luster!

this is a tough question because the author as multiple age systems that differ between the arcs.

in the first arc, 7 is physically an adult [think 16 human equivalent] and 10 is socially an adult [think 21 ish]; this would make umber [and all the dod] about 15-16, and 5 years old would be around 12 ish.

in the second arc, sutherland says that moon [4 years old] is “a teenager” so like 15 years old in human years, which would put umber and the dod at 18+

sutherland herself said in an in-person qna that “their ages don’t matter, theyre dragons” which feels extremely reductive to the stories themself, but thats a whole different thing dfghjkl

I was talking about umber! clays brother

did some better research this time, qibli is 5 and umber is 7, which isnt /as bad/ as i had previously thought, but there is still the weirdness of umber being the same age as the teachers and being attracted to students. very weird and bad vibes that could have easily been avoided

i dont have a ton of details about specifics, nor do i know the full extent of whats been going on in the books since arc 2, but i can mention a few things that are yucky

- portrayal of child abuse: especially with coral, the narrative of an abusive mother who neglects their children is not handled well at all. despite anemone having been strapped to her mother her entire life, forced to go to animus school with whirlpool [ie child predator who at the very least makes her uncomfortable], and even threatened to be muzzled when she argues with her mother, all of that is overlooked and essentially completely forgiven at the end of book 2 where coral does a pissy little “im sorry i just love you so much :((((” and even tsunami is like “oh well thats fine then :D”. portraying child abuse as something that is out of love and the harm should be forgiven is EXTREMELY HARMFUL TO AN AUDIENCE OF CHILDREN?????

- racism: god where do i even start. why did sutherland use the word “tribe” and “tribal” to describe the dragon races. glory literally gets abused extra bad because everyone is racist towards rainwings, this happens in like literally every scene glory is in with a new character. im not even going to TOUCH on the slavery arc because i think that is pretty. self explanatory. 

- genocide: darkstalker, because he is bitter about his dad, decides to send a magical plague to kill a shitload of icewings. but the jade winglet thinks that he deserves a second chance uwu.....

- trauma/abuse/etc: very yucky moment when darkstalker enchanted fierceteeth to literally become his ex against her will. i dont even know what to say about this. what the fuck. why is this okay

- lgbt rep: 0 trans character, 1 mlm character who is only mentioned as being gay because he has a crush on a dragon who is half his age [perhaps progressing the stereotype that gay men are child predators is a terrible idea?????????]. plenty of lesbians now because they are presumably more marketable. im glad theres lesbian rep but i cant even say theres lgbt rep in the books because its like literally Only Lesbians. 

i dont know what else there is but writing this up made me want to beat the author with a stick. casual reminder this is a kids series and perhaps we should handle this topics with care instead of [checks notes] teaching children that genocide is forgivable. 

ah she looks like this! shes an iridescent nightwing! she’s a mage in a wof headworld thats basically fantasy rpg theme!! she’s my gf’s wofsona! love her <3

of course! being critical of the things we like lends to us being better creators in the long run