Yes Yes Yes Yes The Tdp Lore Is Deep And Consistent And I Love The Show For It

Yes yes yes yes the tdp lore is deep and consistent and I love the show for it

obsessed with the long-game payoff of "Hearts of Cinder" rn tbh

like not just in a narrative mirroring/parallels way, showing in s3 how far Viren had fallen and closing that arc in s6, or with how Soren and Viren's positions reversed, but like... either they planned this for Viren literally from the beginning or it came about through a startling commitment to lore depth and consistency

because like

a) Back in s3, the "Hearts of Cinder" spell is... weird. Like not so weird that it clashes with the setting as we know it, but at the time we're only just being introduced to things like the Draconic corrupted Sun rune spells, or the role the Staff of Ziard plays in dark magic. It's got an incantation that, at the time, is kind of unusual in the context of other dark magic spells but slots in with the series' overall recurring heart motif such that it can't really be called wrong. It's not a Spiders Georg-level outlier, but it definitely feels like there's something we're missing.

b) That's because someone planned it out in deep detail: "Hearts of Cinder" is, in hindsight, the only dark magic spell we see that is clearly intended for war with Xadia. It's a spell that comes from a much more brutal era both politically and magically, when armed conflict with dragons was high and "make your army immune to dragon fire for the low, low cost of one human sacrifice" was a deal people were willing to take. We know that's intentional, because it's right in the incantation: dark magic incantations frequently reference the spell reagent, as with "Slithering Steel" or "Ash of Fallen, Rise Again." So someone knew as far back as s3 that this spell normally used a human heart for its magical power.

c) This confirms so much stuff that it's like they put it in there for me, tumblr user kradogsrats, special interest: dark magic. The on-screen exposition drop that the Sunforge Staff contains a Sun primal stone. Confirmation that you can use a primal stone as a source for dark magic. Confirmation that you can use human essence as a source for dark magic. Another consistency example of the Staff of Ziard being used to empower dark magic spells. Confirmation that there are dark magic spells built on human sacrifice.

like... that's all stuff I knew, or at least suspected and wanted to be true, but having it all right out there like "hey who wants some resolution in the lore arc of dark magic? kradogsrats again?" just has me like

Also this is some how a kid's show??

so you are telling me that the prison of Aaravos is:

-in the crater where his daughter died

-In the lake that he created with his tears

- among the bones of his daughter

-modeled like his home

and we're surprised he went crazy?

Being a multishipper is great because there is SUCH a wide range of dynamics and possibilities that can be explored between different characters. Biggest example for me is in atla.

Like I will never be sick of Kataang and I will never be sick of Zutara. They are my children and I love them equally.

two nickels

if I had a nickel for every time a complicated character staggered gravely injured from King Harrow's chamber

needed assistance getting out onto the balcony

dragged themselves painfully out to the end of it

dropped a scrap of fabric that revealed a blood/death motif

knelt before a powerful force that was bringing their doom

used the last of their strength to do one last attack with a magical techy artifact

collapsed among the ruins of the fate they brought on themselves

resigned themselves to their deaths

and then fell out of frame to the left

I'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot, but it's extremely cool that it's happened twice.

edit: omg tumblr do not mess with my images like this! fixed!

Catelyn heard someone snigger behind her. She loves him, poor thing, she thought sadly. She'd play his squire just to touch him, and never care how great a fool they think her... (and some other things)