penwalla

ch. 14
xylon arrives and violet is briefly hopeful. then she remembers that interfering is against the rules, so xylon can't help her.
ok, fair enough, but i am going to point out that so far what we know about xylon is that: 1. he never does what violet thinks he'll do 2. he's the son of a rebel and 3. he's literally holding illegal secret meetings with other rebels frequently. so why deos violet assume he'll choose now to be a stickler for rules?
violet flashes back to some pretentious advice about hope xylon gave her earlier.
golden feathertail, in addition to being small, has no claws.
the three dudes attack violet, she defends herself with her dagger. jack's shoulder gets injured and he flees, the other two remain. violet stabs one of the others, then gets stabbed in the arm. luckily her armor protects her vital organs. she knocks out guy #2. guy #3 is about to kill her when a huge black dragon shows up and interferes.
black dragon talks to violet, complains that she's bleeding, suggests she kill the unconscious guy. violet realizes she's been chosen by this dragon and for some reason...protests. but the dragon bullies her into climbing onto him. he's just too big, so he has to bend down so she can climb on.
black dragon has a name and a lineage.
he takes off and violet immediately falls off. end chapter.
so uh. i have just now realized that apparently dragon riding is a huge physical challenge in part because they don't...have saddles or any equipment? that's so stupid. that's unbelievably stupid. if the reason turns out to be "it's beneath the dragons' dignity" i'm calling bullshit. this chapter opened with a quote about how some dragons die from heartbreak if their rider does!
ch. 15
black dragon catches violet and throws her onto his back. he's complaining because she's making him look bad. so, he can read her mind--he knew her name without being told, and declares he knows "exactly who you are". so why is he complaining about her weakness? he knows he picked a human with a physical disability and violet was just in a 3 on 1 fight where she was stabbed.
black dragon uses his magic to hold violet in place and then starts doing acrobatics. he says they need to show off, but not why, so we'll find out in a bit i guess.
so Big T, as i am going to call him, chose violet because she saved the golden dragon. so kudos to yarros. that is a comprehensible reason that lines with violet's previous characterization as someone who avoids killing and is bothered by death. he also says he picked her for her bravery and great intelligence. i'm not sold on violet's brains, because she is remarkably dense, but whatever.
naturally Big T is the most important dragon and all the other dragons defer to him. only the best for Violet Sue here.
violet's ankle is fucked up so she has to slide down Big T's front leg to get down. for most of the past two chapters, violet has complained about the pain she's in and she's sustained multiple injuries. but yarros never lets her struggle for any period of time. she took out two of the guys fighting her on her own. xylon and a dragon immediately showed up to rescue her. her dragon immediately catches her. makes all the angsting she does about her inability feel like lip service.
violet's mom is here. violet is thinking about how her mother doesn't care about her, only her reputation and how she can use violet. i'm going to point out that violet would be way more useful and much more likely to make a name for herself in the scribe quadrant, as planned, and her success as a rider is entirely predicated on authorial fiat.
so violet has to go to the roll-keeper, the only other person who knows the dragon's names, to register herself. if the military has the names of all the dragons, why are they all referred to by made-up color classifications? why keep the names secret?
naturally, as violet is registering, the golden dragon also bonds with her. so she now has TWO dragons. now, the golden feathertail is supposed to be weak and nonviolent, so this won't actually make her overpowered.
who am i kidding. ten to one the golden dragon gives her some rare special power that no one else has ever had.