#it touches on the sins of the father/ambition/familial bonds/vengeance/legacy as a weapon

[catcherwrites]

Alright I know the running theory is this mystery Archdragon that Zym will be contending with in Arc 3 is Luna Tenebris’ heir (voiced by Liam O’Brien who I’m such a fan of - props to TDP for casting him!)

That being said, five minutes prior to starting this post, I reconsidered my impression that “Luna lacked a suitable heir” meant “the hypothetical heir wasn’t worthy of ruling Xadia”

Because that didn’t make as much sense as I thought the more I considered it. If the heir was power hungry, defiant, or unruly in any way - wouldn’t they have tried to seize control after the death of Avizandum, the kidnapping of Azymondias, and Zubeia’s coma? Why stay in hiding for 300 years? And then why wait almost a decade after Avizandum’s murder to make themselves known?

It was then then I found myself considering what we already knew about Archdragons. Zym’s egg hadn’t hatched for ~8 years, and even then the only reason he did was because the people around him altered the surrounding environment so the process would begin (namely, a massive storm). It stands to reason that similar requirements are necessary for all Archdragons

What if Luna’s heir was unsuitable because they hadn’t been born at the time of her death? In fact, what if they didn’t hatch until centuries after the fact?!

If that’s the case, we have to consider what the specific circumstances are for hatching an Archdragon of the Moon’s egg. Three options come to mind for me:

Some kind of eclipse: this one is the simplest example, thanks to how replicable it is in nature (much like Zym’s storm). The major downside is that it has the least grounding in the events of the show since we’ve never seen or discussed an eclipse previously

The moon nexus’ inversion: a little convoluted, but perhaps a shake-up of the moon primal was enough to trigger the heir’s hatching process. This would actually make the mystery heir younger than Zym, which has its own unique implications for their eventual dynamic

A bloodmoon ritual: this is the one Zym would find the hardest to grapple with. Should blood magic be needed to hatch Luna’s heir, it gives Avizandum additional (and unethical) motives for destroying Kim’dael’s cult. If there’s no one left to perform the ritual, the heir can’t hatch, and Avizandum and his bloodline’s claim to the throne won’t be questioned

I’m sure there are other theories out there, and I’d love to hear them - but this is just what’s been floating around in my head