#wof opinions

[littletissueghosts]

for your fandom ask game, Wings of Fire?

The first character I first fell in love with: I think that would probably be Glory! I used to really like her for being one of the "good" queens, although I now realize she made plenty of the same bad mistakes as the others. Imo, Ruby and maybe Moorhen are the only good queens on Pyrrhia right now, and I like it that way. I just wish the others' flaws were showcased a little more.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: I would say Peacemaker! I hate his canonical portrayal, as everyone kind of just ignored the numerous effects that making him from an evil dictator could have on him, even if they never told him. But now I enjoy seeing all the different directions that fanon can take him! I've seen surprisingly varied ways in which the fanbase connects him to Darkstalker.

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: I'd say Peril. While I agree that she's a well-written character and I don't hate her, I'm pretty much ambivalent on her mainly because I just don't really feel like I "clicked" with her personality. I will still say that victim-blaming Peril is very bad. Peril is not at fault for being abused; it is Scarlet's fault that she abused Peril.

The character I love that everyone else hates: Honestly, I'm not sure. I can name plenty of popular characters I hate, but I don't think there's any actively hated characters I love. I guess I'm too contrary for that. /hj

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: Haha, probably Glory again. I used to think she was a really cool queen, but after I kind of realizing that she just swooped in to save and rule kingdom she knew nothing about, I became more neutral on her. It feels like the books don't really mention the flaws in her plans, not to mention botch her arc by making her royal.

The character I would totally smooch (adding the modifier on the forehead platonically and tell them everything will be alright): I had to modify this question because I can't imagine wanting to kiss anyone in Wings of Fire. 😅 I'd probably want to comfort Fathom, as I feel really sorry for him after the Summer Palace attack. He spent his childhood terrified of what he would do with everyone hating him for something he couldn't control, after he saved dragons from two separate evil animi before adulthood. He had to go through two incredibly hard betrayals, yet he always stuck strong to his morals to a fault.

The character I’d want to be like: I can't say there's many characters that I aspire to be, considering that a lot of them are very traumatized and I would not want that trauma in my life. But, if I had to choose one, probably Sunny. I find her determination to prove herself while sticking firmly by her morals to be very admirable!

The character I’d slap: Argh, there's too many I want to slap to pick just one (/hj)! One of the more well-liked characters that I'd want to slap is Foeslayer. She literally leaves her kids home alone for days at a time with their dad who's threatened to KILL them! That's not to mention how she plays into Arctic's favoritism game by favoring her more NightWing child, like her children are pawns in a game.

A pairing that I love: I like the idea of Moonwatcher with both Turtle and Kinkajou (w/o Turtlejou obviously because the love spell sucks), once Kinkajou has matured a bit, since she can be kind of insensitive and short-sighted at times. I honestly like both the dynamics of "opposites attract but they're already friends and their differences play well into each other" and "they're both going through similar shit which helps them know how to support each other better." I'm know it's kind of a rare pair, but I think it'd work out better than any of the love triangle ships or Turtlejou.

A pairing that I despise: I definitely don't like Glorybringer. Even besides the age issue, Deathbringer continues making advances on Glory, even though she clearly expresses that she doesn't like it. It's not "tsundere," it's creepy, whether or not she had a crush on him.

[stardomthenightwing]

Is anyone bothered by that one awkward gap in WoF arc 3 where we get an icewing protagonist instead of an arc 3 tribe protagonist?

I generally think Io would have fit better as book 14's protagonist because she had a whole dangerous adventure of her own, back on Pantala, while we watched Snowfall have an MLP friendship problem for 26 chapters.

[mosaicfangs]

Moon would not be small!!! Her dad is Morrowseer and she's described as having big muscles!!! She's the only NightWing in the entirety of Arc 2 who's had a good diet for longer than a few weeks!!! She's the dragon equivalent of 6ft tall and she would look like she can bench you (and let's face it she probably can) but you talk to her and she's the sweetest most tired little bookworm ever and she's got dark circles and tense shoulders and 3 dragons in her winglet understandably head-over-talons in love with her and it's like. Y'know that one picture of the little rabbit obsessed with a girlfriend 3 times his size? Yea that's Moonbli and Moonjou SHE WOULD NOT BE FUCKING SHORTER THAN HIM I SWEAR TO GOD-

[kitsumo]

saw the worst opinion that "making fankids for minor pairs is gross because youre fantisizing them having sex" and i literally cannot be the only one who thinks that is really stupid

cause like. a lot of people making fankids. are kids, who just want to make a future for two characters they like, which are probably ALSO kid characetrs because, theyre kids themselves. i know i did that all the time with mlp, although it wa smostly wiht the mane six

AND the other people making fankids are doing it to explore what a design would be like, and even still when i make fankids now i am NOT fucking thinking about that, and i promise you nobody is

[some-pers0n]

Watching as people start talking about not liking Peril and saying stuff like how "she shouldn't have trusted Scarlet lmao" or "she's literally insane why should we care about her" as if she isn't severely traumatized and called nothing more than an unfeeling and emotionless monster who was only brought into this world to kill and hurt and has thus internalized said thoughts and still struggles with them despite going on the path of recovery and making amends for her actions

[wof-reworked]

Gonna be honest one of the reasons I post much less here is because I got a job working with 8 year olds and the realization we have the same taste in books has demolished me

[wings-of-waffles]

I've seen people arguing about this and decided to throw some democracy at it, please reblog for more reach/larger voter pool if you aren't allergic to reblogging things!

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

reopening the ask box is like... just finishing vacuuming shed cat hair, and then immediately going and petting said cat vigorously & watching with delight as So Much Fur sheds right back onto the floor

[theartsalsa]

Din, Cara and Grogu, but as Wings of Fire dragons ;)

[lillyosaurus]

dont you want to become a cult leader

why does nobody (aka the books) not bother to think of the impact darkstalker left on pyyrhia after he was defeated.

[sandshadow9]

You know what puts me down? It feels like this fandom cares more about dragging Tui and her work through the dirt as much as possible so they can act like they're "superior" to her or "better" than her, and they do this by nitpicking as many flaws in her work as possible, even flaws that aren't actually present in her books to begin with. Thoughts on this?

The quick answer: Yeah, I completely agree.

The long answer: Buckle up because I’ve been thinking about this topic for a while actually and have some thoughts. Ultimately reading a book is like having a conversation, and everyone will experience it differently. What some people find annoying others may find charming, and what some may think of us a frustrating plot hole others may not notice or care.

I will start by saying that, indeed, this fandom loves to drag Tui, and I myself like to pick apart her books to see how things work or don’t work, but at the end of the day I have immense respect and admiration for her. Tui’s writing is extremely immersive, full of personality, and engaging. Wings of Fire is one of the few series I’ve read that fully engrossed me in the world and characters. 

When it comes to reading books, there is definitely a bias towards seeing the things that can go wrong. When things are done right, we don’t really notice, but Tui does a lot of things right. There are a lot of factors that go into making a good book/series and I’d like to point out some of the maybe lesser appreciated aspects of the WoF books. 

Emotional scenes and tension: Tui is supremely good at writing those heart wrenching scenes, as well as those endearing scenes that steal your heart. Perhaps I speak for myself, but I cannot think of any scene that came across as melodramatic or weak in the emotional sense. She does not hold her punches. There have been several emotional scenes in these books where I had to just stop reading and stare at a wall for ten minutes, many of them in the Darkstalker Legends book. Writing intense emotions in characters is hard enough, but Tui manages to make them compelling and believable. 

Characters: I think this is the main reason most people are in the fandom. We all have at least one little creature that lives in our heads rent free. In my opinion, Tui really put her whole ass into the Arc 2 characters, but in general, when Tui is writing from the perspective of any character, she’s does an amazing job of pulling you through their emotions and perspective... although due to the point below, sometimes the character development can kind of slip away from her. 

Plot: For better or worse, Tui puts the plot ahead of everything. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just what Tui decided to focus on, and when she does, she does it extremely well. Keeping a story moving at a good pace, while keeping things interesting, is pretty much a necessity for any good story. While some books in the WoF series are stronger than others, Tui is able to keep the plot moving both within a single book and across each arc. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read, YA and adult fiction, that can’t even manage to do that. When I read WoF I was glued to the book. I’d have to force myself to slow down when reading because I’d finish them in a day if I could. The downside to this, as mentioned in the above point, is that sometimes the character development that happens in previous books is lost. 

Writing style: What can I say? Her descriptive language is amazing. She knows how to make the most basic scenes interesting with her writing. There are many times when reading that I wished to myself that I could write like that. I think some people might not completely agree with this point, as Tui loves to use all caps and a modern sounding language in a fantasy world, but I personally don’t really mind that, but I can understand that some may find it unappealing. 

Conflicts: In terms of writing, “conflict” is another one of those super important components. They can be internal or external, and whether you agree with how the narrative handles them or not, Tui writes conflicts that stick with the reader.  Tui also knows how to keep things surprising and unpredictable but in a well written way. Seriously, how many of us were floored when the Prophecy turned out to be fake? Or when we learned that it had been Gill that Tsunami killed? Or that Turtle had been the one to turn Anemone into an animus? That is some good drama and conflict!

                               Other factors

This section is mostly about other factors that I, personally, keep in mind when I think about the series as a whole.

Timeline and publishers: This woman was pumping out a book each year. That’s a wild pace. I have been trying to learn more about publishing contracts, the agreement between authors and the publishing company, and haven’t learned much other than each contract is unique. Some authors have more creative freedom than others as certain contracts allow the publishers to request changes to the text. The main goal of publishers is to sell the book and if they think the text has content that will negatively impact sales, they may have the power to ask for it to be changed. I have no idea what type of contract Tui has, or if there was a contractual deadline for each book, but it’s something that should be considered. I bring this point up because it may explain her priorities and why certain elements had to be set aside in favour of finishing the books rather than fleshing them out. For every published book there is probably another novel’s length of deleted scenes and paragraphs.

                                Conclusion

Ultimately Tui’s strengths can create imbalances in other areas. Her prioritizing of Plot can mean world-building and maintaining character development falls to the wayside. Also, perhaps the biggest issue that fandom notices is that Tui asks complicated questions in her books but then tries to give black and white answers when really, no direct answer should be given. In the first arc we get questions like Am I enough just as I am? Even if I’m not the smartest or bravest or strongest or fastest or biggest, can I change the world? In the other arcs we get questions like Is there such thing as pure good and pure evil? And when faced with someone who continues to make choices that hurt us and others, even if we love this person, at what point do we offer compassion and when do we draw the line?

This post isn’t intended to discuss whether or not Tui succeeded in answering these questions - I’ll leave that for others. What I do hope came across in this post is that Tui does indeed know what she’s doing and I hope that we can all take a moment to appreciate the things that made us love this series to begin with ❤️

[ell-dordo]

Am I the only person who really hates the WOF graphic novel artwork? I just think it looks so.. crunkly and weird in my opinion

[kami-kun1003]

Sebek is mean to Silver but secretly cares about him so it’s ok ❌

Silver and Sebek have a very complicated relationship that goes deeper than just your generic tsundere “it’s not like I care about you” trope and has a lot of potential to be an interesting dynamic where they’re not exactly friends but can’t bring themselves to outright hate each other ✅

[wrenlywofau]

ORCAAAAAAAA

she <3

Orca was always rebellious. She, like most of Coral’s dragonets, disliked her mother. She was also the firsthatched, meaning was no one to show her why the treatment she received was bad. You see, before they started dying left and right, Coral didn’t care much for her daughter. Orca was an accessory, necessary to keep up appearances. The eldest of the boys didn’t hatch until she was at least two years old, and by then, the routine was clear.

No one bothered to check if Orca was animus. After all, she was the only royal dragonet at the time. What were the chances?

Thanks to her hatching before the start of the War of SandWing Succession, Orca met Ruby several times. Ruby was in a similar position of familial neglect, with Scarlet having many daughters, almost all of which spent their time preparing to kill their mother. Thus, the two became what history would call good friends.

The alliance with Blister forced the two to stop seeing each other, but by then, Orca was nearly old enough to challenge Coral’s queenhood. Until this point, she’d been conservative about the use of her abilities, and she had enough of a sense of pride and honor not to use them against her mother. Her plan was simple; claim the throne, take the SeaWings out of the war and get her totally platonic friend back.

The didn’t happen.

The statue in the hatchery was the disoriented thought of a dying dragon. The implications of it weren’t thought through. If she couldn’t have the throne, no one would.

[some-pers0n]

Opinion but I don't think Scarlet's gladiatorial arena where she made criminals fight to the death for entertainment was that bad. Sure it was inhumane and being stuck outside and forced to wither away in the elements is bad, and also the fact that there was a good chunk of prisoners who probably were innocent and were just sent to the arena because Scarlet wanted to, but let her have her fun. She's just a little silly and she deserves to show off her cool death pit to her girlfriends.