#I'm so excited for messy ezran

[raayllum]

when both claudia and ezran are angry and unwilling to let the death of their fathers go next season

[zuppizup]

Hiiii I just finished the first two chapters of Fuel the Pyre! I'm super excited for it, it's very well done!

I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions about your writing process. How do you outline? What kinds of things need to be in an outline in order for you to visualize the story? Do you outline the entire story, one chapter, or just one scene at a time?

Thank you for your time!

Hello! Thanks so much for your kind words! I’m so happy you’re liking the fic so far.

This is a super fun ask. Not sure how coherent or helpful my response will be, but I’ll give it a try. 😆

So, stories like Purgatory, Fuel the Pyre or my WIP dark magic AU, always start out as a bunch of questions.

What if Ezran hadn’t interrupted Callum and Rayla in Viren’s study…

Could a human/elf halfling do primal magic? Can all of them or just a few? What would control that?

What would the world be like if dark magic actually was controlled and regulated.

I usually don’t start out planning a fic when I ponder questions like this, it’s usually just my mind wandering. For me, while I love big, wonderful, imaginative worlds (like the world of The Dragon Prince) what I’m really more interested in is how these things affect individuals. I actually tend to visualise the story before I outline. In fact, I often visualise far beyond where I think I’ll finish the story. (I say where I think I’ll finish because both my current long fics are now firmly in the “after the end of the planned fic” territory)

So, in Fuel the Pyre, for example, I imagine there’s a lot of unknowns for the people involved. Halflings would be pretty new on the scene, all things considered, so the characters themselves wouldn’t have the answer to these questions, which felt like a great excuse to add tension and drama.

Once an idea has got me and I can imagine how that conflict is going to affect the characters, the general outline tends to sort of write itself. I am a planner, so I by the time I start putting pen to paper (so to speak), I’ll usually have a beginning, a rough middle and an end. There will be plot points, tangents, twists and sometimes side stories that I haven’t figured out, but I’ll have a plan for the general flow of the story.

From there, I’ll come up with a pretty messy draft. So, I just sort of go wild in a document. Usually, when I’ve decided I want to write a longer fic, it’s because certain scenes just play on repeat in my head, so I’ll indulge myself and write those out. Then I’ll go back and make rough chapter/arc notes, which usually leads into some other fun scenes I get inspired to write, and slowly, piece by piece, I sort of string the fic together like that.

I used to outline more linearly, starting at the first chapter and working from there, but I found I’d get stuck on transition scenes (the bane of my writing life) and then avoid the fic. (If I put my fingers in my ears and sing very loudly, the transition scene can’t hurt me). I find letting myself write the scenes I’m excited for makes me much more productive. They usually give me ideas for other fun (I use the term loosely, I generally mean “angsty”) scenes and I essentially build my story like that. I do like adding foreshadowing and twists, which is made a lot easier by writing like this too.

In Purgatory, for example, I tried to drop a lot of subtle hints about Callum and his slowly building arcanum connection. It’s so fun when people pick up on that stuff, but I also don’t want it to look like I just pulled a twist or a revelation out of my rear. Nowadays, I do prefer to write the bulk of a story before posting, which this method obviously works better for.

Often, when I start a fic, the beginning and the ending are the most defined parts of the story and the middle is the area that requires the most work, but by stringing the various elements together, I sort of “discover” new conflicts and fun elements to explore, which (hopefully) makes for a richer, more entertaining story.

So, not sure if that was what you’re looking for, but if you could describe the stream of consciousness that is how I write, a process, this is mine. 😅

[raayllum]

Hello again! So I think that the Review Fic-Athon is a genius idea (would you care if I held one at some point? Maybe post Season Seven to help give it a boost in the ratings?)

But also, after seeing your post, I made an IMDb and a Rotten Tomatoes account (also convinced a friend to do the same) and started reviewing! I'm planning to review all the seasons on Rotten Tomatoes and all the episodes on IMDb, but that's a lot of fics, so I'm not gonna make you write all those. So I'll just ask this;

I reviewed all the seasons on Rotten Tomatoes (under Bunny T) so wanted to submit an ask for a ficlet with some Soren & Ezran post destruction of Katolis stuff? I'd love to see your take on (spoilers to anyone who wants to know nothing about what they showed at NYCC) post 07x01 with Soren standing by angry King Ezran, but also maybe knowing that this isn't the path Ezran really wants to go down? #let ezran be messy and all. Thx!! (sorry this is so long 😅)

Absolutely feel free to ask for more fics as reviews roll in, 100% tis the point!! And yess feel free to replicate the idea for TDP or even other fandoms - the more fics and reviews the merrier! Your kind words and efforts are already much appreciated <33 + bonus playlist I listen to most of the time when I'm writing Ez

Ezran took his first steps at the foot of King Harrow's throne.

Soren had been there, one of Viren's hands clasped tightly over his shoulder—him and Claudia had been playing loudly outside the doors and instead of dismissing them (Viren's mouth opening raw and angry, eyes understanding only for his sister) King Harrow had invited them in to play with Callum, who was trying to show Ez how to (quietly) stack blocks.

The younger prince had been more interested in trying to get his father's attention, tugging on Harrow's sleeve with the thumb of his other hand stuck in his tiny mouth. Harrow had been wrapped up in discussing matters with Viren, so a determined Ezran had hoisted himself up on the edge of the throne, and then toddled forward on unsteady legs—effectively stealing everyone's intention, drawn in by Callum's excited gasp—and any matters of state had been forgotten for most of the afternoon.

Ezran sits in the charred, ash-ridden throne now, just tall enough his feet can touch the floor... and still so young it makes Soren's heart hurt sometimes.

"What's taking them so long?" Ez mutters. Corvus and Callum had gone to track Sol Regem to the Valley of Graves.

"Sol Regem is blind and got pretty injured," Soren considers. "He might've made it to one of the forests to hide and nurse his wounds."

Ezran's eyes darken like embers losing their warmth. "We'll make sure he doesn't recover from his injuries, then. Use his wounded state to our advantage."

Soren winces. ...a dead dragon all in one day? Everything's coming up Soren. "I know he attacked us, but—isn't killing an archdragon really difficult? Viren—" I've given up dark magic, until he hadn't, both a far cry from the confident, ruthless man he'd been, taking pilgrimages to the border in search of unicorns for most of Soren's youth. "It takes a lot to kill them. Dark magic."

"We'll find a way. He has to be punished for his crimes."

And it's not that Soren disagrees, even. They can't let Sol Regem get away with things. He attacked Katolis, so deciding what to do with him is within their range. But... there's something natural, and twisty, and uncomfortable, about those words coming from Ezran's mouth, an anger Soren has ever seen before on his young friend—young king's face.

"I know, King Ezran," Soren says carefully, a lump in his throat. He breathes and places a hand on his sword. "You just... don't have to be judge, jury, and executioner all at once."

That's what a crownguard (what once a high mage) is for. The last one, at least.

Ezran is a child sitting in the ruins of his home, and he doesn't need blood on his hands, even if he wants it.

(At the Banther Lodge, when Rayla and Callum sneak in to bust out Runaan—he'll be executed in the morning, Ez had decreed, eyes venomous—Soren turns a blind eye.

He swore to do whatever it took to protect the king, and that includes Ezran's good heart from doing things that can't be undone, even if the boy can't see it yet.)

[raayllum]

Was rewatching the scene under Avizandum's grave in 3x06 for another meta, but stumbled across something I was interesting, re: the broyals.

For Callum, as he says, "I hate him. He's the one who took my mother. Looking at him, seeing him, it makes me sad and angry and... confused." Meanwhile Ezran is clearly less affected, too busy playing and being happy in his reunion with Zym; and judging by his closeness with Zubeia and defense of Avizandum to Rex in S4, it doesn't seem as though Ezran harbours the same messy storm of emotions regarding the former Dragon King that Callum does, even as Callum still settles on, "But that was Zym's dad."

On the one hand, this makes sense; Ezran, as he says, lost his mother before he ever really got to know her. That doesn't make his grief any lesser, but it would mean holding onto anger for a different kind of transgression and one where the alternative - a life where his mother lived - would be infinitely harder for him to conceptualize than for Callum, who can and does remember.

And we see Callum struggle a little in the instances he's first presented with Runaan's bow in both his short story Inheritance and in 5x01, but ultimately he's able to handle it and give it to Rayla happily and has no real reservations about it. Yes, "It was the weapon that killed his father" but it is also "the weapon of someone Rayla had loved" and the latter is what clearly wins out, since upon seeing Runaan again... He has a decidedly different reaction than he did upon seeing Avizandum.

But given Ezran's anger in his short story...

That Moonshadow elf upon the castle ramparts, skulking toward his father’s chambers. The blood upon those exquisite elven blades. The red-tailed arrow armed with a mission declared by Zubeia herself— [...] Ezran felt a coldness twist its way around his heart. It took his lungs, too, and for a long moment he could not breathe, could not feel anything but an unfamiliar anger so potent it seized the whole of him, inside and out. Ezran stepped towards the arrow— —and stomped down on it as hard as he could. He wished he were bigger, stronger, he wished his boots were made of iron and not something soft. Still, it was enough. When he pulled his foot away, Ezran glared down at the arrow’s hawkish head, flattened and broken.

It makes me wonder if Runaan's presence / freedom will force Ezran to contend with all his big feelings much the way Avizandum's resting place forced Callum to. If Ezran's comparatively lack of negative reaction with Avizandum was the trade off for Callum having a more positive one with Runaan, and hence the brothers are going to be Switching, accordingly.

Either way, I think it's an interesting potential parallel for the brothers, and I'm excited to see where it's taken in S6/7.

[raayllum]

so if/when runaan is uncoined, how do you think Callum and Ezran will prosses it? cause we know Ez definitely has some unresolved anger towards him, and Callum is very conflicted about Runaan. I'd just like your two cents on how they would interact at first, and possibly in the future.

*hoists up a 146k+ long fic* how much time you got?

[ Sidenote: granted, some of the fic is different than where it's gone in canon, largely Callum being 100% devoted in getting the parents back, but struggling hard with Runaan upon his de-coining significantly moreso than Ez, who in this version has had 4 years with his grief and 4 years of getting to know Ethari as well. But for being written in Jan 2020, not bad, I think. ]

In all seriousness: I think Ezran's lack of connection to Rayla's past (never been to the Silvergrove, never met Ethari) and his harsher reaction to Harrow's death, especially given Callum's automatic positive reaction to the coins in 5x04 (including Runaan!), means that they're gonna go for a contrast with the broyals. It seems that in his closeness with Zubeia, Ezran's heaped a lot of the blame onto Runaan (which makes sense on a certain level - Zubeia didn't know about Zym's survival, Runaan did and went through with shit anyway) because well... It's always gonna be easier to compartmentalize. It's always gonna be easier to just hate someone who's dead.

Until they're not.

I also think Runaan could be a catalyst for a lot of wonderfully messy 'uglier' Ezran emotions (resentment towards Callum and Rayla keeping something from him again; the burden of ruling he only has because of Runaan; impatience with people not willing to consider ending the Cycle, ironically leading him to perpetuate it a bit, etc etc) and god I am so fucking excited for that. And a bonus Harrow-Viren parallel conflict with Callum, generations wise? Chef's kiss. Delicious. Give it to me

To me, I don't think Callum is even really thinking about "this is the man that murdered my father" (which he did in Through the Moon during a brief argument with Rayla, and then realized he needed to give space for her grief, too) so much as "This is Rayla's dad and someone she loves."

In his short story Inheritance he couldn't even hold the bow without immediately freaking out, and we see it ignite a similar sort of panic in 5x01, but by the end of the episode he's brought the bow into his room to hold onto it for her and hands it to her outright. He's willing to mix his magic with it and trust it (and her wielding it) to defend him.

So for Callum I think he'll be snarkily done with Runaan if the man is unremorseful / hostile but not willing to or wanting to pick too many fights with him in front of Rayla. (I also have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Callum ultimately realizing that Runaan's eventual awkward form of parenting/looking out for him -- once Runaan's gotten over his anti-human shit -- does remind him of Harrow as a father, but that is delved into Much better slowburn wise in the fic linked above).

For Ezran, who's younger and has largely been bottling this anger up, I think he might be harsher and more resistant to undoing the coins, but might have an easier time once he can see and get to know Runaan as a person (because once that's clicked into place, Ezran's empathy knows little to no bounds) and well, Ez loves Rayla too! They're all family. It's just... complicated

That said the fact that my 2019 political trio theory has now structurally also come back to me is Hysterical and what I'm holding onto above all else tbh