#basically if the show says 'paying the price' alarm bells should ring off that some sort of 'unjust' mindset is coming up

[raayllum]

What's your opinion on Zym removing Rayla's binding?

It’s one of the early examples of the show’s main theme. Although it’s implied through action > dialogue, the show still sets it up for Rayla’s attitude towards her binding to be a bit of a warning sign in the second episode. There is first the way her mission itself is something she has to make up for, once Runaan removes her from it and she decides to go to the castle on her own to “fix this” and make it right.

But more than that, it’s set up in parallel to King Harrow’s conversation with Callum.

H: I’ve done horrible things. I thought they were necessary. Now I don’t know. But I do know I will pay the price for my mistakes. C: There has to be a way to make it right.

Is show speak for “this is an unnecessary and brutal consequence,” alongside “this isn’t fair” (Callum in 1x02 about Ezran being the second target, and Callum in 3x03 about Rayla being Ghosted, because after all - “Why would you hurt someone who’s done nothing wrong?”). 

And it turns out that there is a way to make things right: the Dragon Prince. Which is enough for Rayla to stand on the rooftop with Runaan and not just argue for Ezran’s life - which the egg should secure, since that’s what he was specifically going to be killed over - but also for Harrow’s. Even though his blood price victim (Avizandum) isn’t miraculously alive. (Pit a pin in this for later.)

But it doesn’t work, and Harrow pays that price anyway, to deep pain felt by the boys and by Rayla. 

And then, on the ice, Rayla reveals what her binding is. Even the way her initial confession is framed shows that the binding is unnecessary: “You don’t have to do this now Rayla,” but she believes “Yes I do.” She believes it’s necessary, even though it’s not.

R: It will just get tighter and tighter until I lose my hand. But I’m ready to pay that price.

Because, like Harrow, she signed up to do horrible things she thought were necessary and then struggled with them and realized they weren’t. But this is her price. So why doesn’t she have to pay it?

Well for one, it makes perfect sense that the being you bound yourself to avenge could take the binding off. Magic is all about exchange in this show anyway, even if this is a positive example. Dragons are also uniquely magical creatures in the show (particularly arch dragons). Then there’s the fact the boys spend the rest of the season each looking for ways to help their friend (Callum thinks of the sunforge blade in 1x07 and Ezran is hopeful about the miracle healer throughout most of 1x08). 

Because thus far the boys have been the primary agents of change in recognizing the cycle (Callum: “Then it’s a cycle,” “Well that’s kinda circular”) and in changing it (Ezran wanting to tell Amaya, always trusting Rayla, “You’re right, it wants its mother”). 

And one of the key beliefs is not that consequences don’t matter, but that it doesn’t really matter if the ‘punishments’ for things are deserved. That vengeance is weakness.

Ezran: I’m sorry about what happened to your father and what happened to mine. But we don’t have to avenge them. We can choose peace. (3x02)

And more than that, that the young generation can not only make up for the mistakes of the old, but grow beyond them, and be better. 

H: I ask you and your brother to reject history as a narrative of strength, and instead have faith that it can be a narrative of love. (2x06)

H: Fate is a lie. Nothing is written in stone. You are free. (2x08)

Rayla’s chain is her metaphorical and literal chain, a punishment she carries with her throughout season one with the full knowledge of what will happen to her if she saves the princes. And she does so anyway, even catching Zym with her injured arm after dropping him because of it in the ice. She’s more than paid her dues and the pain itself was always unnecessary, because Ezran’s life was rightly spared and Zym was never dead in the first place.

So Zym takes Rayla’s binding off - and peace and mercy, not punishment - is what she deserves.

[prorevenge]

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her 'big-shot' marketing job.

Hey guys, first time posting here, bit of a long story. TL;DR at the bottom.

A little bit of backstory, I'm running a painting business over the summer as a Junior in college to pay for school. My prices are pretty fair as I hire college students and have a deal with Sherwin Williams as a contractor to get cheaper paint and materials.

Anyways, a potential client, we'll call her PC for pretentious cunt, scheduled an estimate with me about a month and a half ago for an interior bathroom job and a deck stain. I tell her the times I'm available, but she absolutely pushes for a time where I would have to rush over from a job site, do a hurried estimate, then run home to grab a bite of dinner before going to previously scheduled estimates. I'm a bit miffed but I said fuck it. Sales is hard, I should learn how to bend over backwards for clients. So I show up to do the estimate, and the whole time I'm getting my numbers together, she is talking me down, telling me how if she ran a business like I did, she would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately, and how I should be dressed better to respect the client. What I did to offend Her Majesty was I moved her plants to the side to be able the measure the deck better, and I came to the estimate in paint stained clothes since I had run over directly from the job site.

So I present the price of about $800 with a 10% day of estimate discount to book up the season and she says she needs a few days to consider it. Okay, fair enough right? I'll extend the discount a few days for her. So I come back a few days later expecting a yes or no answer and she sits me down and starts to haggle with me. At this point, I'm tired enough already from working in the sun all day and just want some food to stop the rumblies. After I give her another 5% discount just to close the job, she continues to haggle with me saying "The highest we can go is $600." When I finally tell her I can't go any lower on the job or I would actually lose money on it, she tells me that she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn't want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

At this point, I'm exhausted and my brain is barely keeping me breathing but that price point doesn't sound right to me. I calculated my price based of a small profit, labor, and materials. Now I pay my painters $13 an hour and I hire college students. So if the other company is charging waaay less, they either pay their career painters even less (minimum wage where I am is $11) or the quality of paint is much lower. So I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn't recall Fair enough, paint names are hard to remember if you don't see them that often. Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was. PC says that they didn't have an estimate sheet. Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc. Now alarm bells are ringing in my head so I set a firm amount on the price of the previous estimate with the additional 5% discount which means that I make a measly $5 per hour I personally work on the job. PC finally agrees on the price saying "It's just $50 dollars, I can't see why you can't just give us more discount. At [my big-shot marketing job] I would give the customer a discount without hesitation" forgetting that A. The discount would be coming out of my broke college student pockets, not a big corporation and B. I already told her that I would only be getting about $5 per hour on the job even though she wants to "support the local community"

She asks if we take credit, but there is a 5% credit card fee that would come out of my already tiny slice of profit so I ask for check (which I told her we prefer during the original estimate). She tells me that she uses Chase which doesn't have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are about half an hour from Boston). What?? Therefore, she cannot use check because she would have to order the checkbook from New York. I think, alright fine. I guess some people these days don't have checkbook. I reiterate that I will lose money on the job at that price point with the 5% fee tacked on and that I can wait until the checkbook arrives.

So I tell her that she can message or call me when the checkbook arrives and I can drive back to collect the deposit and have her sign the contract. On the way out, she tells me that the job needs to be finished before a certain date because she was having guests over. I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I'll lock her in for a power wash of the deck which will need about a week to dry the we can stain it in one day. She mutters "... [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow.." Come on now.. she just admitted to lying to me about having to order a check book from NY. So I say that's fine, let me know tomorrow afternoon so I can come by and finalize the contract.

When I get home, I decide to search up 'Chase branches near me' on Google because I found it really strange that there wasn't one closer that New York especially since we were pretty close to Boston. I kid you not, there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house. Now I'm pissed. I don't know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about. He calls me later that day and says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger (I do a lot of posts in local yard sale groups for exposure for my company so I set up estimates though Messenger) and called her out about the Chase branch, the check, and the "estimate" from the other painting company. She. Goes. Off. Here are a few memorable quotes from her rant - "You don't have the right to insult me like that, this is just your first year running a business and I've been working at [big-shot marketing job] for years now","it doesn't matter what I pay you because you're a young and money doesn't matter to you right now" (my facebook post literally says that I am running this business to pay for college) and my personal favorite "you people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work" (I'm Chinese).

At this point I'm ready to just block her and go to bed angry but I have an epiphany and just hear "[big-shot marketing job]" echo through my head. I take screenshots of the messages she sent me and slapped them along with a lengthy description of what happened in an email and sent copies to whatever email addresses I could find associated with the "big shot marketing company". I get an email back a couple days later from a different address than the ones I wrote to previously basically saying thank you for reaching out to us, this type of behavior is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC. My Justice Boner is about half-mast but I think to myself, that'll be the last of it I guess.

Just today, I was messaging another old client and came across PC's conversation with me. I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says "Works at Self-Employed." Instant full mast.

TL;DR A pompous, self righteous woman lies to me repeatedly to try to get a better deal on a paint job and when I call her out on her lies goes on a racist rant against me which I email to her company who fired her.

(source) (story by RicePaddyFarmer69)

[prorevenge]

A potential client tried to take advantage of me and I got her fired from her 'big-shot' marketing job.

Story Data: long story. 6517 votes. %96 upvote. highly popular. TL:DR at the end.

A little bit of backstory, I'm running a painting business over the summer as a Junior in college to pay for school. My prices are pretty fair as I hire college students and have a deal with Sherwin Williams as a contractor to get cheaper paint and materials.

Anyways, a potential client, we'll call her PC for pretentious cunt, scheduled an estimate with me about a month and a half ago for an interior bathroom job and a deck stain. I tell her the times I'm available, but she absolutely pushes for a time where I would have to rush over from a job site, do a hurried estimate, then run home to grab a bite of dinner before going to previously scheduled estimates. I'm a bit miffed but I said fuck it. Sales is hard, I should learn how to bend over backwards for clients. So I show up to do the estimate, and the whole time I'm getting my numbers together, she is talking me down, telling me how if she ran a business like I did, she would be fired from her big-shot marketing job immediately, and how I should be dressed better to respect the client. What I did to offend Her Majesty was I moved her plants to the side to be able the measure the deck better, and I came to the estimate in paint stained clothes since I had run over directly from the job site.

So I present the price of about $800 with a 10% day of estimate discount to book up the season and she says she needs a few days to consider it. Okay, fair enough right? I'll extend the discount a few days for her. So I come back a few days later expecting a yes or no answer and she sits me down and starts to haggle with me. At this point, I'm tired enough already from working in the sun all day and just want some food to stop the rumbles. After I give her another 5% discount just to close the job, she continues to haggle with me saying "The highest we can go is $600." When I finally tell her I can't go any lower on the job or I would actually lose money on it, she tells me that she got an estimate from another local company for $500 and that she wouldn't want me to match it because she wants to support the local community.

At this point, I'm exhausted and my brain is barely keeping me breathing but that price point doesn't sound right to me. I calculated my price based of a small profit, labor, and materials. Now I pay my painters $13 an hour and I hire college students. So if the other company is charging waaay less, they either pay their career painters even less (minimum wage where I am is $11) or the quality of paint is much lower. So I ask PC if they remember what paint the other company said they would use and she says she doesn't recall Fair enough, paint names are hard to remember if you don't see them that often. Then I ask if I could see their estimate contract to try to figure out why they were so much cheaper than I was. PC says that they didn't have an estimate sheet. Now this is a big no-no in any contracting business because you have to keep track of numbers, budgeted hours, etc. Now alarm bells are ringing in my head so I set a firm amount on the price of the previous estimate with the additional 5% discount which means that I make a measly $5 per hour I personally work on the job. PC finally agrees on the price saying "It's just $50 dollars, I can't see why you can't just give us more discount. At [my big-shot marketing job] I would give the customer a discount without hesitation" forgetting that A. The discount would be coming out of my broke college student pockets, not a big corporation and B. I already told her that I would only be getting about $5 per hour on the job even though she wants to "support the local community"

She asks if we take credit, but there is a 5% credit card fee that would come out of my already tiny slice of profit so I ask for check (which I told her we prefer during the original estimate). She tells me that she uses Chase which doesn't have a branch near us and that the nearest one is in New York (we are about half an hour from Boston). What?? Therefore, she cannot use check because she would have to order the checkbook from New York. I think, alright fine. I guess some people these days don't have checkbook. I reiterate that I will lose money on the job at that price point with the 5% fee tacked on and that I can wait until the checkbook arrives.

So I tell her that she can message or call me when the checkbook arrives and I can drive back to collect the deposit and have her sign the contract. On the way out, she tells me that the job needs to be finished before a certain date because she was having guests over. I explain to her that when I receive the deposit, I'll lock her in for a power wash of the deck which will need about a week to dry the we can stain it in one day. She mutters "... [something something] I can find the check book by tomorrow.." Come on now.. she just admitted to lying to me about having to order a check book from NY. So I say that's fine, let me know tomorrow afternoon so I can come by and finalize the contract.

When I get home, I decide to search up 'Chase branches near me' on Google because I found it really strange that there wasn't one closer that New York especially since we were pretty close to Boston. I kid you not, there was a Chase branch 14 minutes from her house. Now I'm pissed. I don't know what else she lied to me about so I call up my friend whose dad owns the company she talked about. He calls me later that day and says that he never did an estimate with her name or address.

I send her a message over Facebook Messenger (I do a lot of posts in local yard sale groups for exposure for my company so I set up estimates though Messenger) and called her out about the Chase branch, the check, and the "estimate" from the other painting company. She. Goes. Off. Here are a few memorable quotes from her rant - "You don't have the right to insult me like that, this is just your first year running a business and I've been working at [big-shot marketing job] for years now","it doesn't matter what I pay you because you're a young and money doesn't matter to you right now" (my facebook post literally says that I am running this business to pay for college) and my personal favorite "you people should be grateful that I even pay you $5 an hour for your work" (I'm Chinese).

At this point I'm ready to just block her and go to bed angry but I have an epiphany and just hear "[big-shot marketing job]" echo through my head. I take screenshots of the messages she sent me and slapped them along with a lengthy description of what happened in an email and sent copies to whatever email addresses I could find associated with the "big shot marketing company". I get an email back a couple days later from a different address than the ones I wrote to previously basically saying thank you for reaching out to us, this type of behavior is unacceptable and we will be conducting an internal investigation into PC. My Justice Boner is about half-mast but I think to myself, that'll be the last of it I guess.

Just today, I was messaging another old client and came across PC's conversation with me. I go to her profile and in the intro for her profile it now says "Works at Self-Employed." Instant full mast.

TL;DR A pompous, self righteous woman lies to me repeatedly to try to get a better deal on a paint job and when I call her out on her lies goes on a racist rant against me which I email to her company who fired her.

(source) (story by RicePaddyFarmer69)