penwalla | Fourth Wing Live Reactions: Chapter 16-17

ch. 16
violet's arm is being sewn up while two generals have a screaming match about her
she declines to have her sprain mended, insisting she can't appear weak. you know what? it's not terrible characterization, violet is stubborn, but i will point out that it is stupid. violet was just almost killed. she's choosing the appearance of strength over actually being strong! what if her injury doesn't heal well and she's incapable of dragon riding?
the instructors know the dragons' names, i guess, which is weird bc there was a big emphasis on how secret they were earlier.
and if the names and bloodlines are known, why isn't any of that taught in school to the riders?
anyway. jack is mouthing off and the professor who is stitching violet up tells him not to provoke her bc her dragon is stronger than his
why is an instructor providing medical care?
said professor tells violet humans pretend to have control but actually they have no control over what the dragons do. then why the murderous training school and the catwalking and all that? why have we spent the first third of this book training to bond a dragon?
ok now the dragons are having a meeting.
Big T, like every other man in violet's life, does nothing but make rude quips and order her around. i love this for her (no i do not)
while the dragons are having a meeting, dain arrives to once again beg violet to give up on being a dragon rider so that he never has to worry about her, ever. his argument this time is that she'll be forced to pick a dragon, so she must pick the small golden one so that she'll be physically unable to ride and will be assigned as an instructor instead.
okay, first of all, it's been made clear throughout the novel that the dragons pick the riders, not the other way around. so what the generals think shouldn't even matter. second, i doubt the military would let violet choose! there's a clear right answer--you obviously want to bond the biggest, meanest dragon--so it would make more sense for them to insist she pick Big T.
oh and Big T is xylon's dragons mate! of course he is. and mated dragons are always stationed together, they can't be apart, so now xylon and violet can't be apart. dain of course takes this as proof of xylon's evil machinations.
uh. what evidence is there that xylon even has evil machinations. please...produce some...man is rolling up in every situation to give violet douchey but mostly correct advice and not kill her.
i don't know why dain is here! he is set up like the other arm of a love triangle but he's obviously not violet's love interest because his single personality trait is being obnoxiously overprotective. he's very boring. my bet is that he'll be secretly evil by the end of the book.
xylon makes his dramatic entrance in time to interrupt dain. violet has the revelation that xylon can't want to kill her. congrats, you've caught up!
the dialogue in this book is so cringe. xylon accuses violet of being reckless and she says she'd do it again, and his response is to roar "well-the-fuck-aware". no i didn't remove any words from that line of dialogue.
xylon asks dain if he would have broken the rules to save violet, dain says he wouldn't (dain has bent the rules for violet more than once already! this is a lie!) and violet is heartbroken. love this fake-ass conflict. this man was trying to defy the general of the entire school by smuggling violet elsewhere earlier in the book!
so apparently when dragons bond, every subsequent bond is stronger than the last. also, unbonded riders can try to kill the bonded riders so they can have a chance of bonding.
this is STUPID. first off, it was said earlier sometimes dragons die from having their riders killed. there's a shortage and the military can't compel them to bond. for that reason alone killing a bonded rider should be off the table. the military should be heavily incentivized to make sure that does not happen. second, shouldn't killing a dragon's rider automatically rule out your chances of bonding them? surely they'll object? they picked that human!
the dragons rule double bonding is fine. all the riders get a special magical tattoo (relic) from their dragons. i actually like this detail and think it's cool. violet gets two, since she has two dragons.
afterward, dain confesses his feelings and kisses her, but violet isn't feeling it. i'm not shocked to hear this, because violet has never convincingly behaved like someone who wanted dain.
ch. 17
violet's back in the dorms, thinking about how she can't use crutches. she says her ankle is "just sore" just like every time she sprains it. okay. rebecca yarros. ankle sprains can be fucking debilitating. the ankle is the worst joint in the accursed human body. if she's had that many sprains she should know how important the right care is. again, if violet permanently injures herself, she could die. why is that not more important than looking strong? like it feels at odds with violet's whole attitude.
lmao so rhiannon, who was having sex last night, asks violet why she isn't fucking dain, since she saw them kiss. and apparently there are no hard and fast fraternization laws in the military here?! what?!
as she goes to breakfast with her comrades, violet notes a lot of changes in the social dynamics--now the bonded riders are on top, including her because her dragon is the biggest and strongest. having a smaller and weaker dragon puts you on the bottom, though still above the unbonded. which doesn't surprise me--it's exactly what you would expect from an academy that lets cadets kill each other, and also antithetical to a functional military unit, but okay.
also, i like that she avoids food served by the guy who tried to kill her yesterday in case he tries to poison her. smart move.
now that they're bonded riders, the seniors who were douchey before are now chill
some good details about uniforms--the flight leathers are unmarked, as opposed to all the patches on the regular ones that tell you a person's rank, squad, and abilities
imogen is taking violet under her wing (lol) for training now
flight lessons! amazing that there are no flight simulations at this academy prior to bonding. it's idiotic.
professor warns them that if they fall off during flight lessons, the dragons may just let them die and take their chances on a second rider from the remaining unbonded.
it's...really not clear what the significance of the bond between dragons and humans is. the humans get some magic--what do the dragons get out of it? why do they need riders at all? it seems like it'd be easier for the dragons to fight alongside human units in exchange for human warding, instead of bothering with the bonding process at all. sometimes the book treats it as trivial and sometimes not.
the sheer number of deaths in this book is exhausting. like every single step of the process so far is like "and you might be murdered or die in the process" and half the time it's unnecessary as fuck. i genuinely am surprised there are this many people trying to become riders, considering this many of them die of absolute bullshit. this isn't "dying gloriously in service of your country", even. like it feels gratuitous.
so violet and Big T are flying. he's using his magic to hold her in place while they fly because she's not strong enough. if you're flying at high speed in the air on a large beast, you probably should have a saddle and restraints by default, but...whatever. she wants him to not do it so she can learn.
so she just keeps falling off him and getting caught and falling off again.
what happened to maintaining the appearance of strength at all times? you'll refuse to have your fucking wounds mended or your ankle fixed, but you'll risk your life falling off a dragon like ten times? violet has no fear that Big T will let her die, either, which is surprising to me considering she just was told that happens.
after violet's first fall yarros writes maybe ten words to let us know she fell repeatedly and then we change scenes to later. this book fast forwards through a lot of things.
dain catches up with violet afterward and tells her the kiss was a mistake and can't happen again. he wants her, but a relationship with a subordinate wouldn't be politically beneficial for him and he wants to rise in rank. it's also unethical as fuck, dain! that would be a much more sympathetic reason and would preserve the illusion that dain is a real love interest. but alas.
violet does not tell him she's not interested. which, fair.
imogen is training violet. they're doing inner thigh exercises. a brief moment of homoerotic tension to get me through the next 60%...thank you yarros. imogen gets mad when violet uses xylon's first name and tells her never to ask about him.