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beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

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The Thief and the Tinker, Part 3: I See Fire

part 2

Part 3

Viren: Well how do you suggest we get him out?

Claudia: *grins, brandishes marshmallow on toasting fork* Unharmed is just another kind of harmed

Viren: Claudia no

Claudia: Claudia YES

I See Fire

Angst rating: 9/10

Viren is clever enough not to take the Silvergrove on alone, no matter how badly he wants Ethari to make him a magic key. Aaravos could be cooking in that pod for a while longer, but Viren still has a trustworthy and badass ally at his side.

Oh yeah, it's Claudia Time again!

Claudia is a powerful and imaginative dark mage, and she has the tainted Sun staff. So, you're the magefam, and you've made it to Xadia, to the edges of the Moonshadow Forest. And all you need to do to get the power of your dreams is to threaten one soft craftsman. But how do you find one specific Moonshadow elf in a hidden Moonshadow village somewhere in the middle of a giant spooky magical forest?

You burn him out.

Credit once again to@random-fandom-ramble for reminding me of this forest fire headcanon, because it fits so well. and so I don't get all the blame for this one, lol

Because see, that's not ordinary fire. Oh, no. That's dark magic fire. We've seen that before. It leaves permanent scars. Remember Sol Regem's eyes?

That's going to be the landscape when Claudia's fire gets through with the Moonshadow elves' home. Where I live on the US West Coast, they name forest fires, and if they combine, they get called complexes. So maybe we can name this fire the Dark Tragedy Complex? Because I do have to wonder... you could start a dark magic forest fire easily with a tainted Sun staff, but how do you put it out?

Two things are going to happen if these events should unfold. One is angsty. The other is also angsty but then amazing.

Firstly, Viren is going to get what he wants. He'll find Ethari, whose tree burned down :(. He'll show him the coins, and he'll offer a trade. Build what he wants and make it work, and Ethari can have his family back, uncoined and free.

And Ethari will say yes.

He'll say yes no matter what anyone else tries to persuade him to do, and I hope they do try, because see: Ethari has to make it look good. He has to make it look like he's all in on Viren's plan, to Viren. Even if that means turning his back on his people in their time of greatest need.

Secondly, the Moonshadow elves are going to be collectively homeless and bereft, hungry, injured, terrified, angry. They will have nowhere to go. They will be a people without a home. And no one else in Xadia will help them. Maybe they're too terrified to hide Ethari's people in case doing so brings Viren down on them, too. We've seen how ordinary elves flee in terror from dark magic. Maybe they're all fighting other issues, too. Viren knows all about stretching resources too far during times of crisis. Whatever the case, there will be no welcome anywhere in Xadia for the Moonshadow elves of the Moonshadow Forest.

But here's where it gets amazing. Because one hand will reach out. One small hand, from across the border. Good King Ezran will stand up on the seat of his throne and say, "You can stay here. I have forests. You're tired, you're hungry. You need medicine. Let me help."

And I'm gonna cry like a little baby.

How many cycles does this break, how many circles does it complete? Moonshadow elves used to live in Katolis before the border was created. When humans were under threat of total annihilation, the Moonshadow leader's daughter spoke up and asked for mercy. That mercy came in the form of land reassignment, and the Moonshadow elves had to give up their ancestral home, their Nexus, and travel east across the new Border. But that mercy got paired with justice, and the life-loving Moon Druids probably had to swear some kind of blood promise to keep an eye on the humans forevermore, and to kill any individuals who got out of hand, as if their sins were the Moonshadows' responsibility now.

That's got to breed a little resentment, a little superiority. "Look what we sacrificed for you, and this is how you act. Ungrateful." And maybe that was partially Luna Tenebris's goal: to hold to her vision of justice, she had to make the elves who shared her arcanum feel a little resentment. Moonshadows love life, but we can't have them being too soft to keep Xadia safe from dark mages, now, can we? I will never stop cackling over dragon politics okay, never

But the Moonshadow elves never figured on King Ezran. A soft boy who refused to let his father's assassination harden his heart, because every life is genuinely important to him. I've seen headcanons for Ezran getting the Sun, Earth, Ocean, and Stars arcanum. How about Moon, too? Because this is very Ethari of him, and if these stories of Viren's plan and the Moonshadow elves' displacement were actually to happen in tandem, the contrast between Ezran's soft choice and Ethari's hard one would be mindblowing.

Ezran completes the circle by inviting the Moonshadow elves to return to Katolis, to their ancestral home. They left long ago, paying the price for an act of mercy, but they were welcomed back by the mercy of humans, repaid after a thousand years, repaid in the face of tragedy. Tragedy on all sides. Tragedy Ezran wants to stop from happening, by being brave and caring and soft, and by being the first to break this thousand-year cycle between Katolis and the Moonshadow elves.

Rayla is his friend. And these are her people. It won't matter what they've done, only that they need help in a time of great desperation. And of course he'll help them. He's Ezran, and he's Katolis's greatest treasure.

Oh, what's that you say? Inviting the Moonshadow elves to settle in Katolis again would make it easier for Rayla to live with Callum in the future? Oh gosh, how about that? What a deal. *smug matchmaker noises*

And once the Moonshadow elves understand that they're safe and begin to trust Ezran--which could happen very quickly, because saving a Moonshadow elf's life when you didn't need to is a really fast way to prove you're trustworthy--maybe Ezran will be encouraged to take the next step toward peace, and eventually other elves and dragons will come to meet together to talk it over. And Ez will offer them jelly tarts, which they will love.

Back to Ethari, because we're not done with him yet. Ethari is soft, but he isn't weak. He won't be a willing pawn for Viren. He loves Runaan to the point of invention, and his devotion is more constant than the moon itself. He'll agree to do what Viren says, and he'll be Very Sad. But his spirit is in no way broken. Viren bribing him with the coins containing his family will only have the opposite effect. It'll give Ethari something to fight for.

We could get Focused Chaos Ethari. We could get Angery Trickster Ethari. We could get Rules, What Rules? Ethari. Let him try to steal the coins, try to break them, try to kill Viren, and be stymied at every turn, until he settles and seems cowed. And then all he does is craft his way out of the problem. What if we are gifted with Iron Man Ethari, who pretends to build a fake Key for Viren, but meanwhile he's really building a coinbuster with whatever he can get his hands on - primal stones, magically imbued gemstones, stolen artifacts, his own arcanum, his own reputation as the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove. He'll use almost- almost - anything, to stop Viren and free his family.

Ethari may have to choose between those two things, though. And he's a hero, deep down, just like his family, just like his daughter. If he has to choose, he'll choose to stop Viren and save Xadia. He'll pay the same price as his family has if he must.

He'd let Viren think he was motivated purely by wanting his family back, but Ethari is far too steeped in the illusion and sacrifice for that to be all there is to his motives. It's a so-close-and-yet-so-far thing, how he and Viren almost embody the same ideals. Almost. Ethari would take one look at Viren, who just burnt down his whole Forest, he'd see the biggest threat in Xadia, and he'd say anything to get a chance to stop this juggernaut of destruction from getting his hands on whatever that ultimate power really is, locked behind that missing key. If he has to abandon his people and bawl his eyes out to convince Viren he's in, then he will.

And Viren wouldn't make it easy for him. He knows clever when he sees it. He went through all this trouble to persuade Ethari to work with him. He would need to keep Ethari as off-balance as possible to ensure that he keeps working as he should.

Angsty jewelry, anyone: Viren giving Ethari his husband in pendant form to remind him what he's working for, when Viren and Ethari both know full well that only dark magic can open the hellcoins. Ethari wearing another pendant of his love, except it's not a metaphor this time. It's literally his love, in a coin around his neck.

Viren would know that Ethari would have to stay close to Viren of his own free will if he ever hoped to free Runaan. And making people bind themselves to you is a big power flex. Remember that TDP stream future-season teaser note about Bait being in a creepy restraint in a future season?

This card is written on in all-caps, so that really could be "Bait" or "bait," or--knowing this show--both. Viren's been using Runaan as bait for Ethari all along. Putting his coin in a dark magic pendant casing for Ethari to wear would be a great parallel for that. Oh god. Oh man.

Maybe he'll stab the coin's scary casing right through that circle on Ethari's chest, right over his heart, make that Iron Man reference really obvious. Ethari also losing his shirt at some point, for angsty Viren-related reasons? It's more likely than you think. I mean... Ethari is literally involved in both forms of forging at this point. Shirt's gotta come off for uhhhh work reasons. And because he's hot. Because of all the forging. I mean how else are we finally going to discover what his markings look like

I mentioned that I liked god-tier villains, right? Yeah, this is amazing. I haven't wanted to die and ascend over an idea for quite a while, but Ethari vs Viren in a drawn-out battle of wills would kill me in the best way. Especially since, while it looks like they're essentially fighting for who gets Runaan, they're truly fighting a much larger battle with much higher stakes. They're fighting for the future itself. It's an epic struggle between the Narrative of Strength and the Narrative of Love. And we've seen what happens, over and over, when the Narrative of Strength gets to call the shots.

On a meta note: If Runaan and Ethari's story arc isn't a love letter from one trauma survivor to another, and on a broader scope to all survivors who see it, I don't know what is. Sometimes life just chews us up and spits us out and we can't stop it and it breaks us. But sometimes we can reach out and grasp the chance to help each other, even after that, even when it hurts a lot, because we know what it means to be loved, and to love, and to want a safer future for each other and for people we'll never meet. The future is worth standing together for, helping each other back up for, fighting side by side for, even if you can't see how it'll end, or even how to begin. We are stronger together, and sometimes we need to fight for our "together" before we can fight for anything else. And that's worth it, every time.

This is glorious, it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's amazing, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to scream into the void, it makes me want to slap someone with a semi truck. No, someone specific, don't worry, and he super deserves it.

Because Ethari is going to win. He was always going to win. He's soft, and he's clever, and he hasn't forgotten what love means. It's what he's fighting for. Not power, not control. Love. He doesn't want to dictate Runaan's future, or anyone else's. He just wants his husband--and everyone else--to have one at all.

So he's going to win.

What beating Viren looks like, I can't guess yet. TDP is no stranger to angst, so there will probably be a high cost involved in thwarting the dark mage. Maybe not everyone can be rescued from the coins. Maybe Ethari will lose his life, or his soul, or his vision, or something else really angsty. Viren could even kill him and resurrect him as a smoky craftsman, or a zombie craftsman, or something equally biddable but horrible. The only thing I'm sure of is that Ethari would never willingly make a working Key of Aaravos Ethari as long as there's a chance Viren could possess it. But I do believe that if he gets the right opportunity while he's busy saving the world from Viren's dark intentions, he'll break his husband's hellcoin open somehow and set him free, even if he has to smile at the devil to do it.

part 4

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #tdp parallels #viren #ethari #laindrin #runaan #moonshadow elves #moonshadow assassins #hopepunk #tdp angst #heavy angst #tw trauma

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canvaswolfdoll · 5 years

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CanvasWatches: The Dragon Prince (Season 3)

And we’re back! Since the last batch of episodes… my life has changed very little. Dog’s still adorable. D&D campaigns keep stalling due to lack of time or interest of others. Not producing any of my own epic projects.

Yup.

The third season continues its trends of subverting tropes with kind of a lackluster pay off, while playing other tropes benignly straight. We finally get into Xadia, which has some interesting fauna. But even the character writing is starting to wear a bit thin. Everyone’s been settled into their roles and personalities, and few characters get to interact with others they hadn’t previously.

So, same recommendation level as last time: watch it if you have time and/or have been following it, but it’s not a major tragedy if you don’t.

We open the season with backstory for the inventor of Dark Magic, Ziard, and a former Dragon King, Sol Regem. Sol Regem wants Ziard to stop with the dark magic. Ziard is like ‘we humans don’t have naturally occurring magic, this is literally our only way to defend ourselves from you magical folk.’ to which Sol Regem responds “Stop it or I’ll raze your home city.”

So Ziard sacrifices himself and a few birds to blind Sol Regem and saved the city.

Which means the founder of Dark Magic is a good guy, and Dark Magic may not be inherently bad, and this is what I wanted and I’m sure I’ll be deprived of the conclusion once the series actually ends.

So, what are the arcs for the various teams?

Well, Team Escort lost Ezran, so it’s just Callum and Rayla making googly eyes at one another and becoming an official couple about half way through the season. I appreciate them not dragging the romantic subplot any further than necessary, and even granting us half a season to watch them be love birds, but it also smoothed out their dynamic, cutting down on the banter they once had. I miss their quips.

Team King (Ezran, Opeli, Corvus) are dealing with Ezran’s new authority and Viren being Viren. It’s nice to watch Ehran’s morals being tested, and showing that doing the right thing can be more difficult than just going to war. There’s political maneuvering that, in a more complex show, would’ve had more grey areas, but it’s mostly just Team King versus Team Viren.

Speaking of Team Viren, he picked up Aaravos and Prince Kasef, so Viren in no longer alone! He is also no longer in charge, as without King Harrow to set goals, Viren lets Aaravos call the shots. Viren is remarkably easy to lead. Viren’s actual goals also seem murkier than previous seasons. He clearly wants power, but I no longer know to what end. Is he avenging Ziard? Does he want world domination? To bring Humanity to greater heights? Or is he just a more active Lord Ozai? Regardless, his moral ambiguity is out, and I miss it.

Finally, Team Dark (Claudia and Soren). Turns out, I got their meta roles backwards in the first season review! Claudia is the loyal Azula to Viren’s Ozai, while Soren is the Zuko. I am disappointed by this arrangement, because watching Claudia’s descent into evil means she gets less funny moments, and I don’t think Soren can shoulder the full Zuko arc. Also, fear of making big changes prevents the narrative from doing anything really interesting.

The third season has a heavy case of fast travel. What took Team Escort three seasons to cover is now done by full armies in three episodes. There’s a giant sea in the way, remember? And a lava flow? Characters travel back and forth with remarkable ease for people without Rheairds.

After Viren’s rather drastic actions last season lands him in a cell after sending out magically created assassins with only the voice of a mysterious Startouch Elf named Aaravos, who is such an obvious example of what Viren would be if he were totally self-motivated that I’m astounded that Viren hasn’t ditched him, Ezran has kind of a mess to handle upon assuming the throne. The other four human kingdoms want to avenge their murdered/injured rulers, but Ezra doesn’t want to continue the cycle of violence, which is good in theory, but Prince Kasef is pushy and is willing to wage war of Ezran’s kingdom if necessary.

Also, Ezran spares Claudia and Soren from sharing their father’s fate, because that would be a jerk move. Team Dark confronts Viren about his secret missions, and Viren elects to burn his relationship with Soren to maintain the loyalty of Claudia.[1]

All this ends with Viren taking the throne (again) and Ezran taking a bird to rejoin Team Escort.

Now in charge, Viren’s like ‘I’m in charge of all the human armies now!’ and all the human armies are like “Checks out.”

But first, he needs to keep his end of the trade he made with Ezran, and lets soldiers opt out if they’d like. But they have to wear a broken chain patch to mark their cowardice. You’d think this would lead to a subplot about those who abandon the mission being shunned, but that would require more than nine episodes worth of time, so it’ll pay off at the very end instead.

What about Team Escort? Well, Callum and Rayla are finally being forced to confront their unresolved romantic tension as they keep walking towards their goal.

Initially, Rayla’s trauma of being unpersoned by her hometown acts as a nice distraction. I mean, sure, you sent a literal child to kill another younger child, and used a vague sort of magic tracking to decide she abandoned the mission as opposed to unforeseen events transpiring, but, sure, Night Elf knock-offs, make her a ghost in her own home town. You jerks.

Rayla eventually gets to talk with her Uncle’s husband, who only offers to send an advance message to the Dragon Queen and not, you know, telling the rest of town Rayla’s on an even better and less murdery mission and maybe we should reperson her?

Does anyone think of ways to resolve more than one problem at a time? Or think laterally? Is… is that why this fictional history is the way it is? Literally only three kids are able to conceive of consequences of their actions? That should be the adults jobs!

Mirroring the inland sea from last season, Xadia has a giant black sand desert with deadly zombifying snakes and hot sand. So that’s fun.

Luckily, a Skywing elf named Nyx has a giant lumbering camel to transport them over two days. She’s here to kidnap Zym under the theory of a reward, but I love her design and character so she better come back!

Maybe throw her into the Teen Girl Rogue Squad I want. She’d play off Amaya well.

Anyways, the trip is enough for Callum and Rayla to finally decide to be an item. So they’re an item with half the season to go.

Which, cool, we get to actually watch a relationship develop beyond the ‘We’re dating now’ point, but there isn’t actually down time to dig into that, so instead Callum and Rayla bicker less and it’s lame.

But Ezran took a moon phoenix, so he’s caught up. Time to climb a mountain!

Oh, by the way, Amaya got taken prisoner by Sunfire elves, acquires an elf girlfriend abruptly, and escapes with her to join Team Escort. Whoo.[2]

Team Viren plus Dark lead their army to the Sunfire Capital so Viren can steal a staff to forcibly upgrade his forces, and Soren finally decides enough is enough, and flees to join Team Escort while Claudia converts fully to Team Viren. Now, Claudia doubling down on her loyalty to her father is disappointing for a number of reasons, but, again, a later thought.

Anyways, Team Escort has gotten to the Dragon Queen, but she’s in a despair coma, and they get information an army is coming, so guess it’s time to prepare for war?

War ensues. It looks bad for our heroes for a bit, but then reinforcements bearing the banner of the broken link appears to flip off Viren specifically.

Good guys win the battle. During clean up, Ezra stumbles upon Viren, who threatens to kill him, but Soren shows up to defend Ezra. Then Cluaida shows up to make this tragedy even more Shakespearan.

Soren stabs his father, but it’s just an illusion.

Which is the first major missed opportunity. Yes, Viren[3] has a confrontation to have with Rayla and Callum in the Dragon Queen’s lair, but I think this confrontation didn’t add much. Having Soren kill his own father and having to face the emotional consequences of that instead of disappointing Claudia…

Actually, what was the point of illusion Viren? Could it have killed Ezran? Why would Claudia be okay with killing Ezran? Why kill Ezran at this point?

Anyways, Soren should’ve killed Viren, and Claudia could’ve still necromancied him back to life.

Instead, Viren falls off a mountain. It’s meh.

With all that done, the Dragon Queen wakes up and is pleased to have her son back (reasonable) and there’s two human/elf couples present (weird). I mean, she’s the first dragon shown not to be deeply anti-human, and I’m not sure that tracks? Shouldn’t she be in favor of the separation, or were there a bunch of bedroom arguments between her and her husband about racial politics?

Anyways, if we didn’t have three more schools of magic to get through, this would be the point we get the ‘where are they now’ epilogue, as all conflicts are resolved.

Except Claudia resurrects her father, and…

Wait. Viren had an elf prisoner. He could’ve resurrected Harrow. What is his deal? What are his motivations.

Anyways, the grub that was acting as the speakerphone between Viren and Aaravos went to pupate and it’s scary to our dark mages.

Which finally brings me to what I really wanted to see happen: Aaravos should’ve traded puppets. What would’ve been a better power move than him setting Viren up for failure so he could use the more gullible (and powerful?) Claudia instead. They’ve been slow rolling his deal, but what better way to firmly plant Aaravos as the most Machevallian Jerk than to out ‘for the greater good’ Viren himself? There’s an inevitable conflict between the two, as Viren hates elves despite being too trusting of Aaravos, so why not have Aaravos shrug off Viren getting stabbed by Soren and send his grub to Claudia’s ear?

Heck, why not have him teach her the wrong spell and use Viren’s body as a vessel?

Come on, this is one of the few times I’m actually advocating killing someone off. I never do that. But the story potential we’re now missing is tremendous!

Anyways, despite my snark and notes, I did enjoy the season. Not as much as the second season, as it got too locked into the myth arc to have as much fun as the last season, but the show’s maintaining what strengths it does have. However, I can easily predict it falling from grace sooner than later. Story-heavy shows struggle to maintain momentum past three seasons, and research indicates there’s four more planned.

Still, I’m excited to see what happens now the main quest has been completed.

If you enjoyed this review and what more, please use the tags below to explore my other writings, as well supporting my patreon (for early access and regular support) or my ko-fi (for a quick tip). I want to do more fun things.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Which had the potential for a much, much better pay off than we got. [2] Just once, I want the person whose confident the other is too stubborn to admit their crush to be wrong. I would love that dynamic. [3] Wearing some nice pajamas.

#CanvasWatches #the dragon prince #CanvasReviews #netflix

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nautiscarader · 5 years

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The Dragon Prince - Season 2

It is very rare to see a show which has improved in nearly every aspect, but lo and behold, TDP season 2 delivers more.

Just... more.

More drama, more characters, more action, more humor, and more dark, complex, and mature storylines.

Spoilers galore beneath

First and foremost, I am very happy that the animation department has listened to our cries - the choppy animation is no more. The cell-shaded animation is odd, but it certainly no longer distracting from the action. And if you want to watch TDP season 2, then you need to pay attention to everything on the screen, because the things that happen on the screen are marvellous.

The ongoing story, together with expanded flashbacks are excellent, and make the world believable and realistic. Wars do not happen in one day, they are the effects of years of conflicts, slowly building up, and the show has given us excellent reasons to believe and be invested in them.

Very few shows have created such interesting villains like this one. Soren, Claudia and their father, Viren aren’t just evil. They are not evil overlords and kidnappers - they are properly constructed characters with deep motivations.

Viren is a pragmatist, who is slowly consumed by the dark magic, thus skewing his morals. His children follow his steps, though themselves start to realise he might be wrong, and yet come to the same reasoning as he did: that power can be used to overcome problems, even if it done in an immoral way.

Our protagonist grow up as well: I was mighty afraid that the show will do the “liar reveal” cliché between the brothers, or between Rayla and Callum, regarding the news of their father’s death, but fortunately, the writers have dodged the bullet on two occasions, because of proper build-up and the mountain of trust between the three (or four, since Claudia delivered it). The lessons they learned were deep, life-changing and not easy to swallow, and I think they accepting them will help kids all over the world.

Speaking of difficult things to bear: Soren’s kinda-disability. the way it was handled was magnificent, albeit with Soren’s slightly awkward acceptance of it. But Claudia? She reacted just like you would if you were hit with such grave news. Characters in TV shows get slammed all over place without any bones breaking, but here? No, they did not joke. A dragon smashes you into a rock, you get a spine broken. End of story. On one hand, it would be interesting to see his character with the disability, but given he is a part of the cast, it would be problematic, I guess. And Claudia using Bambi’s life forces to revive his ability to walk might have even more dire consequences. Will she have to sacrifice more and more animals to keep him alive? Will the dark magic flowing through him corrupt him? Will Soren have to sacrifice his ability to walk in order to cleanse himself? Who knows, the possibilities are quite vast.

Speaking of possessions: Callum and dark magic. That was something I wanted to see in S2, and I think it has been handled really well. Callum has potential to be a dark wizard, and while he has discovered his sky arcaneum, I have a feeling he will be tempted to dabble with dark magic in the future, breaking our hearts again.

And on top of that, you have relationships. Callum, Rayla and Ezran have very different connections to Soren and Claudia, as, say, Team Avatar to Zuko and Azula.

Callum and Ezra were - and arguably are - friends with Claudia and Soren, they do have strong bonds (in case Callum and Clauida something even stronger), since they’ve known each other since childhood. It is not just a hero/villain cliché - they are, once again, well-defined characters, and as a result their relationships are strong, well-grounded and believable.

And the hugs between Rayla and Callum are melting all of shippers’ hearts, I cannot overlook that (but still no kiss, or almost kiss yet, but have almost had “I love you”).

The action is superb. Fight scenes are fast, well-planned, and gripping, exactly what you’d expect from a fantasy series.

And of course, with a whole new half of continent to explore, as well as half a dozen plot lines in the human half to resolve, new seasons will have tons of opportunities to once again punch us in the gut, make us laugh, cry and be thrilled.

So, are there any negative aspects...?

Well... yeah.

One thing that is kinda unavoidable, are the parallels to Avatar The last Airbender. From occasional jokes and subtle nods, like with the haiku and syllables counting, through slightly more transparent like the animal hybrids, through bloody-freaking-obvious, like Callum being an airbender. Or sky mage, or whatever you name them here. It is pretty weird to see this happening again, since, well, it invokes the parallels to ATLA instantly, and let’s face it, ATLA is still better, so you might not necessarily want to remind us of a show we’d rather watch, Dragon Prince.

Another one is Ezran’s character. Mind you, he got better in S2, especially with the revelation of his father becoming a spirit birb hybrid dying forever, but he is just a bit bland and too perfect for a 10-year old. I joked about it in my recaps, but he is jesus - he can do no wrong. And that is bloody boring! Look at Callum - he has flaws, he makes mistakes, that’s what makes him complex. And what does Ezran do? He goes off-track and can’t even get himself mauled by a banther properly. Get rekt.

He reminds me of Charlie from Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate factory - that kid was freaking perfect, without any flaws whatsoever, spewing moralistic phrases left, right and center, contrary to the one from the book and the classic movie.

Plus, his abilities are never explained, and are so damn plot convenient! It is one thing to just having a skill of handling animals - that I would accept - another thing is being able to understand them - that’s a bit too much, but still cool - and something wildly different is TO HAVE A DIRECT MIND LINK WITH THEM. Ezran is OP, pls nerf. And the worst thing is, with just a bit of clever rewriting, they wouldn’t need that. Just move the splitting scene after they cross the moonpath bridge - so that Ezran is still with Zim when he has to fly to save them. Solved.

I guess you can make a counter-argument that he also learns it, just like Callum does with magic, but guess what: Callum makes mistakes, so we see he learns! I would like to see Ezran mistranslating some wild animal’s wish and getting comeuppance when he has to run up the tree. I KNOW! BRING THE TAFFY HIPPO FROM HIS DREAM! YES! HE WILL BE HIS SPIRIT TEACHER! Ekhm, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, Ezran’s unexplained abilities.

In fact, I think so far TDP kinda delivered a disappointing deus-ex-machina payoffs in both seasons: mind link in S2 and Zim’s magic-breaking teeth in S1 allowing Reyla to have her hand. I was slightly disappointed then, and I was slightly disappointed now.

But I am willing to forgive it. Because quite literally anything else in the series is top-notch. The characters, for the most part, are complex and three-dimensional. The decisions they take are not simple and black-and-white. The villains are superb and blood-freezing, being able to scare you from the screen. They have added just enough Azula and Ozai juice to Viren and Aavaros to make them menacing and entertaining to watch. I love it.

On more than a few occasions the show has caught me off-guard and surprised me with its decisions, and I cannot wait for more of them.

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp spoilers

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beautifulterriblequeen · 4 years

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What if instead of Ethari or Rayla releasing the moonfam from the coins, Viren releases them himself because he wants to use them for something (a big spell, get more information etc) and they manage to escape?

Waiter, I didn’t order an angsty what-if smoothie... No, don’t take it back, I’m just letting you know. *sip sip*

Let’s start with Viren. He’s the kind of guy who never throws anything away. He’s smart enough to know that he doesn’t know everything, but it’s always good to be as prepared as you can be. So he keeps stuff. Magic supply stuff. In jars. On shelves. In pouches. And in coins.

*puts on Viren hat* Okay, kids. Here we go.

It’s one thing to make sure you always have a bit of horn or a gryphon eye or what-have-you. Those are one-time uses and they’re spent. Practical, helpful, not too hard to lug around. But a living elf in your pocket? That’s a treasure trove of bits and parts. And if you’re very very pragmatic careful, you might even be able to snip something off and put them back into the coin without killing them, so you can use them again and again while also feeling like you’re superior in a whole bunch of different ways, including physically. The more you lop off, the easier it should be to subdue the elf next time, right? Which proves they’re inferior and need their magic to be controlled by someone who knows what to do with it.

(Don’t look at me like that. Jason Simpson basically said that’s how Viren thinks about Moonshadows in his HBMP in-character interview. I can do angst, but only Viren can do Viren.)

*takes off Viren hat, smooths hair* Crikey, the things I do for theory. So, where were we? Plans, yes. If Viren found himself backed into a corner for some reason, he’d feel comforted by the knowledge that if he really had to, he could probably find a way to spend all that magical energy in the coins--and in those trapped inside them--to get him out of imminent danger. In fact, I’m betting that’s his in-universe reason for always keeping that pouch on his person, even after he switched his usual clothes for those penitent’s whites. The Moonshadow elves in his pocket are his get-out-of-jail-free card. Or so he thinks.

Viren lost his relic staff when he fell from the Storm Spire without it, so he can’t use it to open the coins, unless he gets really stealthy really quick. But he and Claudia do have the tainted Sun Staff, and it has dark magic in it now, so it will probably be able to open the coins if Viren decides to do it? Maybe?

Viren would have to be very tactical about his use of his pet Moonshadows, though. Any one of them could kill him if he let his guard down for even a moment, so he’d have to choose carefully how to proceed if he actually hoped to get any useful answers from them. Judging by Runaan’s determined silence in the dungeon, I doubt Viren would get much from any of them--they were all very willing to die in the line of duty, after all--but that was then, and maybe things have changed.

Who would he pick first? I hate hate hate the cliché of “threaten the woman so the man tells you everything in order to save her” so much. It makes no sense to me, ever. And Viren wouldn’t be that dim. He’s good with power dynamics. I think he’d take a calculated guess and release one elf to get threatened, and then another elf to give him answers.

He’d release Runaan first. He doesn’t even need to know the group’s dynamic to know that’s the smart choice. Runaan’s been in a dungeon for a week. His arm’s dying even faster than the rest of him. He’s the weakest elf in his current state, the easiest to overpower. Meanwhile, the only reason Viren survived Lain and Tiadrin’s joint attack is because he captured them in ice and then coined them. So Viren would let Runaan out first, and then one of the others.

And I bet it would be Lain. Tiadrin suggested that Viren spare the egg--and then he listened, and he lost it and had to go to war just to get Zym’s power back, and then died and got resurrected... I can see him deciding that messing with Tiadrin is Just Not Worth It. So he pulls out the elf who seemed to be fooled by her ploy: Lain.

(alright, the fic writer in me is waking up, forgive me it I go on a bit here) I can see a desperate Viren standing behind a kneeling Runaan, holding a fistful of his hair and a dagger at his neck, telling Lain to think very carefully before he speaks because Viren has some questions for him. And Runaan just being dangerously still with his eyes full of cold fury as he stares at his long-lost best friend, silently telling him, “Don’t. Don’t. Don’t.” Because Runaan is always focused and on task, and he got coined for keeping his mouth shut and doesn’t want that sacrifice to go to waste.

But Lain... Lain hasn’t seen another living being in at least six months, if not much much longer. He misses his wife, the crazy heights of the Storm Spire, and he definitely misses the Silvergrove and his friends. Last he saw Runaan, the assassin was taking Rayla into his home along with Ethari. He was probably an emotional mess behind that stoic face, saying goodbye to his friends and feeling responsible for little Rayla’s upbringing all at once. Lain had faith in him then, utter faith. And now, here he is on his knees in Viren’s custody, with an arm that’s dying from a binding ribbon--a failed mission! Lain probably wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut, simply out of sheer confusion.

rrrgh the angsty fic ideas are strong with this one

Lain wouldn’t say anything for Viren’s benefit. He respects Runaan too much for that. But he might blurt something very telling--anything that says they know each other very well, for instance. Viren would be all over that information. But Lain’s spent years with Tiadrin, and he knows how she thinks. He’d try anything he could to get Viren to release her too. Something along the lines of “You want to know why she outwitted you in the Storm Spire? Because she’s the clever one. Do whatever you want with me, human, but if you want answers, you’ll have to ask my wife.”

And then Viren puts both men back in their coins (oof ouch agh) and lets Tiadrin out alone, and she still gets the better of him.

How about this for an end to this headcanon: She takes their coins and runs, and she runs straight to the Moonshadow elf with the Moon Staff. Because if coin jail is the dark magic version of mirror jail, and if mirror jail is related to “the world beyond life and death” in any way, then maybe the Moon Staff will be the next best thing to break the boys back out of their coins.

Bonus: Tiadrin lovingly berates the both of them the whole way there and promises she’ll get them free... so she can kick their butts for being so foolish. About what, she’s not sure. But she’s going to save them anyway. They’re her family.

Thank you for this what-if, anon. It was a whole ride and I had fun. I hope you did, too.

#asks #tdp what ifs #tdp headcanons #angsty tdp headcanons #tdp angst #viren #lain #runaan #tiadrin

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