Wings of Fire Ship Thoughts, Critiques, and Overall Opinions

Ripnami // Riptide x Tsunami

Yep, we're doing Ripnami now. Same format as last time. Once again, we don't like this ship, and will tell y'all why below.

eaz's thoughts

Ripnami, yet another one of the Big Boi Ships(TM). Lots of people like this both for the dynamic in terms of their stances socially (princess x shunned peasant) as well as their personality dynamic (angry/salty girl x chill/sweet guy.) This ship is canon, or at least partially, as it is shown they have feelings for each other- Tsunami calls Riptide "handsome" and other things many, many times in the books, and Riptide seems to be searching for Tsunami when he is travelling with the rest of the Talons of Peace. 

 Now, I don't have any issues with the dynamics themselves. My issues lie with two things- canonical information and age gaps. Tsunami was 6 years old when she and the other Dragonets of Destiny escaped the cave. Riptide was 9-10. Now, let's look at this little fact: dragons are mature/considered adults at age 7, meaning Tsunami was a minor when she first met Riptide. I will not nitpick the fact that Tsunami had a crush on Riptide, young people have crushes on older people all the time, and as long as it's just a cute little admiration thing and VERY one-sided, I don't mind it. However, what we do see in book 2, or otherwise known as Tsunami's book, is Riptide flirting with her when she is still 6 years old. You can argue that "she turned 7 later on!" This does NOT justify the fact that Riptide still showed feelings for Tsunami when she was what was basically 16, and he early-mid 20s, and on top of that, actively flirted with her and searched for her.

Now the next part on canon info- what do we have between the two? Well, from my clear memory, we have when they first meet, a few meetings after that with language lessons, them getting locked up/escaping together... and... probably some sort of short thing after that after Riptide is in the Talons of Peace. Almost all of their interactions are packed into segments of one book. Now, while I wouldn't mind (beyond the age thing) if this ship was a fanon thing, it is canon. I don't think short little segments within the short period in which Tsunami is with the SeaWings that she shares with Riptide are enough to form a canon, two-sided at least crush. It just seems very, VERY rushed- I don't understand why IMMEDIATELY Tsunami has to start talking about how handsome Riptide is when she first sees him.

gale's thoughts

to keep this brief: ripnami.... really isn't good, lmao. 

 there are a few reasons why, which i'll clarify here. first off, the biggest reason is that it's technically pedophilia. when tsunami and her friends came to the sea kingdom, they were all around like, 6 years old (nearly an adult in human years, but still technically a teenager, to be specific). riptide was around 10 years old. wof dragons' age of maturity (when they technically become adults) is 7 years. i'll let you figure out why that's bad yourself :) 

 and throughout the arc riptide is... strangely obsessed with tsunami, similar to peril's obsession with clay. and, honestly, I can hardly remember a single canon interaction that makes this ship likeable. they had like, what, 1 aquatic lesson together and now suddenly riptide is really into her? a lot of the other canon ships are usually mentioned throughout multiple books, while riptide's whole romantic (and personal) arc was only around for one book. 

 and honestly, the ship in general just feels really rushed and forced and makes little to no sense to me.

Ship Rating Out of 10 (from both of us)

2/10