Flawseer's Attic

Stand-alone posts:

#flawseer art - Artwork that was drawn by me.

#flawseer talk - Posts where I ramble about something, mostly my own headcanons. I don't expect anyone to take them seriously, but maybe you'll have fun reading them regardless.

#flawseer story - Posts that have a narrative element, be it a written story, script, or comic.

#flawseer skit - Posts that contain one or more dialogue scenes, usually acted out with comic panels and text.

#flawseer errata - Corrections and clarifications pertaining to earlier posts.

#character analysis - Posts where I talk about one or more characters and share my thoughts about them. For some reason people like me to do this.

#long winded - Posts that are wordy and veeeery loooooooong.

Referential posts:

#flawseer reblog - Post made by another person that I reblogged, with or without commentary.

#flawseer reply - Reblogs that I've added commentary to, or responses to prompts submitted to me.

Content Tags:

Preferences and sensibilities vary from person to person, and not everyone wants to see every piece of content. I will add these tags to my posts if they are relevant so you can block content you don't want to be exposed to. More tags will likely be added over time.

swearing - Will tag if expletives are used. Some of the less severe swears might remain untagged.

romance - I'm a very sappy and sentimental person myself, but I also want this place to be welcoming to people with ARO or ACE viewing preferences, so if a post contains romantic overtones, I will tag.

Art Projects:

Foeslayer's Lament - (#1) (#2)

JMA students collage - (#1) (#2) (#3) (#4) (#5) (#6) (#7) (#8) (#9)

3000 AS collage - (#1) (#2)

Smaugust 2024 - (tag)

6 Ways to Do Animus Magic - (link)

The JMA Files (dialogue collage) - (tag)

Character Studies & Opinion Pieces:

Blister, Princess - (link)

Chameleon - (link)

Chameleon, Icicle, and Hailstorm - (link)

Clay - (link)

False Dragonets of Destiny, the - (link) (follow-up)

Glory - (link) (errata)

Maggot Guy - (#1) (#2) (#3)

Orca, Princess - (link)

Pike - (link)

Sky (speculative) - (link)

Smolder, Palm, and Onyx - (link)

Starflight - (link)

Thorn - (link)

---

On Seawing Insults - (link)

On Mudwing culture - (link)

Wings of Earth - (link)

Arc 2 Finale - (preamble) (post) (follow-up #1) (follow-up #2)

Legends: Darkstalker Epilogue - (link)

Winglets: Deserter Redux - (link)

Skits

Son of the Year (ft. Turtle & Umber) - (link)

A Good Life (ft. Winter & Icicle) - (link)

Inheritance Dispute (ft. Orca & Coral; comedic) - (link)

Anger Management (ft. Qibli & Thorn) - (link)

Though I assume you want something more substantial? Well, I used to think that, even if you mix tribes, the resulting dragonet would always skew towards one tribe in particular (matching the mother's, kind of like in Pokémon, Elder Scrolls, etc.). My assumption was that there had to be some kind of (un-)natural component keeping them all in that general shape. Otherwise it would be weird to have these very rigid tribes persisting over millennia without hybridized splinter-tribes forming all over the continent.

But that rigid tribe inheritance seems to have been disproven twice now; once by Clearsight seemingly giving birth to the entirety of the Hivewing ancestry herself, and now more overtly in the new book. I guess we're meant to assume that the tribes are so severely segregated and mixed heritage parents have become so uncommon that hybrids are virtually non-existent today (on Pyrrhia). Though I feel like that contradicts a plot point from book 10.

I'm probably overthinking this.

Hahhhh... I've told myself I would finish this one before pride month ends, and though the weather itself conspired to prevent me, it was not enough to stop me.

I've mentioned this one before. When I posted spider comic, I briefly alluded in passing to another mysterious work called soap comic. This is that comic.

It's my headcanon that most Sandwings are severely hydrophobic. It's mostly based on the fact that Sunny seems to hate being in contact with water and does things like standing on top of Clay to avoid getting wet whenever she has to be near any.

Yes, there are several instances of my hypothesis being contradicted. Palm eagerly dives into an oasis (though she was quite thirsty at the time) and Deserter mentions baths in the palace (can't really refute that one). I'm choosing to be in denial about it. Please let me have this, I need it.

Winter acts disgruntled here, but I think he secretly enjoys that he gets to do this.

Just for fun I recorded some time lapses of me drawing these pages. You can look at them and see me flounder through the process if that's the sort of thing you enjoy looking at (screencap frequency is 1 per minute):

If anything, this is a well-intended and noble gesture. Sora killed a Nightwing, which concerns the jurisdiction of the Rain Queen, and thus forces Clay into direct conflict with his friend Glory if he were put in a position where he had to hide Sora's whereabouts from her. But if he doesn't know, he cannot be held accountable.

This always came across as a futile effort to me though, a nice but ultimately pointless gesture born of the mind of a youthful optimist. I cannot conceive of any reality where Clay doesn't know exactly where his missing siblings are. Knowing him, he checks on them regularly to make sure they're well and healthy (but keeps his distance to respect their wishes to not involve him).

And if Glory ever decides to come investigate Bigtail's death, she knows full well Clay is able to do this as well.

Incidentally, this is part of why I like to pretend Carnelian and Bigtail didn't die. The death of a young Nightwing under Glory's care, committed by someone Clay is unwilling to give up creates so many uncomfortable implications that lead to thoroughly depressing outcomes for both of them and their continued friendship. I kind of hate where I see this going.

I am sad now. Maybe you should ignore this write-up and just look at the comic.

******

For instance, you are seemingly correct about fruit being massive. Kinkajou feeds Winter's starving scavenger Bandit with a single blueberry. Pineapple makes mention of bananas growing in large bunches that need to be sawed free with multiple Rainwings. Sunny finds one carrot and shows it to Clay and talks about it like it's significant. The entire resolution of arc 2 relies on a strawberry which is large enough that an enormous dragon like Darkstalker can meaningfully interact with it.

And it's not just the produce either. Animals seem to be super-sized as well. Rainwings keep sloths as pets and they seem to be of a comfortably handle-able size. Winter sees one and thinks "this will be a decent meal" instead of "how can I get full on the equivalent of a single french fry?".

There is a magic hole in the Ice Kingdom you can pull seals from to feed yourself, which makes sense if you assume a seal is about meal-sized compared to a dragon (think of like a nice hamburger), but becomes strange if they retain their size compared to humans. I mean, it still works since the supply is infinite, so you can just pull out 50 of them. But at that point why not pick something of a more comfortable snack size, like a walrus or a small whale?

Moonwatcher catches a goat at one point and it's big enough to feed her and Qibli. The ancient Nightwings knew how to make cheese and thus presumably had cows or another milk animal large enough to milk. Riptide manages to knock himself out by swimming into a whale (could have been a really large whale like a blue whale, but still). Clay releases a flock of chicken and they don't seem to be bug-sized to him. A centipede/bug thing crawls onto Winter's face and is large enough to be noticed. And there are snakes massive enough that their bite can break dragon skin.

To stay sane among all of this chaos, I personally imagine that all fruit, plants, and animals in the setting are sized vaguely relative to the dragons, and then the scavengers are caught in a weird Gulliver's Travels scenario where they are unusually small compared to everything else.

Excerpt from WoF Graphic Novel. Incidentally makes a decent emote.

Anyway, you're right. I have not read Dragonslayer. But if I ever do, it better be about humans having to raise bugs as livestock and fending off man-sized chicken and rabbits while their hunting party returns from the woods with a single papaya that then feeds the entire village. Otherwise I'm going to be severely disappointed. I want them to see a melon and they're just awestruck because they've never seen so much food before. I want there to be joyous weeping in the scavenger streets at the melon feast. Then Coconut comes by and eats it before they can, and he becomes the devil-analogue in their new religion created in the following depression.

Why did I enjoy this? Well, I think having Blue lack this (for this setting) very ubiquitous mobility option created some interesting challenges for the group to overcome. Challenges that aren't seen very often in this series and that I thought felt very fresh as a result.

See, there is a set of common issues you tend to run into when you give your protagonists access to free and convenient flight. It makes travelling almost trivial. It becomes much harder to challenge your heroes through putting some kind of treacherous landscape in between them and their goal, because unless said goal is inside that landscape, there is little stopping them from just soaring over it and laughing at you.

Maybe that is something you welcome. Perhaps the idea of Clay and friends having to rough it out in the wilderness for weeks, evading patrols and slowly making their way to their destinations doesn't appeal to you. You might prefer them to just fast-travel to the next big location because that's where the plot is. And that is a perfectly valid opinion to hold. Spending story time camping on a dusty trail might be a total pace killer.

But for me, a little bit of magic is lost if you can theoretically access any point on the continent with at most two days of flying. It makes the world feel kind of small. I yearn for that kind of trail filler, putting me into proximity to all the settlements on the way and exposing me to their little quirks and cultures.

Another aspect I liked about Blue's initial flightlessness was that it gave us another dragon body type to appreciate. The physiological diversity in Wings of Fire is... rather shallow. Barring injuries and some dragons having a harder time lighting a fire, everyone has roughly the same body shape and array of abilities to work with: Flight, something that kills, and in some cases one utility ability (like invisibility or darkvision). But very few have specific physiological shortcomings. I liked Blue's situation because it gave him a very glaring and obvious weakness that the others had to work around. That was interesting to me, having to conceive of ways to get him up cliffs or down to a deeper hive level.

I kind of wish there was more of that, dragons having to consider the weaknesses of their physiological makeup and planning around it. Like, if I really think about it, passing through the desert should be a huge problem for characters like Tsunami, Turtle, and Anemone, and being in the humid rainforest would be a struggle for Sunny and Qibli. The only instances I can think of where anything like that happens is with Clay's temperature-based breath weapon and Winter noting that proximity to a volcano makes his frostbreath less effective.

I’m maybe picturing a little side story on the way from the rainforest to Blaze’s fortress, where the group is crossing the desert and has to barter with some shady Sandwing water merchant because Tsunami is in danger of drying out. Maybe the merchant could say something like “If you don’t like my prices, you can go get your throat slit in the Scorpion Den instead,” setting up that place as bad news. Then when Sunny goes there in her book, people will recognize it and have appropriate expectations of it as a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

I don’t know, it could be fun.

So I guess if there are any aspiring authors of dragon xenofiction reading this, I leave you with this bit of unsolicited advice: Think about the physiology of your dragon characters and do not be afraid to give them appropriate gaps in their skillsets. Not every dragon needs to be able to fly, or do the same things every other dragon can. Sometimes it is fun watching your characters have to think of clever ways to cover for each other's shortcomings. That is how bonds are formed.

Those are my I'm-falling-asleep-and-am-rambling-nonsense thoughts of today. Let's hope they'll still make sense to me when I wake up again.

So when he turns a corner and suddenly spots some big critter on the wall with way too many legs, I don't see him screaming for joy. If I remember right he was also having a hard time with all the crawlies in the rainforest, especially some centipede thing crawling on his face while Deathbringer was sitting on him.

I guess because of all that, I picture him as a bit of an arachnophobe.

Would you believe me if I told you I've been wanting to make this comic for two years now? I've occasionally been talking to my friends about it. Like, I'd say "maybe I should do spider comic soon". Well, I suppose it has finally happened. I hope you enjoy spider comic.

You can't ever have too many Qibli and Winter domestic scenes, can you?

BLISTER: "Amber is NOT a gemstone you shambling brain vacancy!" BLAZE: "Uhm, I think I know a little more about treasure than you do, vulture butt!" BLISTER: "It’s NOT a gemstone! Amber is fossilized tree sap! TREE SAP!!" BLAZE: "Silly Blisterface. Trees don’t make stones, they make fruits. Even I know that!" BLISTER: "UGHhhhhHHHJFBWBCWUWbdfwbW" (sound of things hitting walls)

BLAZE: "And she’s supposed to be the smart one in the family. Can you believe that? Ha ha ha."

Asked by @angaram

BLAZE: “Ha ha. Very funny. I know you think I’m a dummy who doesn’t know how mirrors work, you silly little thingy, but I know ALL about them! It's not the mirror that makes you fat, it's the girl inside it. Everyone knows that mirrors are windows to a special room where a ghost lives. The ghost makes itself look like you, but also gets jealous when you’re too pretty and makes up weird flaws about you, like making your tail look wide or giving you weird markings around your eyes. Mama told me all about it back when she was still alive. She also said the ghost would eat me if I looked at gold too much, and that’s why I should stop asking her to unlock the treasure chamber. Silly mama, how can the ghost get me if there is glass in the way? Still, one day I stared at her through the big mirror in my room, and I pulled out a smaller claw mirror and smashed it over the table between us. I think that jealous ugly camel got the message.”

Asked by @sunbitternb

GLACIER: "Let me be clear and firm. I do not have a lot of free time to be thinking about birds. There is always some matter or another requiring my attention. ... But then sometimes, after retiring to my chambers for the evening, I watch the snow petrels fly by the window. It helps me wind down before I sleep. Ah, and ice cream. Yes, I admit I allow myself to indulge from time to time. I would say my favorite flavor is... Hm... ... ... Yes. That rich and tangy taste."

GLACIER: "Tiger shark blood. Let freshly from the innards, dripped onto a bed of virgin snow."

BLAZE: "NO!! Th-that's a joke! She meant blueberry!!" GLACIER: "Blueberry?? That's wretched."

~~~~~~~~

I still have more of these. Many, many, many more of these. I'll probably continue going through them in the following months. Everyone knows the best april fools jokes are the ones that run on into September, right?.

Overview

This book was... good. Really good even. Probably one of the best in the series. I usually tend to take breaks between chapters, but somewhere towards the middle of it I started having trouble putting the thing down.

Me enjoying this book is good for me, but not so much for this post. I have an easier time articulating when I don't like something, so now I have to fight off the temptation to just say "excellent read" and leave it at that.

Okay, let me think of something to say so I don't just leave you hanging.

I liked the nuanced perspective this book took with regards to the Hivewings. It felt like an evolution of some themes from arc 1. I always felt a bit weird with how the Nightwings were handled back then. The potential existence of Nightwings who weren't entirely on board with the Rainwing extermination but had to bite their tongue so Battlewinner didn't have them or their family tossed into a lava pit never got much exploration. I think that was done a little better here. A little bluntly in places, but I appreciate that it was present at all. Like yeah, there absolutely would be people who don't actually agree with the mad regime and are made to act against their better nature through force, or misinformation, or indoctrination.

It's also interesting to have to discuss this dynamic within the protagonist group themselves. The gang goes into this story split through the middle and Cricket has to navigate a strange dichotomy of Sundew and Swordtail being her allies on one side, while they openly contemplate murdering her loved ones on the other. It's very tense.

Also a little gut-wrenching to hear the "You're one of the good ones" line out of a friendly mouth.

Yeah, it turns out I have to rescind my declaration of "Blue has nothing to contribute to this fight" from the previous book post. His kindness and consideration are absolutely needed to keep the other half of their group from descending into a murderous glee.

The stand-out character for me this time was Lady Scarab. She is so unapologetically cantankerous and old, it was hilarious. Plus, I can always get behind someone doing vent art on the side.

Cricket

While things got very heavy and sad again (recurring domestic abuse theme), I didn't feel as battered and bruised by the plot as I did last book. Part of that may be because Cricket is a very active protagonist who pushes back against her perils instead of surrendering to the onslaught of unweatherable abuse. I audibly went "Yes!" when she decided they need to go public with their knowledge about the Book of Clearsight and incite some kind of uprising. It's a very "her" solution, to fight by informing the uninformed.

I am ashamed to admit I did not see the twist about her birth mother coming. In retrospect it was probably obvious, and I'm certain Lady Scarab would call me an imbecile for being this dense.

There was a scene in Cadelle's house where Cricket ran into Katydid, and things got a bit ominous. I saw Katydid show signs of being indoctrinated and thought "No, come on. Don't have the only source of familial love and affirmation betray her." I think I'm so used to parents and siblings being horrible to each other in this series that I'm conditioned to expect it now. I'm glad she didn't sell her out and things went in a different direction.

Tension deflated a little once Cricket was thrown in prison, with the hive ruler immediately showing up and saying "Don't worry, I'll let you escape and take the heat for you," followed by everyone being very nice and cooperative. That seemed a bit too easy. But I understand why it happened. The previous chapter had been rather... intense, with all the scenes of mind-controlled hordes hunting Cricket down, pressing her against the floor and jabbing needles into her throat. I continue to be a bit baffled by the rapid juxtaposition of (comparatively) extreme violence followed by casual, joke-y dialogue that seems to pervade this series. But in a kids book you can't have something like that followed up by a chapter of Cricket being miserable and crying in prison. So I get why the tone shift was necessary.

I also enjoyed the ending. After the last book ended with them discombobulated and scared hiding in some cave, it felt like they really managed to strike a blow against Wasp this time. I'm up for this continuing, little victories, making cracks in the foundation until Wasp's control slips and her regime crumbles. Now that Wasp is forced into a reactive position with the loss of her plant stash, they can really mess with her.

Other thoughts

There are apparently giant wasps that can kill elephants on this continent. NO! That is unacceptable! I don't want to be here anymore!

Cricket mentions that treestuff is made of wood, clay, and silk while burning through the prison cell wall. I personally think it would be funnier if it was like real wasp paper, made by chewing up wood. I picture a couple poor Hivewings on treestuff duty, sitting in the basement and begrudgingly munching on logs all day to make them into pulp.

It could be a Hivewing power.

Hivewing A: You have poisonous teeth. And you have a stinger that paralyzes things. Hivewing B: What do I have? Hivewing A: You, uh... Your saliva hardens into a very practical and durable building material when it comes in contact with wood. Hivewing B: Oh... Can I please get a reroll? Hivewing A: No. Here, chew on this plank. Sad chewing noises.

Cue Swordtail's horrified reaction when he learns his job is carrying around ancient Hivewing spit all day.

Conclusion

I'm glad I read this book. It builds excellently upon the last one and I want these guys (emphasis) to stick it to Wasp and liberate Pantala. Someone needs to give that Queen a good thumping.

That's all I have to say. Cricket book gud.

Moon's second rise

If you've read my closing thoughts on the previous book you will know that I am very pro Pantala being its own, self-contained thing. I like the setting, it has won me over. I WANT to be there, see it be whole and feature complete. Conversely, I get miffed when it's not allowed to breathe and develop on its own, and whenever Pyrrhia insists on getting mixed in. I'm also famously not fond of the arc 2 finale, and here is the gang fresh off that finale. So you could say we're starting off on the wrong foot here.

Hm.

That is completely unfair of me, I know. It was book 10 that forced this setup into existence, and book 11 that took Luna out of her native setting and plopped her here. It's done. We have no choice but to follow this silk thread to its conclusion, it's not this book's fault.

And for what it's worth, what's here is fine, mostly. Moonwatcher is authentically herself, not the caricature she was in book 10. She reminisces a bit about what happened with Darkstalker and how she didn't navigate that situation with as much grace as she would have wanted to. She acknowledges her own failings through that story which I appreciated. I really hope she got around to telling Winter about those thoughts, but he isn't mentioned.

Qibli is kind of whatever here. I usually find him charming, that didn't come out this time. He was mostly a bit annoying, but not to the point where I wanted to throw objects.

Turtle is always wonderful, I have yet to see a scene where he is written badly, or obnoxiously, or out of character. I'm not sure it is possible. I liked the part where he accused Qibli of breaking Animus magic. That was funny.

Okay, let me look at my notes here... uhm... They say :"ugh, moon", "actually shes fine", "qibli annoying", yeah, we did all those... "use turtle's bowl to make infinite skyfire". Right. Moon is distressed because she can hear Luna's thoughts and laments how limited the amount of skyfire is. Really not a problem, just make more. Though I guess the bowl is in the Ice Kingdom. Maybe they don't want to get it back because then they'd have to go to the Ice Kingdom, and Winter might learn about it and it would be a whole barrel of awkward.

Or like, just give Luna Qibli's skyfire. You know, since Qibli is Moon's bf now, surely he trusts his mate's ability and willingness to respect his privacy enough to not need the skyfire anymore.

What else is written here? "tsunami founded JMA??!??!? (an obnoxious amount of punctuation marks following)". Yeah, this kept popping up throughout arc 2 as well and it bewildered me there too. The idea that Tsunami made the Jade Mountain Academy. I am so confused about this. It has always, ALWAYS read to me that this was Sunny's project. The idea to break down tribal boundaries and nourish future generations with kindness, hope, and education has "Sunny" written all over it. I can picture Sunny pitching this idea to her friends, and Tsunami smiles, punches into her palm, and jokingly declares "Yeah! I'm gonna whip those punks into shape for you!"

Did I Mandela effect myself somehow and this has always been Tsunami's project?? Can I even trust my own memory anymore? I was so sure that this was all Sunny, and Tsunami got swept up in it and went along for the ride. At most that they let Tsunami BELIEVE she is the one in charge to appease her. Maybe I'm just a huge fraud and everything I thought I knew was a lie I told myself.

"Why fix Tamarin's eyes?" Right, that part. Tamarin is always written like a lifeless prop whenever she is not physically present, especially when Anemone is involved. I find this especially tragic because Tamarin is the rare minor character with a very active and pronounced personality. She is reliable, wise, and most importantly--fiercely proud of being self-sufficient in spite of her disability. I cannot for the life of me picture her ever asking to have her eyes tampered with in that way. That seems so unfathomably out-of-character to me that it could have only happened while she wasn't present in the scene to defend herself. She's been blind from birth, she does not miss her sight, and her defiance of others insisting sight is necessary is a badge of pride and source of strength for her. She would never agree to this. In fact, she would get mad if you suggested it, and then calmly but decisively explain to you why you are mistaken.

Like, someone stand up for Tamarin's character integrity, for moons sake. She's a strong and defined character who could probably carry her own book if she got one. Let her appear on-page and speak for herself instead of assigning things to her while the plot isn't looking.

Maybe Anemone tried to heal her without askin--no, no I don't want that. That's, no. Don't assassinate Anemone's character like that. Let's have her have learned something from that whole Kinkajou love curse mess.

Other thoughts

Moonwatcher and Luna have an interaction about their names being moon-related. Now we just need to get Io involved and have her learn about the moons of Jupiter, and finally, the Three Moons will have assembled.

Qibli uses the word "glitch" at one point. My man, what? Have we invented radio broadcasting in the few weeks after Darkstalker's defeat? Go back to that reality where you're playing Dwarf Fortress and leave us simple folk in peace.

Conclusion

It was cute. You know, inoffensive. For something that had to happen because it was set up, it could have been a lot worse. Like, Qibli and Moon could have insisted not to mention any of this to Winter, because he's such a compulsive royalty loyalist that he would've build a catapult and shot a letter to Queen Wasp to warn her. They didn't do that, everyone was fun and charming for the most part.

I would have much rather had Luna stay on Pantala to interact with her own group of protagonists, and join the resistance against Wasp somewhere down the line. That would have been more interesting to me. But she has to be here now, and for what it's worth, it was fine.

Sorry, I think my thoughts of the rest of the book will be more glowing, once we go back to Pantala. Let's hope.