HOME | DD

Description
please excuse the fact i have No idea what royal markings are supposed to look like but i did try my hardest to make something fancy for these rough sketches!!!!!!!!!
(i ran out of space to write "you" im sobbing)

also, part of my worldbuilding headcanons, seawing dragonets are more axolotl-ish and like salamanders >3c anemone's inbetween development, leading to extremely frilly fins that haven't properly set and fluffy gills! (hdsghsdgh i also see people complaining about why anemone is pink it makes no sense, well this is MY CITY and seawings can be whatever color ever because fish are so colorful!!!!!! dont direspect them!!!!!!!! also gill was pink, thank you infinite-plants )

From hatching, it may have seemed like Anemone was to lead the perfect life as a princess and currently the only heir to the throne, but it was far from perfect. Anemone was put on a harness before she could utter her first words and attached to Queen Coral wherever she went. Anemone was a victim of intense helicopter parenting and suffered for it. Even before the Talons of Power, Anemone was Coral's precious baby and was never allowed to be out of her sight.

Coral had her shot at being a good mother. She wanted to raise her daughters well, starting with Orca. She believed her daughters should express themselves freely without the pressing weight of society on their shoulders. She always encouraged Orca to be thinking about queenly duties, even when she was wrong. When Orca was young, Coral had showered her in affection but left her to her own devices by the time she wasn't a cute little baby anymore. She encouraged her to write, like her mother, which she took a sudden interest in tangible arts. Coral assumed this was natural adolescent rebellion, and left her alone. She cracked jokes about her to others and even tempted the idea of Whirlpool, her young, trusted advisor, to be a suiter for her one day. Orca didn't reveal herself to be animus, but personally, I believe if she had revealed her powers before she died, it would have given Coral extra reason to put such a close eye on Anemone.

However, due to the result of "neglecting" her first daughter, she took Anemone's upbringing to the extreme other end of the spectrum. They were rarely separated even before Anemone was born. Coral stayed with Anemone's egg for almost an entire year, waiting for it to hatch, letting Gill and Shark handle the war in her absence. But due to her neglect of the war, Gill was captured and Shark and Pirhana lost many troops, leading and trying to advise them all at the same time. Many dragons didn't even believe Anemone was worth it. Just for her to end up being pampered anyway, being the Queen's newest focus. She pawned her responsibilities on her council often. Coral never got her talons dirty or involved herself with any of the real battles. She was much too concerned about being the first source of news about the war with her scrolls being the "best source," and her stories were too important to her. "Escapism," she called it. "Motherhood and leading a war leads to stress on a mother and queen's mind." Anemone watched Coral let her kingdom fall apart under the veil of her positivity and ignorance about everything that was going on.

When the MudWing and SeaWing alliance was broken with the assassination of General Swamp, Princess Blister had proposed an alliance with the SeaWings. Queen Coral was easily won over by simple flattery and all Blister had to do was read her scrolls and compliment her fanfictionsliterature. It wasn't long before Coral even revealed the fact that her young dragonet had magic. Blister was quick to plan and discuss ways to win the war with Anemone, but Whirlpool insisted on further training.

Anemone barely got a chance to speak for herself. She was never allowed to complain or even annoy her mother. The threat of giving Anemone a muzzle occurred more than once and Anemone grew to be afraid of speaking up about anything. She realized much too late that being an animus wasn't as much of a gift that she thought it was. The only times she was released from her mother's harness was to have "animus lessons" with Whirlpool, who had obvious intentions of using her for her own greed. From their "quiet outings, to better focus her impressionable mind," Whirlpool told Anemone that she would become the queen when she came of age and he would take responsibility as king. He'd threaten her about telling anyone else and fantasized aloud to her about seeing Coral's dead body bleeding on her beautiful palace floors. Anemone never told anyone about Whirlpool and the nasty things he said or planned with her.

She'd beg her mother to spend time with her many brothers or at least have a lesson with any other dragon beside him, but Coral knew he had studied the most about that sort of thing! He'd understand how to teach an animus how to control their powers! Coral listened to him much more than she listened to her dragonet. What would she know anyway?

Anemone's life was a routine. Lessons with mother, writing with mother, eating with mother, the dreaded lessons with Whirlpool, in an endless loop. That was, until Tsunami and the rest of the Dragonets of Destiny showed up. Tsunami was the missing egg that Coral had droned on about as one of her most important scroll she had written in her life. When Anemone got the chance to speak to Tsunami, she saw someone she'd finally be allowed to talk to. She'd finally be able to share the fear and weight that their mother had put on her back. She'd have a sister. She'd finally have a friend. She'd be allowed to talk!

When Anemone snuck to talk to Tsunami one morning, she wanted to spill all her feelings. She thought Tsunami would be saving her from the terrible life she had been leading and tried to explain how overbearing Coral was. Just for Tsunami to shut her down without a second thought. "At least you have someone who loves you." Anemone was shocked and extremely saddened. Was she the selfish one? Was it awful of her not to be thankful to always have her mother's protection? Was it awful of her to dread the lessons with someone who wanted to use her power to get rid of a terrible ruler? Tsunami had shaken up Anemone and made her feel guilty and furious with herself. She wasn't allowed to speak. She had no reason to be sad about her situation.

Tsunami's visit had turned Anemone's world upside down. Tsunami had saved Auklet's egg and revealed the curse Orca put on her statue in the hatchery, leading her to use her magic in a way that made her veins feel like they had seaslugs oozing through them to confirm it. As if they didn't need confirmation already. Auklet was born and Anemone finally ad someone again. Hopefully, she wouldn't screw this relationship up. But the most terrifying thing Tsunami's visit lead to was the death of Whirlpool. At Anemone's talons. She hadn't even used her animus magic to kill him, just an unexpected blow to the side of the head and he was a corpse at the bottom of the prison channels. Tsunami urged Anemone to let them out of the prison rather than stare at the bubbly remains of his body and she finally understood the sense of how traumatizing it had to have been, for a young dragonet to see a dragon die so gruesomely.

Before she had the chance to catch her breath, the Summer Palace was destroyed, and Coral, Anemone, and Auklet retreated to the Deep Palace (not before stopping to save scrolls, god damn it coral, do you want me to hate you anymore). Auklet wouldn't see the surface of the water or learn to speak verbally for months. Anemone and Auklet spent quite a bit of time together, Anemone taught her Aquatic to the best of her ability and read to her. Even if Auklet did attempt to mimic her saying the silliest things in the underwater language. Even if Coral was more brooding than usual, Anemone finally had someone to talk to, even if they barely understood her and giggled at everything have the time. Auklet and Anemone were close, at least Anemone was very protective of her little sibling. Coral had little motivation to do much but mope for the loss of their beautiful palace. Weeks later, they finally got the chance to be off their harness and explore the gardens and Deep Palace without their mother.

When the war did end, Anemone only wanted to get away from the Kingdom of Sea. She had so many bad memories and she was so scared of her own family. She was signed up for Jade Mountain due to Tsunami wanting to spend time with her. She wanted to apologize, especially, for not taking her little sister seriously. Anemone was afraid of going to Jade Mountain. She didn't know how to interact with other dragonets and was terrified of their disapproval. When she got there, she tried to act like a princess should act, in her opinion. Strong, smart, somewhat sassy, and aimed to be like Tsunami in some ways. Tsunami had been so successful, it had to have meant something. Anemone was delightfully surprised by Tsunami's apology. She still felt afraid of asking for help but started to trust Tsunami more.

Anemone was brought to Jade Mountain with her brother, Turtle, but besides a few conversations they had with brief interactions in the Deep Palace, they were hardly friends. They treated each other as acquaintances. Turtle thought she didn't like him, but Anemone was just so isolated from her siblings, she felt she might never be able to open up to them again.

Anemone was clawmates with Tamarin. Anemone doubted they would get along. For some reason, she had the impression that RainWings didn't even know how to communicate, never really seeing Glory when she "visited" the Summer Palace. And Anemone assumed everyone wouldn't like her, assuming she'd be a snobby princess. When Tamarin and Anemone did get to talk, she quickly found out she was blind. The idea of being blind was shocking to Anemone, which led to quite a few questions, that Tamarin was used to. But it quickly branched into other conversations that lead to a nice comfortable friendship. Anemone was delighted with the relationship she had made with her roommate.

However, Anemone kept her "princess facade" on when she wasn't with her new friend. The dragonet, Ostrich, had somehow imprinted on her, and followed her around often. Anemone saw her like a SandWing Auklet and let her. Other dragons might have gotten the wrong idea with Anemone "bossing" Ostrich around, but she just felt a sisterly attachment to the little dragonet and that wasn't as obvious from other dragons.

Pike had been hired to hover around her like a replacement Coral while Anemone was away, but it eventually led to a friendship rather than whatever Coral had wanted for them. Pike bossed her and those around her around, but eventually, it came from a much more genuine place. He didn't want Anemone to be uncomfortable and he wanted to keep his promise to Coral. Pike was the first to find out about Anemone's feelings for Tamarin, but it turned out he was awful at trying to keep the secret. Anemone was too, to be fair.

Anemone made friends with the other SeaWings quicker than she expected. Originally, she and Pike had found the underground lake together as a place to relax and study if they wanted. Anemone brought Tamarin back there too, and eventually, it just became a nice place for her and her friends to stay.

Things quickly escalated with the explosion. Anemone was terrified and guilty because she believed she could have done something about it. She visited Tamarin with the healers every day, reading to her like she usually would. Anemone became a bit quieter and seemed guilty about the explosion. She obviously wasn't the one who started it, but she thought she could have prevented it from happening if she convinced Tamarin to walk to class with her instead of letting her leave early.

Darkstalker's awakening had not been beneficial to Anemone's mindset. If Anemone was true to herself at the time, she'd hide her magic and perhaps even try running away from Jade Mountain back to the Kingdom of Sea. But Darkstalker had been well aware of Anemone's anxieties and worries, and thought it would suit her best to enchant her to loose some of her stress. When Darkstalker revealed himself with the enchantment to make everyone trust him, Anemone's was heightened. Her wishes to make understanding friends was projected onto Darkstalker and she uncharacteristically revealed her secret with and extra uncharacteristically flashy entrance with weather gauntlets.

Darkstalker had convinced Anemone that she didn't need to control her powers, she should embrace them. This expendable use of magic caused her to feel more like she was allowed or supposed to use magic, and instead of thick, sluggy magic energies, enchantments started flowing through her talons like water. But it also reminded her more and more of Whirlpool's lessons and she knew something was wrong. But she literally couldn't help but trust Darkstalker. Anemone abused her magic, just like Whirlpool wanted. Anemone had gotten to talk to Darkstalker. He believed enchanting dragons without their permission had to be okay if it was meant to enhance their lives, make them happier. She was hesitant but his enchantments on her ironically made her accept that. When Anemone ran into Turtle and Anemone became aware of his feelings toward Kinkajou. She wanted her brother to like him. Wouldn't he appreciate his little crush liking him back when she woke up again? She was disappointed when he didn't.

Anemone thought Darkstalker was the one dragon who understood and wanted to understand her. No one wanted to discuss magic. It was scary to think about, especially to a young child who's history was littered with "animus gone rogue". She hoped Darkstalker would keep her from being so afraid. She became attached and dependent on him, his own doing. When he showed attachment to Moonwatcher, she became scared and jealous, afraid he'd love her more than herself, just like Coral seemed to love Auklet more. She tried to chase her away, enchanting objects to force her to do her chores, much to her and Kinkajou's distress and dismay. When Darkstalker found out and got angry with her, she ran away, furious, frustrated, feeling alone. It was about time she followed suit along with all her other cursed family members.

She couldn't stop seeing Whirlpool when she hurt dragons. She saw him on her loved ones, but even when Darkstalker screamed of Whirlpool, she couldn't see him. She assumed she had to have snapped and went to the Talons of Power ceremony grounds, where Whirlpool had trained her and discussed his plans of stealing the throne and the treasury. She dug up his dagger where Turtle had surprised her and tried explaining the situation. It didn't help. She had always been a victim of Coral's parenting, but animus magic had began to ruin her life. If it wasn't for Turtle, she would never have to listen to Whirlpool or be prodded by Blister or be manipulated by Darkstalker. And what did the young dragonet do who experienced so much trauma because of Turtle's fear of rejection? She threw a tantrum. She and Turtle had their magical duel that had accidentally given Turtle invulnerability. Turtle silenced her from making any spells to better explain and apologize to her. He told her he intended to fix this mistake and to hide with the rest of his friends. Before they could finish, the fight had alerted Darkstalker of their existence and brought them back to the NightWing palace. Turtle finally threw his fear aside for his sister to escape and she left to tell the rest of their friends. She still couldn't understand the enchantment Darkstalker put on her, but she couldn't let him anymore.

She alerted Qibli and decided, despite how scared she was of letting her magic flow, she would help Qibli and the rest of Turtle's friends defeat Darkstalker. This was turned down when it was pointed out that spells would make Darkstalker aware of her and they worked with Turtle's pre-enchanted objects. Anemone went back to Darkstalker's castle to tell Moonwatcher and Kinkajou not to trust them while Qibli and Winter focused on protecting the rest of the tribes from him. Anemone never wanted anyone else to get hurt, and she watched Darkstalker and best she could, trying to warn Jade Mountain too late of the impending NightWing/IceWing battle. She and Turtle, using Qibli's earrings as protection ended the fight with their telepathic empathy spell. That ending was a bit perfect to me. And I won't get into the whole "Qibli's a Mary Sue self-insert that was badly written for the sake of Tui's son" on Anemone's post.

This experience was terrifying to Anemone. She just wanted to help and avoid letting her magic hurt people, but INSTEAD OF USING MORE MAGIC TO HELP HER MENTALITY, her friends and Turtle's took initiative to comfort and listen to her. They let her explain her fear and vent her frustrations with Darkstalker. After letting the reversal earring take effect on her psyche, she finally told people about Whirlpool and how scared she was of becoming what he wanted her to be. Tsunami was made aware as well and told Queen Coral that despite the events that had taken place, Anemone would be staying with them in Jade Mountain. She wouldn't expose her to triggers of her past experiences back there. Anemone even thought that if she could be brave enough to deal with Darkstalker, she'd be able to tell Tamarin about her feelings. Subtly of course. She started to try making nice romantic gestures or leaving her nice notes, forgetting she couldn't read in her flustered impulses.

NOW if it were up to me, Anemone would have been focused on a bit more in the series. She would have had more interactions with her brothers or stories to tell about Blister and Whirlpool. What Coral did with her was terrible parenting, without a doubt. Sheltering her from the world, hardly taking her seriously, and using her as a weapon when it suited her. She's be a little messed from those experiences!!!!
She's have more time to recover and be more afraid of using her powers. Or better yet, I'd love to explore the concept of Turtle, the forgettable prince being the animus of the kingdom. It would have been much more interesting to be able to draw parallels between Orca and Anemone OR Turtle!

Plus I would have appreciated more insight on how she thought of her little sister and why Ostrich was following her around. The way I explained it, they saw each other as siblings while they were away from home, and it wasn't anything malicious when Ostrich followed Anemone without a meal, just attachment.

And GOD I wish there was more Anemarin content. They were clawmates and still hardly had any interactions. Or I'm misremembering and it might have been Onyx as her clawmate but either way no one cared about her! Anemone and Tamarin would have been a great chance at a cute young crush situation rather than sudden gay representation for fans to get off Tui's back.

Anemone could have been an extremely compelling character, but she was minimized to annoying little sibling stereotypes that took attention from Tsunami, to prissy princess stereotypes that made her seem rude to others. Not that having a terrible upbringing wouldn't have her develop bad habits like that. But seeing her grow and develop would be something fans would love, rather than the flat characteristics she was given.

fjslskkaka I wrote half of this on my phone while we were out and about, so hopefully I'm coherent. I might have made mistakes because she's a much bigger character who's gone through more and had more things happen to her, but otherwise I hope nyall like my ramblings and art uwu

Art/design (c) enigmew
Character and wof (c) tui t surhetland

Description
please excuse the fact i have No idea what royal markings are supposed to look like but i did try my hardest to make something fancy for these rough sketches!!!!!!!!!
(i ran out of space to write "you" im sobbing)

also, part of my worldbuilding headcanons, seawing dragonets are more axolotl-ish and like salamanders >3c anemone's inbetween development, leading to extremely frilly fins that haven't properly set and fluffy gills! (hdsghsdgh i also see people complaining about why anemone is pink it makes no sense, well this is MY CITY and seawings can be whatever color ever because fish are so colorful!!!!!! dont direspect them!!!!!!!! also gill was pink, thank you infinite-plants )

From hatching, it may have seemed like Anemone was to lead the perfect life as a princess and currently the only heir to the throne, but it was far from perfect. Anemone was put on a harness before she could utter her first words and attached to Queen Coral wherever she went. Anemone was a victim of intense helicopter parenting and suffered for it. Even before the Talons of Power, Anemone was Coral's precious baby and was never allowed to be out of her sight.

Coral had her shot at being a good mother. She wanted to raise her daughters well, starting with Orca. She believed her daughters should express themselves freely without the pressing weight of society on their shoulders. She always encouraged Orca to be thinking about queenly duties, even when she was wrong. When Orca was young, Coral had showered her in affection but left her to her own devices by the time she wasn't a cute little baby anymore. She encouraged her to write, like her mother, which she took a sudden interest in tangible arts. Coral assumed this was natural adolescent rebellion, and left her alone. She cracked jokes about her to others and even tempted the idea of Whirlpool, her young, trusted advisor, to be a suiter for her one day. Orca didn't reveal herself to be animus, but personally, I believe if she had revealed her powers before she died, it would have given Coral extra reason to put such a close eye on Anemone.

However, due to the result of "neglecting" her first daughter, she took Anemone's upbringing to the extreme other end of the spectrum. They were rarely separated even before Anemone was born. Coral stayed with Anemone's egg for almost an entire year, waiting for it to hatch, letting Gill and Shark handle the war in her absence. But due to her neglect of the war, Gill was captured and Shark and Pirhana lost many troops, leading and trying to advise them all at the same time. Many dragons didn't even believe Anemone was worth it. Just for her to end up being pampered anyway, being the Queen's newest focus. She pawned her responsibilities on her council often. Coral never got her talons dirty or involved herself with any of the real battles. She was much too concerned about being the first source of news about the war with her scrolls being the "best source," and her stories were too important to her. "Escapism," she called it. "Motherhood and leading a war leads to stress on a mother and queen's mind." Anemone watched Coral let her kingdom fall apart under the veil of her positivity and ignorance about everything that was going on.

When the MudWing and SeaWing alliance was broken with the assassination of General Swamp, Princess Blister had proposed an alliance with the SeaWings. Queen Coral was easily won over by simple flattery and all Blister had to do was read her scrolls and compliment her fanfictionsliterature. It wasn't long before Coral even revealed the fact that her young dragonet had magic. Blister was quick to plan and discuss ways to win the war with Anemone, but Whirlpool insisted on further training.

Anemone barely got a chance to speak for herself. She was never allowed to complain or even annoy her mother. The threat of giving Anemone a muzzle occurred more than once and Anemone grew to be afraid of speaking up about anything. She realized much too late that being an animus wasn't as much of a gift that she thought it was. The only times she was released from her mother's harness was to have "animus lessons" with Whirlpool, who had obvious intentions of using her for her own greed. From their "quiet outings, to better focus her impressionable mind," Whirlpool told Anemone that she would become the queen when she came of age and he would take responsibility as king. He'd threaten her about telling anyone else and fantasized aloud to her about seeing Coral's dead body bleeding on her beautiful palace floors. Anemone never told anyone about Whirlpool and the nasty things he said or planned with her.

She'd beg her mother to spend time with her many brothers or at least have a lesson with any other dragon beside him, but Coral knew he had studied the most about that sort of thing! He'd understand how to teach an animus how to control their powers! Coral listened to him much more than she listened to her dragonet. What would she know anyway?

Anemone's life was a routine. Lessons with mother, writing with mother, eating with mother, the dreaded lessons with Whirlpool, in an endless loop. That was, until Tsunami and the rest of the Dragonets of Destiny showed up. Tsunami was the missing egg that Coral had droned on about as one of her most important scroll she had written in her life. When Anemone got the chance to speak to Tsunami, she saw someone she'd finally be allowed to talk to. She'd finally be able to share the fear and weight that their mother had put on her back. She'd have a sister. She'd finally have a friend. She'd be allowed to talk!

When Anemone snuck to talk to Tsunami one morning, she wanted to spill all her feelings. She thought Tsunami would be saving her from the terrible life she had been leading and tried to explain how overbearing Coral was. Just for Tsunami to shut her down without a second thought. "At least you have someone who loves you." Anemone was shocked and extremely saddened. Was she the selfish one? Was it awful of her not to be thankful to always have her mother's protection? Was it awful of her to dread the lessons with someone who wanted to use her power to get rid of a terrible ruler? Tsunami had shaken up Anemone and made her feel guilty and furious with herself. She wasn't allowed to speak. She had no reason to be sad about her situation.

Tsunami's visit had turned Anemone's world upside down. Tsunami had saved Auklet's egg and revealed the curse Orca put on her statue in the hatchery, leading her to use her magic in a way that made her veins feel like they had seaslugs oozing through them to confirm it. As if they didn't need confirmation already. Auklet was born and Anemone finally ad someone again. Hopefully, she wouldn't screw this relationship up. But the most terrifying thing Tsunami's visit lead to was the death of Whirlpool. At Anemone's talons. She hadn't even used her animus magic to kill him, just an unexpected blow to the side of the head and he was a corpse at the bottom of the prison channels. Tsunami urged Anemone to let them out of the prison rather than stare at the bubbly remains of his body and she finally understood the sense of how traumatizing it had to have been, for a young dragonet to see a dragon die so gruesomely.

Before she had the chance to catch her breath, the Summer Palace was destroyed, and Coral, Anemone, and Auklet retreated to the Deep Palace (not before stopping to save scrolls, god damn it coral, do you want me to hate you anymore). Auklet wouldn't see the surface of the water or learn to speak verbally for months. Anemone and Auklet spent quite a bit of time together, Anemone taught her Aquatic to the best of her ability and read to her. Even if Auklet did attempt to mimic her saying the silliest things in the underwater language. Even if Coral was more brooding than usual, Anemone finally had someone to talk to, even if they barely understood her and giggled at everything have the time. Auklet and Anemone were close, at least Anemone was very protective of her little sibling. Coral had little motivation to do much but mope for the loss of their beautiful palace. Weeks later, they finally got the chance to be off their harness and explore the gardens and Deep Palace without their mother.

When the war did end, Anemone only wanted to get away from the Kingdom of Sea. She had so many bad memories and she was so scared of her own family. She was signed up for Jade Mountain due to Tsunami wanting to spend time with her. She wanted to apologize, especially, for not taking her little sister seriously. Anemone was afraid of going to Jade Mountain. She didn't know how to interact with other dragonets and was terrified of their disapproval. When she got there, she tried to act like a princess should act, in her opinion. Strong, smart, somewhat sassy, and aimed to be like Tsunami in some ways. Tsunami had been so successful, it had to have meant something. Anemone was delightfully surprised by Tsunami's apology. She still felt afraid of asking for help but started to trust Tsunami more.

Anemone was brought to Jade Mountain with her brother, Turtle, but besides a few conversations they had with brief interactions in the Deep Palace, they were hardly friends. They treated each other as acquaintances. Turtle thought she didn't like him, but Anemone was just so isolated from her siblings, she felt she might never be able to open up to them again.

Anemone was clawmates with Tamarin. Anemone doubted they would get along. For some reason, she had the impression that RainWings didn't even know how to communicate, never really seeing Glory when she "visited" the Summer Palace. And Anemone assumed everyone wouldn't like her, assuming she'd be a snobby princess. When Tamarin and Anemone did get to talk, she quickly found out she was blind. The idea of being blind was shocking to Anemone, which led to quite a few questions, that Tamarin was used to. But it quickly branched into other conversations that lead to a nice comfortable friendship. Anemone was delighted with the relationship she had made with her roommate.

However, Anemone kept her "princess facade" on when she wasn't with her new friend. The dragonet, Ostrich, had somehow imprinted on her, and followed her around often. Anemone saw her like a SandWing Auklet and let her. Other dragons might have gotten the wrong idea with Anemone "bossing" Ostrich around, but she just felt a sisterly attachment to the little dragonet and that wasn't as obvious from other dragons.

Pike had been hired to hover around her like a replacement Coral while Anemone was away, but it eventually led to a friendship rather than whatever Coral had wanted for them. Pike bossed her and those around her around, but eventually, it came from a much more genuine place. He didn't want Anemone to be uncomfortable and he wanted to keep his promise to Coral. Pike was the first to find out about Anemone's feelings for Tamarin, but it turned out he was awful at trying to keep the secret. Anemone was too, to be fair.

Anemone made friends with the other SeaWings quicker than she expected. Originally, she and Pike had found the underground lake together as a place to relax and study if they wanted. Anemone brought Tamarin back there too, and eventually, it just became a nice place for her and her friends to stay.

Things quickly escalated with the explosion. Anemone was terrified and guilty because she believed she could have done something about it. She visited Tamarin with the healers every day, reading to her like she usually would. Anemone became a bit quieter and seemed guilty about the explosion. She obviously wasn't the one who started it, but she thought she could have prevented it from happening if she convinced Tamarin to walk to class with her instead of letting her leave early.

Darkstalker's awakening had not been beneficial to Anemone's mindset. If Anemone was true to herself at the time, she'd hide her magic and perhaps even try running away from Jade Mountain back to the Kingdom of Sea. But Darkstalker had been well aware of Anemone's anxieties and worries, and thought it would suit her best to enchant her to loose some of her stress. When Darkstalker revealed himself with the enchantment to make everyone trust him, Anemone's was heightened. Her wishes to make understanding friends was projected onto Darkstalker and she uncharacteristically revealed her secret with and extra uncharacteristically flashy entrance with weather gauntlets.

Darkstalker had convinced Anemone that she didn't need to control her powers, she should embrace them. This expendable use of magic caused her to feel more like she was allowed or supposed to use magic, and instead of thick, sluggy magic energies, enchantments started flowing through her talons like water. But it also reminded her more and more of Whirlpool's lessons and she knew something was wrong. But she literally couldn't help but trust Darkstalker. Anemone abused her magic, just like Whirlpool wanted. Anemone had gotten to talk to Darkstalker. He believed enchanting dragons without their permission had to be okay if it was meant to enhance their lives, make them happier. She was hesitant but his enchantments on her ironically made her accept that. When Anemone ran into Turtle and Anemone became aware of his feelings toward Kinkajou. She wanted her brother to like him. Wouldn't he appreciate his little crush liking him back when she woke up again? She was disappointed when he didn't.

Anemone thought Darkstalker was the one dragon who understood and wanted to understand her. No one wanted to discuss magic. It was scary to think about, especially to a young child who's history was littered with "animus gone rogue". She hoped Darkstalker would keep her from being so afraid. She became attached and dependent on him, his own doing. When he showed attachment to Moonwatcher, she became scared and jealous, afraid he'd love her more than herself, just like Coral seemed to love Auklet more. She tried to chase her away, enchanting objects to force her to do her chores, much to her and Kinkajou's distress and dismay. When Darkstalker found out and got angry with her, she ran away, furious, frustrated, feeling alone. It was about time she followed suit along with all her other cursed family members.

She couldn't stop seeing Whirlpool when she hurt dragons. She saw him on her loved ones, but even when Darkstalker screamed of Whirlpool, she couldn't see him. She assumed she had to have snapped and went to the Talons of Power ceremony grounds, where Whirlpool had trained her and discussed his plans of stealing the throne and the treasury. She dug up his dagger where Turtle had surprised her and tried explaining the situation. It didn't help. She had always been a victim of Coral's parenting, but animus magic had began to ruin her life. If it wasn't for Turtle, she would never have to listen to Whirlpool or be prodded by Blister or be manipulated by Darkstalker. And what did the young dragonet do who experienced so much trauma because of Turtle's fear of rejection? She threw a tantrum. She and Turtle had their magical duel that had accidentally given Turtle invulnerability. Turtle silenced her from making any spells to better explain and apologize to her. He told her he intended to fix this mistake and to hide with the rest of his friends. Before they could finish, the fight had alerted Darkstalker of their existence and brought them back to the NightWing palace. Turtle finally threw his fear aside for his sister to escape and she left to tell the rest of their friends. She still couldn't understand the enchantment Darkstalker put on her, but she couldn't let him anymore.

She alerted Qibli and decided, despite how scared she was of letting her magic flow, she would help Qibli and the rest of Turtle's friends defeat Darkstalker. This was turned down when it was pointed out that spells would make Darkstalker aware of her and they worked with Turtle's pre-enchanted objects. Anemone went back to Darkstalker's castle to tell Moonwatcher and Kinkajou not to trust them while Qibli and Winter focused on protecting the rest of the tribes from him. Anemone never wanted anyone else to get hurt, and she watched Darkstalker and best she could, trying to warn Jade Mountain too late of the impending NightWing/IceWing battle. She and Turtle, using Qibli's earrings as protection ended the fight with their telepathic empathy spell. That ending was a bit perfect to me. And I won't get into the whole "Qibli's a Mary Sue self-insert that was badly written for the sake of Tui's son" on Anemone's post.

This experience was terrifying to Anemone. She just wanted to help and avoid letting her magic hurt people, but INSTEAD OF USING MORE MAGIC TO HELP HER MENTALITY, her friends and Turtle's took initiative to comfort and listen to her. They let her explain her fear and vent her frustrations with Darkstalker. After letting the reversal earring take effect on her psyche, she finally told people about Whirlpool and how scared she was of becoming what he wanted her to be. Tsunami was made aware as well and told Queen Coral that despite the events that had taken place, Anemone would be staying with them in Jade Mountain. She wouldn't expose her to triggers of her past experiences back there. Anemone even thought that if she could be brave enough to deal with Darkstalker, she'd be able to tell Tamarin about her feelings. Subtly of course. She started to try making nice romantic gestures or leaving her nice notes, forgetting she couldn't read in her flustered impulses.

NOW if it were up to me, Anemone would have been focused on a bit more in the series. She would have had more interactions with her brothers or stories to tell about Blister and Whirlpool. What Coral did with her was terrible parenting, without a doubt. Sheltering her from the world, hardly taking her seriously, and using her as a weapon when it suited her. She's be a little messed from those experiences!!!!
She's have more time to recover and be more afraid of using her powers. Or better yet, I'd love to explore the concept of Turtle, the forgettable prince being the animus of the kingdom. It would have been much more interesting to be able to draw parallels between Orca and Anemone OR Turtle!

Plus I would have appreciated more insight on how she thought of her little sister and why Ostrich was following her around. The way I explained it, they saw each other as siblings while they were away from home, and it wasn't anything malicious when Ostrich followed Anemone without a meal, just attachment.

And GOD I wish there was more Anemarin content. They were clawmates and still hardly had any interactions. Or I'm misremembering and it might have been Onyx as her clawmate but either way no one cared about her! Anemone and Tamarin would have been a great chance at a cute young crush situation rather than sudden gay representation for fans to get off Tui's back.

Anemone could have been an extremely compelling character, but she was minimized to annoying little sibling stereotypes that took attention from Tsunami, to prissy princess stereotypes that made her seem rude to others. Not that having a terrible upbringing wouldn't have her develop bad habits like that. But seeing her grow and develop would be something fans would love, rather than the flat characteristics she was given.

fjslskkaka I wrote half of this on my phone while we were out and about, so hopefully I'm coherent. I might have made mistakes because she's a much bigger character who's gone through more and had more things happen to her, but otherwise I hope nyall like my ramblings and art uwu

Art/design (c) enigmew
Character and wof (c) tui t surhetland