The Truth about Aaravos
Hey everyone!
I’ve been in a very huge Dragon Prince mood
lately, seeing as season 2 just aired and
now I think I have way more than enough material
to do a video.
So, what better way to celebrate my first
Dragon Prince theory video than by talking
about the best character that was introduced
in Season 2!
Okay, we also got Crow Master.
I love you too, my sweet boy.
But lore wise, Aaravos definitely intrigues
me more right now.
And just look at him!
Skin that sparkles, amazing horns, and that
voice!
Oooh.
Chills.
What’s not to love?
Did you know the voice actor of Aaravos also
voiced Koh the Face Stealer in Avatar the
Last Airbender?
That can’t be a good sign for his future.
But that brings me to the subject of this
video!
Not only will I be discussing his future,
but also what we know about his past and how
that shaped him into the elf he is today.
So, let me cover my bases if you can’t really
remember what went down in season 2.
Bad dad Lord Viren had long been trying to
figure out what made the mirror he found in
the layer of the Dragon King so special.
He tried a ton of spells to get it to reveal
its secrets, but it wasn’t until he got
rid of all the light in the room that he was
able to discover that he could view into a
completely different room.
After waiting long enough, an elf appeared!
But this elf could not see Viren at first.
Eventually the elf noticed Viren, and made
him do a series of tasks to be able to speak
to him.
We learn his name is Aaravos and he promised
that he could provide knowledge and power.
Of course, Viren agrees to work with him,
which eventually leads to Viren getting captured,
but Aaravos promises to stay with him.
At first glance we really don’t know much
about him.
There seems to be a spell placed upon having
Aaravos’s name in books.
Either that or Aaravos put a spell on Viren
because he knew Viren would eventually try
and learn more about him.
So before Viren could get a good look at information
about this elf, the stories about him turned
into a jumbled mess.
I will get to what we do know about those
texts in a minute but we do actually know
a few more things about him.
As is pretty clear, he is a Startouched elf.
This type of elf is very rare and are associated
with the heavens.
While they don’t live forever they live
a very long time, as it was compared to the
time scale stars experience...
Which honestly is pretty close to immortal
if that is the parallel they are drawing.
The type of magic star elves can do is also
quite mysterious and involves divination,
cosmic vision, and seeing into the beyond.
However, Aarvos is said to be different than
other Startouched elves, and it’s not only
because he is stuck in a magic mirror.
In episode 6 of Season 2, we learn that the
cube Callum found at the Banther Lodge was
called the Key of Aaravos and is said to unlock
something of great power in Xadia.
As is probably obvious, we learn that Aaravos
originally owned the cube.
He is called an Archmage, and he even mastered
all six primal sources.
Definitely getting some more Avatar the Last
Airbender vibes here.
Combine all this with the fact that Runaan
said that whatever was in the mirror was worth
than death, and we already have many reasons
not to trust this good-looking elf.
To learn more about his past, we need to look
at things that were not said, but shown in
season 2.
In the eighth episode of season 2, the book
of destiny, Viren takes a look at a few books
to find out more information about Aaravos
after he learns his name.
But as I mentioned before, we only get a quick
glance at them before they get blurred and
they are not in English.
Luckily, they are translatable!
So, the translations I am about to show you
are a combination of a few sources, all of
which I will link in the description.
The first passage we have is in Danish.
It is cut off at the end but there is quite
a lot to gather from this.
It says:
“Finally, he told me his name.
I had never heard a name like his, but neither
had I imagined an elf like him either.
He is stronger, older, and wiser than any
other magical creature in Xadia.
Yet he is a friend to all humans.
Where others look down on us, call us inferior,
he sees great potential in us.
When we receive the gifts Aaravos promised
us, they will pay for their conceit and become
forced to see us as equals.
And when we are equals, we can take our destiny
into our own hands and build our future.
I can see it before me-”
So that was quite intriguing!
We can see here that this isn’t the first
time Aaravos has befriended a human, and a
long time ago he gave them a gift that allowed
them to become more powerful than the elves
and dragons.
But just what that gift was is something I
will get to later.
The second piece we got about Aaravos is a
poem written in Arabic.
I am going to use a translation I found on
reddit because I saw a writer mention how
the subreddit’s interpretation did a great
job translating it.
So here is the translation from user throwawaythisarab.
Elarion, seeds trembling
Lying on the ground on an icy night.
And in the cold
[She] withdrew her roots
Challenging the sting of the deadly winter.
Elarion, and her blooming flower,
afraid of wilting, darkness and death,
Had searched the dark
For a spark
And so the eyes of the hungry dragon flared.
Elarion, the frightened foundling
Stretched her white branches towards the night.
Asking the stars,
To receive her light,
And to stop the fire of the raging dragon.
Elarion, in a heavy rest,
cried while the stars of the skies turned
black
They wore their masks,
Turned their backs,
And left Elarion to die.
Elarion, as her skin struggled death,
Withered and suffered in the dark,
Until the last star,
Reached out from far away
Its touch: a fire, a gift, a spark.
Elarion, and her blinding light,
Embraced the great black flame of night.
And when she bowed,
She declared her faith,
[He] whispered, "Aaravos," his name.
Elarion, black-eyed child,
her twisted roots spread deep and far,
The humans’ might
sparked by the light
of Aaravos, her midnight star.
So this is quite confusing as it focuses on
a totally new character named Elarion (I could
be pronouncing it wrong fyi).
I have a couple of interpretations, which
I will share.
What caught my eye in this translation is
the word foundling.
This is basically an infant that has been
abandoned by its parents and cared for others.
So basically, an orphan.
Now I doubt Elarion was an infant when this
poem was set, but I can see her as a child.
She found herself orphaned and out on a cold
winter night.
She may have also been chased by a dragon.
But when things were at its bleakest, Aaravos
came to her aid and gave her the ability to
do dark magic.
We see this when her eyes are described as
being black, and from knowing Aaravos gave
her a gift.
She gave her life to him and became a follower.
Of course, it is impossible to tell if this
was his first interaction with humans.
And even if she was the first dark mage, that
directly conflicts with the male dark mage
we see in the first episode of season 1.
But something very interesting to note is
that Startouched elves seem to literally be
stars.
As in, they appear in the sky and can travel
through space and come down when they wish
to.
The rest of the startouched elves probably
don’t care much for the affairs of the humans
and other elves.
They might seem themselves above that, since
they are very powerful.
They might literally be born from stars, which
is why they live so long.
But where they saw weakness, Aaravos saw opportunity.
My other initial interpretation was that Elarion
and Aaravos were lovers, since we know he
was called her midnight star.
But now with this full translation, where
it is leaning more towards Elarion being a
child, I am not so sure anymore.
But if this was the case and she was an adult
and they fell in love, this would be a very
taboo relationship.
With all this said and done, it is clear that
Aaravos is a gift giver.
He not only gave powers to Viren, but also
to Elarion and to many more humans in the
first passage.
And for the former two, it’s pretty easy
to see that the gift they got was the power
to wield dark magic.
From there the first dark mage used it, which
scared the elves enough to cast the humans
out of Xadia.
How this knowledge of who gifted humans dark
magic became completely lost is a mystery.
Perhaps once the elves forced the humans out,
the humans no longer wanted to remember Aaravos,
even though his gift to them was passed on
through the generations.
Or, since Aaravos is the one who narrated
the opening scene of the show, he made sure
this secret was covered up.
Any passages containing his name are unable
to be read, after all.
I realized that this is also what happened
in the show RWBY, with the big bad narrating
the beginning monologue.
But this time around Aaravos is turning out
to be an unreliable narrator.
Yet he said he never lies, so what is the
truth?!?
But of course, whatever he had planned the
first time around with humans did not work
out, as they were sent away from their home
and later split into 5 kingdoms.
Now he is back, and by teaching Viren his
secrets he may be giving his plan another
shot.
This time the forces in Xadia are weaker since
the Dragon King has been killed.
Obviously, I don’t know his plan, but as
a preliminary guess I think maybe he is trying
to get rid of all elves by teaching humans
dark magic.
They probably did not like his quest to seek
out as much power as possible, and punished
him for it.
Or maybe I’m making Aaravos seem like a
worse elf than he actually is.
Perhaps he also saw how unfair it was that
humans were treated as weak by the elves and
dragons when they had so much potential, and
felt the need to level the playing field.
While not confirmed, there are already a lot
of parallels between Aaravos and the Greek
Myth of Prometheus.
One of the creators of the show, Aaron Ehasz,
already stated that this is his favorite greek
myth so it’s really no surprised it is showing
up in TDP.
As he mentions in an interview with Korra
News, his favorite myth is about Prometheus,
a titan that stole fire and gave it to humans,
elevating them.
He was a divine messenger who shared these
gifts with humanity, and from there the humans
have to choose what to do once they obtained
these gifts.
But he was punished by the gods, specifically
by Zeus, the god of thunder and lord of the
skies.
It is pretty clear that Prometheus is Aaravos
and Zeus is Thunder.
But it was Zeus’s son Heracles that eventually
freed Prometheus, meaning Zym might be the
key to getting him out.
Yet we probably don’t want that happening
anytime soon.
We can also speculate a bit about where Aaravos
is trapped.
As Lujanne mentioned in the first episode
of season 2, the moon druids, ancestors of
moonshadow elves, would perform rituals that
could open a portal to another plane.
This was described as a shimmering world beyond
life and death.
Seems quite familiar if you ask me.
Of course, he would probably already live
a super long time, but in this realm he likely
won’t be aging at all.
Why he had to be put into the mirror plane
for so long is a mystery, however.
Star elves seem pretty close to god-like with
how long they live and their powers.
And Aaravos may have been the most powerful
Startouched elf ever.
Meaning, if he gets out the mirror, we have
a lot to worry about.
Before I end this video I would like to give
a small guess about the cube that Callum has.
The Key of Aaravos is something only a master
of all six primal sources can unlock.
The only one that is currently able to do
that is Aaravos.
But as some people have been speculating,
Callum may be next on that list.
While I am not the biggest fan of the theory
currently, since Callum just seemed so in
tune with Sky magic that it felt like it was
meant for him, there is a definite possibility
this will happen.
It is likely that only a mage that also wields
all six elements will be able to defeat Aaravos.
So yeah, once again...
Avatar.
Or if six different creatures with all six
arcana touch the cube, it can also unlock
something.
I am hoping another elf joins Callum and Rayla
on their adventure next season, so maybe this
will happen!
I am also curious how Harrow knew about Aaravos.
Did he just know his name and that he was
an archmage, or did he actually keep the knowledge
of Aaravos from Viren?
Viren seemed to know nothing about this elf,
which doesn’t make much sense.
In addition, I also wrote a smaller theory
about this image we got in the end credits
for one of the S2 episodes.
There may be some parallels between Aaravos’s
story and that of the Great Gatsby.
Check it out on the Cartoon Universe tumblr,
and give us a follow!
So that pretty much wraps up everything I
wanted to say about Aaravos, and I want to
know what you guys think!
Do you think he’s just plain evil, or is
there more to him than that?
Let me know in the comments!
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Thank you for watching and have an animated
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