Ok, just a heads up, this is going to be a long one. The mood just struck me, and I apologize, cause I really don't know if there's a word limit on this thing, so I'm just gonna keep on going until I either hit said unknown limit, or I'm out of things to say.
This chapter....its definitely one that leaves you awestruck: the sheer detail and presence depicting the Kite was enough to make me just sit back and stare at the image for a good couple of minutes while rambling to myself (as one of my type does.).
I feel like this goes back to a previous comment of mine and a response it recieved:
I know this may be quite a few chapters late, but I really love how birds like the Sunset Hawk and Oroshi are treated like the dragons of this world. The few birds we've met so far are treated as the awe/fear-inspiring, aloof beasts that dragons often represent, but, if Oroshi's gratitude is anything to go by, still capable of intelligent thought and emotional interaction with other species. I feel it adds to the Light fantasy feeling of the story all the more.
I mean, we've had more than a few birds as shopkeeps and so on. Warblers and finches and so on regularly trade recipes with Mikochi. It's just that the really big predatorial birds seem more animal-like, which is odd since we know Emerald Tail is a big wolf and Hakumei's talked with a herd of cows on her travels.
Larger birds in this work seem to be less like highly intelligent animals, and more like mythical beasts (mostly in scale), though not to the point where they are beyond other races. They have their own language, morals, and personalities, but are still bestial enough to generally keep out of society (note: for all we know, they could have their own society, and likely have a culture or are indeed integrated into the focus society, but I'm just going with what we've seen so far.) and live more distantly and likely by their own rules, save for some exceptions like the Delivery Birds.), so less Guardians of Ga'Hoole in this case and possibly more like slightly more bestial version's of Middle Earth's Eagles. This goes back to when I compared them to dragons, typically those portrayed in modern fantastical settings: sapient, but still dangerous and powerful, with minds and temperaments that make crossing them have rather dangerous and/or unpredictable consequences, like the Oroshi (a number of them are carnivores, after all.).
honestly I'd best compare what I've seen so far with the dragons from How to Train Your Dragon: walking a line between sapient and bestial. Not just recognizing commands but processing displaying language.
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if other bigger animals are portrayed somewhat like this in the future as well, though there's probably a scale, seeing as Emerald Tail and the penguin and the other birds are portrayed as mech more integrated than the larger guys.
