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#not pictured: me eating pudding and theorizing like a maniac
raayllum · 1 year
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So like, while “My return to this world is inevitable” is a banger line to end the trailer on, my brain was thinking about the quote in context. The opening quote of “Seeing you now, I can’t believe it’s been two years” is clearly from Claudia upon reviving Viren in 4x01, and none of the previous TDP teasers / trailers have ever had a quote that didn’t wind up being in the season somehow, even if sometimes they would be spliced up like “even when the odds seem impossible,” the full statement itself would be included somewhere.
Which is to say:
Who the fuck is Aaravos saying that line to?
So let’s run down the most likely and less likely options, shall we?
Despite being with Claudia for most of the season presumably by proxy, the only context I can think of for a line like this is him trying to ‘reassure’ her at the finish line, to coax her into continuing the spell / ritual to get him out of his mirror. We know from the S4 synopsis he’s leaving her clues and likely wants to leave her in a bit of a limbo so that she meets his time limit without any issues, so I don’t think he’d say it to her any time earlier.
The other possibility is Viren, especially if Viren, like I’ve already predicted / theorized, begins to regret this actions in S4 and thinks that perhaps Aaravos being freed would be worse for the greater good, and thus Viren shouldn’t try to save his own life (a perspective we’ve seen him come to before, even if he didn’t stick with it). Viren may be trying to stop him or dissuade with Claudia in an earlier scene, with Aaravos delivering this line to smugly point out how his attempts are futile.
The last two options to me are Callum and Rayla, respectively. Callum has stayed in Katolis from a narrative standpoint, likely, to eventually converse with Aaravos through the mirror. I don’t know if Aaravos will reveal his own goals to him, though, since a play for sympathy could fall apart quickly and easily be deemed suspicious. I think it’s more likely Aaravos will ‘prioritize’ Callum’s goals (whatever they may be) > asking Callum directly for help so again, this line doesn’t quite make sense unless it’s in a closer-to-end-of-season context where Aaravos has revealed his true colours and Callum is utterly screwed.
Last but not least is Rayla, who I think in some ways is almost the likeliest candidate. Not only has Viren said similar shit to her before like, “You haven’t saved him, you’ve done nothing but create a brief inconvenience for me” and “It’s too late. I’ve already won” but Rayla is the only character who will probably be an adversary to Aaravos the entire season, since she’ll know right away upon seeing him that he’s working with Viren (and again, maybe knows a little about whatever Runaan had heard of the mirror). She already wanted to stop Viren but will now know there’s much more at stake. I could see her easily, angrily spitting out that Aaravos will be stopped, that it won’t work, only for him to gloat that “My return to this world is inevitable... because I have the perfect bait,” and a cut of the horrified realization dawning on her face.
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