Hi flawseer, not sure if you're still active on this blog but I did see you post in April so here's to hoping.
Just wanted to stop by and say these are some of the most interesting WoF blogs I've read in a really long time - I just finished your 'thoughts on the end of arc 2' post, and I have to say your evaluation of writing errors in the jade winglet (ESPECIALLY moon and winter) is so articulate and clear it actually made me excited. Like I've been reading this out loud over call its just so good. I also love how you structure your posts! The comic panels are such a cool way of illustrating your interpretation of the plot and it's really inspiring to see.
I don't know if you have read arc 3 since posting that page or if you already know this, but the jade winglet (Some of them) do make an appearance, which you might honestly not like very much. Take that as you will.
I DO have a question for this blog, not just rambling... if you haven't already (Still going through this blog so I apologize) what are your thoughts on Six-claws or fierceteeth? (Or honestly, any of the winglet series characters.)
Hey, apologies for the late reply.
I get a lot of questions that make me think “Hmm... This could go somewhere interesting. I don’t just want to throw out three lines here and call it done. So I better set it aside and think about it for a while.” Then it’s suddenly seven months later, I have answered nothing, and people have likely moved on.
Fierceteeth
“I’m on fire today! Turns out I’m better than him at that too! Ha ha ha!”
I’ve had my downs and ups with Fierceteeth. See, I thought she was kind of funny for a bit in book 4, with her “Hey, are you dying yet? I’m bored and want to take over your life.” thing towards Starflight. Then in book 5 where she abducted Sunny I was lukewarm on her. To be honest I probably would have forgotten about her then if that was the extent of her story.
It wasn’t until I read Prisoners that I really clicked with her. That story made me really like her; it’s amazing how much a character can be elevated if you just give them a little bit of focus and vulnerability. She also gives us the perspective of what it was like as a "normal" kid to grow up on the Nightwing isle.
Turns out it really sucks, and the incompetent Nightwing regime isn't any better if you aren't a main series protagonist only passing through.
I don’t know if this will make sense to anyone else, or even why I am thinking it, but she somewhat reminds me of Shenzi from The Lion King (the good one).
It may literally just be because she is the female leader of a trio of minor antagonists with a muted color scheme, but I swear they have other parallels. Specifically, they have the same chaotic energy where they’re clearly an antagonist, but you can also sort of imagine them in a role where they aren’t? Like she is almost a true neutral party that becomes aligned against the protagonists via external circumstances.
They’re also both very outspoken with a razor-sharp wit, but barely holding the chaos around them together. If Wings of Fire ever gets an animated adaptation, I hope they’ll take some cues from her.
Of course when Fierceteeth comes back for the finale of Arc 2, the hilarity has very firmly stopped. The thing Darkstalker did to her and presumably was going to do to her if he hadn’t been dealt with and his experiment continued is extremely messed up. I sincerely hope she doesn’t have to carry any memories from that because... yikes.
Let’s conclude this section on something more wholesome. I think I read in the guidebook that Fierceteeth and Strongwings had children, and Fierceteeth wants Starflight to be their uncle, implying she is starting to get over her dislike for him. That’s a pretty nice ending for her, I’m down with wacky relative Fierceteeth and Starflight and Fatespeaker having to attend awkward holiday get-togethers.
Six-Claws
He seems fine. He’s a nice, reliable guy, has potential. I like to imagine he is this collected, self-assured veteran who always has everything under control... except when it comes to parenting. He is completely awkward and out of his element when dealing with his daughter.
The secret twist is she got it from Thorn.
As a POV protagonist, he is... a bit plain. It’s really moreso everything that’s happening around him that makes Deserter an interesting read. That may be by design, so he doesn’t overshadow any of the other characters.
I liked seeing some of these other characters again. Blaze as a kid was hilarious, I liked the additional characterization it gave to Burn. Also cool to get to see Dune’s backstory, it made me finally understand what his deal is. Very nice supplementary short story overall. I enjoyed it.
There were only two things I was a bit “eh...” on.
I had heard prior to reading it that Deathbringer was going to be in it. He’s not mentioned by name but it’s evident its him since it was set up in Assassin. Knowing that in advance at the time, I wondered what his role was going to be. But it turned out it was extremely underwhelming? Not only is his inclusion completely superfluous and awkward, popping in to state the obvious and tell Six-Claws “You are feeling this now, here is where you should go next to set up the main series,” he actually kind of interrupts a really dramatic scene that could have flowed better without him, and then just... ninja vanishes. That was a bit weird (the interruption part, I can buy that he’s able to ninja vanish).
Like, is that really what all those fandom wars regarding Deathbringer are about that people tell me about? He was retconned to be older than he was in the main story just to justify this limp moment? That’s kind of weak, and not worth the grief that everyone has to endure over it.
The second point is the character of Kindle. She just gets tacked onto the story at the very end with no setup, probably because Ostrich (the little one) needs a mom, and we obviously need to see the mom in-story because we can’t just infer that he met someone while living at the Scorpion Den. The way she has nothing to do except to get assigned to the protagonist randomly makes her feel like a bit of a trophy. I don’t hate it, it doesn’t really make me feel anything, other than that it’s kind of a waste of a potentially interesting character.
I guess I’m in a rewrite-y mood lately, because this is giving me the itch to try and re-arrange some parts of this story, just for the fun of it. Let’s do that right now!
Deserter Redux
As I said, I really like the core of this story, so for the most part everything will stay exactly the way it is. But I’d like to accomplish two things:
First, I want to de-couple the Deserter plot from Assassin. Deathbringer really has no role in Six-Claws’ story and his lukewarm inclusion does a disservice to his character. Frankly, he shouldn’t even be alive at this point. So I’m taking him out. I’m altering the ending of Assassin; Deathbringer still gets dispatched by Morrowseer to kill some guy, but it will be someone else. Deserter meanwhile takes place AND concludes well BEFORE Assassin, instead of after. This will hopefully un-cramp some of the timeline jumble that occurs because of this unnecessary link.
Second, I want to take the ball dropped by Deathbringer and instead give it to Kindle, who should be an actual character in this story. I’m going to seed her into the plot much earlier, so she can actually help shape it to an extent, instead of just coming in at the end to be a name that can be added to fan wikis.
So, Deserter Redux begins with the hatching of Princess Blaze, just like it did originally. It jumps forward two years, Smolder talks to Six-Claws, who meets Dune in the school pavilion, and they rescue Blaze from the sandstorm. Then he and Dune get drafted into the army and become best friends. Everything here is the same.
After this, we insert a new scene here, taking place roughly six years after the recruitment. This is when the Sandwing pandemic happens and kills King Char, and it’s also when Six-Claws’ father Quicksand dies. Six-Claws has been established prior as having a really strong connection to his family, so the death of his father is a pivotal part of his life I don’t want to skip. So he will be in the dragon-equivalent of a hospital ward, comforting his father in the final moments of his life. This is where he meets Kindle for the first time, who is in-training to become a healer at this point.
Six-Claws is despondent when his father finally passes, giving us a glimpse of how bad he is at dealing with those around him dying, which will foreshadow how desperate he gets later to avert the senseless slaughter of his troops. Kindle is there as a soothing presence, helping him through it. She does it because it’s her job at first, but the two manage to form the earliest hint of a connection. It is clear they have good chemistry.
We jump ahead another four years; this is where Queen Oasis dies. This scene will also stay the same as it is. Maybe we’ll add a conversation between Six-Claws and dune about vague misgivings about being re-assigned to Burn’s service. They have a bad feeling, but push it down. Or maybe not.
Jump ahead another two years. Six-Claws and Dune have been chafing under Burn’s rule, but kept their spirits up. This scene opens at some kind of ceremony to celebrate Six-Claws’ promotion to General. He isn’t too happy about it though, because the promotion was preceded by his mother Ostrich falling in battle.
At the ceremony he runs into Kindle again, who is not doing well. She is now a full-fledged healer, but has been pulled out of the palace hospital ward to serve as a medic on the front lines. Burn is not too concerned with keeping her own soldiers alive though, so she has seen a lot of war casualties and it is affecting her mentally. She also tells a story about her old teacher who came with her to serve as another medic, who tried to complain to Burn about the high number of casualties, but was then made an example of and killed. She is worried that, the way things are going, she might be next.
Six-Claws and Kindle then talk about the war and Burn and all the senseless cruelty. It becomes clear neither of them likes their new queen very much. At one point Kindle mentions the Scorpion Den and tells of a dumb little fantasy she has, where she just runs away from it all to go there and live her life away from the war. Six-Claws understands her feelings but dismisses the idea. He has been taught to be loyal his entire life, and the thought of deserting is inconceivable to him. Kindle apologizes for bringing it up, but Six-Claws reassures her that it’s okay to hold on to as a comforting fantasy when things get hard.
Still, the story of Burn killing healers sits awkwardly in his stomach, and the next day he uses his newfound influence as a General to have Kindle re-assigned to his service to be close enough to protect her. Dune thinks that’s kind of weird, but goes along with it. It should be noted they are just friends at this point. They aren’t romantically involved. There is a hint that there MAY be a spark between them that COULD blossom into something in the future, when Six-Claws is no longer Kindle's commanding officer, but right now they are both staying professional.
I’ve neglected to mention Dune in a lot of this, but he is still in the story. Keep in mind I’m only describing the scenes I’m adding in any detail. He is still in all the scenes where I say “this is staying the same”. In practice this should result in an interplay of scenes of Six-Claws+Dune → Six-Claws+Kindle → Six-Claws+Dune → Six-Claws+Kindle →Six-Claws+Dune+Kindle, giving both of them equal narrative weight. The story should make it evident that all three of them become friends with each other eventually.
Finally, three years later, we arrive at the final stretch of the story. Dune is injured in battle and Six-Claws and Kindle are tending to him. Burn arrives to give new orders, but since we’re de-coupling the story from Assassin, she is NOT coming in to seize on the dissolution of Blister’s alliance with the Mudwings. That won’t happen for another 10 years. Instead, Burn is just getting bored with them scurrying around in the north and wants to do something more interesting. She’s going to hit the Mudwings, which so far have been neutral, inadvertently setting up their push to ally with the Seawings. Also, low key, Burn just really wants Six-Claws’ feet for her tower, so she wants him to be somewhere he is more likely to die.
Six-Claws thinks this stratagem is appallingly pointless and will just result in more enemies and casualties, so he tries to diplomatically dissuade her from doing this. This annoys Burn, who then enters the healers tent to use Dune as leverage, just like in the original story. Unlike the original story, Six-Claws is not interrupted by a cameo and follows her immediately, out of concern for Dune. In there, he and Kindle watch in horror as Burn mutilates Dune, forcing Six-Claws to bend the knee and accept Burn’s orders.
They wait for Burn to leave and Six-Claws—anguished at the senseless ruination of his best friend’s life—apologizes to Kindle and tells her she had it right all along, that they need to desert Burn’s forces and leave for the Scorpion Den immediately. So they do. The story ends on the same scene—Six-Claws and Kindle carrying Dune in blankets, but we’re cutting it a little earlier. There is a really profound image in there—where Dune just silently and sadly stares at Six-Claws’ beating wings—that is the perfect place to end it on. The tacked-on conversation about loyalty, and the folly of loyalty, and the importance of new loyalty, doesn’t really add anything that isn’t already present in subtext. We don’t want to waste that powerful image.
So, the story ends here, with the new blocking placing this final scene in 4997 AS, roughly eight years before the brightest night. This gives the trio more time to actually live inside the Scorpion Den for a bit, for them to meet Thorn and become friends with her, and for Dune to grow into his bitter, resigned self from the present who eventually betrays Thorn. Likewise, with the story now de-coupled from Assassin, it gives THAT story liberty to take place in 5007 AS—two years AFTER the brightest night—instead of in 5003 AS—two years before. This hopefully fixes that unfortunate timeline error/retcon that has half the fandom in an uproar, by making Deathbringer roughly the same as Riptide’s age which is more consistent with how he was portrayed and treated in the main story.
So with that, the redux timeline looks something like this (with an error margin of 1 year for any events on it):
I'm sorry. I do not know how to summarize the contents of this thing for alt text. I'm hoping all the previous text explains it all enough.
This went way out of the scope of the original question, but I figured I won’t get many opportunities to talk about the Winglets otherwise. There’s also a possibility that I’ll get torn apart over this, in which case I won’t have opportunity to talk about anything anymore. We will see.
Anyway, those are my very tangent-riddled thoughts about Fierceteeth and Six-Claws. I somehow almost wrote Six-teeth just now. That would probably be an unfortunate fate.
ANOTHER human au art compilation! Here’s the first! More info about the AU and their cultures under cut ~
Groundwork:
-Abilities which stem from things inherent to dragon biology (fire, venom, frostbreath, gills, etc.) aren’t present. More traditionally supernatural gifts (mindreading, oracle, animus magic, etc.) are still present. In retrospect this makes the Nightwings completely op but shhh
-Each tribe is inspired off a mishmash frankenstein of different real-world cultures
-Dragons are an endangered species, just a hum in the background and nearly hunted to extinction. They’re hardly considered a threat, especially when most humans haven’t even seen one in their lives. Once the centre of each people’s culture and civilisation, they’re now nothing more than Bigfoot sightings or exotic pets.
Culture:
-Sandwings are the least homogeneous tribe and take inspiration from various cultures in the Indian subcontinent and Arab nations (most largely India and Palestine). Many subcultures exist within the larger Sandwing kingdom. Common identifies (not present in them all, but there will usually be at least one) include gold accented accessories, darker skin, and clothing with light, desaturated, yellow/orange tones. They’re renowned for their abundance of poison, excellent street food, musical talent, and stereotypically maliciously intelligent. Regardless of class there’s a nation wide pattern (you can find the reference for it by Qibli’s headscarf) symbolising trade routes, oasis waters and dunes. It’s a symbol of national pride (included on thorn’s dress, and ostrich’s headband/headscarf).
-Nightwings are, on the contrary, the most homogeneous tribe due to their small population. They’re based on Japan (spanning multiple eras). I like to think the Nightwings lost a lot of their culture after migrating to the volcano, for they were once the most religious tribe, worshiping the moon alongside the Icewings, which I’ll get to later on their cultural similarities. I promise it’ll make sense. By now, all their deeply religious traditions have been relegated to superstitions. It was said they were blessed by the moons, but the connection has been largely severed. Only old dresses follow the tradition of embroidering in the moons they were born under. Moonwatcher’s dress is something akin to a hand-me-down, as are her silver earrings, it’s by coincidence it lined up with her actual birthday. Moon’s family was an exception because she came from a long line of seers (or alleged seers) who have done their best to preserve a crumbling culture. Common identifiers include near pitch black clothing and skin as pale as the moon.
-Icewings have some of the largest populations, however, are surprisingly homogenous. Most sub-cultural differences are as a result of class. They’re based on Mongolia and Manchuria. Like Nightwings they are also deeply religious, maintaining their beliefs through rigorous scholarship. Hair has intrinsic religious value as a gift from your family- therefore it cannot be cut. The same goes for ear piercings and any other physical alterations to your body. IceWing jewellery as a result is very distinct because of its lack of need for an ear piercing, hooking around the back of the ear instead. Common identifies include long/braided hair, and light, cool-colored clothing suited for the cold.
-Skywings are loosely Scottish inspired, and I do not have a lot to say about the rest of the tribes. Most of their clothing have feathered accents. The peregrine is a sign of luck and wealth, with their feathers being adorned on the upper classes. Geese and chickens, being common farm animals, are found adorned on working classes. The second richest tribe, employing silver, gold, lazuli, and about any gem they can find in their clothing. Common identifies include curly orange/red hair, taller statures, feathered accents, a tartan like pattern, and clothing ranging from yellow to magenta.
-Seawings are loosely based on various Polynesian cultures, most prominently that of the Māori. The sea has an intrinsic religious value to them, with all children learning to swim, sail, and/or fish. They live off the sea’s resources, rarely consulting the surrounding land for supplies. On rare occasions albatross birds and seagulls are plucked for headdresses. These are reserved for high ranked royalty. Their clothing is loose and well adapted for the warm beach setting. Common identifiers of Seawings include ta moko like tattoos, olive skin, and clothing ranging from lime to purple.
-Rainwings are loosely based on Thai, Indonesian, and Cambodian cultures. They’re colourful and have the second largest poison reserves (bested by sandwings). Having once been a trade centred tribe, now they’re isolationist, albeit not intentionally. They have many history records, almost as detailed as that of Icewings, but the art has been lost to a changing cultural atmosphere. Once too religious, now their intrinsically religious practices are more cultural. Their clothing is similar to sandwings in the fact they cover as much of the body as convenient but remain loose and breezy. Common identifiers include bronze tan skin, vibrant pigmented clothing, and flower motifs. Nightwing villages don’t follow that guideline, they build on the ground as a tribe with a focus on hunting. I’m assuming everything in this universe is made proportional to dragons, hence why the trees are so large. This assumption is based off that specific panel of Bandit in the book six graphic novel eating a blueberry as big as his head.
-Mudwings are sooo underdeveloped in my au (following in the steps of Tui herself) but they’re based on southern Chinese and Vietnamese cultures! They live in cities akin to Chinese floating villages, Vietnamese floating markets, and Tulou (architectural style of the Chinese Hakka) made of mud bricks. They're a very agricultural based people. Many of their villages are isolated communities- their emphasis on family extending to their towns. Common identifiers include umber skin, straw conical hats, and practical clothing in shades of brown.
[Image Description: A digital drawing depicting Ostrich, Six-Claws's daughter from Wings of Fire. She's a small, young Sandwing with big eyes, a small snout and light brown scales. She has a pale brown underbelly, wings and feet and red tinted brown stripes and spots on her body like a baby ostrich. Her sail is brown, segmented into strips that are like long flower petals. Her horns, eyes, claws and tail barb are a purple tinted black. She is sitting, smiling while playfully swatting at a feather in the air. /.End ID]
Funny idea about Qibli "kidnapping" Ostrich. It would be a series of hilarious misunderstandings, but would somehow all work out in the end.
Some real Sandwing Shenanigans!
A marketplace stampede accidentally separating the two dragonets from the rest of the Outclaws on a chaotic day, ends up with Qiblis bag swapping places with a bag of stolen treasure, leads to rumors that Qibli is holding Ostrich for ransom, and a chain of exaggerations and rumors between the Scorpion Den residents has the whole Den in an uproar before Thorn sorts things out.
