ugh i need to talk about leona’s dream because it’s genuinely one of the most interesting parts of book 7 to me
honestly if i were leona i’d probably be frustrated with how sunset savanna was being run too 😭😭
because yes, falena clearly cares about his country, but there’s something deeply uncomfortable about building giant water-themed infrastructure to celebrate cheka’s birth while huge portions of your population still struggle with access to water itself
and that’s the thing about leona people miss
at his core, he does care about sunset savanna
he wants improvement. he wants progress. he wants to help people
but he’s trapped in a country that heavily values tradition and hierarchy, where “the circle of life” mentality basically becomes an excuse for why things can’t change. and because he was born second, nobody wants to hear his ideas in the first place
that’s why ruggie’s dream is so important too
because ruggie’s ideal version of leona is a king who actively improves the country, funds schools, creates opportunities. the savanaclaw boys see leona’s potential as a leader. they respect him because they know he’s capable
and that’s part of what makes his dream so tragic!!!
because malleus gives him exactly what he supposedly wants. the crown. the throne. the position that was denied to him his entire life
and leona is still miserable
his self-loathing is so overwhelming that even inside a dream literally designed to make him happy, he can’t believe in it. he keeps insisting nobody understands his pain, his loss, the emptiness of finally getting what he wanted
because deep down, leona doesn’t actually believe becoming king would fix him
and i think that’s the most important part
malleus misunderstood leona’s desire completely. leona hates that the opportunity was stolen from him because of birth order, but he would never want someone else to suffer the same fate he did. he knows exactly how crushing that feeling of uselessness is
which is why his dream immediately starts rotting from the inside out
and what makes this even crazier to me is that leona’s subconscious seems to realize almost instantly that the dream wasn’t naturally his. like his mind recognizes the outside interference and forcibly twists the dream into something else entirely
instead of accepting the fantasy, his own subconscious overpowers it and reshapes it into a reality fueled by his self-hatred
that’s INSANE when you remember this is malleus we’re talking about. one of the strongest mages in the entire setting
and yet leona’s belief that he is fundamentally unworthy, fundamentally destructive, fundamentally “wrong” is so strong that it corrupts the dream itself
malleus tries to give him happiness and leona’s mind responds with no. this is what would really happen
even then, there are parts of the dream his mind refuses to corrupt. people he genuinely respects, like kifaji, stay intact. which honestly makes the whole thing hurt even more because it shows that underneath all the bitterness, leona does still have people he values deeply
in the end, the dream wasn’t just about leona becoming king
it was about the fact that leona genuinely cannot imagine a world where having the crown wouldn’t destroy him too
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