#I made my choice and I made my peace and that choice is the life I want to live is not one where coming out is an option.

[neeeooon]

when you’re on your period ;

blue lock x afab!reader

isagi yoichi

-> #panicking

-> that one boy in class who skipped the period video cause the word “blood” made him pass out, so now he knows next to nothing about periods

-> lived a peaceful life of fake-it-til-you-make-it until he started dating you

-> “hey, isagi? do you mind picking some pads up on your way back from practice?” “… like make-up pads?” “uh, period pads?” “period pads?” “… for blood?” “bl—“ and he sees stars

-> you have to sit him down and give him “the talk”

itoshi sae

-> feigns disinterest but is a total secret sweetheart

-> he’d drag his feet a bit when you ask him to grab ice cream for you, but will buy four pints of every flavor you ever mentioned liking

-> when sae returns with bags of ice cream, you cry

-> he freaks out a little, though he knew it was likely due to your hormones. “did i get the wrong kind..?” “YOURE SO CUTE I CANNOT STAND YOU.” “should i leave—“ “PLS HUG ME RN.”

itoshi rin

-> like isagi, he is clueless

-> you don’t have to have “the talk” but you do tell him that he’s going to be annoying to you no matter what he does for the next few days

-> he’s lowk offended but tries not to take it to heart. even when he grabbed a little too much of the blanket you were sharing and fell off the couch when you snatched it back

-> rin doesn’t fear many things. he has issues, yes, but none that count as a “fear”. he quickly realized he is very afraid of you on your period

-> he’d be hiding in the bedroom when you throw the door open and tackle him. “honey! let’s watch grey’s anatomy reruns!” “NOOOOO” as you drag him to the couch

bachira meguru

-> he grew up with a single mother. he knows what to do

-> knows before your period starts that it’s coming and stocks up on supplies: products, teas, snacks, towels, etc.

-> you get super depressed on your period, so bachira acts as a ray of sunshine, bringing light everywhere he goes. it doesn’t always make you feel 100%, but you never have the heart to turn him away

-> bundles you in blankets like a cocoon and wraps his arms around your middle. “does it hurt?” “mm, not as much anymore <3”

kunigami rensuke

-> kunigami knows it’s just a part of life, and though periods really freak him out, he’s never let you know that

-> “hey, babe? can you please grab a tampon from my bag? the second pocket!” “tampon… tampon…” he finds your emergency stash and just hand everything to you since you had a few separate brands and he can’t tell which is better

-> you find his cute cluelessness endearing and thank him with a cheek kiss before going to clean yourself up

-> he does lots of research after that and will gladly let you drag him around the house to help you with things or listen while you rant/cry/beg for snuggles

chigiri hyoma

-> he has experience helping his big sister out when they were younger (not by choice) so this stuff doesn’t sway him

-> chigiri has such a chill presence that you don’t find him annoying, which surprises you because you tend to hate everyone on your period

-> though he hates it, he’ll entertain you and your antics. “i’m dying.” “you’re not dying.” “i’m dying and the only way i’ll survive is with a kiss. and an extra large cheese pizza. and a churro.” “*sighs*”

-> he’ll help you with your skin care when you’re too tired and play with your hair when you ask

yukimiya kenyu

-> omg such a gentleman

-> somehow he knows more about your period than you do?? when you tell him your side hurts, he rubs a spot you didn’t even point at, and all your pain vanishes

-> “are you a wizard?” “what was that, sweetheart?” “you’re a magical period vanquishing wizard, aren’t you?” “uh, sure!”

-> would love to take you to dinner to relax but knows you wouldn’t be caught dead out of the house, so he cooks for you instead

karasu tabito

-> you aren’t entirely sure why, but he is great when it comes to that time of the month

-> he claims he’s an “empath” and at first you thought it was a cheap flirting tactic, but your mind changed when he was able to pick up on your moods without even looking at you

-> somehow never gets on your nerves. it’s like he knows exactly where the line is and knows to stay very far away from it

-> karasu absolutely spoils you during this particular time of the month. let’s you pick everything without complaint, even when you’d usually decide on where to eat or what to watch together

-> “how much longer do you think we can live on sushi and chocolate cake before we die?” “how many days are left in your period?” “about two.” “then about two.”

otoya eita

-> bro cannot be serious

-> hops on twitter and starts spamming how awful period cramps are, how the world would be a better place if the menstrual cycle didn’t exist, etc.

-> everything he does ticks you off, and he knows it. he finds it very attractive when he gets under your skin, even when you threaten to behead him

-> “i might shave my head bald.” “fine !” “and then paint my head pink.” “go for it !” “and tattoo ‘i <3 y/n on my face.” “NO.”

[winters-on-the-wing]

hmm, well, you're one to talk about letting people like what they like when you're going batshit on me about a post that does not mention jegulus anywhere. do you see me saying a single word about james? the only two names i mention at all in the post are regulus and umbridge.

so what the hell does that have to do with jegulus?

answer: nothing. but YOU can't handle your precious little fascist white boy being shipped with anybody but james, so you got on my blog and chose to scroll to my post that's just talking about a ship i like, and then hating on me just for talking about kittywater, a ship i happen to like! you're the one that's shitting on me for no reason! you're the one that needs to let people like what they like!

also, let me say a few things based on what you've written.

the other two things we know about regulus in canon, the things that jegulus stans love to purposefully ignore, are that he had a voldemort shrine in his bedroom, and that he got the dark mark by choice when not even his parents had it. regulus adored voldemort. and it doesn't matter that he changed his mind. he still helped voldemort kill thousands of people out of sheer hatred for a minority group that did nothing wrong. he's still a racist and a fascist. and he didn't even die for those oppressed people. he got upset about voldemort's wrongs only when it affected HIMSELF. HIS slave. so yeah, i'm gonna go ahead and say that regulus is not a good guy. sorry? but i actually read the books.

there are so many more differences between jegulus and jily than the queerness. first of all, regulus is an active oppressor of the minority groups in this universe, while lily is a member of said minority group. second of all, regulus has no personality in the books while lily has a beautiful, complex, well-sculpted personality. your fanon little wet cat doesn't count.

and the most important one. there is NOTHING about lily and regulus' family/sibling situation that is REMOTELY similar. if anything, they have opposite situations. you are not actually comparing sirius to petunia?? let's do a little review of their situations, shall we? sirius was being abused by his parents due to his disagreeing with their blood supremacist views, and as a result, he ran away for his own safety and peace of mind. regulus could have left with sirius at any time, but regulus CHOSE to stay with his parents and become the new heir. regulus CHOSE to become a death eater even though the black family was not affiliated with voldemort whatsoever. now, lily was the favorite child of her family, and this became especially blatant when she found out she was a witch and petunia wasn't. petunia was so overwroght with jealousy that she made lily's life a living hell, to the point where lily had to completely abandon the muggle world for the wizarding world. when looking at these two stories side by side, you can see that regulus isn't similar to lily at all. regulus is similar to PETUNIA. :) so if by similar, you mean that regulus is similar to lily's abuser, then you're right there! but other than that? i think you're just delusional.

guys regulus and umbridge are so perfect for each other

they’re both evil little shits who like to pretend that they’re the heroes of the story and the victims of their situations even though every awful thing they did was a conscious choice! they’re made for each other!!

[dragqueenstarscream]

I have a fic request: Optimus helping Starscream with his polishing.

good as new

tfone starscream x optimus prime

contains: developing relationship, secret relationship, polishing, wing kink, allusions to interface

"i like what you've done with the place."

optimus merely hummed in reply as he examined the bottles of polish sitting on the shelves in the private washrack. it seemed that sentinel prime's reputation for excess extended to his personal life as well. optimus couldn't even begin to imagine caring for his finish with cheaper polish when he was still cogless. that luxury simply didn't exist to him.

truth be told, optimus didn't know what he'd gotten himself into. this had all started when starscream somehow managed to break into iacon tower with information about an attack megatron had planned. why starscream would want to betray megatron was beyond optimus, but regardless, the two had continued to meet in secret, with starscream always providing optimus with some crucial information. eventually, the two had formed something of a relationship, though whether that was platonic, romantic, or something else entirely was unclear to optimus as of now.

tonight wasn't a night to discuss megatron's next move or where the quintessons might be heading. optimus had invited starscream to iacon tower - under the cover of night, of course, as tongues would wag if it got out that optimus was bringing a decepticon into his own home - simply to be with him. he'd thrown out the idea of offering to polish starscream, knowing that the seeker valued his appearance. starscream had latched onto the idea instantly, which led to where they were now, in the primes' private washrack. optimus told himself that this was just him trying to extend a peace offering to megatron's second in command in exchange for more information, but he knew in his spark that it wasn't the case.

"getting rid of those obnoxious statues was a nice touch," starscream said, bringing optimus back to the present. "how long did it take you to melt those down to scrap?"

"most of them were destroyed when we fought to free you guys," optimus said. "taking the rest down was just part of the renovation."

he finally settled on a bottle of polish and made his way over to the bench where starscream sat. the former high guard bot raised an eyebrow, then relaxed when he saw the polish optimus had chosen.

"good choice," he said as optimus sat behind him. "you know how to use that stuff?"

"i think so," optimus said. "i haven't done this before, but it can't be too hard."

"what do you mean, you..." starscream's voice trailed off as the realization struck him. "primus, what did sentinel do to you bots?"

starscream stood up from the bench and started to search around the washrack. "come on," he muttered, "where did that pompous aft keep his... gotcha!"

he returned to the bench with a tool in his servo. optimus felt embarrassed that he didn't know what it was at first.

"know how to use this?" starscream asked. optimus shook his head, and starscream scoffed in disbelief.

"we didn't get much time to ourselves in the mines," optimus admitted. "the most cleaning we got was a trip to the washracks."

"unbelievable," starscream grumbled, rolling his eyes. "here, gimme that."

optimus handed the bottle of polish over to starscream, who opened it up and poured some drops on what looked like a circular pad.

"here, you pour some polish on right here, then you turn it on and work it into my plating," starscream said. "just take your time with it, and don't press too hard."

optimus felt unsure of himself as starscream handed him the polish and the tool. still, he knew that he had to get this right. he wanted to prove to starscream that he could be a kinder bot than the false prime before him. this peace offering would be a good start.

and maybe starscream would actually trust him with more than just information, but optimus didn't want to think about that now.

"this won't be too loud, will it?" optimus asked. "we can't have anyone hearing what's going on and getting too curious.

"that thing?" starscream snorted. "if that's as pricey as i think it is, you won't have to worry about noise. now, quit worrying and get to work."

"if you're sure," optimus sighed as he got himself seated. turning the polisher on, he felt relieved as it only made a low hum, not enough to grab the attention of anyone walking by.

now that he thought about it, he didn't know where to start. he didn't want to start polishing in an awkward spot and hurt starscream by accident. after a moment's thought, he settled on starscream's wings. they were broad, flat, and made a good surface to test the polisher on. taking a deep invent, optimus leaned forward and began to polish starscream's left wing.

the reaction he got wasn't what he expected at all. starscream's whole body shuddered, and he let out a long, shameless moan that had optimus blushing. he quickly pulled the polisher back, afraid that he'd accidentally violated a major boundary.

"hey, what the-?!" starscream sputtered and turned to face optimus.

"sorry," optimus said rather quickly. "i just didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable or anything."

"hey, no no no!" starscream scolded him. "i'll tell you if you're crossing a line, prime, but that felt good. go back to doing that!"

"alright, if you're sure," optimus said. starscream huffed and turned back around. optimus took that as his cue and returned to polishing starscream's left wing.

the smaller bot relaxed completely under optimus' touch. he leaned back towards optimus, engine purring. occasionally, he would tell optimus to lighten up on the pressure, but for the most part, he had no complaints. optimus knew by now that that was as close to a thank you as he would get out of starscream.

as optimus moved from the tip of starscream's wing inward, he noticed a shift in starscream's behavior. the closer he got to starscream's wing hinge, the louder starscream's engine revved. when optimus polished the base of starscream's wing, the smaller bot flexed his digits, clenching and unclenching his fist, and he let out an unusually soft sigh. it sounded bizarre coming out of someone with such a normally abrasive voice, but optimus found, to his embarrassment, that he wanted to hear it again.

"you know," starscream said, speaking up for the first time in a while, "it's a shame you were a miner before you became a prime. you would've made a killing doing this."

"i'll take that as a compliment," optimus said with an awkward smile.

once optimus was certain that he'd polished starscream's left wing until it sparkled, he moved to starscream's right wing, a bit more confident this time. starscream kept purring as optimus polished him, his optics closed, intake hanging open. optimus would've been lying to himself if he said that he didn't find starscream attractive like this, not angry and barking orders, but rather relaxed and at ease.

"i'll have to keep coming back to you for this," starscream said. optimus felt a flicker of hope in his spark. he quite enjoyed the prospect of seeing starscream more often.

again, optimus moved the polisher closer and closer to the base of starscream's wing. once he reached the hinge, starscream let his head roll back, eyes half lidded, looking almost delirious.

"better be careful with that, prime," he smirked. "don't go leading a mech on."

"what do you mean?" optimus asked, despite having a guess what starscream was talking about.

"you keep touching my wings like that," starscream purred, "and i might think you're coming onto me."

optimus didn't believe that he had the gumption to say what was on his mind, but he kept a straight face and simply said, "maybe i am."

this only made starscream's smirk grow into a dangerous grin. despite having never seen it before, optimus knew what that look meant.

once optimus had finished the right wing, he turned the polisher off and asked, "how do you feel?"

starscream flexed his wings, a self satisfied smile on his face. "not bad, prime," he said. "for your first time, not bad."

optimus tried to sound more sure of himself than he felt. "glad to hear it. now, where else do-"

"optimus," starscream said.

uh oh, optimus thought. full name.

"yes?" he asked. to his surprise, starscream reached one arm back, grabbed the back of optimus' helm, and pulled him in for a kiss. it was awkward at first, as optimus nearly knocked his forehelm into starscream's chin, but once he let himself lean into it, he realized just what was happening.

starscream was actually kissing him.

and optimus enjoyed it.

it only lasted for a few moments before starscream let go, but optimus wished that it had lasted longer.

"keep that up," starscream grinned, "and you might get a little more than that."

"just a little?" optimus said jokingly.

"i'm willing to negotiate," starscream chuckled as he turned around on the bench, now straddling it and facing optimus.

"now," the seeker purred, fluttering his wings enticingly. "other side."

optimus knew where the night was going, and for once, he was willing to let starscream take full control.

turning on the polisher once more, optimus leaned in and began working on starscream's left wing.

[gracebriarwoodwrites]

I write fragile on a dozen boxes salvaged from recycling I forgot to take out before I knew I was moving and my hand shakes even more each time. The lines bleed off the box corners and into me. I'm fragile, you see.

[evermoredeluxe]

.

[fandom-susceptible]

I've had a lot of thoughts of my own on this topic and I've posted about it just a few minutes ago, but yeah, I'll add onto this because I have thoughts specifically about this analysis too.

So, I do have one small disagreement, which is that I don't think Ezran was burying the hurt when he found the shadowhawk arrow. He says he'd bandaged it and let it heal, and I really think they meant it that way, because that's a narrative statement, not in his thoughts or dialogue. Grief never goes away, obviously, and the pain of losing Harrow will never be gone, but the wound can heal, and I think that's all they meant there. It's not raw and open anymore; finding the arrow just scraped at it. I will come back to this in a minute though.

As far as Rayla's perspective goes, I do agree with what you said, but I also think an important part that keeps getting left out of this conversation is that she is not human. I keep seeing people applying human values and human perspectives to her character, and it happens within the show too (Callum calling her prideful for wanting to stay at the Storm Spire in Season 3 is a prime example of this), because she's so sympathetic to the humans that they forget that she isn't one of them. She is coming at this situation from a very different cultural background.

Her culture, for one, does not see death as an end. Harrow has just moved on to the next phase of his spirit's cycle. Death is a more merciful end than what she was granted for helping Ezran, so while she knows Ezran is human and doesn't outright accuse him of betraying their friendship, it does sort of make sense that her instinct would be to feel betrayed. In her culture, standing by her family and her people are more important than life itself. She's already betrayed those values once to save Ezran and Zym, in a way that resulted in her banishment and, according to Chasing Shadows, her death, culturally speaking. Ghosts aren't just banished, literally her identity as a Moonshadow elf is considered to be worse than dead by her own people, even her name is banned, and she's been grappling with that for years. Now, she has the chance to stand by her father, to finally do something that aligns with both her wider world values and her cultural ones, and Ezran has become an obstacle. She's also well-established as being less than careful with her words when she's distressed.

Callum's role in this also rings very true to me. I see the point about how he maybe shouldn't have led with calling his brother a jerkface - but as an older sibling, yeah, that tends to be how you get the little shit's attention if they're being particularly assholish. Heavens know my brothers and I have said far worse. Whether it's the best approach is highly debatable, but as a writing choice, it felt really good to me because it made the brotherly relationship feel very real in that moment, especially since that's a word we've already seen them use.

Overall, I agree with pretty much all of the OP's points about Callum's arc here, but I'd like to point out that he's falling prey to the same thinking as what's left the fandom startled by Ezran this season. He describes Ez as "not himself" and is convinced the anger will cool with time, and I just don't know if it would have. I'll get back to what I think Ezran actually needed in a moment, too. Callum has tried to talk Ezran down and make peace between them at every turn, even promising Rayla he wouldn't drive a wedge between them to help her, and I do think that people who call him a doormat for Rayla are missing that bit. He didn't just betray Ezran, he betrayed Rayla's trust as well, even if it was to help her in the immediate moment.

Callum also explicitly makes sure to tell Ezran, even while he's defending the elves' retreat, that he will always be there for him as a brother. All Ezran has to do is ask. He is leaving because he cannot stand by Ezran's actions as a king, which I think is a really important distinction to make, and I think it's a driving force of what helps Ezran forgive him later. It's one of the bits of evidence that will eventually build into Ezran realizing he's working towards a mutually assured destruction plan rather than one of peace, and I just don't think Callum could have gotten that message across with a less drastic reaction. He's also not abandoning Ezran on his own; Ez is a fully realized king with Soren, Corvus, the Council, Zym (who he also identifies as a brother) and more to support him emotionally.

Speaking of, I do actually want to point that out about this whole situation as well, is Soren's role. He mentions that he wishes he hadn't seen the elves escaping, but his loyalty outweighs his sympathy. I think it's also very important to why Callum was willing to leave; because he and Soren have come a long way, and Callum knows he's leaving his younger brother in very capable hands. Soren is also an older brother, and one who takes a very personal joy in being one and helping Ezran have moments of just being a kid. Callum knows that.

Finally, to circle back around to Ezran, I don't think that he buried his feelings about Harrow's death. That said, I do think that his background including his father's death and taking the throne far too young heavily affects his reaction to having his home destroyed. What happened in Katolis was terrorism, a mass murder and destruction that would shake anyone, and it challenges everything Ezran has been fighting for since Harrow's death. From Ezran's thesis of forgiveness and how all violence spirals, the attack on Katolis is senseless, because there was nothing recent to trigger Sol Regem's revenge - which is why his anger gets turned on Runaan, because Runaan also challenges Ezran's beliefs about violence.

Rayla defends Runaan in the early seasons by saying "It's a job" about assassination, and Runaan himself in Bloodmoon Huntress says "I kill people. I don't judge them." That puts him in a very different category than say, Zubeia, who acted out of grief and rage, or Pyrrah, who retaliated against an attack on her, or Harrow, who acted out of personal grief, or even Avizandum, who acted in defense of his people, or even further back, Viren and Harrow and Sarai and Annika and Neha who acted to save theirs. All of them made choices driven by emotion, by some variation of love, whether it be living love or grief and anger. Runaan isn't like that. Runaan just takes without personal bias, which challenges Ezran's whole worldview and puts him in the same category of senseless violence as Sol Regem.

And that's why I think Runaan's tearful apology and confession in the end actually got through to Ezran, and why I don't think anything less than the breakdown with Callum and that confrontation would have done it. Ezran needed to see that Runaan has values and reasons, even if they're not good ones, and that he's willing to lay them aside to prevent further bloodshed. Rayla knew, of course, but she's been making a point to avoid the topic of their fathers since Season 1, and we've seen no evidence she broke that habit, so Ezran doesn't know Runaan the way we do even through her. I think it was less about Ezran needing Runaan to take accountability (we certainly haven't seen that from Zubeia) and more that he needed to know that Runaan wasn't the exact sort of threat he's supposedly meant to combat. Andromeda, one of the other assassins, explains in Bloodmoon Huntress that sometimes they know, without a shadow of a doubt, that a person brings more pain and violence into the world than they do love, and that's when their death becomes more valuable than their life. Ezran made his peace with that very concept during this season because of Aaravos. He imprisoned Runaan at first due to his own values against murder, but he still didn't understand why Runaan could do what he does. I think the final confrontation with Aaravos, coming after him with the Nova Blade, was Ezran's turning point and why he's able to understand Runaan's choices in the end. I don't think a confrontation earlier than that would have worked out - not with Callum as a mediator. (Soren or Amaya, with their backgrounds a soldiers, might have better luck.)

Also, I want to briefly touch on Runaan's behavior during all this too, because he surrendered himself to this consequence. He took one look at Soren, most likely recognized him, and knew it wasn't a fight he could win, so he didn't bother trying. He also is notably nervous about their escape, but goes along with it because like Rayla, he isn't human, and his cultural values drive him home more strongly than his personal choice to take the punishment he's being given, because he's only just begun the mental deconstruction that continues to drive him throughout the season. His cultural values got challenged by his love for Rayla in Season 1, and seeing the consequences of those actions in Katolis started his whole worldview to crumbling. But that's only just happened at this point, so when given the chance by Rayla, he goes for it, clutching at his dedication to his home and family as a shred of stability in the worldview he's just had broken apart. But he never once defends himself, physically or verbally, against Ezran's accusations or the soldiers, which is pretty telling.

So all in all, I agree that it was a complicated situation, and none of them were wholly right or wholly wrong morally. I do think it was actually pretty well in-character for all of them individually.

Season 7 Conflict between Ezran, Callum, and Rayla: Who’s Right and who’s wrong?

Or perhaps...

I feel like this has been a topic of heavy debate across the fandom and I guess I wanted to share my own perspective on this as well. I wanted to try to dive in and explore each of these characters’ stances on things, since in my opinion, each of them had valid points. Long post ahead!

Starting with Ezran, we’re all mostly used to him being an innocent, kind and sweet cinnamon roll that’s so quick to forgive others who have wronged him. And it’s not just us, but even the characters in the show too, which in some cases can be used against him (which I won’t get to here since this isn’t the point of this post). But I’m mentioning this here because this is major trait of his that we saw being challenged this season.

Well, I would argue maybe even since season 6:

Which not gonna lie, that was both surprising but also very satisfying, especially after all Viren has done in arc 1, especially in season 3, you could argue it was well deserved, and even Viren himself saw that. But getting back on topic, I feel like we start to see a more vengeful side of Ezran this season, especially after the trauma of having his whole kingdom that he’s ruling, his own home, be completely destroyed.

This itself was traumatic enough to change Ezran completely, especially after finding out that it was Sol Regem that destroyed it in a matter of minutes. And not only that, but also seeing Runaan, the very assassin who ‘killed’ his father that same day, lead him to push all the blame onto him. That everything changed since the night Harrow was ‘killed’ by him and Ezran was eventually forced to pick up the burden of being king and live through all of this.

Now I get that there’s alot of people in the fandom pointing out the hypocrisy of “how come he forgave Zubeia, who was the one that sent Runaan to kill Harrow, but he couldn’t forgive Runaan?” Which I would argue narratively, that is the point and it was something called out by Callum. I do personally think that perhaps, if Ezran may have crossed paths with Runaan at some point before the destruction of Katolis, he could have had a different response? Not necessarily saying it would be positive but perhaps, not as vengeful or angry?

I also wanted to point to something interesting in the short story Deep Below, which is set right before season 5 in the storm spire when he went to get the siren stone:

The screenshots above are on Ezran’s reaction to seeing the shadowhawk with the red blood ribbon that confirmed Harrow’s ‘death’ and the emotions he felt. But not only that, it also felt like he chose not to let himself properly deal with that anger and instead bottled it up for the sake of keeping the peace that he fought so hard to keep. But of course all of that came tumbling down after the destruction of Katolis leading up to the immense change in Ezran’s behavior. We see him letting out all of bottled up anger once he saw the assassin who was involved in the direct killing of his father that lead to the complete change of his life.

Now moving onto Rayla, I think it’s important to remember that for over two years, she had no idea what happened to her birth parents or Runaan but only that Viren had something to do with their disappearances. Then by the end of season 4, she received the coins that contained their spirits and since then, it’s become one of her primary goals to free them, even if she had to set that goal aside for the sake of saving the world. Then getting to the end of season 6, she was forced to let go of her birth parents after she finally reunited with them after many years, just so that she would let them be together in the afterlife, while choosing to bring back Runaan so that she can finally reunite him with Ethari.

Now I know that ideally, she shouldn’t have brought Runaan with her to Katolis, but because she made a promise to Callum that she wouldn’t leave without him again and Runaan was still recovering and more desperate than ever to reunite with Ethari, she couldn’t leave him on his own. I also think it wasn’t the best idea to let Runaan walk around freely in Katolis but I’m guessing none of the characters were expecting Ezran react in anger since they were mostly used to him being so forgiving.

Now we get to the next episode where Rayla, who was finally able to bring back one of her parents, has had that parent taken away from her once again. We see Callum trying hard to convince her to be patient and give Ezran some time to process everything that’s happened and that he would eventually forgive Runaan. But then we get to the council meeting where things get especially heated.

While I do think that Rayla didn’t bring it up or address this in the best way, I do think she made some really valid points:

And I know many people in the fandom have been arguing that Rayla was 'unsympathetic' towards Ezran but honestly, I think an argument can also be made that no one was sympathetic towards Rayla wanting to bring her family back together except for Callum, and I will talk more about him in detail later.

I also think another important detail we need to remember is that when it comes to this conflict, there’s a major power imbalance here. While yes, Ezran is a traumatized 12 year old kid dealing with the destruction of his kingdom and seeing the face of his father’s killer, he’s also the king who has the final say in everything. It’s his words and his orders against anyone else’s objections that get followed. He also has the backing and loyalty of the council, crownguard and all of the Katolis guards too, while Rayla only had the support of Callum in this situation.

And because of how things went at the meeting and seeing how Ezran wouldn’t listen to her and forgive Runaan right away, she decided to break Runaan out, despite Callum trying to convince her to be patient and give Ezran more time, to which then she responds:

Which then Callum fully accepts her decision and even offered to help (which again, I’ll talk more about later). But while the ideal thing for Rayla to do was to be more patient give Ezran time to do the right thing, which he eventually did at the end of the season, it’s also understandable why she couldn’t stay patient. Because after years, she finally has the opportunity to reunite what remains of her own family again.

Now I get to my last point, Callum. Despite seeing a lot of hate being directed towards Rayla and Ezran for their different stances, from what I’ve seen, I feel like Callum has been getting savaged a whole lot by different parts of the fandom, despite being caught in between both sides and torn between two people he loves. I feel like more people are willing to look at the complexity of the situation when it comes to Ezran or Rayla, but when it comes to Callum, his stance is more often reduced to: “he’s a terrible brother who betrayed Ezran because he doesn’t sympathize with him” or “he’s a doormat for Rayla who unconditionally worships her even at the expense of others or the greater good” while leaving out so many details, events and aspects of his overall character. Now I’m not saying that Callum handled things perfectly with Ezran and nor am I saying that he wouldn’t do reckless and crazy things for Rayla, but I feel like there’s so much more to him that just gets heavily ignored.

So as I’ve said before, Callum was caught in between rising tensions between Ezran and Rayla. While he did support Rayla and wanted to help her reunite her family, I just think it’s wrong to say he was “unsympathetic” towards Ezran because:

And that to me isn’t what unsympathetic looks like. Not to mention he kept trying to convince Rayla to be patient and give Ezran time, and even when Rayla went to break out Runaan, Callum still went and made an attempt to talk to Ezran. And like I don’t think it was right of him to call his traumatized brother a jerk face when he went to talk to him lol, but we know how Callum can be when he gets frustrated, and he even apologized immediately and changed his tone afterwards. We then see Ezran open up to Callum about how his life completely changed after Harrow was ‘killed’ and he was forced to take up a heavy burden at a young age. While ideally I do think that Callum could’ve verbally expressed more understanding towards what Ezran was feeling and dealing with, I do think he made a valid point when he brought up that Ezran forgave Zubeia despite her being the one who sent Runaan after Harrow. Now getting to my next point, this scene in particular:

What he said here made me think back a lot to arc 1, particularly, some of the stuff Harrow said in his last conversation with Callum:

And some things he told Rayla when she told him about her mission to avenge Avizandum and the dragon egg that was initially believed to be destroyed:

I also thought of some of the things Harrow told Callum in his letter:

And lastly something he said to Rayla in season 3 in their conversation after looking at Avizandum's stoned body:

I think it’s important to remember that yes, even Callum himself is aware of the violent cycle between the humans and Xadia and actually wants to end it. And while yes, Ezran grieving Harrow’s death and feeling so much anger towards Runaan was completely valid, I truly believe that Callum was also motivated in trying to convince Ezran to not take part in this cycle of vengeance. The very cycle that killed their mother, that lead Harrow to kill Avizandum in vengeance, which he himself even regretted and recognized was a mistake that lead to Zubeia sending the moonshadow assassins to kill him. And this was something that he brought up to Callum in both his last conversation and his letter, hoping that Callum and Ezran would break this cycle and not repeat his mistakes. And this was what Callum was attempting to do with Ezran, having even reminded him that this was the cycle of violence he was fighting so hard to end. And it did seem that Callum was getting through to him, and I do think that if their conversation didn’t get interrupted by Soren calling out and maybe in a short amount of time, Callum would’ve succeeded.

Of course next thing we see after Rayla and Soren’s duel along with Corvus’s intervention, was Ezran approaching them with a bunch of guards and he had no hesitation in ordering them to attack an outnumbered Rayla and Runaan. It was only in this situation, when literal violence was about to escalate, that we see Callum fully take Rayla’s side and go against Ezran. Not having succeeded in getting through to his brother and seeing that he was still set on getting his revenge, was when Callum decided to step down as high mage and leave with Rayla and Runaan.

Now I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing Callum for leaving his traumatized brother in this situation, which like, yes it was a betrayal at a bad time and it hurt Ezran a great deal. But I also think it’s important to keep in mind that if Callum were to have stayed behind, he would’ve been arrested and have not been able to do anything or even help Ezran in any way, especially with Ezran later becoming hellbent on building weapons of mass destruction, even with Zym becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and hardly listening to anyone aside from Aanya. In fact, I think this would’ve lead to a far bigger strain on their relationship and less of a likelihood to reconcile and repair the rift created between them.

But anyways, this is my opinion on this whole topic. I personally think there wasn’t one person in this that was entirely right or wrong in this situation, each of them had valid stances that just all came clashing together and lead to this massive fallout. But I’m glad that in the end, they were all able to work it out and be able to reconcile things between them. And I know I made this super long but I guess I just wanted to dump out all my thought here.

Anyways, what do you think? Anything you wanted to add on to this?

[hypogryffin]

side-by-side

[fluent-in-lesbianism]

What do you think of the whole Pang/Pim/Jan scene? It was kinda underwhelming and awkward but to be fair, I don't think it's meant to be a serious thing because they're not in the books originally. It's just really messy and I feel bad for all 3 of them. Curious to see what's their endgame next week.

It was haphazard, underwhelming, random as hell, confusing, etc. I was kinda glad for it tho. If they did anything else major in that episode, I probably would've fucking died from the over stimulation. I don't blame them for saving the big reveal for the finale because I think going all out on BOTH the main and side plots would've killed us lmao

But if they don't throuple the girlies (which I doubt they will bc nobody's ever brave enough to poly their characters anymore, even Thailand), then I think Jan should get with Pang and Pim should get with Oom. Controversial, but it's the best way to round everyone out.

[giantkillerjack]

Betty is so relatable I would do the same shit for my wife

[lvstharmony]

​beyond grateful for the people that are surrounding me in my life, just as i am grateful for the people i’ve parted ways with, for without them, i would not be the person i am today.

[namisweatheria]

God I just reread Baby 5’s fan wiki page and it genuinely made me a little nauseous. ONE PIECE SUCKS!!!!!!!!! Dressrosa is THE WORST!!!!!!!! That arc came so fucking close to killing my first read. MY ENTHUSIASM DIED. I fought my way through that arc miserably.

I could rewrite the whole thing I could fix it. Give her to me I will help her.

[popponn]

mysme is doing wonders for my mental health i miss you so much my defender of justice 707 my love my star my planet the light of my life the bfest bf to ever bf the earth

[ghost-proofbaby]

happy halloween, ghouls. i hope you all are enjoying my favorite holiday as much as i am (i'm writing about ghost hunting with eddie while listening to creepy podcasts/youtube true crime cases, and am now considering doing some sort of special fx makeup. wahoo.)

[edienotsedgwick]

Uhmmmmmm this outfit ooooo hello I’m so proud of it

[jorvikzelda]

yeah like I might actually not be trans. It’s pretty likely I haven’t been repressing, I’ve just come to find I’m comfortable living as a woman. hey why are you bringing up the fact that I feel horrendously shitty in the specific way that, when I labeled myself as trans, I thought of as gender dysphoria every time I meet a transmasculine person in real life? I don’t think that’s relevant

[angelic-eros]

I’m doing much better today. I’m feeling more alive than I was a while ago.

A man walked into work today who I hadn’t seen in months. One who told me I remind him of his home and who I planned to paint my room with. He had one drink and then left to pack for his flight to Scotland.

A friends cat climbed onto my lap and reached to place her paw on my neck the way my cat who passed earlier this year did. I started to tear up in my friends living room while we talked about concerts and clothes.

I fought to remember a store me and an old fling used to pass when we would walk to the park we’d sit and drink in until midnight but never went in. Instead we’d walk past and buy cheap alcohol and talk about sex and drug parties I’d never plan on attending, if just to make the time go quicker.

I made a white dress for an event next week that makes me feel beautiful. On Sunday I will have a day off work and a regular told me I should go to church. Instead I will spend it making the outfit for a concert in the city I travelled to to lose my virginity with a man I haven’t spoken to since I came out as a lesbian.

Today I will go to a museum and look at the artists that came before me and I will be with the partner who I confessed to after time in a rose garden and a blossom tucked behind my ear that still is saved in my phone case.

All this happened today and all these events first happened in the first few months of this year. I feel exhausted but I feel alive and I feel loved. And that’s better than I felt a few months ago.