#specifically when it comes to how multiple of these legends are intended to harm certain groups in-universe

[wrenlywofau]

The Legends of how Pyrrhia’s Tribes got their Powers

(Shout-out to this video that I based most of this on!!)

A common IceWing legend tell of a great Ice Dragon (notably never referred to as an IceWing) flying up to the auroras in the frozen night sky and touching them in order to gain animus powers. This Ice Dragon would’ve lived just after the scorching, when the modern tribes were still forming. She’s regarded as the first queen of what would become the tribe, and though her real name has been lost, it’s not uncommon to hear dragons referring to her as Aurora.

The first SeaWing animus, Prince Albatross, was born as the result of an IceWing prince and SeaWing princess some 2,000 years later.

NightWings’ abilities come from the three moons, which they say were once brothers born with different powers; Perception could read minds, Oracle could see the future, and Imperial could do both to a much stronger degree. It was once said that they watched over the tribe, but this story didn’t prevail much longer after Darkstalker’s time, when the NightWings moved to a new kingdom and stopped being able to see the moons. Hope is working to repopularize this tale.

SkyWing dragonets with firescales have only ever been known to be born on the summer solstice. For a long time, all eggs set to hatch on this date were killed, but after generations of no firescaled dragonets hatching, the tradition fell out of practice. By the time Peril was born, the massacre hadn’t occurred in years, with egg instead just being kept out of the sunlight on this day. It’s said that the first firescales, a dragon named Solstice, tried to force his way into power, and that legions of dragons died trying to stop him.

There is no set-in-stone tale as to how SandWings got their animus abilities. Some say they come from an IceWing hybrid, or a SandWing who followed Aurora into the stars, while others tell of the moons stealing them from the IceWings to give to the SandWings. Though the latter is the basis of why the SandWings worship the moons, few modern SandWings are aware of this origin.

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History is written by the victors, and often without the intent of telling the full story. Take these legends with a grain of salt, most notably how they could easily be misconstrued.

[korra-the-red-lion]

zarlie was not queerbait (yes, them having an unaired kiss also doesn’t mean it’s queerbait even if it did air) nor will esperastra be if they don’t become canonically romantic because they showrunners never said otherwise. fans tend queerbaiting themselves because they interpret things differently than how the writers actually intended.

Hey anon! Thanks for writing in.

I figured my analysis wouldn’t be without criticism, as anything you post on this site is bound to be disagreeable to some. However, I will politely disagree with you here.

Firstly, I do strongly dislike the implication that people “queerbait themselves” since the use of queerbaiting has been a harmful marketing technique for quite awhile now. Sure, people like to joke around and say they are doing it to themselves. Heck, my friends do! However, I don’t typically say something is queerbaiting unless I strongly feel that it is, because I do believe there is an overuse of the word at times. In this instance, I do believe that the writers knew exactly what they were doing.

The exact definition of the word from Wiki is “a marketing technique for fiction and entertainment in which the creators hint at, but then do not actually depict, same-sex romance or other LGBT representation.” So how does Zarlie fall under this then?

Well, it all comes down to acting and dialogue choices, now doesn’t it? Zarlie itself, according to the fandom wiki which could be wrong, says that it’s the 9th most written pair from Legends of Tomorrow. Okay, interesting, considering how much content there is to write for. Especially since in all technicality, Zarlie was really only a ship for 1 season when you really think about it, since the OG Zari disappears after the season 4 finale. But sorry, that’s off track. Back to the main point.

The fact is, they added in dialogue that purposely suggested to the viewers certain things. Having Zari admit to finding Amaya hot, not correct Charlie when asked if she was straight or not, those things are intentional. Then of course there is the acting choices, which could have been corrected had the showrunners and producers felt they were too romantically coded, yet they didn’t. Charlie was constantly looking Zari up and down, biting their lip around her, and purposeful touching and close proximity to her at nearly all times. And the fact is, the fans were asking for more because of how much they loved the pairing. Then the mid-season finale happened, and when the show came back, they still teased fans with Zarlie even AFTER Steelhacker became canon. If it was just teasing and flirting between the two, that’s one thing. But the fact is clearly Charlie was never over Zari, which is why they shared the deleted kiss. Maisie has been on record saying multiple times that she was pushing for Zarlie, as was Tala. And of course the kiss. Now saying that if it did happen it wouldn’t have been bait is not entirely true, nor is it false. But in this case? Yes, it is baiting. Why bother filming it at all if you’re only going to say “oh it doesn’t fit the scene?” and cut it out? I bet my bottom dollar Maisie and Tala fought for that scene, and they chose to cut it out. Plus, since they made a point of saying that Zari 1.0 and Behrad lived out a similar life, if not the same life, aboard the Waverider, than the implication that Charlie was into Zari that way is there right in front of our eyes. Lastly, fans were really excited to see a couple that were two people of colour, since that hadn’t been done often, therefore it was also drawing the attention of queer people of colour.

So long story short, Zarlie was queerbaited because even after one member of the pair was put into a romantic relationship with someone else, they never stopped using the chemistry between the two actors to draw people’s attention to the characters. Zarlie was queerbaited because the writers and directors could have asked the actors to not do specific choices but did not. Zarlie was queerbaited, plain and simple.

And only because you mentioned them, I didn’t explicitly say Esperastra was queerbaiting as of now, however some of the choices they’re doing does parallel Zarlie and other romantic tropes. It’s how they continue to write them from here on out that determines that for me. Right now, I’d say they’re friends to lightly queercoded, but that could change.