Alright, so after slogging through that whole brick of a series, the ending of 'Drakon of the Seven Armies' kind of left me with mixed feelings. The final battle was epic, sure – Drakon finally uniting the seven scattered armies against the Void Queen was a spectacle. But the twist where his dragon companion, Kaida, has to sacrifice her corporeal form to seal the portal felt a bit... recycled? Like, haven't we seen that heroic sacrifice trope a dozen times before in these kinds of epics?
He gets the throne, the armies swear fealty, but the last chapter is just him sitting alone in the palace, looking at Kaida's crystallized heartscale. It's meant to be bittersweet, I guess, about the cost of victory. Honestly, I was more invested in whether his rivalry-turned-alliance with General Varek would hold, and that got wrapped up in a single paragraph with a handshake. The fandom seems to love the melancholy finish, but I was hoping for a bit more political fallout or seeing the rebuilt world.
Probably reading the author's short story collection 'Embers of the Alliance' would fill in some gaps, but as a standalone series finale, it felt a little too neat and quiet after all that chaos.