#kenna smith

The first thing we learn about Skandar, is that his favourite Chaos Cup Rider is Aspen McGrath and New-Age Frost, a water wielder. And she becomes the Commodore of Chaos, during what will be his Hatchling Year, providing he passes the Hatchery Exam. And it is this water wielder whom Skandar makes the deal with that he can continue his spirit wielder training. His last name is Smith, one of the most common ones, like water is one of the most common elements. Water makes up 70% of humans and covers 71% of Earth. It is essential for living. He lives in Margate, on the coast, on an island, surrounded by sea, by WATER.

He then gets to the Island, by flying over the sea, on Artic Swansong, which, whilst being a spirit unicorn, has a watery/icy first name, and second name: swan is a bird often found on water. They land on FISHERman's Beach, a water-based trade, named after the First Rider.

(ALSO, Albert makes connections between Kenna and The First Rider, but I think we're meant to see the parallels between Skandar and George instead. Both living on the coast, drawn to the Island by a sense of adventure. Rebel Spirit, his unicorn, his literally Skandar, I'm sure he's actually called the rebel/rebellious spirit wielder at one point. And Scoundrel's Luck: Luck, the thing that brought Skandar, George, and Rose to the Island in the first place, more or less, and a Scoundrel, a pirate, like Rose. ALSO, Rose - Rosemary, the fake name of Skandar's mother. A WATER-allied SILVER, whom George falls in love with. So, the First Rider, who unexpectedly came to the Island, befriended/bonded with a rebellious, mischievous unicorn, fell in love with a Silver, and irrevocably changed the Island. Like Skandar, except Flo is earth-allied, but rose/ rosemary are flowers/herbs, so it still matches. AND, Skandar meets the First/Phantom Rider in the second book, the WATER themed book. Where, on the cover, unlike the others, it is just Skandar and Scoundrel, and the water spirit, no other riders.)

And when on the Divide, Skandar chooses to go down the water line, partly because he feels it's safest, but also probably because in another life, water is what he would want to be allied to, as it was his mother's favourite element. And Instructor O'Sullivan, the WATER instructor, is the main instructor who looks out for Skandar. Now, I'm sure the others would have done their best for Skandar if he'd chosen them, but I think Persephone (named after the Queen of the Underworld, spirit is the death element, Steadman is very clever with her names), went above and beyond to support Skandar.

In choosing a quartet, his is the odd one out, for it doesn't contain a water wielder. This lack of water is a recurring flaw that will be an obstacle for Skandar. Also, Skandar spends a lot of the first book and smaller moments throughout the series wishing he had just been a water wielder, as his life would have been a lot easier.

Flo's Mum hadn't made a spirit paint yet, so Skandar had to use the blue, but he could've painted the sky or ice, or whatever. No, he painted the sea, the body of water right outside his Mainland home, where things weren't perfect, but he still had Kenna (I'm going to do a separate post about her and the air element), as his older sister, without a forged bond to wild unicorn foal, and people weren't trying to kill him. And out of that water crest/surf, his quartet make spirit symbols. Out of water, within the fading edges of a wave, is where Skandar's spirit lay.

The Well/The Sanctuary: A Well can be filled with water, but it can also be filled with nothingness, which is where spirit resides. And if someone seeks sanctuary, they will probably need food and water upon arrival.

When his quartet entered the First Rider's Tomb, he had to face the water element alone, using his fast flying skills to outmanoeuvre it, which he learnt in the Peregrine Society, led by Rickesh, a water wielder. When they have to put the bone staff in the divide, the lack of water element nearly ruins it, but Kenna saves them with her forged bond, but it is unnatural.

During the Chaos Trials, it is the WATER stone that Skandar is missing. And he chooses the air stone for Flo, his adored earth wielder. Whom he makes snow for, a water based ability. Again, earth is a key secondary element for both Smith siblings, if water/air is their primary ones that haunt their respective spirit arcs.

The Skeleton Curse is almost derailed from Kenna's POV, as she didn't kill Tsunami Herald, because she felt a kinship with Bobby, an older air wielder sister who wanted to protect her younger water wielder sibling. And Isa, Ira, Niamh, Rickesh, Kobi, and others that I can't quite remember, are all key-ish secondary characters who are allied to water.

And in the Spirit War, the water dragon is the first one they fight to turn off magic on the Mainland, and all of this is to fight an air wielder, whose element is most vulnerable to water, if I remember correctly.

But none of this would matter, if Skandar wasn't a spirit wielder. Because spirit is formed in the abstract, negative space of things that are missing. And Skandar is constantly missing the water element on his adventures. And he has spent his life missing people: his mother, his dad, his aunt, his sister, his friends, his girlfriend, his unicorn. Even if they came back, at one point or another, Skandar had lost them. For however long at a time, there were negative spaces in his life where people should be. And water can fill any space. But he is not a water wielder. So those holes were empty, and that's where his power grew. That's why Skandar is the main character, because the world told him he was evil, and history told him he would one day fall to the darkness. But he didn't.

And water is many things: adaptable, flexible, able to sustain life, etc. But spirit is unknown, and rooted in loss. And Skandar is ultimately a boy who lost everyone and everything. Including the element he should've had. If he wasn't Skandar Smith.

Anyway, there may be more examples, but those are the main ones.

This is Kenna lmao

This is Skandar ➡️

Spoilers for the other four books ahead

Flo anonymously feeds information to the Scoundrel’s Recistance

I will never believe that sweet, loyal and loving Florence Shekoni genuinely betrayed Skandar. Throughout almost the entire second half of The Skeleton Curse, we see her try to warn Skandar about Rex and the Silver Circle, begging him to be careful and to back out. Before the Chaos Cup race, she tries to tell him something he can’t hear, and after Rex fairly publicly tries to kill him, she arrest him even more publicly. He is officially the Commodore of Chaos at that point, and Rex Manning’s biggest political rival. Considering the support for Skandar, if the winner of the Chaos Cup turns up dead in the custody of his usurper rival, there would be an uprising.

I believe Flo did it to protect Skandar and to gain Rex’s trust so that she might become a high ranking official in his regime. This way she’ll secretly and anonymously feed information to people who are connected to Skar’s group, though not to them directly. I imagine she could potentially send unsigned letters to Ira Henderson.

I also noticed in my pre-Spirit War reread, Flo tells Skandar in The Phantom Rider that she’s afraid she’s one day going to be forced to choose the Silver Circle over him.

Skandar and Kenna create an army of spirit wielders

From all the way back in The Phantom Rider, we hear about the Silver Circle fearing that Skandar will use his Mender abilities to bond the lost spirit wielders to their destined unicorns and create an army of true spirit wielders.

I think Kenna and Skandar, potentially with the help of the Scoundrel’s Resistance, will break the lost spirit wielders out of prison and find their destined unicorns so Skandar can bond them. I specifically want to see Kenna bonded with the dapple grey unicorn, Tyler Thomson with Goshawk’s Fury and that boy from The Skeleton Curse who was denied a chance at the Hatchery Door bonded with his.

Bobby and Mitchell learn spirit magic

In The Unicorn Thief, instructor Joby Worsham tells Skandar that the spirit element is in every unicorn and rider, just like the other four. And in The Skeleton Curse, Bobby says she wants to learn spirit magic as well, though she’s shut down by Agatha on account of it still being illegal.

I want to see Bobby and Mitchell learn to use the spirit element, as well as the other riders in the resistance, hopefully Flo as well. I want to see Agatha instruct the riders just like she would’ve at the Eyrie, had the spirit element not been outlawed.

Mitchell gets a special fire wielder ability

When Agatha tells Skadar about Menders in The Phantom Rider, she tells him that some riders have special gifts unique to their elements, such as fire wielders having a strong sense of smell or water wielders being able to hold their breath under water for hours. When she says this, using primarily fire wielders as an example, Skandar wonders what Mitchell’s gift might be.

To me, it seems odd to add this line in if you don’t intend to do something with it later on, so I would like to see Mitchell have a special ability. It could also be somewhat vindicating to Mitchell, I think, to have a unique gift as a fire wielder when both his parents are water wielders and Ira feeling very superior about it.

This one is honestly just for me, I like Mitchell.

Scoundrel’s Luck betrays Skandar

In The Phantom Rider, the First Rider tells Skandar that the one he loves the most will betray him. In The Chaos Trials he thinks the First Rider was talking about Kenna, and in The Skeleton Curse he thinks he was talking about Flo. However throughout the series it’s shown over and over again that the one every rider loves the most is their unicorn.

The First Rider says “The one you love the most will betray you, Skandar Smith. Be wary. When it matters the most, they will turn against you.” I think that one is Scoundrel. Now, I don’t think it will be intentional or calculated in anyway, but rather a conflict of interest. I think the stress and the anger and anxiety will get to both of them and they will quarrel and the bond will become hard to control at times. I think at a crucial moment, when Skandar needs the spirit element more than ever, Scoundrel will suppress it, causing whatever situation to end badly.

This is clearly one of my more half-baked ideas, but I think after that there’ll be a clear divide between rider and unicorn, but ultimately they’ll learn to see each other’s point of view and be closer than ever.

Skandar will lose someone close to him

I have no particular reason to think this other than that I do. Whether it’s Agatha, Robert, Kenna or even Scoundrel’s Luck (though I doubt that last one) I believe someone near and dear to Skandar might lose their life.

They discover Flo’s secret

When they visit the Secret Swappers in The Phantom Rider, Moira says to Flo “You’ve surprised me with this one, silver girl.”

I think they’re gonna swap for Flo’s secret, either in hopes of getting some insight into why Flo betrayed Skandar or completely by accident in trying to get information on the Silver Circle. Either way, I think Florence’s secret might tip the scale in the Scoundrel’s Resistance’s favour.

Edit: in my reread of The Skeleton Curse, when the Silver Circle takes Flo back to the Silver Stronghold after Chaos Cup registration, Flo says to Skandar “[…] And if you ever need to make sense of things, go to the Secret Swappers.”

Amber and Bobby are in lesbians

okay I’m gonna ramble again here we go

spoilers for book 3

Skandar 7/10: slightly awkward but it’s nice. Loose arms.

Bobby 6/10: sorry Bobby your hugs are great but she will definitely attempt to either crack your bones or lift you up.

Mitchell 8/10: detailed research hugging. Also very warm because he’s a fire wielder.

Flo 11/10: wonderful. The best. Doesn’t hug strangers but if you’re close to her? So comforting.

Jamie 6/10: doesn’t hug people much. Just wraps his arms around gently.

Amber 5/10: neither of her parents have definitely ever hugged her before so really stiff.

Kenna 7/10: used to be pretty enthusiastic! And now.

Agatha 5/10: either really stiff or bone crushing. Still good though

spoilers for the first book only but spoilers nontheless probabaly

So, first off, Kenna, heartbroken over not getting to go to the Eyrie, says that Emma Templeton, an air wielder, would be the type of rider she would be if she'd passed the Hatchery Exam. This is a parallel to Skandar saying his favourite is Aspen McGrath and New-Age Frost. Kenna also saves Skandar from his bullies, acting in a defensive yet kind manner we see portrayed in Roberta "Bobby" Bruna, "the most air-wieldy air wielder" read competitive.

Now, Bobby and Kenna have a lot in common. They're both older sisters, who would do anything to protect their water-aligned younger siblings. Although Kenna and Skandar initially appear to have a greater relationship than Bobby and Isabela, we can see that Kenna starts to resent Skandar and his achievements, because she was meant to be first, and Skandar should have looked up to her after he joined. Except that didn't happen. So, I imagine Kenna felt similarly to Bobby did when she told Isa not to follow her when she first got to the Island. And, as Kenna first meets everyone in Book 2, after Bobby tries to branch out from under Skandar's shadow, something Kenna has also been contemplating, they meet with a similar mindset, cementing their connection. However, Bobby is able to move past this, whereas Kenna only becomes more jealous, because she can no longer have a normal Island experience. It is no mistake that Skandar, missing Kenna and feeling guilty about leaving her, first meets Bobby, who sets him right. They fulfill a similar emotional connection to him and have similar personalities. Therefore, it is no surprise that Bobby literally says that she will get along well with Kenna, because Bobby is Kenna if Kenna wasn't a spirit wielder and had been allowed to go to the Hatchery. Also, Bobby has feathers for her mutation, which mirrors Kenna's in Book 3.

As Skander has a connection with water-allied authority figures, so too does Kenna have one with air-allied figures. It is Rex and Dorian Manning, both air wielders, who bring Kenna to the Island, and she experiences the Island under the Chaos Council of both Nina Kazama and Rex Manning, (and a little bit Bobby).

Also, Book 3, the air-themed book, is where Kenna truly comes into her own and we see her grow more powerful, closer with Goshawk Fury, and mutate. Now, her mutations. Looking at all of them, air is the least traumatic because feathers grow out of her ears, rather than her arm turning to lava, ice spikes shooting out of her neck, thorns in her veins, or half her skull becoming visible. However, one of Kenna's identifiers, as acknowledged by the ending of Book 5, is tucking her hair behind her ears. With the addition of the air element, this is no longer possible. Additionally, Goshawk Fury follows the same naming pattern as Falcon's Wrath, (Bird of Prey plus Anger) which indicates that Tyler and Goshawk would've been air-allied, and this is the Unicorn that Kenna chose for herself. Likewise, it further solidifies the similarities between Bobby and Kenna.

Finally, with the Wanderers and alone, Kenna spends most of her time in the Sky Forest, in the Air Zone, where she feels most comfortable with Albert. This is also where she rescues Bobby from, marking the location as a turning point from good to bad and back again for Kenna.