Even though I said protagonist in the beginning, since everyone started talking about fatal flaws of supporting characters and antagonists, why not do every one of them?
In case you don't know what the heck this thread is about, fear not, I'll just copy and paste everything below here:
What is a fatal flaw, you ask? It's a concept from Rick Riordan books (Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, etc), but I'm too lazy to put it in my own words so I'll just give you the description from Riordan Wiki:---- Fatal Flaws are mental or physical weaknesses that demigods, humans, and immortals possess. These flaws can often cause the downfall of the being, but are particularly dangerous to demigods. In Greek plays, they are often referred to as 'Tragic Flaws'.
So, yeah, I thought this could be applied to Wings of Fire as well so I decided to ask you what are you guy's opinions on this? I guess I should start with an example of my own.
- Darkstalker: His fatal flaws are hubris and excessive wrath. He thinks he can do anything better than everyone, and shape the world as exactly as he sees fit without even considering other's views. His animus powers along with his ability to read other's minds and tell the future made him egocentric and arrogant, causing him to believe that he had a free pass to manipulate others and even changing their free will, believing he was doing the right thing, but he was in fact unable to see what was morally right or wrong. He makes decisions for others on several occasions no matter what they want. Darkstalker was also vindictive - he always spited Arctic, but after Foeslayer died, the enmity between them got bigger and bigger and when Arctic tried to kidnap Whiteout and sell out the tribe, Darkstalker forced Arctic to kill himself brutally without any remorse, solely believing he was justified without considering any other options. He also held a grudge against Fathom after all this time, despising Turtle just because he resembled him and tried to wipe out the entire IceWings thousands of years after the reign of Queen Diamond and when they had nothing to do with Foeslayer. Darkstalker's anger blinded him so much that even his closest friends turned against him.
Rules
1: I don't really give a crap about how much you hate a character, but don't say something like "Tsunami is such a b****" or "Moon is an a**h***" or anything along that line. This is purely opinion and theory-based, but using profanity and slurs to hate on a fictional character is uncalled for and if you want to do that, go to Wattpad or the dark web for all I care, but this isn't the place for that.
2: Please do not get off-topic in this thread or bring up something completely unrelated to this discussion. I'm okay with getting a little off-topic but if you deliberately spam meaningless comments into this thread for no valid reason, you will be reported to a staff member.
3: Please give a valid reason for your reason for a fatal flaw, not something like "Moon is a bully or a Mary Sue". If you truly think that, at least give a valid reason for thinking so. this is a dragon discussion thread, not a mental health hotline.
4: Have common sense.
5: Respect other user's opinions. If you think there's a flaw in another user's argument, feel free to point it out, but do it in a respectful way because in the Internet, other users could get pissed for the littlest conflict possible, leading to unneeded drama and turning this into a rage thread. Basically, don't say something like "OMG that's so wrong. Glory is such a good character and Moon is a Mary Sue, your opinion is wrong and you should delete your comment." If you do something like that, what'll likely happen is that your comment will likely get deleted instead.
6: All normal wiki rules apply.
My Opinions
- Clay's fatal flaw is Excessive/Personal Loyalty. He will risk his life for anyone: his friends, family, strangers, and sometimes even his enemies, like when he hesitated to kill Fjord, which could've cost him his life, and he also helped Peril, a random dragoness at the time who he barely even knew other than the fact she murdered other dragons for a living. He also risked his life to save Starflight - something that nearly killed him and would've had it not been for Peril.
- Cobra's fatal flaw is narciccism. She was shown to have little to no care for her children and even willing to kill some of them, but that backfired when Qibli betrayed her and told Thorn to arrest her. Qibli was extremely intelligent and could've been very useful for Cobra, but her unwillingness to show even a little bit of sympathy for him is what caused him to choose Thorn over her. Cobra's inability to care about anyone other than herself was her fatal flaw.
- Glory's fatal flaws are anxiety and independence. She was noticably hesitant to accept help from each others. and didn't want help from others at first, which was a flaw because she would have lost the RainWing Royal Challenge if it weren't for her friends. She seemed to be anxious to prove that she wasn't lazy and stupid like everyone else thought, even though she acted like she didn't care or she was sarcastic. But through her POV, it seems that she didn't want to be viewed as lazy or stupid, and that she wanted to be known as "Queen Glory - the dragonet who chose her own destiny." However, her unwilling to accept help from others was her biggest weakness. However, she is likely more willing to accept help from others after The Hidden Kingdom, when she realizes she would've lost the challenge without her friends.
- Burn's fatal flaw is cruelty. She was extremely cruel to other dragons and was extremely sadistic, showing no signs of remorse or even sympathy for all the dragons she had killed, mutilated, and tortured. She was so sadistic that she even had a hobby of collecting dragon limbs, mutated parts of dragons, stuffed dragons, etc. This can be a strength, but only to a point. All her followers likely followed her only because they feared her (like the MudWings) or because they thought her strength would be the key to winning the war (like the SkyWings) However, her cruelty also cost her some followers. One example of this is in Deserter when she permanently cripples Dune by destroying his wing, which was ravaged by frostbreath. This caused Six-Claws to desert Burn and go to the Scorpion Den, and he wasn't the only one to do this. Thorn said that some of her Outclaws were only in the Scropion Den because they were expressly trying to avoid Burn. Some SandWings also swore allegiance to Blister or Blaze as well to avoid Burn's cruelty, but Blister might actually be the worst option out of all of them, as she killed anyone with the slightest disloyalty to her, but more on that on my opinion on Blister's fatal flaw (which is ambition imo). She tries to kill Blister with the dragonbite viper and gets overconfident instead of just getting rid of it as soon as she could, but it backfired when a second viper kills her. Cruelty is a pretty big factor in her death as she decided to kill Blister and simply go with the most violent response without any consideration or thinking. Why? It's just her cruel nature in general. Burn would also have likely kept the war going for fun, and tried to take over all the tribes, so for people who say Burn should be queen because she's not ambitious like Blister - Wrong. She was very excited at the prospect of a war initially and likely would've tried to conquer every tribe in Pyrrhia until she ended the war. She would also be a terrible queen and be very oppressive, and every day would be bloodshed and killing under her reign. She may have been a good military leader, but it's safe to say she wouldn't be good at governing an entire kingdom considering her violent tendencies as she has an inability to have any sympathy or consideration for other dragons.
- Onyx's fatal flaw is ambition. Her ambition got the better of her when she challenged Thorn for the throne without any consideration or thinking. Unlike Blister, she wasn't conniving and preferred to face her goal head-on, like Burn, but it's plausible to say she isn't as cruel as Burn either, as she showed some compassion for her aunt, Prickle, and she seemed to strike me as more of an ambitious individual than a brutal/violent one.
- Sora's fatal flaw is holding grudges. She clearly had a grudge against Icicle and tried to kill her to ruthless degrees. Even after she killed Carnelian and Bigtail, she told herself that they were collateral damage, and continued to pursue revenge. Combined with her mental fragility and her vindictiveness, it's not a far strecth to say she has PTSD as well. She definetely suffered more mentally than anyone else in the war.
- Palm's fatal flaw is personal devotion. She loved Smolder and was very devoted to him, which forced her to run away from the palace to escape Oasis. She was afterwards very paranoid about Onyx, doing everything she could to make sure she stayed out of royal business, but she died from a freak accident, but her love for Smolder started it all.
- Arctic's fatal flaw is resentment. There's a variety of reasons I think so. Signs of resentment are:
- Inability to stop thinking about the event that triggered the strong emotions:
Like I said, Arctic is haunted about killing several IceWing guards, one of whom personally taught him in using weapons, and killing a stranger is bad enough; killing someone he personally knew would've mentally tarnished Arctic. When Darkstalke read Arctic's mind in Chapter 2, he saw that Arctic was haunted by what he'd done. It's not a fat stretch to say Arctic has PTSD.
- Feelings of regret:
Arctic definetely regretted his decisions. Not just killing the guards and injuring Snowflake, but also going with Foeslayer in the first place. Arctic mannage to hold up and because he still loved Foeslayer and Whiteout, he wasn't going to leave them behind yet, but losing Foeslayer tipped him over and was what convinced him to leave the Night Kingdom for good, and he was probably desperate and not thinking rationally, and all he was focused on was getting Foeslayer back and having a happy life with her and Whiteout in the Ice Kingdom.
- Tense relationships:
Need I say any farther? Arctic and Foeslayer had an extremely rocky relationship. It began because Arctic became likely mentally unbalanced after what he did, and Arctic became naturally spiteful and bitter. Foeslayer isn't the kind of dragon to take all that, and as a result, they had several feuds and arguments - kind of like a relationship before a divorce. Now, this isn't exactly Arctic or Foeslayer's faults - Arctic turning bitter and resentful was because of severe trauma, and it's only natural that Foeslayer doesn't just sit there and take it considering her energetic/sarcastic personality.
- Paranoia/Anxiety:
Arctic was constantly paranoid and anxious due to several reasons. I already explained all this in my essay, but in case you were too lazy to read it all:
Arctic was extremely paranoid from the start of Darkstalker, pacing around as their dragonets were about to hatch, but the question is - what was he afraid of? Probably a lot of things - the thought of being a father, his dragonet possibly being an animus, etc. Arctic had lots of things to be paranoid about, and one of the things was him being constantly pressured to use his powers for one side or the other. This is evident when in Clearsight's prophecy of Arctic killing himself, it tells him to "Beware your two queens". This is because Vigilance clearly wanted to take advantage of Arctic and use his powers to win the war and she wouldn't hesitate to use him for personal gain as well, similar to what Lagoon did to Albatross. Arctic knew that she wanted to take advantage of him, and on the other side, he was pressured to return to his tribe, they still love him despite his mistakes, etc. This kind of pressure would've driven anyone crazy. A little stress every now and then is not something to be concerned about. Ongoing, chronic stress, however, can cause or exacerbate many serious health problems, including: Mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and personality disorders. Arctic was also paranoid about turning evil or insane, and he avoided using his powers before Foeslayer left. However, Foeslayer leaving eventually drove him over the edge.
That's it for now, have fun :)
