#DRAGONSSS!

[amielot]

@teejaystumbles posted the final chapter of Flatter the Mountain Tops and I have emotions about it.

[tokyozilla]

Drinky doodles of a BIG DRAGON

[little-doggy-girl-kisser]

need a falin to my marcille </3

[itslanners]

arvelle can have a little violence, as a treat

@dragonaday-fr day 5 prompt!

[tunguszka20]

Okayokayokay I found a coloring book today that had dragons in it (not only dragons, but dragons too), and when I was looking for a color palette for them, it made me think, so. Here's a poll.

(edit: the question is, which color feels like it fits "the original dragon" idea in your head. Like. When you imagine the original dragon, what color do you imagine it to be. Idk if it was clear before but now it's clarified)

[percephilous]

httyd au what the hell thats crazy ! wowzers.

i have a list of all the dragons ive given to people, only drawn venam and melia tho. venam gets a slitherwing and melia gets a hobblegrunt :) no i will not explain [i will] feel free to ask more

the other one is august and his daughter who I hav eyet to name!!! deathsong/lightfury hybrid because I cant be normal and it looks cool ok

[mettywiththenotes]

Can't stop looking at the dragons in this art, the detail is incredible

[wintersoldier4ever]

EEEEEEEE WELL DRAGONS ARE HEREEE

i only had 1 wishing coin so i threw it in the pot

and im NOT dissapointed

LOOK AT THIS BABYYY

[verflares]

think i made a post like this ages ago but its crazyyyyy how bad i wanna get back into flight rising

[themundanemudperson]

can you turn into a dragon.

I do not believe I can 😔 alas

What about you?

[dracastales]

Some dragon doodles

[ladydeath-vanserra]

me, making the Welsh!Night Court: dragons. dragons dragons DRAGONS

[radiant-flutterbun]

The trans dragons are no longer visible D:

[magpieinstitute]

Sometimes, one needs to paint dragons. The only problem is that dragons are hard to paint, so I gave it my best shot lol.

[competentcormorant]

We need to talk about Secrets of the Songwing and LGBTQ representation.

Dreamworks. Hey. Sup.

Remember when you made Secrets of the Songwing?

That one Rescue Riders special where they tried to do the representation thing but ended up making something that honestly borders on genuinely insulting, despite being surprisingly beautiful on the surface?

Because I remember. Secrets of the Songwing lives rent free in my head. Do I love it? Just a little, to be honest. I find ending sequence is genuinely beautiful. Here’s why it’s shit representation. If you also have feelings I’m open to discourse in the comments :)

The story follows the Rescue Riders (as well as a bunch of side characters whose appearance in the story makes ZERO sense without the show to prop them up) as they attempt to thwart Melodia, a rogue Songwing dragon who hypnotizes other dragons by singing to them. Melodia is heavily implied to be gay, but this is only revealed at the very end of the movie.

Right off the bat, this story has some extremely dark undertones, including the implication that hypnotized dragons will forgo food and sleep, and will simply sing until they die. That’s not why we’re here. I promised bad representation.

As the story progresses, Melodia hypnotizes some of the Rescue Riders dragons, and the rest of the team begins to concoct increasingly ill-conceived plots to get them back. (Side note: This movie has an excessive reliance on earplugs and being unable to hear hypnosis song. Unfortunately, these are magical plot earplugs, and they block Melodia’s singing but literally nothing else, because writing cause and effect is difficult. Additionally, I suspect they paid the writers in Swiss cheese instead of money.)

Things escalate, and Layla (a Rescue Rider) identifies Melodia as a Songwing dragon. (“I didn’t realize at first, because songwings usually travel in pairs”) OH REALLY? YOU DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THE MASSIVE SPARKLY SINGING RAINBOW DRAGON BECAUSE THERE WEREN’T TWO OF THEM? Suuuure Layla. Remember this line. It will be important later.

Eventually, the riders manage to get the still-hypnotized dragons to return to Berk. (Sorry, knockoff Berk) There are a few pointless plot threads involving show characters, and then Melodia shows up at Not-Berk to hypnotize the Vikings as well as the dragons she already controls. At this point, her motive has not been established beyond “I want everyone to sing with me.” While it is implied that she’s lonely (and, going off of the single offhand comment Layla made earlier, missing her “songmate,” as Songwings travel in pairs) this implication of loneliness only really occurred to me in hindsight, and is inexplicably and poorly explained to the audience by Dax, another rider, at the very end. This movie’s 4 year old target audience probably have NO CLUE why this massive rainbow dragon is flying around trying to hypnotize everyone to “sing with me forever.”

Melodia is not a sympathetic character, because her supposed loneliness is never on display for the audience. All we see is a happy go-lucky dragon stealing free will with some mediocre songs.

Continuing with the plot, Melodia hypnotizes the entire population of Not-Berk. Only a few Riders are left unhypnotized. Exessive screen time is dedicated to making Melodia appear selfish, having the entire village pass her fish while no one else eats. Why? Why not make her sympathetic? This choice to make her completely villainous until her defeat is an extremely strange choice for a character the writers intend to redeem suddenly at the very end.

In the background, Layla is having a subplot about being able to sing in front of people, because only a better song can break a Songwing’s spell. Does it make sense? Not really, but this plot is set up and loosely held throughout the movie, so I really can’t complain about it.

Anyhow, Layla and Melodia have a song battle, and Layla wins, unhypnotizing the knockoff Vikings of Not-Berk. Right until the end of this song battle, Melodia remains unchanged, attempting to keep control. When Layla wins, Melodia’s personality shifts entirely.

Melodia sinks in on herself, and says “help? you’d help me?”. She is immediately FORGIVEN by Layla, saying “you said you lost your songmate, right?” (No, actually. She never said that. The only previous mention of a pair of dragons in any capacity is when Layla brings it up as a trait of the Songwing species. The conversation this line references never happened.) While I can forgive some plot holes in low-budget kids movies, this inconsistency is so blatant and problematic that it makes the ENTIRE PLOT OF THE MOVIE (That loneliness can make people to terrible things, and that those people can still be redeemed. This plot is utterly mishandled, to the point that they literally have Dax TELL MELODIA that “You lost the other half of your pair, and you’ve been trying to replace it with dragons and people.” YEA DAX, I think Melodia would know. Why not have her say it herself? OR SHOW HER BEING LONELY? Oh sorry, I forgot, you think kids are morons, and your writers are actually trapped in a basement signaling desperately for help).

Anyhow, this inconsistency- referencing a conversation about Melodia’s songmate that didn’t happen, makes the ENTIRE PLOT POINTLESS, because the writers FORGOT TO ESTABLISH THE LONELINESS, which was LITERALLY THE WHOLE POINT. (I genuinely could not believe that there wasn’t context for Layla’s line, so I rewatched the movie. Several times. Layla is referring to an event that didn’t happen)

After this series of increasingly odd writing choices, the movie moves on to a genuinely beautiful ending sequence.

No joke there, I just love it. Melodia is presented with a sound amplifying devise Layla used for a bit during her singing confidence sub-plot, and she uses it to call for her songmate. In a vacuum, this sequence is incredible. Cantana, her songmate, hears her, and they have a brief reunion duet.

With the rest of the movie as context, it has the single glaring issue of releasing a horrific, unsympathetic villain with zero repercussions.

Hell, if that scene had been framed as “what you did was bad, but you aren’t, so we’ll help you as long as you never do it again,” I would have no issues (again, kid’s movie. I can accept a simple, forgiveness-heavy narrative).

But while I understand a movie trying to teach young children forgiveness, this is TERRIBLE. Melodia doesn’t appear repentant, she appears manipulative. She suddenly changes tune after being defeated and outnumbered, and then gets to walk away Scot-free.

While I don’t object to having gay villains in movies, any more than I could object to straight villains, I do object to heavily relying on established gay villain tropes. (May I remind you this is a magical, singing, selfish rainbow dragon)

But ultimately, by biggest problem with this movie is that “being gay” is a substitute for a redemption ark. Seriously. That’s such a dumb sentence. I SOULD NOT have to write that.

You can make Melodia an unapologetic villain (who also happens to be gay).

You can give Melodia (who also happens to be gay) a redemption arc.

But you CANNOT do this.

Dreamworks, this is a dumpster fire. Please think before you release movies.

What the fuck.

Stop paying your writers in Swiss cheese.

It’s still better than How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. Change my mind, you cowards.

[firebuug]

i dont wanna get up today and do things aauhwasghnw ive done Enough this week...