The Ending Of DOTA: Dragon's Blood Season 1 Explained
"Do you love me?" Invoker, played by Troy Baker, asks in the dramatic final moment of the season finale of DOTA: Dragon's Blood. It's an epic last line that reveals the true puppet master behind the events of the season, and what a joy it is beholding him.
DOTA isn't the only Netflix anime inspired by games — there's also Castlevania, now awaiting its fourth season, and the upcoming Magic: The Gathering series. Still, with extensive lore built across in-game voice lines, comics, and short character descriptions, adapting Dota 2 was never going to be an easy task — but its fans have been ravenous for something of their own. Their beloved game is notoriously hard to get into, because of its 100+ playable characters and complicated strategies. However, it's also the game that doles out the largest prize of any esports scene, making the richest esports team millions of dollars. To make it work as a series, Netflix took a handful of characters from the massively popular multiplayer online battle arena game, and expanded their thin flavor text into an eight-episode anime, full of both the titular dragons and blood.
Rather than delve into a massive war with every single character, DOTA: Dragon's Blood goes back in time, serving as a prequel (and an origin story) for a few heroes. We see how Davion the Dragon Knight (Yuri Lowenthal) gets his draconic powers and what happens when Mirana (Lara Pulver) loses her goddess' precious lotuses. Most importantly, under all the flashy action scenes, the series spins a tragic tale of vengeance, centered on one of the game's most mysterious heroes: it's Invoker, the powerful mage of uncertain loyalty, who steals the show. By the end, moon goddess Selemene (Alix Wilton Regan) certainly rues the day she crossed him.
Like its source material, DOTA: Dragon's Blood is a little confusing: It's a revenge plot told between Invoker's lies, memories, and the bloody final battle. Here's the timeline pieced together.
Dragon's Blood season 1 is all about a terribly complicated revenge plot
While Dota 2's story may begin with the Primordial Mind's conflict with itself, the Dragon's Blood story begins one thousand years beforehand.
The details are murky, regarding what exactly went down, but it was at this time that a possibly mortal Selemene, on a mission to become the moon goddess, banished any elves that did not worship her from the Nightsilver Woods. That included her lover, Invoker, and their daughter, Filomena (Genevieve Beardslee), who both still worshipped her predecessor, the goddess Mene. Though Invoker and Filomena head off to have a life of their own, Filomena is stricken with a strange, unexplained ailment. It can only be fixed by returning to Selemene, but she demands that both of them worship her. Invoker kneels and gives in, but Filomena doesn't, so Selemene abandons her to die.
After Filomena's death, Invoker seeks vengeance. It's never said explicitly, but it's implied that he fabricates the stories-slash-prophecies that the followers of Selemene and the elves of Coedwig (the descendents of the banished elves) believe in the present. Selemene's followers believe that the Devil of the Moon, AKA Invoker, wants to bring about the apocalypse, while the elves believe that he needs to use the lotuses to bring back the goddess Mene. He tells Mirana that the stories aren't true, but the series hints that he planted them after Filomena's death to entice the two groups to wage war. After all, Selemene says of the stories, "Promises from fathers of failure become prophecy."
But a thousand year revenge plot? Really? Well, Invoker is known for having an unparalleled memory, so he hasn't forgotten a single moment with his daughter, thus keeping his thirst for vengeance alive for so long.
In the present day, Invoker encourages war and makes a deal with Terrorblade
So after the "prophecy" encourages Fymryn (Freya Tingley) to steal the lotuses — that have some unclear link to Selemene's power — Invoker then lies to Selemene about a secret army of Coedwig elves trying to threaten her. This encourages her to go to war with the elves, which allows for the opportunity to send the lotuses along with Mirana to stop said war.
Here's where Invoker's dark plan takes shape: His spell on the lotuses causes an eclipse that apparently blocks communication and power from flowing between Selemene and her Dark Moon Order. They no longer gain special power from her and she can no longer feel their devotion, weakening them both and leaving Selemene vulnerable. Now the second half of his plan comes into play.
Somewhere along the way, Invoker struck a deal with the demon Terrorblade (JB Blanc), the creepy green possessor of Davion's colleague and Uldorak the earth Eldwurm from the first episode. The deal was that Invoker would supply Terrorblade with seven souls — those of the Eldwurm dragons — and Terrorblade would in turn defeat Selemene. In the final episode, Terrorblade and Selemene fight and the demon wins, leaving her beaten and half-dead. Meanwhile, Invoker has captured Lirrak, the water Eldwurm, to make good on his deal with Terrorblade.
Invoker then stands over a beaten Selemene and asks the twisted question: "Do you love me?" It's what she asked their daughter a thousand years ago in a demand for worship, before abandoning her to die. Selemene's pride and narcissism have now caught up to her: she's at the mercy of Invoker. We don't get to see what he does from there. He could kill her, but perhaps taking away her power was his goal.
Terrorblade and the seven Eldwurm souls set up a future season
The ending of Dragon's Blood still leaves questions unanswered and a plot left to explore in further seasons. Creator Ashley Edward Miller said in an interview that he hopes to make at least two more seasons, but Netflix has yet to say whether or not it's been renewed.
However, judging by the events of the final episode, we can guess what a second season would be about: Terrorblade's quest to acquire the Eldwurm souls, the pillars of creation that include earth, air, water, fire, void, luminous, chaos, and ionic. Once Terrorblade has all eight souls, he can use them to "remake the world in his image" — and whatever that entails. Normally, when an Eldwurm, the physical embodiment of one of these pillars, dies, the soul is passed on to another ancient dragon — an eldwurm, little "e." However, Terrorblade was able to claim the earth soul when he possessed Uldorak. Now, Invoker has the water soul ready for him to take.
So why is Invoker fine and dandy with giving this power to Terrorblade? It's not entirely clear, and he may have a secret plot up his sleeve, but it seems Invoker doesn't care about anything other than exacting his vengeance. He doesn't care about the world anymore, so he's cool with whatever horrifying thing Terrorblade does.
The heroes of Dragon's Blood are left in a messy state
Our heroes, however, do take issue with Terrorblade's plan. They've got their own problems to deal with first, though. Davion's been dragged away by the other Dragon Knights, who are hoping to take the dragon out of the Knight and restore him to his human self — though they may choose to kill him and rid the world of Slyrak if it comes down to it.
Completely alone, Fymryn has abandoned her faith in Mene, taken up the charm meant to keep Davion from transforming, and run off into the woods after Davion. Invoker charged her with bringing Davion back to him, because he has one of the souls Terrorblade needs, so she's going to make good on that promise.
Mirana, meanwhile, has reunited with the Dark Moon Order and is taking care of a wounded Luna. However, she must step up to lead her people home now that they're all cut off from Selemene.
The three of them are all left worse off than they started at the beginning of the season, thanks to Invoker's taste for vengeance. A second season would see them have to overcome these personal obstacles to keep Terrorblade from bringing about his unclear, but probably terrible, plan for the world. Whatever it is, you can bet that he'll make "the self-righteous shall choke on their sanctimony," as he lovingly says in game.