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raayllum · 4 months

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not sure if you've been asked this before, but do you think callum will do dark magic a third time or more? do you think his arc is in any way building towards him coming to terms with it as a concept or will he continue to reject it on principle?

I've talked a little bit about S6 specific predictions and I do think there will be something along the lines of Callum reconciling his dark magic use with his identity (aka that those things don't have to be opposing, as long as those aspects feel/become understood to him) but...

I think the tricky thing is that there's a lot of elements at play all wrapped up in each other. A few things to get out of the way:

Dark magic has two main purposes in the story. The first is as a literal magic source (practical, usable, more unlimited in comparison to primal magic in some ways). The second is what it represents theme wise (desperation, short term power and agency vs long term lack of agency and subsequent powerlessness, destruction and vulnerability).

For most of his life, all Viren saw was the short term power and gain. Obviously we know he did something awful to save Soren, but we don't get the indication that sort of thing happened... More? We see from Claudia that there's lots of casual uses for dark magic and that Viren likely did so as well (needing to use his butterflies on a semi-regular basis for spells off screen). The next time we see a "dark magic to save a personal loved one" is the soul switching gimmick for Harrow, which is part of why Harrow, I think, shows up in Viren's dreams:

But as Viren says, going to sacrifice himself for King Harrow is his attempts at returning to form, to "I need to be the man he once believed I was." A Viren who was more selfless if not also as idealistic as a dark mage can be. Because in the years since healing Soren, Viren steadily lost himself and lost sight of protecting his children ("You're going to be okay now, that's all that matters" / "But Dad, Soren could've died!" "That doesn't matter!"). That's not to say he was morally irrefutable before, but he genuinely cared for his children and prioritized them. Finding his way back in S5 is what his journey is all, ultimately, about. Coining Kpp'Ar and getting his job ("His death creates opportunity for you") was the inciting incident - seemingly? arguably? - that set him on the "I always knew you'd go far, but I didn't know how far you'd go to get there. [...] You made the same choice you always made: the one that gives you power." Because power, not family, is what poisoned Viren's head — and why only by removing it does it have clarity; only by choosing powerlessness does he have freedom from Aaravos (at least in theory).

V: My whole life I've been chasing after things I didn't have. Status, influence, power. Maybe I should stop.

While Viren rejecting dark magic is ultimately a good for him, I do wonder what he would've done if faced with "kill Sir Sparklepuff to spare Claudia's life" > "kill Sir Sparklepuff to save yourself". He may have indeed made the same choice, now being more cognizant and also fearful of the bloodprice Harrow had spoken of, how dark magic always tends to inevitably have Consequences no matter how delayed, but it definitely would've been a different sort of choice.

With that in mind, I say all this to outline that Callum is starting from a fundamentally different place with dark magic and his loved ones. Like Viren he has pride, but Callum overall has very little ego. He doesn't crave notions of status (if anything he's typically uncomfortable with it) nor is just 'power' a desire for him. If he desires power, if he desires magic, then he does so out of a desire of agency, not self-importance or recognition. Callum doesn't want to be admired in an attempt to feedback-loop prove that he subsequently has worth. He wants to be tangibly useful; he wants to helpful.

One of the confines/constraints of the way arc 2 is structured is that we don't get much of Callum's feelings about dark magic use pre-the reveal it allows Aaravos to possess him. While he rejects it and mandates that it's wrong in S2, of course, he is still tempted by it and the potential 'good' it could do. He rejects being a Dark Mage™️ and refuses to have that as his primary form of magic > primal magic, but — as I've said before — that's different than ever rejecting doing dark magic ever again. That's different than swearing off this would ever be an option you turn to. I

A life with no dark magic is undeniably Callum's canonical preference, as far as usage and existence goes. That's clear to surmise even post-S2. But still, as soon as he used it, I always figured that if put into that kind of situation again — Ezran or Rayla's life on the line, and this was the only way to keep them safe — he'd do it. And then he does (5x08).

However, 5x08 does add important context to Callum's feelings about dark magic. Although I think he probably would've said everything he said to Finnegrin in 5x08 even without the possession bomb ("I'm not a dark mage. I don't do dark magic!" and his refusal even under torture), it's undeniable that learning his dark magic use allows Aaravos to possess him has rattled him. It's not clear how much of his staunch aversion is because now he knows the full consequences, compared to how he might behave if he didn't know it leaves him open to Aaravos, but I think the knowledge here, accordingly, is a burden and just makes all of it worse for him.

In 2x07, Callum didn't know the full potential consequences of his actions, if in fearful imagination and nothing else. But because of 4x04, he does:

C: I'm not afraid that he'll hurt me. I'm afraid that he'll use me to do awful things, or hurt people I care about. [...] I'm afraid, Rayla. What if I'm on a path of darkness?

(We'll return to the "path of darkness" concern in a moment, but pin in it for now.)

The tricky thing, though, is that if you have a character say they'll Never do something, and then they do it (and for a good reason), it's very hard to convince the audience that they'll really never do it again. There are ways to — Rayla said she'd never abandon or kill for her family (Bloodmoon Huntress), then she did abandon Callum (for an understandable but not a good reason, though, I might add), and now we're working on being convinced (painstakingly slowly) that she can learn how to stay — and this could be the route they take with Callum. But unlike Viren, I don't think Callum has as much of a lesson to learn surrounding dark magic because he's always used it for genuinely good reasons and with full awareness of his actions. He doesn't lie to himself over it (he doesn't have Viren's greater good schtick nor interest in it) and it was in literal life-or-death situations.

Viren needed to change because his dark magic use escalated in the de-prioritization of his kingdom but — more importantly to his interpersonal development — his immediate relationships and family bonds. Thus far, Callum's shown no hint of that, and I'm not sure that he will, given that interpersonal relationships — not glory or the greater good — are his primary motivations in all things, usually, but especially when it comes to dark magic.

Therefore, I don't think Callum's issue (as it stands now; S6 could make him start to go on a Viren "I can sacrifice my loved ones path by proxy of paranoia") is as much "I have to reject dark magic and subsequently de-prioritize my personal relationships" because... Him loving less is not the solution, to me. He should be prioritizing his personal relationships. Even, unfortunately, to these current extremes.

When Callum states he's scared that he's on a path of darkness in 4x07, it is a little odd, mostly because at that point there's not much to indicate — at least not as much interpersonally (because as an audience member I was screaming crying throwing up) with the knowledge we had at the time — as to why. He was obsessed with the mirror and Soren warned him not to be like his dad ("My father was obsessed with it. Callum, I know you love magic, but be careful. Cause it can change people") over it, but his primary concern seems to be from what Aaravos has told him: "Already tainted by darkness, and destined to play right into my hands." Those are all external forces/warnings, and they worry him. S5, specifically 5x08 I think, is when we see the big internal shift there.

But I do think the "What if I'm on a path of darkness" and his doubt when Rayla reaffirms otherwise is important, because it plays into his tendency to tunnel vision. He's afraid of the dark because in that moment, and in some ways in 5x08, it feels like it's all he can see.

With that in mind, I think Callum's arc will maybe not be a Relinquishing of dark magic entirely, but dismantling the systems/circumstances in place (through acquirement of more primal magic) so that he has less need of it, and a reminder that he Also has Light inside him, too. Dark and light reconciled — for worse and for better.