#Saleer

[mandaloriandragontrainer]

Yes I know of these are more “antagonist” than “villain.”

[gagaball88]

IT'S FINALLY TIME!!

Our 1:30h long RECAP #TheDragonPrince Season 1 - 3 with Virrow & LordDerpington is out!!

If you need a refresh of the first show but don't have time for a rewatch, this is for you!!

Join the Premiere (or watch it) here:

[beautifulterriblequeen]

so, the guy in the ace flag colors

(ace flag made with colors picked from Aaravos turnaround model)

✨Reproduces through asexual reproduction✨

Aaravos really be out here spawning the caterpillar from his own mouth like he's budding, huh.

mlem mlem plop

Step 1: spit out a bug Step 2: bug receives primal radiation to begin growth Step 3: pod Step 4: open pod

Leaves me to wonder, from a scientific perspective: if Sir Sparklepuff is indeed a clone/bud of Aaravos, maybe Sir Sparklepuff actually has Aaravos's true form. Ahaha, god that would be wild.

(But don't you think it's a little sus that these godlike beings just so happen to look exactly like elves, even though they're thousands of years older? I do. I don't trust that beauty. Something's up. Maybe it's benign, or some kind of "become an aspect of what you're worshipped for" or something. But if you could bend reality then why would you keep looking like elves 24/7? And you know I'm asking seriously because I'd be an elf for like 2479 years first before I tried any other shape. So: if god, why elf?)

Anyway, this asexual reproduction is the funniest thing in the whole show to me. Aaravos is the sluttiest slut who ever slutted, but he doesn't understand sex at all... unless he does, but with his Startouch brain, sex is just the same as everything else.

Which is extremely, extremely asexual of him.

Y'all can pry genius idiot asexual Aaravos from my cold dead hands. I'm keeping him forever.

[generousfanangel]

Hrt sales contact generousfanangel

[dragonprincedrabbles]

Corvus + Saleer

Insult

[moon-sky-sun-earth-ocean-stars]

Katolians characters

Here is a list of all the Katolians characters I found, if you know about others please let me know.

Army and Crownguard:

Amaya (she/her)

Bentler (he/him)

Corvus (he/him)

Ekkers (he/him)

Fen (he/him)

Gren (he/him)

Marcos (he/him)

Soren (he/him)

Tijana (she/her)

Tondir (he/him)

High council:

Barius (he/him)

Opeli (she/her)

Saleer (he/him)

Mages:

Claudia (she/her)

Kpp'Ar (he/him)

Viren (he/him)

Others:

Allen (he/him)

Damian (he/him)-poet

Ellis (she/her)

Hemali (she/her)-socialite

Karlyn (she/her)-puppeteer

Lucia (she/her)-architect

Needa (they/them)-map maker

Otti (he/him)-mayor

Perran (he/him)-steward

Tristan (he/him)

Royalty:

Atticus (he/him)

Callum (he/him)

Ezran (he/him)

Harrow (he/him)

Sarai (she/her)

[jelzorz]

Also thinking about how much of a hardass Opeli was in s1-3 and remembering that she was on the same council as Viren and Saleer, and god damn, no fucking wonder

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Saleer, you traitor 😠

[tales-and-creatures-of-xadia]

Council of Katolis, Crow Master concept art

[hikarumkns]

I want to know what went through Saleer’s head because he was very vocal about not wanting to mount an attack or respond after Viren tried to fear monger his way through the council.  But then all of a sudden Saleer said, naaaaaaaaah we going to war and I’m a little confuseddddd. 

[pocket-dust-starr]

So how come no ones talking bout this dude. He's part of the reason viren was able to get so far. Like I wanna know more about him, like why did he want viren on the throne, why did he talk to kasef behind ezrans back? What's his role? Will he be more important down the line? Will he help viren further? I have so many questions and i must know

He's also voiced by runaans va thought that was interesting

[theredhairedmonkey]

So, I don't want to say anything rude, but why does Ez up and decide to burn a bunch of soldiers alive when he made such a big deal about making peace just a few episodes ago? Isn't that a little hypocritical?

No, I wouldn’t call that hypocritical at all, because (1) Ez’s devotion to peace remains unchanged throughout the story (yes, even in the Battle of the Storm Spire), and (2) I think what you said encapsulates a major lesson that Ezran learns during s3.

To the first point, Ezran returns to Katolis with a firm conviction to break the cycle and achieve peace with Xadia.

Ezran: “My father made choices to keep fighting battles that started hundreds of years before he was born. To punish enemies for crimes their parents committed. I don’t want to be that kind of king.”

He takes a very forceful and deliberate stance against the ordinary course of business for Katolis. He makes it clear that his journey to return Zym home had changed him. He values peace above war, and whether he’s on the throne or at the Storm Spire, he never falters from this attitude.

It’s true that he flies on the back of a dragon and leads an entire flock of them to incinerate Viren’s army. But what was that army doing there in the first place?

That’s right, attempting to capture and/or kill Zym and his mother. So, using violence in that circumstance seems justified as an act of self-defense, no?

A big (and in my opinion, absurd) assumption about peace-loving people is that they must oppose violence in every circumstance. That’s patently false.

Ez would do everything he can to prevent violence (even letting himself be arrested to avoid letting his soldiers die). But when there are no other options, he’ll stand his ground, much in the same way as how Rayla, Callum, Amaya, Corvus, and many others did as well.

The entire point of the Battle of the Storm Spire was that sometimes battles have to be fought in the name of peace…which leads to my second point—Ezran’s major lesson this season was learning how sometimes one must take up arms in order to lay them down for good.

Ezran was very averse to sending his army to fight Kasef and his forces, even if it could prevent a larger war in Xadia.

Ezran: “Each one of these pieces is 500 people. Five hundred men and women. Some are moms and dads, and have kids waiting for them at home. All of these are sons and daughters. Sisters, brothers, friends. They’re real people, Bait. And after the battle…how can I let this happen?”

Ez is a very empathic person, and thus wants to avoid bloodshed at all costs. Which is why he was eager to take up Saleer’s proposed solution, and switch places with Viren.

Yet all it did was let Viren get stronger, obtaining a kingdom and four armies at his back with which to invade Xadia.

But in 3x08, Ezran learns a valuable lesson from, of all people, Soren.

Soren: “My dad is a villain. And he’s only gonna get more powerful, and the more powerful he gets, the more people will listen to him, and believe him, and follow him. So, maybe we could run, and we’d be safe for a while, but he’s not gonna give up. It may seem hopeless, but our only chance is to fight him here. While we’re together. The only way to stop this is to look evil in the face and say, ‘No more.’”

So, in the end, Ezran still has the same resolve for peace that he did at the beginning. But now he’s going to fight for that peace. He’s not going to duck his head and get out of the way just to avoid violence, especially when violence happens anyway. He won’t give an inch, let alone a mile, to a bully like Viren just because it seems peaceful in the short term.

So no, what he does is not hypocritical. Ez realizes that, in the long run, if he wants peace, he’ll have to fight for it. He’ll have to take a stand to break the cycle.

This closely mirrors an ancient Roman saying that goes “si vis pacem, para bellum.”

Which roughly translates to “If you want peace,

prepare for war.”

[joemerl]

How Season 3 of “The Dragon Prince” Completely Failed With Ezran’s Character Arc

At the end of season two, Ezran gives his reasons for deciding to return to Katolis (edited slightly for when Callum interrupts him):

"When you told me assassins were coming for Dad, I ran away and hid in the walls. And when I found out Dad was gone forever, I ran away again. I’ve been running away from things my whole life. But I can’t run away from growing up. When you grow up, you have to face things you’re not ready for. I’m not going with you to Xadia. I have to face my responsibility. Now that I’m king, I have to go home. Maybe I can help the world better from a throne. I can do whatever I can to stop the war.”

So that’s Ezran’s arc for season three. He is going to stop running away from his problems, take on adult responsibilities and use his position as king to help bring peace to the world. It’s laid out so clearly that it arguably violates Show, Don’t Tell. 

It’s fascinating, then, that in season three he fails in literally all of these things.

Ezran abdicates the throne. The details of this are frustratingly vague, but apparently he and Saleer cut a deal where Ezran steps down and lets Viren take his place. (I guess---Opeli acts like this wasn’t part of the deal, but why else would Viren be let out of prison?) He abdicates because he doesn’t want Katolis to go to war, except that he knows that it’s going to happen anyway. This is clear because his one condition is that soldiers be allowed to stay home if they want to. 

Ezran was in a difficult bind, as seemingly no decision could prevent conflict. But him abdicating didn’t fix that, nor did he seem to expect it to. I think that the crew wants us to believe that this was a sacrifice to let Marcos and the others go, but I can’t think of a single reason why King Viren can order that but King Ezran couldn’t. As far as I can tell, the only reason that he abdicated was so that he wouldn’t be the one leading the country into war. Rather than staying on to try and mitigate the problem, he runs away and lets the main villain make everything worse. 

Heck, even if Ezran wanted to take on a less direct leadership role, Opeli gave him a different way out---pick a regent. Any regent except for Viren or Saleer. (I suggest Corvus.) That’s not so much abandoning your responsibilities as sharing them with someone wiser than you. This option isn’t even mentioned, possibly because doing so would concede that Ezran giving up power doesn’t make anything better. 

What’s even more frustrating is that the show doesn’t even acknowledge the failure of Ezran's self-appointed character arc. Look at what he says when he reunites with the others:

Think of the implications of that---it honestly borders on being a retcon. Personal growth? Bringing world peace? Nah---apparently Ezran just thought that kingship would be more fun! He’s not embarrassed that he ran away again, nor is he sad to have failed in his mission. 

Aaron Ehasz admits that Ezran returning to Katolis was not part of the crew’s original plan; he was going to go with the others to Xadia, but they figured that after learning about Harrow’s death he would feel obligated to help his kingdom. After throwing that in, I suspect that they just wanted to get their original idea back on track as soon as possible. In the process, however, they completely forgot about the new character arc that they had set up, and that means that Ezran forgets it too. He doesn’t even mention that Viren and Kasef are invading Xadia, probably because the writers forgot that he knew.  

I actually waited until I finished the season before writing this, hoping that the show would do something to redeem this storyline. Instead it made things worse by trying to pull a bunch of “true King Ezran” crap in the last episode. Reminder, Viren didn’t overthrow him---Ezran gave the crown to him. He doesn’t get to give up, let Viren screw up the world for a while and then come back into power, lauded by everyone as if nothing ever happened. Except, apparently, that he does.

There are so many ways that this could have been written better. Here are a few that I can think of:

Viren overthrows Ezran. Ezran has failed in his mission to stop the war, but when he rejoins the others they can at least remind him that he did all that he could. (The only true failure is giving up and all that.) Also, he can still claim the throne again when Viren is defeated, without seeming like a massive hypocrite. 

Ezran sees no other choice but to help the invasion of Xadia. However, he stays on as king and does everything possible to mitigate the situation, such as suing for peace over Kasef’s objections. Viren gets out of prison some other way, such as by tricking Ezran or getting help from his various allies. 

That, but with the aforementioned regent thing thrown in. 

Ezran abandons the crown like in the show, but this is acknowledged as a personal failing. His quest for allies is given more focus and treated as a redemption arc, with him taking responsibility like he should have been before. Aanya would make a good foil here, giving him advice and/or comfort about the hardships of ruling.

I want to end with another speech by Ezran, said during “The Crown” when he very temporarily fulfills his kingly duties:

“So I’ve decided...that I don’t have to be the king my father was. My father made choices to keep fighting battles that started hundreds of years before he was born. To punish enemies for crimes their parents committed. I don’t want to be that kind of king.”

Well, Ez, Harrow usually did that stuff because he listened to Viren, but at least he didn’t go so far as to let Viren rule in his place. So in the end, you caused all the same problems that he did, but worse. 

[beautifulterriblequeen]

B2:S - Chapter 2

Much of this series will be about the differences and additions in the novel version, and how they contribute to my understanding of story canon. But there will be character appreciation, the odd theory and headcanon, and suchlike as well.

Spoilers for Book Two: Sky below.

I admit it, I didn't get the vibe that the Breach was secret from the elves until I read this chapter! *puts on derp cap* It seemed like enough time had passed that the elves would have managed to recon just about every part of the border, and that's why Janai was there in the first place: because she knew about the Breach, but not about the second human stronghold on the elven side. Like maybe that violated their agreed-upon terms or something: Keep To Your Side. So she attacked it when she discovered it. Oh well.

A secret path into Xadia is way more interesting, since it balances out the Moonstone Path that the Moonshadow assassins take into the human lands and lets all sorts of fun chaos ensue - and fun headcanons.

Amaya's ability to track everything within sight using perfect recall? Sound like any young Sky mages we know? Amaya and Callum have the same ability! That is so cool.

*carefully buries my headcanons about Amaya and Janai knowing each other as battle rivals all these years* I'll always remember you... Seems that Amaya is meeting Janai for the very first time here at the Breach.

Amaya literally losing track of time as she stares at Janai to calculate how dangerous she is.

Her howling battlecry. I just think it's neat.

It's gonna be interesting to see how Janaya's relationship develops with regards to Amaya's observation that Janai gets overconfident--something that Amaya seems careful not to do because she considers it a tactical weakness.

Viren believing that being up early counts as caring, and feeling superior to the other monarchs because he's been awake for more hours of the day already. The more you exhaust yourself, the better of a person you are, huh? At least he applies that to everyone else as much as he applies it to himself.

His internal judgements are pretty harsh, though. I loved the council member's question about war dragons vs. regular dragons. What is a "war dragon," anyway? propaganda, it's propaganda Viren decides the asker is an ignoramus because they don't think like he does.

It was interesting that the book takes Saleer's line about "maybe everything will just... settle down now," and gives it to Opeli, in order to give Saleer a more calculating position from the start. It's more consistent with his character arc--if there's no weird twist involving Aaravos--but he's still really sus to me.

Okay holy cats, did anyone else have to read Viren's take on King Harrow's chamber after the battle like ten times in a row to pick up all the details and implications? Oh man, so intense. Heh, no wonder it didn't make it onscreen in S1. "Dried, crusted blood splattered the walls." Uhh. Okay wow, it was an absolute bloodbath then. "Screams and chaos roiled in his ears," too. The way Viren remembers that night, that battle, there seems to have been little organization and it was an all-out, desperate scramble for victory at any cost. Which, yeah, we knew it was. But it was messy.

Thing is, Viren is very good at framing. He could be thinking of the battle in general, the part where the elves were killing the humans, the part where the elves were dying as well, or maybe some part that doesn't quite fit the narrative he'd have us believe in. It seems likely that the blood he's seeing on the walls is from elven attacks against human defenders, though--he wouldn't care nearly as much if it were elf blood, and he'd be less likely to take narrative time to notice it. But realistically, that was a knock-down, drag-out fight in which Runaan was one of very few survivors, if not the only one. Of course it got bloody as hell.

Lastly, hey uhh Viren I have a question: if Pip is in his cage in Harrow's bedchamber, which hasn't been touched, let alone cleaned, since the night of the full moon, then who the hell has been feeding him?? It seems that Viren didn't know Pip was alive until that moment. Squawk! I have questions!

[happinessisbeyondmylevel]

So, y'know how in one of the Avengers movies, Loki used this weapon, staff, thingy (sorry I've never really watched those movies) to make the Avengers argue...

Well what if Aaravos did the same with the staff, making Saleer (dis dude)

Set things in motion...