#bc of synopsis

[raayllum]

Moon Arcanum Callum + Sun Arcanum Claudia in S7?

Callum getting the Moon arcanum has been a fandom... not theory, but shall we say, prospect, since even before S4. Some of this was because of the seeming set up in previous seasons, such as:

Callum having a hunch that the cube wasn't glowing due to the Moon, and being our first hint at illusions on the Cursed Caldera (1x09)

Lujanne explaining the secret of the arcanum (as she understands it) to him in 2x02

Callum doing moon arcanum spells (3x08, Through the Moon) much the way he did Sky spells before unlocking that arcanum

Callum employing aspects of the Moon arcanum in his plans (3x01 with tricking Sol Regem, creating the illusion pearl in 6x01)

His growing relationship and understanding with Rayla, and potential involvement with her family/village

But especially:

This is of course already reflected in spades in his arc as a mage. Everyone, Lujanne included, believes that humans can't do magic. She treats this as absolute fact and destiny, but Callum perceives it as subjective truth; why can't he just make his own connection and do magic anyway? And in doing so, he changes the world. He creates a radically new, better reality.

With season seven's synopsis on sacrifice and life and death, both things we see tied heavily to Moonshadow culture and the Moon itself, I could see Callum connecting to the Moon arcanum next season for a few reasons (and potentially Claudia with the Sun arcanum, which I'll get to after). So let's get into it.

Precursor

Previously, if Callum was going to connect to the Moon arcanum, I'd speculated it'd mostly be around ideas of the consistency of Love (light or dark, the moon is always the moon) and his love for Rayla being his light in the darkness / the one constant truth of his life. I don't think this anymore, obviously, because we got all those things through the Star truth light ritual beat for beat and we're not going to be repeating, but I did think it'd be worthwhile then to revisit what a Moon arcanum could mean for Callum under new context / emotional epiphanies. I've also always thought either Earth or Sun would suit Claudia, but leaned more towards the latter, so we're gonna talk about that, too.

Truth and Lies and Aaravos

As Lujanne explains in 2x02, the Moon arcanum is understanding the true nature of the relationship between appearances and reality, and we can only understand the appearance itself. This feels like a very fitting idea to come back to with Aaravos, who ostensibly never lies but routinely withholds or presents not entirely correct information. "How may I serve you?" when you're just going to be a pawn. Not telling a mourning Claudia that he was indeed the one who killed Viren so that she'll continue to do his bidding, with Claudia asserting that Aaravos "didn't lie" about the ritual in 6x01, and he didn't. We also see him wield the truth as a weapon with people like Khessa ("would you like to know the truth of her fate before you meet yours?") and Sol Regem (more on that here.)

Everything that he says is truth to him, and then he lifts it up as being objectively true (i.e. you're destined to play into my hands) even when it isn't necessarily true. We can also see Callum veering into mindsets that Claudia and Viren have had, where he believes he's past the point of saving ("I'm ruined, it's too late for me" "Promise me you'll kill me") or removing his own agency by admission ("Finnegrin was going to kill you, I didn't have a choice" / "Every step forward is a choice").

Callum understanding Aaravos' or others' actual truths versus their lies and the ones he's believing could be very fitting in S6, especially if he might be learning more about the existence of the Cosmic Council and who made their world the way it is. I think his existence may help lead to that "slow spiral of chaos" but that it won't be just or even Bad at all the way they'd feared, etc.

Claudia is also linked to lies and truth. She lies to others, but Aaravos notes that "If you tell the truth you will lose her," and she goes looking for her own deep truth in S6, but doesn't seem to fully find it. Terry asks her "What do you need to find your one deep truth?" and Claudia says that she needs her dad, but she and her mother have also made it clear that she "needed to stay with Soren" and her family (vs Viren telling her to pick the egg over Soren). With Viren gone and Aaravos manipulating her, Soren could easily be one of her guiding lights next season or in future seasons.

The Pearl

The moon is analogous, framing/appearance wise, to the prison. This is alluded to in 5x09 through framing, and then made even more direct in 6x09: Aaravos escapes his prison thanks to Claudia and (unbeknownst to her) she has become the prisoner, much like how Callum may physically free himself from chains in 5x08 but magically/emotionally chains himself further to Aaravos, or Viren shouting while in chains that he's finally free of the dark puppetmaster.

Basically, when Callum says in 6x01 that he's inside the pearl, I don't think (as of S6 / probably first half of S7 at least) that he's ever gotten out of it. Aaravos uses him even after his nightmare, and we know thanks to the pawn intro that Aaravos' final machinations for Callum also haven't yet come to play. I've been wondering if the Aaravos intro is going to change in S7, since he's out of his prison — and it still may — but if we look at it from the angle of Callum and Claudia both being stuck within the moon/pearl rather than just Aaravos himself, maybe it could stay.

And if Callum is stuck inside the moon-pearl, shattering it by understanding the arcanum ("the whole world is like a giant primal stone, and we're inside of it, and it's also in us") and/or with Claudia moving to the opposite of the moon could be useful, especially since Karim is a corrupted sun in his own way. Speaking of which let's talk about

Light and Dark

We know thanks to Claudia that black and white, or light and dark, are not always clear cut. Her hair thanks to her dark magic use changes like phases of the moon, with the light being bad and the dark being good. Conversely, her path is a dark one with the path of truth and light being withheld from her. In a similar manner, we see Callum's light (Rayla) being what led him into dark magic use and what led him out of it, and will likely see this pattern play out again. Aaravos is a representation of a path of darkness, but we also see the cube flashing a bright light in the pawn intro, tying light and darkness together for him as well.

Callum's understanding of himself that he gained through the Ocean arcanum can not simply become untrue or disappear, so I think recognizing that darkness isn't all he is ("I'm ruined" / "your heart's not full of darkness" "Neither is yours") even if there are dark parts of him and of his life would be fitting. It also seems that could be helpful with Claudia as well, and even characters like Ezran, who will have to wrestle with darker parts of his emotions/personality next season as well with Runaan. They've all got light and dark inside them, and learning how to walk in that balance and still break away from the Cycle / Aaravos is useful. As Ezran said in 4x03:

I just want to yell stop. But that’s not enough. It won’t work. I think about a positive vision, a faith we can all share, that we might build a future together in hope. A future where we can be safe with each other.  But… It’s not that easy or simple. Because people are still hurting and they are still angry. We can’t ignore that, or pretend it will go away. Somehow, we have to hold it all in our hearts at the same time. We have to acknowledge the weight of the pain and loss, but open up our eyes and allow ourselves to hope and maybe forgive and love again. We have to give today’s children a chance to inherit a future filled with peace. To give them that, we have to hold pain and love in our hearts at the same time.

Claudia's love for her family led her to ruin, but it can also save her through Soren. Callum's love for Rayla led him to ruin, but it has also saved him (and again, we'll likely repeat this pattern). Ezran's love for his father will lead him to anger but also pull him out of it, just as Viren's love for his son caused him to begin his journey of terrible things, but also guided him to do one final, truly right thing by the end.

Love is light and dark. Claudia, who's been walking in shadow, needs the full light - the sun, in the form of her brother. She needs to accept and see the truth of what's happening and step fully into the light. Callum, who has been routinely worried of the dark within him, needs to the reminder that he's not all he is, that he has light of his own inside. In doing so, he can break Aaravos' control over him and give hope to any other dark mages / humans in general that no level of corruption is too late to come back from, and that there is always light amid the darkness.

Life and Death

The stakes have never been higher as Aaravos and Claudia are on the warpath, determined to destroy the Cosmic Order and invert life and death. With the world’s fate on the line, our heroes must be ready to sacrifice everything to save it.

In Bloodmoon Huntress, we get a very different peek into how the secret of the Moon arcanum can be thought of through Runaan, who is peak Moonshadow-sacrifice elf man:

Moonshadow form is only achieved when we understand the balance of life against death. Balance is weight against weight, and to understand the weight of death you must feel the weight and value of another's life. Think of those you love, of who you hold most dear. Now think of the souls who have touched your life. Understand that each time your weapon meets its target, each time we fulfil our duty, the potential for that soul to change a life—to love another—is gone. We may remove hate, but we remove the potential for love as well. Moonshadow form is only achieved when we reconcile this balance between life and death.

While Claudia with her hair and dark mage-assassin parallels could unlock the Moon arcanum—especially if her perspectives continue to change—I think Callum as the Protagonist is better placed at this time to be the one to understand the balance between life and death in a season where the antagonists are trying to invert/destroy it. Him therefore understanding appearances and changes, how to control his own and see through others', understanding that balance between life and death, feels very fitting.

Callum's fear of Aaravos and dark magic comes from the fear that he's changing—"I hope you're careful, cause [magic] can change people" / "the corruption takes innocent creatures and changed them"—and that death would be better for him than life if he goes too far. Learning these things aren't the case and that he can get back to the middle (and indeed, "real trust is about accepting even the dark parts we will never know" could be about Rayla accepting he may not entirely swear off dark magic again, the same way Viren kept that door open to do Good) would be useful.

It would also mean the two mage characters most drawn into Aaravos' darkness get the Moon and Sun—the arcanums most associated with light—to banish said darkness as well. Claudia finally being an uncorrupted light and chasing life, not death, and Callum, learning how to be balanced and that he can maintain his identity / use Aaravos' book and key without fearing that he'll lose control.

The fact that Claudia's eclipse imagery only started the same episode she lost her brother, and that her Laurelion dragon-scale necklace is very Sunfire-y looking...

Conclusion

TDP for Callum and Claudia has always felt like a parallel coming-of-age mage story between the two of them, leading to the amount of similarities and diverging plot beats the two have, down to doing the same spell at the same time but in different locations in S6. The Sun arcanum is associated with truth, light, and healing, whereas the Moon arcanum is associated with change, life + death, and secrets/love. All of these things could be nicely brought to a head with Callum and Claudia each unlocking an arcanum of Moon and Sun respectively, showcasing their differences, their continued room to grow, and light amid the darkness.

While I could see alternatives like Sun for Callum and Moon for Claudia, Stars for Callum or no arcanum for either of them, I think these are the ones that fit best at this time / Stars will likely get saved for arc 3 given that arc 3 will probably focus more on rewriting destinies and the Cosmic Order as antagonists.

As always hope you enjoy and Dragons out!

[aangarchy]

i don't know how to feel about this. scared is one word that comes to mind

[banished-away]

we may be getting a breezy story after all!

i have to say that solving the her haircolor dilemma with "both" is pretty funny tho

[curse-of-dming-strahd]

hey, guys? why is no one talking about the part where Rahadin swallows an entire toad

[househrt]

I dislike when I have the urge to write a fanfic but all I've got is a one-sentence synopsis and some vibes

[claitea]

an au i've been messing with for quite a while now :) alto as a plasma leader + post-plasma! originally for a little swap au where n would have been a ranger (tbh its not developed at all, it was just an excuse to think about ranger n lmao), though with @jaredthebc we also made a whole thing with his oc jay hehe

ALRIGHT SO TRYING TO KEEP IT SHORT. we call this the replacement leader au. when ghetsis caught wind of a harmonia child being abandoned in the woods, he planned to get him for his plans as normal. however, he accidentally takes a 5 year old alto instead. when he realizes his mistake and finds the real n, he can't just toss out alto since he'd already introduced her to the rest of team plasma as the future queen. he keeps them around to keep up appearances, but also as a backup in case anything goes awry with n. alto's goal as plasma's leader is to make unova more like their homeregion fiore as opposed to complete liberation

they dont get to be they/them yet by the way. sorry. she/her and gender dysphoria be upon ye, alto. they get called A, or Lady A, but since reading just the letter A in text was hard, we also call them Alt. they never get called that in-universe, its literally just for us HJDHDHFH

so that n is assured that he is the true king, he's never made aware of alt's existence, but alt admires him greatly and works to support him from the shadows. when jay is discovered by ghetsis, since he can also talk to pokemon having been to the mystery dungeon universe, alt is once again pushed down the royal procession. at this point, they're so used to being looked over they fully accept this without question and pledge as much loyalty to jay as they do to n.

we liked the thing the manga did where in literally just one scene and never again, n's necklace is used as a phone. so ghetsis gives all three their necklaces to keep tabs on them all. jay and alt accidentally end up calling each other on them, initially unaware exactly Who they're calling. they keep this up for a while, since both are lonely as plasma's backup leaders who arent nearly as important as n yet. when they find out, alt is horrified thinking they've broken so many rules treating their superior so informally, but jay tells them he wants them to stick around. they end up sneaking off to each others rooms, and since they're so desperate for company they try a romantic relationship. its not exactly... the best?? they genuinely love each other but alt is constantly worried about the fact this is totally not allowed, jay worries alt is just "following orders" by being with him. they feel that all they have is each other though

in bw1 n loses and leaves unova as normal, so for bw2, ghetsis puts jay in charge with alt as his right hand. jared's oc Amity replaces the usual protag. the game proceeds basically as normal, up until the giant chasm, where ghetsis attempts to glaciate amity and n returns to save her. knowing kyurem did this only because it was being controlled, jay defends it, as do n and amity. alt, scared out of their mind having just seen ghetsis reveal his true colors, as well as watching jay and n, the only people left they could trust, defend a pokemon that almost killed a kid, alt runs away.

jay and n search for them for a month, and find them back in the ruins of the old plasma castle, injured from an ursaring attack they suffered on the run. they realize how harsh they'd been at the chasm and finally try to make up with both of them. it takes a while because they all have their own issues to sort out but jay and alt do get back together with a lot more healthy framing of that relationship :) n is also there bc these ocs were already n kissers. we had to alright. its in our nature

alt never actually interacted with many pokemon in their time with plasma so their main experiences are The Kyurem Thing and The Ursaring Thing so they develop a fear of pokemon for a while. the shiny smoliv in their second ref is their emotional support helping them get used to pokemon again. their name is Olive because alt still sucks at names, they were a rescue jay got from the plasma safehouse, and because of an inside joke they know wood hammer even though smoliv cant learn that

[a-mel0n]

What's happening on 911 twitter THIS time?

so keep in mind that i’ve only heard of this from other people:

the basic gist of it is that one of the anti-tommy/lfj bnfs on tiktok got outed as a racist. something about saying the n-word twice back in 2013. this is the same person that’s heavily pushed the “lfj is a racist/maga” agenda.

are they the same person now that they were in 2013? i hope not! but it is a funny bit of poetic justice that they’ve been accused of the same thing they’ve been hating on lou for. (and i dont even think lou did something as bad as saying the n-word? iirc he made some sketchy tweets a decade ago and has since been unproblematic)

anyways, they’ve deactivated both their tiktok and twitter accounts, likely to avoid any backlash. lol. lmao, even.

[puhpandas]

I think we were supposed to see technicians and guards before the all staff meeting but Scott wanted to play it safe ig. I don’t even think Gregory was supposed to be a side protagonist in this book because the first description had said nothing about Gregory.

I think this was always supposed to be a Cassie solo book but it’s like Scott remembered he needs to start building up GGY only to realize Cassie can’t know about GGY for the game to work 😭 I feel like if Cassie’s trauma was shaped by the Pizzaplex itself and was stalked by the robots like Tony was during day hours instead of Gregory directing them to attack her in the most pitifully awkward ways ever the themes would’ve landed better. I still don’t really like how these two can somehow waltz into the plex after hours like it’s no big deal and with no guardian supervision at that

Would’ve been really cool if Gregory wasn’t written so obviously off-putting and the two of them were shown bonding / actually seemed like really close friends because then the betrayal would’ve stung even more. The book is just way too in your face about Gregory being the antagonist and it erases any interesting mystery that GGY had.

YES u hit the nail on the head on why this books interp of ggy felt SO bad to me. it misunderstood ggy as a character (who HAS an established character in ggy) and made him seem so cartoonishly in your face evil when the sinister parts of him that felt actually threatening and interesting in ggy were shrouded in mystery. in ggy Tony never actually comes into contact with explicitly ggy as a climax, it's just revealed that he's been here the whole time without anyone knowing. and any dramatic climax ggy could have is implied off screen at the end of the book

ggy has always been so subtle in how he keeps control and twists everything to go his way, which is why he was instantly on Tony when he was crazy enough to dig deeper by using Freddy as a surveillance system. it's even implied that ggy doesn't go "muahaha Tony your investigation ends here.!" during that implied scene after the end of the book, he just kills Tony quietly. this was such an insane misunderstanding of how he acts and sure the actual action of ggy messing with Cassie could fit with his actions in ggy, but ggy never even messed with Tony. he just once again subtly to even the reader strung tony along due to his understanding of him to keep him interested in him so he could keep the cover of having friends. it's literal polar opposites to how he acts with cassie in etp and Tony in ggy

and agreed with the other things too. I think there's clearly something that happened in between this book being already confirmed to be made and development beginning and its release that majorly changed the plot. it sucks because the plot it theoretically changed to ended up barely fitting into the games narritave and ruining/changing a lot of things that have been planned since 2022. in this scenario if it WAS changed that means that sw wouldn't know about it because if they ever did it would have been the original plot. of course we could be wrong and the book could actually have always been like this and sw actually planned the course of the games with this in mind but we have no clue. right now with how it majorly changes the gameverse narritave and how its synopsis strangely changed a great amount in between the first look and release the former seems more likely

desperately want more information on what could have happened to this book lmao

[silentgrim]

𝒟𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝒹𝒾𝒶𝓇𝓎, 𝐼 𝓂𝑒𝓉 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝓉𝑜𝒹𝒶𝓎. 𝒯𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒… 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓇𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔.

[tetzoro]

vampire king dick grayson…

[moomoorare]

You know I've been thinking... I kinda wanna do stuff for qsmp in Italian. I have a YouTube channel and I've been wanting to post essay etc or stuff there for a while and idk if it's been done bc i haven't looked but I kinda wanna recap the qsmp month by month with videos in Italian for Italian fans, with also English subtitles

[icewindandboringhorror]

I'm so heavily anti-advertising that all pitches sound goofy silly to me/I can never take them seriously, so I have no idea how I'll manage to to advertise my game even if I do finally finish it soon-ish lol...

[cloama]

If I had a nickel for every time a landmark piece of Black filmmaking that I can’t see immediately my ass is terrified of horror movies arrives, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

Not my roommate putting on that one Office episode where Jim and Roy are beefing over Pam with basketball, when it’s three days before THE jealousy episode of 9-1-1 comes out. How dare she!!!??

[caramelmiacchiato]

starting today tonight tomorrow by rachel solomon

[bugsrfairies]

just watched drive away dykes and i have no idea what the movie was but i rlly like margaret qualleys southern accent so 10/10