ink as rain

let us observe with fascination

[inkasrain]

Hi.

Briefly reviving this tumblr because I want to shmooze a little about Dragon Prince, and alas, it's kind of the only good platform for that kind of thing.

There will definitely be spoilers.

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Next month, I'm going to celebrating the release of my dear friend Andrea's debut novel, THE ART OF EXILE! If you like YA, eco-futurism, light academia, Jewish-influenced storytelling, and helping out new voices, please check it out -- there are pre-order links of all kinds here (big box to precious indies) many of which include some honkin' great swag, if I don't say so myself. It would also be great to see you at any of the release events -- I'll be "in conversation" with Andrea in Paramus on the 13th, and I hope to be at the other events too! (And yes, Andrea is a fan of The Dragon Prince, and she was actually one of my very first readers on my very first spec script, which I used as my sample for the show. The only thing THE ART OF EXILE is missing is dragons... but there's always the sequel!)

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neeeext weeeeeek

[inkasrain]

Next month, I'm going to celebrating the release of my dear friend Andrea's debut novel, THE ART OF EXILE! If you like YA, eco-futurism, light academia, Jewish-influenced storytelling, and helping out new voices, please check it out -- there are pre-order links of all kinds here (big box to precious indies) many of which include some honkin' great swag, if I don't say so myself. It would also be great to see you at any of the release events -- I'll be "in conversation" with Andrea in Paramus on the 13th, and I hope to be at the other events too! (And yes, Andrea is a fan of The Dragon Prince, and she was actually one of my very first readers on my very first spec script, which I used as my sample for the show. The only thing THE ART OF EXILE is missing is dragons... but there's always the sequel!)

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Visit Original Link

I don't remember why exactly (beyond the fact that the song fucking slaps) but back in 2022 I made a mini mermaid version of Devon's sea shanty.

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dark callum is the best and also my favorite and in addition correct about everything.

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I’m so curious why there’s so many themes with Callum and breath? (Dad has breathing sickness, aspiro, getting his breath taken away on multiple occasions) Do you have any insights or thoughts, as a writer, as to what the intention was?

I've honestly never thought about this connection, and I don't know if it was developed intentionally. That said, my eternal inner English major finds this very pleasing, as I think one of the main ideas that Callum embodies in the show is freedom. ("Destiny is a book you write yourself"... and I mean, the boy literally has wings.) If we crib slightly from ATLA and import the idea that "air is the element of freedom," Callum's connection to it through both choice and circumstance makes a lot of sense. Like, Callum is a character who starts the story both in an undefined role -- hello "step-prince" -- and deeply entrenched in the norms and prejudices of human society. His ability to define himself and break free of what his world expects from him is one of his most defining features. And that theme only grows stronger when his fight for self-definition ultimately becomes an internal battle that he must wage against himself. (Plus, if you think about it, this all kind of culminates in Callum choosing to perform a Dark Magic spell that is specifically one of imprisonment. And through that, Callum believes he is putting the ultimate restriction on himself, ie, ending his own life. Which is also pretty tasty from a thematic point of view.)

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I still think a lot about whether or not Ezran is right about this.

What does proportional defense look like against dragons with agency and personhood? CAN weaponized deterrence ever be a defense? What is your responsibility to yourself and your friends, when those friends have the inherent power to destroy you? Is creating weaponry like this dooming future generations to violence — or is NOT creating these weapons depriving them of the ability to protect themselves?

I don’t know.

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Viren: Not the Cliff but the Road

I'm pretty sure that most of The Viren Conversation has been had (and had, and had!), so I don't want to beat a dead (disgraced, former) High Mage. Howeverrrr, there is one element of the way this character finale played out that remains one of my favorite things to come out of the TDP room, and I just want to talk about it a little. (As always, just my take, not canon.)

I have a strong personal bias against the idea of death as an inherently redeeming act in fiction. We are so accustomed to the idea that a succesful hero's arc will conclude in sacrifice, and that therefore a reformed villain's arc must end in the ultimate sacrifice, that we don't think to probe the origins of this concept. To me, this is basically just deeply ingrained Christian pedagogy masquerading as narrative fact. I don't personally think that there is anything inherently salvational or goodness-proving about this arc format, or that it should be the natural default for stories like this. Death does not cleanse; life does. So theoretically, I should be unhappy with the way Viren's arc ends in season 6. He -- a bad person -- dies doing a good thing. He sacrifices his life for Soren and the people of Katolis and thus is redeemed.... right? If I thought that Viren's change arc ends with his death, sure. But that's not how I see it. For me, Viren's arc draws to a close before the attack on Katolis, and before his death. I don't actually think he has a singular redemptive moment. Instead, it is the sum total of his choices and actions from 509 to 606 -- the ways he makes use of his life -- that are cumulatively cleansing. Viren has always thought of himself as someone who makes "the hard choices" but he's been pretty good at wriggling (or being wriggled) out of the consequences. As of 509, that changes; he changes. He makes choices that will be painful for him. That will place a burden on him. And that, most importantly, he believes he will have to live with. There is nothing short-term about the decisions Viren makes after that point in the story. They are all the actions of a man who has finally realized that he can (MUST) live with the consequences of his "hard choices." I'd even include choosing not to kill the Homunculus in that category, as the death Viren faces there is a quiet, lonely, and utterly unremarkable surrender -- all things his character in many ways been defined as working so strongly against.

If there is a true peak of his arc, I personally see it as the moment in 606 when Viren burns his letter to Soren. He has gone through the agony of exposing his darkest moments and can move forward with the clarity that such an experience provides. But even more importantly, he chooses not to burden Soren with that knowledge -- and in doing so, accepts that he will live with Soren's anger and blame. He will not justify himself at Soren's expense; he sacrifices any hope of receiving love from his son because he knows those feelings are the cumulative consequence of his own actions. Viren's death is a culmination, if anything, of his love for Soren and his arc of shifting the focus of his life to others. His death does not retroactively prove his goodness, does not justify his past. It is a sad resolution of a man's struggles, nothing more. So I don't see Viren's choice to sacrifice himself as a redemptive act, because I really don't think he needs one. He is doing the work already, living the life, walking the more difficult road. It's bittersweet that the road ends, but they all do. The important thing is, for me, that Viren isn't defined by the act that ends his life, some kind of spectacular salvational swan dive off a cliff. Instead, he is marked by the journey, the change he underwent to get to that point in his story. (And like, I was a very minor participant in the orchestration of this arc, but I'm ridiculously proud to have been a small part of this kind of storytelling.)

[inkasrain]

Viren: Not the Cliff but the Road

I'm pretty sure that most of The Viren Conversation has been had (and had, and had!), so I don't want to beat a dead (disgraced, former) High Mage. Howeverrrr, there is one element of the way this character finale played out that remains one of my favorite things to come out of the TDP room, and I just want to talk about it a little. (As always, just my take, not canon.)

I have a strong personal bias against the idea of death as an inherently redeeming act in fiction. We are so accustomed to the idea that a succesful hero's arc will conclude in sacrifice, and that therefore a reformed villain's arc must end in the ultimate sacrifice, that we don't think to probe the origins of this concept. To me, this is basically just deeply ingrained Christian pedagogy masquerading as narrative fact. I don't personally think that there is anything inherently salvational or goodness-proving about this arc format, or that it should be the natural default for stories like this. Death does not cleanse; life does. So theoretically, I should be unhappy with the way Viren's arc ends in season 6. He -- a bad person -- dies doing a good thing. He sacrifices his life for Soren and the people of Katolis and thus is redeemed.... right? If I thought that Viren's change arc ends with his death, sure. But that's not how I see it. For me, Viren's arc draws to a close before the attack on Katolis, and before his death. I don't actually think he has a singular redemptive moment. Instead, it is the sum total of his choices and actions from 509 to 606 -- the ways he makes use of his life -- that are cumulatively cleansing. Viren has always thought of himself as someone who makes "the hard choices" but he's been pretty good at wriggling (or being wriggled) out of the consequences. As of 509, that changes; he changes. He makes choices that will be painful for him. That will place a burden on him. And that, most importantly, he believes he will have to live with. There is nothing short-term about the decisions Viren makes after that point in the story. They are all the actions of a man who has finally realized that he can (MUST) live with the consequences of his "hard choices." I'd even include choosing not to kill the Homunculus in that category, as the death Viren faces there is a quiet, lonely, and utterly unremarkable surrender -- all things his character in many ways been defined as working so strongly against.

If there is a true peak of his arc, I personally see it as the moment in 606 when Viren burns his letter to Soren. He has gone through the agony of exposing his darkest moments and can move forward with the clarity that such an experience provides. But even more importantly, he chooses not to burden Soren with that knowledge -- and in doing so, accepts that he will live with Soren's anger and blame. He will not justify himself at Soren's expense; he sacrifices any hope of receiving love from his son because he knows those feelings are the cumulative consequence of his own actions. Viren's death is a culmination, if anything, of his love for Soren and his arc of shifting the focus of his life to others. His death does not retroactively prove his goodness, does not justify his past. It is a sad resolution of a man's struggles, nothing more. So I don't see Viren's choice to sacrifice himself as a redemptive act, because I really don't think he needs one. He is doing the work already, living the life, walking the more difficult road. It's bittersweet that the road ends, but they all do. The important thing is, for me, that Viren isn't defined by the act that ends his life, some kind of spectacular salvational swan dive off a cliff. Instead, he is marked by the journey, the change he underwent to get to that point in his story. (And like, I was a very minor participant in the orchestration of this arc, but I'm ridiculously proud to have been a small part of this kind of storytelling.)

[inkasrain]

On Ezran

First things first:

This is extremely niche and probably very lame, but it's been on my mind for a long time.

As always, my thoughts about The Dragon Prince are just my own, and aren't official or canon or anything.

So. At some point early in the writing process for season 7, this song cycled up on my shuffle. It's been on my iPod (YES I STILL USE MY DINKY LITTLE IPOD SHUFFLE FOR MUSIC, MOVING ON) for probably 15 years at this point. It's not a song I really consciously hear anymore, it just exists familiarly in the background.

But with season 7 -- and particularly Ezran's story -- on my mind, I heard it differently. It took on a new meaning, and for me, became the musical embodiment of Ezran's personal, political, and emotional journey in this season. The song is a medley of two passages from TaNaCh (the complete Hebrew Bible.) The first is from the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), and is pretty well-known as far as Bible vibes go: Everything has a time, and there is a season for everything under Heaven... A time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace. (Shoutout Hall & Oates.) The second part of the medley comes from the book of Yirmiyahu (Jeremiah). It's much more obscure and is honestly not super easy to translate as the phrasing is very poetic and metaphorical. (The Prophets are generally very like "Figure it out, guys.") Approximately though, this is what it means:

"Isn't Ephraim my beloved son, My precious child, Whom I remember fondly Even when I speak against him? So my heart reaches out to him, And surely I will always be compassionate to him," Says Gd.

The important thing to know about this passage is that it is fundamentally about a broken bond -- how pain between loved ones can be repaired through the remembrance of healthier times, and choosing to feel compassion for each other. In a liturgical context, it's often used when requesting compassion and forgiveness from Gd, as we call back to times of a stronger spiritual connection. In the song, the passages intertwine at a critical and resolving point: The words "And surely I will always be compassionate to him" are woven around the first passage, with its last word -- peace -- repeated until the second passage completes. To me, this speaks so perfectly to Ezran's experience in season 7. How he was, for so long, the sweet, beloved son and brother, the innocent king. How he has been forced to suddenly grow up and confront the contradictions of love and hate, war and peace. How that tears him apart from the people he loves, when he most needs them to speak to him, and how destructive that distance can be. And how ultimately, it is his decision to choose compassion, and how that is met equally by Callum, Runaan, and others, that begins to heal those bonds and create a path forward. A path of love. A path of peace. The path that he had always hoped to forge, and is now so much stronger for having had to struggle to get to it.

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Favorite/most proud of moment you wrote in season 7?

I am theoretically proud of the conversation between Ezran and Aaravos... at the time, I kind of thought of it as a level-up from Ezran's negotiation with Karim in season 6 (for both Ezran and me) and it was correspondingly a real challenge. Buuuuut I haven't actually watched it yet (SCARED TO, TBQH) so I don't know how I'll feel about the finished product.

[roz-ani]

You know, for kids

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I'm not sure if this actually merits an explanation (is there a single person who objects to Karim's death lol) but I still want to talk about it for juuuust a second. Because for me, there's a little more to Karim's squishening than "HAHA SUCKS TO SUCK"... though that is definitely a part of it too. (As always, these are just my personal feelings on the subject and should not be taken as anything else!) My strongest feeling while we were exploring the end of Karim's arc was that the character himself had lost the right to find satisfaction in the circumstances of his death. The guy is obsessed with narrative, with being the heir to a history that he has gilded to the point of absurdity. Karim has bitten deep into the idea that he is a story worthy of posterity. He's a prince, a king, a martyr, a savior -- and nothing in the world will get him to unclench his jaws. And because of that, he rejects with maddening consistency any concession to the more complicated and less thrilling reality in which he actually lives. Nothing will shake that -- not abandonment by his dragon-god, not defeat by Janai's army, not even the news that he's going to be a father. His motivation to exist in some grandiose framework is just too strong. I don't think it's narratively impossible for a character who has done the things Karim has done to be... eh, let's not say "redeemed" (weird word anyway) but perhaps guided down a different path. But I did think it was impossible for Karim specifically, because he has so consistently chosen to follow the phantoms of posterity. The drive to be a story is so embedded in his concept of self and of the world that I just didn't think there was a way out for him. That's why it was important for him to die, and specifically, to die in ignominy. Not just because it was cathartic for the audience (and darkly funny) but because it was the ultimate denial of what Karim most wanted. Sorry, you are not a story; you are not a prince or a king, a martyr or a savior. You're goop on the palm of a being who has forgotten you the instant he destroyed you. You are not worthy of the histories, you are less than a footnote; and the only people who will remember you are the sister you betrayed and the partner you abandoned. SUCKS. TO. SUCK.

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Three thousand years ago, the archdragon Shiruakh battled the Startouch elf Laurelion. Shiruakh delivered the fatal bite, but in the cosmic storm of the Great One's death throes, the dragon perished as well.

Shiruakh: Shir Ruakh, Wind Song (Hebrew)

[amozon28]

Honestly one of the coolest moments in the season was the Claudia vs Callum mage fight. It was quick and instense and showed how far Callum has come, how he matched Claudia spell for spell, and that he wasnt afraid to be ruthless, using the same freezing water/blood spell used to torture him and rayla back in s5

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To wildly over-expound on a thing that takes up like five seconds of screentime... I'm really glad that people are picking up on the significance of Callum using Venus Frigoris against Claudia. Callum has felt the effects of that spell. He knows in his own body the pain it causes. He knows what it's like to watch someone he loves writhe in its grip, to hear their screams. Callum knows what that spell is capable of, and what it has led him to become capable of. Venus Frigoris might not be Dark Magic, but it's a dark and terrible spell, and Callum throws it at Claudia like it's frikken Aspiro. I put it in the script because, to me, there could be no more definitive sign of what Callum has been brought to here, and how he's dealing with it. This is his rage at what Claudia has done, and what he has failed to prevent. His dawning realization, of what Akiyu's death means, and what he will now need to do. What he has already lost, and what he is about to lose. And on top of that, there's what Claudia represents to him. She is the life he had before he lost so much. She is a formative friendship, failed and betrayed. Claudia isn't Aaravos, but she is in many ways the avatar of personal blame, especially as she stands here drenched in the power he's rejected, with another mage's blood on her hands. So of course Callum chooses this spell. Not just to stop her, but hurt her. To hear her scream. This scene evolved a lot from the first draft even through animation (fights are hard lol) but this spell was the thing I most wanted to stay in. And yeah, it's like five seconds, but I'm really glad it's here and that people get why.

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I love your Kenobi novelization so much. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful writing. I can’t wait to read more; I’m looking forward to the feelings when Obi-Wan and Leia meet!

thank you oh gawd 😭