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Finished Zenshu

I am unwell

I need more

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i finished Onyx Storm last night which is great because now I can read Onyx Storm (the anxiety-free version)

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Headcanon that Xaden doesn't wear patches not because he hates them, but because he cannot sew and is too egoistic to ask anyone else.

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Just incase the last episode breaks our hearts

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Fun little late night observation:

The Sorrengail siblings are students of the riders quadrant but represent the other 3 quadrants:

Brennan - healers

Mira - infantry

Violet - scribes

(Mira may be a bit of a stretch but she's definitely the most "military" of the bunch)

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finally finished book 3 🖤

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***Onyx Storm Spoiler***

Dain seeing riders use second signets while in battle

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Ep 1-9

Ep 9 (end) -10

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Jinshi finally realizing his future wife is a cat. We are so back!!

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One addition is Dunne is the Goddess of War and Strength so dedicating your sick/frail child to Dunne in hopes of a "cure" isn't entirely outside the realm of possibility. It's possible a dedication to Dunne would protect her from venin or something and in addition may also "fix" her.

The only reason I can't get on board with the "just to protect her" theory is why wouldn't he have dedicated Brennan and Mira too? They wanted to be riders. Wouldn't they have more contact with venin and bad stuff than scribe Violet (would he even know she'd be a scribe at 2 years old?)

Was Violet just easier to secret away as his first attempt and never got a chance with the other two before Lilith stopped him? Especially after Violet's hair was so obvious.

Is the prophecy "the heart that beats for you will do the wrong thing for the right reason, reach for unspeakable power, and turn dark" from a previous, innocent temple trip (maybe to see if the Goddess of Strength could do anything for her), then when they couldn't dedicate her on the continent to protect her from the prophecy, Asher took her to Unnbriel?

I have no support for this one, but Lilith says she was sick during her pregnancy. Did they go to the temple of Dunne for strength and the "payment" was a dedication so both she & Violet survived (if they ignored it, they'd suffer/die in retaliation)

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Teeny tiny side note I'll probably post about after my reread...

I think Asher is originally from the isles. It would explain how he had time to research the flora and fauna. My assumption was Hedotis at first and when we met Xaden's mom there, I was so afraid we were about to discover they're technically related 😵

In Defense of Asher Sorrengail

Onyx Storm has resulted in Asher getting a lot of hate, and while I do get it (dedicating your 2 year old to the goddess of war is not generally considered good parenting,) I think there is more to it, and, similarly to some of Lilith’s bad parenting decisions, it does come from his love for Violet more than anything else.

I have two theories about why he did it, although this first one is slightly more nebulous. The conclusion that Violet comes to is that he thought he could “fix” her EDS, but that just doesn’t seem to fit with what we know of him. Asher was a scribe, not a rider. He favored logic above all else, and knowing that, I find it hard to believe that he would plan to do something as risky as dedicating his youngest child to one of the most dangerous goddesses just because he though she needed “fixing.” He would have researched it extensively before committing to that course, and even though there probably isn’t much readily available material about dedicating children to the gods, we already know that Asher was capable of looking beyond what the government allowed most scribes to study. Any research he did would probably have told him two things, A) dedicating a child to the gods doesn’t magically cure all their problems. Admittedly this isn’t exclusively stated in the text, but I think if the gods just healed every child who was dedicated to them, the practice probably wouldn’t have been outlawed. B) Dunne is one of the most dangerous goddesses to serve. The epigraphs state over and over again that Dunne is demanding, and doesn’t show mercy to those don’t have her favor. Violet even uses this when she kills Theophanie. Even if Asher did decide for some reason that he had to dedicate Violet to one of the gods, I can’t imagine him choosing Dunne for the purpose of healing her. It would have made the most sense for him to choose either Amari or Hedeon. As a scribe, he would probably have more faith is wisdom than war, and as someone from Amarilis he would view Amari as highest of the gods. Basically, it doesn’t make much sense for him to risk dedicating his daughter to Dunne just for the chance that it might “fix” her. I think that during his research into the venin, he found something that convinced him that the only way to protect Violet was to dedicate her. Maybe it was something about the original six, maybe something about the irids, but I think something convinced him that he needed to give her to Dunne. I think whatever he discovered will be brought up in the next two books, and might have the key to defeating the venin.

This next theory is way less likely, but I like it anyway. In this scenario, there’s no secret about the venin or anything, he just does it because he can’t stand to see her in pain. I’m pretty sure that Violet was around two years old when she was dedicated, but even if my calculations are wrong, she couldn’t have been more than three. Imagine 2-3 year old Violet who wants nothing more than to play with Mira and Brennan and Dain, but she keeps getting hurt, and she’s frustrated and in pain and there’s nothing anyone can do. It must have been horrible for Lilith and Asher to see their baby girl constantly injured and crying and having to live with the fact that they can do absolutely nothing about it. I like to think that for a year or so after Violet was born, Asher spent all his time trying to find a cure, not because he though she was broken, but because he would give anything to make her stop hurting. In that case, taking her to Unnbriel would have been a last resort, and he probably felt incredibly guilty about for the rest of his life.

So those are my two theories. Personally I think the first one is more likely, but I like the second one more. What do you guys think?

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“Let us talk about the fact that Violet is so important to the Venin, that they made Jack-fucking-Barlowe protect and save her in Iron Flame.” —shortshannonreads

I’ve been pondering this ever since I saw it on a random Insta… so, is THAT why Bade didn’t roast her in Iron Flame when given the chance in the RFC mission?!?

… Speaking of how long was Bade opaque eyed and not herself, did it start in that chapter when she was described as “catching her hazy golden eyes” and later “opaque instead of golden” and what did that equate to in meaning (it’s not Venin veins… so)?

… And when did Jack Barlowe turn venin, I presumed he always was, but he hid it well (was he like Xaden in that way?) and if so how long until he was given the “don’t kill her” order? — at least it explains him saving her life in Iron Flame (cause that was confusing as hell). … Though I still feel bad for Baide, and kinda confused on what a Venin rider does to the bond (+ how he even did that to Baide… let alone survived via draining & Venin shit)

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saw a post that said when tairn showed violets memories right before they left for aretia that was the first time sloane had seen liam in six years and it was his death. i need a drink

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I’m so sorry but in the nicest way possible do yall actually read books or just read words??? Cause I’ve been seeing that trend of people not understanding how “snarled” and “eyes darkened” and “eyes softened” etc. was used in a book and like…

Genuinely, do yall just not have imagination?? Or not understand figurative language??? Also eyes do literally darken and soften have you not lived a life??? How do you read with no imagination? Is this how you get through so many books in one month - you simply don’t take the time the understand the words as they are read?

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Brennan's rune theory

Onyx Storm spoilers

This is what I think happened. And I so hope I'm wrong about this.

Firstly a vast majority of the fandom believes that Naolin turned Venin. I belong to this group. I do think that Naolin is 100% venin, there is no reason to bring up a dead guy this much otherwise.

Although, I do not think that Naolin turned when he tried to save Brennan. (I dont think he saved B at all but we'll get to that) I think, that Naolin was an initiate already, and probably became an Asim when he pulled from the ground to save Brennan. But see Naolin was not a mender.

Naolin was a SIPHON ( Venin opposite of Sloane). He could only have siphoned power back into Brennan and I'm not sure B was even conscious to have mended himself. No, see, I think Naolin siphoned his power into the rune that is on Brennan's hand. I don't think he saved Brennan at all, I think Brennan was already dead and Naolin used the rune to resurrect him.

Why ? It is possible that they were in love and Naolin couldn't let Brennan die but unlike Xaden he didn't have anyone to tether his soul and he lost all humanity after elevating to Asim and that's why Brennan woke up alone.

I also think Theophanie and Berwyn both answer to Naolin. I think he somehow became the big bad in the last 6-8 years .

I also think he wants violet because she has Tairn.

Back to the rune. Remember from Iron Flame how Wyvern are made ? The pulsing runes that Mira and Violet take out of them..

See where I'm going?

Naolin brought Brennan back the same way Venin animate wyverns. With a rune.

The rune is keeping Brennan alive but only till the venin who created it lives.

If Naolin dies , so will Brennan.

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✧ soaring high above, watching over you ✧

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Could Aaric have forsaw what was gonna happen on the isles and inserted himself into quest squad for translation reasons but also knew Dain was important for the Unnbriel challenge? 👀

I'm doing a reread and I'm currently in IF so I haven't got to double check any of this yet, but Aaric does manifest precognition at some point. Hoping to nail down the when during my reread.

It was a very clumsy way for him to explain why they were both there without revealing he's precog, but he's also young and very concerned with his secrecy above everything else.

Not saying this was the right move and not a shitty thing to do to the whole quest squad because just fucking tell Violet about your damn signet and she'll believe you and protect you! But yeah... He may have had actual motivations instead of just obnoxious prince

Unpopular opinion

So I don't want to make the Aaric girlies mad and I like him too so don't come at me. I say this respectfully. This:

"Are you fucking serious?" Dain snaps. "Why didn't you tell us you're fluent?"

"You never asked."

Is not... cool or funny 😅😭

This was... no just seriously Aaric?? For what reason did he hide the fact that he speaks the language of the isles fluently. Just why?

Or in regards to Dain when people find it funny when he says so Dain doesn't lose his purpose on being on the Mission. This is also not funny, sassy whatever. Violet could have choosen to take someone else. Dain is the wingleader. We know from Violet how busy his secdule is. In time of war and in such an important matter why take the wingleader who is on their side away from Basgaith when it is not necessary. Why not speak up yourself? Like I am not complaining, not at all that we got more Dain and he was still useful for the mission. But just puttng yourself in this situation and think realistically it was actually kinda shitty what Aaric did. Especially Aaric sighing whenever Dain is struggling to speak a language he is just learing only for the mission as if he couldn't speak up himself?

People say Aaric was sassy or it was funny. No sorry it was just... why? Just why?