equivalent sins

Sometimes, characters — even good ones, with good strong moral compasses — make questionable choices. Perhaps never more questionable when we are doing them to aid the people we love. We see this when Callum does dark magic in 2x07 in order to help Rayla. We see this in “Through the Moon” when Rayla lies to him and leaves in the middle of the night in an attempt to protect him. And it’s for these reasons, and many others that I am about go into, that Rayla’s actions at the end of Through the Moon, to Callum, are the equivalent of Callum doing Dark Magic to her.

This will therefore function as both a parallel examination and as a prediction for their reunion (and reconciliation) in the future. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Drowning

Rayla’s fear of water is usually played for comedy in the show, given her usual fearless and somewhat stoic nature in the face of danger. However, twice now the show has used drowning as a devastating symbolic and literal danger—with Callum and Rayla looking on rather helplessly.

Callum enters a state of psychological warfare that greatly impacts his physical health. Rayla is dragged down by the souls of dead soldiers in her search for her family’s ghosts. They took both of these actions due to extreme emotional distress — which I’ll get more into later — and in both instances, there’s an emphasis on ‘togetherness’ which the drowning is juxtaposed against as an obstacle to that desire.

Keep reading

I’m going to get flak for this, but I need to say it, because I have a lot of problems with it. Rayla’s decision to help the dragon in Season 2, while brave, noble, and in line with her character, is also completely misguided, irresponsible, and somewhat out of character at the same time.

Rayla says it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right thing for her to do. That part is completely fine and works with her character, she lays out her motivation clearly and it makes sense. She’s always had a strong sense of right and wrong and has been pretty confident with her decision making in that sense, in spite of someone like Runaan’s criticism. However, the part that really bothers me is the fact that Callum brings up an equally good point, it’s always been Rayla saying how they need to focus on the mission. She insisted on leaving the Moon Nexus after a couple of days, reluctantly relenting to stay for an extra day (which turned into two, but the point still stands), she dealt with the fact that they would have to go by sea to try and get to Xadia quicker, overall, she’s been very goal oriented. This is the part that I’m having trouble reconciling with her motivation to do what she thinks is right, because it’s at odds with other aspects of her character.

The other problem that’s never addressed…she tells Callum and Ezran that, if she doesn’t come back, they can get Zym to his mother. Some slight issues with that Rayla, how exactly do you expect them to do that? You briefly mentioned the Moonstone Path to Callum, but never got into specificities regarding it, you just said it exists. You never told him where it was, or how it works. This was definitely not something that was relayed off screen because, a couple episodes later, Rayla explains it to him. So if you didn’t come back, just how exactly were Callum and Ezran supposed to figure it out? And let’s say that, by some miracle, they did, what then? They don’t know where the Dragon Queen’s lair is, they don’t know how to navigate through Xadia, and they can’t defend themselves in a land that is incredibly hostile to humans if they’re discovered. Just what were you expecting them to do if they got into Xadia, walk up to the nearest elf and say “Excuse me, can you give me the directions to the lair of the Dragon Queen?” like a bunch of tourists?

Generally speaking, the writing in the show is good, and Rayla is easily my favorite character in the series. But this is such an egregious mistake in the writing and feels like it’s just done to set up conflict. 

I think the main crux of it is that Rayla is both an extremely rational (pragmatic) person and a highly emotional one. Is she thinking everything through rationally? Not really. It’s a feeling, one that she can’t ignore, much like how she had to turn on Runaan really in a matter of seconds to defend the boys. We’ve also seen Rayla put that sense of what’s right over the mission early on in 1x03 with offering to go back into the tower with Callum, and just like in 2x07, he doesn’t have the same instinctive impulse. After all, if they’d gone up to the tower, it easily would’ve been a disaster, and likely left each of them dead in the conflict and Ezran, the Egg, and Bait on their own, and Rayla knew all that on some level, yet she offered anyway because of the “I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t” that exists as part of her. 

Rayla thinking fast and emotionally isn’t a mark against her. Her response to Callum’s concerns shows remarkable maturity of stating that this doesn’t have to be his choice. And Callum, in many ways, can be just as dedicated to the mission as her, hence why he does stay on track in this scenario (”Then we need to get to that tree, even if it takes all night,” “Rayla’s right. We can’t go home yet. The mission is too important”). The only times he isn’t 100% focused on it is when it comes to convenient, on the way detours related to his magic (ie. 1x04 with the Lodge and the Cube being something they’d have to pass anyway, Lujanne’s feels safe and they’ve already been there for two days, in 2x04 they’re caught in the storm no matter what, etc.) or slowing their progress because he’s putting her first (pushing the boat away for her comfort in 1x05, offering to go around the sea in 2x04, going after her in the above scenario). 

She has a streak of brave and noble and stupid in her (hello, Gryffindor) that doesn’t always bow down to reason. She’s focused on their mission and with keeping the boys on track, but she also always gives into whatever detour Callum wants because there’s that emotional base just as much and she’s fond of him. She’s also willing to sometimes put her comfort/desires ahead of the mission/the boys without being willing to tell them why, either (ie. not wanting to take the boat at all and having to be cornered into it, insisting in taking tougher aka slower terrain). 

Rayla is a character who both has a strong sense of the right thing to do, but struggles with carrying it out immensely, and this is something Callum calls her out on in 1x02: “Why? You know this is wrong” and all she can do is deflect, “An assassin doesn’t decide right and wrong. Only life and death.” 

As for her not telling them about the Moonstone Path, that’s always something that’s given me pause, too, but again: this decision is made and carried out in a matter of minutes. That’s not to knock it, but it makes sense that she would even have the time to be thinking everything through. 

Rayla’s development in this scene, and that she sees how the dragon fits into a cycle of violence, is largely because of Callum, and once he sees that too, he immediately wants to go with her as well: “You’re right. If we’re really going to change things, we can’t just watch while humans and Xadia keep hurting each other. But how do I take a stand? Believe me, I want to go down there with you and be the heroes who stop all the fighting.” But unlike Rayla, he feels completely incapable of making a difference. 

Basically they’re multifaceted characters and can be contradictory like anything or anyone else, but I do always think their core motivations and decisions make sense; that doesn’t mean they’re not sometimes also messy.

to make it right :: how rayllum intersects

On the surface, and even below, Rayla and Callum are extremely different characters. However, the strong similarities they do share, not necessarily in personality or in pasts, but in morals, and narrative beats, has always been fascinating to me since the first few episodes of the show. And with S2 only adding more ammunition to the way they intersect, and with S3 on the way, I thought now might be a good time to talk about it.

To Make it Right

In spite of their obvious differences — one a loved prince raised in luxury, the other a young assassin — Rayla and Callum start Book One in rather similar places. Both are highly motivated, and centred on the same mission, even if they have different goals. Callum wants to go along on the mission with Soren to try and protect his stepfather, and Rayla wants to come along on the mission with Runaan to help kill the king. They’re each denied what they want for different reasons: for Callum, it’s a complete lack of skill; for Rayla, it’s that her heart isn’t ‘hard enough.’ But each of these reasons bleed back to an exceedingly similar one:

Their youth and inexperience is a mark against them, but later becomes one of their greatest strengths (once they meet each other, anyway). Following Callum being shut down by Soren, he gets into a fight with Ezran. Following Rayla’s act of mercy being revealed, she gets into a fight with Runaan. It’s this fight with each of their family members that leads to their first meeting: Callum goes out looking for Ezran, and Rayla goes out looking to redeem herself.

Which also plays into the most obvious parallel between these two in the first season:

Keep reading