‘The Dragon Prince’ Season 6 Ending Explained: Did Aaravos Return To Xadia?

In The Dragon Prince, the godly Startouch elf, Aaravos, has played the role of overarching antagonist over the course of six seasons so far, manipulating events from behind the scenes like a puppet master, corrupting the minds of susceptible mages to make them do his bidding, and thereby creating prolonged animosity between humans and other magical species like elves and dragons. Despite remaining imprisoned, Aaravos managed to easily target his prey—Lord Viren, Pharos, or Claudia—and use them to get himself freed. 

In the previous season of The Dragon Prince, Callum and his friends had learned just how dangerous Aaravos is, as during his stay in Xadia, he was able to turn humans, elves, and dragons against each other by multiple times enacting his cruel, malevolent schemes—throwing the world into utter chaos as a result. Callum himself experienced a glimpse of the legendary archmage’s powers while being possessed by him, Which is why Callum became desperate to put an end to Aaravos throughout the sixth season. However, as Murphy’s law dictates, Callum’s worst fears end up coming true at the end as Aaravos finally breaks free from his prison. 

Spoilers Ahead

How Did Aaravos Return To Xadia?

The prison pearl Aaravos was trapped inside of was obtained by Callum and his friends in the final moments of the previous season, and Claudia’s plan to free the legendary archmage failed. With the pearl remaining in Callum’s possession, initially the possibility of hiding the pearl was considered, but in his mind, Callum knew that as long as Aaravos exists, tension and chaos will ensue, and keeping it in Katolis would endanger the lives of many. Callum created a fake pearl, which he left in Katolis while taking the original pearl-prison to the Celestial elves of Star Scraper in order to destroy it. 

Unfortunately for Callum, Aaravos had already started playing tricks on his mind and managed to use Callum to swap the pearls. As a result, the fake one was carried by Callum while the original remained in Katolis. Kosmo, the celestial elf who transcended while performing their yearly stargazing ritual, became timeblind and learned the truth behind the fake pearl. However, as Kosmo revealed this information to Callum and later even mentioned his inner darkness, Callum became crippled by his fears and mental agony and refused to save his soul by not participating in the Star-Truth ritual. Kosmo sees the error in his ways and literally goes back in time to not share any details about the fake pearl with Callum in order to keep Callum’s mental strength intact. 

However, Aaravos took the necessary measures he needed to ensure that this time nothing came in the way of his freedom. Pharos, the Sunfire mage who swore his allegiance to Karim and put the idea of challenging Janai in Karim’s mind by seeking assistance from Sol Regem, was being controlled by Aaravos all along. The old dragon’s decision to heal his wings and not his eyesight proved to be a crucial decision, as Pharos utilized this opportunity to mislead him into attacking Katolis instead of taking him to the battlefield. In Katolis’ ruins, Claudia, who had arrived to reconcile with her father, finds the real pearl prison of Aaravos, who manipulates her into preparing for the ritual to break him free. Claudia willingly supported Aaravos anyway and began the ritual to free him from his prison, but lack of love or emotions deemed the ritual ineffective. As the Startouch archmage elf shared his traumatic past with her, Claudia began to truly empathize with him, finding the love that was necessary to complete the ritual. 

In The Dragon Prince season 6’s ending, Aaravos reveals that his beloved daughter, Leola, was taken from him by the cosmic judges, who decided to punish her for giving magic to humans, an action that could have far-reaching implications in the future, putting the cosmic order in disarray as a result. A helpless Aaravos pleaded mercy for his daughter and instead received derisive, harsh judgment, deeming his daughter to be guilty for her ‘crimes,’ and gave her a death sentence. Driven by the agony of losing his daughter, an anguished, grieving Aaravos went down the heinous path of revenge, a sentiment that is quite familiar to Claudia as well as her father. Viren had taught her that every action taken for family is justified, no matter how cruel, vile, or immoral it is. Relating to Aaravos’ ideology, Claudia found the emotional connection that was needed to complete the ritual and helped Aaravos to break free from his prison.

The King of Dragons, Avizandum, had imprisoned Aaravos with the help of the other dragons and elves in the first place after discovering his treacherous, manipulative means—and centuries later, it was Avizandum’s death at the hands of human dark mage Viren that resulted in conflict between humans and other magical beings. Aaravos might not have been present actively, but with him being the prime designer of dark magic, it becomes quite clear that he might have influenced this fateful event as well. The upcoming final season of The Dragon Prince: Mystery of Aaravos will revolve around the final, nefarious discipline of sorcery—dark magic—which will allow viewers to learn more about Aaravos’ machinations and possibly a way to drive him from Xadia for good.