I'd Be No Better Than Aaravos - Blog Posts

Wholly agree with this (and love it!), just gonna add a couple things:

First, and I can't believe we're here, but: Aaravos might have just made it on the best cartoon dad list, AND JUST FROM ONE EPISODE! That's gotta be a record.

Second... I think this point could get even more sad, so sorry in advance; Leola was executed for breaking Cosmic Order, right? Because she gave magic to humans... Aaravos also gave magic to humans, and a far worse kind at that, while being a menace to any other form of Order he could find..... and was imprisoned. I'm sorry, WHAT?

And while we're mentioning it, let's look at that prison, shall we? It's a big pearl, sure. Inside it, it's a near-perfect replica of the home Aaravos and Leoa lived in before her execution. Outside, it rests among bones that could very well be LEOLA'S REMAINS, inside a body of water that Aaravos made with his tears over the span of 100 YEARS!!! And someone chose THAT as his prison, like they're trying to rub salt on the wound.

All this, on top of your point, makes me think that they, while definitely not wanting humans to have magic, were more concerned with getting rid of a child they could not understand or control, while trying to keep "one of the Great Ones" with them, and subsequently got petty when that (unsurprisingly) backfired.

The whole situation reeks of toxicity and ableism under a perfect facade.

Ok ok ok SO!

I think everyone has realized that Leola was autistic. It was heavily implied both through the flashback images and Aaravos' narration-

She lined up her toys, flapped her hands (it was also shown in the trial scene), seemed to be sensitive towards loud sounds (like the other startouch elves when they talked), and walked on her tiptoes. All of those are classic signs of autism.

But there's one thing I haven't seen anyone else bring up, and that's that her giving her human friends magic and breaking the "cosmic order" or whatever could also be because of her neurotype!

Autistic people tend to have very strict senses of morality and fairness, and will disregard rules if they don't fit their idea of right or wrong. Personal example here, I used to constantly do things I was told not to because I thought the rules in question were bogus.

It's not hard to guess that Leola would find the rules about humans not having magic to be unfair- after all, her and all the other elves, and even the animals around them are full of it! So in the mind of an autistic child, this would be incredibly unfair. And she had the power to "fix" the situation! So why wouldn't she?

Why wouldn't she try to help her friends? Because it would break the cosmic order? That's vague as hell and she was a KID!

And the startouch elves atomized her, for breaking a rule she probably only half understood and thought was stupid. Because she was autistic.

Had this thought and wanted to share, makes the whole thing even more tragic.