#and i'm waiting for ezran to get messy as hell

[raayllum]

—the lathe of heaven, ursula k. le guin

[raayllum]

After the new short story drop... forget about Ezran and Callum's arguments, HOW IS EZRAN GOING TO REACT TO RUNNAN'S BOW W/RAYLA????????????

I am deeply intrigued by the potential of Callum finding the bow (the literal weapon that spilled their father's body) and subsequently willing to work in tandem with Rayla wielding it in S5 vs Ezran finding the arrow - a symbolic representation of the murder - and well, breaking it under his boot. (Garlaath's merciless boot of crushing, anyone?). It makes me wonder if an old theory I had, of Runaan's remaining binding on his arm providing a tether to Ezran, may come into play with both brothers aiding in freeing the Moon fam, but we'll have to see.

I admit, I had assumed that Ezran's lack of immediate long term proximity to Rayla - thereby not having to interact with Runaan, really, more than he'd want to, in comparison to Callum, who will presumably be his son-in-law someday - would mean that Ezran would have an easier time with Runaan than Callum would... but in some ways, Runaan took more from Ezran than he did from Callum. Runaan took not just Ezran's last remaining parent, but the only parent he'd ever known, and one he was fully comfortable with. He was far younger, so Runaan took his childhood, and saddled him with kingship from age 9 onwards, which... yeah, be pissed as hell, baby boy. (You could argue that Runaan and his patterns / assassin-y encouragements that were passed down to Rayla are also what took her away from the boys, particularly Callum, for two fitful years, but that's a post for another day.)

Ezran is also crueler, I think, or at least more outwardly angry, towards Rayla in 2x08 than Callum is to her in 2x03 each time the secret comes out. Part of this is I think because Callum already had an inkling/basically knew and just didn't want to accept it (and was older) whereas Ezran was blindsided. I've long thought that Ezran would have good reason to be angry at Callum and Rayla, still, for not telling him in S2 (it was understandable, but also fucked up, and could easily lead to a breach in trust there, however subconscious).

I think Ezran will have an easier time understanding Rayla's side - he's friendly with Zubeia, who ordered the hit and who he's gotten to know as a Person ("Zubeia is gentle and kind and funny") - because no matter what Runaan did, he's still her father, and well... Ezran sure as hell misses his Dad, too. Rayla will also, most likely, be against any sort of dark magic risk as well, so they're more aligned there.

Ezran going back to stomp the arrow reminded me a lot of Claudia tricking Rayla in 4x09, which is to say - younger, typically more passive siblings who were forced to be more active in uniquely taking up the heavy burden of their father's powerful mantle, while their older brother got off comparatively scot free? Yeah.

I think Ezran could have a harder time with Callum's involvement because 1) this man took their dad away, and Callum has no personal relationship to Runaan (although I'm sure meeting Ethari, which Ez has not, impacted him) and 2) the anger and fear at Callum being willing to risk himself as well could be a wedge. Even maybe getting at "You're going to risk yourself for Rayla when you nearly died last time" mixed with "You're not going to listen to me when I've been right here the whole time?" because well - she did leave both of them. And if they make plans or discuss the coins and wait to bring Ezran into the loop? It's their joint secret keeping in S2 all over again, and he has every reason to be hurt about that.

But yeah as someone who's wanted Ezran to have Big Messy On Screen Feelings explored in depth for a while, a possible "Ezran feels hopeless/angry" arc, and a Broyals conflict episode/arc (for those sweet Viren-Harrow parallels) I am thrilled. This is everything I could've ever wanted for him tbh