Glory takes, opinions etc. 🌺
I like glory. She and tsunami are one of my favorite dragons from okokok I like them all, I like most of it not all the dragonets of destiny dragons and for the most part I feel like Glory and Clay got done the dirtiest in terms of story arc, story telling and even their tribes.
First off, I don't like that she's just another secret princess protag like Tsunami is. At least it makes more sense with her given how the rainwings were operating, but even less sense with Tsunami who had many factorings going against her, like given the Orca Statue, being guarded by the royal guards, etc. Etc. Etc. Least with Glory it makes sense, it's just considering she comes after Tsunami's arc, it feels like she's just another secret princess and it's already been done literally in the last book. What are the odds?!
Also not only is she a secret princess but she ends up with TWO tribes to rule over, they could eventually fuse into a new race of dragons in the far far future given they don't split up after Glory's gone or hell even during Glory's reign, but like. She's a secret princess and not only is she not girly and kickass but she's also extra extra special and gets to unite two tribes! It feels very cliche and not at all fun.
Also she's very colorful and unlike most rainwings with mostly minimalistic color palettes, is actually almost every color of the rainbow at once, lacking at most, red and purple, and the way the colors are utilized in her design isn't bad on the eyes. Like at all. She gets the memo she's a tropical rainforesty dragon and does so nicely. It's just why are the rest of her tribe, despite being the tribe that's naturally green but able to be any color they please, and actively often choose to not be mostly green, have very simple and plain color palettes? Y'know the tribe that changes colors on a whim and basically wear their emotions on their scales have simple basic color palettes. Kinda a let down and I may remedy this in the future using bases I bought.
Like she isn't 100% a Mary Sue, and I won't call her that, but like the one time she should be right (as she tends to be right about most things) is about her tribe. I hate how every tribe's racial stereotype is true. And literally the one moment a character tries to call out this issue into question, she's proven false? And it's never brought up again.
The reason I make a big deal about this other than it basically justifies the dragons racist remarks towards one another's tribes basically always true, if you go in and try to make them human, you'll run into issues really really fast. All the dragons that would be possible be POC based on "coding" or natural environment, which also takes coding into account have negative stereotypes for that race:
The desert dweller dragons while they like music, are also economically poor, and tend to be sly shady dragons who are most known for being assassins and thieves, and just generally like dragons who you can't trust if they had just told you a lie or not. Also the castle was confirmed to be based on an Indian building, Fort Amber.
The jungle rainforest dragons while they seemingly have a perfect utopia where money isn't an issue and medical treatment is free... are all stupid and lazy, to the point they don't care if one of the most important members to their society, a princess goes missing. They are assumed to be pretty... And pretty harmless all around despite how OP they can be.
The muddy swamp dragons are lazy idiots who think nothing but of food, to the point one even SOLD HER CHILD FOR A FEW COWS, and when basically asked to think twice on the matter ... Didn't.
Hivewing would definitely be a mixed race, having been a hybrid of the very British coded Nightwings and Silkwings. And the only noteworthy thing the Hive dragons did was enslave the Silk wings and try to wipe out the leaf wings. And while there was an attempt to shift the blame to a plant and a dragon named freedom and the shit head Cottonmouth, might I remind you the Hivewing when not under mind control still abused their power over the Silkwings, and still didn't object to enslaving another race of dragons.
To add fuel to the fire, Nightwings are again British coded. Ignoring the blatant all nightwings minus the two that weren't raised with the tribe have British accents, the fact they will not stop middling in the history and politics of other tribes, including those who did not FUCKIGN as for, to the point they'll go as far as to intentionally try kick out another tribe from their home to take over, even capturing individual of said tribe to torture and abuse for "science's sake", treating them as if they arent even fellow sentient creatures who canonically speak the same language as them. Y'know, colonisation 101?
And then the fuck Clearsight did, her first move is to jump ship and seek a rebound romance with a tribe she's never seen before besides her visions, breed with them till one of the tribes there goes extinct and basically destroy their entire culture, including their language. The ancestors of her children also were the Hivewings, funny how she saw many things far far far into the future beyond her lifespan, and didn't try to warn of the Hivewings. Like it's canon the book held prophecies that were meant for AFTER she died, that's basically the whole book's purpose, but no mention of the Hivewings, very conveniently written if you ask me.
Like this isn't just a Glory was wrong issue, it's just the issue is most important to her story, her book where that's literally what she came to her home tribe hoping to disprove. But she was instead proven wrong and her tribe's stereotype was indeed true, and that set the status quo from there on out.
Besides this, another major thing I don't like is that all the dragons were given (potential) mates basically right out the gate, as soon as they were free. And I do not like any of them. I think they should have settled in and tried to find stable lives outside of trying to fix the world issues and get dragon world peace in order first before finding mates. They don't even really get a chance to find a true sense of self outside of being "prophecy brats" and realizing all their parents suck.