Young Aaravos ((Commission work + concept art doodles!)
Some foot notes:
Akkadian: 𒀝𒅗𒁺𒌑(𒌝) was an East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia (4000 BCE—or 6000 years ago, aka one of the earliest human civilizations that we know of.)
But wait!!
And bonus even more Aaravos doodles from 2024
and the most important foot note of all:
I cannot, and I will not, spend my entire life fixing what an entire room full of adults writers with years of experience should have done properly. Good writing for a franchise is a team effort, not a ME effort. All I can do is drip feed everyone small glimpses the version of this show that I dreamed of!
For a moment when Aarovos just said 'you're third kid' with the heavy implication that said child was nearby, I thought they were gonna say Callum was Viren's son and when I say I was SHOOK.
Posession is not an easy thing to forget. It's been about a month since that day in the Storm Spire, but it will haunt him for the rest of his life, worsened by the knowledge Claudia is out there and looking to free Aaravos, even when the prison is here, and the Nova Blade is sheathed and upon his desk. He'd thought having it would be a comfort, but it taunts him every night: it's there, within reach, and he can end it now, smash the prison and push the blade through Aaravos' heart, be done with it once and for all—
But of course he doesn't do that, tempting as it is, because the others are right, and something so reckless might be exactly what Aaravos wants.
So Callum bears it. He tosses and turns in his sleep, dreaming of the mirror, of seeing his reflection in it, trapped in Aaravos' place while his body hurts the people he loves the most. He shuts out the voice, deep enough that he can feel it ringing in his chest and seeping into his bones, whispering terrible thoughts, terrible ideas into his mind and beckoning him to surrender and sleep and relinquish his will. He wakes in the mornings feeling more exhausted than when he went to bed, and it's getting worse, he thinks, the longer they wait.
Tonight, it's different. Callum looks at himself through Aaravos' eyes, trapped and helpless in the mirror, but tonight, Aaravos only watches and pulls Callum's lips into an oily, terrifying grin.
"Difficult, isn't it?" Aarovos asks, tilting his head towards the desk. "The answer is there. You could finish this if you wanted."
Callum's reflection pounds his fist against the glass. Stop this, he mouths. Let me go.
Aaravos laughs. "Soon," he makes Callum say. "There are so many things to do first. So many places to conquer. So much discord to sow. And this body... I think it can do a great many things for me before I ever even escape."
Let me go! the reflection snarls. I won't let you control me!
"Oh, but that's the beauty of it all," chuckles Aaravos. "You mages think you can control everything but you never realise how easy it is to control you. There are things you want, Callum. Things you'll do anything for, and people you're desperate to protect, isn't that right? What would it take, I wonder, for you to release me in Claudia's stead?"
Nothing, the reflection seethes. You have nothing I want. I'll never help you.
"Perhaps not," says Aaravos. "But you'll help her, won't you?" He pushes out a hand and turns the mirror, and there is Rayla, curled in the other bed with Stella in her arms. There is moonlight in her hair, and peace on her face, and she's so vulnerable, so easy to threaten, to hurt—
Callum's body advances, the lips tugged up in that horrible smile, the eyes glowing, the hand outstretched to tuck a lock of Rayla's hair behind the point of her ear. The gesture is gentle, so deceptively tender, but the fingers are large and too close to her throat, and Callum in the mirror panics and pounds harder against the glass.
Don't touch her! he cries, voiceless, helpless. Aaravos! Leave her out of this, it's me you want!
Aaravos laughs. It is deep and cruel, and it fills Callum's chest with dread and a fear so debilitating he can barely breathe through it. His reflection slams its fist against the glass, desperate, but even that is silent, even as its knuckles split and smear blood against the inside of mirror, and then—
The glass breaks.
Callum wakes.
There is no mirror. It was destroyed weeks ago, in the foyer of the Storm Spire. Rayla is still asleep in the other bed, her breathing slow and even, even as Callum's own breath rushes out.
"Just a dream," he mumbles, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He forces himself to think of other things: tomorrow's council meeting, the Nova Blade on his desk, Rayla's smile in the moonlight. She is safe. He is safe. Everything is fine. "A dream," he says again, his breath still shaking. "It wasn't real."
He gets up to wash his face, leaving bloody handprints in the bed.
I think it's kind of funny that this has surprised people so much, because like... after seven seasons, we have literally never seen Callum express a single doubt over how he uses primal magic.
I guarantee there's a Sky rune spell to suck the breath out of someone's lungs, the way Claudia does to him. There's probably an Ocean one to fill them up with water, too—just in case you want someone to drown, rather than suffocate. I would bet Callum at least knows they exist and has seen them, but they're probably(?) not something he sat down and memorized. We've seen him have to check his notes, he's not a perfect encyclopedia.
But what he almost definitely does have memorized? Venus fucking frigoris. That rune will be burned into his mind for as long as he lives.
If anything, I can see him not wanting to use it in front of Rayla and/or Ezran, since it might bother them, but otherwise? This kid has no concept whatsoever of a warning shot, and his understanding of primal magic is completely detached from morality beyond "morally superior to dark magic." It would be weirder to see him hesitate.
I can't stop thinking about how Callum lost both of his fathers (and his mom ofc), and now he has both Runaan and Ethari as new members of his family 🥲
Rayla did not handle the Runaan situation well of course, even if her reaction was completely understandable. As Callum said, Ezran likely would've calmed down once he had a chance to process things, and Callum was already making headway in talking to him. Neither Rayla nor Ezran was completely right or completely wrong, even if I would probably side with Ezran if I had to choose.
But come on guys, what was Callum supposed to do?
There is no way either Rayla or Ezran would back down from that standoff. And while Ezran had Soren, Corvus, Aanya, and an entire platoon of soldiers, Rayla had no one. If Callum hadn't interfered, Runaan would likely have been killed, and Rayla could've been injured or at the very least arrested. Sure, it was her fault the situation escalated to that, but do you really think Callum should have just stood there and let her be harmed, even by his own brother? Do you really think it aligns with his character to not protect the girl who is canonically his soulmate, whom he has repeatedly stated he would do anything for?
And are we really surprised this happened? This show loves putting its characters in morally compromising situations. Personally, I had an awesome time watching Rayla and Ezran, both of whom have been pretty pure-hearted and righteous characters up to this point, be pushed to their breaking points, and seeing Callum be torn between them. It was delicious and juicy and I want more.
You know, even if Callum did do dark magic (aparently) he didn't get overwhelmed by darkness and corruption so... will it be gradual?
This makes me think about Amaya's story, wha if it reflects what will eventually happen to Callum? he starts losing himself little by little to the point of doubting everything and everyone, getting overwhelmed
and here's when Callum's true love enters, maybe he loses his mind so much he even starts doubting her as well
Doubting Rayla means he's truly lost but his star and heart will guide him in the dark. I believe Rayla being his one truth will be relevant eventually, since it wasn't really in season 7 and Callum is corrupted again. You could say he getting cured was useless but I don't think it was, this will come back. This was very important to Callum.
He got cured over his love for her, and if she's in his life why would he need the ritual, love is magic and magic works in a lot of different ways, doesn't it?
Season 7 Conflict between Ezran, Callum, and Rayla: Who’s Right and who’s wrong?
Or perhaps...
I feel like this has been a topic of heavy debate across the fandom and I guess I wanted to share my own perspective on this as well. I wanted to try to dive in and explore each of these characters’ stances on things, since in my opinion, each of them had valid points. Long post ahead!
Starting with Ezran, we’re all mostly used to him being an innocent, kind and sweet cinnamon roll that’s so quick to forgive others who have wronged him. And it’s not just us, but even the characters in the show too, which in some cases can be used against him (which I won’t get to here since this isn’t the point of this post). But I’m mentioning this here because this is major trait of his that we saw being challenged this season.
Well, I would argue maybe even since season 6:
Which not gonna lie, that was both surprising but also very satisfying, especially after all Viren has done in arc 1, especially in season 3, you could argue it was well deserved, and even Viren himself saw that. But getting back on topic, I feel like we start to see a more vengeful side of Ezran this season, especially after the trauma of having his whole kingdom that he’s ruling, his own home, be completely destroyed.
This itself was traumatic enough to change Ezran completely, especially after finding out that it was Sol Regem that destroyed it in a matter of minutes. And not only that, but also seeing Runaan, the very assassin who ‘killed’ his father that same day, lead him to push all the blame onto him. That everything changed since the night Harrow was ‘killed’ by him and Ezran was eventually forced to pick up the burden of being king and live through all of this.
Now I get that there’s alot of people in the fandom pointing out the hypocrisy of “how come he forgave Zubeia, who was the one that sent Runaan to kill Harrow, but he couldn’t forgive Runaan?” Which I would argue narratively, that is the point and it was something called out by Callum. I do personally think that perhaps, if Ezran may have crossed paths with Runaan at some point before the destruction of Katolis, he could have had a different response? Not necessarily saying it would be positive but perhaps, not as vengeful or angry?
I also wanted to point to something interesting in the short story Deep Below, which is set right before season 5 in the storm spire when he went to get the siren stone:
The screenshots above are on Ezran’s reaction to seeing the shadowhawk with the red blood ribbon that confirmed Harrow’s ‘death’ and the emotions he felt. But not only that, it also felt like he chose not to let himself properly deal with that anger and instead bottled it up for the sake of keeping the peace that he fought so hard to keep. But of course all of that came tumbling down after the destruction of Katolis leading up to the immense change in Ezran’s behavior. We see him letting out all of bottled up anger once he saw the assassin who was involved in the direct killing of his father that lead to the complete change of his life.
Now moving onto Rayla, I think it’s important to remember that for over two years, she had no idea what happened to her birth parents or Runaan but only that Viren had something to do with their disappearances. Then by the end of season 4, she received the coins that contained their spirits and since then, it’s become one of her primary goals to free them, even if she had to set that goal aside for the sake of saving the world. Then getting to the end of season 6, she was forced to let go of her birth parents after she finally reunited with them after many years, just so that she would let them be together in the afterlife, while choosing to bring back Runaan so that she can finally reunite him with Ethari.
Now I know that ideally, she shouldn’t have brought Runaan with her to Katolis, but because she made a promise to Callum that she wouldn’t leave without him again and Runaan was still recovering and more desperate than ever to reunite with Ethari, she couldn’t leave him on his own. I also think it wasn’t the best idea to let Runaan walk around freely in Katolis but I’m guessing none of the characters were expecting Ezran react in anger since they were mostly used to him being so forgiving.
Now we get to the next episode where Rayla, who was finally able to bring back one of her parents, has had that parent taken away from her once again. We see Callum trying hard to convince her to be patient and give Ezran some time to process everything that’s happened and that he would eventually forgive Runaan. But then we get to the council meeting where things get especially heated.
While I do think that Rayla didn’t bring it up or address this in the best way, I do think she made some really valid points:
And I know many people in the fandom have been arguing that Rayla was 'unsympathetic' towards Ezran but honestly, I think an argument can also be made that no one was sympathetic towards Rayla wanting to bring her family back together except for Callum, and I will talk more about him in detail later.
I also think another important detail we need to remember is that when it comes to this conflict, there’s a major power imbalance here. While yes, Ezran is a traumatized 12 year old kid dealing with the destruction of his kingdom and seeing the face of his father’s killer, he’s also the king who has the final say in everything. It’s his words and his orders against anyone else’s objections that get followed. He also has the backing and loyalty of the council, crownguard and all of the Katolis guards too, while Rayla only had the support of Callum in this situation.
And because of how things went at the meeting and seeing how Ezran wouldn’t listen to her and forgive Runaan right away, she decided to break Runaan out, despite Callum trying to convince her to be patient and give Ezran more time, to which then she responds:
Which then Callum fully accepts her decision and even offered to help (which again, I’ll talk more about later). But while the ideal thing for Rayla to do was to be more patient give Ezran time to do the right thing, which he eventually did at the end of the season, it’s also understandable why she couldn’t stay patient. Because after years, she finally has the opportunity to reunite what remains of her own family again.
Now I get to my last point, Callum. Despite seeing a lot of hate being directed towards Rayla and Ezran for their different stances, from what I’ve seen, I feel like Callum has been getting savaged a whole lot by different parts of the fandom, despite being caught in between both sides and torn between two people he loves. I feel like more people are willing to look at the complexity of the situation when it comes to Ezran or Rayla, but when it comes to Callum, his stance is more often reduced to: “he’s a terrible brother who betrayed Ezran because he doesn’t sympathize with him” or “he’s a doormat for Rayla who unconditionally worships her even at the expense of others or the greater good” while leaving out so many details, events and aspects of his overall character. Now I’m not saying that Callum handled things perfectly with Ezran and nor am I saying that he wouldn’t do reckless and crazy things for Rayla, but I feel like there’s so much more to him that just gets heavily ignored.
So as I’ve said before, Callum was caught in between rising tensions between Ezran and Rayla. While he did support Rayla and wanted to help her reunite her family, I just think it’s wrong to say he was “unsympathetic” towards Ezran because:
And that to me isn’t what unsympathetic looks like. Not to mention he kept trying to convince Rayla to be patient and give Ezran time, and even when Rayla went to break out Runaan, Callum still went and made an attempt to talk to Ezran. And like I don’t think it was right of him to call his traumatized brother a jerk face when he went to talk to him lol, but we know how Callum can be when he gets frustrated, and he even apologized immediately and changed his tone afterwards. We then see Ezran open up to Callum about how his life completely changed after Harrow was ‘killed’ and he was forced to take up a heavy burden at a young age. While ideally I do think that Callum could’ve verbally expressed more understanding towards what Ezran was feeling and dealing with, I do think he made a valid point when he brought up that Ezran forgave Zubeia despite her being the one who sent Runaan after Harrow. Now getting to my next point, this scene in particular:
What he said here made me think back a lot to arc 1, particularly, some of the stuff Harrow said in his last conversation with Callum:
And some things he told Rayla when she told him about her mission to avenge Avizandum and the dragon egg that was initially believed to be destroyed:
I also thought of some of the things Harrow told Callum in his letter:
And lastly something he said to Rayla in season 3 in their conversation after looking at Avizandum's stoned body:
I think it’s important to remember that yes, even Callum himself is aware of the violent cycle between the humans and Xadia and actually wants to end it. And while yes, Ezran grieving Harrow’s death and feeling so much anger towards Runaan was completely valid, I truly believe that Callum was also motivated in trying to convince Ezran to not take part in this cycle of vengeance. The very cycle that killed their mother, that lead Harrow to kill Avizandum in vengeance, which he himself even regretted and recognized was a mistake that lead to Zubeia sending the moonshadow assassins to kill him. And this was something that he brought up to Callum in both his last conversation and his letter, hoping that Callum and Ezran would break this cycle and not repeat his mistakes. And this was what Callum was attempting to do with Ezran, having even reminded him that this was the cycle of violence he was fighting so hard to end. And it did seem that Callum was getting through to him, and I do think that if their conversation didn’t get interrupted by Soren calling out and maybe in a short amount of time, Callum would’ve succeeded.
Of course next thing we see after Rayla and Soren’s duel along with Corvus’s intervention, was Ezran approaching them with a bunch of guards and he had no hesitation in ordering them to attack an outnumbered Rayla and Runaan. It was only in this situation, when literal violence was about to escalate, that we see Callum fully take Rayla’s side and go against Ezran. Not having succeeded in getting through to his brother and seeing that he was still set on getting his revenge, was when Callum decided to step down as high mage and leave with Rayla and Runaan.
Now I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing Callum for leaving his traumatized brother in this situation, which like, yes it was a betrayal at a bad time and it hurt Ezran a great deal. But I also think it’s important to keep in mind that if Callum were to have stayed behind, he would’ve been arrested and have not been able to do anything or even help Ezran in any way, especially with Ezran later becoming hellbent on building weapons of mass destruction, even with Zym becoming increasingly uncomfortable, and hardly listening to anyone aside from Aanya. In fact, I think this would’ve lead to a far bigger strain on their relationship and less of a likelihood to reconcile and repair the rift created between them.
But anyways, this is my opinion on this whole topic. I personally think there wasn’t one person in this that was entirely right or wrong in this situation, each of them had valid stances that just all came clashing together and lead to this massive fallout. But I’m glad that in the end, they were all able to work it out and be able to reconcile things between them. And I know I made this super long but I guess I just wanted to dump out all my thought here.
Anyways, what do you think? Anything you wanted to add on to this?
Adding to that I think that the problem with this debate about some taking side to Ezran, Rayla or even Callum or about who's right or who's wrong. It's not about who's right or who's wrong here, the situation brought in this conflict is complex and nuanced with no good or simple answers for it ! In such complex situation, what's important it's not about right or wrong, it's how they try to handle it ! Rayla was too much impatient concerning Runaan causing a certain distance with Ezran. Ezran was too self-absorbed to listen to anyone else while Callum try to act as mediator to calm the situation. Their separation in the beginning of s7, is the result of how they handle this situation. Could they have handle it better ? Maybe ? But at the same time, what they could have done in such messy situation ?
