Fourth Wing (Bonus Content - Chapter 9)
Welcome, everyone,
Today’s mini-review will be the last of the three bonus chapters that Rebecca Yarros has released for Fourth Wing. We have previous covered the bonus chapter versions of Chapter 27 and Chapter 16. This week will be the last of the chapters, Chapter 9.
Just a reminder that Chapter 9, like Chapter 16, was released as part of a special edition of Fourth Wing that came out right before the release of Iron Flame. This means that it is uniquely suited to bridge gaps and smooth out contradictions that Yarros may have noticed between Fourth Wing heading to print and her finalizing Iron Flame. It also makes any contradictions that occur within this chapter all the more inexcusable.
And yes, that will be relevant shortly.
WHAT’S IN THE CHAPTER 9 BONUS CHAPTER?
Much like the previously covered bonus chapters, this is a POV swap. We are rehashing the first scene of the original Chapter 9, where Xaden took the place of Violet’s intended opponent in a sparring match before engaging in a fight overflowing with sexual tension, opening on the line of dialogue where Violet says, “You don’t think you’ll need those?” and ended when Xaden leaving the mat, with only the addition of a small bit of banter with Garrick at the end.
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 52 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 may be provided for certain elements after Chapter 52 of Onyx Storm.
While not necessary, it may be worthwhile to revisit what I previously said about Chapter 9 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, whch we won’t review until late December.)
STORY
Xaden and Violet engage in a fight overflowing with sexual tension. Xaden uses this opportunity to try to drive a wedge between her and Dain.
CHARACTER
Xaden
General Sorrengail’s Deal
Some of you may recall that, in Chapter 36 of Iron Flame, Yarros introduced the concept that Xaden had a preexisting deal with General Sorrengail.
I stop as the door at the Archives level comes into view. “You did what?” She didn’t just say what I think she did.
She tilts her head to look me in the eye. “It was a simple transaction. He wanted the marked ones to have a chance. I gave him the quadrant—as long as he took responsibility for them—in return for a favor to be named at a later date. You were that favor. If you survived Parapet on your own, all he had to do was see that no one killed you outside of challenges or your own naivete your first year, which he did. Quite a miracle, considering what Colonel Aetos put you through during War Games.”
“You knew?” I’m going to be sick.
“I discovered it after the fact, but yes. Don’t give me that look,” she chastises, pulling me up another step. “It worked. You’re alive, aren’t you? Though I’ll admit I didn’t foresee the mated dragons or whatever emotional entanglement you’ve involved yourself in. That was disappointing.”
It all clicks into place. That night at the tree last year when he should have killed me for catching the meeting of the marked ones. The challenge where he had every opportunity to exact his revenge on my mother by ending me—and instructed me instead. Nearly intervening at Threshing…
My ribs feel like they’re cracking all over again. He’s never had a choice when it came to me. His life—the lives of those he holds dearest—has always been tied to mine.
At the time of reviewing that chapter, I highlighted how this reveal directly contradicts the last chapter of Fourth Wing. No mention of the deal was made then, despite all three of the examples Violet identifies here getting explicitly mentioned as part of Xaden falling in love with her.
This bonus chapter then doubles down on the problem.
At the start of the fight, we get this:
I could snap her neck and no one in this room would interfere. But the hundred and seven souls I’m responsible for would pay the price.
This sounds like a subtle nod to the deal. After all, killing Violet here would not violate the Codex, so the only way this could result in the deaths of the rebel children is if killing her would result in Xaden defaulting on his deal with General Sorrengail.
Unfortunately, I don’t think Yarros intended this. If she did, then she wouldn’t have written this paragraph less than a page later.
Were she any other opponent, I’d put the blade against her throat, proving my point and ending the match, but fuck me if I don’t feel like I somehow owe the first-year for keeping her mouth shut about the meeting she saw under the oak tree. My form of gratitude just happens to be not killing her as she lies at my feet, battling her own lungs.
If Xaden has a preexisting deal with General Sorrengail to keep her alive, then that is what he should be reflecting upon as he contemplates killing Violet. His “gratitude” should not be a factor if he is already beholden to keep Violet alive.
This bonus chapter was Yarros’s opportunity to patch up a contradiction. If she didn’t want to spell out General Sorrengail’s deal outright (not that it would hurt anything if she did - that reveal amounts to nothing), then at the very least, she could have left Xaden’s reasons for not killing Violet here and now ambiguous. She could have had Xaden consider killing Violet despite owing that favor, only to rein himself in as he remembers that he has a promise to keep.
Romantic Progression
The handling of the sexy fight feels off to me.
Credit where it is due: the sexual tension feels much more natural than what we got in the Chapter 16 bonus chapter. It’s easy to draw a line from this to where Xaden’s head is at in the Chapter 27 bonus chapter. I even think it fits okay with his internal monologue at the end of the book about falling for Violet form the moment they first met. We don’t get any more substance at to why Xaden like her - he just plugs the same sexual elements and attraction to Violet’s (supposed) brilliance that is integral to the wish fulfillment - but that is, at the very least, consistent.
We also get an exchange her where Xaden settles of Violet’s nickname (“Violence”). Other reviewers have poked fun at this already, so I won’t belabor the point. I just feel that, much like the decision to assign Liam as Violet’s protector in the Chapter 16 bonus chapter, this is backstory that we didn’t actually need.
Where I think the problem lies here is narrative voice. This sexual elements in this bonus chapter don’t read like they are coming from Xaden’s POV. They read like Violet trying to imagine Xaden’s POV after the fact. In other words, this is very clearly a woman trying to write a man’s POV. I don’t think the problem is nearly as severe as, say, what we got in Notorious Sorcerer, but it’s still hard to ignore that Yarros is framing all of these sexual elements far to similarly to how she would frame them from Violet’s perspective. She even recycles the internal conflict that Violet feels, only instead of oscillating between attraction and Violet berating herself with, “You are not attracted to toxic men,” she has Xaden oscillate between attraction and wondering, “What the fuck is happening to me?”
I don’t think this is a massive issue. It also makes a degree of sense in terms of servicing the wish-fulfillment nature of the romance. It’s fundamentally no different from what happened in Maid in Manhattan, when the way Chris talked about Marissa in scenes where she wasn’t present was clearly written to feed back into the fantasy Marissa’s story represents. Still, if we are going to live in a world where we meme to death any example of a man writing a woman’s perspective and then hyper-fixating on the descriptions of breasts, we should also mock this chapter into oblivion.
The thing is, I don’t think it would be all that hard to fix the problem. It would simply be a matter of making Xaden less wishy-washy about his sexual desires. His internal conflict shouldn’t be about whether he wants to have sex with Violet - it should instead be that he knows he wants to have sex with Violet, but needs to walk the tightrope of his other commitments. Violet’s indecision makes sense in terms of someone wanting a protector with POWER. Xaden, as said protector, should instead be indecisive because he does not think he can afford to protect anyone else (at least, not in the romantic sense - he obviously needs to protect her to honor his deal with General Sorrengail).
Dain
The way Dain is abused in this chapter feels the most appropriate out of any of the bonus chapters. Xaden does belittle him in the narrative descriptions, but not excessively so. This reads like a combination of Xaden being an “egotistical asshole” in general, with perhaps a touch of disapproval for how Dain is helping Violet now that Xaden is starting to feel attraction towards her. If one does accept the premise that he had a deal with General Sorrengail, it becomes even more appropriate. He sees Dain’s methods as not helping Violet achieve her full potential, which makes his job a bit harder.
Overall, the only aspect of this chapter that comes close to demonizing Dain is the fact that Yarros started it after Dain’s attempt to prevent the fight (something that was in the original book), as including this would have forced Xaden to acknowledge that Dain has valid reasons to think he wants to harm Violet. She is avoiding an element that could have made Dain look sympathetic. In and of itself, though, I don’t think this amounts to demonization, as nothing else in the scene would actually be changed by showing this back-and-forth.
However … there is an idea in this chapter that makes Violet’s treatment of Dain later in this book (especially in Chapter 18) even worse. It’s an idea that was present in the dialogue of the original, when Xaden rebukes Dain verbally for not training Violet in an appropriate fighting style. I should have have brought it up long ago, but unfortunately, I forgot about it. What this bonus chapter does is add a line in the narrative descriptions that takes this simple exchange and tries to demonize Dain further, only for it to backfire.
When Xaden disarms Violet for the first time in this scene, we get this:
Her hazel eyes flare wide as she stares up at me, fighting to draw breath, and I drop the dagger at her side and kick it out of her reach, towards the squad leader who should have taught her better.
Let’s gloss over the idea that squad leaders are personally responsible for training cadets to fight. That’s not an idea that gets explored anywhere else in the series, and the fact there is a dedicated professor to train cadets in how to fight would seem to contradict the idea that Dain has a personal responsibility. Instead, let’s just consider the idea that a squad leader “should” get personally invested in the ability of cadets to survive.
You know - the way Dain tried to do in Chapter 18, in response to learning that Violet would die dozens of times per flight training session if Tairn wasn’t shielding her from the consequences of her actions.
Violet screeched at him for doing the thing that we are being told her he “should” do.
I love how Yarros’s efforts to punch Dain down to build others up consistently make those other characters look awful.
Sgaeyl and Garrick
Neither of these two are characters in this scene. They are accessories. They are here to chide or mock Xaden for being sexually attracted to Violet. They exist to prompt Xaden into saying or thinking things Yarros wants him to think or say.
I suppose we can be grateful that Yarros is at least consistent about this one aspect of her writing.
PLOT
Action
I am torn on the handling of action in this scene.
Yarros experiments with writing more detailed and engaging fights. She obviously just recycling the choreography from the original chapter, but by filtering the descriptions through Xaden’s POV, she provides greater detail on what’s happening.
I want to like this … but Yarros also uses this to lampshade problems with her power fantasy, with no intention on fixing these issues (as demonstrated by the fights we actually got in Iron Flame and Onyx Storm).
Basically, Yarros has Xaden be critical of Violet in the narrative voice, covering issues like:
“flinging daggers like a a carnival act”
“She’s too easy to disarm, and her false confidence that she’s not will get her killed.”
“And why the fuck isn’t she using weapons suited for her body type and fighting style?”
“But there’s also no control.”
“She’s fighting like she’s six inches taller and has another forty pounds on her instead of leaning into her actual strength.”
Over the next two books, Violet will routinely and successfully throw daggers to take out opponents. She never learns a lesson that stops her from being easily disarmed. The bit about ill-suited weapons is, at best, used for wish-fulfillment romance by having Xaden give her gifts. The fighting style thing is never demonstrated until Unnbriel, and that relies on the Queen of Unnbriel being an idiot and Violet suddenly having the thighs of Xenia Onatopp. Violet’s lack of control is acknowledged, but the underlying issue - her inability to control her emotions - is never addressed. The size and weight disadvantage is at the whims of the realism toggle.
All this is to say that Yarros seems to think that pointing out the flaws in her work is the same as fixing them.
Brennan
During the part of the scene when Xaden explains to Violet how he figured out she was poisoning people, we get this gem - and for once, I am not using the term sarcastically.
Brennan would give one of his frustrated sighs if he knew just how obvious his little sister was. Then again, he’d also try to kick my ass for the position I have Violence in.
A bitter taste floods my mouth. She has no clue he’s alive.
In this scene that occurs more than 9 months before Violet learns that Brennan is still alive, which is a moment that is (sometimes) used to justify her refusal to trust Xaden in Part 1 of Iron Flame, Yarros is directly acknowledging not only the fact that Brenann is alive, not only the fact that Xaden knows he is alvie, but also the fact that Xaden knows the emotional weight this information would have for Violet.
There was genuine potential here.
Something I covered at the close of my comparative review of Goblet of Fire to Fourth Wing is that Yarros could have earned Violet’s mistrust if Fourth Wing had put greater emphasis on the loss of Brennan and what the revelation of Brennan being alive would mean to her. The idea was to set up that Xaden would be fully aware of the impact of the secret he was keeping so that, if nothing else, we could empathize with Violet at an emotional level, even if her demand for a security clearance was entitled nonsense.
Having Xaden acknowledge the secret within his POV and the fact that he understands the impact it would have on Violet would be another way to go about this. I don’t think that bringing it up in just this one chapter is enough (Brennan isn’t mentioned in either of the other two bonus chapters). Still, if Yarros had brought Brennan up in those other bonus chapters and highlighted the fact that Xaden was deliberately withholding that information from Violet, it would have at least implied that he had some sort of arc in the background that ended in him letting Violet down.
For example: Yarros could have added a paragraph to the Chapter 16 bonus chapter where Xaden reflected upon the fact that Brennan would be proud of Violet for protecting Andarna, only to realize that she could never be allowed to know Brennan was still alive to be proud. He could then briefly debate whether he could ever reveal that truth to her without compromising the weapons smuggling operation. The key point is that he would conclude that it wasn’t even worth trying to find a way to tell Violet without exposing the smuggling. Maybe a way did exist, but he would choose to put his mission above all else, leaving Violet in the dark. This would make it clear to the audience that Xaden would deliberately choose to withhold emotionally sensitive information from Violet for the sake of his mission, thereby providing a solid foundation for her not to trust him once she learns the truth.
As a final note on this point, while this inclusion by Yarros does reveal the Brennan twist, I do not feel it compromises the narrative. The reveal of the weapons smuggling in the Chapter 27 bonus chapter is incompatible with the rest of Fourth Wing because it prematurely exposes something that fundamentally shifts the framing of the narrative. The reveal that Brennan is alive, by contrast, is an afterthought, presented to get a last gasp of surprise from the audience so that we had a reason to pick up the next book. Nothing is lost by revealing Brennan is alive at an earlier point in the story. It instead creates a sense dramatic irony due to this incongruity between what Violet knows and what Xaden knows. It also creates a mystery: how is Brennan still alive and why is Xaden (the son of the man who supposedly killed Brennan) aware of the truth and keeping it a secret?
WORLDBUILDING
Nothing new is introduced in this bonus chapter. However, there is a rather awkward line in the third paragraph where we are reminded about Dain’s Signet.
My mouth quirks into a smile as I crook my fingers at her, then lock my shields firmly in place, since Aetos hovers close by.
This is bizarre no matter how one slices it. Xaden is aware of Dain’s Signet at this point (because, at bare minimum, he would have learned it while eavesdropping in Chapter 4). He knows Dain’s limits. As an inntinnsic himself (remember, Yarros said, “The whole series is plotted out and arced and all of that.” She totally didn’t make up that twist for cheap drama in Iron Flame before sweeping Xaden’s inntinnsic powers under the rug in Onyx Storm), he should also be aware of the risk of other lesser inntinnsics around the Riders Quandrant. Between these factors, he should either:
Always have his shields locked “firmly in place” as a precaution.
Feel secure enough to not bother with shields when there is no clear threat of Dain touching him.
For him to only activate the shields in a sparring match, a time when Dain is least likely to intervene and touch him, makes it seem like Yarros doesn’t remember how her own magic system works.
A MILD DIVERSION
While I had a lot to say about this bonus chapter, I do feel it is the strongest of the three bonus chapters that exist at present. It doesn’t cannibalize Fourth Wing, and it doesn’t come off as Yarros vomiting onto the page. The mention of the Brennan even hints ideas that could have made retroactive repairs to Iron Flame.
At the end of the day, though, this chapter still carries the hallmark flaws of Yarros’s writing in general and her bonus content more specifically. Yes, this does work as bonus content. If all you want out of Fourth Wing is Xaden lusting after Violet and spitting on Dain, you will find this rewarding. However, it is ultimately a lazy reskin of something Yarros has already written, where the only elements that seem to have gotten significant thought are Yarros’s attempts to lampshade problems as an alternative to correcting them.
If Yarros releases any more bonus chapters, I intend to review them (assuming they are legally available for free online - I’m not spending money on a special edition just to read bonus content). Maybe future bonus content will improve on these issues. I’m not optimistic, of course, but I will hold on to hope regardless.
