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bluedragonbooks · 7 years

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Ch 04 - Ep 34 - Gordian Knot

(Part 2 of Ch 04 - Ep 33 - Threads) 13:40 - Bern Switzerland “Personally I’d be happy to ditch the US Dollar; but it’s had favoured status for way too long as a reserve currency. I suspect undoing that would destabilise their economy; and we know how vulnerable they are with their debt levels. Let’s keep it in for now, but bump it to the bottom of the pecking order to send a message. So, we agree? We’ll have our International Base of Operations in Australia, and we’ll align our currency trading with their Trade Weighted Index with a few alterations. Which means our final list of preferred trading currencies in order of preference is: Europe - Euro Chinese - Renminbi Japanese - Yen South Korea - Won Singapore - SG Dollar New Zealand - NZ Dollar UK - Pound Sterling Brazilian - Real Malaysian - Ringgit Thai - Baht Indonesian - Rupiah Indian - Rupee New Taiwan - NT Dollar Vietnamese - Dong Hong Kong - HK Dollar Papua New Guinea - Kina Swiss - Franc United Arab Emirates - Dirham Canadian - CDN Dollar United States - Dollar” 13:45 - PaxLaw Sorry Boys, our bankers and commercial people were quibbling over what level of support we give the US Economy. So, where do you want to start? Callum responded, “Icarus gave us a heads up; I’ll do most of the talking.” “Oh thank God; No offence boys, but I’ve been in meetings all day and the back and forth thing you two do would really be too much for my poor tired brain today.” Pax and Law both gave him a cheeky grin and spoke in perfect stereo “We understand completely.” Daedalus laughed “Good comeback, I like that; stereo I can handle — you have my permission to do stereophonic in future. Now what toys have you got to show me?” “Actually,” said Callum “We spoke with Haidar and Idrissa and I wanted to walk you thru our disaster scenario first.” “Ok” "As you know from our early framing discussion; all the examples we investigated had the same basic problem … transport logistics. Even if the airports are still working; the roads are out or blocked by unrest. Haiti was turning away planes for months because the airport kept backing up. I think you need to face facts; we aren’t talking about flying in a couple of plane loads of food and tents and lugging them cross country on whatever the local equivalent of horse-drawn carts is. Even if we use helicopters, they just don’t have the lift capacity - limited to single pallet loads. We’re talking about deploying a small city that provides basic needs and emergency care for 250,000 people. Each pod is 10 Metres high, 35 metres wide and 50 long. Sure, one accomodation pod can house 192 families of upto 5 adults and children. But, we’re still talking about 300 Accomodation pods alone if we include relief workers; with hospitals, medical centres, kitchens and dining rooms, and re-supply centres … we’re talking at least 400 - 450 pods. There’s no way you can sell this as some kind of philanthropic gesture; the logistics just don’t work." “So what are our options?" asked Daedalus "You can fund the existing organisations; they already have most of this in place; but typically them having adequate resources isn’t the problem; they’ll still face the same logistic problem they always do. The only way to deliver everything … in quantity …without relying on airports and roads … is using the Thunderbirds; and using the Thunderbirds means the balloon goes up - we go public.” Daedalus nodded and Callum continued. 15:00 - Icarus “You’re looking frazzled.” “Contingency planning - it’s a gordian knot. What to do if we’re forced to go public and how do we deploy in a major emergency without going public? I’d hoped to do some small scale disaster relief deployments to test our contingency planning for when we go public … but to intervene in any kind of useful scale that tests our preparedness … forces us into using technology that’s too advanced and we have to go public.” “I prescribe Food, Tea and Quiet … oh and reading the briefing notes for the Paraguay teleconference.” “Oh crap, I’d forgotten about that … 15:30 right?” “Yep.” 17:15 - Icarus. “Well, that went better than expected. Can you check in with the team and make sure they captured everything; it got a bit frantic … boy, I’ll be glad when we have a few more ships in program support roles … I’m going to have a quick nap. Wake me at 18:30 so can I freshen up and dress before London. Oh, did you sort out our deal sealer?” “Yes, I’ll tell you about later … while you’re changing. Remember it’s “Mr David Shaw and his husband, Mr Ishaq Shaw” tonight, so I’ve laid out matching outfits. 19:00 - London. “Prime Minister, as Ishaq has already pointed out, Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire is smack-bang in the middle of the UK. It’s a former manufacturing centre and the young people are moving away in droves, so there’s huge potential for redevelopment. The technology hub we’re proposing will foster a major investment boom in a dozen surrounding electorates once we start to identify component manufacturers. Co-locating it with the University has added benefits in Research and Development, and fosters the types of high-tech education and jobs young voters are crying out for” said David. “Frankly Prime Minister, we’re getting impatient. David spent 2 hours today in a teleconference with Paraguay; they’re itching to steal this opportunity. Now, I’ve committed $10Billion Euro’s to getting this project off the ground. Imagine the press if we walk away now and this opportunity is lost to South America.”

#sci-fi #lgbtq fiction #writers of tumblr #Long Reads #spilled ink prose #chapter 04

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raayllum · 6 months

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Remembered that you like exploring religious themes in TDP, and I just had a thought:

I was trying to figure out what it was about the connection between Callum's two arcanums that was giving me weird déjà vu vibes, and then I remembered that, in the biblical creation story, the sky and the sea were created on the same day-- the second day. And not only that, but all of the animals of the air and ocean (birds, fish, etc) were also created on the same day-- the fifth day.

Honestly, what Callum's arcanums remind me the most of is the myth of Icarus. *puts myth hat on cause this has been my favourite myth since childhood*

(Full edits here & here)

Specifically, Icarus is given wings, soars to new heights / too close to the sun, and then plummets to his death in the ocean. Now, the Book 2 novelization references the myth of Icarus quite clearly in its prologue, harkening to a past in-universe myth that a young girl defies by flying successfully, and clearly meant to invoke Callum unlocking the sky arcanum later in S2. Wings and flight and freedom and all that - unlimited potential

As someone who's always loved the myth of Icarus, it always fascinated me that in public consciousness, we only remember how Icarus did fail, and the fall itself, rather than how he could've fell and where he ultimately ended up. He was told not to fly too close to the sun or the ocean, and to pick the middle rode (moderation) in order to make it safely home. It's a cautionary tale about how we shouldn't fly too high or too low, but given that humans tend to be more self destructive with grandiosity and the fact it's the one that had actual consequences, I suppose it's unsurprising that the "Icarus flew too close to the sun" is what gets remembered universally.

I expected a sort of Icarus arc for Callum regarding magic the second he got his wings, tbh. Like... you just don't give a character who's already sometimes too persistent/curious/fixated for his own good and give him wings unless you want to invoke some of that imagery, and given that arc 2 (s4-s6) had to ultimately be a tragedy, it made sense to me that Callum would, well, Fall before rising again stronger than ever before. A broader arc that could parallel Ezran taking the throne, abdicating, and then becoming king again, or Soren's own restoration arc, if you will, within S3 or S1-S3 itself

AKA I was very hyped for the fact the season was called Ocean and that S4 had perfectly set up the pieces for Callum to have his first 'Fall' arc (cause S6 has to be worse, y'know? For 11th hour reasons). The fact that Callum goes from highest highs through magic & out of his love for Rayla (3x09 with wings) to current lowest lows through the same methods and same reasons (5x08) that's symbolized by unlocking the Ocean arcanum? Chef's fucking kiss, lemme tell you. Bonus edit here

That said, I don't think any of this was necessarily intentionally that specific, nor the even more specific parallel I'm about to lay out, but it tickled me pink so I'm including it

Callum flies too close to the sun with magic (specifically dark magic) in 2x07 and it comes back to haunt him. He flies too close to the sun in going to the Sunfire library in 5x04 and staying there past the time he should because he wants to help Rayla. Then he unlocks his freedom (literally) and connects to the Ocean arcanum, but this won't necessarily save him, ultimately, either.

But yeah. Sun and sky and ocean. Rise and flight and fall. We love a little Icarus boy

#thanks for asking #tdp callum #mythology #icarus callum is so personal to me #mini meta #tdp #the dragon prince #which like all the mages in the show are ultimately icarus until they're not #i don't tend to associate the mage fam with the bible / old testament (per a christian understanding cause #i can't speak for a jewish one)#but the christian symbolism is all over the mage fam / aaravos and i love it

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raayllum · 3 months

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So normal about Rayllum getting Hozier's Icarus song. So Normal. the Rayllum "Callum as Icarus" agenda is so real

#rayllum #happy valentine's day #hozier #icarus callum can be so personal to me #THE FACT IT'S THIS VERSE TOO #of 'if/when i fall just don't fall away from me'#AAH. TOGETHERNESS > SELF PRESERVATION

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raayllum · 6 months

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i need you to know the second i saw callum with feathers falling from his wings in the trailer the first thing i thought of was ur post

LISTEN LITERALLY YESTERDAY

screaming crying throwing up

+ bonus twitter

#tdp spoilers #icarus callum can be so personal to me #aaron ehasz #cast and crew #twitter #thanks for asking #anonymous #tdp #the dragon prince #s6 spoilers #s6 #trailer

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raayllum · 7 months

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If these heights should bring my fall Let me be your own Icarian carrion

#rayllum #rayllumedit #icarus callum can be so personal to me #'i was so excited to be learning magic i guess i got a lil carried away'#[kisses her] 'oh i'm sorry before i knew it my lips got carried away'#pining!callum #tragedy arc #my edits #graphics #music #hozier #arc 1 #arc 2 #multi #parallels #devil and the lovers #in the name of love

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raayllum · 5 months

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good gods i'm so late to the dragon prince train but seeing aaravos has made me want to watch the show . he's so icarus coded can anyone Hear Me . fallen star flew close to the sun so they put him in gay baby prison

Listen I'm getting to the point of having a thesis statement that all mages in the series are inherently tied to at least one Icarus-esque plotline before either succumbing to it, or being freed, case in point:

Ibis deciding to kill Claudia, rather than just incapacitate her, and even after she'd dropped the staff. If he'd just gone for the staff, it's unlikely that Terry would've outright killed him (and Claudia wasn't currently in the position too). He dies ('falls')

Viren literally dies and falls from a great height after being tackled off the Pinnacle, thanks to Aaravos' plans & schemings, and Callum literally grows wings and is also in the multi-season process of falling thanks to his dynamic/love of Rayla (she's why he did dark magic in the first place, leading to Aaravos' hold on him, and continued hold on him as of 5x08). When Callum eventually breaks fully free from Aaravos (late S6 / S7?) he will ultimately, likewise, be following in Viren's steps of breaking away from Aaravos as well. More Icarus Callum stuff here

Icarus was also told not to fly too close to the ocean lest it damage his wings - we can see this in Claudia literally nearly drowning/dying in the sea, losing a magically induced limb (much like the wings) due to getting in over her head, etc. and then literally washing up on the shore crying and devastated

Kpp'Ar is a 'genius inventor' who lost his 'son' (Viren) due to his own means, magic, and folly that he passed down onto him.

Aaravos flying too close to the sun twice, first with the Startouch elves and then with the archdragons, and being cast out / exiled twice for it and, perhaps even imprisoned twice for it. Now he's vying for freedom much like Daedalus and Icarus, but doesn't care who he has to step on it (Callum and Claudia both being his wings, perhaps - somewhat literally in Callum's case since the kid claimed "I am the wing" and the S6 teaser shots)

And Karim is like, clearly hurtling towards it with Kim'Dael and a literal sun seed / sun dragon, even if he doesn't know it yet. Moderation? Never heard of her

Cause to be a mage in TDP is inherently about wanting to manipulate and Fix the world around you and that's a very different thing than a king (who wants to rule and maintain order, while also instigating change) or a protector (who wants to look after / protect people from the dangers of the world). Mages crave power and a freedom from limitations, y'know? No wonder it fucks with their heads even when it's a positive thing, circumstantially

#tdp #the dragon prince #pawns #thanks for asking #anonymous #icarus callum can be so personal to me

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raayllum · 3 months

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stumbled across this old pre-s5 post and it got me thinking about the differences between Claudia/Terry and Callum/Rayla in S5 specifically in regards to the "let's save your parents" angle

Now some of this on the surface difference is because all Claudia cares about is keeping her father alive and saving him ("That's the only thing that matters - keep moving!") whereas Rayla routinely puts her family on the back burner ("But I can't help you yet" / "Not yet, Callum") but like

Terry and Callum each prioritize their partner's needs. For Terry, that means putting Claudia above Viren ("Everyone needs rest, especially you") and then on the same level (finding a way for her to rest and for them to keep moving at the same time). For Callum, it means prioritizing Rayla's parents and what she wants even when she's telling him not to (5x04) even though it leads to more disastrous consequences because he doesn't have an 'off' switch.

#icarus callum can be so personal to me #clauderry #rayllum #trees to meet you #s5 #parallels #5x02 #5x04 #tag ramble #i also think it's like. terry killing ibis was awful for him #but it's not something that actually eats claudia up inside? like she would've done it without flinching #she feels bad that terry feels bad #whereas callum's lack of an off switch is like.#whether soren would've wanted claudia to heal him with dark magic has some wiggle room #on the one hand he seemed to be processing well and didn't ask for it #on the other hand he's thrilled when he can move again #callum saving rayla with dark magic in 2x07 or esp 5x08 doesn't have that wiggle room #bc she wouldn't want that. she would 100% rather die to spare him having to do it #and he knows that. and does it anyway #just like in 5x04 all over again #bc he's insane and i love him

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raayllum · 1 year

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the second time i fall for you, i am sixteen. i see the heartache coming too late to stop it

( j.p. )

#rayllum #rayllumedit #constantly chasing after you #i need you to kill me #icarus callum is something that can be so personal to me #my edits #graphics #arc 2 #4x03 #quotes #s4 #like twice he Tries to walk away and rayla gives him the room to ultimately have it be i n his hands #and Twice (a nice lil bookend honestly) he can't do it. he can't cut her out. he won't and he doesn't Want to #so he stays. and just as importantly he lets her stay #and AAH #tragedy enjoyer

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raayllum · 2 months

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icarus by the crane wives as a broyals song <3

Climb ye higher and higher and higher 'Til you're far away and breathing cleaner air Oh my brother, my brother, my brother Who have you become in the wake of all that's happened here? They're burning down the orchard to the soil To the soil, to the grave Spreading out the ashes of a love That only gave and gave

#rayllum get hozier's so it's only fair the broyals get one too #tdp broyals #icarus callum is something that ca be so personal to me #music #the crane wives #mine

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raayllum · 4 months

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listening to dear icarus. thinking about callum.

#icarus callum can be so personal to me #music #insp #callum #s6 #arc 2 #tdp callum #mine #'why was this restless little soul within me made to fly'#'i have tendencies to only want what i shouldn't desire'#Oh I never could get rid of this / when heaven looks so limitless #I'm Icarus / A beautiful idiot

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raayllum · 7 months

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i finally listened to i, carion and it was a mistake

#'but if we fall i only pray don't fall away from me'#rayllum #HEAD IN MY HANDS #hozier #icarus callum can be so personal to me #BUT I CAN SEE THAT ALL ALONG LOVE IT WAS YOU ALL THE WAY DOWN #if anything could fall it's the world that falls away from me

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raayllum · 7 months

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Your post about I, Carrion is so funny to me because I literally just saw Hozier in concert last week!! He made a speech before he performed the song where he asked if anyone knew the story of Icarus and everyone cheered, so he said something along the lines of "Icarus fan club 2023, we all love to see our boy fall from the sky" and I absolutely thought of you

Listen I've been saving it for the right time / headspace cause I knew I was gonna love it (and probably find it very Rayllum-y) but I did not expect it to be such a tender love song or to make me cry. Icarus has been my favourite greek myth (with Oedipus as second) ever since I was a young child so anything with it metaphorically is sure to get me - the fact that it works even better for S5 (since I always loved that Icarus was told not to fly too close to the ocean as well) is just the cherry on top of an already accidentally perfect coincidence/parallel

Icarus Callum taking me along with him to the fall, I think - and I have zero complaints

#icarus callum is something that can be so personal to me #thanks for asking #anonymous #hozier #music #mythology #kind words #dragons rambles #good to know my icarus obsession is extending out into the real world

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raayllum · 9 months

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since Finnegrin sorta took Aaravos’s place in the rayllum development this season, was wondering if you had any parallels between the two figures specifically? :D

Oh yeah, for sure!!

There's the way they both have this almost gentlemanly, still too sinister to be entirely pleasant but like... calmer outer demeanour? But something cruel and volatile lurking right underneath when they get pissed that will be brutally unleashed if you dare disobey in a way that offends or presents an obstacle to them.

There's their associations with keys and threes (three quasar diamonds, three main mage pawns, three glowtoads, three keys to Finnegrin's door) in addition to being a clearly more rare kind of elf compared to the rest. There's the way they don't actually tend to fight their own battles, per se, but instead use vessels/pawns - for Aaravos, it's his collection of mages, and for Finnegrin, it's Elmer. Ownership and control go hand in hand with both of them. As Finnegrin says, "The chains are just for show," which feels very indicative of Aaravos' whole "I could just possess any of the dark mages in my collection, but I choose to bolster and manipulate them instead" and their reliance on fear.

But the big one, and the reason why I say I can swap them, is that the core prediction I had regarding Callum-Aaravos-Rayla just came true with Finnegrin swapped in for Aaravos - because Finnegrin is pushing forward and developing similar kinds of dilemmas I imagined along the exact same thematic axis those predictions were built off of: control vs freedom tethered together by love.

To me, Callum having a Key of someone who's imprisoned (and its majority negative associations in arc 1, i.e. being the symbol of temptation and dark magic in Callum's fever dreams) as well as Callum's own associations with freedom (wings like Icarus, the sky arcanum, emphasis in lines of dialogue, etc) seemed like an obvious through line of Callum playing into Aaravos' future machinations and setting the Startouch elf free, for some reason (or at least, foreshadowing being unable to stop him). People doing terrible things for love was a smaller undercurrent in arc 1 (largely with Claudia for her family, and Harrow out of grief with Sarai) and Rayla was the reason Callum had the cube in the first place, at risk to herself, so all those things compounded into Callum, under coercion, doing something he deemed terrible but necessary in order to save Rayla being held hostage/captive, no matter the risk.

S4 just added to this in major ways (and S6 could bring it, wildly enough, wholly to fruition - although I could see the 'captive' part be replaced easily with a fatal wound), largely due to the scene between Callum and Rayla in 4x07:

C: I'm not afraid [Aaravos will] hurt me. I'm afraid that he'll use me, to do awful things, or hurt people I care about.

However, it was always very clear to me that if it came to doing an awful thing or saving his loved ones, Callum would 100% always choose doing the awful thing to save his loved ones. And everything Callum was scared of here due to the lack of freedom and autonomy are things that literally happened in 5x08 thanks to Finnegrin.

Callum frames his relationship with Aaravos as one that's an inherent loss of freedom/control: "When Aaravos possessed me, back at the Storm Spire, I felt so weak and out of control." This is also the level of identity, of someone being able to use his body and strip away his voice - "I was his puppet".

Finnegrin's conversations with Callum centre around a similar theme, but he makes the initial mistake in trying to motivate Callum with his own freedom: "Just one dark magic spell, and you go free." He ignores Callum's obvious signs of 'weakness' ( "Tell me where my friends are") by assuming Callum is interested mostly because he wants to be free: "They won't be springing to your rescue" even when that's hardly what he cares about.

He identifies that Callum is deeply attached to his personal loyalties, but I can see Finnegrin thinking he's doing Callum some sort of twisted favour, in giving him the opportunity to sell out for his own freedom and leave his friends out to dry. (Love is weakness, after all. Shouldn't you want to prune yourself from weakness?)

The fact that Finnegrin is targeting Callum specifically because 1) Callum is a mage, 2) in relation to dark magic (when that was Aaravos' in, too) and 3) out of revenge (against an archdragon who's spared restricted him, and Aaravos wants revenge for his imprisonment & against the Startouch elves for also sparing but banishing/felling him) just furthers these thematic connotations between Finnegrin and Aaravos.

+ Bonus framing used to make it look like Callum is the one also in a cage, and a framing technique TDP has used before with always framing it so Claudia and Soren are the ones behind bars upon visiting their father in 3x03:

Then, much like Aaravos, Finnegrin baits a defiant Callum into a test ("those who fail tests of love are simple animals") that he's doomed to lose. Finnegrin's control is immediately set up to be exerted over everyone, yes, but Rayla in particular:

Because Finnegrin doesn't actually care about any of the other kids besides Callum. All he wants to do is break Callum's morale so that the boy will give up the information he needs, whether that's by trying to force Callum to pick someone to lose a hand (which the others remove as a coercive tactic) or by trying to get him to do dark magic again because as he says "You'll do anything for them."

But this, of course, is a false pretense. A lie. If Callum had done it here (and the show seems to imply he would have, or was seriously considering it), all Finnegrin would've had to do was use his blood spell to incapacitate everyone else. This is also an interesting point of note in some ways too, because technically... the episode could've just ended here.

Think of it this way: the overall structure of the episode is to get Callum's back against the wall so he uses dark magic, and accepts that he would use it, so he can gain a deeper understanding of himself and access the Ocean arcanum, leading to him throwing off Finnegrin's ice spell. Right? That's the Plot structure stuff that had to happen. If that was all that they wanted, you could do it in these scenes. The main cast would know Callum had done dark magic, which is the major difference, but surely wouldn't hold it against him. Callum could've done dark magic to get their chains off, could've had an impromptu Ocean arcanum realization, and things could've played out exactly as they do in the final scenes of the episode.

The episode could end here, but it doesn't, because well...

The writers chose to make him give up the information and do dark magic, specifically, to save Rayla. That's what they wanted. That's the relationship they chose to emphasize. Not the group dynamic, or one of the others (Soren or Ezran, mostly, as contenders), but for Rayla. Just like what I always expected Aaravos to prey upon too, even before and definitely after Callum and Rayla's talk in 4x07.

But Finnegrin still miscalculates, still not quite understanding that this isn't enough to keep Callum under control. If anything it spurs him further into continually more violent, escalating action: punching Finnegrin, giving up the spell (control), and when both of those prove futile, using dark magic to free himself (freedom) so he can save Rayla (love). And all of these lead him to the ocean arcanum: "To love is simply to know this: the tides are true as the ocean is deep [...] the Ocean arcanum is accepting there are depths you can't see."

Callum already didn't like doing dark magic, but as he says, "I had to, to save my friend(s)" and now he knows what that cost him: the threat of hurting his loved ones because doing dark magic has let Aaravos possess him. And here, as indicated by the intro change being the Callum pawn one, Callum has played into Aaravos' hands - at least marginally. He's accepted this darker side of himself, his willingness to do anything for the people he loves (including keeping secrets and trying to be "strong alone") - the part of him that Aaravos has arguably known all along. Remember those Tests of Love? Yeah Callum just passed one.

By and large, Finnegrin is a smaller, less smart stand in for Aaravos in 5x08. Revenge driven, focused on control and coercion, unnecessarily cruel, and willing to do anything to get what he wants - forcing Callum into the corner and subsequent choices for the person he Loves, as I predicted. (And there will probably be future parallels between Callum and Elmer regarding being pawns and breaking free and identity, but again: post for another day.) The fact that Callum's had this identity arc running throughout S4 and S5 ("Oh, I know [high mage] is my formal title, but you can just call me by my regular name" -> "I don't know how to feel about Rayla either" -> "I'm afraid, Rayla. What if I'm a path of darkness? -> "I have to go after him" "I know" -> "A lot has changed, but not everything's changed. I would do anything for you" -> "I'm not a dark mage" -> ?) and Finnegrin says that seeing Rayla in danger makes him Lose Himself (and Rayla's been setup to also Find Him & break him free of the brainwashing)? Love is a weakness, too, Callum's weakness (and strength). Finnegrin knew it, and I expect Aaravos knows it too, and that we'll see both of sides of the strength-weakness dichotomy come to fruition. TDP loves reconciling its dualities after all.

So yeah, we're in for a deep, wild, emotional ride.

TLDR; Finnegrin takes all of Aaravos' most direct thematic interplay (freedom, control, tests of love) with Callum from S4 and shores it up (pun intended) for the boy in S5, naturally pushing Callum further onto the "path of darkness" that Callum fears and Aaravos is relying on. After all:

Let's see just how far that anything goes, shall we?

#tdp callum #tdp aaravos #tdp finnegrin #tdp #5x08 #analysis series #the dragon prince #thanks for asking #anonymous #predictions achieved #theme: freedom #captain hostage exchange canon #tdp meta #analysis #parallels #s5 #arc 2 #this got longer than expected and idk why i Keep Being Surprised by it

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raayllum · 2 years

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Death Seeking and Life Giving :: An Orpheus-Eurydice Rayllum Meta + S4 Speculation

Rayllum has Orpheus-Eurydice parallels, and here’s why. Couple of disclaimers and debriefs to get out of the way before we begin.

If you’re not familiar with the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, the most simplified (and consistent) version is this:

Orpheus is a young, very talented musician who falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Eurydice (who fun fact, is widely considered to have been a forest nymph). On the day of their wedding, Eurydice dies (often times bitten by a snake, but sometimes through other tragic but blameless means), leaving him devastated. Orpheus then travels to the Underworld, singing songs so beautifully mournful that it makes rocks roll away and melts Hades’ heart to strike a deal: Orpheus can lead Eurydice out of the Underworld, but he must not look back until they were both out of the underworld to check that she was following behind him. Right at the precipice of freedom, or sometimes when Orpheus has taken his first into daylight, he looks back, and loses her forever. Then he mourns until, usually, some other nymphs who want to party tear him to pieces for being such a downer, or he commits suicide in some other manner.

For the sake of this meta, I’ll be looking at the basic structure of the myth rather than the exact details, and how this structure has already been used in TDP specifically for Callum and Rayla, twice, and how it may be used again in the future (season four). Additionally, I’ll be drawing some slight parallels from the musical Hadestown’s interpretation and writing of their relationship, because it fits Rayllum very well and adds a lot of nice depth in terms of characterization rather than just Orpheus and Eurydice as motifs.

Now, some of Rayllum’s Orpheus-Eurydice vibes can fall under how most stories, particularly in the Western canon of literature / world fit pretty neatly in the Hero’s Journey structure, including the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice point blank. The Hero’s Journey dictates leaving your home, some kind of descent into the Abyss (literal death, the underworld, a harmful confrontation or personal loss, etc.) before returning home, changed as a person. (TDP has smatterings of this across the course of the three seasons, and even some episodes that fulfil the arc on a microlevel, like Callum’s journey into and out of the storm in 2x04.)

The reason I’m saying this is specifically Orpheus and Eurydice paralleling Callum and Rayla then, respectively, is because of how the overarching themes of Love and Death specifically are so intertwined, as well as magic being mapped onto music extraordinarily well from a structural standpoint. (TDP has also borrowed heavily from specifically Greek myth before. The season two novelization opens with a myth clearly paralleling Icarus, and Aaravos has been compared as a Prometheus figure to humankind.) Also, I Like It and it makes me Emo. So there.

With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

What is a Death Seeker and What is a Life Giver?

So in TDP, a clear cut black-and-white Good or Evil is largely disregarded as a dichotomy. Elves are right that dark magic is wrong, but are morally reprehensible to their own kind, with cruel and unjust punishments (Ghosting, the Light ceremony). Humans are misguided by dark magic and fear mongering, but are also always the ones taking the first step to Break the Cycle across the course of the first three seasons. Sometimes villainous characters do heroic things, and sometimes more heroic characters are burdened by regret or bad choices.

Thus, a more useful dichotomy to examine the characters of The Dragon Prince under is whether they are a Death Seeker or a Life Giver. This dichotomy extends past the divide of elven or human, or even heroic or villainous, and encompasses characters at different point. For example, Soren starts off as a Life Giver, is then a Death Seeker, and then goes back to being a Life Giver, paralleling his arc of restoring his role as a crownguard to the one true king: first Harrow, and then Ezran.

But what exactly is a Death Seeker or Life Giver beyond the slightly self explanatory names? Well, a Death Seeker is someone who seeks others’ deaths, whether in perpetuating the cycle, and/or seeks out their own end with little hope of salvation. There is a difference, after all, between being self sacrificial and taking on a suicide mission. A Life Giver is thereby the exact opposite. They advocate for others, of course, but also advocate for their own well being.

Following the Soren example from before, Soren starts out as a Life Giver - protecting his own life and the life of his king. Then, thanks to what Viren has asked him to do, Soren takes big risks with his own and others’ safety and wellbeing. Soren leaves Viren in 3x07 because it’s the right thing to do, but also because he fundamentally doesn’t feel safe there anymore, after almost being turned into a monster like the rest of the army.

Now, not all distinctions are as clear cut as this. Soren ‘seeks’ Viren’s death in 3x09 in order to protect Ezran, even at great harm to his emotional well being. Callum, who for all intents and purposes in this meta will be our primary Life Giver, risks destroying his body by doing dark magic in 2x07 with little regard for his health. However, the difference between — overall — one-off ventures and overall Narrative is hopefully clear. For example, I would argue both of these actions are still under the Life Giver umbrella, because they are responding to a situation of ongoing violence and acting in defense, rather than as an instigator, and do so in advocation of the personhood of someone else; Ezran is Soren’s true king, and Rayla is Callum’s true friend.

But, with the initial definitions in mind, there are two main groups who fall into Death Seeking on a thematic and narrative level: assassins and dark mages. Claudia takes untold damage unto her own body with two of her most tantamount spells, and actively causes harm to others. She is perhaps the most obvious Death Seeker due to her inherent passivity and the way she becomes more and more embroiled / associated with death symbolism as the series goes on until it reaches its first head in 3x09. (She and Viren are also associated with snakes, but we’ll put a pin in that for later.)

And, because I keep coming back to Raydia parallels, Rayla is also a Death Seeker. A much more heroic one, who will advocate for other people on occasion, even as TTM makes her relapse into a poor frame of mind amid cultural abuse yet again (but again, more on that later). Part of this is because Rayla is the only character who enters the show as an Antagonist for both the humans and the elves. She is the first character to be caught in the middle, opposing everything the human characters are currently all trying to save (King Harrow’s life), and also ruining whatever chance her mission has of success, angering and endangering her fellow assassins. Much of season one, then, is pushing her into a more positive role for the humans, and much of season three examines whether or not she is right to oppose the elves — and how to reverse it if she can.

Callum meanwhile is decidedly a Life Giver. While Rayla is chasing at the cycle and disappointed/angry at herself for struggling to perpetuate it, Callum is already arguing for peace. Even when Callum is risking his life by taking Ezran’s place, Callum argues for his own life. He is his own advocate and also advocates for other people’s lives: “You don’t want to die, I’m sure the elves and dragons don’t want to die, so everyone agrees [...] We have to take this egg and return it to Xadia.” More importantly, in contrast to Rayla, Callum never argues for his own death. He’s willing to sacrifice himself to Sol Regem in 3x01, but Rayla dissuades him with a quick, smiling “Calm down,” and it’s never brought up as an option again. Compare and contrast that to the argument she and Callum have in 3x08, where she’s arguing for him to let her stay there to die.

This also plays into the broader theme of assassins and dark mages in the series being 1) inherently self destructive and 2) destructive to the world around them. Rayla is willing to sacrifice her own life to kill Viren and save Zym; Claudia is willing to sacrifice someone else’s life to save her father, as well as metaphorically (and literally) slaughtering a piece of herself.

Assassins enact death and dark mages become closer to death in appearance they further on they go. The elves who intersect with dark magic — such as Aaravos, or the upcoming Bloodmoon Huntress from the comics — extend their lives past natural limitations, enacting more violence as they go along. Alternatively, primal magic is restorative and life giving, giving Callum back his breath, and guided by more positive memories of the dead, like his mother and King Harrow.

And it is through Rayla’s relationship with Callum that she begins to shift from being a Death Seeker.

But why do I say that Callum is specifically the Life Giver — the lover, her Orpheus, who attempts to walk his Eurydice back from the grave — to Rayla’s Death Seeker? Well, in many ways, Rayllum has always been a pair in the way their arcs and characters intersect and interact, even separately from their romance. They are one half of the narrative whole, with Ezran and Zym as the other half and being literally soul bonded.

Through Callum, primal magic is not only linked to restoration and life, but also specifically to art. Art and primal magic create and maintain life, rather than destroy it the way that Dark Magic has to, often to just do more damage.

So just to reiterate: Orpheus is a character primarily defined by the beauty of his art being so intense it allows him to accomplish some pretty magic feats in order to try to save the love of his life. I wonder who that sounds like. And while Rayla is currently alive, she comes a culture that encourages you to act as though you are already dead, and literally turned into a Ghost by her village. She is also haunted and risks her life the most against dark magic and with characters — Claudia and Viren — who are each associated with snakes. So we have a guy with art so powerful it works like magic, attempting to save the woman he loves after a snake has felled her. I think we can safely conclude that Callum works as an Orpheus figure, and Rayla works as an Eurydice figure.

Okay, so they have some of the motifs. That could be true of multiple couples. What’s the big deal? Well... Callum and Rayla have the mythic structure too, twice — and possibly thrice over — and here’s how.

3x09 — The Micro Level

Remember how I said earlier that 2x04 is the Hero’s Journey on a microlevel for Callum, beat for beat, featuring the leaving home, journey into the abyss, and the return home? Well, 3x09 is that for the Orpheus and Eurydice motif on a microlevel, specifically with the Leap. Rayla-Eurydice dies due to snake related matters (literal or metaphorical), and Callum-Orpheus is bereaved.

Then, he hits a similar point of resolve with Orpheus, of “I am either returning with her or I am not returning at all,” undertaking an extremely dangerous and rare quest (or chance) because he has just the tiniest chance at saving the love of his life. So Callum-Orpheus takes the plunge, being so moved by love they are able to transform the world around them or their own bodies. Callum remains true to his faith in himself and in Rayla, and so he successfully saves her, whereas Orpheus looks back and loses Eurydice forever.

Fun fact: In Greek myth, Hermes, who is associated with wings and messages, guides souls to the Underworld to be ferried across by Charon. Ibis fits this Hermes role in terms of being associated with wings, giving Callum access to the knowledge he needs to follow Rayla off the pinnacle. Grecians would bury the dead with a coin under their tongue so they could pay Charon to take them across, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to enter the world properly. (Cue Rayla’s “somebody has to pay the price” attitude, yes?)

So this is the basic mythic structure on a micro-level, of one scene in one episode, that parallels other previous patterns of Callum perpetually running after Rayla, even through the dank and gloom and even into the night.

But Rayllum has an even greater, less metaphorical and more literal Orpheus and Eurydice structure in Through the Moon, and that’s what we’re going to talk about next.

Through the Moon — A Cyclical Nature

So Through the Moon is inherently about cycles. Rayla is caught in a cycle of uncertainty, fear, and grief. This leads her to live out other circles laid down before her, particularly by following in Runaan’s footsteps and shown most clearly in her choice to leave Callum in the end and take the mission to hunt down Viren on her own. Because, y’know, going it alone to hunt down a king of Katolis has never gone wrong before. More examination of these parallels here and here. Through the Moon also replicates Callum’s trauma with watching someone he loves drown (like Ezran in 1x06); goodbye letters (like Harrow’s); and having someone lie to him at the Moon Nexus (Claudia in 2x02/2x03). So you have those cycles, as well as Rayla’s cycle of self loathing and martyr complex, as well as her and Callum’s dynamic of her running/leaving and him chasing.

We’re gonna talk about Post-TTM and rule of three later, so keep all those things in your head. However, TTM follows the mythic structure of Orpheus and Eurydice pretty damn closely, even more so than 3x09 has.

For starters, you have the portal itself, which is decidedly an Other World, like the underworld, where you can communicate to and visit the dead. It’s also water, which has ties to the River Styx, the river souls must be ferried across in the first place. You still have Callum’s motif of ‘art as magic’ (music) carrying over from 3x09 and the main part of his Orpheus motif. The stakes, notably, are also exceedingly similar; Orpheus has already lost Eurydice to death, and that’s what Callum is trying to avoid with Rayla.

[Wait for me, I’m coming / Wait, I’m coming with you / Wait for me, I’m coming too, I’m coming too]

So you have Rayla descending into the Underworld, Callum following her to get them both out, with his magic (art/music) being what ultimately saves both of them.

They get to come out of the Underworld hand in hand, rather than Callum walking ahead and having to trust that Rayla is following behind. But still, they successfully come out of the closest thing TDP has to a literal underworld, happily reunited the same way they were at the end of 3x09. Callum is an Orpheus who gets to save his Eurydice, time and time again. 3x09 was the most triumphant, with zero actual consequences to either of their risk taking. TTM starts to change that, with Rayla discovering Viren is alive (or alive to her, anyway) and sets off, forming a wedge between her and Callum.

So let’s talk about

Season Four and the Rule of Three

A lot of mythos, but Greek myth in particular, is obsessed with three. Three sons of Rhea that rule the Earth, Sea, and Sky; three generations before the gods as we know them (primordial to titan to god); three Fates (although that’s in Norse mythology too, with the Norns). Most mythic structures as well, for more ‘complicated’ storied mythos has the rule of three. A hero must conquer three trials, for example. The first serves as an introduction, the second sometimes as a particular test of faith, and the third determines whether or not the story is a tragedy or not. This test structure is also where we get a lot of our basic ‘three act story’ structure that TDP has confirmed they are explicitly borrowing from, with the show divided into 3 clear arcs (s1-s3 = arc 1, etc). The seasons themselves are often made up of three mini arcs, most readily seen in the opening three episodes of s1 and s2, and all throughout season one in particular.

The three act structure also dictates what we most commonly see play out in literature and the Western canon of:

Act 1: introduction / exposition, inciting incident or conflict Act 2: montages, relationship building, often ends with hero’s Lowest moment Act 3: they get over the lowest moment and figure out a way to solve their problems.

Tragedies follow a similar structure. (Aristotle actually believed there were three main principles of Tragedy to begin with called the Three Unities, however they are different from these three, lol, but the Greeks still knew tragedy like almost no one else). For example:

1) Orpheus is an amazing musician. He loses Eurydice and decides to go to the underworld to get her back. (Act 1: introduction, main conflict.) 2) Orpheus successfully travels to Hades and convinces the king of the dead to let him take his lover back up to the land of the living, but there is a test. (No darkest moment, which is key.) 3) Orpheus fails the test.

Basically, if Act 2 ends too happily, you 99% got a tragedy on your hands. Which is good news, because in our Orpheus and Eurydice motif, TTM has been our act 2 — and it ended horribly. Here we see the convergence of the multiple layers of mythos.

TTM has just been the mythic structure fulfilled both happily and tragically, with Rayla choosing — in many ways — both metaphorically and literally, in risk taking to go back to the Underworld. Callum is then reaching a double crossroads. Does he follow her down into hell, again? And in other ways, this is arguably the first time he’s being tested. For so much of s1-s3, and even in TTM, saving Rayla was a no brainer. Whatever chance he had, Callum had zero hesitation, zero misgivings. In his heart and in his mind, he had no reason not to.

Now, thanks to TTM, there is a seed of doubt. The past two times, they came out of hell hand in hand, literally in the case of TTM. Callum has tried to have Rayla follow him before in 3x08, but she refused until they could stand together.

In Season Four, if Callum goes after her, he will ultimately be asking Rayla to follow him again. Follow him out of Hell and for him trust that she will this time rather than doubling back.

Orpheus: It’s not a trick? Hermes: It’s a test.

Now, I’m not suggesting that they’ll be unsuccessful, just because the two prior times they made it out together. Remember, TTM as it fits into the three act structure is still our tragedy centrepiece. It’s still what’s setting up the test they will both have to follow through on. The fact that Aaravos, who Rayla has no idea is defending her current target, has been compared to Satan doesn’t hurt the metaphor either.

Remember what I said about Life Givers advocating for others as well as themselves? In both of Callum’s prior descents into hell, he’s had to work to save Rayla and himself. He’s had to literally be a Life Giver to both of them in order for the Death Seeking to be kept at bay, and Rayla actively helps him in the portal in TTM, grabbing the feather that gets them both out of there as well. Even with her relapses, Rayla is already on that path. She’s already following, reaching for him, too. Even in TTM, the heart of our tragedy, she’s working to become a Life Giver. She’s working to restore both of them.

They’ll finally break their own cycle, firmly.

This will be a for a few reasons. The first is that Callum, although he has routinely doubted himself and gets stuck in his head quite often, has had a lot of that doubt eroded by Rayla and their bond. She often encourages him to not look back and to not worry too much about the future. So Rayla has unknowingly been giving him the tools (and possibly the Cube/Key) needed to successfully save her. And she will be undertaking her own journey, to think that she is worth saving — and so that she can help save him, too, the way she’s always done.

Callum will help walk them both out of hell, and Rayla will let herself follow.

Till eventually, they get to stand in the light, side by side and hand in hand, never to be Parted again.

Conclusion

As always, this is just one theory and possible prediction of future TDP events. Even if season four doesn’t follow through on this (or even subverts the current mythic structure) that’s totally normal and fine. As much as there’s precedent for TDP borrowing Greek mythic structure (but with happier endings), all these parallels are probably completely unintentional — and that’s part of what makes it so fun. After all, whether intentionally or not, we echo the stories we’ve heard before, because

It’s an old song It’s an old tale from way back when It’s an old song And we’re gonna sing it again and again We’re gonna sing it again

#rayllum #tdp #the dragon prince #i should do structure analyses more often they're so fun #tdp meta #mythology #analysis series #orpheus and eurydice motif #analysis #parallels #through the moon #hadestown #arc 1 #arc 2 #predictions #the english major strikes again #this is the most english major thing i have Ever written lmao #3x09

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