Pregnant Rayla Cult Leader

Runaan: If you're trying to understand the star arcanum, don't bother. Not even the greatest of elven mages could do it, let alone you.

Callum, without skipping a beat: It's the fourteenth anniversary of my Dad's death today. We used to love stargazing together when I was small.

Runaan:

- the night before your birthday

- late summer evenings

Rayla has always been a capable individual , but when season four came along, she started to receive a lot of hate. Yes, season four wasn't the best, and it had a lot of writing issues, but Rayla had two years of solitude and came back all weird and clingy because of it. She had lost her parents and her home and had to leave her love interest behind, so of course, she wasn't the same. ( She was just 16 when she left.)

In that same season where she's more hated by people she fights a guy, she gets in danger following the villain, stabs a dragon, and has to give up her precious blades. The season where "she lost all personality."

A good chunk of the fandom treats her absolutely horribly and chooses to ignore her development while also praising the male characters. They act like she's useless , even when she saves their asses. They have talked about how she has lost her personality and has been reduced to a love interest , when that's not the case. Her love interest is equally (or even more) dependent on her, but he never gets the "reduced to a love interest" label, even though he literally ditches his brother and kingdom for her. Rayla has two fathers , with little scenes where one of them is mostly the other father's love interest (you could say , not entirely), and people talk about him like he's this super complex guy. They often reduce her to just their daughter, and that's it, even though they would be nothing in the story without her. People were mad about how she "isn't a badass anymore , " even though she has plenty of scenes showing how badass she is. She got nicer and more quiet, and that was enough for the fandom to decide her whole character was ruined and that she has no personality. People on Reddit even wanted Callum to be outright abusive to her.

I'm sure these comments wouldn't exist if she were a boy or wasn't the love interest of the main character. Rayla , after season four, had to fight to get her parents back and make really hard choices, but that's not enough for some people because emotions and personality aren't as cool as kicking ass all the time. There have also been occasions where the fandom insults her for reacting to her trauma and leaving her boyfriend for two years, while the hot villain gets praised and excused for genocide because "he's grieving."

She just happens to be a bit obsessed with the only person who has always chosen her , but their relationship is pretty equal, and reducing her to a love interest when he doesn't get the same kind of comments is weird. He has got the "he's a simp" ones but I have never seen him "being reduced to a love interest." She would be reduced to a love interest if that was her only role but... It's not.

and then the next season came out and it sanded her down to genuine nothing. reduced to a love interest and had all spice taken away. boiled chicken writing. never recovered from how fucked up that was. fuck you wonderstorm

Literally like this ask.