5x09 / 6x09

Y'know as much as I loved Viren swearing off dark magic in 5x09 and how much it had taken for him to finally reach that point, I did have a thought in the back of my head “what would he have done if killing Sir Sparklepuff had been required to keep Claudia alive?”

Because if you’re willing to do anything, how do you give that willingness, that devotion, up? Especially in parallel with an arc of realizing you haven’t prioritized your children enough, which continues on into S6.

It was easy enough (not easy, but viable) to refuse the ritual when it’s just your life on the line. Yes there will be emotional suffering, but he’s hoping to spare Claudia from a worse path and it’s Viren’s life on the line; it’s well within his verdict to choose not to save himself / his ego or anything else he’s placed above his family. And I couldn’t shake the feeling that despite his conviction and growth culminating here in a lot of ways, that if it had been for Claudia (or Soren), Viren would’ve done it.

That’s not to say I think he would’ve repeated the mistakes he made with Lissa (both 6x06 and particularly 6x08 made that abundantly clear) but that Viren swearing off dark magic was, if his character was put in certain situations, not something that would hold. 6x01 having him use the same language and belief system (“You do anything for your children” if switching it up to but “never the other way around”) felt like apt set up for him to do it again, and uh… then 6x08 happened. The difference, I think, is that Viren accepts that he did and does have a choice, he’s making one now, and it is a sacrifice.

Him actually doing all along what he always said he was doing, basically.

Special day

2x02 / 5x09

I fear I’m losing everything. Losing my mind. / Callum. I’d heard you were up losing your mind.

5x09 / 6x06

RAYLLUM S5 MEME:  5/5 looks, 5x09 “infantis sanguine”