#tdp 4x03

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Ezran's speech being intercut with Ibis and Claudia's fight continues to be cinematic perfection 😍

[self-spaghettification]

tdp overarching themes (redemption etc)

What will happen when Ezran/Harrow’s narrative of love and Aaravos/Viren’s narrative strength meet, who wins?

Will it be possible for Ezran to win the dark mages over to let go of pain and end the cycle of violence? Or is death the only way to protect the world and his loved ones? Will Ezran have to learn to become stronger himself?

is it even possible to kill a startouch elf? oor to convince him to maybe not, like, conquer xadia?

i don’t have these answers but i diiiid compile a bunch of relevant shit

I kind of went through Harrow’s letter to Callum and added related quotes or moments that seemed relevant to the overarching themes discussed and how they stand on opposing sides

orange is harrow’s letter, read in 1x06

red is ezran’s speech, given in 4x03

these are the main voices but there’s also

pink is ibis in 4x03

black is zubeia in 4x04

purple is various aaravos quotes

pink is various viren quotes

both from 2x09, 3x05, 3x07, and 4x04

green is soren, janai, amaya and rayla briefly (4x03 & 4x08 & tdp trailer respectively)

“Soon you will both face a lie. The great lie of history.

“His name was Aaravos, and yes, he was a star. One of the great ones, respected and loved by all. Until we uncovered a long hidden treachery.”

Advisors and scholars will tell you that history is a narrative of strength.

“Search your heart. There’s something that you want very badly. But something or someone stands in your way.”

They will recount stories of the rise and fall of nations and empires. They will be stories of armies, battles and decisive victories.

“And this bright future will require us to conquer Xadia?”

But this isn't true strength. It's merely power.

“I can destroy them all! I have all the power I need!”

“If you want to say something to the Dragon Queen, you should say it to her face. her real face, that can bite you in two!”

“It hurts! I feel pain about this and I am angry!”

I now believe true strength is found in vulnerability...in forgiveness, in love.

“We all want peace and we all want love. But violence tests us!

In a twisted way it converts us to their cause.”

“You tried to win them over with loyalty and friendship but they ignored you. those who fail tests of love are simple creatures who deserve to be motivated by fear.”

“Because pain and loss feel so terrible inside. You want to hate. You want to hurt someone else. so what do we do?”

So, what is the plan? To fulfill your wishes, of course. Is your wish to rule Xadia? I wish for humanity to flourish. And it cannot flourish with a knife forever at its throat.

There is a beautiful upside down truth, which is that….

These moments of purest strength appear as weakness to those who don't know better.

“These are the champions you’ve gathered to try to stop me? They’re nothing but pathetic children!”

“How can we stop this cycle?”

Violence.

Loss.

Pain.

For a long time, I didn't know better.

“In the name of love, you may perform acts so unforgivable that you may never forgive yourself.”

Violence,

“You must take down the Dragon Queen and capture the baby dragon. Then you will have the attention of all the world, and the power to do what you want.”

“Bring terror to Del Bar, to Neolandia, to Evenere, and to Duren!”

Loss,

As I write this, the sun is setting while Moonshadow assassins prepare to end my life. A few months ago, I took my revenge on Xadia. Tonight, it is their turn.

“I am going to destroy it, before it can be used to do any more harm!”

Pain,

“Every great crisis the world faced seemed the work of some ingenious and powerful leader, but in each case, it was secretly Aaravos, whispering in their ear.”

“Aaravos. A startouch elf responsible for more pain, death, and suffering than anyone else in history.”

“I am not a killer.

But if you seek to return that staff to its true owner, you pose a greater danger to this world than I can allow.”

You must die.”

stop! i just want to yell stop. but that’s not enough. it won’t work.”

“I do not mean to be cruel. But we must be ready to sacrifice. Even the things we love.”

“Well played. She will be a valuable asset.”“She is not an asset. She is my daughter.”

I ask you and your brother to reject history as a narrative of strength and instead have faith that it can be a narrative of love.

“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.”

“Everything I do, and everything I ask of you, is for the future of humanity.”

“The whining child king, in over his head and he knows it.”

because people are still hurting and they are still angry. we can’t ignore that, or pretend it will go away.

“Oh, my time is inevitable.”

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 our eyes and allow ourselves to hope and maybe forgive and love again.

“You cannot have your cake and eat it too.”

We have to give today’s children a chance to inherit a future filled with peace.

“I've tried to be selfless as a king, but as a father, I have a selfish wish. And that is for you and Ezran to be...free. Reject the chains of history. Do not let the past define your future, as I did. Free yourself from the past. Learn from it, understand it, then let it go. Create a brighter future from your own hearts and imagination.”

Destiny is a book you write yourself.

To give them that, we have to hold pain and love in our hearts at the same time.

“There is an aching pain mixed with love that you feel in these moments.”

“Just have two cakes.”

“This is called A Song of Love and Loss.”

I'm proud of you. And I love you unconditionally.

“If the fallen star is a danger the whole world will face, this is a chance to solve our problems together.”

“How do you kill a startouch elf?”

idk man. what if aaravos doesn’t have to die? what if it’s not too late for him to be redeemed? this is kind of a guilty pleasure hope of mine but still. the dragon prince is a story of letting go of generational trauma and past pain, of letting go of pain and differences, most importantly, of letting go of a narrative of strength, of a strong katolis, a strong lux aurea, a strong empire over xadia, and believing in a story of love and hope. if there’s anything that could drastically change things its the guy with a lot of power and a lot of ambition and pain ready to cause a whole cycle of pain all over again. if there’s anything that would drastically change things it would be changing his heart. and if theres anyone who can change it, it’s the kid who feels the most for him.

[raayllum]

watching The Dragon Prince is a problem because every time people express discontent with another cartoon show it's almost always something TDP did really fucking well so i just default to like.

you want multiple fleshed out villains / antagonists with backstories and well developed motivations who are also wrong and not let off the hook for their actions? say hello to viren, aaravos, claudia, karim, and more.

you want varied queer rep and multiple trans/nb characters? meet an assassin and a blacksmith and a god and a sign language interpreter and a boy who loves plants and his unhinged girlfriend and married queens and rival enemies to lovers wlw who are now planning their wedding.

you want complex family dynamics regarding culture, legacy, power, and abuse? meet the mage fam, the sunfire royal family, the two main princes, adopted children with four parents, step and half siblings and blended families, etc, all explored in their heart and messiness.

you want varied and in depth character for disabled characters and characters of colour? you have a helpful blind pirate and a bitter blind dragon and a sweet amputee wolf and a deaf lesbian general who's also asian. 2/3 main characters are biracial. every couple is interracial. elves and humans alike have a variety of races and we see all of them on display.

you want to explore cycles of violence and healing and grief and war and found family? you want interesting and varied magic systems? you want ethical dilemmas and grey morality and characters being forced to make bad choices for good reasons? well done redemption arcs that still feel fresh, discussions of culture and religion and the death penalty? friends and family becoming enemies and enemies becoming friends and family?

watch The Dragon Prince.

[its-leethee]

ok but what i'm just dying to know is what cooking miracle is barius going to perform for our last season

...with the magic mushrooms perhaps?

HELL YEAH i believe in you barius. canNOT WAIT

[imminent-danger-came]

"TDP s4 was really good" truthers let us come together and join hands

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

Mmmmm Viren trapping the last protectors of the Dragon Prince in ice, then ten years later the last protector of the Dragon Prince (Ibis) puts his daughter who would do harm to the Dragon Prince in ice

[w3ath3r-0f-sw34t3rz]

Please, I beg of you, give me tdp edit ideas/songs with scenes that can easily be found on YouTube my little sister can't keep making edits of the same five scenepacks with the same three Conan Gray/Olivia Rodrigo songs

HELL YEAH I DO the way i already have a whole ass list for this bc i made a capcut acc a while ago and was gonna start and then left it like an absent father anyway

the 4x03 rayllum angst to you get me so high by the neighborhood

a s3 rayllum smthsmth to talk too much by coin ;);););)

a tragic callum + claudia number to 16 mirrors by alex g (showing how they're both kinda being ruined by aaravos

"you're in the wind, i'm in the water // nobody's son, nobody's daughter" >:) (chemtrails over the country club by lana del rey. you know what to do)

aaravos to limbo by freddie dredd

claudia to r u looking 4 me now by jazmin bean. or favorite toy by jazmin bean. or carnage by jazmin bean. what can i say she's emo

ceilings by lizzie mcalpine (can u tell i like that song). it's all sweet rayllum until "but it's not real" and then it gets emo :)

ik you said minimal conan gray but soren to family line

claudia to bsc by maizie peters

s4 angsting callum to never met by cmten

alternatively: s4 angsting callum to all girls all the same by juice wrld

possessed callum to cradles by sub urban

this is not very helpful in respect to easy-to-find clips but. i am not very helpful

[goodstuffexe]

I gotta gather my thoughts after the first watch of season 4 omg !!SPOILERS!!

First and foremost I don't think this season was bad at all but I do think that it indeed could be better and doesn't quite hold up with seasons 1-3. I recently rewatched (and with recently I mean the days before thursday) the previous seasons and oh my I really forgot how much I loved them and OH how good the pacing was in season 1 and 2 especially.

For example I got the feeling that 4x01 to 4x03 kinda dragged on and made the impression they want to delay the main plot for as long as possible. (What could be explained by the fact that they have 3 whole seasons to fill still) While the first 3 1/2 episodes of season 1 play out during one whole day and you don't even notice it. Kinda a bad example tho since it is the beginning of the series soo another good example would be the first two episodes of season 2 which handled continuity of the plot and problems our babies still needed to solve on the way SO good while also staying at the Moon Nexus and goofin' around for almost 2 whole episodes.

Buuut I'm definitely gonna rewatch this season because I binged it on thursday quite harshly and that's usually a bad idea and not the way I like to watch my shows lol. I just missed them soo much o.O

Okay now with that out of the way..

OH MY GOD RAYLA, my poor children.. So much sadness :( Okay I understand that Callum and Rayla indeed had no time to talk and A he didn't want to (which is legit and def understandable) and B they had more important things to talk about but I'm SO dissapointed that not one of them asked what Rayla did in this 2 years?!? Like huh?! Not even Ezran. I'm so baffled about this it blows my mind. Did she went to see Ethari at some point? (I don't think so because she said when she gave her blades to Rex that she thinks she's not going to see Runaan or Ethari ever again soo) Did she travel the whole of Xadia all on her own until she found Stella and just came to the realization that she wants to go back and stop her search out of the blue?? What the fuck happend in two years that's a damn long time gurl

I LOVED Ezrans speech and the song played by Corvus. So powerful while Claudia and Ibis fight to the death omg very epic

Aaravos straight up possesing Callum through the heckin mirror OMG and the dragons needing to beat him at his own game because he's too strong and they couldn't risk a direct confrontation aah

Makes me wonder if he is going to be a flat evil villain like the Fire lord 🥴 now that Viren has half a redemption arc lmao

OH Viren omg that realization about how he wants to spend his remaining 30 days with what he has left aka Claudia was so natural in my opinion after seeing him having a full on panic attack and being afraid of heights after falling to his death. It was out of character buut still kindaaaa maybeee felt more believable than Callum and Raylas meeting uhmm

I said it it was realllyy awkward and not the 'normal' kind of awkward it just wasn't very... it was not the way I expected them to react I'm surprised Callum actually kept his shit quite good together and Raylas lacking apology and her reaction also felt rly out of place. Tho I think she will find some words, some better words than just sorry, next season. And I hope we will hear from her what she did and where she went and she hopefully reflects on what she did and why she went away and how she hurt Callums feelings badly and aaaAAAAAH

Terry is a pure baby

He's also quite sus

Did you hear how he called Viren legendary!? What the heck is wrong with this boys morals? Calling someone who brought down the capitol of the sunfire elves, killed their queen and almost raged a huge war on all of Xadia legendary? I love how he talks with Viren about his childhood and I rly like how Viren himself starts to listen to him more seriously but I'm concerned about this little elf :(

Did you notice that the human girl who revealed Aaravos' treason has only one arm? Quite the detail but I thought it was nice tdp goes every extra mile for representation

I LOVED the conflict in Lux Aurea between Janai and her brother. Best subplot this season. How they talked about their people worrying and then they showed us an actual conflict and the consequences it brings and how Janai deals with it in her own and a modern way. I love that they take their time and give reasons behind the actions of the characters and how they continue to make the world feel more alive by showing us how humans and elves manage to get along with each other. Janai's brother (sry forgot his name) portrays that typical traditional worldview and I love how it stands in contrast with Janai who takes on being queen, a role which she didn't even want to have, with a fresh and open mindset influenced by the humans they now live with. Hehe influenced by Amaya hehe *blushes*

I also love the symbolism of the sun seed as a new start a beginning of an era in unity *cries*

The only problem I have with this is, that no matter what, if Janai's brother would have won the duel between him and his sister, he also couldn't bring back their old capital city, which he used as a reason at some point. And if he could he would have tried surely by now? Or is that just me?

Seeing the gap widen between Soren and Claudia BrEAks mY HeArT but it also feels very believable the way they interacted when Soren found and briefly captured her. Claudias villain arc is certainly undeniable and it makes me sad :(

OH AND SOREN!! Ah the best boi (ofc next to Callum my dork and Ezran being the most reasonable -now SO grown up O.O- best boi heh) he really shines this season in my opinion with some nice jokes as always but also with being a great friend and protector of the king. I love how he tells Rayla how Callum felt when she left him. He has indeed made the jump from "only" being the funny and strong goofball with the evil dad to the lovable and just friend who does everything in his way to protect and help the people he loves and it makes me SO happy omg.

Someone thought the others don't appreciate him enough for what he does and I gotta agree a bit. The look on his face when Zubeia appreciated his moves aah he was so proud x). But they were very worried about him when they found his armor, so yeah I guess more interactions with the boys pls \ o.o /

Sooo these are *most* of my thoughts I think for now. Correct me if I got something wrong- it was a wild watching session. Ofc I'm very much loving Rayllum smiling at and hugging each other after 2 years being apart :') and I'm very excited which direction the story will take. I'm now gonna rewatch the season and go cry some more about it yaay

I HOPE THEY DON'T TAKE 3 YEARS TILL THE NEXT SEASON AGAIN

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Ezran's hug is likely the first physical contact in 2 years for Rayla 🥺

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Please tell me Harrow's statue in the valley of graves is facing Sarai's 😍

[lunanightriderofthecove]

I can't be the only one who genuinely thinks that Soren's jokes during his comedy routine are actually funny, right? 😆

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Callum's "maybe" after Rayla's "I know my leaving hurt you" always makes me take a deep breath. Jack's voice work in that one word is phenomenal 🥺

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Seriously though, who would destroy the painting? 🤔

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Why does Rayla look so amazing in her new outfit and hairdo? 😍

[lunanightriderofthecove]

I love the detail of the cover of Callum's book, that's been shredded by Kasef in 3x09, being stitched together instead of replaced.

[lunanightriderofthecove]

Oh, look, it's Mufasa's ghos- no, wait. It's Ibis' 🤣