#servant of set

[antediluviansteel]

‘Thulsa Doom’ by Régis Moulun

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Flagrant Favourism.

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[kradogsrats]

Revisiting the Arc 2 Opening

So particularly @raayllum had done some detailed analysis and predictions based on the comparison of Viren and Callum's variant arc 2 openings, but I want to return in the post-s6 space now that we have Claudia's opening as a third point of comparison because that addition has an impact on how the original two relate to one another and what each one is saying.

The basic sequence of each opening is the same: from the initial star-map zoom (associated with destiny/time-blind vision of future events) the camera circles the principal character, placed at the celestial Sea of the Castout, as they turn to stone. Aaravos's giant hand swoops down and plucks up the statue, now contextualized by size as a pawn or other game piece, to admire from within his prison with a satisfied smile.

The most important point to understand about this sequence is that Aaravos doesn't personally turn Viren, Callum, and Claudia to stone, but is able to capture and manipulate them as pawns because of it:

This doesn't seem like much of a distinction at all, particularly because the petrification that results in Aaravos's satisfied claim on each mage is a representation of dark magic, which is... what allows Aaravos to influence/control those who resort to using it.

We get the direct link between the heart, dark magic, and Aaravos's influence/control explicitly spelled out by s6, and (as many noticed before)... go figure, in all three openings the corruption petrification begins at the heart.

Now, Callum is actually the only one who knows explicitly about the connection between dark magic and influence/control by Aaravos. Viren has sort of intuited it by the end of s5, in that we can see by portions of his dream that he's aware on at least a subconscious level that he was not in his right mind during at least the latter half of s3. This is why the distinction between the petrification being a factor allowing Aaravos's control, rather than an effect of it, is important—the conflicts and dynamics being represented are more complex than that. For example: Viren's opening, it turns out, isn't about Aaravos at all.

That's a Reach

When the primary arc 2 opening, featuring Viren, was revealed as part of the lead-up to the s4 release, there was a decent amount of speculation as to what it meant—the connection with Avizandum's death was recognized immediately, but what did that signify? Would there be further-reaching direct consequences of Viren's involvement and the archdragon-killing spell? Would Avizandum himself somehow have expanded significance? What is Viren reaching for: Aaravos, redemption, another chance at life?

Mostly, it set the tone for s4 and arc 2 in general, particularly regarding Viren's character arc, with strong mood and themes of helplessness, the past, regret and consequences, cyclic harm, and (of course) death. Not even to mention the looming presence of Aaravos and his relationship with Viren as his pawn. It was a vibe.

It wasn't until after s5 and/or s6 that the opening came into full context: Avizandum, in his final moments, turns his back on the battle with Harrow—the cycle of violence that he, himself, has contributed to perpetuating—and reaches for the child he will now be unable to protect from that violence.

Viren, as it turns out, does the exact same, as we see explicitly in s5 and continued implicitly in s6. Like Avizandum, he reaches for his children, unable to save them from the damage he has already done—all of it through dark magic.

On its own, it's an elegant implementation of the parallels TDP is so fond of to demonstrate that both sides of this long-time conflict have inflicted harm on each other and themselves in very similar ways for generations. Even at the time of s4, however, we had Callum's opening obviously derived from Viren's, and after s6 we have Claudia's, as well—both of which come with their own context that builds off of Viren's in different ways.

Lost Child

So while Viren's opening actually has very little to do with Aaravos (prior to Aaravos's actual appearance grasping him as a literal pawn), Claudia's (and Callum's, which we'll come back to in a bit) is difficult to interpret as not being related to her personal dynamic with Aaravos.

Interestingly, Claudia's opening places her at a very specific point in time, since it's visibly between two major physical changes to her body/appearance—her lower leg is missing, severed by Rayla in the Sea of the Castout at the end of s5, but she still has her long hair from before prompting Terry to cut it off for her early in s6. Even more specifically, she has the half-and-half split of black and white hair, which is already majority-white in s6e1:

This is Claudia in a moment we don't see on-screen—when, having failed to collect Aaravos's prison and not knowing that Viren has been offered and rejected the Infantis Sanguine spell, she turns to Aaravos in the dark of night and is willing to do anything to save her father.

I could do a whole thing here about the nature of Claudia's perception of Aaravos as both a paternal and divine figure, but the relevant part is that her only association between dark magic and Aaravos is a positive one—as far as she's concerned, Aaravos gave humanity dark magic as a benevolent gift, and her main reason (at least that she's willing to voice) for hesitating to give it up is that Aaravos kept his promises to her and it would be right to keep her promise to free him. In her opening, she goes from pained and defeated to looking upward with total trust and hope—looking to Aaravos the way she would have looked to Viren.

Her petrification shares the single tear with Viren and Avizandum, really cementing her place as another loop in the cycle of harm between humanity and Xadia that has dark magic at its heart. That callback to Viren's opening also puts hers in dialogue with him as much as with Aaravos, placing her in the same position as he is in a reflection of his horror and dismay that she has followed his path and example so closely.

Given that Claudia dramatically changes appearance (and, to an extent, attitude) immediately after this opening is introduced, it's possible that we'll see a different variant for s7... but given the end of s6, she actually hasn't really changed all that much. She has doubts about how to proceed with her life after Viren leaves, but as soon as Aaravos re-enters the picture, her conviction is back. She may not have done any dark magic after s6e1, but I don't think that's because she's decided to give it up.

Key Framing

Given the context of Claudia's opening, Callum's opening becomes unusual because it references Viren's without tying back to Avizandum and that cycle of harm. It's still on some level about dark magic, but Callum's relationship with dark magic isn't tied up in family and inheritance like Claudia's and Viren's are—instead it's focused entirely on fate vs. freedom, and on Aaravos specifically.

Callum's opening appears only for s4e4 ("Through the Looking Glass"), where he is possessed by Aaravos and it is established that his single use of dark magic is what allows that control, and for s5e8 ("Finnegrin's Wake") when he uses dark magic a second time. The shared opening puts those two episodes in obvious dialogue with each other, since s5e8 never makes explicit that the danger of dark magic for Callum is control by Aaravos—something he has already asked Rayla to end his life in order to avoid.

The focus in Callum's opening, both by its visual prominence and Callum's own gaze directed at it, is the Key. While Viren and Claudia's petrifications end the way Avizandum's does—with the single tear—Callum's ends with the Key in a blaze of light.

I expect we will see Callum's opening return for s7, possibly even as a primary opening, but it will almost certainly be recontextualized at some point and possibly even changed to a variant that reflects that new context. The Key is an element that will contribute to Callum's doom or salvation—or both, as a key can both lock and unlock—and its prominence in his opening reflects that and will likely be informed by how that resolution develops.

All of Us, Stardust

Speaking of alterations to the openings:

The final, altered version of the Viren opening kicks off s6, acting as a last, fun little extension of the "is Viren dead?" cliffhanger of s5. Aaravos's hand reaches down as usual, but instead of firmly grasping the petrified Viren, he very briefly hesitates before pushing it slightly, instead. The petrified Viren then crumbles and collapses into dust.

We first saw (or rather, had described to us via frantic convention attendee note-taking) this opening at the first reveal of s6e1, which was originally shown without any of the scenes revealing Viren to be alive. There are a lot of ways it could be interpreted, from a straightforward "he'd dead, Jim," to my own kind of fanciful theory from the time regarding Viren, dead or alive, having been made unusable by Aaravos as a pawn.

One way to contextualize this opening is with this old illustration from Patience, which ties in closely with the Aaravos chess/pawns motif (and was a significant part of contextualizing the arc 2 opening as "pawns"):

Now, there are a lot of things about this image that are important, not least the confirmation/reinforcement of the chain of manipulation of dark mages by Aaravos across thousands of years from Ziard to Viren, with the implication of Callum in the future. What I'd like to call attention to is that in chess, tipping over a piece is a gesture specifically used only with the king, and specifically to indicate that you are resigning the game and the opponent is victorious.

I don't think there's anywhere we've seen Aaravos truly lose, except for possibly when he was imprisoned, because his plans have levels of redundancy that mean they don't depend on any given individual—a game of chess hinges on the king, but Aaravos is essentially playing six or eight interconnected games at once, and a loss on one board only reinforces his remaining pieces on another. Losing Viren, deliberately or not, empowers his influence over Claudia... exactly as we see in the sequence of arc 2 openings. It would be difficult for them to have replicated the tipped-over/toppled king imagery with the petrified Viren without having to do some labor-intensive camera work on the existing opening pattern (e.g. do they show the ground when he falls? What even is the ground?)—so I think there's a strong likelihood that him crumbling to dust is meant to have a similar resonance.

Anyway, I'm kind of dancing around some complex theorizing and analysis of Viren's death that I go back and forth on depending on the day, but basically I do still think the important takeaway from this opening variant is that as far as Aaravos is concerned, Viren is off the board. That it's the opening for s6e1, rather than a special use for s6e8 (as Callum's variant openings are handled) is also IMO a positive sign regarding Aaravos's loss of control and direct manipulation of Viren over the course of s6. I don't think we've heard the last about Viren, and between Claudia, Soren, and Kpp'Ar there will definitely be a multifaceted interpretation of his legacy with significance in s7.

Opening the Final Season

Ultimately, given the dialogue between the three (four?) variant openings we have seen so far for arc 2, I think for s7 we can expect:

the Callum variant will appear at least once

at least one new Claudia- or Callum-based variant, OR possibly even an Aaravos variant

a new variant (possibly one of the ones from the previous point) to close out the arc for at least s7e9

That's my fevered ramblings about this 20-second repeated sequence, thanks for coming to my continuing insane TED talks on this and other ridiculous topics.

[knight--error]

Navani & Lirin conversation would be interesting, I think. Older parents of headstrong heroes. Both lost a son to war. Both think they should have prevented it. (Neither of them could have prevented it.)

[absolute-andy]

[whump-queen]

Silver

tags: forced intox, manhandling, "servant" whump but lets be honest he's basically a pet

-----------

Seven could smell the sharp sting of tequilia on Wes’ breath before he even saw the bottle.  

“Open up, servant.” Wes smiled and leaned in, forcing the stench further into Seven’s face, making him nearly gag at what he knew was coming. God he could already taste it. 

Seven tried to pull away, but a heavy hand found the back of his neck and harshly gripped his hair, holding him fast while the other hand messily shoved the bottle of silver upward and forced it past Seven’s lips. 

Seven knew not to struggle. He how to close his nose without plugging it by now. He’d hold his breath. He’d hold his—fuck. It burned in his empty stomach instantly. 

Considering all the occasions Wes had forced his servant to drink, Seven should’ve been an expert at this. But experience didn’t mean his nights went without mishap, and just because he knew how to drink it down for a few sips, it didn’t mean Wes would let up this time, forcing him to take gulp after excruciating fiery gulp until his mind was screaming for oxygen and for the poison to stop. Just stop. 

He could feel hot tears running down his face. He needed to breathe. It took everything in him to swallow and not fucking wretch as soon as Wes yanked the bottle away. Oxygen hit his lungs and he gasped for breath until he felt lightheaded.

“Can’t waste it all on a fucking servant,” Wes sneered, releasing his fingers from Seven’s hair, roughly tousling it instead. The force of his hand made the room spin and Seven could already feel it hitting him. Burning away deep his stomach and making his face feel hot and tingly. 

Wes turned away and Seven instantly grasped the wall, taking a few agonizing deep breaths, just trying so hard not to throw up. 

He’d done that before. On a night much like this one, and Wes had made him clean it all up while still nearly blacked out, promising that the next time, he’d clean it with his tongue. 

So Seven braced himself against the wall and tried to focus on his breath. He inhaled. God fuck. He exhaled. Fuck. He was going to gag.

Water.

He needed water.

This was going to be a long night. 

.

read next

series masterlist

[multifan-dump]

thinking about how IWTV loves to play with the theme of master and servant. thinking especially about that “yes, maître” and how armand’s first appearance onscreen, for almost the entire duration of s1, is in the role of louis’s “rashid.” thinking about how, when I first watched s1, it jarred me a little to see the authoritative, almost imperious way louis spoke to “rashid,” even after having endured to lestat’s tyranny himself, not to mention the tyranny of white people. it jarred me even more to realize that that had actually been armand—the ostensible love of his life—taking louis’s orders, bowing his head, saying things like, “I serve a god.” was that a strange and uncomfortable performance for the ancient leader of the paris coven? or was it perfectly natural for someone whose past means he defaults to the role of the subordinate, the submissive, the servant? is the relationship between the master louis and the servant rashid in fact the truest, rawest representation of the core dynamic between louis and armand?

[rockingtheorange]

We don't talk enough about the lit murdering expression on Alex's face as Henry arrives driving in his James Bond manners

(And then calls him out for being drunk at the wedding)

[amateurghoul]

GOD THE SET DESIGN IS BEAUTIFUL, PROPS TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART IN IT!!! ITS MAGNIFICENT AND I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT IT!!! ITS GORGEOUS, THE RAILS AT THE TOP??? THE MISCELLANEOUS FAIR PARTS LIKE THE SEAT RICKY SITS IN (2016) AND THE CYCLONE SIGN?? THE BEAUTIFUL ARCH?? ITS AMAZING <<<333

I LOVE THEATER SET DESIGN ‼️‼️

[crispy0nion]

attempted to watch the decameron series on netflix for shits and giggles and now i want to die. that is not the decameron that is a fucked up version of too hot to handle where you could die of bubonic plague at any time

[cepheusgalaxy]

challenge: draw your whumpee in a maid outfit

[starheirxero]

Servant Sun could be confortable if lord Eclipse decided to hug him??

Since he said he loved his "god" (im surprise if a Sun is confortable enough to hug a Eclipse)

LOVE THE CENTIPEDE GOD DESIGN

AAAA THIS IS SUCH A FUN ASK ANON ILY !!!!

I wouldn't exactly say comfortable, just... accepting.

Despite his insistence that he is truly and wholly devoted to Lord Eclipse, I think it'd be hard to ever truly get comfortable in the arms of your god when you have a bug phobia and he has shifted his body to mimic a centipede LMAO 😭

Plus, Lord Eclipse is more likely to hug Sun unconsciously, which might actually make it dangerous to move away or point out what he's doing! Lord Eclipse would probably be humiliated.

... but! if Servant Sun did get a real actual genuine hug from Lord Eclipse, it'd probably just lead to a lotta confusion LOL

[t-leaves]

Okay lads put your nichest dr in the tags. Yap to your hearts content. (If it is a fandom please elaborate!) GO!

[thejestersmelody]

𓄿 John Childermass 𓄿

𝘏𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦, 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘦-𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘳.𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘳. 𝘍𝘰𝘹𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵. 𝘏𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘩𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘸𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳,𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵, 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘵; 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘦, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘦, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘮 𝘢 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦, 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨,𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳.

-𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘔𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭

[duckiemimi]

the jujutsu system is not one that operates independently because it's state-sanctioned, and i wonder if that (along with the cultural context of tradition and hierarchy) is one of the reasons why gojo chose to stay and try to change things from the inside.

[noelle-v]

No longer a neferut...

Now and forever, Merenset 🛐❤️💍