Fourth Wing (Bonus Content - Chapter 27)
Welcome, everyone,
Today’s mini-review will be for one of the bonus chapters that Rebecca Yarros has released for The Empyrean. As of the time of writing this, there are three chapters, all for Fourth Wing and all available on Yarros’s website.
Chapters 9 and 16 (which are bundled together)
Chapter 27
I’ve decided to start with Chapter 27, for the simple reason that it is available on the website itself, rather than needing me to input my name and e-mail so that a file can be e-mailed to me. You can find the full text here.
WHAT’S IN THE CHAPTER 27 BONUS CHAPTER?
This bonus chapter is a POV shift of the original Chapter 27, moving the scene from Violet’s POV to Xaden’s. There are a few added elements, but these are limited to additional context that Xaden possesses but Violet does not, as well as a brief exchange of dialogue being Xaden and Liam during a moment when he and Violet are separated. As far as I can tell, all other dialogue is the same, word-for-word (though I did not do a close examination to be certain of this.
All right, with that established, let’s do some quick bookkeeping, recap the events of the chapter, and then analyze it in terms of how it affects the bigger picture of Fourth Wing and The Empyrean as a whole.
STATS
Title: Fourth Wing
Series: The Empyrean (Book 1)
Author(s): Rebecca Yarros
Genre: Fantasy (Epic)
First Printing: 2023
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Rating: 2/10
SPOILER WARNING
This review will feature heavy, unmarked spoilers for the entirety of this bonus chapter, as well as for the entirety of Fourth Wing, Iron Flame, and everything up through Chapter 40 of Onyx Storm (since that is the most recently reviewed entry in the Onyx Storm review series at the time that this is posted). Lights spoilers will be provided for certain elements after Chapter 40 of Onyx Storm.
While not necessary, it may be worthwhile to revisit what I previously said about Chapter 27 of Fourth Wing. I’m also going to assume that you are familiar with the rest of my review content for The Empyrean, though this is likewise not necessary. I may also reference my interlude on how Yarros misuses bonus content. (Fair warning if you check that one out - it has heavy spoilers for the climax of Onyx Storm, which we won’t review until late December.)
STORY
Violet and her squad have been rewarded for their success in the Squad Battle with a temporary duty station at the border fort of Montserrat - a trip that Xaden invited himself on. (His stated reason in the original book was that Tairn and Sgaeyl couldn’t tolerate the separation, but this chapter reveals that this was a pretense to smuggle “two dozen” alloy daggers to the border.).
Most of the chapter is taken up by a mock battle planning session. Xaden antagonizes Dain so that Dain can then be scolded for unprofessional behavior when he pushes back. As these events progress, Xaden reflects on Imogen, who faked an illness to slip away from the briefing and is currently flying the daggers across the border to deliver to their allied gryphon fliers. He also pushes open the telepathic bond between himself and Violet so that they can communicate mind to mind, revealing that this development was a deliberate choice on his part rather than the sudden development that it seemed to be in the original. We also get a great deal of Xaden pining over Violet and thinking about how wonderful and desirable she is.
When the attack on the fort begins, Xaden has to split off from Violet to retrieve his pack, since he has an alloy dagger in it that would be extremely compromising if anyone else discovered it. Liam accosts him, demanding whether the weakening of the wards that facilitated this attack was triggered by Imogen carrying the daggers over the border. Xaden assures him that the amount of daggers moved over the border wasn’t nearly enough to cause the outrage. When Xaden reunites with Violet, he kisses her as a means to subdue her so that she’ll evacuate and leave Mira behind.
WORLDBUILDING
In the past, when I accused the rebel children of endangering all of Navarre by stealing alloy, I was purely referring to a supply problem. Alloy is limited. Navarre’s leadership makes a big deal out of resource shortages to justify ongoing isolationism. Taking the alloy creates the risk that there will not be enough alloy to supply to the outposts.
Yarros has gone out of her way to make things so much worse.
“Was it us?” [Liam] says. It’s more accusation than question.
“No.” I shove what few belongings I brought into my pack.
“Was it us?” He shouts this time, standing in my way when I turn for the door, like he could actually stop me from leaving if he wanted to.
“No,” I repeat, looking him straight in the eye. “I already asked Sgaeyl; we have no operations in the area—”
“Except what Imogen pulled off today,” he retorts, his hands clenching.
My jaw flexes. “This wasn’t us, Liam. You know I’d never risk civilian casualties by taking down an entire outpost. Imogen carried two dozen daggers across the border, but even that amount of power wouldn’t be enough to affect an outage like this.” I sheathe my swords in the scabbards sewn into my pack, then swing it onto my back.
Liam’s shoulders dip. “This isn’t on us.”
“No.” I shake my head, then clasp his shoulder. “Get to the roof. We need to mount.”
Moving large amounts of alloy out of the radius of the wards compromises the integrity of the wards?!
Remember, Xaden’s smuggling operation steals alloy from the Basgiath luminary. This is alloy that, aside from being imbued with magic, is not yet doing anything to contribute to the overall integrity of the wards. It’s not like they are causing a local collapse by stealing alloy that is already anchoring the perimeter of the wards.
So, for the removal of alloy to collapse the wards, it means that moving the alloy across the boundary of the wards introduces some sort of instability to the wards.
And Xaden knows this. He is insisting that the amount they move is not “enough.” There is no reason to say this unless he is both aware of the problem and aware of the limits of how much alloy he can move (which likely involved trial and error, because if it is in a book, surely Violet would have come across this information at some point in the three published books of this series). .Judging by the phrasing of, “an entire outpost,'“ localized outrages of the wards are also something Xaden deems an acceptable risk and calculates for. He also admits that two dozen daggers is a lot of power (in fact, in the original text, the quantity “two dozen” is italicized). Xaden is deliberately pushing the limits of what he can get away with without endangering civilians even as he bleats about never harming civilians.
And it bears pointing out … what are the odds that there is an outpost-scale outage at Montserrat on the very day that Xaden smuggles this large amount of power into the area and Imogen takes it back out? It doesn’t matter whether Montserrat was on the verge of collapsing already. If anything, because the collapsing wards was established as an ongoing issue early in Fourth Wing, Xaden’s decision to introduce more instability by moving alloy over the border is inexcusable. This is the equivalent of firing a cannon at a crumbling building. Xaden doesn’t get to “whine” about how the building would have fallen down anyway when the collapse comes.
Which segways us nicely into …
CHARACTER
Everyone Involved in the Smuggling Operation
Nice going, Ms. Yarros. You have moved the moment when your self-righteous activists became irredeemable hypocrites back from the climax of Iron Flame to the two-thirds mark of Fourth Wing.
Dain
At first, my reaction to how Dain was portrayed in this chapter was revulsion. The original chapter already had a double standard, with Xaden making personal attacks on Dain throughout the discussion while only Dain got called out for unprofessionalism when he pushed back. This is so much worse. Yarros uses even less flattering descriptions of him and has Xaden thinking of more petty insults than he voiced aloud. The opening paragraph of the chapter even reads:
Dain Aetos is dancing on my last fucking nerve. Between the petty comments he’s been making all afternoon and what I’m sure he thinks are menacing glares, I’m ready to lean over and introduce his face to the Montserrat briefing table.
Much like the idea that Dain is a bad leader while Xaden is a good leader, this has nothing to support it. We are not shown any additional dialogue from Dain to demonstrate any “petty comments”, and he doesn’t act unprofessional until after he’s already been attacked.
Upon reflection, though, I realized it’s not that simple. Dain is demonized, mind. The fact Mira tears into him for his conduct, despite her also witnessing Xaden’s conduct but only being mad that he’s not a good fit for Violet, shows author bias. The thing is, it makes perfect sense for Xaden to perceive Dain this way, in a way that it simply doesn’t work for Violet:
Xaden is not Dain’s childhood friend.
Xaden resents Dain’s father for helping to maintain the secret of the venin.
Xaden perceives Dain as a threat to his chances with Violet
Dain’s Signet makes him an active threat to the security of the smuggling operation
It’s also worth noting that, while Yarros is stacking the deck against Dain through how other characters treat him, she acknowledges that one of Dain’s barbs is right on the money, using Sgaeyl to take Dain’s side. She only does this because it feeds into Xaden being madly in love with Violet, yet the fact remains that she did it.
“Why are you even here?” Dain whines. “No offense, sir, but we weren’t exactly expecting senior leadership on this trip.”
“Yes, why are you here?” Sgaeyl doesn’t disguise the mockery in her tone.
“You’re more than aware that Sgaeyl and Tairn are mated.” My voice stays respectively level. “It was your idea to bring the daggers.” I’m careful to only speak down Sgaeyl’s bond.
“It seemed a prudent course of action, considering your insufferable intolerance to being separated from the general’s daughter.” She huffs.
“Three days?” Dain fires back, leaning in. “You couldn’t make it three days?”
“Insufferable? That’s a bit far.”
“Where’s Violet now?” she mocks. “What is she doing? Is she thinking of me? Is she missing me? Is she getting closer to Aetos? Does she dream about that kiss? How many days until Violet’s—”
“Point fucking taken.” She’s going to be unbearable on the flight home.
Yarros’s hatred for the people Dain embodies is still foul and excessive, but at least it’s handled better here than through Violet’s POV.
Xaden
The wonderful thing about an alternative POV version of a chapter is that it allows for deep insights into a character. What is going on in Xaden’s head as these events unfold? What riches of characterization can we pluck from his head by witnessing his inner thoguhts?
…
Yarros reinforces that Xaden is head over heels for Violet.
…
Oh, and she hammers in how monstrous his actions with regards to the smuggling operation are, but we’ve already covered that.
PLOT
Hole Relocation
Imogen carries the daggers across the border … alone.
Xaden brought the daggers to Montserrat … alone.
Why does Melgren not see this?
Yes, I know that this is a plot hole we’ve already covered in various forms. It’s just that, much like the moral depravity of endangering the integrity of the wards, this takes a plot hole that only becomes apparent in later books and moves it back to Fourth Wing. The blind spot that rebel children create in Melgren’s vision is supposed to be a core component of this specific book’s big twist. How did Yarros not consider this?
And … not to keeping kicking a dead horse … but if Xaden can move alloy daggers to the border without being seen, and Imogren can carry them over the border without being seen, why can’t Garrick just teleport the daggers from Basgiath to a rendezvous point outside of the border? (As we covered back in the review of Chapter 12 of Onyx Storm, we know he can teleport from Basgiath to points outside the border, and he can teleport from inside a warded area to outside of it while carrying daggers.)
Sick Day
Another plot hole that Yarros opens up is localized to this chapter: does no one question where Imogen is?
But Violence wouldn’t like that, and as satisfying as it would be to hear his nose crunch against the polished wood, I’m not about to do anything that could end this little training session early and jeopardize Imogen’s mission, should her squad realize she isn’t actually vomiting in the infirmary.
Not that the healer will remember her ever being there, thanks to Imogen’s handy little signet. If she’s on schedule, she’ll be on her way back from delivering the drop I brought with me. The thought makes me reinforce my shields just in case Dain acts on the threat in his eyes. I’m not letting that fucker’s hands anywhere near me.
Let’s ignore for a moment that there are no soldiers watching who comes and goes from the fort, and let’s ignore that the dragons of riders who aren’t involved in the smuggling operation should notice. Those have always been plot holes in the smuggling operation.
The issue here is that the healer would not be the only person who knows Imogen is in the infirmary. Every person in this briefing should be aware that the reason Imogen is not present is that she is out sick. This means that, the instant someone asks the healer about Imogen, her ruse is exposed. She will be in the same boat as if she faked sick and then never reported to the infirmary. Even if she comes back and sneaks into the infirmary, the healer will remember when she showed up, meaning that there will still be a gap of time when she is unaccounted for.
In other words … this is the same situation as the wineskins being left with the guards in Iron Flame. Yarros is aware, on some level, that there is a question she needs to answer, and her solution backfires in the worst possible way.
The Kiss
I do like that Xaden kissing Violet is recontextualized as him calming her down. In a Romance that is nothing but sex (more on that on November 7th), it’s nice to see milestones being reached for reasons other than the sex itself.
PROSE
This bonus chapter - or, at least, the web-based version - is poorly formatted. There are multiple lines that are italicized for no reason. I doubt any editor looked at this.
Now, in fairness to Yarros, this is free content. I would hardly expect her to pay for a professional editor for this, nor for her publisher to invest an editor’s potentially limited work hours into polish.
Still, Yarros could have tried. These aren’t subtle mistakes or typos. They are glaringly obvious mistakes. Given that she had to pay closer attention to this chapter than others (on account of her needing to maintain continuity with the original version), she should have caught these errors and corrected them.
HARDLY A BONUS
NY Book Editors defines “bonus content” as follows.
Bonus content is any additional information that may be relevant for your reader. It’s usually packaged as a digital freebie and accessed through downloading a printable, watching a video, or listening to an audio file.
What Yarros has provided here is, objectively, bonus content. It is something extra offered to the readers to keep them invested between releases of books. It is relevant to her fans. It is also a digital freebie, so that’s a nice bonus.
Unfortunately, this bonus content makes Fourth Wing worse on nearly every level. This is a new low for Yarros in terms of cannibalizing her own work. Usually when she introduces a new element or retcon that damages her narrative, there is something gained (or, at least, something she’s trying to gain) within the narrative. Handing out double Signets like participating medals was an attempt to make the Liam editing error. Making the venin powerful inside the wards allowed Yarros to open Onyx Storm on a fight scene. Inconsistent handling of magic off the continent allows her an excuse to not have Violet annihilate all of the islanders with lightning. Here, though, she’s not adding anything to the narrative. She’s just ripping holes in it for the sake of making audiences feel like this POV swap has something new to add to the story.
Also - and this last point is purely my subjective taste - I feel like bonus context should be able to mesh with the narrative without damaging it. That is to say, it should be possible to replace the original Chapter 27 with this one without disrupting the plot. That simply can’t happen in this case. Knowing what Xaden knows about the smuggling operation exposes the book’s big finale twists. I wouldn’t have this objectoin if Yarros branded this bonus content as a sort of what-if scenario (i.e. she was teasing us with the possibility of a full POV-swap book), but she’s linking it to original Fourth Wing. That association is what makes this chapter feel out-of-place.
Overall, while I’m sure the most diehard fans of Fourth Wing will love this chapter, it left me with a bad taste in the mouth. It’s hardly the worsy thing Yarros has ever produced. It’s just disappointing how much damage it does in exchange for a flash of audience interest.
THE OTHER BONUS CHAPTERS
I have downloaded those other two Fourth Wing bonus chapters (Chapters 9 and 16), and I do intend to review them in the future. A quick glance tells me that these two will also be POV shifts, but I haven’t delved into them properly at the time of writing this. For some reason, the file that contains them is formatted so Chapter 16 comes before Chapter 9. I’m not sure what that’s about, but I’m going to take that as a sign to continue reading these in reverse order. Tentatively, the plan is to bring you the review of the Chapter 16 bonus chapter on November 16th and the review of the Chapter 9th bonus chapter on November 30th. (Both with be tagged to the Bonus Content archive once they are posted.)
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