Iron Flame Live Reactions: Chapters 15-17
Jun. 16th, 2024 01:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaWe continue.
The book begins with this quote.
Okay, wait a minute. Why wouldn't Brennan be able to tell Violet? This is his private journal, and he's definitely revealed shit the cadets aren't supposed to know already. This feels like Yarros just wanted to build some cheap suspense.
So Violet and Co. have failed their land navigation exercise because their group was given two different maps and instead of comparing them they've just been bitching at each other about them for several hours. Cool. They make camp for the night and are talking. Ridoc feels the whole exercise is unnecessarily cruel, because in real life they won't need to fight other dragons. Uh, dude, your actual training risks being killed by your own side's dragons not infrequently. That was a whole thing last year, do you not remember? Are we supposed to believe no infantry are randomly killed by dragons ever? He also says practicing torture is reasonable, which, it is not, but I would not expect anyone raised in this society to realize that, so that's fine.
An infantry guy brings Violet dinner because she saved his life. You know, it would be more interesting if the infantry kept their dislike of the riders, instead of becoming Violet fanboys like every other character in this book. We also learn the infantry carry survival gear at all times and Riders do not.
Finally, Rhiannon confronts Violet and tells her she knows something is up with Violet, and that she's ready whenever Violet wants to talk.
Okay, scene change. We're back at Basgiath. Violet and Co. got chewed out by their professors for failing. Violet actually seems affected by the death of the one infantry guy and how pointless it was, which seems like maybe she's going to have the revelation in this book that I had in chapter 1 of Fourth Wing.
They get reunited with their dragons. Apparently drugging all the Riders to weaken their bonds is a new thing this year. Hmm. Interesting. Violet wonders why the military would want to weaken their own Riders.
She does not actually try to answer this question, because Violet hates actively advancing the plot, but I will. It actually does make sense to me that the leadership would want to have the ability to dampen the Riders' powers and dragon bonds. Because right now the Riders are way too powerful. They have magical powers, they have telepathic connections to murder lizards, and if they wanted they could cause a lot of problems. And, crucially, the Riders include a number of children who are ostracized for who their parents were and who have good reason to want to work against the military. Also, being able to dampen this bond would let the military attend to Riders while limiting interference from their dragons. Because right now the military is essentially beholden to the dragons!
I am very curious about dragon politics, y'all. Like it seems like most of the top brass in the military are Riders, right? So their dragons are in on everything? I genuinely don't understand why this isn't a big part of the books and hope it gets some page time in this one.
Okay, next chapter.
I mean, it seems like joining the military is a death sentence for most infantry and most Riders. Maybe send your son to officer academy or the scribe quadrant or something.
Violet didn't get to see Xaden last chapter because she was busy being lost in the woods, so she decides to go do research at the Archives. And Violet didn't pine for Xaden at all last chapter, which feels...OOC even though I didn't want to read it. She meets Jessina, her scribe friend, along with the scribe who was with her on the failed land nav mission. Why is Jessina the only scribe ever there?
Violet, please, I'm begging you. It is consistent characterization for her to be stupid but it's so annoying to read. I guess Jessina is innocent here, and frankly I think it would be much more interesting if Jessina was a cog in the machine and Violet had to confront an actual ideological difference with someone she liked and respected. It'd be a good parallel to what she underwent in the last book.
Jessina tells Violet that she knows Violet is so smart that she could not be wrong about the book, so she knows that therefore books exist that the Archives do not have. I do not know why Violet is risking telling Jessina any of this. If Jessina reports any of this to anyone else, it's a huge risk to the rebellion and to Violet and all her friends. And if she doesn't, her life is now in danger. Either way it's dumb.
It is fine if, in a vaccum, a character is impulsive or makes bad decisions. That's a fine trait for a character to have. My problem is that Yarros keeps having other characters tell us about how smart Violet is and doesn't seem to realize that her protagonist is an idiot.
Case in point: after Violet tells Jessina this probably treasonous info, Jessina admits to have been covering for Violet this whole time and when Violet expresses regret for the danger she's now in, immediately offers to help. Violet asks her to get her texts about the wards, and Jessina agrees. She wants something in exchange, but before we can find out what it is, scene change.
First year cadets are about to have their mandatory hand to hand combat matches. Violet and her fellow second years watch, alternating between ribbing the first years and talking. We learn in passing that apparently aristocracy are discouraged from becoming Riders? Because they don't want the Riders to be able to inherit titles. Again, it seems silly to put them in the infantry to be cannon fodder instead, unless they're all automatically made officers (which seems likely, but also Yarros should say that.)
Apparently Varrish (the evil guy) is doing something with the first years in secret in a back room somewhere, because Ridoc saw a healer back there with him. Nolon, as you likely don't recall, is the mender who's been fixing Violet's bones her whole life.
It's Sloane's turn to fight and of course, of course, Violet's solution to Sloane being shit at fighting is to drug her opponent and then to blow a colorless poison powder at her during the match. For fuck's sake, how has no one caught on to this yet? After the match, Violet informs Sloane that she took care of the match this time, but from now on, Sloane needs to train with Imogen. And every week Sloane trains, Violet will give her one of Liam's letters, which she still has because she stole them before they could be burned.
And then we get this:
Oh, another thing for me to complain about! This book suffers from a malady that many romances do, which is that all the heroine's friends are obsessed with her love life and are way too invested in the relationship she has with her love interest. I swear someone is commenting on Violet and Xaden's romance every fucking chapter. No one is this invested in their friends' relationships in real life!
Deep sigh. Scene change.
Listen, I may just be stupid, but I have no idea what the fuck that means.
Let's keep reading. Chapter 17.
This chapter opens days later with Imogen asking Violet about her relationship with Xaden. YARROS MEET ME IN THE PIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.
Imogen points out that Violet's insistence that she can't trust Xaden because he didn't tell her all his secrets is stupid.
I mean...she's right. Violet's hackneyed metaphor is stupid and so is she.
Man, I want to like Imogen, but I do find her whole abrasive schtick kind of tedious.
Rhiannon looks upset, so Violet goes over to her. Rhiannon is upset because her family got a notice from the government telling them to not take in any strangers due to suspicious border crossings. My first thought is that these are refugees from the neighboring country, the one getting their shit rocked by wyverns. Rhiannon also took this notice to their professor, the one who is leading Battle Brief, who starts spouting a bunch of propaganda about how the Poromish people are lying about their cities being attacked by dragons and how anyone claiming to cross the border is probably an enemy spy out to get them. This does sound like real life anti-immigrant propaganda. Violet is so mad about this that she starts having trouble controlling her powers, and has to eventually flee before she blows something up.
Same, girl. Same.
Violet then runs all the way to the Archives and barges in onto a class of scribes studying. Jessina pulls her aside and chastises her, but still reiterates that she's willing to take the risk to help Violet and others might be too if she asked. No doubt the plot arc being set up is that Violet will eventually tell her squad about what she knows and they'll all join the rebellion immediately.
Yay.
The book begins with this quote.
There’s a course second year that I can’t tell you about, other than to say that it’s hell.
My only advice? Don’t piss off anyone else’s dragon.
—PAGE NINETY-SIX, THE BOOK OF BRENNAN
Okay, wait a minute. Why wouldn't Brennan be able to tell Violet? This is his private journal, and he's definitely revealed shit the cadets aren't supposed to know already. This feels like Yarros just wanted to build some cheap suspense.
So Violet and Co. have failed their land navigation exercise because their group was given two different maps and instead of comparing them they've just been bitching at each other about them for several hours. Cool. They make camp for the night and are talking. Ridoc feels the whole exercise is unnecessarily cruel, because in real life they won't need to fight other dragons. Uh, dude, your actual training risks being killed by your own side's dragons not infrequently. That was a whole thing last year, do you not remember? Are we supposed to believe no infantry are randomly killed by dragons ever? He also says practicing torture is reasonable, which, it is not, but I would not expect anyone raised in this society to realize that, so that's fine.
An infantry guy brings Violet dinner because she saved his life. You know, it would be more interesting if the infantry kept their dislike of the riders, instead of becoming Violet fanboys like every other character in this book. We also learn the infantry carry survival gear at all times and Riders do not.
Finally, Rhiannon confronts Violet and tells her she knows something is up with Violet, and that she's ready whenever Violet wants to talk.
Okay, scene change. We're back at Basgiath. Violet and Co. got chewed out by their professors for failing. Violet actually seems affected by the death of the one infantry guy and how pointless it was, which seems like maybe she's going to have the revelation in this book that I had in chapter 1 of Fourth Wing.
They get reunited with their dragons. Apparently drugging all the Riders to weaken their bonds is a new thing this year. Hmm. Interesting. Violet wonders why the military would want to weaken their own Riders.
She does not actually try to answer this question, because Violet hates actively advancing the plot, but I will. It actually does make sense to me that the leadership would want to have the ability to dampen the Riders' powers and dragon bonds. Because right now the Riders are way too powerful. They have magical powers, they have telepathic connections to murder lizards, and if they wanted they could cause a lot of problems. And, crucially, the Riders include a number of children who are ostracized for who their parents were and who have good reason to want to work against the military. Also, being able to dampen this bond would let the military attend to Riders while limiting interference from their dragons. Because right now the military is essentially beholden to the dragons!
I am very curious about dragon politics, y'all. Like it seems like most of the top brass in the military are Riders, right? So their dragons are in on everything? I genuinely don't understand why this isn't a big part of the books and hope it gets some page time in this one.
Okay, next chapter.
My dad hoped I’d go into the infantry like he did. He thought riders were pompous pricks, and in his defense…we really are.
—RECOVERED CORRESPONDENCE OF LIEUTENANT XADEN RIORSON TO CADET VIOLET SORRENGAIL
I mean, it seems like joining the military is a death sentence for most infantry and most Riders. Maybe send your son to officer academy or the scribe quadrant or something.
Violet didn't get to see Xaden last chapter because she was busy being lost in the woods, so she decides to go do research at the Archives. And Violet didn't pine for Xaden at all last chapter, which feels...OOC even though I didn't want to read it. She meets Jessina, her scribe friend, along with the scribe who was with her on the failed land nav mission. Why is Jessina the only scribe ever there?
How does someone like Jesinia graduate to become whatever Markham has evolved into? “Can I ask… What book did Jacek request that got him hauled away and killed?” I sign before I think better of it.
Her eyes widen. “He was killed?”
I nod. “A few days after we saw Markham take him.”
Her face turns the same shade as her robes. “He was looking for an account of a border attack that doesn’t exist. I told him there’s no such record, but he came back three times, certain there was because he’d had family killed in the event. I recorded the request and sent it up my chain of command, thinking it would help him, but…” She shakes her head and drops her hands, blinking back tears.
“It’s not your fault,” I sign, but she doesn’t respond, and it hits me that I could have been hauled away by Markham last year, but I wasn’t. And there’s only one logical explanation. I glance around us quickly to make sure we’re still alone. “Last year, you didn’t record when I asked for a book that doesn’t exist in your records.”
Her eyes widen.
“Did you?” My hands tremble as I sign. Shit. This is a bad idea. She’ll be in danger if I bring her into this. But she’s also the best person who can help me find what I’m looking for, and we only have months.
“No.”
“Why?” I have to know. Everything hinges on her answer.
“At first, because I didn’t want to be embarrassed that I couldn’t find it.” Her nose scrunches. “Then because…I couldn’t find it.” She looks over her shoulder at the empty Archives. “We should have a copy of almost every tome in Navarre here, yet you told me you’d read one that we don’t have.”
Violet, please, I'm begging you. It is consistent characterization for her to be stupid but it's so annoying to read. I guess Jessina is innocent here, and frankly I think it would be much more interesting if Jessina was a cog in the machine and Violet had to confront an actual ideological difference with someone she liked and respected. It'd be a good parallel to what she underwent in the last book.
Jessina tells Violet that she knows Violet is so smart that she could not be wrong about the book, so she knows that therefore books exist that the Archives do not have. I do not know why Violet is risking telling Jessina any of this. If Jessina reports any of this to anyone else, it's a huge risk to the rebellion and to Violet and all her friends. And if she doesn't, her life is now in danger. Either way it's dumb.
It is fine if, in a vaccum, a character is impulsive or makes bad decisions. That's a fine trait for a character to have. My problem is that Yarros keeps having other characters tell us about how smart Violet is and doesn't seem to realize that her protagonist is an idiot.
Case in point: after Violet tells Jessina this probably treasonous info, Jessina admits to have been covering for Violet this whole time and when Violet expresses regret for the danger she's now in, immediately offers to help. Violet asks her to get her texts about the wards, and Jessina agrees. She wants something in exchange, but before we can find out what it is, scene change.
First year cadets are about to have their mandatory hand to hand combat matches. Violet and her fellow second years watch, alternating between ribbing the first years and talking. We learn in passing that apparently aristocracy are discouraged from becoming Riders? Because they don't want the Riders to be able to inherit titles. Again, it seems silly to put them in the infantry to be cannon fodder instead, unless they're all automatically made officers (which seems likely, but also Yarros should say that.)
Apparently Varrish (the evil guy) is doing something with the first years in secret in a back room somewhere, because Ridoc saw a healer back there with him. Nolon, as you likely don't recall, is the mender who's been fixing Violet's bones her whole life.
It's Sloane's turn to fight and of course, of course, Violet's solution to Sloane being shit at fighting is to drug her opponent and then to blow a colorless poison powder at her during the match. For fuck's sake, how has no one caught on to this yet? After the match, Violet informs Sloane that she took care of the match this time, but from now on, Sloane needs to train with Imogen. And every week Sloane trains, Violet will give her one of Liam's letters, which she still has because she stole them before they could be burned.
And then we get this:
“You. Are…” Imogen shakes her head as she catches up to me. “I see it now.”
“What?” I ask.
“Why Xaden fell for you.”
I scoff.
“Truthfully.” She puts her hands up. “You’re fucking clever. Way more clever than I gave you credit for. I bet you keep him constantly annoyed.” A smile beams across her face. “How glorious.”
Oh, another thing for me to complain about! This book suffers from a malady that many romances do, which is that all the heroine's friends are obsessed with her love life and are way too invested in the relationship she has with her love interest. I swear someone is commenting on Violet and Xaden's romance every fucking chapter. No one is this invested in their friends' relationships in real life!
Deep sigh. Scene change.
Jessina brings Violet an old book about the wards, and another the next week. Violet reads them, gives us another tidbit about green dragons and their more stable connection to magic and I have already complained about how weird this bit of worldbuilding is but I will complain again. Listen, I'll even buy that dragon researchers do weird dragon racism, but surely the Riders, with their telepathic connection to dragons, have noticed that it's all nonsense? Or in Yarros's world are dragons both sentient creatures and creatures whose skills and personality are decided by scale color?
Varrish comes by to search Violet's pack before she flies off to see Xaden. He insists on escorting Violet out and notes that her squad didn't have flight maneuvers this week, because of injury recovery. Hers, I assume, though the book doesn't say. The chapter then ends with this cliffhanger.
When I get to Samara, I understand why Varrish warned that I’d see why he’d noted our lack of flight maneuvers.
I might be here, but Xaden is on twenty-four-hour duty in the operations center.
And I don’t have clearance.
Listen, I may just be stupid, but I have no idea what the fuck that means.
Let's keep reading. Chapter 17.
This chapter opens days later with Imogen asking Violet about her relationship with Xaden. YARROS MEET ME IN THE PIT WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.
Imogen points out that Violet's insistence that she can't trust Xaden because he didn't tell her all his secrets is stupid.
“You didn’t want normal. If you did, you’d be in a relationship with Aetos.” She shudders. “Or hell, anyone else in this place. But you wanted Riorson. If you didn’t think the man was hiding more than a few battle-axes, then you’re mad at the wrong person, because you lied to yourself.”
I mean...she's right. Violet's hackneyed metaphor is stupid and so is she.
Imogen then gives Violet a speech about how she needs to stop icing out all her friends and talk to them about her problems. Violet's been avoiding them for their safety as well as because she feels guilty about all the treason. I do think it would be smarter to not do that solely for plausible deniability, but I do think Violet has a point and I'm kinda surprised Imogen is giving this advice.
Man, I want to like Imogen, but I do find her whole abrasive schtick kind of tedious.
Rhiannon looks upset, so Violet goes over to her. Rhiannon is upset because her family got a notice from the government telling them to not take in any strangers due to suspicious border crossings. My first thought is that these are refugees from the neighboring country, the one getting their shit rocked by wyverns. Rhiannon also took this notice to their professor, the one who is leading Battle Brief, who starts spouting a bunch of propaganda about how the Poromish people are lying about their cities being attacked by dragons and how anyone claiming to cross the border is probably an enemy spy out to get them. This does sound like real life anti-immigrant propaganda. Violet is so mad about this that she starts having trouble controlling her powers, and has to eventually flee before she blows something up.
Same, girl. Same.
Violet then runs all the way to the Archives and barges in onto a class of scribes studying. Jessina pulls her aside and chastises her, but still reiterates that she's willing to take the risk to help Violet and others might be too if she asked. No doubt the plot arc being set up is that Violet will eventually tell her squad about what she knows and they'll all join the rebellion immediately.
Yay.
