u/Brave-Clue-3903

So re reading assassin after reading this for a history assignment made me realize:

the closest thing to deathbringers training and upbringing in the real world are actual institutions for indoctrinating and conditioning child soldiers and terrorists. Like not a passing resemblance either, it's very clearly intended and almost exact.
So to recap: Deathbringer has by the time of his winglet:

• Born and raised with the sole purpose of becoming an assassin

*He’s my apprentice. The council agreed to that when he hatched; that’s why he’s called Deathbringer. And he’s lived up to the name. He’ll be the greatest NightWing assassin of all time if you let me take him on this mission.” -*Quickstrike

• Raised by a dragon who he doesn't even primarily think of as his mother

 “You want me to spy on the queen?” Deathbringer tilted his head at Quickstrike, the dragon who had taught him everything he knew.

• Raised relatively seperately from the rest of the nightwing dragonets (to what extent is hard to say, because he says this in his winglet

Deathbringer remembered him from a training class in which Slaughter had injured a small dragonet. But in the dark secret the group of dragonets that starflight meets has never met him, implied when Mindreader discusses starflight being the only one to ever get to leave the island early*.*

“Him and the other one,” Mindreader

said. “I heard my mom say there was

another.” - this is pretty clearly referring to deathbringer. Its also important to note that slaughter is 10, so cross training very clearly occurred between age groups.

• Killed a mudwing prisoner, heavily implied to be a test, and also implied to be while the mudwing was awake (this is implied when deathbringer has this to say about killing slaughter later in his sleep

In his sleep, no less, like a coward? - i feel like he would have brought it up here if he killed the mudwing while he wasn't alert

Child soldiers and terrorists also share nearly identical elements.

Most child soldiers are separated from their family at a young age. While this wasn't exactly the case for Deathbringer, he very clearly didn't grow up with a mother or father figure, but instead quickstrike, who was more of a teacher to him. (A teacher who literally trained him to become a mass murderer, so clearly not a 10/10 mother)

The reason this happens in real life is to allow the child to be more open to suggestion and intimidation, and therefore indoctrination.

Children who commit acts of violence are typically rewarded and praised by the group. This is almost the exact plot of Deathbringer's second kill of slaughter. If he kills slaughter, he gets to go to the mainland. If not, he's left behind.

The final most striking resemblance is Deathbringers first kill and what it represents

So in most traditional academia about child soldiers, the act that serves as a final graduation or test into the main group is a act of "transgressive, irreversible (read: fatal) violence, typically a murder" This actually occurs twice in Deathbringers training. Once, when he kills the mudwing, and secondly when he kills slaughter. Both are significant, but for different reasons.

The mudwing was very likely a test of just how willing Deathbringer was to kill and follow extreme orders. In fact, It seems highly likely the the nightwings literally kidnapped a random mudwing for the sole purpose of having Deathbringer kill him as a test. Deathbringer of course succeeds in this task, and by the time of assassin he is very deeply indoctrinated into the NightWing cause. These are the opening lines of his winglet. I would like you to keep in mind that by this point, deathbringer is 4, or the human equivalent of about 12-14 years old. Dude would literally be starting 7th grade.

  Deathbringer was a dragonet who followed orders.

  Read this scroll, sweep this cave, catch that exact fish, kill that misbehaving prisoner — whatever it was, he did it, no questions asked.

  (Well. He’d wanted to ask questions about the prisoner. Such as: Why did anyone bring a mud dragon to the secret night dragon home in the first place? Of course he would have to die; no one could know where they lived. And why make a four-year-old dragonet kill him? There were plenty of NightWing guards who would have been happy to take that order instead. But that was his assignment, and so of course he did it, as cleanly and quickly as he could.)

So by this point Deathbringer has clearly proven he's absolutely fine killing a random dragon just because he was asked, and literally views it on the same level as some random daily tasks. once again, this guy is literally just hitting puberty. He is that young and already he is thinking like this.

The reason this is very common is because it basically compels child soldiers to remain loyal because if they don't, they have to acknowledge that they killed somebody and committed horrible acts of violence for the wrong reasons, Basically converting their proud moment of finally becoming a member of the group (or in deathbringers case, leaving the island and becoming a proper assassin) to a almost irredeemable shame.

I want to reiterate that Deathbringer does not acknowledge or even consider killing being wrong throughout the majority of the book. Even when he is literally about to kill slaughter, the sole reason he hesitates is because slaughter is a NightWing, a member of his tribe that he is meant to be loyal to above all else. Later on, he has 0 hesitation in killing tempest, and pushes away the feelings of guilt he has when gill is sobbing beside her dead body.

While its debatable if he continues killing after the events of assassin (I personally think its a little ludicrous to think that he was able to convince everybody to desert) he still is responsible for pretty much everybody who died in the war due to his role in prolonging it. This obviously would make it incredibly morally challenging for him to confront his past actions, and is part of why I think he would make such a great protagonist.

Theres honestly much more I could say about this (such as he still hasn't really seen the wrong in his actions even by sunnys book [he's still joking about it :skull:]) but ill leave it hear for now

TLDR: Deathbringer was trained the same way as real life child terrorists

2014 ahh trailer but this is way better than mcpvp

Reread the series and i got to book 15 and somehow this didn't occur to me before.
So if you dont remember this point of the books (I don't blame you) pretty much they are discussing who gets to go to pantala as part of the task force to stop the breath of evil.
This is legit for the fate of the world btw. And Glory sends MOON. bro.

1. shes legit like 12 or something

2. glory has 0 clue about her mind reading

3. glory has 0 clue that she helped defeat darkstalker.

I think people are forgetting this was originally a stealth mission. They go to pantala with the goal of finding out wtf is the abyss, but of course end up in the situation where they have to try and slime wasp.
The problem is: There is like 2 people on the team with a smidgen of ability to lock in and actually be sneaky. You have:
Sky (....)
Tsunami (literally the loudest dragon in the series)
Bullfrog (ironically despite being built like a tank he is the only quiet one)
Pineapple (somehow got caught instantly despite being literally able to turn invisible [ik it wasn't his fault])
Moon: only positive is seer, thats it.
Qibli: possibly one of the 1/2 people who i can actually see sneaking into something, but theres got to be a better option around
Lynx: There has to be some other icewing that actually has experience sneaking into something come on bro this is blatant nepotism.
Luna: not really any other options like with the next 3.
Cricket: loud
Sundew: do i even have to explain
Wren: other person who could actually sneak into something, but shes also loud asf

Somehow even with the literal invisibility braclets that snowfall gives them they get caught instantly. Does this sound like the team you would send on a possibly world ending mission? Now about the nightwing choice

Imagine, if you will, A nightwing whose sole purpose in life was to be a assassin. Imagine this nightwing successfully remained completely undiscovered for the entire later duration of the war. A dragon who flew into burns compound like it was nothing. A dragon who, if things go south, is able to throw hands like the best of them.

Oh wait.. ITS FUCKING DEATHBRINGER!
seriously, why tf is this guy not on the mission? it is legit MADE FOR HIM. He has years of experience sneaking into things, has leadership experience, can throw hands, barley any morals and is 100% focused on saving his wife

and then glory chooses a child