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some-pers0n · 1 year ago

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I just typed out this when talking with some friends in a Discord server, but I think it probably could go here as well not gonna lie.

I have a lot of opinions on the views of fanart VS fanfic. A lot of fandom things in general are mocked by people who aren't really in them, despite other things being normalized. People who buy all sorts of merch for their favourite sports team or take off their shirt and paint their body the colours of the team aren't seen as that strange, but if you try to express that you like something more niche you're seen as weird.

Twilight is a great example of how something that's relatively innocent and light-hearted is twisted into a dead horse for people to routinely beat over and over again. Are the books that great? In my opinion, not really. However, a lot of people (in particular young teens) loved it. They however were made fun of and mocked relentlessly for their interests. A lot of the time you'll see fandom mocked because it's seen as something weird kids, do. Halo and Call of Duty aren't talked about in the same breath as something like Twilight, because despite being targeted towards a similar demographic (pre-teens and adolescents), they're seen as cool and nostalgic. Twilight? That's some dumb girl stuff. They should do something better with their lives than talk about a dumb stupid book all the time. Criticizing the writing and themes were a shield a lot of people used to bully others. A lot of the time, it's making fun of people for liking things. I bring gender into this because fandom culture is predominantly queer and neurodivergent oriented with a ton of teenagers. They are spaces for queer and neurodivergent people to express themselves and find safety in the comfort of media. A good chunk of the time when a person complains about fancontent and media, it ties back to ableism.

Anywho, back to fanart. Fanart is iffy in that sense. Some fanart is seen as cool and amazing. I find it absolutely hilarious when some guy will complain about young girls drawing fanart of DSMP characters doing. literally nothing bad. Maybe they're just hanging out and talking. I dunno. Regardless, those type of people are more than likely to have hyperrealistic Joker art as their background. You know the type. It makes me laugh because like…how do you think that came into existence? But, still. Depending on who makes the fanart, it's seen as a cool and badass thing. If it's some random guy who paints Scrooge McDuck smoking a cigar and counting dollar bills or the Joker in front of an explosion, that's based and cool. But if it's like Gordon Freeman chatting with Barney and maybe being a bit vulnerable after being subjected to all of this trauma, it's lame and weird. Gordon Freeman is a cool strong guy!! Re-enforcing ideas that there's a certain level of tolerance. Somebody drawing your favourite cartoons from your childhood or your favourite characters doing generic and random stuff in a somewhat hyper-realistic style? Cool! If it's in a style that may vaguely resemble something softer, lame and gay. A lot of artists in fandom spheres will draw these characters doing silly things because it's an expression of their admiration for the media. It's comforting to them. Art in general is very personal, with fanart being something you make from your heart. You were inspired by this piece of media to not only create art, but create art of this media. Fanart is a bit iffy. Fanart is cool when it's Chell hopping through portals or standing over GLaD0S's destoryed body. Fanart is not cool when you make shipart of Winter and Qibli.

Fanfic however? You'd be pressed to find anybody who isn't involved in fandom defend this. Why? Because most fanfic at its core is queer. A lot of the criticism thrown at is is because of it being seen as something weird young teenagers do as some sort of wish fulfillment. Depraved weirdos who want to see your favourite characters kiss??? How horrible!! God, what weirdos. Not just that, but you're STEALING these characters!! You're taking them and using them as your own little dolls to do things with (these things being like. I dunno. making them kiss or hold hands). God, who would even write this stuff? Fanfic is almost always associated with NSFW content as well, far more than fanart. A good chunk of the reason I feel is because of stuff like Fifty Shades of Gray breaking out into the mainstream and being well-known for originally being a Twilight fanfic. It's. uh. known for not being the most PG of books, so yeah. Again, it's associated with young teens being stupid and dumb and writing this dumb stupid stuff because they are weird little freaks. It's stereotyped as being bad and generally kind of immature, far more than fanart ever was. While fanart is occasionally hit with the "drawn by stupid children who are barely even talented" stereotype (mostly with fangirls and such), fanfic is almost always is.

But, fanfic is so personal. It's incredible. Wonderful. I'm biased indeed, I mean, look at me writing my TF2 fanfic where I take the insane healer character and make him into a silly guy who is aro/ace and autistic (as well as having 97 other mental disorders). I'm no different than these other people who write slashfic of these video game and TV characters holding hands and kissing. However, I've seen so much passion and love. People pour so much of their time into creating these long and beautiful works of art. Thousands upon thousands of words, a good chunk of the time stretching over the length of entire books. These characters mean so much to these people. Fanfic is seen as lesser and more heavily stereotyped IMO because, more than anything else, it's about queer and neurodivergent people expressing their emotions, sexuality, traumas, and thoughts. Not to say that EVERYBODY who writes fanfic is gay or autistic or that there isn't any cis/het/allo neurotypical people out there, but just that it's heavily dominated by women, queers, and neurodivergent people.

But, that's just me and my silly opinions, ya know?

#fanfic #ao3 #fanfiction #sp-rambles

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whumpster-fire · 3 months ago

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aaaand Darkness of Dragons Thoughts:

Man I already low-key shipped Qinter before this book but the number of "Qibli you're bi" moments is just insane. Not that either of them have zero chemistry with Moonwatcher but Qibli and Winter just have so much chemistry. Also I am not one of those Qinter shippers who dislikes Moon. I like Moon, but I feel like she would not be an obstacle to Qinter being canon at all because she does not seem particularly into either of them in a romantic way.

Winter was 100% right for calling out Qibli on the "I'd use a spell to make you like me" comment. One on hand this is, like... a central part of Qibli's character arc. Being so dependent on approval and validation from others that he'd consider doing some questionable things to get it + "No but I'd only use Animus power for good things by being very smart and careful" are the main flaws that his arc is about overcoming. On the other hand, I don't think the narrative did quite enough to back this up.

The ending of this book was definitely a weak point in the arc. In Arc 1 I felt like the actual "ending the war" part of the arc was rushed because so much of the book was spent on Sunny's personal stuff: in this book it was kind of the opposite and it felt like 2 books crammed into one, even with the extra length it felt like Qibli's backstory stuff was kind of cut short: the plot with Vulture and Onyx could have been its own book but then it got sidelined.

Darkstalker's ending in particular... eesh. I don't think "give the villain a second chance at life where he doesn't have powers he's tempted to use for evil" is inherently a bad plot, but literally a core theme of this arc has been that using magic to violate someone's free will is evil and Darkstalker being willing to do it is the reason he's one of the worst most dangerous dragons in history, so having the ending be "Anyway we literally brainwashed him, erased all his memories, and turned him into a totally different dragon" does not fit with the rest of the plot. Also, there's no real redemption / rehabilitation / any kind of healing for Darkstalker so he might as well be dead. Plus the fact that they had to hide this shit from Winter, the character whose brother was brainwashed and turned into a different dragon for 2 years, is kind of a hint about the morality of this move. I do like the idea of him being defeated by his own magic + his own hubris, but I don't think there's any good way of resolving his arc other than his death.

Also Winter just got screwed over on his ending in general.

Anyway I didn't add to the "ways Carnelian being alive would improve the narrative" list for Talons of Power because the book is almost all either Turtle and Qibli or Turtle on his own. Darkness of Dragons is kind of similar because I don't think Qibli and Winter's epic road trip needs a third dragon along. Uhh... so trying to catch back up on how her plotline could go:

I have no idea if Carnelian would know enough about Darkstalker to be as strongly in opposition to bringing him back as Winter but I think she'd not be a fan of the idea of Qibli getting the scroll based on the angle of it giving whichever tribe had it too much power + probably being from the tribe that kills Animus dragons at birth would give her a culturally ingrained distrust of animus shenanigans and I don't think she'd entertain the idea of using it herself or giving it to Ruby for that reason alone. I can see her either being on team "Destroy the thing" with Peril or going for something completely differently like advocating for giving it to Turtle since he's already refused to use the magic he already had to win the war, and/or giving it to Turtle so he can use magic to hide the thing so thoroughly it can never be found again.

When The Big D comes back I don't know if he'd see her as enough of a threat for whatever extra strong spell he put on Winter, but she absolutely couldn't be in on Qibli and Winter's plans until Qibli figured out the earring. Then I think it's a 50-50 on whether she's relatively easy to get to wear an earring or she's resistant to it because No Animus-Touched Jewelry Ever. After that... YKW, maybe she goes to the rainforest with Tsunami or something, or volunteers to get an earring to Ruby.

This is so annoying because this book doesn't have much room for Carnelian to actually participate in the plot, and it's really annoying because I really want her to interact with Qibli more, because from what little we know about her I have a sneaking suspicion that her relationship with Ruby has more than a little bit in common with Qibli's relationship with Thorn. Both her and Kinkajou definitely deserve their own POV but I also don't know how they could get their own books with the way everything else in the arc fits together.

Other than, like... I guess happening simultaneously with portions of Winter Turning and Escaping Peril or stuffing some more time in between when Peril and Winter show up in Possibility and when Peril meets Soar? Which would be really, really messy if sticking to the "one POV per book" convention but on the other hand the second arc's pretty interwoven already.

Further moment of inspiration: since I don't like Kinkajou just being in a coma for two entire books anyway, and Wings of Fire books almost always split the party... the objectively funniest way for it to get split up would be Carnelian's main quest partner being... Kinkajou. Please make the two roommates who absolutely do not get along go on a road trip together.

So yeah uh, my ideal wishful thinking AU of Arc 2 is:

Carnelian and Kinkajou don't get fridge'd and we get a 7 book series.

Kinkajou is only fully out of action for, like, 1 book because and wakes up midway through Escaping Peril.

Carnelian's book is after Escaping Peril, it starts midway after Escaping Peril after Peril flies off by herself. She and Kinkajou have some sort of adventure together IDK what but maybe something involving trying to investigate the dragons selling explosive cacti in the market, and/or she meets someone from her backstory in Possibility and gets dragged into something. This causes them to miss everything with Scarlet's attempted return, Ruby's challenge duel, and Darkstalker coming back. I think it would have to end with them splitting up and Carnelian returning to the school while Kinkajou goes to the rainforest, possibly to deliver some important message or warning or something to Glory.

If Kinkajou's not in a coma IDK how Turtle pulls off the whole immunity spell for her being covered up with Anemone's healing spell but they do it somehow. Possibly she runs into those Nightwing/Sandwing assassins and gets seriously injured again, and Darkstalker "rescues" her but decides not to heal her because he sees a future where she screws him over, and also she's put under a more aggressive mind control spell like Winter was so Turtle has to do the "healing + Darkstalker immunity + Darkstalker stops seeing her as a threat" combo while she's asleep.

All of what I said above about Anemone's arc still applies.

Book 6 is Qibli's book but it's more devoted to the Vulture arc and he, like, causes serious problems. Darkstalker makes his offer of power to Qibli in the Lost City of Night instead, and Qibli is tempted in no small part because Vulture is still out there and a threat instead of just getting summoned and used as a puppet by Darkstalker. Also he rejects it because he realizes that no seriously, he could fall into the same trap of manipulating dragons to try to get the "best future" and that he can't trust himself with that kind of power. And, like, he apologizes to Winter and they make up and kiss

Kinkajou gets the POV for the finale. Seriously the love spell on her plus unresolved under the surface Nightwing related trauma would make things so interesting. I want her to struggle with having possibly-feelings for Turtle but not being able to tell if they're even real or not. I also want to see her struggle between wanting really badly to forgive the nightwings for what they did to her tribe and move on, and watching so many of the very same dragons who she wanted to believe were willing to change almost immediately sign up for committing genocide again as soon as a charismatic leader showed up and promised to give them the power and superiority they'd been pretending to have.

Also Kinkajou having to make the decision to kill Darkstalker or erase his whole identity is kind of a big deal and it sucks that that all happened offscreen.

Something else I'd have liked to see is a bit more acknowledgement that the Nightwing tribe kind of needs supervision and deradicalization, but also that Nightwings wanting independence and a home is legitimate, and that even if they all stop being racist that doesn't mean the whole tribe being permanent refugees / effectively a vassal tribe of the Rainwings isn't going to continue to cause problems.

Winter's participation in the Jade Mountain Throwdown could have been handled so much better by having it be the moment that Winter stands up to his family and tries to stop the fighting, plus explicitly brings up his and Hailstorm's own experiences being brainwashed by mind control magic to Snowfall's face. Also he can get banned from the Ice Kingdom for decking a fellow Icewing who tries to kill Moon, and not get teleported because Anemone made her spell target "All Icewings in the battle allied with Queen Snowfall" specifically because not only was Winter there but there were three other Icewing students trying to evacuate.

Winter should stay at Jade Mountain in the epilogue, if for no other reason than so he can make a joke about Peril proving that it is possible to get a single room and he just needs to be more annoying and use his frost breath to make the room uninhabitable for Qibli. Meanwhile they're dating and everyone knows it. Winter can work on researching scavengers and planning his research project for the off season.

Moon + Kinkajou + Carnelian roommate trio remains intact because I think if Carnelian was actually alive for the whole series the core of her arc would be realizing that being in Queen Ruby's squadron is not her whole identity and it's okay to do other things with her life and Ruby is going to do just fine as Queen without this one specific child soldier. Peril could go in Gold Winglet maybe because Flame is probably dropping out. Also Gold Winglet is so, so cursed, literally Tamarin and Pike are the only friggin' students in it who didn't leave the school or die for one reason or another.

Wings of Fire thoughts continued: Talons Of Power Edition

I've heard that Arc 3 has Animus magic get totally shut down for everyone and I can kind of see why? I think giving it basically no limits on its functionality other than "If you use it too much you might go crazy but we're not sure" and who gets their cheesy counteraction spell on another animus off first was probably a mistake, as was the "Actually you can totally just directly put a spell on another dragon" thing. I think the general idea of a magic system where everything has to work off an object is a good idea, but I'd like to see things like Darkstalker needing to social-engineer his way into getting other dragons to accept items that have Trojan Spells and doing obnoxious things like enchanting items to be invisible while worn so everyone has a headache trying to figure out how he's doing it. Make him a threat because his prophecy makes him really good at anticipating the countermeasures to his magic, not just "I have a blanket Charm spell up at all times."

I'm also not a huge fan of the "Turtle made Anemone an Animus" thing. I think it's more impactful if he can never know the truth. Also cool: if Turtle was sure it was his fault she was an Animus for a while because "What are the odds that after centuries of zero Seawing animus dragons, suddenly TWO dragons turn out to have the power?" and then after everyone found out Orca was also an Animus it was like, if there were two there's no reason why there couldn't be three.

...Anemone is certainly a case study in why encouraging 2-year-old dragonets to use magic is a bad idea. Poor kid's going through it. I think her having a Villain Arc out of pure intoxication-of-power plus thinking it's inevitable and deciding to kill her whole family is one of the less interesting things that could've been done with the premise, though. I would have rather seen her cause serious damage with a well-intentioned spell because she worded it wrong or didn't think through what it would do, or Darkstalker fed her phrasing that would make her spell do something horrible, and then Turtle was forced to out himself as an Animus to stop her / tell her how to deactivate a spell, and Anemone lost it at him and him specifically, because she realized that her entire life her older brother could have prevented so much of what she went through, or done something about so many of her unborn sisters being murdered, but chose not to.

Horrible fucked up thought: imagine if Darkstalker tricked Anemone into casting his Icewing Genocide Plague spell for him because he foresaw that if he cast it himself it would be countered pretty quickly. Like what if he gave her instructions for a spell to make "All those who are sworn enemies of the Nightwing Tribe" sick as a "practical joke" and a "test of her powers," and worded it in a way that she didn't have the medical knowledge to know the symptoms he described could be fatal or made her word the spell to replicate some disease she hadn't heard of? And this eventually still fails because Darkstalker forgot Anemone existed so he couldn't anticipate a future where she turned it off. He did detect her casting the counterspell but he knew that some random Sandwing showed up for about a second when he cast the "Summon every animus dragon" spell so he was like "well I caught the missing rogue Animus (Turtle), I bet I scared that random sandwing so much she put up a protection spell, which is a problem for later."

#wings of fire

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drinkinggblood · 3 years ago

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darkstalka, anemone, and moonwatcha for tha characta ask game?

favourite thing about them

I really like how fucking bonkers darkstalker's actions are when you take them out of context. like. "guys the 2000 year old man just woke up now he wants to kill all children ?? 😍😍😊😊😲😲 more at 6" is so fucking funny to me. I also like his design a lot, especially in his cover,, I'm a bit sad more people don't add his creepy black eyes.

Anemone is probably my least favourite seawing main character but I like her design. She has that sticker of appreciation. I wish she killed her mother because I hate coral

Moonwatcher's book is probably my favourite out of arc 2, I enjoy her entire character and wish we got to see more of her genuine personality past her book.

least favourite thing about them

Darkstalker being turned into a dragonet. He should've had a big dramatic death, not being turned into a child.

Anemone's personality barely lines up with her first arc one? and it really bothers me?? since most of the arc one cast remains the same personality wise to jade mountain expect for anemone and it is bizarre.

Moonwatcher literally not having a personality past her book. also her entire love triangle thing just pisses me off because of how boring and repetitive it is to read. why didn't they just solve it in like book 2 maybe beginning of book 3 then spend the rest of the arc about the actual main fucking important stuff??

favourite line

I geniunely don't remember any specific line that I enjoyed from all of these characters because I read most of these books 2-4 years ago.

I do remember one about not everyone being straight black or white evil or good from Moonwatcher, so maybe that. I really liked that line.

brOTP

wdym darkstalker doesn't have friends hes a war criminal /hj

my brain completely removed anemone from all memory so I have no idea about who she would be friends with.

Moonwatcher, Winter and Qibli. I really think their relationship is best as nothing more than platonic seeing as how jealous and aggressive winter and Qibli get of each-other when they don't get to be around Moonwatcher. It also creates them kinda ignoring that Moonwatcher is an actual dragon; Not just an object for one of them to "obtain". They'd be better as just friends, or just make them in a poly relationship. No inbetweens /j

OTP

darkstalker x dying <3 <3 <3 he deserves nobody expect the sweet release of death

anemone x tamarin is Ok. I have no opinion on it. absolutely none.

Moonwatcher x Kinkajou is the superior pairing compared to winterwatcher and moonbli. cry about it /j

nOTP

darkstalker x clearsight or fathom. It is extremely toxic in both sides. Darkstalker is extremely manipulative and overall an asshole. He shouldn't be paired with either of them. Darkstalker x clearsight especially, when its being seen in a good light, makes me deeply uncomfortable seeing how awful both of them are for eachother. Clearsight, while not being nearly as bad as Darkstalker, does kinda constantly point out Darkstalker becoming evil in the future which y'know maybe not best for a romantic relationship to point out your partner's (potential, since in legends it wasn't actually known if he would since they are just futures and they aren't 100% going to happen) turn to evil, and Darkstalker's over-all extreme manipulation and just being awful in general.

anemone x pike. It just comes of as really weird to me.

moonwatcher x darkstalker for obvious reasons; it's just really gross.

random headcanon

darkstalker's scales in the modern day are half afflicted with severe scale rot, causing them to have a mangled and disfigured appearance due to all the time spent in the damp, wet mountain without sunlight for thousands of years.

anemone really likes coral reefs.

moonwatcher has a deep love for astronomy.

unpopular opinion

Darkstalker's actions have zero justification or valid reason. He's a war criminal please stop saying he's not just because you can sympathise with him. also stop calling him "darkie" it sounds weird, just call him "stalker" and it would make so much more sense /j

anemone is really boring to read about. that might just be me but I really dislike anemone's entire bratty royal attitude, it's just unpleasant to read about.

moonwatcher x winter isn't abusive just because "winter would be like arctic!!" please shut up. anyway we all know moon x winter x qibli is better anyway /j

song I associate with them

totally forgor abt this

darkstalker - Personal Jesus

anemone - Bitchboy

moonwatcher - Train of thought

favourite image of them

i like this image of anemone. I just think it's really wholesome :D

moonwatcher and darkstalker don't really have much images so :[

#wings of fire #wof ask #wings of fire ask #anemone #darkstalker #moonwatcher #darkstalker legends #moonwatcher wof #guys idk what to tell you i don't like anemone that much #i just. don't like her at all.#darkstalker is also hilariously evil to me and I can't explain why I #i just think everything he does #taken out of context is fucking hilarious

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shiftywing · 4 years ago

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My Thoughts on The Dangerous Gift

I'm gonna write down what I thought of the book overall, without spoilers, then I'll go more in depth afterwards!

Overall, the book...was not that good. Sorry. I love Snowfall and Lynx (keep in mind they used to be some of my least favorite characters before TDG, especially Lynx) but the book's plot is kind of its downfall, and a lot of things I wanted to happen, and I think what a good chunk of the fandom wanted, did not come to pass, which is disappointing.

Okay, now let's get into the spoiler-y stuff:

Again, Lynx and Snowfall were great. Honestly a really cute ship, 10/10. Though if Tui could've made it CANON that'd would've been REALLY NICE Y'KNOW. Like I even thought they were bound to be canon at some points of the book, but nope.

Though...I wish there was more of an arc between them. Like, take Winter and Qibli's relationship (one of the best developed in the series, if I say so myself, which I do) had ups and down, while still progressing into a close relationship 😏 friendship, and a believable one. With Lynx and Snowfall, they just...were friends, and that was it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I still wish there was a bit more.

Snowfall's capslock and immaturity (even though she's an adult??) was a little annoying, but overall it wasn't anything too bad. UNLIKE SKY—

Mink was. Okay I guess. Another case of Tui repeating the exact same personality for her younger characters. I think Crystal was was kinda cool but there's this bitch at my school named Crystal and i fucking hate her but like?? Tui really is Determined as Fuck to have every single ship in this arc be a "forbidden" one.

I'm pretty sure they are the only new characters worth mentioning, and it's good Tui didn't add too many, because...honestly it's getting kind of overcrowded in the books when it comes to characters lol. 😑

Hazel's and Snowfall's friendship...exists. Idc man I don't care for Hazel. 😜 Plus there's this other bitch at my school named Hazel, whom I also fucking despise.

One of my biggest complaints is that...not much happened. The book wasn't boring, but most of the plot development (which there wasn't much of) was done via conversation or the ring thingy.

SPEAKING of the ring, I...wasn't a big fan of it. I mean it served its purpose, but it just felt a bit lazy, unfortunately. It seems like Tui couldn't find the time to develop Snowfall's character properly, so she combined that with furthering the plot via magic ring. Also, the visions were low-key boring, I skimmed most of them, Raven I skipped altogether. And the magic crown thing was...odd...like yeah, I get it Tui, there wasn't really a chance for Snowfall to get over her NightWing hatred, but like...REALLY??

Also Qibli and Winter's reunion was gay as FUCK like holy shit Tui, STOP TEASING US!!!! 😩

Actually let's talk about Winter for a bit, because oml was I disappointed. Like, y;all remember back when Tui said that Winter was going to return in Book 14, and we were all excited because finally! Winter'll get a proper closing to his character arc!

YEAH SO THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Apparently any development he did have was off-screen, and honestly it feels like Tui really only bought him in for the whole scavenger thing (which I'll get to in a bit). The most that happens is that Snowfall un-banishes him and let's him return to Jade Mountain. Which I mean?? Okay?? Where's your profound apology for being a dick to him for five years straight in general?? 😐 And the fact that they were on mostly friendly terms in the book...like, excuse me, but SNOWFALL BANISHED HIM. Like you'd think there'd be more...idk, hostility between them???? And the fact that he's not going on their escapade to Pantala pretty much means new development for him is never gonna happen...😪

Okay, okay, let's talk about ye ol' scavengers, ig. Mmmm...I don't like them. Dragonslayer in general I hated, and I really don't like the whole scavenger-dragon alliance. I think it was corny as hell and low-key cliché. Also Sky? Fucking annoying. LIKE HE'S EIGHT. HE'S AN ADULT. YET STILL ACTS LIKE A 2 YEAR OLD FOR SOME REASON because of COURSE! Sky x Snowfall was...not it?? Like Tui...no...stawp...that shit better not happen...

Now. Jerboa's backstory. I think by the time TDG came out, pretty much the entire fandom was theorizing Jerboa got rid of animus magic, so that wasn't really a surprise. It was also popular that Jerboa would be a villain, but NOPE, tragic backstory instead. Honestly, a lot of people say it was really good, but I skimmed the first and last bits of it, and skipped the middle section altogether more or less. Sorry, I just wanted the book to be over at that point, plus the Jerboa chapters were just...really out of place, I think Tui should've made a Winglet or something (even though she hasn't written one in like 5 years hhh). I wish those chapters could've been used to give Icicle and/or Hailstorm a bit of attention; I really wanted them to return in this book, but...alas....honestly I wish Tui had spent more time in the Ice Kingdom in general.

LAST PART: Snowfall breaking the wall and Tundra freaking out?? 10/10, probably my favorite scene alongside the Qinter/Lynxfall solidarity one. 😗 And uhhhh I skipped the epilogue more or less. Sorry Raven, but I Just Don't Care...

Overall yeah safe to say the book wasn't good, but then again, I wasn't expecting much from Tui at all. She did impress me on some fronts, though, so there's that lmao.

#wof #wings of fire #the dangerous gift

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leafy-wings · 4 years ago

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qibli!! for the send a char

for this meme!

Sexuality Headcanon: bi definitely Gender Headcanon: it is with a heavy heart that i say i think he is cis. but like gender non conforming about it A ship I have with said character: i think qibli/winter is fine. idk if i just think im obligated to ship it or not. i dont even like qinter that much or winter but its like, two guys and im so fucking hungry for rep. again i dont think relationships born from trauma are really great but i feel like after everythings said and done they should be happy together because they deserve it. but like, theyre both so emotionally stunted that my original thought that theyd improve each other doesnt really hash out. i dont even really like peppy/broody as foundation for a relationship. i think non canon there are a lot of fun romantic intepretations of them though. i like the sun/moon imagery! i know its more accurate to label nightwings as moon aligned, but winters white. i also think that probably qibli and winter have too much beef about like, everything, like the monarchy or how they treat their friends. yknow what i just realized i spent this entire paragraph talking about how much i dont actually like qinter but ship it anyways because im a desperate little fruit A BROTP I have with said character: i like it when qibli is friends with turtle and there should be more qibli and turtle friend momence. i think both of them are kind and observant to their friends but inclined towards unrealistic expectations, but both also not observant inwardly and outwardly level headed, leaving them in a good combination where theyre both looking out for each other where they wont take care of themselves. i also think he should hang out with sunny more A NOTP I have with said character: qibli and moonwatcher. sorry. i know theyre like “canon” or whatever but every relationship tui makes it so bland and boring. i think qiblis really unfair to have been afraid of moon in book 6 and then immediately rebound into wanting to take advantage of her power within like 5 pages; i think itd be way more cool if he was more excited about it, considering that he never felt afraid of turtle when he found out about turtles power and the immediate rebound is just inconsistent and makes him look flaky instead of understandable. i also just am not super excited to read about romance between horrifically emotionall damaged 4 yr olds who really never get better. its fine its not like i dont see it its just.. theres so little there. its not like theres negative-qibliwatcher points but i just see nothing for it. A random headcanon: i want. catholic qibli. LIKE I MEAN a qibli who disagrees with Bad Behavior like swearing and drinking and gambling and abides by morality really hard. i think itd be funny. its not even really accurate but i think if inexplicably qibli insisted upon proper behavior itd be funny because i like it. General Opinion over said character: i actually dont like him that much. hes fruity i guess, but more jockish in canon than people represent him in their fan interpretations at least at first, everyone always turns him into this slick suave and soft bubbly sort of guy when hes more rough and tumble, which i think is neat but i dont really like. and ofc tui likes her fan interpretations so he ends up getting watered down into some mischief maker joker by the end of the series where i preferred him as a good example of being raised in a rough childhood but ending up on top and being charismatic but distant from it. and i dont really like the softboy intepretation a lot of people take with him because i like canon, and it kinda spits in the face of the original idea of him being put together. like ive said before i hated cracking darkness of dragons open and its just qibli going “WAAA WAAAAA” . i think i need to reread arc 2 though

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eyesanddragons · 2 years ago

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#i think the soul reader itself shouldn’t have existed in the first place bc its very existence is antithetical to how the series defines#‘goodness.’ that or it should read people as darkstalker(specifically the darkstalker at the time of casting it)#would judge them bc it was his spell#tbh that would be best bc then that scene where qibli reads him with it would still work. but it’d work even better#cuz then instead of darkstalker being told he was objectively evil(lame) it would be concrete proof#that he’s not what he wanted to be(awesome)#and they should’ve gotten rid of it at the end of the book too#esp since it just told the opinion of one man. who honestly didn’t have amazing morals even then#it wouldn’t have been an opinion any of them would have been interested in hearing#also yeah the animus magic thing had me so confused for years#i liked it better when it turned out it wasn’t draining their nebulous ‘souls’#but rather just had logical effects on their psyche#esp bc it put a lot of the previous books(esp book 2) into perspective#and also it added to one of the general themes of the series which is people being afraid of things they don’t understand#wof#turtle#darkstalker#edit: another thing about the soul reader#it would be just like him to create a spell that judges things by his own moral compass#and claim it as the objective truth. because in his mind he's right about everything and his word is law#maybe he would've been more honest about it at first but as he got worse started seeing it as objective#(this also would've been a good reason for the others to doubt its ability to read him in his book)#also if it DID 'objectively' read someone's goodness based on some law of the universe#darkstalker(especially him by the end of the second arc) is the kind of person to reject that law of the universe#and judge things by his rules#but if he's being judged by HIS OWN JUDGEMENT. well that would make him falter like he did#all in all. better solution @doctor-ciel YOU CANT LEAVE THIS IN THE TAGS ITS BASICALLY ALL MY ISSUES ABOUT THE SOUL READER AND THE ENTIRE CONCEPT OF SOUL IN WOF EXPRESSED! YEAH! YEAH YOUR RIGHT! THE SOUL READER MAKES NO SENSE AND GOES AGAINT THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE SERIES!

I really like how you would of written the soul reader, I feel like if it judged based on Darkstalker's viewpoint (something that is rather skewed and very very flawed) it would of been loads more interesting and in keeping with Arc 2's whole message of not forcing your thoughts, expectations and ideas onto others, and how perspective and other people's thoughts and feelings, are important, with Darkstalker forcing his morals onto other people and not listening to other people because why would he need to? Obviously he's right here, and anyone who goes against him is delusional or evil. There's nothing wrong with Him, everyone else is wrong.

It gives you a lot of insight into Darkstalker's character and how he thinks, cause the current soul reader just goes against Arc 2's whole message and themes but if it was based on Darkstalker's morals that would be really interesting, plus it gives us some good Darkstalker introspection at the end there where he gets measured as bad...by himself. The idea that his past self would of hated him and that this isn't what he actually wanted? That's brilliant! And yeah Darkstalker is the type of person to go against the universe's rules and play on his own terms, something he mirrors with the rest of the cast actually, in a really interesting way, thank you for bringing that to my attention because I'm gonna think about that a lot.

And yeah! Animus magic is a lot better if they just, stop bringing soul into it, like they disproved the soul thing in the book right before they proceeded to prove it was soul again and DoD handled animus magic worse than Talons of Power (Plus a lot of things in DoD seem to be due to the psyche thing, see Qibli's relationship with animus magic and how it connects to his deep seated insecurities, so saying it's soul just messes with that.)

EDIT: Also did not realize how animus magic ties into the rest of the series themes, that gives me a lot to think about...

And the psyche thing has multiple levels because obviously the way people treat others affect there psyche, I don't think Albatross wouldn't of done his killing spree if he was just treated better by the people around him, and the way they handled Fathom was terrible since it just made the poor guy fear himself and everything he touches, which is another reason why I don't like the Soul Reader, because no, obsessively checking if your soul is good or not is not good for you, actually it's quite the opposite, also leaves a lot of room for all sorts of biases and fallacies.

Plus Arc 2 has a interesting relationship with expectation, all the main characters are affected by it somehow (Winter being weighed down by the expectations of his society, Turtle being scared that he is "fated" to be a monster, Qibli manipulating people's expectations of him etc.. etc..) so a soul reader, something that allegedly "measures your soul objectively" is genuinely interesting conflict, it's just not handled well, I seriously wish they destroyed it at the end of arc 2 because keeping it around (especially in the fashion they did in Turtle's epilogue) just does not work well with the rest of the books.

This is getting long and if talk more about that idea I will go on for 5k more words, but yeah your idea is really interesting and I really wish the books just done that and not...whatever it is now

I have an issue with how the books handled Fathom and Turtle's story, cause like, okay Fathom ends his story still afraid of himself, okay, okay, that works, the story is tragic and no one gets out happy, okay, I can accept that.

And in a way Fathom lives through Turtle, I'm pretty sure Darkstalker outright compares them at some point (I have no citation of that but I remember it, uh, so take that as you will I guess) But still Fathom and Turtle have a lot of parallels to be drawn, with both being animus dragons terrified of themselves, characterized to be shy and rather pacifistic, and unassuming, oh and also both being seawing royalty.

But, Turtle still ends his story, and thus Fathom's story, being concerned with soul, which is strange to me cause IN HIS BOOK Turtle REFUTES this, page 272 Talons of Power: "Maybe losing your soul isn't the right way to describe it," Turtle said. "Maybe it's more like...the more you use your power for anything. It makes it harder to go back, only forward into more bad things."

AND REALLY ARC 2'S ENTIRE MESSAGE IS ABOUT BREAKING FREE FROM THE SHACKLES OF EXPECTATION AND FATE, THE IDEA THAT YOU HAVE OR WILL BE TO BE SOMETHING! But that's a completely different bigger post.

Turtle is a character shackled by his fear, scared of himself due to a perceived "destiny" and he ends his story still SCARED OF IT, and yes he says he's 'not scared of his magic anymore' but that just doesn't line up with what's happening in the text. DoD page 376 has this paragraph:

"The Soul Reader had revealed a much higher level of good than they have feared-and Turtle's own soul was almost entirely good to his delight." and page 377 has this: "That's all right," she said. "I know you're trying to use your magic as little as possible, I can figure it out some other way if I ever wanted to. Turtle tapped his skyfire armband. "But I can use it, if you ever need to. Qibli's soul spell is really well-written."

Now look, I have no issue with Turtle wanting to use his magic as little as possible, that's his choice, it's his magic.

My issue, is with the concept of The Soul itself, other than it just being a really cheap plot thing used to justify Darkstalker's fate, it's something that's really messed up when you think about it.

Turtle has a literal soul measurer, and I feel having an artifact that tells you how good or bad you are, "objectively", would mess anyone up.

Now I think the soul reader and the concept of Soul is complete nonsense so I'm biased, but you can see by his actions that Turtle is still, concerned with soul, he says he's not afraid anymore of his magic but, that's only because he thinks he's protected from becoming evil, and the idea that Turtle has to be protected from becoming evil, is a problem here. He hasn't actually moved on from the fear, his fear of himself, he has he just slapped a Band-Aid over it and called it a day.

He's not afraid...not because he's confident in himself and what he believes in, but because his friend gave him a spell that "protects him" as I said, its a band-aid that ignores the actual problem, and thats really sad

#sorry for rambling I just really liked your idea!#it was really nice to see your tags in my notifications and it gave me many many thoughts...

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mistlestripe · 3 months ago

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read wings of fire book #10 (spoilers)

so mad. idk how controversial that this is but this book was terrible and probably the worst of the SERIES so far lmao. everyone was so bad but especially the moon/qibli/winter trio. they were all terrible in this book and i feel so bad for winter. I loved moon in the first book and she was like one of my top 2 second arc protag faves but she's dropped down to the bottom of the group because of how obnoxious she acts in this book...qibli too kind of sucks but like he doesnt do anything annoying (or when he does it makes sense cause he values moon over winter.) he just never gets to obtain a win that isnt weak and overall lacks much weight behind it. everything he does moves on very quickly and it feels like the book just "waits a few seconds before showing what he does to artificially cause suspense". like I would have appreciated him denying animus magic more if he didnt react to the offer the same way he reacted to cobra tricking him (acting hopeful to the prospect only to reveal hes gonna say no at the last second as though that WASNT the obviously correct answer)

and like i probably do have some bias because winter is definitely higher than qibli for me in terms of characters but like I dont even have an issue with the fact that moon chose qibli over him, but its just the fact that the narrative needs to go out of its way to characterize winter as extremely unreliable and untrustworthy JUST to make qibli seem better. Winter is rash and irrational so I get it to a CERTAIN extent but the book acts like he is incappable of making correct decisions to the point his own friends don't trust him enough to tell him what happened to darkstalker (which i know they were like "we trust you to be there for us. not to do the right thing." WHICH IS BS AND RUDE ASF BRAH HIS BOOK WAS LITERALLY ABOUT HIM BECOMING OPEN MINDED LMFAO i feel like he'd be pissed but like with how much he hates magic he'd probably eventually comprehend it as deserved. Maybe if they said something like "its for the best you dont know" then THAT would make sense because they want peacemaker to have his own chance at life but like their reasoning is so dumb and it just makes me feel bad for winter and think that he deserves better friends who actually value him and the things he cares about. I wouldnt mind if moon chose qibli of her own volition because i DO like the subversion of winter seeming more like a love interest in the beginning (only for qibli to become the "true" love interest for her by the end) BUT i cant even trust moons agency and it feels entirely circumstansial because of how much the book went out of its way to make winter unlikable and the obvious "worse option" than qibli who acts perfect to her the entire book comparatively. it just feels like they did not give winter a chance at ALL and it even goes on to act like he NEVER had a chance with moon being like "i want someone nice to me who make me laugh." Their relationship in general is so bland and neither of their personalities are utilized to make a fun dynamic so it just feels like theyre both sanitized when theyre togehter. I think moon x qibli has a lot of potential to be interesting and cool and in concept/without context i dont mind the ship but they just dont utilize any of it at all in the book and it feels extremely unearned and obvious by the end.

#rant #wof rant #blah blah blah #winter deserved better.

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leafy-wings · 4 years ago

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How about Moonwatcher for the ask meme?

for this ask meme!

Sexuality Headcanon: i really want lesbian moonwatcher. bi moonwatcher would be fine also i suppose Gender Headcanon: trans gend A ship I have with said character: IDK i like moonwatcher x kinkajou just out of obligation to like gay people i think... i wish kinkajous nightwing based trauma was dealt with more, as ive said before i dont really think that relationships born of trauma are good so in that case i dont think that they should be together? but i just like. when they are happy and peppy and worried over each other but kinkajou gets moon out of her shell without judging her, and moons giddy enough she rides kinkajous energy. if anyone has any other wlw moon ships id love to hear them A BROTP I have with said character: i think.. moonwatcher and peril shouldve been friends more. like if peril got mind reading protection and they could bond over people thinking that theyre inherently evil due to their powers, but like. peril has more reason to be seen as dangerous idk. actually maybe they wouldnt mesh well i feel like peril would be like “(envious) theres no reason why people should be so afraid of you about equal as people are afraid of me, ms Fire Claws when all you can do is be anxious”. or like turtle more. i like that theyre anxious in the way that being around each other calms them down A NOTP I have with said character: i really dont like winter and moonwatcher. tui herself said that she was writing him as the bad boy cliche and yeah just like tui i dont think that the nice traumatized girl should stoop down and coddle someone who has never been nice to her. and like i know winter FEELS bad about what hes done but.. just.. moonwatcher is manipulated by darkstalker, basically gaslit by him, lied to constantly about what hes done and what hes doing. she DOESNT know what hes caused the plague and defends him because shes so desperate, shes been lonely her entire life until meeting darkstalker and with everyone being so mean to her still obviously shes terrified of losing the only true friend whos understood her and not been afraid of her powers. but winter screams at her and just never.. never apologizes. like winterwatcher supporters are like “moon shouldve coddled him while he was physically attacking his friend who was trying to help him! but no winter shouldnt have helped her even a bit while being horrifically manipulated by an older stronger and more powerful dragon. just let her deal with that herself.” i really think that wof gives too much credit to people who hate getting better and i am terrified of it influencing children into thinking that those around them should cater to them 24/7 and to extreme extents without offering anything in return because yes mental illness and trauma can ruin your attempts to get better but man. winter really doesnt try and moon tries FOR him. and winter doesnt really apologize to moon as far as i can tell, he goes to the war and then goes straight to sanctuary and they only meet again in tdg where they dont apologize IIRC. not like i hate winter, i wish he got better and got the help he deserved FROM THE RIGHT DRAGON, and the right dragon was not a heavily traumatized and isolated 4 year old who really doesnt know winter A random headcanon: i like imagining moon with cute simple jewelry! like string and beads kinda jewelry made by her friends, strung on her horns or little impromptu earrings and stuff. you can kinda tell who made what, like turtle gets her more expensive but simple jewelry (like a single silver band with one shining gemstone on it), kinkajou hand makes kitschy bead jewelry (like plur rave kinda shit <3), qibli likes making little decos like clay strawberry earrings, winter insists upon expensive jewelry but after moon refuses a bunch of time he starts making fake shiny things like glass beads jewelry. General Opinion over said character: i like moon! i know some people say shes annoying but, man.. i just like her, i sympathize w her as someone with psychosis, i love characters who think theyre in danger 24/7. she deserves way better, she got the usual “out of pov” treatment all main characters get where they become their one character trait as soon as the pov is off of them, and becomes boring and yes a bit annoying out of her perspective. i hate how thoroughly shes beat down throughout the books, she seriously just becomes a sponge for people to scream at and she never calls them out on it, just cringes. i think she has a lot of potential that was used well in book 6 but squandered.. and yeah i think its weird that such a powerful pov was given to the first book of the second arc, everythings way too revealing w moon and i hate how integral her stupid love triangle is to her character. i wish more people focused on her trauma, she was ENTIRELY alone until she was 4! imagine how awful she must be in social situations (tui just acts like she Gets it after four years all alone except for her mom? id love imagining her a bit too clingy, like shes used to physical attention from her mother and doesnt get that friends usually keep their distant, or only ever understanding nightwing terminology and NEVER having heard of other tribes idioms, imagine how absolutely different she must feel.. i know her book is about it but she gets over it REALLY easily as shes under pressure from darkstalker and scarlet). overall i think shed be better if she was given any breathing room but confined to the plot her character falls flat a bit.. i love her still! shes cute and sweet and i feel bad for her

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