#wof meta

I think there are two major reasons that this interpretation arises--aside from the fact fandoms love to flanderize 'oblivious' characters--and those are 1) Clay being confused when Tsunami jokingly describes Peril as his 'girlfriend' in TDP, and 2) by the time EP rolls around, Peril's feelings for Clay have gone unacknowledged by Clay. However, I don't necessarily think either of these factors point towards the complete romantic oblivion that most people like to portray him with, and I'll break it down.

1: Clay being confused when Tsunami jokingly describes Peril as his girlfriend

The DoD are, for the most part, very much written like teenagers, and I think that's pretty clear in TDP, where Clay is somewhat consistently portrayed as finding the whole 'relating to girls' thing quite confusing. When Glory and Tsunami are frustrated with him over stating that Peril could be their 'wings of sky', his response is to ask if it's a 'girl thing he doesn't understand'. He's genuinely surprised whenever any dragon expresses that he's attractive. He is the only one of the Dragonets Of Destiny--Sunny aside--to not even slightly pick up on Starflight's feelings for Sunny (interestingly, I never see anybody integrating 'utter obliviousness' into Sunny's fan perception despite how blindsided she was by Starflight expressing his feelings). I think at this point it's pretty safe to say that Clay isn't so much oblivious as he is just new to the concept entirely and that relating to the opposite gender within the framework of potential romance rather than just 'his sisters and Kestrel' is pretty new ground. Also, when Tsunami makes the 'evil girlfriend' quip, Clay has only known Peril for a few days, and he hasn't necessarily considered her in that light, so he's a bit confused when Tsunami goes there.

Next, and more pertinently:

2: Clay has not acknowledged Peril's feelings, at least to her by the time Escaping Peril happens

By the time Escaping Peril rolls around, it seems like everyone but Clay can tell that Peril likes him, but Clay apparently hasn't made any moves one way or the other towards her, making them the only Arc One implied couple to not have had some form of resolution by this point in Arc Two (Fatespeaker and Starflight are nigh-inseparable throughout A2, we've seen Glory and Deathbringer interact in Winter Turning and being quite affectionate towards one another; and Riptide and Tsunami are not together because neither can get the guts up to actually reach out first, but they both think about each other a lot), which leads a lot of people to assume that Clay is simply unaware of Peril's feelings. However, that's not reflected in the text. Clay is explicitly confronted about Peril's feelings towards him in chapter four, and his response isn't to be 'who? me? no she doesn't!'

That's not the response of someone who is being confronted with the Entirely New Concept of someone liking them. This reads more like Clay is aware of Peril's feelings and is concerned that Ruby will assume that the reason he's willing to pardon Peril is either a) because they're dating and he's willing to look more kindly on her or b) he's flattered by the attention. He also seems to want to shut down Starflight's implication that Peril's redemptive feature is her loving him. Additionally the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons features Clay asking Peril to fly with him in what is generally implied to be a romantic gesture, but only after we see that she has integrated into the school--she has friends, she has interests, she's shown a degree of moral development.

This all reads to me like Clay is aware that Peril is interested in him--and perhaps he's interested in her too--but he also knows that in her emotionally disastrous current state, where she is using him as a template for her sense of morality and has invested her entire sense of stability and self-worth in his affection for her, it would be a terrible idea for him to act on those feelings. Clay steadfastly believes that Peril can be a better dragon and he doesn't want that linked simply to himself. This is reflected in the beginning of Escaping Peril when Peril asks 'what do you want me to do?' and his response is that he's not going to become a new Scarlet for her--Clay's not going to engage with her beyond his usual brand of friendly affection until he's sure he's not the centre of her whole world, and that she's able to find a sense of self-worth outside of him. Which is the smart and healthy thing to do--if he did decide to act on her feelings, the obsession would likely become worse and if the relationship ended poorly, she'd only become more volatile, distrustful and murderous. Shout-out to Clay for handling the Peril situation really well, actually.

So im about 2/3 of the way through the book and I like it a lot! The cast is fun and the setting is interesting.

Sometimes when you read a book you can tell the author doesn't have anything to say and is just writing for the sake of it; this is NOT one of those books. Tui has something to say and by god she will say it.

The themes are incredibly relevant to the american teen target demographic of the series, maybe moreso than any of the previous books. Its not subtle but it isn't trying to be, if I wanted subtlety and highly complex themes wof isn't exactly the place I would look.

Maybe it's recency bias but this is much better than the last arc so far, at least in my opinion. It is much more decisive about what it's saying.

This has no bearing on the actual quality of the book but I like how australian it is. I've been wondering when people will realise wof names can be from flora and fauna found in other parts of the world. I have small complaints about the actual portrayel of the landscape but that's entirely me being australian and pedantic lol.

Overall this is a very good book. I hope it sticks the landing and keeps its themes as relevant and cohesive as this book has been so far.

(Also Known as: This tragedy was not inevitable, let's talk about responsibility)

(CWs: Murder, Abuse)

So, Legends Darkstalker as a book has a lot of thoughts about fate and inevitability. Clearsight and Darkstalker try and fail to create an ideal future for the both of them, Fathom is scared that he can't prevent his animus magic from destroying is soul, and the readers know how all of this is going to end since Legends Darkstalker is a prequel to Arc 2.

In the midst of all this talk about inevitability and fate we have...Albatross. Someone who we've known about since Arc 1 and know how his story ends. He causes the Royal Seawing Massacre, his magic allegedly "driving him insane." What's interesting about Albatross is that when you really look at his life, this historical version of it falls short in many ways. The retelling of his life leave out important context, and notably, scrub any idea that someone or multiple someones might have caused him to act like this.

It's Albatross' fault in the end, it's his fault for losing control, his fault for being "insane."

But if we take an actual look at the story in Legends Darkstalker you find that this really isn't the case.

What makes her later arcs attempts at actually worldbuilding feel hollow and poorly tacked on to me is that they're trying to stand on a flimsy at best, nonexistent at worst foundation.

Arc 1 worked as a standalone story with nothing worldbuilding due to its focus on story progression and present circumstances, with sheltered protagonists who are learning about the world for the first time.

//spoilers for like. all of the first 10 WoF books but esp the very end of Darkness of Dragons

god my feelings about the end of the second arc are Numerous and Complicated and basically revolve around the three obvious Things; Peacemaker, Qibli-Winter-Moon love triangle, & Anemone saying lesbian rights. Lets start off with that first thing tho:

-full disclosure I actually like Peacemaker ngl. Like its smart Kinkajou got her moment to shine (fucking FINALLY) etc etc.  But I also don't think it was, like, a morally good or fine thing to do? But! I also think that was kind of the point!! kinda?

-(also even more important disclosure, I honestly don't like Darkstalker much at all, though if it wins me any favors I do think he's interesting and complex and all!)

-Ok listen so the series is like,, basically about freewill, right? It's kinda the central thesis of the series (or at least the first two arcs lmao that's all I've read lmao); is destiny something made for your or something you choose. Ya know, is Tsunami destined to be queen because she's the lost heir, are Animus's destined to loose their souls, if Peril is 'choosing' who she's devoted to is that freewill and/or how do you develop independence when you've never made a choice before, can Turtle avoid all the bullshit of the world by trying to keep his head down (no <3) was Moon destined to release Darkstalker all along, if you've been under mind warping mind control shenanigans' is your mind really your own and are you capable of making choices, etc etc I can do this with like most characters its REALLY prevalent in the series lmao.

-Anyway! the question posed by the series is 'can you choose your destiny or is it made for you?'. in the first five books there's one obvious massive driving force for this; the prophecy. Sunny is the only one really invested in the prophecy itself, Tsunami thinks it's all bull and is basically offended by the notion, Clay thinks they should just do their best, Starflight believes the prophecy will happen regardless so he's chill, and Glory is disillusioned and apathetic about it.

-Then they reveal that the prophecy is hogwash, and Sunny still believes in it anyway because it's what her whole life was based around and without it her life is meaningless. So her whole arc is finding another meaning in life with Thorn and the Outclaws and then choosing to do her best to fulfill the prophecy anyway, because someone has to and no one else will. So she chooses to do the prophecy, but it's a fake prophecy so it is her choice not something predestined for her, so there. Free will exists and is good and prophecies don't because no one can tell the future end arc

-then you start the next book with a protagonist that can tell prophecies For Real, and you get a little scared they're gonna backpedal or retread the same ground, but don't worry because the definitely-not-evil voice in her head and conveniently knows all about her powers so he can assure everyone that prophecies are not set in stone, just some most likely futures. Free will still exists Tsunami stans, dw

-And they can do that because the prophecy is not the question of the second series- Darkstalker is.

-The thing about the Darkstalker conflict is that it's about Utilitarianism, ya know? Like, he comes out and he says 'I can see all the futures, and I can tell for sure exactly which outcomes make the most dragons happy, and I have the power to not only see them but manifest them'. He doesn't care for other dragon's freewill- as long as they're happy or content or powerful, why would it matter if they got helped along there a little bit?

-OKAY so took us a hot second to get here! But! Peacemaker!

-It's valid and interesting I think because it kinda pushes the whole conflict into a paradox; they can't let Darkstalker carry on like he is, because he thinks he knows best for all of dragonkind and will do anything to get his version of a happy ending. But the only way to stop him from being a god emperor who's fundamental flaw is his lack of care about other dragon's free will and agency. And the only way to stop him and get an ending that's good for everyone is to take away his free will.

-It's the Batman no killing rule. it's that one DLC from Fallout 3 that's actually kind of good. If they're all in 100% on the 'free will matters above all else' angle, they can't stop Darkstalker because he doesn't want to be stopped. It'd be a utilitarian move, putting the needs of the many over the needs of the few, which goes against the Whole Entire Thing

-But! Darkstalker is also delusional and a narcist and an aspiring all powerful god emperor bent on wiping out or driving other tribes into hiding forever who just sucks, like, so much. So of course they turn him into a literal child without power lmao it wasn't really a question, it's just the ideological battle happening in the background. And it's what makes peacemaker so interesting!

-first of all, it's Kinkajou, the one who was most recently under a mind altering spell that she loathed. She hated anemone for even thinking about it and is still a little bitter, but when push came to shove, she's the one that did that to Darkstalker. It wasn't even just a 'make him the same dragon fundamentally but without the trauma and magic'- she changed his body (by turning him half Nightwing) and planted interests in his head (strawberries) and (is at least implied?) to have made him literally incapable of much evil. Like Moon confirms that in his head he isn't the same dragon at all.

-And like I get it! She is, very understandably, erring as far on the side of caution as physically possible! I'd do the same! It's not a diss or anything, and I’m certainly not saying that Kinkajou is just as bad as Darkstalker or will/can go on to be so! Not even a little lmao

-it's just. Interesting. Like, if you think about it, they did the same thing Darkstalker was doing to Fierceteeth for Clearsight, after everyone was loudly and visibly repulsed by it. It's the same thing that happened with Pyrite and Hailstorm, except entirely irreversible. Like that isn’t Darkstalker there anyway you slice it, for all intents and purposes he’s dead. but it's ok because he was a 'bad dragon' with no friends or family that would miss him in that form.