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Violet Sorrengail Is Not Meant to Be Understood, She’s Meant to Be Felt

She’s not your typical heroine. She’s twitchy, reckless, infuriatingly stubborn. She overthinks everything and still somehow survives sheer mayhem.

She’s the kind of character that makes you pause mid-sentence and whisper “girl, what are you doing,”

She’s got trauma, sarcasm, dragons, and chronic “I’ll fix it myself” syndrome. But she still loves fiercely, she hurts privately and she never stops fighting.

She is the blueprint for all of us who laugh instead of cry, protect instead of ask, and say “I’m fine” while bleeding.

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Boba Fett drinking boba tea, but this time with Din

Part 1

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Fourth Wing First Impressions: Chapters 5-10

Part 1 here

So far I've been having a good time with the book. There's a lot of stuff that just Keeps Happening so it feels quick. It's engaging. There's a lot to focus on and keep in mind (sometimes to the book's detriment) but overall I'm enjoying it. I am here for the ride.

So let's just carry on with the next set of chapters.

Chapter 6

Picking up where we last set off, I get to see a bit more into Dain and Violet's... friendship I guess. It's clear he cares for her, but it's also becoming abundantly clear early on that Dain's overprotective nature is hindering Violet's ability to grow as a person and sort of prove to herself that she can do this.

(I could go more into the sort of failed love triangle of it all in this book. There's potential in Dain to be an interesting if conflicted character, but we're still early on yet.)

We get a bit more of Violet's backstory. I love the idea of healer's and menders and how there's some sort of rudimentary surgery happening as well. All I can hope is that they have a fantasy version of germ theory around here.

Violet's self-loathing even at herself becomes abundantly clear in this chapter and hopefully she learns to be kinder to herself. Because doing the things that she's doing, at the rate at which she's doing it all, she will burn out sooner than later.

This is also when Brennan's journal is revealed. An interesting detail even though I do think it fucks around a bit with the internal worldbuilding of burning someone's belongings after they die, but I'll come back to this later.

Chapter 7

Here we get to learn about the Marked Ones and Xaden's sort of daddy issues lmao.

I like this concept a lot. It's extremely dystopian and a great way of rooting out dissent. Punishing the children for the sins of their parents. It's a classic trope.

Xaden gets to show off more of his leadership potential AND his signet of shadow powers when he discovers Violet out and about and snooping in on the super secret super illegal conversation among the Marked Ones.

It's nice that we finally get a proper conversation between these two and Violet gets to see there's more to Xaden than meets the eye and probably vice versa. It also shows what sort of alignment Violet has which is likely Chaotic Good lol. She ain't telling anyone SHIT about this meeting.

Chapter 8

We finally get a bit more information about dragons!! Yay!! I think this is a very interesting set up of colour + tail type. Easy breezy beautiful Covergirl if you ask me. But most of the kids in this class come off as pompous and immature. Too high and might if you ask me lmao.

This chapter then ends out with Violet poisoning all of her sparring partners which is fine on its own. It's an admittance that Violet needs to work by other means in order to make headway. Which is good in the short term. However, this could be a part of a flaw for her. That she only thinks in the short term and not the long term. Because you're not always going to have time beforehand to poison your enemy in advance of a fight.

And then she gets to fight Xaden. Right on lmao.

Chapter 9

This fight does a good job at showing their current dynamic and potentially their future. We finally get to compare and contrast Dain and Violet's relationship to Xaden and Violet. Here Xaden pushes Violet to be better because that's what she wants whereas Dain always restrains her.

Did I ever feel like Xaden was ever actually a threat to Violet? No not at all lmao. I think it's just a bit too obvious that he's the main love interest. He was never going to be a true threat to her.

This chapter ends out with Dain being overbearing. There's nothing new to his character at this point and it kinda drags on with this supposed love triangle. I do not feel any sort of affection Violet has for Dain and this could've been done better for sure.

Chapter 10

We get introduced to the Gauntlet here which was a bit difficult to piece out in my mind, but I think I got the gist of it. I think it's designed well for its intended purposes. It's all about the strength and agility needed to mount and ride a dragon.

We get more camaraderie between the cadets which is great. I want to give Rhiannon more credit because I like her as a friend for Violet, but I need to read a bit more before I get a full post together.

Violet watches another cadet die. Sad. Moving on lol.

Violet gets another tough love conversation from Xaden which is likely what she needs more at this point.

All these chapters provide a lot of character building and plot building to what we're all waiting for. Threshing lol. So some of these chapters read a lot quicker than the others because it's a song and dance we've heard before.

I also wouldn't mind exploring Dain a bit more in a separate post. Something that goes a bit more into him being a stickler for the rules. In all honesty I think it would've been better for him as a character to be more cold and rule oriented instead of immediately friendly with Violet like 2 buds reconnecting. Like let him just commit to the bit. And that would've matched the tone a bit better of Violet feeling isolated and alone and struggling to keep up and where Xaden's tough love approach would've fit in better.

Anyway.... I'll carry on those thoughts another day lol.

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Fourth Wing First Impressions: Chapters 1-5

I'm putting down my thoughts of this series like in groups of a few chapters. From what I can tell so far, these chapters are relatively short and easy to get through, so I'll likely be doing it in chunks. I may also do first impressions of some of the main characters who deserve more commentary.

Anyway.

Here are my thoughts of the first five chapters.

Chapter 1

this is a pretty solid introduction to some family dynamics. I appreciate Mira's concern for Violet and trying to set her up for success as best she can.

Also love me a book with mommy issues on full display. We need more of that in literature actually.

I like that the one thing Violet wants to save is her books even though at this time it's impractical. I can definitely see her maybe having a photographic memory or the like in the way she can almost effortlessly recall information. It sets up her strengths well.

Also why do the stakes in this book need to be so damn high lol. Many people have criticized the poor set up of the parapet. Why would you kill potential recruits when you have a conscription problem lol? The high stakes just get a bit silly after a while, but I'm here for the ride of it.

Also damn Violet's horny. She sees Xaden and immediately has to point out how hot he is before coming to her sense and remembering that Xaden might try to kill her.

Chapter 2

Jack is the most cartoonishly evil man on the planet lmao. LIke should we not reconsider letting this man onto a flying death machine please? No? We're going to reward him in fact? Okayyyyy

Again with the high stakes across the parapet! It also has to rain! I do appreciate getting to see Violet struggle and learn and overcome by sheer force and determination.

I do appreciate getting to learn more about the world of this universe, but the way the information is divulged to is a bit clunky. I think Violet reciting facts to herself as a soothing technique works for who she is. I just wish it was something more like... a historical account of something. Something more specific than 'this province does this' type worldbuilding.

The knife to the balls scene is pure cheese. NEXT

Chapter 3

This chapter we finally get to meet Dain. I'm not so much getting childhood best friends between them. Maybe because it's still too early on yet, but eh. I understand Dain's concern for Violet at this point in the story.

I'm also interested in the notion of physical disability and shame within this world. It's a very ablesist world and as we know Violet lives with disability. Violet has learned how to mend her own body from a young age and given barely any support in return. I think this really builds up nicely to how self sufficient and stubborn she is because she has to be.

Then we get roll call and wing formation. And also the first appearance of the dragons, which I'm excited about. I think showing the dragons here is a good way to further weed out cadets that are not cut for this. Especially if many haven't seen a dragon this up close before, which is most likely the case. Again, I still don't think these cadets need to die, not even by dragon fire, as they can easily be enrolled in the infantry quadrant that way. But meh. It's fine

Chapter 4

We get a bit more of a formal introduction to signets here. Always love a sprinkling of magic. Dain's ability is interesting but I can see why it might cause problems in the narrative down the road.

Violet's mother being able to wield storms is like. yes YES. Good. Love it. It brings up a lot of questions in terms of the limitations and reach of these abilities.

Also it's increasingly clear that each chapter ends on like a high energy note. It's giving fanfiction. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. Ending in a way that's like a mini-cliffhanger, but it is definitely a stylistic choice.

Chapter 5

We finally get a peak at the class structure here at Basgiath. I like the way they structure Battle Brief. Obviously the case of the attack at Chakir is suspicious as fuck especially with the issue of gryphons and altitude. But I imagine we'll come back here eventually.

Now we also come to Violet's first turn on the sparring mats. Obviously she gets her ass handed to her. I like it that she doesn't yield. Again it goes back to how stubborn she is.

Also featured: Jack once again being cartoonishly evil l m a o. Like I get it. We're not supposed to like this guy. I just wish there was a subtler way of conveying why we shouldn't like him/view him as a threat.

Overall, solid start. I'm hooked. I like Violet's tenacity. She's fun. She's spunky. She's determined. Can't wait to see where this goes next.

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Welcome to empyrean.gov

I've watched enough videos reviewing Fourth Wing that I just had to check it out for myself, so here's this blog for me to essentially live blog my reaction to the book, give thoughts and commentary, and just have fun with a text that I think is pretty fun.

The goal of this blog is to not bash or hate this series. I will be critical with it, but I do believe this series is quite fun and has a lot of good going for it overall. And in all honesty, I need a fun read at this time lol (too much dry academia in my life. i need to give my brain a bit of a break).

I'm also 1000% here for dragons. No other romantasy series has captured my attention quite like this one and I'm pretty sure it's because of the dragons.

So! If you want to stick around and follow this blog, please do! I'm interested in chatting with people about it, their reactions, thoughts, feelings, and theories on where the series is going next.

Feel free to comment, ask, chat, whatever! I am here for it.