Lemme start this off by saying this is just my opinion, and yes I know that's a big swear word on the internet, but really it's simple. You don't like what I have to say? Stop reading, forget about it, and never think about it ever again! I am personally an absolute stickler for canon.

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So I've been reading Wings of Fire since 2014, a dear friend of mine introduced me, and it wasn't long before I made my own oc for it, and let's just say she was an absolutely horrible oc. She's been buried like Darkstalker for the past couple of years, buried because she was such a sue that she deserved to be sleep braceleted. But! But she's being taken out of the deep dark depths of the old ocs bin to show you all today how to make a good wings of fire oc. All fandoms have some people who make outrageously overpowered or just dumb characters that make no sense whatsoever, back in 2014 all the way up to at least 2017, I was that person making op/dumb characters. But lately I've been seeing a whole bunch of really cringy, bad and over powered wings of fire ocs, and so huzzah, I am writing this, not just for those people but for people who might just struggle with coming up with a good oc. 

So this is my first wings of fire oc, her name is Titalwing. She could read minds, foresee the future at any given moment with perfect accuracy, she was an animus who couldn't lose her soul because somehow she knew exactly that her soul was something that could be lost and eat 'soul berries' to fix it. She also could breath fire and breath underwater, she's super strong and her only three personality traits was the good old 'friendly, smart, kind.' Are you cringing yet? Good because I am and I made this abomination. History wise she had literally nothing going for her, her parents literally had her egg in a convient cave in the woods near the Diamond Spray Delta, when it was close to hatching they literally lost all their brain cells and left the cave because food. Not even 2.8 seconds later it exploded because I had this weird head cannon that hybrid eggs exploded when they hatched due to their instability? Didn't bother to consider Sunny's egg when it was stated that in The Brightest Night that she was a hybrid. So this little dragonet's first instinct is to walk to the river and name herself, because she can do that right? She names herself Tidalwing because some how she knows what a wing and a tide is despite being not even three minutes old. She dives into the river and drifts down it, and bumps into this rainwing/skywing egg just floating in the river. She takes it ashore and it too immediately hatches, she survives being exploded. New friend, somehow they speak in full sentences and decide to become best friends immediately, not even an hour old they fly off for adventures. 

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Yikes right? Well using this handy dandy list, we're going to fix this character using this step by step list.

STEP ONE: Fit the world

This is probably the most basic step and it's super simple. Fitting the world in my opinion is important, because it honours the world that the author has given us. But that doesn't mean you aren't allow to add things that fit within the lines. Like for example I changed the 'mudwings aren't monogamous' part, with the reasoning (this is important) Mudwings used to, but they stopped when the Sandwing Succession war made it far too easy to lose wives or husbands, and that they needed soldiers fast, so they stopped committing to a faithful singular long lasting relationship. After the war ended, I stated that Mudwings began to slowly readopt the old traditions of marrying. I believe that with my reasoning and back up, this is acceptable. Fitting between the lines is okay, changing the lines completely, especially the lines that already exist and were put there by the author herself is not. Changing the lines could include changing major history events to suit your oc, changing a main character's personality to suit your oc, or making your oc take the place of another character is not okay in my book. Of course you always have your AUs, though I personally have never been a fan of those, I admit some are actually really cool. Half scavenger dragons, robots, space travel, on the other hand don't fit in the world. If you want to do that maybe you shouldn't be using Wings Of Fire and try another fandom that does have that. An example for changing character is Queen Scarlet, I find a lot of 'adopted daughters' of her, and for some odd reason this child despising dragonet hazard who mind you has killed eleven of her own daughters and was completely willing to change her daughter to her liking suddenly makes an acception? Just a heads up, changing a character like that to make them like your oc is more often than not a Mary Sue or Gary Stu move. 

-Checklist-

-1) does the character fit into the world and time you want them to? Consider what it's like at the time, like if I put Tidalwing in 5000ish AS, how long before someone notices and decides 'hey a freaky dragon' and decides Burn would like her as a present. I find that a lot with hybrids, not a lot of people seem to consider most dragons don't know what a hybrid is (shown time and time again in multiple occasions with Sunny, literally Sunny herself didn't know she was hybrid) or that hybrids are socially seen as forbidden. And if you say Burn shouldn't be that big of a threat, she and her sisters literally started and survive a twenty year war before she was finally defeated by a snake of all things. The entire Mudwing tribe was so scared of her that they hopped on board even if they didn't want to.

-2) if you're going to add something/change something or make your oc be something certain, does it still fit in the lines? 

-3) GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT. 

STEP TWO: Hybrid = Parents and functional backstory 

If your dragon is going to be a hybrid, like Tidalwing here who's 50/50 nightwing seawing, the parents need to make sense. You don't have to write an entire book for the parents, especially if they aren't going to be a big part of the character's life. So before Titalwings parents were a female seawing and a male nightwing who weren't part of their tribes to be together in secret. I didn't know back during Tidalwing's creation that the Nightwings lived on the island, and part of making ocs is accepting that sometimes what you come up with is not canon and may have to be changed to fit the world. 

-Checklist-

-1) If your character is a hybrid, how did their parents meet and how does the circumstances of their relationship relay onto your character? 

-2) In general even if your character is not a hybrid, how do their parents and their parents choices effect them? Does the parents create problems for the oc with their actions and what does the parents give the oc?

STEP THREE: Design = Story + Story = Design 

With design and story, these two aspects support each other. When you make the story first, you need to make your oc's looks fit that story. If you have looks first, vice versa applies. 

As you probably noticed, Tidalwing's design is simple, and if I recall correctly I literally copied Tsunami's colours. I never put much thought into it because I was focused on 'oh yeah she's super powerful her powers' instead. The dragons in wings of fire come in A LOT of colours, so don't be like me and go 'oh yeah Tsunami's colours are cool', 

-Checklist-

-1) Don't copy cannon character designs. Sure if you think having a snail star pattern is cool for your nightwing oc or if your sandwing doesn't have a tail barb, that's fine, but that's also not full out copying.

-2) how realistic is your character's design? When making a hybrid, consider what is the dominate genes and what are the recessive. You don't need to be a genetic scientist, but know that typically the mother's tribe should be more genetically dominant, as seen with Sunny she looks more sandwing, and with Darkstalker and Whiteout they both look more like their nightwing mother. Note not all traits go together and it's okay for the hybrid to not be proportional, in fact that's more realistic. Try adding random colour splats, or removing certain traits like for Tidalwing, her webbings on her front talons are going. 

-3) Does your character's design match their story? Burn is a really good example of this, Burn is a big dangerous looking dragon and this makes sense because she's a warrior, she's also got a lot of scars because of this. This all rounds together and makes sense. Queen Coral is a writer, so she has ink stains, and the Nightwings are usually dull coloured because of the ash on the volcano. 

-if your character hybrid or not is gonna have jewelry or accessories, how did they get those? What significance does the object have with the character? Remember, accessories don't need to be metal or jewels, they can be simple things like woven vines or a simple flower wrapped around the horn.

STEP FOUR: Personality and PICK ONE

Personality is something that can be very diverse and I love that, so when it stays limited to 'friendly, smart, and kind' it's sad. I'm not saying those traits are bad traits, I'm saying that on their own they don't mean much. Personality should of course tie into the characters story, don't make them kind and than say they get really mean sometimes, unless your character is bipolar DO NOT MAKE THEM BIPOLAR. You PICK ONE and make sure things don't contradict each other. And whilst the tribes have their stereotypes, like Rainwings always being lazy and Skywing's always being snappy, it's okay to break the norm as long as they have a reason for it. Like my oc Chinook is a skywing, but due to her noble up bringing that let her avoid being part of the war and harsh living, she's very excitable and happy. In turn, my oc Jujube, a rainwing, is a bitter and harsh dragon that speaks her mind due to the fact that she never truly recovered from being a rainwing prisoner. 

-Checklist-

-Make sure the character's personality makes sense, good traits breed bad ones and bad ones breed good ones. Like a character could have no trauma, but that breeds naivety, or inability to handle stress. Whereas tough living can breed perseverance and endurance. 

-Flaws are realistic and important to have! Having them won't make your character unlikeable it'll make them realistic and relatable! 

-Nothing is all cupcakes and rainbows, but at the same time not everything is doom and gloom. 

-How does other view them and how do they view the viewing? All the strings are there and they all need to attach.

STEP FIVE: Powers powers powers

The dragons of Wings of Fire have a lot of powers, and the Nightwings have the most notable ones in history. I find lots of nightwing ocs and half Nightwings almost always have powers, I guess it's always a full moon and its always nightime. II also find that hybrids have all the powers from both tribes. Flaws weaknesses and drawbacks are a must when the character has a lot of power. 

-Checklist-

-Do the powers make sense? When something can breath fire and ice at the same time something is wrong, that's not how organs work! 

-Are they over powered? yes? MORE FLAWS/WEAKNESSES/DRAWBACKS! 

-Why do they have these powers and how do they impact the character? How does it make others view them? 

-Powers can be more than just psychical powers, maybe a dragon is very powerful with their words or have some other talent that's noticeable. 

So two thousand words later it's time to refine my first oc!

Titalwing is still named Tidalwing, and her name is based off of the nightwing naming system. Her father is a seawing instead and her mother is a nightwing, because I feel like that is a bit more different than a nightwing father. Her mother ran away from the island, being an assassin herself she covered up her trail to avoid being caught. She met a seawing, who became her ally and later her love. Because she was born both in the middle of the day and in a cave, she has no nightwing powers at all, she's also not an animus because she has no animus relatives. Because of her thinner body and tail, and lack of webbed feet, she cannot swim as well as most seawings. Tidalwing, however has the ability to breathe underwater and see in the dark and has the Nightwing's powerful sense of smell. She's also a very talented tracker, hunter and assassin because of her senses  and her mother's teachings, and was kept safe her entire life with a nearby ocean to retreat to and a skilled assassin as a mother. Personality wise she's still rather kind and very smart because of her upbringing, which included personal teaching and lots of seawing scrolls. She's very independent and confident with her skills, and therefore has problems accepting help and can be headstrong. She lives with her parents someone on the edge of seawing territory. She one day finds an injured skywing rainwing who was washed down to the delta, and she brought him home and treated him, once he was better the two became friends, and eventually decided to try traveling when they were both around six. By than the war was over and it was safe for them to travel. 

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So there we have it folks! A lot better? I think so. My art ability and design abilities have also improved dramatically since 2014. I hope this helps some people!