Shadow and Starlight Podcast

Fourth Wing | Gotcha by the Balls

• Kaina Gillespie • Season 1 • Episode 11

Share episode

Welcome wonderful listeners to Episode 11 of the Shadow and Starlight Podcast | Gotcha by the Balls!! Join us as we begin our deep dive into the Empyrean Series by Rebecca Yarros in preparation for the Onyx Storm release. Time to dig into Violet’s adventures at Basgiath, including: admiring how hot Xaden is, being a smartie pants, and poisoning people until she can learn to land a punch.

  • For next week, please read chapters 10-18/pages `115-222 of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros for your reread or to refresh your memory.
  • This episode is based on Quicksilver by Callie Hart. Intro Music by Boomer, graphics by @reeseplantedesign. 
  • Follow us on TikTok and Instagram @shadowandstarlightpod, watch us on YouTube, and listen to us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!
  • Email: shadowandstarlightpod@gmail.com


Send your hosts a message!

Alright, welcome wonderful listeners to the shadow and starlight podcast where two friends dive deep into popular fantasy and romance ebooks. We get into the stories, characters, world building, lore, and much more. And most importantly, we'll have a damn good time while we do it. So book your seatbelts for this wild rollercoaster ride of emotions, magical worlds, and laughs. I'm Kinsey. I'm Kena. Today we are covering chapters one through nine of 4th Wing by Rebecca Yarrows. Yay! Oh my gosh. Finally! Finally! First and foremost, please listen carefully to our content warning. These are adult books we're covering and neither of us have a filter. So this podcast is definitely rated R and for those 18 plus. Regarding spoilers, if you have not finished the entire book, Fourth wing and iron flame book. Please come back after you do so. While we are discussing this first stretch of chapters, we will be doing so with perspective of what happens in both books for better understanding. That way we can really dive deeper into the theories and appreciate the masterful foreshadowing. And it's literally endless of Rebecca. Going forward. All episodes on our show will contain spoilers for the whole series in question. Next, if you like what you hear today and want more, please come back next Thursday and next Thursday and next Thursday and next Thursday and every Thursday after that for a brand new episode. As a taller podcast, we'd love to hear your feedback to better ourselves to expand our book loving community. Please feel free to give us your views, reach out to us on social media, and follow us on TikTok, Instagram, and watch us on YouTube at Shadow and Starlight Pod. Yes. Alright, drag out the pod, what you got? Raspberry lemonade. I'm drinking matcha because it's been a day and I'm drinking it. My cute little cat mug. also a very important announcement. if you're watching us on YouTube, you can see, but listeners, I have a little in Darna on my shoulder. And Kenzie has her little toothless slash tarned. So we're really showing our fourth wing spirit today. And I also have my Baz Gayath shirt on. So I have been waiting for this moment my whole life, basically. officially we are 68 days away from Onyx Storm. And yes, we will be doing a countdown every episode. So stay tuned. Man, it's getting close. I am so excited, especially now that we're officially in our Empyrean coverage. Yes. So excited. So excited. And our last announcement, Penzi is diabolical. And I lost the trial by trivia for Quicksilver. If you haven't watched our episodes for Quicksilver or read the book, There's a chapter where this character is eating quiche and we went on like a whole tangent about it And she decided my punishment would be to drink a quiche milkshake So, go check out our social media. Milkshake video will be live today. So go check it out on our Instagram or our TikTok at shadowandstarlightpod. Yes, I will suffer for the views and for the content. And I'm very determined to get you back and win this Empyrean trial by trivia. So you've been warned. Honestly, I can't even say anything because I am, this is such a juicy book and it's so much content that I probably would like you. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. There's gonna be lots of material to quiz each other from. We'll just get like three episodes deep and both of us still have zero points. Probably. Alright folks, we are officially Entering is in a bar, right? Yeah. Yeah. Let's just preface this by saying we mispronounce stuff all the time. Yes. No, sorry. Don't take it too seriously. It is what it is. We'll try our best. That's what I can say. We are actively listening to the audio books, so we should, this one shouldn't be as bad as the past two books because I've been listening to the audio book like crazy, trying to get the pronunciations right in my head, but yes, we're officially entering best guy at the word college. So exciting. Okay. So excited, so let's get ready to cross the parapet as Kena leads us through our Shadow and Starlight synopsis, aka her unhinged summary detailing the events of these chapters. Alright, it's conscription day at Baz Gayath, and a silver haired, soon to be badass dragon rider is headed up to mummy's office. Speak of the devil. We learn right away that both Mira and Violet have some serious mommy issues, as this no nonsense woman has ordered her youngest daughter to join the deadliest quadra in Navarre's military, the Riders. Having been trained to be a historian most of her life, she is drastically unprepared, but god forbid anyone talk back to General Lilith Sorengale. Big sister of the year, Mira prepares Violet in all the ways she knows how, and escorts her to the turret, warning her to stay away from a certain Zayden Ryerson before heading off. Ha! Alone at last, Violet climbs the stairs to the parapet and makes a couple friends, even training one of her boots to make sure that Rihanna can make it across the parapet in the slick weather conditions. Just before her crossing, Violet comes face to face with BookTok's beloved shadow daddy, Zayden. Enter the hottest, most attractive, most sexiest, most badass dragon riding MMC to ever live in my brain. I could talk about this man all day, and I probably will. Like any other good enemies to lovers plotline, these two absolutely despise each other, for pretty valid reasons. Finally crossing the parapet, Violet repeats her mantra, as well as many historical facts about Navarre, which speaks to her scribe side and also helps us readers get a grasp on the world building in this story. Jack Barlow, Psycho that just will not die is dead set on killing Violet until she puts a dagger to his literal balls. God, I love this woman and this is the exact point where I knew I was going to. Officially a cadet, Violet, not doing so great. Her knee is bucked. She's about to throw up all over. Dane, ugh, get out of here bro, but since you're here, let me roast you real quick. This codex loving spineless rat that should have been in the infantry, by the way Zayden agrees with me, just read his bonus chapter, helps Violet recover in private and begins his pleas to get her to the scribe quadrant. Buckle up, folks. This isn't the last time he's gonna do that, and it's already old. To our dismay, Violet is flirting her little butt off. Back in the courtyard, the cadets gather for their entrance speech, which is really just Zayden telling them that shit hasn't even begun to get difficult yet. True, but way to kill the vibe. Wing Leader Zayden uses his position to transfer Violet's squad to 4th wing so he can better handle her. Alright, it's time. Enter dragons. Your hosts might be salivating because we get to talk about dragons for 15 plus episodes, but for these cadets, it is a serious reality check. Anyone that shows fear is roasted. And some kid pisses himself because he's so scared. And I'm like, I know it's the first time you've seen a dragon, but come on, didn't you know you were signing up for The Ryder Quadrant. Literally. If Kenzie and I were there, we would probably have gotten roasted running up to pet the dragons. But in my brain, we would have made a dragon bestie and went to live in the Vale with all the other cuties. Probably wouldn't have happened. So Gale would be like, you're dead. All right. First day of death classes. Wahoo. On the way to Battlebree, Violet learns just how much Jane has changed, considering he is now a magic wielder, dragon rider, and has a unique signet of memory cognition. Hmm, wonder if that'll come up later. Violet's plan to lay low and play dumb backfires yet again, and she stands out as the smartest first tier in battle brief. Scribe training for the win, baby. Straight away, we gain the knowledge that Namar is not so safe, with wards faltering, griffon flyers attacking, and the chance to be called into service early. When Zayden speaks up in class, it is to get our wheels turning. Just what are these griffinflyer is looking for in these Nemarian outposts. Could it possibly be the one thing that can kill creepy and evil Venon and their giant fire breathing wyverns? Nah, they're probably just looking for, like, better snacks or something. At the sparring gym later, it is time for assessments. Riddick shows that he is a feminist king, Riannon whoops Tynan's ass, but unfortunately our violence needs to work on her violence. Imogen, a marked one, takes an opportunity for revenge and breaks Violet's shoulder. Believe it or not, girls, y'all are actually going to be friends one day. Imogen might deny it religiously, But it's true. And in serious pain, Violet agrees to be mended by Nolan just this once. After that is complete, she gets a dose of hope when she finds the Book of Brennan. Instead of a diary full of juicy tea, it is a how to on how Violet is going to survive this toxic quadrant. By poisoning people. Until she learns how to throw a punch. I can't blame her, I feel like I would do the same thing. If I was like, smart enough to know how to poison people. While I used to stink out in high school for fun, Violet stinks out for berries. Fonaleeberries, specifically. Just when she is about to make her way back to the dorms, an illegal formation of Marked Ones decides to meet right under the tree she is currently perched in. Instead of plotting another rebellion, they are simply just trying to help each other survive. Violet can't help but admire Zayden despite his ruthlessness. Convinced she's unnoticed, she slips out of the tree to find Zayden waiting for her, who presses a dagger to her neck. To her shock, he doesn't kill her, but instead lets her know he commands shadows, coins her favorite nickname, gives her some advice on how to handle Jack Barlow, and he also now owes her a favor for keeping his little survival club a secret. After poisoning her first victim and making us suffer through talking about her sex life with Dane, it's time for Violet to head to dragon class. In addition to many other breeds, the class also gets a peek at the only unbonded black dragon. Since Jack is delusional that he will somehow get the biggest baddest Battle Dragon and the Veil, we learn that Black Dragons are the rarest, smartest, and most discerning, and we will also learn the backstory to this particular Morningstar tale that will become one of my favorite fictional characters ever written. Back in the Sparring Gym, Violet's diabolical plan works flawlessly except for Orin throwing up everywhere, but hey, a win is a win. As time passes, she shows her skill as a Poison Master until some girl from Third Wing does not show up to spar as a result of consuming the poison too early. Instead of giving a free pass, Zayden steps up to repay that favor. He teaches her some combat tricks while also making mine and Violet's pulse skyrocket. Yes, Violet. I am also thinking about other things that are good fit at certain angles as well. Lord have mercy. After her lesson, Violet spends some quality time with Dane, who is again making plans for her to escape without her permission. The two argue, but Violet does agree to think about his proposal before threshing. And that's where this stretch of chapters ends. Yay! I'm so excited! Nah, I need a shirt with his face on it so I can just wear it every time. This is like the only episode we'll do without Tarn, and that's what I'm here for. I know. Dragons! Okay, now that we have crossed the parapet, we've survived the parapet. We did not fall to our death. Now we're going to move into battle brief. so it's time to head into our chapter chat section, which we're going to be referring to it as battle brief this stretch of chapters. Well this coverage where we'll discuss all local things in this stretch of chapters, including theories, foreshadowing and more. Yes. So starting with our foreshadowing, we're gonna talk about Jack Barlow's hunger for power. Can we just talk about how really quick I was so convinced he was dead. And I thought he was just like a lower tier villain. And when he came back, I was like, you gotta be motherfucking joking right now. I was so thrown off by his reappearance. I was like, why, why? Yeah. That wasn't one of the biggest shocks of Iron Flame to me. That was right up there with like Dane killing bearish. We're stabbing him, but yeah, this is what I had no faith in Dane. I didn't either. He actually stalked me. I tried not to hate on Dane too much. I was like, I gotta rest him just once. Oh. I am going to eat that man up when we get to our favorite moment. He gets no slack from me. Oh my god. Is your favorite moment talking about how much you hate him? Yeah. Oh my God. It's probably like Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan. Pretty much. I love Hedda dragons. All right. So it is pretty clear from the second Jack Barlow enters our story that one, he's a Sadistic murderous asshole and two he's gonna be on our nerves until he is dead for real and three he has quite the ambition for power quote. Remember the name I'm going to be a wing leader and quote Considering we know he's going to be been in already by the time him and Violet have their infamous sparring session and make sense that He would be so greedy for power. He was channeled from the source. One question that we have is If he was solicited to become a Venom by Nevar leadership, or if he channeled by accident from his greed, or maybe he knew about the Venom already. It is possible that he channeled for the first time during the spar with Violet because he wanted to kill her just that bad. And we know from the end of Iron Flame that channeling results in a red rimmed eye immediately or soon after. So. Yeah, I don't know. That's a big mystery to me. I really, feel like there's something to maybe someone in Navarre leadership that like solicited him to be Venon because we know later, they're going to try and mend his soul and they do, but I don't know. I don't know if that seems too far out, but for me, I feel like that maybe is realistic because I do have a hunch that there's some military leadership. That's like a double agent for the Venon or something, or they're like, Actively recruiting people I don't really know. But I do think it is plausible too that It's possible that he did channel from the source for the first time when he was sparring with Violet. Cause, like, at some point, the first version of Become Venom probably did it on accident. Where, like, they were in such a need for power, or something like that, or they were just, like, trying to, you know Pull magic out of the ground. I don't know. So maybe like a great need or something like that causes people to channel from the source. And maybe he did that when he was sparring with her and that's when she sees like his red rimmed eyes, but that also seems kind of crazy too. So I really don't know. I know that Jack Barlow, I think Rebecca has confirmed that he's not going to be like a super big character in onyx storm. So all these questions may not matter, but I still have them and I want to talk about them. The next piece of foreshadowing I want to get into is Venon and the great big lie of the Noir military. So just in the first chapter, we get It just mentions just so many things, but one of the really biggest ones is the mention of the big bad villain in our story, the Venon. Mira asks, quote, is it that old book of folklore about dark wielding vermin and their wyvern? Which Violet corrects to Venon. And on my first read, I totally overlooked this. I thought it was just like world building and her kind of establishing like there's folklore in this world. and also just while we're talking about this, I do want to say. Side note, Rebecca works so much world building and foreshadowing into just like the first chapter and the first stretch of chapters. It was just seamless. It was such a smooth ride and I really appreciated it on a reread this time. Um, and I feel like it's great for newer fantasy readers. Like I usually always recommend this book to people that want to get into fantasy because it's so easy to get into the world building. And her, she just blew it. Playing good writing on her part. Like the world building does not feel like work. Like you just kind of pick up things as you go and you're not really that worried about it. But anyways, back to the bedding. we also get another early mention to what is really going on when Violet overhears Zayden tell the other Marked Ones, learn what they teach you, keep what you know, but recite whatever they tell you to. Interesting. This really gets our brains thinking immediately that like, things are not what they seem. There's a bigger conspiracy at play and the marked ones have something to do with it. So I love that little setup there. Like, it definitely got my wheels turning. I was like, the marked ones are up to something. In Battle Brief, Zayden is even asking questions in a way that tries to get others to ask the right questions and set them up to believe that they are real when it eventually comes out. And I feel like him doing this and Getting people's wheels turning in class. Well, I mean, I think that does maybe make an impact in Iron Flame when like over half the college goes with them to Arisha. So I was asking about like the condition of the village that was attacked, pointing out that that's important to determine. Like, when they're thinking about motive, then he adds, quote, They were looking for something, which begs the question, What do we have that they want so badly? And we obviously know at this point, but I thought it was interesting on a reread that Zayden was asking those questions in class, because I didn't really Notice that on the first read either, but he is trying to get his wheels turning. Next foreshadowing, we're going to talk about Violet, the lightning wielder, and I also, this is my favorite moments, but I decided to put in foreshadowing like a good boy because it's really where it belongs. But I love how something that is so core to who Violet is and who she's going to be and what she will do later in the series is so early in the book. Just in chapter one, Violet describes herself as quote, really damned quick, lightning quick. This is dope because we know our girl will become a badass lightning wielder. In another instance, when Violet is about to cross the parapet, she also remarks that the thunder is like, oddly comforting to her, which I think is really cool. So like, thunder and lightning, like, her and Tarn, like, those things are things that she uses to describe herself and things that comfort her, so it really makes sense to why she gets that signet later. But I will say this is some of my favorite foreshadowing. Of the book, if not just these struts of chapters. I love it. Yeah, I feel like I overlooked that in both. Like every time I've gone back to like read the story, I feel like I've overlooked the little tidbits of her lightning wielding steel because it's just so easy to overlook it. Golly, Rebecca loves the foreshadowing moment. She loves those Easter eggs for sure. Now we're going to talk about Professor Devera. So in Iron Flame, we do get confirmation that this particular professor is just as awesome as we thought she was. She knows about the Benin and sides of the revolution when shit goes haywire. In Battle Briefs, she makes a comment that seems like a dig at Markham who is staunchly anti revolution and blisses ignorance as far as he is concerned. We expect you to graduate with the full knowledge of what we're up against. This is extra hard knowing what we know because writers are drastically unprepared for the reality outside of the wards. Moment for hating Professor Markham. He sucks. I hate him. Just gonna put that out there. I feel like anybody who is like, very secretive and lying to these kids just deserves our hate because Yeah, well he's like the biggest liar because he's the curator of the Scribe Quadrant. Who's basically like the engineer behind the great big lies I've been in. Let's get into some foreshadowing we get for General Saurangil's death, which I know is we're at the beginning of Fourth Wing and that's all the way at the end of Iron Flame. One of the chapter headers quote, It is this general's opinion that the children of the rebellion's leaders Shouldn't be forced to witness their parents executions. No child should watch their parent put to death. So hearing Lilith say that hits really hard on a reread since we know that she will sacrifice herself and die in front of Violet and Violet has to watch it. And also, I just want to talk about this. I'm curious to hear what you think, and listeners, let us know too. This was the moment that I started questioning if Lilith was really like a heartless bitch or not. Like, from the beginning of the story, she comes off as just this extremely cold parent that doesn't value her children's lives as most parents would, but her objecting to the Marquinons watching their parents die was the first time I found myself wondering if she had like a little sliver in that. Little black heart of hers. What did you think? I think, honestly, I think she just had a role to play. As a general, I feel like, um, I feel like there's a lot that goes into it. Like, I feel like she had a role to play. So, I mean, obviously, she couldn't be uh, Soft. She couldn't show any weaknesses because she literally was like the head of an army, basically. So it's just like, I feel like she did a great job at masking those emotions. But I do think that I feel like I know she loved her children. I like, I didn't have faith in her throughout the whole series until we got to the part where she died. But I feel like at that point, you're like, I was like, okay, maybe she wasn't as bad as she was. But I feel like it was all just. Her role, basically. Yeah. Yeah, she, she definitely loves her children, but I do have beef with her on her parenting. Like, regardless of your general, like, Come on. we'll talk more about sweet old Lilith and future episodes, but I definitely do think violet's going to need to process this shit and onyx storm. it's super fucked up. She had to watch her mom die and like their relationship never developed. she. Thought her mom was this terrible cold person. And then she watched her sacrifice herself and say all these things. And she never got to know her mom on a deeper level or even really understand why she did the things she did, which I feel makes her processing grief and this thing she saw. Even worse. And I just feel like this complex relationship will make this even more difficult to process for our girl. And I'm curious to see how she works through it in the next storm. Or even if we're gonna get like a lot of Cause there's gonna be a lot of other stuff happening, obviously. But I do think that it's going to be She's officially parentless now. Which sucks. Yeah. I um, It's sad because that was her last parent. I'm glad I feel like she gained someone just to lose someone. so she got her brother back just to lose her mother, you know, I feel like she was conflicted with who side to be on. Cause obviously Brennan was on the opposite side of their mothers and that was her last parent that she had left who knew so much, but she wasn't able to get, you know, The real answers to the questions that, or to the things that she thought was one thing, but it turned out to be something totally different. So I think it's just really sad because she didn't get to, like you said, develop that relationship with her mother, her last parent that was living. So she had to watch her last parent die. Yeah. And her dad was taken away from her so early. Yeah, there's actually theories out there that her dad's still alive and has been in or something. But yeah, I don't know. I'm not, I'm not in that train, but we may talk about it in a, in a later episode. So speaking of General Soaring Girl, we also get a bit of forestatement on the reason why Zayden Hates her so much So before Mira sends violet off to war college She mentions that all the children of the rebels received their marks from general milken's dragon She also said that she got the information from their mother, but their mother wasn't very open about discussing the topic So on a first read this was really easy to overlook you kind of just You, you, you get an intro of Lilith and you see, she's kind of standoffish. So you just assume that's why she doesn't want to discuss the topic. I feel like on, uh, reread, this is a huge red flag that the general did not want to discuss what really happened to the Mark ones. And we eventually learned that General Stormgirl was the one to give Zayden all his scars. So it isn't surprising that Mira warns Violet three times to stay away from Zayden because there is some deep shit to unpack between them. Well, it's kind of funny. Cause like, yeah. There is serious beef there, and she's wanting to stay away from him, but then we also know that, like, Lilith asks Aiden to protect Violet, which is why he moves her in the fourth wing and, like, tells everyone not to kill her, at least the marked ones. So, there's so many layers to this that, on a reread, you're like, oh my gosh, this is, like, all, all the puzzle pieces are coming together. Then there's a bunch that we haven't figured out yet, but it isn't. I feel like that speaks a lot on his character development too, because I feel like it makes him come off as mysterious and like this person with this evil plan to kill Violet when he was actually doing the opposite. And in the process, he ended up falling in love with her. So Lilith wasn't the only one keeping secrets. Let's talk about Danny Zayden. So it isn't a coincidence again, that he came off as mysterious and powerful after being introduced. It's because he is indeed mysterious and powerful. I think that is very important that we note some of his characteristics during the earlier parts of the book. So the first thing that really stood out to me in the beginning was like, of course, him putting Violet. And his wing, like you said, moving her there. So, I mean, It's very notable that they didn't seem to always keep a close eye on Violet and know all of her whereabouts. Though he was the one to fall first, definitely think that he was originally plotting his revenge, but general sword Gail, uh, by using Violet, and this was just some of my initial thoughts. Like now we know that. It, the real reason behind it. But initially this is what I thought, like, Oh, yeah, he's planning. He's plotting his revenge. But in reality, he was actually, um, doing what General Sorgel said and agreed to keep Violet safe. There was also another scene in particular that stood out to me and made me questions and this motive during my reread. So during our first glimpse of Battle Grief, we learned that, the Navarrean wards faltered along the top of the Esper Mountains, and Professor Devera opens the floor up to the new cadets to ask questions about this occurrence. While Violet shows how well she was trained to be a scribe with her critical thinking, Zayden was the one who knew exactly what to ask in regard to the attack, as Kena said earlier. Obviously, this is because he pretty much knew everything that was going on, and, In chapter nine, Violet actually questions Zayden's motive when talking to Dane. Quote, do you think he could be plotting against Tavar and still have a bondage to Gil, end quote. So Dane answers and says he believed that at first, like that was his motive, but when Zayden bonded with his dragon, he deemed it impossible. So, I feel like there's so many hints here because I feel like after we got, confirmation, Not confirmation, but I feel like after Dane says the one that's like super codex crazy the one when he says oh No, it's not possible. the dragons would do anything to protect the veil he can't be planning anything against the bar. So at this point I was okay cool he's cool. He's not doing anything I feel like this was just like a hint to kind of get our wheels turning It's I don't know about you, but I was definitely fooled. Oh, I was seven Yeah, I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Like if he has a dragon, he can't be up in this whole conspiracy because at that point I believed all the dragons were for Navarre, which like, I mean, they are, but it's, it's much more complex than that. So I, when I started questioning Zayden was chapter seven, when all the Mark Ones had an assembly as a Violet would call it, um, and learns, we learned some like juicy info from them. So that was, that was when I first started like, okay, what's going on? Like he is planning something, but like that, that meeting was him just giving them advice to survive the. The, um, quadrant. It was that one quote where he's telling them to like recite what they tell you, but keep what you know, that's what you're like. Okay. But what do you know? Can I know it? Yeah. Lastly. We're going to discuss Brennan and his death question mark. So from the very first chapter, we get some slight foreshadowing on the death of Brennan. And he is mentioned a lot throughout the beginning chapters of the book. And I mean a lot. I cannot count how many times his name popped up when I was doing my reread. from chapter one, we are reminded that Brennan was killed by Zayden's father, which explains the mutual hate between the two from the jump. But something that really caught my attention during my reread was a conversation, um, if we can even call it a conversation, because at this point Violet and Zayden were just kind of like arguing back and forth. So I, it really wasn't a conversation, but It was an encounter between Violet and Zayden. Zayden casually mentions that her mother was the reason for his father's death, and she casually retorts, quote, Your father killed my brother. Seems like we're even. End quote. And Zayden responds, hardly. Why? Well, because they're not even YX again. Well, because Brennan is not dead. So, so, uh, I feel like at this point, and it's so crazy to realize how much Zayden knows that we just don't know at this point, but he's just Full of like information here. He knows so much at this point. Yeah, he is just so hot. But yes, very secretive. I. Don't like Brennan. Well, okay. That's a strong word. I am suspicious of Brennan. I feel like his backstory, well, not his backstory, but like what we know about him, especially like around his death and his relationship with Naomi and just everything and how he's leading the revolution, but he was also like in the bar. I just, I feel like I need more explanation on that. And it's making me suspicious that he might be Connected to the Benin. I don't know. We're gonna get into it a little bit in the theories section But I do want to talk about this a little bit later once Brennan actually is in our story. Yeah Yeah, I don't know. I can't really make an opinion on Brennan yet I have to get back into my reread to really remember how I felt about him. I don't remember how I felt about him. If you listen to our Quicksilver coverage, I kind of feel about Brennan Brennan, the way that Kenzie feels about Everly. I think Brennan's a traitor and it's not really like a, well, I have like a little bit of evidence to say I'm lying, but not nothing concrete. Speaking of theories, we're going to get into the theory section of our battle brief now. And I have a couple that I'm really excited to talk about. Actually, I love the theories part. but thank you, Quicksilver. I'm going to keep talking about it because I love it. For making me extra suspicious of the gods on our Empyrean deep dive. And on my reread. So right away in our book, the gods, specifically Malak, are mentioned many, many times in Fourth Wing, and Violet seems to actually speak to him more than Dune, Zinal, or Amari, the other gods. In Iron Flame, the gods are mentioned even more, and Violet also speaks directly to Malak at several points in the book. And also, more context for my theory I'm about to get into. The Bay of Malik is shown on the Iron Flame map, which is between poor Emile and the Barons, and we never really learn much about it, but it feels very pointed that it's even on the map in Iron Flame, and I feel like it's going to be important. And so, yeah. If it's relating to Malik, that just gives me more evidence for my theory. So, let's get into it. In the first chapter, we get a mention of the fever Lilith had when she was pregnant with Violet, resulting in the silver discoloration of her hair that we all know and love. It's like that fever stole all your coloring It's not the first time I've heard her curse the sickness that nearly killed her while she was pregnant with me. And this is what is going to make the beginnings of my theory that is actually inspired by Silver Branch in Irish mythology. So within this mythology, whatever. A gray haired warrior passes into the underworld and I firmly believe that Violet's silver hair is going to be of a large significance and possibly relates to the gods or Malak and here's a couple of ideas I have alongside of thinking. One, Lilith may broker to deal with Malak to save her unborn child but the consequences of that is that Violet is maybe like a ward of Malak or bound to him in some way. Two, she was so close to death in utero that she Touched my mallet giving her silver hair or three she was always destined to be connected to the gods and her silver hair marks this but the silver branch in irish mythology is having me thinking maybe we're going to meet the gods and travel to the other world at some point i don't know if the bay of malik has something to do with this but that would be really interesting and i would like to think that the gods are Definitely like opposed to the Benin and cheering Violet on, but who knows, I mean, we can never know the gods intentions until we actually meet them or hear from them. And then also, uh, just one more thing on this theory. I also want to give you a sneak peek into another theory I have that Zayden maybe will die and she'll have to broker a deal with Malik for his life to return him, like resurrect him or secure him without him actually dying. Dying. That makes sense. Um, we'll get to that later because it's only episode one and I'm literally having to restrain myself to talk about the end of iron flame. I'm like equally like dreading talking about it. And the same time I'm like, I can't stop thinking about it. I need to get this, need to word bomb it everywhere. One more theory. And it's about Naomi Terran's previous rider and Brennan's possible lover. It's also possible that they were close friends or maybe Naylin was even a father figure to Brennan. It's kind of really unclear. We don't know his age. He could have actually been older than Brennan. We don't actually know, but we do know that he was Terran's only rider and Terran is It's a little over a century old. So I feel like it would make sense for Naelin to be maybe a little bit older because I don't think it would make sense for Taryn to have been going so long without bonding to a rider. Quote, Naelin's signet was siphoning. He attempted to use that power to revive a fallen rider, which didn't work because there's no signet capable of resurrection, and depleted himself in the process. So according to Professor Kaori, Nailin burned out trying to revive Brennan. And I don't think he's actually dead. I think he may have even channeled from the source and became Venon to save Brennan. There's so many nuggets in iron flame that make me think the sage or Venon leadership is someone we know or have contact with. heard of already and is connected to Violet and Dorzadin in some way, and we actually hear of Nalen at several points in the book and Taryn also refuses to talk about him which is very sus to me. Here's my thinking, maybe he channeled from the source to be able to save Brennan, and Because Brennan later tells Violet that Nalen didn't fail, but it cost him everything. Cryptic much, bro? Can we get some more information, please? But, uh, I just feel like that phrase is very specific. It cost him everything. Like, did it cost him his dragon? His signet? Like, Did he become a Venom? I don't know. But both Brennan and Taryn being so vague about this has me narrowing my eyes at you, Rebecca, because I know everything you put into every little sentence and word has intention. Yeah. Anyways, even if the sage isn't Nihilan I do have a strong theory on who it is, and we'll get to it in later episodes, but this is one of my many theories. Um, yeah. Okay. We'll get to it. I must pace myself. All right. Now we're going to talk about our favorite and notable moments of this stretch of chapters. And of course, if you guys have not learned from the last book, I love shadow daddies. So I'm going to start my favorite moments talking about Zayden. So, and I get to talk about him, one of my favorite. Favorite, favorite, favorite shawdaddies for the next three books and I'm super excited. He's the OG. He is, he is. I love him. So in this stretch we not only get mysterious tidbits of Daddy Zaden, but we also get an infamistic thing. Um, for our main character, which you guys know from the, again, the last two books, I love those infamous nicknames. So that one line that got me quote, going for blood today. Are we violence? So freaking hot. I just, I have a bunch of fourth link stickers and one of them has it on it. I need to give it to you. I would definitely take that from you. I'm not going to worry Bowman about Zayden just yet because I got so much time. So now we're going to move into, we're going to talk a little bit about Dane and this is most definitely not a favorite moment. It's just something that I wanted to know and just get off my chest. This is why we do this. This is why we do this. Talk shit sometimes. Sometimes we got to talk shit and I'm going to talk shit. So I just feel like Dane was really preying on Violence is downfall, the stretch. Like, I don't know. He just, he did nothing but instill her abilities to survive the writer's quadrant, and it absolutely pissed me off. And I think, uh, your feminism has kind of rubbed off on me because it's kind of reminded me of like times when men would just say, Like, it's kind of reminded me of times when men would just tell women they can't do it just because they're a woman. Like, in this case, it was more of like, you can't because you're sick and you're weak. So you're not going to survive type, you know, and it's like, and little does he know that violence will burn not only one, but two dragons. So, you know what, eat shit, Dane, eat shit. Well, he will, this entire book and some of Iron Flame. Do you hate Tamlin or Dane more? Yeah, that's a tough question. I hate Tamlin more. But I will say, I have actually forgiven Dane and Tamlin. I don't know because I just, I can't stand a lying, manipulating man. And I feel like Dane lied and manipulated her throughout the whole book. And it's like, something told me, Why is this man touching her so much? I don't trust him, but I was like, it's Dane. Like he wouldn't do it. You know what I'm saying? Like it's Dane. Like he's not, he's not still hurt. Like, no, he's not going to hurt her head without permission. Yes. Yes. He's, he's, he's a rat. I just, it has to be Dane. I hate Dane. Like he's a rat. I can't stand a rat. Oh boy. Dane is in for some serious roasting on this podcast. I, I mean, I definitely hated on him. Especially the stretch of chapters in this early. I just feel like he's so selfish because he's so afraid of losing her that he won't listen to her and he won't encourage her. it pissed me off so bad that he kept going behind her back to try to get her to join the scribes. And it's like, so funny that his advice versus the advice that Zayden gave her was so different and Zayden's advice ended up helping her more. Yeah. Because Dane was making her come off as even more weak, and Zayden's like, just grab him by the balls and show him who you are. Yes. Like, That's, I support that. moving on from Dane, I got that out of my system, I feel much better now. We're gonna talk about, um, the friendships and the people of color. I'm very excited to talk about this. So, like KMF, I did notice that you're gonna talk about this too. I did love the bonds that the main characters make. And so, seeing that the start of, I love, being at the start of all the inner circles that, in books. I just feel like I was there to, experience, and I was there to, with the start of the bonds, their friendship. I think it's so cool. So, I love, being a part of that and, and, and seeing the way that their friendship develops. So, I will say from the job, though, I was So in love with Rihanna, not only is she a black main side character. Um, thank you, Rebecca Yaros, but she is an amazing friend who sticks with Violet through the end, real ride or die. And I love, love, love that Rebecca gives us like a taste of black culture because Rihanna does have box space throughout the series. And I just love that because I was like, Oh, yes. Rebecca really killed so much representation, like from the sign language to the EDS, to people of color, Oh, I love it. I love Rebecca. Yeah, she was good on that. She was very, she was very, very, very inclusive. I love that. I love that. Yes. We love an inclusive queen. Now we're gonna circle back to Zayden real quick, even though I'll be done. So, one of my favorite moments was specifically the scene where he's meeting up with the other Mark ones and they are discussing how they want to kill Violet and their hatred for the Soaring Girls in general. And Zayden makes it very clear That no one was is to bother her and he would be the one to deal with her and execute revenge on the sword girl name Well, you know, he's not really trying to execute revenge, but you know, you get the picture So his exact words being quote she's mine to handle anyone feel like arguing in quote and I was just swooning I don't know why and I it might seem weird because this was not I mean we can assume that this wasn't even a nice way, but when I read this I The only two words that I paid attention to was she's mine. So technically it's still a pretty romantic line. I took it in the most dirty way possible. I was like, yeah, you're going to handle that. I was just like blushing already. I was like, she gonna be handled. All right. Yes, and this is such like a random, I made like the most random connection between Fourth Wing and The Vampire Diaries. I'm re watching The Vampire Diaries right now, so it's just always on my mind, so. I feel like every book we've covered, you've at some point related it to Vampire Diaries. Yes, so we low key get a love triangle, this book, and I love that because in Vampire Diaries, you also get a love triangle, and I feel like Zeta reminds me so much of Damon. And Dane, like reminds me so much of Stefan and Stefan really pisses me off. Like I'm a Stefan hater. I don't care what I'm going to say, but I'm a Stefan hater. And yeah, so I don't know. I don't know. He's just like my Damon. I don't know how anyone in their same mind can choose Stefan over Damon without even never having seen Vampire Diaries. He's such a cry baby. He's such a cry baby. I can see that. I've only seen like three and people say that he's the better brother, but he's literally Like, he's a murderer. he's what you would call a ripper. So he like literally goes on a murder, bench. And just kills hundreds of people at a time. Okay. Time to talk about my favorite notable moments. And yes, I left all the talking about Zayden to Mackenzie, but don't worry. And future episodes, I will be drooling. All right. Um, like Kenzie, I also wanted to talk about the friendship and fantasy specifically, like the female friendship. I just loved rereading where Brianna and Violet met and how quickly they were able to trust and depend on each other. It's kind of like when me and Kenzie met and we were just like, a couple of months in, and we were like, I don't know how I did life without you. And still like that. But I just loved how Violet like giving Rhi one of her boots just speaks to how compassionate our FMC is when it comes to others. And I feel like strong and realistic female friendships and books is something that I really love. And like over the course of these two books, like things are not always good for her. Like her and Rhi, but they're always still there for each other. And they're always it's a ride or die. when she tells Rhi everything in Iron Flame, she's rocking with Violet. She's okay, let's do it. I got you. But, um, I also, I want to say like, I feel like this is why I love Crescent City so much. Like more than, I don't know, most people, I feel like, compared to SJM's other novels. But it's not just a romanticy. It's also like a love story between friends. But I just, I love, I can't wait to see See, how Rihanna and, and Violet's friendship keeps developing, um, especially after Iron Flame. And I just want to say, Kenzie, I love you. Oh, I love you too. We're going to have a cheesy moment. That's okay. All right. My next question is, favorite notable ish I want to talk about is, I want to talk about Violet's the brilliant fucking woman you are. I love Violet's. that sounds weird. Violet's is never the answer. I love Violet's horror game. Anyways, so when Professor Kaori is speaking to Violet about her siblings that he had the pleasure of teaching at Baz Gayath, he says, He reminds her, quote, you're smarter than both of them, and it seems you might be more compassionate too, don't forget that. Not all strength is physical, Violet. So, just in these first several chapters, we know this to be true about our FMC. We don't need Professor K. Wordy to tell her. We know that she is compassionate and she is smart, and she has other qualities other than physical strength that's gonna make her a badass dragon rider. So despite Mira warning her not to make friends, she still gives her boot to Rihanna and treats others with kindness and is a certified smarty pants. And I just, I just want to have a moment to talk about how much I love reading about FMCs like this. And she is such a healthy role model, especially for young women. And I also love how Rebecca worked, I don't know if I'm going to say this right, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, EDS, into the story. Without ever saying, like, what Violet has, but like we were just talking about, it's such cool representation and a reminder that you don't have to possess a certain skill set or look a certain way or be born a certain way to be your own version of a badass. Alright, time to head into our myths and magic section, which we are actually going to rename. So, instead of myths and magic, we're going to call it the Book of Jesenia. So we know that Jesenia is going to be a super important character because she, and we know she's going to live. So we got that, um, we know that she's the one who's going to be transcribing all of these events after. The whole Empyrean series is finished, but let's close out our Battle Reef section and move on to the Book of Jesenia, where we will dive into the mythology that inspired Fourth Wing, as well as explaining a world building topic. Today, we'll be doing a breakdown of Bazgayeth War College. And the Varian military ranks. So feel free to skip ahead to our mini series section if you feel like you're already an expert. And today we're gonna be, um, for mythology we're gonna be hitting some character names. Um, not all the character names in the book, just some of the ones from these first chapters. And then later we're gonna get into like the other character names, the god names, the dragon names. So bear with us, we got a lot of episodes, a lot of mythology to share with you. Yes, so first we're going to talk about Garrick and his name is an English name that means one who governs with a spear or kingly spear. So considering that we get confirmation in these first chapters that Garrick is the best fighter among the Marked Ones, even better than Zayden, this fits even if he doesn't use a spear. It kind of fits his personality and his fighting abilities. the next one might be the most fitting name and it's Liam. It means strong world warrior or protector. It's also a short version of the Irish name Uliam, which means helmet of will. And, oh my god, why am I crying in a glurb? Dammit. Rebecca? I have beef. Anyways. But really, Rebecca could not have picked a more perfect name for our guy Liam. And no, I'm not ready for this. Like, I cry every time. Literally, I cried so hard. I think I'm tearing up. So next we're going to talk about Bodhi. And his name has a Sanskrit origin that means awakening or enlightenment. In Buddhism, Bodhi is a state of being awakened to the true nature of reality and is the ultimate goal of the religion said to lead to liberation from suffering. Kind of cool since that is essentially the goal of the revolution in our story. Rihanna and, Not like really connection. I feel like to who she is, but I do want to just talk about it. Her, it's a girl's name of Welsh origin. It means great queen or goddess. So the title stems from a mythological name, Rigantona, meaning great queen born by a Celtic goddess of fertility. I don't think fertility has anything to do with her, but girl, you are goddess slay. Violet, while there are some meanings associated with this name, we actually went the route of looking up what the flower symbolizes because we are nerds, obviously. So while they can represent many different things, they can signify strength, gracefulness, leadership, and royalty. And we just love this because obviously this is what Violet represents in the story. And I love this name for her. Yeah, even Essentially, if she becomes like the Lady Marisha or whatever it's called, that is kind of like a royal position. So it's so cool. I love that. I don't know if Rebecca like thought about that when choosing her name, but it's really cool. All right, let's get into our world building topic of the day where we going to break down Bezgaith. So we're going to break down the different quadrants. and then we're also going to break down the military ranking because it can get a little confusing. But if you already know all this shit, just go ahead and skip ahead to our mini series because we got some good ones. So we're going to discuss the, the different quadrants. So the first one we're going to talk about is the healers and the healers quadrant takes up the southern end of the war college reach by taking the lower stone bridge that leads over the ravine directly from the rider's quadrant. where is the pale blue, the Healers do not have magic, rely on trad and stay on traditional medicinal training and surgery. They often work in tandem with menders to heal injured students and members of the barbed military. On weekends, Healers get to go on mind body health retreats. And Menders are so rare that healers are crucial at Beskaya. Healers are also bound to the code of Krypton. like the oath our doctors take, they are sworn to aid all in a time of need and never cause harm, where Menders are not bound to the same rules. Dude, I would totally join the healers. Like, as much as I want to go ride a dragon, I'd die. I'm really clumsy. Um, and mind body health retreats every weekend. Yes, please. My mental health would be so amazing. let's get into the scribes. So this is really important since Violet does have the heart of a scribe and she's trained to be one her whole life. It's basically their job to study and master the past while also recording and relaying present information in regards to the military. All right. So on conscription day, scribe cadets must pass a written entrance exam. The scribe quadrant is located across the river from the writer's quadrant. And they also start their day at 5 a. m. No, thank you. Scribes maintain emotional composure at all times. Deadly serious. And they wear a modest cream tunic with a hood to keep from standing out amongst the tomes. And they are actually able to return home during summer breaks. So it kind of seems like everyone else with the riders gets like all the perks. Well, except for the dragons, obviously. Yeah. I feel like I would be a scribe. Yeah, I can see that for sure. Like I'm not a big history person, but I feel like I would love to see Soaking up all the information and being such a like important part of the history. Yeah, for sure. And being in the archives kind of reminds me of like a library. I feel like it smells so good in there. Oh, it's got to all the books, man. Alright, next we're going to talk about the infantry, and if you fail the entrance exam, Sebas Gaiath, you get assigned to the infantry, the biggest quadrant. So it means a lot of people fail that exam. The lizard quadrant! No, I'm just kidding. Lizard! No, we can't play, I'm sure they're great. So the entrance to this section is at the base of the Northern Turret at Beskaya on ground level. They wear a Navy blue uniforms and it takes a full company of infantry to make up for the loss of one rider. They mostly train in combat, outdoor survival, land navigation, making and breaking camp and snow and joint operations with other quadrants. Uh, I think it's really interesting when they like work with the infantry on the RSC land nav things in Iron Flame. It's so interesting. That was such a cool thing. Yeah, I love that. Yes, very creative. I like it. All right. Time to talk about the best squadron, the Riders Squadron. Also the most toxic quadrant. But the best description of this is straight from Rebecca herself. Quote, A mix of we might die heathenism and brutal efficiency in the name of the same reason. So those in the section of the military are trained to fight on dragonback and channel their dragon's power into unique and deadly signals. This is the most deadly, as I said. But it still attracts a lot of catets despite only a quarter reaching graduation. The glory of bonding a dragon is just too much to resist. And I gotta say, as much as I want to go join the healers Dragon. feel like I don't know. I couldn't be a healer because like I don't want to be a doctor. Sounds lame. Sorry. That's why I couldn't be a healer. I don't do blood. I don't want to see bones Like I couldn't well, I like hated biology. So I guess I would hate being a healer. I liked high school biology. I hated college biology got way too technical It wasn't fun. There was just too much information. But anyways Anyone in this quadrant, especially the wing leaders for the most part, live and die by their dragon riding codex. And during their time in the quadrant, they have to face many trials, like the parapet, sparring, the gauntlet, threshing, RSC, and All kinds of training exercises like they could possibly die in. Riders and cadets wear rider black and they also have the most modifications to their uniform. So as long as they're wearing black, they're good. But everyone else pretty much has a uniform. And they also have flight leathers for extra protection. And Goggles. I've actually seen some fan art of Violet with like goggles on Taryn, and I just like giggle a little. I don't know why. It just looks silly, but like, it's smart that they would wear goggles. So this is very random, but when I used to play basketball, my mom used to try to get me to wear those. protective goggles, like, put like my prescription in them so I can wear them throughout the game so they wouldn't fall off my face. Do you have a picture? I know, she tried to get me to, I never did do it. Oh wow, damn it. Yeah, I refused. now we're going to talk about the Navarrean military. So we're going to start with the cadets. So they're at the very bottom of our ranking. They're the students of the Ward College and they are given this title until graduation when they are an active member of the military. Next you have the lieutenants. So the cadets that graduate become lieutenants identified by a single silver bar on their uniform. And then you have first lieutenant, which is a rank above the prior, and they are marked with two silver bars. Then you have captain, the next rank above lieutenants who most likely know about the existence of Vennon. Um, Professor DiBera and Professor, Professor Grady are captains and it is confirmed that they know about Vennon. So that's it. We can assume that the captains definitely know what's going on here. Yeah, the higher up we go, the more they know about the Benin for sure. Then we have majors like captains. These are higher ranking military members and likely know about the Benin again. So next we have lieutenant colonel who also like to know about the Venice some command outpost across the bar. For example, lieutenant colonel, the grant scene commands the Samara outpost, which we will visit later on in our story. Next, we have Colonel, a step below the highest rank. Colonels can be curators, aides to generals, writers, and more. Most notable examples are Colonel Atos, aide to a general, Professor Kaori, and Colonel Louis Markham, curator of the Scribe Quadrant. Lastly, we have the general, which is the highest ranking position in the Baryon military. General Lilith Sorengrel is the commanding officer of Banskaya, second in command overall. General Milgren is the commanding officer of the entire military. Yep. All right, now we're going to get into specifically the rankings within Rider Quadrant. So, because this is probably more important. So this quadrant is divided into four wings with three sections, tail, flame, and claw, with three squads within, total of 36 squads overall. Alright, so once again, we're starting at the bottom with Cadet. So, the lowest and most common rank in the Riders Quadrant. Essentially, anyone without a leadership position. Above that is the second executive officer, which is chosen by Cadet. by the squad leader and they basically assist in leading the squad. The squad leader is a leadership position for second years and grants the authority to command within their squad. Section leaders are next in the chain of command with authority over their assigned section and all of the squads within that section. Executive officer is chosen by the wingleaders and they assist in their responsibilities in each given wing. And lastly, the wingleaders. So this is the highest rank a cadet can reach within their three years, giving them authority over all sections and squads within their designated wing. And wingleaders are often given a choice of assignment post graduation. Fortunately, Zayden will not get that perk, but that's usually how it goes. time for our Mini series mix and match, which we're going to call or refer to the flight field during this coverage of the Empyrean series. So it is time for again our mini series mix and match where every week Kayla and I will do two to three mini series unique to our podcast. They will not be the same Every week, so keep tuning in for all the fun this week. We're going to do, would you rather, who am I? And, um, we're going to give a brief summary on what we're reading right now. My first, would you rather, would you rather bang Jack Barlow? Or, cross the parapet. Pfft. Mmm. Um. Mmm. I got you. I gotta cross the parapet. Damn. What if you die, bro? I'm crossing the parapet. I don't think I can do it. Damn, I would bang Jack Marlow because I, my clumsy ass would fall off the parapet and I'd rather be alive. I will suffer and still be alive. like what if it's good? Honestly, I'm not gonna even hate on him. It probably is. But I don't know. I'm committed to Zayden. Well, it's clearly good because Caroline Ashton's all up all up on Jack Barlow, so he must have something going on. Okay, would you rather cross the parapet with the murderous Jack Barlow behind you and actually get across? Or would you rather make it across and have the And have to be face to face with Seguil and almost be torched to death. Seguil. Because like, at least I would see a dragon. Well, here's my thing. I know if I'm like getting chased by something or if I'm running and I'm scared, yeah, there's like fight or flight and then there's freeze and freezing is exactly what I do. So I would just like fall off the parapet or I would like just lose my ability to run if someone like Jack Barlow was chasing me even though I just said I would dang him. But like at least I'm sure Skales is pretty terrifying, but it'd be cool. She's a cool girl. Alright, would you rather have a chance to bond a dragon on your own, not guaranteed, you could die, you could not bond a dragon, but you get the chance, or have Zayden take you on a flight and then ravish you in a meadow somewhere? Making you choose between Zayden and possibly getting a dragon. It's diabolical. I love Zayden. I really do. I want a dragon. I knew it. Dragons are better than men. Sorry, Zayden. What would you do? Same. Would you rather spar Jack Barlow? Or be caught by the marked ones during one of their assemblies. Damn, this is actually hard because I feel like I could totally talk my way out of like getting caught by the marked ones. But also I kind of want to take the chance to beat Jack Barlow's ass because I hate him. You know what? I'm going to spar Jack Barlow because in my brain, I could totally just. What if he like, snaps your neck like he did the other guy on the first date? Well, then I guess that's where my story ends. I don't know, I feel like I'm taller than him. I was an athlete, you know? I know his tricks. I feel like you are taller than him. I think so. Jake Paul just gives like, short. He just gives short. Now we're going to get into our second mini series, which is who am I, where Kenzie and I will pick a quote and read it to each other. And we, and you guys are listeners, feel free to participate. You have to try and guess who said it. Okay, quote, I feel like I've been waiting my entire life for this day. I feel like a lot of people said that. Just one. Everybody was, everybody was waiting for this. Well, guess you gotta guess. Rhiannon, No, it was Dylan. Who the hell is Dylan? Dylan is the guy who was like, he was showing them his ring and how he was gonna get, he joined the Writers Quadrant so he could get married after he graduates and then he falls off the parapet. Oh, the one that died. Yeah. I feel actually so sad about Dylan. You should show that little trick to Jack Barlow. Zayden? Couldn't be Dane. Here we go. What kills something with that kind of signet? That was when they were talking about Brennan and Naomi. Or however you say his name. Jack Barlow? Yeah! You got it. Nice. Solid work. How was I supposed to know his neck was that weak? Jack Marlow? Yes, of course. That was like the dumbest, like, reason, like, oops. I just didn't know it would snap like that. I didn't know that his neck Sorry, I'm like, yeah, well, what did you think was going to happen? All right, let's get into mini series three, our, our last and final what the hosts are reading right now. So I just finished anathema by Carrie Lake and wow. So my gosh, I love, love, It was so dark and it was also perfect. I was reading it right around Halloween. And now I actually have to figure out where to put. Zavander on my book boyfriend list because he just changed the game for me a little. And I also want to say we are thinking about doing a deep dive on Anathema. Kenzie hasn't read it yet, so not for sure, but let us know if you've read it and you liked it and you want us to maybe do it, um, as a deep dive after Empyrean because the second book will come out in the spring. Let us know. And now I'm going to hop back into the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson. So I'm on book two, Words of Radiance, and it is a thick boy. So I'm probably gonna be on it for like at least a month. It's like a thousand plus pages. as always I'm pretty lame and I'm not really actively reading anything right now. Last time we did this mini series we were also in a slump. It's not even that I'm in a slump. I just haven't had, I just haven't picked up a book. It's like I haven't, it's like the difference between last time and now like last time I actually tried to read and I couldn't get into it. This time I haven't even tried to pick up a book. So I feel like it's just. So much stuff going on. Like I haven't even thought about reading it, but, um, other than like me rereading fourth wing, like that's pretty much all I'm reading right now because like between just like school and life in general, like it just hasn't been something that I've been able to make time for, but I am anticipating reading. Anathema by Carrie Lake or Fae Inkton Blood by Danielle Jensen. So I'm definitely, I'm definitely, I'm ready to pick up a book and get back into fantasy, get back into the fantasy world very, very, very soon. I just haven't got to it yet. I love, I love both of those books. I'm so excited. maybe you Inkton Blood because again, the second book comes out in spring. So it's kind of perfect. I don't know. Let us know what you think, guys. Let us know what you want us to hear. Time to get into our trial by trivia, which we are going to call sparring for the rest of our Empyrean coverage. So before we close our episode today, it is time for sparring. Each week, Kenzie and I will give each other and you guys are listeners to trivia questions. And at the end of our fourth wing coverage, we'll tally up who has the most points between hosts and loser has to do something embarrassing, funny, or. Disgusting the winner or you guys as fans come up with so for example the quiche smoothie But we would love to hear your feedback ideas and participation in the section what squad? Section and wing was violet first place. Oh shit Second wing. Okay. Yeah? Yeah. Fuck. I got like a one out of three chance of getting this section right. Claw section? No. Fuck. If you get the next one right, I'll give you half a point. Oh. You're missing the squat now. Is it like a number, right? Third squad. Fuck. Second squat. Damn it. I was gonna say that. Second squat, flame section, second wing. Oh, you little minx. That was a good question. All right. You ready? Yeah. Yes. Alright, how many steps does Violet and the other conscripts have to climb to get to the parapet? Two hundred and I'm going to say two hundred and thirty five. That's so specific, it's two fifty. I was going to say that, but I felt like that was such an even number. Yep. Of course Violet knows that. Brianna's like, God, how many Stares at it while it's like, I know the exact answer to your question. Okay. Okay. This one's kind of specific too. So it's kind of like a history question. How many years after Tyrande joined the Alliance did they attempt? I was like low key confident going into this because I listened to the audio book so many times, but I was quickly humbled. I have no idea, but I'm going to guess. Can I have a hint? Is it more or less than a hundred? A lot more than a hundred, but less than a thousand. I have to get the exact number. You give me the hundreds. Six hundred. And I'll give you You got half, at least I'm on the board and 27. I was about to say like 35 alright, how do you approach a red dagger tail? From the left or the front? Yes. It's the left and the front. Okay, okay. But I'll give it to you. Cause you're basically right. Well, let's start score. Kenzie one, Kena 0. 5 well, that's a wrap on our first Empyrean episode, folks. So thank you so much for tuning in. We cannot wait to dig into all the theories and continue preparing for Onyx Storm with you guys, our wonderful listeners. Yes. So join us next Thursday for another Empyrean episode, where we will be covering chapters 10 through 18, pages 115 through 222, for you to reread or to refresh your memory. As always, we really do appreciate any and all feedback, so please take the time to leave us a review, reach out to us on socials, like, let us know what you liked, what you didn't, if there's anything you want us to talk about, or any books you want us to do, or just reach out if you want to talk about, you know, Any kind of book things like we love to talk to people about books. So come on. like we said earlier, this is a toddler podcast and I really want to see it grow with your help. like follow us on social media, leave us a review. Um, and also follow us on all major podcast platforms for freshly baked episode to be delivered to you next week. Bye friends. See you next week. Bye friends. See you guys next week.