The Dragon Prince’s General Amaya is powerful, forthright and funny. She’s also a deaf woman of color who uses American Sign Language to communicate. Her appearance in the new Netflix series, created by one of the head writers of Avatar: The Last Airbender, marks an unprecedented step forward for a genre that’s historically had very little representation of people with disabilities, and she’s been met with an outpouring of love from fans—many of them deaf or hard of hearing (HoH) themselves. Amaya’s deafness is integral to who she is and how she engages with the world — she signs back and forth with Prince Callum, the protagonist, and in most scenes, she’s accompanied by her faithful interpreter, Commander Gren — but it’s by no means her defining trait. Above all else, she’s King Harrow’s most trusted ally: the woman he tasks with both protecting the princes and holding the line at the Breach. She’s as fiercely loyal to her kingdom and her family; when Viren attempts to claim the throne for himself under the guise of devotion to Katolis, she calls bullshit. (Although Gren might choose to politely interpret it as “bull droppings.”) Polygon spoke to two of the show’s senior writers, Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry, about creating Amaya and Gren, how it feels to watch the reaction to your work in real time, and what they hope comes next for the series. [Note: The rest of this article contains mild spoilers for The Dragon Prince.] Polygon: The Dragon… [Read full story]