#i was right that terry had such an influence on claudia that he would help her <3

[jaanii]

I WAS RIGHT

[sarasade]

On Claudia, Viren, Aaravos & Claudia's Character Arc

This post is mostly about Claudia's character development or should I say character deterioration.

It's highly likely that Callum will be the one to take down Aaravos- like it all goes back to Harrow's letter in s2 and chains of history and the themes of free will vs destiny and such. Aaravos possessing Callum is all about that. He's literally taking control of Callum's faith. There is clear antagonism there that's in a direct conflict with who Callum is.

But at the same time Claudia is the one who's got the biggest personal beef with Aaravos. He exploited her grief, manipulated her and used her father to accomplish his own goals. If Aaravos didn't exist Claudia wouldn't have spent two years of her life in a complete stagnation waiting for her dad to come back from the dead instead of moving on. It seems like Aaravos has been molding Claudia into his personal minion through dark magic during the time skip as well.

Taking this into account it would be really satisfying to see Claudia snap out of it and take her revenge. Characters having a personal connection to the villain always makes a story's climax more gripping. More personal the better! And everything between Aaravos and Claudia is VERY personal.

That's why Viren worked so well as a foil to Callum and Ezran in s 1-3. Especially Ezran whose rightful place as the king he tried to take. He was basically their shitty, power hungry uncle who turned against them. Side note but if Viren is still alive I hope he makes a return as Ezran's foil.

Claudia helping to take down Aaravos would be emotionally satisfying. All the elements for that are already there. Of course Claudia should come to some kind of realisation about the way she's been used by Aaravos before she can take that turn. I doubt the show's got the time for that but it's an interesting possibility to think about.

I really like how the plot around Aaravos manipulating Claudia is done. Even Claudia's own father didn't do anything to prevent it from happening although all the signs of Aaravos having sinister plans for Claudia were there from the beginning: Aaravos calling Claudia "an asset" and encouraging Viren to lie to her in s3 therefore enabling Viren's worst impulses while also using them to his benefit. It's SO EVIL (and I love it). Viren isn't that much better since he always had some kind of excuse to ignore the red flags. At this point of TDP's run I'm convinced that Runaan's "Faith worse than death" line about Aaravos' mirror is finally paying off. It means that the consequences of Viren's actions have hurt Claudia, the only person Viren loves unconditionally, in an unfathomable way.

I think Claudia's arc is relatively subtle and very well done. It balances between Claudia being a victim of manipulation and neglect while also giving her agency to influence the plot as a whole. My only complaint is that Lost Child short story should have been implemented in the show itself and not just be extra material. I have some other grievances but those are mostly fandom related.

How some fans, especially in YouTube reviews, talk about Claudia's downfall like it was inevitable because she's always been fucked up or talking about how "trauma isn't an excuse for bad behaviour" is strange to me. Like, yeah, it isn't an excuse but it's simply just bad media analysis to instantly jump into condemning Claudia's actions, like she's a real person who uses trauma as an excuse to hurt other real people, instead of seeing it in the terms of a character study. Claudia clearly uses trauma to convince herself that what she's doing is right but never tries to manipulate anyone else by using it as an excuse. Think about her and Terry for example: she usually refuses Terry's help instead of trying to garner sympathy from him. This character trait is one of the many reasons why she felt obligated to keep her family together as well. She's extremely stubborn and not very self-conscious about her trauma brain but she does understand why others would see her actions as objectionable. I think this character type (usually a woman) has been given the playful nickname "trauma bitch" in the internet lexicon. Anyway god forbid if we actually empathise, reflect on and engage with unpleasant or problematic characters instead of instantly condemning them.

TDP is about how people can always CHOOSE a different path. Viren's dark magic hallucination in season 5 stated this very clearly.

In Claudia's case it's more interesting to think about WHY she DOESN'T choose differently. That's where all the meat of her character writing lies.

Claudia's arc is what happens when the desperate actions of someone motivated by trauma around abandonment are taken to their logical conclusion in this fantasy setting. It's a fictional story, it has metaphors and shit. Fantasy genre has used necromancy and extending one's life by magical means as a story element to explore humanity's relationship to death many times. The metaphor for loss and regret basically writes itself. Ursula Le Guin has used this trope in The Earthsea books, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn has done it etc. Everything can't be a one to one comparison to real life (trauma rarely makes you want to kill your friends with dark magic irl. idk that's just me though) and there needs to be a level of abstraction involved in a fantasy story. Abstraction and metaphor, paradoxically, can reveal a greater truth about the world. (I'm probably accidentally quoting someone here but can't remember who.)

Anyway the rest is great. When you think of it all for a moment it's pretty fucked up how Claudia has been used by Aaravos. It's not some tiny part of Caludia's story. It IS her story. And Viren set that norm for her. Viren too has abused Claudia's trust. It's a complex subject and probably requires its own post since Viren, Soren and Claudia's situation reflects some pretty realistic dynamics real life troubled families have. That's why the characters compliment each other's stories so well. Viren is a more realistic character after all when Aaravos is more over the top and symbolic and less of a real person. Aaravos is one of those villains who embodies the opposing ideology of the heros. We (still) don't know almost anything personal about him so he matters mostly in relation to other characters.

Thanks for reading this Claudia propaganda! I've had so many of these in the drafts. Anyway TL;DR

[sir-phineas-lost]

TDP Book 5: Water

So this apparently dropped almost a week earlier than what was announced and I binged all of it at once as usual. Since I only just finished it I can’t quite tell if I like it better or worse than previous seasons (for summary: I loved the first 2 because it looked like they were heading somewhere really interesting, I hated season 3 because it completely dropped the ball and season 4 was starting to head back in the right direction). I feel like I should write a few things down to sort them out. Lots of spoilers below.

I think it was the right decision to split the party up more than they were last season because it no longer feels like Ezran is just hanging around for the sake of it and gives Rayla and Callum more time to interact and rebuild their relationship. I still don’t care one iota about said relationship because they are boring MC-shipping, but at least it doesn’t feel like it is actively eating up others’ screen-time.

The detour to Lux Aurea feel superfluous. It is very disconnected from the other subplot involving Karim and Kim’dael and the one lasting consequence (Zubeia’s wound) is apparently healed by the end of the season with absolutely no input from the main cast. Obviously this is setup for next season and this mysterious mushroom-mage but I can’t help but feel that there had to be a more convenient way to get there.

As usual, Claudia remains the very best part of the show and I will not hear a bad word about her. Her worry for Viren is so absolutely palpable it hurts and for once I think they dodged all the pitfalls of framing it as a sin. Having Terry around proves to be the best change to the show as a whole since the timeskip and he keeps being a positive influence on Claudia without being judgemental about it.

This also makes it pretty jarring when we get to Claudia’s final confrontation with the gang and after a full season of humanizing her and proving that she will listen to reason instead of going for the kill, she goes into full villain-mode from the start with crazy ranting and “I will destroy you all” speeches. All so that the gang can feel uncomplicated in dealing out the most graphic violence in the show so far. I used to joke that I would be ok with Claudia reducing elven cities to ash, I now think I would be fine with her ripping out Ezran’s spine while making Callum watch. As a treat.

Side-note: I am very ok with the trend of Claudia transforming into monster-ladies for big fights.

Please keep that up.

Viren also continues his positive development from last season, but unfortunately it is the exact kind of “redemption” I didn’t want for him and Claudia. The kind where it is all about him agreeing with everyone else that everything he ever does sucks and that dark magic is unambiguously evil. Sorry to people who like this development but I don’t see a lot of moral complexity in doing a 180.

Callum actually has a pretty interesting arc this season. After being convinced last season that it was his curiosity that would make him susceptible to Aaravos’ influence it instead draws direct parallells between him and Claudia by having love for his friends and especially Rayla be the reason he breaks his own moral code. It still relies heavily on the show’s nonsensical policy on dark magic for his guilt to make sense but it is something.

Unfortunately the show seems committed to its policy of character-centric morality. Ezran can make a speech to Callum about how they should focus on containing Aaravos instead of killing him because violence should be a last resort, and yet make no attempt at anything but violence when stopping Claudia.

Overall I just find it ironic how a book called “Ocean” manages to drive home how shallow this whole show is. It paints its main thesis on its forehead but has absolutely nothing of interest to say about it. “It is bad to do bad things for good reasons”. No shit Sherlock. Come back when you actually have something to say about what makes something bad in the first place or how to deal with the things that made someone think the bad thing was necessary.

[mandaloriandragontrainer]

What do you think DRIVES the main cast (Callum, Rayla, Ezran, Soren, Claudia, Viren)? And also what ROLES they would play moving forward?

Oooh... not sure if this is exactly what you’re looking for but, based on the little bit we know, combined with all my headcanons...

CALLUM: We already know that Callum's main arc in season 4 is going to be how he processes his heartbreak over Rayla, and that it's brought out darker aspects of his personality. I think the Callum we see in season 4 is going to be angrier and, while not outright cruel, less gentle and soft-hearted than before. Rayla was his first great love, and losing her has forever changed him. He's poured himself into studying magic, not only as a distraction, but to ensure he's powerful enough to protect his remaining loved ones (and himself from the pain of losing someone again). All of this is going to make him the ideal target for Aaravos. I expect that our favorite Startouch Elf is going to promise to help Callum find Rayla in exchange for... whatever it is he wants him for. Maybe he's even the reason she hasn't returned.

RAYLA: As we already know, she's obsessed with finding Viren, and after two years on the hunt, she's bound to be extremely demoralized. Rayla already struggles a lot with self-hatred, so she's definitely not going to be in a good place when we see her again. I think she's going to be achingly lonely, but unable to bring herself to return until she's accomplished her self-appointed mission. She still feels like she has to earn love, and right now she's feeling pretty worthless. Both her and Callum's arcs are driven by a desire to protect and save each other, but as was pointed out in this post, Rayla will likely end up saving Callum's soul, so to speak, from Aaravos's corruption, while Callum saves her from whatever horrible situation she's gotten herself into.

EZRAN: Oh our sweet king. I’m not entirely sure what his arc going forward will be, but I imagine it will continue to focus on his growth as a young monarch and his relationship with Xadia. Aaron and Justin have stated that Ezran has a familial bond with both Zym and Zubeia, and even though Xadia and the human kingdoms are technically now at peace, I imagine a lot of it hinges on the personal connection between him and the Dragon Queen. I personally really want to see that relationship developed. What does Zubeia think of this little boy, this child king, who delivered her son back to her even after she ordered the death of his father? How does she feel knowing she tried to have him killed to avenge her own baby?

SOREN: Poor Sor-bear. He lost his father and sister to dark magic, and like we saw in Through the Moon, he’s also haunted by what happened at the Storm Spire. He’s going to be very dedicated to protecting Ezran, and maybe even fears that Claudia (or Viren) might come around again to hurt him. I don’t doubt that he still feels he has a lot to atone for. When Claudia and Viren inevitably clash with the heroes, Soren is going to be at the forefront. There’s a lot of bad blood to work through there.

CLAUDIA: Of all the main cast, Clauds definitely has the most clear motivation. She’s lost her home, her friends, and almost all her family. We’ve seen her go to more and more extreme lengths to accomplish her goals, and she’s had two whole years to get into a very dark headspace. Her goal is finding a way to free Aaravos, therefore permanently resurrecting her father, at any cost. What makes Claudia such a fascinating antagonist is that she really isn’t motivated by a lust for power or revenge or any of the other typical villain desires, but by a genuine (though still unhealthy) love for her family. She’s a sweet-natured, emotionally damaged girl with access to a destructive power and under some very dangerous influences. Her relationship with Terry is a curveball I didn’t see coming, and I’m really interested to see how that all plays out.

VIREN: I’m not sure Viren knows what he wants anymore. Being dead for two years will do that to you. Personally, I think we’re going to see Viren finally begin to understand that he’s been nothing but a pawn in Aaravos’s grand scheme. Whether he continues to play along or begins to resist, possibly for his daughter’s sake, remains to be seen. I’m not convinced he’ll be getting a redemption arc, but I do think he’s going to take a backseat from the main villain role in favor of Claudia and ultimately Aaravos (or not, I guess we’ll find out).

[ladyandherbooks]

After looking at the trailer for season 4 and all of the promotional material to come out recently I had a thought about what Aaravos may do to make Callum his puppet. 

My theory is that in episode 8 or 9 Rayla or Fayla, Ezran, Callum and Soren will reunite with Claudia, Viren, Aaravos and Terry. During this reunion and confrontation they will gain Viren’s magical coins that are trapping Runaan, Lain and Tiadrin. Rayla is a mixture of relieved, worried and afraid as she doesn’t know how she’ll get them free or who is powerful enough for her to turn to. 

And that’s when Aaravos makes his move on Callum. Because Rayla is one of his greatest weaknesses and the best tool that Aaravos could use to get Callum under his control. So Aaravos quietly or secretly tells him that he can do it, that he can set them free. Callum initially refuses and says that they will find a better, different way to free them. Aaravos, unfazed by this says that he could but it may take months or even years to find a solution or someone powerful enough to free Rayla’s family. He however, is willing and able to free them right now, all Callum needs to do is let him in so that he can complete the task as he can’t do it in his current state. 

Callum, a boy who we’ve seen willingly and without hesitation, risk his life to save Rayla and who also has had a history of reckless behaviour when it comes to magic (e.g. thinking that touching a lightning rod in the middle of a thunderstorm will give him Sky magic) would do it. He’d do it to help Rayla, because he loves and wants her to be happy. 

And he lets Aaravos in and true to his word he frees the three of them from their coins and the season ends with Callum now under Aaravos influence, much like Viren was by the end of season 2.

That would allow Aaravos to manipulate and charm Callum in season 5 and if his and Viren’s behaviour and relationship is anything to go by Aaravos will probably try to isolate Callum and perhaps even have him turn and lash out at those closest to him.