Agree, honestly the thing i feel is a bit odd about her is that well Tui properly didn’t want to focus on how she got her power or maintained it. She ousted Vulture of all dragons which showed the type of power she held into the den. You don’t do that without some sort of plan and resources and how did she get them? I wouldn’t be surprised if she runs loan sharks and regularly recruits dragons into her gang with little care for their age. Sure she doesn’t want child gang members or recruiting children but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t say no or look into whether or not new recruits are children. It would make that reputation the Outclaws have make sense. There are some very infamous gangs who used similar strategies to the Outclaws for the purposes of gaining support from their communities with little care for these groups. Bit of a hc rn but I honestly am making an AU where Thorn is basically working with a more powerful gang leader in the desert to find her daughter and said gang leader didn’t like Vulture so used that opportunity to kill Vulture and his gang and place Thorn in charge. As for what the gang leader wants? He wants to rule his lands unopposed by the queens or as sandwing queen himself.
I think Thorn is in need of a solo/focus book during the current time frame we’re following. A book about showing her change from solving problems with violence to solving problems with peace and making her even more likable would be amazing. It also gives us a more in-depth look at a Queen’s view on her respective kingdom.
Yeah a winglet for her would be nice to read. Especially during the time before Darkness of Dragons. Her implied relationship with Smolder seems to have happened off screen and I would love to read about how it all started.
She is better than all the other possible Queens. But I feel like she was bathed in too much of a good light. Thorn was shown to be prone to violence when she gets angry. As demonstrated when she killed Preyhunter for literally no reason. Yet every other dragons that kills another is seen as a murderer, besides Deathbringer. Of course, Thorn gets a pass... She also doesn't even bother to visit Stonemover. Her highly depressed ex. I'm not trying to justify Stonemovers' inaction. But she doesn't even give him the time of day. Sunny judges her father for this, too, when he is clearly isolated and needs help. It just kinda threw me off how the book portrayed her as this perfect Queen. When she's not. I feel like if the book called this out and made it clear that she isn't perfect, but a better option that is learning, then i'd be less annoyed. But everything is just too perfect at the end. It feels artificial. Also, it pisses me off that all the female DOD are royalty... Sunny gets the best of it, of course...
@osheridan Oh yeah, I remember. It was kinda sad how awkward it was and how little they had in common anymore. Stonemover isn't that great of company. But she clearly doesn't bother to be there for him. And neither does Sunny really. He even tried to punish himself when Darkstalker healed him. He literally was willing to do self harm. He needs help...
The thing is, while Blister, Blaze, & Burn are individually worse than Thorn, if they worked together, they could definitely be better. Blaze has the heart, Blister has the brains, & Burn has the strength. Put Blaze as queen, and have Blister & Burn be advisors, and they could arguably have a better reign than Thorn.
Preyhunter with Thorn serves as a relic to life of Scorpion Den. Life-death even for Qibil may be a common upbringing of sandwings there. Killing was extreme, but was a reality for many if making a mistake
Half the issue is about if the character is directly related to the main character or not. Tui has had a habit of writing characters to be this mighty hero in their arc, and then making them the exact opposite when they are not related to the arc anymore. She has written Thorn as this dragon that isn't afraid to kill and will kill, but in arc 2 we don't really see another book 5 incident again. (Just my opinion)
I don't really know how much more I have to say about her that I didn't have in my Dangerous Gift video, but I'm doing a re-read of WoF soon and will have my eyes open for her
We are never told how many dragons were hurt or killed in Vulture's bombing attacks, the ones meant to make it look like the Mudwings are getting ready for a war. All in an attempt to frame Thorn as weak and negligent and to give Onyx more public support when challenging her for the throne. I suspect there are a lot of other Sandwings out there who still want to see Blaze on the throne, even if they supported one of the other sisters during the war, because they believe the position of Queen should stay within the same bloodline. Thorn is probably aware of this and chooses to be around ex-prince Smolder a lot more than she would like to in order to appease those discontented dragons.
I dont not why, but even with how insignificant his character was for some reason, his death is the main reason i dont like thorn. Im sure she is a great queen, but she just killed a not very innocent dragon for basically telling the truth (to be fair, preyhunter did attack her or defended himself, i dont know)
I'd say he defended himself, Thorn literally shot fire right at his neck while they were just talking. Why shouldn't he fight back after that, really? (Also, I feel like Preyhunter could have developed into a good dragon, probably better than the other two NightWings, but maybe that's just me)
