#with viren I don't remember ANYTHING from the previous seasons but I remember that I always hated him

[lorethebookworm]

If I had a penny for every time a villain ,who is a terrible and abusive father to his blonde son and is also an awful person who did the worst things "for family", had some kind of redemption towards the end of the fifth season of their show I'd have two pennies , which isn't much but it's weird that it happened twice

[raayllum]

also cause I'm not there yet in my 5x08 liveblog but because even just a whiff of "Callum gave Finnegrin the spell" made the fandom troll come running into my inbox to say otherwise, just wanna clear up a few things for peace of mind before we get there

The first is that I know it was the fandom troll because of the timing & presentation, not necessarily because the now deleted/blocked ask had the "Callum purposefully gave Finnegrin the wrong spell" take. While that was an indication to me that this was probably the fandom troll since they seem to take issue with my characterization of Callum in particular, perfectly smart reasonable people have also proposed that possibility of the spell ingredients being not entirely accurate as purposeful; it's not exclusive to crappy people by any measure.

With all that in mind, I want to discuss how I view the scene (and indeed how I think it's meant to be interpreted per a casual viewer reading) as well as why I think Callum giving Finnegrin a not word-for-word accurate actually kind of makes his choice more morally questionable, not less

So let's begin

1) I don't think the scene's intended takeaway is that Callum gave Finnegrin the wrong spell

I think Callum panicked, and he folded, and he would've told Finnegrin anything the pirate had asked for in that moment to try and spare Rayla's life. While TDP is an immensely detailed show in many ways (hell I have a tag dedicated to just those details), every scene still has to ultimately work for a casual viewer. I don't think this scene is any exception. One of the first things in the series that we learn is that humans took down the King of the Dragons with dark magic and it's a repeated fact throughout most of the first season, and into the third when we see the events that transpired exactly.

So when Finnegrin mentions it, we're probably going to remember that was a thing that happened and it involved Harrow and Viren, but we're probably not going to remember the specific ingredients. Therefore, like Finnegrin, most audience members are going to take Callum at his word, especially since throughout most of his conversation with Finnegrin, Callum is arguably far more honest than he needs to be (fessing up that he did dark magic at all, mentioning that he studies all the primals, that he did the spell to save a friend at all - which is exactly why Finnegrin sets him the hand cutting test to try and break him, etc). The scene - again, for the audience's benefit - even as Callum clarify for those that wouldn't remember why he was spouting things about dying breaths and unicorn horns, because again, I do think this is the Intended Takeaway:

Part of the reason I think Callum panicked (other than Jack de Sena's wonderful voice acting and uneven breaths) is because, if Callum was thinking clearly enough to withhold information purposefully, he could've considered 1) that Finnegrin is bluffing about threatening Rayla (Callum cannot see her or any of the others, so that could be the case) and 2) Finnegrin would have limited means to know that Callum was lying if Callum said exclusively the wrong ingredients and sent him on a wild goose chase. To give as much as he did accurately was dangerous (but we'll talk more about that in a second).

We also know from instances in the previous seasons and just the prior episode that Callum doesn't have all sky spells (ones that he can do whenever he wants basically) memorized either, and that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Viren would've fudged a little to Harrow about some components of the spell (such as emphasizing love and hatred) because he was actively trying to convince - somewhat guilt-trip and manipulate - Harrow into doing something didn't really want to do, but ultimately couldn't say no to.

However, one of the things that's the most fun meta is reading into things deeply, looking at various character interpretations, and seeing what we can find below the surface level / casual viewership read. Just because something may not be the 'intended takeaway' (which can already be hard to define) doesn't mean it's not a real possibility, especially if enough dots connect, and doesn't mean it's not worthwhile and or without merit.

So let's look at the scene from the assumption that Callum is giving Finnegrin a not totally accurate spell On Purpose - what does he omit, what does that tell us, and where does that leave us from a character standpoint?

2) Haha, jk, unless...?

First things first, let's look at what Callum says vs what Viren says

No, no, wait! A dying breath. Blood filled with hatred. And a unicorn horn. That's the dark magic you want.

In her final moments, I captured something that I hoped we could use later. It contains her dying breath. [...] Claudia captured a unicorn and brought me its horn. The dying breath. The unicorn's pure horn. There's one last component I need. The undying hatred of one who loved the victim. Your blood.

Now, even Viren's stance and the circumstances of the spell isn't entirely clear. We don't know if any dying breath would do, or if it had to be Sarai's (and had to go her killer, as opposed to someone else). We don't know if the spell requires the unicorn's horn to be 'pure' (I'm assuming not already corrupted somehow with dark magic) or if it would work regardless. And we don't know whether the hatred or love is more important, or just one, or if they're equally important. It's quite a list, after all.

Which is why I think in some ways Callum's lack of specificity actually makes what Callum told Finnegrin more dangerous, whether you read the minor omissions as intentional or not.

Cause think of it this way, you're a pirate lord and you want to kill your enemy. You heard from this mage kid that any dying breath would do. What's your next move going to be? You're probably going to murder a random member of your crew and collect the breath because you were never told it had to be your loved one's final breath (which would make the spell impossible).

So that's one murder down, bare minimum. Then you're going to either send people out or word that you're looking for a unicorn horn at a port where people already canonically smuggle dark magic supplies (Chasing Shadows, TDP reflection). This will either lead to you hiring people to eliminate one of the - it appears to be - few remaining unicorns that still exist to bring you the horn, or if you've put out a reward, multiple dark mages / mercenaries may try their hand at killing one and bringing the horn to you. That's probably 1-5 unicorn murders as a result, if the mages are working not in communication with each other and all vying for the reward. This is also assuming that none of the mercenaries or mages come back empty handed and get harmed or killed because of Finnegrin's anger at their failures.

You also might torment and torture someone else to get them to hate you before you drain them of blood / take their blood for the spell, again not realizing that 'love' has to be a facet of it. At best, that would maybe be what you do to the crew member before you kill them for their final breath.

Then, once he has all the ingredients (and he'd need some sort of incantation, because dark magic is a lot of steps and processes) there's two main avenues.

Either these all work and he successfully has his weapon of vengeance needed to kill Domina Profundis, because what was given was enough. This would mean Callum's actions led to about 2-3 successful murders of mostly innocent people and possibly more political upheaval at the death of another archdragon (the ocean would certainly be out of whack, but it's not clear how much, if any, political power Domina still holds).

It doesn't work and Finnegrin, stubborn as he is about control and loathe to admit he can't commandeer something (magic and wills included), figures that something went wrong and tries again, having to collect the ingredients all over again. Depending on how many times he'd try (I feel like maybe 2-3 max), this could put those murders up to maybe nine innocent individuals, assuming Finnegrin's worsening temper over his failures doesn't increase the tally.

Rattling off the accurate spell ingredients could've actually minimized the damage, because any of the specifics might've stopped Finnegrin in his tracks. If Finnegrin just needed hatred of one who loved the victim, he could've fulfilled that on his own with some of his own blood ("I loved that crab" and her definitely hates Domina Profundis). The one that could've entirely halted his plan is if the dying breath had to come from the victim, in which case the chance to avenge his beloved crab is long gone. Finnegrin could've heard the list of very specific ingredients, deduced that he would not be capable of carrying out the spell, and been on his merry way to use Rayla as revenge fish bait.

But by giving Finnegrin an 'imperfect' list, Callum made the pirate captain more likely to engage in the violence required to get there, without an actual textual guarantee to the audience that what was given wouldn't have worked, either (aka we have two ingredients list and without a third to tip the scales, it'll always be a technical 50-50, maybe 60-40 read in favour of Viren).

So where does that leave us?

With these two readings in mind, you have two options:

Callum is willing to sacrifice Domina Profundis', and a few unnamed innocent lives/creatures, to save Rayla and thereby gave Finnegrin a dangerous in its own way, if not more dangerous because of potential increased collateral damage, list of spell ingredients, because he acted entirely out of emotionally fuelled panic where he wasn't totally thinking clearly

OR

Callum is willing to sacrifice unnamed innocent lives and creatures, but not Domina Profundis', in order save Rayla, because he decided on purpose to give Finnegrin a more achievable sounding list of ingredients that would increase collateral damage, but not let him kill the dragon, because he made a calculated decision on purpose that those lives were worth less than Rayla's and Domina's to him (for some reason, as she's a stranger to him)

To be clear, I would love the second option as an interpretation because I do think Callum can be calculating and I do think that's the far more Viren-like option - choosing what to sacrifice for other people in the mindset of harm mitigation ("A thousand men and women are prepared to fall protecting you tonight, but you won't let one sacrifice their lives for you?" / "If you must choose, choose the egg").

But again, given the framing of the scene I think the first reading is 1) more sympathetic and speaks to Callum's more compassionate emotional nature and 2) is the intended takeaway, but if people want to read it as Callum strategically deciding that certain lives - other than Rayla's - were worth sacrificing that so she and Domina Profundis wouldn't be killed, that is absolutely a valid prerogative.

It's just not mine

[colonelpancakes]

I am, at long last, getting around to watching the new season of The Dragon Prince so. Have some of my thoughts on the new episodes. Uh I guess this is kind of a liveblog thing? Idk, I wrote these down while I was watching the episode. Under the cut because this ended up getting quite long. Image IDs are in the alts. I'm new to this be nice to me-

Okay, is it just me or does this startouch elf look kinda like Sarai? I swear she does, she has like the same face shape. I don't know, maybe it's just me and my god awful facial recognition but... 👀

Also, "We are, all of us, stardust held together by love for an instant." is such a beautiful quote. It reminds me of the Minecraft End Poem.

Ooh, I love the twist on the previous Mystery of Aaravos intro. I wonder if this is gonna be the intro for the whole season or if it'll switch to something else after this episode?

Poor Terry he does not deserve to be dealing with all this shit. He's such a sweetheart. A little bit of a fucked up sweetheart but a sweetheart nonetheless.

Oh so Viren’s not dead. Huh. I need to rewatch the S5 finale because I’m gonna be honest, I do Not remember exactly what happened. Viren was going to die if he didn’t kill Sir Sparklepuff? I think? Or maybe that was just what they thought was gonna happen and there was a chance it wouldn’t? I don’t remember. Anyways, congrats Viren on your new will to live.

Claudia. Claudia what did you do Claudia?

Claudia, why is the sand covered in blood?

CLAUDIA!

Oh poor Terry... You can see the moment he spots the severed wing.

Hey, quick question, WHY IS THIS SHOW STILL RATED Y7? This would have fucking traumatized me as a seven year old! I thought there was a limit on how much blood you can show on a Y7 show, HELLO?? OUGH.

“It’s like you said. You do anything for family. However dangerous, however vile.” “No. No that’s… that’s not quite right. It’s never what I meant. You do anything for your children. Never the other way around. No parent wants their child to suffer for them.” Ough… Oh that hurts. Ohhhh. Also, “no that’s not quite right” is the same thing he says to her in the first episode when she says something weird. Callbacks to simpler times ow that hurts.

OH YEAH. JUST RIP MY HEART OUT WHY DON'T YOU? Augh.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST GIVE CLAUDIA’S VA AN AWARD. NOW. That is hands down actually the most like. Realistic depiction of someone crying in any media I have ever encountered. The way she sounds like a child having a breakdown? She’s not crying quietly, she’s screaming and sobbing oh my god. I literally started tearing up watching as like a sympathetic response good grief. Who is Claudia’s voice actress? I looked it up and apparently it’s Racquel Belmonte. Give her like fifty awards right now

Viren. Viren listen. I appreciate that you are attempting to heal and face justice and become a better person separated from dark magic. I really do appreciate it. Good for you. HOWEVER. Perhaps, just maybe, abandoning your daughter, who has become an amputee less than a day ago, in the wilderness with no one but her boyfriend after she just completed a very traumatizing ritual AND knowing that she has severe abandonment issues after her mother and brother both left her. Is not the best move? Like. That girl is not mentally stable she needs support. She does not need her dad abandoning her on a beach, covered in blood and missing a leg as she screams and cries for him not to leave her. Viren, just caring about your daughter does not automatically make you a good dad. Viren. Viren you have to actually stay and support your child and NOT LEAVE HER IN THE FUCKING WILDERNESS. I do, though appreciate how they are creating a character who does CARE about his children so so much. And is still an absolutely god awful father to both of them.

Awww the baitlings are so cute 🥹

Pondering the Orb 🧙‍♂️

Callum… Callum you good? I am getting a very bad feeling about Callum being so adamant about destroying it. I feel like that is absolutely how Aaravos gets released and maybe he’s controlling Callum? This all feels like a bad idea. Also, I will admit the Lord of The Rings joke made me giggle.

Exactly what I was saying, Rayla! Destroying the pearl sounds like a terrible idea.

Ohhh… Poor Zym… He misses his mama. Also, I can’t remember if this was in previous seasons, but I appreciate the stitching in the painting where it was mended after being ripped apart. Such a good detail.

Hey Callum, why are you glowing with star magic? Is it because Aaravos is possessing y- oh nevermind it’s the monkey.

Mmmm the difference between Rayla and Callum. Rayla will put the safety of the world over her loved ones. Callum will put his loved ones over the safety of the world. Rayla refuses doing something that could potentially endanger the world even if it would mean getting her parents back.

Oh, so it’s not Aaravos influencing Callum it’s just Callum being anxious. Also, give Callum’s voice actor an award he's nailed the tone of "so filled with anxious energy you can't stop you have to do something, it's like you're driven by a motor." and that is a very specific tone.

[More in reblogs because I ran out of room.]

[lady-gravity-129]

Various TDP Season 6 thoughts under the cut/things I believe will come back in Season 7

Be careful it's kinda a long one

First things first. RAYLLUM! WHEN I TELL YOU THAT I WAS DEFINITELY SHEDDING A FEW TEARS DURING EPISODES 3 AND 6. Like, I'm not too interested in ships and romance but Rayllum has me in a death grip I swear.

I just want to point out that a couple writers have stated that they know whether Rayla is able to kill Callum if the time comes. I would also like to note that there was not a moment where she had to consider that this season. She just said she would when he asked her in episode 3. Now that they're back together...something tells me she won't be able to do it. Either that or we're in for a very gut wrenching scene in season 7.

Speaking of that, I think Kosmo said to Callum that if he performs dark magic again, it'll definitely consume/corrupt him. Don't remember the exact sentence but I've seen people talking about it so I know I didn't make it up. Anyways, I genuinely feel like they wouldn't bring that up unless it's going to have some sort of payoff in season 7 (which I'm 90% sure is titled after dark magic? correct me if I'm wrong) coupled with the previous paragraph here. Oh god if we thought season 6 was gonna put these two through the wringer we haven't seen *anything* yet

Alright enough about Rayllum (even though I love it)

Kinda disappointed that the Janaya wedding happened at a point in the story where everyone in the cast conveniently wasn't all together to celebrate the occasion. But still, an LGBT wedding in a show rated TV-Y7 is absolutely HUGE in my opinion. Not really sure what other words I can say, it was great.

Next is how they handled Viren. Honestly, I'm kinda ok with it. I said on Twitter that a redemption arc could work with him if written correctly. How he was written was...well enough. While he didn't directly apologize to really anyone (aside from Claudia I think and then Soren on paper that he burned. I've watched this season twice now but I'm running on an hour of sleep so forgive me for not remembering everything lol), he still acknowledged that he doesn't even deserve to be forgiven and understands that everything he's done was nothing short of awful.

Holy fudge this season really convinced me how great of a character Claudia is. She's such a tragic character who's experienced loss and trauma and just needs the chance to acknowledge everything she's been through and properly heal from it. However, one thing I've noticed is that whenever Viren dies, Aaravos is right there guiding her away from the path of healing from her trauma. First is after Season 3 when he tells her there's a way to bring Viren back. Then, presumably I think, in between season 5 and 6 when he somehow tells her how to complete the resurrection spell. THEN there's the end of season 6 where she's realizing that her father is gone for good and what does he do?? He basically goes "lol yeah here's my backstory so you'll want to free me even more oh whats this i can even give you the spell needed to free me". Y'all someone please get her away from Aaravos so she can process everything.

OH YEAH! Fun fact, I'm pretty sure Rayla and Callum left the Starscraper thinking/assuming that the Pearl was safe with the Celestial Elves. They're gonna see giant Aaravos in Season 7 and just have fifty panic attacks at once.

Gonna edit this with more stuff later.

[raayllum]

8 & 19

send me a 🔥 choose violence ask 🔥

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

Again thankfully nothing super common - but immediate reaction post-S4 with "Rayla is pretending like nothing is wrong" floored me because girl was basically falling apart at the seams if you pay attention to her expressions and contrasts with her previous seasons.

Being so unsure if Callum even wants her around she's prepared to stay behind from a world saving mission? Clasping her wrist multiple times? The sadness on her face and way she's chasing him for a change? Her surprise every time he appears to or actually says/does something nice for her? Rayla commonly relying on wit and deflection when the other person is playing things straight bc she doesn't know how to handle things? ("You're better than this" "Nope, not really, you've had about 20 years more training" / "You're just trying to stall me" "Interesting theory, care to discuss?" / "That's horrible" "Funny, though?" / "You're even looking cheery! And is that a twinkle in your eye?") + the fact she canonically says she's not good at explaining things. Let her be a shut off mess who's not gonna dump all her feelings on her estranged boyfriend when she knows it's her fault they're estranged in the first place ("We had something so special... I risked losing the best thing I ever had: you").

Esp when Bloodmoon Huntress hammered home like 5 months pre-S4 that Rayla is exceedingly good at not crying & keeping her shit together until she's Losing It and/or Exhausted

19. you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...

I don't have really any shame about anything that I like because life is too short, and I'm fully on board & excited for canon Sorvus in future seasons - but I still do like aged up Ellis x Soren once they're in their 20s and aged up Soren and Opeli once he's in his 30s. I think Ellis would balance him out personality wise, both have big compassionate hearts, & they'd have a ton of fun together. I also always love younger men pursuing older women, I think, because society stigmatizes 'aging' for women as being something undesirable (which is just so dumb) and Opeli is pretty AF and it'd make Viren roll over in his grave. I can't remember if I've ever mentioned either ship before though, so there ya go!  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[raayllum]

For some S4 positivity:

I am loving the different outlooks on Aaravos we are getting! I know people were/are ranting about how Zubeia did an exposition dump on Aaravos’s backstory. But we have to remember: a) the entire arc of s4-s6 is called the mystery of aaravos, not the season. and b) she’s a bias party who does not have all the information (and at one point, she did like him too. since he was “respected and loved by all” she’s not excluding herself from this, notably). in contrast with claudia’s words to soren during their conversation, it’s so *chef’s kiss.*

it honestly makes me excited to see what other views we’ll get on aaravos, and his true motives.

I also really enjoyed terry’s coming out to viren, viren’s panic attacks and how they were handled, claudia being a badass and no longer passive, and all of soren’s scenes. aaravos’s single scene in episode 4 was also 👌🏻 delicious. the new intro is also fun to listen & watch to! i love going back just to analyze it.

i’m sure i have more to say, but this is what i can think of off the top my head!

Right, like S4 pushes what we already knew (there was a mutual history of some kind between the Draconic Royal family and Aaravos) and then just amplifies it

Then we S4 we get hints at both of their perspectives on how they felt about each other personally

Like all we learned was that

Aaravos may have been involved in getting rid of the previous dragon monarch, Luna Tenebris. This is not confirmed.

Aaravos was likely involved in getting rid of Queen Aditti but we already knew that thanks to be the audience in 3x07

Aaravos has done what he did to Viren (and is doing to Claudia) many times across history. This doesn't tell us much of anything new, merely that his current machinations aren't anything new, either.

The Orphan Queen exposed his treachery in some way, according to Zubeia. The Key of Aaravos was symbolically or literally involved in doing so

Claudia confirms that Aaravos did, or at least tells humans that he did, give him magic through dark magic. This was implied all the way back in 3x01. Now it's confirmed

And... that's it. We still don't know exactly how the prison was constructed, or what crimes he was precisely imprisoned for, or what exactly he wants besides Zubeia and Soren's best guesses that are vague, but communicate intense destruction and upheaval. There's still plenty of mystery, but given that 1) this information had to be communicated orally to some degree (as Aaravos' name disappears when you read it) and 2) Zubeia has been alive for 300+ years to know what happened, even if her mate wasn't involved, I'd take this any day over only hearing from Aaravos himself, because that's about as untrustworthy as they come

It makes me think about how we hear about the death of the Dragon King and Zym over and over again. In 1x02, Rayla claims that humans attacked them unprovoked and Callum doesn't dispute it, even if we only learn in 2x05-2x06 this isn't true at all, thanks to his mother's dead at Thunder's hands. We're led to believe in the 1x01 intro that something rivalling an army took Avizandum down, and then learn in 3x06 that it was literally just Viren and King Harrow with two big dark magic spells that are extremely rare and powerful to manifest. We learn about Rayla's parents fleeing in 1x05 and only get the truth of how that encounter (and how indeed how Viren played into it, after it was hinted in 1x08) played out in 3x08. The show loooves to recontextualize and build to / add to things and perspectives over time. At this point I don't think they have to spell it out