Pippin

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My favorite side plot in tdp in that Rayla has 4 parents that all try so hard... and still fail

Turns out, you can make jelly tarts filled with NUTELLA! Happy birthday, Ezran!

Remember when the issue of Runaan and Rayla vs a dragon was super briefly brought up and immediately abandoned with zero context in a TDP interview? Me either, but that totally happened. (thanks to @ladyandherbooks​ for a great conversation on the topic!)

Is it going to be in the future or has it already happened? I think it’s already happened because of this comment Rayla makes in S2E7 when Pyrrah roars in the distance.

My favorite angsty headcanon as to exactly when Rayla and Runaan faced off with a dragon is that it was when a raging, mourning Zubeia came looking for Runaan–and for Rayla–after her egg vanished and her mate was killed.

TDP has a beautiful habit of adding backstory behind dramatic events that changes the perspective of those events. We started watching this show knowing that the humans slayed Thunder. Then we learned it was in vengeance for Sarai’s death. Then we learned that she died trying to save her people from a famine. Those kinds of layers.

So I’m wondering if this moonfam vs dragon is just such an event, which will change our perspective on Rayla and Runaan’s relationship, and on why she ended up on his mission in the first place.

I don’t know whether a Storm archdragon has enough magical power to see through the Silvergrove’s enchantments, but I want the answer to be no. Because then, see, Zubeia’s got to fly around roaring and raging and shouting above the village and freaking out all the Moonshadow elves. Like, “holy crap the Dragon Queen has lost her mind, uhhh guys what to we do??” Because see, they don’t know yet. They don’t know about Harrow and Viren and Avizandum and the egg. This moment, this exchange, this is how they learn what happened.

So the elves stare skyward as Zubeia roars and zaps her way over the forest, maybe even crying Runaan’s name. Or worse, Rayla’s. There’s no way he’d let Rayla approach an enraged dragon. But he’s the leader of the assassins. This is his village, and Rayla is the daughter of his heart. Defending literally everyone who’s currently in danger is exactly Runaan’s jam. So he leaves the village and draws Zubeia’s attention a ways away, where she can’t hurt anyone, hoping to let her say her piece in um, peace.

I don’t think it went well, for several reasons. And the first of those reasons is that Rayla sneaked out after him.

The first things Zubeia would want Runaan to know are that his friends were cowards and that her egg and mate are dead. If Rayla overheard the bit about her parents, I can see her throwing caution to the wind and darting right out to say Zubeia’s totally wrong. Runaan would be intensely concerned for her safety, but he’s got to keep a hold on the situation despite his own shock and horror. A mother who’s just lost her baby could do anything she wanted, especially if she’s got teeth that are six feet long and extremely pointy. He’s just lost his two best friends, but he can’t do anything that puts Rayla’s life in more danger than it’s already in.

And maybe it is in danger. Zubeia blames all of her Dragonguard for fleeing. But Moonshadows don’t run. Maybe she already hunted down the others, and here she is, unable to find Lain and Tiadrin anywhere, desperate for revenge, and turning to their daughter. Zubeia did lose a child. How fitting, she might decide, that her traitorous guards lose theirs in return.

Runaan’s definitely not having that, though. He’d say or do just about anything to protect Rayla. And conveniently, it’s his actual job to hunt down horrible people. Maybe he offered his services to Zubeia to keep her from killing Rayla. Tried his best to direct the distraught dragon from wild revenge to a balanced justice. Maybe Runaan agreed to take Ezran’s life so he wouldn’t have to lose Rayla’s.

Rayla would be sickened, angry, horrified, and maybe just a little lost in all these horrible details, but once she heard Runaan talking about an assassination mission, she’d pick up immediately that she could find redemption by going with him. Not just in Zubeia’s eyes, but in everyone else’s. And it would placate the Dragon Queen to see Rayla acting furious and intent on fixing her parents’ mistake.

Maybe Runaan never intended for Rayla to grow up to be an assassin at all, despite her admiration for him and his honorable position in the Silvergrove. But in such a moment, with Rayla glaring up at him and Zubeia staring down at him, he felt the strings of fate pull so tightly that he had no choice but to say yes. His job is to lead and train assassins. If anyone can get a determined young Moonshadow elf ready for an assassination mission in a short period of time, it’s Runaan.

Is this why the mission took so long to start after the event that triggered it? Avizandum died at Winter’s Turn, which is like New Year’s, but Runaan’s mission set out in May. He and Rayla might’ve spent those intervening months training like crazy. But eventually, Runaan had to make the call–Zubeia’s been waiting on him, and he’s got to decide at some point that Rayla’s ready enough. 

Runaan may have negotiated with Zubeia to take Rayla with him, but only when he deemed her ready. Zubeia might not have cared much whether Rayla lived or died on the mission. But better to give Rayla a fighting chance, and a chance to redeem her family’s honor, than to refuse and risk Zubeia lashing out at her right there and then.

It’s an impossible situation, but Runaan seems to have a knack for getting into those and making hard calls. He absolutely won’t let Rayla die today, but his other options are to kill an innocent prince and to endanger his daughter while doing it. And he goes with that. He says he’ll do it, and then, because of his honor, he actually plans to do exactly that. 

Harrow would be much easier to agree to take. Harrow is the one who actually killed Avizandum. But why Ezran? That’s a demand made out of rage and grief. If Rayla’s life hadn’t been under threat at the time of Zubeia’s and Runaan’s negotiation, would Runaan have agreed to take Ezran’s life?

Maybe he would. It is a balanced solution, in a very dark and terrible way. But for a guy with his own child, it feels like a really, really dark move to agree to. Maybe he didn’t make it willingly.

If Runaan felt pressured into taking Rayla on his mission to spare her life, that adds new dimension to his theme of protecting her. He basically sacrificed himself and his whole team to save her when the mission went pear-shaped. What a ride it would be if her life was actually in danger much earlier than that.

I know this doesn’t have much connection with canon. Zubeia seemed oddly thrilled with all the humans and elves around her when she woke up. But maybe we’re missing something in her character arc as well. She got Runaan to accept the mission to take Harrow and Ezran. And then she had to wait. And wait. And her rage died out, leaving her with only her sorrow. Her broken heart was all she had left, and it began to kill her. Ibis said that she’d slipped into a coma ten days earlier, which was around the time that S3 started. That was most likely after she received Runaan’s shadowhawk, telling her that Harrow was dead, but not Ezran.

Did she think Runaan had gone back on his word? Did she tell anyone at all what his message said? That he’d failed to do what he promised?

Rrgh, was Runaan worried when he shot that shadowhawk off that Zubeia might still try to exact revenge on Rayla because he hadn’t taken Ezran? Maybe he didn’t want Rayla taking the egg back to Xadia because she’d be running directly to the dragon that threatened her, and Runaan was trying to minimize the risk to her life, again, by taking it himself.

Why did he demand the egg like he did? Is he really just that dramatic? Or was he trying to keep Rayla and Zubeia apart because Rayla had to hear what a raging dragon sounds like once, and he never wanted her to hear that sound again?

The irony will be enormous if Runaan was trying to protect Rayla from a threat that nearly died from grief between the time he left on his mission and the time Rayla reached Xadia without him. Because if his mission had gone off without a hitch, he and Rayla would’ve been home and dry before Zubeia fell into her coma. Rayla might be safe in that scenario, but Zym would be lost, and Ezran would be dead.

We can grow food Make natural products Show how to meal prep for a week Teach how to invest

But I’m particularly looking for a dedicated hub base in Chicago. Videographers Film editors Sound and tech Grant writers Graphic designers Educators Writers

Anyone really who is down to getting a channel started and are willing to dedicate some time each week to meeting and curating videos.

Note, this is nonprofit work. Could it potentially pay, sure. But in my vision for this those funds are supporting the Black community. We’ll see where it goes. But this is not a for money, for fame thing. You really have to be invested and dedicated to helping people. This your tithes on being alive. K?

Email me at [email protected] if you are in Chicago and want to help.

And then bought and renovated a space. I want to use this business to help build brands that are sustainable and improve our community. I took the money and renovated a space

A few days ago, I was looking closely at the two sketches of Ethari from the S1 credits, and a few things came together, starting with the realization that, aside from Ethari’s hair and shoulders changing, his face markings change. 

In the first sketch, he’s younger–less curve to his horns, he’s more lithe, and the swirls on his cheeks are more round. No lines up his ear tops, either. He’s got his horn cuffs, though, so he’s committed himself to Runaan by now. And two horn tips, instead of one. Did he just… lose one? Or are those rings instead of tips? Plus he has an adorable smudge on his nose. I hope it got kissed later on.

Anyway. Shaggy boy here has a bit different look as a newlywed, and he’s using his preferred jewelry skills to work up a protective pendant for his shiny new assassin husband. He’s happy with his life and work.

Skip forward several years. Ten? A dozen? More? And Ethari has changed noticeably. His hair is different–longer in back and shorter on the sides, as we see it in the show now. His arms and chest have really bulked up from years of heavy-duty metalsmithing. 

And his cheek markings have loosened their swirl and eased down to his chin and up along his ears. The ring pattern on his crop top has a different thickness, too, though still the same general layout. If it’s crafter symbol, maybe the latter one means Ethari got promoted among the Silvergrove craftsmen. Or maybe it just means Ethari’s so muscular that he literally couldn’t fit in his old shirt anymore.

So what I’m seeing is what everyone’s been seeing, really, all along: Ethari bulked up and changed his look noticeably. But pairing this with the recent reveal that Ethari “deeply deeply” would prefer to make jewelry instead of weaponry gives me angst.

The younger Ethari is Ethari as he chose to be for himself. Wiry, fluffy, bright and sparkly. A crow.

The older Ethari is Ethari as he chose to be for Runaan. Bulked out so he can do the weapons work required to keep Runaan and his assassins safe on missions, with a more edgy haircut, less bling, more heft to shoulder the load he puts on himself. Not a crow anymore. A raven.

Runaan’s taken some light into his darkness by marrying Ethari. He’s softer, lighter, has a family to love and cherish. He’s got several points of balance to keep him from getting too dark from his work, and the unconditional love of a truly gentle soul who will always forgive him anything. As long as he has Ethari, he’ll never go fully dark.

But Ethari’s taken some darkness into his light by marrying Runaan. He’s changing the whole nature of his work for his husband, and the results of it are right there to see in his chest and shoulders.His workshop wall is covered in weaponry now, with nary a pendant in sight. His husband and friends are assassins, and his jewelry skills get funneled into magic message arrows and lotus life trackers. As long as he keeps building the darkness for Runaan, he’ll never be fully light again.

Ethari’s changed, and not for the better, by associating with Runaan all these years. Yes, he’s still soft and gentle. Yes, he and Runaan are genuinely in love. But he’s a workhorse for the assassins’ treadmill. And he’ll slave away for Runaan and his assassins for as long as Runaan is an assassin. Ethari would never trust anyone else to outfit and equip his husband better than he could himself. Runaan’s too precious to him. I’m not saying Runaan pressured Ethari in any way to switch to swords and weaponry. I’m thinking Ethari just sauntered vaguely downhill as he trailed closer and closer to Runaan. Neither of them intended to change Ethari’s life path so dramatically. It just happened because they were in love, and Ethari had the skill set, and Runaan is less yielding.

But here he sits, broken-hearted and lost, with a decade or so of work he only took to protect the elf he loved. And now that elf is gone, as far as he believes. Will he still do a job he never truly wanted in the first place? Will he start to make jewelry again? 

And how long will it take for him to fish out those lotuses, anyway?

I think that used to be Runaan’s job, fishing out any sunken lotuses. They were for Runaan’s assassins. He probably watched them die. He’s hard enough to handle fishing out the sunken symbols of their lost lives. It’s probably part of his duty as the assassin leader, too. So now Ethari’s staring at that pool, trying to work up the courage to perform a task that he’s never had to do before, and the reason he’s the one who has to do it now makes everything so much worse.

But Rayla’s back in his life, just a little bit, now, and he has someone to live for. Someone to protect, someone to deck out in swirly metal. Having her should stabilize him enough to help him work up the courage to wade into the pool and realize Runaan’s lotus isn’t fully sunk yet.