"Conquer the Skies and Abyss"

A fan's reinterpretation of Rebecca Yarros' "Empyrean" Series

[empyrean-thrones]

ABOUT THIS BLOG

Hello, I'm Jey, a 20+ year old writer! I go by she/they and post about the Empyrean series on this blog. I do not support Rebecca Yarros and am critical of her work (though I admit Fourth Wing was quite entertaining) so you'll see a few rant posts here and there about some of the things in these books. If you don't want to see my posts, feel free to block this blog and continue with your day. Otherwise, enjoy your stay and leave a comment on my fics.

Please avoid posting hateful comments/messages on here and be civil. Thank you!

Links regarding Palestine/Congo/Sudan:

Masterpost by @smashingorpassing of links to help aid Gaza and Palestine.

TikTok regarding Rebecca Yarros' statement on Palestine

Palestinian gfms that have been vetted

Congo gfms

Operation Olive Branch fundraiser spreadsheet link

My Empyrean works on Ao3:

Empyrean Thrones - a rewrite of the Empyrean series; my main project on this blog

M' eudail - a collection of one-shots revolving around Naolin and Brennan's relationship

[empyrean-thrones]

How the hell did Violet go an entire school year without knowing the Poromish aerial forces are called fliers???

[empyrean-thrones]

If Onyx Storm pissed you off, go read this. Holy peak I cannot emphasize how much I've enjoyed reading this and I'm only on chapter one.

[empyrean-thrones]

“Did you fall off? No. I did not bond a whiner.”

Glane (Glan), dragon of Imogen Cardulo

[empyrean-thrones]

Faoileas (fool-yes), dragon of Luca Riesse

[wingsdontwork]

Okay maybe I'm dumb but I'm seeing a lot of hate for Asher in the Fourth Wing fandom and like, I'm still kinda new but why do we hate him?

Onyx Storm spoilers under the cut

Dedication to a god doesn't result in sacrifice from what we know, since we literally saw a bunch of kids who'd been dedicated on Unnbriel, so her life wasn't in any danger? It was outlawed in Navarre because it was basically forcing a kid into a religious path (and that also exempted them from military service which, if you're running a country where military service is compulsory you might try to outlaw anything that might exempt future conscripts). And even so, the temples were responsible for making sure the child would be a suitable acolyte or whatever RY wants to call them, which is the entire reason Violet wasn't dedicated fully. So she wasn't really ever in any danger as far as Asher knew, it was just, y'know, like getting vaccinated (I will not delve into this analogy unless someone asks me).

Like yeah I don't believe parents should be allowed to make that decision for their kids, but idk, everyone's quick to forgive Dain for literally stealing memories (don't @ me on this, forgiveness does not mean forgetting), but hating on Asher for trying to??? save his daughter???

Like, what am I missing????

[shinyfeathertail]

I was also surprised at the 180 towards Asher, but on my reread, I think it’s because of the reactions of her family. We don’t know what dedication means or entails, but RY makes it seem like a huge deal. We also don’t know the punishment for dedicating a child so that could be part of it.

Lilith: I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive him for what he’s done to her.

Brennan: “That doesn’t mean they hauled her to Dunne’s temple and dedicated her.” Brennan shakes his head with disgust.

Grandma Niara: Stopped speaking to her only living relatives immediately.

Even Violet reacted poorly: Dedicated. Gravity pitches and my balance shifts, like the stone beneath my feet has suddenly become sand.

[overjoyedisland]

I think this is a big part of it... Violet (and the fandom) felt betrayed that despite everything he said, Asher’s actions indicated he believed Violet was broken in need of fixing.

I need more information to fully make up my mind about him but I can see why people would be upset.

[empyrean-thrones]

From what the wiki says, Violet was four years old when she was dedicated and Navarre literally does not have a name for her condition, let alone a diagnosis. It makes sense why Asher would think she needs to be fixed/cured, especially since this is a semi medieval setting. I don't think any good parent would be fine with just sitting idly by while their child suffers from an unknown condition.

[empyrean-thrones]

Everyone's always throwing shade at Cygnisen and calling its people assholes like they're not fighting for their lives 24/7.

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Every day I think of how Fourth Wing could have been a better more interesting book. Xaden and the other marked kids should have been more oppressed.

[empyrean-thrones]

Genuinely because why the fuck was Xaden allowed to be a fucking wingleader? Why were any of them given positions of power in the quadrant?

[empyrean-thrones]

How many times did Lilith and Asher gaslight their kids about seemingly innocuous shit in their lives?

[alliehew]

The Death of Violet’s Worldview

I just saw @nesta331917’s post about how Violet being unable to trust Xaden in Iron Flame makes complete sense and I just wanted to spit out my thoughts on that—and Violet’s characterization—because I completely agree!!

When I’m rereading I tend to fixate on Violet’s difficulty grappling with failure (to uncover the truth sooner, to save Liam, to protect her friends from the bitter truth & dangerous rebellion, to raise the wards in Aretia—whatever defeat she is internalizing at the moment) not only because I’m in this photo and I don’t like it, but also because it is such great characterization.

Violet previously protected the people she loves (and herself) by weaponizing the wealth of information she had, but now the very foundation she used to define herself has been ripped out from under her. Not only was she unaware of the reality of venin, wyvern, and the truth behind the attacks on Navarre’s wards, the entire rebellion that she (and her dad!! her favorite person!!) has studied and analyzed for her entire life was censored and propagandized by her government to shape public opinion and she was none the wiser.

For someone who is centered by facts, information, and truth, to learn that you’ve been on the wrong side of history at no fault—or choice—of your own is devastating. It’s a feeling of utter powerlessness and betrayal; no matter how many hours Violet had explored the archives, no matter how many times she reread the death tolls, maps, and battle strategies, no matter how ferociously she believed in the power of information, nothing could change the dismal reality that the truth was simply not accessible to her.

Not only that, but the discovery that her own mother was complicit in the death and destruction of entire provinces for the benefit of her country and children introduces a whole new burden of guilt and hypocrisy Violet didn’t know she complied with. Add in that (1) the man she’s just fallen in love with is leading a revolution against these terrors she knew nothing about, (2) Dain, Violet’s best friend since she was a child, stole her memories to aid in the hypocrisy of their government and nearly get her killed, and (3) her brother Brennan, whose death completely altered the fabric of her whole family and may have contributed to their father’s own death, is fucking ALIVE, and it’s the perfect (onyx) storm of disillusionment. Absolutely everything Violet held true came barreling down in a matter of weeks, and no amount of rereading or reanalyzing could mend the hurt or justify Navarre’s (and, from Violet’s perspective, her) lack of intervention.

Violet is selfless to a fault, and being misinformed about the horrors outside of the wards robbed her of her choice to defend the defenseless. Of course we saw her escape Basgiath/the “safety” of Navarre to join the revolution as soon as she could, but the feeling of failing not only those you love, but also countless others you didn’t even know were in peril is still so heavy. She also has consistently been targeted for being The General’s Daughter, and now the full implications of that association is branded on her like a third relic.

Of course Violet’s relationship with Xaden has been affected by the guilt, betrayal, and disillusionment that are ingrained within it, whether either of them has accepted it or not. Even if Xaden had nothing to do with the revolution and they were living happily ever after before graduation, once the truth about the dark wielders came to light and Violet didn’t know up from down I’m sure the identity crisis still would have (at the very least) strained their relationship.

Anyways.

I so desperately need Violet and Xaden to finally be able to finish their fight and figure out how to move forward while trusting each other.

Give Violet (And Xaden) A Break 2025, Pleeease Rebecca

[heartfeltletters-written]

I absolutely loved this analysis but i wanna add that people might not understand or see the character this way because RY writing in IF was truly atrocious but that's a topic for another day.

For someone who is centered by facts, information, and truth, to learn that you’ve been on the wrong side of history at no fault—or choice—of your own is devastating.

This is the foundation of Violet's struggles, she is centered on facts and truth, which she has always associated with the Archives. I think in the next few books we will see the dismantling of her grounding place. She admits to Xaden that she can't seem to find her own feet because she's always too busy looking at him. While this line seems weird and might make her seem incompetent I have another interpretation for it.

The Archives are no longer her safe space, we see the first time she enters them in IF she's chanting in her head that the place is full of lies. So what happens when the place you ground no longer brings you safety? You must find another one that gives you the same protection you lost. Violet hasn't figured that out yet, she still tries to ground in the Archives and of course, that is doomed to fail. Subconsciously I can see her working on finding a new grounding place which is why she turns to Xaden. He dropped everything to save her from torture which I think is why her brain starts to associate him with safety. But at the same time, her brain also associates information with safety and Xaden can't provide that. So right now she's in a tough spot, she's split between two realities: Xaden being her safe space while compromising her need for information which is associated with the betrayal of her old safe space.

What happens in the second part of IF also helps in her spiraling into desperation. She is used to being the smartest person in the room, the one who can always think logically and seek a solution. But she has lost everything she held true, she no longer has the information that made her smarter because those are all lies. This reminds me of what happens when people go to college. In high school, you are the smartest kid in class, but in college, you're stuck with other prodigies so obviously you start feeling like a failure. Except Violet's case is even worse because her reality has shifted. She's stuck in a classroom where all the people have attended high school but she only made it as far as primary school. Her sense of self has been lost, and worst of all she associates her self-worth with her knowledge, she is being betrayed by her body constantly, the only things she had were her hair and her brain, and one of those things has been gruesomely taken away from her.

On the topic of Lilith Sorrengail, I think Violet is taking out her frustrations about it on Xaden. I don't think Xaden was completely wrong in waiting for her to approach the topic because she clearly wasn't ready to talk about it. He wanted to do this at her own pace, but forgot to consider that her grounding place was down already and that they needed to have this conversation sooner rather than later. This is also a topic we need to talk about later: the misunderstanding that both Violet and Xaden have of each other, but that's for another post.

Back to Lilith, Violet has always held the belief that "hey yeah my mother might have sent me to a death college, but she believed I would make it out alive. In a sense, she was the only one who has ever believed me." So what happens when Violet learns that her mother only believed her because she asked a stronger rider to look out for her? Her world falls apart (once again). She has always wanted her mother's approval, and when she thought that she had it, it was all a lie, her belief in Violet had never been genuine. So Violet takes her frustrations about her mother on her closest person: Xaden.

This also adds to the guilt Violet feels because how dare her mother ask something of Xaden when she already marked his back with scars. The weight rests on her because the price for the deal for the marked ones was her safety, which is another pack of worms she's not ready to open yet.

Anyway, my only wish is that we had seen more of this inner conflict and a deeper look into it. And I'm not even addressing her trauma of being captured for torture by a person who was supposed to be her friend. That had to have shaken her own beliefs of trust which again reflects on the person who's closest to her: Xaden.

[nighttrashheadache]

violet: he’s probably thinking about other girls

xaden: I need to figure out a way to attach the tiny dragon to the big dragon

[love-nuclear-babes]

Sgaeyl is the definition of possessive and aggressive

[skyllion-uwu]

Guy who fakes his death every time he gets mildly embarrassed about something he did

[empyrean-thrones]

I'm convinced they would've thrown Naolin into a psych ward post-Aretia because there's no fucking way you just come up with necromancy on the fly like that lmao

[empyrean-thrones]

I need to draw Brennan as a fucked up anomaly holy shit

[empyrean-thrones]

Fourth Wing/Iron Flame/Onyx Storm sex scene format breakdown by Reads With Rachel so you don't have to read any of that shit lol

[love-nuclear-babes]

My headcannon is that Sgaeyl gave Xaden such a big relic so she could cover as many of his scars as possible. His back isn't a canvas of pain and responsibility anymore, it's her commitment to protect him