#Camping story arc

[spooky-activity]

💕✨🌚🌑Shadowheart🌑🌚✨💕

[artbyfinnbrown]

There is a lot of focus put on Subaru's willingness to sacrifice himself for the people he cares about. What a lot less focus is put on is the fact that he isn't actually that big of an outlier when it comes to having a self-sacrificing attitude. Lots of characters in Re:Zero have people that they are willing to sacrifice anything to protect.

In fact, one of the best examples of this are the people closest to Subaru, the Emilia camp:

Beatrice would die for Subaru.

Rem would die for her sister or for Subaru.

Ram would die for her sister, and thought she likely would never admit it, she would put her life at risk for most, if not all, of the rest of the Emilia camp as well.

Garfiel would die for the Emilia camp, because he's the shield, and shields are meant to stop other people from getting hurt.

Otto would die for the Emilia camp, because they're the first people that aren't his family and beast that are actually close to him.

Emilia would die for Subaru, the Emilia camp, and most people that she knows, due to a combination of her kindness and all of the negative feelings she holds toward herself.

Everyone in the Emilia camp simultaneously cares for their friends so much and has too low of an opinion of themselves, making them all very willing to help each other even if it is at great personal cost to themselves.

[melveres]

so was anyone gonna tell me Dyvims canonically bi or was I just supposed to find that out from a comment on a twitter post and be sent on a quest to hunt down the stream and timestamp where it got mentioned

EDIT: I gave up on recording the clip bc the audio kept getting messed up so here's the link to the stream! [timestamp 56:34]

Dyvim Whitehart bi king!!

[crescenthistory]

have you ever had something so significant and impactful happen to you but it’s in a really niche area that you can’t really tell anyone in your general life about, so you’re just left imploding and silently screaming???? it’s hell 😭😭

very long story made semi-short; my found family and i have attended and contributed to a live action role play camp twice a year for almost a decade now that’s based on hogwarts/the hp universe and really fucking well made by a skilled team. and you get really fucking attached to these characters because for a few weeks every year you live as them and make friends as them and it’s REAL even though it’s not. my last character was so fucking devastating and important to me, and she had this epic tragic love story with my best friend’s character. we haven’t played them since we finished their storyline in 2023. AND MY BEST FRIEND WAS JUST ASKED TO RETURN AS THAT CHARACTER FOR THIS YEAR’S CAMP????? that’s HUGE, the game masters never make requests like that and it’s super secret but he told me (because it would be cruel not to with our characters’ backstories) and i’m just reeling with shock and excitement and fear. like i’m left REELING at the fact that i get to see him again (him being my bsf’s old character) (bc when you finish playing someone you never get to “see” them again uknow? it’s a whole thing) and also at what this means and all the wounds from the two of them are opening up again and we’re just DYING. we have no idea why he was asked back or what will happen it’s INSANE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND. to deal with it all i’m knitting and crocheting him a bunch of different things that my character has made for his (they live together on her family farm and she uses crafts and art to cope</33) and we’re just literally crying. i love them, they’re sunshine x sunshine and literal soulmates — i made that character based on the concept of what would happen if a sensitive, creative child had the most gentle and accepting parents who cultivated kindness. and then there was a war and her parents were fucking killed offfffff and it was such a huge thing. she lost her leg, her boyfriend lost his eye. it was a whole thing. i’m jittery with emotion and handcrafting at god’s speed because this camp is in three weeks and i’m just. dying. and screaming. my poor wife. (dw she attends the camp too and is screaming with me)

[shannonsketches]

I think I wouldn’t be as mad about Toei’s choices for Super if the things they overwrote wouldn’t have translated so beautifully to animation.

I have my beef with the gaps in my sense of humor and Toei’s writers room and our opinions on characterizations, sure, but so many of the cool things that happened in the manga and the movies that Toei reiterated were changed, botched, or removed completely, and that sucks.

Vegeta being so cool and so protective of his family during the Goku Black arc, and Gohan being a total badass during Ressurection F are my biggest “why did you change this??” beefs. But also man. The tournament had so many good moments in the manga that were totally snubbed in the anime.

As a fan it makes me angry but as an artist it makes me sad. Toya is such a cinematic storyteller and his pacing and compositions were just. Thrown away. :(

EDIT: Someone in the notes pointed out that the anime caught up with the manga before the GB arc so I do take back that they threw away Toya’s later work in the GB and Tournament arcs, but I will never understand why they weren’t sharing assets when they were in production at the same time. And I still can’t forgive them for fumbling the retellings of BotG and ResF so hard OTL

[swan2swan]

If there's one thing the Jurassic World franchise was going to do while on Isla Nublar, it was going to be to anticipate the audience's Dumb Nitpicks and address them preemptively.

[aficionadoenthusiast]

it's a stucky kinda night and i am suffering

[reiverreturns]

*pulling in bg3 fans by the collar* hey did u know that believing the way the fandom treats wyll is deeply rooted in racism and believing that wyll is one of the less compelling companions due to his weak narrative arc and lack of character agency are two worldviews you can hold at the same time. they are not mutually exclusive.

[bigcryptiddies]

It’s not specific to dav by any means, I just wish player characters were able to have the same depth of trauma and vulnerability as companions are on their own specific quests at any point in their respective games and Rook seems especially “smiling through it all” about everything because the rest of the game is also very sanitized compared to the others before it

[pinkhairandpokemon]

(( blog has been archived but i'm keeping the old pinned post up ))

Introduction Post

————

I’M A BAD BITCH YOU CAN’T KILL ME!

hiya! name's Blake. you might recognize me, you might not. rotomblr is confusing with all the multiverse stuff. basically, I'm an ex-champion who's kinda just doing my own thing now. saved the world a few times. met a few gods. y'know, the usual. I even died once! technically. oh, and I’m a university student at Blueberry Academy! mostly here to post about my Pokémon- but my friends Hop and Auberi have access to this blog too, so you might see them on here occasionally.

also!! I have a wonderful partner here’s his blog: @thunderblessedhero I love him sm

that's pretty much all you need to know, I think! signing out!

-Blake

———

Auberi Bellerose- 21, they/them, demisexual/greyromantic

Hop Laventon- 20, he/him, asexual/biromantic

Blake- 21, they/them, pansexual/demiromantic

————

Current Arc: Frozen Over (ON PAUSE)

Mini Arc:

Summary:

———

OOC:

Pelipper Mail/Variants: ON (ex. Pelipper Malice, Musharna Mail, etc.)

Union Circle: ON (for short visits, it’s fine, but if it’ll be a lengthier visit to Blake’s universe I would like to discuss beforehand)

Magic Anons: ON (within reason, nothing permanent)

other rp blogs: @thunderblessedhero @partnersintime @scarlet-rider @pokehorsegirl @bisharpenjoyer @coolguyhilbert @keldeochamp1on @weirdcelebi @sapphireseafarer @justanothercastelian @winged-golden-wanderer @sword-reborn

Warnings: mentions of past trauma will be brought up occasionally on this blog, and will be tagged accordingly. mod is also an adult, so there could potentially be suggestive content from time to time- but I’ll try to avoid anything explicit.

Boundaries: not super strict rules on who can interact! eebies, legendaries, sapient ‘mons, etc. I might be a little more iffy towards crossover blogs, I’m sorry ;w; nothing wrong with them, it’s just a personal boundary of mine. I’ll try to make a post as some point elaborating further

flirty and/or suggestive interactions from adult muses WITH adult muns are fine towards Blake and Auberi. I do not feel comfortable with anyone attempting those kinds of interactions with Hop. and while flirting is fine, I would prefer if you got in touch with me and asked for my thoughts before having your character pursue any kind of romantic relationship with them.

also, in character hate is allowed! just yknow, don’t go too overboard with it.

Info about my OC:

basically Blake is my protag in several pkmn games, specifically SW/SH, X/Y, and B/W! the timeline of those games’ stories are in that specific order in my OCverse. (Pretty much any semblance of a canon timeline in the games is destroyed in my OCverse, except for any games w/ sequels like Gen1/Gen2 or BW/BW2. I’ll probably put together a proper timeline eventually, but essentially it’s just in the order I played all the games. Rn that order is FRLG -> HGSS -> SM -> ORAS -> SWSH -> XY -> DPPT/BDSP -> BW -> PLA -> SV -> BW2)

Bio: Blake was born in Nuvema Town, where they lived until they were around seven before moving to Aspertia City. They lived there until they were about thirteen, before moving to Postwick in the Galar region with their mother. There, they met one of their best friends, Hop. At the time, Blake was super closed off and shy, as their social anxiety made making friends difficult. The only one they’ve ever really let their guard down with was Hop. Watching Leon’s matches on TV with Hop was what inspired them to become a trainer, though for many years they didn’t actually think it’d be possible for them- considering they came from a family who didn’t really like Pokemon, therefore they had nowhere near as much experience with them like Hop did. They feared their social anxiety would get in the way, too.

Once they were 16, they unexpectedly got their first Pokemon from Leon- a Sobble named Kappa. After getting endorsed by Leon and some encouragement from Hop, they agreed to sign up for the Gym Challenge. They had a rocky start- losing battles pretty frequently was putting a huge dent in their already low self-esteem, and it was impacting Kappa as well. But over time they learned the ropes of being a trainer and was quickly becoming a rising star amongst the Gym Challengers. They went on to stop the Darkest Day along with Hop, catch Eternatus, become champion, and earn the trust of Zacian.

During their reign as champion, they trained at the Isle of Armor and explored the Crown Tundra. These small adventures slowly helped them realize just how much pressure their title was putting on them- and finally caused them to slip up during the final match of the next year’s Gym Challenge.

After losing their title, they decided to look for a new path- which lead them to Kalos, where they helped in putting a stop to Team Flare’s plan and caught Yveltal, and eventually back to Unova, where they fought against Team Plasma alongside Reshiram. Following the defeat of Plasma, they’ve enrolled as a college student at Blueberry Academy- and have done quite a lot in the past two years, such as visiting the Paldea region and catching more Pokémon. Now, they’ve returned to Unova, and are resting after having helped in the fight against Kyurem.

Blake is also the main character in my comics, Adventures in Kalos (on my instagram @/xgolden_latiasx) and Unova Fates (on Tumblr, insta, and webtoon). this blog will probably contain spoilers for those comics!

their ref:

More rules/info/explanations/etc.:

all three of these characters are friends with multiple legendaries, so if they seem overpowered to you… sorry? I’m just having fun over here. they don’t really use any of them for battle that often, though they might threaten to sic their legendary on someone as a joke (but they won’t actually). but as of right now the only legendary that’s actively with the group is Reshiram, he’s the only one who’ll get involved in whatever shenanigans/event the gang finds themselves in. (Unless I’m participating in an event from another person and they say they don’t want Reshiram involved.)

I’m relatively willing to join in on high stakes stuff as long as I feel up to it, but please ask me first if you want one of my characters to actively participate somehow.

also, this blog runs with the idea that Rotomblr is a weird site that links other universes together. So for example say if… Kalos is blowing up or something on another person’s blog and someone tries to get Auberi involved, I’m just going to say it’s happening in a different universe. Or if a different SWSH/XY/BW/PLA protag character tries to interact.

please please please also understand that I have realllllly bad social anxiety and awkwardness. I apologize if it takes me a while to respond to something, or if my replies seem short and uninterested (I promise I’m interested in the conversation I’m just bad at words). or long and ramble-y. please tell me to shut the fuck up if you need me to

Past arcs/plot lines:

#Storyline: Haunting Regrets (Explanation of Auberi’s past)

#Story Event: The Calm Before The Storm (Set up for a future arc that. got retconned)

#Story Arc: The Press Conference (This arc was discontinued, but I didn’t really feel like going back and deleting all the tags so it IS still canon but nothing important happened.)

#Typing Through Time (Mini event where a pair of mysterious siblings, supposedly from the future, take over the blog to document their search for a special Celebi.)

#Interlude Arc (BW2 event.)

#PB Takeover (Takeover of a version of Blake that joined Team Plasma.)

#Summer Camp Arc (BBA Summer Camp)

#MMM: Mystery Dunegon! (Mystery Dungeon AU Takeover)

List of everyone’s Pokémon (will probs be updated frequently):

Blake:

-Kappa (M Inteleon)

-Go-Go (F Coalossal)

-Venom (M Toxtricity)

-Charlie (M Boltund)

-Jeanne (F Corviknight)

-Lancelot (M Sirfetch’d)

-Athena (F Urshifu)

-Tulip (F Venusaur)

-Lizzie (F Charizard)

-Tater (F Flapple)

-Potato (M Galarian Slowpoke)

-Audun (M Flygon)

-Zuzu (F Dragapult)

-Azi (F Dreepy)

-Shiverbolt (Arctozolt)

-Alto (M Grookey)

-Oran (M Munchlax)

-Fwoofy (Cosmog)

-Stormy (M Sobble)

-Dewdrop (M Sobble)

-Nessa Jr. (F Sobble)

-Bubble (M Sobble)

-Neptune (F Sobble)

-Zacian

-Eternatus

-Red (M Delphox)

-Stardust (M Meowstic)

-Ryu (M Lucario)

-Flick (F Vivillon)

-Verde (M Venusaur)

-Basil (M Sylveon)

-Granite (M Tyrantrum)

-Snooze (M Snorlax)

-Yveltal

-King (F Serperior)

-Cordelia (F Simipour)

-Beau (M Swoobat)

-Lumiere (F Chandelure)

-Kilobyte (M Eelektross)

-Phaedra (F Krookodile)

-Toothless (M Deino)

-Scylla (F Druddigon)

-Stormchase (F Swellow)

-Larkspur (M Venipede)

-Reshiram

-Chip (F Pawmot)

-Tiny (M Braviary)

-Salad (F Floragato)

-Cranberry (F Flareon)

-Pecha (F Grookey X Fomantis hybrid)

-Dart (F Cyclizar)

-Mantis (F Slither Wing)

-Hermes (M Corvisquire x Galarian Zapdos hybrid)

-Odin (M Corvisquire x Galarian Articuno hybrid)

-Vulcan (F Corvisquire x Galarian Moltres hybrid)

-Spark (M Galvantula ✨)

-VIOLENCE (F Scream Tail)

-Galahad (M Skarmory)

-Snart (F UD Archen)

-Titanium (F Revaroom)

-Goober (M Scovillain)

-Banana (F Latias ✨)

-Fluffernutter (M Totodile)

Hop:

-Cloudy (M Dubwool)

-Flint (M Cinderace)

-Percival (M Corviknight)

-Rumble (M Snorlax)

-Needle (F Pinchurin)

-Jasper (M Silicobra)

-Thor (F Boltund)

-Whisperwood (F Trevenant)

-Summer (F Heatmor)

-Watts (M Toxel)

-Crest (M Cramorant)

-Zamazenta

-Galarian Zapdos

-Mango (F Squawkabilly)

-Arlo (M Quaxly)

-Deedee (F Gardevoir x Whimsicott hybrid)

-Carrot (M Tatsugiri)

-Lumi (F Joltik)

-Koda (M Inteleon)

-Dusk (M Mightyena)

-Flurry (F Cetitan)

Auberi:

-Korrin (M Greninja)

-Calypso (F Meowstic)

-Blaise (M Charizard)

-Glacé (F Aurorus)

-Cantrelle (F Noivern)

-Reaper (F Absol)

-Estelle (F Flareon)

-Sunrise (F Talonflame)

-Chester (M Chespin)

-Ignis (M Hisuian Typhlosion)

-Blanche (F Hisuian Zoroark)

-Aries (M Paldean Tauros, Blaze Breed)

-Spitfire (M Skeledirge)

-Anne Bonny (F Kilowattrel ✨)

-Voltaire (M Joltik)

-Fondue (F Fidough)

-Arceus

-Rouge (M Hisuian Zorua)

-Anastasie (F Hisuian Zorua ✨)

(A note: These aren’t necessarily all Pokémon that are registered to them. Most of the legendaries, for example, are just ‘mons they’re able to call upon or are associated with)

[therosejamjournal]

my thoughts about bg3 companions as i head to fight the second big bad of act 2

astarion: terrible rat man. limp wrist action. i would steer clear from him if he existed irl. that said, my tav and him are absolutely getting married and getting his approval means everything to me

gale: as soon as he started speaking he gave me reddit incel in a fedora and it only got worse in act 2. getting his approval is so fucking easy it's almost absurd - just because i dont want you to kill yourself doesn't mean that we are now a couple. bestie gale im begging you get higher standards

halsin: strong. warm. likes ducks. i love making him an owlbear. 10/10 no further comments

karlach: LIGHT OF MY LIFE. absolute unit in combat and the cutest when it comes to trying to pick tav up. love her

lae'zel: not a fan of being bossed around so much HOWEVER. i'll make an exception for lae'zel. i feel bad for her - she seems to be a victim of her very nasty culture but i'm leaving the exploration of her story for the next playthrough (i want to be fully immersed)

minthara: rip. has amazing taste tho, my tav looks fabulous in her at-ease clothes

shadowheart: her approval for my tav is probably the highest (i didn't even try). religious trauma embodied and truly god's favourite princess. i want to rescue her in the same way i want to fix astarion

wyll: so handsome, so charming. the most mysterious of all companions for me thus far so next playthrough im focusing on wyll and wyll alone.

[disastercit]

i’ve considered doing a full-on ask blog thing that follows the Ross Lore comprehensively in the order that it happens, but i don’t think the cc fandom has enough people in general, let alone people who are actually interested in ocs, to sustain that kind of thing. i know that oc ask blogs are a thousand times less likely to get interactions than canon character ask blogs, plus i don’t think ask blogs in general are nearly as popular as they used to be, so idk if it would be worth the effort.

[h0ptimists]

Also god; I need to gather so many icons for Cream, Vanilla, Cheese, Gemerl and Chocola.

[in-finitives]

originally wrote a bunch of other hcs down in tags because that's where i live but then i realized only 30 or so get put on post and then they delete so here's my addendums to save for myself

piper n reyna's relationship:

reyna's story is one of accepting expectation and living up to it.

piper's story is one of denying expectation and contradicting it, because she doesn't like what comes with it / people not liking her because she's something other than piper (i.e. people r friends w her because she's her father's daughter, her father's money, her mother's beauty, etc). piper is sick of other people controlling her life, deciding what she does and doesn't get, and feeling like she hasn't earned anything

piper is originally weird about the relationship for obvious coming into sexuality reasons + it feels like another expectation. another thing her mother gave to her, another thing built on other people's expectation

reyna is against the relationship because it goes against her duty. like she mentions sometime in SoN, praetors get in relationships with each other because it's good for rome or whatever. can you imagine if she was dating a greek?? that would feel like a complication to her duty

AND

piper's read enough myths to know about pretty women who betray their families for the hero. she is NOT going to be one of them, feeding into her whole traitor-dad arc

but as their arcs grow in anti-parallel, they both come to admire each other

piper admires how reyna is so independent, so strong, and so sure of herself. reyna admires how piper doesn't concede into what other people want.

reyna starts finding an identity outside of CJ and outside of her duty & symbolically, being in a relationship with piper signifies doing something for herself rather than doing something for rome

piper realizes that by automatically going against expectation is still allowing it to control her and she should instead listen to her own feelings

lowk should've been what rr did with jason/piper in the first place if he wanted it to stick but oh well

back in cj

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT HOW JASON LOOKS LIKE LUKE AND WHAT THAT DOES TO ANNABETH!!!

but first some other points

op and others had good points about annabeth that were tragically heartbreaking so i'm going to switch focus to jason

can you fuckin imagine jason at this time

percy refuses to help hera and is literally taking the gods by the throat, but jason probably doubles down and is trying to appease the gods

he thinks this is retribution. he thinks they've messed up

he thinks if he is a good hero, reyna can come back

and then 6 months later annabeth shows up

guys. Guys

jason looks exactly like luke. blonde general with a scar on his lip ?!

annabeth looks at him like she's seen a ghost

she's thinking of a traitor brother, a brother who was too good to be true, who was kind and friendly to all the outsiders, who was the leader of camp, who betrayed her

and she sees jason ... who is exactly all that

and in canon we always get her saying jason is 'too perfect' and unnerving to her

BECAUSE HE REMINDS HER OF LUKE!

and can you imagine if she hears his last name and goes oh. Oh

can you imagine jason finding out she knew his sister

the sister who (he thinks) abandoned him

the sister who has grown a new sister

a new family, with a boy who looks exactly like him

he's been replaced. he's been replaced, and this girl has never been abandoned by his sister like he was

and annabeth is standing there, now perfectly aware that she has replaced this kid in a family that wasn't supposed to be her's, but was, in a family that loved her and cared for her, and she sees the kid who has nothing, not even a best friend

CAN YOU FUCKING IMAGINE

annabeth probably originally distrusts him when she doesn't exactly remember the whole luke/thalia thing, jason is probably jumping to get on the quest because if he can please the gods he can get reyna back

also [later] jason finding out that percy and annabeth has done more for demigods by being rebellious little freaks than he has his whole life despite being the perfect hero

can you imagine what that does to him

'oh you got demigod children claimed and recognized by sitting on the gods throne and sassing them ... you were offered immortality, and i wasn't?'

even though he was the perfect hero

even though he did everything they ever asked

AND THEN

then he meets reyna again and the one person who shared his identity, the one person who shared his duty, has. ... escaped?

can he escape too?

but he's son of jupiter, he's never been more than that, how could he possibly escape?

then he finds out reyna has now met his sister ... and it feels like everyone he knows has met her except him

why wasn't it him? if he was son of jupiter, perfect hero, why wasn't he in chb? why leave him where he is useless, was he not good enough the first time?

we see reyna escape at the end. reyna realize she is more than a hero, realize reyna has learned she's not just the gods' chess piece. we also see her go through the same arc percy did in pjo if she's not at the final battle → sometimes being the hero is not about stepping up, but learning when to step down. she may not have been at the battle, but she empowered others to have won it (also works nice thematically w her powers)

reyna escapes. jason never does. he stays at cj, too scared to find out who he is. when leo (allegedly) dies, jason is thinking, it should've been me. he's the hero. so he stays at cj. he stays because what if what he finds is something he doesn't like, what if who he is, is not who he is supposed to be?

makes toa all the sadder

anyways yeah that's my 2 cents

Thinking about a concept where Juno swaps Annabeth and Reyna instead.

Annabeth and Reyna are fine, because they’ve always been able to handle just about anything the gods threw at them. Piper accidentally has her gay awakening via fake memories of a relationship with Reyna and is really confused why her girlfriend is acting so weird. Reyna and Leo bicker non-stop because even without her memories Reyna knows what she’s doing and she’s very used to getting people to listen to her but Leo will not be serious for even one second.

Percy would start fist fighting the gods in the first week. Jason has never been more stressed in his life because he never even wanted to be praetor but it was manageable while he was doing it with Reyna and now he’s alone. What the hell is he supposed to do.

By the time Annabeth shows up at Camp Jupiter, Jason is so relieved someone knows what they’re doing that he immediately asks her to be praetor, now if she’ll excuse him he needs to go have an anxiety meltdown in a corner somewhere

[lord-pigeon]

Hottest take of all

I like Engage way more than Three Houses

Idk the vibe feels closer to how Awakening was and Awakening continues to be my personal GOAT so call me biased or something

Three Houses was good, don't get me wrong, but out of the four new FE, def like, number three or something

[flawseer]

On the False Dragonets of Destiny

Recycled art... Forgive me, I can't physically draw more than I currently am.

Just a little while ago I was looking at some replies to my recent work, and I noticed a nice comment from someone who expressed they enjoyed my comics featuring the false dragonets of destiny, but couldn't really get into them in the books. I am thankful for that comment, but even more thankful for the opportunity to ramble at length about something I kind of wanted to talk about, but couldn't find a plausible excuse for. Until now.

All of this is just my reading of the material, of course. You don't need to agree with me on this.

Content Warning: Some discussion of abuse, trauma, violence. I don't know if it's severe enough to warrant a warning, but better be safe.

General discussion

The false dragonets of destiny, the alternates, or whatever one wants to call them. They enter the story proper in book 4, after having made a few minor cameo appearances before, and serve as a kind of hybrid antagonistic force and pseudo-allies for Starflight during his stay on the Nightwing Isle. During that time, they are very abrasive, stand-offish, uncooperative, and a bit annoying, and I guess that doesn't make them come off very well. But like, in spite of that or maybe partially because of it, I am really fond of these guys, and I'd like to take some time talking them up to you.

One can examine how these guys act and conclude that they are a bunch of dysfunctional screw-ups. And they absolutely are that, don't get me wrong. But one should keep in mind: the majority of the time they are in the spotlight, they are in an extreme, tense, and frighteningly uncertain situation. It's easy to forget how stressful these situations are because the books as a whole really like to gloss over the more frightening kind of subjects on account of being written for young readers. You can't really go deep into themes of abuse, trauma, and depression in a story like that without tripping over some kind of censor on the way, but the implications are there, between the lines for you to find.

Understanding the group

Who are the false dragonets of destiny? They are posited as a mirror image of the true dragonets of destiny, who have all been extensively schooled in matters of education and martial prowess. The first thing we see THIS group do on page is brawl, so one may think they must be trained and capable fighters. Viper and Flame constantly throw around death threats and aggressive quips, so one may think they are hyper-violent and dangerous. They are neither. Nautilus admits the Talons haven't bothered training them at all, they haven't seen real combat, they've likely been deliberately kept away from the war as a whole. Flame doesn't even know how to use his fire breath correctly. Starflight, who is by far the least physically adept of the arc 1 protagonists, is able to outpace them even as four of them team up against him.

They are neither killers nor a crack team of badasses, rather they are a bunch of play-fighting, posing delinquents who talk a big game with little in terms of actual skill to back it up. Realizing this is key to understanding just how out of their depth and ill-equipped they are to handle anything that gets thrown at them on the Nightwing homeland, especially past the negotiations at the Skywing outpost.

Abduction and imprisonment

When Starflight first finds them, they have been on the Nightwing Isle for a good while, and they are suitably bristly because of it.

Look at this situation from their perspective. These guys have known nothing other than their semi-peaceful life in the Talon camp. Then the leader of that camp, Nautilus--a figure they all know and trust, essentially sells them to a frightening stranger, who looms over them and is so physically large he could crush each of them easily. This stranger pulls them away from their home without even giving them a chance to say goodbye to their relatives (I'm convinced Avalanche would not have let Morrowseer take her son if there was a chance to intervene, so Flame must have already been gone when she found out).

A contingent of Nightwing awaits them, blindfolds them so they don't know where the entrance to the Nightwing home is. They pass through a kind of eldritch tunnel that pulls at their souls. When they are finally allowed to see again, they find themselves trapped on an island where there is no sunlight and every breath hurts as the air is thick with ash.

The Nightwings won't let them leave, in fact they don't know if they will ever be able to leave again. Nobody tells them what's going on, what they are meant to do, or what the plan is. They are left confined in some room with nothing to do, and they (sans Fatespeaker) can't go outside without being arrested. Food is brought very infrequently, and usually inedible, so they haven't eaten since they were forced to leave home. They don't know where they are, nor where their parents are, nor if their parents know where THEY are. They are completely cut off from anywhere, isolated, trapped in this little slice of hell with no means to escape and little hope to acquire any soon.

I think if I was in a situation like that, I would be pretty cranky too. More than that, I would be scared out of my wits, and I believe that they are as well. If you look at their actions through a lens of them being frightened, their irritating quirks suddenly become very relatable. Viper is coping by throwing out threats and making herself seem bigger and scarier than the thing trapping her. Flame makes offensive jokes about killing Fatespeaker because making light of the situation helps him keep his wits together. Ochre is hard to read, but I think he's just tuning everything out. Squid is convinced that his father--who is the most important and smart dragon in all of Pyrrhia--has made the correct choice and knows what's best for all of them. And Fatespeaker is in complete denial, choosing to trust an inaccurate vision of the future while ignoring all the red flags that don't fit into it.

I think it's interesting that you can read this as all of them having a different strategy to cope with the uncertain and frightening situation they're trapped in. That's part of why I like them; they're very flawed and make interesting decisions.

Trauma and Empathy

You can look at someone like Squid and see his surface traits: He is annoying, he whines and complains constantly, he brags about who his father is, and he seems completely incapable of doing anything useful. If this guy was in any other story, I would probably dislike him. But Squid has the benefit of being a whiny dweeb in a situation where it is very appropriate to whine and be scared. He has a scene where he makes a somewhat goofy speech at Morrowseer where he calls him stupid and wants to go home, and is subsequently exiled. It's a bit silly in execution, but for me it did succeed in making me feel bad for Squid as he desperately and pathetically pleads for Morrowseer not to send him to his death.

But then you can read beyond the lines a little and view the scene in the full context that isn't really dwelt on. Here, you've got Squid, who is inept even among his peers, sheltered and doted on by his father, whom he has never been away from for any real amount of time until now. This guy, who probably can't even feed himself (otherwise he might have been able to catch fish in the waters around the island), keeps telling himself that his father has a plan, that all of this, even the questionable stuff, is happening for a reason. He hasn't eaten in weeks and he's been the punching bag for everyone else's frustrations (because Fatespeaker is not around enough, hanging out with Starflight). Now he has been chased halfway across the world, forced to cross the ocean while tired and starving, to be told he has to talk to a bunch of violent strangers who hate his kind and want to kill him. He tries to hide but is grabbed by the throat and held in the air by a soldier twice his size. This is likely the first time his life has ever been threatened that directly and with genuine intent.

The strange new Nightwing who was sent with them somehow manages to deescalate the situation enough to save him, but then, without warning, more dragons burst into the room. Suddenly everything is on fire, including the soldiers who just a moment ago threatened him. He is close enough to them to watch their forms twist and writhe in agony as they slowly burn to death.

As he is made to watch this horrifying spectacle, all the feelings he repressed by reminding himself of the faith he has in his father come flooding back in at once. It becomes too much for him to bear, and he breaks. He starts crying and verbally lashes out at their abuser for the horrid conditions they have been placed in and demands--half asserting and half pleading--to be allowed to go home. This isn't really whining anymore, this is a full-scale mental breakdown, rendered to be simple and digestible to a young audience. Imagine how harrowing this scene could have been if it wasn't filtered through a child-friendly narrative.

Closing thoughts

There is a scene some time after that I found kind of poignant. At one point, Starflight looks out and he sees Flame just standing out there, silently staring into the distance. There's maybe one line dedicated to it, and when you read the book normally, you don't really dwell on it since it's so nondescript. But this scene happens shortly after the visit to the remote outpost. The soldiers that burned to death in there were all Skywings. Skywings like himself, and like his mother, who also was a soldier before she joined the Talons. Whenever I picture him standing there, I imagine he is reliving that moment, hearing the dying screams of his kinsmen. I think he will be hearing them forever.

So in conclusion: The reason why I like the alternate dragonets so much is because of the enormous, untapped potential they possess as characters, and how deep some of them run if you take some time to look at them. I feel like all of them have a story to tell, and it's a bit of a shame that Sutherland likely won't come around to telling any of them. If I had infinite time, money, and energy, I would love to make many more comics about them, as they are an interesting lot.

Especially Flame's story I feel is such a heartbreaking tragedy, and thinking about the way it ended saddens me. He's one of my six all-time favorite characters in the series, I wish he could have gone out in a happier, healthier way.