#also for those Sweet Sweet rayllum parallels

[raayllum]

been kicking around this theory with @kuno-chan but basically

Aaravos fell in love with the human founder of Elarion (probably female, possibly a mage) and was tormented inside that their livespans wouldn’t match. He used his knowledge of Deep Magic to be able to form dark magic (hence the precision of the recipes and ingredient collecting, how much we see dark magic be used for death-related spells, etc) in order to elongate her life. She was horrified and/or the spell didn’t go according to plan, and Aaravos kept an eye on Elarion the city after her death, even if the way humans / elves / dragons continually turned their backs on her / them turned him bitter. Also means that he uses human mages and they’re his favourites because she was, even if all his pawns could never compare to her, of course, in his eyes, with her goodness, grace, or intelligence

[fujosh1dreamer]

Tdp spoilers of course: this is gonna have snippets of the notes I took while watching and maybe a quick recording from s6 ep 7.

Book 6 of the dragon prince was amazing. Very reminiscent of book 3 while also managing to be unique and interesting. There were beautiful and traumatic scene and it all worked well together.

The best part of the season were the parallels between janaya, clauderry, and rayllum. Each showed aspects of different relationships where the foundation was trust and it worked beautifully.

The journey to the starscrapper did a great job of showing that callum and rayla still in love and trusting each other despite being separated for two years. It does a great job of displaying their strengths and weaknesses, and how they are both those things to each other.

A few of my crazed notes from episode 3 the frozen ship

It also showed what was going on with Claudia and Terry. When their relationship was first introduced back in season 4 I wasn't sure I would like them. I loved Terry but I didn't feel the chemistry but after this season they are very cute together.

There was a very cute scene in episode 4 of Terry taking care of Claudia after she attempts to run off alone and comes back. He bathes her and brushes her hair and it's all really sweet you can tell just how devoted he is to her.

More crazy notes lol.

Then there's janai and Amaya

As we know they've been prepping for their wedding and while it was special and made me tear up, they had a moment in the episodes before the red wedding where they talk about being dedicated and truthful to each other after janai got a little paranoid after her brother's betrayal.

All of these relationships have a theme of truth, light and loyalty. Which is interesting.

Lmao only did a quick recording for episodes seven and eight. I forgot how dorky I sound out loud lol also it's vertically recorded don't hurt me.

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Impressions from TTM

Spoilers, spoilers everywhere. Just a big bulleted list of thoughts as I read through the graphic novel. Not a lot of detail included, so it’ll make a lot more sense if you’ve already read it yourself!

looks like Moonshadow elves cross the arms of the dead... when they have a body to bury

it’s nice to see that Rayla imagines Runaan with all his shirts, the way she last saw him

kinda looks like Rayla changed into her jammies right on her bed and dumped her clothes on that little table. maybe she’s afraid of letting the few things she actually possesses out of her sight

listen we get one little panel of Opeli in here and it’s great

Soren’s cape smacking Callum in the face, 10/10

Lujanne’s appearance out of nowhere, along with Allen’s is just adorable, she’s so sparkly. And also she can apparently just turn totally invisible with an illusion spell? Even at a new moon? Probably because of the Nexus I guess

Lujanne’s “Big strong man with big strong feelings.” She and Runaan have exactly the same type and I support them

Allen’s face when Lujanne says it aches to miss Phoe-Phoe

Callum eating off Rayla’s plate and wondering how Lujanne suspected they were a couple, hmmm

Soren and Allen bonding

Rayla warning Lujanne about hand disguises, as if that was something Runaan made very sure she knew

Rayla’s cute chaos grin when Callum’s Aspiro spell goes off is my favorite pic of her in this whole graphic novel

Lujanne’s “Oh.” afterward is my fave pic of her, too, she does not seem to handle reality well!

Bait’s tongue will never get old

Lujanne’s whole speech during Phoe-Phoe’s rebirth ritual is so touching and beautiful, my heart

Lujanne putting the newborn Moon Phoenix into Ezran’s hands, like she knows he’ll have the best connection with her

Callum’s tears as he reminds Rayla that Runaan killed Harrow, he’s trying to move on, but it hurts

Rayla’s self-soothing behavior when she has her second nightmare in the book--she must have these most every night :((((

the big symbol on the Moon Temple doors looks like a stylized Moon staff, like it’s a building for mages

Lujanne saying Rayla might not want or need the truth right after Callum mentions Runaan’s name to her, he sassily asks about her husbands and she turns it into a compliment

Callum’s big reaction to the moon opals is adorable. The only other one he’s seen was part of a pair of treasured gifts between long-time spouses, so it kinda looks like he’s all “uhh we just started dating”

also Ethari must’ve made cute metal swirly covers for the pair he and Runaan wore, since these two are undecorated--maybe he got his from Lujanne?

listen Lujanne is a hoot and all but she’s both an ally and an antagonist. Her actions are trustworthy but her advice is generally terrible. It’s an interesting parallel to how Runaan says a lot with his actions too, but he talks a lot less than Lujanne

Rayla yeeting herself into a fight just to ask Soren for a talk is 10/10 Moonshadow assassin goals

but her hood is up when she’s lurking in the trees--she might not have known where she’d find Soren and was anticipating something less fun on the feels-o-meter

Rayla in the mud again. Soren keeps making people fall in the mud

Allen’s grumpy squiggle

Callum, I love you, but you have no respect for moon opals. It’s like they wronged you in a previous life or something

that dancing elf has very long hair and shoulder pauldrons, and they start off dancing with six kneeling, watching, hooded elves around them--Moon Druids wore hoods even before they were assassins. Considering what Lujanne said about why the portal was sometimes opened, maybe those six kneeling elves are waiting under their emotion-hiding hoods to farewell a loved one who’s recently died?

can’t tell for sure but maybe the elf is dancing along the lines in the stone like they mark patterns for ritual dances, which would be the bomb

Soren and Rayla’s conversation is pretty wrenching. Seeing Soren have to struggle with what he did because it’s tangled up with Viren is rough because as a Crownguard it should just have been his duty to defend his king and he’d have nothing to feel weird about

Rayla dissociating herself from the term “assassins” and Soren dissociating from calling Viren “my father” in the same conversation is 10/10 excellent growth

Soren must know what happens to prisoners his dad gets a hold of, even if he doesn’t know the details :(((

“we captured him” and “Viren took him” seem to be talking about the Crownguard and Viren, not the brodigies and Viren

Rayla having a wooden sword at the end of the day bc she played swordfighting with Allen and Soren all day long

the panel where Rayla doesn’t say anything at all after telling Callum that she asked Soren about Runaan actually says so much, you can hear it

every time Lujanne’s white lies idea gets repeated, things get worse

Allen’s reading glasses, there must be one optician in the human village and he caters to soft kindly gentlemen of a certain age

in the moon phase montage, baby Phoe-Phoe is flying next to Ezran after one week at the Nexus. Maybe he’s paying her back by helping her learn to fly after she helped him teach Zym how to fly! Did they bond as tightly as Ezran did with Zym? I support Ezran just bonding with the most powerful flying creatures in all the land.

the irony of Callum using Lujanne’s tactics against her is amazing, but really the white lies thing is a giant ball of chaos in this story and it does not play favorites

Bait on the stone pillar during rebuilding

all the noises the Moonhenge makes are 10/10

Rayla dancing with Callum even though there’s almost no chance she’s ever done that dance before

Lujanne’s pupils going white, that is a cool effect, what’s it mean?

the black moon in the pink sky is so spooky! Is it just me or does the color scheme here kinda vibe like the space outside Aaravos’s library?

the smoky assassin squad, 10/10 creep factor, I love it

the lightning being a literal crack of doom with “CRAK-DOOM” as Katolis Castle appears, “echoes of thunder” indeed, very nice

Lujanne being mad but she can’t decide if it’s at Callum or herself

when she says pulling Rayla out now will leave her soul on one side and her body a husk. After the Insta live stream last night where we learned that soulfang serpents are Moon primal creatures, that’s... super interesting

smoky assassins go tssh in the rain like they’re still hot from being cremated, thanks I hate it

Andromeda finds Rayla first and seems closest/most aggressive so I wonder why she might hate Rayla more than the others

the assassins’ wrist bindings have gone red but they’re still attached and seem to trap the souls where they are. But all they need to be free is to perceive that Rayla completed their task, even though we know otherwise. So... would that work for killing any target? If you’re certain that you did it, does your binding fall off even if you’re wrong? eyes Pip

this must not be the actual afterlife since the spirits kind of mist up toward the moon and vanish, it’s more like a lobby, no one stays here unless they get stuck

portaling around just by shouting at villains, excellent

Rayla literally dropping a sword at the sight of the pod Viren’s in, yeah, it’s that creepy, I agree

Viren’s eyes are so black I think they’re Aaravos’s. I got a whole headcanon on Good Viren and Evil Viren for S4 now, wow

Phoe-Phoe pulling out a feather for Callum, awww my heart! This is why Ezran had to come, to bond with her so together they could save Callum and Rayla, it’s so sweet

so these humans are from the Storm Spire battle, bc that’s the Storm Spire behind Rayla and Callum on p108, with the rune-written arch. Did they die hating Rayla and Callum from the battle? Did they even know Rayla was up there? Or is pod Viren/Aaravos actually making them attack out of hatred for Viren’s death? One of these is definitely creepier and more awesome

Rayla’s confidence that Callum can and will boost her at the right moment with his magic, my heart, I love battle couples

that one panel that mirrors the Ghost Feather key art, hhhhhh

Rayla being the better swimmer, such precious irony, thanks Runaan

them holding hands and swimming upward together on the full-page panel is blessed

Lujanne pulling Rayla out of the lake with both arms gives me feels bc my grandma saved my life once

Lujanne being super soft over Rayllum, she is indeed a hopeless romantic

Rayla says “gone” about her parents and Runaan, and that’s the word Ethari used too, and I’m suddenly wondering if Ethari reached right into that pool and has always known that the lotus is half-submerged and if the sword he’s been making is for himself

I’m so glad Rayla told Callum what she saw of Viren

Rayla deceiving Callum and heading into danger alone because his life is more valuable to her than her own is exactly what Runaan did for her the night of the full moon in Katolis. I’m leaning toward her having thought this over and doing it on purpose bc she believes it’s a sign of deepest love--that Runaan’s actions and Lujanne’s words match up in her head, so she thinks it’s the right thing to do bc the mage and the assassin agree. Alas, Callum doesn’t understand the Moon arcanum yet, so he will have a different opinion. That mage and that assassin do not agree!

Rayla’s cloak has that Moon Temple symbol on its back. Is it Lujanne’s cloak? Any Moonshadow who sees it will probably know where she got it and who helped her. That could be fun!

[littlemisssquiggles]

Dragonic Musings: A Squiggle Meister’s Blunt Ramblings about The Dragon Prince S2.

So I just wrapped up watching S2 of The Dragon Prince and I’m going to be blunt:

///SPOILERS FOR THE DRAGON PRINCE S2 AHEAD///

#1: How is it that this series is able to fit so much into just 9 episodes without feeling rushed? It tells a lot needed for the season but still leaves enough to keep me wanting more episodes. The writing in this series is sooo good.

#2: Queen Anya, you go girl! I actually clapped for this character. This girl don’t play. Your queen mommas didn’t birth no fool. I also loved how they handled the backstory about the three queens; three mothers who went down as legends fighting to aid their kingdoms and their people. I don’t know how the LGBT community is going to react to TDP’s representation with the two queens. The last time we got a Netflix series created by people who originally worked on A:TLA and had same-sex lovers who died, it wasn’t well-received. So for what it’s worth, I hope there wasn’t any backlash of any kind.

The Dragon Prince thus far has been really good with handling its diverse cast of characters and the storytelling for this show is as sweet as a jumbo jelly tart. It’s that good. At least to me.

#3: Whoever creates the artwork used in the credits for The Dragon Prince---I love you. I mean, the whole production team at Wonderstorm and cast of this series has my love but I wanted to spot light the credits artist because I love how TDP adds a little something extra in the credits.

#4:  Can someone please free the precious Strawberry Boi? His captivity for S1 was cute but now in S2, he needs to be set free. Free him.

#5: Speaking of Strawberry Boy, dear The Dragon Prince, how many husbandos are you going to keep giving me? I mean you already gave me Runaan, Strawberry Boy, Ezran’s new smexilious bodyguard---a beautiful chocolate man, yes. Loving all these wonderful flavours of husbandos that TDP is spoiling me with, yes and yes. But I already had my hands full with the beautiful husbandos we got from Book 1. Now after Book 2, there is Aaravos and might I say…HOT DIGGITY GIGGITY DAMN! Aaravos, you can whisper in my ear through a magical purple worm headset any day. It’s bad enough that he’s another sexy elf husbando (why) but his voice---oh my stars, his voice. His voice slicker than melted caramel drizzling on ice-cream. I should not like this man…but I do. I GIGGITY DIGGITY DIG THIS DUDE! How can one so evil be so fine? Why you do this to me, TDP?

 #6: All things considered, I’m happy to see that Viren has found himself a new man after King Harrow. Good for you! Not good for everybody else but good for you Viren.

#7: Claudia, Claudia, Claudia…I do not hate this girl. As a Rayllum shipper, I understand that Claudia is a thorn in my ship however, that being said, I don’t hate Claudia. As a matter of fact, I want nothing but happiness for my lil witchy girl. I see her going down a dark path that I do not like. No Claudia, you too dorky and pure for the dark side girl. Don’t be like your daddy!  I would say Soren needs to save his sister but he need saving too. They both need saving. Can someone adopt these two, please? Can someone GOOD adopt them? I want Claudia and Soren to abandon their dad and just go on their own journey to find their mother. Can that be their story for S3 please? Can we just have Claudia and Soren go find their mother, please. I’m worried for Claudia. She straight up Bambi’s mother that poor deer with magic. Yes she did it to help her brother but, this left me curious about something.

What if, Soren’s rehabilitation is only temporary? What if Claudia will have to keep stealing magic from living things to keep her brother from returning to his own paralysis while damning herself in the process? While that would be good for developing Claudia and Soren’s bond, I don’t want to see this because…I don’t want to see Claudia fall into the same path as her father. However…I think that’s what is being set up and I am worried. My dorky villainous children!

 #8: I liked how they handled explaining death to children. That was great how they made that nice parallel between King Harrow telling Callum about his mom and Callum essentially trying to tell Ez about his father. I don’t think Harrow is dead though. His soul is in the green bird isn’t he? The same green bird that got away and will probably meet up with Ez in S3. Cannot wait.

#9: I felt a little bad for Bait this season. It looked almost as if Ezran had replaced him with Zym. It wasn’t like that at all since Ez was only trying to raise Zym. But at least we got to see Bait bond with Callum. That was sweet.

#10: Zym and Ez share a psychic link?! What the what? Okay, we going full Eragon up in this bitch. Okay. I dig it. It’s a way to keep Ez connected to Zym and essentially Callum and Rayla.

#11: As sad as I am to see Ezran go. As much as I’m sad to see the dream team---the dragonic trio split, my pathetic giant Rayllum shipping heart is performing cartwheels and summersaults right now. 

Rayla and Callum are going to be travelling alone together (with Zym) for a whole season eh? How perfect ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Especially after that little confession moment from Rayla with Callum. I’m loving where this is going. I’m loving where they’re taking Rayla in terms of her growing ties to Callum. I’m just waiting for our dear boy to catch up.

According to Callum in C2 (I think), he and Rayla aren’t there yet. But fear not, I’m a patient shipper so I shall wait. But boy did I enjoy those little Rayllum breadcrumbs. They be delicious. I ate good for this season. RWBY take notes for RoseGarden.

But yeah, I think that’s it for my thoughts on TDP S2. I enjoyed this season. I had planned on watching it half and half but as soon as I got through the first 4-5 episodes, I couldn’t put it down. I ended up watching the full 9 in one sitting this morning.

To my friends who told me I would love S2, you were right. I did. I am looking forward to seeing how far this story goes. More and more layers to the world of TDP is being brought in and I’m interested to see where it will take the fans. I hope there is going to be a S3 and I hope that it will be a routine where we get a new season once every year. But we’ll see.

Overall, I can’t wait.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

[raayllum]

aaravos gets released on a new moon. you know, for the vibes

Okay it's Funny you say that because I was working on another meta yesterday (about S4 and Rayllum's interpersonal duality in it) and was reflecting on S1-S3's earlier examples of duality (both good and bad from the magma titan mission, the half moon metaphor, etc) and stumbled upon, well

Claudia's hair as phases of the moon, for those sweet Raydia parallels

So Claudia starting out completely oppositional as Rayla (new moon vs full moon) on the full moon night of the attack, where Claudia is nothing but loyal to her father and Rayla defies hers (hi Runaan). And them being tethered to this again in 2x02 Half Moon Lies

Claudia before the date on the left, Rayla after the date / broken news on the right. And we see this reflected in the way that Callum walks out of the darkness (remember, Claudia's hair is wholly black at this point) and toward the light (and keeps choosing Rayla in the next episode as well).

However, as I've said before, the series' associations with Light are not that well, black and white. Light here isn't necessarily a good thing - Callum is grief stricken, and even the most important truths can hurt more than anything (sometimes especially then).

For Claudia, keeping her dark hair is a sign of her humanity / overall wellbeing. That's why the end of S2 chips away at it, and the end of S3 even more so. S4 sets up something particularly interesting, though, given the timeline.

Rayla, after all, arrives in Katolis one day after Claudia revives her father (Callum's actual birthday and Viren's rebirth day). And Rayla arrives on the full moon.

Which means that give or take a day (and TDP's phases of the moon have never been the Most consistent thing, outside of full moons) Aaravos is set to be released on a full moon. This has very Moonshadow-y implications, of course, as well as the cube being a flash of bright white light in the 4x04 intro before Aaravos picks his little Callum game piece up (which would track with the light symbolism) but it also means that well

I think, assuming it's the end of S5, Claudia is going to go full or almost full white hair, on the full moon while releasing Aaravos

I just think it'd be Neat

[raayllum]

through the moon thoughts

disclaimer: this is by no means all encompassing or a review - those will come on october 6th when i’ve actually sat through and read everything and like, fully digested it in all of it’s kindle glory, but, for now - including both a spoilers (under the read more) and non spoilery section

no spoilers

loooved the art style! it was so cute and great at capturing emotion, very expressive like the show is and everything looked very nice and cute and cool

loved soren and rayla bonding!! that was so nice

ezran and lujanne and phoe-phoe was so sweet

loved learning more about moon magic

angstier than expected but i?? loved it??

the rayllum was excellent 

spoilers for everything!!

god i knew rayla would pull this shit but i thought it’d be in s5 or something not this early. callum did absolutely everything he possibly could and she still did this shit to him, she is... lucky he has the forgiving nature of a saint, sometimes

soren and rayla sparring?? talking about runaan and viren?? just so good.

also i loved allen and have fully accepted him into the found family

loved the kiss and callum initiating two of the hugs!! i wanted both of those things so bad

and god the reality of rayla being traumatized to the point she starts to lose herself in spite of her support system, it was... so real and heartbreaking and i hope she gets to a better place soon bc. baby girl please just go to therapy i am begging you

i loved callum’s own baggage in regards to runaan being acknowledged even if it made him lose sight of his own compassion for her, and how they made up pretty seamlessly afterwards. the healthy communication didn’t entirely go out the door

the dead assassin troupe finally getting closure and seemingly being “released” at long last? was actually super fucking emotional and i loved it, it’s what they deserve 

also callum’s self loathing coming through with “why do i always say dumb things” and way he shut down a lil when rayla wasn’t there in the morning at first, like honey i knew it wasn’t gone but still, this poor, poor boy

rayla being like “give me a boost” and callum automatically knowing what to do?? them basically fighting back to back? they train together no one can convince me otherwise

baby phoe-phoe was adorable

the three panel forehead touch was immaculate, 10/10

i fucking loved that ezran’s the one who thought of the feather to help callum survive the portal!! like yes my smart king, the contribution!!

also the parallels of callum going to lujanne the same way rayla did in 2x02?? loved it

lujanne’s entire presence in this book was so good and fun, i always love seeing more of her

the symbolism of rayla leaving her katolis pajamas folded up and donning a dragonguard-esque / moonshadow cloak? leaving callum a letter? the head kiss? destroyed me

the fact we canonically have each of them saying “i love you” first

rayla’s hand on his cheek when they kissed?? the reunion hug?? god my hEART

ezran cheering on soren during the sparring match was so sweet

[raayllum]

my extremely specific s3 rayllum predictions

90% of these thoughts are in my specific Rayllum wishlist post, but here’s some more + some elaboration:

There’s an episode arc of them just adjusting to no longer having Ezran with them

In addition or on top of that, Zym doing baby dragon shenanigans is a lot harder to manage when you no longer have a literal dragon whisperer with you (ie. Zym wandering off and both of them panicking)

This also includes to Rayla and Callum learning to come out of their bickering spats without anyone else’s intervention. S2 was a big step in the right direction, but there are definitely still kinks to be worked out in terms of their communication and conflict resolution skills with one another.

Callum being protective and angered when he hears about how Rayla was mistreated and/or bullied by her peers growing up

Rayla’s fear of losing Callum plays a part in her wanting to keep him safe even as they move deeper into Xadia and have to take more risks. 

Callum’s elf impression is mostly funny, but does lead to a rather sweet and teasing moment between the two

A birthday episode

With both of their birthday snippets being so focused on family, and the fact we know their birthdays are close within canon (Callum says he’s 14 and 5/6ths in the beginning of S1, and at least two weeks has passed since then; that’s only six more weeks until his birthday, and then another two until Rayla’s) makes this all the more a possibility.

For Rayla, there’s the emotional upheaval of going home but without Runaan. For Callum, there’s the sting of knowing both of his parents are dead, and being apart from Ezran. 

I’m just saying, Callum drawing Rayla into his family portrait isn’t that far out of reach. 

On a somewhat related note, any lines along these veins:

“I need you,” “I can’t lose you too,” “You’re my family too,” “I’m here,” “I got you,” “I’m not going anywhere,” and “You’re my best friend.”

Neither of them want to be separated once Zym is home, but neither is really sure of how to begin that discussion. 

Rayla telling Callum about Aaravos once he decides he wants to explore connecting to other arcanums.

Rayla’s feelings for Callum being addressed in some manner, whether in pining looks, growing closeness, or something along those lines. Given TDP’s short seasons, Rayla’s feelings for Callum wouldn’t have been confirmed in S2 if they weren’t going to do something with them in S3; otherwise they could have just kept hinting and building to it for longer.

AKA, Rayla kissing Callum on the cheek, please.

Likewise, now that Claudia is out of Callum’s mind as a romantic interest, and the drawing scene in 2x07 foreshadowing that his feelings for Rayla are already forming, we should see some confirmation of his feelings for her in S3.

It’s gonna hit him like a bus.

They get to see the bushes where moonberries are from.

Callum asking so many questions about elf culture, and Rayla is both fond and exasperated (but mostly fond) while she answers him. This also can work as a parallel to her wanting to distract him from missing Ezran, the same way he tried to distract her by asking her questions in 1x05.

This is more of a wish, but callbacks, please. So many callbacks and parallels.

Especially reminiscing / talking about when they first met. 

Rayla and Callum being forcefully separated from one another, whether by their environment (ie. the wilderness) or outside forces (attackers / foes), and having to fight / find their way back to one another.

This raises the stakes, as none of the trio or these two have been forcefully separated from one another except in 1x04, and that was by and large an accident. Here, meanwhile in Xadia, Callum would be in a lot of danger basically anywhere, and despite his magic, isn’t as capable of handling it.