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So, like, what if Sora and Riku went to Valentine’s Town tho..

 I will say it’s hard to lean into a design philosophy that doesn’t exist because we’ve never seen valentines town and i tried my darndest but i would be lying if i said it wasn’t almost entirely self indulgent

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sometimes one simply has to draw nick and charlie being silly

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Comfort Crowd (Paris Squad Version) 🍂

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it's january 12th, which means mr farouk and mr ajayi are getting married

(i sure hope i read the date right)

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Oh, Astrid, I love you so much.

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and he did

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Blood and Ash - Another Way Out

I've been drawn to one of the s7 teasers, which show Ezran on the throne looking ruthless, accompanied by the phrase "Blood and Ash."

 

This is a reference of Karim's ancient tale about the Golden Knight challenging his tyrannical brother-king:

Karim correctly understands this story was a tragedy, but misunderstands why. He thinks that the civil war was the main tragedy, which the duel between brothers honorably ended. But what he misses is that it was the conflict between the brothers which led to the civil war itself, rather than just stopping it. Because of this mistake, when Karim challenged his sister, all this did was start an escalating feud that ended in a battle.

In Katolis, Ezran is the "tyrannical" king, and Callum is the Golden Knight opposing him - but unlike the story, Callum does not fight Ezran.

Instead of following the Golden Knight's path, he finds a way to honor both his principles and his love for his brother. First, he ends a fight between Ez and Rayla nonviolently, not only freezing them in place but even protecting Runaan from an archer with his body, choosing to be vulnerable over actually using further magic. Then when he leaves with Runaan and Rayla he says:

By resigning as High Mage while affirming "I'll always be your brother," Callum understands something that Karim missed - that the true tragedy isn't about who was right or who won, but about how brotherly conflict, once escalated to violence, shatters something irreplaceable.

Karim and Janai's own broken relationship add show how these cycles of sibling conflict, once started, are almost impossible to break - Janai defeats Karim then banishes him, then Karim kidnaps Janai and steals the sun seed, then Janai defeats him in battle and plans his execution.

But Callum's choice shows another path forward - one where standing up for what you believe in doesn't have to mean destroying the bonds of family. Even though his actions hurt Ezran in the moment, by stepping away rather than engaging in direct confrontation, Callum preserves the possibility of future healing.

The Dragon Prince isn't just about breaking cycles of violence - it's about finding ways to hold onto love even in moments of deepest conflict. Through Callum's choice, we see that there is another way between confrontation and compromise.

Another way out.

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is this a joke??? TDP REDDIT JUST STOP

“because your girlfriend is sad” yeah she was having a bad day and not like she is gonna see her dad get executed probably.

also “i would do anything for you”

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Achilles wouldn’t have died if he was wearing OSHA approved work boots.

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the thing about the mummy movies is that you really spend most of the time thinking "wow brendan fraser's character is so cool" or "man oded fehr is so mysterious and heroic" when the fact of the matter is that these two

are the absolute most batshit insane heroes in the entire franchise

these two are intellectual loner siblings with archeology backgrounds who read and speak ancient egyptian, hire a dude directly out of prison to take them to a lost city of gold, and fight mummies literally with their bare hands. twice.

no one in these movies stands a chance against the carnahans. frankly they're lethal in how willing they are to make the absolute and most undeniably deranged decisions. jonathan pickpockets a dude on fire. evy's resurrected from the dead and immediately remembers how to use sai. they're racking shotguns from a cliff in this scene and then proceed to blow away half the antagonists.

rick and ardeth should be so lucky

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Don’t you think that when Callum says “Rayla loves me, this version of myself,” and then conversation gets reframed around Rayla as the reason Callum is doing dark magic, this hints as to why he ultimately does dark magic in the finale?

I think this is honestly a great example of how confirmation bias works in practice. It’s really more of a Hail Mary for the “Callum does everything for Rayla” crowd.

Here’s the conversation Callum has - Dark Callum presents a utilitarian argument: "Only I can save them all... but only if you give up your sense of right and wrong." When Callum responds by bringing up Rayla's love for his moral self, he's using this as evidence for why he shouldn't compromise his principles - not as his primary motivation.

Think about it like this: If someone says "I won't rob a bank because my spouse loves me for being honest," they're not saying "I only stay honest because of my spouse." They're saying their spouse's love affirms and supports their existing moral principles. It's evidence for why their principles are worth maintaining, not the source of those principles.

Dark Callum then tries to twist this by suggesting Callum should compromise his values for love. But Callum's final response is telling - he explicitly rejects this frame and broadens the scope: "There is a way out of this, with good people doing courageous things. Humans, elves, dragons, doing what's right!" This isn't about saving Rayla; it's about believing in collective moral action.

We can’t ignore this explicit rejection and the actual content of Callum's final statement. It's like reading someone saying "I won't compromise my principles, even for love" and interpreting it as "Everything I do is motivated by love."

And in the end, Rayla isn’t the reason Callum changes course. Once Akiyu is killed and Viren’s staff is left behind, there’s only one way to stop Aaravos and save the world, and Callum is forced to take it, but he ONLY takes it knowing that he’ll die in the end. Thats how important his principles are, he’ll break them - because it’s a matter of his death or everyone else’s.

Bear in mind, Runaan is there with Callum for all of it, and sees Callum formulate this plan and concludes “he has a good heart. He would do anything to save this world.” Coming from someone who was skeptical of Callum, and of humans, and dark magic, seeing him come all the way back around to this conclusion speaks volumes.

Granted, I’m sure there are people who will read this and think “but Rayla’s love shouldn’t have been a factor at all.” To them, it seems like nothing short of Callum being a spectral force comparable to the First Elves who commits to abstract moral principles solely for their own sake and not any personal reasons would permit them to say that Callum is in any way being “good.”.

In reality, moral decisions rarely come from pure abstract principles alone. What makes someone "good" isn't the complete absence of personal motivations, but rather how they integrate their personal connections and moral principles.

In Callum's case, his love for Rayla reinforces rather than compromises his moral principles. When he cites her love for his moral self, he's acknowledging that their relationship is built on shared values. It's not that he's good only because Rayla loves him - rather, Rayla loves him in part because of his goodness, and this helps strengthen his resolve to maintain those principles.

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Just following up on my post here, you can play this game of "tainting" a character's moral compass by having them be driven by another person, and you'd find that every one of the heroes has a personal angle that's driving their choices.

Rayla leaves Callum behind in TTM because she doesn't want him to get hurt (rather than anything to do with the mission), then spends most of Arc 2 either mending their relationship or trying to free her family.

Soren is driven by his desire from getting out from under his father's shadow, gaslighting and abuse.

Amaya is driven by her love for Janai and wanting her vision to be honored.

Janai's actions are as often treated by the needs of her people as they are her complicated relationship with her brother Karim.

Ezran was probably the closest to a "pure" abstract moral principles guy, but as s7 shows, this came largely from his innocence, not anything inherent in his personality. Once he was confronted with the trauma of losing his kingdom, suddenly his personal animosity with Runaan became paramount.

And if you're thinking to yourself, "wait, apart from Ezran, none of these characters' personal relationships actually contradict their moral principles," then you are correct.

Rayla's love for Callum and her family doesn't compromise her principles; it helps her understand what's worth protecting

Soren's journey to overcome his father's influence strengthens rather than weakens his moral development

Amaya's love for Janai aligns with and reinforces her vision for peace

Janai's dedication to her people and complex feelings about Karim inform her understanding of justice

Even Ezran's case shows that purely abstract principles without personal grounding can be fragile

More often than not, love doesn't conflict or challenge our morality, it grounds it...and Callum is no different.

When Callum said "I would do anything for you" to Rayla, many assumed this was a warning sign of moral compromise, that this would all end badly. And it didn't. It turned out to be about having the courage to make difficult choices in service of doing what's right, even (ans especially) when you have to pay a personal price for it. His love for Rayla didn't lead him astray - it helped him recognize when standing up for his principles would come at a personal cost, and gave him the strength to do it anyway.

And by the end of season 7, what becomes apparent is that this is the final lesson Arc 2 was getting at, that moral wisdom isn't about finding perfection, but about developing the ability to navigate a complex world in the effort of doing the right thing...

...and then finding the moral courage to do it.

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Do you think Callum saved Runaan because he thought it was the right thing to do or was he motived for Rayla?

To be honest...I don't think it matters. In fact, the assumption behind this question (that it's either-or) sets up a paradox where one the one hand, it's true that:

Ezran's imprisonment of Runaan was hypocritical given his previous stance on forgiveness.

This action was perpetuating cycles of violence.

Callum correctly identified this hypocrisy

Callum's argument that this went against their shared values was valid

But then, despite being right about all of this, Callum was somehow acting unethically because his true motivation was allegedly just doing "anything for Rayla" rather than the moral principles he stated.

So, if Callum was right about the moral problems with Ezran's actions, and he took the correct moral stance alongside Rayla, how can we simultaneously claim he was "morally dubious" by actually taking steps consistent with his moral stance?

The truth is, he was saving Runaan both because it was to help Rayla and because it was the right thing to do. Assuming it has to be one or the other creates an unreasonable standard where actions must be motivated purely by abstract moral principles to be considered moral. But in reality, people often act from multiple motivations - both personal connections and moral convictions can drive us to do what's right. The fact that Callum loves and trusts Rayla doesn't invalidate his genuine moral opposition to Ezran's actions.

If anything, I'd argue that Callum's personal relationship with Rayla helps him see the personal cost of Ezran's choices more clearly, making his ethical stance more grounded rather than less valid. Imo that's not only a more reasonable stance, but lines up with how we evaluate everyone else in the show.

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Behold, the Holy Trinity of "Callum was 100% motivated by the greater good"

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He's a little late for Christmas, but in his defense Santa sent him an email with the takeoff time and meow wow can't read!!!

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One thing that I absolutely adore about Callum is that he tends to squint his eyes when he's happy and/or content.

I obviously have no idea if this is intentionally animated for his character or if everyone's animated that way and it just happens to be more noticeable in Callum due to his eyeshape, but it is just such a lovely detail :)

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Yeah…Like I honestly took this scene as Callum wanting to explain everything to her, but Runaan stepping in so he doesn’t. They both look at each other then and it’s this silent communication that it’s best this way, and Callum looks sad cause he knows the full truth will hurt her.

Wanted to throw out that there’s a bit of attempted deception floating around the fandom, which involves a post showing Aaravos’ tendency to tell part of the truth and letting people lie to themselves, sharing the quote about how he and Callum have a great affinity between them, followed by this:

Now, ironically much like Aaravos himself, nothing technically untrue is shown, instead the person in question is letting people come to the implied conclusion that Callum and Aaravos both share the same trait of deceiving those close to them, while maintaining the thinnest veneer of plausible deniability that this isn’t what the poster is directly saying.

There’s just…one little problem: Callum isn’t the one saying the “complicated” bit.

Rayla: So you got the pearl?

Callum: Rayla, things didn’t go as expected, and well the truth is…

Runaan: …complicated. But we have what we need.

So, contrary to what the poster is implying, Callum isn’t the one whose is intentionally deceiving anyone here.

Sorry, Snake Bois, better luck next time!