I understand your criticism about the actual plot point, but I think they justify it pretty well in the comic. Rayla has lost so much because of Viren. Both her parents, one of her step dads and the other she can't talk with because of the aftermath with Viren. So it makes sense she becomes so overprotective of Callum, the only person she has left, that she'll abandon him to keep him safe. Whether that direction is good or not, that's up for debate, but there are in story and in character reasons for this to happen.
yeah but its the fact it happened in the comic and may not in the show, the comic is fine it that most of the fandom won't read it so not a problem with the story its a problem with the medium its told in
Its illogical for her to assume Viren is alive. She doesn't have enough information to base that theory on. If she had, then everyone would think he somehow survived, because they did search for the corpse but didn't find it. I don't get it why would that not happen tbh, its again illogical. They should search for Viren's body to make sure he didn't survive somehow. It would also be better not to have human skeletons under Storm Spire lol
From a story perspective it makes sense to seperate rayla and callum. I mean we had season 3 for rayla and callum. The writers have now the oppurtunity to develope callum and rayla as seperate characters. Callum can now have important moments with ezran, soren etc. The writers can use rayla to introduce us to more moon shadow culture stuff. Callum needs to be vulnerable to aaravos and Rayla is a bit out of place in katolis (she would be a background character). Rayla is an active character that needs to make choices. In katolis she would be a just callums girlfriend and wait until the plot comes to her (passive character). Therefore i can understand that the writers want to split up raylum.
funny part about this comment is that everything you said, including the passive character part, still happened with them split apart so there really wasn't much of a point
I think the idea of a time skip is that things change. There are going to be lots of new stuff us viewers never saw. Ezran is used to being a king, Callum has more experience with magic, Viren has been gone... In other words, it will be confusing and it's up to the first few episodes to explain for us. So "Rayla has been gone this entire time" should be easy to add to the list of things that changed during the time skip.
I partially agree but most of what you mentioned you Can kinda see it coming from the ending of season 3, but Rayla just ditching Callum you wouldn’t. At the end of that season they are portrayed as The power couple and then she’s suddenly gone, it doesn’t feel natural
I understand the concerns with how they'll tackle Rayla's character this season, but I really don't feel like they broke Rayllum up to add drama to the series. It's an unfortunate byproduct, but it made total sense to me when I read the novel for Rayla to leave. One of her biggest character flaws is that she takes the burdens of everything that happens on herself. She has a massive savior complex and even Callum says it right before he kisses her in s3 that "she does what's right even when it puts her own life in danger." She's the type of elf that doesn't want to bother anyone with her burdens and would rather shoulder hers and everyone else's alone so no one else has to deal with them. On top of that, she'd just learned that Viren had taken everyone she had ever loved previously from her, her parents, obviously Runaan, and all her people turned against her as a result of what happened. So of course she's not going to take Callum with her where she's not even sure if she'll survive, just to keep him safe and away from Viren. Rayla wants Callum as far away from danger as possible. We see this even right before the final battle where she said she had to stay even though everyone else was leaving for safety. But because Callum refused to leave her, they took a final stand. I don't agree with what Rayla did and I think it was a stupid decision (can't lie, those strings tied to Callum in the promo image terrify me), but I understand her line of thought and the reason behind her leaving Callum behind. She would say that she loved him too much to let him put himself in that kind of danger, but if she loved him in a healthy way, she would have let him make his choice in the matter instead of making it for him. It's disappointing, and I definitely don't think it's that Rayla didn't love Callum, it's just that she has a lot of fear and hasn't been in a relationship before. Anyways, just my two cents in that there are definite in-character and story reasons behind the decision that Rayla made. Though, I do agree that they shouldn't have put this important of a plot point inside the comic. I really thought that Bloodmoon Huntress was going to be where they brought everyone back together before the plot of it came out and I hope they do a good job of explaining it in the series for those that didn't know it existed or hate reading graphic novels.
I'd argue it could be fixed pretty simply. After the first few scenes, just cut to show her on her journey, perhaps showing a hooded figure walking into a bar, only to reveal it's her looking for something to point her towards Viren, perhaps trying to find his wife or something. Have a secondary story following her, until eventually she runs into Callum and Ez near or at the season climax.
Important elements to the story should always be explained or present in the main show. If they release a book/comic with important information in it to the main story, they have to explain it in some way in the show as well. Same thing with twitter confirmations, talk about it in the show, so you don't have to do it on twitter where only a handful of the show's fans will see it.
i may be spouting bs but from what i've heard on other videos about korrasami nick was completely fine with the relationship being shown on screen imo i think they just wanted to make more money of the ship so mad it into a book
Same. You gotta look back at the landscape of tv when TLOK aired. Let alone the fact it was relegated to online episodes for the last season. Nick was already done with the show. Putting an LGBT scene was "too risky," iirc. Hence why they only added a confirmation in the last 30 sec, let alone a hand hold that could be written off as "friends."
I agree. I'm really disappointed OP skimmed over the homophobia in Nickelodeon. they went on & on about how all the straight characters got air time but then mentioned in 1 sentence how "I understand it's due to Nick but my point stands". no, it doesn't. everything else does- Zuko's mom/The Search does fit in this argument but the gay representation was an entirely different issue.
I mean, as long as they end up explaining it well, I don't think it'll be too much of a detriment. I'd actually be really interested to see if Rayla's been traveling with Suroh, as a callback to Bloodmoon Huntress!
I agree with all of this, particularly 8:07 and 8:20. It seems like whenever characters get together before the last seconds of a show, they either break up or there’s a bunch of unnecessary drama.
Thank you for pointing this out. I also don't think major cannon important development to a comic that 75% of the fans won't buy and read. Also forced breakup and constantly starting the relationship from square one is also very annoying.
not sure but maybe the events between rayla and callum will be explained in the later episodes I did like some parts of story book not all of them, the seperation was ok i guess she was afraid to put him into danger and lose him it could have maybe been handled better but I would have preffered if it was going more like that the reason why they needed to seperate was that callum needed to protect ezran since they dont know when danger might come at them and would probably need the suppoort of his brother and Rayla is just going to gather information about Viren being sneaky as an assasin not like she is going to fight him on her because she would most likely lose i mean she doesn´t even know if he is alone or not but yeah i have a feeling she would actually try that
In my opinion Rayla still being ghosted makes sense despite her saving Zim because she is from a small village in which 4-5 families lost their loved ones because of her decision to spare the life of a human guard
The time skip is definitely necessary, since it’s taken Them like three years to release the next season which is a little ridiculous. The whole Rayla thing I think is probably just gonna feel off. For them to have a happily ever after to Rayla leaving is just gonna feel weird to me
To be fair, they didn’t even get their renewal until the Covid shutdown was in its peak. And then they probably wanted to at least script out all of the seasons before diving into full production
You do know why they took this long right? They were busy building up their own company, expanding the Dragon Prince brand, go into pre-production for the upcoming seasons, and they finished the story arc relatively well. So ridiculous isn't exactly the word I would choose.
Actually there is a way for them to keep this plot point but not totally assassinate Rayla's character. Callum has responsibilities as the only human mage left. He is probably the only one who can teach others magic and the only one with enough understanding of dark magic to unravel all of Viren's secrets. Now Rayla not wanting to endanger Callums life or the only home of humans gaining magic outside of dark magic I could see why Rayla. If given time apart and clever writing both can learn the same lesson that responsibility is more important than personal desire. I have seen arcs like this before and they can work really well and the don't necessarily have to compromise the relationship with the people involved. But it has to be done well give Rayla the wrong reasons for leaving or regress her character for the reunion and it will all fall apart.
I think it's actually realistic, if rayla is afraid to lose him she might think it's safer to keep him in katolis, she knows he's a mage but she's also seen how powerful viren is and she might think he's more powerful
So, could Rayla come back, without a partner, but say, "The very fact that I left without you sadly means I didn't trust you the way l thought I did. And I'm still trying to figure out why I left you. Until I solve that puzzle, I can't be good enough to be with you." Callum would disagree, and the story could roll on in any direction the series chooses. But that's just me. I'll let you go back to your TED Talk.
i think the split is a good idea, both from a character perspective and a writing one - i love rayla and callum a lot, they're really fun characters but tbh their romance was a little rushed imo and i think having them seperate, develop away from each other, and *then* bring them back and have them fall back in love a little more slowly will not only bring along some fun drama but will also help that rushed feeling i get from S3; having them drop ILY's at the end felt really off to me and kinda unbelievable, like...how long had they been traveling? 6 months? anyway that's my 2 cents
To be fair, Dragon Prince is made by the some of the same guys who made Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Avatar kinda had a history of doing the same thing Dragon Prince seems to be doing now. Hiding pretty important information (I.E: Zuko looking for his mother & What happened to Azula after the conclusion of the war) in the pages of novels. Not saying that it's a good thing or anything, just saying that history seems to be repeating itself & old habbits die hard. While I would love to see this in the form of animation, it may be saved for a minor scene in a flashback with Rayla. I still can't help but be excited for Book 4 coming out later this year, it's been so long and I hope they've just been polishing their storytelling and animation in that time. So, I'll take the good with the bad
I see your perspective on rayllum and the lack of healthy, loving romances in media, but I do think that in THIS case, the angst and conflict is perfect for them. I love rayla and callum together but it's not controversial to say that they were very rushed in season 3 and callum in particular was not given enough time to really fall for rayla the way she fell for him in the first two seasons. callum's love never really worked for me, it didn't make sense, it felt too quick. i believe if they were given more time they would've fleshed them out more but what's done is done, and all they can do now is rebuild their relationship now that they are older. i mean they were kids when they started dating, and rayla was not healthy nor fully developed when they did. rayla's trauma, her unhealthy loner mindset, the amount of times she wanted to bolt or do things on her own literally set this relationship up for failure. she was BOUND to leave, her leaving in the comic was absolutely no shock to me. an unhealthy, mentally disturbed 15 year old is not going to think about how her boyfriend is powerful and can help her. she loves callum, he's all she really has left. every other loved one in her life has ended up dead, missing, or they've left her first. she likely believes that callum staying by her side will only result in his death, she truly believes that she must do things on her own. she must develop from this mindset, must understand that her loved ones leaving is not her fault. she must come to that realization on her own, she needs to grow up before her and Callum can really date again. I believe Callum has been better developed, but he still has a TON of growing to do. For this season to separate them and allow them to grow on their own with some conflict and angst on the way is literally the best thing they can do for Rayla and Callum. My god, didn't mean to make this comment so long
I understand what you're saying, and that being said I haven't read Through The Moon, but I think there's SO much more to Rayla's perspective that we're yet to see. They're not just going to do it for no reason, there are legitimate storytelling purposes behind splitting them up.
I agree with your point on manufacturing relationship drama. how hard is it to actually let them have a loving wholesome relationship where they support and love each other. if they're always fighting is it really a Google relationship?
Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I certainly would have missed something going into Season 4 if you hadn't made this video, as I hadn't heard about the book. I think that Callum is probably going to have to do some of the magic elements on his own to gain access to all the elements. And the dark magic may involve Claudia at some point. So I don't mind a change of pace, they could even make it awkward with a love triangle of sorts if they wanted to, where Callum moves on to another woman and Rayla comes back and there is a will they won't they.
I literally just read the book today, and it is a fine read. Not having seen any of the new season, like the rest of the fandom, I can't yet comment on how things begin to play out, but I can say I have always hated sudden time-skips. I'm also a big fan of the re-made Battlestar Galactica, and they did something similar in there too. Boomer went from being a hated, distrusted and locked up Cylon skin-job to Admiral Adama's confidante and a trusted member of the crew, almost overnight, but with a year having passed, with no explanation or background as to how this all transpired. It was like the whole season hit a speed-bump in the road. I hope the same doesn't happen with TDP, or at least there's a smoother transition from the past to the present.
Thank you for catching us up on what has been going on with this show. I'm still looking forward to season 4 but the news with Rayla is rather disappointing. I'm not really against the idea of her being away, but I don't like how they did it. I could understand if she got bored in Katolis and felt like she could be using this time to investigate. But maybe Callum becomes too busy with his duties so she tells him she'll just go alone. Weeks go buy but she doesn't come back. Callum sends a search party after her but to no success, and he's left with guilt that he hadn't gone with her. I don't know, to me that sounds better than her suddenly leaving him but you may disagree with me.
I agree of the critique BUT the creators said in a cartoon universe interview that there will be flashbacks related to the "breakup" and it will be a "I had too" moment and I think the confusion was intended so yeah
they shoulda just made the graphic novel into a tv special. lil 30 minute special to bridge the gap instead of a novel half the fandom doesnt even know exists
Yeah, the only thing I don't like is the fact that, like you mentioned, something so important to the story (rayla leaving) is gonna confuse many people. For example, I have two friends who have watched TDP but have no idea that the light novel exists...and I only read it because I am a rayllum shipper, I wasn't prepared for something like that happening in a TDP book. The only way they can fix this problem is if there's a whole episode in S4 showing what happened in the LN. I hope this doesn't affect Rayla's character...
I honestly agree with most of the things you’ve said. The one thing I love about Rayllum is the lack of drama and overdramatized conflict in their relationship. I’m really worried that they’re just going to become another stereotypical couple with forced conflicts and dumb arcs. However, I’m hopeful that the developers will actually make this work and it might actually turn out better than expected. Also, as someone who’s read through the moon, I believe Rayla’s decision to leave was pretty accurate for her character. She’s selfless to a fault and knows she’d be putting Callum in danger should he come with her on her quest to find answers or whatever. It’s the same with the ending of season 3 when they fight. That never really got resolved and I believe Rayla still harbors those toxic beliefs deep down and will have to work through those as a part of her arc. Not sure whether that’s where the developers will take it, but that’s what I’m hoping to see in the rest of the saga.
I do see your point on the comic. It's odd to place such an insane plot point in a short comic, but honestly, I don't think it's all that confusing. I checked out of TDP after season 3 released because I was afraid I wouldn't be getting another season. But now with the announcements, I've been investing myself in this show again, and the first spoiler I heard from fan's was Rayla's absence. I wasn't even slightly shocked or disappointed by this, because it makes sense. If you know and understand Rayla, which I really believe I do, I think it is 100% in character and good for her character moving forward. Season 3 lacked in Rayla's development, she was too Callum centered and it hindered her growth in the season. She wasn't given time to be alone to self reflect, or grieve, or understand herself. Her leaving Callum was honestly the best thing they could've done in my opinion.
Just my opinion. I do agree that Callum is everything that Rayla had left. Her family and friends are all trapped in a cursed coin. And she believed that leaving Callum is the only safe way. Basically in my POV, Callum don’t believe that Viren is alive (which he actually IS alive, by Claudia using a spell), But Rayla believed that Viren is alive and she want to keep Callum safe. Atleast that is what I think. And she went off a 2 years trip, and didn’t find Viren. And of course, that broke Callum’s heart. It is not like they don’t like each other. Not gonna lie, I also agree that Rayla is traumatised by what happened to the people she loves. The only people she trust the most tried to kill her, and then got caught, her family is being stuck in a cursed coin… etc. I mentioned this (at the top) So… yep. And she always want to do everything by herself. Ok imma talk about the Rayla leaving Callum behind thing. Probably because Rayla think that if Callum go with her, he will be in danger….
They explain why Rayla's not there in Through the Moon, where she leaves Callum to try and find Viren (who she thinks is still alive) to protect him (him being Callum, not Viren lol), right after she promised Callum they'd go together. Also, it was the night before his fifteenth birthday and I guininely think Callum loved her very much, like wanted to spend the rest of his life with her
I think their plan will work, but there are better ways. What if rayla had stayed behind to become the new dragon guard? Rayla and callum promise to keep in touch, but magic dream stuff and she goes of in search of answers to what happened to viren and her parents. Maybe she tells callum, maybe she doesn’t, but either way something happens and she drops off the grid. Now I don’t know what their intended plans are for the character, so this may be the worst idea ever. We’ll have to wait and see
@@AccumulatedKnowledge in this scenario I imagine they stayed at the dragon place for a bit before immediately heading home. But they’ll eventually have to go their separate ways, otherwise one becomes a less interesting character
I'm pretty sure they'll actually explain why rayla left in book 4, we only find out she left at the end of episode 1 so im assuming the next ones will actually dive into it, maybe not in big detail cause that's what the novel is there for but still the overall reason why she's not there
I agree that it's a mistake to have something so important to the plot occur in a comic. The series originated in a show format and thus, everything core to the plot should occur in that same medium. Stories in other media (such as comics/graphic novels) should not be pivotal to understanding what's happening in the show. Can you imagine how confused people would be if the MCU told people to go read specific comic books to understand why Hawkeye is suddenly in the middle of fighting a new supervillain we've never heard of on another planet in an upcoming movie? While they can certainly be used to create hooks to drum up interest, time-skips normally exist to pass over the boring parts of a story when not much is changing. Time-skipping over important plot points is generally unsatisfying for a viewer, as it creates unnecessary dissonance between our experience and the plot. In this case, Rayla has left the group to forge her own path. Yes, for her it's been two years, but for show-only viewers, she and Callum just had a healthy, happy relationship last they had seen. Now all of a sudden the opposite is the case? It feels like whiplash because the viewer didn't get to see these events play out organically. While I'm a Rayla and Callum shipper and was happy to see them get together, I can see the appeal of breaking them up, even if I don't agree with that decision. I just think it should have been done at the beginning of season four--or else not have had them officially get together at all in season 3. Having Rayla leave in the height of us asking "Will they/won't they" seems like it would have built far more suspense about the future of their relationship status than having them "break up" so shortly after they got together.
How do you know that they mess up rayla in s4? If fans speculate that rayla is maybe an imposter. Until her reaction to the coins(last episode) the rayla is an imposter holds merit. Her suspicios pet(star arcanum), not caring about dragons, forgetting ibis name and not accomplishing anything in the 2 year time skip. I mean the set up is there. But i think its a bad sign if the viewers dont recognize rayla as rayla.
I agree with the opinion that creating unnecessary tension to a stable relationship to rebuild dynamics from the ground up is tiring. I don't agree that putting the plot point in a tie-in comic is necessarily bad, because (1) it undermines comics as a medium, (2) it's easy to succinctly write in the gist of this plot point through a flashback from Callum, and a conversation with Soren (who Rayla confided with, and agreed with her sentiment), and (3) in the unlikelihood that they don't, the fan community will definitely keep everyone up to speed.
Wow, I never realized how the writers of Avatar seem to have a thing for comic releases that resolve certain plot points. Also it never really bugged me, because I do remember way back when season 3 ended, they did say that they were releasing a book that would "bridge the gap between s3 and s4" I'm more upset about the fact that Rayla left in the middle of the night. Like how do you befriend a guy for that long, and date him for presumably a couple of months, and then just decide to do that? I love Rayla, but wow that is a dick move if I've ever seen it. Like geez, you couldn't have at least told the guy when he was awake that you were gonna leave? And idk, let everyone say goodbye to you and have time to prepare for it so that you leaving isn't going to hurt them quite as much. And dang, did she at least send Callum a birthday card or something? Because if she didn't that is a big yikes.
Considering there'll be three more Seasons after season 4 I don't mind them putting relationship angst in this season and then resolving it provided they don't rinse and repeat the process and they stay together and are written as a healthy relationship I don't really have a problem
Relationships end, there's no need for a greater explanation (although probably there's some), and I hope they keep it this way, shipping has a tendency to worsen the characters involved, specially if there's more important stuff to care about
I mean I didn’t like how Rayla’s and Calum’s relationship worked out I think the last season anyway. It felt really rushed. like 2 seasons were crammed into one. So I don’t mind them redoing it.
I... was going to be annoyed by this as I agree with a lot of the points that are made in the video about forced conflict which tends to be the norm for some reason. But reading some of the comments, I see the point in why the writer felt this could work and why it needed to happen. I wouldn't Rayla to simply be a background character plus it allows for the exploration of more story points. That being said, I hope that when they come back together it isn't a reset to the relationship because that would just be annoying.
my personal opinion is the comics should not be canon for the exact reason you said most of the fanbase is gonna read them. And the rayla leaving the main group i think was a good thing and the reasons was all in all in character but should have been in the tv show first then maybe a comic to go in depth.
i feel like this is somthing rayla would do badsed on the show becouse she hasnt seen her parents or even if there still alive that she would be overprotective of other pepole she would feel like she would have to protect them becouse she couldnt do that to the pepole she loved in the past. She would decide that she cant put anyone in danger and that she has to do the next paert on her own, feeling guilty for leaving the other elevs and she would think that its her fualt and she has to make it right and find viren before he can hurt other people. And calum would be mad at her and woudnt understand why shes doing this and might think that its selfish for her to leave everyone behind without even saying goodbye. i feel like this story plot for season 4 would be calum going out to find rayla after his birthday for a problem mabye a war, mabye hes just looking for her reson why she left everyone and got sick waitng. there mutable resons why i just came up with a therey on the spot. of course there could be manys ways this seson could go i just cant imagine rayla not in it the carater thats been in these past 3 seasons. but no mader what happens i think season 4 will be a awsome season... I hope.
I still think it has potential. This is going to be a 7 season show. ATLA only had 3. We may see the same deep writing ATLA had, but more spaced out. The writers have also said in interviews that seasons 1-3 were “practice seasons”. Besides, shallow writing provides a great platform for subversion later on.
@@AlphaWolf096 Dude you've got it all wrong. TDP 1-3 = ALTA 1 in terms of Episodes. And no i do not belive it will get better it will get more woke and boring oh sorry i've meant _Classic_
I understand everyone’s criticism of the Korrasami thing, but in LOK’s defense we were living in a different world for LGBT characters in 2014. Airing that stuff on childrens shows was still mostly frowned on. If LOK would have aired today I’m sure we’d have seen more Korrasami on screen. Basically what I’m trying to say is Korrasami walked so other queer relationships could run.
Yeah Rayla needs to be called out for putting her pride above everything else She doesn't have to like Viren, even under the best of circumstances. But Aaravos is there and could kill her if he wanted to and ditching her significant other on their birthday is a terrible, terrible thing to do Relying on other books to get plot points out seems to reek of "We love money, give us your money"
rayla looks exactly like my ex girlfriend minus the horns, pinkish skin and white hair so she was a character i liked alot especially that she was with callum a character that i have many similarities with and the fact that she left him really makes me sad because it reminds me the way my ex left me for no reason out of the blue
I understand your criticism about the actual plot point, but I think they justify it pretty well in the comic. Rayla has lost so much because of Viren. Both her parents, one of her step dads and the other she can't talk with because of the aftermath with Viren. So it makes sense she becomes so overprotective of Callum, the only person she has left, that she'll abandon him to keep him safe. Whether that direction is good or not, that's up for debate, but there are in story and in character reasons for this to happen.
That is real love.
Yeh I agree Callum is her new love.Rayla loves Callum a lot
yeah but its the fact it happened in the comic and may not in the show, the comic is fine it that most of the fandom won't read it so not a problem with the story its a problem with the medium its told in
Its illogical for her to assume Viren is alive. She doesn't have enough information to base that theory on. If she had, then everyone would think he somehow survived, because they did search for the corpse but didn't find it. I don't get it why would that not happen tbh, its again illogical. They should search for Viren's body to make sure he didn't survive somehow. It would also be better not to have human skeletons under Storm Spire lol
@@tamas9554 it was explained more in the “through the moon” comic
From a story perspective it makes sense to seperate rayla and callum. I mean we had season 3 for rayla and callum. The writers have now the oppurtunity to develope callum and rayla as seperate characters. Callum can now have important moments with ezran, soren etc. The writers can use rayla to introduce us to more moon shadow culture stuff. Callum needs to be vulnerable to aaravos and Rayla is a bit out of place in katolis (she would be a background character). Rayla is an active character that needs to make choices. In katolis she would be a just callums girlfriend and wait until the plot comes to her (passive character). Therefore i can understand that the writers want to split up raylum.
BUT STILL WHY
@@kari1758 are you dumb for da plot
She should been a important character in the story she not going to be a background character because she still part of the team
funny part about this comment is that everything you said, including the passive character part, still happened with them split apart so there really wasn't much of a point
I think the idea of a time skip is that things change. There are going to be lots of new stuff us viewers never saw. Ezran is used to being a king, Callum has more experience with magic, Viren has been gone... In other words, it will be confusing and it's up to the first few episodes to explain for us. So "Rayla has been gone this entire time" should be easy to add to the list of things that changed during the time skip.
I partially agree but most of what you mentioned you Can kinda see it coming from the ending of season 3, but Rayla just ditching Callum you wouldn’t. At the end of that season they are portrayed as The power couple and then she’s suddenly gone, it doesn’t feel natural
I understand the concerns with how they'll tackle Rayla's character this season, but I really don't feel like they broke Rayllum up to add drama to the series. It's an unfortunate byproduct, but it made total sense to me when I read the novel for Rayla to leave. One of her biggest character flaws is that she takes the burdens of everything that happens on herself. She has a massive savior complex and even Callum says it right before he kisses her in s3 that "she does what's right even when it puts her own life in danger." She's the type of elf that doesn't want to bother anyone with her burdens and would rather shoulder hers and everyone else's alone so no one else has to deal with them. On top of that, she'd just learned that Viren had taken everyone she had ever loved previously from her, her parents, obviously Runaan, and all her people turned against her as a result of what happened. So of course she's not going to take Callum with her where she's not even sure if she'll survive, just to keep him safe and away from Viren. Rayla wants Callum as far away from danger as possible. We see this even right before the final battle where she said she had to stay even though everyone else was leaving for safety. But because Callum refused to leave her, they took a final stand.
I don't agree with what Rayla did and I think it was a stupid decision (can't lie, those strings tied to Callum in the promo image terrify me), but I understand her line of thought and the reason behind her leaving Callum behind. She would say that she loved him too much to let him put himself in that kind of danger, but if she loved him in a healthy way, she would have let him make his choice in the matter instead of making it for him. It's disappointing, and I definitely don't think it's that Rayla didn't love Callum, it's just that she has a lot of fear and hasn't been in a relationship before.
Anyways, just my two cents in that there are definite in-character and story reasons behind the decision that Rayla made. Though, I do agree that they shouldn't have put this important of a plot point inside the comic. I really thought that Bloodmoon Huntress was going to be where they brought everyone back together before the plot of it came out and I hope they do a good job of explaining it in the series for those that didn't know it existed or hate reading graphic novels.
I'd argue it could be fixed pretty simply. After the first few scenes, just cut to show her on her journey, perhaps showing a hooded figure walking into a bar, only to reveal it's her looking for something to point her towards Viren, perhaps trying to find his wife or something. Have a secondary story following her, until eventually she runs into Callum and Ez near or at the season climax.
Important elements to the story should always be explained or present in the main show. If they release a book/comic with important information in it to the main story, they have to explain it in some way in the show as well. Same thing with twitter confirmations, talk about it in the show, so you don't have to do it on twitter where only a handful of the show's fans will see it.
Unfair criticism on ATLA and Korra for leaving those plots to the comics. The creators wanted to animate those stories. Nickelodeon didn't
i may be spouting bs but from what i've heard on other videos about korrasami nick was completely fine with the relationship being shown on screen imo i think they just wanted to make more money of the ship so mad it into a book
Same. You gotta look back at the landscape of tv when TLOK aired. Let alone the fact it was relegated to online episodes for the last season. Nick was already done with the show. Putting an LGBT scene was "too risky," iirc. Hence why they only added a confirmation in the last 30 sec, let alone a hand hold that could be written off as "friends."
I agree. I'm really disappointed OP skimmed over the homophobia in Nickelodeon. they went on & on about how all the straight characters got air time but then mentioned in 1 sentence how "I understand it's due to Nick but my point stands".
no, it doesn't. everything else does- Zuko's mom/The Search does fit in this argument but the gay representation was an entirely different issue.
I mean, as long as they end up explaining it well, I don't think it'll be too much of a detriment. I'd actually be really interested to see if Rayla's been traveling with Suroh, as a callback to Bloodmoon Huntress!
this is the exact problem i had but then i read the comic and re-watched the series and it all made mutch more sense
In my opinion, Rayla was really OOC this season.
Yeah seriously, why is it so hard for these writers to just write “happy loving relationships?” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
I agree with all of this, particularly 8:07 and 8:20. It seems like whenever characters get together before the last seconds of a show, they either break up or there’s a bunch of unnecessary drama.
EXACTLLYY and for what, we can't even enjoy them getting together
Thank you for pointing this out.
I also don't think major cannon important development to a comic that 75% of the fans won't buy and read.
Also forced breakup and constantly starting the relationship from square one is also very annoying.
not sure but maybe the events between rayla and callum will be explained in the later episodes
I did like some parts of story book not all of them, the seperation was ok i guess she was afraid to put him into danger and lose him it could have maybe been handled better but I would have preffered if it was going more like that the reason why they needed to seperate was that callum needed to protect ezran since they dont know when danger might come at them and would probably need the suppoort of his brother and Rayla is just going to gather information about Viren being sneaky as an assasin not like she is going to fight him on her because she would most likely lose i mean she doesn´t even know if he is alone or not but yeah i have a feeling she would actually try that
In my opinion Rayla still being ghosted makes sense despite her saving Zim because she is from a small village in which 4-5 families lost their loved ones because of her decision to spare the life of a human guard
Thank you sooooo much for explaining this
The time skip is definitely necessary, since it’s taken Them like three years to release the next season which is a little ridiculous. The whole Rayla thing I think is probably just gonna feel off. For them to have a happily ever after to Rayla leaving is just gonna feel weird to me
To be fair, they didn’t even get their renewal until the Covid shutdown was in its peak. And then they probably wanted to at least script out all of the seasons before diving into full production
You do know why they took this long right? They were busy building up their own company, expanding the Dragon Prince brand, go into pre-production for the upcoming seasons, and they finished the story arc relatively well. So ridiculous isn't exactly the word I would choose.
This was refreshing in HTTYD2. They never focused on useless drama between Hiccup and Astrid.
Actually there is a way for them to keep this plot point but not totally assassinate Rayla's character. Callum has responsibilities as the only human mage left. He is probably the only one who can teach others magic and the only one with enough understanding of dark magic to unravel all of Viren's secrets. Now Rayla not wanting to endanger Callums life or the only home of humans gaining magic outside of dark magic I could see why Rayla. If given time apart and clever writing both can learn the same lesson that responsibility is more important than personal desire. I have seen arcs like this before and they can work really well and the don't necessarily have to compromise the relationship with the people involved. But it has to be done well give Rayla the wrong reasons for leaving or regress her character for the reunion and it will all fall apart.
I hope Rayla will be at least a little bit in the 4th series, even if it's not likely
shaking rn after today's teaser clip
I think it's actually realistic, if rayla is afraid to lose him she might think it's safer to keep him in katolis, she knows he's a mage but she's also seen how powerful viren is and she might think he's more powerful
So, could Rayla come back, without a partner, but say, "The very fact that I left without you sadly means I didn't trust you the way l thought I did. And I'm still trying to figure out why I left you. Until I solve that puzzle, I can't be good enough to be with you." Callum would disagree, and the story could roll on in any direction the series chooses.
But that's just me. I'll let you go back to your TED Talk.
8:23 but when u think about are there really any happy relationships in this day and age. Even some the best relationships will have drama
i think the split is a good idea, both from a character perspective and a writing one - i love rayla and callum a lot, they're really fun characters but tbh their romance was a little rushed imo and i think having them seperate, develop away from each other, and *then* bring them back and have them fall back in love a little more slowly will not only bring along some fun drama but will also help that rushed feeling i get from S3; having them drop ILY's at the end felt really off to me and kinda unbelievable, like...how long had they been traveling? 6 months?
anyway that's my 2 cents
I felt betrayed when they left rayla out! i was like: WHAT MADE THIS INTERESTING WAS RAYLA!
To be fair, Dragon Prince is made by the some of the same guys who made Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Avatar kinda had a history of doing the same thing Dragon Prince seems to be doing now. Hiding pretty important information (I.E: Zuko looking for his mother & What happened to Azula after the conclusion of the war) in the pages of novels. Not saying that it's a good thing or anything, just saying that history seems to be repeating itself & old habbits die hard. While I would love to see this in the form of animation, it may be saved for a minor scene in a flashback with Rayla. I still can't help but be excited for Book 4 coming out later this year, it's been so long and I hope they've just been polishing their storytelling and animation in that time. So, I'll take the good with the bad
I see your perspective on rayllum and the lack of healthy, loving romances in media, but I do think that in THIS case, the angst and conflict is perfect for them. I love rayla and callum together but it's not controversial to say that they were very rushed in season 3 and callum in particular was not given enough time to really fall for rayla the way she fell for him in the first two seasons. callum's love never really worked for me, it didn't make sense, it felt too quick. i believe if they were given more time they would've fleshed them out more but what's done is done, and all they can do now is rebuild their relationship now that they are older.
i mean they were kids when they started dating, and rayla was not healthy nor fully developed when they did. rayla's trauma, her unhealthy loner mindset, the amount of times she wanted to bolt or do things on her own literally set this relationship up for failure. she was BOUND to leave, her leaving in the comic was absolutely no shock to me. an unhealthy, mentally disturbed 15 year old is not going to think about how her boyfriend is powerful and can help her. she loves callum, he's all she really has left. every other loved one in her life has ended up dead, missing, or they've left her first. she likely believes that callum staying by her side will only result in his death, she truly believes that she must do things on her own.
she must develop from this mindset, must understand that her loved ones leaving is not her fault. she must come to that realization on her own, she needs to grow up before her and Callum can really date again. I believe Callum has been better developed, but he still has a TON of growing to do. For this season to separate them and allow them to grow on their own with some conflict and angst on the way is literally the best thing they can do for Rayla and Callum. My god, didn't mean to make this comment so long
I understand what you're saying, and that being said I haven't read Through The Moon, but I think there's SO much more to Rayla's perspective that we're yet to see. They're not just going to do it for no reason, there are legitimate storytelling purposes behind splitting them up.
My guess Rayla is guarding the Dragon Prince, or she was able to return home and is no longer banished
I agree with your point on manufacturing relationship drama. how hard is it to actually let them have a loving wholesome relationship where they support and love each other. if they're always fighting is it really a Google relationship?
Thanks for bringing me up to speed. I certainly would have missed something going into Season 4 if you hadn't made this video, as I hadn't heard about the book. I think that Callum is probably going to have to do some of the magic elements on his own to gain access to all the elements. And the dark magic may involve Claudia at some point. So I don't mind a change of pace, they could even make it awkward with a love triangle of sorts if they wanted to, where Callum moves on to another woman and Rayla comes back and there is a will they won't they.
I literally just read the book today, and it is a fine read. Not having seen any of the new season, like the rest of the fandom, I can't yet comment on how things begin to play out, but I can say I have always hated sudden time-skips. I'm also a big fan of the re-made Battlestar Galactica, and they did something similar in there too. Boomer went from being a hated, distrusted and locked up Cylon skin-job to Admiral Adama's confidante and a trusted member of the crew, almost overnight, but with a year having passed, with no explanation or background as to how this all transpired. It was like the whole season hit a speed-bump in the road. I hope the same doesn't happen with TDP, or at least there's a smoother transition from the past to the present.
Thank you for catching us up on what has been going on with this show. I'm still looking forward to season 4 but the news with Rayla is rather disappointing. I'm not really against the idea of her being away, but I don't like how they did it.
I could understand if she got bored in Katolis and felt like she could be using this time to investigate. But maybe Callum becomes too busy with his duties so she tells him she'll just go alone. Weeks go buy but she doesn't come back. Callum sends a search party after her but to no success, and he's left with guilt that he hadn't gone with her.
I don't know, to me that sounds better than her suddenly leaving him but you may disagree with me.
Hmm I did not know this. I can understand the concern now.
I dont want to have to read a book to explain a show.
Additional media can be fun to read to flesh out a world but not for character development.
I agree of the critique BUT the creators said in a cartoon universe interview that there will be flashbacks related to the "breakup" and it will be a "I had too" moment and I think the confusion was intended so yeah
they shoulda just made the graphic novel into a tv special. lil 30 minute special to bridge the gap instead of a novel half the fandom doesnt even know exists
Tbh I'm here for the drama and Angst 😅
Yeah, the only thing I don't like is the fact that, like you mentioned, something so important to the story (rayla leaving) is gonna confuse many people.
For example, I have two friends who have watched TDP but have no idea that the light novel exists...and I only read it because I am a rayllum shipper, I wasn't prepared for something like that happening in a TDP book.
The only way they can fix this problem is if there's a whole episode in S4 showing what happened in the LN.
I hope this doesn't affect Rayla's character...
I honestly agree with most of the things you’ve said. The one thing I love about Rayllum is the lack of drama and overdramatized conflict in their relationship. I’m really worried that they’re just going to become another stereotypical couple with forced conflicts and dumb arcs. However, I’m hopeful that the developers will actually make this work and it might actually turn out better than expected. Also, as someone who’s read through the moon, I believe Rayla’s decision to leave was pretty accurate for her character. She’s selfless to a fault and knows she’d be putting Callum in danger should he come with her on her quest to find answers or whatever. It’s the same with the ending of season 3 when they fight. That never really got resolved and I believe Rayla still harbors those toxic beliefs deep down and will have to work through those as a part of her arc. Not sure whether that’s where the developers will take it, but that’s what I’m hoping to see in the rest of the saga.
I do see your point on the comic. It's odd to place such an insane plot point in a short comic, but honestly, I don't think it's all that confusing. I checked out of TDP after season 3 released because I was afraid I wouldn't be getting another season. But now with the announcements, I've been investing myself in this show again, and the first spoiler I heard from fan's was Rayla's absence. I wasn't even slightly shocked or disappointed by this, because it makes sense. If you know and understand Rayla, which I really believe I do, I think it is 100% in character and good for her character moving forward. Season 3 lacked in Rayla's development, she was too Callum centered and it hindered her growth in the season. She wasn't given time to be alone to self reflect, or grieve, or understand herself. Her leaving Callum was honestly the best thing they could've done in my opinion.
Just my opinion.
I do agree that Callum is everything that Rayla had left. Her family and friends are all trapped in a cursed coin.
And she believed that leaving Callum is the only safe way.
Basically in my POV, Callum don’t believe that Viren is alive (which he actually IS alive, by Claudia using a spell), But Rayla believed that Viren is alive and she want to keep Callum safe. Atleast that is what I think.
And she went off a 2 years trip, and didn’t find Viren. And of course, that broke Callum’s heart. It is not like they don’t like each other.
Not gonna lie, I also agree that Rayla is traumatised by what happened to the people she loves. The only people she trust the most tried to kill her, and then got caught, her family is being stuck in a cursed coin… etc. I mentioned this (at the top) So… yep. And she always want to do everything by herself.
Ok imma talk about the Rayla leaving Callum behind thing. Probably because Rayla think that if Callum go with her, he will be in danger….
They explain why Rayla's not there in Through the Moon, where she leaves Callum to try and find Viren (who she thinks is still alive) to protect him (him being Callum, not Viren lol), right after she promised Callum they'd go together. Also, it was the night before his fifteenth birthday and I guininely think Callum loved her very much, like wanted to spend the rest of his life with her
Nevermind he said it XD
Agree with what you said.
This aged well lol
I think their plan will work, but there are better ways. What if rayla had stayed behind to become the new dragon guard? Rayla and callum promise to keep in touch, but magic dream stuff and she goes of in search of answers to what happened to viren and her parents. Maybe she tells callum, maybe she doesn’t, but either way something happens and she drops off the grid.
Now I don’t know what their intended plans are for the character, so this may be the worst idea ever. We’ll have to wait and see
@@AccumulatedKnowledge in this scenario I imagine they stayed at the dragon place for a bit before immediately heading home. But they’ll eventually have to go their separate ways, otherwise one becomes a less interesting character
Well there is a way to solve everything about rayla: fish+kife+person associated to fire.
Granted the story is written by Soka soo....
I'm pretty sure they'll actually explain why rayla left in book 4, we only find out she left at the end of episode 1 so im assuming the next ones will actually dive into it, maybe not in big detail cause that's what the novel is there for but still the overall reason why she's not there
I agree that it's a mistake to have something so important to the plot occur in a comic. The series originated in a show format and thus, everything core to the plot should occur in that same medium. Stories in other media (such as comics/graphic novels) should not be pivotal to understanding what's happening in the show. Can you imagine how confused people would be if the MCU told people to go read specific comic books to understand why Hawkeye is suddenly in the middle of fighting a new supervillain we've never heard of on another planet in an upcoming movie?
While they can certainly be used to create hooks to drum up interest, time-skips normally exist to pass over the boring parts of a story when not much is changing.
Time-skipping over important plot points is generally unsatisfying for a viewer, as it creates unnecessary dissonance between our experience and the plot. In this case, Rayla has left the group to forge her own path. Yes, for her it's been two years, but for show-only viewers, she and Callum just had a healthy, happy relationship last they had seen. Now all of a sudden the opposite is the case? It feels like whiplash because the viewer didn't get to see these events play out organically.
While I'm a Rayla and Callum shipper and was happy to see them get together, I can see the appeal of breaking them up, even if I don't agree with that decision. I just think it should have been done at the beginning of season four--or else not have had them officially get together at all in season 3. Having Rayla leave in the height of us asking "Will they/won't they" seems like it would have built far more suspense about the future of their relationship status than having them "break up" so shortly after they got together.
I think they might do a recap where they cover the stuff in the novel
How do you know that they mess up rayla in s4? If fans speculate that rayla is maybe an imposter. Until her reaction to the coins(last episode) the rayla is an imposter holds merit. Her suspicios pet(star arcanum), not caring about dragons, forgetting ibis name and not accomplishing anything in the 2 year time skip. I mean the set up is there. But i think its a bad sign if the viewers dont recognize rayla as rayla.
I agree with the opinion that creating unnecessary tension to a stable relationship to rebuild dynamics from the ground up is tiring.
I don't agree that putting the plot point in a tie-in comic is necessarily bad, because (1) it undermines comics as a medium, (2) it's easy to succinctly write in the gist of this plot point through a flashback from Callum, and a conversation with Soren (who Rayla confided with, and agreed with her sentiment), and (3) in the unlikelihood that they don't, the fan community will definitely keep everyone up to speed.
Wow, I never realized how the writers of Avatar seem to have a thing for comic releases that resolve certain plot points.
Also it never really bugged me, because I do remember way back when season 3 ended, they did say that they were releasing a book that would "bridge the gap between s3 and s4"
I'm more upset about the fact that Rayla left in the middle of the night.
Like how do you befriend a guy for that long, and date him for presumably a couple of months, and then just decide to do that? I love Rayla, but wow that is a dick move if I've ever seen it.
Like geez, you couldn't have at least told the guy when he was awake that you were gonna leave? And idk, let everyone say goodbye to you and have time to prepare for it so that you leaving isn't going to hurt them quite as much.
And dang, did she at least send Callum a birthday card or something? Because if she didn't that is a big yikes.
oh shit I forgot about the birthday thing. That was a huge L move that's just- nooo 💀 unless she didn't know it was his bday idk.
Well if she don't die ,.,., let me fix that if no one dies I'm happy if Kalum and Reyla die i will die don't do that.
Considering there'll be three more Seasons after season 4 I don't mind them putting relationship angst in this season and then resolving it provided they don't rinse and repeat the process and they stay together and are written as a healthy relationship I don't really have a problem
Finally, someone else who doesn’t seem to much care for The Search.
If they followed tradition, Rayla wears the pajama top and Callum the bottoms. 😁👍
Relationships end, there's no need for a greater explanation (although probably there's some), and I hope they keep it this way, shipping has a tendency to worsen the characters involved, specially if there's more important stuff to care about
I mean I didn’t like how Rayla’s and Calum’s relationship worked out I think the last season anyway. It felt really rushed. like 2 seasons were crammed into one. So I don’t mind them redoing it.
I... was going to be annoyed by this as I agree with a lot of the points that are made in the video about forced conflict which tends to be the norm for some reason. But reading some of the comments, I see the point in why the writer felt this could work and why it needed to happen. I wouldn't Rayla to simply be a background character plus it allows for the exploration of more story points. That being said, I hope that when they come back together it isn't a reset to the relationship because that would just be annoying.
I do have to agree that it sucks they decided to put a major plot point into two comics that cost quite a lot too...
my personal opinion is the comics should not be canon for the exact reason you said most of the fanbase is gonna read them. And the rayla leaving the main group i think was a good thing and the reasons was all in all in character but should have been in the tv show first then maybe a comic to go in depth.
6:46. It was 2014, of course they couldn't show much more of Korrasami
Hated the ending of the series
@@joshuamerriweather2861 why?
i feel like this is somthing rayla would do badsed on the show becouse she hasnt seen her parents or even if there still alive that she would be overprotective of other pepole she would feel like she would have to protect them becouse she couldnt do that to the pepole she loved in the past. She would decide that she cant put anyone in danger and that she has to do the next paert on her own, feeling guilty for leaving the other elevs and she would think that its her fualt and she has to make it right and find viren before he can hurt other people. And calum would be mad at her and woudnt understand why shes doing this and might think that its selfish for her to leave everyone behind without even saying goodbye. i feel like this story plot for season 4 would be calum going out to find rayla after his birthday for a problem mabye a war, mabye hes just looking for her reson why she left everyone and got sick waitng. there mutable resons why i just came up with a therey on the spot. of course there could be manys ways this seson could go i just cant imagine rayla not in it the carater thats been in these past 3 seasons. but no mader what happens i think season 4 will be a awsome season... I hope.
THANKYOU FOR POINTING OUT HOW ALL THE HETEROSEXUALS IN AVATAR ARE IN THE SHOW BUT NON OF THE GAY STUFF WAS.
Five bucks says that she is still banished lol. It is shocking how unmoving communities can be
I thought this show got cancelled alongside final space and infinity train.
What!! Fang it i didn't know they broke up 😑
"comics of dubious quality"
Viren was dead.
Maybe I should rewatch the show it’s been years lol
Ah well they say you right when you know and I don't think anyone in Hollywood has a good relationship
Sorry Have a amazing day
Love it!!! 💟💟
YEAH
For those that expected the second coming of TLA, wre sorely dissapointed by the sheer amount of shallow writing.
I still think it has potential. This is going to be a 7 season show. ATLA only had 3. We may see the same deep writing ATLA had, but more spaced out. The writers have also said in interviews that seasons 1-3 were “practice seasons”. Besides, shallow writing provides a great platform for subversion later on.
@@AlphaWolf096 Dude you've got it all wrong. TDP 1-3 = ALTA 1 in terms of Episodes. And no i do not belive it will get better it will get more woke and boring oh sorry i've meant _Classic_
My friend and I keep arguing over if rayla will be gay or not 🤷♂️
I understand everyone’s criticism of the Korrasami thing, but in LOK’s defense we were living in a different world for LGBT characters in 2014. Airing that stuff on childrens shows was still mostly frowned on. If LOK would have aired today I’m sure we’d have seen more Korrasami on screen. Basically what I’m trying to say is Korrasami walked so other queer relationships could run.
Yeah
Rayla needs to be called out for putting her pride above everything else
She doesn't have to like Viren, even under the best of circumstances. But Aaravos is there and could kill her if he wanted to and ditching her significant other on their birthday is a terrible, terrible thing to do
Relying on other books to get plot points out seems to reek of "We love money, give us your money"
Rayla was the most interesting character in the series. She isn't back by episode 2, I'm flat out not watching any longer.
rayla looks exactly like my ex girlfriend minus the horns, pinkish skin and white hair so she was a character i liked alot especially that she was with callum a character that i have many similarities with and the fact that she left him really makes me sad because it reminds me the way my ex left me for no reason out of the blue
This is writers being afraid to wright a relationship. A tale as old as writing.
This plot points should’ve been covered at the beginning of season four instead of being put in a book what a waste of time
bruh if rayla isn’t in season 4 i’m not watching it.
I don't get why these writers have to seperate couples only to seperate them in the end, it's dumb and it needs to stop.
I’m first
this what i thot wtf
Don't like it, didn't like it when they did it with Star Wars, and Don't like it with the Dragon Prince.
Eww legend of Korra 🤮🤮🤮
Kataang!? Eww! 🤢🤢🤢
Can you give an actual reason why the majority of the fandom is "never going to read it" cuz to me you just look entitled.