INT. An Ice Kingdom Prison; time unknown
> ICEWING GUARD, PRINCESS ICICLE
ICEWING GUARD:
(talking to someone outside)
Yes, she's in here.
...
A few minutes, that's all I can give you.
ICICLE:
You.
...
WINTER:
... ...
ICICLE:
What do YOU want?
Did you come to gloat? About how, after all these years, the silver child rots in a hole while the eternal screw-up triumphs?
Or how much kinder and nobler you were when you rescued Hailstorm after I messed everything up?
WINTER:
I came here to see how you are doing.
ICICLE:
I'm in a prison cell, you idiot! How do you THINK I'm doing!?!
ICICLE:
They locked me up in this disgusting ditch for killing ONE Nightwing! After I was almost murdered TWICE!
And what for?? Being a soldier in the war!?!
And that Mudwing, the one who tried to do that to me? SHE gets to walk free!?! HOW is that just??
How many of OUR people has SHE killed??
Does THAT not count for anything!?!
WINTER:
I'm not blaming you for what you thought you had to do.
ICICLE:
(snorts derisively) "THOUGHT" I had to do??
WINTER:
I'm not trying to moralize. Everything you chose to do makes sense to me.
But I also don't think Scarlet would have ever let Hailstorm go. No matter what you, me, or any of us did.
She was too cruel for that; I learned that when I met her myself.
ICICLE:
Oh, of course! You've spent a few days with her and suddenly you are the expert! That's you! Winter the
Scarlet expert!
You think you know ANYTHING about what Scarlet is like!?! You didn't have that deranged shrew living in your head for MONTHS!
ICICLE:
You didn't spend every night waiting, fearing she would seek you out again⊠Seeing her gaunt, decaying face leering at you out of the darkness under your eyelidsâŠ
Jeering.
Taunting.
Telling me all the things she was going to do to HIM if I didn't do what she saidâŠ
And you DARE stand there and lecture me about what she is really like⊠as if you know her better than I
do.
WINTER:
Wait, but⊠she contacted you while you were at Jade Mountain, didn't she? She wouldn't have been in
your head for more than a week or so?
ICICLE:
Of course YOU would think that! No, she has been in my head since long before that. It first started a
few weeks after the war ended.
Did you think I begged Queen Glacier to send me to that rotten mountain hole because I WANTED to live in a dirty underground dump and cuddle up to the people who just a while ago were trying to kill us!?!
I only did that because Scarlet ordered me to! I hated every wretched minute of it!
WINTER:
I'm sorry Icicle. I had no idea.
ICICLE:
Of course you didn't! You NEVER have any idea!
I'd like to be as carefree as you, running around with my head wedged up my own backside! Content to be the screw-up and never having to live up to anyone's expectations!
WINTER:
Is that what you think my life is like!??!
(sighs)
All right, whatever, we don't have time.
I'm not in the mood to fight with you, Icicle.
ICICLE:
Well, that is too bad! I guess you shouldn't have come here then!
ICICLE:
Leave me. I tire of talking to you.
WINTER:
There is something else I wanted to tell you.
ICICLE:
Whatever you have to say, I am not interested.
WINTER:
This is about father.
...he is dead.
ICICLE:
WHAT?? How??
WINTER:
I don't know how much of what has been going on made its way to you. I see you're wearing one of Qibli's earrings so you know about the Animus plague at least.
Darkstalker is real, and he came back. There was a battle between our people and the Nightwings, and father died in it.
ICICLE:
And Hailstorm? What about him??
WINTER:
He is alive. Mother is with him right now, they are at the palace.
She blames me for what happened and publicly denounced me as a traitor. I've been banished and so I'm currently on my way out of the country.
This is my last stop. I wanted to see you one more time.
ICICLE:
⊠âŠ
WINTER:
So just this one time, Icicle. I beg you. Can we drop the hostility?
I don't want the last conversation we ever get to have be spent tearing each other's throats out.
ICICLE:
⊠âŠ
All right.
WINTER:
I brought you something. Here.
ICICLE:
WhatâŠ
WINTER:
Do you remember it?
ICICLE:
My old brush�
WINTER:
When we were little, you would always use it to brush your spines before father took you hunting.
I thought maybe you could use a small piece of home right now, so I went to the house and grabbed it before getting chased out of the capital.
ICICLE:
A whole lot of good a brush is going to do me in a dirty cell.
...
ICICLE:
Why are you doing this?
WINTER:
Because you are my clutch sister. and maybe this is stupid, but I care about you.
In all those years I grew up in that terrible house, mother and father always hated me.
But I thought maybe the three of us--you, Hailstorm, and me--maybe we could come out of this not hating each other.
ICEWING GUARD:
That's about all the time I can give you, Prince Winter.
Please leave! If anyone finds you here, I'm going to be in trouble!
WINTER:
Goodbye, Icicle. I'm sorry this is how it all happened.
ICICLE:
âŠ
Live a good life for me, brother.
(END OF SCENE)
........
Am I just using these skits to get closure on a couple of things I missed in the story? It may be more likely than you think.
Nevertheless, a final conversation between Winter and Icicle is something I would have welcomed. She is just kind of dropped after Scarlet exits the plot and the story careens towards Darkstalker (I don't know if she reappears in arc 3).
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With book 2 on the horizon, release date 01.Oct 2025, this is the perfect time to read book 1. But wait, there's more! This evening until next week, book 1 will go on sale. Get the e-book for cheaper than a scoop of ice cream. Go tell your friends!
Iâve been wondering, since Iâve seen you give your thoughts on some other dragons, what are your thoughts on Clay?
On Clay...
Clay. Iâve talked about him for a bit in a previous post somewhere. He is the first protagonist in the entire series and thus serves as our introduction into this world. While he enters the story with his own emotional baggage, he pretty much resolves all of that within the first book and mellows out from then on, fading into the background as a quiet support character.
Because of that it is maybe easy to dismiss Clay as that big guy who talks about food a lot and doesnât do much else. But I do think heâs a bit more complex than that and is a well-rounded character with things going on in his own right.
CW: Discussion of physical abuse.
Formative Years
Clays early years were molded heavily by his belief that he almost killed Tsunami while she was hatching. He believed this because his guardians, mostly Kestrel, insisted this is what happened. Of course at the end of the first book we learn that this wasnât the case and that they were just misinformed about how Mudwings work.
To us, this may all seem absolutely ridiculous. We look at Clay and see this obvious gentle giant without a malicious bone in his body angsting about being a blood-crazed monster. But for Clay himself, this was a very real, very horrifying situation. Suspend your disbelief for a moment. His entire childhood was marred by the crushing guilt of almost having murdered his surrogate sister at birth, and he couldnât remember why he did it. He understood nothing about this situation, and didnât know if this secret violent side could even resurface one day. Basic things like going to sleep would become terrifying; he may have laid awake, wondering whether his body might act on its own as soon as he fell unconscious. Just like back then, when it acted before he could even form coherent thoughts. The fear of losing control to the monster and waking up on top of a loved oneâs mangled body was always there.
This perception of himself as a violent killer was at odds with his social nature as a Mudwing. He loved his surrogate siblings with the same intensity that any Mudwing would love their own, and thus he hated the part of himself that threatened them. As a direct response to this dissonant view, Clay developed a desire to protect them. If he willed himself to shield them from getting hurt with all of his strength, he would never be able to harm them again. This was his way of coping with the fear.
It is pretty apparent from the text that at least Kestrel was physically abusive towards them. Dune was possibly too, Webs I donât think so, but he also didnât do anything to stop it. As Clay grew older I think he began to recognize the patterns. He would start deliberately acting in ways so that most of Kestrelâs ire would be redirected towards himself instead of the others. This is why all the Dragonets of Destiny have such deep respect for Clay; they remember him always standing between them and Kestrel, even as he ended up with more and more scars for it.
Luckily, he is able to reconnect with his Mudwing heritage at the end of book 1 and learns that he never was that blood-crazed murderer the guardians insisted he was. But even so, the scars and memories would never fully fade, and heâd never lose sight of the need to protect his loved ones.
Personality and Interests
Clayâs love of food and eating is well-established, to the point where it sometimes seems like it is his only character trait from book 2 onwards. This is normal; heâs got a big body and I assume the self-regenerative properties inherent to Mudwings burn a lot of calories, so he needs to eat a lot to refuel them. I think thereâs a bit more to him still though.
Clay is at his happiest when he can either prevent someone elseâs pain, or take it away. Conversely he becomes distressed when he sees someone suffering. I believe he is incredibly earnest and built close to water. He cries easily, though never in response to his own pain or suffering. He feels positive emotions very strongly and can get overwhelmed that way, especially when he sees his loved ones happy. When he cries, he does so openly and without shame. It is very unsatisfying to tease him because he will usually just take what people say to him at face value and thus make them feel bad.
Heâs also very physically affectionate and huggy.
People who meet Clay often get the impression that he is book dumb, or just stupid in general. This is not the case, as Clay does have a capacity for learning even complex subject matter. I just think he struggles with subjects he canât see a practical application for, or arenât relevant to things he wants to do. He has little interest in memorizing ancient figures or learning how to measure the sides of a triangle
When Glory fights Deathbringer in book 3, she makes mention of a âdragon anatomy classâ which I assume was taught by Webs. Clay, as much as he struggled with history and numbers, excelled at this particular class because its insight could be used to keep people safe. As such, whenever the need for it arises, Clay is usually quick to act as the groupâs primary healer/medical advisor.
(Excerpts from WoF graphic novels 2 and 3, censored for blood.)
This notion is further supported by the fact that, once they all become teachers at the Jade Mountain Academy, Clay is the one to lead an anatomy class, just like the one he attended before.
In conclusion
Clay is pretty much everyoneâs big brother. While he isnât as eccentric and colorful as the people he is surrounded by, his earnestness and general benevolence make him the backbone of the Dragonets of Destiny. Whenever anyone has a deeply-rooted, serious problem they are hesitant to bring up with others, Clay will usually be the first person considered as a confidant. Tsunami and Starflight know he would never judge or shame them no matter how ridiculous the thing they approach him with. Glory trusts him with her emotions whenever her stoic facade cracks. And Sunny has an incredibly strong bond with him.
I think that makes him pretty cool, even if he doesnât really have much to do anymore once he overcomes his personal demons. Iâm happy that he gets to be happy in the end.
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Not me forgetting to post it here. You ever fit your protagonist snug in a mug?
But why not? I just had to, because I kinda thought about it at work, to put Sylph in there for no reason. I think three quarters of my drawings are inspired nonsense and it's awesome.
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No, don't worry, I'm not going to post only anthro-themed artwork for the rest of this blog's lifespan. I just had to complete the circle by drawing the false dragonets of destiny in this style as well, because as I have hopefully established, I really like those guys.
They're also really getting into the festive spirit apparently. Viper has already booped Squid. What a go-getter.
I saw the Mizustune wall art you posted a while back. I was wondering was that painted fully by hand or did you do something with stencil shapes? I've been curious cause I wanted to try something similar in my home.
Hey,
I fully painted that by hand, I did sketch it out with pencil prior though. And kinda made myself a plan by photographing my wall and sketching my ideas over it in Krita.
Pencil is easily erased from a wall, which really helps, although I'd try on your own in a small corner before committing.
So I've been talking to a bunch of friends about Moon, love her. But I think she ought to be a lot more buff than she is. She grew up in the jungle after all.
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In your last ask, you mentioned misgivings with Book 10's ending, and especially how it pertains to Winter. I absolutely agree, and I know why, but I wanna hear your thoughts on it, too: What's up with Book 10?
The following is a (very long) examination of my personal feelings with regards to the WoF second story arc finale. While it is based on what is in the text, this analysis will be interpretive and fill in blanks with my own thoughts. Keep that in mind.
Hahhhh... okay. Since mentioning it in my last post Iâve gotten several requests to talk about my feelings regarding the second arc finale. Thereâs probably no way around it then.
If you havenât read that last post (it was admittedly very long, and so will this one be), I talked briefly about why I didnât like that part of the story. I have to warn you now, this will likely be the most negative and dour post in the history of this blog. In a few parts it will sound like I hate Wings of Fire, and I want to say now, while I still have the chance, that I donât. I love this series, thinking about its setting and characters brings me joy.
I alsoâvery emphaticallyâwant to make it clear that I have no ill will against Tui T. Sutherland. Iâve looked around other peopleâs stuff a bit and there are a huge number of posts wishing violence upon her or threatening her for doing things to her series that people donât agree with. That is NOT what I am doing here, shit like that is NOT okay! While I will be critical of her choices, I still respect her effort of bringing this vibrant, wonderful world of dragons to all of us.
Also, obligatory last disclaimer: If you liked the finale, that is okay. You are valid for feeling that way. Iâm here to share my point of view, not to demand people agree with everything I say. Just be warned that you most likely wonât enjoy what I have to say. If you donât think you can handle that kind of criticism, this is your guilt-free opportunity to stop reading.
Otherwise, let's get into it.
CW: Discussion of parental abuse, depression, disease, and extreme acts of violence.
In defense of the finale
Before I start to systematically disassemble this narrative and get lost in a quagmire of negativity, letâs talk a bit about the circumstances that brought forth this part of the story. The plot of this arc was a mess from the moment animus magic was unshackled from the restrictions it had in the first arc, and from then on there was no longer any conceivable way to end this story in a clean way. Sutherland had created an invincible, unbeatable, omnipotent villain; he could read minds, see the future with perfect clarity, and anything he could imagine he could conjure into existence at any time with no cost to himself and no drawbacks. She was likely wracking her brain about how to resolve this impossible conundrum. What we got wasnât good, but I believe nothing could have been. The foundation was rotting and by the fifth book it couldnât bear the weight of the plot anymore.
The thing about animus magic in arc 2 is that it is so potent, so all-powerful, and so free of restraint that everyone who uses it also HAS to be a simpleton, or they would be able to break the plot immediately and become god. From the moment Darkstalker broke out of that mountain, he could have said âAny and all spells that are cast with the intention to harm me, interfere with my plans, or do something I donât consent to will not work, from now on until foreverâ, and he would have instantly won. The strawberry would have fizzled out. The Darkstalker-blocking earrings would not have been created, and no one could have saved the Icewings. On the flipside, Turtle or Anemone could have said âI enchant the concept of animus magic itself to no longer obey Darkstalkerâ, and his threat would have been neutered. Point is, powers as potent and easy to use as this really need limitations, or they will quickly eat your plot alive.
I donât envy the situation Sutherland was in at the time at all. If youâre an author, that kind of thing is a nightmare. It really is no wonder she decided to blow up animus magic for good in her next arc, even if I would have preferred it to get more healthy restrictions instead of killing it outright.
The Darkstalker age regression thing
Everyone has talked this part to death already, but if I am to write a thorough analysis of my feelings regarding this finale, Iâm going to have to talk about it as well. Iâm sorry if I end up repeating a lot of things youâve already heard.
This final fate of Darkstalker, to have his memories wiped and be reset to an infant, is really uncomfortable. As far as I am aware, though correct me if Iâm wrong, Sutherland said in an interview that she didnât want Darkstalker to die because, in her view, he did not deserve to. We can debate here about the philosophical question of whether anyone is truly deserving of death, and the merits of âjusticeâ and âpunishmentâ, but in general, Wings of Fire did not seem to have any issues killing off its villains prior if they committed suitably terrible acts. That makes this moment stand out as noteworthy.
Who is Darkstalker then--and if we assume villains can be âdeservingâ and ânot deservingâ of death--what about him speaks in his favor, or against? The guy had a pretty crappy childhood, coming from a broken home (there is that inadequate parent theme again). He genuinely loved his sister and felt protective of her, and whenever he liked someone he wanted them to be happy and feel affirmed. The thing that Queen Diamond does to his mother is awful and he is justified in hating her for it. He is also portrayed as rather sympathetic in Moon Rising. When he asks Moon to find his scroll for him and not to leave him, he is not manipulating her, he is sincerely begging for her help. He is stuck somewhere underground, trapped in darkness, in a space so tiny that he canât move. He remains that way for months, lonely and sad. If you just focus on these aspects, itâs easy to understand why he has so many fans who want him to see healthy and happy.
On the flipside, while he is dedicated to the happiness of his friends, he doesnât always go for the most ethical way to achieve it. He tries to brainwash said friends without their consent whenever they exhibit behaviors he doesnât like, or when he thinks he knows better and wants to âfixâ them. He has very little regard for other peopleâs autonomy, lies to his loved ones with alarming frequency, and is unhealthily attached to the idea of power. Those things are certainly not good, but they are his character flaws. These are his demons; everyone has them and they make him a person. If this was all there was to it, he might still be a villain, but Iâd argue heâd not be wholly irredeemable.
But there are things about him that take him beyond the pale. Things that go beyond the realm of just being misunderstood, or easily excusable.
He is possessive. He wants Clearsight and Fathom for himself, and for them to listen to him primarily. When Indigo makes it clear she doesnât like him and cautions Fathom against trusting him, he deceives his friends and traps Indigo in a wood carving, just so he can isolate Fathom from his support network and manipulate him easier. He alters Clearsightâs mind to make her more agreeable and stop her from holding him accountable for his actions; while he thinks he loves her, he only loves an idealized version of her that is wholly devoted to and unquestioning of him. This is why, when he later forcibly overwrites Fierceteethâs existence to recreate her (which is another horrific thing), he tries to excise the parts he finds undesirable to create a perfect version of his lover. But this caricature he has created in his head is not and can never be Clearsight, which frustrates his attempts.
He is vengeful. Not against people who have actually wronged him, like Queen Diamond. That would be questionable, but understandable. What makes this unacceptable is his frequent targeting of innocent people who just happen to be related to the person who wronged him in some esoteric way. He enchants a secret murder knife that kills random Icewings regardless of who they are or what they think about the Queen, just because the one who took his mother from him happened to share their tribe. He hates Turtle and wishes death upon him in Moon Rising just because he is a green Seawing, like Fathom was. And then there is the big one: He tries to kill all the Icewings who are alive in the present day, where Queen Diamond is long dead and none of them have ever even met her. Even his mother, who suffered from Diamondâs actions the most and has the most reason to hate her, is horrified and calls him out on that one.
And lastly, he is sadistic. He revels in torturing those he hates. He forces his father to disembowel himself, while the latter is fully aware and powerless to resist AND the manâs traumatized daughter is watching. Later he sends a magical plague to kill every single living Icewing sans one.
It should be noted that Darkstalker possesses virtually infinite magical power; whatever he declares, with very few exceptions, will happen. Even if he wanted them dead, he had the power to prevent unnecessary suffering. He could have said âArctic, fall dead instantaneouslyâ, or âEvery Icewing will fall asleep and pass away peacefully,â but he didnât. He wanted them to feel pain and pass away in the most wretched, agonizing ways he could imagine.
So what he chose to do instead isâand I want you to picture this for a momentâDarkstalker sat down, calmly, and said âHenceforth every living Icewing, excepting Prince Winter and those of hybrid blood, will fall ill with an incurable disease. This disease will cause heavy internal bleeding and make its victims cough up blood and waste away for a few days, followed by certain death.â
This spell does not discriminate with regards to who its victims are. The book glosses over the implications, but imagine the ramifications. Young children are notoriously frail, how many newborns got infected and died because of this? How many families were torn apart because they couldnât get the magic earrings fast enough? Or accidentally got one earring less than there were family members and had to decide who has to die?
Most of the Icewings were physically cured by the earrings, but an experience like that sticks with you for the rest of your life. Somewhere surely, a dragonet watched as his mother put the earring on him and then slowly wasted away because she didnât have one for herself.
Itâs really easy to overlook how horrific this spell is because it isnât shown or dwelt on. But the trauma, grief, and suffering it caused must have been immeasurable.
And none of those victims have ever even met the person Darkstalker wanted to get revenge on. None of those deaths meant anything to anyone.
The attempted death toll and scale of the calamity here puts even Scarlet to shame. The ones who come closest to it were Queen Battlewinner and Morrowseer with their attempted Rainwing extermination. All three of those died for what they did. Gives you some food for thought for sure.
Peacemakerâs burden
Despite just airing all of his dirty laundry and declaring him an irredeemable villain, I actually do have a lot of sympathy for Darkstalker still. His story is really sad. He was a child born with an amount of power that nobody should possess, and it corrupted him to the point where it destroyed his life before it began. His parents were always fighting and no matter how good his intentions were, he was unable to understand why he couldnât hold on to his friends and relationship. He kept making mistakes, then made bigger mistakes to fix those, until his hands were covered in blood and he couldnât stop anymore. My belief is that, after he wakes up in the present and realizes Clearsight is dead, he loses his reason for living and becomes completely lost in his grief.
Therefore, my opinion is that it would have been appropriate for him to die. If not to punish him, then to finally grant him reprieve from all that rage and pain, and let him rest. I think that would have been a dignified end.
But instead he got turned into a baby. ... And then they decided to magically erase his fatherâs blood from him? I donât know what it is, but something about that Icewing erasure makes my skin crawl?
The thing that turns this baby twist from weird into highly unsettling is the context. Darkstalkerâs mind is erased, then modified into a new person via animus magic. This is the technique a lot of this arcâs villains used to victimize Hailstorm, Queen Ruby, Peril, Kinkajou, Fierceteeth, and Winter. The same technique is now used again, by the heroes, which is a dangerous thing to have your protagonists do if you want them to remain morally upright.
It is also very reckless, because in almost all of these instances, animus mind alteration has been shown to be very unreliable. The spells seem to wear down over time and are susceptible to partial breaking upon encountering certain strong stimuli. Hailstormâwhile trapped as Pyriteâseems to retain trace amounts of his former memories, which is why Pyrite is subconsciously drawn to Winter and clings to him all the time. Ruby is able to ignore half of her conditioning because her familial love for her son partially overpowers the magic. Qibli is just straight up able to reason his way out of it.
The thing to note here is that spells of this nature require a very meticulous approach; you canât half-ass your reprogramming or the victim will just think their way past it. If you alter someoneâs mind, the wording of the spell must be ironclad, lest you risk it wearing down over time and even break.
Luckily we have nothing to fear in that regard, because the spell that created Peacemaker was written by a Rainwing with a total of four days of literacy training. No one better mention the name Clearsight to the new baby Nightwing, or next month is going to be rather interesting.
But thatâs just speculation on my part. Letâs assume that, somehow, this spell isnât as unstable as all the others. Somehow Kinkajou threaded all the needles, and masterfully dodged every conceivable pitfall to pen the perfect incantation, despite having been illiterate just a few weeks prior. This one is built to last and Darkstalker is sealed away really thoroughly, for good.
That is still absolutely terrible and morally dubious, because now you have Peacemaker, who for all intents and purposes is a COMPLETELY innocent little kid, saddled with this huge burden of being the certifiable reincarnation of a genocidal ancient wizard. Heâs gonna grow up thinking things like âMommy gets real quiet whenever the topic of the Icewing tragedy is brought up,â and âWhy does Auntie Moon look at me like that? One time she accidentally called me a weird name, who is Darkstalker?â âWhat is this âClearsightâ name my mind-reading friends from the village found in Mommyâs mind?â
In a village that will be full of mind-readers soon, eventually the secret will come out, and Peacemaker is going to learn what was done to him. A huge, messy load of undeserved baggage was forced onto this completely separate, innocent entity. He will be devastated. Whether he then chooses to forgive them for this remains to be seen. To be honest, he would be well within his right not to, and turn resentful.
Poor kid.
Qibliâs callousness
I love Qibli, he is one of my favorite characters. This happens to be his book, and the fact that I fundamentally dislike half of it makes me rather sad. If anything, I hope this tells you that Iâm not just hating on it for my personal amusement. I really wanted to like this. I tried to, and I couldnât.
Qibli is really weird in this one, to be honest. He is suddenly made to be co-dependent on Moonwatcher, fawning over her every third paragraph, saying how much he loves her, how he is an incomplete and dysfunctional wreck without her, how it physically pains him to be apart from her, oh if only the stars would grant his wish and split the mountains apart so that he may fly to his princess, his muse, his goddess of ebony wit. It gets so old.
And itâs not Qibli. He never acted this clingy towards Moonwatcher. Itâs more intense than even Winter gets about Moon, and Winter was actually depicted with a crush on her in book 6. Qibli was always just a supportive element, eager to befriend Moon but never desperate, like he is going to keel over if he is separated from his true love five minutes longer. These very frequent love declarations feel so forced coming out of him. It strikes me like it was just written in service of the love triangle. Maybe if we make him confess his love every four seconds readers will overlook the fact that they had no proper romantic build-up.
You might rightly accuse me of bias. I have previously admitted I am fond of Qibli/Winter as a romantic pairing, on the surface this seems like I am just not happy with my pet ship being blocked by Moonwatcher. But I assure you, I am actually pretty flexible and accommodating even towards pairings that contradict my preferences. I have no issues with Winter/Moonwatcher, for example, because the possibility was properly established and they have good romantic chemistry in Winter Turning. In theory, I would have no problem with Qibli/Moonwatcher either if it was ever set up as an interesting romantic dynamic. But to me, it seems like Qibli is written as a good, supportive friend to Moon for four books, only to pivot hard into âMoon moon moon moon moon moon swoonâ at the last second, and it just reads to me as obnoxious.
I got distracted. This section is called âQibliâs callousnessâ, and I havenât even talked about the main part.
Qibli and Winter have excellent chemstry together, whether you read it as romantic or platonicâboth of these interpretations have merit and are set up. Theyâre always the highlight of any scene theyâre in. Throughout the story arc you get the impression that these two really get on each otherâs nerves, but they bond and grow into really strong friends who bicker a lot but have each otherâs backs when it counts.
Then there is a scene where Qibli casually tells Winter that he wouldnât object if someone wanted to mind-control away some of Winterâs more objectionable traits.
This is genuinely a terrible thing to say to your friend. Like, it crosses a line and ceases to be harmless banter; youâre just telling them that there is something you hate about them so much that you wish they were someone else. Winter actually WAS mind-controlled earlier and felt (and proably still feels) guilty about having attacked Qibli in that state. And now Qibli says âHey, I wouldnât mind if someone did that to you again! Hue hue!â
It is awful, BUT I donât necessarily object to Qibli saying this here. Qibli is in the middle of his character arc at this moment, so he is expected to be flawed. He is making a mistake by thoughtlessly telling Winter this horrid thing, and it seems like a believable continuation of his current character track. This is a reasonable development as long as the plot acknowledges that itâs a mistake.
Spoilers: The plot doesnât acknowledge that itâs a mistake. Qibli never has a scene after where he reflects upon what he said and apologizes to Winter. When Darkstalker has Qibli trapped in his mountain jail and mind-wipes Qibliâs grandfather into a toddler (hey, wait a minute), Qibli gets visibly disturbed. Like, this is so off-putting to him that he gets queasy and Darkstalker hastily changes the spell. That could have been a great way to bring this back. Like in the epilogue, have Qibli track down Winter and tell him about disturbing baby grandpa theater and how he realized that wiping peopleâs minds is actually messed up and should have never said that to him.
But he doesnât. He just lets Winter go, allowing him to believe he is broken and needs magical intervention to be tolerable. It leaves me to think that maybe heâs still okay with it, and fantasizing about rewriting his friendâs mind. Great.
Moonwatcherâs character death
You will find as this goes on that, I get the impression that the second half of this book takes all of the wonderful, endearing characters I have learned to love throughout the story and replaces them with really mean, or stupid, or otherwise inaccurate caricatures.
Moonwatcherâs relationship with Darkstalker gets plenty of setup and development in Moon Rising. You get the sense that these two could be great friends if their circumstances were a little different. It does a great job at making you think maybe Darkstalker is just misunderstood; maybe Moon should free him from his predicament.
Then at the end of Escaping Peril comes the emotional gut punch. Darkstalker actually IS a villain. He callously admits to Moonwatcher that he used his magic to make his own father gruesomely disembowel himself. Moonwatcher is horrified and disgusted that he would do that. There is no circumstance in which something like that would ever be okay. She ends the scene awash in tears because the person she thought was her friend is a murderer and a sadist. This is good, that is a natural reaction to what she was just told.
A few hours from there, in Talons of Power, Turtle finds Moon again and she is completely cool with Darkstalker walking free, despite crying her eyes out after feeling so betrayed earlier. That may seem strange, but this is still good because later, Darkstalkerâs mind control plot is discovered. This scene was obviously written to set that up, Moon is mind-controlled into forgetting that Darkstalker could do something that morally reprehensible, and thus forgives him. This is also completely in line with his characterization in Legends: Darkstalker. Itâs a kind of stunt he would pull to get Clearsight to shut up about him slipping into villainy.
In my earlier post I alluded to a moment where Moon is set to narrative auto-pilot and says something so rampantly off-kilter that it does irreversible, permanent damage to her character. It happens here, in the second half of book 10. Qibli gives Moon the Darkstalker protection earring, and Moon, somehow, says âIâm not being mind-controlled, Darkstalker really is my friend.â
I get what the plot tries to do here. Itâs taking this concept of mind-control and adding a nuance, in an attempt to flesh out Darkstalker and give his character depth. He is ready to control everyone in the world, but for Moon, who is his best friend in this era, he wants her to remain herself. Perhaps this is his attempt at attonement for playing with Clearsightâs mind and driving her away from him. It is very touching in a way, viewed in isolation.
Unfortunately, it does not work with the full context of all the books. Because Moon is in auto-pilot mode right now, her main character trait is âDarkstalker=Friend,â so naturally she would speak in support of him. But this revelation has devastating retroactive consequences. The earlier scene that was written with Moon under mind-control is now altered into her having been in her right mind! She is completely okay with Darkstalkerâs admittance to cold-blooded torture and evisceration, within hours of being so shocked by it that it made her cry and ready to denounce him. That is such a quick turnaround itâs giving me whiplash. And whatâs more it turns Moon from a principled, upstanding girl into a sociopath who casually accepts gruesome torture and murder if it is committed by someone she likes.
Did Sutherland forget about the scene two books ago, where Darkstalkerâs actions were so inconceivably horrid for Moon to learn of that she started crying? It baffles me that this made it into the final version. Her saying she was never mind-controlled makes Moon come off as so awful. This torture-excusing lunatic is not the same kind-hearted and insightful character I followed in all the other books.
Kinkajouâs character derailment
The world is a sad place when I have to question the way Kinjajou is written. Fortunately she is mostly fine, despite her having the biggest excuse to act out-of-character since sheâs the victim of a mind-altering spell. Her only real moment of âwhat!?â comes at the end.
I already talked about her role in casting the spell that regresses Darkstalker into an infant. But I didnât mention how her being the source of it is questionable in itself.
The clue is in the first paragraph of this section: She herself has experienced the effects of invasive mind-alteration. She was cursed by Anemone in the previous book to be in love with Turtle, and kind of half-struggles kind of not with it, itâs really strange. Turtle is appropriately horrified and acts like really awful things are happening, but then itâs mostly played lightly for some reason. My assumption is that Sutherland introduced this plot point, but then realized how uncomfortable this premise really is and tried to downplay it until the story got to a point where it could get done away with.
But I think the takeaway is still supposed to be that this was a horrid thing to do (which it absolutely is), and that Kinkajou will have to spend a lot of time trying to untangle her real emotions from the fake ones the spell created.
The point is: Kinkajou knows first-hand how awful it is to do something like that to another person. Ideally she should never even conceive of the idea to cast a spell like that, but if weâre really set on this Darkstalker baby thing and it has to happen, she should at least be a bit hesitant about it. And afterwards she should struggle with the guilt of having resorted to it. Not celebrate it and be proud, like itâs funny.
The assassination of Winterâs future
Now we come to the part Iâve alluded to previously; the part where all of these threads converge to utterly destroy one character and drive him to the brink of ruin. Letâs talk about Winter.
Prince Winter is the son of Tundra and Prince Narwhal, hatching in the same clutch as his sister Icicle. He spent his formative years being unfavorably compared to said sisterâwho easily took to traits that Icewing royalty considers desirableâwhereas Winter struggled greatly to embody those same ideals. He was just a little too kind, too merciful, too gentle. As a result he often had to endure abuse from his parents, who made him feel like he was defective.
Because he was young and didnât have any other frame of reference, he embraced this abusive narrative and began to drive himself with a vigor unreasonable for someone of his age. He scraped and cloyed for every bit of credit he could get, obsessing over advancing up the circle rankings in an attempt to âpurgeâ the wrongness out of himself. To make his parents as proud of him as they were of Icicle.
This never worked. He was always seen as the runt, poised to embarrass the family name. Whatever he did, no matter how hard he strived, there was always something he could have done better.
The only real source of love and affirmation in his life was his older brother, Hailstorm. Where everyone else only saw what Winter wasnât, Hailstorm embraced his brother despite of his âfailingsâ and was openly affectionate with him. When Winter was with him, it was okay to not think about rankings all the time, and just be himself for a bit. I assume Hailstorm fulfilled a similar role for Icicle as well, which is why both of them love him dearly, and Icicle destroys her own life to bring him back.
Winter also has a fascination with scavengers, possibly because they are small and perceived as useless, like he himself is. He likely feels a kinship with them and observes them being craftier and more adept than everyone else sees them. This is therapeutic for him, to see that a thing can have merit even if no one wants to see it.
One day, he and Hailstorm sneak into Skywing territory so Winter can catch a scavenger as a pet. This excursion turns hostile when they are discovered by a roaming Skywing troop and faced with the prospect of capture, possibly execution. In a gambit to save Winter from this fate, Hailstorm mirrors the words of his parents, calling Winter pathetic and useless, so the Skywings will not think of him as a threat and show mercy. His act succeeds in convincing the Skywings, but it also convinces Winter, who does not understand Hailstorm only said these things to save his life. He returns homeâbelieving his brother hated him all alongâto face the wrath of his furious family for losing them âthe desirable sonâ.
For all of his life, these themes have repeated themselves and haunted him. âI was born wrong and defective,â âI am unlovable,â âNo one wants me.â
A few months after the war ends, Winter is one of the five Icewings enrolled in the newly founded Jade Mountain Academy. Shortly after departing, he unexpectedly returns home, having successfully rescued his older brother and bringing him back. He is made to believe that this erases his mistakes, his mother even pays him a backhanded compliment, an uncharacteristically âniceâ gesture. He is promoted to the top of the rankings, finally his parents are proud of him.
But of course it is all a trick. The âadorationâ afforded to him was all a ploy. Secretly, his parents abused power and tradition to arrange for Winterâs death. They force him into a lethal trial they intentionally rigged against him, all to finally erase that stain on their familyâs honor.
Winter finally realizes the true nature of his parentsâ opinion of him. Even when he succeeds, and does everything right, he is still defective, unlovable, and unwanted. He will never be anything else to his family. And so he leaves his homeland, pretending he is dead, resigned to live in hiding forever.
During this time, while at the brink of despair, Winter is able to draw strength from one source: His new friends from the academy. He vocalizes that, for all the abuse he suffered at the hands of his birth family, he fervently believes that THEY would never do anything like that to him. They chose to stuck with him, even when he was awful, and told him he was not hopeless. He was not a mistake; he could be deserving of love.
So naturally, he returns to them; they accept him readily, are willing to be his new surrogate family. When he almost burns to death at a later point, they fear and weep for him. When Qibli sets out to confront his own abusive family, Winter, despite being mind-controlled into a placid potato at the time, feels concerned enough for his friendâs safety to insist to come along (returning the favor of them accompanying him in his time of need in book 7). When Darkstalkerâs mind control forces Winter to attack Qibli, he is shown ashamed and guilty of it once the control wears off again.
They bicker and struggle, and make mistakes, they break up but always come back together again. Time and time again the one thing that is always reinforced: When the cards are down, Winter loves his friends, and they love him. They would never intentionally hurt each other, or give up on each other.
I want you to keep in mind how wholesome, and loving, and mutually supportive this ramshackle band of misfits has been portrayed to this point... Because weâre moving on to the arc 2 finale, and it will do everything it can to corrupt all of it and consign Winter to a life of misery.
We arrive at aforementioned scene, where Moonwatcher receives her earring. Just a little bit prior, Winter had learned that Darkstalker unleashed a magical plague onto his people in an attempt to wipe them out. Now here is Moonwatcher, revealing that she is not under any spell, and has aligned herself with this guy willingly, speaking fondly of him as if he was a dear friend who never did any wrong. Winter takes this badly and accidentally breaks a vase; the narrative lingers on this moment and really tries to sell us on how unreasonable Winterâs reaction is, how he is overreacting, but letâs examine that interpretation for a moment.
Moonwatcher doesnât yet know about the attempted Icewing genocide, but she DOES know about Darkstalker being okay with casting spells to inflict immeasurable torture upon those he hates. WE know that she knows this, so her stance here is already suspect. Yet she goes on to praise Darkstalker and refer to him as a friend. Look at this from Winterâs perspective. This âfriendâ of Moonwatcher just tried to kill his entire tribe, and he actually succeeded in killing his aunt, Queen Glacier, a person Winter greatly respects. Winter is currently unable to return to his homeland for fear of being branded a traitor. Even if he could return, he knows his obstinate and spiteful family would prevent him from attending the funeral, meaning he is not even afforded the basic dignity of saying farewell to his aunt. The aunt whom Darkstalker murdered by making her vomit her own blood until she withered away in her bed. And here is Moon, absolving the person who did this to Glacier from his appalling actions, despite knowing full well what Darkstalker is capable of and choosing to look away.
I donât know about you, but I think I can forgive the grieving, emotionally overwhelmed boy for shattering a little pottery after hearing his trusted friendâwho held his hand when he was dyingâsay that the guy who makes people disembowel themselves and wipes out entire countries may be misunderstood and not so bad. I think I would have a similar reaction. In fact, I would never want to talk to her ever again.
There is no way I can read this scene in which Moon doesnât come off as either an absolute lunatic, or critically stupid and callous. In fact, based on her earlier behavior I half-expect her to get over the news of the attempted Icewing massacre in a couple hours, saying âEh, itâs kinda bad, but you just have to do these kinds of things sometimes, you know? Iâm sure he had his reasons.â
Then there is the part where Qibli makes his off-color comment about how Winterâs brain could really use a good wash. I already went into how it could have worked but didnât. But with the timing here, weâve already had Moon spit on their friendship, so as Winterâs other closest friend, it naturally follows that Qibli also craps on his feelings.
Consider the context: Winter comes from an abusive household where his parents forcibly tried to change him away from who he was to purge the âwrongnessâ from him. When they betray him and he narrowly escapes their attempt on his life, he re-affirms his belief in his friends, and the knowledge that they wouldnât treat him like that gives him the strength he needs to keep going. But now, Qibli asserts that Winter DOES need to be altered, thereby AGREEING with Winterâs abusive parents, rendering Winterâs affirmation from book 7 erroneous. Qibli WOULD treat him like that if it made Winter less âintolerableâ.
Neither Moonwatcher nor Qibli ever make an attempt to repair this rift. Winter is left betrayed and alone.
Stuff happens, and the forces of the Nightwings and Icewings come to blows over Jade Mountain. With his two closest friends having written him off and his support network eroded, Winter relapses into thinking he is worthless, seeks validation in unquestioning patriotism, and realigns himself with his abusive family by throwing himself into the battle. Nobody wants him to, in fact his parents still hate him for it, but whatever. His father dies and his mother blames him for it.
Meanwhile Turtle, Anemone, and Qibli are cooking up a solution to the battle problem. They have the idea to make everyoneâs minds connect in a huge empathy wave for a few moments, which I think is a pretty interesting idea for what itâs worth. But then they teleport both armies back to their homes, and the spell sweeps Winter up with them, taking him out of the rest of the finale and bringing him to the Ice Kingdom. The characters say âwhoopsâ but arenât further concerned with the situation. Itâs all a big laugh.
Let me remind you that Winter is currently considered not welcome on Icewing territory. His family, whom he was sent back with, is extremely abusive and vindictive. His friends know this. Said parents have previously arranged for him to be killed, and are still on record as wanting him dead. His friends KNOW this. And now he is alone with them and a gaggle of other royal Icewings who all are extremely pissed off at him for ruining their sacred trial site.
It is very possible that he is being torn apart and mauled by an enraged mob right now. He could be forced into captivity and flayed. Maybe the interim regent is sentencing him to death and getting the rope ready. There is a million different horrible things that could be happening to Winter right now, while he is trapped alone with people who hate him, things his friends would be reasonably able to anticipate. And nobody is doing anything to get him out of there, to suggest bringing him back, even though it would only take a single spoken sentence to do so! They arenât even concerned!
Then the climax happens, strawberry thing and all, and we get the coup de grĂące. After all is said and done, the group decides that Winter is untrustworthy, and that they must protect the secret of Darkstalkerâs fate from him, because they fear if he knew he would kill Peacemaker.
Moon, who read Winterâs mind in book 6 and reached out to him about how the âruthless Icewing warriorâ persona in his head is a facade and how she sees he has a gentle and good heart... Moon, who in book 7 finds out about Winterâs secret deal to kill Glory and STILL trusts him, who calls out his bullshit to his face because she KNOWS how kind-hearted Winter is and that he would never resort to murder... Moon who, again, held his hand while he was dying... thinks that the dragon she has reminded of his compassionate nature time and time again would kill an innocent child.
This is disgusting. Moon believing that is so far off the mark with regards to anything this group has embodied or done for any of the last 4 books, that my only conclusion can be that these are different characters. Maybe the Nightwing library collapsed on top of original Moon, and when Darkstalker magiced her back to health she came back wrong or something. I donât know.
So after all of this, Winter is left alone. He somehow escaped from the Ice Kingdom; luckily there is a timeskip so we can just gloss over the horrible situation he was put in by his friends. He thinks about Jade Mountain. He reflects on everything that happened, how his parents never really loved him... How they hated him so much they tried to kill him... How he despaired, but found solace in his friends who loved him for who he was.... How those friends then betrayed him too and magiced him away... How they didnât care about what happened to him... And he decides he is done. He wonât bother going back. A few people, probably Sunny, reach out to tell him he is welcome back, but he says âit wouldnât be fair to other Icewings if an exile took up a bedâ. The decision isnât hard to make, after all there is nothing left for him there. Everyone has written him off, moved on and left him behind.
Kinkajou visits sometimes, tries to stay in touch, but thatâs just how she is. Maybe the others sent her to check on whether heâs going to become troublesome. They donât trust him. Better to keep an eye on him, he might kill the baby.
With nowhere else to go, Winter moves to Sanctuary, a place for rejects like him. I picture him standing there, at the edge of a cliff staring blankly into the distance. He is completely alone; no one wants to go near him or talk to him beyond the bare necessities. He could probably make new friends with the Talons of Peace if he tried, but there is no point. Why should someone like him have friends? It wouldnât work. Theyâd just decide he is too inconvenient to be around. Sooner or later they would just tell him to leave anyway. It's better not to try, so he doesn't get hurt again.
And slowly it dawns on him. His parents had been right all along. It was never them, or the others, it was him. He is the problem. The Icewings said it, Qibli said it, Moonwatcher said it. There is just something fundamentally wrong with him.
He is defective. He is unlovable. Nobody wants him. He will never be anything, or have anyone. And so he stands at the cliff, looking over the broken vase fragments of his life... This is who he is. Prince Winter. A mistake.
And quietly, where no one knows or cares, he does the only thing he has left to do... he begins to weep.
As it is written, the tale of Winter is the story of a boy who is told he is wrong for being alive. He closes his ears and tries to keep walking forward, desperate to prove that he is not an error, that he has merit. But this book comes out and it unmistakably says that he doesnât. He is nothing, and he deserves to have nothing.
And I just cannot accept that.
Why did this have to happen?
I think that the author was really struggling with the ending of this book. Iâve said before how much of a corner she wrote herself into with such an invincible villain. I think she came up with the strawberry idea as a solution to this problem. But as she was writing it, the characters kept fighting her. It was not a natural solution, not a decision the charactersâas they were establishedâwould ever make.
So concessions had to be made to force the issue. Established traits had to be bent slightly to make this plot work. The farther she went, the worse it got. The concessions piled up and turned into contrivances. Eventually the characters were no longer acting like themselves. Their bonds got stretched too far and some snapped. Itâs a very tragic pitfall that occurs with long-running series.
I think Sutherland must have also been tired. Writing an entire book is a monumental task, and writing 6 connected ones even moreso. She also comes out with these things really quickly. Maybe she was burnt out? Maybe she wanted to be done and her attention lapsed. Maybe thatâs why she forgot that Moon knew about the disemboweling. It seems reasonable to believe when you consider that the next story arc would make a relatively clean break from the problems of this arc, especially with regards to the magic system.
But I donât know what ultimately happened, so I can only speculate. I reiterate, I bear no ill will against Sutherland for writing this. Even if I kind of hate everything about this finale, and very vocally wish it would be different, I donât want this examination to generate (or reawaken) any hatred towards her, or to attack her personally. I understand the pain of an artist who gets trapped with something for too long and has to find the means, any means, to see it through to the end. I criticize the story, but I could never hate anyone for that.
But for me, I do not consider this half of the book as part of the story. The characters act too unnaturally for it to have happened. So to me, it didnât. We donât know what happened, maybe Darkstalker is still out there. Maybe they dealt with him. Maybe what actually happened is my crappy and self-indulgent rewrite of the ending which I will never show to anyone because it would be really embarrassing.
But whatever actually ended up happening, I am sure Winter never ended up at that cliff, pondering how worthless and meaningless his life was. He is currently at Jade Mountain, surrounded by friends who love him, and bickering with Qibli about the correct solution to their advanced calculus assignment that is due tomorrow.
Is there anything left to say?
Probably.
I didnât talk about Anemone yet. You know, in the epilogue she enchants herself a bracelet that makes her ânot be so mean all the timeâ. I find that creepy. To me it reads as Anemone voluntarily brainwashing herself with magic to erase her negative traits instead of growing past them naturally because she finds them undesirable and wants to work to change for the better. I would ordinarily assume that this is an overreaction on my part, and Iâm just reading the scene wrong. But no, we just got through a part where the heroes brainwashing someone is treated as an unequivocal good and worthy of celebration, so I think my reading may actually be spot on. Why are we letting the little kid alter her own brain without supervision? Hello? Tsunami? Someone intervene maybe? This cannot be healthy.
Turtle stands out to me as the one bright spot in all of this. He (and Peril, but sheâs mostly out of focus) remain as the only main characters of this arc who donât have any mind-boggling out-of-character moments or sudden streaks of uncharacteristic callousness. I really like the part where Qibli goes to free Turtle from his captivity and plans to give him an earful about the comically unhelpful messages heâs been sending him. But when Turtle asks if what he did was helpful, Qibli sees how beaten down and exhausted Turtle is, and wordlessly drops his frustration to tell him âYeah, they were helpful.â That is the true Qibli shining through for a moment, showing that he cares about the well-being of his friends.
Do I hate the pairing of Qibli/Moonwatcher? No. Well, I DO hate how it happened in the book, and how the story tried to assassinate Winterâs character to resolve the love triangle and make it happen. I donât hate it on principle though. If you are a fan of Qibli/Moonwatcher and want to write fanfics about it, please do! I absolutely encourage you to do that! Maybe you can fix this mess and turn it into something thatâs actually properly handled!
Mightyclaws keeps the power that Darkstalker granted him past the finale. That means all the spells that Darkstalker cast are technically still active. Does that mean the Icewings have to wear earrings for the rest of their lives? Do they get sick again if they take them off? Is Peril forever cursed to think of Darkstalker as a cool old uncle and has to somehow reconcile how everyone else thinks of him? How did the Nightwings relinquishing their powers work, do they have to wear the earrings forever too now?
And there is one more thing to mention.
My confession
You may have already intuited this, if youâve been following the content of my blog. It is very heavily skewed towards the first and second arcs of the series. I would now like to confess something.
When I read the second half of book 10, I found it so disillusioning, Winterâs fate so upsetting... that I put down the series then and there. And I havenât picked it back up since.
Thatâs right, I have not read arc 3. I donât know if that makes me a fake fan. I know pretty much everything that happens in it, the controversial twist at the end, Pyrrhia coming back into the story later, Snowfall getting brainwashed by a piece of jewelry until she cares about a plot that had nothing to do with her or the fate of the Icewings, etc..
Itâs not out of malice, or because itâs a new continent. The opposite in fact; I would have greatly prefered a clean break with a new settingâBug-themed dragons in a slightly more contemporary, developed environment sounds fascinating and full of potential. I donât hate Pantala or the new characters.
I just... I canât really do this again. I canât handle the thought of Pyrrhia coming back post-Darkstalker, with Winter showing up and talking to these guys again like nothing happened, seeming like a different person, joking around with them like his entire character wasnât dragged through a mountain of manure to make the plot bend a certain way. I think as long as this is the ending that the story is continuing from, seeing that would just make me miserable.
Maybe I will just stay in the parts of the story that I fell in love with. And imagine a version of reality in which Pantala is allowed to exist on its own, where Swordtail was the fourth POV character of arc 3, where Queen Wasp stayed the villain throughout, and Snowfall got her own legends book about how she reformed Icewing society and fixed all the shit that poisoned Winterâs life, so future generations donât have to suffer through the same stuff he did.
~~~~~
If youâre still with me, thank you for reading this far. I think this is everything I ever thought about the finale of the second story arc, so now I never have to talk about it again. Writing this was difficult. I found it crushing at times. This will probably stand as the only overtly negative post I have ever made on this blog. I love Wings of Fire, and I want to celebrate it. To add to it, not tear it down.
I hope this wasnât too boring, or painful, or frustrating, or soul-crushing to read through. Iâll see you later, hopefully with a more constructive post.
By the way. If you saw my last post and were wondering "Who in blazes is Maggot Guy??", let me finally introduce you to the most important character in all of Wings of Fire:
This is Maggot Guy. They have a real name, but nobody can remember what it is because everyone just calls them Maggot Guy on account of their dietary preferences. Their hobbies are spear-fighting and being unnecessarily vocal about their taste for maggots.
I am so glad I finally get to talk about this vital element of the story. It feels like my work is complete now.