS (except the one he possessed who he’s actually impressed with) Aaravos then proceeds to sit in a chair, cross his legs and blow a kiss at the mirror which causes it to break.

Im getting big theatre kid vibes

As a theatre kid… i am so freaking here for it