#bashing Rayla in the comments

[kilfeur]

Les erreurs de Rayla (Rayla's mistakes)

Oui vous avez bien lu, je vais parler de ses erreurs et pas de le sens que je vais la basher mais plutôt essayer d'apporter mon point de vue là dessus. Déjà j'aimerai parler du départ de Rayla, on pourrait croire ça comme un acte d'amour. Car elle souhaite protéger Callum et je peux comprendre mais de l'autre c'est un peu l'abandonner. Et comme je l'ai dit, je peux le comprendre Rayla s'est souvent montré protectrice envers ses proches. Mais le fait de partir comme ça en ne laissant qu'une lettre, c'est un peu vache.

Même quand elle revient, elle dit qu'elle sait que son absence l'a blessé. Mais se rend pas compte comment il est blessé par son départ. Après j'ai bien aimé son attitude envers Callum. Oui elle veut lui parler mais elle voit que ce dernier ne souhaite pas lui parler et n'insiste pas pour éviter qu'il y ait des tensions. Je la trouvais assez patiente bien qu'on sent que ses deux années sans le groupe l'a un peu changé. Quand elle a dit "On peut pas sauver tout le monde" à Soren. Je me demandais ce qui c'était passé pour qu'elle pense à ça. Mais apparemment elle aurait dit quelque chose qu'elle pensait pas vraiment d'après une interview. Dans les histoires courtes relatant ce qu'elle a fait pendant ces deux ans. On voit que la traque de Viren l'a fait souffrir. Elle est loin de ses amis, loin de Callum. Et ça lui fait mal surtout que pendant sa traque, elle n'a pas pu le retrouver. Et elle décide de rentrer chez elle, pas à Silvergroove mais à Katolis. Montrant que sa maison n'est plus à son village mais auprès de ses amis.

Lorsqu'elle vole la clé de Callum, ça m'avait choqué car j'aurai pensé qu'elle essaierait de lui parler mais bon après ça veut dire parler de sa famille. Et elle était pas prête pour ça ! Mais c'est un peu salaud de sa part, surtout quand Callum voit l'arc de Runaan, il va pas bien du tout. Quand Amaya lui parle, elle se défend en disant qu'elle a fait ça pour le protéger. Mais malgré des raisons compréhensibles, ça reste un abandon et cette décision les a tout les deux fait souffrir. Elle pensait qu'elle devenait forte toute seule. Mais c'est pas comme ça qu'on devient fort et Amaya l'a apprit à ses dépends mais aussi par le biais de l'amour alias Janai. Rayla alors comprend ce que veut dire Amaya par devenir plus forte. Ce qui la pousse à se confier à Callum. Et ça c'est bien, c'est un bon premier pas !

Rayla fait des erreurs mais elle apprend de ces derniers et essaie de faire de son mieux.

Yes, you read that right, I'm going to talk about her mistakes and not in the sense that I'm going to bash her but rather try to bring my point of view on it. First of all, I'd like to talk about Rayla's departure, which could be seen as an act of love. Because she wants to protect Callum and I can understand that, but on the other hand it's a bit like abandoning him. And as I said, I can understand that Rayla has often been protective of her loved ones. But to leave just like that, leaving only a letter, is a bit rude.

Even when she returns, she says she knows her absence has hurt him. But she doesn't realize how hurt he is by her leaving. Then I liked her attitude towards Callum. Yes, she wants to talk to him, but she sees that he doesn't want to talk to her and doesn't insist to avoid tension. I thought she was quite patient, although you can tell that two years without the band has changed her a bit. When she said "We can't save everyone" to Soren. I wondered what had happened to make her think that. But apparently she said something she didn't really mean it, according to an interview. In the short stories about what she did during those two years. We can see that tracking Viren has made her suffer. She's far from her friends, far from Callum. And that hurts her, especially since she hasn't been able to find Viren during her tracking. So she decides to return home, not to Silvergroove but to Katolis. Showing that her home is no longer in her village, but with her friends.

When she stole Callum's key, I was shocked because I thought she'd try to talk to him, but then that meant talking about her family. And she wasn't ready for that! But it's a bit dirty on her part, especially when Callum sees Runaan's bow, he's not doing well at all. When Amaya talks to him, she defends herself by saying she did it to protect him. But despite understandable reasons, it's still an abandonment, and this decision has made them both suffer. She thought she had to become strong on her own. But that's not how you become strong, and Amaya learned this the hard way, but also through love, aka Janai. Rayla then understands what Amaya means by becoming stronger. Which leads her to confide in Callum. And that's a good first step!

Rayla makes mistakes, but she learns from them and tries to do her best.

[zuppizup]

I really enjoyed your Road to Nowhere fic for Rayllum month. I am just curious how you think the fic may have changed if you weren't guided by the prompts?

Oooh, what a fun question! Hmm... I think without a doubt, things would have played out differently if I wasn’t trying to keep to the strict theme of the prompts, but I was also quite liberal with my interpretation of some of them.

Spoilers for Road To Nowhere!

When I got the idea to write an Aussie road trip fic, I did have some plot points I wanted to hit, mainly Rayla’s "boyfriend" and the subsequent misunderstandings surrounding that. The kiss and misunderstanding in the penultimate chapter was non-negotiable. But beyond that, I knew I wanted pining and awkwardness and, well, not much else. Just Rayla and Callum as main characters, with few distractions from other supporting cast.

As I'm already working on a strangers to lovers fic with Zoom-mates (though clearly well past that part), I didn't want to just rehash that idea. I definitely felt like it needed something else to make it engaging, so it seemed like a fun chance to work on a more prolonged (in universe) slow-burn/pining style modern AU.

What I used to justify some of the über dense decisions they both made was that awkward place between late teens and adulthood, where, sure, you're out on your own but, man, life experience is lacking and navigating relationships of any manner often has a steep learning curve.

I think what I did find helpful with the prompts were the instances where Rayla did try and approach Callum about the misunderstanding but kept getting the wrong end of the stick. That wasn't really a thing in my initial idea. I was planning on a way more one-sided (apparently) crush from Callum’s POV. The ultimate reveal was going to be a bit more of a twist, but the hints and subsequent guessing in the comments were my absolute favourite part of the story. I’m not sure that would have happened if not for the prompts.

So [fake dating] was a very liberal take on the prompt (modern AU) but I was going for the big difference between going for the country setting to the big smoke of Brisbane… some place where Rayla thought she could put the pretence of her farm persona behind her. That came later in my initial non-birthday bash outline.

Similarly [miscommunication]/Silvergrove played around with the idea of Rayla’s boyfriend and the mood whiplash following, in a way I hadn’t initially planned, but ultimately quite liked. I thought that helped Callum think about his own feelings and reactions more, which prompted his revelation, something I definitely had planned for later in my rough outline.

I think “difficult” prompts almost became my favourites because they challenged me to really think about the whole fic. It’s pretty formulaic really, but it was nice to have a reason to play around with the idea a little more.

So, I guess, to answer the question, I think in essentials the story would have been pretty similar without the prompts, but the little moments that turned out to be my favourites likely wouldn’t have existed without that little push.

Thanks so much for this ask! I’ve been pondering it all day and it was a really fun thought experiment!

[xadianwolf]

🌒Book I: Moon🌒

🧊Through the Ice🧊

- *sees Rayla's hand* Oof, that's not good. Moonshadow culture is messed up...

- Awww, the deer was so sweet

-Umm, Corvus, you said you're there peacefully, and yet you were ready to bash Rayla's head open just a few seconds ago...

- Ezran is already over the whole elf racist stuff and it's so mature of him!

- I do agree with Callum here. Yes, Rayla is good and nice, but she still keeps secrets. He's right to be suspicious.

- How the hell did Corvus survive this fall?! Not to mention being thrown around on trees!

- Sandwiches are TDP equivalent to "THAT talk"

- What are you planning, Vitamin?

- Not helping with the trust, Rayla!

- I'm not going to comment further to what Virus wants Soren to do because it's awful.

- Bread is good! Also Bait, you thief!

- Callum tries so hard to flirt with Rayla.

- Poor Soren and Claudia, having a father like this. I hope in the future Claudia finds strength to leave him as well.

- Not gonna lie, Rayla was a bitch in this episode.

- The ice cracking representing Callum's and Rayla's trust for each other slowly shattering. Very neat detail.

- Kudos to Ez being a braincell

- I kinda wish there was another reason the avalanche started.

- Another near detail is Rayla grabbing Ezran's hand with her bound hand and it hurting. She's guilty and it feels, literally.

- Woooo, Callum!

- Man, the awkwardness between those two sibs over their missions.

- Callum deciding that it doesn't matter if Rayla isn't trustful because the egg matters is so powerful. Like, how the hell does he do that?! How can he still see good in Rayla even when they've been nasty to him?! How does it work?!

-And Rayla feeling guilty and coming clean about most of it is also good.

- Ez being a braincell again and going after the egg.

- Rayla is actually right: they both are needed to pull Ez out, plus there's a chance Callum may not see him.

- Binding being a hopesaver.

- Oh no, the egg.

- While this is a good episode, I do have one nitpick with it. I wish we'd gotten a scene where Rayla and Callum have a talk and she apologizes. But hey, who knows, we may get a flashback! There are still four seasons of TDP ahead!