#im begging u to let characters be messy and interesting i really am

[raayllum]

I'll also chime in that post-s3 myself (and many others) were like "the only thing that could break them up is Rayla's tendency to leave and be hyper-independent / sacrificial because of trauma," because no matter how well meaning (Through the Moon) or heroic the show occasionally portrayed it (2x07), self destructive behaviour —especially of that kind — is never going to be conducive to a long term healthy relationship. So it wasn't.

I get not seeing her successfully leaving ahead of time, but anyone who thought she wouldn't try and that it came out of nowhere truly just wasn't paying attention to her character tbh, especially when the final episodes of season 3 (3x08, 3x09) reaffirmed this over and over again.

This was always going to be their biggest hurdle to jump (and in some lingering ways, they're still jumping it) and doing it during the timeskip makes the most sense from a character standpoint. Rayla's biggest issues was her inability to ask for or readily routinely accept help, and I don't know if that would've been believably unresolved for two years if she'd stayed in a healthy, loving relationship day in and day out. This way, we get to see her choices — to come back and keep coming back (4x03, 4x09), working on asking for help, learning to accept it — and her evolution happen first hand.

They also needed to grow to better understand each other. Callum couldn't understand leaving / the Moonshadow-ness of it all ("You're going to stay here and die out of pride?") and while he was often right to push back against it, it wasn't the environment Rayla could grow in, nor could she understand the full importance of staying till she chose to. The unconditional basis set up at the end of 4x09, loving and painful in equal measure ("I have to go after him" "...I know") is what allows her to flourish in S5 ("You can tell me when you're ready" -> "I know I trust you to help me carry this. If you're okay with that?") and S6, as well as for Callum to settled in his truth: come hell or high water, he loves her, and he always will ("It always was [a thing]. It was always her").

So just on an interpersonal level it makes sense; on a more S7 speculative mode, I've always thought that what makes the most sense plot wise is that both sides of their separation could provide the basis of justification for whatever batshit, world-ending crap they get up to in the Aaravos showdown.

Rayla's always loved and tried to protect Callum, but her biggest display of that by far was in leaving, even though it was the wrong choice; ergo, when Callum gets possessed and/or corrupted in S7, we'll understand her deep desire to protect him because we've seen it first hand, and she gets to prove it by Staying. On Callum's end, he had to live without her for 2 years, trying and failing to move on, and his happiness levels of her being gone / back (S4) vs her being back and him letting himself be happy about it (early S5 and onwards) is night and day. Of course he'll choose her over the greater good; he's tried to live without her once and he couldn't. He can't lose her again.

All of Arc 2 is about doing awful things for love, like leaving, or dark magic, and how there is an aching pain often mixed with love that cannot be escaped, but it must be wrestled with and acknowledged, and healed from. It's completely thematically coherent and always has been.

The writers didn't lightly make this decision just to stir up conflict. It made sense for the characters culturally, interpersonally, for their personal growth arcs, and for the overall plot. Y'know, the way Good Writing is supposed to work.

anyone who says tdp "ruined rayllum" can meet me in the denny's parking lot. i will truly never believe that the writers broke up rayllum (physically i mean) just as a plot contrivance. this is not me defending my favorite show and my favorite ship; i genuinely believe this was the right move. even when i was young and dumb and first heard about an arc 2 i was like "pff rayllum isn't gonna break up," and yet in the back of my mind i was just wondering how are they gonna pull this off? like i loved them and i know they loved each other and they were sweet little babies blah blah blah but you cannot sit here and tell me that the two 15 year olds who went through a whole shitload of trauma and grief together and who were already killing themselves for each other out of hopeless devotion within 2 weeks weren't bound to crash and burn. people seem to forget that rayla didn't simply decide to leave just because; she was being tormented by her unresolved issues and could not stand to be in that place anymore, no matter how much she loved callum. of course she left because a) that's all she's ever known and b) because they couldn't last (how they were, anyway). rayla and callum had grown to rely on one another so much that they needed time to grow up on their own, and now, well...

there is no better way to test love than to put it through the ringer and see if it survives, and rayllum not only love each other just as much if not more, truly understand each other on a whole new level despite having been apart for so long, and now are back together and stronger than they've ever been. it was entirely logical and frankly inevitable for this to happen, it was a natural progression for the story, and it has made them better.