#tdp crew

[m4rs-ex3]

no one me making and deleting a twitter account within a 7 minute span just for show info ANYWAY

fuck you

GOD IS NON BINARY

FUCK GOD AAA. also YES GRACIE bro knows rayla hasn't had nearly enough restful nights throughout the course of her life the Only boyfriend

i am still loyal to the concept of rayla's tats starting to fade and bein kinda sad bc she can't go home to redo them and callum doing a bunch of research on moonshadow markings and surprising her and doing them for her and this is further solidifying that idea in my head and and and an

canon

NO /POS. FURTHERMORE NO /NEG shits gonna FUCK me up

mhm

IM CRYING THE FACT THAT OFFICIAL SCRIPTS LOOK LIKE THIS MAKES MY LIFE SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER

[imminent-danger-came]

[inkasrain]

Viren: Not the Cliff but the Road

I'm pretty sure that most of The Viren Conversation has been had (and had, and had!), so I don't want to beat a dead (disgraced, former) High Mage. Howeverrrr, there is one element of the way this character finale played out that remains one of my favorite things to come out of the TDP room, and I just want to talk about it a little. (As always, just my take, not canon.)

I have a strong personal bias against the idea of death as an inherently redeeming act in fiction. We are so accustomed to the idea that a succesful hero's arc will conclude in sacrifice, and that therefore a reformed villain's arc must end in the ultimate sacrifice, that we don't think to probe the origins of this concept. To me, this is basically just deeply ingrained Christian pedagogy masquerading as narrative fact. I don't personally think that there is anything inherently salvational or goodness-proving about this arc format, or that it should be the natural default for stories like this. Death does not cleanse; life does. So theoretically, I should be unhappy with the way Viren's arc ends in season 6. He -- a bad person -- dies doing a good thing. He sacrifices his life for Soren and the people of Katolis and thus is redeemed.... right? If I thought that Viren's change arc ends with his death, sure. But that's not how I see it. For me, Viren's arc draws to a close before the attack on Katolis, and before his death. I don't actually think he has a singular redemptive moment. Instead, it is the sum total of his choices and actions from 509 to 606 -- the ways he makes use of his life -- that are cumulatively cleansing. Viren has always thought of himself as someone who makes "the hard choices" but he's been pretty good at wriggling (or being wriggled) out of the consequences. As of 509, that changes; he changes. He makes choices that will be painful for him. That will place a burden on him. And that, most importantly, he believes he will have to live with. There is nothing short-term about the decisions Viren makes after that point in the story. They are all the actions of a man who has finally realized that he can (MUST) live with the consequences of his "hard choices." I'd even include choosing not to kill the Homunculus in that category, as the death Viren faces there is a quiet, lonely, and utterly unremarkable surrender -- all things his character in many ways been defined as working so strongly against.

If there is a true peak of his arc, I personally see it as the moment in 606 when Viren burns his letter to Soren. He has gone through the agony of exposing his darkest moments and can move forward with the clarity that such an experience provides. But even more importantly, he chooses not to burden Soren with that knowledge -- and in doing so, accepts that he will live with Soren's anger and blame. He will not justify himself at Soren's expense; he sacrifices any hope of receiving love from his son because he knows those feelings are the cumulative consequence of his own actions. Viren's death is a culmination, if anything, of his love for Soren and his arc of shifting the focus of his life to others. His death does not retroactively prove his goodness, does not justify his past. It is a sad resolution of a man's struggles, nothing more. So I don't see Viren's choice to sacrifice himself as a redemptive act, because I really don't think he needs one. He is doing the work already, living the life, walking the more difficult road. It's bittersweet that the road ends, but they all do. The important thing is, for me, that Viren isn't defined by the act that ends his life, some kind of spectacular salvational swan dive off a cliff. Instead, he is marked by the journey, the change he underwent to get to that point in his story. (And like, I was a very minor participant in the orchestration of this arc, but I'm ridiculously proud to have been a small part of this kind of storytelling.)

[bat-snake]

After making this post, I noticed that there's another moment where Aaravos soothes Leola's dissociation/hand flapping.

It's before the Trial even starts! It was very blink and miss. I even had to watch at half speed her just to see everything he does. The first several times I watched this scene, I wondered why he had to walk around the disk to see her, and then I realized it was because she was dissociating already! She doesn't respond to his arrival, even though she's aware - she's just frozen. (Shout to his very visible shock and worry)

And just like I mentioned in the first post, he gets down to her level and touches her shoulder.

and in this case, runs his hand own her arm, and gently squeezes her hand once with two fingers, and when he knows she's alert, he puts his hand on her shoulder again. (I love his expression in these frames too)

He has this down to an art. He has done this enough that it works even in this one exceptionally frightening situation for her.

Something very, very interesting is that Aaravos doesn't speak to her in this moment (they don't even talk until the execution), because he knows his daughter well enough that not going to be able to answer him in this moment.

[stuck-in-jelly]

Soren: What if in being vulnerable people won't want to stick around anymore :((

Corvus every single time Soren has shown even an ounce of emotional vulnerability and/or tenderness:

[m4rs-ex3]

idk i just can't help but love the tdp crew. it's clear they really, really love their show. i mean obviously because it's an amazing show but there's just so many extra details and bonus material and unnecessary things they do because they want to. (reflections, the comics, the existence of tales of xadia, the coolness of the website, etc.) what made me want to talk about this was their insane dedication to the pirate motif of season 5 in promotional stuff and the bit at sdcc and the fact that they literally released the season early because of it it was just so cool. i am an absolute sucker for creators confirming headcanons and giving lil extra details about their characters. oh and where do i even begin with the official accounts omg a gift from the heavens

[imminent-danger-came]

this shit is cracking me up

[inkasrain]

Favorite/most proud of moment you wrote in season 7?

I am theoretically proud of the conversation between Ezran and Aaravos... at the time, I kind of thought of it as a level-up from Ezran's negotiation with Karim in season 6 (for both Ezran and me) and it was correspondingly a real challenge. Buuuuut I haven't actually watched it yet (SCARED TO, TBQH) so I don't know how I'll feel about the finished product.

[ac0531]

What are you up to Aaron? 👀

[beaulesbian]

The Dragon Prince S06E03 "The Frozen Ship" - Ray of Illumination, of Captain Esmerelda Skall

bonus from the end credit cards:

[renthony]

Keep. Your hater opinions. Out of. The main tags. For a fandom. Oh my god.

I am here to look at fanart of my blorbos, not your rancid hater opinions. You can feel however you want about something, but stop shitting on people's parades, goddamn. I do not want to go into the "#thing I like" tag and see "thing you like is Bad Actually."

[venice-1987]

As much as I would enjoy a kiss at their reunion, I do think the dragon prince crew would do something softer when (not if <-clown emoji) Sorvus is made canon. I'm picturing Corvus and Ezran and Callum arriving at the castle like in the promo image, them checking up with Opeli and she reveals everything is fine.

But Corvus asks about Soren. "Where is he?" he asks, his mind already wandering to the possibility that Soren...hadn't made it out. He will himself to remain strong for his king, but his body fills with dread. Thankfully, Opeli points him to the river.

There, Soren sits on the banks. Corvus sits beside him, noticing the same pained look in his eyes that he had seen on the ramparts the day Soren asked him to become a crownguard. Now, that same pain encompassed how he sat, how he stared mournfully into the waters.

Corvus asks is he is alright, and Soren can't even answer, holding back what emotion he can to maintain his cheerful attitude. He is failing miserably. Something more terrible than the Storm Spire must have happened. Something worse than Katolis burning down.

Corvus lays his hand over Soren's on the rock. Soren looks from it to Corvus, then shifts so that he can hold Corvus's hand back.

Like Janai and Amaya, its a confirmation.

and, of course, at the end of arc 2 or start of arc 3 (affirm affrim, manifest manifest, like to charge reblog to cast) then we get a kiss, teehee

[stacotto]

Haven't dived far enough into the tags to see if anyone else has said it yet, so I'll just say it here: it was an absolute wasted opportunity to not have Callum make a Star Arcanum connection during the purification ritual, when he was literally baring his soul to the cosmos to find his answer, his truth.

[imminent-danger-came]

I think Sarah Harper (director on lmk) and Devon Giehl (lead writer on tdp) should be put in a room together

[inkasrain]

On Ezran

First things first:

This is extremely niche and probably very lame, but it's been on my mind for a long time.

As always, my thoughts about The Dragon Prince are just my own, and aren't official or canon or anything.

So. At some point early in the writing process for season 7, this song cycled up on my shuffle. It's been on my iPod (YES I STILL USE MY DINKY LITTLE IPOD SHUFFLE FOR MUSIC, MOVING ON) for probably 15 years at this point. It's not a song I really consciously hear anymore, it just exists familiarly in the background.

But with season 7 -- and particularly Ezran's story -- on my mind, I heard it differently. It took on a new meaning, and for me, became the musical embodiment of Ezran's personal, political, and emotional journey in this season. The song is a medley of two passages from TaNaCh (the complete Hebrew Bible.) The first is from the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), and is pretty well-known as far as Bible vibes go: Everything has a time, and there is a season for everything under Heaven... A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. (Shoutout Hall & Oates.) The second part of the medley comes from the book of Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah). It's much more obscure and is honestly not super easy to translate as the phrasing is very poetic and metaphorical. (The Prophets are generally very like "Figure it out, guys.") Approximately though, this is what it means:

"Isn't Ephraim my beloved son, My precious child, Whom I remember fondly Even when I speak against him? So my heart reaches out to him, And surely I will always be compassionate to him," Says Gd.

The important thing to know about this passage is that it is fundamentally about a broken bond -- how pain between loved ones can be repaired through the remembrance of healthier times, and choosing to feel compassion for each other. In a liturgical context, it's often used when requesting compassion and forgiveness from Gd, as we call back to times of a stronger spiritual connection. In the song, the passages intertwine at a critical and resolving point: The words "And surely I will always be compassionate to him" are woven around the first passage, with its last word -- peace -- repeated until the second passage completes. To me, this speaks so perfectly to Ezran's experience in season 7. How he was, for so long, the sweet, beloved son and brother, the innocent king. How he has been forced to suddenly grow up and confront the contradictions of love and hate, war and peace. How that tears him apart from the people he loves, when he most needs them to speak to him, and how destructive that distance can be. And how ultimately, it is his decision to choose compassion, and how that is met equally by Callum, Runaan, and others, that begins to heal those bonds and create a path forward. A path of love. A path of peace. The path that he had always hoped to forge, and is now so much stronger for having had to struggle to get to it.

[mjbarrosart]

2 weeks until Dragon prince season 7!

We are so close to the end of this arc of the saga! We worked so hard to deliver in every level on season 7, believe me when I tell you that this season will be EPIC.

I worked in episodes 702, 705 and 708, so you can count that I will write some comments on my process doing boards for those episodes. Stay tuned! haha

Also, has been a couple of years since the last time I draw this characters, so I decided to do a some of quick doodles, and see if I still remember how to draw them haha, hope you like them, even if they are pretty sketchy, I did them in SB Pro. (No spoilers of season 7, just random drawings!)

Also, unrelated, but, after years doing this, I feel I reached that moment that every storyboard artist reach when you relize that you are more comfortable drawing in SB Pro that in any other software, also I only can draw messy, I don't know what is a clean line anymore, hahaha.

See you in December 19 for the last chapter of the Mystery of Aaravos.