Subject: A fic in which the main characters are replaced by arrogant godmode Sues. (Wings of Fire)
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Posted on: 2023-04-06 06:24:19 UTC

So a while back I stumbled upon this "gem" (link) while browsing. I was immediately… confused by the sheer premise for a reason I will explain below. But then I thought, "Hey, just because a story's premise is weird doesn't mean it's awful. Maybe the execution is good." So I read it. And it was bad.

First, the SPaG is atrocious. Characters' names are misspelled (Kestrel being the most notable example I can think of; her name misspellings get quite varied), the grammar isn't very good, and I caught a lot of typos and misspellings (one notable incident: Scarlet has a "tong" instead of a tongue). To his credit, the author has said the spelling in the earlier chapters was bad.

Second, the main characters of WoF's first arc have been given superpowers; their personalities have also been completely replaced by interchangeable jerkasses who lord over the canon. The original dragonets of destiny were trying to end the SandWing war; it seems to me that these not!dragonets are just in it so they can fight. Allow me to demonstrate: In the fic, there is a scene where not!Starflight berates the guards for doing their job and not being at the same power level as him; the canon Starflight would've been nervous and trying to hide or escape. Similarly, Peril's internal conflict over whether she was loyal to Scarlet or the dragonets was replaced with Scarlet acting stupid and Peril defecting with zero qualms. The replacements are just not likeable. Credit where it's due: at least the replacements aren't mass murderers, but that's a pretty low bar.

Third, it's just… how do I put this? This isn't just a fanfic problem, it's a storytelling problem, and it is the complete and utter lack of stakes. The not!dragonets are so ludicrously overpowered that any obstacle they encounter is overcome with barely a thought. This is just plain bad writing. If we know the heroes will easily win every battle they have, then there's no tension, and then why should we, the audience, care about the story? (My sibling Lightning says this is one of the reasons why they dislike Warrior Cats: the good guys win pretty much all the time, so the bad guys never seem like a credible threat.)

Fourth, general canon errors. Darkstalker was never a Chessmaster-type character and he definitely couldn't see two thousand years into the future, especially not with such a high level of accuracy (canon uses branching future timelines). Peril hatched a year before the brightest night/when the other dragonets hatched; in fact, she was specifically used by Scarlet in canon to destroy all the SkyWing eggs that were supposed to hatch on the brightest night. Stuff like that.

Fifth, the theme of WoF's first arc was that normal people could change the world, that five ordinary dragonets could stop a continent-wide war. Sure, they were mentioned in a prophecy, but (spoiler alert) that prophecy turned out to be made up. But the dragonets still saved the day. (Also, before the war ended two of the five dragonets turned out to be royalty, but that's neither here nor there.) Giving the dragonets freaking godmode superpowers just… invalidates that and betrays the theme of the original story. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Sixth, the dragons use uncanonical swears. Obviously the F-bomb isn't used in a series that targets middle schoolers. And it certainly isn't a dark fic (well, not supposed to). /lighthearted

Bonus round: I found the fic's song rec of Sabaton's "Resist and Bite" (a song about a group of soldiers being outnumbered and fighting back anyway) to be humorously ironic given it's used in a chapter about the not!dragonets tearing through a bunch of guards like wet tissue paper. Poor guards. Only Discworld treats them well.

Anyways, there's my first badfic report. If you have any questions about WoF canon or things like that, feel free to ask.

Edit: Added the link. How did I forget to add that when I posted this?

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