#i wanted to go more into stuff with viren

[platinumrosetail]

Ok so interesting idea at least I think so.

What about a the dragon prince x sagua creator!reader idea?

The reader would be the creator of teyvat and its inhabitants on it, the reader decided to go to another world where the reader isn’t high regarded and didn’t create the world she went to, just to have some fun since she kinda gotten a bit bored with the same old, same old stuff in teyvat and needed a break.

She decided to work in a castle in a kingdom called katolis as nanny to the two princes, then getting a high position once the two princes grew up more to not need a nanny. She became great friends with the king and queen fast which lead to her getting those positions sooner than it probably would.

Viren, the high mage have a bit of rivalry between him and the reader though it’s more one sided as she doesn’t see him as a challenge considering who she is but she loves to tease the man when she can, unknowingly resulting in viren having a bit of attraction for her (I love drama 😂😁😈).

She will stay in katolis as the 3 protagonist go to xadia, mostly because she doesn’t want to ruin the kids fun plus she feels like she is needed in the castle anyway, what she doesn’t know is that she gains many male’s interest while staying in that world.

So what do y’all think? It’s still a work in progress but I would like to hopefully make it into a book or at least do some work of it on here (maybe people request things based on it? I don’t know about doing it on my own as I haven’t been doing stuff on my own considering I keep on switching which fandoms I want to do and end up deleting them and not liking them lol 😂😭), this will most likely have a female reader as I can’t really think of it with a male!reader this time sadly 😭 but that could change maybe? Anyway hope yall like it! I hope yall request for it as I think it’s a fun idea. Anyway hope yall have a wonderful day/evening/night!!

[raayllum]

Allegorical Rayllum in "Dreamer's Nightmare"

Really thought I'd walk out of Dreamer's Nightmare thinking more about the broyals + Harrow, or an Ezran centric meta (and there may be ones to follow) but this was something that stuck out to me on my first two read throughs and was a truly unexpected part of the graphic novel so...

This is exactly what it says on the tin, and full spoilers for all of Dreamer's Nightmare.

Let's go

Crumbs

The biggest crumb(s) we get are arguably Callum 1) recognizing the mural as belonging to an elven temple, and 2) this panel below that definitely made me chuckle.

I also, accordingly, lost my mind over the elf-toy from 1x04 being a gift given to Ezran / the boys by the end of the comic, which seems to be modelled both after the Moonshadow elf featured in the story, and of actual canon Rayla per 1x04 itself, down to the girl having a similar hair style, markings, and being a sword wielder. (This also informs our basis for the next section.)

However, the definitely meatier stuff has to do with the Dream Warden (DW) creature, its history, and Ezran's interactions with it, so that's where we'll be focusing, and subsequently big spoilers for the graphic novel. Last chance to get out if you hadn't read it yet!

Identity and Loss

So there's a few things we learn about DW and their little mortal friend.

Long ago, a Dream Warden, still new to the world, befriended a mortal child. This violated the traditions of its kind, but the Dream Warden was young. Each night, it flew to the silver shores of sleep and each night found its friend there, wide-eyed and waiting. And beneath the watchful stars, they could adventure together through the child's dreaming world. But one night, sleep blossomed into dream, the Warden found itself alone. The child did not appear that night, nor any night that followed. The Dream Warden searched dream after dream for its friend. Sorrow became fear came anger, and soon the Warden left nothing but nightmares to flower in its wake.

This happens, of course, because the child has grown up and left their old dreaming behind, and the relationship between youth and dreams vs adulthood (actual and perceived) is something the comic is likewise interested in. Callum wants to be grow up so he can help, but as Harrow says, "Part of being grown-up is looking out for others," and there are many moments Callum acts far more like the 9-11 year old child that he is here than an adult, even if he is definitely more mature by the novel's close than he was at the beginning (and so on and so forth into S1 / beyond).

It is these two things — the abandonment of dreams (a life with Callum) to taking up an 'adult' task (assassinating Viren) in the name of "looking out for others" (Callum, the world) — that leads to Rayla leaving in Through the Moon. This is due to having fallen out of favour the idea that she's "stronger together" (BH) with anyone and missing the memo the boys receive/believe from Harrow—and their mother's actions—that they are "safest together".

So we have a Moon creature (seemingly) befriending an elven (mortal) child, even though doing so goes against the traditions of its kind. Then one day the Moon elf disappears in the action / guise of growing up, leaving the DW despondent, angry, and alone. Saddened, fearful, and furious they leave behind nightmares. [Sidenote: I do love the consistent metaphor of blossoming to flowering, it's nice.] Eventually, they fall into a deep depression and slumber.

This is a pretty close beat-for-beat of Esmeray as well, down to being left behind by a creature connected to the Moon arcanum who specifically "mysteriously dies"/leaves and subsequently causing an icy, snowy storm that shrouds the heavens (hides the starlight) until a return and/or reconciliation.

When she disappeared, she left you all alone. In pain. The storm isn't your rage. It's your grief. Your loneliness. On moonless nights, you miss her the most.

All of this is, however, mostly subtext, even if Callum and Esmeray match up in S6 and S4 in more than one instance, so I thought going through Dreamer's Nightmare that Callum's evident parallels to DW, and even Rayla to the moon child, that it would likewise remain subtext. Imagine my surprise when it wasn't.

Ezran

I've talked about Ezran and Rayla and their parallels before, decently extensively. Despite having different personality presentations, they have very similar cores. Both are less inclined towards violence in spite of Ezran having access to power and in spite of Rayla's upbringing, both have received prejudiced consequences for things they couldn't control (the assassin hit out on Ezran due to his father's crimes / Rayla being Ghosted partially because of her parents' as well as being seen as a monster), and these things contribute to them questioning perceived monstrosity more than, say, Callum, would.

We see this even reflected in Dreamer's Nightmare, where Callum despairs and in a desire to protect him and Ez, defaults to, "If I can't fight it, what can I do?" versus Ezran stating, "I can't fight you, and even if I could, I don't want to."

And while I have other thoughts on Callum and the 'monster' motif / label that you can read here, what I want to reaffirm here is the way through Ezran's connection with the Dream Warden, we also highlight his understanding of Callum both in the graphic novel and while Rayla was away / in the early days of her return.

Callum as a character has always been a character with a tenuous grasp on his own identity, especially in arc 1. He states in 2x04 that "when I got magic, I finally felt like myself" in trying to explain "how I've lost that. I'm just trying to find my way back". I think we can draw a point of comparison between Callum losing magic and not feeling like himself and Callum losing his mother and not feeling like himself, both in the immediate aftermath and repeatedly on the anniversary of her death. We also see elements Ezran mentions of Callum not feeling like himself (not drawing, his anger) that come out in S4 / 4x01 and 4x02, notably while Rayla was gone. It's only after she returns and they've begun to reconcile that we see Callum draw again (5x02) for example and indeed be more relaxed (somewhat) with his temper.

Through these periods, though, Ezran has been his cornerstone. Callum was lost in grief with Sarai, but finds his way back to Ezran; Ezran guides him out of the tower in 1x03 and into the quest to Xadia; Ezran is there even when Rayla is not, and Ezran encourages him to open up, recognizing there just as he does with the Dream Warden:

But it's easy to lose ourselves if we don't let others in. And I don't think you want to be angry and alone forever.

So Ezran through his assertions and understanding of both his brother in the comic's present, as well as the Dream Warden, takes everything that was previously subtext for Callum in the graphic novel as a character in the context of how he responds to loss (specifically Sarai and Rayla's loss), and makes it text:

DW lost their Moon arcanum connected best friend and fell into a furious sorrow, and that sorrow being disturbed is what brings the angered splintering back in full force. Dreamer's Nightmare ends, of course, with the creature being pacified and presumably going to bond with more new children, rather than just being shut away forever. Since Rayla isn't fully gone, and since she comes back, his tale of moon-friend-disappearing related woe ends differently with the full reconciliation, but the period of processing the grief and anger to "to hope and maybe forgive and love again" (4x03) remains the same.

This bodes well for theories regarding his love for Rayla and despair/desperation over losing her being what turns Callum into a 'monster' in S7, by which I mean Callum believing himself to become a monster through helping Aaravos / dark magic corruption, and believing himself to be something worth killing (4x07, 6x03) should those things transpire. But as Ezran says, all it takes is one (or two) people seeing you through the periods of anger, sadness, or splintered corruption to bring you back to your whole self again. Given the basis for Dreamer's Nightmare, I'm extremely hopeful that both Ezran and Rayla will have their roles to play in bringing Callum back to himself, just as Ezran's bonds with Callum and with Rayla will undeniably play a part in bringing Ezran back to himself, too.

With all this in mind, let's talk about the doll.

The Elf Toy

So the elf doll haunts me, nor is this new, by any means. I posted a bit about it when Dreamer's Nightmare had just come out, but I've had my eye on this thing since I first noticed the game motif some time after S3 aired. While it's since expanded to include Aaravos and his pawns (and dark magic) more directly in arc 2, said game motif in arc 1 mostly referred to the Key of Aaravos, with the motif and key itself being properly introduced in 1x04: "This is the game room, cube should be in there" / "It's a toy. A piece from a children's game."

A game motif oriented episode that then, therefore, likewise introduces a toy Rayla stand in, and one that Dreamer's Nightmare, purposefully being released before S7 for evident reasons for both brothers at least, harkens back to directly.

Like I think I can speak for all of us when I say I never thought we'd see the damn thing again. It's in 1x04 primarily to just emphasize how humans (namely Amaya) have always seen elves as scary monsters, it looks like Rayla to drive that subsequent point home, and yes it's a toy in an episode with the series' core Game Motif being centred for the first time, but that doesn't mean it's automatically connected. I'd like it to be, I think it'd be fun and very on brand for TDP's style of writing if it was.

That's said, let's go over it from various angles, starting with order of events:

Kid has elf toy, is buried under rubble

Callum and Ez pull them out and usher the kid to safety

The boys / Ezran resolve the conflict and defeat the 'monster,' with Ezran realizing it's not a monster, and instead relating it to Callum explicitly

The boys receive the elf toy as a gift

The most direct reasoning here, then, goes twofold:

Placing the toy here adds depth to Ezran thinking back in 1x04 about what makes something/someone a monster, which is the subject of the conversation at hand, and how it was incorrect

It is here in DM because we're revisiting the Banther Lodge next season, and there's going to be an emphasis on seeing people (others towards Callum; Ezran towards Runaan) not as monsters / reminding Ezran of his love for Rayla. We may see the toy, probably not, but that could be the thread

Therefore, that is where I think I'd leave it in terms of being a toy with a deeper purpose... if not for the fact it's referred to as a Gift. I've talked about the gift motif here in TDP and how arc 2 makes it much more of an emphasis, largely in regards to magic and magical sources of power:

However, where it's most notable in the 'gifts' Aaravos gives: his pawns are not just his pawns, but often tethered to him through magical objects. Claudia's current pawn intro has the Sun staff, which was given from Aaravos to Viren to her; Callum has the cube, a similarly ancient relic passed down through generations; "Lay it down? But it was a gift," Ziard says, the Staff clutched in his hand, and Viren later cites it explicitly a toy: "You had a lifetime to play with your toys, but now you hide them all away or destroy them."

To the point that throughout the various gifts given (the moon opal pendant, Rayla's goodbye letter, the sun orb from the Sun, the trio's gifts of sacrifice to Rex Igneous, Janai's sword and Miyana delivering the sun seed, and more I'm sure) the only things referred to as / that are both gifts and toys are the Key of Aaravos and the Relic Staff.

And, now thanks to Dreamer's Nightmare, the Elf (Rayla) doll.

Obviously this doesn't mean the elf doll is an ancient relic, or powerful, or even important, I think. Not on a literal level. But the final pages do tease it's a bringer of misfortune, which Rayla absolutely is (or is supposed to) when she lands on the boys' doorstep 6-5 years later. She's assumed to be a bringer of misfortune at said Banther Lodge where both the toy and cube are found, which is why she's taken captive.

What characters thus far receive things in the graphic novels, too, comes into play later. Claudia's map to the unicorn she acquired in The Puzzle House seemingly fulfilled its purpose pre-series with her tracking one down already, only to have another purpose in mind as of 7x01.

It's not beyond the realm of possibility to me, therefore, with all this in mind:

The doll was included as a throwback to 1x04

It will have importance

This importance will possibly relate to Rayla

If the motif of it being a gift and a toy is relevant, than the objects on par with it are the Relic staff and Key of Aaravos

Something something "Rayla's life is a fair exchange for the Key of Aaravos" because we all know what we're doing here by now

In summary: you lost your Moonshadow elf best friend and that caused you to become a monster / nightmare ("we had to fight our own people, it was a nightmare") and Dreamer's Nightmare just expected me to feel totally normal even before interweaving the gift motif into the game/toy motif with the damn Rayla stand in doll from 1x04 of all episodes. Yeah.

And that's really all I got for this one, but I hoped you enjoyed the allegorical thread break down and the game motif theorizing!

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Teaser thoughts

I had to do adulting (leave for a suddenly rescheduled appt) 20 mins after the trailer dropped this morning, so I'm only now starting to get my thoughts settled but omg I have to write this stuff down or how will I know what I think

here we go

Rayllum flying together. Is it cute, romantic, or is it some twist where they're going somewhere for horrible reasons in a hurry and they can't even take the Shadowpaw. Where is the Shadowpaw why are they fl-

Does Ethari have his Shadowpaw back is that why they have to fly

Love the bisexual vibes here ngl

Starscraper is over land. It's not a deep thought shhh

The search for Zubeia. I'm curious why Ezran has let two of his best Crownguard leave his side. Surely this will have no consequences!

Janaya kiss with Amaya on her tippy toes. Janai has her crown on here. I feel that's relevant for uhh later. I hope this is real and not a dream Janai is having - those have not been going well for her.

This one makes me sad. The picture is torn, but then mended, and I love that. But it's set up like you'd see at a funeral.

Is this one super early on in episode 1 maybe? It could be the same night as the end of S5. That feels more likely than Terry catching up to Claudia later on... specifically in her allowing him close after what we got in the other trailer. Aahhh

This one has so much in it, I can't! It's got star bug stuff which I'm extremely here for, let the gods be gooey. It's got the whole quasar diamond crown right there. It's got Rayllum having a close moment. and it's posed like they're at the altar in a chapel getting married. Also the star is upside down in the stained glass window, so whatever theme is going on it's being consistent there.

This is one of my favorites: Ezran out on his own castle bridge defending it. Ye Olde Narrative of Strength got to him! Opeli looking worried has me worried - she's usually so certain and swift. This could be Viren trying to come home like a half drowned rat - will they let him in? Don't make me think of the men of Númenor right now, do not.

Battle couple battle couple! Rayla and Callum teaming up again! (she's the dark blob kicking free in the upper left) I love when a couple fights together. gonna be super normal about that.

This top down view of the Starscraper is a little dizzying, ngl. With Callum and Rayla tiny at the bottom, three floors down, these flying, circling elves give me shark vibes. What if they're not nice. like at all.

Why was Stella falling!? what are the Celestials doing, are they helping or are they trying thievery? Is this just a big mob of seagulls here

Janai is losing control of her emotions, she's furious and sad. She's setting fire to the Sun Seed tree. We know the Seed was stolen, but maybe this is her finding out, early on. It's less angsty if it's early, you know how things always get Worse during the course of a TDP season lmfao. If it's later on, maybe the fact that she isn't wearing her crown is... important.

Rayla in the frozen ship. Why's it burning, what's she there for? why did she go alone? This gives me some Banther Lodge infiltration vibes ngl.

Okay I am all about this altercation. Viren shoving Kpp'Ar to the floor in fury. are they arguing about Soren? dark magic? both? neither? What's the logo stand for, what's the I for in IK? Does he have a show called It's Kpp'Ar and they're just on set? lmfao the real reason there are gears everywhere is to change the rooms around isn't it. Kpp'Ar just got sick of those extra 29 steps to the kitchen.

Few things are scarier than a True Believer getting everything he wants. this shot of Karim being so filled with elation cannot be saying good things for Janai's prospects. He's got all kinds of cool Sunfire stuff on, too, including a crown, and his old tin ring from his mother. Those things were confiscated when he was exiled, which means he must not be exiled anymore. He could be king, having displaced Janai somehow, and he's fulfilling his intentions to his people by bringing back the glory of the Sunfire elves by healing their injured archdragon. Or so he hopes, anyway! We'll see if it works.

Sol Regem has come out of his cave and he's got that Power Dragon Wingspread going on. Looks like he's been convinced to take a swing for uhhh big dragon things! I wonder how far his power will reach... and his bitterness. We might get a new Dragon King that makes Avizandum look soft.

It's so interesting to me what we did not get to see in the teaser, too. There's no Aaravos, no Aanya, no Runaan or Ethari, no Kim'dael. If we get another trailer before July 26, maybe they'll be in there! Or maybe we'll just have to white knuckle it until release day.

Hold on tight! S6 is coming!

[thrandilf]

okay. for the first time in my life I'm using the #tdp critical tag because I have some things to get off my chest about s6 and I desperately need to focus on an exam for tomorrow and can't and idk I feel slightly out of my mind/wondering if this really is just a me problem but like

this season felt kind of sparse to me regarding character interactions outside of duos they wanted to focus on/letting characters present react to situations. stuff like Amaya not having a comment about Callum not being at her wedding or the Celestial Elves really not having much to say about Aaravos himself despite the Elder theoretically having been around in the days pre imprisonment like

I don't mind that Viren died but I do feel out of my MIND that he and Ezran didn't actually get a conversation, and beyond that that Viren didn't try to pass along any Aaravos information to anyone, and that even if Soren and Viren's relationship was just Maxed Out that we didn't get Opeli and Ezran talking about what to do with him (could've even had Soren walk in and do a Callum S4 moment of 'you ever walk into a room and everyone goes quiet and you know they were talking about you' moment), Opeli reacting/checking on Soren while Viren was imprisoned even if he didn't want to talk to her, there being any verdict about Viren at all and we're never getting anything else out of him again which is why no Ezran and by extension Callum/Rayla/ect feels sort of disappointing to me, as he hasn't interacted with Callum since S1

It's a really good moment, don't get me wrong, but we traded the suspense of thinking Viren had perhaps killed Soren for us getting any last words or gesture from him to Soren face to face

the Celestial Elves gave us info on Startouch Elves in general but not on Aaravos specifically even though the Elder I thought would know more? They aren't surprised at the idea of trying to kill a Great One/Aaravos but there wasn't even a word of warning about if he does get loose or anything Specific about the last time it happened or, if they didn't know anything, confusion about why a Great One is imprisoned like idk

no one had any concern either when getting access to the stars which again, idk, I thought Callum might've been more worried about Aaravos being at the Starscraper and the prison (when he thought he had it) being surrounded by Aaravos's main connection but idk, it didn't matter but I thought it could have

ALSO THE STAVES. HELLO. AT THE STARSCRAPER I JUST

No Aaravos and Callum interaction is also smth I've made my peace about but after the trailer, especially the choice to use that thumbnail for it/as a promo image, idk, I am kind of sad I have to wait until S7 for any of that and now I wonder how significant it can really be/why hes gonna need callum as a puppet now if he's Out and as powerful as he seems to be. we just raised the stakes but had three entire seasons of building towards it, so how can s7 handle getting callum to do dark magic again, theoretical possession/aaravos use, coming back from that, ect, all within 9 eps?

tbh no one really had grief about sir sparklepuff being gone which I guess he wasn't a full Person in anyone's eyes and the focus was all on Claudia/her state which was fine, like we did get some of that nonverbally with Terry at least but we kinda moved right past it. like even one line in ep 9 from terry like "look what he had you do to his most recent child" would have made me go yeah exactly that Mattered but it wasn't there

in addition to no Callum at the wedding Ezran also just sat on Viren being back like idk I guess I wish he'd talked to Amaya more. like I loved him and Aanya I just feel there was room for Both

Listen I'm not one of the people only watching the show for Aaravos and I am delighted with the two episodes we got of him but that he was in more episodes in S3 than in S6 does have me like. cries. really. s4 and s5 i didn't mind in part because I figured stars would be big and it Was but im like oh my god. i got to ep 7 and was like is he REALLY not gonna get out which thankfully he did but only at the end

and the end was like. the biggest cliffhanger we've ever had and i get going for the suspense but it's KILLING ME MAN

I know Aaravos's motivation/goal but not exactly how his actions are leading to that whatsoever as he seems to play every side and doesn't even favor humans if he's willing to torch katolis. unbridled chaos i guess? is that it? I don't even know what to be afraid of next season with him except I'd presume he's going to Xadia next and will Somehow be getting back at the Cosmic Order but idk what the past thousand years have truly been for unless it's waiting around for the stars to align and throwing a fit while doing so

Runaan is out and he and Callum didn't get so much as a sentence between them and that and the Aaravos out but also no conversation double whammy just has me like

PLEASE

at the end of this all this was a more dramatic/cinematic season but it didn't have a lot of the smaller character reaction moments/balance the prior seasons all seemed to give me tbh and it took all season to lead up to highly anticipated events aka letting Runaan and Aaravos out but I didn't get any of the Payoff of that characterwise except for Runaan and Rayla and idk I do feel both like S6 had some of the best moments of the show and also really disappointed in places where it feels like it could have been so easy to have had just a Bit more cohesion and characters plugged into their overarching circumstances/dynamics more

like I think we had the time for it

and going into this expecting a penultimate season and then learning theres a third arc planned, it makes the pacing and lack of aaravos sort of make sense but also has me like, we may not even get that and now I feel like s7 will make or break the Entire show for me which is terrifying

like we got a lot of new info but it was largely not what I was expecting without touching on a lot of stuff I was hoping for and I AGH. i didnt expect this season to continue the build up train and I'm having a hard time accepting that it's the first time tdp has ever like. idk. thrown me such a curveball that it's gotten me honest to god upset which is on me and not the show, and i keep hoping i feel better but so much rides on s7 now

[idkyourleastfavoriteartist]

SEASON 6 SPOILERS OF THE DRAGON PRINCE!!!!! Also I'm just gonna say this post is LONG (overall thoughts,rewrite?) I'm not a actual writer so take evey thing with a grain of salt. It's fine if you disagree or even dislike my opinions and (kinda) rewrites just be nice about it please and thank you!! (Also this has really bad grammar it's not that deep if it's not perfect)

I overall felt that this season was really good and it's one of the shows strongest!!!! I don't want it too sound like I'm complaining because that's not the case because I really enjoyed this season so don't take like that please. Let start with the positives I really liked the scene where Soren shouted at Viren in the jail (as he should loved that reunion). Rayllum finally got back together loved that for us. I feel like the darker atmosphere the show really works and I couldn't be happier about it. Corvus is so lovely him and him having too babysit Soren is so fun too watch. Learning about Callum's dad and Claudia's/Soren's mum was really interesting and was nice too get info on them. I'm really happy about how better the animation is getting better each season with it being a overall higher quality. Literally like 90% of this season I liked.

The only questions/slight problems I have is that I personally don't understand how Aaravous wanted Viren too kill sir sparklepuff (he calls them THIER child) so him being a grieving father doesn't make sense too me especially with the fact that Viren at first didn't care about sir sparklepuff, it was only when Aaravous said it was their child, like sir do you want Viren too live?????? Like what was the reason too humaninse sir sparklepuff if Aaravous didn't see them as a actual being with feelings and if goes against his plans that he made to control Viren to get him out of his prison??????? (I actually like his back story because of how it relates to the themes of love in tdp but in a way which is so similar but so different to our main cast).We all knew that Viren was gonna be redeemed well I felt it coming. But it should of been handled better because due to Aaravous for no reason making Viren feel bad for sir sparklepuff just so Viren could have a situation too get on the dark magic bad high horse didn't really rub well on me. I would of made Viren care about sir sparklepuff without Araavous input so it will make more sense that he wouldn't want too kill him and his redemption feel more earned despite Araavous who only made the being too finalise the spell to keep Viren alive(idk if it makes sense but too me it does) then have the "I'm over with dark magic and you" speech. With Araavous backstory I would of liked more that Araavous did have rebellious feeling about the power structers with elfs and humans (he felt it was unfair that elves get all the power and how rude elves where to humans despite them just wanting too learn too use magic) and he teaches a little bit too much leola but she tooked his teachings to other humans when she should of kept quite then being punished death after that he would go villain mode. I like the idea that Aaravous is evil but tried too keep quite until leola because he felt like he owed her the truth which led too her death and years of terror expanding on dark magic with humans till he went to prison. (that's my rewrite I don't really do stuff like this so if it's bad just understand where I'm coming from and give me positive input please☺️)

I also kinda felt that cladiua leaving Terry just for her to come back too him in the same episode is felt abit rushed but it's only 9 episodes so I understand why they did all in the same episode. (I would let that stretch for another episode so it's more impact full).

ALSO WAS I THE ONLY ONE WHO REALLY WANTED TOO SEE A VIREN AND AARAVOUS REUNION 😭😭😭😭😭 Maybe it's just me because they were one of my favourite dynamics in the show (mostly through season 3 and abit in season 2) so not seeing the communicate sucked abit. I like the ideas that are in this show but only wish they would be expanded more and fleshed out abit more.

[sthormiiii]

What do you like and don’t like about Aaravos ?

omgomg ty for the question i love talking about my man!!!

(this came out wayy longer than i imagined whoops)

okok so.

the things i love about aaravos are many. starting from the obvious, his design!! he is so so pretty i love startouch elves designs in general (all the concept art in the art of the dragon prince made me lose my mind!!) and also the fact you can get a lot about him from his design, like how he changed after he fell and the way he lost many of his accessories which probably represented his status in startouch society- AND THE BLACK HOLE IN HIS CHEST PROBABLY REPRESENTING HIS HEART???? like, he LITERALLY LOST HIS HEART?????

thennn, we go on his personality! that man suffered for CENTURIES, he had to witness so Much Stuff. he got through so much trauma and lost everyone who he ever cared about. but does that bother him? i mean, yes ofc it does...but despise all of it, he still keeps up his silly personality! and manages to still be himself :33

the thing is, my interpretation of aaravos's character is probably very personal, and most of the things i think about him are from my own headcanons, but!!!! we know he is inspired from prometheus, giving humans magic despise the gods (other elves and dragons) didnt want them to have it. but he still did it. he helped them out when they were struggling, and because of it he got punished.

thats the thing!! he loved humans SO MUCH he couldn't help but help them, even if he knew it would get him in trouble.his love for humans, for magic, for xadia, its what keeps him going, he wants to be free and be able to see xadia again, to see the sky, and feel the grass under his feet! him pre-fall was just,, so so filled with love for everything around him

now.

clearly, he also did some really fucked up stuff (like swallowing killing adidi and probably also luna tenebris) he isn't completely good or completely bad. he's in between and everything he does he does it for a reason which he believes is the right one-

rn hes a psycho, he spent 300 years in isolation and he is full of anger and just wants to see the world burn😞😞 he lost everything and everyone and yes hes the villain rn,, but he still has all that love inside of him. his love for humans...for magic...his need to feel someone, anyone by his side, to know hes not alone- him trying to help viren in s5 (in his own fucked up way) shows that he still cares☹️☹️

so yeah, i just- love complex characters!

now, the things I don't like- this is a hard choice bc i honestly love all his flaws too?? but i would say i dont like how the show handles him lmao.

i could talk about this for hours, but to make it simple i think they are totally wasting his character here. like. we're never going to fully see aaravos in all his shades bc

1) we dont have time for all that

2) even if they somehow manage to give us a glimpse of all the pain and suffering he carries on his back,, i think its a bit too late to make the viewers completely emphasise with him

the whole mystery of aaravos arc should have taken a different direction imo. but desides that, i still love the show sm and i cant wait to see more!!

god i love talking about him.

[zariahthechocolatecookie]

Thoughts on TDP 6x06 - "Moment Of Truth"

Made it through episode 6! Oh my god are things picking up and is exciting stuff happening! The pace is definitely picking up and I'm very excited to see what comes next, and what the implications of this episode are for later ones.

Starting with what I feel is the most important revelation from the Callum and Rayla section - they brought the wrong pearl!?! What the hell?? That is bad. Very incredibly bad for so many reasons.

Okay, screaming about that aside - onto my actual composed thoughts. So, obviously, Callum having the fake pearl means the real one is back in Katolis. First, the shot of the pearls at the end of the last episode makes a LOT more sense now.

Second, I think everyone is in significantly much more danger now. Two of the people Aaravos has / is manipulating are in Katolis or on their way there: Viren and Claudia. I could very much see a world where one of them is manipulated into freeing Aaravos - which would put Katolis under a lot of threat immediately. Very worried about what will happen then.

The other thing is, what will happen when Callum and Rayla learn about the mistake? Whatever Kosmo did made it so they don't know (anymore), but from what brief glimpse we got of it, Callum was devastated. I imagine that will be significantly worse if he learns about it after when / of Aaravos gets freed.

The other thing is important interest is that the term "timeblind" makes a WHOLE lot more sense now. I was horribly confused about that when it was mentioned in previous episodes, so I'm glad there's some clarification on that. I'm very curious to see how it plays a role in future episodes and/or the next season.

Also the whole scene with Callum finding out that RAYLA is his "deep truth" or whatever it's called was ✨ amazing ✨ Not only is it super adorable, it's a really powerful way of representing their relationship and how they've helped each other through their various struggles. It's just so cute 🥰 Also sparkle Rayla is so pretty!!

Okay, moving to Viren's section... I know there's other things from Callum and Rayla's section, I'll touch on those later.

So, first of all, Viren really fucking sucks. Like, he deserves his lonliness. He deserves to rot to death in his cell. He deserves to never see his children again. I know all the things he did to save Soren STARTED with good intentions, but... Pinning his wife to the wall to get her treats for a spell is WAY too far. Waaaay too much.

Lissa was definitely right to leave him. However, I'm really wondering why she didn't take Claudia and Soren with her. I feel like that would have helped both Claudia and Soren in the long run, even if they did still have some problems that arose. I could see Claudia having an Azula-like situation, if she was still into dark magic, but I think Soren would have significantly less issues. Anyone got any fanfics dealing with this concept / idea?

Viren being a horrible human being aside, the backstory on how he got his staff and his old mentor is very interesting. Specially his mentor. From how it was described, it seemed like he had quit dark magic. I want to know WHY and how he was able to make that choice without going back to it. I'd say Claudia could learn some things from him about not doing dark magic, but he's a coin now, so...

Circling back to the ending... I absolutely LOVE how both Astrid and Kosmo told each other the line about truth being light vs. a burden. And how when Kosmo was saying it, we saw Viren burning the letter? Masterful. I still hate Viren, but at least he did the right thing there. Soren doesn't need to know about anything that was in that letter.

And, last but not least, the Rayllum kiss at the end!!! Oh my gosh was that moment so cute!! They're just so adorable together and it spectacular. And the fact that it was a 'redo' of that one scene all the way back in season 4 - gah it was just a perfect moment!!

Alright, that's everything about this eoisode. Onward to episode 7!

[weirdlotiel]

So In the meantime I watched new season of the Dragon Prince.

1. Why the fuck was it earlier??? I thought I messed up the dates again.

2. Please, I neez Zubeia to be alright.

3. Love Janai and Amaya.

4. Karim and his girlfriend can go and drop dead. I had enough of them. (More than Viren)

5. About that guy. Gosh, I love the choice he made. (Not that I want him dead). I mean, he gave up dark magic. Finally!!!!!!

6. Btw, what was that about child Soren???? Was he sick? I mean, what was the reason Viren even chose that dark path?

7. I need people to stop saying it’s all Viren’s fault Claudia is messing with that dark magic stuff. Yes, he introduced it to her, but it was her choice. She had every opportunity to give it up, just Like Viren finally did. Don’t get me wrong again, I still kinda like her, but she’s even more messed up than her dad.

8. Once again dark magic. Callum, really? Ok, I get it… you want to protect your precious Rayla… no. Don’t. Don’t you ever touch that stuff again.

9. Some stuff was predictable, like Captain Villads and Nyx (ir maybe it only was me 😂)

10. I guess I need a lil but more of Kim’dael

11. Akiu was funny. I wanna see more of her

12. So, elves and dragons said that humans are evil, but they asked a human to create a jail for Aaravos? Can’t they finally decide on one thing?

13. What’s more it was a human who exposed Aaravos’ treachery. (I know it was the previous season)

14. About this freaking elf. What the heck did he do to Aditi? Swollowed her? What???

15. I love the homunculus. Don’t you dare to touch him Aar. Seriously, he may be his “child” (is he gay and has crush on Viren?😂. Please no.) but it doesn’t mean he can be its father.

16. Please, Callum, fund a way to free Rayla’s parents and Runaan. I beg you.

17. Young Viren looks almost like Soren (or maybe again it’s just me?)

18. Whi is this one guard always talking about food?

19. I can’t believe Callum was tortured, And Soren was beaten. And rayla was supposed to be a fish food.

20. Finnegrin vs Domina. Hmmm…

21. I hate that Pirate.

22. Yay, Callum has new powers!!!! Ocean magic rules.

23. Soren really worries about his new family, doesn’t he?

24. Who the fuck is Mushroom Mage???? (I couldn’t stop humming after that)

[inkdragon1900]

I’m rewatching TDP all the way up to S5’s release. So as I’m watching the credits for S2 ep 4 (because why would I skip them) this shows up.

I remember thinking this one was funny and a cute reference to The Great Gatsby when I first watched it. But since then I’ve read and watched Gatsby more times than I can count. Genuinely my favorite classic.

And it got me thinking. Why??? Why would they specifically reference this?

We all know they’ll throw in stuff in the credits we get to see or understand in the future (Ethari, Queen Aditi, etc)

So why this?

Time to combine two of my hyperfixations.

Most of this will be in reference to the 2013 adaptation of The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann since that’s where the scene of Gatsby toasting in front of the fireworks comes from.

So how does Gatsby’s story work with Aaravos’s?

Well after mulling it over I can actually think of quite a few.

So in S2 episode 4 we get basically our first actual introduction to Aaravos sure he’s got no actual dialogue yet and we did see a flash of him in the episode prior. But this is narratively our first actual introduction.

Now interesting enough we as viewers find out we have seen him before. Multiple times with the intro we see his hands, and in the first episodes backstory we see him in the background and he’s the narrator.

So if it’s not necessarily our first introduction to Aaravos then who’s is it?

Viren.

Viren I’m going to insert in Nicks role in TGG just cause it makes sense narratively.

Now in TGG this scene:

Happens directly during Nick’s first actual interaction with Gatsby.

Now it should be mentioned this is not the first time they’ve seen each other. In fact it’s stated that Nick was being watched by his neighbor Gatsby for…idk a while.

And like Nick knew it he’d catch a glimpse of his hand in the window from time to time he just didn’t know it was Gatsby.

But anyway once again this fits with the fact we know Aaravos has been watching Viren from the other side probably the entire time.

So!!! Why does this matter.

Because in TGG no one knows shit about Gatsby. The mother fucker is elusive.

Literally at the party Nick is trying to track him down to thank him and LITERALLY no one knows what he looks like they just showed up to the party. Nick is literally the only person to have been invited because Gatsby just thought he’d show up like the rest of New York.

So while Nicks looking for Gatsby we get introduced to the most WILD theories about this man.

So anyway after getting shitface Nick and this woman Jordan (who’s a friend of his cousin Daisy) jokingly go exploring the house “looking” for Gatsby. (They’re not they’re just drunk af and having fun)

Anyways while exploring they end up in the mansion’s library. As they’re goofing around this older guy browsing the stacks starts telling them that they won’t find him and how the house and everything in it is an elaborate facade. (He’s right of course) so Jordan says she’s met him. And the guy asks them which version? The prince? The spy? The murderer? And goes on to say that he can’t find anyone who knows anything real about Mr. Gatsby.

And like if that’s not true for Aaravos, I don’t know what is.

Because all we know about Aaravos narratively has been told to us. We haven’t seen anything. Not really.

So who is he really?

Plus Gatsby’s main flaw is his attachment to the past his absolute refusal to move on.

And idk Aaravos more or less can’t actually move on since he’s imprisoned. But even narratively he stuck mentally where he was before imprisonment.

And that’s just another one of the many parallels I can draw.

Hell we don’t even get Gatsby’s backstory until the end of the movie pretty much and we barely know anything about Aaravos and we’re already headed into season 5.

Anyways I have a ton more thoughts on the comparison to Aaravos and Gatsby. I don’t want to spoil the ending of TGG for anyone who hasn’t read/watched it. GO READ OR WATCH IT. So I might eventually make a separate post.

Oh one other thing. The new money vs old money narrative in TGG could easily be reworked to fit Human’s learning magic (dark magic or not) and being born into an arcanum. And like Gatsby is new money which fits with Aaravos managing to connect to all the arcanum’s

[bittrlys]

Season 4 ruined TDP for me and I haven't been able to drum up the interest to watch it since, so maybe this is an out of date take but...

Terry is kind of a pointless character. His role is sort of presented as being Claudia's last tether to her morality, but his actions are otherwise so ride-or-die it seems weird when he calls her out or gets upset about what's happening (especially since they've seemingly been together a while so he should be familiar with how Claudia operates). Plus there was already a character who could serve this role: Soren.

After season 3 I was excited to see their sibling bond evolve as their outlooks were beginning to diverge. And then with Viren resurrected I wanted to see how that affected things. I was deeply disappointed when the established familial relationships fell by the wayside in favor of a timeskip romantic one (and I usually LOVE romantic plotlines).

See, I get Soren leaving his family behind and hopping to Team Hero and thus becoming unavailable to Claudia as someone to bounce off of. I don't love the execution because I think he feels rootless and lacking in significant depth in his relationships with the main cast, but I think it works for his character. He's a prodigal young knight who swore vows to defend his king and his nation, and he's a very straightforward guy. He shares pragmatic qualities with his family, but at the same time, their pragmatism operates on an abstract level he doesn't exactly understand. Once he was forced to choose between family and what he's always known and how he's vowed to live his life, I can see him making the very hard choice to pull away from them. I think him staying as Claudia's morality pet would have been a disservice to his character, though he may have more interesting things to do just because Team Dark Magic are always doing interesting things ... but again, that's more to the execution than the conceit. I don't mind characters moving apart from people they were closest to at the start of the series, and like when they can bond with new people.

I think the limited number of episodes + breakneck pace of the plot does leave their lack of interactions more noticeable, but also more inevitable. Technically, we've seen all this: Soren and Claudia have met again and fought over their differences, and Soren and Viren got their chance to hash it out a little bit. We've been informed of the status of their relationships and their feelings for one another. For a nine episode twenty minute children's animated TV show, this is relatively decent screentime offered to their relationships considering they've been apart so long. I'm not necessarily defending it as 'good' because I'll gladly say this show has very weak screenwriting with my whole chest, but the Magefam would have to be proper protagonists and not just deuteragonists to the Main Three for the screentime to really shift in their favour. But they're not, and you can't even imagine stuff happening off screen because almost everything in the plot happens one after another barring the mid-season timeskip -- and not a whole lot of interesting things happened during that.

(Like, seriously, other than some romantic relationship statuses changing characters are basically the exact same post timeskip as they were before it. It's like ... okay!)

I hope this doesn't sound like I don't get your frustrations because I do; the Magefam are one of my favourite parts of the show and it's always better when some combination of them are on screen together. And it's like, sure Viren and Claudia were hanging out in the later seasons, but he was borderline comatose for most of that, so it doesn't feel like they were. The fracturing of a family is interesting, but you always hope for more of a resolution or at least a sense of poignancy this show is never quite going to master. I'll actually say that my feelings still hinge on season 7 or god forbid the final arc. If we see Soren and Claudia get more than one or two scenes as all our players move into place for the final confrontations -- if Soren were to learn what Viren wouldn't tell him -- if Claudia gets to have a properly satisfying confrontation with Aaravos about the death of her father if she learns the truth ... if Soren and Claudia get to mourn their father together, even if it's briefly -- if we have Claudia have complicated feelings if she were to learn about Soren asking Viren to do the spell -- of Soren offering his heart, but Viren sacrificing himself instead ... I mean, all of that could be really good, and for me it would serve as a kind of epilogue to tie together the seasons of separation and growing apart from each other.

How hopeful am I for any of this? Well, about as hopeful as I am for this show ever pleasing me. But hey! I do think it's possible, with the narrative they've already established.

Anyway, to get to the Terry of it all: I think he serves a purpose as not just Claudia's tether to morality but as someone to work off of, so I get why he's here. I also think Claudia getting a random elf boyfriend is still extremely funny and charmingly quirky of her. As I said in response to a previous ask I think Terry could use more personal development but I like his dynamic with Claudia. People call him an enabler but he does offer her some pushback, generally gently. He's just someone who loves Claudia enough to stick with her, and hey, I love Claudia too so that's nice to see. Honestly, even if Soren were around, you're obviously going to have a different relationship with a romantic partner than you would a sibling, so Terry could easily fit in the group that held Soren as well.

This season Karim (love him) was like "Janai is my sister! Of course I love her! But I'm still going to depose her violently!" and like that is great. That's siblingcore. That's I love you but I want to beat you up. That's no matter how far apart we drift you're still bound to me. Soren and Claudia are this. Meanwhile Terry and Claudia are your first serious relationship. They're young and passionate and desperate to make it work because who else would match their freak quite this way? But if they fall out there's nothing to keep them together anymore. They'll just be forced to move on. Soren can walk away from Claudia and know that on some level they are always close; if Terry walks away from Claudia he may end up meaning nothing to her. So, just like real life, there's a lot of stuff they're willing to overlook and rationalize because they WANT to keep wanting each other ... and Claudia can use someone like that on her side, as we see Soren and Viren both leave her in time.

I think Terry being down to clown but taking issues with some things is fine; he often frames his objections around the harm they will cause Claudia, and that's nice. The one thing I still don't get is his reaction to Claudia threatening the coins. I will preface this by saying I can believe he's more sensitive to elf death after he murked Ibis, and doesn't like reminders of the differences between him and Claudia when it feels very her, a human, against an elf. Yet whenever I rewatch it, I still find his censure unusually stern for him, and it's hard to shake the feeling that this is the writer's doing as they do best, that is not knowing how to write from their own established lore and character motivations.

Like, in-show it says, Claudia was cruel to mockingly threaten the lives of Rayla's loved ones, and trick her into thinking they nearly burned in agony, not offering her the real coins. Is that cruel? Sure, sure. What's the context? Oh? Rayla was THREATENING TO SLIT TERRY'S THROAT? Rayla, the Moonshadow elf ASSASSIN they have every reason to think would go through it, even if we the viewer know Rayla probably wouldn't? Hmm! If Claudia is cruel, Rayla is a monster. Rayla, who was offered the coins in fair trade as she THREATENED TO SLIT TERRY'S THROAT, but refused. Like, Terry? Are you this mad at Claudia because she did an actually extremely reasonable thing to save your life (+ her father's life) in as pacifist a way as possible, or are you mad because the writers need to tell the audience This Was Bad and ensure Rayla gets the real coins while not having to change that emotionally charged sequence they were probably really proud of writing? I still think this was Terry's characterization faltering just so they could get the outcome they wanted.

Ultimately, I see Terry as someone who is lacking in prejudice, maybe due to his own presumed desire to be taken at face value. He can date a human and not have a kneejerk reaction to dark magic, but he isn't amoral. Nothing he's really seen has been enough to push him away but he is cautious that Claudia may stop walking the knife's edge and fall off of it. He's realized even he can do terrible things out of love and this has bound him more tightly to Claudia. He's someone who is CHOOSING to join this life, and wasn't just pre-built loyal as a sibling would be. All of this does give him a role in the narrative that's pretty unique to him and their dynamic, and I like that. Again, I hope he gets more to do beyond just being Claudia's partner, but I really don't mind him existing.

Thank you very much for the ask! ♥ Really don't blame you for dropping the show post season 4 .... if I wasn't Virenpilled I would have dropped it after season 1 I think.

[lady-gravity-129]

Various TDP Season 6 thoughts under the cut/things I believe will come back in Season 7

Be careful it's kinda a long one

First things first. RAYLLUM! WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I WAS DEFINITELY SHEDDING A FEW TEARS DURING EPISODES 3 AND 6. Like, I'm not too interested in ships and romance but Rayllum has me in a death grip I swear.

I just want to point out that a couple writers have stated that they know whether Rayla is able to kill Callum if the time comes. I would also like to note that there was not a moment where she had to consider that this season. She just said she would when he asked her in episode 3. Now that they're back together...something tells me she won't be able to do it. Either that or we're in for a very gut wrenching scene in season 7.

Speaking of that, I think Kosmo said to Callum that if he performs dark magic again, it'll definitely consume/corrupt him. Don't remember the exact sentence but I've seen people talking about it so I know I didn't make it up. Anyways, I genuinely feel like they wouldn't bring that up unless it's going to have some sort of payoff in season 7 (which I'm 90% sure is titled after dark magic? correct me if I'm wrong) coupled with the previous paragraph here. Oh god if we thought season 6 was gonna put these two through the wringer we haven't seen *anything* yet

Alright enough about Rayllum (even though I love it)

Kinda disappointed that the Janaya wedding happened at a point in the story where everyone in the cast conveniently wasn't all together to celebrate the occasion. But still, an LGBT wedding in a show rated TV-Y7 is absolutely HUGE in my opinion. Not really sure what other words I can say, it was great.

Next is how they handled Viren. Honestly, I'm kinda ok with it. I said on Twitter that a redemption arc could work with him if written correctly. How he was written was...well enough. While he didn't directly apologize to really anyone (aside from Claudia I think and then Soren on paper that he burned. I've watched this season twice now but I'm running on an hour of sleep so forgive me for not remembering everything lol), he still acknowledged that he doesn't even deserve to be forgiven and understands that everything he's done was nothing short of awful.

Holy fudge this season really convinced me how great of a character Claudia is. She's such a tragic character who's experienced loss and trauma and just needs the chance to acknowledge everything she's been through and properly heal from it. However, one thing I've noticed is that whenever Viren dies, Aaravos is right there guiding her away from the path of healing from her trauma. First is after Season 3 when he tells her there's a way to bring Viren back. Then, presumably I think, in between season 5 and 6 when he somehow tells her how to complete the resurrection spell. THEN there's the end of season 6 where she's realizing that her father is gone for good and what does he do?? He basically goes "lol yeah here's my backstory so you'll want to free me even more oh whats this i can even give you the spell needed to free me". Y'all someone please get her away from Aaravos so she can process everything.

OH YEAH! Fun fact, I'm pretty sure Rayla and Callum left the Starscraper thinking/assuming that the Pearl was safe with the Celestial Elves. They're gonna see giant Aaravos in Season 7 and just have fifty panic attacks at once.

Gonna edit this with more stuff later.

[oh-hootsifer]

OK SO I HAVE SOME TDP STUFF

so this is the pearl. WHO IS THE ELF? akiyu????

yup. at least the same torso covering. both horns too. wonder how she shrunk

will we see these dragon somewhere icy?? like the starscraper?

my own depiction of constellation thingy. anyone know anything else?

no idea what to think of this but this post helps

i like the shapeshifter idea…

anyway. IM HYPED FOR THE NEW SEASONS

i want callums dad

ruthari

more aaravos

what happens to viren claudia terry and sir sparklepuff??

the prison/pearl. are they actually going bowling

new lore

the NEW startouch elf??

ok i’m done have at it

[raayllum]

ok quick actual thoughts run down (spoilers for all 8 episodes)

The pacing of this season was interesting with certain episodes having almost no B plots and being largely A plots with some smatterings. 6x02 I think is the first and only episode that neither Callum nor Rayla appear in in the whole show. Sometimes this meant wondering when we'd get back to certain plots but I overall really liked it and I think I'm just gonna like it more and more on rewatches

Immediate standout episodes were 6x03 and 6x06 for me. Loved all of them of course

The season in some ways wasn't as heavy as I expected esp in the first half BUT things definitely ramped up in the 2nd half and I still cried

also Janai's early season breakdown + the Katolis story lore made me feel many things about her (and about future Rayllum set up maybe of course)

Zubeia going "your brother Ezran" to Zym killed me automatic tears thinking about it for days

Loved how Astrid and Kosmo were characterized and developed. And siblings!!

The characters I was most worried about dying (Aanya, Opeli) didn't and I am very happy

Knew Claudia would free Aaravos the second we knew we'd brought the wrong pearl, but was pleasantly surprised my prediction of "Callum and Claudia doing the same spell simultaneously in different locations" came true

There were also certain lines and concepts (like the quasar diamonds issue) that I was gobsmacked I got almost beat for beat. Also that damn staff - thank you!

6x08 unexpected win as a Sorpeli shipper I'll never ask for anything more what the Fuck

Gonna be chewing over Ezran and Karim's convo / end of Ezran feelings and throughout for a while

Loved all the Viren Soren stuff though outside of 6x05 nothing really got me Emotional there but maybe that'll change on rewatches

cannot Believe i'm going into season goddamn seven with CHET still on the table they need to free me from my misery I'm begging

Watching Karim not get the one W i was sure he'd get while having nothing but Ls was Funnier than it should've been

Very pleased if surprised to see Lujanne again

Aaravos' backstory was fucked up and I got it ("I cried for 100 years" plus her confusion really hurt)

The scene of Terry helping Claudia wash up left me like 😳 holy shit

also yes obviously loved all the Rayllum and "you're bad at doing things for yourself" (paraphrasing) and their reconciliation, felt very earned and natural. Also feels like we still have progress to be made for them and their dynamic which is nice

On that note Moon arcanum Callum didn't happen literally but the spirit of it that I always wanted (Rayla as his Constant Truth) DID happen so I'm taking that win so hard

The Orphan Queen totally has the Nova Blade in her tomb huh

Mutual salvation Rayllum theory I love you So Much

[mo-nmage]

Small unnamed rayllum drabble

before reading:

– canon compliant for s5's episode “the great bookery”

– currently unfinished and this isn't everything i've written so far, only the part i consider to be slightly more polished (and that i kinda like heh)

– context before reading: zubeia and the others didn't arrive at the bookery when they did in the episode, so rayla, callum and amaya were left to fight banthers for some time. rayllum lost amaya and had to hide behind a broken bookshelf because they were too exhausted to continue fighting banthers

– hopefully you enjoy it!! it's not the final product so i'm still going to fix some stuff here and there lol but i kinda wanted to post it now to see if i should spend some time polishing it more

Both sat tensely in their spot while holding their breath and didn't even dare to move an inch. A sigh of relief escaped both of their lips a few minutes later when they noticed they were finally alone and free from danger, this made them both lower their bodies to properly sit down on the floor.

The pair sat with their shoulders brushing every so often while they worked on recovering their composure and calming down their extremely fast paced hearts because of both the adrenaline and pure fear they experienced a few moments ago.

Stella climbed down from Rayla's shoulder and sat on the floor between them. She was equally as scared as her owner so she didn't dare to chitter or make a small sound.

After everything seemed to calm down Callum whispered “I’m so glad I could find you and a hiding spot, fighting off those banthers was getting exhausting” he looked at her with relief in his eyes but frowned when he saw her closed eyes and pursed lips as if to try and stop any possible sobs that could come out of her.

He placed a hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her but was taken aback by her looking up to the ceiling with eyes that were rapidly filling themselves with tears. Callum could tell that she was doing everything in her power to calm herself down or to not show emotions in a moment like the one they were currently in. He felt as if he had just been sent back to 2 years before when he comforted her in the midnight desert.

“Hey…” he started “It’s okay if you want to let it out, we’re not exactly in the most ideal situation so it’s fine if you feel overwhelmed by things right now.”. He sat straighter to try and make eye contact with her but this was in vain since she had her eyesight glued to the ceiling.

She shuddered and hugged herself before biting her lip anxiously. With a sigh, she closed her eyes and switched her attention to the mage sitting next to her that had the sweetest look of concern in his eyes.

“I’m so… so sorry for everything” she began “We’re in this situation because of me and now you’re dragged into this when it could've been avoided from the start and now I- I can't do what I swore to do 2 years ago.” she hugged herself tighter “I said I would protect you and do everything in my power to ensure your safety but now we’re here, hiding behind a fallen bookshelf while corrupted banthers are looking for us and there's nothing we can do…” she wiped tears that left her eyes and tried her best to continue talking while holding in the sobs that tried to escape her lips.

She felt weak, small and useless. Rayla had left for 2 years to put an end to Viren after having many nightmares where everyone she loved died because of his hands. Seeing them be hurt in her dreams was something, but to see Callum and Amaya be in direct danger in front of her eyes? She couldn't feel worse.

It was as if she were transported to years ago where she blamed herself for her ghosting, everything her parents did and Ethari losing Runaan. The more she thought about it, the more the tears continued to fall down her cheeks. She knew she was putting more blame on herself than she should and that everything happening to them wasn't her fault, but what even is the difference if she's partly involved in it?

Callum was in danger, because of her. She knew he's someone who keeps his promises until his last breath, but it happened because of something related to her. “I would do anything for you” he had said to her when she brought up the coins. Should she be relieved or terrified to the extent he's willing to go for her? Putting his life in danger, because of her?

“We don't know where Amaya is and we don't know if we’ll even make it out of here and-” she was cut off by Callum reaching out to her and enveloping her in a hug, she sat stunned for a few seconds before wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

This small action made him hold her tightly, causing her to cry into his shoulder as he rubbed circles in her back. She felt so small in his arms as he hugged her, this realization made him hug her even tighter, if that was even possible.

“I don't know why you're blaming yourself for this, if anything we're like this because of me and being extremely obsessive with research, also dropping some books earlier” he let out a small laugh and pulled back to look at her straight in the eyes, his hands moved to rest on her shoulders. Rayla let her arms fall back and wiped off some tears that were still falling down her cheeks. He looked at her with a look that she couldn't quite understand and took a small breath before continuing to speak.

Callum knows her, he knows her well. He sometimes notices that he knows her better than himself. This means that he knows that she has always been the type of person to blame herself for things that are out of her control or are caused because of a small action done by her, as much as it breaks him to admit it, she does it very often.

He learned that loving her meant admitting and accepting this part of her. He hates seeing her be like this and it breaks his heart every single time, the midnight desert, the storm spire, the drakewood and now the present.

Did this happen during her 2 years away?

He pushed that thought out of his mind, he wouldn't let it cloud his consciousness now out of all times. Right now he had to focus on getting her out of her spiraling thoughts that were taking over her mind, he knew that if the roles were reversed she'd do the exact same thing for him.

“My aunt Amaya will be fine, she's strong and very stubborn, she wouldn't let some banthers take her down that easily. And I'm safe, you're safe, we are safe, okay? We aren't corrupted, so far at least-” Rayla grimaced slightly and he shook his head “Sorry sorry, bad timing for a joke like that, I know, but we're not corrupted okay? I also think we're both too stubborn to be taken down by some banthers in a library out of all places.”

He moved his right arm to wipe a loose tear from her cheek “We will get out of here alive. It doesn't matter if it's by fighting our way out of here or waiting until the sunrise, we are getting out of here no matter what.”

“How are you so sure of this? No, how can you talk so confidently about something where it seems like all the odds are against us?” Rayla asked. He smiled as he looked down and held her hands “A few days ago someone reminded me that I'm the ‘Destiny is a book you write yourself’ guy, so I figured it applies to this situation as well”

Rayla let out a laugh as she realized he was referring to her own words, which were used in a very different context of a conversation obviously, but was still a touching moment when she realized it meant that he remembered them. “See? There you go, you're smiling again! If you asked me, I'd say this is one of my favorite versions of you”

She felt her smile grow and looked down to their hands, she slowly intertwined her fingers with his and smiled wider when he squeezed hers. “How are you so good at this? This whole ‘managing to ground me before I start saying stupid things’ thing”

“Let’s just say that I learned from the best.” he looked up to meet her eyes. “You've helped ground me before so I'll do the same for you. And… I wouldn't consider myself good at it, I just try my best to make you feel better because I know you well enough. I know that right now you feel this way not because of the banthers around us, but because you think you’ve put us in danger.”

He angled his body in a way that is completely facing her and continued “I’ve had my fair share of moments like these too, how do you think I felt after getting possessed by Aaravos back then? I felt all these different emotions but the one that stood out was fear. I thought- no, I knew that he could hurt those I loved because of decisions I took in the past. My loved ones had nothing to do with my decisions yet they're the ones who will suffer and it might happen through my own hands.”

“But it wouldn't be you, if Aaravos happens to take over your body and hurt someone you love it wouldn't be your fault.” Rayla tried to add, she noticed that he started spacing out and his sight slowly focused on a spot in the wooden bookshelf next to them.

“Yeah, but does it even matter? It was Aaravos' actions but the blood will still be on my hands. The magic, the pain and the suffering will come from me.” he breathed out and closed his eyes “I can't let Aaravos do anything to the people I love, I can't let him do anything to my family.”

He opened his eyes and once again looked at her with a look she couldn't quite explain. It looked so melancholic, filled with longing and also so full of love?

Rayla felt her throat tighten once again “Oh…” she drew her hands back quickly and sighed before continuing “I won't let anything happen to you or Ezran, Soren and everyone else you love, okay? I'll make sure of it.” She reached up to gently place one of her hands on his cheek and slowly rubbed her finger on his cheek.

He reached up and placed his hand on top of hers before speaking “And who makes sure nothing happens to you?”

“What do you mean?” she tilted her head as she looked at him with slight confusion. The only thing she could hear was her heartbeat beating in her chest.

“You are also part of my family. 2 years ago when you chose to lose your hand over letting Ezran die was the day I considered you part of my family and you were never not part of it.”

He reached up to place his hand on her cheek this time “I love you, I always have and don't plan on stopping any time soon. If anything does happen, you have to promise me you'll keep yourself safe too. I already felt what it's like to lose you 3 times, and I don't want it to happen again.”

“I-I…” she shakily drew a breath “I love you too” she looked at him with a matching look to the one he has been looking at her with. Both looked at each other with love and endearment before Rayla broke the contact as she breathed out a sigh. His hand stayed on her cheek and he gently kept rubbing his thumb as if to provide her with comfort.

“And I'm so sorry for leaving those 2 years. Back then I thought it was the right thing to do, and genuinely believed I was doing what had to be done. I thought that leaving without you would keep you safe, but I realized that even though I protected you physically I hurt you from the inside.” she slowly met his eyes once again.

“I know nothing can take back what I did, no words can undo actions I made in the past but… I really want to fix things, I want to fix us. I know things can't be the same way they were before but I want to try if you want to go there too.” she sighed softly before continuing “There's so many things I want to say to you, to apologize, to thank you and most importantly, to make sure you know I'm not leaving you again, not now, not ever. If we get out of here that is.”

Callum smiled softly “These past 2 years were tough to say the least, I won't lie and say I wasn't hurt, because I was and I'm glad you recognize that. I overwhelmed myself with knowledge of magic of all kinds to distract myself from feeling anything.”

His eyes softened as he looked at her “When you came back I felt every emotion I forced myself to ignore, I used anger as a way to shield myself before I could sort all my feelings and looking at it now, it wasn't the best way to go but I'm past that now.”

“Letting you go after Viren felt right in Umber Tor. It was your mission, it was something you wanted to do and set your mind to, so I was nobody to stop you. But the second I saw your blade on the floor… I thought I had lost you forever, and I didn't think I could ever feel as helpless and heartbroken as I did at that moment.”

He breathed in to regain his calm “Knowing there was nothing I could do was unexplainable, I had let you go thinking that I was mad at you. When in reality it was the exact opposite, I think seeing your face in my office was the happiest I've been these past 2 years.”

He leaned in slightly to look at her deep in the eyes. From this distance he could take in every detail on her face, but most importantly, her eyes.

Have they always been this stunning?

“Life isn't always in our favor, and I'm starting to believe that sometimes destiny doesn't want us to be together. But no matter what happens, I will always choose you and us above everything else. Loving you means being willing to go through everything with you. I know we're not ready to jump into being together together, but until we get there? I'll hold your hand through everything.”

He moved his hand from her face to her hand and squeezed it tightly yet gently. It seemed as if all the sounds of the banthers nearby had completely muted out, the only thing that mattered at that moment was them. “I know you won't leave again. I do understand why you did what you did, but it doesn't mean I agree with it, but I understand it. I believe that loving someone means accepting every small bit of them whether you agree with it or not, you having a different perspective on protection doesn't erase everything I feel for you and it never will.”

“I'm willing to do everything for you. And that means accepting every part of you and standing by you through anything.” He sat up and placed a kiss on her forehead.

[thrandilf]

9, the devil you thought you knew

9. Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

Usually there weren't alternate versions as much as I discovered new places I wanted to go/new developments within the journey. I've known what the ending couple of chapters will be for about a year now (likely chapters 40-42) but the route there keeps expanding

I hadn’t known that I'd want Viravos to actually get married but they are and it'll matter for more than just shipper reasons, for instance

When I first started writing rather soon after S4 I hadn't been a Sorvus shipper so that was a pleasant surprise, most stuff is like that where I grow into the idea that fits alongside the trajectory I've always had. Including some Ezran POV snd Rayla POV chapters and the Pentarchy were also things I really loved writing but hadn't known I would do at the start and I'm glad I have

I also have been on the fence about how much I wanted human mages to progress with learning magic, but I think it's clear now that I'm angling for them to be able to connect to an arcanum without using dark magic first, and I've spent a lot of time in fic establishing that through Aaravos, Callum, and Viren being teachers to my Eveneran mage circle. I suppose I worried for awhile if it would seem too OP or like Mary-Sueish to let myself have non canon characters connect, but I think that showing the effort has been rewarding and that I can earn that world state bit. Villads is also connected to the Sky in my fic but with a dormant connection so there's that as well for precedent

The biggest thing is yet to come, and it's what I'm going to do with Sol Regem. I've considered every option for what feels ic to resolve his stuff with and how to try and make it realistic but not like, horrific, and so I'm satisfied but it bothered me for months (probably like, chapter 38 or 39 we'll see).

So there haven't been total AU versions but I've weighed a lot of it in my mind and come into things. I've had a few major plotting sessions- one around chapter 10 when I realized I didn't want to leave off with Callum going with Aaravos and mage fam, and then another around chapter 20, and before Evenere was fleshed out I had anticipated ending in the 30s but I decided to stay ambitious and let myself spend time there, so the ending has always been there but the journey there has been pushed further and further by chunks of about 10 chapters at a time plotted in detail, always knowing what's coming after

And at this time I do have every chapter mostly mapped to the end, though knowing me it'll be a bit longer than I anticipate

Sometimes I wish I had made Viren get Star rather than Ocean, but hitting the wrong mage with the right arcanum is still funny to me and I think for how my fic has gone it works

I also wish things had been paced a bit differently as sometimes I feel I'm too fast or too slow, but alas, that's what writing a serial is like

Thank you so much for the ask! 💜

[armchairaleck]

Twin Peaks/Dragon Prince thoughts

Okay so I was never going to write a post that combined two of my sorta diametric interests - namely The Dragon Prince cartoon and Twin Peaks, even tho I've low key considered it.. but then they literally put out a fricken dream scene with Viren, Kpp’Ar, Sparklepuff and Opeli explicitly mirroring Twin Peaks.. so now I guess I will ramble on for a long time about this despite not really having anything sensible to say…

First up – massive spoilers are ahead for both Twin Peaks and TDP Season 5… Twin Peaks is in my view one of the most weird and interesting television shows ever made - like it's very David Lynch, so I guess you'd have to like that vibe - BUT if you haven’t seen it and are at all interested in watching it, and don’t want very essential plot elements spoilt please don’t read below this cut.. IT WILL SPOIL STUFF!

Not sure anyone will be left at this point, but a very condensed speed run of the twin peaks plot for the sake of drawing out some parallels later:

Laura Palmer is found murdered in her small home town where a veritable list of ner do well characters who are possible suspects also reside. Call in special agent Dale Cooper to solve the crime, so far, so police procedural…

This is when the plot starts to go a little left field - as well as the drug smuggling, illegal casino, insurance swindles, arson, doubling crossing, false murders, real murders, faked deaths, real deaths that are just part of everyday life in this quaint little rural US town, a portal exists to a place called the red room or the waiting room and to the white and black lodges which by and large represent forces of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and hold within them certain denizens who might help or hinder, or just be completely bizarre and unintelligible depending on their inclinations...

One of the evil denizens is Bob - Bob is pretty much the representation of pure evil, he possesses people and encourages them to fill his own base desires.

After a certain amount of investigation the original crime is solved, the presence of Bob and the lodges is revealed and the show gets a whole lot weirder as it moves through the rest of the second series and the third (set 25 years later)

At the end of season 2 the good Dale Cooper goes into the red room and gets stuck in there while an identical version of Cooper emerges but this one not so wholesome and possessed by Bob.

There’s a lot more to it, but I’ll get into the relevant points and possible, tho probably very tentative TDP parallels as they come up.

Anyway to break it down.. in the short scene we see we have Kpp’Ar - here I believe framed mirroring the role of the one armed man, Mike, he could also be framed as the giant theoretically but given the arm/bandage motif I’m going to say he’s the one armed man..

The one armed man used to run with Bob until he saw the light and changed his ways, and he cut off his arm to do this a little drastic perhaps? because he had a tattoo on the arm that linked him to Bob. So a possible parallel here to Kpp’Ar having also realised his dark magic/blood tie with an ancient evil entity and trying to rid himself of it through cutting it out of his arm, go, go my guy. The one armed man acts as one of several pretty obtuse guides for good Cooper in the show.

Will Kpp’Ar come back and do this for Viren? Eh probably not, I can’t even speculate on that sort of thing, so let’s leave that parallel there.

Right, Sir Sparklepuff also gets a little cameo as the the arm/the man from another place.. a cryptic clue giver who speaks unintelligibly and also has some natty dance moves..

So the arm is a fairly ambiguous character, he hangs with the evil denizens, he hangs in the waiting room, he helps, or he doesn’t, it’s pretty vague.. he is the part that was cut out to remove the evil influence, but I’m not sure where that could go if anywhere… Onto Viren, who is framed taking the role of FBI agent Dale Cooper, Cooper goes into the red room for good reasons, he wants to save his girlfriend Annie… unfortunately he doesn’t and instead he gets stuck in there while his doppelganger possessed by Bob escapes and goes on to run merry havoc for the next 25 years…

Bad Cooper is a corrupted figure who can give corpse face Viren a run for his money annnd… he also has black eyes… nice…

This is just how your eyes go when you're evil.. so err.. stay good kids

On the other hand it does look like you have a lot more fun going feral

Meanwhile the good version of Cooper has to escape from the waiting room, and trust me, it takes a long time…

Then we have Opeli as the log lady.. now the log lady, also called Margaret Lanterman, we are given to believe was once abducted as a child by aliens (there’s a pretty strong interest in conspiracy type stuff in twin peaks without it ever completely leaning in and going there, well I guess it does, let’s just say there are a lot of things beneath the surface) Margaret grows up just fine though, but on the eve of her wedding night to a fireman there is a fire in the woods, and hubby to be goes and gets himself killed fighting the flames. Margaret takes a log from the scene and caries it round with her ever after with it being heavily implied that the spirit/soul of her almost husband is in there and passes her messages with regards to some of the goings on in the town.

Hey Opeli guess what? Rayla's breaking into Viren's study... ahem..

Like anyway why did Opeli get this role? I have no idea, she's the only available female character?? Anyway Opeli says backwards the line - the jelly tart you like is going to come back in style.. the log lady does not say this in the show, but there is a pivotal scene where all the murder suspects in the Laura Palmer case are gathered together and the guilty party is approached by a white lodge denizen and told that gum you like is going to come back in style.. that's how they find out whodunnit.

So the premise of Twin Peaks is that the guilty party is also shown to be possessed by evil entity Bob and it raises some interesting questions within the fandom regarding an individual’s culpability for their crimes or whether the possession was the root cause of them and I feel like I can’t really dance around it anymore so I will say again if this show sounds interesting and you want to watch it unspoiled with regards to the murder STOP READING HERE.. also I will be going onto the darker themes of the show and you are warned they are kinda dark…

...

Right okay it was her father, Laura’s father, Leyland, possessed by Bob raped and abused her for several years and then murdered her and others when it became clear she knew it was him.

Now every time Laura was abused in the show she sees the face of Bob not her father. There is debate whether this is trauma projection, whether it is in fact evil entity Bob controlling the father’s actions… I mean there’s a lot of interesting stuff to go into, but I won’t, because I only want to look at the possession angle here.

Okay, onto the topic of possession and free will, specifically with regards to Viren and also dark mages in general.. so we have seen Aaravos possess Callum explicitly, based on one use of dark magic, whether he was able to do this due to Callum’s proximity to the mirror... not sure? He also possesses Viren very obviously on a couple of occasions, but they also have the blood tie... so it's likely that dark magic allows Aaravos to exert his influence on those who practise it as has been explored by others.

Anyway there is another factor I have kinda been low key wondering about - whether the staff of Ziard has certain possession/persuasion potential.. now I’m not going to come out and say the staff holds sway over Viren and tells him what to do because this puts a certain absolution on Viren’s actions that I don’t think is justified by the narrative BUT I do also think it would be kinda cool if Aaravos with his links to the stars and future predictions had a way of seeing what might happen and engineering his own deliverance through the push/pull of the staff.

Not betting any hard cash on this theory...

We don’t know when Viren first gets the staff, I have to re-watch that dream sequence and possibly wait for puzzle house because I have at least some thoughts it might be what Claudia finds in there.. but he doesn’t have it in the Puzzle House pages I’ve seen and he does before Magma Titan because he takes it with him..

So... I don’t know if there is a slim possibility that while the staff might not possess a mage it might subtly lead them towards an end goal - slaying an archdragon say, who holds the mirror window into Aaravos’s prison, and thereby allowing the dark mage to come into possession of said mirror and thereby setting the whole train of freeing Aaravos in motion..

Now fine, this is a bit of a stretch, could easily be Viren is simply fuelled by his desire to kill a dragon out of revenge/hubris a desire to rekindle his relationship with Harrow (ahem) but I kinda like the idea that there is a very subtle pull leading him in that direction through the staff, and Aaravos does at least seem pleased to notice that staff in his possession, while Viren visibly shies from it throughout much of s4…

This could mirror a little with the possession/influence themes of Twin Peaks - there is a ‘good’ Cooper and a ‘bad’ Cooper, but they are really the same Cooper and it is the flaws in the good that allow for the evil influence of the bad to take hold - Cooper has a weakness for trying to save women in peril, it gets him in trouble… Viren seems to have a weakness for power and doing anything for his family, however dangerous, however vile - personally I don’t really like to read stuff purely in terms of a good/bad white/black dichotomy.. but I do like character flaws leading to the wrong path and imperilling your soul.

This all inclines me towards the Aaravos is pure evil and the Prometheus and even Lucifer stuff was just a bit of a tease. In Twin Peaks the unleashing or at least the amplification of evil in the world is linked very explicitly in one episode to the dropping of the atomic bomb, this is framed as a cataclysmic event during which mankind press the button on their own potential annihilation...

s3 episode 8 - I don't think will ever be surpassed for am I hallucinating or is there something very weird on my tv at 4am vibes

I know there have been some links between dark magic and nuclear power parallels made by other people but I can’t remember the details and it has always been something I’ve kinda chewed around a bit without having any specific thoughts or beliefs on, other than ouch corruption looks a lot like radiation burns… but I can see an analogy for something that is created to both serve humanity giving us a fairly unlimited power source, while also giving us the ability to pretty much obliterate ourselves and the planet which - tbh best not to think about how close that has already been...

Dark magic is clearly a force that can be used to benefit humanity, healing, feeding 100,000 people etc, etc.. but it is also being lined up as something that holds its own peril, that probably isn’t a power to be wielded by inconsistent, unreliable and sleep deprived humans, and it’s been given to them by Aaravos? Like I think that has not yet been explicitly stated in cannon but the signs are all there.. so hmmm..

Anyway all told this has led me down quite a few lines of thinking that I don’t really have any definitive conclusions for because they are by definition not issues that can be neatly tied up with a bow... at least not by me.

Then Viren is pretty much comatose for the rest of the season much like Coop/Dougie is season 3 of Twin Peaks.. rip my guy...

Viren having the standard reaction of anyone trying to work out wtf is going on in Twin Peaks

Anyway I have never seen any fellow Twin Peaks fans out in the Dragon Prince wilds, but if you’re out there please come and rip this to shreds if you want.. I have a sieve like memory and I’m usually pretty wrong about most stuff, plus I wrote this after 4 hours sleep due to the drop time, sooo please excuse any mistakes...