47 pages • 1 hour read
Tui T. SutherlandDarkness of Dragons
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Qibli
Qibli is a male SandWing from the Scorpion Den who was rescued by Thorn, becoming one of her loyal Outclaws. The novel is told from a limited third-person perspective with Qibli as the main protagonist. This perspective provides insight into Qibli’s thoughts and feelings, allowing the reader to follow his character’s growth and development. His early thoughts demonstrate intense insecurity. By the conclusion of the novel, he demonstrates confidence and maturity, becoming a character who is aware of his abilities and place in society.
Qibli is known for his compassion and cleverness. His mother describes him as “soft,” a characteristic that his family scorns. Vulture, his grandfather, values the cleverness that Qibli demonstrates. Qibli also shows prolific observational skills. He combines these with his cleverness to reason out the motivations and strategies of other dragons. Thorn encourages these abilities, and trust Qibli to act as a key advisor despite his youth. Qibli is troubled by these abilities when he realizes that Vulture demonstrates the same skills, selfishly using them to manipulate and control others. Qibli’s compassion balances out his cleverness.
Qibli’s early thoughts reveal extreme self-doubt. His desire to possess magic demonstrates a lack of acceptance of who he is and misunderstands the power of his intelligence. Qibli causes a sandstorm that buries the SandWing palace when he attempts to rely upon magic to protect Thorn. He almost destroys Jade Mountain Academy in the same way. Each of his major missteps spring from self-doubt and establish a major character flaw that he must overcome. While his refusal to accept Darkstalker’s offer to become an animus dragon demonstrates a measure of self-acceptance and maturity, his initial inability to accept himself as Moon’s choice for a romantic relationship in the Epilogue shows that he still struggles with self-doubt.
Winter
Winter is a banished male IceWing prince, and the main protagonist in the novel Winter Turning in the Jade Mountain Prophecy arc. He is described as a large, silvery dragon with immaculate scales. Winter’s behavior illustrates the haughty privilege of a royalty, yet he is unwilling to sacrifice his personal morals for his tribe, recognizing the value of all living things. Despite frequent bickering, Winter is Qibli’s best friend. Both dragons are in love with Moonwatcher, though Moon chooses to be with Qibli at the end of the novel.
Winter is the helper in the hero’s journey, and he acts as a foil to Qibli. Winter and Qibli present a juxtaposition between political elites and the criminal Scorpion Den, yet both groups are corrupt and abuse their power. Qibli notes that his family is identical to Winter’s “except they don’t bother pretending to be civil” (60). While the cruelty, violence, and abuse of power in Qibli’s family are straightforward, Winter’s family is more likely to “stab him […] in the back” (60). Winter often overcompensates for this by being straightforward and revealing harsh, uncomfortable truths. The main difference between the royal and criminal elements is the emphasis royal dragons place upon tribal etiquette and social acceptability. The exorbitant demonstrations of wealth the royal dragons engage in are examples of an abuse of power because they are serving themselves rather than their subjects. In contrast, similar elaborate displays in the Scorpion Den represent corruption instead of abuse, the juxtaposition adding complexity to the theme Power, Corruption, and the Abuse of Power.
Winter also provides a foil to Qibli’s insecurity. Where Qibli is uncertain and seeks to please those around him, Winter is confident and demonstrates a moral certainty that Qibli often regards as off-putting arrogance. Winter’s moral certitude is in part due to his status as a prince since the royal dragons maintain the status quo and social order, shaping what is considered acceptable and unacceptable.
Darkstalker
Darkstalker is one of the major figures in the Wings of Fire universe, first appearing in Darkstalker. He is a gigantic, black hybrid. His mother is a NightWing soldier, and his father is an IceWing animus dragon. Darkstalker inherits his father’s magical abilities. He is also able to read minds and has the gift of prophecy to such an extreme degree that he can see multiple possible futures instead of the single most probable future. Darkstalker is hated by both the NightWings and IceWings. At the conclusion of Darkstalker, he is placed in an enchanted sleep beneath Jade Mountain. He is awoken more than 1,000 years later during the Jade Mountain Prophecy arc, in which He is the main antagonist.
In Darkness of Dragons, Darkstalker remains in the background, controlling events behind the scenes. Though he is the main antagonist of the second arc, he is also a shadow character within Qibli’s story. Carl Jung describes a shadow character as one of 12 literary archetypes that appear consistently throughout literature and represent universal patterns of the unconscious. Darkstalker demonstrates several character traits typical of a shadow character. He is mysterious, despised, and appears in monstrous shapes. Darkstalker forces the dragons to confront the possibility that the hatred of him may be undeserved. This makes him both mysterious and despised. His description as a giant dragon also gives Darkstalker monstrous associations.
A key feature of the shadow archetype is that it represents the dark side of the hero. Qibli is disturbed by comparisons between himself and Darkstalker. Qibli suggests he might cast spell like Darkstalker if he had similar powers. Darkstalker later gives Qibli the opportunity to acquire the power that he desires, which Qibli rejects. Conversely, Darkstalker is given the opportunity to choose a more normal life with happiness, which he rejects, though it is ultimately forced upon him when he is tricked into enchanting himself. Darkstalker is offered a second chance and transformed into a one-year-old NightWing/RainWing hybrid named Peacemaker.
Vulture
Vulture is an elderly SandWing and a notorious crime lord who lives in a palatial fortress in the Scorpion Den. He is covered in tattoos of dragon skulls that give him a leopard-like appearance and represent the dragons he has killed. His obsidian eyes are described as hypnotic and haunting. He is tall with a long neck that gives him a monstrous, slithering quality. He wears a black cape lined with gold, a gold chain, a golden, spider themed earring, and his claws and wings tips are lined in gold. He is known for elaborate demonstrations of wealth; stealing from Vulture is an immediate death sentence.
As Cobra’s father and Qibli’s grandfather, Vulture is an important part of Qibli’s past, which is shaped by the abuse and cruelty of his family. Vulture represents Qibli’s trauma. Qibli fears the impact of that trauma upon his character. Qibli shares Vultures observational skills and cleverness. Qibli recognizes how Vulture uses these skills to manipulate and control his interactions with other dragons. Amused by the unease that results from their shared abilities, Vulture uses clever manipulations to torment and punish the dragonet for leaving his family to join the Outclaws.
Vulture is a symbol of corruption and helps to define the theme Power, Corruption, and the Abuse of Power. Vulture’s privilege and exorbitant demonstrations of wealth are examples of corruption because his power is criminal, illegitimate, and unofficial. Vulture explains that he was once heavily involved with the royal SandWing family, an allusion to the long history of abuse of power that plagues most royal families in Pyrrhia.
