#slayers meta

They were even both looking for a cure for being partially turned to stone. 🤔

angry teenagers who turn away from their evil guardians

allies of convenience slowly becoming friends

the practical/ruthless one in the group

"heartless swordsman" archetype

AND INDEED, WHEN HE BROACHES THIS SUBJECT, THE CAMERA PANS POINTEDLY TO THE TWO BEINGS WHO ARE, SYMBOLICALLY, AMBASSADORS OF HIS “PARENT” RACES--DRAGONS AND DEMONS: 

--showing their shock and horror at the raising of A HIGHLY TABOO SUBJECT FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE SECTS.  Xelloss, who is unflappable, suddenly shows uncharacteristic contempt and fear that Valgaav would even bring this up, says so,

 and attacks him with also uncharacteristic haste (something might also be said of the fact that Xelloss is more attached to the living world of Ruby than a mazoku should be, but that’s for another meta):

And WHY is it taboo, which even Xelloss, hardwired to serve his masters, doesn’t realize? Because arriving at that conclusion can threaten the ORDER WITHIN THE CHAOS of the eternal war. 

What do you take away from this? 

 Xelloss, Filia, and Valgaav, no matter who you ship with whom, are, as a trio, very visible symbols for the struggle to answer this epic, archetypal question; humanity, “the power between light and darkness,” is the answer, and with Val’s rebirth as a new life, that notion is honored. 

Each of them is a metonym of the larger "side” for which they stand: WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY CONTRADICTING THEIR OWN ALLEGED NATURE, and PROVING that nobody fits tidily into one camp, and indeed the fighting is futile.  Filia represents the forces of order and light, and yet she also can be cunning and violent and loud and brash.  Xelloss represents the forces of chaos and darkness, and yet he can be polite and generous and fonder of the idle joys and curiosities of the physical, living world than a monster should be.  Valgaav, hybrid of dragon (light) and demon (darkness) challenges this binary and presents a new world order that has never been seen before. As my Xelloss muse once said, “he sees not in black or white, nor in grey, but in colors; he has shifted the paradigm altogether.” 

This culminates of course in Filia and Xelloss using FUSION magic, closer to LoN in the nature of Ragna Blade and Giga Slave (interesting, isn’t it, and maybe that signals Her true intentions, as well?) to create a new entropic, hybridized third sort of magic (what Valgaav represents) that, as entropy, by definition CANNOT return to the white and black factions BEFORE the union, to kill Darkstar, and what comes of that?

REBORN VAL. 

A new life, whose purpose is to exist past the confines of past categorical distinctions.  

Can we talk about this? 

Maybe I missed it during my decade-long hiatus, but I’ve never seen anyone discuss the fact that CHAOS, the original and primordial force that evidently exists PAST connotations of Nothingness or Creation,  A) precedes either state and B) can be summoned by fusing the two opposing forces. 

This is CRUCIAL to understanding Slayers lore. 

It becomes even more significant when we know that all spells that directly summon (and simultaneously ARE) the Lord of Nightmares (such as Ragna Blade and Giga Slave) are made of the same material that TRANSCENDS Nothingness and Creation, but apparently is simultaneously a FUSION OF BOTH.  

Does this mean that:

--the entropy of Nothingness and Creation that makes Chaos  (entropy is BY DEFINITION a third substance created from two prior substances that is now a discrete new entity that cannot be separated back to its original ingredients) can be reversed?  --similar forms of magical entropy, such as create chimeras (hey Zel) can be reversed, after all, despite what both Xelloss in the novels and Rezo in the anime (who only admitted he didn’t know a way in this world to reverse it) have said?  --Fusion Magic creates chaos?  --the Lord of Nightmares, explicitly stated AS CHAOS/the “Sea” of CHAOS, therefore SYNONYMOUS or even EQUIVALENT TO CHAOS’S PRESENCE ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE, can be summoned by FUSION MAGIC? 

What about the distinctly female long haired figure who appeared to Filia presenting the egg of the reborn Val--WHO, AS XELLOSS SAID, SPOKE TABOO WORDS ABOUT ENDING THE CYCLE OF WAR BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND CREATION?  Was that LoN?  And was She paying homage to the pariah who FIGURED IT OUT?