#opal meta

[sparring-spirals]

Still emotional about Fy'ra Rai and Opal, actually. Thought dump time bc i. dont have the energy to cut this down effectively.

Because at that point in the episode, Opal is doomed. Not in the fun little "oh things are getting worse ;)" kind of way we'd been experiencing leading up to the fight, or even IN the fight. At that point in the fight, Cyrus is dead. Dorian and Dariax have their minds twisted, bodies clambering away from the fight. Morrighan has felt, firsthand, just how far gone Opal is, holes in her mind, her friend broken. The heartbreaking sentence of. "You can always come back." understands that she is gone already. She's lost already. Opal has forgotten Ted. Opal has forgotten herself.

So at that point in the fight, we know Opal is doomed. Us as the audience, the cast, the characters. Aabria is running through each of the other crownkeepers and it is more of a goodbye than a round of combat. Defying the Spider Queen invites death, with zero hesitation- Cyrus's body as physical evidence of that. The terms were very clearly set: You leave Opal, you let her be lost. Or you die. (Leaving Opal anyway).

and Fy'ra Rai then. Grasps the crown, understands intimately that she can break it off and it will kill Opal. (I will free you, if you want me to. We would lose you but you would not be taken). And asks, what do you want me to do. What do you want.

and Opal says, I want you to leave. (I want you to live.) and Fy'ra Rai functionally says. No. Sorry. That's not one of the options.

If you wanted to go. I will do that (your blood on my hands). If you want me to stay, I will. But I'm not going to leave you.

There was the point where Fy'ra Rai broke into the communication and I felt my insides sink because. Look. Lets be real, Aabria had already demonstrated the stakes here. The gesture would not be rewarded for the gesture alone. The Spider Queen's terms were: You leave Opal. Or you die.

And Fy'ra Rai said: no.

I don't think I'm overstepping to assume that if Fy'ra Rai had failed the intimidation check, she would have died. This entire thing hits me so hard because I think Anjali knew that too. I think Fy'ra Rai knew that too. Yes, Fy'ra Rai convinced a Betrayer God to negotiate. She carved a third option out of a non-negotiable situation. She knew what would happen if she failed and did it anyway, with no fear, no regret, no waver in her resolve. She had lost enough sisters. She wasn't going to lose anymore, no matter the personal cost. That's part of why it succeeded, I'm sure, but.

Just. Fuck me. The amount of resolve. The amount of love. The amount of conviction. "I am. A protector." You know your friend- your sister- is doomed. So no more negotiating away from that. You step to her side and you grasp her hand and say- doom me with her.

And in some, sideways way, this saves you both, at least for a little while.

Because this story is a tragedy. This ending is a sad one. We know this already. But think about- Opal, under Lolth's bidding, alone in the dark. Think about Fy'ra Rai, alive, intimately aware that she had failed to protect yet another sister.

And think about what we got, instead: the two of them, in deep darkness, danger encroaching- holding hands. Someone they love at their side. A champion. And her champion.

This is still a sad story. But it's not the same one. Fy'ra Rai stared down a Betrayer God and made her change her mind. She stared down a Betrayer God, and her love and conviction changed the nature of the story. It shouldn't have been able to. But she did.

Fy'ra Rai chose to doom 2 people instead of one, and the sheer strength of her love and will managed to save them both, at least for a little while. Isn't it funny how that works? Isn't it devastating? Isn't it. fucking incredible?

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Terrible painful thought that I’m now obsessed with;

Vax is a full blown Champion of the Divine and something bad just happened to him. What if the other current Champions could… feel that?

Pike, Scanlan, and Vex feeling something tear in their chests, an indescribable heartache coursing through the bond they have with their deities.

Yasha, waiting anxiously at home for Beau to return, feeling Vax’s scream through her connection to the Stormlord and is suddenly angry in a way she can’t quite place.

Caduceus and Fjord being met by cold winds from Melora and a bone-deep sense of dread.

Opal and Zerxus, deep within the thralls of their gods, having moments of clarity as they feel Lolth and Asmodeus fear for the first time.

(Cad and Fjord aren’t canonically Champions of the Wildmother, I know, but I love the idea of them being such so I don’t care)

[ludinusdaleth]

absolutely out of my mind obsessed. OBSESSED. with liliana always saying "he" and, even if we know it's ludinus, never saying his name and obfuscating him with predathos, these two pillars of limitless power & incredible cruelty that chain her, stronger than her, in her own words. how he needs her. how he admires & values & even in some way adores her, and maybe more. how she's pulled ludinus back from the very edge. her trying to change him, and zerxus 1000 years ago trying to change asmodeus and jester trying to change artagan and caleb trying to change essek and the m9 trying to change lucien and opal trying to change lolth, and imogen, trying to change her own mother. this cycle of desperate belief in redemption that can succeed or fail, the coin that hasnt landed on a side yet. how that's freedom for some. how that's a whip, a martinet on the back of the reformer for others. the belief in set fate vs the vanguard belief in changing destiny. generation upon generation of hope & abuse that can so easily become one or the other or both at once for eon upon eon. how the gods who created these mortals who seek any glint of kindness desperately wish, in this moment, for redemption themselves. "to reach a hand down to somebody, they need to be beneath you". but the gods are in the sky. and their saviors are on a lonely planet & lonelier moon, locked together by a cycle of violence & desperation started by them so long ago.

[opal-owl-flight]

Can you IMAGINE getting a reboot of the anime with the modern cast + modern animation techniques? I think itd be rad as hell

[pocketgalaxies]

it always comes back to the gods having this big picture view of the world with no sentiment for any particular mortal living in it. "i don't know what will happen once we are chased away but i trust things will balance themselves out" how can you say that to a group of people who will be trapped on this planet during this completely ambiguous and almost certainly calamitous "balancing" process

[masterqwertster]

It's wild to see the dynamic between Prime and Betrayer gods when they're nominally on the same side.

The whole part where the Wildmother is like "Why should I stop the Spider Queen from collecting her champion and putting her on the field?" was amazing. The Prime Deities care about mortals, but in this case, it's all hands on deck, please save our asses. Even if the Primes don't approve of the Betrayers' methods (which, debatable given k'nauth and judicators seem to be the same thing with the difference being who they devoted themself into oblivion for), right now, they're going to allow it because the Betrayers are trying to stop the release of Predathos too and whatever works, works.

And Champions are a god's most potent tool in working on the Prime Material Plane, so why would the Wildmother stop the Spider Queen from setting one of her best bets at affecting things into motion when it's for a mutual goal? This is the gods' favoritism at play. Who they will try to protect, who they will ask to make sacrifices, who they will let fall to the fate that individual has chosen.

Opal may not have known what she agreed to in accepting being the Spider Queen's Champion, but she did agree to it. What happens now is the path she chose, even if she didn't know the consequences waiting in that decision. And the other gods aren't going to try to change that path unless Opal is used to interfere with their own goals. It's not their place. And in this case, it's in their interest to let this play out.

[bread-wizards]

I love how Laudna and Dorian's confrontations with Orym mirror each other.

Two charismatic but lovable people, friendly people, with a voice in their head telling them to grab onto this dark and evil item. It's to protect your friends, you want to protect them, right?

Orym noticing and knowing of the dark influences that may have a hand in this decision, trying to keep it from them with threats or physically.

The way they both frame it logically first. The other entities aren't telling them what to do, just sitting back and letting them run with it.

It was his decision to keep it, they can't have Dariax carry it the whole time. They know the horror committed by that sword, it could be dangerous. It's not safe handling it so flippantly. "I should have it" is the undercurrent of every sentence.

Then, when that doesn't work and Orym continues to pressure them to leave it, they turn the situation on him.

Can't make issues out of everything, can we? We could put it in the box and get rid of it, but we can't [because you used that box for something else.]

Why do you even need it? It wasn't yours to possess. You already have a sword [one you used to cover me in gashes.]

The effect this has on the group, not turning them on Orym completely but muddying the water and making them unsure on who to side with. They aren't a perpetrator being confronted but a victim being ganged up on.

Dorian drops it soon after, he cares about Orym's opinion a lot and it isn't worth the rift it will create. Laudna doesn't but she has had an extra 30 years with Delilah and will need more than this to change her mind.

"I'd prefer revenge" from Dorian when talking about his brother's murder. "I like that too." from Laudna in reply. "I knew you would." A shared darkness. One that Dorian has had much time to reflect on but one that is still present just as it is for Laudna.

The voice is gone but the voice wasn't always the one making these decisions. Fascinated to see how these two characters progress.

[blazingstar24]

There is something so deeply fucked about the Wildmother being so willing to sacrifice Opal, a girl who she had previously sent one of her followers to protect, to Lolth’s designs all just to gain another soldier in the fight against Predathos. Lolth spelt it out what this meant for her. Lolth doesn’t give a fuck about what this means for Opal. She’s just trying to save her own skin.

And sure yeah that’s what you would expect from an evil aligned god. But oh? What’s this? A good aligned god is more than happy to let it happen too?

“Why should she stop this?” Why should Melora help save this girl who didn’t choose to put on that crown. Opal was coerced and manipulated by Lolth. She put that crown on in a time of crisis, her sister dying, her friends in danger. And Melora has abandoned her in place of getting more soldiers to throw onto the front lines.

And we knew this. We saw how Pelor treated Deanna. But Pelor had always been a dick so we brushed it off. But now we have been presented with a God that we’ve always liked. A God who previously has taken in and protected a character like Opal being chased by dark powers. That same God, turns away now. And I get it. I get their fear. But in an almost ironic fashion, Opal, the one who was literally trying to PR change a god’s image is now another example of why the people of Exandria have been swayed by Ludinus’s cause. How the Vanguard got so big. Because again the Gods displayed their hand picking, self motivated actions. Opal does not get the Fjord treatment from Melora. She was not deemed special enough to be saved. She’s another sacrifice in a fight she doesn’t even know about.

There is something so unsettling when the Gods no longer want followers, no longer want people of faith. But when they want soldiers in their name.

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

There's something beautiful and dark and fascinating about this moment where Opal and Fy'ra Rai are symbolically reflecting Poska and Fy'ra Kai

The Ones who have plunged headfirst into shallow water to serve desperate gods in a looming war, and The Nameless Ones who have waged wars on entire cities for the vestige Opal possesses

[jizzlords]

don't date ozzie. he'll hit you with that Healthy Weight Gain shit. man cooks and bakes. does it so good, they called it devil's food. could make a fae cave for his food, it's so good. he'll treat you right AND treat you to his food where they aren't just malnourished lol don't date him.

[sparring-spirals]

Fucking. Morrighan. man. There is blood everywhere and your friends body is torn in two on the floor and you felt him die. Your friend is in front of you and she did this to him and she's hurt him and you and everyone.

But you can feel- how wrong things are, the holes in her mind and memory, and there is blood everywhere, and the first thing- the only thing- you say is: you can always come back.

i know you didnt want to do this. i know you dont want to. i know you didnt meant it. this is bigger than all of us. you can always come back, no matter what you do. she will not have you, not completely. not forever.

I just. Fuck. There is blood everywhere and your friend is dead, and your other friend's mind is crumbling, dissolving, corrupting, warping, and you plead and you say. you can always come back. you can always come back. i love you. i love you. i love you. this was bigger than us. no matter what you do. you can always come back.

Morrighan already lost one friend. She will lose another. She's already lost. They're losing Opal. Opal is losing herself.

So, the least she can do, all she can do, is leave the door open, just in case, just in case, she can ever come home.

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Okay I’ve been thinking about this on-and-off since last week but. What if the Aevilux soul-splitting ritual could separate Laudna and Delilah? Obviously we don’t know too many details about how it works except that it splits one soul into two pieces and presumably creates a second, identical body for the separated half to animate. And at this stage, Laudna and Delilah’s souls are so entangled as to basically be one.

So, what if somehow the Hells discover the Aevilux (in my mind, this scenario involves Opal getting her memories back, but who knows) and were able to have a modified version of the soul splitting ritual performed on Laudna in order to functionally extract Delilah from her?

[ludinusdaleth]

ive always felt in my heart fy'ra rai & zerxus were of a similar nature and maybe ill be able to put it into words soon but. something about zerxus choosing to help vespin, being at his side as they're both chained to asmodeus's side. and fy'ra rai accepting a pact with melora, to be with opal, destroyed and made into a pawn by lolth. the cycle of the calamity repeats again. the gods use their children as chess pieces. and their children, even when shackled to cosmic war, do so with the intention of being kind to their broken brethren anyway.

[opal-owl-flight]

More Kirbtober!! Yes Im missing day 23, Ill be finishing that another day qkdjdk. Also swapped 24 with 27 bc anniversary heehoo

I am very tired from making these one after another, but boy am I proud of em!

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAGS WEEEEE

[pocketgalaxies]

thinking about if/how the loss of opal as we know her will affect at all their perception of protecting the gods, especially compounded with fcg's death. when you reunite with someone you've missed so much and all he has to tell you is that his brother was killed by a god and his friend was forcibly surrendered to serve that god in the name of self-protection from predathos. when your best friend found so much hope in their god and went on this journey with you feeling like they were doing the work of a god who helped him find purpose, and all there is to show for it is a pile of scrap metal. how do you reconcile the idea that your mission is to defeat this entity that threatens the gods, when the gods are relentlessly demanding sacrifice and death from the people you love in order to protect themselves. how can you not think for at least a moment that maybe the gods deserve to be destroyed

[raayllum]

Callum + using magic as a crutch until he can’t anymore

Everything from the implications that Ezran is pleasantly surprised that Callum has bounced back so quickly after a tearful end to his birthday, from the way Callum keeps moving around his office and refusing to look at Rayla once she returns, the tight grip on his staff when he shuts her down and sends her off with Soren, the explicit parallels the season draws between magic and his relationship with Rayla yet again (“I wish I could just forgive her, but it - it’s so hard” “Lots of things are hard, Callum. Like magic. But you figured that out” and everything with the moon opals), and how he drops his staff entirely to pick up her blade and cradle it to his chest. It reminds me of the symbolism of Amaya dropping her shield to help Janai up in 3x01 - even the fact that Aaravos’ prey is mages, and all the foreshadowing of Rayla herself, in some capacity, being the key to the other path he’ll choose, already guiding him away from the mirror once before.