Kataang & Rayllum: How Their Arcs Overlap

kataang & rayllum: how their arcs overlap

EDIT: Reposting as somehow this got deleted. Was originally posted sometime in spring/summer 2019 but has been tweaked a little.

I have made it no secret that I am a big Kataang shipper on this blog. My Kataang x Rayllum series proves that as well. But one day, my brain went, “Hey, instead of just some parallels here and there, why don’t you look at the overlapping arcs and romantic beats of Kataang and Rayllum’s individual relationship development?” Thus, here we go. 

Quick disclaimer: this doesn’t mean I think Rayllum is going to be canon (I have other reasons for thinking that, since S1). If Rayllum doesn’t become canon, I don’t think it means that Kataang wasn’t supposed to be canon either. This is just a series of cool parallels and overlapping arcs that are already common with romantic plots, some that aren’t, and some fun general dynamic things as well. Cool? Cool.

I’ll be doing my best to go in chronological order, but here’s just a brief overview to start.

Magical sibling (Katara / Callum) and non magical brother (Sokka / Ezran) meet a tattooed kid from another culture (Aang / Rayla) and through a series of wild circumstances, the siblings agree to leave behind their home and travel with the other kid to try and restore peace to the world. Being more knowledgeable about the world and its magic system, the tattooed kid mentors the magic kid and reaffirms their bending/magehood. 

The slightly older, slightly more serious/responsible female half of the ship (Katara / Rayla) is linked to the moon, and the slightly goofier, more carefree and younger by a year or two male character (Aang / Callum) is linked to the sky. 

That’s not to say that either of these scenarios is always succinct. As we can see, there are already things and attributes being swapped. However,  as we move forward in the analysis, Katara + Callum, Rayla + Aang, and Aang + Callum are the most common parallels. Without further ado, let’s get into it.

Bond Building

What makes a lasting bond? A significant first meeting certainly helps. This is one thing Rayllum and Kataang have in common, even on the surface their first meetings couldn’t be more different. Katara arguably saves Aang’s life by freeing him from the iceberg and bringing it to the surface to begin with, and Rayla is threatening Callum’s life, so how are the meetings similar? Remember how I said Callum and Katara tend to have the most parallels? This is one of those times.

Simply put, Callum and Katara always believed that Rayla and Aang, respectively, are ‘good’ so to speak. Callum asks why they can’t just make peace with the elves. He argues ethics with Rayla. He sees her as a person: “You know this is wrong.” He doesn’t believe, deep down, that she has to be his enemy. Likewise, Katara trusts Aang right from the start. While Sokka is suspicious, Katara outright dismisses his claims: “Oh yeah, I’m sure he’s a spy for the Fire Navy, you can tell by that evil look in his eye.”

Then, there’s the fact that without hours (or 2-3 days, for Kataang) both couples are making huge changes and leaps of faith for one another. Aang offers to personally fly Katara to the Northern Water Tribe to find a waterbending master for her, although she’s initially hesitant. Aang gives himself up to protect the Southern Water Tribe (and, emotionally, Katara). Rayla offers to fight against her own kind to protect Harrow for Callum’s sake. Callum and Katara both decide to leave behind everything they’ve ever known. When it comes to major risk taking, Aang and Callum both say no.

R: Say the word, and I’ll go back into that tower with you. C: No. It’s up to us now. We have to return this Egg, we have to keep it safe, and carry it to Xadia.

Keep reading

character: *tenderly brushes their love interest’s hair back from their forehead and/or takes one of their hands in their own to try to warm it while they’re unconscious recovering from an illness or injury*

me:

keefe: what’s a metaphor?

sophie: my life’s a train wreck

keefe: i know that but what’s a metaphor?

Coming into a fandom late

How do you feel when someone calls Fitz a jerk after reading Legacy and saw Fitz lost control and shouted at Sophie ?

oh boy is this going to be controversial

i... don’t think his reaction was uncalled for.

let’s review.

throughout the series fitz’s family is described as, ‘practically royalty’, famous, one of the most important elven families. he also has many relatives who are/were important political figures.

that’s bound to cause an unhealthy obsession with one’s reputation.

fitz himself has been described as the golden boy. he has been one of the most powerful telepaths since the age of thirteen, a lot of attention has been put on him not only because he’s a vacker but also because of how talented he is. not to mention during his childhood he was constantly disappearing, which is sure to raise some eyes.

growing up under the public eye? it ain’t easy. even if you’re an elf.

his whole life he’s been expected to be perfect and have no cracks. you can’t expect him to change overnight- even for a girl he obviously cares deeply about.

in legacy, it takes fitz coming over to havenfield for sophie to actually talk to him, but she was anxious and scared- and for good reason. we all know fitz has never been very good at dealing with painful emotions healthily.

but he does.

“i want you to remember me sitting here with you, not freaking out or causing any of the drama you’ve been worrying about, okay? i know i haven’t always been great about that—but i’m working on it. so i need you to start working on trusting me—because having you avoid me like you’ve been doing really hurts. and finding out you’ve been hiding something this important totally sucks. and knowing you confided in other people before telling me makes it even worse.” legacy, pg 245

even fitz understands why sophie’s been avoiding him, and he’s trying to fix it. he tells her how he feels and what he wishes she would’ve done instead, but he gets why sophie did what she did and he doesn’t fault her for it.

if that’s not handling it maturely- then i don’t know what is.

then he screws everything up with his views on matchmaking. but thinking about his upbringing? those views are completely understandable and i can’t fault him for having them.

because sophie was brought up by humans, she can see how harmful matchmaking can be. because dex is the son of a bad match, he can see how harmful matchmaking can be. because no one else was raised with the pressure of being a vacker- besides biana but even she wasn’t raised with the ‘golden boy’ mentality fitz was- they can see how harmful matchmaking can be. you have to put yourself in his shoes instead of just writing him off as insentive. he doesn’t understand why it’s bad because he’s never experienced the downside of it. he’s only ever seen positives, but that doesn’t make him a bad person.

sure, he doesn’t try to understand, but that’s because no one else tries to explain how bad it’s bad and who it’s hurt, even sophie hasn’t- she’s only ever thought about it.

onto their actual breakup.

i think fitz has every reason to be upset, and i also think sophie has every reason to be upset. there’s no right or wrong.

the problem though, is the fact that neither of them try to understand why the other one feels the way they do. fitz doesn’t try to see why sophie let alvar go, and sophie doesn’t try to understand the full extent of all the emotions fitz is feeling. neither of them are very good at communicating, which is kinda ironic considering they’re cognates, which was the real downfall of their relationship. but they figure out that argument.

then they move on to sophie’s mom.

sophie continually tells fitz she can’t tell him who she is and at first, fitz gets it... until sophie says she can’t tell him- ever.

we all know the most important thing to fitz is trust. he doesn’t realize why sophie won’t tell him because he’s always trusted sophie to tell him whatever whenever she’s ready. there couldn’t be anything so bad she can’t tell him, could there?

but he lets it go.

then he asks about the match.

to him, it’s a simple question, because to him, matchmaking is simple.

to sophie, it’s the question that breaks everything, because to her, matchmaking is anything but simple.

fitz goes onto to talk about how they should discuss her decision together and how it doesn’t just affect her. and honestly? i don’t think he was out of line.

it’s clear now that this is something fitz wants for life, and a relationship isn’t just one person. it’s sacrifice, and it’s compromise.

so fitz is right. sophie deciding she’ll stay unmatchable doesn’t just affect her. it affects him too, because he doesn’t want anyone else. he says so in flashback. at the end of the day, it is still her choice, but that doesn’t mean her and fitz can’t discuss it.

before he leaves fitz repeats why he doesn’t understand, and it’s not his fault he doesn’t. sophie chooses not to help him understand by not telling him who her mom is, but that doesn’t mean she’s to blame either. once again, neither one of them try to see the other persons side. it wasn’t fitz’s fault they broke up and it wasn’t sophie’s fault. fitz isn’t a jerk for think her decision is the wrong one. it’s an opinion. we all have them. fitz gets to have his, but sophie gets to have hers too.

the only reason we think fitz was in the wrong is because we only see how sophie feels, we only hear her thoughts, we only see the stress she’s been under. we don’t see fitz’s feelings. we’re behaving just like sophie and fitz. refusing to listen because of our emotions.

i truly think if they’d both sat down and talked calmly, ignoring how they feel and instead listening to what the other one thinks, maybe their breakup could’ve been avoided.

sorry this came out so long lol but this was such a good question and something i’ve been dying to talk about so thank you so much for your ask!!