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kradogsrats · 1 year

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Aaravos and the Purpose of Dark Magic (It’s Control)

Okay, buckle in because, like Viren, I’m back on my dark magic bullshit. We’re gonna do some thinky-thoughts about what the nature and effects of dark magic are, and why it was specifically created to be that way.

So first to clear up a few assumptions: most of what we’ve been told so far about the history of Dark magic--and what the principal characters believe to be true--is partial or incorrect.

Specifically:

Humans were solely responsible for creating dark magic: False. We’ve suspected for a long time and it now seems pretty clear that Aaravos had at least some hand in creating dark magic.

Before dark magic, humans were miserable outcasts struggling for survival: False. At the time of dark magic’s inception, humans were doing quite well for themselves. Elarion had been a thriving city for hundreds of years.

Humans had no other magic than dark magic: False. There were human primal mages.

So here’s the truth, or some shape of it based on what we have so far seen: before dark magic, even before the dragon monarchy, Elarion had become a thriving city. Humans were on the rise--they had access to magic, though the path to being a primal mage was long and arduous.

Eight hundred years after the founding of Elarion, the dragon monarchy was put in place--and given the subsequent pattern of escalation, I would not be surprised if Aaravos had his fingers in that. Then 200 years after that, Aaravos was involved in the creation of dark magic, whether he created it entirely himself or influenced its creation. Everyone then freaked out, humans were driven from Xadia, Elarion was (maybe) destroyed, etc. etc.

We still don’t know what Aaravos’s goal in all his manipulations is, but it seems to heavily involve humanity and Xadia being pitted against each other. He spends the 700 years after the expulsion of humanity apparently playing both sides, presumably in escalating conflict. It’s almost certain that he was responsible for both Luna Tenebris’s death and Queen Aditi’s fate, either to create chaos in Xadia that humanity could take advantage of, or possibly even introducing a third front in the conflict if dragons and elves could be turned against each other.

So simply by introducing dark magic when he did, Aaravos was definitely escalating the frictions between humanity and elves. He surely knew that the mechanics of it would be repulsive to the other peoples of Xadia. He probably knew that the staff would further escalate the conflict when it came to a head. And ultimately, even if everything after the creation of dark magic was by chance, Aaravos could not have gotten a better result if he planned it: the world is split into two explicitly enemy factions that he can play against each other at his leisure, and as a bonus, humans have been destabilized in a way that makes them reliant on dark magic to survive for the next few hundred years.

That second part is important, because we also know that dark magic is a means of control. It opens you to Aaravos’s influence--up to and including total erasure of your free will.

Therefore, Aaravos grows more powerful the more dark magic propagates. Zubeia says he targeted mages as being susceptible to manipulation, but I think, in the case of dark mages, it was more than that. He deliberately made dark magic to be this way, and we can see it in how dark magic affects people.

To start with, we’ve been told that dark magic attracts a certain personality profile--this actually could be said to be one of the earliest things established about the setting, given the concept pilot and the way proto-Claudia leans in to the magic while proto-Soren shrinks away from it. This is mostly a similar profile to the way Zubeia describes mages Aaravos’s targets: insatiable thirst and fascination with magic, etc. However, with the introduction of dark magic, you get an additional facet--a person pursuing dark magic instead of primal magic is one who wants something badly enough to take shortcuts and make tradeoffs, and to continue to do so as long as what they want is held in front of them. Whether that is a desire driven by greed, fear, pride, or whatever doesn’t matter, the desire itself is a shared attribute that Aaravos can easily exploit.

We are also told that dark magic then amplifies the emotional traits of its users. So whatever fears or desires, whatever insatiable thirst initially lead someone to dark magic are only going to intensify--Viren’s pride and persecution complex, Claudia’s fear of loss and desire to prove herself, etc. These are features, not bugs. The vector for manipulation already exists, and the dark magic persistently reinforces it.

Viren’s spiral through the first arc is a good illustration of this: he gets progressively more and more... like that, because his grief and anger and paranoia are in a full feedback loop. But in addition to his emotions and desires being amplified, he’s drawn more and more into Aaravos’s influence. Even given that Viren must already have been compromised on some level to even consider doing something as dumbass as an unknown blood ritual offered by someone he knows nothing about and can’t speak to, that Viren of season one would be asking a lot of questions that the Viren of season three does not.

In my opinion, this is not because Aaravos has actually done very much in the way of earning his trust. It’s because his influence has wormed (ha) its way deep enough that he can just say shit like this:

That is not the face and words of someone who thinks he needs to be subtle. He knows that at this point, he could literally punch Viren in the dick and Viren would be like “yeah, great idea, thanks.” I won’t say that Viren would be making good decisions without Aaravos nudging him, but I don’t think he’d be making the same decisions--by fairly early in season three, it’s clearly Aaravos’s plan that’s being implemented and Viren is just along for the ride as a figurehead and eventual fall guy (ha).

We even have a visual marker for the progression of Aaravos’s influence over Viren--Viren’s corruption. Now, my belief is still that the visible physical effects of dark magic corruption are basically magic overdose to the point of tissue damage. Corruption explicitly builds up and gets more severe with continued dark magic use, producing effects like being able to sense magic and cast small spells without primal reagents. But we are told explicitly that Viren is corrupted “inside and out,” so there is also an internal, mental/spiritual effect of consistent, repeated dark magic.

This internal corruption isn’t “evil”--this isn’t a setting where “good” and “evil” are absolute, tangible forces, for one--it’s Aaravos’s influence. Sympathy, trust, receptiveness... it’s all laid in with the dark magic corruption. One very subtle but also quite explicit place we see this is when Claudia and Soren argue in season 4--Claudia describes the belief that humans have always been and will always be persecuted by elves (and that Aaravos is a savior) in terms of generational trauma, and as something she knows to be the truth on a physical, bone-deep level. And Soren doesn’t get it:

The dark magic corruption that Claudia carries is enough to make her instinctively believe Aaravos’s version of the narrative so deeply she’s not capable of questioning it. Soren, unaffected, is able to step back and say, “that sounds fake, but okay.”

So the use of dark magic is emotionally cyclical, and the corruption builds with its use, and Aaravos’s potential hold over every dark mage only increases. This is all by design, laid out by the one who designed it. It’s serving its purpose.

But back to the possession for a moment: “Callum only used dark magic the one time and that still left him vulnerable to full possession by Aaravos!” I hear you cry, “Why doesn’t Aaravos ever possess Viren the same way?”

Well, he almost definitely does, he just goes to some effort to keep Viren from realizing it. We have two occasions where Viren exhibits the same eye-glow effect as Callum does while possessed:

One is here, where Aaravos has Viren very blatantly resist arrest, basically eliminating any chance he has of talking his way out of Opeli’s treason charges. Viren explicitly thinks he’s still in control here, that Aaravos is just offering up his power and knowledge to him. He argues with Aaravos that he can continue to fight, and even win the battle--but that doesn’t suit Aaravos’s purposes as well. Viren alone and on the run is a lot less useful than Viren positioned within range of the throne, even if he’s imprisoned.

And the other time is at the top of the Storm Spire, where Viren is in so deep that he still thinks all of this is somehow for his benefit:

There’s actually a close-up shot of Viren’s eyes going from dark magic purple glow to Aaravos blue/iridescent. They very specifically and deliberately showcase the moment it happens. But Viren still believes he’s the one steering.

So why does Aaravos handle Viren differently from Callum? Well, to put it simply, you don’t need to kick someone’s legs out from under them if they’ll kneel when you ask. Furthermore, one of Viren’s strongest personality traits is that his pride makes him crave control--so removing a level of control as basic as his own bodily autonomy would be an incredibly hostile act in what is ostensibly a friendly relationship. Aaravos maintains the illusion that Viren is the one in control all the way to the end, because forcibly puppeting Viren the way he does Callum is probably one of the only things that could actually turn Viren against him.

Callum, on the other hand, is already hostile. Aaravos knows that he can’t manipulate Callum the same way he did Viren--Callum’s personality and desires are too divergent. The only way he’ll bring Callum to do his bidding voluntarily is through fear, anger, or despair. (CHET fans insert your own meta here.) Forcibly possessing Callum then actually serves that goal, in that it’s a demonstration that a) he has total power over Callum and can do whatever he wants (fear), b) there’s nothing Callum can do to stop it (despair), and c) he’s a massive asshole to everyone Callum loves (anger). It’s a little appetizer, so that when it’s time for the main course, Callum will know what the stakes are.

And where does Viren fall in this at the end of season 4? Well, in this recent interview, Aaron Ehasz describes Viren as having been “forced to make the decision to use dark magic.” This is an interesting phrasing, because it specifically suggests both agency and lack thereof.

Viren spends most of season 4 making the choice not to use dark magic--I’m not going to dig into why, at this time, but between the start and end of the season’s arc he refuses to either use dark magic or even touch either of the staffs. This is most dramatic when Claudia tries to defer to him for the chrysalis-opening spell since he is (in her mind) the more powerful and experienced mage, but he also explicitly refuses the staff when Claudia brings it back from the Storm Spire, and from that point on it is generally Terry lugging it (and frequently the Sunforge Staff, as well) around.

And then this happens:

I need to think about this line for another hundred years or so, because it’s just... so much. So, so much. But a couple immediately notable things:

This the last clear, full line Viren speaks in the season. His only other voice line after this is his “You!” when recognizing Rayla.

The length of the shot in which he reaches to pick up the staff, combined with the music cue, is really over-the-top dramatic. Some of that is due to the drama from the other side, with Rayla suddenly encountering her two-year fixation, but it’s not a coincidence.

And from there, he’s casually melting their way out of the mountainside. He’s back to full-drama magic use--Claudia could certainly have gotten them out of the mountain, if she had to, but now he’s the one taking the lead on magic, again. He’s apparently all-in on freeing Aaravos, given his satisfaction with Claudia’s summary of next steps. And, of course, he’s got his corruption face back on, after us having not seen it all season. In short, while he doesn’t have the posession eyes, he’s still firmly back on his Aaravos’s bullshit.

This also brings in a factor that I haven’t talked about yet--the staff.

The Staff of Ziard, the Relic Staff, whatever you want to call it. (Personally, I’m going to stick with Relic Staff, just because I think focusing on Ziard muddies things too much.)

The Relic Staff, we can pretty much assume at this point, was crafted by Aaravos to be given to Ziard, the first dark mage. And in the same way that Aaravos set up dark magic to his own advantage, he definitely has shit going on with the staff. It has seemingly unique properties related to dark magic, in terms of spells it’s able to act as a power source for--most notably the spirit entrapment (coin) spell, and the massive magic drain spell cast by both Ziard and later Viren. It’s specifically required to open the chrysalis. (According to Aaravos, that is--it could very well be that it will be necessary for something else that he doesn’t want to reveal, and isn’t related to the chrysalis at all.)

At the very least, it makes sense for the staff to enhance Aaravos’s influence over its bearer--it’s a powerful relic, passed down from the first dark mage (even if, as I suspect, history no longer remembers that). People are going to fight over it. It’s going to naturally wind up in the hands of the most powerful person around... who is then firmly in Aaravos’s thrall.

One interesting thread here is, if we work with the assumption that Aaravos is on some level directing both Claudia and Viren’s impulses toward his own ends, is that Claudia spends the whole season trying to give the staff back to Viren. Even after he won’t take it, she prefers using the corrupted Sunforge Staff. Granted, she’s been using that one for two years now and so probably likes it quite a bit, but given the Relic Staff’s nature and properties, I would have expected it to also have the effect that once you’ve got it, you’re extremely reluctant to let it go. In the end, Claudia doesn’t even stop at just pushing the staff back on Viren, she straight-up leaves it behind on the floor.

And Viren--to go back to the interview quote--both makes the choice to pick it back up, and is forced into all that entails. He’s also explicitly not picking it up for Claudia, but for himself. It’s a choice he makes with as much agency as any he has ever made.. but it’s definitely a choice Aaravos wanted him to make.

There was a lot of speculation before season 4 came out that Aaravos would be discarding Viren in favor of Claudia, but at this point I think the opposite is true--Aaravos wants Viren’s hands on that staff, so Claudia isn’t as compelled by it. Claudia is, as Aaravos noted, a valuable asset, but she’s still just a secondary piece being moved around in order to get his real goals back on track. Viren is still central, and there’s some reason for that we have yet to see.

Anyway, both the Relic Staff and dark magic itself were built from the ground up by Aaravos specifically to allow him to easily influence/control humanity and have that control both propagate and filter to the people who would be most useful to him as pawns. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk about how humans are fucked.

#i didn't even get to the part where aaravos is able to corrupt actual sources of primal magic so #the dragon prince #dark magic #viren #aaravos #tdp spoilers #the dragon prince spoilers #did i edit this? at all? ha ha FUCK no

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beautifulterriblequeen · 5 months

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Multiple Choice - a Callum and Aaravos theory

Not to be all Han Solo or anything, but when it comes to Aaravos and magic in Xadia, I Have A Bad Feeling About This.

If there's one thing I love more than corrupt systems, it's breaking them, so let's get to it: please enjoy yet another way that Callum's pursuit of magic could potentially go very wrong for him - and how he can still fix it.

The system, in this case, isn't a monarchy (on either side of the border), wartime tensions reaching forward from the cycle, or a Xadia-wide racial hierarchy.

It's magic itself.

We don't know where it came from, magic. Was deep magic always here? Did one of the Star Touch elves create it, or perhaps choose to make it his bailiwick while others chose things like Justice and Mercy?

Aaravos, I mean Aaravos. If he's basically the god of magic (feel free to view him through a Loki-esque lens here, I am), then of course he's an archmage, and of course he's the only one among the Star Touch elves. Magic is His Thing.

And according to Zubeia, the Dragon Queen, its mages are his prey. We don't know yet what his full intent has been. We only have her millennia-long view from the surface of the planet. There's definitely more to the story, but which direction that story takes us is anyone's guess at this point. However, it seems clear that Aaravos's history during his time in Xadia does show a pattern of him targeting and influencing mages. He certainly has been during the years the show has covered.

What all he did with these mages, besides the manipulation, is also still unknown. But even if all he ever did was pull their strings, he's still choosing magic-imbued beings as his favorite puppets. The most likely explanation for this is that mages and Aaravos have something in common, making them easier for him to work with. Is it just magic? Does their ambition count too? Is there more to it?

I think there's more. I feel there is some deep dangerous secret Aaravos has managed to hide from everyone so far - including us. But just because it's dangerous doesn't mean it's evil, or even ill-intentioned. Do we consider the threat to anthills when we begin construction on a new apartment complex? Usually no. We're busy doing human-level tasks. The ants' welfare is truly not our concern. And most of them will probably be fine... right?

So. What's Aaravos really up to, and what does it have to do with Callum?

Something Rayla believes about Callum made me wonder: in the short story Chasing Shadows, she believes that he, and all humans, can change their destiny (and it's super annoying!). Why is that a human thing only, though?

Arcanums, perhaps. We've all seen the elven peoples get uptight about their own rules and the options they can choose for themselves. It's not just the Moonshadows. Sunfire elves can absolutely be sticklers for tradition - look at my disaster boy Karim over here, willing to go to war against his own people because his sister wants to marry a human.

Bruh.

So here's part one of the theory:

Having an arcanum in you forces your destiny into a certain path.

If you're born with it, you know the path of your whole life - and I don't just mean "serve your people" or "be a warrior" or "be one with nature." There is a very dark side to being locked into your destiny. It means you cannot escape it even if you desperately want to.

*wordlessly points to Runaan and his overly honorbound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Rayla and her overly sacrificial decisions*

*wordlessly points to Finnegrin and his overly fear-driven decisions*

*wordlessly points to Janai and her overly dutybound decisions*

*wordlessly points to Karim and his overly traditional decisions*

I don't need to say anything here, do I? Thought not.

But it's one thing to be born with an arcanum - maybe they know and accept this part of their destiny already. Maybe it's just a subconscious thing they... know.

It's another thing entirely to opt into an arcanum as a free choice. And here's where we get to part two:

Callum thinks he chose his destiny. He doesn't know he just gave it away.

If he just handed his fate to Aaravos by embracing an arcanum (and then one more), his destiny isn't currently in his hands at all. It's in Aaravos's. And the archmage has proven that he, at least, knows that, since he's been pulling at Callum's strings and toying with him for a while now. He wouldn't flex like that unless he was supremely confident - which he is, he always is - he wouldn't show that hand early on like this unless he knew Callum didn't understand what he'd done or how to reverse it.

This theory is about more than dark magic. It's about all magic. Even if Callum could cleanse himself from dark magic and never let Aaravos puppet him again, is he really free? He still has an arcanum. Where did that come from? He's walking around with a couple of magical bona fides stamped on his brain, and I just want to know...

Who crafted the stamps?

If all Xadian magic is some kind of... creation, or spill, or experiment... and Aaravos needs that power back for himself in order to be who he used to be and/or re-ascend to the stars, he's got more than one way to harness it again:

dark magic consumes primal magic - but matter and energy are never destroyed, so... where does that power go? Aaravos has a very convenient black hole symbol right on his chest. Maybe every spell dark mages have ever cast sends him some of his precious primal magic again. It would be a very convenient way of getting desperate humans to do his cleanup for him. And he has all the time in the world.

primal magic won't save anyone from his will - it just harnesses the elves to Aaravos's magic rules and binds their destiny to a predetermined outcome. They've become, in a word... predictable.

There's no way to beat a Star Touch Archmage at his own game. He literally wrote its rules. So what's a bright young kid like Callum to do?

To quote War Games, "the only way to win is not to play."

Callum's in a unique position, in that he knows who he was before he had an arcanum. Back when he could choose his destiny every day, without binding him to some powerful force he doesn't fully understand yet. This might lead him to a very difficult and dangerous choice, and it could break the game, and the world, wide open.

If Callum can choose to learn an arcanum, maybe he can choose to forget one.

If he can un-know the things that bound him to that magic destiny, he'd be free again, of Aaravos's reach and of his influence.

And that's just for him, but if everyone else is trapped too, how can he help them and hurt Aaravos's power grab at the same time? No idea, beyond "someone hand him a powerful magical artifact and wait," at this point, but I'm sure he'll find a way to break something important eventually! Something vital to the structure and distribution of magic itself, preferably.

If he manages to find a way to destroy magic itself, then everyone would be free. There would be no rules binding anyone to Aaravos. There would be no dark magic feeding off its fumes, either. It's theoretically possible that destroying primal magic would undo the taint of dark magic, all in one go.

And we all know how Callum loves to go around ruining ancient and powerful magical objects. Kid's got quite a track record by now!

Maybe he's not done yet. Maybe Callum's true destiny will be both Savior and Destroyer. But he'll have to play his own game to do it - he can't play Aaravos's game and win. He'll have to fight outside of magic itself. And if he's going to put down his most powerful weapon, forged by someone else - by the mastermind himself - and try without it, then he'll need help, just like always.

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #callum #aaravos #primal magic #dark magic

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fandomsandflyingstingrays · 9 months

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Full Thoughts on TDP Season 5

Under the cut, because there are many of them!

Starting off with things I liked:

Rayllum! It was so good to see them on the same page again, and they have a perfect balance between deep, romantic devotion and the shared laughter and gestures of best friends. Their dynamic this season was my favorite iteration of them so far

Janai and Amaya were wonderful as well. I was really bracing for Amaya to leave for Lux Area without telling Janai and a whole bunch of drama to ensue, but no! They communicate! They trust each other! It's so refreshing!

Side note: Lux Area was gorgeous the detail in every shot of the city and Bookery was so good. I want to live there. I will take on the night creatures if need be

I hoped we'd get an apology from Amaya for Rayla, and I'm really glad they took the time to put it in the show instead of a short story or anything like that. It was also cool to see Amaya recognizing the similarities she and Rayla share and acting as more of a mentor to her, I hope we see more of them together later on

The reoccurring message that oftentimes the best way to be strong is by going to other people for help- first Amaya's story, then Rayla trusting Callum, then Zubeia's talk with Avizandum. It's a very good moral

That whole thing with Soren and Elmer! Breaking the cycle of cruelty! I love Soren so much

Callum using dark magic again. I thought I would hate it if that happened, since we've seen a corruption plotline with him and with Claudia already, but the way it was done sort of added a good sense of realism. I like that Callum isn't a Perfectly Moral Mage just because he can do primal magic; it feels deeper and more complicated if he has to recognize that the easier, darker choice is always there, and sometimes he won't be able to resist it, but he has to try each time anyway

So many little moments that I'll probably be going into in separate posts because the dynamic between the characters was on fire. It was so good to see the team really working together, their chemistry was so good

Things I wasn't as much of a fan of:

The problem with the show really relying on people to read all the supplementary material is still present. I was pretty confused about who Kpp'Ar was until I looked him up on the wiki, and again, people who didn't know about Soren getting sick as a kid from the Book 2 novelization really wouldn't have gotten his part of the dream sequence. It doesn't ruin the show or anything but it does make it a little confusing at times

The plotline with the coins is starting to feel a little drawn-out. Runaan's presence would bring up enough complications between Rayla and the rest of the group that he needs enough time out of the coin to give that the weight it deserves, and I'm really hoping he gets out next season so we can have at least season 7 to go into that. Also, Ethari needs his husband back

As good as it was to see rayllum back together, I do still think we needed a scene of them actually talking things through. I'm sure it'll appear in a Reflections story at some point, but again, you don't want your show to lean that heavily on the bonus material

This is more of a nitpick than anything else, but the characters' faces in the early episodes felt really stiff. They'd be having a monologue where you could really hear the emotion in their voices, but their faces just... didn't really move

And finally: too many crabs. This is not a flaw with the season this is just because I personally am freaked out by crabs and I've never been so horrified in all my life as when the true nature of Finnegrin's ship was revealed. It'll haunt me forever

Overall I liked it a lot, and I'm really excited to see where it goes next! Claudia feels like she's on the very edge of the point of no return, if she hasn't already crossed it, and it'll be very interesting to see how she reacts to the loss of her leg and (most likely) the loss of her father next season. I'm also very excited for the nova blade, that sounds like a gorgeous piece of weaponry and seeing whoever wields it (my money's on Rayla) fighting Aaravos is going to be epic. This season has definitely ratcheted up my investment in the show, which I'm very excited about

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randompoetemogirl · 8 months

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Part one: https://www.tumblr.com/randompoetemogirl/726226415712927744/okay-so-everyones-talking-about-the-reaction?source=share

Part two of why Runaan deserves no punishment when he gets out of the coin:

So in the comic, Runaan discusses how he only kills to protect life and how in order to take a life one has to value life because that’s the balance of things.

This contradicts show Runaan. Even though he still has a high sense of honor, he was still willing to kill Ezran after finding out there was a more peaceful alternative. You could argue that he would still want Harrow dead, considering all that he had done, but Ezran is a CHILD.

I feel like Wonderstorm wasn’t planning for us to become so attached to Ruthari. I also feel like they didn’t properly flush out Runaan’s character until much later, and so they came out with The Bloodmoon Huntress. I feel like they did the same thing with Ethari, but I’ll discuss this in a later post.

It honestly would have been more interesting for Runaan to try and call off the mission, only for the other assassins to be too afraid of going back home disgraced and kill King Harrow anyways. Forcing Runaan to go with Rayla, Callum, Ezran, and Bait to return Zym. Or Runaan tries to call off the mission but when the other elves don’t listen, he has to fight his own comrades to stop them from killing Ezran, letting the gang escape and causing him to be captured and King Harrow is still killed. This way, we still have the plot of Runaan being stuck in the coin, but Ezran and Callum have a reason to forgive him. Because not only he fought against those he cared for and trusted to do what was right, he was also willing to let his binding take off his arm. This is more like the Runaan Wonderstorm wants us to see, a Runaan willing to do what is right and honorable.

This is just one of the examples of how season four wasn’t the only season with bad writing, it’s just that it wasn’t as bad. Like for instance, Moonshadow elves become near invisible on a full moon, yet everyone BUT Runaan died. How were the guards even able to see what they were fighting? Why did everyone assume that Rayla was a traitor and that she wasn’t just the sole survivor? People already knew that Rayla was like a daughter to Runaan, so it’s not unreasonable to assume that he would have died to keep her safe. Also, it just proves that if Rayla had listened to Runaan, sat on that rock, and they had all died, she would have been ghosted anyways. Runaan should KNOW THIS. He’s been in this line of work for years, so why in the world would he make her sit this one out? Actually, why would he send her alone to kill that guard knowing full well that Rayla had never killed anyone? Wouldn’t it make more sense to make Rayla prove herself capable of killing someone before she goes on a mission that dictates the future of Xadia?

This isn’t Runaan being a bad person, this is Runaan falling victim to bad writing. And it’s not just Runaan. Why would King Harrow have the cube with all primal sources on it at a winter lodge? What if one of the boys had gotten careless and lost it? Why wouldn’t he have someone retrieve and give it to Callum when he gave him the letter? Why was Viren just able to say that the princes were killed even though there’s definitely guards to contradict his story and he’s not even having a funeral for them? How come Callum and Ezran didn’t hear about King Harrow’s death sooner? Aunt Amaya didn’t tell them for some reason, and you’re telling me that not once they didn’t hear a passing comment about the king of Katolis not getting a proper funeral? Why are we in season five and Rayla STILL hasn’t killed anyone despite having to fend for herself for two years? Why is Zubeia happy to see elves and humans together after she ordered the death of King Harrow and his son? Why is nobody talking about how she wanted Ezran dead? Why are so many people willing to give Zubeia a pass and not Runaan?

Speaking of giving people a pass, Callum let Rayla off way too easy. I’ll talk about that more in part three.

#Runaan #Ethari #Ruthari #tdp season 5 #the dragon prince season 5 #the dragon prince #Rayla #Callum #Ezran #Harrow #JusticeForRuthari

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baatarthefirst · 5 months

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Truth Serum/Honesty

"The light demands the truth." Karim sneered at the human. She looked defiant, even though detained, outnumbered, and about to face the truth. He started with a few simple questions, "So tell me. Are you planning to harm Queen Janai? How many elves have you killed?"

It'd been quite the task to get her here. Karim heard of the general's impressive record for surviving ambushes. That despite her disabilty she was usually the first one to know something was amiss. He knew she'd never go with him willingly, but Kazi was another story. All the prince had to do was tell the young linguist that there was a surprise for the human outside camp. She hadn't suspected a thing because Kazi had not suspected a thing.

It didn't mean that the soldier was in the dark as long as they'd hoped. She got suspicious early, thankfully, he brought twenty of Lux Aurea's best with him. And no one was permanently injured. Now, she was on her knees. Her feet, waist, torso and neck were all tied tightly against the cave floor and five arrows pointing in her direction (and the mousy elf cuffed and slumping over with guilt). General Amaya was ready for the spell.

The priests, ready as Karim to show Queen Janai this human's true intentions -to show her that having a pure heart did not make the general their ally-, preformed a spell that forced anyone in the circle to answer any question honestly.

*hand signals*

"Well, what did she say?" Karim asked Kazi. The elf seemed reluctant to answer, "Tell us what she said; word for word. If she really is our friend, then she had nothing to fear."

"Alright. She said, 'No.' and 'I didn't keep count'." Kazi said meekly. Karim frowned,

"How could you not?!"

-There's no reason to. You only need to know how many people you personally killed if if you're going to brag about it, and I won't; not even about my enemies. My sister taught me better than that.- Amaya signed with an aggravated huff, Kazi translated. Karim huffed.

"What was your part in King Avizandum's assassination?" That would surely turn tempers. Janai would hate her, and if she didn't Queen Zubeia would still call for her head.

-I tried to stop them, but they didn't listen.- She might have won the group over if she didn't immediately follow with -Much as I wanted the bastard dead, Sarai always said we should only take life to save life.- Kazi stumbled and stammered through the interpretation, but they said each and every word.

"You dare insult the King of the Dragons?"

-I dare to insult everyone. You royals need some humility knocked into you from time to time.-

Karim practically growled, and was going to start an argument when Osato put a hand on his shoulder and whispered 'we need to stay on track'.

"What are you doing here?"

-You and your fucking goons ambushed me.- Obviously. He needed to be more specific.

"I meant 'what are you doing in Xadia'?"

-My nephew forced me to come.- The admission was given hesitantly, against her will.

"You see?" Karim said to the elves around him. "This human lied when she said she wanted to help."

-I did not. I want to help you. I would kill every monster in Lux Aurea and rebuild the city myself if I could.- The archers stance wavered, none of them seeing the general as a threat anymore. Karim had to take a few moments to let the shock wear off.

"But you had to be forced to help?"

"My nephews are young and orphaned, I should be in Katolis raising them. I was going to promote Commander Gren and resign my commission, but Ezran- Amaya tried to keep her hands still, they could see her physically fight not to move; the spell compelled her to sign -found out that Janai and I kissed. He's young and assumed that meant we were in love. So he sent me away.-

"You kissed my sister?!"

-Yes. Don't get your panties in a punch, princess, it was just a kiss. A goodbye kiss because we didn't think we'd see each other ever again. It's not like I got her pregnant.-

"What are your intentions with my sister?"

-I don't know. She's amazing, I really like her, hell I probably be half in love. I wouldn't mind fucking her- - Kazi stopped to warn Prince Karim that he may not want to hear that last bit. He regretted saying yes. - - but she's going through so much at the moment. Right now my intentions are to help her get through losing her sister so she doesn't end up like me.-

Bow strings loosened and lowered, the elves looked at each other, suddenly the queen's friendship..."friendship" with this human made a little more sense. General Amaya was a ally to the Sunfire. Karim's head lowered at the mention of Khessa. Osato entered the circle and cut Amaya free.

It was a rather awkward ride home. Amaya made no move to attack anyone but she glared daggers at the elven prince. He was too far above this human to hunker down, besides, he had a duty to protect his queen and sister.

At the camp entrance, the soldiers veered away and returned to their duties. Amaya was going the center of the camp; to Janai. Karim went along, wanting to tell his story when the general voiced her complaint. Kazi went along to interpret, and also to apologize again for unknowing leading General Amaya into a trap.

They had to wait for a meeting to end. Janai and her advisors were bent over a map for a good half an hour, giving Karim enough time to get his defense together. While it was true, he did nothing wrong, Janai was fond of this human. He could tell the general's feelings were returned. She might side with her just to stay on her good graces.

"Hey, were have you two been?" Janai's face lit up as she realized her two favorite people were there.

"I wished to-" He was rudely interrupted by Amaya via Kazi. The fact a commoner would do that surprised him. It shouldn't, but it did. It surprised him so much he actually allowed it.

-Karim pulled me aside to have a chat.- She said without annoyance. Just like someone would say that they asked about the weather.

"Oh?" her face morphed into one of suspicion, "What about?"

-He was telling me a few of your less graceful moments. I especially enjoyed that awkward birthday party.- Amaya grinned. The grin turned into a full evil smirk when the queen began to blush.

"You told her about that?!" Just as Janai was about to throttle her little brother for telling Amaya about that party, her aid came in and beckoned her to her next meeting, "We will speak about this later. General we could use your input."

-Yes. I'll be along.-

"Why did you tell her that?"

-You were trying to look after your sister. I can respect that.- She shrugged.

"And how did you know about that party?"

-Everyone's had an awkward birthday party. I expect you to tell me exactly what happened later.- She gave a short bow and began to walk away. Karim let the relief start to sink in. He was about to follow when she and Kazi turned -And Prince Karim!-

"Yes?"

-You do anything like that again, and I will beat your ass from here to to the Breach.-

#tdp #the dragon prince #karim #amaya #janai #Kazi #janaya

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jadefromsnowstorm · 9 months

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The Dragon Prince Season 5: The Missed Potential of Scumport

Aight so I recently watched the 5th season of TDP and while I enjoyed it a great deal more than Season 4 I still have a few issues with it

The biggest one being that some of the things in the plot just..... don't seem to matter that much? Like they'd setup for something and then completely ignore/forget about it in the show?

Finnigrin was the best part of this season no doubt there, but I felt the Scumport plot lacking somewhat

Like why even make Ezran go to Finnigrin for the ship if they planned for Villads to help the gang?

Just so Ezran can steal those three baby glow toads(that's still pretty stupid to steal from the shady guy running a brutal, lawless place) and get Finnigrin to follow them?

Why tell us that he wanted to kill Domina Profundis when she's such a nothing character this season and no confrontation even happens? Like Finn gets killed before the finale and Domina doesn't matter enough for the audience to care or be interested in that aspect of the plot

Like there were better ways of getting Finnigrin to chase them, I thought that they were initially setting up for Ezran & Zym to steal Finn's fastest or second fastest ship & use Villads to steer it

Could you imagine what it would have been like if they stole his main ship and then Finnigrin chased after in his second fastest one and when he had them in view he just whistled and the "ship" suddenly turned and stood showing the audience it was a crab all along (I still liked the reveal in the show tho)

There's also the whole deal with dark magic this season, we saw more elves willing to use/associate with dark magic or adjacent practices to achieve their goals, Karim, Finnigrin, Kim'Dael

(Terry maybe in the future seasons?)

Here's my ideas for the Scumport thing

Finnigrin is the first elf we've seen in the show that deliberately wants to use dark magic(well maybe except the Bloodmoon huntress but it's not exactly clear if the "blood magic" is supposed to be "dark magic")

It would've made much much more sense for Scumport to be a DARK MAGIC HUB where you could purchase and trade in goods used for dark magic

This would also increase the sense of danger in the place if most of the people there were dark magic users, Raya's whole comment about keeping a low profile & the other comment about everyone paying their dues to Finnigrin, there's no need for tension or to be scared for our heros in Scumport if it's just filled with snake oil salesmen

It would also make sense for why Finn wants Bait, maybe adult glow toads are excellent for some dark magic rituals & the little ones don't have much value or take too long to grow

Ezran's decision to save them would much more sense if they were going to be used in dark magic or the leviathans that they'd catch would be used in that way

Also make the gang actually steal one of Finn's ships, or if you really wanna include Ruthless, have Villads be indebted to Finn so he's actually trapped there and Finn has the control of his ship and then they can steal it from him

Make Domina Profundis more relevant this season, it's named Water so the Archdragon of the Ocean should play a bigger role, have Zubeia get injured early on and Domina can serve as our mentor for this season, set up her dislike for dark magic and conflict with Finnigrin/other dark magic users/Scumport and have a failed attempt for assassination by Finn in the finale

The Scumport subplot was the more interesting of part of this season so make it matter more dammit

#the dragon prince #tdp season 5 #tdp spoilers #rewrite #rant

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photoniccyclone · 9 months

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Chasing Shadows pt 3 has some REALLY COOL implications for the rest of the show!

Alright lads, bear with me because I’m typing this on mobile but I just HAD to fawn over this.

Chasing shadows pt 3. Wow what an ending that has some really awesome implications for the future of the show!

Okay first of all, it’s very possible the dark mage Rayla finds may be Tressal since the description fits. That would be really cool because it would be the first ToX cameo in TDP! And having it be Tressal is just… YES!

Secondly, damn, Rayla was really gonna pursue him even after she realized it wasn’t Viren huh? 💀 Jeez calm down Ray 😂.

Third of all, during the ending, for the first time, Rayla is directly confronted with the other, more positive side of dark magic. First the ingredients she uncovers aren’t the horrific stuff she was expecting and next “Tressal” explains what they can be used for (and likely what he was intending to do with them) which includes healing wounds, illness and plagues and such. This is one of the arguments people like us have been making FOREVER and it’s so great to see it directly shown here and DIRECTLY referenced. But it actually also makes Rayla stop and CONSIDER what he’s talking about. Rayla is actually CHALLENGED ABOUT HER VIEW ON DARK MAGIC AND IT MAKES HER GO INTO THOUGHT!

I got so excited when I saw this! It shows me that Wonderstorm is finally ready to go full nuance with dark magic and not just have it be “Evil magic that must be exterminated”. I’ve been hoping that the ending to TDP wouldn’t suggest that dark magic needs to be eliminated, and everyone who wants to be a “good guy” needs to abandon dark magic completely. Instead hoping that it could be regulated to maintain as much of the positive impacts of dm as possible while minimizing the problematic sides and I just now, from this ending, got more hope that we will see something like that!

Just in general, in the entire volume 2 of reflections there have been a good number of stories that have been more sympathetic to the human plight. Aaravos’s story that kicked off volume 2 where it implies that humans were initially hunted for having any sort of magic at all (I made a post on that too). Then the Zubeia one which made Zubeia of all people admit that Avizandum went overboard, and that’s WITH all her bias, giving a formal acknowledgment from the show that… yes… Avi definitely wasn’t the best guy. And now we get this.

I feel this bodes VERY well for the future of the show especially with Sol Regem making his big return next season, and I’m excited to see where they take all these ideas in future seasons. It seems our hopes for TDP to give more light to Xadia’s wrongs have not been lost yet!

#the dragon prince #tdp #season 5 #theorizing #hype #US DARK MAGES MAY SOON GET THE RESPECT WE DESERVE #YEEEEEHAWWWW #SO EXCITED ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS

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tdp-fandom · 7 months

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Favorite Ships Part 1 Discussion (1)

Shipping Poll Main Page · Full Ship List · Favorite Ships Results (Part 1) · Discussion (2)

Margin of Error

The margin of error for this poll is 6,7%, which means that the results I got might not represent the whole fandom. Moreover, it can render some of the results statistically insignificant. Consider the following table with the results accounting for the margin of error:

(The table on google sheets)

See how while Terridia received 12 votes and, say, Soryx got only one, according to my results, not only is it impossible to say whether Terridia is more popular as a favorite ship than Soryx, both results, at the end of the day, become statistically insignificant. Then again, Terridia can potentially be as popular or even more popular than Ruthari, while Ruthari is more popular than any ship after Terridia.

You can see below how Rayllum is the only ship with a certain placement in ranking and the rest can move up or down. The lines that have two colors are of ships that could switch places with the color above and the color below. The table features ships that got at least 5 votes:

Here's what we can say with certainty about the shipping preferences of our fandom:

Rayllum is most people's favorite ship.

Viravos and Janaya are just as likely to be people's favorite ship as Ruthari but are more likely than the rest of the ships.

Ruthari is just as likely to be people's favorite ship as both Viravos and Janaya, as well as Claaravos, Sorvus, Virrow or Terridia, but more likely than the rest of the ships.

So, realistically speaking, the ranking looks like this

Rank 1: Rayllum Ranks 2 and 3: Viravos, Janaya or Ruthari (i.e. any of these three can be number 2 as their highest rank, and Viravos and Janaya are unlikely to fall lower than 4) Rank 4: Viravos, Janaya, Ruthari, Claaravos, Sorvus, Virrow or Terridia (if Viravos or Janya are here, it means Ruthari is #2 or 3 and the other ships are automatically pushed to #5 or lower) Ranks 5 and 6: Ruthari, Claaravos, Sorvus, Virrow, Terridia, Claudium, Pyrren, Raydia or the rest of the ships (if Ruthari is here, it means Claaravos, Sorvus, Virrow or Terridia are at #4) Ranks 7 to 12: all the ships starting Claaravos, Sorvus, Virrow and down.

We can rewrite this table by the highest rank the ships can get:

Redistributing Polyship Votes

This one is tricky. Let's take Sorayllum as an example - some shippers will also ship Sorayla, Rayllum and Calren separately, some might only ship one or two of the three permutations, while others might only ship them as a trouple. However, if we assume, that a person who ships Sorayllum also ships the three couples that it implies, we can count a vote for Sorayllum as three separate votes, one for each couple it connects.

We had the following polyships (listed alphabetically):

Claarasef (Claudia x Aaravos x Kasef)

Laidriruthari (Lain x Tiadrin x Runaan x Ethari)

Rexavibeia (Rex Igneous x Avizandum x Zubeia)

Varrai (Viren x Harrow x Sarai)

Virdivos (Viren x Claudia x Aaravos)

Virrowvos (Viren x Harrow x Aaravos)

The votes for these ships where redistributed to the couple ships they're comprised of, with an exception of the cases when a person voted for both a polyship and one of its mono ship components, e.g. a Sorayllum shipper who voted for both Sorayllum and Sorayla.

So here's how that changed the rankings: Table on the right - the original rankings Table on the left - the rankings after vote redistribution Purple: ships that got additional votes Orange: polyships (excluded from the table on the left) Blue: ships that were created by splitting polyships into component but weren't voted for by shippers Red ship names: ships that fell in rank Black ship names: ships that didn't change rank Green ship names: ships that rose in rank

(This table on Google Sheets)

What we see is that changes are very small. Most ships that got extra points didn't even rise in rank (Virdia being the only ship that did). Claaravos cemented its position at #5, pushing Sorvus and Virrow to #6. Virdia rose from #10 to #9.

We can see that the margin of error changes are also quite small, with the only significant difference being that Claaravos is now essentially one vote away from being able to compete with Janaya for the third place.

Discussion (2)

#the dragon prince #tdp shipping poll #tdp shipping poll s4 #shipping poll results #favorite ships

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thesparringpanther · 1 year

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The Dragon Prince Book 4 Review:

Just writing down my longer thoughts. It's not like this show will be back this year anyway so.

Pros:

Janaya. My crops were watered. I love delving into Janai's character a bit and showcasing her trials and tribulations as the Sunfire Queen, along with the social dynamic of marrying a human. It's cute seeing Amaya support Janai through her troubles too. I was really hoping the show would showcase the troubles of humans and Elves integrating on a larger scale and not just end with "humans and Sunfire Elves are cool now, let's focus on the 5 other tribes that hate humans" and I'm glad they delivered.

Magefam, but more importantly, Claudia, stole the show. She has stepped up in her villainy and while (thankfully) kept her immaturity and, it's fun to see her slowly become crueler as well. The new spells she used were really good and really made her a threat to the cast and a joy to watch. Also they gave her a different outlook outside of trying to keep her family together (because daddy issues can only take you so far) with her actually believing Aaravos, whereas Viren was always just using him for power.

Terry, full stop. My fear was that Terry would have nothing to him and be an obvious Soren replacement, but, Terry has no real need to impress Viren and somewhat impresses Viren by just being himself. It's a breath of fresh air for the Magefam dynamic, because Soren couldn't impress Viren without becoming someone he's not, and Claudia is his spitting image as a mage, albeit sillier, so even at her worst he'll still love her. Its both heartwarming and heartbreaking that Terry has a closer bond with Viren than Season 1 Soren did (I don't think he likes either BUT he's groaning less with Terry).

It's fun seeing Viren essentially go "Are we the baddies?" to Claudia, who at the very least has murdered people by now.

Ezran has grown so much its unreal. Its very prominent in the 2nd episode with Ezran really wanting to have a whole "and then we all held hands and forgot we've been trying to murder each other for centuries" energy for Zubeia & Zym, it amounts to what a 10-year old's expectation of resolving such a deep-seated conflict, but then stepping up and acknowledging that what he was doing was unrealistic, you cannot just forget about the pain and the damage and the loss and pretend nothing bad happened to strive for peace, you have to remember all of those negative emotions and still strive for peace anyways because you will inevitably just keep causing that same pain for future generations. That boy was raised right.

Rex Igneous is so good. Love the way he was bored of visitors and tore down Avizandum. To me he feels like he's indifferent to humans, whereas Avizandum, Sol Regem, and Zubeia probably were anti-human. Makes me wonder how the Tideblood & Moonshadow Archdragon will act.

Sad that Aaravos had to leave the show for a while to hype his return but him making fun of all the heroes before smashing his own mirror is soooooooo worth it. He knows how important presentation is for villains. I do wonder if that means that Aaravos' consciousness was transferred to Sir Sparklepuff and he didn't want the heroes to wonder why he's braindead in that mirror.

Cons:

I mean I could go on an episode-to-episode basis but uh:

The entire season feels like a first draft, which is disappointing after waiting for 3 years. Overall it's a downgrade compared to Seasons 2 and 3, and at times even worse than Season 1. There are still things I enjoyed but honestly this is the show's worst outing.

The pacing, particularly the Drakewood episodes, are cramped. It doesn't breathe. Character interactions that SHOULD have happened here (Callum & Rayla, Soren & Viren) but didn't because we had other things to address. I get it, but you can't repeat the emotions that could follow Soren after being abandoned by Rayla and captured, stripped of his armor, berated by Claudia that everyone else is treating him like a joke, meeting his dad that makes him feel small and unwanted. Especially when this will be the nicest Viren will ever be in all 7 seasons. I can only hope it was a deleted scene and moved later on so the words can sink in.

Soren being missing and possibly dead or gravely hurt should have raised the stakes and tension for the original Dragang. Instead it feels like a complete afterthought by the start of the next episode.

Rayla.....oof. Disappointing on all accounts. For such a setup of her going on a revenge quest (in a show where revenge quests just cause even more damage) by abandoning her newfound family it's anti-climactic. It's a good thing that they didn't have Rayla come back with info, since that would justify that it was a good thing Rayla left. Most of this season felt like Rayla tagging along for the ride rather than Rayla being one of the main characters.

Maybe it didn't click for me, but, like, alot of the Rayllum scenes didn't have the bite that comes with your ex coming back into your life after ghosting you. There was no emotional catharsis for both. Ultimately their breakup and reunion did not fix any flaw either of them had, so it is functionally meaningless.

Culturally insensitive Amaya works. Culturally insensitive Amaya that is the fiance of the Sunfire Queen does not. The plot makes more sense coming from an Amaya that's either recently dating Janai or pining for her and has recently begun living in the Lux Aurea camps, but it looks like she's been living with Sunfire Elves since the end of Season 3? Not knowing their mourning ritual when this was done en masse following the Fall of Lux Aurea when she was quite literally there? Engaged to the Sunfire Queen? Make it make sense. I'm also not expecting that Amaya should be well-researched into Sunfire culture eithrr, but there needs to be a balance in what Amaya should know and what she shouldn't.

Really disappointed that the other human kingdoms didn't exist this season. Both in the case that Ezran can now do what he wants instead of having to balance between leading a Kingdom and adventuring with Callum & Rayla (which was cool to spin in Book 2 and 3), but also that I think it would be important to highlight that there are just as many factions of humans as there are of elves. Just because 1 kingdom is cool with Elves and Dragons doesn't mean the rest are. Granted the humans seem to be more unified than the Elves, as no other Elves are helping the Sunfire Elves rebuild, so maybe I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. But I still think Ezran should be making policies ALONG with the rest of the Kingdoms rather than just Katollis like how Viren was doing it, even if the end result will just be Ezran running off again.

The season finale is both anticlimactic and confusing, and neither are in a good way. Are the Dragang supposed to end the season without the map so they have to chase the Magefam first? Is that why Rex threw a huge temper tantrum last minute? Why does his trust of the Dragang stay at 0 even after Zubeia calms him down? Is the plot of the show (fate of the world) hinging on the cast not wanting to disturb Rex again? HUH?

#the dragon prince #the dragon prince spoilers #the dragon prince season 4 #tdp analysis

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theseasideskies · 1 year

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My notes on The Dragon Prince S4 (spoiler bits will be beneath the cut if you just want a non-spoiler review)

In Summary: Returning to the world of Xadia after 3 years leaves me with the sense that I can no longer enjoy the show without also reading the books and comics. The gap between Season 3 and Season 4 leaves so much character development in the past that it feels like this is another Season 1 to a second half of the story. I can only hope Seasons 5-7 reach and surpass the heights of Seasons 2 and 3.

Let's open with the elephant in the room: The season that gets the special treatment of a subtitle, "Mystery of Aaravos", lore dumps his backstory by episode 4. While not necessarily a bad thing, there's still plenty of details we could learn about, a reveal like that really blunders the whole "Mystery" part of the title. And if the point of the story isn't learning about Aaravos and instead about how the protagonists deal with him, a title like "Aaravos' Gambit" would be a lot less disappointing after 3 years of build-up concludes a "mystery" like that.

As characters, our protagonists are little else but vessels to experience the story with. Ezran is seemingly over his anxieties as a child king and is always praised as wise beyond his years. Callum and Rayla are back to awkwardly walking around their feelings. An understandable development given Rayla's disappearance, but their troubles don't have enough depth and end up feeling like the same old same old. Ezran approaches an interesting arc, having to deal with integration of Katolis and Xadia while people are still rightfully angry, but is then literally told "but the world needs you" and puts that on pause.

Our antagonists end up even more disappointing in terms of character development. Viren opens the season with a potentially tragic story: a villain who's gone over the edge, died, and has come back disillusioned by glory and only sorry to spend time with a daughter who's been hurt too much and is now doomed to take his place. As the intro visualizes, his regret with his actions come only too late. He is now a frozen piece, moving Aaravos' great game along without concern for his feelings. But then he ends up as a mostly silent character for the bulk of the season and the moment he wields his staff by the end he literally reverts to the pale-skinned power-hungry folly he supposedly regretted.

Now I did actually like the B-plot with Amaya and Janai. Being predictable doesn't mean it's bad, and personally I think it was better paced than the main story. The Dragon Prince was promoted early on for its portrayal of messy race relations, and I felt Amaya and Janai's story took up that mantle while the main protagonists went on to have a pretty standard save-the-world adventure plot.

There were several points where the pacing felt especially stilted. The worst offenders all happen in the episode The Drakewood, funnily enough. Rayla declares "I have an idea", we cut to The Sunfire Elves for a bit, and return in the middle of the action without explanation for why Rayla has the Earthblood Elf's attention instead of him hunting for Zym. Soren desperately cries "oh no!" when he finally sees his dad is alive, only for him to appear next as completely ready lay his sword to fight for "the good guys". This is severely lacking the depth Soren had in previous seasons, where having to go against his family was especially painful despite knowing it's the right thing to do. And, I don't know, I'd have to imagine seeing your abusive father alive after 2 years would bring up some bad memories and potentially relapse his behavior (see: Zuko betraying the Gaang in ATLA at Ba Sing Se at the promise of his father's approval.) But we don't get to see if there was conversation, or Soren's internal dilemma, or even Viren berating Soren again and driving home that Viren is super ultra evil.

Zubeia, Queen of the Dragons, is honestly nothing more than a plot device that either explains things to our protagonists or saves them in the nick of time. She visits Katolis seemingly only so Zym and Ezran can reunite, laughs at people's antics, then carries the entire Katolis royal family away on a whim on an adventure only to be rendered useless for most of it and returns to the Storm Spire just to come and save the cast from Rex Igneous at the last minute.

I'm honestly at a loss as to how this season dropped the ball, especially when you can see hints of good storytelling and foreshadowing: That moment The Key of Aaravos shows Stella is connected to Startouch magic, and then later we see her randomly teleport a Moon Opal away somewhere? That was interesting! That had me instantly worried that Stella was actually a plant by Aaravos and Stella gave him access to a magic stone after so long in isolation.

And of course, none of this can be said without acknowledging the many books, comics, and other supplementary material released in the 3 years between Season 3 and Season 4. I did not have the energy to keep up with all those and I am aware some of those fill in gaps (especially the 2 year break between S3 and S4.) But honestly? I feel I shouldn't have to. The gap between ATLA and Korra is long and there are supplementary comics (and now a movie!) between the two time periods. But both work together even without reading the extended material, and Korra does not feel incomplete if one hasn't read the comics.

All in all, I feel disappointed. I have my hopes up, and of course there's seasons 5-7 to pick up the slack, but honestly why? In the end, Season 4 feels like another Season 1: a story just waiting for the gaps to be filled in to be truly appreciated. But why are we starting from scratch?

#the dragon prince #the dragon prince s4 #the dragon prince season 4 #tdp #tdp s4

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beautifulterriblequeen · 9 months

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Hello!! This is kind of a stupid question but do you understand who the Moonshadow assassins kill and why? At first I assumed it was just human rulers/generals from all kingdoms but when Viren was talking about how they were a threat in season 2 the other rulers didn’t seem to think it was as big of an emergency and I was a little confused. I hope you have a great day!!

I actually love questions like this! There's some nuance in the answer, and also some uncertainty, but I'll share my take for ya:

The Moonshadow assassins don't seem to pick their own targets, they accept assignments from the Dragon Throne. The full nature of that relationship hasn't been explained in any detail, so it's a tricky, complicated area of lore for the moment.

Basically, we don't have any information on how the Dragon Throne chooses the targets it passes on to the Moonshadow assassins for taking, aside from the one that happened just before the show's plot began, with Zubeia sending Runaan and his team to kill Harrow and Ezran. All we know is that these targets are supposed to be so threatening to Xadia that the world would be better off if they were no longer in it.

It's not impossible to imagine Avizandum telling his assassins to take out someone who didn't actually deserve it. It's relatively easy actually, knowing how he liked to stomp on humans, and how long he lived. It's probably happened. The only question is: how often? (angst)

I would guess - because again, we don't really know this for sure yet - that Avizandum generally chose actual threats, or people who could easily become threats in a war. But when you're a long-lived dragon, maybe you see different patterns in the mortal lives and cultures of humans. And Runaan and all the assassins before him wouldn't live long enough to recognize those patterns themselves, so they probably had to accept their targets out of either trust or duty. (more angst)

Some of them would definitely be military type targets: generals; shining young hero types with a chip on their shoulder; stealthy human assassins; dark mages if they dared risk it; and etc.

But a dragon might see strange harmless patterns beginning to form and decide to nip them in the bud before they led to anything truly threatening: a craftsman who just had a design breakthrough with a prototype ballista; a baker who just invented hardtack that could keep an army on the move for weeks; an armorer who just made a much safer design; a clever miner who found a rare and valuable source of iron.

People like that aren't dangerous on their own. But the knowledge they might share among the humans during a long drawn-out war with Xadia could be devastating in a decade or five. A dragon who already doesn't like humans would probably have no trouble sending his best assassin to snipe unsuspecting ordinary people like that.

We're still not sure if assassins must take an assignment, or if it's just dishonorable or something not to take it. But Runaan's a pretty regimented guy, and he's not fond of humans either. Between his trust issues and his protective instincts, I don't think he'd look too hard at his assignments these days even if he had a choice - he'd believe he was doing the right thing for his people, and then he'd stop thinking and go shoot someone.

I think sometimes Runaan definitely was doing the right thing by killing someone. But it's impossible to say which missions were and which weren't the right thing. Life is way too complicated for clear-cut answers like that.

Okay, onward!

The other part of this answer is about the Pentarchy itself. I think their hesitance to commit right away, and the reason Aanya got so much time to smack Viren with her sass, happened partly because Viren lives in a border realm like she does, and the other three rulers have a nice safe buffer between them and the brunt of the war efforts.

Basically, Del Bar, Neolandia, and Evenere don't have any skin in the border game.

They don't have big standing armies, and the only threats they deal with are small incursions - either assassins from other human realms or occasionally Moonshadow assassins.

Which is the topic at hand! But when Viren tries to convince Harrow to do the switching spell in S1, he claims that Moonshadow elves are an unstoppable force. Almost a force of nature, kind of vibe. If they come for you, you're just gonna die about it. Harrow even agrees with him! It's common knowledge how deadly the Moonshadow assassins are. And that's what happened despite all of Viren's plans - he still lost his king because Moonshadow assassins are scary good at their job.

So it's plausible that the other rulers didn't see any point in committing resources to an unsolvable issue - if Moonshadow assassins were coming for them, then they'd die. Why risk anyone else? Anyone in the assassins' way would die too. (Which they did in Katolis)

Another option is that Viren has been wrong before, and the other royals did commit resources to deal with the threat he claimed was coming, only to have time and money and forces wasted. If Viren had brought them costly mistakes, they could've been hedging their bets this time around.

There's a funnier possibility though: maybe they just didn't like Viren. People in power sometimes say polite things to an underling or a petitioner, and then have no intention of ever following through with it. They might've all been blowing smoke here, telling Viren "oh yeah sure if we're all in, let's totally do war, bro" and absolutely never meaning it even a little bit because they simply did not like the messenger.

Which is mean. But: royals.

tldr:

there's a few things affecting the Pentarchy scene all at once. We don't know all the factors involved yet, and the Pentarchy probably doesn't either. But at the end of the day the Pentarchy chose to hesitate, and that left Viren on his own.

#asks #thanks for the ask!#tdp #tdp meta #viren #pentarchy #politics in xadia

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jelzorz · 4 years

Text

47.

When Ezran starts to pack and the remaining human troops begin to mobilize for the long, long march home, Rayla disappears.

Admittedly, Callum's first instinct is to panic— the last time she was out of his sight, she tackled Viren off the edge of the Pinnacle, and he counts his lucky stars he'd been there to watch her do it. She's well-intentioned and noble for sure, but he still doesn't like the way she thinks she's so unimportant. Panic is, in his honest opinion, a relatively reasonable way to react.

But he doesn't panic— or rather, he tries his best not to. They're safe now, he reminds himself, and the war is over, and they're going home. There's nothing to panic over, and she's probably talking to Queen Zubeia or saying goodbye to Zym or something. Maybe she'd just needed some space. It happens. But then Ez is ready to go, and most of the troops have already started moving, and Rayla still hasn't appeared.

He asks everyone. No one knows where she is (other people hadn't even noticed she'd disappeared in the first place which feels like a crime in and of itself— how do people not notice her absence when it darkens every room?), and it's only as Aunt Amaya signs that it's time to leave that Callum remembers the one place he hasn't checked.

"You go ahead," he tells the others. "We'll catch up."

He finds her (at last) in the quarters of the old guard. Callum's heart settles at once at the sight of her, but it quickens again when he studies her posture: chin on her knees, hood over her head, eyes set sadly on the foot of the bed. He wonders vaguely if this might have been one of her parents' beds, once upon a time, and if maybe she'd come here because she missed them, but then—

She would have told him, he thinks. This feels like something else.

"Hey," he greets gently, easing himself into her side. "You okay?"

The corners of her lips twitch, but she sniffles and it altogether ruins any pretense she might have had. "'M fine," she murmurs. "Why aren't you with the others?"

Callum frowns at her. "Why aren't you?"

Rayla shrugs. "I feel like I would have just gotten in the way," she says quietly. "It's not like I have much to pack."

"I mean, sure, I guess," says Callum, "but we've been ready to go for ages. We were waiting on you."

"Why?"

"'Why'?" Callum stares at her, his brow knitting together in his confusion. "We're going home."

Rayla snorts mirthlessly into her arms. "That's all well and good for you," she snaps, her voice cold, "but I don't have a home to go back to anymore. I don't have anywhere."

Callum stares some more. Had he not—

Oh.

He'd forgotten. After all that, how could he have forgotten? He'd had to get Ez to pull rank on Opeli and everything, and it was supposed to be a funny story he was going to tell Rayla later, but in all the fuss, he'd forgotten to tell her at all. He shakes his head at his own stupidity, and he slips his hand under Rayla's and pulls her up. "Don't be ridiculous," he says. "Of course you've got somewhere. You're coming home with us."

The hardness in Rayla's eyes falters. "I'm what now?"

"Yeah, this one's on me." Callum flushes, looking sheepish. "We cleared it up a couple of days ago and I guess I just... forgot to tell you. There's a home for you in Katolis. If you want it, I mean. I guess I sort of assumed you knew."

She's staring at him now, but it's nice to see her posture's loosened a little. She's not so shut up anymore, which he counts as a win already. "You did that?"

"I mean." Callum shuffles a little. "Ez did too. Mostly me, though. You can't seriously have thought we'd have left you to go back to the Silvergrove after what they did to you. You deserve so much better than that. In any case, Katolis... isn't really home for me anymore, y'know? Or at least, it won't be without you." He grimaces. "Sorry I forgot to tell you. Are you mad?"

Rayla's still kind of staring at him, but she unfolds entirely at last to wrap her arms around his neck. Callum grins into her hair, relishing the warmth of her embrace.

"I take it you're not mad?"

"I am a little," comes her muffled reply. "You should have said something before."

"Yeah," he snorts. "Sorry. My bad. Let's go home?"

Rayla nods. "Yeah," she whispers. "Home."

#in anticipation #rayllum #cal is the boyfriend rayla deserves

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dawniebb · 4 years

Text

In which Queen Aanya validates Rayllum

HIII! <3

So, this is kind of a crack fic lmao because...idk i just wanted to have fun, guys agshja it's not that good but it's just an idea that popped up in my head and,if somebody reads this: I hope you liked it <3. Comments are appreciated, btw :3

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Then, they are left alone.

Well, not alone.

They're sitting there, enjoying each other's company while surrounded by the remnants of the battle. Some people injured, the rest just tired or sleeping (Like Rayla, whose eyes are barely open). At least, Callum thinks, they're now under the protection of Queen Zubeia. All of them together, humans and elves, for the first time in a very long time.

With a sigh, he tries to go back to his sketchbook, just as Rayla's horns poke him in the face, very close to his eyes.

"Oh, sh..."

"Hey." Callum laughs. "There are children here."

"Did I hurt you?" She asks, very, very concerned, as she inspects Callum's face as if one of his eyes were now rolling by her feet.

"Rayla, you barely touched me. It's okay. Don't worry. Come on, you're falling asleep. You need to rest. “He smiles, while he takes her hand and places a tender kiss on her palm. “If something happens, I promise I'll wake you up.

But just when she looks convinced enough, through the corner of his eye, Callum can see aunt Amaya signing something at him, with a smile on her face. She's close to them, sitting next to Princess (Queen?) Janai, her new elf friend. And, of course, being the careful individual she is, Rayla follows the direction of his eyes.

"What's she saying?" She asks in a very discrete way. Callum doesn't notice he's blushing until he feels his cheeks burning.

“Oh, it's nothing... She just said that we... Uhm...”

"What?"

"That we make a…quite adorable couple." He laughs, as he signs back at aunt Amaya. "Thank you."

"...Oh." Rayla scratches her nose, as she tries to keep calm, even though Callum doesn’t know for sure why she’s so nervous in the first place. “Well, I guess she likes me now."

"Well.” Callum grabs her hand. "I guess you could say that."

"I'm glad." She smiles. To Callum's eyes, she looks adorable, all tired and barely awake.

"Yeah..." He says. "Me too.”

Suddenly, they're leaned into the other's face, close to their lips, paying little attention to the fact they've never really had an audience before (besides Ez, and that wasn't even on purpose). However, they're interrupted seconds before they can do anything, thanks to the sound of somebody clearing their throat.

When they turn to the side, there's Queen Aanya, standing like a monument even though she's not even a year older than Ez. Shocked, Callum scoots up as fast as he can, and even if Rayla's not really sure of what's happening, she imitates him, but when they try to reverence her, Queen Aanya straightens her back and says, in a very soothing voice:

"Please, do not kneel."

Still, Callum can't help it and ends up bowing at her in a very subtle way. A gesture that goes apparently unnoticed.

“I actually wanted to apologize. It appears that I might have interrupted something. “Queen Aanya folds her hands on her lap.

"Oh, no, no!" Callum says, nervously. “No, we were just...!”

“Nothing special, Your Majesty.” Rayla smiles. “Do you...?”

"Need...Request our help?"

Fortunately, Queen Aanya seems amused, as she laughs politely, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I will try to be as brief as possible, as I assume you need some time with each other to process the events.” She says. “You do happen to be in an established relationship. Am I correct?"

Callum feels Rayla's confusion and he doesn't blame her. Everyone is confused about Queen Aanya at some point, given the fact that, even if she's still a child, she's more mature than a lot of grown-up people. And, well, now she's questioning the nature of their relationship. What a convenient situation.

"Yes." Rayla finally speaks, staring directly at Callum. “You are correct."

For a moment; a moment so brief it almost goes away in a blink, they can see a spark in Aanya's eyes as she smiles at them with something that reflects a lot of things, one of them being tenderness. Callum feels something warm deep in his heart.

“In that case, I would like to congratulate you first.” Aanya says. " It is... pretty noticeable, and I felt the need to express the feeling of respect I have grown towards both of you, for being able to create a relationship out of such circumstances and such strong cultural barriers. I must admit that I am very impressed."

Callum doesn't realize their heads are leaned against the other until he feels Rayla's skin so close their cheeks are touching.

"We appreciate your words, Your Majesty.” Callum says, as Aanya stares at the two of them more than she focuses on him, who happens to be the one talking to her. "We hope to grow stronger in our relationship.”

"Everyday. Like we have done it until now." Rayla says.

“It warms my heart to hear that.” Aanya says, placing a hand where said heart is located. "That is why, if you do not have somebody to do it, I would like to offer myself to officiate your marriage."

It arrives like a clap in the face, and Callum goes cold, just like Rayla.

Then the room is hot again.

Very hot.

And they both were red. As a cherry, as an apple, and as all the red things that were coming to Callum's head right now.

So, not knowing what to do, they start rambling, like they always do.

"OH!"

“Your Majesty, that's very kind of you but right now... "

"I MEAN, WE DO WANT TO..."

"SOMEDAY BUT... BUT RIGHT NOW WE'RE KIND OF..."

"YOUNG."

"YES, YOUNG! VERY, VERY YOUNG!"

"AND DUMB! WE TAKE PRETTY DUMB DECISIONS WHEN WE'RE TOGETHER, YOUR MAJESTY! DIDN'T YOU SEE HOW...?"

And then a sound comes out of Aanya's mouth.

When they stare at her, she's laughing. And she keeps doing that until she notices the confusion in their faces.

"Do not worry.” She says. "I was just playing with you."

They just stay there, looking like idiots, with their mouths half-open.

Callum fills his cheeks with air, and then he lets it out in relief.

"...Oh.”

"That was...clever, Your Majesty."

"I know.” Aanya shrugs, completely conscious of how in a matter of seconds she managed to set the world on fire. "I am going to have to retire now, but congratulations again. You have all my best wishes."

Callum bites his lower lip as he watches her leave, and even if for a moment he feels weak, he realizes he does have the guts to ask what suddenly popped into his mind.

"Your Majesty?" He calls her.

Queen Aanya turns around in the very moment she hears her name. She's not annoyed, she's not mad. She's just there, staring and waiting, with a patience made of steel and that, somehow, helps Callum to feel safe.

"This means that... Well... given the fact that we're a human-elf relationship... we...we do have your blessing as one of the human kingdoms, right? "

Aanya stays in silence.

Then, she speaks, getting a little closer.

"Listen, Prince Callum. I want to clarify the type of Queen I am trying to be, and for that, I am going to need you to be aware of the fact that, for these types of issues you will not, ever, need my blessing."

Callum smiles, as a silent "thank you."

"I may be tough as a person, and some people may even say I have a really bad temper sometimes. And I am aware that is a truth, just as the fact of me having really strong opinions is also a truth. I believe there are bad humans in this world, and I believe there are bad elves as well… But above of that, I believe in my mothers’ legacy, and I believe in love. And when I first landed my eyes on you that is exactly what I saw.“ She says "I saw love. And trust. And hope, for you and for all of us, in this divided world we have gotten used to. "

In a very calm way, Aanya takes Rayla’s hand, and then she proceeds to carefully put it into Callum’s.

“…And I might have also seen four fingers that fit perfectly into five, just as if they were made for each other.” She chuckles.

There's that tender expression again, and somehow Callum believes they'll be okay.

Somehow, he manages to be almost sure that their relationship will be accepted and everyone will be willing to see them the way Aanya does. Not a human and an elf, just two living creatures who found each other and fell deeply, madly in love.

“I hope that answered your question, Prince Callum.” Aanya says, as she turns around again, only to stare at them one last time.

"Oh, and...Whenever you feel ready to take that step, in case somebody decides to question your decisions, remember that I am a Queen, and even if my statement was intended to be a joke, I do carry the authority to officiate weddings. I hope will not find yourselves in the need to ask for that kind of help. “She smiles in a way so pure she almost looks like she’s trying to act her age for once.

“An invitation is welcomed, though. I have never been to an elven wedding. It could be a really interesting experience for me and I would really appreciate it.”

#the dragon prince #tdp #rayllum #post s3 #in this house we support Aanya okay?

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