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photoniccyclone · 1 year

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The “Ripples” Story Has Some Interesting Implications...

So incase you didn’t know, TDP recently released their first short story from volume 2 of the “Reflections” short stories titled “Ripples”.

And my god is it good! I think this story is one of the most transparent admissions of what humans went through throughout TDP that we’ve seen. It also draws some interesting implications about the whole situation that I want to talk about.

So, there is a pretty big metaphor in the stories’ use of “fire” and humans learning to use it. Given that the Wonderstorm crew have frequently referred to Aaravos as a “ Prometheus ” as one of their descriptions of him, and that Prometheus is the one who gave the humans fire in greek mythology and got punished for it (if I’m not mistaken), it can be seen that fire seems to be a stand in for magic here considering dark magic is what Aaravos gave humans.

Now here’s the funny thing though, I originally thought the story was talking about dark magic when it mentioned fire, but many people have correctly pointed out that ripples is the story of how Aaravos came to Xadia, from his perspective. If that is the case, then the “fire” the humans found couldn’t have been dark magic, it had to have been something they found before dark magic. (Either primal magic or proto-magic which is that old magic source that came before primal magic that’s been teased).

Why is this important? Because the story states that after the humans discovered how to use this “fire”, Xadia, or at least the startouch elves, weren’t too happy with humans learning how to use this magic and getting power they weren’t supposed to yield, and so, THEY LITERALLY HUNTED THE HUMANS DOWN!

Now if this was dark magic, this would align sort of with what we already know, just explained in a far more brutal way (which I’m all for).

BUT!

We’ve already established that this is more than likely NOT dark magic and so the disdain against humans and the subsequent hunting of them came from LITERALLY JUST LEARNING MAGIC ON ITS OWN. Because according to them, humans shouldn’t have the power and it’s “unnatural” or whatever.

Which, holy hell, not only does this make Xadia far more cruel then I even thought, it also leaves the implication for the true reason humanity got banished for dark magic.

They were banished for dark magic, yes, but if the “Ripples” story is to be believed (and it’s narrated by Aaravos so unreliable narrator and all that, but then again so is everyone in the show) that means that the true reason Xadia was so outraged by dark magic is likely for the same reason humans were hunted for learning magic in the first place.

It gave them power. It gave them magic. Humans weren’t born with that, so they shouldn’t have power. And if humans get power, they can challenge the status quo.

And we can’t have that....

Can we now?

This story honestly leads me to the idea that the humans were banished in their use of dark magic because it was something that could challenge the status quo, something that could get humans on an equal playing field. And the elves and the dragons? Well... they didn’t like that. The fact that dark magic can kill magical creatures? Well, isn’t that just the perfect convenient justification to do what we already want to do to them...

Or maybe it was just the dragons, who really knows at this point. We know elves have been more or less subservient to them, the dragons could have told elves it was for the moral reason, that it kills magical creatures while keeping the true reason to themselves. After all, dragons are the most powerful creatures in Xadia, and the difference between elves and humans? Well.. elves understand how to get in line...

It’s about time humans learned their place...

Now admittedly, this whole theory of dark magic killing magical creatures just being a convenient justification to banish humans is not new. I was always intrigued by the theory, but I never actually truly believed in it because there had been no implication to suggest that... but now... I mean... this story seems to point to it a bit stronger... and I kinda do believe...

Either way I’m excited as hell for the possible implications that this can have on the show going forward. Maybe we’ll finally see some true Xadian villainy in the show, or at least a proper acknowledgement of what happened by those Xadians that now seek peace and mending (Zubeia, Rayla). This got me truly excited for season 5 because of what it suggests they may do going forward, and the fact that Sol Regem has been heavily teased to make a comeback in season 5.... oh boy.... I hope they give him the chance he always deserved to represent all the evil on the Xadian side.

It’s about time humans learned their place after all...

I’ll be waiting for you, Sol Regem.

#thedragonprince #tdp #season 5 #short story #ripples #reflections #theorizing #speculation #theory #THIS NEW SHORT STORY HAS GOT ME SO HYPED OH MY GOD #please let Sol be an actual scary threat on the Xadian side I beg of you.#I mean I know he's not the main villain and I'm not expecting that but like show me some badness like we got for Viren #my god I analyze TDP more then I ever did any book in English class help

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