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cosmicjoke · 1 year

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You know, it always stayed with me, when I first read “The Vampire Lestat”, the end, when Lestat reveals what happened to him in Paris with Armand, and reading it once again, I’m reminded of why it never left me. It’s maybe the most heartbreaking thing in the whole book, and that’s saying a lot, considering all the tragedies of Lestat’s life up to that point. Armand’s cruelty to Lestat here is breathtaking, the way he manipulates him, and then imprisons and starves him in order to place him in a desperate enough state to give testimony against Claudia and Louis, when already Lestat was in such horrifyingly dire straits. Making it all the more heartbreaking is the way Lestat holds no ill will or grudge towards either Claudia or Louis for what was done, how he even feels he deserved what they did to him, and the way he had no intention of revenge, or even knowledge of their presence in Paris, but how Armand uses him to exact his own revenge for Lestat’s rejection, a thing Lestat never even conceived, and a thing even if he had understood, he couldn’t have given to Armand anyway. It’s just so awful, and sad beyond words, the final blow being when Armand pushes Lestat from the roof of the tower. God, it’s brutal.

And the sadness of it is really driven home all the more when so many years later, Armand finds Lestat again, and Lestat is rotting away, cut off so completely from life and the world and humanity, with no real will to live, and we see the tragedy doubled in Armand’s own loneliness and despair, the way he’s wrought his own ruin too, deserted by Louis, his duplicity and manipulation and assault of before rendering any kind of genuine reconciliation with Lestat impossible. The way he tries one last time to win Lestat’s love and companionship, only he uses the same methods of deceit as always, conjuring illusions to win the love he craves. And it’s far too late, too much bad history between them, too many mistakes made, and Lestat is too far gone at that point for it to have ever worked.

I think what really drives these scenes home in their tragedy too is the kind of juxtaposition of Lestat and Armand, the way their roles have in a way reversed, with Armand decked out in the modern finery of the 20th century, moving among the modern world, while Lestat lies in ruin beneath the foundations of a rotted out relic of a house from the 18th century, clothed in rags and lost in despair and physical degradation. But both of them are totally alone still, cut off and outcast in their own ways. Armand’s strange obsession with Lestat, continuing to hang about near to him, and Lestat’s consuming despair at last driving him under the earth. It’s just such a powerful and poignant and heartbreaking study of loss and aloneness and what it means to be truly outcast. I felt so deeply for both of them while reading this, even with the horror I felt at Armand’s cruelty.

I think the paragraph that got me the hardest was this:

“The earth was holding me. Living things slithered through its thick and moist clods against my dried flesh. And I thought if I ever do rise again, if I ever see even one small patch of the night sky full of stars, I will never never do terrible things. I will never slay innocents. Even when I hunted the weak, it was the hopeless and the dying I took, I swear it was. I will never never work the Dark Trick again. I will just... you know, be the “continual awareness” for no purpose, no purpose at all.”

It speaks so hauntingly and with such sadness to Lestat’s true tragedy. That he feels so lost in the world as this being with no purpose, no use, no point.

His one and only consolation in life was this idea that he could give his life meaning through doing good in the world, and he’s left now an immortal who can give his eternal life no meaning at all.

Ah, I weep.

How can one not feel for Lestat? How can one ever accuse him of being a shallow or frivolous person? I’ll never know. He’s anything but.

#Lestat De Lioncourt #The Vampire Lestat #armand

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breadsandwiches · 1 year

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Wanted to share my tdp playlists bc i honestly like how they turned out! 💃

Some of these were recommended by dragonprinceofficial! (a, c, v, s)

(Very in depth and thought provoking comments about my fave songs under the cut >>>)

AARAVOS

Time, Stars, Universe Pretty ethereal star god vibes

Play with Fire Whatever his beef with the Sunfire peeps, im enjoying it and am glad he is too. slay queen (literally)

Dishonored 2 Main Theme creepy ominous spider-spinning-its-web vibes ok?

Inside the Cage Listen to sexy mental breakdown song.

In the Palace ~ Agitato Creepy fucked up butterfly beast. For context watch HxH, its fun!!! 😀 (< dead inside) Also soundtrack for Aaravos losing his mind in prison and making his puppets dance till their feet bleed! 😍

Adore Adore The story can change at the roll of a dice babeyy 😎 no fr the lyrics are fire

Throne Wrath and violence on planat earth

Nosk Spider-pulling-in-its-prey vibes. Callum wyd 👁👁

Dark Matter The drama.. the vibes.. "bring me your soul bring me your ~HATE~" *insert elmo fire gif*

Black Train/End Credits ~piano~ Also death etc. etc. idek. damn should this be on viren or claudia's playlist instead? 🤔

CLAUDIA

Restless Year I always imagine her dancing or playing the bass to this. Also this song was literally written about her /lie

W.I.T.C.H. We all know this would be on her playlist in a modern au.

My Zero It's fine, she's just gradually losing grip of her family and also herself, she's losing her beginnings 😀👍 ok

Selfless "You're mucking off, but I will live for you, my selfless love". Screaming crying throwing up etc.

Fireflies Nothing to say here except that it's perfect.

A Victory of Love Objectively a bop. Songs that make me Ascend™

Galaxies Honestly im just rlly invested in the modern au where she's a bassist in a cool band and this is one of the songs theyd be playing. but also the lyrics kinda fit

Spanish Sahara She can have a little vengeance as a treat. Also trauma <3

Young and Tragic sad :( baby magefam feels :((

VIREN

The Unquiet Grave he's a corpse 👍

Werewolf Heart Thinking about Harrow, thinking about Lissa maybe. also those wolves and screams?? sir... 🧍‍♂️ Also sexy bass. what more do you want.

Mohammed Most sexy guitar ive ever heard ever im not joking. leave me alone

LA PAURA DEL BUIO lyrics fit pretty well. also this playlist has a criminal lack of angry rock songs

Fight Like Gods Lyrics and such

Way down We Go idk how to describe it without saying the word sexy again :/

The Sun Pretty 😳

Sleep Oughg (< relates a bit too much)

Ashes to Ashes idk man, its just pretty. like Viren <3 <3 <3

Into Dust damn ok tdpo

SOREN

Beautiful Day idk this just has Soren all over to me. the early sunrise wake up feeling, the hopeful optimism idk man

Uptown Funk Originally wasn't putting this in but it is Sooo S1-2 Soren. Also this

Back Against The Wall A+ rec from tdpo

Ode To The Mets I am so normal about this song so normal i listen to it a regular amount haha *insert one of those feral stick figures with blood all over*

Run Magefam feels 💃

Edge of Darkness Next on Songs that make me Ascend™. "I've got love in my heart for an army apart" :(

Fill Your Heart This is one of my fave songs ever its so joyful i love it and I love Soren

Obstacles This song is already Not Ok on its own, but combined with the Soren-Claudia feels it's an atrocity 👍 Songs for floating away on a river never to return

What's Up Ya boy might not always be the brightest but he's definitely the more emotionally intelligent one also i love him so much hhskvhvhhvhvhbv

#the dragon prince #aaravos #claudia tdp #lord viren #viren tdp #soren tdp #i spent WAY too much time on this #at least it was fun #songs were chosen based firstly on vibe and secondly on lyrics #also i have sacrificed like more than 5 strokes songs are you proud 😪#balance in all things etc. etc. 😊#anyway this is me showing you my neatly sorted pebble and/or rock collection except they're songs #i just think they're neat #my thoughts #music tag

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fritoley · 24 days

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Warrior's Honor - Part 5

Fandom: The Dragon Prince Characters: Emelyn, Iris, Soren, Harrow Word Count: 808 Previous // Next Warrior's Honor Masterlist

***

A beautiful evening light cast a warm glow over the castle courtyard, highlighting the intricate details of the stonework. Soren's gaze drifted across the scene, eyes lingering on the shadows. Shadows. They were long and inviting, reminiscent of the stolen exchanges he and Emelyn shared in their youth. But not today. Today, those very same shadows were cold and secretive. They were hiding something… evil.

He clenched his fingers around the hilt of the king's sword, adorned with beautiful Katolian engravings. The weight of the blade served as a reminder of tonight's mission— failure was not an option.

The doors to the Throne Room opened, revealing a fully-armored King Harrow flanked by four Crownguard. Soren stepped away from the window and presented the king with his sword, which Harrow accepted solemnly. As Harrow and his guards made their way to the courtyard toward his chambers, Soren felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked back to see Iris posted behind him.

"Iris!" Soren murmured. "Where's Red-- I mean, Emi? She was supposed to be here."

"She went to recheck defenses and do, like, 15 more perimeter checks," Iris said with an exasperated sigh. "I'm sure she'll meet us at the tower."

As Harrow and the Crownguard approached the tower, they spotted Emelyn at the base of the stairs, her helmet in hand. Her face was set with determination, yet her eyes betrayed an underlying sense of anxiety.

"Your Majesty," she said, nodding in acknowledgment. "I've bolstered defenses to four times the usual. If the elves are in the kingdom, we'll find them."

"Thank you, Emelyn," Harrow acknowledged, and the other members of the Crownguard began to move past him and ascend the stairs. Soren hung back, hesitating.

"Emelyn," Harrow started, then sighed heavily. "I'm sure we both know how this will end."

"Of course," Emelyn said promptly. "With your survival."

Harrow smiled ruefully. For just a moment, Soren saw Emelyn's face flicker with emotion. Sadness. Anger. Respect. Before Soren could figure out which, she had gathered her composure once more.

Harrow opened his mouth to speak, but he couldn't seem to find the right words. After a moment, he rested his hand on her shoulder and said, "You always did have that blind determination. Don't lose it."

Soren saw the emotion in Emelyn's face again and figured it out. She was on the verge of tears.

Emelyn pressed her lips together, not daring to cry in front of the king. She breathed deeply, looked Harrow in the eye, and answered, "Yes, sir!"

Harrow smiled, patting her shoulder, then turned to the stairs leading up to his chambers. As he passed her by, Harrow glanced back, speaking softly.

"Please, Emelyn. Take care of my sons."

Soren watched as Harrow disappeared behind the staircase before glancing at Emelyn. Her grip tightened around her helmet, her eyes lowering as she grimaced.

"Is Millie still on watch?" Emelyn asked, pushing her emotions down. Soren closed the distance between them and crossed his arms.

"Yeah. I saw her flying around a few minutes ago."

Emelyn nodded. A moment of silence passed.

"...You okay?" Soren asked. Emelyn sighed. The sky turned orange as the sun set, turning the clouds pink.

"I'm fine. It's just… I'm afraid of what could happen if we fail."

"We're not going to fail," Soren said confidently, uncrossing his arms and placing a hand on her shoulder. Emelyn looked up at him. "You got it? We're gonna beat those elves, and that'll be the end of it."

Emelyn chuckled. "Yeah. And then a dragon will swoop down from the sky, and you'll somehow figure out how to slay it so you can brag to Claudia."

"Exactly," Soren replied with a grin.

Emelyn laughed. As the moon rose behind the tower, it sent a massive shadow on the castle grounds, causing a glow on the Crownguards' faces. Two Crownguard appeared on the opposite side of the courtyard, approaching their posts.

Finally, Soren said, "I better… head to my post."

"Yeah," Emelyn answered absentmindedly. Soren glanced at her for a moment longer, then turned to leave. Emelyn listened as his heavy boots receded up the stairs. Just then, She inhaled sharply and turned toward him.

"Soren?"

Soren halted upon hearing his name and looked back to see Emelyn staring at him, her hand slightly extended towards him. She had tied her auburn hair into a low bun, a change from her usual ponytail. Her side-swept bangs fluttered slightly in the breeze, highlighting the bright red streaks of dye framing her honey-brown eyes.

"...Be careful, okay?" Emelyn said.

"I should be saying that to you. They'll attack you first, after all," Soren answered. Emelyn chuckled.

"Still, though."

Soren grinned. He nodded, saluted her with two fingers, and continued up the stairs.

"Don't die, Red," he mumbled as he climbed out of Emelyn's sight.

***

Previous // Next Warrior's Honor Masterlist Ultimate Masterlist

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armchairaleck · 8 months

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Ayy, I have been very quiet on here cos I ran out of juice a bit, but I have been thinking dumb thoughts nonetheless…

Post Puzzle House stuff I keep thinking about:

Kpp’Ar

While I’m super sad Kpp’Ar did not make it into ANY actual panels of the comic, I still love the contrast between the way he roasted dream Viren in s5 with the way he clearly put painstaking thought and care into his carousel ride for Soren and Claudia… go grandad :)

Anyway I have been considering the reason why Kpp’Ar was looking for a unicorn ion the first place… and why Atticus thought he was building a strange and powerful magical contraption… and I kinda like the idea that Kpp’Ar was already thinking about slaying an archdragon way before Viren and Harrow got in on the act… maybe because this was the diplomatic route he and Atticus decided to take through human/Xadian relations…

And that Viren had an inkling of what was going on and begged for said horn to be used to help Soren instead and got a lecture on putting the greater good of the kingdom ahead of individual gain. A lecture which spectacularly backfired when he coined Kpp’Ar and took the High Mage post, but which came back with a vengeance ten years down the line when he valued an egg over the life of his son… priorities right… idk… I'm figuring Kpp'Ar would have had a change of heart anyway but there is a lot of room in my head for a version of events that is a little darker than the show and while I know it won’t be this, I do like my mages troubled and twisted...

Claudia

Eh Claudia only being able to open up her emotions to a giant rock and then the words of comfort she’s given - you will find a way like a river through rock... which is very Claudia… or even a rock through a river of lava… ahem...

Anyway Claudia’s the ideas one in the family… Viren is… IDEK… sometimes I’m like my guy what are you doing? You pick up a two headed soul fang serpent on your way through the midnight desert AND YET it’s Claudia who has to come up with the soul swap idea? Like were you planning on keeping this as an exotic and highly dangerous pet just for the hell of it?

Claudia figures out the puzzle house, Claudia gets the unicorn horn, Claudia finds a way through the border and whenever Viren is asked what’s the plan dude he’s just like… meh… dunno let’s wing it? I would bet it was Claudia who came up with illusion Viren for Soren to stab, she’s doing all the heavy lifting and it started here...

Still, I am super invested in her and Viren’s weird co-dependence because it’s messy and full of angst and their own special sort of unhealthy love.

The family hugs become a little more awkward over the years... but they try

Viren

Haha while Viren really only portrayed his woeful parenting skills in this comic - it’s complicated does seem the appropriate tagline to his life…

Soren

Welp, since his change of allegiance in s3 I don’t think so much about Soren… my bad, it’s just the horrible sort of person I am, but eh book Soren was pretty cute... baby Soren weirds me out a little with his big eyes and his “daddy daddy”.

A Unicorn glade just existing somewhere in Katolis??

This… this is like something that drives me a little crazy… plus I am a sucker for The Last Unicorn and Legend and I fully sympathise with Kpp’Ar going through his my little pony unicorn phase and having crisis of conscience when he realises he’ll never find one…

Post Season 5 stuff I have been thinking about:

Viren’s Dark Magic Dream…

Yup... nothing else to say here… lmao

#okay there’s probably a few other things to say but I’ll come to them at a later point.. hopefully..#or not.. the mind is willing but the body is weak or something..#only both my mind and body are weak so I’m fighting a losing battle haha #puzzle house

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lairofsentinel · 4 years

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Beware of the Narrator II - Viren’s nature, and the ends justifying the means.

[Probably this analysis has been done dozens of times, but I need to do it myself to keep it fresh when future seasons come]

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Viren full analysis [part one] [part two] [part three] and its Summary [here]

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Since I started watching The Dragon Prince, I’ve been under the suspicion that we have to be pretty cautious about who is narrating what event. Aaravos has his own discourse in which he feeds us with a vision of Dragons and Elves that makes us sympathise towards humans. Viren has his own similar Narration too.

When Viren is in the Pentachry Meeting, he narrates the events of what happened nine years ago. We see that Harrow is a King that wants to be just, and for that,he thinks of himself as a “servant of the people”. The Servant King [note that we have again a Servant-concept]

When the Queens of Duren appear and ask for help, Harrow doesn’t hesitate in giving it. But we saw that Viren as well as Sarai don’t like the idea of sharing their harvest because it means starvation for their own people. It was a rash decision of the King in order to be “just”, and it ended up in a martyr situation in which everyone should accept sharing this suffering with another Kingdom.

Viren is worried about this. I think he is shown here as truly worried about it, because Viren may be evil in Season 3, but in Season 1 he is, as I always repeat, toward humanity, the same way that Claudia is towards her family. They will do anything to save humanity/her family. And Viren in Season 1 thinks that Harrow is the best option for humanity. We can consider he also loves him as a brother, and I truly believe that. Viren loved Harrow not only as a just King, as a King that gave his best to protect humanity, but also as a brother, crafting a deep bound in a human level [which to me helps a lot to keep at bay the effects of Dark Magic, because it had been said by the authors that “hollows you out”, so having bonds with others may help].

So, after Harrow accepts sharing the food that his Kingdom doesn’t have with another, Viren comes with a creative solution. The hunt of the magma Titan in Xadia.

What starts making this narration interesting is the following

It was Sarai. It’s just a comment, and in ALL the narration we don’t see any friction between Sarai and Viren [We don’t know if this was that way, or it’s Viren’s manipulation of the narrative]. Ever. But Viren’s observation was there.

Then, when they slay the monster, we see again Viren, worried about his people, about the wounded, about the nonsense of the King again:

I always truly believed that Viren wanted to save humans. He is part of the Royal circle, he would not need to worry about the famine hitting the Kingdom at all because his family and he would be safe anyway [royal families never starve] so he did not need to work in a creative solution if he were not truly interested in saving those people.

When they retreat from Xadia with the Titan’s heart, Viren is worried about the ire of the Dragon. He proposes to leave the wounded behind so they can escape with the heart. Once again, Harrow, in his excess of being “just” and “good” rejects this plan and suggests everyone returning together at a slow pace.

In this part, we see again Viren suggesting to leave the wounded behind but not lightly, it gives him some conflict. He sighs because he doesn’t like to leave humans behind. He loves them, but he is realistic. The whole plan would go to trash if the Dragon catches them with the Titan’s core. [Once again, this may have happened, or maybe it’s Viren’s control of the narrative]

From that moment on, the Narration switches to Harrow’s letter and goes back and forward with Viren’s in the meeting with the other leaders of the Human Kingdoms.

Then, the narration [Viren’s and Harrow’s so we can be more or less sure about this part] explains that the Dragon Avizandum appeared, and it was in that moment when the Queens of Duren offered themselves as a distraction to let the Heart reach the Border and save their Kingdom.

Viren could have gone with the rest of the army, however... he helped them. He stayed in Xadia to help the Queens.

He faced Avizandum to give the Queens a way to escape. But it did not work. Avizandum killed the Queens anyways. This part was narrated by Harrow’s letter too, so I think we can be absolutely sure that Viren wanted to help the Queens. Again, I believe he did it because he loves humans in season 1, and in particular “special humans”, those humans that are irreplaceable, such as Royal families [We saw it in the first part of the serie]. Soldiers can always be replaced, but Queens, not at all. So, he truly wanted to save them.

Then, Harrow’s letter explains that Sarai told him that they needed to save Viren because otherwise, they could not perform the spell and help both kingdoms. We are sure that this happened, not only because Viren is narrating it, it’s written in the letter too.

So, Sarai retraces her steps and tries to save Viren. But Avizandum hits them with a lightning and they fell on the horse. After that attack, The Dragon leaves.... and here is another horrible situation:

That scene is narrated by Viren in the meeting, and also by the letter... but both are Viren’s narration. Harrow was not there, he didn’t see how Sarai died. He only knew later when Viren told him. Both Sarai and Viren were hit by the same lightning, and both fell on the ground. However, Viren managed to be okay while Sarai “was dying”. The black screen may suggest that something went different than the narration.

Now... I think Viren killed Sarai. It was the opportunity of his life, when she fell from the horse. We know that he has a spell that suffocates people, since it’s the same spell he used against Lain, Rayla’s father. He killed her “taking away” her “last breath”, because he decided it was going to be her last. That’s why he got that breath in a jar years later [he can hold that breath in his hand with the magical paw he uses to cast the spell].

By removing Sarai from the King’s side, Viren guaranteed himself to be by Harrow’s side and became his adviser. Viren thinks in himself as a special person, as someone who knows better than anyone [as it was seen in the previous part], who speaks but nobody listens to him [as he told Aaravos]. Viren knows that Harrow will guarantee a good kingdom for humans under his advice.

It’s true that ALL this narration was done by Viren, most of the time, and maybe, he showed himself more gentle and kind of what he truly is. I don’t know. Maybe he never worried about leaving the wounded behind, maybe he was not so compassionate with the starvation that was going to affect the people of Duren. But he truly cared enough about “humanity” to find creative solutions to the problems that Harrow created by accepting impossible requests in his way to desperately be “just”. Viren also returned to “save” the Queens of Duren [the letter says so, so it means that Harrow SAW him leaving the retreating group in order to help the Queens]. But he totally killed Sarai. It was the best choice, in his eyes, to secure a kingdom where humanity could be safe [because he was planing to kill dragons with this event too, as it will show the following part of these narratives].

-------------------------------------------------------

UPDATE: Since some people told me that the authors claimed that there is no more info about Sarai’s in the following Seasons [I’m believing in their words despite not seeing proof of this, sadly], everyone assumes that she simply died by a lighting and Viren has nothing to do with that death.

Exactly because my whole hypothesis and the reason behind these posts is to show that “maybe” we should be careful about those fragments of the past, is because it’s Viren himself who is narrating them. There is not much information about him and about Sarai’s relationship with him at all. Omission some times is a way to manipulate and twist a narration, the whole series is about that.

As a person who watched the show, to me, Sarai’s death is at least questionable. We don’t have more witnesses than Viren, and we know that Viren, like Aaravos, can be unreliable narrators, making us be more judgemental on certain creatures than what we should. It’s a question. I’m not assuming things happened that way [maybe in the summary sounds more rotund than in the post with details, but meh]. Again, this is what I understood, that sadly, not always ends up what the authors wanted to [The example of Isabela in Dragon Age 2 being understood as barren was a big misunderstanding that, no matter how you see that scene, it looks like that despite the writer told us already that it was not the intention. But the scene looks like that! XD]

So, after reading some people who were between angry and sad about this matter, I believe there are two possibilities:

**He killed her. Viren did not like Sarai as Harrow’s advice, because she may put in danger humanity [we saw he was present when she talked to Harrow about she disagreeing with this plan and Harrow being a stupid]. Although there was not exactly a precise plot against her, Viren, as the opportunist he is, took the chance in the moment he saw it. As soon as he saw the possibility of getting rid of her, he did it, using her last breath as an ingredient for a spell he knew already could be used to kill the Dragon King as soon as he could find a unicorn horn. He awaited the horn, while letting the hatred in Harrow grow. This is why Viren wants to sacrifice himself during the night of the Moonshadow attack, in order to “clean” his sin with Sarai [he did not do all what he could, because his intention was other, and he saw it only escalated things], because he explicitly says that “he needs to be the man that Harrow once believed he was”. This is an interpretation.

** He did not kill her. Viren in fact is kinder and has a more beautiful soul than we want to believe. He saw Sarai dying and he could not do anything about it, he felt deeply guilty, so he took her last breath without knowing what to do with that [I always saw these dark mages gathering Xadians limbs and Xadians bodies, not human ones, but ok, he took her last breath having no idea at all what could he do with a human last breath]. However, years later, out of guilt, decided to avenge her and, by super chance, he had all the elements to do so when Claudia found him the horn. He insisted too much to Harrow about taking revenge. So, in the end, he avenges Sarai’s death and he is in peace with that, until the night of the Moonshadow attack. It’s when he decided to acknowledge his mistake of looking for revenge [or guilt for Sarai, for not doing enough when she was dying] so he tries to save Harrow by convincing him to exchange their bodies. In this interpretation Viren is shown too selfless and too focused on Sarai’s life/vengeance, to a level I didn’t see in him in any other part of the series, except in those in which he controls the narration. All the info about his relationship with Sarai was omitted or doesn’t exist at all. We have no idea, so why would he focus so much on her revenge if he sees Harrow happy with his current blessings?.

That’s why I wrote all this... to try to have all the info and the important scenes in a same place highlighting who is saying what. This Series works, apparently, with unreliable narrators, so it’s more than important to know who says what. But again, this is just for personal use and it’s my own interpretation. Everyone is free to disagree.

#Sarai #the dragon prince #viren #harrow #mastermind

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pinbitch · 7 years

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i said next week but apparently i've made a liar of me

i hope this upsets that apoligist anon

anyway here's the ugly cherries replacement playlist that exactly one person asked me for:

(same rules, similar means similar in tone, similar musically, similar lyrically, thematically similar, even similar in the way they make me feel)

short-lived nightmare - violence, against me! (if you don't like violent imagery in your songs then tbh you shouldn't listen to against me! at all but yeah it's great)

dairy queen - girls like girls, hayley kiyoko (do not ask me for an explaination for this association i have none)

i wanna boi - only boyfriend, brendan maclean (so sweet, a song for the start of something)

ugly cherries - celestia, claudia boleyn (no connection whatsoever claudia is just so very excellent, it's weird and dramatic and just so gooood)

serving goffman - slip away, perfume genius (just full of nervous anticipation)

nu 1 -black me out, against me! (it's like one step along on the same angst journey nu 1 is on)

west texas - good wife, MIKA (fun and poppy with a good dose of pining)

1994 - eyes shut, years and years (it's melancholy and a jam???)

c u around - beat me to it, brendan maclean (so fucking sad also hiiii again brendan sorry your boyfriend fucked a baker)

all the boys - castle, halsey (exactly the same level of fuck-you-i'm-slaying)

house in virginia - down, ezra furman (yearning. this song is yearning)

(these lists don’t include covers but neon trees have a fun version of don’t you want me baby, brendan maclean’s cover of staying alive is better than the original and claudia boleyn’s version of take me to church is life changing)

#pwr bttm #ugly cherries #look at me finishing something early #against me!#hayley kiyoko #brendan maclean #claudia boleyn #perfume genius #MIKA #years and years #halsey #ezra furman

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canvaswolfdoll · 5 years

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CanvasWatches: The Dragon Prince (Season 2)

Well, this is back. And since the last season I’ve… (rereads last season’s review) failed to continue the grand Digimon rewatch.

Welp. I need to get on that.

Adopted a dog since then! So that’s nice.

So, general mood after seeing the second season: it’s a good example of media that really makes me want to create something amazing, but feel somewhat lacking in being able to do so. Or, like, play D&D.

It’d make a good D&D campaign.

The animation quality improved. Besides a few jitters in the first couple of episodes, it’s gotten a lot smoother. Character writing remains super strong. On the negatives, most of the nine episodes felt like our heroes were spinning their wheels as far as physical progress goes. Meanwhile, Team Dark keeps stealing the spotlight.

However, it’s overall a positive increase, so I’d bump the ‘Skippable’ rating of last season to ‘Give it a glance if you have time’. Keep building, The Dragon Prince! I believe in you!

The weakest character ‘faction’ (IE, the subgroups that get individual plots) is, unfortunately, our main heroes (who we’ll label Team Escort). Their stories focus on the emotional growth of Ezran and Callum, and while they accomplish the goal of reaching the elf half of the continent by the end of the season, visually they’re mostly in three places: the Moon Sanctuary they reached at the end of the last season, a ship taking them over a body of water, or a cave at the edge of a town. Rayla also took a secondary role this season, which is fine since she carried a lot the last season, but it’s still worth noting her passive role.

Meanwhile, Amaya, the stand out of last season, appears twice near the start of the season, and in a flashback story, but doesn’t have many dedicated scenes. They do solidly confirm she’s deaf, though.

Team Dark (Soren and Claudia) had the moral conflict plot this season. They catch up with Team Escort, and suddenly have to come to terms with their father’s secret orders: kill the princes and prioritize the dragon egg. In an honestly amazing use of secret keeping, both Soren and Claudia eventually are honest with one another in meaningful ways and just as soon as maintaining secrets no longer made sense. They also express reluctance about fulfilling the terms, and individually abandon the missions with good explanation.

Because, and this is something I love, they’re both friends with Callum and Ezran, and aren’t as pragmatic as Viren.

At the Moon Sanctuary, time is also taken to fuel the potential of the Claudia and Callum ship by showing that, yes, Claudia is receptive to the idea.[1]

Which brings us to Team… Viren. Viren is a team of one, so no fun name for him. He’s trying to figure out what’s up with a magic mirror. The answer: there’s a dude in there! A starry elf dude! And he’s going to teach Viren a spell![3] Viren is hesitant, because he doesn’t know much about the elf, so that makes sense. Plus, Viren needs to run his various ‘take over the kingdom and wage war on elves’ machinations.

Which go oddly south. Despite the implications of the last season, Viren didn’t just casually snag the regent crown. There’s a council that’s very much not onboard with that, and Viren explicitly has no authority. He’s running on charisma and bluster, which runs out by the end.

From my poking around on Tumblr, Viren doesn’t seem popular. Which is unfortunate, because Viren is a great morally-grey villain.

In fact, the whole cast is great! Clear motivations, well established cause-and-effect, and no one makes a dumb move for the plot. There’s a hundred small missteps that build up into the big problems we face now, but the show establishes the motive behind each misstep, and you can’t blame any one.

Heck, Big Bad[4] Viren and Big Good King Harrow both share a character flaw: they’re overly self-sacrificing. The difference is Viren has a hierarchy of who’s important, while Harrow is treats everyone the same. Which means Harrow will sacrifice the lives of his own citizens for lives from another kingdom, while Viren will sacrifice a few lives for someone he feels is needed.

Viren also placed the lives of King Harrow and the Queens of Duran above himself. Because Viren doesn’t view himself as important.

Viren is tool towards his own vision of a greater good.

Which makes an amazing character.

Viren is only trying to take over the kingdom because he believes they’ve run out of better options. He doesn’t want the throne, but he thinks no one else can be effective there.

Back to Team Escort: Callum had to sacrifice his arcane focus to hatch the dragon, Zym, so he’s feeling glum being unable to do magic, and all the magic aligned beings in his vicinity are just like ‘Nay, tha’s eet, laddie. Nae mo magick fer yeh!’ But Callum remains resolute!

Team Dark tracks them down at the Moon Sanctuary, and suddenly face their inevitable moral dilemmas. Rayla, being suspicious girl, doesn’t trust them as Soren tries to assassinate Ezran and Claudia tells Callum that, yup, Harrow’s dead.

But Callum and Claudia had a date, so good on them!

In the end, Rayla proves her suspicions with the help of illusion magic. So that’s sad.

Team Escort heads further East, and need to charter a ship over an inland sea. Callum hires a double eyepatched pirate with a snarky parrot, and the two just steal every scene they’re in. Team Escort rides the ship for the middle third of the season and Callum gets some exposition from a letter Harrow left him as Viren gives the same exposition to a council of the five kingdoms.

By the way, there’s five kingdoms, and Viren needs their help to declare war. Three of the monarchs agree that, well, if that’s what everyone else wants to do, I guess they could.

Number five is a child queen who fired her regent and is just like ‘Sell me on this Viren’.

Viren tells the story about how her parents came to Harrow to help feed their people during a harsh winter, and Harrow decides ‘Cool, let’s share the pain! Sacrifice our people to save our neighbors!’ While Viren is like “No, sire, that’s dumb.” and Harrow’s all ‘I hear what you’re saying, but I’m going to do it anyways.’

And then Viren figures since Harrow’s dedicated to this, he might as well look into a mutually beneficial solution. Which involves the heart of a magma monster.

Which is why the two kinda need each other. Harrow had the moral backbone to make hard decisions, Viren had the will to support and pivot big dumb moves into better big dumb moves.

Queen Sarai thinks murdering a magma monster’s not the best idea, but Harrow is kinda bullheaded (but well meaning!), and she supports her husband anyways.

Conflicts ensue, Queen Sarai and the Child Queen’s parents die in the attempt, and the lesson Viren tries to impart is sometimes sacrifices must be made.

The Child Queen then declines to declare war on the elves. Because there’s a difference between sacrifices forced by external forces and trying for the greater good, and sacrifices because you’re the aggressor.

Then the other three monarchs fold.

So Viren goes home and summons magic assassins to spur the other kingdoms into action. Practical, if kind of evil. Also, the royal council is mad Viren called the council of kings and took the title of regant without permission. Such Drama!

Viren ends up striking an allegiance with the mirror elf, and then Viren gets arrested for treason.

After crossing the giant inland sea, Team Escort moves to a cave where they spend the rest of the season. A dragon’s posturing around a nearby town, and upon the arrival of Team Dark, Soren decides it’s time to slay a dragon!

Soren starts a fight with the dragon, property damage ensues, Claudia uses magic to wound and ground the dragon, and they end up releasing the tracker Amaya sent after Team Escort last season.

Callum finally informs Ezran about Harrow’s death before Team Escort goes and involves themselves with the Dragon conflict.

Team Dark (and assistants) bind the dragon down, Team Escort free the dragon, Callum does some dark magic, and the dragon sends Soren into a boulder and turns him into a quadriplegic!

Which is harsh for a kids show, and emotionally breaks Team Dark. Soren’s happy to have an excuse to not kill the princes, and Claudia’s upset that her brother’s this hurt and is a bad poet.

Callum then falls into a fevered state due to using dark magic, and has dreams where he must reject dark magic (boo!), and eventually unlocks the ability to do wind magic! He’s an Airbender!

Ezran runs off to think, the tracker catches up with Rayla and Callum, and some exposition is shared there.

Ezran meets with Claudia, and the two have a heart to heart that’s adorable. Ezran then helps Claudia find magic ingredients, but not the ones Claudia told him.

She kills Bambi for a surge of life magic, and uses it to get Soren to his feet.

So here’s my problem. The main mark against dark magic is that it’s done by sacrificing life (mostly bugs and body parts). However: meat. Humans eat meat. Animals eat meat. Nature often swirls around extinguishing life and, especially for humans, using parts of the dead to sustain themselves and make various processed goods. But because it allows humans to do magic as well, suddenly extinguishing life is an unforgivable sin?

Dark Magic seems fine! I can’t actually back up it just being straight bad. Viren’s use of it is bad, yes, but so is feeding someone blowfish liver. There’s not enough cause to call the tool evil over its use. And Claudia used it to heal!

Team Dark is innocent, dang it! Adjust your narrative and, like, add a parasitic, earth killing and salting element. Unbalance the scales.

Ugh.

Anyways, Ezran decides to go home as Rayla and Callum go to deliver Zym to his mother.

Ezran is revealed to have a psychic connection to Zym as the two parties go separate directions and Rayla and Callum cross into Xadia and into a cliffhanger of meeting a scary desert dragon! Oh no!

So this season is an improvement on the last. Moral complexity is increasing, but in a child friendly way. The world’s expanding, and it’s not afraid to upset the status quo. I’m excited for the third season.

Still, more backdrops for Team Escort, and maybe a few filler episodes for fun and character growth would be good to see. But The Dragon Prince is good now. Watch it when you have time.

If you enjoyed my writing, consider supporting my patreon for early access and exclusive content, or give to my Ko-Fi account if monthly subscription isn’t for you. I hope to do new and exciting things!

Kataal kataal.

[1] Rayla and Callum is the inevitable ending pair, but pretending Claudia has a chance will still be fun. She’s a fun character.[2] [2] Also, neither are Sexy Lamp characters! Rayla and Claudia have defined personalities and goals outside of romance! Good writing! [3] Had Aaravos been aligned against Viren, I would’ve used this as an extended joke where he teaches Viren how to do a sleight of hand trick. Disappearing a coin or a card trick. Not right for the story, but something I need to remember for my own work. Just a sage dude messing with the villain with pranks. [4] Well, until the end of season...

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