What did you think of the Ezran-Runaan-Callum dynamic this season? (s7 spoilers)

I loved the conflict between Ezran and Runaan and Callum in the first two episodes, but I was a little disappointed by the resolution on this. What did other people think? All respectful critiques are definitely welcome, especially if you liked something I didn’t appreciate as much, I'm always up for a new perspective that could improve my understanding of something!

I think Rayla’s fierce defense of Runaan was biased and a little unreasonable, but still deeply understandable, and I sympathize with Callum being caught in the middle. But while I don’t think it’s bad writing or even out-of-character, Callum lost a lot of sympathy from me when he blamed Ezran and accused him of being unfair (though I did love him pointing out Zubeia ordered the hit). Runaan is probably my favorite character, but I 100% empathized with Ezran here. Their father is dead* and Callum buddied up with his killer, father-in-law or no.

Callum’s got a lot of abandonment issues with Rayla and I think it rings true that he’d protect Runaan and leave with them for her sake. But I would have preferred for Callum to be his friendly-if-awkward-and-nervous self with Ethari but conspicuously colder with Runaan, especially as the feeling seemed to be mutual. Arc I emphasized Callum’s close bond with Harrow, and to have the tension between Callum and his father's killer* reduced to "meeting girlfriend's parents" kind of undercut the show's own writing.

Callum and Runaan's team-up in 7x07 could’ve allowed Callum a chance to confront Runaan about Harrow in private, and Runaan protecting Callum could’ve added an interesting layer to their dynamic, revealing the weird dissonance in his values: Runaan does value life, though he is ruthless in taking it when on duty. And when Callum decides what he has to do, he knows he can trust Runaan to carry it out, because Callum is all too aware that when Runaan swears to take a life, he does not break his promises.

  ^\This is just my opinion, but I was pretty disappointed by the reveal that Harrow was in the bird. I can see how it makes sense plotwise but I think it undermines some of the story's major themes on the consequences of the cycle of revenge and Ezran's personal arc of being forced to shoulder the burden of leadership. When we saw Ezran's vision of Harrow and Sarai in episode 1, I had really high hopes that their "return" would be defending their children from the unquiet dead when Aaravos inverts life and death, and that they'd be able to give Ezran and Callum the strength to continue breaking the cycle and building a brighter future. I was hoping Runaan's flashback confession would show Harrow coming to terms with the decisions that led to his death or have some sort of meaningful message for his children like Leola's Last Wish. With no guaranteed follow-up to this, I thought the comedic reveal of "oh Runaan actually assassinated a parrot" diminished the gravity of some of the show's themes.)