Zubeia vs. The Truth: Reevaluating Aaravos' Backstory 

I just thought that the reason you thought zubeia was lying cause you wanted a reason to date aravos with no prejudice

I think the most suspicious detail in her story is, that she describes Aditi as a kind and wise leader, while Aaravos on the other hand compares her with her more arrogant and human hating granddaughter.

Well we have to remember that it was said that humans were treated like dirt by the elves because they didn't have magic so maybe Aaravos stepped in to literally balance power and give humans a chance for equal treatment.

I don’t nessesary think Zubeia is lying, but rather telling the truth from her perspective. But her perspective don’t nessesary is the truth if that makes sense. Like Zubeia spoke quite highly about the sun fire queen Aditi. But the short story that was released a few days ago indicate that Aditi wasn't quite how Zubeia made her appear to be. For me it seems like Zubeia was unaware that Aditi protected Kim'dael in exchange for Kim'dael to work for her. The short story clearify that the dragons feared Kim'dael and attempted to get her killed. I hardly believe Zubeia would look that kindly on Aditi's decision there. To not mention that when Zubeia tells about Luna Tenebris mysterious death the moon was red in that curscene. And out from The Bloodmoon Huntress graphic novel we know that Kim'dael is at her strongest during full moon and use the full moon to expand her lifespand with blood rituals. And at that time Aditi had Kim'dael under her control. So Aditi along with Kim'dael may have been responsible for Luna Tenebris' death and not Aaravos. Aaravos may have been responsible for Aditi's disappearance which is concidered as a sin, but from Aaravos' perspective it may have been more of a favor than a sin. He may have been busted for that action and since Aditi had a good name at that time Zubeia and other dragons and elves found it easier to believe that Aaravos was responsible for Luna Tenebris' death as well. That ofc is just speculations from my side, but I find the details quite clear that Aditi and Kim'dael are more likely to have been responsible for Luna Tenebris' death and then Aaravos got framed for it. If that is the case then I do not say that Aaravos is fully innocent since he did kill Khessa without hesitation, so he most likely have done sins in the past as well. But it is suspicious that Zubeia do make claims that Aaravos had pulled invisible strings like a puppet master for a thousand years and every crises the world faced was seemed the work of powerful leaders, but in each case was Aaravos whispering in their ears. She says this without providing evidence for it. Aaravos may have been busted for it once, but that doesn't mean all cases have been the same. So without proper evidence there is a chance that Zubeia believes it to be true, but it may not turn out to be true. So I generally look forward to get to know Aaravos' side of the story to get the full picture

So I don’t want Arrovos to be a full on good guy but I don’t think he’s evil. He’s always seemed to be relatively neutral force with a fascination for humans and what they can do. I do think it would be interesting if Zubeia was almost like rosé quartz from Steven universe though

When it comes to the social order those in power never really want it disrupted because it can make them lose their power. Aaravos is probably that force that threatens the statutes of the dragon and elves. But I want to hear his side to get the full idea

My theory is that aaravos sympathized with the humans who were being discriminated against, gave them dark magic with the express condition that humans would use it only when absolutely necessary, the humans lied and aaravos tried to fix his mistake in one way or another, but the orphan queen accidentally framed him because she didn’t realize that aaravos was just trying to fix his mistake, and after being imprisoned without a trial, he got very bitter and became sorta evil, remember it says that aaravos was the one who saved some of elarions inhabitants from sol regem, and he was likely the one who convinced the dragon queen of the time to exile humanity, when the dragons and elves wanted to essentially commit genocide against the humans, also, Star magic is acoociated with divination, meaning aaravos can possibly see the future in one way or another (how he didint see that the humans would betray him, well, even aaravos can have biases, maybe in order to properly see the future, a star mage needs to be completely detached

I think the dragons don’t know Aaravos’ endgame. Also, the new short story “Queen’s Mercy” introduced the Bloodmoon Huntress Kim’dael attempted assassination on Sunfire Queen Aditi. However, Kim’dael was imprisoned by Aditi with a ruby-gold collar. Only Aditi’s descendant can free Kim’dael of the collar (Karim?). It is shown that Archdragon Luna Tenebris disappeared under a blood moon. It is likely Kim’dael is Aaravos’ personal assassin and enforcer before his imprisonment. We know Kim’dael escaped Aditi likely with Aaravos’ help. However, Kim’dael still has the collar on despite her escape.

I'm pretty interested in knowing more about the past of the human kingdoms and how disadvantaged they were compared to the Elves, how did the entire conflict begin and the rights and wrongs from both sides, pretty interesting video

One thing that seems really odd from his backstory is, Zubeia said he spread chaos around the world. That's kind of vague, isn't it? What kind of chaos? Wars? Deforestation? Destroying the environment?

Zubeia is terrifying when she is mad, I swear.

Aaravos has a far too important role in my opinion. Like every misdeeds, strife and discords were actually his doing. Human didn't invented dark magic to compensate their inability to perform normal magic, Aaravos teached them and pushed them to harm innocents creatures.He sow discord between the dragons and then between dragon and elves and then between humans and the dragons and elves. It's like there is no misdeeds that anyone own because it was all Aaravos.

It was confirmed by the creators that Aaravos doesn’t lie so I don’t understand why they didn’t outright ask him question about what happened. To me it’s a lot like how Sirius black was thrown in prison without a trial. I don’t believe Aaravos is evil to me he seems to want humans to thrive and let the elves and dragons to suffer for their unfair treatment of them that has been going on since before Elarion was built. As for Aaravos meddling for the last 1000 years I think it has something to do with sol regem destroying the city and Aaravos wanted revenge for the thousands of lives he couldn’t save from destruction.

I want to hear the story from Aaravos so far all we have is everyone else’s side. What I need to get the truth is hearing everything to find the point

Aaravos being locked away and everything about him and his history being magically obscured definitely gives me "When you cut out a man's tongue, you do not prove him a liar. You merely prove you fear what he has to say" vibes. It would be a saving grace for what is ultimately an enjoyable but unremarkable show if they were to pull a bit of a reversal and reveal that Aaravos may be manipulative but his goals may in fact be more noble or at least less villainous than assumed. He does seem to have a general disdain for elves and dragons and a fascination with humans, so he does have a lot of potential to be a Promethean type character, a character who saw the plight of an oppressed peoples and gave them a means, however dark, to balance the scales. And of course the Dragons and Elves would oppose humans learning magic... it threatens their monopoly on power, and we're definitely seeing more and more of elves more dickish behavior so it seems possible this is where they're going. On the other hand, if this is what they're going for... they're still leaning very hard into how bad Dark Magic is, so honestly it's kind of a coin-toss at this point as to what direction they'll take the show. Is Aaravos a Promethean figure, offering guidance and aid to humanity while opposing the current status quo? Or is he a Lucifer figure, a being who may have started out noble but fell to corruption himself? Or perhaps even a Satanic figure, just pure evil and manipulative, seeking to cause havoc and chaos for the sake of some inscrutable yet ultimately destructive goal?

My guess is that Zubeia's story is tainted by bias. In particular, her past (and probably lingering at least a little) negative views on humankind. Araavos is a Prometheus type of character. I think, probably in a major way, he did something good to help, or tried to prevent something bad from happening to the humans, something that was very much against what the Elves and Dragons goals. We know at he helped the first Dark Mages at the very least, but I think there may be a lot more to it than that. It could be connected to humanity's supposed lack of magic, or with how humanity was possibly heavily discriminated against by the Elves and Dragons even prior to all of this. I don't think this will make Araavos a hero, or Zubeia a villain, but I do think the information being withheld, whether Zubeia genuinely doesn't know or doesn't think it's relevant, or if she is hiding it to avoid any sympathy to Araavos' cause...would be the kind of information that would definitely upset the humans, and possibly make them reconsider the positions given prior, particularly Callum. I think it's possible we may see more greyness on the area of Dark Magic. After all, we have seen it do serious good too... like with Soren and Terry. Now, currently our heroes condemn dark magic entirely.. a reveal with Araavos which starts to muddle the 'Dark Magic Evil Always' idea is what I would predict most. "Araavos gave dark magic to humanity to replace magic they had prior but was taken from them" for example.

Aaravos is interesting. From how he's been portrayed in the show, he's playful and curious, competent and ruthless. He's working towards his own goal of personal freedom, and supporting his current human of choice in Viren along the way. He doesn't seem to mind what collateral damage happens along the way. And he certainly seems to find the current events entertaining, at least more so than his magical solitary confinement. I get the impression that Aaravos, somewhat arrogantly due to being an innately powerful star elf, felt that he was above any repercussions to his actions, and was interested in the novelty of the powerless humans. And since he is such a powerful magic user to the point of being able to create a whole school of magic that even the supposedly non-magical humans can use, he was interested in playing with the humans. He might have even made dark magic for that purpose in the first place. Based on his interactions with Viren, especially with the homunculus half-child creature in season 4, Aaravos seems to be rather mindful of his current pet human, though he psychologically toys with Viren frequently and it's unclear if it's just because of his isolation and boredom. Viren's "second" dark magic coma from season 4, (thanks to using dark magic for the first time since coming back to life), presents some interesting details as well. We saw Callum's dark magic coma, but we didn't have enough of a data set to know that it was the standard experience and consequence for first-time dark magic use. Now we see that every (human) mage suffers a coma after using dark magic for the first time, experiencing some sort of inner conflict where they are confronted with their motivations, dilemmas, inner self, enlightenment(s) into magic, etc. I wonder, what if Aaravos had a dark magic coma as well, and chose to give into it? Perhaps that's the meaning of being a "fallen" Star, a Dark (magic) Star(touch elf).

Whether it was her husband's bias or both Thunder and her own bias, the backstory we got on Aaravos is missing a lot. There's a chance that he had unpopular opinions,like maybe he wanted to promote democracy instead of monarchy or talked about how taxes were unfair to poor people. I'm not pretending that he never did anything morally wrong. I'm just saying maybe he did some good stuff and bad stuff and maybe some stuff that was seen as bad to the dragons Maybe he did interact with leaders to understand them not corrupt them. Assuming he's behind every past conflict sounds bad in a writing sense and almost convulted. Maybe he had a romantic relationship with a human and they had a child together. Perhaps,back then, having what was essentially a "mixed-race child" made Aaravos "the worst person in the world". Doing Dark Magic would "beneath" elven-kind and in Xadia's point of view, him doing Dark Magic is "impossible". Maybe she is hiding what Aaravos did because she knows that it wouldn't be "evil" in the show's present timeline Think of things that used to be seen as evil back then that's not a big deal now

Another interesting note to point out: Since Aaravos was imprisoned and no one has all the pieces, one has a looking glass, one has a map, one has a key, etc. it's also possible that not all of them have the whole picture/story either. Meaning while I don't think Zubeia is lying, personally I feel she only has a portion of the truth same as how the prison was constructed.

Something I feel the show needs to address - especially after Callum's learnt two Arcanums - is whether or not the Elves tried to teach humans magic before they turned to dark magic. This singular decision can completely change the narrative, because if they did try, then Aaravos could be said to have 'corrupted' humans for a purpose. But if they didn't, then Aaravos likely taught them dark magic simply so they could have something to help them grow. Of course, there's nothing to suggest that his motives are mutually exclusive. It could just as easily be that he wanted humans to grow in a way that helped his agenda.

perhaps he advocated for humans to also practice magic and all the others were against it because they knew if humans could practice magic they could destroy the dragons and would end up more powerful than them , so he started working with humans and the others saw him as a traitor.

did anyone notice avatar references in the episode where callum meets the earth dragon. To be specific it’s on his treasure cove and it’s aangs staff and sokkas boomerang

Would love a follow-up video now that we have Season 6 Aaravos's perspective.

10:30 Feels like Goosebumps twist (I mean that as compliment,honest) It would also mean that (to a certain extent) Viren was right all along: Xadia sees humanity as "lesser than" and want to keep it that way

The truth can be found between opposing biases.

After watching the trailer for season five, I have to say I don't think his "unspecified crimes" were evil in the grand scheme of things - because if they were, they would let the audience know! Remember, we're supposed to dread his return! Give us a good reason to fear him!

Aaavos 'swallowed' Queen Aditi. maybe the spell he tried with Zym as in reverse he said "He swallows your heart, He swallows your mind, He swallows your power".

I can probably guess that, Aaravos was given extra power, and gave the other elfs an idea of allowing humans to do magic, but was cut off, so decided to get revenge by creating a rather, evil magic, and decided to eliminate everyone who tried to stop him (for example, how he whispered a dark spell in the fire queens ear to kill her instantly) I truly do think Aaravos is the good person, I feel he had too much power, that is able to share with the rest of the world, but again, as I said, was cut off.

I have to admit, Zubeias wording is very vague, especially when she talks about Aditi... Notice how she just says that she "went missing" and didn't actually say she died? That's a bit odd in my opinion, like she's only telling half the truth...

If TDP doesn't flip the narrative, it's just going to be another pro-divine-right-of-kings, pro-religion-having-power-over-the-state narrative. Considering recent events, I really cannot handle that. I am willing to accept Aaravos as a flawed anti-hero or anti-villain who was too misanthropic to consider the harm his actions caused in persuit of his (noble) goals, but I cannot believe he was on the 'wrong' side. I cannot believe that dragon monarchs and elven monarchs were on the 'right' side after all the harm they have caused. And the idea that all the catastrophes in history can be attributed to one devilish character pulling everyone's strings? Now that's just poor storytelling, as it remove the agency of the characters just to further the plot. I hope you're right and the writers are trying to be clever.

I think that neither side is gonna be the REAL villain. I think Zubeia was the villain however she will wanna atone after talking it out with the mushroom man(he just gives therapist vibes, especially with how she talked 'to' thunder in that episode. I also think that aaravos just wants revenge for being wrongfully imprisoned or maybe he was the bbeg but Zubeia was helping him until she turned him in as he said that she betrayed him. Either way I think that Claudia is gonna be the main villain of the next season and maybe aaravos will be a protagonist or well at least get a lot of his pov

I just can’t wait to see where this is going to go

I don’t know… Aaravos reminds me very much of Prometheus from Greek mythology. For those that don’t know, Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and gave it to the humans and advocated for them more than the gods; this pissed off Zeus so much he had Prometheus chained to a mountain for the rest of eternity and to make it worse Zeus also sent a eagle to devour Prometheus’s liver and it would regenerate the next day, making the cycle endless. What if it’s similar to Aaravos? What if he tried to advocate for the progression of human civilization in his own way, but didn’t seem to care what that would lead to in terms of consequences? And maybe… the elf queen wasn’t as benevolent as she appeared (we’ve seen in all kinds of cinematic media lately of that being true) and tried to do a great deal of harm to humans, which would strengthen the power struggle with the more mythical races of the land among themselves and less competition. Since Aaravos at least doesn’t want his form of entertainment gone (or maybe he doesn’t realize how much he cares), he kills her to protect the humans, but with that missing context Zubeia wouldn’t be able to give the entire story and instead only give the narrative she has currently. I don’t know that’s just what I feel might be the case, there’s still way to many gaps in Aaravos’s past to be sure…

a lil out of the subject, but i think is curius how much Zubeya infatixes the thing about the mages being dark mage humans, im sure if they asked another Xadian to describe this story they would do the same, but at the same time they make clear that besides this humans was a strong startouch elf. They´re basicaly saying that they were evil, but they were humans, so without one of us they could never affect us, idk if it´s just me, but it seems a lot like the story have a lil of a cultural represion. I hope i aint saying noonsense

I read somewhere that Arravos was a master of all 6 primal sources and dark magic. And last I checked, dark magic is quite corrupting and addicting. I mean, look at Viren and Claudia...until Viren died and cameback, he was a talented manipulator and liar. So my guess is, that Aaravos will be the series primary antagonist...because of how corrupting dark magic is, my guess is Aaravos by practicing it was corrupted by the dark magic and then went around playing a twisted game of war and chaos. Or maybe, the dark magic corrupted him and made him seek more power and chaos...or he could not need a reason. But that's just me. What do you think?

This is a very interesting point of view of things, never thought about it till watched this, and Aaravos is really interesting from the trailers and everything it paints him as evil and has plans but plans for what i'm not sure, tables could turn and that he may not be the villain at all.

One thing that I've never understood or at least forgot is: Space is a thing right? So if it is then, what if Aaravos is simply a pawn to some Space horror Lovecraft god? Think about it in his pursuit of knowledge/entertainment he caught the eye of some higher being which drove him to madness. Afterwards he became a husk of his former self. Meaning he be a prefect host or puppet for this higher being. For all we know the original aaravos is gone, and the one who is imprisoned is the higher being? After all if he is as powerful as the lore is making him out to be, then why did he wait so long to do anything? Why break the looking mirror? Is he just doing anything for his amusement?

Season 5 is out...how has ur thoughts regarding this topic changed?

Bro is just a zesty elf that wants to do a little trolling

Well… since I am two months late to the discussion and only superficially knowledgeable about the show… Following impression on what I currently have about aaravos in combination with the info from the video: those are a lot of lucifer/Satan parallels. Most likely with intent on the part of the show runners. And I don’t mean parallels as in a figure or source of all evil. But rather more as in how the perception of Lucifer, a bright lightbringer, debater and advocate for humanity against the Old Testament god, turned into the fallen Angel, source of all evil and corrupt and the devil himself Satan there. Next up: since I at least don’t know what the conditions and terms of that war ending and peace enabling compromise was that the Queen back then came up with… I‘m not sure if those ever get explained or hinted at in the show, but I for sure wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that said peace on compromise would’ve ended up being at the cost of humanity, their *possibility* of ever being able to use any kind of magic ever again and similar things, for the sole reason of having been associated and „corrupted“ that much by aavaros and the usage of dark magic. Something that neither the elves nor the dragons would’ve cared that much about, since… „those are humans. They cannot use magic, they shouldn’t be able to in the first place! All the magic that they use in the first place is stolen magic and life force anyways! So why risk giving anything at all magic wise with them?!?“ Like, nah… no peace, no matter how many deaths and how much chaos it would’ve avoided, is worth that kind of price. That’s just a delayed, far more terrible and agonising war waiting to happen!

,,How different is hiding the truth to liying itself" - RWBY Volume 6

I hope that Zubeia isn’t the villain i like her I also like Aravos

I live the art used for the thumbnail!Where’d you find it?

𝐉𝐨𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐝: discord.gg/A6RhBykJZq

What do you think, how will they defeat Aaravos? I mean c'mon, as much as we ahem 😳 wouldn't won't for him to be defeated, it's inevitable.

Good video but I have some feedback Good: - You speak slow and clear. When relaying information to someone or explaining a topic, people need time to absorb that info. By speaking slow, you help people grasp the content. - Reiterating your point. Reminding us about the meta actions of the writers and what they like to do and pointing out central devices like unreliable narrators and bias/agendas is always good. - Asking 'why'. This is more of a content critique over a structure critique, but it's still important. We now have 5 of 7 seasons available to us and we STILL don't know what his motive for all of this is. We only know that elves and dragons collectively hate him. Improvements: - I can tell there's filler. The first 6 minutes could really be condensed. The first 3-4 minutes felt winding and let my engagement slip for a bit, and minutes 4-6 is just a recount of what everyone hears in the show. - Title. Keep in mind, that when you're evaluating something, you are judging it. You're half there. You are passing judgement but not on the quality of the backstory but rather the different perspectives. I'd even say it's not a reevaluation but an assessment. Because you are just seeing how reliable different perspectives are. It's a qualitative thing. Whereas an evaluation is more 'weighted'. It's like having a predefined set of criteria you want to line up the thing you're evaluating with and see how it does.

Which do you think Aaravos is more like? Lucifer or Prometheus?

Well, These Bring Back Memories. 😂🥲

Oh yeah I found out something weird it said that queen aditi vanished before Avizandum was dragon king but then it says once “thunder” was king he killed the order of the blood moon and queen aditi saved the leader so what?

I think zaaravos had a reason but zubaya just was like dude what the heck You're killing people and so she never bothered to figure that out or even ask.

Um guys, remember how the current arc is called MYSTERY of Aravos for a reason? also how is the idea that one being manipulated a lot of conflicts, it's somewhat accurate to real life given the groups involved are the ones that do the in-fighting. yes there's clearly more to the story here but it's also obvious why they'd imprison him because he's a master manipulator. The show also covers the many different perspectives of the creatures be it elf, human or dragon as well. also i get the feeling this video is bias for the antagonist elf despite the fact that him being a master manipulator behind the scenes is perfectly fine

You mentioned that we 'know' that he gave humans dark magic. What exactly are these sources you mentioned? Aaravos himself said that a human discovered dark magic. (In the intro)

there are 2 schools of thought i have going right now. the first is that humans having a vastly shorter lifespan in comparison to elves and dragons would in a way be their own primal source, the short lived humans spend lots of time either living in the moment or doing research that could benefit someone else further down the road. Aravos was the only one who thought to help them tap into that magic, all other sources are more related to life.... humans having the shortest life spans and more appreciation for life would be constant companions with death, either scorning it to the grave or welcoming it as a friend. the second is that dragons held a majority of power, elves having the rest and humans being deemed as less then the worms within the dirt. Aravos most likely saw a lot of what was already there in dragons inside humanity, both a dark threat and a capacity for great good. he'd spend his time speaking with human leaders instead of talking down to them like the others, teaching some "dark magic" in order to put them on even ground with everything else that either enslaves or kills them outright. some humans got became greedy with such power, much like the dragons with hoards of treasure and relics that could help others.

I think zubeia wanted aaravos to kill aditi because aditi didnt choose avizandum as king

This 'back story' if you even want to call it that works because it doesn't actually reveal that much all we learned is the dragons reasoning for locking him up. We still don't know what he's actually doing and why he did it all we know is what the dragons know. I think people jumped the gun on this topic without actually thinking everything through.

I like Zubeia, but she has always come off as suspicious. I think she is biased and Aravos isn't the true villain. I will agree that he has done some pretty bad things, but I also think that he isn't as bad as we are told.

Not gonna lie i would be pretty disappointed if aaravos turns out to be the big bad for one it is VERY predictable and two......i just really like aaravos 😅

Aatavos did the same thing to aditi as he did to khessa.

I would say the story is propaganda like at first they push the idea that humans can't use magic and that the prince of dragons is dead but we eventually learn in season 1 and 2 that's not true so what else have the dragons and elves lied about to be humans or to each other

Aaravos was only trying to help!!!! It would be sooooo awesome if the main characters were on Aaravos's side!!!

I still think the dragons are the real bad guys. Buuut this type of series probably doesnt have a true 'bad guy; but I bet the dragons come the closest and itll be Zym thats the true hinge between everything because its the friggen title of the show.

I don't trust them humanity

From the one hand Aaravos is deffo untrustworthy storyteller. Like look at him and what he helps to do. From the other, we already heard dragons being bias towards humans, just because they started to play against rules but not limited to that...Just remember why earth dragon and Avizandum had a conflict. So Dragon Queen is also untrustworthy. I think it will be interesting if in the end both sides will be meh. Also I wanna raise a point that dark magic is not as bad as it showed. What's bad about it? The fact that user kills innocent creatures? Oh, nooo...like for food and clothes everyone use fairy dust. Especially carnivore/omnivore dragons. And by the way it sounds fair to change one life to other or to many lives. So dark magic at least partially ok.

Sounds to much pro human video

My theory is that at one point Aaravos met and either fell in love with or befriended a human long before Zadia was split and humans were banished to the west. But something bad happened to the human, (hurt, sick, starved, killed etc…) and he believes they could’ve been saved easily with the elves magic but the elf and dragons policies of “no magic for humans and you’re beneath us” sealed her fate. And that broke him. So he went against his people and taught humans dark magic, we see in that flashback, that ancient human dark mage says he was gifted/taught his staff/dark magic by someone powerful and that the humans were using it to improve their lives, but I bet that wasn’t enough, aaravos wants all the dragons and elves to suffer for taking the one earthly thing he loved, so he manipulated humans and elves and spread more lies and chaos…it would also explain why he seems to have a soft spot for humans but disdain towards his own people.