The Flames of Hope

Compared to books 6-10, this third arc is a massive step up in writing quality. Character agency is much more tangible in these books, and no new massive worldbuilding plotholes are opened up in the middle of the story. Emphasis on new here. Unless i'm mistaken, Qibli still has direct/indirect access to Darkstalker's scroll fragments and Turtle's 'make it double' shells, and with these he could still just turn magic back on.

The arc as a whole is a decently well done allegory for racism and slavery, although it skirts dangerously close to the 'white savior' trope once pretty early on (Cricket being the only reason Blue survives), barely skirting around it with some careful maneuvering of character motivations. It touches pretty blatantly on themes of brainwashing & information control, Uncle Tom syndrome, and 'might makes right'

The romance is still kinda mid, with most of the relationships not being justified within the narrative. Willow x Sundew is probably the best done relationship, by virtue of the two being emotional foils of one another, and earning the illustrious title of 'Only Good Romantic Relationship in the Main Series'. Cricket and Blue don't really fill any gap in eachother, and neither do Luna and Swordtail. The emotional connection Tui uses in these last two pairings to drive the story forwards is tenuous at best as they can be boiled down to 'they're said to be lovers so they're lovers'.

Besides yet another romance nitpick and the lingering gripes with arc 2, the rest of the story is well done. The plot devices are better integrated into the narrative, the globe trotting is much better motivated than in 6-10, and didn't make me double take every 5 pages to question a character's decision. The final twist villain is well foreshadowed throughout the books, which is apparently a luxury these days.