#penryck

First, I am a simple person: I see dragons, I have to at least check out the idea, so when Lasky introduced Penryck "the Sky Dragon" and then did so little with him, I was very disappointed and made up a few headcanons about him:

- in the First Collier it is mentioned that Arryn had a son; my headcanon is that Penryck met Arryn's son first and he, in turn, convinced Arryn to hire Penryck (because I doubt Arryn would've considered hiring hagsfiends all on his own, he would've tried to get an owl warlord on his side instead)

- Penryck is actually better at diplomacy than Arryn, and he was trying to recruit some of Arryn's generals during the second half of The coming of Hoole; that's one of the reasons there are rumours about them going separate ways at the beginning of To be a King (also, his POV in the Coming of Hoole is him mentally rolling eyes at both Arryn's racist shit and his incompetence as a strategist, and I wish there was more of villainous flashbacks because trying to reverse engineer Sklardrog's personality off one pov and a handful of lines is painful)

- A bit more speculative one: Penryck crossed paths with Theo's father and uncle(possibly killed or ordered to kill the latter). Theo asks Grank if he's sure that Penryck killed the high king ‐ why specifically him and not any other warlord? Either Sklardrog's reputation is that scary or Theo had a personal reason to fear him. (This bit never came up again in the books, though, so it stays a speculation)

- Hoole's first time using firesight was a big missed opportunity. Imagine if he saw hagsfiends just living their lives and started doubting what Grank had told him?

- A rather sad one: I thought a lot about Ygreek and Pleek. A lot. (Mostly ranging between "Who hurt you, Grank?" and "Who hurt you, Kathryn?") Because the more I thought about it, the more it felt(at least the translation) like a part of Ygreek's desire to have a child comes from wanting to fit a "proper family" mold; we don't get a similar in-depth introspection about kids from Pleek's point of view, but since Grank picks him out instantly when he looks into the Ember, I headcanon that Pleek comes from a noble family (probably not as rich as Arryn, Siv or Grank himself), and he probably heard plenty of that "your purpose is to have an heir and pass on the family name one day" nonsense before he met Ygreek. So they both have their share of internalised issues about having kids.

(Oof, that got wordy)

I LOVE DRAGONS. I agree, I wish Penryck's character had been explored more. He does seem to be better at diplomacy from his short conversation with Lord Arrin. Lord Arrin's character pretty much boils down to "I want the throne" and "I want a wife," so it makes sense that Penryck was pulling all the strings behind the scenes. In terms of appearance I'd like to think Penryck had claws on his wings, perhaps scaled talons and very long ear-tufts to the point where they looked like horns.

I just think it's funny that owls are convinced hagsfiends are evil when all the hagsfiends in the legends books were hired by owl lords to overthrow King H'rath. The hagsfiends were definitely taking advantage of the situation there, but it's strange that they're considered more villainous than the owl lords who 1) have a gizzard so they know right from wrong, and 2) still chose to do wrong.

(unfurls comically large scroll) PENRYCK AND ULLRYCK MY BELOVEDS i have thought so much about them because i feel like their characters had a lot of potential- first things first, they do not get along AT ALL. penryck is constantly at ullryck’s throat and vice versa. a lot of this comes in part from the fact penryck, as the sky dragon, has a reputation for being a powerful hagsfiend and boy does he know and love it. he’s arrogant and chaotic and loves to stir up trouble just for the sake of stirring up trouble! intervening in the political struggles of the n’yrthghar is nothing but a silly little game to him and he takes great joy in pretending to be a “dumb” hagsfiend so he can get close to and manipulate owls (like lord arrin) for his own goals. he’s well respected, but less for his leadership and more for his sheer power and cunning mind. he doesn’t really care about anyone but himself and doesn’t respect those who follow him.

enter ullryck! penryck’s general persona and demeanor infuriate her like NO OTHER. she’s a shrewd strategist and, unlike penryck, a fantastic leader. she’s patient and personable with others (albeit absolutely willing to use them if she needs to), and has ideas for the future of hagsfiends + the drive to pursue them. thus, a guy like penryck who’s really just concerned with his own amusement puts a bad taste in her mouth. she detests the fact he has any followers and wants nothing more than to see him fall- and luckily, she’s a fierce warrior and assassin with a reputation to rival his, so naturally they start butting heads!

i personally believe the reason penryck and ullryck kind of stop being relevant after the coming of hoole is because penryck was manipulating shadyk at the ice palace- after arrin’s defeat (which i like to think was partially penryck’s fault- when things started going south in the battle at the beyond he declared arrin useless and boring and took his hagsfiend faction and left, thus contributing to arrin’s loss) he went on the hunt for another easily manipulated owl and found shadyk, promising him power. notably he only provides shadyk with young and inexperienced hagsfiends rather than his normal faction, as after arrin he views it as a waste of good warriors. this was a big miss steak on his part :)

shadyk naturally ended up boring penryck too, but while he was off messing around, ullryck defected and convinced most of the hagsfiends in his faction to side with her instead by playing into their annoyance at penryck’s attitude and disdain for them- thus forming her own faction and gaining leadership. when penryck returns and finds out ullryck overthrew him, boy is he PISSED at her and the traitors. thus begins a huge hagsfiend vs hagsfiend conflict, with ullryck and penryck’s rivalry turning into an all out battle between their supporters, and penryck trying desperately to defend his reputation of power against ullryck- who unfortunately, is kind of legit a better leader than him 😭 but he knows if he can prove he is more brutal and powerful than she is, then hagsfiends will return to his side, and he switches focus from messing with owls to regaining what he lost- at least until the battle of the long night, which every hagsfiend is kind of thrust into by virtue of it being the big hagsfiends vs owls event. rip

By First Aid Kit - Wolf

✨Part 1

It was difficult to cram almost all the main characters into the text, but I managed💪

and I still love humanizations, yesss

(just in case, I signed everyone in tags)