while I appreciate the more emotional angle, I do think that Rayla coming back and not talking about her own feelings at all was very in character tbh. In 2x03 after Callum finds out about Harrow she tries to defend herself, but it makes things worse, and they only make progress when she just gives space for his feelings. She left because she prioritized Callum's physical (and emotional) wellbeing too much over herself. Then she comes back and does the exact same thing while also trying to hold it together so that he can have his big emotions, but Callum's repressed the hell out of them because she was gone. I always like stories where how the characters cope with their trauma makes it more difficult for them to actually heal and/or do relationship repair for it. I also think they're holding off on Callum's big "I was worried about" for S6 (and wanted to give him time to just mostly Be angry, not even just sad-angry, which is what we see in how he treats Viren and Claudia's betrayals too) so that they can actually tackle Rayla's overly sacrificial tendencies in the text, but that's a thought for another day.

@queenster1

2 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for your insight it really gives me another angle to look at the characters in the show which I love. But I'd like to mention I was trying to convey Rayla as trying to conceal her emotions but also very calculated. I imagine that she wrote down what she wanted to say to Callum but when she actually saw him she got scared trying to speak the least saying things in simple short sentences. When Callum started yelling at her you can see she wasnt prepared for it because in her mind she thought Callum would greet her with open arms which wasnt the case. Rayla manages to keep her cool and let's Callum have his "big feelings" but she loses her cool at 1:52 when Callum tells Rayla , a person who's felt she has never had a choice in her entire life(this is a callback to the talk she had with Villads where she agreed that things in life just happen, like a river, and she has no choice in the matter) that what she did wasn't a necessity but a choice. That's when the conversation finally takes a turn and Rayla completely loses her cool and justifies everything she's been feeling and rants about how her entire life she never had a choice in all the bad things that happened to her hence she shouldnt be blamed. Rayla DID apologize but she didn't take accountability because in her mind she didn't do anything wrong she did what she HAD to do. Rayla was planning to stay reserved but Callum pushed her over the edge and that's when she got emotional. I hope my explanation gave my perspective on things more clarity.

@wordswithdragons9599

2 ай бұрын

@@queenster1 See, I don't think there's a world where Rayla wouldn't expect some anger ("All day, all week really, I've been sort of nervous and all edge-frazzled. But now finally seeing you, I'm still nervous" / "Callum, I know my leaving hurt you" / "But please don't hate me, Callum" from her letter). I think his stony silence in canon is the main reason she showed a shred of anger in 4x03 and even that was very fleeting. "But I had to do it" "of why and who I did it for" and how much she missed him come well before his more outward anger. That to me still feels like justifications I'm not sure she'd give, especially when she's JUST shown back up. Similarly to how she doesn't defend herself at all in 3x03 or 3x04 regarding her banishment because she just assumes she deserves whatever get dished out when she messes up. There's a level in which canon knows that both of them know exactly WHY she left to begin with -- I'd argue Rayla knows that Callum understands (as much as he can), hence why she's a little more hopeful at first -- Callum will just always somewhat fundamentally disagree because the world / Viren / him wasn't worth her risking her life alone like that for. When Rayla comes back she doesn't offer any justification for what she did to him at any point in the season bc I think she knows, to him, there is no good reason or 'excuse'. (Whether that's actually TRUE is another matter, but your line of "You should know better than anyone what it's like to lose a part of who you are, and you're the only person who would do it anyway" is great tbh!) The matter of choice is definitely something that haunts both Callum and Rayla in particular, but I'd argue that Rayla is more worried about making the WRONG choice > a fear or belief that she has no choices. She deflects as an assassin ("I have to do this, I'm sorry" which mirrors her letter "I have to do this. I have to" numerous times) but even that is very clearly a font she doesn't believe ("An assassin doesn't decide right or wrong, only life and death" vs "You let him live, but you had a job to do!"). Rayla states that she "hesitates, I think too much, gets confused about the right thing to do" but she's quite stubborn and sure of her choices throughout most of the series before Callum comes around to change it ("What does this mean? What should I do?") because he radically changes her worldview(s). She's Scared about making the wrong choices ("I messed up, I know I did" / "Everyone messes up sometimes, or in my case, all the times" / "I really tried, but I could never find the right way, and whenever I tried, I messed it up--" / "Oh no! I messed up again" (4x06)) but she's fully aware that she (and others) are the ones making them. How she responds to those choices - or failures - is usually with self sacrifice, self punishment, or both. There are definitely aspects where Rayla feels like Callum can change his fate (and sometimes hers: "I leapt to my certain death, but you spread your wings, and you saved me") and that she's locked into hers, and if she hadn't come back of her own accord I think she'd be more in that mindset, but that's something I think she has to shed in order to come back at all. Just showing up again is "Everything I did and thought was wrong" (even if you're right that there's still cognitive dissonances rolling around, i.e. Callum can risk his life for causes -- and for me when I know he'll be okay -- after BUT not in the moment for me because /I'm/ not worth it, etc) and I think that's where she'd sit, largely; the main reason she gets mad at Amaya in 5x04 is because "You think I MEANT to hurt Callum?" and that she can't stand for it being seen as on purpose. Given how she lets Ezran chew her out in 2x08 even when she's crying and how she doesn't defend herself to Ethari (or Runaan), it really does go either way in canon whether Rayla is going to try to defend herself at all or if that'll wither quickly and she'll just take the ire of whichever person she's disappointed without even thinking or questioning it.

This is amazing! Ugh finally, a real “I’m sorry”. I also love the emotions, the original scene just felt like the 😐 emoji the whole time.

This is great and kinda relates to what i think the key underlying issue with their relationship is. Callum always saw him and Rayla as being a team: always being there for each other and being strong together. Rayla on the other hand saw their relationship as more of a luxury: a source of happiness and comfort but not as a source of strength because she believes true strength is being completely self reliant and being able to make all the sacrifices and hard choices so the people she loves dont have to. What Rayla's past choices have shown is that as much as she loves Callum, she believes their relationship is worth sacrificing so long as its for a noble cause like attoning for her parents failure or stopping a threat like Viren. She can preach as many noble reasons as she wants for leaving Callum but ultimately she just didnt trust him, she didnt have faith that he could protect himself or protecther and she left him behind like he was some defenceless child who needed to stay at home while the grownups did the dangerous stuff.

I’m excited to see more from their relationship in Season 6. Rayllum forever!

@hannahburke7328

2 ай бұрын

Same.

This is gold!!! What talent. Thank you for making this!!!

ahhh omg this is amazing! 🤩

i am SO inspired by this message

awesome sauce!!!

That Should Have Happened In Season 4 Episode 3.

This was excellent! The animatic looks amazing, especially the facial expressions. And the dialogue is so much better than the show's. I don't think Callum would be as calm as he was when he saw Rayla. He might have thought she was dead, so he would definitely get emotional. But really, I just wish the writers hadn't seperated them in the first place. I didn't think there would be no conflicts after they got together. But breaking them up over a letter just feels like needless drama. Especially since Rayla left Callum behind instead of staying with him to protect him!

This is so spectacular and beautiful. Excellent job and good work like you are so incredibly talented and gifted. Also I need to stop putting the Dragon Prince off and actually watch it. Like omg im so incredibly lazy.

Omg I am in love with this

Since why stella looking at the aaravos's magic mirro 1:32 i am going to be more curious about stella on season 6😰

@queenster1

2 күн бұрын

I thought since Stella's primal magic is star magic like Aaravos I think she could probably sense when Aaravos was listening to Callum and Rayla's conversation