Iron Flame Live Reactions: Chapter 21
Aug. 31st, 2024 10:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaOur opening quote is what I assume is propaganda.
I haven't talked much about these quotes, but most of them are from academic texts or Brennan's book. Most of them are just kind of there, to be honest.
Okay, chapter start. Violet's arm is in a sling because she injured herself doing a rolling dismount -- her body can't take the impact of the landing very well. Apparently she just sprained it. I don't know why it's immobilized if it's just a sprain? I'd have to look this up but I think it's not recommended to avoid frozen shoulder. Violet says she plans to be out of the shoulder two weeks before the healer recommends. This is stupid, because it means she's at risk of reinjury, and Violet should know this.
Like, this is a military doc, they're not going to want you out of commission longer than you have to be. If they said four weeks, Violet, it means you need four weeks.
Anyways, Violet also says she won't be able to see Nolon, the mender, in time to have it mended because he's so busy. Okay, again, why does a sprain even need to be mended? If you have one guy who can magically heal and he has limited capacity, he should be reserved for people who cannot do without him. Apparently Nolon's waiting list is a month long--unheard of. Again, that's insane. If menders are rare and have limited capacity, they should always have a long waiting list, and actually if Nolon is a military doc you would think there would some system to triage who actually needed him.
I find this difficult to believe. But okay.
As Violet and co. arrive for class, they discover most of the professors are missing because of an attack, and they're told another student is dead. I'll be honest, I don't remember who this guy is, but Violet reacts to his name and immediately assumes the attack was staged to assassinate him, so I guess he came up in a previous chapter.
The lesson begins. We learn that while Poromiel, the neighboring country, is made of provinces that retain their individual cultural identities, Navarre has a unified language and culture. Except for Tyrrendor, the one with the rebellion in it.
Now, the professor here does something actually interesting. She questions the lesson they were scheduled to learn, and instead starts talking about what unification actually means. Yes, Navarre has a common language, but it was common to only three of the provinces, so the three remaining ones lost their languages, which are now considered dead. They have secure borders, but can't leave the country.
The professor asks the class to discuss what else was lost, and one of the rebel kids points out the all Tyrrish culture was essentially lost in the unification. Another student points out that everything was translated, so nothing was lost. Violet chimes in to point out that no, everything wasn't translated
I do enjoy that in this book Violet's scribe training is actually plot relevant, though I hate that the next line of dialogue is the professor telling haughty dude how smart Violet is. We can read her dialogue, Yarros, we can decide for ourselves that she is smart!
Rhiannon then says that much folklore was lost during the unification. The great migration mentioned in the opening quote is actually the one year period the Navarre government gave for anyone who wanted to be inside the borders to move there. The professor finishes the lesson by reminding them that they might be against distant relatives when they face the griffons, but it's a sacrifice they must make to keep the nation safe.
Kind of a subversive lesson! But this is the first time the classes in this book set in a school have been interesting, so I'll take it. I also think all of this could have much better incorporated earlier in the series and could have been organically revealed as we got to know the different characters from all over Navarre, instead of being dumped during a lesson. Violet was training to be a scribe--it would have been cool if she'd been cataloguing different cadet's folklore before this, for example.
Okay, next scene. It's the last round of hand to hand challenges. Violet checks in on Sloane. She's been training with Imogen, as I recall, but we've never seen any of it on page. I'm not really sure how much time has passed, either.
As they line up, Violet avoids standing next to Dain, who is mad because she won't speak to him. Isn't Dain above her in the chain of command? Shouldn't there be...consequences for insubordination here? Isn't this a fucking military?
Violet flips him off and swears at him. Rhiannon asks Violet what is up there, and Violet tells her Dain stole from her. Rhiannon is like, just report him, and Violet's like, uh, I can't, because she can't admit he read her mind.
Dain retaliates by having Violet and himself called to the mat for combat. Yeah, dude, that's going to repair your relationship. Being injured does not get Violet out of combat training, even though it should, so she has to do it.
They fight.
Dain gets her pinned, but she has her knife at his throat. They argue. Yarros again produces a nice tight fight scene. Then we get...this.
Great. Now Dain's not evil--are we going back to the fucking love triangle? Dain is barely a character at this point, he's just a guy who does whatever the plot needs him to do.
In response to Violet's vitriol, Dain tells her that Violet's mom is the one who scarred Xaden's back.
He says this like it's supposed to change how Violet feels about Xaden, but why should it? If anything, it should be the other way around. Not sure what the point of having this revelation here is.
Violet doesn't believe it. Rhiannon then takes her aside to interrogate her.
Remember, everyone, it is inconceivable that Xaden ever keep a secret from this woman.
So it turns out that slowly members of Violet's squad, everyone who was in the venin fight, have been dying. Rhiannon puts this together and Violet admits that Dain can steal memories. Rhiannon tries to get Violet to tell her more, but Violet refuses, and takes Aaric (the prince?) to the infirmary instead.
Look, it's possible that I missed that Violet's squad members have been being picked off and am just stupid. But it's also possible that this book is bloated and poorly paced. Who can say.
And...Aaric casually drops that he knows about the venin, and that's why he's secretly training to be a dragon rider.
An actual plot twist! For once I'm actually kind of excited to see the next chapter.
The Migration of The First Year is one of the crowning achievements of Navarre’s unification. What a celebration of the human spirit, to leave a life of war and enter one of peace, blending people, languages, and culture from every region of the continent and forming a cohesive, united society, whose only goal is mutual security.
—NAVARRE, AN UNEDITED HISTORY BY COLONEL LEWIS MARKHAM
I haven't talked much about these quotes, but most of them are from academic texts or Brennan's book. Most of them are just kind of there, to be honest.
Okay, chapter start. Violet's arm is in a sling because she injured herself doing a rolling dismount -- her body can't take the impact of the landing very well. Apparently she just sprained it. I don't know why it's immobilized if it's just a sprain? I'd have to look this up but I think it's not recommended to avoid frozen shoulder. Violet says she plans to be out of the shoulder two weeks before the healer recommends. This is stupid, because it means she's at risk of reinjury, and Violet should know this.
Like, this is a military doc, they're not going to want you out of commission longer than you have to be. If they said four weeks, Violet, it means you need four weeks.
Anyways, Violet also says she won't be able to see Nolon, the mender, in time to have it mended because he's so busy. Okay, again, why does a sprain even need to be mended? If you have one guy who can magically heal and he has limited capacity, he should be reserved for people who cannot do without him. Apparently Nolon's waiting list is a month long--unheard of. Again, that's insane. If menders are rare and have limited capacity, they should always have a long waiting list, and actually if Nolon is a military doc you would think there would some system to triage who actually needed him.
Thursdays are my second favorite day of the week. No maneuvers, no RSC, no physics. I unload the heavy textbook and the notes I took on today’s assigned reading, which is more like review for me. There hasn’t been a single thing in this class I hadn’t already studied with my father or Markham—or that I don’t have trouble believing is true now.
I find this difficult to believe. But okay.
As Violet and co. arrive for class, they discover most of the professors are missing because of an attack, and they're told another student is dead. I'll be honest, I don't remember who this guy is, but Violet reacts to his name and immediately assumes the attack was staged to assassinate him, so I guess he came up in a previous chapter.
The lesson begins. We learn that while Poromiel, the neighboring country, is made of provinces that retain their individual cultural identities, Navarre has a unified language and culture. Except for Tyrrendor, the one with the rebellion in it.
Now, the professor here does something actually interesting. She questions the lesson they were scheduled to learn, and instead starts talking about what unification actually means. Yes, Navarre has a common language, but it was common to only three of the provinces, so the three remaining ones lost their languages, which are now considered dead. They have secure borders, but can't leave the country.
The professor asks the class to discuss what else was lost, and one of the rebel kids points out the all Tyrrish culture was essentially lost in the unification. Another student points out that everything was translated, so nothing was lost. Violet chimes in to point out that no, everything wasn't translated
“Just because it’s not in Tyrrish doesn’t mean you can’t walk into the Archives and read whatever translated Tyrrish book you want.” It’s his haughty, arrogant tone that pricks my temper.
“No, actually you can’t.” I drop the fabric in my lap. “For starters, no one can just walk into the Archives and read whatever they want. You have to put in a request that any scribe can deny. Secondly, only a portion of the original scribes spoke Tyrrish, meaning it would have taken hundreds of years to translate every text, and even then, there are no historical tomes older than four hundred years in our Archives that I know of. They’re all sixth, seventh, or eighth editions. Logic dictates that she’s right.” I gesture up to the girl a few rows ahead. “Things are lost in translation.”
I do enjoy that in this book Violet's scribe training is actually plot relevant, though I hate that the next line of dialogue is the professor telling haughty dude how smart Violet is. We can read her dialogue, Yarros, we can decide for ourselves that she is smart!
Rhiannon then says that much folklore was lost during the unification. The great migration mentioned in the opening quote is actually the one year period the Navarre government gave for anyone who wanted to be inside the borders to move there. The professor finishes the lesson by reminding them that they might be against distant relatives when they face the griffons, but it's a sacrifice they must make to keep the nation safe.
Kind of a subversive lesson! But this is the first time the classes in this book set in a school have been interesting, so I'll take it. I also think all of this could have much better incorporated earlier in the series and could have been organically revealed as we got to know the different characters from all over Navarre, instead of being dumped during a lesson. Violet was training to be a scribe--it would have been cool if she'd been cataloguing different cadet's folklore before this, for example.
Okay, next scene. It's the last round of hand to hand challenges. Violet checks in on Sloane. She's been training with Imogen, as I recall, but we've never seen any of it on page. I'm not really sure how much time has passed, either.
As they line up, Violet avoids standing next to Dain, who is mad because she won't speak to him. Isn't Dain above her in the chain of command? Shouldn't there be...consequences for insubordination here? Isn't this a fucking military?
Violet flips him off and swears at him. Rhiannon asks Violet what is up there, and Violet tells her Dain stole from her. Rhiannon is like, just report him, and Violet's like, uh, I can't, because she can't admit he read her mind.
Dain retaliates by having Violet and himself called to the mat for combat. Yeah, dude, that's going to repair your relationship. Being injured does not get Violet out of combat training, even though it should, so she has to do it.
They fight.
Dain gets her pinned, but she has her knife at his throat. They argue. Yarros again produces a nice tight fight scene. Then we get...this.
“That’s what Riorson meant when he said Athebyne, isn’t it?” he asks, his tone just as soft as his eyes—those familiar eyes I’ve always been able to count on. How the hell did we end up here? Fifteen years of the closest friendship I’ve ever known, and my knife could end him with a flick of my wrist.
“You know damn well what he meant,” I reply, keeping my voice down.
Two lines appear between his brows. “I told my father what I saw when I touched you—”
“When you stole my memory,” I correct him.
“But it was a flash of a memory. Riorson told you he’d gone to Athebyne with his cousin.” He searches my eyes. “Second-years don’t get leave for that kind of flight, so I told my father. I know you were attacked on the way there, but I had no way of knowing—”
“You said I’ll miss you.” It comes out in a hiss. “And then you sent me to die, sent Liam and Soleil to their deaths. Did you know what was waiting for us?”
“No.” He shakes his head. “I said ‘I’ll miss you’ because you chose him. I told you I knew things about him, that he had reasons you don’t know about to hate you, and you still chose him. I knew I was saying goodbye to any chance of us on that field. I had no clue gryphons were waiting to ambush you.”
Great. Now Dain's not evil--are we going back to the fucking love triangle? Dain is barely a character at this point, he's just a guy who does whatever the plot needs him to do.
In response to Violet's vitriol, Dain tells her that Violet's mom is the one who scarred Xaden's back.
He says this like it's supposed to change how Violet feels about Xaden, but why should it? If anything, it should be the other way around. Not sure what the point of having this revelation here is.
Violet doesn't believe it. Rhiannon then takes her aside to interrogate her.
“I heard what you said in history, you know.” She drops her shoulders. “You said something about an assassination.”
Fuck. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
Remember, everyone, it is inconceivable that Xaden ever keep a secret from this woman.
So it turns out that slowly members of Violet's squad, everyone who was in the venin fight, have been dying. Rhiannon puts this together and Violet admits that Dain can steal memories. Rhiannon tries to get Violet to tell her more, but Violet refuses, and takes Aaric (the prince?) to the infirmary instead.
Look, it's possible that I missed that Violet's squad members have been being picked off and am just stupid. But it's also possible that this book is bloated and poorly paced. Who can say.
And...Aaric casually drops that he knows about the venin, and that's why he's secretly training to be a dragon rider.
An actual plot twist! For once I'm actually kind of excited to see the next chapter.
