#anti aaravos

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

Tbh that Aaravos being responsible for every conflict in the last millenia gives me major degenerate cospiracy theory vibes and of this quote of a show that I am not a fan of https://youtu.be/Mq1EphvZGMg

I like how the greatest danger coming from him is implied to continue rickrolling and "trust me bro" some mages (which he already does?) rather than possessing magnificent cosmic powers?

The main characters get dragged along with the plot of stopping him without stopping and reflecting for a moment, you could literally ask them why he needs to be stopped and it'll be something like, "because he is making stoopid humans do war against xadia, duh"

And Apparently Ezran's ancestor/dynasty founder from 300 years ago betrayed him? And humans, elves and drakes worked together to imprison him? Yet their relationship still didn't improve at all??

Yeah I prefer reading dnd's filled to the brim complicated lore over what that is, a villain whose motives you do not know until this point isn't interesting and I yet haven't seen anything morally gray about him and I don't think he should be near women for some reason. His ruthless actions make sense in the situation he is in, I guess, but he is still an asshole?

Like what does he want? Become an Archon with his mindslave mages?

Lmfao the Diamonds from Steven Universe were more menacing

i wouldn't lob that at the showrunners; i mean obviously conspiracy theories like the illuminati have been pretty far-right in recent years, which has made some plots that involve them a bit uncomfortable in retrospect. but the far-right aren't the only people to fall for them, and for fiction they're an attractive way to have the focus on the characters rather than writing a societal treatise or whatever. dealing with Issues that require consideration is hard, writing wise; it's much simpler to have a final boss.

i think it's just sort of easy to show that a character is an mastermind by having them be responsible for literally everything. aaravos is more like lucifer than an expy of any group of people, i mean he's a fallen star and seems to have heavenly brothers/people, you can't really get more on the nose than that.

which like, the concept isn't *inherently* bad even if i hate it, like aaravos could just be successful because maybe he exploits faults that were already there in society in the first place or he's a metaphor for something, or whatever. it could work in theory, but this sort of plotline is so botched like a good 99.99% of the time (so much so that just the use of this trope is a pretty big red flag) and without a lot of work it really DOES undermine the "cycle of violence" theme completely if everything is the fault of one guy.

the dragon prince is just not good at showing the different sides of any issue with any depth of consideration, especially when it comes to the human side, so i'm not really holding my breath.

as for his motivation, idk the fact that the dragons are so afraid of him and that he could solo them means that he has a lot of power, he just wants to fuck about for some other issue other than just to gain power, like maybe revenge against somebody else (or to gain power over bigger fish than the dragons/elves and fucking about lets him do that), probably because he wants to stick it to his former star-people or whatever. who knows, there are literally no hints in the show as to why he might do this. it doesn't really matter to our characters or literally any other conflict that has emotional weight behind it, so i don't really care.

yeah the fact that a human was the one to bring to light aaravos's deception is... kind of weird, that the relations didn't improve at all. on one hand it probably explains why the dragons have been more ambivalent about humans than the "kill on sight" border patrolling policy they have would suggest (though at least one, rex igeneous, seems to disagree with it.) on the other hand... there's that "kill on sight" border patrolling policy they have, and also you'd think the existence of a primal human mage wouldn't be unknown for the first few season if she was literally buddies with a queen pivotal to the history of katolis. but the whole “callum is the only person ever to have wanted to be a primal mage badly enough” is not as compelling as the writers think it is.

"i don't think he should be near women for some reason." yeah. in his interactions with the female characters there's this very harass-y element to how he's portrayed (for example, khessa's death--not the obliteration itself, how he handles it just before). he also uses the word "ravishing" unironically, which... lmao. tryhard reddit vocabulary.

[wishesofeternity]

My problem with The Dragon Prince is that while it preaches about "breaking the cycle" and "choosing love", it repeatedly does so in a way that echoes the age-old idea of telling victims to passively accept their lot in life and the injustices inflicted upon them while their perpetrators never have to acknowledge their wrongs or face consequences for their actions. This is the kind of narrative they follow on both a personal and systematic axis, and it's exactly why the show will always frustrate me.

[hotdoghottakes]

Ok, so finally got around to watching The Dragon Prince, three and a half seasons so far before having to take a break from the binge, and...I don't...love it. I mean it's good, the characters and story are solid, it's just...

I'm not going to go into detail about this, not until I've watched the whole thing at least, so no one @ me about how I "don't get it" or "well of you actually watched the whole thing".

I'll get to it when I get to it, alright?

[self-spaghettification]

I had a lot of analysis on s4/5 after rewatching and there was some good thematic stuff in 6 too but I honestly don’t even want to post it anymore after that 😔

[bittrlys]

I have heard some people saying that the show is going to address the issues of humans being discriminated against will be addressed in season 7 dark. What do you think about that?

Personally, I think it might be a bit too late for them to properly address it and do it in a satisfactory way especially because the main ship rayllum had rayla being prejudice against humans but her actions don't get called compared to Callum so i doubt her actions will be called out next season as both the fandom and the narrative love to frame her in the right when she can sometimes be quite hypocritical and in the wrong.

Also, I want zubeia to be called out for her actions and zyms father but I doubt that will happen either.

Another question I also don't like the series framing of dark magic. Now in season 6 (took us 6 seasons) to learn that dark magic creates a hole in your spirit and it corrupts you to aaravos but that feels like the writers adding it in there so people don't bring up the whole arguement that dark magic is bad because the narrative says so. Also the show doesn't convince me dark magic is so bad that viren SHOULDN'T of used it to save soren or that Callum SHOULDN'T of used it to save rayla.

Idk to be honest the handling of dark magic within the narrative is so confusing and bad.

Anyway sorry this got so long

My very upfront opinion is that there is clearly some dissonance, and perhaps even conflict, in the writer's room about Viren and Claudia, dark magic, the cost of it, and the intended take away from these characters and their actions.

Now, when writing, there's no particular requirement to be honest with your audience or to not accurately represent how history can be muddled and shift. "Humans learned dark magic" to "Unicorns taught humans magic and were slaughtered in thanks" to "Aaravos is implied to have taught humans dark magic" to "Aaravos's daughter Leola (a uni-horned elf) taught humans magic and was killed" is cohesive enough, even considering the writers are on record saying they may be changing things as they go, as happens with writing. (With dark magic being the main sticking point of anti-human sentiments, how and why it occurred matters.) I also don't think the show has never wanted us to sympathize with humans or not see their discrimination -- the sight of them in tears as they're exiled, evoking the Trail of Tears (still bonkers), or Ziard's bitterness over how humans starved or his terror when Sol Regem tricks him in hopes to destroy Elarion are moments of raw feeling where the camera centres humans and their pain. Most of our protagonists are humans, and Callum, though occasionally punished for his ambitions, is a character who wants magic who is heroic.

The ultimate problem, however, is that the show wants to have its cake and eat it too, which goes back to my earliest complaints in how they 'meta write' from what we expect of fantasy and muddle their own messages. Certainly this show could be a long-form exercise in tricking people into rooting for ethnic cleansing racists but like, it's a show for kids. Sol Regem is a bad dragon and he is obviously bad. Zubeia is a good dragon and she is obviously good. We're supposed to understand Sol Regem kinda had it coming and understand that Zubeia being hurt is allegedly sad. There's no deceit to this straightforward presentation. Viren, Claudia, and now Aaravos are sympathetic villains, but they're still villains. And when your villains come in two main flavours of Team Anti-Human (arising after humans wronged Xadians initially, natch) or Team Human (or adjacent) and every hero is Team Xadia because humans fighting against the disparity of their world is Causing Trouble while humans who extend the hand of friendship to Xadians are Bringing Peace, it ultimately teaches us that "Maybe humans had a hard time of it, but it's time they suck it up." I don't think there was anything more explicit to this than having our Out Of The Mouth Of Babes protagonist Ezran's Zubeia-backed speech at the Many Thunder Victims Memorial Valley.

A lot of writers like villains who have a point, because they feel it adds depth to them, but they often jump straight to "the villain is a marginalized person who is fighting for change in the Wrong Way" and this creates an implication that Fighting For Change At All is wrong because our heroes are never passionate champions for equality. They may like equality, but they say "Not now -- not like this --" and it isn't central to their beliefs. Team Xadia are not nominally Anti Equality or Anti Humanity, but their framing vis a vis our villains makes this lack of investment in the liberation of humanity quite clear.

All of this is to say that I agree, it would be too little, too late, and that the fact the show has *already established* humans as being victims of discrimination makes the narratives around them all the more galling and difficult to untangle. I absolutely would like to have the show deliver one of its extremely straightforward, directly to the camera-type messages on how humans were discriminated against, yes, but it doesn't fix six seasons of presenting all anger on behalf of humanity as something that is ultimately morally unsound and in need of changing. And how much further can they take it? Can they portray Xadians as a whole as privileged beings who have benefited from the mistreatment of humans? Not just a few bad apples -- can they actually, truly acknowledge Xadians as less than idealized? Can they take seasons upon seasons of trying to make us love Xadians and turn it around with frank questions about things like "reparations" and "acknowledging generational trauma without both-sides-ing it"? Can they give us a purely heroic human protagonist who is firmly Team Human and centres human interests? I don't think so. They prefer keeping to their "Callum and Amaya and Ezran constantly apologizing and putting down humanity in favour of their Xadian betters" agenda. (So bonkers they do this with three characters of colour, sidenote.)

Rayla is interesting because I think they have a fundamental disinterest in her inner world. She's so defined by her relationships with others and traumatic things that happen to her personally are ignored (her feelings on her banishment getting sidelined into Callum stuff, or her overcoming her fear of water to save Callum and Ezran happening off screen.) Her prejudice is a standard result of her upbringing but it's another thing that hasn't really come up in a while. I don't know if they so much want her as a character to be right, or prejudiced, or whatever, so much as they use her as a mouthpiece for particular opinions they need stated. She was learning about humans as much as Callum and Ezran were learning about elves and now she's learned she's just chilling being another one of Ezran's inexplicably pro-monarchy shooters.

Onto the second half of your ask about dark magic -- this season has firmly shifted the dark magic usage into an addiction metaphor, and so we get the "hole in your soul" (the anti-Birdhouse In Your Soul.) I do think this makes sense with earlier seasons. Dark magic has always been shown as corrupting the user (hence the monstrosity, and hence Viren being likely to die if purified of it, because it's become so entwined with his inner core) and this destruction of the self has been a reason to avoid it. I'll even be generous and say it's not entirely "Evil People Are Ugly" but instead a lot of "Self-Destruction Is Terrifying." However, I've been obsessed with this since I saw it:

"He shouldn't be monstrous in his final moments of heroism" is very funny. The writers are aware they have thoroughly codified Ugly, Monstrous = Bad and would try to bend themselves over backwards to let a Good Act be done via Evil Means in a way that minimizes the evidence of the evil means. This is why you have to put that "inherent evil" in quotation marks because real inherent evils don't tend to get a pass. And because they want dark magic to still exist in the show and still be used by sympathetic characters like Callum and Claudia without rendering them utterly reprehensible they have to make it the hole-in-your-soul addiction metaphor and say it costs the user as much as, if not more than, it costs the world around them.

Which is, like, fine, but at a certain point it is like -- Yeah, if we can see times where dark magic is basically a necessity because your choice is either "dark magic, or let your child die" or "dark magic, or let a dragon flambé your people" -- which many of us would consider non-choices -- then you have to respect that people maybe will have to make that choice. And if the cost is more on them, then ...? It's practically a noble sacrifice. To oppose it for reasons of Aaravos is a non-argument. Viren was mainlining dark magic for decades and it wasn't until he got that mirror that Aaravos became a problem and Aaravos isn't always going to be around ... not to mention that now that he's free I think he has abilities that go well beyond "souljacking." Aaravos in this case represents more the 'spiritual death' associated with this internal corruption. So can we find reasons to oppose it that go beyond The Harm It Causes To An Individual, Who Should Be Allowed their Autonomy?

They still throw half-hearted nods to the previous seasons much more heavy-handed "omg the beautiful butterfly" "omg the baby deer" (single crying tear) "stop hurting the environment" "magical beings are superior to you" type anti-dark magic rhetoric (see Claudia and the cat thing) but it seems the writers have come to realize they need dark magic to exist as much as the people in universe need it to exist, and so they're trying to focus more on the internal cost. Personally, I think this is a fine place to take it and if the intent is to return the discussion to how humans have been discriminated against, it's a wise thing to do. So I won't protest it much, although we can discuss villainizing addicts and so forth and why Rayla's lack of compassion in approaching Callum's dark magic use is difficult to watch.

It's funny, because I wouldn't even call myself "pro dark magic" as I do see it as harmful, but the hypocritical and condescending treatment of dark magic users in the narrative is something I take issue with more than the use of dark magic itself. This is why, if they are leaning into this more sympathetic reason for rejecting dark magic, I hope we see increased sympathy as to why dark magic is used and why, until humans are liberated (i.e. given equal access to magic and Xadian resources) it's pretty much essential.

Thank you very much for the ask! ♥ Don't apologize for the length, as you can see I love to ramble away myself. Also yeah didn't fit this in anywhere else but fuck that narrative deadweight Zubeia. Thunder at least got shaded by Rex Igneous even if Rex Igneous was Mean and Scary.

[httyddragonfox]

The Horror of Callum's possession: Season 6 ed.

This has a different tone than season 4, and I'm more talking about the one he doesn't know about. Let's go back to the beginning:

Callum is super worried about Aaravos using him again, so he's gung ho on getting that pearl destroyed so Aaravos will no longer be a threat. Of course, no one is taking precedence on this like he is; Thinking it's better just to keep it safe in the secret dungeon. Callum cannot sleep, thinking about Aaravos controlling him again, seeing as they're technically in the same building now. Of course, Aaravos decides to confirm Callum's worries and controls him. He gets him to access the pearl, and gives him a vision of him being inside the prison while Aaravos smashes it. That's a blatant cue to Callum that Aaravos is going to use him to get out. Callum wakes up and sees that he's holding the pearl, which he knew he didn't go to sleep holding.

I'm surprised he didn't freak out all the way to Rayla's room. Rayla of course doesn't think it's anything serious, while Callum is scared now. He quickly hatches a plan to get Aaravos away from the people he cares about. He has Barius make some candy that looks like the pearl to act as a decoy while the real pearl is taken far away to the icy north, (hopefully to be destroyed), whilst covered with an anti-magic blanket so that Aaravos can't try anything.

[I.E. that must've been some plan of Callum's if Aaravos didn't want it enacted]

They make their way to the star-scraper, after telling the king the plan, assuring him he has nothing to worry about; the pearl will be far away from the kingdom.

Once at the Star-scraper, they discuss on how to destroy Aaravos/the pearl safely. They are told Aaravos cannot be killed. Rayla reacts with a simple, "Oh, that's why they imprisoned him." Meanwhile, Callum is devastated. He really wanted to be rid of this potential threat that would use him and hurt his loved ones. Now he knows he will always somewhat be around. This means that Callum will never be safe. Later on they get a prophecy saying "all I see for you is darkness."

Earlier on, Callum had a fight with Rayla. He admitted he did dark magic again, he knows how vulnerable he is to Aaravos' manipulations and he hates that fact. Now after that prophecy, he can't help but think about how Aaravos told him he'll be his one day. According to Callum, he can't sleep because he's too anxious. As Callum said, "he's ruined;" Callum thinks he's doomed to be Aaravos' puppet, knowing that there's no way to kill him, and he has darkness inside of him. Callum knows he's a threat to his friends and family.

Rayla tries to assure him that maybe they can just leave the pearl there, as at least it would be out of the way. They ask the celestial elves to help them, and this is where the horror part comes into play.

In the alternate future, Kosmo tells them that the pearl is actually fake. When Callum hears this, he realizes many things.

No one at Katollis knows the real prison is there, so they're no on guard in case someone comes for it.

Even if they had found a way to kill Aaravos, he wouldn't have been there to deal with. He escaped.

They went all this way to keep him far away from everyone, and that didn't work.

Thanks to Rayla (but I think he already knew), Aaravos controlled him again! Not only that...but he didn't even notice!

That's like being hacked but not even noticing until your friends start getting weird messages you never sent. Callum would feel he'd have no control, not even being sure when he does have control. Seeing as he can't notice when it's happening anymore.

They try to tell him about a ritual to cleanse the darkness from him so he won't be controlled anymore, but Callum would feel so violated and helpless that nothing could save him from being Aaravos' pawn. I'd feel like I'd mess that up too (maybe Aaravos would control me in the middle of it to keep me as his pawn or worse kill me).

Whelp...Kosmo decides not to tell Callum, because the better course of action would be to cleanse him to avoid Aaravos controlling him again.

Still it's terrifying knowing Aaravos could control him at any moment and Callum wouldn't even be aware of it.

If you want to read about how one might feel about the rest of the episode Link here

[beautifulterriblequeen]

All that's Left is Aaravos

I realized allasudden that I haven't rolled around in Callum's left-handed possession motif yet, so let's poke it with a stick!

First off, I wrote this meta post about how Viren goes left-handed when Aaravos is directly controlling him some while ago. This is going to be Callum's version.

Let's start way back in the beginning, with the first time Callum cast a dark magic spell:

Callum is right handed - we see him sketching with his right hand - but when he does this dark magic spell, he uses his left. I don't see this as any sort of hard indicator of possession that far back, but he could've cast this spell with either hand, and they chose to animate him doing it with his left. A light bit of foreshadowing about handedness.

The next time this becomes an issue is in S4, when Callum gets possessed by Aaravos, which is only possible because he did cast that spell above. There's some very deliberate mirroring with Callum's and Aaravos's stances and reflections, where right = left. We get to see Aaravos, who is left-handed, deliberately using his right hand so that Callum's left hand is the one that gets used:

Later in S4, Callum tries to drop the Key of Aaravos in the lava with his left hand, but he can't manage it.

Once the Pearl is back in Katolis in S6, Callum has a One Ring-esque staring contest with it and seems to lose:

he immediately starts doing left-handed things near the Pearl:

There's even another left-handed cube moment that gets pretty blatant with its Aaravos coding:

In the moment, it's lighting up because Stella is present. But it's also foreshadowing for Aaravos's trickery with the Pearl switcheroo plan - he's already watching and listening to Callum's secret plan.

When Callum sleepwalks to the dark magic dungeon and picks up the pearl, he reaches to open the painting left handed too:

The shock of being overtaken in his sleep forces Callum to make a new plan for the Pearl, and when he says this line out loud, Aaravos sees some wiggle room for himself:

Aaravos needs the Pearl unswaddled by Callum's anti-magic blankie - which tells me that those stitched spells would have worked, if Callum had the real deal. And he also needs the Pearl defenseless in Katolis. He already has a Pharos-shaped pawn, a blind, human-hating dragon who's about to get his wings healed, and a devastated daughter in need of a new father figure.

All Aaravos needs to do to get his Pearl into Claudia's hands and get free is to trick Callum about which pearl he's really holding. The rest will fall into place like clockwork.

And when the dust of Katolis Castle settles, along with the scorched bones of Sol Regem... all that's left is Aaravos.

[starry-skies-writes]

The way Callum was looking at the coin in the end…

He knows they can’t kill Aaravos, especially now that he’s out and a fucking giant with limitless powers.

Is he going to try and trap him again? And since you’d need a Quasar diamond to free him, he could just use the last one for smth else.

Either he’s gonna perform Dark Magic to trap Aaravos (and sacrifice himself in the process)

Or—OR

Hopefully he needs to use the diamond to do that in the first place

(Trapping Aaravos in a coin just seems so anti climatic though… I hope that doesn’t happen)

[colonelpancakes]

Watching The Dragon Prince Season Six Part Six! Moment of Truth. Under the cut as per the usual! This episode will reveal my habit of using more pet names for characters the more distressed I become!

I’d just like to say that every time the intro plays, I experience a few seconds of intense fear as I wait to see if it’s Callum again. They've done it twice now I am fully expecting them to do it again.

Oh dang, that is a beautiful opening shot of the sunrise. Absolutely stunning.

Ohh, Callum honey. I know the feeling, it sucks.

Aww, Raylaaaa. I love her trying to cheer Callum up with the crown, it's so sweet…

Ohh... poor Callum... Yeah, that would be a blow to anyone’s self esteem. Especially when we know from The Frozen Ship that Callum's been struggling with the idea that he had already permanently ruined himself by using dark magic.

(Also again, the voice acting is amazing.)

Oh, you know, that’s a good idea! Since they don’t really need to kill Aaravos they just need to stop him from being freed and the main threats to his status as imprisoned are Claudia finding the pearl or Callum getting possessed. If it’s in the Starscraper being guarded by Celestial Elves, then that’s both problems solved! Claudia doesn’t know where it is and it’d be pretty difficult for a possessed Callum to go get it, especially not before anyone could stop him. Good thinking Rayla!

OH GOD.

...On the one hand that’s really bad and a serious problem but on the other hand that is so fucking funny. The magic prison you've been carrying wrapped in an anti-magic blanket through the freezing cold is a giant M&M. Sorry. There is no good way to deliver the news, huh.

Oh, Callum… The way his voice shakes and he sounds so out of breath like he’s having a panic attack. Poor baby.... 🥺

Oh, Honey…

And of course it makes him feel worse because to him, if it really was Aaravos influencing Callum without him knowing, then it’s confirming that, not only is there the possibility that he could one day become a threat to his friends safety, he actively is a threat to them. And if it was simply an accident, at the very least, there’s something he can do to prevent another accident. If it's an accident, then it's something that he did and something that he can make an effort to not let it happen again in the future. Whereas if it’s Aaravos, there’s nothing he can do. The thing he could have done to prevent Aaravos possessing him is not use dark magic but that ship has sailed. He’d be entirely helpless and it’d be his own fault.

Also, it goes without saying but I’m going to say it anyways: Give Callum’s VA an award, the voice-acting is so good, the franticness, the hyperventilation. It’s so good.

Ooh, I love this style of flashback. I love the way that it’s the same artstyle as the credits and how it makes perfect sense since in-universe, Viren’s writing all this down on a piece of parchment. Also, I think that this is first time we’ve heard Lissa’s name in the actual show! I love how you can already see that Claudia got her hair-texture from Lissa while Soren got his from Viren.

Soren with his little dragon plushy!!!! I'm going to start crying...

Hmm. I know it’s probably just coincidence, but the fact that Soren seemingly had a terminal respiratory disease makes me wonder if maybe he had the same condition as Callum’s father, since Callum said that Damian had “some sort of terrible breathing sickness.”

THE QUOTE FROM HARROW!!!! OUGH! “Claudia and I are still searching for a creative solution." "Call it what it is. Dark magic." vs "I found a creative solution. I suppose I should call it what it is, dark magic." The growth.

Oh?? I’ve always been curious what it is about the staff that enhances dark magic since it doesn’t come from a specific primal source. Usually, it comes from taking the life force of living things, but how does a staff help with that? Hmm…

Okay, I’ve questioned this before but. What is up with Kpp’Ar’s arm? It’s clearly injured… Is he using his own blood for spells? It feels like such a random detail to add without explanation. I wonder if we’ll find out...

Ah, so Harrow isn’t king yet. Interesting… I guess that makes sense since Kpp’Ar doesn’t appear in any of the Magma Titan flashbacks.

I think I remember Kpp’Ar having given up dark magic from The Puzzle House (please forgive me if I'm wrong my memory is shit), but I wonder what could have happened to make him veer away from dark magic and the staff to the point where he won’t consider using them to save a child… The royal family doesn’t have Aaravos’s mirror yet so I don’t think it could be that. I am so curious about this man...

KPP’AR MAN, COME ON! I get that you’ve seen some things but you could at the bare minimum be a LITTLE more tactful than that! If there’s some reason that the staff can’t be used, you could, I don’t know, EXPLAIN IT to Viren? Instead of just leaving him sobbing in the room with no explanation as to why you are letting his son die? ...I see where Viren gets it from.

Sksfjalkjslkf  I forgot about the monochrome so when the scene switched back to the Starscraper I was like wait what the hell is happening?

Kosmo, man, I’m not sure this is helping, but also, Callum petting Sneezles for emotional support… I love themm…

Callum, honey… Ough... I am going to cry I love Callum so much. Sweetie…

Ssakljfsalkfj Rayla trying gently elbow Kosmo away from Callum.

Callum, honey, sweetie, darling, sweetheart, love… The fact that he’s just utterly given up on himself and on his ability to continue. That he thinks he’s just too far gone, that there’s nothing left so there’s no point in even trying… Ough. And the implications of refusing to get rid of Aaravos’s control considering the fact that he made Rayla promise to kill him if he ever got controlled again and she did. Oh, honey… Callum’s arc this season is repeatedly punching me directly in the stomach.

Plus the voice acting, again. The way he sounds so dead and empty and almost apathetic, like it’s already over, like there’s just no point to anything anymore. AHG.

Once a dumb sibling always a dumb sibling.

“Truth is everything. But before you give it to another, ask yourself, are you giving them clarity, light, and purpose? Or are you shifting a burden to someone who needs all their strength?” I really like Astrid and I like how they're not going the "lying is always bad, telling the truth is always good in every situation no matter the context" route and instead acknowledging that it requires more nuance! Also, I love how Astrid is animated here, her body language is very expressive and fun.

OH? Oh that explains why it was monotone I had been thinking that it was just like, a sudden style change to portray the emotions or something skjfaslkj. That make a lot more sense.

Also, I like the clarification of how the future-sight works! It seems kind of like Clearsight’s ability in Wings of Fire where she can see all of the possible futures that diverge from her decision. Kosmo can see the possibilities that arise from his decision of whether to tell the truth or not and then pick the best option once he’s seen the diverging paths. It’s probably my favorite form of “prophetic” ability and I especially appreciate it being used here since it lets Timeblind elves like Kosmo exist while still holding true to the themes in the show about the nonexistence of destiny and how the choices you make impact the future.

Okay, I still feel like being Timeblind would suck. I can only imagine Kosmo feeling super awkward repeating what he said in the vision and like. I don’t know but I feel like it’d be creepy to have the people around you constantly parrot what you’ve already heard them say like they’re reading from scripts and you know what they’re about to say and the exact tone they’ll say it in a second before the words come out of their mouths. That would entirely creep me out.

Self confidence restored!!

Continued in reblogs, curse the tumblr image limit

[profoundfacetiger]

Rewatching s5, I realized why Claudia HAD to lose. And no, it wasn't because it's the heroes who have to set Aaravos free, but because Claudia needs to hit rock bottom and fully transition into a villain before Aaravos gets out.

This is because Callum and Claudia's character arcs have largely been oppositional to one another. Every step of the story, her downfall parallels Callum's rise as a hero - their character journeys are direct inverses. Callum the ascending hero who defeats his inner demons; Claudia the fallen hero who lets her demons consume her:

Callum takes the Sky primal stone, which leads him to realizing he's a mage. But in taking the primal stone, this pushes Claudia to rely exclusively on dark magic.

Callum then learns the Sky Arcanum and rejects dark magic. Meanwhile, Claudia delves deeper in dark magic, changing her hair color for the first time.

Callum learns to create mage wings, solidifying himself as a powerful Sky mage. Claudia, meanwhile, embraces more powerful dark magic, discoloring half her hair in the process.

Callum adopts Ibis' staff, the mage who Claudia fought nearly to the death.

Callum learns the Ocean Arcanum while Claudia transforms herself into a sea creature. Callum then steals her potion which prevents her from healing her leg and releasing Aaravos, leading to...

...where we see the characters in the s6 teaser. While Claudia descends into further dark magic depths, Callum begins to embrace ever higher forms of primal magic (potentially deep magic). The fact that the only new s6 content focuses primarily on the two of them is significant.

And that's the kicker here. While Claudia has done questionable things in the name of family, she was still more of an anti-hero than a villain because she was also tethered by them. And that's why she couldn't free Aaravos yet, as her motivation for doing so (to save her father) was sympathetic, and she was also seemingly ignorant of his actual nature.

But now that she's hit rock bottom with nothing to lose, we may now finally start to see a more villainous, vengeful side of Claudia. Now, she might free him not to save her dad, but to get revenge on the people who let him die. In the end, she becomes the figure who perpetuates the cycle of violence. Not out of misguided necessity as before, but for revenge. This cements her choice to perpetuate violence, contrasting Callum. That is the kind of person Claudia needs to be before she sets Aaravos free - a villain.

If anything, this means that Claudia and not Callum still must be the one to free Aaravos. Not only is it the culmination of her journey so far, Callum is - meanwhile - moving completely in a thematically different direction to Claudia. He is learning to embrace deeper forms of magic, wrestling with but ultimately overcoming his flaws.

The story necessitates this choice - Callum overcomes flaws embracing deeper magic, while Claudia's fall culminates in perpetuating violence. She must release Aaravos, not through self-deception, but embracing the darkness within. Only then will both characters' arcs achieve their heroic - and tragic - climax.

[theredhairedmonkey]

Something that annoys me, and probably will alway annoy me, is how some people point out that Callum and Viren and foils and go “see? Callum is just like him, he’ll sacrifice his morals and principles at the drop of a hat.”

Guys, that's-that’s the point. That’s the tea. The unifying theme in modern storytelling is that the main villain and the main hero are Not So Different. Harry and Voldemort. Spider-Man and Green Goblin. Luke and Vader. The whole point is that the hero has every trait and every opportunity to follow the same dark path that the villain did, but choose not to.

That last part is the special sauce to what makes a heroic protagonist so compelling. They could so easily go the other way, but they pull through anyway. By choice.

And this is why trying to force Callum to be an anti-hero won’t work. This just isn’t the journey he’s on. He’ll be faced with the same dark choices that Viren and Claudia were faced with, that every mage preyed upon by Aaravos was faced with…and he’ll choose differently. That’s the story you’re watching unfold.

[raayllum]

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ABOUT ME: I go by Dragons or Raay. I've been in the fandom since July 2018 (yes, that is two months before the show actually premiered). I'm a graduated english major, now full time tutor who loves foils, parallels, and looking far too deeply into everything. I'm also publishing a YA SFF book! I use they/them pronouns and love aspec rayllum with my whole heart. other popular headcanons are autistic!ezran and trans!janai. i'm not an anti & tag everything meticulously to both find things and make them easy to blacklist. I look like this, always:

STUFF I MAKE: meta directory / analysis tag / my fic / my playlists / my edits / thanks for asking / predictions

salt tags (for blacklisting & minimally used): dragons gets salty / fandom nonsense

trigger warnings (tagged on request, always in reference to fictional characters): tw pregnancy / tw body horror / tw blood / tw suicidal ideation

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Other Places To Find Me (TDP / fandom centric)

Youtube (AMVs): wordswithdragons

AO3 (84+ TDP fics): wordswithdragons

Podcast (40+ episodes)

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Greatest Hits (aka the things I've made that I think are the coolest):

1k / 2k / 4k notes

Rayllum AMV to a banger of a song

Personal faves

My "Viren adopts/raises Rayla" AU

Predictions achieved

Callum&Viren foils tag

Cube Hostage Exchange Theory

To Make It Right :: How Rayllum Intersects A Meta (s1-s2)

Egyptian Mythos, the Ankh, and Aaravos’ Fallen Star (S1-S4) 

(if time is money then) i’ll spend it all for you: Set four years post-S3, Runaan and Rayla’s parents are de-coined. Now it’s time to adjust to how the world and their daughter has changed, including her relationship with one particular human. 146k, COMPLETE

twice as many stars: or Sir Sparklepuff's existence is an existential horror story, the fic. 8.7k, ONESHOT

Sideblog for a queer fantasy WIP (TDP + ATLA + SOC) that's set to be published in 2025ish (bonus "being published through an indie press" experience) is about an unchosen one who wants her powers back, a former child soldier who wants revenge, and a prodigy who wants redemption / subsequent moodboard

[disappointingcabbage]

TDP Season 6 Episode 1 live reaction, spoilers under the cut

Who is this man crying?

What the fuck it’s Aaravos

Ok so Aaravos showing actual emotion was not on my 2024 bingo card

Genuinely why does his crying sound autotuned

There’s another startouched elf??? Who is she?????

Why is the intro still Viren getting statued??? He’s dead

Oh ok his statue got disintegrated

Yup he’s dead

Terry my beloved

O h n o he’s gonna find viren’s body

Bro why are you sobbing over this racist motherfucker

WAIT WHAT

HE’S ALIVE ????? WHY IS HE ALIVE????

oh no Claudia’s covered in blood

NOOO THE LITTLE MOTH GREMLIN SHE DID THE SACRIFICE

Oh damn Viren is fully redemption arcing and he has Regrets

“No parent wants their child to suffer for them” first of all tell that to Soren. Atone for your bullshit. Second of all you’ve clearly never met my mother

Ah shit Aaravos convinced Claudia to let him out

Viren’s actually putting his foot down and saying no. I never would have predicted this pre-s5 but now it makes total sense and I love that the writers are sticking with his character development

Oh ew this show is actually going to get me to like Viren I hate that

He’s going to Katolis to turn himself in. Based tbh.

Claudia what the fuck though like girlie your whole point of everything was to get your dad back and he’s fine now why are you still going along with Aaravos

Oof her voice acting in this scene is incredible though

Also she’s still missing that leg. I hope she gets either a cool prosthetic or an even cooler mobility aid.

Soren has opening blindfolded for some reason. The reason is either going to be A Secret Meeting for Very Not Good Ominous Reasons or something very funny

Based on the tone of the scene I’m assuming it’s the funny option

LMAO LORD BREADSANDWICH SOREN I LOVE YOU

Oh it’s just a season 5 recap in the high mage’s office

Oooh they’re deciding what to do with aaravos’s prison

I get he’s on the high council and all but why is Barius here???

Callum wants to destroy the prison, Opeli wants to assemble a multi-kingdom task force to protect it, and Barius wants to hide it

I’m with Callum or Barius tbh, the multi kingdom task force idea exposes too many people to potentially be manipulated by aaravos.

However, hiding it means that it can be found probably and exposes everyone who already knows about it to Aaravos, and destroying it runs the risk of freeing him accidentally.

Soren with the LOTR reference 💀

Rayla has the same issues as me with destroying it

Ezran has decided to hide it in katolis, smart choice

oh no, Zym’s sad about Zubeia

Callum wants to visit this ancient faction of skywing elves for info on A) yeeting the pearl out of existence and B) un-coining Rayla’s family (please let them out)

Callum is right to be afraid of aaravos manipulating him tbh

Awww one of the baitlings sleeps in Callum’s bed

Oh god aaravos nightmares oh FUCK WHY ARE YOU SLEEPWALKING

what the fuck what the fuck whY IS HE IN THE PEAR WHAT WAS THAT IMAGE OF AARAVOS YEETING THE PEARL F E A R

Rayla do NOT dismiss Callum’s concerns like that

“I have an idea” *fucking sprints away to enact said idea without elaborating* peak autism moment

I’m sorry, you want to stop aaravos with the power of pastries?

“Sometimes I wonder where my mom is too” SOBBING

awwwww bait has a little four poster bed that’s so cute

AHDIEJXIEKF BARIUS DID AN “is it real or is it cake” WITH A FUCKING PEARL DECOY IM WHEEZING

Ooh anti spell blankie

“I have my blankie 😎” Callum I would die for you

Soren and zym are going on a quest to find Zubeia and Callum and Rayla are going to see the Celestial Elves but more importantly, each questing squad is taking a baby bait with them!!

If the one going with Soren isn’t Hat I will be very disappointed

Claudia why are you ominously standing over Terry and trauma dumping

Claudia what are you doing with the staff

Claudia no please don’t hurt him if you hurt him it’s transphobic

Oh ok she’s just walking her toxic ass out of the relationship cool

Terry don’t wait for her she doesn’t deserve it

[xadian-daydreams]

Kpp'Ar, the Staff of Ziard and why Lissa left.

This is really spoilerly for Puzzle House and the novels, so just gonna put most of this under a cut.

In short, I think the reason Viren coined Kpp'Ar and Lissa divorced Viren comes down his use of the Staff of Ziard.

In Puzzle House Kpp'Ar is researching unicorns, presumably for the Stars magic to heal Soren, who from Book: Moon novel/Puzzle House is confirmed to have a long term illness that affects his breathing, leaves him bedridden and eventually he becomes deathly ill.

But before a cure for Soren is found Kpp'Ar renounces dark magic and focuses on mechanisms and puzzles (specifically a surprise for Soren and Claudia inside his manor/Puzzle House).

Viren refers to this as "the profligate tantrum [Kpp'Ar] called his repentance" in Book Sky. Kpp'Ar destroys a bunch of relics and spellbooks. One of the relics Kpp'Ar destroys is a copy of the bloodbinding ritual box;

Most likely the potion Kpp'Ar used that caused this tantrum was the same one Viren uses the last dose of trying to figure out the mirror. Eyeless viper serum -handed down from the Oracles of Ophidia who existed before Elarion fell - which sees through the illusions of the world. It's the most powerful, and risky, anti-illusion spell they had access to. While it doesn't let Kpp'Ar see the map inside the scroll, it might have let him see through another long standing illusion - the Aaravos censoring spell.

Given that Kpp'Ar seems to have inherited stuff all the way down from Ziard and probably stuff from the Jailer, given their joint obsession with puzzles, most likely stuff from the mage king from events surrounding Aaravos' imprisonment too. (This mage king seems to be from Katolis, and presumably died during this war, resulting in Orphan Queen's deeds making her the new Queen). It seems likely that Kpp'Ar found out about a least some of Aaravos' plans and his relation to dark magic, which so horrified Kpp'Ar he immediately gives it up.

But if Kpp'Ar is cleansing his possessions of anything to do with Aaravos, than why is the Staff of Ziard still around?

While Kpp'Ar has given up on dark magic, locating unicorns, and essentially curing Soren, Viren is still very desperate. Kpp'Ar and Viren are arguing - Claudia overhears them one time;

[Claudia] had snuck into Kpp'Ar's "puzzle house" and was hiding in one of the passages when she overheard the angry yelling. She could still hear her father shouting at Kpp'Ar, "I'll do anything to protect my family - however dangerous, however vile!" [Book: Sky novel]

During this time Viren uses the Staff to curse Kpp'Ar into a coin. What's notable is that we know from Callum's research into reversing the curse is that the Staff allows for use of Stars related dark magic - exactly what Kpp'Ar and Viren were looking for to cure Soren.

What if the Staff was some dangerous relic locked away for centuries that Viren claimed against Kpp'Ar wishes, possibly even tried to forbid Viren from using or Kpp'Ar was actively trying to destroy it. Which is why Viren coined Kpp'Ar - sadly, before Kpp'Ar could explain anything about Aaravos and why the Staff is so dangerous and vile.

Then Viren uses the Staff to cure Soren, essentially making a Faustian deal with Aaravos. Which is why Aaravos immediately decides to go ahead with the bloodbinding ritual as soon as he notices Viren is the wielder of the Staff. Viren has already agreed to go along with whatever the Staff's real (and as Kpp'Ar likely worded it, vile) purpose is.

This healing spell wreaks Viren's appearance, causing massive amounts of corruption all at once.

After which the relationship between him and his wife, Lissa, becomes strained. Viren believes this is related to his destroyed appearance, but overlooks the fact he's still using the dangerous relic that wreaked him. Despite knowing it's dangerous - using it increases his power a lot. (Compare Viren's aspiro frigis when backed with a primal stone and the Staff to Callum's aspiro frigis when backed with just a primal stone. No contest). Viren doesn't want to give up this power and is likely ignoring Lissa's protests about it. Also, she might know about what he did to Kpp'Ar, which would be a thorny issue in itself.

And going from comments made by Callum in Callum's Spellbook, Viren's behaviour starts deteriorating at around this point. Though to fair, cursing your mentor would definitely count as crossing a moral event horizon.

[rayne-showers]

So the candy pearl looked like the real Pearl but either:

The candy pearl did not smell like candy/dessert.

The candy pearl smelled like candy, but the anti-magic blanket blocked the candy smell.

The candy pearl smelled like candy, but Callum and Rayla could not smell it. (Which, once they got to where it was super cold, that might have come into play there, and maybe before they were smelling other things, but also I don't remember their baseline sense of smell.)

The candy pearl smelled like candy, but Aaravos' prison also smelled like candy.

I'm going with #4 at the moment.

[thrandilf]

Been thinking about Aaravos as usual and sensing his story may very well be a tragedy just because. From his point of view,

Dragon Prince is about breaking cycles and starting anew, but Aaravos has no chance of that. He’s witnessed every horrible thing in history from the destruction of Elarion to the present, and judging by his ability to predict the ways of the Sunfire Elves, nothing has really changed. Like, yes in S4 things are changing, and there are people who want to put themselves out there and mend things, but Aaravos doesn’t see that. Even if he did it may be too little too late

All he knows is centuries of injustices and it’s been compounded over 300 years of solitary confinement. Remembering. Rethinking. Over and over with no new information. He’s had no closure for anything he’s ever seen (although he does appreciate Avizandum being taken out, though it doesn’t change anything for him) and I think that the prospect of vengeance is all thats kept him from completely losing it

I think his original plan was to pit the dragons against each other. To him, they had all proven to be unreasonable, arrogant, and cruel. They could have killed each other over the struggle for power. Given the tempers of some of them, it wouldn’t have been that hard to just let the conflict spiral. Aaravos would appear innocent, still beloved, a natural choice for the next leader of Xadia in light of the tragic end of the dragons. Aaravos wants to be worshipped, Aaravos thinks he knows best, and this would be a way to do it without ever getting his hands dirty. To him, this would benefit everyone if he ran the world based off his ideals

Queen Aditi ruined this plan by stepping in and finding a peaceful solution the dragons would accept, so Aaravos took her out.

I should make it clear that yes, I do think that this makes him a villain/at best an anti-hero (and he’s my favorite character so I’m not here to bash) but now we’re faced with the Now What once he’s set free and like.

I don’t think he has a choice but to continue his conquest. If he can’t take the world by sitting innocently in the shadows, brute force it is. Even if he could heal, could forgive, could want to move on, could surrender and just ask “what can I do as long as it’s anything other than sitting in solitary” no one would let him. He’s keeping the cycle spinning because he’s so deep in it that he’s dragging anyone else he possibly can in with him, and if they listen to him as Claudia does, his accounts of history aren’t wrong.

Aaravos was imprisoned with the intention of letting him eventually die in there, sealed away forever. It’s the world’s most drawn out execution, and this is the way it was done because no one had the ability to directly confront him. He did terrible things which broke people’s trust in him forever. He’s been punished for them, but is there any end to it? How many years should have been enough? Is killing him the only answer? But he can’t be expected to just lay down his life after what he already feels was an unjust punishment.

Once he’s free, there’s nothing he could say or do to convince the elves and dragons that he just wants to live in peace, if he wished. There’s no way to be trustworthy or to redeem himself. He’s not allowed a change of heart even if he wanted it. He’s been branded an evil person and condemned until he dies. What else is he supposed to do but live it, or go into hiding? Why would he shut himself away when he thinks he’s right and thinks it’s up to him to fix the world?

It’s like when Claudia brought Viren back and Viren wanted to spend the rest of his days in peace, and she wouldn’t let him. She won’t let go.

Both Viren and Aaravos are so deeply intwined in this that even if they wanted to, they couldn’t get out (although Viren has more hope to than Aaravos does) It would be up to them to accept imprisonments/execution/ect if society agrees that what they’ve done is unforgivable, and so Viren is seeking Aaravos out of survival, and Aaravos will do whatever it is he’s been planning for years because it’s all he has left, and so despite the protagonist’s efforts to make peace, it’s not gonna happen

The change in the way Queen Janai handles justice makes me wonder if there is future hope/atonement for either of them. Perhaps they could be given a chance to help with building a better world. Perhaps they would be given a chance to break the cycle of violence. Perhaps they could do something productive with their gifts and fix things. It’s an interesting thought