Thoughts on subjectivity and quality, spoilers for Raya and the last dragon below:
So I watched Raya yesterday and since I've been looking through reviews and opinions (mainly I wanted to know how the movie was received by South eastern asians in terms of rep but this isn't what I'll be talking about here as it's not my place) and it's interesting to me that people seem to find the movie awesome or underwhelming. Among the later category, people seem to agree that the pacing was too fast and badly handled, but what I loved about the movie was precisely tied to that fast pacing, and I think it derives from a divergence in readings
The people who argue the pacing was too fast focus on the fact that peace was reached again very soon after the people who had turned into stone were released, and that as a society, it didn't make sense (which is fair! Peace probably wouldn't be reached that fast, and these countries still have issues to work through and amends to make!)
But in my opinion, the movie is only superficially about wars and politics. The crux of it, what touched me to my core, is that personal narrative of Raya and Namaari: the notion that the way we cope with hurt isn't viable as a long term solution. That healing from a wound doesn't stop at protecting oneself from being wounded further, but realizing that by shutting others out, the wound can only fester.
Let's look at it in terms of Raya's character arc:
Raya starts off suspicious of other nations, but her father's words and Namaari's friendship lead her to open up.
Namaari backstabs her, and consequently makes her partly responsible for breaking the world.
Instead of fixing her mistakes, Raya focuses on getting her father back. She cuts herself to human contact entirely, the first person she creates links to in six years is Sisu, and she's not even human, Raya trusts her because she's a dragon (incidentally, it's hinted that she gets several run ins with Namaari, who seems to be the only constant in her life)
Sisu tries to show her that she needs to trust people, but several incidents comfort Raya in her ways - but at the same time, she is forced to ask for help. It's an help that she is moneying and so the only help she will trust at that point.
Sisu finally convinces Raya to try to reach Namaari after showing her that last time the world was saved, it was because her family trusted her even though they had no tangible reason to (as Sisu doesn't have any "fancy" power unlike her siblings, she may seem the least reasonable choice but trust doesn't work that way. It's not really trust if you're just following logical arguments, is it?)
Namaari tries to betray them again, but hesitates, and instead of reassuring Raya, that hesitation brings back all her doubts. She stops trusting Namaari and that's the reason why Sisu is killed.
Raya fights Namaari with all her strength, and wins, but Namaari throws in her face that they're both responsible for Sisu's death. She is right, and isn't trying to save herself at this point, just to make Raya see the truth. And Raya, to Namaari's surprise, sees it (with the help of the family she found along the way)
Raya realizes that the only way out of this mess is to give Namaari another chance. She is the one who convinces her friends to trust her, and that act of trust saves the world and finishes Raya's healing from that very first wound six years ago.
Looking at it like this, yes a lot happens and a lot is left to subtext, but I think the point was to show the entirety of the arc, and that was, in my opinion, the only way to make it believable and ring true. I found it well done, and my emotions through the movie were in tune with Raya's. Of course she can't trust Namaari again! Of course she's just being sensible and protecting herself! Of course... She is isolated and lonely and wounded. Of course what she really needed was to take a leap of faith. (There was a lot of crying involved in the last part of that movie lmao)
Tangentially, Namaari's arc is also very interesting and echoing Raya's.
From Namaari's perspective, she is given a mission to save her people from starvation, but realizes that her enemy has a lot in common with her (I believe the whole dragon nerd part and her gifting Raya the necklace was not a calculated act on her part, she is a child at that point). Still, they are living in luxury and she's not, so she betrays Raya, but she is responsible for breaking the gem.
The implication is that she spends at least part of the next 6 years chasing Raya, though her reasons for doing so are less clear. She doesn't believe Sisu is at the end of the rivers, and she doesn't look particularly interested in getting Raya's fragment initially. But at that point, she has lost her faith in dragons and every other nation is blaming hers for the breaking of the world. Maybe that's why she's after Raya, actually.
Then she learns that Sisu is alive and the legend of her childhood was real. For the first time, she sees a hope of redemption, but her mother twists it. Because they can't trust the other nations not to punish them, they need to come out on top if the world is restored.
Namaari sets out to do her mother's bidding, but seeing Sisu again makes her hesitate, and she almost trusts Raya again before she snaps and they both kill Sisu, confirming her mother's bias.
Except her mother gets turned to stone. Namaari loses the fight against Raya and thinks she's lost it all, but she realizes that things would have been different if she'd been able to trust Raya earlier, and she tries to make her see that.
When Raya trusts her in the end, Namaari too is healed. The assumption isn't that she is forgiven, but that she deserves the opportunity to make amends for the wrong she did.
Anyway that ran long but I love that movie and how it handles its themes, I love that we're not spoonfed every detail but a lot is conveyed through subtle details, and I totally ship Raya and Namaari. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.