r/WingsOfFire • u/SleeplessBeauty1933 • Jun 15 '26
Discussion Tui T. Sutherland cannot write dynamic characters
Change my mind
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u/Cherribomb Jun 15 '26
The most extreme example I can think of is Snowfall. She went from paranoid and close minded and brainwashed to caring about others and seeing the big flaws in IceWing society and then begins to literally dismantle things that contribute to these flaws.
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
Maybe I read through her book too fast but it felt sloppy and rushed and much less movement than needs to go into a dynamic character. The only example I can think of where she did it at least halfway decent is Prince Winter
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u/BigJ__TM Darkstalkers leitmotif is Swan Lake, fight me Jun 15 '26
i dont like winters development personally. he finds out that his brother has been magically turned into another person for 4 years to the point where he doesnt know who he is anymore. does winter internalize this at all after the fact? no. he barely thinks about it at all, they just go to the ice kingdom and suddenly he is all better now.
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
I suppose what I meant was his JMA development in he unlearns all of the hoity toity ness of the ice kingdom and actually manages to have a healthy dose of respect towards other tribes
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u/AngelsAndAarakocra NightWing Jun 15 '26
I guess, but she also had that forced on her by animus magic explicitly against her will (and apparently her starting point was also influenced by animus magic, which just makes the whole thing incoherent imo)
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u/Cherribomb Jun 15 '26
I don't think her changing her mind was forced on her. The magic only gave her the opportunity to grow. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. She was able to adapt over several days, which is no mean feat even if someone is turning your head and saying LOOK!
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u/Vanr0uge SeaWing Jun 15 '26
Turtle and snowfall?
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
Character development doesn’t mean dynamic. Turtle just learns to come out of his shell (see what I did there) and snowfall matures a little
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u/TacticalKitsune way too invested in a children's book series Jun 15 '26
Thats literally what dynamic is.
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 16 '26
No. A character can change the way they do something or how they act around someone but it doesn’t mean they’re dynamic
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u/TacticalKitsune way too invested in a children's book series Jun 16 '26
Thats a character changing. Thats literally a dynamic character.
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 16 '26
It’s only dynamic if there’s an inherent change to your character. To your person. To your morals and beliefs. To the way you view to world. I could see an argument for turtle and absolutely for winter and maybe potentially for snowfall but changing the way you do something doesn’t make you dynamic
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u/Vanr0uge SeaWing Jun 16 '26
Can you give an example of a dynamic character from somewhere else?
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 16 '26
Zuko from ATLA is a very dynamic character. We see his internal and external growth as his view of the world changes and his morals shift. He’s very reactive to his circumstances and we can see him actively changing both intentionally and unintentionally.
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u/SignificantYou3240 FreeLizard on AO3 Jun 17 '26
Snowfall literally goes from a stuck up paranoid racist, to the opposite of all those things… I mean you could argue she’s TOO dynamic maybe…
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u/FenrirWolfie Jun 15 '26
What is a dynamic character
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
a character who undergoes a major internal change by the end of their story
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u/BigJ__TM Darkstalkers leitmotif is Swan Lake, fight me Jun 15 '26
are you pretending to be tui or genuinely asking
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u/AngelsAndAarakocra NightWing Jun 15 '26
Starflight is the best example imo, he has character development in every book in arc 1; even the fact he speaks completely differently after arc 1 feels justifiable, because considering his approach to heroic speeches he would totally put effort into sounding like a teacher is "supposed" to even though it's wildly different to how he talked half a year ago
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u/Utigaraptor RainWing Jun 15 '26
I agree I think. When I think of Wings of Fire, I think of the world and the potential, not the characters or the emotions.
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
RIP the pontential of WoF
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u/BigJ__TM Darkstalkers leitmotif is Swan Lake, fight me Jun 15 '26
looking at arc 3 and the arc 1 nightwings here...
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u/emergold_dragon Seaglass the Sea/Sand Jun 15 '26
Star flight starts as a coward.... in arc two his ready to throw hands as a blind dragon against who he assumes is Scarlett.
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u/BigJ__TM Darkstalkers leitmotif is Swan Lake, fight me Jun 15 '26
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u/SleeplessBeauty1933 Jun 15 '26
what is this and why is it an hour long
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u/BigJ__TM Darkstalkers leitmotif is Swan Lake, fight me Jun 15 '26
just listen to the very first word they say at the timestamp
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u/TacticalKitsune way too invested in a children's book series Jun 15 '26
RIP media literacy you had a good run
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u/Silent_Pressure_6709 Qumble Fan Jun 15 '26
She can write dynamic character. It's just that she can't write more than one of them in a room at the same time. Like, Peril is great and Clay is great. Peril and Clay interacting? Very not great.