#snake boi callum fanart

[possumdrawsstuff]

Spooky star magic 4 season six??

(PLZ DONT LET THIS FLOP IT TOOK 5 HOURS 😭)

[imminent-danger-came]

The Devil and the Lovers

Stills Under the Cut!

[its-leethee]

Caught a Fallen Star

I am so excited to share this piece with y'all. I'm really proud of how it turned out. It's stupid detailed, so I implore you to open it in your browser to appreciate it properly.

I'm so ready for s6 to break my heart; how 'bout y'all?

[silkiecorn]

Callum :) UwU

[raylasgf]

‘dark magic has its consequences, and he knows that’

for snake boi callum week 🫶🏻 i absolutely love seeing my blorbos getting mentally challenged. /j

(also abt the title, im pretty sure i saw aaron say something like that in an interview?? not 100% sure)

[raayllum]

In the lead up to season seven, Snake Boi Callum Week 3.0 will be from Sunday November 17th to Saturday November 23rd! Previous weeks have been held before (week one and week two) dedicated to exploring Callum as a character, his light and dark sides, his devotion to his loved ones (namely Rayla and Ezran), and his deep curiosity towards magic. Works inspired by previous prompts are more than welcome as are works with mature themes/content provided they're properly tagged! All fanon works (playlists, graphics, fanart, fic, headcanons, posts) are welcome and delayed/late works especially so!

Nov 17th: The Key of Aaravos / Icarus

Nov 18th: Corrupted / Monster

Nov 19th: Your Deepest Truth / Complicated

Nov 20th: I Did It For You / Necessary

Nov 21st: God and the Devil

Nov 22nd: The Greater Good / Promise

Nov 23rd: Sacrifice / Salvation

My ask box will be open shortly for any questions that aren't answered here and/or from previous event weeks! Happy brainstorming and creating!

[kazisgirlfriend]

Snake Girl Rayla?

The TDP fandom has always had headcanons that didn't really work out (such as Soren rather than Claudia staying loyal to his father), but the idea of Callum being some sort of "Snake Boi" seems to have stuck around despite having basically no support in canon.

This isn't to discourage people who like the aesthetic. People who think it would be cool if Callum was That Way. By all means, keep writing those stories, making those fanarts! Many of them are downright inspired, and represents a really interesting direction the story could have taken.

But "could have taken" is the operative term here. The traits that are associated with "Snake Boi" Callum (listed below) barely represent what his defining traits really are:

Obsession

Ambition

Temper

Ruthlessness

Selective Loyalty

There are, of course, shades of the above that ring true with Callum, as they ring true for most of the main cast. But it seems odd to single out Callum as the one who most exhibits these traits. Other characters who better exhibit, say, selective loyalty (such as Sarai taking a stance against hunting the Titan but ultimately sides with Harrow), are never recognized as such, let alone singled out to the extent Callum is.

Or they're based on interpretations that are dubious at best (Callum "turning against" Viren, a man he's never shown a particular liking to), or false at worst (Callum being the only one to actually want to kill Aaravos, despite the fact that killing him was originally Rayla's idea). So given all this, it's curious as to why "Snake Boi" Callum as an actual theory of who Callum is stuck around for as long as it did.

Then it hit me: much of this is really a projection, because there is a character who does exhibit these traits far better than Callum - Rayla.

Obsession

Rayla's obsession brings out the best and worst in her. She would obsess over what the right thing to do is ("I hesitate, think too much, get confused about the right thing to do"), but then also become obsessed over specific goals, first over killing Viren, then over the coins.

Ambition

All of the main character display some forms of ambition from time to time, but Rayla seems to have dispalyed hers at a much younger age:

At an age when most of the other main characters were just having fun and getting to be children, Rayla already chose her path. She wanted to be trained day and night by her mentor, despite her parents wishing that she have fun and grow up. To set aside a normal childhood and deciding on a career at that age, that takes ambition.

Temper

It should go without saying that it doesn't take much to set Rayla off:

So whether it's being mistrusted, being lied to, being rejected, being called weak, or just plain hungry, Rayla has a history of getting pretty angry.

Ruthlessness

I mean, c'mon, look at that smirk...

Or that death glare...

If that's not enough, here is what Rayla was planning to do with Claudia and Soren at the Cursed Caldera according to the novelization:

Selective Loyalty

Last but not least - selective loyalty. I think this is best exhibited by Rayla being willing to scuttle a two-year mission to kill Viren by saving her family instead:

But also by her insistence that "we can't save anyone," typically hinting at the belief they have to look out for themselves and their in-group before others:

But this is also hinted at throughout the series. She goes to save Pyrrah from Soren and Claudia, but doesn't express similar empathy for the humans in the nearby town that the dragon burnt down. Evidently, the bonds of loyalty are a strong influence on her actions.

So much so that in ToX this is Rayla's defining trait:

So on the one hand it's curious that Rayla's "most important value" is often assigned to Callum in some headcanons, but on the other I do get it. People want Callum to be selectively loyal, because that would mean he is selecting Rayla. That he's more loyal to her than he is to any pesky moral principles, that she's his ultimate value. What's more romantic than that?

But this does have the uncomfortable nature of being wrong: the truth is Rayla is the more selectively loyal one. She ultimately chose Callum over her quest to find Viren - doesn't get more loyal than that.

Conclusion

I don't write this to disparage anyone's theories or beliefs, but merely to point out what I think should be clear by this point: every single trait Callum is thought of having - temper, obsession, ambition, and especially ruthlessness - better describe Rayla. I'm sure people don't mean to project Rayla's traits onto Callum. It does seem to be done so in order to let Rayla be an uncomplicated hero with no moral issues, but in doing so I think people unintentionally ignore Rayla's best side.

Her obsession lets her stay on task. Her ambition shaped her into a great warrior. Her temper means no one can run roughshod on her. Her ruthlessness means she has what it takes to get the job done. And her selective loyalty means that when she says...

...she means it.

[anonforlackofabettername]

Sleepover ask: Re the Dragon Prince. I've seen lots of people who seem to think that Claudia is going to be the Azula of the series - others think she'll be the Zuko. What are your thoughts? Related, do you agree with the large part of the fandom which thinks that dark magic is evil/corrupting, or the smaller part that thinks it's not that black and white?

My only fandom interaction is memes and fanart so I'm pretty removed from any theories that are floating around. I have no clue what the fandom is saying and if what I'm saying matches up with something that's already been said. That goes for both parts of your ask, though I’ll get to the dark magic stuff later. Part of me isn't even sure what you mean by the Azula of the series or the Zuko since I’m missing that meta. The way I'm choosing to interpret it, is that by Azula you mean a character who is frighteningly competent, a direct antagonist to the main heroes, and is the lesser shadow of the main antagonist that nevertheless hangs over the main heroes more often and arguably does more damage. I'm choosing to interpret it that by Zuko you mean a character who is slightly incompetent, spends the majority of the early parts of the story as a direct antagonist and the shadow hanging over the heads of the main heroes, but by the end of the story undergoes a redemption arc and joins the main heroes, eventually turning on the main antagonist and without whom the main heroes would not be able to win in the end. 

(This is fucking long so I’m adding a read more)

That being said, I don't think Claudia fits either of these. Neither does Soren. I think they maybe might fit Zuko's role, but that's a bit of a stretch. And I'm gonna say why. Claudia despite being a lovable goof in personality is frighteningly competent when it comes to magic. However magic in this universe comes with a lot of complications and components. Thus we don't get to see her expertise as often as we saw it with Zuko and Azula's firebending. Also a thing to keep in mind is that Claudia and Soren are friends with Ezran and Callum. Soren has been told to kill the princes, true, same with Claudia being told to bring back the egg, but they both care for the boys in a way that Zuko and Azula couldn't because to them the avatar was a nameless figure. These people grew up together. They share relationships. Callum even has a crush on Claudia. Its not like the foe yay sexual tension of Katara/Zuko. These people up to the start of the series lived with each other and saw each other every day. Soren was training Callum and was captain of Harrow's guard. There is a familiarity that you can't ignore and which I think will be a major conflict for Soren specifically, when we finally get to that confrontation and he has to either kill them or let them go. Right now they are supposed to be on a mission to bring the princes home which is the exact opposite of both Zuko and Azula's missions to kill Aang. However, that being said, they are on a mission to kill Reyna. Soren and Claudia showing up is a threat because they are a) trying to stop the princes from returning the egg, and b) they're likely to try and kill Reyna in the process.

However, the main heroes don't even know that Soren and Claudia are trying to find them. Aside from running from their Aunt and the run in with Crow, they don't know who is following them and what will happen if they get found. So its not like in Avatar where every couple of episodes they had to bolt out of wherever the adventure of the week was because Zuko showed up and was hunting them. They're mostly trying to get the egg, now a baby dragon, back to the border and his mother as soon as possible.

And again you have to take the world itself into account. Within the world, elves are the bad guys to humans. They kicked humans out of Xadia. They've killed hundreds in the war. They literally assassinated Harrow, though it is unclear if Ezran and Callum have realized their dad is dead. In fact Callum was convinced that Reyna drank blood, thats how much elves are the boogeymen of the human kingdoms. Now we know that’s not true and the elves were justified for parts of it, and both sides are equally guilty.  If you want to compare the show to Avatar so much, then think of it this way. The human kingdoms are the fire nation, the elves the Earth Kingdom, and Ezran and Callum have just realized how shitty their people have been to the rest of the world. In this case, that makes Ezran and Callum Zuko in the middle of his redemption arc, when he’s working through his shit while traveling the earth kingdom to get to Ba Sing Se, and Soren and Claudia are Azula towards the end of that arc when she's like ‘help me kill the avatar and I'll make sure our dick of a dad lets you come home.’ Only in this case killing the avatar is returning the egg. Its not a great metaphor, and its been a while since I've watched avatar, but that's the feeling I get overall. Its Zuko realizing that the Fire Nation has done some fucked up shit and feeling helpless to fix it because he’s just an exiled prince.

I’ve gotten very off topic at this point. Um, I think going back to the Zuko or Azula thing, I think it depends. It depends on what happens when they finally catch up with the boys. If Claudia is Zuko, she’ll see Zym with the boys, recognize it as a sentient creature that deserves life and to be reunited with his mother and help the boys. If she’s Azula she’ll see Zym as a threat to Katolis that could one day rival Thunder and decide he needs killing. And of course there’s always other options, those are just two potential outcomes and they don’t even include Soren and what he decides to do about what his dad told him to do.

Your other question was about dark magic.  I don't know if dark magic is inherently corrupting. If it is, I think we’ll definitely see evidence within the show. In general when it comes to fiction magic is magic, no matter its source. Sometimes sources are inherently evil while others are inherently good but for the most part its meh and magic just is and how people use it makes it good or evil. However, in this case, you can't ignore where dark magic comes from. It doesn't come from negative thoughts and feelings like the dark side of the force. It doesn't come from shadows or darkness like half a dozen different magic systems.

Dark magic in TDP comes from the direct exploitation of creatures with inherent magic. To use dark magic you need a plant or creature with inherent magic that the mage then twists and exploits to do what they want. To find the Moonshadow elves Viren used a moth. For the switching spell Virin used the two-headed snake. Claudia crushed a bug to create fire at Harrow’s funeral. Nothing about dark magic is innate, nothing about it is natural, and in fact it comes from exploiting natural creatures and resources. You are using the life force of a living being and generally its dead afterwards.

This isn’t important for things like plants or bugs or whatever. Yeah Claudia killed a bug and used its life to summon fire. Whatever, who here hasn’t killed bugs before? It starts to matter however when you’ve got people like Ezran who can talk to animals and understand what they’re saying. I’m sure being a glowtoad there’s a spell that Claudia could cast using Bait. That’s not okay since Bait is a pet as well as a living creature but if it happened to another glowtoad I doubt anyone would care. But since Ezran can talk to the animals, he does care because he knows the animals are not consenting. It also starts to matter when you have magical creatures that are sapient and intelligent enough to put their foot down and say I will not let you exploit me like this.

So I don’t know if dark magic is inherently corrupting, but the idea of using creatures is an inherently dehumanizing and corrupting one. To dark mages, these animals, and even the elves and dragons and any other magical creatures that we haven’t met yet, are less than human and exploitable. To Virin and Claudia the egg wasn’t a baby, it wasn’t a person, the egg was a weapon. Because to them dragons, magical creatures, and the like are tools and weapons. This has got some serious race implications because the last time we thought of an entire class of people as tools we had slavery and it was legal.  

To use dark magic, you have to be in this mindset that people are tools to be exploited. I have no idea what dark magic using an elf’s life force or a dragon’s life force would look like. I’m sure its possible, and I’m sure I wouldn’t like the result. There is a reason the elves took one look at dark magic and said ‘not today satan’ and decided it was a severe enough crime to exile the entire human race from Xadia. They were not about to let themselves be used. There is a reason the elves are the boogeymen of Katolis and the rest of the human kingdoms and part of that is they’re the enemy and part of that is if they are monsters, if they aren’t human, then no one will care what abuses happen to them.

So no, I don’t think using dark magic is inherently corrupting. I don’t think the magic itself corrupts. However I do think that to use dark magic, one must look at the world through a corrupted lens. You must be okay with harming living creatures to accomplish what you want, and you must be okay exploiting others. Anyone who believes in the intelligence and personhood of all creatures and then uses dark magic is either ignorant or a hypocrite. When it comes to Claudia, I think she’s partially a hypocrite and partially doesn’t see how what she’s doing is harmful and wrong. She sees only the potential of dark magic, and hasn’t yet realized what she’s harming to get her way.

[its-leethee]

mother's day and a bedtime story for the little prince

[its-leethee]

[its-leethee]

game night - check

[its-leethee]

Reflecting on a Dark Path

[possumdrawsstuff]

can yall tell who my favorite is 🤭

yall I live laugh love the white streak Aaron PLEASE-

[possumdrawsstuff]

DTIYS! no winners tho I’m too busy so do whatever lolz

asks r open tho! (Also I’m truly sorry that tumblr murdered the quality)

I may be a simp lowkey

TYHE TAG IS #POSSUMDTIYS1 IM SORRY

[its-leethee]

[raayllum]

Do you love Callum's skepticism, temper, and ruthlessness? Do you love his protective nature, his selective loyalty, and how he'll do anything for Ezran and Rayla? Do you love thinking about his potential dark path, or how these qualities could come out even years later in relative peacetimes? Then Snake Boi Callum Week might be the fandom event for you!

Beginning next week on Sunday, the prompts are suggestions built around specific qualities of Callum's character (affectionately nicknamed his "snake boi tendencies") / lines and prompts from the show for a more angsty or protective theme! Since one of the core components (usually) of this kind of focus is an emphasis on Callum’s selective loyalty to Ezran and Rayla above anyone else, Rayllum and the Broyals are the expected most likely dynamics to focus on. However, 'outsider’ pov or examination of how Callum’s bonds with other characters may differ or be impacted by these traits/relationships is more than welcome, as is whump or anything else (so long as it is properly tagged/rated). And if you think Callum's inner circle would include someone like say, Soren or Opeli someday, go for it by all means! Aaravos will, of course, also likely feature prominently but he by no means needs to. The timeline and focus, etc. is all up to you!

Sunday October 29th: Choices / Consequences

Monday October 30th: Power / Politics

Tuesday October 31st: Mirrors (literal or metaphorical) / Magic

Wednesday November 1st: However Dangerous, However Vile / I Would Do anything For You

Thursday November 2nd: Temper / Ruthlessness

Friday November 3rd: More than anyone or anything / Inner circle

Saturday November 4th: Destiny / Chains

Please tag your stuff with #Snake Boi Callum or #Snake Boi Callum Week and make sure to use tags and ratings properly if you veer into darker / possibly triggering territory. We're here, possibly unlike our boy, to have a good time, and that means everyone having the choice to gauge whether to opt in or out of any and all fics. Tagging it accordingly with "Snake Boi Callum" will also help AO3 filter organization. That said: all forms of content - fic, fanart, playlists, headcanons, analysis, graphics, etc. - is more than welcome, and I cannot wait to see all of it!

If you have any more questions my askbox is always welcome! Happy creating and I can't wait to see what everyone has planned!