General Discussion

CONTINUED SPOILER TERRITORY, BUT TOPICAL SO NOT BLACKED OUT

Yeah, I'm dreading Moonbli in third arc. I feel like it's the two least interesting characters to take forward.

Qibli is not an entirely flat character, IMHO. He's not that far off though.
Moon, on the other hand, went from being a character I liked well enough the first read of book six to becoming steadily less and less interesting until I reached my current belief that she's the least interesting of all the PoV characters.

I suppose third arc gives an opportunity for them to become more interesting characters. But both have had PoV books, so the opportunity to do that is limited.
Unless there's a second Moon PoV book, I suppose, but that would sit her firmly in favoured character territory. She's most of the way there, but such a move would irritate me greatly.

On reflection, I'm not sure I'm particularly opposed to a second PoV book for characters in general. But I definitely don't think Moon is the way to go with it unless something actually interesting can be dredged up from her character.

While I'm whinging about Moon, actually. In Escaping Peril she goes "You should sit down and have a reasonable conversation about this!" then immediately sneaks off to consider releasing the ancient legendary evil beneath the mountain on her own. Um.

The Moonbli ship feels very much like a case of the shy girl with awesome magic powers and the funny witty guy getting together at the end of the series gratuitously, with both characters having a grating lack of character flaws. It reminds me of terrible internet fics instead of being the lovely character focused narrative that most of the series is.

I guess in a sea of colourful and engaging characters, focusing heavily on the two flattest was always going to stand out to me.
I've also descended deep into negativity here. I enjoyed the series a LOT! It's a case of books being less enjoyable than the others rather than books I outright disliked.


How did people feel about first arc? Anything that really annoyed you about it? I thought first arc was generally very solid despite my pickiness, actually.

@Windwyrn

I completely agree about Moonbli.

As for the first arc, I enjoyed it. I had trouble getting into it at first though, because I found Clay's PoV kind of dull and boring. But other than that, there's not much I can complain about.

The one thing I hate about the first arc was how the war was resolved. A scavenger digs up an ancient piece of treasure and then a so-called dragonet of destiny makes a toootally unbiased choice of putting her nonroyal mother on the throne. I really like Thorn as a character, but I honestly don't like her much as Queen. She was much better as leader of the Outclaws.

First arc was better (but Darkstalker was BEST) although the first book was rough.

In all honesty, Qibli is one of my favorite characters. I think he had an interesting mind. I’m disappointed in Moonbli because he too should’ve had someone as different as he was.

In fact, most of the WoF ships are two teenagers that have a crush on each other. Ripnami, Cleril, Glorybringer (although the latter is confirmed canon), etc. The only ship I full-heartedly Support is Darkstalker x Clearsight. Two of my fav characters. But they both broke my heart.

At least, Darkstalker was my fav 2000 years ago. Dragons seem different in the beginning, you know? Especially ‘Stalker and Starflight.

“I am saying it to your face! Or is that your rear end? It’s easy to get the two confused.”

New blind Starflight is headed down the path of Stonemover.

@Riverflight

I think that's reasonable.

I wouldn't say I found Clay's PoV dull, but the attraction of the first book was less about the individual PoV character to me and more about being a series introduction. It brought in a super colourful cast - both figuratively and literally - and then went on an adventure. It was always going to be an adventure, of course, any book like this would go that route, but catapulting the dragonets into serious danger with Scarlet, having a sympathetic evil in the form of Peril, while doing a little worldbuilding... The second arc of first book did a fantastic job of selling me the series. It really engaged me in their adventure.

Clay's character is not the most interesting out there, I'll agree with that. I liked him well enough, though - I felt engaged with his struggles and insecurities.

I'm easy to please when it comes to books about dragons, honestly. Book one was still a solid gateway into the series in my view, even knowing my blatant bias. I ended up hooked, and well, here I am.


I have a similar opinion about the war's ending to my opinion on Darkstalker's ending, though less, ah, fiery.

It was satisfactory for what it was.
Having five dragonets trying to end a continental war was a tall order. There would inevitably be an element of fairytale ending, just as inevitably as series two had to end with an animus ending.
It's difficult to end such a thing very well. I don't think it was ended brilliantly, but I'm happy enough with the ending overall.

You have a fair point with producing Thorn, as the mother of Sunny, as queen. That struck me as a little too convenient.

I'm a little amused by the idea of an implied outlaw group being super benevolent rulers that just happened to be there, as well.

I can't say I particularly like Thorn as a character, but I guess I just don't have strong feelings about her one way or another. I feel like a lot of Sandwings are bland, honestly. Compared to the generally stronger characterisation of many SeaWing/SkyWing/NightWing characters, at least.

[quote name="Relics" date="2018-04-25 14:16:13" ] In all honesty, Qibli is one of my favorite characters. I think he had an interesting mind. I’m disappointed in Moonbli because he too should’ve had someone as different as he was. [/quote] I enjoyed Qibli's perspective for similar reasons to my enjoyment of Peril's - the actual writing was entertaining - and a lot of his interactions were likewise entertaining. But I felt he stood out as a flat character because his personal struggles with his own flaws were limited. He had his lust-for-power thing going, but beyond that there wasn't really that much. So I liked him as a person, but not as a character, if that makes sense? I didn't feel his struggles as keenly as I did with many other characters. Darkstalker's book was on point. I have many, many objections to animus magic, but his book was quite good. Despite having a predestined ending, it's also the best ending that Tui has done, IMHO. Granted, going by our discussion here, the reaction to the other endings was fairly tepid, but I thought the ending to his book was actually good. On the topic of other ships: Ripnami failed to engage me because we didn't really see that much of it after Tsunami's brief period of relevance. Cleril and Glorybringer are two ships with a lot of scenetime, and I love them both. Glorybringer because they're hilarious and well developed, and Cleril because it seems both sweet and troubled.

[quote name="Windwyrn" date="2018-04-25 14:27:44" ] I enjoyed Qibli's perspective for similar reasons to my enjoyment of Peril's - the actual writing was entertaining - and a lot of his interactions were likewise entertaining. But I felt he stood out as a flat character because his personal struggles with his own flaws were limited. He had his lust-for-power thing going, but beyond that there wasn't really that much. So I liked him as a person, but not as a character, if that makes sense? I didn't feel his struggles as keenly as I did with many other characters. [/quote] Well, I think he could’ve turned out great enough to blow us away like DS, but he didn’t deliver. Moreover, [i]Tui[/i] didn’t deliver. In [i]Moon Rising[/i], Moon was talking about reading Qibli’s mind was like three scrolls at once, or in a waterfall, or something like that. In fact, in all the books, he seemed a deep and complex character - except for DoD. I think that’s why Moonbli was popular. However, for all the promises she made, Tui couldn’t deliver on Qibli. He was too much for her so instead she twisted him into a lonely heartbroken dragonet wallowing in self-pity that deserved Moon even less than Winter. If we’re getting more disappointments like him, Tui should either a) don’t make any more complex characters, or b) keep them vague and not PoV, that way they [i]stay[/i] complex.

@Relics

Agreed. I liked Qibli up until Darkness of Dragons. He was an interesting character until we got to his PoV. Instead of making him complex and intelligent, Tui made him whiny and self-pitying.

@Riverflight
yes, and also you can see how power hungry and obsessed he is and can be

@Relics
agree as well