Iron Flame (Chapter 29)
STATS
Title: Iron Flame
Series: The Empyrean (Book 2)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: November 2023
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Rating: 1/10
SPOILER WARNING
Heavy spoilers will be provided for the entire story up through the end of the content covered in this part. Mild spoilers for elements later in the story may be provided, but I will keep the first paragraph of each section as spoiler-free as possible. Heavy spoilers from later in the book will be confined to clearly labelled sections.
STORY
Violet and Xaden return to Samara. They briefly discuss the luminary that Xaden has been trying to get from Teclis. It turns out that Teclis’s condition for handing over the luminary is for Violet to demonstrate her lightning Signet to him, though Xaden warns that Teclis will likely want to lure Violet into becoming a permanent resident at his court. Xaden then gives Violet a venin-killing dagger to ensure her protection. As the scene ends, it is implied that further sex between the pair will be delayed by Violet getting Xaden caught up about all of the recent developments at Basgiath.
Violet returns to Basgiath. As she walks back to the Quadrant from the flight field, she passes Professor Emetterio. Emetterio tells her, via wafer-thin doublespeak, that she is his favorite student and that she should watch out for Draconis.
Before Violet can reach her room, she is intercepted by Draconis. He orders that Violet be searched. The only reason that the venin-killing dagger is not found is that Rhiannon chooses this moment to look out of her own room and into the hallway, Violet signals for her to help, and Rhiannon uses her Signet (object teleportation) to snatch the dagger before Draconis can notice it. Violet is then saved from punishment for going AWOL at the end of Chapter 26 by Kaori, who tells Draconis that he already arranged to have the charges dropped and stands up to Draconis for abusing his power.
Violet goes into Rhiannon’s room to get the dagger back. The other accessories are also there. Violet decides to stop lying to her accessories and begins to tell them about the venin.
PLOT
Launch of Contrivance
After nearly 20 chapters without progression, the plot of Iron Flame lurches into motion because of not one but two contrivances. Either one of these is so blatantly forced and artificial that it destroys the narrative. The inclusion of both is sheer incompetence of the highest order.
Contrivance 1 - Xaden Gives Violet a Dagger
Why would Xaden do this?
There is no benefit to Violet possessing a venin-killing dagger. The only established time that it would be more effective than any of the mundane knives that Xaden has already given her is if she is fighting venin, but based upon everything Xaden and the audience know at this point, Violet is in zero danger of encountering a venin in her routine activities. She lives at Basgiath (the epicenter of the wards, at least several hundreds of miles from anyplace a venin could be) and only needs to travel to Samara (a place that is also inside the wards) to visit Xaden. Even if we were to interpret Navarre’s wards as only suppressing the ability of venin to use their magic (i.e. a venin could still physically enter Navarre), said venin would be stripped of any magic that would pose a threat to Violet, and therefore a special blade should no be needed to incapacitate them.
What Xaden does have are very good reasons NOT to give Violet a venin-killing dagger. He knows that:
Draconis is searching Violet for contraband every time she leaves Basgiath. She can’t actually take the dagger with her when she leaves Basgiath to visit Xaden at Samara.
Violet was snatched without warning for that first RSC exercise, and Xaden should be able to guess that her weapons were confiscated for the second one. That means Violet can't even safely carry this weapon around within Basgiath, lest it be discovered and taken from her during an RSC exercise.
Violet is currently AWOL. There is a good chance that she will be arrested and punished for that offense the moment that she returns to Basgiath. Merely getting this dagger back to her room so that she can hide it is already an extremely dicey proposition.
Xaden has chosen to protect Violet by handing her one of the few things that could instantly damn her, him, his whole operation, the Aretia rebels, and (in his eyes) Navarre and the wider world. Nothing short of character assassination could make this make sense.
Contrivance 2 - Draconis Does Not Find the Dagger
Let me set the stage for this ridiculous encounter.
Violet is wearing Xaden’s flight jacket. This has a shoulder sheath (which is either a sheath slung over her back or something along the lines of a shoulder holster for a pistol - it’s not clear which, but the problems here are the same either way). Violet is wearing the venin-killing dagger in this sheath.
Draconis and his underlings intercept Violet before she can reach her room. Rhiannon’s room is across the hall. This means that, when Rhiannon looks out of her room and towards Violet, she is looking past Draconis, in the same direction as him. He sees what she sees (if not more, since he doesn’t have three people obstructing his line of sight).
Violet is able to signal Rhiannon to take the dagger without Draconis seeing that same dagger - a dagger which is among the contraband he is looking for (and that he should therefore recognize right away).
This is the pathetic excuse Yarros gives for why Draconis doesn't win here and now.
“Collecting them, are we?” Varrish takes the jacket without looking my direction. His focus is on the bag with the other two riders’.
Draconis just … wasn't looking … at any point when the dagger was visible.
Neither of his two associates were looking.
All three prioritized the search of the bag - a task that only takes one person to do effectively - rather than having even one person watch Violet to make sure she doesn’t try to run away or attack them or do anything else that an unmonitored suspect might do.
To make things worse, Draconis has a reason to be looking at Violet. He is currently speaking to her. What’s more, he has a past precedent of gloating and trying to get a rise out of her (as was the case back in Chapter 13). His characterization demands that he watch her reactions throughout this entire exchange.
The plot of this book progresses, rather than ending here and now in a victory for Draconis, for no other reason than that Draconis acted out of character while his underlings did their job in the least efficient way possible.
A Lesser Annoyance
This would not a contrivance in isolation, but Yarros chose to make a big deal out of it, thereby inflating its importance to the point that it can also be considered a contrivance.
In Chapter 23, while Violet and the accessories were trying to break out of the RSC prison, we get this exchange between Ridoc and Rhiannon.
“There have to be keys that you can transport, right?” he says to Rhi.
“Not through walls.” She shakes her head. “I’m close but not there yet.”
Yarros chose to set this limit on Rhiannon’s Signet: that physical barriers will block the teleportation. She then chose to ignore this limit so that Rhiannon could take the dagger from Violet. This inconsistency is highlighted to feign an emotional payoff.
“I didn’t want you caught up in—” My words die when she holds the dagger up, grasping the tip. “Holy shit!” My jaw drops, then rises in an awestruck smile. “You just pulled that through the wall! I thought you couldn’t do that yet!”
“I can’t!” she rebuts. “Well, couldn’t, I guess. Not until right now. Not until I thought whatever this is had a chance of getting you killed from the look you gave me.”
Rhiannon just … levels up … because Violet needed her to.
As stated above, this would be fine in isolation. People can accomplish remarkable things under stress, and extending this to fantastical elements in a story is nothing new. Signets have also been established to have an emotional component, so leveling up due to stress makes a lot of sense. It could also be satisfying as a moment of character growth for Rhiannon.
The issue here is narrative. Nothing was earned. The relationship between Violet and Rhiannon is effectively nonexistent. The limit of Rhiannon’s power has not had any impact on the plot. (The incident in the RSC cell does not count, as they used another Signet power to bypass the obstacle with no added effort or delay.) No one grows, and no paradigms are shifted.
Yarros set an inconsequential limit just so that she could make a big deal out of bypassing that limit. This is lazy writing. All she accomplishes by making a big deal out of it is the placement of immense focus on a very convenient development, thereby elevating it to contrivance by expecting it to shoulder weight that it really can't.
The McGonagall Moment
Kaori intervening on Violet’s behalf is infuriating.
Yarros went out of her way to establish that Violet is in immense trouble here. On top of all the previous setup for how Violet is AWOL and Draconis is out to get her, the epigraph of this very chapter affirms that she could be executed on sight. She is cornered and being searched.
And then Kaori shows up to tell Draconis that Violet is cleared for going AWOL. He then helps Violet to throw around some legalese to … “outsmart” … Draconis’s attempt to pin another charge on her. Kaori then accuses Draconis of abusing his power. Draconis and his henchmen squelch away in shame.
What a waste of the audience’s time and investment.
Delete, Delete, Delete
Xaden giving Violet the dagger, Kaori intervening on Violet's behalf, and Rhiannon leveling up her Signet are all artificial and arbitrary elements to move the story along. They build upon nothing. They are triggered by nothing. Yarros could have inserted them at any prior point in the timeline, thereby deleting multiple chapters of filler and wasted characterization moments.
To take just one example:
The meeting with the gryphon fliers could have happened during Violet’s first visit to Samara (which was all the way back in Chapter 12).
Xaden could have given her the dagger after the meeting, just as he does here.
Violet could have almost make it back to her room before Draconis intercepted her for the Signet-training punishment.
Rhiannon could then have liberated the dagger before Violet was dragged off.
After Violet’s punishment, she could have confided in her accessories.
This would outright delete about 150 pages of this bloated, 745-page mess, thereby getting the plot rolling much sooner and trimming a LOT of fat. The RSC sessions, Violet being a hypocrite with Sloane, countless arguments with Xaden that get swept under the rug anyway after the pornography - all gone. Jesinia’s circular logic for figuring out something shady is going on can go anywhere, thanks to it being circular logic that isn’t actually triggered by anything. Jack’s return is only needed for the twist in Chapter 60 (and, as we will cover there, he isn't necessary for that, either). The exposition about daggers being made of trademarked dental alloy can be sprinkled in elsewhere.
Plots should not progress on a basis of contrivance alone, but if the author insists on doing that anyway, the least the author can do is not waste the audience’s time. For as meandering as all the chapters from Chapter 13 to the present have been, there was at least an assumption that it was going somewhere, that the eventual progression of the plot would hinge upon something that happens in these chapters. Yarros instead chose to confirm that it was indeed a waste of time.
CHARACTER
Violet
Skills of a Sue
When Violet is updating Xaden about recent happenings at Basgiath, the elixir is brought up.
“Don’t worry,” I say over my shoulder, tugging him along. “We escaped. They tried using this new elixir on us that dulls our connections to our dragons and our signets, but I remembered how it smelled from land nav, so we avoided that one.”
“Signet-blocking elixir?” His voice rises.
“It’s fine. If I can get my hands on the solution, I can probably figure out an antidote.” I glance at him. “Or Brennan can.”
Setting aside the fact that the elixir should probably have been mentioned to Xaden several chapters / in-story weeks ago, given that it was used in the first RSC exercise back in Chapter 14 … How and why would Violet know how to do this?
Violet’s knowledge of poisons has been tied back to a specific source: a book that she brought to the Quadrant with her, back in Fourth Wing. This is her only established herbal, alchemical, medical, or apothecarial training. She follows instructions in a book to identify toxic plants and prepare them for use. The closest we ever saw to her doing something more complex was a two-stage poison she used to interfere in Sloane’s sparring text. Even that amounted to nothing more than having to prepare and administer two separate components per instructions in the book.
This does not in any way equate to conducting a detailed chemical analysis on an unknown substance (one that might well be magical in nature, given that it is supposed to block magic) and developing an antidote, all of which Violet will need to do without a laboratory space, any equipment, or the means to conduct human trials (as that would require both test subjects and adequate supplies of both elixir and antidote to run the tests).
Violet is not Maomao from Apothecary Diaries. Frankly, even Maomao would have trouble with this, but at least Maomao’s entire character identity, from her backstory to her skill set to her proclivities, are constructed around her ability to solve this type of problem. What we have here is just a Mary Sue being handed yet another unearned asset so that she can invalidate obstacles in the plot.
The Sex Addict
As Violet is returning to Basgiath, we get a charming line about her sex life.
And his body is most definitely a perk. I’m deliciously sore from more than just the flight as I dismount Tairn at the edge of the field to avoid the incoming landings as First Wing goes through third-year maneuvers.
Stuff like this is what makes me reflect back on Xaden’s POV chapter from Fourth Wing and conclude that Violet doesn’t deserve him. This should be a line that warrants, at most, an eye-roll, but when contrasting Violet’s priorities and behavior with Xaden's, it’s pretty clear that Violet only cares about using Xaden for sex.
It’s also kind of gross in light of the pornography. In a less graphic work, I think this wouldn’t be worth commenting upon. It references sex without subjecting us to the details. However, once that graphic information is foisted upon us, this reads less like an acknowledgement and more like that coworker you have to report to HR for bombarding you with her unsolicited accounts of her sex life.
Dain
Shortly after Violet showing her priorities, we get this:
“With all these dragons present, I have no doubt that Varrish and Aetos have been alerted to your return,” Tairn warns me.
Why is Dain being equated with Draconis?
Even at her most spiteful, Violet hasn’t actually treated Dain as a threat in the same vein as Draconis. She knows he can read minds, and he is the type of person who will share what he learns with the rider leadership, but that’s it. He has not hassled her the way that Draconis has. Violet was also present when Dain rejected Draconis’s effort to tempt him into reading Violet’s mind, first by passively resisting and then be explicitly refusing. To lean into the Order of the Phoenix parallel (which we’ll get into shortly), this would be like equating Umbridge with McGonagall, based on nothing but the fact that both are strict. It’s very weird.
Also, why is it Tairn who makes this equivalency? Violet is the one ruled by irrational emotions. Tarin is usually the one calming her down.
It’s almost as if Tairn is not a character with agency and opinions of his own. It's almost like he’s just a big dog with nothing behind the eyes except for an instinctual imperative of, “Bite mean man who upset Master.”
Draconis Umbridge
The whole sequence of Draconis being beaten down in a legalistic squabble by Violet and Kaori offended me.
That's not hyperbole. I am insulted by this. Every time that Yarros does this is a waste of time and a slap in the face to the intelligence and investment of her readers.
Why does Yarros keep hyping Draconis up as a threat just so that he can be made to look stupid and pathetic? How is it that this master interrogator whom was assigned to Basgiath to stamp out a resistance movement is so unaware of the basics of the Codex that he can not only not make a charge stick but can’t even get the numbers of the Codex regulations correct? Why does Yarros insist on wasting our time and then demanding we nod along and smile as she kicks a dead horse over and over again?
Is Draconis just another strawman for someone Yarros hates and is desperate to humiliate?
The Accessories
I feel that the behavior of Rhiannon, Ridoc, and Sawyer is worth commenting upon, but Chapter 30 picks up immediately after the end of this chapter. The things I have to say about them here also apply to Chapter 30, at which point we’ll have more to work with. My analysis for these characters shall therefore be folded into next week’s review.
Professors Emetterio and Kaori
I will come back to these two when I analyze the Good Teachers and Bad Teachers below.
Commandant Panchek
Much like Colonel Aetos back in Fourth Wing, Commandant Panchek is a character who simply hasn’t been worth discussing. He’s been here since the start of the series, but he contributes nothing to the narrative, even in scenes where he is present and should have a role. For example, he is present in Chapter 4 of Iron Flame, but he just stands around awkwardly while Colonel Aetos’s incompetence is demonstrated, and then he continues the graduation ceremony as if nothing happened.
I find this particularly weird because, back in Fourth Wing, his introduction implied that he would be important. His established character trait was that he was ambitious and political, and he was given the very clear motivation of wanting General Sorrengail’s job. It was implied that he would antagonize Violet is some way in pursuit of that goal. Instead, he just fades into the background for the rest of the book.
The reason I explain all of this now is that I had actually forgotten he was a character by this point in Iron Flame. Yarros then chose to remind us that Panchek does indeed exist.
If Varrish tries to kill me, I’ll fight. If he wants to torture me, I’ll deal with it. Or maybe I should go straight to Panchek?
And then, of course, Kaori goes to Panchek to clear Violet of any charges for going AWOL with Tairn.
This makes me wonder: why did Yarros bother introducing Draconis as an antagonist?
Draconis is Vice-Commandant. He is second to Panchek. His authority is, at least officially, derived by Panchek’s. (We know he’s probably answering to Melgren, but that hasn’t been made public.) Panchek should therefore be able to fulfill the same narrative role as Draconis. On top of that, Panchek’s only established character trait gives him a far stronger motive than Draconis to antagonize Violet and the rebel children. Draconis has no motive, aside perhaps from following orders from Melgren; Panchek has an opportunity here to elevate himself politically, ingratiating himself to Melgren by eliminating a threat that General Sorrengail will not. The abuse of authority accusation that Kaori flings would also make more sense for Panchek, as he would arguably be stretching outside of his usual limits to engage in this antagonism.
It’s also not like Panchek’s characterization prevents him from indulging in Draconis’s brutality. His ambition is his only established trait. There is a lot of room to work with. Arguably the only issue would be that giving Pancheck’s dragon history with Tairn might not work after not mentioning such a thing in Fourth Wing, but even that could be worked around with a little tinkering. As for overruling any punishments Panchek issues, General Sorrengail outranks him. Kaori could just go to her.
The fact that Yarros made up a new character to act as her Umbridge stand-in rather than using a far superior option who was already in her story just makes her effort to ape The Order of the Phoenix all the more blatant.
WORLDBUILDING
Surprisingly, the worldbuilding in this chapter does not take any further virus bombs. All the issues are plot- and character-based. The closest element to a worldbuilding issue is Rhiannon’s spontaneous level-up of her Signet, but as covered above, that does fit the established lore.
PROSE
First up, we get this line as Violet and Xaden discuss Teclis’s terms for the luminary.
“And secondly, I don’t trust him to stop at seeing you. He’s known for collecting precious things and keeping them against their will.” His thumb grazes my lower lip, sending a shiver of awareness through me. “I won’t risk it. Won’t risk you.”
“Doesn’t seem like it’s your risk to take,” I say softly. He needs that luminary, but maybe if I can get the wards up, that will buy us some time.
Violet seems to be telling Xaden, “This sounds like a sacrifice that I should decide whether or not to make, rather than you deciding it for me.” Why, then does her internal monologue show her thinking in the exact opposite direction, with her emphasizing the wards to buy time, thereby implying that she agrees about not making the sacrifice? Did Yarros just want Violet to assert herself just so that she could say that the Bad Boy Love Interest isn’t Violet's boss?
Then we get this description of the Gauntlet when Violet returns to Basgiath.
“Could you do so, I would think you would have done it already.” He waits until I walk in front of him, heading for the stairs by the Gauntlet, and then he launches, his wings gusting wind at my back.
I can’t help but look to the left as I descend the steps. Our squad is practicing the deadly obstacle course that cost Trysten his life while we were in interrogation practice.
The “deadly obstacle course” being referenced is the Gauntlet. We all know what the Gauntlet is. It was referenced by name just one paragraph earlier. We have stronger associations with that name than a Red Shirt so irrelevant that he wasn’t even worth me mentioning to make a point. Why, then, does Yarros not just call it the Gauntlet?
And, to cap it off:
“Take that one at a run,” I tell Sloane as I walk by. “Hesitate and you’ll fall.”
“I didn’t say I need your help,” she mutters back.
“Your brother won the Gauntlet patch last year. No one expects you to fill those shoes, but try not to die, will you?” I say over my shoulder, not bothering to stop. It’s not like she’s going to let me help, and I can’t save her from this. She’ll make it or she won’t.
Fuck, I feel like Xaden of all people.
Violet should feel like Dain. This is the same calculus he made when he offered her a way out before Threshing and then allowed her to live or die on her own terms. Is Yarros really this oblivious to the double standard?
THE ORDER OF THE SUE-PORTERS: AN ANALYSIS OF GOOD TRACHERS AND BAD TEACHERS
The attempt to imitate The Order of the Phoenix was evident from the moment that Draconis Umbridge arrived as Basgiath, all the way back in Chapter 5, yet Chapter 29 is where the both the effort and its colossal failure became impossible to ignore.
While Kaori going full McGonagall on Draconis was part of this, what really drove the nail into the coffin was Emetterio. Here’s the sequence where he validates Violet.
“You’ve angered the leadership, Sorrengail,” Emetterio says as I approach, the sun reflecting off his freshly shaved and oiled head.
“It couldn’t be helped,” I say quietly, pausing at his side.
He glances sideways at me. “I do not have favorites. That would be foolish in this place.”
“Noted.”
“But if I did.” He lifts his forefinger at me. “And I’m not saying I do. But if I did, I would suggest to that favored student that she stresses the undimmable bond of her legendary battle dragon and forgets any mention that perhaps strengthening her mental shields could have saved her from such a rash decision when it came to departing without leave.” He lifts both of his dark brows at me. “But, I would also hope that another favored student—were I to have such a thing—would be teaching you stronger shield techniques so it doesn’t happen again.” His gaze drops to my collar, where there’s a single silver line of lieutenant’s rank.
“I get the point.” A smile curves my mouth. “Thank you for caring, Professor Emetterio.”
“I never said I did.” He turns his attention to the Gauntlet, where Sloane has just crossed the fourth ascent.
Since WHEN was Violet Emetterio’s favored student? Since when do they have ANY kind of relationship? Him acknowledging her fighting skills and wanting to avoid a sexual assault accusation (in Chapter 10, after Violet survives the assassination attempt, he asks permission to “touch” her before examining her injuries, which Violet immediately concludes was due to her and Xaden publicly framing Dain as a sex offender) is not the same thing as a professor indulging a favored pupil. Him liking Xaden is easier to swallow, as not being in Xaden’s POV leaves us room for inference, but not even that automatically transfers Emetterio’s favor to someone Xaden tutored.
This is even worse than Violet wanting Devera to be a Good Teacher in Chapter 25 and thinking Devera was sending her a coded message in Chapter 26. At least there, Devera herself was not the source. We could write these things off as Violet indulging in her typical delusions. We can’t do that here. Emetterio is openly declaring his allegiance and favoritism, and there is nothing in either his history or Violet’s to back that up.
What Order of the Phoenix Did
Let’s start this off by reflecting on what Yarros is copying so poorly.
While Harry Potter is a prophesized Chosen One within his series, he is not a particularly good wizard, and he is a terrible student. His only real magical skill in flying, and by extension, Quidditch. As the series progresses, he does acquire extensive knowledge of various magics for combat and opposing the Dark Arts, but this is always driven by necessity, and Hermione and Ron help him acquire that magic and train in its use. He and Ron only manage to avoid failing their other classes by copying Hermione’s notes, getting Hermione to check their homework, having Hermione loom over their shoulders disapprovingly when they slack off, and brazen cheating whenever Hermione isn’t available to stop them. Harry himself is fully aware of this. Even when he began aceing Potions with the help of the Half-Blood Prince’s notes, at no point does he actually think that he himself has become a Potions genius. He is honest about his dependency on the Half-Blood Prince and rationalizes that continued dependence with necessity.
This is reflected in his relationship with the teachers. Most don’t give him any special treatment. Of those that do, it is always conditional and justified by factors that have little or nothing to do with Harry himself.
Hagrid served in the original Order of the Phoenix, knew Harry’s parents as comrades in arms, and felt kinship to a fellow orphan.
Lupin was a childhood friend of Harry's father and another Order veteran.
Snape was torn between lingering love of Harry’s mother, his loyalty to Dumbledore, and his hatred of Harry’s father.
Barry Crouch, Jr. was pretending to favor Harry to ensure he would reach the Triward Cup and fulfill Voldemort’s resurrection gambit.
McGonagall never favors Harry, despite having a history with his parents and having enormous sympathy for him. The only time she deviates from being the wizard equivalent of a ruler-wielding nun is when Quidditch is involved, and even in those times, she directly tells Harry that he is expected to work hard and accomplish great things for the team.
Dumbledore is using Harry as a chess piece to destroy the Dark Lord. As much as he loves Harry and wants to spare Harry from pain, he will always do what is needed for the greater good. The special treatment he shows Harry is about facilitating that goal.
When The Order of the Phoenix rolls around, the teachers find themselves siding with Harry against Umbridge. The key factor to consider here, though, is that they are siding WITH Harry. They are not favoring Harry or even putting their hopes on him to resist Umbridge. They are rallying against the interference of the Ministry as represented by Umbridge, some because she is threatening their jobs, others because they are members of the Order or loyal to Dumbledore. Harry just happens to be fighting back against Umbridge as well. They don’t even necessary agree with him getting involved: McGonagall has that scene at the start of the school year where she reprimands Harry for calling Umbridge out in class.
In fact, there are only two instances in the entire book where the teachers come close to supporting Harry specifically. One of these is Harry’s career planning interview, where McGonagall vows to help him become an Auror. This is McGonagall’s way of arguing with Umbridge, who is sitting in on said interview and kept interrupting her, and she progresses to shouting with Umbridge directly as the scene closes. The other is after Harry does his interview for The Quibbler, when various teachers show their support for him through small actions.
The teachers were, of course, forbidden from mentioning the interview by Educational Decree Number Twenty-six, but they found ways to express their feelings about it all the same. Professor Sprout awarded Gryffindor twenty points when Harry passed her a watering can; a beaming Professor Flitwick pressed a box of squeaking sugar mice on him at the end of Charms, said “Shh!” and hurried away; and Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister of Magic, and have twelve children.
This was not about favoring Harry because they liked him personally. They were encouraging the student who had humiliated Umbridge after she had subjected them to months of intolerable work conditions.
The Good and Bad Teachers of Iron Flame
What Yarros chose to do in Iron Flame reflects a superficial understanding of the work that she is trying to ape. Rather than falling onto the same side of Violet’s conflict with Draconis for reasons that reflect their own characters or as a natural response to problems Draconis has caused them, the Good Teachers are either supporting Violet specifically or taking moral stands that make zero sense in light of their environment. The Bad Teachers, by contrast, are people Violet disagrees with.
Let’s rattle through the list of every established teacher, what role Yarros has assigned to them, and how said role falls flat.
Emetterio (Good Teacher)
As mentioned above, Emetterio declaring Violet to be his favorite student comes completely out of nowhere. It is wholly unearned and not supported by any established aspect of his character. Part of the reason for the latter issue is that Yarros has barely characterized Emetterio. Him declaring Violet as his favorite is the first time he’s ascended above being a mob character.
Kaori (Good Teacher)
This is one of the only two Good Teachers who makes some amount of sense, but even here, there is a problem.
Kaori did share a conversation with Violet in Fourth Wing that could be interpreted as a bond between them. He knew both Mira and Brennan, and he takes time to validate Violet. I could reasonably believe that Kaori would at least be sympathetic to Violet. The fact that he intervenes on Violet’s behalf by getting the AWOL charge dismissed also makes sense regardless of his connection to Violet. He is the resident dragon expert. If a cadet violates the Codex because of something that could be reasonably be traced to said cadet’s dragon, it would be his job to step in and mention that comprising factor to those in charge of assigning punishment.
Where Yarros oversteps is by having Kaori get involved in Violet’s weak-sauce legalism with Draconis, accuse Draconis of abusing his power as Vice-Commandant, and pull a Gotcha card on Draconis over Solas immolating multiple cadets in Chapter 8.
The first two of these failures comes back to failure to provide evidence in the text. Kaori has not been characterized as someone who dabbles in Codex legalism. If this were something every rider could do, then surely Draconis would not be so easily outsmarted here, as he would also be experienced in such legalistic argumentation. Likewise, this is the first time that we’ve had any indication that Draconis is abusing his power. Everything he’s done previously has been presented as above-board, backed by the Codex regulations that Yarros has been citing in the epigraphs and further supported by the implied consent of the Empyrean (since he faces no reprisal for overseeing the slaughter of multiple bonded riders). What’s more, because this is a military institution, Draconis has as much authority as Panchek (or Melgren) gives him. This isn’t like Order of the Phoenix, where Hogwarts was a private institution that the Ministry was attempting to subjugate. Draconis is exercising legal authority that was established under the Codex prior to his arrival.
The Gotcha card might have worked, except the execution was botched.
“Maybe you struggle,” Varrish snips, losing his customary slick indifference. “Some of us do not bow to the whims of our dragons. In fact, we influence them.”
“Well, that’s certainly a theory worth contemplating.” Kaori pauses, waiting for a reply that doesn’t come. “Odd. Would that mean you influenced Solas when he set fire to that squad of bonded riders after Parapet?”
Kaori is presented as an expert on dragons. What Draconis says should shock him. The fact that he is so cool and collected implies that he already knew Draconis felt this way and was ready with a comeback. However, if he was aware, why would he not alert the dragons and let them deal with this obvious threat?
Nolon (Good Teacher) (Heavy Spoilers)
Nolon being a Good Teacher is a closer fit than Kaori. He has an established history with Violet, both in scenes we have witnessed and via backstory. Given that he is a mender, tasked with helping people, it also makes sense that he would want to reduce harm to Violet and anyone else under Draconis’s command, regardless of whether he feels Draconis’s actions to be excessive or even correct. His act of passive resistance in the second RSC exercise is a good example of this. He won’t confront Draconis or oppose him directly, but he will provide Violet with the opportunity to help herself.
The problem?
Nolon healed Jack Barlowe.
He knows the twist from Chapter 60. All the professors are implied to be aware of the secrets Navarre is keeping from the majority of riders and the wider populace, and it is implied that they are helping to keep that secret whenever they mobilize to the borders, but Nolon is involved in those secrets. He is very much an agent of the regime. Why, then, would he help Violet escape interrogation?
This is before we consider the fact that, on a few chapters, Yarros is going to flip a switch and reclassify Nolon as a Bad Teacher. Nolon is going to help Draconis torture Violet for at least a week. Yarros is not going to leave any room for benefit of the doubt - that Nolon might have been lied to, that he might have been threatened, etc. His loyalty to the rider leadership outweighs his loyalty to Violet, and he will be damned for that.
Devera (Good Teacher)
As previously covered, Devera being a Good Teacher comes completely out of left field. This was mob character who was promoted because Yarros decided to assassinate Markham. She seems to exist solely to validate and help Violet, despite them having no prior history and Devera having no character traits outside of validating and helping Violet.
Grady (Good Teacher)
The fact that Grady is a Good Teacher is telegraphed not by his actions but by his mannerisms. He is illogically, coddlingy nice. He makes sure students going into a TORTURE EXERCISE understand that they are in a safe space. He doesn’t want any feelings to be hurt.
In short, he is nice to Violet, and since Yarros didn’t insist that he’s a Bad Teacher immediately afterwards, logic dictates that he must be a Good Teacher.
Carr (Bad Teacher)
As we covered back in Chapter 13, Yarros told us directly that Carr is a Bad Teacher, despite the fact that he stood up against Draconis on Violet’s behalf. The author made up her mind on who this character is, and she turned directly to the audience to tell us so rather than earning the characterization.
Markham (Bad Teacher)
Markham is the only teacher on this list whose designation makes perfect sense. He is an agent of the state, Draconis is helping him to complete his duties, and he is aligned opposite Violet because of the conflict, not because of her specifically. The issue here is, again, the assassination of his character. Rather than letting Violet grapple with the revelation that her old mentor is on the opposite team, rather than having her hope that he is one of the Good Teachers and be proven wrong, Yarros flips a switch on his characterization right out the gate. Markham is unambiguously a Bad Teacher now, and from how Violet reacts towards him, you’d think that she’d never liked him.
Suema Cum Laude
This effort to ape The Order of the Phoenix is ultimately nothing more than another manifestation of the power fantasy. The teachers whom Violet likes (or, at least, whom she hasn't written off as evil) side with her and validate her, and thus they are Good. Those whom have wronged her by having an attitude or worldview she doesn’t like (or, as we’ll see later, by not choosing her over following orders) are Bad, regardless of how much they do on her behalf.
This is so frustrating because there was so much potential here. Rather than making a superficial copy of a better story, Yarros could have explored the relationships between Violet and her professors. She could have had Violet actually trying to work out who knew about the venin and who could be trusted to help the Aretia rebels. This could even have tied into the Wardstone subplot, with her trusting the teachers to help her acquire information that Jesinia couldn't and to help her avoid Draconis's wrath.
Instead, we just got more shallow validation. I’m afraid to say that drug is no longer delivering the high that it used to. We’re left with a weak and self-indulgent narrative that has no positive qualities except to remind us of better things.
THE HEIST
Next time, we are going to cover Chapters 30 through 34. It’s going to be a 2-for-1 deal.
On Friday, April 19th, you will get the regularly scheduled literary analysis. This section of the book represents a welcome change of pace. After chapter after chapter of wheel-spinning, contrivance, and squandered opportunities for characterization, the plot finally accelerates. The pacing finally returns to the levels of the pre-Threshing chapters of Fourth Wing. I just wish that it wasn’t so obvious that Yarros very clearly welded these chapters together with chunks from multiple drafts, without making the effort to eliminate the resulting contradictions and inconsistency.
On Saturday, April 20th, you will get a bonus round. You see, these chapters feature a heist into the bowels of the Archives. In concept, this should be a great scene. The execution is laughable. Frankly, if this is what Yarros thinks a cunningly planned and implemented heist is, then I wouldn’t entrust her with smuggling snacks into a movie theater. This bonus round will not be required reading for the rest of the review. Instead, it will just be a diversion for those of you who love digging deep into the details.
I’ll see you all next week. Take care.
