Once upon a time, there was a small RainWing who loved everyone. Kinkajou paused.
She dipped her claw in the ink and scribbled out the last word. Once upon a time, there was a small RainWing who loved almost everyone. Which is fair enough, right? I mean, who could love every dragon? Some of them were even hard to like.
For instance, she had this one venom training teacher who was very mean to her. Not to name names. It was Bromeliad.
So she definitely didn't have to love her. I mean, would you? Also, this one time, our hero was kidnapped by NightWings, and most of them were even meaner than Bromeliad. And they were like that on purpose, because they were trying to scare everyone.
And listen, I know they had hard lives, but kidnapping dragons and being awful to them is still not okay, right? So it's alright to still be mad at some of them even a while later, don't you think? Also, some of her RainWing friends even noticed she was kidnapped, which made her love them a little bit less than she wanted to, although she really did love them lots before, but how could they not even care that she was missing? Oh, and also, there was this one big old shape-shifting dragon who attacked her so hard- Kinkajou stopped and wrinkled her snout with a scroll. This story was turning out a lot grumpier than she had planned. She slipped over her shoulder at her best friend.
Across the cave, Moon was curled up with her own scrolls, studying intently. She had her very serious Moon look on, which meant she probably didn't want to give Kinkajou writing advice right that exact second. Which was fine, Kinkajou could do this herself.
She pushed the grumpy scroll off her writing rock and spread out a brand new one. Right, let's try this again. How else did stories about heroes start? Kinkajou tried to remember some of the ones she had studied in school this year.
There was that one scroll that Webs assigned for history class about a brave SeaWing from long ago. It was kind of weird how many scrolls were about amazing SeaWings, honestly. She remembered it started with a story from when a SeaWing was a dragonet.
That was tricky, though. Kinkajou didn't really like talking about her life before she met Queen Glory. Because back then, she was the noisy one, and the one who talked way too much, and, oh no, here comes Kinkajou, and the troublemaker.
She thought her friends still liked her and didn't really mind that she was a little different. But then, none of them had cared when she was kidnapped, so that would seem to indicate that maybe they didn't like her that much after all. It didn't matter, though.
Kinkajou had Glory and Moon now, and other friends at Jade Mountain Academy, who she was pretty sure liked her. Hopefully, most of the time. Also, she wasn't thinking about this.
Okay, perhaps she could start her story with the time she was kidnapped by NightWings. Whoa, that was such a gloomy beginning. It had been horrible on the NightWing Island until Glory showed up and rescued her.
Glory was shiny and brave and smart and cared a lot about all dragons, including dragons she'd never even met. And she was very different from every other NightWing, but it didn't bother her at all. Kinkajou hoped she would be like that one day, all cool and unbothered.
Maybe she should wait to write her story until she was a little more like Glory. No, no. Starflight said to start writing for the practice.
I can write something. Today. Yes.
Here I go. Kinkajou went over the new scroll. Once upon a time, there was a RainWing named Kinkajou.
Most dragons would think, oh, that dragon is small and harmless and frequently pink. And she smiles too much. So who needs to worry about her? Certainly not us, the bad guys who want to take over the world.
What are the chances a tiny RainWing can stop us? None, that's what. We turn up our arrogant bad guy noses to her. Well, guess what? All those bad guys were wrong.
Turns out even little smiley dragons can save the world. More than once, in fact.
“Oops.” Kinkajou said, accidentally out loud.
“Oops what?” Moon said absentmindedly. Kinkajou sighed.
“I think I just did the thing where I gave away the ending in the first couple of paragraphs again.”
Moon looked up and blinked at the drift of scrolls piled around Kinkajou's talons.
“What are you doing?”
“I'm writing the very exciting, long-awaited, extremely dramatic epic of Kinkajou that readers everywhere have been demanding. Well, I'm trying to. Moon, did you know that writing is actually very hard?”
Moon laughed, and Kinkajou repressed the urge to run across the cave and hug her.
“I just can't figure out where to start.” A wave of concerned laughter rippled across Kinkajou's wings. She paused, took a deep breath, and turned the back to sunflower yellow.
Yellow was for happiness. Yellow made other dragons happy, too. Yellow and pink, the colors Kinkajou wanted everyone to see, and the colors she wanted to be inside and out.
“That's normal, I think,” Moon said. She rubbed her forehead, frowning a little. “Maybe try writing down everything that flies through your brain, and then you can edit it later.”
“I have a lot of things that fly through my brain.”
“I know, but it's all wonderful,” Moon said, which made Kinkajou want to hug her again. And that's when Starflight-
“Oh. Ow.” She folded over, clutching her head. Her silver speckled black wings unfurled like billowing distress signals.
“Moon!” Kinkajou cried. The ink bottle spilled a long shadow across the blank scrolls as she leapt to her feet and flew across the cave. “Moon, are you alright? Moon?” She wrapped her wings around her friend and pressed her front talons over Moon's.
“No, no,” Moon whispered.
“What is it? You can't be doing another prophecy!” Kinkajou shook her gently. It hasn't been long enough since the last one.
“It's Glory,” Moon gasped, her eyes flying open.
“Glory?” Kinkajou's heart stopped. “Queen Glory? My Queen Glory?”
“She's in danger. They all are. Something is about to... I can't…” Moon closed her eyes again, clutching her talons like she wanted to drive her claws into her head and drag the visions out.
That was all Kinkajou needed to hear. Or rather, she would have been delighted to hear more, such as extremely specific details about danger and how to stop it. But she had witnessed Moon's visions before, and the thing was that it could take forever to spit them out.
And even once Moon shared everything she saw, the details part was always still kind of vague and unhelpful. So, Glory in danger and upset, Kinkajou was out the window before Moon could open her eyes again.
“Wait!” Moon shouted. “Kinkajou, come back! We need help, and if you... We have to…”
Whatever she said next was lost to the wind, rushing around the peaks of Jade Mountain. Kinkajou soared toward the rainforest as fast as her wings could beat. Moon could go tell someone in charge and ask for help and organize whatever official mission needed to happen.
I got my copy of book 16 a few days ago and lord do I have some things to say about it 🥹🥹
(I’d like to mention that I LOVE MULBERRY SO MUCH OMG HE’S SO TRAGIC BUT SO WONDERFUL AND HE SOUNDS LIKE MICHAEL BUBLÉ IN MY HEAD 💕💕)
I LOVE Umber and Mulberry’s relationship a lot and especially during the waterfall scene they’re off to a wonderful start and I’m glad Mulberry found someone who sees him for who he is as a dragon and not from how special he is. The fact that they’re now going to raise Harmony together is also really adorable I hope Mulberry is the next protagonist <3
Platypus is also really cool. At first I was worried we were just going to have another Freedom/Sundew/Snowfall but I was very pleasantly surprised to find that she’s got a personality outside of being loud and angry. I’d like to know more about Aurora too and I’m really looking forward to seeing all the fanarts of her because her description is SO pretty.
WE GOT MONARCH LORE‼️‼️‼️‼️
That cliffhanger epilogue pmo so much though 💔 I don’t want to wait another 7 months to know what happened to all the missing queens (and kinkajou for some reason???) but I’m foaming at the mouth WHERE’S THE NEXT PART
also Kinkajou being stolen implies that we will see the rest of the Jade Winglet again which is awesome because I’m a sucker for more Moonwatcher content <3.
If there’s one complaint I have it’s the pacing, does anybody know how long the book takes place for? I know the last chapter is 6 months later but I mean the whole book.
QUEEN WASP ESCAPED PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET HER DIE RHIS ARC 💔💔💔💔💔
(Pls ignore the switched thumbs talons on the background legs I suck at anatomy and I only realised like when the drawing was done 😭)
I’ve never really designed many OCs nor talked about them but I saw this mood board and thought it would make a really cute SilkSing hybrid. This is Zelkova, a pre-tree wars hybrid. She can’t produce silk but she does have some Leafspeak :)
Would absolutely love to see more of your commentary of why you don’t like how winter x qibli is depicted in fandom (genuine)! Also would love more qibli x winter art if you’re up for it!
i would absolutely love to provide more commentary! I was decently big on the ship as a kid so this is partially personal, but I also just love a chance to talk.
I should start turning book events into clickbaity Youtube thumbnails...
Of course, the usual disclaimers: YES this is my opinion, YES I am no more wrong or right than anyone else in the world, YES you are welcome + encouraged to carry out a respectful discussion in my comments regardless of whether you agree/disagree with my take!
Nothing I'm saying is especially unpopular, and these issues aren't really uncommon in mlm/queer ships across the board. In fact, there's a lot of good commentary on qinter out there (like right here, thanks ravewing) but it's never too late for me to throw my OWN jumble of words!
REMEMBER: not every fan is like this. This is not an accusatory post. I am answering a question on my own personal experiences and beliefs!
Be warned: this post discusses NSFW, and has mentions of sensitive topics such as non-con. Read at your own discretion.
this isn't even them
Very few ships in Wings of Fire involve mischaracterization as frequently as Qinter, and I like to call the fanon an 'uncanny valley' dynamic. this refers to the way certain parts of their chemistry are exaggerated or pulled back, ex: Qibli gets more flirtatious and less genuine... He's almost canon, but not. These mischaracterizations compound over time, leaving us with the present-day hollow slop that is fanon qinter content.
What makes matters worse is how foggy the 'ethics' of fanon content really are. (And no, I don't mean actual ethics: I'm talking about every individual person's right to interpret the books however they want.) Technically, that's true! But you don't use quotes in English class for no reason. I find that when interpretations and headcanons become the widely-accepted truth, the characters involve stop looking like themselves.
To give credit to the culprits of this crime, it's hard not to use headcanons with Qinter - they have minimal content and a vague, unsatisfying ending with no closure. But at what point does this stop being them? Has it gone too far? At least for me, the answer is yes.
2 - THE PORN.
I have no kind words about the abundance of NSFW writing/artwork within the Qinter fanspace. Just in case you guys didn't know, here's the official WoF wiki Dragon-to-human age chart:
Here are Winter and Qibli's Dragon ages:
Remember all of that NSFW content you've probably seen at some point? Yeah, those two characters aren't old enough to make a DISCORD account. They also can't get their ears pierced without their parent present, have a part-time job, or hang out at the older kids' club in a Disney cruise. Because they are ELEVEN. The vague depiction of different ages in the series does little to justify this, because Qibli and Winter still act like minors (teenagers specifically) no matter how you spin it.
^ small edit: there has been some discussion about the use of the fanon age chart and strange dragon maturity in WoF. I didn't write the chart, I have no personal attachment to it, I think it's reasonable to disagree with it! Tui DID confirm both characters are minors, so the only thing ruined here is my joke. bummer.
I will never support the creation/normalization of NSFW content in this fandom, because I know YOU GUYS know Wings of Fire is a book made for kids - and by extension, a fandom made for kids. We will never be able to truly stop our younger audience from seeing our blogs, fanfictions and drabbles: and so consciously making 18+ content is as ethically dubious as it is weird.
(This isn't about kinks - do whatever you want! But damn, you couldn't choose to be a monsterfucker anywhere else? really? There was not one other adult fandom with dragons? You couldn't just make wof-ish ocs or something? You had to directly link the KIDS BOOK SERIES?)
I even did a little research (Asking my friends) to see how many of them had accidentally stumbled across NSFW content as kids in the fandom. They did, although it was more of an Ao3 problem (I can believe that LMAOAOA)
But we're not done talking about NSFW just yet - I want to touch on the sexual jokes a little, because they are twice as abundant as the raw 18+ qinter content. (and yes, we are getting back into mlm-fetishization territory!) I know the main defense behind this type of content is that they both know each other, or they're teasing, or it's just a joke...
But is it even a good joke? Speaking from personal experience (again,) I don't really find these super funny. Mostly because they are underage.
3 - The Demonization of Moonwatcher
My third point is arguably more controversial than my first two, mostly because I haven't seen a single soul bring this up. Buckle up, because we're about to get really woke.
Only one real problem stands in the way of Qinter army, and that is poor Moonwatcher. An equally unwilling participant in the arc 2 love triangle, and yet she somehow manages to be either hated or ignored in 95% of Qinter content. As a chronic Moon lover, this enrages me to no end - the more I look, the more I find instances where my GOAT falls victim to the subtle misogyny of a yaoi-centered space.
Plot device, villain or absentee - Moonwatcher rarely ever gets to be her authentic self in a concerning amount of fics and cartoons: always treated more like a roadblock than a developed, well-loved side character. Other female characters are also treated this way - namely Kinkajou, who's joke-crush on Winter is almost never mentioned (it would be inconvenient to Qinter, so why should it be included?) Of course, I do need to clarify that I don't have personal beef with every single Qinter fic that doesn't include a substantial mention of Moonwatcher - I too understand that context is important, and that most people don't even stop to think about things like this while typing up their comfort fanfiction. They might not remember the Kinkajou thing, and That's okay too! But remember: Like many other oppressive ideologies/systems, the patriarchy has a strange way of infecting spaces in ways you wouldn't usually expect.
This issue definitely goes beyond Qinter and fandom/ship culture, so it isn't as directly relevant as my other topics - however, it does still feed into the slew of reasons I don't really fuck with fanon qinter and so I decided to include it in the post.
Ok Chow, Stop complaining
IM DONE! As per usual, you are free to agree or disagree at your own leisure. The beauty of opinions is that we can all have our very own, so be respectful in my comments! Before I conclude this ramble, I have to mention a few post-discussion disclaimers:
Every Qinter fan is different, and most of them are pretty normal. This post discusses the faults of a loud minority, not a collective.
I'm much more interested in being conversational than combative - If you walk away from this doing any kind of inner or outer reflection at all, that's a win for me!
I think making 18+ content in a kids fandom is irresponsible and shady - I encourage NSFW wof content creators to block me.
I don't have anything against kinks that don't hurt anyone - what you like is none of my business. Point #3 is what I care about!
All things considered, I still think Qinter is a very good ship. It's really just the fanon that tends to dissuade me, but that's something I can fix one fanart at a time! On the topic of fanart, I've had a lot of people ask for more Qinter content, and I do plan on making some! Since I am a canon warrior, I plan on re-reading their adventures in Darkness of Dragons first.
This was a long read, and I hope it was entertaining enough. thank you so much for hearing me out! I'd love to hear what you guys think. And if you were part of the fandom at a young age, I'm curious to know about your experience with seeing/not seeing nsfw - my sample size was small, and I think it will be interesting to see how common it actually was!
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