I love how while Darkstalker is based off of Tui’s abusive ex, Qibli is also based off one of Tui’s sons. The books dove into how the two characters mirror each other except Qibli did everything right while Darkstalker did everything wrong, almost like how Tui raises her son to be nothing like her ex. It ends up with Darkstalker being selfish and abusive towards Clearsight, meanwhile Qibli is a very respecting gentleman who treats Moonwatcher like a queen. It’s a nice symbolism.
Did you even read the book? For Darkstalker, it's only been six months since Clearsight convinced him that the icewings had murdered his mother. For Darkstalker, it's only been six months since Clearsight put that bracelet on him. For Darkstalker, it's only been about a week since he was broken out of his tomb. Those 2000 years? Never happened. Not to him. This is why Clearsight is the most evil dragon in all of WoF; she drove Arctic mad with her prophecy of his coming death, and she drove Darkstalker mad by taking away his hope that Foeslayer might still be alive. All those icewings he killed to avenge his mother's death? Never would've happened if not for Clearsight convincing him thay Foeslayer had been murdered. Same goes for Arctic's death; she's foreseen it, but did she try to stop it? No-ho-ho, she just sat on her oh-so-innocent posterior while Darkstalker, mad with grief, destroyed his best bargaining chip for getting his mother back. Clearsight saw the worst futures, and she put the events in motion to make them happen, and when the time finally came, she merely sat and watched the flames, and then buried Darkstalker alive, without *ANY* concern for what would happen when he finally woke up. "Oh, it appears I have accidentally, and with great effort, created a live nuclear bomb that'll only grow more potent as time passes. Hum, hum, let's just bury it underground as a neat little gift for future generations to deal with while I've long since fled the continent because I don't want to take responsibility for my part in this mess". Edit: "might", not "moght".
@@gustaveliasson5395things you got wrong- 1:clearsight did try to stop darkstalker from killing his father 2:darkstalker latterly tried to make the world his own
@@Jurassicparkwoffan 1: iirc, Clearsight was chilling in the crowd during Arctic's "trial" and execution. 2: because Vigilance tried to have him assassinated for NO REASON. Allknowing had a prophecy of Darkstalker retaliating against Vigilance because of her attempting to assassinate him, and in response to said prophecy, Vililance orders his assassination, which was the very thing that caused him to try to retaliate against Vigilance in the first place. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and both Vigilance and Allknowing gobbled it up like smoked salmon because they are suicidally stupid and ignorant of how prophecies and vsions work, despite living in a tribe famous for those exact powers. They fail to kill Darkstalker, and just like that, they've given him the motivation to kill them and take the crown. This is why visions and prophecies (the genuine ones, at least) infuriate me to no end; they're not a bad kind of magic per se, but the way characters react to them... it's like they just turn off their brains: * Clearsight has visions of Darkstalker turning evil, and so she keeps nagging on him about it until he breaks. Like, there's two things that can happen when you've got so much pessimism to deal with; he'll either leave her for someone else, or *make* her stop being pessimistic. It certainly doesn't help that she uses the bracelet to hide her visions from him, like "what you're doing right now will eventually lead to you becoming an evil tyrant, just trust me, my love" over and over again. That sure won't make him paranoid, no sir. * Indigo puts a dagger to his throat... He's an animus. How does she think he's going to react to a death threat? Is she stupid? Maybe she's got PTSD from watching Lagoon drive Albatross over the edge, but come on, she should at least have apologized to Darkstalker afterwards. Does she not comprehend that putting oneself on an animus' shit-list is a bad thing? * Clearsight's prophecy to Arctic. "Beware your two queens. Beware your own power. Your claww will betray you in your final hour". How is that NOT supposed to turn him into an unstable paranoid wreck of a dragon? Again, self-fulfilling prophecies. Clearsight goes to seer school, so there's no way that she's not familiar with the concept, and yet she still heaped that onto him. * Queen Diamond, where do I start? Abuses her son to the point where he elopes with a nightwing? Tries to abuse him HARDER to convince him to come back? Has a bunch of nightmares about Darkstalker killing her, and not only decides to abduct his mother (who is also Arctic's wife, lest we forget), *WITHOUT* telling either Arctic or Darkstalker that she is being held hostage, but also uses spells that prevent either of the two from contacting foeslayer to check whether she's still alive. Like, seriously, what's the one thing that CANNOT be allowed to happen when you're holding somebody hostage? Their loved ones getting the idea that the hostage has died. Firstly, you lose all of your leverage, and secondly, if the hostage is presumed to be dead, that's casus belli right there. How does Diamond fuck that up? Lack of sleep? Paranoia? Maybe she cast that spell ages ago and forgot about it after it didn't immediately work, but ffs you can't just leave latent enchantments lying about without taking precautions in case they're unexpectedly activated at a later date. * speaking of latent magic; the whole point of Clearsight taking Darkstalker's scroll from him was to keep him from using magic because he had gone mad with grief over his mother, whom he had presumed to be dead after Clearsight told him that there was no future where she came back. Why then, is he buried alive and effectively *forced* to outlive every other family member, friend, relative, aquiantance, and more or less the nightwing kingdom itself? "Oh, my bf has gone mad with grief over his lost mother? Lemme go ahead and make him grieve over eveything else too. That'll stabilize his psyche for sure". And why is the acroll just... left lying about? Once Darkstalker wakes up to a world where everyone and everything he cares about is ash and dust, it's going to drive him batshit insane, so wtf were Fathom and Clearsight thinking? I'm honestly glad that they didn't destroy it in a misguided attempt to ensure that he wouldn't be able to get it back and start using magic again when he woke up, because if they had, moonwatcher would've never really had the peace and privacy to connect with him and anchor him to the new reality, but all the same I can't grasp how an artefact of ultimate power was just thrown to the winds like that.
There's one other detail about Darkstalker that I forgot to mention. After his mother was presumed dead, he had what Psychiatrists call a psychotic break. In layman's terms, he snapped. His whole method of dealing with the world went towards cruelty and control rather than the kindness and empathy that he once had. I have seen similar personality shifts in my own family and in other people. When a family member on my mother's side lost her husband, she drank herself to death. When a (former) friend lost her husband, she turned very ugly and mean towards anyone who tried to help her. Grief can make you lose your way. It can make you your own worst enemy.
He may have truly loved her but he contradicts himself by wanting to control her. In the end he could never let her go going so far as to enchant another dragon to act like her. Losing his mother turned his heart to stone, and in his grief he lashed out against those he hated. He wouldn't allow himself to not be in control again and anyone who got in his way would suffer the consequences including his friends.
This is a smart video. Darkstalker is my favorite villain because he has an eerie semblance to not only my ex but also a long-gone room-mate who had a similarly rocky relationship to a lady he was obsessed over. Whenever I read Dark's dialog, I can almost hear those two sociopaths whispering in my ear. His other details, such as his love for his mother and his heartache over losing Clearsight (due to his own bad decisions-which he admitted to in "Talons of Power") make him so fascinating to me and so many others.
It’s honestly kind of scary how some people genuinely think that Darkstalker was neither evil or abusive. I’ve seen people try to justify his actions by saying that he thought he was right to do everything he did, which shows a very black and white and unrealistic idea of what it means to be evil
It makes me wonder at how screwed up their ethics are. Darkstalker had a blind spot a mile wide. He didn't recognize his own awfulness, even when Fathom and Clearsight tried to point it out. Perhaps the same can be said for these people who insist that Darkstalker is simply misunderstood.
I think you all misunderstand the point. It is not that Darkstalker is good, it is that Darkstalker is awesome and entertaining. Those qualities should never be underestimated. We love our villains!
@@u.v.s.5583 I love villains too, and I like Darkstalker as a villain, but there are people who insist (sometimes very aggressively) that Darkstalker was 100% morally in the right when he absolutely was not
Save him? She drove him over the edge, pal. She made him give up hope that Foeslayer was still alive. She convinced him that Foeslayer had been murdered by the icewings. Hundreds of icewings *DIED* because Clearsight convinced Darkstalker that they were responsible for his mother's death. Arctic died because Darkstalker thought he was responsible for Foeslayer's death. Clearsight didn't just fail to stop it; she made it happen. She, like Lagoon did Albatross, put Darkstalker in just the right state of mind to commit atrocities, and then she buried her mess like a ticking atom-bomb for future generations to deal with, knowing that when the bracelet finally broke, hundreds more icewings, and possibly nightwings too, would die.
@@gustaveliasson5395Maybe also the though that Darkstalker had power,to much power.He knew he could do something about,right or wrong.Clearaight didn’t realize she was putting that seed in his head.But Darkstalker was also terrible,he has no good.He manipulated and hurt her,just so he could have control.Although clearsight did make mistakes she definitely handled them better then Darkstalker. I love your point of view! It brought new thoughts to m6 head!!
@gustaveliasson5395 I've never thought of it like this before. But I also think Darkstalker was greedy from the moment he hatched. If you read that chapter (I think it's 2 or 3?) you'll know what I mean. Animus magic made him greedy, and he's always seen his loved ones as people he could control. He wants the world to belong to him. Clearsight tried to prevent this, but because Darkstalker was convinced that all the horrible things he did were for the greater good; he couldn’t be turned onto the right path. Darkstalker was sadly doomed to this fate because of Clearsight's powers (despite her trying to use them to help him, which is kind of a paradox).
Even if Darkstalker loved Clearsight, he would never take no for an answer. Once he got a taste of power, he wanted all of it. He would drag Clearsight into his version of the future, no matter what she thought of it. Clearsight did what she had to do to keep everyone safe.
Omigosh, I am SO happy to see someone else call Darkstalker out on the fact that he IS an abuser and the things he does absolutely ARE evil and wrong. I've seen so many comments about how he was just misunderstood, misguided, it's not his fault... Ugh. Yes. It IS his fault. HE chose to do immoral enchantments behind his family and friends' backs. HE chose to take SO MUCH OFFENSE to Indigo trying to protect Fathom from a perceived threat (which she was COMPLETELY RIGHT about, btw! >.>) that he decided to try and make Fathom forget about her, and when that didn't work, he chose to literally TRAP HER SOUL. HE chose to create a barrier that would KILL any IceWings that tried to cross the mountains, instead of, I don't know, maybe... simply prevent entry? HE chose to send an enchanted dagger to kill one IceWing every full moon for a year (and Pyrrhia has THREE moons >_>), and leave a message about him to scare them (this likely continued for the entire year, even after he was put to sleep). HE chose to block Clearsight from having any "bad" visions, and then had the utter GALL to blame her when she didn't see an assassin coming for him. HE chose to cast a magical plague upon the Ice Kingdom literally MINUTES after escaping from where he was buried, dooming many IceWings, icluding the QUEEN, to death, when no IceWing currently alive had ever wronged him, just because he hated IceWings (newsflash, Darkstalker, YOU are half-IceWing D8< ). HE chose to try and turn Fierceteeth into his long-dead girlfriend and make her the way HE wanted her to be (and what would he have done to Fierceteeth had he succeeded? Married her and had eggs with her without her knowledge or consent? Ugh... DX). HE chose to say no to a chance at a new life as a dragonet when given a choice, so, really, there was no choice but to turn him into Peacemaker. He absolutely HAD to be taken out somehow, and since he'd made himself invulnerable and immortal, it was the only way (Possibly Jerboa III's spell might have been able to destroy Darkstalker's magic, but who knows? Now THAT would be an interesting theory or AU. XD). He was a threat to every dragon that lived or would ever live. Even his own mother knew. And now he's gone. And good bloody riddance. >_< Yes, he's an excellent, and very well-written villain. But three moons, do I despise him as a dragon. DX He's legitimately awful, and Clearsight, Fathom, Moon, EVERYONE who associated with him deserved better than what he gave to them. Anyways... sorry for the rant. ;w; Darkstalker kinda makes me want to rant everytime I think about him. DX But I must add that this video was very enjoyable to listen to. You've earned a new subscriber. ^^
Yick. Also, ugh. It's just as well that Clearsight didn't have his kids or else he would have used them as leverage to make her stay with him. Since he's all about control, I wouldn't put it past him.@@5rcane
@@axelf9947 I forgot while making this video as well, or I would have included it in the script. I was looking at that scene for another project and went yikes...
Small correction here! (It's not really important) Darkstaker wasn't the one to kill Quickdeath. One of Fathom's guard did (i think it was Lionfish?) Still Darkstaker would have probably integrated Quickdeath and I think he would of maybe tortured him. Which you know is a bad thing that if you can assume that somebody would torture another if they hadn't died. Quickdeath is honestly lucky he died before Darkstaker got to him. It would quite literally a fate worse than dying
I feel like Dark - Stalker didn’t INTEAD to abuse White - Out, but did so out of ignorance on her condition but she is the ONLY one I would say this about… my mom would do that to me (ASD among other disabilities) because she didn’t fully comprehend where my limitations are…
I'm also autistic and have had very similar experiences to the one you mentioned. It took me a long time to understand this: intended or not, it's ACTIONS that matter. Darkstalker chose to remain ignorant regarding Whiteout and her disabilities. Abusers can feel guilty about the things they do to their victims, but that doesn't mean they are no longer abusive. It doesn't make their actions okay in the slightest. I hope your mother's treatment of you has improved since you commented this -- stay safe out there
@@k.c.hughes3210well I could say this about him. I also want to give him the proper credit he never fixed whiteout he never enchanted her to be normal as that would have changed his guilt and made her very easy to deal with and he never did that and we know it's easy to do because Arctic did it. And I think that more than anything is what made it dark stalker kill Arctic in the way he did, and he says that the worst thing Arctic did in that situation was forcefully curing white out this dragon darkstalker has no regard for any other dragons autonomy at all and he still able of comprehending that you should not care people's disabilities without asking. At least not mental differences. He made everybody like him but he never forced anybody to agree with him he changed their minds and manipulated them but he never just actively decided that he was going to force them to agree with him he preferred to do it organically or as organically as his manipulations can be considered. He has a healthy respect for the mind at the very least even if he will cure physical ailments without any asking like he did with stonemover. as messed up as he is as abusive as he is as a nurse is cystic as I'm pretty sure he is, I respect him at least for knowing that much. I love the way down but I don't think dragons have the same educational resources on neurodivergent as we have in our world as it seems to be a lot less common in the Dragon world and nobody seemed to know what to do with white out, so it's not that he chose to remain ignorant it's more like there was no way of knowing how to become further educated on the subject if it was even possible to do so in the first place. It's kind of ironic how completely willing darkstalker is to change dragon's minds against their will like with clear sight and the earrings and yet this is the one boundary he won't cross and it's kind of hilarious that the super villain is more respectful towards people with disabilities than most heroes in most other media.
@@lahlybird895True, he never made any enchantments like what Arctic did to Whiteout in the legends book, or at least no successful ones. He tried to do this kind of spell on Turtle to make him forget Indigo and start using his animus powers again, however. Plus, in the main series he DID manipulate and enchant other dragons like how Arctic did to Whiteout by making dragons like him with a spell (it was confirmed he did so to Winter, for example). Also, I do believe he could have become further informed about how to treat Whiteout by simply talking to her and asking her what her boundaries are, how she sees the world, etc. Just because they don’t have as extensive research done on neurodivergence doesn’t mean he couldn’t have literally had a conversation about said neurodivergence with his neurodivergent sister (which he never does because he chooses that it’s not important to him).
@@k.c.hughes3210 I haven't read darkstalker in a while so I may be misremembering but half of the stuff I remember white-out thing is not very coherent and kind of hard to understand unless you're very good at interpreting so having a conversation with her might not be that informative You're right about winter and I assume you mean fathom and not turtle there is actually a difference believe it or not. Those two are the main exceptions to the idea that in general he will not alter people's minds even if the author of their emotions. Thinking about it it's strange that these two cases exist in the rest of his manipulation of they are different to how he tends to do things. But perhaps this is due to the inherent flaw that is the concept of animus magic itself after all when you have a character who has the ability to do literally anything they want and the willingness to do it it's very weird when they don't do things that they want and make the time when they do do it stand out all the more. Get well at the same time enabling the character to actually do everything they want easily tends to kill the plot of any story. perhaps a more in universe explanation for his actions there is that he tried to have fathom come around using his usual manipulation tactics but it was very much not working so what he did was a last resort so again I don't know why he ends up not doing the same idea on clear sight after all he could have easily enchanted her to be okay with him taking over the kingdom rather than simply trying to hide her visions but perhaps we hadn't talked to that level of despair in connecting them yet as hiding her visions is also a strategy he could use that would probably work I think in general he wants the dragons he cares about to actually care about him rather than making it artificial. Heard his charisma spell makes people like him it makes people trust him but it doesn't make people care about him the caring about him he tries to get organically it's why he never enchanted moon. Moonlight and cared about him in a way that he considered to be organic despite the fact that he kind of groomed her into it. His entire character is fascinating and it's kind of hilarious to realize that he's basically just morrowseer on steroids. Both characters are inspired by the same source and are disturbingly good at all kinds of disturbing manipulation.
@@lahlybird895I 100% agree. I also think that depending on the order of how you read the second arc (whether you read Darkstalker's book before or after the arc) your opinion of him might be influenced differently. For example, I read Darkstalker before any of the second arc, so I knew going in what his POV chaps were like and had a strong dislike of him right off the bat. However, if I had read the second arc first, my first impression of Darkstalker would have been like how Moonwatcher's was: she sympathized with him and considered him a friend, so readers who have no prior knowledge of him are inclined to do the same. (Also yeah my bad I meant to say Fathom not Turtle XD thanks for the correction).
I actually ADORED Darkstalker as a teenager and was horrified as to why anyone would dislike him because!!! Look! He's just so good! He just wants the best for everyone!!! (Sarcasm) yeah and then the first romantic relationship I end up in was straight up abusive. lmaooooooo
Quickdeath was killed by Wharf or Lionfish (I think I don’t have my Legends book with me rn) But every other point is SO TRUE! I was watching a wof video and people were like “Darkstalker deserves better!” (In my opinion) he really doesn’t he had two chances and he destroyed them both.
I do have a theory about this though as I think that it's very interesting that he figured out the strawberry was an enchantment he said they couldn't do it to him said that he was more powerful than they were and then chose to eat the strawberry anyway If I'm concerned that if him making me choice to fall under whatever enchantments they put on it and if he could have very easily crushed it to defeat whatever their plan was but he chose to eat it anyway
@@lahlybird895 bc he thought no magic would work on him, he said in this chapter “Or did you have Turtle enchant this? Or perhaps another secret animus I don’t know about? It doesn’t matter, you boring, ordinary creatures. I can’t be enchanted by anyone! I’m smarter now;I’ve made myself completely safe. Nobody’s animus magic will work on me. Which means nobody will be able to stop me” and than Kinkajou says “Actually there is one dragons magic that will work on you” Darkstalker replies “Your wrong.” Kinkajou says “I’m right” “Oh really? Whose?” “Your own.” Kinkajou and Foeslayer caught him off guard he didn’t expect for the strawberry to be enchanted.
10:27 actually! In the books, Darkstalker isn’t the one to kill Quickdeath, it was Lionfish, Fathom’s useless bodyguard! But he still killed lots of dragons yes
I hate Darkstalker,but I love the way he’s written.Tui clearly shows he’s terrible,and I almost feel like the message is with him is:”If this is happening to you,it’s wrong.And not ok,break free.”
When I read darkstalkers book I realized he was very abusive and did stuff but in a way that you can't argue with him...like when he makes clear sight that earring that makes her not see the bad futures, he said it was to make her not stressed, and that is like messed up in multiple ways but the way he explains it makes it seem like he had "good" intentions 🤨
My cousin was in a similar situation. He got married to a girl who seemed like a decent person, but behind closed doors she was incredibly controlling and possessive of him. She took care of all their finances and always lorded it over his head, she isolated him from both his and her freinds and family, and she wouldn't let him go anywhere on his own. She spread rumors that he was a bum, and would blame herself when things went wrong to guilt trip him. At one point they went to see a marriage counselor, but after three sessions they stopped seeing them because "they were a quack." (One time I showed up at their house unannounced to borrow a toolbox and I didn't pick up on it at the time but she was trying to passive-aggressively shoo me away.) Anyway, about a year into their marriage he finally had enough and gave her the silent treatment (a favorite tactic of hers) and no joke, she flipped out and divorced him the next day. It all seemed really sudden, but as he opened up over the next few months we all slowly began to realize how fortunate he was to have gotten away from her so early. Had it gone on for a few more years there may have been no rescuing him.
Darkstalker's actions can certainly come across as abusive, especially given the way he tries to control those around him. His use of animus magic to alter others' behavior, like enchanting Clearsight’s earring to ensure loyalty, can be seen as a violation of free will, which is a form of emotional and psychological abuse. He believes he knows what’s best for everyone, even if it goes against their wishes, and this mindset causes harm to others-even if that wasn't his intent. In many ways, Darkstalker’s abusive tendencies are rooted in his own fear and trauma. His father's betrayal, Queen Diamond's expectations, and the judgment he received as a young dragon with immense power shaped him into someone who felt the need to control his environment to feel secure. He might genuinely believe he's protecting his loved ones, but his actions cross boundaries and show little regard for others' autonomy. Ultimately, Darkstalker is a deeply tragic character. His intentions, while sometimes good, are twisted by his insecurities and trauma, leading him to hurt those he cares about. The complexity of his character lies in how he justifies his actions, even when they're harmful, which makes him both fascinating and flawed.
Perhaps it would make sense for Quibli to try and get Darkstalker to, instead of give Quibli powers, make it so both Darkstalker and Quibli have to agree on an enchantment for it to happen. Darkstalker, of course, probably wouldn’t want to do this, but it would very quickly point out his true intentions if he refused to. And if he did… bonus?
This is a good video! I love your analyses but don't comment much, though I will here. While it's not about Darkstalker or Wings of Fire in particular, yesterday I had been bugged by 3 people over a certain villain who was clearly incredibly abusive to the main cast of characters (*and* he'd done horrible things that I cant mention in TH-cam comments) who said that he hadn't done anything wrong. They tried justifying all of it. It makes me very upset, to see that people will look at a character and say "oh! well he looks nice, or he is charming" when they are blatantly overlooking the character's actions AND words; either that or they are not looking into anything at all, revealed to me by someone else after the argument yesterday. (the people i had argued with had not even played the entire game that the character i mentioned was in.) People will go off what they know. An analysis shouldn't even be necessary for this kind of stuff especially if the person who literally wrote the villain said they were based off an abusive ex, but this goes for all things. Why not be open minded to all arguments, and look into it yourself? Still, this video makes for a perfect remark if someone says he wasn't abusive.
We will get a DSL GN probably this or next year and i hope that all DS defender will comes to their sense, and see how abusive and toxic Darkstalker was. Because a german speech „ ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend wörter“ ( a picture say more then 1000 words)
He did enchant her and kinkajou (though due to turtles protection spell it failed) to be frozen in time so she wouldn’t see him punish Anemone. He does so with a circular motion. I don’t know the exact page number but it’s at the end of Talons of power, a little before Turtle and Anemone’s fight.
Book 9: Darkstalker casts a spell so that Moon (who was in the same room) doesn't overhear him when he admonishes Anemone and then encourages her to go kill Coral.
The thing is… FEEL BAD FOR DARKSTALKER, why? 1. His mother is dead 2. He is the most realistic character, how would you feel in his way? All that power in your talons… I would have used it long ago, call me a bad person but I don’t care 3. His father was abusive, he could have turned out like cobras sons but nope, he managed to hold out for so long 4. He wanted to punish Diamond but couldn’t, all that repressed hate will eventually release in a large tsunami, like the tide 5. He believed he was doing the best, he believed Clearsight could love him for that, but all that slipped through his talons 6. He just wanted to be happy for the rest of his life, all he got were a few weeks
If he truly _only_ wanted to be happy, he had everything laid out in front of him, and he chose to ignore it, preferring to commit heinous crimes and murder hundreds of innocent dragons. He was evil. It doesn't matter how he felt.
Well, he was consumed by power AND anger, think, your mother was taken from you and nobody will allow you to get revenge, and plus, he had so much power and so much he could do, it’s not like he was TRYING to be evil, sure the path he took wasn’t very good but he had good INTENTIONS
Plus, you would probably do the same thing, heck I would probably do the same thing, because he grew in such different circumstances that it would change literally anybody who exists there, with powers, your mother taken from you, and an abusive father, who wouldn’t change under those though?
It's insane how people believe Darkstalker was wrongfully punished. A tumblr user I once saw flipped Darkstalkers story somehow and said CLEARSIGHT is the abusive one and how Darkstalker is "mentally a child" so he's allowed to groom other dragons for his own gain which is *Disgusting* to say the least. The same user also kinned Darkstalker, said Tui is racist, and Tui deserved to end her own life over not making her books fit their twisted world view. Crazy how disgustingly defensive people get over an obviously villainous character...
It’s very telling to me when Darkstalker apologists see nothing wrong with Darkstalker’s actions. Obviously the ones who like him but recognize what he did wrong are fine, but the ones who believe he had no blame whatsoever are probably no better than Tui’s ex that Darkstalker is based off of.
You say Darkstalker ignores Whiteout's wishes; but to be fair, can anyone even understand her enoguh to know what her wishes are? Casting spells on people without informed consent along with alot of other manipulitive things he did were pretty evil thoguh; but worst of all, he manipulated himself into beliving he was the hero of his own story.
I don't mean to assume or imply anything bad here, but from my point of view as someone with Autism, it's possible that Whiteout wasn't the only one who was neurodivergent. From your descriptions of how Darkstalker thinks about the world and other dragons, how he bases everything in relation to himself using logic, his incredible genius, his very few emotional connections only with dragons he's closest to, it kinda sounds like he has some neurological symptoms of his own. Now, I am nowhere near an expert on neurodivergency or psychology, but there seems to be certain aspects of conditions like Autism, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder at work here. (Of course none of that would excuse his actions in any way, and I am not diagnosing or outright saying that Darkstalker necessarily has any of these. I'm simply remarking on the fact that some of the characteristics of such disorders resemble the way his personality is described.) Anyway, this is a detailed and well-explained video, very interesting! Thanks!
I don’t think he’s autistic, I think he’s a crazy dragon like some other villains. He’s just blinded and thinks what he’s doing is ok and right. He’s like Qibli but evil
No. No she's not. She had ONE job, and it was a job she CHOSE; the job of keeping Darkstalker sane, no matter what, because she knew how dangerous he could become. * She knew that he was in an enviroment that was detrimental to his psychological well-being. * She knew that she had to keep him out of Vigilance's clutches no matter what, because the queen would pounce on any opportunity to deploy animus magic against the icewings with complete disregard for how that would affect Darkstalker's psyche. That's not even something that you'd need magical visions to understand, basic reasoning skills are more than sufficient to let you figure out that a queen in the middle of a war isn't going to say no to an opportunity to exploit an emotionally vulnerable animus. That's what already happened to Albatross, ffs, and that was during a time of peace! On top of that, Allknowing is a hack, and Clearsight knows this, which means that she knows that once she starts to try to save the world from Darkstalker (which can only be done by saving Darkstalker from the world), she'll need animus magic to keep Vigilance at bay. * Once Foeslayer "died" and Clearsight had clear-as-day *proof* that her visions weren't enough to keep her ahead of the game, Clearsight's had the *self-imposed* obligation to immediately inform Arctic that his son was teetering on the edge, that Vigilance was itching to take advantage of Darkstalker's mental state, that Whiteout (and, to a lesser extent, Arctic himself) were the only things left that could shore up Darkstalker's fading sanity, and that the only chance of avoiding catastrophe was for Arctic to find common ground with his son and hold that broken family together. But no, she just couldn't bring herself to take action. To paraphrase an old macroeconomic historian; "The seers have hitherto only seen the future in various visions. The point, however, is to change it.” Clearsight saw, and did nothing useful. If anything, she just made everything worse by confusing Arctic with that cryptic prophecy of his upcoming death, nagging on darkstalker (again, an individual she *knew* was already under a lot of pressure and had a habit of knee-jerk enchanting stuff) and inadvertently causing herself to be visionarily impaired. Darkstalker was self-righteous, impulsive, and potentially dangerous, but Clearsight *knew* about the risks, and did nothing to mitigate them. Her wilful ignorance and unwillingness to intervene doomed him, her, his family, and the whole Night Kingdom. This is what breaks Clearsight as a character: * She's an author self-insert, and is supposed to be sympathetic. * *But* unlike Tui IRL, Clearsight already *knows* just how badly things can go, and she's the *only* one who knows just how badly things can go, how high the stakes are, and she... doesn't do anything constructive with that information. She just dawdles on while the world falls apart around her. And once it's all over, she just wipes the blood off of her talons and says "well, I did my best", and flies off, leaving what is now the most paranoid animus in the world, a broken shell of a dragon, buried in the ground like a ticking time bomb for future generations to try and defuse. Not her problen anymore. P.S. Then there's that scene in book 10 where Darkstalker finally wakes up and realises that he's gone off the deep end, and seeks out Moon and his mother for advice. He's broken, confused, begging for some solid ground to stand on, something to believe in, and he's managed to push his paranoia aside enough to actually listen to reason from the last two dragons on the planet that he atill has some amount of faith in, and what does he hear? "Please consider self-euthanasia, and while you're at it, your mother wants you to turn your remains into a new dragonet so that she can start over from scratch". The newspaper-page-thin attempt at sugar-coating it honestly just makes it so much worse, especially since it's Moon we're talking about; she must-ve known, arguably better than anyone, that not only would it not work, but that it would also sever any and all remaining threads of trust left between them, and leaving Darkstalker completely unhinged again. Thank the stars for the Fragaria-ex-Machina. The one defence I can find for Clearsight and Moon is that they were both dragonets, and that Moon growing up alone in the rainforest would inevitably leave her intellectually stunted. Even so, it's hard to call them victims. I'd go as far as to say that Darkstalker and Clearsight were both victims of Vigilance's ambition, and that Moonwatcher was a victim of Clearsight's failure to sort out the mess that the Queen had created. * Vigilance (or her predecessor) fucked up, big time. * Clearsight saw the potential consequences, but decided not to take them seriously, even as they were becoming increasingly obvious as Darkstalker's social support network crumbled around him. * Moon's less-than-ideal upbringing and resulting dim-wittedness is at least in part the result of Vigilance's ancient idiocy (the part where she moves the tribe to an active volcano) which somewhat excuses her failure to take control of the narrative (she had the scroll. All she needed was to race back to JMA and aquire an inkwell and quill, and she'd be able to disappear off of the face of the world, giving her all the time she'd ever need to piece together Darkstalker's past and come up with a sensible plan of action). TL;DR Tui was a victim because she didn't know what she was getting herself into. Clearsight wasn't, because she did. Moon was just dumb, but she had a good excuse (an active volcano, Vigilance? Really?). Also, author self-inserts and adapting lived experiences into fictional narratives are hard to get right, especially when you add in magical foresight that dramatically changes the power dynamics in the fictional realm as compared to what went down in the real world.
Abuse is still abuse, no matter how old the two parties are. And authors take inspirations from lived experiences for the stories they write all the time.
I love how while Darkstalker is based off of Tui’s abusive ex, Qibli is also based off one of Tui’s sons. The books dove into how the two characters mirror each other except Qibli did everything right while Darkstalker did everything wrong, almost like how Tui raises her son to be nothing like her ex. It ends up with Darkstalker being selfish and abusive towards Clearsight, meanwhile Qibli is a very respecting gentleman who treats Moonwatcher like a queen. It’s a nice symbolism.
Lol I never knew that-
Ohhhh buuurn! And so true!
Idk if it was wrong but I saw a video that said qibli was what Tui WANTED her son to be-
@@GoofyiiDoodler. that’s Clay
@@TrickyTalon23 the video said qibli I don't think it talked about clay but idk🤷♀️
One thing that I kind of noticed about Darkstalker is that he can't seem to comprehend that Clearsight ever could have moved on from him at all
Did you even read the book?
For Darkstalker, it's only been six months since Clearsight convinced him that the icewings had murdered his mother.
For Darkstalker, it's only been six months since Clearsight put that bracelet on him.
For Darkstalker, it's only been about a week since he was broken out of his tomb.
Those 2000 years? Never happened. Not to him.
This is why Clearsight is the most evil dragon in all of WoF; she drove Arctic mad with her prophecy of his coming death, and she drove Darkstalker mad by taking away his hope that Foeslayer might still be alive.
All those icewings he killed to avenge his mother's death? Never would've happened if not for Clearsight convincing him thay Foeslayer had been murdered.
Same goes for Arctic's death; she's foreseen it, but did she try to stop it? No-ho-ho, she just sat on her oh-so-innocent posterior while Darkstalker, mad with grief, destroyed his best bargaining chip for getting his mother back.
Clearsight saw the worst futures, and she put the events in motion to make them happen, and when the time finally came, she merely sat and watched the flames, and then buried Darkstalker alive, without *ANY* concern for what would happen when he finally woke up.
"Oh, it appears I have accidentally, and with great effort, created a live nuclear bomb that'll only grow more potent as time passes. Hum, hum, let's just bury it underground as a neat little gift for future generations to deal with while I've long since fled the continent because I don't want to take responsibility for my part in this mess".
Edit: "might", not "moght".
@@gustaveliasson5395 darkstalker isnt so squeaky clean either
@@gustaveliasson5395things you got wrong-
1:clearsight did try to stop darkstalker from killing his father
2:darkstalker latterly tried to make the world his own
@@gustaveliasson5395also clearsight was worried for what would happen to DarkstaIker after he was buried
@@Jurassicparkwoffan
1: iirc, Clearsight was chilling in the crowd during Arctic's "trial" and execution.
2: because Vigilance tried to have him assassinated for NO REASON.
Allknowing had a prophecy of Darkstalker retaliating against Vigilance because of her attempting to assassinate him, and in response to said prophecy, Vililance orders his assassination, which was the very thing that caused him to try to retaliate against Vigilance in the first place.
It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and both Vigilance and Allknowing gobbled it up like smoked salmon because they are suicidally stupid and ignorant of how prophecies and vsions work, despite living in a tribe famous for those exact powers. They fail to kill Darkstalker, and just like that, they've given him the motivation to kill them and take the crown.
This is why visions and prophecies (the genuine ones, at least) infuriate me to no end; they're not a bad kind of magic per se, but the way characters react to them... it's like they just turn off their brains:
* Clearsight has visions of Darkstalker turning evil, and so she keeps nagging on him about it until he breaks. Like, there's two things that can happen when you've got so much pessimism to deal with; he'll either leave her for someone else, or *make* her stop being pessimistic.
It certainly doesn't help that she uses the bracelet to hide her visions from him, like "what you're doing right now will eventually lead to you becoming an evil tyrant, just trust me, my love" over and over again. That sure won't make him paranoid, no sir.
* Indigo puts a dagger to his throat... He's an animus. How does she think he's going to react to a death threat? Is she stupid? Maybe she's got PTSD from watching Lagoon drive Albatross over the edge, but come on, she should at least have apologized to Darkstalker afterwards. Does she not comprehend that putting oneself on an animus' shit-list is a bad thing?
* Clearsight's prophecy to Arctic. "Beware your two queens. Beware your own power. Your claww will betray you in your final hour". How is that NOT supposed to turn him into an unstable paranoid wreck of a dragon? Again, self-fulfilling prophecies.
Clearsight goes to seer school, so there's no way that she's not familiar with the concept, and yet she still heaped that onto him.
* Queen Diamond, where do I start? Abuses her son to the point where he elopes with a nightwing? Tries to abuse him HARDER to convince him to come back?
Has a bunch of nightmares about Darkstalker killing her, and not only decides to abduct his mother (who is also Arctic's wife, lest we forget), *WITHOUT* telling either Arctic or Darkstalker that she is being held hostage, but also uses spells that prevent either of the two from contacting foeslayer to check whether she's still alive.
Like, seriously, what's the one thing that CANNOT be allowed to happen when you're holding somebody hostage? Their loved ones getting the idea that the hostage has died. Firstly, you lose all of your leverage, and secondly, if the hostage is presumed to be dead, that's casus belli right there.
How does Diamond fuck that up? Lack of sleep? Paranoia?
Maybe she cast that spell ages ago and forgot about it after it didn't immediately work, but ffs you can't just leave latent enchantments lying about without taking precautions in case they're unexpectedly activated at a later date.
* speaking of latent magic; the whole point of Clearsight taking Darkstalker's scroll from him was to keep him from using magic because he had gone mad with grief over his mother, whom he had presumed to be dead after Clearsight told him that there was no future where she came back.
Why then, is he buried alive and effectively *forced* to outlive every other family member, friend, relative, aquiantance, and more or less the nightwing kingdom itself?
"Oh, my bf has gone mad with grief over his lost mother? Lemme go ahead and make him grieve over eveything else too. That'll stabilize his psyche for sure".
And why is the acroll just... left lying about?
Once Darkstalker wakes up to a world where everyone and everything he cares about is ash and dust, it's going to drive him batshit insane, so wtf were Fathom and Clearsight thinking?
I'm honestly glad that they didn't destroy it in a misguided attempt to ensure that he wouldn't be able to get it back and start using magic again when he woke up, because if they had, moonwatcher would've never really had the peace and privacy to connect with him and anchor him to the new reality, but all the same I can't grasp how an artefact of ultimate power was just thrown to the winds like that.
There's one other detail about Darkstalker that I forgot to mention. After his mother was presumed dead, he had what Psychiatrists call a psychotic break. In layman's terms, he snapped. His whole method of dealing with the world went towards cruelty and control rather than the kindness and empathy that he once had. I have seen similar personality shifts in my own family and in other people. When a family member on my mother's side lost her husband, she drank herself to death. When a (former) friend lost her husband, she turned very ugly and mean towards anyone who tried to help her. Grief can make you lose your way. It can make you your own worst enemy.
He may have truly loved her but he contradicts himself by wanting to control her.
In the end he could never let her go going so far as to enchant another dragon to act like her.
Losing his mother turned his heart to stone, and in his grief he lashed out against those he hated.
He wouldn't allow himself to not be in control again and anyone who got in his way would suffer the consequences including his friends.
This is a smart video. Darkstalker is my favorite villain because he has an eerie semblance to not only my ex but also a long-gone room-mate who had a similarly rocky relationship to a lady he was obsessed over. Whenever I read Dark's dialog, I can almost hear those two sociopaths whispering in my ear. His other details, such as his love for his mother and his heartache over losing Clearsight (due to his own bad decisions-which he admitted to in "Talons of Power") make him so fascinating to me and so many others.
It’s honestly kind of scary how some people genuinely think that Darkstalker was neither evil or abusive. I’ve seen people try to justify his actions by saying that he thought he was right to do everything he did, which shows a very black and white and unrealistic idea of what it means to be evil
I saw someone blaming all of his actions on Moonwatcher 💀💀💀💀💀
Ppl can be good people and still have done something terrible.
But k wouldnt apply that to darkstalker. He is nor good nor is he justified.
It makes me wonder at how screwed up their ethics are. Darkstalker had a blind spot a mile wide. He didn't recognize his own awfulness, even when Fathom and Clearsight tried to point it out. Perhaps the same can be said for these people who insist that Darkstalker is simply misunderstood.
I think you all misunderstand the point. It is not that Darkstalker is good, it is that Darkstalker is awesome and entertaining. Those qualities should never be underestimated. We love our villains!
@@u.v.s.5583 I love villains too, and I like Darkstalker as a villain, but there are people who insist (sometimes very aggressively) that Darkstalker was 100% morally in the right when he absolutely was not
i feel bad for clearsight :< she watched her boyfriend loose his soul right in front of her own eyes and no matter what she did she couldnt save him
Save him? She drove him over the edge, pal.
She made him give up hope that Foeslayer was still alive.
She convinced him that Foeslayer had been murdered by the icewings.
Hundreds of icewings *DIED* because Clearsight convinced Darkstalker that they were responsible for his mother's death.
Arctic died because Darkstalker thought he was responsible for Foeslayer's death.
Clearsight didn't just fail to stop it; she made it happen. She, like Lagoon did Albatross, put Darkstalker in just the right state of mind to commit atrocities, and then she buried her mess like a ticking atom-bomb for future generations to deal with, knowing that when the bracelet finally broke, hundreds more icewings, and possibly nightwings too, would die.
@@gustaveliasson5395Maybe also the though that Darkstalker had power,to much power.He knew he could do something about,right or wrong.Clearaight didn’t realize she was putting that seed in his head.But Darkstalker was also terrible,he has no good.He manipulated and hurt her,just so he could have control.Although clearsight did make mistakes she definitely handled them better then Darkstalker. I love your point of view! It brought new thoughts to m6 head!!
@gustaveliasson5395 I've never thought of it like this before. But I also think Darkstalker was greedy from the moment he hatched. If you read that chapter (I think it's 2 or 3?) you'll know what I mean. Animus magic made him greedy, and he's always seen his loved ones as people he could control. He wants the world to belong to him. Clearsight tried to prevent this, but because Darkstalker was convinced that all the horrible things he did were for the greater good; he couldn’t be turned onto the right path. Darkstalker was sadly doomed to this fate because of Clearsight's powers (despite her trying to use them to help him, which is kind of a paradox).
Also Clearsight couldn't really do anything else in this situation without risking killing Fathom and herself.
If only Fathom enchanted a rock to ignore all of Darkstalker’s enchantments.
And then Clearsight would use that rock to bash Darkstalker’s skull in.
Lol
🤣
Even if Darkstalker loved Clearsight, he would never take no for an answer. Once he got a taste of power, he wanted all of it. He would drag Clearsight into his version of the future, no matter what she thought of it. Clearsight did what she had to do to keep everyone safe.
Omigosh, I am SO happy to see someone else call Darkstalker out on the fact that he IS an abuser and the things he does absolutely ARE evil and wrong. I've seen so many comments about how he was just misunderstood, misguided, it's not his fault... Ugh. Yes. It IS his fault. HE chose to do immoral enchantments behind his family and friends' backs. HE chose to take SO MUCH OFFENSE to Indigo trying to protect Fathom from a perceived threat (which she was COMPLETELY RIGHT about, btw! >.>) that he decided to try and make Fathom forget about her, and when that didn't work, he chose to literally TRAP HER SOUL. HE chose to create a barrier that would KILL any IceWings that tried to cross the mountains, instead of, I don't know, maybe... simply prevent entry? HE chose to send an enchanted dagger to kill one IceWing every full moon for a year (and Pyrrhia has THREE moons >_>), and leave a message about him to scare them (this likely continued for the entire year, even after he was put to sleep). HE chose to block Clearsight from having any "bad" visions, and then had the utter GALL to blame her when she didn't see an assassin coming for him.
HE chose to cast a magical plague upon the Ice Kingdom literally MINUTES after escaping from where he was buried, dooming many IceWings, icluding the QUEEN, to death, when no IceWing currently alive had ever wronged him, just because he hated IceWings (newsflash, Darkstalker, YOU are half-IceWing D8< ). HE chose to try and turn Fierceteeth into his long-dead girlfriend and make her the way HE wanted her to be (and what would he have done to Fierceteeth had he succeeded? Married her and had eggs with her without her knowledge or consent? Ugh... DX). HE chose to say no to a chance at a new life as a dragonet when given a choice, so, really, there was no choice but to turn him into Peacemaker. He absolutely HAD to be taken out somehow, and since he'd made himself invulnerable and immortal, it was the only way (Possibly Jerboa III's spell might have been able to destroy Darkstalker's magic, but who knows? Now THAT would be an interesting theory or AU. XD). He was a threat to every dragon that lived or would ever live. Even his own mother knew.
And now he's gone. And good bloody riddance. >_< Yes, he's an excellent, and very well-written villain. But three moons, do I despise him as a dragon. DX He's legitimately awful, and Clearsight, Fathom, Moon, EVERYONE who associated with him deserved better than what he gave to them.
Anyways... sorry for the rant. ;w; Darkstalker kinda makes me want to rant everytime I think about him. DX But I must add that this video was very enjoyable to listen to. You've earned a new subscriber. ^^
The whole thing with fierceteeth was super fucked up. I had a feeling that he wouldve done more to her once he got the enchantment right.
He says to Qibli that he will have dragonets with her “once he gets the enchantment right”… which implies a lot of bad things.
Yick. Also, ugh. It's just as well that Clearsight didn't have his kids or else he would have used them as leverage to make her stay with him. Since he's all about control, I wouldn't put it past him.@@5rcane
@@5rcane jesus christ, it's worse than I thought.
@@5rcane HOLY SHIT??? I didn't even remember him saying that. Jesus
@@axelf9947 I forgot while making this video as well, or I would have included it in the script. I was looking at that scene for another project and went yikes...
I dont even need to watch the video to say yes. (I will) I mean, everyone should agree that he is abusive even if you like him as a villain
I never really thought about darkstalker and abusiveness but after watching this video im convinced he is
Small correction here! (It's not really important) Darkstaker wasn't the one to kill Quickdeath. One of Fathom's guard did (i think it was Lionfish?) Still Darkstaker would have probably integrated Quickdeath and I think he would of maybe tortured him. Which you know is a bad thing that if you can assume that somebody would torture another if they hadn't died. Quickdeath is honestly lucky he died before Darkstaker got to him. It would quite literally a fate worse than dying
You are correct! Lionfish was the one to kill Quickdeath(who names their child THAT)
@@moonflight3806 They say that NightWing names are self fulfilling - so ominous foreshadowing..
I used to feel bad for Darkstalker when i read the book seven years ago. I re-read it and i was like, "Why the hell did i ever defend this ahole!?"
I feel like Dark - Stalker didn’t INTEAD to abuse White - Out, but did so out of ignorance on her condition but she is the ONLY one I would say this about… my mom would do that to me (ASD among other disabilities) because she didn’t fully comprehend where my limitations are…
I'm also autistic and have had very similar experiences to the one you mentioned. It took me a long time to understand this: intended or not, it's ACTIONS that matter. Darkstalker chose to remain ignorant regarding Whiteout and her disabilities. Abusers can feel guilty about the things they do to their victims, but that doesn't mean they are no longer abusive. It doesn't make their actions okay in the slightest. I hope your mother's treatment of you has improved since you commented this -- stay safe out there
@@k.c.hughes3210well I could say this about him. I also want to give him the proper credit he never fixed whiteout he never enchanted her to be normal as that would have changed his guilt and made her very easy to deal with and he never did that and we know it's easy to do because Arctic did it. And I think that more than anything is what made it dark stalker kill Arctic in the way he did, and he says that the worst thing Arctic did in that situation was forcefully curing white out this dragon darkstalker has no regard for any other dragons autonomy at all and he still able of comprehending that you should not care people's disabilities without asking. At least not mental differences. He made everybody like him but he never forced anybody to agree with him he changed their minds and manipulated them but he never just actively decided that he was going to force them to agree with him he preferred to do it organically or as organically as his manipulations can be considered. He has a healthy respect for the mind at the very least even if he will cure physical ailments without any asking like he did with stonemover.
as messed up as he is as abusive as he is as a nurse is cystic as I'm pretty sure he is, I respect him at least for knowing that much.
I love the way down but I don't think dragons have the same educational resources on neurodivergent as we have in our world as it seems to be a lot less common in the Dragon world and nobody seemed to know what to do with white out, so it's not that he chose to remain ignorant it's more like there was no way of knowing how to become further educated on the subject if it was even possible to do so in the first place.
It's kind of ironic how completely willing darkstalker is to change dragon's minds against their will like with clear sight and the earrings and yet this is the one boundary he won't cross and it's kind of hilarious that the super villain is more respectful towards people with disabilities than most heroes in most other media.
@@lahlybird895True, he never made any enchantments like what Arctic did to Whiteout in the legends book, or at least no successful ones. He tried to do this kind of spell on Turtle to make him forget Indigo and start using his animus powers again, however.
Plus, in the main series he DID manipulate and enchant other dragons like how Arctic did to Whiteout by making dragons like him with a spell (it was confirmed he did so to Winter, for example).
Also, I do believe he could have become further informed about how to treat Whiteout by simply talking to her and asking her what her boundaries are, how she sees the world, etc. Just because they don’t have as extensive research done on neurodivergence doesn’t mean he couldn’t have literally had a conversation about said neurodivergence with his neurodivergent sister (which he never does because he chooses that it’s not important to him).
@@k.c.hughes3210 I haven't read darkstalker in a while so I may be misremembering but half of the stuff I remember white-out thing is not very coherent and kind of hard to understand unless you're very good at interpreting so having a conversation with her might not be that informative
You're right about winter and I assume you mean fathom and not turtle there is actually a difference believe it or not. Those two are the main exceptions to the idea that in general he will not alter people's minds even if the author of their emotions.
Thinking about it it's strange that these two cases exist in the rest of his manipulation of they are different to how he tends to do things.
But perhaps this is due to the inherent flaw that is the concept of animus magic itself after all when you have a character who has the ability to do literally anything they want and the willingness to do it it's very weird when they don't do things that they want and make the time when they do do it stand out all the more. Get well at the same time enabling the character to actually do everything they want easily tends to kill the plot of any story.
perhaps a more in universe explanation for his actions there is that he tried to have fathom come around using his usual manipulation tactics but it was very much not working so what he did was a last resort so again I don't know why he ends up not doing the same idea on clear sight after all he could have easily enchanted her to be okay with him taking over the kingdom rather than simply trying to hide her visions but perhaps we hadn't talked to that level of despair in connecting them yet as hiding her visions is also a strategy he could use that would probably work I think in general he wants the dragons he cares about to actually care about him rather than making it artificial. Heard his charisma spell makes people like him it makes people trust him but it doesn't make people care about him the caring about him he tries to get organically it's why he never enchanted moon. Moonlight and cared about him in a way that he considered to be organic despite the fact that he kind of groomed her into it.
His entire character is fascinating and it's kind of hilarious to realize that he's basically just morrowseer on steroids. Both characters are inspired by the same source and are disturbingly good at all kinds of disturbing manipulation.
@@lahlybird895I 100% agree. I also think that depending on the order of how you read the second arc (whether you read Darkstalker's book before or after the arc) your opinion of him might be influenced differently. For example, I read Darkstalker before any of the second arc, so I knew going in what his POV chaps were like and had a strong dislike of him right off the bat. However, if I had read the second arc first, my first impression of Darkstalker would have been like how Moonwatcher's was: she sympathized with him and considered him a friend, so readers who have no prior knowledge of him are inclined to do the same.
(Also yeah my bad I meant to say Fathom not Turtle XD thanks for the correction).
My friend even says that he isnt even a villian like what?
I actually ADORED Darkstalker as a teenager and was horrified as to why anyone would dislike him because!!! Look! He's just so good! He just wants the best for everyone!!! (Sarcasm) yeah and then the first romantic relationship I end up in was straight up abusive. lmaooooooo
If it helps most people don't like most of what they made years ago since we're always learning and training our skills.
Quickdeath was killed by Wharf or Lionfish (I think I don’t have my Legends book with me rn) But every other point is SO TRUE! I was watching a wof video and people were like “Darkstalker deserves better!” (In my opinion) he really doesn’t he had two chances and he destroyed them both.
I do have a theory about this though as I think that it's very interesting that he figured out the strawberry was an enchantment he said they couldn't do it to him said that he was more powerful than they were and then chose to eat the strawberry anyway
If I'm concerned that if him making me choice to fall under whatever enchantments they put on it and if he could have very easily crushed it to defeat whatever their plan was but he chose to eat it anyway
@@lahlybird895 bc he thought no magic would work on him, he said in this chapter “Or did you have Turtle enchant this? Or perhaps another secret animus I don’t know about? It doesn’t matter, you boring, ordinary creatures. I can’t be enchanted by anyone! I’m smarter now;I’ve made myself completely safe. Nobody’s animus magic will work on me. Which means nobody will be able to stop me” and than Kinkajou says “Actually there is one dragons magic that will work on you” Darkstalker replies “Your wrong.” Kinkajou says “I’m right” “Oh really? Whose?” “Your own.” Kinkajou and Foeslayer caught him off guard he didn’t expect for the strawberry to be enchanted.
@@xxfiirerhinoxx3424 but nothing happened before he ate it
10:49 or he straight up forgot because icewings lives are that unimportant to him. Also a pretty chilling explanation.
Naw I thought it was obvious that Darkstalker was abusive considering what we see from him in the main series?? People genuinely think he’s not??
10:27 actually! In the books, Darkstalker isn’t the one to kill Quickdeath, it was Lionfish, Fathom’s useless bodyguard! But he still killed lots of dragons yes
I hate Darkstalker,but I love the way he’s written.Tui clearly shows he’s terrible,and I almost feel like the message is with him is:”If this is happening to you,it’s wrong.And not ok,break free.”
When I read darkstalkers book I realized he was very abusive and did stuff but in a way that you can't argue with him...like when he makes clear sight that earring that makes her not see the bad futures, he said it was to make her not stressed, and that is like messed up in multiple ways but the way he explains it makes it seem like he had "good" intentions 🤨
My cousin was in a similar situation. He got married to a girl who seemed like a decent person, but behind closed doors she was incredibly controlling and possessive of him. She took care of all their finances and always lorded it over his head, she isolated him from both his and her freinds and family, and she wouldn't let him go anywhere on his own. She spread rumors that he was a bum, and would blame herself when things went wrong to guilt trip him. At one point they went to see a marriage counselor, but after three sessions they stopped seeing them because "they were a quack." (One time I showed up at their house unannounced to borrow a toolbox and I didn't pick up on it at the time but she was trying to passive-aggressively shoo me away.)
Anyway, about a year into their marriage he finally had enough and gave her the silent treatment (a favorite tactic of hers) and no joke, she flipped out and divorced him the next day. It all seemed really sudden, but as he opened up over the next few months we all slowly began to realize how fortunate he was to have gotten away from her so early. Had it gone on for a few more years there may have been no rescuing him.
This is art is just, wow! Keep on going!
Darkstalker's actions can certainly come across as abusive, especially given the way he tries to control those around him. His use of animus magic to alter others' behavior, like enchanting Clearsight’s earring to ensure loyalty, can be seen as a violation of free will, which is a form of emotional and psychological abuse. He believes he knows what’s best for everyone, even if it goes against their wishes, and this mindset causes harm to others-even if that wasn't his intent.
In many ways, Darkstalker’s abusive tendencies are rooted in his own fear and trauma. His father's betrayal, Queen Diamond's expectations, and the judgment he received as a young dragon with immense power shaped him into someone who felt the need to control his environment to feel secure. He might genuinely believe he's protecting his loved ones, but his actions cross boundaries and show little regard for others' autonomy.
Ultimately, Darkstalker is a deeply tragic character. His intentions, while sometimes good, are twisted by his insecurities and trauma, leading him to hurt those he cares about. The complexity of his character lies in how he justifies his actions, even when they're harmful, which makes him both fascinating and flawed.
Perhaps it would make sense for Quibli to try and get Darkstalker to, instead of give Quibli powers, make it so both Darkstalker and Quibli have to agree on an enchantment for it to happen. Darkstalker, of course, probably wouldn’t want to do this, but it would very quickly point out his true intentions if he refused to. And if he did… bonus?
I really like your videos! This is so cool!
This is a good video! I love your analyses but don't comment much, though I will here. While it's not about Darkstalker or Wings of Fire in particular, yesterday I had been bugged by 3 people over a certain villain who was clearly incredibly abusive to the main cast of characters (*and* he'd done horrible things that I cant mention in TH-cam comments) who said that he hadn't done anything wrong. They tried justifying all of it.
It makes me very upset, to see that people will look at a character and say "oh! well he looks nice, or he is charming" when they are blatantly overlooking the character's actions AND words; either that or they are not looking into anything at all, revealed to me by someone else after the argument yesterday. (the people i had argued with had not even played the entire game that the character i mentioned was in.) People will go off what they know.
An analysis shouldn't even be necessary for this kind of stuff especially if the person who literally wrote the villain said they were based off an abusive ex, but this goes for all things. Why not be open minded to all arguments, and look into it yourself?
Still, this video makes for a perfect remark if someone says he wasn't abusive.
The only way to truly love something is to let it free
We will get a DSL GN probably this or next year and i hope that all DS defender will comes to their sense, and see how abusive and toxic Darkstalker was. Because a german speech „ ein Bild sagt mehr als tausend wörter“ ( a picture say more then 1000 words)
One small correction
Darkstalker NEVER enchanted moon, not once.
That's not to say he didn't abuse her, but canonically he never enchanted her.
He did enchant her and kinkajou (though due to turtles protection spell it failed) to be frozen in time so she wouldn’t see him punish Anemone. He does so with a circular motion. I don’t know the exact page number but it’s at the end of Talons of power, a little before Turtle and Anemone’s fight.
@@TheFriendlyneighborhoodBlubell yeah that was just a weird scene
Book 9: Darkstalker casts a spell so that Moon (who was in the same room) doesn't overhear him when he admonishes Anemone and then encourages her to go kill Coral.
Well, technically, a lot of dragons fell under his spell, thanks to his earring
@ПавелКратиров-ф6с very specifically not Moon though
I was wondering if you had anywhere to submit fanart?
The thing is… FEEL BAD FOR DARKSTALKER, why?
1. His mother is dead
2. He is the most realistic character, how would you feel in his way? All that power in your talons… I would have used it long ago, call me a bad person but I don’t care
3. His father was abusive, he could have turned out like cobras sons but nope, he managed to hold out for so long
4. He wanted to punish Diamond but couldn’t, all that repressed hate will eventually release in a large tsunami, like the tide
5. He believed he was doing the best, he believed Clearsight could love him for that, but all that slipped through his talons
6. He just wanted to be happy for the rest of his life, all he got were a few weeks
"He lost his mother and he had a bad dad" So did H*tIer
If he truly _only_ wanted to be happy, he had everything laid out in front of him, and he chose to ignore it, preferring to commit heinous crimes and murder hundreds of innocent dragons. He was evil. It doesn't matter how he felt.
If he truly only wanted to bs happy, he had everything laid out in front of him, and he chose to take the wrong path instead.
Well, he was consumed by power AND anger, think, your mother was taken from you and nobody will allow you to get revenge, and plus, he had so much power and so much he could do, it’s not like he was TRYING to be evil, sure the path he took wasn’t very good but he had good INTENTIONS
Plus, you would probably do the same thing, heck I would probably do the same thing, because he grew in such different circumstances that it would change literally anybody who exists there, with powers, your mother taken from you, and an abusive father, who wouldn’t change under those though?
It's insane how people believe Darkstalker was wrongfully punished. A tumblr user I once saw flipped Darkstalkers story somehow and said CLEARSIGHT is the abusive one and how Darkstalker is "mentally a child" so he's allowed to groom other dragons for his own gain which is *Disgusting* to say the least. The same user also kinned Darkstalker, said Tui is racist, and Tui deserved to end her own life over not making her books fit their twisted world view. Crazy how disgustingly defensive people get over an obviously villainous character...
It’s very telling to me when Darkstalker apologists see nothing wrong with Darkstalker’s actions. Obviously the ones who like him but recognize what he did wrong are fine, but the ones who believe he had no blame whatsoever are probably no better than Tui’s ex that Darkstalker is based off of.
Based on what u said that person deserves to go to jail..kins darkstalker
Great video!!! Sums up everything very good
You say Darkstalker ignores Whiteout's wishes; but to be fair, can anyone even understand her enoguh to know what her wishes are?
Casting spells on people without informed consent along with alot of other manipulitive things he did were pretty evil thoguh; but worst of all, he manipulated himself into beliving he was the hero of his own story.
Wait think about it he's probably this way because of his father. Also poor whiteout ..
small mistake. quickdeath was not killed by darkstalker but by lyonfish, one of fathom bodyguard
Very much a cruel dragon his acts into a violences kind of inhumans with in the storytelling dragons
I don't mean to assume or imply anything bad here, but from my point of view as someone with Autism, it's possible that Whiteout wasn't the only one who was neurodivergent.
From your descriptions of how Darkstalker thinks about the world and other dragons, how he bases everything in relation to himself using logic, his incredible genius, his very few emotional connections only with dragons he's closest to, it kinda sounds like he has some neurological symptoms of his own. Now, I am nowhere near an expert on neurodivergency or psychology, but there seems to be certain aspects of conditions like Autism, narcissism, and antisocial personality disorder at work here.
(Of course none of that would excuse his actions in any way, and I am not diagnosing or outright saying that Darkstalker necessarily has any of these. I'm simply remarking on the fact that some of the characteristics of such disorders resemble the way his personality is described.)
Anyway, this is a detailed and well-explained video, very interesting! Thanks!
I don’t think he’s autistic, I think he’s a crazy dragon like some other villains. He’s just blinded and thinks what he’s doing is ok and right. He’s like Qibli but evil
Love and hate darkstalker so much hes so silly but so…ewww
You posted a video 2 days ago how are you doing this! HOW (I really like your videos by the way)
OOOO
An Word of advise get this Darkstalker defender called GundamKtype get out of here
No. No she's not.
She had ONE job, and it was a job she CHOSE; the job of keeping Darkstalker sane, no matter what, because she knew how dangerous he could become.
* She knew that he was in an enviroment that was detrimental to his psychological well-being.
* She knew that she had to keep him out of Vigilance's clutches no matter what, because the queen would pounce on any opportunity to deploy animus magic against the icewings with complete disregard for how that would affect Darkstalker's psyche. That's not even something that you'd need magical visions to understand, basic reasoning skills are more than sufficient to let you figure out that a queen in the middle of a war isn't going to say no to an opportunity to exploit an emotionally vulnerable animus. That's what already happened to Albatross, ffs, and that was during a time of peace!
On top of that, Allknowing is a hack, and Clearsight knows this, which means that she knows that once she starts to try to save the world from Darkstalker (which can only be done by saving Darkstalker from the world), she'll need animus magic to keep Vigilance at bay.
* Once Foeslayer "died" and Clearsight had clear-as-day *proof* that her visions weren't enough to keep her ahead of the game, Clearsight's had the *self-imposed* obligation to immediately inform Arctic that his son was teetering on the edge, that Vigilance was itching to take advantage of Darkstalker's mental state, that Whiteout (and, to a lesser extent, Arctic himself) were the only things left that could shore up Darkstalker's fading sanity, and that the only chance of avoiding catastrophe was for Arctic to find common ground with his son and hold that broken family together.
But no, she just couldn't bring herself to take action.
To paraphrase an old macroeconomic historian; "The seers have hitherto only seen the future in various visions. The point, however, is to change it.”
Clearsight saw, and did nothing useful. If anything, she just made everything worse by confusing Arctic with that cryptic prophecy of his upcoming death, nagging on darkstalker (again, an individual she *knew* was already under a lot of pressure and had a habit of knee-jerk enchanting stuff) and inadvertently causing herself to be visionarily impaired.
Darkstalker was self-righteous, impulsive, and potentially dangerous, but Clearsight *knew* about the risks, and did nothing to mitigate them.
Her wilful ignorance and unwillingness to intervene doomed him, her, his family, and the whole Night Kingdom.
This is what breaks Clearsight as a character:
* She's an author self-insert, and is supposed to be sympathetic.
* *But* unlike Tui IRL, Clearsight already *knows* just how badly things can go, and she's the *only* one who knows just how badly things can go, how high the stakes are, and she... doesn't do anything constructive with that information. She just dawdles on while the world falls apart around her.
And once it's all over, she just wipes the blood off of her talons and says "well, I did my best", and flies off, leaving what is now the most paranoid animus in the world, a broken shell of a dragon, buried in the ground like a ticking time bomb for future generations to try and defuse.
Not her problen anymore.
P.S.
Then there's that scene in book 10 where Darkstalker finally wakes up and realises that he's gone off the deep end, and seeks out Moon and his mother for advice.
He's broken, confused, begging for some solid ground to stand on, something to believe in, and he's managed to push his paranoia aside enough to actually listen to reason from the last two dragons on the planet that he atill has some amount of faith in, and what does he hear?
"Please consider self-euthanasia, and while you're at it, your mother wants you to turn your remains into a new dragonet so that she can start over from scratch".
The newspaper-page-thin attempt at sugar-coating it honestly just makes it so much worse, especially since it's Moon we're talking about; she must-ve known, arguably better than anyone, that not only would it not work, but that it would also sever any and all remaining threads of trust left between them, and leaving Darkstalker completely unhinged again. Thank the stars for the Fragaria-ex-Machina.
The one defence I can find for Clearsight and Moon is that they were both dragonets, and that Moon growing up alone in the rainforest would inevitably leave her intellectually stunted. Even so, it's hard to call them victims.
I'd go as far as to say that Darkstalker and Clearsight were both victims of Vigilance's ambition, and that Moonwatcher was a victim of Clearsight's failure to sort out the mess that the Queen had created.
* Vigilance (or her predecessor) fucked up, big time.
* Clearsight saw the potential consequences, but decided not to take them seriously, even as they were becoming increasingly obvious as Darkstalker's social support network crumbled around him.
* Moon's less-than-ideal upbringing and resulting dim-wittedness is at least in part the result of Vigilance's ancient idiocy (the part where she moves the tribe to an active volcano) which somewhat excuses her failure to take control of the narrative (she had the scroll. All she needed was to race back to JMA and aquire an inkwell and quill, and she'd be able to disappear off of the face of the world, giving her all the time she'd ever need to piece together Darkstalker's past and come up with a sensible plan of action).
TL;DR
Tui was a victim because she didn't know what she was getting herself into.
Clearsight wasn't, because she did.
Moon was just dumb, but she had a good excuse (an active volcano, Vigilance? Really?).
Also, author self-inserts and adapting lived experiences into fictional narratives are hard to get right, especially when you add in magical foresight that dramatically changes the power dynamics in the fictional realm as compared to what went down in the real world.
you haven't watched the entire video, have you? It explains A LOT and, some, SOME of these points are accurate, but most are not.
No Darkstalker is not abusive.
That’s wild, imagine being so petty that you base your books villain off of a 15 year old. No high school relationship is “healthy”. How bizarre
Abuse is still abuse, no matter how old the two parties are. And authors take inspirations from lived experiences for the stories they write all the time.
Oh, please. 15 year olds are big enough to know not to hurt people.
Of course someone like you is saying that💀
Do you know the author or her ex personally? Were you there? No? Then shut up
He is not abusive-
He is. He’s manipulative, too.
Explain why then
He put a spell on his girlfriend and best friend, forcefully changing their brains to suit him, and then planned on SA'ing Fierceteeth
I can't tell if you're being serious or not and that's very concerning.