A Reddit audience with Ashley Edward Miller, the creator of Dota: Dragon’s Blood.

Ashley Edward Miller appeared on Reddit on 17th January, to answer all questions on Dota: Dragon’s Blood. Here are the most important bits.

The Dota: Dragon’s blood series is an adaptation of Valve’s classic of the same name. Even though exciting, the series left a lot to be desired.

Also, we advocate only spoiler-free content here. Only the best bits of an hour of clacking keyboards with Ashley Edward Miller on Reddit.

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Ashley and Valve worked together with NetFlix to make the show a reality.

Q. How does the story about dragons being core elements of the universe stack with fundamentals and spirit brothers in dota lore?

A. They definitely do but getting into it is a little bit of a spoiler and mostly head canon. Actually, it’s a lot of a spoiler. But believe me… I’ve done a lot of thinking about reconciling the Dota cosmology. A LOT.

Q. What did you think of Arcane? What’s your most fun Dota experience? Will there be a season 3? HYPOTHETICALLY, if someone was a voice actor, how would they get their reel into your hands?

A. In order:

Arcane is great. A very dear friend worked on that show.

My most fun experience was travelling to Korea and going out for a barbecue, soju and karaoke with the gang from Studio Mir. Yes, I sang and yes I was terrible.

I hope there’s a season 3 because I’d really like to get to the crazy shit that’s rattling around my skull.

Prospective voice actors just need to audition!

Q. What’s your biggest inspiration for the show, and why did you choose to focus on Davion and Mirana?

A. I’m a huge fantasy nerd and I saw an opportunity to take a lot of tropes and turn them upside down and inside out. Look I’ve got a knight, a princess, a wizard, a dragon, a demon and an evil queen. But none of those pieces lands quite where you expect them to.

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Ashley Edward Miller appeared on Reddit out of nowhere.

Q. Was there a conscious effort to not recast the original voices for the existing characters (i.e. Lina, Mirana)? I think the cast is amazing, but sometimes wish I could hear one of the Dota champs give real dialogue other than Slyrak?

A. Tony Todd is an icon and I’ve worked with him before. I saw his name and jumped for joy. Other than that yes I very consciously recast voices because I felt the anime interpretation of those characters needed to start clean. Also, in television, you don’t cast roles you cast ensembles. I needed to balance out a lot of things and be sure certain relationships would sound and feel right. So I very much took a holistic approach.

Q. There are a lot of “evil” heroes in DOTA like Doom, Shadow Fiend, Shadow Demon, Lion, Pugna etc. What made you decide to use TerrorBlade as the primary antagonist?

A. Terrorblade doesn’t possess anyone. He just gives people a chance to get what they want through cooperation. As for why him… two things:

First, he’s INTERESTING. He messes with your head in really fascinating ways and that’s always fun to write. I think AngerMania suggested he’s actually a hero which I find to be a fascinating interpretation. I don’t know that I fully agree but he’s the sort of demon that’s easy to imagine believing he is one.

Second, once you’ve got a demon so awful the other demons need to peace out and dump him in his own personal hell? No one else needs to apply.

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Q. Favourite character to adapt from the game to the anime?

A. That’s like asking me to pick my favourite child… only harder because at least my children occasionally displease me. I love them equally but I do think the most interesting adaptation challenge was the Invoker.

Reddit users asked over 600 questions to Ashley Edward Miller.

Q. When Marci was added to the game as a playable hero, I don’t think there were any hints of her coming before S1 was dropped. Is she something that you originally thought of when making Dragon’s Blood, or was she, like, mentioned vaguely prior in dota lore by Valve and was just given a finer identity by you?

A. Marci is a completely original character. When I created her there was never a thought that she’d wind up in the game, but she pretty much broke the internet when the show premiered so… here we are.

Q. What were the challenges in implementing a character like Marci? How did you navigate her story despite her being mute?

A. She was originally designed to be a “talk to” for Mirana. Being mute weirdly opened up the storytelling for her because it’s all action with her, which means we engage with her on a visceral level rather than a distanced, abstract level where we have to interpret statements. It’s very freeing actually.

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That is all there is to the Ashley Edwar Miller interview on Reddit. Hopefully, the new season fixes the problems that plagued season 1.