Tdp Season 3 Spoilers - Tumblr Posts
Rayla - Breaking the Cycle
I believe Rayla is a well written character and this season really hit that home for me. Rayla is a character that is burdened by the past. We get to see just how deeply she is affected by her parents “betrayal” and the sacrifices she has, however inadvertently, caused on her quest to right her parents wrongs and do what she believes is right. This causes Rayla great personal suffering. It gets to the point where she believes she deserves all the bad things that have happened to her because she wasn’t/isn’t good enough. All of the pressure and self esteem issues put Rayla’s self sacrificial nature in a different light. It isn’t just because of the moonshadow elf culture and their dedication to duty. She believes she has to redeem herself and her parents no matter what.
When they make it to the lair of the dragon queen and it’s stay and fight a losing battle or run with Zym she decided to stay, while the others run, and face what will be her death. We see the utter desperation to not make the same mistake her parents did. She had already become a “ghost” to her people. Banished from her village because they believed she ran from her responsibilities when in reality she took on a task possibly even more perilous. They wouldn’t know of her sacrifice and the only ones who could wouldn’t be able to tell them, so this was clearly a personal choice to Rayla. A chance to possibly redeem herself and her parents in her own eyes, even if just for a few seconds. The show’s core theme is about the next generation stepping up and breaking the cycles the last generation create, but with Rayla it is shown how that can also become negative and self destructive when taken to the extreme. She is 100% willing to sacrifice her own life and possible happiness to redeem her parents and her own mistakes. She feels she can’t continue to go on if she doesn’t give everything she has to this endeavor. It almost becomes its own tragic cycle of service and sacrifice.
When Callum reveals what happened the day Viren came from the dragon prince it was the push she needed to accept that she couldn’t face this alone and that she should make a decision with everyone else. She wouldn’t have to carry the burden alone, at least not fully. Their decision to stay and fight solidified to Rayla that this was what she was meant to do. Being named the “last dragonguard” was an important step because, while now knowing her parents didn’t run away, the wounds that were created over all those years of believing and being told they did haven’t just disappeared. She still needed to be the “last dragonguard” to heal them. Rayla’s final confrontation with Viren mirrors that of her parents down to being frozen while Viren goes after the dragon prince. Rayla manages to free herself, with the help of Bait, and stop Viren from killing Zym in a final blow that takes both of them over the edge. This perfectly symbolizes the cyclical nature of history. Viren did this with Rayla’s parents and now Rayla herself, both times it is Viren’s lust for strength that blinds him to what Rayla and her parents are doing/coercing him into doing, both Rayla and her parents save Zym, but in moves that cost (or potentially cost) them their futures with the people they care about. The thing that breaks the cycle is Callum. He has been what has tempered Rayla this whole time, supported her when she did something reckless, and convincing her that she has worth. He doesn’t prevent her from tackling Viren, but prevents her from falling to her death afterwards. This is the difference that saved the cycle from continuing. While the others abandoned Rayla’s parents and they were left to protect the egg themselves, Rayla’s support system stayed no matter what.
Rayla had both helped break the cycle and been stuck in her own cycle throughout the show. In an ironic twist of fate that is contrary to moonshadow elf culture it was through opening up and showing “weakness” to others that the cycle she was stuck in was broken. “To break that cycle, someone has to take a stand when no one else will.” Taking a stand isn’t based in fighting or resistance, but love and compassion. It was Rayla’s compassion that lead to the entire journey of the show and the possibility of breaking the cycle of war and revenge. It was Ezran and Callum’s acceptance and support that helped Rayla break her own cycle. It was like King Harrow said “I now believe true strength is found in vulnerability. In forgiveness. In love. There is a beautiful, upside-down truth, which is that these moments of purest strength appear as weakness to those who don’t know better. For a long time, I didn’t know better. I ask you and your brother to reject history as a narrative of strength, and instead, have faith that it can be a narrative of love.”