#oceansong

WARNING: The following is headcanon-driven, mostly because it has an S/I in it...so take it all with a grain of salt.

I have a couple angles for this idea, one of which is a "headcanon-heavy and very self-indulgent-this-would-never-be-canon-in-a-million-years" pre-TDP story. In that one she's still a Spirit dragon that came across Greater Xadia (Xadia before the split) long before the events of the show. She became known eventually for her ability to channel and use all six sources of Primal magic (not as OP as it sounds, just hang in there) and that drew the attention of one young Startouch elf: Aaravos. 

This was before he became an Archmage and in this story her own unique ability (which he later discovers isn't limitless. She can only channel one source at a time and only if it is readily available. If there isn't a Sun shining overhead or she hasn't stored enough of its energy, she can't do Sun magic. If there isn't water or Sky elements she cannot use Ocean or Sky magic) is what leads to him learning to do the same. They strike up a deal, working together to help him unlock all six arcana of magic which takes...a very long time. Changing your world view over and over again is not an easy task for anyone. Even a Startouch elf, who is known for seeing the "big picture." Though that very thing is how he accomplished his task, along with his long lifespan. 

More on that later...what about the picture itself? I don't know if I'll actually do this, though it would be fun to draw scenes of her looking like an elf. But either way, for the sake of this post I'll say Pendara can not only shapeshift into a human (that's an ability of hers, yes. More reason to play it safe and say she's basically an alien) but also any of the known elven races. It's like camouflage. She can change the colors of her form, but not the appearance. So no matter what if you look close enough you'll see something isn't quite...right about that Moonshadow elf, or that Earthblood elf. So sometimes she has to change up her hairstyle to blend in a bit better. 

The Startouch form is especially rarely used, due to Startouch elves themselves being rarely seen aside from Aaravos...and lack of needing to use it. She based it off of Aaravos, in fact, as the only Startouch she's seen...and it shows. He has mixed feelings on this one because of that... On one hand he does see she looks the part, but on the other it's a reminder of how abnormal he is for his race. (Headcanon here) Most Startouch elves have much brighter, more...ethereal skin tones and normally white sclera. 

As for the last one, that's more "for fun" on my part. A fan-made elf race based on the pure version of the seventh source of magic, the source Dark Magic was discovered through (That's one of my favorite theories anyway.) This race doesn't actually exist in my take on TDP (unless enough people are interested in me expanding on it)...but I'm not sure what it is yet. It could be Pendara's true colors in her elf disguise since it is the colors of her true dragon form, but with purple for the Arcanum color (like Aaravos' chain lightning spell rune in S2E9, which is theorized to be Dark Magic but the purified, not dark version) since blue is taken. Twice. It could also simply be a seventh color scheme she played with and liked, dubbing it "Soulbound elf" for the fun of it. 

That's all I've got so far. I really just wanted to color her so she looks like the six elf races (Ocean-something-going with Song for now-being just a guess since we haven't seen any yet. Skywing being a guess too since we've only seen concept art and one or two in the background of the Prologue.) plus one extra for fun. Unsurprisingly the Startouch is my favorite...but the Sunfire and Earthblood ones came out nicely I think, as well.  

The Dragon Prince (c) Wonderstorm

Oceansong is CW Rose's debut novel and it shows.

I very much liked the unique mermaid lore Rose created as well as the budding romance between Angie and Kaden, at first.

The main problem the book has is the pacing. I felt like getting mental whiplash from the book's breakneck speed. There was barely any room to develop the romance, most of the characters, the worldbuilding to a degree, but the tension suffered the worst. There was next to none build up of plot points, and when people died it was almost glossed over. It happened, it was acknowledged, it affected the plot sometimes, but there was no time to really process everything before being pushed to the next plot point, and another person drops dead.

The themes were very tell, don't show, so it got a little preachy, but it wasn't constantly in your face.

What got to me the most, though, was that the characters didn't act like people. Obviously, there will always be the one guy who's just looking for an excuse to hurt people, but everyone, but the main character, the love interest, and the five year old niece, was bloodthirsty from the second chapter. It was so jarring, I half-expected there to be some magical reason for it.

Hopefully, CW Rose's writing will get better the more she writes, however I have no interest in reading her next book.

While I don't recommend Oceansong, I also won't tell you not to. Decide for yourself if it's something you might like and are willing to give a try.

Content warning: moderate sexual situations, moderate swearing, lots of on-screen violence and death, racism (between humans and merfolk)