I Just Sat Down On A Bench With My Sky Friend Who I've Never Talked To Before. It Felt Illegal I Don't

I just sat down on a bench with my Sky friend who I've never talked to before. It felt illegal I don't know

Hot take

Night furies are actually perfectly evolved for hunting and killing other dragons and the only reason they aren't a dragon-hunting species like the death song or deathgrippers are is because DreamWorks couldn't have their adorable main character dragon be a "cannibal"

(below I'm gonna try to summarize what we've figured out in a convo with friends on discord)

(also tw animal death via predator)

First of all yes I'm aware that pretty much every decision made about their design was with consideration of the effect it would make on human audiences but hear me out

Night furies are most iconically known as dive-bombers. They are built for speed, high maneuverability, night-time camouflage and for striking targets from above. If we remove human settlements out of the equation (which would not have existed long enough to actually influence night fury evolution, come on), what does that leave us with?

They aren't built for catching fish for sure, they aren't very hydrodynamic and their head is round, wide, and their teeth are dull. Honestly, the monstrous nightmare is much better suited for catching fish, with its long neck, almost pelican-like jaw and rhamphorhynchus teeth

Compare to

Yeah the jaws look kinda like a porpoise of some sort but for that the whole body would have to be a lot more aquatic imo. The light fury looks a lot closer to an aquatic diver, it has a sleeker body, rounded fins instead of spikes, and a long neck.

I don't really see them hunting land animals either, they just don't look like they're adapted for that minus the resemblance with large felines and even then, they're too large to effectively hunt in forests.

The one thing I can kinda imagine them hunting is large mainland megafauna, but we're working with a setting that takes place pretty much exclusively on islands. And overall, dragons are the only abundant species there with the exception of fish and human-bred sheep and chickens.

In general, night furies have duller teeth, smaller claws and are smaller than most dragons. Disregarding the movies making Toothless weirdly OP, a night fury would be disadvantaged against most dragons in a 1v1 fight and besides, it has four huge weak spots that would highly discourage it from a direct physical fight - the primary and secondary tail fins. One unlucky rip in the membrane and the night fury is fucked.

The night fury however noticeably resembles falcons, given their dive-bombing ability and high maneuverability.

Falcons too have smaller beaks and weaker claws compared to most birds of prey, and for that they compensate by simply picking up speed, balling up their talons and Punching. Really. Hard.

And they use that ability to kill other birds, even much larger ones, by knocking them right from the sky.

Here, the night fury's plasma blast works the same way as a falcon's punch. Dragons are fire-resistant, so what the plasma blast does is really just a densely packed bolt of energy that has the effect of either stunning or outright killing prey by damaging its spine. And what the plasma bolt doesn't do, rapid contact with the ground would finish. And if even that doesn't do it, the night fury's wide jaws and dull teeth are just fine for simply clamping around the unlucky dragon's neck and strangling it, like a lion or a pitbull.

The night-time camouflage allows the night fury to soar for extended periods of time perfectly unnoticed in the night sky, and by the time it strikes, the dragon wouldn't even know what's coming.

Unless

Say the hunting night fury is aware of other dragons sleeping under the trees, as most dragons probably would at night (village raids aside, most dragons seem to be diurnal), so how does the night fury get them in position where it can use its signature attack? Well, there's That Iconic Screech Of Death. Since in the movies it tends to appear not just during dive-bombings but also when charging up a blast, I imagine it's something the night fury is able to control to some degree. So by simply fake-diving in close proximity to sleeping dragons, it can effectively terrify them into leaving their hideout and fly out into the open where it can easily take them out.

I dunno, the possibility of night furies as predators to other dragons just makes so much sense to me, I really don't know what other reasons there would be for them to evolve these particular adaptations.

And one more little headcanon to add to this whole rant - since night furies are significantly smaller and less equipped for dragon vs dragon fights and are primarily speed-based predators, I imagine there is this very likely scenario:

There is one dragon who resembles a hyena, a lil bit

Ok, rant over

I had several friends on sky who were more interested in chatting and not in playing Sky. We talked about real life stuff, sitting around somewhere. (Which is fine, just not what I wanted) And I never declined even when I really wanted to play Sky or talk about some new event because I didn't want to be rude...

Yeah it became draining super quick. It felt more like a chatting room than playing Sky. They started coming online less I began acting like myself more with new people. Not always accepting chat immediately or replying to people's chats with emotes if I wasn't feeling up to it. Now my friends know that they can join me if they want to play Sky and talk about Sky-related stuff!

In short, be yourself, try to suppress the people-pleaser in you and have fun :)

Hi!! How do you meet and make genuine friends on Sky? I’ve been playing for a few years now, but whenever I get a chance to chat with other players they either speak a different language or ask me a bunch of personal questions 😵‍💫. There seems to be so many funny and interesting people online but I never meet them in person!

I had to think about this one for a bit since im not good at making friends either JGGHFJ

I think it’s definitely easier to find people to connect with online rather than in game. A lot of the people I’m closer with in sky are usually people I find through online platforms rather than in game (though not saying its impossible to find good ingame friends, just might be harder) . A general thing would be to find those who have similar interests or humour, and as well as to spend time with the friends every once in a while, whether it be candlerunning or just hanging out to talk.

If you want a more in depth rambling of me going on about everything I know about making friends, then:

Ok well this is kinda for anyone reading this JGHJDJ

A general thing about friends is to find a common interest to talk about like OCs, art, sky in general, other games, anything basically, especially if you’re like me and bad at conversations. Even after you find the initial spark, it can get hard to keep up with regular conversations afterwards and it’s easy to drift apart. If you want to get closer with someone it’s definitely good to start conversations every once in a while. This can go from telling them things you think will be funny or showing them things to just things about your day. A lot of people appreciate this kind of thing and usually get comfortable to reciprocate it (unless you’re like me and really bad at stating conversations HFBSIC)

In sky, this can also be asking the other if they want to cr together or eden, even oobing if you’re into that. It gives the chance to hang out and talk to each other.

Of course, if the other person doesn’t respond with a lot of enthusiasm or doesnt seem to put effort into the friendship, it might be time to back off to give them space. They could either be tired and need a break or they arent interested in the friendship anymore. An exception would be if the person is already socially awkward or isn’t good at starting conversations. It can be hard to tell sometimes.

If you wanna find friends

For finding friends online, its usually finding a community and finding people within it or becoming a part of the community. if you’re social enough you can join discord servers and talk to people. Even if you arent as social, discord server can still help find people to interact with, like cr partners, heart trade, needing help people/finding help, that could lead to friendship. There’s also being on social media, though it might be harder if you dont post things or if you arent really noticed or something, though it’s not like you need to be famous to be able to find people. You can also find others on social media who are already asking for friends. Ive seen quite a few on tumblr and sometimes on other platforms where people asks if anyone wants to be sky friends. Twitch, the streaming platform yeah, also has quite a few sky creators that are willing to friend pretty much anyone, which could be another way to find a community (since quite a few people on sky twitch know each other).

For in game in sky: Moths are definitely easier to become friends with since you know guiding them and everything and watching them grow up, except moths are wild cards and some are euaheh weird and others never show up again. A lot of older players already have their own friends and friend groups and then other people play inconsistently or have different timezones/playtimes, so theres a lot more luck when making friends on sky. Best bet would just be keep talking to people and when you do find someone you bond with, continue to join and check in on them every once in a while to keep up the friendship.

Joining friends in game can be scary for many (me included), but it usually ends up not as bad as you think, of course respecting dnd spells (or cape codes if they have those). Even if you do join at an inconvenient time, its a simple “oh, sorry/mb” and you head out, leaving minimal damage and awkwardness.

Of course since this is the internet and people can be bad, if people cross boundaries even after being warned once or multiple times, or you just dont enjoy hanging out with, its okay to block and cut people off. No one is obligated to hang out with anyone nor responsible for the happiness of someone else. Having self worth and internet safety is important folks

Anyways people are complicated and theres a lot of ifs and possibilities and other stuff what not so take whatever advice i spit out mindlessly for granted JFHDO i dont know what im doing

Sirius: I don't identify as genderfluid. I am genderfluid.

Sirius: I identify as-

Sirius: ✨a bitch✨

Unfortunately most of my rat rat pictures are on my old phone but here you go

Does anyone have any photos of rats that they are okay with me painting? I don't have any rats myself but those little guys are living rent free in my head. Please send rat pics.

YES

phoebe and melodys ship name should be phoelody (but we pronounce it felony)