#moonshadow elves

[halyasgirl]

Guys… I think we got the canon depiction of Runaan and Ethari’s wedding.

From the Hot Brown Morning Potion Podcast Episode 5 - The Deluxe Elf Interview with Devon Giehl and Iain Hendry:

[ftvs-cm45]

Ruthari Reunion

[flaming-thing]

Ok but the assassins finally being named made me unreasonably happy for some reason??

Like they where around for a few episodes in s1 and where just never spoken of again??

And now they're back and they're actually real people now? Rather than just random characters that are there to advance the plot?

Ok maybe they're still just random characters there to advance the plot but still

The keeper being Ram's dad was actually a junpscare but I loved it

[beautifulterriblequeen]

Runaan's Silvergrove dance

So, we know that Rayla's dance into the Silvergrove gets everyone who uses it pseudo-ghosted and they can't be seen.

We also know she hasn't told Runaan she's been made a ghost.

So the dance they all do at the Silvergrove must be Runaan's.

It's nothing fancy at all. Just a slow pacing circle with hands touching. Easy to remember, easy to execute. Perfect for a tired, possibly injured assassin to manage, and perfect for a slow, loving spin with his favorite craftsman even when they don't need to perform it.

[seraphimhalo]

Ive been rewatching the dragon prince (again...), so here's my favorite character Rayla🌙✨️

[lithuiwen2016]

IT IS DONE!!

The whole "I'm your daughter" scene really hit me, and I was inspired by the Reunion hug at the end of Tangled.

Please give us this Reunion in Season 7!

[venice-1987]

I find it interesting how the moonshadow elves are so quick to label someone as a deserter in a failed mission. Rayla's lotus stayed floating, but who is to say that she was not captured (and who's to say that Runaan was not also considered a deserter in the days spent in the dungeon). Rayla also thought her parents had run, when there must have been evidence of a fight. Were her people so quick to teach her that they had run? Do the moonshadow elves see being captured as just as bad as leaving the mission entirely?

[cxbin-pxrsephone]

I NEED someone to write a fanfiction of Rayla and Callum with their first child going to the silvergrove (or maybe their child was born at the silvergrove) and the moon cubs meet their baby and start inspecting them to see what elven and human features they have, bonus if they ask when they’re gonna have the other nine

[stars-and-galaxys]

Obsessed with how even if Rayla listened to Runaan and went home, she still would’ve been ghosted. It takes ages to get back to the Silvergrove from Katolis, and in that time the whole community shunned her based on an assumption.

(Obsessed with the way that will impact Runaan and Ethari’s relationship. Runaan wanted her to leave, to go back and be with Ethari until or if he returned, and she wouldn’t have been be able to.)

Thinking about how ghosting is an inherently flawed way of exile that can be implemented without trial. Thinking about how Lain and Tiadrin didn’t even have flowers to show if they were alive or not, everyone just assumed they ran because the rest of the guard did and their bodies weren’t found. Seemingly no investigation was done, because if they caught the skywing elf that ran away they’d know that Lain and Tiadrin stayed behind.

Thinking about how Rayla (and probably many others) saw her performing well on the mission to kill the king as redemption for her parents alleged failings, and how she was later presumed guilty by association with them even though she spent the majority of her life to that point raised by Runaan and Ethari.

[kradogsrats]

I am Near, I am Here: Rayla, the Moon, and Love as Presence

I was originally going to add this to @raayllum's post about Rayla's lullaby and Ethari but then the number of screenshots I was taking before I even started to write indicated that it had gotten out of hand.

Rayla's lullaby ties in with a lot of stuff going on in s6, most of them related to her relationship with Callum, which has its last barriers broken down and leaves their bond stronger than ever. Surely so strong that nothing in s7 could possibly challenge it. Most of Rayla's life has been defined by absence—the absence of her parents, her own forced absence from her community, her chosen absence from Callum. The lullaby, however, affirms that even when the moon appears to be absent, it is still there, and has been all along.

This is an interesting facet of the Moon arcanum, which is usually focused on certain dualities—life and death, reality and illusion, presence and absence—but also on the permeable borders between them, on change and cycles between those states.

We also actually have a window into Rayla's own understanding of the Moon arcanum—her first transformation into Moonshadow form in Bloodmoon Huntress. Look, just... bear with me, okay?

It's explicit that not all Moonshadow elves can achieve Moonshadow form, and that for most it takes months or years of meditation and training. I read this as that, while Moonshadow elves are born with an innate connection to the Moon primal, attaining Moonshadow form requires developing a deeper understanding of its arcanum. Runaan describes it as being about the balance of life and death:

Rayla can't reach Runaan's understanding of the Moon arcanum, which is somewhat hilariously about recognizing yourself in your enemy (something Rayla winds up being very good at) and understanding why you have to kill them, anyway (something Rayla winds up being very bad at).

What does work for her to achieve Moonshadow form at a terrifyingly young age is focusing on her wingaling, and a statement from Ethari:

Both are about love as being present—something Rayla is conflicted about in her parents' absence. The wingaling represents a promise that Ethari and Runaan will always come for her when she's in need. Ethari's statement is originally made in the context of explaining that Runaan's devotion to his people may require him to make great sacrifices, but that devotion can also be the smallest act of presence, and both are necessary. Her understanding of the Moon arcanum is about that presence—the moon that is always there, even at times when there is no light.

As Rayla is struggles with why her parents Runaan leaves those he loves to risk his life for others, Ethari explains that he and Runaan both know he may never come back, and that is something Ethari has to accept because Runaan can't be separated from that devotion and duty when it comes to loving him. What's missing from the conversation is acknowledgement of the trust and commitment that underpins that acceptance—Ethari's trust that Runaan will come back, and Runaan's commitment to do so.

The moon is there even when it has waned to invisibility, but it goes unstated that it also always waxes back to full. You can trust that it's there when it can't be seen, and you can trust that its light is coming back. You can trust that it's there when it can't be seen because you can trust that its light is coming back.

I am near, the lullaby says. I will be with you again soon. Until then, remember that my love is always here.

That's an understanding that Rayla crucially doesn't have when she leaves. In Dear Callum, she never once promises or even suggests to Callum that she will come back to him, even if she finds Viren. The closest she gets is the lukewarm:

I wish I could say that we will see each other again, but I don’t know if we will. I hope so.

So not only is she shattering the trust Callum had in her by abandoning him after she told him they would stay together, she won't even offer any real reassurance that she will return. Because she doesn't really think she will. Her only commitment to keep him safe, and as long as being separated accomplishes that, she will stay away. How is he supposed to accept that? What reason could he ever have to believe that she and her love are there, even when out of sight?

And yes, all of this does stem from things she learned from Runaan—Mr. "I do what I must so those I love don't have to"—but the key difference is that when push comes to shove, Runaan understands something else:

The same thing that Tiadrin and Lain did:

And that Amaya does:

That love is ultimately strengthened through presence, and through presence it strengthens us, in turn. When we open ourselves to strengthen those we love and trust them to strengthen us, then our love cannot be diminished by distance or absence.

Somewhere between Bloodmoon Huntress and s1, Rayla loses sight of that, and she doesn't rediscover it until confronted by Amaya over how her leaving harmed Callum—and how it harmed Rayla herself. Amaya isn't the first to tell her how she hurt Callum, but she's the first one to really convey to Rayla that keeping her secrets and burdens from Callum isn't sparing him from their weight and pain, only weakening her. It has always weakened her. Until she turns that around, she is denying both of them their best selves—her as the light that will bring him out of any darkness, him as the anchor that will bring her home from any distance.

The end of s6 beautifully shows the culmination of all Rayla has learned in the slow return of her relationship with Callum, and to top it off, she gets to demonstrate it to Runaan. (Since Callum already knows.)

Trapped in the In-Between, Runaan is consumed by guilt and self-loathing—he fights Rayla's attempts to guide him back to life because he doesn't believe he deserves to go back. He's too ashamed to want to go back. The way Rayla brings him back is twofold:

She reminds him of his promise to Ethari—his promise to return. She made no promise to return to Callum when she left. She probably wanted to, but she believed that the sacrifices that might be demanded of her would be more important. It would at least be out of the question to return before finding Viren, but in the end that's what she does—she returns to Callum, even though she must do it defeated, ashamed, and alone.

She also tells him that she needs him. She needs her father. She's weaker with him not there for her. When she left Callum, she genuinely believed that things would be better that way. He'd be better off safely away from whatever danger her search brought her, and making sacrifices for the people she loves—taking on difficulty and danger alone, so they don't have to—has always been her duty. She's spent three seasons re-learning the strength she has with Callum, now it's time for her to do the same with Runaan.

Rayla is very different now than she was the last time they met, and Runaan—like Callum—is going to finally see the truth of her: that she was never meant to be an assassin, but not because of failure or weakness. She was always meant to be a hero.

[halyasgirl]

Live footage of me watching “Unfinished Business”

[ftvs-cm45]

Entering Silvergrove

[moon-sky-sun-earth-ocean-stars]

If I had a nickle for every time Rayla lost her parents, I have three nickles. Which isn't a lot but it's weird sad that it happened three times.

And Rayla actually has three nickles for that

[sunstone-nerding]

Later:

Ethari: "Greetings, travelers! For the toll through this part of the Moonshadow Forest, all we ask for is a small amount of..." *looks to husband for help*

Runaan: "...Bread. Just bread."

The baffled travelers comply.

Forage Feast: crime edition

Rayla, Runaan, and Ethari headed out to forage in the Moonshadow Forest to celebrate with a special meal. They came back with all this food.

Extremely curious how you forage for a cheese wheel. Where does one gather a baguette in the Moonshadow Forest? Or a whole stack of pancakes plus fixins? The bread boule in the center?

Immediate headcanon: "forage" is Moonshadow for petty banditry as much as it means "picking fruit and etc." If it ain't nailed down, it's free real estate! Rayla and her dads just waylaid some travelers with lax security, played a couple tricks on them, and made off with a couple of food items per encounter, until they had enough food to carry home and celebrate Callum joining them.

This would be an amazing Moonshadow cultural tradition. The family that absconds together, bonds together!

[uwudonoodle]

Rayla had a really terrible day, and she found a small way to cheer herself up a little by mildly torturing Callum.

[pennyinthesea]

Okay wait I just had an amazing idea. So you know how Moonshadow elves' hair is pure white right? So theoretically, even if they had white hairs, you wouldn't be able to see it. What if the Moonshadow equivalent of white hairs are black hairs, since it goes from full moon to new moon. Ha im so smart >:)