#he's subjected himself to painful and difficult-to-perform magic to help Harrow and Katolis

[t-n-c]

A more detailed post on the sexual/sensual coding with Viren and Aaravos and my concerns for their interactions in potential future seasons

Trigger warning--discussion of manipulation, coercion, and sexually-charged abusive/invasive behavior under the read more

Hoo-boy.

Okay, this is going to be long and it’s going to be uncomfortable and since I suck at intros I’ll just get right into it.

Y’all know how some of the scenes between Aaravos and Viren have some sexual/sensual coding? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the innuendo between them is so thick you could try and cut it with a damn chainsaw and it still wouldn’t make a dent!

Let’s start with when Viren first sees Aaravos. We zoom in on his eyes--they’re wide and intrigued and he makes these awe-struck gasps

The camera then goes back to Aaravos and pans down his body

From his head

Down his back

To his feet

When Aaravos leaves Viren shouts (‘no! no! no!’) and grabs desperately at the mirror frame.

When Aaravos begins to interact with him and/or have him perform the binding spell, we get another camera pan down his body.

It starts at his face 

Travels down his torso

And stops at the knife held just above his waist

So right from the bat we get something akin to attraction from Viren’s end; we don’t see it reciprocated from Aaravos at first--this changes however when Viren finally decides to complete the spell. Like with previous shots, we start with a down pan of Aaravos’ body

From the face

Down the torso

To the waist

But after we see his blood fall into the bowl and the smoke rise, it cuts to Viren and we see a down pan of his body; however, unlike with Aaravos, we don’t start with Viren’s face 

We start here--with his hands and the knife.

Then it moves down to his waist.

This may be an implication of Aaravos not applying true personhood to Viren and/or not viewing him as an individual with his own thoughts and feelings--perhaps in his eyes, Viren is simply an embodiment of his desires and goals for humanity. But that’s a meta for another time.

Anyway, after that? The majority of all the sexual innuendo comes from Aaravos and his caterpillar (which we now know is a body he can control). And they get increasingly creepier--and more possessive and violating--with time. Let’s recap:

Aaravos creates a caterpillar body for himself; it’s connected to both him and Viren. He has it spawn from underneath his tongue 

Which he then makes scurry under Viren’s clothes, which causes Viren to respond with breathy gasps and moans

We get a scene where it appears as if Aaravos himself is by Viren’s ear whispering

When Viren takes off Aaravos’ caterpillar body it possessively hangs on

Aaravos channels his powers through Viren’s body

Aaravos’ caterpillar enters Viren’s body through his ear

When the caterpillar reemerges it takes the time to crawl over Viren’s ear a few times before settling on the curve.

He webs Viren’s eye with caterpillar silk 

And takes the time to eat away the access

Through out all of these interactions, Aaravos never asked permission from Viren to use/touch/enter his body, but he does it anyway and in scenes like when his caterpillar body goes under Viren’s clothes and webs up Viren’s eye, it even feels like he relishes his invasive/violating actions in spite of (or perhaps because of) Viren's obvious discomfort and/or fear.

Even in more benign interactions, Aaravos invades Viren’s space 

(With the way he leans back and tenses up in the last image, Viren’s still obviously uncomfortable with it)

He convinces Viren to swallow his caterpillar body, so that he can grow and attack the sunfire elves via ambush

(It’s worth noting that during that attack, Queen Khessa gets a dose of Aaravos’ lack of personal boundaries via creepy and sensually-charged intimidation tactics. Apparently sensually-charged abusive behavior isn’t beneath him and that gives me a lot of concern for if/when Viren tries to rebel against him)

As the caterpillar gets bigger, he begins to possessively wrap around Viren; he goes from simply wrapping himself around Viren’s neck and shoulders 

To wrapping himself around Viren’s neck and shoulders and his fucking waist.

Later on in s3 ep9, we get the only time since s2 that Viren ‘reciprocates’ Aaravos’ sensual/sexual innuendos towards him; when Zym’s power is pouring into him, he exclaims ‘yes’ and moans in ecstasy.

And if that’s not innuendo enough, ghost!Aaravos watches him like a fucking voyeur while his back is turned.

(god I felt so uncomfortable watching this scene)

But at this point? We can’t even be certain if that’s fully Viren. See the way his eyes have turned blue like when Aaravos channels his magic through him? This could very well be Aaravos taking control of him to drain Zym’s power for himself and/or force Viren to turn into something. Aaravos has taken so much control over Viren that we don’t know where he ends and Aaravos begins. Even in previous scenes, Aaravos is able to channel his powers through Viren without having to use the staff; like here where we see Viren use Aaravos’ powers with only his hand.

Aaravos also can control Viren’s body somewhat

So we can’t know for sure how much actual ‘enjoyment’ Viren really got out of absorbing Zym or if it was all just Aaravos forcing it on him/taking it from him.

Tldr: There’s a reoccurring theme in Viren and Aaravos’ interactions where Aaravos grows increasingly more possessive and violating toward Viren. And considering just how awful s3 was in handling the complications of war and oppression, I’m reeeeeeally concerned with what the writers have planned for their relationship in future seasons. Because this? This has some really dark implications and it needs to be addressed with seriousness and sensitivity.