Book 3, Chapter 44: Bonds Of Friendship And Ties Of Duty
One of the interesting points to consider when analyzing warfare is to remember that the individuals who decide the course of it make decisions within their own biases and perspectives. While this may seem to be an obvious point—Emperor Romanos III, an inexperienced commander, thought that war was decided by large battalions and thus it was on these large, ponderous formations he depended and lost at Azaz, to name a memorable such defeat—this fact also plays off in more subtle ways.
Consider the case of Kagan Drago Bludvist. The man reportedly spent several years hunting and poaching dragons, and resented the anti-poaching laws put into place and enforced by the Song Dynasty protecting those same dragons. This attitude managed to embed itself deep in his psyche by all accounts, informing his strategy when he advised his predecessor, Kagan Berk, on the conquest of the Song Dynasty as a first step prior to taking their dragon nests.
But from an objective viewpoint considering objectives and strategy—gaining dragons and using them in conquest—such a strategy was foolish and pointless! What could the Song have hoped to do to prevent Drago's dragon riders from flying past them, and forcibly enthralling the nests deeper in their territory? The few token guardsmen working to prevent poachers from accessing the nests that the Song held as sacred would have been easily dealt with and the dragons forced into subjugation. Once that was done, the Pechenegs could have then used their augmented force to conquer not only the Song, but all of the empires and kingdoms in the region and beyond in short order.
But Drago, by his own admission later on, saw the Song and their laws as a barrier that prevented him from accessing those self-same dragons, and thus, to his mind, they had to be dealt with first before the dragons could be accessible. To him, the dragons were owned by the humans who claimed the land their nests sat upon, and thus those humans would have to be conquered before the dragons could be taken as spoils of war.
For another example, consider Emperor Henry the Black and his actions…
—The Wing And The Ax, Queen Marshal Astrid Haddock I, undated draft, Waterford University Archives
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Adaptational Sexuality: In canon there was no indication that Thuggory was anything but straight, here he is Ambiguously Bi with a definite preference for men.
- Altar Diplomacy: Elder Khursa suggests that Kagan Drago marries his granddaughter to help legitimise the latter's rule.
- Ambiguously Bi: Thuggory definitely likes men but he says that he doesn't dislike women either.
- Appearance Angst: Drago suffers from body image issues. In addition to his losing an arm, his body is heavily scarred. He shares with Khursa a story where even a prostitute, who's paid to fake pleasure, recoiled in revulsion, which was a major contributing factor to his negative body-image.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Defied. The Song Dynasty tries to break the bond between Kurya and Kudret, but Kudret resists everything they try and stays by Kurya's side.
- Dramatic Irony: Heather considers the likelihood of Mac Bethad being Mildew's patron to be low due to his proximity to Berk, and therefore, wouldn't be able to keep his dragons a secret.
- Due to the Dead: Drago makes it clear that he will not marry the Kagan's widow to legitimise his status as heir out of respect for his friend's memory, and also affirms that he will ensure the widow is provided for after the loss of her husband.
- Eating the Eye Candy: Camilla, Merida and Thuggory enjoy looking at Eret.
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Drago is informed that he needs a woman to legitimise his position as the new Kagan, he immediately rejects the idea of taking the Kagan's widow for himself (although nobody was suggesting that as an option given her age), and is uncomfortable with taking another woman because she's so much younger than him.
- Kaiju: The Black Sea nest lord is described as being less than half as big as the Green Death was.
- Kingmaker Scenario: Discussed. Viggo is considering playing kingmaker to shift the balance of power in the region his kingdom is at one way or another, but has not committed to it just yet.
- Resign in Protest: Godwif and her supporters decide to leave the Bog Burglars rather than join everybody else in joining Berk, refusing to ever be under a man's authority.
- The Reveal: Kurya and his dragon Kudret are revealed to have survived the battle, although Kurya only just regained consciousness.
- Ship Tease: Camilla and Merida are eyeing Eret as a potential concubine.
- Undying Loyalty: No matter what the Song Dynasty tries, they cannot get Kudret to abandon Kurya. Kudret actually gets violent and attacks them and only backs down because Kurya stopped him.
