#winter turning

[pshenoaga]

Winter!!

Participated in a redraw book's cover flashmob

[ninoxwof]

Foeslayer/Hope the Nightwing

[wingsoffirenews]

Aaron Waltke has been reading up on the Wings of Fire series!

[quotidianish]

I SPENT SO LONG JUST EDITING THIS THING WHEN I THOUGHT ART WAS THE HARD PART… if the transitions are weird no they aren’t trust me

YouTube version here!

Some stills. Mom Foeslayer truther forever

[smolandweirdwriter]

anyway i actually love animus magic as an allegory. i love that power doesn't make someone automatically a bad person or give them less of a 'soul' for using it but it does inhibit a sense that you can do whatever you want without consequences and without regulating it you'll invariably end up uncontrollably hurting yourself and others. I love that being the message of a kid's story. I love it so much

[mymanyfandomramblings]

I Reread And React To 'Winter Turning': Part One

That's right, this series is back, and it's Winter-themed this time! Now, without further ado:

I simply cannot get over Hailstorm saying 'Can you catch me? No you cannot!' Nobody says 'cannot' in that context. It flows horribly.

However, I love Hailstorm indulging in Winter's intense interest in scavengers. Hailstorm doesn't get it, but he does love his brother.

Hailstorm notes that Winter is 'much more fun to tease' than Icicle. This is true. Winter is fun to tease (see: pretty much every conversation he has with Qibli) and I have no doubt that if you attempt to gently rib Icicle, she will try and fight you and kill you.

Also, really interesting that Hailstorm finds everything about being a proper IceWing very natural--he doesn't have to work to be at the top of the First Circle, and his advice to Winter absolutely comes from a place of 'it just comes naturally to me, and I don't know what bit you're struggling with'.

Also, Hailstorm deliberately being as hurtful to Winter as possible so that Winter will storm off and avoid getting captured by the SkyWings. Devastating stuff from both sides.

It's interesting that the epilogue ends with a dragon heavily implied to be Pyrite (the description matches Pyrite, and she's shown taking off a necklace as she approaches Hailstorm) coming over to put the necklace on Hailstorm, but that's really interesting--was whoever was wearing the necklace not compelled via enchantment to keep it on? Or is 'loyalty to Scarlet' enough to overrule the 'you must keep it on at all costs' enchantment? Interesting stuff.

Also, shout-out to the prologue being a flashback, and then the first chapter opening with a flashback.

I think there's something great about Winter seeing the polar bear with her cubs and hesitating because he needs to hunt the bear, but she's a mother, and then he sees the scavenger sitting there with his spear, and the scavenger also needs to hunt the bear and it's also hesitating because the bear has cubs, and it's just a beautiful moment of silent inter-species bonding over shared humanity (you know what I mean).

AND THEN WINTER'S PARENTS TURN UP! BOO 👎

anyway, I love how much Winter adores scavengers and also steadfastly refuses to believe that they might think, act or feel in a way that is comparable to dragons.

Also, Winter's feelings of betrayal when Moon reveals that she has powers are so interesting because his first instinct is to go 'so she is just like the other NightWings! I thought she was different'. It's so interesting how all of the Jade Winglet react to Moon hiding her powers--Kinkajou's offended because it feels like a breach of friendship to keep that kind of secret, Qibli is just so scared of having his internal thoughts read, Turtle's chill because he understands why Moon would hide them (and also she can't read his thoughts, which totally helps), and Winter goes 'ugh, turns out that even though she's smart and beautiful and intriguing and kind, she IS still a NightWing and a lying traitor. I was hoping that she'd be the only NightWing who isn't ontologically evil, because I have an inconvenient crush on her.' Winter isn't willing--for now--to let Moon change his opinions on NightWings as a whole. Anything good she does is despite being a NightWing and anything she does wrong is because she's a NightWing.

Turtle eagerly volunteers to fly back to JMA and warn the other teachers. Get This Man Out Of The Rain. He Does NOt Want An Adventure.

Kinkajou is so disappointed and annoyed when he wants to go back. 'How are we supposed to be the second coming of the dragonets of destiny if there's only four of us?' that's so funny. I do wonder how much she'd thought about that possibility, and if she was assuming 1:1 equivalences (she ABSOLUTELY wants to be Glory in this situation).

Shout-out to Qibli for the 'nine thousand good points' he regularly makes that Winter hates.

On a side note, I do love Winter's utter annoyance about the fact that Qibli and Moon are very difficult for him to hate. IceWing bigotry is strong, but Qibli and Moon's combined charisma, intelligence and kindness is stronger.

[lesbianemone]

My favorite Winter Turning panels

[flawseer]

Foeslayer's Lament

The following is an alternative retelling of the final scene from Wings of Fire: Winter Turning, based on my own feelings and thoughts while reading the book.

I vividly remember getting to this part in the book. I listened to the explanation that an animus curse was keeping Foeslayer trapped in the Diamond Trial cavern and a lightbulb went on in my head.

"Oh, the curse is probably phrased in a way to specifically target Foeslayer, and Winter has an item on him right now that can obscure a person's identity," I thought with glee, "the author deliberately set that up as a Checkov's Gun, this is so brilliant! I can't believe how well this all fits together, oh my god!"

Then that never happened. Really, the Pyrite necklace never comes up again; Winter probably still has it on him today, forgotten in his pouch thingy. It felt a bit deflating.

I thus spent the better part of the last two weeks writing and illustrating this comic because I wanted to see how that scene would play out with the Checkov's Gun triggered. I think it still largely hits the same beats as the original narrative and ends in roughly the same place.

It's very possible this is all very silly and my perception of a smoking gun in the narrative is a huge delusion. Whatever it may be though, I hope you'll find this entertaining, or at least interesting as a thought experiment.