At the risk of asking a loaded question, in what way is Callum/Sarai/Ezran/Harrow coded interracial Jewish? I don't know a whole lot culturally other than surface level. Do you say that as like a counter to Viren's Christian coding which I get more where you might say that from my experience having that background. Again, if that's loaded or offensive /insensitive feel free to ignore the question.
Np! There's a few things
Katolis customs dictate seven days of mourning (seven sunsets - unclear if it's seen for royalty or for everyone) which is common to the Jewish mourning practice of Shiva
Jelly tarts are canonically based off a Jewish food eating during Purim called hamantaschen
Sarai and Ezra(n) are both Hebrew names, Sarai most notably being the Mother of 2/3 Abrahamic faiths (Judaism and Christianity at least, I think Islam is a little different)
The show typically prioritizes the worthiness of endurance and survival > glorifying martyrdom
Callum and Ezran's arcs of always questioning, and indeed the series' morality of interrogating "who is a Person" leaning towards everyone/everything being accordingly very Jewish in mind / How Kosher applies to treatment of animals and how we see tenets of it in series vs in opposition to dark magic
Some of the concepts from Chassidic Judaism remind me of how the series treats magic / magical words and concepts
The Great Ones / Startouch elves are seen as gods. The heroes are those who are directly opposing G-d (Aaravos) and there's an old phrase that being Jewish is like being in a fist fight with G-d
I am not Jewish so there could absolutely be things I missed, but these are the things I've noticed either through other people pointing it out and/or my own research!
United Workers of Seven Seas Becomes First North American Manga Publisher to Unionize
Publisher chooses to recognize union on the day ballots were to be sent for election, citing "the well-being and safety of our employees"
On Friday, June 24th, the United Works of Seven Seas Twitter page announced that manga and light novel publisher Seven Seas Entertainment has agreed to voluntarily recognize the union and engage in collective bargaining. This announcement makes the United Works of Seven Seas (UW7S) the first unionized manga and light novel publisher in North America.
The announcement read:
UW7S is happy to announce that Seven Seas has agreed to voluntarily recognize us as the union based on a majority card check. This decision by Seven Seas eliminates the need for an NLRB-conducted election and will pave the way for a more expedited path to bargaining a first contract. At a time when many employers continue to fight the unionization of their employees, we appreciate that Seven Seas decided to respect the voices of the majority of staff and recognize us. We look forward to developing a mutually beneficial relationship and reaching a collective bargaining agreement in the near future.
On Saturday, Seven Seas posted the following statement to Twitter:
At the end of May, Seven Seas was notified that a union had filed an election petition to represent our employees. At the time, the company decided to proceed to an election governed by the National Relations Labor Board in order to allow such an important decision to get its full democratic process. the company is responsible for protecting the rights of all employees, and was uncomfortable waiving such a fundamental right to vote.
However, this has been a challenging time for staff at every level. Above all, the well-being and safety of our employees is of utmost importance to us. In order to protect everyone involved, and to work together in good faith for the sake of our staff, creators, partners and fans, Seven Seas has now decided to waive the right to an election in favor of voluntary recognition of the union.
We look forward to working together with the newly unionized UW7S and the rest of our global staff as we sail towards an even brighter future.
UW7S first publicly announced on May 23rd that the employees of Seven Seas had formed a union and were working alongside the Communications Workers of America. The announcement explained the need for the union citing that although Seven Seas has grown exponentially in recent years, going from 10 employees in 2018 to over 40 today, the workers were overworked, underpaid, and inadequately supported. At the time Seven Seas agreed to recognize the union, 28 of the 36 employees within the bargaining unit had publicly pledged support for the union.
The organization released a list of goals on its website including
Healthcare
Pension benefits
Paid time off
Increased wages and a transparent increase structure
Paid family leave
Reduced workloads and an end to “crunch” schedules
Protections for employees, including an end of at-will employment
The end of unnecessary “permalancing”
for freelancers (translators, letterers, designers, etc.)
An increase to pay for freelances, including revision and “kill” fees
Clearly defined job roles and responsibilities
A transparent wage ladder and organizational structure
New training methods and materials
The creation of a dedicated scheduling department to track progress
Expansion of administration to maintain their database
Paid training for all managers and supervisors
The end of anti-freelance exclusivity contracts for staff
End-of-year bonuses
Reimbursement for remote work equipment costs
Improved communication between departments, including quarterly updates
Increased staff for overburdened departments
The union also called for the creation of anti-harassment and discrimination policies and the establishment of a process for submitting complaints. In a statement, they noted, “Members of the Seven Seas union have not experienced any issues with harassment or discrimination to date. We strive to keep it that way.”
In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on Friday which ended the constitutional right to an abortion, UW7S released a new demand “that Seven Seas set up a reproductive health travel fund accessible to all employees and US-based freelancers to states where reproductive healthcare remains available.”
The announcement that Seven Seas had voluntarily recognized the union came as a somewhat of a surprise, as the publisher had initially refused to do so, citing a wish to "respect the right of all eligible employees to vote on this issue," and hired a suspected union-busting law firm, Ogletree Deakins, who challenged the size of the bargaining unit under claimed that several members of the bargaining unit were supervisors under §152 of the National Labor Relations Act. The section states that a supervisor is anyone with authority or responsibilities to direct others and, under the same section, makes them ineligible to join the union. UW7S responded by announcing that four of the ten challenged staff members were determined to be ineligible but that the other six still maintained voting rights.
UW7S had planned to vote on a special election with the National Labor Relations Board, which would send out ballots on June 24, the day the union was voluntarily recognized, to be counted on August 1. The union was set to win the election, with 28 of the 36 individuals eligible publicly pledging support which formed a supermajority of nearly 78%. Seven Seas, which has been facing public backlash and pressure on social media including TikTok and Twitter, recognized the union based on a majority card check that showed a majority of workers wanted to authorize the union to represent them in collective bargaining.
Source: United Workers of Seven Seas Twitter, Website
At the end of S5, is Claudia still the same person as she claims to be in the last episode? Puzzle house has her the soul that can reveal the a map based on the character of her soul... Would the map still reveal itself?
So Claudia's identity is a loaded concept, both in terms of how she sees it and in terms of how other people (particularly the princes, Viren, and Soren) see it as well. I forget whose tags it was, but I remember someone going off on a delightful tag tirade of how Claudia is someone who is absolutely, extremely attached to being able to see herself as a Good Person. (Which like, most people are - but if you're too attached to that idea, any failings to live up to that can easily be brushed off, particularly if you don't have the self awareness or self compassion to cope with the reality of what you've done - but a post/tangent for another day)
She's not bending her morals to do dark magic because she never sees anything wrong with dark magic in the first place. What she does or threatens to do to elves/dragons doesn't matter because they (as individuals tethered to a group association in her mind) aren't people (with Terry and Aaravos, conveniently the two elves who are helping her, as the exceptions) and they Deserve it.
This isn't how she sees things when she's a child, in The Puzzle House, around the ages of 5-7ish, and we see her struggle with aspects of identity: doubting whether she ever really knew Kpp'Ar ("I thought I knew who he was. And then he disappeared") and of herself: I’ve been messing things up, and everyone’s angry at me. What if they’re right? What if I’m… not good?"
Which gets us into the weeds of S1, in which the egg - motionless, voiceless - is not a person and not even a creature, but a thing and a weapon, and her dad took it to Protect them, so keeping it isn't evil. She's not evil. She's just trying to do the Right Thing and bring the princes home (where they'll be safe, as far as she knows). She just wants to keep her family together, therefore:
Which really just shows that Claudia can and does hold herself accountable for her actions ("I know this feels like a betrayal" to illusion Callum in 2x03 and "I'm so sorry" twice to Ezran in 2x09) but she is incapable of accepting any of the potential Consequences as justified, because she had a Good reason, didn't she?
The rigid, unwavering nature of her motivations - to keep her family, particularly centred around her father, Together - as well as her methods - dark magic and a certain amount of manipulation - are two of the reasons I've always said, Inherently, Claudia is the exact same person she was all way back in 1x02, suggesting the soul switching spell and having no capacity to fathom why it would make Harrow uncomfortable (unlike Viren). She very much is someone who is largely the same person as she always has been, but her circumstances have amplified many of her worst (and technical best) character traits because said circumstances have also become so extreme. She's just Worse - more of the Same.
Cause in a lot of ways, 2x03 isn't Callum seeing a brand new side of Claudia ("Now I feel like I don't know who she is" - Callum's Spellbook) even if that's what he believes is happening, but that he's seeing her clearly for the first time: a dangerous dark mage wiling to sever loyalties and do whatever it takes for her family/father. Mirrored, I think, by Viren having the same realization in 5x03, even if it's with horror and fear/love rather than betrayal and anger.
So I believe that Claudia wholeheartedly believes she's the same person, not solely because she says it outright, but also because of the consistent manifestation of her choices and motivations, and because believing she's the same - still believing that she's Good ("She kidnapped you and prince Ezran, how can she be good?" ask yourself that in an episode, Claudia) is crucial in how she justifies everything to herself.
She doesn't want Terry (or herself) to think of her as cruel. She's a good person. She's doing the Right Thing. She's on a righteous path. That's why:
Now, in regards to change, Soren has the most varied perspectives on his sister, which can and should be taken into account ("Claudia, you're changing too" / "I hope you're careful, Callum, cause [magic] can change people" / "It's not too late Claudia, I know you can change!"). So it's not that she hasn't changed at all as a person, it's just that her Fear of Change and Choice, and her adamant resistance to ever radically changing her worldview because of new information is like, dead on arrival, and we haven't had a turning point for that yet.
But yeah, if Claudia still has the scroll, it wouldn't surprise me if it wouldn't work for her post-killing the unicorn she found and/or would be extremely, extremely faint if it did show up for her anytime post-arc 1.
No reason she can't find her way back and actually start becoming someone fundamentally New, though
How do you feel about the depth of the world building, and the target demographic and "realism" of the fantasy? The world and show is whimsical. It's targeted to a diverse audience, yet deal with some deep emotions. It's not aligned with human nature. Kings, queens, and generals don't charge in the front lines. Melodasies and fart flowers don't make a lot of sense, but they're entertaining concepts. I feel it's a sketch of the world that lets you focus on the core story and relationships.
I think there's a few things to keep in mind with TDP, specifically
The type of worldbuilding that typically gets included in fantasy
The type of worldbuilding that gets included in similar shows of its ilk (Steven Universe, She-Ra, The Owl House, and other contemporary kids' shows)
For fantasy, I'd say that TDP's worldbuilding is probably more 'shallow' due to the fact its a TV show, and the two season novelizations notwithstanding (which are already packed full of plot and written for a younger audience), it is much, much easier to do detailed worldbuilding in narrative fiction than visual media. Visual media can get away with communicating visual worldbuilding and splendid visuals, but in order for us to learn history or culture or anything along those lines, it almost exclusively has to come with dialogue, which is time consuming and you have to make sure the scene is still engaging; you don't even have the room to info dump a paragraph or two the way you could get away with in a book
So TV show worldbuilding, I'd say TDP is doing its best, considering its runtime and that worldbuilding is absolutely a priority. The expanded look at Xadia and Sunfire elf culture was one of my favourite things about S4
But in comparison to other kids' shows out there that are airing, or have recently aired? TDP is on a whole other level I don't think will be matched anytime soon. ATLA probably has a leg up on cultural worldbuilding (which also makes sense given the run time and nature of bending) but even then, there are plenty of things we know in TDP that we don't know in ATLA, such as history that goes hundreds and thousands of years back, local laws and judicial systems outside of one Earth Kingdom town, what more than one type of culture conducts as a funeral rite, etc.
Of the three other examples given, I think SU has the best worldbuilding, but we still don't really know what the Gem colonization of other planets was like. TOH develops some worldbuilding ideas, but never really wholly takes them to fruition, and even when I was more favourable to She-Ra while it was airing, worldbuilding was never a strong suit or seemed to be a focus of the series. Which is fine, as not every fantasy show wants to prioritize worldbuilding, but damn if I don't love it when they do, since it's one of my favourite parts of the genre as a fantasy reader and writer
And there are definitely kings, queens, and generals who have fought on the front lines in the past; it was expected for them to be involved in warfare. Melodaisies and fart flowers aren't grounded in a worldbuilding need, but neither are our silly real world equivalents of something like say, kazoos and whoopee cushions, that exist for no real reason other than that they're Fun and can be made by human hands. (And there are flowers, and even stink bugs, that do emit smells in nature.)
TDP definitely prioritizes a Top-Down approach in terms of writing from theme first and foremost and then weaving things in as they need, which they've acknowledged. The show, understandably as a story and something operating under story constraints, is more than willing to place plot and theme over logistics, but most stories are, tbh. So I think the sketch is detailed, but the focus is on how the characters interact with each other (and the theme accordingly) and the world is largely built around it - there's a reason it's not a world with a whole bunch of other continents, after all, simply because it didn't need to be. If you're interested in more thoughts in this vein / how TDP constructs itself, I'd recommend checking out this meta I wrote here <3
Why did Rayla leave the other coin containing Kpp'ar, considering she didn't know him? She didn't mention him to Callum or consider him later verbally, and he could have as easily been Viren's victim similar to her parents or Runnan. Or did I miss something and she did take the other cursed coin? Now that he's had some scene time, what are your predictions on how Kpp'ar comes back or do you think he doesn't make it out of the coin?
She bends down to pick it up but gets distracted by Runaan's bow, so I would assume she picked it up afterwards off screen, but who knows? It's not someone she knows, even if she's probably inclined to think anyone who's an enemy of Viren's could at least be an ally of hers.
And yes, I absolutely think Kpp'Ar will be coming back to 1) contribute to Callum's arc regarding dark magic / morally dubious things, considering that Kpp'Ar was a dark mage who disavowed the practice, 2) reveal what Viren did to save Soren if Viren doesn't live to reveal it himself, as Viren presumably coined him because Kpp'Ar wouldn't let him go through with it (and Callum being tempted by said spell if someone he loves gets sick/injured in a similar manner?), and 3) Kpp'Ar likely knows something about Aaravos' prison (had a box that matched the one Aaravos has, and possibly the staff was his at first too) and/or is a descendent of the Jailer, given that he's also a master of puzzles.
Can't wait for that old man to get out and to see what he's like outside of Viren's well, view of him, and where the disparities are (if there are some)
Do you think this is the end of the butterfly blades? Will Rayla supplement in season 5 or go bow exclusive until Runaan's return? What do you think happens after his return with the bow? What are your thoughts on deeper meaning in those exchanges? Speculatively posed.
I'm sure she'll use her blades when she's doing some up close fighting, but the bow is certainly being useful for long range stuff. Which, it might be interesting to see her and Callum swap for a season, with him doing more of the close range and her doing more of the long range for a change!
I do think the bow will eventually go back to Runaan, but what he'll do with it and his assassin identity remains to be seen! If you're interested in what I think a long form Runaan post-decoining would look like, I'll recommend this fic I co-wrote ages ago <3
Rewatching the series for S5, and thought of this question watching 1x01. Swap out the main conflict, do you think that Claudia and Viren would have ended up in a similar place regardless? I guess my question is how much of the character of Viren and his children is inherit in themselves set against what the circumstances bring out in them? So the age old nature versus nurture. The same question could apply to Rayla and her family along with Callum and his own. What is at their core?
I'm assuming this is like "what if the assassination had never happened" which, admittedly, is something I've thought a great deal about (or, more precisely "what if the assassination with Harrow had happened and the boys had never found the egg," I suppose).
The main thing about Viren and Harrow is that, I think, they'd been broken beyond repair masquerading as a friendship for a long, long time. A lot of that fault is with Viren - he's typically the instigator, it's his morality that arguably needs to change more so, it's his pride and self importance that leads to the Discard being mutual, and he'd rather let Harrow die and/or sacrifice himself than just tell Harrow the truth about the egg (and the fact he kept the secret and Sarai's last breath at all). I think eventually Harrow would've reached a breaking point with Viren's willingness to lay other people down (especially given how Sarai died and the "It should've been me"). Maybe only as Ezran grew up and matured, and Harrow realized maybe Viren wasn't the sort of counsel he wanted his son to have, but I do think they were always going to inevitably turn out that way so long as Harrow was royalty and Viren was a dark mage. It was their natures and their occupations escalating those natures, I think, that made them fall apart.
For Claudia, this is trickier. I've gone on record saying before that in arc 1, largely, there was the Transformative Trio (Callum, Rayla, Soren) and the Static Trio (Viren, Claudia, Ezran)—the latter being characters who do not so much Radically Change so much as stay the same while their circumstances highlight certain characteristics. Ezran out of the three changes the most (with Viren's characterization swerve happening mostly within the first 3 eps, and post-1x03 he's extremely consistent and never really wavers) within those lines, mostly in actively choosing to be more mature (going back home to be king) rather than doing it more subconsciously (keeping his cool with Callum and Rayla).
All of this to say is that Claudia is still basically the same person in S4 she was in 1x01, but Worse. She's desperate in ways she wasn't before, her confidence having been shaken by failures, and she's far more willing to do terrible things (apologizing to baby deer vs smiling and "That can be arranged" regarding Ibis' dead body). Her view of elves has worsened but it already wasn't great, her morality has worsened but it wasn't already great, and her family has fractured further but it already wasn't great, pushing her deeper into batshit territory of what she's willing to do to keep them together, and — say it with me — IT WASN'T ALREADY THAT GREAT.
What this hinges on, then, if Claudia has no reason to get worse (and also no reason to get better) is if how other characters would respond to her would change. As Ezran got older and grew in his ability to communicate, if he was comfortable be open/honest about it, I could see him disapproving of dark magic more, and that possibly driving a wedge between them, particularly once Ezran is king and she presumably becomes his High Mage. I could see Callum becoming a dark mage in a world with no attack, and more likely becoming one in a world with a partially successful attack, but I still don't think he'd readily take to it, and being more knowledgable about it would lead more room for his discomfort with it to be known and informed.
As for the Core of each character (and how that manifests in their roles), that was largely laid out in this post here pre-S4 (but I still think it holds generally true). Hope you enjoy!
I noticed in your January post about Callum not needing to figure out the mirror you had stated that he didn't know it was in the dragons lair. I noticed in a rewatch of season 3 when Callum casts Historia Viventem to see Rayla's parents the mirror is there. I don't think that invalidates any of your points, but I was just curious if there was any other instances of Callum missing details in his photographic memory or not connecting pieces. Or if it's just a minor oversight or insignificant?
Oh yeah, I actually think the main reason Lain and Tiadrin stayed behind was to keep the mirror from falling into the wrong hands, as they tried to convince the Skywing elf Dragonguard to take it with him even though they were still going to stay behind. But Callum says himself in 4x04 that he didn't know / didn't speak it together that it belonged here, although he probably guessed it was Xadian at least, given the runes.
So Callum has a good memory (especially for visual stuff) most of the time. This can get a little more wonky when he's in emotional distress, though (understandably) although not exclusively. For example, his "Who told you that?" "You did" from 2x07 about his first real conversation with Rayla ("Then it's a cycle") that she repeats back to him, as well as like, when he tends to tunnel vision, i.e. being so desperate to get to Rayla in 3x01 that he, I kid you not, literally forgets Sol Regem is right there until Rayla points him out. He holds his arms wrong for the wing spell at first in 3x09 in the morning (even though Ibis showed him in 3x08), but given the news Ibis had given him and the subsequent fight with Rayla, again, makes sense. He accepts Claudia's "she was trying to kidnap you" excuse even though he knows Claudia saw both the boys choose to go with Rayla, etc.
So Callum has a fantastic visual memory which probably helps him differentiate between what runes look like, but verbal/written wise he needs to consult stuff more often (hence why he has his spellbook and rifles through it to look for the right spell he's thinking of in the first place). So he has a very very good memory, just not a literal perfect one
