Rayaari

Rayaari is the femslash ship between Raya and Namaari from the Raya and the Last Dragon fandom.

Canon
Young Raya and Namaari first met during a grand feast her father hosted, in an attempt to reunite the nations. Raya extends a hand of greeting, and the two quickly bond over their shared love of dragons. Namaari gifts Raya her own dragon pendant, and the latter shows her the secret location of the Dragon Gem. But Namaari ends up betraying Raya, exposing the location to all the other nations, who dash for the Gem.

Six years later, After retrieving the second Gem from the dead Tail chief, Namaari's troupe shows up and corners them. The two exchange spiteful banter, Raya returning the stolen scroll, before she devises a plan to escape, and leaves them in dust after fleeing on a boat.

After successfully taking the Talon chief's Gem with a bit of trickery, Raya and her friends travel to Spine. Following the recruitment of Tong, the Spine warrior, the friends are informed of Namaari's arrival. She gives the "warriors" a choice, to either turn Raya over or they will open fire. Raya volunteers to distract Namaari for enough time so her friends could sneak away. She walks out the gates unaccompanied, provoking Namaari and challenging her to a one-on-one fight; all the while providing snappy comebacks to each other. The fight nears an end when Namaari has Raya cornered on the ground. Just as she is about to finish her off, Sisu intercepts them both in her dragon form and stops the bystanders with smoke.

Namaari is greatly moved after seeing the real dragon, and immediately goes home to tell her mother, Virana, about it. But her mother refuses her proposal of peace and instead demands her to keep looking for the Gems in fear the other tribes will turn on Fang afterwards.

When Raya's first idea of infiltrating the palace is shot down by her friends, she relents and decides to follow Sisu's plan in which they negotiate peacefully with Namaari. Raya sends a letter to her via monkey, with the dragon pendant as a peace offering that Namaari had previously gifted her, showing she could trust them.

The next morning, Raya and Sisu meet Namaari on a secluded cliff, and Namaari carefully takes out the last piece of the Dragon Gem. Yet the moment Raya reveals the rest of the pieces in her bag, the other immediately draws out a crossbow and aims it at Sisu. Raya has a betrayed expression, and foolishly attacks Namaari's bow, thinking she will shoot. But the arrow flies in the wrong direction and hits Sisu in the heart instead. The water dragon falls off the cliff, and the remaining water that held back the Druun, around the Fang Palace, begin to recede.

Raya's trust is broken, and she mindlessly rages towards Namaari, giving no mind to the Druun that have demolished the palace around her. Screaming out, "NAMAARI!!" as the latter is grieving Virana's fate to the Druun, they begin their final spar heatedly. Raya's rage towards Namaari is so strong, she manages to knock her down, scattering the dragon pendant Namaari had been safekeeping. Right as she's about to deliver the final blow, Namaari resentfully says that she had lost everything, and nothing mattered anymore. She bitterly reminds Raya that Sisu's death was her fault as much as it was her own, then succumbs to the blade. When it never comes, Namaari looks up to find Raya gone to assist her friends instead.

As the orbs grow weaker, Namaari comes in at the last minute to save Tuk Tuk from an untimely death, and the five work together to stop the Drunn from advancing towards the innocent civilians. Suddenly, the ground beneath them opens and they fall into a dark pit surrounded by Druun. Raya finally realizes that, although what's left of power in the Dragon Gem is fading, their power of teamwork can be powerful enough to rejoin the Gem together. Though her friends refuse to help Namaari at first, Raya hands Namaari the orb, blindly trusting her again. Having faith in her, Raya steps outside the protective circle and lets herself be consumed into stone by the Druun. Hesitantly, the rest of Raya's friends follow her example, relying on Namaari to fix the chaos.

Namaari is the last one left. A crevice opens, giving her a chance to escape, but she decides to quickly reassemble the stone, before letting herself be taken in as well. The magic of the Dragon Gem works, and beings everyone back to life, along with Raya and Namaari. As they're freed from the stone, the two look at each other affectionately, laughing and celebrating their return.

Fanon
Raya deciding to blindly trust and hand over her piece of the Gem to Namaari first is an important part in their relationship, even after having been betrayed by the same person twice. Her opening up to a backstabbing friend is a vital part in the story, and their relationship. With the reuniting of Kumandra, fan speculate that the two would have grown closer.

Trope of "Enemies to Lovers" is a highly sought-after relationship trope, and Rayaari quickly gained attention in the fandom. There have been many fan arts around the fandom already, most of them capturing both women's competitive spirit but also the romantic aspect of them. Jokes have been made on twitter that Namaari's hairstyle unmistakably gives off the vibes of a lesbian. Their relationship grows on the teasing aspect and exchanged jokes that border on sass, but also the soft moments they have with each other when they were younger.

It is the most written ship in the Raya and the Last Dragon fandom for both Raya and Namaari, being basically the only ship in the fandom. There isn't much competition, seeing as there aren't many characters, but Saya is the opposing ship between Raya and Sisu.

Fandom
FAN FICTION



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Trivia

 * The voice actor of Raya, Kelly Marie Tran, claims she ships the duo.
 * Kelly personally interpreted their relationship as romantic, and voiced Raya accordingly.
 * While "binturi" is used as an insult, "dep la" is said to be translated in Vietnamese to "strangely beautiful"; it is used by Namaari
 * Both commonly use nicknames for each other, including princess undercut, binturi(s), dragon nerd, and dep la.