A storyteller doesn’t have to empathize with Namaari’s itchy trigger finger, or sympathize with her motivations to act selfishly out of a sense of duty. A lesser version of this same story most certainly would have. It would have been simple for the filmmakers to make Namaari the villain. And even then, it was still too easy to side with Raya’s rage as she approached Namaari in the climax with red in her eyes. Raya probably wasn’t even fully aware it was an accident when Namaari pulled the trigger, killing Sisu. Admittedly, neither Raya nor the dragon had any way to realize how conflicted Namaari was about this, or how Namaari’s mother put her up to this treachery, convincing the daughter that Fang only needed Sisu and the Dragon Gem to survive. For the good of Kumandra.Īnd, yet again, Namaari deceived Raya by acting conciliatory before pulling a crossbow on her rival and Sisu. She listened to Sisu (Awkwafina), the lovable and kind-hearted dragon who convinced Raya to look past that memory and once more attempt to find peace with Namaari. Even so, Raya was willing to let that pain (mostly) go. In their childhood, Namaari had double-crossed Raya once, leading to the disaster that broke the Dragon Gem and unleashed the Druun. Minutes before this sequence, Raya had once again extended the olive branch to her rival and former friend, and once again been betrayed. And when Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) marched up the steps of Fang’s parameters in search of Namaari (Gemma Chan), I doubt there was a single viewer who didn’t share her anger-and maybe her thirst for revenge.
For a brief moment during the climax of Raya and the Last Dragon, it felt like we were a million miles away from any kind of peace.
You can read our spoiler-free review here. This Raya and the Last Dragon article contains spoilers.
0 kommentar(er)
