Jheselbraum the Unswerving

Writer. Mostly analyses, occassional theories. Formally on Amino.

[jheseltheunswerving]

My Conclusion on Bill Cipher

I wrote this in my notes app on January 27, 2024 after learning about the upcoming Book of Bill. I will reblog it after the book's release.

Bill Cipher is an Icarus who burned his dimension in attempt to attain absolute freedom. By doing so he ensured he would never succeed in his goal, because he will never be free from that responsibility. A truth he's been in denial of and running from for a thousand eons. And with every deal he makes, he further shackles himself to the constraints of those deals. In summary, the fires he thinks are freedom are what incarcerate him.

[jheseltheunswerving]

Bill Cipher is an Icarus

Originally posted on the Gravity Falls Amino in August, 2019.

In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of Daedalus who was ordered by King Minos to build a structure that could contain a creature called the Minotaur. Rather than building a prison, Daedalus constructed a labyrinth so complex that anyone who entered could never find their way back out. 

Wanting to keep the Minotaur a secret, King Minos locked away Daedalus and his family, including Icarus. 

But Daedalus was clever. He built two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers. One for him and one for Icarus. Once the time came to make the attempt to escape, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too close to the sun or the wax in his wings would melt. With that, the two started flying toward freedom.

Caught up in the sensation of flight, Icarus forgot his father’s warnings. He went higher and higher, seizing as much of that freedom as he could. He didn’t even notice the wax holding his wings together was melting. Suddenly, the feathers became too loose, and Icarus fell to his death in the sea. 

The story of Icarus is referenced to a couple times in Journal 3 by Ford. The first time he’s talking about how jealous he is of his “Muse” (Bill Cipher) for being free from all physical limitations. If a person spends eight hours of every day asleep, then they would be wasting about ⅓ of their life. While working on the portal, Fiddleford was the first to give into fatigue, and warned Ford not to stay up too late:

“‘Don’t forget what happened to Icarus,’ he told me as he packed up his things and left.

‘He didn’t flap hard enough,’ I replied.”

When Ford finds out what Bill was really planning, he admits Fiddleford was right. 

“If only Icarus could see me now.” Ford’s confession that he has flown too close to the sun, a consequence that almost resulted in his and the world’s undoing. 

But we know how that story ended, and it wasn’t just Ford’s wings that burned. The moral of Icarus’s story is to never forget your limitations. This is why I argue that the other Icarus in “Gravity Falls” is Bill Cipher.

Over the course of his story, Bill had one goal: to be free from all limitations. How this ambition developed doesn’t matter. What’s important to understand is that Bill’s ultimate goal was to be free from laws and restrictions, and that is why he burned his dimension.

Oh, and for some reason there is still some question if Bill burned his dimension. Let me clear that up. 

It’s in the Axolotl’s poem 

It’s in the journal

He admits to it

I hope that cleared up any doubts anyone may still have had.

However, burning his dimension didn’t give Bill the freedom he was after. After the fact, he was trapped in the Nightmare Realm for one trillion years, only able to interact with the physical world by means of possession or through the mindscape. That’s a pretty big limitation. That’s why whenever he came close to overcoming that barrier, and failed, he got visibly frustrated and angry. 

Absolute freedom is what Bill preached to justify what he was doing. It was his way of convincing himself that what he was doing, however messed up, wasn’t wrong. Why does he need to convince himself? Because freedom, the one thing he’s after, is the one thing he can never truly have. 

The Axolotl’s poem, as I showed you before, gives hints to Bill’s possible return. It’s not a particularly new discovery. Most everyone knows this by now, but for the sake of completion, let me recite those hints one more time:

“If he wants to shirk the blame, he’ll have to invoke (the Axolotl’s) name

One way to absolve his crime. A different form, a different time.”

Basically, if Bill wants to further avoid punishment for the arson, he can invoke the Axolotl. But this proves something about Bill. He’ll never be truly free from the responsibility of burning his dimension. He knows this, and it enrages him. 

I mean, how infuriating it must be that the one limitation he can never be free from is the one he imposed on himself. And it’s almost poetic that his downfall happened in a blue fire, similar to his blue fire that he ignites when he makes a deal. Almost like the deal he made with Stan was the moment he flew too close to the sun. 

Since the show ended, there has been a debate whether Bill is evil or tragic. This is my way of arguing both. The truth is, I don’t think there is an evil character who isn’t tragic. Anyone who believes that instigating fear and chaos is the right thing to do must have gone through a lot of pain themselves. That doesn’t make it okay. But it is tragic. 

I think what makes an Icarus is when a person gets too cocky and too comfortable, and they start to think they’re invincible. That’s when they fly too close to the sun. But I don’t think the moral of the story should be “remember your limitations”. I think it should be, “stay grounded”. Don’t be afraid to take risks, just remember that they’re risks. And be prepared that you might fall. 

2024 Review: This is the second of two posts from Amino I'm posting on this blog. I will be creating one more, original post that briefly summarizes my opinion on Bill as of today, which I will later reblog after The Book of Bill comes out.

[jheseltheunswerving]

The Sad Truth About Bill Cipher

Originally posted to the Gravity Falls Amino in September, 2017.

There seems to be this common misconception that Bill Cipher is this sympathetic, remorseful antagonist. So, today I’m here to remind everyone that Cipher is an insane psychopath that should never be trusted.

Let’s start with how much he’s lied. He tricked Dipper into letting him possess his body, he lied to Ford about why he wanted the portal built, and he tricked Mabel into giving him the rift. These are just a few of his lies over countless others.

He is a bully, to say the least. My personal favorite example of this is this scene.

"I, um, I- DO IT, kid!  Do some brilliant thing that takes me down right now. Whaddya got, Pinetree? Everyone’s watching! DO IT!”

Now let’s talk about how murderous he is. He tortured Ford through electrocution so he would tell him the equation that would collapse the barrier keeping Bill and his friends from spreading their weirdness around Dimension 46. He was set on killing Mabel “just for the heck of it”, and there is a high probability that he killed Wendy’s mom.

A Tumblr post from user dilfiisms pointed out that in the episode “Not What He Seems”, a yellow ribbon can be seen on that back of Manly Dan’s truck. This might be referencing the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program.

dilfiisms then went on to pointing out what Bill said about Wendy’s mom in his AMA, “WENDY’S MOM HAS GOT IT GOING ON. SHE’S ALL I WANT AND I’VE WAITED FOR SO LONG”. This is a reference to the song “Stacy’s Mom” by Fountains of Wayne, but it also suggests that Bill had some kind of connection with Mrs. Corduroy’s death. We know for sure Wendy’s mom is "no longer with us”.

In the official Journal 3, Mabel attaches a note written by Bill she found in the car on the way back from the theatre after the events of “Sock Opera”.

Bill was planning to kill Dipper’s body and frame it as a suicide. He could have done just that with Wendy’s mom.

Here’s a prime example of Bill’s instability. He burned his own dimension! The question is, why?

"Flat minds in a flat world with flat dreams.” Based on what Bill said about his dimension in his AMA, “Edwin Abbott Abbott has a decent idea,” (Abbott wrote the book Flatland), it is possible Bill played a similar part to A Square who tried to convince his fellow two-dimensional shapes of a three-dimensional world. Despite all his efforts, however, he failed and was imprisoned for mentioning the existence of a three-dimensional world. If Bill had to deal with something similar in his dimension, it’s understandable why he got so frustrated.

There is also a page in the official journal describing a two-dimensional world Ford visits during his thirty years on the other side of the portal. At first he mistakes it to be Bill’s birthplace, and theorizes that Bill came from a similar dimension.

Notice the key on the side of the page. In this dimension, circles are upper class (much like how circles are considered the “perfect shape” in Flatland) and triangles are lower class. If this was the case in Bill’s dimension, then it might explain his thirst for power. As a triangle, he had no power in his dimension. All that built up frustration is probably what pushed Bill over the line.

The Axolotl’s message is likely to blame for all the wrong impressions of Bill. I won’t be reciting the whole thing. By now, everyone should know it, and if you don’t, look it up. I’ll only mention the lines that are relevant.

"Misses home and can’t return.” This line has misled the lot of us, myself included. I didn’t understand how Bill, the perfect psychopath, could possibly miss his home or regret what he did, and that’s because it’s not possible. Psychopaths have no conscience. They can only miss something when that thing provided them with immediate supposed gain. Which only further confused me because, if his dimension was so flat and limiting, what would Bill miss about it? The answer is actually simple, despite how long it took me to figure it out. Praise. Not necessarily from other shapes, but perhaps from his parents.

Here's a part in the journal where Bill's parents are briefly mentioned:

Bill wouldn’t miss his parents because of a genuine relationship he had with them, but because they praised him for simply being in their lives. Ever since he burned his dimension, Bill gets praise solely for his power, but it’s likely he didn’t always have that power.

Psychopaths love praise. They don’t want friends, they want worshippers. That’s why I’m calling bull on his message in the journal, “CURSE THE AXOLOTL EVERY CONSPIRACY IS TRUE”. He was just trying to win over empathy. Psychopaths do that too. Pretend to feel bad for what they’ve done so people will forgive them and give them multiple second chances.

"Blame the arson for the fire." Talk about a six word story. I have seen several theories that Bill didn't mean to burn his dimension. That it was all some kind of accident. Quite the contrary, actually.

Arson: (n) The criminal act of DELIBERATELY setting fire to property.

So, there you have it. Bill Cipher is far from a sympathetic antagonist. Evil does not have boundaries, and anyone who thinks it does is making a big mistake.

Having said all that, Bill Cipher is still my favorite character. He's the most interesting and entertaining villain I've seen in stories, and I can't wait for the Gravity Falls graphic novel which will hopefully give us more insight about him.

2024 Review: This is the first of two posts from the Gravity Falls Amino I plan on posting here. While most of the information still holds up, a lot of it is outdated. Stay tuned for the second post which is a bit more current.

[jheseltheunswerving]

Introducing me and what to expect from the future/acknowledging The Book of Bill

Long time, no see. I never properly introduced myself. You can call my Jhesel. I used to be on the Gravity Falls Amino back when Amino wasn't total garbage. I was a part of several other Aminos as well, but the Gravity Falls one was where I was most known and active.

I write analyses on my favorite characters. That is the bulk of what I do, though I occasionally craft theories.

Back in 2019, I stepped away from Amino to pursue other hobbies and interests. You see, when Gravity Falls ended in 2016, I still had an obsession with Bill Cipher that carried me through high school. Something about his character intrigued me. I even confused this curiosity for attraction for a time. I mean, other people my age were fetishizing this creepy triangle man, maybe puberty had gotten to me as well.

But that wasn't it. I didn't want to screw Bill , I wanted to understand him. It is not an exaggeration to say that I spent the following three years analyzing him the same way my second semester English professor analyzed Othello. That is the level of dedication I had to this character.

When I finally came to my "conclusion" on Bill Cipher in 2019, I was finally ready to step away. Curiosity had killed the cat, but satisfaction did truly bring her back. I went to college, I made some friends, I even got a boyfriend.

This isn't to say you cannot have all these things and still be a fan of the show. You most certainly can. The problem for me was that I wasn't just a fan of Bill, I was obsessed with him.

But once I came to my conclusion, that was the end of it. I was satisfied, and I haven't let myself become obsessed with anything since. It isn't healthy, and I didn't enjoy it when I was in it.

That being said, Alex has once again become the bane of my existence by going ahead and writing a book specifically on Bill Cipher.

I actually did not know about this until a friend told me in late January. I haven't been following the show at all since 2019, so I have no idea when the book was announced. But once she told me, I quickly went though the five stages of grief then looked it up.

Reading the Barnes and Noble description of the book, it sounds like the very thing we've been waiting for: Bill Cipher's backstory. Except it's from his perspective.

There's many things I want to address about this. First, there is a disclaimer that reads, "This book travels to dimensions meant for older readers." This makes sense given this is Bill's backstory. One thing we know about Bill's backstory: it's insanely fucked up.

Piecing together clues we gathered from Journal 3, the Axolotl's message and the show itself, we've long known Bill destroyed his home dimension. That isn't going to be new information. What's going to be new is seeing it described "on screen" sort to speak. We sorta got that in one of the "Weirdmageddon" episodes, but it was so brief and glossed over that it felt vague. This book sounds like it's going to be a beat by beat, play by play on the events leading up to and during the arson.

It makes sense why Alex chose to wait on releasing such a book. The audience members who were kids when the show ended are now older. They will be able to enjoy it, too.

Another thing I want to address about the book's description is it says one of the things Bill is going to talk about in it is "how to cheat death". That screams insight on the Axolotl's message. One thing we've all been curious about, and something I never was able to fully learn, was why Bill invoked the Axolotl's name during his death scene.

We kind of know the answer to this already from "If he wants to shirk the blame/he'll have to invoke my name/One way to absolve his crime/A different form, a different time". Do I really have to cite and recite the entirety of the poem again for you people? If you've read this far, probably not.

We already know invoking the Axolotl's name gives Bill an out. What we don't know is why. For the last seven years, I've just been operating under the assumption that Bill made a deal with the Axolotl. Perhaps it was the first deal he ever made. But we really don't know for sure. So finally getting some backstory on that is exciting.

However, this does raise some concerns. There are a lot of people who just want to believe that Bill Cipher is dead. Invoking the Axolotl's name didn't work, and the Pines can live worry free for the rest of their lives. And that is a totally reasonable thing to want. One of the things Alex so firmly believed in when he ended the show was maintaining fans' ability to have their headcanons. What's great about Bill's vague fate is that he could be anywhere. Anything. He could be dead, he could be a bird, he could be King from The Owl House (he's not King from the Owl House, by the way). But my point still stands. If this book is a story told from Bill's perspective, when did he tell it?

If it's after the show ended, that already demolishes a ton of headcanons. My hope is that this takes place somewhere between "Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future" and "Weirdmageddon Part 1". One of the things I believe most as a fan of the show and a fan of this character: I don't want to know for sure where Bill is now. I want it to remain ambiguous. I think having that be the case was a storytelling strength on Alex's part, and he shouldn't go back on it.

So. What am I, a self-proclaimed Bill Cipher expert, going to do about this book? I considered ignoring its existence and carrying on with my life, but I don't think I'm allowed to do that. If I want to keep calling myself a Bill expert, I have a responsibility to read this book. Not only to keep up with new information as it arrives, but also to see if my conclusion on him holds up.

Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to post two (2) of my old Amino analyses here on this blog, so that you can see my thought process on this character and how it developed.

Then on a separate post, I am going to write a single paragraph summary on my current "conclusion" of Bill Cipher. After the book comes out and I read it, I will reblog that same post and write my thoughts on him as of then. We will see if they change much.

Be on the look out for those posts. I didn't mean for this one to be this long. Until next time.

[jheseltheunswerving]

Rayla: How Selflessness Becomes Selfish

I had every intention of writing this before season 4 came out. Unfortunately, school and life got in the way, and I just didn’t have the time. However, I am writing this without having seen season 4, so please keep all spoilers out of the comments and reblogs.

Rayla is one of many people’s favorite characters. She’s cool, she’s beautiful, and she has a Scottish accent. But I wanted to get deeper into her character. 

Morals and Responsibility 

Throughout the show, Rayla is shown to be a protector, a fact that contradicts her training as an assassin. Even still, her being a protector is greatly influenced by her Moonshadow Elf ideals. 

The Moonshadow elves and their ideals are introduced early on in the show where we see a group of them making essentially a bloodpact to avenge the death of the dragon king and his son. The planned assassinations of Harrow and Ezran are not only believed to be deserved but also believed to be vital to achieving justice. As Runaan eloquently puts it, “Life is precious. We take it, but we do not take it lightly.”

This is a moral that Rayla displays. She will only take a life if she feels it is necessary or deserved. Hence why she spares Marcos’ life in the very start of the show. It isn’t until she meets Callum, and he points out the revenge cycle, that these morals begin to be… altered. 

As soon as the egg of the dragon prince is discovered, Rayla commits herself to defending Callum and Ezran. She smiles at Ez and offers to go back into the tower with Callum to stop her people from killing his and Ez’s father. 

Rayla assumes the actions of her peers are her responsibility. When she first tells Callum and Ezran about her parents, she says she’s so ashamed, and feels her journey to return the egg to the dragon queen as one of redemption. In other words, Rayla feels she needs to redeem herself because of her parents' alleged betrayal. 

She assumes this kind of second-hand responsibility from the other assassins as well. Throughout season 1 and well into season 2, Rayla is incapable of telling the boys what happened to their father. Even when Rayla asserts, “I didn’t kill anyone!” Corvus’ words illustrate exactly what she believes:

“Your leader did! What’s the difference?”

The difference is Rayla tried to stop him. She tried to get Runaan to call off the mission, and he wouldn’t listen. Now King Harrow is dead, and Rayla cannot bring herself to tell her new friends. 

And this actually becomes a problem later. More specifically, Rayla’s morals become a problem. Although she can’t find the strength to tell Callum and Ezran the truth, she still needs them to trust her. She offers to carry the egg, but when she realizes giving it to her would be a gesture of trust, she can’t let herself take it. She refuses to accept the boys’ trust until she’s told the truth. Even Callum tells her, “You don’t need to do this right now, Rayla.”

“Yes, I do,” she asserts. 

No, you don’t. Wait until you’re in a safer place.

But she can’t. She has to do what “the right thing” in her mind is before she can, and it nearly costs them everything. 

This comes back to haunt her at the end of the first season. The guilt of dropping the egg is weighing on Rayla and she will not let herself believe it was anyone’s fault but her own, even though Callum was also arguing with her. 

“I let you both down. I let the world down.”

Rayla has a lot of internalized guilt that she does not let herself let go. It might have been taught by her Moonshadow elf culture or it may have been something she learned on her own, but either way, it has shaped how she thinks of herself and how she handles situations. 

Emotional Vulnerability 

Like all characters, Rayla has moments of weakness. How she handles those moments is what differs her from other characters. The first true glimpse of this we get is after Callum told his aunt that Rayla is a bloodthirsty monster. Rayla says to Callum, “I can’t believe you’re such a jerk.” Her hood’s on, her back is turned, slouching away from the boys with her arms wrapped around her knees. 

This kind of standoffish behavior is displayed in her again the very next episode where Rayla admits to being afraid of water. “I guess I was afraid of being afraid.” This is another example of how the Moonshadow elf ideology can be harmful. Rayla comes from a culture where weakness and vulnerability are things for which to be ashamed. A culture that ghosts their own people if there is even the slightest notion of that person having betrayed them — without any chance of explanation. Although she doesn’t know it, that is exactly what happened to her parents.

When she opens up about this, Callum tries to comfort her by putting a hand on her shoulder, but she pulls away. Rayla does not like to be touched when she feels vulnerable. This is a very interesting detail about her, especially as her and Callum’s relationship develops. 

One of Rayla's main conflicts in season 1 and 2 is hesitation and struggling to do the right thing. She knows what she’s supposed to be and what she’s supposed to do, but it hasn’t felt right to her. And that causes her to doubt herself. 

This becomes a problem during their trek up the Cursed Caldera. Rayla doubts her ability to carry out Callum’s plan. Even when she is successful in carrying it out, she’s already in a state of panic, so when thousands of tiny slugs start crawling up her body, she’s understandably shaken. In a moment of weakness and desperation, Rayla calls out for help. Callum uses Aspiro to blow away the tiny slug monsters, and she gives him a subtle angry look.

Rayla becomes defensive when she’s vulnerable. Her body language becomes closed off and she doesn’t speak as much. This is shown again after Rayla sees the illusion of the mummy turning to dust. She tells everyone, “There was no one there.” This may have been more to protect the kids than herself, as she admits to Callum in confidence what she saw. Interestingly, Callum doesn’t put a hand on her shoulder here, or try to reach out to her at all. He simply asks, “Are you okay?” and lets her open up. And she does. A little. 

That’s the thing about Rayla. She doesn’t like being caught off her guard. If she’s going to open up, it’s gonna be on her terms. And this includes being touched. 

Right before the Wonderstorm when Rayla is blaming herself for the egg’s fading, Ezran reaches out to her. “You tried, Rayla. You’re so good. And brave.” Here Rayla accepts Ezran’s hug. Though, there was a bit of warning in his approach, and he was also tearing up. This is another notable detail about her character. Although Rayla does not like being touched when she feels vulnerable, she does reach out to people she cares about when they’re the ones who are upset. She does it here with Ezran, and later after Callum finally finds out about Harrow, Rayla hugs him. Rayla is not devoid of empathy. She is capable of being there for people for support or as a shoulder to lean on. But she lacks foresight in how her own actions could affect her loved ones emotionally. 

Still, Rayla does get better with being vulnerable in increments, particularly when it means helping Callum. At the end of season 2, she clings to him while he’s in his coma. She even goes as far as to nearly admit her feelings, only pulling away at the last second when he wakes up. But that isn’t the last time she’s vulnerable for him. She opens up again to Sol Regem, offering her hand to Callum and admitting she cannot finish their mission without him. However, what both of these scenes have in common is that Rayla is in control. Rayla is opening up on her own terms, no one is pressuring her to do it. It is not that Rayla is incapable of being vulnerable or opening up, it’s that she has to do it by her own choice.

And this is where hers and Callum’s love languages clash. Rayla hates being touched when she’s vulnerable, but it’s Callum’s instinct to reach out to her when she’s upset. The day after visiting the Silvergrove and finding out she’s been ghosted, Callum approaches her about how she must be feeling. But once again, Rayla keeps her back to him and says as little as possible — even denying that the previous day was difficult for her. When Callum pries and approaches her on the ambler, she snaps at him and insists that she’s fine. Finally, when he hears her crying in the oasis he reaches out to her again, only for her to smack him in the face with a pillow and run away.

And even when she tells him to leave her alone, that “she doesn’t want him to see her like this,” he still puts a hand on her shoulder. Of course, she immediately pulls away, once again shadowing that she does not like to be touched when she’s upset. To her, it’s like someone breaking through her armor.

Callum reaches out to her again, and again, she steps away. Neither of them are in the wrong here. Rayla does not like being touched when she’s upset, but it’s Callum’s instinct to comfort her the same way he’s been comforted in the past — with hugs and reassurance that he’s not alone. 

Their love languages conflict because their upbringings do. Callum comes from a family that respects each others’ feelings and encourages free expression with games such as “big feelings time”. Rayla comes from a culture that denies fear and weakness and praises hardened hearts. And all those pent up feelings, at least in Rayla, manifest as anger and defensiveness. She closes herself off, she snaps at Callum. She acts like she is alone — like she has to deal with her feelings, alone.  

By not letting the people who love her help her, she’s not only pushing them away, but she’s hurting them. When all they want to do is be there for her. It’s only when Callum snaps back and tells her to shut up that she allows him to talk. Callum has to talk her out of her hurt feelings before she finally lets him take her hands. 

Of course, Rayla isn’t required to open up if she doesn’t want to. Callum simply isn’t used to that kind of behavior. Because of his family, he’s used to people being open and honest about their feelings. And he does slowly learn not to touch Rayla when she’s upset, but to let her come to him in her own time. 

Where Selflessness Becomes Selfish

Rayla often puts herself in danger to save the lives of others. She runs out of the oasis into the Midnight Desert to save one of the mounts. She saves Nyx from the soulfangs, and she sacrifices herself to save Zym at the end of season 3. 

But wait. Aren’t these all selfless acts? Well, yes they are, but they’re also selfish to the people who care about her. However, these may be excusably selfish. Obviously, saving the mount and Nyx were noble acts, and saving Zym was necessary. But there are times where Rayla is self-sacrificing for no reason. 

Initially, Callum and Rayla planned for the group to leave the Storm Spire with Zym before Viren’s army arrived. Then Rayla said she was going to stay at the Spire to fight a hopeless battle by herself and die. And all she says to Callum after this reveal is “Goodbye”. 

This is a scene that actually makes me angry. Rayla accuses Callum of “not knowing her at all”. Which is an extremely unfair thing for her today just days after he described her to Nyx as “selfless, strong and caring. She does what’s right even if it puts her own life in danger.” Callum loves Rayla, even if at this point he hadn’t said it yet. For her to suggest that he doesn’t know her is honestly a pretty selfish thing for her to do. And then — she runs away again. Just like she always does when her “armor” is breached, as if he touched her. And this is where that behavior is a problem, because she’s avoiding a conversation about a decision that affects Callum just as well as her. 

That isn’t to say Callum was right in how he handled their argument, but understand where he is coming from. The girl he loves is willingly and pointlessly sacrificing herself for a hopeless battle and expecting him to be alright with that. And the last thing she was ever going to say to him was “Goodbye”. Her death would not have even served a purpose. She was going to throw her life away by herself for — as both her and Callum put it — “redemption”. A redemption that she didn’t need to earn, and even if she did, wouldn’t it be better to earn it through helping to protect Zym? 

Rayla values certain ethics more than she values herself, and that turns into selfishness when it hurts people who care about her and she acts like it shouldn’t. 

Again, though, these acts of self sacrifice are sometimes necessary. Rayla becoming the last dragon guard concludes her “honor” arc satisfyingly. She doesn’t do it out of cowardice. She isn’t trying to stay out of the heat of battle. She believes the enemy will make it up to the Spire and that she will have to defend Zym. And she’s right. 

Sacrificing herself to save Zym was not unnecessary or selfish. It was a genuine act of self sacrifice for the greater good, and it is a testament to Rayla’s courage and heart. I do not believe she was thinking of herself or anyone else when she did it. Only of keeping Zym safe. 

Unfortunately, that is not the end of the story. It continues in the canon graphic novel taking place between season 3 and 4. Rayla’s understandably upset about losing Runaan and her parents without fully knowing what happened to them. Callum reached out to her at first, before pulling his hand back. Once again, his instinct is to reach out to her, but he knows Rayla doesn’t work that way. If she’s going to open up about her feelings, it will be by her own volition.

So instead of reaching out to her or trying to convince her that her feelings are misplaced, he apologizes, saying he doesn’t like seeing her upset. And that little bit of space he gives works. She goes to him and leans on his shoulder, hugs him, and even agrees to try going on vacation. 

Unfortunately, the supposed vacation does not work, and only further reminds Rayla of what is bothering her. She runs off from the group, still distressed about not knowing. Not knowing what happened to Viren, Runaan or her parents. The uncertainty is what’s troubling her. 

She removes herself from the group and Callum follows her. Though to his credit, he does almost immediately offer to leave, and she’s the one who tells him to stay.

During their time alone, Rayla does open up a little about losing the people she loves. Then Callum makes the mistake of putting a hand on her arm while saying he knows how she feels. 

I may be biased here, but Callum was once again valid in his argument. When Rayla snaps that he at least knows what happened to the people he’s lost, he says, “Yes, I know what happened to them! One of the people you’re so worried about killed my stepfather!”

His stance in the next panel tells me he’s been holding on to that one for a long time, but he didn’t want to say it because he knows Runaan is important to Rayla. It isn’t until she insinuates that she has it worse that he lets it out. 

I’m not saying either one of them is in the wrong. Both of their feelings are valid. Rayla has every right to want to know what happened to her loved ones. But she shouldn't be taking that out on Callum. And it especially irks me that at the end of the argument, she accuses him of not having “moved on” from the tensions between humans and elves that are still very much a recent thing. A thing that has affected him personally, but he’s still able to look past that tension because he loves her. He loves Rayla, but she has a bad habit of forgetting that.

At the end of the graphic novel, Rayla leaves Callum to search for Viren — even after she promised him they would go together. This is the choice that inspired this analysis. She did it because she loves Callum and she did not want to risk losing him, but as we know from the clips for season 4, she’d be gone for two years. 

This is where selflessness becomes selfish. For the entire book, Rayla’s been upset because of the not knowing. Then she did the same thing to Callum, without any forethought that it would make him feel exactly how she feels about losing her loved ones. 

This is another example of how she forgets Callum loves her. Rayla does not understand her own worth. This results in selfless acts of self-sacrifice, but it also results in selfish acts of self-sacrifice. There comes a point where her actions are not only unnecessary, but harmful to the people who love her. It is a great example of character writing — using her greatest strength as her greatest flaw. But from an in-story perspective, Rayla needs to better put herself in the minds of others and gauge how her actions would affect them. Not thinking helped when it came to saving the dragon prince, but it was ultimately selfish when abandoning Callum.

[jheseltheunswerving]

Frozen II should have been a Show

Frozen II and Raya and the Last Dragon. Both would have worked better as shows than they did movies. 

Sometimes when a story’s pacing isn’t working, the form of the story needs to be changed. A novel should become a novella. A screenplay should become a traditional play. A movie should become a show. 

The reason people don’t do it is because a full fledged show is a much bigger risk than a movie. 

It’s the risk of spending more time, and possibly more budget, on a show that may not get the needed attention for it to pay off. Because from the audience perspective, committing to a show takes a lot more time and energy than it does to commit to a movie. 

However, it’s a risk Disney can afford to take, and I bet for these two films in particular, it would have resulted in success.

For example, Raya’s advertising brought a lot of hype to the movie. And while it looked beautiful and told a compelling story, the pacing of that story was rushed, because they tried to fit so much into just a couple hours of screen time. 

But upon seeing the trailers, people were already comparing it to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Raya could have very well been Disney’s Avatar! And it was released around the same time that Disney+ launched, which would have drawn more people to the streaming platform. 

It wouldn’t have needed to be a long show. Certainly not as long as Avatar, spending full seasons focusing on one aspect of the show: water; earth and fire. Instead, Raya could have dedicated a few hour long episodes to exploring all the different parts of the world. 

Or they could have done exactly what Avatar did and dedicated full seasons to that, which would have been more of a risk, but either way, it would have resulted in better pacing. 

Then we have Frozen II. Ooooh, Frozen II. Let’s not beat around the bush. We all know this sequel was only made because of the success of the first movie. Disney only made it to make money. 

But to give credit where credit is due, the writers of the film still tried to tell a good story. But once again, they tried to fit too much into too little time. And the story they told wasn’t even worth it. 

The animation? Stunning! The music? Phenomenal! But the story? While an attempt was made, it did not do the characters justice. 

At least, not on the surface level.

See, Anna becoming queen could have worked, if they’d set it up better. There was a song removed from the original movie where Anna expresses her desire to prove that she was more than just second in line for the throne. More than just the spare in case something happened to Elsa. 

The song could have been re-vamped and reused in the sequel! And it would have worked! It would have made Anna becoming queen feel less random.

But also, she needs to earn it. Anna loves Arendelle, but we haven’t seen her doing much to take care of it. The most we saw was her leaving it in Hans’ care when she left to go look for Elsa in the first movie. If the sequel had been a series, there would have been more time for Anna to show off her capabilities as a possible ruler!

Then we have Kirstoff. In the first movie, it was okay that we didn’t get more backstory on him because that really wasn’t the point of the story. And honestly, in Frozen II, it was acceptable for the exact same reason. But imagine the possibilities of his character if we’d been given a show for a sequel instead of a movie!

In Tangled: The Series, we learned more about Eugene’s past, and it was awesome. It fleshed him out more as a character, rather than him just being Rapanzel’s love interest. It provided him opportunities to make choices, and made it more difficult for him to do so. And above all, it was compelling. 

We could have gotten that with Kristoff. He may not be a prince, and frankly, we don’t want him to be. But to find out what happened to his parents, how he met Sven, why the two of them were left alone. That would have been awesome too. And it would have provided more opportunity to see Kristoff and Anna bond. 

And then finally we have Elsa. Her leaving Arendelle and becoming the fifth spirit was such a random and contradicting character arc. Where the first movie was about Anna bringing her back from living isolated in the North, the sequel was about Elsa leaving Anna to live isolated in the North. 

The point of Elsa’s character arc in the sequel was her discovering her worth, which is supposed to build off the development she made in the first movie, but really just discredits it. Because if you watch the first movie without seeing the sequel, that character arc already seems finished. By the end of the first film, she has learned the power of love and how to let people close to her. 

And those lessons seemed completely forgotten in the sequel, because most of the time, she is either ignoring Anna or directly pushing her away. All for the sake of following a voice she randomly started hearing one day. 

Oh, and the voice thing? I’m sorry, but that was stupid.

I love Aurora, her voice is always ethereal and beautiful, but the concept of the voice itself felt too random. Mainly because there wasn’t any explanation as to why Elsa started hearing it when she did. If it was Ahtohallan calling her to her purpose (I guess?), why didn’t she hear it sooner? Might have saved her a lot of grief in the first movie. Considering the voice served as her call to action, an important role in any story, it felt too random.

Elsa’s whole narrative in this movie just felt like lazy writing in general. It followed the same Avatar recipe of the four elements but with far less substance. 

Here’s the thing about the four elements recipe. It’s a quick fix when you don’t have a plot. It provides a goal for your characters and what they have to do to achieve it, without much brain power. 

Examples of the four elements recipe:

Avatar, obviously. But Avatar isn’t lazy writing. They took a simple premise, and made it something grand.

The Dragon Prince has six elements. The six primal sources of magic. Again, this writing isn’t lazy. In fact, they don’t even follow the recipe verbatim. There isn’t one main protagonist mastering everything. There are many different characters all being exposed to a little bit of the elements at a time.

Raya and the Last Dragon. The five kingdoms of Kumandria. It wouldn’t have been bad writing if they had more time to make this simple premise something interesting.

But if Frozen II had been a series instead of a movie and they still used this recipe, it would have been too similar to Avatar. But again, without the substance. Basically, Elsa becomes the Avatar, but with less work. She doesn’t master the elements per se, she just uses her powers to “tame” the spirits of the elements. In other words, she shot ice at them until they calmed down. 

They could have done something far more interesting with Elsa’s character. Something that would definitely take more time to execute properly, but it would have been so worth it. 

In the first movie it was implied that Elsa was simply born with her powers, and that’s just something that happens sometimes. That was an explanation I was totally cool with. It did not need further elaboration. Some people may disagree, but for me it was fine, because unlike Frozen II’s voice, the source of Elsa’s powers does not play an important narrative role. All that matters to the story is that she has powers. 

Then in Frozen II they decided they needed to elaborate, and gave the explanation that Elsa was gifted magic because her mother saved her father. Which is… fine I guess. Begs the question why Anna wasn’t also given powers, but okay.

But what if they hadn’t given that explanation, and we were left with the idea that, while rare, people can simply be born with powers sometimes? That means it could happen more than once!

I would have loved to see Elsa meeting other people with powers! Fire powers, gravity powers, electricity powers, all kinds of powers! And that would have been such a great way to complete her character arc. 

Can you imagine? Elsa opening up a school to teach little kids how to use their magic? Hell, that could have been why she eventually gives up the throne to Anna! That would have been a much better conclusion for Elsa. She spent most of her life feeling like she didn’t belong because of her powers, so she goes on to create a place where people like her can belong. I would have loved to see that!

And since she’s already meeting more people with powers, we could finally get that Frozen/Tangled crossover, instead of a brief cameo. Can you imagine a Frozen series that looks like this? 

Credit: @ Arendelle_Times on Twitter

It would have been great. And it would have been great to see Elsa talking with her long lost cousin, Rapunzel, bonding over them both growing up isolated with some form of magic. 

Sometimes, deadlines and profit take priority over good storytelling. I don’t blame the writers for the fact that neither Raya nor Frozen II worked. I blame Disney, but not the people that work for it. I truly believe that in both cases the writers were trying to tell the best story possible with the limited time they were given. But if they had been offered the option to make these stories shows instead of movies, it would have resulted in something magical. 

[frozensquishie]

No, it’s not about giving more time to tell a good story. It’s about using the time you have efficiently and intelligently. Many many many other films are able to tell an adequate to phenomenal story in an hour and a half. Let’s not confuse gluttonous writing by stacking too many plot points together with actual good story writing that could have worked if they had more time.

That brings me to another point. WDAS has the same schedule for all films and is able to bring original stories to the silver screen very well within the time frame. Frozen II had an already established world and so many assets made that would have reduced the time and stress even needed to make the film. They had a foot in the door already so to speak. All they had to do was update some models and write a story that builds from the first installment, but nope! They completely threw out any logic, setting, and motivations previously set and shot themselves in the foot.

Here is when a story should be a series vs a film:

Films are event driven. They present stories of a character’s transformation due to external events. We witness the characters evolve or mature over the course of a plot’s beginning, middle and end.  When you write a TV series, by contrast the stories are character driven. We experience the drama between characters as they battle external events attempting to change them.

Star Wars focuses on the evolution of Luke Skywalker as he transforms from a naïve boy into a hero. The conclusion is finite, making Star Wars a ‘feature’ storytelling style. By contrast, Star Trek’s Captain Kirk does not change, nor do the characters making up his crew. This allows them to encounter one adventure after the other as they defeat the external events in each episode attempting to change them. At the end of each episode, Kirk and his team remain unchanged which makes Star Trek a ‘series’ storytelling style.

Of course these are examples and not the finite rule to series vs film writing. My point is more about the fact that more time isn’t the answer to save a good story. You are expected to finish your work on time to meet deadlines whether it be high-school or an animation studio. You cannot say “I couldn’t finish because I didn’t have time”. You properly budget your time and use the resources given to you intelligently.

[jheseltheunswerving]

Oh, no no! I agree wholeheartedly. Sometimes when stories go on for too long it completely ruins them. I’m sure we all can think of plenty examples of that. I won’t here for the sake of not changing the subject, but yeah, you’re right. There is probably a way the writers could have told a better story with the amount of time they were allotted. Although, I was talking more about screen time, but the time they were given to actually work on the movie could have been a factor. 

Yes, I do think a too-early deadline could have been part of the problem. Planning a story that feels complete takes time, but at some point they had to move onto storyboard and then animation, if they were going to meet that deadline. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how efficiently you manage your time, things still go wrong. Always.

But even if they could have told a better story as a film, I still think I would have preferred to see a show. It still would have allowed for better pacing, rather than just a lot of stuff happening too fast. I still maintain that changing the form of a story can improve it. 

[jheseltheunswerving]

Frozen II should have been a Show

Frozen II and Raya and the Last Dragon. Both would have worked better as shows than they did movies. 

Sometimes when a story’s pacing isn’t working, the form of the story needs to be changed. A novel should become a novella. A screenplay should become a traditional play. A movie should become a show. 

The reason people don’t do it is because a full fledged show is a much bigger risk than a movie. 

It’s the risk of spending more time, and possibly more budget, on a show that may not get the needed attention for it to pay off. Because from the audience perspective, committing to a show takes a lot more time and energy than it does to commit to a movie. 

However, it’s a risk Disney can afford to take, and I bet for these two films in particular, it would have resulted in success.

For example, Raya’s advertising brought a lot of hype to the movie. And while it looked beautiful and told a compelling story, the pacing of that story was rushed, because they tried to fit so much into just a couple hours of screen time. 

But upon seeing the trailers, people were already comparing it to Avatar: The Last Airbender. Raya could have very well been Disney’s Avatar! And it was released around the same time that Disney+ launched, which would have drawn more people to the streaming platform. 

It wouldn’t have needed to be a long show. Certainly not as long as Avatar, spending full seasons focusing on one aspect of the show: water; earth and fire. Instead, Raya could have dedicated a few hour long episodes to exploring all the different parts of the world. 

Or they could have done exactly what Avatar did and dedicated full seasons to that, which would have been more of a risk, but either way, it would have resulted in better pacing. 

Then we have Frozen II. Ooooh, Frozen II. Let’s not beat around the bush. We all know this sequel was only made because of the success of the first movie. Disney only made it to make money. 

But to give credit where credit is due, the writers of the film still tried to tell a good story. But once again, they tried to fit too much into too little time. And the story they told wasn’t even worth it. 

The animation? Stunning! The music? Phenomenal! But the story? While an attempt was made, it did not do the characters justice. 

At least, not on the surface level.

See, Anna becoming queen could have worked, if they’d set it up better. There was a song removed from the original movie where Anna expresses her desire to prove that she was more than just second in line for the throne. More than just the spare in case something happened to Elsa. 

The song could have been re-vamped and reused in the sequel! And it would have worked! It would have made Anna becoming queen feel less random.

But also, she needs to earn it. Anna loves Arendelle, but we haven’t seen her doing much to take care of it. The most we saw was her leaving it in Hans’ care when she left to go look for Elsa in the first movie. If the sequel had been a series, there would have been more time for Anna to show off her capabilities as a possible ruler!

Then we have Kirstoff. In the first movie, it was okay that we didn’t get more backstory on him because that really wasn’t the point of the story. And honestly, in Frozen II, it was acceptable for the exact same reason. But imagine the possibilities of his character if we’d been given a show for a sequel instead of a movie!

In Tangled: The Series, we learned more about Eugene’s past, and it was awesome. It fleshed him out more as a character, rather than him just being Rapanzel’s love interest. It provided him opportunities to make choices, and made it more difficult for him to do so. And above all, it was compelling. 

We could have gotten that with Kristoff. He may not be a prince, and frankly, we don’t want him to be. But to find out what happened to his parents, how he met Sven, why the two of them were left alone. That would have been awesome too. And it would have provided more opportunity to see Kristoff and Anna bond. 

And then finally we have Elsa. Her leaving Arendelle and becoming the fifth spirit was such a random and contradicting character arc. Where the first movie was about Anna bringing her back from living isolated in the North, the sequel was about Elsa leaving Anna to live isolated in the North. 

The point of Elsa’s character arc in the sequel was her discovering her worth, which is supposed to build off the development she made in the first movie, but really just discredits it. Because if you watch the first movie without seeing the sequel, that character arc already seems finished. By the end of the first film, she has learned the power of love and how to let people close to her. 

And those lessons seemed completely forgotten in the sequel, because most of the time, she is either ignoring Anna or directly pushing her away. All for the sake of following a voice she randomly started hearing one day. 

Oh, and the voice thing? I’m sorry, but that was stupid.

I love Aurora, her voice is always ethereal and beautiful, but the concept of the voice itself felt too random. Mainly because there wasn’t any explanation as to why Elsa started hearing it when she did. If it was Ahtohallan calling her to her purpose (I guess?), why didn’t she hear it sooner? Might have saved her a lot of grief in the first movie. Considering the voice served as her call to action, an important role in any story, it felt too random.

Elsa’s whole narrative in this movie just felt like lazy writing in general. It followed the same Avatar recipe of the four elements but with far less substance. 

Here’s the thing about the four elements recipe. It’s a quick fix when you don’t have a plot. It provides a goal for your characters and what they have to do to achieve it, without much brain power. 

Examples of the four elements recipe:

Avatar, obviously. But Avatar isn’t lazy writing. They took a simple premise, and made it something grand.

The Dragon Prince has six elements. The six primal sources of magic. Again, this writing isn’t lazy. In fact, they don’t even follow the recipe verbatim. There isn’t one main protagonist mastering everything. There are many different characters all being exposed to a little bit of the elements at a time.

Raya and the Last Dragon. The five kingdoms of Kumandria. It wouldn’t have been bad writing if they had more time to make this simple premise something interesting.

But if Frozen II had been a series instead of a movie and they still used this recipe, it would have been too similar to Avatar. But again, without the substance. Basically, Elsa becomes the Avatar, but with less work. She doesn’t master the elements per se, she just uses her powers to “tame” the spirits of the elements. In other words, she shot ice at them until they calmed down. 

They could have done something far more interesting with Elsa’s character. Something that would definitely take more time to execute properly, but it would have been so worth it. 

In the first movie it was implied that Elsa was simply born with her powers, and that’s just something that happens sometimes. That was an explanation I was totally cool with. It did not need further elaboration. Some people may disagree, but for me it was fine, because unlike Frozen II’s voice, the source of Elsa’s powers does not play an important narrative role. All that matters to the story is that she has powers. 

Then in Frozen II they decided they needed to elaborate, and gave the explanation that Elsa was gifted magic because her mother saved her father. Which is… fine I guess. Begs the question why Anna wasn’t also given powers, but okay.

But what if they hadn’t given that explanation, and we were left with the idea that, while rare, people can simply be born with powers sometimes? That means it could happen more than once!

I would have loved to see Elsa meeting other people with powers! Fire powers, gravity powers, electricity powers, all kinds of powers! And that would have been such a great way to complete her character arc. 

Can you imagine? Elsa opening up a school to teach little kids how to use their magic? Hell, that could have been why she eventually gives up the throne to Anna! That would have been a much better conclusion for Elsa. She spent most of her life feeling like she didn’t belong because of her powers, so she goes on to create a place where people like her can belong. I would have loved to see that!

And since she’s already meeting more people with powers, we could finally get that Frozen/Tangled crossover, instead of a brief cameo. Can you imagine a Frozen series that looks like this? 

Credit: @ Arendelle_Times on Twitter

It would have been great. And it would have been great to see Elsa talking with her long lost cousin, Rapunzel, bonding over them both growing up isolated with some form of magic. 

Sometimes, deadlines and profit take priority over good storytelling. I don’t blame the writers for the fact that neither Raya nor Frozen II worked. I blame Disney, but not the people that work for it. I truly believe that in both cases the writers were trying to tell the best story possible with the limited time they were given. But if they had been offered the option to make these stories shows instead of movies, it would have resulted in something magical.