#no idk why i gained capitalization halfway through either

[raayllum]

like i’m used to having unpopular fandom opinions (which, in most fandoms, has boiled down to either 1. actually liking the canon content or 2. seeing the fault lines years ahead of time and then being disappointed but not surprised when shit goes off the rails), it does not bother me.

but it does baffle me how butt hurt i’ve seen people get over CHET. calling me and others who enjoy the theory dumb, or that it’s a theory for “gimmicky hacks” and would ruin the show if it happened (end quote), or that it’s completely misconstruing canon or built entirely off theme (as though tdp isn’t deeply thematic, anyway) or that my track record of predictions is terrible (it isn’t; i’d say it’s surprisingly good overall but like with any amount of theorizing, there’s definitely plenty of misses too and just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks). 

and i’m not going to counter any of that by saying it’s 100% - or even 20% likely - to be canon because as i’ve also said many, many times, it might not be. maybe the key isn’t even something aaravos wants. maybe callum still does something under possessive coercion. maybe none of it comes back in s5 and it’s saved for book 6: stars, instead. maybe the key is only on rayla’s shoulder in 4x02 to emphasize stella’s connection to the star primal. maybe rayla and aaravos’ foil relationship doesn’t go further than setting them up as callum’s two, mutually exclusive paths. maybe CHET does happen but it’s not about freeing aaravos, thus knocking it down a peg thematically with the “freeing” motif.

and it’s not as though CHET doesn’t let callum figure out and even use the cube. he’ll have to put the pieces together (literally), it could have more than one purpose, and there could be an arc of reclaiming it (making it actually his key, as opposed to aaravos’, which would really fit with themes of ownership and well, reclamation and progress). maybe callum’s curiosity / paranoid pursuit of magic is what leads to rayla being in aaravos’ clutches in the first place, if you really want to reaffirm those 1x04 parallels; maybe both his best friend and his brother are in harm’s way. 

but it’s like. even if the pieces don’t fall this way, CHET is 1) still the only theory i’ve seen, 2.5+ years in, that actually answers the questions of what the key is, how it may be used, and how it may operate in Callum’s arc other than giving him some kind of magical power up, 2) accurately tailored itself to the game motif that s4 made more overt, and more than that, a game that Callum is destined to lose, 3) accurately tailored itself ahead of time to the light and dark motif in Callum and Rayla’s arcs, and 4) all the set up like

“I smashed your primal stone.” “Accidents happen.” “On purpose.” “I’m sure you had a good reason.” “I did, I really did!” (2x02) / “But Rayla, the whole world is like a giant primal stone.” (2x09) / “Guess it wouldn’t be the first time I accidentally on purpose destroyed a rare magical artefact.” (4x02) 

This is the game room. Cube should be in there. / You wait here for a minute, couple minutes. However long it takes, I’ll go find a key. / [Insert Rayla being shown as a toy] / It’s a toy, probably a piece from a children’s game. I hope it was worth it to you, putting everyone else’s lives in danger. (1x04) / It’s a glow toy (1x05) / [Becomes a literal glow in 4x04] / “He said it was a key, but a key to what?” “You practicing magic, or are you losing to Bait at a game of rolly-cubes?” (2x07) / [Callum with the cube as a literal game piece] / Already tainted by darkness, and destined to play right into my hands. (4x04) / They aren’t games. They’re tests. (TDP shorts) / But violence tests us. In a twisted way, it converts us to its cause. (4x03) / Those who fail tests of love are simple animals. (2x09)

The way the 1x04 inversion (Rayla gets taken, boys rescue her, she finds the cube / Rayla gets taken, boys rescue her, Callum gives up the cube) is even more on track with Kim’Dael being in S5 and presumably the reason elves are seen as bloodthirsty in the first place. 

Callum’s bio in Tales of Xadia, a text that also mentions Leola, the Great Bookery of Lux Aurea (both now featured in S5) and the Flowers of Elarion (one of the only mentions of Elarion in the entire material, including “a fair exchange of beloved for beloved”) literally stating that he “value[s] those close to him more than anyone or anything” and that he’s “beholden to his inner circle, not some silly kingdom” 

Callum facing a “his loved ones or the world” conflict being one of the most common dilemmas that heroes face like, ever (Luke Skywalker, Aang, the Matrix, just to name a few), even disregarding the fact that TDP loves a good trolley problem ( “We kill one monster to save a hundred thousand people” “You keep calling it a monster” / “You let him live and you killed us all” / “You have two choices: you all die or just the evil, wretched human dies” / “I had to. I couldn’t let him hurt you”). 

The fact that exchange is intrinsic to the series, down to the transactional root of dark magic and the kids working to bring Zym home to his mother, hopefully, in exchange for peace, and is also the conceptual catalyst for Arc 2 with Claudia working to free Aaravos in exchange for him permanently reviving Viren. 

That it is increasingly unlikely that Callum will be able to avoid playing into Aaravos’ hands eventually and the key (and the game) being directly linked to that, and absolutely none of this is even touching on Callum’s parallels to Viren or that it’s been heavily hinted in interviews that Aaravos, an elven mage, was in love with a human and his main incentive for being evil is that he Lost them

Like I don’t know if Callum is going to run away to try and avoid hurting the people he loves in S5; he might try, and if he does I think it would be a one episode plot line because then he and Rayla would be having the same behavioural issues and the same corresponding arc, which could really be work or be too cluttered for what the reason wants to do. I don’t know if Callum will be forced to join team bad guy under possession or some other coercion by the end of S5. 

I lean towards no for both of those things, simply because for the first I feel like Callum will have enough of his own differentiated plot line going on, and for the second, while that would provide Callum potential (if not under possession) conversations with Aaravos, I feel like Callum’s major focus in S6-S7 will have to be connecting to other arcanum and possibly helping other people do the same. Those would be trickier to maintain if he’s separated from the main group (who then has to devote time to getting him back) as well as I feel like him and Aaravos’ thematic face off is stronger if Aaravos does underestimate Callum, and doesn’t think he’s legitimately special, and is then proven wrong because, well... “Your arrogance is so predictable.”

But again, I’m not saying that they couldn’t happen. Not saying there’s no base for it now or that one couldn’t be introduced by any means; TDP is very good at balancing reliable set up and pay off and also providing plenty of surprise curveballs along the way. Unless it is something that the show has made exceedingly obvious, like its portrayal of dark magic (which you can disagree with how its portrayed by all means, but you still gotta be cognizant of how the show has always presented it even if you disagree with the why) I think it’s perhaps not arrogant, but mean spirited to decide that you definitively know what is or what’s not going to happen and what theories are valid or even ‘okay’ for fans to enjoy. 

And if my theory is so Obviously wrong, why always take time to discredit it? Why talk about it at all? Because you personally dislike me, or because other people talk about it and you resent that it’s popular? Trust me, I get having fanon theories that drive you up a wall, especially when they’re prevalent, but those are ones that 1) have multiple canon scenes and whole-ass plot lines literally contradicting the popular fanon headcanon (hi the “nobody helps Katara with chores except Zuko” HC that was disproven 2 seasons before he joined the gaang) or 2) are the equivalent to me positing that Callum should die and that Ellis will obviously come back and be our primary mage character, for Some Reason.

And if it’s not that, I think you can cool your jets, just a bit. Cause I would be amazed and delighted to be wrong because that just means the show is going in a fun, expected direction, but I know there are people whose tiny little heads would explode with anger or embarrassment if I’m right, and ‘shockingly enough’ I don’t actually root for other people to be mad or upset over what happens in fanon or canon. There’s enough bullshit out there without that, thank you very much