Think Her Majesty‘s answer is sufficient? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Howdy, fellow Draconiacs! RazorFox here.
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44 Comments
Wow that is kind of cruel for someone elses own selfish pollitical campain ambisions
Campaign? Her Majesty’s already got the job, though. ^__^;;
Well oscura things are going to change I have a hunch that eone and her group are going to secretly betray her majesty
So we’re at two genocidal victory conditions, neither ideal.
1. The dragons destroy all the tigers, and fall into civil war, and the element that survives, does so alone. A solemn peace.
2. Pacifist tigers decide to withdraw from the war, making the dragon society destroy itself, with the combative tigers finishing off whoever’s left in the cities. A dragon-less peace.
Or a third, peace for everyone, option.
3. Everyone grows a few braincells and realizes that it’s a cycle of death without a win. Couldn’t Dragon society unite under a common friendship with the tigers as easily as having them as a common enemy?
For example, Cinder and Blue both have taken a shine to Kilani. In that way, a water dragon and a fire dragon have a common friend, and thus friendlier to each other. Overcoming the underlying mistrust, organizing for a common goal.
Survival of everyone and unity.
You make it sound so easy!
Sometimes it is that easy. Two or more like-minded individuals overcoming their differences in solidarity for a similar purpose.
If there wasn’t a looming fear of imprisonment or execution by the ruling class, an organization for peace with their enemy could form.
A “they’re people too” situation.
I agree with you however theres that group of people who try to make sure the war keeps going because it profits them. If the war ends here and the differences are resolved, the group will just go and start the war somewhere else with someone else. I mean think about it we don’t know who fatally injured Asura, could have been a dragon, tiger, or another species yet to be introduced.
We actually do know who fatally wounded Azure. Shie, who’s currently in slipspace with Kess, Riah, and Shaleigh going after Azure’s biological daughter, Lady Chiara.
Shie’s had regrets about wounding Azure in the past, and hopefully she’ll have second thoughts once she notices the resemblance of Chiara.
From what I’ve seen and experienced, life has a method of making the goal seem either close or far away, and method to reach it easy but the process varying in difficulty. Most of the time its requiring perseverance, knowing when to go on the offense and when to cool the jets and keeping an open mind to options and opportunities.
Rest of the time. Well, there’s a reason religion is taken up.
In this situation, it’s definitely a trying toil, but it’s a simple goal with a simple method. Hardest part is convincing and gathering stronger influence than everyone else.
Regardless, that “War” is a temporary peace at best because eventually one side (whether one of the dragon factions or the Tigers) is going to get sick and tired and start deviating dramatically and in the worst methods that’ll end with a LOT of genocide.
Then they must flee beyond so they destroy themselves. I wonder if thats what kilani is thinking. Or…destroy this dragon quickly and let the chaos begin. She has survived this long and is obviously capable. Her enemy has their guard down and the fire dragon may look threatening but she will not harm her queen so two birds quickly dropped. Then figure out how to escape. Fate has set her here and it may guide her out. If only her comrades were here….
Kilani’s comrades are wherever Shaleigh is, which appears to be neither here nor there.
Fighting a war with no end goal nor motive beyond a mindless cycle of murder and revenge. No wonder the rest of civilization has left the tigers and dragons to rot.
War is peace.
freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
The dragons are so bloody divided that they idea of letting go of their collective hatred of -each other- is so alien, that they’d rather fight a forever war.
The male dragons meanwhile… do they agree their species can’t even get along with themselves? Or are they so sick of the war that has no purpose except the war itself, that facing the horror of internal strife are PREFERABLE?
I’m reminded of D&D… where among the endless retcons and revisions that the poor setting has been strangled through over the years, one had Hell COULD have won the war against the Abyss… but it’s in the Arch Devil’s interest in keep the war going forever!
It also explain why the dragon defenses are so sloppy, they need to keep the dragons angry at the tigers.
So there won’t even be a “slaughtered these people who were in our way, and then feel guilty about it a thousand years later once everyone who were ACTUAL guilty are long dead.”
That’s a concern for future civilizations. For now, it’s Tiger-wastin’ time!
That’s a rather sobering reply, I wonder if there could be a way to fix these deep-seated mistrusts and stop the war. Definitely not tonight, considering there’s both Kess and co. already inside and last we saw Scyde was leading the charge to rescue Kilani.
Her Majesty had better hurry before they arrive!
Ya I’m not buying Oscura’s reasoning on this…
War in perpetuity for the sake of nationalistic unity is a system doomed to fail.
first off I’m pretty sure not all of the dragons are on the same page here ( if the defecting thunder dragons are anything to go on), if it ever got out that the only reason for a continuation of hostility was unity between dragons I’d think there’s be a-lot more dragons joining the thunder clan.
second, this is a real gamble the Oscura’s going for. War isn’t a static endeavour between two forces a multitude of factors come into play when determining it’s outcome. natural disasters, famine, disease any number of things can turn a sure fire encounter into a complete loss, after all the latest Eruption killed half the dragon population right? how is Oscura so certain she could wipe the Tigers out? even with her losses?
last of all, relying on the Tiger hatred seems foolish, especially considering that a majority of said hatred only came about because of the war itself. what happens if the Tigers become pacifist one day? will she just attack them anyways? what if the tigers leave? and migrate somewhere else? will she fallow them? just raises way too many points of failure all of which seems to hinge on the tigers being aggressive and the dragons being blind to hatred.
I figure Oscura either lying or even she dosen’t have the full picture, perhaps the shadowy figure hold more responsibility for this conflict then we know of yet, if that is the case then I can only imagine how the magically endowed dragon race got embroiled in a never ending war with tigers….
Does Shaleigh know something about all this? Hmmm…
I knew it…
Good call!
Okay the ‘old’ comment didn’t cause a stir. Good.
Anyways, by Oscura’s words the war is the only glue keeping dragon-kind together. Without it there would be internal strife likely resulting in a civil war which would end with
the Dragon Kingdom’s collapse. Then again if the war continues and the Tigers are wiped out then dissolution of the Kingdom would likely happen anyway. Either way both sides lose.
I don’t believe the other dragons are aware of this and if they are then they are only helping the process. Doesn’t bode well for any of the parties involved.
Sadly, the origin of the war is lost to time immemorial and regardless of this both sides continue fighting. Such a sad existence.
I’m also surprised of Oscura’s admission of “We need you.” while baffled by the later “The war… IS our peace.” It seems the Dragons are in a fatal Catch-22. Either way if the central issue isn’t resolved then both Tigers and Dragons are facing a bleak future.
The war preserves peace between the Dragons, so it sounds like Her Majesty views it as a necessary evil, don’t you think?
I suppose. Then what will happen once the war ends? Does Oscura have a plan for that?
Using the Tigers as a scapegoat to try and keep their own dysfunctional alliance from falling apart.
It’s easy to tell who are the antagonists in this story. The Dragons truly are despicable creatures.
Good luck convincing them of that!
I’m not going to try and convince them of anything. I’m just gonna hope they all get their much deserved comeuppance at some point. Especially that bats*** insane Saph after what she did to Kenzi. She is long overdue being gutted and turned into a dragonskin suitcase.
Well this is an interesting twist! Kilani’s comment is less of a faux pas and more insightful than we had given her credit for. A part of me would love to hope that her asking the questions none have voiced in untold ages, and Queen Oscura being forced to speak aloud truths she had never really questioned, would provoke some awareness of just how sad the whole situation is. However the rest of me cynically thinks it will take a LOT more disruption than this to jolt the dragons – not to mention the tigers! – out of the conventional thinking they have been taught for generations.
It occurs to me to wonder about the Tigers’ Zhrite weaponry though – it is almost TOO convenient as a counterbalance for the feuding dragons, and makes me wonder if that was set up at some point in the past as well. More shadowy hands behind the curtains…
I’m still waiting to hear the invading group has popped out somewhere and the resulting alarm disrupts this /interesting/ conversation – maybe we’ll get a little more introspection peeling back the layers before conventional beliefs are tested again.
On a final note and complete non sequitur, my mind randomly conjured up an image of Kilani as a Dragoon (as in from Legend of Dragoon), having inherited a blue dragoon spirit from Azure along with Lumina’s egg. Wouldn’t it be /something/ if Tigers who connected with Dragons and wanted peace could suddenly use magic of their own to keep both sides in check? Wishful thinking, but a funny dream imagining Kilani with blue wings 🙂
I think there would be many a Dragon who would freak the hell out to learn that Tigers had developed the ability to fly!
That’s a very interesting twist!
I do hope to see more of the dynamics that are shared between the dragon’s respective races – and I also adore the comment ‘we need you’. Something about it is sickeningly sweet, in a very messed up sort of way.
Looking forward to the next page and amazing work! ^ – ^
Thanks so much for the kind words! I love your take on Her Majesty’s revelation. I’d never perceived it as being adorable, but now I won’t be able to stop thinking that! ^__^
And this is why I’ve always believed “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” is such a bad idea.
But Kilani and Her Majesty look like they’re hitting it off!
Well, Kilani may not be dead, but she’s certainly in Hell.
She and countless other Tigers (and Dragons)!
Is just me or is there something wrong about the tiger and dragon species? Like they weirdy dont fit well naturaly within the world?
Oscura should know about “why they were on war for If she is a queen dragon. Maybe, she dont want to found out about what made them wars.
She might not know the cause, but she knows the benefits to perpetuating it. A leader’s gotta make those tough decisions!
Looking at this some more, it feels like the dragons’ plan is doomed to fail anyway. They depend on the tigers staying alive to keep their own civil war at bay, but as Queen Oscura notes the dragons are one bad day away from wiping the tigers out entirely – or at least enough that they get removed as an enemy fighting force. If killing tigers is what wins ‘points’ in dragon society, rivalry and competition will keep making dragon attacks more severe – no one is openly speaking of mercy to their common enemy, or ‘holding back’ for any reason. Zhrite weaponry keeps the tigers from being COMPLETELY defenseless, yet their dwindling population is basically the sand in an hourglass counting down to the end of this ‘peace’ Queen Oscura speaks of. At best it is a delaying tactic to keep the dragons from having to face their own problems, but they are NOT using the time that the tiger war has bought them to even look at the issue. As happens all too often, the temporary solution has become the ‘permanent’ solution – and everyone has forgotten that.
It’s like a strip of duct tape that’s been there for far too many years!
Wellp, they doing a watchmen, nice
Why am I getting the feeling one of both of them are going to die during the “rescue”?
There might just be a way for them all to get piece for once and for all.
Draconia lane.
Think about it. Tigers use tools cause they dont have control over nature in the same way the dragons do. The dragon society doesn’t value their own powers as tools the same way as perhaps the tigers would. The majority of their society is built around warfare with little consern over industrialisation or construction due to their species never having to think largely outside of the box when solving problems.
Hence roman empire eske city with them using their own magical abilities to facilitate modern equivalents of our own technology due to minimal usage of the outside world in the same way as we do.
After all there are no other dragon cities in the region dispite the fact of not requiring roads to connect them due to being able to naturally fly so whats going on here other than a lack of societal development beyond their original walls? The fact that the mostly piecefull earth dragons are treated as “useless” underclass proves this fact more. And they even only see them as dangerous warriors and not “builders”. So they dont expand or build better.
This seem to be cause of a lack of requiment of innovation on their end. Magic became easy fixes to all of their problems.
Winter famine? Send 1 earth and 1 light dragon and grow some wheat .
Forest fires? Send every water dragons at once to fix that.
Volcano? Send fire and earth dragons.
Floods? Water dragons and earth dragons will fix it.
Dark outside? Light dragons use “spotlight”, its super effective.
Cold? Fire dragons warm us up please.
Buildings destroyed? Earth dragons, get to work.
Etc etc.
As a result unity becomes shakey at best cause everyone only sees one another as potential threats due to their natural abilities when at war.
Combine this with a “emotions are dangerous” mentality and you got a society of people who do not learn how to control their emotions effectively and are far more prone to developing irrational hatred towards those they see as too “different”.
Then top it with a multiple generational war between matched foe and well this is what you get.
An angry, uncreative, xenophobic society with no long term plans or purpose other than to lash out.
Enter the tigers. Using tools in the form of literal sharpened spears they seem to be a 1/1 mach to the overpowered dragons. Not because the dragons dont wanna fight them till they are all dead.
But cause they literal can’t figure out how to best them with their magical abilities and ability to fly. I.e. the dragons are so unimaginative that never before has a rogue fire dragon ever tried to carpet bomb every tiger they could. Seriously why do they only fight 1 vs 1 on the GROUND? YOU HAVE WINGS AND CAN FLY. AND DESTRUCTIVE POWERS. USE THEM.
And if the tigers have somehow have a method of takeing flying dragons down there is this method you could use to stop this called flanking.
Oh and this the dragons have not tried yet but i would actually be genius if they did its called… ARMOR.
So if im correctly understanding it all the dragons go to battle against a enemy using hand to hand weapons on the ground , completely utterly naked.
As you can see the absolute geniuses big brains they dragons are when it comes to war tactics.
Honestly the fact that they only stick together is cause of war against the “other” thru tactics like this is dumbfounding that no one has figured this out.
Cause its clear that when it comes to actually fighting their species seems to be just bad at it especially if they are like this unintentionally.
Honestly if they just didn’t start the war with the tigers the requirements and imagination the tigers would bring to the table would probably solve all of these problems.
Cause this is less of a problem of irrational hatred leading to violence which is being used to fight an endless war to prevent self destruction and more of a grade A example of a lack of natural imagination and long term effects of the Dunning Kruger effect on a population in a failing monarchy style ran state leading to this massive societal mess.
In fact something tells me the tigers weren’t the first species the dragons were at war with unfortunately. And if they keep things the same they probably won’t be the last ones either.
Heya Razor! comics going fantastic! I was trying to reach you about the year of the tiger pic! yes, its been 12 years now! Plese shoot me an email asap so I can send you the details!
Kinda weird hearing the Queen just having a normal conversation without hysterics or supervillain theatrics. She must be working really hard to keep it together! Maybe realizing Tigers aren’t all that bad if you can talk to them?
I wonder if Kilani will offer to show where she buried the Queen Oscura’s mom.