i know it's for babies, but i need it

It reminds Claudia of being a little girl and the way her father and mother taught her how to play chess, her mother winking slyly every time she beat her husband. It’s about playing the long game. 

—if heaven and hell decide, march 2021 / the dragon prince, 6x06, july 2024

RAYLLUM S6 MEME:  [4/6] looks, 6x06 “moment of truth”

That’s easy for you to say. Your heart’s not full of darkness. Neither is yours. You’re a good person, Callum. Maybe the goodest.

thinking about Kpp'Ar “a child will die” “yes” over the staff of Ziard (Aaravos) and Rayla “because we will sacrifice anything to stop you and save this world. my heart for xadia”. yeah

In the vein of “TDP uses jail / bar / chain symbolism and a combination of light-dark symbolism in really interesting ways,” I want to add a third that they emphasize in Soren and Viren’s scenes in S6, specifically with how continually they obscure Soren’s full face and expression.

This obscuring of the face and true emotion is why Soren’s first scene of the episode and last close in similar ways, though the second time Soren can’t pull himself together in the same manner as before.

We also see some light symbolism, with Viren consistently in the light, but blue, and Soren consistently in the light, but it’s warm / orange. Part of this is to maintain the idea of comfort — blue light is colder, the way a prison cell would be, as opposed to the rest of the castle — but also to illustrate that even though both are finally in the light (“I finally see that, now”) their lights and worlds and perspectives aren’t merging. There’s still a distance and fundamental separation between them because of Viren’s actions, and they’re both still carrying the residual weight of that emotional entrapment and anguish:

The show continues to pepper it into 6x06 and 6x08. They use Viren’s shadow really well in 6x06, with each of his family members forced into it in some manner as their lives begin to be destroyed.

They also utilize Soren’s orange light, shall we say, as Viren writes his letter by candelight in an attempt to hopefully repair the rift between the two of them, and to illustrate that rift forming.

In 6x06, we see the biggest shift, where despite Viren not telling Soren the truth (“I can’t leave Callum in the dark any longer”) it is ultimately likely the better choice (“Are you giving them clarity, light, and purpose?”) to avoid burdening his son when Soren is already struggling, but despite being separated by the cell, they are both now in the orange glow of Soren’s warmer light.

This may also be one of the reasons why Viren’s death scene is so yellow and orange. Rather than trying to make Soren like him (arc 1), Viren is now emulating his son (“Take my heart”) to save people. It’s a symbolic reconciliation of sorts, of actually understanding and seeing each other — Soren trusting that his father wants to help (“I know who you are! You’re dangerous” vs “You can help them!”) and can help him. Soren doesn’t say that giving up dark magic is a lie, after all, merely that it needs to be taken up again.

And in doing so, Viren both frees — from his literal imprisonment, ad from the cycle — and chains himself — to dark magic and Aaravos by proxy — at the same time.

But that’s all the literal chain and imprisonment stuff. I also want to touch quickly on some symbolic ones. There’s the way light and dark is framed when Soren and Viren have their last discussion in 6x08, for example.

There are also shots emphasizing Callum’s imprisonment in 5x08 (meta here on just the hand symbolism specifically throughout the ep for anyone who’s interested), and because this meta took long enough, some other shots of Karim in S7, too, with his contempt for Janai pushing him further into the darkness when Amaya arrives.

I turned on him. My teacher, my… my mentor. / Callum betrayed me. He betrayed all of Katolis.

7x02 / 6x06

something about the aftermath of Viren taking Lissa’s tears, whereupon:

he either backed away and left her there, sobbing, possibly barely sparing her a glance (how could she just be willing to let their son die?) or looking at her with cold eyes, and she knew as the door swung shut that their marriage was over (but she believed that perhaps it’d be mutual, and he’d understand why)…

OR

he cradled her face in his hands, his touch now gentle, brushing back her tears and shushing her cries like he wasn’t the reason for them in the first place, and watched in love and pain and confusion as she recoiled from him, and she knew their marriage was over, and that he’d never understand why

—two.bees.poetry

6x06 / 6x07 / 7x01 / 7x06

I had to, to save my friends. Oh, how noble. / If you love her, you’ll be the you that can save her. […] Noble fools are still fools.

5x08 / 6x06 / 7x06