#rayla's second 'not yet' being about trying to help them at all while aaravos' shit was unresolved

[raayllum]

Not yet

[actualaster]

OKAY I’M MARGINALLY MORE COHERENT NOW.

So.  Below the cut for major s3 spoilers.

First off, I’m extremely invested now in Claudia and Soren’s dynamic.  They’re very well set up as opposites in so many ways, while being similar in others, and now that they’re fully on separate sides it’s set for both angst-central and also some incredibly interesting things.

Second, I’m deeply curious now about dark magic and death.  What did Claudia use on Viren?  Like, what did she have to sacrifice to bring him back?  What kind of effects will this have?  I mean aside from her hair color changing a bit more.

Third, I’m so glad my babies got together they’re just so cute and adorable and awkward and I love Callum and Rayla so much damnit I’m so glad we got them to kiss and to say “I love you” like hot damn finally, a ship that’s canon, gets to say the L word, AND is alive and with a happy (seeming, for now anyway) ending at last!  Look, most of my ships either end up with one person dead, something forcing them to be separated for eternity, or they never actually get to say “love”.  That or they just never become canon.  So I’m so damn happy that I finally have a ship I ship that’s actually explicitly canon.  ML when will you do that with the ship you’ve been teasing/basing your entire show around?

ON THE SUBJECT OF KISSES I’m so damn glad we got to see the gay kissing.  And since Runaan isn’t technically dead--and there may well be a chance to get him back yet--it’s not strictly speaking “bury your gays”.  Plus, it looks like we have potential between Amaya and Janai?  I think that’s her name?  Anyway we got possibly a chance of some nice non-dead wlw as well there.

Speaking of Amaya, she continues to be badass and amazing and I really love her and I would die for her.  She deserves more screentime, but she did get some pretty solid screentime this season.

Callum is OP AF now, lol.  But I mean, makes sense, and quite honestly I really love it.  I’m extremely interested in where he can go from here, how he can keep developing as a mage and I think he could be an extremely good opposition for Aaravos.  That he could connect with one arcanum is incredible, and that he could do what so few can is even moreso--but I want to see him go farther.  There’s so much potential there.  And he’s growing as a character, too, and I love it.

As for the pretty starry elf man himself, he’s very nice to look at, as usual lmao.  Okay, but seriously though he’s an interesting character and I am extremely interested in him and how he can develop.  I want more details about his imprisonment--I saw that mirror in the lair of the Dragon Queen.  And that he doesn't know where he’s imprisoned?  I’m really curious about that.  He’s very clearly using Viren for his own ends, and I want to know what those ends are.

Viren, however, can go fuck a cactus.  Or, well, that wouldn’t be fair to the poor cactus.  Like he was a shitty dad, but this season really cranked it up.  My heart broke watching him try and gaslight Soren like that.  I’m just.  I’m really glad Soren was able to realize Viren is wrong.  Viren, though, much as I plan to kill him in Soren’s name, is an interesting antagonist.  He really has himself convinced in some ways that he’s doing things for the greater good, but at other times he seems to embrace that he’s just greedy for power.  But he does have a setup that makes it understandable why he would do some of what he does, but at the same time they make a good job of him being understandable without being sympathetic.  We can see where he may have started down the path he’s on, even if he’s gone way too far, but we’re not meant to just feel super bad for him--his cruelty and callousness is shown abundantly.

When he was talking to Soren and Claudia and talked about sacrificing everyTHING that you love, that felt like a telling line about how he sees his kids--or Soren, at any rate.  He sees Soren as a tool.  He still sees Claudia as his daughter, but he’s.  Honestly with that line and then his willingness to volunteer Soren to be the first to be changed magically without bothering to give a shit about what Soren feels?  It’s pretty clear that Claudia is the only one he sees as a person.  And that’s just.  Heartbreaking.

And Claudia is heartbreaking, too.  Like don’t get me wrong I would slap her in an instant for some of what she does.  But she’s also tragic--we see the way she’s being manipulated.  It’s shown really well.  How Viren twists her around him, binds her to him.  How can she do anything but what Viren wants of her?  He’s put more effort in with her because he cares about her more, but also on some level I think he does think of her as a tool--just a more useful one than Soren.  But I just.  I feel bad for her, she’s being led down that path...

Soren was incredible, by the way, have I said that yet?  Especially how he’s managed to put into words what his father does--that he’s managed to see and understand that Viren can make you walk down a dark path while convincing you that it’s the right one...  That Soren was able to figure it out and come to terms with it is wonderful.  I just hope that Claudia can be made to see that, as well, before it’s too late.  I’m not sure that’ll be possible, though.  But seeing him willing to kill his own father, to do what he truly thinks is right?  I just had a massive “holy shit!!!” moment there.  His reaction after, too, helps because he really feels like a person, you know?  Anyway, I love him.

Also seeing how many other humans came to the aid of Xadia in the name of King Ezran was wonderful.  There’s really hope that maybe humans and Xadians can set their differences aside and join forces and befriend each other, that maybe after so long peace and reconciliation can be a thing.  It, of course, remains to be seen if it’s viable on a large scale but we’ve seen how well it can work on a small scale.  And obviously there’s a huge amount of animosity still to be worked out because each side has wronged the other many times, but there’s the possibility of working past that and of finding a future working together.

And Viren is still around to be a threat, and Claudia is clearly very powerful and I’m deeply worried about how she’d react if she couldn’t save Viren.  I mean, we saw her reaction with the thought of Soren being paralyzed--I don’t think she could survive an actual irreversible death in-tact.  If she had failed...

Well, I’m sure Aaravos would have been eager to use her to his own ends.  He’s encouraging Viren’s treatment of her as a tool, after all.

But I want to see what they’ll do next, how Aaravos will bend them to his cause now that they’ve lost their momentum.  Whatever cause that is.  Or perhaps Aaravos won’t need them anymore once his worm-thing hatches?  

I saw that synchronized moving in that final conflict, was he controlling Viren to some degree?  I really want to know what his designs for Viren are, tbh.

He’s really shaping up to be a very interesting antagonist.

Overall it was just a really good season, I have a lot of feelings, and I’m deeply curious to see where things can go from here.  And also will probably cry if it doesn’t get another season.