#cube hostage exchange theory

[raayllum]

we're all gonna Die

[jelzorz]

my favourite thing about the marketing for this season is the fact that rayla is nowhere to be seen, and they're drawing so much attention to her absence that you can't deny her importance to Callum and to the progression of the narrative, and I just think that's so neat

[my-hearts-the-memory]

The only thing I have against the CHET is that I know-I know-Rayla will be majorly pissed off that Callum would potentially doom the world just for her. I just feel like it could be something they may not be able to get past 😞 

[konmaao3]

Woke up terrified remembering that the mirror can work as a one-way window as well. Viren probably deactivated his side of the window before leaving for Xadia, but there was no reason for Aaravos to do the same.*

Which means that Aaravos may have been watching Callum for two years now without Callum knowing.

Raayllum recently mentioned that

the one (1) question my “cube hostage exchange theory” couldn’t answer was how they were going to know callum had the cube in the first place

But if Aaravos can still see through the mirror, Callum only had to pull out the Key once – and he probably did that to check which of the runes on the cube would glow in the mirror’s vicinity (interesting question: which runes would that be? I would be surprised if “stars” wasn’t among them).

I’m afraid.

*Actually there was no reason for Aaravos to deactivate his window in the first place, unless he got annoyed of having to watch dragon sex all the time. Since it is a prison, he possibly doesn’t have full control over the window-mode from his side, but with Viren’s help on the other side, I’m pretty sure they were able to enable this one-way mode.

[lawchan89]

Funny how nobody appeared to have an issue with Rayla being a “damsel in distress” who needed Callum to save her in the S3 finale

But now all of a sudden in a fan theory, it’s a problem

[theredhairedmonkey]

I don't know if it's just me but I often feel like in the rayllum fandom Callum isn't allowed to have much going on separated from Rayla or have a lot of worries outside of her. But that same rule doesn't seem to apply to Rayla or at least not to the same extent.

You’re definitely not alone, fam. It does seem like a sizable chunk of Rayllum fans are really just Rayla fans who ship her with Callum. As a result, they aren’t particularly interested in anything pertaining to Callum if it doesn’t intersect somehow with Rayla.

As a basic idea, that’s fine (no one has to like everyone equally). Where it becomes a problem is when it generates theories that are incredibly ridiculous because it doesn’t take into account who Callum is or what his motivations are, because that really sets people up for disappointment. The biggest one is, of course, cube hostage exchange theory, which rests on the assumption that Callum is so beholden to Rayla that he’ll risk everyone and everything else just to save her, to the point that he’d basically be a villain if he wasn’t the protagonist. Another one is the idea that Callum will perform dark magic (something he hates) to resurrect Rayla’s family (which includes Runaan, someone he hates), simply because it’ll make Rayla feel better.

The basic premise behind both these theories are the same: Callum has no personality or motivations outside of Rayla (and sometimes Ezran when Rayla fans remember him). So his only purpose is to just service Rayla, while Rayla gets to be a hero and have principles and ideals.

Which is hella ironic, because at least in season 4, this dynamic ran the opposite way. Rayla’s entire motivation, except in the last five minutes, was to get back together with Callum, while Callum had a good three or four issues that were more pressing to him than Rayla. The show even made a running joke of it by having everyone expect Callum to be concerned about Rayla when she wasn’t even on his mind. So, these theories are definitely setting fans up for disappointment, because there’s absolutely no way that anything remotely close to that happening, and Callum would likely have much more going on than Rayla moving forward.

[chimpukampu]

8 and 12 for the ask game? 😊

8. what’s something you hope for come season 4?

Aside from the usual Rayllum reunion, costume change, Viren got busted, more elves - Earthblood elves, and more Dark mage characters that almost everyone wants to see:

Aaravos getting curious about Callum (I’m sure he wants to know how a human can use Primal magic (after what he saw while falling in the Spire), not to mention doing something that only 1/10 of Skywing elves can perform)

A brief background on how and why Runaan was appointed to lead the assassination

Flashback of exactly what happened inside Harrow’s room in S1 before Callum arrived

Flashbacks of Rayllum in Katolis

ATLA insert jokes - or at least someone do a “That’s rough, buddy” meme to Callum

Zym talking

12. what are some of your favourite headcanons?

That “Cube hostage exchange” theory that I recently featured on my angst comic

Another cube-related theory that I will mention on the Part 4 of my angst comic 

Dark magic is actually a safe form of magic (maybe for healing) but practiced in a wrong, corrupted way

Harrow-is-Pip - I know a lot hates this theory but I have a good reason for this

Imagine the bird jokes between Callum and Harrow

Potential angst drama between a decoined Runaan and bird!Harrow, where Runaan suggested a body swap for Harrow out of guilt

Bird!Harrow became Ez solid advisor, as well as Ez future child/next in line heir

Callum isn’t the only human who made a connection to an arcanum

[imjustthemechanic]

Our Own Demons

Part 1/? - A Bolt from the Blue Part 2/? - A Different World Part 3/? - Stark At Home Part 4/? - Pot Roast Night Part 5/? - Space-Pie Continuum Part 6/? - Energy Signature Part 7/? - Miss Potts Part 8/? - Bot from Beyond Part 9/? - Even the Odds Part 10/? - Miss Potts Arrives Part 11/? - Truth Hurts Part 12/? - The Third Reality Part 13/? - Thor and Odinson Part 14/? - The Tesseract Platform Part 15/? - Prime Suspect Part 16/? - Jailbreak Part 17/? - Shenandoah Part 18/? - A Hater Part 19/? - Reality B

What if Tony Stark really were the villain of the Marvel universe?  How would that work?  Tony himself is about to find out, as he battles his inner demons (and some outer ones, too) across a multiverse of infinite possibilities.

Fairfax drove him to the storage locker.  It did not appear to have been torn apart by a giant robot yet, which was good.  For much of the drive she kept her eyes straight ahead, but every so often she’d pause and glance at Tony as if she still couldn’t quite believe any of this was really happening.  Maybe she couldn’t.  Tony did have that effect on people.

Once they arrived, Tony checked on the suit.  It was still outside the library, and although more people were joining in the draw on Iron Man party – the décor now boasted a variety of signatures, some crudely-drawn genitalia, and a cartoon kid peeing on the arc reactor – it was intact.  The complement of cops had dropped to just two, who were amused by the impromptu public artwork rather than doing anything to stop it.  He’d leave it there for now.  As soon as it moved they’d try to follow it.

“I’d say I’ll give you a job at Stark Industries once you graduate, but you’d probably consider that selling out to corporate interests,” he observed, as Fairfax knelt to unlock the apartment.

“I don’t want to feed the murder machine,” she agreed.  “Anyway, you wouldn’t have anything for me.”

“Oh, no?” asked Tony.  His company was more diverse than most people suspected.  “What’s your major?”

“Musical theory.”

Tony thought about it a moment, then shrugged.  “I’ll consider that a challenge.”

Fairfax rolled up the door of the compartment and ducked inside, returning a moment later with a pink shoebox.  Inside was a pair of scuffed black chucks with hearts and skulls on the sides, and rolled up in a sock and tucked into the toe of one was a tiny cube of tesseract.

“Perfect,” said Tony.  “That’s perfect.”  He set it gently back into the box.  “Now, can you help me with a few more things?”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Mostly wiring.”  Tony needed something to feed the tesseract power into the mesh Faraday cage inside his suit.  Him and his double in the other reality hadn’t quite gotten that far yet, but really, an insulated conductor was all they needed.  Since this was only a tiny bit of tesseract juice, to be fed in slowly so as hopefully not to tip off the robot-maker, ordinary wires would do.  Fairfax got them from a pair of headphones that looked like they were vintage 1982 or thereabouts, and dug through the storage locker to find a soldering iron.

“Why do you have that?” Tony asked.  What were the odds?

“My Dad was into ham radio,” she replied.  “I’ve got a bunch of his stuff in there.  We used to build things together.”

Maybe she had skills that would be useful at Stark Industries after all.  “That sounds like fun,” said Tony wistfully.  He remembered the times he and his own father had worked on projects together.  Tony and Howard had never gotten along, but every so often they’d been able to build something.  Their favourite had been restoring the old roadster, but there’d been others… little things they could share instead of fighting over.

“Yeah,” she said quietly.  “I miss him a lot.”

They needed a computer to monitor the energy transfer, and to impart the proper frequency to access the robot-builder’s universe – Tony had been able to get that, fortunately, from the remains of the robot itself, and he and Dr. Foster had used it to avoid patching into that universe by mistake.  SHIELD had a special computer for it.  Tony and his counterpart, when they were still trying to keep the whole thing a secret, had planned to use a tablet.  Lacking anything better, Fairfax gave Tony her mobile phone, which he took apart and re-assembled into something that would work better for his purposes.

“JARVIS,” he said quietly, “please send Miss Cadwallader a… she won’t want a Starkphone.  Make it a free iPhone, would you?  Make sure it’s the newest model.”

Done, Sir.  FedEx will have it at her door the day after tomorrow.

“Thanks,” Tony murmured.  He put the screen back on the phone and turned it on, nodding as the screen came up with a prompt.  “Got that software uploaded, JARVIS?” he asked, louder this time.

Compiling now, said JARVIS.  We will have to perform a number of checks of the sytem before we can allow the tesseract energy into the suit.  We don’t want to risk a reaction with your tissues, or Miss Cadwallader’s, like the one you described.

That meant calling the suit, which would lead the cops to them.  “How long is that going to take?”

I estimate six minutes and forty seconds, said JARVIS.  The phone’s processors are not very fast, and even with the suit’s onboard computer to take some of the load, there are…

“Terabytes of calculations, I know,” said Tony.  “Get on with it.”

The suit took off, disrupting the artistic efforts of somebody who had been drawing a much more realistic penis and testicles on the codpiece, and arrived at the storage locker a moment later.  Fairfax stared at the additions to the paint job, then reached into her pocket only to be disappointed when she remembered Tony had taken her phone apart.

“The Met is gonna be pissed,” Tony noted.  “All right, let’s get started.”

Tony plugged the phone into a panel on the back of one gauntlet, and he and Fairfax started connecting the wiring.  They used a plastic keychain ring as a safety key, and soldiered the headphone wires into the mesh where a sliding panel could expose it at the backs of the knees.

“Are you sure this is gonna work?” asked Fairfax.  It seemed to be dawning on her that she was dealing with forces far, far beyond her comprehension.

“I invaded a terrorist base in Miami using stuff I got at Home Depot,” said Tony.  “I think I can make an interdimensional portal with junk out of your storage unit.”

She clearly couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not.

Within a few minutes, Tony could hear the sirens.

It was getting on for dinnertime and he had started to wonder if he’d have time to eat before heading off to his third reality in the past few days, but evidently he was just going to have to hope they had decent pizza when he got there.

“JARVIS,” he said.  “How are those calculations coming?”

Two minutes and forty-two seconds, Sir.

“It’ll have to do,” Tony said.  If anybody ever asked him what was the worst part about being a superhero, he thought, that was what he was going to say – you were always running out of time.

Tony opened the suit and slipped inside, while Fairfax hurried to push everything they’d gotten out back inside and shut the door of the storage compartment.

“Don’t worry about your stuff!” Tony told her.  “Get ready to pull the ring as soon as JARVIS says it’s okay!”

“I don’t want my things confiscated!” Fairfax protested.  “I should never have said yes!  Now I’m an accomplice and I’m gonna get arrested right along with you!”

“No, you’re not,” Tony said.  “Give me the ring and get out of here.”  He would tell the cops he had broken into her locker and stolen things… but no, it was already too late.  Headlights lit up the dim yard of the storage unit, with the sun already having dipped behind the buildings, and red and blue lights flashed as police piled out, guns in their hands.  Tony thought fast, then grabbed Fairfax’ collar and pulled her close, putting an arm around her neck from behind.  He felt her stiffen in terror.  She was probably wondering if this had been his plan all along.

“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered.  “Just pull the ring when I say.”

“Put your hands up!” a policeman announced.

More service weapons, Tony noticed.  Those would have about as much effect on the suit as the bugs that got splattered across the leading surfaces of it at low altitudes.  He rolled his eyes and raised the faceplate of the helmet.  They needed to see him for this part.

“Nobody move!” he ordered.  “I have a hostage!”  Fairfax would suffer fewer consequences if they thought she was a victim, rather than an accomplice.

The cops paused in their advance and exchanged some glances.  They hadn’t been expecting to negotiate.

“How are we doing, JARVIS?” asked Tony.

Twenty seconds, Sir.

The cop in the lead stepped forward.  “Stark,” he said, “you’ve got nowhere to go but up, and if you do we have helicopters waiting for you.  Let the girl go, and give yourself up.”

Checks complete, said JARVIS.  You may commence at any time.

Tony banged the faceplate down again.  “Pull it,” he told Fairfax.  “JARVIS, as soon as I’m gone, open all segment connections in the suit.”

Of course, Sir.  Your flair for the dramatic has always served you so well where law enforcement is concerned.

“Bye, guys!” said Tony.

There was a sizzling sound and a coppery taste as Fairfax pulled the ring free, letting the tesseract into the suit systems.  Then, once again, a shriek of static and a whiteout.  The police would see the suit spark and fall apart, leaving it in empty pieces on the ground next to Fairfax – letting it go to bits would also keep it from being utterly destroyed if the transit disgorged another killer robot.  Hopefully, Rhodey would step in to look after Fairfax herself, but if she did get arrested, at least it would be hard for the people who’d killed her professor to get to her in jail.

The white faded to blackness, and Tony dropped heavily into another suit.

Or… was it a suit?  It was definitely suit-shaped, but it didn’t seem to have any systems active.  Instead of being freestanding in a display case, or flying on a mission, it was suspended in a dark hangar, dangling from a set of robotic arms.  No display came on, so Tony could only see the outside world through a narrow slit, which showed him vague moonlit shapes of stacked crates and lumpy machines covered with tarps.  If the SHIELD storage facility had looked like it might contain the ark of the covenant, this place seemed like it might have a flying saucer and a couple of dead aliens in it somewhere.

Tony wiggled a little, but the suit wouldn’t open – it only bounced a bit in the grip of the robot arms.  “JARVIS?” he asked warily.

Oh, hel-lo, said a voice.

Tony looked up sharply, even though the voice was clearly coming over a speaker instead of out of a mouth.  It wasn’t JARVIS’ voice, though, nor was it the feminine voice of JANIS from the other reality he’d visited.  This was a male voice at the low end of tenor, with an unpleasant resonance under it and a flat American accent with just a hint of Boston.

“Who’s there?” asked Tony.

Not JARVIS, the voice replied, amused.  I didn’t believe him when he said you still used JARVIS.  Don’t get me wrong, nice guy, but an outmoded antique.

“And you’re the improved model, are you?” asked Tony.  “I don’t think I like an AI that doesn’t respect its elders.”  He tried to struggle again, but even though it was now plain that the system knew he was there, he didn’t get any results.  “Let me out,” he said.  “That’s an order.”

He expected obedience.  When he told JARVIS that’s an order, it was a signal to the computer to do as he said at once, without any sarcastic comments or unwanted advice.  This machine, however, said nope.  Not even a polite no, Sir, or I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave.  Just a casual, slightly drawled nope, as if the computer considered this whole thing a joke.

“What do you mean, nope?” Tony asked indignantly.  “How about I’m your creator and you do what I damned well say?”  It had worked with JANIS.

Nope, the AI repeated.  You can wait until Daddy arrives.  Hang out.  The robotic arms holding Tony above the ground jiggled a little, to emphasize the joke.

“You don’t get to tell people no,” Tony said.

Sure I do, said the computer.  The real Tony Stark has a node implanted in his brain that allows me to stay in direct contact with him at all times.  Much more elegant than that little hearing air you’re wearing.  I know exactly where he is and what he’s thinking, and he’s not in the transfer suit sputtering impotently at me.  I’ll let you out when he wants me to.  Not before.

And that, the tone of voice said, was final.

[raayllum]

crying. i won

[jelzorz]

114.

loosely related to 111

It's Ezran who asks. He's twelve now, and curious, and he would have asked anyway because he's a sweet kid and he cares about everyone whether or not they deserve it, but Rayla knows he's worried too. They all were, she supposes, but Ez is the little brother she never had, so she accepts his concern without complaint.

"Does it hurt?"

In all fairness, everything does, but Rayla doesn't tell him that. Callum had found her, bruised and beaten and trapped in a cave with Claudia and her father and some thing in a cocoon. The split in her lip stings (a parting gift from Claudia), and her left arm aches (her wrist was never the same after her binding came off, and she's overused it for certain), but it's her horn that hurts the most. The left is broken, sawed off with a badly sharpened knife with the intention of bringing Callum to them. The raw nerves in the stump still give her headaches.

"It's fine, Ez," she says at last, poking awkwardly at the fire. "I've had worse."

Ez raises an eyebrow at her. "Worse than your horn being cut off?"

Rayla scoffs in spite of herself. "Maybe not then," she chuckles. "But it's fine. Don't worry about it."

"It doesn't look fine."

Rayla's lips twitch. She says nothing.

Ez wrinkles his nose. "Back at the Storm Spire a couple of years ago, there were a bunch of Sunfire elves who lost bits and pieces of their horns during the fight. Queen Janai said there was salve they could get for it. Maybe we can get you some once we get back."

"Mm. That'd be nice."

A pause. Ez pokes at the fire and Rayla curls into herself, hoping that's the end of it.

It's not.

"Callum threw a fit when we got it," Ez says at last, his voice barely louder than a whisper. "He was mad when you left but... I'd never seen him like that."

Rayla winces. "I'm sorry. I never meant for you guys to get involved."

Ez snorts ruefully. "We were always going to be involved, Rayla. I just... wish you hadn't left. Maybe we could have had a couple of years of peace, and you and Callum might even have been..." He trails off and shakes his head. "I'm glad Callum found you when he did."

In spite of everything, in spite of the way she hoped with all of her heart that he wouldn't, Rayla nods. She's a poor Moonshadow elf if there ever was one: Claudia would have killed her, and she hadn't wanted to die. Not like that.

She swallows. "So am I."

[my-hearts-the-memory]

Rayllum Resurrection Theory

What if Rayla died? What if going off on her own led to an outcome she admits she half-expects and she died. But Aaravos can apparently resurrect the dead, since the whole reason Claudia is trying to release him is to make Viren’s temporary resurrection permanent. What if Callum, heartbroken and consumed with grief over the woman he loves, steals Claudia’s opportunity to resurrect Viren and uses it to bring Rayla back instead, and he does after giving up the cube they need to unleash Aaravos (as theorized in the CHET)? 

[konmaao3]

Regarding the cube hostage exchange theory: I just remembered that Aaravos also knows the moon arcanum, which means that he doesn’t even need Rayla. If Callum manages to switch on the magical mirror webcam, Aaravos can just use illusions to show him whatever the fuck he wants anyway.

Which of course can also come in handy if the exchange theory isn’t true, there are many possible ways to use such deceptions.

[lawchan89]

Made To Watch

Part 1 of the Rayllum Whumptober Series

Summary: Claudia is ready to enjoy this. Rayla is prepared to fulfill her promise to save her love. And Callum is on the brink of a choice to either bring her home or bring about her destruction.

Rated: T for depictions of violence and slight gore.

“Hey Callum, did I ever tell you all the amazing spells you can do with elf hair?”

The young high mage’s eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen, the scene before him making his stomach roil. Finding himself fixed to a crumbling wall in the ruins of Elarion by an immobilization spell was hardly surprising; he had gone to follow a potentially dangerous lead after all.

The fact that said immobilization spell had been cast by Claudia, someone he had once called a close friend, hit an awful lot harder.

The fact that some Earthblood elf at her side— What was his name? Terry?— had been positively starry-eyed at her ease in capturing him was just rude.

Viren, who Callum had last seen plummeting to his death from the top of the Storm Spire over two years ago, was alive and breathing beneath what looked like a giant pulsing cocoon attached to the rocky ceiling. Despite this, he still looked as if he were barely clinging to life, his face pale, his skin sunken in, and laying on a ratty cot. And that still wasn’t the worst part.

No, by far the most horrific sight was what— or rather who— Claudia had chained to the wall beside her. The one who had made it her mission to track down Viren and end him once and for all. Who had not counted on an ambush of such proportions awaiting her when she inevitably succeeded, because Callum knew her skills were incomparable, and he knew she would succeed. The one Callum had woken up every morning thinking about and gone to sleep every night dreaming of for over two years, now at long long last kneeling on the cold hard ground only mere feet away from him.

Continued on Ao3

[theredhairedmonkey]

I don't know if you've already been asked this but what do you think about the "the cube hostage theory" that has been going around in the fandom?

Eh, not my cup of tea. I've mulled it over, and while it initially seems compelling at face value, the more I think it over, the less it makes sense.

The main version of this theory that I've heard is something along the lines of: Callum trades the cube for Rayla, knowing full well that the cube unlocks Aaravos' prison (or something to that effect). And I'm of several thoughts about this.

For starters, Aaravos doesn't know where his prison is, and the cube once belong to Aaravos. That combination makes it exceedingly unlikely that the cube unlocks the prison, since if it did, then Aaravos (the original owner) would have undoubtedly been aware of this, and thus would have been aware of where his prison is, what it is, etc.

Now, lemme assume I'm just misunderstanding something (or the issues above don't matter) and actually the cube is actually the key to Aaravos' prison. Well, then why did he have Claudia resurrect Viren now? His only leverage here is that both mages need Aaravos freed in order to save Viren, but this has to happen within thirty days. So...wouldn't it make the most sense if Aaravos waited until he already had the cube in his possession, rather than half a continent away, before beelining for his release? Seems a bit of an unnecessarily rushed timeline on his part. If the cube mattered this much to Aaravos' release, he certainly would have sent Claudia for it by now, before resurrecting her father.

So as you can see, the deeper we delve into this theory, the bigger the logical issues grow. And this doesn't even get into the biggest problems with this theory, which are twofold: First, as of Harrow's letter, Callum is already looking into unlocking whatever "great power" the key of Aaravos is guarding. So, the hostage exchange really doesn't even need to exist to create motivation, since Callum would have wanted to figure out this mystery for himself even without some sort of hostage situation to drive this plot forward.

Second, and more importantly, is the fact that whatever Aaravos wants from Callum, it has less to do with anything in his possession, and much more to do with Callum himself. This has already been alluded to and implied in the official promo art here:

But, I'll give this theory some more runway. I have also heard that the cube hostage exchange theory isn't actually about the cube (aptly named theory then, I'll say), but about Callum trading "something" (maybe himself?) to Aaravos in exchange for Rayla's life in a dramatic display of love. And the biggest question that this theory can't seem to answer is: Why?

Why does any of this need to happen? It doesn't reveal anything we didn't know about any of the characters involved. We already know that Callum and Rayla would sacrifice almost anything for each other. Rayla knows that (in fact, that's probably one of the reasons she left on her own), so it doesn't really inform her arc in any way. And since there's no reason for anyone to keep their word in this exchange (least of all the villains), it really is anyone's guess as to why anyone would agree to it.

A hostage exchange also seems a bit too blunt of a way for Aaravos, a master manipulator, to win over Callum. Which is something I'd personally be a little cross about, since watching Aaravos tempt, rather than trick or coerce, Callum is something that would otherwise be a pivotal moment in his character arc.

Personally, I think this theory is the result of prioritizing abstract themes and literary parallels over characters and plot lines. But I'd also be a bit of a jackass if I criticized a theory without offering an alternative idea, so let me have a crack at this:

Aaravos tries to win over Callum by pitting him and Viren against each other. He indeed has Claudia and Viren capture Rayla (or they capture Rayla and he simply finds out about it), then communicates with Callum through the mirror, "offering" him the power he needs to save her (with literal strings attached). Basically he plays both sides and hedges one of his pawns against the other, preparing to snatch the winner as his personal lieutenant (which brings him to the same endgame he was planning in s3, just with himself out of his prison and with two mage apprentices to choose from. It is then up to Callum to break free from this temptation and reject Aaravos.

Are you can see here, Rayla--as well as Ezran, Soren, etc.--still play a role in this as well. Of course Callum would want to protect those he loves at all costs, but it's (i) not just Rayla and (ii) not a hostage exchange. But we'll see what story TDP has in store. It has surprised me before, and I expect it to keep that trend going!