#Tdp s6 spoilers

[halyasgirl]

I’ll be brave for you someday.

[sarasade]

It's been pretty interesting to follow the

"Why Didn't Viren Get Redeemed vs Viren Got What Was Coming To Him"

discussion after The Dragon Prince's 6th season got released.

Hot Take

I think Viren got redeemed.

Because to me Viren humbling himself and acknowledging the hurt he has caused was redeeming. His conversation with Soren was the main event. His rather heroic death was only the cherry on top of the character development cake that has been baking since s4.

I think Viren dying wasn't as significant as what he did before that and how he tried to provide Soren with some kind of comfort and closure, you know, as a parent should, before going. Viren's redemption wasn't just him dying for Katolis but acknowledging his wrongdoings and trying to salvage what he could.

That was pretty redeeming for me at least. Viren did the right thing even when he knew there wouldn't be any reward for it. Even if he couldn't stop Aaravos from destroying Katolis or manipulating Claudia even after his death. Like, man, I kinda feel for the guy.

I think it has always pretty easy to feel sympathy for Viren. Viren wants to matter and wants to be important. However, his grandiosity, as psychologists would call it, keeps him from creating genuine connections with others. His friends, wife and children are only there to prop up his ego or get rejected if they fail to live up to his expectations. It's also pretty damn tragic that Viren opens up about his deep insecurities to Aaravos of all people. Someone who was the most likely person in the world to exploit these insecurities for his own gain.

Viren had to taste his own medicide but I don't think TDP says that's an objectively good thing per se or that we should enjoy this sort of revenge fantasy uncritically. Viren is still portrayed rather sympathetically and of course there is the part about his actions affecting others and the world in unpredictable ways. It's still a tragedy because Viren's actions and personal problems have caused so much collateral damage. The Why behind Aaravos exploiting Viren and Claudia is part of that tragedy, too. There are no winners here. In a way Viren is a victim of his own narcissistic tendencies, too.

This isn't just about the final episodes of Viren's arc. To me it's essential to ask What was Viren's biggest sin he should be redeemed or punished for? Depending on your answer you may have a relatively different reading of s6 story development compared to mine.

To me it's not a specific action he took but his whole worldview. Viren is a fictional character (duh!) so his story isn't exactly literal but metaphorical, a representation of certain values and morals real people and society holds. In s3 TDP draws a pretty straightforward, though brief, comparison between Viren and reactionary right-wing ideologues. It's not exactly subtle.

It's just one way TDP goes to show how toxic and abusive Viren's core values are. that gets reflected both in Viren's personal life aka how he treated Lissa, Soren and even Harrow and Claudia (last two more indirectly). Since he also had a ton of political power as a high mage and briefly as a king we see what he did with that power. It's a pretty clear take on people who dehumanise others, fetishise power and see all living things as something to exploit. TDP explores that both philosophically and psychologically through Viren. Dark magic encapsulates this philosophy well since using magical creatures like tools or objects is essential for it to work.

Also also- I don't really get why people see redemption or atonement as something black and white. It's not bad or anything but Redeeming Yourself For Your Sins is a very Christian concept and Christianity isn't the only way to understand villain story arcs. Like I wish there could be more discussion about WHY redemption is the main analytical framework we impose on villains when villainous characters have a ton of variety anyway.

I don't really have anything to complain about Viren's death itself and I'm not surprised that he ended up dying (for real this time). Aaravos seemed like someone who'd turn against Viren the moment he stopped being useful to him so Viren's life has been hanging by a thread since s4. Viren was the best part of TDP and every scene he's been in had been a delight, well expect the s5 dream sequence because it was too long-winded and obvious, anyway, I'm sorry to see him go and I look forward writing AU fix-it fics where he and Aaravos are married and run a hot brown morning potion shop with all their four totally not dead children. RIP Viren. You lived like a messy bitch and died like a messy bitch. Iconic.

[eggsistential-breakdown]

tdp season 6 shitpost doodles

[sagegreenfrogs]

aaravos was right actually because if a bunch of weird ass star cops murdered my autistic daughter in front of me and then i was imprisoned in a crater with her bones and filled with my tears by the fuckass dragon who ratted out my daughter I would have totally committed The Atrocities too

[kurizeria]

basically what happened (based off this)

[numptypylon]

They needed blood for the spell to bring Runaan back, and neither of these idiots would let the other be the one to cut themself, so… they did it together. While making out, because they don’t waste any opportunity to make out this season.

Then much later, Callum reads some more ocean romance literature and finds out they accidentally got Tidebound-married.

[jedidragonwarriorqueen]

This show started with children making a different choice from their parents and elders, and returning a lost child to its parent.

And it turns out this all started because, millennia ago, a parent lost his child and turned his grief into vengeance.

[magicandmundane]

Kinda Sick and Twisted of the arch dragons and their allies to put Aaravos’s prison in a sea made of his own tears in a crater that was formed by his daughter’s death

[stuck-in-jelly]

Ezran: We should approach everyone with an open heart, give them a chance to choose peace and love instead of war!

Ezran when Viren showed up:

[rayllurn]

"One more?" "One more what?" "You know." "I know."

[konmaao3]

Imagine being a human at the time after Leola's fall.

Apparently the impact was a devastating event, so you'd have your own troubles, but afterwards humans in the area would still have noticed what was going on in the crater:

A giant just kneeling there, crying and not stopping. Crying for years. Sometimes people dare to approach him, but he doesn't notice or care, he just cries, clearly anguished. He was already there when you were born and the crater only contained a salty lake. But over time the giant creates a whole ocean with his tears, and he is still crying when you die of old age, leaving you to wonder if he will eventually drown the whole world. And you never learn why.

Haunting.

[luniviravosshipper]

Can’t believe not a lot of people are talking about the fact that Aaravos’s prison seems to be modeled after Leola’s and his old home

[sarasade]

It's kinda insane to me that The Giant Aaravos theory got confirmed but that also explains how he eats people like they were popcorn and all that.

[hoothalcyon]

Moonshadow love is so crazy like what do you mean Lain and Tiadrin were coined together but they ended up somewhere where they were dancing together endlessly before making their peace with the fact that they had to move onto the afterlife because they knew at least they'd have each other, and what do you mean Runaan was trapped in a prison of self-loathing and regret and was only broken out of it when his adoptive daughter repeatedly reaffirmed her unconditional love for him and the fact that his husband needs him. what do you MEAN

[lettersfromxadia]

Soren and Corvus are the golden retriever and black cat dynamic ascended to its purest form.

[numptypylon]

It’s s travesty that Runaan and Viren never got to be alive at the same time to reminisque about their surprisingly NOT unique experiences of coming back to life after being dead for 2 years to your daughter having aquired a boyfriend of the species your own species is at war with, and immediately having to go on an urgent road trip with them.