#tdp mirror

[raayllum]

Love you primal stone foreshadowing love you So Much

[aaravos-the-bug]

rewatching the final episode of season 5 in preparation for season 6 …

and honestly ill never get over the shock of the confirmation of the viravos child.

if there was one thing that caught me off guard it was that:

“But I don’t have another child” “But you do!” “Who??” “Our child!” is absolutely insane

it feels like i’m watching one of those shows where a guy doesn’t know who the father is of the baby is and then he gets the news and is like completely shocked

i can’t lie that it still makes me laugh

[sagegreenfrogs]

my mother (sobbing after watching 6x01 of tdp): "and claudia- she doesn't even deserve him! terry is too sweet for her and she just left him!"

[parroset]

Reflections, reflections, reflections -- and Startouch elves

One of the more prevalent motifs in The Dragon Prince is the reflection motif. You can see many, many examples of it in the show, including Aaravos's mirror, multiple characters looking at standing water, and the short story series, which is literally called "Reflections."

Reflections are great because they force characters to confront themselves, both in appearance and in emotion (they can "reflect" on their own actions and thoughts). TDP tends to put these two ideas together, and many of the appearances of the reflection motif have characters reflecting on their emotions or decisions.

Now, how does this connect to startouch elves? Aside from the mirror itself, which obviously connects to Aaravos, the dragon scale necklace that Aaron Ehasz confirmed to be related to Laurelion has a super reflective surface.

The way that Claudia's reflection appears in this picture also reminds me a little of this scene:

I think she has a similar confused face and is puzzling out the source of the reflective object, but there may be more to it than that.

Another thing about the reflection motif is that many of these reflections are shattered/ruined by Aaravos. Aaravos shatters his mirror in season 4:

This connects back to a line from Patience:

The fact that the exact word "shattered" is used here is probably not a coincidence; he is trying to do to the other startouch elves what he did to the mirror. It's a violent way to break things, leaving jagged edges that can hurt others. Shattering something is usually sudden, and implies that the thing being shattered is delicate. There is a connection there between the mirror and "everything [the startouch elves] have built."

Aaravos has a pattern of ruining reflections. From his first appearance in the show, he "ruined" Viren's reflection by appearing in the mirror, and as discussed above, he later broke the mirror. He also has the following line in Ripples:

He is specifically talking about ruining the "perfect reflections" of the startouch elves, and at the end of the story, he is the one who touches the surface of the water and watches the ripples spread, and thereby continues to ruin the startouch reflections.

I'm curious to see what the connection is between Aaravos, Laurelion, and the necklace, and if any of the reflection imagery ends up being important in this.

[its-leethee]

Reflecting on a Dark Path

[self-spaghettification]

going insane about how it’s only red after him

[bat-snake]

I keep thinking about The Collector’s parallels with Aaravos and realized they also line up with Leola. So I think they’d be friends.

"His powers are chaotic and need reigning in, but Leola will burn him out."

[hercynianforest]

Viren pushed Soren away and treated him like trash, and Soren was able to see his father for what he was and free himself of him, going down the road of love (self-love and giving love to/receiving love from others).

Claudia, on the other hand, was Viren's golden child, he taught her dark magic, she followed in his footsteps and was able to become as callous and ruthless as him with the "Do whatever needs to be done to get what you want"-approach. She's unable to see him as bad and detach from him, because she has become him. She's going down the road of destruction (destruction of others and self-destruction).

[m4rs-ex3]

do not try to tell me that rayla wasn't depressed.

i mean she already had enough shit going on. she was a classic wow-youre-so-mature-thanks-its-the-trauma child, she has daddy, mommy, daddy, and more daddy issues, she went through the whole ghosting thing, and she's fucking rayla she's her own worst enemy she's the poster child for mental illness

if rayla wasn't stupidly determined (as she tends to be) she would not have lasted. like this girl should NOT be left alone with herself she's ruthless. she was alone (although stella put in a good effort) for two years, haunted by (and making 0 attempt to shed bc she thinks she deserves it) the worst thing she's ever done

i do not like how chipper she was when she came back. well i kinda like it but i mean--i know from several instances of experience that that is a bad sign

[gjsxj0]

mindless rambling in tags don't mind me

[raayllum]

The way Callum's going to have this breakdown times like a 100 when he gets to Katolis and finds out not only is the real pearl there, but Aaravos is out. Amid his understandable upset (Jack de Sena wants to kill me personally) we see that not knowing he messed up, not being able to make his own choices, makes him feel even worse than if it had just been a true choice or genuine accident.

[need2thneeds]

"Does everything go away? Yeah, everything goes away. But I'm going to be here till forever So just call when you're around."

("Always Gold" by Radical Face)

[themistdragon]

*smooch*

[herwrittenuniverse]

So I'm rereading Patience and Ripples and I noticed something...

The photo of Aaravos in the rain clearly shows him crying.

You can see the streak of water start right about where his eye is, right down his cheek. This had me thinking, isn't this moment quiet similar to this one...?

And in this, Aaravos is looking at a reflecting of himself. Not only do we see a mirror/reflection motif (in both the shows and the stories), it also sheds some light on our Startouch Elf's situation...

He references a fallen star in Ripples. Pretty sure that he and it are one in the same.

He also keeps references how the other Startouch Elves are arrogant, too caught up in themselves and their own greatness to notice how small actions (ie, humans - particularly, how the wise human touches the water and literally causes it to ripple or 'distort their reflection') can have huge consequences.

Aaravos does not like his Startouch Brethren. He does not speak highly of them in either stories.

On the contrary, while he acknowledges that humans have weaknesses (and talks down upon them tbh), he also credits them for teaching him two valuable lessons - patience and consequences (ie, 'ripples').

I would say the first image - the one of Aaravos crying in the rain - is a teaser and a throwback to whatever conversation he is having with The Merciful One - who, as I have already posted, is probably not that merciful. And you know the creators have all this planned out already and love to drop little hints without us even knowing what's happening.

This is all really fascinating food for thought as we head into S6. I already mentioned that Aaravos is going to be regarded in a sympathetic light. My bets are that he was cast away by his own people (perhaps over someone he loved, as he references love in the S6 teaser - yes plz) and has something to prove to the other Startouch Elves who outcasted him - be it revenge or something similar, who knows.

Damn. I do love this show.

[its-leethee]

Do you think that the unicorns are secretly alive? because soren mentioned his horse finding a unicorn

I do

nice-horse is my OTP

[aaravos-the-bug]

okay guys !

i’ve been thinking for like two days now because yes that’s how long it took me to process everything

but virens whole…situation.

i have some thoughts that are on one hand random but there might be something useful in here:

- so claudia brought him back to life with a 30 day resurrection spell, but it OBVIOUSLY kept going (technically a homicide but). anyway, i don’t think we know exactly how long it had been since sol regem set the entire place ablaze, but the smoke was still rising with remains of fire around so it couldn’t have been long

- we see viren is not dead after a night when he sleeps and then actually wakes up (even though it was the spell) so how do we know that he’s actually dead this time?? could it be a mortal wound killing him? it hasn’t been long enough to tell. i sort of also love the theory that he just…can’t die (it would make for a great soul wrenching arc) but i hate that we just…don’t know.

- aaravos said that if viren joined him he would make his resurrection spell PERMANENT and they would take over together. startouch elves are literally just. stars. so can’t kill them (well..). now it’s really just a matter of immortality versus invulnerability, aka viren and aaravos (maybe)

- does that mean that somewhere along the path he would have killed off viren? probably. but it’s funnier to think that he would’ve kept him around as a pet. and if the spell was permanent and keeps him alive, it doesn’t offer invulnerability (or maybe it does, he did stop breathing for a considerable amount of time with claudia’s)

so im sort of loving the mystery behind this and now im going to have to sit and go insane thinking of more thanks for coming to my ted talk