#have i thought about literally ANYTHING but TDP for the past two days? no i have not

[kradogsrats]

Signs of the Fall, Pt. 2

Since Part 1 was cut short due to the limit on number of images per post, here's Part 2.

Perhaps Your Heart Is Not Yet Darkened

And finally, the big one: the darkened center of his chest star. We can pinpoint this as happening somewhere between Leola's execution and whenever TMO gets around to checking on Aaravos weeping over her remains:

I have my own feelings about the whole "for 100 years, I wept" thing in relation to Ripples, mostly related to how I don't think the place Aaravos is crying is like... the same plane of reality.

We're also given pretty big hint as to why his star is darkened, and the subsequent connection between him and dark magic:

Aaravos is connected to dark magic users through the emptiness in his own spirit, as seen in his darkened chest star. Why is his spirit empty? Well:

Because he lost what fills that darkness. Bummer.

How was he able to conceal this from the rest of Xadia for hundreds, if not thousands of years, seeing as it's not darkened in the s4 flashback? Well, we still don't know. Why does it light up again when he's casting primal spells? Don't know that, either.

I do think most, if not all, of the pre-s6 theories about Aaravos's chest star are still viable. The Laurelion poem remains suspiciously on point, and "dark magic corruption is literally an offshoot of Aaravos's own entrenched grief and hatred" is... a take I expect will be kind of controversial. (I might noodle on that a bit more and see about writing it up, because I don't think it's as insane as it sounds.)

It is Such a Quiet Thing, to Fall

So to circle back to the beginning, we still have the question of what even was Aaravos's fall? Why is he "fallen"? What does that even mean?

Most interpretations have been that it's related to some kind of transgression and punishment, whether that was his machinations in bringing dark magic into being or some earlier involvement with humans that met the stars' disapproval. This, I think, is largely rooted in Aaravos's definite associations with Lucifer, fallen angel and manipulator of humanity. Plus there's the fact that he's imprisoned when he's introduced, and it took a while to get across that he has actually been imprisoned for "only" 300 years—"fallen" was frequently taken to be synonymous with his imprisonment, being stripped of his power and exiled.

I want to put forward a theory where those things are separated: even though the artbook directly says, "As a 'fallen' Startouch elf, Aaravos can only access a fraction of his former power," I'm not sure those things are actually related.

Aaravos's relatively depowered state, I think, may actually be a normal part of him choosing to manifest in Xadia.

It's pretty standard for divine beings taking on corporeal mortal form to not be able to access the same level of omnipotence as they could before. Given the way Leola's trial and execution played out, it also doesn't seem like stripping Aaravos of some of his power is something the council of stars would be interested in doing, whether they wanted to punish him or not.

So one possibility is actually that a "fallen" star is simply another term for a Startouch elf walking Xadia, one of the great ones made manifest.

Another possibility is to come full circle back to Aaravos as "the Fallen Star" being related to his imprisonment. In answer to Ezran's question about whether a fallen star was previously just a star, Zubeia describes Aaravos as powerful and beloved, until they found that he had betrayed them all and had been doing so for hundreds of years:

We don't really have a ton of context for Aaravos for the time period between what we see in s6 with Leola and what is described as 300 years earlier in s4, or even how much time that was, but the references to "fallen star" are largely confined to the latter period. The mirror inscription, for instance:

The one exception is the history book page about Aaravos that appears only in the artbook (alongside the two seen when Viren, and later Callum, try to look up information about him). It's the Italian-language one, and among other things, says:

Known by many names in ancient stories - "The Fallen Star", the last of the Great Ones, the bringer of gifts, but his true name was Aaravos. Texts mentioning his name have been found since the time of the great schism, although there are disagreements about his role in historical events. Some describe him as a beneficent figure, an ally of humanity, willing to share his great magical power with those who needed it the most. Others portray him as…

(As a side note, there's a very significant translation difference I've discovered here from what is on the wiki. The current Google Translate output has "Texts mentioning his name have been found since the time of the great schism," while the wiki translation has "Words mentioning his name have been truncated since the time of the great schism." I don't know Italian, but I did French and a teensy bit of Spanish—personally, I think Google is correct on this one, looking at the individual words and there relationship to other Romance languages, there's nothing in there even vaguely similar to "truncated." THIS IS A HUGE DEAL, ACTUALLY, GIVEN THAT THE MAGICAL CENSORSHIP OF TEXTS ABOUT AARAVOS IS A PLOT POINT. So never trust this fandom's wiki for anything but the most obvious information, and take even that with a grain of salt.)

It's not clear exactly when this text is supposed to be from, as it is referring to Aaravos abstractly as a historical figure. It could very well be from after his imprisonment—with the Orphan Queen's involvement, information about Aaravos from that era could easily have been recorded even on the human side of the Border.

Anyway, my point is that Aaravos imprisoned is actually a strong contender for the meaning of "the Fallen Star," but we still don't really know much about his imprisonment as related to his powers. The prison was created specifically to contain him, and Zubeia refers to "part" of its power being that no one knows where it is.

It seems unlikely, given the way Zubeia describes having to confront Aaravos obliquely, that even the archdragons would have been capable of stripping any part of his powers. So if his power is reduced when in the prison, it's almost definitely only when within the prison.

Personally, that's what I lean toward at this point—that Aaravos having reduced power is related to his incarnate form, and "fallen" is a modern descriptor applied to reference his descent from a place of honor and respect when his betrayals were discovered.

This concludes my post-s6 "State of the Fallen Star" address, thanks for reading this incredibly hot mess of a take.

[bisexualenbyblueberry]

Happy five years TDP! To celebrate, I'll be writing out my thoughts on the new screenshots you released for me because they have plagued me for the past two days, I literally can't think about anything else, this is the insane feral creature you have created, anyway haha let's get into the analysis

Okay okay yeah Rayllum alone again woo-hoo I'm mega excited and all that (But seriously tho. They're alone again. THEY'RE ALONE AGAIN DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME WE LET THEM JOURNEY INTO XADIA ALONE TOGETHER I'M NORMAL I'M SO NORMAL-). But what is that tower made of. What is it. Is it solid? Gas? Liquid? An optical illusion? What would happen if I walked into it? If it's solid, how do you get in? A door? A portal? How do you get all the way up? Elevator? Do you turn into pure wind Nico and Jason in Croatia style and just float your way up? Do the celestial elves have to come and pick you up and fly you back up? Are you expected to fly up on your own or bring your own flying mount? Do they even allow visitors?

NEXT ORDER OF BUSINESS.

Why are they the only two going? (I know that it's probably because Ez has kingly duties to attend to, and Soren has to stay by him, but I'm writing this analysis anyway, because I can :D) Are Callum and Ezran fighting? Are we gonna see them fight? Didn't one of the creators say that they were going to fight this season, or am I being horribly mislead by the internet? If they do fight, I welcome the angst!

That's pretty much it, I thought I had more stuff to talk about but I guess that's all. Happy 5 years tdp thank you for quietly feeding me while I go feral over every morsel you give

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Uncoupling

I love comparing and contrasting the Three Dads in TDP: Viren, Harrow, and Runaan. On top of these being the parents of the main characters in the show, influencing their earliest habits and beliefs, anything that has more than two sides is super interesting to me, thematically and creatively. So here’s a fun thing I realized last week. And by fun, I mean angsty and sad.

Viren, Harrow, and Runaan--presumably in that order--make complicated choices that separate them from their spouses on essentially a permanent basis. That separation is always physical, but not always emotional. But each decision can be simplified down to one basic theme:

They let someone into their lives, trusted them for all that they could bring to their marriage, and then, one day, they stopped listening to them.

In each case, the men thought they were choosing something hard but correct. But in each case, they were wrong. 

Viren and his wife divorced, and she left the kingdom and her children behind in order to find happiness again. We don’t know the whole story there yet, but we do know Viren pretty well. He’s a genius who puts his feelings toward saving as much of his world as he can, and he doesn’t always make the right call on how to do that. In fact, he’s been making a series of really bad calls for a while now, and he’s been losing the things he’s trying to protect along the way. 

That started with his wife. His strongest supporter and his partner. Without her, he threw himself into dark magic even further, for the sake of Harrow and the kingdom, because that’s what he had left to protect. But without her guidance, he came up with plans that involved wild notions like invading Xadia and killing a snoozing Magma Titan who was just trying to live his life, and risking notice by Avizandum.

Harrow followed that plan because he didn’t listen to Sarai. She literally fought with him over it, and she couldn’t convince him to let it go (that’s gonna sound familiar in a second). Harrow only saw the Narrative of Strength and took the easy route of believing Viren when he said this was the only way. Sarai, unlike Viren’s wife, stuck with her man, because these specific circumstances lent themselves to her skills: she’s a warrior queen. So she went out to support her husband, lend her hand to the task, and help her people. And she died for it, and Harrow lost her anyway. Permanently.

Runaan insisted on allowing Rayla on his assassin mission despite her youth, even though Ethari tried his best to convince him that she wasn’t the right sort of person for that job. Just like Sarai, Ethari fought with Runaan--though probably not literally--but he couldn’t convince him to let it go, either. Just like Harrow, Runaan couldn’t see past what he thought needed to happen to give balance back to his world: I take my loved one and kill someone with her on the other side, and then everything will be fine. And though Ethari didn’t accompany him like Sarai did Harrow, he did make Rayla her own swords and let her go on the mission.

And then Rayla did fail Runaan, and he was captured and presumed dead, and Ethari’s heart broke. They’re currently separated, and we have no idea if they’ll make it back together again, and what it’ll be like if they do. Runaan’s hard heart might have irreparably damaged their relationship, especially if he’s not sorry.

I’m saying there’s an established pattern that ends in spousal loss every time. Even if Runaan is freed, he may retreat even further into the Narrative of Strength, like Viren and Harrow, and Ethari won’t be able to reach him there.

But listen. Listen. This story isn’t over. Sarai has died. But Viren’s wife is actually still alive, and so is Ethari. That’s two out of three. So maybe, maybe, that’s an avenue for redemption for two of these dads. For the two who are still alive. 

Ethari definitely still loves Runaan, and he’s been trying to save him since the moment they met. That may just take a different form than either of them expected. Physical saving, yes, yay, but Runaan needs his soul saved here. He needs to choose the other narrative. And so does Viren. And the people they let closest to them are the ones who have the best chance at helping them do that. To understand that it’s actually necessary.

I’m saying I want Viren’s wife to come back and kick his ass into a redemption arc. Y’all know I already want that for Runaan, and Ethari can absolutely kick Runaan’s ass there. Boot these guys, shake them up, help them remember that they can change their narrative. That their destinies are books they write themselves.

Harrow died because he didn’t listen to Sarai, his trusted partner and beloved ally in life. He turned his back on her advice, and he kept his back turned for nine years. And it got him killed, too.

But Viren’s still kicking, and so is Runaan. Aaravos isn’t going to have Viren’s best interests at heart, but Viren’s ex still might, for the sake of what they had, or for their kids. Ethari definitely still wants what’s best for Runaan. Viren’s ex might not be willing to pay enough. Ethari will probably want to pay whatever it takes. There are some issues there. But like Ezran said, there is hope.

All three dads were wrong because they were each following the Narrative of Strength instead of the Narrative of Love. You can have the purest motives in the world--and they all did--but the actions you take choose your narrative. 

The two spouses we’ve seen definitely live in the Narrative of Love, so Viren’s ex probably does, too. All of these pairings are Strength/Love. And Strength is winning, at the cost of its Love. Strength is winning because it thinks that’s how it should go. Someone needs to win. But Love doesn’t want a winner. Love wants a partnership, a balance, peace and understanding.

In this story, in these three marriages, the Narrative of Strength is tearing couples apart. And from those breaks come so much of the tragedy we’ve seen. It hurts the Love partner, it hurts the Strength wielder, it hurts their families, and it hurts their world.

So I’m looking at Rayla and Callum and begging them to both stay in the Narrative of Love. Especially Rayla. Please don’t harden up, or Callum will get hurt, because he’s the Soft One. Don’t follow Runaan down that road, follow Ethari. Don’t make the mistakes of your parents’ generation, don’t turn your back on the one person you let closest into your heart. Listen to him. You chose Callum for a reason. Trust him to be right about the things he’s good with. 

Love’s power comes from trust and connection. On the journey. Strength only cares about results. We gotta put in the time to get things right. Snap decisions are bad, and doubling down on them because it’s easy is worse.

All these dads broke the loving trust they had because they were too hard. That’s just one more thing Rayllum needs to work hard to do differently than their parents did. Or they’ll just end up repeating the cycle of pain, loss, and bad decisions.

[pokeblader3]

TDP Meta: rewriting some flaws and missed opportunities

(I won't be talking about anything related to a. Viren, b. Dark Magic, or c. the history of Elven supremacy and oppression and the show’s wack conception of morality sometimes) because those are a can of worms larger than the scope of this small rewrite, and also we don't know how the show will portray them fully in the future.

I would say that in Books 1-3, Claudia and Rayla are the best written characters, with Soren having a good arc muddied by a few poor writing decisions, and Callum and Ezran being rather bland and uninteresting(and also having a few poor writing moments).

-Claudia is the golden child of Viren, and was raised almost as a pawn to him, with her having an unhealthy view of family coming before all else, including morality, and when her family is threatened, she does horrible things in order to keep it together. 

-Rayla was groomed to be an assassin, something she just didn't have the heart to do, and spent her life internalizing shame from her parents being deserters and her own inability to be a good assassin to her adoptive father, and how she "failed" her mission and was ghosted by even Ethari. She puts on a facade of aggressiveness and being hot-tempered to distance herself from being emotionally open(which assassins can't be), and when that mask comes off with Callum we see just how little she thinks of herself. 

-Soren was the one Viren took out his anger on, yet Soren always wanted to prove himself to him and get his approval like Claudia did. He eventually sees that Viren is gaslighting and manipulating everyone, and doesn't let Claudia stop him from leaving Viren before their final battle. 

-Callum and Ezran are... interesting, but they don't have real apparent flaws or weaknesses to their character like the others do. They have some good moments and strong characterization, but aren’t as interesting as the others in my opinion.

1. Callum's arc

Callum has a fairly generic arc about bravery and learning magic, but he also has an important character trait in valuing his family and trying to be a good older brother for Ezran.

Callum is someone who was(or should have been) greatly effected by the conflicts between Katolis and Xadia. He never knew his birth father, lost his mother at a young age, and lived with a distant but loving relationship to his step-dad and his younger brother, his only family left, only to see his home attacked in an attack that killed his father and intended to kill Ezran and him as well.

He should have been allowed to make mistakes or hold flawed beliefs, such as expressing anger or grief to Xadians for being involved in the killing of his parents(especially since he's traveling with the daughter of his parent's killer), but this is only ever addressed in one near throwaway line when he sees Avizandum's statue in Xadia.

It would also have made sense for Callum to be overprotective of Ezran, and stop at nothing to make sure that he won't lose his only family left.

For example, in Book 1 when the egg falls into the lake, it's uncharacteristic that Callum let's Ezran, his tiny 10 year old brother, dive into a frozen lake when he could have done it instead(especially given he's likely still emotionally turbulent and on-edge from having just watched his family get attacked and living on the run). In a rewrite, Callum should be unable to dive into the lake for some reason, but also freak out when Ezran says he’ll dive into the frozen lake, because he doesn’t want to lose him. When Ezran does go into the lake and isn't heard from for a few seconds, Callum would begin to freak out thinking his brother might be in danger and he just let him do it.

Come Book 2, when Callum decides to trust Ezran to return home alone, this decision would hold a lot more weight, as it's a change Callum went through as he overcame a flaw he developed from his past. Also in Book 2, this would add a deeper context to Callum's talk with Ezran about how life sometimes hits you hard unexpectedly, since he is older than Ezran and would be speaking with the experience of someone who's dealt with the war for longer than Ezran, and want to shelter and guide him through growing up in such a tumultuous time.

It makes sense that Book 3 would be about Rayla in Xadia, but there should have been at least a few scenes about how Callum is doing now that Ezran is gone and he truly is alone, far away from family and home. As is, Callum doesn't really have an arc outside of Rayla in Book 3. Callum should have been allowed to hold grievances or react "wrongly" to his parents being killed by Xadians, especially when visiting Avizandum's lair, meeting Zubeia(the one who ordered the hit on his father), and the home of the Moonshadow elves that killed his father. 

2. Soren's arc

Soren's character and arc is complicated and built on a moral dilemma: he is told by his father(who we later learn is abusive) to kill Callum and Ezran, for his father's own personal gain. The problem is that the most important parts of this arc, his debating over and “attempting” to kill Ezran, are completely played as a joke. Because of this, we never get to see how he could have convinced himself that murdering children(who are also his friends) could be justified by himself, because that is not something any normal good-hearted person would even “haphazardly” try, and a considerable amount of his arc falls flat because they made a joke out of what should have been a key character moment.

To a lesser extent, Viren isn’t shown as abusive to Soren until Book 3, which makes his actions and why he’s so on board with killing children confusing and not make sense until we learn how he was gaslit and manipulated by Viren an entire season later, with little to no foreshadowing in the 2 seasons beforehand.

3. Ezran, Zubeia and the ending to Book 3

Ezran's arc is about the burden of ruling and navigating conflict with pacifism. Ezran believes that every death in a war, even if fighting for the wrong side, is still a father, son, lover, family member, etc., who just had their life taken from them. But then by the end, the entire army the protagonists fight against are dehumanized and turned into literal monsters, with it being portrayed as heroic when they kill thousands of them. The show also treats Kasef as a generic bad guy needing to be killed, instead of a tragic figure who chose poorly when his family was killed and his country was threatened(like, say, Claudia and Harrow are).

And now, for the worst part of Book 3: Zubeia. Zubeia is a huge sour note to end what's otherwise an amazing season on.

She ordered the hit against Harrow. She tried to kill the royal family of Katolis, after her husband killed Ezran and Callum's mom. She is over 1000 years old and was the regent of Xadia for the last 300 years along with her husband, and the two of them no doubt committed horrible acts against the humans. It is a complete asspull that she gave a "humans and elves? together :0? how beautiful :0:0:0" speech at the end of the season, and on a larger scale, how fast elf-human relationships instantly heal. Amaya's sister was killed by Zubeia's husband. Zubeia ordered her niece and nephew to be killed. Ezran and Callum were staring at the dragon who ordered their parents(and THEM) to be killed, and then was acting like humans and elves together was the most beautiful thing in the world. Amaya and Janai getting together also should have happened in Season 4, Katolis and the Sunfire Elves were at war literally a day prior, and Amaya was being kept as a prisoner by Janai and put through a torturous pain by her sister a week ago, and all that time she was worried about whether or not her niece and nephew were alive and the war that was going on they were embroiled in. Janaya and Rayllum are my favorite ships but they could have been handled better.

And now for the massive missed opportunity that would have also solved that issue above: Zubeia should have died(aka, what I thought was happening before the final scene when she suddenly recovered). It's thematically consistent with how the other 3 families of main characters experience a tragedy because of the Human-Xadian war, lose their parents at the hands of other families' parents, and have to work past it and choose forgiveness over vengeance. It would have given Zym and the Xadians a more tenuous relationship with the humans since Zym lost his mother to the war, and provide drama for Books 4 and 5, and it would also have shown how sometimes, relations between groups are not easy to heal, and history is not easy to right.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Hello I really loved your big long response to someone asking about your thoughts on Viren and I hope you don't mind me throwing some thoughts your way that it stirred up in me. All your talk about how he doesn't love himself, is constantly seeking to be validated, be useful, and can't see anything past if something is useful or not got me thinking... Is this why he seemed to trust Aaravos so easily once Aaravos was actually able to start Talking to him? Seriously, Aaravos starts talking to (1/2

him and his first words are "how may I serve you", that has GOT to be an ego boost to him with his fragile values towards himself. I haven't rewatched the season in a bit so forgive me if I get details wrong, but Aaravos is a force that seems to really grab onto Viren’s weakest points (his lack of self love and desire to be useful/powerful) and just use them to Aara's full advantage. Sorry I want to say so much more but the dang word limit on asks is annoying as heck. Just food for thought! (2/2)

Hi yes you want to talk more about Viren and Aaravos? Well, my good anon, I am very here for that conversation. 

I think you’re touching on the critical nugget of Viren and Aaravos’s relationship right here: 

he seemed to trust Aaravos so easily once Aaravos was actually able to start Talking to him

“Seemed” to trust him. Viren is a genius pragmatist. He craves what Aaravos says he’s offering--and what Aaravos himself represents--so badly he can taste it. But he reins himself in and take precautions. He literally walks away from the sparkliest elf on the planet because he wants to do things his own way if he can, and he only comes back when he’s failed to be useful by uniting the Pentarchy. Viren gets really thirsty for power, but only if he’s the one controlling it.

Viren saw this mirror in the Dragon King’s lair, and he recognized it as a magical artifact. He absolutely looted that place for everything magical he could carry, because, as I mentioned before, Viren just wants to be useful, and power lets people be useful, so he collects useful things. He’s been said to collect Primal Stones. His creepy dungeon lab is nothing but useful magical items that he may one day need. 

Aaravos’s mirror began as nothing more than another stolen relic from a fallen king--but that made it very important. Did the King of the Dragons use this mirror to hold onto his power? To gain more power? To punish? To extend his reach? Viren doesn’t care what the mirror can do. It’s enough for him that Thunder seemed to have found it useful. To Viren, the mirror is a talisman of Thunder’s power. But he still needs to figure out how to use the thing to feel better about himself.

After Thunder killed three human queens in the span of five minutes, Viren is Very Motivated Indeed to making sure he and his allies are never handed such a crushing blow ever again. One way to do that is to kill Thunder--directly eliminating the threat. Another is to take all of Thunder’s magical stuff and figure out how to use it--indirectly preventing future threats. (Another is to grab his egg while no one’s looking, hatch it, and train it to fight on your side, all of which Viren was absolutely trying to do, because pragmatism)

Viren may or may not have anticipated that there was a person on the other side of the mirror before he turned it on. However, Viren gets people to do what he wants (almost) all the time. It’s one thing to find a way through the mirror and spend ages studying all those books in the library. It’s another entirely to find someone familiar with their contents, actively engaged in research, and claiming to be interested in a service role. He absolutely does not trust Aaravos, but he wants what Aaravos is offering so badly that he keeps ooching closer to him (metaphorically) until he’s perched on Aaravos’s finger like a tired bird, exhausted and needy but ready to fly if he must.

Viren needs Aaravos (or so he believes). But he does not trust Aaravos. Not yet, anyway. They’re both using each other for their own ends, but only one of them is foolish enough to say so out loud (Viren I mean Viren). Every step of their relationship is unbalanced, but it shifts in circles as a kind of drunken dance. Well, VIren shifts around Aaravos. Aaravos is standing perfectly poised in the middle, highly entertained at Viren’s antics as he reels around him. Run away, come back, beg, demand, threaten, comply, growl, smirk. Slowly, slowly, Aaravos is drawing him closer to the center, to his point of balance, instead of allowing Viren to step back and find his own balance. Aaravos wants Viren in his arms as a willing dance partner, but he’s got to teach Viren the steps first. Luckily, Aaravos is endlessly patient and Viren is a motivated learner. 

It’s an entertaining dance, but it’s still a toxic one. There is no trust in their relationship at all. But that could change--Viren is only human, after all. I think S3 may very well give us a moment where Viren finally breaks. Where we may get a glimpse of his backstory, his hurts, his deepest motivations, and where Aaravos will get to choose whether to crush him or protect him. I think Aaravos will choose to protect Viren, and Viren will finally, truly trust Aaravos, as he’s never trusted anyone in his life. Not even Harrow--Viren’s first powerful friend can’t hold a candle to the sparkly power that Aaravos wields.

But Aaravos will have to step up beyond being the most impressive person Viren have ever met. He’ll have to truly show compassion for Viren in a weak moment, or Viren won’t understand the lesson. Aaravos can probably level entire armies, sure. But make him soft, make him whisper words of worth in a broken mage’s ear, make him truly believe them, without smirks or teases, and Viren will fall utterly in love. Mostly with Aaravos, but also with himself.

TDP, managing this “two negatives make a positive” story arc would blow my mind. In my other ask answer, I mentioned not being sure if Viren would choose to be redeemed in his character arc. I think the only person who could convince him to do it would be Aaravos. And only once he trusts the Star Touch with his life and soul.

Just look at this totally trustworthy face, Viren. You know you want to.