@melanylescanokokojaczuk3619 hey! So not as of yet. They have: Spanish French German Italian Portuguese Polish Russian Dutch Turkish Danish Norwegian Swedish Indonesian English
yoooo do you have the link/username handy for where you learned ASL? I’m a late diagnosis auDHD-er and sign would help me also with the nonverbal/mutism times (also I feel like I should just know it?? like why don’t I know ASL? or Morse code? or how to make paella? 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️)
Oh this was translated? Huh. I wonder what kind of historical Nevarrean text translated into “Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot.”
What I also find so funny about this book is that it’s supposed to be transcribed by Jesinia as historical text yet it’s written in first person and the smut scenes are so detailed. Like was she in the room with them taking notes for her transcription 💀
I think that they sat her down and told her the entire story from start to finish, and during the bedroom scenes Jesinia got too uncomfortable to say anything so now the book is just their voyeurism kink
"the strongest bonded pair in centuries" i guess they're the only dragons that got a good score at the state-mandated dragon-marriage-counselling sessions
You know what would have been better than the red dragon refusing to catch their rider? The dragon failing to catch them, like they try but miss or can’t catch up. It shows the dragons can mess up and the rider needs to be able to handle themselves.
Imagine living in the Fourth Wing universe 100+ years after these events, doing your PhD thesis on a politically charged period of time in the kingdom's history, picking up this book for research and getting a full "enemies to lovers", non-fiction erotica between two historical figures. It wouldn't help your thesis at all, but at least you got the juicy details from some dead people's sex life. What an amazing and important document! Thank you for your service, Whoever-Wrote-It!
Some poor researcher fills out all the paperwork needed to be granted the funds to start a research project on historical dragon riding schools, searches the ancient libraries of the realm and is overjoyed to find this thing, because it's the most detailed first hand account of the research subject there is. Then comes the first sex scene, just as detailed as everything else. Perfect framing for the story, especially with authentic research notes in the page margins. If I was that researcher, I would invent a time machine just so I could go back in time and scream at Violet.
@@KamenRiderFeline If I was someone who dedicated their life to researching historical dragon riding schools, spent all my time and resources to get this old, important book that seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, but would have to read 500 pages about how gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot Xaden Riorson was, I would cry for three days straight.
The fact that Tairn having sex with Sgaeyl means that Violet is feeling telepathically horny through their bond had me on the FLOOR! Like that's just so funny to me.
The way she sets up Jack's orange allergy is killing me because it's literally identical to the way they set up the villain's oatmeal allergy in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
Re: the huge plothole about Tairn not being seen for five years, I think I worked it out. The dragons don't stay at the college; they stay in the Vale where humans cannot go and just commute to the college. So I guess for five years, while his mate has been preparing for war, Tairn has just been... doing the equivalent of laying at home on the couch? Incredible deep dive. After suffering through the whole book, I am LIVING for this - and finding so many plotholes I didn't even think of before!
I like to imagine Tairn has just been... sitting on the couch eating chips and putting on weight and watching shitty TV shows and that's why he's so enormously big
i have a prediction for next books in this series, it will turn out that the little baby gold dragon is actually the super strong super rare once its actually grown
I want - for once - for the two love interests of the MC to fall in love for each other. Xaden and Dain deserve each other because their banter is more interesting than Xaden's with Violet.
If you're looking for polyamory, looking in indie and self pub spaces is where you’ll find that. I recommend searching for ownvoices wruters because monogamous people are fucking WEIRD about polyamory. For half of them it's a sexual fetish, the other half still use "harem" 🤢 as a descriptor. If you're looking for polyamory with dragons, the only one that currently comes to mind, since I haven't been reading all that much, is She Who Earned Her Wings,which is sapphic. I think the authors are also currently looking for ARC readers for their next one, which has a bunch of bi MCs that all get together in the end.
Wait... you're telling me that the events in this book were translated? does that mean that all the smutty scenes had to go through someone who had to sit down and translate all that? what? WHAT
And it was Violet’s friend that ‘translated’ it! Because that’s not awkward at all. And then! not only did she read and translate it all, she then went ‘yeah, that’s definitely something that should be kept for the historical record’
someone needs to do a deep dive of the moral myopia and Love Interest Privilege of Xaden vs Dain. i DO NOT want to be a Dain defender but so many people overlook his completely valid concern for Violet because Violet immediately assumes and frames it as ableism and a lack of faith in her (even though she also tells us... she will likely die... that being in the college is a death sentence due to her body... like??). Yes he is paternalistic and annoying (they both are) but he also makes GOOD POINTS. Violet IS being reckless and irresponsible, and she IS treating her body like shit. The problem is that acknowledging that goes against Yarros' idea of an empowering disability narrative. And Xaden seemingly knows what she needs better than she does, which is condescending but also entirely narratively supported and rewarded by violet bc otherwise how would we know he's the love interest and is "better" for her?
Yeah, if she was shown to be les reckless and way more resourcful that she shows she has that under control, but she doesnt, he is right to be concerned .
I think he was right for being concerned but he was SO annoying. At some point I just wanted to hit him hahaha What makes me angry is that the author just made him a total b*tch to make Xaden seem like a better choice. When Xaden is very protective, she finds that cute 🤡 I hate this book so much ughhhh
Both Dain and Xaden are ableist as fuck. The only difference here is that Xaden is attractive to Violet. Literally that’s it. Dain coddles her too much but Xaden also coddles her. When Xaden is being protective, it’s supposed to be a swoon worthy moment. Whereas the reader is supposed to be rolling their eyes at Dain. They’re both irresponsible and annoying.
Imagine a romance where the two lovers actually had to communicate their needs and wants and work for their relationship instead of these love interests who, despite being assholes, somehow know the main characters needs better than her
A Tangle of Tongues and Teeth but it's a fantasy horror book featuring a magic forest with necromantic vines made of human body parts and there are no sex scenes
So this is just a horse girl fantasy but with dragons? There was this Finnish book series about a fat girl (just like me) who was bullied (just like me omg) and who somehow got her own horse (like I should have!) that put her bullies in their place (my bullies needed that too!) and she and her horse were so great and special they even caught the attention of the hot horse guy (it was at that point the fantasy got a bit too fantasy for me). Isn't taming the meanest and most difficult horse just because you're the special girl one of the most common dreams for horse girls? Everyone else is struggling even with the laziest nicest gelding there is while I am riding my hellbeast of a mare like I was born on her saddle? I'm never buying or reading Fourth Wing but it's already given me so much to think about 😍
Horse girls unite! I'm sure there are a couple stubborn mares waiting to let us ride them because we understand mutual respect just around the next corner.....right? XD Personally I'd rather a horse than a dragon anyway.
Not a horsegirl myself but my mom was one and is also the person who got me into dragonrider books, and from what I understand the appeal of dragonriding is the same as being a horse girl except you want a horse that can fly and breathe fire. Also if you want a horsegirl reccomended dragon riding book just pick up the Dragonriders of Pern series 90% of the dragonlore in this book was ripped off from Pern and done far worse.
I'm really glad that you're talking about the EDS rep because I know nothing about that condition and I still know nothing over halfway through this book. Violet keeps going on and on about how she's weak, but she's had more issues from being short (which was the only reason that she couldn't do the gauntlet) than from her EDS, so I'm super confused by what the condition even is. All of her injuries have been incredibly normal ones like spraining her ankle from tripping over a branch, which leads to her says that she'd usually use a crutch for a sprained ankle, but she won't because she doesn't want to seem weak and I'm just like "wait, wouldn't that mean that you're limping? Isn't that weaker?" And how can someone who supposedly went to the medics all the time while training to be *a scribe* barely ever go now that she's in extremely physical training? Her dragon grabbing her *three dozen times a flight* seems like it should hurt her. But it doesn't, so why is anyone worried about her? She seems fine. It's so jarring to have everyone talking about her being a liability when the book has never let her disability actually hold her back in even a token manner. There's nothing she can't do and, if that's supposed to be the message, then I guess good job? But I don't think that's supposed to be the message since the book keeps having people say that this condition is a big deal. If it is, then I'd expect scenes where she has to come up with accommodations for herself, yet the only one I've seen is her dragon helping her up, but he's also apparently bigger than normal so is that even something unique for her?
I appreciate you going back into the Fourth Wing. I have been waiting for it and the fact that this whole novel is just a mistranslation, I cannot believe. I'll learn Navarrian immediately to make sure we understand the original text.
I think it would have made more sense for Tairn to have been seen around the college but refusing to bond. You can still keep the air of mystery without it being ridiculous that a strong mated pair wouldn't be seen together.
i completely agree. also wouldve created opportunities for us to have a segue into talking about dragon lore AND her wondering if that dragon knew her brother, what he thought of him, etc.
the idea of manipulating the dragon choosing ceremony would actually be fascinating for a much better book since now the traitor's son is quite literally tied to the general's daughter (if one dies, so might the other) and make for genuine enemies-to-lovers (as someone who absolutely loves the trope) not to mention the constant "oh god he's sexy" thoughts literally break my suspension of disbelief (and not even because I'm aroace) like miss. ma'am. you think this man is trying to kill you and was involved (more or less since he was a part of the rebellion) with your brother's death?? and it should absolutely mess Violet up to be forced to go down the same path that only recently killed her brother (esp when combined with her mother's disregard for her father's wishes so soon after her father died)
Honestly, it would make more sense if people tried to kill him and he is very paranoid because of her mom. Because he has reasons to think that . If she had to convince him she isn a spy for her mom. And her wrestling with her mom being capable, and forshadow her mom might be evil. And then there is an attempt on her. That book could be so much better rewritten.
Thank you for this deep dive. I feel like Fourth Wing is fantasy written by someone that hasn’t ever read a fantasy book. All the things we LOVE eg the complex magic systems, the dragon-lore, maps, religious systems are just missing completely. So problematic 😢 I have EDS and at first I was SO excited that a main character in a fantasy book would have my condition. But then I read it and just really felt awful. The whole “nothing can hold you back from achieving anything you want to” thing except my disability totally holds me back so….
it really seems to subscribe to the ableist mentality of "disabilities are just different abilities" and "it's not the disability that's holding you back it's your mentality" which is just like...no. It's a disability because it's disabling and that's okay. I mean, obviously it sucks to be held back by something you can't control, but it's okay for you to be disabled by your disability - that's what makes it a disability and that's what we need to represent, because ppl need to understand that that's the reality of life for disabled people and you can't just "get over it". And also that people can be disabled and happy? Like, it's so obvious, but disabled ppl are often represented as miserable bc of it and then they only become happy because they "beat" their disability (e.g. ppl with mobility aids learning to walk without them, austistic ppl learning to suppress meltdowns or being hugged (bc ofc all autistic ppl hate touch /s) or some shit like that)
I think this book is definitely the poster child for Romantasy... If you break it down Romance is the first and major plot of the book, Fantasy is just the setting so most likely it's the last thing they need to worry about. This sucks because if there was more effort put into it.. then way more people would like it and there wouldn't be as much hate or division in the Fantasy community about it.
I was having a convo with friends the other day about this exact phenomenon. I'm the kind of person who only wants to read Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, The Witcher... books like that, where the author actually cared about and even loved the world they created. And one friend said (paraphrasing) "these romantasy authors don't actually care about worldbuilding or taking us somewhere else. They think 'fantasy' is just 'a place with castles and magic and maybe elves or orcs' and that's it. They don't want to write A FANTASY STORY, they want to write A STORY 'IN' FANTASY". And as much as that blatant disrespect for the art pisses me off, that really is what the issue is. These aren't actually fantasy authors, and they're not trying to be. I wouldn't be THAT pissed off if bookstores would just put all "romantasy" in its own subsection of "Fantasy" so I don't have to waste so much time digging through all this crap. And I wish they'd just be fucking honest with themselves and their readers and call it erotica, because that's usually what it is. Which is fine. But stop acting like it's something else. They each have their audiences but The Lord of the Rings and A House of Silk and Ash (made that one up on the spot but it probably exists let's be real) are not in the same genre.
Considering the fact that this is the first of a what, five(?) book series, I’m thinking Xaden is gonna be the Tamlin of the series and I can’t wait to see everyone have a meltdown
That would be hilarious, but knowing how this author is blatantly ripping off SJM I’d imagine Yarros could fill 5 books with very little to no plot progression then have all the plot happen in the last 30 pages.
I feel like if Yarros wanted this to be a translated text from within the world and have Violet just thinking about how hot Xander is and include sex scenes that it should have been formatted as Violet writing in a diary. That way we wouldn’t have the implication that her friend who transcribed the story had to sit through Violet talking about her sex life in graphic detail. That would also make it being written in Violet’s first person perspective make sense
The rules and reasons are so fast and loose. Game of Thrones verse reads that Valeryan blooded people had remnants of magic in their blood, which is why they all imbred and it was how they were able to claim a dragon. In this...like why do dragons have to claim a human from dragon school and not some rando? Like if a dragon sees a scribe on the other side of campus, thinks "I want that human!" If dragon bondings are so rare, why not have them choose from anyone in the army? Or even civilians?
honestly, THAT would have made a GREAT story, imagine violet DID go the scribe route and the dragon skipped over everyone to go to her! instead of uwu im so litol how did i pass literally anything
That’s actually a much better book. Like if everyone was following their own path and a dragon could just pop in and choose you at any time that would be so much better.
the “translated text” would’ve been an interesting additive if it wasn’t for the literal smut scenes and the modern phrases everywhere like i can’t 😭 she really just added that in there because it sounded cool and went yep, this is gonna have them going crazy
I remember dropping this halfway. I couldn’t take it anymore, writer keeps saying she’s so smart, but her decisions are that of a horny hedgehog on drugs. The guy that sees memories from touch… like girl how couldn’t you remember that, ofc he’s using it on you, he keeps touching. At that I was done,they could show her avoiding touch being careful around him, cuz she got ground breaking secrets!! And if needed for plot the guy could have his powers grow or hiding and he didn’t need to touch her to see her memories. The plot moves on and she actually shows in action that she’s smart. But no they just keep telling us she’s smart meanwhile I’m facepalming the whole time. And what was always bothering me when she was flying on the black dragon the first time or smt. She keeps falling and he said “stop that, you’re making us look bad.” That line is from the venom movie!!! And there were more of these that I could swear are from the same moviee!!! The whole personality of the black dragon is venom idk, I was looking for someone to notice it. Is it just me?
NOW I GET IT! i was literally saying to myself as I was reading tairn and violets dialogue, sounds straight out of a venom film. only to be told now THATS BECAUSE IT WAS
As a years long horse rider I’m just appalled by the fascination the author has for the inner thigh muscles. If we were all holding on with just our inner thighs our knees would be squeezed in and our toes pointing out. You do use your inner thighs to stabilise but the whole motion of wrapping your entire leg around a giant cylinder under you actually demands more from your outer thighs and glutes. This way you engage the entire leg plus these muscle groups are naturally stronger. If you were just holding on with your inner thighs you’d only be gripping with half of your leg. Riding a dragon where you are going upside down and so forth might be different but horses are the closest irl comparison we have to think which muscle groups to use 🤷🏼♀️ In addition, when you are on top of a living being squeezing your knees/inner thighs just locks up the rest of your legs which need a degree of looseness to follow the movement otherwise you got jolted all over. That’s my two bits on how this author should have maybe done more research and put thought into how people actually ride large animals. So every time they talk about the inner thigh muscles I wince a bit on the inside 😅
This girl really went Lord of the Rings and writes into the lore that this is a translated work from the original Navarrian... incredible. Resplendent. 10/10 no notes
As a person of Basque descent, it irks me alot when she mentions that Fourth Wing was claimed to be a translated work from "Navarrian". We Basques consider Navarre and its culture very seriously, as it is one of our traditional seven Basque provinces, and appropriating Navarrese culture is highly frowned upon. Fun fact: We don't say "Navarrian", it's Navarrese or Nafarroako in the native Basque language.
Imagine how much better the set up would have been if Tairn HAD been seen at the college because he's mated to Sgaeyl and there could have been foreshadowing where he watches Violet train or overcome the obstacles through sheer force of will. Give some kind of early indication that he had respect for her before the whole "pick me, dragon" thing (completely forgot what that was called, the book was so long and full of so much random unnecessary crap). It was so obvious from the start with the whole "oh he's the most special dragon and nobody has seen him? Well this surely won't come up later!" Talk about a dead herring 🤦
Im diagnosed hypermobile EDS (the most common type but there are 13 different types currently known) and the issues I have the most that limit my mobility is dislocations and sublaxations (partial dislocation) and muscle weakness/spasms. When I used to ride a horse (the closest thing I can think of to dragon riding) I had issues with over stretching my hips due to the hyper mobility that they would dislocate or my muscles in my thighs getting tired/ weak or going into spasms. A lot of people also have issues with their circulation causing numbness in their limbs, this happens to me when sitting for too long especially on uncomfortable wooden chairs and on unsuitable saddles. What I don’t understand is that the character with EDS doesn’t seem to display any other symptoms of EDS so it isn’t really clear in the book why she’d have issues with her mobility due to EDS and people who aren’t educated about EDS aren’t going to understand. Like for me I can walk around so too look at me you wouldn’t know that anything is wrong with me but after a while my body gets tired and I get a lot of pain in my joints. The more tired I am and the longer I’m on my feet the higher chance I have that my joints will be more likely to dislocate as the muscles around the joints get weaker (which my doctor has advised causes the joints to dislocate as it’s your muscles and ligaments that keeps the joints in place) I’m sorry for the info dumping because no one asked but thank you for coming to my TedTalk 😂
I have to pace myself and if I’ve been out for a couple hours on my feet when I get home my whole body hurts and I feel exhausted that I have to take a nap or at least lie down for a while. That’s without the other issues EDS causes like digestive problems, easy bruising, taking longer to heal (like even a minor paper cut can take a couple days to even close and a whole week to heal fully for an example). These are just a small amount of the complications that EDS causes on someone’s daily life without getting too deep into it.
I’m sorry, it just annoys me when books etc try to “represent” illnesses that just causes more stigma or is giving very little information or misinformation about the condition that just doesn’t help. I know that the author has said that she has EDS but this is such a bad take on representation of the condition (maybe that’s an unpopular opinion)
@@velvetshock I agree! I have hEDS, and the part about her having difficulty staying on the dragon makes sense to me, because the joint weakness EDS causes can cause issues with being able to grip things, which I have, especially when holding that tension for a while. However, that means the whole idea of doing muscle strength training makes less sense, because although muscle strength can help make up for the joint instability, it only goes so far and it's unlikely she would be able to become able to stay on her dragon by muscle strength alone. It could have been a great opportunity to show her using an adaptive saddle that accommodates her disability, instead of some kind of "mind over matter" arc. And absolutely seconded that there is very little mention of other EDS symptoms. My doctors explained to me that a lot of typical exercise training is more harmful to my body than helpful, because it strains my joints instead of my muscles, and it seems like the military training she does would be far more taxing on her than is really shown.
I know a lot of people think of this book as "fun fluff" but the only fun I've had related to this book, which I have read, has been listening to these recaps
The fact that the author tried to pull a Tolkien “oh actually it’s translated” is really funny to me, because with his books it just covers tiny little inconsistencies in the prose itself, such as a Christmas tree being mentioned, but with hers the rules and details of the world itself still don’t make sense. Translation wouldn’t account for the rules of your world changing every other page 😂
This could have been so good if this was better executed and written and it makes me mad 😭. There’s so much potential wasted. Imagine if Violet had shadow powers instead of Xaden, becoming master of shadows and secrets, blending in, listening to meetings, and stealing information from the enemy and using it against them. She’s could be powerful due to the information she knows and how she uses it. She could even learn that her nation is bad during one of these missions which makes her confront her mother about it.
True. And actually fit with a disability. Also if people tried to kill xaden and he is angsty and edgy and she likes him and helps him once, butheaccuses her tht she sis sent by her mom.And he is competent, bu people try to kill him whothinkas traitors sin with the dragon is a danger. And she has to earn his trust. And deal with her mom maybe not who she thought she was. Even better if her mom tries to kill him sneaky . There is so much potentional if you did rework it, or ust build up. Or make her nationaloistic and that fading upon time with zaden. Zaden too would b way more engaging as edgy paranoid dude.
Right?? It would have fit perfectly with her scribe training too. Instead the thing that was heretofore her whole deal is just used as smug evidence for her being ✨the most clever special special ✨
Yeah, that had me wondering what other books might claim to be translations, because I'm thinking now there have to be a lot. But idk, I can't think of any.
This just made me think, what if the original manuscript of the Red Book included a ton of pointless graphic smut (written by Frodo I guess???) but JRRT just cut that out for The Lord of the Rings XD
this book does that thing where the mc is supposed to be the smartest person (in this case literally about to join the academic/research sector) and is still somehow the most incurious person to have ever existed (another example is the serpent and wings of night by carissa broadbent), like...at some point homegirl is literally wearing those horse blinder things of her own accord. side note your first fourth wing video made me wanna check out the book, which inevitably pulled me out of a reading slump so at the very least this book is entertaining
A Reddit thread pointed out that in chapter 25 of Fourth Wing, Violet herself says making mage lights is one of the things she's actually good at when it comes to wielding, then in chapter 53 of Iron Flame she says she's never been that good at producing them. I couldn't stop laughing.
I have read this book without knowing shit about it, because it had a fancy, pretty cover, and I like fantasy and dragons, and the premise sounded close enough to my beloved Poppy War trilogy, with a war college and an underdog girl with surprising powers, and it was such a hilariously bad read. I am now tempted to go and write a book with the exact same premise as Fourth Wing but like... making sense. With dragons being in charge, humans being desperately vying for their grace because they want to not die and that's why they are so willing to murder each other, and Tairn actually being an exceptionally old grumpy grandpa and dragons being in general chill, they just find it funny to play with the humans, like we find it funny to play with dogs.
Granted I don't know how EDS works, as I am not physically disabled despite needing glasses, yet I always felt like Violet having a disability is not communicated at all. I thought she just fell and hurts herself a lot as she is this tiny and fragile uwu.. at no point I ever picked up that this was supposed to be her having any kind of disability. She has major falls and fights of course she gets hurt everyone would... but for my understanding with EDS things pop out of place at minor things, you might slip and hold yourself up by instinct and your shoulder pops out by the light impact... when I learned Violet is supposed to have EDS I thought damn the author must have done not enough research... but apparently the author has EDS as well??
I'm loving this series about Fourth Wing but I have to say, being from Brazil myself that was the first time I was so invested in a sponsorship section
i haven’t read the book yet (don’t think i ever will lol) but it being so popular with such carelessness put into the storytelling and writing makes me super pessimistic about the standards we are setting for future books. the success of fourth wing means that anyone can throw together tropes, shallow characters, and lazy writing and they’ll have a bestseller
I might be the only person who feels this way, but having not read the book and going just off this review, Dane seems like he’s just an imitation of Dean Winchester 😂. Dammit Sammy, I mean violet. Wait no, further into the review and I think I get it. They’re setting this up like Peeta and Gale in Hunger Games and she’s going to try to make Violet the “poster child” of the rebellion like Katniss 🤦🏻♂️
What confuses the fuck outta me is that apparently if you have mind reading powers you're put to death immediately, but why is the fact that Dane can just go through your memories willy nilly without consent, it's all okay?
I think Tairn explains that it's because Dain has to be in physical contact with someone's face in order to read their memories and thus easier to control, but idk how well this logic holds up because you could still physically incapacitate someone to make it so that they can't get away from Dain's hands
i think the reason this got so popular was the marketing and it reached an audience of people who barely read fantasy so the modern language like "so freaking smoking hot" made it more accessible to read. i believe the author is a military romance writer beforehand also i didnt get xaden x violet's relationship but i liked the intimate scenes after the 60% mark. cant wait to see u tackle them in a future video lol honestly a huge part of booktok books being popular is def the marketing
That's such a great point that the dragons wouldn't allow them to capture or experiment on a feather tail. It's an excellent example of the huge inconsistencies and how it is just following tropes and pasting them together.
Violet doesn’t even act like a scholar. It would be so much more interesting for her to use her academic focus to overcome obstacles and gain knowledge but instead the only purpose of her being a scribe is to word dump info to the reader that we never saw her learn
I finished Fourth Wing on Wednesday, and immediately watched part one of your review, needing validation because I could. not. stand. this book. so excited for this video!
I don't know if anyone else answered this already, but when I got my H-EDS diagnosis, I was told that it affects my ability to build muscle strength. It's not that I can't, but rather that it takes longer and is more difficult for me to do it. So maybe that could explain the inner thigh thing?
I’ve been listening to this book while I recover from brain surgery and it’s not good but I am entertained lol (I’m also drawing xaden as a buff woman while I listen because any predictable straight ship can be made interesting to me by hitting it with the yuri beam✨)
33:57 I can speak a little bit to the hand/finger/grip issues, from my experience at least. From what I can gather, my condition is less severe than Violet's - I'm very hypermobile, but I've only started experiencing dislocations in the past year as my condition has worsened, and no finger dislocations (yet). Also, disclaimer that I haven't read Fourth Wing. In preface, the following was difficult to write without getting super technical or using medical and anatomical terminology. I'd be incredibly impressed to see this condition described well on page without any illustrations. That being said, I am still judging Yarrows for her poor execution. I have a lot of finger hypermobility, and when I'm doing something repetitive or strength based, like handicrafts or writing or doing the dishes, my finger joints can bend at odd angles. If I'm applying pressure with only my fingers, sometimes my second knuckle(s) will lock out entirely, which is called a swan neck deformity. Both of those things can be painful, but my thumbs cause me the most pain by far - it is very difficult to keep the lower knuckle from bending the wrong direction, and holding that position gets painful very quickly. It gets in my way to the point that I'd given up journaling for 3 years and I avoided writing almost entirely before I got my thumb splint, which keeps the painful joint in place. I do not personally experience wrist or elbow dislocations, but both are loose enough that they do contribute to the wibbly-wobbliness of doing things with my hands. Wrists can also get painful very quickly when doing anything weight bearing - ie carrying grocery bags, lifting heavy items, or holding up my own body weight. They also contribute to the wibbly-wobbliness of doing anything with my hands, and depending on the activity the wibbly-wobbly may cause elbow or shoulder issues. The longer I'm doing an activity that's aggravating my hypermobility, the more likely and more frequently I will be in pain, the more likely I will seriously hurt myself, and the more trashed my hands will be the next day. Additionally, there is commonly co-occurence of EDS/hypermobility disorders and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) - and one of the possible symptoms of SPD is having low muscle tone as a child (which will continue into adulthood if nothing is done to address it). EDS does not inherently mean low strength, but it's not uncommon to see it. (Source: Ehlers Danlos Society & NIMH reference studies linking EDS and ADHD/Autism; Sensory issues are included in Autism diagnostic criteria, and NIMH acknowledges that sensory issues are more common in children with ADHD than in the general population, but more research needs to be done.) It makes sense to me why this would be tough for Violet, but based on this video I don't think it was explained well at all for this scene, or in general. It's easy for me to forget the little ways that hypermobility affects my life, and to ignore some of the medium ways that are just annoying. In my opinion, this experience made it on page in Fourth Wing - and on page, as in life, if you only tell people about the worst moments that you can't hide, others get the impression that it's not a constant challenge. I'm really disappointed by the lack of care taken in consistent representation and discussion of Violet's symptoms.
24:00 THANK YOU for summarizing perfectly my biggest annoyance with enemies to lovers books! If one of the characters did something bad (or is presumed to do something bad) then I'm not thinking about how hot he is! I need the characters to get over the hate/enemies part before they go all sexy over each other
26:41 okay THIS is one of the things that bug me so much about most fantasy authors, they make a military system a core feature of their book’s plot but NEVER bother to learn about the basics of how even one real-world military operated. As an ancient history lover, nothing ruins fantasy for me more than unrealistic, uncritical caricatures of ancient military and political systems, especially when an author has so clearly just cannibalised other fantasy books, leading to an even worse caricature! This idea of killing off viable soldiers whilst they’re students has been especially prevalent in YA, yet it’s one of the most nonsensical concepts, especially for a successful “Big Bad Empire.” For instance one of the greatest assets that the Roman Republic/Early Empire had was their endless supply of new soldiers, the Romans faced near-annihilation at various points, but their integration-after-conquest policy gave them heaps of new people to call upon, so if a legion fell, they quickly put together another in order to keep fighting, enabling them to overcome many foes that were otherwise greater than them. Contrastingly, one of the elements credited to the decline of Spartan Supremacy was the lack of population to pull new soldiers from after a big defeat due to their obsessively rigid selection criteria (killing of the weak when they’re young) and refusal to integrate foreigners as fully fledged Spartan citizens (thusly relying more and more on untrained foreign/slave auxiliaries), but you’ll NEVER see one of these fantasy books explore that as a byproduct of their world building decision, because they’re ignorant to historical precedent 🤷♀️ There is SPECIFICITY to how a military operates and even MORE specificity behind an empire’s military dominance. When an author fails to understand that specificity, they leave the integrity of their world building (and plot) 1-2 small questions away from unraveling 😵💫
Reply to your EDS inner thighs question. I have EDS and I rode horses for 13 years. I can't speak for everyone with EDS of corse but assuming riding a dragon is anything like riding a horse then no, my EDS had 0 effect on my ability to stay in the saddle. In fact riding actually acted as physical therapy for me for years, helping me to build the compensating muscles to handle my EDS. The only time EDS was ever a problem when it came to riding was when I fell off. The impact with the ground did a nasty number on my hip joins and Im sure dropping onto a dragon's back wouldn't have been any easier on them.
So, this big, legendary dragon was so broken up by the death of his last rider that he went until now without bonding again and these geniuses think that if they kill his new rider he'll just bond with someone else like it's no big deal? You know what, I think she is possibly the most cunning person at the academy. Everyone else has sawdust for brains.
im upset i skipped school to read this book, i'm never trusting booktok again 😭 i genuinely dont understand how people like this book, but i guess this is how some people feel when i tell them i love the once upon a broken heart series. I wanted to like fourth wing so bad aaaaaaa
Yes, EDS affects the entire body. 35:58 because it is a connective tissue disorder, and the connective tissue is everywhere, it affects muscles, (Sometimes your muscles are just weaker than they should be for no reason, and it's not really controllable, like sometimes I can't open my water bottle) and organs and... Everything. Even how well we absorb medications. It affects mainly the joints, initially, but as we get older and flare ups happen more often, it affects everything down to how weak our fingernails are or how bad our vision is (floaters, how difficult It is too focus our eyes) and even blood vessels having difficulty tightening or expanding as they should, so regulating body temperature is also really hard. (Going into POTS territory, here) Also being lightheaded all the time. Oh, also having digestive issues and spontaneously developing food allergies.
Wow! I'm Brazilian and was NOT expecting you to be learning my language! Makes me so happy to see there's still people who wants to learn our language! Um grande abraço, Rachel! Boa sorte com seus estudos! 😚💙
Honestly, the plot of this book reminds me of the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. The war element is new, but the rest, like the telepathic dragon horniness, a coup, and the choosing/presentation thing. That immediately took me there.
as someone w EDS, it can effect general strength, but given im assuming she has classic type EDS it wouldnt mean she cant build up strength. also: she would absolutely fuck up her legs esp her hips if shes constantly landing on her dragon from presumably pretty big heights. honestly it all made me scratch my head bc so much of it doesnt make sense for most types of eds
As a brazilian I feel flattered you are learning portuguese 💖 If you ever need any help translating or have any doubts, I believe there must be a lot of us available here !!
Wouldn't having an inntinnsic on your side be beneficial in war. They could interrogate prisoners of war in seconds. Hunt traitors, find weaknesses in soldiers. And that's what I can think of off the top of my head.
Apparently it has something to do with the privacy of dragons or whatever. Who the fuck cares? The rider can just give away the information anyway, its not some type of taboo to spill the beans but why not keep those people away from the dragons if its that bad? As a matter of fact, the power comes from the dragon, so you pretty much waste a dragon over nothing because they almost never bond again as established
@@arkkon2740if protecting the minds of the dragons is true, then why would they even give that power to a human Like this whole society have issues, but I would have this whole spy network of mindreaders doing reconnaissance, and sworn to never share the dragons secrets. That would be wicked and kinda scary
@@Nine_Crows_Down The dragon has no control over what power the human gets, but that doesn't mean they cant just turn it off, and obviously the dragons would know this is an issue because they're telepathically linked, but they do nothing about it Honestly I think there should be a secret society too, but with just power rejects in general. Which reminds me, why isn't invisibility considered a useless power? Im pretty sure someone in this book has that, but you're on a dragon, what is invisibility gonna do for you if the giant target doesnt have it and you do?
The human institutions make no sense and the dynamic between dragons and humans make even less sense. I still don't know why the dragons have anything to do with humans or are not dominating them. Just absolutely no justification or motivations to explain why anything is the way it is. Things just "are."
My theory is they kill any inntinsic off because of the whole thing with the government keeping venins and wyverns secret because... Reasons? I still don't know why the military and their government are keeping that a secret and use the gryphon fliers and their country as scapegoats for the war. But having an inntinsic spill the beans would be baaaaaad for them.
FURTHER IN: i'm so confused by the difference between signets and channelling and how the feathertail powers work. It seems ENTIRELY semantic, the difference, like you still have weird powers no matter how you get them?? What does it matter if you got the time stopping power through "the core of your being" or magic dragon gift? YOU CAN STILL STOP TIME? THE OUTCOME IS STILL THE SAME? God, bless you so much fpr going through this, I'm having a breakdown just witnessing your journey.
Re: Violet falling off her dragon because of EDS: obviously I have never ridden a dragon but that is a problem I had with riding horses. hEDS also comes with low muscle tone because our muscles are doing the job of our ligaments, instead of their own job as muscles (that’s how my physio explained it). So for me my thigh muscles are really weak cause they’re trying to keep my legs together, so cantering/galloping a horse is really hard for me because I’m not strong enough to actually hold myself in the saddle. I also can’t go on roller coaster because of this so idk how she’s falling and being caught by her dragon because one ride on a kids roller coaster put me out of action for the whole rest of the theme park trip lol.
Excellent and entertaining review as always! As an EDS gal (HSD to be specific), I do understand the problem with riding since my main issue is my hips. Sometimes, it feels like they're barely attached to my body at all, and the support musculature is slim to none. If I were to try to mount a dragon, my hips would probably shift in a way that makes me unable to use the muscles in my thighs properly. I don't know, maybe that's what she was going for. Training the support musculature in her thighs (or around her hips, more likely,) could possibly help with riding.
que surpresa ver você estudando português brasileiro! é confuso porque temos muitos verbos, mas é recompensador (os brasileiros amam ver pessoas falando nosso idioma)
Obrigada por ...estar? ser? i can't remember which to use for "being" aqui! Tantos verbos! My goodness so many. Still learning them and had to make a spreadsheet to remember them and I made another one for learning the prepositions.
@@ReadswithRachel Eu gosto muito do seu canal, e também gosto da Lou, espero que vocês gravem juntas! About our language, we use the non-grammatical version of some verbs, like "estar", we don't say "estou bem", we usually say "tô bem". Yeah, our life is sooooo easy, we added this to make things complicated, lol. But you shouldn't worry about this right now, first you need to get the gig of the language. I bet you'll be watching a Brazilian novela soon! And I wish I could travel to meet you, but I live in Fortaleza, it's a 3 hour flight to Belo Horizonte or Rio de Janeiro.
@@ReadswithRachelwe have an overabundance of verbs, that's something i real appreciate about portuguese, believe me, i speak portuguese for 18 years (I'm 18 yo) and i still don't know all verbs lol
Questions for the group 1) if I watch this entire series, do I get to count Fourth Wing as read on my Goodreads? 2) how big are these dragons? It’s not clear to me. Like using the scale of S1 Drogon to S8 Drogon, if possible, where is the Black Dragon and the Baby Dragon?
I thought they killed each other for a better chance to bond, not after the bonding. If i was a dragon I'd be pissed if someone killed the person i bonded too
Rachel, this is so funny - so thankful that you’re reading it to us and for your baffled commentary! And I love listening and noticing what to avoid in my own writing! Thank you for your service!
I've just binged the part 1 and 2 of your essay and I have to tell you: girl, you're amazing at this. I wasn't at all interested in this book but here we are, craving the next part. Will definitely check your other videos now. Btw, I'm a Brazilian Portuguese speaker (and I live in Rio, would love to meet you when you're here) and to encourage you, let me say it is very easy to talk with natives even if you're not that versed in the language, so don't worry! 😊
I'm never going to read this series, but I would consider it if in say the third book the dragons say F this, we are tired of humans and will roast them and serve them with ketchup and the rest of the books are just dragons doing dragon things.
the dragon is named tír na nÓg, as in the otherworld in irish mythology? her dragons name is land of eternal youth???????? did the author do any research for the mythology she used or did she just pick the names that she thought sounded coolest
I get why being a mind reader would be a bad thing around sensitive military secrets (especially when there is certainly an evil conspiracy afoot, elee you would train them as incredibly powerful spies) but... aren't these powers conferred by the dragons? Wouldn't they know which dragons make mind readers? Do these dragons intentionally bond with people they don't like just to watch their necks get snapped?
My mom got me this book for christmas because she thought it was good, and I've been putting off reading it because I've heard it's bad and seen your thumbnails for these videos. I finally got around to watching them and I'm !!! 💀!!! my mom has great taste normally what in the shit IS this??? The verbiage??? The smut??? I can't bring myself to read it now but thank you for going through it so I didn't have to experience this raw 😭😭😭
Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel 🎉. Get up to 60% OFF your subscription ➡Here: bit.ly/460MRfz
Hey Rachel, do you know if Korean is available?? 🥺
@melanylescanokokojaczuk3619 hey! So not as of yet. They have: Spanish
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Dutch
Turkish
Danish
Norwegian
Swedish
Indonesian
English
yoooo do you have the link/username handy for where you learned ASL? I’m a late diagnosis auDHD-er and sign would help me also with the nonverbal/mutism times (also I feel like I should just know it?? like why don’t I know ASL? or Morse code? or how to make paella? 🤷♀️🤷♀️🤷♀️)
Hey! sorry for the late reply. I used Bill Vicars! www.youtube.com/@sign-language @@snicketylemony
Oh this was translated? Huh. I wonder what kind of historical Nevarrean text translated into “Flaming hot. Scorching hot. Gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot.”
The sound I just let out reading this
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY, THAT MUST BE SOME NEXT LEVEL FRIENDSHIP
I have it in spanish (i'm from argentina and the original was waaay more expensive) and the line sounds pathetic
Is that really a line in the book? How did it get published?
What I also find so funny about this book is that it’s supposed to be transcribed by Jesinia as historical text yet it’s written in first person and the smut scenes are so detailed. Like was she in the room with them taking notes for her transcription 💀
Or she wrote the creepiest rpf
@@jasminv8653 Ye Aay Oh Three
I think she tried what tolkien nearly did the "this is translated from elfish" intro. Hut he did do a through work.
I think that they sat her down and told her the entire story from start to finish, and during the bedroom scenes Jesinia got too uncomfortable to say anything so now the book is just their voyeurism kink
@@marocat4749the Princess Bride does this too, and way funnier lol
"the strongest bonded pair in centuries" i guess they're the only dragons that got a good score at the state-mandated dragon-marriage-counselling sessions
mates but make it the SATs
You know what would have been better than the red dragon refusing to catch their rider? The dragon failing to catch them, like they try but miss or can’t catch up. It shows the dragons can mess up and the rider needs to be able to handle themselves.
General Sorrengail is what would happen if you put the mom from those “my mom sold me to one direction” fanfics in a fantasy setting
😂😂😂
Hahahah
Ain't that the truth.
I wonder what the original Navarrian phrase was that necessitated the translation “For the win”
I AM FUCKING DEAD HAHAHAHAHAHA
i cannot stop laughing at this dkcjfjfkncdj
😂😂😂😂
Imagine living in the Fourth Wing universe 100+ years after these events, doing your PhD thesis on a politically charged period of time in the kingdom's history, picking up this book for research and getting a full "enemies to lovers", non-fiction erotica between two historical figures. It wouldn't help your thesis at all, but at least you got the juicy details from some dead people's sex life. What an amazing and important document! Thank you for your service, Whoever-Wrote-It!
Some poor researcher fills out all the paperwork needed to be granted the funds to start a research project on historical dragon riding schools, searches the ancient libraries of the realm and is overjoyed to find this thing, because it's the most detailed first hand account of the research subject there is. Then comes the first sex scene, just as detailed as everything else.
Perfect framing for the story, especially with authentic research notes in the page margins.
If I was that researcher, I would invent a time machine just so I could go back in time and scream at Violet.
@@KamenRiderFeline If I was someone who dedicated their life to researching historical dragon riding schools, spent all my time and resources to get this old, important book that seems to be exactly what I'm looking for, but would have to read 500 pages about how gets-you-into-trouble-and-you-like-it level of hot Xaden Riorson was, I would cry for three days straight.
So, basically Queen Victoria's diaries but with dragons? Because oh boy are her diaries explicit.
@@maledictionwolfI perfectly understand why she went into full mourning for the rest of her life after Albert died
Because hot damn
@@phoenixfritzinger9185 Her cousin knew how to lay pipe forreal, her pussy never recovered from this loss 😔
The fact that Tairn having sex with Sgaeyl means that Violet is feeling telepathically horny through their bond had me on the FLOOR! Like that's just so funny to me.
The way she sets up Jack's orange allergy is killing me because it's literally identical to the way they set up the villain's oatmeal allergy in the movie Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2
HELPPP
I feel like the dragons only exist so that violet and xaden(?) are stuck together. That's it. That's the whole book.
Literally it’s the mated pair gimmick from Dragon Riders of Pern but only the horny bits
An “accidentally bonded” with extra steps.
Re: the huge plothole about Tairn not being seen for five years, I think I worked it out. The dragons don't stay at the college; they stay in the Vale where humans cannot go and just commute to the college. So I guess for five years, while his mate has been preparing for war, Tairn has just been... doing the equivalent of laying at home on the couch?
Incredible deep dive. After suffering through the whole book, I am LIVING for this - and finding so many plotholes I didn't even think of before!
I think they snuck around to see each other tbh.
Like they would meet up and Xaden just covered for them.
That’s my theory 😂
I like to imagine Tairn has just been... sitting on the couch eating chips and putting on weight and watching shitty TV shows and that's why he's so enormously big
i have a prediction for next books in this series, it will turn out that the little baby gold dragon is actually the super strong super rare once its actually grown
Boy do I have news for you lol
@@cadee.06 I feel so good now 😅 thank you
I want - for once - for the two love interests of the MC to fall in love for each other. Xaden and Dain deserve each other because their banter is more interesting than Xaden's with Violet.
*slides Iron Widow your way*
If you're looking for polyamory, looking in indie and self pub spaces is where you’ll find that. I recommend searching for ownvoices wruters because monogamous people are fucking WEIRD about polyamory. For half of them it's a sexual fetish, the other half still use "harem" 🤢 as a descriptor.
If you're looking for polyamory with dragons, the only one that currently comes to mind, since I haven't been reading all that much, is She Who Earned Her Wings,which is sapphic. I think the authors are also currently looking for ARC readers for their next one, which has a bunch of bi MCs that all get together in the end.
@@elaw7109not poly necessarily, just for both guys to drop their feelings for the fmc and crave each other instead lol
I swear I saw somewhere a webcomic where that happend (it was edit on tiktok lol).
Wait... you're telling me that the events in this book were translated? does that mean that all the smutty scenes had to go through someone who had to sit down and translate all that? what? WHAT
FAITHFULLY TRANSCRIBED, IT SAID! THE ONLY ANSWER IS YES!
And in first person no less 😶
The first thing that made me SO confused about that book.
And it was Violet’s friend that ‘translated’ it! Because that’s not awkward at all. And then! not only did she read and translate it all, she then went ‘yeah, that’s definitely something that should be kept for the historical record’
Yeah, the book relly neded editing if not rewrites.
“is this flirting, or am i dying?” incredible line rachel 10/10
so we're just gonna gloss over the fact that there's a dragon named fergie
Is that a special name?
@jobreau1725 she's pop artist from the black eyed peas. Kind of turned into a meme :)
Hit it Fergie
The most fergalicious dragon in centuries
@@jobreau1725It's also the nickname the British gave to the former wife of Prince Andrew, as her maiden name was Sarah Ferguson.
someone needs to do a deep dive of the moral myopia and Love Interest Privilege of Xaden vs Dain. i DO NOT want to be a Dain defender but so many people overlook his completely valid concern for Violet because Violet immediately assumes and frames it as ableism and a lack of faith in her (even though she also tells us... she will likely die... that being in the college is a death sentence due to her body... like??). Yes he is paternalistic and annoying (they both are) but he also makes GOOD POINTS. Violet IS being reckless and irresponsible, and she IS treating her body like shit. The problem is that acknowledging that goes against Yarros' idea of an empowering disability narrative. And Xaden seemingly knows what she needs better than she does, which is condescending but also entirely narratively supported and rewarded by violet bc otherwise how would we know he's the love interest and is "better" for her?
Yeah, if she was shown to be les reckless and way more resourcful that she shows she has that under control, but she doesnt, he is right to be concerned .
I think he was right for being concerned but he was SO annoying. At some point I just wanted to hit him hahaha What makes me angry is that the author just made him a total b*tch to make Xaden seem like a better choice. When Xaden is very protective, she finds that cute 🤡
I hate this book so much ughhhh
Both Dain and Xaden are ableist as fuck. The only difference here is that Xaden is attractive to Violet. Literally that’s it. Dain coddles her too much but Xaden also coddles her. When Xaden is being protective, it’s supposed to be a swoon worthy moment. Whereas the reader is supposed to be rolling their eyes at Dain. They’re both irresponsible and annoying.
Imagine a romance where the two lovers actually had to communicate their needs and wants and work for their relationship instead of these love interests who, despite being assholes, somehow know the main characters needs better than her
A Tangle of Tongues and Teeth but it's a fantasy horror book featuring a magic forest with necromantic vines made of human body parts and there are no sex scenes
OKAY BUT THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I HAD IN MIND WAS A TOOTHY FOREST
we could have a whole SJM style series. A Tangle of Limbs and Ligaments. A Tangle of Flesh and Fingers.@@ReadswithRachel
10/10 premise. Absolutely no notes.
I would read that IN A HEARTBEAT
Please write this.
So this is just a horse girl fantasy but with dragons? There was this Finnish book series about a fat girl (just like me) who was bullied (just like me omg) and who somehow got her own horse (like I should have!) that put her bullies in their place (my bullies needed that too!) and she and her horse were so great and special they even caught the attention of the hot horse guy (it was at that point the fantasy got a bit too fantasy for me). Isn't taming the meanest and most difficult horse just because you're the special girl one of the most common dreams for horse girls? Everyone else is struggling even with the laziest nicest gelding there is while I am riding my hellbeast of a mare like I was born on her saddle? I'm never buying or reading Fourth Wing but it's already given me so much to think about 😍
Horse girls unite! I'm sure there are a couple stubborn mares waiting to let us ride them because we understand mutual respect just around the next corner.....right? XD Personally I'd rather a horse than a dragon anyway.
I feel like horse girl fantasy would care about writing the horse society with more coherent detail than this. It's really an insult to horse girls.
Sounds like a good book that knows its audience.
Not a horsegirl myself but my mom was one and is also the person who got me into dragonrider books, and from what I understand the appeal of dragonriding is the same as being a horse girl except you want a horse that can fly and breathe fire.
Also if you want a horsegirl reccomended dragon riding book just pick up the Dragonriders of Pern series 90% of the dragonlore in this book was ripped off from Pern and done far worse.
@@bloodlily1203dragonriders of pern literally on top 😤 love that series (partly for childhood nostalgia but also cause anne mcaffrey slaps)
Welcome back, Kronk. You have been missed.
I'm really glad that you're talking about the EDS rep because I know nothing about that condition and I still know nothing over halfway through this book. Violet keeps going on and on about how she's weak, but she's had more issues from being short (which was the only reason that she couldn't do the gauntlet) than from her EDS, so I'm super confused by what the condition even is. All of her injuries have been incredibly normal ones like spraining her ankle from tripping over a branch, which leads to her says that she'd usually use a crutch for a sprained ankle, but she won't because she doesn't want to seem weak and I'm just like "wait, wouldn't that mean that you're limping? Isn't that weaker?"
And how can someone who supposedly went to the medics all the time while training to be *a scribe* barely ever go now that she's in extremely physical training? Her dragon grabbing her *three dozen times a flight* seems like it should hurt her. But it doesn't, so why is anyone worried about her? She seems fine.
It's so jarring to have everyone talking about her being a liability when the book has never let her disability actually hold her back in even a token manner. There's nothing she can't do and, if that's supposed to be the message, then I guess good job? But I don't think that's supposed to be the message since the book keeps having people say that this condition is a big deal. If it is, then I'd expect scenes where she has to come up with accommodations for herself, yet the only one I've seen is her dragon helping her up, but he's also apparently bigger than normal so is that even something unique for her?
I appreciate you going back into the Fourth Wing. I have been waiting for it and the fact that this whole novel is just a mistranslation, I cannot believe. I'll learn Navarrian immediately to make sure we understand the original text.
If I just learn the language, then somehow, the book will actually be better. I just know it! 😂
I think it would have made more sense for Tairn to have been seen around the college but refusing to bond. You can still keep the air of mystery without it being ridiculous that a strong mated pair wouldn't be seen together.
i completely agree. also wouldve created opportunities for us to have a segue into talking about dragon lore AND her wondering if that dragon knew her brother, what he thought of him, etc.
the idea of manipulating the dragon choosing ceremony would actually be fascinating for a much better book since now the traitor's son is quite literally tied to the general's daughter (if one dies, so might the other) and make for genuine enemies-to-lovers (as someone who absolutely loves the trope)
not to mention the constant "oh god he's sexy" thoughts literally break my suspension of disbelief (and not even because I'm aroace) like miss. ma'am. you think this man is trying to kill you and was involved (more or less since he was a part of the rebellion) with your brother's death?? and it should absolutely mess Violet up to be forced to go down the same path that only recently killed her brother (esp when combined with her mother's disregard for her father's wishes so soon after her father died)
Honestly, it would make more sense if people tried to kill him and he is very paranoid because of her mom. Because he has reasons to think that . If she had to convince him she isn a spy for her mom. And her wrestling with her mom being capable, and forshadow her mom might be evil.
And then there is an attempt on her.
That book could be so much better rewritten.
Only 15 minutes in, I LOVE the use of Yugioh cards to represent the Violet's dragons!! Busted a gut laughing
Thank you for this deep dive. I feel like Fourth Wing is fantasy written by someone that hasn’t ever read a fantasy book. All the things we LOVE eg the complex magic systems, the dragon-lore, maps, religious systems are just missing completely. So problematic 😢 I have EDS and at first I was SO excited that a main character in a fantasy book would have my condition. But then I read it and just really felt awful. The whole “nothing can hold you back from achieving anything you want to” thing except my disability totally holds me back so….
"In a shocking turn of events, my disability has disabled me."
it really seems to subscribe to the ableist mentality of "disabilities are just different abilities" and "it's not the disability that's holding you back it's your mentality" which is just like...no. It's a disability because it's disabling and that's okay. I mean, obviously it sucks to be held back by something you can't control, but it's okay for you to be disabled by your disability - that's what makes it a disability and that's what we need to represent, because ppl need to understand that that's the reality of life for disabled people and you can't just "get over it". And also that people can be disabled and happy? Like, it's so obvious, but disabled ppl are often represented as miserable bc of it and then they only become happy because they "beat" their disability (e.g. ppl with mobility aids learning to walk without them, austistic ppl learning to suppress meltdowns or being hugged (bc ofc all autistic ppl hate touch /s) or some shit like that)
I think this book is definitely the poster child for Romantasy... If you break it down Romance is the first and major plot of the book, Fantasy is just the setting so most likely it's the last thing they need to worry about. This sucks because if there was more effort put into it.. then way more people would like it and there wouldn't be as much hate or division in the Fantasy community about it.
I was having a convo with friends the other day about this exact phenomenon. I'm the kind of person who only wants to read Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, The Witcher... books like that, where the author actually cared about and even loved the world they created. And one friend said (paraphrasing) "these romantasy authors don't actually care about worldbuilding or taking us somewhere else. They think 'fantasy' is just 'a place with castles and magic and maybe elves or orcs' and that's it. They don't want to write A FANTASY STORY, they want to write A STORY 'IN' FANTASY". And as much as that blatant disrespect for the art pisses me off, that really is what the issue is. These aren't actually fantasy authors, and they're not trying to be.
I wouldn't be THAT pissed off if bookstores would just put all "romantasy" in its own subsection of "Fantasy" so I don't have to waste so much time digging through all this crap. And I wish they'd just be fucking honest with themselves and their readers and call it erotica, because that's usually what it is. Which is fine. But stop acting like it's something else.
They each have their audiences but The Lord of the Rings and A House of Silk and Ash (made that one up on the spot but it probably exists let's be real) are not in the same genre.
Considering the fact that this is the first of a what, five(?) book series, I’m thinking Xaden is gonna be the Tamlin of the series and I can’t wait to see everyone have a meltdown
That would be hilarious, but knowing how this author is blatantly ripping off SJM I’d imagine Yarros could fill 5 books with very little to no plot progression then have all the plot happen in the last 30 pages.
can't wait til the badder bad boy shows up
FIVE????
@@sciencefantasticripping off one of the worst romantasy authors is really something...
@@peacheznheelz6462four would make more sense (or none)
I feel like if Yarros wanted this to be a translated text from within the world and have Violet just thinking about how hot Xander is and include sex scenes that it should have been formatted as Violet writing in a diary. That way we wouldn’t have the implication that her friend who transcribed the story had to sit through Violet talking about her sex life in graphic detail. That would also make it being written in Violet’s first person perspective make sense
The rules and reasons are so fast and loose. Game of Thrones verse reads that Valeryan blooded people had remnants of magic in their blood, which is why they all imbred and it was how they were able to claim a dragon. In this...like why do dragons have to claim a human from dragon school and not some rando? Like if a dragon sees a scribe on the other side of campus, thinks "I want that human!" If dragon bondings are so rare, why not have them choose from anyone in the army? Or even civilians?
honestly, THAT would have made a GREAT story, imagine violet DID go the scribe route and the dragon skipped over everyone to go to her! instead of uwu im so litol how did i pass literally anything
That’s actually a much better book. Like if everyone was following their own path and a dragon could just pop in and choose you at any time that would be so much better.
the “translated text” would’ve been an interesting additive if it wasn’t for the literal smut scenes and the modern phrases everywhere like i can’t 😭 she really just added that in there because it sounded cool and went yep, this is gonna have them going crazy
I mean it did make some ppl crazy 💀
I remember dropping this halfway. I couldn’t take it anymore, writer keeps saying she’s so smart, but her decisions are that of a horny hedgehog on drugs. The guy that sees memories from touch… like girl how couldn’t you remember that, ofc he’s using it on you, he keeps touching. At that I was done,they could show her avoiding touch being careful around him, cuz she got ground breaking secrets!! And if needed for plot the guy could have his powers grow or hiding and he didn’t need to touch her to see her memories. The plot moves on and she actually shows in action that she’s smart. But no they just keep telling us she’s smart meanwhile I’m facepalming the whole time.
And what was always bothering me when she was flying on the black dragon the first time or smt. She keeps falling and he said “stop that, you’re making us look bad.”
That line is from the venom movie!!! And there were more of these that I could swear are from the same moviee!!! The whole personality of the black dragon is venom idk, I was looking for someone to notice it. Is it just me?
"Horny hedgehog on drugs" 😭😭😭 no bro this is too fucking good 😭
NOW I GET IT! i was literally saying to myself as I was reading tairn and violets dialogue, sounds straight out of a venom film. only to be told now THATS BECAUSE IT WAS
As a years long horse rider I’m just appalled by the fascination the author has for the inner thigh muscles. If we were all holding on with just our inner thighs our knees would be squeezed in and our toes pointing out. You do use your inner thighs to stabilise but the whole motion of wrapping your entire leg around a giant cylinder under you actually demands more from your outer thighs and glutes. This way you engage the entire leg plus these muscle groups are naturally stronger. If you were just holding on with your inner thighs you’d only be gripping with half of your leg. Riding a dragon where you are going upside down and so forth might be different but horses are the closest irl comparison we have to think which muscle groups to use 🤷🏼♀️ In addition, when you are on top of a living being squeezing your knees/inner thighs just locks up the rest of your legs which need a degree of looseness to follow the movement otherwise you got jolted all over. That’s my two bits on how this author should have maybe done more research and put thought into how people actually ride large animals. So every time they talk about the inner thigh muscles I wince a bit on the inside 😅
This girl really went Lord of the Rings and writes into the lore that this is a translated work from the original Navarrian... incredible. Resplendent. 10/10 no notes
Girl stole a book from spain???? 😢😢😢😢😢
We Stan Rebecca fully committing to her USA whiteness and appropriating from other people's works because of her creative ineptitude 🤩😍💖💖💖
As a person of Basque descent, it irks me alot when she mentions that Fourth Wing was claimed to be a translated work from "Navarrian". We Basques consider Navarre and its culture very seriously, as it is one of our traditional seven Basque provinces, and appropriating Navarrese culture is highly frowned upon.
Fun fact: We don't say "Navarrian", it's Navarrese or Nafarroako in the native Basque language.
Imagine how much better the set up would have been if Tairn HAD been seen at the college because he's mated to Sgaeyl and there could have been foreshadowing where he watches Violet train or overcome the obstacles through sheer force of will. Give some kind of early indication that he had respect for her before the whole "pick me, dragon" thing (completely forgot what that was called, the book was so long and full of so much random unnecessary crap). It was so obvious from the start with the whole "oh he's the most special dragon and nobody has seen him? Well this surely won't come up later!" Talk about a dead herring 🤦
Tethering? Thrashing? I know it begins with a T and am fairly sure it's one of these two.
@@Saphia_ THRESHING-that's it 🤣
@@eincryptid That's why Thrashing looked both right and wrong 😭😂
Im diagnosed hypermobile EDS (the most common type but there are 13 different types currently known) and the issues I have the most that limit my mobility is dislocations and sublaxations (partial dislocation) and muscle weakness/spasms. When I used to ride a horse (the closest thing I can think of to dragon riding) I had issues with over stretching my hips due to the hyper mobility that they would dislocate or my muscles in my thighs getting tired/ weak or going into spasms. A lot of people also have issues with their circulation causing numbness in their limbs, this happens to me when sitting for too long especially on uncomfortable wooden chairs and on unsuitable saddles. What I don’t understand is that the character with EDS doesn’t seem to display any other symptoms of EDS so it isn’t really clear in the book why she’d have issues with her mobility due to EDS and people who aren’t educated about EDS aren’t going to understand. Like for me I can walk around so too look at me you wouldn’t know that anything is wrong with me but after a while my body gets tired and I get a lot of pain in my joints. The more tired I am and the longer I’m on my feet the higher chance I have that my joints will be more likely to dislocate as the muscles around the joints get weaker (which my doctor has advised causes the joints to dislocate as it’s your muscles and ligaments that keeps the joints in place) I’m sorry for the info dumping because no one asked but thank you for coming to my TedTalk 😂
I have to pace myself and if I’ve been out for a couple hours on my feet when I get home my whole body hurts and I feel exhausted that I have to take a nap or at least lie down for a while. That’s without the other issues EDS causes like digestive problems, easy bruising, taking longer to heal (like even a minor paper cut can take a couple days to even close and a whole week to heal fully for an example). These are just a small amount of the complications that EDS causes on someone’s daily life without getting too deep into it.
I’m sorry, it just annoys me when books etc try to “represent” illnesses that just causes more stigma or is giving very little information or misinformation about the condition that just doesn’t help. I know that the author has said that she has EDS but this is such a bad take on representation of the condition (maybe that’s an unpopular opinion)
I appreciate the info dumping.
@@velvetshock I agree! I have hEDS, and the part about her having difficulty staying on the dragon makes sense to me, because the joint weakness EDS causes can cause issues with being able to grip things, which I have, especially when holding that tension for a while. However, that means the whole idea of doing muscle strength training makes less sense, because although muscle strength can help make up for the joint instability, it only goes so far and it's unlikely she would be able to become able to stay on her dragon by muscle strength alone. It could have been a great opportunity to show her using an adaptive saddle that accommodates her disability, instead of some kind of "mind over matter" arc. And absolutely seconded that there is very little mention of other EDS symptoms. My doctors explained to me that a lot of typical exercise training is more harmful to my body than helpful, because it strains my joints instead of my muscles, and it seems like the military training she does would be far more taxing on her than is really shown.
this book gives me divergent vibes. a bunch of ideas from popular tropes slapped together.
I know a lot of people think of this book as "fun fluff" but the only fun I've had related to this book, which I have read, has been listening to these recaps
The fact that the author tried to pull a Tolkien “oh actually it’s translated” is really funny to me, because with his books it just covers tiny little inconsistencies in the prose itself, such as a Christmas tree being mentioned, but with hers the rules and details of the world itself still don’t make sense. Translation wouldn’t account for the rules of your world changing every other page 😂
This could have been so good if this was better executed and written and it makes me mad 😭. There’s so much potential wasted. Imagine if Violet had shadow powers instead of Xaden, becoming master of shadows and secrets, blending in, listening to meetings, and stealing information from the enemy and using it against them. She’s could be powerful due to the information she knows and how she uses it. She could even learn that her nation is bad during one of these missions which makes her confront her mother about it.
True. And actually fit with a disability.
Also if people tried to kill xaden and he is angsty and edgy and she likes him and helps him once, butheaccuses her tht she sis sent by her mom.And he is competent, bu people try to kill him whothinkas traitors sin with the dragon is a danger. And she has to earn his trust. And deal with her mom maybe not who she thought she was. Even better if her mom tries to kill him sneaky .
There is so much potentional if you did rework it, or ust build up. Or make her nationaloistic and that fading upon time with zaden.
Zaden too would b way more engaging as edgy paranoid dude.
Right?? It would have fit perfectly with her scribe training too. Instead the thing that was heretofore her whole deal is just used as smug evidence for her being ✨the most clever special special ✨
Omg she did NOT try to pull a JRRT on us with this "translation" nonsense. I cannot.
We love at least two chapters of....translated smut?
@@vilesleftnostril.4704Imagine the look on the scribe's face as they translated that part lmao
Yeah, that had me wondering what other books might claim to be translations, because I'm thinking now there have to be a lot. But idk, I can't think of any.
This just made me think, what if the original manuscript of the Red Book included a ton of pointless graphic smut (written by Frodo I guess???) but JRRT just cut that out for The Lord of the Rings XD
At least JRRT did it right because he invented the language he was "translating" from so he probably knew what it read like in the fictional language.
"This was written by an adult woman." 🤣🤣🤣
this book does that thing where the mc is supposed to be the smartest person (in this case literally about to join the academic/research sector) and is still somehow the most incurious person to have ever existed (another example is the serpent and wings of night by carissa broadbent), like...at some point homegirl is literally wearing those horse blinder things of her own accord.
side note your first fourth wing video made me wanna check out the book, which inevitably pulled me out of a reading slump so at the very least this book is entertaining
A Reddit thread pointed out that in chapter 25 of Fourth Wing, Violet herself says making mage lights is one of the things she's actually good at when it comes to wielding, then in chapter 53 of Iron Flame she says she's never been that good at producing them. I couldn't stop laughing.
There are over 150 holds on this book in my library system 💀
Mine was available immediately so I'd like to think everyone in my city is like "NOPE"
I have read this book without knowing shit about it, because it had a fancy, pretty cover, and I like fantasy and dragons, and the premise sounded close enough to my beloved Poppy War trilogy, with a war college and an underdog girl with surprising powers, and it was such a hilariously bad read. I am now tempted to go and write a book with the exact same premise as Fourth Wing but like... making sense. With dragons being in charge, humans being desperately vying for their grace because they want to not die and that's why they are so willing to murder each other, and Tairn actually being an exceptionally old grumpy grandpa and dragons being in general chill, they just find it funny to play with the humans, like we find it funny to play with dogs.
Do it, that sounds amazing
1:14:52 "But in this case, she's not enjoying delicious Indian food. She's enjoying delicious... man." DYING.
This entire review can just be Kronk saying "well, you've got me, by all accounts it doesn't make sense"
I love the idea of the dragons having a very advanced agriculture and farm system that the humans have absolutely no idea about
Granted I don't know how EDS works, as I am not physically disabled despite needing glasses, yet I always felt like Violet having a disability is not communicated at all. I thought she just fell and hurts herself a lot as she is this tiny and fragile uwu.. at no point I ever picked up that this was supposed to be her having any kind of disability. She has major falls and fights of course she gets hurt everyone would... but for my understanding with EDS things pop out of place at minor things, you might slip and hold yourself up by instinct and your shoulder pops out by the light impact... when I learned Violet is supposed to have EDS I thought damn the author must have done not enough research... but apparently the author has EDS as well??
I'm loving this series about Fourth Wing but I have to say, being from Brazil myself that was the first time I was so invested in a sponsorship section
AHHHHH hi! So glad to have so many of you here
Frog, same
i haven’t read the book yet (don’t think i ever will lol) but it being so popular with such carelessness put into the storytelling and writing makes me super pessimistic about the standards we are setting for future books. the success of fourth wing means that anyone can throw together tropes, shallow characters, and lazy writing and they’ll have a bestseller
The Yu-Gi-Oh cards had me rolling, thank you. 🤣🤣🤣
I'm glad they worked out so well hahaha
This review series should be renamed "The Empyrean's New Groove".
i am deceased
I might be the only person who feels this way, but having not read the book and going just off this review, Dane seems like he’s just an imitation of Dean Winchester 😂. Dammit Sammy, I mean violet.
Wait no, further into the review and I think I get it. They’re setting this up like Peeta and Gale in Hunger Games and she’s going to try to make Violet the “poster child” of the rebellion like Katniss 🤦🏻♂️
Ecept peeta origially wasnt and it was a not really love triangle, due to aplease a publisher.
What confuses the fuck outta me is that apparently if you have mind reading powers you're put to death immediately, but why is the fact that Dane can just go through your memories willy nilly without consent, it's all okay?
I think Tairn explains that it's because Dain has to be in physical contact with someone's face in order to read their memories and thus easier to control, but idk how well this logic holds up because you could still physically incapacitate someone to make it so that they can't get away from Dain's hands
i think the reason this got so popular was the marketing and it reached an audience of people who barely read fantasy so the modern language like "so freaking smoking hot" made it more accessible to read. i believe the author is a military romance writer beforehand
also i didnt get xaden x violet's relationship but i liked the intimate scenes after the 60% mark. cant wait to see u tackle them in a future video lol
honestly a huge part of booktok books being popular is def the marketing
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Intro
1:20 Babbel Ad
4:12 Plans for Brazil
5:03 Recap
6:26 Chapter 15
15:45 Chapter 16
29:05 Chapter 17
36:15 Chapter 18
first 😜 love your videos Rachel
Thanks for being here! I appreciate you
That's such a great point that the dragons wouldn't allow them to capture or experiment on a feather tail. It's an excellent example of the huge inconsistencies and how it is just following tropes and pasting them together.
Violet doesn’t even act like a scholar. It would be so much more interesting for her to use her academic focus to overcome obstacles and gain knowledge but instead the only purpose of her being a scribe is to word dump info to the reader that we never saw her learn
Facts
wait she gets TWO dragons? whoa she’s so special fr
I finished Fourth Wing on Wednesday, and immediately watched part one of your review, needing validation because I could. not. stand. this book. so excited for this video!
I don't know if anyone else answered this already, but when I got my H-EDS diagnosis, I was told that it affects my ability to build muscle strength. It's not that I can't, but rather that it takes longer and is more difficult for me to do it. So maybe that could explain the inner thigh thing?
I’ve been listening to this book while I recover from brain surgery and it’s not good but I am entertained lol (I’m also drawing xaden as a buff woman while I listen because any predictable straight ship can be made interesting to me by hitting it with the yuri beam✨)
how do turkic steppe buildings tie into making a character a lesbian genuine question how on earth does lesbification beam link to yurts
@@jasminv8653omg I completely missed that typo
You're so real for that
33:57 I can speak a little bit to the hand/finger/grip issues, from my experience at least. From what I can gather, my condition is less severe than Violet's - I'm very hypermobile, but I've only started experiencing dislocations in the past year as my condition has worsened, and no finger dislocations (yet). Also, disclaimer that I haven't read Fourth Wing.
In preface, the following was difficult to write without getting super technical or using medical and anatomical terminology. I'd be incredibly impressed to see this condition described well on page without any illustrations. That being said, I am still judging Yarrows for her poor execution.
I have a lot of finger hypermobility, and when I'm doing something repetitive or strength based, like handicrafts or writing or doing the dishes, my finger joints can bend at odd angles. If I'm applying pressure with only my fingers, sometimes my second knuckle(s) will lock out entirely, which is called a swan neck deformity. Both of those things can be painful, but my thumbs cause me the most pain by far - it is very difficult to keep the lower knuckle from bending the wrong direction, and holding that position gets painful very quickly. It gets in my way to the point that I'd given up journaling for 3 years and I avoided writing almost entirely before I got my thumb splint, which keeps the painful joint in place.
I do not personally experience wrist or elbow dislocations, but both are loose enough that they do contribute to the wibbly-wobbliness of doing things with my hands. Wrists can also get painful very quickly when doing anything weight bearing - ie carrying grocery bags, lifting heavy items, or holding up my own body weight. They also contribute to the wibbly-wobbliness of doing anything with my hands, and depending on the activity the wibbly-wobbly may cause elbow or shoulder issues. The longer I'm doing an activity that's aggravating my hypermobility, the more likely and more frequently I will be in pain, the more likely I will seriously hurt myself, and the more trashed my hands will be the next day.
Additionally, there is commonly co-occurence of EDS/hypermobility disorders and Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) - and one of the possible symptoms of SPD is having low muscle tone as a child (which will continue into adulthood if nothing is done to address it). EDS does not inherently mean low strength, but it's not uncommon to see it. (Source: Ehlers Danlos Society & NIMH reference studies linking EDS and ADHD/Autism; Sensory issues are included in Autism diagnostic criteria, and NIMH acknowledges that sensory issues are more common in children with ADHD than in the general population, but more research needs to be done.)
It makes sense to me why this would be tough for Violet, but based on this video I don't think it was explained well at all for this scene, or in general. It's easy for me to forget the little ways that hypermobility affects my life, and to ignore some of the medium ways that are just annoying. In my opinion, this experience made it on page in Fourth Wing - and on page, as in life, if you only tell people about the worst moments that you can't hide, others get the impression that it's not a constant challenge. I'm really disappointed by the lack of care taken in consistent representation and discussion of Violet's symptoms.
"Have you ever just thought that might just have lice?" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I spit my drink 🤭
I almost DNFd this book at that part when Jack bonded a dragon. I keep reading only cause I couldn’t think it could get worse… and it did.
24:00 THANK YOU for summarizing perfectly my biggest annoyance with enemies to lovers books! If one of the characters did something bad (or is presumed to do something bad) then I'm not thinking about how hot he is! I need the characters to get over the hate/enemies part before they go all sexy over each other
26:41 okay THIS is one of the things that bug me so much about most fantasy authors, they make a military system a core feature of their book’s plot but NEVER bother to learn about the basics of how even one real-world military operated. As an ancient history lover, nothing ruins fantasy for me more than unrealistic, uncritical caricatures of ancient military and political systems, especially when an author has so clearly just cannibalised other fantasy books, leading to an even worse caricature!
This idea of killing off viable soldiers whilst they’re students has been especially prevalent in YA, yet it’s one of the most nonsensical concepts, especially for a successful “Big Bad Empire.”
For instance one of the greatest assets that the Roman Republic/Early Empire had was their endless supply of new soldiers, the Romans faced near-annihilation at various points, but their integration-after-conquest policy gave them heaps of new people to call upon, so if a legion fell, they quickly put together another in order to keep fighting, enabling them to overcome many foes that were otherwise greater than them.
Contrastingly, one of the elements credited to the decline of Spartan Supremacy was the lack of population to pull new soldiers from after a big defeat due to their obsessively rigid selection criteria (killing of the weak when they’re young) and refusal to integrate foreigners as fully fledged Spartan citizens (thusly relying more and more on untrained foreign/slave auxiliaries), but you’ll NEVER see one of these fantasy books explore that as a byproduct of their world building decision, because they’re ignorant to historical precedent 🤷♀️
There is SPECIFICITY to how a military operates and even MORE specificity behind an empire’s military dominance. When an author fails to understand that specificity, they leave the integrity of their world building (and plot) 1-2 small questions away from unraveling 😵💫
Reply to your EDS inner thighs question. I have EDS and I rode horses for 13 years. I can't speak for everyone with EDS of corse but assuming riding a dragon is anything like riding a horse then no, my EDS had 0 effect on my ability to stay in the saddle. In fact riding actually acted as physical therapy for me for years, helping me to build the compensating muscles to handle my EDS. The only time EDS was ever a problem when it came to riding was when I fell off. The impact with the ground did a nasty number on my hip joins and Im sure dropping onto a dragon's back wouldn't have been any easier on them.
So, this big, legendary dragon was so broken up by the death of his last rider that he went until now without bonding again and these geniuses think that if they kill his new rider he'll just bond with someone else like it's no big deal?
You know what, I think she is possibly the most cunning person at the academy. Everyone else has sawdust for brains.
im upset i skipped school to read this book, i'm never trusting booktok again 😭 i genuinely dont understand how people like this book, but i guess this is how some people feel when i tell them i love the once upon a broken heart series. I wanted to like fourth wing so bad aaaaaaa
Were you disappointed by the Once Upon a Broken Heart series ending? I felt the ending was underwhelming and lacking.
Yes, EDS affects the entire body. 35:58 because it is a connective tissue disorder, and the connective tissue is everywhere, it affects muscles, (Sometimes your muscles are just weaker than they should be for no reason, and it's not really controllable, like sometimes I can't open my water bottle) and organs and... Everything. Even how well we absorb medications. It affects mainly the joints, initially, but as we get older and flare ups happen more often, it affects everything down to how weak our fingernails are or how bad our vision is (floaters, how difficult It is too focus our eyes) and even blood vessels having difficulty tightening or expanding as they should, so regulating body temperature is also really hard. (Going into POTS territory, here) Also being lightheaded all the time.
Oh, also having digestive issues and spontaneously developing food allergies.
THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT! I love these deep dives so much it’s such a blast.
Happy birthday! 💜
Given the millennial-core nature of this book I wonder if "mage-lights" is her version of fairy lights
I was thinking of mage lights from Skyrim.
Wow! I'm Brazilian and was NOT expecting you to be learning my language! Makes me so happy to see there's still people who wants to learn our language! Um grande abraço, Rachel! Boa sorte com seus estudos! 😚💙
Honestly, the plot of this book reminds me of the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey. The war element is new, but the rest, like the telepathic dragon horniness, a coup, and the choosing/presentation thing. That immediately took me there.
as someone w EDS, it can effect general strength, but given im assuming she has classic type EDS it wouldnt mean she cant build up strength. also: she would absolutely fuck up her legs esp her hips if shes constantly landing on her dragon from presumably pretty big heights. honestly it all made me scratch my head bc so much of it doesnt make sense for most types of eds
As a brazilian I feel flattered you are learning portuguese 💖 If you ever need any help translating or have any doubts, I believe there must be a lot of us available here !!
I could watch you talk about books for hours and hours. I’m loving this long form content from you!
Wouldn't having an inntinnsic on your side be beneficial in war. They could interrogate prisoners of war in seconds. Hunt traitors, find weaknesses in soldiers.
And that's what I can think of off the top of my head.
Apparently it has something to do with the privacy of dragons or whatever. Who the fuck cares? The rider can just give away the information anyway, its not some type of taboo to spill the beans but why not keep those people away from the dragons if its that bad? As a matter of fact, the power comes from the dragon, so you pretty much waste a dragon over nothing because they almost never bond again as established
@@arkkon2740if protecting the minds of the dragons is true, then why would they even give that power to a human
Like this whole society have issues, but I would have this whole spy network of mindreaders doing reconnaissance, and sworn to never share the dragons secrets. That would be wicked and kinda scary
@@Nine_Crows_Down The dragon has no control over what power the human gets, but that doesn't mean they cant just turn it off, and obviously the dragons would know this is an issue because they're telepathically linked, but they do nothing about it
Honestly I think there should be a secret society too, but with just power rejects in general. Which reminds me, why isn't invisibility considered a useless power? Im pretty sure someone in this book has that, but you're on a dragon, what is invisibility gonna do for you if the giant target doesnt have it and you do?
The human institutions make no sense and the dynamic between dragons and humans make even less sense. I still don't know why the dragons have anything to do with humans or are not dominating them. Just absolutely no justification or motivations to explain why anything is the way it is. Things just "are."
My theory is they kill any inntinsic off because of the whole thing with the government keeping venins and wyverns secret because... Reasons? I still don't know why the military and their government are keeping that a secret and use the gryphon fliers and their country as scapegoats for the war. But having an inntinsic spill the beans would be baaaaaad for them.
FURTHER IN: i'm so confused by the difference between signets and channelling and how the feathertail powers work. It seems ENTIRELY semantic, the difference, like you still have weird powers no matter how you get them?? What does it matter if you got the time stopping power through "the core of your being" or magic dragon gift? YOU CAN STILL STOP TIME? THE OUTCOME IS STILL THE SAME?
God, bless you so much fpr going through this, I'm having a breakdown just witnessing your journey.
Re: Violet falling off her dragon because of EDS: obviously I have never ridden a dragon but that is a problem I had with riding horses. hEDS also comes with low muscle tone because our muscles are doing the job of our ligaments, instead of their own job as muscles (that’s how my physio explained it). So for me my thigh muscles are really weak cause they’re trying to keep my legs together, so cantering/galloping a horse is really hard for me because I’m not strong enough to actually hold myself in the saddle.
I also can’t go on roller coaster because of this so idk how she’s falling and being caught by her dragon because one ride on a kids roller coaster put me out of action for the whole rest of the theme park trip lol.
Girl if my scalp prickled that often I'd go check for lice bc this is not normal
Excellent and entertaining review as always! As an EDS gal (HSD to be specific), I do understand the problem with riding since my main issue is my hips. Sometimes, it feels like they're barely attached to my body at all, and the support musculature is slim to none. If I were to try to mount a dragon, my hips would probably shift in a way that makes me unable to use the muscles in my thighs properly. I don't know, maybe that's what she was going for. Training the support musculature in her thighs (or around her hips, more likely,) could possibly help with riding.
que surpresa ver você estudando português brasileiro! é confuso porque temos muitos verbos, mas é recompensador (os brasileiros amam ver pessoas falando nosso idioma)
Obrigada por ...estar? ser? i can't remember which to use for "being" aqui!
Tantos verbos! My goodness so many. Still learning them and had to make a spreadsheet to remember them and I made another one for learning the prepositions.
@@ReadswithRachelSe usa "estar" nesse caso.
Que legal que você está aprendendo português! Belo Horizonte é a capital do meu estado (Minas Gerais) 😊
@@ReadswithRachel Eu gosto muito do seu canal, e também gosto da Lou, espero que vocês gravem juntas! About our language, we use the non-grammatical version of some verbs, like "estar", we don't say "estou bem", we usually say "tô bem". Yeah, our life is sooooo easy, we added this to make things complicated, lol. But you shouldn't worry about this right now, first you need to get the gig of the language. I bet you'll be watching a Brazilian novela soon! And I wish I could travel to meet you, but I live in Fortaleza, it's a 3 hour flight to Belo Horizonte or Rio de Janeiro.
@@ReadswithRachelwe have an overabundance of verbs, that's something i real appreciate about portuguese, believe me, i speak portuguese for 18 years (I'm 18 yo) and i still don't know all verbs lol
Questions for the group
1) if I watch this entire series, do I get to count Fourth Wing as read on my Goodreads?
2) how big are these dragons? It’s not clear to me. Like using the scale of S1 Drogon to S8 Drogon, if possible, where is the Black Dragon and the Baby Dragon?
I thought they killed each other for a better chance to bond, not after the bonding.
If i was a dragon I'd be pissed if someone killed the person i bonded too
Rachel, this is so funny - so thankful that you’re reading it to us and for your baffled commentary!
And I love listening and noticing what to avoid in my own writing!
Thank you for your service!
📞 “Hello, MLM, I need some fucking orange zest essential oil.”
🤣🤣💀
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana
I've just binged the part 1 and 2 of your essay and I have to tell you: girl, you're amazing at this. I wasn't at all interested in this book but here we are, craving the next part. Will definitely check your other videos now.
Btw, I'm a Brazilian Portuguese speaker (and I live in Rio, would love to meet you when you're here) and to encourage you, let me say it is very easy to talk with natives even if you're not that versed in the language, so don't worry! 😊
YES!!! I thought you decided not to do the deep dive after the explanation video with your husband! Sorry for your suffering, but I'm so hyped!
I love these deep dives. When’s part 3 coming out? Also….will you do Iron Flame? 🤣🙈
Part two and iron flame hopefully both next month!
I am HERE FOR IT 🤓🍿
I'm never going to read this series, but I would consider it if in say the third book the dragons say F this, we are tired of humans and will roast them and serve them with ketchup and the rest of the books are just dragons doing dragon things.
That would be my new favorite book ending
“You lika da book” made me spit my coffee out 😂
Ok but did anyone else read the new book “preview” and was like THEY ARE STILL JUST KILLING ALL THE PEOPLE. 😅
the dragon is named tír na nÓg, as in the otherworld in irish mythology? her dragons name is land of eternal youth???????? did the author do any research for the mythology she used or did she just pick the names that she thought sounded coolest
I get why being a mind reader would be a bad thing around sensitive military secrets (especially when there is certainly an evil conspiracy afoot, elee you would train them as incredibly powerful spies) but... aren't these powers conferred by the dragons? Wouldn't they know which dragons make mind readers? Do these dragons intentionally bond with people they don't like just to watch their necks get snapped?
Emperor's New Groove cutaways are back and much needed because "by all accounts this (story) doesn't make any sense."
My mom got me this book for christmas because she thought it was good, and I've been putting off reading it because I've heard it's bad and seen your thumbnails for these videos. I finally got around to watching them and I'm !!! 💀!!! my mom has great taste normally what in the shit IS this??? The verbiage??? The smut??? I can't bring myself to read it now but thank you for going through it so I didn't have to experience this raw 😭😭😭
I'm so happy you are learning Brazilian Portuguese! ❤ Love your reviews, Keep the amazing work, Rachel.