penwalla

I have to finish this book before the third one comes out. So we continue.

Chapter begins with Violet arriving for flight maneuvers. You may recall that Violet has been avoiding these for a while, because she's been ordered to present Andarna and isn't willing to do so. As punishment Violet has had to undergo sessions of constantly using her signet, which exhaust her.

Rhiannon and Ridoc point out that something seems wrong with Varrish's dragon. They mention that said dragon has already torched a whole squad without a thought. Very early in Fourth Wing the dragons torched a bunch of new recruits for the crime of running away, and at least one Rider got torched by his own dragon for the crime of falling off. I don't know why Solas (Varrish's dragon) being murderous would raise any eyebrows, because so far it seems like murdering people at random is a-okay for everyone at this war college.

After a page of conversation, Varrish comes over and starts trying to enforce his punishment on Violet for not presenting Andarna. Tairn loses his shit and insists that humans have no power to command dragons. This is obviously true and really should have come up way earlier, and I don't care how much dragon lore Yarros plans to drop in later books, letting your book be stupid because all the explanations are in book three is bad writing. Varrish, for some reason, tries to stand up to him, and Tairn immediately grabs Solas by the throat and threatens to kill him. Because if Varrish isn't a dragon, he can't be the vice commandant of Basgiath.

If Varrish is dead, he also can't be the vice commandant, and that's a problem the college can't solve by passing like, one new rule.

Tairn then makes Varrish get down on his knees and apologize. Which I guess is badass, but is also certainly going to create problems down the road.

Next scene. Violet and Rhiannon are walking to the Gauntlet together. Violet mentions that her knee is bothering her due to a recent subluxation, and she has it wrapped so she can handle the stairs. This is the first time in a while Yarros has remembered Violet's disability, so that's cool. Violet then tells Rhiannon the Gauntlet is actually a good thing.

“It’s fucking pointless.” She shakes her head. “Just another way to weed out the weaker—or worse, the unlucky.”

“It’s not.” As much as I hate to admit it, the Gauntlet has its place here.

“Seriously?” She reaches the top of the stairs and waits for me.

“Seriously.” I begin the walk down the flight field. “It made me look at everything differently. I couldn’t climb it in the same way you did, the others did, so I had to find another way. It taught me that I could find another way and still survive.” The moment on Tairn’s back, fighting that venin, plays through my mind, and my hand curls around empty air as if still clutching that dagger.

“I just don’t think it’s worth the lives it costs. Most of what happens here isn’t.”

“It is.” My rebuttal is quiet.

“How can you say that?” She halts, turning toward me. “You were right there when Aurelie fell. Is there any part of you that thinks she would have been a liability to the wing had she survived to Threshing? She was a legacy!”

I look up at the star-filled sky and take a breath before facing her. “No. I think she would have been a phenomenal rider. Better than me, that’s for sure. But I also know that…” I can’t get the words out. They lodge in my throat, held captive by the memory of Aurelie’s eyes widening in that second before she fell.

“I wish that for once you would just say whatever you’re thinking. I never know anymore.”

“You don’t want to know.” It’s the most truthful I’ve been with her since returning.

“I really do, Violet! It’s just us out here. Talk to me!”

“Talk to you,” I repeat, like it’s really that simple, and feel something inside me snap under the weight of both our frustrations. “Fine. Yes, it’s awful that Aurelie fell. That she died. But I think I’m a better rider for having been there, having watched her fall to her death and known that if I didn’t get my ass moving, I was going to be next.”

“That’s…horrible.” Rhiannon’s lips part, and she looks at me like she’s never seen me before.

“So is everything waiting out there for us.” I swing my arms out. “That stupid fucking Gauntlet isn’t just about physically climbing it. It’s about overcoming the fear that we can’t. It’s about climbing after we see it kill our friends. Parapet, Gauntlet, Presentation—they seem excessive when we’re here, but they prepare us for something way worse when we leave. And until you…” I shake my head. “You don’t know what it’s like out there, Rhi. You can’t understand.”

Ugh.

I get what Yarros is going for, I think, and Violet is obviously meant to be traumatized (I hope) but like...come on. This is our protagonist? This idiot is at a war college where a significant proportion of the students die, during a period where they're forced to conscript the kids of executed rebels because they're so hard up for bodies--she is a member of the rebellion herself based on moral qualms with the military's actions--but we're still fucking reading passages about Violet justifying all those deaths because they BUILT CHARACTER?

Isn't Violet supposed to be intelligent?

Also, like...yes, it's terrible that Violet has experienced the war and her cohort haven't, but she was in one battle. And again, they go to A MURDER COLLEGE where people are killed regularly for no goddamn reason. Rhiannon has plenty of reasons to be traumatized and actually her response is normal, Violet, you are the freak for insisting that all your pointlessly killed colleagues had to die so you would have the emotional fortitude to withstand Liam's death.

At the end of the chapter, Violet's bag is searched as usual.

Fuck it, I'm not reading another one. See y'all next time.