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im suddenly 12 again and having feelings towards them

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— Sunrise on the Reaping, Epilogue

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Tairn blowing his side of the bond wide open so Violet feels less alone and just pretending he’s not broken 301 dragon laws in doing so is my favourite part of the book

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no cause how do you fuck up so badly that lilith sorrengail is winning in the parenting department

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Using one of his own daggers as a bookmark for Violet is just the most Xaden thing I have ever seen. Domestic Riorgail has me obsessed.

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Andarna: so why did we all choose our riders?

Sgaeyl: his strength, courage and loyalty to those he loves

Tairn: I do not need to explain my choices to you

Teine: she’s never been wrong in her whole life and neither have I

Feirge: her determination

Aotrom: he’s just really fucking funny!

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Violet’s signets: Onyx Storm spoilers

So Rebecca has reiterated (and this was first mentioned in Iron Flame? Or maybe it was Carr in Fourth Wing) that Violet’s first signet is power-wielding. Not lightning wielding. Lightning is just the most comfortable form her power takes. Maybe that’s somewhat influenced by her mother’s signet and could even be why she was so inclined to believe Theophanie was her own lightning wielding venin counterpart.

It’s certainly Violet taking the most grand display of power she is aware of as someone who for a very long time felt powerless.

Also the whole thing about commanding the skies - which some theories are percolating about true power residing in the skies and not the ground, hence why the venin are the ultimate corruption as they channel directly from the earth, but dragons bonding with humans who “ground” themselves to wield power that originally never should have belonged to them (hence why the irids are wary of the humans who have abused the abilities gifted to them).

It would be very on point, following that theory, that Violet is someone who pulls power directly from the sky AND is bonded to an irid, which makes her a rarity among rarities, even more so than we already perceive her as, having bonded two dragons.

BUT ANYWAY. Rebecca has told us that we have explored about 85% of Violet’s power. I am in full belief that the final 15% would be Violet figuring out how to wield power in forms that are not lightning. Like waves of energy or shifting the earth itself. Idk.

But having said that, Rebecca has said we have barely brushed the surface of Violet’s second signet, “Dream walking”. Which I put in quotes bc I firmly believe she can do more than that.

I would argue that her brand of inntinnsic is more than just wandering around the subconscious. It’s been proven that she can actually interact with the dreamer within the dream space AND she can interact with any intruders (see: Berwyn - the other “dreamwalker”).

BUT. I would argue that she has already “mindwalked” before, among other things.

LET US ALL RECALL “My house. My chair. My woman.”

I’m sure you remember.

In that scene, for a very brief moment, Violet is able to read Xaden’s mind (whose thoughts were basically a combination of mmm so good so nice and I love her so much). Now it’s kinda brushed over as their bond and Xaden being particularly unguarded in this moment, allowing her to directly reach his thoughts this time.

HOWEVER, now knowing she is a form of inntinnsic, I fully believe this is the first clear evidence of her “mind walking” in a conscious state.

Up to this point in Iron Flame, Violet had already been dreamwalking in Xaden’s dreams, as she keeps believing she is having a recurring nightmare of Berwyn coming for her and being forced to channel and give in to being venin WHEN IN REALITY these were all Xaden’s dreams. Now Andarna, upon Violet’s realisation of her second signet, says that Violet can do this with anyone, but she is most drawn to Xaden.

In “my house, my chair, my woman”, pretty much all her thoughts were Xaden. So her mind is drawn to his, and his mind is, for once, wide open.

Not to mention, that whole chunk where she reads his mind is in ITALICS. Rebecca is very clever with how she uses every aspect of the written medium to inform and enrich the story. It was italics and a lack of quotation marks that had us frothing at the mouth when it was first revealed that Xaden was an inntinnsic.

Time will tell if her abilities are strong enough to get past shields, which is why it seems like right now she can only dream walk bc no one can shield in their sleep.

I also believe there was one other time she mindwalked, and this time kind of intentionally? But rather than jumping into someone else’s mind, she forced her own thoughts on someone else.

After getting tortured by Varrish, Dain arrives and tries to read her memories. Violet, pissed as hell, decides she’ll give him every memory she has.

I’m pretty sure in Iron Flame, she describes it as something like “she grabs onto his presence in her mind and forces him to see everything”. Like thinking her thoughts aggressively is one thing, but forcing Dain, who we have been told in OS is actually quite powerful (perhaps more than we are actually aware), to stay in her mind and flood him with her memories is an entirely different ability. And Dain was pretty shocked and exhausted by the whole thing. So I wonder if her manipulation of his mental presence is physically taxing.

So not only can she mindwalk, she can manipulate what is happening in the mindspace, and as evident by her lucid dream with Xaden against Berwyn, the scene with Dain in Iron Flame is confirmation she can manhandle another the person whose thoughts she is walking within.

So Violet can mindwalk, manhandle, manipulate.

So moving forward:

Violet should be able to shape her power into forms other than lightning at some point

Violet could arguably reach inside the mind of another WHILE BOTH ARE FULLY CONSCIOUS and potentially rip their mind to shreds. Or yknow. Inception.

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“what’s your favourite horror movie?”

idk probably when Xaden had his favourite food ruined for him in the Isle Kingdoms, because he’s now never going to be able to look at a piece of chocolate cake the same way, knowing it could’ve caused the deaths of Garrick or even Violet.

or maybe the fact that it will always make him think of his mother: how she fed him chocolate cake on his tenth birthday and then abandoned him. how she gave him chocolate cake again fourteen years later, knowing it was his favourite, and nearly poisoned him in the process. she may not have been aware it was poisoned, but the way she used his favourite food to try and win him back makes me feel sick.

I actually want to cry for him. he’s been through so much pain at the hands of people who are supposed to love him. he was abandoned by his mother as a child and she never even apologised.

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brennan: you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution, so which is it going to be?

violet: oh I’m going to be the whole entire problem, just watch me

ridoc: hell yes!

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ONYX STORM SPOILERS

“I’ll use Tyrrendor to protect you, not you to protect Tyrrendor.”

Xaden didn’t just marry Violet so Tyrrendor would have a ruler after he was gone. He didn’t just do it so that she could protect Tyrrendor.

He married Violet so the title would protect her. He laid it out plainly when they were in Deverelli and he called her his consort—“the designation gives you the protection and privileges of my title”. The easiest way to kill venin-Xaden would be to kill Violet and hope that the bond does the job for them, but now that she’s Duchess of Tyrrendor? With the entire army of the largest province in Navarre under her command? And all the wealth and power held by the Riorson family? The Navarrian command can’t touch her.

Because Xaden used Tyrrendor to protect Violet, not the other way around.

It’s been 0 days since I’ve cried over Onyx Storm.

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Xaden Riorson’s actions in Fourth Wing and Iron Flame both make more sense and become infinitely funnier when you remember that the man is 22-23 years old.

This man is AT BEST a first year grad student trying to finish compulsory military service in an active war zone while running the family business (ruling a legit kingdom) and taking on extracurriculars (leading a rebellion) as side hustles. On top of that there’s a literal plague of evil descending, institutional racism is against him, and his Situationship (calling Violet that cuz a lot happens there over two books and I’m trying to cover all the relationship levels) never seems to settle out for more than a month at a time.

Like, of course the decision making is not always on point. The man doesn’t even have a fully developed pre-frontal cortex yet and he hasn’t slept the recommended amount in 6 years.

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When Xaden introduces Violet as his consort and Tairn asks if congratulations or comiserations are in order... 😂

Poor Tairn is over here trying to figure out how Violet and Sgaeyl are both such powerful, intelligent, and fierce women who both have such excellent taste in dragon men and such terrible taste in human men.

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10 Things I Hate About You (1999) dir. Gil Junger

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just thinking about the fact that dain and sloane are probably each other's only consistent source of physical contact because people avoid his touch out of fear of his signet, but dain's the only person sloane trusts enough to teach her how to wield her own.

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“I love you.” Violet’s voice cracks the cold, and a silken thread of warmth wedges itself in the opening before it seals shut, locking it in place.”

i fully believe that locking it in place part will be part of what saves him. he may be mostly gone, but that love is still there, he'll come back to her

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Sawyer: I spy with my little eye, something that starts with ‘S’

Ridoc, looking at Garrick and Imogen: Is it sexual tension?