#callum did a thing

[moonfableflor]

Hey transmascs your body is sacred okay 💝

[raayllum]

But Ibis’ murder and Terry’s subsequent breakdown over taking a life does raise certain questions about Callum and Rayla going forward in two key ways, respectively. [...] This is also where Callum’s parallels to Terry gets particularly interesting as well. The Dragon Prince repeatedly frames murder in the face of self defense (specifically in defense of someone else) as something that removes agency. Thus, that begs the question of what Callum’s test will be, specifically: What will he do to protect his loved ones, perhaps Rayla in particular?

—Why Clauderry and Rayllum's parallels in S4 set up Callum doing something terrible for Rayla in S5, written a month and a half before S5

[imminent-danger-came]

So, this parallel, right.

That parallel and the 4x11 shadowpeach fight as a whole:

Macaque: "No that's YOU! You're the one always running off! Looking for more power, more sources of immortality—you're the one who wouldn't quit while were were ahead! Not the great sage, he's got to drag EVERYONE else into his mess!" Sun Wukong: "You're not in this mess, you're still free! Everything I did was for us!" Macaque: "You did it for yourself! You've become like this, obsessive demon! I told you going against the Jade Emperor was a bad idea, but no, Wukong doesn't listen to anyone! He just does whatever he wants! You put yourself here, not me."

(4x11 A Lifetime of Mistakes)

-

A large part of Wukong's motivation to keep getting more power was the freedom of it—the more power you have the easier it is to do whatever you want. It's easier to ignore everyone else and focus solely on yourself. It's also easier to ensure yourself and your loved one's are protected and have the ability to do what they want.

So, a punishment where the great Monkey King is imprisoned and trapped for hundreds of years? It's effective and tragic and fitting. Wukong wanted to have the freedom to protect the people he cared about, and in trying to reach for the power to do that, he completely had his freedom removed. He went from the mountain, to then the circlet, and then all of a sudden he had morals and was bound to those.

And then I think about his end of s3 choice to go face the Lady Bone Demon alone. Once again Wukong was trying to protect his loved ones (not to mention the whole reason he went after the Samadhi fire to begin with was to have the power, the freedom to stop LBD (which in itself is another case of SWK believing he needed to be stronger for such freedom)), but he also wanted to make sure MK and himself both had agency. He didn't want MK to have to fight LBD, and he didn't want LBD to end the world.

This is exactly the sentiment he tells Macaque in the 4x11 flashback:

Sun Wukong: "It's so we don't have to worry about anything or anyone ever again! Just living a lazy life, sitting in the sun, eatin' fruit, and doing whatever we want!"

But where does it all lead him?

To possession, imprisonment. Once again Wukong no longer had the freedom to do what he wanted (which is to protect the people he cares about). Once again in his attempts to help his loved one's, he only hurt them.

This can be applied to his relationship with Macaque, to MK in s2, hell, even Wukong trying to get the map in the first place left him powerless, which then led to him and the gang being imprisoned in 3x02. It's a familiar pattern, one we see with antagonist and protagonist alike.

MK in s2 trained to become more powerful, which in the end only strengthened LBD and forced him and his friends on the run. Mei in 3x12 protects MK by letting herself get captured and placed into LBD's crystal. Mei in 4x05 goes to protect MK, breaking her sword and leaving her vulnerable to being captured by Kui Mulang ("How am I supposed to protect everyone without my sword?"). DBK reached for more power and then became possessed by LBD, hurting his wife and son. Azure reached for the Jade Emperor's power and bound himself to that role, jeopardizing Peng and Yellowtusk in the process.

It's a cycle of reaching for power, endangering others, and then being imprisoned.

So anyways, here's why MK is going to lose control (his agency) next season and hurt his friends with his own- *get's shot*

[cryinglookingatsoulages]

sometimes i remember that the first time nico tried to transform his body to fit into the dream realm he killed himself with too much pressure and if not for his magical heart that restarted itself he would be pretty much dead there and then. yeah sometimes i think of that and scream internally.

[daisybeewrites]

just finished S5E8 of the Dragon Prince…

i am not okay

[phosphorus-noodles]

haha wait what 😀

. bestie i have some horrible news,

[the-acid-pear]

↓ me every time I start to think of just how fucking similar Henry Miller and Callum Crown are

[arcadianmoonshadowjedi]

How to know Callum and Rayla were meant for each other since they first met: They both believed that “sweep the leg” was a thing in sword fighting 🥲❤️

[constantstateofpain]

tdp 5x08 is just like if ninjago handled skybound better …

[redr0sewrites]

Hi out of interest how would humans, elves and dragons react to seeing a space ship and when the spaceship opens thy meet well other humans that came from a different planet where magic, elves and Dragons are well myths ?

i literally tried to write this 3 times but i kept accidentally refreshing the tab and it would delete everything so im sorry if this sucks but i legit am going to die if i have to write this again😭

Callum

he was scared af at first ngl

he was super interested in learning ab the human technology and explained the magic to the new humans since mages r a myth in their world

wants to learn ab other worlds

probably would befriend a lot of the other humans and teach them ab how xadia worked

Rayla

she would probably be super wary of the humans at first and the giant ass ship

would prob try to attack jt 💀

once she warmed up to the humans, she would teach them ab xadia and elven culture!

shed be super interested in the humans weapons, she is an assassin after all

Ezran

he would prob try be the most diplomatic

would try to make some alliance or peace treaty

hed be the first to approach the ship and interact with them as he wanted to know if they were a threat

very interested in learning ab the othee humans

he would bring them to katolis, much to opelis annoyance

Aaravos

now hed be intrigued

traveling among the stars? now that caught his attention

like 50 humans would fall in love w him just like me fr lmfao hed flirt mercilessly

the idea of other worlds and planets intrigues him alot

def asks a lot of questions

also wants to learn ab human tech and weapons, but for more malicious purposes lmfao

they all think that elves and dragons r myths, so he would show them magic and explain the entire history and lore of xadia to them💀

Zubeia

she would help to ensure peace with ezran adn make sure they werent a threat

the humans would prob either be super scared of her or think she was super cool since dragons were myths

teaches them ab xadian and dragonic customs!!!

is wary of letting them meet zym tho, she doesnt want to endanger him

if they see the statue of avizandum and ask questions she will legit just ignore them 😭

overall is a little wary of them but accepts it as it is

i cant find the strength to write more im so so so sorry 😭😭😭

[moonfableflor]

School choirs shouldn't be allowed to force people to sing songs about Christianity, I've had to sing the Hallelujah Chorus, some stupid Mary and Jesus song medley, and now a song about Moses fighting for holiness or whatever – and the only non-christian songs we've had to sing that have to do with any culture whatsoever are African and Jewish. And the teacher hooked that he'd wear a menorah on his head while conducting the Mary-Jesus song medley. He's repeatedly said that you don't have to believe anything you're singing but only about the non-christian ones, the christian ones he'd always like 'yeah!! put some energy into it!! don't you just love this song?!!' I'm pretty sure that's not exactly fit for a school environment bestie

[raayllum]

Anyway I wanna talk about hands in Finnegrin’s Wake

This is not my last or even my deepest meta dive on the episode by any means but I’m a bitch who appreciates consistent symbolism and the Hand Motif is on fire this episode so like, let’s talk about it.

The first thing to establish is the (understandable) importance of hands in Callum’s mage arc, given that you draw runes with your hands and hold magical objects, etc. This is in line with primal magic yes

but also with dark magic, highlighted explicitly in S4. 

By being tied to primal / Sky magic, Callum’s hands (and ability to use them to help his friends, do magic, etc) is tied to freedom. This is also linked to chains/bondage with Rayla’s wrist binding and dark magic, metaphorically, for Callum. So it makes sense that 5x08, an episode that is very much about primal and dark magic and subsequent themes of freedom vs control is likewise obsessed with this hand motif.

However, I want to talk about Rayla, and Callum, and how the hand motif, dark magic use, and Callum’s connection to the Ocean arcanum are set up this season. Briefly on the last one (that can be a meta on its own I want to dive into, pun intended, in tandem with adding S4′s development to it) because post for another day, but I think it’s worthwhile to mention.

For starters, there’s Finnegrin having a direct callback to Callum’s line from 5x04 with Rayla (which is also being paralleled to Viren and Claudia’s “I’ll do anything” in 5x03 an episode prior). And with Callum’s hand clasped over his wrist, foreshadowing the ‘anything’ he’ll do will be to literally undo his chains (and to metaphorically take some on) in order to save Rayla by the end of the episode. 

But we see Callum repeat this “wrist rubbing” motion a few times this episode (pin in it for later) in addition to the repeated emphasis in S5 with Callum always being the one to reach for / take Rayla’s hand. Although she and Callum are undoubtedly in a much better place than they were in S4 in repairing their relationship, Rayla still initiates almost zero contact with him across the course of S4 and S5 (grabbing his elbow and wiping his drool away when he’s asleep in 4x03; placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder in 4x09; resting her head on his shoulder in 5x02; touching his face in 5x08 to provide comfort). 

This is a far cry from how touchy-feely she is with him in Arc 1, initiating much more contact than he does, but in S4 and S5 we see this switch around; almost anytime they’re being physically affectionate, Callum is the one initiating.

However, one thing hasn’t changed, and it’s that Callum is almost always the one, across seasons, to initiate handholds (3x01 and the back half of S3 once they’re a couple being the exceptions). And S4 (4x09) and S5 are no exception.

Okay, great, he holds her hand. So what? Well...

In 5x08, Callum does dark magic again outright and connects to the Ocean arcanum primarily out of love for her. As confirmed by the writers on twitter, Callum had to accept exactly what he says in 5x08 about the ocean - that it’s about unfathomable depths, embracing the unknown (even or especially when it scares you) and accepting that there are things you can’t control. And the lack of answers about Rayla’s whereabouts, “I don’t know how to feel about Rayla either,” and “I have to go after him” “I know” helped pave the way for Callum to reach those conclusions in 5x01 and 5x08 alike: “To love is to simply know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep.” And that realization included accepting that he’d done dark magic (and would do dark magic) to protect her.

So it’s not surprising, therefore, that while connecting to the Ocean arcanum, Callum looks at his hand, and rubs the same wrist as before, almost like he’s mimicking the crushing motion he would’ve done with the slug. 

Or indeed that it’s a gesture Viren does in his dark magic induced dreams, and during Callum’s arcanum speech, either, if inversed. 

Callum is accepting that the depths he can’t see, his “I would do anything for you” promises and inclinations, are a (dark) path he can’t entirely see and understand, but something he knows lives inside him, and has for a long time: “But not everything’s changed.” 

Darkness equals dark magic equals chains, and Callum has enough self awareness (that Viren did not) to know more so of what he’s walking into, and that’s precisely why it scares him. Why, by the end of 5x08, even as it’s revealed how he got his chains off, it’s clear they’re not gone. Not really. Not to him. Especially considering now he knows exactly where dark magic leads in ways he didn’t before in 2x07: Aaravos. (“As long as we protect each other, as long as we love each other, you can never control us” and now Callum knows that isn’t necessarily true, because he gave up the info to Finnegrin, and he willingly took another step down a dangerous path.)

Which is why I love that Rayla is the one to reach for him, to gently touch his shoulder and then his face and pull him into a hug. And I love the way Callum hesitates to place his hands - powerful, ‘tainted,’ chained - around her like another link in said chain, so different and yet so similar from their hug in 2x04 about a lack of magic, and now having arguably too much. And all of it - the dark magic use, the metaphorical and literal chains, the devotional key of the Ocean arcanum, the hands - synonymous with his love for Rayla.

[imminent-danger-came]

what are your predictions for runaan/ethari's futures in the show? :)

OOoooo tough question!

I'm not sure how much we'll actually get to see the moonfam out of the coins in the show. I'm hoping we'll get to enjoy them some in s7, but I'm assuming s6 is going to throw a wrench into Callum and Rayla's current "use the quasar diamonds to free Rayla's parents" plan.

It'd be sweet if Rayla and Callum made a stop in the Silvergrove to let Ethari know Runaan's alive before setting off on their quest to the starscraper though!

[minimitchell]

What do you think about Callum having Jay arrested? Some people are like he should've mind his own business, and that Jay is grieving. But, you can't normalize drugs as a coping method for grief. What would've happened if Callum ignored the fact Jay was taking drugs? People would be angry that Callum ignored his grieving friend.

the fact he’s getting so much hate for this baffles me tbh. not only is media literacy dead because too many people think he called the police on jay when he actually called them on nadine, but also people always complain that he turns a blind eye to criminal stuff and now that he doesn’t it’s wrong too??

i said it on twt already but i don’t think ben and callum are being hypocritical right now. callum is trying to stop jay from falling into an unhealthy coping mechanism with all his might and this was the best way he could achieve that after he couldn’t get through to jay with words. and it’s possible that callum knows jay’s an addict so he might be trying to stop him falling back into addiction. and ben has taken huge steps in learning to cope better lately and he can realize that jay isn’t coping in a healthy matter now. they both have jay’s best interests at heart and they’re also trying to protect their daughter. i think callum was right in reporting nadine and he obviously didn’t mean to have jay arrested

[afandomroom]

Does anyone else feel like this season of Dragon Prince feels...emotionally flat as far as the characters’ reactions to things go? 

[lifblogs]

“You will sacrifice your other child.”

I’m sorry, wtf!