Fourth Wing Live Reactions: Chapter 10

[penwalla]

• we're now at the gauntlet, a big cliffside obstacle course cadets have to master. what does this have to do with dragon riding tbh. who can say. we open with a bunch of "banter" between barely present side characters from violet's squad, all of whom will likely die in the coming pages. i say "banter" because it's more awkwardly inserted worldbuilding.
• violet is getting roasted because dain gives her special treatment. she wonders if he's into her. she is the dumbest woman alive.
• yes, violet, dain is into you. that's why he's so fucking annoying.
• apparently dain's dad is violet's mom's aides. the other cadets are remorseful about accusing her of sleeping her way to special treatment, but tbh, i feel like nepotism is equally lame.
• they're the only squad still intact, because of course they are.
• there's a brief moment where violet surprises herself by comparing xylon and dain in her mind. i actually like this moment. it's decent romance set up, or would be if it was surrounded by a better book.
• you apparently need to pass this obstacle course to reach the dragoning portion of cadet training, but they still don't start training on it until late in the year. why? because the plot says so.
• again, if the number of dragons and who they choose to bond with is outside the military's control, they should be maximizing the number of possible recruits and then funneling the unbonded ones elsewhere--maybe they become officers or whatever. this would incentivize candidates to apply for dragon riding. and then the training shouldn't be a stupid murderfest! they should be actively trying to make sure as many recruits as possible are viable!
• each section of the obstacle course tests a different dragon riding skill: your ability to balance on the dragon, get off, get on, etc. i guess it's like horse riding? again, if the dragons are sentient and scary, not clear what benefit the human riders are bringing. we've had no discussion of what gear the riders use to do the actual riding, but if it turns out there are no saddles or restraints or anything i will scream.
• ok the course begins. different cadets are struggling. violet starts. she's reciting dragon facts to calm herself. there's no way this will turn out to be hamhanded foreshadowing for later! also, this is the worst way to drop lore, it's SO boring.
• i was right. a cadet died on the obstacle course.
• i'm sorry, i've complained about this so many times, but why do they just let cadets die during practice? your obstacle course is on the side of a cliff and is extremely deadly! you should be carefully walking them all through each aspect, letting them get good with safety equipment, so that as many of them make it to presentation as possible.
• violet is angsting after her dead fellow cadet's cremation, wondering if she can make it and prove she belongs here. as she's lurking, xylon and two of his fellow rebels go by. xylon detects her and stays back to confront her.
• this is another weird scene where their energy just doesn't match. xylon is supposed to be our bad boy to our good girl violet--he's the scary son of rebels who is going to kill her, she's a nice girl whose never killed anyone. except xylon is obviously not going to kill her and all his banter sounds flirty, so violet's vehemence just makes her look like a dick. again, these characters have very good reasons to hate each other, but the author doesn't employ them.
• anyways violet is torn between running away to be a scribe or going through with dragon riding. this is the first time she's thought about this since the book started, so it feels pretty hollow. for some reason, she confides in xylon about this. she's complaining internally about how easy he has it...ma'am, he is literally being forcibly conscripted for his dad's crimes.
• xylon can use his shadow powers to eavesdrop on people
• he gives violet advice. once again it's not terrible advice? it's cavalier about death, even though so far all the death in this book could have been prevented if the author engaged more than one brain cell at a time, but okay. he's clearly trying to help her.
• xylon explicitly tells violet he's not killing her because it would cross a moral line for him. despite this momentous information, violet just says "fuck you!" and storms off. god, the enemies to lovers is just going to be her being dumb as a rock, isn't it.