Tdp Viren - Blog Posts
How far can a person bend before they break and how long can the broken be wielded before they turn double edged?
This season was so devastatingly beautiful, but ironically, the metaphorical crown wouldn't be heavy if the gemstones didn't dig into the head of the wearer.
Sometimes, the line between mercy and cruelty can be thin.
The reason WHY Claudia resonates so deeply with Aaravos' story is because it's a mirror that she finds herself in. She IS the daughter in the story but not the one who pays the price. No, that was paid by her father... her father, who was brave enough to do what Aaravos couldn't. What's heartbreaking is that she doesn't even realize what she's discarding is the same thing Viren chose to embrace in death; his humanity.
The loss portrayed was so unsettling...
To even the loss we felt as the audience, seeing what made Viren who he was... his own son, to seeing what he made himself and the loss of what could've been and how his death proved the one thing we didn't want him to show... him having a human heart. And that's what this show did magnificently... it made this audience root for people against our will.
From the unfinished story of the lovers forever frozen in time to the mournful ballad rayla sang to console the stormbringer.
The only thing left to see is how these weapons charecters are to be utilized.
How callum will embrace his darkness and if Rayla will be able to kill him if need be. Or if promises will not be the only things to be broken next time.
This wasn’t supposed to get any notes
I’ve made a terrible discovery
Remember in the Dragon Prince episode when Rayla was pretending to be human.
She joked about how humans have shorter life expectancies. And then realized
Elves have longer life spans than humans
Rayla is going to outlive Callum and Ezran and she’ll watch them die while she has to live on without them…
Reblog if you'll be keeping the TDP fandom alive with me after s7 release, even if we don't get Arc 3
The dragon king's death
We are told the dragon king was killed by using really powerful and really dark magic. So Viren must have played a huge role in it right? But I don't picture him as the one killing the dragon king and not mentioning it. So, who did it? I know there were probably many soldiers who could do it but when it comes to actually killing the dragon king there is only one person that I can picture doing it.
Amaya
Yes, not Viren or Harrow but Amaya.
I mean she is so badass she must have been there. And she probably wanted revenge for her sister and friend Sarai (just as much as Harrow who also could have done it because of that) so yeah she is the only one I can imagine doing it and to be honest? I wouldn't even be mad at her.
Are we all gonna sleep on the fact that Viren send out assassins to kill the other kings and queens of the human kingdoms?
Viren send out shadow-assasins to spark fear in the other kingdoms (with help from Aaravos even though I don't think he helped him with his magic there) and I have not seen one post addressing it?! Please tell me that you are just as concerned about it as I am.
"Has our relationship truly escalated to this new height? Am I your little bug-pal?"
No but how did he get the egg and mirror back to katolis with out harrow noticing
I think the problem I have with the dragon prince (beyond a surprising lack of dragons), while finding most of it decently entertaining, is that by far the most interesting aspect of their magic system is dark magic and the other magic doesn't even remotely compare to the point where it feel unintentionally imbalanced. Not to sound like Viren but it IS clever and practical and until any of the other kinds of magic can prove that they're able to cure full body paralysis for the price of a single deer (who get hunted for their meat daily anyway) they don't hold a candle to it.
Yes, other dark magic spells bad, don't trap people in coins forever, but like, for a series that likes to dip its toe into grey morality sometimes, it's weird how 'we should evaluate spells on a case by case basis instead of painting all of a certain kind with the same brush because some of them are incredibly helpful' doesn't seem to be the final conclusion the series is/was headed towards. Am I supposed to give up all helpful drugs because some of them are poisonous or addictive? No, it's about which ones are used in which context and in what amount. Maybe 'regulations good' is just too boring a conclusion or something.
I was pondering a lot recently on why arc one Aaravos and arc two Aaravos had such different vibes (disregarding the fact that we as the viewers have tended to view him with more sympathy and pity since his backstory dropped because that can tend to make us think vibes have changed when it’s just our point of view that’s changed) and it literally just hit me. The entire point is that the vibes ARE different because Aaravos is focused on manipulating a whole new person in arc two.
In arc one Aaravos is manipulating Viren, a man who wants power. In this case, Aaravos doesn’t have to rely too much on trust (even stating that Viren shouldn’t trust him just yet at the very beginning) and needs to focus more on showing the power he has and the power he has to offer. And because of that, we see him as a very graceful and powerful man, someone who exudes extreme mystery because why wouldn’t he when there’s no reason to tell a man who doesn’t trust him anything super important/personal about himself and therefore we, as the viewers who know as much as Viren does, also view him the same way as Viren: a powerful Startouch archmage who’s knowledge is extreme and is immensely shrouded in mystery.
And because Viren doesn’t require a whole lot of trust for Aaravos to manipulate him, they never actually form a friendly bond together that’s more than just a few jokes and respect and you can tell that Viren doesn’t hold much of an emotional bond towards him at all when he gets annoyed at the "has our relationship truly escalated to this new height?” line because Viren does not feel that their relationship is more than acquaintanceship with how little trust is required amongst them.
But in arc two however, Aaravos is manipulating Claudia, an entirely different person who is so love-driven (and therefore so much more emotion-driven than Viren was) and has been alone (her dad dying and being dead for two years, assuming Claudia didn’t meet Terry till around the like one year of Viren being dead mark) for so long that Aaravos needs to rely on trust and emotional bonds more than just power (although that’s important too because he got introduced to her when Viren died) to manipulate her. And because of that, he has been so much more 'soft' and caring towards her that we no longer just see the all powerful and mysterious archmage, we see a man who has formed a bond with Claudia that goes past acquaintanceship that we never got to see with him and Viren.
That’s what made everything click for me, because I had asked myself 'why would Aaravos tell Claudia his backstory and not Viren when they have so many similarities with them both being fathers who would do anything for their kid(s) and it would make Viren trust him more?' It’s because Viren and Aaravos’ relationship never relied too heavily on trust and emotions while Claudia and his did because she’s a character who is so loving that she can’t seek out power (subsequently not follow anything Aaravos had said during his manipulation) without it being for love.
So in arc one, we only see one side of Aaravos, one that’s powerful and mysterious. In arc two, we see another side of Aaravos, one that’s caring and can be trusted by Claudia. The only times we really see arc one Aaravos in arc two is his conversation with Viren, his talk with Ezran, and the final battle because he’s no longer with people who are so emotion and love driven.
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUIck86RwPE
Audio: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxRlqK1I4_sHOybPEF3HjAEzBfQBVdnZfO
İrem Derici ''ver ulan müziği'' Fantastik dans 2025 (of
Expanding upon the idea I put in the tags of this post on my main blog.
Viren saw the monstrous part of himself in Claudia when she killed to revive him, and abandoned her because of it. Mostly I think because he saw it as a hurt he was causing and ran away. The same way he emotionally abandoned Soren as a child because seeing his son reminded him of the hurt he caused for his family. He COULD HAVE been on a path to forgiving himself. I think his attempts to reconcile with Soren and apologize (however poorly managed) were brought on by the realization of what he’d done to Claudia.
And we see him let go of the shame he was feeling (writing out the events that occurred, burning the letter when he realized he couldn’t put that burden on Soren). But he does not see himself as worthy of another chance. He views himself as a monster, and he views Claudia as a monster. That’s the part of himself he left behind for her.
He also left behind the part of himself that we saw in his dark magic fever dreams. The younger version of himself that believed there is always hope, that there is always another path forward. That people can change. We see that reflected -
(oh hey mirrors/reflections as a symbol: Leola and the sea of the cast out reflecting the night sky, the reflection of the full moon in the water of the nexus when Rayla went to rescue her parents from the coins, Ethari seeing Rayla in the reflection of the sword when she’s a ghost, the reflection of Soren in his sword when he “kills” Viren ((mmm I love these Soren Rayla parallels)) also YALL I think Claudia’s gonna die like WHYS Soren alone in his reflection!)
in Soren’s character arc.
Harrow, Runaan, and Viren were all prepared to accept death as justice for their actions. They all knew they were guilty of continuing the cycle of violence. Harrow stopped being ashamed and felt remorse for the actions he took and their effects. We can see this in his letter to Callum. He has regrets, but he believes the justice he deserves is death, not forgiveness.
Viren is finally coming to terms with his guilt and shame when he writes his letter to Soren. And he never delivers it because he sees it for what it is. But that doesn’t mean he’s fully prepared to let go (he never tries to reconcile with Claudia and I’d have to watch it again because it’s hard to tell at that point if he’d even want to. That man really just threw her to the wolves). His death is his final cycle into violence. Falling back onto the crux of dark magic - even if it’s to save people - and the dark magic literally requiring him to die. He’s running away into what’s safe and comfortable instead of overcoming that fear and trying a different solution even if it would be harder. He could have left with Soren and found an alternative (this is a narrative, he made this choice for. a. reason). His life to save Soren’s was not the only option, it was his choice.
Runaan was ready to accept death until Claudia decided he’d be better used for information. Which ends with him trapped in a coin (very similar to the way Aaravos is trapped in the prison for eternity). He had an opportunity to overcome the violence and listen to Rayla and Callum about the egg. But he chooses the cycle of violence again. And it’s what consumes him in his limbo. And then having the second chance to overcome that violence and accepting it is what saves him.
This is getting rambley and it’s getting late, but like - do you see my vision? Do you see the parallels? The themes? And so on and so forth