I go by âksâ broadly, but "krads" or âkradogâ or variants thereof are fine if your brain prefers that, and I use she/her pronouns. I come from a fandom background of primarily Star Wars and Dragon Age, meaning I've been conditioned to energetically hate everything since before the internet existed.
I am 30 or 40 years old and way too tired to take follows/unfollows personally, so so please feel okay about unfollowing for any reason, because I will literally never notice.
Fanworks
Sometimes I draw shit and sometimes I write shit. I might even put it on AO3, particularly if it's deeply weird and uncomfortable porn.
I have two extremely self-indulgent AUs I wonât shut up about:
Neither Crows Nor Eagles (active): a Lissa-centric canon divergence where Viren dies healing Sorenâs childhood illness, and subsequent issues have to be tag-teamed by her, Sarai, and Kpp'Ar in his absence.
Ouroboros (on hold): a (mostly) Claudia-centric canon divergence where Harrow and Viren swap bodies pre-assassination and then everyone has a bad time.
There's a secret, third AU occasionally mentioned that is literally just 100% disgusting Kpp'Ar/Viren fluff. They're married and nothing bad ever happens. I have like eight WIPs for this and exactly none of them will likely ever see the light of day.
Meta
I have, at long last, made a general meta tag, since I somehow became a person who occasionally says actually coherent things.
Some personal favs/greatest hits:
Allhaven and Evrkynd: An Aanya (and Ezran) Meta
One Truth: The Nature of the True Heart
Terry's s4-s7 Slow-Build Arc
Rayla, the Moon, and Love as Presence
SchrĂśdingerâs King in the Bird Box
Viren's dark magic dream time loop
Is Primal Magic not Native to Xadia?
Cursed knowledge: Soren was conceived during birthday sex
Why Viren is Such a Petty Bitch
Aaravos, Leola, and the Entire History of Human Magic: Original and Post-s6 Revisit
Aaravos and the Purpose of Dark Magic
Other Blogs
@xadianglyphs, my project to collect, categorize, and occasionally analyze visible runes and writing-like symbols
@dragonprincedrabbles, a fanfic prompt generator bot
So while rewatching from the very beginning for the first time in... years... I've been spending a lot of time thinking about what it's like to enter the series with a completely clean slate, and the writing and design choices that were made to draw the audience into the story. There's some incredibly elegant and efficient writing going on in the first few episodes to introduce the characters and their dynamics with each other, but even before that, the first impression those characters make is on our eyeballs with their visual designs.
Fortunately, all design is communication. So what are the designs of Callum, Rayla, and Ezranâthe Arc 1 story's principal hero charactersâsaying? What does their appearance tell us about them and the story?
Notes on Broader Design Language
Since these characters represent a clash (and joining) of opposing culturesâhumanity (as represented by Katolis) and Xadia (as represented by Moonshadow elves)âI feel we need to quickly talk about the contrasting design language of those two groups.
I mentioned in my Pip design meta that Katolis leans primarily into warm colors, while the Moonshadow assassins share a cool color palette. Katolis (at least when it comes to the royal family, which is like 80% of what we care about) particularly emphasizes red and gold, as those feature in their heraldry, and you could say that Rayla and Runaan, as the most prominent Moonshadow elf characters, emphasize green and dark blue.
However, equally important in the Katolis/Moonshadow design contrast are their opposing motifs. I recall it being said that the geometric design language of Katolis was one of the first things they established for the overall look of the show, and it features heavily in the characters. Katolis designs use mostly straight lines, especially verticals (as appropriate for a culture whose identity symbol is towers) and diagonalsâall the Katolis character designs have at least one very prominent, strong vertical at their center line, emphasized with a color shift like the gold trim on both Callum and Ezran. Moonshadow elves, meanwhile, don't have a single straight line anywhere that could be a curve, instead. Not just the trim on their clothing and weapons, but also their shape and cutânearly all of the lines in all of their designs are curves. Rayla's blades alone are like 50 miles of curves compacted into a 3-foot space.
This is slightly less important and interesting with the trio than when we branch out into characters like Viren, because curve-heavy designs also become prominent in proximity to magic... but it's something to look at and notice in how the designs relate to each other.
But let's look at Callum, Rayla, and Ezran individually in detail.
Rayla
Rayla represents a difficult design challenge in that she has to bridge a lot of gaps. She has to represent the exoticism of Xadia, but remain relatable and mesh with Callum and Ezran. She has to convey the kind of confidence and competence that would see her added to an elite team on a deadly mission, but also youthful inexperience and insecurity. She has to be the trio's warrior (the "hand" of "head, hand, and heart"), but can't lean so far into martial aggressiveness that she comes across as harsh or jaded next to the (relatively sheltered) princes.
The prologue conveyed that there are several diverse elven cultures with their own characteristic features, but the Moonshadow assassin team is the first close look we get at elves, and there are a few things worth noting in what their collective design tells us.
Basically, Moonshadow elves are depicted as an interesting balance of individuality and conformity. We are shown several different skin tones, but all six have white hair. (White hair on youthful characters gives an ethereal, ageless impression and hints at the supernatural, linking well with the exotic and magical impression of Xadia. Rayla doubles up on this effect with her purple eyes.) Compared to elves we see later, Moonshadow elves also have a very consistent style of horns. Those two prominent consistencies across all six assassins are balanced out by the individuality of their clothing and weapons, which share enough features to harmonize and convey shared utility, but distinguish them from the Katolian guards, whose armor and weapons are interchangeably uniform. In that way, we perceive them as elite individuals in a cohesive team, and a believable threat even against a much larger number of those "disposable NPC" soldiers.
There are a few places where Rayla herself is an outlier among her companions, mostly in ways that convey her youth and inexperience. She appears to be unarmored, while the other assassins each have either some piece of metal armor or something that reads much more as protective leather than Rayla's clothing. There are actually a few designs for a more armored Rayla, and you can see how it changes the vibe:
In combination with the way her blades fold up completely out of sight (contrast with Runaan's always-prominent bow), this keeps her overall appearance from being too combat-oriented in a way that lets her fit better with Callum and Ezran. The lack of armor also suggests that she is junior and inexperienced compared to the rest of her team.
Also contributing to Rayla's less-experienced look is the lack of styling to her hair. Compared to Runaan, Andromeda, Skor, and Callisto, she's borderline shaggy, with just her tiny little braidâit makes her look less "put together." Ram shares this less-styled approach, where it contributes to making him look very young, as well. Furthermore (and distinct from Ram), Rayla has only the two relatively bold face markings, while the other assassins have more intricate designs that extend beyond their faces to their limbs. We don't know what the markings mean (like... we still don't), but for Rayla to have fewer and simpler ones suggests, again, that she is younger and less experienced.
From a design standpoint, Rayla's face markings (aside from just being a distinctive feature) have the neat effect of acting almost like strong cheekbones, sharpening and narrowing her face. However, they also draw attention to her eyes, which are huge. This is the kind of clash of mature and childish features that makes a very convincing teenager design.
Rayla's eyes are also unusual in that she is one of only a handful or two of characters with distinct eyelashes, rather than the single, heavy line used for 90% of the cast and only varying in the degree of winged-eyeliner length and sharpness. Long, curling eyelashes contribute to a feminine appearance, but on Rayla I think they are equally suggestive of youth and innocence. A lot of the other characters with prominent eyelashes have more feminine designs (such as Kim'dael, a classic femme fatale), but the only character that I would say uses the same design as Rayla's is... Leola. Which. Hm.
Ezran
Ezran, meanwhile, is actually very straightforward: just about every feature of his design is set up to emphasize his youth and innocence. His poofy hair makes his head appear larger, which exaggerates his child proportions. His freckles express both youth and some of his mischievousness. His big, blue eyes are a dramatic pop of color that draws attention to his face, but blue eyes are also emblematic of angelic innocence and kindness.
(Blue eyes being associated with a lot of positive traits like beauty and innocence is an inherently racist cultural convention, and giving blue eyes to a Black character also falls into longstanding racist patterns of character design, in that a lighter hair or eye color has frequently been an attemptâwhether conscious or unconsciousâto make them more palatable/relatable to white audiences. I don't think that negates the many positive things they did with a pretty significant diversity of Black characters in TDP, but I also think it's worth saying.)
Ezran's overall color scheme of red and dark neutrals links him very closely to Harrow, but he doesn't have the complexity of patterns and diagonals that Harrow does:
He does have the strong center vertical that characterizes Harrow, Callum, and the other Katolis characters, but to keep it from visually elongating his torso too much, it's broken up by a sequence of rectangles that also evoke oversized buttons or fasteners. Even his little spats serve to gather his pants at the knee and give his legs a silhouette reminiscent of knickerbockers, historically worn by young boys. They also help to anchor the overall impression of the trio in the medieval/old-timey aesthetic of the rest of the series, which Callum and Rayla stray pretty far from. Interestingly, this seems like it may have always been part of his design intent, given some alternate looks that are very "Disney prince":
Finally, there's Bait, who is functionally a part of Ezran's design, acting as his key character prop for all of Season 1 and most of Arc 1 overall. Bait's default yellow and blue colors, in combination with Ezran's red, create a bright primary color scheme that is (again) linked to youthfulness. Bait is also designed to look and act like a crotchety old man, which contrasts with and emphasizes Ezran as an optimistic and carefree child. Furthermore, the fact that he is a loyal friend to Ezran highlights Ezran's charisma and empathy for people unlike himself.
Callum
Then there's Callum. Most of Callum's design is oriented toward maximizing the impression of his insecurity in his role (or lack thereof). His hair is shaggy in that low-effort teenage way, but it particularly falls in a way that could get in his eyes or even cover them. This is animation, so they're careful to keep his eyes and eyebrows fully visible to not impede his expressiveness, but it has the overall effect of suggesting a curtain he's hiding behind. His jacket has a looser silhouette with very baggy arms, conveying a lack of both physicality and of confidence. It's not quite what I'd describe as "oversized," but it definitely has a concealing and minimizing effect. You can see the difference when his jacket silhouette is sleeker and his arms are more exposed:
The jacket isn't entirely shapeless, however. It doubles up the strong central vertical with his shirt, though that's frequently broken up by the diagonal line of his crossbody sketchbook strap. Depending on his posture (and the camera angle), the emphasized shoulders and inward-curving sides can enhance either a slumped, insecure attitude or a confident one:
(Also, like: the way his leap of faith at the end of Arc 1 has the Manus Pluma Volantus runes first shine through from beneath his jacket sleeves, and then he bursts out of it entirely as he gains his wings... sometimes they are not exactly subtle with this stuff.)
The jacket is also responsible for Callum's distinctive color palette. I doubt that blue on the Katolis-aligned characters (most notably Callum and Amaya) "means" anything explicit in lore terms, considering that there are examples in the artbook of designs for both Ezran and Soren in blue, but it's distinct from red (obviously). It acts to distance characters using it from the red-dominant characters of the royal family. In Callum's case, it also harmonizes with the blue (and the curves) in Rayla's design, helping make the trio more cohesive as a whole by bridging the otherwise-significant design gap between her and Ezran.
More important for Callum's design than the blueness of the jacket in isolation is the way that blue and red are layered. His innermost layer (the shirt/vest) is red and has a geometric design similar to Harrow's, closely aligning him with Harrow and Ezran as part of the royal family. However, he is insecure in that relationship and his role as prince, so he covers the red inner layer with the jacket and distances himself from them. On top of that is layered the red scarf, which is probably the signature non-prop (i.e. not his sketchbook) feature of his design.
On an active character with an otherwise sleek silhouette, a long scarf can add a lot of visual motion and make them more dynamic. In TDP that's not very common because of the animation style used, so scarves are generally shorter and indicate a more reserved characterâsuch as with Corvus, Ethari, and Arc 2 Viren. Callum's scarf adds to his loose, shapeless silhouette as a cowl he could conceivably retreat inside like a turtle. At the same time, it's a very bright pop of red near his face (which will always receive the majority of visual focus), preventing the blue of his jacket from becoming his primary color association.
Back to the color layering, though. The red scarf aligns him back with Ezran, in particular, due to its less ornate design (compared to the red shirt that resembles Harrow's) that explicitly references both the simplified heraldry of Katolis and the diamond design of Sarai's armor (seen more frequently in Amaya). It's both laid on his shoulders and wrapped protectively around him, a banner he flies signifying his love and "allegiance."
Finally, while I personally hate fingerless gloves as a design element, I have to grudgingly admit that on Callum they do serve a legitimate purpose. They are associated with higher dexterity and fine motor control, due to their real-world application of being a trade-off between preserving those things and keeping the hands warm. (Though they can have other connotations. In this particular context, though, I'm pretty confident that's what the design is going for.) Callum is an artist, which uses a lot of that fine motor control. Additionally, the gloves highlight the ends of his fingersâthere's very low contrast between the jacket sleeves and the gloves, and much higher contrast between the gloves and his fingersâwhich are integral to the visuals of his spellcasting.
Conclusion
Look, this isn't a series anyone watches for stunning visuals. (That's definitely not to disparage anyone involved in producing itâI'm frequently impressed by what they manage to do despite very obvious imposed limitations.) But it does still have coherent and intentional design going on, particularly at the forefront of the story and characters, and it has definitely been worth analyzing with fresh eyes.
If I can work up the motivation, I may do more posts like this for Viren, Claudia, and Soren, or possibly for Aaravos (since he's actually pretty unique in that they've shared a lot more unused designs for him, and that's always super fun to look at).
when you get crazy enough about The Character you'd think the situations you imagine them in would get more elaborate and lore intensive. but no. imagining my wizard pacing around huffily being slightly peeved at a mild inconvenience. I donât even know what the inconvenience IS. and it's giving me enough joy to power a city for a month
I swear to god though if it does turn out that Runaan was contemporary with the Orphan Queen and the events of Aaravos's imprisonment I will lose my fucking mind
Not going to go into Viren's goofy mind games here (something something Callum claiming he and Ezran have been captured by Rayla versus Viren claiming he'll set Runaan free) but I enjoy the way this little moment establishes that he's aware the "stories" about Moonshadow elves are false, making the claim that he's heard of Runaan's "I am already dead" philosophy slightly less ludicrous.
i do wonder if we can read Soren's reaction to stagnation in 1x07 as lingering trauma response compounded by losing Harrow.
Like, Soren is stressed over "every minute we sit here" after having to "wait for the elves to come to us" after they couldn't be found, which led to the failure. Claudia immediately follows this up with "I don't see you doing anything helpful," which we can parallel to Soren's "I did everything I could to protect the king... but it wasn't enough" (bonus points for 7x01 "there was nothing I could do"). And then we get Soren being like "if we fail, I don't know what Dad will do to me" which is loaded for a lot of reasons, but also because Soren failed Viren in failing Harrow, and while he likely knows Viren isn't as broken up about Harrow's death as he arguably should be (especially given the kill the princes thing), he's still idk. grappling with causing loss, presumably, in his father's life? and it's interesting
Sometimes your bad coworker will be like "I can't do anything right & I ruin everything I touch :(" and you can't even comfort them because like damn. Yeah. You really can't do anything right and you do ruin everything you touchâď¸
