tell me about her wings! how do they feel to the touch? what does it feel like for her to have them touched by someone else? can the wings get hurt? what kind of maintenance, if any, do her wings need?
GLIMMER WITH WINGS!!! GLIMMER WITH WINGS!!! bless u balu for giving me a chance to talk about glimmer with wings!!!
to understand glimmer's wings and their properties in full, i have to first talk about glimmer's angelic lineage. full-blooded angelics ( such as glimmer's mother, angella ) are born with a pair of wings that grow alongside their magical abilities. this growth will stop when they reach what is called the "fledging age." at fledging age, they have mastered enough of their innate magical abilities, are ready to marry, and their wings have grown large enough to fly with. so, in angelic society, the size of ones wings are associated with an individual's maturity + magical prowess, and often dictate the respect one is owed. to learn more about the angelics, you can read the non - sparknotes version of their lore here.
glimmer, however, is not a full-blooded angelic. her father is a mortal sorcerer, meaning she is half-mortal, half-angelic. this impacts her ability to grow a full pair of wings, as she is missing 50% of the magical angelic blood required to do so. she is still born with the initial wings sprouting from her shoulderblades, but they show no signs of growing and are unable to be used for flight. this ties in directly with her magical shortcomings as, because she is half-mortal and shares her runestone with angella, she must recharge her powers every so often. both of these things play a large role in her feeling weak, inferior, and less than compared to her mother / other elemental princesses. and tie-in to the angelic belief that ones wings represent their use in society.
( glimmer's little wings, as seen in s1, ep8 princess prom and s1, ep7 in the shadows of mystacor episodes. )
it isn't until angella passes and glimmer is coronated as queen of bright moon that this changes. after glimmer connects fully with the moonstone as part of her coronation quest, she is imbued with enough ancestral magic that she can grow a full-fledged pair of pink wings, which she was not expecting at all. ( full blooded angelics have gray-clear wings, making glimmer’s exceptional. )
( glimmer receiving her wings, as seen in s4, ep1 the coronation. )
glimmer's wings differ from the wings of a bird, dragon, or whatever else in the way that they are magic. she is able to use them because of her connection to the moonstone. if she is out of contact with the moonstone ( such as when she is in space during season 5, ) or the moonstone has been impaired, her wings will disappear until that connection is restored. she is able to connect to the moonstone as long as she is on the same surface as it . . . so while a long journey will not impact this, a trip out of the atmosphere will. glimmer also has to learn to fly, a process which takes her a good year to really master. once she does, she can keep up with most, but not all, other flying creatures.
because her wings are magic, they appear candy pink and near - translucent to the eye. they are warm and somewhat tingly to the touch due to their concentration of moon magic, but they are solid and can be grabbed. because they aren't necessarily entirely part of her physical body, they aren't extremely sensitive unless she has just used her magic. one could brush against her wings in a resting state and she wouldn't notice, but if she has just exerted some magic, the slightest touch can either be very pleasant or very unpleasant, depending on the situation.
all that being said, to touch her wings without permission or initiation from her is seen as highly disrespectful. if glimmer does invite you to do so / initiates this, it means she feels incredibly safe with + close to you. she will show affection with another person by draping a wing over their shoulders, gently swatting at them with one of them, or wrapping them both around the other person to hold them close in an embrace.
( glimmer's wings as they appear post-coronation, as edited by the wonderfully talented @bravestshera crew. )
while she is initially put-off by their presence, thinking of them to be clunky and unlike her ( as well as a near-constant reminder of her departed mother ), glimmer's wings soon become as natural as additional limbs to her. they often betray how she's feeling without her realizing it. for example, when she's sad or tired, they'll droop. when she's super excited or frightened, they'll fly straight out to their full span. if she's feeling nervous, they tend to flap absentmindedly. if she's been sedentary for a long time, such as after sleeping, she'll sit up and stretch them out like you would arms. she also uses them a lot to appear more regal / intimidating when she feels she needs to and adds a lot of flight-reliant moves to her combat arsenal.
as with all angelic queens, glimmer's wings are a large part of her legend and the iconography associated with her reign. she is known by those who are not from etheria as their angel queen, their winged beauty, their heavenly creature, etc. they are essential to the respect she commands and a critical tie to her lineage, especially since she becomes the last of her kind after angella's demise. their very existence keeps angelic culture at the forefront of bright moon when many have tried and failed to wipe it, and wipe glimmer, out.
