History Recap / CodexEquusDrToxikonCrisis

--> '''Ember:''' What happened to you?!//

'''Dr. Toxikon:''' Hate...hate happened. Hate happened to all of us. The Dragons taught the Changelings to hate, then the Changelings destroyed everything I held dear and I was filled with hatred as well. It's a vicious cycle that never ends, Ember.//

'''Ember:''' Then why don't you end it?!//

--> '''Ember:''' What happened to you?!\\
'''Dr. Toxikon:''' Hate...hate happened. Hate happened to all of us. The Dragons taught the Changelings to hate, then the Changelings destroyed everything I held dear and I was filled with hatred as well. It's a vicious cycle that never ends, Ember.\\
'''Ember:''' Then why don't you end it?!\\

--> '''Ember:''' What happened to you?!

--> '''Dr. Toxikon:''' Hate...hate happened. Hate happened to all of us. The Dragons taught the Changelings to hate, then the Changelings destroyed everything I held dear and I was filled with hatred as well. It's a vicious cycle that never ends, Ember.

--> '''Ember:''' Then why don't you end it?!

--> '''Dr. Toxikon:''' [[WellIntentionedExtremist ...What do you think I'm trying to do, Ember?]]

** To a lesser extent, Dragonkind and their modus operandi. Their near-extermination by the Changeling Summer Court in the "[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Time]] [[FinalSolution of]] [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar Broken]] [[KillEmAll Scales]]" was brought about by hordes of Dragons causing the "[[ApocalypseHow Burning of Amorea]]", which traumatized a nascent Changelingkind which was pushed to near-extinction and [[ItsPersonal filling]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable them]] with a [[ThisMeansWar terrible]] [[{{Revenge}} resolve]]. While this doesn't justify the genocide in any way, the Dragons still brought it on themselves by being flying, flame-spewing butchers who would slaughter and burn whole lands to plunder its remains in greed and wrath. It is hinted that even if the Summer Court Changelings hadn't done it, someone else who had been as wronged as they were by them would had done them in eventually.

* CrazyPrepared: Oh BOY does Toxikon take this UpToEleven in this regard. Justified by having 5,000 years to plan all of this out, he's had countless different lairs and labs hidden and scattered all across Equus, all for the time when he begins to set things in motion.

--> '''Ember:''' ...How many more lives could you have saved if you'd put this much effort into helping the world? To actually teaching other welps like you did me? Heck, teaching GRUBS! The School of Friendship asked me to get you as a teacher! That little Changeling buddy of Smoulder read all your books and idealized you! I get it, Blackthorn is a flankhole! He is PROUD of being a flankhole! ...But if you let him turn you into this, if this is how you die...you let him win. Because the drake you are would have died...If you really want to win, be the better drake and don't let him make you a monster...Do you want that to be how you're remembered? As just a monster?"

* UngratefulBastard: Brutally deconstructed as this whole mess is caused by this trope. Five millennia ago, King Heterometrus was nearly mortally wounded and close to death when Toxikon came across him. Not able to just leave him for dead, Toxikon took him back into his cave in secret, and nursed him back to full health. Heterometrus paid him back with wiping out his clan and stabbing him in the chest, leaving him foe death. Unfortunately for him and the Summer Court, not only did Toxikon survive, but he then spent the next thousands of years plotting his revenge. When he goes on to move things into motion, the entire Summer Court is dealt blows to their entire infrastructure that are nearly unsalvageable.

--> '''Dr. Toxikon:''' [[FamousLastWords I won't die a monster!]]

--> '''Ember:''' ...How many more lives could you have saved if you'd put this much effort into helping the world? To actually teaching other welps like you did me? Heck, teaching GRUBS! The School of Friendship asked me to get you as a teacher! That little Changeling buddy of Smoulder read all your books and idealized you! I get it, Blackthorn is a flankhole! He is PROUD of being a flankhole! ...But if you let him turn you into this, if this is how you die...you let him win. Because the drake you are would have died... If you really want to win, be the better drake and don't let him make you a monster...Do you want that to be how you're remembered? As just a monster?"

* HeroicSacrifice: After getting a HeelRealization about doing nothing but repeat the mistakes he'd hopped his kind would learn better from, Dr. Toxikon decides to take to take his virus bomb into space to prevent its intended goal, killing himself in the process.

** To a lesser extent, Dragonkind and their modus operandi. Their near-extermination by the Changeling Summer Court in the '[[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Time]] [[FinalSolution of]] [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar Broken]] [[KillEmAll Scales]]' was brought about by hordes of Dragons causing the '[[ApocalypseHow Burning of Amorea]]', which traumatized a nascent Changelingkind which was pushed to near-extinction and [[ItsPersonal filling]] [[ThisIsUnforgivable them]] with a [[ThisMeansWar terrible]] [[{{Revenge}} resolve]]. While this doesn't justify the genocide in any way, the Dragons still brought it on themselves by being flying, flame-spewing butchers who would slaughter and burn whole lands to plunder its remains in greed and wrath. It is hinted that even if the Summer Court Changelings hadn't done it, someone else who had been as wronged as they were by them would had done them in eventually.
** Trope-wise, AntiIntellectualism and MightMakesRight. Arrogant and complacent in their own strength, Dragonkind refuse to change their reverence for brawn over brains even after a disaster as bad as the 'Time of Broken Scales' (Which they ''only'' survived because their deities intervened), where they were repeatedly outwitted and nearly killed off by a ruthlessly cunning enemy. Their refusal to change and adapt to an ever-changing world in their haughty pride means they were at risk of eventually being surpassed by the other ever-advancing mortal races - many of whom, like Changelings, hate their guts. This at best would doom their kind to irrelevance, and at worst being slaughtered again by someone who holds them with hatred/contempt and had the brains and means which they had disregarded to do them in - such as Dr Toxikon. All in all, the whole Arc is one giant object lesson about how Brains will always inevitably beat Brawn.

* VillainRespect: By the time the FinalBattle of this arc occurs, Emperor Blackthorn very much holds Dr. Toxikon in high-esteem. He even states that the latter is just a mentally keen as him after he saves his life from Heterometrus.
--> '''Blackthrone:''' A drake of action...we can respect that.

* WorthyOpponent: The longer this plotting-against-plotting goes on, the more the Summer Court are impressed with the brilliance of Dr. Toxikon.

* UngratefulBastard: Brutally deconstructed as this whole mess is caused by this trope. Five millennia ago, King Heterometrus was nearly mortally wounded and close to death when Toxikon came across him. Not able just leave him for dead, Toxikon took him back into his cave in secret, and nursed him back to health. Heterometrus paid him back with wiping out his clan and stabbing him in the chest, leaving him foe death. Unfortunately for him and the Summer Court, not only did Toxikon survive, but he then spent the next thousands of years plotting his revenge. When he goes on to move things into motion, the entire Summer Court is dealt blows to their entire infrastructure that are nearly unsalvageable.