#claudia (tdp)

[luniviravosshipper]

Was initially going to just tag my thoughts on this but I thought they were too good to not actually share properly.

But, oh my gosh I can’t believe I’m only seeing this post now. I don’t know how this hasn’t been a thought that has occurred to me yet, that’s a really good catch.

Anyways though, I actually started a meta analysis before season 6 came out that I never posted ‘cause I thought it was stupid. And it was about what the symbolism of butterflies and the color purple and how they both connect mean throughout the series.

Through my research for that analysis, I found that those two symbols in general in media connect really heavily to the idea of the psyche, which is really fascinating on its own when you’re thinking about all the different places those symbols are used and how much they mainly represent dark magic, star magic, and essentially anything Aaravos related in the series.

But then you think about Viren specifically connecting to those symbols. How we first saw him use the sunray butterflies to mask his real dark magic affected appearance. How his real form is purple skinned. How his own child is a purple butterfly. And how after going through a whole dream sequence followed by a long catatonic episode and simultaneous journey of self-discovery through both he decides he needs to end his cycle of violence by not killing the thing that he used to use to mask his appearance that indicated whenever he was perpetuating that said cycle. Like, if Sir Sparklepuff is a symbol of anything at the end of the day, he is basically the greatest symbol of Viren’s self-liberation.

But obviously, what this means for the symbolism of those things doesn’t just end there. Sir Sparklepuff came back in season 7 by Aaravos’s surprise. Regardless of whatever his unfinished business was, I think the biggest surprise to Aaravos as speculated by a lot of people besides myself as well was actually the fact that he was able to come back at all.

Like, I convinced myself that my original idea for that analysis was stupid because that symbolism I picked up on wouldn’t run that deep. But Sir Sparklepuff’s own story literally has to do with the idea of having a soul or lack thereof. He is actually, legitimately a symbol of the psyche, not just for Viren but for himself. (You could even say some things about how he could be applied as representation of some parts of Aaravos’s character arc too given that he was his child also and Aaravos had supposedly not planned for him to have a soul.)

Also, the fact that now Claudia is trying to follow in his footsteps, his other child. Now she’s gaining his same corrupted appearance with purple colored skin, is working far more closely to Aaravos, is seeking out power (I’m working on an analysis of her character right now and it talks about that specifically too) like her dad did, and also seems to be gaining some ties to the sun primal which was the primal the butterfly Viren used to kill was tied to.

Oh, right. And also, she was the one who killed Sir Sparklepuff for him after Viren rejected his chance to do that himself as Sir Sparklepuff was his symbol of self-liberation. And then we see Viren during all of season 6 grew less and less in control and is tested on how free he really feels he is. (Yelling at the walls about how he’s free which is then followed by an image of a fly caught in a spiderweb and then eaten by a spider, telling Soren he doesn’t expect to be forgiven or redeemed and he’s accepting any punishment he’ll receive, being forced to use dark magic in his final moments but then making his last choice of sacrificing himself over his child—unlike what he was unable to prevent with Sir Sparklepuff, but also in a way having Sir Sparklepuff’s sacrifice represent more of Viren’s own idea of self-liberation being sacrificed then as his son being sacrificed, etc.) It was by having Claudia kill Sir Sparklepuff that convinced him to leave, that led him down the path to his permeant death. He felt sure of himself despite not knowing exactly how he was alive till he found out the reason he was alive was because Claudia killed Sir Sparklepuff. I mean, had he lived for another reason would he have stayed? If Sir Sparklepuff could have continued to live, would Viren have actually fought for the right to atone for what he has done and not immediately gone searching for whatever punishment he might have received in Katolis and accepted it? We see him starting to question Aaravos, maybe even feeling the urge to do something about Aaravos when he discovers he’s alive. If he had lived by other means, like maybe having Claudia use her own blood or some other alternative, maybe he’d have a completely different arc than what we saw. But it was the death of Sir Sparklepuff and Claudia being the one to cause that death that was the ultimate turning point in his arc. (There’s so much to say about the relevance of the “no parent should have to see their child suffer for them” or whatever he said quote here, but then I’d have to type up another couple of paragraphs just on that and I don’t want to right now.)

Oh, and I’m just now remembering this. The fact that in the Lost Child reflections story as well as several moments throughout the series we see Sir Sparklepuff mimicking her behavior and mannerisms and literally mirroring her. (In the Lost Child’s story she complains about it just being him who’s staying with her now, but as he’s mostly mirroring her during that story he could be representing her and her feeling alone with herself. And rereading it now, of my gosh, there is soooooo many references to the idea of innocence that was expressed more explicitly in season 7. And in the story it seemed to be used to connect Claudia’s and Sir Sparklepuff’s characters together, with his innocence reminding her of her loss of innocence but still prevalent feelings of helplessness and being childish. Makes a lot of sense with her main issues propelling her corruption arc being her own resistance to accept accountability over her own actions despite being offered a lot of autonomy and agency throughout the entire series.)

Like, I don’t know. This is really making me want to look back at that unfinished analysis and rewrite it and share it now. I feel like I have a lot more to say now than I did then.

I’m rewatching and just the way that across the early seasons Viren uses the butterflies after his uses of dark magic, to change his appearance back, and then how Aaravos tells Viren “you’re going to need to look presentable” in season 3 episode 3 and he brings him a butterfly to consume, and then we get the whole season 5 episode 9 “You will sacrifice your other child. Our child” and he presents him with butterfly winged gremlin child Sir Sparklepuff

[ac0531]

[hiccupshypotheticalleftsock]

WHAT DID I SAY??? CLAUDIA AND AARAVOS USING EACH OTHER TO FILL THE VOID OF A LOST FATHER/DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP.

“I will not watch another daughter die”, guys I can’t do this anymore actually.

[sorinethemastermind]

[1very1fancy1doilies1]

Claudia's new haircut is so cute!! this was supposed to be super simple, but I just had to get dramatic with the lighting :P

[hadesisqueer]

Free my girl Claudia of criticism look at her she's so cute ignore the second picture she's just going through the second worst experience a girl could go through (being 19 years old)

[kalystara]

sooo....about s6

[ayzaart]

(sketch) TDP S7 CONFIRMED LETS GO???

[thrandilf]

BEST SCENE BEST SCENE I'M LIVING LMAO

Bonus Awwwwww/everything I ever wanted content immediately after For Me:

[salty-and-spiraling]

WAKE UP Y'ALL! NEW S7 IMAGES JUST DROPPED!

Ezran is MAD! As he should 👏👏👏 I'm excited for him to go berserk!

Oh no Callum 😭 the stuffed dragon from the credits 😭😭😭

Aaravos😍🙌 bbg looking evil and gorgeous

AHHH we finally get to see Ethari! It looks like his hair has grown. Poor baby, he looks so 😢 Runaan's coming back soon!

We already saw this one but still great 💜

Clauderry still going strong! Hope nothing bad happens to them this season 🙂

First of all- Aaravos 🤣🤣 why does he look like that! Bro hasn't slept in WEEKS

Second, what's up with Viren's staff- or well, technically Claudia's staff now?

BADASS AS HELL🤩 girl's on fire🔥🔥 #dragonClaudiaforthewin

But the white in your hair is making me worried girl😨

[jade-of-mourning]

i miss them

[ac0531]

WELL WE ARE DOOMED

[luniviravosshipper]

The way these two scenes seem to exemplify Claudia’s emotional immaturity and how she has hardly changed in her outlook on the world over the past few seasons by paralleling each other.

It’s the way she does the eye thing and pushes her hair out of the way in both.

[sorinethemastermind]

[xxking-glitcherxx]

I saw a funny image on Pinterest and immediately thought of this ↑

[agentoffangirling]

I think something that's so interesting about The Dragon Prince is that none of the characters in the show are ever out-of-character

Like even in my favorite pieces of media with my favorite characters, I can easily admit there are plenty of moments where they are out-of-character to further the plot, to make a joke, to have meta commentary, etc, but that never seems to happen in TDP

Callum always acts like Callum, Rayla is always Rayla, Ezran is always Ezran, Viren is always Viren, Claudia is always Claudia; no matter how vile the actions might be, even though we're all screaming at the TV for them not to do it, we all know it makes sense for them to do it, and they know that it's awful as well, but they have no other choice

And it's like. They're all so complex. There are so many characters in The Dragon Prince yet they all act differently. They are all infinitely complex with their own drive and motivations, even if they only show up for two seconds. They're all so human

Aaron Ehasz and all other writers on the TDP team have mastered the art of characters. No one is perfectly good, no one is perfectly bad, they all make complicated choices that make sense for them in their respective journeys all without sacrificing the integrity of the story. It absolutely spectacular

In case you couldn't tell, I love TDP (and I need season 7 right now)