#practical uses

I can't. Despite all this, I am changed. I woke up feeling free for the first time in a very long time. I know I have led my sweet, brilliant daughter down the wrong path. I have led you by the hand, and I have led you by my example. Perhaps now, if I walk the path of freedom, you will find your path someday too. / As an assassin, I had convinced myself I was a kind of peacemaker. A twisted peacemaker. But you see, the moment I returned to Katolis and I saw your eyes, I knew I had lied to myself.

These moments of purest strength can look like weakness to those that don't know better. For a long time, I didn't know better.

and how Runaan leaves at first in S7 to reconcile with family, and then returns to Ezran to face justice. To face judgement.

A king must look into the eyes and hear the words of those he judges. (7x07)

And it makes me think of how one of the most full circle things for Claudia both as a character and as a parallel to Leola (of which Rayla is also a foil in S7 for) is for her to face judgement / face her own sort of trial. It means admitting and owning up to her wrong doing, her mistakes, willingly offering herself up to judgement (Ezran's, but also perhaps of others, in a direct contrast to 3x02). It means that unlike Leola, she's not innocent, and they all know it. And unlike Leola, she's spared — because humanity and breaking the cycle means second chances and being better than the Cosmic Order. It means Aaravos won't have another daughter die — and that Claudia, like Runaan, can continue to learn and grow and live.

It's not the same.