Disclaimer: This post was DIRECTLY COPIED from the original post by u/TrickyTalon on r/WingsOfFire
Source (Reddit frontend)
If you browse around and check out the popular opinion across the Wings Of Fire fandom, you might hear that of all the books in the franchise, The Dark Secret (Book 4, Starflight’s book) is regarded as the singular least beloved due to certain events that go down at the end or introducing unlikable characters or not having as much action as the other entries. Another common opinion around the fandom is that Starflight is overall a pretty simple character; a bookworm who freezes in fear when faced with danger. The majority of the fandom either likes him for being an adorable harmless boy who just wants to read his scrolls in peace, or dislikes him for being a know-it-all coward who constantly needs someone else to take the risks for him. Overall, most readers don’t see a whole lot in his character…
Which is why I’m here to tell you that Starflight is so, SO much more than just your classic cowardly brainiac. And while I’m on the topic, I might as well also talk about how his book is one of the most beautifully written entries in the Wings Of Fire franchise. Both Starflight as a character and The Dark Secret as a book deserve so much more recognition for their magnificent writing. I hope you enjoy this analysis!
Let’s start with Starflight himself. For one thing, Starflight has an absolute heart of gold. Though at first glance he may not appear to be much of a sympathetic and righteous kind of character, in the moment of truth he always makes the moral decisions no matter how fearful he is of the consequences, as well as feel remorse and want to help anyone going through a hard time. If you really pay attention you’ll see that, unlike all the other Dragonets of Destiny except Sunny, not even once did Starflight ever consider giving up on stopping the war and bringing peace to Pyrrhia, which is the most majorly overlooked concept about his character throughout the fandom: that he never intended on backing out. For another thing, he’s by far the most well-rounded character in all of Arc 1 due to his incredibly polished and stretched-out character arc. While the other four original protagonists (Clay, Tsunami, Glory, and Sunny) only go through sufficient character development through just their own book, Starflight has an overarching development throughout all five books. To explain, here is a quick summary of how each protagonist developed throughout the first five books:
Clay’s book was first: He starts out believing that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a part of such an important prophecy and that he has an awful monster inside him, which he’s scared to let out. By the end of his book, he learns that he never had to worry about turning into a hostile monster and he gains the confidence to believe in himself in fulfilling the prophecy. After that, however, his character is finished developing. He remains the same throughout books 2-5. He makes the effort to stop the others from fighting with his simple yet strong wisdom, he rushes in front of his friends to shield them from danger, and he always keeps calm despite how crucial the situation is, indicating that he is never really too passionate if things go one way or the other as long as he doesn’t lose his loved ones.
Next up is Tsunami: In the book before hers, she’s all about making group calls by herself and taking dramatic action instead of thinking things through. By the end of her book, she learns to consider the opinions of her friends and look for more peaceful options than fighting to resolve a situation. Other than that, her character remains the same throughout the arc. She’s stubborn, always excited to fight, yearns to be in charge, and gets overdramatically mad or aggressive when she feels outplayed.
Glory’s book is in the middle of the arc: In the two books before hers, she's basically just a straight-up goth. She’s constantly grumpy, sarcastic, distant, unphased, and she strongly believes that she’s useless in the group for not being in the prophecy. By the end of her book, she basically altogether just becomes a LOT more friendly thanks to a good nap in the sun. She is thrilled to believe that she does have a use for the world by being the queen of her tribe and is no longer too stubborn to ask others for help. Throughout the arc, she always handled killing pretty well, she never put it past some of her friends to abandon the group for their own tribe, and she didn’t easily let go of grudges toward those who she thought deserved to be punished.
(saving Starflight for last)
At the very end is Sunny’s book: Throughout all the books before hers, she’s constantly overshadowed and unable to speak up in the group, and keeps her faith afloat by believing that she looks weird for the sake of her destiny to save the world. She gets excited anytime someone asks her to do something important and mad whenever the group keeps secrets from her. When the story finally gets to her book, she comes to realize and accept that her destiny really is a lie, but she doesn’t need a prophecy to be able to do great things despite what she looks like. She becomes more independent, learns how to make her voice heard, and accepts herself as who she is. Throughout the arc, she remains positive, optimistic, cheerful, and determined to save Pyrrhia. She has the best of expectations for everyone she meets and mourns over anyone with an unfortunate fate, no matter how bad they were in life.
All four of these protagonists really only develop during their own book, when they’re the star. Nothing really changes about them beforehand and they don’t develop anymore afterward. Starflight is the only lead character who has significant development throughout each book. To really put an emphasis on his polished character arc, I’m going to individually analyze his development throughout each book to show how progressively he changes:
The cowardly bystander: Starflight starts off in the pilot entry basically trying to be involved with as little conflict as possible. He really only gets into heated arguments with the other Dragonets of Destiny when they act insulting toward Sunny or anytime the rest of the group wants to take a risk, like escaping the cave or threatening Queen Scarlet, of which he nervously tries to encourage them to hold back and do the more simple option: nothing. He also guiltily allows the others to put their life on the line over his if they volunteer to do so, knowing they have a much better chance of surviving than he would but still feeling ashamed for being a burden. But then everything changes when he has a talk with his own devious tribe.
The guilt-ridden spy: At the beginning of the second book, Starflight is put into the tough position of having to choose between manipulating his friends to do what his tribe wants or dealing with the shame of disobeying his own tribe. He makes an effort to take over the role of leader of the group and even succeeds to an extent for a while. Then, by the time his friends come face-to-face with Blister, his guilt and morality keep him from really trying to push the others into choosing her. And when he realizes that enough is enough, he lashes out full force at Blister and completely exposes her corrupt tactics and evil ways, taking away any chance of the others ever warming up to her and breaking himself free from the mental chains his tribe had in him.
The instinctive hero: Now that we’re at Starflight’s book, The Dark Secret, I want to go over some key moments in the book to emphasize just how well written and executed it is, while also going over how it affects Starflight’s character arc:
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Discovering the horrific truth about his tribe: After years of being led to believe that the NightWings were the most advanced and magnificent tribe in Pyrrhia, Starflight discovers it was all a lie. Not only are they living in the worst environment imaginable and starving half to death, but they’re also imprisoning and experimenting on innocent RainWings. Starflight feels storming waves of shame, rage, disgust, and grief course through his veins as he learns each of these awful things about his own tribe and blood. Of all the characters who find out horrendous awful things about their family or tribe, Starflight’s experience wins by a landslide as the most mortifying. And to top it all off, he has to go through all of this alone, away from his close friends and surrounded by strangers and enemies.
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Finding out his friends think he abandoned them: After days of living a nightmare and desperately searching for any way to contact the others, Starflight FINALLY gets the chance to see how his friends are doing… only to find out they think he either betrayed them for the NightWings or is too much of a coward to do anything crucial. And the most heartbreaking part about this scene is that Starflight doesn’t even blame them for thinking so low of him. He’s not mad, he doesn’t play it off, and he isn’t even confused at first by what he’s hearing. In his own eyes, he is a traitorous coward who isn’t worth relying on, and his friends have every right to think of him that way. He believes all of this even though he hadn’t really done anything wrong against them. There has never been a more hopeless moment in the entire franchise than this if you ask me.
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Witnessing innocents get killed from the unforgiving ways of war: The most traumatic experience of the entire first arc happens in this book. Tsunami’s dilemma of being forced to kill another SeaWing (who later turned out to be her father) for her own survival was indeed a devastating event, but it barely even compares to the sheer devastation Starflight had to suffer through. After being tasked by Morrowseer to win over the support of a SkyWing watchtower unit, Starflight steps up and delivers a surprisingly captivating speech about promising to save them from the war so they can get to see their families again, speaking the words of a straight-up hero who truly cares for the innocent. And then out of nowhere, he’s pulled away and the watchtower is set on fire with all those soldiers burning to death inside. It was all a test from the NightWings just to see what Starflight would do, and the SkyWings were going to die no matter what he said. Nevertheless, Starflight kicks and screams in desperate terror to get back in there and save the dragons to who he’d just promised peace literally less than a MINUTE ago. This experience undoubtedly gave Starflight screaming nightmares that he’d never forget about, but I think it also provided the push he needed in order to do what would need to be done later in the arc for the good of the dragons in Pyrrhia.
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Killing another dragon: Okay, this is really just a friendly reminder to everyone who forgot that Starflight once shoved a living dragon into an actual volcano to get her off a sweet girl he’d been simping over. Granted, he didn’t mean to kill her and he tried desperately to think of a way to get her out before she burned to death, but regardless he still drove a hostile dragon to her death basically out of instinct. He’s soft but he can be brutal when he needs to be.
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Figuring out literally everything going on: Starflight is an absolute master at mystery solving, and his methods of figuring things out seemingly without effort are finally revealed in his POV. It didn’t take him long to connect the experimented RainWing prisoners to the rotting NightWing home and use that to figure out that the NightWings’ ultimate goal is to invade the rainforest and take it as their own. He was also quick to realize just how intuitive the NightWings were by witnessing their whole plan in action with the SkyWing watchtower test executed flawlessly. And of course, he called out a bluff at the first clue that the Alternative Dragonets of Destiny didn’t line up with the prophecy and that something fishy was going on. If you’re someone who truly believes Starflight was less smart in this book than he was in the previous books, you hadn’t paid any attention to his deductions. There is so much mystery in this book and I can just about guarantee that no other protagonist in this arc would’ve been able to solve it except Starflight.
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Gathering the courage to be exactly the hero the world needed: When everything is ready to be set in motion and the bad guys are prepared for domination, Starflight fully understands that there’s no more time to wait and figure out what to do. He has to take action or else the whole thing is game over. And so he pulls off the biggest and craziest pro gamer move of the entire arc by tricking all the guards into letting him escort an injured SkyWing through the portal to the rainforest, lying straight to their faces and fully aware that the slightest screwup would jeopardize everything. After warning everyone and coming up with a plan to rescue the prisoners, he pushes through BOTH the fear of going back to the place that very much wants him dead AND the doubt of betraying his very tribe, so can continue to help and save the innocent RainWings. He fully utilizes his clever mind and newfound bravery countless times throughout this amazing sequence of events. He comes up with a brilliant solution to an impossible dispute that works out for both the RainWings and the NightWings in a matter of seconds, repeatedly pushes deeper and deeper into the volcano to make sure everyone is saved, and stands right in the way of the formidable villain who wants to undo all his efforts; which brings us to our final key event in The Dark Secret that bring the book, as well as Starflight’s character arc, full circle.
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Standing up to his greatest nightmare without hesitation: I think we can all agree that nothing in the world ever terrified Starflight more than Morrowseer, which is exactly what makes this final scene so amazing. Up until this book, Starflight is understandably regarded as a frightened coward who always lets his nerves get the better of him. What happens in this scene is definitive proof that he has fully overcome that weakness. Starflight stands directly in Morrowseer’s way, looks him square in the eye, and says with as much conviction and confidence as possible… that he is not going to let Morrowseer cause any more harm. It’s such a reward to watch Starflight steadily transform from an uncertain coward to a confident champ throughout the span of four whole books and end up as well-developed as possible. Even though he gets blinded soon after (due to selflessly pushing Tsunami ahead of him so she could avoid getting scorched by the volcano blast might I add), he leaves that nightmare of an island knowing he did absolutely everything he possibly could to be the hero needed to save the day. He both literally and figuratively went out with a bang.
Before I move on from talking about The Dark Secret, there’s one more immensely underrated concept about the book itself that I want to praise: Morrowseer. In my opinion, Morrowseer is the best written villain in the franchise, and his greatest appearance was in this very entry. Whereas some villains like Scarlet, Burn, and Chameleon are crazy for chaos and other villains like Blister, Darkstalker, and Wasp are hungry for power, Morrowseer’s goals and ambitions are much more complicated than simple evil desires. For one thing, he wanted to restore his broken tribe to the glory it once had; get it away from the miserable volcano island without having to beg another tribe for help. Secrecy was the only intimidation the NightWings had because no one would fear them if they simply knew the truth, and Morrowseer clung onto that aspect tightly, seeing it as his only source of protection for decades and being as deceiving as possible. On another note, he is a MASTER of planning; able to form immensely complicated yet nearly full-proof plans that result in revolutionary benefit (The Dragonet Prophecy that took nearly a decade to set into motion is a perfect example of this). Not only that, but he always makes sure to be two steps ahead of every possible threat he comes in contact with. Whenever he interacted with another villain like Scarlet or Blister, even at their own territory, he was the one in control of the situation because he’d already planned ahead for potential obstacles they might throw at him. What makes all this so extraordinary is that, despite him being introduced so early in the series, readers know basically NOTHING about Morrowseer for the first three entire books. He’s such a mystery that we can’t even be completely sure if he’s a villain. But then everything about his character progressively gets revealed in this incredible entry: his dedication to secrecy, his master planning skills, and most of all his true motives. From discovering the crummy island home, we understand Morrowseer’s reliance on secrecy: the less everyone knows about him, the better. From witnessing his SkyWing watchtower test, we realize Morrowseer’s astonishing planning abilities to always ensure he’s the one in control of the situation and no one else: just like how he was able to overwhelm all those dangerous dragons in the previous entries. From deciphering his rainforest domination plan, we finally figure out what kind of dragon Morrowseer truly is: a mastermind terrorist who will do whatever it takes to restore his tribe’s honor… except confess to the world how broken it is. Another great thing about Morrowseer’s character is that he’s the only major villain in the entire series who got a fulfilling death sendoff. He was destroyed by the very volcano he trapped his tribe in for the sake of pride. Let’s be honest: all the other main villain deaths were mediocre at best, most of which being ridiculously rushed and glossed over. Morrowseer’s final performance was not only poetic, but also incredibly captivating as well, which brings me to my final argument on why Morrowseer is the greatest villain in Wings Of Fire: his greatest blow on the heroes was simply revealing the truth. No one had ever made the Dragonets of Destiny feel more lost and hopeless than Morrowseer did, when he revealed with a grin of victorious that the prophecy was all made up; that the Dragonets of Destiny had basically no chance of stopping the war; that Pyrrhia was doomed to tear itself apart. And what makes his words so impactful is that they were entirely true. There’s a saying: “What makes a villain truly horrifying isn’t when they are insane or have all the power… it’s when they’re right.” This is a perfect example of that statement. Morrowseer’s last words carried on an enormous sense of doubt within all of the main characters for the majority of the arc’s final entry before they finally overcame it and decided to keep pushing on. Even in death, Morrowseer was able to provide a huge obstacle for the heroes, and he was very aware of it. The last thing Morrowseer ever saw was the Dragonets of Destiny with mortified expressions of hopelessness and misery on their faces, ready to give up on their goal to save Pyrrhia. While every other antagonist in the franchise took their last breath knowing their goals had been ruined and their enemies were victorious, Morrowseer died believing he had won.
Wow… that was WAY longer than I intended it to be. If Morrowseer wasn’t tied so much to Starflight and The Dark Secret then I probably would’ve made a whole post about just him. Anyway, time to wrap things up with Starflight!
The noble liberator: Though he may be blind, his development from all the previous books hasn’t dwindled a bit. In the final entry of Arc 1, Starflight recovers a truly changed dragon from the one that left the cave in Book 1. No longer letting fear keep him from taking action, he is the only one in the group other than Sunny who remains determined to stop the war even without a real prophecy (until the other three are eventually convinced). THAT shows just how far he’s come. This was his big chance to walk away from the danger and pressure. This is where the nightmare could have ended. If he simply kept his mouth shut, the others probably would’ve decided by default that he shouldn’t be involved anymore. No one would’ve blamed him for backing out after all he went through… but he knew what had to be done for the sake of Pyrrhia. He witnessed firsthand the horrors that war brings to innocent dragons who just want to go back to their families. He would never forgive himself if he gave up now. So he sides with Sunny and helps her convince the others that they have to stop the war, and he makes sure to be a part of it to the very end.
The fulfilled champ: I honestly can’t imagine a better way to write Starflight’s post-development personality than how he was throughout Arc 2. He’s easygoing and collected and he throws in several clever charming quips and jokes around to lighten the mood of things. He has just the right amount of screentime in the new story: not too little that readers wonder about how he’s doing but not too much that readers are annoyed he’s involved in a new story that’s not about him. The best thing is that he has the perfect epilogue to his story. He plays a proud role of bringing peace to Pyrrhia in his favorite possible way: sharing knowledge. He’s a comforting librarian at a school of peace and unity. He gets to participate in leading the world to a better future without having to take part in the stressful conflict. He even has a caring romantic partner to his liking right by his side. With all these benefits, I’m not even mad that he’s become blind. If anything, he’s probably better off that way. Since he’s a NightWing, he probably would’ve had to get involved with the King Darkstalker situation if he wasn’t handicapped, which he’d do without hesitation but would very much rather sort scrolls in peace. If being blind means Starflight can finally live out the rest of his days without needing to worry about getting involved in danger like he always wanted, then I’d say he really went out on a high note.
That is my full recap emphasizing the magnificence in Starflight as a character and The Dark Secret as a book. While the book may not have as much raw excitement and action as the other ones, it has a spectacular amount of tension, emotion, and revelation on a level far greater than most other entries in the franchise. Not to mention it serves as the climax of Arc 1 with its wild twist/cliffhanger ending. Does it have a smaller cast of iconic characters than the other books? Yes. Are there fewer fighting sequences than usual? Yes. Is Starflight a less expressing and outgoing character than the other original protagonists? Yes. But this book takes such a captivating turn in Arc 1’s tone and does so well with all its morbid themes and astonishing depths and tense scenarios that are barely even touched upon in almost any other book in the series. And even if you completely hated when Starflight got blinded and turned down by Sunny, remember, those are about three or four pages of the entire entry. Don’t let a few pages ruin a whole book for you. The Dark Secret is a fantastic entry and deserves to be recognized for it. As for Starflight, I don’t mean to downplay the other original protagonists, but the writing in his character is in a league of its own, far beyond any other character in Arc 1. It’s such a shame that so many people don’t see past his initial nerdiness and later blindness, and fail to recognize the ginormous depth to his character. Granted, Sunny being the protagonist right after his book and immediately assuming so low of him about no longer wanting to stop the war might have thrown off a lot of readers, but it in no way changes Starflight’s character itself. Despite what pretty much everyone expected from him, Starflight never even once in the ENTIRE story showed any signs of wanting to give up. The closest he ever got was having the slightest thought that maybe someone else could save the world instead of them… before discarding that idea entirely literally a second later. Almost any dragon in Pyrrhia would’ve given up under such harsh circumstances: witnessing the carnage of trying to be a hero, belonging to such a diabolical tribe, and knowing that everyone expects you to fail or abandon it all. But not Starflight. He may prefer a quiet life without adventure where he can just read and obtain knowledge in peace, but make no mistake: deep down, there’s a fire in him that just refuses to die out no matter how strong of a storm is blown against it. In the moment of truth, he will always fight until his last breath for what’s right. Starflight is without a doubt a PHENOMENALLY written character from the beginning of his story to the end.
Thank you for reading through all the way to the end, really! This is by far the longest Wings Of Fire analysis I’ve ever written, but I wanted to take every opportunity to strengthen my claim and get its point across. There was just so much to say about Starflight and The Dark Secret and I wanted to really captivate readers the same way I was captivated when I read them! I hope you enjoyed this long Wings Of Fire intake, and even more I hope this analysis shines a brighter light on Starflight and The Dark Secret in your eyes and grants a new sense of admiration towards them, for I especially treasure them in this franchise and wish for them to be seen for the amazing products of writing that they are. May we all have the power of Wings Of Fire!
1½ hr speed picture study. A friend also wanted a snoot close up so I used this dog
