Ah, Claudia. Everyone’s favorite dorky Dark Mage. Even as she continues her journey to villainy, we can’t help but find her at least a little adorable.
She’s undoubtedly likable, which makes a lot of what she does even more unsettling. We’re used to villains like Viren, who are so obviously villains even if they have somewhat good intentions.
But Claudia? She seems to have a good heart and cares about people outside of simply what they can do for her. Even if she may not reciprocate Callum’s feelings, she’s still clearly fond of him.
In S2, she’s genuinely supportive of her brother, telling him that them being alive matters more than succeeding in their missions. She also comforts Ezran and even helps mend his relationship with Callum, reminding him just how lucky they are to have each other.
As I lay out here, Claudia very much resembles Callum in the earlier chapters; both are bookish nerds, adorably awkward, and with an affinity towards magic. And while Callum starts to move away from this resemblance, we can see why Claudia is so likable.
Claudia can be caring and sweet. That’s why it’s so tragic and painful to watch her continue to cross moral lines, to the point that she is now thoroughly antagonistic to Team Zym, with any hope of total redemption being slim at best.
Now, I can’t talk about Claudia without first talking about Dark Magic. You see, while Dark Magic is terrible, the show doesn’t explicitly lay out exactly why it’s terrible. It merely illustrates how it works, portrays people using it for a variety of reasons, and then lets the audience decide how it feels about it. This is all intentional—Aaron and Justin have expressly stated they didn’t want to push too hard on the point that Dark Magic is wrong, instead leaving it for fans to make up their own minds. As a result, some fans sincerely believe there’s nothing wrong with it.
And that’s why we have Claudia. Someone who is sweet and sincere, relatable enough that you picture being friends with.
Someone who also sees nothing wrong with Dark Magic, defends using it, and even tries to use it for supposedly good reasons.
Because there’s no explicit reason given for why Dark Magic is so uniquely evil, the onus is on us, the viewers, to figure this out on our own.
There have been several fan attempts at explaining why Dark Magic is so bad, but for me, at least, I always felt we were missing something.
It might be wrong because it requires Dark Mages to sacrifice innocent creatures. But then again, humans in the real world consume animals all the time.
The logical response to this is that unlike, for instance, eating, Dark Magic is not natural nor necessary. However, we do all sorts of unnatural things with animals as well. For instance, we’ve created animal glue, whale oil for lamps, and leather from cattle. We’ve used creatures as working animals as well as for their cells to develop cures and vaccines. Without arguing that Dark Magic is defensible, this just helps illustrate the larger point that there must be something else that makes Dark Magic worse than any of this.
Another argument I’ve heard is that it permanently destroys magical habitats. The reason why the Human Kingdoms are much less magical than Xadia is that Dark Mages have poached and pillaged all the creatures they could. This could all very well be true, but it’s also what human beings do on the regular in the real world; as a rule, wherever industrial civilization lays down its roots, animal extinctions follow, intentionally or not. If Dark Magic is supposed to be an indictment of the way our society works today and the ecological problems we’ve caused, then we deserve it.
But many of us (hopefully) are working to change that, even if it means making life harder for us. The solution to climate change ultimately comes in the form of learning to live sustainably and in harmony with the world around us. One day, we’ll find a balance to our way of life, but if we can, why can’t Dark Mages? Why can’t Dark Magic users learn to moderate and regulate their behavior the way we could, and sustainably find ways to use the same magic that elves and dragons take for granted?
It also doesn’t help that characters who hate Dark Magic the most are also hypocritical about it. Sol Regem argues that Dark Magic causes the death of innocent creatures…while threatening to burn down a city filled with innocent people. Perhaps he opposes Dark Magic, not for ethical or benevolent reasons, but because it shifts the balance of power too much in favor of these so-called “lesser beings.” So, we can’t take his assessment of Dark Magic with anything more than a grain of salt.
But, at the end of the day, Dark Magic isa bad thing. Even if we can’t place our finger on exactly why, we know there’s just something wrong with it.
And that’s where Claudia comes in.
She too doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with Dark Magic— Why should she? It’s no different than anything else humans do, it helps keep people alive, and keeps us from starving and being helpless. Whether you eat them or take their magic, they’re just a resource.
But over time, as she relies more on Dark Magic as her universal problem-solver, we see her cross more and more ethical boundaries.
In most of the first two seasons, Claudia’s uses of Dark Magic come entirely from whatever she happens to carry in her bag or little critters she finds here or there.
And, for the most part, she tries to do the right thing. Claudia understands how powerful Zym could one day become, and from her perspective, there is a risk that he could, in her words, reign “death and destruction down on all of us.”
Claudia honestly believes that finding the Dragon Prince and bringing the princes home is what’s best for Katolis. Initially, she believes that Rayla had kidnapped the boys, and later she still insists her actions are for the greater good.
She’s willing to cross certain lines, such as manipulating and betraying Callum and Ezran, but shows signs that she regrets doing so.
But she starts off at crossing these relatively smaller moral lines, before working her way to more reprehensible behaviors. By the end of S2, she crosses a line when she uses a living creature to cure Soren’s paralysis.
After this moment, we see that she’s willing to justify an ever-growing list of horrible actions without any regrets. Whether it’s overthrowing and imprisoning Ezran, wiping out Lux Aurea, or turning the entire army into mindless rage-fueled minions, and even possibly letting Viren’s illusion strike down Ezran.
By the time she resurrects Viren, most likely by using a poor unfortunate elf who stumbled upon her, she’s past the point of feeling remorse for what she feels she has to do.
And why?
She places all of her faith in Viren because he’s family. She values her family above all else, and finds that Dark Magic is an easy, reliable way to keep it all together.
As a result, her character’s arc helps show what’s fundamentally wrong with Dark Magic—because it’s such an easy fix to all her problems, Claudia is tempted to lean on Dark Magic in more unethical ways.
In Lord Acton’s famous maxim, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
And Dark Magic is power incarnate.
Dark Magic is far more versatile than Primal Magic. Whereas Primal Magic lets a mage use spells by harmonizing with nature, Dark Magic is simply about harnessing power in its raw form.
It’s not merely a shortcut that lets you bypass having an Arcanum or a Primal Stone. Certain practices within Dark Magic are not possible elsewhere.
If Callum had mastered Sky Magic by the time Rayla goes to save Pyrrah, he could have made short work of Soren and his forces with his winged form, but actually freeing the dragon from its chains would have still been no easy task.
But with Dark Magic, all Callum needed was a spell. A single spell and the chains are turned into snakes. The soldiers are driven away, and the dragon is free.
You can’t do that with Primal Magic.
We haven’t seen a limit to what Dark Magic can do for you, provided you have the materials. It can swap souls.
Or take them.
It can provide safe passage across the Breach.
It could taint or even destroy sources of Primal Magic.
Dark Magic isn’t bad just because it relies on sacrificing creatures. It’s bad because it tempts users with the power to redesign and reorganize the fabric of the world around them, potentially at the expense of Primal Sources themselves.
Dark!Callum sums up this temptation perfectly:
“You can have unlimited power. And you can choose what to do with that power. You can make a real difference in the world!”
And sadly, it’s a temptation that Claudia falls for time and time again. Once Claudia wields this power, she’s tempted to abuse it, even if it just begins as an attempt to protect her loved ones. And the more she abuses it, the harder it is to stop.
She shows that the temptation to use Dark Magic and how it distorts the world is what makes the practice so terrible and so terrifying that it shouldn’t be used in any circumstance.
@batfamfan1(who gave me permission to bring up our conversation here) had argued that Claudia’s use of Dark Magic was different from Viren and Aaravos, because she at least uses Dark Magic for good (or what she sees as good). That is, she cures or protects her family.
However, I’d argue that it’s not as simple as that. Claudia indeed sacrifices a deer because she wanted to cure Soren, but had she ever considered what Soren wanted? There’s a reason why, for instance, doctors disclose all relevant facts and treatments to a patient and let them make an informed decision, even if the doctor believes only one of those treatments is the best option. It’s not just about a cure, it’s about the agency of the patient. This becomes even more important when it’s not a professional responsibility to a patient, but a duty to respect the free will of someone you love.
Claudia never respects Soren’s agency. Even when he’s come to terms with his condition, she has not. She wants to keep trying to find a cure even while he’s beginning to move on. And, when she does find a cure, she never tells him about it beforehand, never tells him what it would cost, and never tries to get his approval.
This is different from Rayla in 2x08 who, in spite of knowing it’s a bad idea to let Ezran leave on his own, lets him go. Or Callum, who, in spite of thinking that Rayla staying on the Spire is a bad idea, simply lays out all the relevant information to Rayla and lets her make the decision for herself.
This is because, when you love or care about someone, that has to include letting them make their own choices, even if you don’t agree.
Claudia never does this with Soren because, again, it’s not about him, but about her. She has a personal need, however tragic, to keep her family together and healthy.
She’ll do what she can to fill that need, even if she has to play goddess to do so.
For that reason, she isn’t using Dark Magic for someone else’s benefit but her own. Much like Viren, whose stated goal to defend humanity was really just a cover for his desire to be powerful, Claudia’s goal to protect her family is really about protecting her state of mind. To do that, she needs to become powerful as well.
Her inability to see just what’s wrong with Dark Magic, combined with her need to maintain this portrait of a healthy family alive, means she will always be tempted to try another Dark Magic spell that will simply cure everything and will never look back once she tries it.
This is different than, for instance, Callum. As I describe here, he’s seen the world that Rayla shows him and begins to see magic the way she does. It’s not a tool; it’s a phenomenon, a vibrance or a spirit to things.
He understands, at least in an unstated way, that there’s something fundamentally wrong about Dark Magic, because it threatens that vibrancy.
Interestingly, unlike Claudia, who sees it as an easy solution to everything, Callum is suspicious because it’s too easy:
“But that’s just it! Too easy! Even though I know it’s wrong.”
Because of this, Claudia’s character arc helps illuminate what’s wrong with Dark Magic, even if the show doesn’t go out of its way to tell us. It’s a temptation for people who want to be powerful, and it makes them just powerful enough to abuse it.
First Dragon Prince S03 fanart of way more coming!! I wanted to open the set up with Rayllum, and my favourite moment of Callum’s development this season. So beautiful! Also gave me epic Escaflowne vibes!
In honor of the release of season 3 of The Dragon Prince, I made this fanart of the prettiest star boi magician, Aaravos. I love this asshole so goddamn much. I will be selling this as a print next year starting with Albuquerque Comic Con! <3
