I'd like to preface this with my opinion on the Qibli-Moon-Winter "Love Triangle," specifically on the ship Winterwatcher.
Winter's tribe, the Icewings, have hated Moon's tribe, the Nightwings, for centuries because of Darkstalker. They believe that Foeslayer "stole" Prince Arctic, who was the last Icewing animus. They have reason to be mad.
Back to Winter. He's been trained to act cold and aloof, and the hate for Nightwings is pretty much ingrained in him. He also is related to royalty (his father Narwhal and Queen Glacier were siblings) which means a lot more is expected of him. Losing Hailstorm made him deeply insecure and he's mad at himself a lot.
When he met Moonwatcher for the first time, he didn't bother getting to know more about her. Moon was a Nightwing, and all Nightwings are bad, at least to him. He does warm up to her after she saves [read: does not eat] his scavenger and gives him advice, but this conflicts with his opinions and beliefs about Nightwings. After the explosion, he finds out that Moon can read minds and see visions, and he becomes angry. This proves that the Nightwings are the liars that he believes. Also, at this point, Winter likes Moon, and he's probably embarrassed that she saw his thoughts about her. He's unsure whether to trust her or not.
When she and the rest of the Jade Winglet go with him to find Hailstorm, he does forgive her, but tentatively. He begins to like her more and more.
In Possibility, he decides that he needs to bring Hailstorm back to the Ice Kingdom, and he yells at Moon. Keep in mind that he feels the need to bring his brother home, and maybe he's feeling insecure again, like making these new friends were a mistake. Do I think that negates him yelling at said friends? No. His outburst was rude, and unnecessary. But Winter recognizes this, and he regrets what he said, a good first step.
Shifting the spotlight to Moon. She says Qibli is "handsomer in a warmer way." Aside from that being really funny to me and also hilariously vague, here's the reasons why I think she thinks this way.
Qibli is easier for Moon to understand and love. Sandwings and Nightwings haven't been fighting for centuries; and no Sandwing-Nightwing hybrids (that I know of) grew up to be huge, crazed, insane, murderous animuses. (Animi? Whatever it is, I'm talking about you, Darkstalker.) Qibli is also empathetic and reads people the way Moon reads minds. He's nice to her. On the other hand (or talon), Winter doesn't really know how to express that he likes Moon, and his crush on her is complicated by Nightwing-Icewing history and his Icewing upbringing. He's also afraid that if he and Moon were to have dragonets, they would turn out as bad as Darkstalker, so that's another factor. He acts cold towards her, but it's all explained by his past. If Moon were to maybe look harder, she would find a kind, empathetic dragon deep inside. But Qibli was that dragon on the surface, and Moon didn't have to look hard.
That's my essay! (yay) It's important for you, the reader, on top of all that information, to know that I really, really, really hate Qibli. Hate is a strong word, but I have a strong hate for him. He nearly destroys the world, he's kind of power-hungry, and he gets mad at Turtle for not communicating with him (which I really hated, because Turtle! Turtle, of all dragons. His past is also complicated, and he always seems like the character to want to just keep his head in his shell. [Maybe that's why he's called Turtle. We'll never know.] Also, how is Turtle supposed to know when Qibli wants more info? The chalkboards are only one way, and Turtle obviously never envisioned them being used for this purpose). And while I could definitely name a dozen more reasons why I absolutely detest Qibli, (His name defies the laws of the English language! He pretty much just claims Moon as his girlfriend at the mountain where Darkstalker is when nobody asked! Literally everything about him! Etc.) he is a good dragon sometimes. Still, I ship Winterwatcher. Even Qibli shipped it. (HE SAID IT WOULD BE OKAY IF THEY GOT TOGETHER, AND HE THOUGHT WINTER WAS BETTER FOR MOON ANYWAY.)
This story, however, isn't about my love for Winterwatcher. I do enjoy following canon, even if my OTP has been ruined by Tui. In this one, Qibli is still with Moon. (You're welcome, Moonibli shippers. My sister is going to kill me. She hates the ship. She spells Qibli like Q****, and Moonibli in a similar manner.)
Please enjoy!