#glowtoad

[withdenim]

I love his slay little stance. (And his slay little hat)

#is he . yknow. [glowtoad on his head] #his armor is so fun to draw I’m obsessed with him #next time I draw him he’ll have a cane or my name’s mud #if I ever post something and I’ve rendered more than the face and hair call someone. it’s not me #the dragon prince soren #soren tdp #tdp soren #tdp #tdp s5 #tdp fanart #Soren tdp fanart #the dragon prince #tdp hat #not to pick favourites but I’m a big hat fan #i see myself in hat #that’s me but like as a glowtad

[newtwithtdp]

Oh this driftwood golem has personality

#and likes glowtoads! #good taste #tdp #the dragon prince #tdp s5 spoilers

[raylasrightbraid]

i love how its a running gag that bait keeps getting forgotten and left behind and the dragang is just like “bait! we left bait!” like PLEASE take better fucking care of that grumpy glowtoad im begging 😭😭🙏

#and why is it always callum forgetting him #ezran CANT BE THERE ALL THE TIME CALLUM CMON NOW #the dragon prince #tdp s5 spoilers #tdp spoilers #tdp s5 #tdp callum #tdp

[baatarthefirst]

Soren attended the Amaya school of Bearhugs.

Also, Zym seems to have a pet glowtoad on his head. How cute.

#tdp #the dragon prince #Soren #Corvus #Amaya #Callum #Zym #Hat #the dragon prince season 6 #Sorvus

[raayllum]

since Finnegrin sorta took Aaravos’s place in the rayllum development this season, was wondering if you had any parallels between the two figures specifically? :D

Oh yeah, for sure!!

There's the way they both have this almost gentlemanly, still too sinister to be entirely pleasant but like... calmer outer demeanour? But something cruel and volatile lurking right underneath when they get pissed that will be brutally unleashed if you dare disobey in a way that offends or presents an obstacle to them.

There's their associations with keys and threes (three quasar diamonds, three main mage pawns, three glowtoads, three keys to Finnegrin's door) in addition to being a clearly more rare kind of elf compared to the rest. There's the way they don't actually tend to fight their own battles, per se, but instead use vessels/pawns - for Aaravos, it's his collection of mages, and for Finnegrin, it's Elmer. Ownership and control go hand in hand with both of them. As Finnegrin says, "The chains are just for show," which feels very indicative of Aaravos' whole "I could just possess any of the dark mages in my collection, but I choose to bolster and manipulate them instead" and their reliance on fear.

But the big one, and the reason why I say I can swap them, is that the core prediction I had regarding Callum-Aaravos-Rayla just came true with Finnegrin swapped in for Aaravos - because Finnegrin is pushing forward and developing similar kinds of dilemmas I imagined along the exact same thematic axis those predictions were built off of: control vs freedom tethered together by love.

To me, Callum having a Key of someone who's imprisoned (and its majority negative associations in arc 1, i.e. being the symbol of temptation and dark magic in Callum's fever dreams) as well as Callum's own associations with freedom (wings like Icarus, the sky arcanum, emphasis in lines of dialogue, etc) seemed like an obvious through line of Callum playing into Aaravos' future machinations and setting the Startouch elf free, for some reason (or at least, foreshadowing being unable to stop him). People doing terrible things for love was a smaller undercurrent in arc 1 (largely with Claudia for her family, and Harrow out of grief with Sarai) and Rayla was the reason Callum had the cube in the first place, at risk to herself, so all those things compounded into Callum, under coercion, doing something he deemed terrible but necessary in order to save Rayla being held hostage/captive, no matter the risk.

S4 just added to this in major ways (and S6 could bring it, wildly enough, wholly to fruition - although I could see the 'captive' part be replaced easily with a fatal wound), largely due to the scene between Callum and Rayla in 4x07:

C: I'm not afraid [Aaravos will] hurt me. I'm afraid that he'll use me, to do awful things, or hurt people I care about.

However, it was always very clear to me that if it came to doing an awful thing or saving his loved ones, Callum would 100% always choose doing the awful thing to save his loved ones. And everything Callum was scared of here due to the lack of freedom and autonomy are things that literally happened in 5x08 thanks to Finnegrin.

Callum frames his relationship with Aaravos as one that's an inherent loss of freedom/control: "When Aaravos possessed me, back at the Storm Spire, I felt so weak and out of control." This is also the level of identity, of someone being able to use his body and strip away his voice - "I was his puppet".

Finnegrin's conversations with Callum centre around a similar theme, but he makes the initial mistake in trying to motivate Callum with his own freedom: "Just one dark magic spell, and you go free." He ignores Callum's obvious signs of 'weakness' ( "Tell me where my friends are") by assuming Callum is interested mostly because he wants to be free: "They won't be springing to your rescue" even when that's hardly what he cares about.

He identifies that Callum is deeply attached to his personal loyalties, but I can see Finnegrin thinking he's doing Callum some sort of twisted favour, in giving him the opportunity to sell out for his own freedom and leave his friends out to dry. (Love is weakness, after all. Shouldn't you want to prune yourself from weakness?)

The fact that Finnegrin is targeting Callum specifically because 1) Callum is a mage, 2) in relation to dark magic (when that was Aaravos' in, too) and 3) out of revenge (against an archdragon who's spared restricted him, and Aaravos wants revenge for his imprisonment & against the Startouch elves for also sparing but banishing/felling him) just furthers these thematic connotations between Finnegrin and Aaravos.

+ Bonus framing used to make it look like Callum is the one also in a cage, and a framing technique TDP has used before with always framing it so Claudia and Soren are the ones behind bars upon visiting their father in 3x03:

Then, much like Aaravos, Finnegrin baits a defiant Callum into a test ("those who fail tests of love are simple animals") that he's doomed to lose. Finnegrin's control is immediately set up to be exerted over everyone, yes, but Rayla in particular:

Because Finnegrin doesn't actually care about any of the other kids besides Callum. All he wants to do is break Callum's morale so that the boy will give up the information he needs, whether that's by trying to force Callum to pick someone to lose a hand (which the others remove as a coercive tactic) or by trying to get him to do dark magic again because as he says "You'll do anything for them."

But this, of course, is a false pretense. A lie. If Callum had done it here (and the show seems to imply he would have, or was seriously considering it), all Finnegrin would've had to do was use his blood spell to incapacitate everyone else. This is also an interesting point of note in some ways too, because technically... the episode could've just ended here.

Think of it this way: the overall structure of the episode is to get Callum's back against the wall so he uses dark magic, and accepts that he would use it, so he can gain a deeper understanding of himself and access the Ocean arcanum, leading to him throwing off Finnegrin's ice spell. Right? That's the Plot structure stuff that had to happen. If that was all that they wanted, you could do it in these scenes. The main cast would know Callum had done dark magic, which is the major difference, but surely wouldn't hold it against him. Callum could've done dark magic to get their chains off, could've had an impromptu Ocean arcanum realization, and things could've played out exactly as they do in the final scenes of the episode.

The episode could end here, but it doesn't, because well...

The writers chose to make him give up the information and do dark magic, specifically, to save Rayla. That's what they wanted. That's the relationship they chose to emphasize. Not the group dynamic, or one of the others (Soren or Ezran, mostly, as contenders), but for Rayla. Just like what I always expected Aaravos to prey upon too, even before and definitely after Callum and Rayla's talk in 4x07.

But Finnegrin still miscalculates, still not quite understanding that this isn't enough to keep Callum under control. If anything it spurs him further into continually more violent, escalating action: punching Finnegrin, giving up the spell (control), and when both of those prove futile, using dark magic to free himself (freedom) so he can save Rayla (love). And all of these lead him to the ocean arcanum: "To love is simply to know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep [...] the Ocean arcanum is accepting there are depths you can't see."

Callum already didn't like doing dark magic, but as he says, "I had to, to save my friend(s)" and now he knows what that cost him: the threat of hurting his loved ones because doing dark magic has let Aaravos possess him. And here, as indicated by the intro change being the Callum pawn one, Callum has played into Aaravos' hands - at least marginally. He's accepted this darker side of himself, his willingness to do anything for the people he loves (including keeping secrets and trying to be "strong alone") - the part of him that Aaravos has arguably known all along. Remember those Tests of Love? Yeah Callum just passed one.

By and large, Finnegrin is a smaller, less smart stand in for Aaravos in 5x08. Revenge driven, focused on control and coercion, unnecessarily cruel, and willing to do anything to get what he wants - forcing Callum into the corner and subsequent choices for the person he Loves, as I predicted. (And there will probably be future parallels between Callum and Elmer regarding being pawns and breaking free and identity, but again: post for another day.) The fact that Callum's had this identity arc running throughout S4 and S5 ("Oh, I know [high mage] is my formal title, but you can just call me by my regular name" -> "I don't know how to feel about Rayla either" -> "I'm afraid, Rayla. What if I'm a path of darkness? -> "I have to go after him" "I know" -> "A lot has changed, but not everything's changed. I would do anything for you" -> "I'm not a dark mage" -> ?) and Finnegrin says that seeing Rayla in danger makes him Lose Himself (and Rayla's been setup to also Find Him & break him free of the brainwashing)? Love is a weakness, too, Callum's weakness (and strength). Finnegrin knew it, and I expect Aaravos knows it too, and that we'll see both of sides of the strength-weakness dichotomy come to fruition. TDP loves reconciling its dualities after all.

So yeah, we're in for a deep, wild, emotional ride.

TLDR; Finnegrin takes all of Aaravos' most direct thematic interplay (freedom, control, tests of love) with Callum from S4 and shores it up (pun intended) for the boy in S5, naturally pushing Callum further onto the "path of darkness" that Callum fears and Aaravos is relying on. After all:

Let's see just how far that anything goes, shall we?

#tdp callum #tdp aaravos #tdp finnegrin #tdp #5x08 #analysis series #the dragon prince #thanks for asking #anonymous #predictions achieved #theme: freedom #captain hostage exchange canon #tdp meta #analysis #parallels #s5 #arc 2 #this got longer than expected and idk why i Keep Being Surprised by it

[winterstorm032802]

People are hating or questioning Ez on why he wanted to save the baby glowtoads. Like... this is Ezran we are talking about, right? Is there another Ezran I don't know about? Of course, the young king would save baby glowtoads. He's Ezran. He's kind and doesn't like to fight. He always tries to be compassionate and find a solution without violence. His connection with animals is just another sign of how compassionate he is. Also, how was he supposed to know Finnegrin would be that crazy to chase them for three baby glowtoads? Stop hating Ezran! He's a child! Leave him alone he just wants everyone to have a peaceful life!

#ezran #tdp ezran #the dragon prince #leave ez alone #he's just a baby boy #just realized the gifs are basically parallels

[lunanightriderofthecove]

When Rayla says "this is just my rare glowtoad impersonation" Bait copies her afterwards 🤣

#tdp #the dragon prince #tdp s2 #book 2 sky #tdp 2x04 #voyage of the ruthless #lunas tdp rewatch commentary

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Just finished rewatch of S5 - got a fresh little headcanon that the baitlings weren't the first glowtoads Ezran stole from Finnegrin, because Finnegrin was the person who set up Harrow's big fishing trips

#tdp headcanons #harrow #finnegrin #the angst in here is so good #tdp

[klashta-neali]

I haven't seen anyone mention this but one of my biggest gripes with tdp s5 was how they almost killed amaya for like... no reason?

she almost died for a fvcking GLOWTOAD. a tOAD!! not even an important plot character. Yes I get Bait is important to Ezran but for AMAYA to die saving BAIT would've been the most stupidest thing ever.

And I don't understand why she wouldn't come back- why she insisted on staying behind and even shouted GO despite being deaf. zubeia came down and zapped tons of those beasts. it looked like she could easily take down the ones surrounding amaya, so why didn't she??? She could've easily saved Amaya and they could get out of there together, but no, then Corvus had to go and nearly get himself killed too??? It felt weird and unnecessary in terms of writing.

I get that Zubeia had to be injured so the gang would be forced to go to Scumport, but she still could've gotten injured while they're leaving without having to make Amaya and Corvus stay behind.

#tdp #tdp season 5 #the dragon prince s5 #the dragon prince #tdp amaya

[wheretwofacesmeet]

#the dragon prince #bait the glowtoad

[krikkey]

I know I usually post art on here but I just finished watching season 5 of the dragon prince and OH MY GOD

So first of all, BROS GOT TWO ARCANUMS NOW? HES JUST GONNA START COLLECTING THEM LIKE POKÉMON CARDS AT THIS POINT

And even with the two arcanums he used dark magic AGAIN

Before that though WHY DID THEY BEAT CALLUM UP WITH A JELLYFISH? LIKE THEY COULD’VE DONE ANYTHING ELSE

Last thing because I don’t want to rant too much, the baby glowtoads are actually adorable

#the dragon prince #callum the dragon prince

[yurayuramiharin]

TDPtober 2022 Day 2: Dragon

He may be a grumpy glowtoad on the outside but inside he is fierce like a dragon.

#tdptober #tdp fanart #the dragon prince #tdp bait

[chipmunkfanno1love]

Ellis vs Queen Aanya: Who Could Win Ezran’s Heart?

As we can see from the Season 4 trailers, our little boy Ezran is growing up. He really grown from that plucky, jelly-tart stealing young 10 year old into a wise and belevolent preteen king.

Since our young king is heading into his teenage years, I’m sure he’s going to experience all the struggles of puberty, e.g. voice cracking, hormones, etc. While it may not be the focus of this coming season considering the young king has other priorities, I have a feeling that it won’t be long before Callum eventualy has that “Peanut Butter Talk” with his younger half-brother, i.e. the talk about romantic crushes and falling in love. There is certainly no rush for Ezran to have a love interest as he’s still got a bit of growing up to do, and I’m not saying Ezran even needs a love interest...still...the possiblity of our young king developing his first crush this coming season and eventually falling in love and starting a romantic relationship in future seasons is just too adorable of a theory to pass up in terms of discussions. 😁🥰

There is a possiblitiy that they could introduce a totally new character to be his future love interest, but so far I’ve already met two characters who I believe could possibly have great romantic chesmistry with the young king of Katolis.

Those characters are Ellis, the peasant girl who guided Ezran, Callum and Rayla up the Cursed Caldera to find the mysterious healer. 

The other is Queen Anaya, the wise and snarky child queen of Duren.

Here I’m going to discuss why I think either of these young ladies could make a good romantic match for the young king, and you can comment on which of the two you think would make a better match for Ezran.

Ellis:

I personally love this as a potential ship, mainly because I think that Ellis is one of the few children close to Ezran’s age that he’s actually bonded with. In one episode and even the official website description have stated that Ezran has had difficulty making friends with other human children around his age, so seeing him get along so well with Ellis is a good sign.

Both children seem to have such a strong bond with animals. Ezran has a particularly special bond with his pet glowtoad, Bait, and of course the Dragon Prince, Azymondias aka “Zym”. Ellis of course has her special and unbreakable bond with Ava, her pet wolf that she rescued from a hunters trap as a cub. Through their special bond with animals, I’m sure these two cuties would grow a mutual bond and sense of empathy with each other as well. Both would feel it’s important to treat animals like they’re people too.  

They both have similar couragous, adventurous, and optimistic personalities, and always stand up for what they believe is right, even if it means risking their own lives in the process.

I definitely believe Ellis would encourage Ezran to follow his heart and do what is right for the kingdom of Katolis. I imagine she’d be very supportive of his pacifism and possibly has similar beliefs herself as shown in her disgust in traps being set for animals. She’s good for Ezran in that she’ll encourage him to be true to himself and will encourage him to have fun when he needs a break from royal duties. 

I personally think that Ellis shares a similar quirky, stubborn and kind personality to Queen Sarai, who herself came from a lower class background before she became the queen of Katolis. They also have a similar playful sense of humour. Though Ezran was too young to remember his mother, perhaps he’ll find “something fimilar” about Ellis’s demenour and therefore grows to be quite attracted to her emotionally because of that.

If Ellis marries Ezran, Ellis will have the means to provide for her poor family, and Ezran will not hesitate to care for his in-laws out care for them and love for Ellis. Like Sarai, Ellis may struggle with royal life at first, but in time I believe Ellis may herself will grow into a compassionate, brave queen of Katolis and perhaps in time become a loving mother to Ezran’s children. :D

Overall, I think that Ellis will make a wonderful romanctic match for Ezran in that she’d be a kindered spirit to him and a best friend, which is exactly what Ezran needs in a future wife and queen. Still, just because they’re very similar and seem to have a great bond both together and with animals, is that enough to make good romantic chemistry, or do you prefer them just to remain good friends? Perhaps someone more opposite to Ezran could give them better romantic chemistry. 

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

Aanya:

Like King Ezran, Queen Aanya had to grow up quickly and take up the throne of Duren at such a young age due to the tragic death of her parents. Like Ezran, she never knew her two mothers, so she could empathise with Erzan’s pain in not being able to remember his own mother.

Aanya could also relate to Ezran’s struggles with trying to taken seriously as a child monarch, and being the more experienced ruler, I’m sure she has a lot of wisdom to pass down to her slightly younger and less experienced ruler.

While both Ezran and Aanya are very similar in their situations in that both are orphans and child monarchs of their respective kingdoms, in their personalities and points of view they are extremely different. 

While both are compassionate and peaceful rulers who want to make the best decisions they can for their respective kingdoms, Ezran is a ruler that makes decisions with his heart. While this makes him a kind and just ruler, it also makes him naive and overly trusting of others to the point where people could take advantage of his merciful demenour and use his trusting nature against him.

Aanya however is a ruler who prefers to make decisions with her head. She is cautious and not quick to make judgements until she has all the facts. While this makes her a wise and sensible queen, it may also make her cynical and supicious of others. Due to the many assassination attempts on her life, it’s not suprising that Aanya is not so quick to put trust in others, still it is also doesn’t help her in making deeper and more intimate connections with others.

I believe that both Ezran and Aanya have a lot to learn from each other, both as monarchs and as individuals. Aanya being a more cautious individual would encourage Ezran to think through all his decisions and would encourage him not to jump on the first option that feels right. She’d encourage him to consider all the pros and cons of each decision, and therefore she would help Ezran make wiser and more rational decisions in his leadership. She could help him grow not just as a king, but as a person as well. 

Ezran on the other hand could bring out Aanya’s less serious and more playful side. He could help Aanya to laugh and have fun and remember that while she is leader of a country, she is also a person - and a young person at that. Ezran could help Aanaya to embrace the more playful side of herself, and perhaps with time he’ll soften her hard edges and bring out the more emotional, vunerable side of herself. The young king of Katolis may find Aanya’s snarky personality amusing and as a result the two could have laughs together and develop a deeper bond and trust with each other that they didn’t realise they could have.

When it comes to decisions like going to war, Ezran is a firm pacifist who refuses to put the lives of others in danger and does what he can to avoid violence and war at all costs. Aanya on the other hand is more pragmatic when it comes to war. As we’ve seen from the Season 3 finale, she’s obviously a skilled warrior who can handle herself in battle (as shown when she took down the mutated Kasef with her impressive archery skills) and therefore is obviously not against going to war if she feels there is no other choice. Out of care for her people and perhaps to save resources and men, she’ll obviously avoid going to war if it’s possible and try to rely on her diplomacy skills instead. Hopefully Ezran and Aanya would come to a respectful compromise when it comes to war. I believe both of them would want to do what’s best for protecting their people and would come up with a clever solution to create peace with their political rivals. With Aanya’s strategic mind and Ezran’s optimistic attitude, I’m sure they’d make a great diplomatic team. 

One big plus about them forming a romantic connection opens the possiblity that they could marry in the future, and as a result unite their two kingdoms of Katolis and Duren together. It could be a great political decision for both of their kingdoms, but I certainly hope that their decision to marry would be made purely out of love for each other and not simply a political match. 

I see a lot of opportunity for them in terms of developing a romantic relationship, but I could also see them simply as supportive allies and perhaps even friends. Either way, I certainly would love to see more interactions between these child monarchs in the future and see for myself which direction I think their relationship is heading. If they do fall in love though, I could see them having a similar romantic relationship to Astrid and Hiccup from the "How to Train Your Dragon" franchise.

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

One thing that Ezran has common with both girls is his love of sweets and baked goods. While his favourite treat is obviously jelly tarts, Ellis’s favourite treat is winter-berry pie and Aanya’s is peach and pear cobbler. If he does date either of these two girls, I wonder if he'll invite either of them to a picnic of sweet treats and perhaps even go on a tart stealing adventure with one of them in the kitchen. Adorable, funny and delicious, lol. 😆🥰

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

What are your thoughts? Which of these two pretty young ladies do you think is a better romantic match for Ezran? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. 

#THE DRAGON PRINCE #ellis the dragon prince #king ezran #ezran the dragon prince #queen anaya #the dragon prince shipping #the dragon prince season 4 #the dragon prince future seasons #tdp ezran #ellis #aanya #the dragon prince

[izanyas]

hello everyone!! i'm happy to introduce you all to the YAOI ZINE 😎 where you will find art and entries of various forms from 24 different creators (myself included), all about the theme of yaoi! free OR $10 only if you wanna support with printing/shipping cost. 80 pages of fun!

a project by @tshirt3000 💓 get yours while it's hot!

#yaoi #zine #fanzine

[baatarthefirst]

Some reviews for Season 5 are…let’s say I think they are missing the point.

Reviewer: Most of the problems these characters face is a direct result of them acting like dumbasses.

Me internally: That’s because our heroes ARE dumbasses!

Dumb decisions in and of themselves don’t equal a bad plot line. Intelligent characters making uncharacteristically bad decisions make a bad plot line. It brakes our suspension of disbelief and takes us out of the story.

But it is completely in character for Callum to lose track of time trying to find something to help his friend’s parents.

It is completely character for Ezran to risk the wrath of a pirate to save three baby glowtoads.

These acts are addressed even if they will likely be useful later. Amaya gets annoyed with her nephew, and throws him over her shoulder. Ezran offers up his hand saying that he should lose a hand because he’s the one who stole. They are kids, kids who think like kids.

If Amaya stayed too late looking for something that would help Janai, or Janai stole three hot at cubs, we should call bs. Because they are experienced soldiers who think in terms of casualties and mission priorities. Callum and Ezran are not. Of course they are going to screw up from time to time

#I didn’t comment on the review #everyone is entitled to that opinion #but still #tdp #the dragon prince #callum #Ezran #amaya #janai #Rayllum #janaya

[forever-animated]

So I already wrote my whole post about why I disliked how Rayllum was handled in S4. Now I want to talk about what I did like, in no particular order.

Terry! He’s a sweet little cinnamon roll, and I love him so much. My man just needs to stop simping over Claudia, because she doesn’t deserve him.

Viren. Oh my gosh. The way the show handled his panic attack and showing how he’s conflicted / rethinking his life. Yes please. I want a redemption arc for him soooo bad, because it would be something so unexpected and cool.

The whole Terry, Viren, and Claudia arc was probably the most compelling thing in this whole season, IMO.

Soren is awesome. I loved having him be a part of Team Zym this season.

Claudia and Soren’s talk. Seriously great. I loved that they delved into just how much those two have drifted apart, in terms of morals and ethics.

Ezran’s speech coinciding with the Ibis and Claudia fight was masterful. Such a powerful moment.

Rex Igneous is such a dick. I love him.

Terry and Viren. Their scenes together were really well done. I feel like Viren is really warming up to him, and I hope that’s the catalyst for Viren to finally have a change of heart.

Aaravos didn’t have much screen time, but they definitely made his scene count. I love how he shows up, possesses Callum, roasts everyone, and overdramatically breaks the mirror. Iconic.

The scene where Zym shows up on the bridge after everyone thinks he’s dead made me laugh so hard. Probably the funniest moment this season. Also a great Indiana Jones reference.

I didn’t really care for the Sunfire Elf plot, but I do really love the sweet moments between Janai and Amaya.

Bait. Just Bait. I love that grumpy glowtoad so much.

And uh, I think that’s it. At least that I can remember. Maybe I’ll talk more about what I didn’t like in another post.

#tdp s4 spoilers #the dragon prince spoilers #the dragon prince #tdp