A New Face of the DOTA 2 Universe, Exclusive DOTA: Dragon's Blood Interview with Ashley Edward Miller

Developing an anime adapting a game is not an easy task to execute, however Netflix have proven their quality in working on various original anime projects including those adapting games with solid quality. DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is one of their latest works with Studio Mir which immediately attracted the attention of DOTA 2 fans around the world. Taking a story that focuses on the figure of the Dragon Knight – Davion, so far the anime does look quite promising and provides a very interesting story point of view, especially the involvement of several key characters who are popular among fans.

Following the review that we have previously summarized, this time we also had the opportunity to interview Ashley Edward Miller who is the Executive Producer of the anime. In this interview we asked various important points such as the development process of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood to several questions related to the story (SPOILER AWARE!!). Instead of being curious, just look at the full summary below.

Q: Why bring Selemene, Dragon Knight, Terrorblade and Carl (Invoker) into the story?

Ashley: There’s been a lot of visual development for each character that’s been going through since I got involved in the anime project, and I felt there was an interesting background story to tell. For Selemene, I was also very interested in the existence of a god who existed before him and made me curious about what happened. While the other is about connecting the points that already exist.

Q: How much do you know about Slacks (SirActionSlacks) and the video lore it made? How is the research process for this anime going?

Ashley: I’ve watched all of his videos and got to know him better over the last month or two. He is a great person, his love and passion for the game is clear. Watching Loregasm has helped me understand how things in the universe in DOTA are interconnected, as well as what questions have been answered and what can still be explored.

Q: How was the experience gained after working with Valve for the last 2 and a half years?

Ashley: Valve has been a creative partner and staunch supporter of this entire project. I really enjoy working with them and appreciate all the help that has been given.

Q: We are interested to know how you view the community base, and your involvement in it.

Ashley: Since this project is strictly confidential, I haven’t been able to interact directly with the community at least until recently. I really love to see their passion and artistic talent that looks amazing. Now I often look for fan art and pay attention to the artist on social media.

Q: Was there any discussion about making it a live action series? What was the process until you finally chose to make an anime series instead of live action?

Ashley: As far as I know, the team’s plan from the start had targeted the anime series. I’m not sure if the live action DOTA will end satisfactorily. Being able to make very accurate adaptations will certainly cost very expensive production.

Q: How different is writing a story for a film compared to an episodic series, both for live action and animation?

Ashley: Films already have a structure that is more summarized in a one-show format. For a television series, you have more room to explore and focus on the characters and emotions you want to build. The audience was also slightly unworried about what would happen. With animation, I need to remember that drawing people who are walking is difficult especially the scene where there are many people walking feels like a nightmare, but I can create the action side and do something that can break the budget for a live action film.

Q: How actively do you follow DOTA developments in general, from the competitive side to game updates?

Ashley: I continue to follow its progress. Because I want to know what’s going on both among the fans and the game itself. I don’t have a really special insight for patches, new heroes or the like. But I was as surprised as all the fans when Hoodwink was announced.

Q: I think after last year’s Dragon’s Dogma, some fans were critical of the art style approach to Netflix adaptations. So how do you determine which visual approach the source material is accustomed to from a top-down perspective?

Ashley: I’ve never been worried about this adaptation. Studio Mir is the best in the world when it comes to what they do. If they can’t do it right, then no one else can. Everything is about adapting the content at hand so we can bring a story that feels like a drama rather than a video game.

Q: Let’s imagine if you could work on another DOTA anime, whose story would you like to explore more deeply?

Ashley: If we’re successful with this adaptation and can produce more episodes, I already have a plan in place. For now I don’t want to bring up false expectations if I ever change my mind.

Q: What was your favorite part of working on this anime project?

Ashley: The opportunity to work with the world’s most talented talent…a great storyteller, artist, actor, and musician…how could it not feel good to wake up every day knowing this is my job?

Q: How is this project different from adapting material like comics (eg X-Men, Marvel) with games that don’t have enough material?

Ashley: It’s easy to know that I have more room to explore. But it’s also hard to know if there isn’t a lot of material to source from. It didn’t feel like I could make DOTA: Days of Future Past. Everything should come from one’s own mind or from other suggested sources rather than focusing on sources that still feel transparent or contradictory.

Q: I know that TV anime series are usually 30 minutes long, but since 8 episodes of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood are already available, why not have a longer duration or more episodes?

Ashley: Production. It takes a lot of time and effort to produce each episode. Logistics, or what we usually call the “pipeline” will surely surprise you.

Q: DOTA is very popular among fans in non-English speaking countries, such as the Southeast Asia region. How much of your role is in working on the subtitles, to make sure that the dialogue is the same as the English version?

Ashley: We sent a lot of source material for the localization team at Netflix to work on to help them understand name choices, dialogue and all that stuff. This is the process they usually do and so far everything seems to be going smoothly, so I feel quite happy to entrust the process.

Q: Of course you need a lot of supporting NPCs in DOTA: Dragon’s Blood. How do you create these additional characters without going too far from what’s already there?

Ashley: Every character in this anime has a reason to be in the story. My point of view is centered on the characters of Davion and Mirana, with strong supporting characters in the story. Sometimes it can be very tempting to add characters in each episode or add extra scenes, but we didn’t have much time to do that. So you have to be really disciplined in this process. In fact, the main characters that appear in the first two episodes are only the main characters. All other supporting characters only appear when their presence is really needed.

[SAATNYA MASUK KE PERTANYAAN SPOILER]

Especially for this section, we deliberately separated it because it contains spoilers, so you can avoid it if you really don’t want to know the details of the story of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood if you haven’t watched it.

Q: The role of Terrorblade feels less maximized, especially the focus for other parts of the story. Why not make the role of Terrorblade more prominent?

Ashley: Terrorblade is similar to Jaws. The less you see it, the more terrifying it is. Also, I don’t like movies/series that feature the antagonist in every episode and end up being defeated just like that. So we wanted to make sure that every time the Terrorblade appeared, he had to leave a strong impression.

Q: How did the relationship between Mirana and Dragon Knight finally emerge?

Ashley: They are both characters who are emotionally crushed before meeting at the worst possible moment and continue to prove that they can rely on each other. I think they see who they are in each other and there are other aspects they want to pursue as well. If this isn’t a recipe for love, then I don’t know what else.

Q: Does Bram use Town Portal scrolls? And why does he need blood?

Ashley: We’re of course in favor of Town Portal scrolls but the idea here is that they’re magically crafted in Dragon Hold with the remains of a void dragon. This of course requires blood and some kind of ritual to work because I want to make it very, very difficult to teleport from place to place.

Q: The shopkeeper looks like a mystical person, even though he only has a small role. Can you explain about the “representation” of the character?

Ashley: Invoker has knowledge, Oracle can see the future, and Shopkeeper is the embodiment of karma and dharma. He is what you put into the universe itself and what you get back, and how you interact with him provides the impetus to pursue what you seek and seek the ultimate truth.

Q: We saw another Eldwurm, when Auroth (Wintern Wyvern) was supposed to be the last one after Slyrak “died”. So how far in the past is the main story setting of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood taken? Or is this some kind of alternate universe?

Ashley: We put Eldwurm as more than just an ordinary monster. I’ve specifically avoided making Auroth one of the Thunder, even though he’s actually old enough to be one. I hope there is a chance to meet him. But for our current position… my assumption is that all the heroes in DOTA will appear on the final battlefield, but the Ancients don’t have to always limit them to contemporaries, like how they can travel through time to meet their representatives in various corners of the universe / other worlds.

Q: Why did you end up taking a dragon in human form, rather than like Wurmling for example?

Ashley: This transformation or hybrid form is something we got from Davion’s voice and characteristics in the game. I think this is a really cool form and makes Davion feel like a “monster” rather than a form that actually resembles him purely. But if you look closely, Slyvion (as we call him) always evolves every time he awakens. He had a different design in episodes 2, 4, or 8. In fact he also had me in episode 8. Each time he felt a little more like Davion and closer to a pure dragon figure. With more episodes for sure this evolution will continue.

For those of you who are curious about the anime series, DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is scheduled to be aired on Netflix on March 25. This anime will even get an Indonesian dubbing option too!

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