La Ron S. Readus
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Raya's Moral ISN'T A Good Lesson to Learn (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2021-03-10 21:01:00 +0000 UTCReaders, let me start this off by being 100% clear; there is no way I am using this video to rag on Raya and the Last Dragon.
/The movie has a compelling story with beautifully animated characters and environments, and goes out of its way to challenge the main protagonist and her worldview when it comes to the moral that the movie./
HALF the time.
Because while the movie means well with its message of trust and unity, depending on the situations Raya finds herself in, sometimes it works while other times it doesn’t.
/And it's in the times that it doesn’t that the movie wants to really hammer in the point by using Raya as the catalyst of it all. Unknowingly doing a bit more harm than good to not only her, but possibly even to people watching the movie who RELATE to her./
So in order to get to the root of the matter, let’s dissect Raya a bit.
She’s the warrior princess and last surviving member of the Heart nation in a post-apocalyptic world where these purple ethereal creatures called Druun turn living beings into stone in the same way the Phantoms from “Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” do
Yeah. Weren’t expecting THAT callback, were ya?
/She seeks out Sisu, the last dragon and the one responsible for creating a powerful gem that originally banished the Druun and returned everyone affected by them to normal 500 years ago, and brought about their return when it was shattered into 5 pieces./
She counters Raya’s personality in that she’s naive and easily trusting of others, while Raya is constantly on guard and doesn’t trust anyone outside of her immediate circle, which consists of her animal companion Tuk Tuk and...well, just Tuk Tuk
/But in her defense, just look at how sweet and good this boy is; do you really NEED anyone else if you got Tuk Tuk in your corner?/
Now the reason why I say that the movie does a good job at challenging Raya’s worldview -- especially after meeting Sisu -- is because that once Sisu and her team up and go on this quest to reacquire the other gem pieces from the other four tribes of Talon, Tail, Spine and Heart to put it back together again...
Sisu’s naivety and their experiences in meeting other characters slowly yet surely help her realize that talking to others, getting to know others and emphasizing with others is a solid way of not only building a rapport with people, but that such acts are necessary in order to feel comfortable opening yourself up to others if you’re the type to be naturally guarded.
/Raya was INCREDIBLY distrusting of the Tail boat-chef Boun; even to the point where she didn’t wanna eat his food out of fear of it being poisoned. Then she learned that he’s the only surviving member of his family from a Druun attack and that he’s pretty much on his own doing what he knows to survive while being honest about it.
/Raya’s opinions about the people of Talon were that they were mostly con artists, and was initially right when little Noi the “con baby” and her three monkey friends ended up stealing the gem pieces she had on her. Then she learned that her mother ALSO fell victim to the Druun and has been on her own with the tree trying to survive ever since.
/Raya’s perception of Tong from the Spine tribe definitely matched the barbaric axe-wielding preconceptions she had of their people, and he definitely tried to lean in on that facade when they first arrived. Then she learned that he was the only survivor of a Druun attack on his village and that somewhere out there his wife and child were petrified in the snow./
When it comes to how Sisu’s interjection into Raya’s perception of the different tribes in this universe, they’re done in such a way that I have no choice but to commend the use of communication and empathy in order to help those emotionally concealed and distrusting to open up.
That is, until we get to Raya’s relationship with princess Namaari of the Fang tribe.
/And the reason is that Namaari -- for lack of better words -- is the reason Raya was like this in the first place./
Back when they were children, Raya’s father attempted to unite the tribes into one people again before the only remaining remnant of dragon magic after Sisu’s disappearance was the gem.
/In an attempt to follow the message her father preached about unity, Raya extended a hand of friendship to Namaari and the two quickly bonded over their admiration of dragons./
Now I’m not gonna lie; as I watched this happening, I had a small smirk on my face. And I found myself saying out loud:
“Aw... She’s gonna betray the FUCK outta Raya.”
And wouldn’t you know it, she did! ON THE SAME NIGHT OF THE DINNER!
Because following her father’s doctrine about having to trust the people of the other tribes in order to unify once more, Raya showed Namaari the Dragon Gem and was IMMEDIATELY double-crossed.
/And through that act of treachery and deceit, she saw her father fail to try and talk sense into the other tribes once everyone learned Fang was making a move on the gem. She witnessed first-hand their acts of greed that resulted in not only the shattering of the gem, but how quickly the tribes snatched up a piece to claim for themselves. Then, with the gem shattered, she saw the return of the Druun that very night and what they were capable of doing to others. With one of those others being her own father./
There’s no way of sugar-coating it in real life, so I’m not going to sugar-coat it with an example produced by Walt Disney Studios. What Raya experienced that fateful night was trauma.
And while Raya was able to open up to multiple individuals from other tribes and clans that resulted in the return of the Druun 6 years prior thanks to Sisu’s naivety, goodwill, and the hope that people can change for the better, the same can’t be said of Namaari -- the one responsible for birthing Raya’s trauma in the first place. Especially when the movie wants to paint her as this Prince Zuko-like antagonist in need of redemption.
Yet despite this fact, and despite how they set up Raya’s willingness to trust others again over the course of the film, they do not treat her relationship with Namaari the same way.
/Instead, they choose to handle it in a way that actually condemns Raya’s feelings by the time the final act of the movie happens. Which was...definitely a choice. But not a good one./
Because when it came down to the third act, and I saw how all the puzzle pieces before it were starting to form together in order to PRODUCE the overall picture the moral of the movie was trying to convey, I couldn’t help but to feel that despite their intentions, the way it was going about letting its target audience know it was okay to trust people -- even the ones that hurt you -- might be damaging if proper steps aren’t taken afterward by the parent-slash-guardian.
Of course it’s foolish to not stay cautious. Of course it's okay to establish boundaries. Of course it’s understandable to protect yourself from feeling hurt again. Because what you went through and what you experienced through that experience, that betrayal, and that trauma is absolutely valid.
But not only does it take time for you to open yourself up to trust like that again, but trust is also a two-way street. Just like you have to put in the work to put yourself out there to trust again, the other responsible for that planted seed has to put in just as much work to EARN that trust.
That’s one of the things about Raya and the Last Dragon that didn’t necessarily sit right with me. Because while the movie was more than happy to show us how Raya’s unease about opening up to Namaari again caused the death of Sisu and highlight the toxicity of becoming blinded by one’s own trauma, never once over the course of the entire movie did Namaari -- the source of said trauma -- do a single thing to try and rectify the wrong she did in the past responsible for Raya’s feelings about her to escalate to the point that they did in the third act.
/Even after piecing together that her quest was to unite the five pieces to banish the Druun once more. Not a single apology was given./
/Instead, Namaari simply passed the buck, blaming Raya’s hastened decision to disarm her made by her unease as the reason why she shot Sisu, instead of addressing and trying to heal why that unease is there in the first place. Which, by the way, is an extremely toxic thing to do to someone already suffering from a traumatic experience Namaari originally generated./
/And then, to make matters worse, in order for the dragon gem to become activated once more, those who distrusted Namaari and blamed her for Sisu’s death -- by acting on Raya’s revelation -- had to take the high road and put their trust in her via unsolicited forgiveness in order for her to realize the sacrifice she needed to make in order to right the wrong she played a part of./
While Disney’s intentions were good with the moral of this story, the fact that its narrative forces those who have suffered traumatic experiences of pain and hardship from someone they now rightfully distrust to just shrug off their very valid issues with said traumatizer on a “when they go low we walk high” mentality when they won’t even put in the work to try and show you that they’ve learned from their mistakes and are actually willing to change until the last minute...
Doesn’t really make me feel comfortable with the choices they went in conveying the importance of unity and trust when they’re only focusing on the extremes that can be reached from the side of the victim, while the victimizer is free to believe they’ve done nothing wrong until the narrative needs them to learn their lesson by yet ANOTHER sacrifice of the ones they victimized.
I would’ve preferred to have seen an actual discussion between Raya and Namaari similar to how every other character she interacted with opened her eyes prior; have Namaari realize what her actions did to Raya all those years ago and how she’s constantly feeling the extent of that betrayal.
/Instead of trying to make Raya feel guilty for not trusting her during her encounter with Sisu in the third act, I would’ve preferred that she understood why she preemptively made the decision that she made, and empathize with the reasoning that distrust exists in the first place. Have Namaari realize she’s just as much the problem here before the narrative makes her the solution, so that proper healing can take place and ACTUAL trust can rekindle the movie’s moral once more, instead of using it as a way of justifying what it would look like if Raya became a dark lord of the Sith for 5 minutes.
/That way you can still make your moral mean something without unintentionally offending a significant group of people who relate to Raya’s very valid hesitancy to trust people outside of her circle thanks to a very traumatic situation they experienced once upon a time./
I understand that this is, at the end of the day, a Disney movie and that it's aimed at children who may or may not be at an age to understand the complexities of human emotion when it comes to the key themes that the movie is trying to convey.
/That’s why I urge everyone who do have children and that decides to show them this movie, that you have a thorough talk with them after it’s over to further explain that when it comes to once more trusting someone that hurt you -- especially if you still feel the ramifications of that initial hurt -- that it’s not as simple as the movie makes it out to be./
It takes time, it takes willingness, and -- most importantly -- it takes effort. And all that effort can’t just come from you.
But, I digress. Readers, your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below what you thought of Raya and the Last Dragon if you’ve seen it.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, a time when you related to a character due to a traumatic experience they dealt with, but you felt that the narrative didn’t really handle it as well as you hoped it would.
Whichever you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
