#wings of fire analysis

[mbat]

i keep thinking about book 14 and the crown thing at the end that can seem ridiculous if you take it at face value, but i dont think youre supposed to take it at face value

the icewing crown was enchanted by a past queen so that everyone who wore it afterwards would hate nightwings just as much as she did. at first that like, comes out of nowhere and sounds like. funny honestly. like okay, sure, okay. racism crown

but i personally believe its meant to be more symbolic than literal

this queen, queen diamond as we know, had lost her son to another tribe, she percieved it as him having been kidnapped, stolen from her and never returned, but because she couldnt accept the truth that her son had simply fallen in love with a dragon from that tribe and had run off with her. quite frankly, no matter the truth, losing your child and never seeing them again can be life changing, even traumatic.

im not excusing her actions of course, but rather trying to explain them and my own point

not to mention that they were primary royal line at this point, and on top of that were both the last animus dragons from a long, long line of animus dragons who the icewing tribe held near and dear for many generations. this decision her son made would change the whole world, but also would change her whole world.

she was definitely pissed about it, and would not dare let anyone forget. she ended up kidnapping and imprisoning the woman he ran off with for not only the rest of her own life, but for the 2000 years following long after her death. cementing how harshly she hated what happened, and hated a woman who simply fell in love with her son.

personally im not surprised she went a step further and enchanted the crown to drive the point into the ground.

with all that out of the way, the symbolism is clear to me. its the trauma and the hatred being passed down through the generations. she didnt want anyone to dare forget what happened, and they wouldnt for a long time. not until snowfall went on a journey that would change her own life, this time for the better, and she said a big ol fuck you to several icewing traditions all at once.

of course, she wasnt the first of her own generation of family to say fuck you to it all, her own sister and cousins all proved that, but especially in the way that winter released foeslayer and quite literally broke the way a tradition even functioned, and ended the long, long torture of the poor woman, and one of diamonds horrible ways of expressing her hatred for what happened.

but snowfall is a queen. a queen who wore that shitty little racism crown more often than literally anyone wanted aside from whatsername (tundra?) and her mind was racing with paranoia of not only her own tribespeople and other tribes, but especially of the nightwings.

it wasnt until she spent days not only with other dragons, but ending up as other dragons due to animus magic she foolishly decided to wear without knowing what it was (it was a good thing of course) that she was stripped of her debilitating paranoia for the most part, and saw how her own tribe traditions were only making it worse.

a cliff made to physically harm anyone who would try and enter the kingdom. a board that she literally had to change daily that insisted that certain dragons had to be better than eachother. and of course, a crown that was enchanted to make you hate certain dragons the way your ancestor did because she couldnt cope with her own circumstances a long, long time ago.

she looked around and saw a tribe that was long broken because of traditions people were terrified to touch, but she was sick of it all, and not only that, she wanted to be the best queen she could possibly be.

she broke the cliff wall, officially letting other dragons in. she broke the circles wall, refusing to trap anyone else in the hell of trying to be better than eachother (and of her having to stand in front of it every night miserably sorting people lol), and she broke the crown that was poisoned to make her and every other queen feel the hatred of someone long dead, literally or not.

she saw the best way to be queen as breaking traditions that her people held dear, but those traditions were only harming them in the long run. and on top of it, she broke a long held chain of generational hatred that she was never supposed to feel in the first place.

queen diamond couldnt cope with the loss of her son and she took it out on anyone she saw fit, and that meant even her own descendants* who had nothing to do with it that she would never even meet. thats like, the definition of generational trauma isnt it?

*(or rather her niece and who came after her)

so yeah, racism crown ha ha, but like... symbolic of generation trauma, and eventually the breaking of it and other things as breaking that chain and the traditions that upheld them.

[flawseer]

Ok, these time rate me the Jade WInglets

I've been sitting on this work-in-progress picture for so many months now. Maybe if I post it here, I'll finally sit down and finish it.

Very long post incoming.

Discussing the Jade Winglet

Okay. So, you want me to rate the Jade Winglet group. That’s going to be very easy: I love all of them.

It’s also going to be extraordinarily hard because... well... I love all of them. How am I supposed to put them into an ordered list? It can’t be done. So I guess what I’m going to do is: First I will put them into a tier list, and then I’m going to just talk about each of them individually for a bit.

But on account of aforementioned adoration I have for all of these guys, said tier list is going to be very lopsided. The tiers are going to be “I adore them with the intensity of seven suns”, “I really like them”, and “I very much like them, but...”. You’re going to have to imagine that there are five or so more unused tiers below that.

Let’s unceremoniously get that ranking out of the way first. From top to bottom, the tiers are:

I adore Turtle, Qibli, and Winter.

I really like Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, and Peril.

I very much like Umber and Carnelian.

As for more in-depth commentary, here is a disclaimer: When I think about these guys I mostly consider books 6 (Moon Rising) to 9 (Talons of Power) and the first half of 10 (Darkness of Dragons). The second half of 10... if I’m being honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. I don’t want to go into it too much here, if you really want me to talk about my misgivings with the second arc finale, put a message about it in my inbox (it’s not just the obvious thing; it actually mostly pertains to Winter and the absolute nightmare ending he got saddled with, and some very unfortunate character implications).

Some of my musings are also going to be a bit critical. I just want it to be clear that I make these observations as a fan of the series. It’s a good practice to think critically even about media that you like. It helps you better understand why you like it in the first place. Also, I make no demands to be agreed with. This is just how I see it.

Anyway, enough stalling, let’s get into it. Not in order:

Turtle

CW: Parental abuse

Turtle is the most wonderful thing to ever happen in the history of the universe. I wake up every morning and the first thought in my head is “Ugh, another day in this backwards reality where Turtle is not real! No thanks!!” Then I go right back to sleep disappointed until the next day. Okay, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic. But I do think that everyone’s lives would be greatly improved if Turtle was real.

Turtle is a very vibrant and insightful character who, much like Winter, is unfortunately cursed with a pair of malicious and incompetent "parents". Some of his scenes really hurt to get through if you’re a parent yourself or have ever had parental feelings. The first scene he is in, when Moon observes him arriving at the academy, his mother makes a passing comment about how Turtle has no value because he cannot inherit the throne. Turtle is within earshot when she does this. And he has no overt reaction to it, which to me hints that Coral asserts this about her male children so frequently that he has accepted her line of thinking and internalized it. He just accepts it as the truth. That is heartbreaking.

And then there is his father, mild-mannered and ostensibly gentle Gill, who killed Turtle’s budding interest in writing as well as the entirety of his self-confidence back when he was a kid, by assigning a little boy a task that was well beyond him (and only to him, even though there were more people present who could have helped), and then made him believe he killed his unborn sister when Turtle inevitably couldn’t do what he was asked. The narrative really tries to make Gill sympathetic in that moment by insisting he’s speaking in anger and doesn’t really mean it, but um, no. I don’t buy it, dude. You just gave a little kid a lifelong guilt complex because you couldn’t think of asking more people for help. Or taking the egg with you while you left the hatchery. Or telling Turtle to take a message to the palace guard so someone who didn’t still have their milk teeth could mount a proper, organized search while interim guards were posted in the hatchery. Or literally any of the thousands of other options that didn’t require traumatizing your own son.

As a result, Turtle became emotionally reclusive. He registers to others as dull, placid, unpassionate, and boring, like he cares about nothing and is content to never strive for or achieve anything in his life. He himself explains that writing used to be something he was into at some point, but then lost interest in. But I don’t think he has. He still loves literature and thinking about stories, he's still doing it in his internal monologue. He just denies it because he subconsciously feels the need to punish himself. I imagine he still gets that drive sometimes, to sit down and start writing again. But every time he thinks about it, or catches himself wanting anything, his father’s voice resurfaces in his mind, telling him that he killed his sister and doesn’t deserve it. And then he self-punishes by depriving himself of everything he loves doing and every positive emotion associated with it. Because he is convinced he is guilty for failing his father, when in actuality, the opposite is true.

The tragedy is that, if Gill had known how much damage he caused and wasn’t in a situation where he needed a flowchart to keep his 30+ sons apart, he probably would have apologized. He doesn’t strike me as malicious, just horribly, horribly incompetent as a parent. But as things played out, Gill is no longer able to fix his mistake. The only person who can now grant Turtle the forgiveness he needs is himself. I hope he will be able to do it.

Turtle truly is an endearing character and a wonderful son undeserved by his parents. If I could adopt him right now I would. In fact, I’m gonna do it. Hold on while I get the papers. Wait, I have to finish? Uh... okay.

Moonwatcher

In a sense, Moonwatcher may be the most interesting character in the entire cast. She certainly had the potential to be my favorite character period. But there are a few points holding her back.

The thing about Moonwatcher is that, more than any other character, she requires meticulous care and attention to detail to be written well. The reason for this is that, when you’re writing for Moon, you also technically write for every character she interacts with. She is written brilliantly in her own book, since the narrative is allowed to focus on her; Moon Rising may thus actually be my favorite book of the second arc. It’s very enrapturing, seeing her navigate the academy’s social dynamics after growing up as, essentially, a feral jungle child, and battling with her own feelings of loneliness and inadequacy.

The thing is though... Wings of Fire has a bit of an odd quirk. Something I’ve noticed with regards to its writing is that, whenever a character is not particularly in focus during a scene, they often get reduced to their most basic traits and will rigidly act according to them regardless of prior context or external factors. I call this phenomenon “Auto-pilot”. If you’ve read my Mail Call #3, this is what I think happened to Tsunami during the second arc—Tsunami’s basic traits are that she is bossy, emotional, and blunt, so she spends the entirety of her page time as a deep-sea-themed wrecking ball who yells at everyone and dismisses everything as “ugh, nightwing powers” and “Peril was bad in book 1 once, I hate her forever”, despite having other, more pressing matters to prioritize.

Whenever Moonwatcher gets set to auto-pilot, it is very depressing. She needs careful, attentive writing to shine, and whenever she doesn’t get it she turns from the most interesting character into a dull brick that recites exposition and occasionally exists to be fawned after by boys. Tragically, the auto-pilot hits her bad after Winter’s book is done, and she never manages to escape it afterwards, save for maybe one or two scenes. There is a particularly egregious example in book 10 that, in my opinion, does permanent, irreversible damage to her character. It’s all a bit soul-crushing if dwelt on.

So yeah, I like Moonwatcher. I really do. I just wish the strong way she was written could have carried through the entire arc.

Winter

CW: Parental abuse

I initially didn’t really know what to make of Winter when I read Moon’s book. He seemed kind of like a buttface who was needlessly hostile and unapproachable. But he really comes into his own in his book, and looking back at his earlier scenes with that new context makes it all make sense. He became one of my stand-out favorites after that.

Winter really has a lot in common with Turtle, so much so that I wish those two actually had some deeper interactions with each other. Like, at one point Turtle saves his life, you’d think they would want to talk about that some time. Where Turtle’s parents are one half malicious, one half incompetent, Winter’s are pure malice AND incompetence. Blessed with three children, they managed to completely ruin one of them, almost ruin the other, and then the third one is kind of out of focus so I don’t know how he is faring, but I doubt there is a lot of love there either.

In a way, you can draw a lot of parallels between Winter and Icicle, and Zuko and Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender—The unfavorite who tries to do right but constantly fails to live up to his father’s/parents' warped standards, and the prodigy who seemingly has her father’s/parents' approval but secretly suffers from the abusive parenting just as much, but in different ways. Hailstorm then tries to take on the role of Iroh, an older figure that acts as a source of positivity and genuine love, and offers a reprieve from the abuse. But where Iroh is an adult drawing from a lifetime of wisdom, Hailstorm is just the slightly older sibling who comes from the same abusive household battling the same demons, so his effectiveness in countering the toxicity is limited.

Where Zuko pursues honor, Winter strives to be strong. Both his parents and his sister perceive him as weak and label him irrelevant. While this hurts him deeply, I don’t think Winter fully surrendered to his inferiority complex until he heard his brother mirror the same sentiment at him. Winter is repressed and struggles with processing his emotions—Thus he heard the words Hailstorm only said to save his life and took them at face value. Even the person he loves the most, the only source of affection and affirmation in his life, thinks he is weak. This is what drives Winter to feverishly desire strength and thus adopt a persona of the strongest thing he knows: a stoic Icewing warrior.

This is why he acts the way he does in book 6: aloof, threatening, unapproachable, invincible. But all of these traits are diametrically opposed to his actual personality, which is warm, compassionate, and just wanting to be loved for who he is. So whenever Moon reads his mind, he comes across as a confused mess of conflicting emotions. Because he is pretending to be something he isn’t.

The interesting thing here is that Winter actually is genuinely strong. He is just unable to recognize his own worth, due to the toxic way royal Icewings are raised, warping his perception of what strength means. When he meets Foeslayer, who is said to be an ancient enemy of his people, his mind cuts through the veneer of tradition and old bullshit justifications and sees her imprisonment for the cruel injustice that it is. He then undoes that injustice and frees her. It takes an incomprehensible amount of personal integrity and willpower to just casually defy the will of your entire country like that. This is equivalent to treason; by aiding her, Winter risks becoming an enemy of his people on par with Foeslayer herself. And he does it anyway, because it is the right thing to do.

This dissonance in his perception of strength with regards to his Icewing upbringing, and the actual strength he embodies and has embodied all this time, is something I would have liked to see explored more in the finale or something. As it stands now, he got pressured into putting his life on the line in the battle for Jade Mountain, has sworn loyalty to a people that mistreated him and tried to ruin him from a young age, and then got saddled with an existential nightmare of an ending that leaves me baffled to this day.

In terms of personal misfortune, he certainly is the Starflight of his group.

Qibli

CW: Parental abuse

Qibli is a very charming and versatile character. It is easy to imagine him in a variety of different situations and the scenes almost write themselves, especially when there’s another person with him whom he can bounce off of (figuratively, though I wouldn’t put it past him to try to literally bounce off of someone too). The 10th book posits him as some kind of parallel to Darkstalker; the latter even overtly states this and tries to recruit him as a manner of apprentice. It’s interesting because I think they are actually pretty different.

Qibli excels in situations where his options are limited. He is great at thinking on his feet and coming up with solutions to problems within a restricted framework. He'd be great in an escape room. This ability of his is shown throughout the arc, but it is especially visible in Moon Rising, where his presence in a scene often makes Moon stronger, or more adept at solving problems, because his mind is breaking down the situation for her in a way she would be unable to see on her own.

The twist then comes in when you take Qibli out of that limited framework, by giving him power. His pronounced intellect is very peculiar; it needs limitation to be brilliant. When he has unhindered access to all-powerful magic (i.e. doesn’t have to clear his ideas with another person), he turns into a colossal idiot who buries cities in sand and almost blows up inhabited mountains.

It only follows that, if you were to give Qibli what he wants and make him an animus, it would absolutely ruin him. The great intellect he cultivated would wither and, unshackled from the limitations that forced him to think critically and be his most excellent self, he would end up destroying himself, and likely others too.

Another interesting facet of Qibli is how he works as a parallel to Winter and Turtle (and Peril to an extent). All of these characters come from broken homes and have suffered under abusive parental figures. Qibli’s case in particular is interesting because it showcases how your circumstances can make a difference in how well you handle that issue. Qibli suffered under a tyrannical mother and a pair of cruel siblings, but in contrast to his peers, someone from the outside noticed his suffering was able to intervene—Thorn saved him from his hell and became his rescue parent, restoring his confidence and sense of self-worth.

Because of this, when his turn comes to confront his demons, while it is still difficult and painful (because trauma always is), he is able to navigate the confrontation with comparatively more grace and control than the others. The contrast really shows how difficult it is to escape a toxic relationship if you are still mired deeply within it, and how you need to put some distance between yourself and it before you can see where you are and what needs to be done with improved clarity. That is the path to healing.

I could probably keep talking about Qibli for 15 more paragraphs, but I’ll spare you.

Kinkajou

Every protagonist (and a good deal of side characters) in Wings of Fire is broken, usually has some kind of gut-wrenching past (often due to terrible parents), and struggles to find their place in the world. Luckily here is a pink-and-yellow Rainwing who is just happy and everything is fantastic and wholesome, right?

CW: Forced starvation

Nah, Kinkajou had it pretty rough too. The story plays it like it’s a humorous quip when she finds out Moonwatcher is her roommate and bemoans that nobody is taking her “trauma” seriously, but... yeah, it actually is legitimate trauma. She was captured, bound, and trapped on a hell island without sunlight for several weeks. While there, she was not fed, and she helplessly watched people whom she knew from early childhood starve and die. Death by starvation is not pretty, she likely had to witness her friends slowly being driven mad by hunger until they withered away, and couldn’t do anything about it. Then she was rescued and returned to a home that didn’t believe her pain was real, that claimed she made it up for attention, and that some people who she thought of as friends didn’t even notice she was gone. The only one who believed her was a stranger whom she had met maybe a few hours ago.

Personally, if that happened to me and I came home to that, I’d likely have pulled a Chameleon and said “Screw the Rainwings, I’m moving to the desert.”

That Kinkajou is still able to be positive and full of energy after that is a testament to her immense mental fortitude. She might actually be one of the most stable and resilient characters in the story. Some things shake her up for a bit, but nothing can crush her.

Still, I imagine there are some times, after a really bad day maybe, where she wakes up in the middle of the night. And there, for just a moment, she is scared to open her eyes... because she might be back on the Nightwing island and has to watch someone else die.

Peril

Peril is a bit of an odd case in arc 2. She gets grouped with the protagonists of that arc and the ending implies she is integrated into the Jade Winglet as their new Skywing. I have no real problem with that, in fact it’s good on her that she’s made a little less isolated. But to me, Peril always felt like an awkward appendix to that group. Her only real friend in there is Turtle; for the rest of them they feel more like vague acquaintances, like she's tolerated for being Turtle's friend.

To be fair though, that friendship with Turtle is really strong; it’s an exciting and deep character dynamic. But if I was forced to tie Peril to a group of protagonists, my first instinct would be to associate her with the first arc protagonists instead.

This poor girl has been through it. Everyone seems to hate her and wants her to leave, sometimes for understandable reasons and sometimes it just seems bizarre. I already went into Tsunami’s disdain for her in an earlier post, but I also vaguely remember a point in Escaping Peril where she meets Qibli and he gives her a withering glare for some reason. That confused me, to be honest. I thought “What’s YOUR problem with her? Have you ever even met??” Like, I guess the Outclaws were in direct conflict with Burn since they lived in the same country, and Peril was an infamous elite combatant under the command of one of Burn’s allies, so maybe Peril killed people he knew? But then he gets over his disdain really quickly and with no comment, so whatever happened can’t have been a big deal after all.

My favorite part in her book is when everyone--after having learned about Turtle’s powers--chews him out for not having helped his country during the war, and Peril cuts through the tripe by saying something along the lines of “So if he uses the power he was born with to serve his Queen it is honorable, but when I do the same for my Queen I’m a murderer and deserve to have things thrown at me?” I love all of these guys, but they really deserved to be called out for their double standard and feel stupid for a bit.

But yeah, I really enjoy her friendship with Turtle in the end. And since he accidentally made himself virtually indestructible, it means Peril can now get all the friendly hugs she craves.

Umber

Umber is cool. He has a potentially interesting relationship with Turtle, which is implied in the latter’s book when it is mentioned that they sleep with their backs touching to comfort each other about their respective siblings not being there.

Unfortunately he gets written out of the story arc very quickly. I wish I knew more about him.

Carnelian

I like Carnelian. I feel like she had a lot of potential that gets wasted by her death, for not much gain. It is used to give Queen Ruby a reason to come to Jade Mountain and kickstart the events of Peril’s book, but the same could have been accomplished by having her learn that the Academy is housing Peril and going there to demand the extradition of a (in her eyes) dangerous and murderous fugitive.

Same as with Umber, really, I wish I knew more about her. I already said this during my Smaugust drawing session, but I like to pretend that she and Bigtail didn’t die, and instead had a mini arc about recovering from their injuries. It also has the side effect of averting some very unfortunate implications that come with Bigtail’s death.

~~~

I think that’s all of them. Good lord I talk too much. Please don’t throw crocodiles at my face for it. Tumblr is my queen, and--much like the Queen's former champion--I was made to do it.

[hollowflight-propaganda]

"What about me?" Glory asked.

Kestrel shifted her wings in a shrug. "I have no idea. Webs scrounged you up somewhere after we lost the SkyWing egg. I never cared where, because I knew you weren't important."

"Oh, go away!" Tsunami burst out. "Everything you say is hurtful and mean."

"Everything I say is true," Kestrel said.

"I don't think you'd be good for me," Peril said, staring up at her. "I never imagined you like this."

Kestrel hunched her shoulders. "I am the way life has made me. Take it or leave it."

I genuinely don't understand anyone who says that Kestrel could've had a "redemption arc." Her response to her own long lost daughter saying that she never thought she'd be this cruel is just going, "This is how I am, and nothing will ever change that."

Kestrel herself admits in the second to last scene we ever see her in that this is just how she is and there's no room for improvement for her. If she truly believes this (which I think she does because if not she would've changed something about herself before now) then there's nothing anybody can do to help her.

This is why I'm satisfied with Kestrel dying the way she did. There was nowhere for her to go, her character ends here because she's denied herself change over and over again. She decided to constantly take her anger out on children for 6 years, she decided to treat them as horribly as she possibly could, even now when finally reunited with Peril she acts the same as she always had.

She never makes any strides to change herself because she genuinely believes that the only way to survive in a cruel world is to be cruel back. And look at how far it got her.

[gumm1defloor]

Vox can understand Velvette just fine. They don't necessarily need to get along all the time, but they have a mutually beneficial contract that guarantees her support in the most efficient way possible, just how they both like it, short and strict and to the point. Vox does not understand Valentino. It drives him unimaginably, disgustingly insane. He knows how to handle him, make no mistake. Valentino is a never-ending powerhouse that wrangles out content from his employees like there's no tomorrow. He's proven himself to be Vox's most lucrative investment yet. He is resourceful, well-connected and most importantly predictable enough to rein in. Because he listens to you, because he needs you.

He is also, undeniably, out of his goddamn mind. Yet you've already invested too much in the corporate empire you've built together and there is no point turning back now that you have him so close to your side. It's OK however! He couldn't possibly be stupid enough to throw away the best partnership deal he's ever had just for the sake of something petty cause -oh, wait - he genuinely might just be that stupid and you never would've guessed because he's so cocksure of his bullshit that 80% of the time it ends up working in his favor anyway.

Fuck his life indeed. The kicker for this of course is that Valentino, genuinely does believe he has struck gold with Vox. Valentino is a clingy, possessive, immature, perverted, sadistic, egotistical man-child with severe rage issues and zero impulse control. No he is not aware of this at all. No he does not know why nobody is able to tolerate him and why every single person he gets close to hates his guts with every inch of their burning rotting souls. All he knows is that hell has now given him a flat faced prince in shining liquid crystal armour, riding on a cash filled horse with promises of power and luxury, who's practically handing him success on a silver platter. Doesn't mean that Val trusts him, doesn't mean he doesn't enjoy seeing him lose his shit. But at the end of the day vox has his back, and as long as Val keeps calling for him, he'll eventually turn up and make everything better. Cause hey if Vox hasn't left him yet for this long he must be doing something right. Right?

[scrollwyrm]

Okay guys time for my most heartbreaking Glory headcanon. (TW: mention of abuse.)

Most RainWings have simple resting colours. Jambu is pink, for example. But Glory has this mess of green and orange and blue? Of course it’s pretty and that could be all, but what if that’s not the only reason?

I think that this is because of a RainWing is scarred badly enough, physically or mentally, they have to make a very conscious effort to push the Bad Colours out of their scales. Obviously, Glory spent her whole childhood hated by the guardians. They were canonically abusive, and because it was seven years stuck in that cave, a very traumatic experience for her, Glory’s anger (orange and red) her fear (green) and her sadness at not being the dragonet the guardians wanted her to be (blue) built up in her scales.

Now all the RainWings think she’s so confusing because she looks scared and furious, like a caged animal, whenever her scales shift to their resting patterns. They often ask her what’s wrong, but she gets confused/defensive about their questions.

Sorry for the depressing headcanon. Be back soon with better content.

[summerf0x]

I think the real reason why Artic’s death is so horrifying isn’t because of the gore. It’s because it represents Darkstalker finally becoming the monster he was prophecized to be.

The entire book you know how it’s going to end. Darkstalker will be sealed beneath a mountain, Clearsight will flee the continent, and Fathom leaves the public eye with Indigo. The build up is an entirely different story. All three of them want the future to be different, one where they stay together and avoid the grim fate that awaits them, and for a few brief periods all over the story you think they will. Clearsight says that she had almost entirely written out the scroll as a possibility because of how few timelines it appeared in.

Fathom manages to gradually reign in Darkstalker to the point where the thought of him enchanting the goblet was shocking. And yet, Darkstalker continues down the dark path. He doesn’t trap Indigo just because he loathes her (although that definitely contributed to it). He traps her because it’s a stepping stone to getting Fathom more willing to use his animus powers, weather that be voluntarily or not. He gives Clearsight the earrings not because he dislikes her power. He gives it to her because it’s only a temporary thing to make sure she’s happier and he check all her work anyway, so nothing bad would happen!

Darkstalker has convinced himself that every action he does is the right one. It’s all to move them towards the best possible future, where everyone’s happy in the end. At least… he says that. Some part of Darkstalker still knows these are wrong. That’s why he wrote them in the invisible ink. That’s why he never fully enchanted, Clearsight or Fathom to change. Little, justifiable nudges that he could write off as a necessary evil. It doesn't matter how they get to the big, happy ending. Just that they get there in the first place. Everyone will be happy then, so when he reveals what he did they'll be mad for a bit but will ultimately accept that it all worked out in the end.

It's this philosophy that helps Darkstalker continue. He's not a monster because he never changes them directly, only with something small and disposeable like an object. He is so terrifed of being that bloodstained dragon in the future he refuses to do it directly, maintaining plausable deniability the entire time. It creates a buffer between them, and as long as it stands he considers himself blameless.

Even when everyone else is against him for surviving Quickdeath’s attack, he doesn’t focus on the fact that they are horrified that he enchanted himself to be invulnerable and instead says that the problem is resolved and is shocked that they aren’t relieved and going on as normal.

When he enchants Arctic, he still doesn’t lay a hand on him. Not his claws. He is not bloody. Not yet. He flies Arctic to the center of the Nightwing kingdom and creates a mock trial out of his father’s death. He kills him as a show of power, yes, but convinced himself it’s justifiable. He waits for the crowd’s reaction before doing it.

Arctic’s death isn’t even that descriptive. The book says that it was “messy” but there aren’t pages and pages of vivid gore. It’s a short paragraph and while it is the culmination of Darkstalker’s decent into power-driven madness the violence is so very small in a book filled with it. There’s no return from here. Clearsight says it herself, when everything is done. She can’t return to the Nightwings after being seen on that stage with Darkstalker. This is what finally gets Fathom to give up on any attempts to bring him back to the friendly, charming version of the Darkstalker he knew.

There’s no return for Darkstalker, either. In his mind, he’s won. He’s “triumphed” over Arctic after all this time. He’s finally killed someone. No. He’s finally made someone kill themselves. Like some sort of horrible gotcha to the universe, there is no blood on his claws. No blemishes on his body. Even when killing his father, he remains blameless in his mind. He would have remained blameless when killing anyone else.

[butchriptide]

Honestly I firmly believe more people would find Moonbli more compelling if they’d just gotten together earlier in the series. Which like, I know doesn’t WORK for a love triangle, but at the same time, the love triangle resolves by shoving Winter under the bus anyway so like do we really care about preserving it.

Because like, with the books as is, there’s not any time to explore their actual dynamic together as a couple. The impression we get without a perspective is just… Well! Cute sweet couple, and I’m not positing that’s untrue, or that Moonbli would secretly be crazy toxic or anything, but I’m saying without a perspective from either there’s never the fun of emotional conflict and resolution, or a chance to see the layers to their relationship.

I want to know how Moon feels about Qibli’s tendency towards unhealthy idolization toward her and how it contrasts to her history of extreme social rejection! I want to know more about how Qibli feels about Moon’s tendency to be overly forgiving and empathetic to dragons who may not deserve it when he’s been repeatedly abused by a lot of very sinister dragons in his life! I want to know about how they navigate conflict with each other when they both have a tendency to go the avoidance route in terms of actually talking about it! Their personalities are actually a very interesting combination but there’s no time to explore it before they have to go play cameo in Arc 3…

[solar-wing]

⚣ ATLA/LOK: The Four Nations & Homosexuality ☀️

I'm planning to write for my favorite characters from the Avatar universe again. Any OGs from my first account know I started posting content about ATLA and LOK, specifically Bolin and Mako, WAAAY before I started posting DC and Marvel content among others.

So I wanted to talk about something I found really interesting about homosexuality within the four nations and their attitudes towards it regarding acceptance and whether they embraced or turned away from it. And since we are soon getting a new Earth Avatar series, we might as well start with the Earth Kingdom.

EARTH KINGDOM

First, let's consider the element of the nation itself and what it symbolizes.

Earth is not just the element of strength, but also the element of endurance and rigidity. In simple terms, it's a tough and stubborn element.

Also, Earth is a hybrid element, meaning it can be used in defensive and offensive manners easily.

Concerning its nation, it can be shown how citizens of the Earth Kingdom would more than likely be very conservative and adverse to any change or diverting from societal standards in the norm.

They're stubborn and stuck in their ways, so they may not react the most positively to displays of affection between same-sex couples. But, it can work in both ways.

As mentioned, Earth-benders and citizens, in general, tend to be very stuck in their beliefs, meaning if one were to have a more liberal position on the matter of social and romantic relationships, they would be just as defensive and stubborn in that belief as someone more conservative and traditional.

This goes back to my saying that Earth itself is a hybrid element. A mix of defensive and offensive tactics. Just as much as people way attempt to push their beliefs onto others, they're just as quick to defend their beliefs and ideals.

I'd also argue region/location within the Earth Kingdom is a major factor. If we're talking places like small villages or cities like Omashu in the animated version, you may be met with pushback and intolerance. But, places like Kyoshi Island where its founder was a lesbian so likely had very liberal beliefs concerning such topics. Also Omashu from the live-action since that version portrays Oma & Shu as a lesbian couple, and even Ba Sing Se since big cities are proven to attract a more liberal-leaning population.

But, interestingly enough, in the comics, it's stated that the Earth Kingdom is the slowest to accept change, and their default is still heterosexuality. Obviously, this comes from the rigidness and stubbornness of the Earth element itself. So even if Ba Sing Se has a more 'liberal' or rather "diverse" crowd, doesn't mean that crowd is automatically open to homosexuality. Ideally, the only known place in the Earth Kingdom where you could experience the most acceptance and grace from others would be Kyoshi Island

In summary, on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the most accepting & embracing of homosexual relationships and 1 being the opposite, I originally was going to give the Earth Kingdom a 5, but remembering how it's stated in the comics that they are the slowest to accept change which checks out, they got bumped down to a 2.

It is a very big nation and thus has the potential to plant different seeds of belief and opinion, however, it's clear in the show how rigid and otherwise, unshakeable denizens of the Earth Kingdom can be. They have their beliefs, and they strongly stick to them.

Even with someone like Avatar Kyoshi who had to go and make a whole separate Island where she and her people could live in peace and prosperity without certain influences affecting them, they still have yet to come around to the idea that other people live with different interests and beliefs, and that there is truly no 'default' for even one person.

Acceptance Rating: 2/10

FIRE NATION

Starting with a focus on the element itself again, fire is the element of power, as described by Iroh. It can burn things in its path, but can also give life. In simple terms, it's an element of strong will and desire to expand and consume, literally and metaphorically.

Fire is also mainly an offensive element, with the capability of modifying certain offensive moves into defensive ones.

Its nation's citizens and benders heavily share these traits with their element. They tend to be willful and proud, and while that doesn't necessarily equal being close-minded, pride can very well lead to stubbornness.

This is evidenced strongly by the political government of the Fire Nation, with its monarchy power having complete and total influence and control over its citizen's lifestyles and choices. If one Fire Lord feels strongly about something and makes it into law, another Fire Lord can come two generations later and reverse and change it.

This is shown in the nation's history, where homosexuality was actually tolerated (I hate using that word) in the Fire Nation for a long time before Fire Daddy, ahem, I mean Fire Lord Sozin's rule. It was during his reign as Fire Lord that Sozin outlawed same-sex relationships and marriages among the Fire Nation and its citizens.

Some speculate it was due to the clear pressure he faced being the sole heir to the throne since his sister was born a non-bender, something that was frowned upon in the royal family. A potential heir to the Fire throne had to be a firebender, with no exceptions. Therefore, Princess Zeisan was allowed more freedom and control in her life than he was, as evidenced by her embracing Air Nomad culture and being confirmed as a lesbian.

It was common knowledge that Sozin and Zeisan had a very antagonistic and tense relationship with each other, despite them being siblings. They were pitted against each other from a young age which caused a rivalry between them. So, it's completely possible to speculate that Sozin implemented the law to spite his sister who fell in love with Sister Rioshon, an Air Nun.

it's also completely possible to theorize that Sozin harbored homosexual tendencies and feelings himself, especially towards his best friend, Roku we all know was the Fire Avatar before Aang. Again, his being a royal prince and next in line for the throne threw a wrench in this since Sozin was expected to marry a woman and produce an heir. So his potential feelings for his best friend could never be explored due to his duties and responsibilities to his nation.

So since Sozin couldn't have what or who he truly wanted, no one could, and thus, same-sex love and marriage were banned. And that didn't change no matter where you went in the nation unlike the Earth Kingdom where you could go from village to village and city to city and the rules would be completely different depending on where you were.

Again, fire is the element of power and will. And if it was the will of the Fire Lord to ban same-sex relationships in the nation entirely, then everyone had to fall in line. Meaning the door was opened for more conservative and traditionalist views to be voiced in opposition to same-sex relationships.

While some may have had differing beliefs and ideals, they more than likely had to keep it to themselves, especially among the nobility. This can lead to harboring feelings of anger and resentment, rather than love and acceptance, causing people to react harshly to any displays of such affection and behavior, just like Sozin.

As I said, fire as an element itself is primarily offensive in nature. Reflecting on its people, and especially its governing body, this is clearly shown by the notion that one person's opinion and belief can be pushed onto everyone around him if he or she so decrees it.

With that, the Fire Nation gets a 3/10 on the scale. Again, in the past, they were at minimum tolerant of it. which is not much if we're being honest. Tolerant actually is kind of insulting. But, after Sozin's rule, that tolerance more than likely dwindled and hasn't improved much following his reign as far as we know.

I'd like to think that Zuko as the Fire Lord, having seen much of the world and all its different dimensions and lifestyles people have lived, he'd at some point in his reign reverse the ruling, but that's a far-fetched hope knowing these writers and creators (no shade...mostly).

Acceptance Rating: 3/10

AIR NOMADS

Air is the element of freedom. It's flexible and lacks restriction, moving in any direction it desires. And because of its lack of constraint, it becomes easily adaptable in any scenario, whether it's evasion, offense, defense, etc.

However, the element of air is primarily and almost purely used as a defensive and evasive practice among its population, due to its nation as a whole choosing to live as pacifists. But, do not be misled. As mentioned, air as an element can be just as powerful offensively as it is defense-wise.

Just as their element, the benders of the Air Temples were very open and flexible people. As monks and nomads, they chose to forego many earthly and physical connections, seeking spiritual enlightenment. Because of this, there were never any non-benders in the Air Nomads.

Any child born from an Airbender was an Airbender themselves. Also, due to their style of life and spirituality, they were very adaptive to any situation they were placed in, making them very open to any and all change around them.

While they lived by the teachings of the monks and masters of the Air Nomads, they lived freely and openly, just like their element. The most restriction they had was as children or masters/monks that lived at the temples, males and females were not allowed to live together in the same space.

I'm not sure if this applies to temples as a whole as I've seen conflicting information. Some say the rule applies to temples as a whole, which would mean the Northern and Southern Temples were only inhabited by male Airbenders, and the respecting Eastern and Western temples were inhabited by female Airbenders.

But, I do remember a specific scene from Avatar, during the 2nd season when Appa was lost, and he had a memory of when he was a baby bison, and he and Aang met for the first time. I remember the monk facilitating this was a female Airbender, so that's why I'm not exactly sure what is concrete.

But, it does make sense as in many of Aang's flashbacks to his time at the Southern Air Temple, we mainly only ever saw male Airbenders. Thus, many have speculated that this specific rule would inadvertently encourage exploration and curiosity for these young Airbenders regarding their sexuality as they matured and eventually left the temples as adults and master Airbenders.

Also, on this, no child from the Air Temples was raised by their parents. They were only raised by the monks, enforcing that common belief and practice they all had. While they of course had their own identities, they were all taught the same thing from an early age, if an Adult Airbender met and had a child with someone from a different nation, that child likely being an Airbender would be sent to the Air temples to be raised by the monks.

All that to say, Airbenders would be the exact opposite of conservative. They technically wouldn't even be liberal since, again, they detach themselves from earthly limitations in favor of a higher spirituality.

So, since they don't subscribe to earthly practices or beliefs, they would be the most accepting nation of homosexuality and same-sex relationships. It's not in their nature or belief to judge others either so they wouldn't show any hostility or intolerance to LGBTQ+ people and relationships.

Just like their element, they practice freedom and adaptability to the world around them. And just as air is primarily used in defensive manners, they still will defend their beliefs and practices, they just avoid direct confrontation, preferring evasive maneuvers.

Just a quick note, the Air Nomads are what I like to think of as the example of how this world should have been. I read another column that detailed how the creators of the show ultimately created institutionalized homophobia because they couldn't imagine a world without it, and that's in large part due to the heavy influence of Western, colonial, Christian, and to be quite frank, European imperialism on the show's writing.

It's a fact that's becoming increasingly more well-known. Before European and Christian colonization/imperialism, many cultures and communities were not just accepting of same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ identities, they embraced it! While there were definitely pedophilic relationships that were wrong and grotesque no matter what time period it was, same-sex relationships were just as normal as opposite-sex ones. There was no "default."

So in simple terms, the Air Nomads accept and embrace everyone, no matter who they are or how they live. As long as they don’t wrong and harm others, and even then, they see everyone as equal and deserving of respect and love. And that's what our society should be based on. Of course, they were killed off in an entire genocide, which, say what you will and think what you think, but the one culture that accepts and loves everyone as they are being killed off...ironic, don't ya think?

Acceptance Rating: 10/10

WATER TRIBES

Finally, water is the element of change. Like air, it adapts to its circumstances, but more fluidly and gracefully. Yet, unlike air, it relies on the flow of energy, turning its defense into an offense and back. In whatever scenario that sees fit, a Waterbender can change their liquid offense into a solid defense, or turn a solid offense into a gas defense.

This clearly makes the water an element suitable for either an offensive or defensive strategy. Its unique ability to change its form to fit its circumstances gives its user an extreme advantage in combat or any other risky scenario.

Now, even with this in mind, ironically enough, the people of the Water Tribe are not the most in sync with their element as far as when it comes to living standards.

While yes, in combat, they adapt and adjust accordingly to their needs and goals in the fight, in regular practice, they're more conservative and less open to change than you would initially believe.

Also, as confirmed in the LOK comics, while the Water Tribes are not openly homophobic, they are still lacking in accepting and embracing the concept that there is not one rule that applies to all when it comes to who they love. Which, when you think about it, checks out.

The Northern Tribe operated heavily off a patriarchal society as we saw in the first season, and it took Paku nearly getting his ass whooped by a teenage girl who was the grand-daughter of the woman he loved but refused to wed since it was arranged for them to start to change their ways. Even if the Southern Tribe was a bit ahead of their Northern counterpart in this sense, they still suffered from the restricting roles they placed on themselves concerning gender.

Giving props to Fire Nation and Air Nomads, they never had restrictive rules on who could fight in battle, even if the Nomads as mentioned tended to avoid conflict. However, the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes both practiced and thus, were limited by their rules that men were only allowed to serve in the army and in the guard.

Of course, we've already discussed the Earth Kingdom is the slowest to accept change, but for the Water Tribes, this is a bit unnatural, and if this is how they act regarding gender, it says a lot about how they would react when it comes to same-sex relationships.

So, it's understandable why Kya advises Korra and Asami to keep their relationship to themselves. But, I personally don't believe they should. Creating change means people are going to be uncomfortable. Oh well, boo-hoo, they'll get over it.

But, this does at least check out with the hybrid offense/defense nature of water bending. People of the Water Tribe will stand their ground and defend what they choose to believe in and love. And while they may not openly go out of their way to push their beliefs onto others like those in the Fire Nation, it doesn't mean they don't still have ways have doing so. Like water, I imagine their approach to such a subject can vary.

With that, Water Tribes get a 2.5/10. They're ahead of the Earth Kingdom in the sense that they've realized excluding women from fighting hurts them more than it helps them. Also, it's highly plausible that if a woman can learn how to fight, a man can learn how to heal, but I digress. However, they're still lower than the Fire Nation since this is less of a government-forced ideology and more of a societal norm they place on themselves.

Acceptance Rating: 2.5/10

I like doing analysis like this. If anyone thinks of other topics to discuss and do a deep dive into, send it in my asks!

[wingsofgabber]

Drawn traditionally then edited digitally a bit. Time to ramble because out of all the WOF characters i relate to Qibli the most. We both grew up in unstable enviroments wanting nothing more than a sense of control and having a strong sense of justice in an unjust world over which we again have no control. We both always want to Do More and Be More and try and try and try and are extremely critical over our every failure. We know what needs to be done but just can't do it. If only we had more power perhaps we could do more good. Then DarkStalker is the opposide side of the same coin. He has the same sense of justice and desire for control except he WAS born with that power. This scene is so important because Qibli is offered the power he'd always dreamed of but here comes into play what distinquishes the two of them. Qibli realizes that the real issue is the power itself. Power corrupts, as the WOF story states time and time again. Qibli realizes that no single dragon should have this much power and declines DarkStalkers offer.

[floralcavern]

Lemme talk about Darkstalker because the fandom seriously misinterprets his character arc and it bugs me

The fandom is all like “Darkstalker is just an asshole. He’s not some tragic villain.” But.. he is????

Like, I’m not defending his actions. Man was a TERRIBLE person, but people, let’s talk about how he was before Queen Diamond.

Darkstalker was a good kid. He defended his sister and was patient with Clearsight and gave her time to come and meet him when she was ready and he only used his magic occasionally and never for truly selfish reasons (a lot of his early spells were for Whiteout!). He always rushed to his sister’s side when he saw his parents fighting.

Darkstalker LOVED his family (not Arctic tho bc he was an abusive dad). He LOVED Clearsight. He LOVED Fathom. “But when he was born, he was selfish and kept his powers to himself!”

BESTIES. HE WAS LITERALLY A MINUTE OLD. And he said later on that he regretted not helping Whiteout, but he still loves her for the way she is, all the weird quirks as well.

His relationship with Clearsight was healthy. He made the scroll to ease her mind. He often tried to help her unwind from work. They joked, they played, and she always teased him and he took it with a big smile.

The first ever sign of Darkstalker’s descent was when Indigo attacked him. He had NEVER been in a vulnerable situation like that. And Darkstalker was just a kid. That scared the shit out of him, but his ego is too big for him to truly admit that. So he makes his scales invulnerable so he never has to feel that fear again. Remember. He was a fucking kid. And him wanting to be king at the beginning wasn’t originally formed out of just lust for power. It was him genuinely wanting to his his powers for good. It was only later down the line when it developed into a want for power. But him being attacked by Indigo probably caused that desire for power, that need for CONTROL. Because when she attacked him, he wasn’t in control, which caused him to make his scales invulnerable.

The thing that really pushed him over the edge, though, was when Diamond took his mom. His whole world shattered. He had no reason to keep tolerating Arctic, but he still had to keep him around because Clearsight told him not to hurt Arctic. So he’s still forced to stay with his abusive dad, despite that fact that he was part of the reason that Foeslayer left. He HATED the Icewings. And I’m his situation, who can blame him??? His dad is abusive, the Icewings are killing the Nightwings because they’re bitter, and now Diamond took his mom. This is THE stepping stone for a villain origin story. And, again, he still did love Clearsight. But over time, it got more twisted. No longer having his mother for a good role model and now he’s too bitter toward the Icewings, he started to become his dad. A cold, angry guy who feels his violence is justified. The spell on Clearsight’s earring was horrible. One of the worst things he did. He manipulated her own powers because he found them to be ‘annoying’. Which is a TOTAL flip from how he used to think of her powers. He thought her abilities were fascinating and wonderful and he loved seeing how her mind worked. He LOVED the way her powers worked. But now he’s hellbent on avenging his mother, and Clearsight is trying to stop him. I think in a way, this shows he prioritizes not only his own vengeance, but also his mother over Clearsight. Remember, the whole entire start of Darkstalker’s path toward villainy was losing his mother. His path wasn’t started out of pettiness or just him being an asshole. It was having one of the people he cared about most being ripped away from him. But losing one person caused him to push everyone else he loved away. Him losing his mom caused him to lose EVERYONE and turned him into his dad.

Now, one thing that does bother me, and shows that Darkstalker does have a bit of an ego, is his lack of sympathy toward Fathom. This is something the fandom doesn’t talk about much. He thinks Fathom’s trauma is just Fathom overreacting and being dramatic. This is.. rather fucked up and I really cannot defend Darkstalker for this, especially since this was before his descent into madness/villainy.

But let’s talk about his relationship with Whiteout. He’s been treating his best friend and girlfriend rather terribly as he was going down his path of vengeance. But with Whiteout, he was still just as veraciously protective of her as he was before. Whiteout was the only person in the whole world he thought was wholly good. He knew that even Clearsight had flaws, he never truly believed her to be perfect, even before he started to get bitter. But with Whiteout, he truly believed she was one of the only truly good dragons EVER. So seeing his dad control her is what truly broke a piece of him and caused him to truly go off the rails. Seeing that someone can just take advantage of his sister like that caused him to lose all faith in his dad and the Icewings and in the end, losing faith and any sense of sympathy for them is what caused him to do all the shit he did. All of this, all of his anger and evilness stems from the Icewings fucking with this family and with the Nightwings.

The Icewings started his descent into villainy, but Darkstalker was the one who let them get to his head.

[socte-blue]

Cw mention of self harm. If u read winter turning you already know but just making sure.

So many thoughts about the icewing sibling dynamics

Like, First we have hailstorm; He had been the “golden child”, he was top of the ranks, probably did great in school, had this whole grand future set up for him. But he… was a teenager. He probably had IMMENSE stress from always having to be perfect all the time. That was a kid! He wanted to be a kid! His parents were abusive and neglectful pieces of shit! And he like,,, has to take care of his siblings, too. We know tundra and Narwhal only cared about them if they were “doing something for the family” they probably where neglectful as shit to them when they were younger. Pretty much the whole responsibility of being a semi-healthy parental figure was put on hailstorm!!!! But like,, he wasn’t really supposed to be taking care of them . he probably knew that too, or at least partially. He loved his siblings, of course, but like I said; he’s a kid! He wanted to be a kid!

Then we have icicle; who had they same pressure but as hailstorm but also like … couldn’t deliver all the way he did. She probably actually had a a lot of resentment to him in some degree. But, like I said, that’s like her parental figure! She loves him! She literally self harmed to try and get him back! She had to always try and be the perfect daughter but, she never seemed to quite get there. She’s a burnt out gifted kid at its finest. She been told she has to try for the throne, like, life or death battle! She knows she’s either gonna win or she’s gonna die and she’s known that since she was like a toddler, probably. And like, she loved hailstorm, but he was simultaneously one of the reasons she could never really deliver. And then we have her other brother, who she loved too, but she like… had to be unkind to him. With how she was treated, she really believed he deserved it. That really had to drive animosity between them, even if it was normalized.

Then we have Winter, who’s the “problem child”, even though he’s barely been a problem. He been trying SO HARD, for so LONG. And he really feels like he can’t seem to get it right. especially because one of the only people who was at least vaguely positive and whom he really truly loved and looked up too, got (supposedly) murdered because of his actions. And his last main action to him, let’s not forget basically his parent and someone he actually feels happy around, insulting him into the dust. It also would be so hard, because now, he just has Icicle. Who he loves of course, but they already probably had a strained relationship and now we have all the grief of losing hailstorm, and icicle is probably blaming him too! Not to mention, he’s blaming himself! But he’s still with her, they’re siblings. That’s shown they were still there for each other in the faintest way.

[wingsofmud]

Is it just me or is the introduction of Thorn and the Outclaws really weird in The Brightest Night? I feel like they're given a villain intro with a sprinkling of good inside that, compared to everything else, feels slightly sinister and we're kind of just supposed to forget about it later.

[hollowflight-propaganda]

What am I thinking about? Oh nothing much. Just about arc 3 of Wings of Fire, and how Cricket had to hide something different about herself from her piers her whole childhood in fear of being outcast or having terrible things be done to her. How this caused her to think differently than the other HiveWings, and is potentially the sole reason she realized anything was wrong with their society to begin with.

I'm also thinking about how Blue tried his very best to integrate and conform into society since he was a kid, only for something deeply intrinsic to him and out of his control to start to make itself known. Being the catalyst for his life being entirely uprooted when he would've initially preferred for things to stay the same. But again, it was the push he needed to realize that things were wrong.

Just thinking about how Blue and Cricket first met each other while hiding from hoards of mind controlled HiveWings due to these circumstances. How they found solace and acceptance in each other during this time. Both of them being outcasts for reasons they had no control in. Both of them being fugitives simply for being different. Two teenagers now facing their society in opposition together. Because now they realize complacency won't fix anything, but that things need to change.

..... Anyway, "Blicket is boring and rushed," MY ASS. Did we even READ the same damn books????

[the-leafiest-leafwing]

I've seen a lot of people say that Kinkajou and Sunny are basically the same character, and I strongly disagree with that. What do you think?

HOOOOOOOOLY MACKEREL THIS ASK HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY DRAFTS FOR LIKE TWO YEARS MAYBE. SORRY ABOUT THAT

this is gonna be kinda long, disorganized, and probably poorly written but it was fun to think about so 🤷‍♂️ i hope i am coherent

first of all, i feel like people who have no media literacy or character analysis skills are ALWAYS the quickest to make baseless generalizations like this. yes, kinkajou and sunny have very similar personalities (both bubbly and optimistic) but their character archetypes to me are actually completely different.

i see kinkajou as a character who is more focused on novelty and adventure, always seeking new experiences, new knowledge, new people, etc. she’s far less seasoned, mature, and responsible than most of the characters around her - not to say that she’s weak or dumb, as characters like them who are portrayed as happy and excitable are often equated to being dumb, by both the other characters and the readers/fans.

both of these characters are often underestimated, but sunny’s character revolves much more heavily around her proving herself to her peers and dealing with feelings of insecurity, inadequacy, and not being listened to or being unimportant. we never really see examples of these types of struggles from kinkajou.

i think kinkajou is also especially underestimated in her resiliency; she was kidnapped, imprisoned, and essentially tortured by the nightwings, she was hit by that venom during the competition for the throne, and she was put into a literal coma for i forget how long, plus all the other various harrowing adventures, fights, and experiences she’s been through. she always bounces back very easily and never seems to be deeply/personally affected by any insults to her intellect or general character. she gives the impression that she embraces and even flaunts her odd characteristics, physical and personality-wise, but sunny seems to have more trouble with accepting herself. it’s all like water off a duck’s back to kinkajou, whereas i think sunny is much more easily hurt by other people’s opinions.

sunny spent her entire childhood being put down and shamed for her appearance, demeanor, abilities, “weakness,” basically just everything about her. so it makes sense why, even after founding jade mountain academy, she’s so worried about being taken seriously and also making sure she doesn’t make any of her students feel the way the guardians always made her feel. she’s also (in my opinion) a much more dynamic character than kinkajou, meaning over the course of the books we see her change a lot more. she becomes less of a happy-go-lucky character and more of a sweet, caring, good-natured adult figure (regardless of her actual age). she kinda reminds me of an aunt with no kids of her own who loves looking after her sibling’s children.

kinkajou, on the other hand, would be more of the aforementioned child that is being looked after. she’s still a very independent character, don’t get me wrong, but she’s also very young and often needs to recieve guidance and protection from others. at the same time, though, kinkajou seems a bit more sure of herself and confident in her optimism, while sunny probably used her optimism as an escape/defense mechanism of sorts.

of course, being happy and excitable is an important part of both these character’s personalities, but it comes from different places and experiences and is conveyed in different ways. they do fill similar roles in their friend groups, but feel like sunny acted that way because she had to, while kinkajou acts that way because she wants to. she’s more inclined toward spontaneity, exuberance, and drama, and sunny is more inclined toward peace, love, and unity - to simplify it, sunny is a “happy” character in a calmer way than kinkajou.

​i also think there’s something to be said about the fact that sunny and kinkajou are both women and that’s part of why wof fans lump them together as “basically the same character” and don’t take them seriously as individuals or pay much attention to them and their importance to the overall story, and to both of their respective story arcs.

i might come back to edit this later if i have any more ideas, but please let me know your thoughts on this! whether you agree or disagree with my assessment of these characters, you think there’s something i left out, or there’s something youre confused about!!

[buttered-water]

Student Profile: Ochre (may add more in the future)

(reblogs help a lot)

Tribe - Mudwing

Winglet - Pearl

Colour - Ochre brown

Relatives - Clay (Cousin), Sora (Cousin), Reed (Cousin), Marsh (Cousin), Pheasant (Cousin), Umber (Cousin)

Clawmates - Scallop (Seawing), Darkstalker (Nightwing)

Favourite subject - Art

Least fav. subject - “Anything that Clay teaches”

Physical characteristics - Dull eyes, 1st and 2nd-degree burns all over his body that seem to be very recent (mostly focused on his limbs, head, and wings), very large stature, overweight with some defined musculature, can usually be seen wearing a piece of jewellery in the shape of three moons (made by Darkstalker)

Other characteristics/personality - currently the oldest student at Jade Acadamy apathetic, clumsy, pessimistic, aggressive, despises Clay (his actions towards him include: telling him to shut up, talking over him, stepping on his claw and/or tail when walking past him. Separate them as much as possible), abrasive, reported threats of violence against Clay and Fatespeeker, hates loud noises/dragons and crowds, no reports of violence or any misdemeanours have come from his winglet, volatile, grows agitated if burns are mentioned, quick to do tasks when asked (depending on which teacher is asking him), responds well to praise (depending on who it comes from), has refused to counsel (gives many reasons including: “I'm not going to tell Clay anything”, “are you implying that there's something wrong with me?!”), has started painting in the art room whenever he gets angry to relieve stress without being asked to (very commendable, however, his paintings are very questionable, including scenes of the brightest night, blood red eggs, blood red eggs being smashed/cooked in very elaborate ways, Clay being brutally hurt and/or killed in many gruesome and detailed ways and, drawings and portraits of the members of his winglet, usually drawings of Scallop and him together), don’t understand (or care) about other dragons feelings, most often does work when people are watching him and if he gets credit from it; is constantly trying to one-up Clay; acts like a bigwings towards the rest of the pearl winglet (he can be seen caring for the other members and listens to their problems); quick to use violence whenever one of the dragons in his winglet is being bullied (though its mostly Darkstalker since he's bullied the most)

Extras: 

I want to take the time to explain some of Ochre’s actions.

First his apathy/aggression towards Fatespeeker. It's simple, he knew the prophecy wasn’t real so he couldn't bother caring for any of the False DoD or about anything at all, there was no reason to; none of them mattered, their only purpose was as a backup in case their originals failed. This is why he gets so mad at Fatespeaker, especially when she talks about how they “were destined to be friends” because no, they weren’t, and watching her act as if they were destined for anything important made him feel even worse about the position he’s in. he wanted to be special, to have a grand adventure but he wasn't and he couldn't. Growing up only living as someone's replacement caused him to always compare himself to Clay. the fact that the prophecy wasn’t real made him angrier because somewhere out there, there was a dragon who was better than you in almost every way possible accomplishing a prophecy that wasn't even real. To Ochre, Clay is the living embodiment of everything that he wants to be but can't because he wasn't treated like he was worth anything. While he may state that he gives himself burns to “Become like Clay” (he may even think this is the reason) in reality he’s desperate to find a reason why Clay got all the cards in his favour, he’s desperate to convince himself that something made Clay so much better than him and that there was nothing he could do. For Ochre, he clung to the fact that Clay is fireproof and he isn't since it was the most distinct difference. (I am so sorry if this part was rambly, I was trying to get all my thoughts on my favourite False DoD in one place) Ochre was in the Talons of Peace but left to join the academy.

[scrollwyrm]

What are SeaWings like outside of Coral’s close circles?

Something I’ve come across in the Wings of Fire fandom, and the series in general is that nobody seems to think about SeaWings who aren’t involved with the royal family. We haven’t even canonically met a single SeaWing who isn’t tied into the top tier of SeaWing society.

Sure, there are JMA students, but firstly, we don’t know most of them very well, and secondly, they were selected to go to the school by Coral, meaning their families must be fairly important to her in some capacity.

I guess the closest we came to these dragons was Nautilus and Squid, but they are barely mentioned, and while their experience would be interesting, Squid was raised away from the Sea Kingdom for the most part, so we wouldn’t learn much from him. Nautilus is the most likely canon character to be completely separated from Coral and to know a lot about the outer kingdom.

I like the skewed perspective of the Sea Kingdom from both Tsunami and Turtle: they’re both royals who have very different experiences of their family. They both grow up isolated from Coral, but Tsunami desperately wants to be noticed and respected as a prospective queen, whereas Turtle shies away from the idea of being such a pivotal figure.

Neither of them see the kingdom in person. They only see parts of it, usually from behind palace walls. While I find this fascinating, I also find it kind of sad. I just want to know more about the wider kingdom, dang it!

I loved the extra information that Fathom’s perspective gave us, but now I need more! Maybe from the standpoint of a non-noble, or someone who isn’t even remotely familiar with the SeaWing monarchy?