For those who don’t know, the new season of The Dragon Prince: Mysteries of Aaravos is out now on Netflix. It was original planned for this Friday on July 28th but in a twist that would floor M. Night Shyamalan, they released the season a whole week early.
I find this tactic kinda funny given how (ridiculously) LONG they took to announce the official release date for S4 last time. But yeah, it’s out ya’ll.
I had made peace to watch the new season on Friday but noooooo, the TDP team just had to “ruin” my plans by dropping the new season a whole week early!
Why? Why did you do that!
Now I gotta be dodging spoilers for the new season for a whole week before I can settle down to watch it myself.
I know I can probably try to watch the new season. HOWEVER…I also know if I watch the new season right now, I’ll probably finish it like probably tomorrow for the latest and then who knows how long we’ll have to wait for the next season? I’m not quite ready to part ways with TDP just yet since it just got here.
I don’t just want to binge the new season of TDP. I want watch it, enjoy it (hopefully more than I did S4) and then savour it before I give my full thoughts on S5.
Outside of the one teaser clip which gave me hope for Rayllum, I have avoided any and all further promotional content for the new season since the first trailer drop.
So I know f*** all about what is to come from this new season outside of where the last one left us off. And that’s how I like it to be before I can have time to watch the new season.
If there is one thing I hope this season does is deliver more on dem Rayllum crumbs. Season 4 was painful to sit through as a diehard Rayllum shipper so I’m hoping that S5 does better on my main OTP.
While I do adore the Terry and Claudia pair (who I’m also looking forward to see being developed more for this new season), even their quirky cuteness was not enough to quell the displeasure I felt for the showrunners’ decision to break up Rayllum ESPECIALLY COMING OFF THE HIGH THAT WAS S3 OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES AND THEY DID IT ON CALLUM’S CANONICAL BIRTHDAY IN A BOOK!!! A FREAKING BOOK THAT AS A RAYLLUM SHIPPER I REFUSE TO EVER READ BECAUSE WHY WOULD I HURT MYSELF!
Rant aside, I’m just gonna simply say that I’m still very, very, VERY salty about how Rayllum was canonically broken up. The salt well still runs for that. That being said, I hope S5 delivers a little more on bringing these two kids back together…maybe.
If you’ve already watched the new season, please refrain from sending me any kind of spoilers. I don’t even wanna know if there are any cute shipping moments for the season. I wanna go into this blind and experience it for myself.
But that will have to be on Friday. Sorry TDP team but this squiggly gal will be watching the new season on its original release date since it better fits with my busy bee schedule.
So until then, time to skirt around some spoilers~
~LMS (2023)
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what’s your favorite wip you’re currently working on / what wip are you most excited to post?
Right now I’m super focused on my dark magic AU. I’m getting quite close to finishing the first proper draft actually but depending on how busy life is, it could still be a while before I start posting.
The premise is an alternative universe where the total expulsion of humans from the east never happened and the hard border between the Pentarchy and Xadia doesn’t exist. Generally, humans do live in the west and elves, dragons and other magical creatures tend to keep to the east. Dark magic exists and is regulated, but, well… it gets a bit moe complicated than that. As with pretty much all of my fics, it’s Rayllum focused and how they navigate friendship and more in such a world is the main plot of the fic.
I’ve been having a lot of fun exploring the whole idea and seeing where it leads me. It’s probably both the most and least planning I’ve done for a fic. I wrote a bunch of it with a very loose outline, re-read and re-worked that and then used it as a starting point to properly outline things. As usual, it’s grown much bigger than my initial outline
And seen as it is Work in Progress Wednesday, how about an excerpt?
“The elf? She’s hot.” Soren leaned back in his chair, looking smug.
Callum felt his stomach churn. Before he could say anything, Claudia slapped Soren hard on the shoulder.
“Soren!” She screwed up her nose, laughing gleefully.
“What? She is.” Soren appeared unabashed. “I just call it, like I see it.”
Claudia snickered, flicking a crumb of jelly tart at him. “What would Dad say if he knew you had the hots for an elf.”
“I’m not planning on marrying her, Claudia. I’m just saying that if she was down to-”
“Shut up!” Callum spat, getting to his feet. “Don’t talk about her like that. Either of you.”
Soren at least appeared embarrassed, wincing and looking away.
Claudia rolled her eyes, sighing heavily. “It’s just a joke, Callum.”
“Jokes are funny.” He snapped, not finding anything remotely amusing about the conversation.
“You’re awfully protective of her.” Claudia narrowed her eyes at him, smirking playfully, though he didn’t miss how keenly she was watching him. “Is there something going on between you two?”
He felt himself flush. “No.” Swallowing, he continued. “She’s my friend. I’ve known her since we were kids. It’s gross hearing you talk about her like that.”
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…So…about The Dragon Prince Season 4: Mysteries of Aaravos…
So I just wrapped up the season and just wanted to give my overall thoughts on it.
The General Gist:
As I told a fellow TDP fan friend of mine, as a whole, I thought this season was a good start to this new chapter of the series.
Despite being a direct continuation from the last season of the Dragon Prince, I feel like it would be more fitting of me to just view Mysteries of Aaravos as its own separate story; within the Dragon Prince universe and following up from where the previous story left off but still being unique and different enough to be perceived as its own think.
In all honesty, I found this fourth season to be more comparable to the very first season of the Dragon Prince. Like I said, it’s a solid good start; providing the audience with just enough storytelling and worldbuilding to get us invested in the characters who will be become the key players in this new chapter of the story as well as the new overarching plot.
So on that front, I liked S4. However, if I were to compare S4 to the last book---Book 3, this is where my opinion will change. As I’ll reiterate, S4 was good BUT, was it better for me than S3? In my opinion, no.
Not by a long shot. S3 left me fat and fed in terms of being completely satisfied with the way things were left off in terms of story and character development. S4 felt more like a refresher. Getting this squiggle meister right back into the world of Xadia and what made the series so great for me before while getting me prepared and hyped for what’s to come next. There is no doubt in my mind that I am more than excited to see what comes next for the next few chapter of MoA and in true TDP fashion, I can only expect the story to get better from here since that was my experience with the first installment.
Book 1 of the TDP hooked me in and each book after that from 2 to 3 just kept further improving upon the story and of course, the characters.
Thus I’m expecting MoA to be no different. I don’t know when the next book of MoA is expected to be released, but based on how MoA left things off for its first book, I am only expecting things to get wilder and on that note, I cannot wait for what’s in store to come.
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The Rayllum Elephant in the Room:
If you were a Rayllum shipper this season like me then…how you doing, fam? You good? Because I don’t know about ya’ll but being a Rayllum shipper in Book 4 was painful. Watching these two kids clunkily try to salvage their broken off-screen, in-book relationship without the full context (since I sadly didn’t get to read the actual book that explains Rayla’s departure) was painful.
I mean, we did get some ok-ish moments---some semblance of crumbs. But coming off the cusp of Book 3, watching Rayllum this season was damn disappointing!
How? How did we go from being FAT and FED in Book 3 of the Dragon Prince to being STARVED in Book 4? Seriously how!!!???
Why did the showrunners think this was a good move? Why did they break them up? Why couldn’t they have just kept them together and let the next chapter of their relationship be watching them be a couple---one of the first human and elf couples outside of Janai and Amaya and seeing how they make it work despite it all?
Why couldn’t we just watch that instead of the typical “let’s make them get together only to have them randomly break up only to watch them get back together in the end”?
Seriously, if I wanted to watch a season where Rayla and Callum begin to build their relationship, I would rewatch Season 1 of the Dragon Prince and even then, I wouldn’t be this annoyed.
I swear if they insert a love triangle or love square between Rayllum in the next book, I’ll be beyond pissed.
I’m sorry guys, I just…I just didn’t enjoy the story for my favourite ship for this season. Why not all of it was as terrible as I’m making it sound, it just wasn’t enjoyable for me because overall, I was just mad the entire time that they were broken up at all, y’know what I mean?
At least one thing’s for certain though; it’s still very clear that Rayla and Callum both still love each other very much. The feelings are still very much there. Where the story takes them on the path to repairing what they once had and maybe falling in love with each other again---I don’t know.
I just hope it’s good and better than S3 because that season is still the reigning king in terms of getting that good-good Rayllum bread. Just so long as it’s not another bait and switch. I know couples getting together and breaking up is a fact of life, however it’s not the only path relationships can take that’s considered realistic. Believe it or not, there are relationships where people remain together for a very long time with the love and trust between them still maintained; perhaps even stronger than it was at the beginning thanks to the experience and challenges of time.
Perhaps I’m getting way over my head about this and maybe, this is what the showrunners have planned for Rayllum. Who knows? Doesn’t excuse the fact that I’m just really tired of the whole “will they, won’t they” trope being done to death, particularly when it comes to animated couples.
I used to get a kick out of it before back in my days of indulging in lots of shoujo manga and the occassional anime or two. And in many ways, I don’t completely dislike the trope. It’s just that, for once I’d like to see a pairing in an animation get together and despite the story throwing many curve balls at them, rather than the writers have them break up, they just write the couple to talk things through and work things out and keep trying to make things work for the sake of their relationship since ultimately, they do love each other and genuinely do want their relationship to last.
This was one of the things I actually found very refreshing about the Lumity pairing from The Owl House series. Despite getting together early on in the show’s second season, I really liked how this never stopped the couple from growing both together and as individuals. And inspite of some showcomings and mistakes made between them, I liked how rather than have the young couple have a big argument leading them to breaking up prematurely only to get back together later---y’know the usual rinse and repeat we’d come to expect---the TOH showrunners just have the two girls work things out and make it work.
It’s so nice to see a couple in an animated series with challenges but not any “relationship drama”, y’know what I mean?
That being said, I still love my favourite Rayllum pair and I am looking forward for what’s next to come for them. I’m just gonna need a while to get over my initial annoyance at their break-up. At least we got a hug in the final episode. Sure it led to a very adorable group hug between the Dra--gang (I really love Soren---the little easter eggs from Avatar: The Last Airbender said by him this season were golden). But hey…it’s a crumb---one of the many we had to painstakingly scrape the literal Umber Tor-sized bottom of the barrel to get this season---but yeah, still a crumb so I’ll take what I can get until Book 5 gives me something better…hopefully.
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Terry, Terry, Quite Contrary:
I’m just gonna be blunt---I love Terry. Easily became my favourite character for this season next to Soren.
He’s just so precious. I’ve joked so much about hot elven dads over the past few seasons that for the first time in Dragon Prince history, we finally have an adorable cinnamon bun of an elven son for me to adopt.
Seriously, Terry is too pure. Too good---mostly. Best 4/5 for me because the parts of him that’s perfectly find with Claudia draining the life from magical creatures to be used in dark magic as an Earthblood elf is still very questionable to me.
Then again, after meeting some of the Earthblood elves from the Drakewood where Terry claimed he was from and seeing their barbaric treatment of the local dragon life, I guess it makes a bit more sense now.
But bottomline, Terry is pure of heart and I quite like him as a character. He certainly won my adoration this book. All the more reason why I’m very, very, VERY concerned for his fate moving forward.
I feel like it's going to be like the shoulder angel and devil scenario with Claudia regarding her relationship/loyalty to both her father and Terry as her boyfriend. And the reason for my concern with this dynamic is because I feel like it could potentially lead to another moment of Claudia being forced to chose between two people she loves.
We know from S2 of TDP that Claudia hates being put in this type of predicament. She was forced to do this with her parents as a child, with her father and her older brother in Book 3 and it wouldn't surprise me if it'll happen again down the line, this time with Terry wrapped up in it.
Both times when Claudia was forced to choose, she chose her father each time. Keeping that thought in mind, I'm curious to see whether or not Terry will finally be the one to break the cycle for Claudia.
You can clearly see that Terry is very important to Claudia. Outside of the general wholesome and playfulness of their romance, there is also some genuine trust and respect between Claudia and Terry. It is clear that Claudia values Terry’s opinions, especially the ones of her. Just look at how she immediately changed her stance on tricking Rayla with the coins containing the captured remnants of their family (which by the way, thank you for finally addressing show). Look how quickly Claudia reconsidered her actions and changed after Terry commented on the cruelty of it towards Rayla.
I really liked that moment from the final episode because it said so much about both Terry and Claudia as characters.
And while a part of me likes Terry enough as a character to want him to get as far away from the toxic father-daughter circle as Soren did because I'm worried for his fate, on the flipside, I do wish for Terry to also stick around because, as cheesy as this sounds, I do think Terry is Claudia's soul mate. Her better half because not only does he understand her in ways that not even her close family does but overall, Terry is good for Claudia.
He seems to be a genuinely good person with a good heart and head on his shoulders (most of the time). And for the most part, he’s the one member in the toxic circle who still has some shred of humanity and empathy
Viren is practically long gone at this point. The only person he seems to actually care about now is Claudia. Man doesn’t even acknowledge Soren anymore. Even when he was expressing the probability of abandoning the search for Aaravos and living out his final days before Claudia prompty smacked some “sense” back into him, he still only mentioned her.
Real father of the year material, aren’t you Viren? Soren was right for cutting ties with your toxic ass!
Claudia, on the other hand, is literally half and half. She’s just tethering the edge between returning fully to the side of good or falling into full damnation alongside her father.
I wish to believe that through Terry's love and overall influence, Claudia can potentially switch sides---basically have her own little Prince Zuko type of character journey. But much like with Zuko, I think it's going to take some kind of extreme moment such as Claudia saving her father but at the expense of losing Terry to possibly make her see the error of her ways.
One hunch that I’m juggling right now is...what if…in order to fully restore Viren’s life, it’ll require some kind of sacrifice? Y’know like with FMA lore, there’s the whole equivalent exchange thing, right? Well imagine if…the only way for Viren to achieve his second chance at life completely is to have him steal the remaining life span of another being?
While I can definitely picture Aaravos being enough of a malicious asshole to make Viren consider sacrificing his precious daughter---y;know being the valuable asset that she was from his perspective--- I can also foresee a scenario in which Claudia is the one forced to perform the spell to save her father and thus chose between her boyfriend and her father.
Or perhaps…it’s a case where Aaravos makes the spell proposition to both Claudia and Viren behind each other’s back as a way of testing loyalities and intentionally turning them against one another.
Let’s say---Through Aaravos’ influence, Viren considered using Claudia as his sacrifice and Terry overhears his intentions.
In an effort to save Claudia, Terry attempts to warn her of her father’s intentions and even dares to try and get them to excape together however Claudia, being in extreme denial, refuses to believe Terry.
Ultimately, Terry ends up being the one sacrificed in Claudia’s place when Viren reveals his true colours and tries to forcibly steal Claudia’s life force only to have Terry interrupt the spell and sacrifice himself instead out of his devotion to her.
And then and only then after seeing the lengths that her father was willing to go, even at the expense of her own life despite all that she’s endured for him is what finally causes Claudia to realize what Soren was trying to warn her about and thus she finally leaves her father’s side, leaving alone with Aaravos.
Since Aaravos has been shown to be able to possess mages in his current state of power (like with the case of Callum)---perhaps his intention all along is to make Viren either his ultimate vessel or perhaps his most powerful loyal servant at the expense of his mind and humanity.
After this, Claudia finds our heroes and returns to Soren and the two have their own little heart-wrenching reunion and redemption moment, reminiscent of the iconic one between Zuko and Iroh from Avatar.
That’s my theory on that, for now.
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In conclusion…
Those are my thoughts following my watch through of S4. As I’ll say again, as a whole, I thought the new season was a solid good start to get us TDP fans prepped and ready for what’s to come for this new Aaravos Arc.
Not sure how soon we’ll be able to hear news about S5 but, I’ll be on the look out. In the meantime, that’s all I have to say for now.
What about you fellow Dragon stans? Overall, how do ya’ll feel about this season?
Share your thoughts in the comments or reblogs if you wish.
Cheers.
~LMS (2022)
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