The Dragon Prince : Season THREE Out!

[Esquire]

You know what? You're completely right. If an insane warmongering wizard has just tried to overthrow the kingdom, you should absolutely have him quietly taken care of, and not just locked up a few feet from his own power structure. And, more to the point, a ten year old shouldn't be making that decision, particularly since Spoiler

Ezren's plan gets not only his own army and Neolandia's turned into monsters and then largely killed anyway, it also lets the exact same insane warmongering wizard destroy the Sun Elves' city and steal their magical power on top of everything else.

[LadyTevar]

I hope there's a season 4, as while some things have been answered, and we've seen a lot of wonderful stories, there's still more to tell.

I rather enjoyed the symbolism of what the broken chain came to mean initially, and then what it became later on.

Oh, there'll be a Season 4. You don't have an epilogue like that without knowing there's another season. Claudia still has The SunFire Elf Staff, after all. Hell, there's still multiple Chekov's Guns left - The SunFire Sun Forge, the Moon Phoenix feather. Hell, the spear in Thunder's chest looked like someone could yank it out (maybe reverse the stoning?)

If an insane warmongering wizard has just tried to overthrow the kingdom, you should absolutely have him quietly taken care of, and not just locked up a few feet from his own power structure.

If you think about it, Viren couldn't be "quietly taken care of". He obviously had supporters, those who agreed they needed to "Take Xadia Back For Humans!". There had to be Due Process, a trial, and even then there would have been muttering from the war-hawks. You saw how many soldiers were willing and eager for war.
However, none of the soldiers signed up for what he did to them, other than the Prince. IIRC last season when Viren was talking to the Kings, that Prince was there and wasn't opposed to the idea, but his father the King was content to let sleeping dogs lie. Then Viren's little ghost assassins do their work, there's dead or badly injured kings everywhere, and the Prince is only one of the first eager for revenge.

Plus -- we see the Adviser taking the Prince to see Viren in his jail cell, with a complacent jail guard. We never hear what Viren tells them, only see the result is three Armies lined up against Evren. Viren could be quite the charmer, even before his Caterpillar Friend crawled out of the mirror. Look at how he lead King Harrow into creating the Dragon-Slayer. Do you think he wouldn't be able to twist a young man already out for revenge into forcing Evren off the throne. I have no doubts Viren was able to paint Evren as a idiot child with no idea how to rule, as the Prince was already half-way convinced of that. Add in the Caterpillar's centuries of manipulation, and that Prince became as much a catspaw as Claudia. Just ... more expendable.