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zerozeroren · 3 years

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ZeroZeroRant: let’s talk about the message of Raya and the Last Dragon

Here comes my assorted mess of thoughts about the movie and its message, kind of structured but not really

A special thank you goes to @an-aura-about-you for proofreading!

Also, spoiler alert. Proceed with caution if you haven’t watched the movie

I wanna start by saying that RatLD is not… bad. It’s not a bad film. It looks pretty (the environments and backgrounds are especially beautiful). It’s a take on an action adventure road trip movie: an unusual genre for a Disney Princess flick. The characters are well designed and overall (mostly) charming and likable; and it’s found family of sorts, which is great, found family is the best trope and I’ll fight people on that! There are no songs; I personally can’t get behind that particular decision, but I do know that it made a lot of people very happy. As far as I’ve seen, critics are quite positive about this movie, praising it for its visuals (which are, let’s admit it, as unimportant as they can be here, because Disney has more than enough money to buy top tier looks for their movies), and for an adult story with complex morals and a multifaceted set of characters, among which they point out the lack of a clear villain (I mostly rely on critique and reviews I came across in my own country, but from what little I’ve seen of English-speaking critique, it pretty much lines up). But, despite all the positive things that one could say in praise of RatLD, I do think that the movie has some creepy, insidious shit in it, and it needs to be addressed.

So… Trust, huh?

Now, anyone who’s seen Raya and The Last Dragon knows how often the theme of trust gets brought up. Heck, you can make a drinking game out of it. Take a sip every time the word is mentioned, and take a full shot every time Sisu starts preaching trust. Good luck trying not to pass out by the end. The closest comparison in terms of being heavy-handed is, surprisingly enough, another Disney film, the 2015 live-action Cinderella, and its whole “have courage and be kind” shtick. Yeah, this heavy-handed. Or an early episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. All that I’m saying is that this primary theme of trust is impossible to miss. And boy, they did NOT handle it gracefully.

Let’s agree that trust is, generally, a good thing. In a very neutral, fluffy, UwU kind of way, trusting others is… nice. But trusting others also makes you vulnerable: trust can be broken, and people whom you trusted can abuse it and betray you. Even more importantly, trust needs to be earned. Thus, handling the theme of trust requires a lot of careful thinking and nuance, especially for a young audience. And the writers threw all nuance right out the window when they were writing RatLD.

Let’s start with someone who’s the least nuanced character in the entire film.

The Source of the Moral: Sisu the Preaching Dragon

Sisu the Dragon is the one character who’s the biggest trust preacher in the movie. (Her only possible rival would be Raya’s idealist of a dad Chief Benja, but he isn’t in the movie for long, so we’re not counting him.) Yes, I’m calling it “preaching” here, and will do so a lot in the rest of this rant, because… well, because that’s what it feels like. It doesn’t feel organic when Sisu starts giving pep talks to Raya; it feels like she has a weird fixation on the concept, a personal philosophy that she can’t help but bring up all the time. Her character doesn’t really have much to offer outside of this (very shallow) philosophy, quirky behaviour, and a bunch of semi-anachronistic jokes. Don’t get me wrong, I kind of enjoy Sisu: she has a puppy-like charm to her, she’s adorably ditzy, and she cares a lot. But I’d argue that her overall design that bases her appeal on her naivety clashes with her serious paragon-mentor role in the story. She’s kind of too dumb for it, that’s what I’m saying.

But my true problem with her is that the movie does not allow her to be wrong even when she’s objectively, undeniably wrong.

Remember that scene in the Talon port? Raya asks Sisu to stay on the boat they’re travelling in and lie down low for safety, which is integral to saving the world. And Sisu, being her dorky self, disregards all reason, goes on her stupid gift giving quest and walks right into a trap set by the new Talon Chief Granny Lady. She faces consequences for the behaviour she wants others to engage in. Her blind trust is used against her. Good. Awesome. Amazing.

But what comes of it? Big fat hairy nothing, that’s what.

After Sisu is rescued, she briefly apologizes for betraying Rayas’s trust (lol jk) and leaving, and they are starting to have a conversation about how the world Sisu lived in is in the past, how people are ready to use you, how it’s dangerous to put your trust in complete strangers, and when Sisu is juuuust about to face the realisation she needs to make, the subject is suddenly dropped in favour of showing some con baby Noi’s shenanigans.

Later her behaviour shows no signs of change. A handful of scenes forward, she’s on another suicidal gift-giving mission in the Spine, and Raya has to save her ass yet again.

Lesson not learned.

At this point, Sisu’s naive idealism becomes something more akin to stubbornness. On several occasions she’s told not to trust someone, but every time, she just disregards what’s being told and does her shtick. Heck, her stubborn intention to believe in what she wants to believe in is directly responsible for her death. She’s told on and on that Namaari is dangerous, a threat to be avoided, she SEES what Namaari can do, and yet! Sisu continuously pecks at Raya’s brain that Raya needs to trust her long-time enemy. Sisu follows her on the meeting, and even with the obvious proof of Namaari’s traitorius ways (she brought a weapon to a peace meeting), Sisu is still stubborn enough to deflect. And, well, big shocker, she gets shot for it. Great job, good for you, Sisu.

My biggest problem here is that Sisu is ultimately proven right at the end. The ending warps around her and Namaari, making it so Sisu wasn’t a dumb myopic stubborn person who refused to learn from her mistakes, but instead a spiritually deep individual who was wise enough to see what others didn’t and kind enough to give someone a chance when others gave up on them.

Problem is, she’s a magical talking dragon, and being shot in the chest is just a temporary inconvenience for her. Not so much for the human people watching at home or in the theaters and learning from her words.

Raya deserved better

Raya the titular character has the most interesting relationship with trust as she, as the protagonist and the audience surrogate, gets taught the lesson the most. Baby just can't get a break. At the very beginning, the movie severely punishes her for being too trusting, and then spends ungodly amounts of time further punishing her for not being trusting enough. Her supposed character arc is re-learning how to trust people after being betrayed, and it’s a pretty sound idea for a character arc. If it wasn’t for a tiny lil thing… For someone who’s supposed to be learning trust, she’s getting new friends pretty fast, isn’t she???

In the flashback, we clearly see that Raya starts off less stubbornly idealistic than her dad, but still pretty idealistic. She thinks it’s possible to rebuild Kumandra after all, and she’s eager to be friends with Namaari from the word go. It doesn’t take her much convincing (or any, for that matter,) to show her new buddy a super sacred artifact that she’s just been named a guardian of, an artifact that her dad is ready to protect with his life, a magical, holy thing hidden in a freaking Indiana Jones style trap-riddled temple specifically to keep it safe from intruders. And then she’s all like, "There’s a cool thing I wanna show you, a girl I’ve only met 15 minutes ago, wanna see?" So, she’s pretty trusting, all right. And then Namaari betrays her, and this very betrayal results in the entire world order going haywire. The visuals and later scenes (the tears inside the wrecked ship, for example) imply to us that this experience was very traumatic for Raya. So it would be a natural progression for her to grow disillusioned, to become a hermit, a paranoid loner. The movie tries to convince us that she is. (Remember that sundried roots running joke? yes, that’s why it’s there.) But she just… isn’t???

It takes her ridiculously little time to start being comfortable around her colorful motley crew of sidekicks. Again, finding friends among members of other nations is a very solid idea, because it shows that the inner unity of Kumandra is still somewhere in them, they’re still ultimately one people. But it’s executed in an insanely twisted way. I’m guessing, when they did it, they attempted to make it so Raya is gradually nudged into being more open to trust others? Her first sidekick is Boun, who’s just a boy. He cooks and is eager to help, and Raya is very suspicious of him, thinks he might poison and rob them and steal the baby-faced Armadillo and such. She’s distrustful of him the longest, which means that it lasts… A scene. Just one scene, that’s it (the one where Boun cooks for them and Sisu tries the hottest sauce). The very next scene is the three of them (Raya, Boun, and Sisu) bonding over their stoned relatives, and then they’re 100% partners. Then comes the baby, who’s a con artist and literally starts off with robbing Raya (guess a kid did rob you after all, sweetie). And after Raya returns her stuff, she immediately offers the con baby a place in her team. Her next buddy’s introduction includes him tieing Raya and Sisu to a hook and threatening their lives with a big scary ax. Not five minutes later, he’s not only the member of the group, but is trusted by Raya to keep everyone safe while she deals with the people of Fang who came after them. And then, to top it all off, Raya’s pushed by the plot to trust Namaari, who set things in motion with her betrayal of Raya.

Do you see? Do you see how insidious this is?

Raya, the main character, the protagonist who kids are supposed to be learning from and taking after, is gradually made to trust more and more dangerous people every step of the way. First a random stranger, then a burglar, then an aggressive armed man with violent intentions, then someone who deliberately ruined her life... those who mistreated her, sometimes in a very serious way. Except for Boun, who was helpful from the beginning, these people not only did nothing to earn Raya’s trust, they actively harmed her and her cause! And with how insistent Sisu is about trusting literally everyone, this becomes a very dangerous moral for young viewers. Trust everyone. Even if they pose a threat to you. Even if they mistreat you. Even if they hurt you. Trust them nonetheless.

I can’t even tell you how mad this makes me. This moral is literally dangerous for the biggest, most inexperienced and vulnerable part of the viewer base. It disregards all nuance and completely overlooks the very important fact that trust is something that should be earned. Fuck this. Fuck this so much.

And then we come to Namaari.

Oh, Namaari.

Just… Just Namaari

This character deserves an entire section to herself, because she’s the one who made me go fucking. Ballistic. She and the way her character was handled is the most irresponsible, virulent bullshit I’ve seen from Disney for a long time.

I think it won’t surprise anyone if I say that the first glimpse of her in the trailer instantly made me think “We’re going to forgive her, aren’t we?”. Yeah, she perfectly falls into this current media trend of unavoidable forgiveness. We just can’t NOT forgive our baddies these days, can we? Shitty people who stand for shitty things can lie, betray, abuse, and even kill, and they won’t face any consequence for their behaviour, not even scorn - they’ll just instantly be forgiven by the hero who’s too concerned with their own moral purity to think of the bad things the villain has the potential to continue to make. (Luckily, this time Raya isn’t driven by this, she’s just backed up into a corner, but we’ll discuss that later.)

Anyway, my first thought of Namaari was “Redemption arc material,” but at the time I just didn’t know how despicable she would get.

Namaari’s betrayal sets the plot in motion. Not only literally but symbolically too: the Druun are described in the opening as embodiments of discord and conflict, creatures of pure evil, and they are brought back as a result of an evil act that ignited discord and conflict.

I’m honestly in discord myself here, because I do feel bad accusing a 10-12 year old child of something this horrible. From the visuals it is obvious that what she did was done because of her mother’s influence. But later characterisation of the mother and Namaari herself is confusing. With some minor changes, this could have actually been a pretty good Zuko knock off arc, but we got what we got.

The mother I just mentioned had a very strong villain potential: the way she talks and moves is pretty intimidating, she radiates ominous energy, and her close relationship with her daughter implies that she was the one who forged Namaari’s worldview. However, mother’s actions outside the opening are contradictory: she’s not crazy about the idea of expanding into other countries’ territory (which Namaari is all for), she doesn't want to do anything too politically aggressive because she’s afraid that the neighbours already feel strongly against her country, she’s being cautious… She’s pretty mild, that’s what I’m saying. And that mildness puts the entirety of responsibility on Namaari, who, it seems, not only inherited the worldview of her mother, but went even further, became even more single-minded. She was the one to talk her mother into giving her an army to catch Raya, she was the one who convinced her that expansion is needed… She's proactive where her mom is reactive.

I find this very weird because I do think that the story would benefit from a good Zuko injection. Make it so Namaari betrays Raya either accidentally or reluctantly under her mother's influence. Make it so Namaari regrets her decision immediately and visibly. Make it so Raya doesn't listen to any explanations and is ready to accuse Namaari on the grounds of her being from Fang. And then, years later, make it so Mrs. Mom Chief is the one who's sending her daughter after Raya in order to harm her, and is also the one to have expansion in mind. Make it so she manipulates or pushes Namaari, who's in doubt and hesitant, and then, just like Zuko, slowly realizes that her doubts were more than legit. And then make Namaari try to AMEND. Make her work for that redemption, make her prove herself worthy of trust. If she genuinely tried to make amends, and Raya refused to trust her regardless, she'd be in the wrong (in the cartoon world anyway, here in reality no one is entitled to a second chance from a person they wronged). That still would not have been ideal, but this scenario would show that Namaari is strong enough to admit her mistakes and rise above the indoctrination she faced all her childhood. This would prove that she deserves another chance. But what did we get instead?

This scene.

This. Fucking. Scene.

If not for this scene, this rant would not even have happened, because outside of it the movie is too generic to get angry at.

But here, Namaari, who shot Sisu, SHIFTS THE BLAME FOR SISU'S DEATH AT RAYA. She accuses Raya of also being guilty of her death! Raya didn't trust hard enough - and that's why it happened!

This scene made me jump in my fucking seat. WHAT? WHAT? DID I HEARD YOU RIGHT, THE PERSON WHO BROUGHT A CROSSBOW TO A PEACEFUL MEETING AND POINTED IT AT THE LAST DRAGON IN EXISTENCE AND THEN PULLED THE TRIGGER?

What a moment. What an iconic moment. "Look, what you made me do, Raya. Look, what you made me do".

I know what's implied here. The shooting scene is intentionally fast, messy and confusing. They're both at fault, we get it. (Still, to quote @stellamedia, "this is very 80/20 on blame here.”) But that's unimportant.

What IS important, is that Namaari shows no signs of remorse for what she did. Wikipedia says in the summary of the movie: "Raya prepares to kill Namaari, but after seeing her remorse…". Bitch WHERE? Where is it? Where's the REMORSE? I only see anger and sadness that mom's petrified now. No. There's no remorse. Namaari shifts the blame. She accuses someone else of the thing she is clearly responsible for. And in any other movie this act, this evil, abusive tactic would have IMMEDIATELY shot down any redemption potential. But no. We're forgiving her. And that's my fucking beef with RatLD.

It doesn't just fall into this tired, dangerous trend of forgiving horrible people who wronged you and often posed a threat to many (the Diamonds from Steven Universe as the clearest example here). No, RatLD falls even deeper, stoops to a new low: the other instantly redeemed fuckheads at least apologized! Somehow! Even briefly! I do not think it is possible to forgive someone just because they apologized and promised to be good from now on, but forgiving and trusting someone who's clearly not even fucking sorry (for causing the FUCKING APOCALYPSE, I remind you) is just pure insanity. That's who we're forgiving now, huh? It's a terrible thing to tell kids to do, and this moral taken at face value will hurt somebody.

Not to mention the HILARIOUS fact that when the characters are backed up into a corner together and surrounded by Druun at the end, they show Namaari trust, get petrified, and she, after being trusted and shit, ATTEMPTS TO ESCAPE WITH THE SHARDS OF THE GEM?! Even here, after being shown this fucking ultimate trust just as Sisu insisted, her first move is to betray again, it's so dumb it's genuinely funny. She only does the right thing when she has no. Other. Option.

Our redeemed antagonist, everybody, a round of applause please!

I know that symbolically she's obliged to finish what she started. She has to be the one who "fixes" everything. But not like THAT, God fucking dammit!

Speaking of this culminating scene, btw. It's obviously paralleled with the scene where Sisu and her siblings fought off Druun 500 years ago. But this parallel is false and empty. Namaari is supposed to be in the role of Sisu here, right? Sisu even says so when she brings Raya to see the remains of her family. But Sisu never betrayed her siblings, goddammit! They gave her the Gem to use specifically because she was the purest most openhearted cinnamon roll of the five! But not Namaari. So this parallelism retroactively ruins a pretty good solemnly hopeful scene with Sisu and Raya in the temple and renders it completely meaningless. Great.

No other option

Another problem I find lies within the setting. We're dealing with a child friendly Mad Max Fury Road (optional: insert any of your favourite post-apocs here). It's the end of the world fast approaching, there's a time limit (until the Dragon Ball loses its power), and the stakes are constantly rising, until we are at the ultimate point where the future of the entire world depends on one person. But this crazy rush of danger clashes severely with the lesson the characters have to learn.

Trust is, by nature, gradual, and restoring broken trust especially takes time. The characters are not given any time though.

Raya is backed up into a corner here: she either trusts Namaari, or everyone dies, literally everyone, the entire world. So her decision to trust her enemy ultimately rings hollow. It's not genuine growth that brought Raya here, it's despair. She's exhausted every other option.

People generally tend to come together in trying times. But these unions are made out of necessity, not trust, they're careful, reluctant. And so setting your story about blind trust in the apocalypse is not the best decision.

Which brings me to…

The tonal problem: child friendly edgelording

RatLD is very messy when it comes to tone. Visually, it's one of the edgiest Disney movies to date, not quite The Black Cauldron, but definitely not Frozen or Tangled. The colors are relatively muted, they tend to lean towards yellows, greys and browns, character designs are on the realistic side in their proportions and movements (and they're not all perfectly beautiful models, which is great). The environments are dark and busy, with plenty of mud and dust so it doesn't look too much like a fairy tale. There are actual action scenes with chases and battles and duels, damage being done, creative, awesome-looking weapons, etc. So it's safe to say that the movie wants to appeal to an older audience.

And if so, then why oh why are we suddenly getting into My Little Pony territory whenever it comes to morals????

We're dealing with the tonal dissonance of gargantuan size here, folks. Neither Moana, nor either of Frozens, nor Tangled, nor Ralph, Zootopia, Big Hero 6 etc etc etc went THIS hard with their message, and none of these movies are subtle about their morals.

I just don't know what to say here. The movie stubbornly preaches its shallow, childish moral fit for preschoolers, it constantly flaunts its wide-eyed naiveté, and does it via a visual style more suited for a dark fantasy a la LoTR. It shows a complicated world with a political imbalance and a cultural divide, a messy place where biases decide your impressions of others, where people are weary and suspicious, and it tells us that ages of mistrust and separation can be easily forgotten because of a single kind gesture like a greeting gift. It just… does not go together. Parts of the story are at odds with each other, and with that, we get a movie that a child would find too busy and too complicated, and an adult - suspiciously idealistic and condescending. A lose-lose situation overall.

The approach was broken from the beginning.

And I don't even know how to fix this.

I suppose it's the result of the messy production, but I don't want to cut Disney any slack here. They fucked it up, plain and simple. They wanted to do too many things at the same time, and did none of them justice. And that resulted in a tone-deaf, myopic film that continuously undermined its own message to the point where it became something warped, gross, and dangerous.

And that's it.

Other things that jumped at me, in no particular order:

The necklace. I don't know why it fascinates me so, but I'm fixated on it XD Can we… can we please admit that in-universe it doesn't make any sense? Why would Raya hold onto this thing??? The framing suggests that it's somewhat of a nostalgic treasure, but why?! Not like it's a gift from a close friend with whom Raya shared plenty of happy memories. It wasn't a friend's gift, it's just some trinket that was given to her by a person she only knew for an hour or something, who backstabbed her at the end! This very trinket is directly linked to the beginning of the Druun invasion, which, I remind you, petrified Raya's dad, whom she loves dearly. It would have been more realistic for Raya to throw this thing into the nearest river and forget its existence. Why was she holding onto it and taking good care of it for 6 years and carrying it around like some treasure? Why? Because she's a dragon nerd or whatever? Ha. No. I'll tell you why, because the writers needed a convenient visual symbol. Though they only succeeded at demonstrating how easily a visual symbol like that can become ironic and bite you in the ass with its meaning. You see, the necklace ties back to Sisu, and not just because it depicts her. All throughout the film Sisu is very pushy about the idea of gift giving as a way to establish trust and show one's peaceful intentions. She mentions gifts almost as often as trust. XD And that's what Namaari does with the necklace too! It's a greeting gift that convinces Raya that she is trustworthy enough to show her the Dragon Ball. So far so good - the necklace is a symbol of trust. But once it's discovered that Namaari used and betrayed Raya, it takes on a different meaning. It becomes a symbol of deceit. XD The movie proves Sisu wrong even before she's officially introduced!

Have you noticed how weird this movie’s commentary on human nature is? It heavily implies that the natural state of humans is war and conflict! Heck, it states this outright in the opening flashback animation. As soon as dragons, who looked after humanity with their divine wisdom or whatever, got petrified, everyone immediately went at each other's throats, divided their country and started a big ol’ power struggle, a literal “war of all against all.” What kind of Thomas Hobbes bullshit is this?? (Sorry for this incredibly niche reference, but I couldn’t get it out of my head.) It tells us that people, by nature, are bad and corrupt, and they need an external influence to become good and achieve harmony.

Related to the last point: am I mad that I’m seeing some Christian undertones in this Southeast Asian inspired movie? Like, literally, one of our main characters is a too good for this world cinnamon roll with great hair who has divine powers, is prone to preaching morals, and is very into being friends with everybody, forgiving your enemies and loving thy neighbour! And this character DIES when betrayed (for the sins of humanity??? Possibly?), and is then resurrected, and after she is resurrected, humanity magically goes back to a harmonious heavenly conflict-free state of almost prehistoric times! (I admit, I know next to nothing about Southeast Asian culture, so maybe it’s all a wild misunderstanding on my part, but I couldn’t not share this observation with y’all.)

When it comes to the moral of the story and character arcs, Raya and the Last Dragon is just My Little Pony Movie but worse, fight me. (And the MLP movie isn't even that good either, so take of that what you will.)

In conclusion

Raya and the Last Dragon is an extremely confused movie that had potential. But this potential was undermined by an unfocused and uneven approach towards different parts of the movie. I don't want to attribute the dangerous message that it has to malice on part of the writers. I'd rather attribute it to inaptitude. And to the fact that Disney has basically given up on storytelling at this point. When they became too big to fail, they grew lazy. These days they can simply give $200+ million to the visual arts department, throw together some ideas so they resemble a script, and here we go, movie ready. And honestly, this is just… sad.

If I ever have kids, I would still show RatLD to them, when they get a bit older. But I would watch it with them, and at the end, I would have to explain the very nuances this film dismissed. That trusting absolutely everyone is dangerous. That it's okay to not forgive or trust those who have wronged and betrayed you.

That trust is something you earn.

#raya and the last dragon #ren's rants #disney #this took more time than i expected #dayjob =_=#but i really wanted to share my thoughts on the topic

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shy-peacock · 3 years

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October 8th- Betrayal

Day 8/31 of RATLD-OCTOBER!

A scream tore through the land of Kumandra, like the bellow of a beast that had been slain. The hallway thundered as someone lumbered angrily through. Walls shaking as something large whipped open the door. Startling everyone inside the room as a burly man marched in, face fuming, eyes wide with rage.

“Which one of you cretins did it!” Tong, of Spine, snarled to the room.

Raya, Boun, Sisu and Noi all sat around a tearoom table. Enjoying the day, the calm breeze in the air. Relaxing that afternoon away. Or at least they were until their friend came tearing through the doorway like some disturbed bear or something.

“Did what?” Boun was the first to ask, his eyebrow arched as he stared the man down. Utterly confused.

“You know what!” Tong spat, “all of you do!”

“Oooookay?” Raya drawled out, “but on the..very likely chance we have no idea what you’re talking about-…what exactly did we do?”

“You’ve betrayed me!” Tong snarled, beating his chest, “torn open my chest, ripped out my heart and stamped it into the ground!”. He slammed his foot down dramatically, as if this heart of his were truly beneath his feet. Spitting on the ground thereafter, the gang all grimacing at the action.

“Ew.” Noi said, one of the few words the baby could say. The single word summing up how they all felt.

“Ew is correct!” Tong yelled, “Ew indeed, for I am disgusted that my dearest of friends would hurt my heart so-“

“Right, so are you going to tell us or-?” Boun began, cut short by Tong’s rampage.

“MY MANGOES!” He cried.

Silence.

Tong’s mangoes?

“What…about them?” Raya asked, still confused what that had to do with them betraying him. I mean, Raya didn’t even know he had any to begin with. Yeah the man liked the fruit, but this? This was unusual.

“One of you ate them!” Tong snarled, “Or all of you..I demand to know who!”

“It couldn’t be any of us.” Boun immediately pointed out, “we’ve all been hanging out here.”

“And I don’t really like mangoes.” Raya added, “I mean- not as much as Tong at least…they’re okay in my opinion-“

“OKAY?” Tong choked, “are you mad, woman?!”

Raya gave him a pointed look, “Okay, don’t call me-“

Little Noi began to babble, waving her tiny hand around as she spoke. None of her words made much sense, yet somehow the group understood her.

“What do you mean you agree?!” Tong yelled at the infant, “do any of you have taste buds?!”

Noi babbled again, more defiantly.

And..offensively apparently.

“Geeze, Noi..” Boun laughed, “tell us how you REALLY feel.”

“Okay we are totally getting away from the point-“ Raya intervened, “which is that we didn’t take any of your-“

“Hey guys.”

Namaari stepped in on the scene then, walking casually from behind Tong and into the room. In her hand, almost comically, a single mango. Which she took a large bite into, looking around the quiet room. A confused expression on her face.

“What-?” She scoffed, “why is everyone so-“

“YOU THIEF!” Tong screamed, “you’ve stolen my mangoes!”

“What?!” Namaari scoffed again, “no I didn’t-“

“I mean, you kind of got caught red-handed Namaari.” Boun pointed out, “the evidence is literally in your hand.”

“That doesn’t mean she took his mango.” Raya pointed out, “she could have gotten that anywhere.”

“Thank you!” Namaari said, throwing her hand towards Raya. “I didn’t steal it, I got it from this girl at the market.”

“See-…wait..what?”

“A likely story!” Tong grumbled, folding his arms as he gave Namaari a disappointing look.

Noi babbled, whatever she said, opposing Tong’s comment. Clearly taking Namaari’s side.

“Stay out of this!” Tong said to the baby before turning to Namaari, “what is the name of the girl at the market, where does she live, when did you meet her?”

“I would- also like to know that-“ Raya commented, “and why she gave you a mango..?”

“What is this an interrogation now?” Namaari growled, “she was just being nice?!”

“You’re dodging the question!” Tong yelled.

“No I’m not-“

“You kinda are.” Raya said and then asked, “and like- I don’t care or anything but was she pretty or-..I don’t know, flirting with you?”

“Raya over here having a meltdown over some girl at the market faster than Tong about some stupid mangoes.” Boun teased, earning a nasty look from both Tong and Raya. “Sorry, Namaari..I’m with Tong, you definitely stole it.”

“That’s right!” Tong bellowed as he tried to grab the mango then, Namaari expertly dodging his hand. “Give it back!”

“No!” Namaari yelled back, “I didn’t steal it!”

The two fought, Namaari expertly dodging the man while he tried again and again to grab the half-eaten mango. Eventually causing the two of them to run off down the hall, Noi and Raya following hastily after. Noi babbling away her nonsense while Raya tried to catch up to break up the fighting. (As well as pester Namaari with her own questions) Leaving Boun and Sisu alone in the room. The boy turning to the Dragon then, noting her silence.

“You’re being quiet, Sisu..?” Boun asked then, suspiciously.

Sisu, mouth clamped tight, just stared at the boy.

Blinking carefully, not uttering a single word.

Boun narrowed his eyes, “Sisu…”

The Dragon sighed through her nose and, reluctantly, opened her jaw. Immediately dropping almost a bucketful of mangoes out of her mouth and into her arms. Now dripping wet, coated in her saliva, the sight causing Boun to jerk back. Startled, grossed out for sure, amazed she could fit so many in her mouth.

“I was hungry..” she whined.

“So you hid..all of them in your mouth!?” Boun blurted out.

“I panicked!” Sisu cried and then showed off her best innocent eyes, “are you..gonna tell the others?”

Boun smirked, shrugging his shoulders.

“Maybe I can keep quiet for a little bit of jade?”

“Deal!” Sisu agreed before shoveling the rest of the mangoes into her mouth.

The others, none the wiser.

#ratld #ratld prompt #ratld october #tong of spine #ratld tong #Boun of Tail #raya of heart #Noi of Talon #namaari of fang #very brief raya crushing on namaari XD #if you squint theres rayamaari

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everyonesfavoritelesbowrites · 3 years

Text

RATLD Headcanons pt. 4

Fears and insecurities

Raya and Namaari both have nightmares of the betrayal in Heart.

During those six years, Namaari can't remember a night where she didn't have a nightmare. Almost all of them of the betrayal.

Having to be careful, Raya learned to sleep very lightly. The smallest amount of noise will make her spring into action. So she didn't get into deep sleep often, but whenever she did she would get nightmares as well.

While Namaari's dreams were mostly focused on her betraying Raya and it going a bit too far. Raya's dream were of her Ba or Namaari going too far.

With more interactions with each other throughout the years came more dreams

Namaari would have dreams where in a fight one would kill the other. Raya would dream similarly, but a lot of them would focus around the Druun.

Raya has many dreams of the Druun getting her, (sometimes getting Namaari but she didn't understand why it got her all worked up).

Namaari would sometimes dream of Fang's famine 100% worse and watching everyone die while she lives in Luxury. (Although she also grew up with not enough food, leaving her a malnourished child)

After the event in Spine, Namaari consistently dreams that she kills Raya instead of Sisu intervening.

She also had dreams of killing Sisu and Sisu not coming back or she would come back and blame her\revenge.

Raya dreams of the fight in Fang's throne room where instead she didn't hesitate and kills Namaari.

Raya also has a hard time sleeping in an actual bed once everything is back to "normal". She's so use to sleeping in trees or caves or against TukTuk that it's accutally too soft.

Raya also wakes up constantly, worried she'll be Druun food or just hearing the smallest noise.

One day she just can't take it anymore and goes for a walk, where she runs into Namaari who looks like she's having a panic attack.

"What are you doing out here, princess Undercut- woah, are you okay?"

They end up telling the other about their dreams and how the beds are too soft for Raya and somehow they end up in the same bed having the best sleep they have ever had.

If they are together it just becomes an unspoken routine where they will sleep together to have a peaceful nights sleep.

They almost always end up in each other's arms but they don't talk about that

Chief Virana and Chief Benja thinking they are sleeping together, like sleeping sleeping together and are surprised when they find out they aren't even dating yet

They wake up when the other has a nightmare and comfort them.

"You're okay."

"Just breath."

"I'm still alive, see? You didn't have the guts to actually kill me."

"Look at me."

"Do you need to go for a walk?"

"We can talk to Sisu if you want."

Raya wonders why Namaari's room is so... empty so she tries to ask her in a way where she can just play it off as a joke if Namaari gets uncomfortable

But Namaari tells her

Namaari tries to not get sentimental to any objects because she's afraid she'll lose them and the events that happened after giving her Sisu necklace to Raya haunt her.

She keeps any sentimental items she gets stored safely away so she won't lose them. It's mostly drawings kids make her or things Raya leaves behind

She also feels guilty to have such an extravagant room, to live in such luxury, when her people have a major homelessness problem. This goes side by side with her food insecurities, although she was pretty malnourished as a child.

She also thinks she deserves to be lonely, not that she already does did feel lonely, but making her room bare helps give her that feeling that she doesn't deserve anything. She thinks this is fair considering her past.

Raya is understanding but also is loosing her mind over Namaari being so hard on herself.

Raya tries to sneak some things into Namaari's room. It first disappears quickly, Namaari tucking them away for safe keeping but after a while, she tries to just let them stay.

She worries constantly, ending up just staring at whatever Raya brought in this time. Perhaps if she engraves it into her memory, she won't worry if she loses it.

It takes a while, but Namaari eventually gets to the point where she won't feel sick not putting things away. She can just let it be with only a few thoughts of worry.

Raya becoming comfortable enough to sleep through the smallest of sounds, but she's never going to not wake up to sounds, it's just too engraved into her.

Namaari smiling when Raya doesn't wake up from a small bird outside the window.

A storm comes around one night in Heart when Namaari is visiting. Raya wakes up from a loud boom of thunder and finds Namaari literally shaking.

Namaari is scared of Thunderstorms, or more specifically loud noises send her into panic.

She has trained herself to not panic when there's a single or just a few loud noise/s, but if it's consistent she just can't handle it.

Raya, unable to sleep anyway, comforts Namaari and tries to distract her.

"We could spar."

"I can ask Sisu if her brother can make it stop."

"Tell me about the things you learned about Dragons as a kid."

"Remember when [moment]?"

"When I was 15, I [tells crazy story]."

"Let's go get [Serlot name], I bet she'd love to cuddle!"

"What do you think makes the noise of thunder?"

"Hey, I thought you weren't scared of anything, dep la. How can I make you flinch like that?"

"I wish I was the one making you shake like that." "What?" "Nothing! Tell me about your cat!"

"Under the blankets, Undercut."

"Shut up thunder!"

Namaari not seeing Raya eat any food when she comes to Fang and asking who made a dish when she's in Heart.

Sisu mentions something about poison and it just clicks.

Namaari hands Raya a dish in Fang, taking her own bite right in front of her first. "Just checking for poison."

After a few times of doing this, Raya ends up confessing to being posioned when she was 13. Namaari understands and keeps tasting food for her and even starts cooking for them right in front of her.*

"Don't forget to check for poison." "Of course, dep la."

"I didn't take you for a cook, let alone a good one." "It's better than your Jackfruit jerky, that's for sure."

Namaari admits to refusing to eat meals given to her unless she pays, otherwise she has to make it herself.*

Raya telling her that she paid for foods in Heart for Namaari, even if it's a slight lie. She's the princess, she kinda gets whatever she wants.*

Namaari paying Boun after they watch him cook for them

Raya gets separation anxiety, worrying that her Ba turned to stone again although it's not posible. She even worries for Namaari but she won't admit to that

Namaari reminds her that her Ba is fine and it helps

Her Ba also comforting her about it ofc

"If anyone will turn to stone, it'll probably be me not your Ba." this doesn't help but she won't tell Namaari she has dreamt of her being stone as well

Namaari accidentally hurting Raya during a Spar and she like breaks. She refuses to talk to her and avoids her because she feels horrible and it reminds her of Spine and Fang's Throne room.

Raya ends up cornering her and is afraid she did something wrong but Namaari admits that she's beating herself up for hurting her and Raya's heart swells and breaks at the same time.

"I've done worse to myself."

"It's literally nothing."

"It won't even scar."

Raya also hates to hurt Namaari.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry! Here, get me so it's fair!"

"I didn't mean to, I swear."

"If it does scar, it'll look sexy..." "What?" "I mean awesome, it'll look awesome. You're not sexy at all."

Raya notices Namaari acting strange around Sisu and asks about it. Namaari explains how whenever she looks at Sisu or even hears her or someone mentions her, the memory of shooting her replays in her head. She explains how she has nightmares about it and hates herself for it.

Raya comforts her by explaining how it wasn't her fault, or at least not entirely. Raya admits how she should have trusted Sisu.

"It's all in the past, we can't do anything about it, Namaari."

"I feel like I have to make it up to her... to everyone." "You literally saved the world but go all out I guess."

Raya stages an "intervention" for Namaari, bringing Sisu to talk to her so they both can make it better for Namaari.

"Don't you hate me?" "No! Why would I!?"

"I don't hold it against you, Namaari."

"What can I do to make it up to you?" "You don't have to do anything! You already saved the world!"

"Well... You could hang out with me more often."

Afterwords, the tension is much better but it takes a bit longer for Namaari to really open up with Sisu.

Namaari also ends up taking with Chief Benja about trying to take the gem. He's too understanding.

"I understand if you despise me, Chief Benja." "I don't."

"If I was in your position, I would have probably done the same to be honest..."

"If I had known your nation was in famine..."

"I don't blame you, it would have happened either way. It was just simply a matter of who and when."

Namaari only feeling intimidated by three people. Her mother, Chief Benja, and Sisu. Maybe Raya when they were fighting but not anymore.

Raya having issues letting people in. Mostly on instinct.

She gets defensive immediately.

"Why do you [add something here]?" "Wouldn't you like to know, weather boy Benturi." *Silence* "I'm sorry, [explains]."

"Dewdrop, what have you been up to?" "None of your business- fuck, i'm sorry, Ba. I was sparring with Namaari."

"Are you okay?" "Who cares?" "...... I do?" "Right, sorry, I'm good."

"Where did you get that scar?" "Minding my own fucking business- I mean, I tripped on a rock accutally." *Namaari still processing*

Raya eventually gives in but it takes a while and a lot of comfort from Namaari and sisu but whatever

*I elaborated on this before

#ratld headcanons series #ratld #rayamaari #raya and the last dragon #raya #namaari #sisu #ratld headcanons #headcanon #headcanons

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