#salvation or not its rayllum

[tategaminu]

who wants to bet the most epic scene of season 6 wrote by Eugene is a rayllum salvation scene?

0%proof 100% hope

[raayllum]

I know you were ready to lay CHET to rest after this season but… Callum still has the cube, we still don’t know *exactly* what it does but Aaravos will presumedly need it, and all that foreshadowing about Callum choosing Rayla over the greater good? I still believe

i'll have a more coherent post about this when i'm not running on under 7 hours of sleep for 24+ hours (close to 30+ now honestly) but no i feel so Fucking Crazy right now precisely because i went into s6, our penultimate season, expecting to finally get to lay CHET and its variants (5x08 my beloved) to rest after 4+ years, every season for 3 seasons in a row i've been ready to lay it down, and yet it's still on the Goddamn Table arguably more than ever before

Obviously certain things have changed — Callum's thematic associations with freedom would switch probably to having a role to play in 'unlocking' Aaravos' full power and/or giving him access to the other Startouch elves somehow — but both of those things are stuff I've considered being related to the cube before (as well as dark magic) so not much is actually changing there fundamentally.

What continues to change is the sheer assortment of evidence that Callum is going to play into Aaravos' hands for her (the initial basis of CHET), and Rayla is likewise going to refuse to sacrifice him (thereby shortly followed by mutual salvation theory), and 6x03 is a Giant Sign blinking Pay Attention in bright neon.

Rayla: Listen to me. If you ever have to choose between me and the greater good, do the right thing. Make the sacrifice.

Nevermind that 'right thing' is subjective and that sacrificing loved ones is routinely seen as Bad ("We must be willing to sacrifice, even the things we love" / "My daughter [...] and I tried to kill you") and that Aaravos (one of Rayla's primary foils) likewise demanded for Viren to 'make a sacrifice' regarding Sir Sparklepuff in 5x09. It'd be one thing, mind you, for Rayla to just bring up this Hypothetical and it could conceivably be dropped, but then Callum makes the basis of CHET's adjacent Mutual Salvation Theory explicit in tethering Rayla's request to his own:

Rayla: What? Callum: If Aaravos ever controls me again, if he ever uses me, promise me you'll kill me. Rayla: Yes. I promise.

(There's a few different things we can read both into Callum's renewed approach and Rayla's changed response, but meta for another day).

What this conversation does, though, is link these things in the audience's mind. If half is called upon their deal in a scenario, it's only logical that the other will be too. And, of course, Aaravos has to inevitably possess Callum, and Callum (as a main protagonist and usher of a new age of magic) cannot die, so Rayla has to break her promise (a la TTM) to keep him alive, freeing up room in the narrative to Callum likewise break his (more thinly made tbh) promise as well. The easiest order of events, therefore, is for Callum to break his promise first in order to save/protect her, be possessed, and then Rayla breaks her promise in saving him. Mutual salvation and all that

The fact we have other characters and plot threads routinely referring back to and building up Rayllum's thematic basis for each plot turn in S7 is just the cherry on top.

(We also see Rayla talk not just one but two 'monsters' down corrupted by desperation and grief, so while it may retread more territory if she does the same to Callum, there's certainly more than a precedent. For Callum, 2/3 dark magic times were for Rayla, and you don't introduce Big Extra Scary 'permanently ruined by dark magic' Stakes if you're not gonna use them as a way to escalate things, either, even if of course given that it's S7, there will be ways out and a happy ending).

Insert Callum putting the star rune sign directly down against her palm.

I think it's likely the cube is still involved somehow (all the ominous foreshadowing including and most prevalently featured in the pawn intro doesn't suddenly go away, and was only added to in S6) and really, this is about the only parallel I personally need anymore to keep chugging along theory wise:

Like it's Over and at this point we just gotta wait for S7, tbh, especially when a big juicy angsty mutual Rayllum plotline is more than in order after their relatively fluffy (loved) plotline in S6

[thatartiststudios]

WIP Wednesday

I'm going to start doing a thing where, on Wednesdays, I'll post something Rayllum to the Rayllum community, but I'll also post something on my blog, whether it's TDP or something from one of my original WIPs

Here's my favorite scene so far from Blood and Devotion:

The oppressive weight of darkness pressed down on Dakota as he lay in bed, his mind a battleground of torment. The hunger, that insatiable craving for flesh, clawed at the recesses of his consciousness, its whispers twisting through his thoughts like barbed wire.

Images of blood-soaked visions danced behind his closed eyelids, urging him to surrender to the primal urges clawing at his sanity.

Hungry… so very hungry… must eat…

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t escape the suffocating grip of the Wendigo’s demands. Tremors wracked his body as silent sobs racked his frame, his soul drowning in a sea of despair.

So cold… must eat… so very hungry…

Beside him, Raiyn stirred, her presence a flicker of warmth in the encroaching darkness. She sensed his shivering, her touch gentle as a summer breeze as she reached out to him.

Hungry… so hungry… must kill…

“Hey, easy, easy, baby, it’s alright,” she murmured, her words a lifeline in the chaos. With steady hands, she brushed away the tears that stained his cheeks, her touch calming to his shattered spirit.

Kill… must kill… so very hungry…

“It... It wants me to kill…” Dakota’s voice cracked, raw with anguish, as he clung to her like a drowning man grasping for salvation.

“Just breathe, darling,” Raiyn whispered, her forehead pressing against his in a silent promise of solidarity. “You’re not alone. I’m here.”

But even as her words wrapped around him like a protective cloak, doubt gnawed at Dakota’s soul. How could she love a monster like him, tainted by the cursed blood that flowed through his veins?

So cold… so hungry… must kill… must eat…

“I... I’m sorry…” he choked out, the weight of his shame threatening to crush him beneath its suffocating embrace.

“Shh, it’s alright,” Raiyn murmured, her voice a gentle caress against the storm raging within him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m right here.”

With trembling hands, she cupped his face, gentle yet unyielding in her resolve. And in that moment, as her lips brushed against his in a gesture of unwavering devotion, the whispers of the Wendigo fell silent, drowned out by the warmth of her touch.