Bringing Light

 This week, I ‘m going to do something a bit different for my blog post.  I still have plenty of ideas to dig into the Mull-tiverse theme, and this week’s post will still be related to that, but I won’t be looking at any of the books in particular.

Last week, I watched a live stream interview with Brandon Mull where he talked about his journey to becoming an author, his process, his inspirations, and how his faith impacts these things.  It was a beautiful interview that gave me more respect for him not just as an author (which I already had) but as a human being.  I left that event thinking, if I ever have the opportunity to meet him in person, I am going to take it because I want to thank him in person for the inspiration he has given me and so many others.

There are plenty of things that I could discuss about that interview here, but I am going to focus on three comments he made (one random, one insightful, one inspiring).  The intent is not just to rehash the interview and do a play-by-play.  For one, he had some very vulnerable moments where he shared some personal experiences and, while this increased my respect for him and aspire to have the will to be that vulnerable in the right moments, I don’t feel it is my place to pick apart his life experiences.

This is a fan blog, but it is more about the content than the man himself.  That being said, any opportunity to get content from the author is golden.

Random: One of the things he asked was if he had a favorite of his characters or if there was one he felt particularly connected to.  He didn’t really answer this, but he did.  First he explained how it was his job, as an author, to hide the fact that all of his characters are part of him.  As an aspiring writer myself, I appreciated this, but when he got down to talking about one particular character, I was actually surprised: It was Nate from Candy Shop Wars.  The reason I say he didn’t really answer this is because his explanation was that Nate was closest to him personality wise at that stage of his life.  I honestly expected it to be Seth from Fablehaven and Dragonwatch since there is more content about Seth, but it was also very intriguing and made me more eager to read the Candy Shop War books again (also, he said his next one would “probably” be a CSW 3 book).

Insightful: Another one of the questions, really the main question that they focused on the most, was how his faith impacted his writing.  He basically told his life story as a response, but one thing that he said really stood out.  I wish I had written his exact wording, but here it is in a nutshell: a time came where he had a decision about what kind of stories he wanted to produce.  He said he was so full of ideas that there were plenty of directions he could take.  The decision he made was that he wanted to share stories that brought light into the world.

This, of course, got me thinking about all his books that I’ve read and the light that they have brought to my life and my son who has read some of his books too.  It also made me think of his literal use of light: the Source, the orantium blast that destroyed Maldor, and how thematic light and the battle between light and darkness is across all his writing.

To go full-on Nerd for a moment here, I LOVE fan theories.  I don’t necessarily agree with every single fan theory out there, but I love the idea of fan theories.  One of my favorites is one of the biggest out there: The Pixar Theory, which suggests that all Pixar movies exist in the same universe on one gigantic timeline (if you don’t know about it, look it up; it’s fascinating).  Any time Pixar comes out with a new movie, I try to see how it fits in to the Pixar Theory.  Then I watch the Super Carlin Brothers (probably the biggest proponents of it) to see what they have to say about it.  At one point, the Super Carlin Brothers made a comment that made me love fan theories even more.  They were addressing some comments about people who had found content that disproved the theory, and basically their response was: You don’t get it.  That’s not why fan theories exist.  It’s about the message that the theory teaches as a whole.  With the Pixar theory, that message is about two sources of energy that we all need: emotions and memories.

Back to the interview with Brandon Mull: his comment about light, with regards to this blog, made me rethink what purpose it can serve.  It’s fun to see how the worlds are connected, and point out the Easter Eggs in his writing, and I’ll continue to do that.  And because of the comment from the Super Carlin Brothers, I had always intended to get to the point where I identified the overarching theme.  Then the author, himself, handed me the answer: bringing light into the world.  I know this is super vague, and could go in a lot of different directions.  But Brandon Mull handed me the compass, so to speak, to identify the theme.

Inspiring: This one is going to take a sharp turn away from the book content pretty soon, so to avoid distracting from the comment Mull made later on, I’m going to get this out here now: there was a specific moment in Dragonwatch: Return of the Dragon Slayers that popped into my mind and became even more meaningful than it already felt when I read it for the first time.  It was the moment when Seth was immersed in the aether at the Source.  You can read my detailed analysis of this scene in last week’s post as it relates to the Mull-tiverse, if you want.  His comment made me realize that there was imagery he uses that I was missing out on.

Brandon Mull made a comment directly about his faith that struck me.  I have been thinking about it all week, and not as it relates to his writing.  He had been recounting a time in his life where he had felt “unfixable.”  He didn’t see any way that he could be repaired, so to speak.  The way he was able to move past that was his reliance on the Savior, Jesus Christ.  He said he had always thought of himself as a faithful person—had great faith in prayer, liked going to church, served a mission for his church, but it wasn’t until that experience that he truly understood Christ’s role as our Savior—that he can fix the unfixable, heal the unhealable, and bring light where there’s darkness.  I don’t remember if those were his exact words, but it’s what I left thinking about after the interview.

What’s funny is, as I started watching the interview, knowing he would be talking about his faith, and still thinking that it would be interesting to dive into his writing again based on what he said.  While that is true, and I am excited about continuing to explore his books to develop this fan theory further, when he made this comment, at least a piece of that went away.

It became, and remains, much more important to learn how to rely on Christ and become a better person.

Moving forward, I’m still going to explore Brandon Mull content and the Mull-tiverse theory because, as I said, this is a fan blog.  And I hope it is as fun for you, the readers, as it is for me.  But I’ll be diving into themes more, and since Brandon Mull is a Christian, and since I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and therefore a Christian as well, I’ll be exploring Christian themes in the writing.  It's going to be a great ride!

Source Abilities

 Continuing from last week on further connections to the Mull-tiverse that “Return of the Dragon Slayers” offers us, I’m going to write today about the most obvious one of all: The Source.  Dragonwatch is not the first time we have heard about The Source.  It’s even called the same thing in The Five Kingdoms—it’s what the slipstreams in the Echolands (which are made of a substance called ether) lead to.

Playing devil’s advocate for a second (just because that’s fun sometimes), let’s make the argument that “The Source” is such a generic term that it can be used in different series, even by the same author, and not be the same thing.  Plausible.  Until you hear this from Konrad:

“This world can be debilitating,” Konrad said.  “But better, higher purer realms exist.  The Source is proof of that.  It connects to them” (519).  And later this, when he is talking about entering the Source himself: “The Source unnaturally prolonged my life… Too many of those days have been spent without my wife.  It’s time to see if I can catch up to her” (543).

I would argue that this is more than a wink and a nod to anybody who has read The Five Kingdoms series.  So today, I’m going to spend some time exploring the connection between Seth, and another Brandon Mull hero who spent some time in the Source… Or at least something that led to it: Cole Randolph.  The burning question that pulled me into my explorations for this post was this: Was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer?  After all, both spent time in the Source, and both had remarkable healing abilities after that experience: Cole was able to unblock the effects of shapecraft, reuniting others with their powers, and Seth was able to end the suffering of the undead.

So let’s dive in:

Cole spent more time in the ether of the slipstream than Seth spent in the aether of the Source—or at least more page space—which means we have a lot more detail on Cole’s experience.  In the fourth book of the Five Kingdoms series, “Death Weavers,” Cole dives into the slipstream to rescue Destiny, and stays behind so he wouldn’t get captured.  At first, the ether whips around him, physically trying to pull him toward the Source.  But his experience changes when his thoughts changed:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

These noble thoughts cause a shift in how Cole experiences being in the slipstream:

“The windy fluid still mostly whooshed around him, but now it felt like some of it flowed through him.  As he paid attention to the sensation, it gradually increased.” (412)

This is our indication within Five Kingdoms that the slipstreams do more than just carry echoes—or at least living echoes like Cole—into the next realm.  And it doesn’t take a whole lot for it to do more—just the right thought pattern. 

As a side note at this point, I love that there is something tangible that changes Cole that is directly tied to his thoughts; Cole has been heroic up until this point, but I would argue that this is the point where he truly becomes a hero.  And as a side note within the side note, being a literary nerd, I also love that this follows one of the conventions of Epic Heroes, which is a descent into the afterlife.

Okay, back to it.  Cole’s thoughts change, and the more he focuses on those thoughts, the more his experience in the ether changes.  One of my favorite moments as we are following Cole’s thought process starts off feeling like a tangent, but ends up being a remarkably profound moment:

“A memory stirred.  When had he heard wind like this?  The terminal void behind the cloudwall!  He wondered if the swirling maelstrom might be composed of this same ether.” (412)

As I read this section again this morning, preparing for this post, I had a total geek out moment at the use of the word… you guessed it… “void!”  Granted, this is void with a lower-case “V” but it’s no accident that “void” was used here.  There are plenty of other words to use—maelstrom, for instance.  In this little “this seems familiar” moment that Cole has—which happens SO MANY times in the course of a normal day—Cole hits on something profound: Although there are drastic contrasts between the Void, and the Source, they are connected.

Also, which other Mull-tiverse hero has experienced both the Void and the Source?  Seth!  Okay, Kendra, too, but we’re focusing on Cole and Seth today because he was immersed in it.

The passage with Cole in the slipstream is one of the richest passages in the Mull-tiverse.  And it doesn’t end with Cole’s connection between the void and the slipstream:

“Cole began to feel hot inside.  Although the ether penetrated his body, something within him resisted the shrieking gale, causing incredible friction.  The heat became uncomfortable before Cole recognized the scalding element as his power.

“He was feeling his power!” (412-413)

Unlike Seth, who discovers what the change within him means only after leaving the aether, Cole discovers it while ether is still swirling around and through him.  It heals him of his wounds, and he starts to hear the homesong:

“Cole had lost everything—his home, his family, his friends, his future—but this song promised restoration.  Peace and joy and endless abundance that included all he believed he had lost.” (413)

Even though Cole ultimately decides to leave the slipstream rather than continuing on to The Source, this is a significant experience, and completes his journey to becoming a true hero: he goes from desperation to resolve to pain to peace.  It is only after Cole feels peace that his transformation is complete, he can harness his power, and go on to complete his quest.

Now let’s explore Seth’s experience in some more detail.  We don’t have as much to explore here since Seth’s experience is a quick dip in the aether rather than a prolonged battle with a slipstream.  But there are definitely similarities.

I “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” Seth is invited to either drink from the Source or bathe in it.  Not wanting to become one of the undying, Seth opts for the bath.  I might add here that this likely prolonged his life, which I thought was interesting, though never directly addressed.

So the circumstances of the experience were quite different, though both Cole and Seth chose to “dive in.”

Before taking the dip in the aether, the Alderfairy asks Seth, “Do you formally renounce darkness?” and before answering, here is what we get for Seth’s reaction:

“He considered the champions of darkness he had met… then compared them to those who favored the light…Seth reflected about how he felt in the presence of the Void, contrasted with how he felt here beside the Source” (520).

Even though this is much more condensed, it is essentially the same though process that Cole goes through.  Seth thinks about his enemies and then his friends.  Then he thinks about the Void and the Source.  I’ll point out here that Seth has been dealing with darkness for NINE books now!  He became a Shadow Charmer in the second book of Fablehaven, and is reflecting on it near the end of the fifth book of Dragonwatch.  So even though we have a brief paragraph here, he is reflecting on TONS of experiences.  So it is not a light decision (pun intended) when he answeres, “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).

It’s also important to point out here before we go on that Seth has gone through a TON of desperation and suffering at this point.  He has also been firmly resolved for a long tome to not allow the darkness within him to get the better of him—and that includes the suffering caused by the stab from the unforgiving blade.  This is not to cheapen Cole’s experience at all—he had been through a lot too, and his experience was also after a lot of desperation and suffering.  We are just given a great illustration of those stages while he is in the slipstream.

Now, let’s look at Seth’s experience when Konrad has fully immersed him in the aether:

“For a moment, time slowed, and Seth experienced overwhelming bliss.  Not a single fear could trouble his mind.  He was forgiven and deeply loved.  Whether he lived or died, everything was going to be fine.” (520-521)

Seth finally gets the feeling of peace he has been longing for.  In his mind, the word is “bliss” and later “happiness,” but the idea is the same.

I said earlier that I felt like Cole became a true hero when he left the slipstream.  Even though Seth enters the Source so close to the end of the Dragonwatch series, I would make the same argument for Seth.  He was incredibly heroic in several instances through the entire Fablehaven and Dragonwatch saga.  But he became a hero and did the most heroic things of all after leaving the aether.  This is when “darkness is replaced by light” (paraphrasing what Konrad says on 521) and Seth becomes a Shadow Healer.

This leads us back to my original question: was Cole Brandon Mull’s first Shadow Healer.  Through most of my exploration on this topic, I was convinced that he was:

Seth, who actually has the title of Shadow Healer is able to end the suffering of the undead.  He is able to dispel the darkness within them and show them the light.  Cole is able to heal the damage caused by shapecraft to those in the Outskirts, and almost everyone in the Outskirts, at least in a way, is undead because they are in a “space between.”

Both heroes were fully immersed in substance connected to the Source, which travels through many dimensions, as established in Dragonwatch.  This means that even though it was called aether in one and ether in the other, it’s the same stuff.  Both had powers before, and both powers changed after being in the Source.

I am telling you, I was so convinced of this.  But then I read this:

“The aether works a little differently on everyone, depending on who they are and what they really want.” (519-520)

So I had to ask: what did Cole want?  Considering Cole’s specific experience, I had to go with what caused the change in his experience once he was in the ether.  Here’s that passage from “Death Weavers” again:

“But somebody had to save Tess.  And so many others.  He had to hold on… He needed to live.  He had to see his family again.  He had to help Dalton and Jenna find their way home.” (411)

To sum up: Tess, The Outskirts, Life, Family, Friends.

And for Cole, this isn’t a priority order, it’s a sequence order to the end result of getting back home.  He has to make it home, but he has to save the Outskirts in order to do that.  It’s important to point out that he is still willing to help save the Outskirts even if it means he can’t get home, but that is his goal, and his powers are uniquely suited to allow him that opportunity—in the Outskirts.  Not on Earth.  Because that is also a contributing factor.  After all, the Mull-tiverse is a multiverse.  That, and healing the effects of shapecraft is not Cole’s only ability.  He is able to use raw shaping to recharge magical devices and others with magic abilities in the Outskirts.  So ultimately, I do not think Cole is a Shadow Healer.

Just for fun, let's look back at Seth for a second.  What does he want?  His statement in “Return of the Dragon Slayers” is “I renounce darkness.  I’ll fight for the light.  I’ll help keep the balance” (520).  And again, I’ll point out: On Earth.

Their powers are in separate dimensions, where magic works in different ways.  Cole loses his abilities when he returns to Earth, and I am guessing the same would happen to Seth if he ever went to the Outskirts or Lyrian... even though these abilities were gained in a substance that travels through all dimensions within the Mull-tiverse... or would he?  What would happen if Seth ever traveled to other dimensions?  And what if Cole somehow found the Source on Earth?

Well, those are questions to explore later on. 

Colson, Selona and The Source

 Fair warning: there will be spoilers for the final installment of Dragonwatch in this post.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, but I haven’t been neglecting Brandon Mull’s books.  Before reading “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” I wanted to reread the other books in the Dragonwatch series.  I was hoping to find some new support for the Mull-Tiverse theory in doing so, and boy did I!

For today’s post, I would like to focus on some new information that we learn in “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” namely the secrets of Selona, and what those secrets do to support the Mull-Tiverse theory.

In the last installment of Dragonwatch, we learn where Selona is, and how it stays hidden.  Unlike some of the other secret places in the Fablehaven/Dragonwatch universe (The Fairy Realm, Zzyzx, the stadium in Humburgh) it is not a pocket dimension, and unlike the preserves and dragon sanctuaries, it’s a little more unique than just distracter spells, although very powerful distracter spells are used to protect Selona.

Gerwin explains it this way:

“Long ago, our kingdom was part of the normal world.  But as our people became the Fair Folk, mortals began to instinctively avoid our land, driven away by our magical natures” (427).

I know, this is no different than the preserves and the dragon sanctuaries.  The dense population of magical beings naturally causes mortals to steer clear of the area.  But this is only the beginning of Selona’s secret.  This was not enough to satisfy Konrad that Selona was safe, and Gerwin explains this, too, when he says, “My dad always told me that too many important things are hidden in Selona” (429).

He elaborates on this a little bit by referring to the fact that the sovereign skull, which protects humans from full-on dragon attack, is hidden in Selona.  He says he didn’t know all the details, but it is understood that other significant magical items (and, as we learn later, The Source) are hidden within the kingdom as well.

Moving everyone into a pocket dimension didn’t seem to be an option for an entire kingdom and all its inhabitants so Konrad, and the other powers that be, took a different approach:

“Selona is markedly distinct… Imagine two entirely different maps covering the same area, both perfectly accurate.  The sun shining on Poland is the same sun giving light to Selona”  (429).

While this is really cool to think about, you may already be thinking, What does this have to do with the Mull-Tiverse theory?

Well, let’s dive into it!

This, as I see it, is the strongest evidence that supports that the Earth in Beyonders, and Candy Shop Wars is the same Earth as the Fablehaven/Dragonwatch universe.  The strongest link is between this and Candy Shop Wars, so that’s where I’ll go next.

In an earlier post, I pointed out that Vista, Colorado (from Beyonders) and Colson, Colorado (from Candy Shop Wars) were a little more challenging to fit into the same Earth as the Earth in Five Kingdoms and Fablehaven/Dragonwatch because those two series only use actual places.  Selona changes that in one regard, but it also hands us an awesome explanation!  A combination of high magical population and protections brought on by other spells (to keep magical items safe) can cause the general population to avoid, and even forget about an entire kingdom… or city!

Let’s talk about Colson, California.  Right out of the gate, the biggest flaw in this idea is that Nate’s family just moved there.  So how did they find it if it was protected?  I’ll tell you: I don’t know.  I’m still fleshing that part out, but here’s what I have so far: First off, I don’t think that what is hidden there is anything nearly as significant as the location of the sovereign skull or the Source (though, I think it’s connected—I’ll get to that), which means the spells would not be nearly as strong.  Additionally (or maybe alternatively?) it is possible that it is a much newer protected area than Selona, which is ancient.  Another idea is that somehow there was magic involved in the job offer that Nate’s dad received—one that he wasn’t even aware of—that needed to occur in order to bring Nate to Colson, similar to the way that Rachel and Jason were drawn to Lyrain.

So, I just said that it’s possible that the magic protection in Colson isn’t as old as the magic protection in Selona.  There is actually support of this in the book.  The first is the name of Ms. White’s shop: “Sweet Tooth Ice Creame and Candy Shoppe.”  I know that there are still little towns that have novelty stores that still use the old fashioned spelling, but you can’t overlook any detail in a fan theory.  Additionally, there’s this little nugget from page 30: “All along Main Street from Greenway to the hill topped by Mt. Diablo Elementary, the buildings looked like they were trying to belong to the Old West.”

Or maybe the people in the town are now trying to make it not look like the old west anymore.  Maybe the magical protections began in the old west days.

If this isn’t enough to convince you, no worries, this is not where it ends!

The tasks that Ms. White gives to Nate, Summer, Pigeon and Trevor are to get them to find a magical item—specifically a draught from the Fountain of Youth.  There are TONS of legends out there about the Fountain of Youth.  I think it’s safe to say that this would be a location worth protecting with magical barriers.  But they’re not looking for the fountain itself, just a draught from it.  So, while it is incredibly important to protect, it is not nearly as important as protecting the location of the actual Fountain of Youth.

So here’s the story: Someone, at some point way back in history, found the Fountain of Youth, and pulled a draught from the fountain and kept it.  Whoever that was, or whoever got it from them, found a safe place to hide it in California in the day of the Old West.  I am guessing that individual was a magician, not a wizard.  Why do I say this?  Well, partially because that is the established source of magic in Candy Shop Wars, but also because the spell was clearly not as strong as those put over Selona.

But wait!  There’s still more!  Let’s look back at Selona again for a bit:

Powerful magic was used to protect Selona because it was the location of the sovereign skull, yes, but the biggest reason they went to such extensive measures to protect it was because it was also the location of The Source.  We learn in “Return of the Dragon Slayers,” we learn that on Earth, the access to The Source is a pool of a substance called aether, surrounded by a remarkable garden. 

Seth bathed in it, which healed his “unhealable wounds” and turned him into a Shadow Healer.  Kendra’s ankle was healed in it, as well as the Fairy King’s bit from a narcoblix.  But these aren’t the coolest things the aether can do:  Konrad and his children drank the aether and became undying.  Aether was used to water crops and livestock in Selona, and it turned the inhabitants into the Fair Folk.  Konrad’s wife bathed in the aether, and it prolonged her life!

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like a way cooler version of the Fountain of Youth than most other legends.  So the connection is even stronger!  The Source, or at least its location on Earth, is the Fountain of Youth!

I have to say, I was very excited to discover this, because I was originally really worried about finding connections between Candy Shop Wars and the other books.  This discovery brings it fully into the theory in my mind and I am so excited to find more connections!