Did you guys get knocked off your feet by Rayla’s suicidal attack too? I mean, she took out everyone at once! The biggest shock to me was how Aaravos couldn’t stop her. Why was that? I have an idea, but let’s set the scene first.
Aaravos has a plan to get the sun staff, and it goes off so perfectly that he feels compelled to gloat.
“You allowed my vessel to walk right into your court, and then you brought him directly to the source of all your power? Oh, the irony is wonderful! Your arrogance is so predictable.”
This tells us a few things: The Sun Queen is so much like her grandmother that she still handles purifying people the same way. Aaravos knew this Sun ritual of old. It hasn’t changed in centuries. And he’s using that against the Sun Queen.
He’s also bragging about his predictive abilities. He’s connected to the beyond and has divination skills that let him see the future, in some as-yet-unrevealed ways typical Star Touch. But check out what happens when Aaravos comes face to astrally-projected face with the Moonshadow elf Rayla.
Rayla comes up to attack Viren and save Zym, and Aaravos feels her presence. Probably his Star Touch powers giving him a few seconds’ heads up. (How did Avizandum put Aaravos in the mirror if Aaravos could see the plan before it happened?) But he doesn’t look at her mockingly. He gives us this wonderfully complicated expression.
His mouth is tense, but his eyebrows look… soft? Confused? He almost looks betrayed. He’s been working very hard to get Viren to this exact spot, and now there’s a Moonshadow assassin leaping at him. How did he not see this coming? Can’t he see Bait in his divinations?
My favorite hc is that Aaravos recognizes Rayla. Not because he’s seen her before, but because he’s had a vision of the future. He knows he’ll meet her at some point in the future. But he didn’t expect to meet her yet, not here, not now. If Rayla is invisible to Aaravos’s foresight? Ooh. That’s some Harry Potter Lily-protected-Harry-with-her-love level goodness right there.
But Aaravos is nothing if not prepared. When Rayla jumps at him with her swords, he yoinks Viren’s left hand out and fires a blast of magic that blows her back and throws her swords far out of reach.
Viren taunts her that he’s already won, and Aaravos seems to concur–unless that’s actually Aaravos speaking at this point–”my vessel” indeed. They both look away from Rayla, dismissing her, an assassin with no weapons.
But Rayla isn’t done. She needs to save Zym. Saving dragons is something she was already willing to die doing in S2, and she didn’t even know Pyrrah then. Zym is her friend, and the Dragon Prince. She’s not letting him die, not for anything.
Rayla is a Moonshadow elf. They exist on a spectrum of life and death, always occupying some of both in every moment. Rayla just decided she’s already dead, so she can take Viren down (literally) and save Zym’s life. She doesn’t need weapons. Her mother’s story about Zym being a weapon was a lie, but that’s exactly what Rayla is. That’s what Moonshadow assassins are. They’re weapons. Rayla just became hard enough to do whatever it takes.
She runs at Viren, and once again, Aaravos senses her coming. He jerks his head to look at her.
But this expression on his face–he looks alarmed, despairing even, when he sees Rayla rushing at him.
He can’t stop her this time. She runs right through him, not even aware that he’s there, and he poofs into nothingness.
Rayla tackles Viren off the Storm Spire, and Aaravos can do nothing to prevent it.
Why not, though? He had no trouble stopping her the first time. And he’s fast and fully in control of Viren’s body. He could have stopped her somehow. But he didn’t.
Aaravos may have phenomenal cosmic powers, but I think maybe he is actually limited by one thing: he can play with imbalance–in situations and in people–all day long, but I don’t think he can unbalance something that is already balanced. He is a tricky karma god. But he can never give someone a fate they don’t deserve.
Aaravos finally killed someone himself this season: the Sun Queen. And he believed that the Sun Queen deserved it–and tbh she probably did. The Sun mage may or may not be dead, and all those guards as well. But they were likely fully complicit in the Sun Queen’s mistreatment of people and embraced her attitude of swift disposal and pain for those she felt were lesser–specifically, humans. We all know how Aaravos loves his humans. But he has only attacked and killed those who are terrible people. Still pretty karmic there.
So, with Rayla, what gives? Why can he defend against her when she has her swords, but not when she doesn’t?
Balance. Rayla first tried to use her assassin training to try and take Viren. That would’ve resulted in her survival but Viren’s death. An imbalance that Aaravos was happy to disallow.
But when Rayla tried again, willing to die herself to get the job done? A life for a life is a very dark balance, but it indicated the purity of her intent. Aaravos couldn’t stop her because she’d set up a karmically balanced event.
The one thing that Aaravos cannot defend against is a pure heart. A balanced opponent who creates a balanced situation. The one way to stop this sparkly juggernaut is to be a good person.
He’s a dark fae bastard, he really is. But maybe all he’s ever been able to do is to reflect those around him. Maybe Aaravos just needs time to hang out with pure-hearted people for once in his long life. If he punishes those who are impure, what karmic rewards would he give to those who are pure of heart?
Rayla’s Moonshadow balance really paid off. And I do think she and Aaravos will meet again. But I’m also very interested to see if Aaravos ever meets Amaya, the pure-hearted human. Ooh.
prguitarman
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
gummygunk
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
pixelskylines
tangentwithtanner
jimmyeatworldofficial
